Rules of Happy Life

100 Ways To Be Happy
1. Never put yourself last.
2. When you extend a helping hand to one person,
be careful not to kick someone else in the teeth.
3. Always own a pair of old, faded jeans.
4. Count your blessings every day.
5. Acknowledge your successes along with your downfalls.
6. Burn the candle that has been in storage for the last two years.
7. Strive for progress, not perfection.
8. Remember, the voice telling you that you cannot do something is always lying.
9. At least once a day sit and do nothing.
10. Don't close your heart so tightly against life's pain that you shut out life's blessings.
11. Celebrate all your birthdays no matter how old you get.
12. Examine your life for limitations and ask yourself why you put them there.
13. Plant a tree, pull weeds, or get your hands dirty.
14. Diminish your wants instead of increasing your needs.
15. Cry when you feel like it.16. Rejoice in other people's triumphs.
17. Don't wait for someone else to laugh or express joy.
18. Forgive yourself for any mistake you make, no matter how big or small.
19. Keep good company.
20. Never take a pill for a pain you need to feel.
21. Use your enthusiasm to put yourself in forward gear
and give yourself a spark to move ahead.
22. Look in the eyes of the ones you love when you are talking to them.
23. Remember that one is a whole number.
24. Walk in a summer rain shower without an umbrella.
25. Do a kind deed for someone else.
26. Keep your eyes and ears open to get the messages you need
from people and events in your daily life.
27. Be patient.
28. Eat something green.
29. Change what you can and leave the rest alone.
30. Walk hand and hand with truth.
31. Make laughter and joy a greater part of your life than anger and grief.
32. Embrace solitude instead of running from it.
33. Be zealous, not jealous.
34. Forgive anyone you've been holding a grudge against.
35. Slow down and enjoy the present.
36. Walk in others' shoes before judging them.
37. Send yourself a kind message.
38. Remind yourself that the company you keep is a reflection of
what you think of yourself.
39. Go on a picnic.
40. Accept your fears, no matter how crazy they seem.
41. Don't let other people's opinions shape who you are.
42. Say a prayer.
43. Never attribute your accomplishments to luck or chance.
44. Know when to say no.
45. Look at the positive side of negative situation.
46. Remember that you are a spiritual being in a physical body.
47. Avoid seeking out other people for constant approval, because
it make them the master and you the slave.
48. Go fly a kite.49. Avoid fads and bandwagons.
50. Accept the things you cannot change.
51. Look inside instead of outside yourself for answers to life's problems.
52. Remember that all feelings are okay.
53. Shield yourself from bad influences.
54. Stand up for what you believe in.
55. Respect the wishes of others when they say no.
56. Seize every moment and live it fully.
57. Give away or sell anything you haven't used in the past five years.
58. Never downgrade yourself.
59. Take responsibility for what you think, feel, and do.
60. Pamper yourself.
61. Never say or do anything abusive to a child.
62. Let yourself be God powered instead of flying solo.
63. Volunteer to help someone in need.
64. Refrain from overindulging in food, drink, and work.
65. Finish unfinished business.
66. Be spontaneous.
67. Find a constructive outlet for your anger.
68. Think about abundance instead of lack, because whatever
you think about expands.
69. Think of yourself as a survivor, not a victim.
70. Cuddle an animal.
71. Be open to life.
72. See success as something you already have, not something
you must attain.
73. Experience the splendor and awe of a sunset.
74. When you score a base hit, don't wish it were a home run.
75. Learn to be in the present moment.
76. Instead of believing in miracles, depend on them.
77. Take a child to the circus.
78. Change your attitude and your whole life will change.
79. Never turn your power over to another person.
80. When your heart is at odds with your head, follow your heart.
81. Always remember that the past is gone forever and the future never comes.
82. Live your life according to what is right for you.83. Acknowledge your imperfections.
84. Plant a tree and watch it grow.
85. See "friend" instead of "enemy" on the face of strangers.
86. Watch an army of ants build their houses and cities and carry food ten times their weight.
87. Believe in something bigger than yourself.
88. Let the playful child within you come out.
89. Make haste slowly.
90. Work through your problems step by step and one day at a time.
91. Accept compliments from others so you can see the truth about yourself.
92. Sit on the lawn without worrying about grass stains.
93. Don't condemn yourself for your imperfections.
94. Do a humility check periodically by loving the truth about yourself.
95. Tell someone you appreciate them.
96. Never live your life according to what is right for someone else.
97. Talk less and listen more.
98. Admit your wrongdoing and forgive yourself for it.
99. Thrive on inner peace instead of on crises.
100. Affirm all the good things about yourself.

