DYK: You can close PPF after 5 years for a medical emergency or for higher education

The finance ministry notified on Monday that account holders of the Public Provident Fund (PPF) can prematurely close their account if it has completed at least five years and the reason for closure is medical emergency and higher education.

According to this recent change, a PPF subscriber shall be allowed premature closure of her account or account of a minor of whom she is the guardian on grounds that the amount is required for treatment of serious ailments or life-threatening diseases of the account holder, spouse or dependent children on production of supporting documents from competent medical authority. Similarly, you will be able to prematurely close your PPF account for higher education needs only if you produce documents and fee bills showing confirmation of admission in a recognised institution in India or abroad. The premature withdrawal, however, comes with a penalty—you will get 1% less interest as applicable from time to time.

Earlier you were not allowed to prematurely close your PPF account. You had to complete 15 years to close it. So, even if you left the account inactive, you could only get the money after 15 years. Earlier you could only do partial withdrawal from the seventh financial year onwards. For partial withdrawals, earlier the rule was capped at 50% of the total balance at the end of the fourth year, counting back from the year of withdrawal or 50% of the total balance at the end of the year before the year of withdrawal, whichever is lower. Withdrawals could be made only once in a financial year.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

PPF is a risk- and tax-free product and enjoys the exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) tax status. This means the contribution, accumulation and withdrawal are all exempt from tax. You can invest a minimum of Rs 500 and a maximum Rs 1.5 lakh in one financial year and this entire Rs 1.5 lakh qualifies for deduction under section 80C of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The initial tenure is 15 years, with the option to extend for five years at a time after completion of this period. The returns are pegged to the average government securities (G-secs) yield. Hence, every year the return on your investment may vary. For this financial year, it is offering 8.1% per annum.

Since PPF is a long-term instrument, the interest on your account has more time to compound. Also, you can avail a loan on your PPF between the third and the sixth financial years. When you take a loan, the amount is restricted to 25% of the balance in your PPF. You can avail the loan at 2% higher than the PPF interest rate. The loan has to be repaid in 36 months.

PPF has the ability to generate real return thanks to its tax-free status. So, when it comes to PPF you need to stick to your asset allocation and use it as a tool to maximise your long-term debt investment.

The drone market takes off

Drones have long been used for military and security purposes, but these unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly taking off in civilian sectors such as media, photography, cinema, agriculture, energy and delivery services. Ever more affordable and easy to use, remote control quadcopters are also becoming popular consumer gadgets among a growing number of hobbyists and enthusiasts.

A thriving market
Some four million leisure drones were sold worldwide in 2015, with these flying gizmos proving a star gift for the winter holiday season. The consumer market is currently dominated by Chinese manufacturer DJI, which makes models such as the Phantom and the Inspire, and French firm Parrot, which scored a hit with its well-known AR.Drone. Research from GFK suggests that the French manufacturer's sales of leisure drones tripled in 2015, totalling 286,019 units over the course of the year. The two market heavyweights are, however, facing tough competition as new rivals eye this thriving sector.

This profitable market has attracted a host of new contenders, with even the most unexpected firms jumping on the trend. Leading action camcorder maker, GoPro, for example, is looking to diversify its product range with its own drone called the Karma. Initially slated for a 2016 launch, the GoPro drone's release has been pushed back to the end of the year. In the meantime, not a week goes by without new drones arriving on the market. Here are three hot new models that could make serious waves in their respective product categories.

Yuneec Typhoon H
The Yuneec Typhoon H is a highly sophisticated hexacopter (six rotors) with an onboard three-axis, 360-degree 4K camera. It's aimed at photo and video enthusiasts looking to shoot aerial views and is available from $1,799 via www.yuneec.com.

PNJ Cicada Plus
This newly released leisure drone is great for beginners. Loaded with a three-axis 1080p camera with a Sony 16-Megapixel sensor, it can be controlled via a smartphone over a 100-meter range. It's available from €349.99 from www.pnj-cam.com.

Xiaomi Mi Drone
A direct rival for the DJI Phantom and the Parrot AR.Drone, the Mi Drone comes loaded with a 4K (UHD) camera with a 12.4-Megapixel Sony sensor. This drone can fly for 27 minutes over a range of up to 3km. With a highly competitive $460 price tag, it sells for half as much as an equivalent 4K DJI Phantom.

At 35-feet, Uttar Pradesh’s tallest Hanuman statue comes up in Saifai

 

 

• A 35-feet high statue of Lord Hanuman was installed in Saifai, the hometown of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, amid chants of Vedic hymns on Tuesday.

 

• The statue was placed on a 20-foot high platform on the Saifai Mahotsav campus with the help of large cranes and can be seen from any direction in the town. Made of brass, the statue was made by Padma Shri winner Arjun Singh Prajapati and his son Mukesh Prajapati in Jaipur.

 

• Badaun MP Dharmendra is the chairperson of the Saifai Mahotsav organising committee and Tej Pratap, an MP from Mainpuri, is the convener. The committee claimed the statue is the tallest in the state.

 

• Dharmendra, Tej Pratap and Anshul, chairman of the Etawah zila panchayat, offered prayers and opened the bhandara for people who were given prasad throughout the day.

 

• A temporary statue of Hanuman was erected every year before the start of Saifai Mahotsav, the annual cultural extravaganza known for performances of leading Bollywood stars. It was immersed in the river after the culmination of the event.

 

• The committee decided to place a permanent statue last year and asked Prajapati to make one and it was delivered on February 11 this year.

 

• Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who was expected to attend the special prayers, could not make it.

India a responsible N-power, needs no lessons, says Parrikar

 

 

 

• Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said India would not change its nuclear policy under any circumstances.

