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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Last day: Here's a last minute tax savings guide | Firstpost
With less than a week left for you to make tax saving investments for FY 2012-13, there is a good possibility you might just make the wrong investments in a hurry to avoid missing the deadline and keeping? in mind the sole objective of tax savings. After all as they say, ?Invest in a hurry, regret in leisure.? Here?s a quick guide for last minute tax savings instruments. So, you can make an informed decision, and not simply rely on your agent?s sales pitch.
For the sake on convenience, we will divide the instruments into two. Those which fall under Section 80 C and the others.
Section 80 C investments: Before, we begin keep in mind that your Employee Provident Fund (EPF) would make the major part of the Section 80 C deduction. The maximum deduction permitted under this section is Rs1 lakh.
1) Public Provident Fund: You get an 8.8 percent tax-free investment. Lock in period is 15 years and maximum amount Rs 1 lakh per financial year. Read more here.
2) Life insurance premiums: Premium amounts for self or wife and children. Premium paid before 31 March 2012 will get a deduction only to the extent of 20 percent of the actual capital sum assured. And policy issued after the 1st day of April 2012 will get a deduction only to the extent of 10 percent of the actual capital sum assured. We strongly recommend you buy only a Term Plan, as life insurance.
3) National Savings Certificate: Five-year NSC give?s 8.6 percent returns and for 10 years it?s 8.9 percent. Interest income you earn every year is taxable. But, as the interest is also reinvested, it becomes part of the overall section 80C contribution.
Representational image. Image courtesy: Moneycontrol
4) Five-year tax savings fixed deposit: The lock-in period is five years, without any pre-mature withdrawals. Rate varies from bank to bank. Interest earned is taxed, maximum investment limit is Rs 1 lakh.
5) Equity-linked savings scheme: This gives your money equity exposure and the returns here are market-linked. Keep in mind that this comes with a lock-in period of three years. The dividends you earn are tax-free.
6) Pension plans (traditional): Maximum deduction up to Rs 1 lakh for premiums paid for pension plans under Section 80 CCC.
7) Senior citizen savings scheme (SCSS): Only for senior citizens. They offer 9.30 percent as interest. Maximum investment allowed is Rs 15 lakh in a financial year, but only Rs 1 lakh will get benefit under Section 80 C.
8) Two important deductions are: Repayment of principal of your home loan gives you a deduction under 80C of up to Rs 1 lakh.? And, you also get under a deduction Section 80C for tuition fees paid for your children?s full-time education in India.
Non- Section 80 C deductions: Apart from Section 80 C investments options, here are a few more investment options which give you tax benefit.
9) Section 80D ( Medical Insurance policy) : Here you get tax benefits in the form of deduction for premiums you pay for medical insurance. The benefit is up to Rs 15,000 for self and family or if you buy policy for non-senior citizen parents. You can claim within the existing limit a deduction of up to Rs 5,000 for preventive health check-up. Read more here.
10) Section 80DDB (Medical treatment of certain illness): If you are less than 65 years old during the previous year, then the deduction limit is Rs 40,000. If you are a senior citizen (more than age 65), then the deduction limit is Rs 60,000. Read more here.
11) Section 80E (Interest paid for education loan): You can avail of this tax deduction as long an education loan is taken for the spouse, children or self. The deduction is permitted in the initial assessment year or the year in which you start paying the interest on the loan and seven more years immediately after the initial assessment year. Read more here.
12)? Section 24( Home loan interest amount): You get a tax deduction of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the interest amount you pay towards home loan. The Rs 1.5 lakh limit on the interest amount is applicable when you?ve taken a loan for a self-occupied house. If it?s not a self-occupied house (rented out) there is not limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. Read more here.
13) Section 80 TTA (Savings accounts): Here savings account interest income up to Rs 10,000 will get a tax deduction. This deduction of Rs 10,000 on savings account interest income is all bank accounts put together. Read more here.
14) Section 80 G:? Donations to certain charitable organisations and institutions you get tax deduction under Section 80 G. The amount of deductions can be either 50 percent or 100 percent, depending upon the type of institution you donate to.
Now that you know about tax savings options, don?t blindly buy the insurance policy your agent wants to sell you as a tax saving tool. Remember, investments made in a hurry to save taxes are more likely to result in you becoming a victim of mis-selling.
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/last-day-heres-a-last-minute-tax-savings-guide-673889.html
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Saturday, March 23, 2013
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies at 82
Afp/getty Images / AFP - Getty Images file
Author Chinua Achebe outside his home at Ogidi, eastern Nigeria, in 1999.
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By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor
Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist and poet whose 1958 novel "Things Fall Apart" addressed the effects of colonialism on African society, has died. He was 82.
