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Defence staff to impart training in last year of service: Rudy

Infrastructure at sparsely used rly stations can be used for skill develop-ment: Rudy

SKILLS

February Edition

Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Friday, 13 Feb’15 said his ministry is planning to use infrastructure at sparsely used railway stations for skill development of residents in the area.

Delivering a lecture during the inauguration of Campus Entre-preneurship and Incubation programme organised by National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on the varsity campus, he said, “We have the world’s largest network of rails, with over 8,000 railway station across the country. Almost all the stations have basic infrastructure like 24×7 water and electricity and advanced facilities like fiber optic network on its premises. Of the 8,000 railway stations, over 3,000 are not very busy and hardly a train or two passes through them in a day. The infrastructure availa-ble at these stations can be used for the skill development of residents in the area. To make this possible, we are in talks with the Indian Railways,” said Rudy.

Talking about the need for resource persons, Rudy said retired officials can be roped in to conduct skill development training. “People retiring from the army can be made trainers or entre-preneurs so that they can start their own business or work as trainers for the skill development of fellow residents. We are in talks with the defence ministry on the issue,” said Rudy.

Rudy said Germany has 70 per cent of skilled workers while this number is as high as 96 per cent in South Korea. “On the contrary, India has only 2 per cent of skilled manpower. We need to change this scenario,” added Rudy, who promised the varsity his full support in conducting skill development courses started with the help of National Skill Development Corpora-tion.

Vice-Chancellor W N Gade said there was a need for better interface between the industry and the academia. Rajesh Pande of NYCS said it is important to start skill development pro-grammes at the grassroot level.

Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy today said defence person-nel in the last year of their service can impart skills training to people in logistics, artillery and medical.

Rudy, who is the Minister of State for Skill Development (Independent Charge), said railways infrastructure including space and logistics across the country can be used for the train-ing purpose by the defence personnel.

Rudy added: "Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has agreed (on the suggestion) and the instructions have gone". The Minis-ter further said that he also held a discussion regarding this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Indian Army is the third largest in the world. About 50,000 personnel retire from the armed forces every year.

Noting that the Indian Railways has the largest optical fibre network of 43,000 kms, out of which only 5-7 per cent is cur-rently utilised, Rudy said: "We have talked to the Railway Min-ister and he has put people on work. We are going to partner with Indian Railways to have basic virtual training.

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February Edition





Digital India Initiative: Web-Portal Launched For Delivering E-Certificates To NCVT Courses, ITI Pass-Outs

EDUCATION

Minister New Delhi: The Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour & Employment, has launched a web-portal www.ncvtmis.gov.in which will deliver e-

certificates to the pass-outs from various NCVT courses including ITI pass-outs. The first semester examination for 9.65 lakh students en-rolled in August 14-session commenced on 20th Febru-ary, 2015. The details of these candidates matching with ITI-wise affiliation &

trade-wise capacity were uploaded on portal with intensive cooperation with States over the last two months.

The system is designed as a self-service digital platform to deliver various services to current and prospective trainees of the vocational training system, apprenticeship trainees, em-ployers/establishments, ITIs and other institutions, as well as States/UTs.

The first phase of the portal has been launched streamlining the examination process of institutes under the purview of NCVT. The portal will directly benefit about 10 lakh candidates in India who took admission across 11,000+ITIs under the Crafts-men Training Scheme. These candidates will get e-certificates from the portal on successfully completing their semester ex-aminations, drastically reducing the turnaround time in receiv-ing the certificate. The employers will also be able to validate these certificates directly using the portal through QR code with no need of any paperwork. The portal also provides infor-mation to the general public on details of various institutions in the country, courses offered and their uptake statistics, number of seats available, examination calendars, etc.

Apprenticeship Protsahan Yojana, another flagship scheme of the DGE&T will also be implemented through this portal, dig-itizing the entire business process of the scheme.

The portal is expected to improve the governance of vocational training across the field institutions of DGE&T by providing high degree of transparency, better analytics for decision mak-ing, and improved access to citizen services.

Delhi airport ranked best, Mumbai's in top 5: Sur-vey Jan 2015 IGI is run by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a joint venture between the AAI and GMR Group-led consortium, while the CSI is run by Mumbai Interna-tional Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture between the AAI and GVK group-led consortium.

Delhi Airport has been adjudged the best, among the world's most performing airports in the 25-40 million passengers per an-num category by the Airport Council International (ACI),

with Mumbai Airport also figuring in the top five list

Indira Gandhi Interna-tional Airport won the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award, which recognises and rewards the best airports in the world based on

Geneva-based ACI's ASQ passenger satisfaction survey.

Rating

The survey rates each airport's performance in 34 key service areas under eight major categories including access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage providers, and more.

Air India to hire 100 Air-bus co-pilots to reduce delays

National carrier Air India will hire more than 100 copilots for its Airbus fleet to cut flight delays, according to a senior exec-utive of the airline.

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AVIATION

ICSI Newsletter: Service Industry Issue 2015 – 02 – 1

The carrier's poor "on-time performance" has been a concern for its management and the government for some time, and shortage of pilots and cabin crew is being cited as a key rea-son. Last month, the airline issued a notification to hire 800 cabin crew.

"Delays of our flights in domestic sector continue to be a problem and we will be hiring co-pilots for our Airbus fleet," the Air India executive, who did not wish to be named, said. "The human resource department is working on the estimated requirement and it is likely to be somewhere between 125 and 150 pilots."

According to the official, there are some 7,000 trained pilots in the country looking for jobs.