 

• Addressing the media, the defence minister said the ministry had given a no-objection certificate for according commercial status to the Adampur defence airport in Jalandhar district. “The Airports Authority of India and Air India are holding a meeting in July to finalise things,” he added.

 

• He said India was a responsible nuclear power and did not need any lessons from the external forces. Replying to queries about Pakistan’s threat of a nuclear war, he said India knew its job well enough.

 

• Parrikar said Pakistan was burning its own hands in the fire of militancy. “We are equipped to counter any attack and give a befitting reply to those who want to destabilise the country,” he warned.

 

The Hindu

 

The ongoing three-day ‘Desi Cow Utsav' at People's Plaza, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, put up new varieties of cows on display, a press release informed.

The additions included the Punganur dwarf cow, Ongole breed, Kapila variety in Ongole breed and Gir breed from Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

With a height of just 2.6 feet, the Punganur dwarf cow is the shortest cow in the world and is set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records soon, the owner of the cow at the show, Srinivas Rao, said.

“This Punganur variety cow, which originated in Chittoor district, is a miniature female cow and gives three to five litres milk a day. Cows of this variety cost from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 1 lakh,” Mr. Rao said. But with only about 60 cows of this breed alive, the Punganur breed is on the verge of extinction, he lamented.

Another attraction on the second day of the utsav was the Kapila variety cow belonging to Ongole breed. 

The cow is small in stature and its milk, dung and urine are believed to be highly medicinal.

The Kapila variety is believed to have high resistance to diseases. 

Keywords: Desi Cow Utsav, varieties of cows, dwarf cow, Guinness Book of World Records

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Why going to the doctor is the great Indian nightmare

by Lakshmi Chaudhry Mar 30, 2012

#Cancer #Healthcare in India #HealthMatters #India #Oncology #ThisIndianLife

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More people die of cancer in India than those in the West. And the mortality rate is about the same in both rural and urban India, and therefore unaltered by access to healthcare. AFP

Here’s the bad news: More people die of cancer in India than those in the West. And the mortality rate is about the same in both rural and urban India, and therefore unaltered by access to healthcare.
According to the Times of India, the results of the Million Death Study reveals a uniquely Indian cause for this anomaly:

An Indian peculiarity crops up here. As MDS says that cancer deaths were two times higher in the least educated than in the most educated adults, it would follow that educated Indians living in cities and enjoying better access to cancer care should be able to beat the disease. But this is clearly not the case. “Women won’t come to hospitals to show a lump in their breast because it’s not painful. Men won’t get themselves checked despite losing weight drastically . This is true in both urban and rural India,” says a senior doctor.
The problem, analyses Dr Shastri, is that greater awareness in urban areas hasn’t really translated into attitudinal changes. “People in urban areas, too, visit doctors only when their cancer is advanced . Therefore, the death rate is high in cities despite the availability of world-class treatment.”

In other words, Indians are scared cats who prefer to live in denial. This is certainly one important reason. A friend’s mother hid the lump in her breast for years out of fear of the disease. Cancer is still ingrained in the Indian mind as a fatal disease, hence the reasoning: Why endure brutal chemo sessions only to die after months of additional suffering. According to Yuvraj Singh‘s friends, one reason he preferred to seek treatment in Boston is that “it isn’t like India where cancer is treated virtually like a death warrant.” (See my previous article for more on why Indians are specifically scared of cancer)

The reasons why Indians rarely go to a doctor – whether for cancer or a viral fever – are far more complex. AFP

But the doctors interviewed by TOI offer at best a partial truth. The reasons why Indians rarely go to a doctor – whether for cancer or a viral fever – are far more complex. More importantly, we also don’t receive proper attention when we do indeed seek medical attention. Here are three other reasons why I as a layperson think we fail to get adequate medical care despite “the availability of world-class treatment.”
One, the disappearing family doctor. When I was a kid, everything from my father’s fever to my chicken pox to my sister-in-law’s near miscarriage to my grandfather’s stroke medication was supervised by Dr Valvade, a matronly doctor who was almost a part of the family. When things looked a bit serious, she referred us personally to a specialist who kept her in the loop. She would come home, see us after-hours, take phone calls early in the morning or late at night.
Today, any visit to a doctor requires hours in a crowded waiting room, which is nigh impossible for most busy urban professionals. And unless you’ve remained in the same city for decades, the chances are the attention you receive will be prefunctory and minimal. She’s extremely busy and so are you. The result: the family doctor has been replaced by a trusted pharmacist. Unless the symptoms look serious, he’s the go-to guy for most medical ailments.
Where the family doctor was once a family’s unofficial “life guard” – the one tasked to keep an eye out for potentially life-threatening symptoms — that responsibility now lies with us. And with the important exception of our children, we make for poor “life guards” when it comes to our own health. There’s a “jab tak chalta hai” attitude toward our own bodies, exacerbated by our hectic work-family schedules and the time commitment now required to seek medical care.
Two, class matters. My maid goes to the doctor far more often than I do. Any fever that goes unabated in her family for more than two days requires a visit to the neighbourhood doc. He inevitably administers an unnamed injection, and sends her off with a couple of pills. She’s never informed of the diagnosis, except in the vaguest terms.
And when she or any of her family members fail to respond to this one-size-fits-all treatment, she comes to me, as when her son’s “viral fever” escalated to bronchitis. I took him to my doctor who took one look at his prescription and declared, “This is junk.”
It is absurd, Dr Shastri, to pretend that all Indians have equal access to our world class medical community. Most working class Indians rely on a poorly qualified doctor who can barely diagnose a run-of-the-mill disease, leave alone cancer.