 |
| Truncation System |
Of late you must have noticed advertisements in newspapers put up by banks urging account holders to stop circulating non-CTS compliant cheques and replace their old cheque books with new CTS enabled ones.
Some banks also created awareness through various modes of communication like SMS alerts, letters, display boards in branches and ATMs, pop-up messages in internet banking and notification on website. All this is because we are moving from an old format to a new format of cheque clearance in India.
Beginning 1st April 13, Cheque Truncation System (CTS) would be implemented, whereby the flow of the physical movement of the cheque will be eliminated in the cheque clearing process. Instead, an electronic image of the cheque will be sent along with relevant information.
While the existing cheque standard was supposed to be phased out from circulation beginning 2013, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the deadline to 31st March 13 based on representations by some banks as they needed more time to set up the systems.
The shift from the old system to the new cheque format essentially means that if you have given any post-dated cheques to your banks for loan EMIs you will have to replace them with new cheque leaves. And if you hold any post-dated cheques beyond 31st March you will have to arrange to get it replaced with a new Cheque Truncation System cheque.
CTS is an efficient way of clearing cheques. It is in fact, better than the existing method. This article attempts to explain CTS and its benefits both to account holders as well as banks.
What is a Cheque Truncation System?
Cheque Truncation System (CTS) is a cheque clearing system undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for faster clearing of cheques. As the name suggests, truncation is the process of stopping the flow of the physical cheque in its way of clearing. In its place an electronic image of the cheque is transmitted with key important data.
Cheque truncation thus obviates the need to move physical instruments across branches. This effectively eliminates the associated cost of movement of physical cheques, reduces the time required for their collection and brings elegance to the entire activity of cheque processing. It is a system which is practised worldwide in the banking sector.
Cheque Truncation System (CTS) was introduced and implemented in the National Capital Region (NCR) in February ’08 on a pilot basis. The number 2010 in 'CTS-2010' is because the guidelines for Cheque Truncation System came up in the year 2010.
Why CTS?
In India, the RBI has made available inter-bank and customer payments online in near-real time in the form of RTGS and NEFT. However, cheques still remain a prominent mode of payment in the country. Physical cheques still account for 75% to 80% of all transactions.
So, the RBI has decided to focus on improving efficiency of the cheque clearing cycle. Thus, offering CTS is an alternative. CTS also reduces operational risks in banking operations as clearing is a highly fraud-prone operation. This explains CTS from the regulators’ perspective.
Benefits to Account Holders
Since there is no physical movement of cheques, there is no fear of loss of cheque in transit. Usage of CTS cheques also means quicker clearance, shorter clearing cycle and speedier credit of the amount to your account. Depending on whether the cheque is local or outstation, the cheque can get cleared on the same day or within 24 hours.
The biggest advantage is that CTS-compliant cheques are more secure than old cheques and, hence, less prone to frauds. Also, as the system matures, it is proposed to integrate multiple locations and reduce geographical restrictions in cheque clearing.
When nWay began a trial of its dark, sci-fi combat game "ChronoBlade" on Facebook last year, the San Francisco-based start up felt sure it had a hit on its hands.
"First of all, what comes is, 'Wow, I had no idea you could actually do a game of this quality on Facebook,'" said Dave Jones, Chief Creative Officer of nWay, who has worked on "Grand Theft Auto" and "Diablo."
Then came some resistance: Jones admits some potential investors and partners questioned how an action-focused game with slick graphics can play to a Facebook audience more accustomed to "Farmville" and other less time-consuming casual games. Others wondered how the game – which launches this spring – would gain significant users and revenue on the social network.
But Facebook Inc is betting nWay and a clutch of other developers this year can extend console-style action games beyond Microsoft Corp's Xbox or Sony Corp's PlayStation onto the world's largest social network.
Facebook is spearheading the launch of 10 high-quality games created by third-party developers in 2013 that squarely target so-called hardcore gamers, an atypical audience overlooked thus far against the wealth of family-friendly offerings like Zynga Inc's "Farmville" that now dominate the social network's gaming landscape.
The effort, which began late last year but will accelerate in 2013, is part of Facebook's ongoing objective of making sure its 1 billion-plus users log in and spend more time on the network, which in turn boosts ad revenue. Facebook also takes a cut of its applications' revenue.
Facebook's push into action and battle games follows a meeting in January between companies that make games like "first-person shooters" and Vice President Joe Biden to look for ways to curb gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.
Based on the console gaming industry experience, hardcore gamers – typically men 18 to 30 years old – spend more time and effort to master fast-paced games such as first-person shooters (Microsoft's "Halo") or real-time strategy games (Activision Blizzard's "StarCraft").
"You'll see a whole set of games hitting in the next two quarters in particular and throughout the year that really start to redefine what people think of Facebook games," Sean Ryan, head of game partnerships at Facebook said in an interview.
 |
| Tsunami Bomb |
During its search for the 'ultimate weapon' to end World War II, the United States apparently teamed up with New Zealand to test a 'tsunami bomb,' which could be used to destroy the enemy's coastal cities.
Ray Waru, an author, film maker and television producer in New Zealand, uncovered the top secret files of "Project Seal" from the national archive, which told how the two countries conducted tests of this 'tsunami bomb' in the waters around Auckland and New Caledonia in the 1940s.
