Delivering his keynote address at ASSOCHAM organized “6th National Conference on Pension, Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits” here today, Mr. Tiwari disclosed that Secretaries level discussions have commenced between Ministries of Finance and Rural Development in this regard because MNREGA falls under the direct jurisdiction of the latter.

The discussions have started on the subject following detailed proposal submitted to Ministry of Rural Development by PFRDA, said Mr. Tiwari adding that after secretary level talks becomes conclusive, relevant Ministers’ involvement would be sought and a cabinet note made for approval of the government. The process will take a little more time before a policy decision is taken in this regard, hinted Mr. Tiwari.

According to him each beneficiary of MNREGA will have to open an account in banks and deposit minimum of Rs. 1000-Rs. 1200 every year, clearly telling the banks concerned that this money should be transferred to National Security Depository Limited (NSDL) which will issue a number to beneficiary of MNREGA scheme so that he becomes entitled for pension benefits after the age of 60 or so.

The government will contribute equal amount in such accounts so that pension benefits are ensured for aam aadmi, said Mr.Tiwari, hinting further that current outgo of central government on MNREGA which works out to be Rs. 70,000 crores p.a. even may be hiked to ensure that NPS covers everybody in lower strata of society.

On the issue of parking surplus funds of pension fund managers in infrastructure and equities, Mr. Tiwari clarified that the regulator will not advice the pension fund managers to place a part of their funds in speculative channels to ensure that public money does not go waste.

In his inaugural speech Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Namo Narain Meena said that under NPS, pension is a shared responsibility of employer and employee to contribute equally. Presently, more than 10 lakh government employees are covered under NPS and this scheme has been adopted by state governments and few PSUs as well.

PFRDA has been taking several initiatives for expanding the reach of NPS among al sections of society and have launched customized models of NPS platform to suit needs of different sections of society. Recently, NPS-Lite, a low cost version of NPS with optimized features for economically disadvantaged persons has also been launched.

Government of India, with a view to promote retirement planning among al sections not statutorily covered by any other provident or pension schemes, have announced that an incentive of Rs. 1000/- per NPS account opened during fiscal 2009-10 and subsequent three years will be given under Swavalamban scheme. Swavalamban benefits will also be available to all subscribers from unorganized sector who have contributed between Rs. 1000-Rs. 12,000/- in a year to their NPS accounts.

Other speakers on the occasion were: Mr. Vinay Rai, Sr. Member, ASSOCHAM Managing Committee and President, Rai Foundation; Mr. Ben Facer, ASEAN and South Asia Business Leader, Retirement, Risk & Finance consulting, MERCER; Mr. D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.

Source: http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id= 2560

Dr Bauert is this week attending the United Nations Advance Global Health Conference in Melbourne.

Dr Bauert said that, despite best intentions, governments and bureaucracies are not necessarily the best agents of change when it comes to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.

“The AMA believes that health-related community capacity building is crucial in achieving sustained improvements in Indigenous people’s health and wellbeing,” Dr Bauert said.

“Experience shows that NGOs, which are active here and overseas at the local level in Indigenous communities on a daily basis, are far better at the first step of working with Indigenous communities to build their capacity to make lasting improvements to their health and living conditions.

“NGOs are well placed to make improvements around the social determinants of health, including housing, education, training, sanitation, and health literacy.

“We urge the Australian Government to seek advice from and support NGOs such as Save the Children, the Fred Hollows Foundation, World Vision, and Oxfam, which are doing great work in Indigenous communities in Australia.”

Source: http://ama.com.au/node/6021

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that Australia faces the loss of hundreds of locally produced, highly trained medical graduates to other countries or other professions.

“New medical intern places must be created urgently, along with the extra training places required to ensure that all graduates can proceed to and complete specialist training,” Dr Pesce said.

“We know that NSW, Tasmania, Western Australia, and Queensland have been unable to offer intern places to all applicants, and there are reports today that the NSW shortage for next year could be as high as 86 places.

“The major casualties at this stage are international students who gained their medical education in Australia, but the shortage will claim Australian students as well over the next year or two if action is not taken now.

“It is clear that there are currently too few internship places nationally for the growing number of medical school graduates coming through the system, and this shortage will extend, over time, right through to higher level specialist training positions.

“This is causing a training bottleneck that will deprive Australian communities of much-needed fully trained doctors.

“It is a very disturbing picture of poor planning and waste of the extra medical school places the Federal Government has invested in over the past few years.

“The initial problem is the number of intern places in hospitals, not student places in universities.

“The AMA wants no further increase in student places until the intern place problems are sorted out, and there is a clear plan to boost training positions across the board for doctors in training.

Source: http://ama.com.au/node/6017

A 9,000-word document will shortly go to the Government advocating an LEP comprising business leaders and the local authorities in Birmingham and Solihull.

