How to say NO with out saying NO, to Insurance Uncle.

So many times in our life, we face this situation that someone from our distant family for friend circle – UNCLE (even Aunts too) are themselves Insurance agents and try their level best to sell an insurance policy to us. Many a times, you, can’t say clear NO. But deep in your heart, you don’t want yourself to be tortured for that emotional blackmailing. What to do? How to say No?

Very simple – let the person come to your house. Welcome him/her. Sit with the person. Offer tea/coffee with snacks. Indulge in casual chit chat and wait for the marketing push. The uncle/Aunt will slowly open up and tell you a new insurance plan, tailor made for your needs. Listen carefully. Talk about it. Understand it. Cross questioning something to clear your doubts.

Now ask to calculate the premium of sum assured for 50 to 100 times of your yearly income. One small caveat – ask the premium in monthly mode. Fill the application form all by yourself. Pay that monthly first premium cheque, if money is in your budget. In all probability, even the monthly premium will be out of your budget. Ask the same person to help you with the shortfall in the premium.

Now your application will go into processing. Seeing the sum assured applied for and the income band you are in, the policy will be rejected by insurer itself.

So it’s the person, who will say no to you now. Go and enjoy it.
You may face counter offer of reducing your sum assured so that policy can be clicked. Now is the time to negotiate a term plan for same sum assured. Premium will be less than endowment policy. But stick to sum assured. You again know the outcome in advance.

Example of above thing.

If your yly income is say 5L, opt 2.5Cr or 5Cr policy in Jeevan Anand type plans.

Please apply this thing next time, you are in this situation and share your experience here in comment section.

Income Tax and Financial Decisions

What gave me the idea to write down this blog post? The recent announcement by Govt. of India that NPS is now EEE. Before going more into my post, let’s understand what actually happened in case of NPS? As per earlier rules, at the age of 60, whatever corpus you were having, below were the rules for utilization of corpus.

1. Mandatory purchase of ANNUITY from minimum 40% to maximum 100% of corpus. Annuity itself is to be purchased from Life insurers, operating in India. This ANNUITY is fully TAXABLE.
2. 40% corpus can be withdrawn Tax free.
3. 20% corpus can be withdrawn but it’s Taxable

The proposed change is not for Point no. 1 and 2 above. Only Point 3 above. Now this 20% withdrawal is also Tax free. So that’s your E-E-E in NPS.

I recently asked to group members of our facebook group – asan ideas for wealth. Barring EPF (along with VPF component), PPF, Sukanya Samridhi Yojna and interest from Tax free bonds, which other investment instrument has unlimited tax-free income? Point to be noted, Bundled insurance policies were not considered as these are not pure investment instrument. The correct answer is None. Till last FY (2017-2018), the LTCG from Direct Equity and Equity MFs (where STT is paid) was tax-free, without any limit, but this route has been blocked now.

Now, few of you may ask – What do you want to convey? As that Professor asked in movie 3 Idiots – Kehna kya chahte ho? Here it goes.

We, the average retail investors, put too much attention on INCOME TAX and the instruments, where the income MUST BE TAX FREE. The budget announcement of LTCG from Equity is not accepted well by the investor community. Let me remind you – Before Introduction of STT (securities transaction tax) in October 2004, by the Govt of that time, the LTCG from Equity was fully taxable. It was having dual Tax rates – either flat 10% or Indexed gains at 20%. The tax payer was allowed to opt any one of the rates, where the tax rate is favorable.

If the Equity LTCG was taxable, why it was made Tax free? Look closely. It was not tax-free from October 2004 to 31st March 2018. Govt charged the STT at a very small rate and let us enjoy the major part of gains. Why? At that time in 2004, not many of us were investing in Equity. Those were investing, were not reporting properly. The Govt was not having requisite infrastructure in place to track down each and every individual transaction. So Govt went into a compromise and allowed the very small rate of STT to be applied at source (Stock Exchanges or AMCs), on transactions. This way, Govt. was able to capture all the transactions happening in Stock exchanges and AMCs. In parallel, KYC norms, linking of PAN, CBS in banks and the very Income Tax department’s own infrastructure were prepared. Once all things become ready, it was not the question of WHY? It was, WHEN? the Govt. bite the bullet and announced the reintroduction of Tax on LTCG from Equity.

In parallel to above, Govt has blocked/tried several other routes of either tax-free income or tax evasion. Sample this –

1. Earlier Dividend income from Direct Equity was tax-free without any limit. Now Dividend Income more than Rs. 1000000 (in words Ten Lakh) is taxable at flat rate of 10%.
2. First through Direct Tax Code in August 2009 and later on in Budget 2016, Govt tried to make EPF and PPF Taxable.
3. 1% TDS on Property deals, where property value is more than Rs. 5000000 (in words Fifty Lakh) since 2013
4. Restricting Home loan interest benefit on rented properties to just Rs. 200000 (in words Two Lakh)
5. Mandatory linking of PAN with almost all Financial Transactions

You, the blog readers can point out several other measures.

What’s TAX FREE today, we can’t take it granted to remain TAX FREE forever. Today EPF/PPF/SSY are tax-free. The tax-free bonds are not issued fresh, hence these are now already not a new source for fresh money input to earn tax-free income in future continuously.

So my dear friends, stop cribbing about addition of Income Tax on old tax-free instruments or not getting new instruments. Be flexible. Just imagine, if EPF is merged into NPS, what’ll you do? If investment in PPF is restricted for those earning income above a cut off point (NRIs can’t invest in PPF already)? If Inheritance is made Taxable?

