News, Views and Information about NRIs.

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December 3, 2011

More skilled immigrants needed to boost economy: study


OTTAWA — The federal government should focus on increasing the number of skilled immigrants and refugees to boost the Canadian economy, a policy report recommends.
On Tuesday, the Institute for Research on Public Policy released a report showing that these two immigrant groups do better economically than any other immigrant cohort entering the country.
Report authors Michael Abbott and Charles Beach say officials should consider reducing total immigrant admission levels during recessions, when Canada is hit with high unemployment periods, because immigrants are first to lose their jobs.
The study was released days after the government said it plans to accept as many as 10,000 more skilled workers into the country in 2012, in part to help deal with a massive backlog in applications.
Researchers at IRPP, a non-partisan think-tank based in Montreal, studied the 10-year annual incomes of three cohorts of four immigrants groups who arrived as permanent residents in 1982, 1988 and 1994.
Immigrants entering Canada are classified under the categories of: refugee, family-class (part of family re-unification) and economic — meaning skilled workers.
"Skill-assessed immigrants, people who go through the point system, consistently do better in terms of higher earning levels than other arriving immigrants . . . 35 per cent better for men and 56 per cent for women," said Beach.
"Refugees had the highest earning growth rates again for both men and women across all entry groups . . . 29 per cent for men and 35 per cent for women," he adds.
"Refugees may start low and have low earnings initially, but their earnings grow faster than other groups," said Beach.
Women in the family class had the lowest earnings.
Recessions, the report found, hit the wages of all groups of immigrants.
Immigration has steadily climbed in the past few decades in Canada — about 84,000 people came to this country in 1985, and immigration hit a 50-year high of 281,000 people in 2010, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
But changes to Canada's immigration policy in recent years could be detrimental to the country's economy and competitiveness, the report said.
Officials have narrowed their focus, the report said, to acquiring a specific group of skilled workers — there are 29 priority occupations — and placed a cap on how many of these people enter the country.
In June 2010, Citizenship and Immigration introduced a global cap of 20,000 people who would be accepted under federal skilled-worker applications, along with a 1,000-person cap on the number of applicants accepted in each occupation.
By July of this year, only 10,000 skilled applicants without an offer of employment in Canada were admitted to the country under the Federal Skilled Worker Program but the number of arrivals under the Provincial Nominee Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program — neither of which is skills-assessed — continued to climb.
"There has been a huge growth in the Provincial Nominee Program — while that does a better job of getting people to regions and provinces and so on, the fact is, more than half of those people who come in are roughly low-skilled and the point of our study means, on average, they don't do as well as people with more skills," said Beach.
They urge the federal government to consider tactics European countries have taken in an attempt to sway skilled immigrants to their countries, and noted that countries such as China and India, which are experiencing vast economic growth, are retaining their own skilled workers and even repatriating those who emigrated to Canada.
"In light of this increasing global competition, Canada cannot afford to be complacent in seeking to attract and retain skilled workers. Yet there has not been a major rethink of Canada's immigration objectives and policy since the mid-1990s," the report warned.
The report's data show that within all three cohorts, there is a wide gap between independent skilled workers' earnings and refugees and family-class workers. Other economic-class workers still ranked second to independent economic-class workers by a margin of as much as $10,000 each year.
For example, in 1982, independent skilled workers made a 10-year average of $46,093 each year, while other economic class workers made just more than $28,000. Family-class workers made an average of $27,643 and refugees, the group that saw the highest growth in salary in every cohort, made $20,525.
The authors say their evidence shows it's "remarkably clear and uniform" that skilled workers easily made the most contribution to the country's labour market.
But they concede their data doesn't necessarily show that increased incomes are linked to higher education or skills levels.
The authors recommend maintaining and even expanding skills-focused initiatives, such as the Canadian Experience Class, instead of scaling down efforts to attract immigrant candidates that could adapt to the workforce.
Wait times for applications, recognizing foreign credentials and modifying the current points system so it examines youth, official language fluency and skilled-trades needs are also areas officials need to improve, the report noted.

