The Daily Indian

Government employees work for less than 100 days a year

When it comes to official holidays, nothing can surpass the liberty that India’s government employees enjoy. At a time when people around the world (including India) are leaving no stone unturned to hold on to a job and work productively to bring out their nations from economic crises, India’s government employees are finding excuses of different kinds for not coming to office. It’s not for nothing that India fares poorly on almost all development and socio-economic indicators. Thanks to the number of non-working days, the work in government departments never seem to get completed and rarely meet their deadlines.

Agreed that corporations across the world, just like India, have a system of five working days a week but then the same corporations, unlike India, do not provide so many extra holidays. Due to the multi-cultural and multi-religious demography, the number of gazetted holidays in India is highest in the world. According to the notification issued by the Government of India, there are as many as 38 gazetted public holidays in 2009. A back of the envelope calculation shows that any government employee working for 5 days a week gets 104 holidays straightaway. Above this, there is a provision of 3 national holidays (Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti), 14 gazetted holidays, 2 restricted holidays, 8 casual leaves, 30 earned leaves and 20 half -pay leaves on an average. So if an employee plans to take all the stipulated holidays and leaves, he would finally work for somewhere around 185 to 200 days. No corporation in the world be it private or public, allows their employee such a flexibility. Take for instance China where an employee works for 6 days a week with 10 public holidays in a year. Likewise in US, employees enjoy a total of 27 days holidays (11 national holidays, 8 paid holidays and 8 public holidays). This holiday spree does not condense here.

Besides this long and never ending list of leaves, women employee can further opt for 135 days maternity leave (15 days for men) and special leave upto 20 days for family planning surgeries. Such high number of holidays do not only dilute the productivity of the company but also affect the cost of the company. All these holidays clubbed with absenteeism lead to a position wherein the company has to pay complete annual salary, even if the employee works for virtually one-third of the total working days.

Even the Sixth Pay Commission in its recommendations (along with steep salary rise) requested the government to reduce the number of government holidays. But then the government hardly paid heed to any of those recommendations as it would affect their vote banks (that is largely based on religious groups). Instead of mourning deaths of political leaders by declaring holidays, India should find reasons to extend working hours. For a country like India that suffers from huge financial deficits, project overruns (which leads to cost overrun up to 11.75 percent) and delays, huge unemployment and decreasing productivity, it’s imperative to work more and complete the pending projects rather than un-intellectually opting for unnecessary leaves. No government across the world announces holidays on all major ceremonies and events.. Along with salary hike (through the Sixth Pay Commission) what government departments need is impeccable professionalism. Hope that the end of this holiday spree sees its beginning soon! Or else…

(Prasoon S Majumdar is Editor Economic Affairs of Planman Media)

The new Muslim MPs who have been elected to the fifteenth Lok Sabha from across political parties best exemplify the new India. Voted from multi-ethnic parliamentary constituencies, there is no question of an en bloc, so-called Muslim vote bank. In exclusive interviews with TSI, the MPs reveal that unlike some previous elections, this time votes were cast for candidates who adopted a more modern discourse affecting the lives of common people: security, development, employment and better opportunities.

Take Member of Parliament, Asrarul Haque Qasmi. Elected from the Kishanganj constituency in Bihar on a Congress ticket, he is an educator. As president of Talimi Wa Milli foundation, Qasmi has adopted 168 villages in his mission to make them totally literate. “The youth in Kishanganj remains backward so I am striving to create educational and employment opportunities. That is my priority area,” he says.

Qasmi, a former student of famed Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, says overwhelming numbers of young voters today are not interested on old hackneyed tales.

They are looking for fresh ideas and given their age, they cannot be faulted.

Another MP with the Deoband tag is perfume baron, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, president of the all India United Democratic Front, Assam. He triumphed from Dhubri by a comfortable margin of over 1.84 lakh votes and polled 51.66 per cent of the electorate.

“My immediate priority is relief for Assam flood victims and compensation for those killed in the Nellie massacre of 1983. They need compensation on the lines of what the Sikhs got in Delhi. My voters’ identified with me when I said that real empowerment can only be achieved through political power,’’ Ajmal — sometimes accused of only being the leader of Bangladeshi migrants — told this reporter. He had surprised poll pundits by winning ten assembly seats in the 2006 elections, leading a party that was formed months before the elections were announced.

Interestingly, the number of Muslim MPs in the current Lok Sabha has come down to 31 as compared to 36 in the last House. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have sent seven MPs each while contribution from the other states remains sparse: Jammu and Kashmir 4; Bihar, Kerala and Assam three each; two from Tamil Nadu and one from Andhra Pradesh and Lakshadweep respectively.

Is the community under represented? “The number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha is on the decline, since BJP emerged as a force. Since the BJP accounts for about one-third or one-fourth of the total seats, prospects of Muslim candidates have declined. Ideally, secular parties should be compensating for this loss by giving increased number of seats, but that does not happen. In UP, the BSP gave 14 seats to Muslims and 21 to Brahmins. Ditto with Congress and SP,’’ says M.J. Khan, president, national economic forum of minorities (NEFM). The lone Muslim MP from BJP, Shahnawaz Husain, won a third consecutive Lok Sabha election, this time from Bhagalpur in Bihar. Husain disclaims Muslim leader status. “I am not a Muslim leader. I have been elected by the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and all. I do not ask for votes on the basis of caste, creed and religion. I believe in work and people support me for that.”

