Thangavel.....

With changing interest rates and pricey homes, here's how you can be a savvy customer. By Padmavathi Subramanian I live in what's arguably the city with the world's highest real-estate prices. But our Mumbai flat was too tiny—my family, I felt, deserved something better. Selling it and moving to an affordable, larger flat farther away from my downtown office, where I reach after an hour's commute, would make my life even harder. Then, in mid-2005, my next-door neighbours decided to sell their equally small flat. I bought it with a home loan from HDFC Ltd, pulled down a wall and joined the two flats to create a fairly large home. While applying for the loan, one question troubled me. Should I choose a fixed rate of interest, or a floating rate—one that could go up or down, depending mainly on inflation? Interest rates were low in 2005. But one never knows: "low" and "high" are relative terms in the world of finance. If I chose the 7.75% fixed rate off

Dangerous Definitions: Know Your Hedge Funds The hedge fund industry may appear to be a risky investment choice right now but not every investment instrument referred to as a 'hedge fund' may necessarily behave according to the true definition. With a little research, hedge funds can still provide a good return. On the surface, the hedge fund industry, like telecoms, dotcoms and banks before it, is now apparently crashing and burning. Schadenfreude all round, some may say. In recognition of the fact that 'hedge fund' is an unhelpful modern misnomer in the same way that 'government bailout' is, we might like to establish some workable definition by which to measure what a hedge fund actually does. Or, rather, should do. How about: 'Moderately leveraged, bi-directional, speculative trading in liquid and transparent markets in order to achieve absolute returns unrelated to traditional asset classes.' This sounds simple enough, so why do most hedge fund

These days the talk of the town……. oops talk of the whole globe is failure of several banks in US.   But I would say it is not the failure of the financial institutions but due the business model they were having.   But before getting to know what the model is, its better to know a few terms which is being on air for a while…….. (or at least the way I have understood thoseJJJJ)   1. Sub prime lending: That is nothing but lending to some one whom u know so well that he/she will have problems in repaying the loan. Sub-prime works in a very simple way: 1. Give a loan to some one who doesn’t have a credit rating worth a loan. 2. The loan period will be usually for a very long period. Say 30 yrs. 3. The person taking the loan will be taking the loan under the impression that after some time he will be able to make some money and settle the loan. 4. The lending terms usually will be like interest fixed for first 2 yrs. (for selling the loan to the poor borrower) 5. After the fixed rate perio

These days the talk of the town……. oops talk of the whole globe is failure of several banks in US.   But I would say it is not the failure of the financial institutions but due the business model they were having.   But before getting to know what the model is, its better to know a few terms which is being on air for a while…….. (or at least the way I have understood thoseJJJJ)   1. Sub prime lending: That is nothing but lending to some one whom u know so well that he/she will have problems in repaying the loan. Sub-prime works in a very simple way: 1. Give a loan to some one who doesn’t have a credit rating worth a loan. 2. The loan period will be usually for a very long period. Say 30 yrs. 3. The person taking the loan will be taking the loan under the impression that after some time he will be able to make some money and settle the loan. 4. The lending terms usually will be like interest fixed for first 2 yrs. (for selling the loan to the poor borrower) 5. After the fixed ra

Some interesting article on JP Morgan...... JP MORGAN: INDIA FOCUS (M)organ failure? JP should follow the beaten path... Investments across the world might not seem an attractive proposition in the current times, but where India is concerned, it is still a hot destination for JP Morgan (JP). According to newly appointed India CEO, Kalpana Morparia, JP will invest $1 billion in Asia-Pacific region over the next three years, with the investments in India totalling a whopping $500 million. Kavita Sonawala, Head – Marketing, JP Morgan tells B&E that, “Our strategy for India can be defined by the word ‘aggressive’. We want to tap its full potential...” For now, JP’s strategy is to focus on the Real Estate and Infrastructure sectors, besides Investment Banking. To achieve that end, JP Morgan Asset fund has mobilised more than $360 million from Institutional Investors and High Net worth Individuals (HNIs) in US, Asia, Europe and the Middle-East. It has also set up a $2 billion infrastruct

Though i have created this blog long back and time has come just today for publishing something...... so what am going to write in this blog......  Sorry no idea..... I am not sure about that....  I don't know what should i write.... If it is going to about me, then what? Should it be about my studies, personal life?....... No idea....... By the way now i have been in Mangalore for past 8 months....(since Dec 07)  (though i was out of station for 1-2 months due to some training, tours etc)....... I have started liking the Mangalore life.... May be not that gr8 compared to Coimbatore or Chennai.... but am damn sure Mangalore holds a place in my heart.... So bye for now... Will start writing abt something soon.....

The media for the past 3 months has been busy with this agreement.....the media though responsible for educating about public had taken the sides. The media just gave their ideas and they never justified the same. (but for a few media houses) So i have taken up this blog to clarify certain things about the deal. First things first..... Do we really want Nuclear power for our nation, that too paltry 3-4% of the total power generated by the year 2010 or later on.... So lets see the cost side and what other options we have on hand........