(1) Government introduces new Unified Pension Scheme
The government introduced a new pension scheme - the Unified Pension Scheme - as a replacement to the National Pension Scheme (NPS) on August 25. One key aspect was assured pension. The scheme provided an assured pension of 50% of a government employee’s average basic salary (plus Dearness allowance) drawn in the 12 months before retirement as monthly payments through the employee’s life. Unlike the previous NPS, this amount was not tied to returns on market securities and was assured by the government.
Along with this, a lumpsum payment and assured minimum pension will also be provided. The table lists out the key differences between the previous scheme and the UPS.
In the NPS, the pension corpus fund was created in the following manner. The employee and government both contribute a portion of the employee’s salary for investing in market securities each month. The returns on these investments is pooled as the pension corpus. Since these returns can fluctuate with the market, the fund in the corpus can increase or decrease. A portion of this fund can be withdrawn at retirement while the rest is invested in an annuity product. This system did not guarantee a pension amount every month like the first pension scheme (Old Pension Scheme) since OPS was funded fully by the government and not invested anywhere.
Many opposition-ruled States adopted the OPS instead of the NPS. Re-introducing the OPS was an electoral promise that opposition parties made before Assembly elections in some States, like Himachal Pradesh in 2022. The introduction of the NPS was seen by the Opposition parties as a compromise that the BJP had to make because it could not form the government without allies after the Lok Sabha elections.
Also read: Middle path: On the Unified Pension Scheme
(2) Tech layoffs 2024: Job cuts at Apple, and other firms
The expectation that 2024 would bring relief from tech layoffs has not materialized. According to Layoffs.fyi, tech companies have let go of over 124,000 employees as of August 20, 2024, bringing the total number of layoffs since 2022 to 428,449.
Recently, Apple Inc. has cut around 100 jobs within its digital services group, with the most significant reductions affecting the team behind the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore. These layoffs have also impacted engineering roles and other teams, such as the one managing Apple News, according to a Bloomberg News report from Tuesday, August 27, 2024, citing sources familiar with the situation.
Additionally, the chatbot startup Character.AI has laid off at least 5% of its workforce, primarily from its marketing and recruiting departments, as reported by The Information on Thursday, August 29, 2024, based on information from someone briefed by company leaders.
The ongoing wave of layoffs across the tech industry, affecting companies of all sizes, is driven by several factors, including cost-cutting measures to invest in AI, a global economic downturn, over-hiring during the pandemic, and falling behind due to delayed AI investments.
(3) India opens Paralympics medal hunt with four medals
Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal, Manish Narwal and Preethi Pal won brought in India’s first four medals in the Paris Paralympic Games. Lekhara became the first Indian woman to claim successive Paralympic gold medals, defending her women’s 10m air rifle (SH1) title. Agarwal won a bronze in the same event. Gold medalist Narwal won a silver in the 10m air pistol (SH1) event. Pal won a bronze in the women’s T35 100m event, becoming the third woman athlete to win a Paralympic medal. She also became the first Indian athlete to win a track event medal.
This comes after Deepa Malik’s medal in shotput in the 2016 Games. Over the years, participation of women athletes have increased, along with an increase in total athletes sent for the Games.
As of August 31, India has won four medals, ranking 15th of 169 contingents. Japan and Turkey have won the same number of gold, bronze and silver medals.
(4) Vistara to merge with Air India
On November 12, the Vistara airline will move under the Air India brand with its flights carrying the “AI” flight code instead of its “UK” designator and flight bookings too moving to the latter’s web portal thereby completing the merger between the two airlines.
The important merger milestone was announced by Vistara and Air India soon after Singapore International Airlines said that the Indian government has approved its proposed foreign direct investment (FDI) into Air India. Singapore Airlines, which held a 49% stake in 70-aircraft strong Vistara along with Tata Sons, will now hold a 25.1% stake in the combined entity with a total fleet size of 285 aircraft in return for a ₹2,058.5 crore investment. The combined entity includes Air India, Air India Express and Vistara.
Starting September 3, passengers will no longer be able to book tickets with Vistara for travel on or after November 12. Vistara will continue to take bookings and operate flights as usual till 11 November 2024.
(5) Mukesh, Jayasurya, and more actors embroiled in fallout of Hema Committee report
The K. Hema Committee report revealed horrid tales of sexual exploitation, illegal bans, discrimination, drug and alcohol abuse, wage disparity and in some cases, inhuman working conditions in the Malayalam film industry.
The debates sparked in the public sphere by the release of the report appeared to have emboldened many women to speak out about harrowing experiences they have had in the past.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) consisting of senior women police officers has been constituted for conducting a preliminary inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment against a few actors of Malayalam cinema such as Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA and actor M. Mukesh, actor and producer Maniyanpilla Raju, actors Siddique and Jayasurya, and more.
Read more about the fallout of the Hema Committee report.
