Sunday, March 30, 2008

CAG indicts WBIDC for excess expenditure on Singur land

Kolkata, Mar 27 The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has indicted West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for excess expenditure of Rs 2.99 crore on land acquisition for the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur where land acquisition for the project had sparked violent protests.The WBIDC incurred an excess expenditure towards payment of avoidable interest of Rs 1.44 crore and delayed 'consent awards' of Rs 1.55 crore, the CAG report for the year ended March 31, said.Further, it subsidised Tata Motors Limited by Rs 76.11 crore on leasing of 645.67 acres of land at Singur for 90 years, the report said. The CAG report said that of the total 1,006.45 acres acquired by the WBIDC, 70.78 acres were waterbodies and land meant for internal roads, sub-stations etc. With balance 935.67 acres available for leasing out. Till July, 2007, the company had leased out 645.67 acres to Tata Motors Limited and 190.44 acres to its 30 vendors.''It was noticed (April 2007) that the company suffered a loss of Rs 79.10 crore due to injudicious borrowing, irregular payment of 'Consent Awards' to land owners beyond statutory provisions and subsidising the lease of land to Tata Motors Limited,'' it said.The WBIDC, it said, leased (March 2007) 645.67 acres valuing Rs 96.72 crore to Tata Motors for 90 years against annual lease rent of Rs one crore from the first to fifth year and rising over the years to reach Rs 20 crore from the 61st to the 90th year.As per the government directive (February 2006) for long-term leases for 99 years, the lessee should pay 95 per cent of the market value of the land at one-time premium on commencement of the lease and pay annual rent at the rate of 0.3 per cent of the market value of the land.''Accordingly, on the lease of 645.67 acres to the Tata Motors Limited, the Company should have realised premium of Rs 91.88 crore and lease rent of Rs 29 lakh annually''. PTI

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Salty tears show hopeless situation in TN

N Ravikumar

CHENNAI, March 23: A large number of people involved in salt production are vulnerable, marginalised and survive in an extremely harsh working and living conditions, a situation analysis by the United Nations Development Programme has revealed.The report of the UNDP study on the socio-economic conditions of salt workers in Tamil Nadu said: “The annual income per household is in the range of Rs 10,000 with both husband and wife working. The ground realities reflect a high level of human and labour rights violation of the marginalised sections of the salt industry. Especially, the conditions of the women and children are serious areas of concern.”The approximate number of salt workers in Tamil Nadu was in the range of 60,000 people, the report said. Out of this, around 40,000 people worked directly in salt pans and the rest were involved in loading, packaging and transport of salt, it said.“The most marginalised and vulnerable segments in the salt value chain is salt workers engaged as labourers in salt pans and salt producers making salt in areas less than one acre of land, obtained through lease or sub-lease,” it noted.Another aspect revealed in the study was that most of them were from the socially disadvantaged groups like scheduled castes. The report also noted the salt work is seasonal, with limited off-season livelihood.“Indebtedness is very high. Credit system is taken from informal sources with high interest rates around 60 per cent per annum, in many cases,” it said.Child labour is reported, at a few locations, in the packaging and transportation of salt, the report said. Difference in wages paid to women and men for similar works was also found by the study. Access to formal education of children who accompanied their parents to the salt pans was limited.“The dwelling places of salt workers usually have poor access to sanitation and drinking water. Most workers have problems related to eye sight due to reflections of sunlight from the salt crystals.”“There are also many reported cases of skin diseases and urinary tract infections. In women gynaecological problems are common. Abortion is reported in many cases due to tremendous heat and continuously standing in salt water.”It also noted the salt industry was disaster-prone and experienced frequent threats of cyclones and high tidal waves. Even during tsunami rehabilitation work, most of the relief was availed by lease holders and large producers and very little or no benefit reached the workers, the report added.While these workers toil under the scorching sunlight to add salt and make our food delicious, salty tears fill their eyes everyday, without any hope of a better tomorrow.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Gold mining to attract huge FDI

