Excise Duty on Cars

I'm not a regular on car updates, but today I was stymied by Maruti Suzuki's smart thinking on cutting down the price of their best-selling sedan in India - Swift Dzire.

Quoted as Swift Dzire 3.99, the latter indicating the length of the sedan which was chopped down from 4.2m to fit the model into the small-car segment. This ensures a reduction in the Central Excise Duty from 20% to 10% and a subsequent reduction in price by 50,000 - 60,000 rupees.

Dzire 2012 will be released in 2 variants - a 1.2L petrol and a 1.3L diesel. Its launch in the first quarter is expected to break the previous records held by its hatchback companion - Swift.

After the read, I was tempted to understand more about the Excise Duty on cars. So I surfed a bit and learnt quite a lot. Excise duty on cars is classified into two segments - Small cars and SUVs. The classification is based on the length of the vehicle and it's engine capacity. A car with length less than 4m and an engine capacity less than 1.5L comes under the small car segment and as discussed earlier, faces an Excise Duty of 10%. Any car which does not satisfy the criterion faces an Excise duty of 20%.

Some OEMs like VW have met this challenge by introducing cars in both segments, while others like BMW and Audi have opted for CKD (completely knocked down) imports, importing the auto parts at an Excise Duty of 10% and setting up assembly plants locally, also creating employment opportunities.

The government on its part has been favourable to Hybrid technology, further reducing the Excise Duty on Hybrid kits to 5%. But it's a long way to go in terms of technology and expertise in this aspect.

There's a majority of folk who also believe that classification of cars for lower and higher Excise Duty would be most effective if its based on fuel efficiency rather than the size, to give the OEMs a push to introduce more fuel efficient cars into the Indian market. There's no doubt that this would surely impress a fuel efficient Indian.

Another blind spot in the whole discussion is the fact whether the end price of the car will be reduced pertaining to the reduction in Excise Duty or will the OEMs rake in all the profits. So far in the case of Swift Dzire, it's been a boon to the customer. Whether this will hold true for every OEM has to be seen.

oops.. i did it!

OOPS , i did it! Well! you must be accustomed to my way of writing by now. I always start with a 'well!'. It's a way of saying that, 'I'm confused about the whole EPISODE'. But this one is the king of all.

I walk for 2.5 kms on my way back from office everyday. hmm.. even if i've done it for 2 days of my 3 week stay here. I walk with my colleague, who is a foodie. he gets terribly hungry on reaching the hotel and basically would like something to munch midway. He invited me to accompany him for having a Döner Kebab. Its a kind of turkish burger. the main ingriedient being( according to my colleague) 'chicken'. He confirmed (in english) with the turkish if it was chicken that's being put into it. Grilled chicked!!!!! hmmm... yummy.. thats how i started liking chicken-grilled!

i observed what the guy puts into the kebab. First a scoop of peeled, grilled chicken, then mayonaisse, onions, cucumber, lettuce and a chilly dipped in vinegar! aaaaaaaaahhhh! When I take it from the turk guy, i need to put up both my hands so that the salad doesnt drop down. its huge. we settle down at a near by table and start feasting. AHEM..it was yummy.. i decided i'm gonna have it again. not on the same day offcourse. when i was done with it, i was right! i couldnt have another one on the same day. I decided to have it a week later.

And yesterday was that fatefull day. Me and my cousin went to the same place. And my cousin said the kebab on the grill looked like beef today. i was so upset that i wouldnt have it, after a week's waiting. he further asked the turk guy if he has chicken kebab. they spoke in german, which sounded like they don't make it everyday, but only on special days and need to wait for a month for the next auspicious day to feast on the taste.

Then my cousin and me walked out of the kebab corner. He wore a grin on his face. and i thought he was making fun that the day indeed turned unfatefull. but then he spoke out, 'TURK SAID THAT HE NEVER MAKES KEBAB OUT OF CHICKEN. HE IS THINKING TO START USING CHICKEN FROM NEXT MONTH.TILL NOW KEBABS HAVE BEEN MADE OF beef'.

i swear, i should have read that the kebab was called kebab mit rindfleish(kebab with beef).

