Ganesha is the lord of power and wisdom. He is worshipped first before any auspicious work. Kids know him better since he is also referred to as the ‘Elephant God’. Now, the Ganesha Chaturthi is just round the corner and here is my attempt to spread the awareness on ‘Going Green‘ about the way we celebrate this festival. What do I mean by Project Green Ganesha? Read further to know what it is and how you can help.

Majority of the people who celebrate Ganesha festival bring home the ‘painted‘ idols made of clay or plaster of paris (PoP) and perform rituals with devotion. The festival concludes with ‘Ganesh Visarjan’, a process of immersing the idol in a river or the sea symbolizing a ritual to see-off of the Lord in his journey towards his abode in ‘Kailash’ while taking away with him the misfortunes of his devotees. Unfortunately not all cities are blessed with a river/sea in the proximity. Because of this, various ponds, lakes and other water sources are used to see-off the god. Since the paint material used to color the idol contains ‘Lead’, this is toxic in nature. PoP too gets dissolved slowly and increases the acidity of water and thus water is polluted when the idol is immersed. This adversely affects the environment and there have been reports of dead fish in the water source where the idols are immersed.

Now that we have understood the problem, solution is pretty simple. Go for Ganesha idols made of natural clay which are not painted. This will not only  be environmental friendly but saves our ecosystem as well. I know the next question. But where do we get such Eco-friendly Ganeshas? Well, this is where I need your help. I am compiling a list of places/vendors where one can buy eco-friendly Ganesha idols. Since I am from Bangalore, I am publishing the details here. It would be great if you could come up with an article having details of the places for your city. I will link up your article from my blog and thus we can form a network of blogs to make this Ganesha Festival environmental friendly.

I am starting with the data I have as of now for Bangalore.

Feel free to ping me details of any other places in the form of comments, I will update this post with your valuable information. Not just that, there are many more road side vendors all over Bangalore who sell eco friendly Ganesha idols. Do insist on buying and celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with only those idols made of natural clay without any colors. Let us spread the awareness and make this ‘Project Green Ganesha’ a great success.

Today, the hindu community is celebrating Sri Krishna Janmashtami. Significance of Janmashtami relates to the historical background of the birth of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna was born to free the earth from all kinds of evil and its sources. He was entitled to kill all the demons on this earth. He was born on the eighth day (Ashtami) of Krishna Paksha in the month of Sravana. The month of Sravana starts a season of festivals for hindus. All the friday and saturdays are considered to be very auspicious throughout this month. It is the same month during which the ‘Vara Mahalakshmi‘ festival is celebrated too. This is followed by Ganesh Chaturthi, Vijaya Dashami, Bali Padyami, Naraka Chaturdashi and the list goes on… Here is the photo of a wooden Krishna Idol at one of the resort which I visited recently.

May this Janmashtami festival bring lots of happiness and may the God fulfill all your dreams of life. At our native place, Krishna janmashtami will be observed for 9 days starting today. I will be visiting my native place for the concluding proceedings of Srikrishna Janmashtami next week. That includes the ritual of Dahi Handi (Utti) or Gopalkala. And the celebration concludes with the procession of idol/photo of Lord Krishna through all streets of the village. Can’t wait till next week to take part in those celebrations!

Have you been bitten by a shutterbug within you? Have you been clicking photos to update your photo blog? Here is a contest for all such enthusiast photographers to spread the awareness about the nature around us. Ek Titli in association with Adya International is proud to present it’s first Photo Contest called ‘Green Lens‘. A contest that defines the Seven Deadly Sins, inspiration, strength and endurance. If you are wondering what Ek Titli is all about, here is a little information about them…

“Ek Titli is a solution provider for all the means through which the objective of a cleaner environment is fulfilled. Ek Titli is a platform for people who want to exercise their enthusiasm and passion to do something for a cleaner community and a greener environment.”

Photo Entry into Ek Titli Green Lens Contest:
Entry into the Ek Titli Photo Contest begins on Aug 17th, 2010, at midnight (12:00:00 a.m.) IST and ends on Sept 7th, 2010, at 11:59:59 p.m. IST. Official Rules can be found on this link. Email your photograph (maximum 2 entries per category) along with your name to greenlens [at] ektitli [dot] org, which illustrates one of the following three categories:

1. Moving Stills:
Participants can send in pictures of anything that has moved, inspired or motivated them. This a free category with no specific theme. If you have a message or story you want to share through your photograph, send it in!

