Investing early in any area always benefited one, whether it’s self-development, education or in the financial security. Investment can be of any type time, energy, focus, although you need these three in every aspect of life but in this article, we will talk about investing money.

It’s good to start investing money in your college days but, If you haven’t in college days, you can start any minute now, “It’s better late than never”.

Below are the few options to start investing considering the budget of college students and it will also be good start for newbies who are not in college anymore.

• MUTUAL FUNDS (SIP)

Mutual funds will be the best start for your investment journey as it is less complicated and risky than the other options.

There are two ways to invest in Mutual funds, One-Time Payment- where you invest a lump-sum amount of money at one time and second one is the most reliable and suitable option if you do not have big amount, Systematic Investment Plan(SIP).

In SIP every month one certain amount of money chosen by you get deducted from your account automatically.

There are various MUTUAL FUNDS options out there now and several platforms are available too where you can invest online. For a start choose a less risky fund to invest into after you are aware with all the process try to invest in an aggressive fund.

• STOCKS

Stock market can be your second-best option after Mutual funds. These both options are quite similar in a way as your money will get invested in shares of a company.

In Mutual Fund a fund manager is there to manage your fund and you will get a bucket of companies where your money will get invested but, in SHARE MARKET or STOCKS you are the boss of your investment.

You can invest here by analysing the performance of the companies, after a while after understanding the process of SHARE MARKET you can invest in IPO(Initial Public Offering). When a new company is about to make a debut in Share market, they release an IPO for fund collection. In this a lump-sum amount of money is decided by company and you have to purchase that minimum amount in order to get their stock. It’s a bidding process and there is no certainty that you will get the IPO but, you won’t lose your money it will get transferred to your account after certain period of time.

• NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME(NPS)

This scheme must feel like it’s too early for college students, but it has its own benefits.

Anyone between the age group of 18-60 can invest in this scheme and it’s a scheme by Government so you can invest in this.

After the age of your retirement, you can withdraw 60% of the amount invested and rest will be annuitized.

Although it seems like there is not such growth in this but you can save additional 50K INR on your taxes once you landed in a job after college.

• REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST(REIT)

REIT will be your best option if you want to invest in REAL ESTATE but don’t have a larger amount of money.

REIT will give you a fractional ownership of the property although, chance of getting profit form its share are quite low but you will get dividend money and that could be your source of passive income. Dividend money will be based on the share percentage and its company full ownership for providing dividends.

REIT is quite new in INDIA and it is still in its BETA version so it will be better if you opt the above options first.

Disclaimer: The information provided by this website is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Investing in stocks and other financial instruments involves risks, and you may lose money. It is important to conduct your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions. The website does not have access to real-time market data and cannot predict market movements. Remember to diversify your portfolio and comply with applicable laws and regulations. The website is not responsible for any investment losses or decisions made based on its responses.

Written by Shubham Kumar

We Know stories of big political and financial scams involving huge amount of money. The people responsible for such actions are stopped but it’s time to ponder what’s the driving cause of these actions and will the tax payers be contributing their money into development of their country or its leading to a bigger scam in future.

Let’s roll out our way to some of the biggest scams that came into spotlight in the country in last few years.

1. 2G Spectrum Scam

Image Courtesy: news18.com 

This was considered one of the biggest misuses of power and considered as the biggest fraud of Independent India. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the country’s ultimate auditing authority, released a report on the Department of Telecom’s granting of licences and distribution of 2G spectrum on November 16, 2010.

CAG, then chaired by Vinod Rai, reported that 2G licences were given to telecom companies at a discount, costing the government Rs 1.76 lakh billion. Furthermore, licences had been granted to ineligible applicants who had knowingly concealed facts, supplied insufficient information, presented counterfeit papers, and utilized deceptive techniques to obtain licenses and therefore spectrum access.

In the run-up to the auction, the telecom ministry under A Raja modified the regulations and qualifying criteria many times. The auction’s deadline was pushed back by the government.

Politicians and bureaucrats defrauded telephone companies by undercharging for frequency allocation licences, which were subsequently utilized to generate 2G spectrum subscriptions. The money obtained and the money instructed to be collected were vastly different. A loss of Rs 309845.5 million was projected. All 122 licences awarded under A. Raja were revoked by the Supreme Court of India in 2012. The examination by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that licences were also given to ineligible companies with no prior expertise in the telecom sector.

