Sunday 31 July 2016

Day-10 - IPO Exam - MCQ - Union of India and its Territory & Citizenship (Constitution of India)





Source: PO Tools

Day - 9 - IPO Exam - Preamble (Constitution of India)

Day - 9 - IPO Exam - Preamble (Constitution of India)


















Claiming tax relief on salary arrears? Don't forget to file Form 10E

Receiving salary or pension in arrears might change your tax situation. You may fear it's going to move you up a tax slab. Or tax rates may be higher in the year arrears are received as compared to the year to which they belong. To protect you from any additional tax burden, due to delay in receiving income, the tax laws allow a relief under Section 89(1). This relief can be directly claimed in your income tax return, if you have received any portion of your salary in arrears. 

The Income Tax Department has made it mandatory to file Form 10E if you want to claim relief under Section 89(1). As per Section 89(1), tax relief is provided by recalculating tax for both the years; the year in which arrears are received and the year to which the arrears pertain. Your taxes are adjusted assuming arrears were received in the year in which they were due. 

Let's understand this calculation in detail. Tax for the year in which arrears are received is calculated both inclusive as well as exclusive of arrears. The difference is the tax on additional salary, let's call it x. Now tax is computed for every year to which the arrears pertain- including as well as excluding arrears. The difference is arrived at, let's call it y. If x is more than y, relief is available to the taxpayer. 

Here are some important things to remember while claiming relief on arrears: 

  • Form 10E must be filed online on the Income Tax Department website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in . Taxpayers who claimed relief last financial year but did not file Form 10E received a notice from the department for non-compliance. Your return is not processed until you submit this form. 
  • You must submit Form 10E before filing your income tax return. 
  • Many taxpayers are confused about which assessment year to choose while filing Form 10E. Arrears may pertain to earlier years, however, one has to choose the assessment year in which arrears have been received. For example, if arrears are received in financial year FY 2015-16, choose assessment year as AY 2016-17. 
  • Form 10E has to be submitted online and no copy is required to be attached with your tax return. However, you must file and keep all documents safely in your records. 
  • Your employer may ask for confirmation of submission of Form 10E before adjusting your taxes and allowing tax relief. It is not mandatory to submit this form to the employer. You can claim tax relief by filing this form at the time of submitting your tax returns. 
  • Salary is usually taxable when it is due or when it actually received, whichever is earlier. Arrears are usually announced from a back date and therefore cannot be taxed when due. 

Relief under Section 89(1) is also allowed to those who receive family pension in arrears. The calculation is the same as mentioned above. Do remember this very important step while filing your returns if you have received arrears during the financial year. 

(By Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO, ClearTax.com) 

Source:-The Economic Times

Saturday 30 July 2016

Shri B. V. Sudhakar is our new Postal Director General

Shri B. V. Sudhakar is our new Director General

G Mail to be stopped w.e.f. 01.09.2016 in India Post domain

This is regarding regularizing email communications between various levels in the Indiapost VPN network. Towards implementation of the Technology Policy, the following email policy is proposed to be adopted, from 1st September 2016.
  1. Email from India post email ID to all other emails are to be allowed in the Indiapost VPN Network
  2. Emails from any other emails to India post mail ID is to be allowed
  3. Emails of all other email service providers like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail etc will not be allowed to open in India post VPN Network
Email IDS have been provided to all offices in the country.
  • All official designations (Officers) up to Sub-Divisions have already been created and communicated
  • Email IDs to offices in 10 Circles, up to Single handed SPMs completed
  • Email IDs to all offices in Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi circles would be circulated by 10thAugust 2016
  • Email IDs to all offices in Maharashtra, Gujrat, Tamilnadu, Andhra pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab Circle would be circulated by 15th August 2016.
Hence, all officials at all levels should be informed and educated to use India post email ID for all correspondences. The email communications between circles, regions, divisions and post offices including the system administrators should be strictly implemented to use India post mail IDs alone.

This may kindly be circulated to all concerned to prepare them for using Indiapost email, as access to all other mail services would be stopped from 1st September 2016 in our network.

Yours Sincerely,

(V M Sakthivelu)
Deputy Director CEPT

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Monday 25 July 2016

NASA's New Horizons postage stamp enters Guinness Book of World Records!

Image courtesy: NASA/Dan Afzal/U.S. Postal Service

New Delhi: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is currently administering a probe in and around Pluto and for those of you who are unaware, it is also carrying a 1991 “Pluto Not Yet Explored” postage stamp.

Yesterday, July 19, NASA proudly announced that the stamp in question has earned a Guinness Book of World Record honour for the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp!

