Linking your aadhar card with PAN

Linking aadhar card with PAN is mandatory according to the recent changes in the legislation. Though the issue is being heard by the Supreme court of India, the government has gone ahead with the process.

"Section 139AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 which was introduced by the Finance Act, 2017 makes it mandatory to quote your Aadhaar number in order to file your income tax returns (ITR). In other words you need to link you Aadhaar card to your PAN card if you want to file returns from now on." 

There are 3 ways to do this only if your name matches in both the documents.

• Through SMS 
• Through online: without registering 
• Through online: with registered account 

You can find more details here. 

But what if your names does not match. 

You need to change the name in either of the database so that it can match and get linked. 

The process of change in aadhar seems to be easier and hassle free than attempting to change in PAN database as of now. 

To update your Aadhaar card details, visit UIDAI portal

https://ssup.uidai.gov.in/web/guest/update

To update your PAN details, visit NSDL portal

https://www.onlineservices.nsdl.com/paam/endUserRegisterContact.html

Big breaking news: Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 currency notes banned in India, a game changing move by PM Modi

Highlights of the ban 
 

• Currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 won’t be valid from midnight, PM Narendra Modi says in an address to the nation.
• Money can be deposited in the bank before December 30, 2016.
• All other coins and notes can continued to be used.
• Rail stations, bus stands, airports, fuel stations, chemists, crematoriums to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes till November 11 midnight
• On November 9 and in some places November 10, ATMs will not work
• For 72 hours, until Nov 11 midnight, special arrangements have been made. All government hospitals will accept old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes

The reasons for ban according to PM Modi

• We talk about use of blackmoney in elections. We have to set the country free from corruption and blackmoney.
• Terrorism is a scourge that kills innocents. Where do these terrorists get money from? Our enemies across the border send in these counterfeit notes
• This country has felt that corruption, blackmoney, counterfeit notes, terrorism have held this country back from the path to progress
• Our enemies from across the border run their business with counterfeit notes and it has been going on for years
• Issues like corruption, black money and terrorism have hurt India
• We are among the fastest-growing economies, and we also rank high in global corruption rankings
• Corruption, black money are the biggest obstacles in India's growth

Real estate act 2016 and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)

The central government has notified REAL ESTATE ACT 2016. Can the act regulate the highly unregulated sector in India? Can  this authority bring about transparency in one of the notorious sectors that is known to flaunt rules as a rule and follow rules as an exception. As of now only 3 states UP, Kerala, and Maharashtra have implemented it.

10 things to know about Real Estate Regulatory Authority

01) Ongoing Projects also to come under RERA
For ongoing projects without Completion Certificate (CC), developers will have to deposit 70% of the amount collected from homebuyers in a separate bank account within 3 months of registering a project with RERA.

02) Equal Penalty
In case of delays, developers will be required to pay compensation to the allottees with an Interest Rate of SBI’s highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate plus 2%. This effectively means a developer will have to pay interest rates of 11 to 12 % in case of a delay in project delivery.

03) Imprisonment
The rules also contain clauses providing for compounding of punishment with imprisonment for violation of the orders of Real Estate Appellate Tribunal against payment of 10% of project cost in case of developers and 10% of the cost of property purchased in case of allottees and agents.

04) No Discrimination
Discrimination in sale of properties on any grounds will also not be entertained under the new rules. Adjudicating Officers, Real Estate Authorities and Appellate Tribunals shall dispose of complaints within 60 days

05) Transparency
For ongoing projects that have not received Completion Certificate (CC), the developers will have to make public the original sanctioned plans with specifications and changes made later, total amount collected from allottees, money used, original timeline for completion and the time period within which the developer undertakes to complete the project.

06) Sale on Carpet area
The promoter shall also be required to declare the size of the apartment based on carpet area even if it was sold earlier on any other basis.

07) Financial Capacity
For registration of projects with the authorities, developers will be required to submit authenticated copy of PAN Card, annual report comprising audited profit and loss account, balance sheet, cash flow statement and auditors report of the promoter for the immediate three preceding years, authenticated copy of legal title deed, copy of collaboration agreement if the promoter is not the owner of the plot. The promoter will also has to declare information regarding the number of open and closed parking areas in the project.

