Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Indian employees fear losing their jobs: Survey
M
umbai, Jul 14: Even though many experts constantly tell the nation that the nation is recovering from the global economic slowdown, a new survey shows that the majority of the the Indians still feel that the job security scene is still dodgy.Buzz up!
According to a survey conducted by the research firm Boston Analytics, approximately 52 per cent of surveyed respondents said that there was a decrease in job security compared to 48 per cent in the May survey.
"The job market in India has been sending some mixed signals in recent months. Sentiment related to job security on an observed basis has fallen again in the last month, reaching its lowest level since August 2008," the report said.
Export oriented sections like gems, jewelery, textiles and leather along with sectors like information technology, construction, aviation, financial services and real estate that contribute to the majority of the country's GDP have seen downsizing due to recession.
At the same time, the expectations are high too. 22 per cent respondents feel unemployment will decrease in a year compared to 19 per cent in the May survey, the survey said.
Strike affects Indian tea region
A
n indefinite strike called by a regional political party has affected life in India's tea-producing Darjeeling hills in West Bengal state.
The strike, called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), began on Monday.
State Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya has appealed to the GJM to call the strike off and negotiate.
The GJM is demanding a separate state and fairer treatment for Darjeeling's Nepali-speaking Gorkha community. Its leaders have rejected calls for talks.
'Great restraint'
"Negotiation so far has yielded no result. And how can we respond to the Bengal government's appeal when they refuse to shift police officers who are oppressing us?" GJM chairman Bimal Gurung told the BBC.
But the state's chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty refused to shift the police officials the GJM wants out of Darjeeling region.
"The police have so far acted with great restraint but they have to do their duty. And we have to back them," he said.
The GJM campaign has led to much violence and many deaths this year.
It was suspended when elections to the Indian parliament were announced.
The GJM backed a candidate of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - former foreign minister Jaswant Singh - in the elections.
Mr Singh won the Darjeeling parliament seat with a huge margin in a state where his party otherwise fared poorly.
Now Mr Singh has come out in open support of the demand for a separate "Gorkhaland" and that seems to have boosted the GJM campaign all over again.
Tourism fears
"Why does West Bengal wants to hold on to Darjeeling? The demography and politics of this area is totally different from the rest of the state," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri says.
"If Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh can be carved out of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, why not Gorkhaland out of Bengal," he asked?
The strike has hit tourism very hard - and may hit tea production, the other mainstay of the hill economy.
"Darjeeling is one of the main attraction for Bengali tourists, but now they are fleeing Darjeeling," said Ellora Dasgupta of Calcutta-based Neptune Holidays.
Darjeeling is also famous for British-era residential missionary schools, but students from the plains have started leaving the hill region for fear of possible clashes, like the ones that erupted earlier this year.
Afghan helicopter crash kills six
A
t least six people have been killed in a helicopter crash in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, Nato says.
The passengers were all civilians on board a private aircraft, a spokesman for Nato-led forces said. It is not clear what caused the incident.
The helicopter crashed near Sangin military base in Helmand. The district governor, quoting locals, told the BBC it had been shot down by insurgents.
Meanwhile, an Italian soldier has been killed in western Afghanistan.
'Susceptible'
British and American forces are currently conducting large-scale military operations in Helmand and rely upon helicopters to transport troops and supplies.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says conditions are often dangerous for the aircraft - particularly when they come to land - which makes them susceptible to gun and rocket fire.
"At around 0900 am (0430 GMT) this morning, a private helicopter has crashed outside Sangin military base... we have at least six people killed," said a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
"The passengers were all civilians," he added.
Sangin district official Fazlul Haq told Reuters news agency: "It was in the sky on fire and then it went down."
Reports say those killed included contractors working for foreign forces.
Last week, a Nato helicopter crashed in the southern province of Zabul killing three soldiers.
The dead included one British and two Canadian troops.
Nato deaths
The Italian defence ministry said another three of its soldiers had been injured in a bomb attack in the western province of Farah on Tuesday.
"A patrol was attacked this morning with an explosive device around 50km (30 miles) from Farah," a spokesman told AFP news agency.
Earlier, Nato said two of its troops had been killed in a "hostile incident" in the south on Monday.
International forces have sustained heavy casualties in recent weeks.
US, UK and Afghan forces have spent recent weeks on an offensive in Helmand designed to boost security ahead of presidential elections due next month.
Obama wants $12 billion for 2-year colleges
W
ASHINGTON -President Barack Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation's community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for "the jobs of the future."
Obama was outlining his four-part program in a speech Tuesday afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich.
Under the initiative, schools could qualify for "challenge grants" so they'll have money to give new programs a try, or expand training and counseling.
Dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to help students who want to earn an associate's degree or transfer to a four-year institution do so.
Money would be spent to renovate outdated facilities or build new ones, and to develop online courses and make them freely available to students and others who want to use them.
The total federal cost is $12 billion over a decade. Of that, $9 billion would go toward challenge grants and addressing dropout rates. Half a billion, or $500 million, would go toward online education. The remaining $2.5 billion would be used to spark $10 billion in renovation and construction nationwide, said James Kvaal, an Obama economic policy adviser.
Some of the money could be available by the 2010 budget year that begins Oct. 1.
Obama speaks of expanded education and job training as a way to help workers compete for jobs such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.
"In an economy where jobs requiring at least an associate's degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience, it's never been more essential to continue education and training after high school," Obama said Sunday in a Washington Post op-ed piece.
"It's time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future," he said.
Community colleges have been feeling pinched lately. Enrollments have been increasing for several reasons, including rising college costs at public and private institutions, and because of the economy, as people who've lost jobs enroll to learn new skills.
About 6 million students attend community college. Obama wants to increase community college enrollment to 11 million by 2020, Kvaal said.
In his speech to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, the president urged every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training.
Obama's stop in Michigan will be his first visit to the state since he defeated Republican Sen. John McCain there in the presidential election.
The trip wasn't all about policy, however.
Before returning to the White House, Obama, an athlete who is more into basketball and, lately, golf, was dropping into Busch Stadium in St. Louis to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League Baseball's annual All-Star game.
ASHINGTON -President Barack Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation's community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for "the jobs of the future."
Obama was outlining his four-part program in a speech Tuesday afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich.
Under the initiative, schools could qualify for "challenge grants" so they'll have money to give new programs a try, or expand training and counseling.
Dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to help students who want to earn an associate's degree or transfer to a four-year institution do so.
Money would be spent to renovate outdated facilities or build new ones, and to develop online courses and make them freely available to students and others who want to use them.
The total federal cost is $12 billion over a decade. Of that, $9 billion would go toward challenge grants and addressing dropout rates. Half a billion, or $500 million, would go toward online education. The remaining $2.5 billion would be used to spark $10 billion in renovation and construction nationwide, said James Kvaal, an Obama economic policy adviser.
Some of the money could be available by the 2010 budget year that begins Oct. 1.
Obama speaks of expanded education and job training as a way to help workers compete for jobs such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.
"In an economy where jobs requiring at least an associate's degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience, it's never been more essential to continue education and training after high school," Obama said Sunday in a Washington Post op-ed piece.
"It's time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future," he said.
Community colleges have been feeling pinched lately. Enrollments have been increasing for several reasons, including rising college costs at public and private institutions, and because of the economy, as people who've lost jobs enroll to learn new skills.
About 6 million students attend community college. Obama wants to increase community college enrollment to 11 million by 2020, Kvaal said.
In his speech to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, the president urged every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training.
Obama's stop in Michigan will be his first visit to the state since he defeated Republican Sen. John McCain there in the presidential election.
The trip wasn't all about policy, however.
Before returning to the White House, Obama, an athlete who is more into basketball and, lately, golf, was dropping into Busch Stadium in St. Louis to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League Baseball's annual All-Star game.
France: Indian troops march in Bastille Day parade
P
aris, Jul 14: While the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy are amidst talks to strengthen Indo-French ties; the French and Indian troops will be marching side by side, down the Champs Elysees as a part of the France's Bastille Day military parade on Tuesday, Jul 14.
This marks the first time that the Indian and French troops will be marching at a parade together while the country's leaders watch. The Indian and French soldiers who have been practicing together for a week will be marching down the Parisian avenue together.
The special contingent from India consisting of 400 defence personnel was drawn from the army, navy and the airforce, and will be marching to the Indian martial music.
The invitation from France signifies the extent of closeness between India and France.
