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 summer this year promises to be a scorcher and there are only so many ways you can deflect it. If you're on a shoestring budget , a fan would be your only choice, but it cannot help reduce the temperature. Air coolers are better, but they only add to the humidity, which makes the months of July and August simply unbearable. One of the best options then is to install an air conditioner in your home. An AC will get you through the sultry months comfortably and, if you know the features you want in the appliance, it will even fit into your budget.

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.

ET profiles two persons of humble origins who found their calling in insurance serendipitously, faced the music for their unorthodox career choice, but finally laughed their way to the bank with a bigger pay than the LIC chairman himself... While still a teenager, at the age of 17, Bharat Parekh risked being an outcast among his college mates. Not that he indulged in anti-social activities, nor were his friends caste-conscious, all he did was don the role of an agent for the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)

NEW DELHI: The next edition of the low-cost Aakash tablet will have a SIM card slot, a faster processor, higher memory capacity, and will be able to function on both the android operating system and Linux . But IIT Bombay, which is spearheading the effort, would like to ensure that improved offerings don't result in a higher price for the tablet. The tablet is available for students at subsidised rate of 1,130 while the government purchases it at 2,263. The initial plan is to roll out 50 lakh units of Aakash 3 tablet and a global tender is expected to put out in February.

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said she plans to create an 'employment bank' where students and youths offering voluntary service for two years will be enrolled and given jobs. Outlining her plan, she said she would create a 'students brigade' in January comprising students and youths who would offer voluntary service in cities and villages for two years. "They will automatically be enrolled in an employment bank from where unemployed youths and students will be provided jobs by the state government.

NEW DELHI: The telecom department has told the panel of ministers tasked with finding solutions to revitalise state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL, that the spectrum auction rules of 2010, which state that companies will not get a refund if they surrender their airwaves, should not apply to the two public sector mobile phone companies. The department (DoT) has argued that BSNL and MTNL were given 4G airwaves or wireless broadband spectrum in 2008, two years prior to the auctions of these frequencies for private operators, and has added that the allotment letters given to the PSUs did not state anything related to surrender of bandwidth.

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.

After giving fabulous returns for nearly a decade, gold has done the unthinkable. It has actually declined in the past six months! What has turned this safe avenue into a loss-making investment? The main reason for gold's short-term weakness is the rise of the dollar due to the economic crisis in Europe. The dollar has also moved up on the hopes that the US economy is emerging from its crises, which could nudge the Federal Reserve to withdraw the stimulus package earlier than expected.

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.

Deutsche Bank cut its forecast for gold prices in 2013, 2014 and 2015 on Friday, citing the sharp price correction in gold last month and upgrades to its US dollar outlook. The bank lowered its 2013 gold outlook 6 percent to $1,533 from $1,637. It downgraded its 2014 gold outlook by 17 percent to $1,500 and its 2015 gold outlook by 25 percent to $1,450. The bank expects gold's use as a hedge against currency debasement to fade amid anticipated strength in the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies.

BY: Jafar Baig Anna Covaco is trying to sell her ancestral property - a piece of land worth nearly Rs 10 crores in today's market. Being a senior citizen, she has put her son John in-charge to dispose off the asset. To be eligible for tax exemption , John was advised that he needs to invest in another property within a year. Still confused, he has approached a financial advisor to help him out with the nitty-gritties . Buying property for investment purposes and selling it later at a higher price has become a common habit.