Prime Minister Narendra Modi Releasing the Book" Getting India Back on Track-An Action Agenda for Reform.

This book has been published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The foreword has been written by Ratan Tata.The book contains insightful essays by eminent academicians and public policy experts.This book is edited by Bibek Debroy,Ashley J Tellis  & Reece Trevor. The papers in the book deals with subjects like macro economy,fiscal,agricultural,manufacturing ,defence,law & order and  foreign policy.

Courtesy: Yahoo News India & photo- PIB.

                                             
                    Internal Revenue Service(USA) nets Offshore Data from 77,000 banks.

                     77,000 banks & Financial Institutions-even some in Russia  have 
                     registered under FACTA ( The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).
                     America's Global tax law requires foreign banks to reveal American 
                     accounts holding over $50,000. Non Compliant institutions could be 
                     frozen out of US markets,so every one is complying.As 77,000 banks                                                    have registered and about 70 countries are providing   
                    government help to the IRS means almost no foreign account is secret.

                    FACTA is making banking transparent virtually worldwide.Infact,
                    with the help of the US Congress and the US Department of Justice,                                                 arguably the IRS should have a new slogan
                    "TODAY SWITZERLAND,TOMORROW THE WORLD'.

                    The government has set up the SIT under Supreme Court monitoring.
                     Hence, the Indian tax authorities should be in touch with their  
                    counterparts in US to know their approach to make the foreign banks                           comply with their request.
                    It is reported that as per GFI research that India lost $343.9 billion to 
                    iilicit outflows from 2002 to 2011.It is laudable that India was the first
                    G20  country to call for automatic exchange of financial  information,  
                    a position that has pledged to adopt by the end of 2015. 

                    Source: Global Financial Integrity & Forbes.
                 
                    

 EDITORIAL.

                                                    INDIAN RUPEE WEAK AGAINST DOLLAR.

                        
                         The Minister of Finance, the economists,RBI Governor and others 
                          give various reasons why the rupee is weak against the US Dollar. 
                          But the common man still wonders why our rupee is weak against 
                          US dollar since independence and even after 66 years.There are 
                          small countries like Phillipines ,Israel,Singapore,Malaysia,Thailand
                          New Zealand,Egypt,Norway,and even Mauritius whose currencies  
                           fetch better value against US dollar.Afterall, it is India's pride that 
                           our currency fetch good value against other International 
                           currencies like USD,GBP,Euro etc.Of course,our currency,the rupee  
                           is not fully convertible and hence we donot know the real value of                                                      our rupee against other currencies.         
                         

                          As a common man one wonders, inspite of having about  320 billion
                          US dollar reserves,why the rupee should be kept weak.Is it to protect 
                          the Exporters or and to incentivise Indians who have kept money 
                          abroad?.Or is it the high inflation in our country  a major reason 
                          for this weak rupee?.

                          How we compare against  China in various parameters.
                          
                                               Currency value      Inflation    Public Debt   Reserves
                                               vis-a-vis 1USD         rate(%)      (%) of GDP    in USD.

                         1. China           6.2486 Yuan            3.1                   31.7         3.341 
                                                                                                                            trillion.

                         2. India             59.00 Rupees          6.70                 49.6          320.00 
                                                                                                                            billions.   


                          Data Source: Collected from various  sources.               

                        

THE NEW RAILWAY MINISTER'S PRESS MEET.

Mr.D.V.Sadanada Gowda,the  
new Railway Minister said that any step he takes must help the common man.Safety,Security & Service are his mantra.Later ,he will think of speeding up the trains.He wants to have a Coal 
Corridor linking Chennai,Bangalore &  Mangalore.He said Port connectivity is important for development.

Addressing the media,the minister said that 
the ministry may constitute an expert committee to advise the ministry on safety & 
Security and they are open to invite Mr.E.Sreedharan,an expert to head the committee.

Mr.J.S. Srinivasan,VP-Sales launching TVS StaR City+.

TVS MOTOR COMPANY LAUNCHES STYLISH TVS StaR CITY+ IN KARNATAKA.

TVS StaR City+ is  combination of modern styling & superior
engine performance.The 'Ecothrust' engine of TVS Phoenix,the 109.7cc power mill
of TVS StaR City+ provides an ideal combination of smooth performance,power 
and fuel economy.The new"Ecothrust' engine delivers a solid Four stroke 
performance ensuring power and pick up.TVS StaR City+ is best in class
mileage of 86kmpl in ideal condition.
The vehicle is available in 4 colours viz.Red,Black,Blue & Grey.The cost is
1.Kickstart -Rs.42,444/Ex-Showroom in Bengaluru.
2.Elecric Starter-Rs.44,900/- Ex-Showroom in Bengaluru.
Special Features:                                    
1.Analogue Speedometer.                               The vehicle is 100% indigenised and is 
2.Service Indicator.                                         manufactured at Hosur (TN) & H.P.
3.Econometer  & 4.Digital Odometer.

                     FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

                     Recently,a student was asked ;"who gave the Constitution to
                     us".The student replied-Mr.Baba Saheb Ambedkar.

                     Then the teacher asked the student to read the Preamble of the
                     Constitution and come back the next day.The student promptly
                     replied the next day that the Constitution is given by the people
                     of India to themselves . It reads as  follows: "We, the people of
                     of India,...............,do hereby Adopt,Enact and Give ourselves
                     this Constitution".


                

                   INDIAN LAWS CAN BE OUTDATED,DRACONIAN,AND EVEN
                   CONTRADICTORY AND HENCE OPEN TO ABUSE.

                   Recently I  read from a mail sent by Money Life Foundation, certain Laws
                   which are outdated, and even irrelevant in the present day.They are:
  
                   1.India's Central bank is a temporary institution under the Reserve Bank
                      of India Act,1934.

