By Ritsuko Ando HELSINKI (Reuters) - Troubles at Finlands Nokia Oyj arent just bad news for the company, its staff and shareholders. Theyre also a warning sign for the small Nordic countrys welfare model. Just as Nokias sure touch with well-designed, consumer-friendly products seems to have deserted it, fears are growing that Finland, whose reputation for innovation rested largely on the handset makers success, m ay be losing its competitive edge. While Finland remains one of the few triple-A rated countries in the euro zone, its reputation as an egalitarian society with a stellar education system belies worries about a decline in once-mighty export manufacturers and a rapidly ageing population. For the 5.4 million Finns, the message is stark: prepare for tougher times, later retirement or lower pensions. And for government, the need is to encourage business growth beyond traditional mainstays like forestry while balancing social commitments with economic realities. On Tuesday Finland reported a second straight monthly current account deficit. For 2011 as a whole, it posted a deficit of 1.3 billion euros due to slower export growth. 'Its useless to dream of achieving the same levels that we had between the booming years of 2001 and 2007,' said Handelsbanken economist Tuulia Asplund, referring to the years of strong industrial growth. Economists expect the economy to contract or barely expand this year. Many forecast growth of just 1 or 2 percent in the next few years - not bad compared with some more troubled European economies, but not enough to alleviate strains on the pension system in one of the regions fastest-ageing societies. With its baby-boom generation retiring and living longer, and without Norways oil or Swedens diverse and internationally successful corporate sector, Finlands welfare model looks particularly vulnerable. NOKIA RELIANCE HARD TO SHAKE Nokias downfall has hit business activity as well as national pride. At its peak, Nokia accounted for 4 percent of Finnish GDP and supported a myriad of companies as suppliers. Today it contributes closer to 1 percent, according to analysts. Electronics maker Elcoteq, which lost the bulk of its business when Nokia switched to cheaper Asian suppliers, filed for bankruptcy last October. Software firm Digia Oyj , another Nokia supplier, reported a 45 percent fall in first-quarter profit. Many Finns are still hopeful for a turnaround at Nokia, a former rubber boots maker whose rise helped transform Finland from a Nordic backwater. At a recent shareholder meeting in Helsinki, some investors were sentimental. 'It probably has nothing to do with numbers. I have to believe in it since it is this famous Finnish company,' said one shareholder, Tomi Lahti, when asked why he still held shares. The stock is down over 95 percent from its 2000 peak. It fell to around 2.20 euros on Wednesday, a level not seen since 1996. Some younger Finns, however, are eager to move on from Nokia. 'I think we generally need to start thinking with our own brains and not just rely on relics of the past that others built,' said Vilppu, a university student in Helsinki who didnt give his family name. NO SAVIOUR One ray of hope has been fast-growing Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, a simple yet addictive game in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal birds eggs. Sales grew tenfold to $100 million in 2011. Last year it attracted $42 million from investors led by U.S.-based Accel Partners and it is aiming for an overseas stock market listing. Yet games companies dont hire or spawn a chain of suppliers in the way Nokia and other manufacturers do. Rovios headcount has risen by around 200 from 20 over the past year - an employment pinprick compared with the thousands of job cuts at Nokia and its suppliers. Last year, Nokia laid off around 3,000 workers in Finland. Economists say theres no 'silver bullet' solution. Some say looser bankruptcy laws would aid entrepreneurs, but its hard to see such a measure having a dramatic short-term impact. Theres also resistance to such a reform in Finland where fiscal responsibility is considered a virtue. The government is already investing heavily in encouraging new business. In 2011, it spent 610 million euros on research and development projects through state fund Tekes, in addition to efforts at universities and other institutions. Despite such funding, not a single company, excluding spin-offs from existing listed entities, has gone public on the Helsinki Stock Exchange since the 2007 listing of construction group SRV . Some wonder if the state does too much. 'The government should be geared to operate only where the market fails,' said Otto Toivanen, a Finn and professor of managerial economics, strategy and innovation at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. 