Buzzwords of 2012: GAAR to lobbying; Libor to fiscal cliff

Also, the government's move to kick up the reform process and opening up of the 'FDI' (Foreign Direct Investment) in certain sectors met with strong political opposition, while questions were also asked about feasibility of schemes like 'Direct Cash Transfer'.

During the year, a purely economic term like 'OFCD' also made much news after two Sahara group companies were asked to refund thousands of crores of rupees raised from an estimated three crore investors through their 'Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures', which are a kind of bonds that can be converted into other securities.

Towards the end of the year, 'lobbying' by US companies, including retail giant Wal- Mart, with their own lawmakers kicked up a political storm, as they were found garnerning support in their home country for pushing forward their business interest in India and elsewhere.

In the meantime, the government and policymakers back home were seen pushing for channelising more and more household savings into equity market, mutual funds and other financial instruments, rather than 'idle assets' like gold.

The concern has been that money spent on buying gold gets locked, while investments in financial markets can be utilised for infrastructure building and other meaningful purposes.

At the same time, the power sector witnessed its worst ever 'grid failures' as more than half of the country's population saw a blackout for two consecutive days.

In the stock market also, there were some small and one big instance of 'flash crash', wiping out over a trillion rupee notional investor wealth within seconds.

Some Indian versions of 'Ponzi' schemes also came to the fore in the form of suspected frauds through various multi-level marketing (MLM) operations and Collective Investment Schemes (CIS), including one where investors were asked to put their money towards rearing of goats to double and triple their investments.

... contd.

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