Naveen's Blog

Shampoo, toothpaste, and soap are made of chemicals and they are harmful in long term. Just google the words “personal care products harmful ingredients” and read. We know about it, but we still use them as we don’t know the better harmless alternatives, don’t have the access to them, or just simply they are easy to use and carry.

I looked at the natural alternatives to the daily chemicals we use in the form of toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. Asked my grandma about the alternatives they were using for these products when they were young. After a bit of research and use of few of natural alternatives, I ended up with the following products that I am using now.

Sunni Pindi (Bath Powder) – replaced the soap. I was using Pears before I adopted it. It was a hard move as I used Pears for almost 11 years. Sunni Pindi is a Telugu word for bath powder made of herbs, green gram, turmeric, camphor, etc. A better recipe can be found here: http://sree-firststeps.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunni-pindi-preparation.html – Download the post in PDF form. Thanks Sree!

You won’t see lather with it. You will feel a soft skin that you can’t get with any soap and a fresh aromatic fragrance. You can get Sunni Pindi from Sahaja Aharam in Hyderabad if you want a ready to use mix.

Dantachurna, Herbal Tooth Powder – replaced the toothpaste. We used to use Close Up and also sometimes, Himalaya. Now, we are using Dantachurna of Venkateswara Ayurveda Nilayam, one of the most trusted oldest pharmacies making Ayurveda formulations and also an exporter of Ayurveda preparations. It costs Rs. 67 for a 120 gm bottle. It is a mix of lot of herbals.

You won’t see lather when brushing and looks like Dabur Red Powder. You will find it hard to use for few days, then you will get used to it.

Venkateswara Ayurveda Nilayam has an online store, but shipping is a bit high. Their online shop is at: http://ayuraarogyam.com

Soap Nuts (Ritha) and Shikakai – replaced the shampoo. Shampoo usage is widespread because of its easy availability, small sachets readily available everywhere for a mere 50 np, and extremely easy to carry. To use soap nuts and shikakai, you need to get them and powdered. You need to soak it in the water at night to use it the next day morning. Due to this process, you may find it difficult to adopt.

As usual, you won’t see lather, just little foam, but the results are good. I noticed that my scalp itching has gone, hair thickness is increased, and it reduced the hair fall.

You can also add fenugreek (methi) seeds while powdering the ingredients for a better formula. Soak it in water and keep it in an airtight bottle, so that it can be used for three to four days.

Now you can port your health insurance to any health insurance company in India. IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) today released the advertisement to all newspapers about it.

You can now keep the credit gained in your existing policy even after switching to a new insurance company. You may be aware or not, all medical conditions and pre-existing illness are not covered by all policies. Only few high-premium policies cover those. All other normal health insurances will not cover them for the first two years. They are only covered after you paid your third premium. Suppose if you want to change the insurance company in the fourth year, you need to start afresh with the new insurance company and you will be covered for pre-existing and few complicated medical conditions only after paying third premium.

With portability, you can now change the insurance company keeping that “two-year-old policy” credit. You will be readily covered for all conditions by your new insurance company. If you don’t like your current insurance company or if you find a better policy offered at less premium, you can change it. You should apply at least 45 days before its renewal date.

The advertisement read as following:
•  Portability means transfer of the credit gained by the insured for pre-existing conditions and time bound exclusions if the policyholder chooses to switch from one insurer to another insurer or from one plan to another plan of the same insurer, provided the previous policy has been maintained without any break.
•  A break in policy occurs when the premium due on a given policy is not paid on or before the premium renewal date or within 30 days thereof.
•  A policyholder should apply to such insurance company at least 45 days before the premium renewal date of his/her existing policy for porting his/her policy.
•  The policyholder should fill in the Portability Form along with proposal form and submit the same to the insurance company.
•  If the insurance company does not communicate its decision to the requesting policyholder within 15 days of providing all the details as required by the insurer, the insurance company shall not retain the right to reject such proposal.
•  Portability is allowed to all individual health insurance policies issued by non-life insurance companies including family floater policies

Beetel, Bharti Airtel’s handset-making division unveiled a the cheapest Android-based tablet. It is named as “Magiq” and runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo). It is 3G ready and has all the latest features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Dual Camera, HDMI Port, and Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot. It has 7″ WVGA TFT Touch Screen and Stereo Speakers along with Track Pad and Comfy Stand. You can insert any SIM and make calls and connect to Internet.

