Aparajitha’s ‘60 Minutes Compliance’ decodes if you are

 Aparajitha’s ‘60 Minutes Compliance’ decodes if you are code- ready?

Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited, the country’s no.1 company for Compliance, today organized a ’60 Minutes Compliance’ webinar to discuss the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, Code on Social Security, and The Industrial Relations Code. 

The webinar was aimed at decoding the nuances of the labor codes which were passed in the Parliament in September last year and is expected followed by companies and organizations all around the country. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Nagaraj Krishnan, Managing Director, Aparajitha Corporate Service Private Limited said, “While the Code on Wages was passed by Parliament in 2019 the three other codes that are The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, Code on Social Security and The Industrial Relations Code did not get its clearance from both the Houses until last year. The rules are being drafted and if things go as planned the chances are brighter for the implementation of all the four codes at one go from April 2021 as originally planned by the Government of India. Thus, it becomes necessary for the companies in India to be fully prepared to embrace the changes that are likely to be brought by the codes with its implementation. The session aims to discuss this and get people ready for such a change.”

The webinar covered and answered the following aspects:

·                     The Social Security Code, 2020

(A) On how the Social Security Code, 2020 aims to provide better social security benefits such as provident fund, insurance, and gratuity to workers.

(B) On how it extends the reach of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation and the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (which regulate benefits such as provident fund, insurance, pension, etc.) to the workers in the unorganized sector. 

(C) On how the SS Code further stipulates gratuity benefit for fixed term employees without any condition for minimum service period as envisaged under the current regime.

(D) On how provisions will be made to formulate various schemes for providing comprehensive social security to workers in the unorganized sector and a “Social Security Fund” will be initiated to implement these schemes.

(E) On the making a national database for unorganized sector workers and registration of all these workers on an online portal through a simple procedure of Self Certification.

 ·                      Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code, 2020

A. How the OSH Code aims to regulate the occupational safety, health, and working conditions of workers employed in all establishments. 

B. On how the OSH Code seeks to widen its applicability on different types of workers such as audio-visual workers, inter-state migrants or sales promotion employees. 

C. On how it attempts to promote gender equality by allowing women workers to work at night subject to obtaining their consent. 

D. On how the OSH Code further introduces the concept of deemed registration of establishments to circumvent the prolonged delays in administrative processes and provides that if an establishment is registered under any concerned law, it shall be deemed to be registered under the OSH Code

 ·                     Industrial Relations Code, 2020

A. How the IR Code aims to streamline the laws regulating industrial disputes and trade unions within the country. 

B. How the IR Code has introduced various aspects such as increasing the threshold of workers to three hundred (300) for obtaining the consent of the concerned government in case of lay off, retrenchment, or closure of the establishment.

 The webinar was moderated and addressed by Mr. K. Varadan, Chief Consultation Officer, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited.

Druva Supports Employees in India with Extensive Benefits as

 Druva Supports Employees in India with Extensive Benefits as
Remote Working Continues Until Spring of 2021

Company supports staff with home office allowance, training and wellness programs and more as local hiring set to expand by 15-20 percent

Druva, Inc., the leader in Cloud Data Protection and Management, today announced plans to ramp up its workforce in India within the next 12 months, even as it extends remote working for all employees until the spring of 2021. Since initiating a mandatory remote working policy earlier this year to protect employees and the larger community, Druva has supported its local workforce of almost 500 employees with a number of unique benefits including a home office update allowance, office equipment loaning, career enhancement initiatives, additional days off designed to support mental health and virtual wellness and training programs.

Since March 2020, Druva has successfully transitioned its global employees to a work from home model. To seamlessly enable this transition, the company has focused on supporting its employees to create a productive environment away from the traditional office, even amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. Greater emphasis has been paid on ensuring employee work-life balance, supporting challenges and concerns associated with remote working and offering more flexible work schedules to support impacted families.

“In unprecedented times like these employees expect their organisation to care about their well being above everything else,” said Milind Borate, co-founder and Chief Development Officer, Druva. “From the beginning of the pandemic-induced lockdown, we decided to focus on the safety, flexibility and remote training and development opportunities for our employees. Adapting to trends and working to overcome challenges has been part of Druva’s DNA since its founding and it is no different now. Be it the employee assistance program, allowance for home office upgrades or extension of remote working, everything is being done with our employees in mind, and we have emerged stronger than before.”

