Put the Glass Down!!!

A chemistry professor decided to teach his students a different lesson one day. Holding a glass of water in his hand, he asked the students, “How much do you think this glass of water weighs?” “500 grams!” came a voice from the back. “600,” said another student. “I don’t really know!” said the professor, holding the glass up to make sure everyone could see it. “And unless we weigh it, we won’t know.” With the glass still in his outstretched hand, the professor continued, “What will happen if I hold it like this for a few minutes?”

“Nothing!” came the reply. “Right, and if I hold it for an hour like this, what might happen?” “Your hand will begin to hurt,” said a student. “Indeed. And what would happen if I held the glass in my hand like this for 24 hours?”

“You would be in tremendous pain,” said one student. “Your hand will probably go numb,” said another. “Your arm will be paralysed and we’ll need to rush you to the hospital!” said a student on the last bench.

“True,” said the professor. “But notice that through all this, the weight of the glass did not change. What then causes the pain?”

The class went quiet. The students seemed puzzled.“What should I do to avoid the pain?” asked the professor. “Put the glass down!” said a student.

“Well said!” exclaimed the professor. “And that’s a lesson I want you to remember. The problems and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. But think about it a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralysed – incapable of doing anything. It’s important to remember to let go of your problems. Remember to put the glass down!”

We may not have been in that classroom that day, but it’s a lesson we would all do well to remember. Put the glass down! Always. It’s not just problems and worries. Sometimes, we feel hurt and betrayed by a friend. And we carry that grudge through our lives. It grows and causes us anguish and pain. Learning to forgive – and forget – is not just good for the other people, it’s great for you. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail and when he was finally freed, you can understand how angry and vengeful he must have felt. But guess what? When he became President, he invited his jailers to be present at the inauguration – in the VIP seats! If he could forgive after 27 years of suffering, surely we can too.

It is the same with our fears too. A failure or an incident in early childhood becomes a deeply entrenched fear over time. Fear of public speaking, fear of Maths, fear of rejection. You name it, and chances are, we have it. Someone gave us that glass to hold when we were little kids – ‘you are clumsy, you are no good, you can’t do it’ - and we have faithfully held on to it all our lives. ‘I can’t’ - becomes a thought that stays in our mind and grows – leading us to complete paralysis. Time to put the glass down!

The story goes that there was a hardworking man who lived a contented life with his wife and children. Every evening when he returned from work, he’d follow a ritual. Outside the door to his house were three nails. On the first one, he’d put his hat. On the second he’d hang his coat. And on the third nail, he’d unwrap an imaginary turban from his head and ‘put’ it there. A friend happened to see this and enquired what he was putting on the third nail every day.

“Those are my problems, my worries and my anger,” said the man. “I have lots of that at work, but when I come home, I remember to take it off – and leave them outside. I don’t take them home with me.” Maybe you should learn to do that too. Starting today. Put the glass down. And see the difference!

New Income Tax Slabs in Budget 2011-12

Personal income tax slabs got changed in the recent budget given by Pranab Mukharjee, details are as follows:


 --> Income upto Rs.1.8 lakhs – nil.


-->  Income between Rs. 1.8 lakhs and Rs. 5 lakhs – 10%.


-->  Income between Rs. 5 lakhs and Rs. 8 lakhs – 20%.


--> Income above Rs. 8 lakhs – 30%.


--> Incomes of senior citizens between 60 and 80 years of age, to be exempted upto Rs.
     2.5 lakhs and for those above 80 years, exemption applicable upto Rs. 5 lakhs.



Some key Highlights in this budget are:


Fiscal deficit pegged at 4.6% of GDP for 2011-12.


Fiscal deficit projected at 4.1% and 3.5% for 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively.

Revenue deficit for 2011-12 pegged at 3.4%.

Revenue deficit for 2010-11 revised downwards to 3.4% from the budgeted estimate of 4.0%.

Net market borrowings for 2011-12 is budgeted at Rs. 3,430 billion, 2.3% over 2010-11.

Total expenditure for 2011-12 to increase by 3.4% over 2010-11.

1.4% fall in capital expenditure, while 4.1% increase in revenue expenditure over 2010-11.

Standard rate of excise duty on all non-petroleum products to be maintained at 10%.

Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate to be increased from 18% to 18.5%.

Rate of service tax retained at 10%, but coverage extended.

Disinvestment receipts for 2011-12 estimated at Rs 40,000 cr.

Government to move towards direct transfer of cash subsidy for kerosene and fertilizers.

Foreign investors who meet Know Your Customers (KYC) norms to be allowed to invest in

Indian equity mutual funds.

