That’s where Pension Plans come in. These plans leverage the power of ‘compounding’ through your ‘working’ years to generate a large corpus which then generate healthy monthly returns so as to preserve your lifestyle.

So let’s say you want to ensure that you get Rs 25,000 per month once you retire as pension. That means you get Rs 3 lakh a year. Assuming an annual return of, say 7 percent, you’ll need a corpus of Rs 45 lakh to generate the said amount.

Pension Plans are for SECURING your future and not for making you RICH QUICKLY.

Now, to save Rs 45 lakh over lets say 15 years, you need to save Rs 12,500 per month only. That’s what we mean by power of compounding—small sums accumulated over long period with moderate compound interest can produce very large sums.

The rate of return depends on where your pension fund invests money. Equities—stock markets—generate higher returns but come with risk. Debt is relatively risk-free but generates lower returns. Many Pension Plans offer to use a mix of these two and some even allow you to change allocation mid way.

So if you start with a 60:40 equity/debt mix, you can switch to a 70:30 equity/debt mix if you see the markets moving up. It’s generally not advisable to raise the equity component too high because Pension Plans are for SECURING your future and not for making you RICH QUICKLY.

Now that you know a bit about Pension Plans, what are your options on the market? There are plenty you can choose from. We pick a few plans, one of which we believe, should do the job for you.

Aviva Freedom Life Advantage pension plan

The money you put in this pension plan is invested in a combination of debt and equity. Aviva claims the fund will generate a post-tax yield of 8.05%. So if you were to invest Rs 25,000 per annum for 15 years, you should end up with Rs 7.3 lakh. Download the brochure for this pension plan from Aviva (PDF)

1.

Key Characteristics of Aviva Freedom Life Advantage pension plan

Benefits

•    Death Benefit – In case of the unfortunate demise of the life insured during the tenure of the policy, the nominee will receive the Base Sum Assured or Fund Value (whichever is higher) if the premiums have been paid.

An Accidental death cover, capped at Rs 50 lakh, is also payable if the age of the Life Insured is between 18 to 60 years (based on his most decent birthday) at the time of death and the death occurs due to an accident.

•    Maturity Benefit – On survival till the maturity date, the insured person will receive the Fund Value subject to the payment of regular premiums, top-up premiums and loyalty addition, if any, as on the maturity date.

•    Loyalty Addition Benefit – The insured person gets fund value related loyalty additions through various policy years, as shown in the following table. To get Loyalty additions, you must have paid all the due premiums regularly.

Partial Withdrawal

Aviva allows you to partially withdraw money from the Fund Value pertaining to regular premiums after completion of first 5 policy years. Similarly, one can redeem his Fund Value pertaining to top–up premiums  after 5 years from the date of payment of each top–up premium. And in both these cases, the insured person must be aged more than 18 years (as on last birthday).

Complete Withdrawal

While the Aviva Freedom Life Advantage pension plan has a lock-in period of 5 years, the policy owner is given the flexibility of withdrawing his money completely at any time after the commencement of the policy. However, remember that if you withdraw during the first 5 years, then the company will deduct an applicable discontinuance charge and return the remainder.

Riders – For the uninitiated, riders are additional components of an insurance policy that extend or restrict the benefits which are otherwise payable, thus providing you with the flexibility to alter the scope of the original plan.

The Aviva Freedom Life Advantage pension plan offers 2 specially designed riders-Aviva Dread Disease Rider and Aviva Term Plus Rider-which one may choose to optimize his protection cover.

The riders can be opted for only during the time of commencement of the policy. The insured individual is allowed to withdraw any rider by submitting a written notice at least 15 days prior to the policy anniversary. Once withdrawn, the rider lapses permanently – with no option for renewal.

As far as joint life policies are concerned, riders if opted are applicable for both the lives insured, each of whom shall be entitled to the rider benefits independently. The table below outlines the coverage term of each rider:

Aviva Dread Disease Rider – If this rider is opted for, then the rider Sum Assured shall be paid immediately if the insured person suffers from Permanent Total Disability due to illness or accident or contracts any of the specified 18 Critical Illnesses. Plus, the pension plan will continue without this rider.

