Mohanlal honored with Chithira Thirunnal Award Monday, November 30, 2009

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Lt.Col.Padmasree Mohanlal With His Highness Sri Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma

Lieutenant Colonel Padmashree Bharath Mohanlal is honored with the Chithira Thirunnal Award. The award was presented to him by the Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor in Thiruvananthapuram.


Buzz up!The award is organized in the memory of the Travancore King, and is instituted by Sree Chithira Thirunnal Trust. The award includes a cash prize worth one lakh and a citation. Mohanlal said that he is very much obliged to receive the award that is in the name of a legendary king.

'No fixed term for CPM state secretary'

Monday,30 November 2009
Thiruvananthapuram: A senior leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) Sunday said the party's 'rectification document' prepared to reverse its electoral slides and strengthen cadre base does not limit the state units chief's term to three years.

T.Sivadasa Menon, a veteran CPM leader and party secretariat member, said no such decision has been taken.

"There is not a mention of such a thing in the document because such a decision just cannot be taken by the central committee of the party. It can be done only through an amendment at the party congress," said Menon at a meeting organised by the party mouthpiece Deshabhimani.

Reports of this surfaced soon after the party top brass met in Delhi in October and gave the nod for initiating a "rectification campaign" to overcome shortcomings within its ranks.

Speculations soon began that a cap on number of terms for state party secretary was put to take out Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been the CPM Kerala secretary since 1998.

Kerala wants Centre to compensate Gulf returnees

New Delhi, Nov. 28

Fearing a large influx of laid-off workers from Dubai, the Kerala Government has sought Central aid for compensating them. The Kerala Finance Minister, Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac, told Business Line that the State will be seriously hit even if around 50,000 workers return.

There are over 2 million people in the Gulf from Kerala. Around 4.5 million Indians are living and working in the Gulf. Remittances from the Gulf account for a quarter of the State's domestic product.

“Our Government has already announced an Rs 100-crore loan corpus from the Kerala Financial Corporation at an affordable interest rate for potential entrepreneurs among the Gulf returnees,” Dr Isaac said. “A flat interest rate of 7 per cent will be valid through out the period of the loan for such potential entrepreneurs,” the Minister said. He said the Kerala Government has already allocated a welfare fund of Rs 10 crore, adding that there is a Budgetary provision regarding the same.

Though the Centre had proposed a ‘return and resettlement scheme' for the returnees, such a scheme would not work as it is contributory in nature, Dr Isaac said.

“People moving to the Gulf for work spend around Rs 2 lakh just to get there. Since most of them are lowly paid, especially following the financial crisis, it takes around 2-3 years to recoup their investment. Therefore, the Centre's package for Gulf returnees should allocate greater compensation for workers whose duration of stay there is short, and comparatively lesser compensation for those who have managed to stay and work there for a longer period of time,” Dr Isaac said.

The Minister said the feedback he has received from Keralites in the Gulf, including some prominent businesspersons, was that the Gulf region would be severely affected in the short-term due to the Dubai debt crisis and it could spill over to India as well. He said apart from workers returning from the Gulf due to job loss, some important projects in Kerala that were funded by Gulf money - including the Smart City project near Kochi and Vallarpadam International Container Trans-shipment Terminal near Kochi - may find it difficult to raise money.

Dubai World debt worries kins of expats

27 November 2009

New Delhi, Nov 27: The $59-billion debt woes of state-run Dubai World, one of the largest global conglomerates, has left thousands of Indian families worried, as the region accounts for half of the country's $25-billion remittances.

Gulf countries employ five million Indians, out of the 25 million total strength of the Indian diaspora in 130 countries, and Dubai being a key driver of the region's economy, a shakeout there is seen unsettling the job market -- and the incomes of relatives.

"The Middle East meltdown has been there for the past one year. People have been coming back to India for the past one year," said E. Balaji, director of a leading headhunting firm, Ma Foi Management Consultants.

"Now, there will be at least 25-percent contraction in the job market. There may be a ripple effect on most Middle East countries because of Dubai World bust," Balaji, whose company is part of the Netherlands-based Randstad group, told IANS in Chennai.

Former governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Y.V. Reddy also expressed concern over the prospect of Indians employed in the Gulf losing their jobs. "Much would depend on its impact on the real economy there and employment," he said.

"It's one thing if property prices or share prices come down. That will affect only one section of people. But how's it going to affect the living conditions, employment, real economic activity in those countries where we are employed?" queried Reddy.

Said K.T. Thomas, a retired state government employee in Changanacherry in Kottayam: "My son doesn't work in Dubai. He is in Sharjah. But things are not particularly good there either. He called me this morning. He is really worried about his job."

"We have this loan we have taken to build two more floors at our house. If my son is unable to send money, it will be impossible to repay the loan with my meagre pension," Thomas said, sounding despondent like many other relatives of Indian expatriates in the Gulf.

In Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for the largest share of remittances from the Gulf after Kerala, the realty industry feel there is an underlying worry that the Dubai World episode may just be the tip of the iceberg.

"Things might go from bad to worse when the Dubai companies announce their financial results in December and January," said A. M. Imran, a real estate dealer in Dubai, currently on vacation in Hyderabad. "Many more could lose jobs," Imran told IANS.

Analysts, nevertheless, maintained that while the future plans of Dubai World in India may be affected, the existing ones may not suffer much. These projects include:

Full ownership of the container terminal in Chennai

A joint venture with Bharat Hotels for five-star properties

A venture with Tata Realty and Infrastructure for logistics parks

Ownership of international container terminal near Kochi

A $12-billion realty project near Bangalore with DLF to house 750,000 people

Interests in Kulpi port project near Kolkata

Pact with Tata Strategic Management Group for consultancy outsourcing

Major stake in Nhava Sheva container terminal near Mumbai

-Major stake in Mundra international container terminal near Kandla

Major stake in Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh

Dubai World's default won't hit us: Kochi port

27 November 2009

Kochi, Nov 27: A debt default request by Dubai World will not affect the ongoing construction of the international container terminal near here, being funded by one of the subsidiaries of the Dubai firm, the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) said Friday.

Hit by mounting debts, the state-run holding firm of Dubai that manages several businesses of the emirate Wednesday asked creditors for an extension of six months for debt repayments.

DP World, a subsidiary of Dubai World, is funding the Rs.2,118-crore ($451-million) International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam near here, which, according to CPT, is "fast nearing completion".

"This is news to me that Dubai World faces financial problems. Here, the work is progressing smoothly as there's no crisis for funding from DP World," CPT chairman N. Ramachandran told IANS.

The first phase of the terminal will be completed as per schedule and commissioned April 1 next year, Ramachandran said.

DP World signed the agreement with CPT in 2005 to develop the terminal.

The company is building the 1,800-metre long, 14.5-metre deep container berth, while the basic infrastructure like roads and railway lines will be built by CPT.

"The construction began in 2007 and till today work has gone well with no problems at all. According to initial estimates, the budget for the first phase is around Rs.1,500 crore, but it is likely to go up," Ramachandran said.

"The developer has informed us that the work for second and final phase will begin after the inauguration of the first phase, and they expect to complete it in two years."

ICTT, billed as the country's first global hub terminal, is expected to alter the development map of the state and attract huge investments, government officials said.

A series of ventures including a Rs.1,600-crore LNG terminal, a port-based special economic zone (Rs.1,510 crore) and an international ship repair complex (Rs.315 crore), is also coming up in the area along with the ICTT project.

Dubai shock waves shake London stock market

London: The London Stock Exchange felt the shock waves of the Dubai World debt moratorium call Thursday, with the FTSE 100 index dropping 3.2 percent.

Banking shares were particularly hard-hit as the index closed at 5,194.13 points, down almost 171 points from Wednesday's 5,364.81
points.

Barclays and the nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland both fell almost 8 percent in Thursday's trading, which was also interrupted for some three hours by a technical breakdown. It was the second such major technical breakdown within 14 months

Dubai World crisis bad for Kerala

November 27th, 2009

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 27 - Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, a former economics professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here, Friday said the $59-billion debt woes of state-run Dubai World will hit the state’s economy.

“This is certainly going to hit the Middle East, which means this is bad news for Kerala. Anyway, it is early days yet but we will have to closely watch the situation,” Isaac told IANS.

“Initial indication is that what happened in Dubai is a real estate collapse and one has to wait and see how they tackle it,” he added.

The financial woes at Dubai World, one of the largest global conglomerates, has left thousands of Indian families worried, as the region accounts for half of the country’s $25-billion remittances.

Gulf countries employ five million Indians, out of the 25 million total strength of the Indian diaspora in 130 countries, and Dubai being a key driver of the region’s economy, a shakeout there is seen unsettling the job market — and the incomes of relatives.

For Kerala, the Middle East too has been the backbone of its economy for close to three decades now.

A CDS study says the number of emigrants from the state went up from 1.84 million in 2003 to 2.19 million last year, while remittances shot up from Rs.18,400 crore to Rs.43,300 crore.

The United Arab Emirates accounts for the largest share of Kerala migrants.

According to the study by the CDS — an autonomous research institute — remittances from expatriates was the single-most dynamic factor in driving the otherwise dismal economic scenario of Kerala between 1975 and 2000.

The Dubai crisis comes at a time when Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has challenged the financial health of Dubai-based developer Smart City, which has tied up with the state government to execute a Rs.1,500-crore IT park project in Kochi.

The foundation stone for the IT city was laid in November 2007, but there has been no progress since then due to unresolved issues between the government and the Dubai-based developer.

Referring to the proposed project, Isaac said the chief minister was right when he said Smart City Dubai was “financially broke”.

“See, they (Smart City) are also into real estate and the collapse there appears to have hit them too. So Achuthanandan was right.”