TV Commercials during NFL Season are major talking point in the U.S. However, I see that no one talks about Indian TV advertisements during major events. Last year ZOOZOO Ads were craze during IPL, every one was talking about it.

Even this time around we have zoozoo ads, and some are really quite funny, they have not managed to generate as much buzz as they did last time around.

Here are some of the ZooZoo Ads in IPL Season 3 that I found quite good !

Vodafone IPL Contest – Be the Star of the Match Ad 

Zoozoo Newspaper Advertisement

ZooZoo Alien IPL Ad

Zoozoo Tribe Stars IPL 2010 Jokes Vodafone Ad

Really love the laughs & language of these ZooZoos, you cannot stop having a smile on your face if not a nice hearty laugh

Zoozoo Go Green Tree cutting Vodafone Ad

I am really looking forward for more of these ZooZoos :)

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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INQ Mobile has launched its “Social Networking” phone in India at a price point of about 7.5K. We just reviewed PEEK Email-only Mobile device, and many commenter’s pointed out that if PEEK had Social Networking also built into it, it will become very attractive.

Aircel, who have incidentally launched PEEK have also forged partnership with INQ Mobile and launched its Social Networking phone in India.

So what so different about INQ Mobile?

INQ Mobile is specifically targeted at Social Networking, with specific thrust on popular social networking sites like Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Instant Messaging & Widgets. This device also has push email – INQ mobile being a QWERTY keyboard based phone can be an excellent mobile phone for heavy email users as well !

Another great feature is that it is a 3G phone, Although currently only BSNL is providing 3G services, sooner or later all currently mobile service providers will start offering these services as well..

Aircel have also been offering some great Internet plans – like Rs. 98/- for unlimited GPRS connectivity – INQ Mobile fits perfectly in the scheme of things here.

I think they have very decent price point as well – Rs. 7599/-

The phone also has great looks and I wouldn’t be surprised that this phone becomes very popular amongst Young Indians !

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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400 million subscriber strong Facebook is moving Eastwards, and its choice of destination is Hyderabad in India. It is interesting that Facebook has chosen Hyderabad over Bangalore to open up its first office in Asia.

I think one of the important reasons for opening office here is Facebook has shown a strong growth in India over past year and is expected to growth even more aggressively in coming years. The current Facebook subscriber strength in India stands at a good 8 million.

According to the statement made, this office will act as a support base for users, advertisers and developers in India and around the world. Also, having multiple support center in India provides Facebook users and advertisers around the world with round-the-clock, multilingual support.

For Hyderabad, it can now brag big time – It now has Facebook office along with 2 other Internet giants – Google & Microsoft.

So what about Twitter ? When is it coming to India :) Any guesses ?

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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IPL season III is here and rocking ! This year is sort of home-coming for IPL after it was very successfully hosted in South Africa.

This Years IPL extravaganza is bigger, better and has embraced Technology in way that probably no other sporting tournament has – From being broadcasted live on the Internet to viewing on Mobile – IPL has taken care of every cricket loving citizens across the globe.

IPL is now a Industry in itself and with every season, it seems to be growing leaps and bound – Just imagine, a IPL team that cost around 75 million dollars in three years are commanding valuations of more than Billion Dollars. Even the 2 new cities that are going to be added have a base value of close to 250 million dollars !

Coming back to how Cricket Fans can watch IPL – Here are a few avenues where you can catch the IPL action

YouTube will be the place where you can watch the action live, The IPL streams will also be broadcasted on official IPL site at IPL TV.

If you are a mobile user, you can view live IPL action at m.iplt20. If you are just interested in score, here is the official IPL App . Mobile users can download this app on their mobile to get most recent scores.

Let the IPL action begin :)

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Indian Billionaire’s have made pretty big strides in their net worth over last year. Forbes released their annual list of Billionaire’s and 2 Indians feature amongst the top 5 !

There are some notable changes at the top of the list as compared to last year. Bill Gates is no more the richest man in the world. Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot.

It is for the first time in 2 decades that a person outside of USA has been crowned the richest man on Earth. His total Networth is pegged at 53.5 Billion dollars as compared to 53 Billion of Bill Gates. Third on the list is Warren Buffet with net worth of around 47 Billion Dollars.