The critical illnesses covered under the DD rider are: Heart Attack, Major organ transplant, Coronary artery bypass surgery, Stroke, Cancer, Benign brain tumour, Deafness, End stage kidney failure, Blindness, Aorta Graft Surgery, Motor Neurone Disease, Heart Valve Surgery, Paraplegia, Multiple Sclerosis, Coma, End stage liver disease, End stage lung disease and Aplastic Anaemia.

For all the policies issued by Aviva with this rider or any other critical illness rider, the minimum Sum Assured allowed is Rs 2,00,000-with the upper limit set at Rs. 50,00,000.

Aviva Term Plus Rider – This rider pays Aviva Term Plus rider Sum Assured in addition to the death benefit payable under the policy. The minimum Sum Assured allowed under this rider is Rs. 50,000 and the maximum can be up to the base Sum Assured, subject to underwriting.

LIC Pension Plus Plan

The money you put in this plan is invested in a combination of Government/Government Guaranteed Securities, Corporate Debt, Money Market Instruments and Listed Equity Shares.

LIC claims the fund generates a post-tax yield of 8.46%. So if you were to invest Rs 25,000 per annum for 15 years, you should end up with Rs 7.6 lakh. You can find out more about this pension plan from LIC on the company website.

Key Characteristics of LIC Pension Plus Plan

Benefits

A) Death Benefit:

The Policyholder’s Fund Value shall be payable either in a lump sum or as an annuity (think of it as annual interest income), as desired by the nominee.

So you can get one lump sum amount or the fund will manage your money and give you monthly/quarterly/annual payouts.

The amount of annuity payouts will be conditional upon the payable lump sum and the then prevailing immediate annuity rates (as set by the markets regulator, IRDA) under the annuity option opted for.

B) Benefit on Vesting:

In the event of the policyholder surviving to the date of vesting, LIC will use the higher of his Fund Value and Guaranteed Maturity Proceeds to provide an annuity based on the then prevailing immediate annuity rates under the relevant annuity option.

However, you are provided an option to commute (withdraw) as much as 33% of the Benefit to be paid as a lump sum. The remainder is then used to provide annuity. Moreover, one is free to buy the  annuity from LIC or other life insurer.

Other salient points

Partial Withdrawal –Not Allowed.
Complete Withdrawal – Anytime after the commencement of the policy.
Riders – No such provision

Limitations

The LIC Pension Plus Plan does  not provide any life cover.

Tata-AIG Mahalife Gold Plan

The money you put in this pension plan is invested in a combination of debt and equity. The fund claims it generates a post-tax yield of 8.25%. So if you were to invest Rs 25,000 per annum for 15 years, you should end up with Rs 30.9 lakh! But there is a catch here—the amount assumes an unrealistic maturity period of 100 years. Download a brochure for this pension plan (PDF)

Benefits

If you subscribe to this policy for your child, then you have to pay premium for 15 years after which the child will get a guaranteed annual income, as well as coverage for his/her entire life.

The good bit is that Annual Cash Dividends get paid out from the 6th policy anniversary onwards and Guaranteed Annual cash payment of 5% of Sum Assured from 10th policy year onwards. So there is some payout that begins from 6th Year onwards, which is useful. More useful for your child than for yourself.

Limitations

The Tata-AIG Mahalife Gold Plan has an unrealistic Maturity Age of 100 years, making this policy more of a Whole-life Plan rather than a pension plan.

ICICI Prudential Life Stage Wealth II Plan

Key Characteristics of this pension plan

Benefits

Maturity Benefit – At maturity, the Fund Value including the Top up Fund Value, if any, shall be payable. Alternatively, one has the option of going in for the Settlement Option.

Death Benefit-   In the unfortunate event of death of the life assured during the tenure of the policy, the nominee shall be entitled to the Sum Assured plus Fund Value-including Top up Fund Value, if any-subject to minimum death benefit. To find out more about this pension plan, download a brochure

Multiple portfolio strategies – ICICI allows policyholders to select a customised portfolio strategy from several types of investment portfolios (equity and debt).

