Free National Roaming - NTP 2012

The Cabinet has approved New Telecom Policy 2012 that would let telecom users avail free roaming across the country. It would also offer Full Mobile Number Portability (MNP) that would let the customers retain their number even if they shift from one circle to another, anywhere in the country without any extra charges.

This would introduce single license across India under a new unified licence regime and the operators doesn’t need separate license. Under this licensing regime, licence has been delinked from spectrum to reduce different licenses.

The new policy would separate licences and airwaves, allowing carriers to share airwaves. There is no time frame when the new policy would be implemented. Pricing and spectrum allocation would be announced later.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) will now start process to implement full mobile number portability allowing users to retain their existing number at the time of changing their service providers across any state in the country.

However, consumers will have to wait for some time before roaming charges are abolished and one-number-one-nation concept implement as DoT will first work out modalities of the new scheme before it is brought into force.

The NTP 2012 envisages increasing penetration of telecom services in rural area from current level of around 39 to 70 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by the year 2020.

Under the new policy broadband speed has been increased to minimum of 2 megabit per second (mbps). This change will come into force with immediate effect.

With the new policy getting approved, telecom licences have been delinked from spectrum which was earlier bundled with the licences.

The NTP 2012 will allow operators to provide services based on any technology by using airwaves and will not restrict them to use it for particular service using any specific frequency band.

At present, there are frequencies which are specifically used for providing GSM or CDMA services as per the permit given to the companies.

 

Post by Prabu Rangarajan

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Zurker - Own your Social Network

Zurker isn't owned by a select few venture capitalists who stand to make billions and billions. There is nothing wrong with the idea of venture capitalists making billions from tech investments, but in the case of a social network, the priorities get skewed.
If social networks are owned by VC's and investment banks (such as Goldman Sachs) and other investors looking purely for profit, they gradually become orientated towards one thing and one thing only: making money. How do we mine more data from the users? How do we monetize their every action? How do we get them addicted to paid apps which improve the bottom line?
It's not a bad thing for a social network to make money, but if squeezing every last penny from the user base is the abiding concern, the users aren't going to get the best possible product.

Try it
http://www.zurker.in

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Oru Kal Oru Kannadi Movie Review

"Oru Kal Oru Kannadi" (One Stone, One Mirror) which was touted to be the perfect launch pad of Udayanithi Stalin as a hero falls flat on its face. The major contributor being the dull story and the screenplay. Director Rajesh seems to be obsessed with the boy meeting a girl and falling in love story. The same storyline has been followed in this film too as was his previous two films. The only difference being his previous two films had good performers to carry the film through but in his latest venture, Udayanithi Stalin fails miserably as an actor.

Saravanan (Udayanithi Stalin) and Partha (Santhanam) are best buddies working together in Sathyam Cinemas. Saravanan comes across Meera (Hansika Motwani) an air hostess trainee with Kingfisher Airlines. Saravanan follows Meera who happens to be the daughter of Chennai DCP (Shiyaji Shinde). What happens thereafter and what are the confusions that take place between them is told in this 165 minutes long film.

Santhanam happens to be the only saving grace, who moves the film forward which his timely one-liners. Hansika Motwani in glamorous costumes gives the front benchers much to cheer about. Azhagam Perumal, Saranya and Uma Padmanabhan play supporting roles while Arya, Sneha and Andrea play guest roles.

Harris Jeyaraj seems to be totally out of sorts in this film. It is the money power of Red Giant Movies that has made it possible to have this film released in theatres and its box-office fortunes are nothing but doomed.

"Oru Kal Oru Kannadi" is a disappointing film.

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Cheque validity reduced to 3 (three) months

The Reserve Bank of India in a recent circular has directed that with effect from April 1, 2012, banks should not make payment of cheques /drafts / pay orders / banker’s cheques if they are presented beyond the period of three months from the date of such instrument. Its worthy to make note of the above guidelines. Cheques/drafts/payorder/bankers cheques issued on and after 1st April, 2012 will be valid only for a period of three months. However, please note that the instruments which are issued prior to 1st April. 2012 will remain valid for 6 months from the date of issue.

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Upanishad ganga

Chinmaya Mission proudly presents the “First of its Kind” tele-serial “Upanishad Ganga”; to be aired on Doordarshan's National network(DD1),  every Sunday between 10:00 - 10:30 am for 52 weeks, from 11th March 2012.

