Fresh News

Bill payments of BSNL land phone (Trivandrum) and BSNL Mobile (all India) can be now done using SBI Internet Banking.

 

The new citizenship test introduced by Australia 'does not adversely' affect persons of Indian origin, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

 

The Central Government has shot down the first-of-its-kind proposal from Kerala government to fly its own airline to certain international destinations.

 

The Kerala government has proposed Poovar in Thiruvananthapuram district as a viable spot for setting up a world-class shipyard.

 

After Ayurveda, it is the traditional Kerala Astrology which is finding favour, especially among foreigners.

 

The Kerala government has decided to make waste management plants mandatory for all new hotels and apartments in the state.

 

Indian budget waives farm loans in a big way & reduces income tax rates. Short term capital gains tax for capital market gains raised to 15%.

 

Kerala High Court Chief Justice HL Dattu has ruled out the possibility of a High Court Bench in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

 

This is a good railway budget for Kerala compared to previous budgets. Laloo Yadav announced a new coach factory for Kerala.

 

There is a 20 pc increase in foreign tourists in Kerala.

 

Kerala to add 100000 IT professionals, says state minister.

Thumb Rules for Investing

Mathematical Rules

Rule of 72

This rule (written as 72/r) helps one determine the number of years it will take to double money, where r is the annual compounded rate of interest. If a bank offers you 8% p.a. compounded annual rate, then you can expect your money to double in approximately nine years. Similarly, in the earlier days of money doubling in five years, the implied annual compounding rate was around 14.2%.

 

Real rate is twice 'flat rate'

Many agents sell loans at a rate which appear mouth watering. But look closely and the fine print will say that the calculations are based on "flat rate" . Flat rate means that the interest is linearly (or simply) calculated, rather than on a reducing balance method.

For example, if you take a fiveyear (60 months) auto loan of Rs. 3,00,000 and the EMI is, say, Rs 6,335, the total payment will be Rs 6,335*60 months = Rs 3,80,100, implying that the interest paid is Rs 80,100 over the next 60 months.

The wrong (or the flat) method of calculating interest is to say that the annual interest paid is Rs 80,100/5 years = Rs 16,020, and hence the interest rate is 5.34% (Rs 16,020/Rs 3,00,000*100).

If you calculate the interest based on the reducing balance method, which is what banks actually do, then the real rate of interest works out to 10.18%, which is roughly twice (10.18%/5.34%=1.91) the interest rate that the agent will tell you. It is mathematically true that the real rate is approximately twice the flat rate.

 

Financial Advisors' Rules

THESE rules help the advisor in devising a strategy for you.

Term + Mutual Funds > ULIPs:

Bundling insurance and investments is typically not a good idea. A ULIP can be deconstructed into a term plan (pure risk cover) and an investment portion. Buying a term plan with the insurance company and investing the balance amount in a choice of mutual funds will typically yield you a better performance.

Debt outflows should be limited to 50% of your income:

You would have noticed that banks offer loans of up to 48 times your monthly salary. Have you wondered why? Let us see: If you take a loan at 10.5% interest for 20 years, then the EMI per Rs lakh is Rs 1,000.

Assume that your monthly salary is Rs 10,000. Banks, following this rule of thumb, will expect that you can pay up to Rs 5,000 as EMI. Hence, they can offer you a loan of up to Rs 5,00,000. Incidentally, this amount is approximately 48 times your monthly salary!

If the bank realises that you are paying EMIs on other loans (like car or education loan), they will reduce the quantum that you are eligible for such that not more than Rs 5,000 of your income is used towards debt servicing. Anything more, and when the good times stop, you may be in a financial mess!

 

Mythical Rules

THESE rules have emerged to make life very simple for the financial decision maker. Since they are over simplified , these rules very quickly lose their relevance on digging further. Be careful when using them!

100 minus your age in equities

This rule states that the allocation of your portfolio in equities should be a decreasing function of your age. So at the age of 30, you should be 70% invested in equities and at 70, 30% of your portfolio should be in equities.

While a good starting point, the actual portfolio allocation should depend a lot on your needs, upcoming milestones , special situations that you might have and your risk tolerance (ability and willingness). Hence, your advisor may recommend that even at the age of 30, you should be invested only 30% in equities, depending on your circumstances.

10 times your annual salary as insurance

The issue with life insurance , as opposed to non-life , is that it is very hard to put a financial amount to any one's life. Hence, a rule-of-thumb says that your insurance should provide coverage worth 10 times your annual income: even if the life insurance corpus earns 10% return after you are no more, your family will get your income.

Again, this is a good starting point, but not complete. For example, it does not take into account inflation, the corpus that you have already built up and the change in circumstances once you are no more. A better way is to calculate the Human Life Value (HLV) or ascertain the liabilities that you have to meet and cover them all. Your financial advisor can help you determine the amount of insurance that you need.

 

While it is good to have rules-of-thumb , it is important that you understand the underlying financial calculations . A detailed discussion on why your advisor is using a rule-of-thumb , will yield a lot of insights into your financial plans!

Golden Rules of Investment in Shares

1) Behind every stock there is a company and you should always find out what it is doing. You should be able to explain what the company does and its products/services to a layman.

 

2) You should have enough confidence in the stocks you hold and the reason why you bought them rather than worrying about their daily price fluctuations.

 

3) Don’t get carried away by glossy annual reports. Most only contain information that is already available in the market. One should try to figure out anomalies

and understand the finance of the company. Beware of window dressing.

 

4) Invest only in companies/businesses you understand.

5) Investing without research is gambling. No investor has succeeded by relying on luck.

 

6) You should study facts, annual reports, and financials, value the company, future outlook and then make a decision.

 

7) You should never buy a stock based on popularity or tips. Adopt relatively simple methods for evaluating a stock.

 

8) One can never time the market. Ignore forecasts predicting the end of recession or beginning of a bull run. If you are confident of a stock, buy it for the

long-term.

9) You should look for stocks that have not yet been discovered by the market or companies that are “off the radar scope”.

 

10) If a company’s fundamentals are not strong, avoid the stock altogether and instead wait for better opportunities.

 

11) A bad management will never give good return in good times, but good management will fill the gaps when better times arrives.

 

12) Adopt different yardsticks for different companies.

 

13) Success comes by hard work, patience, persistence, flexibility, willingness to do research and equal willingness to admit to mistakes and ability to ignore

general panic.

Fresh News

UAE officials are working with the Government of the Indian state of Kerala to develop a Dh1.8 billion Sky City project at the coastal city of Kochi. The proposal involves building an eight kilometre-long elevated highway.

 

The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy has called for entries for the first International Video Festival of Kerala to be held from the 7 to 11 April 2008 at Thiruvananthapuram.

 

The Kerala government will soon kick off measures to develop IT parks in all the 14 districts in the state.

 

Kerala is set to become the first state in the country to launch community policing in all areas.

 

The two international airports at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode will be expanded and a new international airport will come up at Kannur in Kerala.

 

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told Kerala’s legislative assembly that the IT sector would create 100000 new jobs in Kerala.

 

Alphonso mango cultivation in Muthalamada (Palakkad, Kerala) has tasted its price highpoint at Rs 1200 per 6.5-kilo box.

 

Kerala had demanded a Railway Zone comprising Palakkad division, Salem and Konkan region with Kerala as headquarters.

 

The UAE-based welfare organisation Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust has offered the full co-operation of NRIs for the proposed Kerala budget airline.

 

Some 3mn women converged on the Kerala state capital in one of the world’s biggest female congregations called Attukal Pongala.

 

The government is considering to bring parity between Overseas Indian Citizens (OIC) and Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in admission and scholarship programmes.

 

The Kerala government has decided to recast the common entrance tests for the engineering and medical courses.

Fresh News

The central government is set to take over the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and upgrade it as an Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).

 

The Middle East's first low-cost airline Air Arabia will add the city of Kozhikode in Kerala to its list of destinations in India effective Feb 26.

Fresh News

A Kerala government committee has recommended banning religious worship in private schools that receive assistance from the state government.

 

The Kerala IIEST, tech university is expected to reserve 50 percent seats for domicile candidates and rest will be open for students from other states.

 

Later this year, Kerala will hold a global meet of Keralites living outside the state, Governor RL Bhatia told.

 

The tourism sector in Kerala appears to be doing well with 19.43 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals.

 

NRI Labour MP Keith Vaz on Thursday said that the government's decision to impose a new "immigrant tax" on foreigners coming to the country might be discriminatory.

 

The ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) has sought a special budgetary allocation for setting up a welfare fund for training workers for overseas jobs, providing humanitarian aid when they are in trouble at their work places etc.

