May 2015 – OneMint

What’s the best way to get online deals in India?

Last week I told a friend that I needed to go to the dentist, and his first advice to me was buy a Groupon worth Rs. 80 and get consulting worth Rs. 800. I don’t really want to use a Groupon for a dentist, but this particular friend is an expert in getting deals, and is so enamored with deals that he hardly ever buys anything at full price anymore.

I’ve always been wary of deals, discounts, sales etc. because you end up spending more than you wanted to by buying crap that you don’t need. However, the hotting up E-Commerce space in India means that there are a lot of online deals and discounts without any hidden terms or shenanigans that you can take advantage of.

While 20 or 30 percent off is quite common, getting things for free on online deals is not uncommon either. Aditya tweeted this out today, and I know a few other friends who have done similar things.

Ordered lunch though TinyOwl Paid bill of 155 via Paytm Got Cashback of 77 from Paytm & 150 from TinyOwl Earned 72 Rs for eating lunch ????????????????

— Aditya (@forwardshortleg) May 31, 2015

I’m admittedly new to this game, but there are at least two things which are very apparent to me that should be done in order to get your hands on the best deals available online.

Get a Mobile Wallet

Mobile wallets are a relatively new concept in India but have gained popularity very quickly, and in fact there are now more mobile wallets than credit cards in India.

Paytm and Mobikwik are the two leading mobile wallets in India, and the benefit of using either of them is that almost all shopping sites accept these sources of payments, and you often get a decent cash back when you use the mobile wallet option. If you don’t use this — you would either use a credit card or a debit card, and there’s really no reason to use the mobile wallets instead.

Go to DesiDime.com before buying anything

DesiDime.com comes highly recommended from my friend, and I thought it was quite useful as well. This is a coupons site, and not only does it give you free coupons, it also tells you about the combinations of discounts, and cash backs that mobile wallets offer so you can take advantage of both of them.

A quick glance through this site can tell you if there is a deal on something you wanted to buy, and if there is a deal, then what’s the best way to go ahead and pay for it.

But does this work on what you actually want?

As I said earlier, my primary reservation against deals, coupons etc. is that you end up buying crap you don’t need, so I waited to write this post till I had used this method myself on something that I needed, and satisfied myself that it actually works.

I needed black trousers, and it so happened that Jabong had a 50% off on brands that I wear, so I bought a trouser from there, and paid using MobiKwik which ensured a Rs. 100 cash back on top of the original discount. So, in this particular case I paid Rs. 950 for something I’m pretty sure I’ve paid slightly over Rs. 2,000 a few months ago, and yes, I’m satisfied that it does work.

I’m sure that there are many more tricks that I’m unaware of, so please leave a comment and let me know as well as any advice on what doesn’t work and you should stay away from.

And, back to the Tweet at the beginning of the article — the code that Aditya used still works in case you’re interested, and TinyOwl operates in your city.

Weekend Links – May 29 2015

One of the more interesting news stories of the week was the FIFA arrests, and this NYT article gives a good account on how the Swiss authorities went about doing this.

The American indictment of FIFA officials doesn’t look into the alleged corruption in awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, which has caught a lot of attention recently due to the numerous workers who have died there recently. This Guardian article talks about a new atrocity where Nepalese workers weren’t allowed to go back home to attend funerals of their family members.

This Economist articles compares how nationals of different countries have done in the US, and it is amazing to see how far ahead Indians are compared with anyone else.

Harvard Business Review with a good article on how silence should be used as a weapon for persuasion.

I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan, and people who have read the book or seen the TV series would know that only very few things can ever top the Red Wedding. George RR Martin on where his inspiration for the Red Wedding came from.

A barber in a village close to the Pakistan border got suspicious when he saw a pigeon land on his hut because it had markings and seal in Urdu. He took the bird to the police, and the police took it to the vet, but all is well, the pigeon is not a spy, but the police still has the bird in custody.

Fascinating question, and unbelievable answer: Will any species go extinct if humans were to go extinct?

Enjoy your weekend!

Two important unanswered questions about the gold monetization scheme

The first question is of course about the interest rate, and how much will a bank be willing to give out to investors.

As far as retail investors are concerned I feel it is really hard to get excitement going about the gold monetization scheme at anything less than 3 or 4 percent. I have a feeling it might be feasible to get to a rate like this or even slightly higher than this since banks are allowed the gold reserves as part of their CRR / SLR reserves, and there may be a market for them to lend this gold and make a profit.

