5 Air India pilots test negative for coronavirus in second round

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Five Air India pilots, who had tested positive for coronavirus, have now tested negative, an airline source said on Monday. The results of second round of tests came on Monday evening. “All our five pilots, who underwent the second test on Sunday have tested negative for the coronavirus infection,” the source told PTI.

The five pilots fly Boeing 787 planes. There was no immediate comment from Air India.

On Sunday, sources said the five pilots tested positive for coronavirus.

“Five Air India pilots have tested positive for coronavirus. These pilots were tested one after one. We suspect it could be a case of faulty testing kit as well,” one of the sources had said.

The national carrier, which is operating flights to evacuate Indians stranded in foreign countries, have asked its pilots to undertake coronavirus test before they operate such flights.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Tata Chemicals promoters increase stake in company by 3.51% in March quarter

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The promoters of Tata Chemicals , increased the stake in the company by 3.51 percentage points to 34.59 percent during the March quarter. Stocks across sectors collapsed in March as the outbreak of coronavirus rattled financial markets globally. Tata Chemicals promoters shored up their stake during this period, taking advantage of the steep decline in stock price. For the quarter ended March, Tata Chemicals shares were down 23 percent.

Also,  it was during the March quarter that the demerger of consumer business became effective . After the March sell-off, the stock has been on an uptrend, climbing 25 percent through April to May so far.

Tata Chemicals is the largest producer of soda ash in the country and also has facilities in international markets like Europe, North America. Soda ash demand has been lower in the market recently due to the lockdown due to which the prices have declined by 5 percent in the last 3-4 months to Rs1160/kg in Mumbai.

Specialty companies’ stocks in general took a beating during the March quarter. Shares of Deepak Nitrite, Vinati Organics, and SRF fell 4-19 percent, but Tata Chemicals was by far among the worst performers.

Sentiment for the sector changed for the better in April, with stocks rallying 20-50 percent from the lows of March. The perception taking hold among investors is that the sector will not be impacted by the lockdown as badly as some of the other industries, due to continuous demand from essential services sector and export demand.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India faces 5 uncertainties in COVID-19 outbreak, says ex-RBI governor Urjit Patel

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has said India faces five levels of uncertainty due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“There are five sources of uncertainty: behaviour of the virus; timeline of an effective treatment; timeline for a safe and effective vaccine; government regulations and policies and behaviour of citizens,” Patel said while speaking at HungerTalks: The 50 days that turned India.

HungerTalks is a series of webinar organised by YUVA, an NGO, which has invited experts from diverse fields to help in its efforts to raise funds for COVID-19 relief.

“In the three months of COVID crisis, between the central and the state government, there have been 4,000 orders,” Patel added.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, who was among the speakers, said the pandemic had exposed vulnerability of the human race.

“The virus has brought home the vulnerability of the human race. The second thing it has shown us the oneness of mankind. Rich or poor, we have to find a common solution to this problem,” Salve said.

The crisis was a big reminder for a society that had started becoming insular and conservative, he added.

The outbreak had also brought to fore the inadequacy of human knowledge in every field.

“The economist doesn’t know how to deal with the problem; the politicians don’t know what is a political solution to this; the scientist doesn’t know where to go with this disease. It has given all of us a wake-up call,” Salve said.

Source: moneycontrol

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Marriott International partners with Swiggy for food delivery

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Leading online food ordering platform Swiggy on Monday said Marriott International’s delivery service initiative will now be available in more cities through an agreement with the hospitality major.

The association will be the first of its kind for Marriott International hotels across India, as they adapt to this new model for home delivery service, Swiggy said in a statement.

To start with, over 20 hotels in cities such as Bengaluru, Kolkata Chandigarh, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Agra, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore and Goa will be listed on the company’s platform, it added.

“We are pleased to see Swiggy becoming one of our innovative partners. Their strong market credibility and advanced distribution network allows us to offer a satisfactory experience in this ever changing and sensitive environment,” Marriott International South Asia VP Neeraj Govil said.

This partnership will benefit the company’s ‘Marriott on Wheels’ initiative in the new normal as it feels food deliveries will be the new continuum going forward, he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

CCI disposes of complaint of alleged unfair business practices against Sony

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Fair trade regulator CCI on Monday disposed of complaint of alleged unfair business practices against Sony India Pvt Ltd and Sony Corporation.

The ruling came on a complaint filed by Neeraj Arora on behalf of Accessories World Car Audio, a Delhi-based distributor of Sony’s car audio products.

The complainant alleged that Sony Corporation and Sony India Pvt Ltd imposed alleged unfair terms and conditions in the distributorship agreement and arbitrarily terminated the agreement.

Besides, it also levelled allegations pertaining to the issue of exclusive supply agreement, exclusive distribution agreement, refusal to deal and resale price maintenance.

As per the informant, Sony asked it to surrender sale of other brands and deal exclusively with Sony’s car audio products while allowing other distributors do deal with products of its competitors.

It further alleged that Sony was carrying illegal and unfair trade practices in collusion with its various shell companies that operated as illegal distributors and were used to infiltrate the market without any territorial restrictions and the same caused huge financial loss to the informant and completely eroded the territories assigned to it.

Sony, in connivance with Maruti Suzuki Ltd and Bharti Electronics (another distributor), allegedly actively dealt with these shell companies to do cross territory sales against the informant.

It alleged that Sony has contravened Section 3 and 4 of the Competition Act that pertains to anti-competitive agreement and abuse of dominant market position, respectively.

However, the CCI said that the market for car audio products is fragmented with the presence of number of players and competitors and no entity enjoys a significant market power.

Therefore, in absence of dominance, question of abuse of dominant position doesn’t arise.

“The Commission is of the view that no case is made out against OPs (opposite parties) for contravention of the provisions of Sections … of the Act and the Information is ordered to be closed forthwith,” the regulator said.

Opposite parties refer to Sony Corporation and Sony India Pvt Ltd.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) noted that the informant moved an application in March seeking oral hearing.

“In this regard, the Commission notes that at the stage of forming prima facie opinion, the Commission may call preliminary conference with the parties, if so required. For the reasons already mentioned for closing the matter, the Commission sees no merit in the request and the same is accordingly rejected,” CCI said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Govt extends deadline for seeding Aadhaar with ration cards till Sept

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The food ministry on Monday said the deadline for seeding of Aadhaar with ration cards has been extended till September and stressed that all beneficiaries will continue to get their quota of foodgrains even if they do not possess the biometric identifier.

The ministry issued this clarification on reports that ration cards of those who do not provide Aadhar number will be cancelled.

“The timeline given to all states/UTs, under the Aadhaar notification of the Department of Food and Public Distribution dated February 7, 2017 (as amended from time-to-time) to complete the seeding of Aadhaar numbers with all ration cards/beneficiaries, has been extended up to September 30, 2020 by the department,” an official statement said.

Until then, the ministry had issued clear instructions to all states and union territories (UTs) that no genuine beneficiary or household should be denied from entitled quota of food grains, it said.

“Their names/ration cards should not be deleted/cancelled only on the ground of not possessing an Aadhaar number,” the ministry said.

Instructions have also been issued that grains under the food law should not be denied due to failure of Aadhaar authentication of beneficiary because of poor biometrics of the beneficiary, issues with network connectivity, linking or any other technical reasons.

“During the current crisis situation, a pragmatic approach is needed so that no poor or deserving person or family is denied access to food grains…,” the statement said.

At present, nearly 90 per cent of all 23.5 crore ration cards are already seeded with Aadhaar numbers of ration cardholders (i.e. at least one member of family).

Nearly 85 per cent of all 80 crore beneficiaries have seeded their Aadhaar number with their ration card.

Further, all concerned states/UTs are making continuous efforts to complete the Aadhaar seeding of remaining ration cards under the food security law.

The ministry has started the implementation of national/inter-state portability of ration card holders under “One Nation One Ration Card” plan as part of a central sector scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution System’ to protect the interest of poor and migratory beneficiaries.

“To achieve seamless inter-state portability transactions of a ration card, it is essential to have a centralised repository for maintaining unique ration cards/beneficiaries’ data of all states and UTs covered under the NFSA,” the statement said.

