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HDFC on Thursday raised $1 billion by issuance of AT-1 bonds, priced at 3.70%, which is 42.5 basis points lower than initial price guidance
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Use of AI is increasing the power of Big Tech players like Google and Facebook and their control over our lives
This post was originally published on Michael West Media.
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In the international market, gold was trading higher at USD 1,793 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 23.88 per ounce
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By Fiona Hurd, Auckland University of Technology and Suzette Dyer, University of Waikato
The revelations last week of toxic workplace behaviour and a “boys’ club” culture at MediaWorks raise questions about organisational policies and processes that go well beyond a single company.
The MediaWorks review by Maria Dew QC identified instances of bullying, sexism, harassment, inappropriate relationships and use of illegal drugs. Her report’s 32 recommendations will now inform a culture change plan at the company.
The case provides a warning and an example for other organisations looking to improve their own cultures. But it also underlines how pervasive and resistant to change these problems can be — as our own research has shown.
- READ MORE: Depression, burnout, insomnia, headaches: how a toxic and sexist workplace culture can affect your health
- Women don’t speak up over workplace harassment because no one hears them if they do
- The real cost of workplace sexual harassment to businesses
- Scathing MediaWorks review reveals ‘boys’ club culture’, bullying and racism
We analysed three years of reflections by tertiary human resources (HR) students who had just completed a training session on sexual harassment processes and responses. While all felt they better understood definitions of sexual harassment and bullying after the course, they also felt there was a lack of consequences for the harassers, and that victims often lose everything.
More concerning, the students almost unanimously said they would be unlikely to raise the matter if they witnessed an act of harassment. Many also felt they would find it difficult to speak up about or improve inadequate HR policies or processes they might find at future employers.
They felt to do so would be a “black mark” on their own career development. While many “hoped” they would speak out, they were unsure how they would act in reality. Those who had experienced sexual harassment themselves reflected on how “difficult it is to make a complaint”.
#LATEST: MediaWorks investigation uncovers multiple sexual assault, racism, sexism, drug use allegations, CEO ‘unreservedly apologises’ https://t.co/eU2WWH0Zca
— Newshub ENT (@NewshubENT) August 4, 2021
HR is part of the culture
This last observation is important. Not unlike the findings in the recent Christchurch Girls High School survey, close to half of the HR students reported instances of either experiencing or witnessing an act of sexual harassment in the workplace.Most reported they would likely “remain silent and just leave” if faced with instances of harassment in their future professional lives. Simply put, as other research has also shown, we found sexual harassment was experienced as a “normal” and complex part of working within a corporate environment.
This is not a criticism of HR students, who will no doubt move on to become ethical, high-performing professionals. In fact, their responses mirror those we see across employee groups.
But our study is unique — most research has focused on managerial or employee experiences of sexual harassment, whereas ours involves practitioners who play a critical role in harassment policy design and implementation, as well as in developing work cultures intolerant of harassment.
To see such responses in a group that is often blamed for organisational failure by high-profile inquiries suggests we first need to acknowledge that HR people themselves are working within a wider culture that can inhibit meaningful change.
TONIGHT: The dark side of one of our largest broadcasting companies. I’ve spoken to current & former Mediaworks radio staff who say they have no faith a current culture review will lead to change, partly because it’s claimed the problems are coming from the top. 6pm tonight. pic.twitter.com/hzX7bJpX13
— Kristin Hall (@kristinhallNZ) May 19, 2021
Why workers don’t speak up
The responses in our research reflect the expectations of a corporate culture these future leaders are already well versed in — that to speak up means potentially sacrificing your own professional progression, or risking being seen as someone who “can’t take a joke”.Many people will understand this dilemma, which is not limited to speaking up about harassment and bullying. Those who speak up against racism and discrimination based on sexual orientation or disability face similar issues.
If even those charged with developing processes to support positive work cultures are not confident in speaking up, how do organisations do better? This is surely an issue of critical importance to all New Zealand organisations, given recent reports suggesting the problem is widespread and certainly not limited to high-profile cases.
As the Mediaworks report showed, solutions have to go beyond fixing the support processes for employees who have experienced harassment, and involve confronting the largely invisible drivers of toxic organisational culture.
