Latest news with #ASCI
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Water bills in Hyderabad set to shoot up as water board mulls tariff overhaul
Hyderabad: If you've been taking the monsoon rains as a cue to waste water, it's time to rethink. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is planning a significant hike in water tariffs after almost 14 years, including the imposition of a 35% sewerage cess, which could dent household budgets. The last revision for domestic users was in 2011, while commercial tariffs were last increased in 2013. Currently, HMWSSB serves nearly 14 lakh consumers across Greater Hyderabad, of which about 6 lakh households receive free water under government schemes. The move comes on the heels of similar tariff hikes by water boards in Chennai and Bengaluru. To guide its decision, HMWSSB has roped in the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) to conduct a comprehensive review of tariff structures and assess revenue deficits. Based on ASCI's recommendations, a new tariff framework will be proposed. The revised rates will factor in consumption patterns, operational costs, infrastructure upkeep, and debt servicing. Under Section 22 of the HMWSS Act, 1989, the board is empowered to levy tariffs sufficient to meet these obligations. Water board officials say the tariff revision is crucial, citing a 50% gap between revenue and expenditure. The tariff enhancement is essential as it will help the board improve its service quality, maintain infrastructure, and reduce dependency on govt subsidies, they said. 'It will take ASCI about a month to complete its assessment. Once we have their findings, we shall consult our board of directors before submitting the report to the state govt for finalising the revised rates. Over the past 15 years, while electricity charges have seen three hikes and PRC has undergone three revisions for staff members, the water tariffs have remained unchanged. We aim to ensure the revised charges remain reasonable while helping achieve financial sustainability,' said a senior official in HMWSSB. According to the water board, operations and maintenance of its assets have become a burden as there is a monthly net revenue deficit of Rs 130 crore, apart from an accumulated revenue deficit. It has become difficult to effectively maintain the system with low tariff rates, with an increasing incidence of consumer-related concerns requiring major investments and improvements. Restructuring of the existing tariff structure would be approved so that the existing common rates of different categories will be replaced by a differential category-wise tariff structure for each category, i.e., domestic, commercial, and industrial, with differential structures for bulk connections and multi-storied buildings.
New York Post
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Chick-fil-A's stronghold on customer satisfaction outshines other restaurants
Americans have a lot of choices when they want to eat out, whether it be at a fast-food chain or a full-service restaurant, with customer satisfaction being a significant factor in where they go. A new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) offers insight into how brands stack up in terms of customer satisfaction. Advertisement In general, customer satisfaction with quick-service restaurants stayed the same as last year, coming in at 79 out of 100, according to the ASCI Restaurant and Food Delivery Study 2025. Of fast-food brands, Chick-fil-A notched the highest customer satisfaction score, at 83, the study said. It also ranked highest out of chicken-focused fast-food joints specifically. The chain, which has over 3,000 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, has now held the top spot for customer satisfaction among quick-service restaurants for 11 consecutive years. Advertisement In the overall fast-food scoring, there was a two-way tie for second-place. 6 Of fast-food brands, Chick-fil-A notched the highest customer satisfaction score, at 83, the study said. Refrina – Panda Express and Starbucks received scores of 80, according to the ASCI. Starbucks posted a 4% jump in customer satisfaction year-over-year, the study found. Advertisement Arby's, Panera Bread, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut, with scores of 79, were not far behind, according to the data. The fast-food brand with the lowest customer satisfaction score in the study was McDonald's, at 70. That was 1% lower than last year. 6 Starbucks received scores of 80, according to the ASCI Christopher Sadowski However, the ASCI said the company's 'new efforts to speed up R&D to drive faster technology and menu changes may reverse this trend.' Advertisement McDonald's recently debuted McCrispy Strips on its U.S. menus and will reintroduce its fan-favorite snack wraps next month. The company has also said beverages are an area where it can see major growth. The full-service restaurant sector, meanwhile, had a customer satisfaction score of 82, according to the ASCI. That marked a decrease of 2% from last year. 6 The fast-food brand with the lowest customer satisfaction score in the study was McDonald's, at 70. Christopher Sadowski The ASCI said full-service restaurant customers 'perceive less value and are frustrated with their carry-out and delivery experiences' but noted food and service benchmarks were still 'quite high.' Texas Roadhouse, which tied for first with LongHorn Steakhouse last year, held onto the top customer satisfaction score for sit-down restaurants this year despite a 1% drop. It scored 84. With a decrease in customer satisfaction of 2%, LongHorn Steakhouse dropped to No. 2, receiving an 83, per the study. Advertisement Darden Restaurants-owned Olive Garden, at 81, was below LongHorn. 