Marriage Certificate (OT)

(This is not related to finance, still thought it is useful info)

In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court of India, made the registration of marriage a compulsory act. The Center, States and the Union Territories are directed to amend the rules within three months. Some people have not liked the idea of SC directing the government to make a law, but overall the need for the law has been felt all along.

Global conventions have always pressed for compulsory registration of marriages. The article 16 (2) of the international Convention on the Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) — to which the Indian government is a signatory — says: “...all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.”

Indian governemnt had always been reluctant to make this law. The reason being the Hindu Marriages. India being a country with diverse cultures and religions, most marriages are registered under various religious marriage acts. Under the Indian Christian Marriages Act, 1872, all marriages are entered into a church register after a wedding takes place. Registration is mandatory under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936. Muslim law, too, records a marriage in a nikahnama. And under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 — valid for all Indian citizens, irrespective of religion — every marriage is registered. But under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, a marriage does not have to be registered. Check out the section 8 of the act which does not make registration compulsory.

However certain state governments, did impose compulsory marriage registration law inorder stop the crimes committed against women and children and aimed at giving legal status to wedlock and to strengthen the institution of marriage. For example -

- The Bombay Registration of Marriages Act, 1953. This Act applies to the States of Maharashtra and Gujarat
- The Karnataka Marriages Act, 1976 in force since 1983
- The Himachal Pradesh Registration of Marriage Act, 1997
- Andhra Pradesh passed the Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act, 2002

Why you should get the marriage certificate?

-- With the new law there is no other option

-- It would be a valuable certificate where-ever you need evidence of marriage, espeically in government machinery and regarding financial

matters

-- If you are going abroad, then only this marriage certificate is accepted

-- This certificate will act as an evidence in case of any legal issues like divorse or bigamy problems

There is no such specific rule to get the marriage certificate, but following things usually apply

1) If you are married in a traditional way (i.e want a marrigae certificate after getting married), then you have to go to Marriage Registrar office of your area with wedding photos and certificate if given by any mandir/church etc. After filling the appropriate form and submitting the nominal fees, signature by both you and your spouse along with three-four withnesses should get you the certificate. You need an age proof too. Usually your High-School certificate or Passport should be enough.

2) If you are not married and want to get married in court, you need to apply and fill an application form. There is a one-month notice period for anyone else to object to the marriage. After the one month period, the above procedures apply.

3) The wedding registration is done by the same people who register property, births or deaths.

4) Getting a marriage certificate in another city than the one you got married in is a extremely tough thing, atleast now. So better go to the registrar office in the city you got married.

5) If you got married by any traditional way and want a certificate, it is usually better to visit the registrar office within three months. Otherwise the procedure is a bit complicated.

Here is the procedure in bit detail:

If you wish to have your marriage registered, you must approach the Sub-Registrar of marriages and assurances for the area. He is the same official of registration department who also registers sale deeds etc.

If you wish to register a Hindu marriage, then the following procedure must be followed:

-- The groom must be at least 21 years old and the bride must be at least 18 years old.

-- An application form must be filled out and presented to the Sub-Registrar

-- Prescribed fee for registration needs to be given

-- You must attend the Sub-Registrar's office along with your spouse and two witnesses, preferably parents of the couple.

-- You must produce evidence of marriage like wedding card, photographs etc

-- The Sub-Registrar can register the marriage within 6 months after the event.

If the marriage is to be registered after 6 months, you will have to apply to the District Registrar concerned in the application form for condonation of delay.

If you wish to register the marriage after 3 years, you will have to apply to the Inspector General of Registration for condonation of delay in the same form.

Registration at the venue of marriage:

If you wish to register the marriage at the venue, then you must apply for registration and ask for the Sub-Registrar's presence. The following fees must be paid to secure the Sub-Registrar's presence.

-- Application Fee

-- Transport charges for the Sub-Registrar

-- If the wedding is outside the Sub-Registrar's headquarter, then the daily allowance has to be paid as prescribed by government

Registration of a marriage under Special Marriages Act

A marriage can be registered under Special Marriages Act if it is not solemnized in a religious ritual. For such a marriage to be registered at the time of the wedding, you must apply at least a month in advance and fulfil the following conditions:

-- The bride must be at least 18 years of age and the groom must be at least 21 years of age. Proof of age must be furnished

-- Application with fee must be paid

-- A notice fee must be paid

-- A notice of 30 days will be given by Sub-Registrar to the public to raise objections if any. The notice will be displayed on his notice board.

-- If any one wishes to object to the marriage he must then pay an objection fee and file the objection petition stating reason

-- The Sub-Registrar will enquire into the objection and if he finds that the objection is valid, the registration application will be rejected.

-- If there is no valid objections, the marriage will be registered after 30 days

Registration of a marriage can be done under Special Marriages Act after the marriage in the same manner as a Hindu Marriage registration. However, there is a separate application, and witnesses and evidence of marriage must be produced.

