As the earnings of any person increases, it becomes very important to plan the investments also carefully. In fact, with exponential earnings, investments in terms of “Life Insurance” becomes very critical. To give an example, when I had taken a Home Loan, the returns [every 4 years] of a “Cash Back Life-Insurance” policy came in very handy irrespective of the size of amount. Just like a dialogue in the movie Spider-man “With great power, comes great responsibility”, the analogue of that in insurance terms would be “More earnings means investments should be thought-off, planned & should provide good insurance cover” !!!

It becomes critical that you choose the right company, right policy that reaps the best returns…

Overview of Life-Insurance

Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of the policy owner’s death. In return, the policy owner agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium at regular intervals. From an investor’s point of view, an investment can play two roles – asset appreciation or asset protection.

The core benefit of life insurance is that the financial interests of one’s family remain protected from circumstances such as loss of income due to critical illness or death of the policyholder. Simultaneously, insurance products also have a strong inbuilt wealth creation proposition.

Benefits of Life-Insurance

Life insurance allows long term savings to be made in a relatively painless manner because of the low and convenient investments made through premiums. More investment options make your money work harder, but there are no substitutes to the life insurance. Because only a life insurance gives you both – risk cover against your life as well as returns on your money invested like a “Money Back Policy”. Amongst the most known benefits of Life Insurance is the savings on your income taxes. So, a life insurance policy is an ideal tool to gain security and ensure savings. If you require loans, say for building a house, it can be easily obtained against a life insurance policy which was there in my case !!!

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Edelweiss tokio Life – MyLife+

When it comes to Insurance, there are many options that are available to the customers, however from an investment perspective & life-cover, Edelweiss tokio Life MyLife+ insurance policy provides both the benefits.

Some of the key-features of the product are below:

  • Flexibility of payout options
  • Cover up to the age of 80 years
  • Low Cost Term Assurance Plan
  • Tax benefits for premium and claim amount
  • Comprehensive Cover Through Riders
  • Low Cost Term Assurance Plan
The minimum entry age for the policy is 18 years and the product offers two death benefit options; Lump-sum benefit option and Income benefit option. One can choose between a combination of both the options as well, depending on the family’s need, level of financial literacy & stage of life.
Some of the product details are below
The major advantage of this plan over near-similar plans offered by other companies are
  1. Choice of payout options i.e. monthly, annual or combination of both.
  2. Term period of 80 years which is highest in the industry.
The interesting part about the policy is that it offers discounts for women, as well as on choosing a high sum assured. The premium rate for 21 year old women would be equal to rate paid by 18 year old male.
The policy offers three riders to choose from : Accidental total & permanent disability rider, accidental death benefit rider and waiver of premium rider. Edelweiss Tokio Life – MyLife+ product brochure for reference can be downloaded from here
Options to Edelweiss Tokio Life – MyLife+
Given the unique set of features that MyLife+ offers, there are some options available from other insurance companies
  1. HDFC Life Click 2 Protect
  2. Aviva i-Life Term Plan
  3. ICICI Prudential Icare Term Plan

Given that the policy-holder has options to pay the insurance amount & the way that Edelweiss Tokio Life MyLife+ is tailor-made to handle different kind of customers [as mentioned above], it definitely has a winning-edge over it’s competitors !!!

If you have taken the MyLife+ policy & want to share your experience, please leave a comment…

Image Credit – Edelweiss Tokio Life – MyLife+

Selling cars was a challenge during the olden days [1900 period] until an extra-ordinary salesman & entrepreneur William Billy Durant, founder of General Motors introduced the concept of “Auto-mobile Financing”. Auto-mobile loans were not very common during that period in India & were only restricted to certain standard of society. All that has changed post the liberalization era.

Change in Indian mindset

Consumer mindset of 1980’s was that of ‘caution’. People were only interested in government paying jobs since they were secure even though many of them were low paying!!! Also, in terms of saving; buying a house was only a priority. Owing a vehicle was definitely a distant dream.

Banking sector was also impacted because of this mindset. During the 1980’s, percentage of vehicle loans were minuscule compared to the asset size of the bank.

Emergence of automobile finance

With the increase of foreign investment in India, it impacted many sectors including automobile. This not only impacted the buying capacity of the consumers but also impacted the automobile job sector. Special focus was on the passengers cars & multi-utility vehicle since it impacted the overall economic conditions of India.

