Category:

Policy

UK’s £800 million Reinsurance Scheme officially opens, to help providing covers to festivals, conferences and live events

The government has partnered with Lloyd’s Market Association to deliver the scheme as part of the Plan for Jobs. The scheme will see the government act as a ‘reinsurer’ – stepping in with a guarantee to make sure insurers can offer the products events companies need. Insurers Munich Re, Beazley, Arch, Dale, and Ark are carriers of the scheme with more firms coming on board in the weeks to come.

read more

EU plans 120 billion euro economic boost by easing insurance rules

Olav Jones, deputy director general for Insurance Europe, an industry body, said he welcomed EU acknowledgement of the need to reduce capital requirements, but only a “significant and permanent” cut in capital would allow insurers to increase support for the economy and regain global competitiveness.

Brussels proposed easing the impact of the so-called volatility adjustment, which mitigates the impact of short-term market moves on insurer solvency.

It also wants to make it easier for insurers to benefit from preferential capital treatment worth around 10.5 billion euros from investing in long-term assets to green the economy.

read more

‘We can end the pandemic’, UN chief says in new call for global vaccine plan

Although more than 5.7 million doses have been administered globally, 73 per cent have been in just 10 countries, and just three per cent of people in Africa have had innoculations.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s plan calls for at least doubling vaccine production to ensure 2.3 billion doses are equitably distributed through the vaccine solidarity initiative, COVAX.

The goal is to reach 40 per cent of people worldwide by the end of this year, and 70 per cent in the first half of 2022, per targets set by WHO.

read more

India’s first framework for air quality forecast, SAFAR, accepted globally: Project director Beig

“Now that India has its own air quality framework whose credibility is proven beyond doubt, we need to take its advantage to become self-sufficient in replicating in other cities as originally envisaged in the National Clean Air Programme plan document rather than borrowing foreign framework with a cost,” Dr Gufran Beig said.

Using this, all urban local bodies can issue timely health advisories to alert citizens about ‘bad air’ days, which will help save vulnerable groups from severe health impacts of air pollution, the senior scientist added.

read more

NGT directs Maharashtra to deposit Rs 1 crore as interim compensation for restoration of water quality near Trimbakeshwar

The bench was hearing an application filed by Kiran Ramdas Kamble and others seeking to take action for failure of the Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council and other concerned authorities of Maharashtra in preventing discharge of Municipal waste into the river which joins Godavari in violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court, in spite of at least four orders of NGT in the last two years and also general orders in other cases.

read more