Transformers Dark of the Moon

Before you get into the review for TRANSFORMERS DARK OF THE MOON, you may want to have a refresher course on

TRANSFORMERS
http://kartikr.blogspot.com/2011/06/transformers.html

and

TRANSFORMERS : REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
http://kartikr.blogspot.com/2011/06/transformers-revenge-of-fallen.html

Director           Michael Bay

Cast                 Shia LeBouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, Patrick Dempsey, Leonard Nimoy, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Kevin Dunn, Julie White,

Year                2011

Genre              Sci Fi, Action

Now that’s what you call a partnership!!! We are talking about Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay.  And the reason I am gushing over this is because of the common sensical approach to making sequels which most people seem to have forgotten.  Retain the director for all parts!!!! The same reason why an X Men turns out to be average is the reason why Transformers turns out to be executed with a significant amount of consistency.  By now, Bay knows the concept of The Transformers so well that making one more would be a mechanical effort – almost robotic.  One may argue that it gets boring for audiences but it would be quite contrary.  A person who knows the concept inside out would be able to experiment equally well and do justice to the end product.  On the other hand, someone who comes in fresh not only may struggle to do justice but also be working under the pressure of the performance of the previous movies.  I take X Men as a classic example because it is just obvious.  The last 3 directors have failed to get X Men upto the level that Bryan Singer took it to.

Transformers : Dark of the Moon, in all honesty has one of the corniest build ups that I have seen in cinema to date.  It starts off on the premise that the mission to put man on the moon wasn’t driven by some desire to see the moon but more so because of an alien aircraft crashing into it.  This was way back in the 60s.  It also puts forward that the Russians could not get man on the moon but did get a camera which got some good shots of this space craft.  The last corny part was that the Chernobyl disaster was caused by Aliens.  Once we get these trivial parts of the build up out of the way, the movie picks up pace.  And how.  The space craft is actually an Autobot craft designed and piloted by the legendary Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy) and the mission is initiated to retrieve the aircraft.  It leads to the discovery of 5 pillars but when Sentinel awakes he informs the team that there were hundreds of these pillars.  No wonder that Megatron is interested in the entire concept.  Probably his last chance to take control of Earth or Cybertron.

Like the previous 2 movies, this one too is nearly 2.5 hours and the first 30 minutes is quite wasted in the long build up.  As mentioned earlier, it does pick up pace but I personally believe that neither of the movies deserved more than 90 minutes of overall time.  That Michael Bay can hold your attention for so long is credit to his directing capabilities.  Also, I wonder what was the need to end the relationship that Sam (Shia Le Bouf) had with Mikaela (Megan Fox) and replace it with the fresh and “amazingly hot but don’t know whats wrong with her face” Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – don’t get me wrong folks, I think she is hot alright but was there a need to change the eye candy as such. Didn’t quite understand the reason.  Overall, entertaining and as good as the first part, Transformers Dark of the Moon is a must watch @ 7 on 10

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi543989017/.

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Real Estate Investments Made Simple

Gold and Real estate are very traditional investment avenues. Gold has evolved from its traditional investing and found its place in the modern sophisticated investment world via Gold ETFs. Similarly Real estate is also emerging as an investor friendly avenue with less hassle via PMS route or private equity route. Have you ever thought of investing in real estate will one day be as simple as investing in mutual funds? If no please read on….
Real Estate as an Investment:
Buying a dream house or flat to reside ourselves is basically not a real estate investment. Buying real estate with a view to generate income and capital appreciation is considered as Real Estate investments. Real Estate investments can be further classified into residential, farm house, commercial, retail, leisure. Leisure is a relaxation place where one can spend their free time or vacation.
Depends upon his/her risk tolerance and time horizon one can invest in real estate at different risk levels. It can be at the time of converting a rural land to urban land, or at the time of building development stage or in already developed city area.
Real Estate and Risk:
The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

