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Yes Bank: How to protect your savings account from financial crises

March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 Loknath Das

Lightning has struck twice. In a short span of around six months, bank depositors have been at the receiving end of the short circuit as it were. Punjab and Maharashtra (PMC) Co-operative Bank’s depositors faced restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in September 2019. Last week, turbulence hit YES Bank, which is in the process of being rescued by the central bank and State Bank of India (SBI). Not surprisingly, the two events have shaken the confidence of retail depositors in banks, considered failsafe so far. While…

Thomson Reuters halts employee travel to China and South Korea over coronavirus outbreak

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 Loknath Das

Media giant Thomson Reuters has canceled non-essential business travel for its employees to mainland China, Hong Kong and South Korea over mounting fears of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. “Thomson Reuters has halted all non-essential travel to China, Hong Kong and South Korea. All other travel remains under constant review,” the spokesperson said. The parent of Reuters News joins a growing list of major corporations that are halting employee travel due to virus concerns, including Amazon, Facebook and News Corp. The company is headquartered in Ontario, Canada, and has roughly 25,800…

Government to take ‘technology over taxation’ approach to climate change

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020 Loknath Das

‘Very speculative’: Scott Morrison has not confirmed reports he may adopt a technology investment target to avoid signing up to a commitment of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Photograph: David Crosling/EPA Scott Morrison has described a report he may adopt a technology investment target to avoid signing up to a commitment of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as speculation, but confirmed his government will take a “technology over taxation” approach to climate change. On Tuesday, Morrison told reporters in Melbourne the report in the Australian was “very speculative”, but said it…

Education startup helps students who are pursuing liberal arts get skills to compete in tech industry

February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 Loknath Das

The Adjacent Academies team, from left: Anh M. Nguyen, CEO; Malena Harrang, senior manager of business operations; Shireen Campbell, professor and Chair of English, Davidson College; Kristen Eshleman, director of Innovation Initiatives, Davidson College; and Jesse Farmer, lead instructor, Adjacent. (Adjacent Academies Photo) College students who want to pursue the liberal arts subjects they’re passionate about can still get the technical training they need to compete in a job market that demands those skills thanks to the Seattle startup Adjacent Academies. Founded in 2019, Adjacent is the brainchild of San Francisco-based…

How to travel to Cuba (Yes, you can!)

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 Loknath Das

“I’d love to go to Cuba — but the sanctions are back on, so I guess I can’t,” a friend of mine opined recently after perusing my Instagram pics of the trip to the famed Caribbean island over New Year’s. This is not an uncommon sentiment. Ever since President Trump reinstituted trade, commercial and economic embargoes against Cuba in 2018, American travel to the country has dropped precipitously — but you can still go. In fact, airlines like Jet Blue, Delta, Southwest and American Airlines have direct flights from cities like New…

China theft of technology is biggest law enforcement threat to US, FBI says

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 Loknath Das

A lamp post outside the White House is adorned with Chinese and US national flags in Washington. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images The FBI on Thursday identified China as the biggest law enforcement threat to the United States, and its director said Beijing was seeking to steal American technology by “any means necessary”. The FBI director, Christopher Wray, told a conference the bureau currently had about 1,000 investigations open into Chinese technology theft across its 56 regional offices. The agency’s counterintelligence chief, John Brown, said the bureau arrested 24 people in 2019 in…

‘Do not travel to China’ because of coronavirus risk, US tells citizens

February 1, 2020February 1, 2020 Loknath Das

Americans shouldn’t travel to China because of the risks from the new coronavirus, the US State Department said. US citizens currently in China should “consider departing using commercial means,” the alert said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed the warning on Twitter. A Level 4 travel advisory is the most severe warning issued by the State Department, and it applies only to areas with a “greater likelihood of life-threatening risks.” The warning cites a decision earlier today by the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global public health emergency. The virus has…

CDC issues level 3 health warning for coronavirus, advises against nonessential travel to Wuhan, China

January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 Loknath Das

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday escalated its health warning to a level 3 as the coronavirus continues to spread, recommending that people avoid all nonessential travel to Wuhan, China. The State Department reiterated its level 2 travel advisory, which urges people to exercise caution if traveling to an affected area. An initial State Department website post erroneously showed that it had raised its travel advisory to a level 3, but the department later said in a statement to CNBC that it had made a mistake and…

In Los Angeles, the Women’s March embraces technology to organize and inspire

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 Loknath Das

The roughly 300,000 marchers that filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the third annual Women’s March received more than just an opportunity to hear from some of the state’s high powered politicians, they were also part of a new experiment from local March organizers in bringing technology into the movement. Using an organizational tool called SameSide, whose launch coincided with the Women’s March and a joint effort with RockTheVote, Women’s March organizers are hoping to transfer excitement about the march into broader political engagement with local and national women’s issues in…

Copilot is a subscription personal finance tracker aiming to kill Mint

January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 Loknath Das

When Intuit acquired Mint more than a decade ago, mobile was in a different place — as were tech-enabled financial services. There hasn’t been much progress for the personal finance tracker app category in the meantime. Mint has stumbled along with integration issues and tiresome data misclassifications. For many, the best alternative has been firing up a spreadsheet. Copilot is a new personal finance-tracking app from a former Googler that seems like it could garner a following based on its slick design and ease of use. The subscription iOS app lets…