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| Seeking Your Inputs for An Award on Excellence in Corporate Governance & Conversations on Right To Information |
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| Dear Moneylifers, |
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| I am sure many of you have already attended the first two brilliant sessions of our new series – Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi – with Ms Aruna Roy, founder of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information and Mr Wajahat Habibullah, the first Chief Information Commissioner, who gave direction to the commission and the working of the RTI act. We at Moneylife and Shailesh Gandhi, who was the first activist to become Central Information Commissioner (CIC), believe it is time for all Indians to look back and understand the long and hard-fought battle to get this empowering act in place. With time, we tend to forget these empowering tools and take them for granted. I would urge you to listen to the talks if you have missed them and circulate our YouTube videos on these talks especially to youngsters, so that they value the act, use it effectively and fight against attempts to dilute it by politicians and bureaucrats. Remember, nobody in power wants transparency. We have to fight for it and we already have the tool in our hands. |
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 Over the coming months we have an amazing line up of absolute stalwarts who discuss different aspects of the RTI act with Shailesh Gandhi. So get ready to listen to Dr Sridhar Acharyulu, another maverick CIC who pushed the envelope on behalf of citizens on 14 September. On 29 September, we will have Shri Yogendra Yadav, National President, Swaraj India and on 12 October, which is the 16th Anniversary of the enactment of the RTI Act we will have anti-corruption crusader, Anna Hazare, who remains one of the most respected and most effective RTI activists in India. Even today, a letter from Anna sends tremors through the state government machinery and most people outside Maharashtra have a lot to learn about his enormous achievements. |
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| We will be announcing other speakers over time and also look forward to hearing from you about RTI stalwarts across India who have achieved dramatic results, whom you would like to know more about! We would be happy to reach out to them. |
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| Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance |
 Before the Covid pandemic, Moneylife Foundation had announced plans for instituting the first corporate governance award from the investors' perspective. We know that finding examples of great corporate governance has not been easy and we look forward to nominations and suggestions from analysts, activists and investors. Remember, this is for good governance, not for social spending or supporting sports or charities. Good governance would mean good corporate practices such as transparency, treating investors fairly, managing the company well and rewarding investors appropriately. We are looking for companies that go beyond SEBI's mandatory checklist-based compliance requirements. If you can think of any, please send us a paragraph to [email protected], saying why a certain company (listed entities only) or its CEO/Managing Director/Executive Chairman deserves to be honoured. |
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| Our panel of jurists – Prof. J P Singh, R Balakrishnan, Debashis Basu and Yogesh Sapkale as Member Secretary, shall shortlist candidates based on your nominations and decide on the recipient of the award. More details can be found here. The window to send in your nominations is until September 15, 2021. |
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| We finally have our flagship session on financial literacy in hindi – it was conducted by Yogesh Sapkale for the Bombay Community Public Trust (BCPT) scholarship recipients. Do watch it here. We have been listening to your requests for our financial literacy initiatives in other languages and are working at it. |
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| Join Moneylife Foundation |
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 We urge you to encourage people to explore Moneylife Foundation and connect with us through our helplines. Our helplines as well as our membership, as you know, is free. Unless we have details of issues, it is not possible for us to understand your case and provide guidance. So do use our Free Helplines and encourage others to write to us. Here is a link to become a member —do share it. |
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| You may also notice that answers to a range of issues that are important to you – succession, filing consumer complaints, grievance redress or housing society related matters are available at www.moneylife.in especially in our 'How to…' series. Please explore those and our YouTube videos at MoneylifeTV, you may find the answers to your queries are already there! |
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| Counseling on Helplines & Zoom Meetings |
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| With the lockdown still in effect in Mumbai, our counseling sessions on various issues have continued to remain online through our Legal & Credit Helplines, as well as occasional Zoom counseling meetings. If you have a query on housing society, insurance, banking, credit or any other issue, please do become a member of Moneylife Foundation and take advantage of the knowledge imparted by our experts who guide through our helplines. |
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| Forthcoming Webinars: |
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| In the coming months, we have planned for many new RTI series' sessions with Mr Gandhi and other interesting guests. Some of the new sessions in September and October are listed below. Do take note and register for your spot! |
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| Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi – Prof. (Dr.) Sridhar Acharyulu |
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| Tuesday 14 September, 2021 at 6:15pm |
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 Former Central Information Commissioner, Prof. (Dr.) Sridhar Acharyulu will join Mr Gandhi for a discussion on the misuse and misinterpretation of exemptions under the RTI Act.
