India sees greater role for WB, IMF in resolving crisis
12 Oct, 2008, 2235 hrs IST, PTI
WASHINGTON: Amid continued financial crisis and early signs of recession appearing in the developed countries, India on Sunday asked multilateral fun
ding agencies to play a vital role in global economic affairs to ensure more inclusive and sustainable globalisation.
"It is an opportunity to make the (World) Bank a more responsive, credible and relevant organisation so that it continues to play a vital role in global economic affairs and to realign the bank's role in pursuit of the vision of a more inclusive and sustainable globalisation.
This is an opportunity that must not be lost, therefore, no attempt should be made to rush through elements which would not meet long term purposes of this reform process," India's Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in statement to development committee--joint committee of the board of governors of the bank and the fund (International Monetary Fund) on the transfer of Real Resources to the Developing Countries.
Chidambaram said the recent developments are certain to impact the global availability of financial resources of development, that developing countries (like India) "will suffer for no fault of theirs," he told the development committee.
The Indian Finance Minister's statement was placed in the meeting by RBI Governor D Subbarao and Secretary Department of Economic Affairs Ashok Chawla in absentia.
"...emerging markets have so far shown resilience. However, they may be vulnerable to both first order and second order effects. Accessing financial resources may become more difficult and expensive. Flows of foreign capital may shrink. On the other hand, a global recession will sharply contract the demand for exports of many developing countries, adversely affecting their growth prospects.
The developing countries will suffer for no fault of theirs" Chiadambaram has said in his Statement.
More than 200m Indians suffer hunger as boom benefits minority, says report
In this section »
UN warned of more Taliban attacks in coming weeksMadonna and Guy Ritchie to divorceAzerbaijan president set for second termCanada elects Conservative minority as budget deficit loomsNew generation of kung fu crazy Chinese discovering Bruce LeeIn ShortTWELVE INDIAN provinces have worrying levels of hunger, with the situation "extremely alarming" in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi.
The development comes at a time when the country is emerging as one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
The 2008 Global Hunger Index report, released yesterday by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute along with Welthungerhilfe and the University of California, warns that Madhya Pradesh's nutrition problems are comparable to those in Ethiopia and Chad. The report reveals that India has more than 200 million people suffering from hunger - a number greater than in any other country.
It also ranked India 66 out 88 countries on the global hunger index, taking into account three vital indicators: child malnutrition, rates of child mortality and the calorie-deficient population.
"Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh," the report noted.
The best-performing state was Punjab in the north but that too was afflicted by a "serious" hunger problem and measured up less well than developing countries like Gabon, Vietnam and Honduras.
Nutrition experts said India's abysmal record, despite self-sufficiency in food grains, is due to faulty, corrupt and bureaucratic distribution policies, insufficient access to food, poor feeding practices and poor childcare practices.
The recent spike in global food prices had further reduced the food-buying capacity of many poor families.
In addition, India's lower castes and specific ethnic minorities were discriminated against, pushing them further into impoverishment and starvation.
India's emphasis, in the early 1990s, on a market economy resulted after 2002 in an average annual growth rate of about 8 per cent.
Expansion was buoyed by a robust stock market, rising industrial output and escalating real estate prices. This resulted in western countries flocking to invest in India, further bolstering national economic growth. But the fruits of these achievements have remained confined to a handful of the nation's 1.2 billion people.
A study by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector revealed 77 per cent of the population exists on 20 Indian rupees (30 cent) a day.
© 2008 The Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/1016/1224069691697.html
Institute raises hunger alert among Indian children
Print Email
Updated October 16, 2008 12:53:23
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India's hunger problems worse than some African countries: report
The International Food Policy Research Institute says the level of malnutrition and hunger among India's children is alarming.
The study by the International Food Policy Research Institute, found that in India's worst performing state Madhya Pradesh 60 percent of children are malnourished.
The result ranks the state between the much poorer countries of Ethiopia and Chad on the Global Hunger Index.
Researchers measured child malnutrition, child mortality and the number of people who are calorie deficient.
The study found that 200 million people suffer hunger in India every day.
The report authors say the current financial crisis could make the situation worse and child nutrition in India needs urgent improvement.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2392677.htm?tab=asia
Pakistan better than India in global hunger index
* IFPRI says low educational status of women, poor nutrition and health programmes, major problems in South Asia
NEW DELHI: Pakistan figures slightly better than India in a new global hunger index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in association with a German group Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.
While India ranks 66 out of the 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index, Pakistan stands at number 61. Bangladesh made the list at number 70. According to the authors of the report, three leading indicators - prevalence of child malnutrition, rate of child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient – were the standards upon which the countries were rated.
"The world has made only slow progress in reducing hunger in past decades, with dramatic differences among countries and regions," said Ashok Gulathi, the IFPRI Asia director.
He said though current financial measures might bring some short-term relief for hungry people, as they will reduce commodity prices, but the credit crunch will make access to capital difficult, including for agriculture, and that could add another obstacle to overcoming the food crisis.
The report said that South Asian countries, along with Sub-Saharan Africa, still suffered from high levels of hunger.
South Asia:
The report’s author Purnima Menon said the major problem in the South Asian region was a high prevalence of underweight in children under five, resulting largely from the lower nutritional and educational status of women, poor nutrition and health programmes, and inadequate water and sanitation services.
"In contrast, the poor performance of Sub-Saharan Africa is due to high rates of child mortality and a large proportion of people who cannot meet their calorie requirements. Government ineffectiveness, conflict, and political instability, as well as high rates of HIV/AIDS, have driven these two indicators in the region," she said.
The report said economic development and growth stories had helped little to eradicate hunger in India. It has placed India's most developed state of Gujarat even below the Central African country of Haiti.
"We found link between economic development and hunger missing. We believe that eight to nine percent growth is not inclusive," said the IFPRI Asia director.
The IFPRI recommended three areas for high-priority policy actions including productivity and research, nutrition and social protection and elimination of agriculture trade restrictions.
Alarming:
The report calculated hunger levels for 17 major states in India, representing more than 95 percent of the population. Twelve states fall into the ‘alarming’ category and Madhya Pradesh was reported to have an ‘extremely alarming’ level of hunger. Four states — Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam — fell in the 'serious' category.
The authors said India's poor performance was primarily due to its relatively high levels of child malnutrition and under-nourishment resulting from calorie deficient diets.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C10%5C16%5Cstory_16-10-2008_pg7_52
Hunger eclipsed by financial crisis on World Food Day
Thu 16 Oct 2008, 14:48 GMT
[-] Text [+] By Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - The world's leading crusaders against hunger voiced frustration on World Food Day on Thursday that the global financial crisis had overshadowed a food crisis tipping millions towards starvation.
The World Bank predicts that high food and fuel prices will increase the number of malnourished people in the world by 44 million this year to reach a total of 967 million.
