Its difficult to read newspapers or watch TV News today

ITS BAD

Its difficult to read or watch news today. Why? All news of how people lost their lives in the terror attack. Newspapaers filled with obituary. Brings tears to your eyes when you read about how people lost their lives or how some were lucky to have a narrow escape. Imagine you were in their place how it feels can't imagine. Think of the aftermath that has been created due to this. What will be state of a person's mind who witnessed this? Trauma ? Fear ? Can't say. I ponder why is Life is so cruel sometimes. There are som many beautiful things in that life has to give. But as says with every positive there is a negative and with every success there is a failure. That is the philosophy of life. Look at the photos of crematoriums in the newspaper. 4-5 bodies burning at the sametime. Tears all around.

But with all this life goes on. Time is the biggest healer for everyone. But this event will last in everyones mind for a long long time.

Why This Hatred ?

What are the terrorists trying to prove ?
Innocent people have been killed by the attack on Mumbai on 26th and 27th November. It was a completely planned operation. It is said that the planning started 2-3 months back and was executed on those black days. A look at some of those terrorists is dreadly as they are in their twenties. Young chaps become cowards of the highest level. This has been an attack of its own kind never seen before in the world. But why? Is it to show that their group has been tormented so much that they are seeking revenge? Who put so much of poison inside them? The execution of the plan was very professional. Who taught them all this? These will be some of the questions that will be asked by the common man. Mumbai people have been devastated by this attack so much so even when a small sound is heard people fear it as a gunshot.
Just think about the people who died. May be they were the only bread earners from their family who had gone to CST station for some work or returning from work when they were shot dead. Can life be worst than this.
Its been well said the spirit of Mumbaikars is always high. Yes people did go to work even on the 27th N0v. But will you call it spirit or helplessness of making it to work to earn money. This magic city is becoming famous in the world everyday not by its good things but such attacks.
Its easy to say that we will not bow down to terrorism but what is the cost of it. When America was attacked, when Gujrat blasts took place, Delhi Blasts. Bangalore blasts what was done ????
As a responsible citizen of this country we should be united at this difficult time
The fear still wanders whats next ?

Dhoni Threatens to Quit as Captain

What Happened

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has offered his resignation to the selectors due to the exclusion of RP Singh for the remainder of the ODI series against England. Dhoni was disappointed with the selectors for the decision to bring in Irfan Pathan in place of the UP fast bowler for the fourth, fifth and sixth ODIs.This was denied by BCCI
What Reports have to say

According to television reports, Dhoni had a disagreement with the selectors during the meeting on Thursday to pick the team for the fourth and fifth matches of the ongoing series against England.Dhoni was unhappy that the selectors decided to drop RP Singh and include Irfan Pathan in his place and offered to resign, the television reports claimed, quoting an unnamed source close to one of the selectors. The reports said BCCI President Shashank Manohar was forced to interfere and sort out the issue.
Response of BCCI

The BBCI, however, dismissed the reports. BCCI secretary N Srinivisan said "I can't respond to something that is being floated around by somebody,"
Senior BCCI official Rajiv Shukla said the reports were not true. "The reports are baseless and we cannot comment on such reports. There were no differences between the selectors and Dhoni", Shukla said
More on this

According to reports, MS Dhoni and the Indian selectors had an argument over the same during the selection meet."It's a bit of a surprise," a source in the Indian team revealed. "He needs to play more matches. He is absolutely fit. He was getting better despite not playing much in the last few matches" In the past as well lack of say in selection matters had lead to Indian Captian Rahul Dravid's abrupt decision to quit captaincy

Will India be impacted due to the Job Cut announce by CITI Group ?

Citigroup announced plans to cut 52,000 jobs by early next year in a move to restore the No. 2 U.S bank to health as it fights against mounting debt losses and sagging economies worldwide.
The cuts announced by chief executive Vikram Pandit affect 15 per cent of Citigroup's workforce, and are in addition to 23,000 jobs eliminated between January and September.
The latest cuts would leave Citigroup with about 300,000 employees, down 20 per cent from the end of 2007 and about the same number it had at the end of 2005. People at the bank said the cuts should be made by the first couple of months of next year.
Impact on India

The good news is the massive job cut announced by the global banks, such as Citibank and HSBC, may only have a limited impact for now.
Citibank, which announced that it is cutting 52,000 jobs worldwide, is unlikely to cut jobs in India for now.
The headcount reductions announced globally will have limited impact in India following the sale of Citigroup Global Services Ltd (formerly e-Serve) to TCS, which is expected to be completed in the current quarter.
Once the sale of CGSL has been completed, the staff strength of Citigroup in India will be effectively reduced by 50% . Nothing significant is further expected
HSBC announced it is cutting 500 jobs. Out of this, 450 are in Hong Kong and the remaining 50 are in the rest of Asia

Action Plan from the G20 Summit

Action Plan to Implement Principles for Reform
This Action Plan sets forth a comprehensive work plan to implement the five agreed principles for reform. Our finance ministers will work to ensure that the taskings set forth in this Action Plan are fully and vigorously implemented. They are responsible for the development and implementation of these recommendations drawing on the ongoing work of relevant bodies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an expanded Financial Stability Forum (FSF), and standard setting bodies.
Strengthening Transparency and Accountability
Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
The key global accounting standards bodies should work to enhance guidance for valuation of securities, also taking into account the valuation of complex, illiquid products, especially during times of stress.Accounting standard setters should significantly advance their work to address weaknesses in accounting and disclosure standards for off-balance sheet vehicles.Regulators and accounting standard setters should enhance the required disclosure of complex financial instruments by firms to market participants.With a view toward promoting financial stability, the governance of the international accounting standard setting body should be further enhanced, including by undertaking a review of its membership, in particular in order to ensure transparency, accountability, and an appropriate relationship between this independent body and the relevant authorities.Private sector bodies that have already developed best practices for private pools of capital and/or hedge funds should bring forward proposals for a set of unified best practices. Finance Ministers should assess the adequacy of these proposals, drawing upon the analysis of regulators, the expanded FSF, and other relevant bodies.

Medium-term actions
The key global accounting standards bodies should work intensively toward the objective of creating a single high-quality global standard.Regulators, supervisors, and accounting standard setters, as appropriate, should work with each other and the private sector on an ongoing basis to ensure consistent application and enforcement of high-quality accounting standards.Financial institutions should provide enhanced risk disclosures in their reporting and disclose all losses on an ongoing basis, consistent with international best practice, as appropriate. Regulators should work to ensure that a financial institution' financial statements include a complete, accurate, and timely picture of the firm's activities (including off-balance sheet activities) and are reported on a consistent and regular basis.Enhancing Sound Regulation
Regulatory Regimes

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
The IMF, expanded FSF, and other regulators and bodies should develop recommendations to mitigate pro-cyclicality, including the review of how valuation and leverage, bank capital, executive compensation, and provisioning practices may exacerbate cyclical trends.

Medium-term actions
To the extent countries or regions have not already done so, each country or region pledges to review and report on the structure and principles of its regulatory system to ensure it is compatible with a modern and increasingly globalized financial system. To this end, all G-20 members commit to undertake a Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) report and support the transparent assessments of countries' national regulatory systems.The appropriate bodies should review the differentiated nature of regulation in the banking, securities, and insurance sectors and provide a report outlining the issue and making recommendations on needed improvements. A review of the scope of financial regulation, with a special emphasis on institutions, instruments, and markets that are currently unregulated, along with ensuring that all systemically-important institutions are appropriately regulated, should also be undertaken.National and regional authorities should review resolution regimes and bankruptcy laws in light of recent experience to ensure that they permit an orderly wind-down of large complex cross-border financial institutions.Definitions of capital should be harmonized in order to achieve consistent measures of capital and capital adequacy.

Prudential Oversight

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
Regulators should take steps to ensure that credit rating agencies meet the highest standards of the international organization of securities regulators and that they avoid conflicts of interest, provide greater disclosure to investors and to issuers, and differentiate ratings for complex products. This will help ensure that credit rating agencies have the right incentives and appropriate oversight to enable them to perform their important role in providing unbiased information and assessments to markets.The international organization of securities regulators should review credit rating agencies' adoption of the standards and mechanisms for monitoring compliance.Authorities should ensure that financial institutions maintain adequate capital in amounts necessary to sustain confidence. International standard setters should set out strengthened capital requirements for banks' structured credit and securitization activities.Supervisors and regulators, building on the imminent launch of central counterparty services for credit default swaps (CDS) in some countries, should: speed efforts to reduce the systemic risks of CDS and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions; insist that market participants support exchange traded or electronic trading platforms for CDS contracts; expand OTC derivatives market transparency; and ensure that the infrastructure for OTC derivatives can support growing volumes.

