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Flexible workplaces, work-from-home ecosystem needs of future: PM Modi

Article on HR

While underlining the significance of the labour force in India’s development on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the future would require flexible workplaces, a work-from-home ecosystem, and flexible work hours. In a video address to the National Conference of the Labour Ministers of all States and Union Territories, Prime Minister Modi stated that “India’s labour force has a huge role to play in realising India’s dreams and aspirations to build a developed nation in the Amrit Kaal.” With this kind of thinking, the nation is consistently working for millions of employees in both the organised and unorganised sectors, he continued. The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan Yojana have all offered some kind of social security protection to the workers, and the PM reaffirmed a number of government efforts. The workers now have the assurance that their labour and contribution will be valued due to these programmes. According to a study, the Emergency Credit Guarantee Scheme prevented the loss of 1.5 crore employment during the pandemic. We can see that the workers have devoted all of their effort to overcoming this epidemic, just as the country did when its citizens needed it most, he said. The prime minister stated that one of the main initiatives to include the labour force in the purview of social security is the e-Shram portal. In just one year, around 28 crore workers from 400 areas have registered on the web. The people who have benefited the most from this are domestic workers, migrant labourers, and construction workers. He requested that the state portals and the e-Shram portal be linked. He continued by saying that over the previous eight years, the government had taken steps to abolish laws from the time of slavery that still adhered to the previous way of thinking. Currently, the country is updating, simplifying, and changing such labour legislation. As a result, 29 labour laws were combined to establish four simple labour codes. Through minimum wages, job security, social security, and health security, this will ensure the empowerment of employees, he continued. Given the worldwide situation, the prime minister emphasised the need for reform. He emphasised the need for quick decisions and swift action in order to effectively capitalise on the fourth industrial revolution. In light of platform, gig, and online services, Modi emphasised the need to be conscious of how the nature of work is evolving. He asserted that “appropriate policies and initiatives in this field can help India become a worldwide leader.” Flexible work environments, a work-from-home ecosystem, and flexible hours are necessary for the future. We may use policies like flexible work arrangements as ways to encourage women to enter the workforce, he said. In his address to the nation on August 15 from the Red Fort ramparts, the Prime Minister recalled his call for the full participation of the women’s power in the nation. He claimed that by effectively utilising women’s influence, India might achieve its objectives more quickly. The need to think about how to support women in the nation’s developing sectors was another point Modi emphasised. He brought up India’s demographic dividend and said that the country’s success in the twenty-first century will depend on how well it is used. We can benefit from global opportunities by building a highly qualified workforce, he added. Modi also emphasised the fact that India and many other countries across the world are entering into cooperative agreements regarding migration and mobility, and he urged all the states in the nation to take advantage of these opportunities. We must put in more effort and impart our knowledge to one another, he said. The Prime Minister reminded everyone present that our building and construction workers are an integral part of our workforce and urged them to make the most of the “cess” that had been planned for them. “I have been informed that the states have not yet used nearly Rs 38,000 crore of this cess,” he said. He urged everyone to think about how the Ayushman Bharat programme and ESIC might benefit more and more workers. The two-day conference was organised by the Union ministry of labour and employment on August 25 and 26 in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, in the cooperative federalist spirit to talk about significant labor-related issues.

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Government extends the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to include trans people

The Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY will now provide comprehensive healthcare services to trans individuals. Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Minister for Health, stated on Wednesday that the action will guarantee transgender persons a “rightful and respectable” status. According to Mandaviya, an MoU that will make this possible will enable all healthcare benefits to be provided to transgender people nationwide who possess a transgender certificate from the National Portal for Transgender Persons. “We have the registry. This is to give the members of the community the respect they deserve,” he added. He added that a comprehensive package, including the existing AB PM-JAY packages as well as particular packages like Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) and treatment for transgenders, is being prepared for the transgender category. He also added that individual members will be treated as “family” to qualify for the Rs 5 lakh cover under the scheme. The ministry has also chosen to issue unified Ayushman cards that will feature both the centre and state logos. According to the minister, this will benefit both the beneficiaries and the States. Few States, including Tamil Nadu and Telangana, have not yet endorsed this concept, according to ministry officials.

