Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In January, Visa's chief executive officer, Al Kelly, said during an earnings call that "there's been a burst of the balloon in valuations in the fintech world". Noting that the trend of lower valuations "is a helpful characteristic of the current environment", he added: "We will look for capabilities and management teams that will bring more value to Visa than we can bring ourselves." Data from KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H2'22 shows that global fintech investment - via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms - at $164.1 billion in 2022, was down 31 per cent over the year before. Indian fintechs held up better during this timeframe, attracting $6 billion, or a fall of 24 per cent.
Investors should avoid jumping from their current funds into those that have outperformed lately, advises Arnav Pandya, a certified financial planner.
While the RBI's guidelines aim to streamline the loan closure process, borrowers must remain proactive.
Making a strong case for banning cryptocurrencies, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar on Monday said they are even worse than ponzi schemes and threaten the financial sovereignty of a country. Observing that crypto-technology is underpinned by a philosophy to evade government controls, he said they have been specifically developed to bypass the regulated financial system. More substantially, he added, cryptocurrencies can wreck the currency system, monetary authority, banking system, and in general the government's ability to control the economy.
Subramanian said a five per cent growth rate is "remotely not enough" for India to grow and provide the jobs for the expanding labour force.
Markets regulator Sebi's proposal of treating all orders emanating from application programming interface (API) as algorithmic or algo order can restrict the growth of such trading in India, brokerage houses said on Monday. In market parlance, algo trading refers to any order that is generated using automated execution logic. The algo trading system automatically monitors the live stock prices and initiates an order when the given criteria are met.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India does not seem to have understood the enormity of what funds have been up to. If Sebi does not crack down on mutual funds using cooked-up credit ratings to hide behind promoter funding, this is bound to grow into a systemic menace, says Debashis Basu.But MFs decided to become lenders without the legal backing to secure themselves, or the skillset to assess lending risk. If Sebi does not crack down on mutual funds using cooked-up credit ratings to hide behind promoter funding, this is bound to grow into a systemic menace, says Debashis Basu.
NBFCs which have not met Sebi criteria will face tough action.
Shedding its opposition, the Bar Council of India (BCI) on Wednesday took a significant decision to permit foreign lawyers and law firms to practise in areas such as foreign law, international legal issues and arbitration matters, saying that the legal fraternity here may be left behind if it sleeps over the matter.
Sebi also allowed foreign investors to own up to 15 per cent stake in domestic stock and commodity exchanges
Enter multi-cap funds only if you can stay invested for the long term.
A bank account is a must to get the refund and those without it have been asked by Sebi to open an account with a scheduled bank.
Financial planners also believe that retail investors should avoid the IPOs or direct stock route because it is too risky for them.
Writes to Trai, Mumbai Police to catch unauthorised SMS senders
'India should start leveraging rather than banning crypto.'
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has tweaked the benchmarking norms for mutual fund (MF) schemes in a bid to bring more uniformity. The regulator has introduced a two-tiered structure for benchmarking of schemes and all the benchmarks followed should be total return index (TRI). According to the circular, the first-tier benchmark shall be reflective of the category of the scheme, and the second-tier benchmark should be demonstrative of the fund manager's investment style or strategy within the category.
Entities which qualify include stock exchanges, depositories, technology incubators and associations of private equity or angel investors.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your personal income tax queries.
Widening of the tax base, doing away with cess and surcharge, improvement in compliance and moderation in tax for emerging sectors are some of the suggestions submitted to the Finance Ministry ahead of the Budget by Think Change Forum (TCF). Experts are of the opinion that there is a need to grow tax revenues for the government to drive economic growth and make investments in developmental activities, TCF, the think tank said in a statement. Towards this end, poor compliance was identified as a weak link in achieving targeted collections leading to complex issues like overtaxing, complicated tax structures, rising litigation, among others.
Restrict investment to Rs 50,000 for tax benefits, experts tell Sanjay Kumar Singh, but caution that taxation at maturity and compulsory annuities are dampers.
India Inc on Thursday pitched for continuation of reforms while ensuring tax and policy stability in the forthcoming Budget to prop up the economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the virtual pre-Budget consultation held with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, industry chambers said that government measures will help firmly entrench the nascent signs of recovery being currently seen in private investment. Capital expenditure by the government through enhanced infrastructure spending should in the meantime continue to support growth, CII president TV Narendran said.
Market regulator Sebi to support stert-ups raise funds.
This is aimed at improving liquidity in all schemes and would help them to meet sudden redemption pressures, said Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi.
Edible oil major Adani Wilmar Ltd (AWL) on Monday filed the draft red herring prospectus with markets regulator Sebi for an initial public offer to raise up to Rs 4,500 crore. The company, which sells cooking oils under the Fortune brand, is a major player in the edible oil industry.
For the banking system a new cycle starts in FY2024. It's fraught with fresh challenges on asset quality and profitability, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Companies providing portfolio management services (PMS) had a tough time beating the benchmark index in January, with more than half of the schemes invested in large companies underperforming in the run-up to the Union Budget. The Nifty 50 index was down 2.5 per cent during the month. Only around 44 per cent of PMS schemes did better, among the schemes investing in large-cap companies. The analysis is based on data from industry tracker PMS Bazaar. Half the mid-cap schemes outperformed, while the rest underperformed.
While experts' views are divided, the move is aimed at improving the coordination between the government and the regulator.
Many banks' profits will take a hit and a few of them could even end up being in the red because of treasury losses, triggered by a sudden spike in government bond yields in the rising interest rate cycle, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to expand by 9.2 per cent in the current financial year, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22 tabled in the parliament on Monday. "Advance estimates suggest that the Indian economy is expected to witness real GDP expansion of 9.2 per cent in 2021-22 after contracting in 2020-21. "This implies that overall economic activity has recovered past the pre-pandemic levels," Economic Survey noted. Almost all indicators show that the economic impact of the "second wave" in Q1 was much smaller than that experienced during the full lockdown phase in 2020-21 even though the health impact was more severe, it said.
'It could tempt investors to pick stocks that are not fundamentally sound.'
Sinha started his tenure at Sebi a bit shakily making people wonder if he'd complete his three years. Eventually, he went on to stay twice that long.
One thing is for sure: It smacks of the regulator's lack of confidence in the bank's board, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
They researched their companies well, didn't believe in the market chatter and advise to stay invested for long term.
Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Wednesday said India is expected to hit a growth rate of 6.5-7 per cent in 2022-23 and accelerate further to 8 per cent in the subsequent years on the back of reforms undertaken by the government. He also said the government is expected to meet the fiscal deficit target of 6.8 per cent in the current fiscal despite pressure on revenue collections.
One fear among regulators is that allowing side pocketing could lead to fund managers taking higher risks. Even in the US, side pocketing is not allowed in mutual funds, only in hedge funds
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Why can't we have a sunset clause for the ARCs, which is a global norm? questions Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'If I had to highlight one area that will do well, it is the financial assets -- that is the private sector banks, insurance and mutual funds.'
But there are challenges, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances