Wi-Fi for Howrah Rajdhani

The Indian Railways is planning to make the New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express the first Wi-Fi-enabled train in the country by December-end.

The Wi-Fi facility, available at the international airports in the country, enables laptop users to access the Net without plugging into a regular connection, or having to use a data card.

Both business travelers and commuters will be interested in using wireless services on trains as it will enable them to productively use the nearly 24 hour travel and be in touch with the global community and share their experiences in real time.

They said the facility would be initially available in three rakes of the train and extended to other trains depending on the success of the project.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 6.30 crore, and the railways have awarded the contract for the equipment and their installation. Browsing of the Net would be through a satellite-based system using Wi-Fi for the distribution of Internet bandwidth.

The satellite link-up cost is more than Rs 1.75 crore and the equipment to facilitate Internet access will cost around Rs 4.5 crore, as per a senior railway ministry official.

RailTel Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, had conducted successful trials in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express in January.

RailTel conducted the technical trial with vendors, including the UK’sNomad Digital and Belgium’s 21Net, who have deployed satellite-based Internet for VIARail (Canada), Thalys (EU) and NTV (Italy).

“The trials have proved that passengers will experience seamless connectivity on running trains. Considering the revenue it will yield, the project is being given top priority,” officials said.

The railways plan to equip other Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains with Wi-Fi facility in the future.

Passengers will have to make a requisition to the travelling ticket examiner to access the Internet. The examiner will send the requisition to the central hub and a password will be sent through SMS to the passenger’s mobile phone.

According to the other option being considered, passengers will have to visit the RailTel website, register themselves and purchase credit to access the Net.

While the charges for Internet use and the security issues are being worked out, officials said payment could be through credit, debit card or Net banking.

Bank savings deposits lose ground

Savers are now putting relatively less money into current and savings accounts (CASA) of banks, instead parking them in term deposits. This is limiting the ability of banks to raise low-cost resources. At present, commercial banks offer 4 per cent interest on savings accounts after the Reserve Bank of India raised the rate by 50 basis points in May. The revision came after eight years. On the other hand, term deposit rates are an attractive option having moved up around 250 basis points over the past six months in the one-three year maturity periods following regular interest rate hikes by the central bank. The State Bank of India, for instance, offers 9.25 per cent interest on deposits of one year to less than two years. With the rate gap widening, bankers have been witnessing a decline in demand deposits, while term deposits have shown a strong growth. Demand deposits are deposits that can be withdrawn quickly. This shift has affected the banks’ CASA ratio — the proportion of current account and savings account deposits in total deposits — during the first quarter of this fiscal. The ratio has been lower on a sequential basis. While some lenders such as Axis Bank saw only a marginal fall in their ratio, it was more pronounced for a few such as Corporation Bank and IDBI Bank. In IDBI Bank, the CASA ratio dropped even after the bank waived all transaction and service charges on current and savings accounts. Banks have been laying stress on CASA deposits because of their low costs — current account is non-interest bearing, while the 4-per-cent interest payable on savings accounts is less than half of what they pay on term deposits. Hence, a fall in the CASA ratio may affect margins at a later stage. This was evident in the first-quarter numbers of ICICI Bank, the SBI and some other banks where current account deposits showed a fall in absolute terms. Tough task Bankers now admit that mobilising more current account and savings account deposits will be a challenge given the fact that interest rates are likely to stay at higher levels for some more time. Others say that rates have peaked. IDBI Bank recently trimmed its CASA ratio guidance for the year to 17-18 per cent from an earlier estimate of 25 per cent, while ICICI Bank hopes to post an average ratio of around 40 per cent for the year.

Funds for SBI

The government is expected to provide capital support to the State Bank of India (SBI) during the current fiscal, and a decision in this regard will be taken soon.

The finance ministry received a proposal from the SBI in this regard a few weeks ago.

According to the proposal, the SBI requires Rs 20,000 crore to fund its growth plans over the next two financial years. Based on the proposal, sources said various possibilities were being looked at for the capital infusion. 

It could be by way of a rights issue, preferential share issue and warrants.

However, it is too premature to comment on the exact mechanism for the capital infusion as all the options are still being explored.

The government is committed to providing adequate capital to all PSU banks to maintain their tier-I capital at 8 per cent and the government’s stake over 58 per cent, the sources added.

As on June 2011, the capital adequacy ratio of the SBI stood at 11.6 per cent.

