Strict finance terms for Nano finance scheme

Tata Motors is giving final touches to the launch of Nano car. The company is having final talks with the State Bank of India (SBI) India’s largest bank, regarding finance scheme for the Nano car. Company has tied-up with SBI for the finance scheme for Nano, under which the bank will be financing 70 per cent of the price of the car at an interest rate of 14 to 14.75 per cent for a tenure of up to 5 years.

Last week meetings were held between General Managers of SBI branches across the country with the senior Tata Motors executives to decide the branches through which the finance will be offered and the method of rolling out the loan scheme across the country, especially in rural locations and small towns.

The strict terms have been made for the Nano finance scheme in comparison to those offered by both government-owned and private sector banks for comparable tenures. Currently government-owned banks are charging between 11.5 and 12 per cent, while SBI before 31 May is charging a concessional 10 per cent for car loans for the first year as part of a special scheme.

Private Banks like HDFC Bank are charging interest of 12 to 12.5 per cent and ICICI Bank 14.5 per cent. Most banks offer finance up to 85 per cent of the price of the car.

As per information provided by sources, the company has already received over 40 million queries on the Nano on its websites. According to dealers the cost of the opening level model will be Rs 1 lakh (excluding freight and value-added tax ) and consumers will have to pay Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 more for the air-conditioned model, though the dealers have still not been given the final pricing.

Regarding finance scheme a Tata Motors spokesperson told, “The booking process and other details will be announced on March 23, 2009. In any case, we have said on February 26, 2009, that Tata Motors is making arrangements for the widest possible network to book the car, so that prospective customers can conveniently avail of booking facilities at their locations, across the length and breadth of India. Your information on interest rates etc is purely speculative.” However no reply to an email query was given by the SBI spokesperson.

The sources closely related to the process say that the company will be roll out limited number of cars from assembly lines in Pune (Maharashtra) and Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand), until a makeshift arrangement the main plant in Gujarat starts operations in October. While, the company’ aims to roll out around 100,000 cars in the first 12 months.

HDFC Standard Life in tie-up with Manipal introduced certificate program

HDFC Standard Life a private sector insurer in collaboration with Manipal Education has started a three-month certificate program in Insurance and Management.

HDFC Standard Life released a statement which stated the program has been started with an aim to search for the talent, provide them training and groom talent from across the country to ready pool of insurance-trained sales professionals for the company.

It also stated the program has been designed to cater those individuals (MBAs, experienced and fresh graduates) who want to take up insurance as their career.

HDFC Bank launched a unique scholarship scheme for school children

HDFC Bank leading private bank in India has launched a scheme “HDFC Bank Meritus scholarship”. The scheme is first of its kind related to education program. The aim of the scheme is to cover students of class 4 to 9 across the country and to shortlist the best 5000 students for an educational scholarships amounting to Rs 1.5 crore per year using various academic and non- curricular criteria. Bank has launched this program in alliance with Horlicks.

The HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarship programme is a motivating program, which look for rewarding all-round excellence among students and help add to their overall development. The awardees from all over the country would receive a scholarship ranging from Rs.2, 500 to Rs.10 Lakh.

Publicizing this first of its kind scholarship program, Group Head, HDFC Bank Rahul Bhagat, notified, “This initiative emphasizes the values our Bank stands for. It is a small contribution we are making towards the nation by facilitating young India in its quest for excellence. We are confident we’ll play the role of mentors to these bright children for years to come, and help them create an India that is better, more educated, and, more prosperous.”

Parents have to fill in the registration form available in respective schools to get their wards registered in the scheme. Otherwise, one can also register online by visiting the bank website www.hdfcbank.com/meritus. The last date is February 22, 2009 for submitting the registration form. One can see all the details of the program on the bank website.

To be eligible for the scholarship, registered students have to undertake four rounds of tests - two telephonic and two written, over a period of 16 weeks. To certain the full involvement of the parents in the overall progress of their child, the first two participation rounds will be conducted via telephone through an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) system. Parents can help their children while taking the IVR test and help them get to the final rounds and in the final round the student has to give a written test. The questions prepared will be largely picked from the existing curriculum so that this program helps them in preparing for their school exams too.

Bank will select the final 5000 awardees on the bases of the final round scores, extra-curricular achievements and academics. To make the selection of scholarship awardees completely fair, an independent panel of qualified judges will select the scholarship awardees.

HDFC Bank launched a unique scholarship scheme for school children

HDFC Bank leading private bank in India has launched a scheme “HDFC Bank Meritus scholarship”. The scheme is first of its kind related to education program. The aim of the scheme is to cover students of class 4 to 9 across the country and to shortlist the best 5000 students for an educational scholarships amounting to Rs 1.5 crore per year using various academic and non- curricular criteria. Bank has launched this program in alliance with Horlicks.

The HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarship programme is a motivating program, which look for rewarding all-round excellence among students and help add to their overall development. The awardees from all over the country would receive a scholarship ranging from Rs.2, 500 to Rs.10 Lakh.