6 Texas Roadhouse, which tied for first with LongHorn Steakhouse last year, held onto the top customer satisfaction score Christopher Sadowski Two brands – Applebee's and Cracker Barrel – scored 80 for customer satisfaction, the ASCI study found. ASCI Director of Research Emeritus Forrest Morgeson said in a statement that restaurants 'can't simply rely on their traditional playbooks anymore.' Advertisement 'The brands that succeed will be the ones that adapt quickly to shifting tastes without compromising consistency or experience,' he said. 6 Two brands – Applebee's and Cracker Barrel – scored 80 for customer satisfaction, the ASCI study found. Oksana – The ASCI's study also looked at how food delivery services were faring on customer service. It found 'smaller' services saw higher customer satisfaction compared to major companies such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. Advertisement The small services had a score of 77, two points higher than Uber Eats and five points higher than DoorDash and GrubHub. In general, customer satisfaction for food delivery services hit 74, a 1% year-over-year increase. 6 'Smaller' services saw higher customer satisfaction compared to major companies such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. Christopher Sadowski 'While prices remain the lowest-scoring part of the food delivery experience, scores have improved somewhat with fairness of food prices and fairness of taxes and service fees both up 3% to 71,' the ASCI report said, noting customer satisfaction with food delivery mobile apps and websites also made some gains. Advertisement The average total that U.S. households spend on eating out each month averages $269 per month, according to WalletHub. Some restaurant brands have been contending with consumers eating out less and spending less when they do in recent months as economic uncertainty has factored into their decisions.
New York Post
5 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
Psychopaths are most likely to live in these 4 states, a frightening new study reveals
As it turns out, our personalities are, in fact, shaped by the environments we grow up in, and Nevada, New York, South Dakota, and Texas contain the highest percentages of those in possession of 'dark personality traits.' A recent study conducted by Ingo Zettler, Lau Lilleholt, Benjamin E. Hilbig, Morten Moshagen, and Martina Bader at the University of Copenhagen found that humans display different levels of dark personality traits depending on their location and the concentration of aversive societal conditions (ASC) that place possesses. 4 Human rights conditions and gender inequalities were also considered as factors within the study. Christopher Sadowski Advertisement Dark personality traits, or the dark triad, are recognized by psychologists as psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism — the desire or urge to exploit others. Meanwhile, ASC can be defined as societal circumstances that occur on a large, collective scale, such as exploitation, fraud, corruption, inequality, and violence, among others. 'It is relatively well known that both genetic and socio-ecological factors shape individuals' personality. However, respective research has hardly considered ethically or socially aversive personality characteristics,' Ingo Zettler, co-author and point-person on the study, told Newsweek. Advertisement The study, published in 2025, took place across a period of 20 years, in which researchers studied global correlations between general living conditions and the percentage of the population that possesses dark traits. 4 States with high rates of both poverty and crime, large income disparities, and minimized healthcare access tend to produce people who exhibit more dark personality traits as a result of individual hardship. Bloomberg via Getty Images The study probed 183 countries across the world with a total of 1,791,542 participants. In their exploration of the correlation between dark personality traits and aversive social conditions, the researchers examined the U.S. through the lens of individual states. Advertisement Data was gathered via survey, and for the U.S.-focused portion of the study, used Census data on socioeconomic disparity and poverty, FBI homicide rates, and Justice Department corruption sentences to draw conclusions. Within the U.S., researchers looked into all 50 states and compiled responses from 144,576 Americans. 