A key Indian parliamentary panel is set to recommend raising the personal income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh, according to media reports.

The parliament's Standing Committee on Finance will discuss on Saturday the final draft of its report on the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill. The DTC Bill has the provision of raising the exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh, from the Rs 1.8 lakh being applied at present.

The Committee is headed by former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

According to the PTI news agency, the change in tax slab is being mooted on the back of the high inflation that has eroded purchasing power of rupee.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had tabled the DTC Bill in Lok Sabha in August which was referred to the Standing Committee for scrutiny.

"Although the government is unlikely to introduce the DTC from April 1, 2012, as planned earlier, it may incorporate some of the provisions of the proposed law in the Budget for 2012-13, to be unveiled on March 16,"

As if soaring property prices are not painful enough, the central bank's new mandate could make it more difficult for an average Indian to own a house.

Prospective home loan seekers will now have to pay as much as 25 to 30 percent of their property value (instead of 20 percent earlier) after the Reserve Bank of India asked banks to exclude stamp duty and registration fee when considering the total cost value, a report in the Times of India said.

Taxes, duties and registration fee generally add up to around 10 percent of the property value.

In 2010 the RBI had directed banks against lending more than 80 percent of the value of the property.

What does this mean?

If your property costs Rs 40,00,00 and the stamp duty and registration fee works out to around Rs 4,00,000. Your bank will only extend you a loan of Rs 32,00,000 and you will have to shell out Rs 12,00,000 from your own pocket.

Earlier the bank would have granted you a loan of Rs 35,20,000 and you would have needed to pay only Rs

The year 2011 witnessed a high interest rate scenario, shrinking profit margins and soaring input costs for property developers in India. The economic slowdown added problems for property dealers, as the number of customers dwindled in 2011. Most of the developers had to put their expansion plans on hold, and their existing projects also faced a setback due to slow sales, resulting in a piling inventory. In 2012 the realty market is expected to consolidate, and most of the developers are likely to focus on generating liquidity for better cash flow by selling their existing projects at a lower rate to tackle the stagnation in sales. The first priority for every developer would be to complete their existing projects to cut the capital involved for projects in progress. This situation would wash out players who just exist in a market to create competition against the genuine developers.

Now the question is what step a home buyer should take under such market conditions?

A person would be

"Inflation is when you pay Rs. 100 for the fifty rupee haircut you used to get for 25 rupees when you had hair"; a quote I received on twitter. In India, when we speak of inflation, we've never really talked about haircuts. No, I'm serious, stick with me.

The Inflation Index that our country talks about is based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), which is a weighted sum of product prices at the wholesale level. That means stuff that you can buy at wholesale markets, such as vegetables, copper, fuel, or even liquor. But it doesn't include the cost of services; the WPI will indicate the cost of vegetables and meat to your favourite restaurant, but it won't add up the cost of chef/waiters' salaries, rent of the premises, air-conditioning costs and valet parking. In the haircut example, they'll note that the scissors or shampoo got more expensive, not that the haircut costs you more.

The world over, what is used is a Consumer Price Index (CPI), which uses a basket of goods that you are

Many of us desire to make money from the stock markets, because it doesn't seem to take a lot of skill. After all, like a casino, all you need is one good trade. That's what we read about — the success stories of investing talk about how Warren Buffett bought into Coke, or Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought Titan, or Paulson shorted sub-prime mortgages or such.

While these investors — and many others — have benefited from the huge success of a few stocks, there are thousands, even millions, of other investors who lost much of their money chasing performance. And not just speculating, but even with deep, well researched analysis. A stock that seemed like a steal three years ago is still a steal; they have higher profits, and a lower stock price. In another ten years, they might still have the same stock price. The "value trap" attracts people who think luck plays no role in investing, that all it takes is good analysis.  Value traps are lessons you don't learn about in books; real life teaches

The Reserve Bank of India surprised most economists and analysts by slashing the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points from 6.0 per cent to 5.5 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) effective the fortnight beginning January 28, 2012 in order to help the economy sustain growth. As a result of the reduction in the CRR, around Rs 320 billion of primary liquidity will be injected into the banking system.

The RBI governor in his mid quarter review speech said that in reducing the CRR, the Reserve Bank has attempted to address the structural pressures on liquidity in a way that is not inconsistent with the prevailing monetary stance. In the two previous guidances, it was indicated that the cycle of rate increases had peaked and further actions were likely to reverse the cycle.

The central bank, however, has left the policy rates unchanged.

Growth in India reduced considerably post the array of rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India in its bid to curb inflation.

If there are two things that repeatedly made news on the economic front during the last year, they have to be interest rates and inflation. Interest rates and inflation are in fact not standalone factors; interest rates are among the most actively used tools to contain liquidity in the system and  in turn has an effect on inflation.

Inflation has been riding high during the year; at the start it was at double digits and now it has moderated to around 9.35% levels.which is still higher than the average inflation of 6.5% p.a that is considered reasonable for a developing nation like India. In an effort to contain the upward spiraling inflation, the RBI increased interest rates, more than a dozen times in the last eighteen months. Although the investor benefited from yields from debt instruments becoming extremely attractive, for the borrower life just got progressively tougher!

Interest rates —

Last year, interest rates had a dream run. Fixed income investors emerged the much sought

"I applied for a personal loan and submitted required documents to the bank. After receiving the documents the banker intimated it to my wife that I had applied a loan of Rs.1.00 lakh. If the bank is going to reveal it to my wife, they should make it a condition that loanee should obtain permission from his wife?"

This email from an irate customer who had sought a personal loan from a bank reminded me once again how some processes outlive their utility.

The bank's verification system seems quite faulty in today's context when there are so many other check mechanisms at work. The bank employee's stand was that it's his duty to check the customer's house and reveal the matter to family members. But I feel that checking residential status is fine, but disclosing facts before family members is not warranted especially if customer has an objection.

One of the significant issues faced by the industry in the early wild- west days was what is referred to as "Skip" cases where the consumer took