फेड रिजर्व को पहली बार मिलेगी महिला अध्यक्ष!

वाशिंगटन। अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति बराक ओबामा भावी फेडरल रिजर्व के रूप में जेनेट येलेन का नाम प्रस्तावित करेंगे। फिलहाल येलेन फेडरल रिजर्व की उपाध्यक्ष हैं। समाचार एजेंसी सिन्हुआ के मुताबिक अगर ओबामा के प्रस्ताव को सीनेट की मंजूरी मिल जाती है, तो येलेन अमेरिकी के केंद्रीय बैंक के 100 साल के इतिहास में फेडरल रिजर्व की पहली महिला अध्यक्ष होंगी। वर्तमान फेड अध्यक्ष बेन बर्नाके का कार्यकाल जनवरी 2014 में पूरा हो रहा है।

पूर्व कोष सचिव लॉरेंस समर्स के भावी फेड अध्यक्ष की उम्मीदवारी छोड़ने के बाद येलेन को इस पद के लिए मजबूत उम्मीदवार माना जा रहा है। ओबामा ने अगस्त में कहा था कि उन्होंने बर्नाके की जगह लेने के लिए उच्च योग्यता प्राप्त उम्मीदवारों की सूची तैयार की है, जिसमें समर्स, येलेन और पूर्व फेड उपाध्यक्ष डोनाल्ड कोह्न का नाम शामिल है।

फेड के भावी अध्यक्ष के रूप में अमेरिका के सबसे योग्य अर्थशास्त्री के चुनाव का निर्णय ओबामा के लिए उनके दूसरे कार्यकाल का सबसे महत्वपूर्ण फैसला होगा।

SBI gets first woman boss, Arundhati Bhattacharya appointed chief

New Delhi: The country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) today got its first woman boss in its 207-year history, as Arundhati Bhattacharya took charge, after former boss Pratip Chaudhuri's tenure came to an end on September 30.

Ms Bhattacharya, also holds the distinction of becoming the first woman managing director of SBI in August. Prior to this appointment, Ms Bhattacharya was managing director and chief executive of SBI Capital Markets, the merchant banking arm of SBI.

57-year old Ms Bhattacharya joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1977 and has had stints in areas such as retail, treasury and corporate finance during her 36-year career.

Interviews for the post were reportedly conducted by a selection committee that included Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan and financial services secretary Rajiv Takru.

The committee interviewed Ms Bhattacharya and another managing director -- S Viswanathan -- for the top job at SBI.

As per the norms, candidates are eligible for the post of SBI chairperson only if they have at least two years of service left before retirement.

Ms Bhattacharya has held various positions including Deputy Managing Director and Corporate Development Officer, Chief General Manager of the Bangalore circle and new businesses and head of its merchant banking arm, SBI Caps, according to a companystatement said.

MsBhattacharya also played an important role in setting up general insurance, custody services and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund subsidiaries, the statement added.

She also had a stint at the bank's New York office as the head of external audit and correspondent relations, SBI said.

Faith, politics clash over Muslim-run women's gym in France

Le Raincy, France: A pink and orange all-women's gym has become an unlikely focus of a very French row over Muslim integration, secularism and what some view as blatant populism in the run-up to France's municipal elections.

The gym, which opened last month in the up-market Paris suburb of Le Raincy, is owned by a French Muslim couple who say their religion and appearance - she wears a headscarf and he a long beard - are the reason the mayor wants to shut them down.

The squabble has erupted five months before conservative mayor Eric Raoult, who says safety is his only concern, seeks re-election in nationwide municipal polls in which the anti-immigrant National Front is expected to gain ground.

It reflects France's uneasy relations with its five million-strong Muslim minority, Europe's largest, and tensions over an official policy of secularism Muslims say is used against them.

"'I don't want any veiled women in my town,' he told us," said gym manager Nadia El Gendouli, who sports a piercing in her nose and plunging neckline.

"'You're a fundamentalist!' he told me."

At the town hall on Thursday, Raoult denied the allegation that he did not want women wearing Muslim veils in Le Raincy. "These are fundamentalists, they lie!" he shouted.

"They consider because they're Muslims they're victims and they consider they have more rights," he said.

Local security officials said on Friday the gym met all safety standards. That meant it could stay open, but it did not guarantee it would now be out of the political spotlight.

The Orty Gym - Orty means "my sisters" in Arabic - is a 200 square-meter space with pink work-out equipment, freshly-painted fuchsia and orange walls and a large room where classes such as Hip Hop, Zumba, Stretching and Step are offered.

Some of the 70 women exercising in the room cover their hair with a headscarf but many do not as all races and religions are welcome, said Lynda Ellabou, who owns the gym with her husband.

SECULARISM

Ellabou, wearing a fashionable pink and black headscarf, said their problems began in June after Raoult realised the couple planning to open the gym on a commercial strip on the periphery of the suburb of 14,000 residents were Muslim.

"When he saw my (bearded) husband he had a shock. 'You've rented a place where?' he asked us," Ellabou recalled. "'You're going to put a veiled woman at the reception desk too?'"

"In the end he made us understand it wasn't going to be possible to open," she said, adding Raoult later objected to the gym's lack of parking and steps leading to the emergency exit.

The issue of secularism arose when a Muslim website said the gym had a prayer room in the back. Ellabou said the page was not theirs and the report was wrong, as there is no such room.

Full-face veils are banned in public in France. Headscarves are prohibited for civil servants and girls in state schools.

Those laws do not apply to private companies, but some politicians are increasingly calling for limits there too.

France's war on religious headgear stems from its official separation of church and state enshrined in law in 1905 as a victory over the once-powerful Roman Catholic Church.

The growth of the Muslim population in recent decades has brought another religious group into the public sphere and has prompted calls from both ardent secularists and anti-immigration campaigners for limiting the public visibility of Islam.

Raoult told Reuters at his office that fire hazards, not racism, were the reason for his opposition to the gym.

"Whether it's Jews, Catholics, Arabs, it's all the same. If it's not according to the law they'll be closed," he said. "Muslims need to know they have to respect the law."

One resident who came to the gym to offer support to the couple said such comments played well in Le Raincy, where ageing residents worry about changing demographics in an area that is close to the tough run-down suburbs of northern Paris.

"There are people here in town who vote for him precisely because he says things like that," said the resident, Celine.

One gym employee, Lynda, who also wears a headscarf, said: "They hide behind 'human rights' here in France, but they're racist. We're considered foreigners."