Employment News Paper 5 August 2013

Employment News Paper 5 August 2013
Facebook pays bug hunters $1 million

Facebook said it has paid over USD 1 million in the past two years to security researchers who report bugs on its website, with India second among recipients by country.

A bug is an error or defect in software or hardware that causes a programme to malfunction. It often occurs due to conflicts in software when applications try to run in tandem.

While bugs can cause software to crash or produce unexpected results, certain defects can be used to gain unauthorised access to systems.

"The countries with the most bounty recipients are, in order, the US, India, UK, Turkey, and Germany. The countries with the fastest-growing number of recipients are, in order, the US, India, Turkey, Israel, Canada, Germany, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Sweden, and Russia," it noted.

Durga Shakti's suspension

Nagpal's action against the sand mining mafia by slapping two dozen FIRs and seizing a number of vehicles within a fortnight. 

She clearly ruffled many feathers, including leaders of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) who face allegations of being hand in glove with the sand mining lobby in the Hindon and Yamuna belts of western UP. She was duly suspended.

The protectors of illegal miners would have sent anonymous letters to vigilance agencies. 

Or, approached officials and clerks in her office to help identify errors in notings on files. 

Right to Information (RTI) letters and cries of action would follow.

A month ago, the Madhya Pradesh High Court criticised a 2008 income-tax raid on IAS officer Rajesh Rajora that resulted in his suspension for nearly three years. 

His wife, an Indian Forest Service officer, opted for a deputation to Gandhinagar, to avoid further harassment.

Govt likely to announce 10% DA central government employee

The government is likely to announce a hike in dearness allowance to 90 per cent from existing 80 per cent in September, benefiting about 50 lakh central employees and 30 lakh pensioners ahead of the festival season.

the preliminary assessment suggests that dearness allowance hike will be in the range of 10-11 per cent and would be effective from July 1 this year.

He said the exact number could be calculated only when the revised all India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for the month of June will be released on August 30.

Confederation of Central Government Employees Secretary General K K N Kutty told—

It would be around 10 per cent this time and would be announced in September.

As per the practise, the DA is merged with basic pay when it breaches the 50 per cent mark. 

DA merger helps employees as their other allowances are paid as a proportion of basic pay.

There would be a double digit hike in DA after about three years. It was last in September, 2010 that the government had announced a hike of 10 per cent to be given with effect from July 1, 2010.

DA was hiked to 80 per cent from 72 per cent in April, 2013, effective from January 1, this year.

China building world's highest altitude airport

China is building the world's highest altitude civilian airport close to Tibet as part of a plan to develop infrastructure in the Himalayan region.

So far, China has built five airports at Gonggar, Lhasa, Bangda, Xigaze and Ngari in Tibet Autonomous Region.

The rapid development of air infrastructure in Tibet coupled with rail and road development raised concerns in India as it provides massive advantage to China to move its troops and equipment overcoming the geographical problems in the remote region of the world.

Mumbai teenager leaves red-light zone for US degree

Shweta Katti, 18, left for America to study at the liberal arts Bard College, where she hopes to read psychology. 

Afterwards she wants to return to India and help other young women in her community. Katti's determination won her a place this year in Newsweek's list of 25 " Young Women To Watch" aged under-25, alongside Pakistani schoolgirl and activist Malala Yousufzai who was shot in the head by the Taliban.

Course on love at Presidency University

Presidency University in Kolkata can opt for a course on the enigma of love, its vice-chancellor said Sunday, adding that this was part of the new interdisciplinary studies programme.

"The new course on love will deal with its sociological implications and will begin from the next semester in January," Malabika Sarkar, vice-chancellor of Presidency University told IANS.

Under this programme, science students can get a taste of liberal arts, and those delving into humanities can take up a science subject.

80,000 seats fall vacant in engineering line

Even as nearly 80,700 seats in engineering colleges have found no takers, academicians attribute three factors to the development.

At the end of the general counselling of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) on Friday, 80,689 seats remained vacant out of a total of 2.05 lakh seats.

“The special counselling on July 29 to fill vacancies in the Scheduled Caste quota is expected to fill 500 vacancies. At the end of this, the estimated number of seats to be filled will cross 1.26 lakh.

A college secretary says that after receiving proposals for increase in seats from colleges, the AICTE grants 60 or 120 seats additionally, regardless of whether such institutions can fill all the seats.

The factors are: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) sanctioning new engineering colleges in areas where there are already too many; approvals for additional seats in any stream of engineering in existing colleges, and the surrender of “significantly high” number of management quota seats for counselling.