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| Feb 13, 2007 |
India's Hindalco Buys Novelis Aluminum
Atlanta-based aluminum giant Novelis Inc. has agreed to a $6.4 billion takeover by Indian aluminum producer Hindalco Industries Ltd, the companies said.
Hindalco of Mumbai, India, will pay $44.93 a share in cash for all Novelis stock and assume $2.4 billion of debt in a friendly deal that would make Hindalco the world's largest rolled-aluminum products maker, the companies said in a joint statement.
The board-approved takeover, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, is likely to be completed by June, Hindalco said.
The deal comes less than two weeks after India's Tata Steel beat a Brazilian company in a bidding war for Anglo-Dutch Corus Group PLC, paying $11.3 billion to create the world's fifth-largest steelmaker.
http://economie.moldova.org/stiri/eng/29957/
Jharkhand tightens security for Jindal steel officials
Police in Jharkhand have tightened the security around senior officials of Jindal Steel following intelligence reports that Maoist rebels could target the private company for extortion.
The intelligence report, sent to the police in state capital Ranchi and district police chiefs, states 'Maoists have set their target on Jindal steel to demand levy from the company.' It adds that the Maoist rebels could resort to abduction of senior company officials.
Jindal Steel has signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a 5 million-tonne steel plant in Jharkhand and recently hired a steel plant BASAL located in Pataratu, 45 km from Ranchi. Several top Jindal officials, including Naveen Jindal, visited the plant last month to assess the situation.
The intelligence report points out that Pataratu is a Maoist-infested area. Maoists resort to extortion levy from private companies and those who refuse to pay them face their wrath.
'We have alerted the district police in Pataratu to tighten the security of the Jindal officials when they visit the company. The Jindals should also inform the police about their movement,' an intelligence official told IANS.
The banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) had earlier issued directives to people not to give their land to investors in the state. The outfit also opposes investments and land acquisitions in the state.
http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070212/17152.htm
Bengal may rope in NIIT to train Singur jobless
KOLKATA: Amid the renewed land war in Singur, the West Bengal government plans to rope in NIIT to offer call centre and hardware training to 100-odd educated youth who have lost their land to the proposed Tata Motors small car project.
Confirming this, WBIDC executive director Nandini Chakroborty: "The state government is making an effort to provide an alternative livelihood to those who lost their land for the proposed project. The NIIT initiative is part of it." When contacted, Rajeev Katyal, senior VP, enterprise learning, NIIT, said: "There are multiple options being looked at, but the terms and conditions have not been frozen."
WBIDC is also in the process of identifying the next batch of 200 youth who will undertake industrial training. The training programme will be funded by WBIDC. In the first phase, the corporation had selected 179 people who have already completed their training.
Out of these 179, some have been selected by Tata Motors to be trained at its Jamshedpur plant. While the state is busy with numerous activities for providing alternative livelihood to land-losers of Singur, the first self-help group of women from Singur have started a canteen to supply food for site workers.
The women-run, self-help groups are getting financial assistance from WBIDC, the Hooghly District Central Co-operative Bank (Singur branch), the Hooghly district administration and Tata Motors.
The women have also contributed money towards the canteen project. The group of 25 women involved in the project have received training from the Institute of Catering Technology & Hotel Management, Kolkata.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Services/Education/Bengal
_may_rope_in_NIIT_to_train_Singur_jobless/articleshow/1593661.cms
Undermining education in Orissa's mining heartland
Sambalpur (Orissa), Feb 13 (IANS) Janhavi Bhoi, 25, is illiterate, but she knows how important education is for her kids. There is a 'school' up to Class 5 in her village in Orissa. In normal circumstances she would have been happy that her kids are going to a school not far from her home. But she sports a deeply worried look.
"My son goes to a school which is no better than a cowshed," laments Janhavi. "About 100 children of 10 classes are being forced inside a dingy one-room community centre building."