INDIAN BUDGET TERMINOLOGY

INDIAN BUDGET TERMINOLOGY

READING THE BALANCE SHEET

The lines and figures that reveal the receipts and expenditure of the year

ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT

This is the last word on the state’s receipts and expenditure for the financial year, presented to Parliament by the government. Divided into three parts — Consolidated Fund, Contingency Fund and Public Account — it has a statement of receipts and expenditure of each. Expenditure from the Consolidated Fund and Contingency Fund requires the mandatory nod of Parliament. CONSOLIDATED FUND

The government’s life line: it is a consortium of all revenues, money borrowed and receipts from loans it has given. All state expenditure is made from this fund.

CONTINGENCY FUND

As the name suggests, any urgent or unforeseen expenditure is met from this Rs 500-crore fund, which is at the disposal of the President. The amount withdrawn is returned from the Consolidated Fund.

PUBLIC ACCOUNT

When it comes to this account, the government’s nothing more than a banker, as this fund is a collection of money belonging to others, like public provident fund.

REVENUE VS CAPITAL

The budget has to distinguish revenue receipts/expenditur e on revenue account from other expenditure. So all receipts in, say, the consolidated fund, are split into Revenue Budget (revenue account) and Capital Budget (capital account), which includes non-revenue receipts and expenditure.

REVENUE RECEIPT/EXPENDITURE

All receipts like taxes and expenditure like salaries, subsidies and interest payments that in general do not entail sale or creation of assets fall under the revenue account.

CAPITAL RECEIPT/EXPENDITURE

Capital account shows all receipts from liquidating (eg. selling shares in a public sector company) assets and spending to create assets (lending to receive interest).

REVENUE/CAPITAL BUDGET

The government has to prepare a Revenue Budget (detailing revenue receipts and revenue expenditure) and a Capital Budget (capital receipts and capital expenditure) .

CREATING A HOLE IN THE POCKET

Taxes come in various shapes and sizes, but primarily fit into two little slots:

DIRECT TAX

This is the tax that you, I (and India Inc) directly pay the government for our income and wealth. So income tax, FBT, STT and BCTT are all direct taxes.

INDIRECT TAX

This one’s a double whammy: It’s essentially a tax on our expenditure, and includes customs, excise and service tax. It’s not just you who thinks this isn’t fair - governments too consider this tax ‘regressive’, as it doesn’t check whether you’re rich or poor. You spend, you pay. That’s precisely why most governments aim to raise more through direct taxes.

MAKING YOU PAY

The various taxes that the government levies

CORPORATION (CORPORATE) TAX

It’s the tax that India Inc pays on its profits.

TAXES ON INCOME OTHER THAN CORPORATION TAX

It’s income-tax paid by ‘non-corporate assessees’ — people like us.

FRINGE BENEFIT TAX (FBT)

No free lunches here. If you want the jam with the bread and butter, you’d better pay for it. In the 2005-06 Budget, the government decided to tax all perks — what is calls the ‘fringe benefit’ — given to employees. No longer could companies get away with saying ‘ordinary business expenses’ and escape tax when they actually gave out club memberships to their employees. Employers have to now pay a tax (FBT) on a percentage of the expense incurred on such perquisites.