Tom Cruise visits India's iconic Taj Mahal


Hollywood star Tom Cruise poses in front of the landmark Taj Mahal in Agra, India, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. Cruise is in the country on a promotional tour of his new film "Mission: Impossible_ Ghost Protocol. 

NEW DELHI—Hollywood star Tom Cruise says his visit to India this week follows a lifelong desire to see the country.
He said while touring the iconic, white-marble Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra that he is "very excited" about being in the country for a fan screening of his latest action-thriller, "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," days ahead of its world premiere on Wednesday.
Hollywood star Tom Cruise, center right, and co-star Anil Kapoor take
a tour of the landmark Taj Mahal in Agra, India, 
Cruise joins Bollywood star Anil Kapoor for the red-carpet screening Sunday in Mumbai. The film sees Cruise reprise his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt, while Kapoor plays an Indian business tycoon.
Cruise told Press Trust of India on Saturday, "I wanted to come to India my whole life, so I am very excited."

Visa officers lack information, training, auditor general says


The auditor general says Canada's border and citizenship departments focus too much energy on defending cases of those who have been denied entry into Canada, and not enough on reviewing who should be allowed into the country.

The auditor general says Canada's border and citizenship departments focus too much energy on defending cases of those who have been denied entry into Canada, and not enough on reviewing who should be allowed into the country.


OTTAWA — The opposition blasted the federal government Tuesday over what the auditor general described as "disturbing" problems in Canada's system for issuing visas to foreign nationals.
The Canada Border Services Agency and Citizenship and Immigration Canada lack the guidance, training and information to properly determine who should and shouldn't be let into the country, according to the auditor general's report released Tuesday.
In it, Interim Auditor General John Wiersema said the two departments focus most of their energies on defending cases where they have denied an individual entry into Canada — a small percentage of applicants — rather than on reviewing the cases of people allowed entry.
"Notwithstanding the department's responses to our recommendations, where in some cases they committed to correcting these problems — they haven't," Wiersema told reporters. "I find that quite disturbing in particular, for example, the question of quality assurance of decisions to approve visas, the vast majority of decisions made by visa officers result in a positive decision."
Wiersema said the visa-granting system is missing basic elements for making decisions.
The watchdog's report says more than one million applications were processed for individuals seeing temporary residence within Canada and more than 300,000 for individuals who applied for permanent residence in 2010 alone.
Of the three manuals officers rely on to determine admissibility, however, two had not been updated for several years.
There are also worrying gaps in the information available to officers about security, health and safety risks to Canadians.
"(Immigration) and the CBSA lack the necessary tools and information to provide assurance that risks related to the admissibility determination process are properly managed," the auditor general's report says.
NDP immigration critic Don Davies said he was dismayed by the lack of progress since the spending watchdog's last report on the visa system, tabled in 1999 — a point that Wiersema echoed.
Davies said at the time the Liberal government was provided with a framework to address the issues present in the system.
"To learn that 11 years later that has not been implemented strikes me as incompetence of a grand scale," he said.
Davies said he was also disappointed that the government, for the past 50 years, has been screening foreign nationals for only two diseases: tuberculosis and syphilis.
"Today 56 diseases require national surveillance in Canada," the report says. "CIC has not reviewed whether foreign nationals should also be subject to mandatory testing for some of these diseases."
The auditor general told reporters he thinks "it's quite reasonable to expect the government to have assessed whether or not it's focusing on the right diseases."
Neither the Liberals nor the NDP are convinced that change will come about in the wake of this report.
"I'm disappointed in the sense that . . . they just haven't taken the issue seriously at all for the last few years," said Liberal immigration critic Kevin Lamoureux.
Lamoureux said the government has had plenty of time to remedy the shortfalls in the system. He said more resources for screening officials overseas are needed.
NDP and Liberal critics accused the government of chasing headlines with programs like this summer's CBSA most-wanted lists for criminals and suspected war criminals.
"It may not garner headlines to make sure that our officials have up-to-date manuals and tools and that our screening methods are sound," Davies said. "But that's the kind of competent work that Canadians expect their ministers to be taking care of."
Immigration Minster Jason Kenney said in the House of Commons Friday that the government accepted all of the recommendations put forward by the auditor general.
"We think they are very constructive and, in fact, my department is already working with our security partners, with the Public Health Agency to put those measures in place," Kenney said.
The minister said the government had made significant investments to improve security screening.
According to the auditor general's report, the government expects to complete all the recommended fixes to the visa system by September 2013.
Davies said this won't deal with the problem fast enough, when the health and safety of Canadians is on the line.
This year's report states that visa officers, the primary officials tasked with assessing whether someone can enter Canada, rely heavily on information provided by the person applying for a visa. This is problematic, the report says, since face-to-face interviews are rarely conducted because of the time and resources they require.
It also says officials are often unable to determine the credibility of documents provided by some security agencies in foreign countries. Applicants must provide security checks from every country they have lived in for six months or more during the 10 years previous to applying for entry into Canada.
Furthermore, about half of the officials said they lacked sufficient information to determine whether an applicant was a security risk.
Neither CIC nor CBSA have conducted formal reviews of the available information from the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service to ensure they had access to enough data for assessing the security risk of an individual.
Since the CBSA's creation in 2003, the agency hasn't signed an agreement with either the RCMP or CSIS to ensure full access to all of the necessary information. Without such an agreement, there is no guarantee officials will receive all of the information they need.
Neither of the departments responsible for allowing people past Canada's borders have in place a system to review applicants who already have been admitted into the country. This means the vast majority are never followed up on, the auditor general concludes.
The audit was performed between January 2010 and April 2011.