Economists have also warned that the world's poor would be the most vulnerable to a global economic downturn.
"The media have highlighted the financial crisis at the expense of the food crisis," said Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome. The World Food Programme's Executive Director Josette Sheeran acknowledged that even citizens of wealthy countries had been affected by high food prices and the financial crisis.
"But for those who live on less than a dollar a day, it's a matter of life and death," Sheeran said.
Proponents of more urgent measures questioned why the world's richest nations could not show the same urgency to save people from starvation as they did when rushing to rescue banks.
"My position is that the financial crisis is a serious one, and deserves urgent attention and focus, but so is the question of hunger, and millions (are) likely to die. Is that any less urgent?," asked former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
SPECULATION, SELFISHNESS
Pope Benedict said the blame for hunger could be directed at "boundless speculation" in markets, partly blamed for high food and fuel prices. But he also pointed to "selfishness" by the world's rich and a poor distribution of resources.
A Senegal-based NGO said the fading attention to the food crisis showed a "problem of justice, of equity and solidarity."
"If they are able to raise funds for the banking system, they can also find ways to reduce poverty in the world," Vore Gana Seck, President of Dakar-based CONGAD (Council of NGOs Supporting Development) told Reuters in the Senegalese capital.
"I think it's a problem of priority."
Prices of wheat, rice, maize and other staples in the developing world have all risen dramatically this year, although they have fallen from their peaks in recent months.
In Somalia, wheat prices have risen by 300 percent in the 15 months to April. Maize prices in southern Africa have risen by anywhere between 40 and 65 percent, crippling the ability of the poor to feed themselves, said aid group Oxfam.
"It is shocking that the international community has failed to organise itself to respond adequately" to the food and energy crisis, said Barbara Stocking, the head of Oxfam.
"We need to see one coordinated international response, led by the United Nations, which channels funds urgently to those in need, and leads on implementation of the longer-term reforms."
Diouf said the world has the know-how to end hunger, even if the population climbs to a forecast 9 billion people by 2050.
But he complained that his U.N. agency lacked resources and said that it only received 10 percent of the $22 billion (12.8 billion pounds) pledged in June, following food riots in some of the affected countries.
"We have a serious shortfall in the financial resources needed to fulfill the expectations," Diouf said.
"In spite of the passionate speeches and financial commitments made by many countries, only a tiny proportion of what was promised in June has been delivered."
Development economist Jeffrey Sachs told reporters he was pessimistic about the future, given the lack of progress even when the food crisis had made headlines earlier this year.
"There are reasons to believe that on the current business-as-usual trajectory things will get worse.. because of rises in population, more climate shocks, more environmental degradation, and lack of ability of the very poor places to respond adequately," he said.
(Additional reporting by Megan Rowling and Jonathan Saul in Dublin, Pascal Fletcher in Dakar, Luke Baker in London; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Call to tackle hunger crisis
5 hours ago
The global hunger crisis must be tackled with the same urgency as the economic downturn around the world, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan told a conference in Dublin.
Mr Annan told an international conference on hunger that the recession cannot be used as an excuse for inaction. The chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa said the food crisis had been compounded by a global financial crisis.
He called on richer nations not to let the credit crunch make the situation any worse than it already is for those already suffering. He said: "It is important for us to remind the politicians that the food crisis and the crisis of hunger is a real one and we should treat it with the same urgency and focus as we are tackling the financial one. In this situation the poor is the first to suffer."
Center opens in NYC to fight global hunger
By DEEPTI HAJELA – 6 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Founders of the new Action Center to End World Hunger hope visitors will come away not only knowing more about world hunger, but resolved to do something about it.
The center, a project of international aid organization Mercy Corps, was to open Thursday — World Food Day — in Manhattan across the street from the Irish Hunger Memorial.
The multimedia, interactive facility designed by Edwin Schlossberg tries to connect people to the hunger relief work being done around the world and offers a variety of ways to get involved. It features a video narrated by "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" star Tina Fey.
"The Action Center will illuminate how hunger is not the problem, but the symptom of many root causes, such as poor agricultural practices, human rights abuses, and the impacts of climate change," Fey says in the video. By identifying and highlighting these underlying causes, the Action Center will seek to generate the public resolve necessary to create lasting change."
George Devendorf of Mercy Corps said one goal is to "get someone who hasn't previously taken an action to take one."
The center suggests a host of actions that visitors can take to combat hunger, depending the amount of time they want to give — from one minute to one day to a lifetime. Actions range from writing a letter to a congressman to sponsoring a tree in Niger to becoming an Americorps VISTA volunteer.
Four "training towers" focus on issues related to hunger, such as land use or governance, and show how various countries deal with those issues.
Mercy Corps, based in Portland, Ore., sees the center as a way of helping Americans change the way they see the world, and getting them more connected to global issues, Devendorf said.
"We're not going to be successful in achieving the kind of lasting change we want unless we open up a second front in that struggle, and that second front is here at home," he said. "It's influencing Americans and building a constituency of citizens who understand what some of these root causes are that animate hunger and poverty and have a clear understanding of some of the steps they can take."
Devendorf said the idea to create the center started at the Battery Park City Authority, which was looking for a complement to the hunger memorial in that neighborhood. The memorial commemorates the famine that brought hundreds of thousands of Irish to New York.
The center is hosting several events to mark the opening, including a panel discussion and a comedy show.
National Anti-Hunger Organizations Release New 2008 Blueprint to End Hunger on World Food Day
The report said economic development and growth stories had helped little to eradicate hunger in India. It has placed India's most developed state of Gujarat even below the Central African country of Haiti.
"We found link between economic development and hunger missing. We believe that eight to nine percent growth is not inclusive," said the IFPRI Asia director.
The IFPRI recommended three areas for high-priority policy actions including productivity and research, nutrition and social protection and elimination of agriculture trade restrictions.
Alarming:
The report calculated hunger levels for 17 major states in India, representing more than 95 percent of the population. Twelve states fall into the ‘alarming’ category and Madhya Pradesh was reported to have an ‘extremely alarming’ level of hunger. Four states — Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam — fell in the 'serious' category.
The authors said India's poor performance was primarily due to its relatively high levels of child malnutrition and under-nourishment resulting from calorie deficient diets.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C10%5C16%5Cstory_16-10-2008_pg7_52
Hunger eclipsed by financial crisis on World Food Day
Thu 16 Oct 2008, 14:48 GMT
[-] Text [+] By Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - The world's leading crusaders against hunger voiced frustration on World Food Day on Thursday that the global financial crisis had overshadowed a food crisis tipping millions towards starvation.
The World Bank predicts that high food and fuel prices will increase the number of malnourished people in the world by 44 million this year to reach a total of 967 million.
Economists have also warned that the world's poor would be the most vulnerable to a global economic downturn.