SECURITIES TRANSACTION TAX (STT)

If you’re dealing in shares or mutual funds , you have to loosen those purse strings a wee bit too. STT is a small tax you need to pay on the total amount you pay or receive in a share deal. In the 2004-05 Budget, the government did away with the tax on profits earned on the sale of shares held for over a year (known as long-term capital gains tax) and replaced it with STT. CUSTOMS Anything you bring home from across the seas comes with a price. By levying a tax on imports, the government’s firing on two fronts: it’s filling its coffers and protecting Indian industry. UNION EXCISE DUTY

Made in India? Either way, there’s no escape. In other words, this is a duty imposed on goods manufactured in the country. SERVICE TAX If you text your friend a hundred times a day, or can’t do with-out the coiffeured look at the neighbourhood salon, your monthly bill will show up a little charge for the services you use. It is a tax on services rendered.

MINIMUM ALTERNATE TAX (MAT)

It’s known that a company pays tax on profits as per the Income-Tax Act. That just may not always be enough. If its tax liability is less than 10% of its profits, the company has to pay a minimum alternate tax of 10% of the book profits. SURCHARGE This is an extra bit of 10% on their tax liability individuals pay for earning more than Rs 10 lakh. Companies with a revenue of up to Rs 1 crore are spared this rod. VAT AND GST After a lot of discussion and brainstorming, the government levies what is called a ‘value-added tax’: a more transparent form of taxation. The tax is based on the difference between the value of the output and the value of the inputs used to produce it.. The aim here is to tax a firm only for the value it adds to the manufacturing inputs, and not the entire input cost. Thus, VAT helps avoid a cascading of taxes as a product passes through different stages of production/value addition. A GST, or goods and services tax, on the other hand, contains the entire element of tax borne by a good — including a Central and a state-level tax. MORE REVENUE Of course, tax isn’t the only way governments make money. There’s also ‘nontax revenue’ NON-TAX REVENUE Any loan given to state governments, public institutions, PSUs come with a price (interests) and forms the most important receipts under this head apart from dividends and profits received from PSUs. The government also earns from the various services including public services it provides. Of this only the Railways is a separate department, though all its receipts and expenditure are routed through the consolidated fund.

CAPITAL RECEIPTS RECEIPTS

in the capital account of the consolidated fund are grouped under three broad heads — public debt, recoveries of loans and advances, and miscellaneous receipts PUBLIC DEBT Don’t mistake the phrase. Public debt is not something incurred by the public. In Budget parlance the difference between borrowings (public debt receipts) and repayments (public debt disbursals) during the year is the net accretion to the public debt.. Public debt can be split into two heads, internal debt (money borrowed within the country) and external debt (funds borrowed from non-Indian sources). The internal debt comprises Treasury Bills, market stabilisation scheme, ways and means advance, and securities against small savings.

TREASURY BILL (T-BILLS)

These are bonds (debt securities) with maturity of less than a year. These are issued to meet short-term mismatches in receipts and expenditure. Bonds of longer maturity are called dated securities.

MARKET STABILISATION SCHEME (MSS)

The scheme was launched in April 2004 to strengthen Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ability to conduct exchange rate and monetary manage-ment. . These securities are issued not to meet the government’s expenditure but to provide the RBI with a stock of securities with which to intervene in the market to manage liquidity.

WAYS AND MEANS ADVANCE (WMA)

RBI is the big daddy of banks being the banker for both the Central and State governments. Therefore, the RBI provides a breather to manage mismatches in their receipts and payments in the form of ways and means advances.

SECURITIES AGAINST SMALL SAVINGS

The government meets a small part of its loan requirement by appropriating small savings collection by issuing securities to the fund.

MISCELLANEOUS CAPITAL RECEIPTS:

These are primarily receipts from disinvestment in public sector undertakings. The capital account receipts of the consolidated fund — public debt, recoveries of loans and advances, and miscellaneous receipts — and revenue receipts make up the total receipts of the consolidated fund.

