Save Rs 900 on petrol bill: After cash pain, some cashless gain

With the govt providing discounts in some areas to push digitisation, consumers should try and maximise benefits

The government, a month after implementation of demonetisation, has decided to give a push to digitisation. On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of incentives for people willing to transact digitally.

Making digital payment on fuel purchases from petrol pumps will be cheaper by 0.75 per cent. New policies bought from customer service portals of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and public sector general insurance companies will attract a discount of eight per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

There are a number of other transactions as well on which the government has decided to give discounts, provided one is willing to take the cashless route. Says Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE: “The government is almost following a placatory approach with these incentives, after almost forcing people to go digital in the first month. This is a good approach, as it makes people more comfortable.”

Some petrol pumps charge two per cent on credit cards, a deterrent for many people. Now, with the government giving a discount, many will be encouraged to use cards. “However, to encourage the use of digital payment more aggressively, I believe, the government should give such incentives in many other areas,” added Sabnavis.

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Hollywood's most overpaid actors in 2016

Forbes looked at the last three films each actor starred before June 2016

Forbes looked at the last three films each actor starred before June 2016. 

Then, it deducted the estimated production budget from the global box office for each film to come up with a limited definition of each movie’s operating income. 

The total operating income of the star’s films was divided by the star’s estimated pay for those films to come up with the final return on investment number.

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Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to create shared database against terrorist content

Participating companies can add hashes of terrorist images or videos that are identified on one of our platforms to the database.

With an aim to limit online terrorist content, technology giants Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube said together they would build a shared database that will also help them to weed out content used to recruit people into terrorism.

According to a report on Tech Crunch, the companies said they will create a shared industry database that will be used to identify this content, including what they describe as the "most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos" that have been removed from their respective services.

The content will be hashed using unique digital fingerprints, which is how its identification and removal can be handled more easily and efficiently by the company's computer systems and algorithms.

"We commit to the creation of a shared industry database of hashes - unique digital 'fingerprints' - for violent terrorist imagery or terrorist recruitment videos or images that we have removed from our services," read a joint statement.

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From Amma's legacy to RBI monetary policy: 5 key developments

In other news, guidelines issued for cross-border electricity transactions

Business Standard brings to you a list of five key developments across the country.

Jayalalithaa’s legacy

Tamil Nadu’s 19th chief minister (she was also the 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th) J Jayalalithaa, who died on Monday, was known for gifting her 72 million people a record set of freebies, but she also leaves behind a state that ranks among India’s top five in many social, crime and industrial indicators.

ALSO READ: Amma's legacy: Social, industrial, crime rankings among India's best

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Minting money (Part– 1): Salboni

 

Business Standard reporters have attempted to piece together stories of how new currencies are being printed after demonetisation at the  four presses — Salboni  (West Bengal), Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), Nashik (Maharashtra) and Mysuru (Karnataka) — which make the notes.

ALSO READ: Minting Money: Printing notes on a war-footing to fill up cash-starved banks

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Tata vs Mistry

Alleging that individuals prone to “impulsive control” have exposed the Tata Group to perilous violation of regulatory requirements, ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry on Tuesday said his fight is to protect the conglomerate from “capricious” decision-making by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata.

ALSO READ: Tata Group exposed to regulatory violations: Cyrus Mistry

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Cross-border trade of electricity

The power ministry late on Monday issued guidelines to facilitate cross-border trade of electricity. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission will frame appropriate regulations binding on all participating entities. According to the guidelines, a participating entity will be eligible for cross-border trading on Indian power exchanges, including Indian Energy Exchange and Power Exchange India, in term-ahead contracts, intra-day contracts and contingency contracts.

ALSO READ: Guidelines issued for cross-border electricity transactions 

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RBI Monetary Policy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a temporary cash reserve ratio (CRR) over the weekend, on the incremental rise in bank deposits following the government’s demonetisation move. The measure, which will be reviewed on December 9 and was largely expected by analysts, aims to suck out excess liquidity in the system; though banks will not be able to earn any income on these deposits.

ALSO READ: Monetary Policy preview: Will the RBI cut interest rates tomorrow?

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Your smartphone knows a lot about you, but what about your mental health?

The habitual nature of people means this data could be used to give insight into our mental wellbeing

Smartphones come with an assortment of sensors that can track behaviours such as our internet search and browse history, where we go, what music we listen to, who we speak to, just to name a few.

The habitual nature of people means this data could be used to give insight into our mental wellbeing. Acute changes in behavioural patterns may indicate a need for support, and the use of any health diaries on a smartphone may enable us to monitor chronic conditions more effectively.

Sleep, relax, track, anxiety, stress and depression: the most common keywords in mental health apps as found in the review comments. Only apps that advertised depression and mental health were considered. Author provided

Our smartphones have become access points for mental health support and therapy aids. It is not unrealistic that they could aim to take on a therapist role.

But are people really ready for this? Do consumers and end users actually want this development? Would it meet needs without causing harm?

None of this is easily answered. History has shown any tool being developed must integrate consumers, health professionals and technology experts, along with rigorous testing, to provide an ethically sound and evidence based approach, and this is no less true for smartphone technologies.

