RFP-HDFC SLIC

Request for Final Placement
Particulars
Details
Company
HDFC STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE
Address
1s Floor, Vanijya Bhawan, Sai Nagar,
Devendra Nagar Road,
RAIPUR - 492009
Tel/Email
0771-4017860
Industry type
LIFE INSURANCE
Description of company
An Established Life Insurance Company
Number of openings
30
Functional area
Marketing
Location
RAIPUR
Job Description
Sales & marketing of Insurance Products
Salary
2.00 Lakh PA
Designation offered
Sales Development Manager
Interview/GD/Written Test
Written Test, Two rounds of Interview
Date
15 December, 2007
Contact Person
Mr. Chitrakant
Designation
Regional Manager - HR
CDC Executive
ASHOK PANIGRAHI, 9977929441
Remarks
www.hdfcinsurance.com

RFP-TNT Logistics

The Interview will take place at INC Bhopal on 18th November 2007 for all the centers of RO Bhopal.
All the centers are required to send the nomination of the students in the format attached alongwith the resume by 1100 Hrs. 6th November 2007 to RO Bhopal positively.
Nominations received after the given time will not be accepted.

JD & Salary Details of TNT
S.No
Department
Job Describtion
Location
Salary
No. of Openings
1
Marketing
Corporate Sales :Meeting corporate clients for business. Candidate should posses interpersonal, communication, and negotiation skills.
Any where in India. (Possibly the students would be placed in their respective state)
4.00 Lakhs
5 Positions (In every State)


Customer Care:Keep in touch with the customers and attend to requirements. Should posses listening, communication and interpersonal skills


Vendor Management :Monitoring & coordinating with various distribution centres. Should posses organizational and leadership skills and should be willing to travel
2
Operation
To be a part of the branch operation team. Should posses organizational and leadership skills and eye for details and the ability of multi tasking.
Any where in India. (Possibly the students would be placed in their respective state)
4.00 Lakhs
5 Positions (In every State)
3
Finance
To be a part of the Finance/Accounts department of a branch. Should posses analytical and numerical skills
Any where in India. (Possibly the students would be placed in their respective state)
4.00 Lakhs
5 Positions (In every State)
4
HR
Dealing with HR Policies and Practices.Should be able to understand, analyze and select people according to the needs of the organization and posses interpersonal and listening skills.
Any where in India. (Possibly the students would be placed in their respective state)
4.00 Lakhs
3 Positions (In every State)

18 Positions (In Every State)

Selection Process : Pre Plac Talk / GD / 2 Rounds of Final Interview.

Nominations sent for Bajaj Allianz Life Ins.

Jai Prakash Namdeo
Rahul Mishra
SAURABH ASATI
SAURABH SINGH BAGHEL
Shailendra Koshta
Satyapriya Vishwakarma
Abhishek Ghosh
Vijay Saket
Vinay Shukla
Abhishek Shukla
Abhinesh Verma

RFP-Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance

RFP is generated at Pune from Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.

Salary Package is Rs 5 Lacs.

Interview shall be conducted either in Mumbai or in Pune.

Further details are awaited.

TNT LOGISTICS INDIA

TNT LOGISTICS INDIA
Overview
Our strategy The most important elements of the TNT Express strategy are to: Provide the fastest and most reliable express delivery services. secure outstanding levels of customer satisfaction. Equip employees to fully satisfy customer needs. Save time by adopting a 'right-first-time' approach in every part of thebusiness. Expand the company-owned network of depots to offer later collection and earlier delivery times Improve linehaul connections to achieve shorter transit times develop leading-edge support technologies that provide added-value for customers Work with the Investor in People standard throughout the world Achieve continuous improvement through use everywhere of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model to achieve superior results
Our quality values We provide the fastest and most reliable express delivery services by working with a proven set of quality values everywhere in our global organisation. Delighting customers We delight customers by providing friendly fault free service. Excellent leadership Constancy and unity of purpose is vital to achieving our mission of becoming the fastest and most reliable carrier. Exemplary teamwork Our success depends on many links in a complex chain and everyone working together as part of a unified team. Good communications We foster our must get through attitude and staff involvement through an open management style. People matter We consistently recruit, train, equip and develop the best staff. Successful partnerships We use impartial processes to select suppliers including sub-contract drivers and other key service providers who meet our quality standards. Right first time processes We have a get it right first time philosophy and our seven key processes support this approach. Helping society We aim to be recognised as a responsible member of society by minimising pollution, reducing waste and working with the community. Continuous improvement TNT Express exists to earn continuously improving profits through delighting customers by providing the fastest and most reliable expres delivery services.


