Andhra Bank, a public sector bank is concentrated mainly in Andhra Pradesh. The bank is in the news for having one of the lowest Non Performing Assets (NPAs). During the last 5 years, bank’s official NPA was just 0.2% of the total advances. This included even the personal loans.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has at last obtained authorization from RBI to recommence its Indian operations after 10 years. The group intends to establish its first branch in India in Mumbai within a year.

Loans against fixed deposits, loans to bank’s staff, and restructured loans, which provide borrowers with more time and have lower rates to prevent defaults, can be offered at interest rates lesser than base rate. So this means, the interest rates on the personal loans will not change.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) is thinking about establishing its 2^nd plant in Rajasthan. It plans to invest a sum of Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion) and the plant will have a capacity of manufacturing 12 lakh units per year.

After receiving a good response from its trial study in Bangalore, Citibank is intending to increase its mobile payment service to other cities of the country and abroad.

This decision was based on the results of the study conducted at Bangalore in July. The bank had commenced using mobile phones for credit card payments at retail outlets and other POS outlets.

Ashok Leyland’s new commercial vehicle unit at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, inaugurated on Friday, is believed to be its biggest production unit. Spread over 190 acres with a built up area of 2 lakh sq mt., it is also one of the complete production units in the Indian commercial vehicle sector.

The company said,” Best in class industrial architecture combined with the latest manufacturing technologies has created a truly modern facility that is also ecology sensitive as reflected in the selection of machinery and processes”.

As of now, if you have taken a home loan, the interest payments up to Rs. 1.5 lakh and up to Rs. 1 lakh towards principal repayment are eligible for tax benefit. But this is set to end once the new code comes into effect. So if you have paid Rs 3 lakhs as interest and Rs 2 lakhs as principal, you will not get any tax benefit. But if you have rented out a home, you can still avail of the tax benefits for taking the home loan.

Simply put, tax evasion occurs when any trust, individual, or firm, seeks to avoid paying taxes by illegal and unfair means, by, for example, deliberately hiding income from the tax authorities to reduce the liability of tax. People have been known to submit dishonest reports, including declaring less gains, profits, or income than what was actually earned. Other means of evading tax are smuggling, and avoiding paying out customs duty, value added tax, and income tax.

For Saurav, today was a bit unnerving. He had received a call from his cousin Abhay in Ahmedabad and for once he was unable to make a quick decision. However, a thought struck him as he reviewed his financial assets. After all, NRIs were preferred borrowers in India…

As a step towards fulfilling the year end targets, banks have taken recourse to increasing interest rates on bulk deposits instead of retail deposits.

State Bank of India (SBI) said it is losing the banking opportunities in the Middle East due to lack of regulations on Islamic banking in India. The Middle East is viewed as a major market for these products, due to high wealth in this area.

The car market is abuzz with news that Ford is ultimately available in the showrooms.The price of the petrol model of Ford’s new compact car Figo lies between Rs 3,60,000-4,50,000 and the diesel model costs from Rs 4,50,000 to5,45,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Real estate developers are holding an emergency meeting to examine the effect of the service tax on housing and will speak to the government for rollback of the Budget scheme.

BMW has introduced 2 new models in its 3 series sedan class. BMW India’s president Peter Kronschnabl introduced BMW 320d corporate version (diesel) and the BMW 330i (petrol) as the 2 new BMW 3 Series sedans.

If you file your returns after the last date, you will be charged a penal interest at the rate of 1% per month of delay. However, if such a return is filed after March 31, 2010, apart from the penal interest, you will also be liable for a penalty of Rs 5,000. Remember that having tax deducted at source if you are employed is only half the journey. You need to file your returns to complete the process. The point is to avoid hassles for you and your tax professional, so prepare to file your returns as early as possible instead of waiting for the due date to arrive.

ULIPs basically work like a mutual fund with a life cover thrown in. They invest the premium in market-linked instruments like stocks, corporate bonds and government securities. Investments in ULIPs attract tax benefits under Section 80C. The returns and the lock-in period depend on the plan chosen.

Airtel digital TV and HDFC Bank are in a tie-up to serve their common clientele. Airtel has  declared an offer for its HDFC Bank credit card holders. Under this offer HDFC credit card holders can get 15% discount on the online purchase of Airtel DTH connection. This offer lasts till 31^st March 2010.

The Reserve Bank of India is set to hike its short-term interest rates by April as a step towards coming out from the easy money era. This was stated by Deutsche bank.

Pratik Gupta, head of equities, Deutsche Bank, said “Our assessment is that the RBI will hike the repo, reverse repo rates by April”.

A cartelisation of Mumbai’s real estate, in the case of transferable development rights has hiked the prices and also led to worries amongst policy makers.

A recent development shows that mere 6 builders are in charge of 70% of the 2.5-3 million sq ft available TDR. The price of TDR has also gone up to Rs 2,500-Rs 3,000 per sq ft from Rs 800-1,000 sq ft during the last 6 months.

Eliminating pre-payment penalty on loans might encourage banks to increase interest rates on loans to pass on their load on to the customers, according to RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat.