Indian Railway Interim Budget- 2014

- No Increase in Passenger Fares and Freight

- Outlay of Rs 64,305 Crore Proposed for Rail Budget with A Budgetary Support of Rs 30,223 Crore

- 17 New Premium Trains, 38 Express Trains and 10 Passenger Trains Proposed

- Surveys For 19 New Lines and  Doubling of 5  Tracks to be Taken Up- Feasibility Study for High Speed Trains in Mumbai-Ahmedabad Corridor and Semi High Speed Projects to Taken Up on Select Routes

- To Prevent Fire Incidents Portable Fire-Extinguishers in Coaches and Induction Based Cooking Introduced in Pantry Cars

- Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh to be on Railway Map

Satya Nadella's letter to Microsoft employees

Speech by  new CEO of Microsoft

Microsoft Corp named India-born Satya Nadella as its next chief executive officer.Following is the text of Microsoft's new CEO Satya Nadella's letter toemployees. Today is a very humbling day for me. It reminds me of my very first day at Microsoft, 22 years ago. Like you, I had a choice about where to come to work. I came here because I believed Microsoft was the best company in the world. I saw then how clearly we empower people to do magical things with our creations and ultimately make the world a better place. I knew there was no better company to join if I wanted to make a difference. This is the very same inspiration that continues to drive me today. It is an incredible honor for me to lead and serve this great company of ours. Steve and Bill have taken it from an idea to one of the greatest and most universally admired companies in the world. I've been fortunate to work closely with both Bill and Steve in my different roles at Microsoft, and as I step in as CEO, I've asked Bill to devote additional time to the company, focused on technology and products. I'm also looking forward to working with John Thompson as our new Chairman of the Board.

"THE HARSHAD MEHTA SCAM" a perspective by Sameer Thakur

Harshad Shantila Mehta was born on July 29, 1953, at Paneli Moti, Rajkot District. His Early Childhood was spent in Kandivali, Mumbai, where his father was a small time businessman. Later, the family moved to Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Mehta had started his working life as an employee of the New India Assurance Company. In the late Seventies every evening Harshad and his brother Ashwin started to analyze tips generated from respective offices and from cyclostyled investment letters, which had made their appearance during that time. In the early Eighties He quit his job and sought a job with stock broker P. Ambalal affiliated to BSE. Than He became a sub-broker for stock-brokers J.L. Shah and Nandalal Sheth. After a while he was unable to sustain his overbought positions and decided to pay his dues by selling his house with consent of his mother Rasilaben and brother. The next day Harshad went to his brokers and offered the papers of the house as guarantee. The brokers Shah and Sheth were moved by his gesture and gave him sufficient time to overcome his position. He became stronger after this incident and his brother quit his job to team with Harshad to start their venture GrowMore Research and Asset management Company Limited.

How to calculate Sensex?

Formula: - Index divisor X Free Float Market Capitalization

So, first we know about Index Devisor and Market Capitalization. 

Market Capitalization: - Many different types of investors hold the shares of a company. The Govt. may hold some of the shares. Some of the shares may be held by the “founders” or “directors” of the company. Some of the shares may be held by the FDI’s etc.

Now, only the “open market” shares that are free for trading by anyone, are called the “free-float” shares. When we are calculating the Sensex, we are interested in these “free-float” shares.

A particular company may have certain shares in the open market and certain shares that are not available for trading in the open market. According the BSE, any shares that DO NOT fall under the following criteria, can be considered to be open market shares

RBI to withdraw bank notes issued prior to 2005 wef 01.04.2014

The Reserve Bank of India has today advised that after March 31, 2014, it will completely withdraw from circulation all banknotes issued prior to 2005. From April 1, 2014, the public will be required to approach banks for exchanging these notes. Banks will provide exchange facility for these notes until further communication. The Reserve Bank further stated that public can easily identify the notes to be withdrawn as the notes issued before 2005 do not have on them the year of printing on the reverse side.

(Please see illustration below)

IllustrationFigure 1: Banknote on which the year of printing is not indicated and will be
WITHDRAWN after March 31, 2014

Figure 2: Banknote on which the year of printing is indicated and will therefore not be withdrawn
The Reserve Bank has also clarified that the notes issued before 2005 will continue to be legal tender. This would mean that banks are required to exchange the notes for their customers as well as for non-customers. From July 01, 2014, however,  to exchange more than 10 pieces of `500 and `1000 notes, non-customers will have to furnish proof of identity and residence to the bank branch in which she/he wants to exchange the notes.

The Reserve Bank has appealed to the public not to panic. They are requested to actively co-operate in the withdrawal process.

Implementation of Supreme Court Decision-case of Fiat India Ltdby CBEC vide Circular No. 979/03/2014-CX dated 15-01-2014

Contents:

CBEC issued Circular No. 979/03/2014-CX dated 15-01-2014 clarifying implementation of Supreme Court Decision in the case of Fiat India Limited.

Through this Circular CBEC Clarifies as under on Implementation of FIAT Ruling:

Facts of each case to be considered

• Fiat Ruling was rendered in a unique set of facts where the cars were sold at prices substantially lower than manufacturing cost for a continuous period of five years. Further, lower prices were adopted with the objective of market penetration.The Supreme Court has cited two instances where a manufacturer may sell goods at lower prices and yet the declared value can be ac­cepted
  

(i)    company switching over business and

(ii)    where goods could not be sold within reasonable time]

S. 272B Penalty is Rs. 10000 per deductor and not per wrong PAN

The assessing officer had imposed penalty of Rs. 10,000/- in each case where PAN Number was not provided by the deductee. There were in all 30706 cases in which the PAN Number was missing or was incorrectly stated. The assessing officer, accordingly, imposed penalty of Rs. 10,000/- in each case. Thus, penalty of Rs.30,70,60,000/- was imposed. Board in the letter dated 5.8.2008 vide No.275/24/2007-IT(B) has clarified that penalty of Rs. 10,000/- under Section 272B is linked to the person, i.e., the deductor who is responsible to deduct TDS, and not to the number of defaults regarding the PAN quoted in the TDS return. Therefore, regardless of the number of defaults in each return, maximum penalty of Rs. 10,000/- can be imposed on the deductor. Penalty cannot be imposed by calculating the number of defective entries in each return and by multiplying them with Rs. 10,000/-. This also appears to be a legislative intent, as in many cases, the TDS amount may be small or insignificant fraction of Rs. 10,000/-.