Mission
Our Mission
* Our mission is to exceed customers' expectations in the transfer of their goods and documents around the world * We deliver value to our customers by providing the most reliable and efficient solutions in distribution and logistics * We lead the industry by: -Instilling pride in our people -Creating value for our shareholders -Sharing responsibility for our world
Our Vision
The essence of what we strive for: Delivering more:
Delivering more is about always going the extra mile, about always raising the bar, about always going beyond standard compliance, about always changing the paradigms, about our ambition to always lead.
Delivering more encompasses a can-do attitude, competitiveness, forward thinking, responsibility care and ambition.
Delivering more is optimistic. We are confident that we can overcome obstacles and achieve our ambitious goals.
Delivering more makes us stand out from the average.
Our Standards
1. Aim to satisfy customers every time 2. Challenge and improve all we do 3. Be passionate about our people 4. Act as a team 5. Be honest, always 6. Measure success through sustainable profit 7. Work for the world




CEO Statement
People are the heart of our company
TNT's success, growth and leadership position in our industry depends largely on the energy and efforts of all our employees, serving our customers in all corners of the world. They are the people who make TNT a great company.
In all their various capacities, throughout TNT’s two divisions: Mail and Express, our people are the heart of our company. They always will be, because whether we’re delivering the mail or working in a sorting centre for Royal TNT Post in the Netherlands, flying a TNT aircraft with urgent business documents, there’s something fundamental that unites us in a common cause: every one of us is working in a service business. That means our people are the key determinant of our continuing success.
TNT operates in 63 countries, all of which reflect a multitude of cultures, nationalities, religions, expertise and ideas. We have an extremely diverse customer base and, in order to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction, we need to reflect diversity within our organisation.
We focus on building an inclusive culture. We have networks in place to support employees with different backgrounds and beliefs and we work in partnership with local organisations to support people with fewer opportunities but greater skills. At TNT, we value and embrace difference and that is why our Diversity & Inclusion initiatives serve to make us the employer of choice.
The commitment and creativity of all our people has enabled TNT to consistently reach and exceed our profit and value targets, even in years when growth has been hard to find. And because we continue to grow, we’re continually on the look-out for excellent new people at every level who’d like to share the passion and pride of the around 128,000 people in 63 countries around the world already serving TNT’s customers.

