RBI to launch plastic currency notes soon

SRINAGAR: Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao on Wednesday said the central bank will soon introduce on a pilot basis plastic currency notes as they have longer shelf-life.

"We are trying to introduce plastic currency. We hope to introduce it on trial basis and if that succeeds it will be replicated in the entire country," he said during an interactive session with students of Business School of Kashmir University here.

He emphasised that plastic note is environment friendly because it has longer shelf-life than the paper notes.

Australia and Singapore have introduced plastic currencies.

With a view to elongating life of bank notes, particularly of lower denominations, it was decided by the RBI and government to introduce one billion pieces of Rs 10 notes in polymer/plastic on a trial basis in Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Shimla.

The finance ministry had recently said that the review of policy of producing currency notes is a "dynamic and continuous process".

On the issue of fake currency, Subbarao said the problem is that whenever a fake currency is detected both the customer and the bank would be reluctant to put it on record.

"You want to get away because you don't want to get entangle with the police and bank want to get away because it means a lot of work for them. So, within the system there is disincentive for detecting fake currency," he said.

As the current norms are too draconian, he said, the RBI has convinced the ministry of home affairs that FIRs should be filed only if the more than four fake notes are found with a person.

PF set to cover all pay, not just basic

NEW DELHI: You may end up saving more in the months ahead with the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) readying to re-notify a new definition of "compensation" that will include all your allowances, amid intense lobbying against the move by industry bodies.

Currently, employers get away by contributing only 12% of the basic salary and dearness allowance, which is not paid by most companies, towards their share of "matching" provident fund and the Employees Pension Scheme contribution. So, for several thousand employees, the basic salary remains constant, while increments are passed by way of enhanced or new allowances. In most cases, the tax liability for the employee goes up due to the salary hike — and companies earn tax credits on salary-related expenses — but the statutory provident fund contribution remains unchanged.

As a result, EPFO notified the changes last year but had to withdraw the circular in the wake of protests from employers and the perception that take-home salaries would come down. Even now, industry is resisting the move but EPFO is expected to go ahead with the plan as a panel set up by the labour ministry to vet the proposal has endorsed it.

The report is currently pending with the labour ministry but sources said the government will go ahead and notify the norms. To ensure that the proposal goes through without facing legal glitches, the EPFO board may also discuss and ratify it.

Industry chambers have, however, not given up the fight against the move. Confederation of India Industry (CII) has already dashed off a four-page letter to labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge arguing that the plan should be deferred, while other industry bodies are expected to step up lobbying against the move.

It has suggested that the matter is pending before the Supreme Court after a series of orders by high courts. When contacted, a CII executive said the move will reduce the investment options before an employee. "Someone may want to invest in a mutual fund scheme or buy shares. Besides, employees are happy getting allowances and if the move goes through, take-home salaries may come down," the executive said. Then, he argued for the corporate sector, saying some of the small and medium enterprises will face a higher financial burden.

The lobby group is, however, backing another proposal that seeks to restrict reopening of cases beyond seven years, as it is meant to reduce harassment.

Government officials, however, countered the industry argument on the new compensation definition, saying EPFO membership was mandatory only for employees earning Rs 6,500 a month. Anyone beyond that level could opt out. Although it may be difficult for several employers to give the opt-out option, reworking of the salary structure to ensure that the wage bill doesn't shoot up can be on the cards.

UID not delivered? Take a print of your e-Aadhaar

BANGALORE: If you are one of those waiting for your Aadhaar card, log on to the UIDAI website, key in your enrolment number and take a print of your e-Aadhaar card. This, according to UID deputy director general Ashok Dalwai, is as valid as having a card.

With lakhs of Aadhaar applicants waiting for months, and in some cases years, to get their Unique Identity card, the UID chief in Karnataka says the public need not panic if the card is not despatched.

What's e-Aadhaar?

e-Aadhaar is the digital copy of the Aadhaar card available online for genuine applicants, whose enrolment has no glitches. "The process of e-Aadhaar was started six months ago, in order to facilitate Aadhaar applicants in case of a delay in the issue of the actual Aadhaar card. So we started online issuance of UID details. Those whose Aadhaar card has been delayed in delivery can log on to the UID website and key in their enrolment number and take a print of their e-Aadhaar card, which is as valid as the Aadhaar card itself," said Dalwai.

The cost of an e-Aadhaar printout availed at BangaloreOne centres is Rs 9.