Data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) shows that Air India operated only 52.1% of its flights on time in January. "Air India's poor on time performance is a con-cern.

We are monitoring it on a regular basis and hope things will improve after the recruitment of cabin crew and pilots," said a senior ministry official.

In an attempt to improve Air India's on-time performance, the ministry had issued salary cut orders covering pilots, cabin crew, engineering staff, ground handlers and even in-flight catering suppliers.

India’s technology sector receives record funding

TECHNOLOGY

A spate of deals by global venture capital groups has pushed investment in Indian technology companies to its highest level, in a further sign of growing excitement over the country’s booming internet economy.

Fresh funding for fast-growing e-commerce groups such as Flipkart and Snapdeal led to technology-related private equity deals jumping to a record $2.7bn in the final quarter of 2014, exceeding the previous high set during 2012, according to data compiled by PwC, the professional services firm.

The influx was driven by investors including SoftBank of Ja-pan and US-based Tiger Global, which are betting increasing sums of money on the hope that Indian internet businesses will soon match the rapid growth enjoyed over recent years by Chi-nese equivalents such as Tencent and Baidu.

“There is a frenzy,” said Mohandas Pai, an investor and entre-preneur based in Bangalore. “American funds are coming from Silicon Valley, the Chinese and Japanese are coming having made money in the Alibaba listing . . . They see this as the next big market that is ready to grow.”

The number of Indians connected to the internet is forecast to expand from 300m to more than 500m by 2018, according to Morgan Stanley. The proportion of the population shopping online is also increasing rapidly, albeit from a low base.





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Partly as a result, internet companies now dominate India’s investment scene, making up more than half of the value of all private equity deals struck in the fourth quarter of 2014, ac-cording to PwC. The value of technology deals also increased more than threefold compared with the same period the year before.

Prominent investments during that period included a $700m funding round in December for Flipkart at an estimated valua-tion in the region of $11bn, led by Tiger Global, alongside smaller deals for the likes of taxi app start-up Olacabs and property portal Housing.com.

Hype over Indian technology has increased further this year, in particular following the debut investment from Chinese inter-net group Alibaba, which struck a deal worth about $500m for a stake in New Delhi-based mobile payment platform Paytm last month.

Some analysts have raised doubts over the steep valuations being accorded to lossmaking technology start-ups, and are worried that a glut of funding will lead to ferocious competi-tion and tempt inexperienced entrepreneurs to burn through cash. But Mohanjit Jolly, a partner at DFJ Ventures, a US in-vestment group, said the size of India’s market and its “clear parallels with China” means the value of technology deals is now likely to increase further this year.

“Investors see the same size of the population [as China], the huge growth potential, the untapped market in second tier cit-ies and towns . . . So my gut says that the capital flow will con-tinue, because India just has plenty of headroom,” he said.

February Edition ICSI Newsletter: Service Industry

Issue 2015 – 02 – 1

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday decided to allow nominated banks to import gold, including coins, on a consignment basis, extending its clarification issued in Novem-ber 2014, which had eased certain categories of gold imports.

In a notification issued late in the evening, RBI said while nominated banks can bring in gold, all sale of the precious yel-low metal domestically will be made against upfront payments. "Banks are free to grant gold metal loans," RBI said, signaling easing of the central bank's assessment of gold imports on which it had clamped down to contain a growing current ac-count deficit (CAD). CAD is the measure of the difference between the inflows and outflows of a foreign currency. The move is expected to improve sentiment in the precious metals sectors, which had been affected after a series of curbs by the central bank last year to arrest worrying gold imports. "It is a very positive move by RBI and will go a long way in promoting for a smooth supply of raw material for jewellers," said Harsh Soni, chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation. "Banks can import gold and offer it to jewel-lers." According to recent trade data, India's overall imports contract-ed at a much slower pace than expected as higher commodity imports partly offset the impact of lower prices. Trade deficit nar-rowed to $8.3 billion in January from $9.4 billion in November A Nomura report said gold imports remained subdued at $1.6 billion in January, compared with $1.3 billion in December, supporting the view that the spike in imports during September-November was seasonal.

FINANCE MEDIA

SRK hopes Budget 2015 will benefit film industry The 'Happy New Year' star said that the system of ratings should be improved so that creative freedom of filmmakers and artistes is not compromised

Bollywood Superstar, Shahrukh Khan during a press

conference launching TV show, 'Poochega Sabse Shaa-

na Kaun' in Mumbai.

As Arun Jaitley is set to present the Union Budget on Febru-ary 28, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khanhopes that the film industry will be taken into consideration by the Finance Minister. "It is weird when people ask an actor about budget. Please do not ask me about it. I respect it. It is very important for our economy," replied the 49-year-old actor when asked to com-ment about the upcoming budget. "I am sure that this year's budget will have something that will benefit our film industry... Attracting people into business is very important part of budget," SRK told reporters during the press conference for his new TV show 'Sabse Shana Kaun?' on &TV. Addressing the censor board controversy, the 'Happy New Year' star said that the system of ratings should be improved so that creative freedom of filmmakers and artistes is not compromised. "Some say it is freedom of expression and some say we are out in bad light. A bigger picture of censor board without dif-ferentiation should be brought in. If you have a generic rule for everything then it is going to be troubling... This discus-sion will continue for years but they should increase the rating system and introduce more rating," he said. Shah Rukh will be next seen in 'Maneesh Sharma's 'Fan' and Rahul Dholakia's 'Raees'.





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February Edition ICSI Newsletter: Service Industry

Issue 2015 – 02 – 1

RBI relaxes gold import regulations for banks

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