Archive for ‘workforce’

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20/04/2020

India coronavirus lockdown: What stays open and what stays shut

An empty stretch of the road and Delhi Police barricades to screen commuters during lockdown, at Delhi Gate on April 16, 2020 in New Delhi, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption An empty stretch of the road and Delhi Police barricades to screen commuters during lockdown, at Delhi Gate on April 16, 2020 in New Delhi, India.

India has eased some restrictions imposed as part of a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Most of the new measures are targeted at easing pressure on farming, which employs more than half the nation’s workforce.

Allowing farms to operate again has been seen as essential to avoid food shortages.

But some other measures announced last week, will not be implemented.

This includes the delivery of non-essential items such as mobile phones, computers, and refrigerators by e-commerce firms – the government reversed its decision on that on Sunday.

And none of the restrictions will be lifted in areas that are still considered “hotspots” for the virus – this includes all major Indian cities.

Domestic and international flights and inter-state travel will also remain suspended.

So what restrictions are being eased?

Most of the new measures target agricultural businesses – farming, fisheries and plantations. This will allow crops to be harvested and daily-wagers and others working in these sectors to continue earning.

To restore the supply chain in these industries, cargo trucks will also be allowed to operate across state borders to transport produce from villages to the cities.

Essential public works programmes – such as building roads and water lines in rural areas – will also reopen, but under strict instructions to follow social distancing norms. These are a huge source of employment for hundreds of thousands of daily-wage earners, and farmers looking to supplement their income.

Banks, ATMs, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and government offices will remain open. And the self-employed – such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters – will also be allowed to work.

Some public and even private workplaces have been permitted to open in areas that are not considered hotspots.

But all businesses and services that reopen are expected to follow social distancing norms.

Who decides what to reopen?

State governments will decide where restrictions can be eased. And several state chief ministers, including Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, have said that none of the restrictions will be lifted in their regions.

Mr Kejriwal said the situation in the national capital was still serious and the decision would be reviewed after one week.

India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, will also see all restrictions in place, as will the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

The southern state of Kerala, which has been widely acknowledged for its success in dealing with the virus, has announced a significant easing of the lockdown in areas that it has demarcated as “green” zones.

This includes allowing private vehicular movement and dine-in services at restaurants, with social distancing norms in place. However, it’s implementing what is known as an “odd-even” scheme – private cars with even and odd number plates will be allowed only on alternate days, to limit the number of people on the road.

Source: The BBC

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19/11/2019

Tata Steel to cut 3,000 jobs in ‘severe’ market

Port TalbotImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Port Talbot employs just under half of Tata’s 8,385 UK workforce

Tata Steel plans to cut as many as 3,000 jobs across its European business in another bid to come to terms with a “severe” international steel market.

The company wants to focus on higher-value products, it said, adding there would be no plant closures.

About two thirds of the job cuts will be office-based, it added.

The announcement comes after a merger with German rival Thyssenkrupp was blocked during the summer. Bosses had hoped the deal could reduce costs.

“Today we are highlighting important proposals towards building a financially strong and sustainable European business,” said Henrik Adam, chief executive of Tata Steel in Europe.

“We plan to change how we work together to enable better cooperation and faster decision-making. This will help us become self-sustaining and cash positive in the face of unprecedented severe market conditions, enabling us to lead the way towards a carbon-neutral future.”

The business employs about 20,000 people and is owned by India’s Tata.

Port Talbot steelworks employs just under half of Tata’s 8,385-strong workforce in the UK.

Wales’ economy minister Ken Skates said: “I am seeking an urgent conversation with Tata to establish what this means for workers in Wales and how we can support those affected by this announcement.”

Last week, Chinese firm Jingye agreed to invest £1.2bn in British Steel as it signed a deal to rescue the UK steelmaker.

It also said it would seek to “preserve thousands of jobs in a key foundation industry for the UK” but did not put a number on how many would be saved.

British Steel employs about 4,000 people in Scunthorpe and Teesside.

