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| Plea for A Centralised Database for Unclaimed Public Money; Books Giveaway Ends |
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| Dear Moneylifers, |
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| Let me start by sharing a bit a news on our long battle to help nominees and legal heirs access unclaimed deposits, mutual funds, bonds, insurance, PF and the interest on all these saving instruments, which have remained unclaimed because of maddening legal processes or simply because their very existence is not known to the rightful owners. The amounts involved are huge – over Rs82,000 crore and perhaps much more. |
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 On 12th August, in response to a plea that I had filed with the help of senior counsel Prashant Bhushan regarding unclaimed deposits, the Supreme Court of India issued notices seeking response from the ministries of finance, corporate affairs, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) returnable in eight weeks. We are asking that all information ought to be available and accessible on a centralised online database and that technology must be made to work on behalf of citizens, to give them back what is rightfully theirs. |
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| Nominees and legal heirs have to go through a harrowing process with multiple applications for making claims after the death of an individual. I strongly urge each of you should use your good offices with regulators and people in government to impress upon them the need to support our contention and to make this centralised database a reality. It affect all of us and the future generations. A country that boasts revolutionary technology and payment systems cannot continue to have such antiquated and tortuous systems when it comes to our inheritance rights. |
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| You can read more about our thoughts and the issue here and here. You can also watch a short video about the importance of this issue here. |
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| Our Grand Giveaway of Books |
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| Last month, we had started a reorganisation of our Knowledge Centre in Mumbai and opened up our collection of over 1000 books for a giveaway to book lovers in Mumbai. Over the last few weeks several donors have added to the collection by sending across some wonderful books, novels, biographies and best-sellers. They cover business, law, management, investment, trading and economics. We received 25 books from Advocate Mrinalini Deshmukh, over 120 books from Mr Cyrus Guzder, nearly 70 odd books from Mr Dinesh Kanabar and 30 from Mr Shailesh Gandhi. We are delighted that many book lovers have been visiting our offices to pick up these wonderful books. |
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| But we are close to wrapping up this giveaway, if any of you are still interested in browsing through our collection and taking home any books, please give a call to our office 022-24441058 or 022-24441059 during business hours. More importantly, please share this with book lovers and small libraries who could spread the reading habit! |
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| Expanding Financial Literacy Videos to Other languages |
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| Our efforts to present our financial literacy videos in languages other than Hindi and English continue with new videos being published last week in Marathi. Now you can learn about credit cards and also how to stay safe from online frauds in Marathi! These videos and others will soon be available in Punjabi, Gujarati and Tamil as well. |
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| You can subscribe to our YouTube Channel for regular updates and notifications when a new video is released, and also encourage your friends and family to do so as well. After all, the more number of people that watch and learn from these short videos, the more financially literate we can all be. |
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| We are also happy to send them to you in the language of your choice on WhatsApp and Telegram if you share your numbers at Moneylife Foundation's WhatsApp number (+91 7045156415). This is also a good opportunity for you to join our WhatsApp broadcast list as well as our telegram channel. Join to stay in the loop about Moneylife Foundation's activities. |
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| Our video, 'Truth About Gold Loans' has been dubbed in Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil. The one on credit cards, avoiding online and banking frauds and understanding whether bank relationship managers can be trusted are Hindi at the moment and other languages will happen soon. |
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| Do send us your feedback on these and if you have benefitted from our work, please do not forget to pass it forward by introducing our videos, free helplines and membership benefit to others. Do register for a free membership and also encourage your friends and family to join as well. |
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| Upcoming Programmes |
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| After a brief hiatus, we are restarting some of our Right to Information series of webinars with former Central Information Commissioner Mr Shailesh Gandhi. In September we have two sessions planned, details of which are shared below for reference. |
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| Empower Yourself: Learn About the Important Provisions of the RTI Act |
 Wednesday, 7 September 6:00-7:30pm
For those of you who are new to the RTI Act or would like to brush up on the provisions of the same, Mr Gandhi will spend some time explaining the important sections of the Act and also help with drafting of effective applications. |
| Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuf-qgqTgsEtAZuUFpHADGeUZ37kBFpg-C |
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| Countering Illegal Refusals in RTI |
Wednesday, 21 September 6:00-7:30pm
In this session, Mr Gandhi will help with illegal and unlawful rejections of RTI applications and provide solutions for such rejections with examples. |
| Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlce-tqj0oE9VTpHeis26Vei78twGn8Jww |
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| File your RTI Applications with Expert Guidance |
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| RTI Advice App पर विस्तृत गाइड से विशिष्ट उपयोग के मामलों के लिए आरटीआई आवेदन दाखिल करने का तरीका जानें। हिंदी और मराठी भाषाओं में उपलब्ध। |
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| Many of you are already aware of our 'RTI Advice' app, which was launched for both android and iOS devices a year ago. The app helps you get expert advice on your RTI queries in any language or format (text, audio or video) and access to over 900 queries that are already asked and answered by our 14 highly regarded RTI experts. |
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| Don't worry about how to navigate the app—we now have user guides for you in English, Hindi and Marathi! Download the app or access the guides from our website here. |
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| Moneylife TV & Helplines |
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| Catch up with our financial literacy work through – Moneylife TV and Moneylife News Bites. |
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| Get guidance and counselling through 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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| 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  | | | |
