PensionIndia

Provisional results from the 2011 census of India show a diminishing population, the lowest since independence in 1947. From 2001 to 2007, India's population grew 17.6%, compared to a 20% to 25% growth rate in previous periods since the 1951 census. Even so, India is expected to virtually catch up with China in population by 2020, with United Nations forecasts showing a less than 1 million advantage for China. By 2025, the UN forecasts that India will lead China by more than 50 million people.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday issued guidelines to allow banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to sponsor infrastructure debt funds (IDFs).

The RBI guidelines on IDFs are based on the parameters that the central bank had issued in September.

NBFCs trying to set up IDFs should have been operational for at least five years, should have minimum net owned funds of Rs. 3bn and a capital adequacy ratio of 15%.

Largest truck maker in India by sales Tata Motors jumped 7.59% to Rs. 173.85 and was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. The stock had lost 11.36% in prior three trading sessions. On BSE, 28.30 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 26.89 shares in the past two weeks.

Key benchmark indices pared losses as bargain hunting emerged after recent steep slide. The 50-unit S&P CNX Nifty regained psychological 5,000 mark, after falling below that mark earlier in the day. The BSE Sensex was down 116.47 points or 0.7%, up about 120 points from the day's low and off close to 105 points from the day's high. The broad market depicted weakness. The market breadth was quite weak. Weak corporate earning and euro-zone debt worries weighed on sentiment. With Italy's benchmark sovereign yield above the key 7% level, concerns about European defaults rose.

India's cabinet has approved allowing foreign direct investment in the country's burgeoning pension sector as it looks to press ahead with stalled economic reforms.

Global financial players have long been lobbying for access to the lucrative pension sector that is expected to expand rapidly as millions of young Indians join the work force in the world's second most populous nation.

The change is contained in a proposed pension bill to be considered by parliament during the winter session which begins next week and is seen by investors as a key economic reform.

The government today approved amendments to the PFRDA Bill 2011 while agreeing to the proposed 26 per cent foreign investment in the pension sector but refrained from providing assured returns to subscribers in the proposed law.

The government had decided not to mention FDI cap in the legislation itself for retaining the flexibility of changing it through an executive order. The 26 per cent FDI cap is to be mentioned in the regulations to the legislation.

The changes to the PFRDA Bill were approved by the Union Cabinet at its meeting here.

The government is likely to finalise changes in the PFRDA Bill, 2011, today with a view to incorporating suggestions made by a Parliamentary Committee on the pension legislation.

The amendments to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, which has been pending with Parliament, are scheduled to be taken up for consideration by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, sources said.

Only a few months ago, an executive from the top reverse mortgage lender called me and said it felt as though we were living through Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail.”

Much like the movie, many any of the institutions that helped build the industry were disappearing overnight. Obviously on a smaller scale, but nonetheless just as dramatic for many of us who have built businesses on top of this industry as the largest reverse mortgage lenders exited one after the other.

India has made small savings more attractive in an effort to woo
small investors and enlarge the national savings pool, a notification
from the finance ministry on Friday showed.
The government borrows money from this pool of small savings to
finance its deficit, but for the current fiscal year, the finance
ministry had to resort to higher-than-budgeted market borrowings by as
much as Rs 530 billion (USD 10.57 billion) as there were insufficient
funds in the National Small Savings Fund.

Pensioners may soon feel more welcome at public sector bank counters,
as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked public sector lenders to
improvise their pension services. According to an RBI survey on
complaints on pension services, 95 per cent were unhappy with the
services of public sector banks.