How An Act Of Kindness Taught Me The Lesson – "Just Do It"
This article has been inspired from an incidence from my personal life that happened yesterday night (24th February 2015). I had gone out for dinner with a friend who also happens to be my gym buddy. Although, both of us are quite regular going to our gym, we don't give up on our bad food habits and a lot of time end up eating high calorie food from restaurants. This is the reason why both of us keep making our wives angry. Anyways, this article is not about our food habits but about something much more enriching and enlightening.
So, this friend of mine whose name is Utkarsh took me out to dinner last night. Both of us went to a very famous dhaba/restaurant and after having our dinner were driving back home. At one traffic signal, I somehow started discussing with him about my and my wife's desire to start some charity relating to women sanitation. Both of us for some time have been thinking of working on improving women sanitation for those who reside on the roadside pavements. Since they don't have proper houses to stay and suffer from women related hygiene issues, both of us have been thinking of tying up with some NGO.
So, I was mentioning to Utkarsh about our desire to do something on those lines. When I finished talking to him, he started to speak about one initiative that he and his wife have been doing for some years and after hearing that initiative, I was speechless and at the same time mesmerized. He told me that at one particular traffic signal near IIT Delhi, whenever he stops his car he is suddenly treated like a celebrity and that's because all the children at that signal come and stick to his car like honeybees. On his statement of being a celebrity my natural reaction was to ask him – "Bhai what do you do that makes you a celebrity there"? And then he told me the following:
Every once a week or in a fortnight, he and his wife stop their car on that signal and ask all the children to reach a roadside dhaba/restaurant that is 50 steps away from the signal. The dhaba owner knows Utkarsh very well and when the children reach his place he knows Utkarsh is somewhere around. When the children (generally 10-15 in nos.) reach there, Utkarsh asks everyone what would they like to eat and then without thinking of cost simply orders the food. The children are told to be completely free in their requests that ranges from chicken, dal, roti, rice, paneer etc. Whatever they want, they get it. To ensure other children or their elders do not snatch the food, he asks the dhaba owner to make exactly the same no. of packets as the no. of children and each packer will have each of the item they had requested for. This means that each packet will typically have one portion each of dal, roti, rice and chicken/paneer. In order to ensure easy digestion of the food, he would also hand them a coke can/fruit juice. And then one packet is handed to each of them to enjoy and relish with the drink.
Yesterday night also was one of those nights when I was fortunate to watch this incidence. By the time he narrated me his awesome initiative, we had reached the same signal but since the car was mine, we weren't sure if the children would recognize Utkarsh sitting inside the car. But as they say, "daane daane pe likha hota hai khane wale ka naam" three young girls, aged around 7-8 years saw him and identified by waving their hands. One of them made a gesture as if she was hungry and requested by making appropriate facial expression if Utkarsh could make the necessary arrangements. He lowered the windowpane and asked how many of them were there with her. She said three. He asked her to reach the dhaba along with her friends and then did exactly the same what he had narrated to me a while back when were returning from the restaurant. By the time we reached she was already there with 5 more children.
The photo that I have inserted in the blog is the actual photo that I clicked yesterday night around 10.30PM with those young little girls feeling so happy holding Fanta cans in their hands and ensuring they don't leave any drop unlicked.
This incidence obviously made me speechless but also taught me one lesson that 'Action Speak Louder Than Words". I realized we had been thinking of doing something good for the society for a long time and had been talking about it with our friends, but then never did anything concrete about it. And, on the other hand there's this guy who had been doing such great acts of humanity for a long time and had never ever mentioned before. This made me feel and look weak. I had been suggesting people and students about how procrastination destroys a human being, but then on this aspect I was myself procrastinating and not doing anything other than just talking.
What this incidence also taught me was the belief that Nike uses as its tagline – 'Just Do It'. In our lives we aspire for some great things, things that we want to do badly but in the hustle bustle of the daily routine we tend to forget so many of them. Some day, just sit down, relax for sometime and think if you ever wanted to do something in your life that you have perhaps forgotten. Try and remember those aspirations or goals of your life that could have been as small as flying a kite, visiting your old aunt or uncle's place whom you have not visited for ages, drawing a picture of your parents or friends, or simply playing ludo with your family. You may also have had grand plans for yourself like buying a big house, buying a luxury car, getting a job with your dream company, visiting your favourite vacation destination, starting a charity foundation, learn how to start writing your own blog or one day even write a book.