UIDAI officials have asked state governments to set up permanent enrolment centres in each taluk, and in public utility centres like BangaloreOne, MysoreOne, KarnatakaOne and Nadu Kacheris (taluk offices) to issue the e-Aadhaar card in the form of a printout to applicants.

"The process of Aadhaar enrolment and despatch of the Aadhaar card involves several agencies. After enrolment, the data is sent for printing. It's the responsibility of India Post to despatch the Aadhaar card to the applicant. In many cases, there's been a delay in delivery because of the validation check, or delay in despatching the post. In many cases, we withhold the Aadhaar issuance due to duplicated fingerprint entries or mismatching data. Over 10 lakh to 1 crore cards have been held back," said Ashok Dalwai.

PAY FOR CHANGE OF ADDRESS?

As of now, self-updation, like change of address, is free of cost, but there are chances of a nominal fee being charged for the service. "The fee structure depends on the registrars who've tied up with the UID. A nominal fee would be collected for such service soon," he said.

Delhi University’s Academic Council okays ideas to help out disabled

NEW DELHI: Delhi University's Academic Council, which met on Monday, cleared the recommendations of the empowered committee constituted to examine the foundation courses to ensure all parts are accessible to students with disabilities, especially the visually impaired. In addition to making suggestions, the committee has also sought Rs.1.8 crore as funds for "providing support to students with disabilities during Four-Year Undergraduate Programme". There were five dissents recorded.

The committee had sought the inputs of A K Mittal, president, All India Confederation of the Blind, and George Abraham, CEO of Delhi-based Score Foundation "to obtain their perspectives on visual impairment with regard to the new UG programme on the basis of their expertise and lived experiences". The committee also considered suggestions made by Kartik Sawhney, a blind student who's passed the Boards with a 95% aggregate in science and is going to Stanford to study computer science.

The committee, while maintaining that "no modification in the curricula... called for", has suggested that for students who can't at all handle the two courses—Science and Life and Building Mathematical Ability—that disability rights group Sambhavana Organization had raised questions about, these can be replaced with History of Science and Communication and Personality Development. The vice-chancellor has been requested to get the syllabi for these prepared. Sambhavana had taken DU to court over the compulsory science course which, they argued, would further alienate the already marginalized blind students, most of whom would not have been allowed to study science beyond Class VIII.

In response to the recommendations made by Sambhavana, the reports points out that "the course does not involve teaching of hard core science nor of different scientific disciplines... students with disabilities including the visually impaired will be able to do the course fully for which they would, of course be provided all requisite technological support as also peer-tutoring." Sambhavana had also suggested a "bridge course" but the committee chose to go with "remedial teaching/tutorials throughout the first year." As for equipment, they'll get an abacus for each visually-impaired student, Taylor frame, tactile geometry kit, Brailer (one for each college) and necessary software.

Sambhavana had also suggested teaching of these courses be moved to the second year as that would allow the bridge courses to bring the students up to the level of the rest of the class, but the committee felt "the measure will be counter-productive and will be contrary to the principles of inclusion and equality for persons with disabilities." "The Equal Opportunity Cell of DU introduced a number of policies last year for the disabled including complete fee-waiver and this year we have also issued separate admission guidelines for colleges," says Bipin Tiwary, OSD, EOC.

The report was tabled before the AC on Monday. Nikhil Jain of Sambhavana has said in a statement that the organization's members were given "no opportunity to read and reflect on it with the seriousness it deserves" and that relevant accessible devices and reading material "will come as per the needs of Disabled." The syllabi for History, Sociology and Adult Education (Discipline II only) were also tabled at the same meeting and passed.

DGCA to allow pilots to take nap during long flights

NEW DELHI: The next time you hear snoring sound on the public announcement system of a long flight, don't be surprised. Pilots are soon going to be allowed to take a nap — at the wheels in the cockpit — for up to 40 minutes on long flights when the aircraft is cruising and not during ascending or descending phases.

The pilot and co-pilot will be allowed to sleep only one at a time and when one of them is napping, the cabin crew in charge will call up the awake pilot every 20 minutes (during night) and every half an hour (during day) to ensure that the other person also does not join the snoring. It will be allowed on at least three hour long flights.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is proposing to make this change based on best practices abroad, subject to strict conditions. Aviation regulators in US, Canada, Europe, UK, Hong Kong and many other developed countries allow this "controlled rest" as studies have shown that this to be a "another line of defence to manage fatigue risks. This practice was allowed after a Nasa study in 1992 showed a pilot was likely to be more alert if he or she takes a short nap during the non-critical phase of a flight.