The second question, and one that has not been discussed as much is the paper-work that will be required when you take your gold to get it melted. Do you need any paper work at all to show that was bought in white or can you take any gold at all? This is obviously important because of the realities of our economy.

A lot of gold is bought in cash, and through money on which tax hasn’t been paid. When you talk about black money you tend to think of crores of rupees locked up in Swiss accounts but any retailer or professional who has under-reported his income and not paid tax on all of it has black money and they are not necessarily cheats or corrupt officials, they have just found ways around our tax system which isn’t good at enforcement when it comes to anyone outside of salaried employees.

Most commonly such money finds its way to gold and real estate, and if the government is introducing a scheme which looks at channeling gold into the economy and all above board, it is important to take cognizance of this reality and not be insistent on asking for paperwork when someone wants their gold melted as part of this scheme.

What is the best way to invest a lump sum of money?

One of the best problems to have in life is to have a lump sum of money that you don’t know what to do with. You could have inherited this money, won it in a lottery, or perhaps more likely — earned it over a period of time and never invested it due to inertia.

Obviously, there are many variables that need to be considered before you decide how to go about investing a lump sum amount but there is a framework that you can rely on, and I’m going to write about that today.

Shiv and I did this exercise for a couple of clients recently so I’m relying on the work we did there and generalizing it to fit to a larger audience, but if you feel that I’ve missed taking into account any parameter, please leave a comment, and I’ll respond to it.

How big is your lump sum amount, and do you have enough stashed away for an emergency fund?

Everyone should have an emergency fund which should be at least six months of your expenses in a savings account or a liquid fund, and if you don’t have one then you need to fund that with your lump sum amount immediately.

What is your asset allocation?

After funding your emergency needs, you should look at your current asset allocation which is broadly categorized as follows:

Real Estate
Debt
Gold
Equity

If you determine that you need to put more money in real estate or debt — you can invest your lump sum amount in your choice of asset in this category at one go since these are relatively less volatile asset classes, and in any case you don’t really have a good option to invest in real estate in a staggered manner.

However, if you determine that you need to invest in gold or equity then you should use a more staggered approach that protects you from market volatility.

Invest in a Debt or Liquid Fund and then use STP to Diversified Equity or Gold Funds

I say that you should use a staggered approach but it would only be fair to mention that this is a matter of opinion and not fact. A lot of people consider investing a big amount all at once better because the equity market tends to go up more often than it goes down, and if you work with that as your guiding principle — it is better to have invested all your money at once, and make it work for you from the very beginning. This Morningstar article illustrates why investing a lump sum at one go can be numerically better than a SIP approach with the help of an example.

That said, I wouldn’t follow this advice with my own money or recommend it to anyone else simply because the risk outweighs the benefit in my opinion. If I invest 20 lakhs in the market tomorrow and it falls by 10% in the next couple of months — it will take me a signficantly longer time to make that amount back than it would take me if I just invested a little every month, and bought more units during the time of market falls.

The most practical way to make this work is to buy a couple of liquid or debt funds, and then start a STP (Systematic Transfer Plan) from them to fund a diversified equity fund, or a gold fund over a period of 18 to 24 months.

This can be easily and cheaply done with the usual trading accounts that most people hold and is one of the best ways to invest a lump sum of money.

PMJJBY & PMSBY – Claim Settlement Process

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

People are enthusiastic about the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY). Many of them are thanking Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and his government for launching such people-centric schemes.

But, there are many people who are skeptical about an efficient implementation of these schemes and the benefits of these schemes reaching their ultimate beneficiaries. How these schemes will get managed, how the claims will get processed and how easy would it be for the policyholders or their nominees to get their claims, all this is yet to be seen and observed.

But, one thing which has been made clear by the banks or the insurance companies is the process of making the claims in case of any mishappening. Courtesy State Bank of India (SBI), here is the bank’s process of claim settlement for PMJJBY:

Claim Settlement Process in State Bank of India (SBI) – PMJJBY

On receipt of death intimation, the servicing bank branch shall send the Claim Form (annexure 7), Death Certificate, Discharge form (Annexure 8) and Certificate of Insurance from the nominated beneficiary and shall send these to the nearest SBI Life Office or to:

SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd. – Claims Dept,

Kapas Bhavan, Plot No. 3A,

Sector 10, CBD Belapur,

Navi Mumbai – 400 614.

