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- Uninor Employees to be employed in other Telecom Companies officially
- Will Lufthansa be able to spread into Indian Market Segment ?
- Police Inspector beats his Team to escape Molestation Accused
- Planning for an MBA ? Think Again
- Saina Nehwal wanted to quit playing Badminton
- Hamid Ansari becomes 14th Vice President of India
- India Government to launch Fiscal Consolidation Measures
- United States Flag Mast down in memory of Oak Creek Temple Victims
- Education and Skill Development to be priorities in 12th 5 year Plan
- Cellphone Teriffs in India to rise by 49 Paisa per minute
| Uninor Employees to be employed in other Telecom Companies officially Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:34 PM PDT Telecom operator Uninor, a joint venture of Norwegian firm Telenor and the Unitech Group, Tuesday said it is in talks with business competitors to rehabilitate its employees, who would be retrenched following its decision to scale down operations in four of its 13 circles. “We have contacted the human resource departments of our competitors. They have expressed a lot of interest,” Uninor managing director Sigve Brekke said here. The company, which has about 17,500 employees across the country, has already decided to scale down operations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Orissa and simultaneously strengthen in its the best performing circles like Uttar Pradesh-East, Uttar Pradesh-West, Bihar and Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh to give a boost to its finances and operations in preparation for the coming auction of 2G spectrum. The firm has a total of about 2,000 direct and indirect employees in the four circles. “We want the reduction in business to be done in a very transparent way,” Breek added. Meanwhile, Telenor, the Lion Investor in Uninor, earned a brownie point against estranged partner Unitech when the Delhi High Court lifted the stay granted last week by the Company Law Board (CLB) on the proposed sale of assets by their joint venture, Uninor. The high court also asked the CLB to dispose of the stake sale case in a time-bound manner, and decide Uninor's petition on merit. This means Uninor can now proceed with its auction. The high court has, in fact, allowed Uninor to accept expressions of interest (EoIs) till August 8. Uninor last week announced its decision to auction off all its telecom assets in India before September 7, the day all its licences would stand revoked, as per a Supreme Court order. The telco said it would invite bids till August 6, and then sell the business to the highest bidder. This would enable it to get some capital gains on its investment in India, enabling it to pay off its creditors. Within hours of that announcement, Telenor, which holds a majority 67.25% stake in the joint venture, said it was willing to offer Rs4,190 crore to buy out Uninor's assets, if there was no other bidder.This was against Uninor's minimum bid price of Rs 4,000 crore for the India telecom business.
Telenor, which has invested around Rs 14,000 crore in India, has been locked in a bitter battle with Unitech over valuation of its assets since the cancellation of licences on February 2. It had planned to part ways with Unitech and find a new partner, along with whom it could bid in the upcoming 2G auction, win back its licenses and start afresh under a new name. Uninor on Tuesday said it was looking at a boardroom solution to resolve the matter along with the legal battle.There are two ongoing processes. One is legal… and another one is the discussion we are having in the boardroom. We are trying to find a solution," Uninor Managing Director Sigve Brekke told reporters when asked how the separation would take place without mutual consensus on valuations. "We are having constructive dialogue in the boardroom," he added. However, Unitech, which holds 32.75% stake in Uninor, on Thursday appealed to the CLB against the move, calling it 'illegal'. On Friday, CLB granted a stay, disallowing Uninor from proceeding with the sale till it heard the matter on August 8. By evening, however, Uninor was out with another statement, saying the high court had ruled in its favour. A Uninor spokesperson said the company is evaluating the order and will most probably finalise the auction dates by Tuesday.  |
| Will Lufthansa be able to spread into Indian Market Segment ? Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT German airline major Lufthansa has launched its services on a new Boeing 747-8 intercontinental jet from Frankfurt to Delhi,in order to increase its market share in the India air passenger outbound travel segment. The Indian national capital is the first Asian destination to receive services on Boeing 747-8. The new aircraft has replaced the old B747-400 which were being operated on the airlines’ daily direct flight between Delhi-Frankfurt. The new aircraft offers 362 seats in all including eight first class, 92 business class and 262 economy class seats. According to Axel Hilgers, director (South Asia) for Lufthansa, the growing importance of the Indian market was the reason for the launch of the services. “Choosing India as launch-pad in Asia for our latest two products, the new Boeing 747-8 aircraft and new businessclass, underlines India’s importance in our global network as well as our commitment to continue our success story here,” Hilgers told IANS. Hilgers added that the introduction of Boeing 747-8 marks the beginning of a wider overhaul of Lufthansa’s fleet to India. The airline also plans to introduce the new aircraft between Bangalore and Frankfurt in the coming months. Currently, the airline offers 46 weekly flights from five Indian destinations in the ongoing summer schedule.  |
| Police Inspector beats his Team to escape Molestation Accused Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:01 PM PDT A Police Inspector in Jaipur helped two Molestation Accused escape by beating his colleagues who went to arrest them. The incident took place in Jaipur’s Vaishali Nagar area early Tuesday. “A team of five policemen had gone to a house to arrest two men accused in a molestation case. Circle Inspector Ashok Choudhary, who was posted as a station house officer in Nagaur district until he was put on awaiting posting orders recently, lives in the same neighbourhood,” a police officer said. The officer said the team had detained the two accused and was leaving the house when Choudhary came there and started a fight with the policemen. “Choudhary asked the policemen to let go of the two accused men saying that he was an inspector and senior to them. When they did not follow his directions, Choudhary started beating them up,” said the officer. An additional police force rushed to the house and took Choudhary into custody, the officer said. Choudhary was booked for obstructing police from carrying out their duty and attacking them.  |
