National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs.100 per day. The Central government outlay for scheme is Rs. 39,100 crores ($8 billion) in FY 2009-10.
This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or not they are below the poverty line. Around one-third of the stipulated work force is women.
Process
Adult members of rural households submit their name, age and address with a photo to the Gram Panchayat. The Panchayat registers households after verification and issues a job card. The job card contains the details of the adult member enrolled and his/her photo. A registered person can submit an application for work in writing (for at least fourteen days of continuous work) either to the panchayat or to Programme Officer.
The panchayat/programme officer accepts the valid application and issue a dated receipt of application. A letter providing employment will be sent to the applicant and also displayed at the panchayat office. Employment will be provided if possible within a radius of 5 km; if it is above 5 km, transport allowance and 10% extra living allowance will be paid. New public works can be started when at least 50 workers become available who cannot be absorbed under existing schemes. If employment under the scheme is not provided within fifteen days of receipt of the application daily unemployment allowance will be paid to the applicant.
No discrimination between men and women is allowed under the act. Therefore, men and women must be paid the same wage. All adults can apply for employment, not just those below the poverty line.
History and Funding :
The scheme started from February 2, 2006 in 200 districts, was expanded to cover another 130 districts in 2007-2008 and eventually covered all 593 districts in India in april 01, 2008. The outlay was Rs. 11,000 crores in 2006-2007, and has been rising steeply, to Rs. 39,100 crores (140% incresed amount respect of previous 2008-2009 budget) in 2009-2010.

Most Expensive 2010 Cars

Last month, sales of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (MSRP: $90,000 to $202,000) were up almost 12% from November 2008. That's unusual: Overall, the luxury segment was down 8% year-over-year, and is down 27% for the year to date.

It turns out that while it's tough to sell top-end luxury cars in a time of high unemployment and an uncertain economy, there are exceptions to the rule. Buyers will still flock to special cars with a lot of cachet and the price tags to match.

Audi, in particular, is faring better than most brands in the segment. With top-sellers like the Q5 SUV and A4 sedan, the company is down a relatively benign 7.9% for the year to date. (Competitors BMW and Mercedes were down 24% and 17%, respectively.)

But the Ingolstadt, Germany-based brand is not all everyday-driver cars and soccer-mom SUVs. Its $146,000 Audi R8 5.2 coupe sports a 525-horsepower V10 engine that gets to 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds. Its non-fixed costs (fuel, maintenance, depreciation) are apt for the high sticker price.

There are plenty of other 2010 cars--such as BMW's $137,000 7-Series turbocharged V12 sedan and Jaguar's $115,000 XJ Super V8 sedan--that offer a lot of extras with an MSRP and long-term costs to match. They're at home on our list of the most expensive cars of 2010.

Behind the Numbers To determine our list, we used data from Vincentric, an auto-industry analysis firm in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., to evaluate the following costs over a five-year term: manufacturer suggested retail price, projected depreciation, fuel costs, repairs, interest, opportunity costs, fees and taxes, insurance and maintenance. The data assume an annual rate of 15,000 miles driven per vehicle and a price of $2.60 for regular fuel, $2.86 for premium and $2.75 for diesel. It also applies an inflation rate for fuel prices, since the calculations predict costs over five years. The 10 cars with the highest totals made our list.

We did not evaluate models from exotic brands like Lamborghini and Ferrari, automakers with extremely low production levels, like Spyker and Koenigsegg, or models from ultra-luxe automakers like Bentley, Maybach and Rolls-Royce.

It's not the sticker price but the depreciation that's the key factor in making these vehicles expensive. Dave Freed, a managing partner at Vincentric, says car buyers wanting an affordable vehicle should remember to take into account the value of their asset at the end of five years, not just its initial MSRP.

The supercharged Land Rover Range Rover, for instance, costs $94,275 at the dealer but loses $54,600 in value over five years. That's proportionately more than other SUVs in its class, like the $85,400 BMW X5M (it loses $42,149) and the $82,850 Mercedes-Benz GL550 (it loses $43,142).

New vehicles depreciate at an average rate of $3,461 per year ($4,551 per year for large sedans), according to AAA's 2009 Driving Costs Report. On average, the cars on our list are projected to lose more than $15,000 in value per year.

But it's also true that, in general, cars with low MSRPs cost less over time than their expensive counterparts--they have less value to insure, tax or depreciate in the first place.

Not about Affordability Bill Gacioch isn't thinking about the estimated $92,700 he's losing to deprecation when he drives his red 2009 Audi R8. The Florida real estate investor values the car for its extraordinary performance, not for whether or not it's affordable.

He should know--he also drives a 2005 Spyker C8 Laviolette. Interestingly enough, the Spyker has the same soundness he's come to appreciate in other Audi-built vehicles like the R8, meaning he isn't constantly writing checks to keep the car in working order.

"One of the nicest things about the Laviolette is that its drivetrain is all Audi, which has great reliability," Gacioch says. "Sometimes 'sports car' and 'reliability' don't go together. This does."

At a base price around $210,000, the least it should be is reliable. And anyone who can splash out for such a sticker price needn't worry about affording the depreciation.


Content Courtesy: Forbes

National Youth Day

National Youth Day is celebrated in India on 12 January on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. In 1984, the Government of India declared and decided to observe the birthday of Swami Vivekananda (12 January, according to the English calendar) as a National Youth Day every year from 1985 onwards. To quote from the Government of India’s communication, ‘it was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.’

“Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.” Swami Vivekananda

Here is the Welcome Address by Swami Vivekananda at Chicago on Sept 11, 1893, it just an example of his broad minded and thinking:-

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.” Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

The World’s Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labor.

