Know your EPF (Provident Fund) balance online

It was a year ago that EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organisation) announced that it will make the balance in one's PF account will be made available online.

What it means? You need not waste your time in the PF office to know your balance, you need not wait for the account statement (which normally issued after 3 or 4 years in arrears).

How do I know my balance? Simple. Go to the following link, which is the All India PF office link. Click the "Our Regional Sites" on the left hand side.

It will open up the regional / state sites. You can check your state site to see whether they have this online balance checking. I have checked for Chennai & Bengaluru office sites and they are working. Chennai is updated till Dec 2010. The Technology Capital is updated till 2008 (It is a shame!!!). Below are the quick links for the Chennai & Bengaluru regional sites, where you can check your balance.

Bengaluru : http://stg1.kar.nic.in/epf/memberlogin.aspx (updated till 2008)

Chennai : http://www.epfochennai.tn.nic.in/obcb/oblogin.aspx (updated till 2010)

Check your state's PF office site : http://epfindia.nic.in/RegSites.html

Following are the state links available:

1 Ahmedabad (Gujarat)
2 Bengaluru (Karnataka)
3 Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
4 Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
5 Delhi (North)
6 Faridabad (Haryana)
7 Goa
8 Gurgaon (Haryana)
9 Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)
10 Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
11 Tiruvananthapuram (Kerala)
12 Mangalore (Karnataka)
13 Mumbai - I (Bandra, Maharashtra)
14 Pune (Maharashtra)
15 Jaipur (Rajasthan)
16 Surat (Gujarat)
17 Thane (Maharashtra)
18 Vadodra (Gujarat)

PF is a good method to save your money for the future. It is your hard earned money. I noticed several times that transfer not happening properly on time, interest is wrongly calculated, Interest not calculated while transferred. So, have a tab on the balance and track it.

Please share your experience in checking the balance in your state. It will help other readers.

Cheers,

Gopal

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Indiblogger meet & Akshyapatra

This was my second Indiblogger meet (on 9th Jan 2011) and an excellent  turnout of bloggers from all over India. Thanks to Indiblogger and Akshayapatra (initiative from ISKCON). Akshyapatra sponsored this event by giving space and also food for the bloggers. I have been to ISKCON several times and know the food quality. The quality of food that was served was too good and tasty. This is the same food which is served to the needy school children in India (wherever ISKCON is situated).

Akshayapatra: Started with a mission of No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger. Today, they serve 1.3million needy students all over India.

How can we support this initiative?

• By donating yourself (Click HERE to know more)
• By spreading awareness by blogging (Click HERE to know more)
• By volunteering (Click HERE to know more)

Visit : http://www.akshayapatra.org/onlinedonations

About the meet:

Got to know fellow bloggers and made new friends. It was an excellent meet and with an agenda. They have arranged IndiBus for the bloggers in Bangalore. We were welcomed with Samosa & Juice at the auditorium. The meeting started late, as the IndiBus could not make it on time.

Anoop (from Indiblogger team) welcomed and gave an idea on the program. Later they played a movie clipping on Akshayapatra, which was followed by Shri.Chanchalapathi Dasa (Vice President, Akshayapatra) speech. He explained how this idea was formed and the tough route it has taken and the supporters for this movement.

The next agenda item surprised me (like many others). It was introducing 60 famous bloggers. The first name was beamed and the next name appear at the bottom in the screen. I was pleasantly surprised to see my name. Everyone was given 30 seconds to present themselves and their blog. With my toastmaster experience on time keeping, I could make it crisp in the 30 seconds.

Then it was lunch time and we were served with the food that is being served to the students. True to the quality of ISKCON, the food was real KrishnaPrasadam. We had Sakkara Pongal (Sweet Pongal) and Bisi Bele Bath. Everyone enjoyed the food and were convinced about the project. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

After the good food, we gathered and had a presentation cum Q&A session by Shri.Madhu Pandit Dasa (Chairman, AkshayaPatra) and his team. There were good suggestions and the session was very interactive.

We then had the Live & let comment session. In that we can interact with other blogger, get to know them, visit their blog. This is more from a networking angle. Those who got more comments / contacts were given photoframes of ISKCON. This was followed by 4 groups discussing on 4 topics on how to make indiblogger/ blogging more successful.

