Dr M Khalid's global village blog

Since mobile banking has become more popular in India, issues like malware, SIM swaps, etc have increased according to a 2014-15 report of Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt Ltd on banking fraud. Mobile banking, which is gaining appeal due to its convenience comes with several concerns as well. Banking fraud via sim swap is a reality. It is also hard to stop as fraudsters carry out identity theft, then get your current SIM blocked and purchase duplicate SIMs from service provider outlets using forged ID proofs. The OTPs are then received on that SIM and it is then used to carry out financial transactions in your name. What to do after banking fraud? –You should get in touch with your bank immediately, and get all your cards hotlisted or change your login credentials immediately. Take a complaint reference number and follow it up. –The cyber crimes unit run an online fraud and banking fraud cell. If you are a victim of such a fraud, you should immediately approach the cyber cell and file a det

The government on Thursday extended the last date for use of the denotified Rs 500 notes till December 15, and stopped the over-the-counter exchange of cash with immediate effect. However, the banned notes will continue to be exchanged for new currency at RBI counters According to the ministry of finance, Rs 1,000 notes would no longer be allowed to be used for the list of exemptions the government had announced. These notes can, however, be deposited in bank accounts. The statement on Thursday also expanded the exemptions to include payment of fees up to Rs 2,000 per student in central and state government colleges as well as central government, state government, municipality and local body schools. Following is a list of areas added or modified where the concession to use the denotified Rs 500 notes will be applicable from Thursday midnight to December 15, 2016: - Payments towards pre-paid mobile recharges to a limit of Rs 500 per top-up - Purchase from consumer cooperative stores li

Seven FAQs on Gold Monetization Scheme 1. What kind of gold can be deposited under the scheme? What is the minimum and maximum quantity which can be deposited? Gold in any form, bullion or jewelry can be deposited. However jewelry with embedded stones are not be accepted. The minimum amount of gold which will be accepted as a deposit is 30 grams of 995 fineness. There is no upper limit for deposition. 2. What will be the tenure of deposit? The tenure for deposit has been distributed into three term plans which are as follows: i. Short term: 1 to 3 years ii. Medium term: 5 to 7 years iii. Long term: 12 to 15 years The investor will be allowed to break the deposit during the lock-in period by paying a penalty for premature withdrawal. 3. What will be the interest rate payable on the deposit? Initially it was proposed that the amount of interest rate payable for deposits made for the short-term period would be decided by banks and would be denominated in grams of gold. For the medium and

Your Rights 1. When Income Tax Search Party visits, you can check their search warrant and also note the date, address and authorization etc.. You can also ask for the identification of each member of the raid team and note down their name and designation. 2. You have the right to personally search every member of raid team to avoid any planting of evidence. 3. Women can be checked only by lady members of raid team. 4. Women may not come forward if their religious belief do not allow them to appear in public. 5. In case of any health related emergency you have the right to call a doctor of your choice. You also have the right to have your meals at proper time. 6. Children can go to school and after clearance. 7. In case of difficulty in seizure of jewellary or other valuable articles (except stock in trade) the department may leave such items after necessary sealing etc. in the custody of assessee. Jewellery up to a specified limit (e.g. 500 grams per married lady, 250 grams per unmarr

Gold Jewellery/gold coins/gold bars up to 500 grams per married lady, 250 grams per unmarried lady and 100 grams per male member of the family is accepted as allowed as per tax laws in india. Over and above this quantity, wealth tax is applicable. -------- A case where Gold in possession was analysed and judgement was given involving taxation, the judgement has the following included: 'The Assessee's case 4.1 The assessee's explanation towards the impugned credit is of it being the sale proceeds of gold jewellery (1044.300 grams), received by her on the occasion of her marriage in 1982, as well as on the birth of first daughter and first son, as is common in Hindu Marwari families, to one which she belongs, being rather a part of her streedhan. In fact, even the Revenue, in view thereof, vide CBDT Instruction No. 1916 dated 11.05.1994, directs its officers not to seize gold ornaments to the extent of 500 grams in search in the case of a married lady. The jewellery is

IMPORTOF GOLD AS BAGGAGE –    A Passenger eligible to import Gold (studded jewellery is excluded) in the Baggage is: 1)     Anypassenger of Indian Origin or a passenger holding a valid          Passport,issued under the Passport Act, 1967,  2)    who is coming to India after a period of not less than sixmonths         of   stay abroad; and short visits, if any, madeby the passenger during  the aforesaidperiod of six months shall be ignored if the total   duration of stay on such visits does notexceed thirty days.   Thus, excepteligible passenger who satisfy above conditions, no other   Passengers are allowed to import gold inbaggage.     OtherConditions (i) The duty shall bepaid in convertible foreign currency. Concessional rate ofduty @ 10% is applicable for gold to Indian passport holders and persons ofIndian origin if stay abroad is for more than 6 months. Short visits upto atotal of 30 days during the six months shall be ignored.   (ii) The weight ofgold should not exceed 1 kg. per