These are not easily captured in a traditional “organisational values” statement. The idea of “culture” extends to the language, behaviours and micro-interactions we have with one another every day.
Our research participants reported their own experiences of needing to “adapt to the crass behaviour” and the difficulty in stepping outside taken-for-granted norms: “You can’t put up a force field.”
Leaders need to be honest
Given this, perhaps recommendations around processes and training programmes specific to sexual harassment are not enough. Instead, the key might lie in seeing this behaviour as part of wider cultural behaviours that, on their own, might not immediately raise alarm bells.Studies have shown that any form of disrespectful behaviour — such as refusing to help, spreading rumours, subtle undermining, or even leadership behaviour such as “shoulder tapping” for preferential treatment — can lead to a culture that supports toxic power structures and where harassment and bullying become risks.
Many of these behaviours are seen as a “normal” part of office politics, easy to dismiss or difficult to see. More importantly, they can be hard for leaders to admit to — we all want to lead organisations with strong, positive organisational cultures.
But having clear, candid and honest discussions with colleagues around the leadership table about the invisible culture will open a dialogue and create the potential for change.
Importantly, it takes a willingness by leaders to be brave enough to take an honest look in the cultural “mirror” and be open to what is revealed.
Dr Fiona Hurd, head of department, International Business, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Auckland University of Technology, and Suzette Dyer, senior lecturer in human resource management, University of Waikato. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
- READ MORE: Depression, burnout, insomnia, headaches: how a toxic and sexist workplace culture can affect your health
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Flipkart has sharpened its focus on scaling up this category with sellers, brands and farmers
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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On year-on-year basis, all categories were in the green with two-wheelers up by 28%, three-wheelers up by 83%, passenger vehicles up by 63%
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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The case pertains to an investigation by ED into allegations of attracting foreign investment by Flipkart and WS Retail
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Silver also zoomed Rs 766 to Rs 66,926 per kilogram from Rs 66,160 per kilogram in the previous trade
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PepsiCo bought Tropicana in 1998 and the Naked juice brand, also part of the sale Tuesday, about 10 years later
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Tesla Inc Chief Exec Elon Musk said in July that the company was likely to set up a factory in India if successful with imported vehicles
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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e-Rupi voucher will be delivered in the form of a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher to the beneficiary’s mobile number
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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MPC may shrug off inflation build-up
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OYO’s survival through the COVID crisis and resurgence shows that it is a company with strong fundamentals and high value potential
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The company is eligible to have exclusivity for 12 months before the FDA can approve another biosimilar interchangeable to Lantus
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Gold Council has refrained from giving a yearly estimate of gold demand
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Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Bill to protect bank deposits of up to Rs 5 lakh
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Last month, the DCGI had approved the oral medication for emergency usage
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There has been a sharp spike in retail slippages, especially from gold loans and the farm segment, as the Covid second wave hit repayments
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By Harry Lock, RNZ News reporter
The tourism and hospitality sectors are disappointed but understanding of the New Zealand decision to suspend the travel bubble.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the decision yesterday afternoon, and said the suspension in quarantine-free travel would go on for at least eight weeks.
It comes at a particularly bad time for the ski sector, which was looking forward to welcoming Australians over the next couple of weeks.
Ski-based accommodation provider, Ski Time, at the foot of Mount Hutt ski field, is expecting to lose more than half of its bookings over the next two months due to the travel bubble suspension.
The manager, Pete Wood, said as a result, they may have to make some redundancies.
“It is going to be tough, we’ll probably have to make some tough decisions over the next couple of weeks depending on how business travels along.
“We certainly don’t want to lose any staff – we’ve got a great team here at the moment and they’ve all pitched in to survive the last 18 months together, and it would be a shame to lose a few of them.”
60 percent Australian
He said 60 percent of all the business’s August bookings were by Australians and they would now all be cancelled.He hoped New Zealanders would be heading to the South Island for a ski holiday this August, to make up for the lack of Australians.
“We had a pretty chocka-block August coming up, but of course with these cancellations, there’s going to be quite a few gaps here, which makes way for Kiwis to start travelling again, because they can’t go to Australia.”
Ski Time is not the only business to be losing out: one Queenstown operator said cancellations have been coming in thick and fast since the suspension of the trans-Tasman travel bubble.
