MY 1ST JOB EXPERIENCE

Now this would be history for me:- 


" VIJAY POPAT
Sales Development Manager
HDFC Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
3 Red Cross Place, Menaka Estate ;
Park Circus Branch ( ROB )
Kolkata - 700001
Email:- vpopat@hdfclife.in , vijaypopat88@gmail.com
Get connected:- www.hdfclife.com "




After passing out from IIPM kolkata, me along with all my close friends from IIPM were looking forward to kick start their career with a bang after coming out of Management school. We were very optimistic and happy about finally stepping into corporate life after a fun filled learning experience from safe walls of IIPM.


                                    It took us 72 subjects to clear and become eligible wild and cruel corporate world. Me along with few of my close freinds i.e; NITA CHANGANI, ASIF ANSARI, RAHUL AGARWALLA, WASIM AHMED, RACHANA JAIN, MANINDER KARNANI , and others waited till last to get through our dream job profile which was related to " FINANCE " through campus placement. But sadly destiny had its own faith, we never got suitable opportunity from campus about pure finance profile. Most of the opportunities were marketing and sales job. After a long wait since October 2010 to January 2011, we all became frustrated with our destiny and were scared about our career path as it was really hazy and almost in darkness. 


                                   After a long struggle and wait for suitable opportunity we finally decided to jump on to sales and marketing job as well till we don't get our desired job profile. But again destiny ditched all of us... we realized this fact after almost 90% good companies have already gone from campus after their due placement visits. Companies like, ICICI DIRECT, STANDARD CHARTERED, DEUTSCHE BANK, CITI BANK, HSBC DIRECT, RBS and even many other good non financial marketing companies came and went and that opportunity was also lost from few of us unlucky people. So finally we lost hope to get good placement from campus.


                                   Here started the tough fighting journey with couple of my friends for shaping our career. Me along with NITA & ASIF, we all took the bold decision of stepping ahead and taking our biggest step towards making the choice of our career through the most adventurous path. We consulted our summer internship boss i.e; Mr. Kaushik Majumdar, the ex- Business Development Manager of MAX NEW YORK LIFE, and current Branch Manager of L & T  LIFE INSURANCE, to guide us from where to start our career at least until we get our dream job. As per his guidance all three of us joined HDFC - LIFE. Me on 17.01.2011, NITA ON 20.01.2011 and ASIF on 10.02.2011 as SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER.


                                     We all were very happy to get through a job because it was our self achievement without any help from college placement leg. Though you people must be thinking it was a sales job in INSURANCE industry but still it was a catalyst for us as were determined to prove a point to all of them who didn't even thought the level " A" students to get better placements. 


                                   Before i start about my 1st job experience i would like to thank MR. ZULFIKAR HOSSAIN the TERRITORY MANAGER of HDFC- LIFE for providing all the three freshers including me and my friends the golden opportunity to learn and start our career as managers in AGENCY CHANNEL. I am grateful to him not only because he gave me job, as being an CA final student and MBA with major in FINANCE AND MARKETING, this job was not that hard to crack, but i am thanking him for all his patience to tolerate us and teach us all required skills, knowledge and required technique to survive in this industry.


                                   Overall it was a short ie; (17.01.2011 to 11.05.2011) but learning and fun filled experience in HDFC. I had my summer internship from MAX NEW YORK LIFE in agency channel itself so the Job was not alien for me. My job was to identify potential Financial consultants and recruit them as advisors and get the business target done with the help of them. In this short period i recruited 8 FC, with a cumulative business of above 2 lacs. Its not a flattering figure but for a finance guy to enter into completely hardcore sales environment with the toughest financial product to sale was still satisfactory.


                                  This job has taught me a lot of things... 1st of all it boosted my communication skill and also injected immense self confidence to deal with all crisis situation and tackle tricky people. This journey won't have been fun filled and memorable if my friends NITA & ASIF were not part of it. We three were like one unit in whole of Dalhousie branch of HDFC - LIFE. I don't know from where to start about our great journey together. I still remember one of the weirdest experience of visiting HOWRAH Fish market along with ASIF  on a call with a client and staying there for more than 2 hours and even having lunch in mid of  fishy smell all around. It sounds funny but that experience opened me up to all adverse experience. I still remember the day i closed a big deal on my own, and was successful in closing the deal positively... it was a amazing experience. All small funs that we used to have like going movies in mid of official timings, going shopping malls, watching ipl matches, etc will remain with me as a lifetime experience.

                                      All of my colleagues like SARMISHTA DI, AMIT KUMAR DAS, AFROZA DI, DEBASHISH DA, RAJU, ANNUPAM, JOYONTO DA, ABHIK, SHAGUN, ZULFI SIR, NILANJANA MAM, DIBNENDU DA, ARUP DA, SAMBHU DA, ABHISHEK, RAJESH, ANIL, SANTOSH, YASH RAJ, etc.. and yes NITA & ASIF all were amazing and extremely supportive. I have learnt something or the other from everyone. 


                                      Being a management student, the three of us came with a unique idea of bring summer interns in HDFC- LIFE through B- SCHOOL to work in agency channel for sometime. We were successful to tap Scottish church college kolkata, and bring 4 interns to work for one month. I still remember the day when we went to give presentation for internship purpose in Scottish church. Parth, poonam , kashif and keerti where those four students, who were extremely dedicated and hard working. It was a very educating experience to enter in such a venture.


                                      As it was a sales line it was never smooth journey. There were many moments when we got depressed and wanted to quit the job. There was huge pressures of targets and expectations from above which during Jan, Feb and mar reached its peak. Many times we were exhausted and completely drained but at that times, because of each others support we sailed through all tough times. I would really like to thank my friends for their support and advice 


                                     But as i started earlier, that this job was never a destination for us. We entered this job because we wanted to prove that we can make our own career. Luckily i got through a decent job in HSBC as a FUND ADMINISTRATOR on 12.05.2011 and have finally moved into my desired profile of " FINANCE " after many struggle, wait and extremely patience since Oct 2010 to may 2011. Finally i am into a job through which i can at least try to shape my future accordingly. I just hope with all good wishes of my friends and blessings of my elders i will make something better out of my career. I am proud because i have achieved a good job alone without any help from the people who thought we all don't deserve a better job or we cant get one. 


Now currently i am ;


 "VIJAY POPAT
HEDGE FUND ADMINISTRATOR;
HSS - A & V ASIA;
HSBC- HDPI
KOLKATA "


I hope things develop for better from now on. I wish and pray that my friends NITA & ASIF both get through a better job as fast as possible... because i know they are made for something big  in their respective careers rather than just selling INSURANCE. And i am 100% sure that in next two months they would be also writing similar memory blog and missing our struggle period in INSURANCE INDUSTRY.


GOD BLESS all my friends for their prosperous future. Before ending i would like to add that  "  "never say die ".... there are many hurdles and many people will try to stop you but fight your way and have patience because God always supports hard work and dedication.


Thanks a lot for bearing with such a long letter  


VIJAY POPAT

ULIP business down by 15% during 2010-11

NEW DELHI: Amid a row between Sebi and insurance regulator IRDA over control of unit linked products, the ULIP business declined by 15 per cent during 2010-11.

"The proportion of sale of ULIP products has certainly come down. When compared to last year, ULIP business has gone down by about 15 per cent," IRDA Chairman J Harinarayan told reporters on the sidelines of FICCI National Conference on Insurance.

ULIPs -- which are hybrid insurance products in which a portion of the investor's premium is invested in equity -- became a subject of controversy after market regulator Sebi in April last year banned private life insurance companies from issuing such schemes. Soon after, IRDA issued a order asking insurers to ignore Sebi order.

After the government directed that IRDA would have jurisdiction over ULIPs, the insurance regulator came out with new guidelines for such equity-linked products in September last year.

ULIPs, which used to be around 60 per cent of life insurers business prior to the guidelines, saw a decline as agents shifted focus to traditional products.

As per the new IRDA guidelines, the commission paid to distributors and expenses charged by insurers will no longer be front-loaded and will be distributed over the lock-in period of the schemes, which has been raised to five years from three years earlier.

Though the new rules will benefit policy holders, reduce the first-year agent commission and help in curbing rampant mis-selling, insurance firms will be required to underwrite more losses, infuse more capital and cut costs to sustain ULIP sales.

Furthermore, IRDA has fixed the floor on guaranteed returns from ULIP pension plans at 4.5 per cent, which will greatly benefit policyholders saving up for retirement.

Along with these changes, the regulator has fixed stringent minimum disclosure guidelines for insurers.

Under the new disclosure norms, agents cannot take policyholders for a ride, as they can now see the financial position of the company over the website and do not need to depend on agents, said an industry expert.

The life insurance industry has grown 8-fold in the past decade--from a total premium income of Rs 34,892 crore in 2000-01 to about Rs three trillion in 2010-11. Over Rs one lakh crore of total premium is estimated to have come from ULIPs in 2010-11.

VIJAY POPAT

GST-It must be better late than never!!

How truly it has been said. The change is the need of time, change is innovation, but it becomes arduous when it is not accepted by that people for whom it was made. Whenever any change is about to come in our country it hangs in the way cause of lack of cooperation. To change the system of Indirect taxation Government brought a new system for implementation called GST-The goods and services tax. It was heard that GST will bring a drastic revolution in Indian Indirect Taxation system but the real picture shows something else as it itself become a reason of struggle between Central and states.

Need:-

Indian entrepreneurs are loaded with a number of taxes. Almost every business transaction suffers a different tax. For services, it is service tax, for manufacture it is Excise Duty, for sale within state it is VAT, for inter-state sale it is CST, for income earned it is Income Tax, for wealth created it is wealth tax, etc. These are mere examples for the consultants, but for the businessmen, they mean a lot of compliances involving a significant number of man power and money. In order to relieve the businessman from some of the taxes, government has planned to bring a composite levy – The GST which is said to bring a tax-revolution in the country. It is said that the GST will simplify the complex tax structure of the country and will replace around 16 central and state taxes including the service tax, excise duty, VAT, etc. while maintaining a collaboration between the Centre and the State.

