Techno-Hints

Sponsoring Parents for Residency Visa - UAE (United Arab Emirates)

The UAE government issues several types of visas and entry permits like business visa, tourist visa, student visa, retirement visa and eVisa. While each visa serves different purpose, we are going to limit our today's article to the process of Sponsoring Parents for the Residency Visa in Dubai. This visa category is also called Humanitarian Visa.

I particularly found it important to write this article because I myself struggled a lot to understand the process and now that I have got my Parents' Visa , I want to share my experience with you.

At a high level, there are 4 steps to getting a residency visa stamped on the passport viz.

1) Obtaining an Entry Permit - It is an electronic visa that allows parents to enter the country of United Arab Emirates. This is the very first and the most important step in getting a Residency visa for parents. All the required documents by the UAE government have to be submitted at this step itself. It may take upto 1 to 2 weeks to obtain an entry permit approval after you submit all your documents. After getting approval, you need to make a refundable security deposit of 2500 AED per parent in order to get the actual entry permit (Note: This security deposit gets refunded only after you cancel the Residency visa for your parents).

Pro Tip: Usually the committee which approves the Humanitarian visas sits every Thursday and for you to increase your chances of getting an Entry Permit within 1 week, try to submit the documents by Monday or Tuesday, so that the same can be reviewed by the committee on Thursday of the same week.

Alternatively, you can bring your parents on the Tourist Visa and while they are inside the UAE, you can apply for the Entry Permit followed by a Change Status request. Opting for this option will certainly cost you more (~ 1100 AED extra per parent) because Entry Permits have got different costs for In-Country and Out-Country and there is also a cost involved for Change Status Request.

You get 60 days to complete other 3 steps after your parents enter the UAE.

2) Getting Medical Test - The second step in the process is to get the Medical Test done. This is an important requirement where your parents need to undergo a blood and X-ray test to screen for communicable diseases such as hepatitis, HIV and Tuberculosis. The report for this comes within 24 hours and is valid for 3 months.

3) Doing Bio-metrics for Emirates ID - The third step in the process is to do the Bio-metrics where finger prints and eye prints are taken to issue an Emirates ID. Emirates ID is an identity document issued to all the Residency Visa Holders and Citizens of the UAE. It usually takes around 7-10 days to receive an Emirates ID by post and you need to apply for the Visa stamping within 10 days of typing an application for the Emirates ID.

Usually, there is a good waiting period for getting an appointment for Bio-metrics and Visa stamping process gets completed before you even appear for Bio-metrics. This is completely fine as Visa stamping can be done purely based on the application of Emirates ID.

4) Visa stamping on the passport - The final step in the process is to get the visa stamped on your parents' passport. This usually gets done within 1-2 days in a fast-track process. In a normal process, it might take upto 8-10 days. So, you can choose whatever option suits you, depending upon the urgency of getting a visa stamped.

Update: Since April 11 2022, residency applications have been unified and residents do not need to go through separate processes for visa and Emirates ID. Emirates ID has replaced the visa sticker stamped on to passport. This holds true for all other Emirates except for Dubai. For Dubai, you still need to get a visa stamped on the passport.

Documents Required:

Entry Permit:

Salary Certificate- You need to have a minimum salary of 20000 AED to sponsor your parents and a valid salary certificate needs to be produced to reflect the same.
Tenancy Contract - In Dubai, you need to have a minimum 2 bedroom apartment to sponsor parents and a tenancy contract (Ejari) needs to be produced to reflect the same.
Sponsor's Passport Copy
Sponsor's Visa
Sponsor's original Emirates ID
Parents' Passport Copy
Parents' digital photo
Sworn Affidavit - This is an affidavit stating that you are the sole support for your parents and there is no one to take care of them back home. You can get it done at IVS global services in Oud Metha Business Atrium building within 2-3 hours and it costs around 115 AED per parent. Sponsor's passport, visa , Emirates ID and parents' passport are needed as documents for this.
Personal Bank Account Statement - This is a sponsor's bank account statement reflecting his personal details and stamped by the bank. So, online statements wouldn't be accepted in this.

All the above mentioned documents have to be given to the typing center which will then raise an application on your behalf to get you an entry permit.