Starters and interns
Introduction
As a student you have the time of your life. But there comes a point when you want to start your first job. You want to put what you've learned into practice and broaden your horizons. TNT offers you perfect conditions for doing just that. Firstly because we are just as ambitious as you are. Secondly because we offer graduates attractive projects and assignments, plus the tools necessary to carry them out. If you come to TNT, we will give you a real job, with real responsibilities while taking part in the Young Executive Programme, the first stage of our Management Development path.
At TNT we believe in people. That's why we give people the opportunity to do what they do well. You can build a career on the strength of your personal capabilities. You will get all the support you need from your immediate manager and others. You can increase your knowledge and skills through training courses like our Young Executive Programme.
If you come to TNT as a graduate, you can move straight into a managerial position. But numerous other opportunities exist in fields like finance, marketing & sales, human resources, information technology, project management and various specialisations. We will encourage you to widen your career perspectives by accepting positions in different fields of work and TNT divisions. But there's nothing to stop you from specialising in the field that makes you tick.
TNT is constantly innovating, expanding internationally and fulfilling its responsibility to society. Prime examples of our social commitment are the partnership TNT has had since 2002 with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). TNT deploys its resources to help overcome the world's most persistent logistics problem: getting food to where it's most urgently needed. Another example is our business in China where we are co-operating with the Chinese national postal service in a broadly based strategic partnership.
The TNT standards and values are in evidence throughout our corporate culture. The hallmarks of our organisation are a no-nonsense approach, hands-on mentality, openness, respect for others and direct responsibility.
Innovation and flexibility are key success factors in the dynamic world and markets in which TNT operates internationally. Diversity in the workforce is an indispensable ingredient for the pursuit of success. It is what makes TNT employees different. We bring together different nationalities, religions, ethnic backgrounds, cultures, genders, education, experience, ideas and views - all the attributes that make our employees unique individuals.
At TNT we recognise and value the things that make us different. We are convinced that these differences promote innovation and creativity and ultimately benefit our business results. We are committed to offering a workplace environment that affords everybody recognition for his or her valuable contribution to building sustainable relationships with colleagues and customers.
Good education and good results are undeniably very important. But we are even more interested in what kind of person you are. People who want to join TNT must be willing to reach new frontiers. They must see and seize opportunities. They must be able to develop and share a vision. If you’re a graduate who fits this profile, TNT offers you unique opportunities to work at an informal, ambitious and internationally minded organisation.


TNT wants to attract, retain and motivate people that embrace the following group standards:
Aim to satisfy customers every time
Challenge and improve all we do
Be passionate about our people
Act as a team
Be honest, always
Measure success through sustainable profit
Work for the world

RBI & Fed: CRR hike, 25 bps cut in prospect

S. Balakrishnan

Tuesday, 30 October , 2007, 08:54

The stock market continues to hog the headlines. After dropping a couple of thousand points in the aftermath of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's moves on participatory notes, the market roared back to beat its old highs and, at the time of writing, is just a whisker below 20,000. What's going on? It turned out that there was really going to be no restriction on foreign flows into the stock market, only full disclosure of antecedents, that too waivable in certain cases. When this sank in, investors, domestic and offshore, rode right back. The market barely took notice of the Finance Minister's statement, early Friday, that ways and means must be found to check untrammelled capital movement into the financial system. Spotlight on RBI The spotlight now turns on the Reserve Bank of India as it gets ready to announce its half-yearly Monetary Policy the equivalent, one might say, of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to decide on US interest rates. Having achieved a measure of success in controlling inflation, it is unwanted forex riches pushing up the rupee that is the central bank's main worry now. The dollar flood is correlated not so much to the much-talked about stellar performance and prospects of the economy, but phenomenal short-term asset inflation in red-hot stock and property markets, making India a sure bet for global investors. The central bank has been and is gamely intervening to support the dollar, injecting, in the process, more liquidity into the system. But absorbing this is hardly costless. MSS bonds are not only a drain on the fisc but also eligible collateral, so they do not permanently remove liquidity. Only option Reluctant though it might be, the RBI's only option is to increase the CRR, accompanied (perhaps) by a reduction in the repo rate, as a signal to banks to lower their lending rates. A surprise brake on capital flows, given the Finance Minister's concern, cannot be ruled out. Also watched will be the interest rate decision of the FOMC. Financial market conditions have improved since the last meeting. But losses from CDO portfolios are still emerging from the woodworks, the latest being Merrill Lynch's write-offs. Data suggest a weak economy, but not in recession. Inflation, by the Fed's chosen measures, is benign. The FOMC is likely to conclude that a 25 bps cut contains little risk. Europe, Japan and the UK are slowing. Deflation continues to bug Japan. There seems little chance of their central banks switching out of their current defensive mode in the short-term. In anticipation, two-year bond European bond yields have dropped below 4 per cent, while Britain's is below 4 per cent - in both cases above their central bank rates. Booming stock markets, record oil prices, falling bond yields. The contradictions could not be starker.

