Budgeting is a financial plan listing all our income or revenues and all our expenses. It is the plan which is essential to run our life and business smoothly and efficiently. Budgeting involves earning, spending and saving.

Budgeting can be done on a simple paper or on an excel sheet, the purpose is the same to keep a firm grip on our expenses so that we do not exceed our expenses over our income and try to save for a better future.

In a personal family budget the head of the family has to work out his monthly budget in such a way that he allocates the right amounts to each requirement of every family member.

Personal budgeting involves the budgets for:

1. Housing rent or mortgage.

2. 

   Food which is a priority.

3. Children’s education expense is a very important part of budgeting.
4. Automobile fuel and gas.
5. Insurance premium.
6. Medical and health care.
7. Taxes to be paid.
8. Unforeseen expenses should also be budgeted.

Entertainment is imperative in a family, hence needs to be budgeted every month.

Personal family should be flexible also as family members and children often tend go overboard with expenses but it is acceptable as the family is a priority for all of us.

In India personal budgeting for a wedding ceremony in a family is also very crucial. In India we have a culture which is vibrant and marked by rituals, ceremonies, all an integral part of the wedding ceremony, hence a budget has to be allotted for all the occasions and ceremonies.

Budgeting is a vital part of our daily life. It is essential to lead a stress and tension free life with organized finances.

We enjoy entertainment in various forms like cinema, drama, music, theatre, sports, arts, cultural activities but the new entrant in this group is the industry of gaming.

Gaming in India has tremendous potential in terms of generating wealth, exploring new ideas, creative marketing, and innovative content development.

The success of games like angry birds-which has been adapted to all possible platforms like online / iphone / android, has opened a new breed of entrepreneurs.

Farmville really caught on India and went viral as moms too loved the games and approved that the games were not bad and violent.

It is not uncommon to find at many gaming parlors married couples having a boxing match or father and son playing virtual cricket.

The number of casual gamers in India is expected to cross 120 million by the year 2015. Women too are catching up on this trend big time. It is great to see a woman taking up games in a large way as it is one area where the playing field is leveled, unlike physical sports where women can’t compete against men.

The use of games in education will touch an unprecedented high, and the new concept “gamification” will be the new mantra of education.

Cheap tablets and wireless broadband is expected to extend the reach of gaming sector.

Free to play, micro-transaction model is likely to become the main form of monetization of games.

As more people take to gaming, its social acceptance is increasing as well.

As the gaming market grows, this will create new jobs in the field of animation, content designing, writing, special effects, marketing, financing which in turn will earn foreign exchange for our country and give a great boost to our Indian economy.

However, the tariff of silver imports is not modified. The current tariff of silver import is $ 1,036 for every kilogram. Bullion traders and jewelers had strongly opposed the move of the government when it had increased the custom duty on gold to 4 %. Previously it was 2 %. And if that was not enough, the government also levied an additional 1 % excise duty on unbranded jewelry.

The government plans to restrict the import of gold. With imports increasing at an atrocious rate, the government is looking for suitable ways and means to curb or rather control the import of gold so that the curr ent account deficit is eased.

To deter the import of gold in January 2012 the government had increased the custom duty on gold to 2 % which is double the previous 1 %.  Besides gold, the custom duty on silver also was doubled from the previous rate of 3 % to the new 6 %.

In the initial eleven months in 2011-12, gold of approximately $ 60 billion was imported. This astonishing figure made the government contemplate restricting the import.

It is imperative that to choose a right bank for your banking activities your decisions must be influenced by the following factors.

1. Service- it is important that your bank offers a friendly, convenient, service. The staff should at all times be accessible to you, guiding and advising regarding your accounts, finance. The banking staff should be professional and also have warm cordial relations with the customers. The customer should feel like a king when he or she enters the bank. The bankers should have moral ethics so that the customer at no point of time feels cheated or neglected.
2. Monetary gains- different banks offer different rates of interest, charge different bank charges, hence one must check all the details in fine print before getting in to any transaction with a bank. The schemes offered by various banks at times look very attractive but later on tend to give a customer great losses.
3. The board of directors-running the bank must have a professional banking background to run the day to day operations of the bank in smooth co- ordination with its customers.
4. The bank should be in a position to generate sizable income to keep its shareholders/ customers happy, without entering in to any sort of litigations, safeguarding the money and assets of all customers
5. The fundamentals of all the banks must be strong, so that in times of recession, failing stock markets, bad debts, etc the bank must be in a position to overcome all the day to day problems and safeguard the money entrusted by its customers.
6. Accessibility- the bank should be near to your office or residence so that it is easy for you to do your banking as and when required.
7. The banks should also offer easy accessibility to ATM’s to withdraw cash.
8. The banks must keep you abreast regarding the new schemes, new offers, and new regulations on day to day basis.
9. A friendly and honest banker makes your life stress free, and wealthy.

So ensure that you choose your bank wisely to safeguard yourself from problems later.

The government has played its cards wisely as this move will bring investments in India and government will place huge procurements orders only with PCs manufactured in India.

The government has in fact advised global hardware makers to set up shop in India if they wish to secure government orders for PCs. The government orders will be worth thousands of crores of rupees.

