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Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty on Friday said efforts were being made to explore ways to pay for oil imported from Iran, which has been subjected to international sanctions. Chakrabarty termed the issue as one arising purely out of international sanctions on Iran and not a financial one. “We are finding, something is happening,” he said when asked about the way ahead to pay Iran for the crude which the country imports. When asked about the recent visit by an Indian team to the Gulf nation for settling the issue, he said, “They have to find a way out. “It is very difficult. It is international diplomacy. It has nothing to do with finance,” Chakrabarty said, speaking on the sidelines of an event here this evening. “The problem is we are not able to route the transactions through some banks because of international sanctions,” he added. Iran is the country’s second largest supplier of crude after Saudi Arabia. Earlier, payments for crude were made through multi-lateral settlement mechanisms which stopped about a year ago due to UN-imposed sanctions. Later, a novel way of payment was worked out wherein the Iranian Central Bank opened rupee accounts with Indian commercial banks, but that also is reportedly in trouble. US President Barack Obama on December 31 signed into law measures that deny access to the US financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the central bank of Iran. A report earlier this week said Iran was exploring the idea of increasing imports from India to compensate for its export of oil.

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India trying to find ways to pay for Iran oil: RBI

Tha Neih Ciang is learning vocabulary words with other immigrant students. She’s among four dozen Burmese youngsters at Bollman Bridge Elementary School, which is less than an hour’s drive from Washington.  

Their teacher, Laurel Conran, specializes in teaching English to speakers of other languages.

“Today we were doing text structures,” she says. “I wanted them to know the vocabulary, the language of text structures, so when they go back into the classroom and work with their peers, they can do this successfully in the classroom.”

Lunch-time learning

Tha Neih’s mother, Tin Iang, also practices English with Conran, only their session takes place in the cafeteria of Coastal Sunbelt Produce. Many Burmese refugees work on assembly lines at the fruit and vegetable distributor. Conran started classes here to help them learn English.

“The program is a six-week session,” she says. “It is once a week, on every Wednesday from 12 to one o’clock. So every Wednesday I go to Coastal Sunbelt.”

About 18,000 Burmese refugees have come to the United States each year since 2007.

Four years ago, when a large number of Burmese refugees first arrived in Howard County, Bollman Bridge Elementary introduced intensive English programs for the children.

While the youngsters learned English, Conran noticed it was hard to connect with their parents.

“Some of them do not know the name of the school that their children attend,” she says.  

With help from Lisa Chertok – a school parent and manager at Coastal Sunbelt – Conran developed English lessons to teach at the parents’ workplace. Each Wednesday, during their lunch break, Burmese workers sit in small groups with an English-speaking volunteer to practice their new language skills.

Making a difference

The program has the support of Bollman Bridge’s principal.

“I really see it as the beginning of a great partnership between a business and a school and we have just begun to scratch the surface with how that could benefit, really, the greater community,” says Jonathan Davis, who hopes the lessons help Burmese parents become more comfortable communicating with the school. “Even as simply as making a phone call to say that their son or daughter is sick, even if that is the amount of English that they have gotten from the program, that truly will help us.”   

Chertok believes it’s already made a difference in the workplace.

“When the Burmese employees got here, they were very, very shy,” she says. “Now I find that they are more responsive as employees. They are more communicative. They are also, as parents, more involved in their children’s school.”

For their efforts, Chertok and Conran received a 2011 Community Builders Award from Howard County.

“I love this program,” Conran says. “As a community we want to work together, collaboratively, because when everybody works together it is a win-win situation.”  

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Immigrants Learn English With Their Children

Many activities have been planned in Bangkok and other major provinces in celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year and to welcome the Year of the Dragon.This years Chinese New Year’s Day falls on January 23.

