Coronavirus — ✅ خرید وی پی ان ❇ ip ثایت vPn آی پی اختصاصی ◐

اکتبر 7, 2022

Minister probes schools’ use of £2.6bn fund

Gullis said he feared some schools spend the £2.6bn grant ‘in ways that the funding is not intended’

Citizen offers “premium” feature to Bay Area Asian community

Citizen, an app that lets residents report crimes, suspicious behavior and public safety hazards, like fires, is launching a new initiative aimed at cutting down on anti-Asian crime in the Bay Area. What’s happening: The New York City-based company, which self-describes as “the most popular public and personal safety app in America,” announced Monday that it’s providing up to 20,000 people in the Bay Area’s Asian community with a free one-year access to Citizen Premium (formerly known as Citizen Protect). How it works: Typically $20 per month, Citizen Premium offers users 24/7, unlimited access to its team of agents who are available via video or text whenever a person feels unsafe or uncomfortable.

Trevor Chandler, Citizen’s director of government relations, told Axios the agents come from a variety of public safety backgrounds — including EMS, fire departments, and 911 dispatch centers — and are “empowered to find creative solutions to our users’ safety concerns.”
In August, for instance, Chandler said agents completed over 300 “live monitoring calls,” during which a user felt unsafe and wanted someone to be on the line until they reached their intended destination.
Agents can also escalate situations to 911 if a person is overwhelmed after witnessing a crime or isn’t comfortable making the call themselves.

By the numbers: Chandler says “tens of thousands” of users have already upgraded their accounts to access the Citizen Premium. Why it matters: Anti-AAPI violence has been on the rise since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, including in San Francisco, where anti-Asian hate crimes dramatically increased last year.

Zoom out: Between March 2020 and March 2022, Stop AAPI Hate counted nearly 11,500 hate crimes against Asian Americans nationwide.

What they’re saying: San Francisco’s Chinese American Association of Commerce, which is partnering with Citizen to distribute the app to its members, said: “Hate crimes against Asian business owners continue to plague our city and we need to use every tool at our disposal to protect each other.”

The group added that for its members, it’s important to “have someone watching their back when they are opening and closing their shops or simply feeling unsafe.”

The other side: While the Citizen app uses information from police, fire and emergency departments to issue alerts about potentially dangerous situations, it also relies on crowdsourced content, which some argue, can lead to racial profiling.

Still, Chandler told Axios: “Citizen is a powerful tool in the fight against racial profiling, especially for communities of color who may want to call the police but are afraid to do so.”

Meanwhile: Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation commented on Citizen’s new paid feature that connects users to agents, saying: “There are scenarios in which a tool like this might be useful — but to charge people for it, and more importantly, to make people think they will eventually need a service like this — adds to the idea that companies benefit from your fear.”What’s next: The company is holding an informational session this Thursday at the Chinese American Association of Commerce where it will train around 30 of the group’s members on how to use Citizen Premium.

Chandler said the company will partner with more AAPI groups across the Bay Area to “fully distribute” the free accounts.

آگوست 26, 2022

Surrendering a policy: When should you do it — and should you at all?

As the pandemic hit lives, the economy, and livelihoods, 2021-22 witnessed a sharp spike in insurance policies being surrendered ahead of their maturity. Data show that more than 2.3 crore life insurance policies were surrendered during the year — more than three times the number of policies (69.78 lakh) surrendered in 2020-21.

It is ironical that at a time when one is in desperate need of his/ her money, while surrendering a traditional policy (endowment or money back), policyholders in the majority of cases end up with a surrender value that is even lower than the premiums paid.
In case of unit-linked plans, it may result in lower returns on the capital investment. It is, therefore, very important to understand the pitfalls of surrendering, and to evaluate all options before you decide to do so.
What should you look for before surrendering your policy?
The first thing that one needs to check is the surrender value. “Often, people don’t check the surrender value, and assume that the current value of the policy is what they will get if they surrender. It is only later that they realise that what they have received is much less than the current value. So one must check the surrender value before taking the decision,” said Surya Bhatia, founder, AM Unicorn Professional.
Advisers say that policyholders must also evaluate the reason for surrendering the policy, and the various options they can explore with insurance companies. Individuals must look at the reason for surrender — whether they need the money or they think they can’t make future premium payments — and accordingly make their decision.
If one is looking to surrender the policy because they believe they can’t pay future premiums, the policyholder must reconsider.

“After you finish with the minimum period of paying premiums, you have the option to either surrender or stop paying further premiums. Very often this is referred to as paid-up status, where you stop paying the premium and the benefits of your policy reduce proportionately in line with the reduced payment period, Vishal Dhawan, founder, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors, said.
“So,” he said, “if someone needs to control future cash flows, the individual must explore the paid-up option. Many a time, paid-up options are not looked at by people, and they think that they can either continue or surrender.”
If one is in need of money, one can consider taking a loan against the policy, if the requirement is for a temporary period.
In cases where one is looking to surrender the policy to avoid risk of asset class (volatility in equity markets) in case of Ulips, one has the option to move the money from equity underlying fund to something that is debt-oriented.
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What are the impacts of surrendering a policy?
There are several pitfalls, including losing the insurance cover linked to the policy.
The biggest impact that premature surrendering has is on the return you get out of the policy, as surrender value is much less than what you can get on maturity.
There is no standard answer as to what a surrender value can be — it depends upon the kind of policy (traditional or unit linked), years of premium paid, and term of the policy.
Financial experts say that in case of money-back, endowment, and whole life plans, individuals suffer big losses on account of surrendering the policy and can lose around 50 per cent of the premium paid.
In case of Ulips, since they can’t be surrendered till the fifth year and can only be done at the end of the sixth year, experts say that there is not much loss. However, it does impact the return for the investors because of early termination of the policy.
Another impact is on the aspect of taxation. “People often miss the fact that while the policy is tax-free at maturity, if you surrender ahead of maturity, you miss out on that as it attracts tax at the marginal tax rate applicable to the individual policyholder,” Bhatia said.
Should you surrender your policy at all?
As the drawbacks of surrendering are many, financial advisers suggest that it should be one of the last options. It is advisable that when in need of money, investors should carefully look at their entire investment corpus — mutual funds, insurance policy, fixed deposits, bonds, etc. — and after understanding the implications of giving up each of them, they should figure out which one should go first, and which should be taken up last.
“When you explore all the options and take a measured approach, you will end up taking a better decision, Dhawan said. He added that “while one can still do it with investment policies, it is crucial that one doesn’t do it with term policies”.
Bhatia said that surrendering a policy should be the last resort. “Explore other options. Only in the case of Ulip plans, if the policy is not working according to the plan, you may look to surrender — but that too to reinvest in a better performing policy or other financial instrument,” he said.

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ژوئن 3, 2022

11 districts yet to administer any booster dose in 18-59 age group

ALMOST TWO months after booster shots were allowed for the population between 18-59 years, 11 districts — Akola, Bhandara, Parbhani, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Hingoli, Nanded, Sindhudurg, Wardha, Washim and Yavatmal — haven’t administered a single dose in the concerned age group.
There are eight districts that have administered less than 50 booster shots. This also includes Health Minister Rajesh Tope’s district Jalna, which as of June 1, had administered only three shots.
As per official data till June 1, only 2.68 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group have taken the first dose in the state. Among them, 96 per cent doses have been administered in seven districts.
A total of 1.19 lakh have taken the third shot in Mumbai, followed by Pune (61,075), Thane (49,389), Raigad (10,151), Aurangabad (6,399), Nagpur (5,601) and Nashik (5,490).Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
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The most affected ones are from rural areas where people have to travel a long distance to reach cities to get the third shot.
A 42-year-old woman living with HIV had to travel 50 km to get the third shot in Nagpur from the Mohadi taluka in Bhandara. “We couldn’t find a single private centre administering booster shots. Due to infection, we have to be extra cautious so we decided to travel to Nagpur,” she said.
This is not an isolated case. Many patients with underlying health issues that make them more vulnerable to contracting Covid-19 are being forced to travel to cities for the booster shot.
Booster doses for frontline workers and people above 60 years were started on January 10. On April 10, the facility was extended to the 18-59 age group. However, with the flattening of the pandemic curve, the demand for the third shot dropped, which discouraged the private sector from stocking the vaccines.
According to Indian Medical Association (IMA), over five lakh expired vials were discarded in Maharashtra till May. This deterred many private centres, especially in the rural parts, from carrying out vaccination drives.
Dr Avinash Bhondwe, former president of IMA, Maharashtra, said that at the beginning of the immunisation programme in 2021, private hospitals had to buy vials in bulk at high rates. Later, when the demand for vaccination dropped, their stocks expired. “It caused huge economic loss, especially for the smaller private hospitals. So, now they don’t want to buy the vaccines risking further loss,” he said.
“We are merely following the protocols laid by the Centre. As soon as we get a new instruction, we will start free vaccination in public places,” said Dr Pradeep Vyas, Additional Chief Secretary.
Public health experts have highlighted the need to make the third shot accessible to all free of cost. “The booster shots will not prevent infection but as seen in the past, the vaccination helps to control the severity among patients. So, it is essential that the people especially the elderly above 50 years old and patients with comorbidities take the third jab,” said Dr Bhondwe.
Dr Subhas Salunke, a technical advisor to the state government, said that in a pandemic situation, the Centre should supply the vaccines free of cost. “There are lakhs of people, who can’t even afford to buy the vaccines..”

The official figures also found a lukewarm response to free booster shots among the eligible population above 60 years. As of June 1, 16.44 lakh elderly in the age group have taken the third shot. Nearly 68 per cent of the eligible healthcare and frontline workers haven’t taken the precautionary dose in the state, the data revealed.
Dr Sachin Desai, state immunisation officer, cited several reasons behind the poor response like laxity and less fear of contracting the infection with a drop in Covid-19 cases. “Some beneficiaries had developed minor reactions like fever and body pain after taking the first or second doses. So, fearing it, most of the villagers are shying away from it now,” he said.
The state has over 1.3 crore vaccines in stock. “Now, we have an abundance of vaccines but the demand is low. Even after repeated alerts, 90 per cent of the people don’t show up. So, we have started a door-to-door survey,” said Dr Govind Chaudhari, District Health Officer, Nandurbar.

می 9, 2022

Pay your health insurance premium on time and enjoy lifelong renewability

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught Indians not just the significance of buying health insurance but also renewing this policy on time. A recent study by Policybazaar.com showed that in FY 2021-22, 85 per cent of their customers renewed their family floater policies, and 80 per cent renewed their individual health policies, on time. Furthermore, 60 per cent chose to bolster their coverage with riders. Lifelong renewability benefit Timely renewal allows policyholders to avail of the benefit of lifelong renewability. Kapil Mehta, co-founder, SecureNow Insurance Brokers says, “If you …

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First Published: Mon, May 09 2022. 14:06 IST !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);fbq(‘init’,’550264998751686′);fbq(‘track’,’PageView’); .