The Wolrd's Billionaires - Frobes

My Last Word on Budget 2011

SUSTAINING GROWTH

Fiscal consolidation
Proposal to introduce the Public Debt Management Agency of India Bill in the next financial year. Remarkable step ahead to tackle and contain inflation at earlier stages.. 

Subsidies
Government to move towards direct transfer of cash subsidy to people living below poverty line in a phased manner for better delivery of kerosene, LPG and fertilisers. Task force set up to work out the modalities for the proposed system.
Real good effort by the Govt - One will have to wait and watch..

INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT

Foreign Direct Investment
Discussions underway to further liberalise the FDI policy. Good news reason being your multi brands will pinch you much lesser than present ..

Foreign Institutional Investors
SEBI registered mutual funds permitted to accept subscription from foreign investors who meet KYC requirements for equity schemes. Allows healthy competition, essential for the economy..

Financial Sector Legislative Initiatives
Amendments proposed to the Banking Regulation Act in the context of additional banking licences to private sector players. Expect more administrative cost informs of AQBs, that okay as long as no compromise on service.. 

Public sector banks and Rural banks are asked to maintain 8% Tier I CRAR & 9%
CRAR respectively – This will help the floating interest rates to claim down. More loans @ lesser rates…
Housing Sector Finance
Existing housing loan limit enhanced to 25 lakh for dwelling units under priority sector lending. Good news for those looking for Home Loan..

AGRICULTURE
Initiative on Vegetable Clusters
Removal of production and distribution bottlenecks for items like fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and fish to be the focus of attention this year.

Allocation of 300 crore to promote higher production of Bajra, Jowar, Ragi and other millets, which are highly nutritious and have several medicinal properties.
Mega Food Parks
Approval being given to set up 15 more Mega Food Parks during 2011-12.
At last some good news for farmers, where their hard work pays-off.. 
STRENGTHENING INCLUSION
National Food Security Bill (NFSB) to be introduced in the Parliament during
the course of this year. Much debated but curial Bill that servers BPL..
Unorganised sector – Pension
Eligibility for pension under Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme
for BPL beneficiaries reduced from 65 years of age to 60 years. Those above 8 years of age will get pension of 500 per month instead of 200 at present.
Exactly you cant ask them more when they don't earn.. 

Some Other Initiatives – For Defence Personnel
A lump-sum ex-gratia compensation of 9 lakh for 100 per cent disability to be
granted for personnel of Defence and Para Military forces discharged from service on medical ground on account of disability attributable to government service.
Jawans are going to get benefited out of it,,, real good effort…
Census 2011
To enumerate castes other than Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes in Census 2011, 'caste' to be canvassed as a separate time bound exercise.
Looking to grow beyond boundaries.. 
IMPROVING GOVERNANCE
UID Mission From 1st October, 2011 ten lakh Aadhaar numbers will be generated per day.
Generating unique identity. hum huh…good I would say but remember unlike our PAN.. 
TAX PROPOSALS
Tax Reforms
Direct Taxes Code (DTC) to be finalised for enactment during 2011-12. DTC proposed to be effective from April 1, 2012.
Remember up to 2 lakhs nil tax, this might be enhanced during the next financial year.. 
Direct Taxes
Exemption limit for the general category of individual taxpayers enhanced from 1,60,000 to 1,80,000 giving uniform tax relief of 2,000. Good though..

Exemption limit enhanced and qualifying age reduced for senior citizens. Higher exemption limit for Very Senior Citizens, who are 80 years or above. Welcome move.. 

Current surcharge of 7.5 per cent on domestic companies proposed to be reduced to 5 per cent. Remember next time you are billed check for 5%..

Additional deduction of 20,000 for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds proposed to be extended for one more year. Invest more and get exempted form tax.

Service Tax
Standard rate of Service Tax retained at 10 per cent, while seeking a closer fit between present regime and its GST successor. Fair enough at least not increased.. 

Hotel accommodation in excess of 1,000 per day and service provided by air conditioned restaurants that have license to serve liquor added as new services for levying Service Tax. Most importantly. definitely pinches your pocket..

Tax on all services provided by hospitals with 25 or more beds with facility of central air conditioning…everything seems to be on the rising that's okay.. 

Service Tax on air travel both domestic and international raised.
Frequent flyers. you are attention please.. 

Services provided by life insurance companies in the area of investment and
some more legal services proposed to be brought into tax net.
Next time when you sign-in a proposal remember to note fine prints..

What is meant by Z-Score?

A bankruptcy predictor based on the formula derived by Dr. Edward Altman.
According to the Altman model, a Z-Score of 3.0 or higher indicates that the company is most likely safe based on the financial data; a score below 1.8 means that the firm is probably headed for bankruptcy.
It is belived that the Z-Score has been shown to have 90% accuracy of prediction of bankruptcy in the first year of the forecast, and 80% accuracy in the second year.
So next time when you hear about Z-Score, remember Bankruptcy.

What's the big deal about S-band?

The S-band spectrum, which is part of the Devas-ISRO deal, is extremely valuable for mobile broadband services, in terms of usage as well as money. The frequency, also known as 2.5 Ghz band, is globally used for providing mobile broadband services using fourth generation technologies such as WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE).

This frequency band is unique because it has a substantial amount of spectrum (190 MHz) that can be put to use for mobile services. All other spectrum bands up to 3.5 GHz include significantly smaller amounts of spectrum for terrestrial mobile communication, or are not available.

In India, of the 190 Mhz, the Department of Space was given 150 Mhz — 30 years ago — for Broadcast Satellite Service and Mobile Satellite Service. Twenty Mhz was recently given to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for offering broadband spectrum. BSNL and MTNL were asked to pay Rs. 12,847 crore for their 20 Mhz. But Devas is getting access to 70 Mhz in the same band for just over Rs. 1,000 crore.

Bonanza

Globally, this frequency band has been put up for auction in many countries and has fetched governments billions of dollars. In 2009, three operators together paid $HK 1.53 billion for 90 MHz of radio spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band. A few months ago, Finland-based mobile operator TeliaSonera launched 4G mobile services based on LTE technology in this band. Operators in several other countries such as Brazil and South Africa are on the verge of using the S-band after the World Radiocommunications Conference 2000, held under the aegis of the International Telecommunication Union, designated the 2.5 Ghz band for mobile services.

Harmonious usage

The usability of spectrum depends on how harmonious it is with global usage. That is because mobile device makers and network equipment manufacturers can focus on developing products for a specific radio frequency for every country. If each country were to have its own plan for using spectrum, then telecom networks and devices would become very complex and expensive.

So if most countries are moving towards adopting 2.5 Ghz for telecom services, India will lose out if the satellite agency continues to hold on to it. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has already recommended that it would like to review the usage of this frequency band by the incumbents and refarm it for commercial mobile services.