Tag: Finance

Finance ministry’s own division shares EC’s concerns on electoral bonds & transparency

Loknath Das

Amendments proposed that contributions received through electoral bonds be excluded from political donations act | Wikipedia The Financial Sector Reforms and Legislation Division has agreed with the EC’s view, which is that the new laws are ‘retrograde’ and need to be withdrawn. New Delhi: The Election Commission’s concerns over the transparency of electoral bonds, introduced via the Finance Act, 2017, have been supported by the Financial Sector Reforms and Legislation Division of the finance ministry. According to an RTI filed by activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), an official email from the…

Read More

Family finance: Why Pune-based Agarwals are on the right track to achieving their money goals

Loknath Das

Sahil Agarwal, an IT consultant, stays with his homemaker wife and one-year-old child, in Pune. He stays on rent, even though he has his own house, which provides a rental income of Rs 12,000 a month. Combined with Agarwal’s monthly salary of Rs 91,000, his total income comes to Rs 1.03 lakh. The household expenses amount to Rs 57,000, insurance premium accounts for Rs 4,583, and Rs 25,000 is put into investments. This leaves Agarwal with a surplus of Rs 16,417. His portfolio comprises a house worth Rs 70 lakh, cash of…

Read More

5 personal finance lessons from biopic Sanju

Loknath Das

Sanjay Dutt’s biopic Sanju  is breaking records on domestic box office collection. This movie has decent entertainment value across age groups. Sanjay Dutt’s life story could also provide with some important personal finance lessons. Here are some of them: i. Blindly following friends’/relatives’ advice is bad In our network, we are surrounded by people who cannot be trusted. In movie it’s displayed, Sanju’s friend consumes glucose but persuades him to consume drugs. Such ‘friends’ just love your money and don’t care for you. Similarly, there are so-called well-wishers who recommend us to…

Read More

Same-Sex Visa Win in Hong Kong Pressures Other Asia Finance Hubs

Loknath Das

Bloomberg’s Tweed looks at the implications of H.K.’s ruling to grant visas to spouses of gay expatriate workers. A landmark Hong Kong court ruling granting visas to spouses of gay expatriate workers will help fuel LGBT groups pressuring Singapore and Japan to change their policies as the global financial hubs vie for business and talent. The top court’s decision puts Asia’s premier financial hub at the forefront of the nascent movement for gay rights in Asia, where only Taiwan is in the process of recognizing same-sex marriage. Law firms and banks —…

Read More

How fintech companies are bringing the magic of the digital frontier into finance

Loknath Das

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and Gujarat to Assam, fintechs, the new and trendy financial companies, have become darlings of investment angels. The odds of the fabulous and trendy fintechs beating banks are narrowing by the day. The fintech threat to the banking industry is no longer a headline. It is close to an accord. China is one of the clearest examples: Tencent and Ant Financial absorbed huge chunks of the payments market which was overwhelmed with big banks and their spaghetti-like Information Technology infrastructure. But fintechs are a new league…

Read More

Shriram Transport Finance stock up 9% post-clarification on SVL loan matter

Loknath Das

Shriram Transport Finance Corporation share price rebounded 9 percent after the company’s clarification note on SVL loan soothed investors’ sentiment. The stock had fallen 12 percent in previous session as investors had turned cautious of a guarantee of Rs 870 crore provided by the firm for its unlisted subsidiary. Shriram Transport Finance Corporation issued clarification note yesterday, saying SVL Limited, its promoters / promoter group, and its associates, have enough resources to honour the payment of this loan whenever due and payable has reassured the same. The company had given corporate…

Read More

Buy Repco Home Finance; target of Rs 684: Cholamandalam Securities

Loknath Das

Cholamandalam Securities’ research report on Repco Home Finance   RHFL’s loan book grew at moderate rate (10.3%YoY, 3.9%QoQ) to INR 99bn on the back of higher disbursements (27.7% YoY, 29.2% QoQ). In 4QFY18, Sanctions grew by 32.2% YoY (19.4% QoQ) which poses healthy loan growth trajectory for coming quarters. The management expects loan book to grow by ~20% in FY19E (15% growth in TN and 20-25% growth in ex-TN regions) and disbursements by 35-36% in FY19E. Growth in loan book was led by salaried segment (18.8%YoY). Non-salaried segment witnessed a moderate…

Read More

Finance firm chief barred for ‘serious incompetence’

Loknath Das

The Royal Court In what has been described as a ‘landmark case’ for the financial regulator and the industry, the Royal Court rejected David Jonathan Francis’s appeal against the decision of the Jersey Financial Services Commission to publicly criticise his business activities and to bar him from practice. Mr Francis was the subject of a JFSC public statement issued in 2013, which heavily criticised his actions while he was the chief executive and a major shareholder of Horizon Trustees (Jersey) Limited. A judgment made by the Royal Court on 4…

Read More

In Karnataka, HD Kumaraswamy’s Party Gets Finance, Congress Home Ministry

Loknath Das

NEW DELHI:  After days of negotiation, HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal Secular and the Congress have finalized the division of power — with the crucial finance ministry going to the regional party and the home department to the Congress. The cabinet expansion is expected over the week-end, said party sources. The Congress is expected to get 22 of the 34 ministries and the JD(S) 12. Last week, only Chief Minister Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara of the Congress took oath amid speculation of conflict between the coalition partners over cabinet…

Read More

See N Chandrasekaran as a software man with niche in finance: Vallabh Bhanshali

Loknath Das

N Chandrasekaran completes a year as Tata Sons’ Chairman and keeps to his promise of stabilising the conglomerate by simplifying the structure. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vallabh Bhanshali, Chairman of Enam Securities shared his views on the same. Bhanshali said that would rate Chandra’s performance as 9 on 10 this year, as Tata Group Chairman. He further said that Chandra provides an exemplary depiction of an uncluttered mind. I see Chandra as a software man with niche in finance, he added. He also mentioned that subject to external limitations,…

Read More