Medium-term actions
Credit Ratings Agencies that provide public ratings should be registered.Supervisors and central banks should develop robust and internationally consistent approaches for liquidity supervision of, and central bank liquidity operations for, cross-border banks.

Risk Management

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
Regulators should develop enhanced guidance to strengthen banks' risk management practices, in line with international best practices, and should encourage financial firms to reexamine their internal controls and implement strengthened policies for sound risk management.Regulators should develop and implement procedures to ensure that financial firms implement policies to better manage liquidity risk, including by creating strong liquidity cushions.Supervisors should ensure that financial firms develop processes that provide for timely and comprehensive measurement of risk concentrations and large counterparty risk positions across products and geographies.Firms should reassess their risk management models to guard against stress and report to supervisors on their efforts.The Basel Committee should study the need for and help develop firms' new stress testing models, as appropriate.Financial institutions should have clear internal incentives to promote stability, and action needs to be taken, through voluntary effort or regulatory action, to avoid compensation schemes which reward excessive short-term returns or risk taking.Banks should exercise effective risk management and due diligence over structured products and securitization.

Medium -term actions
International standard setting bodies, working with a broad range of economies and other appropriate bodies, should ensure that regulatory policy makers are aware and able to respond rapidly to evolution and innovation in financial markets and products.Authorities should monitor substantial changes in asset prices and their implications for the macroeconomy and the financial system.

Promoting Integrity in Financial Markets

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
Our national and regional authorities should work together to enhance regulatory cooperation between jurisdictions on a regional and international level.National and regional authorities should work to promote information sharing about domestic and cross-border threats to market stability and ensure that national (or regional, where applicable) legal provisions are adequate to address these threats.National and regional authorities should also review business conduct rules to protect markets and investors, especially against market manipulation and fraud and strengthen their cross-border cooperation to protect the international financial system from illicit actors. In case of misconduct, there should be an appropriate sanctions regime.

Medium -term actions
National and regional authorities should implement national and international measures that protect the global financial system from uncooperative and non-transparent jurisdictions that pose risks of illicit financial activity.The Financial Action Task Force should continue its important work against money laundering and terrorist financing, and we support the efforts of the World Bank - UN Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative.Tax authorities, drawing upon the work of relevant bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), should continue efforts to promote tax information exchange. Lack of transparency and a failure to exchange tax information should be vigorously addressed.

Reinforcing International Cooperation

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
Supervisors should collaborate to establish supervisory colleges for all major cross-border financial institutions, as part of efforts to strengthen the surveillance of cross-border firms. Major global banks should meet regularly with their supervisory college for comprehensive discussions of the firm's activities and assessment of the risks it faces.Regulators should take all steps necessary to strengthen cross-border crisis management arrangements, including on cooperation and communication with each other and with appropriate authorities, and develop comprehensive contact lists and conduct simulation exercises, as appropriate.

Medium -term actions
Authorities, drawing especially on the work of regulators, should collect information on areas where convergence in regulatory practices such as accounting standards, auditing, and deposit insurance is making progress, is in need of accelerated progress, or where there may be potential for progress.Authorities should ensure that temporary measures to restore stability and confidence have minimal distortions and are unwound in a timely, well-sequenced and coordinated manner.

Reforming International Financial Institutions

Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009
The FSF should expand to a broader membership of emerging economies.The IMF, with its focus on surveillance, and the expanded FSF, with its focus on standard setting, should strengthen their collaboration, enhancing efforts to better integrate regulatory and supervisory responses into the macro-prudential policy framework and conduct early warning exercises.The IMF, given its universal membership and core macro-financial expertise, should, in close coordination with the FSF and others, take a leading role in drawing lessons from the current crisis, consistent with its mandate.We should review the adequacy of the resources of the IMF, the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks and stand ready to increase them where necessary. The IFIs should also continue to review and adapt their lending instruments to adequately meet their members' needs and revise their lending role in the light of the ongoing financial crisis.We should explore ways to restore emerging and developing countries' access to credit and resume private capital flows which are critical for sustainable growth and development, including ongoing infrastructure investment.In cases where severe market disruptions have limited access to the necessary financing for counter-cyclical fiscal policies, multilateral development banks must ensure arrangements are in place to support, as needed, those countries with a good track record and sound policies.

