Features

A rare protest over wages in Singapore by a group of bus drivers recruited from China has caused a public stir, highlighting the city-state’s heavy reliance on migrant workers as tensions rise over the influx of foreign labour, The Wall Street Journal said.

I attended the above book launch on 15 November 2012 at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo. It was significant that this august gathering consisted of retired public servants, academicians and diplomats and professionals of the past.

Recent media headlines have featured large losses incurred by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). CPC, CEB, SLTB and Sri Lankan Airlines/Mihin Air have all recorded unsustainable losses. A very large share of these losses, particularly those of the CPC, CEB and SLTB, can be attributed to pricing policies that do not reflect costs.

The Indian tea industry has adopted a comprehensive plan to upgrade quality and increase production to meet the growing domestic and overseas demand, The Economic Times reported.

In recent years, many countries around the world have been tapping renewable resources to secure stable sources of energy. This tendency has been spurred by high fossil fuel prices, rising demand for energy and increasing concerns about the implications of fossil fuels on global climate (FAO).

In the 2012 edition of Occupy Money released last week, Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP.

The term ‘business strategy’ has many definitions but my favourite is by Johnson and Scholes in Exploring Corporate Strategy. They said, “Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term,