Employment News 12 October 2013

Employment News 12 October 2013

Amitabh Bachchan (Bollywood superstar)on his 71 birthday on Friday

Amitabh Bachchan on his 71 birthday on Friday, describing the Bollywood superstar as “the man who has made a habit of redefining the meaning of the word legend.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan abducted by Gunmen

Prime Minister of Libya, Ali Zeidan was abducted by gunmen on 10 October 2013. They held him captive for several hours. Ali Zeidan was later rescued. The incident underscored the lawlessness gripping Libya two years after the ouster of autocrat Moammar Gadhafi.

The gunmen who abducted Zeidan were believed to be militiamen. They did that in apparent retaliation for a US special-forces raid that captured an al-Qaida suspect. They accused Zeidan’s government of colluding in the operation.

Ali Zeidan is the Prime Minister of Libya. He was appointed by the General National Congress on 14 October 2012, and took office on 14 November after Congress approved his cabinet nominees.

Madras High Court stops SBI’s move to withdraw check-off facility

Madras High Court on Thursday stopped India's largest bank State Bank of India from discontinuing what is called the "checkoff facility," an arrangement that gives its trade union easy access to the subscription fee paid by its officer members.

SBI's move to discontinue the check-off facility, effected during the term of its just-retired chairman Pratip Chaudhuri, was seen as a way to quell trade union activities. 

The High Court verdict was closely watched as an order supporting the axing of the facility could have made similar trade union arrangements elsewhere vulnerable.

The check-off facility works this way: based on a specific written request of an employee, the bank management deducts the monthly subscription (it varies from Rs 150 to Rs 200, depending on the circle) from the salary, payable to the union named by the employee. 

SBI was doing this on salary day, which is the twenty-fifth of every month. The facility, which has been extended to the officers associations since 1970, was withdrawn by Chaudhuri. 

A writ was filed by his association in the end of September. A separate writ was filed by the All India State Bank Officers' Federation. The Madras High Court stayed the SBI move.

Tata First Dot’ event launched

The Tata group has launched the third edition of ‘Tata First Dot powered by NEN,’ a platform for student entrepreneurship.

Tata First Dot workshops will be held across 20 cities this year, adding five – Raipur, Guwahati, Ranchi, Nagpur and Srinagar - to the list, said Atul Agrawal, vice-president, corporate Affairs, Tata Services.

Regional workshops will start from September 28 at Ahmedabad and then travel to other cities. Nominations for the Tata First Dot national competition for best student start-ups will open December 1.

K. Srikrishna, Executive Director, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), said that the organisers will mentor, showcase and support start-ups through the January conference and beyond.

Spices Board to be established in Karnataka

Karnataka government today decided to establish a spices board to promote the sector and address its concerns.

Which would headquartered in northern Karnataka city of Hubli, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said after a cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The Cabinet cleared a draft Karnataka affordable housing policy which envisages taking up projects on public-private-partnership model and offering "relief" to the private sector which gets involved in such initiatives.

It was also decided to promote solar power projects on a trial basis, vis-a-vis irrigation pumpsets up to five HP and roof-top systems on government buildings at a total cost of Rs 10 crore.

BioAsia 2014 to kick off on Feb 17

The eleventh annual international life sciences conference, BioAsia 2014, will kick off in Hyderabad from February 17-19.

Innovate and Evolve”— this will be the theme for the new edition of the international meet, as it involves the entire life sciences industry.

The meet’s focus on innovation will address the increasing disease burden and the growing need for more efficacious and affordable healthcare solutions.

An important feature of the meet will be a parallel event, AgBioAsia, highlighting the health and nutritious aspects of the industry.

The focus of this event will be on harnessing the potential of the global nutraceutical market — this is being hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Government, in partnership with the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics and Federation of Asian Biotech Associations.

 Shakthi Nagappan, CEO BioAsia, said traditionally the Asian Life sciences businesses were centred on established markets for their clearly defined products with little experimentation.

BRICS may decide on $100 billion fund early 2014

BRICS emerging economies may decide early next year on their $100 billion fund designated to steady currency markets, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday, indicating little progress at the group's meeting in Washington this week.

Expectations that the Federal Reserve would 'taper' its U.S. bond-buying scheme have reversed the cheap dollar flows that had fuelled a boom among the BRICS, adding urgency to make funds available to members facing balance of payments difficulties. 

At the BRICS leaders meeting in St. Petersburg in September, China committed $41 billion towards the pool; Brazil, India and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion .

Khurshid to co-chair India-Brazil jt commission meeting next week

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will co-chair the sixth India-Brazil Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) meeting during his visit to Brazil beginning October 14.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that during the meeting, both sides will discuss the entire gamut of India-Brazil Strategic Partnership, including political, economic and commercial, agriculture, science and technology, defence, cultural and hydrocarbon.

Brazil is an important trading partner of India in Latin America and Caribbean. Bilateral trade has grown significantly to $10.6 billion in 2012-13 from from $828 million in 2000.

India’s exports are valued at $6 billion and imports at $4.6 billion. Indian companies have made significant investments in Brazil which are estimated at $ 2.5 billion in the fields of agriculture, IT, pharma, manufacturing and hydrocarbons, among others.

'रिजर्व बैंक से तीन गुना ज्यादा सोना दबा है उत्तर प्रदेश में उन्नाव के डौडियाखेड़ा में राव राम बक्स सिंह के महल की जल्द खुदाई की मांग उठने लगी है। जितना सोना रिजर्व बैंक के पास है उससे तीन गुना ज्यादा सोना डौडियाखेड़ा में दबा है।

Cyclonic Storm Phailin hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The cyclonic storm Phailin in the second week of October 2013 hit the Andaman and Nicobar islands and moved northwestwards early this morning and presently lay centred about 800 km South East of Paradip in Odisha.

It is expected to reach the coast of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in the next 48 to 72 hours. The system will intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours. 

Fishermen have been asked not to venture into sea and those gone deep inside the sea have been asked to return to the coast.

Scientists have found that the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn are awash with diamonds.

Recent work by planetary scientists has indicated that these planets may contain chunks of diamond floating in a liquid hydrogen/helium fluid. 

The new data available has confirmed that at depth, diamonds may be floating around inside of Saturn, some growing so large that they could perhaps be named as  “diamondbergs.

Planetary scientists Mona L Delitsky of California Speciality Engineering in Pasadena, California, and Kevin H Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have compiled recent data about the phase diagram of carbon.

the pressures and temperatures will be so large as to melt the diamond into liquid, creating diamond rain or liquid diamond.

Mumbai to host Tendulkar’s farewell Test

 Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium is set to host the farewell Test for Sachin Tendulkar after the legendary batsman expressed a wish to play his landmark 200th match against the West Indies next month in front of his home crowd.

A top BCCI official said that Mumbai is almost certain to host the historic match though it will be made official only after the BCCI’s tours and fixtures committee meets.

Kolkata’s Eden Gardens and Wankhede were the frontrunners to host Tendulkar’s farewell Test but the champion batsman’s letter to the board has swung it in favour of Mumbai, the city which gave the sport the greatest cricketer of the modern era.

Kolkata’s Eden Gardens and Wankhede were the frontrunners to host Tendulkar’s farewell Test but the champion batsman’s letter to the board has swung it in favour of Mumbai, the city which gave the sport the greatest cricketer of the modern era.

Samsung has reported Galaxy S5 will be unveiled in January 2014

That the Galaxy S5 will be unveiled in January 2014 and will hit the shelves the following month. This means that Galaxy S4 would spend the least amount of time at the top of the company's smartphone portfolio among all Galaxy S series phones.

Both Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S III remained on the top of the chain for a year each, while Galaxy S II was the flagship smartphone for 15 months.

Galaxy S5 will have Samsung's 64-bit eight-core Exynos 5430 chipset.

This chip will feature Heteregenous Multi-Processing (HMP) technology that allows all eight cores of the processor to work simultaneously. 

In the current eight-core chips that Samsung uses in its Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3, only four of the eight cores can operate at a time to have a 16MP camera with optical image stabilization and better performance in lowlight conditions.

CIA whistleblower award for Snowden

Former CIA analyst Edward Snowden was given an American whistleblowers’ award for exposing massive U.S. surveillance dragnet.

The Sam Adams Award “for Integrity in Intelligence” was presented to Mr. Snowden by four former U.S. intelligence officials at a secret meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, a day before he met his father, the RIA-Novosti government agency reported on Friday.

The award in the shape of a candlestick is named after Samuel A. Adams, a C.I.A. whistleblower during the Vietnam War and is given annually. 

In 2010 it was conferred on the WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

he four who presented the award to Mr. Snowden — Coleen Rowley, ex-FBI official; Andrews Drake ex-N.S.A official; Ray McGovern, ex-official from C.I.A.; and Jesselyn Radack, exJustice Department official — refused to say where they met with Mr. Snowden or where he is living.

Interviewed by Russia’s government RT news channel, they said Mr. Snowden appeared in good spirits.