Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL to deliver a keynote at the 19^thWharton India Economic Forum (WIEF)

Mumbai, February 18, 2015: Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) will deliver a keynote at the 19^th Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) to be held at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, February 21, 2015. Speaking on the theme of the conference ‘India: Delivering the Dream’,Punit Goenka will address the changed business environment in India with initiatives by the new government and the current state of the media and entertainment industry in India. He will also discuss ZEEL’s journey over the past 20 years and the opportunities and challenges he foresees over the next few years.

The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) is a student-led business conference to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by India. Started in 1996, it is a leading India-focused business forum held annually at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania which is among the top 3 institutions in the world for business education. The WIEF attracts business leaders, policy-makers, professionals and students to engage in fruitful dialogue and is attended by over 400 delegates including Wharton MBA, Penn Graduate and Undergraduate students, Wharton alumni and industry representatives and professionals.

The other keynote speaker at the 19^th Wharton India Economic Forum is Mr. Hital Meswani from Reliance Industries Limited while some of the other confirmed speakers include Mr. Rehan A. Khan, Abbott India, Mr. Sanket Akerker, Microsoft and Mrs. V.R. Iyer, Bank of India.

Dear Naresh,

"As you are reading this, mobile operators like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea are trying to pressurise the Indian government to regulate certain Apps and services like Whatsapp, Youtube, Skype etc. This means that we will be charged separately for using them even if we have paid for the internet data packs. Together we can stop this." says Sandeep who has started a petition demanding net neutrality in India. Sign Sandeep's petition.

.@rsprasad @TRAI Don't allow differential pricing of services & let consumers choose how they want to use Internet. #netneutrality

SANDEEP PILLAI
Kollam (Quilon), Kerala

Sign Sandeep's petition

Until now, you and I could use the internet data we paid for, to do anything on the internet. If telephone companies get their way, they will dictate what, how and when to browse the internet. And this could happen very soon. This is really scary!

As you are reading this, mobile operators like Vodafone, Airtel Idea are trying to pressurise the Indian government to regulate certain Apps and services like Whatsapp, Youtube, Skype etc. This means that we will be charged separately for using them even if we have paid for the internet data packs.Together we can stop this.

Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) is the only body which has the power to settle this issue once and for all. TRAI iscoming up with a consultation paper by the end of February that can decide the fate of internet usage in India. This is about the internet which has become such an integral part of our lives and its time to make our voices heard.

I started this petition so that TRAI knows that you and I don’t want the internet to be controlled by these big corporates. I want TRAI to put people’s interest first. Sign my petition and ask TRAI to not allow differential pricing of services on the Internet and let the consumers choose how they want to use Internet.

If thousands sign my petition, we will make waves in social media and media. This will ensure that TRAI knows that there is growing public pressure on this issue. We will also reach out to TRAI directly. Together, I am sure we can make TRAI come up with strict guidelines that are customer friendly and impose them on all mobile phone operators.

The big companies say they have invested a lot of money in setting up internet infrastructure and they must get a share of the earning that Internet firms like Facebook, WhatsApp etc generate. But the truth is that all of these companies have a huge profit margin that customers like you and I pay for.They must not charge us more for increasing their profit margins.

Sign my petition and let TRAI know that we all stand together against these big corporate giants and their vested interests. Also share it with your family and friends so that we have thousands of Indians demand from TRAI to place interest of the public first and NOT huge corporations.

Sign Sandeep's petition

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Accountability Initiative, Center for Policy Research is delighted to invite you to a talk on

“Right to Work? Assessing India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar”

By: Martin Ravallion

The presentation is based on a book authored by Puja Dutta, Rinku Murgai, Martin Ravallion, Dominique van de Walle

Discussant: S. M. Vijayanand, Special Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development

Venue: Centre for Policy Research, Conference Hall II
Date: February, 23, 2015
Time: 10 am -12 pm

Abstract: The authors study the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) scheme in Bihar, drawing on a wide variety of methods, including subjective assessments by respondents, observational (econometric) and experimental methods, and qualitative field work. The main source of data is a panel survey of 3000 households, representative of rural Bihar,
fielded in 2009 and 2010.

The presentation will focus on a range of issues: are the conditions stipulated by the MGNREG Act met in practice? What impact on poverty do the earnings from the program have? Does the program meet its potential? How can it do better?

Full text of Right to Work? Assessing India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar is available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17195

Bio: Martin Ravallion holds the inaugural Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics at Georgetown University. Prior to taking up this position in December 2012 he had been Director of the World Bank’s research department. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of ten economics journals, is a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development, a Founding Council Member and President (elect) of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, USA. Amongst various prizes and awards, in 2012 he was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize from the American Agricultural
and Applied Economics Association.

For more details, please get in touch with Papia Samajdar at psamajdar@accountabilityindia.org

Greek PM nominates conservative lawmaker Pavlopoulos as president

GREEK PM NOMINATES CONSERVATIVE LAWMAKER PAVLOPOULOS AS PRESIDENT

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras nominated conservative lawmaker and former minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Tuesday for president, Reuters reported. Pavlopoulos was interior minister from 2004 to 2009 for the conservative New Democracy government. In December, the then-government failed to secure enough parliamentary support for its presidential candidate, which led to new elections.