1 UK interest rate at record low for six years
(Angela Monaghan in The Guardian) UK interest rates have been on hold at an
all-time low of 0.5% for six years after Bank of England policymakers voted for
no change at their March meeting. It was at their March 2009 meeting that the
Bank’s monetary policy committee decided emergency measures were required to
address extreme circumstances.
At that point, they lowered rates from 1% to 0.5%
and in another unprecedented move for the then 315-year old institution, pushed
the button on quantitative easing. US investment bank Lehman Brothers had
collapsed six months earlier with disastrous consequences. Money markets had
frozen, and no one fully understood the scale of the crisis that was hurtling
head-on towards the global economy.
By March 2009 the UK was in recession. Under the
then governor Sir Mervyn King, the Bank initially pumped £75bn of new money
into the financial system by buying government bonds in an attempt to limit the
worst effects of the crisis. QE was ultimately expanded to become a £375bn
programme, which was also left unchanged by the MPC at its Thursday meeting.
Britain is out of recession, unemployment is
falling, and the economy is growing at an annual rate of close to 3%. But with
inflation at a record low of 0.3%, wage growth weak, and some parts of the
economy as yet to regain pre-crisis levels, the pressure is off the governor,
Mark Carney, to raise rates yet.
2 India grapples with a rape and its documentary (BBC) The
BBC's film about the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case continues to dominate
media debate in India. Film maker Leslee Udwin's interview with the convict
appears in India's Daughter, a BBC documentary which was broadcast in the UK on
Wednesday. It was also due to be shown in India, but police secured a court
injunction, blocking the broadcast.
A section of the media have taken "strong
objection" with the content of the film. Rapist Mukesh Singh, who along
with the three others is facing the death penalty, expressed no remorse in the
interview with Ms Udwin, and blamed the victim for fighting back.
But some of India's prominent newspapers and writers
have raised questions over the government's decision to block the film in
India. The Times of India says "the real scandal here is not who permitted
such an interview, but how disturbingly common such a point of view - which
utterly devalues women - is across social classes in India". The paper
says the convict's views are not uncommon.
The Hindustan Times says the film highlights the
"regressive mindset" of some men in India and it needs to be debated.
The paper says "banning the documentary is to take the easy way out. The
problem it addresses will not go away quite so easily". The government,
the Delhi police and political parties were quick to dismiss the film, and some
of them termed it "anti-women" and "anti-India".
The world of social media has also been active with
all shades of opinions on the film. The reaction on social media seems to be
divided, with some supporting the ban, and others strongly arguing in favour of
the film.
3 Zuckerberg’s one rule for hiring at FB (Josie
Ensor in The Telegraph) As the founder of one of the most successful companies
on the planet, when Mark Zuckerberg gives job advice it’s a good idea to listen.
What does the 30-year-old Facebook CEO look for in a prospective employee? The
answer is simple.
“I will only
hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person,” Mr
Zuckerberg said. “It's a pretty good test and I think this rule has served me
well.” Mr Zuckerberg, who has a net worth of around $35 billion, said that he
and his team look for people whose values align with the company’s. “Facebook
is not a company for everyone in the world,” he said.
One of those people who clearly passed the test is
Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, whom Mr Zuckerberg
hand-picked for the role. When asked what it is like to work with Mrs Sandberg,
Mr Zuckerberg said he considered her a mentor and someone who has been
instrumental in building Facebook into a business and "healthy
organisation.”
Facebook’s staff is relatively small compared to
other tech giants in Silicon Valley, such as Google, which has almost 55,000
employees. Mr Zuckerberg said that was crucial part of the social media
company’s success. "The most important thing is to keep your team as small
as possible. Facebook serves more than a
billion people around the world but our team has fewer than 10,000 people.
"It's only possible because of modern
technology. Big companies get bloated." He said the most important thing
is to "just have faith in yourself and trust yourself. When you’re young
you hear that you don’t have experience to do things, that there are people
that have more experience than you. I started Facebook when I was 19," he
said. “Don’t discount yourself, no matter what you’re doing. Everyone has a
unique perspective that they can bring to the world.”
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