4 (A) Aversive Societal Conditions Index (ASCI) across countries. (B) Differences in mean levels of D across countries with at least 100 participants. (C) Scatterplot of ASCI and mean levels of D by country with at least 100 participants. (D) ASCI across US states. (E) Differences in mean levels of D across US states with at least 100 participants. (F) Scatterplot of ASCI and mean levels of D by US state with at least 100 participants. Except for panels (A) and (D), we excluded countries/states with fewer than 100 participants to avoid potentially misrepresenting a country/state based on very few participants only. The theoretical range of the ASCI is 0 to 100, and the theoretical range of D is 1 to 5. The means of the ASCI were 38.26 (SD = 23.24) for the worldwide and 46.26 (SD = 17.09) for the US analyses, and the means of D were 2.52 (SD = 0.74) for the worldwide and 2.17 (SD = 0.74) for the US analyses. Zettler et al., PNAS 'The more adverse conditions in a society, the higher the level of the dark factor of personality among its citizens,' Zettler summarized. 'Aversive personality traits are associated with behaviors such as aggression, cheating, and exploitation — and thus with high social costs. Therefore, even small variations can lead to large differences in how societies function.' Advertisement Urban areas of the United States tend to house extraordinarily economically diverse populations — cities like Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco — in close concentration, which can lead to tensions and concerns over quality of life and equal access to essential resources, resulting in higher D levels. 4 Often, studies of personality view dark traits as predominantly genetic, or inborn, but these findings suggest it can be more flexible. Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images On the other hand, rural areas — like much of Vermont, Utah, Maine, and Oregon, the four states with the lowest probability of producing individuals as a result of living conditions — are more likely to be geographically isolated and relatively economically balanced, per findings from the study. 'Because you might grow up in a country with a high ASC, you're not necessarily fated to become an immoral, exploitative, and self-centered individual,' wrote Susan Krauss Whitbourne in Psychology Today. 'What the findings suggest, instead, is that consistent with the adaptational hypothesis, people may acquire a tendency toward high levels of D if that's what they see around them, or if their own economic deprivation and hardship are particularly pronounced.' 'Our findings substantiate that personality is not just something we are born with, but also shaped by the society we grew up and live in,' Zettler concluded. 'This means that reforms that reduce corruption and inequality not only create better living conditions just now, they may also contribute to mitigating aversive personality levels among the citizens in the future.'
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian ad industry a different world, growing tremendously: Havas CEO
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Popular in Services 1. Gaming co MPL accuses ASCI of 'tampering' with their ads The advertising industry in India is "growing tremendously" and "is a different world" compared to Europe, said Yannick Bollore , global chief executive and chairman of French advertising group Havas, which represents Reckitt Benckiser, Swiggy Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever in India, across creative, media buying and outdoor advertising."When you look at Europe or the US compared to what's happening in India, it's a completely different world. We are happy with 2-3% organic growth in Europe; in India you have 10% plus growth year-on-year," he told ET at Havas Village, the Gurugram-based India office of the ₹2.7 billion listed French advertising and communications group. "India and China are two regions of the world where we see tremendous growth - they're two very large economies with very large populations." Large multinationals such as Coca-Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, Levi's and Unilever have identified India as a core growth bastion amid global headwinds, despite an ongoing urban chief of the world's fifth largest ad group, said he's advising global advertisers "to continue investing in India" despite recent geopolitical disturbances and US-imposed tariffs, which have disrupted business and investor sentiment."These (events) do create uncertainty.. investors and businesses don't like uncertainty. When clients make investments, they want to make sure they know the landscape or the rules for the coming three, four, five years. We're telling them to continue looking at the long term... that if you invest for the long term, you'll find growth," he India operates 25 agencies under creative, media and health verticals. Last December, the French network announced its listing on Euronext, Amsterdam, but retained a minority family ownership."I know in today's world, it's hard because we have so many moving pieces from a geopolitical or macroeconomic environment. But in terms of investment in advertising, we don't see any real impact.. people are continuing to deploy their plans," Bollore optimism about the Indian ad market, which estimates peg at '1.6 lakh crore, Bollore said, "Millions of people here are accessing the middle class with buying power. That's driving growth for cars, consumer products and spirits. Manufacturing and infrastructure are driving growth too.. so is talent and the level of education - this is a strong consumer facing country."However, the sector has been seeing intensified competition. The past months have seen mega global consolidation, such as New York's Omnicom Group's announcing a merger with Interpublic Group to