Website on vanishing firms

A website, promoted by the Kanpur-based Midas Touch Investor's Association, that will contain information about vanishing companies, will be launched by Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi in New Delhi on September 5.

Investorfriend.com, developed by the Lucknow-based Uptec, will contain a list of 4,900 defaulting companies and their present status.

The list will include non-banking finance companies, plantation companies, collective investment schemes, fixed deposit payment defaulters and non-compliance of listing agreements by companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

According to an estimate, about 5 million investors invested over Rs 25,000 crore in the companies that have vanished.

The website will also have parliamentary questions, says Virendra Jain, Midas secretary.

Between 2000 and September 2002, according to Jain, 90,000 questions were asked in the two houses of Parliament. Of these 1,200 questions related to the financial and capital markets.

These questions have been divided into 20 categories for an easy access. These categories include stock exchanges, non-performing assets, mutual funds and financial institutions.

One section has been devoted to Bills tabled in Parliament.

Other features of the website include facility for filing complaints, an explanatory vocabulary list and definitions of technical terms used in the financial markets.