Why to Invest Money

It seems to be quite un-important or worth-less topic to discuss for many of the people who have just started earning. But soon after some days or may be months we will realize that we should start saving some thing planning for our future to be fruitful. There might be, In fact should be ‘n’ number of reasons behind every investment.
I know 90% of the people who are reading my blog know all the info provided here, but un-fortunately we neglect/ignore in our busy life some important things.
At the age of 20 to around 35 people, especially men should be earning covetously, at the same time they should be saving materialistically. Because we never know how/what we are going to be in this dynamic world after 2 to 3 decades.
“Security” is the utmost important term we should be keeping in mind throughout our plan for future. There might be several things we need to plan which will fall under any of the below categories.
1. Children’s Education
2. Children’s Marriage
3. Want to buy a new house
4. Want to get Pension at your old age
5. Want to be safe for any medical emergencies
6. Want to keep your family stable in your absence bla bla bla & finally comes
7. Exemption from Tax in the current year

Investments should always be diversified You can paint this on your wall. Funnily, Ambani wouldn’t have become this richest if he has invested only in Petrol. TATAs, an omni-potential giant from India have invested in around 150+ different fields to become this giant. Conclusion is that “One should always think of diversifying their investment into different sectors”. While doing this we should keep in mind
1. Our investment should yield us maximum profit (Greedy, but we should be – includes maximum risk)
2. Our investment should at least be growing good even at market crisis time (Balanced and most of us fall under this sect - includes average risk)
3. Our investment should at least never throw us into losses(Safe – includes minimum risk)

Of the above three the first one requires much skill, much time to analyze the market conditions. Though this method yields max profits there will be huge risk involved. Third option mentioned above is the safest but yields minimum profits examples for this type of investments are NSS bonds. Coming to the 2nd option, this is the most common area where majority of the people are interested to invest.

As per my knowledge one should be investing in all the above 3 areas (as I have mentioned above, investments should be diversified - not only in different fields/sectors but also with different types of profit/security margins). But majority of our investment share should be falling on the 2nd bucket keeping a share on the remaining two. Just to give you a quick heads up, I have charted down an example.

Investment today Expected Amt 10 Years down the line
Aggressive X 10X (May or Maynot be - since this
includes maximum risk)
Balanced X 5X (Guarenteed)
Safe X 2.5X (Double guarenteed)

Now after going through all the above stuff, you would need to remember one more thing to distribute your investment in 1:3:1 for being balanced altogether.
Some thing like, you wanted to save a lakh this year it should be 20k in an aggressive area, 60k in a balanced area and 20k in a safe area as mentioned earlier.

Now comes where/how we will know which investment falls under which area listed above.

ULIPs/Mutual funds/Secondary market Investments – 1st Category – Aggressive & Risky
Life Insurance Policies – 2nd Category – Balanced
NSS (Postal) Bonds – 3rd Category – Safe

FYI: All the above 3 categorized investments can be claimed for tax exemption under different sections.

I want to now walk you through different aspects of Insurance policies, which comes under the 2nd (Balanced) category we were discussing so far.
The term Life Insurance is basically self explanatory, we insuring our life to back up several aspects. The prime areas this policies cover are

1. Saving
2. Risk coverage
3. Security
4. Bulk returns &
5. Tax Exemption
These days we see many companies (public/private listed) are into this field providing different schemes/plans etc… Now while going to choose a better in fact the best insurer that suits/fits our need we should consider the following aspects
1. Standard of the company
2. Credibility/Reliability of the company
3. Financial Backup of the company
4. Service offered by the company
5. Returns guaranteed by the company
6. Previous results(consistent between what if offers and what it provides)
7. Hidden aspects
8. Risks included/involved

Below info gives you the list of Insurers registered with IRDA so far(In total they are 23).

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited
Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd

IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd

ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Life Insurance Corporation of India

Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd

Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd.

Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited

SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd

Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited

Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited.

