15-16 march 2015

Kidambi Srikanth won the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title of Badminton

The 22-year-old Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth on 15 March 2015 won the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title of Badminton. The final was held at Basel in Switzerland.

World Number 4 Srikanth defeated World Number 6 Viktor Alexson of Denmark 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 to win the men’s singles title of the championship.

With this, he became the first Indian men to win the 120000 US dollars Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold. The ace Indian shuttler is from Andhra Pradesh and currently the highest ranked Indian men player on the World Badminton Federation (WBF) rankings.

Earlier in November 2014, he had won the China Open Super Series Premier after beating Lin Dan in the final round, thus becoming the first Indian to win a super series premier Men’s title.

The Swiss Open 2015 was ruled by China which won 4 titles out of total 5 titles. Below is the list:

• Women’s Singles: Sun Yu (China) beat Busanan Ongbumrungpan (Thailand)
• Women’s Doubles: Bao Yixin/Tang Yuanting (China) beat Ayane Kurihara/Naru Shinoya (Japan)
• Men’s Doubles: Lu Kai/Cai Yun (China) beat Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong (Malaysia)
• Mixed Doubles: Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong (China) beat Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin (China)

About the Swiss Open

The Swiss Open of badminton is a Grand Prix Gold category championship and is held annually in Switzerland. The total prize money of the tournament is 120000 US dollars. The championship was held for the first time in 1955.

 

Facebook acquired shopping search engine TheFind

Social networking giant Facebook on 14 March 2015 acquired the shopping search engine TheFind. With the acquisition, Facebook has moved into the e-commerce.

Both Facebook and TheFind cast the acquisition as a way to lift the digital advertising business of Facebook.

The deal aims to improve Facebook ads experience. The Find technology would be integrated into Facebook to make the ads more relevant and better for consumers.

TheFind would be completely integrated into the Facebook. Facebook has been testing a buy button since July 2014 that lets users purchase goods directly. Now, with TheFind, it would be able to add additional shopping tools to its service.

TheFind was co-founded in 2006 by CEO Siva Kumar and CTO Shashikant Khandelwal, both native Indians. TheFind previously raised 26 million US dollar in three investment rounds, but had not received an influx of cash since 2007.

 

World Consumer Rights Day 2015 observed with the theme Helping consumers choose healthy diets

15 March: World Consumer Rights Day

The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2015 was observed on 15 March 2015. The theme for the WCRD 2015 is Helping consumers choose healthy diets.

The theme was taken up by the Consumers International (CI) because unhealthy diets are linked to four of the ten biggest causes of death viz., overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, high blood glucose and high cholesterol worldwide. According to an estimate by the CI obesity alone is estimated to cost 2 trillion US dollars per year.

WCRD is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.

Every year, the CI chooses a theme and organizes various consumer awareness activities in close coordination with the governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Consumers International (CI) is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers.

The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is observed on 15 March every year to commemorate the historic address given by the then US President John F Kennedy to the US congress in 1962 in which he outlined the definition of consumer rights for the first time. He was the first world leader to formally define ‘consumer rights’.

WCRD was first observed on 15 March 1983 and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action.

In 2014, WCRD was observed with the theme Fix Our Phone Rights

 

Powerful Cyclone Pam hit south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu

Powerful cyclone Pam on 14 March 2015 hit the south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. The cyclone Pam, a category five tropical storm, brought destructive 270 kilometre-per-hour winds and torrential rain along with it. The cyclone was followed by flooding, landslides, sea surges and very rough seas which caused massive destruction in the small Pacific nation.

Cyclone Pam prior to slamming Vanuatu had destroyed some homes and had caused damage to other Pacific islands including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.

Vanuatu is located north east of Australia to south west of Hawaii Islands. It has population of 267000 spread over 65 islands and about 47000 people live in its capital Port Vila.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam is regarded as the worst natural disaster in the history of Vanuatu. Pam is also the third most intense storm in the Southern Hemisphere by the same metric, only after Zoe of 2002 and Gafilo in 2004.

 

Development officers working in LIC are not workmen under Industrial Disputes Act, 1947: SC

The Supreme Court (SC) on 15 March 2015 upheld the decision of Allahabad High Court (HC) that the development officers working in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) are not workmen under the Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947. The decision was given by a SC bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C Pant said that there was no flaw in the judgment rendered by the Allahabad HC.
The SC bench gave the ruling while hearing an appeal by few development officers of LIC, who had challenged the decision of Allahabad HC.

About the case

The case relates to the reduction of salary of the development officers by the LIC. It reduced the salary after it found that they were allegedly claiming inflated incentive bonus to which they were not entitled.

This was challenged by few development officers in the Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts (ITLCs). Before the ITLC, LIC contended that the proceeding before it was not maintainable as the development officers could not be put under the category of workmen under Section 2(s) of the IDA, 1947.

However, the tribunal declined the plea of maintainability and answered the other issues in favour of the development officers and directed the LIC for restitution of pay-scale and payment of the arrears that was due to the development officers.

This was challenged by the LIC in the Allahabad HC which overturned the award passed by the Industrial Tribunal on the ground that the development officers could not be treated as workmen under the IDA, 1947 and, hence, the ITLCs had no jurisdiction to deal with the dispute.

About Section 2(s) of the IDA, 1947

Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947 provides for definition of the workman. According to this, a workman means any person (including an apprentice) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward.