Register Now |
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| Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi – Shri Yogendra Yadav |
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| Wednesday 29 September, 2021 at 6:15pm |
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 Shri Yogendra Yadav, National President, Swaraj India will be speaking with Mr Gandhi on RTI being an essential requirement for democracy, and the need for a public discussion on Bills placed in the parliament.
Register Now |
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| Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi – Shri Anna Hazare |
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| Tuesday 12 October, 2021 at 6:15pm |
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 Shri Anna Hazare, a social activist, whose work on anti-corruption and pro-transparency stance is widely lauded, will be joining Mr Gandhi on the eve of 'RTI Diwas', for a discussion on RTI as a means to combat corruption through pro-active disclosure or information. |
| Register Now |
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| If you do not get the opportunity to join the session on Zoom, you can still catch the session live on our YouTube and Facebook channels. Allow me to also remind you that you can always catch up on our past financial literacy programmes on our YouTube channel as well. |
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| Do sign up for a free membership to receive information about our activities and initiatives. As always, we look forward to your active feedback on issues that you would like us to discuss, and we will do our best to make it happen. Please do write to us at [email protected] |
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| Programmes in August |
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| This month we had opportunity to host Ms Aruna Roy, founder of National Campaign for People's Right to Information, for our inaugural 'Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi' session. Our members who could join us on the day, were rewarded with the opportunity to hear inspiring stories about the struggle in formulating a national act for the public's right to information. The session was very well attended on Zoom with Moneylife members from across the country, as well as other activists such as Bhaskar Prabhu, Cmdr. Lokesh Batra, Vinita Deshmukh, and others. If you missed the opportunity to watch it live, you can still read about the session here and watch a recording of the session on our YouTube channel. |
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 This month we also had the opportunity to organise a financial literacy session for students of Bombay Community Public Trust (BCPT). Yogesh Sapkale, deputy editor for Moneylife had anchored the session, speaking on a range of subjects relevant to financial literacy – avoiding scams and frauds, identifying the correct sources of investment, digital safety and more. Although the session was conducted solely for students of BCPT, others can also benefit from session by watching a video recording on our YouTube channel. |
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| Our third session this month was organised with the aim to educate homebuyers on the possible solutions when their developer undergoes insolvency proceedings. Dr Rajendra Ganatra, an insolvency resolution professional and CA Hemant Mehta, partner at APMH & Associates LLP, spent a valuable amount of time explaining the rights of homebuyers and how they can get together as a group to collectively resolve insolvency and bankruptcy related proceedings made against their developers. You can read more about the session here and also watch a video recording on our YouTube channel. |
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| Moneylife TV & Helplines |
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| With the outbreak of Covid, our physical events and daily clinics for this month continue to remain suspended for the safety and benefit of all those involved. However, in this lockdown period you can still take advantage of our numerous videos of past seminars and workshops which are always available on our YouTube Channel – Moneylife TV and Moneylife News Bites. |
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| Although counselling on various issues from our experts is not possible in-person, you are welcome to email on [email protected] with your details. We shall forward your mail to the expert for guidance and do our best to get your query resolved. |
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| You also have the option of posting your query on either our Legal Helpline or Credit Helpline. |
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| Also, Moneylife Foundation is now on Telegram and Instagram, so do follow us on these channels to stay updated on our activities and events. |
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| Best regards, |
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| Sucheta Dalal |
| Founder-Trustee, Moneylife Foundation |
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| Trustees: TS Krishnamurthy, Walter Vieira, Sucheta Dalal, Debashis Basu. | | | | Moneylife Foundation is registered with the Charity Commissioner of Mumbai, is an Affiliate member of OECD's International Network on Financial Education, is a Supporter Member of Consumers International, Development Partner of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), and is a winner of the 10th MR Pai Memorial Award. | | |  | | | | Donations are eligible for tax benefits under Sec 80G of the Income Tax 1961 (50% tax exemption) and MLF is registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. 80(G) Reg No: DIT(E)/MC/80G/685/2010-11 dated 7.2.11 effective 8.+9.2010 | FCRA Registration No: 08378138  | | | |
