Future rosy for past child labourers in TN

NT Bureau | Thu, 05 Jan, 2012,01:28 PM

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4 more TN fishermen arrested by Lankan Navy: Officials

Making way for skilled professionals and human resource development in the State and to bring about better production in all fields, Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today ordered an increase of financial aid for students from special schools under the National Child Labour project.
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Former child labourers and students of such schools studying from standard X and XII in Chennai, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Erode, Kanchipuram, Namakkal, Salem, Thoothukudi, Tiruchi, Thiruvalur, Thiruvannamalai, Vellore and Virudhunagar and pursuing higher studies in technical/vocational training centers / bachelor's degree / engineering / dental and medicine would benefit from the the hike in their monthly financial assistance from the present Rs 250 to Rs 500. This would benefit 317 persons and incur a sum of Rs 19.02 lakh on the government. Around 15,000 unemployed youth and students of government and aided Arts and Sciences Colleges would be covered under different skill development and softskill training programmes, an official press release said. Further, a training centre 'of international standards' would be constructed with private participation to impart training in areas pertaining to air and shipping industries and the manufacturing sector, it said. The Chief Minister has allocated Rs 20.20 crore for this purpose while recognising the fact that labour development was key to economic growth, including Rs 40 lakh towards establishing an institute to create trainers and create a Tamilnadu Skill Registry. Workforce has been a regular source for uplift of the economical development and other factors in society. With multiplied output and other developmental activities, the workers lay the base for any such upgradation. Keeping in mind that better production can be achieved through the workers' skill, this order by the Chief Minister would make better the practices of learning new technologies to bring about better output with a lesser resource.

Obama defies Republicans with recess appointments

US President Obama has defied Republican lawmakers when he bypassed Congress and invoked presidential recess appointment authority to install former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to head the newly formed consumer agency.
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Defying opposition in Congress, Obama named Cordray as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). He also made three other appointments to fill vacant seats on the National Labour Relations Board. The announcement of these appointments, when the Senate is in recess, drew angry response from Republican lawmakers. During his tour to Ohio, Obama announced his intent to recess appoint four individuals to fill key administration posts that have been left vacant including, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The other three are members of the National Labour Relations Board: Sharon Block, Terence F Flynn, and Richard Griffin. 'When Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them. I've got an obligation to act on behalf of the American people,' Obama said. 'And I'm not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve. Not with so much at stake, not at this make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans. We're not going to let that happen,' Obama said. Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner alleged that this is an attempt to grab power. 'This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department. The precedent that would be set by this cavalier action would have a devastating effect on the checks and balances that are enshrined in our constitution,' he said. 'This position had not been filled for one reason: the agency it heads is bad for jobs and bad for the economy. Its clear the President would rather trample our system of separation of powers than work with Republicans to move the country forward. 'This action goes beyond the Presidents authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate,' Boehner said. However, the Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, came out in support of the appointments. 'After millions of Americans lost their jobs, retirement funds and life savings in the economic crisis, they asked their elected leaders to rein in the greed and recklessness on Wall Street that led to the crisis. We listened, and passed a bipartisan law that created a consumer watchdog to guard against abuses by big banks, abusive mortgage companies, and unscrupulous lenders,' Reid said in a statement.

US to unveil new defence strategy

US is set to unveil its new defence defence strategy day that will guide Pentagon budget cuts in

coming years and is expected to end the decade-old policy of maintaining a force capable of fighting two wars at once. President Barack Obama will make a rare appearance at the Pentagon to outline the new strategy.
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The move comes after a comprehensive review of US defence strategy by the President, America's civilian and uniformed military leadership, and the Administrations national security team, the White House said. The defence strategy review is likely to come up with the policy of developing a strategy of fighting and winning one war, while being able to block or spoil aggressive actions elsewhere, media reports said. This will guide budget priorities and decisions going forward, the White House said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the defence strategic review recognises that the US is at a turning point after a decade of war, with new challenges and opportunities that call for a reshaping of its defence priorities. 'To meet these new challenges under increased budget constraints, the President made clear to his team that we need to take a hard look at all of our defence spending to ensure that spending cuts are surgical and that are top priorities are met,' Carney told reporters. Carney said the review is ongoing and will ensure that the US is able to meet the challenges of this moment responsibly and emerge even stronger, in a manner that preserves its global leadership, maintains its military superiority and keeps faith with its troops, military families and veterans. 'The President has been deeply involved in this process. He's personally engaged in the defence strategy,' he said, adding that Obama has been consulting his top security and pentagon advisors on this issue. 'Having said that, I think it's important to point out that the cuts in defence spending that we've discussed around which the defence strategic review is being written about now were agreed to on a broadly bipartisan basis -- roughly USD 489 billion over 10 years.' 'And the important part of this process is that the strategy come first and the reductions come -- are driven by the strategy. They're not across the board; they're not random. And that's certainly the approach the President will take,' he said.