You have got to pay more for your MF investments

SEBI has approved a hike in Expense Ratio ceiling by 25 basis points. Expense ratio is annual fee which is charged by AMC from MF schemes which it manages. This decision will make Big Fund houses smile as there income will increase at the cost of small investors' pocket. So called objective of this change is to help fund houses to tread during these turbulent times. 


Can't understand how an inefficient, distributor friendly and investor unfriendly industry will thrive by charging more to investors. The basic reason for woes of MF industry is its inefficiency which culminates into high expense ratios. India still does not have a good low expense ratio Index fund. And Now SEBI by allowing more charges is only making industry more inefficient...nothing else... 


However, One Good thing which SEBI has done is to make rule of clawing back Exit Loads charged to respective schemes which was earlier going into pockets of MF companies.

Rupee got a new symbol

Finally, Rupee also has symbol like other major global currencies. Rupee is fifth currency in the world to have its own unique symbol. Other currencies are US Dollar, British Pound, Japanese Yen and Euro. This symbol is designed by Mr. D Uday Kumar who is an IIT post graduate. Lets have a look at the symbol.

According to Mr. Kumar, its first two horizontal lines with a white space in between give impression of Tricolor national flag. Further, it is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters: a capital 'R', and Devanagari 'ra', which represent rupiya, to appeal to international and Indian audiences.

Objective of having a unique symbol is to recognize the growing importance of indian economy in global space and to have a distict identity from currencies of neighbouring like pakistan and bangladesh who also use same symbol "Rs." to represent their currencies.

Choosing Mobile Broadband

Easiest and probably fastest way to access internet, now a days, is to use mobile broadband. With the revolution of telecommunication sector in India, a number of telecom operators are providing mobile broadband services. BSNL, Reliance, TATA Tele, Airtel are major players.

Among above also, Reliance and TATA Tele are the most preferred choice and Telecom sector in India is witnessing big war among two leading brands Reliance Net connect and TATA photon+.

I have made an honest attempt to compare the two, and tried to find out which one is better for an average user like me.

Particulars	Reliance Net Connect	TATA Photon +
Cost of Modem	2299/-	2299/-
Tariff Plan - Prepaid	Rs. Data Validity	Rs. Data Validity
	250/- 300 MB 30 Days	200/- 250 MB 20 Days
	500/- 700 MB 30 Days	450/- 512 MB 30 Days
	715/- 1 GB 30 Days	650/- 1 GB 30 Days
	935/- 3GB 30 Days	1000/- 4 GB 30 Days
	1210/- 5GB 30 Days	1250/- 10 GB 30 Days
	1379/- 10GB 30 Days	1500/- 15 GB 30 Days
	1500/- 6 GB 3 months	2000/- 20 GB 60 Days
	1925/- 15 GB 30 Days	3050/- 30 GB 90 Days
	3000/- 18 GB 6 months
	330/- 2 GB 15 Days
	200/- 1 GB 1 Week
Tariff Plan - Postpaid	Rental Data Addl Usage	Rental Data Addl Usage
	299/- NIL 1/- Per MB	299/- NIL 0.5/- Per MB
	499/- 512 MB 0.5/- Per MB	400/- 400MB 0.5/- Per MB
	650/- 1 GB 0.5/- Per MB	650/- 1GB 0.5/- Per MB
	750/- 2 GB 0.5/- Per MB	800/- 2.5 GB 0.5/- Per MB
	850/- 3 GB 0.5/- Per MB	950/- 5 GB 0.5/- Per MB
	1099/- 5 GB 0.5/- Per MB	1250/- 10 GB 0.5/- Per MB
	1250/- 10 GB 0.5/- Per MB	1650/- 15 GB 0.5/- Per MB
	1750/- 15 GB 0.5/- Per MB	2000/- 20 GB 0.5/- Per MB
Special Night usage Plans Postpaid
Plan -1	1298/- 10GB day and 10 GB night 0.5/- Per MB
Plan-2	499/- 10 GB night 0.5/- Per MB
Add on Pack	199/- 10 GB night (for plans of 650/- and more)

I decided in favor of Reliance Netconnect because of following plus points:

· Prepaid tariff structure of Reliance net connect is more rational. If somebody has low usage requirement, he can have only a voucher of Rs. 250 and can have a full month access to internet. Further you have few high data but short validity plan vouchers also in Reliance which are not there in TATA photon+

· In case of Postpaid tariff also, Reliance presents you more flexible structure. I specially liked night plan offered by Reliance which gives you download capacity of 10GB at merely 499/- monthly rental. I find it useful because of my office, I can use net only in night. You have amazing add on pack also where you get 10GB addl. Data capacity on payment of only 199/-

Thus, one can plan according to his specific needs

· So far as connectivity is concerned, when it comes to roaming, reliance network is far vast than TATA and it has reach to distant rural areas also.

Having said above, I would like to state few negative points also about reliance net connect. First of all, there is no availability of prepaid connection in Reliance web world as the time of posting this blog and nobody is committing when the fresh stock will come. Few dealers are charging excess amount for prepaid connection because of non availability in market. In addition, KYC norms of reliance are harder to comply with. I, myself have experienced it. Since I am not local, I live in rented house. But even after producing rent agreement, reliance web world people refused to issue a postpaid connection to me.