Sunday 24 January 2010

India, Cambridge and the bank

News from India: "In a pilot project, A4e (the first international company to work on this project) will work alongside the Ministry of Rural Development to provide sectorally tailored employment-oriented vocational skills training, certification and job placements to 9,000 people below the poverty line (BPL) between the age group of 16-35 years in Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan,Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa." (http://ukinindia.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/general/EducationBrochure110110)

Back at home, a group calling themselves the UWU, "a newly formed group whose mission is to represent and defend the rights of those who are currently out of work, as well as fighting the Welfare Reform Act" were picketing A4e's Cambridge offices last week.

And the bank. You may remember that last year A4e set up a company called Capitec UK Ltd to be a bank for poor people. See here. (The relationship with the South African bank, Capitec, is unclear.) Presumably that £1m grant was never handed over, because the company remains dormant; and, incidentally, the body which made the award has since been disbanded.

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