Latest news with #Agarwal
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
21 years on, man yet to get possession of plot in LDA scheme
Lucknow: It has been an agonising wait of 21 years for Harish Chandra Agarwal to get the possession of his plot he booked with the Lucknow Development Authority. The allotment of the plot in Ramnagar Housing Scheme was done way back in 2004, but Agarwal's wait for possession continues. Agarwal voiced his frustration at the LDA Nagrik Suvidha Diwas on Tuesday. Agarwal said LDA had allotted 80 plots in Ramnagar in Aishbagh in 2004, of which 60 were handed over. The remaining 20 plots were allegedly encroached by a local strongman Prakash Yadav, who built illegal slums on the plots and continues to occupy them, even collecting rent from the occupants, Agarwal claimed. Many allottees had taken loans to buy these plots and are still repaying EMIs without getting the possession, he added. Divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob, who presided over Nagrik Suvidha Diwas, directed a full survey of the area and said if encroachment is confirmed then an eviction drive will be carried out and allottees will be given possession of their plots. Suresh Chandra, 68, complained about an unauthorised mobile tower near Shivnagar Khadra. Despite previous removal orders, the tower remains operational, he told officials. Fire safety and maintenance issues at Khazana complex in Aashiana were also flagged by some residents. They alleged no action has been taken for a year. Jacob directed LDA to inspect the site and warned of FIRs against officials if they were found negligent. The public grievance session drew multiple complaints from residents pertaining to land allotment, encroachments, and lack of civic amenities. A total of 93 complaints were received, including LDA (59), LMC (23), Lesa (5), and Jalkal (6). While 17 cases were resolved on the spot, the rest were forwarded to the departments concerned. Roshan Jacob directed officials to resolve every complaint received during the public hearing within the stipulated timeframe.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Bengal voter list scam: 127 fake entries flagged, CEO orders probe
The West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer's office has flagged major irregularities during sample checking of voters' lists in West Bengal's South and North 24 Parganas districts. According to sources in the know, a large number of 'fictitious voters' — whose names were allegedly submitted and entered by two EROs without BLO verification — was detected. This development comes amid ongoing allegations from both the opposition BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress on inclusion of bogus voters. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal told ET that for two EROs, 127 fictitious voters were identified, and appropriate action will be taken against them. Agarwal has directed all the district election officers (DEOs) to form 'a team of senior officers' and conduct 'sample checking of all Form 6 disposals done during the last one year and send a report to the Bengal CEO by August 14'. The two EROs allegedly were instrumental in accepting a considerable 'large number of fictitious voters', according to EC officials. Live Events Sources told ET that one document was submitted multiple times for a large number of fictitious voters as supporting documents and no BLO verification was done. During sample checking of Form 6, it was found that the EROs allegedly uploaded the same documents of voters, they said. 'Both the EROs have admitted that they had provided user access to the ERONet to the AERO/OC Election in BDO office' and thereafter the 'casual data entry operators' had allegedly 'disposed of the Form 6 applications', EC officials said. The CEO directed that 'appropriate action' be taken in these cases, while DEOs have been directed to 'ensure that the OC Election posted in BDO Office and Casual/Daily Wages Contractual Data Entry Operators are not involved in the disposal of Form 6, 7, 8 or for the discharge of any of the functions and duties in ERONet'. On Monday, leader of opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India over the alleged increase in voter registration applications (70,000), urging the poll body to exclude domicile certificates, allegedly issued after July 25, if the SIR is implemented in West Bengal. Adhikari said the huge rise in Form 6 submission and reports of domicile certificate issuance raised concerns about the state government's 'unethical and illegal efforts' to facilitate the 'legitimising of the infiltrating Rohingya Muslims and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants' to manipulate voter lists.
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Retail investors are waking up to bonds—here's why it matters, says Vineet Agarwal
For decades, bonds were largely the domain of institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals, while retail investors stuck to traditional savings options like fixed deposits or insurance-linked plans. But that's changing—and fast. According to Vineet Agarwal , Co-Founder of Jiraaf, a growing number of retail investors are now embracing fixed income as a serious investment avenue. In a conversation on ETMarkets Livestream, Agarwal explains why this shift matters, how young professionals and single-income families can benefit, and why simplifying your portfolio with high-quality bonds could be the smartest move you make. Edited Excerpts – Kshitij Anand: You could say for young professionals, how can corporate bonds help in building an emergency fund more efficiently than a traditional savings account ? Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Science PGDM Data Analytics Finance MBA others Leadership CXO Product Management Design Thinking Public Policy Project Management Artificial Intelligence Others Management Degree Digital Marketing Data Science Technology Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months IIM Kozhikode CERT-IIMK DABS India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Postgraduate Cert in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Prof Cert in DS & BA with GenAI India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 30 Weeks IIM Kozhikode SEPO - IIMK-AI for Senior Executives India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Postgraduate Cert in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villas For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Villas In Dubai | Search Ads Get Quote Vineet Agarwal: So, again, the traditional concept of having an emergency fund is to maintain at least four to six months of your expenses in liquid form. Traditionally, this liquidity was kept in a savings account, either in the form of savings or fixed deposits (FDs). Now, people have started realising that the returns from fixed deposits are subpar—you're not even beating inflation—and the money lying in an FD loses value with every passing year. What smart people have now started doing, which wealthy individuals and large family offices have been doing for years, is shifting to AAA-rated or government bonds. These are now available at around 7% to 8–8.5%, compared to an FD, which gives you maybe 5% to 6%. Bonds Corner Powered By Retail investors are waking up to bonds—here's why it matters, says Vineet Agarwal Bonds are gaining traction among retail investors in India. Vineet Agarwal of Jiraaf highlights the shift towards fixed income. He suggests young professionals use bonds for emergency funds. Single-income families can generate secondary income through bonds. Agarwal advises against mixing insurance with investment. Bond laddering is a simple yet powerful investment strategy. How Bond duration impacts return in a falling rate regime, Gautam Kaul explains Corporate bonds meet arbitrage: a smarter, tax-efficient play for fixed income investors India bonds may continue to see selling pressure at start of week Indian rupee, bond markets cautious in week dominated by Fed, tariffs Browse all Bonds News with So, when you build your emergency corpus with AAA or government bonds and get a 7.5% to 8% return, that extra 2% might not seem like much initially. But if you calculate it—2% on a 5% return is actually a 40% higher return. So, if earlier you were getting 5–5.5% from your FD and now you're getting 7.5%, that extra 2% is a significant boost. Live Events Just imagine earning a 40% higher return on your emergency fund if you hold it for 10, 15, or 20 years—the compounding effect of that extra 1.5–2% delta becomes very significant. And these bonds are liquid too, so you can sell and access your money whenever you need it. So, for young professionals, my recommendation would be: keep some money in FDs, but don't park your entire emergency corpus there. Allocate a portion to these higher-yielding, very safe, AAA-rated bonds. That 2% delta can create meaningful wealth due to the power of compounding . Kshitij Anand: And now that we've talked about young professionals, what is your advice to single-income families looking to generate a predictable secondary income using bonds? Vineet Agarwal: This becomes extremely important, especially in a country like ours. Barring a few metros, the majority of households still have a single income—typically, the male is the primary earning member. And often there are two, sometimes even three kids in the family. Fixed income becomes very powerful in such scenarios. Why? Because you have an opportunity today to park your surplus in fixed income bonds that offer, on average, around 12% returns. This can generate an additional income stream for the family—almost like having a second earning member. A lot of your household expenses can be easily managed through this