Bill Gates starts New company

Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company -- complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark.

Public documents describe the new Gates entity -- bgC3 LLC -- as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer.

Is this Bill Gates’ next big business? A Gates insider gives an emphatic no -- saying it’s not a commercial venture but rather a vehicle to coordinate the software mogul’s work on his business and philanthropic endeavors.

However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates’ personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn’t necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- or others – as it makes sense.

Whatever the ultimate role of the company, the circumstances surrounding its creation provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the new era of Gates’ life.

State records show that the company, originally called Carillon Holdings, was established in March 2008. It formally changed its name to bgC3 in early July, 10 days after Gates left his full-time job at the company he built into an industry giant. He remains Microsoft’s chairman and continues to work part-time on projects.

The records describe bgC3 as a “holding company” headquartered in Kirkland –a relatively short, picturesque drive from Gates’ home on Lake Washington.

Federal trademark filings provide more clues – describing bgC3 as a think tank, under a generic trademark classification that corresponds broadly to areas including "scientific and technological services," "industrial analysis and research," and "design and development of computer hardware and software."

But what does bgC3 mean? The logical assumption might be “Bill Gates Company Three” – his third enterprise after Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But that’s only partially right, according to the Gates insider.

The “bg” is Bill Gates, the insider says, but the “C” stands for “catalyst.” The idea is that Gates will play that role as he brings together new people and ideas. The “three” reflects the notion of a third place, apart from Microsoft and the foundation.

Before beginning his transition this summer, Gates told reporters that he would focus full-time on the foundation, and part-time on selected Microsoft assignments.

He acknowledged plans for his own office in Kirkland, apart from Microsoft and the foundation, but didn't discuss specifically any plans to organize that office under a new company. At the same time, he said he would be open to personally supporting breakthrough ideas where he sees a chance to advance the state of mankind.

It's not clear exactly where those interests will lead, or precisely what role bgC3 will play in the long run. But Gates, who turns 53 next week, has increasingly expanded his focus beyond Microsoft to problems of technology, science and society.

Much of that broader focus has come through the Gates Foundation, which deals in issues of education and global health. People associated with Gates say he is still expected to focus primarily on the foundation in this new era of his life.

But particularly at a time of economic turmoil, Gates' status and wealth could put him in a position to bring in top scientists and other notable people to work with bgC3. Gates has historically surrounded himself with smart people, and he’s famously thirsty for knowledge. His interests go well beyond computer science into fields as disparate as energy, biotechnology, and global economics.

The concept of a technological think tank wouldn’t be new to Gates. He has taken part in high-powered brainstorming sessions organized by his friend, Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer, who now heads a company called Intellectual Ventures LLC, based in Bellevue. Projects that Gates is backing through Myhrvold include an effort to create an alternative nuclear reactor that produces clean power without waste or proliferation.

Whatever its aims, the new Gates organization doesn't appear to have ambitions of becoming another behemoth. In a letter last year to a Kirkland city official, a Gates representative wrote that total occupancy would be limited to between 40 and 60 people, including employees and visitors, in the space that bgC3 now occupies.

At the same time, it’s no ordinary office space. Visitors say it’s fully stocked with Microsoft technologies, including a Surface tabletop computer with a virtual guestbook application.

Some of bgC3’s activity has been recent. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark database, the company filed Sept. 29 for federal trademarks on "BGC3" and the "C3" logo. The latter (pictured above) is an intertwined "C" and "3" in block letters.

The Microsoft chairman has established companies before to serve specific purposes, primarily behind the scenes. Watermark Estate Management Services LLC oversees many of Gates’ personal and family matters, and Cascade Investments LLC oversees his stock and other financial holdings.

Several of Gates’ associates are named in the documents tied to bgC3, although Gates himself isn't identified by name in public records associated with the company – a main reason its existence hasn't received media attention until now









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More Fun at Work

Is it another fringe benefit for highly paid employees?

The best paid employees get the highest material benefits from working, but it also seems that they have the richest social lives.

A study published in a recent issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly found that highly paid workers were more likely to participate in social activities with co-workers. The highly paid also reported greater cohesion and solidarity among their colleagues.

"The social attractions of the workplace are strongest for those who are already rewarded with the biggest paychecks," said Randy Hodson, author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University.

According to Hodson, highly-paid employees tend to have jobs with more freedom and autonomy in which they can interact with their co-workers and develop friendships. They are also more likely to work in teams in which interaction with others is both necessary and encouraged.

On the other hand, lower-paid workers - for example, those in manufacturing - are likely to spend more time working with things, rather than people, and may not have the time to interact with their colleagues.

The research was based on a detailed analysis of 124 book-length studies of employees in a variety of workplace settings. Occupations included meat packers, taxi drivers, lawyers, doctors and people from a wide range of other jobs.

Hodson and three graduate students organized and coded information from all of these books to measure the degree and type of social interaction at a variety of workplaces from around the world. Hodson was then able to build a data set that allowed quantitative, statistical comparisons of different workplaces and different kinds of employees.

Results suggest that when people develop friendships at work, it is because they enjoy their work and co-workers, said Hodson.

"It is the carrot of having an enjoyable and well-paid job that leads to rich social lives at work, not the stick of worrying about job loss," Hodson said. "But of course, only some people are offered the carrot."

It appeared that women tended to report less rich social lives at work than men. The researchers found that this was because men tended to have jobs that made workplace friendships more likely. When women had jobs in which social interaction with co-workers was common, they tended to report similar on-the-job social lives to their male colleagues.

According to Hodson this research suggests that for many highly paid workers, there is not a conflict in which they feel forced to spend time away from their families in order to be at work.

"For people who have well-paying, interesting jobs, the workplace is a positive attraction that provides meaning and fulfillment in their lives," Hodson said.

"The friendships and camaraderie they have with their co-workers is part of the appeal of work. For these lucky employees, the workplace is a strong competitor for their time with home and home life."

Workaholism, then, may be partly the result of employees who truly enjoy their work and co-workers, and not necessarily a result of fearing for their jobs, Hodson said.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation.