On Wednesday, India's largest bank, State Bank of India, said it had blocked close to 6 lakh debit cards following a malware-related security breach in a non-SBI ATM network. Several other banks, such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, too have admitted being hit by similar cyber attacks — forcing Indian banks to either replace or request users to change the security codes of as many as 3.2 million debit cards over the last two months. ATM FRAUD Keypad jamming: The fraudster jams the 'Enter' and 'Cancel' buttons with glue or by inserting a pin or blade at the buttons' edge. A customer trying to press the 'Enter/OK' button after entering the PIN, does not succeed, and thinks the machine is not working. An attempt to 'Cancel' the transaction fails as well. In many cases, the customer leaves — and is quickly replaced at the machine by the fraudster. A transaction is active for around 30 seconds (20 seconds in some cases), and he is able to remo

No.1. dreamstime.com Rank:1,829 https://www.similarweb.com/website/dreamstime.com The contributor receives 25-50% Revenue Share Details: https://www.dreamstime.com/sell-stock-photos-images No.2. www.istockphoto.com Rank:2,789 https://www.similarweb.com/website/istockphoto.com Offers about 20% to 45% of the sales price of your photo. More if you list with them them exclusively. Details: http://www.istockphoto.com/in/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule No.3. www.shutterstock.com Rank:434 https://www.similarweb.com/website/shutterstock.com Wondering why I put it on number 3? Look at the minimum earnings and you will know 1 The contributor receives  from $ 0.25 to $120.00 , depending on the customer's license. Details:  See http://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/ and http://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/000006640?l=en_US&fs=Search&pn=1 No. 4. fotolia.com Rank:3,324 https://www.similarweb.com/website/fotolia.com Offers about 20% to 60% of the sales pr

This is how a protein (kinesin) moves within your body   pic.twitter.com/87cYJwpJoF

http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/05/80-percent-stocks-lifetime-return-zero/

I got a mail recently stating: Dear Valued Customer, We tried to deliver your item on 25/04/2016,11:10 AM. the delivery attempt failed because the address was business closed OR nobody could sign for it. To pick up the package,please,clink on the   tracking number  to Review Package Information and print the invoice that is attached and visit DHL location indicated in the receipt. if the package is not picked up within 48 hours,it will be returned to the sender. Label/Receipt Number:4567559304824 Expected Delivery Date:April 12th,2016 Class:international package service Service(S):Delivery Conformation Status:Notification sent Thank you Copyright()2016 DHL.All Rights Reserved. (This is an automatically generated email,please do not reply) ------ I have removed the link associated with the blue highlighted text.  When I clicked on the link, Chrome gave me the following warning. This will not be the case if you use other less popular browsers: Deceptive site ahead Attackers on  benoitene

Neuroscience says these five rituals will help your brain stay in peak condition Sleep with your phone away from your head According to Swart, a senior lecturer at MIT specializing in sleep and the brain, our brains' natural cleansing system requires six to eight hours of sleep. Without it, brains eventually encounter major build-ups of beta-amyloid, a neurotoxin found in clumps in the brains of people with neurological disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Stretch your brain muscles Like other muscles in your body, if you don't use the brain, you'll eventually lose it. This means it's crucial to exercise your brain and keep it stimulated. Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes that it's especially important to target areas of your brain that you use less frequently. Good suggestions for stretching your brain muscles include learning to speak a new language, learning to play a new instrument, or even learning

Latest figures are a clear sign that India's IT cos are succeeding at 'non-linear' growth, where revenues rise disproportionately compared with hiring The industry is estimated to have required 16,055 engineers to generate every additional $1 billion of export revenue in 2015-16, compared with 31,846 engineers in 2009-10, a near doubling of the efficiency with which labour is employed. http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate/automation-raises-indian-it-cos-productivity-firms-like-infosys-tcs-likely-to-see-lower-hiring/52034801