2. Seven Deadly Sins:
This is a theme based category revolving around the seven deadly sins of pride, envy, lust, sloth, greed, gluttony and wrath…except with a GREEN twist. Participants can send in entries depicting any one, two or all of these sins but relate them not to people but to the environment! (eg. ‘Wrath’ of global warming on our climate patterns, “Pride” of towering concrete cities after merciless felling of trees) Relate a sin to any crisis of environment and send in your shot!

3. Strength & Spirit:
Participants can send in their own photographic interpretations of strength, endurance and spirit. It could be anything from a massive bridge to a row of working ants or even your personal pillar of strength!

Contest Prizes
Attractive prizes will be given to one entry per category which will be chosen by the judging criterion (please read more in terms & conditions section on the contest page at Ek Titli). The best picture amongst the three categories gets a grand prize and also a chance to feature his/her entry in the Ek Titli magazine’s next edition.

So get creative and start clicking! My best wishes to all the entries. Do check out my entry and feel free to rate and comment on this pic submitted by me – Every drop of water is precious

Dear All, it gives an immense happiness to inform you that I have been chosen as the “IndiBlogger of the Month“. It is indeed a great honor in the blogosphere to have won that title at indiblogger community, which has over 20,000 registered bloggers across India. Thanks for all your continued readership and encouragement which made me achieve this feet. Special thanks to those who voted me for the title at IndiBlogger.

Well, it all started last year around this time when I joined this bloggers community at indiblogger. I got to know so many people out there, it has been a wonderful experience to network with people from blogosphere not just from Bangalore but from all over India and across the border. In the last one year I have attended both the IndiBlogger meets in Bangalore. Also pretty regular in participating some of the contests this community has announced. Though I was a close competitor in some of the previous contests, this is the first maiden title! Albeit, I was outright disqualified in one of the contest for writing not in good spirits of the sponsor! If you are a regular reader, you would know which article I am talking about. Yes, that was on “Yougistaan ka Wow“.

There is an ongoing campaign to bring in awareness on heart diseases by Apollo Hospitals called ‘Billion Hearts Beating‘. I took part in the campaign to share a real life experience and to pledge support for this cause by writing an article on this blog. That article has been voted by rest of the bloggers for title crown. As a winner of the contest, I will be flying to Mumbai on this Independence day to take part in “The Mumbai IndiBloggers Meet”. Yet another opportunity to meet all those virtual friends from Mumbai, thanks to IndiBlogger. This is what the team says about “The IndiBlogger of the Month” crown:

“The IndiBlogger of the Month is awarded to a blogger who churns out great content, has a loyal fan base and who’s dedication is an inspiration to all IndiBloggers.”

Ah! what more can I ask for? Continue the hobby of blogging to share our thoughts and get rewarded once in a while like this for being associated with IndiBlogger community! If you are a blogger from India and not on IndiBlogger yet, I can say one thing for sure – You are definitely missing something! Go ahead and join the community and experience a new joy in blogging. Now, who all want to catch up with me this sunday in Mumbai?

It is easy to be a critic but at the same time if someone is doing a great job, miss not a chance to appreciate their efforts. Here is a short video on ‘Mid Day Meal’ program funded and operated by government as well as private organizations. A foreign national had to capture this great documentary on the mentioned program to bring in mass awareness. People are fed up of corruption and all other irregularities when it comes to government authorities. Hope this video brings in a new dimension to think that there are few gems as well in such systems.

Came across this video recently and couldn’t hold back from sharing it with you all. Though it is a lengthy video which runs for about ~15 minutes, watch this. You will thoroughly enjoy the video and the motive.

Though I have been contributing to ISKCON’s ambitious program called ‘Akshaya Patra‘, I would strongly recommend you too to take part in this noble cause. Do visit their site for more information and how the whole system is implemented.

Most of the folks who work at MNC’s get annual health check up free of cost. Employers do provide such perks to ensure the wellness of their employees. It is not just limited to MNC’s, there are a number of Indian public sector organizations too providing such free annual health check up facilities. All is good as far as the employed individual is concerned. What about the family members of the same employee? Do you take your family members too for the health check every year?

