Municipal school goes without water for a year

The Bombay Housing Colony in Bapunagar which has six schools, has earned the dubious distinction of going without proper water supply for one full academic year. Leave alone drinking water, the 2,000 children attending classes daily had to go without water even in the toilets.

The original school building was badly damaged in the 2001 earthquake and one of its wings was dismantled and several years later it was rebuilt under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The Abhiyan authorities had completed the building and handed it over to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation last year, leaving internal things like provision of water and drainage to the civic body.

But rather than providing for a proper drainage to the school building and constructing an underground tank for water, all the AMC did was to dig a catch-pit for drainage of toilet blocks and install a pair of readymade water tanks on the roof. These tanks were connected with the toilet blocks and water closets in each floor through PVC pipes.

But as there was no provision for raising water to the overhead tanks, the students had to go without drinking and attend nature's call at their houses nearby.

As of now, the staff is demanding for a borewell on the premises so that water can be pumped into the overhead tanks.

School board chairman Jaiprakash Desai said while there already exists an underground tank, but the staff is opposed to filling it with water. "They fear children might fall into the underground tanks," he said. He, however, ruled out digging a bore-well on the school premises saying that the staff could not dictate terms like that. He said the AMC should repair the pipelines so that the water pressure is improved.

He, nevertheless, admitted that the problem of water supply did exist and that children were suffering. He said the authorities tried to ease the situation by supply water through tankers.

On his part, Deputy Municipal Commissioner T G Jhalawadia said he was unaware of the problem, adding that no such complaint had reached him.

“If they approach us, we will definitely do the needful to solve the problem,” he said.

Source: expressindia.com

44 children die in bus plunge

BAMROLI: More than 47 people, including 44 children heading to school for final exams, drowned yesterday when their bus plunged off a bridge into a canal in western India. Their bodies have been recovered, but some children were still missing, said a senior police officer in Gujarat state. Four children were rescued. The accident occurred in Vadodara, 90km south of Ahmedabad. Police said the death toll could rise.

The state-owned public bus was carrying more than 60 children and some passengers from three villages in the region, officials said.

They said the driver lost control after one of the tyres burst and ploughed through a concrete railing on the bridge, plunging the bus into the canal.

"I was sitting in the last seat and suddenly I felt the bus going down," said Sunil Thakore, 13, one of the few children who managed to swim to safety.

Two boys, who swam to safety, alerted villagers that the bus had fallen into the canal, witnesses said.

The driver of the bus, an assistant and a woman were among the dead, police said.

The children were studying at two separate schools and had taken the bus ride to reach their schools in time for their exams, police officers said.

Angry villagers said many children could have been saved if rescue operations started in time.

"For two hours I could see bodies floating in the canal, but nobody came to help us and all we could do was cry and scream for help," said a villager from Bamroli, which lost 15 girls in the accident.

Television pictures showed grieving parents trying to identify their children from among rows of bodies laid out.

"Forty-four bodies have been fished out of the canal" which was 18m deep," police said.

"We're still investigating what caused the driver to lose control of the bus," they said.

The flow of water into the canal from a dam has been stopped to help rescuers locate the missing people.

Many anxious parents, uncertain if their children were on the bus, were also seen rummaging through school bags recovered from the water to see if those belonged to their children.

The Gujarat government, which announced compensation of 100,000 rupees (BD972) for the families of the dead, said it would hold a high-level inquiry into the cause of the accident.

source: gulf-daily-news.com

Daljit throws his weight behind Kanpur track

Daljit Singh, the BCCI's pitch and grounds committee chairman, has come out in support of the Green Park Stadium wicket in Kanpur.

"I am reasonably satisfied with the wicket, given the prevailing hot weather conditions," he said.

"Do we want to play on prototype wickets? The wickets everywhere have peculiar characteristics; Kanpur has always been low and slow. What was different this time was the dryness, caused by excessive heat," he added.

One could argue that the conditions in Ahmedabad weren't too different, so why were the two wickets so vastly different? It emerges that the Ahmedabad track had moisture and grass just to avoid the Kanpur-like dry wicket. Similarly, the outcry over the Ahmedabad wicket would have had some bearing on the preparation of the Kanpur pitch.