Global shipments of smartphones shrank 3% in the first quarter from a year earlier in the market's first year-on-year contraction on record, researcher Strategy Analytics said, reflecting growing strains on the industry. Strategy Analytics said in a statement January-March shipments fell to 334.6 million devices from 345 million in the same period a year earlier, as major markets such as China matured and concerns about the global economy weighed on consumer sentiment. Ref   http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/mobile/global-smartphone-market-shrank-annually-for-first-time-in-q1-strategy-analytics/52024601

page moved to https://financeschool2000.blogspot.com/2023/01/why-nps-is-not-good-investment.html

Speech by Prime minister of bhutan Tshering Tobgay: This country isn't just carbon neutral -- it's carbon negative watch video of the speech  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCLZT5m6jaA

Good initiative by government of Telangana state, India. Posters put up in the city to guide for water harvesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fCFltpgKjQ

Cybercriminals are targeting people using Apple products as they are more likely to have disposable income, a security expert has warned. Apple has not taken any substantial steps in this regards OR at least has not publicized it ! Blogger Graham Cluley said that while malware was more common on Windows, Apple customers could not "afford to be lackadaisical" about security. On Monday, he reported a text message scam that tried to trick people into handing over account information. Apple's support site warns customers not to enter details on spoof sites. The text message scammers sent out alerts to victims' smartphones, claiming their Apple ID accounts were going to expire. The message encouraged people to visit a fake website where they were asked to enter their account information. "It tried to grab personal information and credit card details with the aim of committing identity theft," said Mr Cluley. Ref: BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36033314 Al

Saudi Arabia is getting ready for the twilight of the oil age by creating the world's largest sovereign wealth fund for the kingdom's most prized assets. Over a five-hour conversation, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid out his vision for the Public Investment Fund, which will eventually control more than $2 trillion and help wean the kingdom off oil. As part of that strategy, the prince said Saudi will sell shares in Aramco's parent company and transform the oil giant into an industrial conglomerate. The initial public offering could happen as soon as next year, with the country currently planning to sell less than 5 percent. It may sound a fairly ok 'business continuity plan' but a strong conglomerates take decades to take shape. So will the Saudi plan play out smoothly and fulfill the aims? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-01/saudi-arabia-plans-2-trillion-megafund-to-dwarf-all-its-rivals

Land grabbing is a common problem in India. After buying a plt, get a boundry wall around it and construct a room. Take water and electricity connection in your name. If you pay water tax and electricity bills for 12 months, Officially you are declared as having possession of the land and residing in it. No one can illegally claim it to be his.We already know that If a person has a proof of residence even in a rented room and he is not the owner, then also legally he can not be forced to move out of that property by the property owner. He can be forced to move out only if he has a rent agreement with the owner.  This is the reason why rent agreements are made for 11 months only.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/google-adobe-paypal-netflix-mastercard-china-russia-mexico-poland-map-companies-worth-more-stock-a6954246.html

Saudi Arabia has about 660 Billion USD of forex reserves. It has used up 100 billion in the past one year itself since the oil prices fell.   Just how much of America's debt does Saudi Arabia own? Well,  It is a secret of the vast US Treasury market, a holdover from an age of oil shortages and mighty petrodollars. But now that question—unanswered since the 1970s, under an unusual blackout by the US Treasury Department—has come to the fore as Saudi Arabia is pressured by plunging oil prices and costly wars in West Asia. A big risk is that the kingdom is selling some of its Treasury holdings, believed to be among the largest in the world, to raise needed dollars. Or could it be buying, looking for a port in the latest financial storm? As a matter of policy, the Treasury has never disclosed the holdings of Saudi Arabia, long a key ally in the volatile West Asia, and instead groups it with 14 other mostly Opec nations including Kuwait, the UAE and Nigeria. For more than a hundred other

An MBA is not at all a must have to rise up the corporate ladder. 144 of the CEOs of BSE 500 companies, India's largest listed firms that make up 90% of its market capitalisation, have an MBA.  There are 322 companies whose CEOs are not MBAs and it is evident that a B-school background may not be necessary to rise to the top -- even in the case of professional managers. Ref:  http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/p2yxs2wI4dvdp0ouMDWRmK/The-Bschool-education-of-top-Indian-CEOs.html

   Quantitative Easing (QE) by the Federal Reserve has a goal of increasing liquidity and the circulation of money and reducing interest rates. Negative real interest rates are used by Central Banks with the goal to stimulate economy by pressuring people to start a business so they can earn a yield. The problem is that marketing or finding customers is the hardest part of running a business. An investment advisor would not recommend buying a business simply because financing was attractive; instead they factor is demand for goods and services. In many other countries loans are granted to businesses that are not creditworthy because it is a matter of government policy. These banks are called “policy” banks instead of real banks because they don’t operate with a constraint to loan only to credit worthy businesses. In Japan during their great real estate bubble of the 1980’s the banks would persuade businesses to borrow more than they needed with a promise to buy office buildings

