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DO NOT TAKE ANY RISK
2008-03-07 16:38:00
Fateh Lal Bapu is dead. His baithak near the Shreenathji temple in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, has also wound up. The younger generation, be it devotees or residents, have no clue of the bloody scenes this temple town witnessed in 1987. It all began when Ganesh Lal Mali, a former MP, escorted Keyur Bhusan of the Akhil Bharatiya Harijan Sevak Sangh for Darshan at the Vaishnav temple. Later, as they sat and sipped tea at Bapu’s baithak, a crowd swelled and demanded that Bhusan be handed over. His sin: being a lower caste, his entry had polluted the house of the Vaishnav Lord. Bapu swore to protect his ‘guest’ with his life. While threatening to set his baithak on fire, a mob tore Mali’s clothes and nearly killed Bhusan. Bhagwati Prasad Deopura is among the few who witnessed the bloody caste battle. He rewinds 20 years and he spits venom, blaming ‘outsiders‘ for ‘disturbing the peace’ in Nathdwara. In other words, for making Dalits aware of th...
More About: Culture , Risk

RAILWAYS IN BIND OVER PRIVATISATION
2008-03-07 14:19:00
Riding high on the turnaround story of the country’s once-ailing train system, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad finds himself in a bind days before he presents his fourth budget. Should he further privatise the Railways and compromise his commitment to social justice or provide more jobs to those who belong to the lowest strata of the society? The mammoth Indian Railways, which runs the world’s second-biggest network, employed 17 lakh people five years ago when it ran 11,000 trains. The train count has risen to about 15,000, but the number of employees has fallen to about 14 lakh since Lalu took over, said Shiv Gopal Mishra of the All India Railway Men Association (AIRF). He said the trend towards privatization threatened to destroy the system of accountability built up over decades. An estimated 1.8 lakh positions, including 22,000 reserved category jobs, are vacant in the railway. The ministry has surrendered hundreds of other jobs. “When there are n...
More About: Culture , Finance , Privatisation

SAY NO TO NEXT NANDIGRAM
2008-03-07 14:16:00
Two important Bills pending in Parliament seek to amend the Land Acquisition (LA) Act, and to give statutory authority for the first time to the rehabilitation and resettlement (RR) policy, itself revised on the basis of experience since the first RR policy of 2004. Will these twin Bills succeed in staving off further Nandigram s by securing greater justice for farmers and other displaced persons, while expediting at the same time the land acquisition of land for development projects? The two Bills contain several far-reaching improvements. They broaden the definition of persons whose rights must be considered when land is being acquired, to include tenants, formal and informal, and to tribals with traditional rights over forest land. They require social impact assessments to be carried out according to procedures laid down in the new RR Act, which provides for consultation with the project affected families themselves, leading to the preparation of a transparent, pu...
More About: Culture

POLITICAL PARTIES MUST PRICE TO THE OCCASION
2008-03-07 14:13:00
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s job is not exactly easy - and it shows in the way he has to resist all sorts of pressures while he strives to achieve what could be termed as the nearly impossible trinity of fiscal control, reasonable inflation and high economic growth. The government’s decision this week to increase the retail prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2 and Re 1 per litre respectively is expected to reduce the revenue loss of public sector petroleum marketing companies by Rs 840 crore in the remaining six weeks of the current fiscal year. That is minuscule compared with the overall figure for the year, estimated at Rs 71,800 crore. The government has been time and again issuing bonds to these companies in its I-owe-you mode to effectively subsidise petroleum prices. Though originally intended to keep kerosene prices affordable for the poor, the wholesale subsidisation of petrol and diesel has made the whole thing a freebie even for affluent secti...
More About: Finance , Political , Parties , Price , Political Parties

THIS IS WHAT THE ICONS EXPECT
2008-03-06 16:18:00
Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and P.T Usha know what it takes to make an Olympics memorable. All three have experienced the ecstasy of reaching the finals and the agony of narrowly missing a coveted Olympic medal.     ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh missed the bronze in the 400m sprint in the 1960 Rome Olympics, losing by one-tenth of a second. Four years later Randhawa reached the finals of the 110m hurdles. In 1984, at the Los Angeles Games, Usha lost the bronze medal in 400m hurdles by 1/100th of a second. As India prepares for the Beijing Olympics, these legends analyze the performance of the current lot. All three have modest expectations. G.S. Randhawa said, ?I don’t expect any medals from the Indians considering their recent performances but I think some of them would reach the finals if they manage to improve their current best performances. Long jumper Anju Bobby George has recently crossed 6.60m but I don’t think anything below 7m would do....
More About: Culture , Icons , Expect

