by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Emerging Businesses, Employment, Investing
Shimla : Himachal Pradesh on Monday signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 159 companies that will attract an investment of over Rs 17,000 crore and provide employment opportunities to 40,000 people, the government said.
It said three MoUs were signed with PSUs (public sector undertakings) for an investment of Rs 1,115 crore; 88 for the Department of Industries for Rs 5,243 crore; 36 for the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation for Rs 2,810 crore; 17 for the Department of Urban Development for Rs 4,332 crore; and five for the Department of Transport for an investment of Rs 2,780 crore, among others.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said the state was coming up with new policies for industry, tourism, warehouse and logistics, information technology, e-vehicles, films and Ayush to provide more attractive incentives to the entrepreneurs.
Presiding over the MoU signing ceremony here under the Himachal Pradesh Global Investors Meet, he said efforts would be made to ensure online clearances under Section 118 to ensure fast clearances of the projects.
Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act of 1972 makes permission mandatory for non-agriculturists in the state to buy property other than what is offered by the state housing board.
Thakur said a holistic approach had been adopted by the government to attract investments.
He said the state offers great scope for investment in sectors like tourism, education, healthcare and food processing.
The Chief Minister said the new industrial policy aims to establish state-of-the-art infrastructure, promote the manufacturing sector, enhance inclusivity, foster innovation and create employment opportunities across the sectors.
He said the entrepreneurs willing to set up new industry or undertaking expansion would be entitled to 30 per cent Capital Investment Subsidy subject to a maximum of Rs 5 crore on plant and machinery under the Industrial Development Scheme of the Government of India.
He said the state government would be holding the Global Investors Meet in June in Dharamsala.
Industries Minister Bikram Singh Thakur said the state was committed to make sustainable tourism one of the prime engines of growth by establishing it as a leading global sustainable tourism destination.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Government Jobs, News, Politics
New Delhi : Union cabinet has given its nod to 10 per cent quota for poor among the general categories in Jammu and Kashmir and also approved the provision for SC/ST reservation in promotion in government jobs in the state.
Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh said since Jammu and Kashmir is under the President’s Rule, the Cabinet on Tuesday in its meeting took these decisions.
Talking to reporters here at his official residence, Singh thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it will help a certain section of society which belongs to lower economic strata and will benefit equally Jammu and Kashmir like other states.
He said the government had introduced the provision of reservation in promotion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
“That too has been approved for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“It will enable Jammu and Kashmir to be beneficiaries of the same public welfare measures for the benefit of the weaker sections that PM Modi initiated for the rest of the country,” he said.
Hailing the decision Singh said that these decisions show the Prime Minister’s extremely sensitive concern for the state.
“In the last 65 years, no earlier government had ever taken an initiative on these lines and even now these decisions have come forth in the interest of the state because of the Modi Government being at the helm at the Centre,” he said.
The Union Cabinet had in January this year took the decision to provide for 10 per cent quota for people belonging to ‘unreserved categories’, including Christians and Muslims, in jobs and education with an annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh and land-holding ceiling of about five acres, highly-placed sources said.
A Constitution Amendment bill for the purpose was recently passed by the Parliament.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Corporate Jobs, Employment, Markets, Online Marketing, Private Jobs, Technology
Bengaluru : Infosys is partnering with the Community College of Rhode Island to set up a digital economy aspirations lab for training students in the US for digital jobs, said the software major on Wednesday.
“Our digital innovation and design centre at Providence in Rhode Island will help bridge the gap for design and human-centric skills and provide digital technologies to our clients,” said the city-based IT firm in a statement here.
The centre offers designers and design graduates training in digital skills, exposure to systems, platforms, strategy and organisation domains to make them employable in a digital world.
The $11-billion IT behemoth has so far hired 100 techies as part of its goal to create 500 jobs in the northeastern state by 2022.
“We have hired 7,600 American workers since spring 2017 as part of our commitment to speed up digital innovation of enterprise clients in the US,” said the statement.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Saif Alam Siddiqui for Maeeshat Media,
The kingdom’s Vision 2030 to create more jobs for Saudis in the private sector rebound and squeeze the economy, the Washington Post reported that a mass evacuation of foreign workers had initially encouraged to help secure employment for its citizens, is now adding to its trouble over an economic decline.
A project by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to create more jobs for Saudi citizens in the private sector has flopped and added burden on the economy.
