Is Donald Trump taking a perilous path???

Trump is offering bilateral deals to UK and India, and perhaps also China. But against Iran, Russia, Mexico and even Germany, his tirades continue.

Donald Trump’s election promise was to make America great again. As of now, he is grating everyone again and again! Alongwith his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, (a man who loves war, and predicts one with China within 5-10 years), Trump is upending all relationships. According to German newspaper Der Spiegel, ‘Trump and Bannon pursue a vision of autocracy’. Investors would do well to study the profile of Bannon, who calls himself a Leninist. When asked what that meant, he said he wanted to destroy the State, bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment!

A cause for concern

The duo’s statements, and responses to world leaders, give several causes for concern.

China: Even before Trump, the US viewed China’s accelerated rise in economic (and, consequently, military) power with alarm. In a must see documentary ‘The Coming War on China’, John Pilger, the producer, points out that whereas international media covers the building of runaways on man made islands in the South China Sea, there is no mention of the 400 US bases encircling China, which provoke it to act in self defence.

Increasing military expenditure: Military technologies are horrendous, with each country acquiring better missiles to attack with and improving their anti-ballistic missile technology systems. Both the US THAAD and Russia’s S400 anti-missile systems are frighteningly awesome (India has agreed to buy five systems from Russia, and has also developed, jointly by Tata and L&T, together with DRDO, the Pinaka system which has been tested successfully).

There are several other military technologies. The capex on such systems are, however, destructive, by definition. John Ma, founder of Alibaba, pointed out at Davos that American companies have made huge profits, but the money has been squandered ($11 trillion) on wars.

Pressure on India

India too, has to spend on military technology, to counter the threat of hostile neighbours. Thus, the Trump agenda of destabilisation will result in money that could have been spent on building infrastructure, to be spent on building destructive weapons, instead.

End of multilateralism: Trump has withdrawn US participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral agreement between 12 countries, to cut import tariffs for 18,000 products. Trump and Bannon prefer bilateral agreements, because it is easier to pressurise one (smaller) country under a bilateral agreement than to stick to the terms of a multilateral one. Trump is offering bilateral deals to UK and India, and perhaps also China.

There are others Trump tirades against, including Iran, Russia, Mexico and even Germany. The ability of the US to pay for everything (more military spending due to escalation, more product prices due to trade wars and more infrastructure spending) is dependent on the ability of the US to sell its bonds.

Source: thehindubusinessline.com

Budget 2017: How to pay less tax this year and beyond

It is said that nothing in this world is certain except for death and taxes. However, you can soften the blow from the latter, legally of course. 

It starts with knowing the difference between your salary income and total income and includes minimising tax on allowances that are part of your salary. Your income is from five broad sources: 

Salary Income from an employer, including value of perks and allowances 
House 
Gain or loss from the real estate you own 
Business 
Net profit from any business or profession 
Capital Gains 

Profit/loss from sale of a capital asset (property, shares, jewellery, mutual fund units) 
Other 
Any income other than the four mentioned 

DEDUCTIONS AVAILABLE 
*HRA, medical expense reimbursement, LTA, conveyance allowance etc 
*Standard deduction (30% of income post house tax), and interest paid on loan for buying/construction of the property 
*Expenditure for business or profession, and losses from previous years 
*Depends on asset, holding term, indexation, losses carried forward and investment in specified options 
*Dividends are tax free. As are gifts from specified relatives or  .. 

A taxpayer has to pay tax on certain income even if he/she has not earned it. It includes: 
*Income earned through investments in the name of a child (below 18 years). In this case, the minor’s income is clubbed with that of the parent who earns more. 
*Income from investments made from the taxpayer’s income in spouse’s name. 
*Income deemed to be earned from letting out a second property even if it is lying vacant. 

The exemption is limited to the lowest of 
1. Rent paid less 10% of salary* 
2. 50% of salary* where the house is situated either in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai, and 40% of salary in other cities 
3. Actual HRA received 


*Salary means basic salary and dearness allowance 

*If your CTC doesn’t contain HRA, deduction for rent paid is available from gross taxable income, subject to various limits (maximum deduction 5,000 per month). 
*If you live in a house you own, the HRA component is fully taxable. 

What if accommodation is provided by the employer? 
Tax implications depend on: 
*Type of accommodation – hotel, serviced apartment, leased accommodation. 
*Whether the property is owned by the employer or leased by the employer for you. 
*Whether the accommodation is furnished or not. 
*Your salary level. 

Depending on a combination of factors, you may check with a tax advisor which is more beneficial to you — claiming HRA or living in flat provided by employer. 

Leave travel concession (LTC) 
You and your family’s travelling expenses on an annual holiday within India are eligible for a tax break. For eg, if you are travelling by air, it is limited to economy class airfare for the shortest route to your destination. No exemption is available for hotel and local conveyance expenses. Keep the bills handy. 

Leave Encashment : If you haven’t availed of your entitled leave, you may have an option to get it encashed. With an increasing realisation that employees who avail of annual leave are more productive, most employers permit such encashment only on retirement or resignation. The maximum aggregate exemption available in a lifetime is 3 lakh. 


Reimbursements 
Reimbursements such as medical expenses of up to 15,000 per year or your telephone expenses, including data charges, are exempt. There is no cap on the maximum amount that can be claimed for phone expenses. However, your employer may pose an internal cap. In addition, if you get meal vouchers, such as Sodexo coupons, these are exempt from tax to the extent of 50 per meal 

Children’s education allowance: 
This gets you a limited monthly tax break of 100 per child and 300 per child for hostel expenses (both restricted to two children) 

Car perquisites: The perquisite value of a car benefit provided by an employer to you depends on who owns the car, the capacity of the engine, whether you or the employer pays for its maintenance, running cost (including fuel), driver, and if the use is official or personal. Some employers also offer car on lease, which could bring down your income tax significantly Transport allowance: Any such allowance paid by employer to meet your daily conveyance needs between office and home is tax-exempt up to 1,600 per month 

Employee Provident Fund (EPF) & gratuity 
PF withdrawal after rendering 5 or more years of continuous services is tax-free. However, if you withdraw prior to completion of 5 years of service, the withdrawal becomes taxable under various heads of income. There are a few other scenarios where the PF withdrawal is tax-free such as termination on account of ill health etc. You will be entitled to receive gratuity after rendering 5 years of services and any such payment on termination or retirement is tax exempt up to a maximum of 10 lakh in a lifetime. 

Source:Economic times

Alibaba becomes worldwide Olympic partner through 2028

 

Chinese online giant Alibaba today became the worldwide Olympic partner through 2028 after signing the first long-term partnership with International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Alibaba will become the official cloud services and e-commerce platform services partner as well as the founding partner of the Olympic Channel, Alibaba Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma announced at a press conference here on the sidelines of WEF Annual Meeting 2017.

IOC President Thomas Bach said Alibaba will help the organisation move ahead in the new digital era.

Ma said Alibaba has become the first Chinese company to commit to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and also the first ever company globally to make a long-term commitment to the IOC through 2028.

He said Alibaba has origins in China but it is a truly global company today.

Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said it doesn’t want to be just another sponsor but a game changing partner to IOC. He said the partnership will help it move another step closer towards Alibaba’s goal to serve 3 billion consumers. Financial details of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Alibaba’s global activation rights will include the Olympic Winter Games PyeogChang 2018, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic and Olympic Winter Games in 2024, 2026 and 2028 in cities yet to be selected by the IOC.

Ma said Alibaba will use its innovations and technologies to help evolve the Olympic Games for the digital era.

Alibaba will provide colloid computing infra and cloud services to help Games operate more efficiently effectively and securely including supporting big data analytics needs.

It will also create a global e-commerce platform for Olympic stakeholders and to engage and connect with fans seeking official Olympic licenced products and selected sports products on a worldwide basis.

The partnership will leverage Alibaba’s leading digital media technologies and know how to develop and customise Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

Accenture one of best companies for women to work

 Global professional services company Accenture has been recognised as one of the best companies for women in India to work. 

According to the list published by US-based magazine Working Mother and women-centric career service AVTAR, Accenture features in the "Top 10 of the 100 Best Companies for Women in India" list which celebrates organisations that champion sustainable careers for women. 

According to the list published by US-based magazine Working Mother and women-centric career service AVTAR, Accenture features in the "Top 10 of the 100 Best Companies for Women in India" list which celebrates organisations that champion sustainable careers for women. 

The company was recognised for providing an inclusive and supportive environment for its more than 45,000 women in India on several categories, including women's recruitment, retention and advancement, safety and securities flexible work programmes and paid-time off. 

The company was also recognised for its leading maternity benefits and support for returning mothers. 

"Creating an inclusive environment that enables women to achieve both their personal and professional ambitions, reflects Accenture's core values and culture," said Rekha M Menon, chairman and managing director, Accenture in India, in a statement. 

Thanks for the source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

OnePlus 3T finally goes official, launched with better camera & bigger

NEW DELHI: Putting weeks of rumours and leaks to rest, OnePlus has finally launched its newest smartphone - OnePlus 3T. An upgraded version of the company's existing flagship smartphone OnePlus 3, the One Plus 3T comes with improved specifications and features than its predecessor. These include a faster chipset, better front-facing camera and bigger battery. 

