Air India employees will get EPFO cover for social security benefits

Government has said that the social security benefits will be provided to around 7,453 Air India employees for whom contributions have been filed by Air India with EPFO for the month of December 2021. Labour and Employment Ministry said, these employees will receive extra two per cent employer’s contributions in their Provident Fund Accounts at 12 per cent of their wages. The Ministry said, a guaranteed minimum pension of one thousand rupees will be available to employees and pensions to family and dependents in case of death of employee. An assured insurance benefit in case of death of member will be available in the range of minimum two lakh 50 thousand and maximum seven lakh rupees. The Ministry said, no premium will be charged to the EPFO covered employees for this benefit.

-Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday reviewed the Public Health Preparedness for containment and management of COVID19 and National COVID-19 Vaccination Progress with five Eastern States of the country. Dr Mandaviya virtually interacted with State Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries and Information Commissioners of five eastern States of Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. During the interaction, the Union Health Minister said that the fight against COVID is a joint effort and joint responsibility of the Centre and States and we have faced this public health challenge with a collaborative spirit.  Dr. Mandaviya said that irrespective of the COVID variants, ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management. He said, while the active cases in most of the states and the positivity rate have shown a fall in the last two week, there is still a need to be vigilant and not lower our guard. He urged these States to monitor the case positivity rate on a daily basis and increase RT-PCR testing rates as most of the states exhibited lower share of PT-PCR tests. During the review meeting, States were also advised to keep a close watch on the number of hospitalisations and deaths.

-Government has proposed to allow modification in replacement of diesel engines with CNG and LPG engines, in case of Bharat Stage, BS-VI vehicles less than 3.5 tonnes. As of now, retro fitment of CNG and LPG kit is permissible in motor vehicles under the BS-IV emission norms. In its notification on 27th this month, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has laid down the type approval requirements for retro fitment. The Ministry said, this has been formulated in consultation with stakeholders. CNG is an environment friendly fuel and will reduce the emission levels of Carbon monoxide, Hydrocarbon, particulate matter and smoke, as compared to petrol and diesel engines.

-Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, IREDA on Saturday in New Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Goa Shipyard Limited, GSL, to set-up a rooftop solar power project at GSL headquarter in Vasco da Gama, Goa. Under the MoU, IREDA will also extend its techno-commercial expertise to GSL for Environmental and Social due diligence of rooftop solar and other projects as per the international standards. These two companies are PSUs under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Defence, respectively.

-The Assam Rifles seized narcotic substances- WIY tablet assessed to be of worth seven crore fifty lakh rupees in Manipur on Saturday. The personnel of Tengnoubal Battalion of Assam Rifles recovered 1,50,000 numbers of WIY tablets packed in 15 packets from a vehicle. The seized narcotics along with the vehicle and the drug peddler were handed over to Tengnoupal Police for further investigation. The para military force Assam Rifles guards the Indo-Myanmar border in the North East Region.