Government extends the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to include trans people Read More »

Microsoft and EnAble team up to provide PwDs employment opportunities

As part of the “Inclusion To Action” initiative, Microsoft and EnAble have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they would work together to create about one lakh job opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwDs). This collaboration will assist in bringing together different stakeholders from different sectors to transform career prospects for PwDs and make this enormous untapped talent pool significantly productive. The partnership between Microsoft and EnAble India is the result of the former’s five-year global commitment to close the global gap in PwDs’ access to technology, employment, and education. EnAble India, a non-profit organisation, has been working to help PwDs become economically independent as well as to help them maintain their dignity and command respect for more than 20 years. With Microsoft joining its mission, more than 100 Indian organisations from a variety of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, and technology, will now work together to provide PwDs with tech skilling, mentorship, internship, and job initiatives. PwD candidates will be able to improve their grasp of digital accessibility, which is becoming more and more crucial in the current hybrid work environment, due to the technical skilling programmes. Increased PwD representation will inevitably lead to inclusive product development, which will benefit people with disabilities who use technology. PwDs will also have access to training programmes on modern office tools, which will increase their efficiency.

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Adani set to acquire majority stake in NDTV news channel

The most prominent bet by billionaire Gautam Adani in the thriving media industry was announced on Tuesday by India’s Adani Group: its media unit will purchase a majority stake in NDTV. In addition to making an open offer for a further 26% stake, Adani’s unit will indirectly acquire a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV). According to the statement, the open offer would be for 294 Indian rupees ($3.68) per NDTV share, valued 4.93 billion Indian rupees ($61.73 million). Adani had previously disclosed on Tuesday that it has paid 1.14 billion rupees to acquire Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd (VCPL). VCPL owns warrants of NDTV shareholder RRPR, and on Tuesday it exercised its right to convert those warrants into shares equal to 99.5% of RRPR. Leading media company NDTV runs three national news channels: NDTV India, NDTV Profit, and NDTV 24×7. In NDTV, RRPR owns a 29.18% stake. In March of this year, Adani Group acquired a minority stake in Quintillion, a local digital business news site. According to a statement from Sanjay Pugalia, CEO of AMG Media Networks Limited, the NDTV acquisition will open the door for new age media on all platforms. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries who also has a stake in India’s thriving media sector and controls Network18, is a rival of Gautam Adani. Adani Group has seven publicly traded firms that operate industries like running ports and airports, generating and transmitting electricity, and trading coal and gas.

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Why Indian e-commerce companies are rushing to hire delivery personnel

E-commerce companies in India are rapidly increasing their delivery staff numbers out of concern that they may suffer during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year, which starts in earnest next month. The decisions were made as the job market became tighter – India’s unemployment rate fell below 7% in July for the first time since January – and inflation remained high, which complicated the outlook for the sector, which has long struggled with chronically high employee turnover. TK Balakumar, chief operating officer at online grocery seller BigBasket, told Reuters, “Overall demand for the gig workforce has seen a sharp increase and that is not completely supported by the increase in pool size of delivery people… It is not a free flowing pool.” The company, sponsored by the Tata group conglomerate, increased the number of delivery partners in its instant delivery section BB Now from 500 in the March quarter to 2,200 in the quarter that ended in June. By March 2023, it hopes to increase that number even more, to roughly 6,000. BigBasket and other e-commerce companies, like Dunzo, employ their own delivery staff, but others, like cosmetics-to-fashion retailer Nykaa, rely on outside vendors. According to a report released in June by think tank NITI Aayog, the number of people employed in gig work—of which delivery workers and salesmen make up a sizable portion—is predicted to increase to 9.9 million in India in 2022–23, an increase of roughly 45% from 2019–20. Sekhar Garisa, strategy chief at business services provider Quess Corp., stated that “People… look at a delivery job as a job in transit, they move off to something else, you’ll always have shortages and then in cases where there is a specific event or festival, there’s definitely a challenge that the delivery requirement goes up.” Companies like Quess and TeamLease function as middlemen between e-commerce businesses and job seekers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the nation. Some companies were hopeful that the labour shortage scenario would improve. “There’s a constant churn and movement that has existed for 4-5 years. It can cause a temporary crunch but we don’t think it is a long term thing because supply and demand will match,” Reuters was told by Kabeer Biswas, the CEO of Dunzo. Dunzo presently has 75,000 delivery partners and is supported by Reliance, a company owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Why Indian e-commerce companies are rushing to hire delivery personnel Read More »

