The moment there’s a mid-air scare, we trust ourselves in the so called safe hands of our pilots and cabin crew while we are taking a flight to our destination. Now, what if the cabin crew and the pilots slug it out while the hapless passengers pray to The Almighty to save their lives with the stewardship of the plane seemingly taking them for disaster?

That’s what happened in this surprising and condemnable incident aboard an Air-India flight IC-884 from Sharjah bound for Delhi via Lucknow!

In order to settle their dispute (over whatever issue they claim it to be for), two members from the cabin crew actually came to blows with the pilot and the co-pilot right inside the cockpit.

Scary… Now, I’m having second thoughts over taking that Air India flight to Delhi the next time I have to fly home!

The incident is outrightly condemnable and all those who are involved should be severely punished in order to teach them a lesson and also set an example for all the other cabin crew whether in India or any other place.

The government should immediately take appropriate action otherwise it’s good bye to Air India for me. I can’t possibly ignore this bizarre incident at all.

Another disgraceful achievement for the once mighty Air India after the shocking engine fire incident of September 2009 where a Riyadh bound plane’s engine caught fire right before take off from Mumbai. If thing’s keep going this way, I don’t see any reason to keep the Maharaja flying.

The government should either privatize Air India or shut it down. Apart from this, I don’t see any other solution where AI could be safe and also free from Babus.

God help Air India and us. Amen.

There’s a hoax/phishing email doing the rounds called “Hotmail Activation 2009″. It came to my notice when a guy I know forwarded the same to me. While looking at the email at first glance almost (yes, almost!) convinced me it was genuine.

But then, I noticed certain grammatical errors in the email and also saw that the email was asking us to signup once again by clicking a button in the email. Look at the screenshot below:

Beware of the above email and if you see it being forwarded to you, immediately notify everyone down the chain (of emails) about this mail being a fake and also report to Microsoft.

In the meantime, I have reported about this email to Microsoft today itself and am awaiting their response. I will update my blog as soon as I get any response from them.

In my endeavour to try new things, I have setup a brand new blog (Crazy Forwards) about Email Forwards that are going around the email world on the internet. By receiving these emails in my inbox and finally getting a 5% percent Income Tax on NRIs hoax, I decided to think about setting up a blog to showcase the kind of forwards that are in circulation out there.

You have to hand it out to the creators of the email forwards, some are ingenius and some are plain crazy. But, people still stop to read them and (believe it or not!) forward them without even thinking about the (supposed) facts mentioned in them.

I receive a lot of forwards on my box daily. Some are funny, some are thought provoking while some can be extremely shocking at the first glance.

Anyway, my Blog Crazy Forwards is all about these emails. So, if you are one of those who have received such emails and perhaps even been fooled up to a certain extent, or one of those who haven’t received them or simply want to forward the same to your friends, visit Crazy Forwards today!

Calling all Non-Resident Indians or NRIs to pay attention here.

It is just today that I received an email from one of my colleagues regarding a news item notifying NRIs about a directive from the Department of Income Tax, Government of India that mandates a levying of 5% income tax on NRIs’ income from abroad or place of residence outside India. It mentions that the Indian government is coordinating with governments of countries with major populace of Indians to bring their means of earning and their incomes under taxation by way of government to government contact.

To be more clear about what I received, I will reproduce the email here:

5% TAX ON FOREIGN INCOME FOR NRI STARTING 2009 -10

Government of India today announced imposition of a flat 5% tax on all NRIs over their world-wide income. Income that is already taxed in India has been kept out of the purview to avoid double taxation. No double taxation benefits would be available for this 5% tax, meaning even if you are paying tax on your income in a country with which India has double taxation agreement, the benefit would not be allowed against this 5% tax. All those Indians who are holding Indian Passports and have been out of the country for more than 180 days during the year are under this requirement. Income proof would have to be submitted in form of employer certificates, foreign tax filings etc. Indian government is also coordinating with Australia, Europe, America, UAE and other countries on collecting Income data for its citizens as part of data sharing initiative on terror prevention measures.

This has been hailed as bringing in compulsory participation in development of India from Non resident Indians.. This means NRIs can no more just continue to retain their Indian citizenship without paying taxes in India. Though it may not be favorable in view of the NRIs who already bring substantial forex in form of remittances and Investments. This is bound to cause a lot of heart burn for the Indian community residing outside..

This is expected to generate ~10 Billion INR tax collection for the government in the year 2009-10.. For more information on this rule, tax filings and forms visit http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/

As you can see, the email feeds on the fear of taxation of NRIs who earn their hard money abroad. Please note that I researched the topic (mostly because of selfish reasons), I found the email to be a hoax. To support my argument in this regard, I have found one other worried gentleman getting a reply from one qualified CA professional. To view the topic, please follow this link.
So, please stop panicking about this email and I request everyone who reads my article to STOP this email from circulation. It’s claims are totally unfounded and untrue and therefore DO NOT need to be circulated. In the future if you receive emails, please check out the basis of that email before forwarding it to your friends or family.

I hope this post will be helpful to all the people affected by this BASELESS email regarding 5% income tax on NRIs

Watch Bill Gates search for a job after finishing off at Microsoft!

This was one helluva video that I saw a clip of on NDTV while they were showing business news. I liked it in the clip that I saw and therefore decided to search for it on the internet. I found it on YouTube (a real great place) and found the link to the original place of posting for the video which is on on10.net.

Watch the video and enjoy

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