This move has been welcomed by the manufacturing industry as we Indians have a tendency to buy imported products which reduces our foreign exchange reserves. Also this strategy of the government will help the hard ware makers in a big way.

In future the government apart from PCs may bring in other electronic products with security implications under this scheme.

This policy will generate employment in India and give a momentum to the industries connected with the manufacturing like logistics, engineering, real estate, and banking.

The budget has clearly issued directives that after April 2012,all insurance policies must meet the 10 times criteria to claim tax benefits as sec10(10d) has to be followed strictly.

To ensure that companies do not design products to bend the rules, the budget has clarified that the cover shall not include bonuses and other payments made by the company. The budget also clarified that the cover should remain at least ten times throughout the tenure of the policy, and this means that plans in which the cover comes down from second year will not be accepted.

If you are planning to invest in a life insurance policy make sure it complies with new tax benefits like the base cover should be at least ten times the annual premium. For instance if the premium is Rs.14, 000 per year, then the cover should be at least Rs.1, 40,000.

Finance ministry is also keeping a strict watch on the insurance companies, their agents and advisors who mis- sell the policy and will initiate a strict action against them. If the corrective measures are not taken in time, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) will be flooded with complaints from tax payers who have been denied tax deduction and exemption on their investments in insurance.

Domestic airfares have gone up by 25 to 40% in last one month, due to several factors like kingfisher cutting down the flights drastically due to financial instability, non – payment to fuel suppliers, defaulting in bank loans, non payments of salary to staff, crew and pilots and passengers booked on this airlines are a hassled lot due to frequent cancellation of flights, which has resulted in low capacity and high demand of seats for other airlines whereby the other operators are cashing in on the situation and charging high fares.

The other factor for hike in fares is the removal of upper limit tax of Rs.150 to be charged on domestic tickets.

The end result of buying air tickets for flying till June (when the peak travel season ends) will remain a costly affair with fares getting steeper for travelers who planning to fly closer to date of travel.

Travel pundits say the budget travelers are left with no option but to stay in cheaper hotels to keep their holiday budget in control or travel by train which works out quite economical.

The directorate of civil aviation is keeping a watch on the fares being charged by all domestic airlines but cannot  initiate any action as long as the fares.

SEDANS- commonly referred as sedans – has a great growing demand in models like Hyundai Verna, Nissan Sunny, Skoda Rapid, Maruti  sx4 , Maruti Dzire, Volkswagon Ventom and Toyota Etios now form a major chunk of Indian car market and reason for car makers to smile and in stunning contrast the small popular cars like Maruti Alto, Wagon R, Hyundai Santro and Spark  the demand has declined.

Indian customers are now willing to spend on bigger cars and derive better value on the higher ticket price.

young customers with high disposal income and also large number of small car owners who want to upgrade form the major chunk of buyers for sedans and with demands increasing new launches have triggered a price war, leading to fall in price. Another important factor is that market shift towards diesel has played a major role in demand for sedans.

Affordability of customers is and there are better and bigger options for sedans, and with the fundamentals of economy still intact and strong this trend will continue.

The changing trends in new car purchases have left manufacturers grappling to meet the growing demand.

Top seller like Hyundai Verna is running up to 7-8months of waiting delivery and so is sunny from Nissan.

The prolonged strike of Maruti affected the availability of compact cars and allowed customers to shift their choice to bigger sedan segment. Diesel engines option and economy on fuel moved a large chunk of customers to jump to premium cars- Sedans!

On Monday, RBI was also rumored to have intervened to support rupee but the end result was negative.

The latest government data reflects that India’s balance of payments entered in to a negative zone for the first time in 3 years with the current account deficit of $ 19.6 billion.

Importers are hit hard because of weak rupee as imports are costlier, while exporters are delighted as it makes their products and services cheaper in terms of dollars.

In India a weak rupee helps software and textile importers but at the same time capital goods companies and oil importers are hard hit due to dearer imports.

The Indian rupee is weak due to several factors like current account deficit, weak stock market, inflation, rising crude oil prices

Trade pundits are keeping a watch over the ratings review meetings between the analysts with global ratings major S & P and the officials at the ministry of finance.

According to trade analysts the situation may remain the same for few coming months.

To initially simplify the case, the forex market is fairly self-explanatory. It involves trading two currencies against each other and profiting on any favourable fluctuations. The depth to which a private speculator wishes to get involved in this market can vary greatly.

The internet has made the market highly accessible and the amount of online forex resources means the private investor can gain a decent education and make money in the right conditions. No longer is the market solely dominated by the larger institutions although they still play the major part.  Online forex trading has boosted access to a broad section of private individuals looking to make money.

There are many players in the forex market, large and small. Banks speculate endlessly and constitute more than 50% of all transactions; globalised businesses exchange currencies in multinational transactions; Governments can meddle with the money supply recently exemplified in the UK through quantitative easing; hedge funds speculate aggressively; and perhaps the Bureau de Change has been most central to the layman’s understanding of foreign exchange until the recent arrival of online forex.

Currencies are traded in pairs and the objective is for to buy low and sell high. Popular pairs can range from EUR/GBP to USD/JPY and generally most other countries with floating exchange rates.

To make the best decisions on which pairs to trade we must be informed of as much market data as we can, available through the multitude of online forex sites.