Easy on the banks, hard on the workers

Hey folks,

In one week we will be a year old! How exciting! In the most Mili and Sudeshna way possible, to celebrate this milestone, we sat together for four hours this week making changes to the website that we had been meaning to make for a while. So boys and girls, do checkout our freshly minted About page if you are interested in that kind of stuff because you might see an easter egg there. If you see it, reply to this email and let me know? ;)

The Cockroach Janta Party protest did take place in Delhi by the way. It was peaceful. Decent turnout too but shockingly spare coverage by Indian mainstream media. The focus of the movement at the moment seems to be the state of education in India, which I think is good. One issue at a time, grassroot support if this thing is going to have any leg. Now, to find out if it does have any long term legs to stand on, your girl has joined their Discord recently and I have to say, it is NOT lonely in there. And they did a fairly decent job of reporting the protest in Discord real time. Why am I sharing all of this... Well, I guess it is as much for me as for you, to keep in mind that whether this becomes, the next Gen Z movement or not, hinges on people supporting the cause before immediately becoming suspicious of anything that is anti-establishment. If only we had been this suspicious in 2014, and then in 2019, and then again in 2024, haan? We'll see where this goes. I will not give them my blind support but I will also not give them my blind suspicion. Our youth and country deserve better.

Alrighty folks. One disclaimer. I am writing this on Wednesday, June 10 because your girl's going on a hiking trip and will be offline (from work). So if something major happens between Wednesday and Sunday and you do not see it here, my apologies from the hills.

Toodaloo! Until next week when we celebrate our one year anniversary!

Just the gist

🔗 The power of your NRI bank account

The RBI announced at last week's MPC meeting that it will cover the hedging costs for fresh three to five year FCNR(B) deposits until September 30, 2026. Now what am I talking about, right?

If you have an NRE account in an Indian bank, you know that as an NRI you get some special privileges to save and invest in India. Much like your NRE/NRO account, FCNR(B) is also a special account accessible to NRIs but for fixed deposits. However, it does not convert your foreign currency into Indian rupee. Not for you at least. When you deposit dollars in an Indian bank through an FCNR(B) account, the bank converts those dollars into rupees to lend them out. But for you it remains the same amount of dollars so you are protected against currency fluctuations. To protect itself from currency risk, the bank buys a hedge, which costs roughly 3% a year. That cost has always eaten into the interest rate the bank can offer you. By absorbing that hedging cost until September, the RBI has freed banks to pass the savings directly to depositors. Bankers estimate rates could go up by 1.5% to 2% as a result.

The broader context is that India needs foreign exchange. The rupee has been hitting record lows, the Iran war has pushed up the oil import bill, and foreign portfolio investors have been pulling money out. FCNR(B) deposits are one of the cleanest ways to bring diaspora dollars, pounds, and euros into India's reserves. The scheme is open to NRIs, OCIs, and Persons of Indian Origin.

The deposit keeps your money in your foreign currency, so you are insulated from rupee depreciation. Both principal and interest are fully repatriable, meaning you can take the money back out. Interest is tax exempt in India as long as you qualify as a non-resident under Indian tax law. There is no cap on how much you can deposit, though individual banks may have a minimum limit. You can hold deposits across multiple currencies and maturities. Premature withdrawal is permitted but if you pull out before one year, you generally receive no interest.

➡️ Banks have started repricing today. So much so that I got a notification from my bank as I was writing this newsletter. :D If you have been sitting on foreign currency savings and considering whether to move some of it into India, this is the most attractive the FCNR(B) scheme has been in years. But hold on till all the banks have recalculated their interest so you can compare rates across banks before committing.

🔗 Broken systems breaking the back of a generation

Two Class 12 students, Sarthak Sidhant and Nisarga Adhikary, have emerged as MVPs in the whole CBSE fiasco. They claimed to have breached the CBSE On-Screen Marking portal in 30 minutes, finding master passwords, OTP bypasses, and unencrypted cloud storage that could potentially allow anyone to alter marks and student data.

CERT-In, India's national cybersecurity agency, had reportedly flagged vulnerabilities in the online evaluation ecosystem multiple times between February and May 2026, and concluded that one of the portals was "not fit for deployment in a production environment". The portal was deployed anyway, for 17 lakh students' answer sheets. Adhikary said he emailed CERT-In and other government cybersecurity offices after finding the vulnerabilities. He did not receive a satisfactory response.

The platform in question, called OnMark, was developed by a Hyderabad-based company called Coempt EduTeck. There are allegations that CBSE lowered its procurement standards to award the contract that they have disputed. What is not in dispute is that the system had critical vulnerabilities, that a government agency knew about them, and that the system was used for a high-stakes national examination regardless.

