Dr Sachin Nayak, a #CoronaHero, is winning Twitter over and has also won praise from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
A doctor in Bhopal is winning tremendous praise online after a picture of him living in his car was shared on Twitter. A tweet posted by All India Radio’s Akashvani Samachar Twitter handle details how Dr Sachin Nayak, working in JP Hospital in Bhopal, has been staying in his car in order to protect his family. The picture shared with the tweet shows Nayak reading a book in his car set up with a few basic necessities including a mattress. Nayak, a #CoronaHero, is winning Twitter over and has also won praise from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
In a tweet posted in Hindi, Chouhan tweeted, “I and the entire Madhya Pradesh appreciate warriors like you who are fighting the war against #COVID19. If we all continue ahead with this resolve, we will be able to win this war sooner. Sachin ji, we salute your spirit,” he tweeted using hashtags #CovidWarriors #IndiaFightsCarona.
आशीर्वाद और प्यार से सेवा का जसबा सातवे आसमान पर है ।। हमारी प्रदेश सरकार और कर्मचारी हर वो कोशिश कर रहे है जो होना चाइए कहीं भी कोई ढिलाई नहीं नहीं है । आप सब बस घरों में रहे ।।। कदम कदम बढ़ाएं जा खुशी के गीत गाए जा ये जिदंगी है कोंन की ।तू कोन पर लुटाए जा।। जय हिन्द
The tweet, since being shared on April 7, has collected over 6,500 likes and more than 1,000 likes so far. People have post a ton of appreciative comments on the tweet about this doctor’s act.
“Such people are our heroes, nothing can repay their sacrifices,” says a Twitter user. “Proud of you,” says another.
Meals were served, temperatures taken and communications handled by machines, one of them named “Cloud Ginger” by its maker CloudMinds, which has operations in Beijing and California.
Long maligned as job-stealers and aspiring overlords, robots are being increasingly relied on as fast, efficient, contagion-proof champions in the war against the deadly coronavirus.
One team of robots temporarily cared for patients in a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Meals were served, temperatures taken and communications handled by machines, one of them named “Cloud Ginger” by its maker CloudMinds, which has operations in Beijing and California.
“It provided useful information, conversational engagement, entertainment with dancing, and even led patients through stretching exercises,” CloudMinds president Karl Zhao said of the humanoid robot.
“The smart field hospital was completely run by robots.”
A small medical team remotely controlled the field hospital robots. Patients wore wristbands that gathered blood pressure and other vital data.
The smart clinic only handled patients for a few days, but it foreshadowed a future in which robots tend to patients with contagious diseases while health care workers manage from safe distances.
– Checkup and check out –
Patients in hospitals in Thailand, Israel and elsewhere meet with robots for consultations done by doctors via videoconference. Some consultation robots even tend to the classic checkup task of listening to patients’ lungs as they breathe.
Alexandra Hospital in Singapore will use a robot called BeamPro to deliver medicine and meals to patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or those suspected to be infected with the virus in its isolation wards.
If that video of Anushka Sharma giving Virat Kohli a haircut encouraged you to also try some DIY hair makeovers at home, beware. Things may not turn out as good as they did for the aforementioned couple. This couple in Los Angeles tried and things didn’t quite turn out the way they expected.
A video posted on Facebook by actor Emily Pendergast shows her giving her husband, Cory Pendergast, a hair cut at home. It’s safe to say, she cut off way more of her husband’s hair than he would have liked.
The video shows Cory stressing over and over again that he only needed a little trim. He goes on to give her a few hair-cutting pointers, which Emily promptly tries to use on her husband’s hair.
“We don’t even have the right scissors,” she tells him while continuing on with the job at hand. Chop, chop she goes, only to cut quite a bit of length of Cory’s hair. “Honey, that’s too much,” he says.
By the end of it, Cory has a completely different hair style. What’s amazing is how the couple can’t stop laughing at the new hairdo.
From lower tax rates to reforms in tax assessment, the Union Budget 2020 has proposals that could offer relief to individual taxpayers. However there are conditions that you need to be aware of. Read on to know the details and how the Budget could impact you.
Lower tax rates
The Budget has proposed a New Tax Regime in addition to the existing, i.e. Old Tax Regime. However the New Tax Regime is optional. To put it simply, the assessee can choose between the New Tax Regime and the Old Tax Regime depending on what is best suitable from a tax planning point of view.
Income-tax rates under the new tax regime v/s the old tax regime | Note: The above rates are subject to surcharge and cess, as applicable
New vs. Old – Which is better?
The New Tax Regime has proposed lower income-tax rates, for income segments up to Rs 15 lakh. But you need to remember that the proposed lower tax rates will be applicable only if you are willing to give up exemptions and deductions available under various provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
This means that when you choose the New Tax Regime, you will have to forgo some exemptions [such as Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), House Rent Allowance (HRA), etc] and deductions available under chapter VI A of the Act that grant deductions under Section 80 [such as 80C, 80CCC, 80CCD, 80D, 80DD, 80E, 80EE, 80G, 80GG, 80GGA, 80GGC, etc].
Only the deduction under Section 80CCD(2) [i.e., employer’s contribution on account of an employee in a notified pension scheme] and Section 80JJAA [i.e. for new employment] can be claimed.
Even the Standard Deduction under Section 16 [which is currently Rs 50,000] available to salaried individuals and the deduction on home loan interest, under Section 24(b) will be disallowed. Around 70 exemptions and deductions have been removed in the New Tax Regime.
Old regime better option for high-income earners
Particulars
Old Tax Regime (Rs)
New Tax Regime (Rs)
Gross Income
1,000,000
1,000,000
Deductions:
U/Sec: 80C
150,000
–
U/Sec: 80D
25,000
–
U/Sec: 24(b)
75,000
–
Taxable Income
750,000
1,000,000
Tax Slab (OLD)
0 to 2.5 Lakh
–
–
2.5 to 5 Lakh @ 5%
12,500
–
5 Lakh to 10 Lakh @ 20%
50,000
–
> 10 Lakh @ 30%
–
–
Tax Slab (NEW)
0 to 5 Lakh
–
–
2.5 to 5 Lakh @ 5%
–
12,500
5 to 7.5 Lakh @ 10%
–
25,000
7.5 Lakh to 10 Lakh @ 15%
–
37,500
10 Lakh to 12.5 Lakh @ 20%
–
–
12.5 Lakh to 15 Lakh @ 25%
–
–
> 15 Lakh @ 30%
–
–
Income Tax
62,500
75,000
Cess @ 4%
2,500
3,000
Total Tax Outgo
65,000
78,000
Going by the illustration above, if the gross income is Rs 10 lakh or above and you are utilising deductions under Section 80C, 80D, and 24(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, then you are better off under the older regime; it works in your favour from a tax planning standpoint. While for individuals in the middle-income group, earning a gross income of say Rs 5 lakh; the new regime may prove advantageous.
That being said, if you are looking to fulfil your financial obligations, namely – wealth creation through investments in tax-saving instruments; paying premiums to address insurance needs (life and health); paying children’s tuition fees; paying Equated Monthly Instalments (EMIs) of an education loan; buying a house with a home loan; and so on, the older regime still works in the interest of your financial wellbeing.
Apart from changes in personal tax, the Budget also proposed some other changes that could impact you as an investor. Let us see what these are:
• Currently, companies have to pay Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) of 15% plus surcharge and cess on dividend paid to investors. This means the dividend received by investors is after the deduction of taxes. In addition to this, if dividend income exceeds Rs 10 lakh in a year, investors have to pay an additional 10% tax. This leads to double taxation for investors. The Budget has proposed the abolishing of DDT and taxing the dividend payable to investors as per their applicable income-tax slab rates. This would benefit individual taxpayers, particularly those in the lower tax slabs.
• The deduction of up to Rs 1.50 lakh on interest paid on ‘affordable housing’ loan — which was allowed for housing loans sanctioned on or before March 31, 2020 — is proposed to be extended for one more year, i.e. till March 31, 2021, for ‘first time home buyers’. This is a welcome step for new home buyers.
• As part of tax reforms, it is proposed to further ease the process of allotment of PAN (Permanent Account Number), by soon launching a system under which PAN shall be instantly allotted online based on Aadhaar without filling up a detailed application form.
• Also, as a part of tax reforms, it is proposed to amend the Income Tax Act to enable ‘faceless Appeal’ on the lines of ‘Faceless Assessment’.
• A ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ Scheme has been introduced to reduce the litigations in direct taxes. If your tax amount is disputed, you would be required to pay only the amount of the disputed taxes and will get a complete waiver of interest and penalty provided you pay by March 31, 2020. If paid under this Scheme after March 31, 2020, some additional amount will have to be paid. Vivad se Vishwas’ Scheme will remain open till June 30, 2020.
