News in Detail

Return of outsourced jobs not good for US: Obama

Washington, March 27: In the midst of its worst recession in decades, President Barack Obama says it would be better to create new jobs that can't be outsourced instead of bringing back such low paying jobs from other countries.

"Not all of these jobs are going to come back," he told a questioner during an "Online Townhall" from the White House who asked when would jobs outsourced to other countries come back and be made available to the unemployed workers in the US.

"And it probably wouldn't be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there's no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs - at least in order to be competitive in an international setting."

The online meeting - a new take on President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats - was streamed on the Internet from WhiteHouse.gov.

Obama said a lot of the outsourcing has to do with the fact that "our economy - if it's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labour, it's very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a country out there that pays lower wages than the US.

"And so we've got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future," he said. "That's why it's so important to train our folks more effectively and that's why it's so important for us to find new industries - building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel -that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.

"So what we've got to do is create new jobs that can't be outsourced," Obama said.

The president also asked Americans "to be patient and persistent about job creation because I don't think that we've lost all the jobs we're going to lose in this recession."

"I don't want people to think that in one or two months suddenly we're going to see net job increases," he said striking a note of caution. "It's going to take some time for the steps that we've taken to filter in."

Other questions - some of which came from the live audience - focused primarily on health care, job loss, mortgage payments and energy. IANS

Source From:http://www.zeenews.com/business/world/2009-03-28/518412news.html


Google dumps 200 jobs in company's largest layoffs

Google is jettisoning nearly 200 workers in its largest round of layoffs yet, demonstrating that even highly profitable companies are feeling the recession's pinch.

The job cuts announced Thursday affected less than 1 percent of the 20,200 workers employed by the Internet's search leader.

That's modest compared with the massive shake-ups in the newspaper, retailing, automobile and financial services industries during the past year.
Google's housecleaning nevertheless is a sobering sign of the hard times around the globe.

Coming off a year in which earned $4.2 billion on revenue of $22 billion, Google still is trimming its expenses in attempt to protect its profit margins and prevent its slumping stock price from falling even further.

Google's fortunes are tied to ad spending that's dwindling as both marketers and consumers squirrel away more cash. Although Google's revenue has continued to rise during 15-month-old recession, some analysts say they believe the Mountain View-based company may finally be suffering its first quarter-to-quarter decline since it went public in 2004.

It's a guessing game because Google steadfastly refuses to offer financial guidance. But Google's recent actions have left little doubt that management is bracing for a possible downturn.

Once renowned for its free-spending ways, Google already has curtailed some employee perquisites, dumped outside contractors and closed services that aren't paying off. Pulling the plug on a radio advertising division in February eliminated as many as 40 jobs.

Management also has clamped down on hiring after adding more than 17,000 workers in Google's first 4½ years as public company. That decision prompted Google to dump 100 employee recruiters in January.

The latest layoffs are concentrated in the division that sells Google's advertising.
In a blog posting, Google said it had hired too many employees doing the same jobs during its rapid expansion.

"Making changes of this kind is never easy — and we recognize that the recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned," wrote Omid Kordestani, the company's senior vice president of global sales and business development.

Google shares gained $9.22, or 2.7 percent, Thursday to close at $353.29.

Source From: http://profit.ndtv.com/2009/03/27083703/Google-dumps-200-jobs-in-compa.html

Determined to survive, suicide survivors take exams

It's a story that left Delhi shaken and desperate to help five young girls and their parents who attempted suicide last week.

The father had been unemployed for four years and the family was finding it impossible to make ends meet.

Now the girls and their mother have left hospital. The father is no longer in a critical condition and after strangers have come forward to help, the young girls are picking up the pieces by returning to school, determined to prove they're survivors in every sense of the word.

"My paper was good. I revised well and I think I will stand second," said Sakshi Jain, the seven-year-old survivor.

Sakshi's older sister Priyanka is a topper in the same school. She was in the middle of her final exams when the family attempted its suicide. She is looking forward now to a new year in school.

"I will study very hard in the summer vacation and perform well in Class X," Priyanka Jain promised to herself and to her family.

Politicians like LK Advani and Sheila Dikshit have promised financial assistance. That still hasn't come through but after teachers, friends, family and many strangers have come forward with either money or advice, Sakshi's mother says it's time for a new start.

