Anand's Blog

When it comes to Personal Finance, Savings account is the first step. Basic characteristics of a Savings account given below: Safety High liquidity Multiple withdrawal options Quick online transfers through UPI  ·      Post de-regulation of interest rates on Savings Bank Accounts by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2010, Banks are free to fix the interest rates for their Savings Bank Accounts. Due to this regulatory change the savings bank interest rates vary widely from 2.75% to 7.25%. That’s a wide difference & considering that all Bank offer similar facilities like Net Banking, Mobile Banking, ATM-cum-debit card, UPI etc. it does make sense to park the funds required for one’s monthly expenses in a high interest rate yielding savings account, and earn higher interest. Also, since all the scheduled banks are covered under DICGC (Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation) for an amount of Rs.5 lacs (enhanced from Rs.1 lac to Rs.5 lacs post the Yes Bank fiasco in 2020),

I got excited when I read a post on techtree  about the launch of a new browser Epic , made by an Indian for the Indians. This is made possible by a Bangalore based company Hidden Reflex . Of course,  people of other nationalities can also use this wonderful browser, but it has a couple of India specific features.   About the company:  (source : techtree ) The company was founded by the then U.S. based Engineer Mr.Alok Bhardwaj in 2007. However, the company is currently based in Bangalore. They initially had a team of three members and have now grown to quite a bunch of people who are working on two separate products. The first one, Epic, has already been launched. The other one is still in the making. About Epic: Epic is based on the open source Mozilla platform The first web browser by an Indian company Built in anti virus protection Hundreds of side bar apps/widgets Anti phishing protection (nothing technical about this) Inbuilt malicious website warning The Collection F

I was deeply disturbed & disappointed by the verdict delivered by a Bhopal court in the gas tragedy that happened way back in 1984. Twenty six years after the world’s worst industrial disaster, which took the lives of more than 15,000 people and maimed thousands for life, judgement has been delivered in the case. The judgement for the culprits is unbelievable. Just 2 years jail ... no need to serve that either. All convicted were let off on bail immediately. And the main villain of this horrific event Mr.Warren Anderson never had to face the trial. He didn't even had to spend a single minute in jail for being the main reason for such a horrible event. Just  click on this link , which was posted on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in 2004. The pictures & the events following the gas leak will melt the heart of even Osama Bin Laden. But, it seems, our politicians’ minds are made of iron; they are just not bothered about the episode; no willingness to either to punish th

A pleasant surprise for me, when I happened to check my savings account statement, today. I observed a credit of a few hundreds and was scratching my head, as to what it is. The transaction remark was not clear. It read like 'SEBI IPO'. But, when I read an article in rediff (link shown below), then I understood the reason for this credit. Source:  http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/13/sebi-disburses-rs-20-crore-to-investors-in-ipo-scam.htm It was like unbelievable, but true. When there were stories doing the rounds that SEBI is planning to compensate the retail applicants affected by the IPO scam of 2004-05 in some way a couple of months back, I thought it was just a foolish idea, as it is an impossible thing to do so, looking into the complexity of such an exercise.  But, SEBI has done it !!! Rs. 20 crores collected from the IPO scamsters has been distributed to over 12.75 lakh retail investors, who would have otherwise profited by the share allotment in IPO. Though

Got to explore Google Buzz, the new tool for social networking, today...In some articles on the web, it was written, that Buzz is facebook & twitter put together. But, I feel it is exactly similar to twitter with provision for sharing of photos and videos. Also, one can send "mega" tweets...no 140 character restriction here.. You don't have communities or wall-like concepts in Buzz. It is just following others & being followed by others, similar to Twitter. Integration into Gmail is a plus, which assists, atleast initially, for getting followers & to follow others. Twitter lacks in this. Already some people opine that Buzz is the beginning of the end of Twitter as Buzz is integrated with Gmail. Further, one's picasa, youtube, twitter, blogger accounts can also be linked in Buzz. Facility to link picasa & youtube accounts will make sharing of photos & videos much simpler. Link to twitter feature is there, but it is one way. Public tweets in Twitt

Happened to receive this wonderful article some time back. "Suffer to avoid suffering". Just click on the image to read, if it's not clear.  An English translation will be posted shortly.