UGC approves proposal for hiring industry experts as professors of practice

Article on Edu

According to draft regulations issued by the higher education regulator, universities and colleges may soon be able to employ industry specialists in addition to the sanctioned posts of regular faculty under a new category of faculty positions called professors of practice. The University Grants Commission stated that the professors of practise will be employed for a fixed tenure of no longer than four years, and their strength at any given time cannot exceed 10% of the sanctioned faculty posts. The regulatory body announced in March that it was thinking about introducing such a clause, and on August 18 during its 560th meeting, the commission approved the draft guidelines. These will now be made available for public feedback. According to the draft guidelines, the purpose of establishing this new faculty category is to attract eminent experts from a variety of fields into academia, including engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, the armed forces, legal profession, and public administration. According to UGC Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar, the provision is a part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation, which focuses on skill-based education to fulfil industry and economic needs. “This will help to take real-world practises and experiences into classrooms and augment faculty resources in higher education institutions,” according to Kumar. “It will enable higher education institutions to formally associate with persons of eminence and encourage them to participate in experiential learning, research, training, skilling, entrepreneurship and extension and to play a mentoring role.” The positions are only open to experts with a minimum of 15 years of experience. The guidelines suggest that if a candidate has “exemplary” professional experience, no formal academic qualification would be taken into account. The draft guidelines stated, “These experts will also be exempted from the requirement of publications and other eligibility criteria stipulated for the recruitment of faculty members at the professor level. However, they should possess the skills to carry out the duties and responsibilities specified in the following section.” The positions won’t be available to those who are currently employed as teachers. The professors of practice will engage in one of three categories: industry-funded, institution-funded, or honorary. The institutions may collaborate with industry to support the roles in the first category. Under the second category, they will be required to pay the professors out of their own resources. The third category allows the institutions to choose the honorarium amount using their own funds. The guidelines elaborate on the selection process for professors of practice, stating that the head of the institution will invite nominations from distinguished experts. The recommendations will be taken into consideration by a selection committee made up of two senior professors and one esteemed external member. The instructions said that the statutory bodies of the institutes will make a decision based on its recommendations. The initial term of the engagement may be up to one year, with subsequent extensions possible. The guidelines stated that “The maximum duration of service of Professor of Practice at a given institution should not exceed three years and is extendable by one year in exceptional cases and the total service should not exceed four years under any circumstance.”

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Tarun Bajaj gets an additional charge as MCA secretary

Tarun Bajaj, a 1988 batch IAS officer from the Haryana cadre who currently serves as the revenue secretary, was assigned the additional charge of secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA). According to the ministry of personnel, public grievances, and pensions, he will succeed Rajesh Verma, who was appointed secretary to President Droupadi Murmu on August 18. According to official records, Bajaj, who has been the revenue secretary since April 6, 2021, also served as the secretary of economic affairs from April 30, 2020, to April 5, 2021. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, or ACC, approved assigning Shri Tarun Bajaj, lAS (1988 batch, Haryana cadre), Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, with additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, with immediate effect and until the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier, the ACC secretariat said in a statement on Monday. The ACC is comprised of the home minister Amit Shah and the prime minister Narendra Modi. Unless he receives an extension before the Union Budget 2023–24, Bajaj is anticipated to retire on November 30.

