Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 327
Palash Biswas
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DLF wants to sell life JV stake, scouts for buyersEconomic Times - Aug 5, 2009 The first person, a senior executive in the insurance industry, said DLF wants to exit insurance business it entered in 2007 when the realty boom was at its ... It's right time to buy, say realtorsDeccan Herald - 21 hours ago That's the mantra of Confederation of Real Estate & Developer's Association of India's (Credai) — Karnataka chapter. Painting a rosy picture of the industry ... Bangalore Property is on boom, taking place in India.PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) - 3 hours ago 2009-08-12 13:55:16 - Bangalore Property is on boom, taking place in India. Keeping pace with this rocketing real estate market is the Bangalore Real Estate ... Amid downturn, banks hiked exposure to realtyTimes of India - Aug 2, 2009 This was not only an increase of 45% over the previous year but was more than double the amount of Rs 44000 crore exposure of these banks during the boom ... Realty sector begins to look up, ahead: boom by Diwali?Expressindia.com - - Aug 3, 2009 “It was not as if all the money suddenly disappeared, at least not in India,” he said. “There was great fear in but it was a great time to invest in ... Untapped potentialExpress Estates - - Aug 9, 2009 As the real-estate boom gathered steam (around 2005-2006), a large number of metro-based developers announced housing projects in tier II and tier III ... Global Real Estate: Boom to Bust to…?BusinessWeek - - Aug 5, 2009 Our housing boom coincided, more or less, with booms from India to Russia. And home prices in many of those countries also plunged during the past few years ... Home buyers return, respite for realty firmsLivemint - - Jul 30, 2009 DLF Ltd, India's laregst developer by market value, which was also to announce its first-quarter results on Thursday, had not done so by the time this ... Big-ticket land buys on realty radar againLivemint - - Aug 2, 2009 This lull in buying land, which began sometime in mid-2008, followed a three-year realty boom that saw a spate of expensive transactions and continuous land ... Sanjeev Sanyal: Building cities for 21st-century IndiaBusiness Standard - Aug 4, 2009 Thankfully, much of urban India is yet to be built and we have an opportunity to change our model in time for the coming urban boom. |
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Slum Dwellers in Indian Cities: The Case of Surat in Western India
Downloadable! Among the many problems associated with urban growth in India, an increase in the proportion of slums and squatters especially in its 'metros' ...
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3 Dec 2008 ... Pune For the first time in the city, a health insurance scheme for slum dwellers has been proposed as part of the services to be delivered ...
www.expressindia.com/latest-news/health...slum-dwellers/393659/ - Similar -CHF International Creating a Virtual Marketplace for India's Slum ...
Creating a Virtual Marketplace for India's Slum Dwellers | Reuters
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Govt to roll out Rs 225k cr plan to house slum dwellers - 19 hours ago NEW DELHI: In its most ambitious bid ever to house 6-crore slum dwellers and realise the vision of a slum-free India, the government is rolling out a ...Economic Times - 2 related articles »
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Foreigners lend helping hand to slum dwellersTimes of India - - Jul 28, 2009 "Drama, theatre and play are the most powerful medium of communication in India. I help these NGO members hone their artistic skills, who are creating ... PGMA asks HUDCC to study India's "slum program"Philippine Information Agency - Aug 10, 2009 The project focuses on according property rights to slum dwellers and urban poor. It would as well provide basic amenities such as water supply, sewerage, ... Survey of Slum Dwellers and Employment SchemesPress Information Bureau (press release) - Aug 6, 2009 The Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Census of India, 2001 conducted enumeration of slum population in 640 ... Ownership right to slum dwellersPress Information Bureau (press release) - Jul 31, 2009 In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said the Government's effort would be to create a slum free India through the Rajiv Awas Yojana in the next ... Officials to focus on one project at a timeTimes of India - Jul 21, 2009 JNNURM special officer P Manivannan, on Tuesday reviewed the housing projects for the slum dwellers which are lagging behind. The Rs 209 crore project to ... Rain leaves region standstillExpress Buzz - 9 hours ago There were reports of dwellers of a slum behind RBI Colony conducting “puja” soon after the tremors were felt while some buildings in the City had developed ... A Changed ContextCanadian Architect - 22 hours ago Slum clearance was expected to help eliminate substandard housing stock, and former slum-dwellers were to be provided with new public housing. ... Sunil Sethi: Delhi's double displacementBusiness Standard - - Aug 7, 2009 In Swept off the Map, Jagori, a women's resource group, describes the horror of what happened when 150000 slum dwellers along the river Yamuna were evicted ... |
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Hollywood script guru is story-hunting in IndiaHindu - Aug 7, 2009 New Delhi (IANS): After the success of "Slumdog Millionaire", Indian films have gained worldwide appeal, says Hollywood script guru Chadwick Clough, ... Rahman plans concert to relieve racism tensionIndian Express - Aug 11, 2009 ... between India and Australia following racist attacks. The composer, who won two Academy Awards for his work on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, ... India's police 'resort to brutality while under crippling pressure'Times Online - - Aug 6, 2009 No wonder junior Indian police officers often resort to the brutal methods depicted in Slumdog Millionaire — and often far worse. That was the conclusion of ... Meet Hollywood's Bollywood HeroRediff - Aug 3, 2009 Bollywood Hero was shot in India for nearly three months, most of it in Mumbai, and the producers used the crew that had worked on Slumdog. ... Summer: Hot ReadsCalgary Herald - - 47 minutes ago Here are five that will entertain and take you places you might otherwise never visit: London, Australia, India, Los Angeles, Rhode Island and Sag Harbor. ... Karan Johar and SRK sign deal with Fox StarDaily News & Analysis - - Aug 6, 2009 Fox Star studios had earlier successfully distributed Slumdog Millionaire in India. At a press conference arranged to announce the deal, Shah Rukh Khan said ... AR Rahman to host music show to mark DD's 50 yearsGaea Times - 4 hours ago ... between India and Australia following racist attacks. The composer, who won two Academy Awards for his work on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, ... Julia Roberts to shoot in India ashramTimes of India - Aug 8, 2009 Some of the Indian crew of Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle) will also be helping in the India part of the production, though the shooting schedule is being ... High hopes for 'My Name Is Khan'Digital Spy - - Aug 10, 2009 Fox STAR Studios has said that it hopes My Name Is Khan can recreate the success of Slumdog Millionaire, ... |
Swine Flu | ||||||
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Editorial Make Tamiflu widely available It's better to have many outlets for diagnoses & distribution of medicines. Ailing textile sector There isn't any quick-fix solution for the industry which exports 55% of output. Statues speak a lot! Statue politics is cast in stone, logical way by which leaders define history. | ||
Columnists | ||
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Stress levels rise in the suicide belt
TNN
YAVATMAL:
Nature has once again turned against Vidarbha, the most backward region of
Maharashtra, where an overwhelming majority of farmers
gods.
The standing crop of cotton, soyabean and jowar in some three
million hectares is fast wilting as the region has received little or no rain in
the last three weeks. Paddy cultivation has also been severely hit in eastern
parts of the region.
A dry spell in the middle of the kharif season
has left farmers despondent . The jowar crop is already lost, soyabean has
suffered 60% damage and even the cotton crop is facing the heat.
