School Admissions - Nursery Vs Montessori and Age Cut-off Criteria

So the time came, finally, for us to start thinking about "school admissions". The questions that were popping in our minds were something like -

  • What is the difference between Nursery and Montessori ? Which one is better for us?

  • What is Montessori I, Montessori II and Montessori III ?

  • What is the right age to enter in LKG ?

  • What is the age cut-off criteria of different schools...

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Kannada Learning Resources At One Place

Being myself from north India, it was difficult for me to get started in learning Kannada. Learning a new language is certainly not easy, all the more when there is not much practical need of it.

Bangalore, being a cosmopolitan city, is comfortable most of the times with English and sometimes with Hindi as well. At other times you can resort to sign language safely (as I used to do while ...

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How Income Tax Authorities Track Your Income and Taxes Paid (TDS) - Form 26 AS

Do you know that Income Tax authorities have your income data and taxes paid data even before you file your returns ? It might sound shocking at first but the fact remains -

Even before you file your returns, Income Tax authorities know your earned income and taxes paid / remaining to be paid on that income.

They get all this data...

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EPF Transfer Online - Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP)

Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) started the facility of online transfer of EPF balance in 2014. Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP) is the portal where you can apply for online transfer of EPF balance. EPFO has made the process pretty simple. Let us look into it.

Eligibility for Online PF Transfer OTCP

To avail this facility, there are only 2 prerequisite conditions -

  • **At...

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Simple EPF balance (PF balance) calculator

This is a basic EPF balance (PF balance) calculator which will answer your question - "How much EPF amount (including interest) will I get if I withdraw my EPF now?" This calculator will work in the case when both Employee and Employer Contribution remain fixed throughout the period of employment (i.e. not a percentage of basic salary). Please note that in this basic EPF calculator it has been ...

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Employee Provident Fund (EPF/PF)

Being a salaried employee, Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is an integral part of our lives. And why not, a part of our salary is deposited every month to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) so that we have access to a decent amount at the time of retirement. Despite being such an important investment tool, there are many facts and processes about EPF on which not much clarity is there...

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Income Tax Rates

Time of the year again when we have to file our income tax. E-filing at IncomeTaxIndiaEfiling is made mandatory for people with annual income above Rs 5 lakh. The last date for filing of individual income tax return this time is 31st July 2014. The first question that comes to mind when we think of filing income tax is - what are ...

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Book Review - Gandhi Before India

Some time back I happened to watch Richard Attenborough's movie "Gandhi" (9 Oscars and a box office hit). After watching the movie I wanted to know more about Gandhi. I had read his autobiography "My Experiments With Truth" but it did not cover much of the small events and circumstances that would have shaped his personality.

So when I heard of this book "Gandhi Before India" by Ramachandra Guha...

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Book Review - The Four Agreements

Last week, I had the spiritual bug biting me so I decided to search for some good wisdom/spiritual book on internet. After reading reviews of many such books, I zeroed in to this book - "The Four Agreements (Toltec Wisdom Book)".

It is a small book imparting sane advice on personal freedom. The book is written in a lucid style and I could read it in one go. Though some of the things I had read ...

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Getting A Safe Deposit Locker in SBI

For quite sometime I was thinking of getting a safe deposit locker but somehow it kept on slipping down the priority list. I thought it will be better to get one in a public bank as fees would be low comparative to private banks. But there were no availabilities in the banks where I tried. So when a new branch of SBI got opened near my house, I grabbed the chance and went there to ask the ...

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