Mumbai's hoteliers are listening to ringing registers cash in poll season

Most of the hotels, including 3-star ones in the vicinity of Mumbai, jacked up their rates this extended weekend with even the smaller ones in Khandala, Mahabaleshwar charging Rs 15,000-20,000 a night

Hotels win in election season

South Mumbai's low voter turnout is legendary and this time is no exception, with the high-flying ones going abroad, taking advantage of the long weekend (Monday being a holiday because of the polls and Wednesday on account of Maharashtra Day), while others taking state buses/trains to their native places. But hotel companies are not complaining. Most of the hotels, including 3-star ones in the vicinity of Mumbai, jacked up their rates this extended weekend with even the smaller ones in Khandala and Mahabaleshwar charging Rs 15,000-20,000 a night. So while politicians continue to rue, hoteliers are listening to the ringing of cash registers.

 

Strings attached

The government of Tamil Nadu seems to know the right strings to play to usher in the much-needed rains as many parts of the state, including Chennai, are in the grip of severe water scarcity this summer. A circular from the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments department, which operates under the aegis of the state government, is doing the rounds in social media. It stipulates that temples across the state conduct prayers using the nadaswaram, violine, flute, veena and other instruments in the amritavarshini, meghavarshini, kedari, ananda bhairavi, roopakalyani ragams to please the gods. It has also prescribed special yagyams and poojas in Siva and Vishnu temples. The temples have been asked to list the poojas and offer updates after each yagyam is completed.

 

Knock, knock. Who’s there?

After chasing down trade deficits and industrial red tape, commerce ministry bureaucrats have been on a different kind of hunt in April. Over the past two weeks, they have been trying to figure out the identity of a new colleague. Earlier in April, the government had announced the names of nine individuals selected for direct lateral entry into joint secretary level positions across ministries. But officials had been stumped by the seeming lack of detail regarding Arun Goel, who had been nominated to the ministry. Their long search came to an end on Tuesday when online marketplace Shopclues revealed Goel had served as the company's vice-president of product management since August 2015.