Neither mind nor muscle alone, employers focus on total wellness

Neither mind nor muscle alone, employers focus on total wellness

Aware of the pandemic’s toll on workers’ lives, companies are helping them improve their physical, mental, financial and emotional health

Namrata.Singh@timesgroup.com

25.02.2021 

Employee well-being is no longer just a box for HR to tick. Organisations are increasingly looking at it in a holistic manner and taking a 360-degree approach to make it a 24/7 initiative. Yoga and zumba sessions, and employee assistance programmes (EAP) apart, companies are stretching the definition of wellness to ensure they cover all aspects of physical and mental health of an employee.

At RPG, where well-being covers eight areas — physical, intellectual, emotional, occupational, financial, spiritual, social and environmental — special task forces have been made to create policies and processes to measure the “happiness quotient” of employees.

Anamika Bhargava, DGM, group organisation and talent development, RPG Group, said people mistake physical health for wellness. “Mental and emotional health is the most ignored aspect of people’s life. In fact, most people don’t know that physical health is an output or effect, and emotional imbalances and mental patterns are the cause or input,” said Bhargava.

To nudge its employees towards wellness, Kotak Mahindra Bank offers a fitness allowance which employees can avail of based on their fitness goals that are updated periodically. Close to 90% of Kotak employees have registered their health goals and are eligible for a fitness allowance. These goals show HR the priority areas to help staff mitigate health concerns through various health and wellness initiatives.

Sukhjit Singh Pasricha, president and group CHRO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “Workplace well-being programmes help in improving the overall health and productivity of employees. Increased energy levels improve overall employee morale and, therefore, result in a more engaged workforce. From a long-term perspective, this improves an organisation’s ability to attract and retain people.”

‘TCS Cares’, an intervention by Tata Consultancy Services that focuses on the mental and emotional wellbeing of its employees, aims to develop a culture where people are aware of their mental and physical health, understand it better and can reach out for help and support when they need it. The programme works towards creating a culture of understanding and support for others through a peercounselling support programme.

“We believe that associate empathy and customer-centricity are two sides of the same coin,” said TCS CHRO Milind Lakkad. “We look at wellness in a holistic manner that encapsulates practices that aid both physical and psychological well-being, and we have been focused on building more awareness and greater adoption of this holistic approach.”

At Kellogg’s, the wellness philosophy goes beyond physical, mental and emotional to cover financial and even social well-being. “The challenges of last year left many of us feeling unsettled and having to function in an unfamiliar or alien environment. We had to change the way we live and work. Our recreation has become constrained. In-person interactions now come at a premium, and much of this has fed into the stress, frustration, or anxiety that we experience at times,”

Nimisha Das, director HR at Kellogg’s South Asia, said.

Das added that Kellogg’s decided to take a holistic view on wellbeing, realising that “this challenge was not going to be a matter of a few days or weeks but rather we are in it for the long haul.”

The pandemic gave people pause to discover their hidden emotions. They realised what really mattered to them. “At this time, it is important to give direction to these energies. This is the time when one can go down the emotional spiral or lift upwards in a good emotional state,” said Bhargava, adding, this is the time to “discover the purpose of your life... find yourself and be yourself.”

Mental and emotional health is the most ignored aspect of people’s life. In fact, most people don’t know that physical health is an output or effect, and emotional imbalances and mental patterns are the cause or input

—ANAMIKA BHARGAVA DGM, RPG GROUP

SC junks plea of civil services aspirants for extra attempt

SC junks plea of civil services aspirants for extra attempt

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:25.02.2021 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of a group of civil services aspirants, who have exhausted the permissible number of attempts and are also hit by the age bar, for one more chance to take the test saying they were not prepared for the examination held in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Indu Malhotra and Ajay Rastogi said many examinations were conducted successfully during the pandemic and it would have a cascading effect on other examinations if the court allowed the plea of students for one more attempt.

"...there are large number of candidates who appeared in the various examinations in 2020 during Covid-19 pandemic and everyone must have faced some constraints in one way or the other and this court can take a judicial notice that these petitioners have appeared in the same pattern of examination in the previous years since 2015 and what is being claimed and prayed for under the guise of Covid-19 pandemic is nothing but a lame excuse in taking additional attempt to participate in the Civil Service Examination 2021," the bench said.

