Tata Motors sales rise

India's largest vehicle maker, Tata Motors, said Thursday global sales, including those for Jaguar and Land Rover, rose 62 percent in November, aided by improved demand and last year's low sales base. The company, which also makes the world's cheapest car, the Nano, said total global sales for November rose to 75 ,775 vehicles, up 62 percent from the same period last year. Global sales of the two British premier brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, rose to 18 ,825 vehicles in November, up 30 percent from a year earlier, Tata Motors said in a statement to the stock exchange. Jaguar sales accounted for 4 ,333 vehicles while those for Land Rover were 14 ,492. Tata Motors bought the two marques from US Ford Motor last year for 2.3 billion dollars.

Bangladeshi dealer distribute jute seed among the farmer

The government will soon take steps to procure and distribute jute seeds among farmers through appointing dealers across the country. The disclosure came at a parliamentary body meeting at Jatiya Sangsad yesterday. Chairman of the Standing Committee on Jute and Textiles Ministry Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury presided over the meeting. The educational quality and environment in the textile institutes and progress in project implementation in different departments under the ministry came up for discussion at the meeting. Committee members Textile and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Molla Jalal Uddin, Hayatur Rahman Khan, Mohammad Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie and Nur-e-Hasna Lily Chowdhury were present.

BMW's new worker project

The German luxury car maker BMW will put 8 , 800 workers on shorter working hours in January as it anticipates a slump in the sales of some models, a spokesman said on Thursday. The move affects in particular around 8 ,300 workers of the 19 ,000 at a plant in Dingolfing, southeastern Germany that makes the Series 5 model, of which a new version is to be launched in March. Sales of the current model are therefore expected to slow sharply. Many German companies have resorted to short work hours for staff, with around 1.1 million workers currently involved by the scheme. The government pays part of the difference to keep people in jobs and trained for when the economy picks up again.

A textile seminar held in Dhaka

Textile manufacturing requires constant innovations in business practices, as it is one of the leading industries in the world, speakers said at a seminar yesterday. AMS System Services Pte Ltd organised the seminar on apparel manufacturing systems and solutions at Asia Pacific Blossom Hotel at Baridhara in the city. Peter Fung, founder and managing director of AMS, Eric Tay and Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury, factory representatives of AMS System Services, spoke at the seminar, said a statement. The speakers discussed how AMS technology and methodology would be able to provide solutions to the challenges ahead. Fung, who has been in the apparel industry since 1972 , discussed the solutions to different problems of apparel manufacturing at the programme.

Hong Kong's jobless rate down

Hong Kong's unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent between September and November, official data showed Thursday, the third consecutive decline since the start of the global financial crisis. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate dipped from 5.2 percent in the July to September period, and was in line with the median 5.1 percent forecast of ten economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. The number of jobless declined by 9 ,400 to 181 , 000 , while the southern Chinese city's overall workforce fell from 3 ,678 ,700 to 3 ,678 ,600 in the three months ending November, according to the Census and Statistics Department. The decline was largely driven by job creation in the construction sector, where the unemployment rate has dropped for seven consecutive months to 7.6 percent, a government statement said.