MEDIAS REACTION TO DEMONETISATION

The government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi began the crusade against Black money as soon as it came to power.  First of all, it asked the entire public to open Jan Dan accounts in banks therby ensuring bank account for all. In order to move towards cashless economy, it is of utmost importance that everyone has bank account. Soon after this the government gave option of people to declare their undisclosed asset abroad and bring it under Tax net. In 2016, an opportunity was given to file for Income Declaration scheme under which the tax evader would have to pay 45% tax including penalty and no questions would be asked on it. 

Then came the move of demonetisation where more than 85% of currency in circulation is sucked out of the cash system. This was a bold move.  When this was introduced, it was going to cause some inconvenience to public, but the strange fact is the way media portrayed it as discomfort for people. The media should have actually popularised this scheme in a good way and educate people on the good of it. In reality, most of the people were happy with the scheme though there were some hiccups. The point of getting too many people onboard for debate, showing few people unhappy, what they could have done is being in ground zero, they could have passed on message to Banks and government that cash is required out here at the earliest. 

When we see foreign media channels, they on one hand say India rising, praise on the demonetization scheme. The Indian media should have backed it up completely and not going behind few politicians and asking their opinion who are against such move.  The media tough having feedom in country, should look to promote India and not degrade it all the time. 

They should say on how demonetisation will help the Indian economy in long term, digitalisation of economy and so on.  The media should realise that it is our India and only we can make it better.

10 IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

10 documents to secure before you die

Keep these essential papers in place and inform at least one family member so that your heirs don't have to run from pillar to post to inherit what is rightfully theirs.

1) Primary documents

These include your birth certificate, marriage certificate, PAN card, passport, election ID card and the Aadhaar card. Will be needed when transferring assets to your heirs.

2) Insurance details

The purpose of life insurance will be defeated if your family is in the dark. Make a list of all the policies, mentioning the name of insurers, policy numbers, insured sums and the tenures.

3) Pension documents

If you have an NPS account, mention the account number and nomination details. Give the pension account number with your employer.

4) Property papers

All property-related documents should be in one place. If the property is mortgaged, keep photocopies. Mention the loan account number and the latest outstanding amount. If property is insured, mention policy coverage.

5) Bank account details

Make a list of various bank accounts, giving the name of the bank, the account number, holding pattern and the nomination details.

6) Bank locker details

Mention the name of bank, locker number, ownership pattern and whereabouts of the key. Maintain an inventory of items kept in the locker and update every time you operate it.

7) Demat account details

Give the name of depository partner, demat account number and nomination details. If possible, update the details of the securities in the demat account.

8) Other investments

Give details of the PPF account and folio numbers of other post office investments. Make a list of mutual fund investments, mentioning folio numbers, ownership pattern and nomination details.

9) Loans and Receivables

If you have taken or given private loans to relatives or friends, mention the amount and the date by when these are payable/receivable.

10) Online 10 passwords

Though these are to be kept secret, keep a list for emergency reference. Mention the website, the online ID and the password.

Keep this in mind

This information is to be kept secret and accessed only if the main breadwinner of the family has either died or is in a medical emergency.

Make sure to update the information regularly. How often you do this depends on your convenience and the changes in investments.

The information listed above is very basic. you may want to add more details of other assets along the same lines.

You may want to make an online version of this information as well, but make sure it is on a secure site.

EVERYTHING ABOUT STP

1.      What is STP

STP is a version of SIP. It helps you to invest a fixed amount in a particular fund on a monthly basis. 

2.      STP Vs SIP

In an SIP, your money moves from your bank account to a mutual fund. In an STP, it moves from one fund to another. 

3.      How it works

Its simple. First step involves accumulating investments in a fund. When you want to exit this MF scheme, you sign up for an STP and specify a new fund and monthly amount. The STP will exit your previous investment and move your money to a new fund every month.  

4.      Liquid to Equity MF

The most common use of STP is to first invest your entire investment amount in a liquid fund in lump sum and then transfer it to an equity funds at different market prices, thus averaging your costs and lowering risks.  

5.      Equity to debt MF

Another common use of STP is when you want to lower the risks of your investment, say at the age of 55. You then systematically move the funds to debt scheme that can help you protect your money until your retirement. 

6.      Capital Gains

When you start an STP, you are essentially selling your investments in an old MF scheme and buying a new one. This means you could be eligible for capital gains tax either ofr the short term or long term. Consider this before making your decision.  

7.      Exit load

Before you start an STP, don’t forget to consider the exit load on your prior MF investment. This could eat into your returns.  

NDA govt top 4 ministers achievements

NDA government has completed two years at the centre. It’s been a roller coaster ride and lets have a look at top achievements of 4 ministries

1.       Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal is a well known Chartered Accountant and investment banker and was also on the board of SBI and Bank of Baroda. He is currently a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and was earlier the National Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

As Power minister, he introduced the system of reverse coal auction where people sitting across the world can follow on real time basis and is very transparent. This was implemented after Supreme Court cancelled the coal blocks.  Now this system has been expanded to power and renewable energy as well. 

