A story of a banker turned farmer in Bihar

DIRECT SALES: Barun Singh (foreground) markets the produce grown in his farm directly to consumers. Photo: Special Arrangement


The Hindu :M J prabu :29 May 2013

“Farming is fascinating. The only thing is that it requires continuous hard-work and devotion without any distraction” says Mr. Barun Singh, a government bank manager-turned-farmer.

Mr. Barun Singh maintains a vermi-composting unit in a portion of his 10 acre land. A dairy unit is attached to the composting unit so that the cattle dung can be easily utilized for the process without much labour involvement.

Waste materials like dried leaves, rotten vegetables, fruits etc is spread on a polythene sheet placed on the ground and then covered with cattle dung. Tanks are made of bricks and cement with small holes to facilitate easy movement of earthworms from one tank to another and effective collection of vermi-wash.

Net profit

“The farmer made a net profit of Rs. 12 lakh from his composting unit alone which included sales of above Rs. 25 lakh in the States of Bihar and Jharkhand together with supplies to the government in 2012 and in the current year, he expects a net profit of Rs. 15 lakh since the demand for organic inputs in Bihar is quite high,” says Mr. Aditya, Assistant Professor-cum-Junior Scientist, Department of Extension Education, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, who is working on an action research to catalyze rural leadership for better dissemination of information.

In addition to this Mr. Barun has maintained a two-acre farm exclusively for the cultivation of tissue culture banana through high density planting (HDP) technique. “Two months old plants are growing even better than the normal banana cultivars planted at the same time in other plots,” says Mr. Barun.

High Density Planting (HDP), an advance technique, is an effective method used to improve the fruit productivity. Through HDP 4,000 to 5,000 plants can be planted in a hectare and the yield improves radically.

HDP technique

According to Mr. Aditya, this technique is more useful for perennial crops because it allows efficient use of land and resources, realizing higher yield and net profit, easy canopy management suited for farm mechanization, and cultural practices, efficient spray and weed control, improvement in fruit quality easy and good harvest.

In India, HDP technology has been successfully used in banana, pineapple, papaya and mango, guava and citrus where the yield has increased two to three times.

The combination of dairying with over 30 high yielding cows of Sahiwal, Jarsi and Holstein- Friesian breed along with 28 calves, goatery with Jamapari breed of goats brought from Rajasthan, fishery in 0.75 acres of land with mix-carp variety of fish and short-duration tissue culture banana plant, maize and vegetable crops like bottle gourd, potato, ladys finger are grown in his farm.

Sale of milk

From dairying alone, he is able to sale over 180 litres of milk each day fetching over Rs. 1.70 lakhs per month.

The carp fish has great demand in the local market and the state capital. The demand often exceeds the supply. It is a good source to meet current expenses incurred day to day on his farm

The best part is that the crops are grown completely by organic means with no use of chemical fertilizers.

Marketing

The vegetables produced from the farm are packed and sent to different parts of the state as well as the local market. Along with it, he owns a mustard processing plant to extract oil and use mustard bran as a nutritious concentrate feed for cattle,” says Mr. Aditya.

“More than 80 per cent of Indian farmers have small farm holdings. The success of an agricultural research programme or project must be on increasing productivity and income to the small famer,” he adds.

Mr. Barun was conferred the best Innovative Farmer Award by the university last year for his sustained efforts and leadership qualities in guiding other farmers in the region.

Rural leaders

“My dream is to intensify my current activities in the coming years to give it a shape of an agro-industry and also form a club of rural-leaders who would be trained by the University for working in the area of farming they desire,” says Mr. Barun.

For visits and more information, readers can contact: Mr. Barun P. Singh, Gram: Patwaha, Block: Kehra, Dist, Saharsa, Bihar, Mobile :08809419388 and Mr. Aditya, Assistant Professor-cum-Junior Scientist, Department of Extension Education, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar. email:inc.aditya@gmail.com, mobile: 9798649444.

US banks sending sensitive mortgage, foreclosure jobs to India

 First Post :Uttara Choudhury :May 29, 2013

New York: American consumers aren’t too happy that US banks are now outsourcing mortgage and foreclosure processing work to India to pare down costs and keep up with the growing regulatory demands created since the 2008 financial Armageddon.

As the US government rolls out tougher rules for home loans, banks have added new financial-verification hurdles, and many of them are outsourcing vetting to Indian outsourcing firms rather than hiring more people in the United States, reported The Wall Street Journal.

This year, Indian outsourcing firms will bring in $316 million in mortgage work, double the revenue from such work in 2009, according to estimates from HfS Research, an outsourcing consulting firm. The Journal said the move is creating a new revenue stream for Indian outsourcing firms and Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Ltd are getting a lion’s share of the work.

Representational Image. Reuters

In the years after the 2008 global financial crisis, the US government flayed every facet of the mortgage business, from how US banks decided who got a loan to how borrowers in default were harangued. Banks were also faulted for sloppiness, which, the government said, contributed to the wave of foreclosures that sank the US housing market. As a result, the Obama administration has demanded changes to every aspect of the mortgage and foreclosure process. Beleaguered US banks are now outsourcing to meet the changing rules and demands.