The court, however, clarified that its decision would not restrict the Centre in exercising its discretion in future to deal with the difficulties as projected to the court.

The bench passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by candidates seeking one more chance to appear for examination on the ground that they were "forced" to appear as the government turned down their plea to defer the exam.

The Centre had earlier told the court that it was agreeable to grant one more chance to those aspirants who took the exam last year during the pandemic and exhausted their number of attempts but said it would not grant another attempt to those hit by the age bar.

There were 3863 candidates who had exhausted their number of attempts while 2236 had hit the age bar.

Rajkot to get maiden direct flight to Goa

Rajkot to get maiden direct flight to Goa

Nimesh.Khakhariya@timesgroup.com

Rajkot:25.02.2021 

If all goes as scheduled, people of Rajkot will be able to fly directly to Goa from March. This will be the first time that Saurashtra’s financial capital will get air connectivity to the state of pristine beaches.

Rajkot is also set to get an additional flight to Mumbai from March. Airport officials said they have got confirmation that private airline SpiceJet will start a daily flight to Hyderabad from March 1 and another flight to Mumbai from March 7. According to sources, the airport authority has also got in principle confirmation on SpiceJet starting a direct flight to Goa from March. The private airliner has sought permission from Rajkot airport. The flight is likely to operate four days a week.

Meanwhile, the first direct flight from Bengaluru arrived at Rajkot airport on Wednesday. It was welcomed with the traditional water salute. The Rajkot airport authorities distributed sweets among the 123 passengers who arrived on the Bengaluru flight. 122 passengers boarded the aircraft in return.

Assured double cash? You may get just one coconut! Tantric Cheats Man With Lure Of Doubling His Money

₹5.5 LAKH LOST

Assured double cash? You may get just one coconut!

Tantric Cheats Man With Lure Of Doubling His Money

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Vadodara:25.02.2021 

A man's greed to double his money through tantric rituals left him only with a coconut in the end and losing Rs 5.5 lakh cash!

The victim, Jaideepsinh Parmar, who lives in Bavla, lodged a complaint at Bodeli police station as the unidentified tantric and his two accomplices, Shankar and Abdul, fled with Rs 5.5 lakh which Parmar and his cousin Dhanrajsinh had given.

Dhanrajsinh had learnt from his two friends, Sahil and Manish, that a tantric who has an ashram in Chhota Udepur doubles money by performing some rituals. The four went to the ashram on February 17 along with Abdul and Shankar and initially gave Rs 2.5 lakh cash. The tantric kept the cash in a steel case and after the rituals gave the case to Parmar with instructions to not open it until told. After the rituals got over late in the night on February 17, the tantric asked them to return home.

On February 20, the tantric called Dhanrajsinh to inform that the money will be doubled only after 11 days, but if he wanted immediate results, then he should give Rs 3 lakh cash more. When Dhanrajsinh informed Parmar about it they went to a temple in Bodeli on February 22 where they gave the cash for rituals. The tantric abruptly stopped the rituals when a PCR van stopped outside the temple and he and Abdul fled with the cash.

Parmar said that he initially did not realize what had transpired, but when he opened the steel case which the tantric had given, he could not find the cash but only a coconut in it. Parmar realized that the tantric had conned him. On Tuesday he lodged a complaint of cheating against the tantric, Shankar and Abdul.

“The PCR van was coincidentally passing by the temple but the tantric got scared and fled. We are questioning the complainant’s friends about the tantric’s two accomplices,” said subinspector A S Sarvaiya of Bodeli police station.

2 beaten in fight over public urination

2 beaten in fight over public urination

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:25.02.2021 

A man from Sabarmati area on Wednesday filed a complaint against four men who attacked him and his nephew following an altercation over public urination late on Tuesday night.

Bharat Thakor, 50, a resident of Saraswatinagar Society in the New Ranip locality, states in his FIR with Sabarmati police that he saw two men urinating in public in front of his house on Tuesday night.

He told them not to urinate in public and to go somewhere else as it is unhygienic and it does not look proper as there were women living around.

This did not go well with the two men who began abusing Thakor and called two more friends of theirs.

The four men began abusing Thakor in front of his wife, sister and two nieces. Thakor objected to this and told them not to abuse him. The four men, who were armed with sticks, then attacked Thakor. When Thakor’s nephew Karan Thakor, 20, tried to rescue him, the four held him and thrashed him too.