What is way forward? Start creating multiple Tax identities within family, within rules and legal frame-work. Those of you, who are already earning higher Tax rate primary income, should focus on HOW TO SHIFT SECONDARY INCOME TO SOME ONE ELSE’S NAME in the family.

Important point – I’m asking to do Tax Avoidance and not asking you to go for Tax Evasion. Remember the TAX AVOIDANCE is known as TAX PLANNING and allowed within the rule book. TAX EVASION  is not allowed.

IMPORTANT POINT- When you people read the word GOVT – you associate this with the sitting or representing face of the chair (be it Prime Minister or Finance Minister). If you look closely in all the information provided above, you’ll notice a pattern, irrespective of who sit in that chair, the whole system, the administration, the machinery, is moving in ONE SINGLE DIRECTION – MAKE EACH AND EVERYTHING TAXABLE. To me, the Govt is always the system, the administration, the machinery, the mechanism and of course the Babus (the bureaucrats, who are actually running the show).
Please do tell me, how are you planning to become flexible and future shock proof your portfolios from the impact of INCOME TAX? I’m waiting for your replies.

P.S. – Please stay away from making any political comments in favor of or against one political party/thought process or other side.

Term Plan beyond earning age: Is it Worthy?

Indian Life insurance landscape has changed a lot in last 2 decades or so, since the private insurers were allowed to operate in India. There was a time, only LIC was there as a monopoly and in the name of term plan, the product basket was near empty. Yes, those of you, who are old enough and might had purchased, there were plans like Bima Kiran, having Sum Assured ranging from few thousands to single digit lakhs. On top of that, this was a RETURN OF PREMIUM PLAN – ROP.

Look at today, we have 24 life insurance companies as on date (Source) doing business in India. Each one of these are having various combinations of Term Plans. One interesting observation caught my eye. Almost all insurers are now offering Term Plans well beyond the Retirement age in India. Ranging from 75 to 80Y age and few insurers are offering plans up to age 99 to 100.

A basic question to my blog readers and this is also the header of this blog post – Is it worthy to have a term plan going well beyond your retirement age, till 75-80-99-100?

To answer the above question, first we need to answer few associated questions?

1. Why do we need life insurance?
2. Why do we need purest form of life insurance – Term Cover or Term Plan?
3. How much sum assured one needs to have in term cover?
4. Do we need to purchase Riders along with Term cover?
5. What premium payment term -PPT, should we have for our Term cover?

Let’s discuss the answers for above questions –

1. To cover the financial loss, of our income, we bring to our families and dependents, resulting out of our DEATH.
2. The premium for a high sum assured + investment – combo policy will be so high that We can’t afford to pay. Also it’s advisable to keep INSURANCE and INVESTMENT needs separate.
3. There are various ways to assign Human Life Value but the most simplistic is to have a Sum assured, which can substitute your income, if the same money is kept in a simple product like BANK FIXED DEPOSIT. In simple words, 15-17 times multiple of your yly income can generate the same income, at current Bank FD interest rates of 6-6.5%. One bonus information, Most insurers don’t offer term cover beyond 20 times multiple of your yly income, taken together your all life insurance policies’ sum assured.
4. Please avoid riders along offered for a premium with your term plan, as these are neither offering adequate money not cover for the intended use and are very restrictive in their own definitions.
5. If you are a salaried or a professional with a fixed and predictable monthly income, opt for Regular Premium Payment Term. Limited or Single Premium Payment Term should be opted only by those people who are not sure of their future cash flows.

Here comes the interesting part – Your responsibility towards your family or loved ones’ bright future doesn’t end with purchasing merely a Term Plan and paying it’s premium regularly. No. Purchasing the term plan, is merely the first step. Once it’s taken, the logical next step is to start working on creating a corpus, which is large enough to sustain your dependents in your absence, till your desired time. Once this corpus is in place, answer on your own, do you need a TERM COVER?

In several discussions with people, either over phone calls or in our Facebook group – asan ideas for wealth or one to one chats, one thing I noticed – people don’t see it wrong to purchase term cover well beyond earning age and the primary reason given – this sum assured will help a bit or become a gift, to my loved ones (specially the 3rd generation).

My view – If during your earning years, you could not create enough corpus to sustain your own retirement life as well as to leave some inheritance for your next generation, it indicates a failure of financial planning done by you during your productive years – Active Income Earning Years. Barring few exceptional cases where due to late marriage or late child births or any other special family situations, most people will be able to complete their financial obligations towards family members and loved ones, either through active income already or by creating enough corpus for the intended use, if events are to be happened in post retirement life.

Now Sample this, if a 25Y old person purchase a term cover of Rs. 10000000 (One Crore) till age 100, what’s happening in terms of TIME VALUE OF MONEY? We are aware that INFLATION eats away the purchasing power of our money. On a simple note, if inflation is 7%, the Rs. 100 in our pocket today, will only be worth of Rs. 93 (adjusted for 7% inflation) after 1Y, in today’s value. Please go through the attached excel sheet to notice the impact of inflation over your lifetime for your sum assured.

time value of 1 Crore till age 100

Now answer honestly, how much happy will be your loved ones at your age 100, if you gift them money through your DEATH CLAIM which is equal to Rs. 43274 at your age 25? It can’t even cover your FUNERAL EXPENSES.

 

The Ant and Grasshopper : 21st Century

Almost all of us have either read or listen the old story of Ant and Grasshopper. Many of us are now a days aware of jokes created around this simple yet beautiful story. In this blog post, I’m trying to take the old background to convey the point, I want you to understand.

Once upon a time, there were 2 friends – Miss Ant and Mr. Grasshopper. Both belonged to same neighborhood. Both went to same schools and colleges and ended up earning same university degrees. After finishing their college education, both landed into similar job profile but in different companies but in same city.

Mr. Grasshopper was also aware of the FAMILY HISTORY of his forefather, generations ago and the misadventures of that forefather, so from his first paycheck, he started investing for a Goal.

Miss Ant on the other hand was also aware of her family history and to continue the family reputation, legacy, she was equally hard working and laborious like her older generations. She also started saving from her first paycheck, for a financial Goal.

Both were having a common Goal – To create a Corpus of Rs. 10000000 (One Crore) in next 15Y. The readers are thinking till this point, each and everything is common the life of these 2 characters of our story. Where is the difference? Please hold on with me. Here is the difference.

For their future Goal – the expected return figure, Miss Ant opted for was 10% (Post Tax).

Mr. Grasshopper was true to his family legacy and thus opted for 15% (Post Tax) figure.

With the help of so many calculators, excel sheets and more, both came to a conclusion, if no increment is made in these 15 years, the fixed monthly amount to be invested in, to reach the corpus of 1 Crore is as below.

Miss Ant            Rs. 25081

Mr. Grasshopper Rs. 16424.

Real twist in the story comes here on wards. Although these friends were investing their money on monthly basis, regularly but the performance of Market was not in their control and hence the corpus created was as below.

Case-1

Actual performance of market was just 8%. Yes, you read it right – 8% only. So the Corpus value for both friends after 15Y was as below.

Miss Ant            Rs. 8472852

Mr. Grasshopper Rs. 5548348

Case-2

Actual performance of market was 12%. So the Corpus value for both friends after 15Y was as below.

Miss Ant            Rs. 11839590 or 1.18 Crore

Mr. Grasshopper Rs. 7753018 or 

Case-3

Actual performance of market was 18%. So the Corpus value for both friends after 15Y was as below.

Miss Ant            Rs. 19845327 or 2 Crore (almost)

Mr. Grasshopper Rs. 12995481 or 1.3 Crore (almost)

Story ends here but readers of this blog, needs to introspect on their financial life. Are you having Traits of Mr. Grasshopper or you are more similar to Miss Ant?

The lesson – Instead of chasing RETURN from Market, start putting more money to work.

GST on exit load in Mutual Funds.

In it’s recent meeting of GST council, it was proposed and accepted to levy GST on the exit load charged by Mutual funds. How it’s going to impact us, the investor? Let’s discuss it and try to understand it here.

Before we move ahead, please do understand, Exit load is always charged on the redemption amount and not on your invested amount. So no matter, you are redeeming in profit or loss, if Exit load is applicable to your redemption, it’ll be levied on your redemption amount.

Let’s assume, we are redeeming Rs. 10000 (ten thousand) and the applicable Exit load is 1%. So here goes the calculations for pre GST and Post GST situations.

Case 1 – Pre GST 

A. Redemption amount = 10000

B. Exit load @ 1% = 100

C. Net redemption amount in your bank account = A – B = 10000 – 100 = 9900

Case 2 – Post GST

A. Redemption amount = 10000

B. Exit load @ 1% = 100

C. GST @18% of B = 18

D. Net redemption amount in your bank account = A – (B+C) = 10000 – (100+18) = 9882

Now one interesting thing for your information, the exit load is not the profit of AMC. As per SEBI mandate, it’s added back as part of assets of fund for the remaining investors. So, what’s the difference now for this exit load addition, for old investors, who are not redeeming?

Nothing. That 100 in our example was added in pre GST era as well as now also in Post GST era.

One important point, the exit load and GST there on, does not impact your Short or Long Term Capital Gain Tax liability. For tax calculation, your redemption amount is still 10000 in our example.

The TAX SAVING in NPS – A Calculation

A lot of young earners are fascinated with the additional tax saving offered by NPS for an investment of Rs. 50000, every FY under section 80CCD(1b). Here I’m going to check the impact of TAX saving. Are we really saving tax today?
To get the answer or to start a calculation, few assumptions are made. Here are the assumptions for your kind considerations – the readers of this blog.

The investor aka NPS subscriber –

1. Age 30Y old at the time of first investment in NPS.
2. Only Rs. 50000 yly is invested at the start of year, here year means Financial Year.
3. The retirement is taken at age 60Y. So the total investment period is 30Y.
4. The corpus is growing at 12% rate in all these 30Y.
5. Total amount over these 30Y, invested in NPS is Rs. 1500000 (50000*30 = 1500000).
6. The maturity value of NPS at age 60Y is Rs. 13514630
7. The 40% corpus is withdrawn tax free. Another 20% is withdrawn taxable and remaining 40% is used to purchase annuity from LIC under it’s immediate annuity plan, where, the Annuity (pension) is payable Yly for both husband and wife and after death of both, the purchase price is returned to to nominee/legal heirs. Point to be noted, the data available on LIC site, showing an annuity rate of 6.3% (roughly) for age 60Y person.
   

   Investment year	Maturity year	Year to remain invested	The growth rate @ 12%	Growth multiple	Amount Invested	Corpus for each individual investment	Tax saving in 30% tax slab.	Tax saving in 20% tax slab.
   2018	2048	30	1.12	29.95992	50000	1497996.1	15450	10300
   2019	2048	29	1.12	26.74993	50000	1337496.5	15450	10300
   2020	2048	28	1.12	23.88387	50000	1194193.3	15450	10300
   2021	2048	27	1.12	21.32488	50000	1066244	15450	10300
   2022	2048	26	1.12	19.04007	50000	952003.61	15450	10300
   2023	2048	25	1.12	17.00006	50000	850003.22	15450	10300
   2024	2048	24	1.12	15.17863	50000	758931.45	15450	10300
   2025	2048	23	1.12	13.55235	50000	677617.36	15450	10300
   2026	2048	22	1.12	12.10031	50000	605015.5	15450	10300
   2027	2048	21	1.12	10.80385	50000	540192.41	15450	10300
   2028	2048	20	1.12	9.646293	50000	482314.65	15450	10300
   2029	2048	19	1.12	8.612762	50000	430638.08	15450	10300
   2030	2048	18	1.12	7.689966	50000	384498.29	15450	10300
   2031	2048	17	1.12	6.866041	50000	343302.04	15450	10300
   2032	2048	16	1.12	6.130394	50000	306519.68	15450	10300
   2033	2048	15	1.12	5.473566	50000	273678.29	15450	10300
   2034	2048	14	1.12	4.887112	50000	244355.61	15450	10300
   2035	2048	13	1.12	4.363493	50000	218174.66	15450	10300
   2036	2048	12	1.12	3.895976	50000	194798.8	15450	10300
   2037	2048	11	1.12	3.47855	50000	173927.5	15450	10300
   2038	2048	10	1.12	3.105848	50000	155292.41	15450	10300
   2039	2048	9	1.12	2.773079	50000	138653.94	15450	10300
   2040	2048	8	1.12	2.475963	50000	123798.16	15450	10300
   2041	2048	7	1.12	2.210681	50000	110534.07	15450	10300
   2042	2048	6	1.12	1.973823	50000	98691.134	15450	10300
   2043	2048	5	1.12	1.762342	50000	88117.084	15450	10300
   2044	2048	4	1.12	1.573519	50000	78675.968	15450	10300
   2045	2048	3	1.12	1.404928	50000	70246.4	15450	10300
   2046	2048	2	1.12	1.2544	50000	62720	15450	10300
   2047	2048	1	1.12	1.12	50000	56000	15450	10300
   					1500000	13514630	463500	309000

   7. Now check the next table.   Here it goes.

   Tax free 40% withdrawal	Taxable 20% withdrawal	40% Annuity purchase amount	Yly annuity amount
   5405852.1	2702926.1	5405852	340713
   Tax @30% on withdrawal	835204.15		105280.3
   Tax @20% on withdrawal	556802.77		70186.85

   From the 2nd table How many of you can see the impact of TODAY’s TAX SAVING resulting in a larger TAX outgo tomorrow?
   Point to be noted, the tax outgo on annuity is lifelong. Year after year, till the couple is surviving.

Social Economics

I received this as an E-mail. Copy pasted and hence do not claim that it’s my own work. Blog readers are free to learn their own lessons from this post.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Asking right questions

Many readers of this blog are aware of PV Subramanyam. He writes a blog http://www.subramoney.com Many a times, he has asked to readers on asking right questions  to the advisers or planners or agents or sellers of financial products. Why does he say so?

My dear friends, personal finance is also about asking the right questions. Below is an old joke. Please read and understand it.

Two men went into the church and questioned to father.

Man 1 – Father, I’m drinking my glass of wine and suddenly, there is a desire within me to remember God, to pray him. Should I do it?

Father’s Ans. – My dear Son, God can be remembered any time. Please feel free to do so.

Man 2 – Father, I’m praying to God, remembering him and suddenly there is a desire within me to have a glass of wine. Should I do it?

Father’s Ans. – How dare you to do it? When you are in prayer, you should only remember God and nothing else.

Joke is over. Can you people get the point, this joke is about? Both the men were doing the same thing. Mixing drinking and prayer. Yet the answers to both were different.

Now go out and search for right questions within you, so that next time you get the right answers.

Saurashtra Darshan

The back ground:- I’m in Gujarat for last 12Y and wife is here for 11Y. Till date, we never went to visit any part of Gujarat. Wife was firing all sorts of missiles on me for not going and visiting in all these 11 years gone by. Luckily, this year, 1 week vacation in Kids’ school on account of Navratri and Dushehra gave a window to plan the things and move on. We zeroed on for Saurashtra Area of Gujarat.

Planning the trip:-  Consult my office colleagues, took help of GOOGLE and some ready made help was available on www.team-bhp.com. As I’m in Ahmedabad, following options were there, before me for the journey part.

Option 1- Ahmadabad to Dwarka (by train) – Porbandar – Somnath – Gir –  Diu (By road)  – Somnath to Ahmadabad (by train)

Option 2 – Ahmadabad – Dwarka – Porbandar – Somnath – Gir – Diu – Ahmadabad (all by road)

Option 2 was chosen as all of us were interested to take the first hand experience of the ROADs of Gujarat.

After selecting the path of our journey, we decided to not pre book any hotel as we were going in a relatively off season. Originally we planned our departure on 18^th Oct 2015 early morning, straight to Dwarka from Ahmadabad but keeping the distance in mind, at last minute, changes were made and final planning was as below.

Ahmadabad – Jamnagar (night halt on 17^th  Oct) – Narara marine nature park – Dwarka – Porbandar – Somnath – Gir – Diu – Ahmadabad.