Press Trust of India
MUMBAI, March 23: India is expected to attract foreign direct investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore per annum in mining exploration of gold and diamond in the country, a top minister has said. The new mining policy National Mineral Policy 2008 is expected to go through in Parliament session next month, Union minister of state for mines Mr Subbarami Reddy said. Nearly 14 companies from Australia, Canada and South Africa had shown keen interest in bringing their technical expertise required for identifying the potential of a mining block, Mr Reddy said, adding that the government officials would be visiting these countries to explore the possibilities of more investment.
Under the new policy, entrepreneurs who invest heavy risk capital will automatically get the mining lease. This will enable and protect their capital because to achieve the exploration of minerals we need heavy money.
The policy was approved by the Union Cabinet last week after a delay of nearly two years, and aims to attract FDI to the tune of $250 million annually in the mining sector in the next five years.
India has a mineral area of 18.5 lakh sq km, but lacks the technology and capital to exploit them. But once the new policy comes into effect, global entrepreneurs would flock India with technology and capital, Mr. Reddy said.
India produces 89 minerals, out of which 11 are metallic and 52 non-metallic. The country is estimated to have 2.92 billion ton of bauxite, or 10 per cent of the world's reserves, and 276 billion ton of coal. It also has 14,000 ton of gold reserves, but the country only produces three ton of total annual demand of 800 ton. The demand for gold in India is expected to go up to 1,200 ton per annum, Mr Reddy said.
An amendment to make the required changes in the existing Mining Act will be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament. The new policy will shorten the time it takes for new mining leases to be granted by state and federal governments to about six months to a year. At the moment it is often a long and tortuous process.
Under the new guidelines, foreign and domestic firms should find it easier to invest in the exploration and mining of gold, diamonds and metals like copper and zinc, and prospecting companies will automatically obtain a mining licence.
On the royalty issue, the minister said that after the policy announcement, states would get more royalty, which would be decided on the basis of the selling price as against the present tonnage basis.
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Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Ugly Face of TATA



For more information, contact: bhopalcampaign@gmail.com.
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
http://www.bhopal.net/ and http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/

Introduction

The Tata Group, a family-owned Indian multinational with 2005 revenues of Rs. 76,500 crores ($17.8 billion), has an unjustifiably good reputation. The corporation’s flagship company Tata Steel made its riches through large-scale takeover of tribal lands in Jharkhand and Orissa and opportunistic business deals with the British colonial powers and the East India Company.

Until the onset of liberalisation, Tatas remained the undisputed king of the license-raj, covering its trail of human rights, labour and environmental violations with liberal philanthropic give-aways. As the realities of operating in a globalised environment began sinking in within Tatas, more and more people, including its loyal employees, are beginning to understand that talks of nation-building and corporate social responsibility aside, Tata companies have no obligation to anybody but their own shareholders.

As the rapsheet below will corroborate, the corporate house’s reputation is a result of Tata’s successful public relations strategy rather than a reflection of reality.

Serving the Empire

Drug Running: Tata archives that talk in glowing terms about Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata fail to record the family’s involvement in shipping opium to China in the mid- to late 1800s. The opium was grown in India and shipped to China by agents such as Tata for the British.

Empress Mills: Tata’s first industrial venture, a textile mill in Central India’s cotton-growing region, was opened on 1 January, 1877 – the day Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. The event was commemorated by naming the company Empress Mills.

Fueling British Expansionism: Commissioned in 1908, the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur cut its teeth supplying the British empire with steel rails that were crucial in Britain’s war effort in Northern and East Africa during the 1st World War. When the war was over, Viceroy Lord Chelmsford said: “I can hardly imagine what we should have done if the Tata Company had not been able to give us steel rails which have provided not only for Mesopotamia, but for Egypt, Palestine and East Africa.”

Supplying the British Army: The American civil war ended in 1865, re-opening raw cotton supplies from the Southern states of the US for England’s textile mills. That sent India’s cotton suppliers on a tailspin. Many didn’t recover, but the Tata family managed to stay afloat by securing a lucrative contract to supply food and clothing to the British Army’s Magdala campaign in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1868.