Flexible premium payment – One can either pay premium throughout the policy term, or for a limited period.

Top-up facility – On top of the regular premiums, you get an option to invest surplus money into this pension plan.

Loyalty additions – Starting from the end of the 10th policy year, subject to the insured having paid all his premiums, a loyalty addition shall be allocated at the end of every policy year.

This Loyalty Addition will be calculated as a proportion of the average of Fund Values on the last day of eight policy quarters preceding the said allocation. ICICI will make the Loyalty Additions by allocating additional units at the end of the year.

An illustrative example with a 20-year policy term is shown below.

Tax Benefits – On premiums paid and benefits received as per prevailing tax laws.

Partial Withdrawal – Allowed after the completion of 5 policy years.

Limitations – You can’t increase the policy premium under this plan. Also, one can’t take any policy loan against this policy.

SBI Life Unit Plus Super Plan

Key Characteristics of the SBI Life Unit Plus Super pension plan

Benefits

Maturity Benefit –

•    The Fund Value shall be paid as a lump sum, if the Life Assured survives up to Maturity.

•    Alternatively, the Maturity Benefit can be availed in installments under ‘Settlement’ option, which helps you to get periodic tranches of your Maturity proceeds within five years from the Date of Maturity.

During the settlement period, the Fund Value will remain invested in the existing Funds as per the prior allocation. SBI Life won’t levy any other charges except Fund Management Charges & Switching Charge, as applicable.

However, Partial Withdrawals are not allowed during this period. At any point of time, if you ask for payment of remaining Fund Value the same will be paid immediately. In case of death before the end of the settlement period, the company will pay the remaining Fund Value immediately as a lump sum to the nominee/beneficiary (e.g. legal heir).

Life Cover Benefit – Higher of the Sum Assured or Fund Value is payable; with a minimum of 105% of aggregate basic premiums paid till the time of death. Sum Assured and amount equal to 105% of total basic premiums paid till the time of death will be reduced to the extent of Partial Withdrawals made in the final 24 months for age on death below 60 years and for age at death 60 years & above all withdrawals made from 58 years onwards.

For Regular and Limited Premium Paying Term (LPPT) plans, SBI Life levies  no Policy Administration fees for first 5 years, thus enhancing your Fund Value. You can download the brochure for the SBI Life Unit Plus pension plan from the SBI site. (PDF)

No Premium Allocation Charge from 11th year onwards.

Tax Benefit – As per prevailing Tax Laws

Partial Withdrawal – One can partially redeem his money from the 6th Policy Year onwards or on attainment of age 18 by the Life Assured, whichever is later.

Complete Withdrawal – Anytime after the commencement of the plan.

Riders – At the time of commencement of the policy, the policyholder has an option of availing one or more of the following riders:

Limitations – Number of charges to avail various policy benefits

The group had received the licence to start the new television channel about 6 months ago.

Raj Television Network already operates a bunch of channels focusing on news, general entertainment and music in different South Indian languages.

According to Amit Bose, vice-president (programming) of Raj Television Network, the organisation recently began the dry run of Raj Parivaar by telecasting songs from Hindi movies. The dry run will continue for another two months before Raj Parivaar starts functioning.

The management is also in the process of planning the content and distribution of the new Hindi-language channel, Amit Bose said. The focus of the new TV channel, he explained, will be on giving the viewers “soothing programmes” – or, in other words, “mellowed” and “light” programmes.

Raj Parivaar, Amit Bose added, will operate from Mumbai. The management has not so far made any appointments to the new channel’s key positions.

To start with, Raj Parivaar will be a free-to-air channel, but it may later turn into a pay channel.

Usually, a new general entertainment channel in Hindi would require Rs 3 crore-Rs 5 crore a month, according to Amit Bose.

In addition to Raj Parivaar, the Raj Television Network is planning to start news and music channels in Malayalam and Telugu, as well as a news channel in Kannada, Amit Bose disclosed.

At present, Raj Television Network operates a general entertainment channel in Telugu, called Vissa TV, as also a music channel in Kannada named Raj Musix Kannada.

