If you plan to buy a pension plan as a part of your tax-saving exercise, you need to wait. The reason is simple: there are just no pension plans available in the market. This strange situation is the result of two developments: one, the insurance regulator has not approved any new pension products since November, […]
The government’s plan to tap into India’s vast postal system to reach out to the unbanked population by utilising offices across the country as banks is expected to take some shape this year as the proposal has been sent to the finance ministry for its nod. The idea that 1.55 lakh post offices could double […]
The Finance Ministry is working on savings banks account number portability, which will allow a customer to retain his account number while changing his bank. “We want to do it (savings a/c number portability). Right now there are some technical problems…we have identified them. We will overcome them soon,” Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal […]
In an effort to help Indian companies raise capital and increase public shareholding in rough market conditions, the capital market regulator on Tuesday created two additional ways through which listed local firms can sell shares without floating a public issue. The two new share-sale methods announced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) […]
Stock market regulator SEBI launched a toll free helpline service for investors on December 30, 2011. The service will be available in 11 languages – English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu, Oriya and Punjabi, initially. SEBI plans to add Kannada, Assamese and Kashmiri to the list shortly. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/stock-markets/article2769272.ece .
After foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers in the Indian stock markets in 2011, the finance ministry came out with a mechanism to arrest market volatility in the new year. The ministry on Sunday decided to allow foreign individuals and pension funds, as well as other entities, to invest directly in equity markets. The […]
The country’s insurance regulator will use the power of comic books to drive home the basic concepts, needs and importance of insurance in one’s life, starting right from the school level. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has readied comic books and hand-books for high school students. They will be distributed in select schools and […]
South India as a region continues to be the largest consumer of gold in the country with jewellery chains increasingly targetting the region for expansion. A recent report by Karvy Private Wealth says the four southern states account for over 40% of the nation’s overall gold demand. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/commodities/south-india-accounts-for-40-of-gold-purchases/articleshow/11287083.cms .
You may not be able to buy you a decent flat in Mumbai with Rs 1 crore, but stock prices have fallen so much this year that the sum may buy you an entire listed company, maybe even two. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/you-can-buylisted-company-for-rs-1-cr/460066/ .
Insurance policyholders will remember the year 2011 for the series of small steps taken by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to protect their interests. The measures may not have had the course-altering stature of the September 2010 Ulip charge cap, but they did nevertheless have significant impact from the policyholders’ perspective. This apart, […]
