PERSONAL FINANCE


At the height of the economic crisis in India in the early 1990s, I left the country to join a bank in Dubai. Early on, I found out how the personnel (now called human resources-HR) department works there.   HR departments in banks in the Middle East were headed by nationals,...

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Moneylife Digital Team 04 June 2022
A minority shareholder group of 11 shareholders, constituting  a total shareholding of around 13.67%, has called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) flagging concerns about the working of Dhanalaxm Bank. The causes for calling this meeting, as stated by those requisitioning the EGM,...

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Why is middle management the lost tribe?    Often, when I look at middle management (MM) in the corporate world, I am inclined to describe it as the ‘lost tribe’ of biblical times. They are caught between running with the fox and chasing with the hound. It is a group which is caught...

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Maya M 04 June 2022
Quite often, many (and sometimes hidden) terms & conditions (T&Cs), such as long waiting periods on pre-existing diseases (PEDs) or caps on room charges, become a source of disappointment and frustration when one really needs health insurance. Nobody likes claim rejections or going...

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Moneylife Digital Team 01 June 2022
According to the just-released Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) annual report, during FY21-22, 79,669 fake notes of Rs500 were detected, which is 101.9% higher in comparison to FY20-21’s figure of 39,453 notes. On the other hand, 13,604 fake notes of Rs2,000 were detected in FY21-22, 54.6%...

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Labour unions used to be a major thorn in the side of corporate managers in India, along with the demons of inspector-raj, goonda-raj, and income tax (I-T)-raj.   Having grown up in Kolkata in the 1950s and 1960s, I had seen what unions could do when they grew nasty. My uncle had been...

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Moneylife Digital Team 27 May 2022
For a long time, mental illness-related expenses were not covered under health insurance in India. Only physical health ailments and disorders came within the ambit of health insurance plans. Fortunately, we are now seeing a shift in the trend, in the past couple of years. The Insurance...

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Some bad news for the vehicle-owners already affected by the accelerating fuel price increase.   From 1 June 2022 onwards, the motor third party liability insurance premium has been jacked up by the Central government, despite the portfolio being hugely profitable for the...

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Does the game change?   An article of a 1,000 words is too small to explain the significant challenges that one faces in a digital world. That is why my colleague (Brian Almeida) and I wrote a book titled Marketing in a Data/ Digital World (available on Amazon). This was a book...

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Sponsored Post 17 May 2022
While home loan interest rates have been rising recently, especially in the last month, they continue to remain attractive overall. For instance, current rates are still relatively low compared to the recent few years.   Being eligible for a lower interest rate home loan is easy but...

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I reached office at 8.30 one morning to find my head peon waiting for me at the door. This was most unusual, because he was not on duty until 10.30. Besides, he had a very worried look.   “Bahut gadbad ho gaya, Saab” (a big mess has happened, Sir) he said and told me the...

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About ten years ago, V Subbiah, the presiding head of a well-respected business family in south India, which has been in business for the last 150 years, spoke to the media. He had worked out a transition from 'family managed' to 'professionally managed' administration for all the companies...

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HDFC on Saturday announced that it would raise its Retail Prime Lending Rate (RPLR) by 30 basis points.   It would lead to an identical hike in home loan rates for exiting customers.   The hike will come into effect from May 9.   It had recently increased its benchmark...

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After post-Covid tremors at Unacademy and BYJU's-owned WhiteHat Jr, it is now the turn of another edtech major Vedantu which is laying off nearly 200 employees, as the heat grows on the edtech industry that is struggling to sustain their business model amid the "hybrid normal".   In a...

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Sponsored Post 04 May 2022
If you are buying motor insurance in India for the first time, you may be baffled by the various types of insurance coverage available in the market. Besides mandatory car insurance policies like third party liability and comprehensive car insurance, you can opt for several top-up covers or...

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Every bank had several unions, generally one or two major ones. Bank management did not want any battles with the unions. Hence, bank managers had to ‘manage’ the unions and not create any issues.   If you were a manager, every action of yours that even remotely affected the staff...

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Does one have to be unpleasant, and appear brusque, in order to save time? This is a question we have to ask many times in our personal encounters. Often you are only guilty of being firm - and are guarding that most precious and un-storable resource – TIME!   Some years ago, I was...

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The Central government has extended the duration of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), an insurance scheme for healthcare workers fighting Covid-19, for a further period of 180 days from April 19, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.   The scheme has...

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Ramesh was the senior-most officer in the branch where I was operations manager, 40 years in service and counting.     His childhood ambition was to join the army, but (un)luckily his colour blindness was spotted in the medical examination and he was rejected. His uncle got him a...

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The non-life insurance sector closed last fiscal with about 11 per cent growth over the previous year, said the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).   According to it, the general insurance industry had earned a total premium of Rs 220,634.73 crore as...

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