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Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill

9 June 2010 - 8:35am — shekhar_mittal
With all the interesting Parliament bills that get discussed, scrutinized and thrashed by media and people like us, there are many more which get missed out. Through the PRS site I came across "Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority Bill".

Before I try to explain it, here are some fun facts
  • Only 13% of the workforce is currently covered by pension schemes
  • Total government (centre+states) pension cost has increased from Rs 6,400 crore in 1991 to Rs 46,569 crore in 2001 and it is estimated that this figure will reach around 80000 crores by 2081-82
  • A number of states are already defaulting on pension payments. Employee Pension Scheme was reportedly underfunded to the extent of Rs 22,000 crore as on March 31, 2004.

Essentially, the PFRDA bill aims to address all of the above. This Bill provides a regulatory framework for a new pension system (NPS) which will be available to any individual. All the employees who joined the central government on or after 1 January 2004 already come under this new pension system.

Tracking page for GIM

7 June 2010 - 10:32am — admin
Praja related

Going by the hype around it, and looking at sharp opinions within the activist community, fallouts of Global Investment Meet (aka GIM) need close tracking. Whether GIM will bring inclusive growth, or create more controversies around corporate greed and disrespect for natural resources depends on how much interest we take in monitoring the specific proposals and demanding transparency.

To make it easy for readers and contributors on this website, we have created a special tracking page for GIM:

Global warming - building cracks?

6 June 2010 - 8:18pm — hemaraj
Environment

I had been to Tirupathi 20 -25 days back, before the fall of sri kalahasthi kopuram.

on my way , I visited sri kalahasthi templeand saw the  crack in the gopuram and was thinking about all through my journey.

on my way back I visited my cousin living in Chittoor, they live in an 60 -70 year old house, every time i visited i felt so happy as the building was in good condition even after all these years.

but this time i noticed big cracks in the ceiling, then I recollected the cracks in sri kalalhasthi.

When I visted ,at that point of time the weather was at 44 degrees or more so.

then my thought was that do most building crack fast as the temperature keeps on increasing.

what is the fate of humanbeings, without shelter.

I was deeply concerned about the future generation .

today iread the cracking in the srirangapatna temples gopuram.

Has the journey for the extinct of human beings started.

god made good things we destroyed.we wanted more and more comforts and invented and polluted .

we should follow the principle of roti kapada and then house and then luxury.

The UID debate

6 June 2010 - 8:31am — vmenon
Governance

Dear  all, attaching a couple of recent files on UID:

  • a) A "skeptical note" on UID by a Prof ramkumar( form tata institute of social sciences)
  • b) Minutes of meeting with NGOs /CSOs organised by UID this month.

In other civic forums , the UID debate has gone to the level  of "stop UID" campiagns.

The anti UID lobby (currently in the civic space there seems to be more of them or at least more vocal) has a few broad areas of concern and pehaps rightly so

Monthly Face to Face meeting, june 2010

5 June 2010 - 2:11pm — psaram42
12 Jun 2010 08:30
Asia/Calcutta
Everything else

 

Venue : Remodeled Vittal Mallya Road

 Date : 12 June 2010

Start: 8:00 AM

End:   9:00 AM

 

A blessing or a curse?

4 June 2010 - 10:27pm — psaram42
Economy

 The Global Investors Meet (GIM) which concluded on Friday the 4th June 2010, has thrown up a new monitory scale of lakh crore. With the all too common inflation this is no surprise. It can expand to infinity. The Tata nano has started its production line, when there is no parking space in metros like New Delhi, Bangalore etc.  Unfortunately the space on the planet earth is limited however much we wish it is not true.

Private public transport - a proposal

4 June 2010 - 4:01pm — ab_calvin
Public Transport

People prefer own transport mainly because they can travel directly by the shortest route non-stop to the school/college/workspot and back.To use public transport, one has to walk in the hot sun to the nearest bus stop, wait for the correct bus, somehow manage to get in, get down and walk again.some people have to take more than one bus.Because of the crazy one way maze, one has to walk to a different bus stop for the return journey.

It is certainly possible to provide a facility almost like own transport.Presently, sharing transport is limited to it/bpo computer savvy sector.But there are lots of other people who are not computer savvy, who do not have the time to log on to a computer ,etc (the bottom of the pyramid, to quote management guru c k prahlad) who would gladly join to form a transport pool.There may be so many people in an apartment complex traveling daily to the same place and back at the same time.They would probably be surprised to see familiar faces in the group and think "why didn't WE think of this ?"

Bangalore's Big Dig Dream?

4 June 2010 - 12:06pm — Ravi_D
Infrastructure

This DH Report on 10/May notes: "The State government has long-term plans to build tunnel roads in the City to ease traffic congestion" said ..... Minister R Ashok on Monday.

Consider this against the effort spent reducing the length of Namma Metro Under Ground alignment.

Binny Mills to KG Bus Stand is one such tunnel road being discussed. Fortunately, "the proposals are in preliminary stage and nothing concrete has emerged so far, he said".    

BTW, Namma metro's west bound UG alignment is not too far away!

Solar power proposal to State

3 June 2010 - 3:26pm — reevs
Power

not sure how and where to follow-up on this one....

 



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