While it is generally believed that Muslims don’t vote for the BJP, Bihar provides the contrarian view. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, leader of Janata Dal (U) and key BJP ally, got significant minority support. His mantra: using employment and development as poll issues and shunning sectarian agendas. It worked well in his favour.

A crazy hairdo and wacky attire are striking, but what about your nails? Colour them in funky shades too to make a statement, says British nail technician Jacqui Jefford. Jacqui says this is the right time to wear crazy nails with loads of attitude and confidence.
“I have seen people carrying crazy hair styles and dresses with confidence, but most of them play it safe with nail colours. This is the right time to add funk to your nails and make a statement,” said Jacqui.

Jacqui, who is also a mentor and consultant to Scratch Nails — a nail salon in the plush South Extension-II shopping centre was in the capital to teach nail professionals about international trends.

Jacqui, 50, has been in this business for the past 25 years and believes that people still do not take the business of nail care seriously.

“It is very unfortunate that people ignore the only part of the body that goes into the mouth. We pay attention to our attire, hair and skin but how many of us regularly take care of hands?” Jacqui questioned.

“The first thing we do when meeting people is shake hands, and if our hands are not manicured what kind of impression will we give to the other person? She elaborates: “Most of the time we look at our hands and not face, so it is important to make them look good to feel good.”

Jacqui’s love for nail art started way back in 1974 when she was just 16. “I still remember how I became beautiful from ugly in just 10 minutes,” she explained.
“I used to bite my nails a lot and they were in a pathetic shape. One day my friend got nail extensions and her hands looked pretty. I thought I should go for it too and when I did it cost me 20 pounds!

“It was way too expensive and then I started reading on the subject and finally I took it as a profession to offer cheap yet quality service to people,” she added.
Jacqui has done nail art for Hollywood celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss, Shania Twain and many more. According to her, today’s generation is paying much attention to their looks.

“Thanks to exposure to the media, youngsters are aping Hollywood stars and paying attention to their looks, and that includes nails too. They want to look perfect and we help them reach this perfection,” she maintained.

She said in Europe people are “driven by fashion” and the ratio of working women is very high. “So for them it is important to look good all the time,” she added.

Suggesting that women should go for manicures at least once in a month, Jefford stated: “Make it a point to go for regular manicures as it gets the dirt out of your cuticles and keeps them soft.”

Jacqui is also an author and has written books like ” The Nail Encyclopedia “, ” Nail Artistry ” and ” The Art of Nails “. “I have never planned anything in life — everything just happened. I was an author by mistake and I do not mind that either,” she chuckled.

Yash Raj films’ latest movie ‘New York’, which released worldwide on June 26, has grossed Rs 35 crore in its three day first weekend.

The film has broken all earlier opening weekend collection records for 2009, a statement from Yash Raj Films said.

“Yash Raj Films ended 2008 with its highest grossing film ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, and has started 2009 with a bang,” the statement added.

‘New York’ also had an impressive opening overseas.

The film opened at the third slot on the Australian charts and at the tenth spot in the UK this weekend. The movie has also been the top weekend earner in the UAE for 2009.

Directed by Kabir Khan and produced by Aditya Chopra, the film stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan Khan and is released in over 900 screens worldwide.

New Delhi, Jun 30: The Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition today gave a handle to Congress to attack BJP which responded by alleging that the ruling party at the Centre has “begun its conspiracy”.

Non-Congress parties and Muslim groups voiced criticism over delay in preparation of the report and demanded tabling the report in Parliament at the earliest and action taken against those found guilty by the Commission.

Though details of the report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Justice M S Liberhan 17 years after the incident were not revealed, Congress leader Digvijay Singh said “a conspiracy was hatched… the entire world has seen on television that BJP leaders were involved…What is there to prove?”

He named BJP leaders L K Advani, M M Joshi, Vinay Katiyar besides former leaders of the party Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh in this connection.

At least 16 people were killed and 50 injured overnight in Italy when a freight train hauling liquefied petroleum gas derailed and exploded as it passed their homes, officials said Tuesday.

About 1,000 people were evacuated following the blast just before midnight Monday in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio, about 350 km (220 miles) north of Rome.

An Airbus A310-300 from Yemen with 153 people on board, including 66 French nationals, crashed into the sea off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros as it approached in bad weather early on Tuesday, officials said.

A doctor in the Comoros told Reuters a child had been plucked alive from the sea and was being taken to a medical center. The manager of the international airport in Moroni said the child was five. He said five bodies had also been found.

The Paris airports authority said 66 French nationals were aboard the plane, which was flying the final leg of a trip from Paris and Marseille to Comoros via Yemen.

Iraq regained full control of its towns and cities on Tuesday as U.S. troops pulled back, six years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Though some Iraqis fear the first step in a full U.S. withdrawal may leave them open to attack, the government declared “National Sovereignty Day” a holiday and held a military parade to flex its muscles at a still stubborn insurgency.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday hailed his disputed re-election as a victory for the Iranian people and a defeat for the Islamic Republic’s enemies.

The June 12 poll sparked Iran’s most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but hardliners have regained the upper hand in the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter, whose nuclear program has alarmed the West.

Standing by your man suddenly seems to be going out of fashion for some American women in the public eye.

This month, the wives of at least two famous men caught cheating — sexually and financially — very openly declared that their spouses’ behavior was actually quite scandalous.

Ruth Madoff, reacting to her husband Bernard being sentenced to 150 years in prison for bilking investors with a massive Ponzi scheme, said she felt “embarrassed,” “ashamed” and “betrayed” by a man she had known for half a century.