Anand's Blog

Very few among the retail investors would have missed to hear the term "Bitcoin",   though very few amongst them would have an understanding of what it is all about.   With bitcoin's price breaching the US Dollar 20,000 mark & lots of stories floating in the internet on millionaires from bitcoin  around the world, a FOMO tendency (Fear Of Missing Out) is slowly building up amongst the retail investors as  it looks like a way to become rich quickly.  The bitcoin price graph for the past 10 years clearly captures the prevailing euphoria on its prospects in the market: Bitcoin Price History in USD The intention of this post is to explain the concept & features of bitcoin so that retail investors can take an informed decision.    What is a Bitcoin Bitcoin is a decade old concept. It was launched in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. The strange thing to be noted is no one knows  who is Satoshi Nakamoto. Whether it is a person or a team's sudo...

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 Ban...

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 warnin...

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...

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. Thoug...

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.

Happened to receive this very good & practical article by mail. Really, Mr.Karunanidhi has made a mess of the TN politics by his "freebie" culture. Now, Indian citizens of Tamil Nadu cast their votes for the freebie announcements & hot cash. He has made Great Indian Democracy into a big joke. It's high time the Election Commission categorizes such pre-election freebie announcements as "bribe" & put a full stop to this unethical, illogical & stupid practice. Just click on the image to read, if it's not clear.

There is lot of controversy over the exclusion of all the Pakistani players in the IPL3 auction. Now, the Indian Government has blamed the IPL management in strong words. Mr. P. Chidambaram, Home Minister has remarked in an interview that the IPL has done "disservice to cricket" by not selecting any of the Pakistani players. The Indo-Pak diplomatic relations is an on-off affair. It will continue to remain so as Pakistan is an "adventurous" country. The Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr.Yousuf Raza Gilani has openly commented that the Pak Government can't assure that another 26/11-type attack will not happen again in India. That's true. When his own country is not in his control, it's absurd to expect such a guarantee from him. Even if he has the control, then too, it's absurd to expect such a guarantee as terrorism is a part & parcel of Pak's foreign policy. In such a scenario, how can anyone expect the franchisees to risk "buying"...

A FAQ on geography is the total number of countries in the world. I just got curious to know the exact count & googled to find it out. While searching for this, I stumbled upon many other interesting facts. Total number of countries: Totally, there are 195 countries in the world. But, this figure includes Taiwan. Eventhough, Taiwan functions like an independent country with a separate capital & currency, it is not recognised so by most of the countries due to Chinese pressure. China claims Taiwan as its province. U.N. members: Amongst the remaining 194 countries, 192 are U.N. members. Vatican City & Kosovo, two recognized independent countries, are not members of U.N. World's Newest Countries: Kosovo is the newest country of the world. It was formed from Serbia in the year 2008. Prior to that Serbia & Montenegro got independence in the year 2006 (both formed from Yugoslavia). 33 new countries have been created since 1990. Most of them were formed due t...

The Telengana issue has led to demands for smaller states across the country. Some politicians are following the same 'fast till death' strategy of KCR. These dramas are being made by the politicians to further their own interests rather than the region's interests. While some experts are for smaller states as it would lead to better governance, some opine that it would disintegrate the country. I don't understand as to why it should be difficult to manage bigger states as every state is divided into districts and we have a collector to administer every district. So, I don't agree with the argument that bigger states are difficult to administer. I list below some of the reasons as to why I am not for creation of smaller states: 1. It would fuel regionalism & politicians would try to milk the regionalism (as the Thackerays are doing in Maharashtra) 2. It would increase the inter-state disputes over border, water sharing, etc. 3. Needless expenditure ...

Chronology of selective events given below: * Aug 12, 1990: Haryana Inspector General of Police (IGP) S.P.S. Rathore, also the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association president, molests 14-year-old budding tennis player Ruchika Girhotra in his office room. * Aug 16, 1990- Complaint made to chief minister Hukam Singh and home secretary. * Sep 3, 1990 - DGP R.R. Singh finds Rathore prima facie guilty, submits report. Recommends FIR in the matter. Later, new DGP R.K. Hooda and Home Secretary J.K. Duggal recommend departmental action and chargesheet against Rathore. * April 6, 1992 - FIR against Ashu, Ruchika's brother, for car theft registered wide FIR No. 39. * June 30, 1992 - Matter for registering FIR against Rathore taken up and Haryana legal remembracer R.K. Nehru recommended immediate registration of FIR against Rathore. * Oct 23, 1993 - Ashu is illegally picked by the Haryana police and kept in illegal detention for almost two months. Eleven car theft cases were registered again...

I was very disturbed by the event that unfolded last week, the Ruchika molestation case. Fourteen-year-old Ruchika was molested by the then IG of Police and Haryana Lawn Tennis Association president, S.P.S.Rathore in 1990. Ruchika was a budding tennis player. When a case was registered against Rathore, he misused the power of his position to force the family to withdraw the complaint by expelling the girl from the school, filing false cases against the girl's brother & torturing him and threatening the family members. The little heart broke down and committed suicide three years later, in 1993, due to the psychological trauma she had to suffer. It's really sad that a little girl's life came to an end in such a manner due to the arrogance of one man. What is more depressing is that it took 19 years for passing the judgement of this case; that too in the trial court (now, the case will be heard again in high court & supreme court for some mor...

The media guys are really strange. If there is no breaking news, they "create" breaking news. The headline read "Aamir dares Modi". I thought, has Aamir done it again? He has just visited a school in Gujarat, as part of his peculiar promotion campaign for 3 idiots. It seems, the media people, by writing such headlines, are just pushing the politicians to "do something" or to "say something" so that they will get some stuff to broadcast. Recently, Sachin's "Mumbai for all" remark was blown out of proportion by the media with prefixes & suffixes, leading to a lot of hulla bulla. Hope this Aamir Khan episode doesn't take any ugly turns as happened in Sachin's case.

I happened to read an article about best cricket sledges. List below the gud ones !! McGrath, the sledging superstar comes first. Glenn McGrath (Australia) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies): Sarwan, then the West Indies vice-captain, and McGrath went toe-to-toe in Antigua in May 2003, The incident was sparked after Sarwan, on his way to a match-winning second-innings century, reportedly reacted to lurid taunts from McGrath. McGrath: So what does Brian Lara's d--- taste like? Sarwan: I don't know. Ask your wife. McGrath [losing it]: If you ever f--- mention my wife again, I'll f--- rip your f--- throat out. Glenn McGrath (Australia) and Eddo Brandes (Zimbabwe): The Aussie paceman was bowling to the Zimbabwe number 11 who was just missing each ball. McGrath, frustrated, went to him and inquired: Why are you so fat? Brandes replied: Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit. Even the Aussie slip fielders were in hysterics. Ve...

This is in continuation of my earlier blog on the corruption perception index released by Transparency International for 2009. I had posted comments in the   Transperancy International Blog    about the ratings assigned to Switzerland and the need to give negative ratings for such countries, which promote secret investments. While acknowledging my remark, one Mr.Neumann referred me to the  Financial Secrecy Index   developed by Tax Justice Network. Initially, I was under the impression that in the entire world, only Switzerland entertains such secret investments. But, I was surprised to know a lot many countries entertain such investments. USA (Delaware) & Luxembourg are rated even ahead of Switzerland in the financial secrecy index ranking, though Switzerland scores 100/100 on opacity. The avenues available for parking the illicit wealth are just too much.

The Transparency International(TI) has released the 2009 corruption perception index. Countries are given score on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 for the most corrupt & 10 for the least corrupt. Then, the countries are being ranked according to the score. 180 countries have been ranked by TI in the index. With a score of just 3.4, India has been ranked 84th on the list. New Zealand is least corrupt nation and Somalia is the most corrupt nation. Ratings of certain other countries:                                       It's really strange that Switzerland, which "enables" the politicians & business tycoons of a lot of countries to safely keep their corruptly earned money & wealth amassed by tax evasion, is ranked 5. I am not sure if the constitution of a country has anything to do with corruption. For example, Oman is a monarchy & Nepal was also a monarchy...

No one can break this world record, The same Queen-Elizabeth of England , with 11 presidents of USA ..!! Queen Elizabeth with Barack Obama Queen Elizabeth with George W. Bush Queen Elizabeth with Bill Clinton Queen Elizabeth with George Bush Queen Elizabeth with Ronald Reagan Queen Elizabeth with Jimmy Carter       Queen Elizabeth with Gerald Ford Queen Elizabeth with Richard Nixon   Queen Elizabeth with John F. Kennedy Queen Elizabeth with Dwight D. Eisenhower Queen Elizabeth with Harry S. Truman

It's now official!!! China gifted uranium and a do-it-yourself kit for Pakistan. This fact was long known. The toolkit has been casually passed to Iran, Libya & to many other countries by the A Q Khan network. The Chinese intentions are crystal clear and very much worrying. Our politicians are busy fighting with each other and China is busy building up bases around us in Pak, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal & Burma. It would be very difficult for India if China & Pakistan open a two front war, which seems to be a likely scenario. The probability of such an event is increasing day by day. If the Indian politicians believe that the US will intervene, then they are definitely wrong. The recent action of Obama in refusing to meet Dalai Lama during his US visit, clearly underscores the US dilemma over angering China. Obama's action is obvious. When you are deeply indebted to a person, obviously, you have to dance to his tunes.