India News Clips
 

Indian inflation approaches 12% Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7502087.stm Wholesale prices in India grew by 11.89% in the year to the end of June, the fastest rate since the measure began in 1995. Inflation has tripled over the last six months, driven by the soaring cost of food and fuel. Figures also showed that the output of India's factories grew by its slowest rate in six years. Industrial output rose 3.8% in May, compared to the same month in 2007, a sharp drop on the April's 6.2% growth. "The industrial output numbers ... are a reflection of manufacturers anticipating a slowdown in consumer spending as high inflation bites into incomes and some scale-back of fresh production plans," said economist Shuchita Mehta, from Standard Chartered Bank. The Reserve Bank of India has been increasing interest rates to try and dampen inflation. Last month, it increased its main lending rate twice in two weeks to 8.5%. But higher interest rates could cause economic growth to slow further, analysts predict. Economists suggest the economy is unlikely to grow at 8-8.5% this year, as the government has predicted. 1 Canadian $ = 40.56 rupees or 10 Rupee = 23.5 cents

Nuclear Energy An Inevitable Option For India Press Trust of India / Bangalore July 9, 2008, 19:10 IST Nuclear energy is an "inevitable option" for India as the country's capacity to produce nuclear power could be up to as high as 2,00,000 Mw by the year 2050 with the addition of more fast breeder reactors, a top government official has said. Nuclear power currently accounts for around 4,000 Mw of the total 1,40,000 Mw installed electricity generating capacity in the country excluding captive power plants, said Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. "The country's main thrust would be coal-based power in the next 20 years," he said. Installed capacity of nuclear energy is projected to go up to 20,000 Mw by the year 2020, Chidambaram told a China-India-US science, technology and innovation workshop here last night.  "Thereafter it would grow very rapidly with more fast breeder reactors being introduced in the system. The capacity can grow to as much as 2,00,000 Mw by the year 2050", said Chidambaram, who is also professor at the Department of the Atomic Energy, BARC. But he hastened to add: "It (India's nuclear power production capacity going up to 2,00,000 Mw by 2050) depends upon how international situation changes. It depends on how quickly proliferation misconceptions are removed from the system." Emphasising that nuclear power is an inevitable option to meet India's rapid growth in future, he said the current production would not be able to cater the surging energy demand.

90% Med Grads Skip Rural Stint http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/ MUMBAI: The list of medical graduates who passed out of the Grant Medical College attached to JJ Hospital at Byculla in 2007-'08 says the whole story: only three of the 109 students took up the mandatory government service. The rest paid Rs 1 lakh to break the state government's bond that requires them to put in a year's work in healthcare facilities in the state's hinterland. The story is not unique to JJ Hospital. It's being played out in the state's 13 other government-run medical colleges as well, reveals data collected by the Youth For Equality under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The state government's ‘one year or Rs 1 lakh' formula has obviously not succeeded in providing a steady stream of doctors for the rural healthcare system as it was meant to do. But it garnered over Rs 9 crore for the state coffers in bond money collection in 2006-'07, admits a senior official from the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), which oversees medical education. But simple arithmetic shows that with a student pool of 2,060 medical graduates every year, the sum could well be much bigger than that.

Work-Life Balance Biggest Concern For Indians: Survey http://www.zeenews.com/print_articles.asp?aid=453841&sid=NAT Excerpt: New Delhi, July 07: The financial turmoil and slowdown might be worrisome globally but Indians consider maintaining a balance between work and life as their biggest concern than the economy, a survey shows. According to a study conducted by global information and media firm Nielsen Company, about 20 per cent of the Indians feel that balancing work and life is their utmost concern while only 13 per cent are worried about the economy. "... Better opportunities along with good pay package, growth prospects, brings in a long work schedule leaving individuals with very little time to balance their work and life." Demanding careers have dominated the lives of many young Indians for sometime now and it takes a toll on their family life. It is not a surprise then that most Indians consider work-life balance as their biggest concern, said the Nielsen company, managing director - customised research, Asia Pacific India, China and Greater China, Sarang Panchal. On the other hand, respondents across the world rated the state of economy as their chief concern. "Lifestyle and culture play an important role in how consumers rank their concerns in life. Considering the thriving economy of India and good job prospects, Indians are more concerned about their overall well being, Panchal said. "They are confident that whatever problems they would face in the near future, lack of money wont be a cause of it." Further, children's education and/or welfare (seven per cent), debt (three per cent), political stability (three per cent), terrorism (two per cent), crime (two per cent), and ability to afford retirement (two per cent) are some other concerns of Indians.

Indian businesses create 19,000 new jobs in Britain in past 12 months http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/ 13 Jul, 2008, 1142 hrs IST, IANS CHENNAI: Indian businesses have created at least 19,000 new jobs in Britain in the past 12 months and helped save some 14,000 existing ones, British Deputy High Commissioner Mike Connor says. The 14,000 jobs saved were at the ailing Jaguar and Land Rover unit that Tata Motors acquired in Britain earlier this year, Connor told IANS in a chat here. At the existing basic wage rate of six pounds ($11.9 or Rs.510) an hour for eight hours a day, these jobs translate into a minimum contribution of 530 million pounds ($1.05 billion or Rs.45 billion) a month to Britain's economy. Annually, it works out to 12 billion pounds ($23.8 billion or Rs.1.02 trillion).