Month: November 2007
Making a valid deed
Making a valid deed
11 Nov, 2007, 0230 hrs IST,Ashish Gupta, TNN
In case of property transactions, various types pf deeds need to be drawn up. These may relate to agreement to sell, sale agreement, power of attorney and so on. Certain basic points need to be taken into account while drawing out these legal documents. The main content of a deed includes:
1. The names of the parties -buyer and seller, lessor and lessee etc
2. Terms and conditions related to the sale or transfer of the property
3. Details of the parties
4. Details of property in question
5. Sale consideration agreed on 6. Advance amount paid 7. Mode of payments 8. Time limits for payment of consideration
9. Timeframe for handing over original documents of the property 10.Timeframe for handing over possession of property 11. Indemnity provisions for the parties.
The deeds should be prepared on non-judicial stamp paper of requisite value as prescribed by the Stamp Act of the State concerned. Different States have different valuations and stamp rules related to property transactions in respect of sale, mortgage and leases.The purchaser is liable to pay the stamp duty in accordance with the applicable stamp rules. Normally, a deed should be executed by all the parties concerned.
All pages of the deed are to be signed. The deed should be witnessed by at least two witnesses giving their full names, signatures, particulars and addresses. Most deeds related to immovable property need compulsory registration at the jurisdictional sub-registrar’s office. All the parties concerned need to be present at the time of registration. All documents should be presented in original.
In case the purchaser cannot be present personally before the sub-registrar, he can give a power of attorney to someone to sign and present the documents on his behalf. The photos of the purchaser, thumb prints and signatures are entered on the deed. The documents should be presented for registration within four months from the date of execution. If it is not done within four months, a grace period of another four months is allowed on payment of a penalty.
A maximum penalty of 10 times the registration charges may be levied by the registrar. The liability to pay the stamp duty as well as registration charges lies with the purchaser of the property. The terms and conditions contained in the deeds should be clear and unambiguous. Any vague references and ambiguous connotations may give rise to misinterpretation and disputes between the parties.
The details of the property should be specifically and clearly defined. The exact location of the property, whether the property is a leasehold property or a freehold property etc should be mentioned. The details of how the owner of the property got ownership should also be mentioned. The details of registration already done with the office of the registrar should be mentioned as well. It should also be stated whether the property is free from any encumbrances or not, or whether there are any charges on the property.
The date from which the transaction is going to be effective should also be mentioned in the deed. The purpose of drawing the deed should be clearly mentioned – whether it is an agreement to sell, a sale agreement, a lease agreement, or a licence agreement. The law will go by the nomenclature used to find the true nature of the agreement. The deed should be signed, preferably by the parties themselves, in person.
In case the person cannot be present due to unavoidable circumstances, the executor should have proper power of attorney from the original party to enter into the transaction on behalf of the original party. Such power of attorney should be registered with the office of the registrar. The signatures of the parties should be properly attested.
Eat fish, veggies to boost memory
Eat fish, veggies to boost memory
A diet rich in fish, omega-3 oils, fruits and vegetables may lower your risk of memory-affecting diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s, a new study says.
But consuming omega-6 rich oils could increase the chances of developing memory problems.
Findings of the study have been published in the November issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Foods high in omega-3 oil include fish like salmon, sardines, trout and herring, and walnut, flaxseed oil and canola oil. Shrimps, clams, tuna, catfish, cod and spinach also contain omega-3 oil.
Foods rich in omega-6 oil include corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oil.
For the study, researchers at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research, in Bordeaux, France, examined the diets of 8,085 men and women over the age of 65 who did not have dementia at the beginning of the study.
Over four years of follow-up, 183 of the participants developed Alzheimer’s disease and 98 developed another type of dementia.
The study found people who regularly consumed omega-3 rich oils reduced their risk of dementia by 60 percent.
People who ate fruits and vegetables daily also reduced their risk of dementia by 30 percent.
The study also found most people who ate fish at least once a week had a 35-percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and 40-percent lower risk of dementia.
The researchers also found that people who regularly use omega-6 rich oils, but not omega-3 rich oils or fish, were twice as likely to develop dementia.
