Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday presented the 15th railway budget in the Parliament. The highlights of the Railway budget 2008-09 are as follows:

• 50 Railway stations, including CST Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Howrah, Sealdah, Varanasi, New Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kanpur, Chennai Central, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad, Bangalore, Byappanahalli, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Agra Central, Chandigarh, Kolkata, New Jalpaiguri, Puri and Kochi, will be developed to have world-class facilities.

• Railways to develop multi-functional complexes with shopping malls, food stalls, medicines and variety stores in different parts of the country.

• Railways to introduce 67 new trains across the nation.

• Infotainment services to be provided in major long-distance trains.

• One doctor to be posted on long distance trains.

• 309 stations out of 375 across the nation have been identified for development and special facilities will be provided.

• Unreserved ticketing terminals to be expanded from 5000 to 8000. Automatic ticket vending machines to be increased. Arrangement with Department of Posts for issuance of tickets.

• SMS updates will be made available for passengers to check train status and reservation status.

• Auto-vending machines to be installed in large and medium stations. (more…)

Investors’ expectation of corporate profits dipped to record lows in 2008, but was still the best among other emerging markets, the Economic Survey on Thursday said.

“The price-to-earnings ratio which partly discounts future corporate earnings reflecting investors’ expectations of corporate profit, declined in all market segments reflecting the downward trend in stock prices,” according to the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

There was a sharp correction in valuation of Indian stocks. The year-end valuation of stocks in terms of P/E ratio of Indian indices at the end 2008 stood at 12.4 to 12.9.

“Notwithstanding the sharp correction in the valuation of Indian stocks in terms of P/E ratio of Indian indices, it (the P/E ratio) was the highest among select emerging market economies such as South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan,” the survey noted.

When it comes to shopping for financial products, comparison websites have become incredibly popular in recent years. In fact, the sector grew so quickly that there are now many comparison websites in competition with each other and it is difficult to watch the television for any period of time without seeing an advert for such a site.

Comparison websites offer to the do the legwork of shopping for a financial product for you. They search round the market and find you the best possible deal out there, meaning that when they come back to you with a final policy it’s the best that you can find.

Unfortunately, according to the FSA, this isn’t always true, and when it comes to home insurance it’s definitely not true. No two home insurance policies should be alike by the simple fact that no two sets of possessions are exactly the same.

The best home insurance policy (and in fact the best insurance policy of any sort) is the one that is most closely tailored to your individual circumstances and needs. For this reason, getting a policy from a comparison website where you haven’t actually spoken to someone regrading your particular circumstances is not the best way.

Further, some insurance providers have withdrawn their policies from comparison websites so the entire market isn’t being scanned, and some offer discounts when you go directly to their website, again making it possible to find cheaper deals through other methods.

The reason for this is that comparison websites make their money by commission from insurance companies and advertising. This commission doesn’t come out of the insurance company’s pocket, it comes out of yours and therefore the policy might be more expensive through a different website, or even directly from the insurer.