The 2022-23 Budget has projected a disinvestment target of Rs 65,000 crore for next financial year. This is significantly lower than the estimated Rs 1.75 lakh crore budgeted for 2021-22. In the revised estimates, the target for 2021-22 has been cut to Rs 78,000 crore.
'I'm 79 + now, and I've been doing all this since my late 20s.' 'Sometimes the ideological war extends to the home as well.' 'Many nights I couldn't sleep when someone close to me uttered the smallest insult.' 'It would cause me a lot of pain. But one has to be honest to oneself.'
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, will answers your queries.
Battling a sharp surge in inflation, the Reserve Bank is all for a smooth monetary policy response and the desire to have smaller hikes led it to tighten the policy in an off-schedule meet, a source said on Thursday. Inflation has been massively impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and will in due course also reflect the dent caused by Indonesia banning palm oil exports, the source aware of central bank thinking said, indicating that there was no other option but to respond. "The idea is to have a smooth policy response, not to put in large cold turkey responses," the source said, making it clear that the preference is for smaller magnitude responses and not larger ones.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
Based on whether you choose the aviation, Bhopal or LIC numbers, and on the official death toll (in the absence of any other verifiable number), the value of human lives lost in the pandemic would range from Rs 16,500 crore to Rs 94,000 crore, explains T N Ninan.
LIC, EPFO and PSBs are likely to be asked to subscribe to bonds.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) by start-ups are bringing cheer to investors and investment bankers alike. After food delivery company Zomato, Nykaa has issued the fattest pay cheque to the managers of its share sale -- Rs 148 crore, or 2.8 per cent of its issue proceeds of Rs 5,300 crore. In absolute terms, this is the second-highest amount paid to investment bankers for handling an IPO, while in percentage terms, it is the highest for large IPOs (>$300 million) in the last one year, shows an analysis of the data provided by Prime Database, a primary market tracker.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your mutual fund queries.
It is in no way a government of the economic Right. The Right is limited to religion and nationalism. The rest is as Left as the Congress or any other party, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The government is looking to sell shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) held through Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) and is soon going to appoint an intermediary to manage it. The plan is to sell about 8 lakh shares of RIL that will help the government garner around Rs 180 crore. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will appoint an intermediary that will act as a custodian of these shares. The intermediary, based on its market analysis, will offload these shares at the best price, said an official. A final approval on the proposal is expected soon.
On the capital raising, where there are reports of the bank needing at least Rs 20,000 crore to spring back to normalcy, Yes Bank administrator Prashant Kumar declined to give an estimate of the requirement but said it would like for most of the fund raising to happen in the first round itself.
RSS-aligned Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Monday expressed disappointment over the government's budget proposals with regard to divestment and foreign direct investment, especially in the insurance sector. The BMS, however, lauded the government for its current efforts on the massive vaccination programme, a special scheme for tea workers in West Bengal and Assam, labour oriented push on infrastructure projects in construction sector and development of five major fishing harbours viz. Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat as hubs for economic activities etc. On other Budget proposals, it said in a statement that "mixing the beautiful concept of Aatmanirbhar Bharat with FDI and disinvestment in the Union Budget is disappointing for the employees".
Much of the tardy reaction to competition is the result of LIC's legacy.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Services such as deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearance and loan approvals would be affected due to the strike.
The finance ministry has proposed to decriminalise a host of minor offences, including those relating to cheque bounce and repayment of loans, in as many as 19 legislations to help businesses tide over the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The 19 legislations include Negotiable Instruments Act (cheque bounce), SARFAESI Act (repayment of bank loans), LIC Act, PFRDA Act, RBI Act, NHB Act, Banking Regulation Act and Chit Funds Act.
LIC contested the insurance claim. Consumer activist Jehangir B Gai tells you how this claim was won.
United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, has given a call for a two-day strike from March 15 to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders. In the Union Budget presented last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan. The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
Under the new IRDA regime, LIC has launched two new non-linked plans Bima Account I and Bima Account II. The plans guarantee minimum returns, transparent charges and provide risk cover.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
After a hiatus of nearly two decades, the government's programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group. With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of the 'Maharaja', this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation, and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
About Rs 4,257 crore worth of bids have been received so far and the Centre hopes that retail investors - those investing up to Rs 2 lakh - will place bids worth at least Rs 750 crore.
After a stellar run in 2021 that saw the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 clock gains of 20 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, global equity markets, including India, are gearing up to welcome 2022 on a cautious note. For one, new variants of the Covid -19 infection that make current vaccines less effective is one of the key risks worth flagging, analysts said. Inflation was also a risk for this asset class in 2021, although most market participants expect that the current elevated inflation levels will be transitory.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
These products are extremely transparent and are the lowest charged products in the insurance space. The policyholder has to only pay the fund management charge. Hence, from the cost side, ULIPs are very competitive.
People who have recovered from coronavirus infection will have to wait for up to three months before they can take a new life insurance policy, with insurers making the waiting period requirement applicable for coronavirus cases like other ailments. As a standard practice, all life and health insurance companies require people to wait for a specific period with respect to certain ailments and diseases to gauge the risk before selling a policy. This condition of waiting period for people who have recovered from coronavirus infection will be applicable only for life insurance policies.
Bank strike continued for day-two on Tuesday, led by nine unions of public sector banks (PSBs) in the country, opposing government's policy to privatise the lenders. Customers will be inconvenienced to get services such as cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearances, remittance services. Government transactions related to treasury as well as business transactions will also be impacted. United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, had given a strike call for March 15 and 16.
'Earning expectations remain strong.'
India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) will support Tata group's bid for soon-to-be-privatised Air India by subscribing to Tata Sons debentures or funding the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Tata Sons for the acquisition. Bankers said the credit rating of Tata group's holding company is "AAA" signifying high safety and a combination of Air India with its existing airline businesses would make it a formidable player - leading to a duopoly market with IndiGo. It would also open many business opportunities, including in the retail segment, an official said.
India's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India on Monday announced its intention to foray into health insurance sector jointly with another company, which could be a PSU general insurer.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has got into firefighting mode to control the reputational damage caused by the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) order against its former managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna and others. According to sources, the exchange's management over the past one week has met several key stakeholders, including officials in the finance ministry and Sebi, major shareholders, and trading members, trying to distance itself from the controversy. The exchange plans to hold more meetings in the coming week to ensure that trading volumes and confidence in the bourse don't get impacted, they added.
With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of 'Maharaja' this would be the highest ever amount garnered through privatisation or even the cumulative sum garnered through strategic sale in 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had garnered roughly over Rs 5,000 crore during that five-year period by privatising 10 CPSEs.
The commission said its agents are more interested in making a quick buck by getting more policies for the company and they show scant regard to the interest of the policy holder.