South Indian NRI docs head home

An increasingly large number of non-resident Indian doctors is returning home to south India, giving a third leg to the reverse brain drain phenomenon that mostly involved software engineers and corporate scientists.

A trickle of NRI doctors returning home has been there all around the country for decades now (that is how Apollo Hospitals started), but what marks out the present phase is the accelerating pace and the peninsular focus. The latter is only to be expected since more doctors from the south left India in the first place.

"We get enquiries on a daily basis from NRI doctors wanting to come back," says K Hari Prasad, CEO of Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad.

On an average, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, gets five to six resumes every week from NRI doctors in the US and UK. Corporate hospitals in Kerala are seeing a similar inflow of applications.

A good 15 per cent of the doctors at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences are former NRIs. Wockhardt hospitals have 28 specialists who have returned to India from abroad. Around 15 former NRI specialists are working with Image Hospitals in Hyderabad and they keep receiving enquiries from doctors seeking jobs in the group.

Says A John Punnoose, CEO, Madras Medical Mission, "Around 80 per cent of the doctors at our hospital in Chennai are former NRIs. I receive around two or three applications from NRI doctors every week, which shows that the trend is on the rise."

"Though it is just over a year since Lifeline Hospitals started operations on Chennai's IT corridor,we already have 13 former NRI doctors, making up a good 24 per cent of the total strength," says M Baskaran, chief executive officer, Lifeline Clinics & Multi-Specialty Hospitals.

Why is this happening? There is both a pull and a push factor. Things are changing rapidly for the better in high-value private health care in India and for the worse for doctors in general in the US and NRI doctors in particular in the UK.

As the economy booms, corporate hospitals are mushrooming all over the country. These are bringing in the latest equipment and their practices and standards are increasingly conforming to globally accepted levels, driven partly by the desire to attract medical tourism.

First, the push factor. V K Kamath, CEO, Apollo Hospitals (Bangalore), says the status of doctors in the US is not what it used to be. Doctors, once among the most respected of professionals, are no longer in that category.

The relative salary of doctors in the US today is not very high as compared to the seventies and eighties when, on an average, they earned much more than those in most other professions.

As for the UK, it is the glass ceiling that has prompted many to return to India.

"There is only a certain level to which a non-White can reach in the UK. The glass ceiling starts to act from then on," said Shabeer Ahmed, a laparoscopy surgeon who had been in Britain since the early 1990s and is now with Wockhardt Hospital. "Here I can use my knowledge in laparoscopy to build something big."

Now the pull factor. According to Dr M I Sahadulla, chairman and managing director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, a premier corporate hospital promoted by NRIs based in the Gulf, "In the past, doctors opted to work in UK and US hospitals as they offered better incomes, top-class medical training and greater job satisfaction. With the Indian healthcare scene now ensuring these aspects, NRI doctors are keen to return. The most important phrase for them is job satisfaction, which they know they will get by working in present-day India's healthcare sector."

Source:Business Standard

NRIs seeking home loan? Check this out

While home loans are available to resident individuals as well as non-resident Indians (NRIs), there are some differences in the terms and conditions applicable to the two. Here are a few points to get started:

Who is an NRI?

Banks follow the RBI definition, that is, an Indian citizen who holds a valid Indian passport and who stays abroad for employment or for carrying on business or vocation outside India or stays abroad under circumstances indicating an intention for an uncertain duration of stay.
Terms and conditions

Eligibility:

The NRI has to be a graduate. The same does not apply to resident Indians. He should earn a minimum monthly income of $2,000. This criterion may differ across housing finance companies (HFCs).

Size of loan:

The loan amount should not exceed 85 per cent of the cost of property. In case of Indian residents, banks can lend up to 90 per cent of the cost of property. The size of the loan depends upon the borrower’s repayment capacity. However, there is a maximum limit. For instance, HDFC offers loans of up to Rs 1 crore, while SBI offers a maximum loan of up to 24 times the borrower’s net monthly income.