It’s 16^th October 2015, We went for shopping of snacks and other things for Kids. Petrol tank was filled to the brim. Tyre pressure was checked and Bags were packed and Now we are ready to take off.

Day Zero – 17^th October 2015:-  It’s 14.45PM time in my clock I’m just back from my Morning shift job to home and helping my better half for that last minute packing. Now it’s 15.45PM and all 5 of us, me, wife, two kids and Gajini, are excited and moving on the trip. Here comes the first PICTURE from Odometer.

Took the Rajkot highway through the Ring road near to my home and after a continuous driving of 3.15 hours, it’s 7.00PM time, some 25 KMs away from Rajkot and we took a pit stop for fresh up and coffee for me and my better half, some ice creams for Kids and a good amount of rest of 30 min for Gajini.

After that pit stop, all 5 of us are charged now and with the help of few good traffic cops and Samaritans, were able to reach Rajkot-Jamnagar Bypass road. Voila, we are on Jamnagar road and passing by the Rajkot Cricket stadium. Heavy Police arrangement and stadium is glowing in full lights at the night. Kids enjoyed the scene and we are running fast.

It’s 9.00PM and we are in Jamnagar. Searched a bit and finally reached to the Hotel Deep Palace in Teen Batti area. Nice Hotel. Check in formalities are over and we are now in our room. Completed the dinner. Family demanded some cool stuff. Arranged the locally made Casata ice cream from Shri Ram Dairy ice cream. Nice yummy taste. A wide variety of Ice Cream is available . Family is now in rest mode and I’m discussing with Hotel staff for next day visit to Narara. I thank dear Suresh Ahaan from FB group AIFW for arranging the phone number of guide but some how, the fellow, did not pick my phone and now the hotel staff is arranging another one for me. It’s 10.30PM in the night, the guide came with another guide in tow and now we were handed over to the new fellow Mr. Ankur. I was ordered to be ready by 8-8.30AM in the morning for timely visit during low tide in Narara. It’s 11PM and now it’s the comfort of bed for me finally. Good night. Gajini is also happy to take REST. Total distance covered 322 Km. ‘Gazini’ specially liked the Rajkot – Jamnagar Highway in the night.

Day One – 18^th October 2015:- It’s 6AM, I’m making things fast for each and every one. 7.30AM, each one of us is ready and wife dear is demanding some local hot and fresh breakfast. Order fulfilled and finally at 8AM, called the guide and he assured us to be ready in 10-15 min. Check out was done. Guide arrived and 8.30AM, Gajini, me and family are on road now. Guide is on his bike to park on highway. Reached that point and now guide is also with us.

Vroom… Vrom… We are on Jamnagar – Dwarka highway. There goes the world famous Reliance Refinery on our left side. There goes GSFC DAP plant on our Right. Now we are approaching Essar Refinery at Vadinar. It’s also time to fill the petrol tank. Done the same. It’s a right turn and now we are heading to Narara. 4KMs away from Narara, it’s last shop offering mineral water bottles and confectioneries. Guide advised us to purchase the same and we followed the advice. It’s 9.45AM and finally we are at Narara marine nature park, forest office. A permit is required for entry into the park – cost 500 Rs. For the group, camera charges 200 Rs. Extra. Total Rs. 700 Money paid and receipt of the same is received. It’s 10.15AM and we are now on our feet to sea shore. Possibly it’s the only marine nature park in India, where you can watch the following in their natural habitat away from the impact of HUMANs. Let the pictures do the talking.

Daughter refused to walk down and hence she was continuously on my shoulders. After facing the harsh SUN for more than 1.30 Hours, even SON is now not interested and we are just pulling ourselves to the forest office for a shed and water. 12.30PM and finally we are back to forest office. A tiring yet satisfying experience. Back to Jamnagar – Dwarka Highway. Dropped the Guide on the junction point and paid him his fee of 1000 Rs. Now we are moving towards Dwarka. Now starts the problem. All are feeling hungry but not a decent eatery is coming on the way. Some how stopped on a petrol pump not for fuel but for a OK looking dhaba kind thing. Ordered kathiyawadi dishes, ringan to bhartho (Brinjal Bhartha), fulawar no shak (Cauliflower curry), Bataka nu shak (Potato cury), rotli (Gujarati chapatti) and Bajra no rotlo for food. Me and wife finished it. It was not what the kids prefer, hence some light snacks for them and we are back on road. Khambaliya is gone and now we are getting the view of Wind turbines. It’s indication we are approaching Dwarka.

It’s more and more Wind turbines and at last we are at Dwarka. The first hotel in the way – Hotel Krishna Inn and we are checking in. Time to take some rest as it’s 3.00PM. After a good amount of rest, all are now ready to have some food. Searched for a decent restaurant and landed into Charmi. Good one with a nice food, liked by all of us. Now we are back to hotel and after confirming the route, walking down to the DWARKADHEESH temple. A 10 min walk and we are at the temple. We are stopped at the security checking gate by the personnel there. Deposited the Camera, Mobile, Keys to the clock room. And now it’s darshan of Dwarkadheesh. Crowd is there inside the temple, still there is a calmness in the atmosphere. The temple is very old, yet we can imagine the past glory from the carvings on walls, pillars the over all structure.

After spending around 1 hour in the temple, now it’s time for some shopping from the nearby shops. Now we are back in the hotel and it’s time to say good night for a satisfying day. Total distance covered 182 Km.