Tel: +91 – 22 – 6645 6000

Fax: +91 – 22 – 6645 6654

E-mail: claims@sbilife.co.in

On admission of the claim, the claim amount will be paid to the bank account of the nominee with intimation to the designated branch of the Bank (Annexure 9). In case of requirements or claim is not accepted, the same will be intimated to designated branch of the Bank.

So, in case of an unfortunate event, the nominee is required to follow the following process:

Fill the Claim Form and submit it along with the Death Certificate or Original FIR or Post Mortem Report (PMR), Discharge Form and the Certificate of Insurance at the servicing branch of the bank. In case of disability, Disability Certificate from Civil Surgeon is also to be attached.
The bank branch will then send all these documents to the nearest office of the insurance company.
After scrutinising the documents, the insurance company will transfer the claim amount to the bank account of the nominee and intimate the designated branch of the bank.
In case of any discrepancy or the claim is rejected on certain grounds, the insurance company will intimate the same to the designated bank branch.

Here are the sample claim settlement forms for PMJJBY & PMSBY:

PMJJBY Claim Form – English

PMJJBY Claim Form – Hindi

PMSBY Claim Form – English

PMSBY Claim Form – Hindi

In case you have anything to share about these two schemes or have any query regarding the claim settlement process, please post it here.

Yash Birla has a Swiss Account, what next?

PTI reported today that industrialist Yash Birla, along with four other lesser known businessmen hold Swiss bank accounts as confirmed by the Switzerland authorities.

This news apparently delighted the finance minister who chalked this to successful diplomacy and cooperation between the Modi government and the Swiss government.

Almost all news articles I read talked about Yash Birla as if he were guilty already, and I was unsure as to what the charges were.

It seemed at first that holding a Swiss account that wasn’t disclosed to the Indian IT authorities is what these individuals did wrong, but if that were the case then I wasn’t sure why the Swiss decided to release these five names only. Surely, a lot more than five Indians hold Swiss accounts. Also interesting is the timing of the release because the Indian government does complete a year today, and this timing is rather perfect for them.

Deutsche Welle which is an international German newspaper also reported the story, and had a little more breadth to their reporting because of the international angle that the Indian papers lacked.

DW reports the following:

Switzerland has begun online publication of names of foreigners and foreign firms wanted in tax probes by their countries of origin, including Germany. American citizens are identified only by their initials.

So, from this piece of information you can gleam out that the reason why these names are published is that the Indian authorities have specifically asked for certain individual names from the Swiss stating that the Indian government is investigating these individuals for tax frauds.

The second big question is why the Indian government asked about some individuals specifically, and the article refers to names from the stolen list that became popular some time ago.

So, to that effect these names were present in a list of people who used to have Swiss accounts at one point in time, and now that the Swiss Authorities have confirmed that these people did in fact have Swiss Accounts at one point or the other — I imagine the Indian authorities will encourage these individuals to voluntary declare their incomes under the new Black Money Act and pay the fines per the new regulations.

I assume that Indian authorities will do that because there is still a very long way to go for India to actually get any details of how much money is there in these Swiss accounts or in fact if there is any money at all present there.

Would the people named in the stolen list have done nothing during this time?

And if there is no balance there presently, will the Swiss be willing to share where that money went? I wouldn’t bet my money on that.

I would like to see how this progresses and in fact if the IT department is able to do anything with just this confirmation since it doesn’t actually tell you the amount of money in the account, and I can’t imagine much being done without that information.

Also, if you haven’t read about this at all yet, this is a good article that will catch you up with the parts I assumed you have read already.

Update: An official spokesperson of Yash Birla Group has said that Yash Birla has no individual bank account in his name or in his control.

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) are getting launched from June 1st, 2015. So, if you have not already subscribed to these schemes, you need to quickly take a decision now as only four working days are left for you to do so.

As the deadline approaches, many of you must be having some last minute queries regarding these schemes. So, I thought of covering the FAQs provided on the government’s Jan Suraksha website.

Here you have the FAQs covering PMSBY:

Q1. What is the nature of the scheme, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana?

The scheme is a personal accident insurance scheme of up to Rs. 2 lakhs for one year. It offers protection against death or disability due to an accident and renewable every year.

Q2. How much is the premium and what are the benefits under the scheme?