Upanishad Ganga is a mammoth effort covering the entire gamut on Indian Culture, Heritage, Philosophy and Wisdom spanning more than 5000 years. In this serial, the knowledge of ‘Upanishads’is explained in a modern context through stories.  It can transform our life, ennoble our vision, purify our hearts and inspire our efforts with selflessness. 

Its a great service to our culture, our country and humanity to spread the knowledge of the Upanishads.  It is dedicated to revive the glorious cultural heritage and pride in the Spiritual Genius of Bharat.    Conceptualized by Swami Tejomayananda, Global Head - Chinmaya Mission, it is Directed by Dr.Chandraprakash Dwivedi (of Chankya fame), and acted by many renowned TV actors, this serial is produced by ‘Chinmaya Creations’.  Please pass on this message to many more.  Let the knowledge of the Upanishads flow uninterrupted like the Ganga and touch the hearts of everyone.

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The World's First Bollywood Movie Auditioned on Facebook

Nissan conducted auditions on facebook and invited fans to be a part of a bollywood film which features the 20 winners along with Ranbir Kapoor & 100 Nissan Micras.

New Star of India ~ KeepWrite ~

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Say No to Readymade Pension Plans; Say Yes to Customized Retirement Planner for India

Readymade Pension Plans/ Retirement Plans:
The existing pension plans/ retirement plans in India are from the insurance companies. They are available in the form of traditional products or in the form of ULIP schemes.
Indian Traditional Retirement Plan:
The traditional pension plan/retirement plan schemes from Indian insurance companies are expected to deliver only 6% to 7% CAGR as they are allowed to invest only in conservative avenues.
This 6% or 7% is not sufficient to beat inflation.
Indian ULIP Retirement Plan:
The ulip pension/retirement plans have huge front loaded charges. They also have higher regular running expenses and fund management expenses which pulls down the net return. That’s why market has rejected these products and they have become failures.
Customized Retirement Planner for India:
As a prudent investor, you should not rely on a single product or scheme for your retirement planning. A comprehensive and customized Indian retirement plan should consist of a bundle of schemes and not a single scheme.
Also you need to avoid schemes which deliver lesser return and schemes with huge charges. You need to select a combination of schemes which as a combination can deliver a decent inflation adjusted returns with low charges.
Schemes for Pre-Retirement Planner in India:
A combination of Term Insurance, Mutual Funds, and PPF will help you in creating a better pre-retirement planner in India.
Term Insurance:
In case of any mishappening to you, your spouse’s retired life needs to be secured. This can be protected with adequate term insurance. Online term insurance policies are cheaper by 50% to 60%. So opt for online term insurance instead of an offline term insurance.
Mutual Funds:
Equity mutual funds play a vital role in delivering positive inflation adjusted returns. Short term and Medium term debt funds are better alternatives to fixed deposits as they can deliver better post tax return.

PPF:
PPF delivers 8.6% tax free return. It has got a lock in of 15 years. One can save upto Rs.1 lac p.a. Safety and its tax free status makes this product a compelling option for an Indian pre-retirement planner.
Schemes for Post-Retirement Planner in India:
A combination of schemes like POMIS, Senior Citizen’s Savings Scheme, Bank FD, Mutual Fund MIPs and Debt funds could be considered for creating a post-retirement planner in India.

Creating an Indian Retirement planner
We have discussed enough about why should we have a Customised Indian Retirement Planner in the place of a readymade pension/retirement plan. Let us think about how to create a comprehensive and customized retirement planner for India.
1. Lifestage:
In this step, as an Indian retirement planner, you need to answer two questions. One is “How many years from now you are planning to retire?” and the other one is “ Your Estimation of Post-retirement years”. Studies reveal that the average life expectancy of an Indian is 75 years. But it is advisable to assume 85 years as your life expectancy so as to make sure that you will be covered enough during your post retirement.
2. Expected Retirement Expenses:
Again in this step you need to have an answer or 2 questions. The first one is “what will be retirement expenses in today’s cost of living”. Research reports show that approximately 70% of your current expenses will be your retirement expenses. The second question is “what would be the expected rate of inflation on these expenses”.
3. Expected Retirement Income:
The first question to be answered is “What is the expected amount to be received at the time of retirement from schemes like EPF, superannuation, pension commutation, gratuity?”. The second question to be answered would be is “What is the annual income you expect from the sources like pension schemes, rent, royalty?”.
4. Existing Investments:
“What is the current value of the investments made towards retirement?” and “What is the expected return from these investments?” are the questions to be answered in this step.

