Greece has suffered more than any European country since the 2007–8 global financial crisis. The governments that have held power between 2010 and 2018 have enacted several rounds of tax increases, spending cuts, and reforms. Austerity measures have triggered both local riots and nationwide protests. The uncertainty and economic decline that has plagued Greece has affected all spheres of society, but education has been particularly hard hit. Public spending has shrunk by 40 percent, and more than one hundred schools, as well as a number of university departments, have closed. Many Greek youth decide not to study at all or…
Author: Loknath Das
Imagine being an ambitious fresh graduate interviewing for a job 15 years ago. Recruiters would have asked about your degree programme, your grades and the nature of your extra-curricular activities. Today, the ante has been raised. New, additional demands are increasingly common. What overseas experience do you have? How did you value-add to the organisation you interned at? Do you have experience working with data? Are you agile enough to cope with change? Recruiters are now looking for demonstrations of aptitude that go beyond good grades. The Ministry of Education has recognised this and introduced policies to prepare future graduates…
While public sector banks are facing high accretion of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the education loans, leading to a marked slowdown in growth, non-banking finance companies (NBFC) are expanding their education loan books. Notably, over the last few years, several standalone education loan companies have come-up, and many of them are experimenting with new products too. Further, by adopting a student-led approach, which includes an overall academic screening of students, NBFCs are redefining the norms of education loan lending. Data from Reserve Bank of India shows, as on February 2018, total education loan outstanding stood at Rs 705 billion, against Rs 720 billion in February 2017, a fall of 2 per cent. At present,…
Mother and son were engaged in an unspoken dialogue over the open books that lay in front of them on the dining table. The mother tugged at the buttons of her sweater, her forehead crinkled. The son’s forehead crinkled even more as he pointed at a book and pushed a pencil to her hand. She shook her head and placed the pencil on the edge of the table, away from his reach. He sighed and folded his hands. It would be 30 more minutes of the Sunday morning ritual of denial and perseverance. I had a clear view of the…
Electronic Arts is bringing back real-money purchases to Star Wars Battlefront 2 next week. An update for the game arriving April 18 will let players purchase crystals, an in-game currency that players can spend on cosmetic upgrades. Battlefront 2’s crystals can be used to purchase “appearances,” in-game skins for playable characters, EA said in an announcement today. More than 50 appearances, including new Endor-themed looks for Han Solo and Leia Organa, will be added to the game as part of the game’s new update. Appearances can also be purchased with credits, which are earned through in-game activity, EA said. Crystals were originally…
The Toronto Maple Leafs talked at length this week about the importance of trying to contain Boston’s powerful top line in their first-round playoff series with the Bruins. There’s lots of work to be done in that department, and a host of others, after Thursday night. The trio of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron combined for six points as the Bruins thumped the Leafs 5-1 in the opener of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal. “We’ve got to be better, obviously,” said Toronto head coach Mike Babcock, who had Marchand and Bergeron when all three were part of Canada’s team…
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, a dark mythological adventure that follows a young warrior suffering from psychosis, was the big winner at the 2018 Bafta video game awards on Thursday night at Tobacco Dock, London. The game, which was developed in conjunction with psychologists and neuroscientists to ensure its accurate depiction of mental illness, was nominated in nine categories and won for best British game, best performance, artistic achievement, audio achievement and a new category, games beyond entertainment, which celebrates new releases with a political or social message. Accepting the latter prize, psychologist Paul Fletcher, a professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University who…
India is seeking long-term, low-cost funds for the ambitious river linking project aimed at fixing water woes confronting large swatches of the country, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said in a discussion at the Hindustan Times-Mint Asia Leadership Summit on Friday. The government’s target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022, Gadkari stressed, cannot be achieved without effective water management. Apart from enhancing river connectivity, the project is aimed at improving drip and pipe irrigation to reduce water wastage.The project envisages linking almost 60 rivers to cut the dependence of Indian farmers on annual monsoon rainfall by irrigating croplands “The…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought to calm the southern states, which are protesting the 15th Finance Commission’s (FFC) terms of reference (ToR) for its alleged potential to reward populous states at their cost, saying the Centre had, in fact, suggested to the commission to “consider incentivising the states who have worked on population control”. Inaugurating the diamond jubilee building of the Cancer Institute in Chennai, Modi said, “I would like to remind you this (incentive for population control) was not the case earlier.” The prime minister said, “Baseless allegations were being made about the ToR being biased against certain states…
Gurugram-headquartered online lending startup Aye Finance has raised $4.6 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in debt funding led by Swiss impact investor BlueOrchard Finance Ltd. The development comes less than two months after that startup secured $3.8 Mn (INR 25 Cr) from three investors, including Hinduja Leyland Finance and IntelleGrow. As per the media statement, the latest round of funding will enable Aye Finance to further diversify its lending portfolio, with the aim of reaching out to more MSMEs in India. Commenting on the fundraise, Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director and Founder of Aye Finance, said “It is humbling to see the amount of trust BlueOrchard has shown…