I wouldn’t blame any of you who don’t take their family members for annual health check. It is our mentality that prohibits us from spending on check ups unless there is an emergency. Let me share my own story here. I have been going for health check ups year after year, thanks to all my employers so far! Since it costs nothing, I make the best use of it and track various numbers from the reports to ensure a healthy lifestyle. A couple of years back I was marginally towards the higher side on cholesterol. Then a year after, cholesterol was in control but triglycerides count was alarming. Since I got to know these numbers, I chose an appropriate diet and exercise routine to score ‘GREEN’ on all the parameters this year. It was possible because I knew where I was going wrong and there by to correct it. So, knowing the numbers is highly important.

If you are looking for such a check up, ensure you have this list of investigations included:
• Complete Haemogram
• Lipid Profile
• Serum Electrolytes
• Thyroid Profile
• Blood Sugar (Fasting and post Prandial)
• Chest X-Ray
• ECG or TMT
• Blood Urea Nitrogen
• Serum Creatinine
• PAP Smear and Ultrasound Scan
• HIV, VDRL, HBs (Ag)
• Liver Function Test

Now, let me talk about my family. Both mom and dad go for a brisk walk everyday and both look healthy. However, that doesn’t really help much. Since both my parents crossed 50 years, I opted to go for a complete health check for them few years back. The results gave a shocking revelation about ovarian cyst for my mom and dad was on the higher side  on cholesterol numbers. That gave a timely indication to make my mom to go through a surgery to remove the cyst. If not operated, it might have troubled my mom more!  Dad was suggested to adopt to healthy diet by cutting down on non-veg to a large extent. That helped us to take control of health again. I strongly urge everyone to know the various numbers related to cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides etc., The abnormalities in these numbers won’t show up any symptoms immediately. However, they start to silently deteriorate the health.

From my learnings, I feel there is a strong need to get the annual health check up for every family members and there by to pledge for a healthy life! 2 weeks back I took my parents for complete health check up again and this time all green. Doesn’t that give a big relief and a confidence to stay like that? Though I have been opting to take my parents for health check up every two years till date, look forward to make it every year going forward. There is an awareness and pledge program called “Billion Hearts Beating” and you can read more about it on their site. I pledge to spread the message of better heart-health amongst my friends and family and encourage my blog readers to post a comment about the pledge you have taken and  join the campaign on Facebook!

Past couple of months have been hectic and too many things happening at one go. I know for sure that my blog had taken a back seat in the due time. However, thanks to all those guest authors who volunteered to contribute on this blog to fill the lacuna!  Now, I am back and hope to be frequent going forward.

The first and the foremost thing that comes to my mind is the joy of getting back those much missed 2 days of weekend :) Yes, since I took up my higher studies 2 years back, I was occupied during weekends too. For those who aren’t aware, I had enrolled for MS in Software Engineering from BITS, Pilani. Completed the final thesis report submission and keeping the fingers crossed for the results. By first week of August the results will be out! Watch this space for an update on that front.

For those of you who are keen on knowing what is new in my roof top, re-potted about 13 pots with Chrysanthemum saplings. With the arrival of monsoon, it is the right time to start with those plants if you are interested. Removed all those previously grown brinjal plants. It will take a while to showcase some of the newly planted green thumb. Oh yeah, I still have few more Aloe Vera saplings. Any takers?

There was an informative posts on ‘How to e-file income tax returns‘. If you haven’t filed your returns yet and looking for help, do go through that article. It will help you for sure. I already got the acknowledgement through an email for the returns filed for this year upon posting ITR-V form to CPC at Bangalore. The process if fairly simple and easy to file the returns online. Since we are talking about finance related stuff, let me know if you have any product review requests. I will surely review some of the new products.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention about the new Technology Blog that I recently started. www.techiez.net is the new address if you wish to stay updated about the technology related stuff. I am planning to make a collaborative technology blog and there will be a number of benefits if you wish to co-author posts on that blog. Here is my open invitation to write tech articles. Feel free to drop me a mail if it interests you and I shall create an author account for you on techiez!

Now Indian Rupee has a new symbol and this is how it looks. This new symbol which has been shortlisted through a contest run by Finance Ministry of India. You can read about that Rupee design contest here. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The winning designers concept was based on the Tricolour and “arithmetic equivalence”. While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for ‘equals to’, representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world. The winning designer is an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Along with the announcement of the result, there have been a number of controversies as well. One of the RTI activist had revealed that the panel took less than 20 seconds to go through each of the design and analyze. This is what the activist revealed according to RTI Documents :

• Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists. As candidate had submitted four designs.
• One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
• Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
• No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
• Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it .
• Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
• One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
• All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
• No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicate how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received!
• Advertisement was only published in English language.