Birmingham and Solihull Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCI) has been a partner in preparing the proposal from the outset and its chief executive, Jerry Blackett, said: “The support we have received so far has been overwhelming but we now need to keep the momentum going until the September 6 deadline for submissions to the government.”

He is now widening the campaign by writing to nearly 200 key businesses in the region seeking their backing.

He added: “Our work in conjunction with Birmingham City Council and others has been received enthusiastically by a wide section of the business community in the region.

“We are now strengthening that position by seeking wider support. It is important that the government receives a strong message of support from everyone in the area.”

In the letter, Mr Blackett says: “The LEP will be created to improve the attention we give to developing the very best conditions for enterprise and business to flourish.

“The LEP is necessary because the new government has removed a number of quangos such as Advantage West Midlands, which have until now played leading roles in helping the economy.

“It is important that we demonstrate to government that the private sector is very much behind the objectives for our LEP so we’d like to see if we can enlist your support. LEPs will be competing for national funds and it is important to our region that Birmingham and Solihull is perceived by government to be a substantial and serious economic partnership.”

If the government supports the proposal in principle, the group proposes to establish a Shadow Board by November 1.

Source: http://www.birmingham-chamber.com/Influencing-Government/Latest-News/Press-Release/LEP-support-26-8-10.aspx

The increase in the numbers of students taking up science is particularly good for the high number of manufacturing and engineering companies in the city, says Birmingham Chamber Group’s policy adviser Kiran Virk.

“But we are a global economy and it is disappointing that there has been a decline in the study of modern languages.

“The East is fast becoming the world’s new economic centre, and employers will be looking for candidates who possess a working knowledge of other languages and cultures.

“Students have the opportunity of the remaining summer vacation to develop their employability through internships, volunteering or part-time employment.

“Businesses will also want to employ individuals who have strong skills in communication, team working and problem solving.”

Source: http://www.birmingham-chamber.com/Influencing-Government/Latest-News/Press-Release/GCSE-results.aspx

We are looking for 250 volunteers and the survey will take about 25 minutes to complete.

To complete the survey, you will need your last four electricity bills handy. You also must not be living in a metropolitan area.

The ATA has received funding through the National Electricity Market to conduct research comparing the expected costs of a stand alone power system (that is, owning your own power supply), to the costs of being connected to the distribution network.

The Market and Social Research Privacy Principles will apply to the survey, so you are assured that the data will be de-identified and no personal information will appear in the report.

The results will be published in ReNew magazine, and the data and information will be of significant use to the ATA in its ongoing advocacy work on behalf of rural and regional people in the National Electricity Market.

Source: http://www.ata.org.au/news/help-atas-research-into-energy-supply-options-for-rural-households/

“If these strikes go ahead it will cause massive disruption to London’s firms and damage our city’s reputation as a reliable place to do business. Each day the Underground is shut it will cost the London economy £48 million and hamper the recovery of all sorts of companies still hungover from a crippling world wide recession.”

“The RMT need to accept that everyone in the private and public sectors are having to do more with less nowadays and understand that holding millions of commuters to ransom is an unacceptable response to not having its demands met.”

Source:http://www.londonchamber.co.uk/lcc_public/article.asp?id=0&did=47&aid=4531&st=&oaid=-1

UK BPI -1.5%
London BPI -1.5%

June 2010:

UK BPI -1.8%
London BPI -1.8%

Thursday 12 August 2010

Immediate Release

Underlying business inflation weak

July 2010

UK BPI -1.5%
London BPI -1.5%

June 2010

UK BPI -1.8%
London BPI -1.8%

UK:

The BPI indicates that business costs continue to fall, and figures for the second quarter have been revised down, reflecting better-than-expected labour productivity data.

Although the contribution from fixed cost inflation is particularly low, pressure from labour costs also remains subdued.

The BPI has proved to be a good leading indicator of underlying CPI inflation, once indirect taxes, such as VAT, are stripped out.

London:

London firms saw a significant fall in their total costs over the year to July, similar to the falls experienced across the country as a whole.

A rapid reduction in fixed costs, reflecting cheaper borrowing costs than a year ago, is a big part of the story. But a resumption of economic growth means that pressure from labour costs has eased somewhat.

Andrew Brigden, Senior Economist at Fathom Financial Consulting, said:

“Our own research suggests that the BPI is a good predictor of underlying inflation, excluding the effects of indirect tax changes, six months ahead. Although headline CPI inflation is currently elevated, the MPC should take comfort from the fact that cost pressures facing businesses remain subdued. Rate setters are likely to look through the effects of tax changes, such as next year’s increase in the rate of VAT. London businesses should not fear a tightening of monetary policy for some time to come”.

