1.7 m applications for 1 500 jobs
India's largest
state-run bank has received 1.7 million applications for just 1 500 entry-level
clerk jobs and has promised to examine all of them, a report said this
week.State Bank of India chairperson Pratip Chaudhuri attributed the huge
interest to good arketing and attractive employment terms, with the number of
applications underlining the appeal of
"jobs for life" in the Indian public sector. "This time, we had
given the advertisement a good profile, highlighting the position of SBI and
describing the compensation package in detail, which attracted a lot of
attention," Chaudhuri told The Times of India.For positions in Mumbai, the
bank offered a starting package of 69 000 rupees ($1 270) a month for the "probationary
officers" including a housing allowance - an attractive perk in the
expensive local real estate market.Job opportunities in the Indian private
sector have fallen in the last 18 months as economic growth has dropped to its
lowest level in a decade due to declining business confidence and high interest
rates.The government forecasts that India's once-booming economy will grow by
just 5% in the current financial year to March 31.Last year, it grew by 6.2%
but even that rate - while enviable by anaemic Western standards is
insufficient to create the jobs India needs for its fast-growing young
population.India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former economist, believes
that India requires at least 8% growth to create enough jobs for its expanding
population, with the government keen to promote the industrial sector.Chaudhuri
said all 1.7 million applicants more than 1 100 per position available - would
be assessed."We have conducted such examinations in the past by hiring
schools across the country. This time, we may have to do two shifts," he
told the newspaper. Nine out of ten Indians are currently employed in the
"informal" sector in jobs that offer no security, few perks and often
illegal working conditions, government data shows.
London's gold, silver in price fix probe
London's gold and
silver markets face the possibility of a probe alongside other benchmarks into
price setting, putting a century-old practice under the spotlight after the
Libor rigging scandal that exposed widespread interest rate manipulation by
banks.The US Commodity
Futures Trading Commission has engaged in "a couple" of conversations
about whether the daily setting of gold and silver prices in London is open to
manipulation, Commissioner Scott O'Malia said on Thursday, although he said the
situation is "fairly immature in its development."The Wall Street
Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported on Wednesday that the CFTC was
examining various aspects of gold and silver price-setting, including whether
it is sufficiently transparent "What was stated
in that story was more than I think we're doing," O'Malia told reporters
at the annual Futures Industry Association conference in Florida on Thursday."I
think we've had a couple of conversations. We're looking at energy, indexes,
prices, how they're set. We'll look at all of the range of index-setting,"
O'Malia said.The CFTC declined to
provide an official comment, while the chairs of the London Gold Fixing Company
and London Silver Fixing Company were not available for comment.Another CFTC
Commissioner Bart Chilton, known as an outspoken proponent of regulation to
protect investors and consumers, declined to specifically address the report,
saying: "Given the clubby manipulation efforts we saw in Libor benchmarks,
I assume other benchmarks - many other benchmarks are legit areas of
inquiry."Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) also declined to
comment on whether it was looking into gold and silver price setting, but said
on Thursday it is feeding into a wider review of price benchmarks run by the
International Organisation of Securities Commissions (Iosco) a global umbrella
group for markets regulators.Iosco is set to publish a report in May with
principles on how to compile important benchmarks to avoid rigging.The setting,
or "fix", of the gold price in London dates back to 1919,
originally involving NM Rothschild & Sons, Mocatta & Goldsmid, Samuel
Montagu & Co, Pixley & Abell and Sharps & Wilkins. Silver price
setting started in 1897.Currently, gold fixing happens twice a day by teleconference
with five banks: Bank of Nova Scotia-ScotiaMocatta, Barclays Bank Plc, Deutsche
Bank AG, HSBC Bank USA, NA and Société Générale. The fixings are used to
determine prices globally.Chairmanship of the Gold Fixing rotates annually
among the member banks.At the start of each gold price-fixing, the chairperson
announces an opening price to the other four members who relay that to their
customers, and based on orders received from them, instruct their
representatives to declare themselves as buyers or sellers at that price.The
gold price is adjusted up and down until demand and supply is matched at which
point the price is declared "Fixed".The fixings are used to determine
spot prices for the billions of dollars of the two precious metals traded each day.Buyers
and sellers can get insight on price changes and the level of interest during
the fixing process. They can cancel, increase or decrease their interest based
on that information.Gold and silver price setting has long been the subject of
debate, and the CFTC looked at complaints about the silver market in 2008.But
most believe that the process is transparent."The fix is open,
consequential, transparent and has stood the test of time. It's not open to
manipulation in the same way as Libor," said Ross Norman, chief executive
of bullion broker Sharps Pixley.