It does not include such persons

(i) who is subject to the Air Force Act, 1950 or the Army Act, 1950 or the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957)

(ii) who is employed in the police service or as an officer or other employee of a prison; or

(iii) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or

(iv) who, being employed in a supervisory capacity, draws  wages exceeding 1600 rupees per mensem or exercises, functions mainly of a managerial nature.

 

Veteran Gandhian Narayanbhai Desai died

Veteran Gandhian Narayanbhai Desai died on 14 March 2015 at a private hospital in Surat. He was 90. He is survived by his daughter Sanghamitra and sons Nachiketa and Aflatoon Desai. He was the son of Mahatma Gandhi's diarist Mahadev Desai who also was the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Desai was known for his lecture series on Gandhi called Gandhi Katha, which he started in 2004 and took across the world. Gandhi Katha was uniquely Desai’s own creation because of the way he presented the stories on Bapu. His scholastic ability was in defining Mahatma Gandhi in the modern times.

Desai had served as the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith from 23 July 2007 to November 2014 when he resigned from the post.

He was born in Valsad district of Gujarat and grew up at the Sabarmati Ashram and Sewagram Ashram in Wardha. He was inspired by the Bhoodan Movement of Vinobha Bhave and asked the rich of Gujarat to distribute land among the landless.

He had won manyawards and accolades.Some of them are listed below:

• In 1993, Narayan was accorded the Sahitya Akademi Awardfor Gujarati for writing a biography of his father Mahadev Desai which he wrote as part of the centenary celebrations of Gandhi's close aide.

• Narayan's book about his childhood reminiscences of Gandhi too had won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

• In 1999, he was awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj Award

• In 1998, The UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize was awarded to him for his tireless work in favour of the promotion of inter-religious and inter-ethnic understanding, tolerance and harmony and his achievements in the education and training for non-violence and peace, as well as anti-nuclear activism.

• He also received Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, the highest award of Gujarati literature in 2001.

• He won the 18th Moortidevi Award for the year 2004, given by Bharatiya Jnanpith, for his famous work Maroon Jeewan Aj Mari Vaani, which is based upon the life, philosophy and work of Mahatma Gandhi.

PHD Research Bureau released a Survey on working women in Delhi

The PHD Research Bureau of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the second week of March 2015 released a survey on working women in Delhi. The survey is titled Work-life balance and health concerns of women: A survey of Delhi.

The survey focused on the problems faced by working women which adversely affect their performance and career growth. The results of the analysis have been divided into three categories: Work Life Balance, Health Concerns and Workplace Health provisions.

The important findings of the survey are:

• 59 percent women reported missing work due to health issues. As many as 47 percent of women have reported cold, cough and fever as the main health reason for missing work.
• 23 percent of working women reported to suffer from aches and pains, especially back pain and headache.
• 57 percent of women spent less than 10 percent of their own income on health, while only 3 percent spent more than 40 percent.
• 64 percent women trusted private healthcare facilities more than government or local clinics.
• 70 percent of women had a provision of paid sick leaves at their respective work places.
• About 39 percent reported three to six months maternity benefits being given to them.
• Some 26 percent fell in the category where no benefits were being provided due to non-applicability of the benefit to their designation.
• 85 percent of women’s workplace had separate toilets for them. However, only 31 percent of working women reported having a dispensary with a lady doctor in their workplace.
• 68 percent of women participants stated that they were either completely satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their work.
• 61 percent women work for 8-10 hours a day and travel as long as 30 km or for more than an hour to reach their workplace.
• 80 percent women reported that they devote 2-4 hours in household work and 53 percent said that they have domestic help to do household work.

About PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a New Delhi based think tank which conducts surveys and policy discussions to promote industry, trade and entrepreneurship. It was established in 1905 and it is a proactive multi-State apex organisation working at the grass-root level and with strong national and international linkages.

 

Pioneer of Israeli Cinema Lia van Leer died

Pioneer of Israeli Cinema Lia van Leer died on 13 March 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel. She was 90. She was a pioneer in the field of art film programming and film archiving in Israel. She was the founder of Israel Film Archive, Jerusalem Cinematheque, Haifa Cinematheque and the Jerusalem Film Festival.

She founded Israel’s first cinema club in the 1950s along with her husband and in 1973, she created the Jerusalem Cinematheque. She started Jerusalem Film Festival in 1983.

Lia van Leer was also considered as an advocate of peace after she had invited Iranian film-makers to Jerusalem and supported Palestinian cinema.

In 2004, Van Leer was awarded the Israel Prize for her special contribution & lifetime achievement to society and the State of Israel. She also has been awarded with President’s Medal (also called Medal of Distinction of Israel) in 2014.

 

Services won the 69th edition of Santosh Trophy of Football

Services on 15 March 2015 won the 69th edition of Santosh Trophy of football which is also called Senior National football championship. In the final played at Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana, Punjab, it defeated hosts Punjab 5-4 via tie-breaker.

With this, Services won the Santosh trophy for the fourth time. Earlier it had won the trophy in 2013, 2012 and 1961.

During the tiebreaker all the five players of Services including Captain Anthony, Vibin, Francis Zonuntulnga, Arun Tudu and Rakesh Singh scored goal for the winners.

Parmjit Singh from Punjab failed to score goal during that crucial juncture, resulting in their defeat.

About Santosh Trophy

Santosh Trophy is an annual Indian football tournament which is also called Senior National football championship.

The tournament first began in 1941 and was named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh, which is now in Bangladesh.

The first winners were Bengal, who also leads the all-time winners list with 31 titles to date.

The 68th edition of the Santosh trophy was won by Mizoram in 2014. They had defeated Railways in the final.