Most often investors assume real estate prices will not fall down and they only go up year after year. It is not so. During the mid 2009 some of the real estate investments were quoting below 30% to 40% from their 2007 prices. Real Estate investments are also prone for price fluctuations.
Real estate Vs Stock market:
Real Estate is a complex and complicated investment when compared to stock market.
Non-transparent: There is no transparency in the price. It is not easy for a buyer or seller of real estate to identify the last transacted price in the same locality. There is no price discovery mechanism.
Illiquid Asset: Selling a real estate is a time consuming process. It is not liquidable easily. There is no organized market for the buyers and sellers to meet.
Impact Cost: Stamp duty and registration charges are really very heavy when compared to the other investment products.
No Regulator: There is no regulator for the real estate participants and intermediaries. Anyone can become a builder. Technical qualification is not mandatory. Also anyone can become a real estate intermediary or advisor. There is no certification or training to be completed before practicing. As there is no qualification requirement for participants as well as the intermediaries, it is very difficult to see best business practices.


Real Estate hassles:
The other hassles with reference to real estate investment are documentation, maintaining the asset without any encumbrances, and genuineness of the title deed.
There are some practical problems with diversification. Normally an investor invests in a real estate in his own locality. It is very rare to find someone in Chennai investing in the real estate properties located at Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata. Affordability also limits diversification. An investor may not be able to diversify his investments across various cities with Rs.25 lacs or 50 lacs.
It may not be possible for an individual investor to buy a land and develop a viable project in that land and sell it in the market. Managing the project development need some kind of expertise. Even if an individual is able to do it, he will be doing it in his limited ways and means.
Is there a solution for this? Of late yes.
There are some collective investment vehicles. These investment vehicles will be promoted by an investment management company. The investment management companies collect money from investors. Being professionals, they will identify good projects and do joint venture with the project developers. They will be able to diversify across various cities as well as various types of real estate investments such as housing, commercial, hospitality and the like. These investment management companies charge a reasonable management fees.
At times they collect money via PMS route and at times via private equity route. The minimum investment ranges from 10 lacs to 25 lacs. This amount needs to be invested over a period of 3 years. That is they will collect money from investors in 4 or 5 installments. After 3rd year whenever they exit from a project they will repay the principal employed in the project as well as the profit generated out of that project. End of 6th year or 7th year, the investment management company will exit from all the projects.
The advantages of this collective investment vehicle are
• One can invest into real estate without any hassles. All the hassles will be managed by the professional investment management companies.
• One can invest in various real estate projects at a time.
• One can geographically diversify his investments across India.
• One will be able to apportion his total investment into small sums in large projects like township development, Technology Park, industrial estate, health city…
• Cost advantage because of economies of large scale operation
This is really an investor friendly investment vehicle. Apart from the regular stocks, mutual funds and fixed deposit investments investors can consider investing in these real estate products also. This will give better diversification to your overall portfolio. Also Investors need to be careful in choosing such investment options. Background of the investment management company and their transparency levels are more important. Investors can seek the advice of the professional financial planners before investing.
This investment vehicle is in its primitive form only. It still needs to go a long way. As of now there are only a very few companies in India which specializes in promoting collective real estate investment products. But in a few years time these kinds of products will be available from various investment management companies and in different varieties like our present mutual fund schemes.
The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

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Always Kabhi Kabhi

Director           Roshan Abbas

Cast                 Ali Fazal, Satyajeet Dubey, Giselli Monteiro, Zoa Morani, Pritika Chawla, Navneet Nishan, Vijay Raaz, Akash Khurana, Lillete Dubey, Satish Shah, Ashwin Mushran, Manoj Joshi, Mukesh Tiwari,

Year                2011

Genre              RomCom

Dear Roshan Abbas – When someone makes his first movie it should ideally be an original story line.  If not there should be at least some semblance of originality if not completely original. But ripping off an entire Hollywood flick to the extent that it has been – GAWD!!!! Have some shame.  We are definitely an Indian audience but we definitely have our resources to watch Hollywood flicks.  Plus the DVDs of High School Musical 1, 2 and 3 have been sold as a box pack for over 2 years now.  You have actually made Anu Malik look like a walk in the park.  Copy dude.  But copy well.  At least respect the original to the extent of replicating it well.  Each and every frame of your debut flick has been so tackily shot that after 15 minutes it doesn’t seem funny.  And your talk about speaking to the Gen Y or Gen Next or whatever you want to call them hasn’t really worked.  There were enough and more kids between 13 and 19 who were in the hall and actually struggling to get through the first half.  By the time the 2^nd half started they were already contemplating an exit and planning the next hour and half in advance. 

And Roshan – the script is also written by you.  Now why would you put in dialogues such as, “IIT aur MIT mein sirg ek akshar ka farak hai” (The difference between IIT and MIT is only one alphabet) and “Life me koi keyboard ka shortcut nahin hota hai.  Isse google nahin kiya ja sakta.  Isse experience kiya jaata hai” (Life doesn’t have a shortcut key on the keyboard.  You cannot google it.  You have to experience it).  Of course there was one good dialogue somewhere in between which said, “Is generation ki nazar tab jhukti hai jab SMS milta ho” (This generation will bow its head only when it receives an SMS).  Quite deep I must say Mr. Abbas.

And do kids start drinking like fish at the age of 17 these days and walk into school with hangovers the size of Mt. Everest? Gawd if that is true then we sure are headed for some trouble soon enough. What the hell is the local government talking about an age limit of 25??????

And then there is the cast of when the guys are probably the saving grace.  All students of the St. Marks College.  Decent debuts from Ali Fazal (Shortcut Sam Sameer) and Satyajeet Dubey (Taariq Einstein Naqvi).  And the Brazilian beauty’s follow up movie has 20 times as much dialogues as the first one.  She spoke 2 lines in the first one and she speaks 40 lines in this one.  So that’s progress.  Bringing up the tail is the pocket rocket Zoa Morani (Nandini “Nandy Bull” Oberoi).  The lead cast has a meek attempt for support from the rest Pritika Chawla, Navneet Nishan, Akash Khurana, Lillete Dubey, Satish Shah & Ashwin Mushran (Why do you take these roles really???).  The ever reliable balance cast of Manoj Joshi, Mukesh Tiwari & Vijay Raaz are solid as always.  Most of the music is also quite uninspiring. Net Net, Always Kabhi Kabhi is quite a waste of 2 hours if you have seen High School Musical.  If you haven’t seen HSM then I suggest you watch it and not waste your time on AKK.  It’s a 3 on 10 from my side thanks to a couple of songs and a couple of good performances.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi558275865/

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Bheja Fry 2

Director           Sagar Bellary

Cast                 Vinay Pathak, Kay Kay Menon, Minisha Lamba, Aditi Govitrikar, Suresh Menon, Rahul Vora, Rukhsar, Amol Gupte

Year                2011

Genre              Comedy

It is never easy to make a sequel to a movie. Especially if the first one has been a stupendous success. The expectations of the audience have already been set extremely high. What it does though is ensure that the cash registers at the Box Office are continuously ringing. Music to the ears of the movie hall owners who are anyways having a tough time getting people to come in. However, a not so great sequel leaves the audience feeling distinctly cheated and more importantly ensures that there are no further sequels. May not be completely the case with Bheja Fry as a franchise thanks to one Vinay Pathak who carried the first edition ably on his shoulders - with support from a solid cast and a great script. The makers were sure enough to succeed with BF2 @ the BO. If and when there is a BF3, it will definitely break even thanks to the first one. And if it doesn't do well then u know what the reason would be.

The makers did get the first thing right in retaining Sagar Bellary as the director to ensure consistency of thought. But who was to know that Mr.Bellary had already fallen victim to the commercial aspects of cinema. BF2 is the classic case of, as I had tweeted, the fall of classic comedy to the levels of cheap slapstick humour and just glimpses of classic comedy which were too less for the normal movie goer to catch. What stumps me is that having tasted success with the evergreen genre of classic comedy, why would Bellary take a turn towards the slapstick? And why in the blazes would he get superb performers of the likes of Amol Gupte to stoop down to the levels of inanity on screen. Amol Gupte was surely desperate to get some money into the bank. Vinay Pathak continues to excel at his role of the irritating, "shudh hindi" (chaste hindi) speakinng, simpleton who goes by the name of Bharat Bhushan. The rest of the cast however changes to feature Kay Kay Menon who seems to have forgotten how to act. Minisha Lamba starts slow and seems have been picked to compensate for being just eye candy but then shows glimpses of decent acting before getting relegated the the level of Aditi Govitrikar who was furniture anyways to begin with. The only other noteworthy performance was from Suresh Menon as the sincere uncorruptable IT Officer MT Shekharan who is chasing Ajit Talwar (KK Menon) for IT fraud.

