Even as the government harps on the virtues of paying taxes, fake cards of Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) are proliferating. In December 2005, a top Income Tax official told this writer that the number of PAN cards issued is nearly twice the number of Income Tax assessees. We now know that 43 million PAN cards have been issued, while the last available data with this writer indicates that...

Bajaj Allianz claims to have become number one, beating ICICI Prudential for market leadership among private life insurers. It claims the most consistent, month-on-month growth. But ICICI Prudential disputes almost all of Bajaj's claims.

The main bone of contention is UnitGain Single Premium product of Bajaj. This had no lock-in and was more like a mutual fund. It propelled Bajaj to the top...

After Chartered Accountant and Certified Financial Analysts, now comes the Certified Financial Planner. CAs have traditionally helped wealthy individuals manage their money, mainly from the tax angle while CFAs apply sophisticated techniques to analysing stocks for big financial firms. CFPs are for the individuals. They help manage money for those who have a nest egg or are creating one....