Changing consumer mindset

With the changes in the overall landscape in economy & with the Privatization wave during the 1990’s; many things changed for the country. There was an increase in the “overall disposable income” of the Indians & now the consumers were less risk-averse. Now the consumers had the additional help of “loans” whether they wanted to purchase their dream home or buy a car!!!

In order to lure the growing demand of cars among consumers, banks also came up with various types of loans. This definitely helped them to manage their finances in much better way.

Some of the various categories of affordable home-loans are below:

  1. Margin Money Scheme
  2. Advanced Equated Monthly Instalment Scheme
  3. Security Deposit Scheme
  4. Hire Purchase Scheme
  5. Lease Financing Scheme

[Source – SurfIndia]

Game Changer – The internet Era

With the rise of mobile phones in India & the data-rates becoming lesser day by day, consumers made Internet the primary medium for only buying via e-commerce websites but also for securing affordable car-loans. Internet not only provided a medium for the young-trendy consumers to compare prices of cars but also helped them to get car loans at lesser interest rate.

When we talk of internet, we cannot leave behind Bangalore. If you are looking for automobile loan in Bangalore, there are plethora of options that are available with them. Also, considering the traffic situation in Bangalore, there are many people interested in buying cars since it provides them more convenience. Interest rates become very important since many terms & conditions of banks & financial institutions are cryptic, so better to have a look at the car loan interest rate in Bangalore

When it comes to car financing, we have already looked at couple of useful options that might help our readers take an intelligent step in buying their “dream car” but insurance of the car also becomes an integral part of car.

Car Insurance

Car Insurance or motor insurance covers for losses that you might incur if your car gets damaged or stolen. The premium amount of your car insurance is decided on the basis of Insured Declared Value or IDV of the vehicle.

The insurance helps to get coverage against loss/damage, theft, accident, fire & coverage against financial liability [injury/death]. Since, Bangalore is our city of focus, hence you need to properly choose car insurance in Bangalore

Conclusion

The automobile market in India is growing at a very rapid pace & with the recent “Make In India” movement, many companies are keen to setup their “manufacturing plants” in India. This is already happening & it would not only affect the country’s GDP but also prove to be a boon to the consumers & young Indians aspiring to enter the automobile industry…

Businessmen and commuters can now check their emails and deal with work issues on the go, thanks to portable computer devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Apple iPad. Those who love gadgets are also never far from playing their favorite games or accessing the internet, because the tab comes equipped with WiFi and an array of downloadable apps. Unlike mobile phones – where BlackBerry’s are intended for business, while iPhone’s are perfect for social networking and gaming uses – the tablet computers seem to incorporate both. What are the main benefits of owning a portable computer tab?

Portable computer tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the iPad, are beneficial for both business people and gadget fans alike because they offer both easy access to emails and word processing programmes, plus they are equipped for gaming and listening to music on. Busy work people can reply to emails, edit word documents or even host online calls, which makes dealing with work issues convenient and accessible at any time. Many commuters can now do some work on the train, meaning they can relax when they get home.

Alternatively, portable tablets are perfect for those who love socializing and gaming. The Wifi allows users to go online, chat to friends using instant messaging and browse their favorite websites. Users can view sites like Facebook, YouTube or even do some online shopping. Plus, the large screen makes reading online magazines, newspapers and E-books easy and clear.

With the growing penetration of internet in India, many consumers are using the tablet not only for consuming internet content but also using the Calling Tablets which is definitely an add-on while using the tablet. Users always have the option to “Auto-Sync” their content when they are connected to the internet. “Auto-Sync” not only saves the pain of manually updating the data in the central servers i.e. Gmail Server etc. but also ensures huge time-saving when there is more data to be synced.

Battery life plays a very important role since Modem would be active constantly paging to the network & when there is “Background Sync” enabled, consumption might be much more.

In addition, these tablets can keep any film fanatic or music lover occupied for hours. Recent models provide a large memory capacity, allowing films to be stored and watched at any time. Plus, the tablet can be used as an MP3 player. Music fans can either upload their music onto the device, download new tunes from the web or stream free, live music off software such as Spotify, Saavn

Do share your experience with the tablet & how you use it for your day to day use, be it personal or official 🙂

When it comes to clothing, electronics & many other segments, there are many options namely e-commerce websites, price comparison engines etc that are available. However, when it comes to buying motor-bikes, brand value plays a very important role. In a city like Bangalore, where traffic is growing at a breath-taking pace; motor bikes & bi-cycles come in very handy to beat the traffic !!!