A tacky script, several inconsistencies (like Lamba jumping into the pool and coming out dry with her hair band intact and then again dripping wet in the room still with hair band perfectly held in place), very average music and not so great editing make BF2 a let down. But then most people would have got that from the trailers itself. Just the hope that people live in which dragged them into the halls. 5 on 10 for this one Mr. Bellary - regretably u have disappointed us!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUUBTnqTWc8

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Shaitan

Director           Bejoy Nambiar

Cast                 Kalki Koechlin, Shiv Pandit, Neil Bhoopalam, Gulshan Devaiah, Kirti Kulhari, Pavan Malhotra, Rajeev Khandelwal, Sheetal Menon, Nikhil Chinappa, Raj Kumar Yadav, Rajit Kapoor, Rukhsar, Rajat Barmecha,

Year                2011

Genre              Drama

One of the reasons I did not put up the review of Shaitan up earlier was because I was quite certain that people would watch it – review or no review – and not be disappointed with it.  The other reason – the more important one – was that I was and still am running the movie back in my head to piece a few things together to figure out if they were really required in the movie.  I probably have missed a few points when I saw the movie for the first time and may manage to latch onto the finer nuances when I watch it again (which will probably be this week).  Its worth it when you are debating whether to give a movie a score of over 8 or was it really that good. 

What makes Shaitan a magical experience is not just the direction.  In fact that’s a small part of the entire mix is what you would feel at the end of it all.  I have not seen a movie in a long time where the performances of every single person in the cast was near outstanding.  If there was a blemish in the performances it would have been Nikhil Chinappa who appeared the weakest.  Even the dialogue deprived (actually no dialogues at all) Sheetal Menon was inch perfect in her essaying of the peeved wife of a cop who decides to leave him albeit for a couple of days. Kashyap and Nambiar have taken very true to life actors and led them to probably their best performance possible not only to date but maybe for good.  How else can you explain the likes of a Kirti Kulhari coming up with what she has.  Her last performance was as Pammi in that slapstick movie – Khichdi.  What a transition I say!!!!  I tip my hat to you M/s Kashyap & Nambiar – like several others in this country are doing as we speak. 

There are 3 reasons why I will not give Shaitan a score of more than 8 – Firstly I did not find the reason to introduce Shomu (Rajat Barmecha) into the story at all.  Yes, it was a nice way to call out a kidnapping plot but I personally felt it was too stretched out.  Secondly – I did not find any reason to introduce a chase scene with a Dahi Handi in the background.  It could have been a regular chase.  Difficult cut to make for any director but I guess that’s what differentiates the tough directors from the not so tough.  Lastly, I felt the movie lost tempo somewhere in between. Cannot really point a finger on the exact spot where it started dropping and it picked up again but I did feel a sense of the movie drifting a little bit for about 15 minutes.  In atypical Anurag Kashyap style, Bejoy Nambiar gets the movie from an absolute high down to the very low abysses and then shoots it again through the roof.  I am quite certain that the movie was ghost directed by Anurag Kashyap – every frame reeks of Kashyap.  Unless Kashyap is not only a great director but also a fabulous teacher and has trickled his learnings down to his protégé better than anyone else can. My final verdict - 8 on 10.  Undeniably the best movie of the year so far.  MUST WATCH. And yes – Don’t miss the chase sequence with the evergreen Khoya Khoya Chand Remix playing in the background.  Completely blows your mind!!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1kk_5OohaM

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Ready

Director           Anees Bazmee

Cast                 Salman Khan, Asin Thotumkal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Paresh Rawal, Anuradha Patel, Manoj Pahwa, Manoj Joshi, Puneet Issar, Akhilendra Mishra, Sharat Saxena, Arya Babbar, Sudesh Lehri, Nikitin Dheer

Year                2011

Genre              Comedy

Before you go to watch Ready, please follow the steps as under

1. Open Skull
2. Carefully pull out brain – make sure you don’t damage anything else the purpose of saving the brain from trauma would be defeated.
3. Now, place brain in a bowl of ice cold water and leave it in freezer for the next few hours

Now that you have no sense of pain or pleasure or excitement or humour, you are in the perfect situation to watch one of the most brainless pieces of work that Bollywood could have given to you.  This one takes the cake and makes David Dhawan look like an Oscar winning director.  This freak of nature has taken slapstick and cheap comedy to a completely different level.  And what is shocking is that the audiences are loving it and lapping it up.  Every single piece of crap that is dished out from his table seems to be going so well with the audiences that his sense of false self belief is getting bloated beyond recognition and repair.  And no we aren’t talking about Salman Khan who was probably the only saving grace in Ready other than Paresh Rawal.  We are talking about this phenomenon (what else can you call him) called Anees Bazmee!!!!  Its truly ridiculous that someone like Bazmee can get away with all the bull shit that he dishes out.  But as I said – the audiences are loving it to say the least LLLL:’(:’(:’(:’(  Other than the 4 of us who had braved the Saturday rains in Mumbai to watch the 2250 show (and I was doing this after watching 5 decent movies before), everyone else seemed to be having a stupendous time.  Maybe they followed my instructions to the T and were informed earlier by someone else.

Prem (Salman Khan – for the n^th time being called Prem) is a Chartered Accountant (can you believe that!!!!). But wait… there has to be a twist right.  He is based in Bangkok – wonder whose accounts he was balancing there??? He is the sole heir to millions (of Bahts I am assuming) owned by his father Ram (Mahesh Manjrekar) and his uncles Laxman (Manoj Pahwa) and Bharat (Manoj Joshi).  But the families have given up on him per se thanks to his mischevious ways.  His favourite pastime is to get single girls hitched with the guys of their dreams – especially if the single girls are hot and happen to be the neighbour’s daughter – AAAARGH!!!!!  But the folks finally manage to get him to consider a girl recommended by the family Baba.  A chick coming in from the US.  And heres is where the 2^nd and ultimate twist happens of a girl exchange.  Instead of a certain Pooja who no one in the family but the Baba has seen, Sanjana (Asin) lands up taking her place.  Chaos and of course love happens soon enough. And yes… a tuk tuck chase is thrown in as garnish

None of my closing comments will save you from the torture that you will go through.  Although I don’t owe any apologies to Sheena, Hersh and Vivek because they willingly accepted the proposition of going through this mindless piece of crap, I believe I still will apologize to them because I came up with the idea.  What prevented me from watching Hangover 2 I will never know – wait of course I know – the 3 of them had already seen it :’(:’(:’(.  The positives however include some foot tapping music and  some extremely cocky dialogue delivery from Salman.  For e.g. “Is duniya mein 3 cheezon ko kabhi underestimate mat karna – I, Me and Myself” (For the non educated in Hindi – Never underestimate 3 things in life – I, Me and Myself!!!) AAARGH ^ infinity. 2 on 10 for the above 2 points and some decent comic timing in patches from Paresh Rawal (more out of respect).

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACvDgKuTxnA

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Mutual Funds Mythbuster

Rahul is working for a mutual fund house. They have recently came out with an NFO (new fund offer). The day on which the fund house announced its maiden NAV (net asset value), he received lot of calls from investors asking why the NAV is at below par. They thought something was wrong.

Then Rahul went on clarifying them that though both an equity fund and a stock extend market-related returns, there are some key differences between the two. If you have similar misconceptions about equity funds and stocks, this article will demystify all those misconceptions.

New Fund Offerings:

A new fund offer is not likely to generate amazing returns as can be the case with an initial public offering from a company. This is because the NAV reflects the market value of the stocks held by the fund on any day. Because a fund holds several stocks in its portfolio, the NAV can only reflect the combined returns on the portfolio between the NFO date and the date of first NAV.

The first NAV declared by a fund can, at times, be lower than the par value of investment. A lower NAV does not mean a cheaper fund: Just because a New Fund is issued at Rs 10, it does not mean it has a chance of giving better returns than an existing fund that has a higher NAV.

Whether the scheme in which you are planning to invest has an NAV of Rs.15 or Rs.150 does not matter at all.

