India’s pharma giants are famous for producing many low cost drugs for the developing world (an example is the provision of the life-saving anti-HIV cocktail of drugs that can increase the life expectancy of AIDS afflicted patients; the cocktail was pretty expensive, but when manufactured by Cipla, the cost had been drastically reduced making it affordable to larger sections of a poor country). At the same time, big pharma (whether it be domestic or foreign companies) are always on the lookout for making a fast buck. Some of the past practices over the world include extending the life of a patent by a very minor change, or by charging a higher price for the product if this was a monopoly. In India, the regulator has started threatening the pharma companies that have been involved in charging excessively for their drugs:

Pharma majors like Cipla, Ranbaxy and US Vitamin (India) may have to cough up over Rs 1,563 crore for overcharging customers on price-controlled medicines. Through a nation-wide survey done over a year, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has found that pharma companies were overcharging or selling without price approval more than 530 items used for various ailments including cancer and asthma. Several antibiotics and pain-killers are part of the list of medicines listed out by the survey which found overcharging in case of 350 products and sale without price approval in case of the remaining 180. The findings of the survey were based on 850 samples collected from 19 cities.
The companies accused of violating price control norms were asked to deposit the overcharged amount with the government and explain the price hikes effected by them. Companies cannot raise prices of scheduled drugs (prices are controlled by the government in these case) beyond 10% every year. Meanwhile, NPPA has roped in district administrations to recover the overcharged amount from drug makers.

Many of these companies have gone to court or will go to court to appeal against these orders; but prima facie this seems to be a valid case. It is for the courts to decide whether these companies were indeed over-charging; however if companies were indeed doing this and consumers had to pay extra, then this is a welcome step that will help consumers struggling with the charges of medical treatment.

Looking to buy a Mutual Fund ? Most investors into Mutual Funds buy on the basis of recommendations from friends, from the broker / agent, or from some research. But if you want to buy a Mutual Fund, there are a lot of variables such as
- the industry into which the fund is investing,
- the aggressive / cautious nature of the Fund,
- the past history of the Fund Manager,
- the level of customer service orientation of the fund house
In a lot of cases, people overlook such information and then later are not happy with the performance of the Mutual Fund (for example, they bought an aggressive Fund that is more risky, and were shocked when it fell more than a cautious fund at the time of a crash).
There is a link on Economic Times that seeks to explain some of these concepts:

It is important to be well informed before you invest in a mutual fund on the premise that the fund will deliver. And when it comes to a fund in which you have already invested, it is even more crucial to be well up on numbers and facts. Sectoral allocation is also important. Excessive exposure to one sector can mar the returns if the sector underperforms. It is also important to compare the stock exposure norms and sectoral allocation over a sustained period of time. This gives you an idea as to how the funds have been deployed and the risk associated with such portfolio diversification.
Two key ratios you must keep in mind are portfolio-turnover ratio and expense ratio.
Portfolio-turnover ratio is a measure of churning the fund has undergone while the expense ratio tells us about the cost of managing the funds.
Higher portfolio turnover is seen in opportunities fund and in more actively-managed fund. Value funds are expected to show a low-portfolio turnover.

Read the whole article, and search for more information regarding such investments. Even though learning about Mutual Funds and their details could take some more time, it is worthwhile since you should make your investment when you are an informed investor. This will also help you to make decisions about investment or withdrawal in a better manner, and make you more money overall.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/3279973.cms

ICICI Bank is the largest private banks in India, and caters to a large number of people in terms of banking accounts, loans, etc. However, there have been many cases in the past where the bank has been penalized for harassing a person (do a search in Google and you will find many such cases); and it is not only ICICI, but many other banks who have been fined for such behavior. Such harassment by banks has started attracting the attention of the RBI and courts (more so, the various consumer forums), who have started fining the banks and using harsh language against the banks. Refer the details of this case (delivered in end-April 2008):

LUCKNOW: In a major judgement, the district consumer forum (DCF) here has directed the ICICI Bank to pay Rs 5 lakh as “exemplary compensation” to Dr AS Pradhan, a city-based doctor, for subjecting him to severe mental torture by forcing him to repay a loan which was never disbursed to him. Pradhan had applied for a Rs three lakh loan in the ICICI Bank in November 2003 for purchasing a second hand car.
He was asked to pay margin money of Rs 10,000 and complete the formalities with a promise that the loan would be sanctioned in a month. But as the sanctioning of loan got delayed, the person from whom Pradhan was supposed to purchase the car sold it off to another party.

And you can guess the rest. The bank did not disburse the money to the Doctor, but still had the gall to demand the money. In the end, the Doctor was forced to pay the money to the bank. It is only the consumer court that came to his help and gave him relief. At some point of time, the court systems in India are going to start ordering criminal charges where force has been used, and that will be an even bigger public relations disaster for the various banks.
They have to face a legal and judicial system that slows down recovery of their debt, but using force is not an answer. Additionally, doing it in a mistaken case is even worse.

Suppose you have never needed a PAN card till now, and now you find that you are starting to earn some money (your first job, and boy, does it feel good to start earning some money of your own). You need a bank account, you want to invest some of this money for the future, and suddenly everybody starts asking you to make a PAN card. A 1. PAN card, what’s that and why do you we need it ?
What Is PAN? - Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a ten-digit alphanumeric number, issued in the form of a laminated card, by the Income Tax Department.
2. Why Is It Necessary To Have PAN? - It is mandatory to quote PAN on return of income, all correspondence with any income tax authority. From 1 January 2005 it will be mandatory to quote PAN on challans for any payments due to Income Tax Department.
It is also compulsory to quote PAN in all documents pertaining to financial transactions notified from time-to-time by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Some such transactions are sale and purchase of immovable property or motor vehicle or payments in cash, of amounts exceeding Rs. 25,000/-to hotels and restaurants or in connection with travel to any foreign country. It is also mandatory to mention PAN for obtaining a telephone or cellular telephone connection. Likewise, PAN has to be mentioned for making a time deposit exceeding Rs. 50,000/- with a Bank or Post Office or depositing cash of Rs. 50,000/- or more in a Bank.

But, worry not, you can easily generate a PAN card for your own use. You need to apply through the relevant PAN application form, and here is an Online site that lets you do the same (link). You can do the following at this site:
1. Apply for a new PAN
2. Reprint of older PAN
3. Transaction Status Inquiry
4. Changes or Correction in PAN details
5. Status Track for PAN application

One always thinks of the Government as being slow, not able to catch onto the latest technology trends, and using old procedures. However, this is not always true, and the Government has been able to surprise us many times by showing its ability to adopt some of the newer technologies, and at the same time, do so with the required safe-guards. So, first we had the railways ticket booking website, http://irctc.co.in, and then we have the Tax Authority of the country trying to use all modern trends for tax filing. So, if you refer to the website (link) for Income Tax India, you will be able to download forms, and read more about details related to your tax filing. The website even has a very basic Tax calculator (link)
The entire procedure for paying tax online is initiated at this link (link), with a more detailed explanation about how to find list of banks, making payment and challan details, getting receipt / confirmation, etc available at these 2 documents (link 1, link 2). If you prefer to pay online with some more help, then there are various 3rd parties that can help you with the payment process (you can fill in a simple filing, or opt for a higher package if you have more sources of income besides a simple Form 16, and some of them even give an option of walking into their office and filing in the details). Here are the links to these sites:
1. http://www.taxspanner.com/ (Including the option of getting a digital signature). Read more at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
2. http://www.taxsmile.com/. Read more about it on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
3. http://www.taxshax.com/. Read more at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)