Reference
Our news coverage answers what just happened. These answer how something works — the questions that keep being asked, worked through properly, with the arithmetic shown and the sources named.
FinanceStart here
Pay the minimum on ₹1,00,000 and a year later you have paid ₹65,046 and still owe ₹84,051. The same debt worked four ways at published rates, what the minimum amount due is really made of, and the RBI rules issuers get wrong.
Answers inside
The Code on Social Security defines you, registers you and sets up a fund for you. A year on, no scheme has been notified under section 114, no contribution rate has been fixed, and the only state collecting the money is having it held by a High Court. What is yours now, what is promised, and what the codes do not cover.
The customer liability framework changes on 1 January 2027, and the date on the transaction decides which rulebook applies to you. The reporting window moves to five calendar days, the burden of proof moves to the bank, and for the first time there is money for people who were tricked into paying.
The 15/26 divisor is written into the Code on Social Security, 2020. The ₹20 lakh ceiling is not, and still traces to a notification under the Act the Code repealed. The formula worked at real salaries, the rounding rule most calculators get wrong, and when gratuity can be forfeited.
The EPF Scheme, 1952 was superseded on 1 July 2026. Full withdrawal on resignation now needs twelve months out of covered employment, not two. What the new paragraphs 46, 47 and 49 say, how to read a passbook, how to chase a missing contribution, and where the pension and gratuity thresholds sit.
The US, UK and Germany all recommend about 30g of fiber a day. Actual intake sits at roughly half that almost everywhere it’s been measured. A 47,000-woman, three-decade study and the World Gastroenterology Organisation’s own science explain why closing that gap matters, and where the TikTok version of it goes too far.
A credit card against an FD, a loan against mutual funds, a loan against PPF, an overdraft against an FD, and an overdraft against salary: five ways to raise cash without redeeming what you already own, with the real rates and one government rule that punishes lateness by 6 times over.
The FDIC’s own August 2026 numbers put the national average savings rate at 0.38% while the best high-yield accounts pay north of 4%: on the exact same $250,000 of federal insurance. Checking, savings, money market accounts and CDs, compared on what they actually pay and protect, plus the repealed $5 overdraft cap a lot of 2026 content still gets wrong.
Every account type in this guide carries the same ₹5 lakh DICGC cover: what actually varies is the rate, the lock-in and the tax rule. Savings, current, salary, FD, RD and NRI accounts, compared on what they pay and protect, plus the nomination rule that quietly changed from one nominee to four in November 2025, and the FD tax section that got renumbered in the new Income-tax Act, 2025.
No offence, no case, no conviction, and still a magistrate can require you to sign a bond. What sections 126, 130, 135 and 136 of the BNSS actually say, why an interim bond is a different thing from a one-year bond, and what the chapter entitles you to at each step.
The labour codes push basic pay to half of your salary, so PF and gratuity take a bigger slice. Worked numbers on why a 5% raise can leave you with less each month, the PF policy question that decides it, and what to get in writing before you accept.
SEBI rewrote the list on 26 February 2026: retirement and children’s funds are gone, life cycle funds are new, and every fund must be named for its category. Each type explained by what it holds and what it suits, with tax under the new Income-tax Act and what a regular plan really costs you.
Most notices are routine, but each has a clock: 30 days for a proposed adjustment, 15 for a defective return. How to check a notice is genuine, what to click, what an updated return costs, and why the old section numbers still apply to your return.
There is no limit on cash at home, but there is a 60% tax on cash you can’t explain. The deposit amounts banks now report, the ₹2 lakh cash-receipt rule that catches wedding gifts, and why a gift to your parents is treated differently from one to your spouse, all under the 2025 Act and 2026 Rules.
Five costs that chip away at your money without looking like costs at all: the forex markup stacked on your card’s exchange rate, what a “no-cost” EMI actually charges, the DCC trap at foreign ATMs, loan foreclosure penalties, and the commission structure that shapes what your insurance agent recommends.
Five completely different tax regimes for five kinds of side income: 44ADA for freelancers, FIRC and zero-rated GST for foreign clients, 30% flat for crypto with no loss set-off, and slab-rate F&O losses that can only offset certain gains. This guide covers each one from the statute, not from generalities.
Investment scams, impersonation calls, fake job offers, lottery fees: every one of them runs on the same six-stage architecture. The psychology behind each stage, why it works on people who know about it, what the data shows globally and in India, and what to do when the money has already gone.
About one claim in twelve is refused, and the regulator doesn’t record why. What the Ombudsman’s own figures show, why “disallowed” money outweighs outright rejections, and the clauses insurers rely on, with a worked room-rent deduction.
The nominee collects the money. In most cases they don’t get to keep it. How bank deposits, lockers, mutual funds, insurance, EPF, loans and tax are handled after a death, under the 2025 RBI and SEBI rules, with a worked example for one family.
A repudiation letter is written to sound final. It isn’t. The written complaint that starts the clock, what Bima Bharosa can and can’t do, and the free Ombudsman route whose award binds the insurer.
Gold ETFs and gold funds are SEBI-regulated; SEBI says digital gold operates entirely outside its purview. How the three compare on cost, on the tax rules that changed in April 2025, and on your own amount.
A SIF is a mutual fund scheme that can short up to 25% of its assets, sold only to investors with ₹10 lakh or more. What SEBI allows, what happens if you fall below the minimum, and what eleven months of AMFI data show.
The option window closed on 30 November 2025, but new recruits still choose within 30 days and UPS members can switch back to NPS once. Here is the comparison from PFRDA’s own formulas, worked through in rupees, including the 60% withdrawal that permanently shrinks the UPS payout.
The government’s own FAQ on the UPI merchant fee answers the question directly: credit-linked UPI payments follow credit card rules, not the 0.4% framework. For most merchants that means a higher charge, not a lower one.
Every company’s launch page says its own model wins. Here is the actual API pricing with the arithmetic shown, the benchmark numbers with their source and date attached, and the one independent evaluation that compares them properly.
Everyone repeats the same framework (safety for near money, equity for distant money) and almost nobody attaches the numbers. Here are the notified rates, the tax treatment, the lock-ins, and the two changes most published advice has missed.
The government says the efficiency loss is “up to 3 per cent, which is negligible”. A survey of 22,000 owners says otherwise. We did the arithmetic on what each level of mileage loss actually costs you, and found the number most people get backwards.
A lien on the disputed amount, not a blanket freeze. And a line buried on the government’s own cyber police portal that almost nobody with a frozen account has read: the cybercrime portal has no power to freeze or unfreeze anything.
One line on your payslip funds a savings pot, a pension and a life insurance policy you pay nothing for. The rules, the formulas and the arithmetic: including the ₹7 lakh death benefit most families never claim.
Forgotten bank accounts, lapsed insurance, orphaned mutual fund units and old shares. What is actually sitting there, which of the four portals to search, and the one input that works when a family has lost every document.
Two of the country’s most consequential seats changed hands in the last eighteen months. The ordering here is our judgement; every office, date and figure attached to it is checked against a government, court or Forbes source.
Three credible sources tell three different stories about Indian money in Dubai. All three are right, and none of them covers the rule that decides what the asset actually returns.
Two of these are savings products and one is a loan, which is exactly why people get the choice wrong. Worked through with the arithmetic, the penalties and the tax shown.
Figures come from the organisation that published them — the regulator, the bank’s own rate card, the filing, the Act. Where a number could not be verified, the guide says so instead of estimating.
Worked examples are calculated, not illustrated, and every table states the assumptions behind it so you can redo the sum with your own numbers.
Each guide carries the date it was last checked rather than the date it first appeared, and corrections are published on the guide itself.