The meeting ended with Thanks to the Indiblogger team. They have taken pains in getting this big event organised.

It was overall a well organised (except for the delay..that is common in Bangalore traffic) programme and everyone enjoyed it. Networking was at its best. Blogging is becoming more popular. Thanks to Indiblogger team and Akshayapatra for the wonderful day.

Waiting for the next meet !

My thanks to those who shared the photographs, which helped me in making this post.

Cheers,

Gopal

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Cash in when the markets are down

Remember the market downfall in Jan 2008? This time also the market shed more points and is a good time for investors in get into the fundamentally good shares.

With the market comes down, start investing in the fundamentally strong stocks. Those who invested when the market was down in 2008 made a good money in 2010! Few examples: Tata Steel, Canara Bank, Tata Motors etc.,.

Do not wait for the market to bottom out, as no one know what is the bottom. Instead of the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), which you sign up with some mutual fund, you start investing in the good stocks, whenever the  market sheds more than 100 Nifty points. You can consult your stock broker on the fundementally good stocks. Do your home work and have a diversified portfolio. Good sectors i would bet are: Infrastructure, Banking & Steel.

I hope the market will be going up on Monday, eventhough the rate hike impact is ther.

Happy investing!

Cheers,

Gopal

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First ever World Samskrit Book Fair 2011 - Bangalore

Friends,

For those who stay in Bangalore and who has some interest in Samskrit or want to learn Samskrit, here is a good opportunity. Yes, here comes the first ever World Samskrit Book fair. It is being held in Bangalore - National School grounds, Basavanagudi, Bangalore from 7th Jan to 10th Jan 2011.

Am planning to go there, to start learning the language, which I tried in my early days. Why samskrit of all language? This is not the question that you only ask, but many, including my family members. My answer to them is simple. Most  of the manangement books, nowadays, refer to the great epics like Mahabharatham, Ramayan etc., It is better, if you could read in those in the original flavor.

Not only that, Samskrit is being learnt all over the world and is said to be mother of all languages (including Computer languages). I know that in the late 80s and early 90s, foreigners take students from Sanskrit College, Chennai on scholarship to their country to learn the language. Learning this language is for self and not from a job-seeking perspective.

There is an article today (7th Jan 2011) in the bangalore edition of Times of India (you can visit the times of india site and view the e-paper) captioned "For this Britisher, speaking Sanskrit is easy as talking English". We know that Samskrit is being learnt by many in United Kingdom and lot of schools & colleges teach Samskrit there.

There is a village in Karnataka, India, where the people speak in Samskrit. It is a versatile language. Let us try to revive the language, which is spoken in our country.

For more details on the book fair, please visit http://www.samskritbookfair.org

Tomorrow is the indibloggers meet and after that am planning to go to the fair. Will blog tomorrow more on the meet & fair.

Cheers,

Gopal

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Indiblogger meet - 9th January 2011 - Bangalore

When & Where? - Sunday January 9, 2011 

MVT hall (Multi Vision Theatre),
ISKCON Bangalore
HK Hill west of Chord road, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-10
Landmark: ISKCON Temple

Time: 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Seats Available : 300

About the meet :

Bloggers from all over the country are going to flock to Bangalore for a MASSIVE IndiBlogger meet - register quick before the seats are taken!

For more information, call Anoop Johnson at +919900001655.

Register yourself at indiblogger(dot)in

For those who blog and want to know more on blogging, visit the website and be there for the meet to share the experience.

Cheers,
Gopal

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HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2011

Friends,

Happy NEW YEAR to you, your family & friends. Like previous years, let this new year too usher in good luck. We wish everyone a Happy New year, every year. How about wishing once for all a HAPPY FUTURE !

Time flies and I stopped blogging from Apr 2010. I stopped blogging, as i got a mail from my company on blogging policy. That stoppage took a long time to get back to blogging.

This is not my new year resolution to start blogging, but to restart from where I left. There were many things I wanted to share the shames & scams (CWG, 2G etc.,). Stock Market ups & downs, IFRS deadline, Direct Tax Code, but could not.

May be this post for wishing you all a bright future,  will make me to come back on track and start my blogging.

Hope to keep up my regular posting.

Once again wishing you all a bright and happy future.

Cheers,

Gopal

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