1 Out of high school and out of work (The New York
Times) For this generation of young
people, the future looks bleak. Only one in six is working full time. Three out
of five live with their parents or other relatives. A large majority, 73%,
think they need more education to find a successful career, but only half of
those say they will definitely enroll in the next few years. No, they are not the idle youth of Greece or Spain or
Egypt. They are the youth of America, the world’s richest country, who do not
have college degrees and aren’t getting them anytime soon.
Whatever the sob stories about recent
college graduates spinning their wheels as baristas or clerks, the situation
for their less-educated peers is far worse, according to a report from the John
J Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at
Rutgers University. The data comes from a national survey of high school graduates
who are not enrolled in college full time, a notoriously transient population
that social scientists and other experts had been having trouble tracking. (In
the two months since the survey was conducted, a large share of participants
have had their phone numbers disconnected and could not be reached.)
Americans who graduated from high school
just before layoffs started to swell — in this report, defined as 2006-8 — were
having trouble making ends meet. Just 37% employed were full time and another
23% were working part time, usually because they could not find full-time work.
But among those who graduated after the financial crisis, the numbers are far
worse: only 16% of the classes of 2009-11 had full-time jobs. An additional 22%
were working part time, and most of them wanted full-time work.
2 More mobiles than people in 5 years (The Guardian)
The number of devices connected to mobile phone
networks will overtake the number of people on Earth within five years,
according to the technology group Ericsson. There will be 9bn mobile
subscriptions by 2017, up from 6.2bn at the start of this year, while the US
census bureau predicts the global population will
have reached 7.4 billion in five years. Driven by demand for video, internet
usage and storage of electronic files in the "cloud" rather than on
home or office computers, traffic over mobile networks will grow even faster
than subscriptions.
Ericsson predicts data traffic – as opposed to voice
calls – will grow 15 times over by 2017, by which time 85% of humanity will
live within range of a mobile broadband signal, up from half of the population
today. Within that time, half of us will be in range of superfast, 4G mobile
networks, up from 315 million today. "In 2008, there were 4bn mobile
subscriptions," said Ericsson's chief executive, Hans Vestberg. "By
2017 there will be close to 9bn subscriptions. With this kind of mobility and
connectivity everywhere, there will be no differentiation between a business
user and a private user."
Western Europe already has 126% penetration, while Africa
has just 55%, with families or villages often sharing a single phone. Africa
already has more subscriptions than Europe, however, with 680m compared to 540m
for Europe. China has 1bn subscriptions, and along with India accounted for the
majority of the 170m new subscriptions in the first quarter.
3 Can science save Europe? ( Helga Nowotny in
Khaleej Times) Science is the only civic
institution with a built-in long-term time horizon – a feature that builds
confidence in a fragile future. Modern science began in Europe 300 years ago
with relatively few people. The experimental practices that they invented
spread beyond the laboratories. Later, they began to underpin and merge with
progress in the crafts to drive forward the Industrial Revolution. The idea
that we can only know what we can make gained wide acceptance.
Let us now look forward
towards the future. According to health statistician Hans Rosling, our planet
will probably be home to at least nine billion people by 2050. Six billion will
live in Asia, one billion in Africa, 1.5 billion in the Americas, and 500
million in Europe. By ensuring that the pursuit of new knowledge remains a high
priority, Europe can safeguard the scientific revolution and retain a leading
edge globally, despite having fewer people than other regions.
Europe’s scientific institutions are already
evolving and adapting to new global challenges. People working within science
and people working with science – ordinary citizens – will assure that the
unending quest for human betterment continues to be an important part of
European identity. Science alone will not save Europe. Rather, a Europe that
knows how to put its science to work will not need to be saved.
4 Time for change in India (MJ Akbar in Khaleej
Times) St Augustine prays to the Lord: “Give me chastity and continence — but
not yet!” This could serve as the motto of any government in Delhi. Every
minister wants to be chaste and honest, but only after he is out of office. There
has been much hand-wringing by the establishment, all around the lines that the
PM’s personal integrity is unimpeachable. Perhaps it is, although it says
something that the qualifying term has shifted from certainty to ‘perhaps’. It
is ironic that a Prime Minister who has often claimed, publicly, that his life
is an open book should preside over a government that is nothing but an
unending series of closed books. No government since 1947 has had such a
continuous record of corruption; a venal sin now compounded by collapse of
governance.
Sonia
Gandhi recognises this. Her body language at even core group meetings indicates
her total frustration. She knows that the time has come to change the
government; because if she does not change it, the people will, and when they
do so even tatters might not be visible. The political calendar provides an
opportunity. A President is due to be elected. Sonia can do her party a world
of good by promoting Dr Singh to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and then installing a
radically different government. She has a natural successor in Pranab
Mukherjee.
Politics
is a hard place. It needs cool decisions. Mrs Gandhi does not have options, as
Dr Singh’s replacement must be acceptable to allies and, more important, the
people of the country. She may want to see her son Rahul Gandhi as PM, but that
idea will not walk in the immediate future. Rahul Gandhi could have won his
spurs in UP. He did not. This transition to a Mukherjee can happen in mid-June.
It may not, to repeat another memorable quote, this time from the Second World
War leader Winston Churchill, mark the beginning of the end, but it could end
the disastrous beginning of UPA2.
5 Exploitation of
women in the Gulf (The Wall Street Journal) There are
more Indian migrants in the Gulf than any other region in the world – around
3.5 million, according to United Nations’ estimates – and a little under half
of them are women. Most of the women are low-skilled and single. They make more
money working in Gulf countries than they would ever hope to at home. This
allows them to send part of their savings to the relatives they left behind,
which improves their status in the eyes of their community. A route to female
emancipation? Not so fast, says a new report drafted by the UN’s women agency.
They see the working conditions women
encounter in the Gulf as comparable to those of early 19th-century “indentured immigrants”, contracted servants
who were sent to foreign colonies to work in plantations. They were usually
given food and lodging but no extra money – it was essentially a step up from
bonded slaves. “The working conditions and the nature of occupation of the
women laborers in contemporary Gulf migration expose them to a variety of
vulnerabilities which are not dissimilar to those faced by women in the 19th century plantations,” says the UN
Women report, which focuses on patterns of female migration from South Asian to
Gulf countries.
Under British rule, many Indian
indentured laborers – also known as “coolies” – made their way to sugar and
other plantations in far-flung colonies, from Mauritius to Jamaica. The
practice was suspended several times following reports of widespread abuse and
oppressive working conditions and eventually banned in the early 20th century. It’s not just in Gulf
countries that Indian domestic workers suffer poor working conditions. Reports
of abuse are widespread in India, too. Most recently, a 13-year-old maid was
reported to have been locked up by her employers while they went on holiday in
Thailand, a case that sparked widespread introspection on how India’s middle
class treat their domestic help. (A lawyer for the couple, who were eventually
arrested, denied charges they abused their maid.)
6 Reliance to invest $18bn in India (The Wall Street
Journal) Reliance Industries will invest about 1.0
trillion rupees ($18.11 billion) in India over the next five years to expand
and diversify its businesses that range from gas production to refining and
selling iPads and iPhones. The investment plan from India's biggest company by
market value comes at a time when many business leaders are concerned about the
country's slowing economy, unfriendly tax moves and the government's failure to
push through reforms required to bring in new investments.
Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire chairman
of Reliance, said the economic difficulties will be temporary. He said the
company is also aiming to double its operating profit over five years. Profit
before non-operating income and finance costs fell 9% in the last financial
year that ended March 2012 to 222.25 billion rupees, mainly because of falling
output at the company's key gas block off India's east coast. Reliance's plan
is likely to boost investor confidence, which has taken a hit due to
gas-production issues and a lack of management outlook on the deployment of
about 702.52 billion rupees of cash and cash equivalents the company had as of
March end.
Its shares fell 34.5% in 2011, faster
than the benchmark Sensitive Index's 24.6% drop. The shares have gained 4.5%
since the beginning of this year. Mr. Ambani didn't give any specific details
on investments, but said Reliance will expand its shale-gas business. The
future growth would be led by partnerships with global leaders across
businesses, he added.
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