Pic of the Day

NOVEMBER 26 - Team Telefonica, skippered by Iker Martinez from Spain finishes first on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town, South Africa at 18:14:25 UTC, Cape Town.

NOVEMBER 26 - Team Telefonica, skippered by Iker Martinez from Spain finishes first on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town, South Africa at 18:14:25 UTC, Cape Town.

Pic of the Day

People wave their national flags on all sorts of occasions. How well do you know the flags of other countries?

Arab League Imposes Sanctions On Syria Following Continued Violence

Syria


The Arab League has said it will be imposing further diplomatic and economic sanctions on Syria following a day of continued violence against protesters.
The sanctions include a travel ban and the freezing of assets for 19 senior officials.
The news comes as opposition groups claim that 25 more people have been killed in clashes on Saturday between the Free Syrian Army, made up of army defectors, and forces still loyal to the regime. The worst violence reportedly centred on the city of Idlib.
No western journalists are allowed in Syria, so reports remain unconfirmed.
Last Friday, a deadline passed for the Syrian government to allow Arab League monitors into the country to mediate between the regime and the protesters. Although Syria agreed in principle to the monitors, that have so far failed to honour the commitment.
Demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad began in March and were met by a brutal crackdown, which triggered further unrest.
Since then the violence has steadily increased, with Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently assessing the country to be in a state of civil war.
On Friday, US Vice President Joe Biden warned that the bloodshed in Syria threatened to fan the flames of sectarian conflict.
In comments that appeared in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Biden said: "We stand with Turkey and a growing chorus of nations in calling for President Assad to step aside."
The new sanctions, which were settled upon following a meeting of Gulf state ministers in Qatar, will affect politicians, members of the intelligence community and those believed to be involved in the crackdown.
Restrictions already in place have severed transactions from Syrian banks, while flights between Syria and Arab League countries will be suspended on the December 15.
According to the UN, 4,000 people have been killed since the uprising began, with nearly 1,000 believed to have died in November alone.