The price is three to four times less compared to the recently launched Samsung’s Galaxy and Apple’s iPad as well as Motorola’s Xoom and BlackBerry’s Play-Book which are priced above 25k. Bharti wants to grab the tablet market share with its low-priced Magiq.

Within a week or so, Bharti will start selling these tablets and you can now book through their eStore.

I think this tablet will give a tight competition to the tablets that are already available in the market.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is going to be fully implemented from tomorrow, January 20, 2011 throughout India. Now, you can choose the mobile operator keeping your mobile number intact. From tomorrow onwards, no need to worry about the poor connectivity or less options to choose from your current provider. Change your service provider keeping your mobile number same. Jump from GSM to CDMA and vice versa.

Affordable & Convenient

• Porting Charge only up to Rs. 19/-
• Porting time: 7 working days (15 working days in case of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East service areas)

In the interest of consumers TRAI has also specified that service disruption time shall not exceed 2 hours, that too during night time.

Request for Porting

• Contact the new mobile service provider to whom you want to port your mobile number.
• Obtain Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) & Porting Form.
• Read the eligibility and other conditions carefully.
• If eligible, obtain ‘Unique Porting Code‘ by sending an SMS from the mobile number you want to port to the number ‘1900’ with text ‘PORT‘ followed by space followed by your 10 digit mobile number you want to port.
• Fill up the CAF and Porting Form.
• Submit the duly filled Porting Form and CAF along with requisite documentary proof to the mobile service provider.
• If you are a post paid subscriber, submit a paid copy of the last bill issued along with Porting Form and CAF.
• Obtain new SIM card from the new service provider

You can withdraw your porting request within 24 hrs of applying.

Activation of ported number:

• Your new mobile service provider will intimate you the date & time of porting on your mobile phone.
• Replace the old SIM with the new SIM provided by your new mobile service provider after the specified date and time.

Eligibility and Other Conditions

• You are allowed to move to another mobile service provider only after 90 days of the date of activation of your mobile connection or from the date of last porting of your mobile number, which ever is applicable.
• You are allowed to change mobile service provider within the same service area only.
• If you are a postpaid subscriber, please ensure that you have paid all the dues as per your last bill (You will have to sign an undertaking in the Porting Form also).
• If you are a Pre-paid Subscriber, please note that the balance amount of talk time, if any, at the time of porting will lapse.

My post on Telugu Rendering and Writing in Windows XP has been attracting lot of people from Google as it is on top for that search term. After enabling Telugu language support in Windows, the next thing comes into mind is a dictionary that can show the meaning in Telugu for English words.  People landing on that page often ask me about English-to-Telugu dictionary software to install on their PCs for offline usage as most of the English-to-Telugu dictionaries are online.

There are two English-to-Telugu dictionaries that I know.

1. Telugu to English Dictionary developed by Dileep and Pradeep

This is the first dictionary I have come across.  It comes with an inbuilt Telugu phonetic writer too. You can do English to Telugu and Telug to English searches.

Features:
* English and Telugu words can be searched
* Meanings of the words can be edited
* Words that doesn’t exist in database can be added by user
* Searched words will be stored in history
* An additional tool random word is given to display random words at configurable time interval
* An additional tool Telugu writer is given to write words in Telugu
* Configurable keyboard hotkey is added
* Search on hotkey enabled
* Word search includes results displayed from Wiktionary.Org

Get it here: http://dict.miriyala.in/ | Mirror-DropBox

2. Nithya English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English Dictionary

This is an English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English database for a dictionary lookup progoram called GoldenDict.

First, you need to install the GoldenDict program and then you need to install the above databases to work.

The advantage of using this program is a featured called Scan popup. You can find Telugu meaning for a word in any application. Just hover the mouse on a word and an instant popup shows up the meaning in Telugu.  Click here for a screenshot.

Installing:
1. Download the GoldenDict latest version on Downloads Page at http://goldendict.org/download.php
2. Get the dictionaries HERE.
3. Install GoldenDict.
4. Copy the databases into the GolenDict installation folder (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict if you are running Windows XP)
5. Click Edit>Dictionaries
6. In “Files” tab, click “Add…” button on the right and select the installation folder where you dictionaries are available (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict in case you are using Windows XP).
7. Click the button “Rescan Now.” Once you press this button, it will add the dictionaries.
8. Close the program and restart.
9. You now will see two red book icons added along with Wikipedia button on the Navigation Bar.