There is a difference between the price of a listed security and the NAV of a mutual fund scheme. Listed security has a price, determined by the demand and supply of the security. Whereas the unit's NAV of the scheme has a value determined mathematically, by the prices of the securities in the portfolio. If the portfolio appreciates by 10% Rs.15 NAV will become RS.16.5 and Rs.150 AV will become Rs.165. So in whatever the NAV you invest your investment will fetch you 10% return.

So instead of concentrating on LOW NAV and more number of units, it is worthwhile to consider other factors (performance track record, fund management, volatility) that determine the portfolio return.

Dividends are not extra returns:

Immediately, after the dividend payment of dividend the NAV of the fund will fall to the extent of the dividend payment. Let us illustrate.

Fund’s cum dividend NAV is Rs.25. Proposed dividend is 50%. You are investing Rs.1 Lac and you will not get Rs.50000 as dividend. It is only Rs.20000 (50% on the face value Rs.10 is Rs.5 per unit) as the unit price is Rs.25 you will get 4000 units. Rs.5 dividend * 4000 units=Rs.20000.

And this dividend is not an additional gain or income. After payment of dividend the NAV of the scheme will fall to the extent of the payment and distribution taxes (if applicable). Now your nav will become Rs.20 and your investment value will be Rs.80000 (4000 units * Rs.20 NAV).

In a nutshell,

Investment amount Rs.1,00,000
Dividend amount Rs. 20,000
Present Value Rs. 80,000

It is nothing but investing Rs.80000 after dividend distribution at NAV Rs.20.

So investing in a scheme because it is declaring dividend in the near future is meaningless. Usually a company with a liberal dividend policy may enjoy greater investor interest in the stock market. The same is not applicable to an equity-oriented mutual fund.

Investing more number of funds is not actual diversification. It may reduce your return.

Owning several mutual funds doesn’t necessarily broaden your holdings. It will be a mistake to buy the same securities over and over again in different funds with different names. You tend to believe they're diversified. But it is not real diversification.

There are only very few funds which are performing consistently. Instead of investing in few funds, if someone chooses to invest in more number of funds (because he intends to diversify) he may be forced to choose some average performing schemes also. As a result his returns will be diluted. The step taken by the investor to diversify his investment is not leading to diversification but to dilution of return.

Thus ideally your portfolio should not have more than four-five funds.

NO tax for churning

When we buy shares and sell them within a year we are accountable for short term capital gain tax at the rate of 15%. But mutual funds provide the benefit of churning of stocks with no tax implications. A fund which churns its portfolio within a year is exempt from tax because it only redistributes these profits to investors.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

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Something about the Lokpal Bill

As you all know, Anna Hazare led the fight against Government to introduce the Lokpal bill. But many politicians (from all parties) are against it as it will completely curb the corruption and politicians will not be able to make out any money.

Many politicians are opposing Lokpal bill by giving reasons like it is difficult to follow this bill or it is complicated process, etc. Given below are the reasons how the procedures of Lokpal bill are different from existing Indian political system.

Existing System	System Proposed by civil society
No politician or senior officer ever goes to jail despite huge evidence because Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) and CBI directly come under the government. Before starting investigation or initiating prosecution in any case, they have to take permission from the same bosses, against whom the case has to be investigated.	Lokpal at centre and Lokayukta at state level will be independent bodies. ACB and CBI will be merged into these bodies. They will have power to initiate investigations and prosecution against any officer or politician without needing anyone's permission. Investigation should be completed within 1 year and trial to get over in next 1 year.Within two years, the corrupt should go to jail.
No corrupt officer is dismissed from the jobbecause Central Vigilance Commission, which is supposed to dismiss corrupt officers, is only an advisory body. Whenever it advises government to dismiss any senior corrupt officer, its advice is never implemented.	Lokpal and Lokayukta will have complete powers to order dismissal of a corrupt officer. CVC and all departmental vigilance will be merged into Lokpal and state vigilance will be merged into Lokayukta.
No action is taken against corrupt judgesbecause permission is required from the Chief Justice of India to even register an FIR against corrupt judges.	Lokpal & Lokayukta shall have powers to investigate and prosecute any judge without needing anyone's permission.
Nowhere to go - People expose corruption but no action is taken on their complaints.	Lokpal & Lokayukta will have to enquire into and hear every complaint.
There is so much corruption within CBI and vigilance departments. Their functioning is so secret that it encourages corruption within these agencies.	All investigations in Lokpal & Lokayukta shall be transparent. After completion of investigation, all case records shall be open to public. Complaint against any staff of Lokpal & Lokayukta shall be enquired and punishment announced within two months.
Weak and corrupt people are appointed as heads of anti-corruption agencies.	Politicians will have absolutely no say in selections of Chairperson and members of Lokpal & Lokayukta. Selections will take place through a transparent and public participatory process.
Citizens face harassment in government offices. Sometimes they are forced to pay bribes. One can only complaint to senior officers. No action is taken on complaints because senior officers also get their cut.	Lokpal & Lokayukta will get public grievances resolved in time bound manner, impose a penalty of Rs 250 per day of delay to be deducted from the salary of guilty officer and award that amount as compensation to the aggrieved citizen.
Nothing in law to recover ill-gotten wealth. A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money.	Loss caused to the government due to corruption will be recovered from all accused.
Small punishment for corruption - Punishment for corruption is minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years.	Enhanced punishment - The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment.

