REPORT
Welcome address
Mr. Ashok Mitra welcomed all the participants to the AGM. He called upon members to actively participate, share their thoughts and have fruitful discussions to strengthen AFUNPI. While wishing the gathering, he also conveyed the greetings of Mr. Prem Sharma who played a pivotal role in making arrangements for the AGM but could not attend the meeting for being out of Delhi.
Tribute to members who passed away last year
On behalf of AFUNPI, Mrs. Magdalene Chand, Hon. Secretary, paid tributes to those members who had passed away during the year 2023. She recalled the highlights of their contributions and expressed condolences to the families. A minute of silence was observed in honour of the members who had passed away.
Election of the President of the AGM
The General body unanimously elected Dr. R.B. Singh, Padma Bhushan awardee, to preside over the AGM.
Presentation of Annual report by the President of AFUNPI
The President of the AGM called on Dr. M Seenappa, President of AFUNPI, to present the annual activity report for the year 2023. Dr. Seenappa welcomed the new members as well as members present at the AGM and mentioned in brief the major highlights of the activities. He spoke about the talks at the Bangalore monthly meetings given by experts on various topics of interest such as culinary melons; health; water; sexual exploitation and abuse of children; meteorology; life in ESCAP, peacekeeping, etc.
Dr. Seenappa stressed the need for an association to flag and address issues of common interest relating to pension, health insurance and life style. During the year under review, AFUNPI continued to provide guidance on issues related to death of a spouse so that the consequent pensionary benefits flowed to the beneficiaries. Similarly, advice was given on health insurance, taking a uniform approach on providing feedback to the services provided by health insurers etc. He mentioned that AFUNPI took advantage of the personal visit of Mr. Raghu Rao, Client Services Officer, UNJSPF, to Bangalore. Mr. Raghu Rao shared his experiences and advised on the approach to be taken in dealing with UNJSPF on pension matters. Dr. Seenappa complimented the services of Mr. Victor Emanvel for helping members transition to the Digital Certificate of Entitlement. He also conveyed the compliments of Ms. Rosemarie McLean, Chief Executive of the Pension Administration, to AFUNPI for attaining the highest compliance rate of 65% + in submitting DCE by pensioners residing in India.
Dr. Seenappa spoke about the organizational and functional aspects of Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS). The meeting was also informed that Mr. Janakiram, one of the founding members of AFUNPI, was accorded the status of Vice-President Emeritus of FAFICS in recognition of his contribution in the formation and expansion of FAFICS and services to the cause of UN retirees. He has been the Vice President of FAFICS for four years. Dr. Seenappa informed that he is currently serving as Vice-President of FAFICS for the second time. While he chaired two consecutive virtual annual FAFICS Council meetings, he represented FAFICS in five Pension Board meetings. He will be attending the FAFICS Bureau meeting to be held shortly at Geneva. A hybrid meeting of FAFICS Council meeting is scheduled to be held in Bangkok in July 2024. He added that Universal Postal Union(UPU) is keen on becoming a member of FAFICS and their candidature is under consideration.
As regards the Pension Board(PB), he mentioned that it was the apex policy making body of the UNJSPF. In order to address the volume of concerns and issues raised by the stakeholders, PB has decided to hold one physical session and two virtual sessions during one year. He added that he is serving as a representative of FAFICS in one of the Sub committees of the PB- Fund Solvency and Assets & Liabilities Monitoring Committee (ALM) for the 7th year. ALM assesses the solvency of the Pension Fund to meet the pensionary benefits of its retirees. Citing the data provided by Ms. Rosemarie Mclean, and the Chief Financial Officer of the Fund, Dr. Seenappa informed that active UN Personnel contributed USD 3.12 billion as against USD 3.13 billion required to meet the pension outgo. The difference in amount was met out of the interest generated from the funds invested. While it was good news that more than 15 % of the pensioners were in the age group 90 to 100 years, on the flip side, longevity of the pensioners could potentially strain the resources of the Fund. The status of Fund generally reflects the economic trends in the world but specifically global market value of its assets. In the year 2022 the Fund holdings went down by USD 10.5 billion and regained the lost share in 2023. As of 12 Feb 2024, the total holdings of the Fund reached a healthy USD 90 billion. Regardless of the market value, the corpus of the fund is sufficient to meet the pensionary needs of UN retirees for the next 30 years.
He recounted the achievements of Dr. Anasuya Kulkarni on being conferred the Sangeet Natak Academy Amrit Award for her contribution to adapting musical instruments made of bamboo into the Indian musical tradition and was felicitated by AFUNPI. The Hyderabad hub of AFUNPI recently felicitated Dr. V.R. Pantulu on attaining 100 years.
Dr. Seenappa stressed the need to have a pre-retirement seminar to include more members into the fold of AFUNPI and conveyed the greetings of Mr. Jerry Barton, the President of FAFICS and Ms. Delia Barcelona, FAFICS Secretary to AFUNPI members. He was hopeful that Mr. Andres Castellano del Corral, the former President of FAFICS, would be in a position to attend the next AGM at Bangalore in 2025 which coincides with the 50th year of AFUNPI’s existence.