Mukesh Ambani chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., is ranked fourth with $29 billion, up from $19.5 billion last year, when he was seventh. While another Indian Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of the world’s biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, rose to fifth from eighth. Mittal’s net worth increased $9.4 billion to $28.7 billion !

Top 10 Indians featuring Billionaires Club

Sr.	Name	Forbes Rank
1	Mukesh Ambani	4
2	Lakshmi Mittal	5
3	Azim Premji	28
4	Anil Ambani	36
5	Shashi & Ravi Ruia	40
6	Savitri Jindal	44
7	Kushal Pal Singh	74
8	Kumar Birla	86
9	Sunil Mittal	87
10	Anil Agarwal	113

Asia’s Top 25 Richest people

Although, China may have passed India in its number of billionaires, but India still has bragging rights as home of the region’s richest. Ten of Asia’s top 25 are Indian. Hong Kong and Japan each have five. Mainland China has just one.

I think the number of Indian’s featuring in Billionaire club will definitely swell in coming years :)

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Mobile App stores seem to be the current rage amongst the telecom companies, everyone is launching it now. Airtel’s app store is already live, While Aircel & Reliance are expected to officially launch their apps store very soon.

Vodafone becomes the 2nd Indian mobile company to start the app store after Airtel announced it few weeks back. According to the company website, Vodafone Mobile Application store was started on 15th February, 2010 in India, offering over 800
applications under various categories like Entertainment, Utility, Finance, Social Networking, Games, etc.

Vodafone also claims that they have already seen more than 10,000 downloads since its launch. There is no way to confirm this figure, however, it could be true as the app store is offering many free applications (around 15%) along with the paid ones, which are priced affordably between Rs. 5 and Rs. 30 !

As usually is the feature of of every app store, for ease of users, Vodafone offers Newest Apps, Top Apps and Just for You Apps which offer a customized set of applications as per consumers’ preferences.

The application store is available to Vodafone customers only through data enabled handsets. Users will have to send a message APP to 111 (toll free) and also access the store through the portal Vodafone live!

Vodafone Mobile App store has been launched in partnership with Arvato Mobile, a global digital content logistics and service delivery platform provider

I think over next few months, we will see every mobile company launching its app store – With competition intense and ARPU’s on downward spiral, Value Added Services are the areas where these mobile companies can make money.

Also, as an added advantage most of the mobile apps also use Internet, thereby increasing the data usage, which directly means more revenue to the mobile company !

Whats your take?

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Just read this report on iPad – It mentions that iPad is seeing huge wave of demand, even though it has got late coming into the market.

As per the recent changewave survey – iPad is showing a huge wave of pre-launch demand for the iPad and offers key evidence that the Apple tablet will have a major impact on the e-Reader, laptop and home entertainment markets.

It is little difficult for me to believe, especially because after the launch many were not too satisfied with iPad features and was found lacking to the expectations of potential users. Another survey conducted few weeks back showed completely different picture.

The Changewave survey based its findings by comparing the market scenario before and after the launch situation of iPad as well as iPhone. The survey showed that iPad has been given better reception as compared to iPhone.

The survey also goes on to mention that iPad will prove to be disruptive in e-reader market.

Among consumers who already own an eBook Reader, the Amazon Kindle (68%) towers over its closest rival, the Sony Reader (10%). But to gauge the potential impact of the iPad on this market, we asked eBook Reader owners whether they would have purchased their current e-Reader if the Apple iPad had also been available.

If the Apple iPad tablet had been available at that time, which eBook Reader do you think you would have purchased – your current eBook Reader or the Apple iPad tablet?

Among other findings by Changewave survey, close to 70% respondents mentioned that they would use Apple iPad for “surfing the internet” as their primary activity.

Checking email (44%), reading eBooks (37%), reading magazines, newspapers and periodicals (28%), and watching video (24%) are additional key ways that consumers are most interested in using the iPad.

To be honest, I will take this survey with a pinch of salt. It does not take into consideration other highly featured tablets that are coming into market very soon. One prominent tablet which I see giving tough time to iPad will be Notion Ink’s Adam. I would buy feature-rich and open Adam rather than an iPad !