Indian markets among top wealth creators

Kumar Shankar Roy

Tuesday, 30 October , 2007, 08:34zx

This might come as an eye-opener for people who choose to downplay Sensex's scintillating run as a "pure numbers game." Indian equity markets have been one of the top performing markets when it comes to wealth creation, witnessing an 89 per cent expansion in the total market capitalisation in 2007. Wealth creation This compares to a Sensex return of 63 per cent on a year-to-date basis. Though markets such as China (whopping 215 per cent gain) are ahead of India in wealth creation, India (89 per cent) scores higher than markets such as Brazil (86 per cent), Thailand (51 per cent) and South Korea (49 per cent) in terms of expansion in market cap this year. Overall, the total market cap for Indian stocks accounts for 2.5 per cent of the world market cap share - at over $1,540 billion (Rs 61 lakh crore) at current market levels. The total market capitalisation has grown 2.2 times from Rs 25,56,700 crore at the beginning of 2007. While emerging markets have posted strong performances, the developed economies have lagged in wealth creation this year. The market capitalisation of the UK and the US have grown by a measly 7 and 9 per cent, respectively, this year while Japan has seen its total investor wealth drop by three per cent. Index returns too have been higher for emerging markets as compared to the developed ones.

Oil eases as investors take profits from new peaks

Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:55am EDT

By Jiwon Chung

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly 1 percent to below $93 a barrel on Tuesday, fading from their latest record high as investors took profits from a rally driven by a Mexican supply outage and the spiralling dollar.

U.S. crude fell by 71 cents to $92.82 a barrel by 1:43 a.m. EDT after hitting a record high of $93.80 in the previous session. London Brent lost 59 cents to $89.73, down nearly $1 from its record high.

"Investors are reluctant to buy oil at high prices and they are trying to take profits at the moment," said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at Japan's Astmax Futures Co Ltd.

"But the market is still strong -- the trouble in Mexico is very supportive and the weak dollar also provides room for oil prices to go up."

State oil company Pemex has shut a fifth of Mexico's crude production and halted the bulk of exports, as storms kept ships bottled at ports across the country. It hopes to resume supplies when bad weather eases in a day or so.

The U.S. dollar hovered near record lows versus the euro and major currencies on Tuesday, ahead of an expected interest rate cut when the U.S. Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meets on October 30-31.

Lower interest rates in the wake of the U.S. subprime debacle helped fuel an influx of investor capital into commodities, pushing oil toward its inflation-adjusted, all-time peak of $101.70 a barrel in April 1980.

Despite widespread expectations of cheaper money, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that a rate cut was not a sure thing, causing the dollar to firm slightly.

Oil cartel OPEC has shrugged off calls from importer nations to cool prices by raising crude output, blaming politics and speculation -- not a supply shortfall -- for $90-plus oil.

On Wednesday traders will shift focus to weekly U.S. inventory data expected to show crude stocks rose 600,000 barrels in the week to October 26, helping buffer stocks after last week's sharp decline, which kicked off an $8 rise over four days.

Distillate stocks were seen falling by 1.1 million barrels and gasoline stocks down by 300,000 barrels.

India , China need to keep opening up: US
Agencies
Posted online: Monday , October 29, 2007 at 1531 hrs

Mumbai, October 29:US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday urged India to accelerate reforms to open up its economy and said China needed to move more quickly towards a market-determined currency.

Paulson said India was mostly on the right path to modernise its financial sector, with a flexible currency, but China, with its tightly controlled yuan exchange rate, was increasingly the focus of protectionist sentiment around the world.

"Very often around the world, if someone doesn't like globalization, the face they put on it is the face of China," the US treasury secretary told an infrastructure conference in India's burgeoning financial capital.

Paulson said China needed to allow the yuan to rise more in the near term to reflect the strong fundamentals of an economy that data last week showed expanded in the third quarter by 11.5 percent over a year earlier.

China runs a large trade surplus with the United States, prompting some US policy makers to demand that Beijing allow its currency to rise faster to curb the pace of its exports.

Currency dealers on Monday said China could well be preparing the foreign exchange market for faster yuan appreciation after the currency jumped more than 0.3 percent against the dollar for its biggest daily gain since it was revalued in 2005.

