Washington, May 20: Finding a job has become difficult for many American college students and even if they manage to find a job, they are paid about 10 percent less than before, a report said.
Employment rates for graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years. Just %56 of members of the class of 2010 held at least one job by spring, compared to %90 from the classes of 2006 and 2007, the Media correspondent reports from Washington DC.
Mumbai, May 19: Coins of 25 paise denomination, popularly known as ‘paavli’ or ‘chaar anna’, will be withdrawn from June 30, the Reserve Bank of India announced here Wednesday.
“The coins of denomination of 25 paise and below will cease to be legal tender from June 30. These will not be accepted for exchange at bank branches from July 1, 2011 onwards,” the RBI said in a statement.
The central bank appealed to the people to exchange stocks of these coins at the branches of banks maintaining small coin depots or at RBI offices around the country.
New Delhi, May 18: In less than a year, the external affairs ministry’s twitter account has collected over 10,000 followers, pioneering the outreach of government organisations on social media platforms.
On July 9, 2010, twitter account “Indiandiplomacy” started to tweet. It possibly marked the first time that a major Indian ministry was using a social media platform to create awareness about its activities.
On Wednesday, the ministry’s official account, managed by its public diplomacy division, had garnered over 10,000 followers.
Hyderabad, May 18: Netxcell Limited, the leading telecom application provider, is celebrating the completion of 11 years of its business operations.
To commemorate this milestone and to enhance it’s connect with the employees and customers, Netxcell announced the launch of its profile on Facebook, one of the most popular social networking site. Netxcell, which started its operations in year 2000 in Hyderabad as India’s 1st Telecom VAS Company, has been growing consistently over the years.
New Delhi, May 18: Just three days after oil firms hiked petrol rates by a steep Rs 5 per litre, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) is likely to meet on Wednesday to consider increase in diesel, LPG and kerosene prices.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister is likely to deliberate on oil ministry’s demand for a minimum Rs 4 a litre hike in diesel price and Rs 25 per cylinder increase in LPG rates to partly bridge the gulf between domestic prices and their international cost.
Hyderabad, May 17: Mitsui OSK Lines, the world’s largest shipping and multi-modal transportation company, plans to double its business in terms of volumes in India with the launch of a new direct service between India and China next week, company officials said Tuesday. It also intends to change focus from China to India.
The weekly container service via Singapore will double the volumes to eight percent. Currently India accounts for four percent at 160,00 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).
Kolkata, May 17: West Bengal’s opposition Left front Tuesday announced it would hit the streets if the union government raised the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.
The empowered group of ministers on fuel prices in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is scheduled to meet this week and decide on a likely revision of fuel prices apart from petrol, which has already been hiked by Rs.5 a litre by the oil marketing companies.
Gandhinagar, May 17: Gujarat Tuesday alleged injustice in the allocation of DAP fertiliser, saying the central government has given it far less than its requirement.
Agriculture Minister Dileep Sanghani urged union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to rise above party politics and meet the state’s demand as per existing rules and priority.
In a letter to Pawar, Sanghani said the central government’s allocation was far less than the state’s requirement, which is likely to create a shortage of the fertiliser during the 2011 kharif season.
Abu Dhabi, May 17: The UAE is striving to be the first country in the world to achieve 100 percent broadband penetration, by 2012, United Arab Emirates’s Minister for Economy Sultan Al Mansoori has said.
‘The UAE telecom market is now seen as matured but that hasn’t stopped our telecom companies from investing in expanding their coverage and product portfolio, while also generating substantial profits,’ said Al Mansoori while speaking during the Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit Monday.
Chandigarh, May 17: The income tax collection in the Chandigarh region has grown by a whopping 38 percent against a national increase of 20 percent, a top official said here Tuesday.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman Sudhir Chandra said that the growth in tax collection for the Chandigarh region was the highest in any region of the country in the 2010-11 financial year.
The Chandigarh region comprises Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the union territory of Chandigarh.
New Delhi, May 17: Transport workers in the State will go on strike on Friday to press for rollback of the petrol price rise and dissuade the oil marketing companies from increasing the diesel price.
Dubai, May 16: The Dubai Government, acting under directions from His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced on Monday that it has taken over Dubai Bank with immediate effect.
The Government of Dubai will immediately make adequate capital injection into Dubai Bank, thereby taking over the bank, a statement issued by the Dubai Government Media Office said.
New Delhi, May 14: In its steepest hike so far, the price of petrol will be raised Rs.5 per litre in an over 8 percent increase from Saturday midnight. The increase comes only a day after the assembly poll results in five states, and was greeted by anger and derision from ordinary citizens and opposition parties.