5. Working out the Retirement Planner:
We are going to work out the retirement planner in this step with the answers from the earlier steps.
a) You need to find out the future value of the retirement expenses with the present value of retirement expenses, number of years to retire, and the inflation assumed.
b) The expected retirement income by way of rent, pension, royalty need to be deducted from the retirement expenses (calculated in the point (a)) to arrive at the net retirement income to be generated from the retirement corpus.
c) Then the retirement corpus needs to be calculated by taking into account the net retirement income (calculated in the point above point), number of retirement years, inflation assumed post-retirement.
d) The retirement benefits like pension commutation, gratuity, superannuation, EPF needs to be deducted from the retirement corpus (calculated in the point (c)) to arrive the net retirement corpus required.
e) The monthly investment required to accumulate this net retirement corpus needs to be calculated taking into account the existing investments, and the rate of return from the investments.
The detailed approach for creating a comprehensive and customized Indian Retirement Planner is well explained in the above five steps.
Role of a Financial Planner in Creating an Indian Retirement Planner
• A professional financial planner will be able to take into account ‘the rate at which your income grows’ to decide the monthly investment towards the retirement corpus.
• Also the financial planner will be able to decide the asset allocation for your portfolio based on the required rate of income to accumulate the net retirement corpus.
• The financial planner will be suggesting you the right mix of schemes for your pre-retirement planner and post retirement planner.
• Also the professional financial planner will be able to tell you the required life insurance coverage and the health insurance coverage and when you need to opt for health insurance coverage.
• Periodical review on the retirement planner has been conducted by the financial planner so as to accommodate the changes and deviation from the original retirement planner.
You can be a “do it yourself” Indian retirement planner or “seeking professional assistance” Indian retirement planner, the above points will help you in having a happy and peaceful retired life.
The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Director and Chief Financial Planner of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/mutualfund-sip) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

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Leak Proofing your Personal Finance to build Wealth

Financial plumbing
Many have a tendency to complain about inflation, taxes and EMI’s as deterrents to saving and investments. But the question is are we making a conscious effort to save and control spending? Do we have any financial leak and are we ignoring them?
My intention is not to confuse, but to emphasize that you need to fix these leaks. So that you can create and build wealth that can last for a lifetime.
Arun, a marketing professional earning Rs. 24lacs per annum post tax was surprised how his friend Girish who earned just Rs. 18lakh per annum and having similar family conditions could save and invest. Taking Girish into confidence he explained his problems. Girish gave him a patient and empathic hearing. Girish explained where Arun spent unnecessarily or created financial leaks and how these leaks could be plumbed. This could make Arun feel financiallt fulfilled in his life.
The financial leaks:
In addition to his necessary expenses, Arun spent a lot on things that were unnecessary and unhealthy. Some of the financial leaks or avoidable expenses included his smoking and drinking expenses. Since he belonged to the upper status of society Arun believed that drinking and entertaining his friends and colleagues with foreign liquor at least once a month was essential. This even took up about Rs.1.5laks to 2lakhs of his annual income.
In addition Arun dined in star hotels at least once a month, with dining out in other restaurants at least twice a week. This took up about Rs.1.5laks annually. The family believed in shopping in expensive malls and watching movies in multiplex that cost him about Rs.300000 per annum. In addition there was the yearly recreation and other lifestyle expenses.
Method of financial plumbing:
Girish emphasized to Arun to cut down on his cigarettes and alcohol to not only save money and invest, but also to care for his health. In addition Girish suggested that he find other healthy ways to relax like doing deep breathing, meditation and relaxation exercises daily. Next he suggested that he entertained his friends in more healthy ways and minimized his visits to star hotels and restaurants for a meal.
He told Arun that dining at home, experimenting on their new favorite recipes. Cooking together as a family provided the togetherness and helped to get the family’s cooperation in meeting the savings goals. Shopping just for essential needs, with entertainment in theaters or watching videos at home instead of visiting multiplex theaters saved money on tickets and in travelling to these theaters that were on the outskirts of the city.
I am sure we all could relate and find some that could identify with our spending habit patterns.
Your excellent life balance sheet:
Just have a look at how fixing financial leaks could help:
 Your monthly unhealthy expenditure of Rs10000 on alcohol, if invested at 12% would give you a corpus of Rs. 23, 00, 386 in 10 years and Rs. 98,92,553, in 20 years.

 Next your unhealthy monthly expenditure of Rs.2000 on cigarettes will grow to
Rs.4, 60, 077 in 10years and Rs. 19, 78, 511 in 20 years at the same rate of growth!

 Similarly, your extra unwarranted expenditure of watching movies at multiplex and shopping in malls of Rs.5000 each month would grow to Rs.11,50,193, in 10 years and to get Rs. 49,46,277 in 20 years at the same growth rate!