Medical Test:

Parents' Passport
Parents' Entry Permit
Parents' digital photo with white background
Medical application typed by a typing center

Bio-metrics for Emirates ID:

Parents' Passport
Parents' Entry Permit
Parents' digital photo with white background
Sponsor's original Emirates ID
Application for Emirates ID typed by a typing center
Medical Test Result

Visa Stamping:

Parents' Passport
Parents' Entry Permit
Parents' digital photo with white background
Application for Visa Stamping typed by a typing center
Application for Emirates ID typed by a typing center

Cost:

Entry Permit:

500 AED - Typing Center (For people outside UAE)

2500 AED - Security Deposit

114 AED - Typing Center (For depositing security amount)

~1600 AED - Typing Center (For people inside UAE. This is the combined amount for Entry Permit and Change Status)

2500 AED - Security Deposit

114 AED - Typing Center (For depositing security amount)

Medical Test:

315 AED - Typing Center

40 AED - Medical Center

Emirates ID:

170 AED - Typing Center (Cost for 1 year)

200 AED - Typing Center (Top-up cost for 2 Additional years)

Visa Stamping (*):

365 AED - Typing Center (Cost for 1 year)

565 AED - Typing Center (Cost for 3 years)

Usually, the visa for parents is approved for only 1 year, irrespective of what the sponsor's visa validity is. But in some scenarios, Parents' visa also get approved for the same duration as that of the Sponsor's. You can save yourself a lot of money by trying out for extended validity of Parents' Visa. If you need any help regarding this or need assistance in Visa Application, you may reach out to me at rajat.gupta05@gmail.com

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we think about travelling especially when it comes to International travel. It is no more as simple as just booking the tickets and getting the Visa done. Rules are much more stringent now. So, thoroughly check all the rules before travel to avoid the hassle.

Having travelled myself recently from Dubai to India amongst all the confusions about the travel rules and finally making it to my home without running into any major problems , I thought of writing it down in simple words for the fellow friends so that it becomes a little more easy for them to travel.

Step 1: Get a RT - PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) test done. RT - PCR is a Swab test which detects the active Corona Virus in the body.

There is generally a fear that the test would be painful. I would rather say that it is not painful but causes a little discomfort like how it feels when water gets up your nose and the discomfort also doesn't last for more than 10-15 minutes whereas the test itself takes around 5-6 seconds only.

Per the rules, the test is valid only for 96 hours. This is the maximum time limit within which you have to reach your final destination and this time starts getting counted from the very minute your sample is taken and not the time after getting the report. It usually takes around 24-48 hours for the report to come. So, if you are confident that the result will be negative, its advisable to book the tickets before the test to avoid the expensive ticket prices.

Step 2: Fill the Air-Suvidha forms online for Self Reporting and Institutional Quarantine Exemption. These forms are asked to be filled at least 72 hours before the travel but its not mandatory. I filled them just one day before the travel and nobody questioned about it. And as a matter of fact, its not even possible to fill the forms before 72 hours because you need to upload your test results also in the form which you usually receive a day before your travel.

Self Reporting Form: This is the mandatory form where you fill in all your personal details to let know the Indian government about your travel plans.

https://www.newdelhiairport.in/airsuvidha/apho-registration

Exemption Request Form: This is the form where you can request for the Institutional Quarantine Exemption from the Indian Government. There are multiple categories like a Pregnant woman travelling or someone having critical illness or RT-PCR test negative report under which you can request for the exemption.

Here you can upload the soft copy of your RT-PCR test to request for the exemption. You won't get any confirmation message whether your request got approved or not but can expect a home quarantine based on this form because only people with Corona Virus symptoms are being sent to the Hotel Quarantine now a days.

https://www.newdelhiairport.in/airsuvidha/covid-19-exemption-international-passenger

Step 3: Download the Aarogya Setu app and register yourself so that if you come across any person during your travel who is carrying the virus, you would be notified and accordingly Government can isolate you from others. Again, this is not mandatory. No one is even checking it but as a responsible citizen, you should download the app so that you are not putting your loved ones' life in danger along with your own life.

Lastly, carry the hardcopy of all these forms and test results. Many airport authorities are not accepting the soft copies.

As on date, these are the bare minimum rules which need to be strictly followed but they are certainly getting reduced day by day. Hoping to get back to the normal very soon.