Dr Helen Hill, Director of Policy at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said:

“Businesses are certainly more confident, with more than a third of London firms now expecting both the UK and the London economy to improve over the next 12 months but concerns remain about underlying indicators. 69% of businesses are worried about inflation and 60% fear a rise in interest rates. Our Business Price Index suggests that these fears might be overdone. In the short-term at least, underlying inflationary pressures appear muted so London firms are right to feel more positive about the prospects of the economy overall.”

Source:http://www.londonchamber.co.uk/lcc_public/article.asp?id=0&did=47&aid=4524&st=&oaid=-1

Dr Pesce said the internship shortage has reached crisis point and all Australian governments, including the next Commonwealth Government, must work together to find solutions.

“The most recent estimate from the former National Health Workforce Taskforce is that Australia has a shortage of around 4500 doctors,” Dr Pesce said.

“Since 2004, there has been a strategy in place to increase medical student numbers dramatically.

“By 2012, there will be around 3500 medical school graduates each year.

“This will go a long way towards addressing workforce shortages, although we know that we currently don’t have enough supervisors, infrastructure, and other resources to train all these students and continue to train graduates.

“The AMA has been campaigning since 2004 for more support to teach and train these students and graduates.

“We need to invest in infrastructure, fund more supervisors, and utilise settings beyond public hospitals to make sure that students and graduates can get hands-on clinical experience with patients.

“We know that we are fast approaching a crisis in relation to the provision of prevocational and specialist training positions for medical school graduates in hospitals, general practice, and other community and private settings.

“To illustrate the challenge, in 2009 there were 2243 intern positions across the country, which falls well short of the 3500 positions that are needed in 2013.

“Already, NSW, Tasmania and Queensland are looking unable to offer intern places to all applicants.

“Current allocation arrangements give overseas full fee paying medical graduates the lowest level of priority in the system and they will be first cohort to miss out on an intern place.

“But as domestic graduate numbers continue to grow, they too will face the same problem in a year or two.

“Medical training does not stop at the university gate.

“Doctors undergo many years of training once they leave medical school, including prevocational and specialist training.

“They can’t go on to get full recognition as a doctor unless they complete an intern year once they leave medical school.

“Unless we devote more resources to medical training after medical school, the reality is that, as graduate numbers grow, more and more graduates will miss out on an intern place and be forced to look overseas to complete their training.

“Given our current workforce shortages, this is an enormous waste of our investment in boosting medical school places.

“The AMA calls for no further increase in student places until the internship and other training issues have been addressed.

“The health system needs to provide enough prevocational and specialist training positions to ensure that all our future graduates can go on to get a comprehensive medical education, and that we fully train enough doctors locally to meet the future health needs of the community.”

Dr Pesce said that the AMA has been calling on the Commonwealth to institute benchmarks in its hospital funding arrangements that require the States and Territories to provide sufficient numbers of training places in their public hospitals.

“The Medical Training Review Panel must monitor the performance of the States and Territories against these benchmarks.”

Source: http://ama.com.au/node/5996

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said the investment would assist doctors to better use communications technology to provide services to patients who would otherwise have limited or no access to these services.

“This is a recognition of the need to embrace communications technology to modernise our health system,” Dr Pesce said.

“It will allow doctors to overcome the tyranny of distance when providing care and advice for patients in rural and remote Australia. Some patients will no longer have to travel long hours and incur significant costs to access medical care.

“Ongoing support for telemedicine services, through Medicare patient rebates and support for IT infrastructure and training, will ensure that local doctors can obtain specialist input for the ongoing care and management of their patients.

“The capacity to download test results and high quality diagnostic images quickly will enhance the care that local doctors can provide via telemedicine networks, including the use of high quality video for doctor-patient consultations and videoconferencing.

“As the take-up and reach of telemedicine technology and services grow, so too must the investment to ensure that the telemedicine networks stay modern and new technologies are introduced as they become available.

“There would need to be close consultation with the AMA and the medical profession, especially rural doctors, to ensure that these initiatives provide the maximum benefit to patients and communities. The AMA would also like to see a corresponding commitment to attracting and retaining doctors in rural and remote communities to complement these important measures.”

The AMA Position Statement on On-Line and Other Broadband Connected Medical Consultations recommends that telecommunications consultations should:

• only be used as an adjunct to normal medical practice, and incorporate the ultimate right of the doctor to determine whether or not he/she will provide any medical care to any patient on-line;
• only replace services where the quality and safety of patient care is not compromised, including where they provide access to medical care services in areas where such services are otherwise unavailable;
• not replace face-to-face consultations where the provision of quality care requires a face-to-face consultation; and
• incorporate the ultimate right of the doctor to determine whether consultation or provision of specific advice or care on-line is appropriate in any circumstance.

Source: http://www.ama.com.au/node/5976