FII limit for investment in corporate bond with residual maturity of over five years issued by companies in infrastructure sector, is raised by US$ 20 billion to US$ 25 billion

Rs 6,000 cr allotted to public sector banks to maintain a Tier 1 CRAR of 8% during 2011-12

Direct Tax Code to be implemented by April 1, 2012

Allocation to infrastructure at Rs. 2,14,000 cr for 2011-12, 23.2% higher over previous year

How to pay LIC premium Online

No need to stand in long queues, you can easily make your payment though lic online portal in few SECONDS. You need to follow some simple steps for doing this.
For paying premiums online you need to first register with the website (www.licindia.in) and then onwards you can pay your renewal premiums from your net banking accounts.


As of now Credit card payments are not accepted through this gateway.




First time Users Step by step Guide:

Open IE or Firefox, copy and paste the below link:

http://www.licindia.in/


Click on the New User link to register yourself with the portal.

You will be prompted to enter details (Policy No, Installment Premium, Date of Birth in (dd/mm/yyyy) format, and your Email ID for future communication) of the policy you wish to enroll. If you have multiple policies you can give either one of those here and later add the remaining through add policies link in the portal. Click on the button proceed.

After clicking on proceed, you will be shown the next page where you need to choose a unique username and password.  Provide an username and password of your wish(remember these, you need to use these for loging in next time).

You will be landed on the below screen post successful registration.

You can check the enrolled policy(s) under the view enrolled plicies link. Eg. Below is the enrolled policy used during registration.

You can select “Enroll Policies” option to enroll all your other existing policies.

Select how many policies you wanna enroll and click on proceed

You will be shown the below screen to provide details of the othe rpolicies you wished to enroll.

Please do remember that combination of the policy number and the premium is the primary key for enrollment and you to specify the exacts of these. Once the details are entered click on Enroll Your Policies.


This is a one time enrollment, once done you will receive alerts through mails as well as sms s for the policies which are due for payment. You can see those policies highlighted on the portal which are due for payment as on date.




On the right hand side, You will see the link "Pay Premium Online" under the Customer Services menu as highlighted above. That link will open the following page.

Leave the options as they are if you want to pay premiums for the regular policies (i.e. Non Unit Linked) and click on Submit button.




You will be shown with all the policies that are due for payment as of date like below.

You may wish to select one or more policies at time by checking the check-boxes right beside the policy amount as highlighted above. If you select multiple policies in a single transaction you will get a consolidated receipt for those selected ones.

As of now LIC online portal support only online banking /debit card payments. You will be re-directed to the gateway page where you can choose your bank from a list of banks. And once you submit that page you will be directed to the respective bank’s payment channel.

At the bank site you will need to login with your net banking username/password or debit card creds. follow the formalities by the bank to complete the transaction. Post successful payment automatically you will be redirected to LIC site.
 On successful transaction, a digitally signed e-receipt will be generated and e-mailed to you. In case of an unsuccessful transaction you will be informed and the reason thereof.


In the case you forgot your password, you can use the “Forgot Password” option provided on this page and reset your password.


In case you miss the receipt or wish to fetch old receipts, you can always get them (which are paid online) through on the portal.

Select the financial year and click Submit

You will see all online payments made here

Click on the respective receipt to open/save it in pdf format. Rememver this receipt will be shown in a separate window, so please allow pop-ups for this site and click on view receipt again if you don’t see it on the first click. Save it on to your hard drive for future ref.


Paying a renewal premiums as almost on the same lines mentioned above.

Now you can get the consolidated premium paid statement of all the policies(irrespective of whether you have paid the premium online or through any branch) you have registered on your profile on single click.

Note: As mentioned above you can just the consolidated IT statement but not the receipts for the individual policies for those premiums which you paid through branch. 95% of the companies(Software etc…) You can always show this IT statement as a proof fo premiums paid, which will reduce the burden of submitting multiple receipts and confusion !!!

Follow below steps post login to get the same from the portal.

Click on the consolidated premium paid statement on the right hand menu as highlighted below.

This would basically ask you select the yer for which you need the statement.

Select a financial year and clicking on submit window will open a pop-up window as shown below

As highlighted above even for the payments you have done through branches(for the policies you have enrolled on your profile) you will get a consolidated receipt.



Should you have any queries/need any help or info please feel free to get in touch with me @ subbaraobh@gmail.com

Yours Sincerely,
Subbarao Bhagavatula, SanthaMurthy Bhagavatula
Mob: 08939902193, 09866651012, 08088103005
Email: subbaraobh@gmail.com