Latest news with #MeenaDevi
Time of India
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Court orders insurance company to pay Rs 2 lakh to Ghaziabad woman after it rejected her stolen car claim 10 years ago
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed National Insurance Company Limited to pay 75% of the insured value, Rs 2 lakh, to an Indirapuram woman after her car, bought for rental income, was stolen in 2015. The commission also asked the company to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation for mental agony and litigation costs within 45 days, failing which interest at 6% on the total due amount will be charged, a TOI report stated. Claim for stolen car Meena Devi filed her complaint on April 18, 2017, stating that she had purchased an insurance policy from National Insurance on December 2, 2014, to cover loss and damage to her car, valid for one year. She said, "The car met with an accident on Jan 13, 2015, and I claimed reimbursement for the repair. The claim was honoured by the company, and Rs 95,000 were reimbursed, but the company officials made me sign some blank documents and stamp paper under the pretext of record-keeping. Later, when my car was stolen on Oct 21, 2015, the insurance company refused to make any payment saying the policy was closed." Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 4 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 3 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals By Vaibhav Sisinity View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 2 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass Batch-1 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Insurance company's response The company argued that it was justified in rejecting the claim, stating that the policyholder had submitted an undertaking on January 13, 2015, agreeing to close the policy after the accident claim. "The undertaking was vetted by the notary, so it is wrong to say that we took blank documents from the policyholder and used them as per our choice," the counsel added. The commission, led by president Praveen Kumar Jain and members Shailja Sachan and RP Singh, noted a discrepancy in dates. The undertaking was signed on January 21, 2015, while the stamp paper on record was purchased on January 24, 2015. "It is hard to believe that the policyholder applied for cancellation of the policy," the commission observed.
Time of India
07-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
RMC cracks down on violators of single-use plastic ban in city
1 2 Ranchi: Despite the ban on single-use plastics (SUPs) enforced in July 2022, plastic bags, cups, and disposable plates and glasses remain in use across the city. Now, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has ramped up its enforcement efforts with a fresh drive that began on August 1. On Thursday, its teams carried out inspections in Kanke as part of a wider sweep beginning last week and covering more than 10 areas, including Harmu, Upper Bazar, Hindpiri, Main Road, Kutchery, and Ratu Road. During the inspections, officials seized banned items from several vendors and shopkeepers and issued on-the-spot warnings. Some cases are also being forwarded for penalties. City manager Ambuj Singh said over Rs 53,000 in fines have been collected since January 2024 for SUP violations, including Rs 12,000 since the new phase of inspections began this month. "So far, we have issued more than 50 penalties. Enforcement has become tighter, especially in market clusters," he said. While alternatives such as biodegradable carry bags, paper packaging and cloth bags are now widely available in local markets, affordability and durability remain a concern among the users. Meena Devi, a resident of Lalpur, said, "I always ask for cloth or biodegradable bags while shopping, but many shopkeepers still hand out plastic bags. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like We Have No Words For Dog The Bounty Hunter's Transformation Reportingly Undo Some even charge extra for eco-friendly ones, which discourages people." Ram Avtar, a vegetable seller in Kokar, admitted that cost and practicality make SUPs more convenient. "Plastic bags are cheaper and stronger. The biodegradable ones tear easily and customers often demand double packaging out of fear that the pack will burst," he added. Meanwhile, RMC officials had previously flagged plastic choking of drains and overflowing garbage bins, especially during monsoons, by SUPs. They said sustained checks, combined with public awareness and vendor coordination, are now key to meaningful impact. "We'll continue conducting surprise inspections weekly. Compliance has improved in pockets, but consistent enforcement is crucial," city manager Singh added. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and s ilver prices in your area.
News18
15-07-2025
- News18
Years After Oil Hunters Came And Left, Himachal's Syathi Sinks; 61 Villagers Move Into Temple
The rains in Himachal Pradesh on June 30 and July 1 wreaked havoc, leaving hundreds of people homeless. In addition to the Seraj valley of Mandi district, Syathi of Gram Panchayat Laungni in the Dharmpur subdivision also faced a disaster, making 61 people homeless. Five houses in the village were completely destroyed, while the remaining houses are uninhabitable. Consequently, the entire village is now forced to spend nights with their children and elders in the courtyard of Naina Mata Temple. 3/8 Affected resident Abhishek Kumar recounted that a few years ago, when his family was in Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), they built a house with the received funds and their savings. Later, they expanded that house by saving every penny. Everything was destroyed in one stroke, leaving nothing behind, he said. Village Panchayat Laungni's Pradhan Meena Devi recalled that in 2014, Syathi village had also experienced land slippage due to heavy rains, forcing villagers to spend 15 days in the temple courtyard. When conditions improved, everyone returned to their homes. According to Meena Devi, a few years ago, some people came near the village searching for oil and dug small pits for investigation. The villagers do not have much information about this. Meena Devi stated that when she inquired, they said they were searching for oil. However, these individuals were never seen again. Notably, similar investigations have been conducted in various parts of Mandi district in search of oil, but no conclusions were reached.
