Looking for health insurance? Use this four point checklist

One should first know his health insurance requirements and then he should find out policy coverage details.

Ramalingam K
Holistic Investment Planners

With the ever widening spectrum of health insurance options available, is it a development that will prove to be encouraging or alarming at the consumers' end? Choosing the most feasible health insurance plan can be a complex process.

In order to ensure that you get the best option out of endless choices available, always be sure about prioritizing your needs and necessities well ahead of time. Along with this, you should also figure out how each plan adds up to your benefits. Therefore, here we present the following steps that will help you sail through the decision-making process when making a plan purchase.

1. Ascertain your requirements: What do the consumers generally look for, at the time of considering a health insurance plan? A majority of decisions are based upon a single criterion that is to identify the lowest premium plans. However, insurance plans are all about getting only what you pay for. A deduction plan also looks attractive only at first, but that too turns out to be costly when unable to cover a certain test or hospital.

Thus, before starting your search, you should list out the most important things. This can include considering a particular doctor you like, or a procedure that you are considering but is optional and thought-out by a few.

2. Learn about what all is covered:

Insurance plans are largely variant from each other in terms of the services covered under them. Therefore, buying an insurance plan is never same as buying any other necessary commodity where you merely have to compare the prices.

Basically, insurance policies vary depending upon the hospitals and doctors included. Certain policies allow you to virtually choose any provider. On the contrary, other policies can be more restricted. In case you have a set of preferences for certain doctors or specialists, a research done well ahead of time to check its coverage will be greatly beneficial.

3. Be well aware of the alternatives:

If you are working for an employer that offers a health insurance, keep in mind that not always is your employer's plan the best deal.

The moment you move out of the company or retire, these insurance poilcies are not going to help you. Some companies don't cover their employees who are in their notice period.

It is better to have your own /separate health insurance for a smaller sum assured as a back-up. You will renew this every year for an increased sum assured. When you are about to retire, you can increase the corpus.

If this back-up is not there, after retirement you need to go for a separate policy. When you go for a fresh policy after retirement, insurance companies may reject or charge higer premium because of your health condition. Also there will be some waiting period for the fresh policies to get coverage for major diseases.

You can avoid all these hassles by taking a seprate halth insurace when you are hale and healthy.

4. Analyze the complete expense:

While you evaluate various options, chances are that you get carried away by the policies with least monthly premiums. However, there is a lot more to bear in mind at the time of comparing various policy prices. Let us learn about these five basic aspects. These include the monthly premium, medical service deductible, coinsurance, copayments, and the upper limit for out-of-pocket expenses.

Out-of-pocket includes everything where one has to personally pay for health related services. These factors are essential in order to grab the best possible deals. Therefore, the coverage level and the overall cost will be a determinant of what plan should one invest into.

As we reach the conclusion of this learning exercise on how to choose the right health insurance plan, always remember that plans offering the best value should be worth considering in order to make a wise decision.

The author is Ramalingam K, CFP CM is the Chief Financial Planner at holisticinvestment.in, a Financial Planning and Wealth Management company.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

EU lays groundwork to file antitrust charges against Google

The European Commission is asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some of the information they submitted confidentially, the Journal said, citing several people familiar with the requests.

Europe's competition regulator is preparing the groundwork to file charges against Google Inc in the antitrust investigation over the next few weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The European Commission is asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some of the information they submitted confidentially, the Journal said, citing several people familiar with the requests.

Antitrust experts said the requests were a strong indication that formal antitrust charges were being prepared in the case, the Journal said.

Google was not immediately available to comment.

The US search giant has been engaged in a five-year-old antitrust investigation with the European Union that has stalled multiple times and caused a political uproar.

While European Union lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a motion in November urging anti-trust regulators to break up Google, the US Mission to the European Union had suggested that politicians should not influence the inquiry.

A panel of experts appointed by Google to advise it on how to implement EU's "right to be forgotten" ruling, had suggested in February that the links be removed only from websites in Europe.

European privacy regulators, however, want Internet search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing to scrub results globally, not just in Europe.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

India's IT plans suffer from power, congestion and monkeys

As India launches an USD 18 billion plan to spread the information revolution to its provinces, the problems it faces are a holdover from the past - electricity shortages, badly planned, jam-packed cities, and monkeys.

The clash between the old world and the new is sharply in focus in the crowded 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanasi, where many devout Hindus come to die in the belief that doing so will give them salvation.

Varanasi is also home to hundreds of macaque monkeys that live in its temples and are fed and venerated by devotees.