Dr. Seenappa thanked all the members who had generously contributed to the cause of AFUNPI. He thanked Mr. Prem Sharma, Mrs. Rajen Sharma, Mr. Ashok Mitra, Mrs. Nutan Prakash and many others for their untiring efforts in organizing and ensuring smooth functioning of the AGM at IIC, New Delhi. He also expressed his thanks to the Members of the AFUNPI Executive Committee for their support and contribution in organising various activities during the year 2023-2024.
Review of Receipts and Payments Account of AFUNPI
Mr. Manohar, Treasurer AFUNPI, stated that the voluntary contribution by Members constituted a major chunk of the receipts, followed by interest earned out of Term Deposit receipts. During the year 2023, 18 new members joined AFUNPI and each member contributed a one- time joining fee.
The funds received were utilised for various AFUNPI activities that were planned for the year 2023. Convening the last AGM held at Bangalore constituted a major part of the payments incurred followed by the affiliation fee paid to FAFICS. He informed that revamping of AFUNPI’s website was taken up in order to bring about efficiency and economy in the operations of AFUNPI. Among the features planned to be incorporated into the website is uploading the digital directory of the members, providing useful links of relevance relating to pension matters, health insurance etc.
To a query, Dr. Seenappa informed that surplus funds were invested in Fixed Deposits and so far the corpus has not been drawn upon. The annual affiliation fee to FAFICS was based on a USD 2 per AFUNPI member, i.e., USD 2 x total number of members as at 1 January each year. This affiliation amount was met out of voluntary contributions. Upon learning about this, many members expressed their intention to voluntarily contribute to the affiliation fee as well as to meet the other expenses of AFUNPI. They also expressed that there is a need to print the AFUNPI Directory as some members may not be technically savvy to access the digital directory. It was explained that printing of the directory was expensive and cost around Rs. 75,000/- in 2021. Mr. Arjun Katoch volunteered to defray the expenses of printing the Directory. Mr. Ramdass and Mr. Ashok Mitra stressed the benefits of registering AFUNPI as an Association of Persons that would help in meeting the KYC compliance requirement, and in filing and claiming the TDS on Term Deposits held by AFUNPI. On a separate note Dr. Seenappa clarified that as per current RBI rules tax is attracted on interest earned in Savings account regardless of the source of funds including the UN Pension.
Presentation of Planned Activities and Budget for 2024
Mr. Srinivasan, Vice- President AFUNPI, presented the planned activities and the budget required for 2024. He stated that as part of voluntary services, AFUNPI would continue to assist members on various aspects of pensionary and health insurance matters. Monthly meetings at Bangalore will be held as a self-supported activity sponsored by two/more members. He encouraged members located at other cities also to host similar meetings at least once a quarter to foster social networking and sharing of experiences with regard to pension and health insurance matters.
Under the activity “Other Support Costs”, a major part of the budget of Rs. 35,000/- was proposed to develop and maintain the revamped website to capture institutional memory and facilitate access to information about pension and other matters of common interest. He spoke in brief about the new features of the revamped website. For the activity “Travel Subsidy and Honorarium” an amount of Rs. 35,000/- was earmarked for organizing pre-retirement seminars, travel subsidy etc. To meet travel expenses of two participants to the FAFICS meet an amount of Rs. 50,000/ was budgeted. Keeping the total number of members registered with AFUNPI, the FAFICS affiliation fee of Rs. 65,000/-is provisioned.
An amount of Rs. two lakhs is budgeted to hold the next AGM at Bangalore that coincides with the 50th year of founding of AFUNPI and it also coincides with 75 years of UNJSPF formation. As part of the 50th year celebrations, Mr. Srinivasan proposed to bring out a publication highlighting the profile of Senior Members chronicling their contribution to the UN system. Several suggestions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of AFUNPI were made by the members that would be considered later by a Sub-committee of AFUNPI. Mrs. Nutan Prakash stated that although a lot of literature on pension matters was available, there is a need to demystify the jargons used and make it easy for a lay person to understand it. To the suggestion that a ready reckoner be brought out by AFUNPI, Mrs. Magdalene Chand informed that it was already available in the AFUNPI Directory and links provided at appropriate places.
To Mrs. Rita Bhatia’s suggestion of sourcing software personnel to help in developing the revamped website, Mr. Srinivasan stated that a Sub-committee of AFUNPI had invested a lot of time on the design and architecture of the website and it was easy to make the vendor understand AFUNPI’s requirements. Due to long association of the vendor with AFUNPI and the Association being a non-profit making organization, the vendor has been reasonable in claiming service charges.
Upon learning about the voluntary contributions to AFUNPI, there was an overwhelming request from the participants to share the bank account details to facilitate their voluntary contributions. Mr. Mukesh Arya suggested that AFUNPI may consider embedding payment gateways in the revamped website as an efficient and economical way of transacting payments seamlessly.