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Invisible India: How a nation of 350 million was erased from its own growth story
Debashis Chakrabarti is a political columnist, Commonwealth Fellow (UK), and internationally recognized academic whose career bridges journalism, policy, and higher education leadership. A former journalist with The Indian Express, he brings the precision of investigative reporting to his political analysis and scholarly work. He has served as Professor and Dean at leading institutions across the UK, India, Africa, and the Middle East, with expertise in media studies, political communication, and governance. LESS ... MORE At a government ration shop in Latehar district, Jharkhand, Meena Devi waits for her number to be called. The monsoon has been irregular this year—too little rain at first, then too much. The rice she receives today will stretch for five days if no guests arrive, if her husband finds work, and if the children don't fall sick. She's learned how to measure food by silence: the groan of an empty stomach before dawn, the clink of the last lentils in the tin. She doesn't know what 'PPP' stands for, or that somewhere in Delhi or Washington, her poverty is debated with the polish of PowerPoint slides. She has never heard of the $4.20 line that might mark her existence on a policy map. All she knows is that last year, she lost her job as a school cleaner, and her husband now digs earth for road work when it comes. They haven't seen a doctor in years—not for lack of illness, but for lack of choice. But according to India's official data, Meena is no longer poor. She has, by metric if not by miracle, escaped. This is not just a failure of arithmetic. It is the quiet, methodical erasure of millions like her—an entire stratum of Indian society written out of the story of national progress. The government claims that just five per cent of Indians live in 'extreme poverty.' It is a comforting figure, used in budget speeches, investment summits, and television debates—often intoned with pride, like a national anthem in data form. But the figure is a fiction. According to the World Bank's own recalibration, when one adopts the Lower-Middle Income (LMI) line of $4.20 per day—an amount that accounts for the barest threshold of human dignity—fully one in four Indians, approximately 350 million people, fall below it. To understand how we got here is to understand not only a statistical distortion, but a philosophical betrayal. For decades, the Indian state has deployed poverty lines not as tools of welfare, but as instruments of illusion—recalibrating thresholds to shrink the visible poor. In 2011, a firestorm erupted when the Planning Commission suggested that anyone earning more than ₹33 a day in cities and ₹27 in villages was no longer poor. The outrage was so immense that the numbers were quietly buried. But the line, in spirit, remained. Unindexed to inflation, outdated in methodology, and politically convenient, India's national poverty benchmarks today are frozen in time, indifferent to the transformations of cost and climate. Meanwhile, new techniques such as the Modified Mixed Recall Period (MMRP) were introduced under the guise of statistical precision. In practice, these methodologies captured sporadic spending while failing to reflect sustained deprivation. Even the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)—which charts improvements in access to toilets, electricity, and clean water—offers a success story that, while real, is partial. A family may now have access to a latrine, but one hospitalization can still push them into destitution. Poverty is not a lack of sanitation alone—it is the daily terror of economic vulnerability. In India today, the poor are not so much lifted as they are masked. This statistical alchemy serves a purpose. It props up the narrative of an India marching forward, a digital superpower rising from the ashes of colonialism, its middle class swelling, its billionaires multiplying, its GDP graph reaching for the sky. But beneath the gilded ascent lies a darker ledger. According to recent studies, the top 1% of Indians control nearly 40% of the nation's wealth, while the bottom 50% shares less than 7%. These aren't simply figures; they're social contracts broken in silence. The spectacle of India's high-growth economy depends on keeping a vast population in low-cost precarity—as gig workers, bonded laborers, informal hawkers, or climate-ravaged farmers whose land no longer yields. It is tempting, in the language of policy, to say India stands at a crossroads. But that framing is generous. The road has been taken, the direction chosen. The dilution of labor protections, the retreat from universal health guarantees, the refusal to enact wealth taxes even during a pandemic—all these signal a deepening commitment to an extractive model, where inequality is not a byproduct of development, but its design. This economic vision is paired with an epistemological one—a belief that perception is policy, that to rename is to reform. And so poverty is not solved; it is statistically disappeared. What might once have qualified as a moral crisis is now repackaged as 'inclusive growth.' Even the language shifts. We no longer speak of the poor; we speak of 'aspirational India.' But the cost of this sleight of hand is borne daily by Meena and millions like her. Not only are they denied state support by virtue of exclusionary metrics—they are erased from public consciousness. When they protest, they are labelled anti-development. When they