Nurburgring- comedy of errors!

Well for those who do not follow F1, this was the place where the most amazing European grandprix of this season was held on 22nd july, 2007. I thought I would not move my ass out of the hotel room (In coimbatore, on a paid holiday which turned out to be a self confinement) today, but i couldnt hold myself back after the comedy of errors at the race and the brilliant finish, offcourse.

Here are a few facts from the race.

1. Massa started 1st at the pole position, followed by Alonso; Raikonnen 7th; but the most amazing stand was that of Hamilton at 10th after leaving the track on a stretcher at Q3.

2. Hamilton gains 4th position from 10th within 100mts of the start of the race.

3. The 1st 4 laps are lashed by heavy rain, flooding the track and taking out drivers out of the game like flies, including Hamilton.

4. After the rain hit laps, the conrol panel calls for a restart, with Spyker-Ferrari's Markus Winkellock (Debutant) starting 1st at the pole, followed by Massa. Hamilton starts 17th, a lap behind everyone else.

5. Massa leads the race followed by Alonso(+7 secs) and Raikonnen (+9 secs).

6. Raikonnen is ousted off the track after a mechanical failure. This calls Ferrari to answer their stand on reliability which was so closely questioned by team maye Massa after the spanish grand prix.

7. Massa lost time in the 4th pit stop after a rain prediction called for a change of tyres.

8. Alonso got on to the track with only a 1.2 sec drag from Massa.

9. Alonso over took Massa in the 5th lap to finish 1st on the podium.

10. Hamilton finished 9th after compensating for an entire lap and making a record 5 consecutive fastest laps in the race.

11. The results were astonishing. Alonso, Massa and Webber(Who would have given away the podium finish to Wurz if he had not held his steer in the last lap).

12. The race started off with 22 drivers and only 13 could make it to the finish line with 60 laps complete.

13. With the total pits stops averaging to 4 and a maximum of 5, and decisions made by Renault's weather forecaster( Best in the business) to change onto wet tyres at the last 8 laps and a surprising finish of red bull on the podium after 2 long years, this was one grand prix which you would not have liked to miss.

It started a year ago!!!

Well! This is not another book which teaches you how to live your life, but it surely will treat your imagination to the maximum. 'The last book' of the Harry Potter series, 'The deathly Hallows' has kept me waiting for over a year and a half now. But the wait has been worth while.

I got into reading way way late, in my early twenties.. we'll given that I'm still in my early twenties, its not been very long. To be precise, a year and a half. And I've read the very same books which are counted among the favorites in every profile on Orkut. The best till date have been the Sherlock Holmes, Dan Brown and Harry Potter volumes.

I started off in Nov 2005, with the most talked about book - 'The Da Vinci Code'. Then followed 'Angels and Demons' , by the same author. Around the same time, HP6 had released and few of my friends had started off with book one. I remember calling it a fairy tale and Pramod asking me to try a few pages of the book. I finally decided to look into it, given that the 1st book was the smallest of the 3 books i had started with.

I called up Pramod after I was done with the 1st 100 pages, telling him that I wasn't finding the book interesting. I was told to read the rest of the book. I did continue reading it, but to wrap it up as ASAP. When I got back into reading, Harry got himself admitted to Hogwarts. And the fun began! The school, the dormitories, the characters, the houses, the bully s, Quidditch, the suspense, the lessons, the adventures and the MAGIC. Its was a world in itself.

My best character in the book is obviously Harry Potter... If you look closely into the character, you'll find Harry the least intelligent of the prominent characters in the entire book. I like the way Rowling makes him look like a hero. 'Being at the right place at the right time', as Harry puts it and just by sheer luck and a little help from his buddies and Dumbledore. Snape actually looks at him the right way - Stubborn and irresponsible. But he has matured through the books and Book 7 is all about Harry. The real Harry - without the people he loves. Rowling must bring the most famous fictional character, only next to Holmes to being a real hero.