Syria bans iPhone as protests continue

Syria Iphone Ban


The iPhone has been banned in Steve Jobs' ancestral home of Syria.
As the country enters its ninth month of violent protests, the Syrian government has reportedly outlawed iPhones in a move to crack down on activists who were allegedly using the device to expose government abuse.
On Friday, Times Live reported that, according to the the Lebanese website Al Nashara, the iPhone ban had been issued by the Customs Department of the Syrian Finance Ministry. The Department's statement read in part, "The authorities warn anyone against using the iPhone in Syria."
Said an activist quoted in Times Live, "It is enough for any tourist or guest visiting Syria to own an iPhone to be a spy suspect."
Jobs' biological father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, a native Syrian who did not have a relationship with his famous son, has come out on the side of the protesters in a YouTube video, stating,
"I am in solidarity with the Syrian people. I reject the brutality and killing that the Syrian authorities are committing against the unarmed Syrian people. And because silence is participation in this crime, I declare my participation in the Syrian sit-in on YouTube."
According to The New York Times, more than 4,000 civilians have been killed since protests began in March.
The same day that the iPhone ban was reportedly issued, Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called for a U.N. intervention to protect Syrian civilians.
On Friday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that government forces had killed six protesters who were calling for foreign intervention to stop government violence against demonstrators.
In June, the Syrian government shut down the internet and 3G mobile networks to in apparent effort to hamper communications among protesters. President Bashar al-Assad has also banned most foreign journalists from the country.

Corruption in India pains me: Dalai Lama


Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Saturday said it caused him “great pain” to witness corruption in the country and expressed hope that graft cases would be dealt with deftly. “I see myself as a messenger of India. I am her son because when I was in need, it was she who helped me. So, when I read frequent reports about corruption, it pains me,” he said, addressing students at Delhi Public School here.
Yesterday, he had said he “fully” supported anti-graft activist Anna Hazare’s movement. However, he declined to go into the merits of his methods. “Although I am a Tibetan, I see myself as an Indian — physically, emotionally and sentimentally. I owe the country a great deal. I am healthy on Saturday because of the dal, chawal (rice) and chapati I’ve fed on here,” he said in jest.
When asked if there was any probability of a woman succeeding him, he said, “There is no hurdle to a woman succeeding me. In fact, I think a woman would make a better Dalai Lama as there are certain situations only they can handle. But, a decision is yet to be taken,” he said.

More at liberty
Having relinquished political role voluntarily, he said he now enjoyed “more freedom” in refusing to answer queries with political connotations, adding that activities and queries related to the Tibetan government-in-exile would now have to be handled by the elected government headed by Oxford-educated Lobsang Sangay.
“I am already retired. I voluntarily and happily retired and handed over political powers to the elected government. Some days back, someone asked me about Chinese objections to my activities, but I simply said it was a political issue. Now I have more freedom,” he said after delivering the 5th Penguin Annual Lecture in New Delhi on Saturday.
“If I want to, I answer the question. Otherwise, I say it is for the political leadership to say,” he said, pointing towards Sangay, who was seated in the front row.
The Nobel Laureate said he felt “helpless” and overcome by “anxiety and fear” when he was reminded of the 1959 Tibetan uprising in March, 2008, during the Chinese crackdown on protesters in Tibet.

Non-residents of state to get certificates


Dehradun, December 3
Non-resident Uttarakhandis residening in Delhi and the adjoining areas will now be provided with their certificates linked to caste, domicile, permanent resident proof and others in the Residents Commissioner’s office of the Uttarakhand Government at Delhi. This will be ensured through “Janadhar E Service” slated for a launch on December 5 in Delhi.
According to the National Informatics Centre, Uttarakhand, Director Dr Devratan Shukla, the E Jan Sewa is already in implementation at tehsils of the state. He said those Uttarakhandis residing outside the state were facing inconvenience in getting the certificates.
He said trained staff had already been deployed at the Delhi’s Resident Commissioners office for the purpose.