Repayment:

The NRI has to pay the EMI cheques through his non-resident-external (NRE)/ non-resident-ordinary (NRO) account. He cannot make payments from his savings account (if any) in India.

Tenure:

The rate of interest is almost similar to loans availed by residents. The difference lies in the tenure of loans. Residents can avail home loan for 20 years or even more. However, leading banks or HFCs provide home loan only for a maximum of 15 years.

Paperwork:

NRIs are required to submit additional documents. For example, certain documents like a copy of the passport and a copy of the works contract (also sometimes referred to as the contract card/labour card) are required only for NRI loans. He also has to submit property-related documents including original title deed tracing the title of the property for a minimum period of the last 13 years; encumbrance certificate for the last 13 years; agreement of sale/construction, if any; approved plan/license, ULC clearance/conversion order; receipts for having invested the margin money through normal banking channels from the NRE and/or NRO account in India.
Bankable business

ICICI Bank provides 100 per cent financing if the property is bought from any of the builders it has tied up with. However, this offer is limited to specific projects.

HDFC too has tied up with service associates in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, apart from having a presence in Dubai. These offices offer advisory services in real estate and real estate financing to Gulf-based NRIs wanting to acquire homes in India. These offices coordinate the entire loan process in India. Even Bank of Baroda provides margin money in the country where the NRI resides if the borrower is not physically present in India to carry out the loan formalities.

NRIs Craze for Indian Real Estate

Since the investors making investments in Indian retail sector has become conscious about putting in the volatile equity market at current levels, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) are taking a contrarian stand towards the same.

Nowadays, NRIs seem to be changing their mindset about making investments in Indian real estate. They have invested a whopping 100 crore, in less than two months of the current calendar year. Contrary to this, NRIs had emerged as net buyers at less than Rs 8 crore in 2006. Connoisseurs feel that the corrections witnessed in the past few years have made NRIs bullish on the Indian real estate market. However, they are looking towards reinvesting.

Data complied by surveys clearly show that NRIs have been taking out their money, with the concerns such as high rupee-dollar rate and valuation on mind. All these factors have forced them to reconsider their decision to invest, says the head of brokerage with a sizeable overseas presence.

Although, the value of rupee has increased over the last few months, the corrections witnessed in the equity market have led NRIs to add to their investments, he adds. However, the situation was not the same earlier, when the value of rupee was also appreciating and the equity market was also not flourishing.

Real estate is one sector that NRIs have developed a liking for,” said a research analyst with a domestic brokerage. “Most NRIs from the Gulf region seem to be eternally bullish on the infrastructure sector and ready to invest in any of the real estate companies. In addition, many of the first-time investors also prefer technology stocks,” he added.

Since the past few years, NRIs have shown a large inclination for Indian real estate. But the real craze for Indian property market can be seen among NRIs from the Gulf region, and are willing to invest in any of real estate companies. Also, the increase in foreign direct investment the country is receiving serve as an encouraging factor for most brokerages new-found partiality for the Gulf region.

Source:http://www.nrirealtynews.com/

NRI Hills-International City at Jaipur

Average NRI real estate project sizes have shot up from around Rs 30-60 crore, when the realty boom began three years ago, to between Rs 500 and Rs 2,500 crore today. Largely because of a far larger scale of these projects.

From now, despite the 200% growth since the past 3-4 years, real estate projects (whether residential, commercial or retail) are expected to reach astronomical levels of a colossal 1,000%. That’s one of the key reasons why rates across the board are shooting through the roof. The first phase of the 2,504 acre hi-tech township by Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited in Greater Noida, for which it has signed an MoU with the Uttar Pradesh government, is estimated at a whopping Rs 20,000 crore.