DO THEY HAVE A CAUSE?
2008-03-05 17:32:00
In the world of petty politics that involves seeking out grievances where there are none, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has touched a new low. Members of this agit-prop brigade went about ransacking and damaging Delhi University’s Department of History. All this, in the presence of police personnel and media persons. And what was the cause of their incredible outrage? The inclusion of an essay by the late Padmashri scholar, A.K. Ramanujan, ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’, in the recommended reading list for second year History BA Honors students. Ramahujan’s essay is part of a unit called ‘The Ramayana and Mahabharata: Stories, Characters, Versions’ - that includes supplementary readings like the detailed and scholarly introduction by Robert P. Goldman to the Valmiki Ramayana. All this still doesn’t explain why the ABVP goons went on a rampage in one of the country’s most pre...
More About: Culture

EXTERNAL BORROWING TO BE RELAXED FOR PRIVATE PLAYERS
2008-03-04 18:39:00
The government is trying to work out various innovative funding options, including relaxing commercial borrowing (ECB) norms, to fund infrastructure projects. Sources indicated that with domestic interest rates remaining on the higher side, the government might relax ECB norms to make infrastructure projects more attractive to the private developer. Funds can be raised through the ECB route from various sources including from overseas commercial banks, multilateral financial institutions as well as export credit agencies.   Liberalizing the end use of ECB will help construction companies raise cheaper finances. India would need an estimated $500 billion over the 5 years for the infrastructure sector. The government feels that lack of credible and bankable infrastructure projects along with absence of long-term financing instruments as the major weaknesses affecting the growth of the infrastructure sector in the country. “ECB scores over FDI in the above regard, as Indian...
More About: Culture , Players , Private , External , Borrowing

FAITH FORWARD
2008-03-04 18:29:00
For decades now, moderate Islamists have spared no effort to convince the world that Islam and violence are incompatible. But so far, they have been preaching to the converted. After 9/11, Islam has come to be viewed with greater hostility than ever before, in great measure helped by acts of terrorism across the world in the name of the great religion. So it has come as a breath of much-needed fresh air that the influential Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, long known for its hard line stand, has come out in no uncertain terms against the outrages being committed in the name of Islam. Its rector Maulana Marghoobur Rahman has said, “Killing of innocents is not compatible with Islam. It is anti-Islamic.” This is the first time that a religious institution has so strongly condemned violence in the name of Islam.   Hopefully, the seminary’s statements will reverse the trend of equating Islam with the misguided actions of fanatics. Coming as it does from scholars a...
More About: Faith , Religions , Forward

Will infra sharing lower telecom tariff?
2008-03-04 14:34:00
The Indian telecom sector, consistently adding more than seven million monthly subscribers, is well on its way to reaching the 500-million subscriber mark by the end of the decade. To maintain the pace of this booming growth, operators need to invest towards network expansion and improved coverage in an effort to acquire newer subscribers. According to the Indian regulator, the country in order to reach its targets would need over 300,000 telecom towers, which is almost twice as many as those that exist today. However, such proportions of network roll-outs translate into huge expenditures on part of the operators, who have come together to realise that the biggest way of reducing costs is by way of sharing passive infrastructure components. This not only immediately brings down capital and operating expenditures but also positively impacts their margins. The effects of sharing can be further highlighted by the fact that roughly two-thirds of the incremental subscriber acquisition c...
More About: Finance , Telecom , Lower , Sharing

IS TAX RATE RISING FOR INDIA INC?
2008-03-03 18:22:00
Around 3.5 lakh companies in the country hope to lower their tax burden in the next financial year. The prevailing corporate tax rate is 33.99% and the companies expect the government to scrap the surcharge or lower the basic rate of 30%. The buoyancy in corporate tax revenues may bolster their case for a rate cut. But what is the effective tax paid by India Inc? Effective tax is taken as the ratio of tax amount disclosed by a firm in its financial statement to profit before tax. Factoring in all the exemptions, a large number of companies have paid around Rs 24 as tax on a profit of Rs 100 till December 2007. This is based on an analysis of 3,070 listed companies from ETIG database. What this means is the effective tax liability of India Inc is 24%. The catch, however, is that it has gone up in two years ago. The analysis shows the effective tax rate on income earned in 200506 was 22.5%, which this rose to 23.66% in 2006-07. That is a significant increase when consid...
More About: Finance , Rate

