Tumchi Aamchi Mumbai

Everywhere you look, crores of people always in a hurry. Mumbai, India’s financial capital is one of the most populous cities in the world where time is money. People from all 30 states and expats share a living in this ever bustling city. It’s a tough place. Difficult to travel and almost impossible to buy a place. But Mumbai will give you a fair chance if you are willing to work hard. 

Just like Mumbai, moving on….

Business District

Mumbai has 4 business districts namely Nariman Point, Lower Parel, Bandra Kurla Complex and Andheri. Most of the private companies in India are headquartered in Mumbai. We have work hard party hard attitude. Mumbai also has the most number of bars and night life hotspots. You can get a beer at 1am in most bars of South Mumbai. Although 24x7 Mumbai is still a distant dream. Mumbai is also a port city and nearly 10% of high value land belongs to Mumbai Port Trust. It is well connected by sea routes and has ship building industry.

Mumbai has one of costliest apartments in the world. A flat in Malabar Hill area may cost you around Rs. 80000 per square foot ( Yeah.. you heard it right! ) A luxurious sky bungalow on 117^th floor in Lodha World One costs whopping 17.2 crore. We also have bollywood and last checked of BookMyShow there were 32 movies running in 9 regional languages.

Old and New

Mumbai was developed by the Portuguese and the British. Mumbai was always the best destination for business in India. In 1870, there were 6 foreign banks operating from Bombay. The Bombay Stock Exchange was established in the 1870’s. Business made Mumbai as beautiful as London and Paris. The CST building, University of Mumbai, Asiatic Society, Taj Mahal Palace, Rajabhai Tower are some of the most beautiful structures in Mumbai.

Marine Drive, Lower Parel make Mumbaikars proud. We have the best skyline in India and looking at current construction rate, we might overtake New York in 2030 by the most number of skyscrapers. The upcoming Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project with transform the face of crowded market into Mini Smart City. With FDI in construction, Mumbai skyline will see a major facelift in coming decade.

Chalo Chalo Chalo. #MumbaiLocalIn3Words

Mumbai is major design flaw. The city kept growing and but its snail run infrastructure lacked expansion. Mumbai’s lifeline is it’s local trains. They are divided into three lines namely Western, Central and Harbour. Most of the commuters travel from northen suburbs to South and Central business districts to make a living. Peak hours in Mumbai are named as ‘super dense crush load’. Trains of all three lines at the distance of three minutes and each train carries around 5000 people. Mumbai local has the highest daily ridership in the world with 26 million people. Male, Female, Old and young, there is just one strategy to travel in Mumbai – Push or be pushed.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a

Faultlines – Claim Settlement Ratio

Claim settlement is one of the most important services that an insurance company can provide to its customers. Insurance companies have an obligation to settle claims promptly. For instance, if a life insurance company receives 1000 death claims and settles 980, the claim settlement ratio of that company would be 98%.

The very purpose of insurance will be defeated if the claim is not provided for when required. This assumes all the more relevance when the beneficiaries are dependent on the insurance proceeds. In such a situation, a claim being denied will be a huge financial setback.

The fault in Statistics

The oldies in the insurance market get undue advantage while calculating claim settlement ratio. In year 2013- 14, the promising entrant in the Indian insurance market Edelweiss Tokio Insurance rejected just 10 claims according to IRDA data. In the same financial year, Life Insurance Corporation of India rejected 17000 plus claims. But still, claim ratio of LIC is high because of higher sample size.

The ratio declared is the sum total of all claims honoured by the company for all its life insurance policies and products. So what we see is the average and not the exact ratio for each type of policy -- term insurance, endowment cover, money back policy, child plan, online plan or offline, group insurance or individual cover, and so on and so forth.

Also, what we see is the figure in percentage terms, not the actual number. So it is not clear how many claims the company actually rejected.

Let's say an insurance company rejects 100 out of 1,000 claims, giving it a claim settlement ratio of 90 per cent. The next year it gets 10,000 claims but rejects 500. Its claim settlement ratio goes up to 95 per cent but it has rejected more claims.

A claim within a year or two of taking the policy calls for a detailed investigation. If there are many such claims, then it would affect the claim settlement ratio.

Also, if the sum assured is very high, then the insured undergoes varies medical check-ups before the insurance policy is issued. So these claims are processed faster giving no reason why the claim should be repudiated.

It could also be the case where policy holders have held back facts. Misstated, incorrect and insufficient data provided by individuals at the time of buying the policy could lead to claims being rejected. This is no fault of the company.

It is advised to buyers that they should consider claim settlement ratio over the number of years before making the decision to buy. 

- Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )

-         Note – The Article is sponsored by Edelweiss Tokio 

Tap2Trade for revolutionary mobile trading

With smartphone usage on the rise, mobile trading in equity market could see a huge surge in the coming years.

It is estimated that the number of people trading and investing in equity market through the mobile platform is likely to garner about 15-16 per cent of the total trade done on the stock exchanges in the next three years. Though internet-based trading is quite high now, in the future mobile based trading is expected to rise sharply.

As per NSE data, there were 32.96 lakh clients registered in equities across all members for internet trading and around 19.5 lakh to 20.5 lakh people traded daily through the internet. Edelweiss financial services has launched Tap2Trade mobile trading account which promises trading within 60 minutes after registration. Tap2Trade would use investor’s existing KRA information for startup which would enable registration in three simple steps.

The Tap2Trade account opening process empowers individuals to open an online trading account and trade using smart phones/ computers. This is a huge time saver compared to the earlier 48 hours required for the same. Minimum documents required are pan card and cancelled personalised cheque for KRA verified customers which enables  Tap2Trade online account opening in just three simple steps. Tap2Trade can be accessed either via computers or by downloading theEdelweiss Mobile Trader app. The service is initially available currently in 8 cities.

