When to Withdraw money from PF,PPF

Any financial planner will tell you that the best way to face a financial emergency is to be prepared for it by making adequate arrangements to tackle it. Often, creating a contingency fund is the first step in financial planning. But very few adopt such a systematic approach and end up scraping the bottom of the barrel to meet exigencies.

They don't hesitate to even tap expensive sources of funds like credit cards and personal loans, failing to realise the harm such costly source of funds can do to their finances over a period of time. Instead, they can turn to their long-term savings, if any, to tide over the financial emergency. For instance, you can look at liquidating your investments or withdrawing from your provident fund (PF) and public provident fund (PPF). Loans, too, can be availed of against such investments.

PROVIDENT FUND

Being a mandatory form of investment in most organisations, a salaried individual is likely to have some savings in his/her PF account. You can dip into it in times of crises. Donote though that if you make a withdrawal within five years of continuous employment, it will be liable to tax, unless you demonstrate that it is being done to fund the purchase of a house or your daughter's wedding.

A tax free withdrawal is also allowed if you are unemployed due to ill health. This apart, you can also avail of a loan against your PF.

PUBLIC PROVIDENT FUND

Now, PPF is made up of voluntary contribution made by an individual with the objective of building a retirement corpus. Unlike PF, this does not entail any employer contribution. Contributions made to PPF can be claimed as deductions under section 80C, subject to the overall ceiling. On maturity, the proceeds received are tax-free as well, making it the most attractive and popular avenue for retirement planning. Like PF, this can be used during financial emergencies.

For the purpose, the account needs to be at least seven years old. You are allowed to make one withdrawal every year from the seventh year, subject to a formula – roughly 50% of your PPF balance three years prior to the date of withdrawal. Again, you can borrow against your PPF from the third financial year of opening the account.

You are permitted to borrow upto 25% of the balance two years before the withdrawal. Though you can exercise these options in times of desperate need,you need to remember that it is best to create a contingency fund to meet financial exigencies . By withdrawing from the PF and PPF accounts, you stand to lose out on the compounding effect which is essential for your investment to acquire a decent size by the time you retire.

Source: Economic Times & www.investmentkit.com

Model Questions for IPO Examination(FHB Vol. I&II)

1 Model Questions for IPO Examination 1: View / Dowdload

2. Model Questions for IPO Examination -2

3. Model Questions for IPO Examination- FHB Part I Question No 67-86


4. Model Questions for IPO Examination (Q67-107 FHB Vol)


5. Model Questions for IPO Examination (Q108-125 FHB Vol II )

6. Model Questions for IPO Examination Q126-Q145 FHB Volume II

Alcohol for Diabetics

Alcohol for Diabetics

Alcohol is everywhere – at family gatherings, at cookouts, after the cricket game, at parties…. "What would you like to have?" someone asks. If you have diabetes, what should you say?

It all depends. Start by asking yourself three basic questions:

1. Is my diabetes under control?
2. Does my doctor agree that I am free from health problems that alcohol can make worse - for example, diabetic nerve damage or high blood pressure?
3. Do I know how alcohol can affect me and my diabetes?

If you said "yes" to all three, it's okay to have an occasional drink. What does occasional mean? The American Diabetes Association suggests that you have no more than two drinks a day if you are a man and no more than one drink a day if you are a woman, though an increasing number of experts suggest that you have only three or four drinks a week. This recommendation is the same for people without diabetes.

Your Body and Alcohol
Alcohol moves very quickly into the blood without being broken down (metabolised) in your stomach. Within five minutes of having a drink, there's enough alcohol in your blood to be measured. 30 to 90 minutes after having a drink, the alcohol in your bloodstream is at its highest level.

Your liver does most of the job of breaking down the alcohol once it is in your body. But it needs time. If you weigh 68 Kgs, it will take about two hours to metabolise a beer or mixed drink. If you drink alcohol faster than your liver can break it down, the excess alcohol moves through your bloodstream to other parts of your body. Brain cells are easy targets. When someone talks about getting a buzz from alcohol, this is what they are feeling.

Risk of Low Blood Sugar
If you have diabetes and take insulin shots or oral diabetes pills, you risk low blood sugar when you drink alcohol. To protect yourself, never drink on an empty stomach. Plan to have your drink with a meal or after eating a snack.