We all have aspirations and dreams we truly desire to achieve. But if we don't do anything concrete to achieve them, you would end up being the way it happened with me – not doing anything on my desire to help women sanitation.
To avoid getting into a trap, what I suggest to each one of you is write down your dreams and goals you want to achieve. Unless you write them down on a piece of paper, you will not be able to remember them and eventually, forget them. So here are some tips on how you should write your goals and then make a routine and create a path to achieving them:
1. Write 100 goals of your life
Make a list of 100 goals that you would want to accomplish in your lifetime. These can be anything that you aspire to do and something that you feel, if accomplished would make your life worthwhile.
I have started preparing my list 100 goals and till now have reached 54 goals. I still need to add 46 more. At some point of time in future, I might share with all of you my goals.
2. Make a Goals Diary
In order to write your goals nicely, I suggest you take a separate diary and then on each page write down one goal. To make it look real, try and put some pictures and write some sentences about it so that when you read it again and again, your subconscious mind starts to make it happen for you. The diary can be a scrapbook – something like what Ranbeer Kapoor had in the movie 'Ye Jawani Hai Deewani' or it can be a simple diary with enough pages to put pictures and illustrations.
3. Have at least one goal that pushes you to your limits
Amongst the list of 100 goals you should have at least one goal (you obviously can have more) that if achieved would make you feel like a 'rockstar'. That goal should energize you, should be a good enough reason for you to wake you up every morning and if achieved, would completely turn around your life. It can be something like buying a luxury car or writing a book or doing scuba diving or becoming CEO of a company etc.
This goal would keep you on your toes, would keep you extremely focused and let you take the path that few people take in their lives. This is the goal that would make your life worth it.
4. Have a definite time period attached to your goals
There's no point writing your dreams if you don't know by when to achieve them. In order to make your subconscious mind work in tandem with your desires, it is important to have a definite time period by which you would achieve your goals. I suggest that against each goal write down the time and the date by which you would achieve that goal. For example – instead of writing that I will loose 10 kgs weight, write down that I shall weigh 75 kgs by 31st March 2015. By doing this you are sending highly focused signals to your brain.
5. Re-read your goals
Make it a habit to read your goals at least twice, once in the morning when you wake up and once at the night before you go to sleep. As per some proven scientific techniques, if you, before sleeping read something that feeds your mind an aspiration and whilst you are about to sleep, you start to believe that your aspiration is getting fulfilled, the subconscious mind takes it very seriously and makes it happen for you without fail. This is because when you are sleeping, your subconscious mind is not getting any negative signals and consequently, the feeling of you having achieved your dream gets fixed in your subconscious mind.
I have tried this myself and it surely works.
6. Believe in yourself completely
Whatever be the situation, you have to believe in yourself and feed your mind that "YOU WILL DO IT". Trust me, if you develop this habit then sooner or later you would surely be the "Winner".
I hope this article helps you take some informed choices. I wish you all green lights in your life…
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Authored by Nimish Goel (www.nimishgoel.com), a qualified chartered accountant who's passion is to coach young chartered accountants and aspiring students achieve the best in their life. Nimish used to work with EY and PwC in India and has also worked with KPMG in Europe. He now runs his own consulting company and runs a blog www.nimishgoel.com. He can be reached for any queries and issues on his blog.
