THE overall Job Index declined by 1.9% from 677 in April 2009 to 664 in May 2009

Telecom and Pharma saw a drop by 12% and 14% in hiring activity in May'09 as compared to Apr'09

FMCG, Foods and Beverage up by 9%, in May'09 as compared to Apr'09.The Naukri JobSpeak index at 664, indicates a fall of 1.9% as compared to 677 in Apr'09. Although the overall index is comparatively stable, at a micro level, there was a volatile movement in Telecom and Pharma, witnessing a fall in hiring activity by 12-14%

"Apart from IT, Banking, Real Estate and Retail, the other industries seemed to have bottomed out and we expect a recovery in the coming months," according to  Hitesh Oberoi, COO and Director, Info Edge.

Out of the top 13 cities, 9 cities recorded a fall in hiring activity including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. FMCG, Foods and Beverage were up by 9%, in May'09 as compared to Apr'09, inching closer to July levels. City wise Analysis: Kolkata saw an increase in hiring activity by 14% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09

Out of the top 13 cities, 9 cities recorded a fall in hiring activity. Chandigarh and Ahmedabad recorded a steep fall of 20% and 11% respectively in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Bangalore slipped further from 618 in Apr'09 to 562 in May'09, a fall of 9%. Chennai saw a fall by 6% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Hiring activity in Mumbai has been marginally down each month since December, and seems to be stagnating, showing a marginal fall of 1% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Delhi - NCR saw a drop of 4% in hiring activity, the index went down from 743 in Apr'09 to 712 in May'09. Kolkata saw an increase in hiring activity by 14% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09.

Industry Analysis: Telecom and Pharma down by 12% and 14% respectively.
Hiring activity in Telecom was down by 12%, in May'09 as compared to Apr'09 with the index at 728 in May'09. Hiring activity in Pharma and Biotech was down by 14% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Oil and Gas saw a drop in hiring activity by 8% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Banking and Financial Services were up by 7% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Hiring activity in IT-Software was down by 6% and in IT-Hardware &Networking by 14% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09.

Among industries seeing a upward trend, FMCG, Foods and Beverage were up by 9%, in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Despite a negative trend on Overall jobs, Banking and insurance have witnessed an upward movement in the past two months and were up by 7% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09

Functional Area / Department Analysis: Hiring for Banking and Insurance professionals went up by 17%.

Hiring for Pharma and Biotech professionals was down by 27% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09On a continued downward trend, Hiring activity in IT- Software was down by 7%, Engineering and Design was down by 13% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Hiring for Accounts and Finance professionals was down while hiring for Banking and Insurance professionals went up by 17% during the same period.

Hiring for ITes and BPO professionals inched up by 2% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09, after a heavy fall in the previous month. Hiring for Sales and Business Development professionals remained stable, while hiring for Production and Maintenance professionals saw an upward movement by 4% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09. Hiring for Supply Chain professionals went up by 10% in May'09 as compared to Apr'09.

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A talented Marxist-Leninist leader passes away

Professor Chaman Lal

PROFESSOR Harbhajan Singh Sohi, Central Committee member of Communist Party Reorganizing Centre of India (CPRCI)-ML is no more. He passed away on 15th June unnoticed without getting much medical help at Bhathinda. He was cremated on 16th June morning in the presence of family, friends and comrades. He had returned a day before after attending some party work outside Punjab.

Professor Sohi was born in 1942.His ancestral village was Bhari in Sangrur district of Punjab. During his student days in Bhathinda, this son of a police officer got involved in leftist movement. After doing his M.A. in English literature from Punjabi University Patiala, he taught at Rajindra Government College Bathinda  and earned a  lifelong tag of ‘Professor’. He remained known as Prof. Harbhajan for long time, then added Sohi to differentiate from another Naxal activist of the same title and name.

He became active in CPM and worked for few months in CPM daily paper ‘Lok Lehar’, published from Jalandhar then. During 1967 Naxalbari revolt, he was one among those, who came out of CPM. For a while, they became part of All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries of India (AICCCRI), set up by Charu Majumdar, later converted into Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969. The mass base group of popular communist leader of Andhra Pradesh,T.Nagi Reddy group was either kept out or did not join it. Group led by Harbhajan Sohi also came out of CPI (ML) opposing its individual annihilation line and supporting mass line of T.Nagi Reddy. Later a  Bathinda –Ferozeour committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed , which worked in close coordination with Nagi Reddy group of Andhra Pradesh, leading to the formation of Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India(UCCRI_Marxist Leninist) in 1975.  Lead by D V Rao, UCCRI focused on building mass organization of students, workers, peasants, youth and women.

In Punjab, Punjab Students Union led by popular leader Pirthipal Singh Randhawa became quite strong. Peasant organization-Wahikar Union and workers organization-Moulder&Steel workers Union in Ludhiana also took roots. But UCCRI (ML) split in 1988, on the issue of post Mao Chinese developments. It led to the formation of Committee for Communist Revolutionaries and further leading to formation of Communist Party Reorganizing Centre of India (CPRCI-ML). But the group never attained the same popular standing among masses after this split, and the decline set in mass line follower groups of ML as well. Prof. Harbhajan Sohi remained close comrade of T.Nagi Reddy and one of the important theoreticians and leader of this group. In early seventies, he wrote a booklet on Bhagat Singh in the party name of Baldev, in which he analyzed the revolutionary legacy of Bhagat Singh.

