NRI money really matters

I came across this article which talks about an issue which is plaguing our nation for past few years - Kidney Transplants. It has become a big business these days with thousands of rupees changing hands in every sale of this precious organ. This article sheds some light about the practices in others countries and what needs to be done to make this organ transplant safer and better in India. Read on...

Author: Maitreesh Ghatak
Posted online at financialexpress.com

Let us assume for the purposes of our discussion that surgical procedures do not entail much risk. Would it be alright then to legalise the kidney trade? To answer this question as well as understand land transactions better, consider the example of heart transplants. Medical technology has made them possible, but the replaced heart comes from the body of a just-deceased person who had pledged beforehand to posthumously donate the organ. Should trading in human hearts be legalised, assuming that healthcare standards are high and there is no use of force or coercion? It is one thing if a dying man allows, in exchange for an agreed-upon sum, his heart to be taken out after his death and given to another person. But what if a healthy but impoverished individual, of his own free will, agrees to be killed and have his heart extracted for transplantation so that the money from the sale can help his family? No legal system in the world would find this acceptable, and with good reason.

It is well known that trading in hair, blood, sperm and eggs is legal in most countries, primarily because the human body can naturally replenish these. This is not the case with the heart and the kidneys, though the body can function quite well with one kidney instead of two. So, in thinking about whether to legalise kidney trade—or, for that matter any other trade that poses serious health risks on the participants—our judgement depends on the extent of these risks. Even the most aggressive advocate of free markets would agree that somewhere between the hair, where the risk is zero, and the heart, where death is certain, there needs to be a line demarcating the limits of the right to buy and sell.

In countries where government regulation is lax and healthcare for the masses is not up to the mark, this line needs to be drawn more conservatively. However, it would be naïve to think that imposing a legal ban puts an end to a troubling practice. There is a thriving black market for kidneys in India, and like all such markets, the biggest gain from it goes to the middlemen. Their presence ensures that sellers get only a fraction of the price paid by the buyers, and the latter are often duped too. And since everything happens outside the ambit of the law, corrupt doctors flout healthcare norms at will. Stories of organ rackets and scams abound in our newspapers. Many feel that legalising the transaction and imposing regulations on the organ market will help matters. While Iran is hardly the best example of a free market economy, it was motivated by similar sentiments in legalising the kidney trade in 1988. As a result, it is the only country where the demand for human kidneys is met with adequate supply.

It must be mentioned that in Iran, kidneys are not bought and sold in the open market, but only within a network created by the government and charitable medical institutions. But as noted earlier, the surgical removal of the organ has been problematic in Iran, and many sellers have ended up regretting their decision. Therefore, one feels somewhat hesitant to laud the fact that in this market demand is being met with supply.

Where a black market exists, such as India, potential sellers are deterred by the fear of being exploited by middlemen, of health risks, and of getting caught. Consequently, supply is always less than demand. Legalising the transaction could potentially reduce malpractices and health risks and ensure a better price to the seller. This is likely to push up the supply considerably in poor countries. However, increased supply will reduce the price. More importantly, unless the poor are provided adequate legal and medical safeguards, now a much larger segment of the population would be exposed to exploitation and health risks. As a result, it is not clear that legalising the sale of kidneys would lead to an increase in overall welfare compared to the earlier situation where a much smaller section of the population was involved in such transactions.

What about donations? The transaction is the same as in sales, with the same health risks and consequences. The difference is that one of the transactions is commercial, while the other is voluntary. There are no financial transactions involved in donations, and this automatically minimises the problems of quality control and malpractice. Health-related risks are similar for both, but the presence of middlemen and traders increases these risks considerably in the case of commercial transactions relative to donations. So, the arguments against legalisation mentioned earlier remain.

But society does have to pay a price for this kind of regulation. The biggest one in this context is the high probability of mismatch between donor and receiver organs. It is possible to start a system of exchange between all donors and receivers. The recent amendments to India’s 15 year law on organ transplants aim to facilitate this. But it is not difficult to gauge the limitations of such a system. The monetary system, after all, was invented because the barter system is subject to the problems of double coincidence of wants and coordination.

