India's tea pickers push for better wages
Indians are known for their appetite for a good cup of chai — or tea — and the country is one of the world's leading producers. India's historic tea industry is going through a technological revolution that is paying benefits to landowners and distributors, and workers are starting to push for a share of the wealth.
India's tea industry
According to the Indian Tea Board, there were 159,190 tea plantations in India, comprised of small and large growers, when it did its last industry report in 2007.
At that time, India's tea industry employed 1.26 million workers, about 635,000 of them women.
One area where the pickers are making progress is in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, in the famed Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. CBC's Priya Sankaran and photographer Pawel Dwulit visited the tea growing region near the city of Siliguri to speak to workers and managers in the groves.
India's tea industry is modernizing its distribution systems, adopting things like e-commerce auction systems to better market what it produces. India now exports nearly half a billion dollars worth of tea worldwide, and its sales to Canada alone equal almost $5 million a year.
Workers sing as they pluck tea leaves in a field at the Bagdogra Tea Estate near the city of Siliguri in West Bengal, India. ((Pawel Dwulit))
But relatively little of this money goes to the people in the tea fields. The workers spend eight hours a day in the hot sun and must pick at least 20 kilograms of tea leaves to earn a daily wage of a little less than $2 — a low income even in a country where an estimated 300 million live in poverty.
"It's not like $2 in Canada, that is true," says Rajnikanta Verma, the former Indian High Commissioner to Ottawa. "But $2 in India, the way prices are, is still really very, very low. You cannot maintain a family, give them nutritious food, give them health and education, and have any standard of living."
Now the pickers are organizing and starting to demand better wages.
The Bagdogra Tea Estate, a family-owned operation that produces about 1 million kilograms of black tea a year, was one grove hit by a strike last year. Its owners quickly offered modest wage increases to get the pickers back to work.
"We strike because we are paid very little and work hard," says picker Marisia Bada through a translator. "We are striking to get our pay increased. We work from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 pm. We have to earn to eat."
India's tea pickers push for better wages - World - CBC News
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India is coming to Hollywood, and planning to stay.
The India-based Reliance MediaWorks -- a division of the media giant Reliance Group that has funded DreamWorks -- is moving its headquarters to Los Angeles and looking to expand within the industry in production services.
“The objective is not to be small, but to be a big, industrial-sized player,” said Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun, in an interview with TheWrap. ‘We don’t want to position ourselves as a company driven out of India. We want to be based out of L.A. We’re a large, global entity.”
Having surged to $200 million in revenue in the past several years, the company is focused on growth and on getting attention in the United States. Arjun believes that MediaWorks could double its revenue again in the next two years.
It’s an ambitous goal, but MediaWorks is kind of on a roll.
Reliance MediaWorks already operates the largest theater chain in India, with 550 screens across the region, and runs the largest digital restoration and film processing facility in India, employing 1,500 people.
But Arjun believes there is room for more expansion in Hollywood, despite the movie industry’s many structural challenges in the digital age.
He will focus on providing visual effects -- computer graphics, animation and digital mastering -- and media services, which essentially means coding content for a variety of platforms in the digital age, such as mobile phones and tablets.
In 2007 Reliance MediaWorks acquired Lowry Digital, a film restoration company based in Burbank that also provides digital post-production services and has worked on movies from “Avatar” to “The Social Network.” (Lowry is up for an Oscar for scientific achievement for the development of a noise-reduction system for images.)
Arjun hopes to own the post-production market. “We look at Hollywood as the front-end of our business,” said Arjun.
The company started in India as a film processing service, with about $20 million per year of business. After Reliance bought a controlling interest in the core Adlabs company in 2006, the company grew its revenue tenfold, and began to focus on horizontal expansion, dominating the film printing business.
It’s no secret that the parent company, Reliance Global, is focused on creating a long-term presence in Hollywood. The company threw millions of dollars into development deals with A-list talent -- from Tom Hanks ond own -- and has put several hundred million dollars into DreamWorks.
According to the company, Reliance MediaWorks Burbank has developed sophisticated proprietary software that delivers high-tech results for restoration, remastering, SD to HD upconversions, large format films, new production emergency work, 3D correction and 2D to 3D conversion.
