Imagine that you are stuck in a place and don’t have cash, worse that you even don’t have an ATM / Debit card or even if you have, you have lost one. Then all you need is a mobile phone to withdraw cash.

ICICI Bank has launched a unique facility called smsNcash.  Under this, one can remit funds from an ICICI Bank account to a person who does not have any Bank account through the mobile channel.

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The common problems among most Indian investors is how to find out the best available FD rates among all Indian banks whether public, private or foreign. As it is virtually impossible to visit individual banks or their websites as there are over 100 of them operating in India.

Moreover, most of the financial portals does not carry a substantial information and is also not regularly updated. Even the rates given in pink financial dailies is inadequate to carry out an investment decision.

The best website which I found for comparing fixed deposit rates is ratekhoj.com The website can compare FD rates using various criteria like period, institution type, senior/non-senior/NRI and even of individual banks.

The website also carries a tool to compare rates for credit cards, home, vehicle, educational and personal loans.

The best part of the website is that it the interest rates are regularly updated and as such makes decision making easy to get the maximum interest.

ICICI BranchIn a move which would affect 15% of its total savings banks account, ICICI Bank has increased the minimum quarterly average balance required for its savings accounts from current Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 w.e.f. July 1, 2008.

The revision has been made after a long gap and according to the bank is due to rise in infrastructure costs. However, this may also be a part of the company’s change in strategic focus as it would have fulfilled its targeted customer base and would have wanted to switch to accounts with higher deposits.

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Come next year, and you may have to update all your mobile and phone directories as all mobile numbers will then have 11 digits instead of current 10 digits with ‘9′ being prefixed to all mobile numbers and thus ‘99′ will become the first two digits of every mobile number.

The above plan is another testimony to growing mobile market in India with 8 million mobile subscribers being added each month and total subscribers to soon overtake that of US subscribers becoming the second  largest mobile market in the world.

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In yet another step forward towards mobile banking, Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank have launched India’s first virtual credit card.

Anyone who has a HDFC Bank credit card and a Reliance mobile can use this service and as per current estimates, around 15 lakh people qualify under this. The card do away with the need for carrying a physical card but instead the mobile phone work as the payment instructor.

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Continuing with its tradition of being the pioneer in bringing latest service innovation, one can now locate an ICICI Bank Branch through user friendly maps being provided by mapmyindia.

Uptil now most of the bank’s websites provided addresses of the respective bank’s branch area wise by entering the State and City. This was convenient for most of the customers who were residents of that city. The difficulty arises for persons who are not aware of the directions and areas of a city.

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The once hugely popular investment option of Post Office Monthly Income Scheme has been losing its shine since February, 2006 primarily due to the removal of 10% bonus on maturity clause.

The scheme at that time was offering 8% interest payable monthly without any TDS but with rising interest rates and special deposit schemes of banks offering attractive rates, the POMIS option was turning unpopular. But w.e.f. December 8, 2007 the government has reintroduced the bonus option on maturity in the scheme but a lower rate of 5%.

With the reintroduction of bonus, the yield for a 5 year Post Office MIS has increased from 8.9% to 8.3%. Together with the bonus, the effective yield will be 8.9% as against 8.3% previously available under the scheme.

Also, the government has made 5-year Post Office Term Deposits (7.5% interest) and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (9% interest) eligible for 1-lac benefit under Section 80C.

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To take on Zee’s Indian Cricket League, the recently formed Indian Premier League (IPL) by BCCI is on the verge of attracting big money and for the first time introducing corporate flavour to Indian sports.

IPL is scheduled to start in April 2008 and there would be eight teams representing an Indian city playing 56 matches in T20 format. The floor price for each team is set at $50 million for a 10–year franchise, though this figure could reach much higher levels.

Most of the bidders are for Mumbai team followed by Delhi and Bangalore as these teams are expected to have the best Indian and foreign players under its fold.

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Indian equity investors never had it so good. After multiplying their capital, thanks to the tremendous bull run, they can now even trade in shares without paying any brokerage fees thanks to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Money.

All demat account holders of Reliance Money (owned by Reliance Capital) could trade in shares for value upto Rs.5 lakh in one year without any brokerage. Thereafter investors would have to pay Rs.500 for trading up to Rs.1 crore (for 2 months) or Rs 2,500 for Rs.6 crore (for a year).

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When it comes to filtering content on the web, China tops the chart (see Internet World Maps) - the country has extensive filters in place to automatically block content that contains "offensive" keywords like "Tibet", "Democracy" and more.

The Chinese government has also imposed tight rules for the Internet service providers in the country to ensure that ISPs monitor data exchanged by their customers and block sensitive stuff before it even reaches the government routers.

Wondering how life would be for the average Internet user in China ? Well, if the recent recommendations of our "ill-informed" politicians are approved, India could become another China.

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