by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Corporate Jobs, Employment, Private Jobs
Sterlite Copper
New Delhi : The decision of the Tamil Nadu government to shut the copper smelter plant in Tuticorin would have serious economic ramifications by pushing India’s annual import bill by an estimated $2 billion, said P. Ramnath, CEO, Sterlite Copper.
“The sudden decision of Tamil Nadu government to close down our copper smelter in Tuticorin will have far reaching ramifications for the economy of not only the town and its adjoining villages but also the country,” Ramnath said in a statement to IANS.
“While an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs are now on the line, a large number of small to medium enterprises that are dependent on our smelter for copper are also likely to suffer due to supply disruptions. Since Vedanta Sterlite is one of the largest copper producers in the country, manufacturers in sectors ranging from electrical to defence will have to turn to imports and that will push up the nation’s annual import bill by an estimated $2 billion based on the current price,” he added.
In a second successive blow to Vedanta Ltd, the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (SIPCOT) on Tuesday cancelled in “larger public interest” the land allotted in Thoothukudi for the expansion of Sterlite Copper’s smelting plant.
The Vedanta copper smelter serves over 800 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the downstream industry for the critical electrical sector. The bulk of supplies to the electrical sector are to units in northern and western regions.
In its letter to Vedanta, the SIPCOT cited the public protests against the plant’s expansion on grounds of increased pollution and expressed concerns over pollution caused by the first smelter plant.
The government agency said the price of 342.22 acres deposited will be refunded as per the norms.
On Monday, the government issued orders to close Vedanta’s first copper smelter unit, whose capacity is 400,000 tonne per annum.
The Tuticorin facilities include a custom smelter, a refinery, a phosphoric acid plant, sulphuric acid plants and a copper rod plant. In addition, there is a captive power plants located in Tuticorin and a refinery and two copper rod plants operating in Silvassa, western India.
The closure order came after a total of 13 persons were killed in police firing on May 22 and the next day in protests in Thoothukudi against the continued functioning of the unit.
In November 2017, Vedanta said its board approved the expansion of its copper smelter to 800,000 TPA with a capex of $717 million, of which $141 million had already been spent.
The company claimed that after completion the project will make Thoothukudi as one of the world’s largest single-location copper smelting complexes.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Private Jobs
New Delhi : Companies in India are likely to recruit more permanent employees than contractual workers in the times ahead, a report said here on Tuesday.
“The results suggest that recruitment drives will focus more on filling permanent roles, as opposed to temporary or contract positions,” said the “HireRight India Employment Screening Benchmark Report 2018”.
HireRight provides background checking services globally, including for employment and education purposes.
Talking to IANS on the demerits of over-dependence on contractual workers, Steve Girdler, Managing Director of HireRight for EMEA and APAC, said: “Contractors by their very nature are transient – they are employed for a specified length of time and then move on. However, most organisations would regard high turnover as a negative.”
“Not only does this require a constant cycle of training and recruiting, it also becomes difficult to establish a corporate culture and brand when people are constantly coming and going.”
Girdle said that although contract-based workers in a company go through screening process with an agency, the process is not always consistent.
Further, as per the report, “In 2018, almost half (43 per cent) of companies had less than 10 per cent of their workforce made up of non-employee workers.
“This contrasts with the previous year’s findings, where three quarters (73 per cent) of organisations stated that contingent workers accounted for 10 per cent to 19 per cent of their workforce”.
The report also revealed that companies in the country would emphasise on retaining employees in 2018.
“Despite ambitious growth plans, attracting talent appears to be a concern for fewer than half of employers (46 per cent) in India,” it said
“Instead, Indian employers are turning their attentions to minimising turnover, with the number of organisations investing in retention strategies more than doubling from 22 per cent in 2017 to 47 per cent in 2018.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, News, Politics
New Delhi : Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Monday that the biggest issue in the 2019 Lok Sabha election will be unemployment and Narendra Modi government’s “incompetence to create jobs”.
Addressing the national executive meeting of the Indian Youth Congress here, Chidambaram said the Modi government did not know how to create jobs.
“There will be many issues but the biggest issue of 2019 election will be unemployment. The government is so incompetent that they don’t know how to create jobs,” he said.
There were vacancies across sectors and thousands of jobs could be further created, he said.
Citing instances, Chidambaram said there was just one teacher in one lakh government schools. “If at least five teachers are recruited in these one-teacher schools, millions of jobs will be created.”
He said there were vacancies of doctors, clerks, peons and safai karamcharis in various departments.
The former Minister said nearly 6,000 teaching posts were vacant in central universities, while in the higher judiciary 410 posts of judges were vacant.
He said if the Congress came to power, it would focus on creating jobs in MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), besides paying attention to exports and off-farm jobs, such as poultry, food processing and diary farming.
“We will not do anything that this government is doing,” he said.
Chidambaram said there was “massive open unemployment” in the country and “jobs can be created when there is demand for more goods and services”.
“More goods and services will be produced with more investments which will come when there is a climate friendly to investment,” he said.