Note for Indigo Travellers: Indigo provides Masks, Hand Sanitizer to everybody, Face Shields for the Aisle and Window seats and the PPE kit for the middle seat. So, there is no need to carry any of these of your own.

It's been around 3 weeks now (20 days to be precise) since the GST(Goods and Services Tax) was rolled out. GST has affected almost every segment of Indian population depending upon their needs and their purchasing style and also every item present in the market in terms of taxes what we had to pay on them before and what we have to pay now.

Likewise, GST has affected the automobile prices which is the most talked about topic these days, especially in the middle class segment. People who were planning to buy new car have parked their idea for the time-being just because nobody is sure how GST would impact the price of car they were planning to buy.

But now most of the automakers have revealed the updated price of their models. To give you a sigh of relief, let me tell you upfront that most of the cars are now cheaper compared to what they were priced before July 1.

First of all, let's see the Tax Rates on different segment of Cars post GST Implementation:

	Post GST Tax Rates
		Base	Cess	Net
Small Cars	Petrol	28%	1%	29%
	Diesel	28%	3%	31%
Mid-size cars		28%	15%	43%
Luxury cars		28%	15%	43%
SUVs		28%	15%	43%
Hybrids		28%	15%	43%
Electric		12%	0%	12%

Now, let's look at the pricing details for cars under different segments both pre and post GST. (Reference has been taken with respect to Ex-Showroom prices in Delhi).On Road price differences would be slightly different as extra 3% would be levied on Insurance as part of GST. Here is the impact on:

Luxury Car Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Jaguar XJ	Rs 1.02 crore	Rs 97.39 lakh	Rs 5.11 lakh down
Jaguar F Pace	Rs 1.19 crore	Rs 1.10 crore	Rs 8.46 lakh down
Range Rover (LWB)	Rs 2.19 crore	Rs 1.70 crore	Rs 49 lakh down
Land Rover Evoque	Rs 67.9 lakh	Rs 56.97 lakh	Rs 10.93 lakh down
Honda BR-V	Rs 9.12 lakh	Rs 8.93 lakh	Rs 0.19 lakh down
Honda CR-V	Rs 22.64 lakh	Rs 21.53 lakh	Rs 1.11 lakh down
Skoda Octavia	Rs 23.35 lakh	Rs 22.15 lakh	Rs 1.2 lakh down
Skoda Superb	Rs 32.1 lakh	Rs 30.81 lakh	Rs 1.29 lakh down
Toyota Corolla Altis	Rs 19.91 lakh	Rs 18.67 lakh	Rs 1.24 lakh down
Toyota Fortuner	Rs 31.86 lakh	Rs 29.18 lakh	Rs 2.68 lakh down
Audi RS7	Rs 1.60 crore	Rs 1.58 crore	Rs 1.04 lakh down
Audi R8	Rs 2.55 crore	Rs 2.53 crore	Rs 1.3 lakh down
Isuzu MU-X	Rs 25.99 lakh	Rs 24.35 lakh	Rs 1.64 lakh down
D MAX V Cross	Rs 13.3 lakh	Rs 12.72 lakh	Rs 0.58 lakh down

