Mismatch between potential and experience confounds many a job-seeker, say managers   Mun Ching Yap had gone as a journalist to an airline company to interview its executive official, but her excitement, passion and ability to learn earned her a job as the head of the company's strategic planning department. Ms. Mun, now a columnist and entrepreneur from Malaysia, was 28 years old then. “In Malaysia, the median age of the population is 27,...

In opening up the retail trade to foreign equity last week, the Union government demonstrated uncharacteristic courage and conviction. While this policy measure might help dispel doubts about its ability to take decisions, it has raised a political dust-storm more intense and widespread than it had probably bargained for. No doubt, taking a view on the issue of liberalising FDI norms for multi-brand retail had been on the government’s agenda for...

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may be right in pushing for FDI in retail because reports have been pouring in, indicating that the economic downturn in India and abroad will worsen in coming weeks. 'I want money,' an agitated Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reportedly told the Cabinet on Thursday, November 24, when coerced by colleagues from his Congress party for pushing 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in retail. The FDI issue is...

The 17th Conference of Parties (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is being held in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9, 2011.   Urgent action is required to arrest the inexorable rise in global CO2 emissions. What are the issues before this important international meeting on Climate Change?   The last meeting of the COP was held in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2010. The 17th COP will...

Global retail chains looking to set up shop in India may face several challenges such as delay in the implementation of goods and services tax and restrictions imposed by the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, besides political opposition. These hurdles can be roadblocks in providing real benefits to farmers and consumers as intended by the government in opening the multi-brand retail sector to foreign direct investment. “GST (goods and services tax)...