India rupee at 5-mth low on Dollar crunch, global risk

The Indian rupee fell to a five-month low on Wednesday, as dealers sold the local unit aggressively to meet dollar demand from overseas investors who withdrew some funds on concerns about the global economy. The partially convertible rupee was at 40.065/075 per dollar, down from its previous finish of 39.91/92 per dollar.

It had last traded at 40 per dollar on Sept. 20.

"It's hard to meet the demand for dollars at the moment, especially with no real inflows, which is putting a lot of pressure on the rupee," said the chief dealer with a corporate.

India's benchmark share index Sensex fell more than 1 percent in early deals on Wednesday, taking cues from weak Asian equities, with Japan's Nikkei average falling more than 2 percent, as investors locked in profits amid economic concerns.

Markets were cautious after oil prices surged to a record high above the $100 mark, which sparked fears of higher inflation in a U.S. economy already struggling with the credit crisis.

A dealer said demand for dollars from an oil company put further pressure on the local unit.

Oil is India's largest import, and rising crude prices usually exert downward pressure on the rupee.

Some dealers said that the rupee's losses would be capped around 40.25 by exporters, who would likely sell their dollar holdings at around those levels.

"Exporters understand that the rupee is going to move down before it moves up again, and they're going to wait for a while for the best rate," said a dealer with a foreign bank.

Four Things You Never Knew Your Mobile Phone Could Do

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

 

1. Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

Also in Australia , the Australian emergency number 000 can be dialled whilst your mobile phone keyboard is locked. This is another reason why 000 receives so many false emergency calls!

 

2. Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editors Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!"

 

3. Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

 

4. How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone!:

star-hash-zero-six-hash

* # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Not only the above, but also in Australia your stolen phone is added to a "Stolen Mobile Phone" database, so if your phone is found later on it can be returned to you.

Fresh News

Air India Express has allowed 15 additional weekly Gulf flights from the three Kerala airports.

 

Time is running out for 26-year-old Simil, who left Kerala for Kuwait two years ago, for a better life. If his family is unable to raise Rs. 600000, Simil could either be hanged or shot to death in a Kuwaiti jail.

 

The Kuwaiti missions in India will restart issuing work visa from next week, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said.

 

The fifth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will be held Sep 20-23 in Kochi.

Mutual Fund - TATA Growing Economies Infrastructure Fund

NFO (18th Feb-March18th) (Open Ended Fund)

 

TATA MF has launched the captioned NFO and will close on 18th March.

 

PRODUCT DETAILS

 

TATA Mutual Fund has been among the pioneers in investing in listed equities in the infrastructure though TATA Infrastructure Fund. TATA GROWING ECONOMIES INFRASTRUCTURE FUND will help tap the potential opportunities in Infrastructure In Growing Economies of the world..

 

TATA GROWING ECONOMIES INRASTRUCTURE is an open ended Equity Plan with 2 options

•             Plan A

•             Plan B

 

Since the Fund invests in overseas securities, the NAV of the fund will be based on the price of the overseas securities converted in to Indian Rupees

 

Investment Objective

Plan A

Investment objective of Plan A is to generate capital appreciation / income by investing predominantly in equities of companies in infrastructure and other related sectors in the growing economies of the world and in India. A majority (51% - 70%) of the net assets would be invested in geographies outside India.

 

Plan B

Investment objective of Plan B is to generate capital appreciation / income by investing predominantly in equities of companies in infrastructure and other related sectors in India and other growing economies of the world. A majority (65% - 85%) of the net assets would be invested in India. The fund managers will focus on investment opportunities in various growing economies in the infrastructure sector.

 

1)      Five star rating for TATA Infrastructure Fund

2)      Advantages of spends on Indian and Global infrastructure

3)      Advantages of Country wise diversification

4)      Need to build infrastructure locally

Options:

 

Plan A and Plan B. Dividend (payout / reinvestment) are provided under each of these Plans and Growth options

 

Minimum Investment   -Dividend/Growth-10000/- and Rs 1 thereafter

 

How to become rich ...

"I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful."

-- Warren Buffett

 

"The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing."

-- Philip Fisher

 

"Buy what you know"

 

"Buy low, sell high"

 

Warren Buffet - Rules of Investing

•                    "Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1."

•                    "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

•                    "You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right—and that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else."

•                    "Our favourite holding period is forever." Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, 1988

•                    "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact."