Aviva Life Insurance Company India Limited

Sahara India Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited

IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Aegon Religare Life Insurance Company Limited

DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Company Limited

Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company Limited


Profit and Loss list of All the Insurers



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About LIC...
• Founded in “1 September 1956”, having 54 years of experience with total assets around Rs 9.31 trillion (US$ 198.3 billion) – Covers points 1 &3 above
• LIC is serving over 250 million policy holders now in India – Covers points 2 &4 above
• The recent Economic Times Brand Equity Survey rated LIC as the No. 1 Service Brand of the Country – Covers point 4 above
• There are only 3% to 5% of the cases you find where the policy holder lost his money after investing in LIC – This case happens when the policy holder ignores/neglects his payments but even here is possibility of getting part of your investment back if you would have made payment for at least 3 years – Covers points 2 &5 above
• Competing with several different private organizations, LIC provides excellent service through different channels like ‘n’ no. of branches that offer direct service to the customers, supports fully online transactions (payment reminders, online payments, online status statements etc…)– Covers point 4 above
• Through out the years since the time of emerging LIC made sure that it is committed honestly in terms of claim and maturity payments. – Covers point 6 above
• There are not much hidden charges and no hidden aspects from public in case of LIC, unlike the some of the other private organizations. – Covers point 7 above
• Finally from (m)any of the past experiences no body can dare to say investing in LIC involves risk (unless for some of the ULIPs that LIC it self sponsor which comes under the 1st aggressive category we have discussed above) – Covers point 8 above

• All in All you will have all the above said 8 qualities in LIC of India in a positive direction/sense.

I hope you understand and felt a sense of saving while reading through my blog. I am an LIC agent, Chairman’s Club member serving around 1500+ clients till now through LIC. Please reach out to me for any further queries on the above.

Please feel free to drop me a mail/call me on my mobile any time you feel like.

Yours Sincerely,
SanthaMurthy Bhagavatula,
Mob: 9985502193
Email: subbaraobh@gmail.com

Why and How to Invest Money

A quite nasty question for many of us while just started earning.   There will be multiple ideas behind every investment.

Saving the amount for future

Children Education

Children Marriage

For getting Pension

Exemption from Tax

Etc…

Everybody wants to have a good return on the amount they are investing while exempting from the Income tax. 

If you believe or not the main reason for this is “No body wants to loose money to in the form of Tax”.   According to our Government rules anybody earning money in our country should pay tax depending on his slab….

India Income tax slabs 2009-2010 for Men

0 to 1,60,000	No tax
1,60,001 to 3,00,000	10%
3,00,001 to 5,00,000	20%
Above 5,00,000	30%

India Income tax slabs 2009-2010 for women

0 to 1,90,000	No tax
1,90,001 to 3,00,000	10%
3,00,001 to 5,00,000	20%
Above 5,00,000	30%

Saving, Risk Coverage for Life and Tax exemption can be taken care with a single shot….. by taking an insurance policy which fits to our needs.

So here comes the question on how to invest now….

Your investment should do the following:

Tax exemption should be taken care

Good amount of return should be expected

Your future needs like, Medical, educational, and insurance expenditures should be taken care.  By investing wisely you may better your life standards and increase your future wealth.

In India to avoid your tax you can invest in many forms like, Taking Insurance Policy, Taking NSS certificates, putting money in mutual funds, etc…  

These investments should give you good returns.  You should be very wise in selecting the correct option.  Many will prefer Life insurance over NSS certificates because it covers the life risk and gives you good returns and not linked with the share market.

This is really is tough part where you need to forecast the future of the Insurer.  Here comes the question of selecting the proper insurer.

As of now there are 23 Insurers registered with IRDA.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited
Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd

IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd

ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Life Insurance Corporation of India

Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd

Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd.

Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited

SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd

Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited

Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited.

Aviva Life Insurance Company India Limited

Sahara India Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited

IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Aegon Religare Life Insurance Company Limited

DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Company Limited

Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company Limited

The below table shows why we need to prefer LIC over the other insurers.

About LIC...

Founded in “1 September 1956”, having 54 years of experience with total assets around Rs 9.31 trillion (US$ 198.3 billion),  LIC is serving over 250 million policy holders now in India.

The recent Economic Times Brand Equity Survey rated LIC as the No. 1 Service Brand of the Country.

When evaluating how to Choose an Insurance Company, it is convenient to make sure that the insurance company:

Is reliable

Has an excellent financial backup

Is consistent between what if offers and what it provides

Extends constant training and updating to its staff and agents

You will have all the above said qualities in LIC of India.

