National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority keeps a check on prices of medicines in India

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority keeps a check on prices of medicines in India TAGS: NPPA Union government Price ceiling antibiotics cancer 52 drugs under price control RELATEDS Mann ki Baat: Top 10 facts 7 things you should definitely know about the Clean India Mission Ten things to know about Anna Atkins on her 216th birthday Renowned Gandhian, Narayan Desai dies at 90 Mahatma Gandhi's statue unveiled at London's Parliament Square The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) of India has brought 52 new drugs under price ceiling on December 11, 2014, adding to the 348 drugs already involved. The move is expected to impact huge drug manufacturers like Merck, Lupin and Cadila Healthcare. The majority of the new drugs involve basic painkillers, antibiotics and medicines used for ailing skin disorders and cancer. The list of bulk drug formulations under price capping include Glucose, Paracetamol, Diazepam, Losartan, Amoxycilline, Ciprofloxacin, Diclofenac and Codeine Phosphate. Earlier in September 2014, 43 formulation packs including drugs like antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine and anti-diabetic Metformin went through the price capping by NPPA. This brings 450 drug formulation packs under price control mechanism. The price capping of the medicines was based on the average of the costs of all drugs with over one per cent market share. In July 2014, NPPA fixed the price for 108 non-essential drugs including 50 anti-diabetes and cardiac medicines while invoking the public interest but Indian Pharmaceutical Association and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India went to court against the move. With the move, the government ensures the improvement of medicinal affordability. What is National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)? National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority is a regulatory body handled by the government to bring the costs of pharmaceutical drugs under control It is also endowed with the task of recovering overcharged amounts by manufacturers from the consumer for the controlled drugs It also monitors drug shortages and the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels It collects or maintains data of exports and imports, production, profitability, market share of individual companies, etc for bulk drugs and formulations.

No safety net for bulk of banks deposits

 

Do bank deposits come with adequate cover? Perhaps not, as less than a third of bank deposits in value terms is currently covered by insurance.

Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (DICGC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, provides cover to deposits of all commercial banks, local area banks, regional rural banks and co-operative banks. Each deposit account is insured up to ₹1 lakh, including principal and interest. This limit applies separately to deposits in each bank. If a bank goes belly up, the DICGC pays the customer the deposit amount up to a maximum of ₹1 lakh.

About a decade back, 95 per cent of the accounts and 66 per cent of the value of deposits had the DICGC cover. But this had dropped to 92 per cent of the accounts by 2013-14, and only 31 per cent of value of deposits.

This could be due to a sharp jump in the amount held in each deposit account. In 2004-05, the average amount in each account was ₹37,000. Over the last decade this has almost doubled to ₹67,000.

 Deposit insurance cover has clearly failed to keep up with increasing sums in bank accounts. The DICGC cover was last raised in 1993 from ₹30,000 to ₹1 lakh. This was done after a long gap of 13 years.

Revision needed

 For over two decades the cover has remained at ₹1 lakh. Experts feel that a revision is long overdue. Even assuming an inflation of 6.5-7 over the past two decades, the insurance cover should go up to ₹5 lakh.  “The purpose of the deposit insurance was to give an additional cover to small deposit holders and provide them a safety net and confidence in the banking system. Given India’s growth in the last two decades as well as inflation, an increased cover may be considered,” says Monish Shah, Senior Director, Deloitte India.

Better insured?

Is the situation the same across the banking industry? No. Deposits with public sector banks are better covered than those of private or foreign banks. While public sector banks have about a third of their deposit value under the DICGC cover, it is 23 per cent in private banks and just 6 per cent in foreign banks.

But this is only because a larger portion of deposits of both private and foreign banks exceed ₹1 lakh. For instance, while state-owned banks, including the State Bank of India, hold an average of ₹66,000 in each deposit account, private banks have over ₹1 lakh. Foreign banks, on the other hand, average ₹7 lakh in each deposit account.

The total deposits held by private sector banks rose from ₹1.17 lakh crore in 2000-01 to ₹15.9 lakh crore in 2013-14, implying almost a 14-fold rise. Their public sector counterparts saw a nine-fold rise in deposits from ₹7.4 lakh crore to ₹65.9 lakh crore over the same period. Foreign banks held fixed deposits worth ₹3.5 lakh crore in 2013-14, seven times more than in 2000-01.

Higher premium

 An increase in insurance cover means an additional outflow for banks. Currently, the premium is paid by banks and not passed on to the customer. The DICGC charges a maximum premium of 15 paise per ₹100 per annum.

So far in India, this cover has come in handy to protect only the customers of urban co-operative banks, many of which fail every year. During 2013-14, DICGC settled claims for ₹103 crore to depositors of 51 co-operative banks.

SSC: FCI Asst. Grade - III Exam (General) Question Paper

SSC: FCI Asst. Grade - III Exam (General)Publish Post Question Paper

Budget 2015: Jaitley introduces gold monetisation scheme

The Finance Minister proposed to develop an alternate financial asset, a sovereign gold bond, as an alternative to purchasing metal gold. The bonds will carry a fixed rate of interest, and also be redeemable in cash in terms of the face value of the gold, at the time of redemption by the holder of the bond.

India imports as much as 800-1000 tonnes of gold each year. Though stocks of gold in India are estimated to be over 20,000 tonnes, mostly this gold is neither traded, nor monetized, the Finance Minister said.

Proposed Gold Monetisation Scheme will replace both the present Gold Deposit and Gold metal Loan Schemes. The new scheme will allow the depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewelers to obtain loans in their metal account. Banks and other dealers would also be able to monetize this gold.

Indian cold coin

The Government also proposed to commence work on developing an Indian gold coin, which will carry the Ashok Chakra on its face. Such an Indian gold coin would help reduce the demand for coins minted outside India and also help to recycle the gold available in the country.

Industry reacts

Suvankar Sen, Executive Director, Senco Gold said the proposed Gold Monetization Scheme will increase a avaiablity of the yellow metal in the domestic market and help jewellers. "Moreover, there is a possibility that the gold prices may come down whenever imports comes down which would enable the end user to save on cost while buying gold jewellery", he added.

The policy announcements on gold today are a step towards making gold a part of the larger financial system, said the Managing Director of World Gold Council, P R Somasundaram before adding “this budget has been exceptional for gold.”

While stating that the demand for gold cannot be wished away by supply curbs, he said the Council has been stressing the need for introduction of a structured and customer friendly gold monetisation scheme.

The introduction of India branded gold coin is expected to have a healthy impact on the country’s gold sector, provided the trade is liberalised without artificial curbs and higher duties.

Recent policy decisions were a pointer on these lines, suggesting the need to go beyond duty cuts and artificial regulatory curbs. There is therefore an imperative need to nurture the savings mindset through gold accumulation, use the same to enhance savings and put it to work for the economy.

The country would now be able to set in place a measured monetisation framework for gold from the existing stocks in private hands worth over $1 trillion.

“The monetisation scheme will drive orderly recycling and enhance transparency, as it has the potential to translate gold savings into economic investments. Standard India gold coins will ensure gold availability aligned to customer preferences and will help curb the unofficial market,” the WGC MD said

Budget 2015: List of products turning costlier/cheaper

NEW DELHI, FEB 28:  

Smoking and consumption of other tobacco items will be more expensive, while an increase in service tax rate would make costlier a whole lot of other activities including air travel, eating out and paying bills. Continuing the trend set by his many predecessors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today came down heavily on smokers and tobacco consumers with a steep increase in excise rate in tax proposals in Budget 2015-16.

While increase in service tax rate to 14 per cent would make a whole lot of things more expensive, he spared the common man from price hikes on many commonly used day-to-day items by keeping the duties unchanged.

Following is a list of what will be cheaper and costlier:

You will pay more for

Cigarettes and other tobacco products

Completely built imported commercial vehicles

Cement

Aerated, flavoured drinks and packaged water

Plastic bags and sacks

Business and executive class air travel

Visit to amusement and theme park

Music concerts

Liquor, chit fund and lottery

You will pay less for

Leather footwear priced above Rs. 1,000 per pair

Locally made mobile phones, LED/LCD panels, LED lights and LED Lamps

Solar Water heater Pacemakers, ambulance and ambulance services

Computer tablets

Agarbattis

Microwave ovens

Refrigerator compressors

Peanut butter, packaged fruits and vegetables

Visit to museum, zoo and national park

RBI cuts repo rate by 25 bps to 7.5%; Sensex, Nifty hit historic highs | Business Line

Tree days after the Union Budget announcement, the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday cut the repo rate from 7.75 per cent to 7.50 per cent.

Repo rate is the interest rate at which RBI provides short-term liquidity to banks.

The benchmark BSE Sensex breached the 30,000-mark and the NSE Nifty zoomed to hit a lifetime high of 9,119.20 in opening trade today on buying in rate-sensitive stocks after RBI's surprise move.

Given low capacity utilisation and still-weak indicators of production and credit offtake, it is appropriate for the Reserve Bank to be pre-emptive in its policy action to utilise available space for monetary accommodation, the RBI said.

Mega divestment in Coal India on Jan 30

The Centre will dilute 5 per cent of its stake in Coal India on Friday and offer up to 5 per cent additionally under a ‘greenshoe option’. The Government proposes to sell over 31.58 crore shares in the PSU with an option to sell an equal number of additional shares. Based on Wednesday’s closing price of ₹384 on the BSE, the Centre can get over ₹24,000 crore (including the greenshoe option) through a stake dilution. For the first time, there will be 20 per cent reservation for retail investors. The disinvestment will be done via an offer-for-sale (OFS) through the stock exchange; this mechanism is also known as the auction method. Meanwhile, market regulator SEBI and stock exchanges have put their surveillance systems on ‘high alert’ to thwart any manipulative activities in the market in view of the proposed OFS by Coal India. The floor price of the sell-off will be announced by 5 pm on Thursday. This is the price at or over which any investor can bid. Based on the bids, two cut-off prices will be determined, one for retail and one for institutional investors. Bids below the cut-off prices will not be allotted any shares. If bids at or above the cut-off price involve more shares than offered, then allotment will be made on a proportionate basis. (This article was published on January 28, 2015)

Union Budget 2014-15 Highlights

July 10, 2014:  

Following are the highlights of the Union Budget 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on July 10, 2014

Income-tax exemption limit raised by Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2.5 lakh and for senior citizens to Rs. 3 lakh

Exemption limit for investment in financial instruments under 80C raised to Rs. 1.5 lakh from Rs. 1 lakh.

Investment limit in PPF raised to Rs. 1.5 lakh from Rs. 1 lakh

Deduction limit on interest on loan for self-occupied house raised to Rs. 2 lakh from Rs. 1.5 lakh.

Committee to look into all fresh tax demands for indirect transfer of assets in wake of retrospective tax amendments of 2012

Fiscal deficit target retained at 4.1% of GDP for current fiscal and 3.6% in FY 16

 Rs. 150 crore allocated for increasing safety of women in large cities

LCD, LED TV become cheaper

Cigarettes, pan masala, tobacco, aerated drinks become costlier

5 IIMs to be opened in HP, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha and Rajasthan

5 more IITs in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

4 more AIIMS like institutions to come up in AP, West Bengal, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Poorvanchal in UP

Govt proposes to launch Digital India’ programme to ensure broad band connectivity at village level

National Rural Internet and Technology Mission for services in villages and schools, training in IT skills proposed

 Rs. 100 cr scheme to support about 600 new and existing Community Radio Stations

 Rs. 100 cr for metro projects in Lucknow and Ahmedabad

Govt expects Rs. 9.77 lakh crore revenue crore from taxes

Govt’s plan expenditure pegged at Rs. 5.75 lakh crore and non-Plan at Rs. 12.19 lakh crore.

 Rs. 2,037 crore set aside for Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission called ‘Namami Gange’

Kisan Vikas Patra to be reintroduced, National Savings Certificate with insurance cover to be launched

FDI limit to be hiked to 49% pc in defence, insurance

Disinvestment target fixed at Rs. 58,425 crore

Gross borrowings pegged at Rs. 6 lakh crore

Contours of GST to be finalised this fiscal; Govt to look into DTC proposal.

‘Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme’ launched with initial sum of Rs.500 crore

Govt provides Rs. 500 crore for rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri migrants

Set aside Rs. 11,200 crore for PSU banks capitalisation

Govt in favour of consolidation of PSU banks

Govt considering giving greater autonomy to PSU banks while making them accountable

 Rs. 7,060 crore for setting up 100 Smart Cities

A project on the river Ganga called ‘Jal Marg Vikas’ for inland waterways between Allahabad and Haldia; Rs. 4,200 crore set aside for the purpose.

Govt proposes Ultra Modern Super Critical Coal Based Thermal Power Technology

Expenditure management commission to be setup; will look into food and fertilizer subsides

Impasse in coal sector will be resolved; coal will be provided to power plants already commissioned or to be commissioned by March 2015

Long term capial gains tax for mutual funds doubled to 20%; lock-in period increased to 3 years

 Rs. 4,000 cr set aside to increase flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor/EWS/LIG segment.

EPFO to launch the ‘Uniform Account Number’ service to facilitate portability of Provident Fund accounts

Mandatory wage ceiling of subscription to EPS (Employee Pension Scheme) raised from Rs. 6,500 toRs. 15,000

Minimum pension increased to Rs. 1,000 per month

LLB in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL) is the first of its kind law school to impart legal education with IP specialization within the IIT System bringing synergy among science, technology, management and law. The School offers a Six-Semester, Three-Year Full-Time residential programme leading to the Degree of Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in Intellectual Property Law approved by the Bar Council of India. Programme Curriculum of the Programme has been prepared based on the requirements of the Bar Council of India. In addition, several specialised courses in law and Intellectual Property Rights are offered Eligibility for Admission to LL.B. (Hons) Degree in Intellectual Property Rights First Class Bachelors Degree in Engineering / Technology / Medicine or equivalent. OR First Class Masters Degree in Science or Pharmacy or equivalent. OR First Class MBA Degree with any of the above Admission Procedure Applicants are required to apply online. Application fee is Rs. 1500/- for General/OBC and Rs. 750/- for SC/ST candidates. Women candidates are exempted from the payment of application fees. Important Dates Availability of Application forms online January 04th, 2015 Last date to submit Online application forms March 09th, 2015 Date of entrance examination April 11th, 2015 GD/PI April 12th, 2015 Entrance Examination Centres Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Bombay (The institute reserve the right to cancel or add additional test centres.) Question Paper Pattern English - 40 marks. Logical Reasoning - 20 marks Mathematical Ability - 15 marks Basic Science(Chemistry, Physics, Life Science) - 35 marks Legal Aptitude - 60 marks Essay - 30 marks For details contact: Dean Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur 721302 Phone: +91 - 3222 - 282237 FAX: +91 - 3222 - 282238 admissions@rgsoipl.iitkgp.ernet.in http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/law.php

Life insurance policy holders may get 15% cut in premiums

“The insurer subject to F&U guidelines may offer discount in premium in respect of those policies maintained only in the electronic form,” regulator IRDA said in the revised guidelines of Insurance Repositories and Electronic Issuance of Policy. Dematerialisation of insurance policy is being done by five insurance repositories, including CAMS Repository Services. The objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide customers the facility to keep policies in electronic format. Keeping the insurance policies in electronic form provide safety from misplacing, convenience similar to what is there in case of equities. Besides, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) revised norms for outsourcing of both core and non-core activities mentioned in outsourcing guidelines to Insurance Repositories. This may help insurers outsource the core activity such as the policy servicing function to specialist, who can not only provide front office presence, but also execute service request thereby reducing cost of operations and improve in turn around time, CAMS Repository CEO S V Ramanan said. “Over short to medium term we see tremendous value add for insurers who in turn can pass on benefits to policy holders. Not only in terms of reduced premiums but also through faster resolution of their queries,” he said. Experts said discounts in premiums could be in the range of 10-15 per cent.

Life insurance policy holders may get 15% cut in premiums | Business Line

“The insurer subject to F&U guidelines may offer discount in premium in respect of those policies maintained only in the electronic form,” regulator IRDA said in the revised guidelines of Insurance Repositories and Electronic Issuance of Policy.

Dematerialisation of insurance policy is being done by five insurance repositories, including CAMS Repository Services.

The objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide customers the facility to keep policies in electronic format.

Keeping the insurance policies in electronic form provide safety from misplacing, convenience similar to what is there in case of equities.

Besides, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) revised norms for outsourcing of both core and non-core activities mentioned in outsourcing guidelines to Insurance Repositories.

This may help insurers outsource the core activity such as the policy servicing function to specialist, who can not only provide front office presence, but also execute service request thereby reducing cost of operations and improve in turn around time, CAMS Repository CEO S V Ramanan said.

“Over short to medium term we see tremendous value add for insurers who in turn can pass on benefits to policy holders. Not only in terms of reduced premiums but also through faster resolution of their queries,” he said.

Experts said discounts in premiums could be in the range of 10-15 per cent.

Heavy Industry Ministry working on plan to shut 5 loss-making PSUs | Business Line

Heavy Industry Ministry working on plan to shut 5 loss-making PSUs | Business Line

NSE Certified Market Professional (NCMP)

NSE Certified Market Professional (NCMP) NSE Certified Market Professional (NCMP) certificates are issued to those candidates who have cleared NCFM modules (stated in Table below) as per the following eligibility criteria: NCMP Level 1 3 – 4 modules NCMP Level 2 5 – 6 modules NCMP Level 3 7 – 8 modules NCMP Level 4 9 - 10 modules NCMP Level 5 11 or more modules Sr. No. Name of Module BEGINNERS MODULES 1 Financial Markets: A Beginners’ Module 2 Mutual Funds : A Beginners' Module 3 Currency Derivatives: A Beginner’s Module 4 Equity Derivatives: A Beginner's Module 5 Interest Rate Derivatives: A Beginner’s Module 6 Commercial Banking in India : A Beginner's Module OTHER MODULES 1 Back Office Operations Module 2 Banking Sector Module 3 Capital Market (Dealers) Module 4 Commodities Market Module 5 Derivatives (Advanced) Module 6 Derivatives Market (Dealers) Module 7 FIMMDA-NSE Debt Market (Basic) Module 8 Financial Market (Advanced) Module 9 Fundamental Analysis Module 10 Insurance Module 11 Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management Module 12 Macroeconomics for Financial Markets Module 13 Merger & Acquisitions Module 14 Mutual Funds (Advanced) Module 15 NSDL–Depository Operations Module 16 Operations Risk Management Module 17 Options Trading (Advanced) Module 18 Options Trading Strategies Module 19 Project Finance Module 20 Securities Market (Advanced) Module 21 Securities Market (Basic) Module 22 Technical Analysis Module 23 Wealth Management Module 24 Venture Capital and Private Equity Module This hierarchy of certifications is aimed at enabling the candidates to better demonstrate their domain knowledge relating to financial markets. Candidates are requested to kindly take note of the following: Only valid NCFM certificates (i.e. certificates not yet time-barred) for the modules stated in Table 1, obtained on or after August 17, 2007, will be taken into account for NCMP certification. However, the NCMP certificate itself would have no validity period. At most one Beginners’ module will be counted towards certification for Level 1 and not more than two Beginners’ modules will be counted towards certification for Level 2 and above. Only successful attempts for distinct modules will be considered. In other words, if a candidate has successfully cleared the same module more than once, then only one of those attempts of that particular module will be considered for the NCMP certification. In case a candidate is found to be eligible for more than one level, then only the certificate for the highest level will be issued to the candidate. (For example: As of today if a candidate already holds 7 valid certificates since August 17, 2007, then he/she will be directly eligible for NCMP Level 3 certification.) The NCMP certificates will be given in addition to the usual NCFM certificates that are issued to candidates. The NCMP certificates will be generated on a monthly basis and will be dispatched in the subsequent month. Circular regarding NCMP certification can be accessed below: Circular download no. Date Particulars NSE/NCFM/12900 August 17, 2009 Introduction of NCMP certificates NSE/NCFM/19484 December 2, 2011 NCMP certification: Introduction of Level 5

