Pining for the Maharaja

It’s been a while since the government sold India’s iconic flag carrier, Air India to the Tata Group. But the leaders can’t seem to digest this reality when it comes to claiming the pride and prestige on the 'Maharaja'.

At a dairy union's function in North Gujarat recently, Union Cabinet Minister Parshottam Rupala expressed great pride over Air India. Addressing a crowd of dairy farmers, Rupala said, “During the difficult corona times, the entire world wanted the vaccines. Even though the countries wanted it, their airlines were not ready to fly due to (aviation) restrictions.

“Here, Air India needs to be applauded for making deliveries possible across the world.” The Minister continued, “I don't know when the Air India logo of turban-clad Maharaja with twirl on moustache was designed. But this proved that the Maharaja has all the rights to twirl his moustache as he has the guts.”

Drone progress

This year, the Centre made a big push for using drones in agriculture in the current fiscal’s Budget. The Ministry of Agriculture followed it up by releasing standard operating procedures for drones.

A meeting chaired by the Agriculture Minister is held every Friday in which all stakeholders, including the Drone Association of India, pesticide makers, insecticide manufacturers and the Director General of Civil Aviation take part. Any issue raised is immediately discussed and thrashed out by government officials. Drone manufacturers say the Centre will soon come out with policies for the commercialisation of drone operations.

That’s good news, though it has taken nearly two years for this to happen.

RBI vs digital lending apps

A seasoned hack recently sought to know from a RBI biggie about the status of RBI’s rumoured upcoming directions on digital lending Apps and when could one expect the new comprehensive guidelines.

“It is in the 19th over of second innings of a T20 match”, was the cryptic reply from this RBI honcho.

This could well mean that the RBI press release is getting ready and new framework for digital lending Apps may be round the corner.

For sure this T20 match is turning into a nail biter as RBI is now faced with a huge asking run rate against the opponents (digital lending Apps), it is learnt. Regulator may have to hit some sixes in the last over to win the game and get the regulatory architecture on digital lending Apps modelled to its wishes and liking, a central bank observer noted. One thing is for sure — the playing field for digital lending Apps could get tougher as regulatory oversight increases by leaps and bounds.

Woes at the Statue of Unity

It's a problem of plenty at the Statue of Unity. The World's tallest statue, besides drawing heavy tourist flow, also has an incessant flow of government dignitaries and VVIPs.

This, according to the locals of Narmada District, keeps the district administrative staff occupied in VVIP arrangements such as stay, security, protocol, and sightseeing etc at the cost of public work. The statue has become a destination for government conferences, national-level meets and programmes with top dignitaries in attendance, requiring a line-up of district officials as part of protocol.

This, according to, Narmada District Bar association president Vandana Bhatt, hampers the routine administrative work and the citizens coming from remote areas of the district suffer because of the delays in getting their work done. Bhatt has reportedly raised this issue with the Gujarat Chief Minister seeking to spare district staff from the VVIP arrangements and instead use the resources available with the SoU Authority.

In past one month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union MoS Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani have visited the Statue. Our Bureaus

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