Savings account going to be costlier

Interest rates on savings bank deposits will be deregulated soon, but the move may affect small depositors, as they will have to bear additional costs. “Following the deregulation of the savings bank rate, the universal savings bank product will also undergo changes,” K.R. Kamath, chairman and managing director of Punjab National Bank, said on the sidelines of a Ficci event @ Kolkata. According to Kamath, who is also the vice-chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association, “A number of free-of-cost facilities that now come with a savings bank account, including the minimum balance, will go away and this will hurt the small depositors most.” The RBI itself had suggested deregulating the savings bank rate and the change would be brought about soon. “It will happen. The question is should it happen now?” Kamath said. “Savings bank interest rate is the anchor rate on the basis of which banks formulate their other rate structures. If the savings bank rate is deregulated, banks will take some time to readjust,” Kamath said. Public sector banks are against the deregulation of the savings bank rate. However, the Reserve Bank of India has already taken a few steps towards complete deregulation. Interest on savings bank deposits is now calculated on the balance in the account at the end of each day and at a higher rate of 4 per cent. While depositors are now getting a higher interest on savings bank deposits, the scenario may change post-deregulation with banks planning to levy charges for various services. For example, the minimum balance to maintain a savings account may go up, the number of debit transactions may be limited and there can even be a charge for updating passbooks.

Investment Cycle

Age: 20 – 35 (Growth Period)

• Try and collect your assets to achieve immediate needs or long-term goals

• It is all right if you take risks at this age, because you have a long-term investment horizon, which will give you enough    time to collect more assets, and enjoy it

• Learn more about investment, take advice from professionals; this will help you, increase your knowledge of investing

Age: 35-55 (Consolidation Period)

• You are doing well at this age in your career; your earning should exceed your debt

• This should then be invested in your future retirement in medium-risk investments for your retirement needs

• Your goal should be to retire wealthy

Age: 55-75+ (Spending period)

• By this time you would have saved a lot from your earnings and you take that long holiday, or buy that big house

Tax trauma for Satyam again

On Monday, Mahindra Satyam — the entity that emerged from the ashes of India’s biggest accounting fraud — said it had received a tax demand of Rs 2,113.42 crore for two assessment years 2002-03 and 2007-08 — which roughly cover the period during which rogue industrialist B. Ramalinga Raju had fiddled the accounts of the software exporter. Last September, Mahindra Satyam had come out with restated accounts for the period that estimated the total financial irregularities committed by Raju and his cohorts since 2002 at Rs 7,934.9 crore. The forensic audit revealed that the accounting fudge between April 1, 2002 and September 30, 2008 — the last date up to which the company had published its financial results — amounted to Rs 6,763.1 crore, surprisingly close to Raju’s claim that he had padded the accounts by Rs 7,000 crore. The tax demand has come from the additional commissioner of income tax. He is seeking Rs 1,037.69 crore for the assessment year 2002-03 and Rs 1,075.73 crore for 2007-08. In a notice to the stock exchanges today, the company said the draft of the proposed assessment orders proposed disallowance of certain tax exemptions /deductions claimed by the company. It was not immediately clear whether these related to the tax breaks that the government had granted software exporters housed in the so-called software technology parks. The STP tax benefit has been withdrawn from the current financial year. Mahindra Satyam has been contesting the reopening of tax assessment for assessment year 2002-03 and had even filed a writ petition in this connection before the high court of Andhra Pradesh. The company has been seeking court direction that any fresh assessment should be carried out only after stripping out the fictitious sales figures and fictitious interest that Raju claimed he had earned in a desperate attempt to paper over the huge accounting gaps in the software exporter’s books. The latest tax demand “does not exclude the fictitious income wrongly offered to tax by the earlier management”, the company said. Mahindra Satyam said the petitions were still pending before the high court. It added that even the government agencies had confirmed the “existence of fictitious sales and fictitious interest”. On December 28 last year, the income-tax authorities had ordered a special audit at Satyam Computer Services for the years 2002-03 and 2007-08. The company was ordered to get its accounts audited for this period under Section 142 (2A) of the Income-Tax Act. Sub-section 2A of Section 142 confers power on the assessing officer to order a special audit. The tax demand from the IT authorities flows from the December directive.

SkyTeam offer for Air India

SkyTeam the world’s No. 2 international airline alliance has approached Air India with a membership offer following Star Alliance’s decision to keep out the national carrier from the global grouping.

According to officials in the ministry of civil aviation, the SkyTeam delegation, led by managing director Michael Wisbrun, met civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi last week and expressed interest in making the national carrier part of its alliance.

In the aftermath of the Star Alliance fiasco, both SkyTeam as well as Oneworld have approached Air India with membership proposals and the offer to help the national carrier improve its international operations.