It has been kept running by the government via the Official Receiver since May when the company went into liquidation.

Source: The BBC

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01/10/2019

China anniversary: How the country became the world’s ‘economic miracle’

Local women sell produce in the market. Zhongyi market, located at the southern gate of Dayan ancient city, in Lijian, Yunnan Province in ChinaImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

It took China less than 70 years to emerge from isolation and become one of the world’s greatest economic powers.

As the country celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we look back on how its transformation spread unprecedented wealth – and deepened inequality – across the Asian giant.

“When the Communist Party came into control of China it was very, very poor,” says DBS chief China economist Chris Leung.

“There were no trading partners, no diplomatic relationships, they were relying on self-sufficiency.”

Over the past 40 years, China has introduced a series of landmark market reforms to open up trade routes and investment flows, ultimately pulling hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Chart showing gross domestic product of US, China, Japan and the UK

The 1950s had seen one of the biggest human disasters of the 20th Century. The Great Leap Forward was Mao Zedong’s attempt to rapidly industrialise China’s peasant economy, but it failed and 10-40 million people died between 1959-1961 – the most costly famine in human history.

This was followed by the economic disruption of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, a campaign which Mao launched to rid the Communist party of his rivals, but which ended up destroying much of the country’s social fabric.

‘Workshop of the world’

Yet after Mao’s death in 1976, reforms spearheaded by Deng Xiaoping began to reshape the economy. Peasants were granted rights to farm their own plots, improving living standards and easing food shortages.

The door was opened to foreign investment as the US and China re-established diplomatic ties in 1979. Eager to take advantage of cheap labour and low rent costs, money poured in.

“From the end of the 1970s onwards we’ve seen what is easily the most impressive economic miracle of any economy in history,” says David Mann, global chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank.

Through the 1990s, China began to clock rapid growth rates and joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 gave it another jolt. Trade barriers and tariffs with other countries were lowered and soon Chinese goods were everywhere.

“It became the workshop of the world,” Mr Mann says.

Chart showing China exports

Take these figures from the London School of Economics: in 1978, exports were $10bn (£8.1bn), less than 1% of world trade.

By 1985, they hit $25bn and a little under two decades later exports valued $4.3trn, making China the world’s largest trading nation in goods.

Poverty rates tumble

The economic reforms improved the fortunes of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

The World Bank says more than 850 million people been lifted out of poverty, and the country is on track to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020.

At the same time, education rates have surged. Standard Chartered projects that by 2030, around 27% of China’s workforce will have a university education – that’s about the same as Germany today.

China poverty rates

Rising inequality

Still, the fruits of economic success haven’t spread evenly across China’s population of 1.3 billion people.

Examples of extreme wealth and a rising middle class exist alongside poor rural communities, and a low skilled, ageing workforce. Inequality has deepened, largely along rural and urban divides.

“The entire economy is not advanced, there’s huge divergences between the different parts,” Mr Mann says.

The World Bank says China’s income per person is still that of a developing country, and less than one quarter of the average of advanced economies.

China’s average annual income is nearly $10,000, according to DBS, compared to around $62,000 in the US.

Billionaires in China, the US and India

Slower growth

Now, China is shifting to an era of slower growth.

For years it has pushed to wean its dependence off exports and toward consumption-led growth. New challenges have emerged including softer global demand for its goods and a long-running trade war with the US. The pressures of demographic shifts and an ageing population also cloud the country’s economic outlook.

Still, even if the rate of growth in China eases to between 5% and 6%, the country will still be the most powerful engine of world economic growth.

“At that pace China will still be 35% of global growth, which is the biggest single contributor of any country, three times more important to global growth than the US,” Mr Mann says.

The next economic frontier

China is also carving out a new front in global economic development. The country’s next chapter in nation-building is unfolding through a wave of funding in the massive global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Map showing Chinese investment as part of the Belt and Road initiative

The so-called new Silk Road aims to connect almost half the world’s populations and one-fifth of global GDP, setting up trade and investment links that stretch across the world.

Source: The BBC

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