What is especially annoying is that India has solid policies, guidelines, audits, and compliance frameworks. The problem is, as always, in execution. Government technology procurement runs on tender processes where cost or connection is the dominant factor, leading to subcontracting chains where platforms worth crores are ultimately built with anything but efficiency and reliability in mind. Security is treated as a one-time activity before launch rather than an ongoing process.

In the last decade, India has built a vast Digital India ecosystem: Aadhaar, DigiLocker, CoWIN, UMANG, online examination systems, direct benefit transfers. The government has spent nearly Rs 14,903 crore on Digital India between 2021 and 2026. The same period has produced the AIIMS ransomware attack, the ICMR data leak exposing personal information of 81.5 crore citizens, CoWIN glitches, NEET leaks, CUET problems, and now CBSE's OSM failure. Digitisation and cybersecurity are not the same investment, and India has consistently funded the first while underfunding the second.

➡️ If you have family members whose CBSE results are currently under re-evaluation, the process is ongoing and the portal remains the only channel available. Keep records of every application and payment. The broader point for anyone with family navigating any government digital system in India, from Aadhaar-linked services to DigiLocker to health records, is that the security of those systems has been consistently treated as secondary to the speed of their deployment. This failure is a policy choice, and Class 12 students are currently paying the price for it.

🔗 BJP is a homewrecker of broken homes

Two weeks ago, Mamata Banerjee warned the BJP that tormenting her party in Bengal would create problems for them in Delhi. In the fortnight since, 58 of the Trinamool's 80 MLAs chose their own leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, defying the party. Twenty of the Trinamool's 28 Lok Sabha MPs announced they would ally with the BJP-led NDA to work for the state's "development". West Bengal's CID raided Mamata Banerjee's house in connection with a forgery investigation. The problems, as it turns out, have been the Trinamool's own.

The first pain point is dynasty politics, the greatest armour and the biggest weakness of Indian politics. The rebellion's stated target is Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata's nephew and the party's national general secretary, who is accused of killing inner-party democracy and sidelining veterans who built the party over decades. This mirrors exactly why Suvendu Adhikari, now the BJP's Chief Minister of West Bengal, left the Trinamool in 2020. Or at least why he says he did. There was of course ED raid but we don't talk about that. Abhishek's rise has been a grievance inside the party for years. Losing an election gave those grievances permission to become public.

The second is the BJP's pressure tactics. The rebel MPs reportedly met at the Delhi home of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, with Suvendu Adhikari also in attendance. Several Trinamool politicians have been arrested since the BJP came to power in Bengal. Loyalists are pointing out, with some justification, that the same people now condemning Abhishek were calling him their commander-in-chief six months ago. What changed is that the party is no longer in power, and staying loyal now comes with raids and risks.

The third, and possibly the most important, is organisational. The Trinamool had increasingly outsourced its political operations to I-PAC, the consultancy firm, rather than building and maintaining a genuine grassroots network. When you replace organisational depth with consultant-managed campaigns, you have no roots to hold you together when the ground shifts.

The rebels have been careful to declare Mamata Banerjee their leader while directing everything at Abhishek. This is the Maharashtra playbook: pit yourself against the heir apparent, not the founder, split the party while claiming loyalty to its symbol. It worked with the Shiv Sena. It appears to be working here.

➡️ The Trinamool's collapse as a coherent opposition within weeks of losing power leaves Bengal without a functional check on the new government at exactly the moment one is needed. Whatever you think of Mamata Banerjee's 15-year tenure, an opposition that disintegrates this fast, whether through defections, pressure, or its own organisational rot, is not good news for democratic accountability in the state.

🔗 Late stage capitalism vs. the value of life

On June 12, 2025, Air India flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London crashed seconds after takeoff. 241 of the 242 passengers and crew on board were killed, along with 19 students at the B.J. Medical College where the Boeing 787 Dreamliner came down. It was one of the worst aviation disasters in Indian history.

A year on, Air India is offering financial compensation to families of the deceased on one condition: they sign a document permanently waiving all present and future legal claims, not just against Air India, but against Boeing, General Electric, Safran, Honeywell, the Union of India, Ahmedabad International Airport, and a list of other parties. The official investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has not yet concluded. Nobody outside the airline and its lawyers knows the full facts of what happened.

