Try an experiment. Think of 5 investors who were active in the stock markets in 1980s/1990s.Check for unclaimed shares/unclaimed dividends in their name on https://bit.ly/3Pf2ffX. You are likely to find some unclaimed assets for your efforts. Harsh Roongta’s article in Business Standard..
Harsh participated in a panel discussion organised by the Department of Economic Affairs & SEBI on June 8 @ Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. It was part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrating 75 years of independence. FM Nirmala Sitaraman also spoke at the event. All the panelists including Harsh had the privilege of meeting her for a brief interaction before she spoke at the event.
The panel discussion was on “The growth of retails investors and the challenges in being an informed investor” . The article in Business Standard has the gist of the talk by me primarily on the need to change the laws just like the 2015 amendment in the Life Insurance Act to make succession the third route of succession. The Indian Citizens need an easy, quick and economical succession route for their assets to free them from the tyranny of their personal laws or wills both of which involve long, tedious, expensive Tarikh pe Tarikh court process.
Regulations and custom dictate a deluge of communications to an investor from advisors, platforms, mutual fund houses/PMS companies. With pre-and post communication coming in for each transaction it is a barrage of communication that overwhelms most investors. They respond by ignoring even the important communications that may be buried deep inside this barrage of communication. To top it most such communication is worded in non understandable legal language. One of the progressive regulators can take a lead to at least attempt much needed simplification and rationalisation exercise in the matter. A good first step would be to allow consumers to actively choose what kind of communication they wish to receive (or not receive) from their service providers. The second step would be to penalise service providers who disregard the active choice made by the consumer. Language and process simplification can follow later. Harsh’s article in Business Standard. Comments welcome.
Ease of doing business rankings enjoys the govt’s attention for obvious reasons. “Ease of living” for citizens does not get the same attention though it can have a high impact on day to day lives of citizens. Many structural reforms have not delivered simply because the last 5% of the work has been dragging for years even though 95% of the hard work has already been done. Electronic toll collection that has not resulted in any significant reduction in pile up before toll booths is a prime example. In the financial sector the Central KYC registry has been in place since 2016 but lack of accountability has ensured that the benefits from this path breaking reform is still awaited while lots of inconvenience is being caused to citizens. Some work has also happened on bank account portability and loan portability without any tangible benefit on the ground. Harsh Roongta’s article in Business Standard.
Demonetisation in India had brought on surface a very important fact – the hoarders of ‘black’ money could escape the unpleasant consequences of demonetisation due to various benami transactions. It was learnt that many people …
Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act – an overview Read More »
