UK cap preventing hiring of key Indian professionals• The limit placed by the David Cameron government on the

number of professionals British firms can hire from outside the European Union is preventing the recruitment of key employees from India

• General Electric, one of the major employers in Britain with 18,000 workers, has complained that it has been unable to hire a stem-cell research executive from India because of 'very, very small' quota has been given to the company to hire people from outside the EU.

No third-party cheques for mutual fund investments

• The move is part of efforts to check fraudulent activities by mutual fund agents and distributors, some of whom have been found to be collecting cheques from investors and depositing them for investments in their own names.

• In order to protect the interest of the investors, AMFI has issued best practice guidelines to all AMCs advising them not to accept third party cheques in respect of Mutual Fund Investments (with a few exceptions) effective from November 15, 2010

• Even in case of exceptions, the fund houses would have to ensure that the payments are coming from entities duly authorised by the actual investors.

IBM to handle IT for Bharti Airtel'sAfrica operations

• India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel took the initial steps to replicate its hugely successful outsourcing model in Africa by awarding a $1.5-billion contract to IBM for managing its IT requirements across 16 countries in the continent

• Partnership will allow Bharti Airtel to deliver innovative and affordable 2G and 3G mobile services across the (African) continent

• IBM will also oversee the management of all of the technology applications, data-centre operations, servers, storage and desktop services

Farmers demand single national policy for land acquisition• Demanding a uniform guideline for acquisition of their land, a

farmers' convention on Sunday accused the government of failing in providing an appropriate policy to get peasants out of debt-trap.

• All India Kisan Coordination Committee chief and former MP Bhupinder Singh Mann said the burden of "unfair loans" has become unbearable for farmers. "The prices of agricultural produce has been kept low by government deliberately."

• He demanded that there should be one national policy for acquisition of land of farmers. "The policy should be such that farmers get the maximum benefit in case of acquisition of their land by government.