'Political corruption in Karnataka is unbelievable

'Political corruption in Karnataka is unbelievable

Now, NGO turns to market for profit - by Ruchi Haleja

HindustanTimes ePaper

Now, NGO turns to market for profit - by Ruchi Haleja

FROM A focus on securing livelihood for its members, SEWA, the Ahmedabad-based women's cooperative, is switching to market. The not-for-profit organisation now wants to build brands and earn profits.

The cooperative of self-employed women earned Rs. 1.5 crore last year from sales of hand woven apparels, home furnishings and accessories marketed under the Hansiba brand, which was launched one-and-half years ago. Hansiba is an initiative of SEWA Trade Facilitation Centres (STFCs), the first of which came up in 1998 with the objective of providing employment to rural women artisans.

"Earlier, STFCs were focused on helping artisans earn money for a living," said Mona Dave, the chief executive of STFC. But times have changed and "we want to be perceived not as an organisation supporting the poor but a market-focused one," she said. "We want to earn profits."

Such transformative is not unique to SEWA. Several other cooperatives have undergone similar changes in the past. The Barefoot College located in Tilonia district of Rajasthan, which provides assistance to rural artisans by promoting craft, is working with a US-based group of supporters -- Friends of Tilonia -- to facilitate sale of its handicrafts, puppets and apparels abroad.

Named after STFC's oldest member, Hansiba currently has two stores – one in New Delhi and another in Ahmedabad - and it has already becomeprofitable. "We plan to add another two Hansiba outlets this year and have about eight exclusive outlets in India in the next three years, post which we also plan to explore international markets in South East Asia, Europe and set up about six to eight shops in those regions," Dave said.

STFC even has plans to consider raising money from the market.

"The challenge for STFC lies not in creating a market but in capturing it," said Mayank Premi, Partner, Beacon Advisory Services that is working with STFC to help promote it.

In addition, SFTC has got on board designers from prestigious institutions like the National Institute of Design and National Institute of Fashion Technology, who work with artisans and help them contemprorise designs. STFC has been making its presence felt across international fashion shows as well.

SEWA is also planning to set up its own malls ‘SEWA Bazaars' across the country. SEWA Bazaars will be malls where framers will be able to sell fresh produce like vegetables and fruits by doing away with the middlemen. The first SEWA Bazaar will be coming up in Ahmedabad by the end of this year. About 14 SEWA Bazaars are expected to come up across the country in the next three years with an investment of about Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore.

Ruchi.hajela@hindustantimes.com

Russian economy succumbs to the oil curse but Govt gets 80% of IMP as Royalty- Telegraph

Russian economy succumbs to the oil curse - Telegraph

Russian economy succumbs to the oil curse

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard International Business Editor

Last Updated: 1:44am GMT 05/02/2008

Have your say Read comments

Moscow is the most expensive city in the world, like Tokyo before the Nikkei bubble burst. A taxi from Domodedovo airport to the Kremlin costs $170 (£86). Property in Ostozhenka trumps Chelsea. Space fetches $30,000 a square metre.

Russia should use sovereign wealth to help local banks

More from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Nice Tsarist flats fetch $3m to $4m. Even Bolshevik boxes are booming. Moscow boasts 150,000 home millionaires in dollars, says Sergei Polonsky, the Mirax Group tycoon. In a good year, prices double.

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This is the curse of commodity wealth, the "Dutch Disease" that eats at the competitive foundations of an economy and incubates a parasite culture. No doubt Russia's scientists, engineers, and cyber talent, will enrich the country, but first it must overcome the toxic effects of oil at $90 a barrel.

"We can no longer afford to buy Russian equipment," said Yevgeny Ivanov, head of Polyus Gold.

"The prices here are one and a half times higher than abroad so we're having to break our rigid rule and turn to foreign-made machinery. It is bad news for Russian firms. The commodity super-cycle is catching up with us through higher prices. It is a disheartening picture," he said.

"There's no infrastructure, no power, no roads. Electricity costs twice what they pay in Alaska and Canada. We face a Soviet bureaucracy passing decrees that make you weep," he said.

The government has declared an infrastructure emergency. Russia has hit the limits of durable growth on today's rickety foundations. China has built 25,000 miles of highways since 1988, Russia a few hundred.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a $1 trillion blitz on ports, highways, power grids, and water plants over seven years. Some 2,600 miles of road are planned each year, starting with the St Petersburg "High-Speed Diameter" and the $3bn Helsinki Expressway. Bouygues and Bechtel are battling for the first tender.

Around $200bn is to come from state coffers: the rest from industry and banks. Taken together, the scheme is the biggest project in the world outside China.

Finance minister Alexei Kudrin said the railways alone would need $440bn by 2030. "We are prepared to guarantee foreign investors a high level of return," he said.