NOW TRAVEL ON e-TICKETS
2008-03-03 17:42:00
‘Passenger is the king’, seems to have been driving mantra of union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad as he unveiled a basket of goodies to make train travel more comfortable and greener. Forget the long queues to book your tickets. You could do it through your mobile phone, if the announcements made in the Railway Budget 2008-09 are anything to go by. Harping on use of IT, the Railways is all set to make ticketing a child’s play. Automated vending machines issuing tickets would be increased from 250 to 6,000 while unreserved ticketing system windows would increase to 15,000. E-booking could now be done for a waitlisted ticket as well. All coaches on trains would have an online display board giving train arrival and departure information, reservation information. This facility would be available to passengers by March 2009. The initiative not only makes travel easier for passengers but could also spell a huge business opportunity for IT companies. The high quality dis...
More About: Travel , Finance , Tickets

DAY TRIPPING IS HARD NOW
2008-03-01 13:28:00
Finance Minister P. CHIDAMBARAM may not have changed rates for securities transaction tax (SIT), but his proposal to treat SIT as deductible expenditure has not gone down well with the trading community. Day traders fear that it will put further pressure on their already wafer-thin margins. However, some feel that the new tax treatment may reduce short-term trading and encourage people to take long calls. According to tax professionals, the current practice adopted by big operators and day traders is to add the SIT amount to the total income, induding income from trading activity and other income, and subsequently, work out the payable tax. Under Section 88E, they are entitled to get tax rebate and can pay only the surplus of total tax over SIT at the end of the year. However, this benefit of setting off income tax against SIT would not be available once the new proposal comes into effect. What will be the SIT impact? Say, if a day trader earns a profit of Rs 300 on a total income ...
More About: Finance , Hard

India?s Fiscal Situation
2008-02-28 15:32:00
As another budget looms, here is the goodnews: India ’s fiscal situation has improved beyond the expectations of most people. Further, the improving trend is set to continue. It doesn’t matter that subsidies are on the rise and the Sixth Pay Commission’s impact will have to be factored in. The sea-change in our fiscal fortunes calls for a rethink of long-held attitudes towards government spending. Many find it difficult to digest the improvement in the first place. There is plenty of quibbling about the correct fiscal numbers. The most commonly heard whine is that the Centre’s budgetary numbers understate the fiscal deficit because some of the oil, fertiliser and food subsidies are being met through the issue of bonds. This sort of quibbling misses the point. The key figures to focus on are, one, the combined deficit of the Centre and the states; and, two, the total liabilities of the Centre and the states. In respect of these two key figures, we are pretty m...
More About: Finance , Fiscal , Situation

LET?S HAVE A LOOK ON THE INTEREST RATES
2008-02-27 12:46:00
Interest rates have started coming down. Large public sector banks like SBI and Canara bank have slashed key lending rates twice in the last one month and home and consumer loan rates have been cut across the board. And all this without the RBI signaling any rate easing in its last monetary policy. While the RBI did urge banks to consider changing rates without any direct cue from itself and the Finance minister has been requesting bank chiefs to lower rates, there could be a couple of other important reasons why banks have started cutting rates proactively.  One, growth is slowing down. In early 2007, the furious pace of credit growth was a problem. Now that the central bank has effectively cooled this tear away credit growth with higher interest rates, we have come to the other end of the spectrum because growth could be lower than desired: The economy is slowing, many sectors are witnessing lower off-take and banks do not want to be in a situation where their bread and butter is...
More About: Culture , Interest Rates , Interest , Rates

VICTIMS HAVE VANISHED
2008-02-26 13:15:00
From an obscure house in Gurgaon to a remote jungle resort in Chitwan, Nepal, where he has been finally nabbed, we have been through a horrific roller coaster ride with the man who is allegedly one of India’s leading kidney dealers. With almost vicarious fascination, we learn day after day of his enormous wealth, he was carrying hundreds of thousands of rupees as loose change when caught, and his palatial homes both in India and abroad. Of his fascination with luxury cars and failed beauty queens. Of his extensive contacts across the world where he found recipients for his gruesome racket. While this ghastly drama was unfolding, reports surfaced of the organised trade in blood right outside premier hospitals in the capital. As each scandal surfaces, we see the nefarious collusion between sections of the medical community and organ traffickers like kidney kingpin Amit Kumar. But that apart, the one piece in the macabre jigsaw that we rarely bother about is that of the victims...
More About: Culture , Victims