The recent amendments also aim to make it easier for the organ to be sourced from just-deceased or brain-dead individuals. In India about 1,00,000 people suffer from renal failure every year and about 80,000 people die of accidents. This suggests cadaveric donations could be an important source of organs. This is not as easy as it sounds, because donor and receiver kidneys need to match, and also, delays can make the organ unfit for transplants. In addition, there are social norms that go against putting a dead man under the scalpel.

In some countries of continental Europe, cadaveric organ procurement is based on the principle of presumed consent as opposed to informed consent as in the US and the UK. Under presumed consent, a deceased individual is classified as a potential donor unless he or she explicitly opts out before death.

Under informed consent, this is the case only if they volunteer, i.e., opt-in. Evidence provided by economists Abadie and Gay (2006)* suggests that the former increases availability significantly (see figure). Given the salience of the anti-legalisation arguments in countries like India, this seems to be a worthwhile direction to explore.

In November of last year, I published an interview post with Bhalchander who is determined to fight poverty with the help of donors like you and me through the micro finance organization he founded named United Prosperity. He strongly believed that micro finance/lending can make a huge difference in many families in the rural part of India and many other countries.

Recently he visited India, his ever first chance to witness how our money is shaping the lives and making prosperity. He visited first partner microfinance institution Ajiwika, based out off Jharkhand, India.  In the new published blog, he shared his experience and interesting stories about how he felt when he met few entreprenuers like Barki Devi and group, and Bandana Devi and group.

He was saying, the impact of the guarantee on Ajiwika has been remarkable. Six months back most of the smaller microfinance institutions like Ajiwika were struggling to raise funds because of the financial crisis. While development lenders such as FWWB and SIDBI were making some loans to smaller microfinance institutions, most of the banks had become extremely conservative in their lending. Banks often tend to work in an informal syndicate. If one bank lends then other banks are more inclined to follow. The converse also holds true, if the more development oriented banks become conservative, then the rest of the banks follow suit.

UnitedProsperity.org’s guarantee enabled one bank to lend to Ajiwika. Now that a mainstream bank was lending to Ajiwika, over the next six months several other banks have approved loans to Ajiwika.

The guarantee has had a catalytic effect. Not only did we directly support the entrepreneurs on our website, but we also provided the spark for freeing up funds locked with other banks to support many more entrepreneurs who are not listed on our website.

I would say thats the type of cascade effect we want to see in the countries to abolish poverty. You can read about his experience in his blog at Unitedprosperity.com.

In this visit, he was also able to accomplish one more milestone in UP's history by adding second partner microfinance institution. Because of that, there are several more loans online and we need your support to get them fulfilled.

Please check out the new entreprenuers listed and try to sponsor and support atleast one needy entreprenuer and make a difference.

I came across this report recently from my Kiva network and thought would pass it on to you all if you haven't read it.

A committee headed by an expert economist released the latest statistics on poverty in India. As per the report, 37% of the population of India is under the poverty line. 


Story by: TimesofIndia.com
Date: Dec 15, 2009

NEW DELHI: The Suresh Tendulkar committee report revising upwards poverty estimates across the country may further strain government finances with many of the states already demanding special status to address the issue and an enhanced allocation under many of the pro-poor schemes.

The committee, in its report submitted to the Planning Commission last week, had estimated that 37% of India’s population is under the poverty line, while the proportion of the poor is almost 42% in rural areas — sharp increases from official poverty estimates of 27.5% for all of India and 28.3% for rural areas.

The committee has changed the method of estimating poverty to a broad-based consumption basket that includes education and health.

More than half of the rural population of states like Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are still living under abject poverty, not able to meet their basic necessities of food, health and education, according to the revised estimates of the expert group headed by former chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Suresh Tendulkar. The new figures are not strictly comparable with the earlier estimates, because the Tendulkar panel has significantly changed the method of estimating poverty — from one notionally based on calorific intake to a more broad-based consumption basket that includes education and health.