Maruti Suzuki Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Alto 800	Rs 2.5 - 3.77 lakh	Rs 2.49 - 3.76 lakh	Rs 1,000 down
Alto k10	Rs 3.3 - 4.16 lakh	Rs 3.29 - 4.15 lakh	Rs 1,000 down
Baleno	Rs 5.28 - 8.43 lakh	Rs 5.26 - 8.42 lakh	Rs 2,000 - 1,000 down
Baleno RS	Rs 8.69 lakh	Rs 8.37 lakh	Rs 32,000 down
Celerio	Rs 4.04 - 5.25 lakh	Rs 4.03 - 5.23 lakh	Rs 1,000 - 2,000 down
Ciaz	Rs 7.72 - 10.52 lakh	Rs 7.65 - 11.44	Rs 7,000 down - 92,000 up
Dzire	Rs 5.45 - 9.41 lakh	Rs 5.42 - 9.39 lakh	Rs 3,000 - 2,000 down
Ertiga	Rs 6.22 - 9.38 lakh	Rs 6.15 - 10.44 lakh	Rs 7,000 down - 1.06 lakh up
Eeco	Rs 3.28 - 4.34 lakh	N.A. - Rs 4.32 lakh	N.A. - Rs 2,000 down
Gypsy	Rs 6.26 - 6.41 lakh	Rs 6.16 - 6.3 lakh	Rs 10,000 - 11,000 down
Ignis	Rs 4.59 - 7.8 lakh	Rs 4.56 - 7.54 lakh	Rs 3,000 - 26,000 down
Omni	Rs 2.67 - 2.69 lakh	Rs 2.66 - 2.68 lakh	Rs 1,000 down
S-Cross	Rs 8.07 - 12.03 lakh	Rs 7.94 - 11.66 lakh	Rs 13,000 - 37,000 down
Swift	Rs 4.8 - 7.46 lakh	Rs 4.79 - 7.46 lakh	Rs 1,000 down - 0
Vitara Brezza	Rs 7.26 - 9.82 lakh	Rs 7.23 - 9.91 lakh	Rs 3,000 - 9,000 up
WagonR	Rs 4.15 - 5.36 lakh	Rs 4.14 - 5.34 lakh	Rs 1,000 - 2,000 down

As you see, except for CIAZ and Ertiga SHVS, mostly all other car prices have gone low (upto 3%) in Maruti Suzuki. And the only reason for the increased price for these 2 cars have been the very fact that earlier both of these models used to benefit from the government subsidies given on Hybrid/Mild-Hybrid vehicles.But after GST implementation, these benefits are no longer applicable and hence this increase in price.

Ford Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Figo	Rs 4.75 - 7.73 lakh	Rs 4.73 - 7.62 lakh	Rs 2,000 - 11,000 down
Figo Aspire	Rs 5.45 - 8.29 lakh	Rs 5.415 - 8.159 lakh	Rs 3,500 - 13,100 down
EcoSport	Rs 7.18 - 10.76 lakh	Rs 7.102 - 10.713 lakh	Rs 7,800 - 4,700 down
Endeavour	Rs 25.49 - 31.5 lakh	Rs 23.912 - 29.89 lakh	Rs 1.578 - 1.61 lakh down
Mustang	Rs 66.3 lakh	Rs 69 lakh	Rs 2.7 lakh up

As evident, Ford has reduced the prices of its vehicles by upto 4.5 percent with immediate effect.

Hyundai Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Hyundai Eon	Rs 3.32-4.56 lakh	Rs 3.31-4.56 lakh	Rs 1,000 down - 0
Hyundai Grand i10	Rs 4.59 - 7.37 lakh	Rs 4.55 - 7.30 lakh	Rs 4,000 - 7,000 down
Hyundai Elite i20	Rs 5.36 - 9.07 lakh	Rs 5.31 - 8.97 lakh	Rs 5,000 - 10,000 down
Hyundai Xcent	Rs 5.38 - 8.41 lakh	Rs 5.33 - 8.39 lakh	Rs 2,000 - 5,000 down
Hyundai i20 Active	Rs 6.78 - 9.78 lakh	Rs 6.68 - 9.63 lakh	Rs 10,000 - 15,000 down
Hyundai Verna	Rs 7.95 - 13.17 lakh	Rs 7.84 - 12.62 lakh	Rs 11,000 - 55,000 down
Hyundai Creta	Rs 9.28 - 14.56 lakh	Rs 8.92 - 13.93 lakh	Rs 36,000 - 63,000 down
Hyundai Elantra	Rs 13 - 19.31 lakh	Rs 12.48 - 18.46 lakh	Rs 52,000 - 85,000 down
Hyundai Tucson	Rs 19 - 25.01 lakh	Rs 18.13 - 23.86 lakh	Rs 87,000 - 1.15 lakh down
Hyundai Santa Fe	Rs 29.58 - 33 lakh	Rs 27.86 - 31.07 lakh	Rs 1.72 - 1.93 lakh down

