Deflation may lead to pension cut
Deflation may prompt the government to cut public pension benefits by around 0.3 percent in fiscal 2011 in what would be the first reduction in five years.
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Pres. Obama Signs Claims Resolution Act of 2010
President Obama signed legislation that pays black farmers and several American Indian tribes money owed from long-standing discrimination and mismanagement lawsuits against the government. The Claims Resolution Act of 2010 also provides funding for programs that aid needy families with children. Length: 10 min. Published: Today at 5:30pm (ET)
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Europe crisis could hurt India, warns Pranab
The government on Tuesday attributed higher economic growth projected in the mid-year economic analysis for this fiscal than the Economic Survey to robust economic expansion in the first half.
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Indian Airlines Directed To Publish Tariff Structure On Website For Transparency
New Delhi, India (AHN) – The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked all the Indian airlines to make their airfares public by putting up the relevant information on their respective websites. The airlines have been given a 48-hour deadline to comply with this instruction. The Government wants to ensure transparency in ticket prices because of the fact that the flyers have constantly complained that they feel cheated because of exorbitant prices.
Earlier, in November, the DGCA had also asked the airlines to provide it with a copy of the route-wise established tariff on the first day of the calendar month.
Top officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA held a meeting with the representatives of the major Indian carriers and issued this directive afterwards. On Monday, the government officials met the representatives of full-service airlines like the Air India (the national carrier), Jet Airways and Kingfisher. On Saturday, they met the no-frill carriers like the IndiGo, Spicejet and GoAir.
During the meetings, the airlines were made aware of the provisions under the Rule number 135 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, which talks of making the tariff public through either websites or daily newspapers.
The meetings and the directive came as a result of the stand-off between the government and the airlines over the latter’s intentions to raise prices further, which the government is opposed to. This was visible in the recent surge in airfares, especially since November 15 this year, despite continuous government instructions to the contrary. It was in the month of November that the airlines actually went ahead with a 200-300 percent hike in fares.
As per the directive, the domestic airlines will have to “upload the route wise tariff across its network in various fare categories commensurate with date of purchase on their respective websites…” The guidelines are expected to help ensure transparency in the tariff structure of the carriers besides allowing the flyers to “enable predictability” while embarking on an air journey.
According to the directive, the airlines have to communicate detail-wise and route-wise fares, besides informing the public of the details involved in each “fare bucket.” Fare buckets are the different categories into which the aircraft seats are divided, depending upon their price.
On their part, the airlines have reluctantly agreed to comply with this directive, though many among them grudge that doing so would take away the competitive edge among themselves.
Meanwhile, Chairman of one of the major carriers, the Kingfisher airlines, Vijay Mallya said during a recent event, “There is no case of capping airfares in a liberalized environment, be it at the upper or lower band. It is a function of demand and supply and there is no exploitation by airlines.”
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Fed workers told: Stay away from leaked cables
Sure, tens of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables are out in the open, but the Obama administration is still warning federal government employees, and even some future diplomats, that they must refrain from reading any for themselves.
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Government’s ‘free lease’ plan has a catch
Desperate to stimulate new jobs in the economy, the Government is willing to give up income on unused factory space, but the targeted new manufacturing investors will still have to cough up some cash for the space they…
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Miliband sets out major overhaul of Labour party
Miliband launches major policy review, saying Labour party must do more than wait for the government to ‘screw up’
Ed Miliband has pledged to make Labour the party of people’s “hopes and aspirations” as he launched a major review of its policies in the wake of the general election defeat.
In his first address to the party’s national policy forum as leader, he said it had to recognise the need for change and move “beyond New Labour”.
Unveiling 22 policy inquiries, Miliband told the forum, meeting in Gillingham, Kent, that the same old stance would not restore trust in the party.
“We have to show again we are the people who are the idealists, we are the people who are the optimists, we are the people who can represent the hopes, the dreams, the aspirations of the British people,” he said. “So please join us on this journey. Join us on this journey which makes us once again the people’s party, the party of people’s hopes and aspirations, back on people’s side, back in power making for the fairer, the more equal, the more just country we believe in.”
Miliband said that while there was deep anger at the “broken promises” of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Labour could not afford simply to wait for the coalition to “screw up”.
“I know that we have got to change in order to win,” he said.
“There is no short cut or quick fix to this. We shouldn’t mistake the anger we feel at what the coalition is doing to the country for a sense that it isn’t as much about us as it is about them.