Japan's PM set to push trade pact
Japan's hard-charging
prime minister on Friday said he wanted in on talks to forge a huge trade pact,
the latest bold move from a man who says he is determined to lick the frail
economy into shape.With caveats aimed squarely at reassuring the cosseted
farming industry, Shinzo Abe said Japan could not afford to miss negotiations
on thrashing out the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).The announcement came just
hours after his pick for central bank chief was approved by parliament,
boosting the likelihood of more of the aggressive monetary easing he has been
calling for to counter chronic deflation."A huge economic bloc that would
account for roughly a third of the world economy is about to begin," Abe
told a news conference."What the TPP is aiming to achieve is to make the Pacific Ocean a sea where goods,
services and investment are freely exchanged."Supporters of the TPP say
participation would give Japan's flagging economy a boost the government
estimates by as much as $33bn over a decade and increase consumer choice.They
say opening up Japan's cosseted markets is vital if its stumbling economy is
going to pick up speed, a key campaign promise from Abe.But opponents claim it
could be a body blow to the country's ageing farmers, removing the sky-high
tariffs that have sheltered them and sending many to the wall, changing the
face of the countryside in the process.Japan's rural heartland is a crucial
source of support for Abe's brand of conservative nationalism and any
suggestion that farmers will lose their unparalleled protection could be
politically costly for him.But, said the premier, the agricultural sector could
not stand still. He said it was already facing challenges and participation in
the TPP presented an opportunity."I am sure that Japan's delicious and safe
farm products will become popular all over the world," he said."The
TPP is not a crisis but, rather, a huge chance. I have heard many who worry
that Japan's agriculture would be devastated if we join."I promise that I
will protect Japan's farm industry and Japan's food industry by
any means."The TPP forms a vital plank in US President Barack Obama's
vaunted "pivot" to Asia, and is seen by some as part of a US bid to
contain China's rising economic might.Washington has been keen to get Japan on
board because of the economic heft its participation lends to the project and
Acting US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said the US welcomed Abe's
"important announcement".But the US Alliance for American
Manufacturing, which is backed by the US auto industry and is nervous of
allowing Japanese rivals unfettered access to the huge auto market, was
critical of the idea of Japan joining the talks."Japan's closed market,
currency manipulation, and many other concerns stand in the way. It's not worth
sacrificing American jobs and American manufacturing to secure a TPP agreement
at any cost," said AAM president Scott Paul.The TPP has been on the global
agenda for years, but a succession of politically weak leaders have been unable
to commit Japan to involvement.The fact that Abe appears ready to take the
plunge is a sign, say observers, of the momentum he has gathered in the less
than three months since he came to power in landslide elections.He hit the
ground running on taking office on December 26 and his calls for more monetary
easing, coupled with threats to change the law governing the independence of
the Bank of Japan, succeeded in driving down the painfully strong yen.Helped by
the slide in the currency, which helps the country's many exporters, the stock
market is at more than four-year highsFriday's upper house approval for Abe's
slate of central bank chiefs Haruhiko Kuroda was confirmed as governor, while
Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso got the nod as his deputies - boosts his efforts
to pull Japan out of more than a decade of deflation.The BoJ's new management
team, which was approved by the lower house on Thursday, is set to take up
their positions next week with the focus now squarely on their first policy
meeting next month."High hopes are resting on the ability of the Bank of
Japan's new leadership to revitalise the economy," London-based Capital
Economics said in a note.Kuroda, 68, is thought likely to back the premier's
prescription of big spending and aggressive monetary easing, vowing during
confirmation hearings to do "everything possible" to reverse years of
falling prices.