In a bid to deflect the chorus of protest from US consumer groups, Indian companies say they won’t be giving final approval for banks to foreclose on loans. Instead, they will only make sure that the documents are in order so the banks can sign off.

“We never judge the cases,” Abid Ali Neemuchwala, vice president for business-process outsourcing services at Tata Consultancy Services, told the Journal.

“What we do is make it easy for the banks to make that final decision by putting together all the information and letting them know their checklist is complete.”

Tata Consultancy has expanded its mortgage-business revenue by about 40 percent over the past two years, and added 2,000 staff members, to a total of 7,000 people who work on mortgages. Wipro has also built a foreclosure unit, and it expects to generate $4 million to $5 million by helping US banks close out bad loans.

“The foreclosure process has become much more stringent, and that scrutiny has created a lot more volume for foreclosure teams [at banks]. But they don’t have the capacity,” Arjun Raman, a business-development manager at Wipro, says.

US regulators have been concerned that there is poor supervision by banks of third-party vendors. And US consumer advocates say it will be harder for banks to be sure that the work is done properly.

“The lack of oversight so far away may be too much for these banks to handle, considering how badly they’ve handled overseeing their own staff,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

Despite US consumer reservations this trend is here to stay. Raman Roy, managing director for Quatrro Global Services, in New Delhi says he plans to double his mortgage staff to around 2,000 to handle the boom in the home-loan business over the next year. Analysts at Quatrro rate potential US borrowers as “very favorable” or “highly questionable” after ploughing through hundreds of scanned pages detailing the borrower’s salary and credit history.

ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் கள்ள நோட்டு: வங்கிதான் பொறுப்பா?