"Controlled rest will be at the discretion of the captain and by only one flight crew at a time in the operating seat. (It will be allowed in cruise phase when) weather conditions are benign and weather-related deviation is not required," the draft civil aviation requirement issued by DGCA says. The commander can end the co-pilot's controlled sleet at any time as per flight requirement.

"The resting pilot shall keep his seat belt and harness fastened and move the seat aft to such a position that unintentional interference with controls is minimized... During controlled rest, the non-resting captain cannot leave his seat for any reason," the draft says. This rest will be allowed on long flights after the aircraft is at cruise altitude and will be terminated half an hour before descent begins.

Senior pilots welcome this move as they say this happens even now. "A few minutes' sleep is very freshening. This is still happening in cockpits when one pilot goes to sleep and the other remains alert. But at present, the sleep is not peaceful as pilots know this is something that is not allowed. The DGCA move to officially allow it in cruise phase is welcome," said a senior training captain.

83% fall in mobile call charges in the last 9 yrs: Govt

The average cost of mobile phone call has declined by a sharp 83 percent to 47 paise in the last nine years, the government claimed today. Wireless subscriber base on the other hand has expanded about 25-fold to over 86 crore, it said.

“The average tariff for each outgoing call per minute for GSM services dropped from Rs 2.89 in March 2004 to 47 paise in December 2012,” Ministry of Communications and IT said in a statement.

“The wireless subscriber base increased from 33.6 million in March 2004 to 864.72 million as on December 2012,” it said.

AFP
The government said that in its nine-year rule, the Indian telecom sector has registered a phenomenal growth and has become second largest telephone network in the world after China.

“A series of reform measures by the government, the wireless technology and active participation by private sector played an important role in the exponential growth of telecom sector in the country,” it said.

The government said with implementation of National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, number of telephonic connections rose to 893.14 million as on January 2013 while the overall teledensity stood at 73.07 per cent as against 7.04 per cent in March 2004.

The rural teledensity also crossed 40 per cent in January 2103 from 1.7 per cent in March 2004, it added.

PTI

Cognizant clocks highest revenue growth rate among Indian IT firms

 US-headquartered firm Cognizant clocked the highest growth rate of 20.1 per cent in revenues among the top five India-based IT services providers last year, global research firm Gartner said today.

The NASDAQ-listed firm also displaced Infosys as the second-largest IT services provider in 2012 with a worldwide revenue of USD 7.1 billion, Gartner said in a statement.

"Cognizant displaced Infosys to become the second-largest Indian IT services provider and Cognizant experienced the highest growth rate among the top five providers with an increase of 20.1 percent in 2012," Gartner Research Director Arup Roy said.

The revenues of the top 5 India-based IT services providers worldwide rose by over 13 per cent to USD 34.3 billion (around Rs 1,900 crore) last year from USD 30.3 billion in 2011.

TCS leads the IT services providers with revenue of USD 10.9 billion, followed by Cognizant (USD 7.1 billion), Infosys (USD 6.7 billion), Wipro (USD 5.7 billion) and HCL Technologies (USD 3.9 billion) in 2012.


"The top five Indian providers grew 13.3 percent to reach USD 34.3 billion in 2012, exceeding the IT services industry growth of 2 per cent," it said.

Gartner views Indian players as those who mainly have a India-based delivery model and management. Most firms are headquartered in India, but a few like Genpact, Cognizant, Syntel and iGate, are headquartered in the US. However, their delivery, management, operating style, among other things, are like those of other Indian providers.

However, Gartner said that the growth rate of India-based providers has been slowing for some years, with this trend being more pronounced in 2012.

But the growth rate is still quite high compared with the IT services worldwide or the growth of the top 10 global IT services providers. The global top 10 providers, however, are larger in their base revenue and more diversified than the India-based providers, Gartner added.
"The top five Indian service providers have continuously chipped away market share from the large multinational corporation providers. In the past five years, they have been winning large outsourcing deals (those with a total contract value of more than USD 100 million)," Roy said.

Their target customer segment still remain the Fortune 1,000 companies.


"There is a strong focus on, and investments in, cloud, analytics, mobility, infrastructure and knowledge processes. India-based providers have become much more aggressive in infrastructure management because it offers them the potential to grow bottom-up within accounts," Roy said.


Source : InidanExpress