As per one of the recent research paper on consumer behavior, consumers usually buy a bike with the intention of keeping for a long period of time; further, you can buy a new bike, since it is an industry with a well-developed secondary market. But bikes are also experience goods: you cannot ascertain every characteristic of the bike before buying the bike as far as your utility function is concerned. You can learn a lot about bikes before buying them, but you still learn a lot after driving them; in particular, you learn whether they are a good match or a bad match for you.

With fuel prices climbing higher and higher, more consumers are interested in motorcycles for their fuel economy. The size and shape of your bike will have a huge impact on its gas mileage though.

There are different kinds of consumers, here we look at the buying motivations of buying a bike

Bike_Buying_Motivations

Source : Study on Motivation factor for purchasing bikes study

Well, but there are many different kinds of consumers namely:

  1. Convenience seekerBuyers from this segment feel that bike should have good resale value, it should be very convenient to drive on rough roads and bike should be comfortable to drive even for long journey. Hence researcher names these buyers as convenience conscious buyers..
  2. Brand seekerBrand seeker buyers are those who feel that they always first look at the brand name before buying and they prefer to buy a bike whose original spares parts are easily available. These buyers named as brand conscious buyers.
  3. Liberty seekerLiberty seeker buyers feels that bike gives them sense of independence, enjoy when they drive the bike and feel proud when they drive the bike .These buyers are known as liberty conscious buyers.
  4. Quality seeker – These buyers thinks that foreign collaboration bikes are always quality products and they want to buy a good quality product even at higher price. These buyers reflected quality conscious i.e. they named quality conscious buyers.
  5. Economy seekerIn this segment, buyers want to buy cheap bike and prefer to buy bike on installment basis. Researcher named these buyers as economy conscious buyers.

Now that we know that each one of us as a consumer fall in any of the above categories, we look into couple of options for people who are searching for bikes in Bangalore

While we were searching for Honda bikes, Yamaha Bikes in Bangalore which are not only reliable but one of the biggest brands in bikes; it becomes necessary to buy it from the right partner J And yes, not to forget that it should provide mileage & the after sales-support should be good. We collate some of the options for consumers planning to buy Yamaha Bikes

Now, that you being a brand conscious customer have picked up your favorite bike, but what if there is a starter problem or any other issue in the warranty period !!! It becomes important that the “Authorized Dealer” provides best service. This is where choosing the right dealer would help.

So, if you are planning to buy Bike than compare prices online & choose the “Trusted Delaer” in your locality which would be a win-win situation.

We hope that these tips help you in buying your favorite Yamaha or Honda bikes in Bangalore. If you are any other tips, please leave them in the comments section !!!

With World-Cup & IPL fever hotting up, more & more consumers are glued on to television. It is interesting deal for companies who advertise during that time slot since the ROI would be much greater as compared to advertising during prime-time.

coupon_logoMany e-commerce companies have also joined the band-wagon of advertising on TV in order to grab more eye-balls which further helps in customer-acquisition !!! However, if you are an online shopper, just shopping from these e-commerce websites would only fetch discounts which are offered by them. But as we have mentioned in one of the earlier articles, rise of e-commerce has opened up opportunities for Last Mile logistics, Automation, Analytics, Online Coupon & Deal websites. Along with Coupon & Deal websites, massive growth has been observed in the “Price Comparison” space. Now consumers are not only interested in deals but before they purchase a product, they want to “compare prices” across different e-commerce websites. This is also gives a Human Feel to shopping 🙂

Lately, there has been an explosion of Coupon websites & as per recent analysis, it is observed that consumers mostly search for Amazon & Flipkart coupons !!! While looking out for discount for a tablet on Amazon.in, we came across some interesting Amazon India Coupons & we could buy that tablet at a much better price !!! If as a consumer, you are looking out for Vouchers which offer deals on specific categories; you can have a look at some interesting line-up of Amazon India Vouchers

As consumers, it becomes important that we shop from known e-commerce websites & at the same time, get a pie of extra discount through these deals & coupons 🙂

Image CourtesyThe Maven Of Social Media

As per one of the recent aviation report, the aviation sector contributes INR 330 billion [0.5%] to Indian GDP.

This total comprises:

  • INR 147 billion directly contributed through the output of the aviation sector [airlines, airports and ground services, aerospace]
  • INR 107 billion indirectly contributed through the aviation sector’s supply chain
  • INR 77 billion contributed through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.
  • In addition there are INR 582 billion in ‘catalytic’ benefits through tourism, which raises the overall contribution to INR 912 billion or 1.5% of GDP.

