New Delhi:
The Union cabinet has approved a proposal to raise dearness allowance for central government employees by 4 per cent, sources have said. A formal announcement is expected later today.
The decision will bring cheers to government staff ahead of the festive season.
The dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners now stands at 46 per cent. This DA will be effective from July 1, 2023 and arrears will be paid.
Mr Fekete initially said that he had consumed 2 sandwiches, 2 pastas, and 2 coffees by himself.
Banking giant Citibank has won a legal battle in the United Kingdom after sacking an employee for claiming expenses for sandwiches and coffee for his partner during a business trip and then lying about it. According to the BBC, former financial analyst Szabolcs Fekete had sued the bank for unfair dismissal after being fired last year for gross misconduct over the expenses claim. He initially said that he had consumed the two sandwiches, two pasta dishes, and two coffees by himself during a business trip to Amsterdam, however, later acknowledged that his partner had shared some of the food.
According tothe BBC, Mr Fekete, who worked at Citibank for seven years, had travelled to Amsterdam for work between 3 and 5 July in 2022. On returning to London, he filed an expense claim for food and drink which believed was covered by his company’s daily allowance. However, the supervisor he submitted his claim to asked him whether he had consumed all the food he was seeking reimbursement for.
In an email exchange with his manager, the Citibank employee said that he had “checked the receipt and did not see anything out of order…I was on a business trip by myself and… I had 2 coffees as they were very small”.
In response, the Citibank manager said that receipt “appears to have two sandwiches, two coffees, and another drink . . . Are you advising that this was all consumed by you?”
To this, Mr Fekete explained, “On that day I skipped breakfast and only had 1 coffee in the morning. For lunch I had 1 sandwich with a drink and 1 coffee in the restaurant, and took another coffee back to the office with me and had the second sandwich in the afternoon… which also served as my dinner.”
“All my expenses are within the 100 euros daily allowance. Could you please outline what your concern is as I don’t think I have to justify my eating habits to this extent,” he further told his manager.
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The bank, on the other hand, stated that its query was not about the amount but if the claim breached its expense management policy, which states that spousal travel and meals are not reimbursed. It also questioned whether he had shared two dinners of pesto pasta and pasta Bolognese with his partner. But Mr Fekete said that this was not the case.
However, he later admitted that he had shared the food, which he expensed to his employer, with his partner. He also claimed that he was having personal difficulties following the death of his grandmother, had taken six weeks of medical leave and was on strong medication when he replied to the emails.
However, Citibank ultimately dismissed Mr Fekete. Employment Judge Illing concluded that his dismissal was fair as Mr Fekete was not initially honest about the misclaimed expense.
“I have found that this case is not about the sums of money involved. This case is about the filing of the expense claim and the conduct of the claimant thereafter,” he said.
“It is significant that the claimant did not make a full and frank disclosure at the first opportunity and that he did not answer questions directly,” the judge added.
“We are pleased with the decision,” a Citibank spokesperson said in response to the judgement.
The weather department has forecast a generally cloudy sky for today.
New Delhi:
Gusty winds accompanied by rain lashed parts of the national capital on Monday, making the weather pleasant.
Windy conditions today brought the mercury down to 30.5 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season’s average.
Rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning was recorded in parts of Noida, Indirapuram, south Delhi and east Delhi.
Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet Weather, in a post of X, said, “Heavy thunder and rain clouds moving across Delhi and NCR. From west to east. Intense rain and hail storms are possible. Take care.” In another post, he noted that light rain and cool winds have dropped the maximum temperature of Delhi by 5 degrees.
“From 36.5 to 30.5 in the last 24 hours. Minimum may also fall,” he said in a post.
There was a slight nip in the air on Monday. The air quality index (AQI) at 9 am stood at 195 but deteriorated to a poor category as the 24-hour AQI at 4 pm was recorded at 207. However, by 7 pm, the AQI showed marginal improvement to settle in the moderate category as the AQI read 200.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered “good”, 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor”, 301-400 “very poor” and 401-500 “severe”. An AQI above 500 falls in the “severe plus” category.
The air quality is likely to be in the moderate category on Tuesday, and poor on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the IMD.
The weather department has forecast a generally cloudy sky for Tuesday with the possibility of light rain or thundershowers.
The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to be around 31 and 20 degrees Celsius, respectively.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Hovering near the upper echelons for some time, battle-hardened Afghanistan finally showed they belong among cricket’s elites, having received help from the sport’s behemoth, India. Ravaged by years of wars and internal conflicts, the country’s cricket team on Sunday caused a huge World Cup upset when they outplayed holders England by 69 runs for only their second World Cup win. Afghanistan cricketers trained a lot in Pakistan in their formative years and some of them even picked up the sport in refugee camps on the other side of the border. The team from the war-ravaged nation even made its T20 and ODI debut against Pakistan.
After that, however, the BCCI took over and played a massive role in the rapid rise of the game in the strife-torn nation.
The Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida became a temporary “home-ground” for the team in 2015 with BCCI lending a helping hand. They had shifted base to Noida from Sharjah and even played home international matches against Ireland in Greater Noida in 2017.
Afghanistan had also “hosted” a Twenty20 series against Bangladesh in Dehradun.
Besides, former India players Lalchand Rajput and Manoj Prabhakar have coached the Afghanistan team, the latter as bowling coach.
Strengthening the relations further between the two countries, BCCI had invited then Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani to watch the team play its first Test match in Bengaluru.
The side has come a long way since then, regularly playing in ICC world events besides earning their Test status.
Afghan players in the IPL too have helped spread the sport’s popularity in the country.
Afghanistan have always acknowledged the role India played in their development as a cricket nation.
When Afghanistan became the 12th Test playing nation five years ago, it culminated a 23-year journey that began in 1995, when the Afghanistan Cricket Federation was set up.
While they have had their moments in the last few years, Afghanistan were desperately looking for a result like the one they achieved on Sunday, against one of the game’s biggest teams.
It is quite remarkable that they were able to flatten England, the reigning world champions, despite rarely coming face to face with the established nations in the 50-over format.
Put in to bat on a wicket that had yielded big runs recently, Afghanistan notched a competitive total, and then out-performed the England bowlers with their spin trio dominating the formidable English batting line-up.
It was fitting that the team’s biggest ambassador Rashid Khan picked up the last wicket to seal the famous win and leave the English bruised and battered.
Needless to say, Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi was delighted with the victory.
“I’m quite happy, all the teammates are happy. This is the best win for us, the confidence will be there for the next game and I’m very proud,” Shahidi summed up the mood.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
The BJP’s Nishikant Dubey has demanded immediate suspension of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, alleging that she “took bribes to ask questions” in parliament from businessman Darshan Hiranandani. Mr Dubey has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing her of breach of parliamentary privilege.
Ms Moitra has said she welcomes any inquiry.
Ms Gopinath also said China’s growth projection has been downgraded slightly.
Marrakech:
As the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war continue to be felt, it’s been a challenging few years for the global economy, but there are rays of hope as well. In an exclusive interview with NDTV in Marrakech, the International Monetary Fund’s Gita Gopinath spoke about the macroeconomic stability in India, the headwinds in China, artificial intelligence, extreme weather events and how all of these will impact the trajectory of the world economy in the coming years.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 2023 World Bank Group – IMF Annual Meetings, the First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF also spoke about the impact of the conflicts between Israel and Gaza and Russia and Ukraine on oil prices and food security.
Boundless Potential, Some Concerns
Emphasising that it is early days to assess the true potential of artificial intelligence, Ms Gopinath said the promise of generative AI could raise productivity and help boost slowing global growth.
“But it is far from certain at this point whether we are going to get all that productivity gain. Obviously, the innovation is important but it is going to require regulation. This is not business as usual, this is a very different animal that we have to deal with in terms of regulation. We have to make sure AI is used so that it actually benefits humanity,” she said.
Ms Gopinath said governments will need plans and account for the possibility of a lot of workers being affected directly by AI, and some losing their jobs.
“What we have seen traditionally with technology is this concern that it will cause a lot of layoffs and doesn’t really help create jobs. And what history has taught us is that, on net, a lot more jobs are created. They are in different sectors and demand different skills and so there are people who get affected and lose jobs but that’s where policy plays a role in making sure that they get the right support they need,” she said.
The senior IMF official also said that AI will have an impact on the general pay structure. “It is very interesting, the early studies that are coming up. In the past, as a new entrant to a particular industry, you didn’t have the experience, you had to wait to learn and therefore the pay you got was not as much. With AI you get to use the experience that others had and you get that information really quickly. So we could see somewhat more of a flattening of the pay structure. “
India Third-Largest Economy?
Asked about India’s economic growth and whether the country is on course to becoming the third-largest economy in the world by 2030, Ms Gopinath said, “India has strong growth. At 6.3%, it is one of the largest growth numbers that we have among major economies. We have 6.3% for this year and 6.3% for next year. We did the upgrade because the first quarter data came in somewhat stronger than we had expected.”
“If there is this continuing amount of public investment that happens, that seems to be catalsying private investment and consumption is holding up better than we expected, so I think those are good signs. In terms of the trillion-dollar number that India gets to, I am always a bit cautious because in the last three years we had the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I wouldn’t want to venture into talking about particular dates,” she added.
Mr Gopinath pointed out that the important thing is that India’s economy is strong, there is macro stability and inflation is coming into the RBI’s target band. “The financial sector is the strongest it has been in a long time. If you combine that with structural reforms, a lot of which is still needed, that could generate a lot of growth in India,” she said.
China Concerns
Ms Gopinath said the IMF had downgraded China’s growth projection slightly, from 5.2% to 5% for this year, and the organisation sees growth slowing down in China in the coming years. She emphasised that the property sector is an important concern and so are its ageing population and weaker productivity growth.
“In terms of spillovers to Asia as a whole, the estimate we have is that when China’s growth goes down by 1 percentage point, it shaves off about 0.3 percentage points out of growth over a five-year period for Asian regions. If I look at India specifically, I don’t see strong direct spillovers. We don’t expect to have a big effect of India slowing down. But if there is a more general slowdown in the global economy that comes from Asia slowing down, of course that would feed into growth for India,” she said.
World Growth, Food Insecurity
Asked about the reasons behind the global growth outlook for 2023 being 3%, well below the pre-pandemic levels, Ms Gopinath pointed to ageing demographics and weakening productivity. She said China plays an important role in this.
On food insecurity stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, she said it affects low-income countries the most because they spend a big percentage of their consumption basket on food. She asserted that while food prices have come down, they are still quite high and that remains a concern.
Ms Gopinath said that among the measures taken by the IMF to address this was the creation of the Food Shock Window to help countries in need.
Climate And The Future
Ms Gopinath said that while there is an increase in extreme climate-related disasters and the economic cost of that is adding up, the implications for global growth are small for now because the larger economies are doing relatively okay.
“For individual countries, small island nations, this can be very, very big. Even in India, temperatures are going up at twice the rate that it’s happening, on average, in the world. So it is quite vulnerable,” she said.
The IMF official pointed out that India played a big role in pushing for the reforms of Multilateral Development Banks through its G20 leadership and she sees momentum on that front. She also said the inclusion of the African Union into the G20 is very important because most of the working-age population will be on the African continent over the next many years.
