Nokia, in its response to an allegation from Finnwatch that it was paying less than living wages to factory workers in India, said that the human rights organisation wasn’t taking the benefits package into account,according to a report by theFinancial Times. Nokia pays about ₹ 4,500 ($95) per month to its factory workers in Chennai, India, which—though above the legal minimum wage in the country—is much lower than the €127 that the Asia Floor Wage campaign judges to be the minimum living wage for Indian workers....

Nokia hasreleased its second-quarter financials, detailing the challenges it faced during its strategic transformation to post a €487 million operating loss, a drop of €782 million in just one year. The Finnish mobile giant saw overall net sales plummet 11% quarter-on-quarter and 7% year on year, to €9.275 billion as smartphone sales dropped 32% from the previous quarter to 16.7 million units. The company’s profits down 41% year on year with all mobiles down 20%....

The Next Web was in Helsinki last week, and we delved deep into the startup scene that’s bubbling across the Finnish capital. We started atAalto Venture Garage, a seed accelerator and co-working space for hackers and startups, touching base with a number of the fledgling businesses. It was there that we metGigsWiz, a social ticketing company that’s justannounceda partnership with The Human League. And then there wasThingLink, an image-tagging service that had justlauncheda cool new rich media tagging feature....

Mentions of an internal Nokia project called “Meltemi” have surfaced before, having been noted by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop in leaked video during a company meeting, but according to areport by the Wall Street Journalthe Finnish mobile giant has begun switching its programming efforts to creating a new software that will power its new low-end phones. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ says that the project is being headed by Mary McDowell, Nokia’s executive vice president in charge of mobile phones, although the company has declined to comment on the new project or its future plans....

A countdown placed onNokia’s official Facebook pageteases there is “something new on Symbian” coming the mobile giant in just under 48 hours, but thanks to an unfortunate oversight the company or one of its representatives, it is already clear that the announcement will be Symbian Belle related. Nokia has said that it will continue to invest in the Symbian ecosystem, as it attempts to cater for low to mid-range markets with its Symbian-powered smartphones, despite the fact the company has heavily committed itself to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform....