The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution with thumbing majority demanding ending of the economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba imposed by the United States of America (USA). The resolution was passed with the support of 186 member states, while two voted against and three abstained.
This is the 20th time similar resolution has been passed by the UN General Assembly. Despite such strong condemning by almost all the countries in the world, US is still continuing the embargo. This is not only unjustified but is condemnable and a violation of solemn rights of sovereign nation.
Whether Obama Government of US will implement the resolution is yet to be seen.

The country is in the holiday mood. October has been a month of festivals.People are celebrating Diwali /Deepavali according to their customs. The Festival of Lights! This is one festival, which is celebrated in most parts of the country.
My Best Wishes for all for a Very Happy Diwali!

The Government is expected to take a final decision on the National Manufacturing Policy today, 25th October. Serious debate has been going in the related departments of the government on the direction it should take. While the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has been advocating a free hand to the employers in the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ), to be created for the development of Industry, the Departments of Environment as also Labour want that there should government control to ensure that the labour rules are intimated. The former wants to entrust the Labour issues to a body formed inside the NIMZ, while the department of Labour wants a government officer to look after the implementation of the labour rules.
Already, with out any statute, the private employers are compelling the workers to work more than 10 to 12 hours, reducing the lunch/tea breaks etc. and also imposing heavy penalty for taking leave. The private employers want similar things in the statute book. The reason for the Manesar Plant (Maruti) strike is well known to all.
The government should think twice before imposing anti-labour conditions and decisions on the workers. The workers with all their unity and might will react and fight to defeat the government’s wrong policies.

At last DOT is reported to have taken decision that the private telcos can not provide 3G services in those circles where they have not got the allotment of 3G spectrum. The private companies without getting allotment of spectrum have been providing services in these circles.
Now the DOT has taken the correct decision barring these companies from illegally providing 3G services.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) decision to float voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) will render more than lakh employees jobless. The telecom company on 29 September accepted the VRS scheme, which was proposed by a committee headed by Sam Pitroda in 2008.

The company has sent the proposal to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for approval, said sources in the department.

The Pitroda committee report had stated that trimming the employee strength of BSNL would improve its productivity and help in cutting down expenditure.

{Unhappy with the board decision, BSNL employees have started to mount pressure on the management to recall the decision.

BSNL has 2,76,306 employees and the scheme will help the company save Rs 35,266 cr annually, said officials.

The VRS scheme will not affect the officers of Indian Telecom Service belonging to group A, M.K Chouhan, additional secretary, ITS Association told this newspaper.

Despite repeated attempts, there was no response from the top management of BSNL to our queries for confirming whether the said proposal was sent to the DoT.

Meanwhile, unhappy with the board decision, employees have started to mount pressure on the management to recall the decision.

V.A.N Namboodiri, convenor of the joint forum of executives and non-executives’ unions and associations, said that they are planning to call for a nation-wide strike on 15 November. “The top management of BSNL is on deputation from India Telecom Service and hence they do not have much stake in the future of BSNL and are not concerned about the employees working under them,” Namboodiri said.

He said that cutting jobs would not help the organisation. “Look at what happened to MTNL. The company had floated VRS schemes thrice for its employees. As a result, it started making losses. Retrenching employees is not the answer to the revival of BSNL, rather it’s just an ill-conceived design to benefit private players and shut down BSNL,” he said. Employee unions feel that comparing their strength with private telecom operators was not justified as they also installed landlines all over the country, something most private players did not.

Employee unions are also not impressed by the argument that PSU is spending about 46% of its income to pay salaries, compared to 6-10% in private telecom companies. “Earlier BSNL had about 4 lakh workers and the company had a revenue of Rs 40,000 cr and profit of Rs 6,000 cr to Rs 10,000 cr. There were more workers earlier and more revenue. By reducing the numbers of workers the revenue will also decrease,” said Namboodiri

They questioned committee’s recommendation to outsource work. “What kind of rationale is the government working on? On the one hand it decides to leave out 1 lakh employees who are already working in the organisation and on the other it talks about engaging people from outside,” asked Ratish Kumar, secretary of the Bihar chapter of Sanchar Nigam Executive Association.

BSNL sources admitted that the blame for the company’s sinking profits did not squarely lie with the employees.

As per an Ministry of Home Affairs directive, BSNL has been discouraged from purchasing telecom equipments from China, whereas the same equipments are being used by the private telecom companies.

The company has also not undertaken any major investment for maintenance of landlines and broadband in the recent past, which has led to a shrinking customer base.

National Broadband Network, involving laying of 11 lakh Km. of optical fibre connecting 2.5 lakhs panchayats in the country will now be entrusted with BSNL, MTNL, Rail, Gail, Power grid etc.

The proposal of the DOT to entrust this project of Rs.20,000 crore to BSNL was modified on Finance Ministry’s intervention against involving only BSNL.

The Minister for Labour and Employment, Mr.Mallikarjun Kharge has stated that it is proposed to start 1500 ITIs in order to tackle the skilled workers shortages in the country. He was speaking at Coonor where he was to attend the Annual Conference of the United Planters Association of South India.
This clearly shows that while there is unemployment on the one side, even the available work are not being given, especially in the government and public sector. The Minister should pressure the government to fill up the vacancies in the government and PSUs for better governance and performance.

2G scam – No charge about loss to exchequer!
The charge sheet against the 17 accused in the 2G scam has been filed a few days back by the CBI Court. While the conspiracy and cheating charges are there, it is surprising that there is no charge of causing loss to the exchequer. While the CAG has stated that there is a loss of about Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, the CBI earlier stated that the loss is about Rs. 33,000 crore. But in the charge sheet the losses are not mentioned according to the reports in the media. Has the CBI reached a conclusion that there is no loss to the exchequer?
In this connection it is to be noted that from the first the present Communications Minister, Kapil Sibal has been maintaining that there is zero loss. The Prime Minister was also taking the same position and in fact defended minister Raja till the last moment. There seems to be a valid reason for taking such a line. During the enquiries as also from the documents it has become very clear that all the decisions former minister A.Raja have taken, the Prime Minister was consulted and the cabinet / Group of Ministers have jointly taken the decision on all aspects of the allotment of spectrum. This has brought the role of the former Finance Minister P.Chidambaram in focus and also the Prime Minister. How can the CBI prepare a charge sheet accusing the Prime Minster of the country? Naturally, the charges have been issued leaving the monetary loss to the government.
The big corporate are also involved in the scam. Naturally charges against them will cause a wrong message to the MNCs and big business and jeopardise the neo-liberal policies. Charges have been suitably tailored.
What is going to happen to the case in such a situation? Just like Bofors case, whether the case will continue for years and at last it will go in to thin air without punishment to anybody?
Let us wait and see.

The first telegraph services were introduced in India 160 years back on 24th October 1851 between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. Years have passed quickly and by the first quarter of the 20th century, it became the quickest mode of communications. The Telephone was introduced in the meantinme and since it was quicker and more convenient, the importance of telegraphs got reduced. After the introduction of modern equipments like teleprinter, Fax etc. the use of telegraphs got further reduced. In India also the telegraphs started giving way to fax, teleprinter and of course to telephones.
The Telegraph Offices all over the country which employed more than 25000 of employees in P andT has now reduced to skeleton services in main cities alone.
But once it was the pride of the British India and later Independent India. But as everywhere else the, latest technology replaced telegraphs.