"The policy will provide a lump-sum benefit in case the insured is diagnosed or quarantined for a suspected sign, symptoms or infection of COVID-19 and covers everyone from an infant who is 1-day old to a senior citizen up to 75 years," a company press release stated.
The Kotak Mahindra group, which runs private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank, has nearly 60,000 employees. Earlier this week, the government had allowed select private sector entities to start testing for the dreaded virus, which has taken 13 lives in India and infected over 600 people. During the lockdown, the working hours for branches have been reduced to between 1000-1400 hrs.
If any of the frontline health workers are diagnosed as coronavirus positive, they would be able to get claims settled for up to Rs 50 lakh under the health insurance cover scheme proposed by the government for three months.
Arbitrage funds look to benefit from the price anomalies between the cash and futures markets.
As per the announcement, due to pandemic situation, the government will amend Employees Provident Fund withdrawal rules and also, will pay both employer and employee contrition to the EPF account for the continuity of the account for the next three months.
Indian Bank MD and CEO Padmaja Chunduru said, “With salaried class and the pensioners, it is more a line to meet their immediate requirements (medical) and other expenditure.”
Under the plan, in major cities there would likely be only one bank open every five kilometres, the sources said, declining to be identified as it has not yet been publicly disclosed. In the countryside, where 70% of people live and often rely only on cash, banks will likely operate on alternate days and redeploy staff to only allow disbursal of welfare cash to the poor.
Many new Do-It-Yourself investors who have entered the market in the last two to three years are staring at a loss of 30-40% in their mutual fund portfolio, say mutual fund advisors who have recently interacted with these investors.
Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, state-run Indian Bank on Wednesday announced an additional funding facility for large corporates, MSME, retail customers, pensioners and self-help groups (SHGs).
The scene may further worsen with the country’s economic activities taking a pause for 21 days after the government locked down the country amid Covid-19 outbreak.
The Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank owned life insurers also said that the all policies issued by the company stands valid even on event of death due to Covid-19 virus. The company has also made all servicing and distribution channels digital as well, it said in a press release.
Online transactions are going on but overall there is a decline in banking activities, P K Gupta, Head of Retail, Payments & Digital Banking, State Bank of India (SBI) said.
Banks are keeping bank branches open cluster-wise & rotating staff to keep risk of spreading virus under check.