Employment News

Employment News 15 October 2013

7.2 quake hits central Philippines

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck in the central Philippines on Tuesday morning, collapsing roofs and buildings, cracking walls and roads and killing at least six people. 

The quake was centered 56 kilometers deep below Carmen town on Bohol Island and was felt across the region. 

A 17-century stone church in Loboc town, southwest of Carmen, crumbled to pieces, with nearly half of it reduced to rubble. 

Other old churches dating from the Spanish colonial period, which are common in the central region, also reported damage.

Cebu province, about 570 kilometers (350 miles) south of Manila, has a population of more than 2.6 million people. Nearby Bohol has 1.2 million people and is popular among foreigners because of its beach and island resorts

Fama, Hansen & Schiller win Nobel Prize for Economics

Eugene F. Fama, Robert J. Shiller and Lars Peter Hansen shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their research on how the market prices of assets such as stocks move.

The three laureates, all Americans, “laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selects the winner, said today in Stockholm.

Their work spans almost 50 years of research, beginning with Fama’s finding that it’s difficult to predict price movements in the short run, a conclusion that contributed to the development of stock-index funds.

Later work by Shiller and Hansen focused on longer-run price swings and the extent to which they could be explained by such fundamental features as dividend payouts on stocks and the risk appetite of investors.

Fama’s research at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s showed how incredibly difficult it is to beat the market, and how incredibly difficult it is to predict how share prices will develop in a day’s or a week’s time.

Shiller, a Yale University professor, demonstrated in the 1980s that it’s easier to predict prices over the long term, after finding that stock prices fluctuate more than changes in a company’s dividends would suggest. 

Justice Bhagwati quits Sathya Sai trust

Justice P.N. Bhagwati, Trustee and former Chief Justice of India, has laid down office as a Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.

It is learnt that Justice Bhagwati decided to lay down office on account of his advanced ageJustice Bhagwati, who is the oldest amongst the board of trustees is an ardent devotee of Sathya Sai Baba and served the trust in various capacities including as the Chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Deemed University) at Puttaparthy. 

He appealed to the trustees to carry out the divine mission of Sathya Sai Baba to the best of their capacities. - 

UN names envoy for Syria chemical weapons

 The head of the United Nations Sigrid Kaag to lead the UN's joint mission with the chemical weapons watchdog tasked with eliminating Syria's arsenal, officials said.

The UN Security Council, which is set to vote on Kaag's nomination Wednesday, has formally approved a first joint mission with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning (OPCW) Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 

The OPCW and the UN have had a team of 60 experts and support staff in Syria since 1st October, destroying Syria's production facilities while the country's civil war rages on. 

Kaag is charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile by 30th June, in line with a resolution passed by the Security Council last month. 

The mission she is set to lead must include about a hundred staff members and be based in Damascus, with a second base in Cyprus. 

Kaag, 52, speaks Dutch, English, French, German and Arabic. 

Kaag, a UN assistant secretary-general working at the UN Development Program, has served since 2007 as the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Amman. 

She joined the UN system in 1994 after a stint in the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Since then, she has also worked as a senior UN adviser in Sudan, with the International Organization for Migration and with the UN refugee agency UNRWA in Jerusalem. 

India’s rank 63 in the Global Hunger Index

India has moved from 65 to 63 in the Global Hunger Index, making a marginal improvement since 2012, but continues to languish far behind other emerging economies.

The score for the country improved slightly from 22.9 in 2012 to 21.3 this year. 

As has been the trend, within SAARC countries too, India continued to trail behind Pakistan and Bangladesh on the index.

China improved its ranking by 57.69 per cent between 1990-2012, while India showed a 34 per cent improvement in the same period.

Brazil, in comparison, had a much better score to begin with and by 2012 entered the select block of nations doing the best to fight hunger. 

Countries that have achieved the highest progress on this front included Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Ghana, Thailand and Vietnam – all achieving more than 55% increase in their GHI score. 

Muthoot Finance gets ‘Golden Peacock’ award 2013

 Gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd has been bestowed with Golden Peacock Award for ‘HR Excellence for 2013’ at a function in London.

Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate, Government of United Kingdom, presented the award to George M. Jacob, Director, Muthoot Group.

Golden Peacock Award recognises the continuing commitment by business to conduct itself ethically and contribute to economic development, while improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

ING Vysya ties up with IRCTC to offer online ticketing services

ING Vysya Bank has entered into a business tie-up with Indian Railways’ IRCTC to offer online train ticketing services to its customers.

This facility enables ING Vysya Bank’s customers to book train tickets using ING Net Banking or ING debit cards. 

Over 1 lakh tickets were booked during the first month of the launch, the bank said in a statement.

The South-based private sector bank has been enrolled into a select category of financial services firms offering these services with a high level of safety, security and ease of transactions online. 

 The bank has also invested in advanced systems and technology for processing faster refunds and cancellations.

This tie-up is in line with our ongoing focus to offer the best online experience to our retail customers,” said Brett Morgan, Country Head – Branch Banking and Private Client Group, ING Vysya Bank.

Statue of Liberty reopening 

Statue of Liberty was back to her shining best Sunday, reopened to tourists for the first time since falling victim to the US government shutdown two weeks ago. 

Basking in glorious autumn weather, American and foreign tourists thronged Battery Park, excitedly taking pictures and 

streaming on and off boats taking them to the emblem of the American dream .

More than 400 federally managed tourist sites have been closed by the shutdown.

The stalemate is costing $152 million a day in lost travel-related activity, affecting up to 450,000 American workers, according to the US Travel Association.

Tour guide Jack Stanley swept through Battery Park just after lunch Sunday en route to the pier with a group of trailing holidaymakers.

NHB partners with UK Government’s DFID for affordable housing programme

National Housing Bank (NHB) has joined hands with UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) to launch an affordable housing project that will operate in eight low-income States.

This is the first time that NHB has come up with a project that caters to specified States, said R.V. Verma, Chairman & Managing Director of NHB.

The project will operate in the eight States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

DFID has committed pound sterling 50 million (about Rs 500 crore) over 7 years (2013-19).

This is comprised of two components: pound sterling 40 million (Rs 400 crore) as a concessional loan to NHB to finance the construction of affordable housing units and loans to low-income households.

DFID will give pound sterling 10 million (about Rs 100 crore) as technical assistance to strengthen systems and policies in the sector, to fund innovative pilots and upgrading of slum housing.

Economist’s MBA schools ranking 

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A ), has been placed at 39th position in The Economist's full-time MBA programmes ranking for 2013. 

This year, IIM-A is 17 places higher in The Economists' ranking of top 100 management schools, compared to its position in 2012. Its ranking was 56th last year. 

For the last four years, the management institute has been finding a place in The Economist's full-time MBA programmes ranking. Further, in the Asia and Australasia 2013 rankings, IIM-A moved up one place from fifth position last year to fourth position in 2013. 

Birla Sun Life launches BSLI Savings Plan

Private sector insurer Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) today launched a participating traditional plan, BSLI Savings Plan, with guaranteed additions for the first five years of the policy term.

BSLI Savings Plan is designed to cater to the changing needs across customer segments with the flexibility it offers in choosing the policy term and the premium paying term with guaranteed additions,” Birla Sun Life Managing Director and CEO, Jayant Dua said in a release issued here.\

The plan is a savings-cum-insurance option that aims to provide secured growth to savings and comprehensive financial protection from the risk of unfortunate death.

There is an option for premium payment term of 10, 15 or 20 years with the minimum age of entry at 18 years and the maximum at 50 years.

At inception, the customer needs to choose the sum assured, the policy term and the premium payment term.

The minimum sum assured for this plan is Rs 30,000.

BSLI is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc, a leading international financial services organisation from Canada.

ONGC Videsh wins two oil blocks in Myanmar

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has won two onland oil blocks in Myanmar, strengthening its presence in the south-east Asian nation.

OVL, which has stakes in the A-1 and A-3 gas discovery blocks and three other offshore acreages in Myanmar, was last week awarded two oil and gas exploration blocks in that country's Onshore Blocks Second Bidding Round - 2013. 

The firm got Blocks B-2 (Zebyutaung-Nandaw) and EP-3 (Thegon-Shwegu), according to the list of winners released by Myanmar's Energy Ministry. 

Other pre-qualified Indian companies Cairn India, Oil India Ltd (OIL), Jubilant Offshore Drilling and Prize Petroleum drew a blank. 

Myanmar awarded 13 onshore blocks, with OVL, Italy's Eni, Pakistan's Petroleum Exploration (PVT) and Canada's Pacific Hunt Energy Corp each winning contracts to operate two blocks. 

Idea faces Rs 600-crore penalty for merger with Spice

A penalty of Rs 600 crore on Idea Cellular for its merger with Spice Communications, which the panel found to be a 'wilful' violation of the telecom licence conditions. 

The panel though agreed to a merger of two licences of Karnataka and Punjab circles in the name of Idea Cellular

A four-member committee headed by member, technology, Anil Kaushal, had been set up to review the telecom department's previous decision of issuing show-cause notices of Rs 300 crore for merging six of Spice's telecom permits with Idea Cellular in Punjab, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra as Idea bought into Spice in 2008.

Since Idea held 12 telecom permits bundled with spectrum in six circles in contravention of the telecom licence conditions, the penalty recommended cpmes to Rs 600 crore. 

Relying on the department's previous argument, the committee has said that the company had further violated the promoter's lockin clause since two licences of Idea and four of Spice had been issued in January 2008. According to the merger guidelines, these could have been merged only after January 2011.