additional income from fixed-income assets, particularly bonds. For such families, I strongly recommend—and this is something I also personally practice—that you build a good corpus and allocate a portion of your monthly surplus into fixed-income asset classes. Don't allocate everything into equities, especially when it comes to your short-term goals—like your child's school fees (which you may need to pay annually), purchases for the household, or family vacations. These goals can be funded through fixed-income investments that are not linked to market volatility. They are stable—you know exactly when and how much you'll receive. So, fixed-income instruments can form a very healthy part of your portfolio to meet these predictable, short-term financial requirements. Kshitij Anand: What common mistakes do investors make with products like ULIPs (Unit Linked Insurance Plans) or endowment plans? And how does fixed income solve these problems, which were quite common in the past as well? Vineet Agarwal: So, again, as a country, for the last 40–50 years, almost everyone has had some form of insurance policy—either an endowment or a ULIP. Insurance is very, very good as long as it serves the purpose of insuring. What happened over time is that, due to innovation, insurance gradually became an investment product—which, I believe, should not happen. A person should definitely have medical insurance for family needs and a term insurance policy so that, in case of the demise of the earning member, the family is protected. But investment should not be mixed with insurance. All the endowment or ULIP plans in our country give, at best, a 5% to 6% return, which does not serve the purpose. A person should take plain vanilla term insurance and plain vanilla medical insurance. Whatever extra money is being spent on endowment or ULIP plans should instead go into pure investments. The more you simplify things, the better. We should not merge everything and complicate it—because that only gives you subpar returns. You should invest that extra money simply in bonds based on your risk appetite. If you're very risk-averse, buy AA- or AAA-rated bonds. If you're willing to take on a little more risk, you can consider BBB-rated bonds or build a portfolio across categories. Just like with equities, you can build a bond portfolio and earn 10–11% returns. You'll be protected through insurance, and at the same time, you'll also create wealth in the long term. Kshitij Anand: In fact, we've heard the technical term "bond laddering." Could you explain how bond laddering works as a strategy for meeting planned future expenses? Vineet Agarwal: Bond laddering is one of the most commonly used investment strategies in bonds. I'd say it's a fancy term, but the concept is very simple. It's essentially about creating a portfolio—just like you do with equities. In equities, you invest in large-caps, mid-caps, and small-caps. Suppose you invest ₹100 in equities—you may allocate ₹40 to large-caps, ₹30–40 to mid-caps, and ₹20–30 to small-caps. The idea is that large-caps may give 10–12% annualised returns, mid-caps might deliver 13–15%, and small-caps could give 18–20% over a long investment horizon, say 10 years. This diversification gives you a balanced return—maybe 14–15% overall. The same logic applies to bonds. You allocate your ₹100 into AAA, AA, and A to BBB asset classes. AAA bonds are like large-cap stocks—they're generally the largest and safest. You could invest 30% in AAA, 30% in AA to A-rated, and 20–30% in BBB-rated bonds. So again, you're building a diversified portfolio just like in equities, and this approach is called bond laddering. It's a very simple yet very powerful investment strategy. Kshitij Anand: Why do you believe fixed income investments are often overlooked by younger investors? And how can this mindset be changed? Is it because not enough reels are being created about them? Vineet Agarwal: Yes, first of all, I'd say it's due to a lack of awareness—because the product itself is relatively new. In fact, when we started Jiraaf almost four years ago, there weren't many tech-enabled solutions available for buying and selling bonds like there are today. As a country, we're still maturing in terms of developing a vibrant bond market, and that's why many people haven't heard much about it. So, awareness is one issue. There are also a lot of misconceptions about bonds as an asset class. Many people think they're very risky. But if you look at the data, for any bond that is investment grade or above, the default rate over the past 10 years is less than 1%. So, in 99% of cases, you will get your money back on the due date—unless the company goes bankrupt. And if it's a rated bond with a rating of BBB or above, the likelihood of default is under 1%. So, lack of awareness is one issue. The second is this misconception around risk. The third reason, especially for younger investors, is that bonds aren't considered 'fancy.' People love saying, 'I own this stock,' but with bonds—nothing really changes. You invest, and you know exactly what you'll get and when. There's no daily excitement or movement to talk about. But as the saying goes in investing: if it's boring, you'll earn money. Boring businesses and boring investments often deliver better returns. So yes, bonds may not seem exciting, but they are extremely powerful from a portfolio perspective.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Price of Gobindobhog rice doubles amid low supply & rising demand from South India, Middle East
