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Do I support the breakup of companies for [fill in the blank for random political reason]? No.Do I want the government to correct this issue they helped create? You better damn well believe it!Why are open platforms referred to as “open”? The internet allows massive numbers of people to join together for various activities. Because of this, one of the core objectives of most internet based businesses is to attract massive numbers of people. Google wants you to make tons of searches through them. Facebook wants you to find everybody you ever knew through them. YouTube wants you to watch tons of videos through them.When the various media platforms were first developed, the idea was to make it as easy and satisfying as possible for you to upload content and share it with others. There was hardly any gatekeeping. Just post it, whatever it was, and as much as possible. That's a very “open” system.The result was amazing. People posted pictures of their favorite stuff and wrote about their favorite things. While much of this was perfectly legal, there was also massive postings of copyrighted and libelous material. Posting these types of materials is obviously not legal.The early history of media platforms involved a number of lawsuits to resolve these various legal issues. The law at the time did not treat these platforms any differently than any other publisher but these businesses used their circumstances to appeal to the court. After all, how could anybody monitor the massive amounts of materials being published every minute of the day? Some courts took this into account. Some courts said as publisher these businesses must be held accountable. This new way of doing things created a legal conundrum that really needed a new law to resolve, one way or the other.Along comes Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It resolved the issue by saying that open platforms will not be treated as publishers as long as they don't behave like publishers. They still have an obligation to stop illegal activities when those activities come to their attention. Otherwise, they should remain “open” as they have been in the past.But media platforms have now matured. Where there was little if any gatekeeping in the past, they have developed complex algorithms which can monitor what's happening on their site and make decisions based on whatever parameters are built into them. These algorithms are helping them be gatekeepers and in the process making them less “open”.This raises the question. If they are no longer open platforms, should they once again be held responsible as publishers? I think so and so do many others. The problem is that so far the courts are refusing to do so. If the courts won't weigh in, then the responsibility rests with the legislature to correct the problem.This brings us back to our original question: Do you support the US government breaking up Big Tech companies? As I already stated, I don't support this option but politically speaking it's likely to be the easiest for the legislature to implement. What I support is clarification of the existing law. Rewrite Section 230 to make it clear that what these platforms are doing now is wrong. If they continue to act like publishers, their protection from libel and copyright lawsuits will be waived. Then leave it up to these businesses to decide for themselves if they wish to defend their actions in a court of law.One final note. The full ranges of concerns with Google and others over search results manipulation and potential election tampering may not be addressable through clarification of Section 230. Additional legislation may be required. But frankly, if Google really thinks this acceptable behavior, by all means, break them up.Relaxed. Researched. Respectful. - War Elephant

The first and foremost thing that must be recognized is that Hindu Society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name. It was given by the Mohammedans to the natives for the purpose of distinguishing themselves. It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mohammedan invasion. They did not feel the necessity of a common name because they had no conception of their having constituted a community. Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. Each caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be all and end all of its existence. Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that it is affiliated to other castes except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other occasions each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other castes. Each caste not only dines among itself and marries among itself but each caste prescribes its own distinctive dress.- Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Annhilation of Caste (Page on columbia.edu)These words, written about 80 years ago, give a clue about why the caste system still persists and permeates the Indian society. Castes are like tribes, a marker of group-identity passed on from generation-to-generation. It is very hard to break this kind of identity, because it has caused a myriad of subcultures to be spawned, which rely on this identity.In India, it's no longer fashionable in the urban circles to use the word 'caste' because of its negative connotations, so the word 'community' is used instead. It's a very interesting word, because it describes the problem to those who have the eyes to see it. Over many generations, people have created communities based on caste, which gives them distinct cultural practices, support groups, stereotypes, cultural capital, access to resources and certain privileges.Let's take some examples to clarify what I mean. Let's talk about Bania viz a community based on the Vaishya caste. The stereotypes associated with it are1. Banias are clever2. They have good business sense3. They always think about moneyTheir social privilege is that whenever they want to set up a business, their community connections and positive stereotypes about business acumen help them in securing initial funding, loans, a line of credit, etc.Similarly, for Pandit i.e. Brahmin, the stereotypes are1. They are intellectual2. They are very conscious of physical cleanliness3. They have high moral valuesTheir social privilege is that since historically they were the class who were supposed to be the sole owners of knowledge, they were the ones who were employed by kings in powerful bureaucratic positions granting them much political leverage. Later when the British came, Brahmins were again preferred in those positions because of their administrative experience and higher level of education. The trend continued.Now, of course, with the gates of education open to everyone, and affirmative action programs in place, we have a more diverse bureaucracy, but the head-start still had significant impact, as we can see from this study based on data from 1985. It's a bit old, but this is the only one I could find with exact caste breakupSource: Page on isidev.nic.inEven relatively poorer sections of Brahmins are helped by positive stereotyping. For instance, they are the only caste who can become priests in temples even today. If they decide to open a shop, then customers visit their shops because 'Panditji' must have high moral standards to keep good quality stuff and not cheat customers. There is also a good demand for Brahmin cooks in many homes, not because they have a reputation for cooking delicious food, but because they have a reputation for being 'clean' and 'pure'. Who doesn't want their food being handled by the most clean people?I think this is sufficient to explain why caste is such a big force in Indian society even today: it comes with its privileges and a sense of belonging to a community, which also acts like a support system.In fact, if every caste respected each other, if there was no hierarchy of castes, if there was easy mobility and equitable distribution of resources amongst castes, and if certain castes were not oppressed, then no one would bother trying to break the caste system, since then caste would mean something positive for everyone.But it doesn't. It means something very negative for Dalits, which is a collective word for oppressed castes.Let's take an example of a Bhangi, viz a caste of people who have to manually clean other people's excrement. Not surprisingly, their stereotypes are that they are1. Dirty2. Impure3. Of low intelligenceThey don't really have any privilege in the caste system. Now they are not supposed to be discriminated against because of their caste, by law. But they cannot break into other traditional sectors either. If they try to open even a tea-stall, then no one from any higher caste will come to buy tea from him. If you ask them why, then they may not say it's because of the vendor's caste. But it's because the vendor, his shop and his food are not 'clean'.Even though they cannot be barred from education, they can be mistreated at schools by bigoted teachers, like these caseshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dalit-kids-cannot-use-school-loo-but-have-to-clean-them/articleshow/4699387.cmsFrom the article:"In Bihar, teachers complain to the Dalit parents that their children wear dirty clothes and they smell in the classrooms""During a school visit in Rajasthan, while asking who gets beaten up regularly and why, children immediately pointed out to a student. He was a Dalit""Teachers don't give proper attention to us. We have to sit on the ground. It's very difficult...The quality of food (mid-day meal) is also very poor. We also get very little food in lunch as we are served the last, our stomach does not fill" — a Dalit girl student in Bihar.As per the report, Dalit children in UP were also assigned menial caste-based tasks like cleaning the yard, filling up water buckets and cleaning the toilets. This led to other children treating them badly and considering them inferior.This is the great problem of caste: it persists because it means something very positive for the privileged sections of the Indian society. They have a real connection to their community, which keeps their caste-consciousness alive, whether they are aware of it or not. They are not interested in ending the caste system, because for some, their caste is a matter of pride and for others, they are so blind to their caste-privilege that they think caste is a non-issue in modern society.The only people who are interested in ending the caste-system are those who are negatively impacted by it, those who have felt it poison their lives. But they don't have enough political and social privilege to end it. Many of them are educated now and are trying to bring an end to it, but it's a long, uphill battle. I don't know how long it will take, but I don't see it happening soon.The process could speed up if the whole Indian society came together against the caste-system, but I don't see that happening any time soon either.