But the monkeys also feast on the fibre-optic cables that are strung along the banks of the Ganges river.

"We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires," said communications engineer A.P. Srivastava.

Srivastava, who oversees the expansion of new connections in the local district, said his team had to replace the riverside cables when the monkeys chewed them up less than two months after they were installed.

He said his team is now looking for alternatives, but there are few to be found. The city of over 2 million people is impossibly crowded and laying underground cable is out of the question. Chasing away or trapping the monkeys will outrage residents and temple-goers.

Varanasi is part of the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist leader who came to power last May.

A shortage of electricity is further complicating efforts to set up stable Wi-Fi in public places - daily power cuts can last for hours during the sweltering summer in Varanasi and across much of India.

Modi's government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India's 250,000 village clusters within three years, build 100 new "Smart Cities" by 2020 and shift more public services like education and health to electronic platforms to improve access and accountability.

Varanasi was the first of an eventual 2,500 locations singled out for street-level Wi-Fi.

Industry experts predict that the broadband initiative, along with a surge in smartphone ownership, will mean about a third of Indians will have access to the internet by 2017, from about 20 percent, or 250 million people, now.

Expanding internet connectivity and making access cheaper could add up to 1.6 percentage points, or about USD 70 billion, to India's GDP over a four-year period, consultants at McKinsey have estimated.

GLOBAL INTEREST

Global technology companies see opportunity in Modi's commitment to a digital future and are adapting their products to India's varied climates and external threats.

IBM is in discussions to provide software to help several cities make the leap into the digital age.

Network provider Cisco Systems is working with the government in the eastern city of Visakhapatnam to bring more education and healthcare services online, and has developed a "ruggedised" Wi-Fi box to survive India's varied climates and cut down on the need for cables that will be at the mercy of the elements - or monkeys.

"We've built outdoor Wi-Fi-access routers specifically keeping in mind Indian environmental conditions," Dinesh Malkani, Cisco's India country head, said in an interview.

"You cannot predict what challenges you are going to come up against."

Bringing some order to India's chaotic cities with technology is a daunting task.

India's urban population is forecast to swell by an additional 220 million to 600 million by 2031, potentially overwhelming already inadequate infrastructure.

Many of the new digital projects are simply aimed at improving existing civic amenities: time traffic information to help people better plan their journey, or systems that allow individuals to monitor water leakages or waste management and then inform local authorities.

Vinod Kumar Tripathi, an urban planning expert in Varanasi, said Modi's initiatives needed to be coupled with huge investments in improving basic services like housing, roads and waste management.

"Everything here is old, outdated and the population pressure just makes it worse. This place was a small temple town and is now a commercial centre," Tripathi said in his office overlooking the Banaras Hindu University.

The free Wi-Fi service that started in February is certainly stimulating the consumer economy. Boatman Sandeep Majhi makes a living ferrying pilgrims and bereaved families who scatter ashes in the river after performing cremations.

He recently purchased his first smartphone to download music and exchange videos with friends, and promote his boat business to tourists on Facebook.

But he said the government needed to pay equal attention to the municipal services in a city where cars, rickshaws and carts fight for space through narrow, potholed roads lined with litter. Varanasi remains dependent on a 500-year-old, leaky drainage system for its sewage.

"Free Wi-Fi is a good facility for tourists but I think the officials should think about cleaning the ghats," said the 20-year-old, referring to the steps down to the river, which are often caked with cow dung.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

SREI Equipment`s Rs 500cr NCD issue to open on April 09

A non-banking financing company, SREI Equipment Finance is going to open its Rs 500 crore public issue of secured, redeemable non-convertible debentures of a face value of Rs 1,000/- each on April 09.

SREI Equipment Finance has come out with its public issue of secured, redeemable non-convertible debentures of a face value of Rs 1,000/- each, aggregating upto Rs 250 crore with an option to retain over-subscription upto Rs 250 crore aggregating to a total of upto Rs 500 crore.

The issue is going to open for subscription on April 09, which has scheduled to close on April 30, 2015.

The funds raised thorough the issue will be utilise for the purpose of lending/ repayment of loan - minimum 75% of the net proceeds of the issue, for general corporate purposes – up to 25% of the net proceeds of the issue.

The NCD issue have been rated "CARE AA" by Credit Analysis & Research Limited ("CARE") and "BWR AA" (Outlook Stable) by Brickwork Ratings India Private Limited.

The NCDs offered through the draft prospectus are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.