Day Two – 19^th October 2015:-  It’s 7AM in the morning, all 4 of us are now getting ready to move on. It’s 8.30AM and finally we are checking out. Just at Nageshwar Temple cross road, hot and tasty breakfast of fresh Khaman and Palak (Spinach) Gota. Finally at 9.00AM, we are now moving to the Nageshwar temple – 19KM away from Dwarka, It’s one of the 12 Jyotirling. 9.30AM, we are at the Nageshwar temple. Paid the parking fee and straight to Temple. Again camera, mobiles, belts are not allowed. Not much crowd and peaceful darshan. The main attraction of this temple for my kids is below in the pictures.

Now we are moving towards Gopi Talav. Reached there, paid the parking fee and going in. Kids and wife are delighted to see the floating stone of Ram setu fame in a temple.

Visited the Talav (pond) and now coming back. Time to drink some Coconut water. Now we are going to Okha Jetty for the final destination of Bet Dwarka in Dwarka region. On the way, crossed the Mithapur plant of Tata Chemicals for Soda Ash and other products.

While entering Okha, a lot of fishermen are busy in drying. Guess what? It’s FISH. A very hard pungent smell was there. Noticed only when the door was opened to ask for direction to Okha Jetty. We are at Jetty now. Boat ride and finally at Bet Dwarka. Visited the temple. We are late by few minutes and Priest pulled the curtains. Now we are waiting for 20 minute. 11.30 AM, now Dwarkadheesh is available for darshan. Temple restoration and repairing work is going on. Finally back to boating point, in between water bottle for all of us and ice creams as it’s a HARSH Sun on our heads.

Boatman is not ready to move till the boat is filled to brim. At last we are back to Okha Jetty and going back. Now it’s OKHA – Dwarka – Porbandar. More and more Wind turbines and finally we are in Porbandar. Asked for directions and in the market we find the way to Kirti Mandir. But before that, it’s time 2.30PM and a restaurant visit is necessary. Done it and finally we are at Kirti Mandir. Can not describe in words the calmness we felt there. Son is stunned with the historic photographs and facts mentioned there. It’s a great experience.

Now we are leaving to Somnath. Google and few good people’s help and we are on the coastal highway towards Somnath from inside the bylanes of Porbandar city. 1 Hour journey and we are at famous Madhavpur beach. A stop of 10-15 min. Wife and Son collected a lot of shells and now we are on our way. Crossed the Chorwad (birthplace of Dhirubhai Ambani). Except one Toran Gate, no major sign of Reliance or Dhirubhai’s legacy. Sunlight is fading fast and we are not in a mood to explore Chorwad. Crossed it and took a fuel stop at a petrol pump. Interestingly it’s raining Coconuts all around. It’s 7PM and finally we are in Somnath.

Checked in Lilavati Guest house’s Suite, run by Temple trust. A grand suite room with ample space and at a nominal cost of Rs. 1500 Per night. Took bath and now we are going straight to Temple. Once again it’s time to deposit, Camera, mobile, keys. Finally we are in the temple. Not much crowd and peaceful darshan of Shivling of Somnath. Got the opportunity to view Jalabhishek in the night. Pots after pots of water are poured in on the Shivling and what a delightful experience it’s it. No words for it to describe. It’s time to come out and rush to the nearest Restaurant for dinner. Ringan no Bhartho, Stuffed Masala Bhindi and Rotli for the adults. Veg. Hakka Noodles for prince of family and plain dosa for the princess.

Now we are back in the room and it’s time to say good bye but before that a change in plans. We are not going to Gir in the morning. Wife wants the evening time to be spent at the beach of Diu and hence tomorrow morning we ‘ll be going to Diu. Total distance covered 304 Km.

Day Three – 20^th October 2015:-  Wife dear is not happy with the night only darshan, so we are getting ready for morning darshan and specially the sea around the temple. 8.00AM and we are checking out and moving to temple. After the morning abhishek and sringar, the Shivling was looking very attractive. Alas. Cameras and pictures are not allowed. We are checking the Sea now, at the back of Temple. Time is to move out now but before that a Kesar Coconut drink for both of us and plain for Son. It’s 9.15AM and finally we are moving from Somnath to Diu. Once again it’s coastal highway. Somnath – Mangrol – Kodinar – Diu. It’s 11.00AM and we are finally in Diu. Reached the Pani Kotha Boating Point and checked in Hotel Relax Inn. Good hotel with a very good off season rate of Rs. 1500 Per night. Calm and clean Arabian sea is visible along with the Diu-Ghoghol Bridge from the Balcony.

Lunch time – done it in hotel Restaurant itself, located on the road just outside the hotel. Back in the room and after a bit of inquiry, we are now moving towards Fort. Inside the fort and after watching the old Guns and buildings, I can remember those old lines from a couplet –

Khandhar bata rahe hain Imarat buland thi.

A part of Fort is converted into sub division jail and hence out of bound but still it’s a large area to visit. Sun is shining with it’s full glory. We are now out of Fort. Time to drink the fresh juice of Sugar cane. Now we are going to the Church. An architect example of mixture of different styles.

From Church to Diu Museum, Jalandhar Beach, sunset point, Chakratirth beach and finally we are at Naida caves. Let the pictures do the talking for these caves.

It’s 3PM and we are back into hotel for rest. After a good sleep, all of us are ready to go to Nagoa beach. The beach is clean but the water is not. It’s blackish and some what muddy. I opted out, Son and wife are still going in. After a while, the princess also wants to join the party and she is in the party with mommy and brother. Son wants to take the jet ski ride. Rs. 400 and here he goes for the same. A thrilling experience. It’s getting dark now and we are coming out. Few kid rides are available and the prince and princess are enjoying all of these. Now we are moving back to Hotel. After bath, it’s time to walk a bit and to go for the dinner on a beachside open restaurant. Regular stuff was ordered. Nothing special to write about. After the food, we are now in the Pani Kotha boating point area, Ice creams in hands and the cool sea breeze is blowing softly.