Open discussion on Pension and Health Insurance Matters
The subject of UNJSPF circulating the list of defaulters with minimal contact details to the various associations was raised by Mr. Ramdass. He wondered if UNJSPF could be prevailed upon to provide more details to locate and prompt the defaulters to ensure continuity of their pension. Dr. Seenappa explained that UNJSPF had to act within the constraints of the UN’s data protection Laws and therefore limited details about the defaulting pensioners were available. In this regard it would help if the pensioners updated their personal and contact details to the local association whenever there was a change. In response to another query, he explained that either the spouse/children/next of kin should inform UNJSPF about the death of a pensioner and mention the date of expiry as well as their relationship with the pensioner to the dedicated email address. A death certificate has to be sent subsequently. AFUNPI also sends a secondary message to UNJSPF on learning about the demise of a member. Mr. Srinivasan added that the spouse of the deceased pensioner has to re-enrol themselves for the health insurance scheme for uninterrupted coverage of health insurance. Dr. Seenappa mentioned that it was incumbent on the spouse to renew the option for single /double track after the death of the primary beneficiary. Regardless of the relationship, nomination can be given to UNJSPF. To the suggestion by Mr. Arun Kumar Rao, Dr. Seenappa mentioned that AFUNPI could hold a meeting exclusively for the spouses of primary beneficiaries to sensitize them to the pensionary procedures and entitlement. Further, UNSPF website contains a lot of material that relates to Spouse’s benefits. It was further suggested that virtual discussion could be held to reach out to a wider audience about spouse benefits. A suggestion was made that members could voluntarily share their Unique ID number issued by UNJSPF to the Association to make it easy to track a pensioner. Mr. Mukesh Arya suggested a section on FAQ’s to be updated regularly in AFUNPI’s website that could be useful. Further, access to AFUNPI’s directory could be restricted to members only, and the ideas/suggestions emanating from the discussions at the AGM could be used to enrich the contents of the website.
Mrs. Sushma Jaiswal wanted to know the procedure of settlement of medical reimbursement claims after the demise of the beneficiary. Dr. Seenappa explained that the settlement is based on the contract between the UN agency and the insurance provider. After the demise of the Pensioner, the spouse is entitled to benefits and after the demise of the spouse children below the age of 21 are entitled to Child benefits. Nearly 10 Special Officers have been designated by the UN to resolve difficult cases. The addresses of the Special Officers to be approached have been documented by Mr. Srinivasan. There is a requirement to nominate a person at the time of registering for the health insurance. Further, cashless facility for hospitalisation is available in the UN empanelled hospitals. A member mentioned that Aetna requires the last payslip and nominations to be made.
Election of Office Bearers and Members of the Executive Committee
The following office bearers and Members of the Executive Committee (EC)were elected and based on the feedback received, office bearers have made certain changes as deemed fit for wider representation and efficient functioning of AFUNPI:
- Dr. M Seenappa to continue as President of AFUNPI till the next AGM in February 2025
- Mr. N Srinivasan to continue as Vice-President till the next AGM in February 2025 and thereafter take over as President AFUNPI.
- Mr. Prem Sharma, Vice President
- Mrs. Magdalene Chand, Honorary Secretary
- Mr. R M Manohar, Honorary Treasurer
- Dr. Sreelakshmi Gururaja, Member, Executive Committee
- Ms. Girija Devi, Member, Executive Committee
- Mr. M Pradeep Kumar, Member, Executive Committee
- Mr. Venkatesh Malur, Member, Executive Committee
- Mr. Chandra Shekar Cherla, Member, Executive Committee
Ms. Rita Bhatia, Social Coordinator, Delhi
Mrs. Sudha Murali, Social Coordinator, Hyderabad
Mrs. Rita Chhablani, Social Coordinator, Bangalore
Mr. B.R. Prasanna, Social Coordinator, Bangalore
Venue of 2026 AGM
It was proposed to hold the 2026 AGM at Chennai.
Any other business
Since there was no comment the next item on the agenda was taken up.
Concluding address by the President of the AGM
In his concluding remarks the President of the AGM complimented the members present in making the session lively and coming up with useful suggestions. He appreciated the efforts made by Mr. and Mrs. Prem Sharma, Mr. Ashok Mitra, Mrs. Nutan Prakash, and the office bearers and EC members of AFUNPI in making this event a huge success. The gesture by AFUNPI to felicitate Dr. V.R. Pantulu and Dr. Anusuya Kulkarni was laudable. The President of the AGM recalled the contributions of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan who ushered in the green revolution and uplifted a large section of our society from the clutches of poverty and ensured food security in the country. It was indeed laudable that Dr. Swaminathan was recently conferred the Bharat Ratna. In order to become the third largest major economy in the world, the President of the AGM, suggested that AFUNPI could contemplate a topic for the seminar that would bring into focus the possibility of internationalisation of India. Finally, he urged the UN retirees with their rich experience, knowledge and understanding to contribute to the nation.
Mr. Srinivasan proposed a vote of thanks. He complimented the President of the AGM for his insights, time management and keeping the proceedings lively and interesting. He also thanked all the members for their participation and informed that the suggestions made by them would be taken on board.