How does alcohol add to your chances of having low blood sugar? It has to do with your liver. Normally, when your blood sugar level starts to drop, your liver steps in. It goes to work changing stored carbohydrate into glucose. Then it sends the glucose out into the blood, which helps you avoid or slow down a low blood sugar reaction. However, when alcohol enters your system, this changes. Alcohol is a toxin. Your body reacts to alcohol like a poison. The liver wants to clear it from the blood quickly. In fact, the liver won't put out glucose again until it has taken care of the alcohol! If your blood glucose level is falling, you can quickly wind up with very low blood sugar.

This is why drinking as little as 2 ounces of alcohol (that's about 57 ml; around two drinks) on an empty stomach can lead to very low blood sugar. When you mix alcohol and exercise, you increase the risk of going low. This can happen because exercise helps lower your blood sugar levels. Let's say you've just played a couple of hard sets of tennis. You have a beer after the match. But in the hours after the game, your body is still working. It is replacing the energy your muscles used up. To do this, it clears glucose from the blood and adds it to the muscles' store. This is why exercise can cause your blood sugar level to go down.

If you take insulin or diabetes pills, they too are working to clear glucose from your blood. Unless you eat or your liver adds glucose to your blood, you could be heading for a low blood sugar level. If you drink a beer, the alcohol will stop your liver from sending out any glucose. Your chances of going low are even higher. Check with your doctor to see if it is alright to combine alcohol with your diabetes medications. Low blood sugar when drinking, is less of a risk for those with type 2 diabetes, who control their diabetes with meal planning and exercise alone.

Alcohol affects your body's ability to get over a low blood sugar level. If you have low blood sugar, you may need to treat it more than once, as time goes by. If you've been drinking, check your blood sugar before you go to sleep. Eat a snack before you retire to avoid a low blood sugar reaction while you sleep.

Your Diabetic Wife Diabetes mellitus is like your wife, It will be with you throughout your life;It's yours to adjust and compromise, With all the resources that form your premise. Diabetes and militancy cannot be terminated, It can be controlled but not eliminated; It affects every part of your body's action, And shows its might with destruction. Diabetes is a dangerous companion, It engulfs you without compassion; Dips you it in deep sea to fret, With aggression, without regret. Control your diabetes with ideal weight, Drugs are secondary but they can't wait; Exercise and diet together, Can almost protect you forever. Keep you lipids level in the safe zone, And your HbA1c within seven alone; As if in heaven, learn to enjoy life, Without changing you lifestyle or your 'wife'. Dr. K Babu Rao is Rtd Sr. Medical Superintendent, Railways, and Consulting Surgeon & Physician, Visakhapatnam

A Warning
Glucagon shots don't help severe low blood glucose caused by drinking. Glucagon shots treat very severe low blood glucose reactions caused by too much insulin. Glucagon works by getting your liver to release more glucose into your blood. But alcohol stops this process. You need to be able to treat your reaction with a carbohydrate, such as oral glucose tablets or gels. So you need to avoid letting a low blood glucose level become severe. If you pass out, you will need glucose injected into your bloodstream by a healthcare professional. Heavy drinking over time can hurt your liver. It won't be able to make glucose as well. When this happens, your diabetes is harder to control.

Wise Drink Choices
Some drinks are better choices for people with diabetes. Select drinks that are lower in alcohol and sugar. If you use mixers in your drinks, choose ones that are sugar free, such as diet soft drinks, diet tonic, club soda, or water. This will help keep your blood sugar levels in your target range.

Light beer and dry wines are good choices. They have less alcohol and carbohydrates and fewer calories. To make drinks last longer, try a "spritzer": Mix wine with sparkling water, club soda, or diet soda. Try a "virgin" Bloody Mary made without alcohol.

Alcohol is a Poor Choice
People with diabetes should preferably not drink alcohol. Alcohol can make some diabetic problems worse. If you have nerve damage from diabetes in your arms or legs, drinking can make it worse. Alcohol is toxic to nerves. Drinking can increase the pain, burning, tingling, numbness, and other symptoms found with nerve damage. Some studies show that even regular light drinking (less than two drinks per week) can bring on nerve damage.Heavy drinking (three or more drinks per day) may make diabetic eye disease worse. If you have high blood pressure, you can lower it if you stop drinking alcohol. Many people with diabetes have high levels of the fat called triglycerides in their blood. If you do, you should not drink alcohol. Alcohol affects how the liver clears fat from the blood. Alcohol also spurs the liver on to make more triglycerides. Even light drinking can raise triglyceride levels.