IMF urges EU to clean up banks
The International
Monetary Fund said on Friday that the European economy and financial system
remained weak and urged the region to quickly clean up its banks in order to
advance toward a banking union.In a first-ever assessment of the stability of
the European Union financial system, the IMF said banks in the region were
still weak and needed more capital strengthening."Much has been achieved
to address the recent financial crisis in Europe, but vulnerabilities remain, and
intensified efforts are needed across a wide front," the IMF report
said."Financial stability has not been assured," it said, pointing to
continued falls in asset prices, distrust of sovereign debt and the overall
weak economy, which remains in recession.The first priority, the IMF said, is
to shore up banks by cleaning up their balance sheets, weighed down by large
but still-unclear levels of bad assets, and put them through more stress
tests.Secondly, the EU must complete the establishment of a region-wide
financial oversight mechanism, necessary to strengthen the eurozone currency union
and the single market for banking, and then a regional resolution mechanism for
winding up failed financial institutions.All that needs to be done this year,
the IMF emphasized, stressing that market and economic threats continued to
hang over the European economy.With those jobs tackled, it said, the region can
move toward a banking union with, ideally, a road map laid down by the middle
of this year."The crisis has shown that national decisions, even
well-intended ones, have union-wide repercussions on financial stability, and
that there is a need for single frameworks for crisis management, deposit
insurance, supervision and resolution, with a common backstop for the banking
system."The IMF acknowledged some significant progress toward a single supervisory
mechanism and a banking union.However, it said, as long as EU members failed to
unite on an EU-wide approach to financial stability, the system remains
"vulnerable to shocks, and generates incentives for national ring-fencing
and fragmentation."
IMF calls for Palestine breather
The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday called for "urgent action" to help
revive the Palestinian economy, saying it had been choked by Israeli
restrictions and political uncertainty."Urgent actions are needed by the
Palestinian Authority (PA), by the government of Israel, and by donors to
stabilsze the fiscal position and rekindle economic growth over time," the
IMF said in a statement.The fund said the situation in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip had deteriorated in recent months, pointing to rising unemployment
which had claimed nearly a quarter of the labour market in late
2012."Israeli restrictions on movement and access are virtually unchanged
and continue to hamper growth prospects," the IMF said, noting that gross
domestic product had risen by only 6% last year compared to an average of
around 11% in 2010 and 2011.Further slippage in GDP to around 5% was possible
this year, the IMF said, citing "increasing political uncertainty" in
the region."The military confrontation between Hamas and Israel last November,
continued settlement expansion, and recent outbreaks of unrest in the West Bank underline the common view that
prospects for peace remain dim," the IMF said.The fund's analysis also
said the Palestinian Authority faced a "liquidity crisis" with public
spending on an "unsustainable" trajectory."If left unchecked,
these trends will ultimately lead some to question the legitimacy of the PA and
undermine its ability to govern effectively," the IMF remarked.The fund
called on the international community to increase financial support to the
Palestinian Authority while urging "enhanced economic cooperation with
Israel".The IMF analysis echoed a report by the World Bank on Tuesday
ahead of a meeting of international donors on March 19, which warned of
"lasting damage" to the Palestinian Authority's economy wreaked by
Israeli restrictions and the worsening fiscal situation.
US slaps sanctions on covert Iran oil net
The United States on Thursday slapped financial sanctions on a Greek businessman for
secretly operating a shipping network on behalf of the Iranian government to
get around international sanctions on the country's sale of oil."Today, we
are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade
international oil sanctions," US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence David Cohen said in a statement. The move named Dimitris
Cambis and a number of front companies for buying tankers on behalf of the
National Iranian Tanker Company, barring US citizens from doing business with
them and freezing any of their assets under US jurisdiction.Cambis was
identified in Reuters report last month that said Iran was using old tankers to
ship oil to China. He denied that he had been involved.But a senior US
administration official dismissed Cambis' denial in a telephone conference call
with reporters on Thursday, and said the clandestine operation had been
deliberately structured to conceal Iranian involvement.As the sanctions have had
increasing impact, so have the efforts to evade them, the official
said.Sanctions were introduced last year by the West to choke Tehran's funding
of its nuclear program by targeting the country's oil exports.The West believes
Iran is developing weapons, a charge Tehran denies.Sanctions halved Iran's oil
exports in 2012 by more than 1 million barrels per day, about the amount that
oil production grew in the United States during that time, and Washington has
been at pains to keep up the pressure."We will continue to expose
deceptive Iranian practices, and to sanction those individuals and entities who
participate in these schemes," Cohen said.The targeted network bought and
operated eight tankers, each able to carry roughly $200m of oil per shipment."These
operations are conducted through a series of ship-to-ship transfers in an
attempt to mask the fact that the true origin of the oil is from Iran and to
introduce it into the global market as if it were non-Iranian oil,"
Treasury said.US officials stressed that the sanctions were not aimed in any
way at the Greek government, other Greek shippers, or the Greek shipping
industry in general.