Fatehgarh Sahib to be Shri Fatehgarh Sahib soon


Fatehgarh Sahib, December 3
The state government has decided to rename district Fatehgarh Sahib as " Shri Fatehgarh Sahib" Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has approved the proposal and a formal decision in this regard will be taken in the next cabinet meeting, said Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, secretary general, SAD(B), and an aspirant for SAD(B) ticket from the Fatehgarh Sahib seat.
He said that the decision had been taken keeping in view the religious sentiments of the people towards the great martyrs Baba Zorawar Singh, Baba Fateh Singh and Mata Gujri Ji, who were bricked alive at Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib. Chandumajra was interacting with the people during his tour of the constituency. He sought suggestions from residents for the development of the area. Whereas the people in various villages and towns have urged Chandumajra that only adding word " Shri" would not serve the purpose rather he should take initiative to declare Fatehgarh Sahib as the " Holy City". Chandumajra assured to take up the issue with the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.

Cantonments asked to stop levying octroi


Chandigarh, December 3
The Punjab Government has asked the cantonment boards at Jalandhar and Ferozepur to stop collecting octroi within their respective jurisdiction. The government has also offered to compensate the two boards for the loss incurred from abolishing octroi.
The draft notification for stopping octroi collection by the Cantonment Board, Jalandhar, has been approved while the draft notification for stopping collection of octroi in Ferozepur Cantonment is under examination.
Jalandhar and Ferozepur are among the nine cantonments in the country that are still collecting octroi from the public. There are 63 cantonments across the country.
Octroi is a local tax imposed on the movement of goods to generate revenue. Under the provisions of Section 66 of the Cantonments Act 2006, cantonment boards are empowered to impose any tax in any municipality in the State in which the cantonment is situated. At the time when the octroi was imposed in cantonments, municipalities of the state were empowered to impose the same.
Whereas state governments are financially compensating the municipalities in one form or the other, no compensation is being paid to cantonment boards in lieu of abolition of octroi. The collection of octroi by a cantonment board can be stopped or suspended by the board in case the state government concerned decides to compensate or reimburse the revenue of the board on account of octroi.
Octroi is a local tax imposed on the movement of goods to generate revenue
Jalandhar and Ferozepur are among the nine cantonments in the country that continue to collect octroi from the public
The collection, however, can be stopped or suspended in case the state government concerned compensates the cantonments

Blood money paid for release of 4 youths in UAE

NRIs also hails efforts of NRI Sabha Canada
Chandigarh, December 3
Thanks to provision of blood money, four Punjabi youths facing death sentence in two separate bootlegging-cum-murder cases in the UAE are expected to return home soon.
The victims in both the cases were expatriate workers from India. The kin of the victims - Chinna Ganganna Chepuri from Andhra Pradesh and Rateesh Vijayan from Kerala - have agreed for settlement on payment of blood money and offer pardon to the perpetrators.
Yesterday, when the case of murder of Chinna Ganganna Chepuri came up before the Sharjah Appeal Court, death sentence awarded to Talwinder Singh of Kapurthala and Paramjit Singh of Gurdaspur was waived. The two convicts were, however, ordered to undergo three years’ imprisonment.
In the case of bootlegging and arson that took place on May 26, 2009, expatriate Chinna Ganganna Chepuri was killed. Talwinder Singh and Paramjit Singh were charged for his murder and were subsequently convicted and sentenced to death in the case.
Dubai-based businessman-cum-hotelier SP Singh Oberoi with the help of his friend in the police in Andhra Pradesh traced the next of kin of the victim and convinced them for settlement with the families of the convicts. After paying the blood money from his pocket, SP Singh Oberoi produced the settlement documents before the Sharjah Appeal Court on October 10 this year. The Court, however, fixed November 29 for the final order.
Waiving off the death sentence brought cheers to the families of both Talwinder Singh and Paramjit Singh. And since they have already completed three and a half years in jail, they are set to be released subject to clearance by the security agencies in the UAE.
Hopefully, they would be travelling back to Punjab by the end of first week or early second week of December, says Oberoi.
In the second case, Jaswant Singh of Ludhiana and Harbhajan Singh of Hoshiarpur were convicted for the murder of Ratheesh Vijayan of Kerala on November 30, 2007, in a similar bootlegging-cum-murder case. The Sharjah Appeal Court today accepted the settlement documents produced by SP Singh Oberoi.
At the next hearing, the Appeal Court would pronounce its order of waiving the death sentence.
Since Jaswant Singh and Harbhajan Singh have been in jail for more than four years now, the chances of their release look imminent.
The case files
An earlier case pertains to murder of Chinna Ganganna Chepuri from AP on May 26, 2009
The Sharjah Appeal Court had waived the death sentence awarded to two Punjab youths
In another case, Rateesh Vijayan from Kerala was murdered on November 30, 2007
Jaswant Singh of Ludhiana and Harbhajan Singh of Hoshiarpur were convicted in the case
The court has accepted the settlement documents and orders for their release are expected in the next hearing

