As you know, Gold loan is becoming more popular among Indians, whether it is for personal consumption or business needs, any such urgent unforeseen expenses can be managed with Gold loans. The main attractions are the lowest interest rates, zero hidden costs, minimal documentation and no processing time.

Gold loan eligibility is evaluated based on the gold value. The banks are not worried about your credit history nor your financial position. Also the interest rate is calculated based on the percentage of market value of gold you are availing the loan. If you are going for say 90% of the market value, the interest will be on the higher side. The interest rate varies from 11 to 24 based on this figure. Still its cheaper than personal loan.

Just visit your nearest bank with your gold jewellery, after valuation of the jewel, the loan will be granted to you, normally within 1 hour.

Let us look at the interest rates the banks are charging on gold loan:

State Bank Of Travancore

Conventional
Loans against Gold ornaments.
Amount of Loan - Maximum 10 lacs
Period of loan - 6/12 months and can be further renewed
Simple easy documentation.
Liquid gold - SBT Gold overdraft

Overdraft facility against pledge of Gold ornaments, operated as a running account with facility of cheque book.
Amount of Loan - Maximum 10 lacs
Loans are granted for 6/12 months and can be further renewed.

Federal Bank - Federal Gold Loan Scheme

Any personal or household purpose.

General Gold Loan - Maximum 12 months
Special Gold Loan – Maximum 6 months

Security - Gold ornaments / medallion of 22ct fineness

Rate per gram - 80% of market value of Gold subject to a maximum of Rs.2000/- per gram

Federal Pure Gold Card rates for 21st   March 2012*
Denomination	1g	2g	5g	8g	20g	50g	100g
Card Rates	3308	6210	15236	24172	59610	148469	296321

State Bank Of India - SBI

Loan against Gold Ornaments

Size of Credit Limit Rate of Interest
Upto Rs. 1,00,000/-
4.25% above Base Rate Floating, currently 14.25% p.a.
Above Rs. 1,00,000/-
4.75% above Base Rate Floating, currently 14.75% p.a.

HDFC Bank

Loan Processing Charges Upto 1% of Loan Amount
Valuation Fee Upto Rs 350
Charges for late payment of loan amount 2% p.a. as penal interest over and above applicable rate of interest.
Renewal Processing Fees Upto Rs 1000/-

Manappuram Finance

You may get up to 1 Crore cash from Manappuram Finance against Gold. There interest rate starts from 12% per year. Manappuram gives maximum Rs. 2,100 per gram of Gold and it takes generally 15-20 minutes for loan approval. No processing fee.

Muthoot

Scheme Name Value (per gram) Interest (% p.a.)
True Value Personal Loan (TPL) Rs. 1,035/- 12%
Super Value Personal Loan (SPL) Rs. 2,260/- 24%
Real Value Personal Loan (RPL) Rs 1,960/- 18%
Express Personal Loan (XPL) Rs. 2,090/- 21%

Muthoot Finance, India’s largest gold loan company is the first choice of Indians who want to make their dream a reality. May the dream be to start their own business or to buy their own home, for over 124 years Muthoot Finance has helped almost every Indian’s dream come true. Trusted by over 70000 customers everyday, Muthoot Finance Gold Loan has services and products that fit the need of any customer, making it the quickest, most convenient and safest way to take a gold loan.

Key features of Gold Loan:
Loan disbursal in 5 minutes
Loans starts from 1,500 to 1 Crore
Minimal documentation and credit assessment requirements
High quality customer service in short response time
Evaluation of gold ornaments takes place in house.
Safety of Gold Ornaments: All branches as equipped with Strong Rooms for keeping safe custody of Gold Ornaments
Gold Loan available at over 3,000 Muthoot Finance branches across India
0% processing fees
Pre-payment option-without any penalty

Canara Bank

Gold Loan/Swarna Loan Scheme w.e.f 04.10.2008 13.25%

Karnataka Bank Ltd

GOLD LOAN SCHEME	Rate of interest (%p.a.)
GL-Quick (6 Months,2,100/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+4.00
GL-Classic (12 Months, 1,900/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+3.50
GL – Comfort (24 Months, 1,650/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+3.25
Agri GL Quick ( 6 months, 2,100/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+1.00
Agri GL Classic (12 Months, 2,000/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+0.75
Agri GL- Comfort (12 Months, 1,900/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+0.50
Agri GL – Comfort (24 Months, 1,750/gram of 24 ct gold)	Base Rate+0.25

Indian Bank

Jewel Loan to Traders under Priority Sector
Upto Rs.50,000/-	BR+1+0.5 = 12.25 %
Above Rs.50,000/- upto Rs.2.00 lakhs	BR+2+0.5= 13.35 %
Over Rs.2 lakhs - upto Rs.5.00 lakhs	BR+3.0+0.5 = 14.75 %
Above Rs.5.00 lakhs upto Rs.20.00 lakhs	BR+4+0.5 = 15.25 %
Non Priority Jewel loans including secured OD against Gold Ornaments
Short term loans / secured OD : Irrespective of limit	BR+3.5+0.5 = 14.75 %
Jewel loans to staff members (Non Priority)
Irrespective of limit	BR+3.75+0.5 = 15.00 %
Jewel loan to Senior Citizens
For EMI	BR+1.5+0.5 = 12.75 %
For Bullet Payment upto 12 months	BR+1.5+0.5 = 12.75 %
For Bullet Payment After 12 months	BR+1.75+0.5 = 13.00 %

KSFE - Kerala State Financial Enterprises

You can avail up to Rs.25 lakhs from KSFE where the interest is charged for the actual number of days for which the gold is pledged.

Current interest rate is 12% per annum to a loan upto and including Rs 10,000. Interest rate for loans above Rs 10,000 is 14% per annum.

Corporation Bank

Corp Abharan - Jewel Loan scheme

Security: Pledge of Gold Jewellery.
Rate: Per gram Rs.2000/- on 24 carrat basis for loans with repayment period of 12 months, Rs.1900/- per gram [24 carrat basis] for loans above 12 months repayment period.
No processing charges for loans up to Rs.2.00 lakh.

Rate of Interest: Linked to Base Rate which is 10.65% at present

Agriculture Jewel Loan (ACADL / ACAOD)
Loans up to 12 months : 10.75%
Loans above 12 months and up to 24 months: 11.25%

For Agriculturists, loans sanctioned to short-term crop production up to Rs. 3 lakhs during the current year and repayable with in 12 months, the rate of interest is: 7 %

For Jewel Loans other than agriculture (CADL /CAOD) :
Up to Rs.2 lakhs : 11.75%
Above Rs.2 lakhs : 12.75%

Repayment: Demand Loan/Maximum 24 months.

Allahabad Bank

Loan for Agricultural purpose

Rate prescribed by the bank for agriculture loan. At present as under -
1 Up to Rs.50000.00 – Base Rate+0.75%
2 Above Rs.50000.00 & up to Rs.2.00 Lac – Base Rate+2.00%
3 Above Rs.2.00 Lacs & up to Rs.5.00 Lac – Base Rate+3.50%

Loan for other purposes: Base Rate+4.00%

Catholic Syrian Bank

Gold Loan - General Category
Finance upto Rs.1700.00 per gram
For HALLMARKED GOLD - Special Rate - Rs 1800/ per gram Interest rate - 13.50% p.a.
Period - 1 year

Gold Loan under Agriculture - Interest rate - 11.50% p.a. Finance upto Rs 1800 per gram

Kanakashree
A unique Overdraft facility against pledge of Gold Ornaments at an interest rate of 14% p.a. Finance upto Rs 1800 per gram.

Gold Loan - CSB...Ezee Gold Cash
Finance upto Rs 1800 per gram
For HALLMARKED GOLD - Special Rate - Rs 1900 per gram
Interest rate - 12.50% p.a.
Period - 6 months.

Gold Loan - CSB...Swarna Nidhi
Finance upto Rs 1800.00 per gram
For HALLMARKED GOLD - Special Rate - Rs 1900.00 per gram
Interest rate - 12.50% p.a.
Period - 1 year.

Gold Loan - CSB...Gold Power
Finance upto 90% of the market value or the rate fixed by Bank from time to time, presently Rs 2100.00 per gram *
Interest rate - 12.50% p.a.
Period - 1 month.

Punjab National Bank

	BPLR System	Base Rate System
a) Productive purposes for Agriculture
i. Upto Rs.50,000/-	BPLR - 0.75%	BR+2.25%
ii. Over Rs.50,000/- & upto Rs.2.00 lac	BPLR	BR+3.00%
b) Productive Purposes (other than agriculture)
i. Upto Rs.2 lacs	BPLR	BR+3.00%
ii. Over Rs.2 lacs	BPLR	BR+3.00%
c) Non-productive purposes Public (Ceiling Rs.2 lacs)	BPLR + 1%	BR+4.00%
d) Staff (Non-productive purposes)	BPLR	BR+3.00%

Disclaimer: The information provided here are collected from various sources, visit the respective bank for the latest interest rates and terms and conditions.

Continue reading...

---

This year the tax exception limit is raised from 1.8 lakhs to 2 lakhs. Also, up to Rs. 10,000 interest on savings account is exempted from tax. An additional 5,000 can be exempted for preventive health check-ups in addition to the medical insurance.

Here are the new tax slabs for the financial year for general, women, senior and very senior categories for 2012-2013:

Click here to know how to save maximum income tax

Income tax slabs - General Category for the FY 2012-2013

Income tax slab	Tax
0 to 2,00,000	No tax
2,00,001 to 5,00,000	10 percentage
5,00,001 to 10,00,000	20 percentage
Above 10,00,000	30 percentage

Income tax slabs - Women for the FY 2012-2013

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 2,00,000	No tax
2,00,001 to 5,00,000	10 percentage
5,00,001 to 10,00,000	20 percentage
Above 10,00,000	30 percentage

Income tax slabs - Senior citizen(60 to 80) for the FY 2012-2013

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 2,50,000	No tax
2,50,001 to 5,00,000	10 percentage
5,00,001 to 10,00,000	20 percentage
Above 10,00,000	30 percentage

Income tax slabs - Very Senior citizen(above 80) for the FY 2012-2013

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 5,00,000	0 percentage
5,00,001 to 10,00,000	20 percentage
Above 10,00,000	30 percentage

New Tax Saving Options

• Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme - 50% tax deduction for up to Rs 50,000 invested in stocks for those whose annual income is below Rs 10 lakh. Please note there is a three year lock in period.
• Interest on Savings Account - Up to Rs. 10,000 is exempted from tax.
• Preventive health check-ups - Up to Rs. 5,000 can be exempted.

Continue reading...

---

Does MySQL support CLOB (Character Large Objects - used to store huge collection of character data)? The answer is yes, we have four different data types (depends on the size of the data) to support CLOB in MySQL. In this article I am going to explain different CLOB data types MySQL supports and mapping these fields in Hibernate.

CLOB Data Types in MySQL

MySQL provides four different data types to represent large character objects, they are:

• TINYTEXT
• TEXT
• MEDIUMTEXT
• LONGTEXT

Let us go though these data types in detail.

1. TINYTEXT - smallest CLOB representation, supports a maximum of 255 (2**8 - 1) characters.

2. TEXT - supports a maximum of 65,535 (2**16 - 1) characters.

3. MEDIUMTEXT - this data type supports a maximum of 16,777,215 (2**24 - 1) characters.

4. LONGTEXT - largest CLOB type with a maximum of 4,294,967,295 or 4GB (2**32 - 1) characters.

Note that some character encoding uses multiple bytes to store a single character, so the number of characters depends on the character encoding. In short, the storage space depends on the actual length of the data, the maximum possible length of the data type and the character set used.

Also the data is represented in a special manner for TEXT and BLOB data types, stored as two parts, first part is of fixed size 256 bytes where the second part is stored in a different table which is of 2000 bytes long. The second table is used only if the size of the data exceeds 256 bytes. This makes it difficult when you need to do capacity planning!

Let us try reading the Clob from database using plain jdbc:

Clob clob = rs.getClob(FIELD_BLOG_POST);
String blogPost = clob.getSubString(1, (int) clob.length());

Also you can use getAsciiStream() to retrieve the data as an ascii stream or getCharacterStream() to retrieve the data as a stream of characters.

Clob field Hibernate Mapping

Let us try mapping this clob in Hibernate, the mapping for "text" data type will look something like:

@Column(name = "BLOG_POST", length=65535)
@Type(type="text")
private String blogPost;

Just write getters and setters for blogPost and you are done!

Note: Make sure to enable strict SQL mode, else the value will be silently truncated by MySQL with only a warning if the size of the Clob column exceeds the permitted limit. Prior to MySQL 5.0.60, if strict SQL is on, the insertion will be suppressed with an error.

About the Author

Sunil is a technical writer with more than 8 years of IT experience, worked with multi national companies, designed and developed large enterprise applications. He writes about latest technologies, social media and search engine optimization.
Sunil's Google Profile

Continue reading...

---

Selling Sickness
My recent experience in the hospital and the just released book of Allen & Unwin "Selling sickness -How drug companies are turning us all into patients" (distributed by Viva in India) made me to write this note. Unfortunately there is non written similarly the Indian scenario in detail. No print or visual media giants will be interested to write against multinationals, still I am sure there is some out there writing for the common man.

"India, emerging as a potential market as well as industry for Health tourism and drug manufacturing", this being quoted as an example to show her recent economic growth by many writers. Let me quote Robyn Meredith in her book "The Elephant and the Dragon":"A biotech company........, located in an unlikely spot a three hours' drive east of Mumbai, provides more evidence of the economic revolution. Getting to its labs takes a sturdy vehicle: you leave the highway and zigzag up a dirt road into hills where locals shoo goats out the way of oncoming traffic. Around a bend, a starkly white minimalist building emerges from the ancient, dusty landscape like an optical illusion. Behind a tall gate and security checkpoint, hundreds of white-coated scientists are racing to invent new drugs. They are part of India's thriving biotechnology industry, which began as vehicle for widespread production of generic drugs and copycatting of the other drug companies' inventions but has grown into innovative industry.