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Men Are More Likely Than Women to Leave Their Jobs when Family and Work conflicts

Male and female employees are confronted with conflicts between work and family but men who believe they have a heavy workload are more likely to leave their jobs than their female counterparts. This is the conclusion of a Texas A&M University study, conducted by Ann Huffman, a doctoral student in psychology; Dr. Stephanie Payne, a Texas A&M professor of psychology; and Carl Castro of Walter Reed Army Research Institute. Their study examined whether the time demands of a job and perception of workload affected male workers more than women - and if the differences were enough to make male, more than female employees, want to leave their jobs.

"The short answer is "yes," gender does make a difference," Huffman says.

Their finding was presented at the recent Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's annual conference in Orlando.

"I think a lot of the time when people think about work-family conflict, they immediately think of female employees -- that they would be the ones to experience the conflict moreso than men, but that was not what we found," Payne says.

According to the researchers, men have significantly higher levels of 'work-family angst' than women. And men, more than women, believe that long working hours are detrimental to their personal time, are too time consuming and greater numbers would consider leaving their jobs, in comparison to women.

A partial explanation is that the two sexes have traditionally played different roles. Stephanie Payne says that women are traditionally committed to roles that support the family and although they may be expending a lot of time at work, they can still find the energy for family responsibilities.

Men, on the other hand, are more accustomed to the role of breadwinner and can find it difficult to adapt to increased demands of taking care of family and home, Payne explains.

Nevertheless, more men are being called upon to handle more family responsibilities, whether they are married with a working spouse and have children or they are single dads with child-care concerns, she notes.

"In terms of the way we think of men and women, and the roles they play, we're really not as far along as we would like to think we are when it comes to attitudes about gender," Huffman says.

"I think when women first started entering the workplace, they probably experienced work-family conflict during this transition, but now with things changing, men are going through this transition and experiencing the same type of conflict," she says.

Huffman notes that the workplace is changing in increasing magnitude, with men assuming more family responsibilities while women are taking a more active role in the workplace.

The potential impact of this one trend alone, she says, is something that more and more organizations are paying attention to. Forward-thinking organizations know employees facing serious work-family conflicts are likely to leave their jobs if the demands interfere too much with their family responsibilities.

Therefore, organizations are working to provide a healthy balance between work and personal life. In fact, one national study found 70 percent of workers are not satisfied with their work-family balance, and half of those people are considering looking for new jobs because of problems of coping with both personal life and work.

"It seems that organizations will have to take this changing demographic into consideration if they are going to keep their employees productive and happy," Huffman says.

"In this day and age, the boundaries between work and home are less defined," Payne says. "With beepers, cell phones and email people are expected to respond to work demands even when they are physically some place else. The boundaries of 'when am I at home and when am I at work' are less clear."










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Concern for Family Issues May Boost Performance

Employee support programs are vulnerable to elimination in times of economic downturn due to bottom-line-only decisions according to Susan Lambert, Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.

In a new book, Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspectives, co-edited by Susan Lambert and Ellen Ernst Kossek, Lambert argues that the business case for providing workers with supports for their personal lives is currently outdated and needs to be changed. "The field's quest to make a business case may have come at a cost," Lambert said. "Many early, formal employee supports largely operate as employer supports. They were designed to help workers keep their personal responsibilities from interfering with their job involvement and performance. The more time you spend with your children, the less time you're likely to have for your work."

Lambert considers that this attitude is slowly changing. In particular, a group of not-for-profit organizations concerned with work and family issues has begun to argue that the business case should be addressed at the bigger picture and move from "a narrow focus on short-term profitability to a longer-term strategy of investing in employee and community well-being."

For example, programs such as on-site day care have been offered and promoted by some businesses as a means to improve profitability by reducing employee absenteeism and turnover, said Lambert, who, along with doctoral student Elaine Waxman, also reports on research conducted in Chicago-area corporations in the book.

Still, a business case needs to be made for accommodating family interests when dealing with employees. Employers must group work-life policies with other human resource strategies that invest in workers, Lambert said.

Contributors to the book contend that firms should be reminded that they gain a competitive advantage when they pursue their profits through quality enhancement, rather than cost containment. In doing that, they need to discuss ways employees add value to service and production.

"Part of making the case for the importance of workers' contributions to firm success would be to highlight how lower-level workers are on the front lines of customer service and technological innovation," Lambert said. That position would show that firms gain competitive advantages when they design jobs that allow employees to add value to firms through their work.

Those changes provide the basis of broader policy improvements discussed in the book. Current research also shows that laws to improve situations for workers seeking to deal with family responsibilities have been ineffective. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows workers unpaid leave to care for newborn children or other family members with serious health problems, is available to workers at about 11 percent of the nation's work places and covers 55 percent of the work force.

Lambert and Waxman found that workers in lower-level jobs often do not receive sick or vacation time or employer-sponsored health insurance. "Thus, an important step in a new business case would be to focus on barriers to distributing supports that are available in many work places today, at least on the books," she said.

Lambert said employers who implement work-life policies and researchers should work together to develop a new understanding of the role of work-life issues. "It has been our experience that few employers systematically collect data to quantitatively or qualitatively evaluate the effectiveness of their work-life policies."

Longitudinal studies would help employers define the links between work and family life, and multi-method studies also could contribute to understanding the causes and outcomes of frictions between workers and the workplace, Lambert said.

Lambert added that in general, research in the work-life field needs to become more rigorous, so, for example, definitions of various terms have more consistent meanings, and so researchers look beyond two-income, married couples and their problems to examine the issues that affect low-income, single heads-of-households. Researchers also have focused a great deal on individuals and their family needs and not enough on the nature of work itself, she said. Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspectives is intended to overcome that problem.

"The book chapters help direct attention to the ways in which conditions of employment are critical to worker and family well-being, revealing multifaceted and reciprocal relationships," she said.

Lambert examined hospitality, transportation, retail and financial service jobs, and found a high degree of turnover and very limited opportunities for workers to organize their work life around family needs. She also found that in some workplaces, temporary workers fill lower-level jobs with low wages and few benefits. These temporary workers share the workload with regular employees who have job-related benefits. In general, employers often distinguish jobs by status rather than tasks, which is leading to increased stratification in the workplace, she said.

