Economy

A few months back, Baiju P V, who owns a Vodafone postpaid connection, noticed that his monthly phone bill included charges for Value Added Services (VAS). “The charge was Rs 250 plus GST. I had neither requested any VAS, nor got any message informing me that VAS had been activated,” Baiju says. As per regulations of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), VAS - which includes caller tunes, live streaming etc - can be activated only with the double consent (explained below) of the subscriber. Baiju called Vodafone customer care and got the bill revised. But he was charged for…

Mr. Prime Minister, In a TV interview recently, you asserted that a person earning Rs. 200 a day selling pakodas is also an employed person. Many people took offence to this statement, claiming that your promise to generate 1 crore jobs is a hoax. While we appreciate the fact that you recognise street vending as an employment, the harsh realities under which street vendors carry out their livelihood has been lost in your statement. Street vending is an independent and dignified profession. We are proud to be street vendors. However, we cannot take away the context in which we have…

“Urbanisation is our opportunity and priority,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his speech in Parliament, as he presented the Union Budget 2018, presumably the current government’s last big one before the nation goes for elections in 2019. Cities, per se, however did not see too much exclusive focus except in a few allusions to big-ticket schemes introduced by the current dispensation and a couple of city-specific allocations. Here is a quick round-up of what Budget 2018 had to say about the plans for India's urban future: Air pollution in Delhi and NCR Concern for the alarming levels of pollution…

On a humid Sunday afternoon, the lanes of Anakaputhur, an interior suburb of Pallavaram, wear a dim look, with barely any shops open or civilians on the road. But, as one enters Shanmuga Mudaliar Street near the Murugan temple, lively squeaks from the handloom units speak for the glory of this weavers’ town. The squeaks date back to over half-a-century ago, when the erstwhile village started developing as a handicraft centre, exporting the famous ‘Madras Real Handkerchief’ to Nigeria. An eight yard garment, Madras Real Handkerchief was worn by men and women in the African country, until it was stopped…

The alarming air quality in the National Capital region (NCR), comprised of Delhi and adjoining areas, has found fresh mention in the Economic Survey 2017-18 tabled in Parliament on January 29th. It is well known by now that the average annual levels of PM2.5 – one of the most critical contaminants in the air we breathe – remain at above three times the prescribed level in this region. The Survey reiterates the four main reasons for Delhi’s worsening air quality – crop residue and biomass burning; vehicular emissions and re-destributed road dust; construction, industries, and power plants; winter temperature inversion,…

Let's face it. There's no way you can be sure that the organic food that you bought from the store was genuinely grown organically, unless and until you yourself have produced it. I say this because genuine organic food can only be produced by natural farming practices. Natural farming, again, isn't possible without an  integrated farm and the very few integrated farms that we find cater mostly for self consumption by the producer. When food is grown for commercial purposes, it is easier to produce, process and transport a single item in large quantities, than to manage 10 different items…

When the story of Kanchanamala Pande, the silver medal winner at the Berlin para-swimming championship in 2017, hit the headlines, there was wide furore, and rightly so, over the tribulations that that she was made to go through. The grant sanctioned by the Government of India for six participants failed to reach them on time and Kanchanmala was forced to beg and borrow on the streets of Berlin in order to be able to stay there and participate in the tournament.  . If such is the treatment accorded to a para-sportsperson representing the country in a global tournament, one can…

Three years back, Chithra Rajan ordered a Dell laptop from a major Indian e-commerce company. There was an ‘offer’ on the laptop - while it usually cost over Rs 40,000, the offer was for Rs 27,000. “The laptop was delivered to my office, and I only opened it when I got home. I was shocked to find that the laptop was not manufactured by Dell at all, but by some unknown company. It also did not have Microsoft OS installed as mentioned in the product description,” Chithra says. When she called the customer care number of the e-commerce company, she…

This January, Neha Suri, a Delhi resident, got refund and compensation from the builder who took money from her offering an apartment and never handed it over. Neha had paid Rs 46 lakh to the builder in 2007. The builder had promised to hand over the apartment in 2010, but never did. In 2015, Neha filed a complaint at the National Consumer Redressal Commission. This January, the Commission ordered the builder to refund her Rs 46 lakh along with simple interest of 10% per year on this amount, and litigation costs of Rs 10,000. In another consumer case this April,…

When your options for bank deposits are flexible, you need not invest all your funds in FDs, but can spread them out across different instruments. This helps you to diversify your investments and expands the reach of your hand. Moreover, even when you decide to invest in FDs, won’t it help if you reinvest periodically? Invest first in short-term FDs and then as it matures, invest again for longer stretches of time. Keep the process alive even as different FDs mature. This could be an important lever that will enable you to meet your monthly income needs. It is not…