migrate, they become invisible workers. When they fall, the system calls it 'upliftment.' And still, the elite consensus holds. In boardrooms and newspaper columns, in policy white papers and television debates, India is celebrated as a global success story. Perhaps it is. But success for whom? There are precedents to this kind of data-backed denialism. In the 19th century, the British Raj used grain export figures to insist India was not starving—even as millions died in famines that were as much administrative as agricultural. Today's sedition is statistical, but no less deadly. It is a silence that kills not with bullets, but with budget lines. What is required now is not another policy adjustment or targeted welfare tweak. It is a reckoning. The $4.20/day dignity line must be adopted nationally, alongside a living, inflation-indexed poverty threshold based on actual costs of survival. Income precarity must be tracked alongside infrastructural access. And most importantly, the 350 million must be seen—not as collateral, but as citizens whose survival is not incidental to progress, but central to its legitimacy. India's moral future rests not in its GDP rankings, but in how it treats those it would prefer to forget. Growth built on erasure is not development. It is theft—systemic, sanctioned, and statistical. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Mint
25-06-2025
- Health
- Mint
Why modern health insurance should cover short hospital stays
In today's healthcare landscape, a hospital visit often no longer means an overnight stay. You can walk in for a cataract surgery or a biopsy in the morning and be home by lunch. Laser scalpels and precision diagnostics have shortened recovery times and eliminated the need for prolonged hospitalisation. Yet, while hospitals modernise, health insurance policies often remain stuck in the past—still requiring a 24-hour stay for a valid claim. This mismatch is creating a growing coverage gap for millions of Indians. By 2025, with over 1.46 billion citizens to serve, India's healthcare demand will only grow. While flagship government schemes like Ayushman Bharat—Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) provide safety nets for over 10.74 crore families, they focus on secondary and tertiary hospitalisation. This still leaves more than a billion Indians—particularly from the aspiring middle class—dependent on private hospitals and insurance systems. The rise of day-care surgeries What once required several days of hospitalisation—hernia repair, cataract operations, even certain orthopaedic and oncology procedures—can now be completed in a matter of hours, thanks to minimally invasive technologies. The increasing health burden from lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart ailments has driven demand for rapid interventions that reduce complications. This need has accelerated the adoption of minimally invasive procedures that don't require extended hospital stays. Even Tier-2 and Tier-3 hospitals are adapting to this new standard of rapid recovery. Health data backs this shift. Today, nearly 29% of total health insurance claims in India are for day-care procedures. But here's the catch: many are rejected, not due to costs or complications, but because the patient wasn't hospitalised for 24 hours. When efficiency backfires Consider Meena Devi, a 63-year-old woman from Ranchi. She underwent successful cataract surgery at 9 AM and returned home the same day. But her insurance claim was denied—because she didn't meet the 24-hour hospitalisation requirement. This outdated clause penalises modern medicine. Ironically, the more efficient the healthcare system becomes, the higher the risk that claims will be denied. It's a classic case of policy lagging behind practice. Regulatory momentum must continue The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has supported innovative coverage models before—such as the Standard Vector-Borne Disease Health Policy in 2021 and the rollout of short-term health covers during crises. Now, a similar regulatory push is needed to standardise and mandate short-stay hospital coverage across insurers. Bridging the gap between how care is delivered and how it's insured is essential for both policyholders and providers. Thankfully, some insurers are catching up. A few now offer products with expanded lists of day-care procedures, eliminate the 24-hour clause, or include standalone short-stay coverage. These plans are especially useful for urban professionals, young couples, and senior citizens who opt for time-efficient care. Adjusting to reduced hospital stays isn't just about improving customer experience—it's about staying relevant in a fast-evolving healthcare system. What consumers should watch for Consumers must dig deeper than just premiums and coverage caps. Does your policy still insist on a 24-hour stay? If so, you may face rejection for even medically necessary day-care procedures. Always check: A little attention now can protect you from frustration and financial stress later. Conclusion India's healthcare is evolving—becoming faster, smarter, and more efficient. To remain effective, health insurance must evolve too. A policy built around 24-hour stays is no longer in step with the way medicine works. If India is to build a future-ready healthcare system, our insurance industry must move at the same pace as our surgeons and diagnostics. After all, a few hours in the hospital should not mean months of paperwork—or a denied claim. Priya Deshmukh, head—health products, operations & services, ICICI Lombard
