10 Things To Remember on new debit card PIN rule

  Payment through cards has become increasingly popular in India. To maintain security and keep up with the changing times, the Reserve Bank of India has mandated debit card holders to punch in their PIN numbers during every transaction from December 1.

Here are some things you need to know about debit card usage:

1) The RBI rule was first enforced in June 2013 to act as an additional layer of security in transactions. However, banks had requested for some time to update the back-end infrastructure. The RBI had then extended the deadline to November 30.

2) As part of the rule, customers will now to have punch in the PIN number after the card has been swiped or inserted in the small point-of-sales (PoS) terminal. This is the small machine that shops and merchants use for the payment. Once the PIN has been entered, you will get the transaction charge slip, which has to be signed.

3) If the PoS terminal is not updated to ask for PIN, and the transaction proceeds without it, then the bank will decline the transaction.

4) The PIN being used here is the same that a customer uses at an ATM or Automated Teller Machine to withdraw money. Do not get confused with the ‘transaction password’ used for online banking.

5) You will get only three chances at punching the right PIN number. After that, your transaction will automatically be cancelled. If you manage to remember your PIN number after three attempts, you can still use your debit card. However, the transaction will have to be started all over again from scratch.

6) If you have forgotten your PIN number, call your bank to order for a duplicate PIN number. You will, however, have to verify your personal details like address, email id, date of birth, etc., for security purposes. This will be posted to your address within 7-10 working days.

7) This rule is mainly for debit cards being used for physical transactions only. There is no change in the way internet transactions are undertaken. The rules for credit cards too remain unchanged.

8) This is part of the measures undertaken to deal with frauds and security breaches. Other measures include addition of an Europay, MasterCard or Visa chip on the card, establishment of real-time fraud monitoring system, limit on transactions, immediate notifications, etc.

9) There are over 36 crore debit cards being used in India to conduct as many as 5.54 crore merchandise transactions per month amounting to Rs 8,017.86 crore. There are as many as 52 crore transactions being conducted using ATMs in a month, as per the latest RBI data.

10) In contrast, there are 1.8 million credit cards in use. The total number of transactions being conducted at PoS counters too is less at 4.14 crore. However, the total value of transactions is higher than that for debit cards at Rs 10,748 crore.

Source: Simplus Information Services | Yahoo Finance India

Amazing Facts About the Human Body!

How long does a human hair live for? What's the strongest muscle in the body? These questions and many other bizarre quandaries will be answered in this extra fascinating list of  amazing facts about our body.

1. The brain is more active at night than during the day. Scientists don't know yet why this is.

2. The higher your IQ, the more you supposedly dream.

3. Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body.

4. The nail on the middle finger grows faster than the other fingernails.

5. Fingernails grow nearly four times faster than toe nails.

6. The lifespan of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average.

7. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve zinc. It doesn't destroy the stomach because because the stomach walls constantly renews itself.

8. Women's hearts beat faster than men's.


9. Women blink twice as many times as men do.

10. Women are born better smellers than men and remain better smellers over life.

11. Men burn fat faster than women by a rate of about 50 calories a day.

12. Men get hiccups more often than women.

13. A man has approximately 6.8 litres of blood in the body while women have approximately 5 litres.

14. The largest cell in the body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm.

15. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.

16. Babies are always born with blue eyes. The melanin in their eyes needs time to be fully deposited or to be darkened by ultraviolet light to reveal the baby's true eye color.

17. After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.

18. If your saliva cannot dissolve or mix with food, you will not be able to taste that food (try tasting something after drying off your tongue)

19. Noise causes the pupils of your eyes to dilate. Even very small noises can do this.

20. Everyone has a unique smell, unique finger print and unique tongue print.

21. By age 60, most people will have lost half their taste buds.

22. Your eyes remain the same size after birth but your nose and ears never stop growing.

23. A simple, moderately severe sunburn burns the blood vessels extensively.

24. We are about 1cm taller in the mornings than in the evenings.

25. The strongest muscle in the body is the human tongue.

26. The hardest bone in the human body is the jaw bone.

27. The hands and feet contains almost half of the total bones in the human body.

28. About 32 million bacteria call every inch of your skin home, but they are mostly harmless and some of them are even helpful.

20. Humans shed and regrow outer skin every 27 days.

30. Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute and everyday and adult produces 300 billion new cells.

