Category:

Eco/Invest/Demography

Nearly Rs 49,000 cr lying unclaimed with banks, insurers: Karad

As per the Insurance Regulator Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the total amount of unclaimed amounts of policy holders in public and private sector insurance companies was at Rs 24,586 crore (end-December, 2020).
On the other hand, all insurers having unclaimed amounts of policyholders for a period of more than 10 years transfer such funds to the Senior Citizens” Welfare Fund (SCWF) every year. The SCWF is utilised for schemes for promoting the welfare of senior citizens.

read more

Used-car market to more than double to 8.2 mn units by FY’26: Report

With supply disruption preventing aut companies form rolling out new models and meet the increased demand, the demand for used-cars surged over the past year and buying pre-owned cars is no more socially looked down as safety and value for money have taken precedence. The looming economic uncertainty since the pandemic also means there is an amplified preference for affordable used cars, the report said.

read more

Young lured to tobacco addiction via e-cigarettes – WHO

Over eight million people die annually from tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke, making the habit a leading cause of preventable diseases, the WHO said in a report calling for greater regulation of smoke-free devices containing nicotine.

Some 16,000 flavours are on the market for e-cigarettes, including bubble gum, vanilla ice cream and chocolate cookies, Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO’s department of health promotion, said, adding e-cigarette users were “at least twice if not three times” more likely to become cigarette smokers. “That calls for exactly the same regulation as cigarettes,” he added.

read more

Indian aviation market’s recovery significantly impacted by cap on fares, capacity: IATA DG

So, the measures that were put in place during the initial phase of the pandemic really do have to be challenged and questioned as to whether they are still relevant in an environment where the risk that ”we face is very different now from the risk that we faced 15-17 months ago”, the director general of global airlines body IATA, Willie Walsh said.

read more

California expands state healthcare to undocumented residents 50 and up

But California is not the first state to provide comprehensive public medical benefits to its undocumented elderly population. Illinois last December became the first to extend state-funded healthcare coverage to all non-citizens age 65 and older whose immigration status had left them ineligible for Medicaid.

Newsom’s action builds on two earlier expansions of Medi-Cal – California’s version of the state-federal Medicaid system for the poor and disabled. They provided full-scale coverage to undocumented children, then to young adults until their 26th birthday regardless of immigration status beginning last year.

read more

NPPA has fixed ceiling prices of 355 medicines, 882 formulations: Mandaviya

”Most of the drugs that are part of COVID-19 management protocol have ceiling prices, viz., paracetamol, dexamethasone, methylprednisolone, IVIGs, enoxaparin, budesonide, heparin and amphotericin, etc,” Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya said in a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha.
In the case of few non-scheduled medicines like remdesivir, which are part of COVID-19 protocol and are non-scheduled, on government intervention, MRPs of various brands of remdesivir have been reduced voluntarily by the major manufacturers/marketers of the remdesivir injection (lyophilized), he added.
Inter-brand maximum retail prices (MRPs) that varied up to Rs 5,400 per vial were brought down to less than Rs 3,500, the minister said.

read more

22 districts recorded increasing trend in COVID cases, 54 districts report 10 pc positivity: Health Ministry

While addressing a press briefing here, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, “There are 22 districts — 7 from Kerala, 5 from Manipur, 3 in Meghalaya among others, where an increasing trend in cases has been reported, in the last 4 weeks. It is a cause of concern.” Agarwal said there are still 62 districts in the country where over 100 cases are reported every day, which are found in a localised and limited set of areas of these districts.

read more