SkyTeam — founded in 2000 by Aeroméxico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air — is the last of the three airline alliances to be formed.

It has grown to become the second largest global alliance in terms of passengers and members, behind Star Alliance and ahead of Oneworld.

The alliance consists of 14 carriers, including Al Italia, KLM and Delta Air Lines, from four continents and flies to 916 airports in 169 countries.

It operates over 14,000 daily flights with a combined fleet of 3,400 aircraft, including associate carriers.

It has 465 lounges worldwide to serve its 474 million annual passengers. SkyTeam also runs a separate cargo alliance SkyTeam Cargo that collaborates nine carriers who are all SkyTeam members.

M&M overtakes Tata as most-valued auto firm

Sport utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday surpassed Tata Motors’ market capitalisation to become India's most valued auto company.

Mahindra shares increased 0.27 per cent to close at Rs 719.10 on Friday, compared to the previous day’s close, while Tata Motors shares fell 5.28 per cent to Rs 713.40, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

While M&M's market cap stood at Rs 44,150 crore, Tata Motors market cap eroded to Rs 38,402 crore, pushing it to the fourth spot among the auto pack after Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp.

Concerns over Jaguar’s and Land Rover's performance in America and Europe, its two biggest markets, in the wake of continued recessionary trends and a slowdown in demand in the Indian market, spooked investors who dumped the company's stock.

Tata Motors, which continues to be India's biggest company by revenue, saw an erosion of 15.63 per cent in its stock value over the last one-week or six trading sessions. M&M stock, during the same period, saw a fall of 1.1 per cent.

India's second-largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto's market cap stood at Rs 41,414 crore, the second biggest in the auto pack, while two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp's market valuation stood at Rs 39,810 crore.

Ajay Parmar, head research, institutional equities, Emkay, said: “While M&M has stitched a success story with their tractors and other vehicles, Tata Motors is largely dependent on JLR. All companies with exposure to Europe will suffer because the situation is not expected to improve at least for the next six months.”

About 60 per cent of Tata Motors' consolidated revenue is generated by its premium brands Jaguar and Land Rover. With nearly 52 per cent of JLR's volume being sold in the US, the UK and Europe (excluding Russia), the two brands have very high exposure to these economically troubled markets.

Tata Motors net profit for the June quarter was flat at Rs 1,999.62 crore, against Rs 1,988.73 crore in first quarter of financial year 2011. Profit from JLR dipped to £219 million (Rs 1,600 crore) during the quarter, against £226 million (Rs 1,700 crore) earlier.

Tata Motors outlook does not look encouraging with external pressures, such as high inflation in India and China and weak demand across key global markets, said analysts tracking the company.

Its group sales fell six per cent last month to 85,392 units, against the year-ago period. Jaguar sales fell 23 per cent to 4,372 units, while Land Rover witnessed an eight per cent decline in sales at 14,747 units.

Courtsey-http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/mm-overtakes-tata-as-most-valued-auto-firm/446440/

Money Back Health Insurance Plan.by IndiaFirst Life Insurance

IndiaFirst Life Insurance, a joint venture between Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank along with UK's Legal & General, has announced its foray into the health insurance market with the launch of IndiaFirst Money Back Health Insurance Plan. 

A substantial part of the premium you pay is actually credited into your policy account and this money is invested in various funds as per your choice to get you optimum returns.

This money accumulates in your account and comes back to you at the end of the policy. What's more, you can also use this amount anytime if you need to cover hospital expenses that are beyond the insurance limits or not payable under this policy.

The plan is a long term plan for 5 or 10 years and offers dual tax benefit of Section 80C and 80D, under the current tax laws.

It offers the convenience of cashless treatment, cover for 195-day care procedures, re-imbursement of medical expenses for 30 days pre and 60 days post hospitalization, cover for the entire family (spouse, two children and two dependent parents) under one plan.

It is an indemnity-based plan - the insurer will reimburse the expenses incurred on hospitalization, subject to the sublimit and other conditions. You can choose between five fund options.

FEATURES: It is available as individual and family floater plans. The floater plan covers the policyholder, spouse, two children and two parents.

The policyholder will be the 'primary life assured', and others will be referred to as 'other life assured'. Upon the death of the 'primary life assured', the benefits are paid out and the policy ceases to exist.

The policyholder can nominate a beneficiary to receive the sum assured in case of his/her death. The maximum entry age is 60 years and a policyholder cannot be over 70 at the end of the tenure. The maximum ages of parents at inception and maturity should be 65 years and 75 years, respectively. 

