GENDER DIVIDE

New report on women in STEM reveals gender divide in business roles 

A new global report released by Catalyst, a global non-profit organisation that aims to expand opportunities for women at the workplace, reveals new layers of inequality for women in business roles in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industries. 

According to the report, titled 'High Potentials in Tech-Intensive Industries: The Gender Divide in Business Roles', only 18% of women opted for a business role in a tech-intensive industry immediately following their MBA, compared to 24% of men. 

53% of women who started out in a business role in a tech-intensive industry post-MBA left to take a position in another industry, compared to 31% of men. The report is the first by Catalyst to study men and women in business roles in technology-intensive industries such as high tech and telecommunications, oil and gas, and automotive manufacturing. 

"STEM companies face a serious talent drain as women take their skills elsewhere, but these organisations also have a remarkable opportunity to turn things around by focusing on how they can make all their talent—men and women alike—feel equally valued," Deborah Gillis, president and CEO, Catalyst said in a statement. 

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/44958579.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

PSU BANK HEAD-HUNTING

The government has decided to finalise a new process for selection of chairmen and managing directors and executive directors of public sector banks (PSBs) for all future vacancies, the finance ministry said in a press release on Monday. The release added that a fresh selection process would have to be implemented for filling up existing vacancies wherein the Reserve Bank of India governor or his nominee of the rank of deputy governor should be a part of the selection process. The government would fill up all these vacancies expeditiously, it said.

The government has constituted a committee consisting of secretary (expenditure), secretary (school education) and the RBI governor to examine the selection process adopted for the selections to the posts of chairman and managing directors and executive directors of PSBs for 2014-15.

Once the government receives the committee’s report, it will cancel the current selection process of CMDs and EDs of state-owned lenders.

As a result, eight posts of CMDs and 14 of EDs would require to be filled up de novo. Currently, Indian Overseas Bank, United Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Syndicate Bank are headless.

Even disclosing all names won't bring back black money to India

by R Jagannathan

Did we wait so many years to learn that one Chimanlal Lodhiya, a Pradip Burman and a Radha Timblo are being prosecuted for allegedly holding illegal accounts abroad?

The problem with politicising the unearthing of black money and reducing it to a game of name-and-shame is that you end up with zilch: after shouting about it for five years, we have probably alerted the big crooks to move their money elsewhere. Those who have not done so are probably dead or dumb. Or both.

In fact, an Economic Timesreport last week suggested that the Swiss banks were themselves asking some of their clients to get a move on, as they are embarrassed to be handling their dodgy accounts. This may be just the dumb money that still hasn't got the message.

Let’s be clear. We are not going to get more than a few shekels from the money allegedly stashed abroad no matter what we do. The chances are most of the funny money is probably back in India right now, especially since the Indian economy is prepped up to fare better and interest rates abroad are still down in the dumps. Only a fool would keep his money abroad to earn 1 percent interest when the Indian markets are booming and interest rates are still high.

In 2006, according to the Swiss National Bank, Indian national money with Swiss banks was around Rs 41,400 crore. Then the din about foreign accounts started in India, and by 2008 the money started vanishing. In that year, the amount was whittled down to Rs 15,400 crore. In 2013, the figure was down further to Rs 14,000 crore. That’s just about $2.25 billion. The chances are most of that money is legitimately there.

At $2.25 billion, the Indian money in Swiss banks will probably be less than the value of black money sloshing around in south Mumbai’s real estate markets.

The naming-and-shaming routine is thus unlikely to yield much public pleasure for the simple reason that that so much time has elapsed since the account-holders knew their names with the government. The mere fact that these names were with the government means deals have been done to clean up the trail.

The Swiss bank list allegedly containing some 700 names became public knowledge in 2008 when a former HSBC employee stole the data and gave it to the French government. The French government, in turn, decided to share the details with our own government. Surprise: 2008 was when the Swiss bank amounts of Indians fell drastically. But despite having the list, the Indian government acted cagey and decided that it will chase the account-holders directly for tax dues. There is good reason to suspect that the government was not keen to disclose the names as it would have embarrassed politicians - not just in the UPA, but NDA too - and businessmen close to them. Now we are unlikely to be any wiser.

Around mid-2011, The Economic Times reported that the income-tax department in Mumbai had already "secured 17 voluntary disclosures out of the 700 Indians having secret accounts with HSBC Bank, Switzerland."

The question to ask is this: if the government has already managed to get dues paid through backroom deals with some (or many) of the HSBC account-holders in Swiss banks, why are we surprised that the names are not coming out?

As far as the account-holders are concerned, if some of them have already paid their dues and done deals with the taxman, is it possible to haul them up in the court of public opinion and shame them? They can well claim a breach of trust as they may have admitted technical transgressions and compounded their offences or paid their penalties.

Those who didn’t do any deals would have had ample time to move their funds elsewhere – as the Swiss National Bank numbers show – and our disclosing the names now will only lead us to a dead end. No money, no prosecution. The Swiss certainly are not going to confirm the details of dead or closed accounts relating to 2008.

The very fact that only three names have been disclosed six years after the government got them means the trail would have gone cold by now. One can embarrass people by disclosing 700 names, but nothing more will come from it.

The very fact that one of the names disclosed - Chimanlal Lodhiya - is in all TV channels denying he has a Swiss account suggests that name-and-shame is not going to lead anywhere. If he thought he was vulnerable, he wouldn't be so brazen about it.

In fact, the money has probably arrived in India through several routes. The big rise in gold imports we saw in 2011 and 2012 probably was intended to help store the money that returned home. The unexpectedly large surge in the export of some categories of engineering and copper products in 2010-11 may really have been Indian money returning through the overinvoincing route. The sharp increase in FII inflows during those years may also partly have been Indian money returning to our markets.