"I will start the tailoring job once I recover fully. I will not look back anymore. I will look ahead and plan our lives for our children," said Sharda Jain, the mother.

Source From: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090088846&ch=3272009121700AM


Varun Gandhi to visit Pilibhit today, may court arrest

Bharatiya Janata Party's new saffron soldier Varun Gandhi may court arrest at his constituency Pilibhit on Friday.

Sources have told NDTV that Varun is likely to withdraw his anticipatory bail, which also expires on Friday, and the UP police will have no legal bar in arresting him.

Varun Gandhi apparently took the decision to withdraw the bail application after the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday rejected his petition, seeking quashing of the two FIRs registered against him for the speeches in Pilibhit on March 7 and 8.

Varun's lawyers are likely to withdraw their petition from the Delhi High Court.

Though legally he could have challenged the Allahabad and Delhi High Court order but Varun has decided to take the political route on this issue which has raised a debate across the country on 'hate speech'.

It's a political decision which may benefit the new icon of Hindutva during the polls. With this step Varun is looking to derive more political mileage.

The BJP said Varun has not told them of his plans to go to Pilibhit but they say their advice to Varun would be to act within the law.

Source From: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090088893&ch=327200994200AM

In Cricket:India lose openers early

Chasing a mammoth NZ total of 619, India lost its openers - Sehwag (34) and Gambhir (16) in less than 20 overs on Day 2 of the 2nd Test at Napier.

Daniel Vettori got the breakthrough for his side when he sent back Virender Sehwag (34) in as early as ninth over.

Earlier, riding on three splendid performances by Taylor (151), Ryder (201) and McCullum (115), New Zealand piled up 619/9 and declared the innings.

With an overnight total of 351/4, Jesse Ryder and James Franklin resumed batting on Day 2.

Ryder looked confident to set up a huge total against the visitors and Franklin supported him well at the other end. Guarding his wicket since Day 1, the sticky batsman reached 150 in the 97th over of the match.

Franklin kept the momentum going at the other end to hit his 2nd Test fifty of his career and the hosts crossed 400-run mark. On the other hand, Ryder was 30 runs short of his first double century. Both the batsmen shared a partnership of 100 runs on 210 balls.

Soon after competing his half-century, Franklin (52) gifted his wickets to India when he fell short of his crease and Harbhajan caught him napping between the wickets. Brendon McCullum replaced him.

Ryder held the fort and Kiwis went into lunch break with 448 at the loss of five wickets. New Zealand saw 97 runs being added at the cost of one wicket in the first session.

After the halt, Ryder's (201) resilience proved a hard nut to crack by the Indians and he was focussed enough to raise his first double hundred. He did it in style by hitting the ball for a boundary. But the celebrations didn't last long and the mighty batsman gave away his wicket to Zaheer when he was clean bowled by the spearhead pacer. Skipper Daniel Vettori entered next.

McCullum then took the charge and fired all cylinders to bring up a swift 60-ball fifty. He also made NZ cross 500-run mark. He added on to the visitors' woes by converting his fifty into three-digit figure. This was his 3rd Test hundred that came at the stroke of tea and New Zealand total was pumped up to 592/6.

Daniel Vettori, playing on 37, got another life when was dropped by Ishant Sharma at mid-off but by the end of New Zealand innings, India pacer scalped him after he completed his half-century. His second wicket came in the form of Brendon McCullum (115) off Tendulkar.

Tailenders Jeetan Patel and Ian O'Brien were at the crease when the hosts had already crossed 600-run mark. Ace spinner Harbhajan Singh removed the prior on one run and New Zealand declared on 619/9.

On Day 1, two brilliant centuries by Taylor (151) and Ryder (137*) pushed New Zealand's score to 351 at the loss of four wickets.

A surprise change in Indian line-up was seen with Virender Sehwag replacing MS Dhoni as the leader. Dhoni sat out due to his back pain. Dinesh Karthik came in as the wicket-keeper.

In contrast to India's three-seamer, one-spinner combination, New Zealand have packed their attack with two spinners and three seamers for the contest at the McLean Park.

Source From: http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/storypage/ndtv/id/SPOEN20090088891/story.html