Greece on course for third bailout; Miracles unlikely for India in short term; Connectivity as a universal right; Being proactive after job loss; One millionth child refugee leaves Syria

1 Greece on course for third bailout (Heather Stewart in The Guardian) Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, is the latest senior politician to concede that Greece may yet need a third bailout, casting a shadow over news that eurozone companies are reporting their strongest growth for more than two years. Dijsselbloem told Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad: "The problems in Greece won't be solved in 2014, so something more will have to happen."

His admission echoed that of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who told an election campaign event earlier this week that the bailed-out country still needed more aid. The International Monetary Fund has suggested that there is an €11bn shortfall in the current rescue package for Greece.

The spectre of destabilising negotiations over a new bailout, though they are unlikely to get under way until after German elections next month, were a reminder that the eurozone is still not out of the woods, despite an upbeat survey suggesting economic recovery in the 17-member zone is gathering steam. The monthly purchasing managers' indices, which test the confidence of firms across the 17 member-states, showed both manufacturing and services expanding at their fastest pace since summer 2011.

2 Miracles unlikely for India in short term (Khaleej Times) It was ironic that on Tuesday, the day the Indian government rolled out its ambitious food security programme, the rupee plummeted once again, reaching a new low. The fall to 65.52 per dollar on Thursday also saw a downgrading of the sovereign rating from “overweight” to “neutral” by JP Morgan, reports of price hikes and brakes on domestic spending, a major prop of the Indian economy. The central bank’s measures to arrest the slide — like easing liquidity ratio to give banks more funds for lending and selling dollars — are short-term shots when the need is for a long-term cure.

India’s current account deficit has reached 4.8 per cent of GDP, pushing up the price of the dollar. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s plan to trim it down to 3.7 per cent by slashing imports, especially of gold, silver, oil and non-essential items, may not be realised. It’s because while the Indian government attributes its economic woes to the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition government’s failure to halt corruption and step up reforms has singlehandedly contributed to the rupee’s weakening.

Scandals in sectors like telecom, coal and retail, protracted delays in land acquisition and other clearances, and non-transparency in foreign direct investment and tax regulations have increased foreign investors’ jitters. A hurried exodus since May has seen them jettison $10 billion in Indian government debt, holding on to only 43 per cent of the $30 billion limit.  

Even if the government tries to pursue reforms in earnest now, it will be shackled by the elections looming next year and an aggressive opposition shutting down parliament frequently to take advantage of the situation.  Between now and next year, miracles are unlikely and the economy will have to wait it out. Meanwhile, growth prospects have been pared to 5.5 to 6 per cent from the earlier optimistic forecasts of 6.1 and 6.7 per cent.

3 Connectivity as a universal right (Benny Evangelista in San Francisco Chronicle) Calling Internet access a basic human right, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and a coalition of mobile device companies have embarked on a project that seems equal parts altruism and capitalism: ensuring that all of Earth's 7.1 billion inhabitants can connect to the Web. The chief executive of Facebook, which already reaches one-seventh of the world's population, announced his company has joined with tech giants including Samsung, Nokia and Qualcomm to form Internet.org, which will strive to lower costs and other barriers to delivering basic Internet access via mobile phones.

To be sure, the group's founding members, which also include Ericsson, MediaTek and Opera, all figure to profit if the market of 2.7 billion people who now access the Internet keeps growing, especially as more transition from desktop computers to mobile devices. But in a white paper posted on his Facebook wall late Tuesday, Zuckerberg argues that there's a greater good in connecting the 4.4 billion men, women and children who now don't access the Internet to a world increasingly powered by "the knowledge economy." 

That would include people in developing countries where access to basic necessities such as clean water, food and health care is a problem. "Is connectivity a human right?" Zuckerberg asked in his post. Zuckerberg, who helped start a controversial political action group this year called Fwd.us, outlined the new organization's "rough plan," which has three overarching tech solutions for making less-expensive Internet access more widely available: Making Internet access affordable by making the overall delivery of data more efficient, making sure apps and other Web experiences use less data, which would also improve their delivery, and helping businesses develop a new model to get people online.

4 Being proactive after job loss (Kim Thompson in San Francisco Chronicle) Recently lost your job? You’re likely not over the initial shock, even if you know it’s coming as part of a down-sizing process. Getting finances in order, launching a job search, establishing a new routine all take some time, thought and effort. Often, people find themselves wondering where to start.

My advice is to take things slowly. Take some time to digest your change in employment before making any big changes. It’s easy to fall into panic mode. Sometimes a job loss is a relief, but many times, it’s a shock.  In either case, take the time you need to absorb the loss. Going through a degree of sadness is part of the healing process. Avoid building stress by analyzing how much you need to do to land a job; just focus on one step at a time, particularly in the first few days or weeks.

Don’t do these: Make big decisions, speak ill of your previous employer, spend all your severance pay at once, call everyone you know and ask for a job, hide from your friends out of embarrassment, or jump at the first job offer without consideration. But do discuss major decisions with family or friends, take the time you need to move through your job loss, practice what you want to tell others about your job loss, take the high road when describing your experience with your former employer, focus on the skills you acquired, and seek professional help if you stay in a state of sadness and struggle with moving forward.

5 One millionth child refugee flees Syria (Khaleej Times) The number of children who have fled war-torn Syria hit one million on Friday, while two million kids have been displaced within their homeland’s borders by the conflict, the UN said. “This one millionth child refugee is not just another number. This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend,” said the head of UN children’s agency UNICEF, Anthony Lake.

Children make up half of all refugees from more than two years of conflict in Syria, according to United Nations figures. Most Syrian refugees have found a haven in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, but they are increasingly fleeing to North Africa and Europe. The UN’s most recent figures show that some 740,000 Syrian refugees are under the age of 11. Inside Syria, meanwhile, more than two million children have been driven from their homes in the face of the conflict, which has morphed into a vicious, sectarian civil war.