Raj Television Network had recently entered the field of movie distribution by buying a Tamil-language movie, apart from venturing into production of movies and has produced a few films.

At present, Raj Television Network, having a total revenue of Rs 59 crore, operates 6 television channels – Raj TV, Raj News, Raj Digital Plus, and Raj Musix (all Tamil channels); Raj Musix (Kannada); and the general entertainment channel Vissa (Telugu).

Earlier in January 2010, Raj Television Network had revamped its prime-time programmes on Raj TV, its flagship channel.

According to her, smooth transportation of sportspersons to various sporting venues or stadia will be the most important aspect of the traffic plan for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Delhi in October 2010.

The Chief Minister told reporters on the sidelines of a symposium on public transport, held in New Delhi, that a traffic plan for the Commonwealth Games is being worked out by the Delhi police. Since Delhi has the advantage of being round, there are a number of alternative routes available, she said.

According to R K Verma, Transport Commissioner of Delhi, the transport system is being bettered gradually. Before the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will run 10,000 buses. There will be more Metro lines, R K Verma said, adding that the government hopes that more people will shift from using cars to using public transport. The focus of the traffic improvement will be on the effective use of the existing space and its potential.

In another important development regarding improving the traffic system for the Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi police are likely to introduce soon the “e-payment’ of traffic challans. This means that a traffic violator can punch his credit card or debit card number on the website www.delhitrafficpolice.nic.in

The system – named ‘e-challaning’ – is said to be based on the method adopted by the traffic police of Bangalore. In Bangalore, a traffic violator can pay online to a notice, by just typing in the notice number, the registration number of the vehicle and give his email address, along with the details of his credit card or debit card.

Ajay Chadha, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Delhi, said that, in the e-challaning method, notices will be linked to the central system.

Besides, it has been proposed to provide police officers on beat duty on Delhi roads with Blackberry mobile phones, which will help them keep a tab on habitual traffic offenders.

The Delhi traffic police have already begun the process of selecting the company best suited for implementing the e-challaning system.

Ajay Chadha said that, in order to familiarise the public with the traffic circulation system for the Commonwealth Games, the traffic police will barricade and restrict movement of traffic on certain roads. The trial runs, which are likely to start in the middle of February 2010, will continue till the Commonwealth Games starts.

The first trial is expected to be held on the route that the athletes will take from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to reach the Games Village, located in East Delhi.

According to sources, the Delhi traffic police could conduct the trials during the hockey World Cup – to be held from February 28, 2010, to March 13, 2010 – on the route that the hockey teams will take to reach Dhyan Chand Stadium, near India Gate, from Le Meridian Hotel. This plan be will be later implemented in the stretch between the Games Village and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which is the venue for the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, as well as other sporting venues.

It’s not new. Our business media is routinely taken for a ride by corrupt businessmen and their PR hatchetmen. However, this case is a class apart.

On December 21, Business Standard carried a news report, which was faithfully “followed up” by other business newspapers in Mumbai and the rest of the country. The report centred around a certain letter, purportedly written by markets regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India). The letter was addressed to Pyramid Saimira, a Chennai-based theatre chain. The letter asked the promoters of the company to make an “open offer” to the shareholders of the company.

As per rules, anyone buying more than 5% stake in a company within a year is expected to make an open offer to its ordinary shareholders, offering to buy shares (upto 20% of the total outstanding shares of the company) at the same price. It seemed, from the letter, that the promoters did not make the open offer, and hence violated Sebi’s Takeover code.

At the time of the news reports coming out, the Pyramid Saimira shares were trading at Rs 60. If the Sebi letter and the news reports were true, the promoters would have been forced to make an open offer at Rs 250. “Share at Rs 75. Open offer Rs 250,” screamed the headline in DNA Money. With reports chorusing the impending offer at Rs 250, the shares of the company shot up.

Pyramid Saimira admitted to receiving a couriered letter from Sebi and confirmed the news. It seemed everything was in order.