Keeping aside all the controversies, I am happy that there is a new symbol for Indian Rupee!

For the third consecutive year I have filed my income tax returns online. Though the process of efiling is so simple and easy, not many are using this feature. In this post I am sharing the slides to help you file your IT returns online. Remember, July 31st is the deadline for filing your returns provided you need to pay more tax. However, if you don’t need to pay any additional tax apart from Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) you can file it beyond that date too. Why to simply delay filing Income Tax returns? get started now and make sure you have your Form-16 issued by your employer(s) handy with you.

For better view, opt for full screen mode. Special thanks to Darshan Shroff, a reader of my blog for creating exhaustive document with step by step screenshots. You can see that document in word format here. If you haven’t gone through Investment related articles on this blog, feel free to check out those articles too!

New Pension Scheme is government of India initiative to extend pension benefits to citizens of India, at large. Any individual whether employed with private sector, self employed or professional can now avail of pension benefits and plan his/her retirement period well by enrolling in the New Pension Scheme (NPS).

One can regularly invest in this scheme and get a part in lump-sum on retirement and a fixed monthly income for the lifetime. NPS is based on a unique Individual Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) created for individual subscribers. This number will remain the same for the subscriber’s lifetime irrespective of where he/she operates the NPS account from across the nation.

Currently, there are two plans under the NPS:

Tier 1 : Non withdrawal and tax deferred pension account (for all individuals)
Tier 2 : Withdrawal supported savings account without any tax advantages (for all individuals subjected to minimum deposits per year in Tier-1 account)

The subscriber also has to control on how his/her contributions(savings) are being managed by selecting a professional fund manager(PFM) from a pool of PFMs. Investor can either opt for Active Choice or Auto Choice. Under the Active mode, the subscriber can decide on proportion of investment to be made across different debt, equity and government securities. On the other hand, in the auto choice mode, the division across investments will be made by the authority based on subscriber age with equity allocation reducing as age increases.

There are 3 classes of investment to opt for in NPS, this is what they mean:

Class G : Investment would be in Government securities like Govt of India bonds and stage govt bonds.
Class C : Investment would be in fixed income securities other than govt securities
Class E : Investment would be primarily in equity market instruments. It would invest in Index funds that replicate the portfolio of either BSE Sensex or NSE Nifty 50 index.

However, the maximum exposure that can be taken in equity is up to 50%. With that the NPS subscriber can also select from the following seven pension fund managers (PFMs).

• SBI Pension Funds Pvt. Ltd
• UTI Retirement Solutions Ltd
• LIC Pension Fund Ltd
• IDFC Pension Fund Management Co Ltd
• Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund Ltd
• Reliance Capital Pension Fund Ltd
• ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company Ltd

Contribution details under the NPS are as below:
Tier 1:
Minimum # of contributions : 4
Minimum contribution : Rs 2000/- pa
Minium contribution : Rs 500 per contribution
(The amounts mentioned here have been further revised downwards by PFRDA)

Tier 2:
Minimum contribution of Rs 1000 at the time of account opening
Minimum balance of Rs 2000 at the end of a financial year

Here is the list of documents that you need to open the NPS account:

2 copies of identity proof

2 copies of address proof

Proof for Date of Birth

Self declaration indicating that the applicant is not a pre-existing member of NPS

Colored Passport size photograph

For Tier 2 account, in addition to the above docs, you need to submit bank details and a cancelled cheque.

Exclusive benefits of NPS:

• Provides tax benefits under section 80C of income tax laws.
• Govt provided pension plan directly regulated by PFRDA.
• Portable plan, nation wide access to NPS over a period of time.
• Investment in NPS is highly safe and it contains very less amount of risk.
• NPS provides higher returns compared to other relative investment options
• Cost effective mode of retirement planning – cost structure is very efficient compared to that of the charges levied by mutual funds or other investment options.

In case of death due to any cause, the nominee will have the option to withdraw the proceeds in lump sum. Also, if the vesting age is less than 60 years, then 20% of the amount accumulated can be withdrawn and the balance 80% will have to be used to purchase annuity. On the other hand if the vesting age is 60 years or more but less than 70 years, then 60% of the amount can be withdrawn either as lump sum or in a phased manner between age 60 & 70. Balance 40% will have to be used to purchase annuity. If you are looking for safe returns at normal rate of growth towards pension, this scheme is for you! If you have more questions on your mind, feel free to visit this FAQ site of PFRDA.