Waitress claims US restaurant Hooters put her on ”weight restriction”

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New York, May 21 (ANI): A waitress, who took up employment with American restaurant chain Hooters, claims that she was put on ”weight restriction” after she was deemed too fat.

Cassie Smith, 20, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and 132 pounds, is well within a normal weight range, but she claims the measurements were not good enough for Hooters.

During an evaluation about her uniform, she said two women who worked at the Atlanta headquarters hinted that she needed to lose some weight.

Smith, who works at the Roseville, Mich., Hooters, says the women gave her a free 30-day membership to a gym and gave her 30 days to lose weight or risk losing her job.

“These women proceeded to explain to me that I had 30 days and they would give me a free gym membership, and if I didn”t improve within those 30 days I would be separated from the company,” the New York Daily News quoted her as saying.

“If I improved a little bit I would get 30 more days, and if I improved completely they would leave me alone,” she revealed.

Smith says she is “horrified” and “humiliated” by this.

Hooters has denied Smith”s claims, saying “no employee in Michigan has been counselled about their weight”.

The chain adds, however, that it “will say that our practice of upholding an image standard based on appearance, attire and fitness for Hooters Girls is both legal and fair”.

The company likens its policies on appearance to that of the Dallas Cowboy”s cheerleaders and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.

Smith has consulted an attorney and may take legal action.

“I don”t want other girls to have to go through this. I don”t want anyone to have to go through this,” she said.

“If I could”ve gone back and not worked there for two years to take back that feeling, I would do it,” she added. (ANI)

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China quiet on U.S. currency report delay

April 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Chinese central bank adviser said Beijing could ease pressure over the yuan by buying more from recession-hit U.S. states, but China had no official reaction on Monday to the Obama administration’s delay of a contentious currency report.

Monday was a public holiday in China, with government offices closed and state newspapers issuing slimmed down editions.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday postponed the report, originally due out on April 15, that could have called Beijing a “currency manipulator.”

The decision follows Thursday’s announcement that Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a nuclear security summit meeting in Washington April 12-13 and seems to be a move to keep tensions over currency in check.

Geithner said he would use meetings of the Group of 20 and a U.S.-China “strategic dialogue” in Beijing in May to urge China to budge on the yuan, which President Barack Obama, many U.S. lawmakers and several economists say is kept artificially low, undercutting U.S. competitiveness.

Several Chinese economists quoted in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, maintained that the yuan was not to blame for the U.S. trade deficit. The economists appeared to have commented before Washington announced the postponement of the report.

“Trade deficits and surpluses are not created by exchange rates, and the renminbi is not undervalued,” said the paper.

Li Daokui, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said China could nonetheless buy more goods from U.S. states struggling with recession to ease pressure from the White House and Congress.

“On the one hand, China needs to maintain the initiative in issuing information (about the yuan), so that there is no misunderstanding of China by the United States,” the paper cited Li as saying.

“On the other hand, China should take the initiative to communicate with the United States,” added Li, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“China can increase purchases from (U.S.) states facing mass unemployment because of recession in the manufacturing sector,” said Li, a Harvard-trained economist.

Beijing let the yuan rise 21 percent against the U.S. dollar between July 2005 and July 2008 before effectively repegging the currency, also called the renminbi, near 6.83 to the dollar to help the economy through the financial crisis.

The United States’ deficit in trade with China fell to $227 billion in 2009 from a record $268 billion in 2008, but the Obama administration is keen to lift exports and employment.

Wu Xiaoling, a Chinese lawmaker and former central bank vice governor quoted by the People’s Daily international edition, said the root of the problem was not a cheap yuan, but the relatively low cost of labour and resources in China.

“That people feel the renminbi is undervalued is in fact because many price factors in China, including resources and labour, have not reached international levels,” she said.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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China quiet on U.S. currency report delay

April 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Chinese central bank adviser said Beijing could ease pressure over the yuan by buying more from recession-hit U.S. states, but China had no official reaction on Monday to the Obama administration’s delay of a contentious currency report.

Monday was a public holiday in China, with government offices closed and state newspapers issuing slimmed down editions.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday postponed the report, originally due out on April 15, that could have called Beijing a “currency manipulator.”

The decision follows Thursday’s announcement that Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a nuclear security summit meeting in Washington April 12-13 and seems to be a move to keep tensions over currency in check.

Geithner said he would use meetings of the Group of 20 and a U.S.-China “strategic dialogue” in Beijing in May to urge China to budge on the yuan, which President Barack Obama, many U.S. lawmakers and several economists say is kept artificially low, undercutting U.S. competitiveness.

Several Chinese economists quoted in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, maintained that the yuan was not to blame for the U.S. trade deficit. The economists appeared to have commented before Washington announced the postponement of the report.

“Trade deficits and surpluses are not created by exchange rates, and the renminbi is not undervalued,” said the paper.

Li Daokui, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said China could nonetheless buy more goods from U.S. states struggling with recession to ease pressure from the White House and Congress.

“On the one hand, China needs to maintain the initiative in issuing information (about the yuan), so that there is no misunderstanding of China by the United States,” the paper cited Li as saying.

“On the other hand, China should take the initiative to communicate with the United States,” added Li, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“China can increase purchases from (U.S.) states facing mass unemployment because of recession in the manufacturing sector,” said Li, a Harvard-trained economist.

Beijing let the yuan rise 21 percent against the U.S. dollar between July 2005 and July 2008 before effectively repegging the currency, also called the renminbi, near 6.83 to the dollar to help the economy through the financial crisis.

The United States’ deficit in trade with China fell to $227 billion in 2009 from a record $268 billion in 2008, but the Obama administration is keen to lift exports and employment.

Wu Xiaoling, a Chinese lawmaker and former central bank vice governor quoted by the People’s Daily international edition, said the root of the problem was not a cheap yuan, but the relatively low cost of labour and resources in China.

“That people feel the renminbi is undervalued is in fact because many price factors in China, including resources and labour, have not reached international levels,” she said.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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Dollar hits fresh 7-month high vs yen after jobs data

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) – The dollar climbed to a fresh 7-month high against the yen on Friday in the wake of a U.S. employment report that showed private sector jobs rose to their highest in nearly three years.

The dollar rose as high as 94.54, the loftiest since late August, according to Reuters data.

It was last at 94.44 yen JPY=, up 0.7 percent on the day. For more on the data, see [ID:nN01126422] (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by John Picinich)

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Employees Report Rise in Compensation Cuts and Job Restructurings as Layoffs and Hiring Freezes Decline; 3 in 4

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

SAUSALITO, CA, Apr 02 (MARKET WIRE) —
The jobs outlook may be brightening, but a new survey shows employers are
still taking actions that impact employee sentiment. In the first
quarter, nearly half (48 percent) of employees(1) reported their
employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure,
compensation and benefits or other perks in the past six months,
according to the Q1 Glassdoor.com(R) Employment Confidence Survey of
2,315 U.S. adults conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive(R)(2).
More than half (55 percent) of these employees said their company made
changes or reduced compensation in the past six months, up from 50
percent in the fourth quarter, and 17 percent reported their company
restructured their job or made their position redundant, up from 10
percent last quarter. Fewer reported layoffs/plans to have layoffs (47
percent) and hiring freezes (34 percent) than last quarter when rates
were 57 percent and 43 percent respectively.

Employees also reported fewer concerns about future layoffs and growing
confidence in their own job security and job market but reveal they are
still willing to make concessions. In fact, three in four employees,
including those self employed, (76 percent) report they are willing to
take a pay cut if faced with losing their job, and nearly nine in 10 (88
percent) of those currently unemployed jobseekers would accept less than
they originally wanted to land a new job. How low are employees and
jobseekers willing to go? While age and income are contributing factors,
nearly half (48 percent) of employees, including those self employed,
said they would accept less than 10 percent reduction in pay to keep
their job whereas 41 percent of those currently unemployed but looking
are willing to accept between 10 and 29 percent less than they want.

The depth of pay cuts employees and jobseekers are willing to take to
keep their job is broken out as follows (percentages may not equal 100
due to rounding):

Level of pay cut Employees/Self-employed Unemployed jobseekers
less than a 5% 25% 13%
between 5% and 9% 23% 21%
between 10% and 19% 18% 26%
between 20% and 29% 6% 15%
more than 30% 5% 14%
not willing to take any
cut in pay 24% 12%

However, data indicates employers should be cautious that employees
may view such pay cut concessions as temporary. In the first quarter,
more than one in four (28 percent) employees whose company has made
structural, pay or benefits changes in the past six months reported their
own compensation was reduced, and these employees are more likely to
expect a raise (69 percent) once the economy recovers than employees who
did not have their compensation reduced by their company during the same
period (48 percent).

As signs of economic recovery continue, employers should pay attention to
other employee job-related expectations. Should the economy and/or
unemployment return to pre-recession levels, more than half (57 percent)
of employees say they expect a raise, bonus or promotion and one in five
(21 percent) expect to look for a new job, which has risen slightly from
the third quarter of 2009. Other rebound expectations include:

51% a raise in base salary
27% hiring freezes to be lifted/more employees to be hired
23% health benefits/workplace perks that have been taken away to be
restored
22% a bonus
21% look for a new job

“While we’re seeing rising confidence among employees in their own
job security and the job market, it’s not surprising so many people are
still willing to take pay cuts to keep or get jobs given the recent
history of record-high unemployment and what they have seen their friends
and co-workers experience over the last two years,” said Rusty Rueff,
Glassdoor.com career and workplace expert, who has run global HR
departments at Electronic Arts and PepsiCo before co-authoring Talent
Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. “As employees
start to feel better about the future, employers need to have their
finger on the pulse of employee expectations and attempt to bridge gaps
in the realities of today’s ‘new normal’ now, not later. Even though most
people are willing to take a pay cut to keep their job today, our data
indicates they will likely expect a reinstatement of pay or raise once
the market improves if not look for a new job altogether.”

The quarterly survey measures four key indicators of employee confidence
in the areas of job security, salary expectations, re-hire probability
and company outlook. The survey also tracks reported employer actions
during the past six months. A more detailed summary with tables can be
found at http://www.glassdoor.com/press. Highlights for the first quarter
2010 survey are below:

Job Security: Layoff Concerns Lowest since December 2008 for Self,
Co-workers
Less than one in five (18 percent) employees are concerned
they could be laid off in the next six months, a rate that has fallen for
the fifth consecutive quarter and is down from 20 percent last quarter
and 26 percent in the year-ago quarter. Employees are also less concerned
their co-workers will lose their jobs in the next six months — less than
one third (32 percent) note fears their counterparts could be laid off, a
decline from 39 percent last quarter and 44 percent in the first quarter
of 2009.

Job Market: Confidence in Finding a Job Edges Up Among Employed;
Unemployed Still Less Optimistic
Should they lose their current job, 38
percent of employees, including those self-employed, believe they would
be able to find a job that matches their experience and compensation
levels in the next six months as compared to just 30 percent of those who
believe it’s unlikely. This is an increase from last quarter when more
employees (and those self employed) felt finding a job matched to their
experience and compensation was unlikely (38 percent) than likely (33
percent). Of unemployed jobseekers, less than one-third (30 percent)
think it is likely they will be employed in six months in a job matched
to their experience and compensation level, while 31 percent think it is
unlikely. Older adults have less confidence in their ability to get hired
in this market compared to younger workers. For example, nearly twice as
many older employees, including those self employed who are 55+ (39
percent) think it is unlikely they could find comparable position and pay
in the next six months than their younger counterparts 18-34 (20
percent).

Salary Expectations: More than One-third expect Pay Increases; Women Less
Likely Than Men
More than one-third (36 percent) of employees said they
expect a pay raise or cost of living increase in the next 12 months,
which is unchanged from the fourth quarter. Almost half of women (45
percent) report they do not expect a raise in the next 12 months,
compared to 38 percent of men. However, more Southerners (40 percent)
expect a salary increase than those in the West (27 percent).

Company Outlook: Nine in 10 Expect their Company’s Six-Month Outlook to
Improve or Stay the Same
Employees (including those self-employed)
continue to be confident in their company’s outlook: only one in 10 (10
percent) expect their company’s outlook to get worse in the next six
months, while 41 percent expect it to get better and 50 percent expect it
will remain the same. This remains largely unchanged over the past two
quarters.

For more details and methodology of the survey, see the Glassdoor.com
Confidence Survey Summary and Methodology,

http://www.glassdoor.com/press/.

1) For the purposes of this study “employees” were defined as U.S.,
adults 18+ employed full time and/or part time unless otherwise
indicated.
2) Harris Interactive(R) fielded the Q1 Employment Confidence
study on behalf of Glassdoor.com from March 19-23, 2010 via the
QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service among 2,315 adults ages 18 and
older of whom 1,225 were employed full time/part-time and 210 were
unemployed but looking. Data were weighted using propensity score
weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the
basis of region, age within gender, education, household income,
race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. No estimates of theoretical
sampling error can be calculated.

About Glassdoor.com
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community
where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings
and salary details about specific jobs or interviews for specific
employers — for free. Glassdoor enables employees, job seekers,
employers and recruiters to simultaneously see — for the first time –
unedited employee and job candidate opinions about a company’s work
environment along with details of pay, benefits, CEO approval ratings and
job interview reviews. Glassdoor was founded in 2007 and launched its
public beta in June 2008. Headquartered in Sausalito, Calif., Glassdoor
was founded by Richard Barton, Robert Hohman and Tim Besse and has raised
$9.5 million from its founders, Benchmark Capital and Sutter Hill
Ventures.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world’s
leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology,
and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable
foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative
research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of
industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy,
telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail,
restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215
countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian
offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris
specializes in delivering research solutions that help us — and our
clients — stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit
www.harrisinteractive.com.

Copyright 2010, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

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Extra rural doctors welcome but support needed

March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Doctors say the Federal Government’s initiative to send more GPs to rural and regional areas is welcome but warns that the plan is not a quick fix solution.

The government has announced it will spend $632 million over the next decade to fund hundreds of extra training places for medical students in remote areas.

Dr Peter Maguire from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says the plan will help to ease the critical shortages.

But, he says more needs to be done to support doctors working in remote areas.

“It’s not a simple matter of just doing one thing and the whole problem is solved.”

“There are many factors that need to be considered in improving the workforce in rural areas particularly and those include financial incentives.”

Dr Maguire says alone it will not be enough to encourage doctors to go to regional areas, and stay there.

“The incentives have to be right, there has to be support for families, for employment for spouses and partners, ensure that there is locum relief for holidays for the doctors, and educational support so they can upskill and maintain their professional competence over the years.”

“So, there’s a lot of different factors that need to be addressed.”

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NSW bucks the trend with falling unemployment

March 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New South Wales is the only state to have recorded a fall in its unemployment rate last month.

The number of people seeking work fell by 0.2 of a per cent in February to 5.4 per cent.

The state’s Treasurer Eric Roozendaal says, on a trend basis, employment in New South Wales has now increased for 11 months in a row.

“Today’s data shows that in February alone more than 13,000 were created in New South Wales,” he said.

“Incidentally Victoria lost more than 15,000 jobs.