However, a couple of days later, Sebi clarified that it had never sent any such letter. And Pyramid Saimira too woke up to realise that the “Sebi” letter was forged. By this time, the share price had gone up to Rs 83 from the previous Rs 60s. And as the price went up, someone  – later revealed to be Nirmal Kotecha, a company co-promoter – heavily sold his shares. And exited at a profit before the stock came crashing when it came to light that the reports were fake and there was no Sebi letter and hence no open offer at a high price either.

Where did the media get this fake letter from? Business Standard said in a front page mea culpa that it got the letter from one Ashok Jainani of Khandwala Securities. Let’s not forget that news media never reveal their sources, whether the reports are right or wrong. (in BS words: Like other media organisations, Business Standard was duped by a forgery. We apologise to all our readers, to Sebi and to Pyramid Saimira) Rather than admitting to the failure of their own fact-checking mechanisms, the report sought to pass the blame to an analyst. Other media outlets had received the letter from one Rakesh Sharma, a PR agent. Lets also not forget that business media routinely eat of the hands of the PR industry.

The police have since arrested PR guy Rakesh Sharma, and questioned Nirmal Kotecha who sold his shares when the stock had gone up. Investigations are on, but there is still no clarity on who forged the letter, who transmitted it among the media and how our venerable business media gleefully swallowed the letter without even a simple fact-checking with the corporate finance department of the market regulator Sebi.

The three-year engagement between Mercator and Infosys is expected to allow Mercator’s parent company Emirates to enhance its IT environment in order to accommodate increasing demand. Infosys was selected for its custom application development expertise and its ability to deliver a quality service on time.

Mercator is a global provider of business technology solutions, including financial management, cargo and logistics, passenger and airport solutions, IT consulting and systems integration, delivering business services to more than 100 customers in five continents. From its Dubai base, Mercator assists the Emirates Group to meet the increasing demands of a growing business environment. Through this engagement with Infosys, Mercator aims to improve time-to-market of new offerings and reduce risk to its customers’ business through enhanced knowledge management processes and productivity gains, a source said.

According to Patrick Naef, President, Mercator, “Emirates Group and Mercator are expanding rapidly, placing increasing demands on the technology applications and infrastructure driving business processes. There was a clear mandate to change the IT operating model to support rapid growth. Infosys’ proven track record of delivering quality, combined with their intellectual property and global delivery model made them a preferred technology partner.”

With over 91,000 employees in over 40 offices worldwide, Infosys designs and delivers IT-enabled business solutions which focus on providing operational superiority to their clients. “Large enterprises such as the Emirates Group are working with Infosys to use technology to improve their business models. Our clients are discovering the competitive edge they can gain by utilising the Infosys Global Delivery Model.  We also believe that this new opportunity from Emirates will help Infosys increase its presence in the Middle East significantly,” Dheeshjith V G, Head of New Markets and Services, Infosys Technologies, said.

AXN Beyond TV channel in India

The new channel, AXN Beyond, will have programmes with sci-fi, suspense, horror, mystery, fantasy, paranormal and supernatural undertones unlike the action-adventure and lifestyle reality shows that have been the mainstay of AXN.

Earlier in 2008, AXN Beyond was launched in the Philippines, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, shows like Lost and Supernatural were migrated to AXN Beyond. AXN Beyond also airs Pushing Daisies,  Andromed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hex, Night Stalker, Northern Mysteries, The Dresden Files in Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Rohit Bhandari, AXN’s new Country Head, India, has said that considering high costs of entry and operation in India, AXN is on the lookout for the best time to launch AXN Beyond in India.  AXN has said that the company is following CAS and other modes of distribution to find the optimal solution.

AXN has more plans for India. afaqs! has quoted Bhandari as saying that AXN is still finalising a few reality series formats and weighing them. “Currently, most general entertainment channels (GECs) have the song and dance reality shows which are predominantly talent based. We will bring in shows that are based on adventure and thrill,?Bhandari said.

AXN has said that with AXN Beyond and its India-specific reality shows it wants to capture a larger audience in India. The programming of AXN Beyond will target action and adventure enthusiasts in the age group of 25-45 years. AXN will put its muscle behind shows and ground event that will involve audiences.

The shows will not be aired in the 10 pm – 12 pm slot as that may affect the premium shows.