செ  கார்த்திகேயன்  நாணயம் இதழிலிருந்து 28 May, 2013 / ஏ.டி.எம்-ல் பணம் எடுக்கும்போது அதில் ஒன்றிரண்டு கள்ள நோட்டு வந்துவிட்டால் என்ன செய்வது என்று தெரியாமல் பலரும் கிழித்துப் போட்டுவிட்டு, சும்மா இருந்து விடுகிறார்கள். இதனால் நஷ்டம் நமக்குத்தான். அப்படி இல்லாமல் ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் கள்ள நோட்டு வந்தால் நாம் என்ன செய்யவேண்டும்? யாரை அணுகவேண்டும்? இந்தக் கள்ள நோட்டுக்கு வங்கி பொறுப்பேற்குமா? இதுதொடர்பான வங்கியின் விதிமுறைகள் என்ன? என்பது குறித்து அறிய சென்னையில் இருக்கும் மத்திய ரிசர்வ் வங்கி அதிகாரிகளை அணுகினோம். நம் கேள்விகளுக்கு தெளிவான விளக்கத்தைத் தந்தார்கள் அவர்கள்.    ஏ.டி.எம். ஃபிட் கரன்சி! ஏ.டிஏம். வாயிலாக கள்ள நோட்டுகள் வருவதற்கு வாய்ப்பு குறைவு. ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் ரூபாய்த் தாள்களை லோடு செய்வதற்கு முன் அவை ஏ.டி.எம். ஃபிட் கரன்சிகளாக (ATM fit currency) மாற்றப்படுகின்றன. இந்த செயல்பாட்டின்போதே கள்ள நோட்டுகள் பெரும்பாலும் தவிர்க்கப் பட்டுவிடும். ஆர்.பி.ஐ. சொல்லும் இந்த விதிமுறை அனைத்து வங்கிகளுக்கும் பொருந்தும் என்பதால், எல்லா வங்கிகளும் இந்த விதிமுறையைக் கட்டாயம் பின்பற்றியாக வேண்டும்.   அனைத்து வங்கி ஊழியர்களும் கள்ள நோட்டுகள் தொடர்பான அனைத்து நுணுக்கங் களையும் தெரிந்துவைத்திருப்பது அவசியம். ஏனெனில், எந்த ரூபாயாக இருந்தாலும் அது ஒருமுறையாவது வங்கிகளுக்குள் வராமல் இருக்காது. கள்ள நோட்டுகள் பற்றி தெளிவாகத் தெரிந்து வைத்திருந்தால் முதல் முறையிலேயே அதைத் தடுத்துவிடலாம். எப்படி வருகிறது? எந்த வங்கியின் ஏ.டி.எம். மெஷினுக்குள் பணம் லோடு செய்யப்படுகிறதோ, அந்த வங்கியில் இருந்துதான் பணம் பெறப்பட்டு லோடு செய்யப்படுகிறது. Cash In Tranceit போன்ற பெரும்பாலான ஏஜென்சிகள் இந்தச் சேவையை வங்கிகளுக்கு செய்து வருகின்றன. இவர்களின் பணி வங்கியிலிருந்து மொத்தமாகப் பணத்தைப் பெற்று, அந்தப் பணத்தை அந்த வங்கியின் ஏ.டி.எம். மெஷின்களுக்குள் லோடு செய்வதுதான். இவர்களின் உண்மைத்தன்மையையும், தரத்தையும் சோதனை செய்த பின்னரே அவர்களிடம் இந்த வேலையைத் தருகின்றன வங்கிகள். யாரை அணுகுவது? வாடிக்கையாளர்கள் ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் பணம் எடுக்கும்போது அதில் கள்ள நோட்டு இருப்பதாகச் சந்தேகித்தால், வங்கிக்குத் தெரியப் படுத்துவதற்கு முன்னர், ஏ.டி.எம். சென்டருக்குள் இருக்கும் சி.வி.வி. கேமராவில் சந்தேகத்திற்குரிய ரூபாய் தாள்களில் உள்ள நம்பர்களைக் காட்டுவது அவசியம். ஏனெனில், ஏ.டி.எம். மெஷினுக்குள் போடப்படும் ரூபாய் தாள்களில் இருக்கும் எண்கள் ஸ்டோர் ஆகாது. அதனால் சந்தேகத்திற்குரிய தாள்களை கேமராவில் காண்பிப்பதன் மூலம், வங்கியானது உங்களைப் பற்றி விசாரிக்கும்போது உங்களின் மீதான நம்பகத்தன்மையை அதிகரிக்கும். பின்னர் ஏ.டி.எம். லிங்டு பேங்க் (ATM Linked Bank) அதாவது, அந்த ஏ.டி.எம். எந்த வங்கியுடன் தொடர்பில் இருக்கிறதோ, அந்த வங்கிக்கு உடனே தெரியப்படுத்த வேண்டும். ஏ.டி.எம். சென்டருக்கு உள்ளேயே ஒட்டப்பட்டிருக்கும் பிரசுரங்களில் இந்த ஏ.டி.எம். தொடர்பான பிரச்னைகளை இந்த வங்கியில் மட்டுமே தெரியப்படுத்த வேண்டும் என்று சொல்லி தொடர்பு எண்களைத் தந்திருப்பார்கள். அதை பயன்படுத்தி தொலைபேசி மூலம் தெரியப்படுத்திவிட்டு, நேரில் சென்று உறுதிப்படுத்திக்கொள்ளலாம். வங்கி நடைமுறைகள்! ஏ.டி.எம்-ல் இருந்து பெறப்பட்ட கள்ள நோட்டுகளை மாற்றித் தருவதில் வங்கியில் இருக்கும் நடைமுறை என்ன என்று பார்ப்போம். ஏ.டி.எம்-ல் இருந்து பணம் எடுத்த ரசீதுடன் (ரசீது மிகவும் முக்கியம்) சந்தேகத்திற்குரிய ரூபாய்த்தாளுடன் வங்கியை அணுகியதும், அவர்கள் அந்த ரூபாய் கள்ள நோட்டுதானா என்று பரிசோதிப்பார்கள். அது கள்ள நோட்டு இல்லை எனில், அந்தப் பணத்தை அவர்களே ஏற்றுக்கொள்வார்கள். கள்ள நோட்டுதான் என்று தெரியவந்தால் அந்தப் பணத்தை வாங்கிக் கொண்டு, அந்த ரூபாய் தாளில் இருந்த எண்ணைக் குறிப்பிட்டு ரசீது ஒன்றை தருவார்கள். உங்களிடம் பெறப்பட்ட ரூபாய்த் தாள் அந்த வங்கியின் ஏ.டி.எம்-ல் இருந்து எடுக்கப்பட்டதுதான் என்று விசாரித்து தெரிந்துகொண்டு (நீங்கள் குறிப்பிட்ட தேதியில் நீங்கள் பணம் எடுத்ததாகச் சொல்லும் ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் இருந்து சி.வி.வி. கேமராவில் பதிவாகியிருக்கும் வீடியோவைப் பார்ப்பதன் மூலமும், உங்களின் பின்புலன்களை விசாரிப்பதன் மூலமும் நீங்கள் உண்மையானவர் என்பதை ஊர்ஜிதப்படுத்திக்கொண்டு) அந்தக் கள்ள நோட்டின் மதிப்புக்கு இணையான உண்மையான ரூபாய்த் தாளை தருவார்கள். இந்த விசாரணையில் கள்ள நோட்டை கொண்டு வந்தவர் மீது சந்தேகம் வந்தால் அவர் மீது வங்கியானது சட்ட ரீதியான நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கத் தயங்காது.   எஃப்.ஐ.ஆர். ஃபைல்! பொதுவாக வாடிக்கையாளர்கள் அவர்களின் பணத்தை வங்கிக் கணக்கில் செலுத்தும்போதோ அல்லது வங்கி ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் இருந்து பணத்தை எடுத்து அந்தப் பணத்தை வங்கிக் கணக்கில் செலுத்தும்போதோ, ஐந்து அல்லது அதற்கு மேற்பட்ட ரூபாய்த் தாள்கள் கள்ள நோட்டுகளாக இருக்கும்பட்சத்தில் மட்டுமே அவர்களின் மீது வங்கி உடனடியாக காவல் நிலையத்தில் எஃப்.ஐ.ஆர். ஃபைல் செய்யும். அப்படி இல்லாமல் நான்கு அல்லது அதற்கு குறைவான தாள்கள் கள்ள நோட்டுகளாக இருந்தால் அந்தத் தாள்களை வங்கியானது வாங்கி வைத்துக்கொண்டு விசாரிக்கும். தனது ஏ.டி.எம்-ல் இருந்துதான் அந்த ரூபாய் நோட்டு வெளியேறி இருக்கிறது என்று நிரூபணமானால் உண்மையான தாள்கள் திருப்பித் தரப்படும். வாடிக்கையாளர்களிடம் இருந்து பெறப்பட்ட கள்ள நோட்டுகளை அந்தந்த மாத இறுதியில் காவல் நிலையத்தில் தெரிவிக்கவேண்டும். ஆர்.பி.ஐ.-ன் உதவி! வங்கி ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் இருந்து நீங்கள் எடுக்கும் ரூபாய்த் தாள்களில் மூன்று தாள்கள் கள்ள நோட்டாக இருக்கலாம் என்று சந்தேகித்து வங்கியை அணுகும்போது, அதில் இரண்டு உண்மையான தாள்கள், ஒன்று மட்டும் கள்ள நோட்டு என்று தெரிந்தபிறகும் உங்களுக்கு சந்தேகம் நீடித்தால் அந்த வங்கியினது கரன்சி செஸ்ட் கிளைக்கு (Currency chest branches) சென்று உங்களின் சந்தேகத்தை நிவர்த்தி செய்துகொள்ளலாம். அதற்கு அடுத்தும் உங்களின் சந்தேகம் நீடித்தால் ஆர்.பி.ஐ.யை அணுகி ரூபாய்த் தாள் உண்மையானதுதானா என்பதை பரிசோதித்து தெரிந்துகொள்ளலாம். இதுதொடர்பாக மேலும் விவரங்களுக்கு, www.rbi.org.in, www.paisabolthahai.rbi.org.in என்கிற ஆர்.பி.ஐ. இணையதளங்களை நாடலாம்.'' இனியாவது வங்கி ஏ.டி.எம்.-ல் இருந்து எடுக்கப்பட்ட பணத்தில் கள்ள நோட்டு இருப்பது தெரிந்தால், பதற்றப்படாமல் முறைப்படி வங்கியை அணுகி, நஷ்டப்படுவதைத் தவிருங்கள்! -