"The media have highlighted the financial crisis at the expense of the food crisis," said Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome. The World Food Programme's Executive Director Josette Sheeran acknowledged that even citizens of wealthy countries had been affected by high food prices and the financial crisis.
"But for those who live on less than a dollar a day, it's a matter of life and death," Sheeran said.
Proponents of more urgent measures questioned why the world's richest nations could not show the same urgency to save people from starvation as they did when rushing to rescue banks.
"My position is that the financial crisis is a serious one, and deserves urgent attention and focus, but so is the question of hunger, and millions (are) likely to die. Is that any less urgent?," asked former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
SPECULATION, SELFISHNESS
Pope Benedict said the blame for hunger could be directed at "boundless speculation" in markets, partly blamed for high food and fuel prices. But he also pointed to "selfishness" by the world's rich and a poor distribution of resources.
A Senegal-based NGO said the fading attention to the food crisis showed a "problem of justice, of equity and solidarity."
"If they are able to raise funds for the banking system, they can also find ways to reduce poverty in the world," Vore Gana Seck, President of Dakar-based CONGAD (Council of NGOs Supporting Development) told Reuters in the Senegalese capital.
"I think it's a problem of priority."
Prices of wheat, rice, maize and other staples in the developing world have all risen dramatically this year, although they have fallen from their peaks in recent months.
In Somalia, wheat prices have risen by 300 percent in the 15 months to April. Maize prices in southern Africa have risen by anywhere between 40 and 65 percent, crippling the ability of the poor to feed themselves, said aid group Oxfam.
"It is shocking that the international community has failed to organise itself to respond adequately" to the food and energy crisis, said Barbara Stocking, the head of Oxfam.
"We need to see one coordinated international response, led by the United Nations, which channels funds urgently to those in need, and leads on implementation of the longer-term reforms."
Diouf said the world has the know-how to end hunger, even if the population climbs to a forecast 9 billion people by 2050.
But he complained that his U.N. agency lacked resources and said that it only received 10 percent of the $22 billion (12.8 billion pounds) pledged in June, following food riots in some of the affected countries.
"We have a serious shortfall in the financial resources needed to fulfill the expectations," Diouf said.
"In spite of the passionate speeches and financial commitments made by many countries, only a tiny proportion of what was promised in June has been delivered."
Development economist Jeffrey Sachs told reporters he was pessimistic about the future, given the lack of progress even when the food crisis had made headlines earlier this year.
"There are reasons to believe that on the current business-as-usual trajectory things will get worse.. because of rises in population, more climate shocks, more environmental degradation, and lack of ability of the very poor places to respond adequately," he said.
(Additional reporting by Megan Rowling and Jonathan Saul in Dublin, Pascal Fletcher in Dakar, Luke Baker in London; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Call to tackle hunger crisis
5 hours ago
The global hunger crisis must be tackled with the same urgency as the economic downturn around the world, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan told a conference in Dublin.
Mr Annan told an international conference on hunger that the recession cannot be used as an excuse for inaction. The chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa said the food crisis had been compounded by a global financial crisis.
He called on richer nations not to let the credit crunch make the situation any worse than it already is for those already suffering. He said: "It is important for us to remind the politicians that the food crisis and the crisis of hunger is a real one and we should treat it with the same urgency and focus as we are tackling the financial one. In this situation the poor is the first to suffer."
Center opens in NYC to fight global hunger
By DEEPTI HAJELA – 6 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Founders of the new Action Center to End World Hunger hope visitors will come away not only knowing more about world hunger, but resolved to do something about it.
The center, a project of international aid organization Mercy Corps, was to open Thursday — World Food Day — in Manhattan across the street from the Irish Hunger Memorial.
The multimedia, interactive facility designed by Edwin Schlossberg tries to connect people to the hunger relief work being done around the world and offers a variety of ways to get involved. It features a video narrated by "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" star Tina Fey.
"The Action Center will illuminate how hunger is not the problem, but the symptom of many root causes, such as poor agricultural practices, human rights abuses, and the impacts of climate change," Fey says in the video. By identifying and highlighting these underlying causes, the Action Center will seek to generate the public resolve necessary to create lasting change."
George Devendorf of Mercy Corps said one goal is to "get someone who hasn't previously taken an action to take one."
The center suggests a host of actions that visitors can take to combat hunger, depending the amount of time they want to give — from one minute to one day to a lifetime. Actions range from writing a letter to a congressman to sponsoring a tree in Niger to becoming an Americorps VISTA volunteer.
Four "training towers" focus on issues related to hunger, such as land use or governance, and show how various countries deal with those issues.
Mercy Corps, based in Portland, Ore., sees the center as a way of helping Americans change the way they see the world, and getting them more connected to global issues, Devendorf said.
"We're not going to be successful in achieving the kind of lasting change we want unless we open up a second front in that struggle, and that second front is here at home," he said. "It's influencing Americans and building a constituency of citizens who understand what some of these root causes are that animate hunger and poverty and have a clear understanding of some of the steps they can take."
Devendorf said the idea to create the center started at the Battery Park City Authority, which was looking for a complement to the hunger memorial in that neighborhood. The memorial commemorates the famine that brought hundreds of thousands of Irish to New York.
The center is hosting several events to mark the opening, including a panel discussion and a comedy show.
National Anti-Hunger Organizations Release New 2008 Blueprint to End Hunger on World Food Day
Last update: 10:39 a.m. EDT Oct. 16, 2008
WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO) today released the 2008 Blueprint to End Hunger on World Food Day to provide the nation direction on how to end hunger in America.
"We have the ability and the means to end hunger in this country. It is first and foremost a matter of getting good nutrition to people who are unable to afford or access adequate amounts of nutritious food," said H. Eric Schockman, Ph.D., Chair of NAHO. "The 2008 Blueprint to End Hunger lays out simple, achievable goals for ending hunger in our nation. If we fail to end hunger in our nation, our land of plenty, then we are responsible for the tragedies that result -- children who cannot learn in school because they are hungry, children who suffer physical and mental impairment because of inadequate nutrition, and seniors who suffer serious health consequences because they simply don't have enough to eat."
Over the years, U.S. leaders have worked together in a bipartisan fashion to develop national nutrition programs, such as the child nutrition programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly named the Food Stamp Program) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). These programs have been successful in helping to reduce U.S. hunger and are largely responsible for eradicating the kind of hunger and malnutrition that still exists in the developing world. These programs continue to serve as a major bulwark against hunger. But despite their effectiveness, the programs are under-funded and fail to reach many people who need food assistance. By strengthening the programs and improving people's access to them, the United States can do much more to reduce hunger.
In 2004, the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO) issued the Blueprint to End Hunger - mapping out an effective and targeted strategy to address hunger throughout the United States. Some progress has been made since that time. Critical new investments were most recently made in nutrition programs as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, including some of the policies advocated in the first Blueprint. But sadly, much work remains and many of the policies called for in the original Blueprint still apply.