The
region's main farming season had a faltering start as monsoon arrived late
almost by a month. But once it started raining from June-end farmers expected
the season to proceed smoothly. By early July sowing operations were complete.
Even in the beginning of July it rained well and the seeds
germinated, giving the fields a lush green look . It was not to last. The rain
stopped as suddenly as it began. Now, the prolonged dry spell has left the
standing crop high and dry. With irrigation facilities abysmally poor in these
parts, the dependence on rain is total. The situation is worse in Yavatmal
district, the epicentre of farmers suicide crisis.
"We are staring
at an unprecedented drought. The water level in major dams has come down to 34%
while the reservoirs and catchment areas have dried up," said social activist
Vilas Wankhede. His worst fear is that the drought will now lead to a spurt in
crime.
"Incidents of robberies, thefts and house-breaking are on the
rise in this otherwise peaceful city. In some cases the involvement of rural
youths has surfaced," added Wankhede.
"The farmers are having
sleepless nights as they have no fodder or water for the cattle. Distress sale
of cattle has begun. At the Sunday weekly market at Pandharkawda 450 cows and
200 buffaloes were brought and were being sold at throwaway prices," said
Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti.
 Swine flu death toll in India reaches 17 A  Pune institute in global race for swine flu vaccine Pune is among the world's leading players trying to develop a vaccine to fight the H1N1 virus.  Swine flu: Mumbai schools to be closed for 7 days All  Private hospitals reluctant to join battle against H1N1 Private  'Action against airlines erring in H1N1 screening' Aviation  Scare spreads to IIM campuses Swine  Low-key festivals in flu season Even  'Monsoon spreading pandemic flu' H1N1  Everything you wanted to know about swine flu The spread of swine flu is fast emerging as No 1 healthcare emergency not just in the country but the world over.  Airlines gear up to combat flu scare With  Working parents find it doubly difficult Working parents often display an odd sense of preparedness when confronted with a situation relating to their children.  You still may catch the virus wearing mask Indiscriminate use of a face masks to prevent Swine flu virus can cause more harm than good, say medical experts.  Flying with Flu: Indian bandobast better than UK Despite  Swine Flu: IT companies issue advisory Taking | ||
Rangarajan reappointed PM econ adviser!
Govt to roll out Rs 225k cr plan to house slum dwellers !
Food Security Bill is scrapped thanks to IMMINENT Drought!
The monsoon rainfall deficit widened by one percentage point from the
previous day to 29 per cent on August 10, with rains in the
central region weakening. The shortfall in the soybean-growing region of central
India widened by 1 percentage point to 20 per cent, government sources told
Reuters on Wednesday, raising the prospect of increased imports from the world's
top edible oil buyer.
The June-September rains were 42 per cent short
until August 10 over the cane-growing region of northwest India, the same as the
previous day.
A top government scientist said that the sugarcane crop
had already suffered, but the soybean crop could still withstand the dry spell
as it was planted late.
"The sugarcane crop has been hit badly but
the soybean crop was planted late and it will gain from rains we are expecting
soon," the scientist in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, who did not want to be
identified, said.
The weather office has forecast good rains in cane
and soybean regions in the next few days.
Trade officials have said
low rainfall could slash the domestic oilseed supply and raise India's edible
oils imports, although the international price and India's winter-sown rapeseed
output would be key factors.
"A weak monsoon will lower output of
summer-sown oilseed crops, which would reduce domestic edible oil availability,
but how much, we have to watch till the monsoon is over," said B V Mehta,
executive director of the Solvent Extractors' Association of
India.
India buys about half of its total demand from Malaysia,
Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina.
STT removal in Direct Taxes code finds favour with market players!
Swine Flue Pandemic is being used as Braincontrol Game to continue Economic reforms without any Resistance under ROTHCHILDS Team Extra constitutional supervision!
I have been insisting that CITIZENSHIP Amendment Act has to be used to Capture Prime Properties in Urban and semi Urban areas, Natural Resources of Super High Commercial Value in aboriginal Tribal Areas! I have been also writing and speaking on Progrrammed and projected Mass Movement, Idelogies, Trade Unions and Insurgency meant for Ethnic Cleansing and Monopolistic aggression!
Unique Identity Number Project and entry of Nilekani and Sunil Mitra heralded the Genocide Plan in the Infinite Death Chamber!
Now, they have pallned another BIG REALTY BOOM to Capture Prime Properties in Urban India under a Flagship Programme! It is HOME for all Slum Dwellers in India!
It is NO SLUMDOG or SLUMDOG Free India Mission!
The prime minister's economic advisory panel has been reconstituted and
former central bank governor C Rangarajan has been reappointed
a government statement said on Tuesday.
Rangarajan was heading the
panel before becoming a member of parliament last year.
Other
members of the new panel are Saumitra Chaudhuri of ICRA, Govinda Rao of National
Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Vijay Shankar Vyas of Asian Society of
Agricultural Economists and Suman K Bery of National Council of Applied Economic
Research.
The panel advises Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on
important policy issues, the statement from prime minister's office said.
Warning that farm sector distress can have serious consequences on the
economy, PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan on Wednesday asked the
additional resources to provide relief to drought-hit people and increase import
of essential commodities to check price rise.
"Distress in
agriculture (due to drought) will have other serious dimensions. The government
may have to find additional resources to meet the requirements of the affected
people," he said after taking over as the head of the Prime Minister's Economic
Advisory Council (PMEAC) for the second time.
As regards the impact
of drought on economy, he said, the growth rate could slip to 6-6.5 per cent
from 6.7 per cent in the previous fiscal.
"The Indian economy has
been doing well in the past several years but the growth rate came down to 6.7
per cent last year because of the impact of international financial crisis...
this year the economy will grow between 6 and 6.5 per cent. The drought will
have dampening impact on the overall growth rate," he said.
"As a
result of the drought there is a tendency of the prices to rise... the stock of
foodgrains available with the government is large... but wherever there is a
scarcity and where imports are possible we should do it. If the production of
pulses fall there should be a greater effort to import pulses," he said.
The removal of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) proposed in the new
Direct Taxes Code may prove beneficial for market players as it
strong volumes, analysts
said.
"The abolishment of STT
would be beneficial for brokers and day-traders, for whom the cost of
transactions had increased considerably, and strong volumes may come back if it
is removed," Purpleline Investment Advisors CEO P K Agarwal
said.
Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee today released the Direct Taxes Code that would ultimately replace the
over four-decades old Income Tax Act and bring all other direct taxes like
wealth tax under its purview, if reasonable level of discussion happens on the
code, a bill could be placed in the winter session of
Parliament.
The radical tax
reforms proposed include an abolition of the controversial STT and
reintroduction of tax on long term capital gains on securities
trading.
Echoing similar
sentiments, SMC Global Vice-President Rajesh Jain said, "Removal of STT may
bring back strong volumes in the market and may be beneficial for day traders
and brokers but long term investors may suffer but that depends which tax is
introduced eventually."
Bonanza
Portfolio Assistant VP Avinash Gupta said, "The proposal of removal of STT may
be beneficial for the market and if the tax introduced in its place is at a
lower rate it will be helpful."