Janhavi's village, Matulu camp, had a nice school building till three years ago. It had five classrooms, adequately spacious for children. Things changed after the Hindalco aluminium company was leased out their village land as its captive coalmine. It was their second displacement in less than 50 years, reports Grassroots Features.
They were first forced to vacate their land and houses because of the Hirakud reservoir in the mid 1950's. As their village name suggests, this is a resettled habitation. The villagers who were just about settling in with new livelihood options were subjected to fresh involuntary resettlement.
This time, however, they did not have to shift far from their original habitation area. "That's the only solace. Things otherwise have worsened for us," rues Saudagar Rohidas.
The villagers now stare at permanent loss of livelihood. The 144 displaced families of Matulu Camp village, in Sambalpur district's Rengali block, mostly belong to dalit and tribal communities. Against a meagre compensation or none, the villagers have once again lost their sole sources of livelihood - the land and forests.
With the progress of the coalmines began the regress of education in the village. "The company acquired our lands and started mining the fields and forests for coal three years ago. But the primary school was still running. As the waste dump grew bigger and started spreading till the school, we feared mishaps and stopped sending children to schools," says Ramapati Gadtia, a villager.
They had a tough time in pleading for a 'safe' school building. "Since the last three years we are requesting government officials for a school building," complains Gadtia.
Only about six months ago, when "after consistent pleadings and agitations, in a meeting of the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee (RAC), it was decided that a school building will be built for the children", he adds.
"But nobody cares. Displaced people are always taken for a ride. It is no exception this time too," complains Rajkumar Munda. Though six months have passed since the RAC's decision, there are no signs of its implementation.
Like everything else, the school building too has become a mirage for the villagers. Adding insult to the injuries, the old school building is now occupied by security guards of the mining company.
"They (security guards) have made it their barrack," complains Ashok Dash, a social activist.
A building that should have housed plenty of pen-pencil holding kids now has gun totting security personnel. The administration conveniently chose the easier way out. They 'relocated' the school to the community hall, which was being used as the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) School.
In the chaos of about 100 students from class I to IV jostling for space in the tiny 'class room', voices of teacher Daitari Rout and headmaster Rudrani Padhi are hardly heard. Padhi says they had been shifted with an assurance that they would be provided with a new school building.
Says Janhavi: "Sometimes we plan to send our kids to the other nearest primary school, which is two km away in Khinda."
But parents are scared of doing so. "Heavy, speeding Volvo trucks ply through that road day and night. Life is far more precious than education," adds a concerned Janhavi.
In these circumstances, the fate of hundreds of children are sealed as education eludes them. An apathetic administration and absent infrastructure has forced children belonging to 10 classes of two schools to study in a 20/15 ft 'class room'. Mockingly children term their 'school' as "10 in one".
Urgrasen Mahananda, a marginal landholder now reduced to a daily wage labourer, feels the administration is hand-in-glove with the mining firm.
"The administration is conniving with the company to force our eviction from here through indirect measures like depriving our kids of good education," he complains.
Adds Dash: "Had the school been functioning from the original building, it would have been receiving grants from DPEP (District Primary Education Programme). As there is no school building, the village is not getting any grant."
"The company makes profit at our cost," alleges Satyanarayan Rohidas, who is yet to receive any compensation.
"My brothers missed out on education because we were forced to vacate for the Hirakud reservoir and our children are now no less unfortunate even when the government is making tall claims of giving education for all," says an illiterate Satyanarayan. "We may loose the fight this time too and like us our children will be missing education."
Warns Dash: "This is leading to a dangerous trend. Some parents have made the absence of a proper schooling environment as a prelude to engage their kids in domestic work."
Bhika Sahis, 55, was an infant when their family was evicted to make way for the Hirakud reservoir.
"We should be feeling proud that we are suffering for the cause of the nation. But we are again made to suffer and this time not for the nation but to fill the coffers of millionaires!" exclaims an angry Sahis.
