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India PM warns of inflation but reassures on rupee
India PM warns of inflation but reassures on rupee (AFP) / 30 August 2013 India’s premier warned the nation on Friday to brace for higher prices because of the rupee’s plunge to record lows, but he forecast the economy would pick up in the second half of the year. Manmohan Singh, addressing parliament for the first time since the rupee went into a tailspin this month, called the currency’s worst slide against the dollar in nearly two decades “worrying” and a “concern”. But he said actions by his left-leaning Congress-led government to reduce “the unsustainably large” current account deficit, which has undermined the currency, would bear fruit. “We are no doubt faced with important challenges but we have the capacity to address them — it is at times like these that a nation shows what is truly capable of,” he told lawmakers. He warned Indians that the weak rupee “will no doubt lead to some further upward pressure on prices” because of the rise in import prices, especially of fuel. Singh, a reknowned economist hailed for lighting the fuse for India’s fast growth in the 1990s as finance minister, has been under fire as premier with his government hit by a string of corruption scandals that have sapped foreign investor confidence. He skirted opposition charges that the rupee’s woes were due to the government mismanagement and blamed the fall on tensions over Syria and a pick up in the US economy that is expected to lead to an end to the Federal Reserve’s stimulus. Seeking to put a positive spin on the volatile exchange rate, he suggested that the currency’s decline could prove a blessing as it would make India’s exports cheaper and help revive economic growth. Growth data for the first financial quarter to June, due later Friday, would be broadly unchanged from the previous quarter’s 4.8 percent, he said, but the economy would accelerate in the second half. “Growth will pick up in the second half barring extreme unforeseen eventualities,” he said, adding the strong annual monsoon would boost harvests and help reduce food inflation. “The stabilisation process which should support the value of the rupee is underway… the currency markets will recover,” he added. Foreign exchange markets have a “notorious history of overshooting, this is what is happening in relation to the rupee,” he said, adding, it is important to recognise that “the fundamentals of the Indian economy continue to be strong.” After his speech, the rupee was trading at 66.64 to the dollar; down from its day’s low of 67.80 rupees and still comfortably stronger than the record near 69 rupees it touched on Wednesday. Continue reading
Dubai’s liveability score rises
Dubai’s liveability score rises Ahmed Shaaban / 30 August 2013 While cities around the globe compete in providing the best living conditions, Dubai came third among the top ten in terms of improved liveability scores over the last five years. Ranking 77 out of 140 cities worldwide, the overall rating of the emirate touched 74.2 on a scale of 100, according to the latest findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. Expecting a brighter future for Dubai, Roua Ramadan, a pharmacist from Egypt, said this was normal for the every developing emirate. “Since I have arrived here in Dubai in 2005, I can closely see exceptional and fast developments in every nook and corner.” Echoing the same, Wafaa Mohammed, a teacher, also from Egypt, said it had always been a dream for her to live and work in Dubai to enjoy a more stable, safe, and secure society with better and varied services. “Believe me, most of the services I and my family members enjoy here are not available in my home country.” Sharief Al Wakeel, a Syrian accountant, said protests made the world less liveable, and people felt more unsafe. “Wish the whole world would be an oasis for safety, security, welfare and prosperity as is the case in Dubai.” “The prudent leadership of the UAE in general, and Dubai in particular, has created a leader in each and every Emirati national who has become more loyal and loving to his/her country, and take the responsibility in protecting and keeping up such progress,” said Wael Safwat, a businessman from Morocco. The rating, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, quantifies the possible challenges to an individual’s lifestyle in 140 cities worldwide. Each is assigned a score for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: Stability, Healthcare, Culture and Environment, Education, and Infrastructure. Each factor in each city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is based on the judgment of in-house analysts and in-city contributors. The relative performance of a number of external data points is associated with quantitative indicators. Melbourne is ranked the most liveable city for the third year running in the year-on-year survey, followed by Vienna and Vancouver. Jon Copestake, editor of the survey, said the past five years had seen global liveability slip by 0.6 per cent, led by a 1.3 per cent fall in the score for stability and safety. “The Arab Spring has been most influential in pushing down global liveability, but unrest in Europe and China have also contributed whereas the ongoing civil war in Syria has made Damascus the least liveable city in the ranking.” While the threat of terror had a defining influence on liveability in the last decade, we could clearly see that civil unrest already had a significant impact on liveability in this decade, he added. ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
New parent-school contract will be free
New parent-school contract will be free Muaz Shabandri / 30 August 2013 Parents will not have to pay extra for signing a new parent-school contract which is being introduced at six private schools in Dubai as part of a pilot project from September onwards. Every student in Dubai will soon be a part of this mandatory contract which defines the rights and responsibilities of a school and a student. “Initially, the initiative will start with a trial period involving six schools. If this is successful, it will be rolled out across all schools in Dubai,” said Abdulrahman Nassir, Chief of Customer Relations at KHDA, in an interview with Khaleej Times. The contract is being introduced to reduce the number of grievances and complaints addressed by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), a regulatory body which governs private education in the emirate of Dubai. Schools in Dubai have earned a reputation for being highly ‘business oriented’ with most schools announcing fee increases regularly, in line with the KHDA rules. The contract between schools and parents will help build transparency as the regulator expects the number of complaints between schools and parents to reduce. “One reason for disputes has been the lack of clarity between the two parties. We hope to decrease the number of grievances following the introduction of contracts. Parents benefit in the same way as schools by having their rights and responsibilities drawn up from the start. For example, fees and extra charges will be agreed upon in the contracts, to ensure there are no disputes over hidden costs for parents further down the line,” added Nassir. Experts at KHDA have worked upon the contract to include feedback from students, teachers and school operators. “It’s an original contract and was based on KHDA’s research which included external international benchmarking, focus groups and meetings with both schools and parents. The contracts are renewable and will be signed annually,” Nassir said. The six schools participating in the pilot phase of the initiative include, Dubai Modern Education School, Al Ittihad Private School (Al Mamzar), Al Ittihad Private School (Jumeriah), School of Modern Skills, Greenwood International School and American Academy in Al Mizhar, involving a total of 9632 students. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
