Centre for Corporate Law Studies, Institute of Law, Nirma University, in association with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) organised an investor awareness webinar on “Strategies for Managing Personal Finance including Mutual Funds during and after COVID-19”, on Dec 21, 2020.
Shri Surya Kant Sharma Senior Consultant North India- AMFI, Shri Deb Bhattacharjee Asst. General Manager, SEBI, and Shri Anup Agarwal, Asst. Vice President, NSDL (Mumbai) were the eminent speakers at the session.
Shri Surya Kant Sharma, Senior Consultant- North India, AMFI, the keynote speaker at the session touched upon the present scenario and cautioned the participants that the coming 12 months are going to the tough with regard to ones personal finances. If one has any social or financial commitment in the next 18 months, adequate funds are needed to be kept handy. These funds can appropriately be kept in savings accounts, fixed deposit, liquid funds, ultra-short term funds or short term funds.
He also shared basic information on various investment avenues available in the market viz. real estate, gold, Government/RBI bonds, corporate bonds, Government schemes (Post office schemes, PPF, NPS, Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme, securities market etc.
Shri Sharma cautioned general investor not to enter securities market directly as there are inherent risks in the market and unless the investor have sound knowledge of market, sectors, economy, international economy’ He also cautioned not to invest in unregulated fund mobilisation schemes – Ponzi schemes – which give assurance for higher and quick returns.
Shri Deb Bhattacharjee Asst. General Manager, SEBI enlightened the audience about the efficient working of SEBI to protect the interest of the investors in securities market, to promote, develop, and keep the securities market functional even during COVID-19. He stated that the investors bear the burden of rationally analysing the available information and making informed decisions about investments. He emphasized that financial awareness is a must to safeguard investors.
Anup Agarwal, Asst. Vice President, NSDL (Mumbai) spoke about the National Pension Scheme and explained why disciplined investment is crucial owing to factors such as inflation among other things. He emphasized that to maintain the same standard of living post retirement, it is important to have a wider perspective and to ensure a consistent inflow of funds every month. Thereafter, his colleague, Mr. Amit Mishra gave a brief presentation on the benefits of the National Pension Scheme and highlighted that the foremost benefit of investing early is that it leads to compounding of the amount, consequently leading to collection of a huge corpus.
The event also marked the presence of Prof. Dr Anup K Singh, Director General, Nirma University, Dr Udai Paliwal, Dean, Institute of Commerce Dr. M Mallikarjun, Director, Institute of Management, and Prof. Dr Purvi Pokhariyal, Director & Dean-Institute of Law, Nirma University.
Prof. Amit Kashyap, Assistant Professor delivered the vote of thanks.