The long-term structural story of India is so strong that medium-term returns are going to be fairly significant,” Morparia, CEO, JP Morgan India said.

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Fundtech Ltd. (NASDAQ: FNDT), a market leader in global transaction banking solutions, announced that India’s Kotak Bank has gone live with Global CASHplus’ Collections and Payments modules. Kotak’s corporate clients will now have access to advanced cash flow planning and working capital optimization applications.

The Global CASHplus modules will help Kotak Bank to centralize its payments and collections processing for its corporate customers, including salary payments, invoice payments, dividend and warrant payments. The new system will offer enhancements to many of the bank’s collections services, including guaranteed arrangements, cheque collections, post-dated cheque collections, correspondent bank management, and others. Corporate clients will use a web-enabled interface that integrates all services into a single window.

Vikram Sud, chief operating officer, Kotak Mahindra group, said, “As a leading private bank in India, Kotak Mahindra Bank is positioned to provide a best-in-breed technology offering to its customers, providing them with a key competitive edge. We selected Fundtech’s Global CASHplus product because it provides both a comprehensive platform for payments and collections, as well as innovative financial supply chain functionality that will help our clients gain greater visibility into their working capital needs.”

According to Sanjay Dalmia, managing director, Fundtech India Ltd, “We are delighted to partner with Kotak Mahindra Bank in their strategy to provide their clients with a comprehensive transaction banking platform. Global CASHplus offers an easy-to-use, yet sophisticated suite of financial tools to manage all aspects of corporate electronic banking and financial supply chain transactions.”

India is the only country with micro insurance regulation but much more needs to be done! The Centre for Insurance and Risk Management (CIRM), which operates under IFMR Foundation, has urged the Union Government and Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (Irda) to make administrative and regulatory changes to enable penetration of micro insurance, especially in rural areas.

The role of Microinsurance is commonly less understood than microfinance mainly due to its late emergence relative to the idea of providing financial services to the bottom of the pyramid. India represents one of the largest untapped Microinsurance markets.

Rupalee Ruchismita, spokesperson of CIRM, said, “The perception that entering rural markets is expensive has been replaced by the possibility of making rural insurance not only commercially viable and sustainable but also profitable. This is provided questions about product design and models of delivering risk hedging products are innovatively addressed.”

Ruchismita urged the Union Government to take administrative measures for promotion of micro insurance. She said that data must be made available to insurance companies so that they can expand their activities in rural areas. While the Micro Insurance Act stipulates an upfront payment of premium for micro insurance policies, people in rural areas have low incomes and are incapable of paying a lumpsum amount upfront. Therefore, allowing them to pay the premium in monthly installments will help in stimulating demand for insurance products, she added.

Ruchismita noted that IRDA should allow more players in the sector while speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on “Indian Microinsurance: What Works?” organised by Microfinance Insights, IFMR Foundation and CIRM. Among the major players, LIC, ICICI Lombard, Agriculture Insurance Corporation, IFFCO-Tokio and Tata AIG are seeking ways to consolidate their presence in the sector. Also, MaxLife has launched Max Vijay to tap the micro-insurance potential.

The fact that these companies are focusing on micro insurance is crucial as traditionally insurance has never really expanded beyond urban geographies. This has been attributed to poor insurance literacy and awareness, high transaction costs, inadequate regulations, and inadequate understanding of client needs and expectations.

Incidentally, the Indian insurance industry is expected to witness a 500% growth and reach $60 billion in next four years. Insurance firms are keen to exploit this potential; in keeping, ING is planning its entry in India.

According to the UNDP Report, about 90% of the Indian population—some 950 million people—are not covered by insurance and signify an untapped market of nearly US$2 billion. Additionally, a survey conducted among 248 urban and rural below poverty line families by SKS (one of the leading MFIs) before it began offering health insurance showed that 67% of the respondents had used private medical facilities. On average, they spent INR 2,340 per family per annum on consultation, diagnosis, treatment and transportation. Approximately 45% of the families surveyed borrowed money to meet health emergencies. Nearly 94% of the families had borrowed less than INR 5,000 and only 3% had health insurance coverage. To maximize efficiencies, improve management, strengthen controls and scale-up outreach, the need to exchange information and instigate information symmetry in the Indian Microinsurance space has never been more important.

CIRM and IFMR Foundation have identified the need for frequent interaction between key microfinance stakeholders through events focused on issues relevant to the sector. This panel event, organized with Intellecap and “Microfinance Insights“ was a discussion among policy makers, micro insurance providers/intermediaries and technology enablers. Structured into three panels, the event sought to have rich insights from these interrelated themes in Microinsurance design and delivery.