IS THE NUCLEAR DEAL SKIDDING?
2008-02-26 12:07:00
So it is official now: time is running out for the India-US civilian nuclear deal. A three-man team of US senators led by Joseph Biden, who heads the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, disclosed this at a press conference in Delhi. Much water has flown down the Yamuna and the Potomac since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush inked the deal in July 2005. It focuses on developing India’s civilian nuclear power programmes in exchange for placing its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. But controversy has dogged it from the word go, with detractors - chiefly the Left partners of the government - deriding it as a potential ’sellout’ of India’s interests.    The truth, of course, is that the Bush administration staked an unprecedented amount of political energy on this agreement, which represents a big change in US policy. Apart from revising domestic law, the US would have to con...
More About: Finance , Nuclear , Deal

DON?T LET THE FEEL GOOD FADE
2008-02-25 13:52:00
Amidst so much talk and analysis of what is going wrong in the economic world today, the one thing that has not been stressed enough is what impact it may be having on the “feel-good” factor for stewards of the Indian economy. The one strong underpinning of this multi-year bull market has been how confident businessmen and investors have felt about the future. This is not as tangible or quantifiable as other economic metrics but every bit as important. After all, businesses and markets are run by human beings. When they feel less confident, they go into a shell, which often compounds the problems which made them less confident to begin with.  Put yourself in the shoes of the CEO of an Indian company and ask what he must be feeling today. Just one quarter back he had unlimited access to capital, the economy was cruising at 9 per cent and the global economy was expected to deal with a US slowdown and come out of it relatively unscathed. Now, it appears the US is probably ...
More About: Finance , Fade , Good , Feel , Feel Good

DOES HE KNOW SOMETHING?
2008-02-25 13:05:00
Dr. Manmohan Singh was worried. No, not worried, but concerned. No, not concerned, but agitated. Yes. When curiosity starts biting viciously, the mind cannot but get agitated. He was, of course, curious. And there seemed to be no way of quenching that curiosity. The media were agog with rumours about an impending cabinet reshuffle. If it had been an official announcement, the PM would not have bothered. He knew that a formal denial would follow. This was a rumour featured in all gossip columns. The greatest gossip of them all, the visual media, were also forecasting a cabinet reshuffle. One can ignore news, but the man who disregards a rumour, does so at his own peril. So the cultured Doctor was sure that there was going to be a reshuffle. But who was going to barge in and who was going to be kicked out? Will the portfolios of the ministers be changed? Who will get what? The PM was anxious to know. Of course, being only the PM and not Sonia Gandhi, he had no right to expect to know ...
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THE LEGEND OF A BIG FALL
2008-02-25 13:01:00
What a shame. The stock that was supposed to double on listing actually lost a fifth of its market value on Day One. One sincerely hopes this ends the mindless flipping game that has dogged the IPO market through this Bull Run. When Anil Ambani and his investment bankers proudly spoke about how $190 billion had come in by way of subscription money; creating history; I had a sinking feeling this was coming. Now the truth is out. Yesterday, all of $2.5 billion of Reliance Power stock got traded, cash and derivatives put together, and even that stock could not be absorbed. Where were those billions that had rushed in to subscribe it? If indeed that had come in to buy the great growth story in Indian power, has it all changed in barely a month? I said it then and I will say it again; these institutional bidders are a bunch of flippers with no regard for the paper they are buying. So, the next time you get all excited about a foreign cited about a foreign fund buying a stock at a lofty p...
More About: Finance , Legend , Fall , The Legend

THE BURIAL OF EMBEDDED VALUE
2008-02-25 12:56:00
When a momentum party ends in the stock market, the biggest hangover is always felt by the “themes” that emerged as most popular during the heady days of bullishness. One theme that gained a lot of currency in late 2007 was “embedded value” or sum of parts (SOTP) valuations. Stock prices that could never be justified by current earnings were easily explained by ascribing value to future business streams of the company. Promoters were only too happy to play along: they merrily announced value “unlocking” strategies from diverse businesses and plans to raise humongous amounts of money in these subsidiaries using the then prevalent market euphoria. So analysts and promoters played this game of make believe to the hilt and investors made money for a while, till the music stopped. One look at the screen today will reveal the carcasses of those great SOTP stories.   Power was the area that promoters wanted to exploit the most. Their eyes must have...
More About: Finance , Embedded