SREI Equipment Finance is one of the leading non-banking financing company in the organized equipment financing sector in India with a principal focus on financing infrastructure equipment. The company provides financial products and services to companies operating in the construction, mining, technology and solutions, healthcare, ports and railways, oil and gas, agriculture and transportation sectors. Company's financial products and services comprise loans, leases, rentals and fee-based services.

Edelweiss Financial Services Limited and Srei Capital Markets Limited will be the book running lead managers to the issue. However, Karvy Computershare Private Limited will be the registrar to the issue.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

General Motors' sales fall 35.5% to 4,257 units in March

This, coupled with the economic slowdown, continues to hold the industry performance in the red and a possible turnaround is still not expected in the coming months, he added.

General Motors India on Wednesday reported 35.5 percent decline in sales at 4,257 units in March as against 6,601 units in the same month last year.

Commenting on the performance, General Motors India Vice President P Balendran said: "Despite the marginal reductions in repo rates earlier this year, the green shoots are still not visible in the economy as we haven't really seen the banks passing on the reductions entirely to consumers".

This, coupled with the economic slowdown, continues to hold the industry performance in the red and a possible turnaround is still not expected in the coming months, he added.

"We hope that interest rates will get reduced in phases going forward and the government will take some decisive steps to improve the consumer sentiment so that there is some uptick seen towards the festive season," Balendran said. 

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

BHEL commissions second 800 MW boiler at Krishnapatnam

BHEL's scope of work in the project envisaged is expected to comprise manufacturing, supplying, erecting, testing and commissioning of the boilers and associated auxiliaries.

State-run power equipment maker BHEL  has commissioned a second 800 MW boiler at Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Plant (SDSTPP) at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

"This is the second 800 MW rating indigenous boiler to be commissioned in the country. The first 800 MW boiler was commissioned earlier by BHEL at the same project, last year," BHEL said in a statement on Wednesday.

BHEL's scope of work in the project envisaged is expected to comprise manufacturing, supplying, erecting, testing and commissioning of the boilers and associated auxiliaries.

The key equipment for the project, has been manufactured by BHEL at its Trichy, Hyderabad, Ranipet and Bengaluru plants, construction of which was undertaken by the company's Power Sector - Southern Region. Shares of BHEL were trading at Rs 232.40, down 1.09 percent on the BSE. 

BHEL stock price

On April 01, 2015, Bharat Heavy Electricals closed at Rs 231.80, down Rs 3.15, or 1.34 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 299.50 and the 52-week low was Rs 173.00.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 9.71 per share as per the quarter ended December 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 23.87. The latest book value of the company is Rs 135.02 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 1.72.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

Check out: Investment ideas by market experts

Watch the interview of Mayuresh Joshi of Angel Broking to answer all your stock queries and Kalpesh Ashar of Full Circle Financial Planners & Advisors is answer our few personal finance queries.

Watch the interview of Mayuresh Joshi of Angel Broking to answer all your stock queries and Kalpesh Ashar of Full Circle Financial Planners & Advisors is answer our few personal finance queries.

Below is the verbatim transcript of Mayuresh Joshi's interview with CNBC-TV18:

Reliance Infra

If you look at the numbers that Reliance Infra has been posting across its different segments that it basically operate out on I think the EPC segment has been a big drag on consolidate earnings. Order book probably stands at Rs 5,700 crore odd and probability of that order book increasing meaningfully seems a little bleak at least over the next 1-2 quarters. At their cement division the capacity expansion that the company is looking at from 5.8 mtp to at round 10mtp will the commissioning happening in Maharashtra I think the utilisation levels are still very low. If one probably assumes that the cement demand probably will grow at the much faster pace, Reliance Infra cement business can start contributing but even that will take time because they will be reporting losses so far. When it probably comes to their roads part, few of their roads have been operational. Again I think not meaningful in terms of EBITDA addition probably from the road segment itself. So what has stood out is that their electricity business was probably inline. All the other segments should probably work in tandem as well. So in our opinion even the current acquisition that Reliance Infra is probably gone out with, the interest cost on consolidated basis is still a little bit too high for Reliance Infra. I do not think that the stock might give meaningful returns from a year perspective. So from year perspective or an 18 months perspective  Larsen & Toubro (L&T) could become one of our barometers for playing the India infra story. Though L&T has also disappointed in terms of numbers but once the capex cycle revives over the next couple of quarters, L&T will be a key beneficiary. So our take is that L&T probably looks like a much better profit after tax (PAT) over the next 12-18 months. We remain optimistic on L&T on declines.