So go and get the certificate quick !!

LOVE WHAT YOU DO ...

When your vocation becomes your vacation,
you'll never work another day in your life.

No one can succeed in any endeavor that they don't like.
If you don't love what you're doing, then don't do it.

Your chances of success are directly proportional
to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do.

Do something that you have a deep personal interest in.
Do something you'd enjoy spending twelve to fifteen hours a day
working at, and the rest of the time thinking about.

Don't set compensation as your goal.
Find work you like and the compensation will follow.

Work is not your punishment.
It's your reward, your strength and your pleasure.

Real success is achieved when you like what you do.
Work is love made visible.

( Got this through email, how true it is? )

Repo and Reverse Repo rates

Recently RBI hiked the repo rates and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points. This is done to keep the inflation under control. The other side effect of it is the increase in home loan rates. Currently the fixed loan rate is around 10% and the floating rate is around 8-9%, with the repo rates increasing, the interest rates will also go up. Some estimates the fixed rate to touch the 11%, while the floating rate might reach the 9-10% mark.

A repo is a repurchase agreement transaction that involves using a security as collateral for a loan. At the inception of the transaction, the dealer lends the security and borrows funds. When the transaction matures, the loan is repaid and the security is returned.

Repo rate: The rate of interest to be paid on a repo loan.

This picture is taken from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta E C O N O M I C R E V I E W Second Quarter 2002

The reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows or absorbs excess funds from banks. And the repo rate is the rate at which banks can borrow money quickly from RBI. If the repo rate is increased, it makes difficult for banks to borrow quick short-term money from RBI, thus reducing the cash-in-hand capability of banks. With less cash with banks, they would want to lend it to the people for home or car loans at higher interest rates, so that they get protected against the reduction in funds.

Also with a increased reverse repo rate, RBI becomes the best borrower and hence all the banks would want to lend the money to RBI, which again causes a shortage of liquid funds in the market. Thus repo rates and reverse repo rates have become an important monetary policy instrument for RBI.

PS: Home Loans Hike by banks

Floating rate for HDFC home loans will be 9.5 per cent as against 9 per cent earlier, while the new fixed rate will be 11 per cent from 10.5 per cent. ICICI Bank, SBI indicated that they will wait and watch before taking any call on increasing rates.

Inflation

What is Inflation? It is a monster which eats away your money. Technically speaking, it is a fall in the market value or purchasing power of money. The idea is pretty simple. I remember the time when my dad use to get a salary of Rs 250 when he started working almost 70 years ago. His family status is what we can call a lower middle class family. Now compare the salary with what a typical lower middle class family will be earning today, like Rs 10,000. So what was Rs 250 seventy years ago is now equivalent to Rs 10000 now, a 40 times increase !! This is inflation. So it is essentially a real-life value of money which keeps on reducing.

Another important term that one usually comes across is ‘purchasing power’. It refers to the amount of goods and services a given money can buy. So Rs 250 seventy years ago would be sufficient to run a small middle-class nuclear family, while the same Rs 250 at present is insufficient even for single person’s one week food. So purchasing power of money has gone down in these seventy years. Inflation is nothing but a fall in purchasing power of money.

Mutual Funds are not for ordinary people !!

I was reading an article in The Economic Times (Dated 5th July 06). It talked about why the mutual funds are not suitable for ordinary investments. The author Rajrishi Singhal convincingly talks about the various reasons why the ordinary retail investers do not get enough service for the money they put into a mutual fund. I do not agree whole-heartedly with what the author says, since despite the entry-loads and the AMC charges which a fund applies on a retail investors, he is better off with MFs than direclty investing in stock markets. Any service provider will charge the consumers for the service it provides. It is a matter of demand and supply as to whether they are levying a higher fees. If the demand for MFs is high then they can easily charge higher fees. If we have more competition among MFs for attracting the retail investors, these charges would automatically drop. In India, still a huge percentage of popluation believes in investing in the governemtn backed secure options. Another point which the author makes is the need for research in investing in MF versus the research to be done in investing in stock market. I still feel that researching about MFs involves a lot less number of parameters than stock markets. The author also does not take into account the diversity of portfolio offerred by a MF. For a same amount fo diversity to be acquired while investing directly in stocks would need a lot of expertise and cash. The only point which I could agree here is the influence of a corporate in a mutual fund. Here is the entire article. The copyright belong to respective owners.