Professor Sohi was a literary figure too. Known as ‘Bhajan’ among family and friends, he wrote poetry and once won poetry competition prize of Language Department Punjab and feasted his friends of Bhootwara (Ghost House) with the prize money. He wrote a touching poem on the assassination of revolutionary Punjabi poet-Paash at the hands of Khalistani terrorists in 1988, which was published in translation in reputed Hindi journal ‘Aalochna’, edited by Naamvar Singh. Dalip Kaur Tiwana, Saraswati Samman winner Punjabi author, describes him as ‘Bhajan Bathinde wala’ in her autobiography. Gyanpeeth award winner Gurdial Singh was his personal friend.

He was good player of Volleyball. He was tall, healthy and handsome. With other student friends, they started life with ‘Happy Home’ in Bathinda, where young boys and girls met on equal footing and later dreamt of ‘Happy India’ based on Socialist principles. During Punjabi University days, he was part of ‘Bhootwara’(Ghost House), the group of young scholars and writers, many of them like Dr. Gurbhagat Singh, Dr. Sutinder Singh Noor(Vice President, Sahitya Akademi), Harinder singh Mehboob(Sahitya Akademi award winner) Navtej Bharti and Sohi himself have earned a reputed name in Indian society.

Though ML group of Sohi never took part in violent activities, yet it never came over ground. He remained underground without having any substantial cases against them. There is dichotomy, they professed and practiced mass line, and there was no situation of uprising to keep organization secret. Sohi has been meeting Nepal comrades, including Babu Ram Bhattrai, during my student days at JNU during 1977-82. Many of ML groups came over ground and many started participating in parliamentary elections as well. Sohi’s group neither gave call for election boycott nor participated in these elections. But they did take part in student union or employee union elections in institutions. Leaders of mass organizations of the group have earned some name in society, but the leaders leading them from behind are ironically disappearing in anonymity.

It was on 26th June 1975, the first day of emergency, when I was arrested along with Prof. Harbhajan Sohi by Punjab police in early morning raid at Prof. Harbhajan Sohi’s house in Bhathinda, when he was over ground for a brief period. He got out on bail after two months and since then he has been underground; more than 34 long years. I spent about seven months before coming out.

Only way to commemorate his contribution is to think of left unity in the country. Bhajan loved life and faced all odds with confidence. Indian middle class is getting more fascist in its moorings. In such situation, after loosing Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, Vimla Dang in quick succession, the loss of Harbhajan Sohi at a relatively early age is even more sad and damaging for the democratic movement of Punjab.

[The writer is Professor, centre of Indian languages,J.N.U., New Delhi]

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Bikini-clad activists crash Israeli beach party in Manhattan

IN Bethlehem on June 22, at least five young women crashed a so-called beach party organized by the Israeli Foreign Ministry in New York City's Central Park.

Clad in bikinis and holding signs reading "Free Gaza" and "Sand won't cover your war crimes," the women were quickly removed by police and security from the "Tel Aviv beach" set up in Manhattan to celebrate the largest city in Israel's centennial.

According to US media reports the women, affiliated with the anti-war group CODEPINK, covered themselves in mud to protest the "dirty policies Israel holds towards Palestine," and chanted, "Tel Aviv, you can't hide, we can see your dirty side!"

The beach party saw tons of actual Tel Aviv sand airlifted from Israel's coast and temporarily dumped in Central Park. An Israeli reggae band and a DJ from the country's Army Radio provided entertainment.

Thousands were estimated to have attended the event, which was organized by Israel's Foreign Ministry, Tourism Ministry, Tel Aviv Municipality and El Al Airlines at the cost of some $150,000 US dollars, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.

In late May activists from Austrian Arab associations crashed a similar beach event on the bank of Vienna's Donaukanal River. Organizers said their Gaza beach display, on the opposite bank of "the obscene Tel Aviv Beach," would disturb the Israeli beach ambience with a banner reading, "Sun in Tel Aviv, fire in Gaza."

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First letter to PM, Sonia calls for food security law

IF the national job guarantee law was the flagship scheme of the first UPA, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has, in her first letter to re-elected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asked him to fulfil the party’s poll promise of a law to ensure food security and has even provided him the detailed contours of the scheme.

“...One of the most prominent and important commitments made by our party in the 2009 Lok Sabha election manifesto relates to the enactment of a NFSA to ensure food security to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. I am sending a copy of the draft legislation for your consideration,” says Sonia’s letter, dated June 12, to the PM.

The draft “Right to Food (Guarantee of Safety and Security) Act” proposes freedom from hunger and malnutrition as a fundamental right. It would “provide for and assert the physical, economic and social right of all citizens to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with an adequate diet necessary to lead an active and healthy life with dignity.”

The draft law, presented by Sonia Gandhi, offers 35 kg of cereal at Rs 3 per kg each month to an expanded set of beneficiaries that would include destitute and vulnerable households besides families Below Poverty Line (BPL) and those eligible under Antyodaya Anna Yojana.

The beneficiary households would also include those headed by a single woman; an adult with leprosy, HIV or mental illness; bonded labour; destitute dependent on alms for survival for 20 days a month; vulnerable landless agricultural worker or self-employed artisan; elders living alone or with dependents; and, occupationally- vulnerable rag pickers, construction workers, street vendors, cycle rickshaw drivers and domestic workers, among others.

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