•                    "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

•                    "If you don't know jewellery, know the jeweller."

•                    "If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes."

•                    "There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."

•                    "One’s objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over... your problem won’t improve with age."

•                    "A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought."

•                    "In the insurance business, there is no statute of limitation on stupidity."

•                    "If a business does well, the stock eventually follows."

•                    "The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect... You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd."

•                    "The future is never clear, and you pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty is the friend of the buyer of long-term values."

•                    "We will only do with your money what we would do with our own."

•                    "Occasionally, a man must rise above principles."

•                    "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

•                    "Of one thing be certain: if a CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition, both his internal staff and his outside advisors will come up with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance. Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked."

•                    When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: "we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year."

•                    "I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that. “I’m paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because...” If you can’t answer that question, you shouldn’t buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, you’ll make a lot of money."

•                    "You ought to be able to explain why you’re taking the job you’re taking, why you’re making the investment you’re making, or whatever it may be. And if it can’t stand applying pencil to paper, you’d better think it through some more. And if you can’t write an intelligent answer to those questions, don’t do it."

•                    "I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can do what I want."

•                    "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

George Soros - Investing Quotes

Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.

 

If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.

 

The main difference between me and other people who have amassed this kind of money is that I am primarily interested in ideas, and I don't have much personal use for money. But I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't made money: My ideas would not have gotten much play.

 

 

The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposition position. I assume that markets are always wrong. Even if my assumption is occasionally wrong, I use it as a working hypothesis. It does not follow that one should always go against the prevailing trend. On the contrary, most of the time the trend prevails; only occasionally are the errors corrected. It is only on those occasions that one should go against the trend. This line of reasoning leads me to look for the flaw in every investment thesis. ... I am ahead of the curve. I watch out for telltale signs that a trend may be exhausted. Then I disengage from the herd and look for a different investment thesis. Or, if I think the trend has been carried to excess, I may probe going against it. Most of the time we are punished if we go against the trend. Only at an inflection point are we rewarded.

Fun - Honesty

An investment counselor decided to go out on her own. She was shrewd and diligent, so business kept coming in, and pretty soon she realized that she needed an in-house counsel. She began to interview young lawyers.

 

"As I'm sure you can understand," she started off with one of the first applicants, "in a business like this, our personal integrity must be beyond question." She leaned forward. "Mr. Peterson, are you an 'honest' lawyer?"

 

"Honest?" replied the job prospect. "Let me tell you something about honest. Why, I'm so honest that my father lent me $15,000 for my education, and I paid back every penny the minute I tried my very first case."

 

"Impressive. And what sort of case was that?"

 

The lawyer squirmed in his seat and admitted, "He sued me for the money."

Saudi Arabia Holds FX Policy Unchanged After Meeting-Bankers

Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf's largest economy, will keep its foreign exchange policy unchanged for now after a olicymakers met to discuss the controversial issue, bankers said Sunday.

 

Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister and Central Bank governor met Sunday with members of the country's Shura finance committee to discuss the Riyal's peg to the U.S. dollar, raising speculation of an imminent revaluation. "They said they will not change their foreign exchange policy for now," said one banker who declined to be named.

 

"For Saudi Arabia to revalue of de-peg there needs to be something extreme like other GCC countries moving away from the dollar," the banker said.Saudi Arabia's Riyal is fixed at a rate of around 3.72 to the U.S.dollar.

 

Riyadh-based daily al Eqtisadiah reported Saturday that Saudi Arabian officials were to discuss raising the exchange value of the Saudi riyal to the U.S. dollar during the meeting.The meeting between the Shura finance committee, comprised of members appointed by King Abdullah, Ibrahim Al Assaf, Saudi finance minister, and Saud Al Sayyari, head of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, addressed the impact of further U.S. interest rate cuts on the Saudi economy.

 

Gulf central bankers are struggling to follow U.S. Fed moves to head off an economic recession as the region's oil-rich economies continue to boom. The Fed has lowered the federal funds rate 225 basis points since September, including 125 basis points last month alone. Interest rate cuts and the weak U.S. dollar are helping fuel record inflation in the region and undermine record oil earnings.

Inflation Risk

Qatar recorded inflation at 13.7% in December, Saudi inflation hit 6.5% in the same month - the highest in more than 12 years. Oman's inflation figure for November was a 16-year high of 7.6% and analysts put U.A.E. inflation at above 10% for the same year.

 

Gulf states that peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar for easier currency management must match Fed rate moves to avoid speculative inflows of funds aimed at exploiting interest-rate differentials.Policy makers in the Gulf appear split over any coordinated moves by the economic group known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, to change existing foreign exchange policies.

 

Mohammed Al-Jasser, Saudi Arabia's deputy central bank governor, told Zawya Dow Jones last month that Persian Gulf Arab states should maintain their currency pegs to the U.S. dollar regardless of rampant inflation in the region or the impact of U.S. rate cuts. Al-Jasser's opposition to a change in policy is not shared by all Gulf states.

 

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, Qatar's Prime Minister, said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Qatar was studying possibly delinking its currency from the greenback.Kuwait, the third largest oil producer in the GCC after Saudi and the U.A.E., abandoned its policy of pegging its currency to the U.S. dollar last year in favor of an exchange rate band.

Fresh News

The US based Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin urged the government to introduce fast track courts to enable the speedy disposal of real estate disputes back home.

 

Over 69 percent of NRIs in Gulf plan to quit their jobs this year as per one survey by Arabianbusiness.com. Dissatisfaction with job was led by Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE while Bahrain registered the highest level of company loyalty.

 

Britain will launch its new points based immigration system from February 29 to be applied only to fresh applicants.

 

It has been clarified that Right to Information Act that applies all over the country also holds true for Indian missions abroad.

 

178 seats will be given to Non-Resident Indians admitted under NRI quotas in Kerala engineering colleges.

 

Etihad Airways will boost its flying programme to India with the addition of four new destinations. It will add Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Kozhikode to its expanding global network.

 

The 113th annual Maramon convention is being held on the riverbed of Pampa at Maramon, near Kozhencherry, from February 10 to 17.

 

Sebi has stated that art funds cannot be set up without obtaining a certificate of registration from it.

 

The price of rice, staple diet of people in Kerala, has seen a steep rise in recent times, climbing around 40 percent in the last one year.

 

A Civil Defence Training Institute (CDTI) will soon come up in Kerala to impart training in disaster management.

 

Nilambur Gram Panchayat in Kerala stands out as a role model for lakhs of villages as it is the first village to achieve total primary education.

 

Kerala’s Education Rules Reforms Committee wants to ban religious worship in schools. 

Interesting One Liners

 

Ø Join army, see the world, meet interesting people and kill them.

 

Ø Until I was 13, I thought my name was 'Shut Up.'

 

Ø I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

 

Ø Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

 

Ø The road to success is always under construction.

 

Ø Work is fine if it doesn't take up too much of your time.

 

Ø When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

 

Ø Born free; taxed to death.

 

Ø Everyone has a photographic memory; some people just don't have film.

 

Ø Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.

 

Ø Smile -- it makes people wonder what you're up to.

 

Ø I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.

 

Ø A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and    the   blinking red light.

 

Ø The hardest part of skating is the ice.

 

Ø The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot; the guy who invented the other three, was a genius.

 

Ø The trouble with being punctual is that there's no one present there to appreciate it.

 

Ø If you tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the universe, he'll     believe you. But if you tell him that a park bench has just been painted, he will touch it to be sure.

 

Ø If you can't convince them, confuse them.

 

Ø It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.

 

Ø I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

 

Ø Someday is not a day of the week

 

Ø When I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.

Fresh News

US-based Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), a leading organisation of Indians living abroad has urged the government to introduce fast-track courts to facilitate speedy disposal of their real estate disputes back home.

 

Sebastian P. Augustine, a farmer in Kerala who got patent rights for his wine from tender coconut, wants the government to use the product as a USP to promote tourism in the state.

 

Maramon (Kerala): Kerala is once again set to host the Maramon convention, billed as the largest Christian congregation in Asia.

 

Kerala has launched a major campaign to wipe out mosquitoes before the onset of monsoon with the help of Rs.480 million ($12 million) financial .

 

The Kerala government has mooted a separate pilgrimage season for women at Sabarimala Ayyappa temple; to end the controversy over ban on the entry of women of certain age groups at the hill shrine.

Jesse Lauriston Livermore - on Speculation

"In a bull market your game is to buy and hold until you believe that the bull market is near its end."

"My dear boy," said old Partridge, in great distress "my dear boy, if I sold that stock now I'd lose my position; and then where would I be?"

"It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!"

"Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon."

"The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight."