Finally we are back into hotel. Now is the time to plan for GIR. Two route options,

Option 1 – Diu – Kodinar – Prachi – Talala – Sasan (This means, returning and travelling back on last day’s route till Prachi on Coastal Highway)

Option 2 – Diu – Una – Khapat – Talala – Sasan (this means, going straight into GIR forest in patches)

I decided for option 2, for the thrill and adventure of Jungle driving. Total distance covered in the day. 106 Km.

Day Four – 21^st October 2015:-    It’s 7.00AM and we are getting ready. It’s 8.30AM and we are checking out finally and straight onto Diu-Una road. Diu is not a DRY (Alcohal)  area but Gujarat is. The police men are asking for checking at the entry check post in Gujarat. No issue for me being Teetotaler. With the help of few good people on the way as well as google map, finally at 10.45AMwe are at SINH SADAN in SASAN, the forest office, from where the permits for Jungle safari are issued.

Anti Climax:- We are getting shocks after shocks. Here goes the list.

1. No room available in the Govt. guest house.
2. The morning Safari of 5AM and 9AM are already over and now only 3PM safari can be booked. That’s with only 23 permits in que (if I’m successful to sit within those lucky 23).
3. There is no guarantee of meeting with the KING – the Asiatic lion, in that evening safari.
4. Devaliya safari (12Km away from Sasan), in GIR Interpretation zone is over now for the morning at 11AM and we can not join even there. For evening it’s available.
5. For boarding, we need to check into nearby lodges and guest houses.

It’s already 11AM and I’m telling the situation to my dear wife. The home minister ordered – Leave the Safari for some other day in future, we are leaving for Ahmadabad. But before that, it’s time to fill our empty tanks (stomachs). Just in front of the main gate of Sinh Sadan, a restaurant is offering Hot and crispy Aaloo (Potato) ka Parantha and Methi (Fenugreek) ka thepla. It’s parantha for me and son, thepla for the ladies of the family. In comes the Curd, the Lasan (Garlic) ni chatni and Mirch no athanu (Chilly pickle). A typical kathiawadi Brunch, we Munch. It’s 11.30AM and now we are leaving Sasan with a heavy heart and hope to come back some other day.

Now it’s a long drive. Sasan – Junagarh – Jetpur – Gondal – Rajkot – Ahmedabad.

Few Kms before Jetpur, the 4 lane toll road is there and Gajini is liking it again. A pit stop for fuel after crossing Rajkot and finally it’s home, sweet home in Ahmadabad at 5.45PM in the evening. Except that Post Rajkot pit stop for around 10 min, we did not take any stops and Gajini did not created any fuss. Handled all the workload superbly. Distance covered in the day 481 Km. Total distance covered in the trip from Home to home, 1395Km. Here comes the trip ending odometer Picture.

Now are you people eager to know about Gajini? My dear friends, here is our Gajini, Amazingly Indian.

Our Honda Amaze. Returned from the heavy workload and resting in the garage after taking a bath.

Why RBI is not printing more money to pay off all the loan of World Bank and IMF?

This post is not my work. It’s Copy-pasted from Quora. The original Post is here.

A very simple and ordinary question (actually this question is far more serious than it looks in first glance) was asked. Here is the question-

Question – Reserve Bank of India (RBI): Why can’t Indian government pay world bank loan by just printing money?

RBI can print as much money as it wants. Why can’t it print enough money to pay off all the loan that has to be paid to World Bank?

And here starts the answer given by Mr. Akshat Agarwal.

Answer – Let us say you are a farmer and you have mango plantation (keeping in line with the season’s favorite  :P). You do hard labor and work day and night and grow 100 kg mangoes every year.

Now, one cannot live his life eating only mangoes, And since mango is a good seasonal fruit, good for health, and not to mention utterly delicious, there would be others who’d happily trade their farm products, say wheat, for some of your mangoes. Realizing this, you decide to exchange your mangoes for other products. You tell about it to your friend who has wheat farms. Incidentally, he happens to be a mango lover like me and together you develop a rate of exchange, with mutual understanding of course in this example, say, 5 kg mangoes for 10 kg of wheat. You give him 10 kg mangoes and get 20 kg wheat for your family, which you assume should suffice for 6 months. You do the same thing with your other friends as well in exchange for pulses, rice, vegetables etc.

Now, past 6 months comes winter, and your supplies have started to diminish. Moreover, you do not have any mangoes to offer in exchange for wheat and other commodities. But without the commodities you wont survive for next six months. Now what should, or rather, what could you trade in exchange for wheat?

You find a solution. You go to your best friend who trusts you a lot, and you promise to give him 5 kg of mangoes next summer for 10 kg of wheat right now. He thinks about it for a while. There are of course things to be concerned here. What if you refuse to give him mangoes later? What if the mangoes you give him aren’t good quality? What if next year is a drought and there are no mangoes?

Let us say for the sake of simplicity here that your friend here thinks about it but on goodwill and years of friendship, he trusts you and agrees. Similarly, you go to your other friends, gain their confidence and promise them some mangoes next summer for providing you with supplies right now. Now, what you have done here is that you have developed a trading system wherein you trade items and commodities for other items and commodities. And the trading currency is none other than the “items and commodities“.

