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Copilot is a subscription personal finance tracker aiming to kill Mint

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…

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These Are The Cheapest Weekends to Travel in 2020

Loknath Das

Weekend trips are fun, but they can also wind up being pretty expensive. Hotwire recently took a look at historical booking data for hotels to determine when the most affordable weekends are to travel in 2020, and released a list of the most affordable weekends, hotel-wise, for each month. Actually surprising: some of those affordable hotel stays actually fall during holiday weekends. Here’s its list of predictions for the cheapest weekends to travel: •January 31 – February 2 (Groundhog Day) •February 28 – March 1 (Leap Day) •April 10-12 •May 8-10 (Mother’s Day) •June…

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How to travel by train – and ditch the plane

Loknath Das

A string of horrifying climate-related disasters has brought a distinctly environmental theme to many people’s New Year resolutions. Many have chosen to reduce their carbon footprint by flying less, or cutting out planes completely. Flygskam – the Swedish word for “flight-shame” – has become commonplace. In August, Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg set an example by crossing the Atlantic in a zero-emissions yacht. If she had made the return journey from the UK to New York by air, she would have emitted 11% of the average annual emissions for someone in the…

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Apple is reportedly developing satellite technology to support its devices

Loknath Das

A new report from Bloomberg claims Apple is working on satellite technology to beam data to users’ devices, and could launch a new initiative using the tech within five years. There are a lot of unknowns and caveats, though. The project is “still early and could be abandoned,” says Bloomberg, and it’s not clear what Apple’s end goal is. It’s also not known if the company wants to develop its own satellites or simply utilize others’ satellite data. With the technology in hand, though, the iPhone maker could do a number of useful things. It could…

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Finance ministry asks tax officials to identify evaders through data analytics

Loknath Das

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo: Reuters) In a bid to meet ambitious tax target, the finance ministry on Friday held a review meeting with tax officials directing them to make special efforts to identify and book tax evaders through data analytics and information sharing. The meeting chaired by Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey. He was accompanied by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) officials. Officials were also told to communicate with taxpayers that they must genuinely file their taxes before…

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8 Travel Trends To Expect In 2020

Loknath Das

Just as the destinations that we love to visit as avid travelers change from year to year, decade to decade, so do the travel trends that we partake in. Travel trends over recent years have included immersive travel, sustainable travel, multigenerational travel and skip-gen travel. While all of these have their merits, the travel landscape continues to evolve. empty, straight road heading towards new year 2020 – happy new year concept, GETTY In the upcoming year, we can expect different travel trends to pop up. For travel brands, including hotels,…

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Clean energy technology was thought to be uninvestable. One fund thinks otherwise

Loknath Das

Venture capital funding for clean energy technology companies has declined after years of lackluster performance drove investors to other sectors. But a new fund is making a big bet that it’s possible to back clean tech companies at the earliest — and often riskiest — stages, all without sacrificing returns. In October, Clean Energy Ventures announced that it raised $110 million for its first fund, which will target “the current capital gap for seed and early-stage investment in promising advanced energy innovations,” a press release said. The firm’s strategy rests on the belief that…

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Venkaiah Naidu nominates Manmohan Singh to parliamentary standing committee on finance

Loknath Das

Manmohan Singh was the country’s finance minister between 1991 and 1996. (Photo: PTI) Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has nominated Former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh to the parliamentary standing committee on finance in place of party colleague Digvijaya Singh. Digvijaya Singh has now been nominated to the parliamentary standing committee on urban development by the chairman of the Upper House, according to a Rajya Sabha bulletin. “The Rajya Sabha chairman has nominated Manmohan Singh, member, Rajya Sabha, to be a member of the committee on finance…

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Is It Time For Voice Technology To Kill Touchscreens?

Loknath Das

Humans and objects have had a long love affair. Simple tools, as well as sophisticated software are all extensions of our physical bodies. We can trace human progress and wellbeing to the level of sophistication of the tools we have created, and by doing so, the augmentation of our abilities to travel, build, communicate, and create. Since tools are so critical to our existence and prosperity, the way we interface with these tools is also of great importance. So important is the interface between humans and the machines we operate,…

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Why It Might Pay to Delay Planning Holiday Travel

Loknath Das

Procrastinators who have yet to book holiday flights might still have a shot at getting reasonably priced tickets—especially if they’re willing to play chicken with the airlines. AAA analyzed three years of domestic flights to identify the best times to reserve seats for Thanksgiving and Christmas travel and found that dawdlers got the best prices. Those who waited until seven to 13 days before the week of Thanksgiving paid $482 on average. Those who waited until that close to the week of Christmas paid around $488. By those calculations, holiday…

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