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All you wanted to know about Mediclaim Policy

Health care costs are sky rocketing day by day. Therefore the need for having a mediclaim policy for you and your dependents has grown. Suppose you have to undergo some medical treatment or need to be hospitalized for certain reason, then a mediclaim policy will be of immense help to you in covering your health care expenses. The reason is Mediclaim offers protection in case of unexpected medical and health care emergencies.

Hospitalization expenses in case of illness, disease or accident will impose a heavy financial burden on individuals and families. This is where the mediclaim policy comes in handy. The mediclaim policy can reimburse the hospitalization expenses or can pay the hospital directly on behalf of you.

A mediclaim policy provides a health cover of certain amount of money. This amount depends on the amount that the insured person was insured for. The mediclaim policy can be taken for an individual or for an entire family. Some insurance companies allow a discount on the premium if the policy is taken for a family. Insurance companies have fixed some age limit for medical test. If the individual is below that age, then he or she need not undergo medical test for taking mediclaim policy.

If the individual is above that age limit then he needs to go for medical test. If any pre-existing disease has been found out in the medical test, then those diseases will not be covered under the mediclaim policy for a waiting period of a first few years. If you have a mediclaim policy from your employer, that may not be sufficient. Employer may cover the employee and not necessarily his entire family members. And moreover these policies are not portable and cannot be individualized if you leave the job.

Employer provided policies cannot be transferred to another employer in case you switch your job. Also employer provided policies will give you coverage as long as you are employed. Once you retire you may not be having coverage. It is really unfortunate that only after your retirement you need health insurance at the most.

If you plan to take a fresh policy after retirement, insurance company will not cover the pre-existing diseases at that point in time. Though your employer provides a health insurance policy it is better for you to take a separate health insurance policy at least with a small amount of coverage. The coverage amount of the health insurance policy need to be decided based on your health consciousness, your family health history, and the class of hospital you choose for treatments.

If you are not health conscious or you don’t do regular exercises or you don’t follow proper diet or you frequently take outside food or don’t go for annual health check-ups then it is advisable to go for more sum insured coverage in your mediclaim policy. If your family has got any adverse health history like heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, any form of paralysis, or any hereditary disorder then you need to choose higher coverage amount in your health insurance.

If you will be choosing high class hospitals for your treatment then you need to go for higher sum assured. If you will be choosing medium level or low level hospitals then you can choose the coverage amount accordingly. Also you need to revise your health insurance coverage amount based on the changes in the above factors and the changes in the medical cost. Also the increase in the age needs to be considered for deciding the coverage amount. The icing on the cake is you get tax benefit under section 80D for the mediclaim premium paid. For senior citizen the limit under this section is Rs.20000 and for others it is 15000.

Most people don’t think about health insurance very often. But it comes to mind first when a loved one is sick. Mediclaim policy is one of those things everyone knows he or she should take but usually puts off until a more opportune time. Living without a mediclaim policy is like going out on a rainy day without an umbrella or a raincoat. If you have not covered adequately yourself and your dependents with mediclaim policy so far, then now is the right time to take action. The fact that you are reading this article shows you have decided to stop procrastinating, delaying and have answered the ancient question, “If not now, when?” with “NOW!”.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

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