REASON OF AGE
2008-02-24 12:53:00
When does childhood end and adulthood begin? The International Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as any human being below the age of 18. But in India, a signatory to the Convention, there has always been a great deal of confusion on the age below which one is considered a child. For example, the legal age of marriage for a girl is 18 but the age of sexual consent is 15. So, in effect, the law accepts that it is possible for a girl to be married by 15, even though that is in violation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The Child Labour Prohibition Act defines those below 14 as children and those between the ages of 14 to 18 are permitted to work in hazardous industries. It is with a view to clear this muddle that the Law Commission has sought to make the marriage age a uniform 18 for both boys and girls and the age of sexual consent 16. Of course, this still leaves much to be desired but is a welcome first step. . The bewildering cornucopia of laws ...
More About: Culture , Reason , Indian History

THAW IN THE VALLEY
2008-02-24 12:49:00
Those who are adept at reading the tea leaves on the Kashmir issue may well find that the configuration is looking far better than it has for some years now. Even as winter tightens its grip over the volatile Valley , the militants find that they are skating on thin ice. The Hizbul Mujahedeen militants, once the undisputed overlords of Kashmir, are in tatters today after their ranks have been decimated by the security forces. Many of its cadres have surrendered and its top leadership, or what is left of it, is at loggerheads with each other. The other militant groups are also somewhat directionless today following the turmoil in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, widely credited with orchestrating militancy in the Valley, appears to be lying low in light of the renewed international scrutiny on terrorism emanating from the region. While it is odious to draw comparisons, the contrast between an economically buoyant Indi...
More About: Culture , Indian History

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN CHOOSING?
2008-02-24 12:47:00
Last week I was travelling work. On my flight I saw an interesting impact of bird flu. The aircraft steward reached the person sitting next to me and announced that he had run out of vegetarian meal! My neighbour was understandably very upset, and did not mince words while expressing his displeasure. He did not take time moving from his frustration to a sermon on how the overall service of the flight was deteriorating and how disorganised they were. As he went on with his complaints, our extremely patient steward kept apologising and kept offering him other goodies that he could possibly catch hold of from the pantry: From the slowly rising to the peaking and then tapering of the passenger’s tone, the steward’s creativity was at its hilt. He finally managed to give some croissant butter, cookies, etc, to my irate neighbour. I’m sure at the exit he would also have beamed an extra smile at his customer thanking him for flying with their airlines. This reminded me o...
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REALLY TAKING IT TO HEART
2008-02-23 12:47:00
Have you been seeing red lately? Well, what else would you see with Valentine’s Day upon us floating on a crimson tide? In great Indian assimilation mode, we have taken to this day bf romance in the unique manner in which we have taken to all sorts of days like Halloween’s Day, Friendship Day, Groundhog’s Day and so on. And in direct proportion to our desire to revel in Valentine’s Day comes the ire of our friendly neighborhood Shiv Sena moral police who are lurking behind bushes to snuff out any attempts by couples to canoodle.   Indeed, the valiant Sena vows each year to smash shops selling Valentine’s Day cards and gifts. But will all this stop us from plunging into Valentine’s Day festivities with gusto? Not on your love life. But while we will defend to our death the right to celebrate love and take on the Sena on the beaches in trenches and in shopping malls, many of us seem to have forgotten exactly what the day is all about. So you c...
More About: Culture , Heart , Taking

NOD TO PUBLIC ISSUE
2008-02-23 12:41:00
Oil India Limited (OIL) has received nod from the Government of India to make an initial public offer (IPO) to mobilise resources to fund its growth plans in exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. The IPO, which is awaiting SEBI approval, will be part of the year-long golden jubilee celebrations of the second largest oil company in the country that begins on February 18. Chairman and managing director, OIL, M.R. Pasrija informed that the government, which holds 98.13 per cent stake in the company has approved OIL’s proposal to issue IPO that will constitute 11 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid up capital of the company. Out of these, one per cent will be on the offer for the OIL employees.  “OIL will offer an IPO of 2,64,49,982 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be decided through book-building process. The shares that will be offered are proposed to be listed on the NSE and the BSE,” Pasrija informed.   Moreover,...
More About: Finance , Public , Issue