Still hope for fiscal deal: top official
Senior congressional
Republicans said on Sunday they see a chance for a broad deal with President
Barack Obama on deficit reduction and reining in spending on vast government
programs like Medicare and one senator signaled potential flexibility on
taxes.Obama, who met with lawmakers of both parties last week, has been calling
for more tax increases on the wealthiest taxpayers, coupled with new spending
cuts, to help curb budget deficits that have exceeded $1 trillion in each of
the past four years.House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top
Republican in Congress, and Obama failed to come to terms at the end of last
year on an agreement to get America's fiscal house in order.Such a deal could
include spending cuts, tax reform and curbing spending on costly entitlement
programs like the Social Security retirement program and the Medicare health
insurance program for the elderly and disabled.Speaking on the "Fox News
Sunday" program, Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said:
"There, by the way, is a chance on a deal. I know the president is saying
the right things. And we have an opportunity over the next four to five
months."Asked on the ABC programme "This Week" if prospects for
a "grand bargain" were dead, Boehner said, "I don't know whether
we can come to a big agreement. If we do, it'll be between the two parties on
Capitol Hill. Hopefully, we can go to conference on these budgets and hope
springs eternal in my mind."Boehner said that while the United States does not have "an immediate debt crisis" one is looming
because entitlement programs are not sustainable in their current form.
"They're going to go bankrupt," he said.Asked how long the country
had to solve these problems, Boehner said, "Nobody knows where this is. It
could be a year or two years, three years, four years."Obama has engaged in
a couple of weeks of outreach to lawmakers - some have called it a "charm
offensive" but the prospects of a large deficit reduction deal by midyear
remained unclear. Corker underscored the importance of reform in the huge
entitlement programs like Medicare."I think Republicans,
if they saw true entitlement reform, would be glad to look at tax reform that
generates additional revenue. And that doesn't mean increasing rates. That
means closing loopholes. It also means arranging our tax system so that we have
economic growth."Boehner said he has "a very good relationship"
with Obama, they are "trying to bridge some big differences" and that
he "absolutely" trusts the president.But Boehner said that if Obama
"believes that we have to have more taxes from the American people, we're
not going to get very far.""If the president doesn't believe that the
goal ought to be to balance the budget over the next 10 years ... (I'm) not
sure we're going to get very far," he said. Obama met last Wednesday with
House Republicans and made little headway in persuading them to accept his
demand for tax hikes as part of any deficit-reduction deal. Republicans and
Democrats in Congress last Tuesday offered up vastly different plans to slash
long-term deficits. On Thursday, a Senate bill to avert a federal government
shutdown stalled under the weight of more than 100 proposed amendments as
senators sought to attach pet provisions. Senate Democratic leaders postponed
further votes on the government spending legislation until Monday and said they
would work over the weekend to try to whittle down the number of amendments.
They had hoped to pass the measure on Thursday.Democrat Dick Durbin of
Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said senators must pass the budget
resolution "and then we're going to move to the next stage and that is the
grand bargain stage. That's what the president has tried to set up."The
added provisions in the Senate budget measure threatened to make the bill
unacceptable to the Republican-controlled House, which last week passed a much less
complicated version of the extension to government funding through September
30. Government agencies and programs face a broad shutdown if Congress fails to
pass an extension by March 27.
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