Union Budget 2012: What NRIs Want

As UP polls ends, a sign of relief is breathed. But government has to gear up to face the ‘D’ day as budget 2012 nears. From the common man to the Oil companies, from the IT industry to the Defense, all are crossing their fingers to see some positive outcome of the coming up budget. Counting on the union budget is our Non-Resident Indians as well who are expecting some constructive changes in taxation policies and exemptions which is very imperative for their partaking in Indian investments.

Less Taxing in TDS:

Tax Deduction at source has been a long pressing issue for the NRIs. Under section 195 of the Indian Income Tax Act, all NRIs will enjoy tax free for the interests they gain from any bank deposits, but tax is not exempted when it comes to interests that they earn from other investment instruments like corporate deposits and bonds as it will be subject to TDS at 20 percent.

The glitch here for the NRIs are that there is no exemption limit specified and any interest gained from the financial instruments irrespective of the amount small or large, they will be taxed 20 percent. For example, interest earned by resident Indians from bank deposits is subject to TDS only over and above a limit of Rs 10000. No such limit applies for NRIs. NRIs are demanding an exemption limit to be introduced.

TDS is also deducted when a certain payment is made to an NRI, for example through a regular salary payment. In which case, the TDS will be deducted by the employer (who will be called the deductor) and the NRI whose TDS is getting deducted (will be called the deductee). Here again the deduction cannot made by the employer until the NRI provides the Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN). All NRIs do not have TAN numbers and this becomes a obstruction for any deduction.

Claiming of TDS exemption is also a beat around the bush as an NRI has to submit his tax residency certificate obtained from tax authorities of the country they are resident of to claim any TDS exemption. All NRIs want this protocol either removed or made a little flexible as this becomes a tedious process.

Related articles

• NRI’s guide to buying property in India (holidayhometimes.com)
• Investing in India’s real estate – advantage NRIs! (holidayhometimes.com)

4 Indians Among MIT’s Top 35 Innovators

Two Indians and two persons of Indian origin figure among Top 35 Innovators under 35 in the latest list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s (MIT) Technology Review, the world’s oldest Technology Magazine established in 1899.Ajit Narayanan, Invention Labs, Chennai and Aishwarya Ratan, Yale University, who were part of TR35 India Winners announced in March 2011, have made it to the annual list of people who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business and technology.

Ajit Narayanan:

There is an estimation of around 10 million people in India to suffer from speech impediments. Ajit Narayanan’s device can benefit such people. His innovation AVAZ is a portable and battery operated communication device for people with speaking disorders who suffer from cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, and aphasia. This device converts the limited muscle movements like head and finger moves into speech. This tech innovation of Ajit comes under the category of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) technologies. Narayanan wants to bring out an affordable device with cuts the cost of the device to one tenth of the original price. He wants to make it widely available in India and in different languages.

Aishwarya Ratan:

She has developed an electronic ballpoint pen to write in ledgers placed on a slate furnished with software which identifies the handwritten numbers. Finally the feedback about the total record completion and legibility is given by the late. The storage of these feedbacks is also possible. The feedback is given on the screen and also verbally in local language. The database can be shared with the nongovernmental organizations and banks that support the co-operatives. She is a partnering with an NGO and is doing studies on improving the technologies that can help the poor people monetarily. In June she became the director of Microsavings and payments innovation initiative at Yale University.

Bhaskar Krishnamachari:

Bhaskar Krishnamachari aspires to simplify the increasing digital congestion of air waves and welcome new applications for wireless communications. So he created a smarter wireless networks that would handle the mobile devices and intervening more efficiently than Wi-Fi‘s and cellular networks. So his innovation is about opening an additional bandwidth which will for free of cost.

Piya Sorcar:

Piya Sorcar the founder and CEO of TechAIDS developed interactive software that educated the children about HIV that’s sensitive to the Indian tradition. Sorcar made the decision to develop this device when she realized that the way of awareness spread among the children and adults in India is not that effective. The reason is the cultural back ground which doesn’t allow people to be open minded or out spoken to discuss on these topics detailed way. Now her software has been approved and is dispensed among the Indian states where other sex education is banned. In Botswana, a country located in southern Africa has approved for this software to be distributed in every school. Sorcar is expecting to distribute this software to all countries within 5 years.

Related articles

• Talk by Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab – 6th July (punetech.com)
• Yahoo!’s Judd Antin Selected for MIT Technology Review’s List of Young Innovators under 35! (ycorpblog.com)
• Dr. Umar Saif named one of the World’s Top Young Innovators by MIT (jehanara.wordpress.com)
• Pakistani in MIT Tech Review’s List of Innovators under 35 (mtrtmk.wordpress.com)