"Given the widening gap in well-being between citizens lodged at the top and the bottom of America's income distribution, it seems important to develop insights into how workplaces might play a role in diminishing inequality in those opportunities essential to balancing work and family life, and ultimately, to improving the well-being of workers, their families and communities," she said.










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Most Senior Employees Never Stop Working

A recent poll of executives and professionals by MRINetwork, a major international search and recruitment organization found that the majority rarely stop working. Typically, they worked evenings, weekends, and during their commute. Many believed that their employers were responsible for creating the situations that lead to overwork.

70% of 500+ people surveyed said the organizations they worked for did not do a good job at fostering a work/life balance. 65% of participants in the poll were frequently still working after normal office hours, a further 19% worked 'sometimes', 9% occasionally. Only 5% said they never did so.

Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork, commented:

"They often feel they have no choice but to work as much as it takes to meet management's expectations. More enlightened managers, however, are beginning to realize that the X and Y generations are much more committed to forging a balanced life than the retiring baby boomers. This will inevitably lead to a reevaluation of the performance requirements of individual positions within many companies, especially as the younger generation moves into higher management levels."

"A number of factors influence the rising number of people whose work day extends far beyond the traditional hours," Michael Jalbert said. "Obviously technology that makes staying connected almost anywhere in the world effortless is a significant contributor. And for many people that's led to an almost compulsive need for 24/7 interaction."


He noted that many organizations were understaffed. "Most people simply have more work to do than they can accomplish in eight or even ten-hour days . In some cases, working overtime has masked the need to hire more mid-to-upper-level employees. If the work is getting done satisfactorily, senior management may not be aware of gaps in their workforce."

But many employees love what they do. "The greater their interest and commitment to the work they do, the more they seem to work - even when it's not required of them. To these people, the ability to stay connected to their work via a variety of technological devices is an asset rather than a liability."

Michael Jalbert notes that, especially for telecommuters, there is a blurring of the distinction between being 'at work' and 'off work'. "As much as employees value flexible work schedules, this arrangement can also encourage working more and playing less."

Setting Boundaries Between Work and Home

E-mail, text messaging and cellphones make it so easy to keep control of your work from home. But a study by Michigan researchers in 2003 found that people who integrate their work and family life are not always happier.

Ellen Kossek, a professor of Labor and Industrial Relations at MSU, found that people who create boundaries between work and family are actually more connected to their families than those who integrate their jobs and personal lives.

"We need to realize that it is OK to shut work out of our personal lives," said Kossek. "It's counter intuitive, but spending more time specifically on work may actually help you spend more quality time with your family."

Kossek and her collaborators - Professors Susan Eaton of Harvard University and Brenda Lautsch of Simon Fraser University - surveyed 95 supervisors and over 300 of their employees. They studied how separating or integrating work with family obligations impacted workers' happiness, time at work and performance. The survey revealed that managers who integrate tend to have more work and family conflict than those who separate.

"Work can take over our personal lives," said Kossek. "If you're working from the family computer in the middle of the family room, your kids see you at work and don't understand why you're physically there, but mentally you're someplace else."

"An easy way to begin to tell if you are an integrator or a separator is to ask, do you have one calendar or two? Do you have one key chain or two? Your ability to put up boundaries to your work and family may be able to help improve your happiness."

"If you must integrate, the best way to help your family is to have a separate door to the office," said Kossek.

It seems that some people are naturally more integrated in their style than separated. "Women managers, on the whole, are more likely to be integrators than men," said Kossek.

Integration or separation may have an impact on the amount of time an employee spends at work.

"All these technological time savers really end up taking more time," said Kossek, who found that on average people who worked from one office spent 43 hours per week at work, those in two places spent 45 hours per week at work and those working in three places spend an average of 52 hours per week at work a week.

"Counter to the popular perception of flexibility allowing people to excel in both their work and personal lives, employees who used portable work were rated lower in performance evaluations by their supervisors," said Kossek.

"Lower performance evaluations may actually be because supervisors do not know how to manage distance workers."











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Home loan rates may come down

While banks do not anticipate an immediate decrease in lending rates after the 150 basis-point cut in Cash Reserve Ratio by the Reserve Bank of India, real estate developers expect the measure to soften home loan rates for its consumers.

Demand for real estate property has decreased by nearly 25-30 per cent in the country over the last 18 months, when home loan rates soared from an average of 7 per cent to as high as 12-13 per cent.

“The home loan rate in India is among the highest in the world and we expect it to be reduced by at least 100 basis points after the cut in CRR,” said Pradip Kumar Chopra, Chairman, PS Group.

Abhijit Das, Regional Executive Director, JLL Meghraj, said, “The recent move by RBI is expected to enhance liquidity to the primary and secondary real estate funding, while arresting further de-growth in real estate investments in the country.”


Suspending loans

While banks had been reducing disbursements to the real estate sector over the last one and half years, the loans extended to “risky” projects dried up after banks fell short of liquidity, following the global financial crisis, said Sujit Kanoria, Managing Director, Shristi Infrastructure Development Corporation.

“We have temporarily suspended loan disbursements towards real estate projects,” said an official at the United Bank of India on condition of anonymity. The bank’s total loan outstanding with different real estate projects was Rs 2,500 crore as on March 31, he said.


Generating liquidity

The cut in CRR may now generate some extra liquidity to be extended to the sector, he felt.

“Our exposure to bank loans is only 5 to 15 per cent, making us less vulnerable to a liquidity crunch,” said Sushil Mohta, Director, South City and Merlin Projects.

Chopra said only rent-based commercial projects such as IT parks and shopping malls require bank loans, while funding for residential projects largely depend on advance bookings.


Pradeep Sureka, President, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India and Managing Director, Sureka Group, said, “Banks are funding real estate sector with caution only after a project is sanctioned and construction has started. Time will say whether the cut in CRR will have any positive impact on the sector.”







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IT firms cut onsite Perdiem, Allowance for overseas trips

More and more news is pouring in from the bludgeoning IT sector of India. Already hit by the dollar-rupee exchange rate, loss of some portion of business in the US and the US clients turning away from investments in IT, the major IT companies went for a job cut. First it was the TCS salary cut, followed by TCS job cut which fired 500, followed by IBM which fired 700, Yahoo India laying off 45 people and now it’s the time to cut the cost by reducing the perdiem or onsite travel allowance or allowance for overseas trips.