From financing to funding

Ever since RBI relaxed the provisioning norms, banks, especially the public sector ones, have reduced their coverage ratios to bolster their profits, thereby, making the road ahead for themselves even more difficult. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Live Mint: Haseeb A. Drabu :Sun, May 26 2013. 08 33 PM IST

The strategy of banks has to be different; they have to move from financing investment to funding structural gaps

The hopes of an early incipient recovery have been considerably dented by the banking sector results that have come in. Both the asset quality as well as the income quality has deteriorated in a manner that is bound to impact the overall economic recovery.

Despite the macroeconomic stress, adverse global situation, and a hostile monetary policy, the banking sector had held up quite well so far; loan growth has been high and interest margins have been maintained. Indeed, the performance of the banking sector in the last few quarters has been such that a disconnect was emerging between the reported earnings and underlying earnings. Not anymore.

The fourth-quarter earnings declared by the bellwether of the Indian banking sector, the State Bank of India (SBI), showed some disturbing trends: almost 8% of its assets are either impaired or infected. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and restructured assets stood at 7.73% of the total advances. And given its provisioning policy, what this amounts to is that NPAs, which have not been provided for, account for more than half of the net worth of SBI. Analytically, this is tantamount to writing down the company’s net worth by half.

Going forward, the trend for most of the public sector banks will be a similar story. Indeed, even now, in the case of many public sector banks, NPAs without provision exceed the total net worth of the bank.

Not that the deterioration in asset quality comes as a surprise. Over the last two years, the rate of growth of NPAs has been faster than credit growth. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data has clearly shown a near 100% growth in NPA, excluding recoveries; and a threefold increase in the growth of gross impaired assets. In its report, the parliamentary standing committee on finance revealed that over $15 billion or more than Rs.83,000 crore worth of corporate loans have turned bad in less than a year-and-a-half. Further, between March 2011 and December 2012, NPAs on corporate advances increased by 190%.

What makes this worse and very different from earlier stressed asset situations is that NPAs are not driven by specific companies but are sector specific. The issue now is that NPAs and restructured assets are not about companies randomly distributed across businesses but are concentrated in three or four sectors.

From a macro perspective, overleveraged sectors rather than overleveraged companies are the problem: 85% of the total stressed assets of the banking sector lie in real estate, power, steel and infrastructure sectors.

This is suggestive that most big ticket NPAs are not caused by poor management nor are these emerging out of a bad business model. Instead, these investments are becoming infructuous because of the regulatory policy framework and the economic environment governing the sector in which the companies operate.

This makes it a chicken-and-egg problem: these NPAs or restructured assets of the banks concentrated in a few sectors will not turn around till the economy turns around. And the economy will not turn around till the banks “fund” the overall recovery at a lower cost.

In operational terms, what this means is that the banks will have to do three things: first, refinance the current debt at lower rates.

Second, increase the maturity profile of the debt in line with the slowdown in growth and project completion. The average project debt profile of Indian corporate sector is less than five years. This puts additional stress on servicing especially during a downturn.

Third, for the next two years, fund the operational expenses. In other words, for the next two years, banks will have to drive economic recovery, not NPA recovery. If the former is done, the latter will automatically get resolved.

Banks are doing restructuring through the CDR (corporate debt restructuring) mechanism. In 2012-13, 129 cases involving debt worth Rs.91,491 crore were referred for debt recast, up from 87 cases with exposure of Rs.67,889 crore.

In addition to this, it is not too well kept a secret that banks are refinancing and restructuring loans. These are currently being done to “evergreen” accounts. As such, much of this is being done in partial or complete violation of the regulatory guidelines. This makes the banking sector very weak and vulnerable. The need is to refinance and restructure in line with the economic cycle and in a constructive manner.

In this context, it might be worthwhile for RBI to relook at some of its more stringent and mechanical prudential norms. And instead of focusing too much on interest rate, focus on relaxing some prudential norms but tighten the provisioning policy. Instead, RBI relaxed the provisioning norms.

Ever since RBI relaxed the provisioning norms, banks, especially the public sector ones, have reduced their coverage ratios to bolster their profits, thereby, making the road ahead for themselves even more difficult.

Haseeb A. Drabu is an economist, and writes on monetary and macroeconomic matters from the perspective of policy and practice. 

E-Filing of IT Return mandatory for Individuals having Total Income of more than Rs.5 Lakhs

Taxguru:27 May 2013


The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is Spreading e-tax net through Notification dated 34/2013 dated 01.05.2013. 

E-filing of I-T returns is now mandatory for individuals, including salaried taxpayers, earning more than Rs 5 lakh taxable income during the financial year ended March 31, 2013.

 Earlier the same was mandatory for the Individuals having salaried Income more than 10 Lakhs.

CBDT’s earlier notification that salaried Individual having Income less than 5 Lakhs need not to file Income tax returns continues to be in force. 

Therefore salaried Individual earning less than Rs 5 lakh and whose saving bank interest income is less than Rs 10,000 in a year will need not to file Income Tax returns. 

However, if an employee has switched jobs during the financial year, then this leeway of tax filing exemption is not available. 

Since there is a condition to get the exemption that the employer has discharged the entire tax liability through deduction of tax at source and deposited it with the government & there is very chance that either of the employers will not discharge entire tax liability due to lower tax calculations at their end.

After the above said new notification comes into force income tax return filing is mandatory for three types of individuals having salaried income:

i)                   Individuals having salaried income over 5 lacs
ii)                 Individuals having salaried income over 5 lacs & switch over their job during the financial year.
iii)              Individuals having salaried income less than 5 lacs & switch over their job during the financial year.
iv)               Employees having income less than over 5 lacs but having other incomes and/or having interest income over 10000.

For the first two categories of employees e-return filing is mandatory. For the other category of individuals e filing is mandatory if their total income exceeds Rs. 5 lacs.

 Simultaneously e-filing of I-T returns also helps speed up the process of granting refunds to taxpayers – the processing is carried out at the CPC-Bangalore.

After making the income tax return mandatory for the individuals having total income over 10 lacs, IT department needs to extend the time limit for return filing of individuals from 31st July to 31st august (for 1 Month) due to non availability of access of website of the tax department which enables e-filing of returns. 

As per IT department there is about 18 lacs of individuals who file return between 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs which gather more traffic in the e-return filing website in this AY.

 It’s a good step by the IT department to gear up the Income tax return processing but a question that how the department’s website handles such huge traffic especially during the peak return filing season.

Through the same notification, the CBDT has also introduced e-filing of tax audit reports, transfer pricing (TP) reports and Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) certificates.

 Earlier, while e-filing of I-T returns was mandatory for India Inc, these reports had to be physically filed at the local tax offices.

Thought for the day : :Sachin Tendulkar

Things don’t come easily, 
                you have to work hard for them. 
                It’s exciting but ..
                you have to alter your body clock "

                       on the day of his Retirememt from IPL
                                                     27th May 2013

Perfect time for me to retire from IPL: Sachin

Mumbai Indians Sachin Tendulkar with wife celebrates his team’s victory in IPL 6 in Kolkata. PTI


Firstpost ; PTI :59 mts ago:27th May 2013

Kolkata: Senior Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who called it quits from the IPL after Mumbai Indians lifted the title here, said it was the perfect time to retire from the Twenty20 event as he has to “face the reality” after turning 40.

