Retirement Regulations Almost
Through, says Union Minister Hardeep
Singh Puri 9th Anniversary. Release
Reverse Mortgage Report
Dear Moneylifers,
Greetings! Let me start by thanking all of you who participated in
our 9th Anniversary Celebrations at BSE International Convention
Hall and joined us to hear an excellent speech by Shri Hardeep Singh
Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs’, who was our chief guest
this year. Those of you who are not in Mumbai can see the event on
our YouTube channel here. But I hope you saw it on facebook live.
We are delighted at Mr Puri's formal
announcement that his ministry is all set to write
to chief ministers of various states and issues
guidelines for the regulation of Retirement
Homes. This is a big move forward to protect
senior citizens who have opted to spend the rest
of their years in retirement townships and communities. At the
moment, they are at the mercy of management and builders. Those
fortunate enough to pick the right ones are having a marvelous time,
and others stuck with bad management are discovering the horrors
of their situations.
Like all regulatory efforts, this will require time, effort and
modification to make things work, but it is a huge beginning and the
fruition of nearly three years of hard work on our part.
The Hon. Minister was also gracious enough to formally release our
study on Reverse Mortgage report that was researched by former
bankers Shriniwas Marathe and Pradeep Bhave. Reverse Mortgage is
going to be an important financial product in India in the future as
the rising population of senior citizens who, for various reasons
(including bad financial planning or wrong decisions) may be asset
rich but cash poor. A product like Reverse Mortgage, would allow
senior citizens to draw down the value of their home in the form of a
monthly payment, which supplements their income and provides
much needed liquidity.
As always, I presented a list of our activities, over the past year at the
Anniversary Event, which I would like to share with you in this
newsletter. | request you to spare a few minutes to read these edited
highlights of my presentation or you can also watch it on our
YouTube Channel where it would be published soon.
Our PIL on Bank Charges:
We had a big breakthrough with our public interest litigation at the
Supreme Court on banks gouging unfair charges from individual
borrowers, on floating rate loans. We were forced to go to the apex
court, when a long campaign about unfair bank charges and
repeated representations to RBI fell on deaf ears. RBI was ordered to
respond to us in six weeks and when it eventually did they ignored
most of our issues. They later did accept a part of our plea by
announcing that banks will have to peg their lending rates to an
external bench mark, instead of their practice of creating self-
serving internal benchmarks to cheat borrowers. The new
benchmarks is supposed to kick in by April, but banks are lobbying
hard against it. It is a hard and demoralising fight, because banks and
lobbyists always have the ear of policy makers, leading to regulatory
capture. We are not giving up and will probably have to go back to
the Supreme Court again.
Right to Information:
Our RTI Centre is going strong in its second year with support from
Mr Dinesh Thakur. A large part of the effort within RTI Centre, is led
by former Central Information Commissioner and RTI evangelist
Shailesh Gandhi. We have also benefited from workshops conducted
by other eminent RT! activists such as Anil Galgali (on civic issues)
and Sulaiman Bhimani (on real estate issues).
Vinita Deshmukh, advisor of Moneylife Foundation is also a RTI
expert and has helped spread awareness with her weekly column on
RTI and helped organise several seminars in Pune. Last year the RTI
Centre reached out to special groups such as journalists, NGOs,
students across Mumbai and Pune, and the police, especially the
Civil Defence department.
We also had a few RTI sessions with the maverick CIC Prof M
Sridhar Acharyulu at Mumbai and Pune.
Financial Literacy:
On the financial literacy front, we had two major workshops at the
Police Training Schools at Akola and Dhule. My colleague Yogesh
Sapkale and former banker Mr Abhay Datar conducted these
successfully with support from Reserve Bank's Depositor Education
and Protection Fund.
Two Special Initiatives:
We ran a campaign to provide non-cash support, largely medicine,
Kendra at Trissur and sent over 3000kgs of material to affected
people.
When we saw a heart-breaking video of Bandu Markad, destroying
his pomegranates crop because it fetched a pittance, we decide to
highlight his plight and raise funds to help him pay his water bills for
the last season and the next. People opened their hearts to him and
within a few days we raised almost Rs2.5 lakh.
Daily Clinics
You, our regular readers are already aware of the excellent work
done at our Free Daily Clinics and Helplines. Our Daily Free
Guidance Sessions continue to remain popular. On Tuesdays, Shirish
Shanbhag guides people on all realty related issues, Wednesdays we
have RTI with Shailesh Gandhi, Thursdays are for all consumer
issues with Abhay Datar and AV Shenoy and alternate working
Saturdays, are for banking, credit and loan related issues with DG
Kale.
Programmes in the New Year:
The month of January has also been busy for us as we started new
year fresh with a slew of talks, seminars and workshops. Aside from
RTI workshops with Shailesh Gandhi, we had an important talk given
by Ms Varsha Raut on the expected new charges of your Cable TV
and DTH subscription.
We also had former banker and CGM at RBI, D G Kale give a fantastic
talk on travelling abroad while on a budget. The talk was an
eyeopener for all of those who attended, with Mr Kale sharing
hidden tips and tricks that are not as apparent when considering a
trip abroad. Everything from pre-planning the trip to the sights that
one should see were covered in excruciating detail in his two hour
talk. If you could not attend this talk, you can still reap the benefits
of it by watching this video.
As always, if you are not a Mumbaikar, you can catch our events on
Eacebook live or watch them on our YouTube Channel.
You will find a list of activities and programmes conducted in
January below. Also, feel free to write to us if you have suggestions
for other future workshops or want a repeat of any of those
conducted earlier 4€* if there is a lot of interest, we will surely
arrange another session. Watch out for announcements in January
by becoming a member and getting on to our mailing list.
Planned Programmes:
February 21st: "Do's & Don'ts of Fire Safety" -Adv.
Bapoo Malcolm
Keeping in mind the recent slew of fire incidents
in Mumbai due to "short circuits" or other
electrical failures, Mr Bapoo Malcolm, practicing
Advocate Bombay High Court, will educate citizens on fire safety.
Time: Spm-7pm.
Venue: Moneylife Foundation's Knowledge Centre
Programmes Conducted
2nd January: “Understanding RTI and Filing Effective Applications"
Shailesh Gandhi conducted a RTI workshop at Moneylife
Foundation's Knowledge Centre on understanding the RTI Act and
filing effective applications.
10th January: “How much will you pay for your Cable TV & DTH" -
Varsha Raut
Veteran consumer activist Varsha Raut conducted a special seminar
for Moneylife Foundation on the new costs that a consumer will
incur with their Cable Tv & DTH subscriptions with the change in
TRAI rules. Read here,
19th January: "How to Travel on a Budget" - DG Kale
In lieu of his usual counselling session, DG Kale, retired CGM at RBI
gave a very informative talk detailing the ways in which any person
can travel abroad on a budget.
28th January: "RTI Workshop for College Students" - SIES
Graduate School of Technology, Nerul
Shailesh Gandhi conducted a special RTI workshop for college
students of SIES Graduate School of Technology in Nerul. The
session was attended by more than 150 students and faculty.
30th January: "Understanding RTI and Filing Effective
Applications" - Shailesh Gandhi
Shailesh Gandhi conducted another workshop explaining the basics
of the RTI Act, its power in promoting transparency within the
government and also how to phrase queries in the right manner in
an RTI application.
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Thank you for your support and look forward to your good wishes
always.
Best regards,
Sucheta Dalal
Founder-Trustee, Moneylife Foundation
Trustees: TS Krishnamurthy, Dr KC Chakrabarty, Walter Vieira, Sucheta Dalal,
Debashis Basu and Dr Anupam Saraph. Special Invitee: Adv Jamshed Mistry
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