10. Click on them to activate.
11. To enable the “Scan Popup” facility click on the “Scan Popup” button from navigation menu.

If you are having problems with installation, post them in comments. If you know any other working English-to-Telugu dictionary, let me know so that I can add to this post.

Recently, I have started learning share trading on my own. I took an ICICI trading account and initially started with IPOs. If you know or not, recent Coal India IPO was a big hit making 40% profit for retail investors within days of listing. I already tried investing in mutual funds and made good returns too. I was investing through Way2Wealth before. As I got the trading account, I tried to invest in mutual funds through my trading account. After I have gone through the mutual fund research, I selected a fund, selected the amount, and clicked the apply button. It showed the error “KYC Details Are Not Found.”

So, I called the ICICI Direct people and found that my KYC Status is not found on the Central Depository Services and I need to update it by providing address and identity proofs. They sent me the KYC form. I filled and submitted it at the ICICI Direct.

So, I have done a little research and learned about the KYC Norms implemented by SEBI.

What is KYC?
KYC – Know Your Client/Customer is a term used for client/customer identification. Financial institutions need to know who the customer is, need to verify the address, and know about the financial and occupational status. It is mandatory that investors have to be KYC compliant if they are investing more than 50,000 in mutual funds. The provisions of The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), has made it mandatory for all Mutual Funds to comply with the KYC norms of the applicants desirous of subscribing to their ‘units.’

For this process, CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL) has been formed by the Mutual Fund industry to create the necessary infrastructure to handle the KYC on behalf of the Mutual Fund Industry. CVL is handling the work of “Customer profiling and Record Keeping” for issuance of Know Your Client (KYC) acknowledgment to mutual fund investors.

How to update the KYC?
Download the KYC form here. Take a print out, fill it, add address proof and ID proof, and hand it over at the Investor Service Desk of your bank/trading service provider/CVL Point of Service.

KYC is linked to your PAN and you don’t need to fill KYC form for every mutual fund you are subscribing for. Just do it once and it will available for all you investments that is the biggest advantage of having updated the KYC in CVL.

How to check the KYC status?
Go to the CVL website http://www.cvlindia.com/ and click on “Inquiry on KYC.” Enter your PAN and see the status of your application.

I always wondered what those two letters added to the sender name of a bulk/junk SMS refers to, like TA-ICICIBANK, BA-FORTUNE, etc. These days, the junk SMS has become a pain and I get unsolicited spam SMSes from Vastu consultant, Astrologer, Real Estate agents, LIC agents, which I have not opted to receive. Today, an article in Times of India says that these junk SMSes have reached an astounding number of 100 million a day sent throughout the country. As the SMS cost has become so cheap, it has become a low-cost marketing trick to reach the targeted customers.

As per TRAI, every bulk SMS must have 2 letters as initials: the 1st letter stands for the service provider sending SMS and the 2nd for location eg, TA is Tata Andhra, BA is BSNL Andhra, etc.

This is the complete chart:

So, now you can find out the origination of bulk SMS using the above chart. If you are getting huge number of bulk SMS daily, register for National Do Not Call Registry and see if it can be of help.

I hope you have enjoyed my previous post on funny telemarketing calls.  This post will guide you on stopping telemarketing calls.   After I got the credit card, these annoying calls have increased in number. I was aware of “National Do Not Call Registry,” but never tried it. As the calls increased to 4-5 a day, I registered for NDNC and surprisingly never received a marketing call thereafter.

What is “National Do Not Call Registry” ?

The NDNC Registry is a database having the list of all telephone numbers of the subscribers who do not want to receive Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC). Telephone subscriber (Landline or mobile) who does not wish to receive UCC, can register their telephone number with their telecom service provider for inclusion in the NDNC or directly as mentioned below. Telecom Service Provider shall upload the telephone number to the NDNC within 45 days of receipt. The telemarketers will have to verify their calling telephone numbers list with the NDNC registry before making a call.

How to register for it?
Dial 1909 or SMS to 1909 with message ‘START DND‘ (remove quotes).

Register for it and get rid of annoying telemarketing calls.

Do Not call Registry of other countries:

Do Not Call Registry is also maintained by several other countries.  Below is a list of countries and their websites to help the international visitors/subscribes of my blog.

USA: https://www.donotcall.gov/
Australia: https://www.donotcall.gov.au/
Canada: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng
New Zealand: http://www.nzma.simplicitycrm.com/editors/content.aspx?config=NRR_DoNotCall
UK: http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/