Government may clarify SUV tax to keep off sedans from 30% tax slab

NEW DELHI: To clear the air over higher excise levied on sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in the recent budget, the government is trying to rectify the classification by introducing the concept of two-box vehicles that would remove the extra financial burden on some cars currently paying more tax. 

Certain long cars normally referred as sedan have come under the SUV definition of the government and ended up paying higher taxes after the February 28 budget. 

Maruti SX4, Toyota Corolla Altis and Honda Civic, along with some of other popular sedans, are being taxed at a higher 30% excise duty, even as most sedans continue paying the regular 27% tax. All such longish sedans are called three-box vehicles (due to an attached boot), while compact cars like hatchback and the utility vehicle range, including SUVs, are referred as two-box vehicles due to their different structural design. 

The higher tax component on these sedans, which carries specs similar to SUV as classified in the budget, had led to hikes in their price. Any vehicles with over and above the 4-metre length, 1500cc engine along with 170mm ground clearance are paying higher 30% tax while sedans continue to pay the regular 24-27% tax depending upon their classification. 

According to government sources, because of the definition, some unintended vehicles have come into this classification and to sort the matter out, the concept of two-box vehicles is being contemplated. "It would remove the ambiguity in the classification and possibly tax only the right SUV without touching any cars and sedans," the person said preferring not to be named. The higher budgetary tax had increased prices in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs 35,000 on these popular cars in an already subdued market. 

Car sales had dipped 26% in February, its worst fall in the past 12 years. Sales of sedan have consistently been falling in the current fiscal and dipped 5% to 2,02,015 units in the April-February period. Some reclassification is expected to get these sedans clubbed as SUV off from the 30% tax duty structure. According to the auto industry apex body, the Society of Indian Automobile Association, it has approached the government to get clarity on the issue with thefinance ministry. 

"We have raised the issue with the concerned ministry to remove the anomaly," said a senior SIAM functionary.

Intex Aqua SX and Aqua Star dual-SIM Gingerbread phones pop up online

Intex has added two new smartphones to their portfolio boasting of dual-SIM capabilities and running on the outdated Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The Intex Aqua SX and the Intex Aqua Star are priced at Rs. 4,490 and Rs. 3,990 respectively.

Budget smartphones running Android boasting of dula-SIM capabilities are dime a dozen. Two new phones have found their way into this population – the Intex Aqua SX and the Intex Aqua Star. Both the smartphones run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is slightly out dated in the era of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Both the smartphones also boasts of dual-SIM capabilities.

In terms of specifications, the Intex Aqua SX has a 1GHz MediaTex MTK6515 processor along with 256MB of RAM. The smartphone is available in black and white, is 13mm thin and weighs a mere 138gms. It has a 3.5-inch TFT capacitive LCD display with a 480x320 pixel resolution. The device also has 512MB of ROM, 128MB of built in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The rear of the Aqua SX has a 5MP shooter where as the front has a 1.3MP video-calling camera. The entire package is powered by a 1450mAh battery, which the company claims, will last of r5 hours of talk time and 360 hours of standby time. In terms of connectivity options, the SX boasts of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EDGE / GPRS / WAP but compromises on GPS connectivity.

The Intex Aqua Star on the other hand has a 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, a 3MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front facing camera. No detailed specifications of the Aqua Star are available on the official websiteas of now. As of writing this article, none of the two smartphones are available on the online shopping portals.

Intex Aqua Star

If you are in the market to pick up a sub Rs. 5,000 phone, you can take a look at the Karbonn A4, Nokia Asha 309, Micromax Ninja A54 amongst many more.

Intex Aqua SX

Govt scraps aircraft acquisition panel, carriers can now expand fleet without further delay

The Civil aviation ministry has made it easier for commercial airlines and flying schools to acquire aircraft by scrapping its Aircraft Acquisition Committee (AAC), which vetted such proposals through a cumbersome process that needlessly delayed fleet expansion plans.

Carriers will now require just an initial no-objection certificate (NOC) to start operations and have the freedom to induct planes without seeking approval from the ministry, a government spokesman said. "The permission for actual induction of aircraft will no longer be required from ministry of civil aviation," he said.

The spokesperson added that the decision to abolish AAC is yet another step towards liberalisation in the civil aviation sector after allowing 49 per cent foreign direct investment in airlines.

The decision will help the AirAsia-Tata Group joint venture to be off the blocks more quickly and they have already advanced the date of launching the airline to June from the year-end schedule. The decision also comes at a time when Abu Dhabi airline Etihad is in talks for picking up stake in Jet Airways.