Tips for testing the FLASH related websites

As the web begins to shift from the more traditional HTML interfaces most common today to using rich Internet application technologies such as Adobe Flash and Ajax, developers need to be aware of how the mechanics of these technologies impact the way dynamic interfaces should be tested. For example, one important distinction about Flash-based interfaces is that they change their appearance dynamically and often process user input locally in real time—a very different model from the server-centric "page" metaphor that traditional HTML interfaces utilize, which requires a trip back to the server for almost every user interaction. Another important difference is that Flash content is rendered by a common engine across all platforms and browsers. By contrast, the variety of web browsers render HTML content slightly differently across platforms.

Despite these differences, many people assume that testing a Flash-based interface is simply a matter of applying the same techniques and success criteria they are accustomed to doing for HTML interfaces. This often results in an interface that works exactly as expected during testing but exhibits buggy behavior when accessed by real-world users.

In this article, I present four practices that you should follow when testing a Flash-based interface and describe the issues that these practices are designed to expose. If you follow these practices faithfully, you will ensure solid, consistent performance of your Flash-based interfaces and better user experiences for your visitors.

STEP 1: TEST OVER MULTIPLE CONNECTION SPEEDS

This step exposes the following:

• Download performance problems
• Streaming animation glitches
• Code logic flaws, including:
  • Accessing dynamic data before it loads
  • Invoking methods on objects before they are initialized
  • Incorrect assumptions about a fixed execution order for asynchronous operations
  • Jumping to Timeline frames before they have loaded

Testing over multiple connection speeds is the most important practice to follow when testing Flash interfaces. It's also the one that traditional HTML developers are likely to dismiss. Testing HTML interfaces in this manner accomplishes primarily one purpose: confirming that download performance is acceptable for all users. With Flash, testing over various connection speeds reveals much more than just download performance problems.

If you test only from your local hard drive—or a web server on your local network—you are in danger of masking problems that might occur only under real-world connection conditions. When you test locally, things like server communication, image loading, and SWF streaming happen almost instantaneously. Under these conditions, it is easy to inadvertently write code that relies on this instant response time without realizing it.

An example helps illustrate this concept. If you use the statement gotoAndPlay(20) on the first frame of your movie's timeline, it will most likely work as expected when testing locally or even over broadband. However, if you test the same file over a modem connection, your movie will probably behave incorrectly. This is because the streaming nature of Flash content allows the code on frame 1 to run before the later frames of your timeline have finished loading. An attempt to send the playhead to a frame that hasn't loaded will fail.

One very helpful way around this problem is to make frequent use of the built-in Simulate Download feature in Flash, which you can find in the View menu of the SWF window that appears after choosing Control > Test Movie (see Figure 1). Because the Simulate Download feature allows you to preview the performance of your movie over various connection speeds, it is a good way to spot speed-related problems early.

But beware. The Simulate Download feature isn't perfect; you still need to test your movie over real connections of various speed. The most important thing to remember is that bugs related to connection speed are far easier to address if you find them early. The mantra "Test early, test often" is particularly relevant to this practice.

STEP 2: TEST ACROSS BROWSERS

This step exposes the following:

• Problems with embedding Flash Player
• Problems with relative URLs
• Problems with Flash-to-browser communication

Although cross-browser testing is essential with traditional HTML, the reasons for doing it with Flash content are very different. Cross-browser testing with HTML reveals page-display and client-side scripting problems. Because Flash Player handles both of these aspects for Flash-based interfaces, the browser has no influence over them.

The browser does, however, influence the way Flash content is embedded in the page. Different browsers require different HTML markup code in order to load and display Flash files. Additionally, the way Flash Player resolves relative URLs when attempting to load external assets like images and XML data—or when jumping to new web locations usinggetURL()—varies from browser to browser.

Testing across various browsers confirms that Flash content has been embedded properly on the page and that all URLs embedded in the Flash file are working consistently across all browsers. Of course, if your Flash interface communicates with the browser using JavaScript, cross-browser testing is also necessary to expose any differences between the way various browsers handle this form of communication.

Note: For tips avoiding relative URL problems, refer to the following Flash TechNote: Relative URLs are not referenced correctly in a Flash movie.

STEP 3: TEST ACROSS FLASH PLAYER VERSIONS

This step exposes the following:

• Publishing mistakes
• Flash detection problems

Because Flash Player handles nearly all aspects of the display and functionality of a Flash-based interface, you will need to test your interface in various versions of Flash Player. It is usually adequate to test in just two versions: the version of the player which you've defined as your minimum required version and the version of the player that preceded the required version.