Nitin Jain, CEO, Global Asset & Wealth Management, Edelweiss Financial Services said, “Revenues and number of clients trading on the Edelweiss Mobile Trader platform has quadrupled over the last 12 months. Mobile is also the dominant platform in terms of client preference. This leads us to believe that over the next three years, we should see an 8x growth in mobile trading volumes.”

Edelweiss Tap2Trade mobile trading account has been designed on 3S framework – Simple, speed and Smart. Tap2Trade would be available on mobile as well as desktop.

Mr. Rahul Jain, Head of Retail Advisory, at Edelweiss Financial Services. “The initial response and feedback from clients has been very encouraging. Our Mobile platform is predominantly catering to trader clients and now 11% of orders go through mobile platform which was merely 4% a year ago. We also believe that this will help facilitate greater retail participation in investing into the Indian Capital markets in an equitable manner and will allow Indians to participate in the India growth opportunity. 

Edelweiss Tap2Trade is a solid step from Edelweiss towards Digital India. Download the app here.

This post has been written for the Edelweiss trading app launch event through BlogAdda

Explained : Bank of Baroda's Rs. 6100 forex scam

India's second largest public sector bank by assets is in trouble. A 6100 crore forex scam is a source of embarrassment for 107 year old bank established by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. Bank of Baroda has also brought shame to India in the time when Ministry of Finance is seeking clarification on black money stacked in countries abroad.

During the period of May 2014 to August 2015, New Delhi's Ashok Vihar branch opened 59 current accounts through which large foreign exchange remittance transactions were done. During the period of August 2014 and August 2015, Rs 3500 crore has been transferred from 38 current accounts to 400 overseas parties. Majority of the transfer were reported to Hong Kong and 1 in UAE. The branch did not adhere to Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) guidelines. FEMA Act governs all foreign exchange related transactions in India. 

The Financial Express reported that remittances were reported in the name of Hong Kong traders but the actual exports went to Afghanistan. Another newspaper DNA reported that an account was opened by South Korean citizen and immediately transferred money to the books of Jasco Ltd, a company based in Mexico City. Among other companies named in the Bank of Baroda audit, two have owners whose city of residence is India’s capital – New Delhi. One of them is Mega Forwarders and Traders Ltd – which has its office at Des Voux Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. But guess what? Its owners are two obscure men in two localities of Delhi. One of them is a fake identity with a false address, yet they managed to open a company in Hong Kong and received millions of dollars through Ashok Vihar branch of Bank of Baroda in Delhi. With terrorism on the rise, Bank of Baroda might be probed under terrorism funding inquiries set up by IMF. Previously, HSBC Bank, Arab Bank and Credit Suisse have been probed for terrorism funding.

Bank of Baroda suspected illegal transaction in July and inquired internal audit. After the forex scam being unearthed, BoB reported the case to Central Bureau of Investigation, Central Vigilance Commission, Enforcement Directorate and Reserve Bank of India. Asst General Manager, Chief Manager, Credit Manager and 2 other employees were arrested by Delhi Police. In a statement released by Bank of Baroda, authorities mentioned that the bank did not received any financial loss.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has conducted further searches at 50 locations on various companies /firms in an on-going investigation of a case related to alleged violation of banking norms. It was revealed that most of the addresses given by the companies / firms were either false or the companies / firms did not exist at the said addresses. Most of the accused persons allegedly involved in perpetration of the said crime have been identified and their interrogation is underway. There was allegedly overseas remittance of foreign exchange of Rs.6000 crore approx,

It was further alleged that the amount remitted in each transaction would be kept at less than USD 100,000. All the remittances were made to Hong Kong.  The amount was remitted as advance for import and in most of the cases, the beneficiary was the same.  Most of the foreign exchange related transactions were carried out in newly opened current accounts wherein heavy cash receipts were observed but the branch did not generate Exceptional Transaction Report (ETR) and did not monitor the high value transactions. A case has been registered by CBI under Prevention of Corruption Act against bank officials, 59 current account holders and private parties.

Similar forex scams have been reported in HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce. RBI governer Raghuram Rajan said that the investigations into the Bank of Baroda fraud will be carried on to the ultimate conclusion by both the central bank and the investigating agencies. India's 'top' banks have surely weakened India's G20 stance against black money in foreign banks.

By - Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )

Discovering Real Togetherness in Digital World

Real togetherness for me would be friends hanging out at youth oriented places. A place where I can discuss my happiness and difficulties in life over a glass of beer. A bro with whom I can discuss my life goals and he/she would listen this crap for over an hour with interest and vice versa. Real togetherness for me would be friends having debates, making vacation plans. Friends make our life awesome. No matter what you do in life, it is not legendary unless your friends are there to see it.

To me, a real relationship is something that will last forever. It is a way to recognize someone day by day and to help each other grow. It is where you accept a person the way they are with all the good and bad they have inside them. A relationship must have trust, forgiveness and understanding. 
Like for eg. A relationship between parents and their children, between siblings, between lovers. To have a successful and happy relationship one needs to trust the one they love, be forgiving and understanding. This is what I believe.

Real togetherness today is being in a long distance relationship and making it work! Internet has become a need and has brought the world closer to us…nay, in our pockets…in our phones!. No matter where you are…in whichever corner of the world, it’s possible to reach out to your loved ones through text, call, video calls and not to forget social media. Virtual has become real. If love is a feeling, the virtual world is the medium. Spread it!

Thank you for reading.

Special Thanks to Felicia & Didi

By - Chaitanya Kulkarni

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