Other initiatives and benefits Druva has offered employees include:

• Employee assistance program (EAP) to provide holistic mental wellness support for all India employees and their dependents through designated, professional counsellors.
• Revised Fitness Reimbursement Policy to encourage a well-rounded and healthy lifestyle for employees and their immediate family members. This includes reimbursement for expenses related to a variety of wellness activities including subscriptions for online fitness classes, fitness trackers, sports equipment and exercise DVDs/videos and games.
• Extending Insurance in some key areas along with an employee paid top-up option, which will allow employees to extend coverage for themselves and their dependents while still having access to all the benefits of the existing corporate policy. An EMI payment option has also been introduced to provide employee support in managing the premium.
• Concierge Services have been extended to a door-step service while the company maintains a remote working model.

The remote working model has also minimally impacted the company’s regular activities, including onboarding, business delivery, timely promotions and annual salary increases. While the company continues to closely review the ever-evolving situation, Druva is committed to expanding its local presence and is on track to add 15-20 percent new headcount in Pune over the next few months. Once a return to office is deemed safe, the company intends to roll out a phased approach, with a hybrid model for some departments. The company is now focused on further accelerating growth through 2021 as it sees a greater need for its cloud data protection technologies during these times of increased cloud migration.

NPCI introduces UPI AutoPay facility for

NPCI introduces UPI AutoPay facility for recurring payment

• Customers can now set e-mandate on UPI platform to perform recurring payments of upto Rs. 2000; for amount above Rs. 2000, customers have to execute every mandate with UPI PIN
• Customers can now enable recurring e-mandate using any UPI application for recurring payments such as mobile bills, electricity bills, EMI payments, entertainment/OTT subscriptions, insurance, mutual funds and loan payments, paying for transit/metro payments among others
• The facility to provide millions of UPI users convenience, safety while making recurring payments

National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) said that it has launched the functionality of UPI AutoPay for recurring payments. With this new facility introduced under UPI 2.0, customers can now enable recurring e-mandate using any UPI application for recurring payments such as mobile bills, electricity bills, EMI payments, entertainment/OTT subscriptions, insurance, mutual funds and loan payments, paying for transit/metro payments among others of upto Rs. 2000. If the amount exceeds Rs. 2000, customers have to execute every mandate with UPI PIN.

Any UPI-enabled application would also have a ‘Mandate’ section, through which customers can create, approve, modify, pause as well as revoke auto debit mandate. The mandate section will allow customers to view their past mandates for their reference and records. UPI users can create e-mandate through UPI ID, QR scan or Intent. The pattern for auto debit mandate has been created keeping in mind customers’ spends on recurring payments. The mandates can be set for one-time, daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly. 

Both, individual users and merchants can benefit from this feature tremendously, as mandates are generated instantly and payments get deducted automatically on the authorized date. The customers have to authenticate their account through UPI PIN for one-time and subsequent monthly payments would be debited automatically.

Some of the banks, merchants and aggregators who have already gone live with UPI AutoPay are Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, HSBC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, AutoPe-Delhi Metro, AutoPe-Dish TV, CAMS Pay, Furlenco, Growfitter, Policy Bazaar, Testbook.com, The Hindu, Times Prime, Paytm, PayU, RazorPay, among others. Jio Payments Bank, State Bank of India and YES Bank will soon go live with UPI AutoPay. 

Nandan Nilekani Chairman and Co-Founder, Infosys Limited said, “UPI being the one stop destination for customers’ day-to-day spends, acts as a backbone of digital India. Introducing UPI AutoPay on UPI is a testament of continuous innovation in the digital payments space. This was also one of the key recommendations of the RBI Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments, which I chaired. It is a proud moment for the ecosystem to witness features like UPI AutoPay, which is technology driven that requires minimum human intervention.”

Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI said, “We are glad to witness the launch of UPI AutoPay facility at this momentous event. We believe this unique facility would enable customers streamline their recurring bill payments and help them get rid of paying those bills manually. It is a pleasure to watch both banks and digital payment ecosystem collectively working towards providing utmost convenience to customers. We are confident that the coming years would bring in various innovative digital payments solutions keeping in mind customers ease of payments convenience and safety.”

Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO, NPCI said, “The launch of UPI AutoPay is a step ahead in India’s journey towards digitization. We have been witnessing a lot of changes in the way customers are making recurring payments over the last few years. The UPI AutoPay offering would provide millions of UPI user’s convenience and safety while making recurring payments. We believe, this facility will not only benefit customers, but also merchants with an all new recurring payments experience. We also hope to achieve new milestones by expanding UPI's presence especially in the P2M payment space”.

With RBI continuously encouraging customers to adopt digital payments, offerings like the launch of UPI AutoPay would further attract customers to on-board UPI and witness a new arena of digital payments. The UPI 2.0 offers features such as overdraft facility, one-time mandate, invoice in the inbox and signed intent & QR and foreign inward remittance among others to the customers.

SBI Life launches ‘Apno ki #PoornaSuraksha’ campaign

SBI Life launches ‘Apno ki #PoornaSuraksha’ campaign, to highlight the prominence of financial immunity provided through a dual protection insurance

~   ‘Apno Ki #Poorna Suraksha’ campaign features popular playback singer Shaan along with his son Shubh, emphasizing the need to maintain immunity of both physical and financial health

SBI Life Insurance, one of the most trusted private life insurers in India, today, unveiled its new product campaign ‘Apno Ki #PoornaSuraksha’, highlighting the product’s (SBI Life’s Poorna Suraksha) dual protection feature which offers complete financial immunity by providing both Life cover and protection against 36 Critical Illnesses in a single plan with an auto-rebalancing aspect which is much needed to navigate through the current uncertain times.

The ad film features popular playback singer, Shaan alongside his son Shubh, emphasizing the need to maintain immunity. The film opens with a charming father son role reversal conversation, where Shaan is being interrupted by Shubh at various instances while performing daily activities, only to be reminded of ways to boost and keep the health immunity in check at all times. Shaan, expresses how kids these days have become immunity specialists to their parents. Similarly, he continues to highlight the importance of building a healthy financial immunity for choppy times that will enable in creating a financial cushion to safeguard oneself and the loved ones from any monetary stress led by lifestyle diseases or other unforeseen consequence.

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/x6Tf7ZrHLeU

Today, critical illnesses account for 60% of deaths in India, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study. Treatments to cure critical illnesses are usually lengthy and expensive, making it very difficult for the family to afford the costs. Therefore, it is paramount to focus on building one’s financial immunity for tough times so that mental immunity stays guarded, in case of a lifestyle disease or any other unforeseen event. 

Speaking on the launch of ‘Apno ki #PoornaSuraksha’ campaign, Mr. Ravindra Sharma, Chief of Brand and Corporate Communication, SBI Life said, “A newfound immunity regime has become second nature for most of us, today the larger populace is consciously making smart choices around health, wellness and life in general. Delving deeper into this intrinsically protective behaviour, that is consuming everyone across sections of the society, we realized that as an Insurance player our role to provide immunity to the consumer has never been more accentuated. With an approach of keeping a simple communication for an insurance category, we have drawn a parallel for financial immunity via the concept of health immunity which is understood by all. We hope to educate the consumer on the importance of building one's financial immunity like they have towards their health. SBI Life’s Poorna Suraksha being a unique product combining both life cover and protection against 36 critical illness in a single package, this dual protection can enable individuals to build a holistic financial immunity, as a safety net for themselves and their family to battle against any odds”.

Ms. Garima Khandelwal, Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas said, “Health Immunity is of priority today, with everyone aware and abreast like never before. We have all realised the importance of being proactive about immunity when it comes to good health, and made changes to our routines, self-care is undoubtedly the no. 1 learning today. This being the context, we wanted to introduce a parallel need for one’s family’s financial immunity, being as proactive about the same. And it’s relevance in this landscape. Drawing a simple parallel between health and financial immunity and stressing on the need for both, borrowing from the current and changed awareness in the behaviour”.