RITN IN UNCLAIMED ASSETS: WILL INVESTORS EVER RECOVER IT?

Last week, I attended an eye-opening event hosted by the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority in New Delhi.

- 

The highlight was Sanjeev Sanyal, Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry, who shed light on India's unclaimed wealth crisis-a problem both fascinating and deeply concerning. Over 1 trillion is lying idle in government coffers, consisting of unclaimed dividends, forgotten shares, and other investments that belong to everyday investors like you and me. What's more troubling is not the sheer size of this amount, but the fact that it's growing faster than it's being returned.

A maze without a ladder Sanyal's sharp wit captured the frustration perfectly: the system, he said, is like playing "snakes and ladders without the ladders." Investors must navigate through three separate websites that don't talk to each other, 25 confusing steps, and if you make a mistake, you're back to square one. The irony is staggering.

While investors fret over interest rates, geopolitical risks, or foreign investor sentiment, billions of rupees that are rightfully theirs remain trapped due to a labyrinthine claims process.