The Congress leader said investment had gone down drastically in the last four years. “Tragedy for India is that investment ratio at this stage is lowest since liberalisation.”
He said sectors such as IT, which were booming in the past, had also shed jobs.
Slamming the Modi government, he said demonetisation and faulty implementation of Goods and Services Tax had destroyed jobs in the MSME sector.
Chdiambaram also referred to the BJP leaders claiming credit for about 100 per cent electrification of villages as “another jumla”.
He said electrification of a vast majority of villages was done during Congress governments and the BJP-led government had completed electrification of only over 18,000 villages which were pending.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Opinions
By Sanjiv Kataria,
It’s April and a time to celebrate for millions of young Indians who have just finished their school-leaving class XII examinations. The days that follow help them unwind after months of exam preparation. The celebrations, however, are short-lived. The next many weeks and months are consumed preparing for admission tests for entry into a wide variety of disciplines.
It’s a tough time as they evaluate options that further their individual interests and make deliberate decisions that will determine what lies ahead of them — perhaps for the rest of their lives.
For young Indians, making it to any of the country’s 40,000 colleges — or getting a subject of their choice — is not easy. It is a pity that even though the number of colleges in the country has tripled in the last 17 years, the shortage of seats drives students to choose programmes that do not necessarily fit their aptitude. The marks they get in their school-leaving examination, conducted by the Central or the State Exam Boards or the International Baccalaureate, will determine their choice of subjects.
Just like the students, it is a busy time as well for career counsellors invited by schools and colleges to advise on great careers in demand, worthy institutions to study in, and the best ways to get into a specific programme. Many help students choose between great destinations to study abroad. Should it be Singapore, nearer home, or one of the Ivy League institutions in the US? Or the UK or Australia? Should it be a full-fee programme in a university — say, in safe and student-friendly Sydney — or a fully-paid scholarship in an unheard of university in an East European nation?
When I get pulled into advising young nephews and nieces based on the experience of helping our own young ones make their choices, I refer them to career option books by widely travelled counsellors to help them choose between engineering and biotechnology, architecture and law, medicine and pharma, liberal arts, social sciences or business management, journalism and computer science. And the list goes on.
For tough situations like convincing friends to let their loved ones choose streams beyond medicine or engineering, I encourage them to go to a professional career counsellor and careers columnists like Pervin Malhotra, who guided our son and daughter many years ago. These counsellors put the children through an aptitude test, discuss their strengths and suggest a set of options over a series of sessions.
An opportunity to sit through a fireside chat between Indian school students and Blair Slater, a career counsellor at the Sydney-based University of New South Wales (UNSW) recently, was an eye-opener. Blair, a former Hollywood star and now a full-time career counsellor for international students of over 100 nationalities, had an interesting take on careers.
He predicted that in the next 5 to 10 years, there will be plenty of jobs that don’t even exist today. In an ever-evolving job market, his advice to students was to prepare for a career by following their passion, pursuing what’s important to them while building a strong academic foundation. Problem-solving and adaptability, Blair said, should be the key leitmotifs in their toolkit of skills that will help them shine in a world of fast-changing jobs.
Universities are using innovative social media like Facebook’s live discussions with experts to reach wider audiences. A “Study in America” Facebook session by the US embassy in New Delhi last month helped demolish myths associated with admissions and job opportunities in America.
When looking for opportunities to study abroad, students will do well to consider the QS ranking that ranks higher educational institutes globally. The reputed British agency compares top universities in the world based on six performance parameters across sectors like Research, Teaching, Employability and Internationalisation, and the institute’s stature.
The best advice on making career choices comes from successful professionals in the field of the student’s interest. Insights from alumni shed light on the best practices followed by institutions, especially addressing their quest for knowledge, placement track record and reputation with employers.
Institutions that will flourish in the future will adapt their curriculum to the needs of the fast-changing world with speed, lay emphasis on original research to solve burning issues facing the world, and focus on life-long employability of their alumni.
(The author, who served NIIT as a brand custodian for two decades, is a communications counsel. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at sanjiv.kataria@gmail.com )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Government Jobs
New Delhi : The Indian Railways has received over 2.12 crore applications for about one lakh jobs, an official said on Friday.
“The Railway Recruitment Board advertised for the positions last month. Since then over 2.12 crore aspirants have filed online applications from across the country,” the official told IANS.
The last date for applying for the jobs is March 31.
The railways currently employ over 13.5 lakh people and is one of the biggest government employers.
The Ministry had invited online applications for one lakh posts in Group C Level 1 (erstwhile Group D) like track maintainer, points man, helper, gateman and porter and Group C Level 2 categories like assistant loco pilots and technicians through Railway Recruitment Boards websites.
On February 19, the Ministry relaxed the upper age limit by two years for all categories.
“The railways will invite applications for over 9,100 posts in Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) between May 19 and 25 this year,” the official said.
These jobs in the RPF would be mainly for the women. “Currently there are about 2,400 women RPF personnel. After the recruitment, the strength of women personnel would go up to 6,900,” the official added.
—IANS
