SBI in Middle Easta

Middle-east consists of several Arab nations. Of this, GCC refers to Gulf Co-operation Council. GCC consists of 6 nations - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emirates.

·         Saudi Arabia - Capital is Riyadh, Commercial Capital is Jeddah where a branch of SBI is proposed.

·         Bahrain - Capital Bahrain, SBI has two branches - one FCB and another OBU.

·         Kuwait- Capital Kuwait - No branch of SBI.

·         Qatar - Capital Doha - SBI manages an exchange company here - Trust Exchange

·         Oman - Capital Muscat - SBI has a branch here and also manages an exchange company - Mustafa Sultan Exchange.

·         UAE - Capital Abu Dhabi. SBI has an office in Dubai operating out of Dubai International Financial Centre and SBI team is placed at Emirates India International Exchange.

This is apart from tie up with various other Exchange Companies.

UAE consists of 6 different emirates (similar to our states) - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Um Al Qwain. One Business Development Manager is place at Dubai and another at Sharjah.

Fresh News

Delhi High Court allowed lawyers of NRIs to represent NRIs in family courts during certain proceedings.

 

Works for the parallel bridge to replace the worn out Moidu bridge on the National Highway between Kannur and Thalassery is likely to begin shortly.

 

Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan will inaugurate the 5th Kerala Travel Mart-2008 (KTM) at Hotel Le Meridien Convention Centre.

 

Left Democratic Front Government in Kerala on Friday decided to allow special economic zone SEZs with certain conditions.

 

SBI enhances NRE and FCNB rates by 0.50 percentage.

Fresh News

Oman Air the national carrier of Oman will celebrate Onam in the skies, by serving Onam Sadhya (Onam Feast) on board Oman Air flights operating to Kerala.

 

The Government of Kerala is in the process of floating a company for the development of Kannur Airport.

 

Reliance to open more supermarkets in Kerala.

 

Jet to start daily flights between Kerala, Muscat.

 

Kerala has tied up with Mahindra Holidays and Resorts to promote home stays in the state.

 

Kerala is seen to be making good progress in its effort to develop its numerous minor ports.

 

Naascom study has found Kerala as a State, which has high potential for IT-BPO.

 

The Indian government has planned to ease the rules for PIOs procuring land by removing RBI and valid visa clauses.

 

India's rupee fell to the lowest level in almost two years on speculation investors and importers stepped up purchases of the U.S. currency as the dollar rallied against the euro.

 

A list of 'immigration risk' countries has been compiled by the Australian authorities that may make it more difficult for Indian students wanting admission to Australia.

 

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has stated that India wants to make education affordable for NRI students.

 

The Canadian government has introduced new flexibilities in their work permit policy, one of which permits foreign students in Canada to stay in the country for three years after their studies and explore job opportunities.

 

Illustrious NRI conductor Zubin Mehta was named a recipient of Japan's Praemium Imperiale Award for his life's work with Western classical orchestras around the world.

 

Lakshmi Mittal, the London-based NRI steel tycoon, is being conferred the Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest recognition of global business success bestowed by the US business magazine for what it calls "a hero of entrepreneurial capitalism".

Persons of Indian origin with the status of Pravasi Bharatiya under the Overseas Citizens Act will now enjoy the same rights as citizens of India do, as far as the Right to Information Act is concerned.

Fun - Happy Birthday

A lady goes for a job interview in an office. The interviewer decides to start with the basics. "So, miss, can you tell us your age, please?"

 

The lady counts carefully on her fingers for about 30 seconds before replying "Ehhhh .. 22!".

 

The interviewer looks at her a little puzzled and then tries another straightforward one to break the ice. "And can you tell us your height, please?".

 

The young lady stands up and produces a measuring tape from her handbag. She then traps one end under her foot and extends the tape to the top of her head. She checks the measurement and announces "Five foot two!"

 

This isn't looking good so the interviewer goes for the real basics. "And ehh, just to confirm for our records, your name

please?"

 

The lady bobs her head from side to side for about twenty seconds, mouthing something silently to herself, before replying "Mandy!".

 

The interviewer is completely baffled at this stage, so he asks, "Just out of curiosity, miss. We can understand your counting on your fingers to work out your age, and the measuring tape for your height is obvious, but what were you doing when we asked you your name?"

 

"Ohh that!", she replies, "That's just me running through, 'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....' ."

Top News

·         US Dollar reached its 17 months high of Rs 44 in August. Please read the Investment page for more on this.

·         Hindustan Aeronautics to set up big unit at the Kinfra Industrial Park in Kasargod district.

·         The Kerala unit of CPM decided to distance itself from further land reforms.

·         Customers of SBI can now send money from Saudi Arabia thru SBI Express facility at Arab National Bank and can get money credited in their account within 24 hours electronically at very low charges. SBI Express in also available at all major exchange companies in Gulf.

·         Kerala witnesses 20.37% jump in arrival foreign tourists.

·         SBI Life is now ranked 2nd in amongst the New Generation Life Insurance Players.

·         NRI/PIO scholarships common test to be held in October.

·         Kerala Government decided to acquire over 1000 hectares of land at Vizhinjam to build port. Defence ministry clears the port.

·         UAE has issued a new mortgage law to regulate the country’s real estate sector and to protect the rights of lenders and borrowers and improve transparency.

·         Kerala government will set up an electronics park in Kasargod district.

·         KTDC, Etihad Holidays in talks to develop tour packages to Kerala.

·         Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or NRI Day is scheduled at Chennai Jan 7 to 9. A website www.pbindia.org is launched for online registration.

·         The next two day mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is to be held in Singapore this October.