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Dolo 650 maker claims that less than Rs 10 crore was spent on promotions

The maker of the Dolo 650, Micro Labs, claims that it spent a pittance on the brand’s marketing and promotion, spending less than Rs 10 crore annually. Micro Labs is the subject of a controversy over allegations of unethical business practises. The Bangalore-based company was under scrutiny last week during a hearing in another case brought by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives Association before the Supreme Court. The corporation is accused of giving doctors freebies worth over Rs 1,000 crore. During the pandemic, the Rs 2 pill became well-known for providing pain and fever relief. Its sales for the fiscal year that ended in March this year totalled Rs 362 crore, an increase of over 30%. “Dolo 650 is a mega brand due to first-mover advantage, its quality, availability and reach across the country. It is a mass brand and an established market leader with 50% share, even before Covid,” said Dilip Surana, the CMD of Micro Labs. The offices of the Rs 4,500 crore Micro Labs were raided and the premises searched by the tax department last month on suspicion of tax evasion. In total, the company has spent Rs 1000 crore on marketing for all of its products, not just Dolo 650. “On the pain relief pill alone, the marketing expenditure has typically been 4-5% of its annual turnover of Rs 200-250 crore,” said Executive VP (Marketing) Jayaraj Govindaraju. He said that the basic promotions (to doctors) during Covid were of low value and comprised handing out free (Dolo) samples, brand reminders, masks & sanitizers, and scientific dissemination through conferences on fever.

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Miss Universe to allow mothers and married women to enter the pageant from 2023

It’s evident that the Miss Universe beauty pageant made a historic decision when it decided to open up the competition’s eligibility to mothers and married women. Beginning in 2023, Fox News reports, eligibility requirements for pageant participants will no longer include marital status and parental status. It has always been a rule of the Miss Universe pageant that winners must be unmarried and keep it that way for the duration of their reign. Mothers have historically been disqualified as well, and winners are frequently obligated to abstain from pregnancy while holding the title of Miss Universe. Mexico’s Andrea Meza, the winner of Miss Universe 2020, applauded the rule modification. Established rules exist, she said, calling them “unrealistic.” Meza expressed her admiration for the development in an interview with Insider. “Just like society changes and women are now occupying leadership positions where in the past only men could, it was about time pageants changed and opened up to women with families.” The existing rules, according to Meza, are “sexist” and “unrealistic” in their attempt to select a winner who will appeal to the widest possible audience. People who have traditionally desired to see a single, attractive lady who is open for a relationship are opposed to these developments, Meza continued. “They always wanted to see a woman that, from the outside, looks so perfect that she’s almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic.” More than 160 territories and nations around the world, including FYI and Telemundo in the United States, broadcast the Miss Universe pageant. India’s Harnaaz Sandhu was named Miss Universe 2021. Punjab native Harnaaz Sandhu represented India at the 70th Miss Universe 2021 pageant in Eilat, Israel. Only two Indian women, actresses Sushmita Sen in 1994 and Lara Dutta in 2000, have ever won the Miss Universe title before Harnaaz Sandhu. Source: ANI

Miss Universe to allow mothers and married women to enter the pageant from 2023 Read More »

All 23 AIIMS will have names after local heroes and monuments

The government has finalised a proposal to name each AIIMS, including the one in Delhi, based on local heroes, freedom fighters, significant local historical occurrences or landmarks, or their unique geographic identity. After being asked for proposals by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the majority of the 23 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have provided a list of names, according to official sources quoted by PTI. The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) is a government initiative that aims to establish new AIIMS, some of which are already functioning. According to an official, AIIMS are all known by the same name and are only differentiated by location. In order to offer distinct names to all 23 AIIMS, including those that are fully functional, partially operating, or under construction, the Union Health Ministry has created a plan, the source added. In this regard, suggestions for giving specific names to various AIIMS were requested, the source said. These names could be connected to notable local or regional heroes, freedom fighters, the distinctive geographical identity of the area where the institute is located, and important historical events or monuments of the region. Reports state that the most of these esteemed health institutions have offered three to four names, each with an explanation. In Phase 1 of PMSSY, six new AIIMS were approved and are now operational in Bihar (Patna), Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Odisha (Bhubaneswar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur), and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh). Ten of the 16 AIIMS established between 2015 and 2022 have started providing both MBBS programmes and outpatient department services, while the other two have only recently started providing MBBS classes. The other four institutes are in various stages of development. Source: PTI

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