It is learnt that the onsite perdiem allowance can be reduced by 25-35% by major IT companies. According to informed sources, leading Indian IT service providers like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro have launched independent studies to arrive at the revised "per diem" (daily rate of payment) for onsite employees in a bid to cut costs.

Infosys pays a per diem of $45 (around Rs 1,780) currently to its onsite employees. Now, there is a proposal to reduce it to $35 per day (around Rs 1,380) -- a Rs 400 cut per day -- according to sources.

Wipro, on the other hand, is hiring more local talent at client locations to reduce deployment of staff from India for onsite assignments. Recently Wipro Chairman Azim Premji had said: "If we hire people locally, it will displace people we send from here on H1B visas. So net-net, it will not mean an extra cost to us." If this happens, there will be fewer plum jobs for the boys in India.

TCS pays Euro 1,900 per month to each onsite employee in Europe.
Now, the onsite visit may no longer be that fruitful for the IT employees. Suddenly, everyone may start feeling the importance of “staying with the family in their own country”. Already hoards of so-called NRI’s are coming back, and many more are contemplating plans to come back. The icing on the cake for the IT and BPO employee, which used to be the extra income from the perdiem from onsite visit will no longer be there. I hope the IT industry atleast keeps up with the higher salary standards!

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Kingfisher Cuts Trainee Salary

After dramatic announcements by Jet Airways and Air India earlier in the week, Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines today decided to cut the salaries of 50 trainee co-pilots.

A spokesperson for the airline said the decision was taken as part of a cost-cutting exercise triggered by the “ongoing turbulence in the aviation industry”. He refused to spell out the extent of the cuts.

However, a trainee co-pilot with the airline said they got a stipend of only Rs 20,000 a month. “It makes better sense to take up a call centre job after this pay cut,” he added.

“Many of my friends are scouting around for better options now that the future in the aviation business looks bleak.”

The spokesperson for the airline said the co-pilots would remain on the payroll and enjoy all the other benefits and privileges given to the other employees, including medical benefits and travel privileges.

On Tuesday, Jet stunned the industry by terminating the services of 850 cabin crew — a day after it signed a broad alliance with Kingfisher. Jet followed that up with an announcement that it intended to sack another 1,050 staff. Under pressure from several political parties, Jet rescinded the orders but is now planning to cut salaries.

The Kingfisher cost-cutting plan has not come as a shock to its pilots. Sources said the decision was taken after some of the airline’s 85 planes were grounded. “We knew it was just a matter of time before we would be targeted. Last month, 300 Kingfisher employees lost their jobs but without any fanfare,” said the 23-year-old trainee pilot.

A trainee pilot is fresh out of a flying school and holds a commercial pilot’s licence. He is recruited by the airline to undergo simulator training on the aircraft that he will eventually fly. The trainee has to either pay for the cost of training or sign a five-year bond if the cost is borne by the airline.

Kingfisher is unlikely to cut the salaries of its line pilots and commanders but there could be other cost-cutting measures that would target other categories of employees.

A trainee pilot is promoted to the rank of a junior co-pilot in about a year’s time. Sources said a junior co-pilot earns about Rs 1.25 lakh a month — so many may still be tempted to stick on with the airline in the hope that the ominous clouds will clear.

courtesy : The Telegraph









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Merrill CEO Sees Thousands Of Job Cuts

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Chief Executive John Thain said he expects thousands of job cuts after the company is acquired by Bank of America Corp, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

Most of the losses will be in information technology, operations, and finance, but jobs won't be eliminated in fixed income and commodities, Thain said in a television interview in Dubai with the news service.

"We haven't mapped it out in terms of actual number of people, but we are committed to saving $7 billion across the combined platforms, and that will be a challenge," Thain said. "Between our two companies, it will be clearly thousands of jobs."

Earlier Monday, Thain said he expects emergency measures by regulators worldwide to unfreeze lending to be successful, but added that banks will need to raise capital and merge as the U.S. economy sinks into recession. Fallout from the global credit crisis could last for years, he said.

Representatives of Bank of America and Merrill did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Bank of America agreed last month to buy Merrill in a transaction they originally valued at $50 billion.

Thain said the merger is on track to close by year end, with shareholders expected to vote in mid- to late November.

(Reuters)











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Yahoo's Third Quarter Revenue to be lower than expected due to financial crisis

Wall St Braced For New Cuts, Weak Outlook At Yahoo

Things went from bad to worse for Yahoo Inc a long time before the financial crisis spurred a new wave of advertising cutbacks by customers that will cast a pall over its quarterly results on Tuesday.

After rebuffing a takeover bid from Microsoft Corp earlier this year and having recently seen a promising advertising sales deal with Google Inc delayed by regulatory challenges, the company's options have shrivelled.

Wall Street expects Yahoo's third-quarter revenue to grow, on average, by a tepid 7 percent from the year-earlier quarter, although profit is expected to rise 26 percent.

"For Yahoo, there is not going to be any silver lining in the operating sense," Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jefferies Lindsay said.

Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis agreed. "There are no easy solutions," he said.

Yahoo is poised to reveal cost-cutting moves that will include a new round of layoffs that go beyond the roughly 1,000 jobs, or 7 percent of the workforce it laid off in February, according to a source familiar with the plan.

Besides job cuts, analysts say investors should brace for Yahoo to once again cut its outlook for 2008 and perhaps 2009.

"We expect Yahoo to guide to the low end of its guidance for fiscal year 2008 and take a cautious stance toward fiscal year 2009," Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali said.

In July, Yahoo forecast 2008 revenue of $7.35 billion to $7.85 billion and operating income of $1.83 billion to $1.98 billion before depreciation, amortization and other items.

One of Yahoo's strengths -- its leading market share in online display advertising -- has become its biggest weakness, analysts say. It is especially vulnerable to the finance and auto industry slump.

"Fundamentals began to crack up (late in the second quarter) in display (advertising) and we believe may have worsened in recent weeks," RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler said in a research note on Monday.

Half of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's revenue is from display ad sales.

Five-Year Low

Susquehanna analyst Marriane Wolk says Yahoo faces an especially tough time selling banner ads in Britain and other parts of Europe, as well as the United States.

