If a person is NRI or PIO, she/he can, without the permission from the Reserve Bank, open, hold and maintain the different types of accounts given below with an Authorised Dealer in India, i.e. a bank authorised to deal in foreign exchange. NRO Savings accounts can also be maintained with the Post Offices in India. However, individuals/ entities of Bangladesh and Pakistan require prior approval of the Reserve Bank.

Types of accounts which can be maintained by an NRI / PIO in India

A. Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee Account (NRO Account)

NRO accounts may be opened / maintained in the form of current, savings, recurring or fixed deposit accounts.

● Savings Account - Normally maintained for crediting legitimate dues /earnings / income such as dividends, interest etc. Banks are free to determine the interest rates.

●  Term Deposits - Banks are free to determine the interest rates. Interest rates offered by banks on NRO deposits cannot be higher than those offered by them on comparable domestic rupee deposits.

● Account should be denominated in Indian Rupees.

● Permissible credits to NRO account are transfers from rupee accounts of non-resident banks, remittances received in permitted currency from outside India through normal banking channels, permitted currency tendered by account holder during his temporary visit to India, legitimate dues in India of the account holder like current income like rent, dividend, pension, interest, etc., sale proceeds of assets including immovable property acquired out of rupee/foreign currency funds or by way of legacy/ inheritance.

● Eligible debits such as all local payments in rupees including payments for investments as specified by the Reserve Bank and remittance outside India of current income like rent, dividend, pension, interest, etc., net of applicable taxes, of the account holder.

● NRI/PIO may remit from the balances held in NRO account an amount not exceeding USD one million per financial year, subject to payment of applicable taxes.

● The limit of USD 1 million per financial year includes sale proceeds of immovable properties held by NRIs/PIOs.

● The accounts may be held jointly with residents and / or with non-resident Indian.

● The NRO account holder may opt for nomination facility.

● NRO (current/savings) account can also be opened by a foreign national of non-Indian origin visiting India, with funds remitted from outside India through banking channel or by sale of foreign exchange brought by him to India. The details of this facility are given in the FAQs on “Accounts opened by Foreign Nationals and Foreign Tourists” available on the RBI website.

● Loans to non-resident account holders and to third parties may be granted in Rupees by Authorized Dealer / bank against the security of fixed deposits subject to certain terms and conditions.

B. Non-Resident (External) Rupee Account (NRE Account)

● NRE account may be in the form of savings, current, recurring or fixed deposit accounts. Such accounts can be opened only by the non-resident himself and not through the holder of the power of attorney.

● NRIs as defined in Notification No. FEMA 5/2000-RB dated May 3, 2000 may be permitted to open NRE account with their resident close relatives (relative as defined in Section 6 of the Companies Act, 1956) on ‘former or survivor ‘ basis.  The resident close relative shall be eligible to operate the account as a Power of Attorney holder in accordance with the extant instructions during the life time of the NRI/PIO account holder.

● Account will be maintained in Indian Rupees.

● Balances held in the NRE account are freely repatriable.

● Accrued interest income and balances held in NRE accounts are exempt from Income tax and Wealth tax, respectively.

● Authorised dealers/authorised banks may at their discretion/commercial judgement allow for a period of not more than two weeks, overdrawings in NRE savings bank accounts, up to a limit of Rs.50,000 subject to the condition that such overdrawings together with the interest payable thereon are cleared/repaid within a period of two weeks, out of inward remittances through normal banking channels or by transfer of funds from other NRE/FCNR accounts.

● Savings - Banks are free to determine the interest rates.

● Term deposits – Banks are free to determine the interest rates of term deposits of maturity of one year and above. Interest rates offered by banks on NRE deposits cannot be higher than those offered by them on comparable domestic rupee deposits.

● Permissible credits to NRE account are inward remittance to India in permitted currency, proceeds of account payee cheques, demand drafts / bankers’ cheques, issued against encashment of foreign currency, where the instruments issued to the NRE account holder are supported by encashment certificate issued by AD Category-I / Category-II, transfers from other NRE / FCNR accounts, sale proceeds of FDI investments, interest accruing on the funds held in such accounts, interest on Government securities/dividends on units of mutual funds purchased by debit to the NRE/FCNR(B) account of the holder, certain types of refunds, etc.