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Thailand plans Big Celebration for Chinese Year of the Dragon

The output of other sectors was also affected during the recent crisis, although less markedly because they had been growing slower than the sectors linked to external demand.
Policies that could contribute to reducing Thailand’s dependence on foreign demand include a phased liberalization of the services sector, boosting transport infrastructure, a reform of educational curricula and improved access and quality of higher education to boost skills of the labor force, better integration of universities, firms and government, and improved social safety nets

Pathom Yongvanich, a founding partner of PYI, says Asian markets have not only benefited from the inflow of international capital, but also from the growing sophistication of Asian investors themselves.
Mr Pathom noted that past a certain level of market capitalization, investors appear to take a different view on valuations.

The investor of Thach Khe
iron ore mine, the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asian region, has decided to
double investment in the project to ensure it is completed on
schedule.

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Southeast Asia’s largest iron mine to double investment

With implications both local and global, minimum wages and prices are on the rise in Guandong province, a region that’s been at the center of China’s manufacturing and economic rise. Government goals include moving beyond the low-end manufacturing that has long characterized Chinese industry and dealing with mounting inflation while keeping unemployment low. But these might be contradictory goals. Chinese small-business and factory owners are protesting the mandatory wage increase, which increases their expenses at a time when other costs are also on the rise. Companies are looking to poorer countries for labor, but the scale of the labor force in neighboring nations offer no quick alternative to China’s. The wage hikes signal the end to a large, inexpensive labor force at the world’s beck and call – as well as affordable Chinese-made products. – YaleGlobal Higher wages, combined with China’s goals to move beyond low-end manufacturing, signal an end to low-cost goods for the global consumers Kathleen E. McLaughlin GlobalPost, 16 January 2012 Rights:Copyright 2011 GlobalPost – International News

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Bye-bye Cheap, Chinese Labor

Thai police led Atris Hussein, a 48 year-old Lebanese man with suspected links to a Hezbollah to search a commercial building in Samut Sakhon province, adjacent to the capital, where they discovered chemical substances which could be used in making explosives.

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Terrorism in Thailand: the Swedish connection

On the demand side, the importance of external demand can be fully appreciated by recognizing that the bulk of inventories in Thailand are primarily inputs and finished goods for the export-oriented manufacturing. In the fourth quarter of 2009, for example, net exports and the change in inventories contributed 44 percent of the quarterly growth.
The continuation of certain government policies, especially the pension to the elderly and free education should also support higher consumption levels for the poor. The longer-term goal of reducing reliance on external demand will take time, especially given political uncertainties that hinder the government’s ability to implement not only its investment program but also needed structural reforms.

Chinese investment funds, Middle Eastern petrodollars — there is a huge amount of new money being channeled into the Asian capital markets.
The 2009 market rally reflects the perception that valuations are about long-term potential, and that political crises in Thailand rarely have a dramatic impact on the fundamentals of the economy. If we look at the EV/EBITDA multiples of the oil and gas sector, for example, valuations are still low compared to regional peers : this is partly a reflection of regulatory risks and political instability in Thailand.

Businesses, which are facing high inventory level and production stagnation,
welcome the New Year 2012 in anxiety.

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Facing production stagnation, businesses welcome 2012 in anxiety

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft’s booth was definitely one of the coolest (and biggest) we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show today. We saw Star Wars Pod Racing in 3D, all the best new Windows Phones, and even a woman trying on virtual clothes using Xbox Kinect . Here are our favorite things we saw at Microsoft’s booth. Microsoft’s CES booth is one of the best at the entire show.

The booth is massive, and it was packed when we visited it. Microsoft is offering $100 to anybody whose phone is faster than a Windows Phone.

They’d even let you swap your phone for a Windows Phone.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook .

See Also: HANDS ON: Nokia’s Gorgeous Lumia 900, Microsoft’s Only Chance To Beat The iPhone 33 Big And Beautiful New Screenshots Of Windows 8 In Action CES DAY 1: Here Are All The Incredible Gadgets You Missed, Plus A Very ‘Enthusiastic’ Steve Ballmer

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Microsoft’s CES Booth Was Packed With Windows Phones, Windows 8, And Even 3D Star Wars Pod Racing (MSFT)