“I think this is the right time to stop playing IPL. I am 40. I have to face the reality. I had decided that this would be my last season. And now the ending is perfect,” Tendulkar said after Mumbai beat Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs at the Eden Gardens last night to lift their maiden IPL trophy.

Tendulkar, who played 78 IPL matches accumulating 2334 runs at an average of 34.83, had to stay out of the final after failing to recover from a left hand injury that he picked up a fortnight ago in a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The veteran, who scored one century and 13 half-centuries during his overall IPL stint, played just 14 matches this season making 287 runs at an average of 22.07 with 54 being his highest.

“For the World Cup I had to wait for 21 years and this (the IPL) for six years. So, It’s never too late. This is my last IPL. It’s the perfect way to end it,” a jovial Tendulkar said after his team’s triumph.

“I have got to be realistic here. I’ve enjoyed my six seasons with MI. It’s been fantastic journey. This season was superb. We thought our third season was the best but this one is the icing on the cake,” he added.

The affable right-hander, however, did not specify whether he would compete for Mumbai in the Champions League Twenty20 which is scheduled for October.

“I can’t wait to hold this trophy. I waited for six years. I can never thank the fans enough. A big thank you to all the supporters who enjoyed cricket. Cricket is the winner and we have been able to produce some fantastic cricket here,” he added.

Asked about how it felt playing at 40, Tendulkar said, “Anil (Kumble) said that 40 is just a number. We have worked hard together. Even on optional practice because despite all the travelling everyone turned up.

“Things don’t come easily, you have to work hard for them. It’s exciting but you have to alter your body clock in the grind of IPL because matches finish after or close to midnight. And, sometimes we catch a flight at eight in the morning making all the adjustments that are required,” he added.

On whether he would be tempted to play the Mumbai Indians opening match at the Wankhede next season, Tendulkar said, “It’s tempting. But this is the best point. Thank you very much, now I can’t wait to touch the trophy.”

This is the second format from which Tendulkar has announced his retirement after having called quits from the ODIs in December last year right before the series against Pakistan.

Tendulkar went out from the ODIs after amassing 18,426 runs in 463 matches at an average of 44.83. The diminutive right-hander has an astonishing 49 hundreds in the format, including a double hundred — the first in this form of the game.

The cricket fans will now have to wait till the end of the year when Tendulkar is likely to be seen in action against South Africa in a three-Test series where he is expected to complete a historic 200 Tests.

PTI

Procedure for Formation of Private Limited Company in India

Sumit Aggarwal : Tax guru:23 May 2013

STEP WISE FORMALITIES FOR FORMATION OF A NEW COMPANY

Persons desirous of forming a Private Limited Company must adhere to the step by step procedure as discussed below:

Apply for Directors Identification Number and Digital Signatures, if does not have;

Selection of name for the proposed company;

Drafting of Memorandum and Articles of Association;

Stamping, digitally signing and e-filing of various documents with the Registrar;

Payment of Fees;

Verification of documents/forms by ROC;

Obtaining Certificate of Incorporation.

1.    Directors Identification Number (DIN) & Digital Signature Certificate (DSC):
DIN

New section 266A has been inserted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2006 which provides that every individual, intending to be appointed as director of a company shall make an application for allotment of Director Identification Number (DIN) to the Registrar of Companies (ROC) in the prescribed DIN Form.
DIN can be obtained from ROC through filing e-form for DIN i.e. DIN-1 with all required documents mean Self attested Address Proof & Identity Proof and One Passport size color photograph.
Note: Copy of PAN card mandatory for all Indian Applicants & Copy of Passport mandatory for foreign national or NRIs. In case of Director is foreign national or NRIs identity & address proof should be notarized by an Indian Consulate of home country & address proof should not be older more than 1 year from the date of filing of form.

DSC

Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is the digital equivalent (i.e. electronic format) of physical or paper certificates. A            digital certificate can be presented electronically to prove your identity, to access information or services on the Internet or to sign certain document digitally. Since, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) accepts electronic submission of Forms on its portal the DSC is mandatory for all the users.
Documents required for obtaining DSC:  
  
Digital Signature Certificate application form (duly signed by applicant) & all same documents as required in DIN application form

2.    Selection of name for the proposed company:

The Promoters have to provide at least 6 names in the order of their preference/priority. The promoters can themselves search for the available names by visiting the MCA website.
After selecting name for the company time to file Application of Name Availability with ROC in e-form 1A, the applicant needs to give 6 proposed names in preferences/priority along with their meaning & significance of each word. This form should be digitally signed by the Managing Director or Director or Secretary of the Company.

3.    Drafting of Memorandum and Articles of Association:

What is Memorandum of Association (MOA)?
Memorandum of Articles covers fundamental provisions of the company’s constitution. It covers the main object and other object of the company.

What is Articles of Association (AOA)?
Articles of Association contain rules & regulation governing the internal management of the company. It is binding contract between the company & its members and members among themselves defining their rights & duties.