“While we’ve identified dietary patterns associated with lowering a person’s risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s, more research is needed to better understand the mechanisms of these nutrients involved in these apparently protective foods,” the researchers said.
RIL bags deepwater oil and gas block in Oman
RIL bags deepwater oil and gas block in Oman
PTI
NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries Ltd has won a deepwater oil and gas block in Oman, a company source said.
Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, has signed contract for Block 41.
The block lies adjacent to Block 18 in Gulf of Oman, which the Government of Sultanate of Oman awarded to RIL in 2005.
Block 18 is situated in the offshore Gulf of Oman between Block 41 and the border with the Fujuriah offshore block. The two blocks comprises approximately 21,000 sq km of area each.
Reliance last week executed two production sharing contracts covering petroleum exploration activities in the Rovi and Sarta blocks in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The company has been actively pursuing petroleum exploration activities in the Middle East, particularly in Oman and Yemen, besides India, Asia Pacific Region and South America.
Atul Chandra, President of International Operations, RIL, said agreements for the two blocks were signed by Kurdistan Regional Government. He, however, said the reported figures of signature bonus paid for the two blocks were not correct.
Are Indian oil companies ‘bidding on the riskiest properties’ overseas?
Are Indian oil companies ‘bidding on the riskiest properties’ overseas?
If the world increased its energy efficiency by 3 per cent a year to 2100, the entire world could live at a European standard of living and use just half the fossil fuels we do today.
Oil price hit $84 a barrel a few days ago, amidst fears that the Kurdish rebel problem would lead to the snapping of Iraq’s supplies. And closer home, despite an appreciating rupee, we have been oscillating between ominous expectations of petrol and diesel price increases, to political assurances of ‘no hike now’ with short shelf life, though.
“An interesting and scary thing about high oil prices is that we realise how incredibly interconnected global economies are, and how little we understand the consequences of these connections,” observes Ms Lisa Margonelli, the author of ‘Oil on the Brain’, in the course of an exclusive interaction with Business Line.
“Despite the deep interconnections, we live very differently: after all, Americans continue to use this enormous amount of fuel per capita and that is simply not available to other consumers,” she adds.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms Margonelli is a California-based Fellow at the New America Foundation ( http://www.newamerica.net), an institute that relies on ‘a venture capital approach’ to invest in ‘outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum’. Ms Margonelli’s book is an engaging tale of her journey from the neighbourhood gas station to the oil well.
Excerpts from the e-mail interview:
The US plays an important role in the oil economics. But with the shift now towards Asia significantly, do you think the Chinese as well as the Indian people and their automobiles hold the next piece in the oil puzzle?
Oh yes. Right now the power of the American consumer is that they have big wallets and a huge appetite. But it’s the world’s growing middle class in China and India who will really spur new demand for oil. I’ve heard that only 12 per cent of the world drives cars now — the big question is what will the other 88 per cent drive? (I would imagine they’re likely to buy a Cheri or one of these $2,500 Tatas rather than a Cadillac.) What kind of fuel will they use? (We need cars that don’t pollute or we’ll all have hard time breathing.)
In the near term, new consumers are playing a big role in driving oil demand, and creating an atmosphere where oil investors assume prices will keep rising. But in the long term, it’s these new consumers who will drive the development of new fuels and new vehicles. We’re in a funny time where the money and the future are in different places.
You have talked in your book about how a simple phone call from a warlord in Africa can change the price of oil in a matter of hours. Leaving alone the power of mobile communication, do you think Africa is going to play an even more important role in oil politics now?
Africa is already playing a role in oil politics — Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Angola, Sudan, and Chad. As the politics of getting oil in the Middle East and Russia has gotten tougher, Africa has been seen as a place where the politics are different, but money still speaks. However, recently, that’s changed. Angola has joined OPEC. Chad has taken a more nationalistic stance on its oil reserves. In Sudan, Chad, and Nigeria, Chinese companies are making a lot of deals —which is also changing oil politics.
What is your take on the acquisition by Indian oil companies of oil assets in other countries?
I understand that Indian companies are buying oil assets for strategic reasons — to compete with China and the West. But they’re clearly bidding on the riskiest properties politically and geologically. As the world’s largest democracy, India has a complicated and growing leadership role in global politics. I’m not sure Indian companies will ultimately be comfortable with the risks they’ve taken on.
