Salaried taxpayers will be able to file their returns online commencing this Friday.

The e-seva scheme of the Income-Tax Department will initially be available in seven cities -- New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had proposed the introduction of this scheme for filing income-tax returns electronically. This is an optional scheme that could be utilised by the assesses.

These e-returns will have to be filed by the taxpayers through intermediaries nominated by the Income-Tax Department. It will be the responsibility of the intermediaries to transcribe and transmit the data even from a paper return filed by the taxpayers to the department.

Based on the documents provided to them, the intermediaries will also assist the assesses in preparing their tax returns on request. It will be the responsibility of the intermediaries to provide the acknowledgement of the tax returns, their delivery and value-added services to the assesses.

A Finance Ministry news release said that the returns filed under the scheme would be processed on priority basis and refunds issued within one month from the date of filing of the paper return.

The intermediaries retained by the Income-Tax Department for the current fiscal are Bharat Overseas Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank and UTI Bank.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, August 07, 2003

Twelve popular soft-drink brands have been found to contain dangerously high levels of pesticides and insecticides.

Delhi-based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) tested brands of market leaders Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. It found that Coke contained 30 times and Pepsi 36 times the amount of pesticides considered acceptable by the European Economic Commission (EEC).

The NGO also tested one bottle each of Coke and Pepsi bought in the US. They were both free of pesticide residue.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have threatened legal action against the NGO.

At a press conference on Tuesday, their officials said the allegations should be disregarded. They said the CSE did not have the expertise to conduct such sophisticated tests.

"Our products are tested at 'gold standard' laboratories in Hyderabad and the Netherlands. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Department tests samples every 10 to 12 days. Our products meet norms set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)." Laboratories get the gold standard rating after seven stringent tests.

CSE director Sunita Narain, however, said at a press conference: "EEC-recommended procedures were used to test for 16 pesticides." She said India had no laws to regulate the quality of water used to make soft drinks.

There is a grey area with regard to Indian standards. The BIS does not have any standards for soft-drink contamination. It only has a set of guidelines for the water used to manufacture the beverages, but following them is not mandatory.

The PFA department has a set of standards, which a BIS official said was far below international standards.

The CSE, which some time ago declared that some brands of bottled water sold in the country were unfit for drinking, tested three samples each of some of the soft-drink brands sold in the city.

It found that Mirinda Lemon was the most contaminated with 70 times the pesticide levels permitted by the EEC, Coke had 45 times the amount and Fanta, Mirinda Orange and Pepsi had 43, 39 and 37 times respectively.

Long exposure to the chemical compounds in the pesticides can cause cancer, a decrease in sperm count, damage to the central nervous system, birth defects and stomach-related disorders.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, August 06, 2003

The chief secretary is a woman, Lakshmi Pranesh. The secretaries to the state's governor and chief minister -- Sheela Priya and Sheela Balakrishnan respectively -- are also women. A woman, Bader Sayeed, heads the state Wafq Board. With Vijayakumar and Priya's appointment as divisional fire officers, women in Tamil Nadu have entered one more field hitherto open only to men.

After completing her post graduation in English, her B Ed and a diploma in industrial relations and personnel management, Meenakshi began working as a college lecturer. She decided to take the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission's Group 1 examination in 1997-1998 just before she crossed the age limit of 35 years; it was her last chance to do so and it was the first such competitive exam she was writing.

She explains why she decided to take the exams so late in her life, "I got married and moved to Delhi; then I became a mother and somehow never thought of taking the exams. Family circumstances resulted in our returning to Chennai; I saw the TNPSC ad and decided to give the exam."

Four-and-a-half years after she wrote the exam, the first vacancy opened and Jayalalithaa made her India's first fire officer.

Meenakshi only came to know she had been selected when the Jaya television channel crew knocked at her door on the night of July 22! "I had no words to express my feelings. I was elated, excited. I can use any number of adjectives," she grins.

Ever since the news broke, life has changed for Meenakshi. Everyone -- from family, friends, well-wishers, neighbours and the media -- have been dropping in to congratulate her. "I never expected this kind of a response," she says happily. "Life has become so hectic."

Her husband, a senior human resources management manager with Indian Airlines, has recently been posted to Hyderabad. As a result of her new job, Meenakshi and her 11-year-old son Kshitij will live in Chennai and her husband in Hyderabad.

Meenakshi does not regret her decision.

"It has been my ambition to work in the government. I also have a fascination for uniforms! Even when I was a child, I wanted to be someone like Kiran Bedi -- she is my hero. I could not believe it when this job happened out of the blue; I was finally going to go to office in uniform. It's like Kiran Bedi wrote in her book, It is always possible. 'If you work towards a dream, you will realise it.' "

It was because of her admiration for Bedi that she marked the police service as her first choice and the fire service as her second. "I had no idea at the time that there were no women fire officers in India. I found their motto, 'We Serve to Save,' very inspiring."

