Expense Account, Mint The word “direct” is possibly the scariest word in the lexicon today for mutual fund (MF) sellers and advisers. At the receiving end of a series of regulatory changes for the last few years, the unregulated sellers’ community is going through growing pains. The next (and certainly not the last) regulatory directive...
Expense Account, Mint October has begun well. On the first day we had the roadmap for financial sector legislative reform unveiled in the form of an approach paper, and significant life insurance reforms. While the insurance reform is about removing wrinkles in the world as it exists, the first one aims to redefine the world....
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 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 The world hit the Millennium Development Goal (set in 1990) of halving poverty five years ahead of time in 2010, but delve deeper into the numbers and it is clear that India has reason to worry. It has been China’s ability to take 660 million people out of poverty that has powered...
Expense Account, Mint Last week’s bailout of the ONGC stake sale by Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) has turned the spotlight on an institution that is a household name in India and now finds itself being publicly questioned over its investment decisions. Should you be worried about your money in government-owned LIC that was...
Expense Account, Mint Because much of policymaking in India is about lobbying power, we see some strange outcomes. Take the draft bancassurance guidelines, for example, that lay down the rules of bank tie-ups for insurance companies. The weird spectrum-like allocation of banks to insurance companies is a classic example of a compromise that benefits no...
Expense Account, Mint The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has taken a welcome step to bring in a set of adviser regulations. It has released a concept paper on the regulation of investment advisers. India needs a new set of regulations to bring order to a marketplace that moves money between households and...
Expense Account, Mint he least that Anna Hazare would have accomplished would be to get the average citizen up and shouting. Shouting without a trigger—negative or positive. The attack on Mumbai lit candles. The World Cup win triggered a mass beer party. But to get the Punjabi Bagh auntie in a georgette salwar kameez to...
Expense Account, Mint February is no longer the same. A mixture of rising incomes, home loans and spending-linked tax-saving options (such as school fees) make the Public Provident Fund (PPF) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) investments more for continuation of the account rather than the need to get the Rs1 lakh 80C deduction. But the...