Aviation expert Harsh Vardhan said, "The decision will bring down red tape in the civil aviation sector, which was holding up expansion plans of commercial airlines. It will also ensure that airlines are free to book as many aircraft as they need instead of letting the government exercise control over their commercial decisions."

Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (South Asia), said, "The committee served no purpose and only promoted red tape. We strongly welcome the decision to do away with such unnecessary regulations. All such regulations which create hurdles, add complexity and increase structural challenges should be removed."

A senior private airline official told Mail Today that "the committee had started interfering even in purely commercial decisions such as the number of planes we were ordering".

Ironically, the government has virtually admitted that setting up the committee was a fiasco. "AAC was abolished as it was no longer relevant. Matters relating to initial noobjection certificate and inprinciple approval for acquisition of aircraft by scheduled operators would now be processed by DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation)," the spokesperson said.

Henceforth, only the initial NOC to launch scheduled or non-scheduled air transport services and in-principle approval for acquisition of aircraft would be required from the ministry as part of the requirements under the Aircraft Rules and Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the spokesperson further said.

Interestingly, ACC was constituted last October by civil aviation minister Ajit Singh "to consider, examine and make recommendations on all proposals for permitting import or acquisition of aircraft for various purposes".

The control extended over aircraft acquisition by scheduled and nonscheduled operators, private operators and flying training institutes.

Courtesy: Mail Today 

Anaesthesia overdoze case: Parents blame doctors for Bangalore teen’s death

BANGALORE: Following the death of Abhishek due to alleged overdose of anaesthesia during a corrective surgery, parents of the 16-year-old boy filed a police complaint on Thursday. The complaint was against the doctors for medical negligence. The family members said they were lodging the complaint to pre-empt future tragedies. They also alleged the doctors had repeatedly pressurized them to donate Abhishek's organs. Meanwhile, Panacea Hospital , Basaveshwaranagar, where Abhishek underwent surgery for his enlarged breasts, sought to wash their hands of the incident and blamed the visiting anaesthetist for medical negligence. 

Taunted for being overweight , Abhishek Ramesh thought enough was enough and decided to undergo a corrective surgery for his enlarged breasts . All that the 16-year-old boy wanted was to fit into a T-shirt like his mates. 

While he headed into the hospital for his surgery on Sunday night, Abhishek's attention was diverted by a T-shirt on display in an adjacent showroom. "On March 17, we were entering Panacea Hospital, Basaveshwaranagar , for his breast enlargement correction surgery, when he saw a T-shirt in a showroom. He said he liked it. I promised him that I will buy it once he is discharged and he could wear it for hisIIT tuition classes," grandmother BS Leelavathi said as the boy's body lay in the ambulance outside Basaveshwaranagar police station. 

"My classmates and friends pinch my chest and pass comments at me. I can't take it anymore," S Ramesh and S Rekha quoted their son, Abhishek, as having told them repeatedly. 

According to the parents, Abhishek was very fond of T-shirts . "But his huge chest prevented him from buying them. He brought XXL T-shirts but they were unusually big for him," they said. Ramesh said Abhishek was bent on undergoing gynaecomastia surgery and live a normal life. "Otherwise , he had no issues. Whenever his friends passed comments, he would feel low and lock himself in the room," his family said. Rekha recalled how her son planned his future. "He was keen on completing IIT. He loved speaking about what he would wear once he becomas a professional - jeans, trousers and T-shirts . Boys his age spoke of bikes or cars but my son was simple at heart. All he wanted was to wear a T-shirt ," she said, fighting to hold back tears.

VLSI

VLSI design and development flow

The  design  is  carried out  in  stages.    The  process  of  transforming  the  idea  into  a detailed   circuit
description   in   terms   of   the   elementary   circuit   components  constitutes  design  description.  
The  final  circuit  of  such  an  IC  can  have  up  to  a billion such components; it is arrived at in a step-bystep
manner.