Natraj Buildwell Ltd has launched NRI Hills-International City at Jaipur at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore. The cost of Alpha G:Corp’s project, Alpha International City, Karnal is estimated to be Rs 600 crore. The various projects of Parsvnath launched recently are pegged at Parsvnath Privilege at Greater Noida (Rs 325 crore), Parsvnath City at Dharuhera (Rs 450 crore), a 5-star hotel and multiplex-cum-mall at Vijalpur, Ahmedabad (Rs 250 crore) and a mall at Rohini (Rs 231 crore). The project cost of Pearls Gateway Towers at Noida is said to be around Rs 450 crore. Is this another sign of the real estate industry coming of age? “To a certain extent, yes,” says Manish Uppal, MD, Uppal Housing, “but the factors that are contributing to a rise in project costs include rising prices of cement and the efforts by developers to offer newer and more modern amenities to the customers. The conservative approach in designing is giving way to experiments in the choice of raw material and adoption of methods in energy and space conservation.”

Included in the investment costs is the cost of land (which has risen from Rs 1,200 per sq ft to Rs 2,500 per sq ft), overhead costs and marketing and brand strategies. Adds Navin M Raheja, MD, Raheja Developers Pvt Ltd, “India is witnessing a process of rapid and mass urbanisation and with the wholesale price index set to increase by 300-400% in the next 2 decades, the process will be more perceptible leading to higher inflationary tendencies. The consequential boom in real estate has its own associated nuances. Real estate project costs for NRIs have increased on account of across the board increase in land prices and other input costs like the raw materials, steel, iron, timber, cement, plastic, rubber etc.”

Source:Financialexpress

Merrill Lynch vies to be biggest private bank in NRI segment

Global financial services major Merrill Lynch on Wednesday said, it plans to roll out more products for NRIs as it aims to become the biggest private banker catering to the niche market.
"With $360 billion in investable assets, the 22 million Non-Resident Indians are an important growth area for us," Rahul Malhotra, Merrill Lynch's head of India Global Private Client, told PTI.

"We are leveraging the global business by rolling out products and developing talent, which will result in the largest private banking businesses in NRI segment," he added.
The company would also double the number of financial advisors serving Indian clients this year, both within the country and living abroad.

"We plan to grow the clients' assets under management for both onshore and offshore India by 8-10 times in the next three years," Malhotra said.
Merrill Lynch has had a long experience in India through its partnership with DSPML, which gives it a great advantage over other firms as it boosts of both global expertise and local knowledge.

In addition, he said, Merrill Lynch takes a global approach with India and NRI markets, which creates great synergy between the NRI and onshore India businesses.
The company, which recently launched the Global NRI business targeting NRIs across the globe and trust services for resident Indians, also provides a wealth management advisory service.

NRI invest in biggest project of 100-acre condominium complex in Clacutta

NRIs are looking to invest money in real estate india and have put eyes on calcutta.NRI invest in biggest project of 100-acre condominium complex in Clacutta.Uniworld City -New Town's biggest project of 100-acre condominium complex.

-Uniworld City will strive to be the one-of-a-kind worldclass condominium project with 82 apartment blocks of nine to 27 stories.
-The company proposed 4,500 flats to be developed in nine phases that will cost Rs 20-70 lakh.
-Large restaurants with terraces have been suggested for the main plaza to provide an architectural focal point and activate the plaza with outdoor dining areas with 300,000 sq ft of premium built space convenience kiosks, books, music and cafes
-The streets allow for visual connections and easy transitions from private to public areas
-Added wide variety of apartments in terms of the number of bedrooms and area to cater to different choices and budgets.
-Three club houses with modern indoor/outdoor sports and recreational facilities
-A boutique hotel with 120-plus rooms and a five-screen multiplex.

The joint venture is between Delhi’s Unitech group, the South East Asian company-Universal Success and UK-based architects- RMJM . Rs 1,575 crore was pledged by Indonesian Salim-Ciputra combine and Bengal Unitech Universal has announced a whopping Rs 3,000 crore investment in an IT space and residential project at Rajarh.

The following companies inolve in this project as the joint venture to complete this project:

NRI Prasoon Mukherjee of Universal Success Group (South East Asian company) said, “This will be the most extravagant development in this part of the world.

Unitech Universal, Gurgaon entered civil engineering in 1974 and specilize in power transmission lines, highways to theme parks, from steel plants to residential developments and from indoor stadiums to hotels.

Forrec of Canada was commissioned to create the destination retail/entertainment development in the form of a low-height, double-storey sprawl. No other consultant group can equal our track record of 48 major built projects in 20 countries, including: Major Theme Parks, Water Parks, Entertainment Centres, Retail Environments, Hospitality, Gaming , Cultural Attractions and Urban & Resort Planning

RMJM, UK based achitects, is working on the project with the cost of Rs 100-crore. It is one of the world’s leading architects, to design the world-class multi-residential project and IT park. RMJM’s design portfolio includes the award-winning architecture for the Olympic Green Convention Centre which will play a major role in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Source:nriinternet

NRI group plans biggest FDI in Indian real estate

A US-based infrastructure company on Thursday unveiled plans to invest $1 billion in Indian real estate in what is being billed as the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the newly liberalised sector.

Royal Indian Raj International Corporation (RIRIC), a Nevada-based company promoted by people of Indian origin, is firming up plans to build integrated townships and planned cities in the country.

The company has entered into a strategic partnership with New York-based real estate investment banking firm The Greenwich Group International to finance the development of multiple private cities in India. “We have already been working on our inaugural residential project on a 17-acre plot on the outskirts of Bangalore,” said RIRIC CEO Manoj C Benjamin.

“With the Indian real estate sector in transition and recent landmark legislation allowing FDI into it, the opportunity for participation in this formerly closed market is heightening,” Benjamin said. RIRIC said it aimed to take advantage of India’s immense housing shortage by developing large-scale commercial and residential townships in four megapolises - Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi.

The company claimed its plans for the next 10 years in India would provide direct employment to nearly 10,000 people and indirect employment to another 40,000. “We have got into a contract to acquire nearly 5,000 acres of land near Mumbai, 3,000 acres near Delhi, 5,600 acres near Bangalore and another 5,000 acres near Kolkata,” Benjamin claimed. He, however, said the final settlement of these deals depended on several factors - chiefly approvals from state governments.Benjamin said Mumbai alone would need anywhere between 180,000 and 200,000 additional residential units in the next 10 years.

India is expected to see an annual shortfall of 20 million housing units till 2011. The $50 billion Indian real estate market is booming and expected to grow at 25 per cent annually. The boom owing to the consumption powered growth of the country’s economy has seen investors planning nearly 250 new shopping malls by 2008, as against just three that existed till 2002.

The central government adopted a regulation in February allowing foreigners to bid for Indian construction projects with local partners and also reducing their minimum land-holding limit from 100 acres to 25 acres. Enthused by the liberalised investment guidelines, a slew of foreign builders are rushing to launch projects in Asia’s third largest economy.

Source :Hindustantimes

NRI uses RTI to get tax refund

This is one problem that most tax-payers in the country may have faced at some point in their lives. The income tax department directly deducts your tax at source, but when it comes to refunds, it sends you on a wild goose chase.

An assessee has now shown a way around the problem through the use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Tushar Dalvi used RTI and managed to get his refund, which was pending for five years, in a week's time.

Dalvi, an NRI, who settled in Santa Cruz a few years ago, has a non-resident ordinary account from which the bank was deducting tax at source (TDS) on the interest accumulated on his deposits. Although he had filed returns and applied for a refund with the central international taxation department from 2002 onwards, he had not got a single reply from the I-T department.

"I was stone-walled for quite sometime and then I tried to use the services of a chartered accountant (CA). But he said he would charge me Rs 50,000 as service charge,"said 60-year-old Dalvi, an IIT alumnus from Powai. The CA told him that some part of the money would be for 'other expenses' to get the job done quickly.

Dalvi decided to file an RTI query with the I-T dept's central public information officer (CPIO) in December last year, asking about the status on his pending refund. "The officer in charge forwarded my request to the CPIO for international taxation and I got both my refunds in a week."

