Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that public sector general insurance companies had not withdrawn cashless mediclaim facility. "The public sector general insurance companies have not, I am emphasising on, have not revised or withdrawn the facility of cashless treatment," he said in the Lok Sabha. Mr Mukherjee said that the insurance firms have only started rationalising empanelment of hospitals and the standardisation of rates and specified procedures followed by these hospitals. From July 1, public sector insurance companies had suspended about 150 hospitals from their list of preferred provider network (PPN) which provide cashless hospitalisation services to policy holders under the mediclaim scheme. Last week, insurance regulator Irda chairman J Harinarayan had expressed hope that hospitals and insurers will be able to arrive at a mutual solution.
Tax Plan is one of the better performing schemes from Religare Asset Management. Existing investors can redeem their investment after three years. But given the scheme's performance, they can continue to stay invested Given the mandated lock-in period of three years, tax saving schemes give the fund manager the leeway to invest in ideas that may take time to nurture. Religare Tax Plan's investment ideas revolve around 'High Growth', which the fund manager has aimed to achieve by digging out promising stories/businesses in the mid-cap segment. Within the space, consumer staples has been the centre of attention for the last couple of years and can be seen as one of the key reasons for the scheme's outperformance as compared to the broader market. It has, however, tweaked its focus and reduced exposure in midcaps as they were commanding a high premium. The strategy seems to have worked as it returned a 22% gain last year. Religare Tax Plan has outperformed BSE 100...
