Delhi HR Shocked As Candidate Demands ‘Rain Allowance' In Monsoon
A Delhi-based HR official recently encountered an unusual request from a job applicant that left him surprised. During the interview, the applicant asked for a 'Rain Allowance," which initially shocked the HR professional, who thought the applicant wasn't serious as he was demanding extra pay for monsoon months.
Taking to Reddit, the HR executive wrote, 'I met an applicant yesterday and I screened him. When asked about his expectations, he said he needed a 'Rain Allowance,' and I was confused. He explained, he needs extra pay for the monsoon months."
The interviewer revealed that the applicant requested the allowance because he incurs higher travel expenses due to the surge in prices of cab services like Ola and Uber during heavy rains. 'I told him there's no such policy and why he is asking for that. He said he uses Ola/Uber to come to the office and their fare goes rocket high when there's rain or water clogging on roads," he added.
The HR professional said the applicant also suggested alternatives such as working from home on rainy days or being allowed to come in late.
He said that he initially thought the applicant wasn't truly interested and asked if he was serious about the job. The applicant insisted he was, but asked for an allowance, as his last month's travel expense had doubled because it was raining heavily in July.
He said to prove his point, the applicant asked him to calculate his own commuting expenses. 'He said, if you use Ola/Uber to come to the office, try calculating your expense and compare it with other months. He was respectful throughout and sounded genuine," the HR wrote.
Curiously, the recruiter checked personal travel expenses and found out that the applicant was right. He said heavy rains in July had nearly doubled his normal monthly commuting costs. Even recent rides were showing fares significantly higher than usual.
'I spent the normal monthly fare within 15 days in July, because it rained heavily here, and just this morning when I booked the ride, it was showing 20 rupees more than double the daily fare. As it rained last night in Delhi/NCR," he wrote.
view comments
First Published:
Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
8 minutes ago
- Time of India
As regulatory curbs seem to ease fintechs bet on festive spark in unsecured lending play
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech The digital lending sector is anticipating a turnaround in FY26, after more than a year of a slowdown amid growth pangs, expecting the coming festive season to trigger a revival of the unsecured credit insiders across fintechs like BharatPe, and Paytm , and traditional lenders like Poonawala Fincorp and L&T Finance said the regulatory clampdown on unsecured lending in 2024 and early 2025 is showing signs of ebbing. This is encouraging large banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) who typically co-lend with fintechs to slowly open up to unsecured credit.'We will power our consumer lending play primarily with our own NBFC, and we are currently getting our internal systems right, so that once the festive season comes, we can quickly scale up disbursals,' said Nalin Negi, chief executive officer, BharatPe. The New Delhi-based fintech, which is mainly into merchant lending, is preparing to grow its consumer lending business. BharatPe owns around 74% in Trillionloans, a registered One97 Communications , which runs Paytm, showed a strong growth in its financial services business in the June quarter, primarily driven by unsecured merchant and consumer insiders believe that the stress in the unsecured sector has bottomed out and are expecting a return to growth in the coming months. They, however, noted that it will not be a rapid recovery since rate cuts by the central bank always take time to its March quarter analyst call, Paytm also spoke about positivity around consumer lending business. 'It does feel like that we are towards the bottom of what our potential is on that platform… maybe 6 or 12 months from now, we'll be getting a lot more monetisation out of that,' said Madhur Deora, chief financial officer at sentiments are being echoed by top executives at large NBFCs. Firms like Poonawala Fincorp and L&T Finance, which work with fintechs like PhonePe, Paytm, and Amazon to power their unsecured lending business, reported growth in the June quarter and issued a positive outlook for the rest of the fiscal year.'I do believe that the situation in the market is slowly improving, the sort of the mini cycle we saw in some asset classes, especially unsecured and microfinance, are showing signs of dissipation,' said Sudipto Roy, chief executive officer, L&T Finance. 'I think it will take another two quarters for the industry to see full dissipation.''H2 will be very, very good, especially starting with the festive season and in Q4 (FY26),' Roy sector entered into the slow lane following the Reserve Bank of India's November 2023 diktat on increasing the risk weightage on unsecured personal loans by 25 basis points. As banks and NBFCs slowed their unsecured lending business, fintechs suffered as such loans contributed to most of their an April 2025 note, credit rating agency Icra said it expects Rs 19-20.5 lakh crore in incremental credit expansion this fiscal, an increase of nearly 10.8%. Digital lenders are hoping to grab a substantial chunk of this growth opportunity.A senior executive at an NBFC pointed out that lenders are in the business of risk and they avert lending for a prolonged period of time. But risk weights are being revisited, and growth will be through enough caution.'We are getting enquiries for partnerships both from fintechs who want to work with our NBFC and from lenders who want to source through our app, but we have to recalibrate this business, pricing, tenure, volumes and others,' said Negi at BharatPe.