08) Construction Status
The promoter will also have to upload details regarding number and type of apartments or plots, status of the project with photographs floor-wise, status of construction of internal infrastructure and common areas with photos, status of approvals received and expected date of receipt, within 15 days of expiry of each quarter on the project website.

09) No Income Tax returns required
In a departure from the draft rules, the requirement of disclosing Income Tax returns has been withdrawn in the final rules keeping in view the confidentiality attached with them and as pointed out by legal experts and promoters.

10) Detailed Description on RERA website
In addition to this, the Real Estate Regulatory authorities will also publish information relating to profile and track record of promoters, details of litigations, advertisement and prospectus issued about the project, details of apartments, plots and garages, registered agents and consultants, development plan, financial details of the promoters, status of approvals and projects etc., on the RERA website.

Reliance Jio Free WiFi device message SPAM

A message that says Reliance is providing free WIFI device is doing the rounds. The message is a spam and you will be redirected to a website - reiiance.com (see the image below) and you need to provide all your details for the free wifi device. Be aware of giving such details to unverified websites.

The message

*Reliance Jio WiFi Device Welcome offer!*

*Register today on Reliance Jio Website to get your free WiFi Device.*

*With this device your will get Unlimited free Internet and Calling till 31st december.*

*Limited time offer only on Official Website*
 https://ReIiance.com/offer

Income tax return filing deadline extended to August 5 2016

In view of the consistent holidays for banks, the income tax filing deadline has been extended till August 5 2016.
The only exception for this deadline is Jammu and Kashmir where the deadline is extended till August 31 2016 because of the political turmoil.

Difference between ITR1 and ITR2 forms

The ITR1 and ITR2 forms can be used by salaried people to file their income tax returns.
ITR1 are for those with salary and income from one house property. 
ITR2 are for those with salary and income from multiple house property.

No extension of the date of filing of audit report and the return of income

A fake e-mail claiming that the deadline has been extended to October 15th has been doing the rounds in the internet. But the official extension was only till September 15th and it still remains the same.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) has warned all the tax payers and practiioners not to wait till October 15th as the deadline still stands at Septemebr 15 to file for the assessment year 2015-2016.
The fake order dated 26 September 2015 which is doing rounds is in an official format signed by an Under secretary Upmanyu Reddy has been conveying the message that the last date for filing for the assessment year 2015-16 has been extended to October 15th 2015.
The CBDT has issued an order clarifying that no such extension has been announced. 

ICYMI: The complete list of 98 cities selected under smart cities program by Government of India

The central government has chosen 98 cities all over the country including 24 state capitals to be developed as smart cities.
The central government is bound to spend 500 crores over a period of 5 years, whereas the state government is also expected to shell out the same amount for development of smart cities.
The smart cities will have smart grid, smart traffic management systems, better water and electricity supply, better internet connectivity, better waste management, and others.
Complete list of smart cities 
Port Blair, Vishakhapatnam, Tirupati, Kakinada, Pasighat, Guwahati, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Biharsharif, Chandigarh, Raipur, Bilaspur, Diu, Silvassa, NDMC, Panaji, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Dahod, Karnal, Faridabad, Dharamsala, Ranchi, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Hubballi-Dharwad, Tumakuru, Davanagere, Kochi, Kavaratti, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Sagar, Satna, Ujjain, Navi Mumbai, Nasik, Thane, Greater Mumbai, Amaravati, Solapur, Nagpur, Kalyan-Dombivalli, Aurangabad, Pune, Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Oulgaret, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer, Namchi, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Tiruppur, Salem, Vellore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Erode, Thoothukudi, Chennai, Greater Hyderabad, Greater warangal, Agartala, Moradabad, Aligarh, Shaharanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Agra, Rampur, Dehradun, New Town Kolkata, Bidhannagar, Durgapur, Haldia.