Courtesy-Dr. R N Mehrotra at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad & http://tkbsen.blogspot.com

Gratuity Amount Calculation

Employees, as defined here, are the ones hired on company payrolls. Trainees are not eligible and gratuity is paid on the basis of the employee’s basic plus dearness allowance if any.

How much can you get?

You become entitled to a gratuity on resignation or on retirement after five years or more of service. As per the Act, the gratuity amount is 15 days’ wages multiplied by the number of years put in by you. Here wage means your basic plus dearness allowance. Take the monthly salary drawn by you last (basic plus dearness allowance) on resignation or retirement and divide it by 26, assuming there are four Sundays in a month. This is your daily salary. Multiply this amount by 15 days and further with the number of years you have put into service.

For instance, if your average monthly salary is Rs 50,000, the gratuity payable to you after 10 years of service would be Rs 290,000. However your employer factors in another term: ‘uninterrupted service’. The term covers the service period of the employee including leaves or breaks, except periods notified as breaks in service by the employer.

For employees who do not fall under the Gratuity Act, the amount due for them is half of the average ten months’ salary multiplied by the number of years of service.

How to calculate Gratuity ?

Gratuity = (Last drawn salary + Dearness Allowance / 26) x 15 x Number of years of service

Source : Rediff & igecorner.com

How to Remove Friends on Facebook

Want to delete a friend on Facebook? This guide will show you how to do it.

Once you have logged in to Facebook, on the top right of the page, click on the Account tab and then select the Edit Friends option, which is the one highlighted in the next image:

Once you have done that, you will be directed to a new page. Click on the large button that says "Recently Interacted," located right above your list of friends, and select "All friends" in the appearing menu. This way you will see the list of all your Facebook friends.

Now you just have to click on the big X at the right side of each friend you want to remove. Facebook will ask you if you are sure, and you will have to click on the button that says "Remove from Friends" to confirm the action.

Although this way you will remove one friend at a time, this method is also the most comfortable way to remove multiple friends on Facebook.

Special Recruitment Drives for backlog Vacancies reserved for SCs/STs/OBCs/PWDs

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Government Launches Drive to fill up Vacant Posts of SCs/STs/OBCs/PWDs

The Government has launched a drive to fulfil the backlog vacancies of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs and Persons with Disabilities.

This is following a review of the vacancy position in these categories by the Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension, Shri V.Narayansamy recently. All Ministries/Departments have been directed to fill up all the vacant posts in these categories by March 31, 2012.

The Government has been concerned about non-filling up of large number of backlog vacancies reserved for SCs/STs/OBCs/PWDs. Therefore, two Special Recruitment Drives – one for SCs, STs and OBCs another for PWDs were launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

The Drives enabled various offices to fill up about 26750 backlog vacancies but large number of such vacancies are remaining to be filled up.

Source: PIB

INDIA POST Inaugurates National Philalelic Meseum

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) The Department of Posts (DoP) Monday inaugurated the National Philatelic Museum which will exhibit rare postage stamps from across the world and also provide a platform to philatelists to exhibit their collections.

‘The museum will provide enhanced and interactive platform for promoting philately and will stimulate interest for stamp collection among children,’ Radhika Doraiswamy, secretary Department of Posts, told reporters here.

The museum will be open Mondays to Fridays — it will also be open on Saturdays for school groups on request. It will have an entry fee but the amount has yet not been decided. ‘There will be a nominal entry fee,’ said Doraiswamy.

The museum has bays dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi and the prime ministers of India, along with freedom fighters. It also has stamps on several themes such as science andtechnology, transport and wildlife.

There are stamps from abroad, and displays from the Army Postal Service and IndiaSecurity Press, Nashik.

The museum also has an amphitheatre for talk shows and presentations along with a reference library. In the artists corner, the department has showcased the actual designing of a stamp and also plans to invite artists from time to time to give live demonstrations.

Resolution on GDS Problems

Ref. No. GDS/CHQ/1A/Resolution/2011 Dated. 11-07- 2011

To

The Secretary,

Department of Posts,

Dak Bhawan,

New Delhi-110001.

Madam,

Sub.: Resolution on GDS Problems – Reg.

A resolution adopted in the Central Working Committee meeting of A.I.P.E.D.E.U. held at Chennai, Tamilnadu Circle on 18-06-2011 on the subject is forwarded herewith.

You are requested kindly to consider the views put forth in the resolution and cause to issue necessary orders accordingly.