For example, if your interface requires Flash Player 6, then you should test in the earliest release of that version (Flash Player 6r21) and in any release of the previous version (Flash Player 5r30). If your interface requires a specific later release of a particular version—for example, Flash Player 6r65—then you should still test in the versions mentioned previously as well as the required release.

In our example this would mean testing in Flash Player versions 5r30, 6r21, and 6r65. By testing across Flash Player versions, you will be able to expose any publishing mistakes (such as publishing for Flash 7 when you meant to publish for Flash 6), as well as any problems with any Flash Player detection functionality you may be using.

Note: You can find an archive of old player versions in the following Flash TechNote: Archived Flash players available for testing purposes.

STEP 4: TEST ON "WEAK" MACHINES

This step exposes the following:

• Issues with playback performance
• "This script appears to be running slowly" alerts

Displaying traditional HTML pages takes very little computer power. As a result, web developers have hardly ever had to consider how the power of the end user's computer influences the quality of the user's web experience. This is not the case with Flash content, which behaves much more like a CD-ROM or video game. The user's hardware—processor, RAM, and video card—impacts the experience significantly.

Much like CD-ROMs and video games, Flash-based interfaces should be designed with a specific minimum hardware requirement in mind. As you design and build your interface, repeatedly check the performance of your work on a machine that matches that minimum specification to ensure that you are not overtaxing the hardware with your graphics, animation, or coding choices.

Source: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flash_interface_testing.html

Science and Philosophy of Life

Does Science depend on our view of life? Is there a Hindu view of this? Let us proceed by considering some instances to see whether Science is independent of our view of life or otherwise.

Creation of zero

Discovery of zero is one of the most important happenings in the history of Science or Human knowledge in general. Mathematics and many branches of Science would not be in their present form without zero. It is not just a numeric zero we speak of, but the numeric zero was the original idea which in later times inspired the _expression of nothingness in areas like group theory. The importance of zero in modern Science can never be exaggerated. Formalist and reductionist approaches which are widely used by Science largely depend on zero conceptually.

Zero is nothingness, an airy nothing. Creation of zero necessarily shows an attempt to conceptualise and concretise nothingness. But is an idea to concretise nothingness an arbitrary idea or an indication of merely one's genius or scientific temper? Is expressing nothingness a purpose in itself or is it a means to something else? Simplifying the _expression of big numbers is a smaller purpose served by zero. Its actual purpose is seen when infinity is expressed. Perhaps we cannot express infinity or generate infinity without zero. It is not by generating big numbers and multiplying them that we arrive at infinity, but it is rather dividing numbers, however small, by zero that we can arrive at infinity.

This is not just interesting logic, but it is rather the quintessence of Indian Philosophy. It says: "It is not by looking out, working to fulfill desires that one gets satisfaction but it is by looking in and identifying oneself with the Self that one gets to the state of immortality." Our Economic theory says: "Man's desire is like burning fire. The more clarified butter you add to it (the more you fulfill your desires), the bigger the fire burns(desires grow but never diminish). The way to satisfaction is not fulfillment of desire but transcending desire." Our philosophy of life says: "It is not by enmity that we can defeat enmity, but it is by love that we can defeat it." Similar was the idea that violence cannot win violence, only non-violence can. It is evident from the past that India lived this Philosophy by continuously creating, even creating in response to all the destruction by the invaders. It is not possible to discover zero without such philosophical background.

Therefore this idea is existent in all aspects of life, in different forms. It is not limited to Mathematics. The Upanishads say: "Atman=Brahman", i.e., the individual self is the same as the Universal Self. Therefore reaching to one is reaching to the other. This is the origin of the idea of expressing infinity using nothingness.

The concept of Brahman, the zero and the infinite, pervades all forms of Indian knowledge, Indian view of life and Indian worldview. This in context of Mathematics became zero and infinity, in context of Medicine became Prana, in context of economics became another corresponding rule and so on.

Medicine

Indian medicine speaks of 'Prana', another instance of the same concept of Brahman. This resulted in a positive approach to medicine. The English medicine proceeds by studying abnormalities in the body and fixing them. Ayurveda proceeds by studying how a perfectly healthy body is and how differently it behaves under certain conditions.