More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, live with hunger or on the brink of hunger. The cost of food and healthcare is skyrocketing, and high rates of unemployment continue. Record numbers of people are enrolling in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the WIC and school meal programs, and, the nation's charitable emergency food distribution network is overburdened, with an estimated 20 percent increase in the number of people requesting food assistance over 2007.
NAHO Membership is comprised of: Alliance to End Hunger, Association of Nutrition Services Agencies, Bread for the World, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Congressional Hunger Center, Feeding America, Food Research and Action Center, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, National Association of Interfaith Hunger Directors, RESULTS, Share Our Strength, Society of Saint Andrew, The End Hunger Network and the World Hunger Year.
Available for Media Interviews:
Bill Ayres, Executive Director, World Hunger Year, 212-629-8850 ext. 129
David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World, 202-639-9400
Joanne Carter, Executive Director, RESULTS, 202-783-7100 ext. 109
Ed Cooney, Executive Director, Congressional Hunger Center, 202-547-7022 ext. 14
Stacy Dean, Director of Food Assistance Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 202-408-1080
Vicki Escarra, President and CEO, Feeding America, 312-641-6610
Max Finberg, Director, The Alliance To End Hunger, 202-639-9400
Michael Robitaille, Executive Director, The End Hunger Network, 310-454-3716
H. Eric Schockman, Ph.D., President, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, 310-442-0020
Bill Shore, Founder and Executive Director, Share Our Strength, 202-393-2925
Jim Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center, 202-986-2200
SOURCE National Anti-Hunger Organizations
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
On World Food Day, rural women demand land rights to fight hunger
New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) Seventy percent of the female workforce is engaged in agriculture, yet only 10 percent women farmers own any land. On World Food Day Thursday, women from various parts of rural India demanded agricultural land rights - to battle hunger and poverty.
Supported by members of local NGOs and international NGO ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign, these women, most of whom work as agricultural farmers yet don’t have the right on their piece of land, stressed that this was the way out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
Kamala Matan of Orissa, who belongs to a tribal community, said that their fight for joint pattas (land titles) with their husbands, which gives them a legal claim to the land they use, has ensured them food security and an independent livelihood.
‘This patta gives us strength. We don’t fear the men now. They can’t threaten to throw us out,’ Matan said.
‘Other people can learn from us. When we get the patta we can claim the land and after us, our children will inherit it,’ she added.
Convincing the men was not easy, Matan said. However they have managed to convince quite a few.
‘We have been convincing men to sign the patta application in joint names. At the women’s group meet, we told our husbands that even we have daughters and tomorrow if her husband divorces her, then she will face the same problem. If we all sign the patta application together, this will help them. So they signed it,’ she said.
Rambati, who hails from the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh and belongs to the poverty-stricken Sahariya community - a primitive tribal group in which men typically marry twice - said: ‘If the government doesn’t give ownership of land to women, what will happen to the first wife if the husband marries again or deserts the wife? How will she manage her and her children’s lives?’
Everjoice Win, ActionAid’s Head of Women’s Rights, said: ‘There is no quick fix to ending hunger, but there is a long-term solution. In poor countries, it is women who grow most of the food and feed their families. But their rights to access and control the means to do so are not provided and in some cases are violated outright.
‘States can be more food secure by implementing and upholding new laws that give women more secure rights to own or access land in their own right as citizens.’
http://www.sindhtoday.net/south-asia/28754.htm
Most of G7 in recession, more rate cuts ahead
16 Oct, 2008, 2132 hrs IST, REUTERS
LONDON: The world's richest nations are in or close to recession and further interest rate cuts are needed to stem off more rot from the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years, Reuters polls of economists showed on Thursday.
Particularly worrying in a quarterly survey of about 250 analysts across the Group of Seven nations is the sharp deterioration in the outlook for the United States, which until very recently was seen only flirting with recession.
Now the consensus view is that the world's largest economy will shrink for three successive quarters, last seen in 1974-75. That, say economists, will require the Federal Reserve to cut rates even lower than their already rock-bottom 1.50 percent.
The polls were taken after governments across the G7 nationalized swathes of the ailing banking sector and after the world's major central banks slashed interest rates in unison in an unprecedented move that even involved China.
Central banks are still flooding money markets with billions of dollars in temporary cash and dropping restrictions on access to funds but banks remain very reluctant to lend to each other and market rates are coming down only gradually.
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This leaves the world economy in its most dangerous spot in a very long time, say economists, who have all but abandoned concerns over inflation given the rapid falls in asset prices and a halving in crude oil prices in just a few months.
"With GDP in rapid decline, we look for recessionary conditions to produce a rapid rise in unemployment and worsening corporate profits," said Peter Kretzmer, US economist at Bank of America in New York.
"The downturn is also being felt around the world."
The latest Reuters polls marked the largest downgrades to growth across the G7, with the exception of Japan, since June last year. Since the polls closed, US and Asian stock markets staged their biggest falls since the crash of October 1987, but this time not on fears for the banking system.
Now financial markets and economists are fretting in unison about a global recession and the damage that would do to consumer and company balance sheets, setting the stage for higher unemployment and shrinking profits.
Airbus forecast sends EADS shares plunging
16 Oct, 2008, 1856 hrs IST, AGENCIES
PARIS: Shares in European aerospace group EADS plunged in value on the Paris stock exchange on Thursday after its subsidiary Airbus said it was aband
oning planned production increases owing to an economic slowdown.
EADS shares lost 4.52 per cent of their value to 9.71 euros in midday trading in Paris in a market that was down 3.45 percent overall.
Airbus said on Wednesday it was lowering its production targets due to the world economic slowdown and the financial crisis which has hit world markets in recent weeks.
It said it had abandoned for the moment its aim of raising production of its A320 single-aisle airliner to 40 a month in 2010, leaving the target at 36, and would postpone a hike in production of the A330 and A340 long-haul jets by a year to 2011.
Harald Liberge-Dondoux, an analyst at the Credit Mutuel-CIC bank, said the revision was "appropriate" since Airbus's targets were becoming "more and more untenable."
"It has to avoid over-production, particularly in the single-aisle segment which is the most fragile," the analyst said.
Paulson regrets mistakes on economy
16 Oct, 2008, 2151 hrs IST, AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday expressed regret for the many errors made that led to the biggest financial crisis in seven decades, but he insisted the administration is pursuing the correct course now to end the debacle.
"We're not proud of all the mistakes that were made by many different people, different parties, failures of our regulatory system, failures of market discipline that got us here," Paulson said in an interview on Fox Business Network.
But he said he had "no regrets" about the steps the government is taking now to address the problem.
"We will mitigate the impact on the real economy and we'll get this financial system working again," he said.
Paulson rejected criticism about the new approach the administration announced on Tuesday to have the government purchase $250 billion in stock from private banks, in effect partially nationalizing the banking system.
He said the initial stock purchases would total $125 billion with the money going to the country's nine largest banks, whose executives were summoned to a meeting with Paulson at the Treasury on Monday where he applied pressure to make sure they all participated.
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Paulson said it was essential that the nine banks, which hold 50 percent of the nation's bank deposits, to participate so that there would not be a stigma attached to the program. He said it would encourage other banks who were in greater need of capital to take part.
"When there's fear in the marketplace and there's concern in the marketplace, no one wants to raise their hand and say, I need capital," Paulson said.
Paulson said there had been an interest "from a good number of other banks" for the other $125 billion the government has to spend to purchase bank stock. Potentially thousands of banks could be eligible for a portion of those funds.
Euro zone in recession, will be hit hard in 2009
16 Oct, 2008, 1954 hrs IST, REUTERS
LONDON: The euro zone economy is likely already in its first recession since monetary union and the outlook for next year looks grim as a global fina
ncial crisis spills over to most sectors, a Reuters poll showed.
Economists said unprecedented efforts by central banks and governments to shore up the global banking system, including some of Europe's biggest names, would not be enough to stop the euro zone economy from sliding into recession.
The quarterly survey of more than 80 economists, conducted Oct. 8-15, showed the economy is expected to grow 1.1 per cent this year, and just 0.4 percent in 2009. That was lower than the 1.3 and 0.9 per cent growth rates predicted last month and the 2.6 per cent reported in 2007 and marked the seventh consecutive monthly downgrade to growth forecasts.
Six analysts even see the economy contracting in 2009. Economists say such a sharp economic deterioration will see the European Central Bank cut interest rates again this year after it joined forces with other global central banks to slash rates by half a percentage point earlier this month.
"The recession that probably started in the middle of this year is likely to stay longer than we expected, through 2009," said Juergen Michels at Citi. He said a pickup in unemployment and cuts in company investment plans had only just begun, and warned the euro zone could experience four to five years of below-average growth.
The majority of economists, or 34 of 41 who answered the question, said the euro zone was now in recession. Gross domestic product is predicted to contract by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, after falling by 0.2 per cent in the second.
On average they saw recession lasting for another six to 12 months, with most saying it would be 'average' in severity by historical standards, as opposed to 'shallow' or 'deep'. That is despite a big retreat in the euro's exchange rate against the dollar from around $1.60 in July, which has eased pressure on exporters, as well as a dramatic fall in oil prices from record highs over $147 a barrel to $75 at present.
The central bank's response to dire economic times will be to cut rates further from their current 3.75 percent. Economists see the bank cutting by another half percentage point by year-end, in line with financial markets' expectations.
"A massive reduction of interest rates will eventually help to stabilise the economy," said Michels, forecasting rates would fall to 2.0 per cent by mid 2009. The majority of economists for now see rates bottoming at 2.75 per cent in the third quarter.
Inflation is also forecast to fall sharply heading into 2009 as oil and food prices ease. That will help the ECB defend its anti-inflation credentials even though official inflation in September was 3.6 percent, still nearly double the bank's aim of keeping it close to but below 2.0 per cent.
Inflation is forecast to average 3.5 per cent in 2008 after peaking at 4.0 per cent in July. It will then ease sharply to 2.2 per cent next year, slightly lower than the 2.4 per cent predicted last month. But consumers will likely be hit hard next year and many people are expected to lose their jobs.
Euro zone unemployment is forecast at 7.4 per cent this year and 8.0 per cent in 2009. That comes as the manufacturing sector experiences a sharp slide in orders. Industrial production is forecast to rise 0.5 percent this year and next.
"The current level of uncertainty is unprecedented for the euro zone, where the full impact of the credit crunch has not yet unfolded," said Yael Selfin at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
US plan may slow fire sales but spur bank mergers
16 Oct, 2008, 1828 hrs IST, REUTERS
NEW YORK: A US government plan to inject capital directly into banks could slow the recent spate of distressed sales but is likely to set the stage for a new wave of bank mergers.
US officials announced a plan on Tuesday to inject $250 billion into the troubled banking industry by acquiring preferred stock and warrants in a number of banks.
Half that amount will go to nine banks: Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group, Bank of America Corp, Merrill Lynch & Co, Wells Fargo & Co, State Street Corp and Bank of New York Mellon.
The rest of the money will be offered to an as yet undetermined number of smaller banks and thrifts across the country.
A direct injection of capital could keep more banks from failing, giving them the option to seek deals on better terms than distressed sales like the takeover of Washington Mutual Inc's banking assets by JPMorgan and the sale of Wachovia Corp to Wells Fargo, experts said.
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But depending on how the government decides to invest the money, it could divide the industry into haves and have nots, with banks that get government support better off than those that do not, leading to a wave of consolidation as stronger banks take over weaker competitors, they said.
"It creates the prospect of the government acting as a source of strength to banks that would otherwise be forced into mergers," said James Murray, head of Houlihan Lokey's financial institutions group. "In the longer run, it probably is going to act as a catalyst for mergers."
China eyes stimulus steps as crisis weighs on growth
16 Oct, 2008, 1655 hrs IST, REUTERS
BEIJING: China needs to be ready with measures to cushion the impact of the global credit crisis on the world's fourth-largest economy, senior offici
als said on Thursday.
China has already cut interest rates twice in recent weeks, and with the business climate worsening, many economists say a further relaxation of monetary policy as well as tax cuts and increases in public spending are only a matter of time.
"If you look at the extent of investment and consumption, you can see that growth is not bad," central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.
"But due to the impact of various factors, we may need to increase domestic demand further," Zhou told Hong Kong's Phoenix TV on Wednesday.
The station posted a clip of the interview to media, on Thursday. Figures due to be released on Monday are likely to show that China's annual growth in gross domestic product dropped below 10 per cent in the third quarter from 10.1 per cent in the second quarter and 11.9 percent in all of 2007.
Yang Xiong, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said on Thursday that the city's industrial output growth dropped to 6 per cent in September from an average of 11.5 per cent for the first nine months.
Steel and aluminium producers are cutting output sharply in the face of slumping prices, sales of cars and property have weakened, and executives say small firms in particular are finding it harder than ever to obtain credit.
Figures released by a power industry group on Thursday showed that China's overall factory output growth slowed to 15.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year, from 15.7 per cent in the first eight months, implying that annual growth for September was well below the 12.8 per cent pace in August.
A prominent former lawmaker said Beijing should shore up growth by offering more support to exporters and by cutting taxes, but he said the world can still be confident in China's growth prospects.
"Even though Chinese growth has already slowed down, if China can expand by 8-10 percent a year, it can still make a great contribution to the world economy," Cheng Siwei, a former vice-head of China's parliament, wrote in the People's Daily overseas edition.