Nevertheless, the revelation that poverty is higher than it was earlier thought to be may force the government to increase funding for social and rural development schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Indira Awas Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, say economists.

Tendulkar himself told TOI that though this was not the mandate of the committee, as an economist he thinks government should put a lot of money into education and health, particularly considering the demographic profile of the country with a predominantly young population.

It has been a while since I updated about the National Pension Scheme. But believe me, you didn't lose anything. As usual, government and their policies takes time to move and reach out to public. The movement is very slow in putting all the things in place and setup for enduser investing. I see lot of blogs than lastyear with more details especially many compliants about the way it is being handled.

With all the initial hype and great interest from NRI's, we expected the NPS would be up and running efficiently by now with more marketing from POC's and banks. But thats not truth, things are moving in snail fast. Anyway, here are some information, links and forms which you can go through

One good news, many banks which are declared as Points of Presence (POP) are setting up centers to support this scheme and slowly jumping in the band wagon. Their current target is focused mainly on citizens of India living in India and not many banks have good information about how to NRI's.

One bank which I just came across being named among POP's for NPS is focusing on Gulf/Middle East NRI  community is South Indian Bank. The SIB claims to be the largest service provider for the scheme, having the highest number of authorised branches for offering services under the NPS. You can learn more about their service by visiting their website at SIB.  Other banks who are named as POP's are also offer NPS and accept contributions are listed below:

Allahabad Bank,
Axis Bank Ltd,
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd,
Central Bank of India (CBI),
Citibank,
Computer Age Management Services Private Ltd,
ICICI Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd,
IL&FS Securities Services Ltd,
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd,
Life Insurance Corporation of India,
Oriental Bank of Commerce,
Reliance Capital Ltd,
State Bank of Bikaner&Jaipur,
State Bank of Hyderabad,
State Bank of India,
State Bank of Indore,
State Bank of Mysore,
State Bank of Patiala,
State Bank of Travancore,
Union Bank of India and
UTI Asset Management Company Ltd

Click here to see the detail list of branches in various cities. Also here is the registration form to register with POP.

Here are few Articles I came across which might interest your on this topic.

Details about South India Bank and NPS at thepeninsulaqatar.com

Reasons why NPS is not growing as expected at Business-standard.com

Questions&Answer about NPS economytimes.com

NPS not Cheap by businesspandit.com

ICICI NPS FAQ at ICICI.com

To conclude, it will take more time to get much more clearance on the process and availability of the scheme for NRI's more easily. Please continue the research and you are welcome to share any good information here. I will also keep updating on this topic when I hear any thing new so keep checking.

20Century Fox

Avatar, the movie which has made headlines all over the globe, movie which has given another avatar to the Hollywood movie industry during this recession, and a movie which is the topic of many house hold dinning table talks. It has broken many records and making history in the world movie industry.

Before I talk about the main interest, here are some titbit's you might be interested if you are not aware of them.

1. Producers spent around $300 in production cost and more for marketing.

2. It already raked up 1 Billion from all over world in just 2.4 weeks. According to Box Office Mojo it’s current box office total stands at $$1,018,811,000  million.

3. Opening Weekend:  $77,025,481
(#1 rank, 3,452 theaters, $22,313 average)
% of Total Gross:  21.9%  
Widest Release:  3,461 theaters 
In Release:  17 days / 2.4 weeks 
 

A movie which cannot stop making money and surely a movie to watch. After hearing  rave reviews and commentaries,especially setting itself apart from ther sequels like Lord of the Rings with Sanskrit title, I was intrigued to see it. I finally watched the movie yesterday and it surely didn't fail to surprise with spectacular animation,  special effects and astonishing camera. I was totally blown away by the Himalayan effort put forth to bring this movie as a sensational entertainer with a great message for this time.

