Amid Criticism, Chinese Banks Defend State-Set Rates

A recent survey has found that 71 per cent of staff regularly checked feeds from sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn on their phones during meetings. Reasons given included wanting to check in to location services such as Foursquare, keeping up with breaking news and over half were keeping abreast of what friends and connections were doing. The poll found that almost a half of all conference delegates now rely on their smartphones to connect and find information prior to events with 47 per cent saying they turned to Facebook and Twitter for details.

China has spent 10 million yuan (1.5 million dollars) on computers for thousands of members of an advisory body attending the annual parliamentary session -- in an effort to reduce paper waste.The 2,000-plus delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference -- from Mao Zedong's grandson to former Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang -- received a free Lenovo laptop worth 5,000 yuan (730 dollars).

TORONTO — Ontario Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne says becoming the first openly gay premier in Canada is “historic” and “exciting.” But she says she doesn’t want it to overshadow her role in governing the country’s most populous province. She says she feels a special responsibility to young gay people who are looking for the possibility that there might be a more accepting world somewhere. She says it’s important to her that she may be helping people to be less frightened.

Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI, commented that the India needs to take example from China’s banking sector if it wants to be able to cope with its needs for economic and infrastructure development, reported Financial Times.  

Call for Papers: 2013 SDAE meetings  Tampa, FL, November 23-25, 2013 (Saturday - Monday) The annual conference of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics will be held during the Southern Economics Association meetings in Tampa, Florida, at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina.

TORONTO — Long-time MPP and McGuinty cabinet minister Kathleen Wynne will become Ontario’s next Premier after Liberal party delegates elected her on a third ballot, following a day of drama that saw her pick up late support from Gerard Kennedy and Charles Sousa.

TORONTO _ Ontario Liberals will be voting today for the delegates who will be eligible to vote for their next leader and the province’s next premier, with two women in the lead after Saturday’s balloting. Sandra Pupatello, who quit politics in 2011, and former education minister Kathleen Wynne were the leaders in committed first-ballot delegates following Saturday’s voting, which took place in the north, east and suburban Toronto ridings.