31. The colder the room you sleep, the higher the chances are that you would get a nightmare.

32. Humans are the only species that produce emotional tears.


33. All babies are color blind at birth, they see only black and white.

34. The only part of your body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It gets its oxygen directly from air.

35. A normal human being can survive 20 days without eating but can survive only 2 days without drinking.

36. It is impossible to kill yourself by choking yourself with your hands.

37. Everybody has one strong eye and one weak eye.

38. Your skeleton keeps renewing itself every ten years which means that every ten years you get a new skeleton.

39.. The human feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day.

40. There are 2.5 trillion (give or take) of red blood cells in your body at any moment. To maintain this number, about two and a half million new ones need to be produced every second by your bone marrow.That's like a new population of the city of Toronto every second.

DEMENTIA - TIPS TO DELAY OR AVOID

 

Most of us start worrying about dementia after retirement - and that may be too little, too late. Experts say that if you really want to ward off dementia, you need to start taking care of your brain in your 30s and 40s - or even earlier.     "More and more research is suggesting that lifestyle is very important to your brain's health," says Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a neuropsychologist and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "If you want to live a long, healthy life, then many of us need to start as early as we can."      So what can you do to beef up your brain - and possibly ward off dementia?  Nussbaum, who recently gave a speech on the topic for the Winter Park (Fla.) Health Foundation, offers 20 tips that may help.     1. Join clubs or organizations that need volunteers.  If you start  volunteering now, you won't feel lost and unneeded after you retire.     2. Develop a hobby or two.  Hobbies help you develop a robust brain because you're trying something new and complex.     3. Practise writing with your non-dominant hand several minutes everyday.  This will exercise the opposite side of your brain and fire up those neurons.     4. Take dance lessons. In a study of nearly 500 people, dancing was the only regular physical activity associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.  The people who danced three or four times a week showed 76 percent less incidence of dementia than those who danced only once a week or not at all.     5. Need a hobby? Start gardening.  Researchers in New Zealand found that, of 1,000 people, those who gardened regularly were less likely to suffer from dementia!  Not only does gardening reduce stress, but gardeners use their brains to plan gardens; they use visual and spatial reasoning to lay out a garden.     6. Buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day.  Walking daily can reduce the risk of dementia because cardiovascular health is important to maintain blood flow to the brain.     7. Read and write daily. Reading stimulates a wide variety of brain areas that process and store information.  Likewise, writing (not copying) stimulates many areas of the brain as well.     8. Start knitting. Using both hands works both sides of your brain.  And it's a stress reducer.     9. Learn a new language. Whether it's a foreign language or sign language,you are working your brain by making it go back and forth between one language and the other.  A researcher in England found that being bilingual seemed to delay symptoms of Alzheimer's disease for four years.  And some research suggests that the earlier a child learns sign language, the higher his IQ - and people with high IQs are less likely to have dementia. So start them early.     10. Play board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly.  Not only are you taxing your brain, you're socializing too.  Playing solo games, such as solitaire or online computer brain games can be helpful, but Nussbaum prefers games that encourage you to socialize too.     11. Take classes throughout your lifetime.  Learning produces structural and chemical changes in the brain, and education appears to help people live longer.  Brain researchers have found that people with advanced degrees live longer - and if they do have Alzheimer's, it often becomes apparent only in the very later stages of the disease.     12. Listen to classical music.  A growing volume of research suggests that music may hard wire the brain, building links between the two hemispheres. Any kind of music may work, but there's some research thatshows positive effects for classical music, though researchers don't understand why.     13. Learn a musical instrument. It may be harder than it was when you were a kid, but you'll be developing a dormant part of your brain.     14. Travel. When you travel (whether it's to a distant vacation spot or on a different route across town), you're forcing your brain to navigate a new and complex environment.  A study of London taxi drivers found experienced drivers had larger brains because they have to store lots of information about locations and how to navigate there.     15. Pray. Daily prayer appears to help your immune system.  And people who attend a formal worship service regularly live longer and report happier, healthier lives.     16. Learn to meditate.  It's important for your brain that you learn to shut out the stresses of everyday life.     17. Get enough sleep. Studies have shown a link between interrupted sleep and dementia.     18. Eat more foods containing Omega-3 fatty acids: Salmon, sardines, tuna, ocean trout, mackerel or herring, plus walnuts (which are higher in omega 3s than salmon) and flaxseed. Flaxseed oil, cod liver oil and walnut oil are good sources too.     19. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables mop up some of the damage caused by free radicals, one of the leading killers of brain cells.     20. Eat at least one meal a day with family and friends.  You'll slow down, socialize, and research shows you'll eat healthier food than if you ate alone or on the go