Expense Account, Mint I’m between meetings and while away time at a Barista near IIT. The book I have open is less interesting than the conversation I shamelessly eavesdrop on. Didn’t have to try very hard as the two men who sat less than two feet away are locked up in a world of their...
Expense Account, Mint Despite the finmin’s public appeal two days back, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor’s worries over inflation scored over growth concerns and he held onto the policy rates—the repo and reverse repo—though he did try to ease liquidity a bit and shaved another 25 basis points off the cash reserve ratio...
Expense Account, Mint he last fortnight has been good for our money. Europe looks as if it will survive a while longer. The US bit the bullet and gave an annuity to the people printing dollars. Closer home, the purge in North Block was completed and most people cheered as baby steps of reforms got...
Expense Account, Mint Now that the dust has settled over last week’s announcements by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the merits or otherwise of the hike in mutual fund costs have been chewed over, two issues have emerged that still need a comment. One, that Indian funds are the most expensive...
Expense Account, Mint At some point I decided that to get a real flavour of what a mutual fund investor goes through, I need to stop using my agent and begin on my own. That was some time back, but the lessons from then still are sharp. And each time I facilitate somebody into using...
Expense Account, Mint India is at risk of losing its investment grade rating, which would make it the first BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economy to have its rating reduced to junk status. On 11 June, the US rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) released a report titledWill India be the first BRIC fallen angel?,...
Expense Account, Mint The circus around Akshaya Tritiya (the auspicious day to buy gold according to Hindu tradition) this time tells me that we should be near the peak of the gold cycle. It’s when the retail investor gets it, that the party is really over. The exchanges have extended trading hours and knocked off...
Expense Account, Mint The house-help is on leave and I’m in the market for six eggs, making an infrequent visit to buy the EBE (everyone buys everyday) goods. How much? I ask. Paanch kam tees. 25 bucks? I need six and not a dozen, I correct; your numbers are wrong, you mean half that, right? The...
Expense Account, Mint What is your first reaction if you come to know that 10% of seats in the Indian Institutes of Technology will be auctioned to the highest bidder from this year? What if a rich privately funded foreign university like Harvard does the same? Is it okay to pay children to read to...
Expense Account, Mint In the market for a TV, I checked out all the vendors nearby. In the Sony and Samsung showrooms I got the Sony and Samsung TVs. In Croma, I got a variety of brands. On one TV it said Croma. That was the in-house brand which was cheaper than the other branded...