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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 9:20:26 am

Blocked roads take life

Kolhapur: Ten minutes. That is the gap the family of Nalini Ganesh Mainkar says may have separated life from death. On Tuesday, as preparations for Ganeshotsav gathered pace in Kolhapur, Mainkar, a resident of Wangibol in Shivaji Peth, suddenly fell critically ill after her blood pressure dropped. Her family immediately called an ambulance. The ambulance came. But it could not reach her home without delay. According to the family and the ambulance driver, roads were blocked at two or three...

Blocked roads take life

Kolhapur: Ten minutes. That is the gap the family of Nalini Ganesh Mainkar says may have separated life from death. On Tuesday, as preparations for Ganeshotsav gathered pace in Kolhapur, Mainkar, a resident of Wangibol in Shivaji Peth, suddenly fell critically ill after her blood pressure dropped. Her family immediately called an ambulance. The ambulance came. But it could not reach her home without delay. According to the family and the ambulance driver, roads were blocked at two or three locations by festival pandals, forcing the ambulance to negotiate alternative routes. By the time Mainkar was taken to hospital, doctors reportedly told the family that she had arrived about 10 minutes late. She died soon afterwards. For the Mainkar family, those 10 minutes are now an unbearable question: could she have survived if the ambulance had reached her on time? No medical conclusion establishing that link has been made public. But the incident has exposed a larger and recurring civic failure—the vulnerability of emergency services when public roads are allowed to become festival spaces. Mainkar lived barely a few minutes away from the Ambabai temple and had served there as a sevekari for several years. On Tuesday, her family watched helplessly as her condition deteriorated while the ambulance struggled to reach the house. The ambulance driver, the family said, acknowledged that the vehicle was delayed because of obstructions created by pandals at multiple points. No Implementation The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation has stipulated that a public festival pandal cannot occupy more than 25 per cent of the width of a road. The regulation is intended to ensure that traffic, pedestrians and emergency vehicles can continue to move. But on the ground, residents say, the distinction between a permitted pandal and a blocked road often disappears. In several parts of the old city, particularly the gaothan areas, festival structures have narrowed or closed roads. In other places, roads have been dug up for drainage and civic works. The result is a maze of bottlenecks at precisely the time when emergency vehicles need unobstructed access. The problem does not end with pandals. During festival processions, arrangements for dedicated passage of ambulances and fire engines are often inadequate. A traffic diversion that causes a commuter a few minutes of inconvenience can have an entirely different consequence for a patient suffering a cardiac emergency, major trauma or respiratory distress.

Look at the state as a laboratory: Fadnavis

Writer: Prithvi Asthana
Prithvi Asthana
3 hours ago
3 min read
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurates the expo at the 'Global Fintech Fest 2026' at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pic: PTI
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurates the expo at the 'Global Fintech Fest 2026' at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pic: PTI

Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday announced that the state will implement the new DELTA Act in the field of tokenisation. He said that Maharashtra will be the first state in India to create a legislative framework for tokenisation.


Fadnavis was addressing the Global Fintech Fest 2026. He said, “Maharashtra is putting in place the architecture of the Maharashtra Digitisation and Exchange of Land Token Asset-The DELTA Act. The objective is to create a legal framework for blockchain‑based tokenisation of land and other immovable assets. There is enormous value unlocked in our physical assets, particularly land and we estimate it could be as large as Rs 50 lakh crore.”


Highlighting the need for collaboration, Fadnavis said, “We are bringing together expertise from SIVI, BSE, NSE, industry, technology, law and academia because innovation at this scale must be accompanied by the legal certainty, consumer protection and regulatory trust. The operationalisation of this DELTA act requires a significant collaboration between government of India, institutions and government of Maharashtra.”


Global Hub

Fadnavis appealed the investors to look at the state as a laboratory to the most ambitious project. “The state was building an ecosystem around AI, data centers, GCC, startups, universities, and advanced technology. Look at Maharashtra as your laboratory, not just a market, and bring us your most ambitious ideas for sectors including agriculture, MSMEs, urban governance, mobility, healthcare, financial inclusion, fraud prevention and public finance.”


Highlighting the opportunities in the state he said, “Mumbai gives us the India’s deepest financial ecosystem, Pune gives us extraordinary talent and engineering, and Navi Mumbai is emerging a new centre for data centre, and global connectivity.”


Pitching Mumbai as the next global hub he said, “Mumbai should increasingly become the city where the future of global finance is designed. The next global fintech company can be made here. The next global financial protocol can be designed here. The next innovation in digital public infrastructure can be designed here. The next breakthrough in AI could happen here.”


Agentic AI

On Agentic AI, CM Fadnavis underlined the need for the responsible use of AI and the trust involved in creating new technology.


He said, “Imagine a farmer receiving financial advice in Marathi, imagine a poor citizen having access to financial intelligence that today requires teams of professionals, this could be transformative but there is an important principle we must never forget, AI may act for the citizen but the citizen must remain in control.”


“The future of finance must therefore combine intelligence with accountability, innovation with consent, spear with security and agent with human oversight because in finance ultimately trust is the technology on which every other technology exists,” he added.


India's fintech exports could reach USD 60 to 80 bn: Commerce Secretary
Union Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said that by bringing its digital infrastructure, technological capabilities and fintech solutions to global markets, India has an opportunity to increase its fintech services exports almost tenfold, from the current USD 8 billion to USD 60 to USD 80 billion.

Describing India's experience in providing financial services as a strong base, he said, “The fintech ecosystem provides a strong base to meet the emerging challenges of emerging economies, especially at the global level. To capitalize on this opportunity, coordination between governments, regulators, startups, financial institutions and partner countries is needed.”

Agarwal said, “E-commerce exports by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been identified as an area where fintech companies can make a difference. E-commerce is promoting exports to increase the share of MSEs in India's global export sector, but access to working capital is a major challenge for businesses that do not have a history of borrowing and do not have assets to pledge. In this case, an e-commerce company has received an order from an exporter, but needs capital for a short period of time to fulfil it.”

“Ministry of Commerce is piloting Export Credit Cards for e-commerce exporters and looking for fintech companies and startups that can develop technology-based short-term credit solutions. If small and medium enterprises are going to export and they need credit, they can ask for short-term loans from banks,” he added.

Aggarwal said that India's fintech and technology industry will now have to move beyond exporting individual products to focus on developing solutions to meet the needs of various global markets.

“This requires clear guardrails where the risks are understood, room for experimentation where they are still emerging, and the ability to adapt the framework as technology and its uses evolve. Good policy should give innovation room to grow, while ensuring that accountability and resilience grow with it. Policy has to remain informed by what is happening on the ground.”

Rohit Jain, Deputy Governor, RBI


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