"If you put it in a James Bond movie it would be viewed as fantasy but it was a real thing," Waru said, according to the Telegraph. "I only came across it because they were still vetting the report, so there it was sitting on somebody's desk [in the archives]."
A total of 3,700 bombs were detonated underwater in these tests, and ultimately showed that exploding a line of 10 bombs (totaling about two million kilograms of explosive), roughly eight kilometres from shore, could generate a 10-meter-high wave when it reached land. For comparison, the tallest wave peaks from the tsunami that devastated Japan's west coast in 2011 were recorded at just over nine meters.
“It was absolutely astonishing,” said Waru. “First that anyone would come up with the idea of developing a weapon of mass destruction based on a tsunami — and also that New Zealand seems to have successfully developed it to the degree that it might have worked.”
"Presumably if the atomic bomb had not worked as well as it did, we might have been tsunami-ing people," he added, and he is likely right about that.
Given that most of the world's major cities are coastal, it would have been a very effective weapon (and likely a lot more environmentally-friendly than nuclear war). The down-side of developing this and going public with it is that it wouldn't be hard to duplicate. You need specialized knowledge, materials and facilities to build nuclear weapons, thus only some nations have them. The relatively simple explosives required to produce one of these 'tactical tsunamis' would be far easier to produce (even for the large quantity required), putting this weapon into far more hands.
Since I'm sure that the environmental impacts of nuclear weapons contributed (at least in part) to our planet emerging from the Cold War without nuking ourselves into oblivion, I'm quite happy that they shelved this weapon, since governments may have been far more willing to use it.
 |
google maps
|
SEOUL: Weeks after its chairman Eric Schmidt's secretive visit to North Korea, Google has rolled out a detailed map of the isolated state that even labels some of its remote and infamous gulags.
Until now North Korea was pretty much a blank canvas to users of Google's "Map Maker", which creates maps from data that is provided by the public and fact-checked in a similar process to that used by Wikipedia.
"For a long time, one of the largest places with limited map data has been North Korea. But today we are changing that," Jayanth Mysore, a senior product manager at Google Map Maker said in blog posting on Monday.
Mysore said the North Korea section had been completed with the help of a "community of citizen cartographers" working over a period of several years.
"While many people around the globe are fascinated with North Korea, these maps are especially important for the citizens of South Korea who have ancestral connections or still have family living there," he added.
With the two countries still technically at war, decent maps of the North are almost impossible to come by in South Korea.
Ironically, the people least able to benefit from the Google publication are the North Koreans themselves, who live in one of the most isolated and highly censored societies on the planet.
The North has a domestic intranet, but it is cut off from the rest of the world, allowing its very limited number of users to exchange state-approved information and little more.
Access to the full-blown internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1,000 at most, experts estimate.
The Google version offers a detailed map of the capital Pyongyang, showing hospitals, subway stops and schools.
Outside the capital, the detail is sketchier, but noticeable on an overview of the country are a series of city-sized, grey-coloured areas which, when zoomed in on, are identified as sprawling re-education camps.
As many as 200,000 people are estimated to be detained in the North's vast gulag system, many under a guilt-by-association system that punishes those related to someone perceived as an enemy of the state.
The release of Google's new North Korea map came just weeks after Schmidt returned from a controversial trip to Pyongyang as part of a US "humanitarian" mission.
On his return, Schmidt said he had told officials in the North that the country would never develop unless it embraces Internet freedom.
Everyone is familiar with amla or the Indian gooseberry, it is used in a variety of products like sweets, jams, powder, pickles, while some simply like to pluck and eat them.
But are the health benefits of amla overrated? Along with Dr. Jaishree Bhattacharjee, Ayurvedic consultant with Satvikshop, we explore this popular Indian fruit.
Amla is known as a good source of vitamin C, but is that all? What are the other health benefits of the Indian gooseberry? Dr. Jaishree gives us a detailed list, "Amla has loads of benefits. It is a super food of Ayurveda due to its antioxidant property. It has beneficial effects on almost all the systems and organs of body." She explains:
-It controls blood sugar in diabetes
-Lowers cholesterol level
-It is a natural anti ageing agent for skin; nourishes scalp and hair roots and encourages hair growth
-It improves digestion and alleviates constipation
-It improves blood circulation
-It ensures proper functioning of liver.
-It is a strong immunomodulator and protects from the onset of many diseases if taken regularly
-Amla is a good hematinic as it raises hemoglobin level
She also goes on to list out other sources of vitamin C, "There are many good sources of vitamin C beside amla:
-All leafy vegetables like palak, bathua etc.
-All kind of peppers have loads of vit-c
-Fruits like mangoes, pine apple, oranges, kiwi, strawberry, berries, papaya,
-Vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, etc
-Herbs like basil, mint, coriander, rosemary"
You can get these health benefits by including amla and the other vitamin C rich foods in your diet. On the other hand, if fresh produce is a problem, you can invest in some organic amla products.
Wife comes home late at night
and quietly opens the door to her bedroom.
From under the blanket
she sees four legs instead of two!
She reaches for a baseball bat
and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can.
Once she's done,
she goes to the kitchen to have a drink.
As she enters,
she sees her husband there, reading a magazine. :s
"hi darling", he says,
"your parents have come to visit us,
so I let them stay in our bedroom.
Hope you have said hello to them.