Snape is another character I like. The guy who never got what he deserves just because he was a git. Hermione is the other.

Book after book, I was just another big JK Rowling fan. Her way of writing interests me. If not for it, Potter wouldn't have been so big a character today. I'm just waiting for the last book to be released on 21st this month, even if it is going to write an end to the whole series.

go go-karting

fell in love with speed after a ride back home on a friend's bike a year ago. Since then I've just been crazy about machines which define speed on the world circuit.

Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Peugeot, Subaru, Renault, VW..... and the list goes on! They cost a fortune, they look sexy, but I love them most, because they define speed, power; they breathe life into a chassis which is nothing more than metal pummeled with bigger machines in a series production plant.

War of machines is not just a legend in movies, but its reality. I never appreciated it until today, until I went go-karting! The ride to the go-karting grounds was in itself an amazing experience. Jaani touched almost 100kmph. And I was just starting to have fun. We decided on 6 laps first. I stepped into the car and pulled it onto the track..3....2.....1...go!

The first lap was a lesson learnt. I realised that the cars are not ment to be driven on real roads. The steering wheel was unusually difficult to turn and it would not steer over 70 degrees on either side. When I took on my first curve, I noticed that I don't have to brake to make it right, but just pull down the acceleration. I learnt when to accelerate and when not to so that I stick to the track. I lost a lot of speed while taking curves. I pushed the accelerator harder during the 2nd lap. Then, the wheels started turning faster, the air started hitting my face even harder and the machine started vibrating! I could feel the centrifugal force pushing me out and I did get scared that the car might topple. But more the curves I took, the more I realised that it was in any way going to happen. These cars don't TOPPLE.

The other laps were all about speed. I enjoyed when the tyres screeched as I braked them while taking a turn, the engine roared to output more power when I pressed the peddle harder, the control I accessed when I took a turn, the way I would swing on either side on encountering a curve, the vibrations and the guard showing me the number of laps remaining. But I wanted more. And I did get more. 6 more laps! and this time, I was determined to make it as better as possible, i.e., USE FULL THROTTLE. And I did! Well! even if it was only on the last lap. When I got down, I could just recollect how happy I was going go-karting.

I learnt that the fun was not just in how much I was accelerating, but the control I accessed while taking the turns. Karting is a minute version of what we popularly know as F1. Cars here rip at an average of 300kmph! And when they do, they burn the road...

A friend of mine was amazed at how I could can fall in love with an inanimate object! But to me these machines talk power, control and the best of technology. It not about the car, its about electronics and design!

Trekking is not my cup of tea!

Hello! I’m a 10 kg overweight with a less than average lung capacity, zero exercise routine, sheer passion for an awesome adventure and zero determination for the same. With all these attributes, I started to trek, Kalaverahalli Betta with the rest of B+ve (That’s what we call ourselves).

DISCLAIMER: The blog is huge, with three sections – trek up, Flat top and trek down!

So you can read one section at a time.

TREK UP

The mountain top, clouds, the silhouette, the climb, the golden ring at the horizon at sunrise– kept flashing in my mind when we began the trek. It was 12.45am when I set my foot on the first stone. Three guides, 13 enthusiastic trekkers – Porkey, Bunty, Ram, Rat, Vijay, Savana, Joy, SR, Style, Suyash, Radha, Charlu and me. The terrain was beautiful – rocks, boulders, dried grass, thorny bushes and shrubs, steep slopes; trekkers paradise, if you ask me. And I enjoyed it until I was out of breath. And we had just trekked 10% of the entire climb. And that’s precisely when I looked up. And the whole climb sound like a big joke. ‘I can’t do it’. And this more precisely kept echoing throughout the trek. We reached our 1^st pit stop in 15 min and I was flat on my back on the rock. And the rest of them – ‘What do you expect with Porkey around?’ climbing Boulders are trees and having their snaps taken, which will tell their heroic tales when they would get back. And this time, he had good company. Savana was climbing Boulders as if he’s been doing it for his entire life. Bunty and Vijay joined in with Rat, our official photographer who would do crazier things to take the snaps. We moved on for another half hour and my lungs gave up! And we were only 25% through. I could see Savana well ahead with the guides, calling back every minute to the guys – ‘Common guys! Make it fast’. I would have killed him, only if I could have reached him. The climb got tougher with every minute. The mountain got steeper and terrain, narrower. And all that I could think of now, was the next pit stop. I would just stop, breathing heavily and Vijay and Porkey would pull me to the next step. I was able to move my feet, but couldn’t match their pace. That’s when I almost gave up.’ I just can’t move any further. You people continue and please take me with you when moving down’. And we called for a split – Bunty, Savana and Porkey disappeared in no-time without a guide. Vijay, Suyash, Rat, Radha, SR and Style kept moving. And the rest including me got into the 3^rd group.

