Yesterday, I went to SBI ATM booth at Mayurvihar, ph-2, Delhi. Disappointed , as there was no money, I went to SBT ATM, booth. Again, the same message: unable to dispense cash.

Chrismas holidays and Sunday. Can they not anticipate these things and provide enough money?

At last, HDFC booth. HERE I GOT THE MONEY. 

The SBI is just like a government department. Something like the good old post office.

In one branch, I saw a man with a large bundle of notes standing along with the staff, for depositing the money. People were waiting in the que for more than one hour. He was ordering tea and both were working as colleagues.

Is there any one to hear me?

Insurance policies & investments and the promised returns from them is a good way for people to save their money for any future needs or unforeseen events. Another good reason of it to be popular is the advantage of tax deduction on such investments. There are many among working class, who goes for insurance investments just for this purpose. How ever, the banks and other financial institutions especially the new generation banks have become so greedy that they adopt all dirty tricks to cheat the customers of their money. Returns for the customer are not their primary intention. Their only interest is generating more business and better remuneration for their high paying executives. All these are well covered in their carefully designed advertisement targeting the middle class.

Take HDFC standard life for example. Once all the six mandatory premiums were paid (Rs.5000 each for each premium, total Rs.30,000), my policy was made as ‘Paid up’, on contacting the insurance co, everything was fine, I was free to withdraw the amount anytime or wait till it completes its full period of 10 years. However I was advised not with draw the amount at that time as the value of my investment at that time was only Rs15,500. The reason was that the markets were down. However after a couple of weeks, I got check for Rs.14,400 from HDFC standard life. They had sold my investments and just returned whatever left after taking their profits.

I informed I didn’t want to surrender my investment now and that I can wait until markets were up or till it completes its full term. The policy was until 2015. The reply got was that the investment had gone below the limit set by them and as per the policy, they can close the policy. But the catch point is that this limit is not any pre defined limit. This limit is also decided by them from time to time, which effectively means at any point of time or in other words whenever they want money, they can sell your investments in the market, take their commission and profits and give whatever left to you to wind up your policy.

So after paying Rs.30,000 in a span of 3 years, the investor is given Rs.14,500. But the most disgusting part is that I can still see HDFC standard life insurance plan advertisements claiming to take care of your future!

In this respect, the role of media is also to be mentioned. Even after all these public cheating, it will not be adequately covered by the main stream media as these banks and financial institutions are their ‘Good customers’.

Well a lot of has changed about customer service since new age media came into picture. Customers can actually impact potential customers choice just by googling. I just experienced an incident where i was called back for my tweet. Let me explain in detail.

There is one awesome mobile app ngpay which is simply too good and gives you a direct access to bank literally in addition to lot of other key m-commerce options. I have been using this app for more than a year and have always been impressed with how they provide value on your finger tips. But last saturday i was slightly let down by it and i was more pissed off by their social media team.

I was on dire need of cash for personal emergency on last saturday and bank being holiday for bakrid, the only option was just to take out of ATM. I exhausted my 10k limit on other bank ATM(Our town had only one ATM functional at that moment) and was thinking how i can get as much as i can. That was the time to check out HDFC Fund transfer on ngpay. I tried to transfer 10 k to another HDFC account and it failed. Then i did a 5k, it succeeded. When i called up HDFC customer care why it was not allowing and whether it was problem at HDFC or ngpay, i was told HDFC allows till 10k, So i called up ngpay customer care to get a clarification why i was not allowed to transact when i have funds and HDFC says the limit is 10k per day. The call was not attended for ~5 long minutes and i got pissed off. To vent out my frustration i wrote this tweet. Left it then and made ways to get money.

Monday morning rush hour to office i get a call from ngpay asking what was my issue. I explained the problem i faced and got a clarification saying RBI limits fund transfers to 5k per day and merchant transactions can be up to 10k per day. Fair enough, HDFC is not aware of this, ngpay being in core m-commerce domain may be best persons on RBI’s m-commerce policy. I thanked him and left to my office. Again after an hour i got a call from another person asking if am satisfied with response to my query. Obviously the person wasnt happy with my tweet and was insisting that i update it. I was also told about other mechanisms of contacting like customer support like emailing , using the “Contact” option in the application etc indirectly to imply  that ‘I need not tweet if i dont get support, there are other ways of getting it too’ .Once again i was reminded that “it would be great if i updated my twitter status”. Probably what they expected was  a tweet like “ngpay customer care rocks! they promptly called me seeing my tweet”, but i wrote this “Okay.@ngpay seems to have ‘rot learned’ customer service through social media.I will write more on it soon.at least tweets get some response”.

Let me explain that tweet. While i completely appreciate ngpay for embracing new media like twitter and responding to customers, I find very few Indian companies actually learn the art of customer service and making the customer more comfortable using these new media.ngpay too has areas to improve along with others like tatadocomo,redbus_in many others.

I might be wrong in all fronts, but am just writing my thoughts below. The brands which adopt new media use them to do a better brand management. So they have to learn that there will always be detractors for the brand as well as attractors. So when they get the free branding from customers who are satisfied, they should understand that they will also get detractors automatically when the customers are dissatisfied. So instead of asking the ‘dissatisfied’ customer to change their views and propagate them, they must provide more value to get the positive sentiment back on new media possibly from the same person and others.

What ngpay did wrongly?

1. While they saw my tweet and called back, am damn sure their process hasnt changed you may still get call waiting for 5 minutes and may not be called back until you tweet something like i did. They didnt take my critical feedback in complete sense and act on it, they just asked if my query was resolved. It is critical that you improve your voice support since its all related to money. I will not be transacting if i know that your customer support is pita and i may not get attended after a possible failed transaction worth 10k.

2. The person who spoke second time, actually did more damage (So much that it has given me energy to write such a long post when my blog is nearing death). The person spoke about contacting through email, Contact us instead of tweeting a critical feedback.Now among call centre,email,contact us, twitter, only call centre and twitter are real-time communication tools. If i had ability to email [access to computer], i would never used ngpay firstly, have used net banking and everything would have been peaceful. “Contact us”(basically will again email you) is again a passive option and am not sure to get a response soon. I thought twitter was a real-time tool, perhaps i should have realised your twitter account is just there for sake of it when i tweeted nice things about ngpay and found you retweeted after days. So lesson is if you are on twitter, make sure you check the account twice a day(at least) and not only monitor it on 9 – 5 during weekdays. I would also suggest you to read this article to get a sense of why i called customer care and then tweeted instead of emailing.

Related read :- Cleartrip-Kiruba Incident

It was once believed that India lives in its villages.

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Now it is clear that India’s wealth lies in its cities, or more specifically, Mumbai.

 

India's Wealth Lies in Its Cities

A study conducted by Delhi-based SMC Global classified companies geographically on the location of their registered offices.

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It reveals that Mumbai-registered companies account for 36.28% of the total BSE 500 market cap.

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Some of the prominent names based out of Mumbai are Reliance Industries, L&T, HDFC and SBI.

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Also, out of the market capitalisation ascribed to Maharashtra which has the highest market capitalization among the states — more than 90% originates from Mumbai.

In fact, Mumbai and six other cities account for 85.71% of the total market capitalisation of BSE 500.

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With Delhi NCR (National Capital Region, which includes satellite cities such as Gurgaon and Noida along with the capital) contributing 27.82%.

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After the financial and political capitals, state capitals take the fore.

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Bangalore lays claim to 7.10%,

Hyderabad to 4.86% and Kolkata accounts for 3.83%,

while Ahmedabad and Chennai account for 3.35% and 2.47%, respectively.

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On a state-wide basis, five states in combination with Delhi NCR and Maharashtra account for 94.20% of the total market cap.

A total of 66.17% of the index’s market cap can be traced to Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.

While the latter accounts for 38.35%, Delhi accounts 27.82%.

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Karnataka accounts for 7.74%, Gujarat, 7.48%, Andhra Pradesh is at 4.95% and Tamil Nadu at 4.02%, while Bengal has 3.83%.

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Though the big Indian companies have a pan-India presence with factories or plants located across the country, they tend to have registered offices in metros.

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That is because of the ease of operations and presence of other corporate houses, suggested the study.

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“The traditional metro cities have accumulation advantage.

Its ultimately the money which brings in more money.

As the Indian economy keeps evolving, tier-2 and tier-3 cities may catchup gradually, to bring-in more equitable distribution of wealth across the country.”

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…said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals.

AIIMS | AIIMS Result – Click Here to View

Designation: BHEL Requires Diploma Holders in Engineering for Appointment on Contract Basis

Job Description:

BHEL Requires Diploma Holders in Engineering for Appointment on Contract Basis

BHEL is on the lookout for Engineering Supervisors to be engaged on Fixed Tenure Basis for a maximum period of two years for Electronics Division at Bangalore or anywhere in India at their Project Sites :
Diploma Engineers : 16 posts (UR- 06, ST-02, OBC-6, PH-2), Age : 28 years, Qualification : Diploma in Engineering in relevant discipline from an institute recognized by AICTE with 60% (50% for SC/S) marks, Experience : 01 year, Remuneration : remuneration of Rs. 9800/- in the first year and Rs. 10500/- in the second year.

Selection by written test and inerview.

Application Fee : Crossed Account Payee Demand Draft for Rs.100/- in favour of : M/s. BHEL Electronics Division, payable at Bangalore (No fee for SC/ST/ PH candidates)

Desired Profile:

How to Apply: Applications in the prescribed format along with the self attested copies of the relevant certificates, superscribing on the envelope containing the filled-in application form “Application for Appointment as Supervisors on Fixed Tenure Basis – Position code____” so as to reach the following address on or before 11/12/2009 :

Sr. Executive (HR), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Electronics Division, P.B. No. 2606, Mysore Road, Bangalore – 560026.

Location: Bangalore

Education: BE/B.Tech, Diploma , Any Graduate

Details & application Format

India’s largest mortgage company is diversifying into education loans. Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) has acquired a 41% stake in Credila Financial Services, a company that specialises in education loans, for Rs 10 crore. The transaction values the company at Rs 23 crore.
HDFC has acquired the stake from Merrill Lynch, which was an initial investor in the company, promoted by Anil Bohora and Ajay Bohora in 2006. Credila commenced business as an NBFC from 2007 with its registered office in Mumbai. It currently has offices in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Nashik.

“Education is growing expensive and the demand for education loans is growing,” said VS Rangan, senior GM — treasury, HDFC.

In recent years, large Indian business groups have forayed into education, a sector that many feel has a huge potential. A few private equity investors are also betting on education by buying into little-known unlisted entities that they think could join the valuation play in future. Read More>>

GOOD NEWS FOR HOME BUYERS
The new legislation will replace opacity with transparencyThe government’s proposal to bring a Bill during the winter session of Parliament to protect the interests of home buyers is to be greatly welcomed.
Most home buyers invest the largest share of their life savings in a home, and till now have suffered from asymmetry of information vis-a-vis the builder or seller. As a result, the typical home buyer has had little scope for ensuring that he gets what he has contracted for, and compensation for non-delivery.
On the other hand, it is necessary to ensure that regulation is not excessive, and leaves builders with the freedom to do their business without being harassed by officialdom.
The best part of the proposed legislation is the provision to bring in transparency where till now opacity has been the norm.
Transparency is sought to be ensured by making it mandatory for a builder to register a project with the regulator, furnish all the relevant details and submit proof of ownership of land and also the necessary permissions for executing the project. These will then be posted on the regulator’s website so that they are accessible to all, and deviations from the plan easy to establish. Along with this, the Bill needs to mandate a set of standard disclosures. The draft Bill also allows a builder to accept an advance only after a sale agreement is signed (which is when the buyer gets tosee the fine print) and not at the time of booking, as is now customary.
Industry bodies have pointed out that the Bill keeps out of its ambit government agencies, local authorities and statutory bodies that play a key role in orderly urban development.

