Employment News 26 September 2013

Employment News 26 September 2013

US court issues summons against Manmohan Singh

A Sikh rights group has secured summons against him from a US court in connection with the alleged human rights violations in the counter-insurgency operations in Punjab in the 1990s.

The Sikh for Justice (SFJ), the New York-based rights body, is now planning to file an urgent leave "to effect alternative means of service" that would allow it to deliver the summons to the White House staff and members of Singh's security team when he is here.

The 24-page complaint alleges that Singh as the Finance Minister in early 1990s approved and financed the practice of "cash rewards" to members of security forces for allegedly killing Sikhs through extra judicial means to curb militancy.


The complaint also alleges that during his tenure as the Prime Minister beginning 2004, Singh actively shielded and protected the members of his political party who were allegedly involved in 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

White-label ATM Indicash ATMs opened in Mysore

Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd (TCPSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Communications Ltd, today inaugurated Indicash ATMs in Mysore.

The company simultaneously launched more than five ATMs across Mysore.

TCPSL is planning to deploy a minimum of 1,000 Indicash ATMs in Karnataka, a region which plays a vital role in the company’s rollout plans of 15,000 Indicash ATMs across India over the next three years.

The company’s first white-label ATM was launched at Chandrapada village in Thane district on June 27.

This is in keeping with the Reserve Bank of India’s vision to accelerate growth and improve ATM penetration across the country.

China to lease Land of Ukraine farmland

China has moved to lease arable farmland in Ukraine that's nearly the size of all the farms in Haryana put together and entered into an agreement that will allow additional tracts of land to be transferred to Chinese control in future. 

The initial agreement is worth $1.6 billion.

100,000 hectares will be leased to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp (XPCC), a Chinese quasi-military organization, also known as Bingtuan, which inked the deal with KSG Agro, Ukraine's leading agricultural company. 

Industry sources said the agreement is part of a 50-year plan, which has the potential of allowing China to lease out three million hectares of land or nine percent of Ukraine's arable land.

Ukraine's KSG Agro, however, denied reports it was handing over land to the Chinese. 

It said it has only reached an agreement for the Chinese company to modernize 25,00 hectares and "may in the future gradually expand it to cover more areas".

R.M. Premkumar is MCX interim Chairman

Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) has an interim Chairman in R.M. Premkumar, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

He will hold this post till the reconstitution of the board in accordance with the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) guidelines on board composition, MCX said in a filing with the stock exchanges today.

Ravi Kamal Bhargava, a retired IAS officer, has been appointed as Chairman of the Audit Committee till the reconstitution of the board. Bhargava is currently FMC-nominated independent director on the MCX board.

Meanwhile, Joseph Massey, Managing Director and CEO of MCX-SX, has withdrawn his request for re-appointment as director of MCX. Massey is expected to vacate his office as director of MCX with effect from the close of business hours on September 30.

After 279 years, Lloyd’s List, the shipping industry’s bible, is going fully digital

as a notice pinned to the wall of a London coffee shop that offered information on ships coming in and out of port and what goods they carried. 

It will stop print publication on December 20, 2013. 

We haven’t changed that much. But now (customers) can access us in any coffee shop in the world.” 

A survey carried out earlier this year found that only 25 customers used the print edition alone. 

Mr. Meade says that while nostalgia weighs on the company’s shoulders, customers pay a premium for information and don’t want to wait for it to come by post.

Ramlubhya appointed Raj State Election Commissioner

Retired IAS officer Ramlubhaya has been appointed Commissioner of Rajasthan State Election Commission.

Ramlubhaya, who will succeed incumbent A K Pandey, will take over the post from October 1 for a five-year tenure, a government release issued yesterday said.

He was previously working in the capacity of Additional Chief Secretary in the Water Resources department, the release said.

Elections to the state legislative assembly are scheduled for the end of this year.

Twitter launches emergency alerts

Twitter on Wednesday launched a system for emergency alerts which can help spread critical information when other lines of communication are down.

The popular messaging service said its Twitter Alerts could be useful in natural disasters or other emergencies when traditional channels may be overloaded or unavailable.

Twitter Alerts is a new way to get accurate and important information when you need it most.

Users who sign up to receive an account's Twitter Alerts will receive a notification directly to their phone for tweets marked as alerts from certain senders.

ONGC to explore shale gas in Cambay Basin

ONGC is to explore shale gas in the Cambay Basin. It will spend nearly Rs 150-Rs 200 crore to drill the first set of wells starting next month, N. K. Verma, Director (Exploration) of India’s largest explorer, said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Government unveiled a policy allowing ONGC and Oil India to explore shale gas in the blocks they own.