Premium payable is Rs. 12 per annum per subscriber. The benefits are as follows:

Q3. How the premium is to be paid? Do I need to pay the premium every year or is there any auto debit facility?

The premium will be deducted from the account holder’s savings bank account through ‘auto debit’ facility in one installment, as per the option to be given on enrolment. Members may also give one-time mandate for auto-debit every year till the scheme is in force.

Q4. Who is eligible to subscribe? Can I enrol myself with two or more different banks?

All savings bank account holders aged 18 to 70 years in participating banks will be entitled to join. In case of multiple saving bank accounts held by an individual in one or different banks, the person would be eligible to join the scheme through one savings bank account only.

Q6. Who will offer / administer the scheme?

The scheme would be offered / administered through the public sector general insurance companies (PSGICs) and other general insurance companies in collaboration with participating banks. Participating banks will be free to engage any such general insurance company for implementing the scheme for their subscribers.

Q6. What is the enrolment period and modality?

Coverage period would be from 1st June, 2015 to 31st May, 2016. Subscribers should enroll and give their auto-debit option by 31st May, 2015. The enrol period is extendable up to 31st August, 2015. Subscribers who wish to continue beyond the first year will be expected to give their consent for auto-debit before each successive May 31st for successive years. Delayed renewal subsequent to this date may be possible on payment of full annual premium, subject to conditions that may be laid down.

Q7. Can eligible individuals who fail to join the scheme in the initial year join in subsequent years?

Yes, on payment of premium through auto-debit. New eligible entrants in future years can also join accordingly.

Q8. Can individuals who leave the scheme rejoin?

Individuals who exit the scheme at any point may re-join the scheme in future years by paying the annual premium, subject to conditions that may be laid down.

Q9. Who would be the Master policy holder for the scheme?

Participating Banks will be the Master policy holders. A simple and subscriber friendly administration & claim settlement process shall be finalized by PSGICs / chosen insurance company in consultation with the participating bank.

Q10. When can the accident cover assurance terminate?

The accident cover of the member shall terminate / be restricted accordingly on any of the following events:

(i) On attaining age 70 years (age neared birth day).

(ii) Closure of account with the Bank or insufficiency of balance to keep the insurance in force.

(iii) In case a member is covered through more than one account and premium is received by the insurance company inadvertently, insurance cover will be restricted to one account and the premium shall be liable to be forfeited.

Q11. What will be the role of the insurance company and the Bank?

(i) The scheme will be administered by PSGICs or any other General Insurance company which is willing to offer such a product in partnership with a bank / banks.

(ii) It will be the responsibility of the participating bank to recover the appropriate annual premium in one installment, as per the option, from the account holders on or before the due date through ‘auto-debit’ process and transfer the amount due to the insurance company.

(iii) Enrollment form / Auto-debit authorization / Consent cum Declaration form in the prescribed proforma shall be obtained, as required, and retained by the participating bank. In case of claim, PSGIC / insurance company may seek submission of the same. PSGIC / Insurance Company also reserve the right to call for these documents at any point of time.

Q12. How would the premium be appropriated?

(i) Insurance Premium to PSGIC / other insurance company: Rs.10/- per annum per member;

(ii) Reimbursement of Expenses to BC/Micro/Corporate/Agent : Rs.1/- per annum per member;

(iii) Reimbursement of Administrative expenses to participating Bank: Rs.1/- per annum per member.

Q13. Will this cover be in addition to cover under any other insurance scheme the subscriber may be covered under?

Yes, this cover of up to Rs. 2 lakhs will be in addition to your existing accidental insurance cover(s). So, in case of any mishappening, you will get the insurance claims under all your policies, including PMSBY.

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY)

Participating Banks & Insurance Companies servicing PMJJBY & PMSBY

If you find any relevant info missing in these FAQs or have any of your queries regarding this scheme, please share it here.

Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

I had covered Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) a few weeks ago, but there were still a few things which were not clear at that time. In order to cover all missing links and provide some updated information, I thought of covering the FAQs provided on the government’s Jan Suraksha website.

So, here you have the FAQs covering PMJJBY:

Q1. What is the nature of the scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY)?

The scheme is a Term Insurance Scheme with a life cover of Rs. 2 lakhs for one year. It is renewable every year, offering life insurance cover for death due to any reason.

Q2. What are the benefits under the scheme and how much is the premium?