 Cutting on extra dining out expenses of just Rs.5000 per month could accumulate Rs. 11, 50,193 and Rs. 49, 46, 277 in 10 years and 20 years at the same interest rate!

 Aren’t you surprised this amounts to 50 lakhs in 10 years and 2.17crores in 20 years with a mere cutting Rs.22,000 a month? You are more healthy and financially sufficient all your life!

 Plumbing some other financial leaks switching off fans, heaters, air-conditioners and other electric and electronic appliances when not in use would help make savings and the energy crisis!

 Avoiding financial leaks with avoiding the use of credit card unless very necessary would help avoid payment of high interest. Detesting the idea of just making payment of minimum amount on credit card outstanding balances is one of the worst financial leaks. This applies also to giving priority to paying off low interest loans in favor of high interest loans.

 Next avoiding the financial leak of paying high interests paid on loans, with earning lower interests in savings accounts and fixed deposits is important.
Conclusion:
Hope you are set ready to fix your financial leaks and to channellise the extra savings in a fruitful investment option. Here’s the road map to riches. Fix your financial leaks; get extra savings; invest the extra savings properly; become wealthier.


The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Director and Chief Financial Planner of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

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To be or not to be in equity

Are You a Lender?
A study revealed that only 47% of Indian households had bank account. In addition every 3 out of 4 households had a quarterly bank balance of only Rs.5000. With the recent savings bank account de-regulation many banks have raised their interest rate by 1%. But households would not benefit much, as banks could charge increased transaction fees to offset increased cost, and also the additional interest income from savings account is negligible.
A further study has revealed many other interesting facts. Most Indians prefer to be lenders and not owners that have enterprise.
We tend to play safe and prefer to be lenders by investing in fixed deposits and debentures of banks and companies. Investing in fixed deposit or debentures gives us a fixed interest. The bank in turn lends money to others for interest and makes a profit on the difference between the borrowing rate and lending rate.
Do you want to be an owner?
You can be a lender by investing in fixed deposits of SBI. Also you can be a part owner of SBI by investing in its shares.
As a part owner you would not get a fixed return in the form of interest. Since you own the company partly, you would share in profits or losses. You would get a part of the profits in proportion of the shares owned by you. Owning means risk-taking with the chance to get higher returns than lending to the bank or companies by making fixed deposit with them.
Suppose, Tomorrow Tata motors comes out with 12%interest paying debenture, what will be the response? There will be a huge response. It will definitely be oversubscribed. All investors will not get the allotment.
For a moment, just think. If TATA motors was to pay 12% interest to debenture holders, then it need make more than 12% with the borrowed money. Will you benefit more by being a lender (debentureholder) or part owner (Shareholder) of TATA Motors?
Lending or owning?
We as Indians should be proud to be a part of a developing country. Owning would give us an opportunity for long term capital appreciation and growth. However it is best to understand that the Sensex may fluctuate, but an increase is definite over a period of time.
In the last 10 years, sensex gas grown at 17.79% CAGR. That means, if someone could have invested Rs. 1 lac 10 years back, it could have grown to 5.14 lacs. In the last 10 years one third of diversified equity mutual funds have delivered a CAGR of more than 25%. That means if someone could have invested 10 years back in these mutual funds Rs.1lac, it could have grown to Rs.9.31 Lacs.

So the coming decade post 2011 is the golden period for owning. This period would help the so called middle-class people to build wealth. With the middleclass aspiring for quality education for children, quality healthcare for their family and a decent lifestyle after retirement, owning equity is the only time-tested means to get a decent inflation adjusted returns. So we need to get our long term perspective right and start owning equities.
Asset allocation:
Owning and investing in shares means creating wealth with a long term perspective. But balancing the way we invest matters.
First, we need to allocate some amount of money for risk coverage. This could include money set aside for insurance, medical insurance and critical illness coverage. Next we all need to set aside money in liquid sources as savings accounts / bank deposit / liquid funds that would come handy in contingencies like loss of job and sudden illness. Then money required for short and medium term needs has to be set aside in debt investments.
Once this is done you are free to buy equities and build wealth. Equities can beat out all other investment categories in the long run. Equity is one of the few investments which can give you a positive return after adjusting for inflation.
Last but most important, feeling motivated that you are an owner would make a significant impact on the way you multiply your wealth. It would also give you the positive spirit and affirmation to stand by your decisions during the downs of the economic market.
The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Director and Chief Financial Planner of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

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