The form is not really that confusing. ITR 1 is actually quite simple. You only find it confusing because you are not aware of the terms used in Income tax parlance. Here is an answer I wrote previously on a similar question. I cannot link to it because for some reason Quora thought it was spam and deleted it (for the same reason I won't be including any links in my answer, you can take the help of Google for that).First of all, to file income tax return, you will need to have a PAN. Let us assume that you already have a PANTo file your income tax return yourself, the best way is to file it online.To do this, you need to register yourself on Income Tax India e-filing website. For registering you will need your PAN, an email ID and a mobile number apart from your personal details.The most basic thing you need to understand is the concept of financial year and assessment year.In India, for Tax purposes, a year starts in April of one year and ends in March of the next year. This is called a financial year. In Income tax terms, it is called Previous Year. So if you are filing the return for your income earned during April 2014 to March 2015, it will be called FY 2014-15 or PY 2014-15.The year following the financial year, is called Assessment Year. This is so because your income is "assessed" by the Income Tax department in the year after you actually earned your income. So if you are filing the return for your income earned during April 2014 to March 2015, it will be called AY 2015-16 because your income will be assessed during the year 2015-16.Now to actually filing your return.To file your income tax return, you need to know the following 3 things first:Your total incomeThe deductions you can claimThe tax that has already been paid by you by way of TDS and advance taxesLet us talk about these one by one.Your Total IncomeAccording to the income tax laws, your income is divided into 5 heads:Income from salary - This is the income you earn if you are employed. In the most basic sense, whatever money you receive from your employer is your salary income, no matter what it is called. But there are some allowances which are deductible, like transport allowance etc. You will receive form 16 from your employer. You can determine how much of your salary is taxable from form 16.Income from House property - This head includes rental income from houses. Keep in mind, income on sale of house is not included here, only rental income. You get a standard deduction of 30% on your rental income.Income from Business or Profession - if you are carrying on your own business or you are a professional, your income will fall under this head. Any business expense can be claimed as deduction from your revenue.Capital Gains - Income of sale of capital asset is included here. Capital asset includes property, gold, equity shares, bonds, mutual funds etc. It does not include personal movable assets like furniture, car etc.Income from other sources - Any income not included in above heads is reported here. This specifically includes interest income on your bank or corporate deposits and dividend income from unlisted companies. Any commission or tuition income you may earn can also be included here. Keep in mind that interest from your Savings account in the bank is not taxable upto Rs. 10,000After listing all your incomes as above, you total them. This, in Income Tax terms, is called Gross Total Income or GTI.Since you are salaried employee and are filing your returns for the first time, chances are, you will only have salary income and interest income. So you do not need to worry about heads 2, 3 and 4. You can simply ignore them for now.Deductions you can claimTo encourage investments and financial planning, the government offers various deductions. These are listed in Chapter VI A of the Income Tax Act.This is what sec 80C, 80D etc. are. These sections list the deductible investments. You can find an excellent summary of Chapter VI A on Taxguru. Just Google for the term "income tax deductions for salaried taxguru"For simplicity, I will give you a list here which is most likely to be applicable for you (I still encourage you to go through Tax Guru).1. 80C - This section contains, among other thingsPF - Your contribution to Employee's provident fund which is generally deducted from your salary by the employerLife insurance premium - If you have life insurance and you pay any premium for it, you can get deduction for it under this sectionPPF - If you have a Public Provident Fund account, the amount you contribute to it can be deducted in this section2. 80D - Medical Insurance premium - If you have medical insurance for yourself or your parents, you can deduct the premium paid from your income under this section3. 80E - If you have education loan, the amount you pay towards interest can be claimed as deduction under this section. Keep in mind, you cannot deduct the whole installment, just the interest portion. Your bank statement will give you the breakup.4. 80G - If you have made a donation to any registered charitable trust or NGO, you can claim it as deduction here. Your donation certificate will specifically say if the donation is deductible for Income tax purpose.Once you know your deductions, list them out and total them. Deduct this from your GTI. This gives you, what is called in Income Tax terms, your Total Income.The Tax that has Already Been Paid by YouTo prevent non-payment of income tax by assessees, govt has put in place Tax Deduction at Source provisions. This means, the person responsible for paying your income is supposed to deduct tax from the income and deposit it with your government.If you are a salaried employee, your employer must be deducting taxes from your salary. If you have bank deposits and your interest for a year exceeds Rs. 10,000 (in one bank), then the bank will deduct tax on your interest income. If you earn commission or provide any service to businesses, TDS will be deducted from your income on these.The easiest way to know what TDS has been deducted on your account, is to see your form 26AS. There are 3 ways to see view form 26AS:TRACES website - Just search for Income Tax traces. You will have to register here separately. It's a bit complicated, so best avoid thisRegister on efiling website (link at the top). You can see form 26AS from thereIf you have internet banking account and your PAN is linked with your bank account, you can view form 26AS from there. This is the easiest way, if possibleIf any tax has been deducted, download your form 26AS in PDF format so that it is readily available for reference.Now you are all set to file your return. Login to the e-filing website. It will ask to confirm your email ID and phone number. Just follow the instructions.On the left hand side, under quick links, click on Quick e-File ITR link. Fill out the form with all the details. This option can only be used if you are an individual with only salary and interest income. Some fields will already be filled. Just verify that the details in those fields are correct. When you are done filling out the form, save it. Now go through it once again and verify that all the details are correct.When done, submit the form. Your return is filed. However, there's just one more step. You will receive an acknowledgement of the return in your email. This is called ITR V. Print out this acknowledgement, put your signature in the space provided and mail it to the given address.Here's a video by the income tax department to help you out with the return filing process:There are a lot of other videos too which you can refer. Just search for it.