Rs. 2 lakhs is payable on a subscriber’s death due to any reason. The premium payable is Rs. 330 per annum per subscriber.

Q3. How the premium is to be paid?

Q4. Who is eligible to subscribe? Can I enrol myself with two or more different banks?

All savings bank account holders in the age 18 to 50 years in participating banks will be entitled to join. In case of multiple saving bank accounts held by an individual in one or different banks, the person would be eligible to join the scheme through one savings bank account only.

Q5. Will this cover be in addition to cover under any other insurance scheme the subscriber may be covered under?

Yes, this cover of Rs. 2 lakhs will be in addition to your existing life insurance cover(s). So, in case of any mishappening, you will get the insurance claims under all your policies, including PMJJBY.

Q6. If the subscriber survives the policy period, what would be the Surrender Value or the Maturity Benefits?

As it is a term insurance plan, there will be no surrender value or maturity value payable under this policy. This policy is similar to a car insurance policy, in which nothing gets paid to you if your car doesn’t meet any accident or you do not make any such claim.

Q7. Who will offer / administer the scheme?

The scheme would be offered / administered through LIC and other Life Insurance companies in collaboration with participating banks. Participating banks will be free to engage any such life insurance company for implementing the scheme for their subscribers.

Q8. What is the enrolment period and modality?

Initially on launch for the cover period from 1st June 2015 to 31st May 2016 subscribers are expected to enroll and give their auto-debit option by 31st May 2015, extendable up to 31st August 2015. Enrolment subsequent to this date will be possible prospectively on payment of full annual payment and submission of a self-certificate of good health. Subscribers who wish to continue beyond the first year will be expected to give their consent for auto-debit before each successive May 31st for successive years. Delayed renewal subsequent to this date will be possible on payment of full annual premium and submission of a self-certificate of good health.

Q9. Can eligible individuals who fail to join the scheme in the initial year join in subsequent years?

Yes, on payment of premium through auto-debit and submission of a self-certificate of good health. New eligible entrants in future years can also join accordingly.

Q10. Can individuals who leave the scheme rejoin?

Individuals who exit the scheme at any point may re-join the scheme in future years by paying the annual premium and submitting a self declaration of good health.

Q11. Who would be the Master policy holder for the scheme?

Participating Banks will be the Master policy holders. A simple and subscriber friendly administration & claim settlement process shall be finalized by LIC / chosen insurance company in consultation with the participating bank.

Q12. When can the assurance on life of the member terminate?

The assurance on the life of the member shall terminate / be restricted accordingly on any of the following events:

(i) On attaining age 55 years (age near birth day), subject to annual renewal up to that date (entry, however, will not be possible beyond the age of 50 years).

(ii) Closure of account with the Bank or insufficiency of balance to keep the insurance in force.

(iii) In case a member is covered through more than one account and premium is received by LIC / insurance company inadvertently, insurance cover will be restricted to Rs. 2 Lakh and the premium shall be liable to be forfeited.

Q13. What will be the role of the insurance company and the Bank?

(i) The scheme will be administered by LIC or any other Life Insurance company which is willing to offer such a product in partnership with a bank / banks.

(iii) Enrollment form / Auto-debit authorization / Consent cum Declaration form in the prescribed proforma, as required, shall be obtained and retained by the participating bank. In case of claim, LIC / insurance company may seek submission of the same. LIC / Insurance Company also reserve the right to call for these documents at any point of time.

Q14. How would the premium be appropriated?

1. Insurance Premium to LIC /other insurance company: Rs.289/- per annum per member;

2. Reimbursement of Expenses to BC/Micro/Corporate/Agent : Rs.30/- per annum per member;

3. Reimbursement of Administrative expenses to participating Bank: Rs.11/- per annum per member.

Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY)

Participating Banks & Insurance Companies servicing PMJJBY & PMSBY

If you find any relevant info missing in these FAQs or have any of your queries regarding this scheme, please share it here.

Modi’s India – How will the next few years fare?

In the past few days whenever I’ve thought of PM Modi’s first year – the thought of President Obama’s two terms have also come to mind.

The strong parallels between the two are inheriting a really bad economy, and coming to power with a lot of fan fare, hope and optimism.

The other parallel is that both made campaign promises that could never be delivered for such is the nature of campaign promises.

I think it is a reality of politics that things said during campaigns are akin to stretch goals that can hardly ever be met. For instance, I don’t think anyone seriously thought Congress could spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure which is something they promised during their campaign. However, the nature of the two campaigns made people expect that a lot will be delivered.

Things have gradually improved in the US under President Obama, and US has probably had the best recovery of any nation after the Great Recession. This didn’t always seem to be the case, and in fact a lot of people will still disagree with the statement that the US has in fact benefitted from his presidency even now.

I believe that things have gradually improved under PM Modi as well and while they have taken some bad steps like pushing a Land Bill which is unfair to the landowner , not doing enough to allay investor fears on retrospective taxation, or playing with the idea of making people disclose foreign travel on their income tax forms, they have taken some good steps as well, and perhaps the most significant among them are delivering a scam free year, and moving legislation on various issues which are all work in progress.

They are obviously aided by external factors (fall in commodity prices) like they have been hampered by external factors (bad monsoons) but on the whole – the government is functioning, and that unfortunately is the only bar they had to cross since the last government screwed up things so badly.

I believe that under the current administration, aided and hindered by external factors as well as the federal government structure, and a vociferous opposition — the country will continue to do much better than it did in the ten years of the previous government’s rule. This will always be less than what Modi promised during this campaign but unless things change dramatically, it will always be more than what Congress can deliver under Rahul Gandhi, and therefore I feel Modi will get a second term much like Obama, and at the end of the decade, when you look back you will see that things are better than they were at the beginning of the decade even if they aren’t as good as you expected them to be.

What is the definition of a heat wave and how do people die of it?

The heat has been particularly merciless in the last few days, and the reports of hundreds of people dying due to the heat wave is quite saddening.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new; every year people die of the heat wave in the summers, and of the cold wave in the winters.

In the winters there are visible efforts to protect people from the cold wave with the government setting up shelters and NGOs pitching in as well, and whatever the shortcomings of these efforts, one can only imagine that the fatalities would be a lot higher if nothing were done.

However, the efforts to protect people from the heat wave aren’t as apparent and it made me wonder who decides when a heat wave is caused and how do people actually die of it?

The answer to the first question is clear — heat wave in India is defined by the Indian Meteorological Department, and this definition can be found in the website of the National Disaster Management Authority.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has given the following criteria for Heat Waves:

Heat Wave need not be considered till maximum temperature of a station reaches atleast 40*C for Plains and atleast 30*C for Hilly regions

When normal maximum temperature of a station is less than or equal to 40*C Heat Wave Departure from normal is 5*C to 6*C Severe Heat Wave Departure from normal is 7*C or more

When normal maximum temperature of a station is more than 40*C Heat Wave Departure from normal is 4*C to 5*C Severe Heat Wave Departure from normal is 6*C or more

When actual maximum temperature remains 45*C or more irrespective of normal maximum temperature, heat waves should be declared. Higher daily peak temperatures and longer, more intense heat waves are becomingly increasingly frequent globally due to climate change. India too is feeling the impact of climate change in terms of increased instances of heat waves which are more intense in nature with each passing year, and have a devastating impact on human health thereby increasing the number of heat wave casualties.

The second question: How do people actually die of the heat wave should be very easy to answer, but I didn’t find a very convincing answer to it.

While state officials report how many people died of heat in their states, it is not clear what their source of information is and how they categorize a death as a death due to a heat wave. One would imagine this is important if you had any hope of fighting such deaths.

However, from what I read — the two most probable causes of deaths due to heat waves are homelessness and laborers getting sunstroke in the heat.

Interestingly enough, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which have seen the majority of these heat wave related deaths have rescheduled government services like the NREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) because the heat is causing sun stroke among the laborers working under the scheme. It is not clear how many people have died due to this but if the number is significant enough to reschedule the scheme then this should act as a lesson for the future as well as for other states as well and there ought to be some rules that stop people from working under such schemes when the temperature goes beyond a certain level.

Homelessness seems to be the other prominent cause of deaths and while there are no official reports that I could find of them this year, there are reports from previous years that mention Delhi Police statistics on unidentified bodies they find of homeless people and the most probable cause of their death does seem to be the heat.

The temperatures are changing permanently, and it is reported that the heat wave so far has claimed about 445 lives in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana which are the worst hit states. There is urgent need to take this issue seriously, and understand the causes, and potential actions that can be taken to save lives in the future.