Therefore, the ministry said that the seeding of Aadhaar numbers becomes critical in establishing a unique record of each eligible ration card holder and beneficiary in the country, so that his or her entitlement is protected.

Under the NFSA, the Centre provides 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month to around 80 crore people at a highly subsidised price of Rs 2-3 per kg.

To provide relief during the lockdown, the Centre is providing an additional 5 kg of foodgrains per month free of cost. This is for three months period till June.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: Maharashtra allows designated export units of gems, jewellery to resume operations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Maharashtra government on Monday allowed resumption of manufacturing activities in the designated export units of gems and jewellery, though only for fulfilling export commitments.

Keeping in view the COVID-19 situation, the state government has allowed the functioning of these units with only 10 per cent manpower with a point-to-point bus transport facility for workers.

Bharat Diamond Bourse and SEEPZ, two of India’s largest jewellery export designated zones, are based in Mumbai.

The permission to resume partial activities has been given after the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and other trade bodies urged the Centre as well as the state governments for allowing manufacturing to clear the backlog of orders from the pre-lockdown period.

We are yet to ship our March orders and are already late by one month. Already 25-30 per cent of our artisans have gone back to their villages at the beginning of the lockdown. It is going to be very challenging but we are confident that we will be able to fulfill the orders within 1-2 months, GJEPC vice chairman Colin Shah told PTI here.

The export commitments of the sector are worth around USD 500-600 million, he added.

Meanwhile, Surat Diamond Bourse and Jaipur resumed work after a gap of almost 5-6 weeks and these centres are operational by adhering to the COVID-19 safety guidelines set up by the government.

Jaipur is another important centre for gems and jewellery business.

Till date 40 units in SEZ, Sitapura and 25 units in gems and jewellery zone of EPIP, Sitapura has commenced their production.

“The Customs department has remained open during the ongoing lockdown and officials have bravely come forward to ensure exports to take place. Both the Ministry of Commerce and Customs departments worked relentlessly for the gems and jewellery exports… As a result, cancellation of orders got minimised from Mumbai SEEPZ, Surat Diamond Bourse and Jaipur, Shah added.

Bharat Diamond Bourse and SEEPZ in Mumbai are major centres, which has a huge backlog of orders and these centres will be operational in the next few days, GJEPC chairman Pramod Kumar Agrawal said.

Exports of gold, silver and imitation jewellery has started. Exports of studded jewellery will also begin soon, Agrawal added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Piramal Enterprises posts net loss of Rs 1,702.59 crore in Q4

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Ajay Piramal-led Piramal Enterprises on Monday reported a net loss of Rs 1,702.59 crore in the quarter ended March 31, mainly on the back of additional provisioning in lieu of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 454.63 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Its total income for the quarter also declined to Rs 3,341 crore from Rs 3,408.62 crore as the company is focusing on deleveraging its business.

“The COVID crisis comes at a time when there is prevailing slowdown. Therefore, the board thought it prudent to make an additional provisioning of Rs 1,903 crore, which has resulted in the total provisioning increase to Rs 2,693 crore, which represents 5.8 per cent of the book,” Piramal said during a media call after the announcement of results.

During the quarter, the company also reported a one-time gain of Rs 1,758 crore on account of impact due to DTA (Deferred Tax Asset) write off and MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) credit reversal as the company moved from the old tax regime of 35 per cent to 25 per cent.

“The results also reflect the gains the company recorded on account of the sale of DRG business…USD 950 million and recorded a net gain of USD 100 million net on the transaction. Excluding these one-time items, the normalised net grew by 40 per cent for the quarter to 807 crore and 22 per cent for year at Rs 2,615 crore,” Piramal added.

The company had on January 17, 2020 approved divestment of its entire stake in healthcare insights and analytics business, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, to Clarivate Analytics Plc and its subsidiaries for an aggregate consideration of approximately USD 950 million.

Speaking about the decline in the topline, he said, “This is because in the financial services business we are not chasing growth, but preserving liquidity and deleveraging our business.