Benefits:-

The main beneficiaries will be the business personnel. At present, there are a no. of taxes governed by different Acts and rules. The separate records are to be kept, separate returns are to be filed, different dates are there for payment of taxes and filing of returns, etc. which require a significant amount of man power and money. However, the GST, when implemented, will replace many of the taxes and will obviously reduce the paper work, man power and money. Further, there are no. of ambiguities in certain cases which makes it difficult to ascertain as to which law is applicable. For eg. software and SIM cards are service or goods? The service tax department says it is a service while the sales tax department says it is sale of goods. The GST will resolve the issue. The Government too will be benefitted. It is anticipated that the GDP of the economy will be increased by $500 billion and exports will also increase by 15%.

Beginning of GST:-

The Thirteenth Finance Commission, as constituted by the President on November 13, 2007 to give recommendations regarding the Central-State Fiscal relations during the year 2010-15. The Commission recommended a model GST structure and also recommended a grant of Rs. 50000 crores for its implementation. The recommendations were accepted in principle and discussions were carried out between the Centre and State.

The Empowered committee of state finance ministers has released the First discussion paper on GST on 10.11.2009 and it was proposed that GST is going to be implemented on 01.04.2010 with its new developments regarding unvarying tax rates all over country, removing cascading effects of Cenvat and service tax with set off by making a chain of set-off for hierarchy of Producer/manufacturer/service provider to Retailer/End user level. For this purpose GST is to be introduced at state level. But as history repeats itself Government had faced and still facing intricacy of different opinions of states in the way of implementation of GST. It is not an easy task to combine all the provisions and demands of the states having different thoughts and opinions. When everyone was waiting to greet with GST it was recommended in Report of Task Force on GST that it will be postponed till 01.10.2010 due to oppositions raised by states which is again delayed by 01.04.2011.

In the middle:-

On oppositions made by states, Government presented a revised draft bill of GST in order to arriving at consensus with the states. In the revised bill Government has provided veto power to the Union Finance Minister relating to state subjects matters on taxation issues. Then after Finance minister had offered some concessions on major demands of states relating to simplification of tax administration and replacement of multiple levies of taxes like CST, VAT, Excise, Service tax into a single tax. Government also proposed dual rate system to be included in GST system but because of this new system states may have revenue loss in initial year of implementation of GST. For this it was cleared by the government for compensation to states for switchover to the new tax regime including special incentives to those states such as Punjab and Haryana for loss out of purchase tax. The Government also agreed to exclude crude oil, petrol, diesel and ATF from the GST structure on demand raised by states.

Present scenario:-

But as it was predicted this bill also comes in litigations between states and central. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST has rejected the constitutional amendment bill on 01.08.2010. The BJP-ruled states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and few others had opposed the constitutional amendment saying that all powers of the states have been snatched through the constitutional amendment. Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers commented on the constitutional amendment that states were against infringement on their financial autonomy and have certain reservation on the provision of draft bill for the GST council and the GST Disputes Authority hence this draft bill is not acceptable in this form to the states. However some states were in favour of this amendment.

On coming of oppositions from many states, Centre has given up on the matter of veto powers given to the Union Finance Minister. The veto power has been withdrawn from the constitutional amendment bill on GST with giving a statement that central FM had no any intention of becoming the Super Finance Minister to interfere with the State GST.

In the latest meeting of state finance ministers and centre for GST, held on 20.09.2010 many states has accepted the approach of new draft of GST bill except few mainly Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh who still have different viewpoint. In that meeting the Madhya Pradesh government given an idea of an alternative model of the GST and BJP rules states has supported to it. Also some other states have allotted one month time for consideration to make their opinion on revised bill. In the meeting the states has stressed on retention of their rights and wished some more changes in the proposed Act.

Next what?

Recently, while addressing an interactive session organized by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce at Kolkata, the chairman of empowered Committee – Mr. Asim Dasgupta, who is also the finance minister of West Bengal; indicated that the ongoing conflicts between the states regarding GST are about to resolve. The matter will be on board once again on October 30, 2010; when the empowered Committee will meet again. The points of dispute – the Dispute settlement mechanism of GST and GST council constitution will be discussed therein.

Before Leaving:-

Government has to obtain categorical support of all the sates since two-third majority is required for ratification of GST. But some states ruled by BJP and other opposite parties are not happy on implementation of GST. So it becomes a necessity for both Centre and States to have consensus on GST very soon for bringing the GST in actuality in 2011. But after coming of statement of Revenue Secretary in this august that introduction of GST will miss the deadline of April, 2011 it becomes unambiguous that the matter of GST becomes political issue rather than an economical or legal one. It is ever called that “Better late than never” so we can hope that the delay in coming of GST will bring a fruitful result with it’s implication. Let we hope that GST bill will be presented in winter session and political differences will shut down.

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VIJAY POPAT