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 The relief across the financial sector is palpable. North Block is now under the control of a minister who has not delegated the work to a compromised cabal. And even better, he is a person who understands the markets and finance. After the mutual fund announcements last week, this week the ministerial...
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 What we know anecdotally is now there as data in the Reserve Bank of India annual report 20011-12, that Indian household savings are moving from financial assets to real assets. The household savings rate has remained almost constant at about 23% of gross domestic product (GDP) (at current market prices) but there...
Expense Account, Mint If the Chicago School got the world into trouble, here is an attempt by the London School to set it right. The perception across the world of economics and finance is that it was the hard influence of the market-is-always-right doctrine of the Chicago School of Economics that set off the global...
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 A friend’s driver got a Maruti Dzire as a gift along with his son’s bride. With plenty of ancestral land at his disposal, he does not need the job to pay his bills. But his ambition was to get an “office” job as a driver so he could set out each day...
Expense Account, Mint The draft National Strategy for Financial Education (you can read it athttp://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/attachdocs/1342416428845.pdf) put together by the apex regulatory body, the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), is up for public comments right now. It is a joint effort by various financial sector regulators to have a common road map for getting 500...
Expense Account, Mint As India’s various regulators meander their way through understanding what their role is, the need for a crash course in regulatory basics looks more important by the day. Registration of Pension Funds for Private Sector Guidelines announced on 12 July by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), have changed the basic...
Expense Account, Mint I did not know that when I put my eight-year-old, beat-up Indica (should have clicked the faces of some people when the family would get into that car!) up for sale that the experience will become a lesson in developmental economics and will document a little part of the story of a...