India has averaged economic growth of 8.6 percent over the past four years.

Paulson, in the midst of a trip that also includes Kolkata and New Delhi, lauded India for allowing the rupee to appreciate but warned that limiting capital flows would hurt the country's competitiveness.

Last week, India announced restrictions on anonymous foreign investment into shares, which has sent the stock market to record highs and put upward pressure on the rupee.

Restrictions on capital flows were 'blunt instruments' that could have unintended consequences, Paulson said.

"I urge my Indian colleagues to continue, and accelerate, their efforts to liberalize the economy and develop the financial system -- to assure that the vibrancy and growth that the Indian economy now enjoys continues well into the future," Paulson told the conference.

CURBS

Speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said India introduced the curbs because of concern about investment from unregistered entities, especially unregulated ones.

"So long as funds come in after registrations, they are welcome to do so," Chidambaram said.

Paulson, in a later session with Indian journalists, said the key to success for the new rules on inflows was that they be implemented in a manner that was transparent and flexible.

One way for India to reduce the pressure from inflows would be to reduce restrictions on investment outflows, he added.

Paulson also said limits on debt and equity financing and asset allocation restrictions on financial institutions were impediments to putting resources to their most productive use.

He understood Indian officials were concerned that as Mumbai gained strength as a major financial centre, increased capital flows could increase inflationary pressures, destabilize domestic financial markets or add to exchange rate volatility.

"For the most part, India is on the right path to reduce these risks. India has allowed greater flexibility in the exchange rate in recent months, and the appreciation in the rupee has helped to reduce inflationary pressures," Paulson said.

LONG-TERM FUNDS

India could take a number of steps to become more competitive in the long term, such as reducing requirements that financial institutions hold large amounts of government debt, reducing the need for banks to provide credit to priority sectors, and removing various restrictions and caps on foreign investment.

Paulson said Wall Street stood ready to help India build Mumbai into a major capital market centre, particularly in the development of a domestic bond market that would provide long-term financing for much-needed infrastructure development.

He said the United States supported India's ambitious plans to attract public-private partnerships to help finance its infrastructure needs, but said this would require transparent and independent regulatory frameworks, where government entities do not act as both regulator and services providers.

"Investors, especially those who must make long-term commitments as in most infrastructure projects, want certainty in their operating environments," Paulson said.

RBI hikes CRR to 7.5%, other rates steady
Agencies
Posted online: Tuesday , October 30, 2007 at 1140 hrs

Mumbai, October 30:Belying expectations of any relief on interest rate front, Reserve Bank on Tuesday hiked the statutory deposits - CRR - by 0.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent despite inflation falling to a five-year low.

Cash Reserve Ratio is the ratio of interest-free cash reserves mandatorily kept by the banks with the RBI, which had it been unchanged could have provided banks an option to ease the lending rates.

It, however, left the key lending and borrowing rates (repo, reverse repo) and bank rates unchanged.

Unveiling the busy season monetary policy, RBI Governor Y V Reddy sent strong signals that the apex bank's hawkish stance would continue in order to ensure price stability, credit quality and orderly conditions in the financial market. Inflation has now come down to 3.07 per cent.

Has SEBI got PN regulations right?

K N Vaidyanathan CEO, Alchemy Capital Management

The Securities and Exchange Board of India banned badla in 1993 but brought it back in 1996 following strong lobbying by brokers. But when badla was banned again in 2001, it was coupled with a move to introduce 'futures and options' — albeit in limited measure — which alleviated some of the dent of the ban. SEBI's move to introduce demat in 1997 started with just eight stocks being made compulsory only for institutional investors. Today, the demat coverage extends to virtually the entire market.

