Rule 592: Fill & Download for Free

Let me explain the difference between bribe and gift from an experience. I know of an IPS officer (now retired) who had a very innovative style of accepting gifts while at the same time remaining within rules. At the time of his wedding anniversary, his birthday, his kids’ birthdays, etc., he would show small gifts of Rs. 200 to Rs. 500 each from many individuals and then submit a report to the Government about receipt of such gifts in the form of a list. If I remember correctly at that time the maximum amount of gift that could be accepted by an IPS officer was Rs. 500.So, here is how he would do it. Let us say – today is his birthday. He would show that 200 guests / family friends / relatives gave him gifts ranging from Rs. 200 to Rs. 500 each. He would prepare a list of all these names and would submit this information to the Government as required under the rules. Suppose the average gift is Rs. 300, this means a total gift of Rs. 60,000 on one birthday. There were 4-5 such occasions in a year. On each such occasion, he would show receipt of gifts similarly. So, in a year, he could get total gifts amounting to Rs. 300,000 or so. Remember, in those days, the monthly salary for an IPS officer at his level was only about Rs. 4000 or so. So, a total gift of Rs. 300,000 a year would amount to salary equivalent of 75 months! And, he was still within rules!!Let me tell you frankly. I often used to wonder as to why did he not show the expenditure on the birthday party. Moreover, there is usually a custom of return gift on such occasions. What happened to that? Further, if you gift me something on my birthday, then generally speaking I would also gift you something equivalent on your birthday. But, as far as my information goes, that particular officer used to show mostly income side of the gifts only and did not show the reverse or expenditure side, otherwise the sum total would have been almost zero or might even have been negative. People used to say that he was adjusting his corruption income as a lawful income taking advantage of loopholes in the rules. Will come to the rules a little later.A somewhat similar method was later used by the BSP leader and former UP Chief Minister Mayawati. As per this media report:“According to a disproportionate assets case against Mayawati, she and her relatives were found to be in possession of 72 immovable properties, besides Rs 13 crore. But the chief minister has been insisting that she had acquired them through small donations.”You can read some more details about the disproportionate assets case filed by CBI against Mayawati at this link, as per which the CBI had claimed in 2007 that her assets had increased by Rs. 50 crore.So, Mayawati’s defence to the case of disproportionate assets [which is registered under Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988] was that she had acquired crores of rupees not through corruption but through small donations, which the High Court held that were tax-exempt.Divide your ill-acquired money into small amounts while disclosing to authorities since each such small amount would be within rules. Even if the authorities can smell something wrong, they are willing to accommodate you for obvious reasons.You would have seen from these two examples the difference between bribe and gift. Bribe is punishable under law, while gift is not.Now, let me throw some more light on difference between the two.Under the relevant Conduct Rules, every Government servant is allowed to accept gifts on traditional occasions (such as wedding, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) up to a certain maximum limit.For example, under Rule 13 of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, on occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, funerals or religious functions, when the making of gift is in conformity with the prevailing religious and social practice, a Group ‘A’ Government servant may accept gifts from his near relatives or from his personal friends having no official dealings with him, but he shall make a report to the Government if the value of such gift exceeds Rs. 25,000. In any other case, such Group ‘A’ Government servant cannot accept any gift without the sanction (i.e., permission) of the Government if the value thereof exceeds Rs. 1500, which means that up to this limit of Rs. 1500, such Government servant can accept gifts from other persons also, without any permission from the Government.A Group ‘A’ Government servant was previously known as Class I Government servant. So, any person joining IRS (for example) would be Group ‘A’ servant; they are equivalent to IAS / IPS officers (who have different, but similar, rules).Thus, if you are accepting a gift within the limits mentioned above, such gift is permissible. Even if you violate these conditions and accept a gift beyond these limits, it may either be merely a case for disciplinary action, or it may also amount to a corruption case, depending on the facts.Now, what is bribe? It is basically any gratification (to simplify, you can call it any “money”) other than your legal remuneration which is accepted by a public servant as a motive or as a reward for doing some official favour or for having done some official favour, etc. The definition is very long, but I have cut it short to put it in simple words. You can read Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for this purpose.In fact, Section 11 of the PC Act goes a little farther. Any valuable thing obtained by a public servant without consideration or with inadequate consideration from any person having official dealings may also be punishable. Here, there is no need for any specific official favour being shown for the receipt of that amount. Mere official dealings may be sufficient. Again, I have simplified this section leaving out more details. For example, if you take a house on rent for an amount of Rs. 10,000 when its market rent is Rs. 50,000 from a person with whom you have official dealings or likely to have official dealings, then Section 11 offence is made out.Thus, even a gift may also amount to a bribe if it is accepted as a motive or as a reward for doing some official favour or for having done some official favour, etc. Similarly, a gift may amount to an offence under Section 11 of the PC Act if it is from a person having official dealings with such public servant.You may notice that the borderline between gift and bribe is basically taking money from someone having official dealings, or from someone as a motive or reward for some official favour shown to him. So, there may be a thin line between gift and bribe.While giving this answer, I have tried to simplify things and have tried to explain the things without going into too many technical details. Since I am the author of a detailed 2250 pages book on Prevention of Corruption Act [Prevention of Corruption Act, Second Edition (2009), appx. 2250 pages, published by LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa, New Delhi (ISBN: 978-81-8038-592-6)], many such concepts are explained in that book in more accurate manner. What I have mentioned above is simple a answer in lay person’s language.

