Comprehensive insurance scheme for KSRTC employees

Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar on Monday announced a comprehensive insurance scheme for 22,095 permanent employees of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).
The insurance scheme which offers coverage of up to ₹1 crore will come into effect from June 4, and is being implemented in collaboration with the State Bank of India (SBI). Highlights of the scheme include Personal Accident Insurance (PAI) of ₹1 crore, Air Accident Insurance (AAI) of ₹1 crore and permanent total disability (PTD) coverage of up to ₹1 crore, Mr. Ganesh Kumar said at a press conference here.
For permanent partial disability, the coverage offered is up to ₹80 lakh. A big attraction of the scheme is that the employees need not pay premium for this account-level insurance scheme.
Aid for kin
The family of an employee with salary above ₹25,000 will be eligible for ₹6 lakh as assistance on his/her death. Add-on benefits for PAI claim admission include assistance for the marriage of daughters, plastic surgery/burns cases, assistance for the education of children, and ambulance expenses.
The insurance scheme was implemented as part of transferring all KSRTC accounts to the SBI, the Minister said.
Computerisation
Mr. Ganesh Kumar said that the KSRTC will be fully computerised after May 22. This will allow passengers to buy tickets using UPI and card transactions on all KSRTC buses. KSRTC will also introduce smart cards for the students' concession scheme, the Minister said.
Mr. Ganesh Kumar said that adequate spare parts will be stocked in all depots within a month. At present, only 487 buses are under repairs in garages, he said.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Time of India

6 hours ago

• Time of India

KSRTC's Davanagere division records uptick in digital payments

Davanagere: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation ( KSRTC ) achieved notable success in digital payments, collecting Rs 10 crore in eight months through its Davanagere division. This achievement follows KSRTC's intensified promotion of UPI payments since Nov 2024. The organisation aims to collect Rs 1 crore daily through digital means, targeting 50% of all transactions. Passengers embraced the QR code payment system for bus fares, despite initial technical difficulties. The digital payment implementation resolved issues related to small change, enhancing the travel experience and reducing conflicts between passengers and conductors. The Davanagere division also introduced UPI payments via smart electronic ticket machines (ETMs) in Nov. Travellers now complete transactions using applications like PhonePe and Google Pay. Digital payments are more prevalent on long-distance routes with reliable network coverage. Inter-district and interstate services show higher digital transaction rates when compared to urban and rural routes. City passengers display less inclination towards UPI payments for smaller fares. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Sanitize & Smooth Clothes Fast with Philips Steamer Philips Garment Steamers Shop Now Undo Premium service users typically book tickets online in advance. From Nov 2024 to June 15, 2025, the division collected Rs 11 crore via UPI across its three depots: Davanagere Depot-1, Davanagere Depot-2, and Harihar Depot. Monthly collections increased steadily: November (Rs 29.2 lakh), December 2024 (Rs 1 crore), January 2025 (Rs 1.3 crore), February (Rs 1.5 crore), March (Rs 1.6 crore), April (Rs 1.8 crore), May (Rs 1.9 crore), and June (Rs 1.9 crore). The division manages 404 buses with 490 ETMs, including backup units. Occasional technical issues led to payment deductions without ticket issuance, causing disputes. The refund system improved, with reimbursements now processed within 48 hours, reduced from one week previously. Passengers are showing a preference for digital payments, and if a ticket is not printed, the amount is credited to their account within 24 hours. We solved some technical issues, and we are expecting more digital payments in our division, said Kiran Kumar Basapur, KSRTC divisional controller, Davanagere.

Indian Express

11 hours ago

• Indian Express

World's biggest banks increased fossil fuel financing by $162 billion in 2024: Report