Nissan Datsun Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Nissan Micra Active	Rs 4.61- 5.42 lakh	Rs 4.58 - 5.46 lakh	Rs 3,000 - 4,000 down
Nissan Micra	Rs 5.99 - 7.23 lakh	Rs 5.95 - 7.27 lakh	Rs 4,000 down - 4,000 up
Nissan Sunny	Rs 6.99 - 8.99 lakh	Rs 6.89 - 8.93 lakh	Rs 10,000 - 6,000 down
Nissan Terrano	Rs 9.99 - 14.2 lakh	Rs 9.84 - 14.03 lakh	Rs 15,000 - 17,000 down
Datsun redi-Go	Rs 2.41 - 3.41 lakh	Rs 2.41 - 3.39 lakh	Rs 0 - 2,000 down
Datsun Go	Rs 3.83 - 4.24 lakh	Rs 3.81 - 4.22 lakh	Rs 2,000 down
Datsun Go+	Rs 4.56 - 5 lakh	Rs 4.54 - 4.97 lakh	Rs 2,000 - 3,000 down

Tata Motors Models :

Model	Pre-GST Price Range	Post-GST Price Range	Price Difference
Bolt	Rs 4.78 - 7.43 lakh	Rs 4.63 - 7.16 lakh	Rs 15,000 - 27,000 down
Hexa	Rs 11.99 - 17.66 lakh	Rs 10.95 - 16.23 lakh	Rs 1.04 - 1.43 lakh down
Nano	Rs 2.29 - 3.26 lakh	Rs 2.29 - 3.26 lakh	Rs 0
Safari Storme	Rs 10.72 - 15.72 lakh	Rs 9.78 - 14.47 lakh	Rs 94,000 - 1.25 lakh down
Sumo	Rs 7.26 - 8.7 lakh	Rs 6.86 - 8.03 lakh	Rs 40,000 - 67,000 down
Tiago	Rs 3.3 - 5.68 lakh	Rs 3.21 - 5.64 lakh	Rs 9,000 - 4,000 down
Tigor	Rs 4.7 - 7.09 lakh	Rs 4.58 - 6.87 lakh	Rs 12,000 - 22,000 down
Zest	Rs 5.29 - 8.74 lakh	Rs 5.16 - 8.48 lakh	Rs 13,000 - 26,000 down

As evident, Tata Motors has also reduced the prices of its vehicles by upto 12 percent.

So, if we have to conclude this, introduction of GST has brought some good news for new Car Buyers as all cars barring hybrid vehicles have become more affordable than before. Although there will be some increase in insurance costs and loan EMIs as service tax has been increased from 15 percent to 18 percent.

Have any questions or queries? Please do comment below. Would be happy to answer them.

Forgetting the EPF UAN password and no more having the access to the Registered Mobile Number is the most discussed about Problem I have seen on the internet. And to my surprise, I couldn't find even a single working solution anywhere, thanks to the major flaw in the functionality of Government website which didn't even let you change your UAN password unless you had an access to your registered Mobile Number.

While some say that this was not a flaw but a security measure to keep anyone with bad intention away from your account, I still strongly feel that it was a major miss which was realized by the Government too and was being worked on all this while and finally we have the working solution in place. Let's take a look at it.

Here is how it works.....

The old EPF UAN website (https://uanmembers.epfoservices.in/) has now been migrated to a whole new and indeed a better version (https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/).

1) Visit this new website and click on Forgot your password option.

2) Enter your UAN No. and Captcha and click on Verify.

3) Your registered mobile No. would be displayed on the screen and you would be given two buttons, Yes | No . Click on No to change the Registered Phone Number.

4) On the next screen, once again enter your UAN and Captcha and click on Verify.

5) Next enter your asked details like Name, Date of Birth,Gender, KYC Type and the Document Number and click on Verify.

6) Clicking on Verify button will open up a new textbox where you can enter your New Mobile Number to get the authorization pin. After entering your new Phone Number, click on Get Authorized Pin.

7) Enter the received Authorization Pin and click on Update

8) After this, you would receive the success message on the screen.

9) Repeat the Steps 1 and 2 given above

10) After completing Step 2 once again, this time you would see the Updated Registered Phone Number on the screen. Click on Yes and then click on Get Authorized Pin

11) Next, enter the Authorization Pin received on your new Registered Phone Number and fill in the New Password and Confirm Password boxes and click on Submit. (Follow the instructions in red for the accepted passwords)

And you are done. You can now login to your UAN account with this new password.