Indo-American group hails FDI in retail

NRI Sabha, Canada urges Indian Govt. to safeguard the interests of marginal shopkeepers too.
Jalandhar, December 3
The Indo-American Friends Group has welcomed the move of the UPA government of allowing FDI in retail, saying that it will not only lower the rate of inflation but also create more job opportunities.
“It will also bring about efficiency in the retail supply chain. There will be lesser food wastage in India where about 25 per cent of food produced gets wasted owning to lack of cold storages. It will also benefit farmers after the elimination of middlemen between farmers and retailers,” said Raman Dutt, chairman of the California-based group.
The government has also introduced some restrictions like foreign retail stores could be opened up only in areas having a population of more than one million, 30 per cent of the manufactured and processed products should be from small industry and 50 per cent of the investments have to be incurred on back-end infrastructure.

Sukna Land Scam

Lt Gen Prakash sackedSukna scam Found guilty; he becomes the senior most Army officer to be dismissed

New Delhi/Guwahati, Dec 3
An Indian Army Court has found that a former Military Secretary, Lieutenant General Avadesh Prakash was guilty on three counts for his involvement in the Sukna land scam that rocked the Army in the late 2008. He has been dismissed from service making him the senior most Army officer to have faced a Court Martial and be dismissed from the service.

Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash has the right to appeal the verdict in the High Court followed by second appeal, if needed, in the Supreme Court. The Army Court has exonerated him on one of the four charges that related to pecuniary gains - financial corruption. Army Court is a body under the Army Act.
Though Gen Prakash retired in January 2010, the Army Act allows for punishment to be handed out till three years after the retirement. Hence, he now stands dismissed from service.
Military secretary (MS) is a crucial position. The MS decides on all postings and transfers of senior officers. The Court Martial held that Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash was guilty of misusing his position under the Army Act section 45; having a conduct unbecoming of his position as an officer under section 63 and an intent to defraud under section 52.
Following the court verdict, Lt Gen Prakash will not get any benefits like pension, medical facilities and provident fund. He will also lose his rank and other decorations.
When Army Chief Gen VK Singh had taken over in March 2010 he had announced a ‘clean-up’ operation, saying “we want to set our own culture right… improve the internal health of the organisation… the Army value system has to be different from the civil society”.
Earlier, another senior officer, Lieutenant General P K Rath, who was the 33 Corps Commander when the incident occurred, was court-martialled in the same case. The case dates back to 2008 and involves the transfer of the land next to the Army's 33 Corps Headquarters in Siliguri, West Bengal, to a real estate developer Dilip Agrawal.
It was Lt Gen Rath's chief of staff, the then Major General Ramesh Halgali who blew the whistle on the land transfer and objected to the NoC being granted. Maj Gen Halgali initially faced the music but was later cleared of all the charges. He was promoted as Lt General and commanded the Jallandhar-based 11 Corps.
Before the Court Martial was ordered, the Army, at the behest of Defence Minister AK Antony had ordered Court of Inquiry (CoI) in January 2010. The then Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor, suggested ‘administrative action’. However, Antony put his foot down.
The CoI indicted Lt Gen Prakash for using his position to influence officers to transfer the land to the developer. It even suggested that Lt Gen Prakash should be sacked for he "became a facilitator in promoting Dilip Agarwal's business."
Being posted at the Army Headquarters New Delhi, Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash had no jurisdiction over Siliguri which is under the 33 Corps of the Eastern Command. The court of inquiry said that he took undue interest in the building project.
Lt Gen Rath had confessed to having taken the decision at Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash's behest.