Separate NRI investment cell for Kerala tourism

Steps are underway to set up a separate cell to tap the cash-rich non-resident Keralites (NRKs) for developing Kerala's tourism infrastructure, state Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said here Tuesday.

"Though the central and state governments are doing their bit to promote tourism in Kerala, this will not be enough for the development of tourism infrastructure. For this we should tap the NRKs and a special cell will be created to this effect," Balakrishnan said in the state assembly.

The minister was replying to questions on the steps taken to promote tourism in Kerala.
He said that an Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation would also be set up to look into tourism infrastructure development.

The minister pointed out that the biggest problem faced by the Kerala tourism industry was shortage of rooms."During the peak season Kerala requires around 20,000 rooms and what we have now are a mere 8,000 rooms," Balakrishnan said.

In 2006, the number of foreign tourists visiting Kerala went up by 23.67 percent over 2005 and touched a record 428,534. In the same period, as many as 6.2 million domestic visitors arrived in the state, up by 5.41 percent from 2005.

Balakrishnan said they would promote home-stays in the state to address the increasing demand for rooms.
"Home stay is one area where we could concentrate because it brings income to all. Kochi is already doing well in this front. A master plan for tourism is also on the anvil and this would cover all the issues of the industry," he added.

The minister further said that tourism would soon be part of the school curriculum and that more tourism educational institutions would also be set up.

Source:manglorean.com

NRIs Woo Real Estate in India

NRIs wanting to park their funds in India are taking the real estate market seriously enough to form informal groups to back select projects. This is the latest trend observed in the Indian realty market, and nobody’s complaining.

NRIs tend to invest in residential properties in India, preferably in their native towns or cities where their relatives and friends can supervise such projects. However, funds are now being put into some commercially viable projects as well, such as malls, hotels and office complexes. Around $600 million has poured in from such investments in the last one year, with a single investment from a group averaging between $10 to 15 million.

Law firms receive 5 to 6 enquiries every week from overseas Indians who club together and float a fund to build a property, stay on through the lock-in period, and sell it at a good profit.
Jaipur, Hyderabad, Vijaywada, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat have seen groups of NRIs making such investments in malls, office spaces and residential townships. These investments are generally routed through Mauritius to avail of tax benefits.

It is a win-win situation for both investors and real estate developers. The former earn handsome returns, while for the latter, it’s low-cost credit. Some projects in smaller cities have yielded as much as 50% returns.

Overseas Indians are allowed to make investments in Indian property without any limit on the quantity or the number of investments.There is a huge gap in supply in almost all sectors of property in India. The IT/ITES sector will require a space of 150 million sq. ft by 2010, while 6.7 housing units are currently in short supply. The emerging retail industry will require vast spaces to accommodate the large hypermarkets coming up.

On a more formal scale, capital management companies are being formed overseas by Indians to work with top builders and offer consultancy services to individuals looking for investment in Indian realty. For NRIs, it’s a gold mine waiting to be tapped

Budget: NRI investors get lower returns

More Indians are paying more taxes, the economy is growing at over nine percent, exports are booming and foreign reserves have touched a new record of $180 billion. So Finance Minister P. Chidambaram focused on the poor to lower prices, provide better education and healthcare, offer selected insurance cover and improve infrastructure.

Now that foreign companies are rushing to India and Indian companies are buying out foreign companies, new investment incentives take a back seat. Thus it is no wonder the budget did not have any special provisions to attract NRI investors. However, NRIs, like all Indians, will pay less income tax but also get lower returns on Indian stocks.

NRIs who file income tax returns in India will benefit marginally as the tax exemption has been raised by Rs.10,000 to Rs.110,000; to Rs 145,000 for women and Rs.195,000 for senior citizens. However, the education cess has increased from two percent to three percent on all direct and indirect taxes to finance higher education.