Achebe died following a brief illness, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday. He added that the author's family has requested privacy.
Brown University, where Achebe taught for the past four years, said the writer passed away Thursday night.
"We join the world in mourning Chinua Achebe's death," John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin Group, said in a statement. "He was a giant, and a wise and kind man. We are honored to have published his final book, which, like all of his books, will outlast us all."
Achebe?s breakthrough novel focused on the clash between Western and traditional values. It told the story of colonialism for the first time from an African perspective, and?has sold more than 10 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages.
Nelson Mandela has credited Achebe for bringing "Africa to the rest of the world" and called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down."
Achebe played a pivotal role in the development of African literature.?He is the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, essays and poetry collections. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.
Achebe was born Nov. 16, 1930 and raised in the village of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria. After graduating from college, he started a radio career that ended?abruptly?in 1966 during the national upheaval that led to Nigeria?s three-year civil conflict, known as the Biafran War. Achebe then joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions.
He was known as an outspoken critic of successive dictatorship governments in Nigeria, often refusing to accept literary honors from his home country in protest.
Last year, Achebe published his final book, "There Was a Country," a memoir about the three-year Biafran War.
Russell Perreault, publicity director for the writer?s earlier publisher, Random House, noted Achebe once said, "If you don't like someone's story, write your own."
"We are saddened by the death of the 'Father of African literature' Chinua Achebe," Perreault said. "We are grateful that he told his story and left us with a legacy of great literature and a better understanding of Africa."
At the time of his death, Achebe was a professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Among his activities at the school was the annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa, an international gathering of scholars, policymakers, and others who shared interest in current day African affairs.
"He was more than just a colleague, faculty member, and teacher at Brown. He was a gift to the world," said Corey D.B. Walker, chair of Brown?s Department of Africana studies.?"At a time like this we could draw many words of wisdom and comfort from the deep wells of various African cultures and traditions to honor him. The most fitting is the simple and elegant phrase, 'A great tree has fallen.'"
Prior to Brown, Achebe had taught for more than 15 years at Bard College. He moved there shortly after a car accident in 1990 left him paralyzed from the waist down.
He and his wife, Christie Okoli, had four children.
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Friday, March 22, 2013
LG accuses Samsung of OLED patent infringement, demands compensation
By Steve Keating ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy's decision to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational surprised the tournament host, who expressed his disappointment on Wednesday that the world number one was not at Bay Hill this week. The 83-year-old Palmer said he had jokingly suggested he might break McIlroy's arm if he did not show up but did not try to force the young Northern Irishman into making an appearance. "Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play," said Palmer. ...
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Best map ever made of universe's oldest light: Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus
Mar. 21, 2013 ? The Planck space mission has released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and origins.
Planck is a European Space Agency mission. NASA contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments, and U.S., European and Canadian scientists work together to analyze the Planck data.
The map results suggest the universe is expanding more slowly than scientists thought, and is 13.8 billion years old, 100 million years older than previous estimates. The data also show there is less dark energy and more matter, both normal and dark matter, in the universe than previously known. Dark matter is an invisible substance that can only be seen through the effects of its gravity, while dark energy is pushing our universe apart. The nature of both remains mysterious.
"Astronomers worldwide have been on the edge of their seats waiting for this map," said Joan Centrella, Planck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These measurements are profoundly important to many areas of science, as well as future space missions. We are so pleased to have worked with the European Space Agency on such a historic endeavor."
The map, based on the mission's first 15.5 months of all-sky observations, reveals tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, ancient light that has traveled for billions of years from the very early universe to reach us. The patterns of light represent the seeds of galaxies and clusters of galaxies we see around us today.
"As that ancient light travels to us, matter acts like an obstacle course getting in its way and changing the patterns slightly," said Charles Lawrence, the U.S. project scientist for Planck at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The Planck map reveals not only the very young universe, but also matter, including dark matter, everywhere in the universe."
The age, contents and other fundamental traits of our universe are described in a simple model developed by scientists, called the standard model of cosmology. These new data have allowed scientists to test and improve the accuracy of this model with the greatest precision yet. At the same time, some curious features are observed that don't quite fit with the simple picture. For example, the model assumes the sky is the same everywhere, but the light patterns are asymmetrical on two halves of the sky, and there is a spot extending over a patch of sky that is larger than expected.
"On one hand, we have a simple model that fits our observations extremely well, but on the other hand, we see some strange features which force us to rethink some of our basic assumptions," said Jan Tauber, the European Space Agency's Planck project scientist based in the Netherlands. "This is the beginning of a new journey, and we expect our continued analysis of Planck data will help shed light on this conundrum."
The findings also test theories describing inflation, a dramatic expansion of the universe that occurred immediately after its birth. In far less time than it takes to blink an eye, the universe blew up by 100 trillion trillion times in size. The new map, by showing that matter seems to be distributed randomly, suggests that random processes were at play in the very early universe on minute "quantum" scales. This allows scientists to rule out many complex inflation theories in favor of simple ones.
"Patterns over huge patches of sky tell us about what was happening on the tiniest of scales in the moments just after our universe was born," Lawrence said.
Planck launched in 2009 and has been scanning the skies ever since, mapping the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the theorized big bang that created our universe. This relic radiation provides scientists with a snapshot of the universe 370,000 years after the big bang. Light existed before this time, but it was locked in a hot plasma similar to a candle flame, which later cooled and set the light free.
The cosmic microwave background is remarkably uniform over the entire sky, but tiny variations reveal the imprints of sound waves triggered by quantum fluctuations in the universe just moments after it was born. These imprints, appearing as splotches in the Planck map, are the seeds from which matter grew, forming stars and galaxies. Prior balloon-based and space missions learned a great deal by studying these patterns, including NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), which earned the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Planck is the successor to these satellites, covering a wider range of light frequencies with improved sensitivity and resolution. Its measurements reveal light patterns as small as one-twelfth of a degree on the sky.
"Planck is like the Ferrari of cosmic microwave background missions," said Krzysztof Gorski, a U.S Planck scientist at JPL. "You fine tune the technology to get more precise results. For a car, that can mean an increase in speed and winning races. For Planck, it results in giving astronomers a treasure trove of spectacular data, and bringing forth a deeper understanding of the properties and history of the universe."
The newly estimated expansion rate of the universe, known as Hubble's constant, is 67.15 plus or minus 1.2 kilometers/second/megaparsec. A megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years. This is less than prior estimates derived from space telescopes, such as NASA's Spitzer and Hubble, using a different technique. The new estimate of dark matter content in the universe is 26.8 percent, up from 24 percent, while dark energy falls to 68.3 percent, down from 71.4 percent. Normal matter now is 4.9 percent, up from 4.6 percent.
Complete results from Planck, which still is scanning the skies, will be released in 2014.
NASA's Planck Project Office is based at JPL.
More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck, http://planck.caltech.edu and http://www.esa.int/planck.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Turkey voices caution over rebels' truce call
Turkey voices caution over rebels' truce call
AP
Some thousands of supporters demonstrate waving various PKK flags and images of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, March 21, 2013, as Ocalan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending the fighting for self-rule for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies lasting nearly 30-years and costing tens of thousands of lives. (AP Photo)
Some thousands of supporters demonstrate waving various PKK flags and images of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, March 21, 2013, as Ocalan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending the fighting for self-rule for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies lasting nearly 30-years and costing tens of thousands of lives. (AP Photo)
In this photo taken Sunday, March 17, 2013, Kurds wave banners depicting imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Istanbul, Turkey. Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in a message relayed by Kurdish legislators who visited him on his prison island, said Monday, March 18 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this file photo provided by the Turkish Intelligence Service on Feb. 18, 1999, Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan poses in front of Turkish flags before being interrogated by Turkish officials at the prison-island of Imrali , Turkey. Ocalan said Monday, March 18, 2013 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo/Turkish Intelligence Service, File)
FILE - In this Monday Feb. 15, 1999 file photo provided by the Turkish Intelligence Service o the chief of the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, Abdullah Ocalan sits guarded aboard an aircraft en route to Turkey following his arrest by Turkish special forces in Nairobi, Kenya. Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said Monday, March 18, 2013 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo/Turkish Intelligence Service, File)
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his lawmakers in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Erdogan said he hopes this week's Kurdish spring festival will herald the start of a peaceful resolution of the nearly 30-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels. Erdogan's remarks Tuesday came days ahead of the March 21 spring festivities when jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to reveal his plans for peace, including a possible cease-fire declaration and a timetable for his fighters' retreat from Turkey.(AP Photo)
AMSTERDAM (AP) ? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the Kurdish rebel leader's call for a cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to leave Turkey.
Erdogan on Thursday also sounded a note of caution, however, saying Turkey wanted to see "to what extend it is implemented" by the rebels. Erdogan was speaking at a joint news conference with his Dutch counterpart.
Erdogan said Turkish security forces would cease operations against the rebels as soon as Ocalan's call is implemented.
The Turkish leader also lamented the fact that no Turkish flag was flown at festivities in Turkey's largest city in southeast Turkey, where imprisoned rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan's message was read.
Erdogan says the lack of a flag was a "provocative act" and contrary to spirit of Ocalan's message for peace.
Associated Press
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