More details in the report below:

In terms of employment, aviation sector would support total 1.7 million jobs across different sectors & there would be a growing demand for engineers as well in the aviation sector. One of the issues that students normally face is shortlisting of the right colleges. Well, for a student CollegeDunia might come to your rescue !!! CollegeDunia has a wide list of colleges across different sectors & acts as a Helpful Guide for students.

If you are an aspiring engineer in the aviation space, you can have a look at top aviation colleges in India. Colleges are listed as per the rankings & reviews and for a student, this acts as a boon !!! You can use filters like “Full-Time/Part-Time Courses”, Course Duration, Degree etc.

If you are aspiring engineer in aviation space, do give CollegeDunia a spin & give Wings to your dreams !!!

Information technology has brought with it a revolution in the job sector. Though the recent stint with recession had hit this industry badly, but it is reviving fast. With the government announcing friendly schemes for entrepreneurs, along with entrepreneurship, there would be a rise in number of potential job seekers as well.

As per the recent news, Flipkart alone would create nearly 2 million jobs in 2015. As the economy bids adieu to economic slowdown, more and more opportunities are opening up for those seeking a fast career in the IT industry. Bachelor’s of Computers Application [BCA] followed by a Master’s in Business Administration [BCA] or Master’s in Computer Application [MCA] is one of the favored paths for those seeking a career in the field of Information Technology [IT].

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IT has become an integral department in almost all corporate offices and this makes having an MBA/MCA a viable choice. MCA opens gates to a wide variety of careers in the field of IT and ITES. US Bureau of Labour statistics has predicted a 68 per cent increase in output growth rate of the IT industry between 2002 and 2012. Not only in India, there is a huge demand for IT professionals throughout the world too.

With the board exams nearing an end, students would be interested to choose the right career path. MCA & BCA would definitely be on the hit list of many students. CollegeDunia, an online portal is a sort of Yellow Pages for Colleges.

Now, students can hop on to this website & get trusted informaiton on colleges of their choice. This exhaustive list provides information on the Top BCA Colleges in India. If you are looking out for MCA as a career option, you can find the list of colleges offering MCA here & if BCA is a career option, you can find the information about BCA Colleges in India. I remember when I had opted for engineering in 2001, there was not much clarity on the college to choose, course to select etc.

Now students & aspiring engineers can make use of this great choice available to them & make mature career choices. Hop on to CollegeDunia & turn your aspirations into reality !!!

Image Source – Academicarena

With the growth of online-commerce in India, there are many businesses that have been built to cater to that explosive growth. With growing demand, there have been more startups emerging in the space of Customer Support, Last Mile Delivery/Logistics, Automation [e.g. Grey Orange Robotics]. This article in Economic Times points out that e-commerce firms are the new drivers for the BPO industry & with more startups emerging in that space, this number would surely see an upward-trend !!!

The following presentation from Accel Partners gives the complete outlook on “online commerce in India”

With the growth of e-commerce & “hefty” discounts being the major driver for sales, what if the consumer gets some more discount than what the e-commerce website is already offering. Yes, We are talking about “Coupon Websites” !!! Coupon/Deal websites are “by-products” of online-commerce.

If you are looking for some great deals for gifting to your loved ones, do give Zoutons a shot !!! Since consumers buy only from trusted e-commerce websites like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon; getting additional dicsountes for products brought on those sites would definitely be an “icing on the cake” 🙂 You can have a look at the Snapdeal coupon codes & Snapdeal Coupons which might help you to save some more pennies !!!

With the increase of online frauds in India, it becomes necessary that “Shopper becomes Smart” & along with discounts also checks the authenticity of the e-commerce website. Some of the smart shopping tips are:

  1. Shop from “known” websites e.g. Flipkart, Jabong, Shopclues, High5Store etc.
  2. Ensure that “Digital Payment” happens over secure [SSL] channel
  3. Ensure “not to save” the Credit Card is not saved. Since, no matter how renowned, the website is; better to keep CC information to yourself !!!
  4. Compare prices of “existing products” on price-comparison engines
  5. Get additional discounts on products by grabbing coupons from coupon/deal websites
  6. Untrusted app stores will continue to be a major source of mobile malware. Traffic to these stores will be driven by “malvertising,” which has grown quickly on mobile platforms [Source – McAfee]

In fact, “Brick & Mortar” stores are also embracing Digital Couponing” [A market that can be explored by Couponing websites]