create a global behemoth, with agencies such as McCann, Lowe Lintas, FCB and DDB Mudra in their fold. Publicis Groupe, too, has been in consolidation mode, with agencies under its network including Publicis, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi and a query on how Havas would compete against the global giants, Bollore said, "To operate, I believe you need to have some scale.. If you want to operate globally, you need to have a network of agencies all over the world in multiple areas of expertise, creativity, media buying, e-commerce, social media, everything... At the same time, it's better not to be the biggest. Because when you're the biggest, you don't really have advantages, you are less agile. I think for Havas being the best challenger at scale is giving us a different type of edge."Bollore declined to comment on a potential acquisition of stake in Sam Balsara-owned Madison World, but said inorganic growth and strategic acquisitions were very much part of the group's growth plans.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
MPL parent company serves legal notice to ASCI, demands INR 50 crore for alleged defamation
HighlightsGalactus Funware Technology, the parent company of Mobile Premier League, has issued a legal notice to the Advertising Standards Council of India demanding the withdrawal of a whitepaper on opinion trading and seeking INR 50 crore in damages for alleged defamation. The legal notice accuses the Advertising Standards Council of India of publishing a biased whitepaper that misrepresents Mobile Premier League's advertisements by allegedly tampering with screenshots and removing disclaimers. Galactus Funware Technology is challenging the authority of the Advertising Standards Council of India to comment on opinion trading, arguing that it does not have the mandate to categorize such activities as lacking skill, particularly as the legality of these games is currently under judicial review. Galactus Funware Technology , the parent company of online gaming platform MPL ( Mobile Premier League ), has issued a legal notice to the Advertising Standards Council of India ( ASCI ), demanding the immediate withdrawal of a whitepaper titled "Examining Opinion Trading in India" and seeking INR 50 crore in damages for alleged defamation and loss of goodwill. The legal notice, dated May 23, 2025, sent through their legal counsel Trilegal, accuses ASCI of publishing a "biased and unsubstantiated" whitepaper that relies on "tampered" versions of MPL's advertisements and misrepresents their content to mislead consumers. Allegations of tampering and misrepresentation Galactus Funware claims that the ASCI whitepaper, published in May 2025, deliberately edited screenshots of their advertisements to support a "baseless conclusion" that opinion trading involves an "element of risk" and "chances of financial losses". The notice highlights specific instances of alleged tampering citing that ASCI allegedly removed disclaimers present in the original advertisement, thereby misrepresenting its compliance with advertising codes. The company states that a screenshot from an educational YouTube video, emphasising "Skill, Interest, Knowledge," was taken out of context and selectively edited to imply risk, despite the video's focus on skill development. Galactus Funware also claims ASCI reproduced only a partial section of their website, omitting detailed content on skill, knowledge, and responsible gameplay, and intentionally removing disclaimers. "The Opinion Trading Whitepaper represents a gross misuse of ASCI's position and seemingly been issued with the sole intent of spreading misinformation and defaming our Client," the legal notice states, adding that its "sensationalist tone reeks of vested interests and a blatant disregard for objectivity". The advertising self-regulatory body, ASCI told ET that they were in receipt of the notice, but a spokesperson denied any wrongdoing. "We are in receipt of the notice and there is absolutely no question of tampering," the regulator said, in response to a query from ET. ASCI's Mandate Questioned Beyond the allegations of tampering, Galactus Funware challenges ASCI's authority to publish such a whitepaper. They argue that ASCI's charter, the Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising, does not provide for commenting on the nature or legality of any industry's operations. The notice further asserts that ASCI has "no technical acumen or mandate" to categorise opinion trading as a game devoid of skill, equating it to betting or wagering, especially when the legality and categorisation of such games are sub-judice before various high courts, with proceedings stayed by the Supreme Court. Galactus Funware has given ASCI three days from the issuance of the notice to publicly withdraw the whitepaper. Failure to comply will result in the initiation of "appropriate legal actions (both civil and criminal)" for "deceptive and defamatory conduct", the notice said. The company also warned that it would seek further compensation for each day the whitepaper remains in the public domain beyond the stipulated three days. Copies of the legal notice have also been sent to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the All India Gaming Federation. When ET reached out to MPL for their response, a spokesperson declined to comment.