● Eligible debits are local disbursements, transfer to other NRE / FCNR accounts of person eligible to open such accounts, remittance outside India, investments in shares / securities/commercial paper of an Indian company, etc.

● Loans up to Rs.100 lakh can be extended against security of funds held in NRE Account either to the depositors or third parties.

● Such accounts can be operated through power of attorney in favour of residents for the limited purpose of withdrawal of local payments or remittances through normal banking channels to the account holder himself.

C. Foreign Currency Non Resident (Bank) Account – FCNR (B) Account

● FCNR (B) accounts are only in the form of term deposits of 1 to 5 years

● All debits / credits permissible in respect of NRE accounts, including credit of sale proceeds of FDI investments, are permissible in FCNR (B) accounts also.

● Account can be in any freely convertible currency.

● Loans up to Rs.100 lakh can be extended against security of funds held in FCNR (B) deposit either to the depositors or third parties.

● The interest rates are stipulated by the Department of Banking Operations and Development, Reserve Bank of India. In respect of FCNR (B) deposits of all maturities contracted effective from the close of business in India as on November 23, 2011, interest shall be paid within the ceiling rate of LIBOR/SWAP rates plus 125 basis points for the respective currency/corresponding maturities (as against LIBOR/SWAP rates plus 100 basis points effective from close of business on November 15, 2008). On floating rate deposits, interest shall be paid within the ceiling of SWAP rates for the respective currency/maturity plus 125 basis points. For floating rate deposits, the interest reset period shall be six months.

● When an account holder becomes a person resident in India, deposits may be allowed to continue till maturity at the contracted rate of interest, if so desired by him.

● Terms and conditions as applicable to NRE accounts in respect of joint accounts, repatriation of funds, opening account during temporary visit, operation by power of attorney, loans/overdrafts against security of funds held in accounts, shall apply mutatis mutandis to FCNR (B). NRI can open joint account with a resident close relative (relative as defined in Section 6 of the Companies Act, 1956) on former or survivor basis. The resident close relative will be eligible to operate the account as a Power of Attorney holder in accordance with extant instructions during the life time of the NRI/ PIO account holder.

What are the other investment facilities available to NRIs/PIO?

NRI may, without limit, purchase on non-repatriation basis :

● Government dated securities / Treasury bills

● Units of domestic mutual funds

● Units of Money Market Mutual Funds

● National Plan/Savings Certificates

● Non-convertible debentures of a company incorporated in India

● Shares and convertible debentures of Indian companies through stock exchange under Portfolio Investment Scheme, subject to the terms and conditions specified in Schedules 3 and 4 to the FEMA Notification No. 20/2000- RB dated May 3, 2000, as amended from time to time.

● Exchange traded derivative contracts approved by the SEBI, from time to time, out of INR funds held in India on non-­repatriable basis, subject to the limits prescribed by the SEBI.

Note : NRIs are not permitted to invest in small savings or Public Provident Fund (PPF).

Issue Detail:

Issue Period: Feb 22, 2012 to Feb 24, 2012
Listing on: BSE
Issue Size: 552.75 – 663.31 crore
Issue Type: 100% Book Building Issue IPO
Issue price: Rs. 860 – Rs. 1032
Face Value: Rs.10
Market Lot: 6
Minimum Order Quantity: 6
Rating Agency: CRISIL

Company Description:

 MCX is a de-mutualised exchange and received permanent recognition from the Government of India on September 26, 2003, to facilitate nationwide online trading, clearing and settlement operations of commodities futures transactions. The total value of commodity futures contracts traded on the Exchange in the nine months ended December 31, 2011 and the fiscals 2011, 2010 and 2009 was Rs 119,806.89 billion, Rs 98,415.03 billion, Rs 63,933.03 billion and Rs 45,880.95 billion, respectively. According to data maintained by the FMC, these amounts represented 87.3%, 82.4%, 82.3% and 87.4% of the Indian commodity futures industry in terms of the value of commodity futures contracts traded during the same periods.

As of December 31, 2011, MCX offers trading in 49 commodity futures based on contract specifications, from a diverse range of classes including bullion, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, energy and agriculture. As of December 31, 2011, they had 2,153 members on the Exchange‘s platform, with over 296,000 terminals including CTCL spread over 1,572 cities and towns across India

For the nine months ended December 31, 2011, the total number of futures contracts in silver, gold, crude oil and copper, which were the top four commodities traded on the Exchange, was 101.80 million, 72.80 million, 42.66 million and 26.87 million, respectively.