                   2. The Essential commodities Act of 1955,and the Agricultural Produce 
                        Marketing Committee Act donot permit the free movement of 
                        agcricultural Produce.

                   3. It is a crime and you are punishable if you wage war against the 
                       government of any Asiatic power in alliance or at peace with the 
                       government of India.

                   4. If there is a locust attack in Delhi,all adult males will be called upon to 
                       fight the invasion,with an announcement to arms made with drum 
                       beats,refusing to answer the call will be a crime.

                   The question is why do we have such laws in our statute books?. Are 
                    these laws not outdated and open to,abuse?.  

PRESIDENT APPOINTS NARENDRA MODI AS 14th PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA.
Narendra Modi will be sworn in as Prime Minister on 26th May ,2014 at 6.00 P.M in 
the fore court of Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

Narendra Modi while addressing 
the newly elected members of BJP, in the  Central Hall of Parliament,
said,"people voted for Hope 
and aspirations". He described BJP's 
victory, a result of struggle of "Five
Generations" of party leaders.

Photo:Courtesy:Rediff.com

THE PRIME MINISTER TO BE.

Narendra Damodardas Modi born on 17th september,1950 will be the Prime Minister of India next week.
The NDA's victory is a hard won battle for
Narendra Modi who travelled length and breadth of the country and attended more than 400 rallies.The result, absolute majority for BJP and huge majority for NDA.

The victory is more important personally for Narendra Modi, is because he fought against all odds .He was the target for all the parties including the Congress party which never missed an oppurtunity to denigrate him. But Modi converted all the criticism to emerge more stronger
and the results are in front of us.

The reasons for the down fall of the Congress party:
The Congress party has no tall leaders either in states or in the centre and the 
Nehru family is the glue which binds the party.Every Congressman or woman thinks 
that loyalty to the family is more important to win the elections.They compete with each other to be in the good books of the first political family of the country.But will it work any longer as we have already passed 67 years?. The answer is big "NO" as we can see from the results.Further, the Congress Party it seems had already resigned to the fate that they will lose, even before the elections. They knew that BJP will emerge as winner.
Hence, they worked out their strategy to attack Modi even for small things as they 
felt that anybody other than Modi  will be better for them.As Modi is a performer,
there was a feeling that if he comes to power, it will be a long haul as it happened  
in Gujarat where the Congress party is fully decimated. The silent Prime Minister,Dual Power Centres,Corruption,Scams and policy paralysis added to their woes.

Courtesy photos: From Internet.

Mr.V.Kannan,CMD of the bank addressing the media.

Performance as on FY 2014.

VIJAYA BANK CROSSES
Rs.2,00,000 crores business mix.

Deposits Up by 28%.
Advances Up by 17%.
Total Income Up by 13%.


Provision Coverage ratio at 64.05%.


Total deposits: Rs.1,24,296 crores
Total advances; Rs.82,425 crores.
Operating Profit reduced to Rs.1104 crores from Rs.1122 crores(FY 13).Net profit reduced to Rs.416 crores from Rs.585 crores (FY 13).
Gross NPA is at 2.41% against 2.17% in FY 2013.
Net NPA  is at 1.55% against 1.30% in FY 2013.
Total number of branches increased to 1512 .
Total number of ATM's reached 1528.
The bank opened 153 branches during the year (FY 14).
The Central government's holding has  increased to 74.06% from 55.02% due to
conversion of perpetual Non Cumulative Preference share capital aggregating to
Rs.1200 crores held by Govt.of India into equity capital at a premium of Rs.29.39
per share with face value of Rs.10/- each to improve the common equity Tier I capital.

The Board of directors of the bank approved dividend of 20%(10% interim & 10%Final).

            

HIGHLIGHTS OF PERFORMANCE FY 2014.

Total  deposits : Rs.4,20,723 crores.
Total Advances:Rs.3,01,067 crores.
 Total Business: Rs.7.22 lakh crores.
Operating profit up by 15.4% to Rs.6796 crores.
Net profit for FY 2014 is Rs.2438 crores against Rs.2872 crores in FY 2013.
Capital Adequacy Ratio as per Basel III norms stood at 10.63%(against mandatory
requirement of 9%).
Gross NPA ratio at 2.49% against 2.57%(FY 2013)
Net NPA  ratio at 1.98% against 2.18%  (FY 2013).
Bank's Board of Directors approves final dividend of 45% taking the total to 110%.
GOALS FOR 2015.
# Plans to take the number of branches to 6000 from 4755.
# Number of ATM's to 10,000 from 6312.
# Opening a branch  at Johannesburg (S.Africa) in May,2014.
# Opening a branch at New York (USA) in June,2014.
# Plans to open 8 new branches overseas by March,2015.
# To improve NIM to 2.50% from 2.27%
#  M/s KPMG Advisory services Ltd., appointed for comprehensive
    assessment & to draw roadmap for the bank's subsidiaries/Associates.

To a question about the status of merger of Amanath cooperative bank with 
Canara bank,the Chairman said,they have obtained approvals from Central/
state governments and is awaiting RBI permission and also Court's approval.

                    
                    INDIA BECOMES THE THIRD LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD.


                    India Has displaced Japan to become the world's Third  largest Economy
                    in terms of Purchasing Power Parity(PPP) according to a World Bank
                    Report released recently.

                    The last survey in 2005 had placed the country on 10th place.India's 
                    share in World GDP in terms of PPP was 6.4% in 2011 compared with 
                    China's 14.9% and the US 17.1%.

                    But according to International Monetary Fund (IMF),India's economy is
                    12th largest and only about a third of  Japan in terms of absolute 
                    unadjusted dollars.

                    Courtesy:ET Bureau.