EXPENDITURE

Before we begin to examine the nitty gritty of where and how the government spends its money, we need to understand what’s called the Central Plan. This is what every child in the country learns about in school; only, we all know it better as the Five-Year Plan. A Central Plan is the government’s annual expenditure sheet, with a five-year roadmap. Here’s where the government gets the money for the grand five-year exercise: The funding of the Central Plan is split almost evenly between government support (from the Budget) and internal and extra-budgetary resources of stateowned enterprises. The government’s support to the Central Plan is called the Budget support.

PLAN EXPENDITURE

This is essentially the Budget support to the Central Plan. It also comprises the amount the Centre sets aside for plans of states and Union Territories. Like all Budget heads, this is also split into revenue and capital components.

NON-PLAN EXPENDITURE

All those bills the government has to pay, under the ‘revenue expenditure’ head are bunched up here: interest payments, subsidies, salaries, defence and pension. The ‘capital’ component, in comparison, is small; the largest chunk of this goes to defence.

DEFICIT

When government’s expenditure exceeds its receipts it has to borrow to meet the shortfall. This deficit has material implication for the economy.

FISCAL DEFICIT

This is where the government feels the pinch. It often lives beyond its means, a lot like the situation mere mortals find themselves in. And then, the vicious circle is complete: it goes right back to the people for more money. Here’s how that works out: The government’s ‘non-borrowed receipts’ — revenue receipts plus loan repayments received by the government plus miscellaneous capital receipts, primarily disinvestment proceeds — fall short of its expenditure. The excess of total expenditure over total nonborrowed receipts is called ‘fiscal deficit’. The government then has to borrow money from the people to meet the shortfall.

REVENUE DEFICIT

It’s not just because it’s a deficit, but that it’s a revenue deficit makes it an important control indicator. All expenditure on revenue account should ideally be met from receipts on revenue account; the revenue deficit should be zero, else the government will be in debt.

PRIMARY DEFICIT

This is one ‘primary’ indicator everyone likes to watch: when it shrinks, it indicates we’re not doing too badly on fiscal health. The primary deficit is the fiscal deficit less interest payments the government makes on its earlier borrowings. It’s the basic deficit figure, if you will.

DEFICIT AND THE GDP

It’s important to see where all this fits, in the larger economic picture. The Budget document mentions deficit as a percentage of GDP. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit may be large, but if it is small compared to the size of the economy, then it’s not such a bad thing after all. Prudent fiscal management requires that government does not borrow to consume, in the normal course. FRBM ACT Enacted in 2003, the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act required the elimination of revenue deficit by 2008-09. This means that from 2008-09, the government was to meet all its revenue expenditure from its revenue receipts. Any borrowing was to be done to meet capital expenditure — that is, repayment of loans, lending and fresh investment. The Act also mandates a 3% limit on the fiscal deficit after 2008-09 —one that allows the government to build capacities in the economy without compromising on fiscal stability. The financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown has forced the government to abandon the path of fiscal consolidation. ...AND THE REST Some of the other important terms that figure in the Budget

BHARAT NIRMAN:

Bharat Nirman is UPA’s unfulfilled dream of Build India, Build: irrigation, roads, water supply, housing, rural electrification and rural telecom connectivity. Though it couldn’t meet the target of 2009, the government is still at it.

FINANCE BILL:

This, all important sheaf of papers, is all about taxes and is presented in time before the levy breaks.

FINANCIAL INCLUSION:

This is to ensure that everyone has a bank account and financial institutions are accountable. It sees to it the common denizen is not denied of timely and cheap credit and, more importantly, not intimidated by the facade of a modern bank. However, it has not fully got past the counter. PASS-THROUGH STATUS:

Nothing can be more dreadful than having to pay twice for the same thing. This position is accorded to those investments which stands the danger of being taxed twice like mutual funds. SUBVENTION:

This is how a government bears the loss that financial institutions incur when asked to give farmers loans below the market rates.

RESOURCES TRANSFERRED TO THE STATES

As we saw earlier, the Centre gives states a helping hand in two ways — a part of its gross tax collections goes to state governments. The Centre also transfers funds to states to support their plans. These are largely in the nature of grants, and include those given to states for managing Centrally-sponsored schemes.