➡️ Families are being asked to choose between immediate financial support and the right to seek accountability once the truth is known. This means that even if the investigation reveals new evidence of negligence by Boeing or any other party, families who have signed cannot act on it. Air India is saying that there is no deadline or pressure, that some families have chosen to wait for the investigation report, and that the indemnity clause mirrors standard industry practice used in previous Air India accidents.

Trending on the internet

🔗 Khan Sir's planets are all in retrograde

I did not know something was going on with Khan sir till my social media was flooded with Khan sir support content and then Khan sir diss content. So I decided to read up on it. Now I am taking you down that road with me because you signed up for it.

Faisal Khan, or Khan sir, is a well-known name across the country for having become somewhat of an internet personality with his educational content. He is known for having made education more accessible in India for those without the means. He also runs a coaching institute in Patna. Now, as it turns out, there is a whole other Gangs of Wasseypur going on in the coaching industry.

On June 2, a group allegedly linked to a rival coaching institute vandalised Khan Global Studies and attacked a security guard. There was some firing outside which Khan sir initially claimed rivals had fired. However, security footage later seems to show that his own security guards had shot their guns in the air and they claim that they were under Khan sir's instructions. Khan was then booked for attempt to murder. A Patna court granted him interim protection from arrest until June 20 while anticipatory bail proceedings continue. Bihar Fire Services then conducted a safety audit of the institute and found no fire alarm system, no fire pump, and an inadequate water tank. He has been given a week to rectify the deficiencies or face sealing.

In Delhi, another storm was brewing for him. The High Court declined on Monday to grant an interim injunction in a Rs 2 crore defamation suit filed by Aaj Tak anchor Anjana Om Kashyap and TV Today Network against Khan and several other online educators. The suit stems from a May 29 debate in which Kashyap commented on the commercialisation of education and the influence of online star teachers. Khan and others allegedly responded with a coordinated social media campaign calling her a "bikau patrakar" accusing Aaj Tak of running a "fake news ki dukaan" and, according to the suit, publicly naming the school attended by Kashyap's child. The court has asked defendants to file replies and listed the matter for June 17.

➡️ What I find most interesting in this story is the timeline. Anjana Om Kashyap files her suit on May 29. The vandalism incident happened on June 2 followed by the fire service safety audit. I mean it is either 'misfortune always comes together' or... and here I ask you to wear a tinfoil hat with me... this is a way to discredit yet another well known name from a minority community at a time when the education ministry is heavily under attack for its obvious failure.

Read with me

🔗 Running the census on the backs of poorly paid women

Ranjeeta Awale and Vanita Detake are ASHA workers in Mumbai. Every morning they walk through the bastis of Mankhurd in 40-degree heat, covering their heads with dupattas because the paper-thin caps the government gave them as part of their Census kit are useless. They carry heavy bags, fill digital surveys on overheating phones, knock on doors in neighbourhoods where people have gone back to their villages for summer, and try not to drink too much water because there are no toilets they can use on their rounds.

For this, ASHA workers in Mumbai earn a base of Rs 1,650 a month, with incentive payments that can reach Rs 4,000 to Rs 8,500 depending on whether they hit their targets. Most take second jobs in the evenings, domestic labour, nursing, piecework, because there is no other way to survive in Mumbai on what the government pays. Their Census enumeration payment, Rs 25,000 total, will be disbursed after the entire exercise concludes in 2027. I am sorry, what!

ASHA workers are classified as volunteers under Indian labour law, not employees. This classification allows the state to assign them the work of permanent government staff while avoiding the obligations of employment, fixed salary, pension, health insurance, or legal protection from unsafe working conditions. India has not ratified the ILO convention that would mandate occupational health and safety standards for the informal sector.

The health consequences of working in this heat are specific and documented. Women who cannot relieve themselves in public routinely reduce their water intake, placing sustained stress on their kidneys. Among ASHA workers surveyed in Haryana, 68% reported worsened dehydration, 67% exhaustion, and 55% gastrointestinal or skin problems from heat. Older workers deal with UTIs, hot flashes, and hypertension while completing their rounds. There is no mandatory heat action plan that covers these workers. They are listed in Maharashtra's state climate action plan as essential to heat response work, with no training, compensation, or protection provided for any of it.

➡️ India's public health infrastructure runs on these women. Maternal health tracking, immunisation, polio camps, disease surveillance, Census enumeration, election booth duty, COVID response. When the pandemic hit, ASHA workers died doing this work and were not compensated. They are still waiting for payment from election duty. The state has built its last-mile health delivery system on labour it classifies as voluntary precisely so it does not have to pay for it properly or protect it legally.

That's all for today, folks! See you next week as the countdown to the anniversary issue continues.