Hence the pinstripe and Blackberry brigade descending on Moscow. There were no visible tourists on my BA flight from London. Two thirds of the aircraft was business class, a telling sign.

The infrastructure edict comes late. The economy is already over-heating. Inflation has hit 12pc, despite Soviet price controls on food. Factory gate prices are up 25pc. Yet the all-conquering rouble rises, strapped to oil. This is double strangulation.

"The government must bring down inflation, there is no other way," said Andrew Bosomworth, head of PIMCO in Europe.

"Interest rates [7pc] are negative in real terms. It will encourage borrowing until the cows come home," he said.

Car sales rose 67pc last year to $53bn, imported Audis and Renaults by the look of it. The current account surplus will shrivel to 2.6pc of GDP this year, down from 9.5pc two years ago. The oil bonanza is draining into shopping malls.

"We believe the trade surplus will disappear before the end of 2009," said Danske Bank.

The slippage is ominous with oil, gas, and metals near historic highs. They make up 80pc of exports.

"Russia has all the classical symptoms of the Dutch Disease," said a World Bank report.

"Firms have largely exhausted the productivity gains derived from idle capacity and labour shedding after the 1998 crisis," it said.

This feels like the late phase of the 1970s oil boom, when Mexicans briefly thought they walked on water. The sequel was not happy.

Eighty cents on every dollar above $27 a barrel goes to the state. Energy rents fund 48pc of the budget. Yet the fiscal surplus has halved in two years. Plans are now afoot to lavish funds on long-suffering pensioners. One sympathises, but this is how macro-blunders occur.

Mr Kudrin is chopping his figures as fast as Alistair Darling. The budget surplus will be 2.8pc in 2007, not 4.8pc as expected. If a US-British-Club Med-Japanese recession knocks oil down to $50, Russia faces a crunch.

Ex-premier Yegor Gaidar said Russia is ready this time. "It won't be a catastrophe. We can easily adjust because of our accumulated reserves," he said.

Perhaps, but the credit markets are sniffing Russia-risk. Even Gazprom is paying much higher spreads. "The bond market effectively shut down in October," said Commerzbank.

The Oil Stabilization Fund was supposed to inoculate Russia against the curse by siphoning revenues out the domestic economy. Certainly it helps.

There will be no repeat of 1998 default. Russia has paid off its foreign debt. The oil fund ($157bn) and foreign reserves ($470bn) are enough to deflect anything short of financial cataclysm.

But as Japan learned in the 1990s, being a reserve power does not cure imbalances. It allows ministers to procrastinate for longer.

If Peak Oil drives crude ever higher, Russia may overtake Germany and America in per capita income within a decade, as some predict.

Most likely, this is wishful thinking.

As the adage goes: Russia is never as weak as she looks, Russia is never as strong as she looks.

Norway govt fund sells its Vedanta stake - livemint

Norway govt fund sells its Vedanta stake - livemint

Dharitri.com - May 20 - 2008

Dharitri.com

JSW Steel kicks off CSR initiatives in Salboni

JSW Steel kicks off CSR initiatives in Salboni

Quietly, wind farms spread footprint in US- Latest News-The Economic Times

Quietly, wind farms spread footprint in US- Latest News-The Economic Times

ASSOCHAM asks Orissa for flexible land acquisition policy- Infrastructure-Economy-News-The Economic Times

ASSOCHAM asks Orissa for flexible land acquisition policy- Infrastructure-Economy-News-The Economic Times

Tribal groups shift loyalty to Maoists: Study-Patna-Cities-The Times of India

Tribal groups shift loyalty to Maoists: Study-Patna-Cities-The Times of India

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POSSIBLE FEES STRUCTURE BY A MODERATE LAWYER IN DELHI, INDIA

Fee Structure of Lawyers in New Delhi

______________________________________________

When a person is in some legal difficulties, the first question which comes to his mind as to how much he has to spend for a legal battle or for any legal services in India? Possibly I would be in a higher or a little lower side specifying the schedule of fees being charged by the lawyers to the individuals while handling their litigations and other legal works in Delhi as has been given in the specimen schedule of fees. As a matter of fact the lawyers in Delhi possibly are much costlier than the lawyers practicing in any other parts of India. Be it is litigation or any other legal services, definitely the kind of legal exposure the Delhi lawyers used to have are better than that of the lawyers practicing in the rest part of India. Possibly that is the reason why the lawyers do charge a decent amount for handling any case or providing their legal services in Delhi. Similarly the kind of services one used to get from the lawyers of Delhi is better than their counter parts in India.

One may land in to trouble in case he would not reach to a proper and/or a decent lawyer. Litigation is just like any other battle, on which one should not compromise. So is the case of taking the risk of any legal services from a novice one or trying on his own. As all of us know little knowledge is dangerous, therefore, it would not be advisable to try on their own rather than to consult if not the best ones at least the moderate ones, for which one would definitely not land in to the future troubles.