'There should be more of an exercise, at least a mental exercise, of how businesses and entrepreneurs will act without government.' JOBS LOST FOREVER The state has played a particularly big role in traditional industries such as forestry and metals. State shareholdings, however, have not protected paper mills or steel makers from global competition. Papermakers Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene have been closing mills and cutting jobs in recent years due to pricing pressure and weak demand. With some exceptions, such as the sale of Storas Summa Mill to Google Inc for a server farm, mill closures are often permanent. Finnish unemployment is not too high for Europe at 8.5 percent, but is at 24 percent for people under 24. 'Many of these jobs are lost forever,' said Sampo Bank Chief Economist Pasi Kuoppamaki. 'We need real industry to replace what weve lost.' The opposition Finns Party took advantage of such insecurity in last years elections. Its call to preserve a Finnish way of life appealed to rural voters in particular. The government, led by conservative Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, is well aware of such sentiments. While it recently announced budget cuts for the next few years, it also mixed in stimulus measures such as corporate tax breaks to encourage R&D spending and adopted an English-language buzzword: 'growsterity'. Most economists believe Katainen will need to make tougher choices if the economy remains weak. 'We will need to prolong working life. It could mean raising retirement age, or it could mean starting working life earlier,' Kuoppamaki said, referring the long years Finnish youth stays in school. 'In any case, it would be difficult.' (Additional reporting by Eero Vassinen; Editing by David Holmes)
Shreenus Blog
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Indian couple sentenced for UK immigration scam
An Indian citizen who arrived as a student in 2000 and went on to perpetuate a series of immigration scams to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds by helping many Indian citizens and others to stay in Britain illegally, has been jailed for 10 years.
Vijay Sorthia, 35, will be deported to India at the end of his 10-year sentence, while his 31-year-old his wife, Bhawna Sorthia, who helped him carry out the scams, was jailed for 15 months and also faces deportation to India.
The couple have three children.
The sentences were pronounced in the Isleworth Crown Court yesterday.
When Sorthia was arrested at his house in north-west London in May 2010, officials of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) found over 330,000 pounds in cash. Sorthia and his wife ran an immigration advisory company called Migration Gurus.
UKBA spokesman Adam Edwards said: "Mr Sorthia had dozens of clients who had applied to the Home Office for extensions to their visas, claiming to be 'highly skilled migrants'. They were mainly Indian and most of them were already here".
Sorthia had accreditation as an adviser with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), which is linked to the Home Office.
The accreditation enabled him to assist individuals with claims for asylum, as well as immigration, residence and citizenship applications.
Edwards added: "What the couple did was set up a number of cover companies with bank accounts registered in their own names which would provide clients with pay slips and wage payments to make it look like they were employed as things like IT specialists and earning much more than they actually were".
Between 2008 and 2010, the couple helped more than 160 'clients' illegally gain visa extensions by providing them false documents to claim that they were highly skilled migrants.
Fifteen clients who benefited from the Sorthia scam have also been convicted and sentenced between 8 to 10 months in prison. Fourteen of them have been banished from UK.
The 'clients' reportedly paid the couple between 3,000 pounds and 4,000 pounds for their service. "When officers searched Sorthia's property they found approximately 330,000 pounds in cash," Edwards said. Most of that money, 270,000 pounds, was in a holdall in the back of a cupboard but other bundles of money were also
discovered, which had clients' numbers and names on them.
UKBA's senior investigating officer Robert Coxhead said: "Vijay and Bhawna Sorthia knowingly flouted the UK's
immigration laws. They ran a sophisticated scam designed to help people who would otherwise have no right to be here to stay in the UK.
"The amount of cash found at their home illustrates how lucrative this was, and we will now begin the process of
stripping them of those assets using the Proceeds of Crime Act".
The court was told that following their arrest in May 2010, the couple sold their London house and transferred
466,000 pounds out of the country and went to India. They were arrested again after they returned to Britain in
July 2011.