Jimmy Coggins, official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, during a presentation ceremony on July 19 in the Hall of Flags at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said, “Our mission is to make the amazing official,” as reported by NASA.

Well, it certainly seems like they have! As per NASA, the 29-cent “Pluto Not Yet Explored” stamp became a rallying cry for the New Horizons mission team, which affixed it on the spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Florida, prior to launch on Jan. 19, 2006. The stamp hitched a ride of more than 3.2 billion miles to Pluto, reaching the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015, bringing humanity its first breathtaking close-ups of the mysterious world.

However, the stamp was cancelled last July when New Horizons flew past Pluto.

The “Pluto Not Yet Explored” stamp is now 274-million miles (441-million kilometers) beyond Pluto, in a quest of sorts, it seems, to break its own record.

8500 post offices will turn into e-Centers by June next year

State Minister for Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Thursday said the government would turn 8,500 post offices into e-centres by June, 2017 to disseminate information and communication technology services to the rural people across the country. He said this on behalf of State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Begum Tarana Halim while replying to a starred question from treasury bench member Sukumar Ranjan Ghosh in the House.

The government has undertaken a project named Post E-Centre for the Rural Community to turn the post offices into e-centers, he said adding, these e-centers would minimize the digital divide between cities and villages, create employment facilities in villages and develop information and technology based skilled manpower.

He said after completing the project, the people would get more updated facilities from post offices and they would be able to track and trace their letters sitting at home. The people would also be able to use cash, postal cash cards or electronic money transfer service (EMTS) and to pay their e-commerce bills through the services, Palak said. Meanwhile, establishment of the ICT based rural post offices has been completed and such 1,000 more offices will be established by June 2017, he added.

Source : http://dailyasianage.com/

Cyber Attacks Continue and Global Banking Sector in Anxiety

Posted: 24 Jul 2016 05:56 AM PDT
A series of spectacular cyber-attacks against banks, resulting in the theft of tens of millions of dollars, has heightened fears for an industry becoming an increasingly attractive target for hackers.

Banks in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam and Ecuador have been victimized over the past year in the attacks on the global interbank service known as SWIFT, and some analysts expect more attacks to become public.

After news of the $81 million heist from Bangladesh's central bank became public in May, SWIFT said the incident was "not a single occurrence, but part of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks."

Since then, officials said banks have also been hit in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Meanwhile Ecuador's Banco del Austro claimed in a lawsuit that hackers made off with more than $9 million through fraudulent SWIFT transfer requests.

Cyber security specialists say these attacks are likely just the tip of the iceberg, and expect more revelations.

"Cyber criminals are no longer targeting grandmothers at home for small amounts, but going directly where the money is," said Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a researcher with the security firm Kaspersky.

Guerrero-Saade said it's not clear where the attacks are coming from, but that the hackers are using techniques similar to those developed for cyber espionage.

"I don't think this implies it's nation-states, it's more of an evolution," the analyst said. "It's criminal actors taking on some of those techniques."

Kaspersky researchers last year uncovered a hacker group which targeted banks in Eastern Europe, estimating losses totaling up to $1 billion.

Dan Guido, cofounder of the security firm Trail of Bits and hacker-in-residence at New York University's engineering school, said the recent security breaches are not surprising.

"I didn't think it would take this long," Guido said.

"There are a large number of attacks like this possible if someone has the resources to do it."

Guido said a relatively small team of determined hackers could carry out the kind of hacks that went through SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a Brussels-based network which is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries.

The blame, Guido said, rests squarely with SWIFT for failing to bolster its software or require more secure hardware.

"It's clearly within their control to have prevented incidents like this," Guido said.

"They could have had more aggressive security requirements, they could have had protective hardware."

On July 11, SWIFT announced it had hired cyber security firms BAE Systems and Fox-IT while creating its own security intelligence team in an effort to thwart attacks.

In the United States, concerns have been raised among officials, industry leaders and lawmakers about potential threats to banks from hackers.

Data breaches in the past affected some tens of millions of JPMorgan Chase customers, and accounts from financial giant Morgan Stanley. And a congressional report in June found "major data breaches" at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Senator Tom Carper last month asked the Department of Homeland Security for a briefing for an investigation into vulnerabilities of the US financial system.

The American Bankers Association in July joined with other financial and security organizations to warn of possible risks.

"While recent events targeted national financial institutions with access to a global payment network, financial institutions should assess the risk of all critical systems to ensure appropriate controls are in place," said the warning, calling for a series of new controls and safeguards against cyber-attacks.

Christiaan Beek of Intel's McAfee Labs said the hackers that targeted SWIFT were well organized and resourceful.