The  first  step  in  evolving  the  design  description  is  to  describe  the  circuit  in terms  of  its
behavior.    The  description  looks  like  a  program  in  a  high  level language like C.  Once the behavioral
level design description is ready, it is tested extensively with the help of a simulation tool; it checks and
confirms that all the expected functions are carried out satisfactorily.  If necessary, this behavioral level
routine  is  edited,  modified,  and  rerun  –  all  done  manually.    Finally,  one  has  a design for the
expected system – described at the behavioral level.  The behavioral design forms the input to the
synthesis tools, for circuit synthesis. The behavioral constructs not supported by the synthesis tools are
replaced by data flow and gate level constructs. To surmise, the designer has to develop synthesizable
codes for his design.
The design at the behavioral level is to be elaborated in terms of known and acknowledged  functional
blocks.    It  forms  the  next  detailed  level  of  design description.    Once  again  the  design  is  to  be
tested  through  simulation  and iteratively corrected for errors.  The elaboration can be continued one
or two steps further.    It  leads  to  a  detailed  design  description  in  terms  of  logic  gates  and
transistor switches.
1.4.2        Optimization
The  circuit  at  the  gate  level  –  in  terms  of  the  gates  and  flip-flops  –  can  be redundant in nature.
The same can be minimized with the help of minimization tools.    The  step  is  not  shown  separately  in
the  figure.    The  minimized  logical design  is  converted  to  a  circuit  in  terms  of  the  switch  level
cells  from  standard libraries provided by the foundries. The cell based design generated by the tool is
the  last  step  in  the  logical  design  process;  it  forms  the  input  to  the  first  level  of physical design
[Micheli].
1.4.3        Simulation
The  design  descriptions  are  tested  for  their  functionality  at  every  level  – behavioral, data flow, and
gate.  One has to check here whether all the functions are carried out as expected and rectify them. All
such activities are carried out by the simulation tool.  The tool also has an editor to carry out any
corrections to the source code. Simulation involves testing the design for all its functions, functional
sequences,   timing   constraints,   and   specifications.  Normally   testing   and simulation at all the levels
– behavioral to switch level – are carried out by a single tool; the same is identified as “scope of
simulation tool” in Figure 1.5.



1.4.4        Synthesis
With  the  availability  of  design  at  the  gate  (switch)  level,  the  logical  design  is  complete.    The
corresponding  circuit  hardware  realization  is  carried  out  by  a synthesis tool.  Two common
approaches are as follows:
•     The  circuit  is  realized  through  an  FPGA  [Oldfield].    The  gate  level  design  description  is  the
starting  point  for  the  synthesis  here.    The  FPGA  vendors  provide an interface to the synthesis tool.
Through the interface the gate level  design  is  realized  as  a  final  circuit.    With  many  synthesis
tools,  one  can  directly  use  the  design  description  at  the  data  flow  level  itself  to  realize  the  final
circuit  through  an  FPGA.    The  FPGA  route  is  attractive  for  limited volume production or a fast
development cycle.
•     The circuit is realized as an ASIC.  A typical ASIC vendor will have his own library of basic components
like elementary gates and flip-flops.  Eventually the circuit is to be realized by selecting such components
and interconnecting them conforming to the required design.  This constitutes the physical design. Being
an  elaborate  and  costly  process,  a  physical  design  may  call  for  an intermediate  functional
verification  through  the  FPGA  route.    The  circuit realized  through  the  FPGA  is  tested  as  a
prototype.    It  provides  another opportunity for testing the design closer to the final circuit.  
1.4.5        Physical Design
A fully tested and error-free design at the switch level can be the starting point for a physical design
[Baker & Boyce, Wolf].  It is to be realized as the final circuit using (typically) a million components in the
foundry’s library.  The step-by-step activities in the process are described briefly as follows:
•     System partitioning: The design is partitioned into convenient compartments or functional blocks.
Often it would have been done at an earlier stage itself and the software design prepared in terms of
such blocks.  Interconnection of the blocks is part of the partition process.  
•     Floor  planning:  The  positions  of  the  partitioned  blocks  are  planned  and  the blocks are
arranged accordingly.  The procedure is analogous to the planning and arrangement of domestic
furniture in a residence.  Blocks with I/O pins are kept close to the periphery; those which interact
frequently or through a large  number   of   interconnections   are   kept   close   together,   and   so   on.
Partitioning  and  floor  planning  may  have  to  be  carried  out  and  refined  iteratively to yield best
results.        
•     Placement:  The  selected  components  from  the  ASIC  library  are  placed  in  position on the
“Silicon floor.”  It is done with each of the blocks above.
•     Routing: The components placed as described above are to be interconnected to the rest of the
block:  It is done with each of the blocks by suitably routing the  interconnects.    Once  the  routing  is
complete,  the  physical  design  cam  is taken as complete.  The final  mask for the design can be made
at this stage and the ASIC manufactured in the foundry.

Aamir Khan steps into a woman's shoes again for an ad

Aamir Khan who is currently shooting for Yash Raj's Dhoom 3where he will play a negative role is set to surprise his fans again by playing a woman in an upcoming advertisement commercial.