Geographical Indication tagged Gobindobhog rice prices have doubled due to a demand-supply mismatch, surging from Rs 90 to Rs 180 per kg. Increased demand from South India and the Middle East, coupled with a 40% drop in last year's Kharif crop yield, has fueled the price hike. Prices of other rice varieties like Sona Masoori are also rising. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The price of Geographical Indication tagged Gobindobhog rice has doubled at the retail end in the last seven months as there has been a demand-supply mismatch . Demand has shot up from southern parts of the country and the Middle East, while there is a shortage in last year's Kharif crop A kg of Gobindobhog rice has surged from Rs 90 in January to Rs 180 in July. This aromatic rice is only grown in West Bengal but is also a favourite in the South for making biriyani termed as Jeerakasala rice. In fact, Gobindobhog rice prices have even surpassed basmati rice which is hovering between Rs 120-140 per kg at the retail Mallick, managing director of AWL Agri Business (formerly Adani Wilmar), said Gobindobhog crop yield has been very low this year (Kharif 2024) which started arriving from December. 'The new crop is expected to come this December and till then price fall is unlikely,' he to trade sources, Gobindobhog rice yield volume is down by almost 40% in 2024-25 compared to the previous fiscal. In FY24, Bengal had produced 4.34 lakh tonnes of this Agarwal, CEO of RiceVilla, a rice marketing and exporting company, said South India prefers biryani with old Gobindobhog as the flavour of the rice makes it more delectable.'Since last year's stock is less, the buyers from South and also from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar are buying heavily to create an inventory. The new crop, which will come in December, will not be suitable for biryani. Also Bengali diaspora across the globe buy this rice,' he Molla, managing director of Kojagari Industries, a miller and exporter from Burdwan district of West Bengal, said prices may fall by 10-15% when the new rice the Gobindobhog rice is on fire, prices of other rice varieties like Sona Masoori have started rising as the Bangladesh government has announced that it will buy rice from private parties to meet its domestic demand.'Rice exporters from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and the South are aggregating their stocks close to the ports or at Petrapole (India-Bangladesh land border) to ship the rice once the tenders are floated by the Bangladesh government. It is being said that the neighbouring nation is likely to buy 9 million tonnes of rice this year,' Agarwal added.
News18
a day ago
- Business
- News18
Transport Corporation of India reports 19 pc rise in PAT to Rs 124 cr in Q1
Agency: PTI Last Updated: Mumbai, Jul 28 (PTI) Multimodal logistics operator Transport Corporation of India (TCI) on Monday reported 19 per cent growth in standalone profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 124.2 crore in the June quarter. The company, in a statement, said it had posted standalone PAT of Rs 104.7 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,033.8 crore from Rs 984 crore, registering a growth of 5.1 per cent year-on-year, it said. The company also said it delivered earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 162.9 crore during the April-June period, as against Rs 144.7 crore in the first quarter of FY25. 'We have delivered solid progress in the first quarter of FY�26, driven by steady growth across our multimodal, warehousing, third-party logistics and cold chain verticals. Despite mixed sectoral trends in the economy, our integrated service offerings and customer-centric approach have enabled us to maintain noteworthy operational momentum," TCI Managing Director Vineet Agarwal said. According to Agarwal, the manufacturing sector's revival, particularly in chemicals, engineering and consumer goods, has positively impacted demand for reliable, scalable and sustainable logistics solutions. TCI's continued investments in multimodal infrastructure, upskilling, AI-based SOPs and green logistics have positioned the company well to deliver the diverse supply chain solutions that meet the scale of India's evolving logistics requirements, he said. The company anticipates a robust order pipeline in the coming quarters, with continued infrastructure push and steady influx of global players driving multifaceted manufacturing growth, he said. PTI IAS TRB view comments First Published: July 28, 2025, 17:00 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
