Goa State Government CM Parrikar dies from pancreatic cancer at age 63

Goa State Government CM Parrikar dies from pancreatic cancer at age 63

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar died at his Panaji residence on Sunday evening just over a year after he was detected with pancreatic cancer. He was 63.

Parrikar is survived by two sons and their families. His wife Medha Parrikar died twelve years ago.
“Chief Minister passed away around 6.40 pm Sunday,” a senior state government official said.
“Extremely sorry to hear of the passing of Shri Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister of Goa, after an illness borne with fortitude and dignity,” President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted.

Hours earlier, GOA CMO had tweeted that his condition was “extremely critical” and “doctors are trying their best”.

Parrikar’s health, which has been fluctuating for a year, took a turn for the worse in the past two days.
Parrikar was suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and had been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and New Delhi over the past year.

Parrikar had been unwell since February 2018 when he was diagnosed with a pancreatic ailment.
Sources said former defence minister Parrikar had been on life support system since late Saturday night.

Parrikar started off in the RSS when he was young and studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. After the RSS approved his joining the BJP, he was elected to Goa’s Assembly in 1994.
He became Chief Minister for the first time in 2000 and in 2014, replaced Arun Jaitley as Minister of Defence. However, he chose to return to Goa as chief minister after the March 2016 elections.

BSNL clears employees salaries in February 2019

BSNL clears employees salaries in February 2019

BSNL, a state - owned telecoms company, said that its 1,76 lakh employees were cleared of their pending february salaries.
The company also announced the launch of various schemes to increase its market share and revenue.
“We have disbursed salary of all employees that was pending for the month of February. BSNL employees have ensured that customers services run uninterrupted despite issues that they were facing. Now we will aggressively focus on increasing our market share and revenue with attractive schemes,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.

The BSNL CMD Thursday had said that the telco was using internal accruals of Rs 850 crore to clear the February salary.

He had stressed that with the telecom department’s support, there would be no delay in salary disbursement in coming months.

BSNL Friday announced free voice call on its ‘Wings’ mobile app and free broadband services for a period of 30 days to attract new customers.

Under the scheme, BSNL landline and mobile customers can make unlimited calls across India for free for a period of 30 days through its Wing mobile application and make calls to any landline or mobile number in India for Rs 1.2 per minute when they are travelling abroad.

“The Wings app annual activation charge is Rs 1,100 but we are giving it to all students at 20 per cent discount, all central and state government at 50 per cent discount and BSNL employees for 75 per cent discount,” BSNL Wings (OSD) AK Jain said.

Post the free offer, Wings users can make calls using any wifi network and will need to pay as per their landline or mobile subscription plan.

BSNL customers can divert incoming calls on their landline or mobile phone to the Wings app.
“We are not charging money for diverting calls to the app,” Jain said.

Besides voice calls, the state-run firm announced free broadband service for its landline and new customers for 30 days. Under the offer, customers availing broadband connection will get 5Gb per day data.

Though the scheme is not applicable for existing broadband customers, the company has announced “25 per cent cash back and Amazon prime subscription for a year on zero cost” for them.

Amid tariff war fuelled by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, BSNL is the only company, apart from Jio, that gained new customers in mobile segment, according to the Trai data.

The company, however, had been losing landline customers and expects new schemes to check the decline.

PTI

14 percent of the Basic Pay plus DA by the Central Government Contribution in NPS - Gazette Notification

14 percent of the Basic Pay plus DA by the Central Government Contribution in NPS - Gazette Notification

The monthly contribution would be 10 percent of the Basic Pay plus Dearness Allowance (DA) to be paid by the employee and 14 percent of the Basic Pay plus DA by the Central Government

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(Department of Financial Services)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 31st January, 2019

F. No. 1/3/2016-PR - In partial modification of para 1(i) of Ministry of Finance’s Gazette Notification No. 5/7/2003-ECB-PR dated 22nd December, 2003, based on the Government’s decision on 6th December, 2018 on the recommendations of a Committee set up to suggest measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension System (NPS), the Central Government makes the following amendments in the said notification, namely :-

(1) In para 1(i) of the said notification, for the words “The monthly contribution would be 10 percent of the salary and DA to be paid by the employee and matched by the Central Government”, the words “The monthly contribution would be 10 percent of the Basic Pay plus Dearness Allowance (DA) to be paid by the employee and 14 percent of the Basic Pay plus DA by the Central Government” shall be substituted.

(2) The following provisions shall be inserted after para 1(v) of the said notification, namely:-
CHOICE OF PENSION FUND AND INVESTMENT PATTERN IN TIER-I OF NPS AS UNDER:

(vi) Choice of Pension Fund: As in the case of subscribers in the private sector, the Government subscribers may also be allowed to choose any one of the pension funds including Private sector pension funds. They could change their option once in a year. However, the current provision of combination of the Public-Sector Pension Funds will be available as the default option for both existing as well as new Government subscribers.

(vii) Choice of Investment pattern: The following options for investment choices may be offered to Government employees :

• The existing scheme in which funds are allocated by the PFRDA among the three Public Sector Undertaking fund managers based on their past performance in accordance with the guidelines of PFRDA for Government employees may continue as default scheme for both existing and new subscribers.
• Government employees who prefer a fixed return with minimum amount of risk may be given an option to invest 100% of the funds in Government securities (Scheme G).
• Government employees who prefer higher returns may be given the options of the following two Life Cycle based schemes.

(A) Conservative Life Cycle Fund with maximum exposure to equity capped at 25% - LC-25.

(B) Moderate Life Cycle Fund with maximum exposure to equity capped at 50% - LC-50.

(viii) Implementation of choices to the legacy corpus: Transfer of a huge legacy corpus of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore in respect of the Government sector subscribers from the existing Pension Fund Managers is likely to impact the market. It may be practically difficult for the PFRDA to allow Government subscribers to change the Pension Funds or investment pattern in respect of the accumulated corpus, in one go. Therefore, for the present, change in the Pension Funds or investment pattern may be allowed in respect of incremental flows only.

(ix) Transfer of legacy corpus in a reasonable time frame: PFRDA may draw up a scheme for transfer of accumulated corpus as per new choices of Government subscribers in a reasonable time frame of say five years. Once PFRDA draws up this scheme, change in the Pension Funds or investment pattern may be allowed in respect of the accumulated corpus in accordance with that scheme.

4 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA : EXTRAORDINARY [PART I-SEC. 1] COMPENSATION FOR NON-DEPOSIT OR DELAYED DEPOSIT OF CONTRIBUTIONS DURING 2004-2012:

(x) In all cases, where the NPS contributions were deducted from the salary of the Government employee but the amount was not remitted to CRA system or was remitted late, the amount may be credited to the NPS account of the employee along with interest for the period from the date on which
the deductions were made till the date the amount was credited to the NPS account of the employee, as per the rates applicable to GPF from time to time, compounded annually.

(xi) In all cases where the NPS contributions were not deducted from the salary of the Government employee for any period during 2004-2012, the employee may be given an option to deposit the amount of employee contribution now. In case he opts to deposit the contributions now, the amount may be deposited in one lump sum or in monthly installments. The amount of installment may be deducted from the salary of the Government employee and deposited in his NPS account. The same may qualify for tax concessions under the Income Tax Act as applicable to the mandatory contributions of the employee.

(xii) In all cases where the Government contributions were not remitted to CRA system or were remitted late (irrespective whether the employee contributions were deducted or not), the amount of Government contributions may be credited to the NPS account of the employee along with interest for the period from the date on which the Government contributions were due till the date the amount is actually credited to the NPS account of the employee, as per the rates applicable to GPF from time to time. Instructions to this effect may be issued by the Department of Expenditure/ Controller General of Accounts. All such cases of delay may be resolved within a period of three months.
The above provisions shall come into force with effect from 1st April, 2019.

MADNESH KUMAR MISHRA, Jt. Secy.

Note : The main notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-I, Section 1, vide notification No. 5/7/2003-PR dated the 22nd December, 2003