22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
New Delhi: Chief Minister of West Bengal Kum. Mamata Banerjee called on the
Prime Minister this evening. During the meeting she raised three issues, namely, the leakage in Farakka Barrage, the concern regarding National Counter Terrorism Centre, and the grant of Presidential assent to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill.
Prime Minister said that he shared the Chief Minister’s concern and assured her that the Ministry of Water Resources is working on plugging the leakages in Gate No. 16 and Gate No. 13 and the leakages will be plugged during March 2012.
Prime Minister assured the Chief Minister that he has requested the Home Minister to find ways to take the concerns of the state governments on board on the issue of the National Counter Terrorism Centre.
On the issue of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill Prime Minister informed the Chief Minister that the Ministry of Home Affairs is expeditiously processing the Bill in the light of the issues raised by various Ministries and the comments of the State Governments. Prime Minister assured the Chief Minister that the Ministry of Home Affairs will complete the processing of the Bill soon.
[PIB]
Category National, WestBengal-news |
22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
New Delhi: Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister released the document ‘Review of the Economy 2011-12’ at a Press Conference in New Delhi today. Following are the highlights:
Review of the Economy 2011-12:
§ The rate of growth in 2011/12 is now estimated at 7.1%, which is marginally higher than the projection of 6.9% as per the Advance Estimates (AE). The Council projects a slightly higher growth for agriculture and construction than the Advance Estimates.
§ Investment activity has slowed down and as a result the Gross fixed Capital formation (GFCF) for 2011/12 has slipped to 29.3 per cent, a decline of almost 4 percentage points over the last four years.
§ Global economic and financial conditions likely to remain under pressure during the year.
§ Overall farm sector GDP growth for 2011/12 will average 3 per cent, riding high on record outputs for rice, wheat and strong trend growth in horticulture and animal husbandry.
§ Mining and quarrying sector likely to report negative growth for 2011/12 on account of weak coal output growth, restrictions imposed on iron ore production, decline in natural gas production and negative growth in crude oil output.
§ Electricity sector has performed well. It is expected to grow at 8.3 per cent during 2011/12.
§ Manufacturing and construction have been sluggish during the first three quarters of 2011/12. This may show improvement in the last quarter. The overall growth rate will be 3.9 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively.
§ Strong growth in the services sector will continue with overall growth of 9.4 per cent for 2011/12.
§ For the year as a whole the Balance of Payment (BoP) position will be tight, this clearly indicates the need to keep the Current Account Deficit (CAD) within limits.
o CAD has weakened, averaging 3.6 per cent (annualized) of GDP in the first half of 2011/12.
o CAD for the 2011/12 is projected to be 3.6 per cent.
§ Headline inflation has shown decline since November 2011 and more strongly in January 2012. It is projected to be around 6.5 per cent at the end of March 2012. Policies-both monetary and other public policies seem to have had the desired effect.
§ Sustained high food prices particularly on account of fruit, milk, eggs, meat & fish began to get passed into the price behaviour of manufactured goods.
§ Year-on year inflation for manufactured goods rose from around 5 per cent in September 2010 to 8 per cent in September and October 2011.
§ Expansion of the fiscal deficit beyond its budgeted estimate of 4.6 per cent of GDP -an area of concern. Government must strive to contain and improve the efficacy of subsidies
Prospects for 2012-13:
§ Economy is likely to grow in the range of 7.5 to 8 per cent. Mining and manufacturing are expected to show substantial improvement in 2012/13 over the previous year.
§ Inflationary pressure will continue to ease through 2012/13 and will remain around 5-6 per cent for the year.
§ Vigil to be kept on food prices-focus on production as well as rolling out of adequate food logistics network.
§ Greater need to invest in the infrastructure for both capacity creation as well as operational performance in coal, power, roads and railways.
§ Need to make adjustments on sale of refined petroleum products to reduce the huge burden of subsidy.
§ In the year 2012/13 CAD is projected to be around 3.0 per cent of GDP.
§ Efforts be made to keep the CAD between 2.0 and 2.5 per cent of GDP over the medium term.
§ Capital inflows particularly in the form of equity must be encouraged along with improved domestic conditions for investment and growth.
§ Government must effectively lay out a road map to achieve fiscal consolidation.
§ Government borrowing programme must not affect the financing needs of the private sector.
§ For the overall macroeconomic stability, attention must be paid to prices, exchange rate and fiscal balances.
[PIB]
Category National |
22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
Mumbai: Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr. Veerappa Moily today launched the BSE Greenex, a new share index of sustainable stocks, by ringing the bell at the Bombay Stock Exchange on Dalal Street. Greenex includes stocks of 20 companies from BSE 100, that meet energy efficiency norms, allowing investors to derive benefit from the related cost savings. ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC, Sun Pharma and BHEL are the major constituents of the Index.
The Greenex is targeted at retail, as well as institutional investors such as asset managers and pension funds looking for investments in companies with strong long-term prospects and develop green financial products. The index will help create viable market based solutions for industries, investors and governments, to promote energy efficient practices and encourage impact investing in economically and environmentally sustainable businesses,
The Greenex gauge has been developed by gTrade, a local firm working on financial innovations in energy efficiency, and BSE Ltd. While BSE provides the financial analytics, the carbon analytics are provided by gTrade.
Even though, India has refused to adopt legally binding caps on emission, the Government has been pushing corporates to be less polluting by investing in green technologies.
[PIB Mumbai]
Category Mumbai-News, National |
22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
New Delhi: The most awaited final result of Resonance’s Scholarship and Talent Reward Test (STaRT-2012) has been declared on 18th February, 2012. A total of 6628 students who participated in Stage-II Test of STaRT-2012 were eagerly waiting to know their luck in winning the total 3500 fabulous prizes including 11-day NASA-USA Tour and 6-Day SIngapore Science Centre,Singapore Tour for top National performers as well as Laptops, Desktops, Media Players, Wrist watches for National top 500 from each class.
STaRT-2012 witnessed an instant popularity among students of class VI to XII throughout the country and more than 80000 students of various cities participated in its Stage-I Test conducted in December 2011. A total of 9399 students made their way to Stage-II and 6628 finally appeared in Stage-II Test conducted on 5th February 2012 at Test Centres in 28 cities supervised by Resonance.
The felicitation function of STaRT-2012 will be held on 26th February 2012 in Kota, Rajasthan in which National Top-25 prize winner students from each class will be honoured and rewarded.
A total of 7 National First Position Prizes consisting of 11-Day Tour of NASA-USA, A Gold Medal (10gm. Gold) & A Merit Certificate has been won by Shauryasikt Jena of class-VI from Gautam Budh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Himanshi Mehta of class-VII from Udaipur (Rajasthan), Divyanshu Mittal of class-VIII from Kota (Rajasthan), Shrishti Asthana of class-IX from Chandigarh, Swati Gupta of class-X from Jaipur (Rajasthan), Shudhatma Jain of class-XI from Kota (Rajasthan) & Pankaj Goyal of class-XII from Agra (Uttar Pradesh).
A total of 7 National Second Position Prizes consisting of 6-Day Tour of Singapore, A Silver Medal (5 gm. Gold) & A Merit Certificate has been won by Parth Anil Shimpi of class-VI from Nasik (Maharashtra), Lakshay Sharma of class-VII from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Puranjan Dev of class-VIII from Khurda (Orissa), Sheshansh Agarwal of class-IX from Jaipur (Rajasthan), Parth Sharma of class-X from Kota (Rajasthan), Yash Gupta of class-XI from Udaipur (Rajasthan) & Jain Shubham Anil Kumar of class-XII from Thane (Maharashtra).
A total of 7 National Third Position Prizes consisting of Branded Laptop of worth Rs. 50000/-, A Bronze Medal (2 gm. Gold) & A Merit Certificate has been won by Chinmay SI of class-VI from Bengaluru (Karnataka), Disha Rawal of class-VII from Gurgaon (Haryana), Suraj Dash of class-VIII from Khurda (Orissa), Bhavya Choudhary of class-IX from Kota (Rajasthan), Diksha Agarwal of class-X from Kota (Rajasthan), Palak Jain of class-XI from Udaipur (Rajasthan), Twinkle Parekh of class-XII from Ajmer (Rajasthan).
Apart from the above prizes, other main prizes that have been won are a total of 49 National Fourth to Tenth Position Prizes consisting of Branded Desktop of worth Rs. 25000/- & A Merit Certificate; a total of 105 National Eleventh to Twenty Fifth Position Prizes consisting of Branded Media Player of worth Rs. 5000/- & A Merit Certificate; a total of 525 National Twenty Sixth to Hundredth Position Prizes consisting of Branded Sports Watch of worth Rs. 500/- & A Merit Certificate. In total 3500 prizes have been won of worth Rs. 50 Lacs plus.
According to Manoj Sharma, Vice President (Operations & Business Development), Resonance, STaRT-2012 was launched simply as a National Level Test to discover & reward Talent through a genuine assessment of aptitude & subject knowledge with national benchmarking. However the combination of Resonance’s reputation in academics and fantastic prizes made STaRT-2012 very popular among students and very high enthusiasm was seen in them as well as their schools.
According to R.K. Verma, Managing Director, Resonance, the only focus behind conducting STaRT-2012 was on contributing to students’ competitive abilities in academics by the way of giving them experience of competition on larger platform, uncompromisingly conducting and evaluating Tests and delivering values with total commitment. He also says that it will be heartening to see young talented students going on NASA, USA and Singapore Science Centre, Singapore tours and also winning other prizes based on their talent.
[IPRL]
Category National |
22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
New Delhi: The Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI), an apex body having nation-wide member companies in all sectors of Industry and Trade, yesterday organized a seminar on Labour Issues with special focus on Eradication of Child Labour and Productivity Improvement. The seminar aimed at constructive and optimal deliberation on the Labour issues is very pertinent to create greater awareness amongst all the stakeholders on the urgent need for addressing these issues and find possible solutions for a rapid, sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the country.
The seminar witnessed eminent personalities from the corporate world and the senior officials from the ministry, like Mrs. Sudha Pillai, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, Government of India, Mr. Anup Chandra Pandey, Joint Secretary with Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, Mr. Lalit Bhasin, Managing Partner, Bhasin & Co., Advocates, Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Group President, K.K. Modi Group and Mr. Ram Poddar, Chief Mentor, K.K. Modi Group.
Mr. Ram Poddar, Chief Mentor, K.K. Modi Group set the stage with his opening remarks, “In order to achieve a rapid and inclusive growth, the industry, unions, regulators, lawmakers and policymakers have to address the issue of availability & creation of new job opportunities, eradication of child labor and social exploitation, and skill development. This needs to be addressed on urgent basis and find possible solution as a way forward for sustainable growth”.
Further Ms. Sudha Pillai, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, Government of India said, “Child labor has very deep rooted causes including the circumstances like poverty that push the child prematurely into this. Poverty is due to the lack of development of productive sectors and lack of investment in rural areas. Poverty also comes due to lack of enforcement of minimum wages “.
Adding to the views of all, Mr. Anup Chandra Pandey, Joint Secretary with Ministry of Labor and Employment, Government of India said “Child labor is something which cannot be eliminated just by mere legislation, it is born out of socio-economic causes like poverty. Unless and until we eliminate the base cause, child labor cannot be overcome. We should ensure that the parents should be employed and the fruit of employment should reach their families to avoid child labor.”
While addressing the seminar, Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Group President, K.K Modi Group, said “The need of the hour is to adapt meaningful strategy which does not treat child workers as the problem, but a part of solution. The complexity of labor laws should be simplified in order for them to be implemented meaningfully. All existing strategies need to be reviewed in great depth from the perspective of child workers, and formulation of appropriate and viable laws and regulations and formulation of new and/or improvement of existing policies to provide solutions that are a definite improvement on their present predicament.”
The seminar also addressed that one of the key issues which ails our economy is the low growth in the national industrial productivity levels channelized by a combination of restrictive trade laws, a highly compliance oriented approach of the regulatory authorities and inappropriate role played by the trade unions towards the upliftment of the labour. A concerted effort is therefore, suggested between the Government, the Bureaucracy, trade unions and the managements of industrial representative to take this movement forward and focus on enhanced productivity, better skills, and improved working conditions resulting in economic and national growth.
Some of the key initiatives suggested at the seminar were:
◦For the regulators to have an approach of trust on the industry allowing the flexibility to use the available skill and manpower in a more productive manner to help improve its operational viability and in turn create new employment opportunities by even sacrificing and pruning certain existing jobs.
◦Continuous training and retraining of the enforcement agencies to look at labour issues from a facilitative perspective rather than simple policing and regulating.
◦The trade unions need to change their mindset from just being protective of employment and number of jobs to focus on growth and economic viability of the organization. They should facilitate introduction of improved work practices and new technologies to enhance the productivity of both man and machine and thus the higher re investable surplus.
◦The onus also falls on the employers to help build mutual trust by using a participative approach, educating and training the workforce by partnering with the trade union to enhance not only the quality of life/working conditions but also the skill and economic condition of their work force.
[IPRF]
Category National |
22 Feb, 2012 | Author: Dhananjay Mali | Comments Off
Mumbai: Movida, a mobile payments joint venture backed by Visa (NYSE: V) and Monitise (LSE: MONI.L), has signed an agreement with HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private bank, to introduce a first of its kind mobile payment service. The new service allows HDFC Bank customers to pay bills, top up prepaid airtime and buy tickets from their mobile phone and is designed to operate across all mobile networks using any Visa or non-Visa branded payment account. It can be used by any mobile subscriber, anywhere and accessed by even the most basic mobile phone.
Naushad Contractor, Movida’s President and head of the Monitise and Visa joint venture in India, commented: “This is a service designed for Indians. As we rollout the service to other banks more Indians will be able to benefit from mobile payments. Wave goodbye to waiting in long queues or visiting post offices or payment machines to pay bills as you will now be able to do that right from your mobile phone. This service is going to drastically reduce the time and energy Indians waste every day waiting to pay bills.”
The new service uses menu-based USSD mobile technology making it one of the easiest services to use and the most widely available. After linking their HDFC Bank Visa or non-Visa payment card to their mobile phone number, cardholders can access the service via USSD over Movida’s secure connection. From then on it is just a matter of selecting the payment service require and making the payment. The simple menu can complete a transaction in only a few steps.
And not only is the service simple, it’s secure and backed by two of the world’s most trusted brands in electronic and mobile payments. The system encompasses various security measures to maintain account integrity, including a unique PIN number set up on the phone to access the account information. Only the user’s bank-registered phone can be connected to the service.
Contractor added: “This technology will be a game changer the way the iPhone was for mobile phones. This is a smart service for smart people and epitomizes everything Visa and Monitise stand for: it is fast, reliable, secure, and simple – and it will change the way consumers in India pay, forever.”
Rahul Bhagat, Head-Retail Liabilities, Marketing & Direct Banking Channels, HDFC Bank, said: “HDFC Bank has always been at the forefront of technology to ensure that our customers have greater choice and convenience at their disposal. The partnership with Movida is a crucial step whereby we will enable our customers to carry out multiple mobile commerce transactions from the most basic handsets.”
This service reaffirms HDFC Bank’s commitment to bring the latest service and convenience to our customers. All our customers throughout the country can now pay their bills and top up talk time with a few clicks of their mobile phones. This will save them considerable time and help them focus on more important things in life.”
As India continues the upgrade of its Internet and telecoms infrastructure to rural areas, the new mobile service finally allows millions of Indians currently excluded from enjoying the benefits of mobile and online payment services to become part of the digital age via their basic prepaid mobile phone.
The service is initially being offered to a select number of valued customers before being rolled out across the country later in the year.
[BWI]
Category Uncategorized |
