Centre to appoint multi-fund managers for EPF investment

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) The Centre will appoint multi-fund managers to maximise return on investment in the Employees' Provident fund, a senior government official said here today.

Ms Sudha Pillai, Secretary, Labour and Employment, said Expression of Interest to this effect has been issued and Crisil has been engaged as a consultant to finalise the list of fund managers.

Briefing mediapersons, along with other senior Ministry officials, on the initiatives of her Ministry during the past one year, she said efforts are on to ensure speedy implementation of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme across the country.

The scheme's to provide a support system to the BPL families in the participating States and districts through the provision of health insurance in the case of hospitalization. Under the RSBY, Smart Cards are issued to facilitate portability of benefits and cashless medical cover upto Rs 30,000 for the unorganised sector worker and his family (unit of five) per annum, she said.

Till date, three states--NCT of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan--have implemented the scheme and have issued more than 50,000 Smart Cards. Fifteen states have advertised tender notices for selecting Insurance companies and Punjab, Bihar and Uttarakhand have recently signed MoU with the Centre to operationalise the scheme at the earliest, she said.

The scheme, when fully operational in next five years, would be one of the largest social sector programme in the world involving several crore beneficiaries, she said.

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