"He really meant to tell them that the big money was not in the individual fluctuations but in the main movements that is, not in reading the tape but in sizing up the entire market and its trend."

"Obviously the thing to do was to be bullish in a bull market and bearish in a bear market."

"When your security is acting right, you can safely add to your line from then forward!"

"When I buy stocks for a rise I like to pay top prices and when I sell I must sell low or not at all."

"When this happens I sell the stock short that is, technically. In other words, I sell more stock than I actually hold."

"Experience has proved to me that real money made in speculating has been in commitments in a stock or commodity showing a profit right from the start."

"It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade, than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance."

"If my stock does not act as I anticipated, I immediately determine that the time is not yet ripe – so I close out my commitment."

"The price pattern reminds you that every movement of importance is but a repetition of similar price movements, that just as soon as you can familiarize yourself with the actions of the past, you will be able to anticipate and act correctly and profitably upon forthcoming movements."

"From my point of view, the investors are the big gamblers. They make a bet, stay with it, and if all goes wrong, they lose it all."

"A great many smashes by brilliant men can be traced directly to the swelled head — an expensive disease everywhere to everybody, but particularly in Wall Street to a speculator."

"There is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side"

Joel Greenblatt - Investing Quotes

"Figure out what something is worth and pay a lot less."

"Again, it is all about valuing businesses and paying a lot less."

"If I plug my estimates into the Magic Formula, and it comes out cheap, that's good."

Fresh News

The Kerala government on Thursday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court favouring entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

 

Milk may become costlier by up to Rs.3 a litre in Kerala as the Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Milma) Thursday proposed a hike to encourage dairy farming.

 

Kerala has launched a major campaign to wipe out mosquitoes before the onset of monsoon with the help of Rs.480 million ($12 million) financial assistance from the central government, the state's health minister said here Thursday.

 

Air India Express has planned to expand its operations from Bahrain to Kerala from 10 flights per week to 13.

 

A high-level panel appointed by the Kerala Government has recommended banning religious worship at private schools receiving financial aid from Government.

Fresh News

Acute milk shortage looms ahead of Kerala as Karnataka may soon reduce the quantum of milk supplies to the state.

 

Kerala's seafood industry, facing its worst crisis in more than 50 years following a steep fall in exports and decline in prices, seeks Government help.

 

Organic fruit and vegetable cleanser prepared from extracts of microbes and citric acid, claiming to clean pesticide and insecticide residues, was launched on Saturday in the Kerala market.

 

The Garib Rath, touted as the poor man’s air-conditioned luxury train, will ply between Mumbai-Kollam (Kerala) on the Konkan Railway’s (KR).

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday assured Kerala that a rail coach factory will be set up in the state.

 

Riesterer is a US-based massage therapist and has volunteered to destress elephants in Kerala.

 

Leading NRI labour MP Keith Vaz has introduced a bill in the House of Commons seeking a more ethnically-balanced Parliament in the UK.

SBI Mutual Fund Scores High in Global Ranking

In the recently announced Lipper Ranking study, two of SBI Mutual Fund's schemes SBI Magnum Tax Gain and SBI Magnum COMMA Funds are rated amongst the best performing schemes across the world.

 

SBI Magnum COMMA Fund-Growth -

SBI Magnum COMMA Fund-Growth has secured a rank of  69   (one-year total return of  86.01 % in INR as on 31st Dec 07) among the 100 top performing equity funds in the world during the year 2007, as per Lipper data.

 

SBI Magnum Tax Gain Scheme-Dividend-

SBI Magnum Tax Gain Scheme-Dividend has secured a rank of 1st in India and 3rd in the World over a 5 year period (5-year  annual compounded return of  73.97 % in INR as on 31st Dec 07) among the 100 top performing equity funds in the world during the year 2007, as per Lipper data.

 

Data source: Lipper, a Reuters Company (www.lipperweb.com)

Proposed Land Reforms in Kerala

Kerala is embarking on a process of major reform that will change the way land is bought and sold in the State. And also in the way it is put to various uses. But the laws will take time to be put in place.

 

Computerisation of government departments is one step. As for now, computerisation included, resurvey of land, fair value fixation, having a land information system, digitising of land records and other works have only been partially completed at some places or yet to begin in most others. A great deal of coordination between Government departments is required to implement the reforms in an appropriate manner.