As on 28/02/2017, you can only find the details of all PF accounts linked to your UAN but the passbooks for the PF accounts are not uploaded yet. We will have to wait for another few days to get our passbooks uploaded to this new UAN portal.

Do like,share and comment if the information was helpful.

The Tech Giant, Facebook has come up with yet another super-exciting feature known as the 'Safety Check'.

Now, what does this feature do and how is it gonna help you?

This new feature will give you a simple and easy way to tell it your friends and family that you're safe and know about their situation during the time of natural disasters.

In a facebook post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned :

'Over the last few years, there have been many disasters and crisis where people have turned to the

internet for help. Each time, we see people use Facebook

to check on their loved ones and see if they're safe. Connecting with people is always valuable, but these are the moments when it matters most'.

Now, how will it work ?

After a natural disaster, the tool will automatically get activated and facebook will determine if you are in the affected area by using the information like the city you have mentioned in your profile, your last location if you have opted in to the nearby friend's product and the city you are using the internet from .

If facebook finds that you are in the affected area, you will receive a facebook notification asking if you're safe. You can select 'I am Safe' if you are and a notification of it will go to all your friends in your friend list and it will start appearing in their News Feeds as well. In case if facebook gets your location wrong, you will get another option to mark yourself as 'Outside the affected area' and a notification of it also will go to your friends.

Similarly, you can check on your friends in the affected area and mark them as safe after they confirm it. Clicking on the notification will take you to the Safety Check bookmark where you can find all the updates of your friends.

This new exciting feature will be available globally on Android, IOS, feature phones and desktop and will be able to deal only with the natural disasters for now but definitely, its scope will be expanded over time. Hope, it proves out to be really very helpful for the people who directly or indirectly get affected by these natural disasters.

Got frustrated with the poor Wireless networks and speed ? You don't have to be anymore. The Tech Giant Samsung has declared in a recent statement that it has made a breakthrough in Wi-fi Technology and will provide the speed of 4.6 Gbps ( 575 MB per second) as against 866 Mbps ( 108 MB per second) currently available to the customers which will let them download a 1 GB file in less than 3 seconds.

The Samsung's new claim is based on the 802.11ad ( WiGig) standard which uses 60 GHz Spectrum. Until now, there have been significant challenges in commercially adopting 60 GHz Wi-fi Technology, as the millimeter waves that get used in the spectrum have weak penetration properties and are susceptible to path loss, resulting in poor signal and data performance. But Samsung has successfully achieved the highest quality by leveraging high performance modern technologies. Moreover, Samsung claims to have eradicated the problem of the interference of the signals from too many smartphones and tablets in a single room which again promises the better quality reception.

Now, talking about the downside to this : The devices from now on will be faster Wi-fi Enabled but that needs the Internet Service Providers also to boost up their network Speeds to cope up with the latest technology which can be a challenge in the path to make such a high speed available to the customers. Moreover, since the effective range for 60 GHz is just 15 feet, it wouldn't be able to penetrate through the walls and other obstacles. So, we can't say, this new technology will replace the existing wireless networks but it will supplement them by providing speedy bursts of connectivity over extremely short distances.

The head of Samsung's DMC R&D Center said in a statement that the first devices to use the 60GHz Wi-Fi Standard will appear in the first quarter of 2015 which will include Visual and Medical Devices, Telecommunications Equipment to name a few.

The Social Networking Giant,Facebook is continuously coming up with new ideas to promote itself.We all know Facebook is best in everything it does.Recently,after buying fb.com domain name for $8.5 million,Facebook has now come with another brilliant idea.

Now what's that idea?The idea is that Facebook will offer the mobile talk time worth Rs. 50 to new 'Selective' Users in India who make the signup on the basis of some reference.

The first thought that would be coming to your mind would definitely be "It's another fake news" but be assured this time,the news is definitely not fake.It has been revealed by one senior company official.

Also the Country Growth Manager,Kevin D'souza said that the initiative has been taken on the pilot basis and the amount of recharge varies from person to person and place to place since different telecom carriers have different Facebook plans.

D'souza also added that they never know what thing may work.So,they continuously keep on experimenting up with new things and this is also one of their experiments which is being done in India.He continued saying that the company reserves the rights to discontinue this service at any time without any notice.Had it happened,will the talktime received prior to it be credited as appropriate only.