GurukulOnline Learning Solutions (GOLS), the pioneer and innovator of eLearning in India became the first company in the country to offer online training for Certified Financial PlannerCM (CFPCM) certification. As an accredited education provider of Financial Planning Standards Board, India, GurukulOnline will offer the CFPCM certification course at an introductory price of Rs. 20,000. Any graduate can apply for this online certification course, which is awarded in India by Financial Planning Standards Board, India, the only licensing authority of the CFPCM mark in the country

“Financial planners are most sought in a population that earns well and needs expert handling of finances. Once certified, the person must then fulfill a continuing education requirement annually, by upgrading his knowledge on the current planning strategies and financial trends,” says Mr. Ranjeet Mudholkar, CEO, Financial Planning and Standards Board (FPSB) of India.

About Certified Financial Planner Programme

Considered to be the global Benchmark certification in Personal Finance, this programme will train aspirants to become financial planners and equip them to offer expert opinions on retirement planning, investment planning, tax planning & estate planning and Risk Management.

Candidates have a maximum of seven years to complete the certification process. To become certified, candidates are required to meet the 4 Es certification requirements viz.,: education, examination, experience, and ethics.

The CFPCM certification equips the certificant with the technical competency to write a comprehensive and detailed financial plan for an individual.

In “The Search for Social Entrepreneurship”, Paul Light writes, “If the idea matters, so does management…to the extent that management is essential for scale-up and impact, socially entrepreneurial organizations need to embrace it.”

Rajesh Jain believes that there is no better market than India for launching a mobile computing operator - one which combines the power of mobility and computers with the openness and variety of the Internet.

Rajesh Jain outlined the first part in a pathway to creating an innovative plan in the mobile data space. Here is the second part.

India’s insurance sector is likely to clock an unprecedented growth of over 200 per cent by 2009-10. During this period, private players will grow at 140 per cent owing to their aggressive marketing techniques as against a growth rate of 35-40 per cent of state owned insurance companies, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The Chamber expects the total insurance business to reach Rs. 2000 billion in the next two years from current level of Rs. 500 billion.  On account of intense marketing strategies adopted by private insurance players, the market share of state owned insurance companies like GIC, LIC and others have already come down to 70 per cent in the last four-five years from over 97 per cent and more intense competition is likely to be witnessed in the near future.

Till very recently, the insurance sector was largely under the government. However, many private multinational firms have now entered the scene, such as HDFC, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra and Birla Sunlife.

Anyone interested in this field can either work in one of the areas of insurance: life, general and postal or become an agent or an insurance surveyor. In an insurance company a person can take a , job in:

Administration: dealing with the registry of claims Development: marketing and procurement of business etc.

Accounts: management of funds and their disbursement Investment: responsible for the investment of funds of insurance company Do you have it?

The skills required to succeed in this field are almost the same as those for any marketing or sales-related job. ?You have to be outspoken, gentle, persuasive, calm, and very good at whatever responsibility you take. You have to remember that here you have to persuade people to go for your insurance policy as against the hordes of such policies available in the market.

The entry route To become an actuary, an aspirant has to pass an entrance test conducted by the Actuarial Society of India. The recruitment to the Postal Life Insurance takes place according to the recruitment rules of India?s postal department. Private insurance firms take in management graduates to work mainly in the areas of marketing and sales. The eligibility criterion for recruitment to both the LIC and GIC is the same.

An Assistant Administrative Officer (AAO class I officer) must be a graduate/ postgraduate in any subject from a recognised university Aspiring AAOs need to clear an all-India recruitment exam. To be recruited as a class II officer, the candidate has to be a graduate in any discipline. Class III and class IV levels are open to graduates and school-pass candidates.

To be eligible for a licence, an insurance surveyor must have one of the following: Fellowship of associateship through the exam held by the Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Adjusters (IISA), Mumbai ? Degree or diploma in architecture from a recognised university 

Actuarial Science is generally a three-year degree course or as one of the subjects of a degree programme. There are also short-term courses in insurance or actuarial science. The Insurance Institute of India, Mumbai, trains students for a career in the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

The highest qualification for a career in insurance is that of a Fellow of the Institute of Insurance, London. This requires a li centiate in insurance. The training covers the science of assump tions and probabilities, and finetunes arithmetical and mathemat ? ical faculties.

CERC has issued draft guidelines for tariffs for the period 2009-14. The proposed guidelines has retained the 14% ROE for tariff fixation. However, it has proposed to link incentives based on plant availability as against the earlier practice of incentive based on PLF. There has been change in depreciation charges which is aimed at avoiding front-loading of tariffs.

Fuel efficiency norms tightened. If implemented, may reduce fuel cost savings for generators like NTPC.

Some of the salient features are

The new guidelines propose linking incentives to plant availability as against the earlier practice of plant load factor (PLF). Several power generators including NTPC and NLC have earlier favoured incentive based on plant availability. According to them, generator can only ensure availability of the station whereas generation schedule depends on demand by the customers. Plant availability is within the control of the plant management while the generation depends on available demand from the SEBs.