Medium-term actions
• We underscored that the Bretton Woods Institutions must be comprehensively reformed so that they can more adequately reflect changing economic weights in the world economy and be more responsive to future challenges. Emerging and developing economies should have greater voice and representation in these institutions.
• The IMF should conduct vigorous and even-handed surveillance reviews of all countries, as well as giving greater attention to their financial sectors and better integrating the reviews with the joint IMF/World Bank financial sector assessment programs. On this basis, the role of the IMF in providing macro-financial policy advice would be strengthened.
• Advanced economies, the IMF, and other international organizations should provide capacity-building programs for emerging market economies and developing countries on the formulation and the implementation of new major regulations, consistent with international standards.

India hopes G20 summit will find solution to financial crisis

Will G20 summit will find solution to financial crisis in India

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Washington on Friday for a summit of the world’s 20 leading economies with the hope that it would lead to corrective measures to check the global financial crisis and prevent a future one.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is accompanying the prime minister but Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and economic affairs secretary Ashok Chawla are already in Washington preparing the groundwork for the Group of 20 (G20) summit.

As Manmohan Singh said before leaving for Washington, “as a major developing economy which is getting increasingly integrated with the global economy, India has a vital stake in the stability of the international economic and financial system”.

India would also seek a strengthening of the international institutions, both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank as well as regional development banks “to ensure that the fallout on the developing countries of the global crisis is minimal”.

Ahead of the summit, host President George W. Bush called for overhauling the “outdated” regulatory structures of the financial industry, but warned against reinventing the free market system that has spurred economic growth for decades.

“It would be a terrible mistake to allow a few months of crisis to undermine 60 years of success,” Bush said in a speech in New York Thursday, offering a broad defence of US-style capitalism and free markets.

Bush warned that the challenges facing the global economy were “too large” to be solved in one meeting. Leaders will establish the “principles” of regulatory reforms and task lower-level working groups to come up with the specifics in the coming months.
European governments had been pushing for a wholesale overhaul of the global financial system, but have since backed away from the heavy rhetoric of October amid signs of internal discord in the European Union (EU).
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be representing the EU at the summit, has said that he is not going to be participating in the gathering for a “polite conversation” on the financial crisis.
Explaining his remarks, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Thursday told CNN: “We want to find the beginning of the whispering of a solution, not just to be polite, not just to meet with the 19 other countries. We hope it will start a process, it will be a process of regulation-financial regulation all over the world.”
Asked what can be achieved in a meeting of the world leaders hosted by a lame-duck US president, he said: “We will certainly achieve nothing, but we will achieve the beginning of a process…Of course the new administration would come and take this burden on their robust shoulders.”
The White House Thursday said it expected a follow-up summit some time in the first three months of next year. The US delegation to that meeting will be headed by President-elect Barack Obama.

BT cutting 10,000 jobs as downturn bites

The telecoms giant BT is cutting 10,000 jobs, it has announced, as slump in the British economy begins to bite.
By Jon Swaine 13 Nov 2008
In its half-year results, the company said that it has already cut 4,000 employees, while a further 6,000 will go between now and March.
Consultants, contractors and offshore staff among the company's total workforce of 160,000 are to be worst hit by the move, which is part of an ongoing efficiency programme, with direct staff numbers being reduced by four per cent in total.
The company's announcement came a day after national unemployment rose to 1.825 million - its highest level for 11 years. A further 140,000 people were out of work in the three months to September.
Economists have forecast that the total will pass 2 million in the new year and could exceed 3 million as the economic downturn continues to worsen.
On Tuesday a string of household names - including Virgin Media, Yell and GlaxoSmithKline - announced a round of job cuts totalling 5,000 workers.
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, said on Wednesday that Britain has entered a recession that will be deeper than had previously been anticipated, with growth set to fall as far as -2 per cent.
BT also announced that its pre-tax profits in the second quarter fell by 11 per cent to £590 million.
Its report came soon after it warned that larger-than-anticipated costs in its Global Services arm would significantly reduce its profitability over the year.
Ian Livingston, the company's chief executive, said BT was "taking decisive action to put matters right".
"Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target," Mr Livingston said.
"But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough."

