My Perspective

A demat account is not just for equities but also for mutual fund, bonds, debentures, nationals savings certificate and soon insurance policies! So having a demat account is necessary for each one of us. However, the Depository Participants (DP) who actually maintain our demat account charge us a  maintenance fees from anywhere between Rs.400-Rs.1000 per annum.  But as noted increasingly demat account is becoming a necessity than luxury. So to promote small retail investors, SEBI came up with the concept of "Basic Services Demat Account" (BSDA) modelled on the lines of no frills savings bank account mandated by RBI. So the good news is that if your total investments (including equities and mutual funds etc.) have not crossed Rs.50,000, then you are not liable

In Bangalore people are increasingly engaging pest control folks for removal of bee hive. But they go about performing hive removal in a non-traditional way with the use of heavy chemicals which on one hand kill the bees instantly (rendering the honey useless!) but also affect people, children and the surroundings. And they end up paying them to do this! We need to stop this practise immediately. Instead, I wish to bring to your notice SOS Wildlife Rescue Centre,

Please ensure that your name is in the voter rolls. If it is not, then you cannot vote even if you have a voter ID card!. If your name is in the list but you don't have a EPIC/voter ID card, even then you can vote! How to verify if your name is in the voter list? If you don't have your EPIC/Voter Card with you, then try this link

I came across an interesting article published in 1985 in the Artificial Intelligence magazine of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence ( AAAI ). This article titled "Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence" by Rick Briggs, from Ames Research Center, NASA talks about

In an article titled "Post-publication peer review: opening up scientific conversation", the inventors of and original advocates for open access now propose a radically new model of “publish first and then referee openly later” system. Faculty of 1000 ( F1000  London) where the author of this article belongs to, its remit is to work with named experts to identify and recommend the most interesting papers published across different subject areas in biology and medicine. Quoting the article, "Open access removes barriers for readers. Open, post-publication refereeing removes barriers for readers and authors alike, and it refocuses the role of peer review from, at its worst, a behind-the-scenes variety of censorship to, at its best, the process of expert criticism and advice that has always been its core and upon which the progress of science depends". What I liked most about the proposed model is its

There is a peculiar problem associated with Dropbox. To briefly state "Deleted files in shared folders only show as long as they are shared and vice versa". If you leave a shared folder (even with a copy of the files) the deleted files cannot be restored. This is quite a problem since rarely people take back up of the backup data i.e. data on Dropbox. A problem description, the reason for this peculiarity and few solutions :) are given here.

Dr.S.Balachandra Rao has been researching in Indian Astronomy under successive research projects sponsored by the National Commission for History of Science (INSA), New Delhi since 1993. He is also a member of the Research Advisory Council for History of science and also the editorial board of the Indian Journal of History of Science, INSA. He has authored numerous books on astronomy and mathematics in English and Kannada. The following lists some of the books. Indian Astronomy - A Primer, Gandhi Center, 2008   This is the first book that one should read in order to familiarize onself with Indian astronomy Eclipses in Indian Astronomy,  Gandhi Center, 2008     This book has an interesting chapter on determining the date of Mahabharatha apart from covering the methods for computing eclipses, including improved siddhantic procedures. Transits And Occultations in Indian Astronomy, Gandhi Center, 2009     This book is a sequel t...