The world's largest 65 banks committed $869 billion in 2024 to companies in the fossil fuels sector, up from $707 billion in 2023, with State Bank of India (SBI) one of nearly 50 large banks that increased their financing for the same compared to the previous year. 'This growth in fossil fuel finance is troubling because new fossil fuel infrastructure locks in more decades of fossil fuel dependence. As the IEA's (International Energy Agency) 2024 Energy Investment Outlook report states, '(a)chieving net zero emissions globally by 2050 would mean annual investment in oil, gas, and coal falls by more than half' by 2030,' said the Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2025 by a group of eight environment organisations together called Banking on Climate Chaos Coalition. To be sure, SBI accounted for only a fraction of the total fossil fuel financing in 2024 and only saw a small increase last year compared to other lenders. As per the report, SBI was the only Indian bank in the top 65 with a $65 million increase in fossil fuel financing in 2024 from 2023 to $2.62 billion, putting it at the 47th spot out of the 65 banks, up from 49 in 2023. In comparison, JPMorgan Chase retained its top spot in the list as it gave $53.5 billion to fossil fuel companies last year, $15 billion more than it did in 2023. This is more than SBI's total fossil fuel financing of $10.6 billion from 2021 to 2024. Earlier this year in February, SBI Chairman CS Setty said the bank is targeting to be net zero in terms of emissions by 2055. Before that, the bank is aiming to have at least 7.5 per cent of its domestic gross advances to be green advances by 2030. As at the end of the quarter ended March, SBI's domestic advances stood at Rs 36.02 lakh crore. It had sanctioned a combined fund and non-fund-based limit of Rs 20,558 crore for sustainable finance activities. According to Bengaluru-based think-tank Climate Risk Horizons, coal financing is a 'huge blind spot' for Indian banks. 'Among the top 1000 BSE-listed banks as of March 2024, only Federal Bank and RBL Bank have adopted explicit coal exclusion or phase-out policies… The economics are clear: coal is no longer the cheap energy source it once was. Renewable energy and storage can now provide electricity at or below the cost of coal, with continued cost declines likely,' the think-tank's analysts said in a post in March 2025 warning that Indian banks were falling behind in the sustainable finance race. The report found that fossil fuel financing by the world's largest banks rose in 2024 after declining in 2023 came amid watering down of exclusion policies and policy rollbacks. '…what was once largely a North American trend is now going global. European banks –often seen as more progressive on climate due to the quality of their sector policies – also began backtracking,' it said. In March, American lender Wells Fargo scrapped plans to become net zero by 2050, weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing the country's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The US' withdrawal — which will take effect in early 2026 and see the world's largest economy join Iran, Libya, and Yemen as those not party to the Paris Agreement — has been part of a series of steps taken by the Trump administration to promote fossil fuels even in the face of 2024 being the hottest year ever recorded. In January, the US Treasury Department withdrew its membership of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System —a voluntary global coalition that looks to mobilise green finance and develop recommendations for climate-risk management in the financial sector — as part of the aforementioned executive order signed by Trump. And ahead of Trump's inauguration, the US' six largest banks left the UN-sponsored Net Zero Banking Alliance. A committee of the US Senate also approved draft legislation this week that would hit key tax incentives for clean energy. The increase in fossil fuel financing by banks in 2024 marked a reversal of decreasing lending to the segment. While nearly $3.3 trillion has been made available to fossil fuel businesses since 2021, the 65 banks in the 2025 report have committed $7.9 trillion in fossil fuel financing since the Paris Agreement came into force in 2016. In 2024, financing for acquisitions increased by $19.2 billion to $82.9 billion. While mergers and acquisitions don't directly create new infrastructure, 'this consolidation — for which bank financing is critical — is often an attempt to grow the power and competitiveness of fossil fuel companies, at a time when the world actually needs to phase out fossil fuels', the report said. Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More

The Hindu

11 hours ago

• The Hindu

Minister directs DC to allot Pumpwell bus stand land to KSRTC to operate electric city buses

Dakshina Kannada district in charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday, June 21, directed the district administration to handover seven acres of land at Pumpwell to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to enable it to operate electric buses on city routes. In a letter to the Deputy Commissioner, the Minister said the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) had acquired the land to build a satellite bus terminal in the city. Now the central government has sanctioned 100 e-buses to KSRTC's Mangaluru Division under the PM e-Bus Sewa scheme, the land may be handed over to KSRTC free of cost, the Minister said. Mr. Rao also directed the Deputy Commissioner to hand over 9.9 acres of land belonging to the gram panchayat at Balepuni village near Mudipu, off Mangaluru, free of cost to KSRTC to set up electric bus depot and construct divisional workshop. Eleven cities As many as 11 cities in Karnataka have qualified to introduce electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme, according to Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy. Besides Mangaluru, the cities included Mysuru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Hubballi, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Ballari, and Vijayapura. The three State-owned transport corporations under whose jurisdiction the cities were located, have submitted a demand for total 795 e-buses under the scheme. While KSRTC had demanded 100 buses for Mysuru and Mangaluru and 50 buses for Davanagere, Shivamogga and Tumakuru, North West KRTC had sought 100 for Belagavi and 110 buses for Hubballi-Dharwad. The Kalyana Karnataka RTC wanted 100 buses for Kalaburagi, 55 for Bellari and 80 buses for Vijayapura. The Central government wanted to boost electric mobility infrastructure in the country through the scheme that envisages deployment of 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities in the country through a Central outlay of ₹20,000 crore under public-private partnership mode. The total estimated cost of the scheme would be ₹57,613 crore. Covering cities with three lakh and more population, the scheme would support bus operations for 10 years.