SUM ASSURED: The minimum cover offered is Rs 1.5 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh is the upper limit. Under the floater option, the maximum sum assured is Rs 10 lakh.

TERMS OF COVERAGE: The maximum cover is restricted to five times the annual sum assured. There are sub-limits for doctor's fee, room rent, ICU charges, etc. On maturity, you will get the fund value, either as lump sum or in installments, as per your choice.

PREMIUM AND PAYMENT TERMS: You can choose either the single-premium -with tenure of five years – or the regular premium option, with a 10-year term. The premium will be reviewed annually.

Till the age of 45, the minimum premium under the regular mode is Rs 10,000, while it is Rs 30,000 for single premium mode. If you are over 46, the minimum premium will be Rs 14,200 in the regular mode and Rs 37,500 in the single premium mode.

CHARGES: Premium allocation charges are 13% in the first year and 2% in the subsequent years under the regular premium mode.

UPSIDE: Those unwilling to treat their yearly health premium solely as expense and prefer to create a fund instead may find the plan appealing.

DOWNSIDE: The plan is costlier than pure health policies, due to Ulip charges. In addition, the policy gets terminated upon the life assured's death, leaving the dependents unprotected.

Note- This blog (www.yoursweetmoney.blogspot.com) must not hold responsible for any information shared in this article as all the information has gather through online.

You are hereby requested to consult with your financial planner prior to investment.

Honda Jazz

Honda Siel Cars India today launched a variant of the premium hatchback Jazz.

The move precedes the introduction of the small car Brio, which will feature the same engine as the new Jazz.

The car is priced in the range of Rs 5.50 lakh to Rs 6.06 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The old Jazz was priced between Rs 7.12 lakh and Rs 7.56 lakh. The new variant will be fitted with a 1.2-litre petrol engine and give a mileage of 16.7 km per liter.

The engine is being manufactured at a facility in Greater Noida.

As per Mr. Jnaneswar Sen. Honda Siel senior vice-president (sales and marketing), “The engine capacity at the plant is around 1 lakh units per annum and the utilization level is about 60 per cent. So, there is enough capacity to produce engines for the Jazz and Brio”.

He also said some of the components would be brought from the Tapukara plant in Rajasthan. The localisation level of components in the new car stands at about 76 per cent.

DLF stares at Rs 900cr more penalty

Real estate giant DLF may have to pay Rs 900 crore extra penalty if the Competition Commission of India (CCI) finds it guilty of abusing its dominant market position in three more projects in Gurgaon.

The CCI stunned the housing market on Tuesday when it slapped a Rs 630-crore fine on DLF for unfair practices at its Belaire project in Gurgaon. 

The competition regulator is now investigating charges of market dominance and anti-competitive practices in the Park Place, Magnolias and New Town Heights projects.

Officials said apart from DLF, the commission was also investigating 10 to 11 cases involving other real estate players where complaints under sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act 2002 had been lodged. Sections 3 and 4 deal with anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position, respectively.

Sources said next in CCI’s line of fire were cement companies such as Ultratech, ACC and Ambuja Cement, who might have misused dominant market positions.

“Complaints have come from buyers of residential properties in Park Place, Magnolias and New Town Heights against DLF. We will issue an order soon,” said commission officials.

The commission can charge a penalty of up to 10 per cent of three-year average turnover of a company in each case of abuse of market dominance and anti-competitive practices. DLF posted an average turnover of Rs 9,006 crore between 2009 and 2011. In Belaire, the fine was 7 per cent of the average turnover.

The CCI will also initiate “suo-motu” investigation into other real estate players, including Lavasa and DB Realty, as anti-competitive practices have become a norm in the real estate sector.

“Buyers in general are facing problems such as escalation of property price, change in build-up area and delay in getting possession. 

It is, therefore, appropriate to look into the general practice along with specific complaints,” said officials.

The commission, which was set up two years back, is currently investigating around 140 cases.

The commission feels a real estate regulator will “ensure the amount collected from customers is utilised for the specific project, bring transparency in information relating to work progress and end the practice of built-in hidden costs other than the initial set price”.

Analysts said in the absence of a market regulator the commission should be careful during its investigation. “The commission should see to it that it does not become a tool in the hands of irate consumers. 

It should be circumspect when dealing with complaints,” said Abhishek Goenka, partner (real estate) at BMR Advisors.

A Real Estate Regulation Bill 2011, which will bring transparency in the sector and protect consumers from fraud, is yet to be introduced in Parliament. 

If the bill becomes law, all developers will have to register with the regulator and provide details of their projects before starting promotional activities.

Courtesy- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110819/jsp/business/story_14396014.jsp