How low can you go? - speech (​Given at the Portadown Chamber of Commerce, Northern Ireland) by Andrew Haldane,  Chief Economist and the Executive Director of Monetary Analysis and Statistics at the  Bank of England A metric on the probability of the ZLB binding is to look at the likelihood of recession.  Table 2 looks at cumulative recession probabilities over three time horizons (1, 5 and 10 years ahead) measured over three historical samples (the UK since 1700 and 1945 and a cross-country panel since 1870).  Recessions occur roughly every 3 to 10 years.  Over the course of a decade, they are overwhelmingly more likely than not.   So given these recession probabilities, how likely is it that interest rates will be at levels that would allow them to be cut sufficiently to cushion the effects of a typical recession?  We can calculate the probability of interest rates having reached, say, 3% by using the market yield curve.  These market-based probabilities are shown in the fina

Wednesday’s statement of the  Federal Open Market Committee should be read as a mea culpa . “Four hikes in 2016??? Ha. The economy is a lot more fragile than we thought,” the statement seemingly says. It doesn’t, of course. But it says,  quoting correctly this time , “economic growth slowed late last year.” Yes, the economy seems to be growing at a “moderate pace,” but no longer are the risks balanced between an economy picking up steam and one slowing further. Business investment, called “strong” last month, is now “moderate.” And, oh,  that stock market ? The Fed noted it was closely monitoring “global economic and financial developments.” That’s not the same as saying the Fed will forever prop up your 401(k), but it’s saying the central bank is showing concern over it. How do negative interest rates work? A central bank uses its deposit rate to influence how banks handle their reserves. In the case of negative rates, central banks want to dissuade lenders from park

This chart shows the inflation adjusted performance of the FHFA Housing Index, Gold, Oil and the NASDAQ since 1976. Housing and Crude oil seem to be at a god level to invest expecting good returns for the next 10 years period.  The shaded parts of the charts are periods of recession. We can see that the periods of recession are not overlapping tops or bottoms of any asset.  The world financial system moved from the relative discipline of the gold-dollar, fixed-currency standard to a system of free-floating currencies in 1973. This move unleashed a series of asset pricing bubbles over the subsequent decades as there was scope for unlimited money supply. Data Sources:  LBMA, EIA, Yahoo Finance Click on the chart  images to enlarge Reference:   http://www.macrotrends.net/1311/asset-price-bubbles-since-1976 ===================== Clicking on the names of different assets at the bottom of the chart in the link given below, will remove its curve from the ma

A long term view covering past 25 years to the projected next one or two decades show a grim future. Click on the chart  images to enlarge 10 year Treasury yields of German bonds -------- Negative interest rates show desperation. They signal change in the usual norms of central banks. They punish the major banks to maintain high cash levels with them and force them to extend loans to businesses and to weaker lenders.  In June 2014, ECB became to first major central bank to venture into sub zero interest rate. It means the ECB will charge banks 0.3 banks to hold cash with them for a day. By mid-November in that year, about a third of the government debt instruments issued by Eurozone governments had negative bond yields. It meant that people depositing money with the bank would not even get the principal in full when taking the deposit out. Smaller banks resisted out of fear of losing customers, but complied to a considerable extent. On the most basic level, Bunds,

World's largest economies- in a chart: http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/ The World's Top 10 Economies: described: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022415/worlds-top-10-economies.asp These Will Be the World's 20 Largest Economies in 2030 if the Factors Dont Change significantly: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/the-world-s-20-largest-economies-in-2030

Note: For all the links to charts on the bloomberg.com website, use the time perios '5 years' which can be selected in the 'Time frame' option above the chart. As can be seen from the charts of some of the major commodities- Gold, Crude, Natural Gas, Copper, Corn, we can see that Gold is performing far better as compared to others since the past 1 year. Stocks are weak all over the major markets. Hence keeping a good part of your assets as Gold and in US dollars is important for the next 1 to 2 years. Commodities: may have been in downtrend since more than 2 yeras, and  may remain in weak phase for 6 months to 1 year : Chart comparing ' Rogers International Commodity Index' and 'Gold'. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RICIGLTR:IND Click on the chart  images to enlarge About  Rogers International Commodity Index  http://www.rogersrawmaterials.com/ --- Among currencies, USD is in uptrend since 10 years. The index to jud