October 2017

02Oct

India. Should NPS managers invest in mutual funds?

The National Pension System (NPS) has dedicated fund managers, called pension fund managers (PFMs), to manage the money you invest in it. But did you know, when you choose to let your NPS money be invested in equity, they are allowed to invest it in mutual funds? For you, as an NPS subscriber, this means added costs because you pay an investment fee to the pension fund managers apart from bearing the underlying expenses of mutual funds. Among the...

October 2, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...

September 2017

26Sep

CPPIB allocates $1 billion for Indian public market investments

Not all foreign funds are balking at Indian equities -spooked by rich valuations, slow corporate earnings or at the growing prospects of interest rate hikes in the US. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the most active Canadian investor in India, has just reaffirmed its commitment, by allocating a dedicated $1-billion corpus, exclusively for public market investments, said multiple sources aware. As one of the 10 largest retirement funds in the world, the initial thesis of CPPIB has been to...

September 26, 2017
News, Slider,
Read more...
25Sep

India. A year on, still no decision on pension fund managers

On 17 September 2016, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) invited fresh bids for managing funds for the private sector National Pension System (NPS). But a year later, the authority is yet to finalise the bids and issue fresh licences to the pension fund managers (PFMs) of NPS. In the interim, the managers continue to operate through an extension. “The request for proposal for the PFMs was valid till July. However, the regulator sought an extension of...

September 25, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
08Sep

Financial Literacy and Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Opportunities

By Dinesha P. T. Sr. (University of Mysore) In India, financial literacy could now be only for the disadvantaged needy / underprivileged / poor but this is a continuous process where all citizens of the country should be periodically educated, which would become a certain tool to pave for the economic growth and the strength of the country. Recently our Prime Minister has announced series of ambitious social security schemes, relating to the pension and insurance sector and intended at...

September 8, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Labor Market, Slider-Left, ,
Read more...

August 2017

31Aug

India. Pension ecosystem: New body needed to bring all retirement funds under its umbrella

At a time when personal savings, unlike in the past, fetch insubstantial returns, the current generation of employees is concerned over its post-retirement existence. There are also added features to modern-day life, with changing demographic structure, enhanced longevity, etc. Pension payout is becoming an ever-growing burden on the exchequer, and might become excessive, as has happened in Brazil. In India’s case, this is occurring at a time when almost 110 million people of retirement-age are not covered by any...

August 31, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
08Aug

India. Can Pensioners Be Divided Into Arbitrary Categories To Deny Rightful Pension, SC Set To Give A Ruling

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Uday Umesh Lalit, on August 1 concluded hearing the arguments and reserved its judgment in the case of United Bank of India v United Bank of India Retirees Welfare Association & Others. This is an appeal against the Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench judgment, delivered on September 26 last year. The case raises an interesting issue on whether an invidious classification can be made between employees, who retired before...

August 8, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
08Aug

India. Want to invest 50% of govt staff pension fund in market, says regulator

India’s pension regulator, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), has written to the government seeking approval to invest 50 per cent of the funds contributed by government employees under the National Pension Scheme (NPS), its flagship scheme in stocks. This signals a major shift considering that only 15 per cent of such funds are now routed to the stock markets. The NPS now has a corpus of Rs 198,000 crore with 87 per cent — Rs 172,260 crore...

August 8, 2017
News
Read more...
04Aug

India. Government pension scheme to offer fixed rate of interest to investors

Interest rates will "slowly" become "reasonable", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, a day after the RBI cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent. He also said that the government insurer LIC has come out with a pension scheme to offer fixed rate of interest to investors. A day after the RBI cut the interest rates, Jaitley said lending rate of 14-15 per cent will make India uncompetitive in the global market and industry cannot invest at such higher interest...

August 4, 2017
News
Read more...

July 2017

31Jul

Can Regulatory Sandbox Nurture India’s FinTech Innovation?

The Indian financial services sector is undergoing major changes today. With more than 600 startups in the space of lending, payments, insurance and trading space, Fintech startups are not only spearheading innovation, but are also prompting traditional banks and financial institutions to explore new technologies and investing heavily in digital service delivery channels. However, fintech startups unlike others face additional challenges of operating in a heavily regulated industry and have stiff competition as their key competitors are well established banking...

July 31, 2017
News
Read more...
05Jul

India. Penniless KSRTC fails to pay salary, pension

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is running from pillar to post to mobilise Rs. 300 crore needed to pay this month’s salary and wages of employees and empanelled staff and three-and-a-half months’ pension arrears to retirees. With the government not coming forward to bail out the ailing corporation with a further loan to pay the salary and pension, the management of the transport utility is groping in the dark to mobilise funds. Though the KSRTC approached the Kerala...

July 5, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...