The People's Bank of China, in a statement on its website, vowed to enhance "communication and cooperation" with other central banks and international financial organisations to jointly manage financial risks and maintain financial stability.
Last week, China cut interest rates as part of a coordinated drive with central banks around the world to halt a free-fall in global financial markets.
Du Ying, a vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, said China was considering new steps to stimulate the economy as exports, production and profits in coastal regions slowed.
But Du said China could weather the storm. "As in the past, China can overcome the challenges and difficulties to enter a new stage of development. I'm fully confident of that," Du said.
Yang and Du were speaking at a news briefing organised by the government on the development of the Yangtze River Delta around Shanghai.
Chen Min'er, a vice governor of Zhejiang, a prosperous eastern province with a vibrant private sector, said media reports of widespread factory closures were incorrect, although there had been "individual" cases of company failures.
Zhejiang would respond by trying to cut the tax burden on local firms, make more credit available and ensure a sufficient supply of land and power for manufacturers, Chen told the briefing.
"The fundamentals of the private economy remain healthy and sound despite difficulties with some companies," he said, adding that now was a good time to weed out obsolete, polluting plants.
Yang, the Shanghai vice-mayor, said the financial hub was in good shape partly due to investments in preparation for the 2010 World Expo, which the city will stage. "Amid the financial crisis, we are really lucky that we can have a big event like the World Expo," he said.
Cheng, the former lawmaker, called for more help for exporters, especially those in the garment and textile sectors, to push them up the value chain, and said Beijing should encourage Chinese firms to increase overseas investments.
Cutting income and corporate tax would leave consumers and firms with more money to spend, he added.
Credit Suisse raises 10 billion francs, reports massive loss
16 Oct, 2008, 1419 hrs IST, AGENCIES
ZURICH: Switzerland's second largest bank Credit Suisse said today it had raised 10 billion Swiss francs of new capital, as it posted a 1.3-billion-f
ranc third quarter loss.
"Credit Suisse has raised tier one capital from a small group of major global investors, the largest participant being the Qatar Holding LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority," a bank statement said.
The capital hike would see the bank's so-called tier one ratio - a measure of capital adequacy - raised to 13.7 per cent from 10.4 per cent at the end of the third quarter.
The bank's chief executive officer Brady Dougan said "unprecedented market disruption in September" had led to losses in the investment bank unit.
"Our investment bank was impacted by the volatile conditions and the result reflects further write-downs in our leveraged finance and structured products businesses and other losses resulting from the exceptionally adverse trading conditions in September," he said.
Credit Suisse had plunged into a net loss of 2.148 billion Swiss francs in the first quarter, but managed a profit of 1.215 billion francs in the second.
In all, it has written down about 10 billion Swiss francs worth of assets since the credit crisis began. The Swiss government also injected six billion francs into banking giant UBS, while the central bank loaned it 54 billion dollars to transfer its non-liquid assets into a separate fund.
The fresh capital, equivalent USD 5.2 billion, would give the Swiss government a 9.3 per cent stake in the bank, one of the worst-hit by the global financial crisis.
Inflation of 30 essential commodities rises: FinMin
16 Oct, 2008, 2135 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: Inflation of 30 essential commodities rose to 7.88 per cent for the week ended October 4, even as the overall rate of price rise fell to 1
1.44 per cent on yearly basis.
However, there was decline in prices of four of these commodities and prices of 17 others remained unchanged, a statement by the Finance Ministry said today.
This implies that prices of nine commodities increased on a week-on-week basis. However, the statement did not specify which are these commodities. For the week ended September inflation stood at 7.74 per cent.
So far as conventional method of measuring inflation on yearly basis is concerned, it declined for manufactured products and fuel and power group and increased for primary articles, the ministry said.
Among primary articles, 17 of total 98 items witnessed a decline in prices including wheat, maize, arhar, barley, gram, potatoes, raw rubber and corianders. Another 60 primary articles have shown no increase in prices, the statement said.
In fuel and power group, prices of naphtha, ATF and furnace oil declined while those of other 15 commodities remained unchanged. Bitumin was the only commodity in the group which became dearer.
Among manufactured products, 293 of the total 318 commodities have shown no increase in prices, while 15 became cheaper including lead, foundry and basic pig iron, cotton seed, imported edible oils, MS bars.
Ten products including sugar, gur and salt, ground nut and gingelly oils, automobile cables and complete tractors became expensive, the ministry said.
Breach of $70 mark for crude oil could add to global recession fears
16 Oct, 2008, 1515 hrs IST,Devangi Joshi, ECONOMICTIMES.COM
MUMBAI: Crude oil has taken considerable beating in the last two sessions. With the international benchmark November futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange breaching $77 a barrel, the prices are shy of touching the strong support of $70.
Most market participant see a fall below $67 as indicating a global recession.
“Fears of global economic slow down continue to pressure prices and the downtrend seems deepening. For the near term a breach below $70-67.5 level will be a crucial event. MCX November contract in this back drop can trade in Rs 3435- 3285 per barrel range,” said Bhavna Glory, research analyst, Karvy Comtrade. The domestic November contract on the MCX, currently trading near Rs 3550 per barrel, has lost more than 16% in one week.
While the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has already showed its readiness for a considerable output cut in an emergency meet on Nov 18, the expected slowdown in demand could continue to pressure prices.
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According to Debjyoti Chatterjee, AVP research, Mape Admisi Commodities “Even as the OPEC supply cut could act as a short term supporting factor, the cartel is responsible for about 30% of global production. With falling financial markets and contracting consumer spending across major economies, the demand potential continue to look bleak. Even industrial demand could have a strong pull back if the credit freeze continues to affect spending sentiment.”
There has been a considerable downgrade in demand forecast by institutes like IEA (International Energy Agency) as well as OPEC. The production cartel yesterday cut its estimates for oil demand next year by 450,000 barrels a day, or 0.5% to 87.21 million barrels a day. Last week, the IEA, an adviser to 28 nations, also lowered its projection for global oil demand next year by 0.5 percent to 87.2 million barrels a day.
According to Mr Chatterjee, rising pessimism amongst US consumers as reflected by three consecutive falls in retail sales, indicate further downside for prices. A move towards of $60 in medium term cannot be ruled out if $67 fails to hold.
The weekly crude oil and products inventories from US, world’s largest consumer, is also rising. The hurricane season till late August provided some pullbacks to prices as inventories briefly fell below their five- year average. However, with the end of summer driving season and the turmoil in financial markets, prices have breached through all-important supports in $100-75 range.
This week’s inventories are expected to come out today. The weekly release that is expected to show another build up is delayed by one day, on account of the Columbus Day federal holiday on Oct 13.