India already has seventy-five pharmaceutical plants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-more than any nation except the US itself. Meanwhile, big western drug companies are tapping India's well-trained doctors to conduct clinical trials for drugs under development.
"Private hospitals are ranked according to its 'structure' rather than the 'infrastructure'. Experienced doctor's name or medical facilities are not highlighted but car parking facilities, cable connection, centralised A/c, 24 hour running hot water etc are given in the hospital brochure. The tourism vocabularies being lavishly used in health industry may be defined as 'health tourism'. If you check the literature from famous hospitals it is visible: Suite room, standard room, single occupancy, check-in and check-out time etc. minimum of three consulting doctors visit you each day apart from the duty doctors, be any disease. A dietician takes care of your food (room service) and physiotherapist gives you tips on exercises you may or may not needed. The psychiatrist was missing, could give some tips on mental stress, managing pain etc.

As mentioned in their prologue by the Australian authors: "The marketing strategies of the world's biggest drug companies now aggressively target the healthy and the well. The ups and downs of daily life have become mental disorders, common complaints are transformed into frightening conditions, and more and more ordinary people are turned into patients. With promotional campaigns that exploit our deepest fears of death, decay and diseases, the $500 billion pharmaceutical industry is literally changing what it means to be human. Rightly rewarded for saving life and reducing suffering, the global drug giants are no longer content selling medicines only to the ill. Because as Wall Street knows well, there's a lot of money to be made telling healthy people they are sick.

At a time when many of us are leading longer, healthier and more vital lives than our ancestors, saturation advertising and slick 'awareness-raising' campaigns are turning the worried well into the worried sick. Mild problems are painted as serious disease, so shyness becomes a sign of social anxiety disorder and pre-menstrual tension a mental illness called pre-menstrual dysphonic disorder. Everyday sexual difficulties are seen as sexual dysfunctions, the natural change of life is a disease of hormone deficiency called the menopause, and distracted office workers now have adult ADD. Just being 'at risk' of an illness has become a 'disease' in its own right, so healthy middle-aged women now have a silent bone disease called osteoporosis, and fit middle –aged men a lifelong condition called high cholesterol.

With many health problems, there are people at the severe end of the spectrum suffering genuine illness, or at very high risk of it, who may benefit greatly from a medical label and powerful medication. Yet for the relatively healthy people who are spread across the rest of the spectrum, a label and a drug may bring great inconvenience, enormous costs, and the very real danger of sometimes deadly side effects. This vast terrain has become the new global marketplace of potential patients-tens of millions of people-a key target of the drug industry's multibillion-dollar promotional budgets.

"Health or medical insurance companies are the other big culprits who promotes mere out patient in to a chronic inpatient. There is a PRO or Customer Service Executive behind the registration counter of every hospital. You will be delighted to show your insurance card to them and that is it. There are 'executive' check-up for the financially healthy, to check you're BP, BS etc. which will cost you less than few hundred in a normal clinical laboratory.

During the recent International conference of Dermatologists held at Bangalore, I was trying to promote our new edition of our book STD & AIDS with one senior doctor, he responded interestingly: "There is nothing major new development or finding in AIDS except the patient count, but there are many things happening in cosmetic area." True, pharma giants were made huge displays of their drugs, equipments etc. spending lakhs of rupees sponsoring thousands of doctors. The three day conference were attended by thousands doctors from all over India held in a fully air-conditioned 1,50,000 sqft hall specially made. There were separate hall for the accompanying family members. 90% of the top hotels were booked by Pharmaceutical companies and occupied by practicing doctors. The rest of the 10% were post graduate students! The products in display were mostly new skin care lotions, hair care therapies, complete beauty clinics, cosmetic surgery packages etc, etc.No wonder Rs. 1,50,000 is the earning for certain doctors in a month and some salaried patient in a year. Both pay, may be the same tax. Because consultation fee received are not accounted and paid are not exempted !
Jaiho

About the Author

TV Madhu is the General Manager at a leading book publishing company based in India with experience of over 16 years in publishing industry in India promoting Indian and foreign educational books to a wide range of market segments. He has represented international Education and Academic publishers in South India region and have close working relationships with publishers as well as education institutions including universities, corporate clients and research and development organisations.

Continue reading...

---

Mocking objects is not a new concept, especially when you want to test classes which refers complex objects you will end up constructing these objects by hard coded values! There are many open source frameworks available for mocking objects in your test classes, but here I am going to explain how we can mock your WebService client.

Before we begin, let me give you an introduction to object mocking.

What is Mocking?

Mocking is nothing but mimicking behaviours of real objects in a controlled way. Normally we mock objects which are complex in nature, to test the behaviour of other objects.

Why mocking objects?

There are many reasons for mocking objects such as

• constructing an object is too complex, many dependencies
• takes much time to return the results
• behaviour is not predictable

What are the popular mocking frameworks in Java?

There are many open source frameworks available in Java such as

• jMock
• EasyMock
• Mockito
• SevenMock
• JMockit
• rMock
• Unitils

EasyMock and Mockito has simple syntax and easy to read, they are the most feature-rich frameworks currently available.

Mocking a .NET WebService

Let us use the .NET StockQuote WebService available under http://www.webservicex.net/stockquote.asmx

The steps involved are:

1. generate stubs
2. write a client for the stock quote WebService
3. write a jUnit test class
4. mock the client with Mockito
5. test the client

Generating JAX-WS Stubs

Let us use wsimport to generate JAX-WS stubs:

wsimport -verbose -p com.techmindviews.webservice.stockquote 
 -Xnocompile -target 2.1 http://www.webservicex.net/stockquote.asmx?wsdl

The following files will be generated:

com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\GetQuote.java
com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\GetQuoteResponse.java
com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\ObjectFactory.java
com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\StockQuote.java
com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\StockQuoteSoap.java
com\techmindviews\webservice\stockquote\package-info.java

Writing WebService client

Let us write a client for the StockQuote service, let us name it StockQuoteClient.java

public class StockQuoteClient {
 private static StockQuoteClient INSTANCE;
 private static StockQuoteSoap stockQuoteSoap;
  
 public static StockQuoteClient getInstance(String wsdlURL) {
  if(INSTANCE == null)
   INSTANCE = new StockQuoteClient();
  StockQuote stockQuote = new StockQuote(new URL(wsdlURL),
   new QName("http://www.webserviceX.NET/", "StockQuote"));
  this.stockQuoteSoap = stockQuote.getStockQuoteSoap();
  return INSTANCE;
 }

 public String getQuote(String quoteID) {
  return stockQuoteSoap.getQuote(quoteID);
 }
}

So, our WebService client is ready!

Writing test case for the WebService Client

Let us write a test class for the client:

@RunWith(JUnit4.class)
public class StockQuoteClientTest {
 @org.junit.Test
 public void testStockQuote() {
  StockQuoteClient stockQuoteClient = StockQuoteClient.getInstance("http://www.webservicex.net/stockquote.asmx?WSDL");
  String quote = stockQuoteClient.getQuote("GOOG");
  System.out.println("Stock Quote for Google:"+quote);
 }

}

So, you have a WebService client and a test class for the dotNET WebService. Assume the provider charges you each time you invoke the service or the service is available only for a few hours. Your build will fail to test this service and thus you cannot proceed with your development. You have an option to add @Ignore annotation to the test class or method but how to proceed if other test classes are dependent on the result returned by the WebService?

Mocking the client and testing

Mockito is a simpler and better mocking API which is capable of mocking concrete classes as well as interfaces. Just include the maven dependency in your pom.xml file:

<dependency>
  <groupid>org.mockito</groupId>
  <artifactid>mockito-all</artifactId>
  <version>1.9.0</version>
 </dependency>

What to mock?

Here, we are getting an instance of StockQuoteSoap from StockQuote, so let us mock StockQuoteSoap. Don't forget to import Mockito.

import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;

this.stockQuoteSoap = mock(StockQuoteSoap.class);
        when(stockQuoteSoap.getQuote(anyString()))
  .thenReturn("<stockquotes>
   <stock>
    <symbol>GOOG</Symbol>
    <last>629.64</Last>
    <date>1/12/2012</Date>
    <time>4:00pm</Time>
    <change>0.00</Change>
    <open>N/A</Open>
    <high>N/A</High>
    <low>N/A</Low>
    <volume>100</Volume>
    <mktcap>203.9B</MktCap>
    <previousclose>629.64</PreviousClose>
    <percentagechange>0.00%</PercentageChange>
    <annrange>473.02 - 670.25</AnnRange>
    <earns>29.337</Earns>
    <P-E>21.46</P-E><name>Google Inc.</Name>
   </Stock>
  </StockQuotes>");
 

That's it! Whenever you invoke the getQuote() method of StockQuoteClient, the pre-defined XML will be returned! You can customize this code to read the XMLs from file system based on the string passed.

About the Author

Sunil is a technical writer for more than 8 years with good knowledge in enterprise architecture and web technologies. He writes about latest technologies, social media and search engine optimization.

Sunil's Google Profile

Related Articles

• Unit Testing EJB3 + Hibernate Using OpenEJB + TestNG + jMockIt - Part II
• Unit Testing EJB3 + Hibernate Using OpenEJB + TestNG + jMockIt - Part I
• XML to XSD to Java Generation Using JAXB and Trang

Continue reading...

---

In our previous article titled What is Induction Cooker? How Induction Cooker works? we explained the principle of Induction Cook-tops, advantages and disadvantages. In this article we are comparing popular Induction Cook-top brands available in the Indian market, their features, availability and price.

If you want to know about Halogen Stoves, which is another latest technology in home cooking, go to this link.