There is a provision for a builder to execute a bank guarantee for 5 per cent of project cost, which can be encashed and used toset things right if he does not complete a project on time or deliver the promised specifications. But if delay is caused by official agencies, the builder needs to be protected too. The Bill also needs to include two aspects on which the HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh has been vocal for long.
One is to make it mandatory for builders to price their properties on the basis of the carpet area and not a largely notional “super built-up” area, as is the practice now.
Even more importantly, a home should come with a warranty so that a home owner has some legal recourse if the builder has done a shoddy job.

Designation: Recruitment of Probationary Clerks

Job Description:

The South Indian Bank Ltd. invites applications for filling up vacancies of Clerks for branches in Kerala and Tamilnadu

Name of post: Clerks

Qualification: Graduation from a recognized University having completed a regular 10+2+3 course securing at least 50% marks in Science Stream or 45 % marks in other streams. Candidates should be proficient in computer operations.

Pay Scale: Rs.4410-13210

Age Limit: Age as on 30.09.2009.- 26 yrs

Important Dates:

Opening date for making online registration – 28.10.2009

Closing date for making online registration – 21.11.2009

Last date for receiving the system generated print out with Demand Draft, photo and other documents – 28.11.2009

Tentative date of written test – 03.01.2010

Application Fees: Application fees should be paid by means of Demand Draft (Crossed Account Payee) favoring The South Indian Bank Ltd., payable at Trissur, Kerala State. Fee for general category is Rs.250 and that for SC/ST is Rs.50

Location: Across India

Education: Graduation

DETAILS HERE : http://southindianbank.com/UserFiles/RecruitmentOnline.pdf

APPLY ONLINE : http://southindianbank.com/Careers/careersdetails.aspx?careerid=37

It has been raining heavily for the past two days at Chennai.  Yesterday, Vignesh had school, but the younger one, Karthik, whose school is comparatively at a better place than Vignesh, had holiday, as he was in smaller classes. Today when I got up around 5:30 a.m., it was pitch dark outside, and there were heavy showers with lightning as well as thunders.  So, thinking that both the kids might have holiday today, was doing my cooking in a lethargic manner.  At around 6 a.m., made Vignesh to wake up with great difficulty, and also heard from the school’s Porur Campus, that the school was functioning today.  Both of us had a heavy heart and Vignesh was slowly getting ready for the school bus. I had made vegetable biriyani for lunch, and packed the same.  Once Vignesh, left for catching his bus, my next job was to wake up Karthik, whick is more than a Herculian task.  My husband too got up early, as he was to leave early for his work today.  I thought I will check the school website to find out whether Karthik had a holiday today too.  The school website did not say anything about that.  But at the same time, my gmail alert popped up a new message, something regarding the results of HDFC Meritus Scholarship Exams 2009.  I immediately checked my inbox, and to my sweet surprise I found that Vignesh has been declared as one among the 3300 winners, out of 4.2 lakh kids, all over India, who participated in this competition.  Kudos to Vignesh.  Really feeling great today morning.

P.S. Vignesh, still doesn’t know about his feat, as he is off to school.  Waiting for the evening to come so that I can convey the news to him…

The path to his success:

This Scholarship competition was announced in Feb. 2009.  I am a salary account holder with HDFC Bank for the past 4 years.  One day, while logging on to Netbanking, I saw this contest and wanted Vignesh to participate in the same.  The rules of the contest said that there will be two rounds of telephone quiz,  which, after qualifying will lead to the final round of written test.  The final round will also take into consideration his other interests, extra curricular activities etc etc.  I had registered my mobile number and Vignesh was waiting for the first round of IVRS(Interactive Voice Response System), which will ask 10 questions, each of different level, totalling to 30 marks.  There can be a maximum of 5 attempts, but the marks scored in the final attempt will be taken as his final score for that round.  In the first round, he took the first attempt, the score was 19/30, and the second attempt resulted in 28/30.  My husband said that it is better that he stopped there, because it would be the second best score.  We waited, and got a message stating that he has qualified for the second round.  The second round, he took through the internet, and got 30/30.  We knew that for sure, he will receive a call for the last written test round.  It took place on August 16th, 2009 a Sunday, at Sri Ramakrishna Mission Boys Higher Secondary School, T. Nagar.  Actually, it has been a long time (a very lonnnnnnnnng time) since we had gone out of station.  That was a good weekend, as Aug 15th, Saturday was also a national holiday.  One of my colleagues was getting married at Trichy.  I has asked my husband, and we were of the thought, that we four, will drive down to Trichy and spend the weekend over there.  But by, Thursday, we received a message from HDFC, that the final written test was on Aug.16th.  We thought that Vignesh, should take up the final test, as he had come up to that level.  But, by Friday itself, he developed high fever, and was down.  We had taken him to the doctor, and was under medication.  That was the time that the first case of swine flu was diagnosed in India too.  SO, we were all the more worried.  On Sunday, as he looked a bit better, he said, he will take up the test, and Vignesh and myself, went to the exam centre, around 9:00 a.m.  There were a good number of students, who had come to take up the written test.  Vignesh, was as cool as he usual self.  The exam was for two hours 10:00 to 12:00.  My husband, came around 11:00 and once the exam was over, we both were pestering Vignesh, the whole way back to home, about the questions, that were asked in the paper.  He couldn’t even recollect 5 to 10 questions.  He said, overall, atleast 30 to 35 questions will definitely be right, and the rest, he had done some guesswork.  We spoke to a few officials of HDFC over there, who said that the written test was conducted at various parts of the country, on different dates, till September end.  We knew that the results would be out anytime after September.  Today was that D-day, and we are all very happy for Vignesh!!!

Following was the mail that I received from HDFC.

If you are not able to view this mailer properly, please click here

Dear Vythianathan, We understand what your child’s success means to you. To ensure that your child gets the right opportunity, HDFC Bank rewards talented and deserving students. It gives us great pleasure to inform you that among 4.2 Lac participants Vignesh has received a scholarship worth Rs2,500 in the Meritus Scholarship Program. Only 3300 participants has received a scholarship in the Meritus Scholarship Program. Your child truly deserves to be in the winning league and we wish him/her all the success in his/her future endeavours. Your child’s certificate and scholarship amount will be delivered either at their School or at your residence. We appreciate the time and effort you and your child have invested in preparing for and participating in the Meritus Scholarship Program. Results of Meritus Scholarship Program are posted on www.hdfcbank.com Final Written examination procedure as well as results for Meritus Scholarship Program has been supervised by leading external audit agency-Ernst & Young. For any further clarifications, please write to us on meritus@hdfcbank.com Warm regards, Rohit Mull EVP & Head Marketing

By this time couple of companies have announced their Q2 earning reports. I am finding mixed kind of reports from different Indian companies. Some companies reported excellent results and others reported average or even bad results.

All the investors needs to keep watch on the overall Q2 results of the companies and need to take clues from them to decide about the positions in their respective portfolio. Some of the small players like Indusind Bank reported excellent results and this bank is showing lot of sings of improvements and is probable candiate to grow big.

Big fight between two Ambani camps on account of the Gas prices is denting the overall image of the Indian corporates.

Here is the summary of the companies which declared good to excellent results in Q2. The chart shows the comparision of sales and profit improvements over the same quarter last year.

Some of the significant results which are in the below chart are from Indusind bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, Yes Bank, Biocon, Axis Bank etc. We need to keep watch on this companies. Some of them will continue their growth trends and will become very big enterprises. Our request to readers is to do your own study for each of the companies you are interested, revisit your risk profile and believe that this market will definitely give you opportunity to enter your favorite stocks at the proper price.

Q2 Results

Designation: INDIAN BANK RECRUITMENT OF PROBATIONARY OFFICERS & SPECIALIST OFFICERS

Job Description:

Indian Bank,a premier bank owned by the Government of India,based in Chennai,is recruiting for Probationary Officers & Specialist Officers in various scales.Applications are to be submitted only through the website of Indian Bank.