Whats your take on this?

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Paypal seems to have brought out some clarity regarding India based Bank withdrawals. According to the post made by Farhad Irani today on paypal blog, they has suspended all bank withdrawals for 3 days from March 1st to March 3rd (tomorrow.).

Now, according to the post, the paypal user will have to furnish a purpose code that helps bank furnish information that may be required by the RBI to identify the nature of the cross border transaction. Details on the different purpose codes are in the table below. 

The reason this purpose code is required by Paypal – according to Indian law, based on the value of withdrawal and the purpose code in paypal user’s declaration, the bank may require you to provide documentary proofs such as invoices / goods receipt forms as applicable to reconcile with users withdrawal.

Purpose Code Table

Here are some of the Frequently asked Questions by Paypal Users:

Q.) What if none of the above are applicable?

The purpose codes above should cover your business. If you are unclear on what purpose code you should choose, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

Q.) I run a charity, and I am based in India. I don’t see the purpose code for donations and charities

A. PayPal can currently be used only as a gateway for payments of goods and services into India. We cannot process payments for charitable donations at this time.

Q.) My account says I am not allowed to withdraw. I see my balances are restored but I am unable to provide a withdrawal instruction

A: We may have suspended withdrawals from your account as we work to incorporate changes in the withdrawal process.  We will be requiring additional verification regarding the nature of the transactions you are performing.

Q. I used to use PayPal for Personal Inward Remittance to India. Now, my balances are stuck in PayPal

A. We are no longer able to complete these withdrawals to your bank account in India.  You do have the option to complete your withdrawals by check.  If you have any questions, we urge you to contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

Finally, there seems to be some relief to the agony of Paypal users

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Finding water on Moon is a huge thing – More than you can imagine. Last September, Chandrayaan – I, India’s maiden Moon probe Mission vehicle gave conclusive evidence that there is water on Moon.

Now, again NASA’s radar instrument on an Indian moon probe found evidence of at least 600 million metric tons of water ice spread out on the bottom of craters at the lunar north pole.

Water can play a pivotal role in making Moon itself a base for Astronauts – Lunar Ice water can be broken up to give limitless supply of oxygen. The ice could be melted into drinking water or be separated into its component oxygen and hydrogen to provide breathing air and rocket fuel.

Now, it is very much a possibility that we may see small colonies being setup on Moon in not too distant future :) Imagine that ! India launched Chandrayaan-1 probe in October 2008 and carried 11 instruments to observe the moon from lunar orbit. It was India’s first moon probe and carried an impactor probe that it unleashed in November 2008.

India plans on sending its successor – Chandrayaan-2 probe in 2013 ! Jai Ho !

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Author: News Editor

Trak.in News Editor Team brings you the latest and the most buzzing Indian news. If you would like to be a part of it, please get in touch with us.

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Ok, don’t get all too excited with that 37 mbps Jargon, I just said that it capable of delivering that kind of speeds  – Whether it gives even fraction of that needs to be seen.

Unlike many countries, we have by-passed the broadband revolution and moved straight to Mobile Internet revolution – The reason is simple – India, currently has close to 600 million mobile subscribers, and majority of those (atleast now) are internet enabled. Nokia understood that first hand and has recently launched cheapest 3G phone in the market.

Coming back to our point –

BSNL today commercially launched the country’s first mobile broadband fourth generation Internet access network–Mobile WiMAX in Kerala. BSNL is the first operator in the country to launch the service.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, can provide a speed of up to 37 mbps. It is being deployed in Kerala with 900 BTS (Base Transmitting Stations) to cover the entire Kerala State.

Even though, the technology is capable of giving you 37 mbps speeds, you will only be getting maximum of 2mbps. The two plans that BSNL has launched – Home Plan with a fixed monthly charge of Rs 999 while the Business plan is Rs 1,999 for a band width 512 to 2 mbps.

I dont think this really makes much of difference – Does it?

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Okay, there is a good news and bad news on the Paypal fiasco front – Paypal users in India got following email informing them that Indian Businesses can resume Indian bank withdrawals, who use PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace.

Now, the problem with this is that there is no word about personal Paypal bank withdrawals – The issue is resolved only for Indian Business Entities using Paypal and not individuals. Individual payments will be suspended until approvals are received.

However, even the business users will have to enter an Export Code when a withdrawal is requested, which indicate that the transactions will be cross-border merchant transactions, and not P2P money transfer.

Mail from Paypal to the users

Dear Paypal User,

We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace. Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports of goods and services.

We are currently making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday, March 3rd, customers will be able to use our bank withdrawal service. As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal. This information is required under the current laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.

On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account.

Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we currently do not have. Until we get these approvals, personal payments into India will remain suspended.

However, if you are an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal service for payments of goods and services. In fact, with the changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a more powerful engine for exporters in India. With purpose codes for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates), you should now be able to get the export related benefits you seek.

Sincerely,
PayPal

Hope, the Paypal individual payment issue also gets resolved fast, as majority of paypal Indian users are not business users !

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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We are presenting readers with key Budget Highlights: This part talks about all the Tax proposals and benefits that this Union Budget provides:

Key Union Budget Highlights 2010: Tax Benefits & Proposals

• The Income Tax department has introduced “Sevottam”, a pilot project at Pune,
  Kochi and Chandigarh through Aayakar Seva Kendras, which provide a single window system for registration of all applications including those for redressal of grievances as well as paper returns. The scheme will be extended to four more cities in the year.
• Automation of Central Excise & Service Tax, has already been rolled out throughout the country this year. Similarly, a Mission Mode Project for computerization of Commercial Taxes in States has been approved recently. With an outlay of Rs. 1133 crore of which the Centre’s share is Rs. 800 crore, the project will lay the foundation for the launch of GST.
• The income tax department to notify SARAL-II form for individual salaried taxpayers for the coming assessment year.
• Scope of cases which may be admitted by the Settlement Commission expanded to include proceedings related to search and seizure cases pending for assessment. Scope of Settlement Commission also expanded in respect of Central Excise and Customs to include certain categories of cases that hitherto fell outside its jurisdiction.
• Bi-lateral discussions commenced to enhance the exchange of bank related and other information to effectively track tax evasion and identify undisclosed assets of resident Indians lying abroad.

Direct Taxes

• Income tax slabs for individual taxpayers to be as follows Income

• Deduction of an additional amount of Rs. 20,000 allowed, over and above the existing limit of Rs.1 lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds as notified by the Central Government
• Besides contributions to health insurance schemes which is currently allowed as a deduction under the Income-tax Act, contributions to the Central Government Health Scheme also allowed as a deduction under the same provision.
• Current surcharge of 10 per cent on domestic companies reduced to 7.5 per cent.
• Rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) increased from the current rate of 15 per cent to 18 per cent of book profits.
• To further encourage R&D across all sectors of the economy, weighted deduction on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D enhanced from 150 per cent to 200 per cent. Weighted deduction on payments made to National Laboratories, research associations, colleges, universities and other institutions, for scientific research enhanced from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.
• Payment made to an approved association engaged in research in social sciences or statistical research to be allowed as a weighted deduction of 125 per cent. The income of such approved research association shall be exempt from tax.
• Benefit of investment linked deduction under the Act extended to new hotels of two-star category and above anywhere in India to boost investment in the tourism sector.
• Allow pending projects to be completed within a period of five years instead of four years for claiming a deduction of their profits, as a one time interim relief to the housing and real estate sector. Norms for built-up area of shops and other commercial establishments in housing projects to be relaxed to enable basic facilities for their residents.
• Limits for turnover over which accounts need to be audited enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh for businesses and to Rs. 15 lakh for professions.
• Limit of turnover for the purpose of presumptive taxation of small businesses enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh.
• If tax has been deducted on payment by way of any expense and is paid before the due date of filing the return, such expenditure to be allowed for deduction. Interest charged on tax deducted but not deposited by the specified date to be increased from 12 per cent to 18 per cent per annum.
• To facilitate the conversion of small companies into Limited Liability Partnerships, transfer of assets as a result of such conversion not to be subject to capital gains tax.
• “The advancement of any other object of general public utility” to be considered as “charitable purpose” even if it involves carrying on of any activity in the nature of trade, commerce or business provided that the receipts from such activities do not exceed Rs.10 lakh in the year .
• Proposals on direct taxes estimated to result in a revenue loss of Rs. 26,000 crore for the year.