In short, in villages like Matulu Camp, coal is gold and children's education can be dumped!
http://www.teluguportal.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=31828
Marriage of different kind in Orissa village
Jajpur: The sleepy village of Patapur under Sukinda Police station limits in the Jajpur district looked crowded on Sunday. No untoward incident had happened and no Minister, leader or VIP had come visiting the voters in wake of the ensuing three-tier panchayat elections. The reason: A marriage between a baby boy and a bitch.
In the rarest kind of incident, residents of tribal-dominated Patapur, 55 km from the district headquarter, partook in the marriage of a baby boy and a bitch with great enthusiasm.
According to the sources, Sunaram Gagarai and Suryasikha Gagarai of Patapur wanted to get their 14 months old son Ashirbad married.
With the help of his villager, they choose a bride - Samina, the pet dog of Siddhi Tiu and Saraswati Tiu of the same village.
The marriage was initiated through a negotiation between Gagarai and Tiu families. Like any other marriages, the wedding was finalised on Sunday.
Samina came in a decorated palanquin complete with 'kanya yatris' to the groom's house. There was a grand feast at the groom's place after which the marriage was solemnised by a tribal priest on a makeshift 'bedi', especially made for the wedding under a neem tree outside the groom's house.
As per the tribal belief, if eruption of incisors on the upper gum of a baby noticed, it is believed the baby will be killed by a tiger. So in order to save from the big cat's attack the baby gets married to a dog.
`This is an age-old tradition and we are following it as per tribal tradition and belief,' said Rajendra Kalundia, a tribal leader.
Friends and relatives of both the families were invited to the marriage. Then, Tiu family along with the friends and relatives sent the newly weds in a decorated vehicle with dowry articles to in-law's house as per tradition.
http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070212_Marrigae_of_a_different_kind
_in_Orissa_village.htm
Settling a cover for all
In a meeting held recently to take stock of the interlinking of rivers, an official from the ministry of water resources made a candid admission: The government did not have the total figure of those displaced by large dam projects in the country. The Centre has written to all the states asking for data but despite several reminders, some states are yet to respond
This ambiguity mirrors the prevalent attitudes towards displacement and rehabilitation. In this scenario, Narmada is a landmark in rehabilitation where the issue was debated and discussed at length and a reasonably humane policy was drafted. For the first time, the rights of the landless were acknowledged. The concept of land for land was recognised, even though the policy had a provision for cash compensation.
This was an improvement, considering those ousted by Bhakra and Pong were paid a pittance for their land. Now with the SEZ debate, there is an opportunity for the rehabilitation policy to move several steps forward.
The government has been unable to formulate a National Rehabilitation Policy so far. It has rejected all the drafts offered by various committees and ministries. In 1985, a committee under B.D. Sharma was created to frame a policy. In 1993, the rural development ministry came up with a draft policy that was never adopted.
In 1998, the ministry of rural development proposed a draft Land Acquisition Bill as well as the draft National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy. The NDA government announced a National Policy on R&R in February 2004. However, it saw rehabilitation as a welfare measure rather than the affected family's right. Since it was not legally enforceable, it was largely ignored by all infrastructure agencies.
Pushed by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the UPA government came out with another draft in October 2006. It has been fast-tracked by the prime minister following the protests over Singur. Though it is different from the version finalised by the NAC, it is the best attempted so far. The government has also announced its intention to make it legally enforceable.
Some of the highlights of the policy:
• Social impact assessment has been made mandatory even in projects where environmental assessment is not required
• Social assessment and preparation of R&R plan for all projects involving displacement of more than 400 families (as against 500 in NPRR 2003) in plain areas and 200 families (as against 250 in NPRR 2003) in hilly/scheduled areas.
• Involvement of gram sabhas in discussing R&R plan specially in tribal areas
• Disbursement of full compensation and adequate resettlement prior to displacement
• Employment to those losing jobs due to project
• Fishing rights extended to all the families displaced by irrigation projects
• Benefits to project affected people in the form of shares in projects of corporate organisations/companies where applicable
• Preparation of a tribal development plan if more than 200 tribal families are displaced
• Additional benefits to Scheduled Caste affected families at par with tribal displaced families
Meanwhile, in the absence of a national policy, some states and agencies formulated their own rehabilitation policies. In most cases, they were forced to adopt one as international funding agencies required it as a pre-condition to funding infrastructure projects.