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Full text of Cyrus Mistry's letter on the issue of transparency at Tata Trusts

The ousted Tata Sons chairman on Monday requested govt to ensure transparency at the trusts to make them more accountable. Read full text here

In a letter sent to the six Tata group companies and their shareholders that are meeting this month to remove him as a director, ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry on Monday said at the heart of the sustainability of the Tata group was governance reform, which was lacking throughout the institution at present. “This would mean the Government ensuring the working of the Tata Trusts, which are public charitable trusts, the property of the people of India, have a defined, transparent governance structure,” he said asking the companies to place his letter before the shareholders.

Here is the full text of the letter:

REPRESENTATION UNDER SECTION 169 OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2013.

IN RESPECT OF SPECIAL NOTICE FOR REMOVAL OF MR. CYRUS P. MISTRY AS DIRECTOR

Foreword

My Appointment.................

Strategy..................

Structure................

Erosion of Governance...................

Governance Breakdown....................

Flagrant Widespread Breakdown................

Way Forward...................

I therefore urge all you to think beyond the here and now. I urge you to have your voice heard loud and clear. I ask you to be a part of defining the future.

Cyrus P Mistry
[December 5, 2016]

YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS. Visit www.cyrusforgovernance.com for more details.

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Read our full coverage on Tata vs Mistry

All you need to know about tax on gold and jewellery

There will be no seizure of gold jewellery and ornaments to the extent of 500 gm per married woman, 250 gm per unmarried woman and 100 gm per male member

Amendments to the I-T laws do not seek to tax inherited gold and jewellery as also those items that are purchased through disclosed or agriculture income, the government said on Thursday.

The Lok Sabha earlier this week passed the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, which proposes steep tax and penalty of up to 85 per cent on undisclosed wealth discovered by tax authorities during search and seizure.

Related Story:  Gold in your locker is safe: No jewellery seizure up to 500 gm for married women

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Here are three important things that you need to know about the amendment Bill in the context of gold and ornaments: 

1. In case of disclosed sources 

There is no limit on holding of gold jewellery or ornaments by anybody, provided it is acquired from explained sources of income, including inheritance, agricultural income and reasonable household savings.

2. In case of undisclosed sources 

During search operations, no seizure of gold jewellery and ornaments to the extent of 500 grams per married woman, 250 grams per unmarried woman and 100 grams per male member of the family shall be made, even if prima facie, it does not seem to be matching with the income record of the assessee.

3. Other proposal 

During search and seizure operations, in case of undisclosed wealth (black money), the government has proposed a steep tax and penalty of up to 85 per cent.

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Colombia plane crash: How can people survive deadly air disasters?

A plane crash in Colombia has killed 71 people including most of one of Brazil’s top football teams, leaving just six survivors. While the investigation may take some time to reveal the factors behind the accident, the distressingly high – but not total – number of fatalities raises the question of how some people are able to survive such a devastating disaster.

Aircraft accidents, especially those involving jet aircraft, are increasingly rare. According to the International Air Transport Association, 2015 saw one accident for every 3.1m flights. That’s a spectacular achievement for an industry that is not much more than a century old and which involves transporting people at such high speeds in what can be challenging environments. But when an accident does occur, what is it that determines that some passengers survive when many others on the same flight do not?

The first factor is whether an accident is deemed “survivable” at all. While it may seem like a simple definition, there are actually “unsurvivable” accidents where people beat the odds. Unsurvivable accidents tend to be those where there is either a catastrophic loss of control or where the impact is at high velocity.

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What will RBI do with scrapped currency notes?

With about Rs 8.45 lakh crore worth of scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes deposited in bank accounts across India over 20 days from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation announcement on November 8, banks are plush with cash and depositing it with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). And RBI has been supplying banks newly printed Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, besides other valid currency notes, to meet the demand of people queueing up at banks and ATMs for cash.

Related Story: Petrol pumps, airlines will accept banned Rs 500 notes only till Dec 2

But, what will RBI now do with the humongous stock of scrapped currency notes? It has already chalked out a plan. Even as sorting, verification and shredding of banned notes are underway at multiple centres of the central bank, a Kerala-based plywood company has received the contract to pulp these notes. The company has already accepted tonnes of currency notes over the past three weeks.

An Economic Times report quoted P K Mayan Mohamed, managing director of Western India Plywood (WIPL) as saying that the plywood company had received “over 140 tonnes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for pulping over the past three weeks”.

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Netflix Offline: You can now download and binge-watch shows without the internet

Video streaming pioneer Netflix Inc has added an option that allows subscribers to download shows at no additional cost on their mobile device to watch without an internet connection.

While the new option announced on Wednesday is available for all of Netflix’s subscribers, it could have greater appeal in international markets such as Africa and Asia, where internet service is less ubiquitous than it is in the United States.

Growth among U.S. subscribers has slowed in 2016. Netflix added just 370,000 subscribers during the third quarter and only 4.3 million since the third quarter of last year, suggesting they are reaching a saturation point.

The new feature is included in all plans and available for phones and tablets on Alphabet Inc's Android and Apple Inc's iOS platforms, the company said.

Netflix shares rose as much as 2.4 percent before it eased, up 0.1 percent to $117.62 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq.

#NetflixOffline was also the top-trending hashtag on Twitter, worldwide.

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