Publicizing this first of its kind scholarship program, Group Head, HDFC Bank Rahul Bhagat, notified, “This initiative emphasizes the values our Bank stands for. It is a small contribution we are making towards the nation by facilitating young India in its quest for excellence. We are confident we’ll play the role of mentors to these bright children for years to come, and help them create an India that is better, more educated, and, more prosperous.”

Parents have to fill in the registration form available in respective schools to get their wards registered in the scheme. Otherwise, one can also register online by visiting the bank website www.hdfcbank.com/meritus. The last date is February 22, 2009 for submitting the registration form. One can see all the details of the program on the bank website.

To be eligible for the scholarship, registered students have to undertake four rounds of tests - two telephonic and two written, over a period of 16 weeks. To certain the full involvement of the parents in the overall progress of their child, the first two participation rounds will be conducted via telephone through an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) system. Parents can help their children while taking the IVR test and help them get to the final rounds and in the final round the student has to give a written test. The questions prepared will be largely picked from the existing curriculum so that this program helps them in preparing for their school exams too.

Bank will select the final 5000 awardees on the bases of the final round scores, extra-curricular achievements and academics. To make the selection of scholarship awardees completely fair, an independent panel of qualified judges will select the scholarship awardees.

HDFC bank from India the biggest gainer among top 500 financial brands

Indian banks have positioned itself amongst the world’s top 500 financial brands amidst the tight financial crisis. Around 19 Indian banks have positioned themselves especially at the time when global financial brands staggered due to tight financial crisis. In terms of brand value the top 500 banks lost around $218.1 billion (about Rs10.8 trillion) which means a 32 percent drop over the past year, while their market capitalization slumped by 51 percent to $3.9 trillion.

In comparison to the previous year's list around 209 banks have been out positioned as they became victim of the recession in U.S., Europe and Japan. From India HDFC Bank had turned out to be the biggest gainer. According to the Economic Times HDFC bank brand value rose by $243 million from 2007 to $611 million in 2008, and it positioned to 151 in the league table in 2008 from 236 in 2007. "Emerging market brands have significantly outperformed world brands in 2008. Many of the best known developed world banks have died in 2008. Some are walking dead awaiting a silver bullet before they finally go. Governments hold the gun," said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance. Axis Bank has positioned itself at the 267 position while Kotak Mahindra Bank occupied 278 positions. However, State Bank of India (SBI) has been ranked 69 in the latest survey; it has come down from 60 a year earlier, with a brand value of $1.44 billion, down from $2.852 billion. SBI slipped down because its market capitalization fell to $9.83 billion from $12 billion.

Besides them 13 new public sector banks from have made entry including Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Power Finance Corporation, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Syndicate Bank. The list also includes the three associate banks of SBI viz. State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur. While in the previous year, only six Indian banks could make in Brand Finance's list.

The rankings were provided by the Brand Finance along with The Banker magazine. The rankings were used through a discounted cash flow (DCF) technique to discount estimated future royalties, at an appropriate discount rate, to arrive at a net present value (NPV) of the trademark and associated intellectual property: the brand value.

Man behind HDFC Bank incredible growth- HDFC’s Aditya Puri

The Indian Inc had go through very tough time in the year 2008 with major economies in recession. The inflation was at peak and Sensex had dipped, for many it made difficult to sustain. Only few were able to keep up with situation.

HDFC Bank was the only bank to be able to show steady growth, while some of its competitors got trapped in the sub prime mess. The bank continued its climb high.

In the third quarter the bank demonstrated a 45 per cent jump in its profits, incredible when banks around the world were thawing out.

The credit for this great growth story goes to one man who is CNN-IBN Indian of the Year – Business, Aditya Puri, and the Managing Director of HDFC Bank.

Under his guidance, HDFC bank has developed into one of the biggest private banks with over 1.2 million customers.

HDFC Bank is having the largest branch network of over 1,400 among all private sector banks - thanks to the smooth acquirement of Centurion Bank of Punjab.

Aditya Puri while in process of making his bank into world class one, carefully managed risks even though being called a conservative sometimes.

His insight is being praised today with the global economy in chaos. Amid 2009 is also expected to be a difficult year for businesses worldwide, the industry will be looking at Puri for leadership.

HDFC bank tie-up with Movie Mart offers up to 50% discount to credit card holders

HDFC Bank credit card holders get to enjoy up to 50 per cent discounts on Movie Mart’s subscription plans. The offer is being given by online DVD rental portal Movie Mart which has tied-up with the HDFC bank.

Under this offer all HDFC card holders will be able to enjoy 10% off on monthly, 20% on quarterly, 30% on half yearly and 50% discount on yearly subscriptions.

MovieMart CEO Rahul Mansharmani notified, "We are happy to be associated with HDFC and their loyal customers, I can assure that all the card holders would be very pleased by what MovieMart is offering them. I would also like to add here that partnering with HDFC would give many more movie lovers an opportunity to try our services and experience the difference."

The offer is available on Movie Mart’s websites and the HDFC members can log on the site and select from plans that range between Rs 279 - 1199. Under this offer security deposits have also been removed from all membership plans therefore the customer will be able to keep the DVDs for a longer period without the late fee charges.