Indirect Taxes

• Rate reduction in Central Excise duties to be partially rolled back and the standard rate on all non-petroleum products enhanced from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem.
• The specific rates of duty applicable to portland cement and cement clinker also adjusted upwards proportionately. Similarly, the ad valorem component of excise duty on large cars, multi-utility vehicles and sports-utility vehicles increased by 2 percentage points to 22 per cent.
• Restore the basic duty of 5 per cent on crude petroleum; 7.5 per cent on diesel and petrol and 10 per cent on other refined products. Central Excise duty on petrol and diesel enhanced by Re.1 per litre each.
• Some structural changes in the excise duty on cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos to be made coupled with some increase in rates. Excise duty on all non-smoking tobacco such as scented tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco etc to be enhanced. Compounded levy scheme for chewing tobacco and branded unmanufactured tobacco based on the capacity of pouch packing machines to be introduced.

    Agriculture & Related Sectors !

• Provide project import status with a concessional import duty of 5 per cent for the setting up of mechanized handling systems and pallet racking systems in ‘mandis’ or warehouses for food grains and sugar as well as full exemption from service tax for the installation and commissioning of such equipment.
• Provide project import status at a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent with full exemption from service tax to the initial setting up and expansion of
• Cold storage, cold room including farm pre-coolers for preservation or storage of agriculture and related sectors produce ; and
• Processing units for such produce.
• Provide full exemption from customs duty to refrigeration units required for the manufacture of refrigerated vans or trucks.
• Provide concessional customs duty of 5 per cent to specified agricultural machinery not manufactured in India;
• Provide central excise exemption to specified equipment for preservation, storage and processing of agriculture and related sectors and exemption from service tax to the storage and warehousing of their produce; and
• Provide full exemption from excise duty to trailers and semi-trailers used in agriculture.
• Concessional import duty to specified machinery for use in the plantation sector to be, extended up to March 31, 2011 along with a CVD exemption.
• To exempt the testing and certification of agricultural seeds from service tax.
• The transportation by road of cereals, and pulses to be exempted from service tax. Transportation by rail to remain exempt.
• To ease the cash flow position for small-scale manufacturers, they would be permitted to take full credit of Central Excise duty paid on capital goods in a single installment in the year of their receipt. Secondly, they would be permitted to pay Central Excise duty on a quarterly, rather than monthly, basis.

    Environment

• To build the corpus of the National Clean Energy Fund, clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a nominal rate of Rs.50 per tonne to be levied. This cess will also apply on imported coal.
• Provide a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent to machinery, instruments, equipment and appliances etc. required for the initial setting up of photovoltaic and solar thermal power generating units and also exempt them from Central Excise duty. Ground source heat pumps used to tap geo-thermal energy to be exempted from basic customs duty and special additional duty.
• Exempt a few more specified inputs required for the manufacture of rotor blades for wind energy generators from Central Excise duty.
• Central Excise duty on LED lights reduced from 8 per cent to 4 per cent at par with Compact Fluorescent Lamps.
• To remedy the difficulty faced by manufacturers of electric cars and vehicles in neutralizing the duty paid on their inputs and components, a nominal duty of 4 per cent on such vehicles imposed. Some critical parts or sub-assemblies of such vehicles exempted from basic customs duty and special additional duty subject to actual user condition. These parts would also enjoy a concessional CVD of 4 per cent.
• A concessional excise duty of 4 per cent provided to “soleckshaw”, a product developed by CSIR to replace manually-operated rickshaws. Its key parts and components to be exempted from customs duty.
• ! Import of compostable polymer exempted from basic customs duty.

    Infrastructure

• Project import status to ‘Monorail projects for urban transport’ at a concessional basic duty of 5 per cent granted.
• To allow resale of specified machinery for road construction projects on payment of import duty at depreciated value.
• To encourage the domestic manufacture of mobile phones accessories, exemptions from basic, CVD and special additional duties are now being extended to parts of battery chargers and hands-free headphones. The validity of the exemption from special additional duty is being extended till March 31, 2011.

