Gujarat village with over Rs 1000 crore in NRI deposits

The tiny Dharmaj village in Anand district, about 70 km from Vadodara, has a population of only 11,333 but has as many as 13 banks.

For the past several decades, NRIs in this village have been depositing money in banks and post offices and the kitty today has grown to over Rs 1,000 crore, making it one of the richest villages in the country and with the highest NRI deposits.

Deputy general manager of Vadodara division of Central Bank of India, R N Hirve said that NRIs of this village prefer to park their money in banks which are mostly state-run banks and therefore the deposit in the banks have now cumulatively run into more than Rs 1,000 crore.

Rich flow of funds has made Dharmaj one of the richest and most literate villages not only in the state but across the country.

The over 3,000 Patidar families live life king size and zip past in swanky cars and almost every family in the village has a member sending in the money for several decades.

There as many as 1,700 families hailing from this village settled in Britain, around 300 families in the US, 160 in New Zealand, 200 in Canada, and 60 in Australia, among others, taking the total number of families staying abroad to around 3,120.

DIPP allows 26% cap for FII, NRI investment in insurance

The government on Wednesday released foreign investment norms for the insurance sector and clarified the four areas where such investment would be allowed while keeping the cap at 26% through the automatic route.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) issued a press note in which it allowed the foreign institutional investments (FIIs) and investments by non-resident Indians (NRIs) along with foreign direct investment (FDI) within the 26% cap prevalent in the insurance sector.

While the earlier policy only talked about the insurance sector, the new guidelines now specify four sectors where insurance related FDI can come in. These are - insurance companies, insurance brokers, third-party administrators and surveyors and loss assessors.

Finance ministry sources said that there is no change in the FDI policy for the insurance sector and this is only a clarification.

“The insurance law and the Insurance Regulator Regulations have similar caps for FDI, FII and NRI investments. This press not is only consolidating the existing policy provisions,” said Akash Gupt, executive director at PWC.

“The companies bringing in foreign investment will have to obtain necessary licence from the

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) for undertaking prescribed activities,” the note said.

Insurance brokers are entities which for remuneration arrange insurance contracts with insurers or reinsurers on behalf of their clients. As per Irda, TPAs help in facilitating health insurance on behalf of insurers. Surveyors and loss assessors provide technical services to the insurance companies.

Incidentally, the Arvind Mayaram committee had recommended composite FDI cap of 49% fro the insurance sector from the current 26% within the norms stipulated by Irda.

Source: Hindi News

From TFE News