Sorthia was convicted of obtaining or seeking to obtain leave to enter UK by deception on or before 24 October 2004, conspiracy to defraud between 1 April 2008 and 30 September 2010, possession of 332,000 pounds of criminal property, removing criminal property from England and Wales and possessing articles for use in fraud.
Bhawna was convicted of being concerned in an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by Vijay Sorthia and others before 30 September 2010, removing criminal property from England and Wales and possessing articles for use in fraud.
Sentencing the couple at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Andrew McDowall said Sorthia's actions risked 'undermining' Britain's immigration controls and 'eroding public confidence' that migrants had arrived lawfully.
He warned: "During difficult economic times, it becomes easier for those who are motivated by racial motives to start casting aspersions against those that are properly and legitimately in the country by trying to paint everyone of that ethnic group as tainted in some way, over the wrongdoings done by a limited number."
Vijay Sorthia, 35, will be deported to India at the end of his 10-year sentence, while his 31-year-old his wife, Bhawna Sorthia, who helped him carry out the scams, was jailed for 15 months and also faces deportation to India.
The couple have three children.
The sentences were pronounced in the Isleworth Crown Court yesterday.
When Sorthia was arrested at his house in north-west London in May 2010, officials of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) found over 330,000 pounds in cash. Sorthia and his wife ran an immigration advisory company called Migration Gurus.
UKBA spokesman Adam Edwards said: "Mr Sorthia had dozens of clients who had applied to the Home Office for extensions to their visas, claiming to be 'highly skilled migrants'. They were mainly Indian and most of them were already here".
Sorthia had accreditation as an adviser with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), which is linked to the Home Office.
The accreditation enabled him to assist individuals with claims for asylum, as well as immigration, residence and citizenship applications.
Edwards added: "What the couple did was set up a number of cover companies with bank accounts registered in their own names which would provide clients with pay slips and wage payments to make it look like they were employed as things like IT specialists and earning much more than they actually were".
Between 2008 and 2010, the couple helped more than 160 'clients' illegally gain visa extensions by providing them false documents to claim that they were highly skilled migrants.
Fifteen clients who benefited from the Sorthia scam have also been convicted and sentenced between 8 to 10 months in prison. Fourteen of them have been banished from UK.
The 'clients' reportedly paid the couple between 3,000 pounds and 4,000 pounds for their service. "When officers searched Sorthia's property they found approximately 330,000 pounds in cash," Edwards said. Most of that money, 270,000 pounds, was in a holdall in the back of a cupboard but other bundles of money were also
discovered, which had clients' numbers and names on them.
UKBA's senior investigating officer Robert Coxhead said: "Vijay and Bhawna Sorthia knowingly flouted the UK's
immigration laws. They ran a sophisticated scam designed to help people who would otherwise have no right to be here to stay in the UK.
"The amount of cash found at their home illustrates how lucrative this was, and we will now begin the process of
stripping them of those assets using the Proceeds of Crime Act".
The court was told that following their arrest in May 2010, the couple sold their London house and transferred
466,000 pounds out of the country and went to India. They were arrested again after they returned to Britain in
July 2011.
Sorthia was convicted of obtaining or seeking to obtain leave to enter UK by deception on or before 24 October 2004, conspiracy to defraud between 1 April 2008 and 30 September 2010, possession of 332,000 pounds of criminal property, removing criminal property from England and Wales and possessing articles for use in fraud.
Bhawna was convicted of being concerned in an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by Vijay Sorthia and others before 30 September 2010, removing criminal property from England and Wales and possessing articles for use in fraud.
Sentencing the couple at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Andrew McDowall said Sorthia's actions risked 'undermining' Britain's immigration controls and 'eroding public confidence' that migrants had arrived lawfully.
He warned: "During difficult economic times, it becomes easier for those who are motivated by racial motives to start casting aspersions against those that are properly and legitimately in the country by trying to paint everyone of that ethnic group as tainted in some way, over the wrongdoings done by a limited number."
Allu Sirish behind three hot girls
Allu Sirish gave a new life to at least three forgotten beauties of Tollywood. They are Archana, Madhu Shalini and Nikhita. These three are unsuccessful heroines in Tollywood even after acting in quite a few movies and shows no inhibitions in exposing their hot bodies. Though Nikitha getting some roles in Kannada, Archana and Madhu Shalini confined themselves to stage shows, and functions to make their living expenses.
There comes South Scope calendar shoot like oasis in desert. Allu Sirish who often spends time with these girls in pubs and private parties, influenced them to go bold for the shoot. These hot beauties didn’t let go the opportunity wasted and exposed maximum to get the attention. The trick worked in their favour, now it is heard that everyone is getting calls from producers to cast them. Leading the pack is Archana with at least three offers.
Allu Sirish who is very good at promoting the products, already created enough curiosity by releasing limited copies of South Scope calendar. Now he is promoting these three hot girls with his distinctive vision.
Deepika-Ranbir break-up out in the open
It is by now well known that Bollywood love birds Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone have broken up their relationship. Though both were busy with their respective film assignments, they stopped seeing each other when in Mumbai and in between shoots.
Recently, a party was hosted by jewellery designer Maheep Kapoor and fashion designer Nandita Mahtani and the top celebs of Bollywood were invited.
Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Arjun Rampal, costume designer Shabina Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh. Sonam Kapoor, Nandita, Dino Morea were present at the party. Ranbir discovered that Deepika was also present at the party and both of them tried their best to avoid each other. The cold vibes between the estranged love birds were felt by all attending the party.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Lara Dutta launches yoga DVD for pregnant women
Lara Dutta is one of the fittest ladies out there. She has been practising yoga for over 12 years and continued through her pregnancy period. However, the former Ms Universe understood that since she was pregnant her routine would need to be modified. Lara Dutta has been a yoga practitioner for 12 years and when she became pregnant, she didn’t feel the need to stop with her daily exercises. But she understood that given the changes her body was undergoing, the routine needed to be modified to a specific prenatal routine. Lara is a veteran in the Fitness DVD scene and has had a successful run with the first three DVDs in the ‘H.E.A.L with Lara’ series. Her yoga instruction, Tonia Clarke is a certified pre-natal yoga teacher backed up her view that there was a market for a quality yoga DVD that’d help women stay fit through the three trimesters of pregnancy. The fitness DVD will be presented by Temple Wellness in association with Bheegi Basanti Entertainment.
The DVD is approximately 50 minutes long and comprises of a 30-min prenatal routine followed by two meditation techniques – Sohan and Har har. Prenatal yoga focusses on asanas and positions that helps create more space within the womb for the baby. It also helps beat lethargy and keeps the mood swings in check. According to the former Miss World the routine will benefit both the mother and her unborn child.
Rahul Dravid: Fitness secrets of the Wall
When Rahul Dravid called it a day, it marked the end of an era for Indian cricket. A lot has been said about his ability to play marathon innings so we decided to delve into his fitness regime to figure out what kept the man ticking for so long. And here’s what we found out:
Fitness Regime
The Wall usually got up at 6 am for a metabolic run followed by a meditation session. A metabolic run consists of a variety of high intensity short sprints, a training regimen followed by elite athletes around the world. On match days he followed this up with shadow practise. Obviously all international cricketers have to be in shape but Dravid was in a class of his own when it came to taking care of his body.http://health.india.com/fitness/rahul-dravid-fitness-secrets-of-the-wall/
Sonam Kapoor says quit smoking or opt for electronic cigarettes
Smoking’s not cool and Bollywood finally seems to have woken up to that harsh reality. Recently, Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor went on record registering her support for electronic cigarettes. She posted on a micro-blogging website, “Smoking is seriously not good! There are electric cigs available now. A lot of my friends are using it.” Now e-cigarettes are one of the most successful nicotine replacement therapies. Sonam Kapoor added that she felt it was hypocritical that the government which took such stringent measures to curb smoking on ld.
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