Finance ministry note's clarifies service charges and taxes in Indian restaurant bills

Finally, the Finance Ministry has come up with a clarification that the service charges levied on the Indian restaurant customers are not taxes collected by the government. The service charges are retained with the restaurant owners. 

The exact Finance Ministry notes 

"Some restaurants/hotels/eateries besides charging for the food and beverages are also charging 'service charges' in their bills. The proceeds of the 'service charges' are retained by the restaurants/hotels/eateries,"

What exactly is the service charge?

• The actual service charge is 14% on 40% of the total bill - this applies when the restaurants does not include service charges in food bills separately. 
• 14% on 40% of the total bill - 5.6% of the total bill.
• The service charge applies to restaurants restaurant having air-conditioning or central heating.

Some restaurants does not include service charges in the food bill and they charge it separately. Off late, there has been a numerous complaints with regarding to the inflated bills in some restaurants as the final bills zooms northwards.
I think such restaurants should report that the cost of the food does not include service charges in their menus to avoid confusion.   

The story of Housing.com and Rahul Yadav - Did anyone get the cheese?

Four months back, I moved into Bangalore. I had started searching for rented accommodation a week before. The plethora of platforms like Quikr, OLX, Commonfloor, Magicbricks and Housing had made brokers irrelevant, at least in my case.

Heck, who built this awesome Housing.com
I came into Bangalore with two listed rented properties on Housing as my options. I had shortlisted it from a list of 20 according to the location. I am typing this article in the first house that I saw through Housing and I did not even care about seeing the second one. My previous experience with other platforms were near to irritating as I had to deal with brokers on the other end most of the times.

Housing.com - Doing it right lastly 
So the differentiating element in this product was it was refined. Classifieds existed since ages, Quikr and OLX was taking it to smartphone but fell short of doing it right in real estate. Housing was not the first entrant but still managed to make it right. No innovation in terms of rocket science but just took care of small things which made the product stand out from the crowd.

Rahul Yadav - A maverick or a minion
Rahul Yadav did not adhere to the rules created by the crowd. He entered into prestigious IIT Bombay but dropped out of IIT to create Housing.com. Even inside IIT, he created exambaba.com to access all the previous question papers of IIT so that students are benefited.
The IITian had created a loyal base inside the campus. Most of his colleagues appear to see him as an artist and refuse to acknowledge the bad mouthing of the press in the light of recent controversies surrounding Housing.com.
Abhishek Kejriwal, co-founder at Zyloon.com in an article for Quartz describes Rahul as
"He would go after ideas. He thinks in a very creative way—like an artist" 
And admits that all 24 of them who lived in the same hostel as Rahul admired his innovative thinking.
But someone like Pranil Bafna, CEO and co-founder at IndiaReads.com who has worked with Rahul on a venture called MCoupon feels
"The arrogance sometimes exceeds the limits"

The Housing.com saga
The turning in the story started around March 2015 when Rahul Yadav trained his guns on Sequoia Capital and accused them of trying to poach employees at Housing.com.
He shot off an angry e-mail to Sequoia Capital MD Shailendra Singh and warned against poaching of Housing.com's employees and he would exit Housing if the same thing continues.
Then came the defamation suit filed by Times Group after Rahul mailed employees about possible sabotage by Times group. Times group backed the competitor MagicBricks and had reported on possible CEO replacement in Housing.com by investors.
In April 2015, Rahul shot off an explosive resignation mail tactically leaked publicly that questioned the intellectual capability of the board and investors and gave a one week notice period.
But he tendered an unconditional apology only to get back to give away all his shares to employees of Housing.com.
The starting of July saw the final end in this story when the board decided to fire Rahul Yadav for his indiscipline towards media, investors and board members.

So what really went wrong for the start up? The idea of startup is based on not playing to established norms. Initially you are free to express your own thoughts and implement it. But at certain point, a start up ceases to be that free world, they need to have rules and bosses are waiting for everyone. Only few technology companies have managed to put these rules in a way that does not hamper innovation but many of them fail.
In a blog by Michaelo Church titled "Don't waste your time in a crappy startup jobs", he busts a myth about start up founders and employees having no bosses
"The truth is that almost everyone has a boss, even in startups. CEOs have the board, the VPs and C*Os have the CEO, and the rest have actual, you know, managers. That’s not always a bad thing. A competent manager can do a lot for a person’s career that he wouldn’t realistically be able to do on his own. Still, the idea that joining a startup means not having a boss is just nonsense."
And the boss might not even know about the value of the company, as the frustration by Rahul Yadav is evident,

The Reddit AMA digs 
The Reddit Ask Me Anything gave a platform for Rahul Yadav to air his views about the start up honchos and he was best at what he was - " taking digs at the biggies.
Responding to a user about what he thought about the Zomato CEO, Rahul said,
“A company scanning menus from last 7 years and doing no innovation. And the CEO says ‘Aww. So cute.'"
Rahul also confirmed in the AMA that he asked both Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola Cabs) and Deepinder Goyal (Zomato) to allot half of their shares to employees.
When a user questioned about 3 most important things that contribute towards a startups' success in the Indian startup ecosystem. Rahul Yadav had a frank answer.

I think currently it is:

• Validated and copied idea from another market
• Capital
• Marketing

What I think it should actually be:

• Solving Indian people's problem
• Great product and innovation
• Great teams and culture

Is Rahul Yadav a Jobs in making? 
There is a divided opinion on whether Rahul Yadav is just a poster boy or has the real capability of building great product. Some social media judges have already proclaimed that he is the Rakhi Sawant or Rahul Gandhi of startup eco system. But, not all of them who know him closely thinks so, as the article in foundingfuel points out the story which we never heard of Rahul Yadav. Many people who know him closely believe he is going to make a mark in the coming days and he does not care a shit about influential others who are against him. But he is definitely rude when he takes on his colleagues, investors and other startup founders. May be the passion inside him is the root for such rudeness. The sabbatical will definitely allow him to think about his next plan and rudeness quotient. 

Tech is clean but real estate isn't
When Google says, No evil; it actually means it to a large extent. But no real estate company will say "No evil" as being evil is the rule here. The money involved is big here and so are the politics behind it. So the main man who went on to take on this evil did not even come closer to solve it. The problem still remains and will housing.com sans Rahul Yadav or google backed commonfloor answer it or will the problem be always unsolvable?

Housing.com was Hacked !!!
The week he resigned and announced it, there was a hacking of housing.com website and mocking at the ouster of Rahul Yadav. While Rahul Yadav was seen in social media denying his involvement, the world wasnt actually convinced. May be he has a lots of tech followers. So just "LOOK UP"

On a lighter note
Rahul Yadav went furious over Vishal Sikkha snubbing him and preferring a sleep at airport lounge.

Now I do not care about his rants about investors or to cofounders of other start ups. But I am a bit furious as Rahul Yadav snubs me when I try to contact him on LinkedIn, where he is apparently sleeping and in Facebook, the picture says it all.

P.S : I started working in a startup from four months and I do not work there now. To all those normal office goers, who think he is stupid and abnormal; I would like to say, In startups, this is the normal. You need to disagree, you need to stand behind YOUR vision, you need to fight and get bruised or being diplomatic is a rule in corporate and we AIN'T corporate. 

Zero Sum Game - Here is how digital India is giving Airtel and Flipkart's net neutrality violation a tight slap

While Sachin Bansal is tweeting his support for Airtel's zero scheme, the Indian digital users were planning something else. A group of Indian Reddit users began to use the app store neutrality to counter attack.

Yes and they are badmouthing the Flipkart app at a place, where it hurts the most. Let us hope this newer way of protests breaks down such zero offers in the future.
Earlier, Airtel had tried to bring in differential pricing for internet. But had to back down due to mighty backlash on social media.
The draft report of TRAI prepared recently is open in public for comments on differential pricing. You can sign a petition to support net neutrality here.
Piece of free advice to our dear telecom companies,
"Please try to innovate and provide better services all over the country. Your revenues will automatically increase along with value creation. Do not involve in these sorts of Jugaad marketing tactics."