But now, since you are trading with so many different people at different time, it is getting difficult for you to keep track of how much mangoes you owe to whom. So what you do is that you start handing over promissory notes to the people you trade with, with your sign on it and the amount of mangoes you owe them. So next summer, whenever you have mangoes harvested, people come to you, show you the promissory note with your sign on it, and take the mangoes.

But there is a problem with this system: you are promising X kg of mangoes which you have not harvested yet, i.e., which do not exist. Similarly you would have supplied mangoes to someone for a certain commodity he’ll have in future but doesn’t have it now. And then there is always a risk factor, i.e., next year maybe a dry one and you may not have enough mangoes to trade.

Realizing this, you are worried now. You need a damage control. You consult this with your trusted friend and ask him how to avoid possible damage. Now this friend of yours is quite a trader himself and has traveled many cities and traded with many people. He tells you not to worry about it and that he’ll let you on a little secret. He explains it to you how people will need mango no matter what: after all it is a seasonal fruit and very delicious. Now if there is less growth of mangoes next year, then he can ask to negotiate exchange rates in his favor, i.e., more commodities for same amount of mangoes. Simply put, due to scarcity, his mangoes will become costly.

You get it a little bit, but you are still confused. You wonder how will you negotiate rates when you do not know how much mangoes you are going to harvest next year; how can you negotiate when there is uncertainty? Your friend smiles, and tells you that you can. He suggests you to issue only a certain value of promissory notes, lets say  1000, and then do the trading with these notes after declaring their new meaning to the traders. These 1000 notes will represent 100% of your harvest, no mater how much you harvest. So if there is a guy with your promissory notes valuing to 100, he”ll have 10% of your harvest next summer, no matter how much you harvest. He can also decide to not exchange it for mangoes next year when there is a drought, and wait for next to next year hoping for more amount of mangoes then. Lets call your promissory notes as Mango Currency (MC)

All goes good and the mangoes, being good quality and sweeter than its competitors, are valued more. People want to buy mangoes from you even if they have to pay more. This means the value of MC gets more, only a few people can afford it. The very lower class, who wants to eat mangoes but cannot get hold of MC due to its high value is suffering. This also causes you loss in business since people are now holding MC instead of trading it for mangoes since the value is increasing. Since mangoes are not being traded, they are rotting in the collecting compound with very less people to buy them, causing you huge loss. You now need to keep the value of MC in check so that people do not hold up to it.

You go to your friend again and consult him on how to keep value of MC in check. He tells you to simply issue more promissory notes. Since the total sum of promissory notes is equal to 100 % of your harvest, if you issue 1000 more promissory notes in addition to the initial 1000 that you’ve had, the value of MC would be halved. 100 MC that was 10% of the harvest would now only be 5% of your harvest. (This is also how RBI keeps the value of Rupee under check, else Economic activity of country would go down)

Now you have developed a good trade system and also know how to keep the value of MC under check by regulating the supply of promissory notes. Now you decide to expand your business. You go to your best friend who deals in wheat and has currency WC (Wheat Currency). He is already doing very good in business and has surplus money. You tell him about your plans to expand our business and your requirement of more money for expansion purpose. He listens to you and agrees to lend you some money at certain interest rate: he already has enough money and extra money sitting at home isn’t earning him anything, so lending it to you for certain interest seems a good deal.

You borrow 500 WC from him. Now WC is quite strong in market. So much that 500 WC costs around 1000 MC (how much % of wheat harvest it represents doesn’t matter).

Now, you use up all the WC for expansion but suffer heavy losses. All the WC went down into the drain. You bought some stuff from it and have it still, but it is not bringing you any revenue and nobody is ready to buy it back. You are now left with only a few MC (remember, your currency is also floating in the market; you have maybe 1200 MC at hand). To pay back 500 WC, you need 1000 MC. But if you give 1000 MC right now, your remaining business will not be able to sustain itself with only 200 MC at disposal and you’ll eventually end up bankrupt.

You now think about possible way out. You plan to issue 2000 MC more, exchange 1000 MC for WC and return the loan. But if you issue more MC, the value of MC will be halved. Moreover, you can not think of cheating because the value of various currencies is now checked by Association of Auditors and you need to report any more printing of currency to them before it can be floated in the market, and all the currencies are numbered to keep the authenticity in check

Basically, you are now left with only one option: to try to get your act together and grow your business back to what it was, and then further more to get enough MC with sufficient value, to be able to return the loan amount.

Now in the above scenario, lets replace you with our country India, and replace mangoes you harvest with the economic activity that takes place in country; and replace your promissory notes, valuing to 100% of your harvest, to 100% of the economic activity in the country.

Now, back to your question: What happens when RBI prints more money to pay off bank loans? You should be able to guess it. More the money printed, lesser the value of currency. Money flowing in the country is nothing but standardized promissory notes issued by RBI. They are equivalent to the total economic activity of the country. If the economic activity does not increase in proportion to the money printed by RBI, the value of Indian Rupee will go down.

And obviously, value of MC will go down with respect to promissory notes issued by other people for other commodities. So when value of Rupee goes down, it does w.r.t other currencies, USD being one of them.

Its not difficult to guess that loans provided by World Bank are in USD. If money is printed to pay off the loan, value of Rupee goes down, which means you need more Indian Rupee to buy USD. As you can see, you can not repay the loan unless youactually have the money, over and above what you ‘ll need to run the country.

So my dear blog readers, What’s your take on this answer? Please update me with your comments.