Mark Quickfall owns Totally Tourism, and like many operators in the south, he said they were gearing up for a big winter season with visitors from Australia.
He said many businesses and employees will be feeling anxious after yesterday’s announcement, especially if more staff have been brought in in anticipation of higher visitor numbers.
“We’re only one leak from an outbreak. If you have a choice of opening up and ending up with a lockdown, or staying protected, I think we know what the answer is there.
“But it doesn’t make it any easier.”
Support ruled out
The government has ruled out any specific support for tourism businesses hit by the suspension.A financial cost to operators is coming though.
“There’s been a huge number of cancellations just rushing in,” Quickfall said. “Like everyone down here, we had strong bookings out of Australia, for our heli-ski businesses, helicopter operations, down at Milford.
“That’s all just disappeared overnight.”
The tourism industry body said it hopes the suspension of the trans-Tasman bubble will not go on any longer than eight weeks.
Industry pins hopes on September holidays
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said while it is disappointing, it is the right decision to make.He said operators would be looking forward to the next Australian school holidays, which begin in mid-September. If the bubble is up and running then, Roberts expects large numbers of visitors will be booking trips again.
“If the bubble’s up and running again by September, then we can expect good numbers of Australian visitors coming over here for those school holidays in September.
“That’s something we can look forward to in the end of what is hopefully only an eight-week suspension.”
Roberts hopes domestic tourists will fill some of the gap in the meantime, and that the financial hit will not be too bad.
“There are relatively few Australian visitors currently in New Zealand.
“Those Australians who were planning to come to New Zealand in the next eight weeks which would have included some skiing holidays will now have to cancel those plans and that’s reasonably unfortunate.
New Zealanders may holiday at home
“But at the same time, New Zealanders won’t be heading off to Australia, and some of those New Zealanders might choose to holiday at home instead.”Meanwhile, the hospitality industry said the government needed to rethink its decision not to offer support to businesses hit by the suspension of the trans-Tasman bubble.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said while it was the right decision, businesses would suffer.
She said the hospitality and tourism sectors have borne the brunt of the economic impact of the lockdowns and border restrictions.
“Hospitality and tourism are the lost leaders when it comes to the cost of balancing the health risk. I think this is the time – we really need to have that robust conversation with the government.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The stock made its debut at Rs 115, and later hit a high of Rs 138
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On July 27, 2021, from 12:00-1:00 pm EST, join the ABA International Law Section’s International Human Rights Committee as their roundtable experts evaluate the second revised draft treaty on transnational corporations and business enterprises regarding human rights prepared by the…
This post was originally published on Human Rights at Home Blog.
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The RBI has also been exploring the pros and cons of introduction of CBDCs since quite some time
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In the international market, gold was trading lower at USD 1,797 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 25.17 per ounce
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Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest exporter of crude oil and India’s second-biggest source after Iraq
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Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.08 per cent to 92.33
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Petrol prices were hiked by up to 35 paise whereas diesel prices were increased by 15 paise
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Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
Papua New Guinea’s biggest bank — Bank South Pacific with major branch networks across the Pacific region — is the subject of regulatory action by the country’s banking regulator BPNG over failure to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, reports the PNG Post-Courier.
The Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (FASU) of the Central Bank yesterday took regulatory action against the BSP Financial Group Ltd for alleged non-compliance.
The action includes the issuance of a formal warning under section 100 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Act 2015, an enforceable undertaking from BSP that it will remove and replace certain executive management staff and for the BSP to engage an external auditor to determine the full extent of the underlying good governance and best business practice issues that were identified during the onsite inspection by FASU.
The external auditor’s examination will cover enhanced customer due diligence practices employed by BSP on all high risk and politically exposed people who are customers of BSP.
The director of the Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit of the Central Bank, Benny Popoitai, said in a media release: “The nature of BSP’s non-compliance is serious enough for FASU to have issued an infringement notice, however, FASU has chosen to apply a formal warning instead, making this the first occasion of regulatory action undertaken by FASU against BSP.”
Among the alleged breaches detailed by FASU were BSP’s alleged failure to:
- conduct ongoing due diligence in respect of all of its business relationships in contravention of section 17(1) of the Act;
- ensure that transactions carried out on behalf of its customers are consistent with its knowledge of the customer, the customer’s commercial or personal activities and risk profile contrary to section 17(2)(b) of the Act;
- ensure that ongoing enhanced due diligence is conducted with respect to politically exposed persons in accordance with section 29(b) of the Act;
- conduct enhanced customer due diligence in accordance with the requirements of sections 27 and 28 of the Act where it had taken the view that the customer was a politically exposed person contrary to section 26(1) of the Act;
- obtain information relating to the source of the assets or the wealth of the customer when conducting enhanced due diligence contrary to section 27(b) of the Act;
- take reasonable steps to verify information relating to the source of the assets or the wealth of the customer contrary to section 28(b) of the Act; and
- take all reasonable steps to identify whether a customer or beneficial owner is a politically exposed person contrary to section 29(1) of the Act.
According to Wikipedia, BSP has 35 branches throughout Papua New Guinea and in eight other countries.
Outside PNG, the bank’s operations span Cambodia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Laos, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. It also has correspondent banking relationships with Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and National Australia Bank (NAB) provide correspondent banking services to BSP in Australia, providing a gateway for BSP’s clients from across the Pacific to transfer money in and out of Australia.
BSP employs more than 3000 people and services more than 650,000 business banking customers throughout the Pacific.
On site inspections
The FASU media release said the unit had conducted on site inspections on BSP in 2019 and late last year it had issued the bank with a “show cause notice” requiring it to explain why FASU should not impose enforcement action.BSP’s response to FASU was a blanket denial without any acknowledgement of the deficiencies highlighted.
This, said Popoitai, had left FASU with no choice but to apply regulatory measures.
He also said: “FASU expects BSP to co-operate with the regulatory measures imposed.”
Penalties for breaching this Act are a fine of up to K500,000 (NZ$205,000) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both, or a fine of K1 million (NZ$410,000) for a body corporate, for each offence.
When contacted, BSP’s chief executive officer Robin Fleming told the Post-Courier: “At this stage BSP is unable to comment.”
However, in a later statement, the BSP group insisted it has complied with the regulations and was considering its legal options.
According to the Australian Financial Review, an enforceable undertaking is being sought with the bank to “remove and replace certain executive management staff”. This is understood to include Fleming.
BSP will also be required to hire an external auditor to ensure it complies with anti-money laundering laws in the future.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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India is the leading production hub for the production of the Sputnik vaccine
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What makes good design?
Sharief Vreugd: I don’t really have a design background. I think good design is something that is accessible to many people and something that helps people as well.
Akeem Ngwenya: What some people think designers do is sit around and make things pretty, right? Maybe that is one aspect of design, but I think what makes good design is that it should solve a problem. It should try to make the world better than it currently is. And in our case, that is the intention to make the world a bit more inclusive than it currently is. I think that is what good design should do.
Not that making things prettier is not a good thing to do. I’m sure there’s quite a big market for things that are prettier than they were before, and that is perfectly fine. But there are so many problems or opportunities in the world where there’s a need for design or creative thinking to come up with solutions that respond to those situations in a way that has not been thought of before. Or maybe it was thought of before, but has not been made better. I think that is where design, and creativity, has the most impact. It comes up with solutions where solutions don’t yet exist. It’s not just design, it’s creativity in general. Design is a function of that.
Have you always wanted to follow entrepreneurship? Or was this a new project that you took on?
Akeem: Personally I’ve not thought of myself as following that path. That is partly due to how and where I grew up [in Malawi and South Africa], where entrepreneurship is not really something that someone aspires to be. Even though entrepreneurship is quite a part of society, in the sense that you always have people selling tomatoes or something on the streets, it’s not codified as such. So you don’t aspire to become a tomato seller or something. It’s just something that happens because maybe there are no other options. So this in a sense happened, I guess, by chance, by accident. It’s a good accident to happen. It makes us independent and self-reliant. I don’t think it’s so much about being your own boss, but setting your own path in the world where you can work on something that matters to you personally, something that you can see start from the beginning and achieve a particular end. Entrepreneurship gives us that option.
I think that’s amazing because you’re imagining a future that doesn’t exist yet. I’m wondering, what is your relationship to imagination? Inherently as an entrepreneur, you have to be future-oriented.