"We can see that the attackers have done their reconnaissance properly and may have used an insider to get the details they needed to prepare their attack," Beek said in a blog post.

"The attackers have a very good understanding of the SWIFT messaging system and how to manipulate the system to prevent the detection of their fraudulent attempts of transferring the money."

Researchers at the security firm Symantec concluded that malware used in the bank hacks shared code with that used in the massive 2014 cyber attack against Sony Pictures.

Guido said it is entirely plausible that US banks could face similar attacks.

"I don't see why it can't happen here," he said.

"There are a lot of smaller banks that don't have expertise and guidance to protect their interconnections."

Guerrero-Saade said a key part of staying ahead of hackers is sharing information about threats to enable security solutions, since many companies fear disclosure would hurt their business.

"Sadly most companies don't tend to be very forward looking, they think that if they don't sound the bell themselves no one will find out," he said.

"It's much better for us to get ahead of this as an international community."

source: Times of India

Sunday 24 July 2016

India Post to Open Payment Bank in Every District in India

Posted: 22 Jul 2016 11:41 AM PDT
India Post expects to start the first 50 branches of its payments bank by May 2017, seeking to widen financial inclusion in the country.

As per the current plan, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) - as it has been termed will eventually have 650 branches across the country.

While the first set of branches will open by May, the remaining will start operations by September 2017, a top official of the Department of Posts said.

The department hopes to submit a final proposal to the Reserve Bank of India by February, ahead of the March 2017 deadline, after it has the required management and technology in place, SK Sinha, secretary, Department of Posts, told .


The RBI gave in-principle approval to 11 applicants in August last year, including the Department of Posts, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Airtel M Commerce Services, Fino PayTech, National Securities Depository, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and Vodafone m-pesa, for setting up payments banks. Three of the 11 entities have decided to back out, citing unviability.

India Post, with a network of about 155,000 post offices, will hire almost 2,000 people for the payments bank operations.

"There will be nine board members, five from outside and four internal people from the department, including the CEO," said Sinha.

The department is contemplating whether it can form its own search and selection committee to appoint a CEO or rely on the standard procedure followed by public sector banks for top-level appointments.

The department has written to state-owned banks seeking nominations. Sinha said the State Bank of India has responded with some names.

"For the next rung of leadership such as the chief financial officer, chief operating officer and chief technology officer, we are forming an internal committee," he said. The government has approved Rs 400 crore equity and Rs 400 crore grant for IPPB.

Alibaba-backed Paytm is the other or payments frontrunner for payments banks in India and has drawn up a largely branchless model.

Sinha said that India Post is looking at catering to the unbanked population of the country with the idea of opening one branch in almost every district of the country.

"Most of the other players may not be even thin king of the areas that we want to service," said Sinha. The plan is to have most of the banking features such as money transfer and internet banking, apart from offering credit (in partnership with other banks or institutions), along with financial products such as mutual funds.


Sinha is betting big on the government's direct benefits transfer scheme to drive transactions, with welfare payments being deposited in the bank accounts of consumers.

updates from Post Bank of India.

Employment News : 23 - July to 29 - July 2016

Employment News : 23 - July to 29 - July 2016



JOB HIGHLIGHTS

INSTITUTE OF BANKING PERSONNEL SELECTION
Name Of Post : Probationary Officer or Management Trainees
No.of Vacancies : 8822
Last Date :13.08.2016
 
UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, New Delhi
Name Of Post : Physical Chemist, Dy. Directors, Medical Officers, and Various posts
No.of Vacancies : 17
Last Date :11.08.2016
 
INDIAN ARMY, TAMIL NADU
Name Of Post : Engineers in Various Streams
No.of Vacancies : 170
Last Date :24.08.2016
 
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA SERVICE BOARD, Mumbai
Name Of Post : Officers in grade ‘B’
No.of Vacancies : 182
Last Date :09.08.2016
 
AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF INDIA, Delhi
Name Of Post : Junior Assistant
No.of Vacancies : 60
Last Date :08.08.2016
 
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED
Name Of Post : Operator-Cum-Technician, Attendant-Cum-Technician, Medical Officer, Dental Surgeon, Principal, Superintendant
No.of Vacancies : 226
Last Date :05.08.2016
 
INTELLIGENCE BUREAU
Name Of Post : Security Assistant (Motor Transport)
No.of Vacancies : 209
Last Date :06.08.2016
 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ROCK MECHANICS, Bengaluru
Name Of Post : Scientist, Scientist Asstt., Junior Research Fellow, a/c Officer, Office Assistant, etc
No.of Vacancies : 23
Last Date :31.08.2016

www. employmentnews.gov.in/

Source: SA Post