The draft Direct Taxes Code proposes raising tax exemption limit on
savings to Rs three lakh from the present Rs one lakh, while
money withdrawn from savings schemes like PPF, EPF and GPF.
"The limit for deduction for
savings has been substantially increased to Rs three lakh," an official
statement said on the new tax code, which has been put up for public comments.
With regard to withdrawals
from savings schemes, the code suggested that these should be taxed under the
EET (Exempt Exempt Taxation) mode of tax, implying that the tax should be levied
at the time of withdrawal.
With regard to PPF and other
pension fund schemes, the code said the government should continue the tax
exempt status to withdrawals of amounts accumulated up to March 31, 2011.
The contributions to the PPF
and pension schemes after the commencement of the code, it added, should be
subject to EET mode of taxation.
Unlike various other saving
schemes, withdrawals from PPF, EPF and GPF are not taxed at the time of
withdrawal. Withdrawals, it said, should be included in the income of the
assessee during the relevant year and taxed accordingly.
EET mode of taxation, the code
said would encourage long term savings by the people.
Besides, the code also
suggested that retirement benefits would be exempt from tax if saved in the
Retirement Benefits Account.
Meanwhile, a delegation of industry representatives met Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh on Tuesday and asked the government to take steps to bring
down interest
rates to revive economy, particularly the manufacturing
sector.
Though state-run banks have reduced interest rates, private
sector banks were still to follow suit, Harsh Pati Singhania, president,
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
said.
He said government borrowing programme this fiscal and
drought-like conditions could lead to inflation driven by agri- commodity
shortages.
"We must ensure that interest rates do not rise or else
the recovery process will be adversely impacted," he said.
The
central bank cut its lending rate by 4.25 percentage points between October and
April to 4.75 per cent and the government slashed duties and increased public
spending to stimulate the economy hit by the global slump.
The
economy, which expanded by 6.7 per cent in 2008/09 (April/March), is likely to
grow by around 6 per cent in 2009/10.
The industry lobby also asked
the government to allow foreign investment up to 49 per cent in multi-brand
retail sector and auction third-generation wireless spectrum at the earliest in
a transparent manner.
On exports, the FICCI wanted more tax
incentives "at par with those offered in other developing countries" apart from
support to diversify their exports.
How about Mukesh Ambani, Nilekani on Apple board: Report
Stressing the importance of the Indian market, US business magazine
BusinessWeek has suggested that Reliance Industries Chairman
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani join as directors on the board of software
giant Apple.
"An executive who
understands the Indian market could be a guiding hand in Apple's board room. How
about former Infosys (Co-Chairman) Nandan Nilekani (now serving the government
with minister rank)? or Mukesh Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, whose retail
subsidiary sells Apple gear in India?," the publication said in an article
published online.
Nilekani was
recently appointed as Chairperson of India's National Unique Identification
Authority and has the rank and status of Cabinet
Minister.
Internet giant
Google's Chief Executive Officer Eric Schimdt quit Apple's board earlier this
month and was a director at the software major since December
2006.
BusinessWeek said that
with Schmidt leaving the board, the path is clear for the "company's next likely
director, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook" to
join.
"But the challenges that
will face the company in the next decade -- which include managing its larger
size, reckoning with internet-based computing and growing overseas -- will
require more fresh blood on the board," the report
noted.
New Tax code: Pay 10% tax for salary up to Rs 10 lakh
The government on Wednesday initiated radical tax reforms through a draft
code that aims at moderating income tax rates, abolishing
Tax and increasing deduction for savings up to Rs three lakh. The new Direct
Taxes Code has suggested a significant expansion of personal income-tax slabs,
with levels of relief going up with
incomes.
Releasing the Direct
Taxes Code that will ultimately replace the over four-decades old Income Tax Act
and bring all other direct taxes like wealth tax under its purview, Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said if reasonable level of discussion happens
on the code, a bill could be placed in the winter session of Parliament.
The Code said that the 10 per
cent tax rate should apply to an annual income of Rs 1.6-10 lakh per annum and
the 20 per cent rate to Rs 10-25
lakh.
The maximum rate of 30
per cent, it added, should apply to income above Rs 25 lakh per
annum.
The new rates, it said,
"are expected to yield the existing level of revenues with the revised
comprehensive tax base proposed in this
code".
Now 10 per cent is
levied on incomes of Rs 1.6-3 lakh, 20 per cent on Rs 3-5 lakh and 30 per cent
above Rs 5 lakh.
The Code also
suggested that perquisites given to employees should be included in salary
income, a recommendation that may inflate the taxable income of certain
categories of salaried
persons.
Besides, the Code also
suggested that tax rates for companies should be reduced to 25 per cent for both
domestic and overseas companies. Currently, domestic companies are taxed at 30
per cent with surcharge and cess coming
later.
Foreign companies should
pay an additional tax of 15 per cent as branch profit tax, the Code said.
"We expect to have better
compliance and better collection of taxes," Mukherjee said.
While the code proposes
abolition of the controversial STT, it also suggests reintroduction of tax on
long term capital gains on securities trading.
"The language is very, very
simple. By putting simple language and simple forms, we will eliminate
litigations as far as possible," Mukherjee
said.
He said it would be
possible for most taxpayers to file their returns easily, adding that there were
several easy to comprehend illustrations to guide them through the entire
process, which today is often seen as complex and
confusing.
"I expect people
will read it, there would be an informed debate. Of course, we will hold
detailed discussions with large numbers of
stakeholders."
Home Minister P
Chidambaram, who during his tenure in the Finance Ministry had initiated work on
the Code, said that this was a brand new Code written from scratch.
"In these 48 years, not only
India has changed, the world has changed. Therefore, it is widely accepted that
the present code is outdated," Chidambaram said, adding: "It became a happy
hunting ground for lawyers. This will be a transformational
law."
People should not get
perturbed by the large number of pages in the new draft, which runs into 256
pages, Chidambaram said, explaining that the direct tax code of the US ran into
2,000 pages.
The finance
minister also placed on the ministry's website a discussion paper on the subject
to invite opinion from the public before going to parliament with a proper bill
for the legislative changes.
Cash-for-query scam: Court summons 11 ex-MPs
A Delhi court has issued summons against 11 former MPs for being
allegedly involved in corrupt practice of taking money for asking
parliament in 2005.
Besides the ex-Parliamentarians, two journalists
of web portal cobrapost.com Aniruddha Bahal and Suhasini Raj were also made
accused in the chargesheet for abetting the offence under the Prevention of
Corruption Act.
Special Judge Rakesh Siddharth sought the presence of
the ex-MPs, who were later expelled from parliament after being found guilty by
the House Ethics Committee, before the court on August 20.
Delhi
Police had chargesheeted the 11 former MPs for misusing their office when they
were caught on camera seeking money during a sting operation for asking
questions in Parliament in what came to be known as cash-for-query
scam.
Among the then lawmakers who were expelled by the Speaker after
being caught on camera accepting money in 2005 one Raja Rampal, who was
re-elected in 15th Lok Sabha, has not been summoned as his name has been put by
the police in column number two (list containing names against whom inquiry is
pending) and the police had yet not received sanction for prosecuting him.