Daljit admitted that none of the three wickets rolled out for the series were close to ideal Test tracks. "Neither of them were ideal wickets, but then we need helpful conditions, if not optimum, to prepare perfect wickets. The wickets at the season-end are dead and worn out. Add to it the excessive heat, and the curator's job becomes even more challenging," he said, adding, "If we always want prototype wickets, the ICC and the BCCI will need to see to it that Tests aren't played so late into the summers."

Source: hindustantimes.com

Talent crunch forces BPOs to Tier II cities

NEW DELHI: The surge in real estate prices and a talent crunch in metros are forcing the $11 billion Indian BPO industry to move to Tier II cities in the country, according to a study conducted by consultancy firm Everest Group.

"It is difficult to sustain the growth in Tier I cities because of the rising real estate prices and talent crunch. There is no option but to move to Tier II cities," Everest Group's Country Head (India) Gaurav Gupta said.

As of now, BPO industry is concentrated in seven cities namely Bangalore, NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

"Movement to lower-cost cities within India is likely to result in additional 15-30 per cent reduction in operating cost despite lower employability and higher management costs," Head of Global Services at Everest Research Institute, Nikhil Rajpal, said.

Everest Group is a global consulting firm specialising in sourcing and offshoring advisory services. The study ranks several Tier II and Tier III cities on their potential to become BPO hubs for various domains in the future.

For finance and accounting services, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Indore and Nashik emerge as ideal cities to host BPO firms. Similarly, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Mundra are ideal to have BPO operations in logistics domain.

source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Diamond workers tread the road to hell

AHMEDABAD: Buyers of diamonds seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that their priceless smiles, in reality, come for a price — the sweat of thousands of employees working under inhuman conditions within locked doors, known as sweatshops.

The sweatshops and the inhuman conditions prevalent in these came up for discussion at Gandhi Labour Institute here on Wednesday. GLI played host to a workshop on social security of diamond workers.

Employers often close the factory doors in the morning once all the labourers begin work. The labourers are not allowed to come out during working hours even in case of emergency. During the Surat floods, thousands of labourers were trapped, killing hundreds, when they were unable to come out of their locked factories and shops.

A recent study carried out revealed that 100 per cent of the diamond workers do not get any promotional or preventive benefits for social security. Nearly 43 per cent of the industry workforce suffers from ailments such as tuberculosis, lung disease, stomach problems and minor injuries. Moreover, 87 per cent of the diamond workers are being employed for more than nine months in a year.

Prakash Varadiya, 34, a diamond cutting worker from Bhavnagar, said, "Prolonged working hours followed by unhygienic conditions, along with inhuman behaviour by our employer, has made our life miserable."

"For the last 15 years, I am in this profession. I possess no other skill except that of cutting diamonds. I am forced to walk on this road to hell," lamented Varadiya.

India has no diamond mines today, but 70 per cent of the diamond cutting and polishing work in the world is carried out by thousands of skilled labourers in India. Ninety per cent of this work is being done in Gujarat in Surat, Palanpur, Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar. More than 1 million people are employed in this industry in Gujarat, contributing to a large chunk of its exports.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Veeda CR plans new unit, to invest Rs 50 cr

After opening India’s first clinical pharmacology unit (CPU) for renal patients, Ahmedabad-based Veeda Clinical Research has plans to set up of its new unit near SG Highway and acquire a small or mid-size company in the US. It will invest about Rs 50 crore in the coming few months for its expansion plan.

The company now has units in Ahmedabad, UK, Belgium and Germany. The new unit will have 64 non-monitored beds and 24 monitored beds. Like other units, the second Ahmedabad unit will deal with Phase 1 trials. Phase 1 clinical trials involve testing of new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range and identify side effects.

“Phase I clinical trails account for 60 per cent of our revenues. The growth in Phase I clinical trials is due to increasing food, drug and QTc studies across the world,” said Apurva Shah, Veeda Clinical Research group managing director. Bio-markers and Bio-Metrics are other revenue earning sectors

The company made three acquisitions in as many years and is on the lookout for buying a company in the US. "We have looked at a few companies with 50-100 bed capacity coming in the US $ 10 to 20 million bracket. We hope to close a deal in one-and-half years," said Shah.

The company last year hived off a minority stake to a private equity player for around Rs 50 crore, he said explaining that the company was not looking at more funding immediately.

Veeda’s Bio-Marker facility, started a year back, is also set to double its capacity. It took up over 400 Phase I studies so far.

In 2007, the company acquired DICE, a CRO based in Belgium and following this it entered new biopharmaceutical markets and delivered services from its sites in UK and India.

Source: business-standard.com

Insurers in brokerage bring poaching fears

Optima’s Rahul Aggarwal says Indian market isn’t ready for the move

Chennai, April 16 The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) recently permitted general insurance companies to start their own brokerage outfits. To understand how this would impact existing brokers in the general insurance industry, we mailed Mr Rahul Aggarwal, CEO of Optima Insurance Brokers, for his views. Mr Aggarwal has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad. Optima Insurance Brokers specialises in construction, infrastructure development policies, employee benefits, marine and liabilities policies, and was amongst the first private players to enter the sector after private participation was allowed in 2000. He is critical about the attempts made by insurance companies to poach their clients. And although he expresses optimism about growth in the current fiscal, he sounds a bit sceptical of any changes immediately.

The IRDA has recently permitted general insurance companies to set up their own brokerage outfits. Will this not eat into your company’s income? What are your views about this development?

Internationally, insurers own broking companies directly or indirectly and brokers have floated insurance companies successfully. Hence, IRDA’s permission to general insurance companies allowing them to own broking companies seems to be in step with international practice. However, insurers would have to create an atmosphere of confidence wherein brokers do not feel threatened by this development, and will have to show a maturity level wherein insurers’ broking units do not start cross selling or poaching of the customers brought to them by the brokers. The restraint would be very important. Sadly, many Indian insurers have shown neither this maturity nor the restraint in their pursuit of short-term gains. The direct selling teams of insurers have consistently tried to poach the clients placed with them by the brokers while mouthing platitudes on partnership. Therefore it seems that the Indian market is not ready for this move.

Would you be open to being bought over by a larger general insurance company?

We would welcome any prospective suitor that ensures impartial operations, brings value to our customers, brings in better systems and processes and provides a fertile ground for us to grow faster than our current growth.

The general insurance industry seems to have grown at about 12 per cent last year to achieve an overall premium income of around Rs 25,000 crore. Why is the growth much slower for this segment as compared to life insurance industry which seems to be growing at 45 per cent plus?

General insurers are not investing in growing the market, but are fighting for the same. Whenever there has been an initiative to grow the market, customers have responded enthusiastically. This has led to the expansion of both the market for the product and the insurer’s share. Reliance’s Healthwise is a case in point. The general insurance market is also going through a bruising rate war because of the same reason. This has led to a drastic fall in the premiums, although the number of policies issued has grown.

What do you predict will be the growth rate for the general insurance industry in the current fiscal? Which segments are likely to see good growth?

We do foresee an increase in the growth rate for the general insurance industry. For any change to happen this year, change in strategy should have happened in the last financial year and that, alas, has not happened. Myopic managers are still planning to outdo their competitors by reducing their prices further.

A lot of insurance contracts are due for renewal around this period. How are premium rates for different segments as compared to their level last year?

Most insurance premium rates have fallen further by 30 per cent this year while health insurance rates have seen a slight increase. In an extremely competitive market, most insurers were keen to retain clients even at the cost of facing losses; hence group health rates could not increase to the logical levels.

Is there a lot of undercutting of rates in the industry and hence a lot of movement of accounts between various insurance companies?

There has been a lot a undercutting of rates but since the current insurers were more than willing to match the prices being offered by their competitors, there has not been much movement of accounts except where the client was unhappy with the servicing.

What is the role that your company plays in such movement of clients across companies?

We have consistently advised our clients to sacrifice short-term gains in favour of building a strong relationship with the chosen insurers. It is our strong belief that insurers will reward past behaviour in case of a large claim and that is what insurance is for.

Source: thehindubusinessline.com