Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his last budget speech announced the introduction of RGES. God knows the real reason for naming that scheme after the former Prime Minister and the justification for it.
It seems the SEBI, the regulator has asked the Finance Ministry (G.O.I) to route the tax-saving Rajiv Gandhi Equity Scheme through mutual Fund (M.F). The chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India U.K.Sinha had submitted a proposal in this regard to minimize risk associated with direct stock investment for new investors. A good proposal indeed!
Instead of naming it after Rajiv Gandhi who already has many schemes and public assets in his name all over India, it could have been named after Harshad Mehta so that it could act as a good deterrent to the new investors!!
(May 20, 2012 Karur)