AIPEU,Gr.-C Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Procedure for handling Court / Consumer Forum cases relating to Savings Bank / Certificate

Irda cautions public not to fall prey to fictitious calls

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Review of Strike Preparations by NFPE

An urgent meeting of NFPE Federal Secretariat will be held at NFPE office, North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi on 05.02.2014 at 3 PM. As such, all available General Secretaries and NFPE office bearers at Delhi HQ have been requested to attend the meeting in time.

CGHS ORDERS - Permission for treatment / investigations in respect of CGHS beneficiaries availing treatment for Diabetes, Hypertension & other Cardiac Diseases, Dialysis and Cancer.

Government of India

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

Department of Health & Family Welfare

S-11045140 /2012/CGHS/HEC/CGHS (P)

Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi

Dated the 1st October, 2012

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Sub: Permission for treatment / investigations in respect of CGHS beneficiaries availing treatment for Diabetes, Hypertension & other Cardiac Diseases, Dialysis and Cancer.

The undersigned is directed to refer to the subject mentioned above and to state that at present the CGHS beneficiaries undergoing treatment for Diabetes, Hypertension & other Cardiac Diseases, Dialysis and Cancer require repeated investigations / treatment procedures over a period of time and as per the existing guidelines they are required to procure permission every time to get the prescribed treatment / investigations done at CGHS empanelled hospitals /diagnostic centres.

2. With a view to alleviate the inconvenience to CGHS beneficiaries in obtaining the requisite permission(s) every time, this Ministry has decided to permit issue of permission (referral) letters by competent authorities with a validity of six months from the date of issue of the original prescription for undergoing the prescribed treatment /investigation procedures to be conducted at the prescribed intervals over a period of six months as advised by a Government Specialist. The same permission (referral) letter shall be valid for undergoing the prescribed treatment procedures / investigations on multiple times during the six months, at intervals as advised by the Government Specialist.

sd-

(V.P.Singh)

Deputy Secretary to Government of India

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Mid Career Training for Postman/ Overseer

Department of Posts, India

Office of the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division, Bhubaneswar-751009

Memo No.B.12-32(Trg)/2003/Ch-I, Dated at Bhubaneswar the 28.01.2014`

Pursuant to C.O. letter No.TO/1-9/2011 dated 23.01.2014 received through eMail on 23.01.2014, the following officials in Postman cadre of Bhubaneswar Division are hereby directed to undergo computer training at WTC, Circle Office, Bhubaneswar as per the programme detailed below.

03.02. 14 to 07.02. 14	Mid Career Training for Postman/ Overseer	1.Artatrana Panda Postman,Baramunda Colony SO	ASP I/C,BBSR North make necessary relieving arrangement
		2.Raj Kishore Sahoo Postman,Nayapalli SO	-do-
		3.Satrughna Barik Postman, Ashoknagar MDG	-do-
		4.Sachidananda Subudhi Postman,Sahidnagar MDG	-do-
		5.Aishan Khan Postman,Bhoinagar SO	-do-
10.02. 14 to 14.02. 14	Mid Career Training for Postman/ Overseer	1.Gabrial Pradhan Postman,RRL SO	-do-
		2.Jogendra Barik Postman,Rasulgarh SO	-do-
		3.Gyanendra Naik Postman, IRC Village SO	-do-
		4.Ramesh Ch. Maharana Postman,C.S.Pur SO	-do-
		5.Mohan Parida Postman,KIIT SO	-do-

No leave of any kind will be granted during the training period including journey time. It must be ensured that the seats allotted are fully utilized.

Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division

Bhubaneswar-751009

Copy for information and necessary action to:

The Asst. Director (TO), O/o the Chief P.M.G. (Odisha), Bhubaneswar-751001 w.r.t. C.O. letter no. TO/1-9/2011 dated 23.01.2014 received through eMail on 23.01.2014.This office email dtd 23.01.2014 17.57 may kindly be referred to and this programme is prepared in anticipation of approval as requested therein.
The Senior Postmaster, Bhubaneswar GPO, Bhubaneswar-751001.
All ASPs /IPs in BBSR Divn.They will ensure timely relief of the Postman of their unit/sub division.
The Postmasters / Sub Postmasters concerned. They will ensure timely relief of the officials and attendance at WTC, CO, BBSR.
The officials concerned.
Staff-II branch, Divisional Office, Bhubaneswar.Timely relieving of the above stated officials should be insured.
The Accountant, Divisional Office, Bhubaneswar.

7. Office copy.

Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division

Bhubaneswar-751009

NFPE's APPEAL FOR TWO DAYS STRIKE (ODIA)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Medical examination of proponents for multiple policies on the same day-Regarding.

Fundamental (First Amendment) Rules, 2014.

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India Post expects to start core banking pilot in Delhi

The Department of Posts will start a pilot for core banking services in the national capital on January 27 and expects to formally launch it by March-end.

"On Monday, India Post will start the pilot of core banking services in Delhi," an official source told PTI.

The Department of Posts, which is under the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, has started such pilot projects in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It plans to set up 1,000 ATMs to transform its financial services.

Delhi will initially have 20 ATMs installed at post offices from where customers of other banks will be able to transact. By March, 90 of the 350 post offices in Delhi are expected to be connected with core banking services.

India Post is among the applicants for new bank licences that will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

The department has been trying to get approval from the Public Investment Board under the Finance Ministry for a Rs 623 crore fund that India Post needs for the banking licence.

Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal on Friday said his ministry has been trying hard to persuade the Finance Ministry to get the proposal cleared.

"We are yet to go some way to convert the postal department into a post bank. We have been fighting this battle and we are not going to give it up till we reach a logical conclusion," Sibal said.

The department plans to ramp up the number of ATMs at the pan-India level to 3,000 by September 2015.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/

India Post to install 3000 ATMs,1.35 lakh mirco-ATMs by Sept 15

We will be starting with three ATMs to be installed in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore on Feb 5," says postal dept secretary

Even as its application to start a commercial bank is pending, India Post has drawn a massive plan to install as many as 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh micro-ATMs at the ubiquitous post offices across the country for savings account holders by September 2015, a top official has said.

"We will be starting with three ATMs to be installed in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore on February 5 and then ramp it up gradually," postal department secretary Padmini Gopinath told a select group of reporters here over the weekend.

She said 1,000 ATMs with the India Post branding will be put in within the first year, which will be ramped up massively to 3,000 in the next 18 months.

To start with, the ATMs can be used only by 26 crore savings account-holders who save with the postal department, but Gopinath exuded confidence that within six months of the launch, they will get the interoperability permission from the Reserve Bank.

Postal savings are worth around Rs 6.05 trillion, which is half the savings in the largest lender SBI and more than double that of the largest private sector lender ICICI Bank.

Through interoperability, India Post will join the National Financial Switch, which will benefit India Post account holders to transact at the banks' ATMs and vice versa, she added.

India Post has been working with software major Infosys on this project, she added.

The micro ATMs will be handheld devices to be operated at the post office level while the ATM will be similar to the one operated by any commercial bank, she added.

The postal department, which has 1.55 lakh post offices over 90% of which are in villages, offers the savings account to people across the country and pays an interest of 4% per annum for such deposits. The account offers cheque facility at present.

It can be noted that the Department of Posts is fighting a very contentious battle to convert itself into a full fledged bank, asserting that its reach can help achieve the goal of financial inclusion.

However, the finance ministry has expressed some reservations about the idea, while Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has exuded confidence of winning over his Cabinet colleagues to get the go ahead for the 'Postal Bank'.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com

Sibal says keen on getting banking licence for India Post

Faced with opposition from the Finance Ministry to India Post getting into banking fray, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal today said his department will battle it out to ensure that it gets a lender's licence.

"We have been trying very hard to persuade the Finance Ministry and we are yet to go some way to convert the Postal Department into a post bank. We have been fighting this battle and we are not going to give it up till we reach a logical conclusion," he told reporters after inaugurating the Postal Department's National Data Centre at Navi Mumbai near here.

When asked about the Finance Ministry's opposition to the idea of India Post turning into a bank, Sibal sounded optimistic of reaching a favourable conclusion, saying his Ministry will take this to the Cabinet which will resolve the issue. But he did not say when he will do so.

The RBI is processing applications for banking licences from among 25 entities, including the Department of Posts and top corporates like Aditya Birla Groups and Anil Ambani Group.

The Postal Department's contention is that it can leverage its reach of over 1.55 lakh post offices across the country. Of these, 1.4 lakh are in rural areas.

"The only department that can do financial inclusion is the Postal Department," Sibal claimed.

Sibal said a host of services like insurance premia payments, wages distribution and most importantly, avenues of saving will be possible as a result of banking foray.

Sibal also announced that on February 5, India Post will be launching automated teller machines for postal savings bank account holders in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The Postal Department's National Data Centre, spread over 3,000 sq ft and located at the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, will act as the nerve centre of all postal services, including savings, insurance and speed posts tracking.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com

How postmen, and their wives, may help set India's monetary policy

Global investors may well be putting their faith in postmen like Phanin Deka when they decide to buy or sell Indian assets in the future.

He is one of about a thousand post workers collecting data that determines the level of India's consumer price index, which is likely to become the central bank's most important tool for setting monetary policy.

Deka, a postmaster in Sarpara in Assam, spends six days every month visiting two villages by bicycle to collect prices from 15 shops.

"At times, some shopkeepers refuse to co-operate. I think they consider me as an irritant, particularly when customers are around," said Deka.

Last week, a committee formed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan proposed making CPI the central bank's main inflation measure and using it to set inflation target, part of sweeping proposals to revamp monetary policy in a country that has long struggled with high inflation.

It would make CPI the most important data followed by the central bank and key in determining changes in interest rates that could affect millions of dollars in investments and loans.

For years, India has been an outlier among major economies by relying as its main inflation gauge on changes in wholesale prices, collected from India's cities.

That was because the CPI was seen as too heavily geared to food prices, which are unresponsive to the ups and downs of interest rates because people have to eat.

On Tuesday, the RBI unexpectedly raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 8%, citing its intent to bring consumer inflation down in line with the path spelled out by the panel, an indication it will adopt those recommendations.

Rajan said the RBI would discuss the panel report with the government before proceeding on its proposals, but said retail investors and consumers look at CPI inflation for guidance.

"Over time we have to figure out how we make the index better," Rajan said.

"But the fact that the index is not perfect does not say that there is no problem. CPI inflation is too high."

There is a wide gap between wholesale and consumer inflation in India, so if the new set up is approved, economists expect higher interest rates for longer.

In December, WPI inflation in Asia's third-largest economy was 6.16% and CPI was nearly 10%.

Using CPI as a benchmark eventually to bring inflation down to a targeted 4%, plus or minus 2%, would better reflect the way inflation affects the broader population, the committee argued.

However, the current CPI inflation series was launched only in 2012 and is based on nearly decade-old consumption patterns in a country of 1.25 billion people whose spending habits are changing fast. Average incomes have more than doubled over the same period.

It still measures changes in the cost of cassette tapes, while smartphones - fast becoming ubiquitous in India - are not included. Power failures, worker strikes that shut shops and businesses, heavy rains and flooding, and even insurgencies all make the postal workers' data collection more difficult.

That leads to some guess work.

"Sometimes during the rainy season, I am unable to go out. Then I have no option but to fill in the prices of different items myself," said a postman in Guwahati, who declined to be identified.

"Usually I go to shops once or twice in two or three months to check price trends and fill in the price details myself by cross-checking with my wife," he said.

Arvind Mayaram, economic affairs secretary at the ministry of finance, acknowledged there are shortfalls in the consumer price index.

"CPI has a lot of imperfections," he told a TV channel last week. "We know that it requires a whole lot of sophistication, which we haven't achieved yet on determining CPI."

HOUSES AND MILK

Consumption patterns between rural and urban India differ dramatically, and there is no data available on rural housing costs. Food consumption, the key driver of persistent consumer price inflation, is changing as incomes grow, especially in rural areas.

Indians now eat more protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, whereas in the past their diet was more based on cereals, rice and vegetables.

Statistics ministry officials say the data is fairly robust and comparable to international standards, but needs to be updated to reflect changing consumption habits.

Food is now about 50% of the index, the highest among the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. That weighting will be brought down in a new CPI series, said TCA Anant, India's chief statistician.

Clothing, now just under 5% of the basket, would also change, he said.

"There has been a decline in the share of food in the total expenditure, and within food there is shift from cereals to protein, eggs, milk and other items that need to be reflected in the index," he told Reuters.

Food is a major source of inflation - about a third of fresh produce perishes before it reaches the shops - and is currently running at double digits.

CHALLENGE

India's postal service started in 2011 to collect price data for the Statistics Department.

Collecting quality information on roughly 300 index items is a challenge in such a large country, and some officials privately expressed doubt over the quality of price data collected by the postmen in village markets.

"A postman who cannot even timely deliver letters, you expect him to gather price data on hundreds of items?" said a senior official at the statistics department.

"You can imagine what happens when a truck driver drives a Mercedes-Benz car."

Large swathes of rural northeastern and central India are essentially controlled by militants in long-running ethnic and Naxalite insurgencies, one of the more extreme factors making it difficult to gather data.

"Half of the month here businesses remain shut due to strikes called by various organisations or there are other problems related to militancy," said another postman, who also declined to be identified.

Pronab Sen, head of the National Statistical Commission and Anant's predecessor as India's chief statistician, said that until the CPI index builds long-term data, the central bank should use both the CPI and WPI to set monetary policy. "If two indices are telling me two different stories, and I ignore one, then what I am doing is essentially, deliberately losing information, and any loss of information leads to lower quality of decision," said Sen.

Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com