GOSF 2014 : Pushing the western style

The Great Online Shopping Festival which replicates the Cyber Monday phenomenon in the western countries is gaining ground in India. What began as a lackluster inaugural GOSF in 2012 has become something more substantial today and the upcoming 2014 edition seems more exciting.
The landscape has changed tremendously since 2013 GOSF has passed. The amazon is pouring billions into the market. Flipkart has got several rounds of fat cash infusions. Snapdeal is not way behind snapping some exciting deals.
Consumers are getting a cake this time 
The current storm in the e-commerce is heavily stirred by the hawkish Walls Street investors. The Alibaba's successful IPO and India's ever increasing purchasing parity has set there eyes here. If you find some deep discounts this time on your favorite products, then the chances are it is subsidized by Wall Street rather than a stock clearance effort. So, watch out for the products and go for it this time and enjoy the free cake.

Uber's fiaso : A cycle of failures

Uber has hit the headlines fro the wrong reasons again. But in India, this is a very wrong reason indeed. Bad publicity is not going to end at just publicity here. The government has kicked in response to the knee jerk incident. Now digging the incident reveals an all round failure of system with Uber at the centre stage.
Uber : The ultimate adamant
Uber is known to shrug off it's share of controversy in such situations. There are many incidents of unruly behaviour by the cab drivers which have cause immense sufferings for the travelers but the 40$ billion baby of the Wall Street is too adamant to accept the mistakes anywhere. The company is adamant to the extent of devising a strategy to badmouth the journalists critical of it's operations. But the ban on it seems to be an equally harsh punishment. But is it totally justified? Perhaps may be as Uber has conceded that it did never go for antecedent checking for any of the drivers but just relied on the government documents. Uber now argues that the government is to be partially blamed for letting such drivers get the license. But what on Earth was the advisor to Uber smoking to advice the Uber to rely on government data. An average citizen in India knows the reality, but if the Uber missed that point then the ban is partly justified.
Banning all web based services?
The government after banning Uber in NCR and issuing the same advisory to all other states, now contemplates to take on all the web based car rental services. But the logic behind it is filled with visible loopholes. In Delhi NCR, the reason provided was such type of services are not registered with the authority and it is illegal for them to operate. But wait, were we traveling illegally all these days in such cabs? The institution belonging to the government has issued the license for the driver in this particular incident and the reason for such a lapse is that the driver has somehow managed to put in forged documents. But how can the government authorities go away without any questioning for such a huge lapse. It's this Uber mentality in the institutions which has to serve public that pulls us down again and again.
The bottomline
Banning Uber is a knee jerk reaction to an unfortunate event but it never solves the real problem. Weed out the Uber attitude in all the institutions and the minds of people to solve the menace.

Clean India or Swachh Bharath : Clean the mind first

The massive campaign to clean up our country gained a humongous momentum with Modi pitching in the fray on October 2 along with invoking Gandhi's name to further the cause. Modi does identify that the people's participation in a cleanliness drive is a must before anything real can be done.
The Indian Juggad mentality 
We Indians are apt at circumventing everything to our needs with blatant disregard to public at large. Consider most of the economically sustainable families, they are critically obsessed with the cleanliness in their private surroundings but never questions the private filth that may prick their nostrils sometimes. Least bothered about public cleanliness because the maximum time spent by them are in their well cleaned private encompasses. Coming to the issue of building toilets; here the classic Indian juggad mentality exists so intrinsically that just building more toilets is not enough. The program must also incorporate ideas to make people use them. Many Indians, especially in rural India still believe that open air defecation is more liberating and hygienic than the closed door dealing, The dangers of open air defecation on growth stunting and morbidity is well documented. The dissemination of such information is vital but herein lies another catch; how to do it for those who does not get these basic terms.
Turning on the clean mode
Modi being the prime minister is all together making the right noises. Being at the helm and talking about cleanliness and toilets does strike a chord with publicly untidy Indians. But unless the back-end logistics of the fate of waste accumulated is worked out more comprehensively; the program might not go anywhere. For this to happen, Modi must involve every institution from his own PMO; state governments to village panchayaths. The real challenge to Modi will be to change the juggad attitude of these institutions; most he can hope is they change over time when people who create them have cleanliness as their core attitude.

Time Zone : The confusion continues

The first post of this blog was about the time zone confusion. http://nishurs.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-zone-wats-confusion.html.
The confusion arises from the fact that the eastern most parts of India has a sunrise way earlier than the western counterparts. Now there is an official demand for second time zone from Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister of Assam for resetting the eastern parts to half an hour earlier. The demand seems logical and might well have benefits for eastern parts. The two time zones adaptation will be particularly difficult for a country like India. The errors might lead to serious consequences like accidents, if there are errors in calculations. And the synchronization to two time zones might be a herculean task for a country which depended on a single time zone till now.
"Let the whole country go back half an hour"
Now this is what Dilip R Gupta and D.P Sengupta from National Institute of Advanced Studies has to say after completion of their study funded by Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The study was done over a period of three years and concluded that India as a whole will still benefit from the resetting of time line to six hours before GMT. The authors argue that such a move would enable all Indians to use the day light in a more productive way. The benefits also stretch to saving billions of unit of electricity by using sunlight for a longer period of time. Now that the rabbit is out of the hat, will the policy maker take note of these simple measures for better energy efficiency or blame on each other for giving black out shocks for one of the most power hungry country in the world.

Planning Commission, Politics & Poverty

A journalist interviewing a politician on occasion of recent poverty definition debacle by Planning commission
J: Don't you think the poverty limit is too low for an average family to feed themselves ?
P: I don't think so, see we provide them food at subsidized rate and now we have a food security bill which provides them the right to food.
J: And what about housing ?
P:No need to worry on that front. Free housing is being provided. The homeless people, I bet won't spend much on housing. India is a vast country and many of them use public places. So this is another form of subsidy for social security.
J:Oops !!! Food, housing is perfect ! But what about entertainment?
P: So what do you think; we and planning commission are providing them!!!

Congress party's new slogan in cartoon

The debacle after Uttarakhand's floods

International charity ActionAid's claim "construction of hydroelectric dams and mining projects over the last decade in the state's many valleys has  threatened its fragile ecosystem."
The flash floods could have been taken care of by the nature if the soil had that capacity. The diversion of rivers, digging of tunnels might have caused irreparable damage to soil strength.
The Uttarkhand's response to disaster is a disaster...
Banning the building along the river banks!
The rivers may change direction in extreme conditions. The flash floods definitely encroaches the non-bank's building. Instead of addressing the crux of the issue, this is just a symptomatic knee jerk reaction. Not even a mention about big projects affecting the ecosystem.  The power hungry nation is eager to take a hit on environment in a blind pursuit of development.

TRAI updates new roaming tariffs effective from July 1

Outgoing local call charges : capped at Rs. 1.00 per minute from Rs. 1.40 earlier
Outgoing STD charges : capped to Rs. 1.50 from Rs.2.40 per minute earlier.

Incoming call : capped from Rs. 1.75 per minute to 75 paise per minute.

Outgoing local SMS : Rs. 1.00, Outgoing STD SMS : Rs. 1.50.
Incoming SMS : free

Free roaming which ensures no additional roaming charges has not been favoured as of now. The sole reason for this is that the loss in roaming revenue will be passed on to the customers irrespective of their roaming status. TRAI has decided as of now, the roaming charges has to be applied only to the roamers either as a fixed subscription or with a cap of above charges.

PRISM :Top 5 nations

1. Iran
2. Pakistan
3. Jordan
4. Egypt
5. India

India has secured a place in top 5 nations, which are under surveillance by the US authorities in the notorious PRISM project. But how and why did India sneak into this top 5 positions. Whether Americans really perceive a threat from extremists or is it the sheer volume of population that drags it into top. The later is difficult to explain as China is not seen in the list, despite being the destination for launch pads for digital warfare against USA.