• Commonwealth Scam

Image Courtesy: cartoonistsatish.blogspot.com

The Commonwealth Games (CWG) fraud, one of the largest in India, occurred in New Delhi in 2010, involving a theft of over Rs 70,000 crore. Only half of the budgeted cash was spent on Indian athletes, according to estimates. The athletes were allegedly requested to relocate from the substandard flats that the authorities had assigned to them. According to reports from the Central Vigilance Commission, which is investigating the CWG scandal, Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Games’ Organizing Committee, awarded Swiss Timings a contract for Rs 141 crore for timing equipment that was overpriced by Rs 95 crore.

All of the defendants, including Kalmadi, were charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery with the intent to defraud, and violations of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Commonwealth Games, which began in 1930 and are now held every four years, are an internationally popular multi-sport event that brings together competitors from all across the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth Games Federation organizes the event once every four years (CGF).

• TELGI Scam

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Abdul Karim Telgi was once a fruit seller at Karnataka’s Khanapur station, the city of his birth. Little did anyone know that he would go on to mastermind one of the most audacious scams in India. In 1991, he had his first brush with the law when the Mumbai Police arrested the man, known by now as Karim Lala, on charges of forgery and cheating. In jail, Telgi found an accomplice in what would be his future racket, fake stamp papers, which were perennially in short supply throughout the country and were therefore in great demand.

• BOFORS Scam

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The CWG incident is arguably the first Indian swindle that has made international headlines. Concerns and controversy developed ahead of the 12-day Commonwealth Games, with India expected to lose almost Rs 35,000 crore and one in every three Indians living in poverty. Apart from being irrelevant to the average person, the Games revealed a number of other issues, including official corruption, delays in the construction of the Games’ venues, the threat of terrorist attacks, labor law violations, child labor, misappropriation of funds, and payments to non-existent parties, according to Indian investigative agencies.

• Cobbler Scam

Image Courtesy: indianmirror.com

The Cobbler Scam, also known as The Great Cobbler Scam, is one of the largest multi-million-dollar scams in Indian history. What actually happened in the Great Cobbler Scam was that various businessmen and politicians stole roughly $600 million US dollars from a government-sponsored plan intended to help Mumbai’s destitute cobblers. Instead, it flowed into the wallets of the wealthy, who used the funds to construct luxurious mansions for themselves, as well as purchase expensive vehicles, yachts, and artwork. The funds were intended to give low-interest loans and tax breaks to Mumbai’s poorest — cobblers who work 16-hour days for less than $2 a day. These cobblers did not get a single dime.

• Fodder Scam

Image Courtesy: cartoonistsatish.com

The Rs 950-crore scandal involves the illicit removal of public monies from government treasuries in numerous districts across Bihar’s undivided state. 55 of the initial 170 defendants have died, seven have become government witnesses, two have accepted the allegations against them, and six have fled the country. On February 15, the court handed down its decision against 99 defendants, including Lalu Prasad Yadav.

• Hawala Scandal

Image Courtesy: indianmirror.com

In Delhi, Ashfak Hussain Lone, a man suspected of being a member of the terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen, was apprehended. The authorities discovered during his interrogation that his group was funded through hawala, with Surendra Kumar Jain and his family acting as a conduit. Surrender Kumar Jain, his siblings, family, and companies were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based on this and other evidence obtained during Lone’s questioning. The CBI confiscated Indian and international money, two diaries, and two note books from the premises during the operations. These diaries recorded reports of large payments made to persons who were high-ranking politicians, both in and out of office, and high-ranking bureaucrats, identified only by initials. The inquiry at this point was halted by the CBI, and neither the Jains nor the contents of their diaries were looked into. Meanwhile, governing legislators ordered CBI officers implicated in the inquiry to be relocated to different locations. However, because it was pursued by a few journalists, the story continued to generate headlines in the news media.

The supreme court case was not about the hawala issue per se, but about the mysterious removal of CBI Director Joginder Singh and the widespread abuse of political power to stifle CBI and Revenue Department investigations. The court, through judges S.P. Bharucha and S.C. Sen, issued a ruling on December 18, 1997, consisting of a 26-point list of pronouncements, the most important of which made it impossible for politicians in the government to remove the CBI Director for two years, ensuring that the CBI and its officers would be free to carry out their work without political interference.

Written by – Prateek Yash