Recent announcements regarding participatory notes (P-notes) have to be evaluated with this history in mind. Major changes are achieved through small steps — a state of prolonged 'work in progress'. It happens only in India! The restrictions on PNs are aimed at achieving twin objectives — of control (moderating capital flows) and regulation (more transparency). To evaluate these new rules, you do need to empathise with SEBI on the constraint of capital controls. It is a classic linear programming model of balancing multiple constraints to achieve an optimum solution. It will not please all. Every market regulator would want to have all activities relating to its market happen onshore — and directly under its surveillance. SEBI's intent to rein in offshore activity and bring it onshore is fully understandable.

But it is important to know how and why the P-notes market came about. The better known reason — part A of the problem — is the restriction on a certain category of investors to gain FII/sub accounts status. This made sophisticated market intermediaries provide that India exposure to such entities offshore. Once in place, other investors, who were otherwise eligible to be FII/sub accounts, took the more convenient route of dealing only through PN-notes.

The lesser known reason is that the derivatives market in India is still evolving — part B of the problem — and there are no OTC derivatives that synthesise a number of different individual exposures from both the cash and futures market. The large global brokerage houses have the wherewithal to write such swaps and the marketing edge to grow their books to large sizes that bring economies in transaction costs and reduce the India leg to hedge only a small net position. The genie is out of the bottle and it is now a US$90-billion problem.

The SEBI initiative to put FII registrations on the fast track, and lower the bar of eligibility, attempts to partially alleviate part A of the problem. There is still a premium put on 'regulated entities' to becoming a registered FII. This work-in-process should expeditiously result in encouraging all overseas investors to register in India by following globally accepted KYC norms used by banks. Over time, a big part of the offshore market will move back to India.

Part B of the problem will only be solved by establishing and encouraging an on-shore OTC market for a wide range of synthetic products. Such products add depth and breadth to the markets. Sophisticated investors desire such products both to gain and hedge exposures. Domestic institutional and individual investors too could participate and benefit — adding size and reducing transaction costs in the local markets. Over time, the off-shore markets could well become 'also ran' entities. Of course, care needs to be taken to put in place a regulatory framework that helps monitor risk and ensure market integrity.

Restrictions on PNs could reduce liquidity and increase volatility in the transition period — till markets adjust to the new rules of the game. But Indian markets remain attractive over the long term. And no player — including hedge funds — will want to miss the party. My faith in the temple of capitalism — markets — is strong enough to be confident that a solution will be found.

Susan Thomas Assistant Professor, IGIDR, Mumbai

The furore over the PN situation has been quite remarkable. For, there has been no discernable episode of market misconduct involving PNs. Yet, the regulators have gone on to try to block PNs. Insinuations are made about terrorists. Yet, there have not been any investigations where such relationships have been found.

Most people seem to approve of SEBI's actions despite there being no clear evidence of market misconduct. The recent regulatory actions have been praised for fixing a "non-transparent" mechanism for the flow of foreign capital into India. The argument is that the source of foreign funds coming into the country is non-transparent, and the current actions are undertaken to improve the transparency of the flows.

What is interesting is to observe that the situation today has an echo from the rather recent past. In 2003, there were similar fears that arose about the "sources of funds" coming into the equity market through PNs. There is a checklist of similarities that appear between 2003 and 2007:

(a) There was an unprecedented rise in the stock market index in 2003. This was the beginning of the global recognition of the India growth story, and the start of an increased FII participation in the equity markets. In 2007, there has been a similar rise in the index level, riding on a continued India growth story, layered with capital leaving the US.

(b) In 2003, despite the fact that the FII participation was at levels of 10% of daily trading volumes, the public perception was that "foreign investors were driving the market". In 2003, there were rumours about "manipulation using foreign funds". The jargon applied to the same inflows in 2007 is different, but the anxiety attack is the same.

(c) In both 2003 and 2007, the regulatory response to dealing with evidence that the Indian equity market is an attractive destination for global funds has been to clamp down on one of the more routine paths that global finance takes to investing in offshore markets — OTC derivatives contracts on equity.