Earlier in 1995, Aamir, had acted as a girl for a song in the filmBaazi.

China, Russia move toward full-fledged strategic partnership English.news.cn   2013-03-21 17:42:38 by Xinhua writers Zhu Lei, Yang Qingchuan BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Vladimir Putin included China in his first foreign trip after assuming the Russian presidency last year. Xi Jinping, after his election as Chinese president last week, also chose Moscow to be the first foreign capital to visit as China's head of state. The reciprocation reflects the fact that both countries see each other as the principal priority of their foreign relations, which was reaffirmed in a phone call made by Putin to congratulate Xi on his election. The Russian leader told his new Chinese counterpart that the bilateral relationship is of great significance as it is a major contributor to world peace and stability. Looking forward to the summit with Putin, Xi said he believed his upcoming visit would inject new vigor into the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. PRINCIPAL PRIORITY The first foreign trip of China's new leader is widely deemed as an important diplomatic vane for the second largest economy in the coming decade. "The first visit is a symbol, of course, but it is a very important symbol," Yakov Berger, a professor at Russia's Far East Institute, told Xinhua. Like his predecessor Hu Jintao, who also picked Moscow as the destination of his first foreign trip after assuming office, Xi's choice is a continuation of China's diplomacy which prioritizes ties with Moscow, Berger said. China and Russia are connected by many common interests, he said, adding that as giant neighbors who share long borders, they are interested in good-neighborhood relations. "They are also interested in creating an environment of trust, accord and security in the region we share ... Third, both countries play important roles in global affairs, and their coordinated positions and cooperation could facilitate creation of a more just and favorable global order," he said. In light of the high-level political mutual trust between China and Russia, it is only natural for the two countries' new leaders to act that way, analysts say. That demonstrates continuation and stability of China-Russia relations, they say. HISTORICALLY BEST EVER A Chinese proverb goes that "a relative afar is less helpful than a close neighbor." As each other's biggest neighbor, China and Russia regard each other as an important development opportunity and a preferred partner, then Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said when announcing the new Chinese president's state visit to Russia earlier this month. Relations between China and Russia feature overlaps in core national interests and non-existence of any serious contradictions, Berger said, noting that makes their relations special and unparalleled. "Relations between our countries don't pursue short-term egoistic benefits and tactical advantages. Our countries proceed from deep understanding of deeply rooted common interests. That gives their relations a long-term and stable character," he said. Building on past achievements, both governments said the bilateral relationship surged to a historic best in 2012, with intensive political communication, fruitful economic and trade cooperation and enriched cultural exchanges. Regarding China as huge potential for bushiness cooperation, Putin has underlined the importance of diplomatic, economic and energy relations with China. On the global arena, China and Russia act in close coordination, taking similar approaches to Middle East issues, and working shoulder to shoulder in Central Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20 and the UN Security Council. Both permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia reaffirmed in last June their strong opposition to foreign military intervention and a forced regime change in Syria. Boosted by political enthusiasm, economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has been on the fast track against the backdrop of the global economic slump. China-Russia trade in 2012 jumped by 11.2 percent year on year to 88.2 billion U.S. dollars, compared with the 6.2 percent growth for China's overall foreign trade, according to the General Administration of Customs. Currently, Russia is the ninth largest trade partner of China, while China top Russia's list. Energized by rich cultural heritage and varied natural landscape of both countries, their people-to-people and cultural exchanges are also active, which helps consolidate the social basis of bilateral relations. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Russia reached 343,000 last year, up 47 percent from 2011, according to official statistics. HUGE POTENTIAL The relationship between China and Russia is not a bloc, union or alliance, and it distinguishes itself from other big power relations, said Sergei Lousianin, deputy director of Russia's Far East Institute. Their relations in the political and strategic spheres could be called exemplary because Moscow and Beijing have solved all major territorial disputes and other disagreements, he said. Though their economic relationship is generally satisfactory, it is seen as lagging behind the political one, given their relatively low level of investment and trade compared with those between China and the United States, Japan and other countries, he said. Both Lousianin and Berger believed that energy is one of the most promising spheres in bilateral cooperation. The two countries have to cooperate more closely on science, electronics, biotechnology, space, agriculture and infrastructure, they said. At a high-level meeting between the two countries in February, energy-rich Russia agreed to supply 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to China. The two also reached consensus on cooperation regarding oil, nuclear and coal. (Xinhua reporter Han Liang in Moscow contributed to the story)