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PM Modi, Ministers spend Rs 393 cr on foreign, domestic travel in 5 years

Loknath Das

A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers incurred an expenditure of Rs 393 crore on foreign and domestic travel in last five fiscal years. City-based RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed an RTI query with the PMO seeking the total Foreign Travel Expenses (FTE) and Domestic Travel Expenses (DTE) incurred by the Prime Minister and his council since May 2014. In December 2018, the Modi government, replying to queries on foreign travel expenses in Rajya Sabha, had said that…

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How Biometrics May Be Key In Reducing The Hassles Of Travel

Loknath Das

Facial recognition began as a tool of law enforcement and now is making travel easier. GETTY Mixing biometrics and travel usually means one thing for most countries — making sure the wrong people don’t get in. The United States, for example, has an advanced system of facial recognition that analyzes more than 100 points of reference on each face to evaluate whether people are who they say they are. It has become the aspirational standard for dozens of nations that are employing or looking to employ biometrics to screen people…

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Need to closely monitor asset-liability mismatch in financial sector: Krishnamurthy Subramanian

Loknath Das

NEW DELHI: Chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian has said there is a need to closely monitor the asset-liability mismatch in the financial sector and called for an improvement in the disclosure framework for defaults, as embattled non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) face a liquidity squeeze and rating downgrades. In a wide-ranging interaction at the ET office, Subramanian termed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) a big change, and said the economy had done well by growing at an average 7.5% over the past five years even though there has been a slowdown in…

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This Will Be The Biggest Disruption In Higher Education

Loknath Das

Driven by several converging forces, we will see a talent acceleration shift from “going to college to get a job” to “going to a job to get a college degree.” GETTY Instead of going to college to get a job, students will increasingly be going to a job to get a college degree. What does this mean exactly? Today, the #1 reason why Americans value and pursue higher education is “to get a good job.” The path has always been assumed as linear: first, go to college and then, get a good job. But what…

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Aye Finance reaches ₹1,000 cr in AUM

Loknath Das

Aye Finance, a CapitalG-backed fintech lender to the MSMEs said on Tuesday that it had reached ₹1,000 crore Asset Under Management (AUM) milestone within five years of inception. CapitalG, earlier known as Google Capital, is the late-stage growth venture capital fund that helps companies grow faster with the support of Google’s resources. Started in 2014, the lender has disbursed ₹1,700 crore to over 1,25,000 micro enterprises so far, said Sanjay Sharma, founder and Managing Director, in a statement. Aye is a pioneer in transforming the micro enterprise financing in India by innovating…

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AU Small Finance Bank’s profit up 42% in March quarter

Loknath Das

MUMBAI: AU Small Finance Bank’s profit grew 42 per cent to Rs 118 crore in the March quarter led by a 50 per cent growth in loans for vehicle purchases. Net Interest Income the difference between what it paid for funds and what it earned from lending, nearly to Rs 851 crore from Rs 464 crore. “Capital raise, stable asset quality, adequate liquidity, continued growth momentum and uptick in yields, cost to income and return ratios were key highlights of the fiscal,” said Sanjay Agarwal, CEO, AU Small Finance. The credit growth was driven by strong…

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In Chhattisgarh, health and education are top concerns

Loknath Das

RAIPUR/BILASPUR/DURG (CHHATTISGARH): As Shahnawaz Khan waited for his wife’s turn in the snaking queue for tests at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur, his thoughts turned to another queue —one they will join on Tuesday to vote in the general elections. And, like Khan, the thoughts of many voters are focused on two priorities —health and education—in one of India’s poorest states, with a large tribal population. With seven Lok Sabha constituencies—Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur, Korba, Janjgir-Champa, Raigarh and Surguja—going to polls on Tuesday, Khan and thousands like him wait with renewed…

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Police Are Investing In New Technology. ‘Thin Blue Lie’ Asks, ‘Does It Work?’

Loknath Das

In 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year old unarmed black man, was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. In the four months that followed, the stock price of the stun-gun maker Taser International, now known as Axon Enterprise, nearly doubled. The following year, the Department of Justice launched a pilot program awarding more than $23.2 million in grants to expand the use of body cameras worn by police officers across the country. Today, these types of technologies are often touted by law enforcement officials and policy makers as ways to…

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[Validity Of Finance Act 2017- Day-3] Majority Judgment In Aadhaar Case Covers My Case, Submits AG As Constitution Bench Reserves Judgment

Loknath Das

As Attorney General K. K. Venugopal resumed his submissions on the constitutionality of the passage as a Money Bill of the Finance Act of 2017 on Monday, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked for a copy of the Supreme Court’s order in Rajiv Garg, where the court had considered whether different conditions of service could be prescribed for different tribunals. In that case, the court had taken on record the assurance of the then-AG to speak with the different ministries as to uniformity in the retirement, functional facilities and accommodation of…

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The top 25 places to travel around the world in 2019

Loknath Das

TripAdvisor just released its 2019 Travelers’ Choice awards — and millions of visitors voted for their favorite destinations around the world. Whether you’re looking for a sandy beach or a bustling city, there’s likely a destination fit for you. Here are the top 25 best places to travel around the world in 2019. #25: Tel Aviv, Israel, features a quarter called “the White City” because of the over 4,000 buildings within that feature Bauhaus architecture. Tel Aviv, Israel By eFesenko/Shutterstock It’s the largest collection of Bauhaus architecture in the world, and was…

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