Sun Pharma

After the merger with  Ranbaxy probably all the synergy's will perk in favour of Sun Pharma. So to put a few statistic in place clearly in terms of their footprints they will get spread across 65 countries; the kind of the ANDA applications that the entire entity might have is closed to 600 odd applications and clearly it will fall in the top 5 generic firm's in the world. The domestic formulations business or domestic business for Sun Pharma will now contribute around 9.5 percent that will become the largest entity operating out of the Indian markets followed only EBIT at around 6.5 percent. All the parameters in terms of the numbers are working in favour of Sun Pharma and even if you look at valuations the EBITDA margins expected from consolidated entities at around 31.3 percent is still much higher than its peer group comparison. Even if I look at their return on equities (ROE's), the ROEs are expected to decompress on a consolidated basis to around 27.5 percent odd. Even that is better than a lot of the peers within the pharma space in India. So clearly the kind of turnaround that Sun Pharma has already done with a lot of its earlier acquisitions URL and DUSA that will hold it in good stared. Again the kind of niche product launches and the niche product offering that it is got via all its entities even that will probably hold the kind of earnings momentum that one probably expects from Sun Pharma to deliver. The expectations are high but again we remain very optimistic on Sum Pharma. We expect the topline to probably go around 25 percent odd over the next couple of years and the earnings per share (EPS) should show significant amount of traction as well. So hold on to the stock and remain extremely optimistic on the stock target of Rs 1,175 over the next 12months.

Punjab National Bank

The asset quality issues are haunting a lot of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks' balance sheets and Punjab National Bank is not an exception if I look at the slippages in the quarter gone by at around Rs 5,500 crore odd, they were much higher than what the street was probably expecting. What that probably resulted into is the net interest income grew at a much tepid pace and the net interest margins (NIMs) just got compressed on both counts probably the credit growth was not up to the mark which was the generate cite that the banking industry is going through and the only part that came as a respite was that there was some amount of trading gains that probably came through and the unrealised portion of the M2M gains helped the non-interest component. All the other parameters remain healthy for PNB, the CASA ratio remains strong at 39.4 percent, they successfully managed to get down their cost income ratios and though the management commentary indicating that the next two quarters will be little bit tough when it comes to asset quality and asset restructuring considering the outstanding restructured book as well which has major component of the state electricity boards contributing to the downfall but a general recovery in the infrastructure sector, steel sector where majority part of their lending is and the structural rate cuts by the RBI should hold the stock in good stead. The stock might react or correct if the results are a bit worse or off. So hold on to the stock. Our target price remains at Rs 201 over the next 12-18 months.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

Buy Sun Pharma on dips: Sudarshan Sukhani

Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com recommends buying Sun Pharma on dips.

Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com told CNBC-TV18, "We keep on buying Sun Pharma  on consolidations and dips. There will come a time sometime during this year when Sun Pharma will pause and relax. However, I think pharma is going to be the IT of this bull market."

On Wednesday, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries closed at Rs 1,078.55, up Rs 56.30, or 5.51 percent. It has touched a 52-week high of Rs 1,090.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks that were buzzing in trade today

CNBC-TV18s Mangalam Maloo lists some of the key stocks which were buzzing in trade today.

CNBC-TV18s Mangalam Maloo lists some of the key stocks which were buzzing in trade today.

18.01 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hold ITC, may touch Rs 375-380: Sharmila Joshi

According to Sharmila Joshi of sharmilajoshi.com, one may hold ITC as the stock may move to Rs 375-380 in the long term.

Sharmila Joshi of sharmilajoshi.com told CNBC-TV18, "There doesn't seem to be any real good news for  ITC and we have had another duty hike in this budget and the company has said that they will pass it on to users but somewhere the results indicated that the elasticity in passing on prices has come down. So you will see numbers for cigarette sales coming down."

"I think the good news is that somewhere along the line, the company had begun to diversify away from cigarette not exactly away but getting into other businesses where you wouldn't be hit by these constant duty hikes the way cigarette business is. So they have increasingly gotten into food, they are in other businesses, they have a hotel, they have an agri business, they have paper and company's strategy to focus on food business going ahead is also -- they have spoken about that very widely in the press in last couple of months, so you have to give time," she added.

"One should stay invested. My target on the stock would be closer to Rs 375-380 but you need to wait for this entire food business story to play out for that to increasingly contribute to the topline as well as the bottomline," she said.

18.00 | 0 komentar | Read More