When Mr Goyal took over the charge, more than 2/3^rd of the thermal power plants in India suffered from lack of adequate amount of coal in the aftermath of coal scam.  Today, all the thermal power plants in the entire nation can ensure uninterrupted power supply.  They have an average 23 days of stock. 

There was a huge success from him on the renewable energy front and he also launched the UDAY scheme for distribution companies as a rescue plan.  He has also launched “One nation One gird One price of power”.

In a bid to make Indian households more energy efficient, GoI under: UJALA (Unnat Jyothi by Affordable LEDs for All) scheme distributed over 8 crore LED bulbs in a year across 125 cities in the country. This has lead to savings of over 2.84 crore kWh and benefitted from daily reduction of CO2 emissions of 23,000 tonnes.  The  ministry is committed to achieving the target of replacing 77 crore inefficient bulbs in India thereby saving energy of 100 billion kWh and Green house gas reduction of 80 million tonnes every year.

2.      Suresh Prabhu

Suresh Prabhu is a Chartered Accountant and is member of upper house of Parliament representing Haryana. Prabhu has held several government and semi government positions, which includes chairmanship of Maharashtra State Finance Commission, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, Member of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Board, among others. 

Suresh Prabhu’s development strategy is divided into short term and long term. Short term changes were done to bring instant relief to the passengers wherever it was possible and long term strategy was to increase the revenues for the railways and create a sustainable model. 

In the short term he has given top priority to customer satisfaction and better passenger amenities. In its bid to provide quality food to passengers, e-catering services have been started on 260 routes. He has also introduced wifi connectivity in 9 stations, improved cleanliness by fitting bio toilets, providing dust bins in non ac coaches, disposable bags for garbage disposal and many others. In the service improvement front, the speed of online booking has been increased 4 times, assured confirmed ticket or flight travel, mobile app for security of women, online booking of retiral rooms, mobile charging facilities in general coaches and in existing coaches., launching of all India helpline numbers to register complaints, security and others.  His constant emphasise on improving the customer satisfaction has changed the perspective of customers from negative to positive.

Mr Prabhu unlike previous ministers has not gone for popular measures such as announcing new trains, instead he has focused a lot on infrastructure development by raising resources from non conventional sources. Long term front, railways have got landmark achievement, where LIC will provide highest ever funding of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Three separate MOUs were signed with the states of Orissa, Jharkand and Chhatisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation of coal. E-tendering and e-auction introduced.

He is focused on increasing the speed of trains and also increasing revenues from non-fare segments (Eg:advertisements)..  Around Projects worth over Rs. 10,000 crore were introduced as part of Railyatri Upbhokta Pakhwada, which significantly improved freight and passenger services. In the first phase, 10 selected stations would be developed as model stations with improved passenger amenities.

 He also innovated the use of drones for project monitoring, and IT dashboards for performance management. He reduced the lead time for approval cycles by delegating powers at down the level.

The Indian railways has seen considerable improvement in past 2 years, but it still has long way to go.

3.       Arun Jaitely

Arun Jaitelly is a lawyer and is a senior advocate of Delhi High Court.

As he took charge of Finance ministry, he did not go for big bang popular reforms, but instead lay the foundation for achieving macro-economic stabilisation by making India ready for future to whether the storm. In 2014, every macroeconomic parameter (GDP growth rate, inflation, fiscal deficit, current account deficit) was doing very poorly.  This has been turned around. He created a social security platform on the back of financial inclusion, health security, etc. 

He has undertaken a massive increase in public expenditure to improve the money flow in economy. He has undertaken major reforms in public sector banks by giving licence to new banks. He has passed the bankruptcy bill, RERA bill. Currently efforts are on from his side to implement the GST in India.

4.       Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj is former lawyer and current minister of external affairs of India. She is the only second women to hold this position. Sushma Swaraj believes in working silently and has turned out to be one of the best cabinet ministers. 

She has been instrumental in supervision of large scale evacuation of people during crisis in Yemen, Libya and Iraq. Over 4200 Indian people, 1947 foreign nationals were rescued. The international community applauded the Indian efforts.  

She has played a great role in ensuring the drinking water supplies to Maldives when sole water desalination plant was knocked down due to fire.  Maldives water crisis was single handedly tamed by India.  

Over and above this, she took swift action to help Indians abroad in various situations like saving mans sister who was held by drug trafficking in UAE, saving a girl in Germany who was stuck without passport and money, helping a 5 year old Pakistan girl in need of liver transplant and many more.

Under her tenure, the Land boundry agreement was successfully completed with Bangladesh.