Month: November 2021

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) today announced the Russian single-component Sputnik Light vaccine against coronavirus has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) of UAE as a universal booster shot for all the vaccines against coronavirus that are used in the country.

Booster dose is available to all residents aged 18+ and can be applied six months after the second dose of any other vaccine administered in UAE.

Sputnik Light vaccine is based on human adenovirus serotype 26 which is the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine. The one-shot vaccine was authorized in UAE in October 2021.

In January 2021 UAE’s regulatory authorities also authorized the two-dose Sputnik V. Both Sputnik Light and Sputnik V vaccines have been approved by MOHAP under the emergency use authorization procedure.

One-shot Sputnik Light is a highly effective vaccine when used both on standalone basis and applied as a booster. The latest findings by the Gamaleya Center based on data from 28,000 subjects in Moscow have demonstrated Sputnik Light vaccine administered standalone has 70% efficacy against infection from the Delta variant of coronavirus during the first three months after vaccination. The vaccine is 75% effective among subjects under the age of 60.

Efficacy of one-shot Sputnik Light as a booster against Delta variant for other vaccines will be close to the efficacy against the Delta variant of the Sputnik V vaccine: over 83% against infection and over 94% against hospitalization.

A one-shot vaccination regimen of Sputnik Light has a number of key advantages, including ease of administering the vaccine, monitoring and more flexible re-vaccination schedule when used as a booster.

Sputnik Light has demonstrated a superior efficacy compared with some two-shot vaccines, which have shown a major decline in efficacy against the Delta variant to less than 50% five months after injection. Standalone use of Sputnik Light also provides much higher efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations.

Sputnik Light has been proven to be safe and highly effective by real-world vaccination data. In particular, the vaccine has demonstrated efficacy of between 78.6-83.7% among the elderly as confirmed by the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Paraguay’s Ministry of Health also found Sputnik Light to be 93.5% effective during the country’s ongoing vaccination campaign.

Consultation paper release by LawWiser urges Ministries and relevant stakeholders

to re-consider the Amendments to Plastics Waste Management Rules, 2016

LawWiser, India’s first video-only knowledge-sharing platform for the legal community, today released a Consultation Paper on “The Dilemma of Recycling Plastics in India”. The objective of this Consultation paper is to address and highlight the seriousness of the dual issue of the safe and sustainable disposal methods of waste plastics and the adverse impacts, if any on the health and safety of humans from the use of recycled plastics.

The recommendations from the Consultation Paper are shared with the concerned Ministries and FSSAI for re-consideration of the Plastic Waste Management (Second Amendment) Rules, 2021, (Second Amendment) introduced on 17 September 2021.

Experts from various fields participated in the Virtual Open Forum – Atin Biswas, Programme Director, Municipal Solid Waste, Centre for Science and Environment, Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, Deputy Programme Director, Centre for Science and Environment; Sudipto Sircar, Advocate, Supreme Court, Delhi High Court; Ashish Agarwal, Secretary, Recycle India Foundation; Dr Vijay G. Habbu, Polymer Scientist and Adjunct Professor, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai,

There have been a series of legislations to address waste management in India. The Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, was introduced to set up a regulatory framework for manufacture, usage, and recycling of plastic bags to ensure efficient management of plastic waste. In March 2016, The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate change (MoEFCC) to tackle the menace of plastics waste further notified, the Plastics Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016. The rules make source segregation of various types of waste mandatory and introduce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as an environment policy instrument, and assign physical, financial, and environmental responsibilities to producers, brand owners, and importers of plastics.

The Virtual Open Forum conducted by LawWiser focused on the impact and concerns raised by the introduction of the second amendment to the Plastics Waste Management Rules, 2016 . The PWM (Second Amendment) Rules, 2021 states that carry bags or products made of recycled plastic” can be used for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging ready to eat or drink food stuff”. This is subject to appropriate standards and regulation under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (34 of 2006), by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

The experts in the Open Forum deliberated that there is a need to first address the set of challenges and issues before it is implemented. In this paper, we understand and explore different aspects, of the new notification which includes

• Understanding the issue of recycling plastics in India
• Need for regulation of informal sector
• The Second Amendment (2021) is not in harmony with the earlier provisions
• The critical role of the bodies like FSSAI in the implementation of such amendment.

The experts have unanimously voiced the concern that “with lack of proper facilities and standards for recycling there is only growing concern how these rules will be effectively implemented. And, ideally this amendment should have incorporated specific recommendations from FSSAI.”

The concern of the experts is that:

• It is alleged that in India the majority of the recycling industry deploys very inferior quality recycling machines which can potentially make plastic more toxic in nature. Moreover, standards for the recycling of plastic have not been specified in India, making it all the more difficult to understand the chemical conformity of recycled plastic.
• Such permission for use in food and medicine packaging could pose a serious threat to human life and the environment. It is a huge concern that continuous recycling of plastic not only degrades the quality but also brings in life-threatening toxic impurities in them apart from issues of collection and sorting of such plastic.

Elsewhere, in countries like the United States of America, manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that the recycled product is of suitable purity. The Food and Drug Administration in the US is very well aware of the contaminants from post-consumer plastic that may appear in the final product. Therefore, each proposal of using recycled plastic is evaluated before issuing a no-objection letter.

Also, The European Commission back in 2018 was preparing to fast-track approval of 140 recycling processes for use in food and drink packaging. The proposal to approve the said recycling processes has also involved the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). However, the final approval of each process rests with the European Commission.

• RECORDS 53% GROWTH IN WEIGHTED NEW BUSINESS PREMIUM IN SEPTEMBER 2021, OUTPERFORMS THE PRIVATE SECTOR BY 1.5X
• POSTS 8% Y-O-Y GROWTH IN RENEWAL PREMIUM TO RS 645 CRORE FOR H1-FY22
• ASSET UNDER MANAGEMENT CROSSES RS 10,000 CRORE IN H1-FY22, ALMOST DOUBLED IN LAST 3 YEARS
• TOTAL PREMIUM INCOME STANDS AT RS 1,024 CRORE IN H1-FY22
• PLANS TO ACHIEVE 90% CUSTOMER RETENTION AND BE A BILLION DOLLAR REVENUE ORGANIZATION BY 2025

Bharti AXA Life Insurance, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups, and AXA, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, today, said the company outperformed the private and overall industry growth by registering 33 per cent growth in its Weighted New Business Premium to Rs 285 crore in H1-FY22 from Rs 214 crore in the corresponding fiscal period a year ago. The company recorded growth of 53 per cent in weighted new business premium in the month of September 2021 and outperformed the private sector by 1.5X.

Bharti AXA Life Insurance registered 8 per cent growth in its renewal premium to Rs 645 crore in the first half of the financial year 2022 from Rs 594 crore in the corresponding fiscal period a year ago. Total premium income grew moderately to Rs 1,024 crore in the April-September period of this fiscal from Rs 912 crore in the first six months of the last financial year.

The 13th month persistency ratio for Bharti AXA Life insurance improved to 64.4 per cent in H1-FY22, up from 60.7 per cent for the same period last year, indicative of the quality of business being underwritten. The Company’s solvency ratio stood at 188 per cent on September 30, 2021, well above the regulatory requirement of 150%. The company recorded a surge of 28 per cent in its asset under management at Rs 10,256 crore as on September 30, 2021 against Rs 7,987 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. The company’s AUM has grown ~2X over the last three years.

In line with the focus on customer centricity endeavors to support customers during the pandemic, the company has disbursed Rs 106 crore in covid related claims for the first half of the financial year 2022.

Commenting on the company’s business performance in the first half of the current financial year, Mr. Parag Raja, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, said, “We have registered steady performance on many parameters and achieved one of the highest industry growth for our new business premium collection in the first six months of the current financial year. Further, our asset under management saw a strong growth of 28 per cent and has doubled over the past three years. The improvement in the COVID-19 pandemic situation since August 2021, buoyant consumer sentiment towards the need for life insurance and our investments in digital platforms to enhance customer experience and facilitate seamless services along with our suite of customer-centric products gives us confidence about achieving our business targets and growth in the coming months.”

Bharti AXA Life Insurance has 254 branches and 33,266 advisors as on September 30, 2021. The company plans to expand on the back of strategic partnerships and by increasing its distribution footprints across the country with the help of digital innovation to meet the rising bar of higher service standards and growing customer expectations.

“We have already witnessed a strong start with our new bancassurance partners – Fincare Small Finance Bank, Shivalik Bank and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, and are actively pursuing opportunities for strategic tie-ups and alliances to ensure sustained business growth over the next few years,” said Mr. Raja.

“We have recently unveiled our new brand purpose – ‘In a complicated world, we make insurance simple’ and our ambitions to our stakeholders. We started our transformation journey last year to establish Bharti AXA Life Insurance as a challenger brand in the insurance space and we aim to achieve 90% customer retention and be a Billion Dollar revenue organization by 2025.” Mr. Raja added.

The range of six reliable and stylish room heaters are backed with extensive engineering to provide unmatched efficiency

Finolex Cables, India’s leading electrical company has announced its entry into the room heater segment with a new range of high-performance room heaters. The stylishly designed room heaters come in six variations, supported by extensive engineering to provide reliable and flawless service for years. The heaters have multiple options such as oil filled, quartz tube, fan blower, convector and halogen with a wattage ranging from 400W to 2500W. The launch is timed with the oncoming of winters and aims to provide convenience and warmth to customers in the comfort of their home.

Speaking on the expansion of the product portfolio, Deepak Chhabria, Executive Chairman, Finolex Cables said. “Finolex Cables has been one of the front runners in providing some of the best quality consumer durable products and the customer response has been deeply encouraging. Our aim is to constantly pre-empt and offer products that are need of the hour with customer centricity being the binding factor. Our entry into the room heater segment is a true representation of a brand that is consumer’s first choice.”

 

It was only in February this year that Finolex had successfully launched its conduits. These are available in 19-32” diameters in Light, Medium and Heavy stress specifications. Along with conduits Finolex also offers commonly used fittings like junction boxes, bends, inspection bends etc.

Speaking about the positive response for the newly launched room heaters, Amit Mathur, Sr. Vice President – Sales & Marketing said “Being one of the consumers favourite and channel partners preferred brand, Finolex cables enjoys an esteemed position. It is a matter of honour that our entry into the room heater segment is due to the positive push from trade partners, due to the promising response we received for our water heaters range. The room heaters have also had a substantial portion of pre-booking already.” He went on to add “Launching the range prior to the onset of the winter season makes our strategic imperative clear as we aim to serve a wide consumer base through our strong 1,50,000 retailer network.”

 

Following the success of Finolex Cables’ steady expansion into the electrical segment with products like electric water heaters, fans, miniature circuit breakers (MCBs), switches, conduits and lighting products, the new range of room heaters is designed to meet the channel demand. With consumer-focused ranges being one of the focus pillars, the company has a competitive advantage in engineering, facilities, and expertise.