Obama says people want solutions, not attacksAP foreign, Thursday October 16 2008 LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says his Republican rival, John McCain, doesn't understand that Americans want to hear about solutions to their economic problems, not political attacks.
Obama traveled Thursday to New Hampshire following his third and final debate with McCain.
McCain told Obama during the debate that he isn't President Bush, a frequent Obama target. The Arizona senator went on to criticize Obama on a variety of domestic issues as well as his past association with a '60s-era radical.
Obama is telling supporters in Londonderry, New Hampshire, that McCain has yet to explain what he would do differently from Bush when it comes to important economic issues.
Kingfisher cancels orders for three A340s
16 Oct, 2008, 2058 hrs IST, IANS
HYDERABAD: Private domestic carrier Kingfisher Airlines has cancelled orders for three Airbus A-340 aircraft, a top Airbus official said here Thursda
y.
Airbus chief operating officer (customers) John Leahy told reporters his company held talks with Kingfisher on the issue. This was the only cancellation from India, he said. Asked if Kingfisher was deferring deliveries of A-320s, he said: "There is nothing new in it."
Kingfisher, which announced a cost-saving alliance with Jet Airways this week, has deferred deliveries of 32 narrow-bodied A-320 aircraft.
Leahy said India remained a key market for Airbus despite the slowdown. Airbus forecast that India would be the fastest growing country for air travel for the next decade. The growth rate is expected to be 9.7 percent against the average global growth rate of 5.4 percent.
The company has forecast that India's aircraft fleet would grow five-fold by 2026. The demand for Indian market over next two decades would be for about 1,000 aircraft worth $120 billion. The largest number 670 will be in single-aisle category.
"Few years from now these numbers might look small as we keep revising our forecast once every two years," Airbus executive vice-president (sales and marketing) Kiran Rao. Airbus has strong partnership with seven Indian carriers. Out of 508 orders from India during 2005-07, Airbus account for 68 percent. It has the biggest share (57 percent) of aircraft in India.
Kiran said the number of engineers at Airbus Engineering Centre in Bangalore would go up from 65 to 100 by the end of this year. The number is expected to go up to 400 by 2010. The CAE Airbus training centre in Bangalore will be opened in February 2009 during the Bangalore air show.
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Saurabh Turakhia & Radhika Pancholi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, October 16, 2008
First Published: 20:47 IST(16/10/2008)
Last Updated: 22:28 IST(16/10/2008)
Print
Shekhar Mehra, a 39-year-old deputy manager with Vishal Retail was shocked when his company asked him to resign with immediate effect.
“About 400 people have been asked to resign. When I asked my HR head to assign even one genuine reason for this (the request for a resignation), he was speechless,” said Sharma, who looked into procurement and merchandising of food products for Vishal and earned an annual package of Rs 4 lakh.
However, Manmohan Agarwal, CEO, corporate affairs, Vishal Retail told Hindustan Times that the company has not done anything radically different than what was the practice for years together. “For six months, we have people on probation. Also, for some management cadres, we don’t have any provision of notice period. We adhere to all terms and conditions of the contract we enter into with all our people,” he said. The company has 14,000 employees and Agarwal said that 300 to 400 people leaving every month is a common thing.
As India feels the ripple of a global financial meltdown, sectors, such as retail, which were so far not only fast-growth ones but also hot employers, have developed cold feet. If they aren’t laying-off people, they have almost frozen new recruitments.
“Talent will always remain a function of growth and with companies getting a little cautious now, layoffs are imminent especially in sectors who, in the wake of significant and fast growth of the last few years had gone overboard on hiring,” said Raj Bowen, managing director (India), Personnel Decision International, an HR consultancy firm.
“Six to seven months back many retailers were bullish on the entry of foreign players, which have now been deferred due to the slowdown. This coupled with protests from smaller retailers as well as political protests have hit them big. Many retailers have also seen their stock falling and this has led them to take certain tough measures,” said E. Balaji, CEO at human resource consulting firm Ma Foi.
Though there is no official confirmation, some media reports say Reliance Retail has laid off more than 2,000 people. “We would categorically deny reports of retrenchment of staff undertaken by Reliance Retail,” said a Reliance spokesperson.
Sanjay Jog, chief people officer, Future Group said his company is continuing business as usual. “We recruit about 500-600 people every month and currently, there is no change. In case there is a delay in completion of properties due to the US slump, it may affect the industry.” The company has 30,000 employees.
Shock and despair among Jet Airways staff given the pink slip
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New Delhi, October 15 Axe falls on 300 in Delhi, similar fate awaits many more; Jet Airways says it’s just the first phase
Just a fortnight before Diwali, hopes came crashing for nearly 300 employees of Jet Airways posted in Delhi. While some of them got a call in the morning and were told that their services had been terminated, several others remained clueless about their fate throughout the day.
There will be many more to share the fate of these 300, as Jet Airways declared that this was merely the first phase of retrenchment and more personnel of all categories would face the axe.
The employees have been shown the door with merely one-month’s salary and one call, saying they have been “de-rostered” due to the reduction in the number of flights. “The number of flights Jet Airways will be offering in its winter schedule will be approximately 15 per cent lower than what was originally planned. As a first step, around 800 flight attendants, recruited recently under an expansion programme that has now been shelved, have been released. We are in the process of releasing personnel in other categories also,” said Wolfgang Prock Shauer, the chief executive officer of Jet Airways.
It’s not only those on probation who got the pink slip. Micheal Canon (28) had been working as a transport supervisor for nearly three years. Canon supports his wife, two children, a younger brother and an elderly brother. “It is too shocking and no one has been able to react yet. We just got a call, saying our flights have been cancelled. When we came to the office, there were no clear orders. Some said we would get our termination letters by evening, while others just did not respond,” said Canon, standing outside domestic terminal 1-B.
Among those retrenched were employees who had just started out on their professional life. “I was planning to get married in a year’s time. I had left a good job in a BPO to get into this profession,” said Pulkit Arora, the eldest of three siblings. “We all had paid Rs 55,000 each to Jet Airways for a four-month training and spent nearly Rs 70,000 more during the training. There will definitely not be any Diwali celebrations at home this year,” he added.
The contract signed by the employees says if they leave work after three years the sum paid for training will be refunded to them. However, if they leave before that, they will be paid Rs 25,000 only. Jet Airways officials did not specify if the retrenched employees would be given back the full amount.
Many of the dejected employees are now ready to work for even less money. “I was getting Rs 35,000 per month and the fact that it won’t be coming to my account any longer means my financial freedom has been taken away. I am even ready to work on a lower salary. They could have kept us as ground staff if they wanted fewer cabin crew members,” said Harpreet Kaur. She said she had been saving money to buy an LCD TV and for a trip to Dubai for her parent’s anniversary, something which won’t be possible now.