The contentious Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline… Iran, Pakistan, and India have some economic and geo-strategic issues in common and the so-called Peace Pipeline could be a way to cement those commonalities and begin to work through the differences. But, um, what’s the hold-up? I’m being flip, but the process of working through those differences to get the pipeline built will be a big step for the region, going beyond the symbolism of the pipeline and the importance of the energy it carries.
The US and its government have often come under the hammer for oil policies, be it with regard to Venezuela, Iran or Iraq. But is not the government doing the right thing by ensuring oil wells are there for its people? After all, oil is a commodity that can make or break a government. Nobody knows it better than George Bush who is known for working for his family’s oil businesses before making the unsuccessful run for US House of Representatives in 1978.
Americans DO use a quarter of the world’s oil production, so we are very dependent on other countries. So we’re in a bind, because our power in the world partly derives from both oil dependence and our sense of mission derives partly from the myth of independence. That doesn’t mean we have a right to other countries’ oil wells. That is a really un-American idea, I think. You are right that American politicians live and die by gas prices. That’s one of the reasons the US doesn’t have a forward thinking energy policy — our politicians work in four-year cycles, but a good energy policy needs 10 or 20 years, which is too long for a political payoff. Anyway, at the moment George W. Bush is too busy being buffeted by other problems to worry much about gas prices.
With limited amounts of crude and consumption set to go higher as more people buy cars and fewer drilling it out of the ground, is oil really heading for $100 per barrel? How far is oil price driven by demand and supply economics, as compared to speculative forces? Are speculators in commodity futures raking in profits at the cost of the less privileged, as some allege?
I think oil will keep going higher until demand starts to fall off. Right now oil prices are like someone trying to figure out how deep a well is by using a stick. They keep making the stick longer to see if they can reach the bottom. Sooner or later people will stop buying, and then prices will fall.
Speculators — sure there are speculators. But until we find the bottom (or the top) for consumers, those speculators are just making good bets. There is no doubt that this is hurting the poor — in the world as well as in the US.
I really think that governments need to push energy efficiency — lots and lots of efficiency — to protect their economies, their poor, and the climate. Which brings me back to the Tata people’s car — what kind of fuel economy would it get? I think we should push for cars that get 100 km per gallon or more. In the 1980s I had a tiny Toyota that got about 90 km per gallon.
In your opinion, which fuel holds the most promise: hydrogen or electricity?
At the moment, barring a big jump in the technology to make and store hydrogen, I’m putting my money on electric cars. But electric cars can also be seen as precursors to hydrogen because the fuel cells act like a big battery.
I think it’s a staged process rather than either or. But I think that energy productivity needs to be a real priority, whichever fuel is used.
If the world increased its energy efficiency by three per cent a year to 2100, the entire world could live at a European standard of living and use just half the fossil fuels we do today.
That’s been called the “conservation bomb” and Art Rosenfeld and John Wilson wrote about it. If you take a programme like that, and then add renewable fuels to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use, you’d be looking at a very different world — with a lot less smog. Of course, you’d still have a lot of traffic.
What’s your take on bio fuels? Are they a feasible option, something that could replace oil in the next century? Is there a risk that food may turn costlier owing to the diversion of harvest to the energy market?Bio fuels carry all kinds of risks — risks to farmers around the world, risks to food consumers, risks to investors since at the moment there’s no commercially feasible way to make cellulosic ethanol.
They also carry a lot of promise — but their success will be in their attention to details. I hope that we take in the lessons of the oil economy — that your economic future is only as secure as the environmental and social security of the people along your energy supply chain.
If bio fuels are going to work, they have to create prosperity all along that supply chain. They also have to be environmentally sustainable. People have to get a fair deal.
If people are starving in one place because of biofuel crops, then people in another place will attack those fuel crops and the whole market will pay for the impact. Politics may be local, but the effects are becoming global.
On your current research, and your next expedition…
I’m doing more research on the supply chains for alternative fuels and pursuing some stories about unexpected technology transfers. I’m also really interested in whether the fight against global climate change will bring new economic opportunities or not. Travel. Well, I’m trying to stay in one place for a little while.
D. MURALI
KUMAR SHANKAR ROY
for The Hindu Business Line
There is a solution to every problem
There is a solution to every problem
Mr Alok Kejriwal is a new media entrepreneur and founded the contests2win business in 1998. He has successfully created new-age businesses in India and China. In his non-working hours Mr Kejriwal meditates and collects Indian contemporary art. Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/training taught me:
God is in the details.
There is a solution to every problem.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
The greatest value creation comes from people — value them the most.
If something is difficult — it’s a great sign. That’s what will make the effort valuable.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
Passion, passion, passion.
A book that I read recently:
After Dark, by Haruki Murakami.
Do not procrastinate
Do not procrastinate
Ms Harinder Singh
Ms Harinder Singh is General Manager at Grand Ashok, Bangalore. She is responsible for implementing strategies to streamline the entire operations of Grand Ashok. She has also served as General Manager, Hyatt Regency, Kathmandu. An amateur golfer, Ms Singh is nine times national trap shooting champion. Here’s her take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/ training taught me:
Knowledge is wealth.
Thoroughness and hard work in all predicaments.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
Do not procrastinate.
There is no ideal situation — everything is subjective.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
Positive attitude.
A book that I read recently:
The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.
The process of learning must continue
The process of learning must continue
Mr Sreeram Iyer is the CEO of Scope International and CIO of Standard Chartered Bank, India. An MBA from the UK, he is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, Company Secretary and a qualified Cost and Management Accountant. Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/ training taught me:
The process of learning must continue regardless of success achieved.
Try and share your learning with your team members.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
There is no substitute to delivery, execution and action.
Every individual brings new talent and capabilities. Identify those and maximise returns.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
Right attitude — to change, learning and ethics.
A book that I read recently:
Plato and a Platypus — Understanding Philosophy through jokes, by Thomas Cathcart.
Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines
Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines
Mr Ashish Kirpal Pandit is the CEO of Fortis HealthWorld Ltd, the retail arm of the Fortis Group. An MBA from Indiana State University, Mr Pandit’s tryst with Fortis HealthWorld began in early 2006. His focus on detail has been instrumental in powering the company to its current leading position. Mr Pandit is a traveller by spirit and an avid golfer. Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/training taught me:
Honing my analytical skills — this has helped me in identifying trends.
Clear and effective communication is the key to success.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
To take up challenges and turn them into opportunities.
Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
Energy, enthusiasm and eye for detail.
A book that I read recently:
The Pursuit of Wow!, by Tom Peters.
Principled life leads to success
Principled life leads to success
Himanshu Baid
Mr Himanshu Baid, Managing Director, Poly Medicure, started his business of manufacturing healthcare disposables in 1997 under the brand name Polymed. His aim is to build his company as the most reputed and trusted company in the medical disposables industry.
Mr Baid, after completing his BE, joined Philips in Germany where he gained vital experience in international trade. His stint in Philips helped him understand the psyche of international marketers.
An avid follower of tennis and cricket, Mr Baid likes spending time with his wife and two sons in his spare time. Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/training taught me:
Principled life leads to success.
Punctuality and self-confidence.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
To be strong and face the challenges.
Passion and enthusiasm to learn from every aspect of life.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
The ability to understand the needs and requirements of the organisation and being honest towards the company and to himself.
A book that I read recently:
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Be fact-based
Be fact-based
Mr Pradeep Nevatia
Mr Pradeep Nevatia, President and CEO, Ninestars Information Technology Ltd, is credited for bringing the ‘Integrated Six-Sigma Program’ and TQM (Total Quality Management) practices from the manufacturing to the BPO industry. Mr Nevatia is a post-graduate in industrial engineering from NITIE, Mumbai, and a alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi. He has co-authored Brand-Wise, Leveraging People to Create Powerful Brands (2004, East West Publications). Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line:
Two things that my education/ training taught me:
Structured thinking.
Systemic planning and analysis.
Two things I learnt from my work/real life:
Be balanced.
Be fact-based.
One quality I look for the most in a new recruit:
The capability of the person to go beyond oneself.
A book that I read recently:
Lie and a Truth, by Nandan Gautam
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