insurance industry, insurance

Regulator Irdai has asked general and standalone health insurers to offer a specific cover for Persons with Disabilities (PWD), persons afflicted with HIV/AIDS, and those with mental illness.
In a circular, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) asked the insurers to determine the price of the product in line with the IRDAI (Health Insurance) Regulations, 2016 (HIR, 2016).
The insurers have been directed to put in place a Board-approved underwriting policy that ensures that no proposal from these categories of population is denied insurance cover.
The policy tenure of the product should be for one year and is renewable as per regulatory framework.
General and standalone health insurers, who have been issued a Certificate of Registration to transact General and/or Health Insurance Business, have been asked to mandatorily launch and offer their respective product immediately.
Irdai has been set up to bring about speedy and orderly growth of the insurance

jail, arrest

The report which was released after five years of research also established correlations between conditions of incarceration and ill-health.

Book cover

Book review of Health, Hedonism and Hypochondria

No Straight Thing Was Ever Made: Essays on Mental Health; Author: Urvashi Bahuguna; Publisher: Penguin Viking; Pages: 183; Price: Rs 499

Book review - No Straight Thing Was Ever Made: Essays on Mental Health

Book review of Stoned Shamed Depressed: An Explosive Account of the Secret Lives of India's Teens

mental health, stress, employee, workers, staff, jobs

Government financial support during and since the lockdown for persons with psychosocial disabilities from low-income families, many of which had lost income, was inadequate

Coronavirus, covid, tests

Anxiety, depression and insomnia were most common among recovered Covid-19 patients in the study who developed mental health problems

Coronavirus

Patients with altered mental function - the medical term is encephalopathy - were also nearly seven times as likely to die as those who did not have that type of problem

Julian Assange

Michael Kopelman, a psychiatrist who has interviewed Assange around 20 times, said the former hacker would be a "very high" suicide risk if he were extradited to the US

insurance

A bench comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Navin Sinha and B.R. Gavai issued the notice and sought replies from the Centre and IRDA

depression, upset, mental illness, mental health

Men's risk of being a victim rose by 76% while women's went up three-fold, says study

Overseas institutions are also a better bet for Adani. Tapping Indian banks, especially state-run lenders, would be a tad cheaper, but might invite greater political scrutiny ahead of general election

Adani, Adani Group

454 members voted in favour of the Bill, while two voted against it.

Lok Sabha

As they did in June, Fed policymakers at the median still see the central bank's benchmark overnight interest rate peaking this year in the 5.50%-5.75% range

US Federal Reserve

Closing Bell on Thursday, September 21: The broad-based selling was led by public sector banks with the Nifty PSU Bank index sliding 2.3 per cent

bear market, sensex, nifty, loss, growth, investment

Tensions have been high since Canadian PM Trudeau on Monday alleged that the Indian government was behind the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

visa, Canada

NCP leader Supriya Sule on Monday strongly defended the Congress after the BJP criticised it over the Women's Reservation Bill issue, saying the first woman prime minister and president were from the Congress and the legislation was also brought by it. But the bill could not be passed due to lack of numbers, she said.
Participating in the discussion in Lok Sabha on "Parliamentary Journey of 75 years starting from Samvidhan Sabha -- Achievements, Experiences, Memories and Learnings", Sule urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the Women's Reservation Bill and assured that her party would support it.
"Most women MPs have been asking about the Women's Reservation Bill. Everyone sitting here has been concerned about it," she said on the first day of the five-day session of Parliament.
Responding to BJP MP Rakesh Singh's remarks asking what had the Congress done about ensuring reservation for women despite being in power for decades, Sule said, "I would like to set the record ...

NCP MP Supriya Sule

Cement companies' green power mix is likely to jump to 40-42 per cent by FY25 from 35 per cent in FY23, which will lead to savings of 140-160 basis points by way of lower energy cost, a report said on Monday.
Major cement players are looking at reducing their emissions by 15-17 per cent over the next 8-10 years by increasing the share of blended cement, which uses less clinker and, consequently, less fuel, Icra Ratings said in the report.
This, in turn, will help increase the share of green power intake through a mix of solar, Wind and Waste Heat Recovery System (WHRS) capacities, as per the report.
There is also a move to shift to alternate fuels, the report said.
The rating agency estimates that the share of green power will account for 40-42 per cent of the total power mix for cement companies by March 2025 from around 35 per cent in March 2023.
According to Anupama Reddy, vice-president at the agency, capital outlay towards green power investments by major cement makers for th

A Kolkata-registered company, SMPL owns limestone reserves, a key cement input, in Madhya Pradesh and is planning to come up with a cement unit there

cement, construction, infrastructure, realty

Buyers at "the bottom of the pyramid" who were hit by the Covid pandemic, job losses and rising petrol price, are not coming back, Bajaj said

Bajaj Auto

The 1937 painting 'The Story Teller' fetched a whopping Rs 61.8 crore at Saffronart's 'Evening Sale: Modern Art' in New Delhi

amrita sher-gil

Inspired by her 89-year-old grandmother's efforts to stay healthy, anthropologist Sayani Das said she turned her focus to geriatric health, particularly frailty syndrome. Almost eight years of research into the health and well-being of older adults, she said, helped her figure out effective strategies to prevent and manage frailty.
Now, this founding member of Centre for Ageing Studies at the International Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) in New Delhi is hoping that as a delegate at the Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD) 2023 she would be able to crack the formula for scaling too.
The 11th edition of the AIYD will take place from September 19 to 22 in Delhi and Bengaluru.
"Geriatric health is not just a medical issue, its biggest challenge is the communication with the target audience, as well as caretakers and policy makers. So, I feel, this is a very good opportunity for me to collaborate with people from different fields like social workers, policy makers, law .

climate change

The government introduced the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament almost three decades after it was first drafted

Parliament

Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan said it is better if the person's expertise is considered than whether he/she is a bureaucrat or a private sector executive

TRAI

The fiscal burden of states will increase over time

pensions, funds, retirement, investments, investors, savings

Canada said it was expelling a top Indian diplomat Monday as it investigates what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called credible allegations that India's government may have had links to the assassination in Canada of a Sikh activist.
Trudeau said in Parliament that Canadian intelligence agencies have been looking into the allegations after Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a strong supporter of an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia.
Trudeau told Parliament that he brought up the slaying with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 last week, that he told Modi that any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable and that he asked for cooperation in the investigation.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mlanie Joly said the head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a consequence. "If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic

Hardeep Singh Nijjar

MEA's statement comes after Canada expelled an Indian diplomat on Monday as it investigates credible allegations that India's government may have had links to the assassination in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for his daily press conference on COVID-19, in front of his residence at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa. Photo: PTI

Justin Trudeau

Amazon Web Services (AWS) India on Thursday announced that edtech social enterprise ConveGenius has built a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on its platform for government schools and low-free private schools.
The conversational AI chatbot platform -- SwiftChat -- aims to improve learning outcomes for school students using more than 53 conversational AI chatbots that deliver personalised learning content in 13 regional languages to over 100 million students across India.
ConveGenius has built SwiftChat Conversational AI Platform on AWS, a release said.
"Using the SwiftChat platform, which holds 124 million student profiles across 19 million devices, government schools can create omnichannel chatbots to deliver personalised learning, like curated videos and read-along content, through a single AI-enabled chatbot conversation," it said.
Besides the personalised learning, SwiftChat offers teacher training and data-driven decision-making for school administrators, ..

Artificial intelligence, jobs, AI, ChatGPT, technology

ITC Hotels on Thursday announced that it has signed a management agreement with a construction company for Welcomhotel Kalimpong resort in West Bengal.
The 70-key greenfield project will spread over four acres of land and will offer plush rooms with views of the Himalayas and the valley, a company statement said.
The company announced the signing of Welcomhotel Kalimpong resort under a management agreement with Pravez Constructions Private Ltd.
"With the upcoming property of Welcomhotel Kalimpong, the group will have a strong presence across West Bengal with eight hotels across various segments," ITC Hotels Divisional Chief Executive Anil Chadha said.
He also said the 'Welcomhotel' brand trajectory is "growing fast across both business and leisure locations".
The upcoming facility in north Bengal will have an all-day dining restaurant, a lounge and a bar among other facilities.
The group portfolio currently showcases 25 Welcomhotels across India with more in the pipeline, the com

Welcomhotel opens its first property in Himachal Pradesh, at Shimla

Welcomhotel, Himachal Pradesh, ITC Hotel

Motorola Edge 40 Neo will be available with introductory offers on Flipkart and select stores on September 28

Motorola Edge 40 Neo, Edge 40 Neo, Edge 40 Neo smartphone, Motorola smartphone, Motorola edge, motorola edge smartphone

Since its launch last year, Bansal said Meesho Mall has been growing by about 30 per cent month-on-month, processing an impressive over one crore orders in the past six months

Meesho app

NMC got the Health Ministry's nod to decrease the NEET PG cutoff to zero. However, the decrease in NEET PG cut-off 2023 won't compromise the quality of education of the medical students, it claimed

Heatmap

Mental illness

Launch insurance products for the disabled, mentally unwell: Irdai

62.2% death row prisoners diagnosed with at least one mental illness: Study

The hidden history of spas

Before and after darkness

Teen angst in the digital age

Insufficient, inconsistent: Mental health pension rarely reach the affected

One in 5 Covid-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days: Study

One-third of Covid-19 patients in US had deteriorating mental state: Study

Julian Assange says he hears voices in prison, says psychiatrist

SC notice to govt, IRDA over plea on insurance cover for mental illness

Mental illness diagnosis raises risk of becoming a victim of crime: Study