About 1.1 million expatriate left the kingdom workforce from early 2017 to the third quarter of 2018, coinciding with a fee on dependents of expatriate workers and restrictions against foreign workers in several sectors, last year Saudi officials were reportedly considering lifting or easing the fees imposed on expatriate workers because of the harm of the policy was causing the economy, but the fees remain the same.
As the expatriate workers have left, young Saudis have not taken the jobs left open, for example in low-wage construction or retail, and the unemployment rate has soared as high as 12.9 per cent in the past two years.
The worker departure has added to anxiety, as Saudi leaders struggle to attract foreign investment after an anti-corruption crackdown by MBS that included the arrests of hundreds of business executives and public officials. In a sign that it is responding to investor anxiety, Saudi Arabia held its second major investor conference in less than four months and is expected to draw millions of dollars in investment for mining, energy and various sectors.
Reuters reported that the European Commission recently added Saudi Arabia to an EU draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc because of lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering. The move marked a disappointment for Riyadh at a time when it attempts to strengthen its international reputation and encourage foreign investors to participate in a huge economic transformation plan.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Corporate Jobs, Economy, Employment, Finance, Government Jobs, News, Politics, Private Jobs
By Saurabh Katkurwar,
New Delhi : Amid the controversy over the withholding of a report on the country’s unemployment situation, the government has cited data from provident fund records, Income Tax filings and the National Pension System (NPS), besides a possible upswing in the informal sector to show generation of crores of new jobs.
However, this does not mean there is an increase in the jobs, experts say.
During his reply on the motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said new jobs were created in the unorganised sector, which accounts for 80-85 per cent employment, citing an increase in the sale of commercial vehicles, infrastructure building and housing activities.
He said about 1.8 crore people had enrolled in the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in the past 15 months, and 64 per cent of them, who were below the age of 28 were first-time employees.
Modi also cited the data showing increase in the registration of employees under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) from 65 lakh in March 2014 to 1.2 crore till October 2018.
Considering the EPF enrolments as a reflector of job creation is not correct as it can be formalisation of informal jobs, said Mahesh Vyas, Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think tank.
“When a person enrols for the EPF, it does not necessarily mean that the person has got a job. It is quite likely that you have enrolled for the the EPF for the first time though you had a job for a long time,” he said.
“The law requires an employer with 20 people or more to register with the EPFO. If a firm has got 19 employees till yesterday and today 20th person joins in, then all 20 get enrolled for the first time. So it looks like employment has gone up by 20 when actually it is one.”
Another expert, who did not wish to be named, said there cannot be a correlation between EPF enrolment and job creation “since it has so many moving parts and variables, so one could interpret it differently”.
Modi also had said that new 6.35 lakh new non-corporate tax payers such as doctors must have provided jobs in past four years. The expert called it “incomprehensible” in the absence of the source of the data.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said he expected over 1.25 crore people have got jobs in the transport sector with the sale of 36 lakh commercial vehicles and 27 lakh auto-rickshaws.
He also cited setting up of two lakh service call centres, infrastructure building, hotel constructions and housing activities for the creation of employment in the country.
Vyas said if a farmer takes up a labourer’ job or moves to driving a truck, it cannot be considered a new job.
According to the CMIE statistics, India’s unemployment rate shot up to 7.4 per cent in December, 2018 and the number of unemployed increased by a substantial 11 million – the highest in 15 months.
Modi had taken a dig at the past governments for failing to establish standard system to tally employment and said only 7-8 sectors were taken into account to arrive at the employment rate when, in reality, jobs were created in 100-odd sectors.
Vyas said Modi was possibly referring to enterprise survey conducted by the Labour Ministry, which is one of the ways to estimate employment.
“That is not the best way to estimate employment and unemployment in country like India. But what the Prime Minister did not mention was that India also conducted a large house-hold survey. It is the most appropriate way of computing it and will capture all sectors. He is partially right but selective in the kind of survey done,” he said.
“The traditional way, which is a good way of calculating employment and unemployment, is the NSSO household survey,” he added.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report, which the government has withheld, said the unemployment rate was 6.1 per cent in 2017-18, post-demonetisation and was at its highest level since 1972-73 – the period since when the jobs data is comparable.
(Saurabh Katkurwar can be contacted at saurabh.k@ians.in)
—IANS