In fact the whole western Philosophy is so. It gives innumerable names to abnormalities and concentrates on them. Here in India there was no concept of a Lunatic asylum, since the case of mental imbalance was almost ruled out. The social organization was so fashioned behind an ideal society that it went for balance rather than fixing imbalances.

According to English medicine the remedy (the medicine) enters the body and fights the disease. According to Ayurveda the medicine revitalises Prana so that body itself fights the disease. This is the fundamental difference. Both medicine and disease being outsiders to the body, when two outsiders fight in the body a side-effect is natural. This is the drawback of the English medicine. But ours is another instance of the Philosophy stated above, that it is revitalization that cures the disease but not a battle with the disease.

The principle of Homeopathy is that a disease characterised by a symptom complex can be cured effectively by the drug (in extreme dilution), which produces in a healthy individual a similar symptom complex (similia similibus curanter, meaning let likes cure likes). It comes close to Ayurveda in its holistic approach, its conception of 'Prana' and its very principle. The west could not accept homeo as a 'scientific' school of medicine, because of its philosophical discomfort with such principle rather than because of a 'really scientific' reason.

Plants have a nervous system

That even they can breathe and smell and have life, was unknown to the west a century ago, till J. C. Bose proved it. His idea was initially criticised as radical and he was advised to change his views in certain respects when he suggested that plants have life, in his paper. The western world took a shock when J. C. Bose could prove in the Royal society by 'scientific' methods that plants have life.

The importance of this apparently elementary fact can be understood, since without the knowledge of this fact many branches of life sciences we see today would not be there in their present form. How lifeless are life sciences without acknowledging life in plants? The world kept using plants for millions of years and yet it took unpardonably long for modern man to realise that they are living beings.

It can be easily known from our scriptures that our ancestors had the knowledge millennia ago that plants have life. They had also the knowledge that plants can smell & listen, absorb water through their roots, prepare their food themselves.

Is this just a theory of science or does it have any philosophical implication? It looks to us like a matter of commonsense that if plants grow in age and size, take birth and wear out they must be having life. But why could the western man not see life in them? Is the problem in his science or his very approach to life?

It is certainly a matter of one's approach to life that determines these. The Indians see the same divine in all qualitative manifestation. They see that every part of the Universe has consciousness, whether it is rock or man. They possess therefore no prejudice that some have additional greatness as compared to others. Hence it is not difficult for them to believe that even plants have life. That they have verified this scientifically is a different thing. But they did not have the sense of superiority which stands as an obstacle to seeing many ground realities. They worship plants not as nature worshipping barbarians, but as highly civilised people who can see divinity all over, in every part of the universe. It is such approach that led their ecological sense, which is today a very big buzzword. In fact the ecosense of Indians can be seen from the moment they wake up in the morning when they ask mother Earth to forgive them for having touched her with their feet. Unfortunately we cannot see as much of science in such practices as much we see a religious superstition since we are trained to look at them the wrong way.

The western man, on the other hand, has always believed that man is superior to other elements of nature. It is therefore difficult for him to 'grant' any greatness to any other being. This sense of superiority is visible at different levels of collectivity. It is the same sense of superiority that made him pollute nature and exterminate many species of animals around him. It is the same attitude that shows out in their prejudice that westerners are superior to other human races. It is this sense of superiority that led them to destroy great civilizations all over the world. It is the same complex at a different level of collectivity that resulted in two world wars.

It is not true that it was proved only a century ago that plants have life. But the way Indians verified it was not only scientific, but also spiritual. Here comes the first hiccup for the westerner, for he cannot see spiritualism as a scientific means to reality.

The examples considered above fall among the most significant discoveries, which changed the course of modern science.

We have seen how the same root idea that inspires a scientific theory affects other aspects of human life, socio-political, economic, philosophical and spiritual. It is visible from the above examples that the Science discovered by a civilization reflects its worldview, its approach to life and its value system, but is not unaffected by them or disjoint from them.

Consciousnss Studies

Hindus realized long back that all knowledge is ultimately subject to verification only by human consciousness and faculties. Thus the study of observer (human consciousness) forms an important part of both truth and its criteria. We see that scientists of late have arrived at this. A famous Physicist said "All science is nature's answer to man's question about what nature is, it is not what nature actually is". Entire theory of relativity is about acknowleding the observer and truth's relativity with reference to observer.