Both Thakor and his nephew suffered head injuries and some neighbours rushed in and rescued them from the four men. Some locals called the police control room but before the cops could arrive, the four men fled while threatening Thakor with dire consequences.

After a while cops arrived and took Thakor and his nephew to Sabarmati police station where a complaint of assault, use of abusive words, criminal intimidation and abetment was lodged.

'Sanctioning Authority Must Apply Mind' : Bombay HC Quashes Sanction To Prosecute Order Issued 'Mechanically'

'Sanctioning Authority Must Apply Mind' : Bombay HC Quashes Sanction To Prosecute Order Issued 'Mechanically'

Sharmeen Hakim24 Feb 2021 9:17 PM

The Bombay High Court has ruled that an order granting permission or sanction to prosecute an individual under the Prevention of Corruption Act must demonstrate that the Sanctioning Authority has applied his mind and not passed the order "mechanically".

A single bench of Justice SK Shinde held that ordinarily the Sanctioning Authority is the best person to judge, based on the investigation report placed before him, whether the government employee should or should not be prosecuted under the PC Act. A pre-requisite to provide a safe-guard to a public servant against frivolous and vexatious litigants.

"Indisputably, application of mind on the part of Sanctioning Authority is imperative and therefore, order granting sanction must be demonstrative of the fact that there had been proper application of mind on the part of Sanctioning Authority", the bench observed.

Justice Shinde cited the Supreme Court's judgement in the case of Ashok Tshering Bhutia v. State of Sikkim, which states that there should not be a hyper technical approach to test a sanction's validity, unless it results in failure of justice.

The Court was examining Section 19(3) in The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which reads.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),—

(a) no finding, sentence or order passed by a special Judge shall be reversed or altered by a court in appeal, confirmation or revision on the ground of the absence of, or any error, omission or irregularity in, the sanction required under sub-section (1), unless in the opinion of that court, a failure of justice has in fact been occasioned thereby.

Justice Shinde made the observations while acquitting a senior clerk, from the Town Planning Authority, in Pune, Maharashtra, convicted for accepting a bribe of Rs. 1500. The clerk who was convicted and sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment, in 2004, was allegedly caught red handed soon after he accepted the money from an ex-employee to submit her salary bills to the treasury.

The clerk, Anand Salvi, appealed to the High Court against his conviction on the grounds that the sanction to prosecute him signed by the Director of Town Planning, Maharashtra State, was invalid. He relied heavily on the Director's testimony during the proceedings.

The prosecution on the other hand said that there was no failure of justice, and therefore the sanction to prosecute was a valid sanction.

Justice SK Shinde observed that in Salvi's case, Sanctioning Authority plainly and simply put its signature on the draft sanction order by bringing out clerical mistakes. The Director's cross-examination showed he did not even remember or re-collect whether he had perused the investigation papers.

"It appears and in this fact situation and in consideration of the evidence, I do not hesitate to hold and conclude that the irregularity attached to the Sanction Order was not 'mere' irregularity but 'gross' in nature and failure of justice has been occasioned thereby," the court observed.

The court held that the Director's testimony and Sanctioning order revealed that on May 9, 2001, Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Pune sent the proposal to prosecute Salvi. The Director, who considered the proposal only on May 30, 2001, admitted that the draft sanction order was prepared and drafted by two other officers, independently, without his instructions. Moreover, the Director didn't remember if he had a chance to peruse the investigation papers.

The court noted that only a few grammatical changes were made. The judge compared the draft sanction order with the final one to note that the latter was merely a copy.

"Thus, upon reading the testimony of the Sanctioning Authority along with the draft Sanction and Final Sanction Order, I hold, the Sanctioning Authority did not independently apply its mind while according the sanction," the court noted.

'Sanctioning Authority Must Apply Mind' : Bombay HC Quashes Sanction To Prosecute Order Issued 'Mechanically'

'Sanctioning Authority Must Apply Mind' : Bombay HC Quashes Sanction To Prosecute Order Issued 'Mechanically': The Bombay High Court has ruled that an order granting permission or sanction to prosecute an individual under the Prevention of Corruption Act must demonstrate that the Sanctioning Authority