NRIs will get lower returns from their investments in stocks. The budget raised the dividend distribution tax from 12.5 to 15 percent on dividends paid by a domestic company from April 1, 2007. When the education cess of three percent is added, it amounts to over 18 percent. This means the dividend is reduced by over 18 percent on Indian stocks.

Similarly, NRIs investing in a money market mutual fund or a liquid fund would pay 25 percent dividend distribution tax. But not many NRIs invest in these very short-term funds and the return is negligible. NRI tenants occupying any property for commercial use will now have to pay service tax of 12.5 percent. This increases their cost of doing business in India. NRI landlords will not be affected, as they will collect this service tax from their tenants. The budget did not make any provisions for greater individual real estate investment.

To attract NRIs to invest in real estate, the stamp duty should be uniform across the country and reduced considerably. NRIs remit funds through legitimate banking channels and so they are at a disadvantage when the seller demands the majority of the price in cash as the sale price is a fraction of the total price paid for a property. This will bring down, if not stop, cash changing hands when buying and selling property that is commanding steep prices in India today. Since this is not strictly a budgetary provision, the finance minister can issue guidelines to the state governments on this matter. As avid collectors of Indian art, if NRIs sell their art pieces in India, they will have to pay a capital gains tax.

An NRI selling any work of art in India including drawings, paintings, sculptures or archaeological collections will now pay capital gains tax of 20 percent on the net gains or 10 percent on the total price. NRI promoters can enjoy a five-year tax holiday if they invest in economy hotels and convention centres in and around Delhi provided that these facilities are completed before March 2010 in time for the Commonwealth Games in the capital. NRI financiers of venture capital funds in India enjoyed tax benefits known as Pass Through Status for all knowledge-intensive ventures. Now the NRI promoters of these venture capital funds will get tax exemptions only in "truly deserving" ventures such as in biotechnology, IT relating to hardware and software development, nanotechnology, seed research and development, research and development of new chemical entities in the pharmaceutical sector, dairy industry, poultry industry and production of bio-fuels.

NRI promoters may also be taxed depending on their country of residence and its tax treaties with India. If an NRI takes over an infrastructure company through merger or acquisition, he/she will lose the exemption benefit granted earlier. In addition to their bank accounts in major cities with major banks, NRIs can now open NRE/FCNR deposit accounts in selected foreign currencies or in rupees with Regional Rural Banks that are making good progress. NRIs can heave a sigh of relief that their cash withdrawals under Rs.50,000 will not be notified to the authorities. To keep track of cash transactions and 'black money', a banking cash transaction tax was introduced last year for all cash withdrawals above Rs.25,000 and these transactions were reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit.

This led the Income Tax Department to many money-laundering and 'hawala' transactions. This year, the limit of withdrawals has been raised to Rs.50,000. The budget follows the old saying, "If it's working, don't fix it". India is progressing well so the poor should benefit. And NRIs are welcome to contribute - without VIP treatment.

Source:indiatimes

Remit2India to offer NRE transfers

World’s number one independent online money transfer portal for NRIs recently unveiled its exciting NRE promotional campaign. The promotion promises premium exchange rates to NRIs allowing them to earn up to Rs.4500 over the standard rates for transferring money into their NRE accounts.

NRE(Non-Resident External) account, is a bank account, which can be opened by any person of Indian origin or nationality, currently settled abroad. These accounts can be maintained in the form of savings, current or term deposit accounts with any authorized banks in India. An NRI gets the opportunity to enjoy the multiple benefits of higher interest rates, tax- free principal and interest amount and also full reparability of funds involved.

Furthermore, the NRI can use his NRE account to invest into the various investment vehicles including mutual funds, property, insurance, etc. as tools for wealth creation.

The NRE money transfers promotion being latest on the platter is designed and framed to steal the show by offering best possible exchange rates in the market exclusively for Remit2India customers. Remit2India service is available in 32 countries and 9 currencies across the globe for inbound remittances to India through multiple money transfer options available on the website.

Source:indiatimes