Category: Articles

As the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 inches towards the knockout stage, like a lot of other people, I was interested to see who India is likely to play in the quarterfinals, and assuming they win the quarterfinals, who will they play next?

Almost everyone knows that India will play Bangladesh in the quarterfinals next Thursday but when you look at the list of matches that have already been decided that can be slightly confusing.

The best World Cup schedule that I’ve seen is on Cricbuzz and if you look at it right now, you will see that they show that all the Pool A quarter finalists have their venues fixed but no one from Pool B has theirs fixed. This nonplussed me a little because if anything, the position of India as Pool B toppers is secured more solidly than any other team (except New Zealand) in Pool A so how are their venues fixed already?

It is easy to partly deduce that answer as the host having their venues fixed, but what of the rest?

It turns out that in order to facilitate people booking tickets and making travel arrangements, ICC decided the dates and places where the hosts will play their matches were they to reach the quarterfinals. In addition to that, they took the two next highest ODI ranked teams in Pool A (at the time) which were Sri Lanka and England and decided their venue in advance as well. If these two were not to make the quarter finals, then the next two teams would take their places.

This way the date and the venues of the quarterfinalists of Pool A was decided, and then ICC had the usual formula of the number one team of pool A playing the number four team of pool B, and so on.

So, the quarter finals go like this.

• Quarter-final 1 – A1 v B4
• Quarter-final 2 – A2 v B3
• Quarter-final 3 – A3 v B2
• Quarter-final 4 – A4 v B1

The above list is the one that has been talked about so far and that is the one that confused me a little because if you see the matches already decided then they don’t fit the list above.

Since the actual dates are as follows:

• Wed 18 March: Sri Lanka vs TBD
• Thu 19 March: Bangladesh vs TBD
• Fri 20 March: Australia vs TBD
• Sat 21st March: New Zealand vs TBD

If you see the two lists above, the New Zealand quarter final is the last one according to date, but according to the first list it is actually Quarter Final 1 since they are A1.

Essentially, this little confusion is what spurred me to write this post because you need to know if QF 1 is the one that’s earliest or the one with A1 v B4 to determine who India meets in the semi final (assumption duly noted).

The answer to my question is fairly obvious: that for the purposes of determining the semi finalists the position in the group and not the calendar dates will be used.

The semi finals will be held as follows:

• Semi-final 1 – winner QF1 (A1 v B4) v winner QF3 (A3 v B2)
• Semi-final 2 – winner QF2 (A2 v B3) v winner QF4 (A4 v B1)

Semi Finals: India v Australia?

According to the list above, India will play Semi Final 2 after beating Bangladesh in quarter finals (assumption duly noted again). Winner of QF2 will most likely be Australia after they beat whomever comes in their way. I say whomever comes in their way because Pool B is very close right now, but none of the teams who can come in number 3 look good to beat Australia.

Let’s make some assumptions, and see who may come in where in the two groups.

First, the simple pool. Here is what the standings of Pool A will most likely look like.

1. New Zealand (After beating Bangladesh)
2. Australia (After beating Scotland)
3. Sri Lanka
4. Bangladesh (After losing to NZL)

Now, the hard one, Pool B.

1. India
2. South Africa (With a huge win against UAE and a high NRR)
3. Pakistan (With a moderate win against Ireland)
4. West Indies (With a win against UAE)

The difference in the NRR (Net Run Rate) between Pakistan and South Africa is so high that it doesn’t look like Pakistan can finish second in Pool B so they will either be third or if they lose to Ireland, fourth or out of the knockout. So in all likelihood, Pakistan, Ireland or West Indies will be third or fourth and it is really unlikely that they go past New Zealand and Australia in the quarter finals.

So then, it comes down to a semi final between Australia and India – are you ready for it?

As with a lot of people around me, I’m quite absorbed with the ongoing Cricket World Cup and after having little interest in cricket for the better part of the last decade, I’ve been following each game quite closely.

The result today with Bangladesh defeating England means that India will probably play in the second quarter final with Bangladesh on March 19 at the MCG which starts at 9 AM India time.

This made me wonder if India have been upset by smaller teams often in World Cup cricket, and what’s Bangladesh record of beating better teams.

Interestingly enough, India has been beaten once by Bangladesh already in the 2007 World Cup group matches. India scored 191 in that match and Bangladesh scored 192 with 9 balls to spare, and 5 wickets remaining.

Second such instance is India losing to Zimbabwe in the group stage of 1999 World Cup in England. This was actually the opener game for India where Zimbabwe scored 252 runs and won by 3 runs. 