The user will have to firstly register on the company's website and then will have to provide his/her mobile number along with the mobile number of the person who has referred him/her in order to avail this Rs. 50 talk time,the Facebook's Mobile version talk time promotion page reads out.After confirmation of account,the user will receive the talk time within three business days.

We can't say,this new experiment is anyhow going to be fruitful for Facebook or not but definitely Indian users are going to be benefited a lot with it. Afterall Rs. 50 recharge is not a poor amount.

Folder locks have become the necessity for this generation for the very obvious reasons which we all know..But finding them for free on the internet is sometimes not an easy task to do.

There are lots of issues related to the free online folder locks like the trial period,fake serial key and lots more.

Even if you cope up with these issues,still you will be using only a 3rd party software which may not be secure and genuine in every case.

So,won't it be a better idea,if you can create your own folder lock and that too using the easiest way ?Not only you will be prevented from relying on some 3rd party software,but also you won't be having the need to download it from anywhere.

Features that would be available with this Folder Lock

1) Ability to lock and unlock it with your desired password.

2)Hide the folder from everybody(The folder will remain hidden even if you check the option reading "Show Hidden Files and Folders").

Now lets see,how to create this folder lock:

1) Open a notepad file and copy the below code in it.

2)Type your desired password for the folder lock in the place highlighted in the red reading "type your password here" in the code.

3)After making the necessary changes,save the file with the name locker.bat

4)Now a bat file has been created.Double click on it.

5)Double clicking on bat file will automatically generate the locker folder in which you can add your files like you do in other ordinary folders.

6)Now to hide and lock the folder,again double click on the bat file created by you i.e 'locker.bat' file.
You will see a message like this
"Are you sure you want to lock the Folder(Y/N), type Y(yes) and press Enter to lock and hide it.

7)Now if you want to make the folder visible and unlock it,simply double click the 'locker.bat' file and enter the password chosen by you in the Code and press enter.The unlocked folder lock will again be visible then.

cls

@ECHO OFF

title Folder Locker

if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK

if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER

:CONFIRM

echo Are you sure you want to lock the Folder(Y/N)

set/p "cho=>"

if %cho%==Y goto LOCK

if %cho%==y goto LOCK

if %cho%==n goto END

if %cho%==N goto END

echo Invalid Choice.

goto CONFIRM

:LOCK

ren LOCKER "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

echo Folder Locked

goto END

:UNLOCK

echo Enter Password to Unlock Folder

set/p "pass=>"

if NOT %pass%==type your password here goto FAIL

attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker

echo Folder Unlocked Successfully

goto END

:FAIL

echo Invalid Password

goto END

:MDLOCKER

md Locker

echo Locker Created Successfully

goto END

:END

Playing with the folder locks was never this easy.I hope,now you won't be having the need to spend hours on Internet just to look after some effective and full version folder lock.

Telecom Minister Mr. Kapil Sabil announced that the new Aakash Tablet is expected to be launched on November 11 this year.

Although he didn't give any assurance about this but speaking at the Economic Editor's Conference,the minister said "Hopefully on November 11,you will see the President talking to 20,000 students across the nation(who) will have their hands on Aakash".

Talking about the features,the new Tab will be running on 1 GH processor and is going to include 7" Capacitive touchscreen,Android 4.0 Operating System and the long 4 hours battery backup as compared to the earlier iteration that ran Gingerbread with a paltry 366 MHz Procesosor.

The biggest competitor of the new Aakash in terms of price will definitely be Datawind,the company that manufactures Aakash and which has already launched four lowest price versions of the Ubislate tablets in the market but the price difference will still be considerable one,the resources said.

Initially the price would be comparatively high,but gradually it is expected to come down to $35 which will be around Rs 1500 once the manufacturing activities setup in India,Sibal said.

Sibal added that there are plans of manufacturing about 5 million new Aakash Tablets and that too without putting any burden on the Ministry of Finance.

If compared to the Aakash tablet launched by the Government in October last year which ran into big controversy due to the delayed shipment despite pre-order payments made months in advance,it does not seem to be the case this time as Mr Sibal has quoted a specific date on which the device would be made available.Still,all we can do is hope that this time everything is for real and the words of our minister doesn't prove out to be mere words only.