    Medical Sector

• Uniform, concessional basic duty of 5 per cent, CVD of 4 per cent with full exemption from special additional duty prescribed on all medical equipments. A concessional basic duty of 5 per cent is being prescribed on parts and accessories for the manufacture of such equipment while they would be exempt from CVD and special additional duty.
• Full exemption currently available to medical equipment and devices such as assistive devices, rehabilitation aids etc. retained. The concession available to Government hospitals or hospitals set up under a statute also retained.
• Specified inputs for the manufacture of orthopedic implants exempted from import duty. 13

    Infotainment

• To address the difficulties experienced by film industry in importing digital masters of films for duplication or distribution loaded on electronic medium vis-a-vis those imported on cinematographic film, owing to a differential customs duty structure, customs duty to be charged only on the value of the carrier medium. The same dispensation would apply to music and gaming software imported for duplication. In all such cases the value representing the transfer of intellectual property rights would be subjected to service tax.
• Provide project import status at a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent with full exemption from special additional duty to the initial setting up “Digital Head End” equipment by multi-service operators.

   Precious Metals

• Rates on precious metals indexed as follows:
• On gold and platinum from Rs.200 per 10 grams to Rs.300 per 10 grams
• On silver from Rs.1,000 per kg to Rs.1,500 per kg.
• Basic customs on Rhodium – a precious metal used for polishing jewellery reduced to 2 per cent.
• Basic customs duty on gold ore and concentrates reduced from 2 per cent ad valorem to a specific duty of Rs.140 per 10 grams of gold content with full exemption from special additional duty. Further, the excise duty on refined gold made from such ore or concentrate reduced from 8 per cent to a specific duty of Rs.280 per 10 grams.

   Other Proposals

• Full exemption from import duty available to specified inputs or raw materials required for the manufacture of sports goods expanded to cover a few more items.
• Basic customs duty on one of key components in production of micro-wave ovens, namely magnetrons, reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.
• Value limit of Rs. 1 lakh per annum on duty-free import of commercial samples as personal baggage enhanced to Rs. 3 lakh per annum.
• Outright exemption from special additional duty provided to goods imported in a pre-packaged form for retail sale. This would also cover mobile phones, watches and ready-made garments even when they are not imported in pre-packaged form. The refund-based exemption is also being retained for cases not covered by the new dispensation.
• Toy balloons fully exempted from Central Excise duty.
• Reduction in basic customs duty on long pepper from 70 per cent to 30 per cent;
• Reduction in basic customs duty on asafoetida from 30 per cent to 20 per cent;
• Reduction in central excise duty on replaceable kits for household type water filters other than those based on RO technology to 4 per cent;
• Reduction in central excise duty on corrugated boxes and cartons from 8 per cent to 4 per cent;
• Reduction in central excise duty on latex rubber thread from 8 per cent to 4 per cent; and ! Reduction in excise duty on goods covered under the Medicinal and Toilet Preparations Act from 16 per cent to 10 per cent.
• Proposals relating to customs and central excise are estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs. 43,500 crore for the year.

    Service Tax

• Rate of tax on services retained at 10 per cent to pave the way forward for GST.
• Certain services, hitherto untaxed, to be brought within the purview of the service tax levy. These to be notified separately.
• Process of refund of accumulated credit to exporters of services, especially in the area of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing, made easy by making necessary changes in the definition of export of services and procedures.
• Accredited news agencies which provide news feed online that meet certain criteria, exempted from service tax.
• Proposals relating to service tax are estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs 3,000 crore for the year.
• Proposals on direct taxes estimated to result in a revenue loss of Rs. 26,000 crore for the year. Proposals relating to Indirect Taxes estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs. 46,500 crore for the year. Taking into account the concessions being given in the tax proposals and measures taken to mobilize additional resources, the net revenue gain is estimated to be Rs. 20,500 crore for the year.

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Author: News Editor

Trak.in News Editor Team brings you the latest and the most buzzing Indian news. If you would like to be a part of it, please get in touch with us.

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Last year we had a bumper Economy Survey, which really raised the hopes of one and all including the stock Market – though the actual budget did not live up to the hype and expectations.