Meenakshi does not believe in categorising jobs into those that can be done by men and those that can be done by women. "It's all in the attitude, in the mind. Women can face any challenge. We have women like Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi and our own CM working in fields dominated by men. I feel women are already tough. Otherwise, how can they take care of a house and family? I think they are saving lives at home! According to me, women are mentally tougher."

She is preparing for the most exciting phase in her life by meditating, working out in the gym and going for long walks.

Her role as a pioneer makes her feel more responsible, she says. 'With the job comes the responsibility. Like Kiran Bedi has set an example for all of us to follow, I should set an example for those coming after me in this field. I must thank God and Madam Chief Minister for giving me such a challenge."

Courtesy: www.rediff.com, August 06, 2003

WASHINGTON: Complimenting India for its cooperation in the global war against terrorism, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers on Wednesday said the Indo-US military cooperation was increasing substantially.

"Not only is India's cooperation in the global war on terrorism significant, but the US-India military cooperation continues to increase, an important fact given that India will soon have the largest population in the world," Gen Myers, who returned from a visit to India and other countries in South Asia and the Middle East, said at a press conference.

"In India, I met with my Indian counterpart and discussed ongoing military-to-military ties between India and the United States," he added.

During his two-day visit last week, Gen Myers had hectic rounds of talks with top military brass and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra. He had then said that India's refusal to send troops does not bother United States.

In Pakistan, Gen Myers said, he discussed the ongoing operations on the border with Afghanistan to trace Taliban and al Qaeda survivors.

"Pakistan is providing tremendous support to the US in this regard. And they have stepped up troop levels and patrols on the country's borders with Afghanistan," he said.

On his visit to Iraq, he said "I was impressed with the mission accomplishments and the progress we were making."

He said the morale among the troops was very high. "Their mission is difficult and they are doing great."

"I noticed that our biggest shortcoming from Iraq to Afghanistan is not the accomplishment of the mission as much as it is about getting the word out about the successes that we are achieving every day," Gen Myers said.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.com, August 06, 2003

Indians in Britain have the highest employment rates among Asians while Muslims constitute the largest non-Christian religious group in the country, say newly released Census 2001 figures.

The Asian component of the British population presents different profiles in terms of economic activity.

In the Indian group, 46.4 per cent of men aged between 16 and 74 are full-time employees, 14.3 per cent are self-employed and 4.5 per cent are unemployed. This is similar to the overall average for England and Wales.

However, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups have much lower employment rates: 31 per cent of Pakistani men aged between 16 and 74 are full-time employees, 14.2 per cent are self-employed, and 9.1 per cent are unemployed. The corresponding figures for Bangladeshi men are 23.1 per cent full-time employees, nine per cent self-employed, and 10.2 per cent unemployed.

Information about ethnicity and religious identity shows that while the British population is more culturally diverse than ever before, white Christians remain the largest single group by far.

In England and Wales, 36 million people, or nearly seven out of 10, described their ethnicity as white and their religion as Christian.

The majority of black people and those from mixed ethnic backgrounds also identified themselves as Christian, 71 and 52 per cent respectively. In all, there were 810,000 black Christians and 347,000 Christians from mixed ethnic backgrounds.

Among other faiths, the largest groups were Pakistani Muslims, at 658,000, and Indian Hindus, at 467,000, followed by Indian Sikhs, at 301,000, Bangladeshi Muslims, at 260,000, and white Jews, at 252,000.

The Indian group was also religiously diverse. Around 45 per cent of Indians were Hindu, 29 per cent Sikh and a further 13 per cent Muslim. By contrast, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups were more homogenous, with Muslims accounting for 92 per cent of each ethnic group.

A high proportion of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women aged 16-74 looked after the home and family: 36.4 per cent of Pakistani women and 40.1 per cent of Bangladeshi women, compared to the average of 11.9 per cent for England and Wales.

In 2001, minority ethnic groups were more likely to live in England than in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. In England, they made up nine per cent of the total population compared with only two per cent in both Scotland and Wales and less than one per cent in Northern Ireland.

The minority ethnic populations were concentrated in the large urban centres, mainly London. Nearly half, or 45 per cent, of the total minority ethnic population lived in the London region, where they comprised 29 per cent of all residents.

Over half of the Bangladeshi group, or 54 per cent, lived in London. Other ethnic minority groups were more dispersed. Only 19 per cent of Pakistanis resided in London, 21 per cent lived in West Midlands, 20 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber, and 16 per cent in the North West.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, August 06, 2003