Mutual fund a big boys’ game

It’s not wise for the ordinary retail investor to put his money into a mutual fund; he’s probably better off investing directly in the stock market, argues Rajrishi Singhal

THIS definitely is the season for all kinds of heresies, and it’s time to add a home-grown doctrine of sacrilege. So, here goes: it’s not wise for the ordinary, retail investor to put his money into a mutual fund; he’s probably better off investing directly in the stock market! Sure, this doesn’t quite square with popular belief and common sense, which exhorts retail investors — largely, salaried and middle class people, lumped by market messiahs into this one-size-fits-all category — not to invest in stock markets but restrict themselves to mutual funds. But, it’s actually one big myth perpetrated to suck out cash from unsuspecting wallets. Here’s why. Most mutual funds remain intrinsically an instrument for large corporates to park their short-term surpluses, and only provide lip service to retail investors. The industry structure too has evolved to only accommodate bulk investors — largely cash-rich corporates — rather than to improve the ordinary individual investor’s savings and investment profile. Here are four key reasons why mutual funds have ended up being antithetical to the interests of genuinely retail investors. Reason 1: The vile villain in this topsyturvy scheme is an innocuous levy called “load factor”! This is the fulcrum around which all mutual funds have spun their web of inequity. This levy essentially charges all investors who invest below a certain threshold amount an “entry load”. For example, many funds charge all investors investing below Rs 5 crore an entry load of 2.25%. Assume you have invested Rs 10,000 in a particular mutual fund, in units of Rs 10 each. But, instead of costing Rs 10 each, the units will now cost you Rs 10.225 each. So, while you should have been allotted 1,000 units, you are now been allotted only 977 units! Therefore, the fund — which was set up with the mandate to make you richer — has made you poorer even before they invested a single rupee in the market. Talk of trusting your money to a complete stranger! Reason 2: The pillage does not end there. Most managements thereafter bill the fund a “management fee” and sundry other charges to take care of all the expenses incurred by the AMC management as well as to ensure that it has a margin at year-end to keep the AMC shareholders pleased. No issues about that, since no one expects the AMC to manage a pool of money for a bunch of anonymous investors without earning a fee. The discrimination lies elsewhere. The fee is levied on the total assets under management (which is the pool of invested money), and is shared alike by both bulk as well as retail investors. But for the wholesale investor, this is the only levy. For the retail sucker, this is a double whammy, in addition to the entry load. The exploitation of the poor retail investor does not stop here. The fund might end up losing wealth for the investor (as indeed many have in the past). In such an event, the investor has to exit with a sum lower than his original investment. Guess what? There is no change in what the AMC earns, whether the fund does well or disappears down the tube. The AMC’s earnings are performance-proof. What actually counts is the size of the fund, since the fee is usually a percentage of the assets under management. Therefore, the larger the fund size, the larger is the fee in absolute terms. THIS is the root of the cancer, called “entry load”. In their pursuit to ramp up assets under management, most fund managements spend aggressively on sales, marketing and distribution. In fact, most funds have tied up with third party distribution companies, which levy a huge fee that is higher than the 2.25% entry load and eats into the AMC’s fees and the other permissible expense charges. Most fund managers estimate that after meeting the distributor’s commission and recurring expenses (such as, printing, fees to registrar and transfer agents, property rentals, various administrative expenses and salaries), they are left with 0.70-0.75%, which is lower than that allowed by law. Therefore, what matters here is the size of the kitty and hence the race to ramp up assets; no wonder mutual funds are not only fawning all over the distribution guys but are loath to do away with “entry load”. Reason 3: It is an accepted fact that cor porates have an overwhelming presence in most funds. With such a sway over funds’ fortunes, most corporate actions do cause grief to retail investors. Here’s how. When one corporate decides to redeem its units in a mutual fund, the AMC is able to take it in its stride and not much harm is caused. But, usually, most corporates decide to move out of a fund herdlike, which then has fund managers scrambling around to sell investments to raise cash to meet redemption obligations. When that happens, it automatically harms the asset value of the fund. Guess who’s left holding the can? Reason 4: This one’s not about finding faults, but just an observation. Most retail investors are advised not to invest in shares since, as they are often admonished, they have neither the expertise to pick stocks nor the time to research individual companies. But, the same problem of multitude exists even in the mutual fund landscape. There are over 700-800 schemes today, with many offering multiple choices, leading to over 1,200 net assets values being published daily. So, if you want to invest in a fund today, you would need to research over 700 schemes. Does this not require skill, expertise, time, etc? A solution could be to make rating compulsory for all mutual funds, and to publish these ratings periodically. The cancer in the mutual fund industry has eaten so deep into the system that even regulators find certain doubtful practices as acceptable. In fact, this absurd cost structure, which corrodes a retail investor’s wealth, even has the sanction of law. In the past couple of years, thanks to some vigilant media pressure, the regulators have certainly pulled the plug on some corrupt practices and imprudent accounting methods that were directly benefiting corporates and fleecing the retail investors. But the regulators need to do much more before retail investors feel really comfortable with mutual funds and stop burning their fingers in the stock market. Till then, blasphemy will continue as the ruling faith.