Spirituality

Spirituality is not just a matter of meditation practises/yoga, though they are means to the same. Spirituality is an outlook to life that recognises a principle of transcendence in every aspect of life. The above, i.e., Economics, Science, Education, are few examples of how recognizing the principle of transcendence affects and redirects the entire philosophy and pursuit.

While science, religion, economics, education, all these have a place in th Hindu system, all these are put in the right perspective. As a result, we donot see any of these overwhelming the others. That is, technology has its due place, but it doesnot supercede any other aspect of life, say religion. Such a balanced view is unique to Hinduism. If we look at the west, they suffered from fanatic religions and grew over those with rational thinking. But as a result the void created by the absence of a true spiritual culture is still not filled in. And that is why we see that Eastern spiritual cultures are now being received there. Also, the discoveries in sciences in the past century have marked a new era, recognising the continuity of truth and also the limitations of the human observer who perceives these only in discrete quanta. Those like Erwin Schrodinger who made these discoveries, have observed that these discoveries come very close to the Vedantic view of life. We also see that be it the olden times or present, the most significant discoveries that changed the course of the history of mankind, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, acknowledge this principle of transcendence.

Life in INDIAN view

Is there an Indian view of life? Let us explore if one such thing exists, if yes what are its features and how it can be seen in various facets of life.

Education

Education aims at self-mastery and not just knowledge. As Swami Vivekananda defines, Education is the manifestation of divinity already present in man. It is not how many texts one has mastered, it is how well one has internalized a single text that matters.

Traditionally children are taught at early stages to by heart. This is to train Chitta, the memory. A well trained Chitta forms the basis for self-mastery, not just good education. This does not mean that analytical faculties are not trained. But memory is trained ahead of them so that it forms a basis for other faculties.

How does better memory help better analysis? Analysis in itself is a processing of facts to derive inferences. Thus, considering more relevant facts results in a better analysis. And a person with better trained memory can consider more facts for his analysis. Thus, training memory ahead of training analytical faculties is beneficial. Explicitly training memory as a part of primary education is very essential.

Another important aspect of education is imparting moral education. The seeds of morality along with trained memory are going to stay with the student for life. Mythology and stories of great personalities inspire children and help them mould their character in their footsteps.

Indians are far ahead of others in Consciousness studies. How to master one’s own mental faculties, senses and body, is a very important aspect in leading a successful life. But if that training comes implicitly along with a good education, that is the best way it can happen, since it is practically not possible to train one in consciousness studies at a young age. To train those faculties while they are young and let them master those by the time they grow up, is exactly what the traditional system aims at.

Economics

The first paragraph we find in any economics text would be something like this: "Man has desires. To fulfill them he earns money. His desires multiply, so do his earnings, thus grows economics." But the traditional Indian principle says: "Desire is like a burning fire. The more clarified butter you pour into it to fulfill them, the greater they flame. Therefore the way is not to fulfill them; the way is to transcend them".

It also says, "idam evahi pandityam, caturyam idam evahi, idam evahi subuddhitvam, adaya alpataro vyayah" - meaning all wisdom lies in spending less than what one earns. This is the basis for conservative economics. But one is never discouraged from earning. In fact, earning is prescribed for many sections of society. But one is encouraged to spend not more than what is required to live modestly and use the remaining for the benefit of society. In such a society where everyone is ready to help each other, there is no scope or fear of poverty.

This does not mean that such an arrangement encourages parasites. Such a system only encourages people to work for the betterment of themselves as well as others. Ours is a society that does not know what centralized social security is. Social security exists, totally at a private level. The west is doing its best to privatize social security, as its fears of bankruptcy due to social securities from Governments are going higher every year.

We know how volunteer organizations work - there are some people who work for the cause and the funds they get to support those volunteers are from the society - private contributions. That is, people work for society and society supports those individuals. Thus, such arrangements do not inherently encourage unemployment the way publicized social security systems do.

INDIAN MATHEMATICIANS

Aryabhata (475 A.D. -550 A.D.)

