1 Britain’s AAA rating in doubt (The Guardian) Moody's issues credit warnings on nine European countries including the UK. Negative outlook for Austria, France and the UK. Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta have ratings cut.
Britain's AAA credit rating was thrown into doubt after the ratings agency Moody's said the ongoing euro crisis and a credit squeeze on the banking sector put the country at a higher risk of defaulting on its debts. Moody’s said countries including the UK, France and Italy would be put on negative watch after citing "uncertainty" over Europe's handling of its ongoing debt crisis. The possible loss of the UK's much coveted triple-A status will be a bitter blow for the chancellor George Osborne who has staked his reputation on distancing Britain from the ailing eurozone. The AAA rating is the highest awarded to a country and allows it to borrow at the lowest interest rates.
2 Tech cos seek to own every moment of users (The New York Times) Technology used to be so simple. In the old days, you listened to music on your iPod while exercising. During an idle moment at the office you might use Google to search for the latest celebrity implosion. Maybe you would post an update on Facebook. After dinner, you could watch a DVD from Netflix or sink into a new page-turner that had arrived that day from Amazon. That vision, where every company and every device had its separate role, is so 2011.
The biggest tech companies are no longer content simply to enhance part of your day. They want to erase the boundaries, do what the other big tech companies are doing and own every waking moment. The new strategy is to build a device, sell it to consumers and then sell them the content to play on it. And maybe some ads, too. Last week’s news that Google is preparing its first Google-branded home entertainment device — a system for streaming music in the house — might seem far afield for an Internet search and advertising company, but fits solidly into an industry-wide goal in which each tech company would like to be all things to all people all day long. “It’s not about brands or devices or platforms anymore,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. “It’s about the ecosystem. The idea is to get consumers tied into that ecosystem as tightly as possible so they and their content are locked into one system.”
3 ‘Indians have stashed away $500bn’ (BBC) The chief of India's federal investigation agency says Indians have illegally deposited an estimated $500bn in overseas tax havens. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director AP Singh said Indians were the largest depositors in foreign banks. Funds were being sent to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and the British Virgin Islands among others, he said. Analysts say this flight of capital has helped widen inequality in India.
In a report in November 2010 the US-based group, Global Financial Integrity, said India had lost more than $460bn between 1948, a year after Independence, and 2008 because of companies and the rich illegally funnelling their wealth overseas. India's underground economy accounted for 50% of the country's gross domestic product, it said.
4 Many faces of Arab Spring (Dawn) None of the Arab leaders seriously addressed the deleterious effects of the neo-liberal economics adopted under western advice. Against this backdrop, western powers can achieve only limited success in redirecting the Arab upsurge to their advantage. President Nicolas Sarkozy began by offering French assistance to the then Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to put down the protests. Washington made pro-Mubarak noises. Once the West comprehended the scale of the uprising, it switched to the lexicon of freedom and liberation.
Nothing defines the complexity of the Arab Awakening better than Syria where all the sub-texts are heading for a bloody denouement. Bashar al-Assad has lost support of Arab states and, no less significantly, of neighbouring Turkey. He now depends heavily on Russia and China that vetoed a Security Council resolution which might have conceivably created space for foreign intervention.
5 The price of keeping women illiterate (Dawn) ‘If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation’ is an African Proverb which is reiterated by many dignitaries since it was first articulated by Dr James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey, a Ghanian scholar. It is easy to repeat these words in front of an audience, however, the true wisdom hidden in these words is evidently misconstrued by many people in Pakistan, especially a particular religious cleric, representing a mosque located in one of the chicest areas of Karachi, who during the Friday prayers sermon, conveniently chants that the primary reason why the Muslim world is supposedly headed towards a rampant decline is because “Muslims have become beghairats (people who lack self-esteem) as they send their daughters abroad to acquire education and invite ‘God’s wrath’.
Women, who are known to lay the fundamentals of any society, need equal, if not more, education than men because it is them that sensitises their children in formulating the society they live in – a place which could become a realm of equality and tolerance, if education is promoted. Hence, it is indispensable to educate women. The lack of education amongst the female populace of Pakistan is perhaps one of the many reasons why women have submitted to the system as being dysfunctional because fighting back has never been an option. Women, who fight against all adversities and refuse to become a victim are agents of change who have been amiss for so long. It is their time to bring about a revolution that will challenge, if not change, the status quo.
6 India bank chief criticises government spending (The Wall Street Journal) India's central bank chief heightened his criticism of government spending, saying that without a credible plan to rein in debt, it will be hard to bring down inflation and accelerate the country's disappointing growth rate. The comments by Duvvuri Subbarao, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, comes as India's leaders grapple with the toughest economic period in years. Through much of the past two decades, India had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But in the past year, persistent inflation, lofty interest rates, government gridlock on economic overhauls, a plunging currency and a swelling fiscal deficit have raised concerns that India's economic boom is waning.
Mr. Subbarao, himself, has been blamed for the slowdown, as outside economists say he kept interest rates too low for too long after he took over the central bank during the 2008 global financial crisis. Then, with inflation shooting higher, he raised rates repeatedly last year, snuffing out credit and slowing the economy.
7 Singlehood thoughts on Valentine’s Day (Business Line) Amidst all the mushy Valentine's Day promotions that marketers have been dishing out, a few companies have taken a different tack - rubbishing mush and even promoting ‘singlehood.' Online shoe retailer Fashos.com says that it will reward all those who can declare to the world this Valentine's that they love being ‘single and smart.' Fashos.com has personalised its Facebook fan engagement by deploying an application around February 14. Here fans can post and tell the world that they are single, smart and their reason for liking singlehood.
“Turning the concept of Valentine's on its head and doing a counter is something that vibes with young audiences looking for witty entertainment on social media platforms,” says Mr Sumit Agarwal, Founder of Fashos.com. Similarly, Milagrow, the tablet PC maker, is promoting its product with the statement: Mushy Valentine's Day gifts ‘are now history;' women professionals should be gifted with the tab top PC, the ad says. “Tired of Valentine's parties in the city?' screams a hoarding by the Bangalore-based The Park Hotel, which is on the Anti-Valentine's Day track. No candies, no candles, no flowers, just a singles night out at I-Bar, says the promotion.
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