Some of it went into real estate, when it was booming till 2012; the rest would have gone into stocks from 2013.

Curtsey : www.firstpost.com 

BLACK-SHEEPS!!

Dabur's Pradip Burman among 3 named for holding black money accounts abroad

The Union government has named three persons who are black money account holders in an affidavit to the Supreme Court.

The three persons named are Pradip Burman, director of the Burman group and one of promoters of Dabur group, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader and Radha S Timblo, a Goa-based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd.

The Centre told the court that it had no intention to withhold names of persons who have stashed black money abroad and stated that information received from foreign countries will be disclosed in all cases where tax evasion is established.

Every foreign account held by an Indian may not be illegal, the Centre said, adding that names cannot be disclosed unless there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing.

It also told the court that Switzerland has indicated willingness to provide information on black money in cases where probe has been done by IT department.

Television reports also indicated that four members of the Congress party, including a former minister of the previous UPA regime, are under investigation, and added that their names may be revealed after the probe is completed. Among the four Congress party members are two belonging to powerful political families in the state of Maharashtra, the television reports further stated.

Last week, it was revealed that the Centre was likely to tell the apex court the names of the people against whom strong evidence exists of stashing away black money in Swiss banks in a major step in its crackdown on India's parallel economy.

On Monday, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi is reported to have submitted a supplementary affidavit in the apex court detailing plans to submit the list of names in a sealed envelope.

The court is due to continue hearings on a petition on black money the following day.



Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is moving fast to repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars in slush funds or black money stashed abroad, as part of a wider clampdown on corruption that he promised during his election campaign.

The government is building pressure particularly on Switzerland, seeking details of Indians who have parked unaccounted for money in Switzerland's highly secretive banks. It has quickly implemented a Supreme Court directive to set up a high-powered special investigation team, headed by retired judge M B Shah, to look into the issue.

While there are no official estimates, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think-tank, has estimated that Indians had parked USD 462 billion in overseas tax havens between 1948 and 2008.

Black money arises mainly from incomes not disclosed to the government usually to avoid taxation, and, sometimes, because of its criminal links. About a third of India's black money transactions are believed to be in real estate, followed by manufacturing and shopping for gold and consumer goods.

Earlier, the BJP government had told the apex court that it could not disclose the names of those who have deposited money in banks abroad as it this would jeopardize tax agreements with nations providing those names to India.

There were murmurs of protest within the ruling BJP that not disclosing names would hurt the party's image after it had made bringing back black money, a key issue in a general election that it won by a landslide. The Centre's stand also drew a strong response from the Congress, which accused it of hypocrisy.

Turning the tables on the Congress, finance minister Arun Jaitley had recently said the disclosing of names of people holding black money accounts will embarrass the opposition party.

The Congress had hit back, daring the government to come out with complete information without indulging in "selective leaks" and pointing out that "the Congress is not going to be blackmailed under any such threat".

Arvind Subramanian to be Chief Economic Advisor

Narendra Modi names Raghuram Rajan ally Arvind Subramanian as chief economic adviser

U.S. based economist Arvind Subramanian became chief economic adviser to the Indian government on Thursday, an appointment that puts a long-time ally of Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan at the heart of economic policy making.

Subramanian announced his appointment at an impromptu news conference, confirming speculation that has swirled for two months over whether he would get the job advising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new government.

"I have just taken charge as chief economic adviser," he told reporters outside the Finance Ministry. "It is a great honour ... to serve in a government that has a mandate for reform and change."

The presence of Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, will add intellectual heft to Modi's nationalist cabinet, which is widely seen as lacking bench strength.

Setting out his priorities, Subramanian said: "For any economy like India, two big things are macro-economic stability and, of course, creating the conditions for rapid investments and growth."

He took a handful of questions before driving off in a white government sedan.

Subramanian's appointment creates a crucial back channel for Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, to hash out a new monetary policy framework that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wants to roll out in his annual budget next February.

He worked alongside Rajan in the International Monetary Fund research department that Rajan headed as chief economist for the global lender. He has been described by one associate as the "de facto closest adviser" to the RBI governor.

His appointment followed news earlier that Arvind Mayaram, the most senior civil servant in the Finance Ministry, had been transferred to another job.

Man Worthy of the Praise

Raghuram Rajan Given Best Central Bank Governor Award by Euromoney

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has been conferred with the Best Central Bank Governor award for 2014 by Euromoney magazine.

The magazine said Mr Rajan's tough monetary medicine combatted the storm ravaging the deficit-ridden economy in the recent emerging market crisis.

"Now, he is battling vested interests to arouse a sleepy financial system for over one billion people," Euromoney said, adding, "Remarkably, the internationally-renowned economist, who earned acclaim for his warnings in 2005 of an upcoming global crisis of sorts, has, for the past year been true to his word."

Mr Rajan received Euromoney's Central Bank Governor of the Year Award 2014 in Washington on October 10, the RBI said in a release on Wednesday.

"As he confronted capital outflows, the rupee at record lows, and over-blown but palpable fears India was marching towards an Asia-crisis style abyss, Rajan duly administered tough monetary medicine to ailing bond and currency markets," the magazine added.

In January 2003, the American Finance Association awarded Mr Rajan the inaugural Fischer Black Prize for the best finance researcher under the age of 40.

The other awards he has received include the global Indian of the year award from Nasscom in 2011, the Infosys prize for the Economic Sciences in 2012, and the Center for Financial Studies-Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013.

Bank of Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens was the winner of the award in 2013.