He is the first well known Indian mathematician. Born in Kerala, he completed his studies at the university of Nalanda. In the section Ganita (calculations) of his astronomical treatise Aryabhatiya (499 A.D.), he made the fundamental advance in finding the lengths of chords of circles, by using the half chord rather than the full chord method used by Greeks.

He gave the value of as 3.1416, claiming, for the first time, that it was an approximation. (He gave it in the form that the approximate circumference of a circle of diameter 20000 is 62832.)

He also gave methods for extracting square roots, summing arithmetic series, solving indeterminate equations of the type ax -by = c, and also gave what later came to be known as the table of Sines.

He also wrote a text book for astronomical calculations, Aryabhatasiddhanta.

Even today, this data is used in preparing Hindu calendars (Panchangs).

In recognition to his contributions to astronomy and mathematics, India's first satellite was named Aryabhata.

Brahmagupta (598 A.D. -665 A.D.)

· He is renowned for introduction of negative numbers and operations on zero into arithmetic.

· His main work was Brahmasphutasiddhanta, which was a corrected version of old astronomical treatise Brahmasiddhanta.

· This work was later translated into Arabic as Sind Hind.

· He formulated the rule of three and proposed rules for the solution of quadratic and simultaneous equations.

· He gave the formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral as where s is the semi perimeter.

· He was the first mathematician to treat algebra and arithmetic as two different branches of mathematics.

· He gave the solution of the indeterminate equation Nx²+1 = y². He is also the founder of the branch of higher mathematics known as "Numerical Analysis".

· After Brahmagupta, the mathematician of some consequence was Sridhara, who wrote Patiganita Sara, a book on algebra, in 750 A.D.

· Even Bhaskara refers to his works. After Sridhara, the most celebrated mathematician was Mahaviracharaya or Mahavira.

· He wrote Ganita Sara Sangraha in 850 A.D., which is the first text book on arithmetic in present day form.

· He is the only Indian mathematician who has briefly referred to the ellipse (which he called Ayatvrit).

· The Greeks, by contrast, had studied conic sections in great detail.

Bhaskaracharya (1114 A.D. -1185 A.D.)

· He is the most well known ancient Indian mathematician.

· He was born in 1114 A.D. at Bijjada Bida (Bijapur, Karnataka) in the Sahyadari Hills.

· He was the first to declare that any number divided by zero is infinity and that the sum of any number and infinity is also infinity.

· He is famous for his book Siddhanta Siromani (1150 A.D.). It is divided into four sections -Leelavati (a book on arithmetic), Bijaganita (algebra), Goladhayaya (chapter on sphere -celestial globe), and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets).

· Leelavati contains many interesting problems and was a very popular text book.

· Bhaskara introduced chakrawal, or the cyclic method, to solve algebraic equations. Six centuries later, European mathematicians like Galois, Euler and Lagrange rediscovered this method and called it "inverse cyclic".

· Bhaskara can also be called the founder of differential calculus.

· He gave an example of what is now called "differential coefficient" and the basic idea of what is now called "Rolle's theorem".

· Unfortunately, later Indian mathematicians did not take any notice of this.

· Five centuries later, Newton and Leibniz developed this subject.

· As an astronomer, Bhaskara is renowned for his concept of Tatkalikagati (instantaneous motion).

· After this period, India was repeatedly raided by muslims and other rulers and there was a lull in scientific research.

· Industrial revolution and Renaissance passed India by. Before Ramanujan, the only noteworthy mathematician was Sawai Jai Singh II, who founded the present city of Jaipur in 1727 A.D.

· This Hindu king was a great patron of mathematicians and astronomers.

· He is known for building observatories (Jantar Mantar) at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura.

· Among the instruments he designed himself are Samrat Yantra, Ram Yantra and Jai Parkash.

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Indian mathematicians of 20^th century :

Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan

· He is undoubtedly the most celebrated Indian Mathematical genius.

· He was born in a poor family at Erode in Tamil Nadu on December 22, 1887.

· Largely self taught, he feasted on Loney's Trigonometry at the age of 13, and at the age of 15, his senior friends gave him Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics by George Carr.

· He used to write his ideas and results on loose sheets. His three filled notebooks are now famous as Ramanujan's Frayed Notebooks.

· Though he had no qualifying degree, the University of Madras granted him a monthly scholarship of Rs. 75 in 1913.