Meenakshi Sharma had big plans for October 26, on her 20th birthday. “It would have been my first birthday after getting a job and I had planned a lot of things. All that is meaningless now,” she said. Even as Sharma explained her situation, she was flooded with calls from her colleagues many of whom are still unaware about their fates.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/shock-and-despair-among-jet-airways-staff-given-the-pink-slip/373942/
Diamond workers leaving the country
October 15, 2008
By Justin Brown Johannesburg
Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius are gaining cutting and polishing skills from South Africa as a result of the decline in the local industry, it emerged on Monday at a diamond and precious metal workshop.
Ernest Blom, the chairman of the Diamond and Jewellery Federation of SA, said that more than 1 000 diamond cutters and polishers had been retrenched in the past three years. This move had resulted in the number of diamond cutters and polishers declining from 3 000 to as few as 1 500, he added.
The local industry was declining because of an inadequate supply of rough diamonds since the State Diamond Trader (SDT) was established in January; lack of funding for industry enterprises; and new industry regulations that had resulted in "some unintended consequences".
Blom said: "Before the SDT, [De Beers'] Diamdel in South Africa used to supply more than $100 million [R924 million at yesterday's exchange rate] worth of desirable goods, being goods demanded by the South African market.
"The current state is characterised by the SDT supplying up to 85 percent of undesirable rough diamonds."
Many of the retrenched cutters and polishers had moved to Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius, he said.
Botswana previously had fewer than 300 cutters and polishers, Namibia between 100 and 200, and Mauritius a "handful". Now Botswana had about 3 000, Namibia hundreds and Mauritius about 1 200.
The loss of skilled personnel to neighbouring countries was not due to the packages being offered, but because of retrenchment and "turmoil" in the local market.
Steve Phiri, the chairman of the SA Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator (SADPMR), said the local diamond and precious metals beneficiation industry had shrunk and some of its skilled workers had left for Botswana.
Blom said the South African industry produced less than 1 percent of global jewellery demand. "The total South African industry could fit into a single factory in India [or] China," he added. The local cutting and polishing industry "is in sharp decline".
Phiri said that there had been a delay with the SDT establishing an agreement with diamond producers other than De Beers. "There have been teething problems with the SDT." There has been a significant increase in diamond export volumes.
Local small, medium and micro enterprises faced challenges because there was no support from local diamond producers, Phiri said.
Roger Baxter, the chief economist of the Chamber of Mines, said there was still uncertainty about what form the proposed beneficiation act would take.
He said the way the Diamonds Amendment Act had been applied had created "significant regulatory and market uncertainty".
The SDT and the SADPMR had both created an "uncertain negative environment".
Baxter said: "The SDT has scrapped all previous agreements with diamond mining companies and is insisting on [mining houses] signing a generic … contract, which does not cater for the different business models."
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4660713&fSectionId=552&fSetId=662
Retrenchment and relief money
V Krishna AnanthFirst Published : 10 Oct 2008 04:33:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 10 Oct 2008 10:59:35 AM ISTThe death of Graziano Transmissioni CEO Lalit Kishore Chaudhury is a tragedy, but there is an irony about the way the political establishment and the media went ballistic over the incident in Greater Noida on September 22. A close reading of the events would bring out a few facts; one being that the murder was unintentional.
In other words, criminal intent will be difficult to establish. From what has come out so far, the death of Chaudhury, who headed the Indian unit of the Italian MNC, was more in the nature of an accident than the result of deliberate planning.
Chaudhry’s murder has a resonance with another one long ago, of Shankar Guha Neogi, leader of mine workers in Dalli Rajhara (near Bhilai).
He was shot dead at his residence on September 28, 1991. It was established at the Sessions court that the executioner was hired by some small time industrialists, including BR Jain, who shot to infamy in a hawala case that shook the political establishment for a while in 1995-96. As with the hawala case, the Neogi murder case too fell through for want of legally sustainable evidence.
The one notable difference is that in Neogi’s case, neither the media nor the politicians made a fraction of the noise that followed Lalit Chaudhury’s death. And when workers in the mines and the ancillary units around the Bhilai Steel Plant organised a demonstration demanding justice, the Madhya Pradesh government had its police shoot down 11 of those workers in Bhilai. There was hardly any expression of official concern.
The visual media, of course, did not exist in its glory as now, so there was no question of the cycle of ‘breaking news’ and the screeching that goes non-stop with it. But it is doubtful whether these channels would have treated Neogi with the same tender concern that they showed Chaudhury. These channels seem to see only one side of the story.
In the Lalit Chaudhury case.
Graziano, as has been reported, laid off a section of its workers and the violence on September 22 was a fallout of the demand by retrenched workmen demanding reinstatement or compensation.
The law is clear. Such layoffs are governed by the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 read along with Sections 25(c) and 25(f) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Their ambit has been settled by various High Court and Supreme Court judgments.
If the management lays off a section of its workmen for a period, they are entitled to layoff compensation amounting to half the basic salary and dearness allowance, for 45 days, even in the case of badli workers (P Joseph vs Loyal Textile Mills). Where the layoff persists beyond 45 days, workers are entitled to full compensation.
Similarly, retrenchment has to be preceded by a month’s notice and compensation amounting to 15 days wages (includes basic pay plus dearness allowance) for every year of service is a statutory right for all kinds of workmen, ad hoc, temporary, badli workers and daily rated workers where they have served 240 days in a calendar year.
In a leading case (Mohanlal vs Bharat Electronics Limited) in 1981, the Supreme Court made it clear that any retrenchment without complying with the provisions of Section 25(f) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 will be void ab initio and lead to continuation of service with full back wages. The apex court held that the underlying object of Section 25(f) is two-fold: First, a retrenched employee must have one month’s time to search for alternate employment. So either he should be given one month's notice or paid wages for the notice period.
Secondly, the workman must be paid retrenchment compensation at the time of retrenchment, or before, so that once retrenched, there should be no need for him to go to his employer demanding retrenchment compensation.
The compensation paid is not only a reward earned for services rendered but is also a sustenance to the worker for the period spent searching for another employment.
The onus of ensuring that all these laws are implemented rests with the departments of labour and employment in the various states as well as the Union government. In other words, the issue insofar as the Greater Noida incident was concerned ought to have been settled by the labour commissioner through his subordinates in the region. This, obviously, was not done and the workers were left in the lurch.
Perhaps it is too much to expect a petty officer to force an MNC to mend its ways and obey the law of the land.
That the mighty Oscar Fernandes, Union minister for labour, had to apologise for his initial observations on the incident, should convince those with a rational mind of the clout these MNCs wield over the nation and its articulate people. And that explains the state of the workmen and their rights against such employers who, incidentally, would not dare do such things in their own land. Workers in Italy or any other developed nation cannot be retrenched with the ease as they seek in India. Those responsible are none other than the rulers and the apologists for such un-democracy.
(The writer is an advocate and political commentator based in Chennai)
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