For example consider two stations A and B located in different regions and having the same plant availability and generation cost. Further, A operates in a region of perennial deficit and hence is able to achieve its targeted PLF. However, B being located in a power surplus region is not able to achieve targeted generation on account of lower demand. Thus, station A would generate a higher PLF than B and hence would qualify for incentives despite B being as efficient.

Return based on 14% ROE - status quo maintained To maintain the attractiveness of the power sector as an investment segment, the CERC has proposed to retain the 14% ROE norm. This would do away with the uncertainty regarding any reduction in normative return.

The new norms may result in lower tariff fixation for generators like NTPC mainly on account of tightening of benchmark fuel efficiency norms. However, NTPC has a track record of improving its efficiency parameters and we expect the company would be able to meet the new efficiency norms in the subsequent years. Moreover, NTPC has a high plant availability as hinted by its high PLF of 92.2% and hence should be able to generate healthy incentives.

Daily News Digest: Economy News

·         Oil prices clawed back deep early losses to stand about 50 cents lower on Wednesday after OPEC formally agreed to return to its 2007 production target of 28.8 million barrels per day (bpd). (ET)

·         In order to make the prices of jet fuel and bunker fuel competitive for international airlines and shipping lines at the Indian airports and seaports, the government is considering fixation of all-industry rate of duty drawback on the supplies of petroleum products. (FE)

·         Government may impose a 25 per cent cess on big diesel cars and charge bulk users other than railways and state transport corporations Rs 22 a litre more for diesel as part of a dual fuel pricing policy. (FE)

·         With the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) granting waiver to India, the 123 agreement is expected to be presented before the American Congress in the next few days for its approval, required as the final step to conclude the Indo-US nuclear deal. (BS)

·         Mr. Subbarao, governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), sounded positive on growth and a little less hawkish than his predecessor on inflation and said that the central bank was sticking to its earlier estimate of 8% growth. (ET)

·         The government has decided to put its plan to amend export duty structure of steel products on hold. Changes would now be considered only after evaluating the current market conditions and resolving the tussle between miners and steel makers over iron ore prices. (ET)

·         Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan is rooting for a five-percentage point hike in export duty on iron ore from the present 15% to 20%. The move is aimed at arresting domestic steel prices and ensuring that ore is used to feed local demand first and only the surplus is exported. (ET)

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The Economist calls Sridhar Vembu a dangerous man. If he succeeds, a lot of people will lose a lot of money: software developers, consultants, shareholders and others. The chief executive of AdventNet does not have fraud in mind. Instead, he wants to remove what he calls the “value-pad” from corporate IT in general and business software in particular: all those millions of dollars he thinks are wasted on inefficient production structures, marketing and, not least, proprietary standards.

Yet Zoho is no mere clone of Google’s applications. It is the most comprehensive suite of web-based programmes for small businesses, including even services to keep track of a firm’s employees and its customers. What is more, although Mr Vembu does not want to earn money with advertisements, he wants to keep prices for business customers rock-bottom. Zoho’s application for customer relationship management (CRM), for instance, starts at $12 per corporate user per month.

See the full post at Zoho Blogs

Vijayendra Mohanty wishes he could claim Hinduism as his own private little garden, but is anguished at what is happening in Orissa. He writes:

In my home state of Orissa, in the last few weeks, Christians have been threatened, attacked, raped and murdered by people calling themselves Hindu. I want this to be an open letter to those murderers and criminals.

Let me get this straight. You are honourable members of the Hindu faith who feel violated by Christian intruders’ attempts to turn honest and god-fearing Hindus (such as yourself) to their faith. That’s it, right?

May I ask you which tenets of Hinduism ask you to maim, murder, and humiliate unarmed people in order to defend the faith you so claim to love? Where in all of those oft-quoted religious texts does violence against the unarmed find mention as one of your weapons?

Read the full post

Nick Kapur has a perspective on high growth stocks in India and he has a comparative view with China too.

Taking stock
When it comes down to companies, India has some specific areas of critical advantage. The IT outsourcing world has been hit before. But I think Satyam is still an intriguing investment opportunity that has been tremendously volatile as of late. The company is closing in on becoming the developing world’s first global consulting firm — similar to IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) role in the tech consulting industry. In the financial world, our Global Gains team of analysts picked up on two Indian banks (ICICI was one) that have posted strong financial performance of late. The other, HDFC (NYSE: HDB), continues to be an intriguing investment in a country that is building wealth quickly.

Attacking its own content-hungry consumers, Rediff.com has created a strong online presence that is beginning to resemble Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) MSN site in its early years. Rediff is certainly not on the same scale of popularity or profitability yet; it may be getting there soon. If you are paying attention to SINA (Nasdaq: SINA) in China, you might want to look into Rediff.com as well.

Check out the full story on Fool