While the company has been making strides to diversify sales of display ads to a wider set of affiliated sites off of Yahoo, it remains dependent for much of its display revenue on premium advertisers on its own site, Lindsay said.

Yahoo's shares are trundling along at five-year lows around $12.50 as the company's fundamentals have deteriorated and economic woes have set back efforts over the past year to revitalize its market-leading display ad business.

The stock behaves like a puppet that only jumps when the market perceives Microsoft is warming up to make a new bid.

"Unless you think a takeout situation is realistic, there is no reason to own this (stock) right now," Gillis advises.

RBC's Sandler told his clients on Monday he believed Yahoo shares could weaken further in the near-term.

The shares jumped 15 percent last Thursday after Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said a tie-up between the two companies still "makes sense economically" and may still be possible, although no talks have resumed.

"Right now, the longer Microsoft waits, the better off it is," Lindsay said.

Another set of options that existed three months ago may have been slammed shut as the value not just of Yahoo but of its minority holdings in various Asian companies have fallen.

Investors had hoped Yahoo would undertake a massive stock buyback following a sale of its stakes in Yahoo Japan, Alibaba.com of China and other Asian assets.

Analysts who valued the Asian assets at between $7 and $8 per Yahoo share in July, now say the value has dropped below $5.00. "The window to effectively monetize these assets may have closed for the near-term," Gillis said.


(Reuters)













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Texas Instruments & Sun Microsystems have both warned of lower profits

Texas Instruments (TI) and computer hardware maker Sun Microsystems have both warned of lower future profits.

Based on recent weak order trends, TI said it now expected earnings per share of 30-36 cents in the last three months of 2008, below forecasts.

The warning came as the chip firm reported quarterly net income of $563m, down from $776m last year.

Sun Microsystems warned it would report a wider-than-expected loss in the final quarter of the year.

As most industries suffer from the global squeeze on credit and a consumer slowdown, so many technology firms are feeling the effects from a drop in demand.

Streamlining

"Our outlook for the fourth quarter is for revenue to decline substantially based on weak order trends over the past few months," said Rich Templeton, TI chairman, president and chief executive.

As a result, the Dallas-based firm said it had aggressively reduced inventory and would continue to do so until the end of the year.

TI also said it was in talks to sell part of its business of making wireless chips - the division that makes off-the-shelf chips for mobile phone handsets.

It said the move would help it cut costs by more than $200m a year.

The Dallas-based firm said it would focus on investing in custom-design chips, which are used in many smartphones.

Separately, Sun said it expected to report a net loss for the final three months of 2008 of 25-35 cents a share, surprising analysts who had expected the firm to post a net loss of 16 cents a share.

"Sun and its customers are seeing the impact of a slowing economy," said chief executive Jonathan Schwartz in a prepared statement.


















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Jaguar Land Rover cuts 200 jobs with Nine month salary

London: Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to shed 200 jobs across its UK operations but claimed that the redundancies were not connected with the economic downturn or slump in car sales.

“It is a small redundancy programme and it affects 198 staff across manufacturing sites, including Halewood. It affects hourly paid employees and is part of the company’s ongoing drive to improve efficiency,” company spokesman Don Hume said.
The employees will receive a nine-month lump sum based on salary and any over 60 will be entitled to a full pension.

The redundancies are planned to take effect by the end of next month and the company said it was not intending to make any compulsory cuts.
The company has faced falling demand for the luxury 4x4s in established markets in Europe and the US. However, it has reported a sales boost of its award-winning XF model.

In September, the company announced it was easing output of Jaguars at its Castle Bromwich plant, while Land Rover has axed a night shift at its Lode Lane factory in Solihull and put some models on a four-day week production cycle.

Halewood, which employs 2,500 and builds the Jaguar X-type saloon and Land Rover Freelander, is to close for a week at the end of the month to ease over-capacity. Staff will continue to be paid.

The company added that workers on Jaguar’s XJ and XK production lines were likely to stay on a four-day week for the rest of 2008. The four-day week is likely to reduce XJ and XK production by a maximum of 400 models

As posted in livemint













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HSBC to acquire Indonesian bank

HSBC Holdings, Europe's biggest bank, is to boost its presence in South-East Asia by acquiring Indonesia's Bank Ekonomi for some $680m (£397m).

HSBC will buy an 88.9% stake in Bank Ekonomi, which offers commercial and retail banking, for $607.5m in cash.

The deal will almost double HSBC's network in the country - from 105 to 190 outlets - and will make it one of Indonesia's top three foreign banks.

Bank Ekonomi was founded in 1989 and has assets of some $1.8bn.

Under the terms of the deal, HSBC will acquire a 38.8% share of the Asian bank from Lumbung Artakencana, 38.6% from Alas Pusaka and a further 11.5% from individual shareholders.

HSBC Asia's chief executive, Sandy Flockhart, said Bank Ekonomi was a "conservative, well-managed bank".

HSBC has been pursuing acquisitions in emerging markets as more mature Western economies slow down.

Last month it withdrew its $6.3bn offer to acquire a majority holding in Korea Exchange Bank after bank valuations collapsed.











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General Motors GM Lay off Job Cut: General Motors GM Fires 1200 employees

Its time now for General Motors GM to annouce General Motors GM Lay offs or General Motors GM Job Cuts. As per the news reported, General Motors Corp. will lay off around 1,600 hourly workers.

Which plant employees will be affected by General Motors GM Layoffs
The General Motors GM Lay offs will happen at assembly plants in Detroit, Pontiac and Wilmington, Del.,

What is the primary reason for General Motors GM Job Cuts, as mentioned by the company?
Market Conditions is the buzzword for all companies firing employees and GM is no exception to that. It is citing decreasing demand for trucks, large cars and luxury cars for the General Motors GM Job Cuts. GM spokeswoman Sherrie Childers Arb said the layoffs in Detroit and Pontiac are the result of planned line-speed reductions. The action at Wilmington, she said, is the result of plans to reduce production from two shifts to one.

How many employee will be laid off from General Motors GM, as per the plants?
The company will lay off 500 workers at its Detroit Hamtramck Assembly plant on December 23, 2008 due to reduced demand for the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS.