“The financial services debt equity today is at 2.6 times as against 3.9 times a year ago and the wholesale book has declined 10 per cent year-on-year. Also, our top 10 exposures have come down by Rs 4,200 crore.”

Revenue from financial services segment stood at Rs 1,718.42 crore during the quarter as against Rs 1,932.76 crore in the year-ago period.

During the quarter, Piramal Enterprises’ revenue from pharmaceuticals stood at Rs 1,622.58 crore as against Rs 1,475.76 in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Piramal said that despite the lockdown due to COVID-19, the pharma business continued to perform and grew by 13 per cent in FY20 as compared to previous year.

The company has its sites in India, the US, Canada and the UK.

For fiscal year 2019-20, Piramal Enterprises net profit stood at Rs 21.14 crore. It was at Rs 1,464.09 crore in the previous year.

Its total revenue from operations in the fiscal stood at Rs 13,068.29 crore. It was at Rs 11,882.59 crore in 2018-19.

According to the company, it transferred certain financial assets to wholly owned subsidiaries, hence “the results for year ended March 31, 2020 are not comparable with the results of the earlier periods presented.”

During the year, the company raised Rs 14,500 crore from key milestone transactions including sales of DRG business, allotment of shares to CDPQ, and selling stake in Shriram Transport for Rs 2,300 crore, among others.

“Because of this, the equity base has now increased to Rs 30,572 crore from Rs 27,224 crore in last year. We are on track to raise capital in the pharma business. At the same time, we will also monetize investment that we have in Shriram group,” Piramal added.

The net debt has reduced by Rs 17,838 crore to Rs 37,283 crore as against Rs 55,122 crore last year.

“This is a very healthy debt equity, especially when you have a NBFC as business. The loan book of Rs 50,963 crore has reduced by Rs 4,200 crore and raised Rs 13,500 crore in long-term borrowings over last one year.

“So post allocation, an equity of Rs 15,600 crore and borrowings of Rs 39,000 crore gives us a leverage of 2.6 times in the financial services compared to 3.9 times at March 2019,” Piramal said.

The company’s housing finance loan book stands at Rs 5,534 crore and it aims to create a multi-product retail lending franchise.

“We are looking at other retail lending options. We are also creating tech enabled digital platform for the same,” Piramal added.

On the ongoing economic situation, Piramal said, “Recovery may take some time. It is difficult to make estimates but the economy will take some time, at least 2-3 quarters, to reach the December 2019 GDP level of 4.7 per cent. Also there are expectations of the GDP returning to 6.5-7.5 per cent level by FY2022.

“There has been an impact on all industries with liquidity being one of the big challenges. RBI has taken certain initiatives to enhance liquidity but we will have to see how things go by,” he said.

The company informed the BSE that its board has recommended a dividend of Rs 14 per equity share.

“Keeping in mind the global environment of heightened uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on one hand and on the other, the recent sale of our DRG business as well as the interest of the minority shareholders, the board has recommended a dividend of INR 14 per share for the approval of the shareholders in the AGM,” the company said.

Shares of Piramal Enterprises Ltd on Monday settled 5.21 per cent higher at Rs 932.25 on the BSE.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

ONGC losses in gas business to widen to Rs 6,000 crore in FY21

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India’s top oil and gas producer ONGC is likely to see its loss on natural gas sales widen by nearly 50 per cent to Rs 6,000 crore in the current fiscal after the government-mandated rates for the fuel dropped to a decade low.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) had posted Rs 4,272 crore loss on gas business in 2017-18, which is likely to widen to over Rs 6,000 crore in the current fiscal (April 2020 to March 2021), sources said citing a company communique to the government.

The accounts for 2019-20 are yet to be finalised but the loss on gas business should be around Rs 4,500 crore.

ONGC has seen incurring losses on the 65 million standard cubic meters per day of gas it produces from domestic fields shortly after the government in November 2014 introduced a new gas pricing formula that had “inherent limitations” as it was based on pricing hubs of gas surplus countries such as the US, Canada, and Russia.

Rates according to this formula were revised every six months. Prices effective April 1 have been cut to USD 2.39 per million British thermal unit – the lowest in more than a decade.