Philippines struggles with AIDS


MANILA— The Philippines is struggling to deal with a worsening HIV-AIDS problem, with far too little money being spent on reversing a steady rise in infection rates, health experts warn.
The government will have to prioritise its funding to concentrate on helping the most at-risk communities as it faces a budget shortfall of up to $370 million over the next five years, health department assistant secretary Eric Tayag said.
“If we only have so much, we have to prioritise the scope of our programmes, choosing the target populations, choosing the specific areas,” Tayag said.
“It is a race against time because the more cases there are, the more different kinds of financial support are needed in the long run.”
The number of HIV/AIDS cases detected in the Philippines — which has a population of 94 million people — is still relatively small with only 7,884 cases recorded since 1984.
But the Philippines is one of only seven countries listed by UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) to have suffered rising infection rates in 2010.
And more than 1,800 cases have already been reported in the first 10 months of this year, exceeding the 1,591 cases reported for all of 2010, according to government data.
Tayag said the government estimated it needed 35 billion pesos ($810 million) to carry out HIV-prevention programmes from 2011 to 2016.
However the health department had only identified foreign and local sources for 19 billion pesos ($440 million), leaving a projected shortfall of 16 billion pesos ($370 million).
The funding crunch is expected to hit hardest when the current “round” of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria runs out in November next year, said Maria Teresa Bagasao, country director of UNAIDS.
Another “round” of aid pledges was originally scheduled for next year but has been put back to 2013 and any grant money will not be released until 2014 at the earliest, she told AFP.
“The country needs to look at whether there is going to be a critical gap in the funding. It has to actually sit down and identify where the gap will be. In prevention or treatment?” Bagasao told AFP.
The Global Fund, a UN-supported partnership of governments and private aid groups, had made up the bulk of the foreign aid that paid for as much as 80 percent of the country’s HIV prevention and treatment programmes, Bagasao said.
Activists have accused the government of cutting its own funding for HIV programmes and relying too much on external sources.
“There was a gradual decrease (in local funding) because of an over-reliance on external financing like the Global Fund,” said Jonas Bagas, spokesman for the Network to Stop AIDS in the Philippines, a coalition of health and activist groups.
Amid the budget concerns, Tayag said the Philippines may have to focus its spending mainly on the homosexual and injecting drug user communities, because they were the groups in which infection rates were rising significantly.
“There are two populations that are the drivers of the epidemic: men having sex with men and injecting drug users,” said Tayag, who oversees government programmes to fight infectious diseases.
At least 46 percent of infections recorded this year were from homosexual contact compared with 25 percent in 2006, according to the government data.
Officials say they were caught off-guard by the rise in infections from homosexual contact when they had been mainly concentrating on female sex workers.
Injecting drug users were still a small proportion of the total but there had been a sharp rise from only eight cases detected in 2009 to 147 last year, and another 80 in the first 10 months of 2011.
Previously, HIV had been mainly spread through heterosexual contact. This had been curbed with many HIV-prevention programmes focusing on educating and testing female sex workers, according to Tayag.

India trains blocked in Bhopal disaster protest


3 December 2011
BHOPAL — Thousands of survivors of the world’s worst industrial accident have blocked trains through a central Indian city to demand more compensation.
Saturday’s protest is on the 27th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal, where a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked gas that killed some 15,000 people and maimed tens of thousands.
Activist Rachna Dhingra says police charged at the protesters with sticks in trying to stop them from occupying Bhopal’s five train lines Saturday and that three people were injured.
Protesters say India’s government settled for too little in a 1985 settlement for $470 million. They’re demanding $8.1 billion for the more than 500,000 people affected.
They also want Dow Chemicals dropped as a sponsor of the London Olympics. Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001.