Dismisses 'hopelessly time barred' petition for members register rectification; Limitation Act applicable |
CLB dismisses petition filed u/s 111A of Companies Act, 1956 ('Act') for rectification of Larsen and Toubro's register of members, states "petition is hopelessly time barred", having no merits; Rejects petitioners' contention, states that "although Section 111(4) does not specifically provide for any period of limitation..., in that case Article 137 of limitation act shall be applicable", which provides 3 years limitation period to aggrieved party to approach CLB; Observes that petition was filed in 2012, whereas cause of action arose in 2005 when petitioner's appeal was dismissed by civil appellate court, states even "assuming that provisions of limitation act do not apply with respect to the petition filed under section 111 of the Act, it is an undisputed proposition of law that doctrine of 'delay' and 'laches' applies to the proceedings filed under section 111 of the Act"; However, rejects respondents' contention that NSDL ought to have been joined as party to case as shares were in dematerialised form, accepts petitioner's contention that beneficiary owner has all rights & benefits and is subject to all liabilities associated with shares held by depository in its behalf, thus, holds that NSDL was neither necessary nor proper party; Relies on Bombay HC observations in Finolex Industries Ltd. v. Anil Ramchandra Chhabria & SC observations in Canara Bank v. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.:Mumbai CLB |
| The Order was passed by Shri Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Member (Judicial), CLB. |
[LSI-340-CLB-2015-(MUM)] |
LAND Acquisition Bill a most heated topic during the budget session of the year 2015. Central Government is in a hurry to pass the land acquisition bill to make it a complete legislation. However, the Anna's new movement against this bill made government's way tougher. There is a chaos not limited to the fact whether this bill should be enacted or not but also to the taxability of the interest income generated by way of compulsory acquisition which is discussed later.
PFA
Under FEMA all the transactions are divided into two categories: (1) Capital Account transactions (2) Current account transactions As a general rule all the current account transactions under FEMA are permitted except those specified and all the capital account transactions are prohibited or regulated.
Immovable Property outside India- FEMA Provision
Under FEMA all the transactions are divided into two categories:
(1) Capital Account transactions
(2) Current account transactions
As a general rule all the current account transactions under FEMA are permitted except those specified and all the capital account transactions are prohibited or regulated.
Capital Account Transactions:
As per Section 2(e) of FEMA "capital account transaction" means a transaction which alters the assets or liabilities, including contingent liabilities, outside India of persons resident in India or assets or liabilities in India of persons resident outside India, and includes transactions referred to in sub-section (3) of section 6;
Section 6 of FEMA provides that:
'6. Capital account transactions.—
(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), any person may sell or draw foreign exchange to or from an authorized person for a capital account transaction.
(2) The Reserve Bank may, in consultation with the Central Government, specify:
(a) any class or classes of capital account transactions which are permissible;
(b) the limit up to which foreign exchange shall be admissible for such transactions :
Provided that the Reserve Bank shall not impose any restriction on the drawal of foreign exchange for payments due on account of amortization of loans or for depreciation of direct investments in the ordinary course of business.
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of sub-section (2), the Reserve Bank may, by regulations, prohibit, restrict or regulate the following:
(a) transfer or issue of any foreign security by a person resident in India;
(b) transfer or issue of any security by a person resident outside India;
(c) transfer or issue of any security or foreign security by any branch, office or agency in India of a person resident outside India;
(d) any borrowing or lending in foreign exchange in whatever form or by whatever name called;
(e) any borrowing or lending in rupees in whatever form or by whatever name called between a person resident in India and a person resident outside India;
(f) deposits between persons resident in India and persons resident outside India
(g) export, import or holding of currency or currency notes;
(h) transfer of immovable property outside India, other than a lease not exceeding five years, by a person resident in India;
(i) acquisition or transfer of immovable property in India, other than a lease not exceeding five years, by a person resident outside India;
(j) giving of a guarantee or surety in respect of any debt, obligation or other liability incurred:
(i) by a person resident in India and owed to a person resident outside India; or
(ii) by a person resident outside India.
(4) A person resident in India may hold, own, transfer or invest in foreign currency, foreign security or any immovable property situated outside India if such currency, security or property was acquired, held or owned by such person when he was resident outside India or inherited from aperson who was resident outside India.
(5) A person resident outside India may hold, own, transfer or invest in Indian currency, security or any immovable property situated in India if such currency, security or property was acquired, held or owned by such person when he was resident in India or inherited from a person who was resident in India.