James Cameron proved himself again as the Best Director of all time by giving back to back hits. But, as an person born and bought from India, I felt that the story is old and many of my Indian friends agreed with me. I have seen similar kinda of movies when I was a kid in the Indian cinema with little special effects available at that time frame. Those movies had stories where person transfers from body to body too. I am talking about 20-30 years back. Except the special effects, graphics and animation, I  see the old story line in many aspects but with new scientific proofs which makes it believable. It has lot of connection and adaptation from Veda's(Sanskrit literature) and many other Indian literatures. Even the character visualization and makeup's can be related to many ancient Indian traditions and especially the body color can be related to Lord Krishna avatar deplicted below in the picture.

Being said all that, James Cameron not only just gave new look to the old story but a brand new planet creating a new paradigm for the many more avatars to come. As money examiner, I would say it surely money maker but do have couple of questions.

What was James Cameroon thinking?  While the nation is just recovering from recession, 300 million dollar spent in making a movie, doesn't really makes sense? At the same time, it is giving people totally new experience in a new world and also bringing them to theaters to spend money during the holiday season helping the economy.

Share your thoughts about Avatar and money spent in making the money. Is it worth spending this much money or waste?

Happy Newyear Everyone!!

Year 2009 has come and  gone. It surely made imprints with lot of headliners and became a part of the history book. Year 2010 just started ticking it's counter and adding a brand new decade in the 21st century. Another thing to notice about 2010 is, by doubling the last 2 digits either like "10" *2 or 1+1 0+0 makes the first 2 digits "20". I found that to be interesting because it doesn't happen often. Let's hope year 2010 doubles our happiness by doubling our wealth and keeping us healthy.

Newyear Resolution -A waste of time

"May your troubles last as long your Newyear Resolutions" - Author Unknown

I saw the above funny quote posted outside of an auto repair shop. Nowadays people are not at all really serious about newyear resolutions and studies literaly reflects the downtrend. In the recent resolution study, while 52% of participants were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals despite all the best intenstions.

Whether you resolve your resolution are not, somebody is will make big buck out of you. It is most likely going to be,

1. Fitness centers and Trainers
2. Weight loss program and weight loss book sellers
3. Dieticians and Weight loss Food producers

Just be aware of it and don't get pulled by all the marketing gimmicks and TV ads. Most goal setting experts believe this is due to ignorance concerning how to set goals properly. Let me share my very own 3 Talk method which might help achieve things in all the areas of your life.

T1. Talk to yourself first

It might seem wierd but the truth is everything starts from you. You have the answers to know what will work  best for you! So, use this time make an appointment to yourself to think with an open mind, about past year’s mistakes and missed opportunities or goals. Ask yourself what type of life you would like to create for yourself in the coming year.

If you have the habit writing journal, it helps in this process. If you don't have one, I would recommend to start one today.  Try to take these steps during your own interview.

1.Check your past year goals and see how you resolved/performed. Pat your back if you scored well. Tweak them if it need to continue this year.

2. Make 3 new goals for this year whether short or long term. Just Three only, no more!

3. KISS method - Keep it simple stupid. Always set goals as simple as possible to start with.  Try to set SMART goals. These are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Trackable. If you want to lose weight, start with losing 5lbs in 2 weeks and continue to maintain it for 2 more weeks.

4.  Write them down and start planning towards working on those goals. If you plan to reduce wait, look for a good and cheaper options to start instead of getting an expensive Treadmill at first. Try signing up for $10 fitness center which has mushroomed in many areas.

5.  Take action by start working out twice a week and gradually move to thrice a week. Adjust your diet accordingly and you will surely see a change in your health. Be resilient.  Don't throw towel in just a week. Try atleast 3 weeks. Ask for help is a old techique. I would say advertise your goals which will motive yourself to achieve them when your friends ask about it.  Eva

2T. Talk to your Doctor

Next an important one. Make an appointment with your family doctor to do the physical checkup during the month of January. Almost all the insurance companies cover the physical check once a year upto $300. Most physical checks including labs won't take more than $300. I try do it by end of Jan so I can see my levels on  LDL, HDL, total cholestrol, Sugar and compare from the last years. 

By doing at the beginning of the year helps to manage those levels  or work to improve on them in the coming months. Prevention is better than cure. By doing physical checkup atleast once a year, it surely helps to find any problems before ahead and gives more time take action to treat the problem in the starting stage itself.

3T. Talk to your Financial Planner/CPA

Finally, your wealth check up. You better meet with your CFP/CPA to check your current financial status. If you are your own financial Planner, try to set up a time to go over your financial condition. Check your financial goals and objectives, see it is performed last year. Make any changes to your short or long term financial goals for this year.

Also take time to check some important documents like WILL, Trust, Durable Power of Attorney and Living Wills. If there is any change in your family staus like new kid, new house, you surely need to make proper adjustments to the Will or Trust to reflect your current status to avoid any future problems.

By doing just these simple things at the beginning of the year, you are setting your life boat in proper condition to sail this new year in the right direction to reach your destination.

Happy Goal setting!!

In the last blog post, we saw the essence of true giving and free tools available to find an organizations that suits your lifestyle or passion to start thinking about donating. This post, we are going to see few different ways one can give and help. Also we will look at some Tax Implications of gift giving.

There are variety of ways to contribute, donate or give. A donation doesn't have to be big and it doesn't have to be money either. It is giving heart that matters. Let's categorize charitable gift giving into two ways as Direct and Indirect.

I. Direct Donations

Cash is king whether it comes to businesses or non-profit organizations. At this tough economic juncture, it is not just the individuals and corporations which are feeling the pinch. Many non-profit organization are experiencing big hit in their donation dollars. This year Good will, Salvation Army and many other organizations has reported a decline in their donation. They need our help more than ever in this tough times. Giving Cash is a great way to show your support and it has a direct impact to the cause. Many organization now accept credit cards for donation.  But there are certain limitation to cash gifts in regard to Taxes. We will look at them later below.


II. Indirect Giving

1. Give by Gift Cards

You can buy charity gift cards at sites like http://www.tisbest.org/, www.charitygiftcertificates.org and www.JustGive.org. and give to the reciepent. He/she can spend or use the gift card and donating to their favorite society. It is a great feeling for both you. You give him the gift, he/she gifts to the favorite charity. Also there are lot of webistes which accepts unused store giftcards and donate the proceedings to charities. If you have a macy's gift card which has balance of $2 or something. Many of us just threw it away because we won't be able to buy anything using the small money left over. Instead, you can just give it away to charities by using these websites.

2. Don't donate but Lend or Loan

I don't believe in just giving  away money unless it is tipping somebody. Because the recepient will be back again to street asking more. It is better to help them find a job and make them work feed themselves. Like the chinese saying, "Don't give them fish, instead teach them how to fish".  There are few organizations like Kiva.org and UnitedProsperity.org which provides the platform to do just that. They help the donor to lend/loan money directly to aspiring Entrepreneurs in the developing countries. I started myself few months ago in both these websites and started lending and helping people.

3. Shop and Donate

It is called Cause related Marketing and are Selfish giving. Starbucks is helping to fight AIDS in Africa. Macy's is giving to the Make A Wish Foundation. And Toys "R" Us is giving to Toys For Tots Many more retailers and manufacturers are partnering today with not-for-profit organizations in cause-related marketing campaigns. On one hand, these campaigns raise awareness, support, and donations for social causes such as global hunger relief. On the other hand, they enhance corporate reputations, customer loyalty, and financial gains for companies.

An example of cause-related marketing is an effort organized by Macy's, Pfizer, and other businesses on behalf of the American Heart Association. The program has raised over $32 million in donations for the charity, while generating over 1 billion media impressions for corporate sponsors. So just buy shopping in these stores, you are indirectly benefiting some non-profit organizations. Whether you call this has selfish giving or not, it is at least benefiting somebody thats what matters. There was an article/report posted in npr about this cause related marketing. Check it out.