The public sector explorer would spread its shale gas exploration programme across several blocks located in the Cambay Basin.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas subsidiary of the public sector explorer, would raise $4 billion through bonds and loans in the international market to part fund its two recent acquisitions in Mozambique, said ONGC Group Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva.

NTPC awarded for propagation of Rajbhasha on Hindi Divas

NTPC has been awarded Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Shield for propagation of Rajbhasha in the company by Government of India on Hindi Divas on September 14, 2013 by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The award was received by Dr Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC Ltd in the presence of Ministers of State for Home Affairs, RPN Singh and Mullappally Ramachandran at a function held in New Delh

BCCI imposes life ban on Lalit Modi from any of its activities

The Board of Cricket Control of India, BCCI, today imposed a life ban on former IPL Comissioner Lalit Modi from any of its activities.

The decision to this effect was taken at the special general meeting under the chairmanship of BCCI President N.Srinivasan at Chennai.

The meeting which was attended by 30 members of the Board, discussed the findings of the disciplinary committee and found Modi guilty on eight charges including financial irregularities, indiscipline and misconduct.

The official statement issued by the BCCI after the meeting, proclaimed the resolution taken by the Board. 

The Board members will again meet on the 29th of this month for the annual general meeting to elect its Chairman.

Earlier, Mr. Lalit Modi had appealed to the Supreme Court to issue a stay on today’s meeting. The case was dismissed by the Court, saying that the meeting was an internal affair of the BCCI.

IMF approves next $1 billion for Ireland bailout program

International Monetary Fund disbursed the next $1 billion aid tranche to Ireland on Wednesday, as the European island nation remains on track with the conditions of its loan program.

Ireland is set to become the first euro zone country to exit an EU/IMF bailout in December after returning to debt markets, but its economy still needs to start growing by more than 2 per cent per annum from next year on to help make its national debt sustainable.

China's Liu Shiwen wins TT World Cup

Chinese paddler Liu Shiwen clinched her third women's table tennis World Cup after beating team-mate Wu Yang in four sets.

The world No.1 ranked player triumphed 11-3, 11-7, 11-7, 11-2 Monday, reports Xinhua. She won the World Cup in Guangzhou in 2009 and in Huangshi one year ago.

She has never lost a match in the Women's World Cup at her two previous appearances, in2009 and 2012. 

iv.  Currently, Liu Stands at No.1 on the Women;s World ranking in T.T.
 

Harry Goodwin, a former Top Of The Pops photographer, 

Harry Goodwin, an ace photographer who snapped some of pop music's biggest names including The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, has died. He was 89.

Goodwin, who died on Monday after a short illness, was resident photographer at BBC's Top of the Pops from 1964 to 1973.

Stars he captured included The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. "Harry had a wonderful talent and was a truly great photographer," Goodwin's agent Stuart Littlewood reportedly said.

In 1964 he became in-house photographer for Top Of The Pops when it was filmed in Manchester at its studio on Dickenson Road. 

Tim Burgess lead singer of The Charlatans tweeted, "Sad to hear of the death of Harry Goodwin - a true unsung hero of music photography."

BHPV merged with BHEL; Becomes seventeenth unit of BHEL

Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction's (BIFR) sanction of the Modified Draft Rehabilitation Scheme envisaging merger of Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels Limited (BHPV) with the Maharatna company Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), BHPV has become the 17th manufacturing unit of BHEL.

The unit will hereafter be named as Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (HPVP), Vishakhapatnam. The Appointed date for the merger is 1st October 2011. 

Till now, BHPV was a wholly owned subsidiary of BHEL. After the Union cabinet's approval in February 2013, the merger scheme was filed with BIFR in March 2013 and the entire merger exercise was completed in a record time of 5 months thereafter.

No service tax for school buses, hostels

The Finance Ministry, on Friday, clarified that ‘auxiliary educational services’ such as hostels, canteen and school buses will not attract 12 per cent service tax.

By virtue of the entry in the negative list and by virtue of the portion of the exemption notification, it will be clear that all services relating to education are exempt from service tax,” the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said.

 It further said there were many supplementary services or ‘auxiliary educational services’, which have been defined in the exemption notification

Such services, the CBEC said, provided to an educational institution were exempt from service tax.

iPhone 5S production costs only $191

New smartphone found that the components that make up a 16GB iPhone 5S cost $190.70. 

Manufacturing costs add another $8, bringing the total production cost to $198.70.

The research firm also dissected a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5C, a cheaper version of the 5S, and put its total production cost at $173.45, including $7 in manufacturing costs.

It added that in order to merit the low-end smartphone pricing of $400 that many industry observers had expected, while maintaining typical Apple profit margins, the company would need to reduce its 5C production costs to about $130.

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