“The strategy that says wait for them to screw it up, simply be a strong opposition, is not a strategy that is going to work for us. We need to do that hard thinking of our own.”
Miliband said that he made no apology for speaking up for what he describes as the “squeezed middle”.
“People were feeling squeezed before this government. They are feeling much, much more squeezed now this government is in power,” he said.
“So it is about standing up for the hopes and aspirations of people. That must be our mission, to narrow the gap between the dreams that people can see around them and their chances of realising them.”
He indicated that he was ready to reform the system which elected him party leader, saying that a system where some members had multiple votes should be a “thing of the past”.
Miliband said that the Labour party needed to become again a “campaigning force” throughout the country.
“We have to be a party rooted in people’s lives,” he said. “We need to become a movement again. We have to reach out to people.”
He announced the formation of a series of working groups, chaired by shadow cabinet ministers, intended to lay the ground for a new policy programme to take Labour into the next general election.
The shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, will chair working groups on “rebalancing our economy for growth, jobs and sustainability” and “making the banking and finance sector work for our economy”.
John Denham, the shadow business secretary, will lead on a group on productivity and regional imbalance.
Other shadow cabinet members will be looking at constitutional reform, the police, family, the elderly, schools, civil liberties, housing and political reform. Tessa Jowell will lead a group under the heading, “Family life. What helps?”.
Miliband has appealed to universities, think-tanks, charities and other independent institutions to come forward with ideas that the party can incorporate into its reform agenda.
The first tranche of reviews will lead to a state of the nation document in 2011, Modern Britain’s Ambitions, before further specific policy work is done, which will form the basis of detailed policy-making leading up to the next general election manifesto.
A party spokesman said: “We want this process to be rooted in real people’s lives. We want it to lead to real change in our movement.
“Ed is determined that Labour mustn’t retreat into a discussion with itself. He wants Labour to reach out in a way it was never able to do while in government, and draw on the best ideas from across the political landscape.” Ed Miliband Labour Liberal Democrats Conservatives Alan Johnson John Denham Tessa Jowell David Batty guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Irish govt faces election backlash after fiscal pain
Ireland`s government will face the first real backlash from a vicious set of austerity measures when voters head to the polls in the northwestern county of Donegal on Thursday.
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5 mln jobs hard to achieve – Sacci
Government’s plan to create five million jobs through its new growth path framework for South Africa would be difficult to achieve, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said on Wednesday. |||
Government’s plan to create five million jobs through its new growth path framework for South Africa would be difficult to achieve, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said on Wednesday.
“Sacci believes that it will be difficult to achieve the target of creating five million jobs within five years even though the sectors identified for specific attention are those that have the potential to contribute significantly to its attainment,” said Sacci president Chose Choeu in a statement.
On Tuesday, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel unveiled government’s New Growth Path economic strategy which aimed to create five million jobs over the next decade.
Choeu said to achieve this, the government would have to implement policies and incentives to grow the small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME) sector.
It would also have to cut the red tape that hindered small business development.
“It will also be very important that the commitments and milestones identified in the growth path are adhered to, a task that will have to be undertaken by the monitoring and evaluation unit in the presidency.”
The New Growth Path set targets for scarce and key skills including the aim to produce 30,000 more engineers by 2014, and 50,000 more artisans by 2015.
Choeu said Sacci supported this focus on engineering and artisan skills — something it adopted as a key motion at its annual convention last month.
“Sacci also supports the focus on the green economy as this will assist our country to reach the millennium development and sustainable development goals to which it is committed.”
However, the organisation was concerned at the possible capping of wage increases through legislation.
“… such a move could discourage the improvement of productivity and deflect foreign direct investment elsewhere,”
Choeu said.
Sacci would only support the voluntary implementation of such restraints.
The growth plan included a proposal, for discussion with business and labour, for moderate wage settlements linked to clear commitments by business to save jobs, create new jobs and address inequality, Patel said on Tuesday.
The document proposed “moderate wage settlements” for those earning between R3000 and R20,000 a month, “possibly to inflation plus a modest real increase”, with “inflation-level increases for those earning over R20,000 a month”.
Further, it suggested that pay and bonuses for senior managers and executives earning over R550,000 a year be capped.
Sacci was developing a strategy on the role it could play to achieve government’s objectives. – Sapa
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Govt denies bailout will force tougher cuts
The Government tonight denied that a bailout for the crippled economy will see it forced into imposing even tougher cuts in public spending.
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