· A few months earlier, he had sent a letter to great mathematician G.H. Hardy, in which he mentioned 120 theorems and formulae

· . Hardy and his colleague at Cambridge University, J.E. Littlewood immediately recognised his genius. Ramanujan sailed for Britain on March 17, 1914.

· Between 1914 and 1917, Ramanujan published 21 papers, some in collaboration with Hardy.

· His achievements include Hardy-Ramanujan-Littlewood circle method in number theory, Roger-Ramanujan's identities in partition of numbers, work on algebra of inequalities, elliptic functions, continued fractions, partial sums and products of hypergeometric series, etc.

· He was the second Indian to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society in February, 1918.

· Later that year, he became the first Indian to be elected Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

· Ramanujan had an intimate familiarity with numbers.

· During an illness in England, Hardy visited Ramanujan in the hospital.

· When Hardy remarked that he had taken taxi number 1729, a singularly unexceptional number, Ramanujan immediately responded that this number was actually quite remarkable: it is the smallest integer that can be represented in two ways by the sum of two cubes: 1729=1³+12³=9³+10³.

· Unfortunately, Ramanujan's health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, and he returnted to India in 1919.

· He died in Madras on April 26, 1920.

P.C. Mahalanobis :

· He founded the Indian Statistical Research Institute in Calcutta.

· In 1958, he started the National Sample Surveys which gained international fame.

· He died in 1972 at the age of 79.

C.R. Rao :

· A well known statistician, famous for his "theory of estimation"(1945).

· His formulae and theory include "Cramer -Rao inequality", "Fischer -Rao theorem" and "Rao - Blackwellisation".

D.R. Kaprekar (1905-1988)

· Fond of numbers. Well known for "Kaprekar Constant" 6174.

· Take any four digit number in which all digits are not alike.

· Arrange its digits in descending order and subtract from it the number formed by arranging the digits in ascending order.

· If this process is repeated with reminders, ultimately number 6174 is obtained, which then generates itself.

Harish Chandra (1923-1983) :

· Greatly developed the branch of higher mathematics known as the infinite dimensional group representation theory.

Narendra Karmarkar :

· India born Narendra Karmarkar, working at Bell Labs USA, stunned the world in 1984 with his new algorithm to solve linear programming problems.

· This made the complex calculations much faster, and had immediate applications in airports, warehouses, communication networks etc.

INDIAN MATHEMATICS

The most fundamental contribution of ancient India in mathematics is the invention of decimal system of enumeration, including the invention of zero.

The decimal system uses nine digits (1 to 9) and the symbol zero (for nothing) to denote all natural numbers by assigning a place value to the digits. The Arabs carried this system to Africa and Europe.

The Vedas and Valmiki Ramayana used this system, though the exact dates of these works are not known.

MohanjoDaro and Harappa excavations (which may be around 3000 B.C. old) also give specimens of writing in India.

Aryans came 1000 years later, around 2000 B.C. Being very religious people, they were deeply interested in planetary positions to calculate auspicious times, and they developed astronomy and mathematics towards this end. They identified various nakshatras (constellations) and named the months after them. They could count up to 10¹², while the Greeks could count up to 10⁴ and Romans up to 10⁸. Values of irrational numbers such as and were also known to them to a high degree of approximation.

Pythagoras Theorem can be also traced to the Aryan's Sulbasutras. These Sutras, estimated to be between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C., cover a large number of geometric principles.

Jaina religious works (dating from 500 B.C. to 100 B.C.) show they knew how to solve quadratic equations (though ancient Chinese and Babylonians also knew this prior to 2000 B.C.). Jainas used as the value of (circumference = x Diameter). They were very fond of large numbers, and they classified numbers as enumerable, unenumerable and infinite.

The Jainas also worked out formulae for permutations and combinations though this knowledge may have existed in Vedic times. Sushruta Samhita (famous medicinal work, around 6th century B.C.) mentions that 63 combinations can be made out of 6 different rasas (tastes -bitter, sour, sweet, salty, astringent and hot).

In the year 1881 A.D., at a village named Bakhshali near Peshawar, a farmer found a manuscript during excavation. About 70 leaves were found, and are now famous as the Bakhshali Manuscript.

Western scholars estimate its date as about third or fourth century A.D. It is devoted mostly to arithmetic and algebra, with a few problems on geometry and mensuration.