Mumbai, Oct. 11 :    Mumbai, Oct. 11:  The board of the Unit Trust of India today lowered the retirement age for its officers from 60 to 58 years, in an organisation with an average age of 35 years. Further, it decided to prepare a paper on a voluntary retirement scheme for employees as part of a restructuring exercise. The UTI board at its meeting today also adopted the audited accounts of all its 85 schemes. Briefing the press, executive director Brij Gopal Daga said the decision to bring down the retirement age by two years was in line with the practice at other public sector organisations. Only two EDs will be affected by the new norms-K G Vassal and Daga. Daga has already tendered his resignation, effective from the end of this year, following his appointment as chairman and managing director of Central Depository Services Ltd. That makes Vassal, appointed acting chairman immediately after the exit of former chief P S Subramanyam, the only head to roll by virtue of today's decision. Observers say the moves are part of Damodaran's efforts to infuse new blood into the organisation. He has already declared that private sector fund managers will be put in charge of a few funds. The total employee strength of the country's largest mutual fund management organisation stands at 2,400, with officers constituting over 50 per cent of its staff strength. However, the meeting, which started at 11 am and continued till late in the evening, saw no major announcement. Sources say all UTI members except Khetrapaul of the RBI were present at today's meeting, including Jamini Bhagwati, joint secretary, finance ministry, P. P. Vora, the new IDBI chairman and State Bank of India chairman Janki Ballabh. Regarding the Y. H. Malegam Committee report on corporate repositioning, Daga said the board will get the draft report in a day or two. US-64 losses UTI informed the Joint Parliamentary Committee that its flagship US-64 scheme lost over Rs 3,700 crore to severe erosion in prices of 810 active scrips after the market started sliding since March, even as its woes were compounded by 85 fly-by-night operators and 169 non-traded firms. that it suffered about a Rs 120-crore erosion in its investments in 85 'non-existing companies in the Bombay Stock Exchange,' which vanished after raising funds from the public, sources said. UTI is also believed to have written off its entire investment in 169 'non-traded' companies in the US-64 portfolio at an abysmally low price of Re 1 for each of the companies, or a meagre Rs 169, by June this year. Further, at least 810 actively traded companies in the US-64 portfolio depreciated by over Rs 3,700 crore till June. The market slid more since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US and losses now were likely to be much higher. Some of the prominent names of the 810 that did US-64 in include ACC, Arvind Mills, Ashok Leyland, Ballarpur Industries, Bhel, BPCL, BPL, Bombay Dyeing, CESC, Colgate Palmolive, Escorts, Essar Steel, Gail, Grasim, Gujarat Ambuja, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HPCL, ICICI, IDBI, Indal, IPCL, Indian Rayon, Jaiprakash Industries, Kesoram Industries, Kinetic Engineering, L&T, Mahindra & Mahindra, NIIT, Siemens, SBI, Sterlite, Telco, Tisco, Videocon International and VSNL. However, some scrips in the US-64 kitty, such as Reliance Industries, Dr Reddy's Labs, Moser Baer, Nalco and Nestle, saw a rise in values. Apart from the actively traded scrips, US-64 virtually lost Rs 120 crore as 85 companies either vanished after raising funds from the market or delisted themselves. Some of the non-traded companies where UTI had to write-off its investments are AP Scooters, Alstom Power Boilers, Andhra Pradesh Steel, Bengal Potteries, Bengal Coal, Bengal Paper Industries, Bharat Pipes and Fittings, Braithwaite Company, Burn Standard, East India Coal, Hindustan Tractors, Indian Bank, Jessop & Co, Mafatlal Engineering, Modi Industries, Thapar Agro Chem and Titagarh Industries.