Helping Killer Carbide: In December 1984, when the Government of India arrested Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson for his role in causing the Bhopal gas disaster, Mr. J.R.D. Tata was one of the few Indians to condemn the arrest. Decisions made by Anderson to save costs by eliminating safety systems and approving untested technology at the Bhopal factory were directly responsible for the disaster. Incidentally, significant sections of the Bhopal factory’s sewage and utilities were constructed by Tata Consulting Engineers.

In November 2006, Ratan Tata offered to bail out Union Carbide, and facilitate investments by Carbide’s new owner Dow Chemical, by leading a charitable effort to clean-up the toxic wastes abandoned by Carbide in Bhopal. At a time when the Government of India has held Dow Chemical liable for the clean-up and requested Rs. 100 crores from the American MNC, Tata’s offer of charity is aimed at frustrating legal efforts to hold the company liable. Also, admittedly, the offer is motivated by a desire to facilitate Dow’s investments in India. The company has restrained itself from major investments in India out of fear that the campaign for justice by Bhopal victims will derail plans and increase risks of any Dow venture in India.

Bypassing Democracy

Dictating Indian Policy: In 2005, prompted by the corporate-friendly overtures of the Manmohan Singh Government and the Bush administration, business houses in the US and India set up the US-India CEO Forum comprising a select coterie of US and Indian CEOs. The forum has “a mandate to develop a road map for increased partnership and cooperation between the two countries at a business level.” Co-chaired by Ratan Tata, the Forum has made several recommendations to craft new laws, change existing laws and establish policy to make India more investor-friendly. The Forum is pushing for weaker labour laws, facilitation of Special Economic Zones, increased focus on post-graduate education, relaxing liability laws and expediting resolution of disputes especially following events such as the Bhopal disaster. The high-level consent that the Forum has from Indian and US Governments makes it a force parallel to the Indian parliament in law-making.

Holding on to Corporatocracy: Tatas own and operate the only private city in India. The steel city of Jamshedpur, which was founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1904, is one of few Indian cities that does not have a municipality or any local elected Government. Tata Steel-owned Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company administers the entire town with population of nearly 600,000. The 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India devolves powers to locally elected urban bodies such as municipalities, and requires that all states enact laws to hold regular elections to such local bodies. Converting the Tata-controlled town to a democratically controlled municipality met with stiff resistance from Tata Steel who seemed to suggest that a benevolent rule, such as Tata Steel, was more desirable than a democratic set-up. Defending corporate rule over democracy, Tata Steel’s managing director B. Muthuraman is reported as saying “While you have one successful model which has been there for a hundred years, would you like to bring in some other model which however lofty may not yet have been tried.”[1]

Business with Military Junta: The Myanmar military government which is shunned by the world for its blatant human rights violations has found a friend in India. At a time when several multinationals like PepsiCo have pulled out of Myanmar in a bid to pressure the military government to give way to democratic forces, Tata Motors is striking deals to supply the oppressive regime with hardware and automobiles. The Myanmar military junta is accused of widespread rape and pillage, and the use of forced labour to construct infrastructure for the exploitation of Myanmar’s rich natural resources. For more than two decades, tribal groups have fought a hard and violent battle against the military junta for autonomy. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since 1989.[2]

Desecrating Tribal Lands

Parched Earth Tactics: Tatas’ steel town came up in close proximity to thickly forested lands that had the misfortune of carrying some of the richest iron ore deposits. Tribal people then and now seldom have paper titles to their lands. The company initially acquired 3564 acres of land comprising villages at the cost of Rs. 46,332.[3] When the lands were handed over to Tatas for mining in Noamundi and for the Jamshedpur township by the British-controlled Government of India, the tribals were evicted.

