I believe the rates for NRE accounts are lower so that interest rate arbitrage is not attractive ( which is what I guess u were planning ).. but NRO taxability may not be a problem depending on how much interest u/ur wife may earn in that year..

Is there a minimum income level required to pay tax?

ranges from INR 1,60,000 to INR 2,40,000 depending on age and gender..refer to below for more details..
http://financeminister.in/Income-tax-slab-2010-2011

I was under the impression that Indian issued debit cards will not work in abroad. However my wife has an ICICI acct opened thru work in India and we were recently able to withdraw money using it. Has something changed?

India based FTers, do you use your debit cards abroad?

[QUOTE=UA Fan;15681808]I was under the impression that Indian issued debit cards will not work in abroad. However my wife has an ICICI acct opened thru work in India and we were recently able to withdraw money using it. Has something changed?

India based FTers, do you use your debit cards abroad?[/QUOTE]

yup, I frequently use my ICICI bank debit card abroad and without any problems..
Indian debit cards and credit cards are mostly international unless clearly mentioned that valid for India and Nepal only AFAIK..

I don't remember seeing any of those since the late 90s anyway.

Indian bank cards are easy to use anywhere in the world in my experience. I've used them everywhere from New Zealand to Iceland to Namibia.

Same.

Every Indian resident is given an allowance of approx. $100k every year to allow them to "buy" foreign exchange, and that amount keeps going up, as the economy is liberalized.

Now, each card usually has either a MC or Visa affiliation, which allows it to connect to the international ATM network/s to withdraw cash - this is usually on the front, as is on most foreign ones...

Anyone see the last two matches? Unbelievable. Sat was pure luck, not sure about today. They better not leave Pathan out again.

great games....

they cannot leave pathan out since they don't have another batsman for this tour....but i don't know how they are going to fit him in the playing 11 during the world cup....

They better find a way. Since he can bowl a bit, I'd say put him in a bowler's slot. Or even put him in place of Yuvraj. He isn't even in great form. Excluding an aggressive batsman like him is an injustice.

What about the, sort of, opposite? I have a couple of prepaid forex cards in GBP and in USD issued by HDFC in India, obviously for use outside India, and they took the business quota declarartion etc before issuing the forex card. If I wanted, could I just go to an ATM in Delhi and withdraw rupees from that card (and if I withdraw say INR 7k, the card balance gets reduced by 100 GBP etc.)?

I dont think u can use that in India..

I have a fcy travel card given by my company issued by Axis bank and with that I cannot withdraw in any ATM in India.. It does not work in India and works only abroad..

Darn! That is what I had feared. Oh well, I'll just use them next time I am out of India and i actually remember to carry them with me!

I'm assuming these cards and the prepaid funds wouldn't expire or get blocked in some dormancy-lock (at least for a while!) as I can't see any expiration date on the card...

the one I have doesnt get locked or dormant.. BUT as urs is from another bank, guess its always better to call. i checked the faq's here but while it says about no withdrawls in India, Nepal and Bhutan it said nothing about dormacy ....
http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/car...forex_faqs.htm..

yuvraj is actually in good form & scored a vital 50 in the second game....he is also taking wickets regularly....

the playing 11 in all probability will be:

sachin, sehwag, gambhir, kohli, yuvraj, raina, dhoni, harbajan, praveen, zaheer, munaf/chawla/ashwin....

if they decide to go with 3 medium pacers then munaf will play....if they go with a second spinner then it will be either chawla or ashwin....