III. Volunteer your time

Time is precious and it has value. If you strapped with cash, you can also give your time. There are lot of local charity organization like hospitals, resale shopes which migh need help during this holiday times. You can always take time to volunteer and even claim those hours in your Tax returs. Talking of taxes, now its time to check what are the ways we can benefit from gift giving.

Tax Advantages

Giving not only satisfy our inner soul but also helps to save and get some money in return as an appreciation from Uncle Sam. Tax incentives is an added bonus encouraging many to contribute.

For charitable contributions of less than $250, you must keep a canceled check, credit card receipt or electronic funds transfer receipt. Or you must have a letter from the charity acknowledging receipt of the contribution and stating its date and amount. For charitable contributions of $250 or more, you'll also need a written receipt from the charity substantiating the amount of cash contributed and a description (but not the value) of any property -- other than cash -- contributed.

And you must disclose whether the organization provided any goods or services (such as a theater ticket or dinner) in return for the contribution.
If you donate property, such as clothing, valued at less than $250, you must keep a receipt from the charitable organization showing the charity's name, contribution date, physical location of the contribution and a detailed description of the property (but not its value).

For larger donations, you'll need even more documentation, including a description of how you acquired the property (purchase, gift, inheritance), the date you acquired the property and the original cost of that property. Donated property worth more than $5,000 requires a qualified appraisal, as do lesser-value objects that aren't in "good" condition.

Conclusion

“Giving from a full heart is one of the most joyous things you can do...",  – from the book "The Secret".

Make this holiday season special by donating your time or money in any above ways. It will surely sooth your soul and even make your pocket happy by getting some back so you can continue giving.

Happy Holidays!!

Sources: Internet website relate to charity giving

Is it necessary that we work for money all our life? Is money the only motive of our career? Can we afford to pick and choose our job? Do we have the luxury of considering the non-monetary factors while choosing jobs? Isn’t money just a ticket to our happiness? Doesn’t life have more beautiful things to offer than just targets, deadlines and conferences?! If all these questions bother you, there is a way out.

Each of us can presently place ourselves in one of the four quadrants depending on our main source of income.

All of us should aim to move from our present quadrant to quadrant 4 at the earliest, where we shall not be slaves of money but masters of money. Remember, slaves work for masters and not vice versa. Some of us get to do it early and the others, hopefully on retirement.  Money after all is just a piece of paper and mighty humans cannot be slaves of paper for long.

Let us not assume that those in the 4th quadrant are lazy mortals with out any purpose in life. They do what they enjoy the most, but with out the pressure of eking out a living from it. They are not afflicted by the “Monday morning” syndrome. They enjoy their work as much as they do their favorite hobby. Honestly, how many of us really enjoy our work? Would we still continue to do the same work if god guaranteed us all the money that we require, with out this work? If our answer is a NO, then we need to hasten our journey to quadrant 4 so that we are at peace with ourselves. We can only excel at what we enjoy, not at what we are forced to do due to circumstances. Just imagine a job that you would look forward to and enjoy as much as the live cricket match or the latest blockbuster.

What does it take to move to the 4th quadrant? Some introspection, little foresight, a lot of smart and careful planning, discipline and patience. All of us cannot just jump to quadrant 4 from our present quadrant. It has to be a well planned journey so that we do not outlive our wealth. We have to be absolutely confident that our investments will take care of all our future responsibilities. We have to make our money work hard for us to reach there. It has to be a gradual and careful process. The time needed would depend on individual circumstances. We need to plan our finances and invest wisely so that our investments take over our job of feeding our family, giving us the freedom of pursuing our career of choice and not compulsion. And remember, when we move to the 4th quadrant, we put our finances on auto pilot which can take care of our family even in our absence or disability. We have effectively separated our career and our need for money. We have insulated our family from the ups and downs of our career. So what are we waiting for? Let’s overcome inertia and start moving.

A happy journey to quadrant 4!!