The recent flaw revealed in Facebook is the automatic increment in the number of facebook "likes" of the webpages irrespective of whether the users have clicked the like button or not,or even visited the page in question.

The flaw came into limelight after Facebook announced that it has surpassed the milestone of one billion monthly active users.

It has been found by a US security researcher that whenever someone sends the webpage address to his friend using the facebook private messaging system,it automatically adds two likes to that webpage.

Even if someone leaves a comment under any story within a webpage,the count of the facebook likes will increase,BBC reported the flaw.

When the giant itself was asked about this,it admitted the very existence of flaw and told that "We did recently find a bug with our social plug-ins where at times the count for the share or Like goes up by two,and we are working on fix to solve the issue now".

In all this discussion,one new thing came into limelight that whatever figure the 'Like counter' shows is not only the number of likes the page has got but it also includes the number of times the page has been shared,though the number appears next to the word "Like" and the site's distinctive thumbs up icon.

So,even if you are sharing any webpage with your friend to highlight some negative content,inadvertently you are making that webpage popular as your share will automatically increase the Like counter of that webpage.

Although Facebook is saying it to be the flaw,who knows whether it was done intentionally by the clever mind to make the giant go even more popular.Anyways,Facebook will have to fix the issue as soon as possible,as it has gone quite popular now.

Facebook has officially confirmed this monday its very idea of introducing a new feature that would allow the users to create a wish-list of the items like home-furnishings,clothing and other retail products that they want to purchase.

The feature is going to be introduced with the new "Want" button.

Facebook announced that it has currently engaged with the seven selected businesses who would be able to share the information about their products through a feature called "Collections".

The Retailers who are involved in this program are Pottery Barn,Wayfair,Victoria's Secret,Michael Kors,Neiman Marcus,Smith Optics and Fab.com

The Users will find the collections only in their news feeds for now and not as a separate social plug-in or outside of facebook site,the company said.

The feature will allow the Users to like the items and even share the things they are interested in with their friends.

The giant said that this Collection test will be comprised of three separate actions namely-"Want","Like", and "Collect".In addition to liking the product content tagged by participating retailers using already famous "Like" Button,Users will also be able to identify themselves as "Wanting" a product in the vendor's collection or in the process of "Collecting" it.

All these actions would be visible to user's friends on his/her timeline and there would be a Buy Link for each product in the Collection that takes you to a place to buy it offsite.

Facebook said that its new Collection feature will gradually be available to all its users in the US.While some users will see the "Want" button as part of the test,others will see a button inviting them to "Collect" an item or to "Like" it.

Although a Facebook Spokeswoman said that the company won't receive a fee when someone purchases a wishlist item on facebook from a retailer's site,still the words are like this feature would become one of the biggest sources of revenue for Facebook.

Huawei, the china based telecom giant is being seen to diversify its business by entering into the SmartPhone Market.

Earlier the giant offered the cloud services in its phones for the Indian Users and this time it is planning to come up with the first 4G phone in India.

The company says that it was testing a 4G phone on the Airtel Network and is planning to launch it by December though the actual date of launch still depends upon the network service provider which has its 4G network already successfully running in Kolkata and Bangalore through USB dongles only.

Victor Shanxin,president for huawei devices in India said in a report that "we are ready with our phone(Ascend P1 LTE) and if the operator is ready,we will surely launch the phone by December this year."Although price of the phone is not revealed yet.

He also added "We were doing most of our business through tie-ups with operators until now but now we are planning to come up with an open market strategy and we are hoping to acquire atleast 5% share in Indian market with the SmartPhones holding the maximum share".

He said " We are working on building up the supply network so that the people can buy our products very easily".

Seems like Huawei is focussing on the quality rather than the price this time.Although Chinese companies are famous for their cheap products,but when asked,Shanxin said "Yes we will sell affordable products,but we want to focus on quality."

This criticization directly pointed toward the local phone makers who according to Shanxin want to make the products available at the lowest possible price.But he says that the trend of the market has changed.Now,people are even ready to spend some extra pennies if they are getting better quality products.

Till then,all we can do is to trust the words of Shanxin and wait for the new 4G experience about to come in Indian market.Also hoping that the product will be available at the affordable prices.