Canada keen on employing Indian farmers

Immigration firms from Quebec and the port province of Nova-Scotia, to scout for entrepreneurs, said on Friday that there was a huge dearth of horticultural, agricultural and livestock farmers in Canada.

"Many farms are lying vacant and need to be filled up. We welcome Indian farmers who can use these idle properties to turn them into profit-making ventures," Sam Buffone, Vice President of Renaissance Capital Inc of Quebec told a press meet in Kolkata.

Buffone said that they would tap India, China and smaller Asian countries for potential farmers willing to immigrate to Canada.

Michael Mailman, Vice-President of another immigration firm Cornwallis Financial Corporation from the Nova-Scotia province of Canada, said the immigration of Indian entrepreneurs to the North American country was concentrated in bigger cities like Toronto and Vancouver at present.

"But most growth opportunities lie in smaller centres and Indian farmers must tap that. The provincial governments have also announced lucrative tax holidays and subsidisation schemes to lure the business community," he said.

The duo who covered seven Indian cities including a few down south, said farmers with a minimum qualification of standard 12, a net asset worth of Rs one crore and 50 per cent carry-along capacity would be considered for the scheme. (PTI)

Britain aims at attracting more Sikhs to its army

"As of today there are less than 100 Sikhs serving in the British Armed Services, but we are working with the Sikh communities in the UK to attract more," British High Commissioner Michael Arthur said delivering the first Maharaja Ranjit Singh Memorial Lecture on "Anglo-Sikh Relations" in New Delhi on Thursday.

"We have adapted our uniforms to suit their needs," Arthur said.

"We will shortly be recruiting a Sikh into the Services Chaplaincy Department to provide suitable guidance and pastoral care for the growing Sikh military community," he said.

Lauding the contribution of Sikhs to the British army, he said at the time of First World War, Sikhs formed 20 per cent of the British army. That meant 100,000 Sikhs.

"In the 100 years to 1945, there were some 14 Victoria Crosses awarded to Sikhs. On a per capita basis, given the size of Sikh regiments, that must be a record for the entire British armed forces," he said.

"Britain should in fact have a separate battalion of Sikhs as earlier. There are lot of Sikhs willing to join the British army. This separate regiment would help keep live the old tradition of bravery," Chairman, National Commission for Minorities, Tarlochan Singh said. (PTI)

Are Indian nurses for export?

Nursing Times reports that some developing countries now treat nurses as an export commodity that can earn vital overseas currency. "Some countries, such as the Philippines and India, deliberately over produce nurses with the intention of exporting them," it says.

"India, for example, is reported to have trained eight million nurses compared with just 3.8 million 10 years ago."

The economic appeal of coming to Britain is clear: it could take a nurse in India 10 years to earn what they could earn in Britain in a year.

Myrna Miaque, a Filipino nurse working at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, tells Nursing Times that she had previously worked for 17 years in the Middle East.

"In Saudi (Arabia), you just work and work and work," she says.

"It's not like here in London where you have study days and courses to develop yourself. A friend of mine came to (Britain) ahead of me and kept calling to say: 'Come and work here'."

It is not only Filipino nurses who are impressed by the National Health Service.

French general practitioners are being enticed to work in London by shorter hours, the fact that they do not have to work on-call and the greater opportunities for part time working, says another health industry publication, Pulse.

Researchers interviewed 31 French GPs working in London and found that they hated the 70-hour weeks in France. (IANS)

Sikhs are UK's top house owners

Eight out of 10 Sikhs are likely to own a house, considered the basic symbol of prosperity. Their success is a tribute to the hard work of the first generation and then the ever-growing economic success and educational achievement of subsequent generations.

The figure of 82 per cent home ownership among Sikhs compares to 70 per cent (seven out of 10) homeowners among the Christian majority. Sikhs are also, it has been found, as likely as Christians to hold a university degree.

A quarter of Hindus have a degree, while 16 per cent of Christians and Sikhs are educated to that level. The first ever breakdown of religious groups by the Government shows that Britain has proved most receptive to ambitions of migrants.

Hindus and Jews too are ahead of Christians in terms of home ownership. While 74 per cent Hindus own homes, 77 per cent of Jews are home owners, second only to Sikhs who are at top of the table with 82 per cent having their own homes.

Hindu men are second only to Jews among major religious groups as likely to hold managerial posts or be top professionals. Some 45 per cent of management roles, and one in 20 Hindu men is a doctor, 10 times the percentage of the Christian majority.

The figures also show high levels of deprivation among Muslim communities. This has raised concern that some are increasingly becoming economically and culturally isolated. Almost a third of Muslims have no qualifications, the highest proportion of any other religious groups. Worse 14 per cent are unemployed and health problems are also greater. Two-thirds of Muslim women have no jobs, compared to more than a third in any other religious group.

These figures compiled by the Office of National Statistics from the 2001 Census were published on Monday in a document called Focus on Religion. Over 41 million said they were Christians. Muslims were the next largest group with a population of 1.6 million, followed by Hindus (558,000), Sikhs (336,000), Jews (267,000) and Buddhists, numbering 150,000.

Muslims have the largest households, 3.6 persons in each home on an average, and are also the most likely to suffer over-crowding.

Table at a glance:

Homeowners (housing by religion):

Sikhs 82%

Jews 77%

Hindus 74%

Christians 70%

Religion not stated 63%

No religion 62%

Other religions 58%

Buddhists 54%

Muslims 52%

All people 68%

(Hindustan Times)