How diamonds can become 'the new gold' for investors

Diamonds can at last be an investor's best friend, the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDIX) said on Tuesday, as it launched a new standardised form of the precious stones to rival gold ingots as a safe-haven alternative to cash.

The industry says diamonds are the world's most concentrated form of wealth, but investors have long viewed them as less useful as a store of value than gold because each stone is different, making its value subjective and trading difficult.

Alain Vandenborre, chairman and founder of SDIX, says technology has solved that problem and diamonds can now become "the new gold".

Diamond Bullion, produced by the Singapore Diamond Mint, is a collection of investment grade diamonds whose value can be quickly checked. Denominations will initially range between $100,000 and $200,000, with higher and lower values possible in future.

The diamonds are stored in a credit card-sized device containing a chip that allows immediate valuation based on exchange trading and instant authentication, which is crucial as synthetic diamonds have no resale value.
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Chinese regulators to rein in $3 trillion shadow banking industry

As a flood of unregulated cash swirls through the Chinese economy, Beijing has been taking aim at the trust companies whose unrestrained lending practices are worrying regulators.

The trusts, at the heart of a vast shadow banking industry, are being pressured to step up compliance and background checks, and are being pushed towards greater transparency.

But the fast-growing 20 trillion yuan ($3 trillion) industry, whose lending operations are cloaked behind opaque structures, will be tough to rein in, according to employees at some trusts.

A regulatory sanction against one trust, Shanghai International Trust, and a legal case against another, National Trust, offer rare insights into the industry, and reveals just how hard it will be to police it.

Shanghai Trust was fined 200,000 yuan for selling a product that violated leverage rules, according to a regulator's notice in January. Regulators provided no further details about the case. Under these rules, property developers are only allowed to borrow up to three times their existing net assets.
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Gujarat govt announces Rs 1 lakh reward to find Blue Whale curators

The Gujarat government on Thursday announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh to those providing information about the "administrators and curators" of the deadly Blue Whale Challenge.

After banning the challenge, which incites people to commit suicide, the state home department on Thursday came out with an advisory and directed police department and district administrations to prohibit people from undertaking the challenge.

Minister of State for Home, Pradipsinh Jadeja, said that the cyber cell of the state police has launched a helpline number -- 079-22871917 -- for anyone seeking information on the online game which has resulted in several young people allegedly killing themselves worldwide.

Jadeja said the state government has directed commissioners and district magistrates to prohibit undertaking of the "game" under relevant provisions of the CrPC and the Gujarat Police Act.

"The state government has banned Blue Whale Challenge. Educational institutes are taking steps to create awareness about its adverse impact, and the police's cyber crime cell has launched a helpline number for parents seeking to know what they should do when they find out their children playing the game," he was quoted as saying in a release.
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Is there cash in the ATM? 6 months later, India shakes off note-ban blues

‘Is there cash at the ATM?’ is a question many still ask Bir Singh, posted outside an automated teller machine on Lodhi Road in the Capital. After weeks of going through the tedium of standing in queues for cash, and often coming away disappointed, many have got used to asking this question before entering an ATM.

“People still think there is a shortage. However, we have refills twice a day on weekdays and once on Sundays,” says Singh. Cash is back in full force in the National Capital Region and lining up to take out a little cash is a thing of the past. If an ATM is empty, it is mostly because of technical glitches, not due to no cash being available.

The situation in other parts of the country is very similar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shocked the nation on November 8, 2016, by freezing 86 per cent of the cash in the system. He declared the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes paper, albeit preserving their economic value if deposited in banks. The entire nation queued up outside ATMs. Bank branches worked overtime and on holidays as people stood in line to deposit the scrapped notes. Some even died while standing in the queue. Banks had parked Rs 6 lakh crore of their excess money with the central bank, at which point the Reserve Bank (RBI) resorted to extraordinary measures for absorbing the deluge. Neither the government nor the RBI has yet stated how much of money was deposited with banks till the window closed on December 30 for banks and by March with designated branches of the central bank, for no clear reason.

“Cash is available a lot more freely at ATMs now and the queues at banks have come down drastically. The situation has returned to normal but there’s still some odd days when there’s a shortage, especially on weekends,” said Nikhil Infant, who works at Garden City College in Bengaluru as head of social media and digital content.
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Google, Amazon eye Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business

Google and Amazon joined a list of potential buyers eyeing Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business as the Japanese conglomerate seeks bidders to cover huge losses, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Toshiba has reportedly completed the first round of bidding for its prized memory chip business, seen as key for the cash-strapped company to turn itself around.

Some 10 foreign companies and funds, including Google and Amazon, tendered bids, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources.

The two US tech giants are expected to use Toshiba's memory chips for their cloud services, the daily said.

Taiwan's Hon Hai, which acquired Japanese electronics maker Sharp last year, has apparently bid more than 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), the daily said.

Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.

Toshiba shares jumped more than five percent on Friday after local media reported that bidders included Apple, US private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and American chipmaker Broadcom.

Toshiba is expected to negotiate with individual candidates this month.

Local media said any foreign buyer would need to pass a Japanese government review, given concerns about security around systems already using Toshiba's memory chips.

Toshiba is the world's number two supplier of memory chips for smartphones and computers, behind South Korea's Samsung, and the business accounted for about a quarter of its 5.67 trillion yen in revenue last fiscal year.

The news report came after angry investors lambasted Toshiba executives at a shareholders meeting over its warning that annual losses could balloon to more than $9.0 billion.

The red ink is largely tied to huge cost overruns and construction delays at its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy protection late March. (read more)

Infosys management did not make timely disclosures: Mohandas Pai

Latest News - Even as Infosys management denies allegations on corporate governance deficit, its former chief financial officer T V Mohandas Pai on Tuesday accused it of not disclosing necessary details on Rajiv Bansal's exit with a high severance package of Rs 17.3 crore.

"In October 2015, they had a press release saying the CFO is going, and both the CFO and CEO said nice things about each other. They did not disclose (the severance package)... They didn't disclose after the December quarter (results)," Pai told PTI on the sidelines of an event here.

The tussle between some of the Infosys founders and the management comes at a time when the (Read More)

Good news! RBI may lift cash withdrawal limit by Feb-end

Latest News - With the cash crunch situation easing, the Reserve Bank might do away with the weekly withdrawal limits from banks as well as ATMs by the end of next month, bankers said.

The RBI had recently raised the ATM withdrawal limit to Rs 10,000 a day but maintained the weekly cap at Rs 24,000 for saving account and Rs 1 lakh for current account holders.

"I think the restrictions on withdrawal by RBI should be completely lifted by February-end or by first half of March as cash situation is easing gradually," Bank of Maharashtra executive director R K Gupta told PTI.

It is entirely RBI's decision and the (Read More)

Your assets not hidden from our gaze: I-T dept tells black money holders

Latest News - Warning black money holders that their undisclosed assets are "not hidden" from its gaze, the Income Tax department Sunday advised them to avail the ongoing one-time disclosure window--PMGKY-- to come clean on their stashed funds.

In advertisements released in leading national dailies, the department also published the salient features of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY), 2016 which was announced by the government post demonetisation in November last year.

"Your undisclosed accounts or cash deposits are not hidden from us.

"Helping the less fortunate can help you. Invest your undisclosed income in the (Read More)