My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.

Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, “Brother, yours is an impossible hope.” Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: “Help and not fight,” “Assimilation and not Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.”

By Swami Vivekananda

Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.” Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.The World’s Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labor.
My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.
Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, “Brother, yours is an impossible hope.” Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.
The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: “Help and not fight,” “Assimilation and not Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.”
-By Swami Vivekananda

Maruti Eeco at Auto Expo 2010

Maruti Eeco at Auto Expo 2010

banking news

Banking Sector – RBI policy
As part of its second quarterly review of the monetary policy for 2009-10, the RBI, on October 27, 2009, hiked the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for scheduled commercial banks to 25 per cent from 24 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL), with effect from November 7, 2009, even as other key rates were left untouched.
RBI Governor D. Subbarao noted that the Indian economy was awash with liquidity and there was possibility of considerable strain in the future from inflationary pressures. However, to keep growth on track, the apex bank left the Bank Rate untouched at 6 per cent while the repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) stay at 4.75 per cent. The reverse repo rate under the LAF, too, remains the same at 3.25 per cent. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks also has been retained at 5 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).
Mr Subbarao pointed out that the global economy has shown signs of major improvement since the last review in July 2009. However, concerns remained of the recovery being fragile. “Even as output is reviving, unemployment is expected to increase to over 10 per cent. Investment is also expected to remain weak due to ruptured balance sheets, excess capacity and financing constraints. Bank collapses are continuing. World trade still remains below its level a year ago. On balance, while global economic prospects have improved, uncertainties remain about the pace and sustainability of economic recovery,” Subbarao said.
The RBI chief also noted that there were concerns of large government market borrowings. “During 2009-10 so far, the Central Government has already completed over 80 per cent (Rs 3,19,911 crore) of its net market borrowing and State governments have mobilised Rs 58,683 crore (net) through the market borrowing programme,” he stated.
Highlights :
Repo rate retained at 4.75 pc
Reverse repo rate at 3.25 pc
Cash Reserve Ratio kept at 5 pc
Bank rates same at 6 pc
Provisioning requirement for realty up at 1 pc from 0.40 pc
Retains GDP growth projection for FY’10 at 6 pc
Industrial production may revive further in coming months
Ups inflation projection to 6.5 pc by March-end, from 5 pc
Third quarterly review in January

GST -GOODS and SERVICES

GST

GST stands for Goods and Services Tax

GST will be a boon for India's economy
It is estimated that introduction of goods and service tax (GST) reform will add 500 billion dollars to the state's coffers, adding 1.4 per cent to the GDP. If this happens, it will bring about a silent revolution in the economic history of India

How will the GST help in spurring the growth and increase the volume of collection?


There is a saying in Kautilaya’s Arthshastra, the first book on Economics in the world, that the best taxation regime is that which is based on principle of “Liberal in assessment and ruthless in collection”. The proposed GST seems to be based on this very principle.

Firstly, The introduction of GST is likely to rationalise irrational, complicated, cumbersome and multiple indirect tax and thereby plug the loop holes in this system. It will help stop pilferage and at the same time will offload the overloaded tax burden from some organisations.

Secondly, the multiple taxations have led to birth of a somewhat repressive and lethargic system of tax collection and are doing more harm than good to the growth of the economy. The red-tapism in this area is loathing and no progressive country can afford it. The GST would hopefully do away with many, if not all, such anomalies in the system and metamorphose it into an efficient agency based on scientific and rational system of assessment. It would in a long run help increase the overall amount of tax collection
Thirdly, the present system of refunding of taxes is a horrible experience. The un-refunded tax on capital goods is a bane for capital accumulation. This in a way hinders the savings also, which is a pre-requisite to the growth. If this over-taxation is done away with, it will come as a boon for the honest taxpayers.

At present, indirect taxes are collected at various points, right from manufacturing to retailer’s outlet. It involves cumbersome process of assessment and primitive ways of collection. Such systems ultimately encourage tax evasion and also increase cost of commodities. GST proposes that the indirect taxes would be levied at the destination point which would be less distorting and non-complicated.
if we take into account the GDPs of countries like the USA, China, Japan, they are significantly much more than that of ours. For instance, GDP of G-20 Nations (chart below) suggest that India has miles to go to achieve the level of the developed nations. The ongoing economic downturn and slowdown of economy across the world has given India a golden opportunity to stake claim and get a cushioned berth in the world order, but for this we are required to increase our volume of GDP at least twice the present level.

The direct taxation regime has been by and large undergoing annual fine-tuning and as a result of it the revenue receipt in this account has considerably increased but reform on such scale in indirect taxes has not been done. Indirect taxes are, therefore, urgently required to be made rationale and unified. If the GST is introduced it would certainly increase the volume of the tax collection, thereby provide a great stimulus to our gently moving economy which has arrived at a level playing field vis-a-vis many major economies of the world
Country

GDP IN TRILLION USD

USA

13.84 TRILLION USD

JAPAN

4.30

GERMANY

2.81

BRITAIN

2.14

FRANCE

2.05

ITALY

1.79

CANADA

1.27

CHINA

6.99

India


1 trillion dollars

Finally, the world is moving towards economic unification. The very concept of European Union (EU) is based on a common European market based on unified and simplified taxation system. They have adopted ‘euro’ and even the concept of a European Parliament is being visualised. If two or more nations come close and form economic unified entity (SAFTA,NAFTA,ASEAN etc are examples), why the federating units of India i.e. States do not eschew trivial economic and political interests to help establish a modern, unified and efficient tax regime. After all the very concept of distribution of taxes amongst the states were enshrined in the constitution to do away with such contradictions