Finally I would say while consulting to any lawyers in India it is always better to have a discussion thoroughly about the schedule of fees of that particular lawyer. Lawyers some times used to charge in lump sum and some times through schedule of fees. Some of the lawyers used to hike their schedule of fees annually and / or even quarterly and even from the case to case basis. Hike in the fees varies in accordance with the demand on that particular lawyer.

Often one would also find bargaining in the fees by any litigants with their lawyers. Even though one would not find the same with a moderate lawyer normally; who used to have fixed schedule of fees. Personally I have a feeling that bargaining with the fees structure by the individuals sometimes comes with a tag of bargaining with the legal services sought to be taken from that lawyer.

SPECIMEN SCHEDULE OF FEES BEING CHARGED BY THE LAWYERS IN DELHI, INDIA

TABLE OF FEES

Dist. Court / High Court/ Supreme Court

Tribunal/ Forum Commissions

· Fees for miscellaneous appearance in court : Rs 4,100/- Rs 12,500/- Rs 18,000/-

· Fees for argument in court : Rs 7,000/- Rs 30,000/- Rs 45,000/-

· Fees for leading evidence : Rs 10,500/- Rs 40,000/-

· Fees for appearance in out station matter : Rs 15,000/- Rs 50,000/-

· Arbitration / Comm. of enquiry etc. (level): Rs.7,500/- Rs.35,000/- Rs.50,000/-

· Drafting misc.application/reply/rejoinder : Rs 10,000/- Rs 18,000/- Rs. 25,000/-

· Drafting petition/ reply/rejoinder : Rs 15,000/- Rs25,000/- Rs. 40,000/-

· Legal notice/ reply/rejoinder : Rs 5,000/- Rs 7,500/-

· Process fees : Rs 500/- Rs 1,000/- Rs 1,500/-

· Photocopy charges per page : Rs 1/-

· Typing per page : Rs 20/-

· Notary / O.C. attestation (per document) : Rs.500/-

· Urgent filing / listing charges : 10%

· Clarkage : 5% 5% 10%

· Junior Fees : 25% 25% 40%

· Designated senior counsels fees : As per actual and their bills

· Registration of marriage : Rs 15,000/-

· Registration of society, firm, company : Rs 25,000/-

· Registration of sales tax, service tax number : Rs.17,000/-

· Permanent account number : Rs. 2,500/-

· Income tax return for individuals : Rs. 3,500/-

· Documentation : Rs. 2,000/-*

· Title search of any property. : Rs.25,000/-

· Title search with non-encumbrance certificate: Rs.30,000/-

· Drafting agreements, deeds (lease, sale,

mortgage, conveyance, gift, partnership, etc.)

power of attorney, will, Indemnity Bond etc. : Rs.10,000/- ONWARDS

· Joint venture agreement, collaboration,

franchise and other business agreements. : Rs.30,000/- ONWARDS

· Conference / consultation charge per hour : Rs.10,000/-

· International conference / consultation /

representation per hour incl. the travel time : $ 350.00

· Retainer ship fees per month (at least 10 hour

conference time a month) : Rs.25,000/-

· Additional Charges on the retainer ship

(per hour) : Rs. 2,250/-

· Investigation / Commission / Execution

charges per hour. : Rs.10,000/-

· *Any other miscellaneous expenses would be as per actual as may conveyed.

· Equipments charges for investigation and demonstration: As per actual and bills.

· For out station matters, client shall provide the first class conveyance, travel by air in Executive Class / 1st AC train fare, four stars and above hotel accommodation (L/F), miscellaneous incidental expenses.

· The payments against the Memo of fees shall be cleared within a week from the date of receipt of the bills. The TDS certificate must be delivered in the office of the Advocate within four weeks from the date of payment. etc etc.

It is always better for an individual litigant / client to clarify from his lawyer on the above issues bit by bit, so that there would not be any future confusion while pursuing their cases with their lawyers. One must keep in mind that, more the legal services a person / individual / litigant would require from his lawyer, is bound to be charged more by his lawyer.

Often people land up with a mess expecting their lawyer to provide all of his services from the beginning till the end at a fixed price, which normally never happens. At the same time, it is better to understand that what would be the price for each and every individual work so that there would not be any confusion and the payment in accordance with the work done from time to time. This would definitely keep both the litigant and their lawyer bind with each other rather than spoiling cases / litigations on account of silly schedule of fees.

The schedule of fees as has been stated may vary from lawyer to lawyer and is not necessarily being followed by every lawyer, but it has been given to use as a guideline and for the sake of knowledge and clarification on each account / head while engaging a lawyer.