My only motivation was the hare and the tortoise story! And in sometime, we were 50% through. I had the feeling that we were almost there when the guide said, we’ve just trekked halfway through. And I looked up again. And the echo sounded louder, ‘I can’t do it’. But Ram and Charlu kept company and I moved on - with a banana and two spoons of Glucose sponsored by Ram and Charlu’s tips on’ How to breathe’. I would stop all of a sudden, take huge gulps of air and then start again. I was feeling nauseated. And every step I took told me it would hit me harder if I fell down. And just when I thought the whole process was impossible, we had made 80% of the climb. And the sight we saw from the hill top was breathtaking. I could see the entire city lit up with street lamps. And Joy just did the perfect thing. He put on the music and we enjoyed the moonlight, cold breeze and hill top for quite sometime. Now reaching the top was only a matter of time. With half orange and another couple of spoons of glucose, ‘I finally made it’.

FLAT TOP

There were already two groups camping on the hill top. And the 3^rd group was ours. The clock read 3.35 am. Then came the music, and I don’t remember myself so longing to listen to music, ever. It was as though time stood still for a while. Reaching the hill top was a tedious job, but the rewards were no less welcoming. We munched a lot before taking a small nap! The weather grew colder and the music, louder. And then, I could hear a whisper. Now that I was awake, I could hear Savana. Poor fellow saw a frog limping and was feeling bad for stamping its leg which had come to kiss his divine feet. And just when I decided to get back under the blanket, I could hear more and see too - sparks! BONFIRE! The fire gave some relief from the cold. But it meant much more to the people who were keeping it alive.

And it was time for the moment which had brought us here - the sunrise. It was 5.10 am when I saw some light in the sky. We sat at the edge of the mountain for almost an hour. There was no golden ring at the horizon, no clouds beneath us and naturally nothing to capture on our digicams. Nevertheless, the photo-session did take place. And the food packets did get empty! And we were ready for the decent.

TREK DOWN

When I looked down at the steep slopes, I still felt happy that I would be finally going home. But the happiness did last only till I realized that trekking down was an another challenge. At night, I just kept looking down at my steps, not to get discouraged by the amount of climb remaining. But now, I couldn’t afford to look at the sky! The steeper, sandy slopes made it even more difficult. I couldn’t stretch my legs enough to jump form one stone to another. I was scared, but so was I eager to reach down and this time I couldn’t tell people to let go of me and pick me up later. I felt better with every step I took. And in about an hour we reached the place which was our 2^nd pit stop while trekking up.

Joy and Bunty’s R&D on biodegradable wastes kept us entertained, when at sometime I realized that my legs weren’t moving fast. Each time I moved one step down, the lack of energy scared me twice as hard. There was little left now. But that felt like eternity and finally when I reached down, I couldn’t stand up by myself. I was the last person to board the bus and the first one to doze off.

OUTCOME

Today, May 07, almost everybody at the office realized that I had a terrible trek. I limped thoughout the day and I might still limp for the rest of the week. I can’t call it my best holiday so far, I’m happy that I reached the top and did return to work the next day.