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Governments across the world abhor the virus of disruption. Their regulatory antibodies are quick to take down agents of radical change. Unless the disruption sneaks inside undetected. Think about Silicon Valley of the early 1990s — a place where young engineers were trying to make sense of this shiny new thing called the internet. In 1990, the internet was available in select American cities. By 1995, it was all over the country.

Foreign and local custodians, which function as the vital link between foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and the Indian stock market, have rushed to the markets regulator to figure out the fate of several offshore funds linked to non-resident Indians (NRIs). These funds have been impacted by a new rule by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) curbing NRI investment and control on FPIs.

As the National Pension System (NPS) celebrates its ninth anniversary on May 1, the glass continues to remain half full for investors. While the returns from NPS funds over the past year have been sound, and many investor-friendly changes to norms were announced by the regulator, the costs associated with NPS have moved up for what was originally envisaged as a low-cost product.

The introduction of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equities seems to be harsh for retail investors. But it also seems to have made unit-linked insurance plans a better option than mutual funds. The tax, which will be levied at the rate of 10 per cent if equities are sold after one year, will be imposed without any indexation benefit. The relief: long-term capital gains up to Rs 100,000 will be exempt. Since there is no LTCG tax on Ulips, many mutual fund investors would wonder if the former is a better option after this recent tweak in taxation. Here's a comparison of these two products across various parameters to help investors decide.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it is withdrawing a restriction that limited foreign investors to only investing in government and corporate bonds with tenures of three years or more, a move that could bolster the domestic bond market.

The primary market emerged as a money spinner for investors in 2017-18, with 65% of the newly listed companies trading well above their issue prices, giving returns of up to three times. Out of 41 companies that made their debut in the past fiscal, 27 are trading above their issue prices fixed after their IPOs. The remaining 14 firms, however, have failed to attract investors and are quoting below their issue price, an analysis of the new entrants on the NSE showed.

India remains one of the most active markets for IPOs globally, and is set to perform well this calendar year, said a new survey by Baker McKenzie, an international law firm. Baker McKenzie's ‘Doing Business Globally Survey’ of Indian business leaders also revealed that despite the 2019 general elections, 56 per cent of Indian business leaders are more interested in overseas deal making in the coming 12 months than they were in the past year, while 11 per cent of the more than 200 surveyed are less interested. 33 per cent of business leaders have the same level of interest.

Not many investors are happy with the introduction of the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equity and equity-oriented mutual funds. Taking advantage of this are life insurance companies - they have started campaigns highlighting the benefits unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) have over equity MFs in the taxation department.

Taking a cue from the upward trajectory in the benchmark government bond yield over the past few days, HDFC Bank has hiked interest rates on its fixed deposits (FD) for select tenures under Rs 1 crore. With this latest hike, HDFC Bank’s FDs will now earn higher interest compared with the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI).

Various asset classes move in different directions over a period of time. As a result, asset allocation of an individual changes over time. Therefore, it is necessary to rebalance the portfolio from time to time.

IDFC is in talks with a clutch of private Indian lenders and bulge bracket PE funds to sell its asset management and stock broking units in a deal that could be worth up to Rs 6,000 crore, people familiar with the discussions said.

If you renew your car insurance online much before the expiry date, you may get a discount on the premium. Such customers are less likely to file a claim for damages compared to those who renew their policy at the last moment. A few insurance companies have started looking at the buying behaviour of customers online and are offering differential pricing.

Foreign portfolio investors and mutual funds have been lapping of stocks of blue-chip companies in the January – March 2018 (Q4FY18) quarter with their stakes in select companies hitting an all-time high. FPIs ownership in 13 companies from the S&P BSE200 index, such as Reliance Industries (RIL), IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, Ashok Leyland and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance hit record high at the end of Q4FY18, CapitalinePlus data shows.

Diversification in investing means spreading your risk across different assets. If you are an equity investor, don’t stop at just Indian equities. There are stocks listed in other countries too which merit some attention. But before adding assets in another currency to your portfolio, think through the pros and cons.

The Indian life insurance industry is back in the growth phase after nearly half a decade. What lends confidence to the sustainability of this growth are favourable macroeconomic environment, social factors and participation of almost all the companies in this growth. In addition, both the regulator and the life insurers utilised the difficult period to improve product offering, to ramp up customer service and enhance efficiencies of the distribution network. While product design and customer service improvements witnessed an immediate customer impact, it is the introduction of open architecture in distribution that is expected to start delivering customer benefits over the next 12-15 months.