this might interest bangalore NRIs

State Bank of India (SBI) opened a exclusive branch for Non-Resident Indians at Koramangala. The branch offers overseas Indians and persons of Indian origin various schemes such as external rupee account, foreign currency non-resident account, resident foreign currency account, NRI home loan, car loan and safe deposit lockers. The branch also has a rapid remittance and instant transfer facility.

This is the fourth NRI branch in Bangalore city.

The bank site is available here

Voting rights

Voting rights for NRIs to be introduced soon says Moily. Lets hope this will be a reality by next election. I think they should look at introducing an Internet-based polling concept. Then the logistics of arranging will not be a problem. Now they are looking at introducing voting rights only when the NRI is in India.
here is a news item on it

NRI scheme to gift flats to aged parents house

I think this is an interesting concept, which should be replicated in many cities. It gives a sense of security and togetherness and bith parents and kids will be at ease....
full story here
and the builders site is here

India's growth would transform economy

External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna on Friday said that India's present speed of growth would qualitatively transform its economy and society in 15 years.

Addressing the non-resident Indians (NRI) and people of Indian origin (PIO) in Singapore, Krishna said: "More than ever before, we (India) are poised for a growth spurt which over the next decade and a half will qualitatively transform our economy and society."

Explaining the growth of Indian economy, Krishna said the fiscal year 2009-10 was a challenging year for the Indian economy.

read full article here

KYC norms - a headache???

After the govt introduced this KYC norms its a headache filling forms.. they should stream line this fill it once or link it to pan or something liek that... a nice article on the same....

The Indian government’s efforts towards strengthening identification norms have had an adverse impact in the most unexpected quarters. Apparently, the much talked about know your customer (KYC) norms are proving quite a deterrent for the population to put its money into various investment channels. The hassles of KYC documentation are creating obstacles in the path of investors and advisors alike.

Industry sources reveal that they have been having problems mobilising savings of individuals only because of the complications created by the necessity to adhere to KYC norms. An independent financial advisor (IFA) disclosed to Moneylife, “I have a customer who wants to invest Rs50,000 each in five different funds. For this, I have to give five different KYC documents for him and his wife, which is absurd. The issue here is, if you know the person’s surname and father’s name, date of birth and PAN card, there can only be one person whose details match. So why is the need for this unnecessary repetitive work?”

Read the full article here

Online trading facilitiesfor NRI investors

An informative article on online trading options...

For non-resident Indians, in particular, the online facility to trade in the Indian markets is a boon. With the markets currently on the lower side and more volatile than a few weeks back, there is the opportunity for the discreet NRI investor to pick on choice stocks to add to his portfolio.

To assist him in doing this more easily and with greater control, we have an increasing number of brokerage houses adding new online trading facilities.

In the past weeks, ICICIdirect and Geojit BNP Paribas, two leading retail stock brokers with a sizeable presence in the Gulf, have joined the fray. ICICIdirect launched its new online trading platform TradeRacer followed by Geojit BNP Paribas which launched its enhanced online trading platform FLIP (Financial Investment Platform).

Read the full article here

new Direct Tax Code

Hi
saw this interesting column is one of the dailies... This explaing the new direct tax code and its implications to NRIs.

"Non-resident Indians, particularly the finance and accounting professionals among them, need to utilise the opportunity afforded by the Indian government to raise objections with regard to the new Direct Tax Code before it is too late.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled the new Direct Tax Code in August and individuals and organizations have until the start of the winter session of Parliament to register their objections/ suggestions for amendments to the concerned Bill."

full article here