| Planning for an MBA ? Think Again Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:57 AM PDT
According to the MBAUniverse.com–MeriTrac employability study 2012, which covered 2,264 MBAs from 29 cities and 100 B-Schools, beyond the Top 25, only 21 per cent are employable. The previous study of 2007 by MeriTrac had placed employability index at 25 percent. The percentage is quite higher in Top Management Institutions like IIMs, the figure drops below 10 in small B-Schools. The number of MBA seats in India has grown almost four fold — from 94,704 in 2006-07 to 3,52,571 in 2011-12 – resulting in a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent, but their employability rates have fallen, the study said. The index of employability, at 21 per cent mark leaves scope for improvement considering that organisations hire from this talent pool for strategic roles and this is the managerial pool that companies bank on, the study pointed out. "This report clearly brings out the employability gaps across various competencies and highlights the need for scientific examinations and tests to align the candidate skills to employability metrics," MeritTrac Services India CEO and Director S Murlidhar said. Overall average percentage score obtained by MBAs in verbal ability, quantitative ability and reasoning was 52.58 per cent, 41.17 per cent and 37.51 percent respectively. While performance on verbal ability seems to be satisfactory, reasoning is an area where there is scope for improvement. Considering that the elements of the reasoning test are crucial to making sound management decisions, this is a result which warrants closer attention, the study noted. "Questions are asked about the talent coming out of MBA colleges, and whether they create a workforce responsive to the needs of the economy like understanding of business and on-the-feet thinking. So, decision-making skills are being valued more than ever," MBAUniverse.com Chairman Amit Agnihotri said.  |
| Saina Nehwal wanted to quit playing Badminton Posted: 07 Aug 2012 10:28 AM PDT
“Saina came up to me the day after she lost to Tine (Baun) in Denmark. (She was) crying (and) her eyes (were) swollen, she came to me and said ‘Bhaiya it is not happening for me. We need to do something. She said if this continues I will not play,” Gopichand told reporters. India’s chief badminton coach recalled that he was shocked to see her. “I promised her that we will win an Olympic medal. The same day I made calls to my dad, mom and my wife and said I want to fulfil my promise (to Saina),” the former All England champion said. Gopi spoke about the sacrifices he and Saina made over the months. There were no movies, no late night television and parties for the coach as he wanted to be available at his academy at 4.30 a.m. every day. Gopi thanked Saina for winning the medal. “I am really fortunate that though I didn’t win a medal in my playing time, I won a medal in my life time,” he said adding that all his goals in life have now been achieved. Gopi called Saina one of the greatest sportspersons. “She has done better than all of us. She is phenomenal. The greatest thing is she is young. There are many years to go,” he said. He told the 22-year-old Saina to plan for 2020, by which time she would have competed in another eight All England, about six world championships, two Olympics, two Commonwealth two and as many Asian Games. Saina won the medal after Wang Xin of China pulled out of the bronze medal play-off due to a knee injury.  |
| Hamid Ansari becomes 14th Vice President of India Posted: 07 Aug 2012 07:42 AM PDT UPA candidate Hamid Ansari was Tuesday re-elected India’s vice president, defeating NDA nominee Jaswant Singh. Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan, the returning officer for the poll, made the announcement about Ansari’s re-election minutes after the counting ended Tuesday evening at Parliament House. Ansari polled 490 first preference votes out of 728 valid votes cast in the election. Singh polled 238 votes. Polling in the vice presidential election was held earlier in the day. Vishwanathan said that 787 members were eligible to cast vote and 736 exercised their franchise. Eight votes were found invalid. He said that Ansari needed 365 votes to be declared elected. “Therefore, Mr. Ansari is duly elected as vice president of India,” Vishwanathan announced. Ansari, who sought re-election for a second term, was backed by the Congress, most other parties of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, those supporting the alliance from outside and some Left parties. Jaswant Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a former minister, had the backing of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as the AIADMK. The vice president is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of members of both houses of parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are also entitled to take part in the election.  |
| India Government to launch Fiscal Consolidation Measures Posted: 07 Aug 2012 05:30 AM PDT The government will soon unveil measures to bring more discipline in spending and return to the path of fiscal consolidation, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said Monday. “We intend to unveil, shortly, a path of fiscal consolidation,” Chidambaram said in his first media interaction after taking charge of the finance portfolio. The finance minister said he has formed a three-member panel to assist the government in formulating the path of fiscal consolidation. “We expect that the work will be completed in a few weeks,” he said. In the union budget announced in March, the government set a target to reduce fiscal deficit to 5.1 percent in the current financial year. But the target is unlikely to be met due to high spending on subsidies, especially on petroleum products. “I would like to make it clear that the burden of fiscal correction must be shared, fairly and equitably, by different classes of stakeholders,” he said. “Poor must be protected and others must bear their fair share of the burden. Obviously, adjustments must be made both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side,” Chidambaram said without elaborating on what the government planned to do to cut spending.  |
| United States Flag Mast down in memory of Oak Creek Temple Victims Posted: 07 Aug 2012 04:30 AM PDT As federal investigators searched for a motive for Sunday’s attack on a Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin, President Barack Obama ordered the US flag to be flown at half mast until Aug 10 in honour of the victims. He also called for a “soul searching” to find ways to reduce violence in America as these kinds of terrible, tragic events were happening with too much regularity. “All of us are heartbroken by what’s happened,” Obama told reporters Monday after a bill signing ceremony at the Oval office when asked if he would push for further gun control measures in the wake of the killings at the gurdwara in Oak Creeks. “I think all of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul-searching and to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence,” he said. While, it was not yet fully know what motivated the gunman to carry out this terrible act, Obama said Americans would “recoil” in shock if it turns out, as some early reports indicate, that it may have been motivated in some way by the ethnicity of the worshippers. “I think it will be very important for us to reaffirm once again that, in this country, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, who we worship, we are all one people, and we look after one another and we respect one another,” he said. Earlier, at a White House briefing Press Secretary Jay Carney also parried a question about the push for gun control recalling that Obama had made clear that his administration will provide all necessary support in response to the incident. Carney acknowledged that “Sikhs have been targeted in America in the past, since 9/11, because they have been believed to be Muslims” and said violence “whether it’s against Sikhs or Muslims, this is clearly horrible and unacceptable.” At the State Department Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is currently in South Africa had spoken to Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna over the phone on the gurdwara shooting. US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also telephoned India’s Ambassador Nirupama Rao “to condemn this tragedy and convey our deep sympathy and condolences”  |
| Education and Skill Development to be priorities in 12th 5 year Plan Posted: 07 Aug 2012 03:30 AM PDT Education and skill development would be the “overriding priority” of the 12th Five Year Plan even as India’s current slow economic growth rate might affect total outlay of the plan, said a member of the plan panel Monday. Allocation for the 12th Plan period (2012-17) would be declared in a month and the total size of the plan outlay would be “commensurate with the growth rate”, Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav told reporters here. While in 2011-12, the economy grew at 6.5 percent, according to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deficient monsoon could pull down the growth rate to close to 6 percent. Ahluwalia recently said the Planning Commission might lower its ambitious growth target for the 12th Five-Year Plan to 8.2-8.3 percent from 9 percent. Jadhav, however, said education and skill development followed by healthcare and infrastructure will remain the top priorities in the plan period as prior to the 11th Plan, the central government did little for the sectors, resulting in a “large backlog”.  |
| Cellphone Teriffs in India to rise by 49 Paisa per minute Posted: 07 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT Mobile Call tariffs would rise by 37 to 49 paise per minute this week. This comes after cabinet’s decision to fix the reserve price for the 2G spectrum auction at Rs.14,000 crore per 5 MHz in the 1,800 MHz band. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which is also examining legal options against the government, said it will finalise its steps by the end of this week. “We are examining all the legal options to challenge the policy decisions of the government and are currently talking to our lawyers. We will be able to take a decision on that by the end of this week,” COAI director general Rajan Mathews told IANS. COAI also said this decision would lead to a rise in the industry debt to anywhere between Rs.3.7 lakh crore and Rs.5.4 lakh crore. “The cabinet has not given due consideration to the fundamental issue of unsustainable high reserve prices which will significantly increase costs, thereby invariably increasing the tariffs,” the industry body said in a statement. “No mention is made as to how the industry, that is already highly leveraged and under a debt burden of Rs.2 lakh crore, will fund the high outflow on account of auction of 2G spectrum, especially in the wake of the banking sector’s unwillingness to take on more exposure to the industry,” it added. The final reserve price set by the cabinet is lower than the Rs.18,000 crore suggested by sector regulator TRAI. According to COAI, the cabinet’s decision will severely affect the sustainability of the sector and further add to the investment drought that it is witnessing of late. It also said Inddia’s reserve price is way above the international reserve price per MHz per population. The reserve price per MHz per population in India (on purchasing power parity basis) of Rs.19.68 is enormously high as compared to Rs.1.06 that Ofcom (Britain’s telecom regulator) has recently announced for auction of 1,800 MHz band, it said. The Supreme Court Feb 2 ordered cancellation of 122 licences issued during the regime of A. Raja and asked the government to re-distribute these licences through an auction for which it has set a Aug 31 deadline. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) is scheduled to meet Tuesday to decide on the auction timeline. It was earlier scheduled to meet Monday evening. Though the government has been reiterating that it is making all efforts to meet the apex court’s deadline, industry experts feel that it is likely to seek another extension. The Supreme Court had initially given the telecom department four months to conduct the aution while cancelling the licences in February but extended the deadline to Aug 31.  |
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