Just a short post with a little bit of trivia that interested me. Hopefully India will sail to the semi finals this time around.

Guest Post By Jennifer Riner of Zillow

Moving to a new city is always intimidating, especially without ever visiting prior to relocating. Even more difficult is relocating across international borders to an entirely different country, complete with alternate customs, language barriers and cultural divides. While exciting, apartment hunting remotely can be complicated and somewhat intimidating.

Most U.S. residents have general knowledge of major cities throughout the country, including a city’s characteristic weather patterns, crime reputations and local economies. Luckily, international individuals can access these data points online. Once long-distance renters determine their destinations of choice, finding rentals within desired locations might be more complicated than it seems.

Implement the following strategies to ease the process of international rental searches, specifically avoiding contractual obligations with inadequate rentals.

Research Neighborhoods

Individuals from overseas should begin by researching the communities in their relocation areas. Selecting specific neighborhoods based on budget and lifestyle narrows the vast scope of options. Focusing searches reduces stress for overwhelmed shoppers who can only find future homes through limited pictures and online rental listings.

First, determine price point and scan through listings to gauge which regions are realistic based on budget. Delve into specific neighborhoods by scrutinizing accessibility, demographics and, if applicable, school ratings. For more in-depth analysis, research local restaurants, parks, fitness facilities, bars and coffee shops. If being close to these amenities is important for an easy transition, it might be worth stretching the budget to move closer to them.

Time Searches Based on City

Depending on long-distance destinations, recommended start times for rental searches vary. For instance, Orlando apartments for rent typically aren’t listed very far in advance from their vacancy dates. Lack of down time between listing units and signing new tenants is potentially due to competitive rental markets. Renters in major metros are abundant and eager to sign leases, so high-quality apartments at fair prices don’t sit on the market for very long.

Visit Potential Apartments or Enlist Help

When budget allows, renters should visit potential residences first-hand to find apartments in optimal locations that fit their needs. Obviously, flying out for showings isn’t practical for most people who want to avoid extra expenses or endure long hours of additional travel. Lessees who can’t afford, or don’t have time, to travel to view rentals ahead of their scheduled move dates can use professionals and friends to streamline their rental pursuits.

Leasing Agent

Not only do leasing agents help narrow down standard apartment searches, their city-specific expertise is especially useful for individuals moving from foreign countries. Be prepared for agents to ask about timeline, flexibility, potential neighborhoods, budget range, size preferences, pet accommodations, parking and must-haves or deal breakers such as in-unit washers and dryers or hardwood floors.

Some agents can accommodate international applicants by facilitating the entire process remotely. After they receive information about their clients’ wants and needs, they’ll send prospective listings via email. When clients settle on one or two properties, agents can contact property managers to take pictures, collect floor plans and determine final pricing based on availability. Unemployed renters should prepare to list cosigner(s) who are citizens of the continental United States. Property managers considering international lessees will also inquire about visas and citizenship before moving forward. To simplify the entire process, international apartment seekers can electronically sign their applications, offer letters and leases for most properties; otherwise they must mail notarized documents, depending on property policies.

Friend

Networking with existing residents benefits initial searches and helps new residents get acclimated thereafter. Residents have insight on their current housing and location, and can potentially attend showings, take high quality photos and provide unbiased descriptions of units on non-nationals’ behalves. Ask distant relatives or old associates for help, provided they currently live in the targeted region. Those relocating for work who don’t know anyone might want to ask new coworkers for their help, or join online communities dedicated to linking newcomers.

Sublet or Rent Short-Term

After exhausting all resources, sometimes searches fail to yield appropriate results. Temporary housing is a good option for renters in a bind, at least until suitable dwellings hit the market. Leasing agents can often set their clients up with sublets to consider. If searching solo, online classifieds feature extensive roommate-wanted advertisements, but be weary of the potential dangers of living with strangers, especially when strong language barriers exist. Websites including Airbnb and VRBO offer vacation rental listings to users, but also provide monthly rentals within popular metro regions. Individuals can narrow their searches based on estimated durations and see if owners offer extended-stay housing.

Staying alert throughout the process is the best way to avoid scams or other issues. Most scams come from users in distant countries who claim to be landlords that are renting out a home. Be wary of claims from people who are communicating from abroad because they are missionaries, U.N. workers or in the military. Always be wary of giving personal information, financial information or payments of any kind to unfamiliar people.

Although it presents increased risk, renting apartments from a distance can be simplified – as long as prospective leaseholders use available resources to the fullest degree.

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited (STFC) is launching its public issue of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) from tomorrow, July 2, 2014. This will be the first public issue by the company in the current financial year and the same will remain open for three weeks to close on July 22, 2014.