 

Draft policy

 

Minister for Revenue K.P. Rajendran has come up with a paper on the draft policy, which will be discussed with experts and officials and then be presented to the Assembly in the final format. Discussions will be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Kannur regarding the draft on land policy reform.

 

Considering the State’s diversity, each place will have its own uniqueness that will have to be taken into account before allowing developmental activities, as also drawing the line for reform. The reforms have become imminent as the land mafia had been active in the State for quite some time, pushing up land prices to unbelievable levels in a short period, said an official.

 

The linking of registration, survey and revenue departments will be one of the most important steps. This will be perhaps one of the first steps in modernising the system that will help in implementing reforms.

 

Fair values

 

Fixing of fair value, the work for which is currently going on, will be done scientifically and it will be reviewed after a minimum period. The new fair-value system, if introduced, will be actually helpful as most of the NRIs, who are leading land buyers, can enter into land deals without having to bother about paying money in black.

 

The government is working on putting up a land information system in place that would also give information about the wetlands in the State. The State will also have a Wetland Management System. Such information will help protect rivers, backwaters, ponds and canals from pollution. Land conversion will be strictly regulated, according to the draft of the policy document.

 

Different zones

 

The land in the State will be divided into different zones and land use patterns will be defined. This will help check conversion of land. The land use patterns will be revised periodically by a State-level committee set up with experts in the field. Expertise from the technical research institutes in this sector will be used effectively for deciding the land use patterns. There will also be district-level review committees.

 

Land encroachment in costal zones will be strictly monitored and steps will be taken by the government on a par with the countries that have developed technologies to protect their coastal areas.

 

Rules to counter paddy field conservation will be strengthened. The State will declare certain areas as paddy zones. No conversion of land from this zone will be allowed. Environment protection will be ensured for any development activity by setting up a regional three-tier governing committee, which will have members from different government departments and representatives of non-government organisations. The draft also says that government will not give away land on private ownership basis to industries or corporate houses, instead it will be given on long lease.

 

According to officials in the Ministry, the industrialists will not have to worry about land availability as the government will lease out land. But the ground reality remains that the State does not have land available for such use to the extent that the neighbouring states do.

 

The lease amount will also be revised periodically based on definite parameters. There are proposals to systematise the lease system by correcting the anomalies. The Government will also annul the land lease of those who do not follow the lease rules.

 

New system

 

The government is also thinking in terms of making the transactions as open as possible by introducing a new system during registration. While now the photographs of the buyer and seller are important now, the new system will make it compulsory for those involved to appear at the registration office, where photographs will be taken and affixed to the registration document. The new system will be somewhat like what the one being followed by the Karnataka government, said an official. This would perhaps help the curb relentless land grabbing activity of some major real estate groups as the law does not allow an individual to accrue more than 15 acres of land. Digitising land records will help easily identifying and locating mass purchases. There is also a move to create a land bank system that would make all the unaccounted government land accounted for. This is important to check encroachments on Government land that usually goes undetected for a long time.

 

Land bank

 

The government proposes to set up a Kerala State Land Bank that would be responsible for protecting the Government land lying scattered throughout the State. Such a bank would also be useful in easily identifying and leasing out government land for industrial purposes or other purposes.

 

Resurvey of land is going on in the State. The laborious process that involves conducting adalats to settle disputes will take at least three years to complete. It has been completed only in 700-odd villages. The Revenue Department will also have a website soon. Information about land and records will be posted on the website. Touch screens booths will be available to examine the land records and a facility will be provided to take copies of the record. There will also be a toll free citizen’s call centre that can be used by the public to find out any information, clear doubts and even register complaints regarding any land disputes.

 

Under the present circumstances, the ceiling of 15 acres for an individual does not make much sense as real estate corporate register chunks of land under different entities. However, there is slight slowing down of the price escalation with the Government declaring that the reforms are on anvil, said a real estate dealer.

 

NRIs

 

Two important parts of the proposal that might directly affect the NRIs and individual buyers are 'Fair Value' and 'New Registration System'.

 

The fair value [lowest land value for a transaction] system will be actually helpful as most of the NRIs, who are leading land buyers, can enter into land deals without having to bother about paying money in black. The other side of it is that, the buyer and seller would end up paying a lot more govt taxes/stamp duty than they do today.

 

The 'New Registration System will make it compulsory for those involved to appear at the registration office. This rule, could make things impossible for NRIs.. Hopefully they implement it leaving exemptions for NRIs.