1 Global business confidence at five-year low (BBC) Global
business confidence slipped to five-year low in October, according to a survey
of 6,100 companies. The number of firms that expect business activity to be
higher in the year ahead exceeded those that expected a decline by about 28%. But,
that net balance was lower than 39% in June and the lowest since the Markit
Global Business Outlook Survey began in 2009. Hiring and investment plans also
dipped to post financial crisis lows.
The decline in optimism among businesses was due to
a growing list of worries, according to the report. Fears of a renewed downturn
in the eurozone, the prospect of higher interest rates in the UK and US next
year, along with geo-political risks from crises in Ukraine and the Middle East
have all dented business confidence across the globe.
Russia was the biggest concern among the leading
countries as "sanctions, a spiralling currency and uncertainty drove
business expectations down sharply to a new low". On the bright side, UK
companies were the most upbeat about the year ahead out of all the major
countries surveyed in October. On the downside was a surprise downturn in the
US, where optimism hit a new survey low as the service sector saw a
"dramatic" decline.
2 Asean’s youth advantage (Muhamed Hazali Abu Hassan
in Straits Times) Asean is nearing its half-century milestone with quite a few
notches under its belt, while facing new challenges with regard to its uniquely
young demographic.
Moving forward, the grouping's main challenges lie
distinctly in fulfilling the hopes and dreams of its youth. One similarity all
Asean nations have is our youth bulge. According to a 2012 Credit Suisse report
- "Asean's positive demographics underpin stable growth" - the median
age for all Asean nations is below 40. This trend is expected to continue well
until 2035. Malaysia, for example, has a median age of 25.1 while Indonesia's
is 27.9.
When there are many young people and they are provided
employment or business opportunities, the country will experience a
"demographic dividend" - a situation where people actively
participating in the economy outnumber those who are dependent on it. However,
if their needs are not addressed, the youth bulge will become a
"demographic bomb" as a large mass of frustrated young people is
likely to become a source of social and political instability.
Asean's young people have consistently been vocal
about finding non-material achievements. It is no longer enough to be
financially or physically successful - it is also a question of how they get
there. While gross domestic product is a direct measure of a country's wealth,
it is equally important that the people are able to find happiness in this
community. This means a solid value system as well as job satisfaction from
work that is individually fulfilling.
3 India’s women detective agencies (Snigdha Poonam
in The Guardian) Bhavna Paliwal, Delhi’s self-anointed “commander of
detectives” is Delhi’s most famous private detective. She’s also the most
colourful. In 2003, she started her detective outfit, Tejas Detective Agency. Private
investigation is technically illegal in India, and working from unidentified
locations is common.
She lords it over matrimonial investigations. “I get
three to four calls a day, sometimes more,” she says. The rate for a
prematrimonial assignment – discovering the details of “salary, character,
family status, and, if it’s a man, whether he drinks, smokes, gambles” – ranges
from 50,000 to 150,000 rupees (£510-£1,530). The rate for cases involving
married couples depends on the nature of the job, and can run into millions of
rupees.
Paliwal’s success as a matrimonial detective is
directly proportional to the failure of urban Indian marriage. She’s quick to
point out a game-changing factor, though: “Earlier, the cheating was one-sided.
Now it’s two-sided.” The culprit, she says, is technology: “Most people who
come to me have been married for eight to 10 years. Their marriages were going
fine, but they started copying youngsters and got into the habit of Facebook,
WhatsApp. Many of them go too far into it, ruining their families.”
There were a handful of female detectives working in
Delhi when Paliwal started out, but now women are a dominant presence. A basic
internet search for female detectives in Delhi throws up a glut of agencies. Does
their work make them cynical about marriage? None admit to it, but all the female
detectives I speak to say they continue to be surprised by the games partners
played in relationships.
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