Akeem: I think you said it perfectly. In the sense that being an entrepreneur requires imagination. You have an idea, maybe. We have an idea. Let’s say, “Okay, I think this could be something that might solve a particular problem or be good for society.” But an idea itself is just that. You have to put it into practice. And you, as an entrepreneur, you try to find ways and means to bring about that reality, either in the future or the reality in your head.
Sharief: I think Akeem is right. In a way, you need to believe in the product. And it’s maybe only in the beginning in your head. At some point, you have to try to sell that vision to people. But since it doesn’t exist or it’s just an idea, you really have to believe in this imaginary thing that doesn’t exist at all. I think believing is one of the most important aspects of an entrepreneur. Of course, you also have to work hard. With belief, I also think being optimistic is part of it. Because if you look at the numbers, the majority of startups, they just fail, but why do so many people still start companies? It’s because they believe in something.
Akeem: Yeah. That’s perfectly said. And with regards to going against the stream, given that 9 out of 10 startups fail, to really be an entrepreneur in practice is to embrace failure, the possibility of failure, but still not be afraid or deterred by that possibility of failure. And that can only come about if you have the conviction that you are working on something that you think is going to work and make a difference. And that is imagination and dreams.
How do you deal with the emotional roller coaster of that?
Sharief: I talk a lot with Akeem, of course. I think it’s important to have people around you that you can talk to. Many people actually don’t understand it because they live a different life. But if you can find yourself a small circle of people that is willing to listen to you, I think that’s very helpful because there’s so much going on and it’s not good to crop all those emotions, leave it inside of you. I think speaking helps me a lot.
Akeem: Starting a business is not a short term goal. So you have to have a long-term mindset, and it’s pretty much like I’d imagine trading on the stock exchange. If you’re going to trade depending on the performance of day-by-day, you’re probably going to lose money almost every hour. We don’t have linear progression or linear growth all the time, so you have to zoom out. Look at how things are developing. Look at where you as a start-up were six months ago, compared to where you are now. And then in that respect, you can say, “Okay. Today might be a shitty day, but hey, where was I six months ago?”
What do you consider failure, and how can you find success in it?
Sharief: Failure is the way people grow. If you don’t fail, that means you don’t try new things. And if you don’t try new things, it means you don’t take any risks. In order to learn, you need to try and fail. I think you learn the most things from things that actually don’t go very well. When you look at entrepreneurship, people always celebrate successful entrepreneurs, but all that success comes from a past. And most likely, there are a lot of failures in the past. We don’t really acknowledge them, but it’s so important to not be afraid to make mistakes. Failure is important. It’s normal and okay to fail. As long as you learn from your mistakes.
You’re running a Kickstarter campaign for a Reframd app. What makes a successful campaign in your eyes?
Sharief: I think it’s important to have a community that you can rely on. I think community is definitely something that is really important, but also you have to think of the target audience, the people that are on Kickstarter as well. Do you think those people will be interested in your project as well? So, yeah, I think it’s a mix of those two.
**Akeem: ** There definitely needs to be a community. But of course, you can’t just have the community… You’ll find that any single solution that you have to raise funds might or might not work, so you need more than one approach.
If someone feels compelled by this story, what is something you would want to share with them or ask them?
Akeem: I think maybe at the end of it would be, of course, to support our project. And if not, then share our campaign. But I think perhaps what’s more important is trying to think of where you as an individual pledge your money in any Kickstarter campaign, not just ours. What is the impact that pledge is having? I think most Kickstarter projects are independent projects and they are probably run by groups like us that are also coming from relatively nothing. I think for the most part you, as an individual, pledging towards the Kickstarter campaign, have such tremendous power to influence a product coming into reality. And so you need to ask: What is the product or the project or the artwork that you are pledging towards trying to achieve in the world?
You, as an individual, have tremendous power to have to shape society in how you pledge and where you buy your products outside of Kickstarter. Whether you buy organic or whether you buy from your local shop around the corner, or whether you buy from Amazon, you as an individual, your purchasing power is quite important. And we should all use that to the maximum benefit of making the world a bit better.
Ackeem Ngwenya and Shariff Vreugd Recommend:
Starting with Why by Simon Sinek
The documentary Coded Bias
Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johny Pitts
biking
This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Rona Akbari.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