During the fiscal 2011, the total number of futures contracts in silver, gold, crude oil and copper, which were the top four commodities traded on the Exchange, were 46.0 million, 30.5 million, 46.3 million and 31.0 million, respectively.

Based on the comparison of the trading volumes of the Exchange with those of the leading global commodity futures exchanges in the world, for the calendar year 2010 and the six months ended June 30, 2011, they were the largest silver exchange, the second largest gold, copper and natural gas exchange and the third largest crude oil exchange, in terms of the number of commodity futures contracts traded for each of these commodities for this period. They were also the fifth largest commodity futures exchange globally, among all the commodity exchanges considered in the Futures Industry Association (FIA) survey, in terms of the number of contracts traded for the six months ended June 30, 2011. (Source: Data published for the period between January 1 and June 30, 2011 on the websites of the exchanges listed in “Certain Conventions; Use of Market Data” on page 12, and FIA, FI magazine, September 2011 (“FIA Report”)).

They derive the income primarily from transaction fees with respect to the trades executed on the Exchange, annual subscription fees, member admission fees, terminal charges, proceeds of sale and dividends from investments and interest from bank deposits. For the fiscal 2011 and the nine months ended December 31, 2011, the total consolidated income was Rs 4,475.60 million and Rs 4,745.02 million, respectively, and the net profit, as restated, was Rs 1,762.73 million and Rs 2,179.52 million, respectively.

The Promoter owns 31.18% of the equity share capital. The other larger shareholders include financial institutions and other entities from the financial sector, such as FID Funds (Mauritius) Limited (an affiliate of Fidelity International), Euronext N.V. (an affiliate of NYSE Euronext) and Merrill Lynch Holdings (Mauritius).

Objects of the issue:

To achieve benefits of listing in order to enhance brand name and provide liquidity to existing shareholders.

IPO Grading:

This Offer has been graded by CRISIL Limited and has been assigned the “IPO Grade 5/5”, indicating strong fundamentals. The IPO Grading is assigned on a five-point scale from 1 to 5, with IPO Grade 5/5 indicating strong fundamentals and IPO Grade 1/5 indicating poor fundamentals.

The ratings of France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were downgraded.

This move seems to have increased the difficulty of finding a solution to the debt crisis.

Germany, the largest economy of them has been spared.

The list is given below.

Expected to be operationalised from January 15, the new scheme allows a foreign individual, a foreign pension fund or even a foreign trust to invest directly in the equity market. These investors will be called ‘Qualified Foreign Investors’ (QFIs).

Citing that foreign investors are already allowed direct access to Indian mutual fund schemes, the Finance Ministry said that its latest decision is merely ‘the next logical step’ in the same direction.

“This has been done in order to widen the class of investors, attract more foreign funds, reduce market volatility and deepen the Indian capital market,” said the Finance Ministry in a statement.

Currently, foreign individuals and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) can invest in the equity market only through sub-accounts with registered FIIs whereas unregistered foreign individuals and institutions invest through participatory notes (PNs).

But while the government has decided to grant foreigners direct access to Indian equity market, investment is restricted to QFIs from countries that are compliant with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and are signatories to the international body of securities market, IOSCO’s, memorandum of understanding.

This condition will allow investors from over 80 countries to access the Indian equity market. Investors from countries such as Pakistan and the like won’t be able to benefit from the scheme.

Salient Features of the Scheme:

• RBI would grant general permission to QFIs for investment under Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) route similar to FIIs.
• The individual and aggregate investment limit for QFIs shall be 5% and 10% respectively of the paid up capital of Indian company. These limits shall be over and above the FII and NRI investment ceilings prescribed under the PIS route for foreign investment in India.
• QFIs shall  be allowed to invest through SEBI registered Qualified  Depository Participant (DP). A QFI shall open only one demat account and a trading account with any of the qualified DP. The QFI shall make purchase and sale of equities through that DP only.
• DP shall ensure that QFIs meet all KYC and other regulatory requirements, as per the  relevant regulations issued by SEBI from time to time. QFIs shall remit money through normal banking channel in any permitted currency (freely convertible) directly to the single rupee pool bank account of the DP maintained with a designated AD category – I bank. Upon receipt of instructions from QFI, DP shall carry out the transactions (purchase/sale of equity).
• DP shall be responsible for deduction of applicable tax at source out of the redemption proceeds before making redemption payments to QFIs.
• Risk management, margins and taxation on such trades by QFIs may be on lines similar to the facility available to the other investors.

The design of the notes to be issued is similar in all respects to the existing Rs 500 in Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005 issued earlier, except for the rupee symbol.

However, all the banknotes in the denomination of Rs 500 issued by the RBI in the past will continue to be legal tender.

Last month, the RBI had announced that it will soon introduce notes of Rs 1,000, Rs 100 and Rs 10 denomination featuring the rupee symbol.

The Indian rupee got an unique symbol — a blend of the Devanagri ‘Ra’ and Roman ‘R’ — last year, joining currencies like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.

The new symbol, designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved in July 2010.

E-Gold enables investors to invest their funds into gold in smaller denomination and hold it in demat form.

It is available on the pan India electronic trading platform set-up by National Spot Exchange, which can be accessed through members of NSEL or their franchises.

It provides an unique opportunity to buy, accumulate, hold and liquidate “Electronic Gold (E-Gold)” as well as to convert the same into physical gold coin/ bar in a seamless manner.

Retail investors who intend to trade/invest in E-Gold are required to register with one of the members of NSEL.

The process is exactly similar to client registration process for trading in the equity market.

Investors may choose any NSEL member on criteria like convenience, comfort, service levels, safety, reputation and charges levied etc.

1 unit of E-Gold is equivalent to 1 gram of gold of 995 purity.

The trading session is from 10:00 am to 11:30pm from Monday to Friday (except Exchange specified holidays).

The settlement is done on a T+2 basis.

Though the world is reeling under the economic pressure, though the financial markets are suffering, gold was, is and will always be at the top. The popularity of gold isn’t going to abate come what may. So, the best way to make money on a long term basis is gold investment. If you are able to make really good profit from gold investment, you may be able to use that money to even pay off your debt and free yourself of the stress of owing money to others.

Gold investment and debt pay off

Gold investment actually helps you in making good money. However, you will have to know how to differentiate between real gold and other gold of bad quality. Otherwise, you will end up losing money rather than making profit over the same as you may not be able to get high price on such gold.

You can buy gold in the form of gold jewelry, gold bullion and gold coins and bars and so on. The price of gold is increasing day by day and so if you buy gold now and sell it off some years later, you may be able to earn some good revenue out of it. However, the best thing through which you can invest your money in gold is the bullions and the coins and also gold stocks, futures and accounts. These have more popularity in the gold investment market in comparison to the gold jewelry.

However, you can even make money out of scrap gold and gold jewelry. Like if you have lots of scrap gold and gold jewelry that you won’t even like to use any time later, you can sell those off and make money. There are many scrap gold buyers in the market who are interested in buying scarp gold in lieu of rupees.

As a result of the economic meltdown, the different financial and investment markets like the stock market, the forex investment or trading market and even the real estate market have suffered a lot. These are suffering till now – all of these markets are still low. Though the stock market has been able to gain some momentum, gold has always been able to maintain its position in spite of all kind of economic or social and political crisis.

In fact the price of gold is ever rising and so it is quite obvious that you will be able to make good money out of your gold investments. Thus, if you are able to make money out of your gold investments, you will be able to use that money to pay off debt and become free of your financial obligations.

At 10:40 am, the rupee was at 52.58/59 per dollar, after touching an all-time low of 52.73, and 0.8 per cent weaker than its previous close of 52.1550/1650.

This move shall bring cheers from the exporters, but it will be problematic for the importers.

India being a net importer this can have serious implications for the Indian economy.

A large bulk of our imports being oil products, this news can result in an increase of petrol and other fuel prices.

This can have a cascading effect on the already high inflation rates.

There is a chance of the RBI interfering in the forex market although it’s official stance doesn’t say anything about this.

In order to encourage active participation in the above contracts, it has been decided that no transaction charges will be levied on the trades done in the above mentioned contracts till six months from the date of commencement of trading.

However, every Trading Member participating in trading in the contracts at any time during the above period shall be required to make a lump sum contribution of Rs. 500/- as contribution to Investor Protection Fund.