Look beyond sentiment to fundamentals
2008-02-23 12:07:00
Since the disastrous January derivatives expiry, the technicals of the Indian market would appear to have improved considerably, at least in a relative sense. The froth in the futures market has been washed away with the stock futures position standing at only Rs 30,000 crore, a fraction of what it had risen to last month. The other ostensible reason for the January crash–constricted money supply because of IPO subscription–has also been corrected. IPO refunds are in from both Reliance Power and Future Capital. In fact, even the listings are done so the flippers have had an opportunity to book out. Curiously, none of this has led to any visible relief for the market, contrary to general expectations. Despite improved technicals, the trend remains southward, volumes are pathetic and every rally is getting sold into. The obvious culprit is sentiment. Local sentiment has been crippled by the savage January sell-off and more recently by the dismal events of the IPO market. G...
More About: Culture , Finance , Sentiment

WE NEED MODERATION OF TAX RATES
2008-02-20 12:44:00
It is a challenge on hand for Mr. Chidambaram. The possibility of Budget 2008-2009 being the last Budget of the present Government gives rise to greater compulsions and expectations for a dream budget fulfilling the wish list of all and sundry. With all the industries and ministries clamoring for tax sops and relief, the Minister will have his hands full balancing the demands of the industries/ministries and the exchequer. The recent reports of slow down of the industrial growth and the volatility of the stock markets too would be playing on his mind. He would for sure want to send out a clear message to the Foreign Investors, of India being a stable, growth oriented and transparent investment destination. Industry too will need to be reassured with a tax-payer friendly regime to give an added impetus to the economic growth. Rationalization of the rates of the multifold tax levies, by way of Income Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax, Dividend Distribution Tax (’DDT’) on corporates...
More About: Finance , Rates

DO WE HAVE A RIGHT TO FLY?
2008-02-19 13:57:00
Flying is not for the rich alone. It is every Indian’s right to be able to fly - to work, for holiday; even just for fun. For this, flying needs to be made more affordable than it is today. Low cost airlines have ensured that many more Indians fly than ever before. Yet, we have a long. The number of trips has gone up from 18 million in 2005-06 to a projected 43 million in 2007-08.  On an average, a person who flies makes three trips a year and that means just about 1 out of every 100 Indians flies today. The biggest bottleneck in ensuring lower fares is the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Nearly 50 per cent of the cost of low cost airlines is what we pay for ATF.  The cost of ATF has nearly doubled in the last 2 years. A major component of the price is the tax that airlines pay to the Central and State governments. Tax on ATF can be in excess of 50 per cent in some states. Worse, ATF in India is 70-80 per cent costlier than many other countries.  Traditionally; taxes ...
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Investment in Close-Ended Schemes
2008-02-18 18:04:00
The elimination of the initial issue expenses for the close-ended mutual fund schemes will now change the dynamics of this area in the mutual fund industry. This move will force the mutual funds to act in a certain manner and then the investors will also be able to know in a clear and transparent manner what is exactly happening to the money invested by them.       Till recently for a close-ended scheme the entire amount of initial issue expenses charged to a newly launched scheme could go up to6 per cent. This could be amortised over the close ended period. This often leads to a situation where the net asset value (NAV) at a particular time factors in only the issue expense that have been taken into consideration. Thus a person who is an investor does not know the amount that has not been amortised and the kind of impactthat this will have on the NAV in the coming years. While the situation might seem clear for the experts and industry players for the normal investor the entir...
More About: Finance , Investment , Close

IS THIS WE CALL NATIONAL LEADERSHIP?
2008-02-18 05:09:00
Vice President Hamid Ansari has stated the obvious when he said that our legislatures are losing their credibility. His anguish at the manner in which our elected representatives conduct themselves with little concern for the voters was echoed by the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, last year. But, the worrying part is that our political worthies do not seem particularly concerned about criticism, even when it comes from the highest quarter within their own ranks. We are now so used to seeing our MPs trading insults and disrupting Parliament even as crucial Bills hang fire that we have ceased to be outraged. But let us not forget that we are paying for these shenanigans to the tune of Rs 20,000 per minute lost. Many parliamentarians do not even bother to show up for the mandatory six hours a day when the House is in session. The V-P’s plea that the sittings must be at least 130 days a year as opposed to the 102 it was in the last session is well taken. In many Western countries, ...
More About: Culture , National , Finance , Leadership , Call