In 1907, after Tatas had taken over the Noamundi area for mining iron, local adivasis refused to work the mines. In a bid to tame them, Tatas reportedly mowed down the Kusumgaj (Kosam) trees. These trees were the lifeline for the adivasis who collected lac from the lacworms that nest on these trees. In desperation and with no other recourse for a livelihood, more and more adivasis started digging iron ore for Tatas.[4]

In 2000, Tata Steel allegedly bulldozed a spring that was the only source of water for the indigenous people of Agaria Tola – a 22-household hamlet on the periphery of Tata’s coal mines. Besides yielding water, the spring was the centre of social interaction for the nearby villagers.[5]

Chrome Poisoning: The Down to Earth magazine reports that the Comptroller Auditor General of the Government of India singled out the chromite mines in Sukhinda Valley as a highly polluted area. Tatas are one of the largest mining companies in the valley. The Domsala River and 30 streams that run through this valley are contaminated with dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium leaching from overburden dumps. Hexavalent chromium causes irritation of the respiratory tract, nasal septum ulcers, irritant dermatitis rhinitis, bronchospasm and pneumonia.[6]

One study funded by the Norwegian Government under the Orissa Environment Program found that almost 25 percent of people living less than 1 km from the sites suffered pollution-induced diseases.

Luxury Resort in Tiger Country: In the mid-1990s, the Tata-owned Taj Group of Hotels leased a piece of land in the middle of the Nagarahole National Park and Tiger Reserve in Karnataka to build the Gateway Tusker Lodge. Proposed as a jungle camp, the plans for the Lodge resembled those of a 5-star resort complete with tourist facilities, diesel generators, and conference rooms. No clearance was sought from the Ministry of Environment, despite the fact that any activity inside a National Park is very stringently regulated. Massive tribal opposition to the project and a legal challenge eventually forced the Tatas to withdraw from the Tiger’s hunting grounds.

Violent Confrontation

Gua Massacre: State violence against tribal people is commonplace, particularly in the mining districts of Eastern India. According to an eyewitness, on 7 September, 1980, villagers whose lands were taken over to accommodate a Tata aerodrome in Noamundi went to the aerodrome to confront then Tata Steel chairman Russi Mody and present him a memo. On seeing the crowd, Mody’s aircraft returned to Jamshedpur without landing. All this happened at a time when long-oppressed tribals were asserting their rights, and the struggle for a tribal state was at its peak in the Jharkhand region of Bihar. Tatas and other vested interests are said to have pressed the State Government to take stringent action against tribal activists. The 8 September firing against innocent tribals in the Gua marketsquare, and the subsequent killing of 8 unarmed tribals inside a hospital was the “strict action” that was taken to quell tribal discontent.

Kalinganagar Massacre: On January 2, 2006, a police battalion armed to the teeth opened fire into a crowd of tribal villagers in Kalinganagar, Orissa. The tribal people were protesting the illegal construction of a compound wall by Tata Steel on lands historically owned by them. The local people had made it clear that Tata Steel was not welcome. Just days before the massacre, Tata Steel had three meetings with the chief minister of Orissa. Five corpses returned after post-mortem were mutilated; one dead woman’s breast was ripped off, and a young boy (also killed in the firing) had his genitals mutilated. All had their palms chopped off. Tata has said the incident was unfortunate, and that it will continue with plans to set up a steel plant at the location despite the opposition.

Singur Oppression: In 2006, Tatas obtained a bonanza. More than 900 acres of fertile agricultural lands in Singur, near Kolkata, was handed over to Tata Motors by the West Bengal Government for a project that will churn out Rs. 100,000 ($2000) cars. Farmers, many of whose lands were forcibly acquired, opposed the handover of their lands to Tata. Goaded by Tatas, the West Bengal Government has come down heavily on the Singur farmers and their supporters, converting this once-peaceful village into a war-zone with round-the-clock presence of armed police providing protection to Tata Motors site and workers.