The smartphone is priced at HK$3388, which roughly converts to Rs 29,600 and will be available starting November 28. However, there's no word about the OnePlus 3T's availability in India yet. The handset will be available through the company's official website in the US (from November 22) and the European regions (from November 28), with prices starting at USD 439, EUR 439 and GBP 399. 

Crafted out of anodized aluminium, the new OnePlus 3T is available in Soft Gold and Gunmetal colour variants. However, its overall design is the same as the OnePlus 3. 

OnePlus 3T runs OxygenOS v3.5 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and has a 5.5-inch Full HD Optic Amoled display of 1080x1920 pixel resolution. OnePlus' software based display tweaks such as Night Mode, Light/Dark theme and Accent colours are there as well. 

Both OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T will receive Android 7.0 Nougat update later this year, OnePlus has said. 

The new OnePlus smartphone is powered by Qualcomm's newest and most powerful chipset - Snapdragon 821. This is complemented by 6GB of RAM, in line with previous rumours. In addition to the standard 64GB in-built storage capacity, the new OnePlus 3T is available in another variant having 128GB of internal storage. 

OnePlus 3T has a 16MP primary camera with a Sony IMX298 sensor and LED flash. The camera is capable of recording 4K video, as well as slo-mo (120fps) videos in HD resolution. It boasts features like Optical Image Stabilization, Electronic Image Stabilization and Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF). Some of the other features include Auto HDR, Dynamic denoise and Manual mode. 

Interestingly, it's the front camera that has received an upgrade. The OnePlus 3T comes with a 16MP front-facing snapper with a Samsung sensor. The camera has Phase Detection Autofocus and is capable of recording Full HD videos. In comparison, the OnePlus 3 has an 8MP front-facing shooter. 

Connectivity options of the OnePlus 3T include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.2, NFC, GPS, Glonass and 4G LTE. For audio, the smartphone comes with Dirac HD sound technology, something also present in the OnePlus 3. Obviously, the smartphone supports dual-SIM functionality. 

The new OnePlus 3T is backed by a bigger 3,400mAh non-removable battery with 'Dash Charge' fast charging technology. A fingerprint sensor is also included, just like in the OnePlus 3.

Thanks for the source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

PAYTM KA ATM

We all know that Paytm is coming up in to a Banking System

Paytm Payments Bank is going to have a million points from where cash can be withdrawn. The entire banking system, all the bank branches and ATMs cumulatively, currently offers only a third of that. Sharma’s bank will basically turn any merchant and corner store into a cash withdrawal point called ‘Paytm ka ATM’.

But the system of withdrawing the money is completely different from other Banking systems….. So, How the Authentication will work....... Let’s wait and see……….

It will be a combination of several things. It will utilize the Aadhaar backbone, which means the devices with merchants could be equipped with fingerprint or iris scanners, or both.

Paytm Payments Bank is going to authenticate transactions using voice as a unique biometric signature. In effect, this means you can walk into any establishment that is a ‘Paytm ka ATM’ and ask for money. And when it asks for authentication, the customer will get a call on their phone, and they just have to say a pre-set pass phrase, like “My name is Arjun.”

“Your voice is as unique a signature as iris or fingerprints,” says Sharma, adding that the technology works even if you have a cough or cold. It works in any language.

So, finally will people like to habituate to this kind of system or not is a million dollar question…… Let’s wait and see…….

Thanks for the sourcing copy from alphaideas.

Current Trends of Wealth Management

Hot Trends of Wealth Management Firm’s In Market:

I can say one important threat is going to affect, the Current Trend of Wealth Management

• Technology

In present scenario Technology is rapidly updating day-by-day.

So, how it is going to affect mutual funds is a million dollars question......

Now let's come to the point.....

It is the continuing rise of robo-advices in wealth management. Consumers who could not previously afford advice now have access to quality advice at a much lower price point while some consumers who are having device started experimenting with this new advisory model and shifting some of their financial assets over.

So what was a niche offering as recently as two or three years ago is now finding its way into the service lineups of the larger, traditional wealth and asset management firms. We predict that within the coming year, we’ll also see adjacent players like banks and insurance companies begin to offer digital, automated, low-touch advisory services of their own.

Now all the firms have to think about a question; They will also have to think through the impact on human advisors: does technology empower them, replace them, or a little bit of both?

So, will these robo-advices are going to replace human advisors? Yes, very soon. So, how far it will leads; any idea? We have to wait and see!