Though the base size of this issue is Rs. 500 crore, the company has filed the draft shelf prospectus for Rs. 3,000 crore. So, even if the company gets a demand of more than Rs. 500 crore for these NCDs, it will retain the oversubscribed portion to the tune of Rs. 3,000 crore.

Here are some of the features of the issue worth considering:

Credit Rating of the Issue – CRISIL has given a rating of ‘AA’ to the issue with a ‘Stable’ outlook, whereas CARE has assigned a rating of ‘AA+’, which is a notch above the rating of the NCD issue of ECL Finance. Moreover, this issue is ‘Secured’ in nature, unlike the ECL Finance issue which was ‘Unsecured’.

Categories of Investors & Allocation Ratio – The investors have been classified in the following four categories and each category will have the below mentioned percentage fixed in the allotment:

Category I – Institutional Investors – 10% of the issue is reserved

Category II – Non-Institutional Investors – 10% of the issue is reserved

Category III – HNI Individual & HUF Investors investing more than Rs. 5 lakh – 30% of the issue is reserved

Category IV – Retail Individual & HUF Investors investing Rs. 5 lakh or below – 50% of the issue is reserved

Allotment will be made on a first-come first-served (FCFS) basis.

Coupon Rate & Tenor of the Issue – Individual investors, including HNIs, will be incentivised to invest in the issue with the company offering them an additional coupon of 1.15% to 1.35% over and above the base coupon rates applicable for the non-individual investors. These NCDs will be issued for a period of 36 months, 60 months and 84 months.

For 36 months, 60 months and 84 months, the individual investors will earn 11%, 11.25% and 11.50% per annum respectively. Apart from the annual and cumulative interest payment options, this time around the company has decided to offer monthly interest option as well. But, the monthly interest payment option will not be there with the 36 months maturity period.

Additional Coupon for Senior Citizens – Like some of the fixed deposits, senior citizens will get an additional interest rate of 0.25% p.a., but only the first allottees. If any of the senior citizen investors buys these NCDs through secondary markets post the initial public offer, he/she will not be entitled to this additional 0.25%. For monthly interest payment option, this rate would be 0.23% extra. For Series VI, VII and VIII, senior citizens will get Rs. 1,377.29, 1,723.87 and 2,177.70 respectively at the end of the tenure.

Minimum Application Size – STFC has fixed Rs. 10,000 as the minimum amount to invest in this issue. So, if you want to invest in this issue, you need to apply for a minimum of ten NCDs worth Rs. 1,000 each.

NRIs Not Allowed – Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and qualified foreign investors (QFIs) among others are not eligible to invest in this issue.

Demat/Physical Option – Investors can apply for these NCDs either in physical form or demat form, whichever they are comfortable with, except for Series IV and Series V NCDs i.e. NCDs which offer to pay monthly interest. Series IV and Series V NCDs will be allotted compulsorily in the demat form.

Taxability & TDS – As these are not tax-free debentures, the investors will be liable to pay tax on the interest income as per their individual tax brackets. Also, though the interest income is taxable, NCDs taken in demat form will not attract any TDS.

Listing, Lock-In Period – These NCDs will get listed on both the stock exchanges i.e. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as well as National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the listing will take place within 12 working days after the issue gets closed.

Also, there is no lock-in period with these NCDs i.e. as and when these NCDs get allotted, the investors can sell their holdings on any of the exchanges whenever they want.

Conclusion

As compared to the NCD issue of ECL Finance which offered an effective annualised interest rate of 12.68%, the effective interest rate of 11.25% for 60 months seems a bit unattractive to me, despite of the fact that Shriram Transport Finance is a big company and quite superior fundamentally and even as these NCDs are ‘Secured’ in nature.

Having said that, STFC is a good company fundamentally. All those investors who could not invest in the past NCD issues and are willing to park their money for long periods of 36 months to 84 months can consider investing in this issue. These NCDs are way superior than company NCDs in terms of liquidity, safety and returns.

If I were to park my money in this issue, I would have opted for a tenure of 60 months with the monthly interest payment option or for a tenure of 60 months with the annual interest payment option.

Application Form of Shriram Transport Finance NCDs

Note: As per SEBI guidelines, ‘Bidding’ is mandatory before banking the application form, else the application is liable to get rejected. For bidding of your application, any further info or to invest in STFC NCDs, you can reach me at +91-9811797407

A few days ago I had a short exchange with Tejus Sajwani on Twitter (who by the way you should definitely follow) when he asked the following question:

Without AAP, if Modi hadn’t done well in coming elections, he would have lost his raison d’être. But now, even if BJP doesn’t do well, Modi can still stick around, saying that BJP was jilted at the altar by an errant bride that ran off with AAP! So perhaps then, we have a cobbled up coalition for a few months, which perhaps ends up giving BJP a better chance in a 2nd election in say 1.5-2 years? Plausible??