Globally, it is perfectly normal and ordinary to have exchanges and an active OTC derivatives market trading side-by-side on the same underlyings. The exchanges have rigorous regulations and transparency; OTC markets are more relaxed on disclosures and regulations. The US treasury — a paranoid agency in the world when it comes to terrorist financing — works with the situation without calling on banning either market or participation in these markets. Does the Indian market deserve special action? In 2003, most people in India had little experience with large foreign portfolio flows. Perhaps a little anxiety attack was justified at the thought of the new liquidity surging in.

By 2007, we are veterans of some of the worst episodes of volatility, both domestic and international: the May 2004 election event was a six-sigma shock through which the equity market displayed stoic systemic stability. Volatility in April 2005 and 2006, associated with global liquidity shocks, was also weathered well. By now, one would have hoped for less anxiety from the regulators.

So are SEBI's actions today truly "merely an attempt to improve transparency of foreign funds inflow"? In 2003, SEBI asked FIIs to disclose the source and the destination of the foreign funds coming in on the back of participatory notes (P-notes).

This lead to new KYC norms between brokers and clients, more transparency on the PN market. These higher levels of information have led to no new or interesting prosecutions by SEBI since they were put in place. In which case, there is little justification for a renewed attack on "increasing transparency" in the PN market. Other than being a source for higher volatility, a rationale for the SEBI action remains to be clarified.

Rashesh Shah CEO, Edelweiss Capital

As with any regulatory change in India, there is considerable discussion on (a) if it was required at all, and (b) what are the implications? On the first question, there is now a growing consensus that this was required, had to be done. The two risks of not regulating P-notes were that of non-transparency and of exporting our capital markets. P-notes also made the cost of Indian investments higher as the additional cost of 'entry' into the market had to be tagged on.

The current time is maybe as convenient or inconvenient as any for a regulatory clean up. The need for a regulatory framework for PN has been prompted by the large inflows post September. As it is, portfolio investments in India account for a much larger share of inflows as compared to FDI. When a larger part of these portfolio investments were via P-notes, something had to be put in place quickly.

So what are the implications? Will hedge funds go away? The answer is obviously a thumping no. India is too important an investment opportunity for larger funds to stay away from. Fortunately, with the simplification of the FII approval process, hedge funds will now be able to invest in India by getting FII status, using FII sub-account structure, or via P-notes within the current cap.

Most larger hedge funds have one or two entities which are regulated — so they would be able to get FII status. They can also get FII sub-account from one of the FII accounts, most likely the current P-note providers. The only category of hedge funds which will not be able to invest at all are the completely unregulated ones. Currently, hedge funds operating from UK, Singapore and Hong Kong are anyway regulated. Only the funds from US may not be regulated (as this is still not mandatory there) but we feel this will change, and most hedge funds will be regulated in their home country. This will make them eligible to invest in India.

However, this could take time. For the P-note investors wanting to switch to direct FII status or FII sub-account status, the process could take 3-6 months. So we may see reduced flows from these investors in the next 3-6 months. We do expect the market volumes to go down temporarily — while this transition from P-note investing to direct investing happens. Once the new FIIs are underway, we expect volumes to move up as direct investing is cheaper, cleaner and hence conducive to higher volumes.

This is of course dependent on simplification and early FII approvals. One potential approach could be to do away with case-by-case FII approval and move to a transparent, score-based automatic approval. (The oxymoronic term 'automatic approval' is obviously the India way of killing two birds with one stone!) Of course, SEBI could obviously terminate/cancel any approval if the investor is found to be 'unworthy' or detrimental to our markets. The interjection should be more for rejection rather than for approval. This will ease the entry for regulated foreign investors without too much paperwork. The confidence in the India system will also be enhanced and will reduce workload for the regulatory authorities.

The difficulty in getting FII approvals in the past and the wide usage of P-notes had created an inefficient and non-transparent aspect of Indian capital markets. Correcting both together is a welcome move and over the medium term will benefit the markets. And some short term pain in terms of lower trading volumes will allow the market some breathing space.

Over a period of time, P-notes will become more marginal and will die a natural death. As stated earlier, direct investing is always a much better option for both the markets and the investors as long as the regulatory framework is simpler and transparent.