Featured Articles from The Economic Times

By Yogesh Agarwal The Indian population is greying. According to the latest UNFPA report, the number of Indians above 60 years is projected to rise to 55% by 2050. The demographics also indicate an increasing longevity with a more active lifestyle after retirement owing to betterment in medical facilities. While this is good news, it also means that tomorrow's retirees will have a longer retirement and must, therefore, accumulate a bigger corpus for their sunset years. Retirement planning involves disciplined saving, vigilant investment to build a sufficient retirement corpus and its judicious drawdown in the post-retirement phase.

The last day for filing your income tax return is here. Don't fret. Follow these simple steps and file your tax return online before the end of the day: Step 1 Log on to the Income Tax Department's portal (www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in) meant for filing taxes online. Register yourself using your Permanent Account Number (PAN), which will act as your user ID. Step 2 Under the 'Download' menu, go to e-filing AY 2012-13

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) plans to roll out its 4G network in partnership with Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL), the group from which it acquired pan-India airwaves for high-speed internet and data services in May 2010. According to people familiar with the development, Reliance-owned Infotel Broadband will focus on key aspects of the network and monitor the rollout, but will leave ground-level execution and management to HFCL, which has prior experience of similar deployment.

MUMBAI: With the dividend season on, brokerage houses are advising investors to buy dividend-yield stocks as they are considered safer investment bets, especially when markets are volatile and times uncertain. Money managers are advising investors to put money in those dividend-yield companies where the stock price-to-book value ratio is attractive, there's an element of profit growth, and the company has a dividend track record of at least 3-5 years. "Investors should be very careful while selecting dividend-yield stocks.

Remember Farhan Qureshi in the 3 Idiots? His father planned out his education and career the day he was born. The senior Qureshi's career choice may have been out of sync with his son's passion for wildlife photography but the underlying objective — to secure the financial future of his child—was bang on target. An increasing number of Indian parents is doing that today. In an online survey conducted by economictimes.com for ET Wealth last week, 63% of the 1,908 respondents said they started saving for their children's education when they were born.

KOLKATA: Alchemist Township India Ltd , a Delhi-based real estate developer, has bought 20 acres of prime land in the Aerotropolis being developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) at Durgapur, 180 kilometres from Kolkata. Leading international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle India were the transaction mediators for this deal, which is West Bengal's largest land transaction in 2013 to date. "This acquisition marks Alchemist's formal entry into the east India residential real estate space," said a company spokesperson.

CHENNAI: Auto major Ford today said its latest SUV Ecosport is being rolled out from its manufacturing facility at nearby Maraimalai Nagar. The Chennai facility is the third of five plants where Ford EcoSport will be manufactured. Currently, the SUV is being produced in Brazil, China,and production would begin in Thailand, Russia, a company statement here said. Ford India has made USD 142 million investment to produce EcoSport at the facility, which also produces its highly popular hatchback Figo, midsize sedan Classic, premium SUV Endeavour and premium sedan Fiesta.

MUMBAI: Singapore based Tiger Airways will offer flights to Singapore from Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapalli at $50 (Rs 2700) for travel between May 1st and December 15th. The tickets will be on offer until March 13. However, there will be only 10 seats available on each flight and is a promotional offer for celebrating five years of its Indian operations. But as on Thursday, some of the discounted tickets have been sold out for certain dates and the remaining are selling for more than $100.

BANGALORE: Infosys has begun sacking employees at the bottom of the performance pile, returning to a practice it adopted during the peak of the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009, according to people familiar with the development. The renewed lack of tolerance for poor performance, which will affect up to 5,000 employees, is indicative of the pressure the software company faces to curtail costs while pivoting towards a more aggressive sales strategy. The Bangalore-based company is resorting to retrenchment by suspending a plan crafted by co-founder NR Narayana Murthy to help underperformers come up to scratch.

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee may depreciate 10% versus the US dollar by December as weakness in other Asian currencies converges with India's fragile external economy and a snail-paced recovery in industrial activity to pummel the currency. At least five top currency traders and economists say the probability of the rupee falling to 60 to the US dollar is higher than it moving towards 50 with record foreign fund flows of the last eight months tapering off. This is largely on account of the boost in sentiment following a rash of reforms failing to translate into real business activity.

Jamal Mecklai Sinking like a stone - or a skydiver - the rupee has lost nearly 10% value against the dollar since May 6. While the initial slide could be attributed to "sudden" dollar strength, the acceleration, since May 22, was clearly a result of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he may slow down on bond purchases. This raised the spectre of higher US interest rates and led to an exodus of funds from many emerging economy bond markets - India, too, saw over $2 billion flying out in a matter of 10 days.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its gold and silver price forecasts for 2013, citing weak fundamentals and lack of investment buying. The bank now expects gold prices to average $1,478 an ounce in 2013, 12 per cent below its previous forecast of $1,680. "The business cycle puts gold in an uncomfortable position," BofA analyst Michael Widmer said in a note to clients. "Higher growth, rising in nominal yields and subdued inflationary pressure have all limited investor buying.