RBI intervention likely in 6-12 months to mop up excess money
Corporates expected Reserve Bank to intervene in the next 6-12 months to suck
out excess liquidity from the banking system, which meant
term rates, a J P Morgan survey said on Wednesday.
The apex bank's
intervention could also happen in the next 3-6 months exerting more pressure on
banks to hike rates in the near future, it said.
The survey also said
that non-performing assets of banks in the system are likely to increase in the
medium term.
"36 per cent of the corporate respondents expect RBI to
intervene in the medium term....As a corollary, 28 per cent of all respondents
feel that interest rates are set to harden within the next 6-12 months", the
survey, prepared by J P Morgan Asset Management and Valuenotes,
said.
Corporates also expected their profits and employment
opportunities to improve with an expected recovery in the medium
term.
The survey - investment confidence index - was conducted among
respondents from corporate and retail segments in eight Indian cities in July
and will be published on a quarterly basis.
Industrial output to mitigate poor monsoon: Goldman
Goldman Sachs expects economic gains from industrial activity to mitigate the
negative impact of poor rains, it said in a note on
data showed June factory output surged to a 16-month high.
Industrial
output rose to 7.8 per cent in June from a year earlier, beating forecasts by a
wide margin, as higher salaries of government employees and stimulus spending
boosted consumer demand.
Several indicators of consumption and
investment demand such as the Purchasing Manager's Index and motor vehicle sales
have been showing significant gains, Goldman Sachs said.
Financial
conditions have also continued to loosen over the summer, which mitigates the
negative impact from a contraction in the agricultural sector due to weak
monsoons, said Goldman economists.
India's industrial output to remain strong: HSBC
India's industrial output will continue to be strong, HSBC said in a note
Wednesday.
"Although the June production number could well prove
something of an aberration, bearing in mind just how strong it was, the trend in
industrial output is clear and it's certainly not down," Robert
Prior-Wandesforde, economist at the bank, wrote.
India's industrial
output rose to 7.8 per cent in June from a year earlier, data showed on
Wednesday, beating forecasts by a wide margin, as higher salaries of government
employees and stimulus spending boosted consumer demand.
While the
poor monsoon is creating justifiable concerns about agricultural sector output,
today's release suggests there is plenty of momentum in the ex-agricultural
sector, the note said.
HSBC expects positive effects to come from
India's fiscal and monetary policy actions as well as the stepping up of oil and
gas output.
Retail food prices up 32 pc in June-July: Report
Retail prices of food items in India have surged up to a third in two
months to July after deficient monsoon rains, a newswebsite
report by a news agency.
According to an analysis of 14 essential
commodities collated by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, prices of many
varieties of lentils, sugar, groundnut oil, tea and potato had risen sharply, it
said.
Retail food prices rose up to 32 per cent in June-July,
compared with an 18 per cent rise in the year-ago period, it added, quoting
report.
It therefore retained its growth forecast of 6.2 per cent
for 2009/10 and 8 per cent for 2010/11.
Govt to give Rs 10,000 cr to banks towards debt waiver scheme
The government is likely to release Rs 10,000 crore to banks and
financial institutions as part of compensation for writing off loans
farm-debt waiver scheme.
"The Finance Ministry is considering to
release Rs 10,000 crore to lending institutions in a month or so," official
sources said.
This would be over and above Rs 5,000 crore which was
given earlier this fiscal to the banks and financial institutions towrads the
debt waiver scheme.
The government had announced that it would pay Rs
15,000 crore to the lenders during the current fiscal.
The debt
waiver scheme, announced by the government in 2008-09 Budget, was implemented by
June 30, 2008, entailed a burden of Rs 71,000 crore on banks and financial
institutions which the government promised to reimburse in
stages.
During 2008-09, the government gave a total of Rs 25,000
crore to lending institutions as compensation towards the the Agricultural Debt
Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme.
Under the debt waiver and relief
package, for small and marginal farmers (with holdings up to 2 hectare) there
was a complete waiver of all loans due on December 31, 2007, and which remained
unpaid until February 29, 2008.
RIL, IGL to sign gas supply pact; gas priced at $4.2 per mBtu
Reliance Industries is likely to sign tomorrow a gas sale contract with
Indraprastha Gas Ltd that would use the supplies from RIL's
fields for vending CNG to automobiles and piped gas to kitchens in the national
capital.
RIL is likely to sign
the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with IGL - the sole supplier of CNG
and piped gas in Delhi - for supply of 0.308 million standard cubic meters per
day of its KG-D6 gas, industry sources
said.
Government has allocated
over 0.83 mmscmd gas from KG-D6 for seven city gas projects at a price of $4.2
per million British thermal
unit.
Besides IGL, Mahanagar
Gas Ltd that retails CNG in Mumbai has been allocated 0.37 mmscmd and Hindustan
Petroleum 0.49 mmscmd for its CNG operations in Ahmedabad, sources
said.
State gas utility GAIL's
subsidiaries Avantika Gas Ltd has been given 0.012 mmscmd for Indore and 0.0012
mmscmd for Ujjain, Green Gas Ltd 0.15 mmscmd and Sabarmati Gas Ltd 0.077
mmscmd.
RIL is currently
producing 36 mmscmd gas from KG-D6, half of which goes to power plants. The firm
has the capacity to produce 60 mmscmd but is constrained to produce less as the
government is yet to identify customers for buying gas beyond the initial 40
mmscmd, allocated primarily to fertilizer and power producers in accordance with
the Gas Utilization
Policy.
Deora explains OilMin stand on gas row to PM
Oil Minister Murli Deora on Wednesday called on the Prime Minister to
explain his ministry's stand on the gas dispute between the
how their family pact could affect government's right to put the national
resource to judicious use.
Deora met Prime Minister for about half an
hour and is believed to have explained in detail the part of the demerger
agreement - which split the Dhirubhai Ambani empire between brothers Mukesh and
Anil - that sought to appropriate the gas found in Reliance Industries' KG-D6
and other fields between the firms run by them.
Sources in know of
the development said the minister, who has been under fire from the Anil Ambani
camp for allegedly siding with the elder brother on the issue, explained how
such agreements were in violation of the Production Sharing Contract and would
set a wrong precedent for others.
Deora, they said, told Singh that
his ministry had to move a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court as the
Bombay High Court had given effect to the family MoU and given the private
agreement precedence over government's right to formulate Gas Utilisation Policy
under the PSC.
The Bombay High Court had on June 15 asked RIL to
supply more than a third of peak output from KG-D6 fields to Anil Ambani Group's
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd at $2.34 per million British thermal unit, a rate
44 per cent lower than government approved price for the fuel from the
fields.
Just see these reports published by ECONOMIC Times:
Govt to roll out Rs 225k cr plan to house slum dwellers
ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: In its most ambitious bid
ever to house 6-crore slum dwellers and realise the vision of a slum-free India,
the government is rolling
 |
five years across 400 towns and cities. The programme could free up thousands of
acres of valuable government land across the country and generate crores worth
of business for real estate developers.
The ministry of housing and
urban poverty alleviation has sought an allocation of Rs 225,000 crore, over
one-fifth of the total budget expenditure for the current fiscal, for the entire
scheme, according to a senior ministry official involved with the preparation of
the proposal that has been sent to the Planning Commission.
The
programme, named Rajiv Awas Yojana, draws from the experience of the government
in housing the poor in urban areas under the ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), but is different as it is the first sincere
attempt to rid India of slums.
The government is holding
consultations with all stakeholders, including state governments,
municipalities, urban planners, NGOs and slumdweller communities. At least 23 of
the 25 states have given in-principle consent for the programme, said the
official.
| Also Read |
| → Govt may extract Rs 10k cr special dividend |
| → Govt fund disbursal to get IT empowered |
| → Govt to continue reforms for higher growth: Pranab Mukherjee |
Proliferation of slums has had an adverse impact on the GDP
growth for years. Slumdwellers are characterised by low productivity and
susceptible to poor health and criminal activities. The government believes that
while better housing facilities will address those social challenges, it will
also have a multiplier effect and serve as an economic stimulus. Most
importantly, it will perpetuate the UPA government’s inclusive agenda,
buttressing its vote bank.
The programme involves a model legislation
at the Centre, followed by separate legislations in states, which would give
slum dwellers property right (as different from land rights). Slumdwellers are
mostly squatters on government or private land, but this legislation will make
them rightful owner of homes on such land. As per the government data, slums
occupy as much as 4% of urban India, of which 78% belongs to the state and
central government.
Since a large chunk of the government land
belongs to the Centre, the government is planning to set up an inter-ministerial
panel to thrash out the modalities of making part of the land available for
housing slum dwellers. The panel would have representatives from the ministry of
railways, defence, commerce & industry, shipping and road transport.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Policy/Govt-to-roll-out-Rs-225k-cr-plan-to-house-slum-dwellers-/articleshow/4883476.cms
Food bill first drought casualty
ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: With the country’s
northern and eastern regions facing the spectre of a drought, the Manmohan Singh
government’s ambitious plans of
hit, at least for the time being. The proposed National Food Security Bill,
which had been included in the government’s 100-day roadmap, has been put
on the backburner.
Under the programme, the government was to provide
25 kgs of rice or wheat at Rs 2 per kg to all BPL families.
Government
officials confirmed that the bill, which was being drafted by the agriculture
ministry, had been put on hold, given the fact that the country was experiencing
a deficient rainfall, which had affected the sowing of the kharif crops.
The below-par monsoon has upset the calculations of the Manmohan
Singh government. The deficit in rainfall was expected to be around 30%, and, to
the agriculture ministry’s dismay, the sown area under paddy, the foremost
among kharif crops, was lower than last year.
Latest estimates
showed a decrease of six million hectares in paddy-sowing in the rain-fed states
— a fact which was admitted as much by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on
Saturday.
The moisture factor was also causing concern, and there
were expectations that paddy production would also take a knock. A low paddy
production would be accompanied by a low procurement, causing a severe strain on
the country’s buffer stocks.
In his reply to the discussion the
price situation on the concluding day of the budget session, agriculture
minister Sharad Pawar had sought to assuage the feelings of the Lok Sabha
members, assuring that the government had enough rice and wheat in its stocks to
meet the people’s requirements for the next 13 months. The government has
now set its sight on delayed rainfall for a normal rabi season.
``But even if that too fails to gather momentum, then we’ve
grim times ahead,’’ a senior food ministry official told ET.
That being the case, the Manmohan Singh government’s plans to
roll out the food security programme in this year itself has received a setback.
``The conditions are not such to enable us to embark on such a grandiose
adventure at this juncture,’’ senior government officials pointed
out.
And Reuter reports:
Mid-income Indians will need 2 mn homes by 2011: Report
REUTERS
MUMBAI:
Middle income Indians will need more than 2 million homes by 2011 across the
large cities, a property consultant report said, pegging the
market at Rs 3,30,000 crore.
Households with an annual income between
Rs 3 lakh and Rs 10 lakh in Mumbai, the National Capital Region, Chennai,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune will need 1.65 billion sq ft of space by
then, the report by Knight Frank Research said.
Taking an average
price of Rs 2,000 a sq ft, this values the affordable housing market at $68
billion, they added. The survey took a sample size of 1,400 households across
the seven cities.
The respondents were mostly tenants, without
tenancy rights under the rent control act, and had a strong intention to buy a
house within the next two years, the report said.
Indian developers
have been launching lower-margin, middle-income projects, after being hit by the
global credit crunch, to draw revenue from the largely uncatered segment.
L&T Infotech partners with Micro Focus to set up CoE
10 Aug 2009, 1456 hrs IST,
PTI
MUMBAI:
L&T Infotech has partnered with Micro Focus to set up a Center of Excellence
(CoE) in
The CoE will expand and accelerate the delivery of
products and solutions to its customers globally. It will help address new lines
of business around application modernisation and migration, and enhance skill
development around Micro Focus products, a press release issued here on Monday
said.
The CoE will use the Micro Focus modernisation and migration
platform suite of products to manage and modernise the clients application
portfolio and will be used to showcase solutions and practices to existing
customers as well as prospects.
"We are poised to expand our services
around Micro Focus technologies and to build intellectual property on top of
this flexible and open platform," L&T Infotech's Chief Executive Officer,
Sudip Banerjee, said in the release.
The partnership will enable
L&T Infotech to add immense value, help expedite the delivery of services
and provide innovative solutions to its customers.
"The Micro Focus
platform provides best-in-class functionality for application transformation
while enabling market leaders like L&T Infotech to create unique
accelerators that address CIOs' top priorities," Micro Focus's CEO, Stephen
Kelly, said.
Indian cos' earnings to move up: JPMorgan
REUTERS
MUMBAI:
JPMorgan expects Indian corporate earnings to pick up pace in the second half of
2009/10 even though weak monsoon was a worry as the
for irrigating the farms.
"There will be an impact. But the extent
and exact time of the impact is too early to judge," said Harshad Patwardhan,
who helps manage about $4.5 billion in Indian shares for the US money
manager.
"We also have to see what the government does to counter the
bad impact of monsoon," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a news
conference.
India's monsoon rainfall deficit widened to 29 per cent
on Aug. 10, increasing the risk of crop damage, but its impact on the country's
economy was offset by high growth in the June industrial output due to buoyant
consumer demand.
Patwardhan said a 12 per cent year-on-year earnings
growth for the benchmark stock index in June quarter was mainly due to cost
cuts.
"But we do expect, based on our interactions with the
corporates, that second half onwards things should start picking up," he
said.
June industrial output expanded 7.8 per cent, its fastest pace
in 16 months, beating forecasts by a wide margin as higher salaries of
government employees and stimulus spending boosted consumer demand, data showed
on Wednesday.
Patwardhan said earnings could show a growth of up to 5
per cent in 2009/10 based on current forecasts but he expected an upgrade in the
second half of the fiscal year ending March and a much faster growth in 2010/11
as economic activities pick up.
"FY11 clearly will be a year where we
can see a significant growth and there I believe that we may be surprised
positively," he said.
India is best-positioned economy in the region: Chetan Ahya, Morgan Stanley
ET Now
Chetan
Ahya, Morgan Stanley economist for India and South-East Asia, talks to ET NOW on
the mounting risks of another property bubble in Asia
growth and inflation in the Indian economy, which, he says, will do relatively
better than its Asian peers in withstanding anaemic export demand.
What are
Asian economies doing to supplant the US consumer as the region’s primary
growth engine?
Right now you
see the policy makers responding to the cyclical challenge. They aren’t
yet embarking, in a big way, upon the structural measures needed to boost
domestic demand. If you compare this with Japan in the mid-’80s, we saw
something similar. Japan responded in the same way as we’re doing now.
They cut policy rates aggressively, lifting their domestic demand.
But they didn’t address
the structural issue, so they got the side effect of an asset bubble. Coming
back to the Asian situation today, we’ve widened our fiscal deficit;
we’ve cut our policy rates and interest rates - interest rates are
actually at an unusually low level in Asia. And we’re going to get a boost
in domestic demand cyclically. But we’re also beginning to see the initial
signs of asset prices moving towards the bubble zone.
So where is
all this excess liquidity going? Into
property?
Correct. It is
beginning to go into property. Right now, I don’t think we can say we are
in that bubble stage. But we’ll see whether the policy makers control this
or let this go on. It’s not easy to stop bubbles from growing because
there is always some confusion between which part of the asset-price expansion
is fundamentally driven and which part is driven by excesses.
Why is this
money that is sloshing about not going into new
factories?
As I mentioned,
exports are doing very badly. So at this point you already have low-capacity
utilisation. Money will not go into manufacturing investments. That’s
something we saw in Japan, too, in the ‘80s.
You said
Asian governments have not really begun to address structural impediments to
domestic demand. Give us some examples of what these impediments are.
The most important one is the
current-account surplus in countries that need to lift their private
consumption. And that’s really the North Asian countries such as China and
Taiwan. For this to happen, you need to ensure that you have the social security
systems that give the confidence to households to spend more. And while they can
begin it now, these changes take 4-5
years.
And so the fact that
they didn’t begin some time ago is going to be a significant challenge to
get this done quickly. At this point of time, they have just taken the first
steps. And they are very far away from that stage where households will start
increasing consumption on a structural basis.
Don't panic, 55 percent H1N1 cases already cured: Experts
IANS
NEW DELHI: Don't panic, be careful.
That's the advice from health experts who point out that the H1N1 influenza is
milder than the seasonal flu
the country have already been cured and discharged from
hospitals.
India has so far has reported 1,079 swine flu cases and 12
deaths. While 589 have been discharged, the others are still undergoing
treatment in various government hospitals in the country.
"The swine
flu virus is a mild strain and, in fact, is less virulent than the seasonal flu,
which causes more deaths... We have treatment for it, which is Tamiflu. It is a
curable disease, not an incurable one," said Health Secretary Naresh
Dayal.
According to Randeep Guleria, head of medicine at the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, worldwide about 95 percent of
those hospitalised have been discharged.
"Global data shows that less
than six percent of those affected needed hospitalisation, while one third (of
those in hospital) needed ICU care. However, those who have recovered from the
flu are not immune to the infection and have to take care as others. But the
next time they get the virus, it would be a mild one," Guleria
said.
Officials also reassure those panicking at the rapid spread of
the disease that an indigenous vaccine to tackle the viral disease is on its
way.
"The work to develop an indigenous vaccine and testing kit is
also going on at a fast pace and we will have a vaccine by year-end when we are
expecting a more virulent strain of flu to be active," said M. Katoch, secretary
in the department of health research.
A total of 4.6 million people
have been screened for swine flu across the country in the past three-and-a-half
months; of these 5,000 people were tested for the flu.
The central
government has spent over Rs.30 million (Rs.3 crore) for testing - 1,079
positive cases and 3,921 negative.
The swine flu testing kits are
imported from a US company and each positive test costs Rs.10,000 while a
negative test costs Rs.5,000, the government says.
-
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 12 August 2009 13.57 BST
- Article history
Economists
predict that youth unemployment will reach 1 million this autumn as a
new crop of school and college leavers flood into the jobs market.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Unemployment in Britain jumped by 220,000 in the three months to June to 2.435 million, official data showed today, the highest level since 1995.
The Office for National Statistics said that the jobless rate was now 7.8% of the workforce.
The
figures also showed a huge 271,000 drop in the number of people in work
– the biggest fall since records began in 1971 – although there was a
similar fall in the February to April period this year.
There was
a rise of more than 50,000 in the number of the under-25s without work
to a total of 928,000, fuelling fears of a "lost generation" of
jobless. The Prince's Trust said that around half of these were able to
claim unemployment benefit, which was now costing the government £3.4m
a day.
"But this is just the start of a long and downward spiral,
which all too often leads to crime, homelessness or worse. Only by
stopping young people
falling out of the system can we rescue this lost potential and save
the economy billions each year," said Martina Milburn, the charity's
chief executive.
The Liberal Democrat work and pensions
spokesman, Steve Webb, added: "Young people should be getting intensive
support as soon as they sign on instead of having to wait a year for a
guarantee of a job or training place. With vacancies at a record low,
it is vital that we prevent today's school and university leavers from
becoming a lost generation of long-term unemployed."
The ONS also
reported a relatively small rise of 25,000 in the number of people
claiming jobseeker's allowance. Under that measure there are now 1.58
million people claiming benefit, equivalent to 4.9% of the workforce,
which is the highest rate since October 1997.
There is now
widespread suspicion among experts that the claimant count figures are
not representing the true state of joblessness since many unemployed
people are unable to claim benefit. Yesterday the Department for Work
and Pensions announced an inquiry into the recent divergence between the two measures of unemployment.
'Unacceptable' and 'ghastly'
Ahead
of the figures, the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, admitted this
morning that unemployment levels were "unacceptable", although he
insisted that even more people would be out of work if the Tories had
been in power during the recession.
Speaking
on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mandelson said: "One thing I and the
government know is that any such level of unemployment is unacceptable.
"The
question is, what is the government doing about it, and what would be
the level of unemployment if the government had not intervened in the
economy in the way in which we have?"
He said the government was
spending £5bn on getting people back to work while the Conservatives
wanted to cut state investment in the economy by a similar amount.
TUC
general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Today's figures show we are
still some way off recovery. With over one in six young people out of
work, unemployment is already at crisis level. The government must do
more to get people back into work, otherwise we risk losing another
generation of young people to mass unemployment."
Describing the
figures as "ghastly," Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at
IHS Global Insight said he suspected the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) measure of unemployment "is painting a truer picture
of the current state of the labour market" than the much narrower
claimant count measure.
"In particular, over the summer months,
there are likely to be a lot of students who have just left college or
school and cannot get a job, thereby going straight into unemployment,"
Archer said. "These do not show up on the claimant count data as they
are not eligible for benefits. Indeed, youth unemployment is already a
major source of concern."
The ILO data shows that the employment
rate of 16 and 17-year-olds dropped to 28.6% in April-June from 34% a
year earlier, while the rate for people aged 18 to 24 dropped to 59.8%
from 64.1%.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/12/unemployment-jobless-rise
Bill Clinton's shadow darkens Hillary's mood in Congo
The Guardian,
Tuesday 11 August 2009
No matter where she goes, it seems that Hillary Clinton cannot quite escape the international shadow cast by her husband.
Usually
polished in public, the US secretary of state's calm demeanour
momentarily cracked yesterday when a Congolese student asked her about Bill Clinton's view on a foreign policy issue. "My husband is not secretary of state," Clinton snapped. "I am."
The
encounter, in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, came during an 11-day
whistle-stop tour of Africa. The male student had asked her what "Mr
Clinton" thought about a controversial $9bn deal between Congo and
China, in which the African country has traded rights to develop its
rich copper reserves for help in building roads, railways and schools.
"You
want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" Clinton asked sharply. "If
you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be
channelling my husband."
The exchange came at a sensitive time
for Clinton, whose African trip has been somewhat overshadowed by her
husband's humanitarian mission to rescue two US journalists held by Kim
Jong-il's regime in North Korea last week. The former US president was
lauded for his success in securing their freedom in a trip to North
Korea which the Obama administration says was carried out independently.
After
keeping a low profile for a time after she fractured her elbow in a
fall two months ago, the US secretary of state embarked on visits to
India and Thailand in July, followed by her tour of seven African
states, in a gruelling return to the frontline of globe-trotting
diplomacy. She took in a Masai dance display in Kenya before travelling
to meet South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, on Saturday with a
promise to re-energise bilateral relations with the US.
But
throughout her visit, she has been peppered with questions about her
husband's North Korean visit. She told CNN on Sunday that his trip was
"not in any way a government mission". When asked what he had told her
about North Korea, she replied that she had a long-held policy of not
disclosing the content of her private conversations with her husband.
Commentators
in the US have raised questions over her role, given Barack Obama's
mission to revamp America's reputation overseas. In an article last
month, the founder of the online Daily Beast, Tina Brown, described her
as "invisible", pointing out that she was missing from Obama's recent
trip to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and that Vice-President Joe
Biden has taken the lead on policy in Afghanistan.
• This article
was amended on 11 August 2009, to clarify that it is the position of
the US administration that Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea was
undertaken independently of the administration.
Swine flu: TV presenter's daughter 'almost died' after taking Tamiflu
GMTV star Andrew Castle confronts health secretary, Andy Burnham, over policy of giving drug to children
-
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 11 August 2009 10.40 BST
- Article history
Andrew
Castle, right, with co-presenter Penny Smith confronted the health
secretary, Andy Burnham, over giving Tamilflu to children during the
swine flu pandemic.
The health secretary, Andy Burnham, today defended giving the antiviral drug Tamiflu to children for swine flu as TV presenter Andrew Castle said his daughter "almost died" after taking it.
Burnham
was confronted by Castle on GMTV after researchers said the antiviral
drug's benefits did not outweigh its side-effects during the flu pandemic.
Castle
said his older daughter, Georgina, had a "respiratory collapse" and
"suffered very heavily" after being "just handed" the drug without a
proper diagnosis.
The presenter said: "I can tell you that my
child – who was not diagnosed at all – she had asthma, she took Tamiflu
and almost died."
Burnham sympathised with Castle, saying it must
have been "very worrying", but maintained that advice to parents to
treat swine flu with Tamiflu remained unchanged.
The MP said Georgina would have been given Tamiflu during the earlier "containment" phase of swine flu.
He stressed that the research dealt with seasonal flu, not swine flu: "It's very much a safety-first approach."
Given
that swine flu had a "disproportionate effect" on children, the
minister maintained that the antiviral drug was "our only line of
defence".
Some 300,000 people in England, including children and adults, have received Tamiflu through the government's National Pandemic Flu Service for England.
But yesterday, Oxford University researchers said children should not be given the antiviral drug to combat swine flu. They urged the Department of Health to rethink its policy on giving the drug to under-12s during the current pandemic.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), warned that Tamiflu could cause vomiting, which could lead to dehydration and the need for hospital treatment.
The
researchers said children should not be given the drug if they had a
mild form of the illness, although they urged parents and GPs to remain
vigilant for signs of complications.
Parents of children with a
compromised immune system or a condition such as cystic fibrosis should
discuss the harms and benefits with their GP, they said.
But
overall, the researchers said, children who were otherwise healthy
could suffer more harm than benefit from taking Tamiflu or another
antiviral, Relenza.
The researchers also found that using
antivirals as a preventative measure had little effect – reducing
transmission of flu by 8%.
The study was carried out in April and May, before the government decided to stop using Tamiflu preventatively.
Only
those with suspected or confirmed swine flu were now getting the drug
and are being urged to get access to Tamiflu through the pandemic flu
service, which is accessed online or via a telephone helpline.
A Department of Health spokesman yesterday dismissed the researchers' claims that their findings would also apply to swine flu.
"The BMJ review is based on seasonal flu and not swine flu," he said.
"As
the authors note, the extent to which the findings can be applied to
the current pandemic is questionable – after all, we already know that
swine flu behaves differently to seasonal flu, and past pandemics have
hit younger people hardest."
Georgina, 16, was given Tamiflu when five pupils at Alleyn's school in south London were diagnosed with the illness in May.
"We saw a respiratory collapse through [the drug] and it almost cost my older child her life," her father said on GMTV.
"Nobody
checked that she had swine flu beforehand. The Health Protection Agency
just handed it out … and a lot of kids suffered in the school very
heavily."
He went on: "The doctor's surgery wouldn't take her. The doctor said, 'No, we can't take her to A&E.'
"So
she's just on the floor having this nightmare of a situation. A lot of
people are in this situation. They don't know what to do."
Burnham
told the presenter: "It must have been a very worrying situation for
you, but that was in a very different phase of the illness when we were
seeing the scenes from Mexico and we were in what we call the
containment phase, where we were trying to isolate every case and then
give Tamiflu to those around those cases.
"We've got to keep
things in proportion and people shouldn't worry unnecessarily. People
shouldn't take Tamiflu unless they have got swine flu."
Burnham said his message to parents was that they should not be worried if their child was taking Tamiflu for swine flu."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/swine-flu-tamiflu-andrew-castle
Swine flu message to NRIs: Do remit, but do not visit
ET Bureau
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
No one is yet telling NRI family members not to come home this holiday season.
That would be cruel to the overseas
home.
But with the spread of
the swine flu, apparently being carried by NRIs in significant numbers, the
message to them could well be: Do remit, but do not
visit.
For a state like Kerala
that is a beneficiary of copious amounts of remittances, it is a piquant
situation. It happens to be school vacation time in many countries where
Keralites abound, like the Middle East and the UK, and the expats are flowing
into the state for their annual holiday break. And the first A(H1N1)-related
casualty in the state happens to be a youth who had until recently been in the
Gulf.
The medical fraternity
has differing viewpoints on the issue, but what is apparent is that a
significant number of visiting NRIs are suffering from flu. Half a dozen people
arriving at the Cochin International Airport on Tuesday from destinations
including Singapore, Dubai and Muscat were quarantined while NRIs from other
countries including the US are in-patients in different hospitals across the
state.
NRIs being affected
should be a matter of serious concern for Kerala, considering their financial
contribution to the state. Total outstandings in Kerala’s commercial banks
had reached a historic high of Rs 37,019 crore at the end of March 2009,
reflecting a 19% increase over the Rs 29,889 crore in NRI accounts at the end of
March 2008.
According to Anup
Warrier, who heads the infectious diseases department at the Kerala Institute of
Medical Sciences here, the government of India directive to avoid unnecessary
travel is particularly valid for Kerala. “Recreational and
entertainment-related travel should be curbed, because the possibility of being
exposed to the disease gets higher as the number of affected persons
increases”, Dr Warrier told
ET.
Mathew
Parakkal, a former professor of medicine, said it was not practical to prevent
NRIs from visiting their near and dear ones, adding that life could carry on
with the necessary precautions. He, however, warned that the possibility of the
spread of the disease was considerably higher in our country, considering the
“high density of population in the metros, poor sanitary conditions and
low education
levels”.
“Keralites
are a mobile people, both internally and overseas. They are the beneficiaries of
remittances, and for that reason should accept developments like a spread of
communicable diseases that come through such wide travel”, S Irudayarajan,
a specialist in migration studies at the Centre for Development Studies here
told ET.
Remittances have been
so buoyant in recent years that any setback to NRIs can reflect significantly on
home budgets in Kerala. According to Y Sudhir Kumar Shetty, COO for global
operations of the UAE Exchange, the period 2004-06 was one of exceptional growth
when there was a 34% year-on-year growth in remittances. That has dropped to
about 22-25%, which are also considered healthy levels.
NRI
deposits in Kerala
banks
March
2009: Rs 37,019
crore
December
2008: Rs 34,649
crore
June
2008: Rs 31,865
crore
March
2008: Rs 29,889 crore
Airtel's $500m outsourcing deal up for grabs
ET Bureau
NEW
DELHI: India's largest telco Bharti Airtel will outsource the management and
maintenance of its 80,000 km-plus inter-city optic fibre cable
estimated at around $500 million over a five-year period, two executives
familiar with the development said.
Bharti has sounded out several
telecom equipment majors about the contract that will be issued soon, said an
executive privy to the development. The deal is in line with the company's
policy of outsourcing non-core activities to save costs and become a telecom
marketing company.
Inter-city optic fibre cables, or transmission
network in telecom industry parlance, carry voice (STD) and data (internet)
traffic across the country. In revenue terms, Bharti is the largest carrier of
voice and data traffic across the country and many of the smaller telcos use
Airtel’s inter-city network for carrying their STD
calls.
Bharti has made outsourcing the cornerstone of its business
strategy, and has signed multibillion dollar contracts with network vendors such
as Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens, which build, operate and manage its mobile
network.
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It pioneered
the network outsourcing model in 2004 by awarding contracts to Ericsson and
Siemens (which later merged with Nokia Networks) and this business model has now
been replicated by over 100 operators globally. Bharti was also the first to
outsource its IT requirements when it by awarded a 10-year $750-million contract
to IBM, which is now worth $2.5 billion. Another billiondollar pact exists with
six BPOs, which collectively handle Bharti’s customer services for a
10-year period.
The Alcatel-Lucent-Bharti JV is the front runner to
manage and maintain the telco's inter-city networks, said another industry
executive aware of the development. In April 2009, Bharti Airtel entered into a
joint venture with Franco-American telecom gearmaker Alcatel-Lucent to manage
its landline and broadband business.
Bharti is the minority partner
in the 26:74 joint venture , and is paying the JV company about $500 million
over a five-year period for managing its landline and broadband business in
about 100 cities for the next five years.
When contacted, executives
in Alcatel-Lucent declined to comment on the company's chances to bag yet
another deal from Bharti. Confirming that Bharti was looking at outsourcing
management and maintenance of its inter-city optic fibre cables, an executive
from the company said: "The process is only at the initial stage and it may be a
while before we award the contracts. As a company, we are always looking at ways
to improve our offerings and being in greater efficiency. Outsourcing of
transmission networks is part of this process."
But a Bharti
spokesman declined to comment on what he termed as market speculation. "Bharti
Airtel always evaluates opportunities to deliver better services to its
customers in a more efficient way," he said.
Are information technology's glory days gone?
New York Times
Thomas M. Siebel can accurately see the future, computer science students with
the entrepreneurial gene may want to look for a different
who think that information technology is a sector that will produce outsized
returns should wake up.
In
Siebel's view, IT is a mature industry that will grow no faster than the larger
economy. He contends that its glory days are past – long past, having
ended in 2000.
I believe that
Siebel may well be wrong. But his own illustrious career in IT makes his
opinions a matter of uncommon
interest.
Earning both a
master’s degree in computer science and an MBA at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he was an executive at Oracle from 1984 to 1990.
In 1993, he founded Siebel Systems, which sells software for tracking customers
and sales prospects; the company was acquired in 2006 by Oracle, which paid
almost $6 billion. In Siebel’s self-deprecating narrative, he was simply
standing in the right place at the right
time.
Addressing Stanford
students in February as a guest of the engineering school, Siebel called
attention to 20 sweet years, from 1980 to 2000, when, he said, worldwide IT
spending grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 17 percent. "All you had to
do was show up and not goof it up," he said. "All ships were
rising."
Since
2000, however, that rate has averaged only 3 percent, he said. His explanation
for the sharp decline is that "the promise of the post-industrial society has
been realized."
No new
technological advances, he believes, would impel IT customers to replace the
computer technology they already had: "I would suggest to you that most of
what’s going on today is not very
exciting."
In his view, far
larger opportunities are to be found in businesses that address needs in food,
water, health care and energy. Though Silicon Valley was "where the action was"
when he finished graduate school, he says, "if I were graduating today, I would
get on a boat and I would get off in
Shanghai."
When I called him
last month to discuss his provocative arguments, he was disarmingly modest.
"I’m just an old has-been, I don’t present myself as an expert in
this or any other area," he
said.
The huge difference in
growth rates, pre- and post-2000, may seem so stark as to leave no room for an
alternative view of IT’s
prospects.
But the recent drop
is not as steep as it seems at first. I asked Shane Greenstein, an economist at
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management who has written
extensively about the computer industry, to take a look at the raw data upon
which those numbers were supposedly based: the annual IT spending estimates
published by IDC.
Paddy sown, but will it be harvested?
TNN
For
weeks, Balbir Singh, the sarpanch of Janetpur village near Chandigarh , prayed
for rain to sow his paddy crop. Now, like thousands of other
state, Balbir finds that sustaining the crop is more difficult and
prohibitive.
Input costs are spiralling and the farmer has calculated
his to be Rs 5,000 extra on every bigha of land. "Even after this, there is no
guarantee that I would be able to save my crop," he says.
Balbir owns
about 20 acres of land and can be described as a farmer of modest means. But
scanty rains have left this young man more anxious than marginal farmers —
like fellow villagers Jaswinder Singh and Prakash Singh — who have
abandoned their dry fields and now work as labourers in Dera Bassi town near
Chandigarh.
"Nearly 100 out of the 500 acres in my village have been
left unsown," says Balbir. "We have to bore up to 600 feet to reach a
comfortable level of underground water. This time the bores had to be dug 50ft
deeper."
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