Position – Vacancies :

1) Probationary Officers – 118 posts
2) Specialist Officers – 284 posts (refer below for departments)

Candidates are requested to apply online between 16.10.2009 and 16.11.2009 only through our Bank’s website www.indianbank.in. No other means/ mode of application will be accepted.

Eligibility for Probationary Officers : Graduation in any discipline Second Class with 55% aggregate marks / equivalent CGPA)

Application:
Candidates have to pay Rs.400(Gen/OBC) or Rs.50(SC/ST/PH/Ex.SM) in any Indian Bank branch using challans downloaded from the website.The details of payment have to be given in the online registration form.

Desired Profile:

Dates: Online Registration Starts – 16th October 2009
Online Registration Closes – 16th November 2009
Date of Written-Test – 3rd January 2010(for Specialist Officers)
Date of Written-Test – 17th January 2010(for Probationary Officers)

Details Here

challan for payment of fees

HDFC Bank, a leading bank in India is charging the customer for remitting cash into one’s own account in the same bank’s branch in another city.
What logic is this?
I went to withdraw from HDFC ATM.The machine could not dispense it,stating it could not .On complaining to my bankers,ICICI,they have taken the complaint and informed that it would take 12 days to intimate the status, citing technical problems in accessing information from HDFC.
What non sense is this? For their mistakes I can not draw my money for minimum 12 days;till then I do not know its fate.
What is the point in Banking if you can not take your money when you need it?
I withdrew money from another bank’s ATM ,couple of minutes later.
What if I had only the minimum balance and my money is blocked?
Any body listening?
Another funny episode.
My daughter invested in HDFC and was given temporarary receipt and was informed original receipt will follow.
Later when we went to collect it, we also wanted a declaration that we have invested money for filing Tax Returns.
A letter was issued stating that ’so and so has left money with us;we can not vouchsafe the transaction nor can we declare as to the authenticity of the signature of the person.
How about that!
I took it up with their Vice President in Bangalore and another proper letter was issued.

On the first day of the traditional Hindu calendar year, the Sensex ended at 17,326, a gain of just 3 points. The Nifty ended almost unchanged from Friday’s closing value of 5,142.
The Sensex started the 60-minute special trading session on a positive note, advancing 171 points at its highest point but could not sustain the gains as the session progressed.
While consumer durable, IT and metal stocks saw some buying activity, banking stocks were under pressure. The market breadth on the BSE was however strong, with 1934 stocks advancing while 581 stocks declined. The BSE smallcap index ended 1.36 per cent higher while the midcap stock gained 0.65 per cent.
Angel Broking CMD Dinesh Thakkar said valuation concerns have been overdone. Though the market has sharply appreciated, it is still not overvalued, he said, adding that the visibility on corporate earnings would be key driver for the markets.
Sanjay Sinha, CEO of DBS Chola Mutual Fund, said in case the earnings disappoint in some cases, markets might be cushioned by higher foreign inflows on the back of strengthening rupee.
Some sectors like IT and pharma have not fully participated in rally seen over the last year. If rupee headwinds are not too strong, they could be the sectors to watch for in Senvat 2066, Sinha added.
Among the Sensex stocks, exactly half of them advanced while other half declined.
Sterlite Ind was up 2.9 per cent to be the biggest gainer among the group. TCS, ACC, Bharti and RCom posted over 1 per cent gains each.
Bank stocks ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank closed down nearly 1 percent

Designation: Union Bank Clerical Recruitment Project 2009 A

Job Description:
Union Bank of India
Name of post: Clerk -Cum – Cashier the Clerical Cadre
Age (As on 30.09.2009) – Minimum age : 18 yrs & Maximum age : 28yrs
Total Vacancies : 1040
Application Fee :  Rs.300.00

Important Dates
Opening Date For On- Line Applications after payment of Fees  – 01-10-2009
Last date For On -Line application & On- Line submission  – 31-10-2009

Click Here For Details

To Download fees payment challan

Apply On-Line