US to Normalize Iran sanctions 

United States held out the prospect of quick sanctions relief for Iran on Monday if Tehran moves swiftly to allay concerns about its nuclear programme, although both countries said any deal would be complex and take time.

Any potential sanctions relief, the official said, would be "targeted, proportional to what Iran puts on the table". Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

European Union's top sanctions official has also joined the bloc's delegation at the talks.

Since 2006, Iran has rejected U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment and has continued to expand its nuclear fuel programme, leading to increasingly harsh sanctions.

Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - hold talks with Iran on its nuclear programme in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mohan Dharia passes away

Former Union minister, freedom fighter and environmentalist Mohan Dharia, who quit the Indira Gandhi government against imposition of Emergency, died here today of chronic kidney failure. He was 89.

He was admitted to Poona Hospital on Saturday and underwent dialysis. 

A socialist at heart, Dharia was minister of state for planning, housing and urban development in the Indira Gandhi government in 1971-75.

A recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the highest Padma award, in 2005, Dharia retired from active politics in 1982 and formed “Vanrai”, an organisation dedicated to the cause of conservation and social forestry.

Interestingly,even though a bitter critic of Indira Gandhi, Dharia was conferred the prestigious Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 2011, by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Petrol pumps in Delhi to shut down on Oct 28

Delhi Petrol Dealers' Association has decided to down shutters on October 28 to press the Sheila Dikshit government to reduce VAT on diesel and bring petrol price at par with Haryana.

Nearly 400 petrol pumps in Delhi will remain closed on that day. 

VAT in Delhi on diesel is 12.5% as against about 9% in Haryana, making diesel expensive in Delhi. 

Despite pressing hard for parity with Haryana on the issue of VAT, petrol dealers in Delhi have not been able to make much headway. Delhi Government is losing nearly Rs 400 crore in revenue due to loss of business to Haryana.

Petrol pumps, especially those situated on the borders and outer Delhi, have lost more than 50% of their business to Haryana.

The Delhi government seems to be working against the wishes of the Supreme Court to encourage the sale of Euro IV diesel in Delhi. Despite availability of the environmentally acceptable Euro IV diesel in Delhi, consumers are buying the cheaper Euro III fuel from Haryana. Tankers beyond NCR and tankers of diesel are being smuggled into Delhi for bulk use in Delhi," Peshwaria alleged.

 Sanam Singh and Vijayant Malik won the ITF Doubles Title 2013

The Indian tennis pair Sanam Singh and Vijayant Malik on 12 October 2013 won the doubles title in the 15000 US dollars ITF Men's Futures Tennis Tournament at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium in Houston, USA.

In the final match, they defeated fourth seeded pair of Evan King (USA) and Costin Paval (Romania) in two sets 7-6 (5), 6-4.

RIL first private company to earn over Rs 1 lakh crore in 3 months

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on Monday became the first private sector firm to report revenues exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore in a quarter, joining its public sector peer Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC) which is the only other Indian company with the distinction so far. 

Driven by higher exports realisation due to a falling rupee, RIL reported a 14% growth in revenues to Rs 106,523 crore in the July-September quarter.

Varun Arora won UN Award for 'Open Curriculum' Web Platform

Varun Arora, a young innovator from India on 10 October 2013 selected for United Nations 10 Young Innovators Competition 2013.

 Varun Arora is among 10 people from around the world selected for a prestigious United Nations award in recognition of their work as entrepreneurs and use of technology to change the world.

Varun Arora awarded for his creation Open Curriculum, an online platform for local educational material for standard, primary and secondary schooling.

The UN competition is open to young social entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 26 and seeks innovative digital solutions in the form of start-ups or initial concepts meeting global developmental challenges.

Air Costa to apply for pan-India licence

The latest Indian regional airline Air Costa to apply for a pan-India licence in the next 6-8 months to take on the likes of IndiGo, SpiceJet and the soon-to-start AirAsia India in an industry which is marked by aggressive expansion and constant losses

The airline operated its inaugural flight on Monday to Hyderabad from Vijaywada. It plans to start commercial flights from Tuesday and will operates 12 flights to six Indian cities — Chennai, Bangalore , Ahmedabad and Jaipur, Hyderabad and Vijaywada. Costa means the outer edge of a wing, which is where the airline derives its name from.

Head of commnications K Vinay. Babu said--

Under the current licence, the Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh-based airline can't fly to metros outside the southern region.

Anil Ambani-run  Reliance Jio Infocomm to offer fixedline & wireless network services

will offer fixed and wireless broadband Internet connections when it launches services

The objective of offering fixed-line services comes with additional capital expenditure to connect locations with cables. 

A person familiar with developments said the company has obtained local authority permissions to lay nearly 100 kilometres of optic fibre cables every day in Mumbai and Delhi.