12 September, 2013

Carmakers retrench 7,000 employees in four months

The automobile industry's sluggish run has cost the economy a lot of jobs. Sources in the industry say that vehicle manufacturers alone have retrenched an estimated 7,000-8,000 contract employees in the past four months as car, utility vehicle and truckmakers cut production and opt for shorter working weeks. Sources say the real number of contract employees retrenched could actually be higher if the component industry is taken into account.

Industry experts say contract labour, by its very definition, is a cyclical phenomenon and hiring goes up or down alongside demand. "The auto industry has significant dependence on contract labour ranging from 30% going up to 50%-60% of the workforce depending on different companies," said Kumar Kandaswami, leader, manufacturing, Deloitte in India: "Clearly with a low demand situation, there's slackness in employment as well but if demand picks up speed in the festival season, some of the jobs will come back."

No slowing down: NRIs from Kerala, Punjab belt push up retail sales

The rising dollar may have become a splitting headache for consumer electronic companies and lifestyle retailers who are facing the brunt of cut down on aspirational consumer spend amid rising prices, but there are two markets which have completely bucked the slowdown: Kerala and the Punjab-Chandigarh belt.

Companies like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Videocon and Toshiba along with retail chains like The Mobile Store, Univer-Cell and Arvind Brands, said sales growth in Kerala and the Punjab-Chandigarh belt is much more than their national average, attributing the brisk demand to the high forex remittances flowing to the households from NRI family members and relatives with the rupee sharply depreciating against the dollar, pound and dirham. In fact, the companies said sales took a major spike in July-August when the rupee crashed to its lowest ever against the dollar.

Sensex ends flat; metal, realty and bank stocks in demand

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex on Wednesday once again fell short of the 20,000 mark even after wiping out a 219-point intra-day loss, helped by buying in metal, realty and banking stocks.

Continued appreciation in the rupee after a series of steps by the RBI and hopes of a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis helped the recovery, which came a day after the index's biggest gain in more than four years. The rupee traded close to the 63.30 level in the afternoon.

The Sensex resumed stable and climbed to 20,055.53 only to fall to 19,777.63 in the absence of triggers from global stocks and on profit-selling after yesterday's 727-point rise. It bounced back to close at 19,997.45, a 0.36-point gain, failing to hold above the 20,000 mark for the second day.

TRAI's fresh recommendations on TV rating guidelines

TV rating agencies should have a minimum of 20,000 panel homes for collecting viewership data and this number should increase by 10,000 every year till the figure of 50,000 is reached, broadcasting sector regulator TRAI has recommended.

In fresh recommendations on 'guidelines for TV rating agencies' released today, TRAI has also asked the Information & Broadcasting Ministry to notify guidelines for these agencies within two months.

The regulator pointed out that it had examined the same subject in 2008 but rued that little or no action was taken on its earlier recommendations.

ATMs, card terminals to scan UID biometrics

All new credit card swipe machines and automated teller machines (ATMs) will be required to have a mechanism for Aadhaar authentication using biometrics. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is understood to be preparing such a directive to improve security and promote financial inclusion.

The central bank had been debating between the international 'chip and PIN' and Aadhaar-based authentication to provide additional security for card transactions. Although RBI appears to have reconciled to a combination of 'chip and PIN' authentication for existing customers and biometric checks for hitherto unbanked cardholders, the challenge is in the acceptance devices.

There are 1.2 lakh ATMs and 10.30 lakh credit card swipe (Point of Sales, or PoS) machines. Banks are expected to add around two lakh PoS machines and around 20,000 ATMs next year. All these machines will need to have facilities to scan biometrics. This will significantly increase investment costs. The other implication is that traditional phone lines may not work to send scanned fingerprint images for verification. Banks say that new machines will require the equivalent of 3G data speeds to transmit biometric data.

Afghanistan stun defending champions India in SAFF Cup final

After missing the semifinal, Sunil Chhetri admitted, "It's tough to watch the match from the stands." Watching from the bench must have been even tougher.

The India captain watched helplessly from the technical bench after being left out of the starting XI and coach Wim Koevermans's decision to continue with a winning combination did not really work.

Afghanistan lived up to their top billing with a 2-0 victory over India in the final of the SAFF Championship, managed by World Sports Group, at the Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Rafael Nadal wins US Open

Rafael Nadal claimed his second US Open title and 13th Grand Slam crown when he defeated world number one Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in a lung-busting, big-hitting final on Monday.

Nadal, 27, added the 2013 trophy to his 2010 triumph, when he completed a career Grand Slam, and gloriously capped a year that has now seen him capture 10 titles and stretch his season record to 60 wins and just three losses.

Pakistan hockey official resigns over World Cup failure

A top Pakistan hockey official resigned on Wednesday after the team's failure to qualify for the World Cup sparked protests from former players and fans angry over a spectacular decline in the national game.

Pakistan, a four-time world champion and three-time Olympic gold medallist, failed to win the Asia Cup earlier this month, a victory they needed in order to qualify for next year's World Cup in the Netherlands.

The failure came as Pakistan struggled to lift itself out of a deep slump, after they finished seventh at last year's London Olympics and eighth at Beijing four years earlier.