Sources said ONGC in the communique stated that the break-even price of major ongoing/planned projects to produce gas from newer discoveries was in the range of USD 5-9 per mmBtu.

In previous years, loss from the gas segment was getting offset from the gain from the oil business. But with oil business itself coming under severe strain due to a sharp slump in benchmark prices to a low of USD 20 per barrel, it has become difficult for the company to meet even the operating expenses, they said.

The company wants gas pricing to be completely freed with a floor rate of USD 4.2 per mmBtu (equivalent to rate given in the regulated regime), they added.

The price applicable from April 1 is the lowest that ONGC will realise since 2010 when the government had moved towards deregulating gas pricing.

In May 2010, the Cabinet had approved an Oil Ministry proposal to raise the rate of gas sold to power and fertilizer firms from USD 1.79 per mmBtu to USD 4.20.

ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) got USD 3.818 per mmBtu price for the gas they produced from fields given to them on nomination basis and after adding 10 per cent royalty, the fuel cost USD 4.20 per mmBtu for consumers.

The Congress-led UPA had approved a new pricing formula for implementation in 2014 that would have raised the rates but the BJP-led government scrapped it and brought a new formula.

The new formula takes into account the volume-weighted annual average of the prices prevailing in Henry Hub (US), National Balancing Point (the UK), Alberta (Canada), and Russia with a lag of one-quarter. Prices are set every six months — on April 1 and October 1 each year.

The rates at the first revision, using the new formula, came to USD 5.05 but in the subsequent six-monthly reviews kept falling till they touched USD 2.48 for April 2017 to September 2017 period. Subsequently, they rose to USD 3.69 in April 2019 to September 2019 before being cut by 12.5 per cent in October 2019 to USD 3.23.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on March 20, 2017, had stated that the cost of production of natural gas in the prolific Krishna Godavari basin is between USD 4.99 -7.30 per mmBtu. The same for other basins is in the range of USD 3.80 -6.59 per mmBtu, he had said.

For ONGC, which produces most of its 64 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from western offshore, the breakeven is around USD 3.8.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Atal Pension scheme: Over 2.2 crore subscribers enrol for the plan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Government’s flagship pension scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has garnered over 2.2 crore subscribers since its launch five years ago, the PFRDA on Monday said.

The scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9, 2015, primarily targets those working in the unorganised sector.

“The journey of APY over these five years has been phenomenal and as on 9th May 2020, the total enrolment under the scheme stood at 2,23,54,028,” said the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA).

During the first two years, almost 50 lakh subscribers were enrolled which doubled to 100 lakh in the third year and the milestone of 1.50 crore was achieved in the 4th year, it said.

In the last financial year, almost 70 lakh subscribers were enrolled under the scheme, according to the PFRDA.

The PFRDA is the nodal agency that administers the pension scheme alongside the National Pension System (NPS) that mainly caters to those employed with the government and the organised sector.

With an objective of delivering old-age income security particularly to the workers in the unorganised sector and the government providing guarantee of minimum pension after 60 years of age, the APY is an unequivocal relevant scheme for addressing the challenges of rapidly increasing aging population of India, the PFRDA said.

It said the scheme has been implemented comprehensively across the country covering all states and union territories with male to female subscription ratio of 57:43, it said.

“This feat of bringing in the most vulnerable sections of the society under the coverage of pension was possible only with the untiring efforts of public and private banks, regional rural banks, payments banks, small finance banks, the Department of Posts and the support extended by the state level Bbnkers’ committees,” said Supratim Bandyopadhyay, chairman, PFRDA.

The APY can be subscribed by any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account.

The scheme offers three distinctive benefits. It gives a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 on attaining 60 years of age.

Secondly, the PFRDA said the amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to spouse on death of the subscriber and lastly, in the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.

“Going forward, we have a humongous task of increasing the pension coverage as only 5 per cent of the eligible population has been covered under APY till date and recognising the social importance of this scheme, we continuously undertake proactive initiatives for achieving exponential growth and addressing unexpected scenarios…,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow