1 UK youth unemployment at 22.5% (The Guardian) More than 30,000 NHS workers and 71,000 in education were among more than a quarter of a million public sector staff who lost their jobs in 2011 as the government's austerity measures started to bite. Official figures revealed that a total of 270,000 posts were cut from the public sector payroll last year, reducing the workforce by almost 7%, to 5.94 million. Unemployment continued rising in the three months to January to hit its highest rate since 1995, with the number of people out of work on the government's preferred International Labour Organisation measure increasing by 28,000, to 2.67 million. That compared with a 45,000 rise in the three months to December.
The unemployment crisis among Britain's youngest workers has also continued, according to the ONS. The number of 16-to-24 year olds out of work hit 1.04 million, taking Britain's youth unemployment rate to 22.5%, the highest since records began in 1992. Liam Byrne MP, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "Britain's jobs crisis shows no signs of letting up, yet complacent ministers are failing to act. "The surge in women's unemployment is reaching shocking levels but instead of helping more families into work, next month's cuts to tax credits are set to make thousands better off if they quit their jobs and start claiming out of work benefits.
2 Newspapers are fastest shrinking industry (The Guardian) An analysis of industries in the US by the Council of Economic Advisors, the White House agency that advises the president on economic trends, has found that newspapers are America's fastest-shrinking industry. A quick look at the winners and losers can be found on the Linkedin blog. Scroll down the list to the very bottom and there is the newspaper industry, down by 28.4% over five years. It is a depressing statistic, picked up by Robert Niles on his journalism blog and prompting him to ask: "Is any university in America still admitting students as print journalism majors?"
He goes on to register his amazement: "Everyone in the business knew that newspapers were shrinking, but dead last? And dead last in a down economy?" But he turns then to the positive stats. "Take a look at the top three growing industries over the past five years. "There's the internet at number two and online publishing at number three. "That's the future of journalism education right there - fulfilling the growing need for instruction and guidance in profitable and community-building communication in the growing online publishing media."
3 UK AAA rating at risk (The Guardian) George Osborne faced fresh questions about the credibility of his austerity policies just days before the budget, when Fitch became the second of the major credit ratings agencies to warn that the UK's coveted AAA-rating is at risk. Echoing the recent decision by Moody's to place the UK on so-called "negative watch", which signals that it could be stripped of AAA status, Fitch said a weaker than expected recovery in the economy could jeopardise Osborne's chances of tackling the debt burden. The announcement came just a day after the chancellor floated the idea of selling 100-year bonds to take advantage of current high demand for the UK's bonds. It said there was now a "slightly greater than 50% chance" that the UK would be stripped of its AAA-rating over the next two years.
4 US universities the best (BBC) Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are top of a global league table of university reputation - in a top 100 dominated by US institutions. Cambridge and Oxford make the top 10 - but other UK universities have slipped, while Asian institutions have risen. The rankings are based on the perceptions of 17,000 academics. Cambridge was once again the highest ranking UK university in third place, followed by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley. Reflecting the rise of Asian countries as the new education superpowers, there is an increasing presence for countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Switzerland is also seen as performing well, relative to its population, with three universities in the top 100
California, where universities have helped to drive digital industries, has four institutions in the top 10. There has been growing economic and political importance attached to developing such "knowledge hubs", with the expectation that such advanced research bases can be the launchpads for hi-tech industries. New York, wanting to compete with the Silicon Valley institutions in California and the research hubs in Boston, is deliberately trying to build its own science campus.
5 Can Goldman be servant of capitalism not master of universe? (Robert Peston on BBC) It was unusual to read an extreme version of the charge that Goldman Sachs is more interested in the fee, commission or trading profit than in customer satisfaction from one of its own middle-ranking executives, Greg Smith. His lament is of an investment banker who joined the firm just under 12 years ago filled with idealistic enthusiasm. I've been watching Goldman for more than 20 years, and I'm not persuaded it was ever the co-op Mr Smith seems to think he joined.
By the way, JK Galbraith's account of the 1929 Wall Street Crash is none too flattering about Goldman Sachs. There's history here. All that said, the spirit of the age is indeed that banks should revert to their role of servants of capitalism rather than masters of the universe. If Goldman fails to learn that lesson, it may well lose the clients that are the source of all those enormous bonuses. The bank's rather lacklustre share-price performance over the past year may imply that perhaps in this vital regard it is something of a slow learner.
6 Healthcare for the world (Khaleej Times) It might seem surprising, but just as the world is recovering from the most serious financial shock since the World War II, governments around the world are engaging in serious discussions on how to expand health coverage. This new wave of universal health coverage, or UHC, has touched nearly 100 countries, all studying how to institute government-funded programmes of health care. This concept is taking off in populous countries and traditionally UHC “blind spots,” such as Indonesia, China, India and South Africa. Combined, these four countries account for 40% of the world’s population.
The first wave came in the 19th century after German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced comprehensive medical care that covered large segments of blue-collar workers. Germany’s 1883 Health Insurance Bill and other social legislations formed the basis of the modern welfare state. In the post–World War era, most industrialised democracies and many socialist countries established health programmes so that all people had access to affordable health care. According to the International Labour Organisation, nearly 50 countries had attained near universal health coverage by 2008. The next wave is among emerging economies. Population health and well-being are issues of governance. No matter how imperfect many existing UHC schemes may be, they constitute a global movement worth sustaining.
7 100th anniversary of The Titanic (Straits Times) The Artifact Exhibition, an exhibit that is making its way around the world, displays more than 300 artifacts that have been raised from the seabed following the Titanic disaster, some of which have never been seen before. While some of the artifacts saved from the ship have made their way in exhibits around the world, some will be auctioned off during an auction in New York, timed for the 100th anniversary. Some of the artifacts on auction include jewellery recovered from the passengers and a cork-filled life jacket. The RMS Titanic, the world largest ship, sank after colliding with an iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The accident claimed the lives of over 1,500 passengers.
8 India’s dynasts (Sadanand Dhume in The Wall Street Journal) India claims no monopoly on prominent political families. America has the Kennedys and the Bushes, and leading Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is the son of a former governor. But in mature democracies, leadership opportunities are given to talented people from all backgrounds. In the UK, the Conservative Party gave Margaret Thatcher, famously a grocer's daughter, a ladder to the top. In America, a community organizer with a foreign name can credibly dream of winning the presidency.
While the right name could give a politician a leg up in other countries, in India it's more like two legs and an arm. Fifty-odd families effectively run much of the country. But with no system of party primaries and an every-man-for-himself (and his progeny) political culture, Manmohan Singh parachuted into high office when he was made finance minister in 1991. Under former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, Mr. Singh was allowed to pursue economic reforms. Under Congress President Sonia Gandhi's populist dispensation, those instincts have been stifled.
This closed system may also be one of the factors encouraging corruption. As a fix, the middle class needs to shed its traditional apathy toward politics, and either form new parties or join existing ones. More importantly, parties should respond by starting to treat ideas seriously — attracting followers based on what they believe rather than which caste, community or gene pool they claim to represent. If this succeeds, India's dynasts will no longer be able to pass on high office like a family heirloom. If it fails, the country will continue to look less like a modern democracy and more like a patchwork quilt of fiefdoms.
9 Newspaper report on Tipu’s treaty, 1792 (The Hindu) When Tipu Sultan lost the Third Anglo-Mysore War to the allied forces in 1792, the old Mysore region did not have a newspaper to report it. But, thousands of kilometres away, readers of the Philadelphia-based The Mail; or, Claypoole's Daily Advertiser read the details of the war and the treaty that was signed subsequently. A copy of the four-page newspaper, having survived for nearly 220 years in different hands, reached Bangalore-based document collector Sunil Baboo. He bought it from a US dealer last year.
The September 8, 1792 edition of The Mail carries details of the treaty signed between Tipu and allied forces commander Lord Cornwallis. The war came ended on February 6, 1792, and the treaty was signed on February 22, 1792. It was notified in the July 5 issue of London Gazette. The Mail reproduced the contents of the treaty notified in the London Gazette. Following the treaty, Tipu had to cede half of his dominion and pay 3.3 crore sicca rupees in pagodas, or gold mohurs, or its worth in gold or silver bullion. He was forced to hand over two of his sons as hostage till he made the payment.
10 Social networking hits staff output (Business Line) Projects getting delayed? Employee productivity down? Blame it on social-networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Salary.com surveyed around 3,200 people visiting its site from February to March to find out which sites they visit the most. Of the people who took the survey, 39% said they spend a mere hour a week or less on non-work related items. That's followed by 29% who spend up to two hours a week wasting time on the computer at work, and 21% who waste up to five hours a week. Only 3% of respondents spend 10 hours or more on personal tasks while at work in a given week.
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