GM Spokesman Tony Sapienza said the Detroit Hamtramck layoffs are effective January 12.

It will lay off 700 workers at GM’s Pontiac truck assembly, where it assembles the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups beginning February 1.

Then, there will be another 400 workers laid off at its Wilmington, Del. assembly plant beginning December 8. The Wilmington plant assembles the Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstice and Opel GT roadsters.

Other developments for GM showing bad business prospects are that it plans to close its Janesville plant on December 23 — more than a year before originally scheduled — and new plans to close its Grand Rapids stamping plant by December of next year. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to accelerate the closure of its Moraine, Ohio, assembly plant by more than a year. That plant will also close on December 23.

Let's hope that alternative jobs are available to the affected employees of GM.














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Schaeffler Germany Lay off Job Cut: Schaeffler Fires employees

Just some hours back it was General Motors GM which went for a massive lay off and now it is the turn of Germany based Schaeffler to fire employees.

Yesterday Schaeffler (Official Site), which is the the second large company in the Germany automobile sector, decided to lay off temporary workers

The same reasons of industry slowdown, were cited by the Schaeffler Management. However, these developments have given sufficient pointers that the the labour market in Europe's biggest economy is having serious problems and may be on the verge of a decline.

As per the news reported, Car-parts maker Schaeffler said it felt "a marked slowdown in the deliveries to carmakers in recent months" and would therefore "significantly" reduce its temporary staff.

There are around 4,000 contract workers worldwide in Schaeffler. Apart from that, there are around 66,000 permanent employees world wide for Schaeffler. In a similar move, German truck and diesel engine group MAN said this week it would cut production and reduce its temporary workforce.

The slowdown at Schaeffler comes after the company took on €16.1bn ($21.6bn) in debt to finance a takeover of Continental.

Let's hope that alternative jobs are available to the affected employees of Schaeffler.












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Jaguar Land Rover Lay off Job Cut: Jaguar Land Rover Fires employees

Just some hours back it was General Motors GM which went for a massive lay off, followed by Schaeffler Germany Lay off Job Cut and now it is the turn of Jaguar Land Rover to fire employees or go for Jaguar Land Rover Job Cut or Jaguar Land Rover Lay offs.

The Jaguar Land Rover is now owned by India's Tata Motors and this deal was completed only a few months back.

How many employees will be fired from Jaguar Land Rover Lay off?

As per the reports arouond 200 employees will be fired

Which plants in UK will see the Jaguar Land Rover Lay off ?

The Jaguar Land Rover Job Cuts will happen at the plants in Birmingham, Solihull and on Merseyside.

There are around 15000 Jaguar Land Rover employees in Britain alone. Though the company said it would seek to shed the staff through voluntary redundancies.

As per the news from Telegraph, The credit crisis has seen new car sales in the UK tumble by more than a fifth compared to this time last year, but Jaguar insisted that its job losses were unrelated to the current economic gloom.

Jaguar Land Rover has announced a range of measures in recent weeks in an effort to limit over-production, including four-day weeks and temporary closures of some plants.

Official figures released this week showed that the total number of unemployed people in the UK has risen to 1.79 million, the highest since March 1998. Some analysts have predicted that 2 million people could be out of work by Christmas, with the jobless total expected to pass 2.5 million next year.

The Office for National Statistic figures also showed that a total of 147,000 people were made redundant in the three months to August.

The Government has made available an extra £100 million for re-training workers, in anticipation that the likely imminent recession will see a jump in job losses.
Glass-maker Waterford Crystal announced that 280 staff at its plant in Waterford in the Republic of Ireland are to be made redundant

Let's hope that alternative jobs are available to the affected employees of Jaguar Land Rover Lay off.

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Air India Leave Without Pay offer to 1500 employees:Is it an Indirect Lay off Job Cut ?

Another bad news for the Aviation sector employees. Yesterday, it was the Jet Airways which went for lay off 1900 employees, before that, it was Kingfisher Airlines which has declared Kingfisher Lay off and now, the government owned Air india has decided to offer Leave Without Pay for more than 15000 employees for a period of 3 to 5 years.

Isn't this an indirect Lay off or Job Cut by Air India?.

This news has sent ripples of fear among the employees of the state owned aviation company. On one hand, employees were expecting good salary since their government sector jobs made them happy about the implementations of the Sixth Pay Commission. And now, since there will be Leave Without Pay, so no pay, so no increased salary. Indeed, Bad, Bad and Bad times.

As per CMD of AIr India, Mr. Raghu Menon - "We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees".

He, however, said those who take up the offer to go on leave would be taken back if they desire so at the same seniority and last drawn pay. Though this is only a proposal and has to be presented to the company board for its approval before it is implemented, but the happenings in the world financial markets and the latest one being the Jet Airways Lay offs in India, has sent worrying ripples among the Air India Employees.

The government yesterday had, however, ruled out any job cuts in Air India with the civil aviation minister Praful Patel assuring employees that there were no plans to prune staff strength immediately.

As per the news, The 77-year-old state carrier, which initiated a fleet renewal programme three years ago and merged with its sister airline Indian last year, has proposed infusion of Rs 1,000-1,500 crore of equity capital. It is also looking at soft loans of Rs 1,000 crore from government that can be repaid over a period of time. According to industry experts the coming together of Jet and Kingfisher could further mount the problems for Air India.

Lets hope that all goes well for the affected Air India Employees and alternative jobs may be available to them during these times of crisis.

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Armed forces to get revised pay from November only

The 1.5-million personnel of the armed forces will not be a happy lot this festive season, as their revised pay scales are expected to be paid only in November.
They will take home, salaries under the old pay scales this month, but would get a part of the 40 per cent arrears under the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) that would bring some cheer before Eid, being celebrated tomorrow, and Diwali later this month.

The defence personnel's 3.5 million civilian counterparts would go home with lot of plans to celebrate, as they got an increased pay under the new scales this month.

The new CPC scales came into retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

The government has already announced that it would paid out a part amount of the 40 per cent arrears to the armed forces, following the forces submitting their CPC salary vouchers.