Your flight is longer than a direct flight because they have to stick close to airports along the way. You won’t notice, but a rule called ‘ETOPS’ means that certain aircraft have to stay within a certain distance from a suitable airport at all times. It doesn’t make much of a difference though, usually ETOPS is around 180 minutes, or up to 370 minutes away from an airport.They also have a longer flight distance because they fly along ‘highways.’ This is because aircraft fly along a certain route, with ‘waypoints’ connecting them. A waypoint is a digital point on the Earth’s surface that is used to plan a route through.Qantas offers flights from Los Angeles to New York. It’s part of the Brisbane to New York flight and they can sell tickets for any Australian segment of the flight (Brisbane to New York, Brisbane to Los Angeles, etc.) Numerous other airlines do this too, such as the Cathay Pacific flight from Cairns to Brisbane. As Guy David pointed out, the airline cannot sell tickets for flights that are between two points in the same foreign country. This means that for QF15, no new people get on the plane to go to New York.You have no idea how safe you are. I know that plane looks like it narrowly avoided smashing into your window, but rest assured that it was over 1,000 feet (300 metres) away.Please don’t clap when you land. There’s a good chance the pilot pressed the ‘autoland’ button and did not touch anything after that. Even if the pilot landed the plane, they’re trained to do so and it’s not a miracle that you made it safely.The pilots are probably sleeping above your head. On certain aircraft like the Airbus A350 or Boeing 777, the crew rest area is in the space above the main cabin. You most likely won’t notice it’s there, and that’s the point. I’d rather swim in a shark tank than talk to a tired pilot.Planes crash way less than you think. Everyone freaks out when a plane crashes, but that’s because it’s a) very bad and b) very rare. In fact, if you’ve read this far into my answer, a good 400 passenger planes have already taken off. And when was the last time you saw a Qantas or Singapore Airlines plane crash? The last plane I saw crash was because of the trashy maintenance of an Asian budget airline. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a Delta or a Lufthansa plane crash.There’s more in your plane than you think. While you might assume that a passenger plane carries passengers, it actually has a lot more. Airlines often sell valuable cargo space (in the compartments under the main cabin) to earn more money per flight. After all, why send half a truck full of goods on the same trip that a SouthWest Airlines flight does 5 times a day? This can backfire though: ValuJet 592 blew up because they tried to transport explosives in the cargo hold.Not every sound you hear is bad. Whether it sounds like a dog barking, a robot mating ritual, or a bunch of tin cans tied to a car, those are supposed to happen. Numerous flight systems can be quite noisy (especially on a European aircraft), and we have a lot of systems to care for from flaps to bleed air.Your plane doesn't have as much fuel as you’d expect. A heavier plane uses more fuel, so usually an airline will fill the plane with just enough fuel to reach their destination (plus some extra fuel for safety). You won’t notice the difference.Hope this helps!Update: nice.