According to officials, the three state-run companies will increase the price in a move to plug the losses suffered due to sale of subsidised domestic fuel.
San Francisco, May 11: Microsoft is on the verge of buying Internet phone service Skype for 8.5 billion dollars.
It would be the biggest deal in the world’s largest software company’s the 36-year history.
During a news conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced the all-cash deal and outlined grand plans to bring the technology to a wider audience of consumers and business customers.
New Delhi, May 11: The meeting of the ministerial panel scheduled Wednesday to consider a possible rise in fuel prices has been deferred till next week, Petroleum Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said here Tuesday.
“The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was to meet tomorrow evening. It has been put off,” Reddy told reporters here.
He said the meeting has been postponed to “accommodate some ministers”. “It could be anytime on May 17 or 18.”
Mumbai, May 11: A private city-based bank is cashing in on the craze for ‘lucky numbers’ by offering its high-value customers bank account numbers of their choice.
The service, launched recently by the Development Credit Bank Ltd (DCBL), has proved to be popular among its elite customers who are now opting to change the last six digits of their bank account numbers – the rest being bank codes common for all.
Mumbai, May 10: In a bid to entice Indian tourists, Middle East-based low cost carrier (LCC) Air Arabia Tuesday launched a summer package to Kenya starting from Rs.49,500.
“The low-cost holiday package to Kenya can be availed from six cities in India. This convenient affordable pleasure trip is bound to serve as an exciting excursion for our customers this summer,” said A.K Nizar, head of the airline’s commercial department, in a statement here.
The scheme, valid till June 20, includes a return economy class ticket and accommodation in four-star hotels/lodges, the statement said.
New Delhi, May 10: Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani has decided to forego Rs 23.75 crore for the last fiscal from his annual compensation as chief of Reliance Industries while keeping his salary capped at Rs 15 crore for third year in a row.
At the same time, the company’s total remuneration for top management personnel, as also commission paid to non-executive directors, declined during fiscal 2010-11.
New Delhi, May 09: Air India today increased its domestic operations by flying over 60 per cent of its daily services as ticket bookings picked up gradually after the ten-day pilots’ strike.
The national carrier operated 190 out of its 320 scheduled flights till 1700 hours today with its narrow-bodied aircraft, offering a little over 60 per cent of its normal capacity. This amounted to about 25,000 seats on its network in the domestic sector and on flights to neighbouring countries.
New Delhi, May 09: Financial services firm Reliance Commercial Finance (RCF), part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Monday launched a unique initiative offering loan against gold held in paper form.
Customers can avail of loans up to 90 percent of the value of gold units held, while the minimum amount offered under this initiative would be Rs.100,000 and the maximum would be Rs.1 crore.
The tenure of the loans will vary from 6 months to 12 months and can be paid in easy repayment options available under the initiative.
New Delhi, May 05: Fuel prices will rise next week as the government is planning to increase the state-set price of diesel by up to Rs 5 per litre while oil companies are preparing to raise petrol rates by a similar amount after assembly polls end on May 10.
New Delhi, May 03: Supporting Reserve Bank’s hawkish stance on monetary policy, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the increase in the key rates was necessary to contain inflation.
“This (rate hike) was necessary to contain inflation. Inflationary pressure in the economy is still very high,” Mukherjee told reporters after the RBI announced its annual monetary policy for 2011-12.
Mumbai, May 03: The Reserve Bank of India Home, auto and other loans are set to become costlier with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today hiking key short-term rates to contain inflation, while giving relief to small savers by increasing the savings bank rate to 4% from 3.5% now.
The signal was given by the RBI in its annual policy review meeting for 2011-12, where it hiked the repo rate (the rate at which banks borrow from the RBI) by 50 basis points to 7.25%, the ninth increase since March, 2010.
Mumbai, May 03: The Reserve Bank on Monday indicated that it might go in for another hike in the key policy rates to combat inflation which, driven by rising commodity and oil prices, is posing a threat to the economic growth.
Another round of hike in key rates is likely to push further interest rates upwards, making loans dearer.
New Delhi, May 02: Mobile handset manufacturer Spice Mobility Monday said it would invest Rs.1,000 crore to ramp up its research and development facilities, creation of value-added services and to fund acquisitions in the current financial year.
“The company will be investing Rs.1,000 crore during financial year 2011-12. It will be made through internal accruals of the company,” B.K. Modi, chairman of Spice Mobility, told reporters here.