The defence chiefs had accepted the new "discriminatory" pay scales, after prolonged protest by refusing to implement the Cabinet decision, with Defence Minister A K Antony talking to Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal F H Major and Army chief General Deepak Kapoor.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also set up a three-member ministerial committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, with Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as members, to consider the defence personnel's pay-related grievances.
Source : PTI









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Getting Your Recruiters to be Consistent

Do you need help in getting your recruiters to consistently do the basics that you know would make them more successful?

You have some recruiters who have the basic skills to be successful but who are keeping their activity consistent and therefore have marginal success. There are many reasons that this could be happening but one of the most common is that it seems boring and unimportant to track numbers and focus on activity.

The Challenge- You have some recruiters who have the basic skills to be successful but who are keeping their activity consistent and therefore have marginal success. You've told them time and again, "Stay on the phone, track your numbers, look at your ratios, plan your calls" but it does not seem to stick.

The Solution- There are many reasons that this could be happening but one of the most common is that it seems boring and unimportant to track numbers and focus on activity. Recruiters generally like to chase "hot deals" (who doesn't?) and the discipline involved in consistently doing the essentials is usually an acquired skill. One way to connect this and to make it more of a self-motivated goal comes from the Morgan method, and that is to pay your recruiters a small bonus for exceptional activity levels.

There are many ways to do this without having it be an extra cost. Generally, you would adjust their commission to reflect this change. If you truly believe that good activity (new interviews, qualified search assignments etc.) leads directly to placements then this concept will be of benefit to both you and the recruiter. Now they are motivated by something other than you to focus on their activity levels.

Another Morgan Method concept that is very powerful is to create calling blocks that the whole team participates in. For instance, if everyone in the office does marketing calls from 9AM- 11:30AM it creates a synergy and peer accountability that would not be there otherwise.

Another idea is to encourage your recruiters to set up a small daily reward when they have hit a certain amount of conversations (not calls) in a morning. For instance, after their fifth marketing conversation, they get a 15-minute break to get some air, have a cup of coffee etc. When I coach owners on getting their Recruiters to do the basics consistently, we usually focus on creating systems and accountability that make very little work for the owner and helps the recruiters to motivate themselves.








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Sixth Pay Commission: Gujarat employees to Strike on Nov 5

There seems to be a wide-spread anger in the government employee committee in Gujarat state regarding the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. The Gujarat government employees are planning mass strike on November 5, 2008 or better to say take a Mass Casual leave. This strike is against the delay by the government in implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.Wikipedia on Sixth Pay Commission.

It is expected that around 8 lakh employees will be taking part in the mass strike across entire Gujarat. The protest is because the salary hike of Sixth Pay Commission recommendation is not yet implemented. The employee organization, called Gujarat Rajya Karmachari Mahamandal convened by Girish Raval has also threatened that if the implementation is not made till Diwali, the protest will be intensified.

As per the news, a 5-member Cabinet sub-committee, set up to study the implications of the Commission’s recommendations, had on Monday last, submitted its report to the government, suggesting that it could be implemented in the state.
Despite the "positive" report submitted by a sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala, the Modi government was dilly-dallying in announcing the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations, he said.

The Mahamandal leader said that apart from the Central government, six other state governments had announced that they will implement the recommendations in toto. But, the Gujarat government continues to keep its employees on tenterhooks, he said.

What is the stand of the Gujarat Government in implementing the Sixth Pay Commission Recommendations?
The state Finance Department official are putting the blame on the additional burden of about Rs 3,000 crore in the first year when it decides to implement the Commission’s recommendations for its employees with retrospective effect from January 2006.

Later, the government would have to shoulder an additional burden of Rs 1,000 crore annually if the recommendations hiking the employees’ salaries were implemented in toto, at par with the Central government employees.

There are over eight lakh government employees, including those serving in the state-owned Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in Gujarat. Besides, there are over two lakh pensioners in the state, who will also benefit from the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations.

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Teachers' organisations not happy with pay commission report

Various teachers' organisations have expressed resentment over the UGC-Pay Review Committee's recommendations, saying the report has fallen short of
their expectations as it has several "anomalies".

The Delhi University Teachers' Association has said major demand of teachers for higher pay scale to lecturers so as to attract talent to the university system has not been accepted.

"The demand for introduction of professorship/professor's grade in all colleges to retain talent has not been considered by the committee headed by Prof G K Chadha," it said.

DUTA representatives on Monday met UGC Chairman Sukhadeo Thorat to air their grievances, its president Aditya Narayan Mishra said.

Democratic Teachers' Front, a teachers' organisation in Delhi University, said the recommendations of the Pay Review Committee with regard to pay scales and service conditions failed to reflect its objective of making the teaching profession more attractive.

It said the UGC had earlier suggested 25 per cent higher entry pay for teachers in comparison to the Group A services and three promotions for all teachers so that teachers could have parity with Group A services in terms of career earnings.

The college teachers have been explicitly downgraded by the recommendations which denied them promotion till professor's grade, it claimed. The DTF demanded a review of the report.

Delhi University Principal's Association, which had asked for senior principals' scale for those principals who have already completed eight to 10 years of service, said the committee has remained silent on the issue.

The Committee has recommended "Sabatical Leave" for college teachers but has not mentioned about "principals" categorically, it said.

Professors' posts have been created in colleges having post-graduate teaching in respective subjects. Similar provisions should be made for colleges offering honours programmes, its president S K Garg said.

Indian National Teacher Congress has said teachers have been denied the third promotion in colleges in the form of professorship/professor's grade as demanded since the last 20 years.

The committee's chairperson Rashmi Bhardwaj will meet HRD Minister Arjun Singh to apprise him the anomalies in the pay structure.

Meanwhile, the UGC members on Tuesday started a two-day meeting to discuss the recommendations. UGC will submit the report to the government by Thursday after its consideration.

The UGC-Pay Review Committee, which submitted its report to the UGC on Friday, has recommended a whopping over 70 per cent pay hike with additional allowances and new positions to academicians.

As per the recommendations, at the entry level, a faculty member will join as an assistant professor, not as a lecturer as earlier, and his new pay band will be between Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100. The teacher at the entry level will be entitled for a grade pay of Rs 6,600. At present, a lecturer's pay scale is between Rs 8,000 to Rs 13,500.

A teacher will be entitled for annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary with compounding effect. Certain teachers with good performance record can get four per cent annual increment.