After getting name approval from ROC, the next step is to draft MOA & AOA. The subscribers need to specify Name, Address & Occupation in their own handwriting & sign the subscription page of MOA & AOA.

If one of the subscriber is Foreign National or NRIs, the subscription page where he/she is supposed to sign on the MOA & AOA, should be notarized by an Indian Consulate of Home Country.


4.    Stamping, digitally signing and e-filing of various documents with the Registrar:

After name approval following forms to be filed with ROC on the MCA website:

1)    Form-1 (Application or Declaration for Incorporation of Company), along with MOA & AOA. This form should be digitally signed by the Managing Director or Director or Secretary of the Company or Chartered Accountant.

2)    Form-18 (Notice of Situation or Change in Situation of Registered Office), along with following attachments:

Proof of Registered address shall be attached to e-form 18.
No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the director if the registered address owned by the director (not taken on lease by the company).

Other optional attachments

3)    Form-32 (Notice of Directors with their personal Details), along with consent letters of director as optional attachment

5.    Payment of Fees:

After filing of documents online, we need to make payment to ROC fees & Stamp Duty electronically which is based upon the Authorised Capital of the Company. Please refer to the “Fee Calculator” link on the MCA website for the ROC fees.

Note: Stamp Duty varies as per the “State” in which the Company is to be registered. Please refer to the “Stamp Duty” link on the MCA website

6.    Verification of documents/forms by ROC:

After payment of all stamp duties & ROC fees, ROC scrutinizes all the documents & forms. Now form-18 & form-32 are approved immediately through “STP” (Straight Through Process) & form-1 is scrutinized by ROC in detail. In case of any objection/queries raised by ROC, resubmission of form may also require.

7.    Obtaining Certificate of Incorporation:

Once all the Forms are duly approved by ROC, the digitally signed “Certificate of Incorporation” is emailed to the Directors.

As part of Green Initiative by the MCA, few Certificates including “Certificate of Incorporation” are now issued only in the electronic format i.e. softcopy (having digital signature of ROC). Once the Incorporation Certificate is received, Company can start its operations.

Download Booklet on Permanent Account Number (PAN) Released by CBDT

Income Tax department : May 23,2013


The  Income tax Department has been receiving anumber of queries relating to PAN-particularly question on procedures for PAN application, documents required for PAN application and transaction for which quoting of PAN is mandatory etc.

This booklet has been brought out for the first time under the Tax Payers Information Series.
 It is an attempt to help the taxpayers who want to apply for PAN and to explain to them the importance of PAN in their day to day functioning.

 The author Shri Neeraj Kumar, Addl. CIT, Range-39, New Delhi has taken keen interest in authoring the first edition of this booklet.


Book Contains the following Topis :-

1. What is PAN?

2. Evolution of PAN in India

3. Who must have a PAN`?

4. Financial transactions where quoting of PAN is  mandatory

5. What are the documents which can be submitted as proof of identity and proof of address?

6. FAQ on PAN

Download Booklet on Permanent Account Number (PAN) Released by CBDT

Income tax dept sets up compliance management cell to track evaders

Under its business intelligence project, the government also plans to develop an integrated platform for effective utilization of available and accessible information to promote voluntary compliance and deter non-compliance. Photo: Mint



Live Mint :Remya Nair  :: Tue, May 21 2013. 12 45 PM IST

Dept is also sending 70,000 letters to individuals who have been tracked through its business intelligence project

New Delhi: Stepping up its efforts to track tax evaders, the income-tax (I-T) department has set up a compliance management cell that will specifically track their tax payments and return filings. The tax department is also sending an additional 70,000 letters to individuals who have been tracked through its business intelligence project.

Under the business intelligence project, the department monitors high-value transactions bank deposits, bonds purchases and credit card bills above Rs.2 lakh—all linked through the permanent account number—and checks whether these individuals have filed income-tax returns. The department had sent out more than 100,000 letters in the last few months to check if the individual had filed a tax return or not.

“Preliminary assessment of the results show that a large number of taxpayers have filed return of income and paid self-assessment tax after initiation of this exercise. Taxes of more than Rs.600 crore has been paid as self-assessment tax and advance tax by the target segment in last three months,” the government said in a statement. The compliance management cell will help the government to take effective follow-up action.

Under its business intelligence project, the government also plans to develop an integrated platform for effective utilization of available and accessible information to promote voluntary compliance and deter non-compliance. The platform will integrate enterprise data warehouse, data mining, web mining, and other such tools for effective outcomes.

Why this secrecy over Sonia Gandhi?

What makes Sonia Gandhi go unscathed from all the mainstream media torrent? PTI.

First Post :May 16, 2013

“Why is it that the mainstream media (MSM) displays, what can only be termed as pusillanimity bordering on the obsequious when it comes to Sonia Gandhi?” is the question that bounces around inside my head quite often. Occasionally it lights up my amygdala.

There is a certain docile, rebarbative and delightfully ludicrous air about the MSM each timeSonia Gandhi (or one of her family members) is in the middle of a controversy. I will not get into the impressive range of controversies that have cropped up over the years, but suffice to say that each time things came to such a pass, either the clouds blew over in wondrous haste or they rained elsewhere.