“While the New South Wales rate fell, the Queensland unemployment rate increased by 0.2 per cent percent to 5.7 per cent.”

The national unemployment rate has gone up from a downwardly revised 5.2 per cent in January, to 5.3 per cent in February.

A rise in full-time positions was offset by a fall in part-time jobs.

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Terrorism a by-product of Pak’s past mistakes: Zardari

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sep. 19 (ANI): President Asif Ali Zardari has revealed that extremism was a by-product of Pakistan’s past mistakes and was deliberately created during the 1980s.

He said the employment of a liberal policy encouraged religious fanaticism and achieved of certain strategic objectives of terror perpetrators.

“What we are witnessing today is the outcome of that policy of the 80′s and even earlier.The policy of using religious extremism as an instrument of war. We in Pakistan have paid a very heavy price for this policy,” The News quoted Zardari, as saying.

Addressing a gathering at London’s International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Zardari pointed out that militants and militancy were not created in a vacuum; they have been the product of a deliberate policy to fight the rival ideology.

The free world adopted a novel strategy that was based on the exploitation of religion to motivate Muslims around the world to wage jehad, he added.

Furthermore, Zardari pointed out that the strategy may have worked well but some serious mistakes were also made as the world abandoned Afghanistan in a hurry and no thought was given to its stability after the withdrawal of foreign forces.

“After the retreat of foreign forces, Afghanistan was abandoned and left at the mercy of the warlords and the jehadis…Pakistan has suffered more than others. For decades we had to host and continue to host millions of Afghan refugees,” he said. (ANI)

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Asian-origin RAF medic sues British Military for “Paki” and “terrorist” jibe cover up

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sep. 11 (ANI): An Asian origin Royal Air Force medic, who was racially abused and assaulted by senior colleagues, has claimed that British military investigators tried to cover up his complaints.

The British-born medic told an employment tribunal in central London that he was called a “Paki” and “terrorist”, was grabbed around the throat and threatened with a beating while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2007.

The man, referred to as AB, also blamed the military for not dealing with his complaints properly.

The Independent quoted his legal representative Jude Bunting as saying that members of the Army’s Special Investigation Branch had purposely dragged their feet when dealing with the complaints.

However, Captain Gary Ward, who worked on the AB investigation, said the allegations were “absolutely ridiculous”.

The hearing continues, the paper reports. (ANI)

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Israel accuses HRW of hitting a new low by hiring expert who collects Nazi memorabilia

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, Sep.10 (ANI): Human Rights Watch’s employment of a man who trades and collects Nazi memorabilia as its “senior military expert” is a “new low” for the organization that frequently criticizes Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy director Ron Dermer said Wednesday.

“I thought that nothing could top a human rights organization trying to raise money in Saudi Arabia, but I was apparently wrong,” said Dermer.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Dermer was referring to reports, both in the blogosphere and the press, that Marc Garlasco, HRW’s senior military expert, who has written numerous reports condemning Israel, is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

Omri Ceren, on a blog called Mere Rhetoric, wrote that Garlasco was “obsessed with the color and pageantry of Nazism, has published a detailed 430-page book on Nazi war paraphernalia, and participates in forums for Nazi souvenir collectors.”

Dermer said the revelations made it “easier to understand how an organization that was initially called Helsinki Watch, and was dedicated to helping brave Soviet dissidents fight against tyranny, has turned into an organization that facilitates the assault of some of the worst regimes and terror groups against the very democratic countries that uphold human rights.

HRW issued a statement saying that Garlasco’s family experience on both sides of WWII – his grandfather was in the German army and his great-uncle was in the US air force – led him to collect military memorabilia from that period.

HRW emphatically denied that Garlasco was a Nazi sympathizer because he “collected German [as well as American] military memorabilia.”

HRW said the “accusation is demonstrably false and fits into a campaign to deflect attention from Human Rights Watch’s rigorous and detailed reporting on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli government.” (ANI)

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Long working hours make parents compromise on food choices

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 10 (ANI): Long work hours and irregular schedules are forcing people to compromise on food choices for themselves and their children, suggests a new study.

The research team from Cornell University measured food choice coping strategies in low- to middle-income families in five categories: (1) food prepared at/away from home; (2) missing meals; (3) individualizing meals (family eats differently, separately, or together); (4) speeding up to save time; and (5) planning.

They found that fathers who worked long hours or had nonstandard hours and schedules were more likely to use take-out meals, miss family meals, purchase prepared entrees, and eat while working.

Similarly, mothers were also likely to purchase restaurant meals or prepared entrees or missed breakfast.

About a quarter of mothers and fathers said they did not have access to healthful, reasonably priced, and/or good-tasting food at or near work.

The findings suggest that better work conditions may be associated with more positive strategies such as more home-prepared meals, eating with the family, keeping healthful food at work, and less meal skipping.

“This study examined how work conditions are related to the food choice coping strategies of low- and moderate-income parents,” said Dr Carol M. Devine, RD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and colleagues.

“Study findings will enhance understanding of social and temporal employment constraints on adults’ food choices and may inform workplace interventions and policies…The importance of work structure for employed parents’ food choice strategies is seen in the associations between work hours and schedule and food choice coping strategies, such as meals away from home and missed family meals.

“Long work hours and irregular schedules mean more time away from family, less time for household food work, difficulty in maintaining a regular meal pattern, and less opportunity to participate in family meals; this situation may result in feelings of time scarcity, fatigue, and strain that leave parents with less personal energy for food and meals,” the researchers added.

The study appears in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. (ANI)

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Uttarakhand women earn a living out of forest produce

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Chamoli (Uttrakhand), Sep 8 (ANI): Women of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand are rolling out herbal incense sticks and coal under the guidance of the district’s forest department.

They have formed various self-help groups to reap profits out of herbal environment friendly incense sticks and coal from leaves.

Aranyam, an eco and herbal centre in the district has appointed a few self-help groups to roll out these items.

The incense sticks are being prepared from lemongrass whereas the fallen leaves of Cheer Trees, which spreads fire in the forest are being utilised to making coal. Such attempt also helps in avoiding such fire related incidents in the forest area.

” Till this date, people were dependent only on agriculture but to improve our economic and living conditions, we have started such self help programs. Here we make coal and incense sticks,” said Bina Rawat, woman belonging to a self-help group.

On a regular basis, these women prepare around 1000 packets of incense sticks. They claim to generate enough income.

“We have been benefited a lot as we earn enough money after selling the incense sticks and the coal,” said Sunita Devi, another women.

Every woman earns almost 70 to100 rupees in a day.

The forest department official of the district said that such centre has been established to provide employment opportunities to people by utilising the forest produces.

“This centre has been established while keeping in mind to provide employment opportunities to people through the forest produce,” said Sanatan, District Forest Officer, Alaknanda forest department, Chamoli.

In a way, these herbal items benefit both the ecology and the people but it still awaits recognition by the government. (ANI)

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NREGA transforming lives in rural Mizoram

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Aizwal, Sep.8 (ANI): By generating employment opportunities through infrastructure development projects, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has helped people in rural areas of Mizoram.

In Vairengte, located about 130 km from Aizawl, the state capital, many villagers are being employed in road construction projects.

They earn rupees 103 per day.

The roads help the farmers to sell their agricultural products.

The project is being implemented in three phases to cover all the eight districts of Mizoram.

Over 100,000 job cards have been sanctioned for the current financial year (2009-10) at a cost of around rupees 1.67 billion rupees.

“This scheme is beneficial for rural people because most of the people, about 70-80 per cent doesn’t have job in Industrial or Private or Government sectors. So, this kind of scheme is very helpful for them,” said Zomingthang, Superintendent under NREGA in Mizoram.

“After the coming of NREGA, we are getting jobs. We can earn our own day-to-day livings now. The project is also aiding in the development of our village. We are very happy,” said Joeph, a local resident.

Mizoram Government has sent proposals to the Centre for other developmental schemes related to agriculture, forest, water resources, land resources and rural roads that will help in increasing the productivity of assets and resources under NREGA.

Such developmental projects are hoped to improve the living conditions of people in Mizoram. By Pinaki Das (ANI)

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Vocational training programme for unemployed youth in Himachal

September 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kufri, Sep. 6 (ANI): Unemployed youth in Kufri region of Himachal Pradesh are delighted after a special vocational course has been introduced at a Hotel Management Institute to enable them earn livelihood in tourism sector.

Introduced under the Central Government, the tourism and hospitality requires candidates to have had school education till standard eight as minimum eligibility.

The tourism-based course, which can be completed within six to eight weeks of training, is aimed to enable the local youths to get into jobs.

The enrolled students obtain free training, uniform and stipend of rupees 1,500 to 2000 at the institute.

“They (unemployed youth) after doing this course whose entire expense is being met by government including education, uniform, training equipments can explore job opportunities. We will also provide certificates after the completion of the course. Moreover, industrial training for a brief period so that after they pass out from this they can have employment opportunities,” said Dipankar Mukherjee, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management, Kufri.

The local youth are enthusiastic to pursue this course. The students are being trained in cooking, catering apart from other nuances of the trade.

“This course will be very helpful. Even though in 8 weeks time you can’t learn everything but the course will help to get job opportunities,” said Poonam Sharma, a student.

Even graduates are showing interest in this special course, as they know it will prepare them for many employment opportunities.

“This course assures job for us. There are job opportunities in tourism sector as hundreds of tourists come to visit Himachal…. We are not only learning cooking and catering but also this course is teaching us the real sense of hospitality… this will tell us how to help and guide tourists,” said a graduate trainee.

Tourism is an important employment generating sector in Himachal Pradesh and it is the mainstay in Kufri which attracts large number of tourists to enjoy snow falls. By Hemant Chauhan (ANI)

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Increasing residential and employment density may reduce vehicle travel, fuel use and CO2

September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): A new report has determined that increasing population and employment density in metropolitan areas could reduce vehicle travel, energy use, and CO2 emissions from less than 1 percent up to 11 percent by 2050.

The report is a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council in the US.

Assuming compact development is focused on new and replacement housing, as converting existing housing to higher densities could be prohibitively difficult, significant increases in density would result in modest short-term reductions in personal travel, energy use, and CO2 emissions.

However, these reductions will grow over time.

According to the committee that wrote the report, the most reliable research studies estimate that doubling residential density in a metropolitan area might lower household driving between 5 percent and 12 percent.

If higher density were paired with more concentrated employment and commercial locations, and combined with improvements to public transit and other strategies to reduce automobile travel, household driving could be lowered by as much as 25 percent.

By reducing vehicle use, petroleum use and CO2 emissions would also be lessened.

In order to quantify the potential effects of compact development, the committee developed illustrative scenarios, looking forward to 2030 and 2050.

If 75 percent of new and replacement housing units in the US were developed at twice the density of current new development, and individuals drove 25 percent less – the committee’s upper-bound scenario – personal travel, fuel use, and CO2 emissions would be reduced by 7 percent to 8 percent, relative to a base case, by 2030, and by 8 percent to 11 percent by 2050.

If only 25 percent of housing units were developed more compactly, and residents drove 12 percent less, then personal travel, fuel use, and CO2 emissions would be reduced by approximately 1 percent by 2030, and by 1.3 percent to 1.7 percent by 2050.

If in this lower-bound scenario, residents drove only 5 percent less, then personal travel, fuel use, and CO2 emissions would be reduced by less than 1 percent by 2050. (ANI)

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Corporate trophy to boost employment opportunities for cricketers

September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dharamsala, Sep 2 (ANI): The eight day ‘Inter-Corporate National Cricket Tournament’ featuring 12 corporate teams to be held at four centres, is expected to generate employment opportunities for domestic cricket players in India’s corporate houses.

The tournament began simultaneously in Bangalore and Dharamshala on Tuesday.

The participating teams are set to compete for the winning amount of Rupees 1 crore.

Cricket players believe that the tournament, given official status by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI), is a good opportunity especially for domestic cricket players.

“It is a very important tournament, the BCCI has given it official status, even if it hadn’t it would still be important for cricketers as they are playing for their company. It is also an opportunity for cricketers to get employment and it will be good for them, so it is a good tournament,” said Rohan Gavaskar, cricketer.

A season starter, the tournament is believed to be good for the players who haven’t played for the past few months and a warm up for top players before the one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka starting on September 11 and the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.

“Keeping in mind the timing of the tournament, the guys have had a couple of months break, they haven’t played for a couple of months before the season starts again. So it will be a good time for them to have a hit and also for the selectors to have look at some of the new youngsters,” said Hemant Badani, another cricketer.

Known players such as Harbhajan Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, RP Singh, VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif, Rahul Dravid, Ajit Agarkar are also participating in the tournament. (ANI)

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Low apple production causes unemployment in Himachal Pradesh

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Shimla, Aug 31 (ANI): The low apple crop production in Himachal Pradesh has led to loss of business and unemployment in the state.

Many people have been left jobless in the state, as apple crop production has come down by almost seventy five percent.

Thousands of people are associated with the apple business. Starting from the apple crop production, packing, loading and transportation to marketing and buying. A large number of people get employment from the month of July to October. But this year the fall in production of apples have left people jobless.

Director of the Himachal Horticulture department, Gurudev Singh, said that low production has affected the transportation business as well as the lower class labourers.

“The category of people that are getting affected are mostly the truck owners because the lack of work will bring them in a difficult condition to make payments of loans for the trucks. Last year when the production was 2,55,00, 000 apple boxes, transportation were needed but not much trucks are being required.

Meanwhile, the lower class labourers associated with the loading work is also being affected as not much labourers are being employed,” he added.

Himachal Pradesh is one of India’s major apple-producing regions, with over 90 per cent of the produce sold in the domestic markets.

Shimla, Kullu, Mandi, Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and Chamba districts are the major hubs of apple production.

Lack of rainfall this monsoons and poorer snowfall last winter has led to a downfall in apple production in Himachal Pradesh this year. (ANI)

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Fabric bags are growing popular in Kashmir

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Srinagar, Aug 31 (ANI): People are lapping up environment-friendly fabric bags in Srinagar, which they say is reusable and has many benefits.

With the two-month old ban on plastic bags, jute, fabric or recycled paper carrier bags have now become a common sight in the valley.

People can be seen carrying their shopping in jute or other fabric carrier bags.

With the increased demand, sellers are happy to earn a few extra bucks on these eco-friendly bags.

Residents are happy with the government initiative, which is helping to make their picturesque town cleaner and healthier.

“People like fabric bags. Earlier, people used to throw polythene bags anywhere. It used to clog drains forcing and dirty water would flow over. It used to help in spreading diseases.

The government has done a good job by banning it. The demand for plastic bags has decreased a lot,” said Inayatullah Dar, a resident.

The drive has also helped to generate employment for people who are now making these fabric bags from cloth and recycled paper, including newspapers.

“In the process, the cottage industry has started looking up. Now people are stitching cloth bags, which are getting popular. People are now instead of binning their old newspapers reselling them for a little less than their purchase price. This has also helped in the circulation of newspapers,” said Khawaja Farooq Renzu, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Srinagar.

The ban has been imposed in the entire state, but tourist places are seeing its stricter implementation to discourage both residents and tourists from using plastic bags. By Afzal Bhat (ANI)

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