Similarly, the committee has recommended a new band pay between Rs 37,400 to Rs 67,000 for professor against the existing scale of Rs 16,400 to Rs 22,400.









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IT professionals worried as industry downsizes

India has emerged in the last decade as a major player in the information technology business sector. Exports alone generate billions of dollars in annual revenue. But this economic mainstay is having a lot of trouble under the weight of a global economic slump.

Twenty-five-year-old Arun Dahiya is one of the many young Indian IT professionals who will go on to become the backbone of one of India's signature industries.

Arun recalls the day he got his IT job, "I felt very proud, I felt I have done justice to my parents who have spent a lot of money on my education," he says..

However, the financial crisis has sent ripples through India's famed industry - where the top IT companies get roughly 30 per cent of their revenue from banking, insurance and financial services. All industries at the core of the crisis.

Arun and his friends - IT professionals - discuss the downturn in the industry - and are bracing themselves for bad news. Twenty six-year-old, IT professional Kapil Bajaj says the financial crisis has costs his friends their jobs.

"They got news on Friday that their employment is terminated. So it becomes a kind of chaos like situation and people get nervous," says Kapil.

A company that claims it trains one out of every three IT professionals in India - says India will have to specialise and sharpen it's skills to stay ahead in the industry.

"I think what we have to continuously do is upgrade the overall skills quotient of the Indian IT industry," says CEO NIIT, Vijay Thandani.

Industry experts say junior level employees like Arun shouldn't expect to see the rapid rise in salaries they once had. And Arun says the crisis has made him more realistic about his prospects.

"I think my career is at stake right now and I have to be very cautious about it. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed," says Arun.

Meanwhile, like Arun, tens of thousands of other young Indians share the same hope.








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Performance-based incentive scheme now on a voluntary basis

The department of science and technology (DST) that took the lead in formulating a performance-related incentive scheme for research organizations it funds, now plans to implement the scheme on a voluntary basis because some beneficiary organizations are still not convinced of the efficacy of the scheme.The dept of science and technology proposes to scrap annual confidential reports

The Sixth Pay Commission had carried out a study through the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on a performance-based incentive system, to ostensibly improve the performance outputs of Central government employees.

The study, according to the official website of the pay commission, was aimed at working out a model whereby a base salary is attached to each post based on skills and responsibility and simultaneously, a second component would be payable over and above the salary on the basis of the productivity and performance of employees, either individually or as a group.

The study recommended an annual bonus of up to 20% to employees whose achievements exceed certain targets, which has been accepted by the cabinet.
The government has also given in-principle approval to contractual postings in government departments of employees hired from private sector.

As reported previously in Mint, a finance ministry official who didn’t wish to be identified had recently said that DST has already moved to put in place an incentive-based system.
“Once DST implements it, we expect there will be pressure on other government departments to follow suit,” this official had added.
“Some people aren’t convinced yet and so we will be implementing this on a voluntary basis,” said a senior official in the ministry of science and technology, who didn’t want to be identified.
DST is the largest funder, excluding the atomic energy and space ministries, of basic research programmes in the country. It is the most important source of funds for nearly 17 autonomous organizations that are working in a range of fields from astronomy to biology.
“But I’m confident that once a few adopt, the rest will come around,” the same official added.

One major change the scheme proposes is to do away with the current annual confidential reports and bring in annual performance management reports.
Here a 12-point criteria matrix would be drawn up, that evaluate criteria such as the number of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, impact factors of the journals, (These measures refer to how often a particular research paper is cited by peers in the field, and the frequency of well-cited research papers appearing in a particular journal) and the quality and impact of new schemes initiated (by scientists on the managerial side).

“One of the measures suggested for annual review is impact factor of a journal, and citation indexes. However, it would be unfair to use the same scale to compare output in veterinary sciences to (that in) nanotechnology, as nanotech is a much hotter field than vet sciences. A good paper on vet sciences will never be highly cited. That’s how the system works,” said a scientist, who didn’t want to be identified given the sensitivity of the issue, at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, one of the autonomous research institutes funded by the DST.

Another proposal in the scheme that hasn’t gone down well is to have independent experts from other institutions rate scientists, which, the formulators of the scheme say,will help remove bias and infuse transparency in the rating system, said a DST official familiar with discussions on the scheme.

Moreover, the scheme is expected to be budget-neutral, meaning no extra funds will be provided. “Finance committees are extremely tight anyway. So obviously the extra money will come from cuts in laboratory tests, and stricter controls in procuring equipment,” the scientist from the Wadia institute added.

The department currently plans to allot Rs60-70 crore in the first phase, beginning this year.
However, many scientists seem to be receptive of performance incentives, as the only way they can hope for substantial increments is to get promoted.
In government labs, scientist grades vary from A to G, the latter being the highest, and on an average it takes about 20 years to go from A to G.

“I think it would be welcome. Even at F and G, pay hikes are not substantial. There are more perks like allowances for subscribing to journals, and increased funds for attending international conferences,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation and formerly with the India Meteorological Department, which follows a pay structure similar to DST.









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Pay issue to be resolved shortly : Mr. Pranab Mukherjee

A ministerial committee, set up to look into the armed forces' grievance about pay “anomalies”, is likely to sort out the matter soon.
External affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the three-member committee, today said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and defence minister Mr AK Antony.

“Shortly, I am going to discuss with the finance minister (P Chidambaram),” he told reporters here when asked about the issue.
Without giving details of his discussions with the Prime Minister, Mr Mukherjee merely said: “I do hope we will be able to sort out the issue shortly”.

The committee, which also includes Mr Antony and Mr Chidambaram, was set up by the Prime Minister on 25 September in the wake of deep resentment in the armed forces, who complained that there were “anomalies” in the 6th Pay Commission recommendations and that it had lowered the status of their officers.

After the government notification was issued on 29 August, the issues of “anomalies” in the pay for officers was first raised by Air chief Fali Homi Major in his letter in his capacity as acting chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC).
Chiefs of Navy and Army too have been voicing their resentment.
Mr Antony has strongly favoured resolution of core issues raised by the three services chiefs in their representation to the government. He wrote to Mr Chidambaram, raising issues of disparities”, including the ones relating to Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBORs).









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