Contrary to that, this year’s economy survey seems quite a muted one. Indian Government just released the complete report on their official Portal:

The fiscal year 2009-10 began as a difficult one. There was a significant slowdown in the growth rate in the second half of 2008-09, following the financial crisis that began in the industrialized nations in 2007 and spread to the real economy across the world. The growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008-09 was 6.7 per cent, with growth in the last two quarters hovering around 6 per cent.

There was apprehension that this trend would persist for some time, as the full impact of the economic slowdown in the developed world worked through the system. It was also a year of reckoning for the policymakers, who had taken a calculated risk in providing substantial fiscal expansion to counter the negative fallout of the global slowdown. Inevitably, India’s fiscal deficit increased from the end of 2007-08, reaching 6.8 per cent (budget estimate, BE) of GDP in 2009-10.

A delayed and severely subnormal monsoon added to the overall uncertainty. The continued recession in the developed world, for the better part of 2009-10, meant a sluggish export recovery and a slowdown in financial flows into the economy. Yet, over the span of the year, the economy posted a remarkable recovery, not only in terms of overall growth figures but, more importantly, in terms of certain fundamentals, which justify optimism for the Indian economy in the medium to long term.

Here are the Links to all Economy Survey Documents that talk about Economy Survey in details:

• State of the Economy and Prospects
• Micro-Foundations of Inclusive Growth
• Fiscal Developments and Public Finance
• Prices and Monetary Management
• Financial Intermediation and Markets
• Balance of Payments
• International Trade
• Agriculture and Food Management
• Industry
• Energy, Infrastructure and Communications
• Human Development, Poverty and Public Programmes
• Statistical Tables

I am now anxiously waiting for Pranab’s presentation of Union Budget, which should start in next half an hour – What is more important from my personal perspective is how stock Markets react to the budget. I am having a feeling that Stock Markets are going to tank, hope I am wrong !

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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The Telecom Subscription growth does not stop at anything. Nearly an year back, we were averaging about 12 million subscribers a month – I had thought that in next 12 months the monthly growth rate should stabilize to around 10 million, but it does not seem like happening. Infact, it has nearly doubled and last few months have averaged around 18-19 million subscriber additions.

According to latest report by TRAI, the Telecom Subscribers in India have reached to 581 million which brings the overall Teledensity of India to 49.7%

Here are the Highlights of the January Telecom Subscriber Report:

• Total Telephone subscriber base reaches 581.81 Million
  • Wireless subscription reaches 545.05 Million
  • Wireline subscription declines to 36.76
• 19.90 Million new additions in wireless
• Wireline subscription declines by 0.31 Million
• Overall Tele-density reaches 49.50
• Broadband subscription is 8.03 million

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 581.81 Million at the end of January-2010 from 562.21 Million in December-09, thereby registering a growth rate of 3.49%. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches
49.50.

Wireless Segment (GSM, CDMA & FWP)

Wireless subscriber base increased from 525.15 Million in December-09 to 545.05 Million at the end of January-2010 at a monthly growth rate of 3.79%. Wireless Tele-density stands at 46.37.

Telecom Subscriber Market Share

Bharti remains the largest Telecom Market Share holder with 22.33% subscribers, followed by Reliance (17.72) and Vodafone (17.27).

Broadband Subscribers

The Broadband subscriber base remains dismal – With a population of 1 Billion, we have less than 8 million subscribers, which gives us broadband density of just 0.8% !! I dont know when this is going to improve. While we are doing phenomenally well in mobile subscriptions, we are equally dismal when it comes to broadband connectivity

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Sachin Tendulkar is God – Thats what was trending on twitter just now – He has done that no other cricketer has done in the history of cricket – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar created history by becoming the only batsman to score 200 runs in one day Internationals.

It is such an unbelievable feat – and if you have not witnessed it – Here is your chance to see it !

Can you Imagine – on Twitter #cricket #Sachin #SachinIsGod #Tendulkar and #ODI are 5 of the 10 trending topics. I am not sure so many trending topics were witnessed ever before on just one occasion – you can imagine how mammoth this is…

Sachin Tendulkar’s double century in One Day Internationals against South Africa

Note: This is not something that you normally see on a Business Blog, but it is history in making – how could we miss it !!

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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