This was my initial response:

@tejus_sawjiani Perhaps not because AAP won’t win enough seats to make a difference to BJP’s fortunes.

— Manshu (@Manshu) January 5, 2014

I’m embarrassed to say that at the time I didn’t realize that the current UPA II government has 276 MPs which is just one more than the 275 MPs required to stay in power, and also a little confused because the Lok Sabha website itself gives a different number.

After checking with a few people, I feel that the Lok Sabha website is incorrect, but please leave a comment if you have any insight on this.

Going back to the original question, I think it is quite possible that the scenario Tejus mentioned plays out because AAP is planning to contest about 300 seats, and winning even 20 of those will give them significant sway over BJP which is expected to win the most seats.

This will create any coalition very difficult, and a distinct possibility for a re-election which the market never likes. I think this view is only beginning to gain momentum in the popular press now, but I feel it won’t be long before it gets a lot of attention, and rightly so.

Finally, it is worth mentioning here that I like AAP and although I frown upon many of their left leaning policies, overall, I think they are much better than the alternatives, and if nothing else, I feel that this is the best bad idea we have sir, by far.

In the last few years, there have been vast improvements in the quality, pricing and availability of Indian TV channels in the US.

A lot of these have been made possible with the ability to stream Indian TV channels online, and I feel the online options are the best in terms of price and quality.

Here, I don’t mean the free pirated streams which in addition to being illegal are crappy feeds and ruin your whole experience but rather paid services that are legitimate and provide a good experience.

In this post I’m going to list down some options to watch Indian TV channels online, and discuss some pros and cons of them.      

1. Indian TV Channels from Comcast: A lot of people already have a Comcast cable connection, and if you want to temporary add a few Indian TV channels to that connection, you can get the Comcast South Asia package.

I think this may perhaps be the most unpopular way of watching Indian channels in the US because the options are really very limited, and they aren’t exactly cheap either.

2. YuppTV: YuppTV is a very popular option to watch Indian channels online and on your TV. It is fairly cheap, and some channels are even free to air as well. It has channels in 8 languages, and has a lot of options, but I don’t think it has any channel that shows IPL which is a big demand for a lot of Indian customers. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this, but as far as I can see, they don’t have any option to support that.

 The great thing about Yupp is that YuppTV is compatible with a lot of devices, and has apps on some of the major selling Smart TVs also, so if you have a Samsung Smart TV, you can just download the app on that and start using that without having to buy anything extra.

3.  Dish TV: Till sometime ago you had to get into a 2 year contract and get a dish installed if you needed access to Dish TV. All that has changed now with internet streaming and you neither need a dish nor do you need to get into a contract.

You can just download the Dish TV app on your phone, tablet or PC and start watching Indian channels without the need to buy a separate device.

You can connect your TV to your computer and watch the channels online on your TV as well, or you can buy a Roku device and install the Dish TV app on that.

I think Dish has the highest number of Indian channels of all operators and also has IPL streaming through its Willow cricket channel. The quality is good, and you don’t see any lag at all while connected to the TV using your Roku box, and there is certainly no lag while watching it on Mac or PC.

4. Jadoo TV: Jadoo TV is similar to the Roku device but is quite a bit more expensive than it. You can stream Indian channels on it but I really don’t see a lot of appeal in this option. If someone is using this option, please leave a comment on your experience.

These are some of the popular options that I’m aware of and in these, I feel that the Dish TV option is the best one if you don’t mind the monthly subscription, the next best is YuppTV which is priced much lower but has fewer Indian channels too.

If you know of any other ways to watch Indian channels in the US, please leave a comment and I will update the post. Please don’t leave   links to sites which are streaming content illegally, as I will remove those comments anyway.

Update: Mr. Rajagopalan sent in the following email on this post:

Dear sir,

I had created a crores to millions calculator some time ago, and on that post someone commented that a lakhs to millions calculator will also be useful because some companies report their results in lakhs, and then you have the need to convert them into crores or millions USD to compare it with other companies.

With that in mind, I created this handy little calculator that converts lakhs to crores, millions in INR and also in USD, so you can input a number and get the other numbers.

For quick calculations you can remember that 100 lakhs is a crore, 10 crores is approximately 2 million USD, a 100 crore is a billion, and if you need it, then a lakh crore is a trillion.