·         Several IT parks will be set up in Kerala in the next few months.

·         US has proposed changes to the rules for hiring temporary workers under the H-2B visa programme with provision to deny visas to nationals of countries including India.

·         Real Estate Consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said that by 2025 almost 600 million Indians will have enough to invest in British residential property.

·         India to put in place a mechanism to help Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of Caribbean Islands to trace their roots in India.

·         Population of NRIs in Qatar is now more than double the indigenous Qatari population.

·         Foreign students heading for Britain will be faced with tough new controls. Bahrain will now give Indians two week visit visas on arrival to attract tourists.

·         Kerala gave the green signal for setting up a medical university in Thrissur.

·         NRK Sandesham & SBI’s Kerala Circle wishes all our readers/customers very happy Onam and Ramadan Mubarak.

Investments

Stock Market

Markets continue to remain uncertain & rangebound and searching for direction. Factors like a little cooling of crude prices and inflation are limiting the downside while upside is capped due to fear of global and local slowdown. FII are net sellers on most days while local institutions are not buying aggressively. Interest rates may further go up which is not good for the markets. Rupee fell to Rs 44 per dollar. Falling Rupee compounds losses of foreign investors. It is expected that market may remain in a range of 13,000 to 16,000 in coming months unless something unexpected happens.

 

Dollar/Commodities

US Dollar reached its 17 months high of Rs 44 in August. It is a good time for NRIs to send money to India as they will get more rupees per dollar sent although future movements of US Dollar cannot be predicted. After displaying lot of volatility commodity prices including crude oil and gold are getting stabilised.

Real Estate Projects

Those who are planning to buy a flat in Trivandrum can consider a new project by Olive Builders (www.olivebuilder.com). Olive Cressida, Technopark, Trivandrum project is located on a beautiful landscape besides Technopark with two & three bedroom apartment blocks ranging 1362 to 1772 sq.ft with all modern amenities. Contact - SBI Home Loan Sales Team : - Premanandan +91-9447510099, Rajagopal +91-9447511022 for details.

US Sub-Prime Crisis - Simplified

·         The word ‘Sub-prime’ means a borrower of very low credit worthiness like borrowers with very low income or with bad loan repayment history. Mortgage or Home loans given to sub-prime borrowers are called sub-prime mortgages.

·         From year 2001 to 2004 USA Federal Reserve cut interest rates drastically to boost the economy after recession in 2001. This led to availability of easy & cheap money and this created subsequent boom in Housing Market/Real Estate as people utilised cheap credit to buy homes.

·         Everybody was convinced at that time that home prices would keep on rising every year. Banks and Financial Institutions started considering Home Loans as safe loans thinking that ever rising prices of homes would be sufficient to cover Home Loan and interest.

·         Due the this confidence Banks started offering Home Loans to sub-prime borrowers who would not have otherwise eligible for such loans. Banks were happy as they were able to charge higher interest rate to such borrowers. Borrowers were happy as they could get loans easily. Home prices got further boost due to such loans.

·         Most of these loans were repackaged as bonds and sold to investors all around world. These investors include banks and financial institutions who purchased such instruments to get higher returns. Now it is very difficult to precisely quantify the total losses suffered by all investors.

·         Federal Reserve started increasing interest rates from 2004 to 2006 and simultaneously Home prices started declining.

·         Suddenly borrowers realised that they had to pay higher interest on their old loans while the homes they own were losing value on regular basis. Many started defaulting on repayments.

·         Banks found it difficult to recover the loans as they noticed that value of Homes were much below the loan amounts given by them. They have to make huge provisions for losses.

·         Investors around the world who invested in these loans/bonds suffered huge losses.

·         Risk Aversion - Foreign Institutional Investors started withdrawing their investment from countries like India to compensate for their losses at home and to reduce the risks associated with their investments.

·         Credit Crunch - Financial Institutions reduced the number/amount of loans sanctioned by them.

·         The whole development caused home prices to further fall and started a vicious cycle were financial system all over the word got further affected resulting in global slowdown in growth.

·         Federal Reserve tried to fight the problem by reducing the interest rates, but this caused commodities Bull Run and inflation. Some of the financial institutions fail and borrowers, Banks, Investors keep suffering.

·         It is not easy to quantify the extent of losses/write offs and time required for financial systems to recover from this crisis. USA and Europe are the major regions affected. Emerging markets like India suffer indirectly thru Risk Aversion by global investors, global slowdown, inflation, credit-crunch (non availability of funds for companies).

Fun

Anger & Madness

A little girl asked her father, "Dad, what is the difference between anger and exasperation?"

"It's mostly a matter of degree." the dad replied. "Let me show you what I mean".

With that the dad picked up the phone and dialled a number at random. A man answered the phone and the dad says, "Hello, is James there?"

The man on the other end answered, "I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number. There's nobody here by that name."

The father hangs up and immediately hits redial, "Hello, is James there?" asks the father. "Now listen, there's nobody here by that name so quit bothering me!" The dad listens as the man slams the phone down. You see, says the dad, he is starting to get angry.

He hits redial and a loud voice comes on the line. "HELLO!" the man yells. "Yes, is James there?” asks the father calmly. "Are you crazy?" the man screams, " I told you James doesn't live here so don't call back again!" then he slams the phone down again.

"Did you hear that?" the father asked the little girl, "Now that is what anger sounds like." "Now you're going to hear exasperation." He picked the phone up and hit redial again. "HELLO!" boomed the voice on the other end.

"Hello" the dad says politely, "This is James, have I had any calls?"

 

Funny Quotes

"Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.."

 

"When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car"