Panel urges aid for NRIs released from Gulf jails


4 December 2011
HYDERABAD — The Migrant Rights Council (MRC), an organisation that takes up the cause of Non-Resident Indians, has urged the government to provide assistance to poor Indian migrants who were in jail in Gulf countries including Dubai.
Stating that poor Indian in jail required government assistance in the form of legal aid to come out, Banda Surender Reddy, advisor to MRC, told mediapersons in Hyderabad that there were nearly 5000 prisoners in jail all over the Middle East including 1200 in the United Arab Emirates. “The benefits of the recently concluded prisoner transfer (PT) agreement between India and UAE are yet to be availed,” he said and cited instances of recent deaths of prisoners in foreign jails and requested the government to take urgent steps to ensure assistance is provided to the prisoners in need.
“Indian embassies abroad should have a dedicated staff to address issues of Indian prisoners. Indian migrant workers are bread winners for their families and their imprisonment leads to their families suffering here,” said Reddy, pointing out that most Indian prisoners in UAE were not educated, and do not understand the Sharia law which has provisions for pardon for a murderer if ‘blood money’ was paid to the family of the deceased. The MRC members said that they celebrated UAE’s National Day on Friday as Indo-Arab friendship day. They said that with the recently concluded prisoner swap agreement between the two countries, prisoners convicted in UAE will be able to come back home and serve the rest of their jail terms here, which would greatly reduce the anxieties of the families.

India ‘suspends’ retail reform: government ally

3 December 2011
NEW DELHI — India’s government has ‘suspended’ plans to open the nation’s huge retail sector to global competition that have paralysed parliament, a key ally of the ruling coalition said on Saturday.
The move to allow foreign investment by Wal-Mart and other supermarket giants in India’s estimated $470 billion retail industry was the first big reform to be announced since the government began its second term in 2009.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ‘has informed me that the government is suspending the FDI (foreign direct investment retail) issue until a consensus is evolved,’ Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal state, said in televised remarks.
She said people could ‘rest assured’ that the decision to delay foreign investment was not ‘temporary’.
Mukherjee confirmed that he had spoken to Banerjee but said he could not comment on her statement.
‘Officially I cannot announce anything because parliament is in session. A government announcement will be made in parliament,’ he told reporters.
But a Congress party spokesman said that the party welcomed ‘all meaningful efforts’ to break the stalemate that has hamstrung parliament, threatening to derail the government’s legislative plans for the session.
‘In such a situation (as changes to the retail policy), a broad consensus is required,’ Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told India’s CNN-IBN network late Saturday.
Indian television quoted government sources as saying Premier Manmohan Singh’s government was not abandoning the retail policy changes announced late last month but would seek broad agreement before proceeding.
‘Holding back does not mean rolling back,’ India’s Business Standard newspaper quoted an unnamed cabinet minister on its web site as saying.
Anger over the reforms has united shopkeepers, trade unions, influential state leaders and lawmakers from opposition parties and from within Singh’s own coalition.
Banerjee’s regional Trinamool Party is the biggest partner of the Congress coalition and important to its survival in parliament.
The Trinamool Party had objected to the government allowing international supermarkets into India, saying the move would swamp small family-owned stores which dominate the retail landscape and throw millions out of work.
Any retreat on retail reform would be a major blow to Singh’s administration, which has struggled for months against charges of policy paralysis amid worsening economic data, high inflation and corruption scandals.
‘A rollback would be a very bad thing,’ Saloni Nangia, senior vice-president of retail at Technopak, a top Indian consultancy, told AFP before Banerjee’s statement.
‘It would send a bad signal to the international community about the potential for investment.’
Foreign multinationals have lobbied for years to sell directly to Indians.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — a staunch free enterprise advocate when in power — has been coordinating protests against with shopkeepers who staged a one-day nationwide strike last Thursday.
‘Wal-Mart may be fine (for the West) but Wal-Mart does not serve us,’ veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani told the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
The BJP said it wanted a formal abandonment by the government of the cabinet decision to open up to retail to global supermarkets before it would let parliament function.
The government must not ‘fool the people that foreign direct investment in the retail sector is a panacea to solve all problems of poverty and unemployment,’ Advani said.