ISRO - A Personal History - Sri. Aravamudan

Attempts to record ISRO's history is welcome. And now, its another account  by our "DAN" !

Sri. Aravamudan, Former Director SHAR , just wrote his 'personal history'. Mrs.Aravamuthan, the well-known journalist and writer , is the co-author.

A must read for every ISROite !!

ISRO - A personal History
Published by Harper Collins
Available from  Amazon
Rs. 267+40

ISRO pioneer R. Aravamudan narrates the gripping story of the people who built India s space research programme and how they did it from the rocket engineers who laid the foundation to the savvy young engineers who keep Indian spaceships flying today. It is the tale of an Indian organisation that defied international bans and embargos, worked with laughably meagre resources, evolved its own technology and grew into a major space power. Today, ISRO creates, builds and launches gigantic rockets which carry the complex spacecraft that form the neural network not just of our own country but those of other countries too.
This is a made-in-India story like no other.

Income Tax - Computation

I am sure , by this time, your Pension paying Bank would have made serious injuries to your IT payments.  It seems, Banks are not `concerned about the IT rules. They just deduct a lot of money (never less money ! ) from your account.

Go to your Bank manager and complain, if you feel they did wrong.

Now, I'll present you a format for computing your IT for this FY. I had copied  this from "Pensioners' Link". I think its very useful.

Senior citizens are exempt from paying advance tax

Are you aware of this ?

Senior citizens are exempt from paying advance tax

As per section 207, a resident senior citizen (i.e., an individual of the age of 60 years or above) not having any income from business or profession is not liable to pay advance tax.  In other words, if a person satisfies the following conditions, he will not be liable to pay advance tax:

 1) He is an individual

2) He is resident in India as per the Income-tax Act

3) He is of the age of 60 years or above at any time during the year 

4) He is not having any income chargeable to tax under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”  .

Those who have total tax liability of over Rs.10,000 on an estimated total income in a financial year (FY) need to pay advance tax. Advance tax is paid in instalments, and the second instalment is due on or before 15 December. However, senior citizens are exempt from paying this tax in certain cases.
WHAT IS ADVANCE TAX?
According to Section 208 of Income tax Act, 1961, every person whose estimated tax liability for the FY exceeds Rs.10,000 has to pay tax in advance. This has to be paid in three instalments on or before the due dates prescribed by the income-tax department. As per income tax rules, 30% of the estimated income tax should be paid by 15 September of the relevant FY up to 60% by 15 December and the rest by 15 March. One may be charged interest penalty under Section 234C of the Act if advance tax is not paid on time. However, you can reduce or increase the amount of advance tax in subsequent instalments if there is a change in your estimated total income and consequently in your tax liability. For instance, while paying the first instalment, you may have estimated your tax liability to be around Rs.25,000 for the financial year, and paid 30% of it, Rs.7,500. But at the time of paying the second instalment, you estimate your tax liability to be only Rs.20,000 for the year. In such a case, you can pay the tax instalment accordingly—Rs.12,000, or 60% of estimated tax. Since you have already paid Rs.7,500 in the first instalment, tax liability in the second instalment would be Rs.4,500.
Remember that while calculating your tax liability, you can take into account taxes deducted at source (TDS) of income. Also, you are allowed to claim refund of taxes while filing your income tax return if you pay more than what is required.
EXEMPTION
According to Section 207 of the Act, a resident senior citizen (an individual of age 60 years or more) who does not have any income from business or profession is not liable to pay advance tax. For instance, a senior citizen may have various sources of income such as rental income, pension, interest from bank deposits, or dividends. He does not have to pay advance tax, as these sources of income do not fall under the income tax head of “income from business or profession”. Such an exemption is irrespective of the amount of income that a senior citizen earns from a source other than business or profession.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Typically, TDS is charged by employers on an employee’s monthly salary as per the declaration made by the employees related to investments, expenses and other sources of income. Therefore, a salaried individual need not worry if she does not have income other than salary. But if she has, then she should either declare it to her employer and ask for TDS to be applied accordingly or evaluate her tax liability before the advance tax due dates and make the required tax payment. Advance tax can be paid using tax payment challans at bank branches authorised by the income-tax department or online through the Department or the National Securities Depository Ltd

Click here to read the Rules

Section 207, Income Tax Act

104 magic and the record

ISRO Chairman ha stated that "setting record was not our primary aim".  He noted that "the number of satellites launched by a rocket in one mission is not comparable to scoring runs in cricket".

That's truly a humble comment. We know how tough it was for the team to do that magic !

23 years of struggle

Today's TheHindu carries a news item :

" For ex-ISRO scientist, 23 years of struggle"

Those who were in VSSC during 70s and 80s know the meaning of this title. Dirty politics and criminal police "killed" him. Sri. NambiNarayanan still fights. For him, he needs justice. Yes, ISROfef hopes the Courts give him justice immediately.

Today's young turks at VSSC and ISRO may not know his plight. I suggest all those to read  his case, and try to know who NambiNarayanan is ? !.

Working on the ISRO principle

The latest successful performance by ISRO is food for thought now for many Management experts. Ofcourse, they  are late by 3 decades to think about or understand ISRO. We, as former personnel who drove ISRO,  must be happy that these EXPERTs started thinking on How and Why is ISRO successful ! ?

May be, the first of this kind, an article by one Dhiraaj Nayyaar appeared in today's TheHindu.  I personally think , I will wait for another Management Expert to comment on ISRO success.

The article by Dhiraaj is interesting. But, I don't think he really got what really is behind ISRO's success .

May I invite comments from former ISROites, ISROfef associates, to comment on this. My personal comments will follow.

ISRO - PSLV C37 Releasing 104 Satellites Footage

Must See Video .... !

ISRO - PSLV C37 Releasing 104 Satellites Footage

Really great !   Dear Ex-ISROites, None of you would have ever seen one like this in your ISRO career !!!

See the thrilling video here (from YouTube)