Rough ride ahead for Asian recruitment - By Andrea Williams

In August 2007, Asia’s banking and financial services recruitment sector felt the first few ripples of what were to become major shock waves hitting the industry. The banking sector, notably, started to slow through the remainder of 2007 with a decrease in hiring. Institutions making substantial US sub-prime writedowns were most obviously in the spotlight. Ironically, it is those companies which were under the spotlight in 2007 that seem relatively “safe” in the context of the October 2008 crisis. This year saw steady, if unspectacular, activity through the first two quarters. It was the demise of Lehman Brothers in September that triggered a sequence of events that would wreak havoc over the ensuing months and act as a catalyst for what will be an extremely uncomfortable ride for the recruitment industry in 2009.
Lehman and Merrill cause chaos
Relative to many financial institutions, Lehman Brothers was reasonably small (in headcount terms) in Singapore and Hong Kong, but of much larger scale in Tokyo. The collapse of one of Wall Street’s highest-profile investment banks put a massive dent in business confidence – the very thing that drives future hiring activity – and unsurprisingly we saw a sudden flood of candidates populating the market.
Lehman previously enjoyed a strong employment brand and had attracted outstanding individuals. Some organisations capitalised on this by hiring quality talent at a fair market rate. The announcement by Nomura that it would buy Lehman’s Asian and European businesses was a relief to many staff, who were saved from a potentially long and painful job search.
Almost immediately following the announcement of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch said it had found a suitor in Bank of America. This tie-up arguably has greater implications for the United States where Bank of America is a far larger institution and the likelihood of duplication of jobs, functions and business areas is greater. In Asia, Bank of America is not as significant a player as Merrill Lynch, which has substantial operations and heritage in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and an ever-growing presence in Singapore, with the scaling up of its global hub.
Although it would be naive to suggest that there will be no change to either company’s structure as a result of this merger, our instinct tells us it will be far more limited than if Bank of America were a larger player. There will undoubtedly be some fallout when the banks merge, even in Asia, but it is hard to estimate how severe this restructure will be for the employees of either Merrill Lynch or Bank of America. Only time will tell.
Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are just two examples from a catalogue of troubled banks that have sought recapitalisation from other institutions or government bailouts. This has contributed to the sheer panic through September and October, which has had an even bigger dampening effect on financial services sector recruitment. Most commentators are not predicting if, but when, most developed market economies will go into recession. The question facing the most talented of economists is just how long and how deep this slump could be.
An appetite for Asia
However, candidates undoubtedly view Asia as an attractive option in these turbulent times. We have seen an increasing inflow of candidate resumes from overseas over the last six to nine months and over the last two months in particular. Candidates in London and New York, for example, are under significant pressure in their roles and job security is at its lowest. Asia is still seen as a relatively safe haven for these candidates, as the impact of this global crisis has been much lower in our markets and candidates have recognised this fact.
Over the past six weeks, local and international resume volumes have increased by more than 30%. Evidently, they won’t all get roles in Asia and some individuals are far more attractive to this market than others. But the flood of CVs has increased the competition for roles and gives a hiring organisation a broader choice and more negotiating power – an enviable position to be in after so many years with so little bargaining ability.
Cuts are coming
One thing is for sure: unemployment will rise in Asia, with the most wide-scale redundancies likely to come from the banking sector. How severe these cuts will be depends on how long organisations feel the slump will last. Quality people have been in extremely short supply over the years and this structural issue shows no sign of resolving itself any time soon.
Financial institutions are human-capital-intensive businesses and will elect, where possible, to ride out the storm by keeping their best talent and shaking out the bottom 10-20%. In a depressed market, these are not the types other companies will be desperate to hire, either.
The decline in fortunes in the banking industry has been incredibly steep. We are now looking for a floor to the market and wondering how long we might be bumping along the bottom.
Andrea Williams is managing director for Hong Kong at Ambition, a recruitment specialist covering Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Britain.

TODAY'S HOT - BARACK OBAMA - AMERICAN PRESIDENT

Have a look at the papers today. All flooded with the news and analysis of the historic victory of Barack Obama in the race to the White House. Talks of a new "BLACK" President is across everywhere. What does this mean? Are we racist to point out that a "BLACK" person is now the most powerful man on earth? For God's Sake stop fluttering this as a victory of the "BLACK". As per my opinion there is no "BLACK" or "WHITE". That is the past. Barack Obama's Victory is a symbol of a positive change. As he said in his victory speech. This is the beginning of a change. The world is in crisis and may take a long time to recover. Its is a victory of an ideology and the change American People desired and voted for. What do you have to say ?