(6) Without prejudice to the provisions of this section, the Reserve Bank may, by regulation, prohibit,restrict, or regulate establishment in India of a branch, office or other place of business by a person resident outside India, for carrying on any activity relating to such branch, office or other place of business."
Purchase of immovable property outside India
This is a Capital Account transaction and although there is a general prohibition, relaxation has been made from time to time.
A company incorporated in India having overseas office, may acquire immovable property outside India for its business and for residential purposes of its staff, in accordance with the direction issued by RBI from time to time.
RBI has permitted remittance by a company incorporated in India to acquire immovable property outside India for its business and for residential purpose of its staff within the limits for initial expenses of 15% of the average annual sales/income or turnover during the last two financial years or 25% of its net worth, whichever is higher and recurring expenses of 10% of the average annual sales/income or turnover during the last two financial years.
(Authored by Shushant Singhal, a qualified Chartered Accountant working with Large Corporates in India & also running a Chartered Accountant Firm & can be contacted at 7838169970 & shushantsinghal@hotmail.com)
- The Shome Committee/TARC has pitched for taxing large farmers with incomes above Rs. 50 lakh a year. The reason for this recommendation as given by TARC is that this will broaden the tax payer base and help mobilize additional revenue without affecting any but a miniscule proportion of the very large farmers whose annual income exceeds the threshold limit of Rs. 50 lakhs. Currently, the recommendations of the TARC are under examination of the Government.
- TARC pitched for taxing large farmers with incomes above Rs. 50 lakh a year
Recommendations made by the Shome Committee/Tax Administration Refroms Commission
The Tax Administration Reforms Commission (TARC) has analysed all aspects of tax administration reform in their four reports. The objective is to get all stakeholders-both tax payers and tax officers to operate in ways that promote overall goals of efficiency and equity in tax-collection by facilitating taxpayers with a customer focus, while at the same time, segmenting taxpayers to reduce tax evasion. TARC recommendations comprise many immediate needed reform measures as well as long term structural reforms.
The Shome Committee/TARC has pitched for taxing large farmers with incomes above Rs. 50 lakh a year.
The reason for this recommendation as given by TARC is that this will broaden the tax payer base and help mobilize additional revenue without affecting any but a miniscule proportion of the very large farmers whose annual income exceeds the threshold limit of Rs. 50 lakhs. Currently, the recommendations of the TARC are under examination of the Government.
This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. (Source-PIB)
Economic Survey 2014-15 acknowledges the green actions taken by India, including imposing significantly higher taxation of petroleum products and thereby reenergizing the renewable energy sector. India shifted from a carbon subsidization regime to one of significant carbon taxation regime, from a negative price to an implicit positive price on carbon emissions.
From Carbon Subsidy to Carbon Tax: India's Green Actions
Economic Survey 2014-15 acknowledges the green actions taken by India, including imposing significantly higher taxation of petroleum products and thereby reenergizing the renewable energy sector. India shifted from a carbon subsidization regime to one of significant carbon taxation regime, from a negative price to an implicit positive price on carbon emissions.
India has cut subsidies and increased taxes on fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) turning a carbon subsidy regime into one of carbon taxation, by putting an effective price on emissions. This has significantly increased petrol and diesel price while serving as price signal to reduce fuel burnt and hence CO2 emissions.
Calculating CO2 emission reductions from measures taken for petrol and diesel suggests that there will be a net reduction of 11 million tons of CO2 emissions in less than a year compared to the baseline or 0.6 percent India's annual emissions.
In addition, India has increased the coal cess from Rs. 50 per ton to Rs. 100 per ton, which is equivalent to a carbon tax of about US$ 1 per ton. A higher tax on coal offsets the domestic externalities including health cost of coal for power generation. The Economic Survey points out that any rationalization of coal pricing must take account of the implications for power prices and hence access to energy for the poorest in India which is and must remain a fundamental objective of policy.
The Economic Survey observes that there is still a long way to go with potential large gains still to be reaped from reform of coal pricing and further reform of petroleum pricing policies.
Broadly, the move to substantial carbon taxation combined with India's ambitious solar power program suggests that India can make substantial contributions to the forthcoming Paris negotiations on climate change.
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