The company’s body of work includes film restoration for classics like "Citizen Kane," "Singin’ In The Rain," "Casablanca," "Sunset Boulevard," the Indiana Jones trilogy, the early "Star Wars" films, twenty James Bond films, and numerous classic Disney animated films.
India's Reliance MediaWorks Stakes a Claim in Hollywood | Reuters
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Every fourth acquisition in Germany is from India
By KR Sudhaman Feb 11 2012
Indian companies top the list of emerging economies acquiring German firms, acting German ambassador to India told KR Sudhaman in an interview. Excerpts:
Do you subscribe to the view that Indian companies are looking at acquisitions in Europe and in Germany in the face of rising insolvency in the continent due to the debt crisis?
If you permit me to say the characteristic of German investment in India is that German companies are here for long time. This shows that they believe in long-term partnership. German investments are not hit and run. They are strategic and long-term. So in general very smart investment.
Germany by the way is very successful country now because 10 years ago it took the right decisions on labour reforms as it was facing a crisis at that time. India also started reforms during a crisis in 1990s. More precisely, Indian companies have analysed the market and they have found very good climate in Germany.
So you think the climate is good for Indian companies to look for acquisitions in Germany?
Per unit labour cost is one of the lowest in Germany and this is one of the reasons for success of German companies. This makes production per unit very competitive in Germany. It is because of labour efficiency and technology. Employees have contributed greatly to the long-term health of the companies. Indian companies have understood that. I have very interesting figure. When you take emerging markets, India is now on top of emerging markets investment in Germany. inEvery fourth acquisition in Germany is by an Indian. India is on top followed by Russia and then China among emerging economies.
Which are the sectors that Indian companies are looking at in Germany?
The sectors are software, automotive and renewable energy. Suzlon is a very good case in point. India ranks 12th in greenfield and brownfield projects in Germany. Ten important Indian projects in Germany since 2003 are Suzlon Energy, Kalyani group, Jet Airways, Hexaware Technologies, Firepro systems, Dabur India, Veauli Engineers, Ensoft Informatics, Orient Autocom Stamping, and Bharat Fritz Werner.
Why do you think Indian companies are looking at Germany?
The reason is that I see a lot of similarity in business mentality. Like in Germany, it is family business in India. They go for strategic acquisition.
Are Indian companies spread all over Germany?
There are 280 Indian companies spread over 16 federal states in Germany as of 2010. They employ about 13,000 people.
Apart from Germany, which are the other countries in Europe where Indian companies are looking at acquisition?
In general, I believe in India’s opening up to markets in Europe and global markets. India should go step by step to acquire companies and not rush into it. A cautious approach should be adopted. But the potential is enormous.
How do you see Indo-German economic cooperation moving forward?
We have a target to achieve $20 billion bilateral trade, which we hope to achieve this year. This is only one step. The potential is much more. There are 1,500 German companies in India giving direct and indirect employment to half-a-million Indian people. Germany is strong in auto and auto components and clean energy. India is also strong in those areas and there is a lot of potential for bilateral cooperation. India and Germany can also cooperate in skill development. Germany is strong on vocational education. The German model of dual education, that is combining theory with practical training, will be very useful in helping India realising skill development of 500 million people by 2022. We have now lowered the criteria for issue of blue card that provides permanent resident status to migrants. Now any Indian, who completes education in Germany, can stay for one more year without a job. Now there are several universities in Germany where Indian students can pursue their graduation, post graduation and Phds in English. There has been 25 per cent increase in Indian students in Germany last year.
Are Indian companies preferred to Chinese companies in Germany?
India and Germany have a lot of things in common. Both the countries believe in democracy. There are similarities in values. Indian companies can also look at East Germany for investments. East Germany has state-of-the art infrastructure and it is a place to invest for Indian companies.
What could be the future areas of cooperation between the two countries?
We will have one interesting investment soon. TUEV is a setup involved in technical verification. For example, every technical unit, say a car, will be certified.
A pilot project is likely to be started in New Delhi for certification of cars. TUEV did a similar project in Turkey after which road accident deaths got reduced. This may not be a big investment but an important one. In Railway signalling too, there is something in the offing.
Every fourth acquisition in Germany is from India | mydigitalfc.com