Toxic Dumping

Saline wastes: In September 2003, an effluent spill from Tata Chemicals’ soda ash factory in Mithapur, Gujarat, spread over more than 150 acres of the sea in the Gulf of Kutch Marine National Park.[7] The National Park covers one of the most biodiverse regions – mangroves, corals, mudskippers, whale sharks -- in the coast of India. About 10 km� of the marine protected area has been considerably degraded due to the settlement of solids associated with the effluent of the industry, according to the National Institute of Oceanography.[8] The salt pans in the Mithapur area are also named as the cause for the rapid salinity ingress into the groundwater. Several villages have lost their farmlands to accommodate open unlined dumps for Tata’s saline effluent.

Hell on Earth: Patancheru, a chemical industrial estate near Hyderabad, is referred to as Hell on Earth owing to the unlivable environmental conditions in that area because of industrial pollution. Rallis India, a Tata subsidiary manufacturing pesticides here, was singled out by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes which identified the company’s toxic waste dump to be a toxic contamination source of concern. The company’s wastes are stored in massive solar evaporation ponds that stinks up the air with poisonous chemicals, villagers say.

Mountains of Waste, Jugsalai: Thousands of tonnes of boiler ash generated from Tata Steel units are dumped in the open in the middle of Jugsalai town near Jamshedpur. During the dry months, the heavy metal laced dust from the mountain of ash flies in the air causing visibility problems and breathing distress. Groundwater in the area is polluted, as per Tata Steel’s own admission, and contains higher than permissible levels of hardness and dissolved solids.

Joda Mines: Begun in the 1950s, the mining boomtown that houses Tata, Birla and Jindal iron ore mines, has fuelled the riches of several corporates but has gained nothing in the process. Joda town and the road to it, according to one journalist, is one big pothole. The constantly plying ore trucks, and the round-the-clock mining has meant that local residents, workers and commuters have no fresh air to breathe. It is a wonder that these dustiest of dusty mines are located at the edge of the Sidhamatha Reserve Forests, home to the elephant and tiger.

Coal Slurry Dumping: Tata Steel’s collieries in West Bokaro and its coal washeries in Bokaro have been discharging a coal-dust-rich slurry into the Bokaro River, effectively killing the river by smothering the river bed. The process also uses large quantities of freshwater and discharges it along with the coal-dust as effluents.

Hazardous Incidents

Founder’s Day Fire: On March 3, 1989, a fire broke out in the VIP gallery during the Founder’s Day celebrations. [9] Sixty children were killed and 111 injured in the fire that was caused by negligence and poor planning that prevented fire tenders from arriving at the scene of the accident in time. The problem was further exacerbated when Tatas refused to move the injured and dying to a burns speciality hospital in a bid to cover up the event. A Factories Inspectorate report lays the blame squarely on Tata Steel. More than 10 years after the tragic event, Tatas had still not paid compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased or to the injured. Even the Supreme Court alluded to pay-offs by TISCO, asking TISCO how much it was paying the Court-appointed arbitrator.

Anti-labour Antecedents

In the 1920s and 1930s, when it was still called Tata Iron and Steel Company, TISCO’s largely tribal workers fought pitched battles with the European and Parsi management. Work conditions and the right to organise were important rallying issues, and over the years, the company developed a reputation for union-busting often by violent means.[10]

Worker Suicides: After Ratan Tata took over in 1991, the Tata Group companies have witnessed aggressive streamlining and down-sizing. In 2003, two contract workers who were part of the Tata Hydrocompanies Employees Union doused themselves with kerosene and set themselves on fire outside the Tata headquarters. Along with 68 other workers from the Tata Power Company, the two suicidal workers were protesting the illegal termination of their contract in 1997 by Tata.[11]

As land prices skyrocketed in Mumbai in the 1980s, textile mills sitting on prime real estate in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) began starving as mill managements failed to invest in modernisation and upkeep. Mill-owners preferred to run their establishment into the ground in the hopes that lucrative land deals would allow them to shut down the mills and make money in the process. Tatas, which ran Svadeshi Mills -- one of the oldest textile mills in Mumbai – had earlier obtained permission to sell a fourth of its landholding, and hand-over half the land for a recreation ground, a public housing scheme and a public sector factory to employ retrenched labourers from the textile mill. While a fourth of the land was sold, the latter did not happen. Workers allege that whatever was sold was undervalued to allow the company to siphon funds meant for mill revival or rehabilitation of workers to other group businesses.[12] Driven to desperation, at least one Svadeshi mill worker committed suicide after the August 2000 closure of the mill forced 2800 factory-floor workers into destitution.