News18
17 minutes ago
- News18
Gemini Horoscope Today, August 16, 2025
Last Updated: Gemini Daily Horoscope, August 16, 2025: Financial wisdom and spiritual focus guide your day. Be mindful in decisions, and avoid conflict. Charity brings inner peace. Gemini Daily Horoscope Today, 16 August 2025: Ganesha says today you will find yourself thinking of donating to a good cause. Make sure you do your research before handing over money. Keep a close eye on your expenses and do not spend money on unnecessary things. Go ahead, because it will bring joy to your heart and won't break the bank. In business activities, you will follow the rules and regulations. Maintain politeness in business matters. Gemini Horoscope Today, August 16, 2025 Positive: Ganesha says you may get some achievements. But while taking any decision, use your mind rather than your heart; this will give you better results. Taking an interest in religious and spiritual activities will also bring positive improvement in your personality. Negative: Do not leave government work incomplete due to negligence, and complete it on time. Otherwise, you may face a penalty. Instead of finding faults in the work of others, focus on your working style. Business: If there is any court case, then there is a fair possibility of the decision coming in your favor. Keep business-related papers and files organized. Employed people will get an official travel-related order. Love: There will be ideological differences between husband and wife regarding family problems. There may be tension in love relationships as well. Health: It is also important to take rest from time to time. Because there will be physical and mental fatigue due to excessive workload. Lucky Colour: Purple Lucky Number: 9 (The author Chirag Daruwalla is the son of Astrologer Bejan Daruwalla). view comments First Published: News astrology Gemini Horoscope Today, August 16, 2025 Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Unbuilt vision: Why Mumbai's eastern waterfront dream was so remarkable
MUMBAI: Broad pavements, lush gardens and a low building footprint aren't features typically associated with Mumbai's urban sprawl. And, yet, a 28-km stretch along the eastern shoreline fringed by a 6.4-km-long promenade promised just that. Designed to give Mumbaiites one of the things they need most, breathing space, the plan envisioned spaces devoted to art, culture and entertainment, among other features rarely seen in this space-starved metropolis. Unbuilt vision: Why Mumbai's eastern waterfront dream was so remarkable Finalised in 2018, this was the second plan for Mumbai's eastern shoreline, proposed to transform 966.30 hectares of land owned by the MbPA. It has now been virtually shelved by a third plan, one that will see 217 acres of MbPA land leased for industrial and commercial purposes, for up to 30 years. Tenders have been floated and, unlike the earlier two proposals, this one has begun to roll. HT was the first to report on the plan on August 12. The first proposal for the eastern shoreline was submitted in 2014 by a committee headed by retired bureaucrat Rani Jadhav. It was set aside after it was opposed by citizens' groups. The 2018 plan, prepared by an Ahmedabad-based architectural firm called HCP, founded by Hasmukh C Patel and now led by Dr Bimal Patel, was prepared under the chairmanship of retired bureaucrat Sanjay Bhatia. It was meant to transform the Mumbai port area into a benchmark for port areas in other coastal cities in India. The third, and current, plan envisages leasing 28 plots on a consolidated area of 217 acres, from Colaba to Wadala, in addition to one plot in Thal near Alibag. By leasing these plots for industrial and commercial purposes, MbPA intends to earn ₹814.04 crore in the first year, with an annual lease escalation of 2%. The properties to be leased include a 22-hectare plot at Princess Dock near the domestic cruise terminal; a 1.2-lakh sq m plot that once housed an HPCL facility in Wadala; a 42,955-sq m plot that used to have warehouses of the Food Corporation of India in Wadala; the Sewri Timber Pond, a cargo storage yard measuring 1.04 lakh sq m near the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link; and various buildings owned by the MbPA along the city's east coast. The plan has been criticised for its narrow vision, denying Mumbaiites a world-class waterfront they had been promised. The 2018 master plan included port and sea tourism facilities, with water transport facilities to ease the growing traffic issues of Mumbai. It included water taxis, roll on-roll off services, an international cruise terminal, a domestic cruise terminal, a seaplane service, a marina, a Sewri-Elephanta ropeway, an eco-trail within mangroves and mud flats to spot migratory birds, and a host of other facilities and public amenities. Apart from tourism, commercial spaces, retail outlets, residential zones and the informal sector were also to be tapped. With South Mumbai having lost its position as the city's central business district, a portion of the port land was to have commercial spaces to claw back corporate offices and to house a government office complex. Malls and shopping-themed streets similar to Colaba and Bandra's Linking Road were also pitched for retail space. Residential real estate has been on the decline in the island city and headed towards the suburbs. The 2018 plan aimed to unlock land for residential purposes including staff quarters for government and public undertakings, and to rehabilitate slums. The holistic eastern waterfront development plan included the informal sector, which plays a crucial role in Mumbai's economy. 'The MbPA proposal was to provide space and spatial instruments to facilitate the informal sector in a planned and desirable manner, not affecting other users of space in any negative way,' the 2018 proposal states. Demand-based vending zones and daily bazaars was part of the proposal. Once these plans unfolded, the waterfront would accommodate a 2.7-lakh residential population. Unlike most urban areas, the port area would have had an unusually large floating population attracted by commercial, industrial, port operations, tourism and healthcare zones. An estimate for this was 4.9 lakh, according to the plan. 'This was a holistic plan. The idea was to utilise Floor Space Index of all the land parcels towards buildings and then have the remaining land for recreation. One of the plots that the MbPA now intends to lease is where a marina was proposed. I don't know why such a wonderful master plan has been shelved,' said one of the individuals who worked on the master plan. The grand vision took shape after Nitin Gadkari was appointed ports minister when the NDA government came to power at the centre in 2014. Then, just a year after the proposal was submitted, Gadkari was divested of the ports ministry in a cabinet reshuffle in 2019, and the plan was put on the backburner. 'Both the 2018 master plan and the current one prioritise land monetisation for the port authority over the needs of the city. But the difference is that the 2018 plan had followed at least some public process, whereas this one is devoid of any public process,' said urban researcher and professor Hussain Indorewala.