Coal India Limited formulated its policy on R&R in 1994 for a World Bank-funded project called the Coal Sector Environment and Social Mitigation Project. Coal India amended it in 2000 and adopted it as corporate policy. National Highways has its own policy. National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) finalised its own in June 2005. National Hydro Power Corporation is preparing its policy.
A national policy is required to set the bottomline. But the present draft that the ministry of rural development is working overtime to finalise falls short on the definition of the project-affected family.
In Singur, the protests have been led by people who did not fall in the category of "affected people'' and did not even get what the Tatas offered as compensation to the other land-holders. Any ambiguity in this definition will mean that for any project, a large percentage of people would be left out, defeating the entire purpose.
The draft policy excludes all affected families with unclear and no regular title (majority of whom are ST, SC, landless and other vulnerable sections of the population) from any assistance in resettlement and rehabilitation. Experts suggest that for identifying such families, the date of survey should be considered as the cut-off date for non-titleholders. The present definition also excludes persons who are partially affected but not physically displaced.
Experts are working on making these policies more nuanced in order to cover the entire range of affected people. Instead of offering a blanket package to all affected people, R&R provisions should compensate the type and extent of loss. Levels of compensation can be tailored to suit the extent of impact.
The real test of the efficacy of the policy would be whether it covers every affected person in some measure. Whether it does that fully and adequately, will be the next challenge.
http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/22112.html
Philanthropy brought him back from UK
KISHANGANJ: A British citizen, Dr Faizur Rahman, lived for over forty years in England and still continues to maintain links with his second abode where his off springs are now settled.
But the scent of the home soil, the mud walls and open courtyards of the natives and quintessential flavour of the Surjapuri culture attracted him so much that after his retirement from medical service in 1991, and demise of his wife, Dr Hamida Begum, who incidentally was Bihar's first Muslim woman gynaecologist in Birmingham (England), he longed to sail back home.
He set up a 60-bed well-equipped hospital at his native but obscure village Mahadeodighi some 35 km from Kishanganj to perpetuate the memory of his deceased life-partner.
"But, I also deeply yearned to cater to the needs of the local poor people who lacked health care," he tells TOI. The then governor of Bihar, A R Kidwai, was scheduled to formally inaugurate the hospital but when he for some urgent reasons could not make it, the then Union minister of state Rafique Alam did the same.
Faizur Rahman, who was born on January 24, 1924, after qualifying for the MBBS degree from PMCH, Patna, in late 1940s, left for England in 1956 and carved a niche for himself as a psychiatrist and cardiologist. He continues to retain his British citizenship and voting rights. He is as comfortable in England as he is in India.
The NRI does not feel there is anything racist about the possible exodus of Indian doctors from England. "They are respected, cared and well appreciated," he says. "Also, Indian doctors have performed well consistently there," he says with a glint in his eyes as he interacts with this correspondent in his two-storeyed building in his native village and warms up before a ramshackle fireplace.
Rahman's only son -- Iqbal Rahman -- is an engineer and one of two daughters is the director of family planning in Middleland, England, the other being a social worker.
As for his compatriots and co-villagers, Rahman feels there have been some qualitative changes in their lifestyle and outlook. "More and more people are now migrating to far off places in quest of jobs and livelihood. And, diseases like Malaria and Typhoid which took heavy toll in the past are now in control. There is more of mobility now," Rahman said wearing a blue jacket, kurta and pyjama as he goes down memory lane.
Rahman says he may tie up his hospital with the Kishanganj-based MGM Medical College & Hospital which also needs a rural health sub-centre.
The son of the soil was publicly honoured for his philanthropic services by the Kishanganj district magistrate at this year's Republic Day celebrations.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Philanthropy_brought_him_back_
from_UK/articleshow/1600016.cms
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