A dripping wet poodle Prime Minister is what you occasionally get, as evidenced by the recent developments surrounding Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal.

After years of peddling the Our-PM-is-the-most-honest-of-them-all-in-the-entire-galaxy balderdash the MSM seems to be finally catching up with the meaning of words like integrity & accountability, as they get busy aiding and abetting – quite reflexively – some dark, unknown and easy-to-guess forces to bury the non-performing nightwatchman Prime Minister six feet under.

But the Queen continues to escapes their collective gaze. Blame Proxy-o-cracy!!

To give credit where it is due though, over the last few days, there has been a sprinkling of articles that at least attempt to ask – meekly so – a few pertinent questions along the lines of if-Sonia-is-the-fount-of-executive-power-then-should-the-buck-not-stop-with-her-on-India-becoming-a-Scamrashtra. Laying the axe to the root, if you will.

The most scathing commentary yet…
“Should Sonia Gandhi, ruler of the Congress party, be congratulated for finishing 15 years in Indian politics? It is not a sign of expertise if an heir becomes king. So why should it be different with her?” asked Surjit Bhalla in an The Indian Express piece titled ‘Evaluating Sonia, the black box leader’ (March 23rd, 2013) before he drove the screw deeper: “Every political leader has been pilloried in India, and in most democracies. Pilloried for being stupid, unfit to rule and worse; yet, such questions are not raised with regard to Sonia. Our free press can make mincemeat of even decent politicians (Manmohan Singh has been variously described as spineless, a night-watchman following orders, Mumble Singh and worse) and yet the press has never even demanded that the chairperson of the Congress for 15 years hold a press conference in a language of her choosing — English, Hindi or Italian”.

Ouch! In his follow-up piece a week later ‘Message to Sonia: Reform of Perish’, he concluded his incisive commentary thus:

“Recall that Annie Besant became president of the Congress party in 1917. If Sonia Gandhi does not change, then she risks the following obituary of the party she heads: It took a white, European, socialist, woman to help create the Congress party — and it has taken a white, European, socialist, woman to destroy it more than a hundred years later.”

Ouch ouch ouch!

I acknowledge that the 7 aspects that I will now touch upon briefly – three in this Part, and four in Part 2 – are by no means either completely unknown, or constitute all that needs to be debated, discussed and perhaps put under the journalistic scanner. The purpose of this 2-part series is to act as a gentle reminder to the Indian MSM (especially TV) that the citizens are not fooled by their attempts at silence on issues surrounding Sonia Gandhi & family. Or as M.J.Akbar noted:

“That purr in the ear isn’t the music of your back being scratched, darling; it’s the crackle of your slim wallet being emptied of ethics”.

The poor little powerful Queen

Is it really true that Sonia Gandhi’s financial assets are a mere 1.37 Cr [2009 affidavit]? Let me strive for a little more exactitude, so that I am not accused of crude approximations. Take a look at the table below (source – myneta.info):

One set of rules for the slaves, another for the suzeraintyI leave you and your powers of incredulity – which I am certain are immense – to decide if this matter warrants further enquiry. You can access the affidavit details by clicking here. While we are on affidavits, it may well be worth your while spending a minute or two examining the affidavits of Rahul Gandhi, with special focus on the educational qualifications. The matter was discussed in greater detail by me a few months ago in a piece titled ‘Rahul Gandhi: PM-in- waiting despite all this?’

In August 2011, India Today ran a small report titled ‘What Gandhis don’t tell the Lok Sabha‘, and I quote:

It’s common courtesy for MPs to inform the secretariat about trips abroad, even if they are of a personal nature. But since June 2004, the month UPA came to power, the Congress president and her son have not bothered to inform the secretariat about any of their foreign trips.

Subsequently, two applications were filed under RTI seeking details on foreign travels of MPs and foreign travels of Sonia Gandhi – what followed was a merry-go-round involving the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Central Information Commission (CIC), Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and National Advisory Council’s (NAC) Central Public Information Officer.

“It is disturbing that institutions that run the government have no knowledge of the authority that can furnish details of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign travel,” noted an exasperated RTI activist. (You can read the full report here)

The curious case of Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s blog

Most of you would be familiar with the content of Dr. Swamy’s blog; those of you who have not made your acquaintance with it yet, please fire up your search engines. Whilst it is nobody’s case that every word in there is the gospel truth – and some of Dr. Swamy’s utterances on other issues may be a tad jarring to some of us – the following 2 points merit some thought:

1) If the matter presented in his blog-post(s) is untrue and borders on libel, why have the concerned parties not sued him?

2) On the other hand, if the matter holds some truth in its folds, why has the MSM never gone to town with it? Why the silence? Or is it a case of the unutterable refusing to chase the uneatable, with apologies to Oscar Wilde?
What gives?

… To be continued. Part 2 will be published here tomorrow.

shining.path.notperu@gmail.com