Sub-contracting: Fostering Insecurity: According to highly placed sources within the Tata company, Tatas have resorted to large-scale deployment of contract labour in a bid to cut costs. In contravention of the Contract Labour and Regulation Act, contract workers are engaged in prohibited activities, including those that can only be performed by trained permanent staff, and works of perennial nature. Workers allege that the company discriminates between its employees and contract workers. At Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, for instance, company employees eat better food in superior ambience than contract workers. Wage differences are also wide although the nature of work performed by contract workers is no different from that of company employees. Contract workers also work longer hours on harder jobs. Lack of skill and work pressure has meant that contract employees meet with more accidents.

Lay-offs: Contrary to Tata’s much-touted credentials of providing employment security, the corporate house’s massive downsizing at its flagship Tata Steel provides a case in point. Tata’s workforce stood at 78,000 in 1994. By 1997, it was down to 65,000. By 2002, another 15,000 jobs were eliminated, and the total workforce in 2006 stands at 38,000, slightly more than half of what it started out with at the onset of liberalisation. Of this, more than 25,000 people received voluntary retirement benefits. However, many allege that the scheme was not all that voluntary. Able-bodied workers were rendered jobless as they succumbed to intense emotional pressure. Reports allege that teachers were asked to sweep roads if they did not take up “voluntary retirement.”

Union busting: In 1989, workers belonging to the trade union Telco Kamgar Sanghatana at Telco’s plant in Pune struck work demanding wage hikes. Tata management attempted to break the strike by offering a wage hike to rival unions and warning every employee of dire consequences if labour unrest continued. In September 1989, about 3000 workers went on an indefinite hunger strike. As the strike progressed with workers fainting and no signs of a rapprochement, the State Government came under intense pressure from Tatas and other capitalists. On September 29, under cover of darkness the State Reserve & Pune City Police launched Operation Crackdown. 80 buses were deployed to round up and take fasting workers to jail. Tata had managed to break the strike with the help of the police.[13]

In the past, at least two prominent Tata trade unionists – Abdul Bari and V.G. Gopal – were gunned down by rival unionists as they were setting off for negotiations with the management. In both instances, Tata workers and independent observers allege the behind-the-scenes involvement of Tata management.

Tata Bye-Bye

Tata’s unpopularity is evident from the fact that local people in various places around India have successfully thwarted the company’s attempts to set up businesses on their lands. The ongoing struggle in Singur, the stand-off in Kalinganagar are merely the most recent and prominent.

About a decade ago, protests by tribal residents in Orissa forced Tatas to pull out of a venture to mine bauxite from the sacred Baphlimali hills in Rayagada district. In 2000, three tribal youth were shot dead by the police during a peaceful demonstration near the proposed mine site.[14]

In 2000, Tatas were forced to abandon a proposal to set up a steel plant in Gopalpur-on-Sea, a coastal town in Orissa following massive protests from the more than 20,000 people that were to be evicted to make way for the plant. This project too ended only after blood was shed. In August 1997, the police opened fire at a protest rally in Sindhigaon, where two women were crushed to death in the ensuing pandemonium.

In the late 1990s, Tatas shelved a proposal to convert large portions of Lake Chilika – a massive brackish water lake of international prominence – into an aquaculture farm after protests by the 120,000-strong fishing community that depended on the lake for a livelihood.
[1] http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1064785
[2] “Myanmar Ties.” The Telegraph. December 8, 2006. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061208/asp/nation/story_7112778.asp
[3] Mundu, Bineet. “Indigenous peoples, the extractive industries and the World Bank: The case of East Parej Coal Mines Open Cast Project in Jharkhand, India.” India Case Study presented at the workshop on the Extractive Industries Review Process of the World Bank. Forest Peoples Program, UK, Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines. Exeter College, UK. 14-15 April, 2003. http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/prv_sector/eir/eir_internat_wshop_india_case_eng_apr03.pdf
[4] Open Space Forum. Seby’s Reflections. http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-view_blog.php?blogId=17
[5] “Women & Water.” A report by Research Foundation for Science, Technology & Ecology, for the National Commission For Women. January, 2005. http://www.navdanya.org/publications/women-water.pdf
[6] “Valley of Despair.” Down to Earth. July 31, 2002.
[7] “Tata Chem Mithapur plant Gets GPCB Nod.” Business Standard. November 5, 2003. http://www.tata.com/tata_chemicals/media/20031105.htm
[8] “Prevention is Better Than Cure: Assessing the Pollution Limits of our Environment.” National Institute of Oceanography. http://www.nio.org/WaterFront/Pollution/PollutionLimits.jsp
[9] “TISCO claims hang fire.” The Tribune Online Edition. September 29, 2000. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000929/biz.htm#3 (Downloaded 18 Feb, 2007)
[10] “The Politics of the Labour Movement: An Essay on Differential Aspirations.” Dilip Simeon. Indian Labour Archives. No Date. http://www.indialabourarchives.org/publications/dilip_simeon.htm
[11] “Tata Power Ex-workers Protest Ouster of 70 Employees.” The Hindu BusinessLine. June 12, 2004. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/06/12/stories/2004061202730600.htm
[12] Praveen Swami. “A Raw Deal and Desperation.” Frontline. Vol.18. Issue 8. April 14-17, 2001.
[13] “Ratan Tata: Facts and Information.” http://www.collectibleboats.com/Ratan_Tata
[14] See “Norsk Hydro: Global Compact Violator.” www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=620

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Inflation soars to 5.92 per cent

Statesman News Service NEW DELHI, March 20:
With an across the board rise in prices, inflation surged to an over 11-month high of 5.92 per cent for the week ended 8 March as against 5.11 per cent the previous week.Though the inflation rate, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI) was well below last year’s level of 6.51 per cent, it was still above the five per cent limit set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for this fiscal. Economists have expressed concern as the rising inflation is coupled with a slowdown in the manufacturing sector as well as the halving of growth in six core infrastructure sectors. With inflation under control over the past few months, it was hoped the RBI would soften its monetary stance and perhaps bring down interest rates. The current spurt has put paid to this. While some analysts have blamed costlier essential articles for the rising inflation over the past several weeks, the government has pegged it at capital goods and global prices of oil and commodities.The government had also announced a ban on export of all edible oils with effect from 17 March for one year to curb their rising prices. The index for Primary Articles rose by 0.3 per cent to 229.8 points from 229 points the previous week. Under this, the index for Food Articles group rose by 0.3 per cent to 225.4 points from 224.7 the previous week. The index for Non-Food Articles group rose by 0.5 per cent to 224.9 points from 223.7 points the previous week. The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group saw its index rise by 0.1 per cent from 337.5 points to 337.1 the previous week. This was mainly on account of costlier furnace oil. The heavyweight Manufactured Products group, with a weightage of 63.75 per cent, saw its index rise by a whopping 1.3 per cent to 193.2 points from 190.7 the previous week. Under this, the index for Food Products group rose by 0.6 per cent to 199.2 points from 198 the previous week. The index for Textiles group, however, declined marginally by 0.1 per cent to 128.2 points from 128.3 the previous week.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Condemn State Repression in Tibet.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Teens at Work

Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart's Mexican stores. The retail giant isn't breaking any laws—but that doesn't mean the government is happy with the practice.
Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. That approach has helped the Arkansas-based retail giant set a track record of spectacular success in the 16 years since it entered Mexico as a partner of the country's then-leading retail-store chain. But some of the company's practices have aroused concern among some officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that Wal-Mart is taking advantage of local customs to pinch pennies at a time when its Mexican operations have never been more profitable.
Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico—and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. The company doesn't try to conceal this practice: its 62 Superama supermarkets display blue signs with white letters that tell shoppers: OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING. The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be "volunteering" their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country's labor laws. But some officials south of the U.S. border nonetheless view the practice as regrettable, if not downright exploitative. "These kids should receive a salary," says Labor Undersecretary Patricia Espinosa Torres. "If you ask me, I don't think these kids should be working, but there are cultural and social circumstances [in Mexico] rooted in poverty and scarcity."
In a country where nearly half of the population scrapes by on less than $4 a day, any income source is welcome in millions of households, even if it hinges on the goodwill of a tipping customer. And Wal-Mart did not invent the bagger program that, as a written statement from the company notes, pre-dates the firm's arrival in Mexico, nor is it alone within the country's retail sector in benefiting from the toil of unpaid adolescents. But in
Mexico City, for example, the 4,300 teenagers who work in Wal-Mart's retail stores free of charge dwarf similar numbers laboring unpaid for Mexican competitors like Comercial Mexicana (715) and Gigante (427). Although Wal-Mart's worldwide code of ethics expressly forbids any "associate" from working without compensation, the company's Mexican subsidiary asserts that the grocery baggers "cannot be considered workers." The Mexico City government's top labor official dismisses that contention as so much corporate hogwash. "To my mind, that is not an accurate description because the bagger is providing a service on the store's premises that benefits the company by serving the customer better," argues Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince. "In economic terms, Wal-Mart does have the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this represents an injustice."

Certainly, Wal-Mart's bottom line is healthy. Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year, a 7 percent increase in real terms over the same period last year. Buoyed by the handsome bottom-line results of the preceding 12 months, Wal-Mart de Mexico Chief Executive Eduardo Solórzano announced plans in February to add 125 new stores and restaurants to its existing network of 893 retail establishments during the course of 2007. That ambitious expansion plan will represent new investment totaling nearly a billion dollars, according to company spokesmen.
And in its defense, Wal-Mart says it fully complies with a 1999 agreement covering the teenaged baggers that the Mexico City municipal government negotiated with the Supermarkets and Department Stores Association of Mexico. The company also says it goes beyond the obligations of that accord, awarding bonuses twice a year to baggers who maintain high grades in school and also providing accident insurance that covers the kids not only when they are on duty, but also when they are en route between home and workplace. The company's written statement cited a study conducted by the Mexican government and a U.N. agency that found that teenagers participating in the baggers' program were less likely to use illegal drugs than peers who panhandled or hawked merchandise on city streets.
Wal-Mart says the bagger program was designed "in accordance with the
International Labor Organization's (ILO) guidelines." That's questionable: Article 2 of the ILO's Convention 138 specifically prohibits the employment of 14-year-old children. (When asked by NEWSWEEK specifically about this clause, a Wal-Mart spokesman said in a written response: "With respect to your questions about the ILO, I repeat that we subscribe to an agreement signed between the Supermarkets and Department Stores Association of Mexico and Mexican labor officials. I suggest you share your doubts with Mexican authorities as to whether the [1999] accord [with the Mexico City municipal government] is in line with ILO guidelines.") A study conducted by three student researchers at the Autonomous University of Mexico documented violations of the 1999 agreement at a Wal-Mart Supercenter store in southern Mexico City. These included inadequate training and forcing youngsters to work a double shift, thereby exceeding the six-hour limit per day established by the accord. Then again, things could be a lot worse. In February 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay the U.S. Labor Department $135,540 in civil money penalties to settle charges of 24 child-labor violations. Some of the accusations involved minors who operated forklifts, chain saws and other potentially dangerous equipment. Stuffing groceries into plastic bags would seem considerably less hazardous.