Global Slavery Index – 2014

Global Slavery Index – 2014 Second Edition of Global Slavery Index was released on 17 November by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation. The Index ranks 167 countries in terms of the percentage of a national population and the total number of people living in modern slavery – country by country, region by region. In absolute terms, the index was topped by India followed by China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Russia. Index highlighted that estimated 35.8 million people are in modern slavery globally. Out of this, 61% people are living in top five countries. Read more: Current Affairs December 2014 Study Material | FreeJobAlert.com http://currentaffairs.freejobalert.com/november-2014-current-affairs-study-material/8393/#ixzz3OyzskrbB

DMDM cleared

I cleared DMDM NCFM module with 68.75% score. Questions 3M- 4 2M- 32 1M- 24. I attempted 49 questions. the certificate valid upto 2018 January.

2014 in review - The Hindu

2014 in review - The Hindu

Poor focus on research affecting Indian management schools: Harvard dean

The biggest weakness of Indian management schools is their lack of commitment to research and development, Nitin Nohria, the dean of Harvard Business School (HBS), said. Nohria said that, Chinese business schools have begun to focus research but Indian business schools have lagged behind, which reflects in their rankings. He emphasised on research for its own sake and said that around 90 per cent of research may not be constructive but academic institutions need to make the commitment to get research which is useful. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/education/poor-focus-on-research-affecting-indian-management-schools-harvard-dean/article6760823.ece

Investors lose ₹2.75-lakh cr in Dalal St bloodbath | Business Line

Investors lost over ₹2.75-lakh crore as stock markets fell 3 per cent on concerns of a slowdown in Europe and a fall in crude prices to $50/barrel levels. Political instability in Greece also fuelled the bearish sentiments. The Nifty closed at 8,127, down 251 points, while the Sensex ended the day at 26,987, losing 855 points. On July 6, 2009, the Sensex had fallen 870 points.







nvestors lose ₹2.75-lakh cr in Dalal St bloodbath | Business Line

`Para-legal volunteers' to help common man - The Hindu

APSLSA has made arrangements to rope in eminent judges, Bar Association members and faculty of law schools to train volunteers interested in this concept for three months with six sessions.

"Topics like Lok Adalat, revenue laws, PILs, FIRs, Consumer Protection and many more things will be taught to them, " informed Mr. Prasad.

An exclusive identity card and reference material on wide range of laws will be provided to the volunteers. "PLVs who abuse this identity card and those affiliated to political parties will be out of our rolls, " Mr. Prasad said. To become a PLV contact: APSLSA, City Civil Courts, Purani Haveli: 2344-6703, 2344-6706

`Para-legal volunteehtthttp://apslsa.ap.nic.in/current_events.htmlp://apslsa.ap.nic.in/current_events.htmlrs' to help common man - The Hindu

scaling new hieghts

great energy came to move forward, all the past works are going to end. moving with great enthusiasm.