Q: What is the history of Zoroastrianism in China?Thank you for this question about Zoroastrianism in China, or the religion Hsien-Chiao (“Worship of the Heavenly One”) of the Prophet Suluzhi (Zarathushtra) as it was known in China.It seems that the first Zoroastrians, Sogdians, established Zoroastrian colonies in China during the early 4th century CE, although trade contacts between Iranians and Chinese existed even earlier. During the 6th century CE Zoroastrianism became an officialy recognized religion in the northern China. The first Zoroastrian temples for Sogdians were established (only few) and Zoroastrian elders, called “sapao” (or “sabao”, from Sogdian “sartpaw”, originally meaning “caravan leader”), were recognized as the official representatives of the Zoroastrian religious communities in China, and therefore got a special rank in the Chinese administrative system. The community was closed, and the native Chinese population was relatively uninfluenced by them.Persian plate with a hunting scene, 501 CE, from tomb of Feng Hetu at Xiaozhan village in Datong, Shanxi, China (Responses to Chaos: Art, Religion and Literature in Six Dynasties China (221 to 581 CE)Sogdians depicted on a Chinese Sogdian sarcophagus, 550–577 CECarved panel from the tomb of Sogdian Zoroastrian elder (sapao) known as Yu Hong, 592 CE, Wangguo village in Taiyuan, China (Responses to Chaos: Art, Religion and Literature in Six Dynasties China (221 to 581 CE)Carved panel from the tomb of Sogdian Zoroastrian elder (sapao) known as Yu Hong, 592 CE, Wangguo village in Taiyuan, China (Responses to Chaos: Art, Religion and Literature in Six Dynasties China (221 to 581 CE)The number and importance of Zoroastrians in China much increased after the Arab conquest of Persia, when the Persian heir of the throne, prince Peroz, came to China to ask for help with fighting against Arabs, together with his retinue and certain Persian nobles, Persian Zoroastrian priests (known as “muhu” in Chinese, i. e. “moghs / magi”) and others. His hope for regaining the rule over Iranian lands never came true, however, he and all who came with him got an asylum in China and were treated with respect, so they remained there. Many new Zoroastrian communities and temples emerged with these newcomers.“Yazdegird III’s sons fled east to China, where they remained. The heir apparent, Peroz, along with many Sasanian nobles, was granted refuge by the Tang dynasty, which recognized him as the rightful king of Iran. He ruled the Persian satellite state in the Zarang region between 658–663 CE, but died in the Chinese capital in 679 CE, where his royal status is acknowledged by on his statue standing outside the Tang emperor’s tomb. Both Sasanian and Sogdian Zoroastrian merchants had been traveling to China for centuries, along trade paths established during Parthian period, but it is not until the seventh century that Chinese records describe the construction of fire temples in the northern cities of Langzhou, Chang’An and Loyang. [1]”Statues before the tomb of Tang emperor Gaozong. One of the them bears an inscription “Peroz, King of Iran, crowned in Tang dynasty court: Commander-in-chief of Iranian Army, Martial General of the Right [Flank] Guards, Awe-inspiring General of the Left [Flank] Guards.”8th century Chinese statue of a man with a Sogdian cap and a Zoroastrian priestly face veil (compared with a modern Zoroastrian priest)9th century Sogdian Zoroastrian manuscript containg a citation from the Avestan texts, (Ashem Vohu prayer), found among Buddhist sacred texts in the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas, Dunhuang, ChinaQuite great Chinese tolerance to strangers firstly started to significantly decrease due to the so-called An Lushan Rebellion (755–763 CE), which was led by the general An Lushan of Göktürk ethnicity, and which made a terrible blow to the Tang dynasty. It is believed that a wave of Chinese dislike to strangers which came as the consequence made some Zoroastrians of China to intermarry with native Chinese to descrease their strangerhood. This often led to increasing merging of their Zoroastrianism with traditional Chinese religious traditions.The decision to annihilate non-Chinese religions which emerged during Huichang period (841–846 CE), and which originally tried to primarily ruin Buddhist traditions, but eventually turned against Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism and Assyrian Christianity too, was more or less a fatal blow for all these religions, although it didn’t destroy them immediately. Zoroastrian “Church” of China never recovered, and though Zoroastrianism of some kind existed in certain way for even a few more centuries, it became more and more merging with native Chinese religions, until it disappeared eventually.Depiction of Zoroastrian funerary rituals in ChinaQuotation from:Rose, Jenny: Zoroastrianism: An Introduction, p. 134.