With high regards,

Yours faithfully

D.A. (1) Sd/-

(S.S. MAHADEVAIAH)

General Secretary

RESOLUTIONS

18-06-2011 C .W.C of AIPEDEU at Chennai,

1. Scrap Gramin Dak Sevaks (Conduct and Engagement) Rules 2011 and grant "Status/Regularisation as Government Servant" to GDS employees.

Implement Supreme Court Judgement for Payment of DCRG and Pension to all GDS employees.

2. Family pension scheme at par with regular employees is to be introduced for GDS also.

3. Grant all retirement benefits with effect from 01.01.2006.

4. Remove present age condition and enhance age limit up to 40 years, 43 years and 45 years for O.C., O.B.C and SC/ST for appearing P.A Examination. The present system of selection to PAS from GDS should be changed. GDS employees should be selected in order of merit of written examination irrespective of last selected candidate's percentage of marks.

5. Syllabus and new pattern for promotion examination of postman and multitask staff should be released at earliest convenience. Remove the condition offering 25% postmen and Multitask Staff vacancies to the out siders. New recruitment rules for Postman and Multitask Staff should be modified in consultation with GDS,CHQ.

6. Remove tightening of norms for GDS BPMs i.e. Rs. 20,000/- to earn one point and Rs. 900/- stamp sale for one point and allow status quo Ante.

7. Grant Transfers to GDS without affecting the yearly increases earned by them.

8. Grant Rs. 3500/- Ceiling as Bonus to GDS employees.

9. Grant all Trade Union Facilities to GDS union at all leads and its office leaves including Foreign Service to Chief executives form Circle to All India.

10. Formation of JCM at all levels with GDS representatives to negotiate the Anomalies of GDS Committee to redress the grievances of GDS employees.

Sd/-
President

--
S.S.Mahadevaiah
General Secretary
All India Postal Extra Departmental Employees Union


Source : http://ruralpostalemployees.blogspot.com/

Sixth Central Pay Commissions Recommendations amendment of services Rules regarding

s the Recruitment Rules/Service Rules are required to be amended after incorporating the OM No.AB1401716112008-Estt(RR) dated 24.3.2009. The DOPT directed all the Ministries/Departments/Cadre Controlling Authorities of Organized Group 'A' Services to take immediate necessary action for notification of Service Rules positively by 31.3.2012 in consultation with DOPT,UPSC and Ministry of Law vide OM No.AB.14017/61/2008-Estt. (RR)/Pt. dated 8th July, 2011. The said OM is placed below.
Click here for OM

Change in Designation of Sorting Postman -Clarification

D.G. Posts No. 25-20/2008-PE.I dated 12^th July, 2011.

Please refer to this Directorate's letter of even number dated 04.05.2011 vide which the post of Sorting Postman has been re-designated as Postman and both Postman and Sorting Postman have been given a common generic designation Postman.

2. During the meetings of the Staff Federations with the Secretary (Posts), the Federations have raised following issues in connection with the implementation of the ibid order in the fields:

(i) Circles are either abolishing or redeploying the posts of Sorting Postman. Such posts may be restored.

(ii) All the Postman are being put on the job of Beat Sorting at a time.

3. This is wrong interpretation and implementation of the said order of the Directorate. Nowhere in the order is it mentioned that posts of Sorting Postman are either to be abolished or redeployed and all the Postmen are to be put on the Beat Sorting work at a time. In fact, the order is very lucid that post of Sorting Postman is re-designated as Postman. Therefore, such abolished or redeployed posts of Sorting Postman may be restored immediately. The designation of the existing Sorting Postman may not be changed.

4. Further, in the third para of the aforesaid order, it is indicated that concerned Divisional Head or Sr. Postmaster has to work out the exact requirement of Postmen required for Beat Sorting on the basis of the total number un-registered mail received for delivery as per the existing norms. Hence, concerned authorities in the Division to decide the number of Postmen to be put on the Beat Sorting job on the basis of existing norms. Thus, all the postmen are not to be put on the Beat Sorting work at a time. Rather, each one of them should be assigned the said job on turn-by-turn basis while observing the existing norms.

5. Further, the number of postmen deployed for Beat Sorting should be to ensure that Beat Sorting, is completed one hour before the postmen leave for delivery so that necessary documentations and procedural requirement could be completed, which are necessary for carrying out the delivery effectively.

6. It, is therefore, requested to please look into the issue personally and ensure correct and effective implementation of the Directorate's order dated 04.05.2011.

7. It may please be accorded Top Priority.

This issues with the approval of the Competent Authority.

View Original Order Below