Pigeon
1. Rapido Plus - Rs. 3,395 (Free Pressure Cooker- Calida, Cook & Serve bowl and induction base Tawa)
Features:

• Elegant design
• Black crystal plate
• 4 digit display
• 1800 Watts power
• Easy cleaning
• Preset cooking menu
• 24 Hrs On Timer
• One Year Warranty

2. Rapido - Rs. 2,990 (Free prressure cooker- Calida, Cook & Serve bowl and induction base Tawa)
Features:

• Black crystal plate
• 4 digit display
• 1800 Watts power
• Easy cleaning
• Preset cooking menu
• Off Timer
• One year warranty

3. Rapido Touch - Rs. _ _ _ _  (Free prressure cooker- Calida, Cook & Serve bowl and induction base Tawa)

Features

• Touch control
• Elegant design
• 4 digit display
• 2000 Watts power
• Easy cleaning
• 7 Preset cooking menu
• 24 Hrs On Timer
• Digital timer control
• One year Warranty

TCL
1. TCL 1821 - Rs. 2,250
Features:

• Stir fry, Keep warm, Steam, Cook soup, Hot-pot, Porridge, Milk warming and Roast, pre-set functions.
• Eight different power settings: 100W, 500W, 800W, 1000W, 1200W, 1400W, 1600W and 1800W from 70°to 240°C for different cooking needs.
• Wide range of voltage 100V - 275V
• Soft press button controls
• Super heat resistant and permanent resistant Micro-crystal plate surface.
• With 4-digit display. 4-Digit screen shows the temperature, power level and timer settings.
• Portable, comes with 3 pin plug and requires a standard plug socket as it uses standard household electricity

Download User Manual
Buy Online

2. TCL 2029A - Rs. 2,770
Features:

• This Induction cooker comes with Stir fry, Warm milk, Steam, Cook soup, Hot-pot, Porridge, Frying and Roast, pre-set functions.
• Power can be set to 8 different levels 100W, 500W, 800W, 1000W, 1300W, 1600W, 1800W and 2000W from a low simmer of 70°to high temperature of  240°C  for different cooking needs.
• A TIMER function allows to set the exact cooking time of up to 3 hours making this induction cooker great for slow cooking. 24 hours of Pre-set timer available to auto-start the machine.
• Super wide voltage range adaptability from 100V - 275V
• Touch button controls
• Micro-crystal plate surface, which is super heat resistant and permanent resistant to de-coloration.
• With Auto check Voltage & check the electricity consumption function.
• With 4-digit display. 4-Digit screen shows the temperature, power level and timer settings.
• It is a portable stove comes with 3 pin plug and requires a standard plug socket as it uses standard household electricity.

Download User Manual
Buy Online

Prestige Induction Cooker
1. Cook-top Pic 1.0 - Rs. 3,595
  Features:

• Micro crystal panel
• Anti-magnetic wall
• Elegant design
• 1900 watts power
• One year warranty

2. Cook-top Pic 3.0 - Rs. 3,995

  Features:

• Feather touch buttons
• Anti-magnetic wall
• Automatic start option
• Elegant design
• 2000 watts power
• One year warranty

3. Cook-top Pic 2.0 - Rs. 4,495

  Features:

• Feather Touch Buttons
• Anti-Magnetic Wall
• Antskid Sceel Ring
• Automatic Voltage Regulator
• Power Consumption Display
• Automatic Start Option
• Elegant Design
• 2000 W Power
• One Year Warranty

4. Cook-top Pic 4.0 - Rs. 3,895
5. Cook-top PDIC 1.0 - Rs. 10,995
6. Cook-top Pic 6.0 - Rs. 3,995

Bajaj
1. ICX 7 Induction Cooker - Rs. 2,876
  Features:

• Reliable and long life "Tact" switches
• Timer Delay option
• Eight preset cooking options
• Variable Temperature: 70 ° C to 270° C
• Timer Delay option: 10 min to 24 Hrs

Morphy Richards
1. Chef Express 100 - Rs. 2,990
  Features:

• Keep Warm Mode
• Timer Delay option
• Eight Power Levels
• Five auto cook options
• Three Digit LED display
• Overheating protection
• Feather touch controls

Other Popular Brands:

1. Preethi
   Trendy IC 101 - Rs. 1,970
   Elegance IC 102 - Rs. 2,475
   Dial IC 103 - Rs. 3,010
   Regal IC 105 - Rs. 3,202
2. Butterfly
3. Cookmate
4. Havells
   Insta Cook ST - Rs. 2,926
   Insta Cook FT - Rs. 3,747
5. Glen GL
   3070 - Rs. 2,380
   3071 - Rs. 2,513
   3073 - Rs. 3,308
   3074 - Rs. 2,645
6. Greenchef 20 E 10 - Rs. 2,193
7. Sunflame IC 11 - Rs. 2,249
8. Usha (New comer in induction cooking range)
   CookJoy S 2103 T - Rs. 4,995
   8 Preset Options
   Feather touch controls
   Glass top (Schott Ceran)
   Child Lock
   Operating power wattage: 120 - 2100
   Operating temperature: 70-270
   CookJoy S 2102 T - Rs. 2,995
   6 Preset Options
   Push buttons
   Glass top with plastic control panel
   Operating power wattage: 120 - 2100
   Operating temperature: 70-270
   
9. Fabiano IC-011 - Rs. 1,923
10. Nova IC-1552 - Rs. 2,062
11. Crystal - Rs. 2,151
12. Cookplus - Rs. 2,571
13. Fusion - Rs. 2,707
14. Platina - Rs. 2,917

Feedback

Are you already using an induction cooker? Feel free to share your experience with our readers.

Related Articles

• What is Induction Cooker? How Induction Cooker Works?
• Troubleshooting Induction Cook-tops
• How Halogen Cooker Works? Advantages, Comparison, Review and Price List

Continue reading...

---

Technology is growing fast in all fields including 'Home Appliances'. From traditional stone and hearth cooking we have moved to Electrical Stoves, Gas Stoves and finally to Microwave Ovens. Latest addition to the list are Induction Cook-tops and Halogen Cookers.

Continue reading if you are familiar with Induction Cooktops, else we advise you to read our previous article on Induction Cooktops where you can learn the technology used in induction based cookers and also reviews and price comparison of popular induction cooker brands. In this article we will explain how Halogen based cook-top works, what are the advantages and disadvantages and also a comparison between Induction Cook-tops and Halogen Cookers.

What is a Halogen Cook-top?

Halogen Cooker uses a halogen bulb to heat food instead of magnetic induction in Induction Cook-tops or microwaves in Microwave Ovens. The mode of heat transfer is both Conduction and Radiation, the Ceramic plate acts as a medium of heat transfer, also the radiation from the Halogen bulb heats the food. Halogen bulb heats instantly, hence you can cook food at least 40% faster compared to other traditional methods.

How Halogen Cooker differs from Halogen Cook-Top?

Halogen Cooker almost looks like Microwave Ovens where Halogen Cook-top is an exact copy of Induction Cook-tops. In Halogen Cook-tops, a ceramic plate is heated using the Halogen heating element where in Halogen Cookers(also called as Halogen Oven) the heat generated using the Halogen bulb is circulated within the oven, so that the food items inside the oven cooks very fast like any other ovens. Halogen Oven is very small and compact compared to any other oven available in the market. Also you can control the temperature so that it can be used for baking, roasting, defrosting and steaming. Another major advantage compared to the microwave oven is no pre-heating is required.

Advantages of Halogen Cookers

1. Small and compact design makes it easy for daily use
2. Halogen bulb heats instantly, so cooking is much faster by 40%
3. Energy efficient, consumes very less energy compared to other electrical solutions
4. Easy to clean
5. Food tastes as good as that cooked using traditional convention methods
6. Complete control over temperature, no more over-cooking or burning food

Halogen and Induction Cooktops - A Comparison

In Induction Cooktops, a high frequency electro magnetic field is generated on the vessel which generates heat where in Halogen Cookers the Halogen bulb generates the heat. Another major difference is in Induction cookers the food particles are directly heated, not the vessel, and hence this is the most energy efficient cooking method. Refer the below efficiency comparison chart, you can see Induction cooktop is most energy efficient but you need to be very careful while cooking in Induction cookers else the food may burn, especially while frying.

Efficiency Comparison Chart - US Government Statistics

	Induction Cooker	Halogen Cooker	Electric Cooker	Gas
Efficiency	90%	60%	55%	50%
Time required to boil 2qtns of water	4 min 46 sec	9 min	9 min 50 sec	8 min 18 sec
Energy Consumption to boil 2L of water	745 kJ	1120 kJ	1220 kJ	1340 kJ

Halogen Cooktop Price Comparison

• VOX Halogen Cooking Stove with Free Grill Stand - Rs. 4,999
• Nova Halogen Cooker HIC - 1581 - Rs. 3,549
• Cookmate Eazy Health Halogen Oven - THO 700 - NA
• Cookmate Eazy Health Halogen Oven - THO 1200 - NA
• Fabiano Halogen Cooker - FAB- HC001 - Rs. 3,295
• Surya Halogen Cooker - NA

User Manual

1. JML Halogen Oven
2. Fagor America Halogen Oven
3. Aroma Prestige Electric Halogen Range - PHP-323

Related Articles

• Induction Stove Price Comparison - India
• Troubleshooting Induction Cook-tops
• What is Induction Cooker? How Induction Cooker Works?

Continue reading...

---

Disclaimer: This is an independent review on some of the most popular travel websites, I am not associated with any of these travel websites nor their promoters. If you do not agree with any of the comparisons made here, post your concerns as a comment so that the same will be reviewed and the content under question will removed from this blog.

Websites Reviewed:

• MakeMyTrip - http://www.makemytrip.com/
• Yatra.com - http://www.yatra.com/
• ClearTrip.com - http://www.cleartrip.com/
• EzeeGo1 - http://www.ezeego1.co.in/
• TravelGuru.com - http://www.travelguru.com/

Search Engine Visibility :: Google.co.in

Keyword :: Book Flight

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Makemytrip.com	Google shows the following as group results: Domestic Airlines - International Flights - Indigo Airlines - Air India, which is a guge plus!
2	Yatra.com	Same here, Domestic Flights - Trains - International Flights - Hotels are shown as group results
3	Cleartrip.com
4	Ezeego1.co.in
5	Travelguru.com	Keyword rich title but not user friendly - Hotels India Discount Hotel Budget Air Tickets Flight Tickets

Keyword :: Book Hotel

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Makemytrip.com	Dedicated page for Hotels in the search result
2	Travelguru.com	Title is not attractive
3	Yatra.com	Title - Book Lowest Price International Airline ticket Flights... man, I am searching for Hotels
4	Cleartrip.com
5	Ezeego1.co.in	Appears only on the third page

Keyword :: Book Holidays

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Makemytrip.com
2	Yatra.com
3	Travelguru.com
4	Ezeego1.co.in
5	Cleartrip.com	Not visible in the first 5 pages

First Impression

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Ezeego1.co.in	Simple but rich content, easily navigable user interface. Toll free number displayed on the top right corner, a huge plus.
2	Makemytrip.com	Moved to second position because the customer care contact details are hidden.
3	Yatra.com	First time users will find it difficult to navigate through the options available. The dark background and the misaligned box shots are really irritating.
4	Travelguru.com	Simple but not informative, no toll free number.
5	Cleartrip.com	Highly simple, users may navigate away for the same reason thinking of clone sites.

Flight Search :: Bangalore to Kolkata :: Round Trip

Page Load Time

Rank	Site	Page Load Time	Remarks
1	Cleartrip.com	7 seconds	Page loads fast
2	Yatra.com	10 seconds	What is being searched is shown
3	Travelguru.com	11 seconds	No progress bar, no loading icon, though of closing the browser after few seconds but all in a sudden, the search result appeared!
4	Makemytrip.com	15 seconds	What is being searched is shown
5	Ezeego1.co.in	20 seconds	Blank screen for few seconds, no hint on the search

Search Result

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Makemytrip.com	Result displayed in a clear and easy to read format. Total fare and fare rules can be read without navigating away from the page. Next Day, Previous Day option is very useful when searching for lowest available fares.
2	Cleartrip.com	Return flight details also displayed, easy to plan your trip.
3	Yatra.com	Clean listing but needs to navigate away for some of the information.
4	Ezeego1.co.in	Options are less
5	Travelguru.com	No price breakup, no option to sort

Add-Ons

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Makemytrip.com	Guaranteed discounts on hotel booking; 10% Off on booking a cab; Reduce your carbon print(I like this!);
N/A	Ezeego1.co.in	None
N/A	Yatra.com	None.
N/A	Travelguru.com	None.
N/A	Cleartrip.com	None.

Optional Travel Insurance Package

Rank	Site	Remarks
1	Yatra.com	TATA AIG General Insurance Company Limited Rs.129/- per person Flight Delay Up to Rs. 1,500 for every 5 hours delay; Trip cancellation Up to Rs. 20,000 Cancellation charges; Accidental Death & Dismemberment Up to Rs 7,50,000 reimbursed; Medical Emergency Up to Rs. 5,00,000 reimbursed; Baggage Loss Up to Rs. 5,500 reimbursed
2	Makemytrip.com	Apollo Munich health Insurance Company Limited Rs.111/- per person Trip Cancellation Reimbursed up to Rs. 15,000; Accidental Injuries Reimbursed up to Rs. 100,000; Medical Emergencies Reimbursed up to Rs. 10,000 each; Checked-in Baggage loss Reimbursed up to Rs. 7,500 each.
3	Cleartrip.com	ICICI Lombard Rs.129/- per person Trip cancellation Reimbursed up to Rs. 20,000; Checked-In Baggage Loss Reimbursed up to Rs. 7,500; Flight delay Reimbursed up to Rs. 10,500; Medical Emergency Reimbursed up to Rs. 100,000
4	Ezeego1.co.in	ICICI Lombard Rs.99/- per person Get trip cancellation charges reimbursed; Baggage loss up to Rs. 7,500 reimbursed; Flight delay up to Rs. 1,500 reimbursed for every 6 hours delay
N/A	Travelguru.com	None.

Internet Presence

Back-Links

Rank	Site	Backlinks(Source: Yahoo)
1	Travelguru.com	5,90,248
2	Makemytrip.com	4,28,076
3	Ezeego1.co.in	1,64,774
4	Cleartrip.com	1,24,845
5	Yatra.com	69,230

Alexa Ranking

Rank	Site	Alexa Rank	Sites Linking In
1	Makemytrip.com	977	4,028
2	Cleartrip.com	1,446	1,959
3	Yatra.com	1,623	1,668
4	Ezeego1.co.in	21,506	910
5	Travelguru.com	23,010	666

Comparison - 6 Months Visitors trend

Continue reading...

---