ESIC to invest 15 percent of surplus funds in stock market via ETFs; details here

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), social security body of the government, has approved a proposal of investing its surplus funds in the stock market via Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This has been done because of the relatively low returns on investments in many debt instruments and the requirement to diversify investment. The investment will begin with 5 percent of surplus funds, and it will be increased up to 15 percent, taking into account the investment’s review after two quarters. This decision came in the 189th meeting of the organisation under the chairmanship of Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav at the ESIC headquarters.

The investment is going to be confined to ETFs on Nifty and Sensex. Fund managers of asset management companies (AMCs) will be looking after the investment. Equity investments will be monitored by the existing custodian, external concurrent auditor and consultant looking after the debt investments, according to the ESIC.

Yadav directed the ESIC to pay attention to strengthening its infrastructure while acknowledging the rise in insured workers and their dependents coming under the organisation’s ambit. He further stated that the “Nirman Se Shakti” initiative has been started to modernise and strengthen the infrastructure of ESIC hospitals and dispensaries in a phased manner. Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, stated in the meeting that latest technologies have been proposed by the ESIC to construct and monitor the projects via drones and an online real-time dashboard.

The proposals to set up a new 100-bed hospital at Idukki, Kerala and at Shyamlibazar in Agartala, Tripura have been approved by the ESIC. This has been done for improving the service delivery mechanism, healthcare benefits, and strengthening the ESIC’s infrastructure. The organisation also approved the proposal of raising the number of seats under the category of insured persons (IPs) in its ESIC nursing colleges at Bengaluru and Gulbarga. It has been done after taking into account the significant rise in the number of candidates to take admissions in ESIC medical institutions.

In addition to this, the corporation approved the proposal to commence MDS, PhD, paramedical, and nursing courses at its medical institutions across India.

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