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DIBRUGARH, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Gender Equality to help in economic growth
Ahead of Paris Climate Talks, How Do Asians See Climate Change? How do Asia-Pacific states see the issue of global climate change?
Larger female workforce can add Rs 46lk cr to GDP: McKinsey The socio-political consequences of gender bias for society's progress have been well documented. What is not so widely known is that the discrimination against women has an economic cost--or opportunity cost, depending on how you look at it--as well. India's share of women's contribution to GDP is at 17 percent, much lower than the global average of 37 percent, and the lowest among all ten regions in the world analyzed by Mckinsey Global. Twenty six countries in McKinsey dataset of 95 have a lower per capita GDP and Human Development Index than India. However, many of these countries have higher levels of gender parity. Pushing gender equality can deliver a sizeable additional economic growth and could add Rs. 46 lakh crore (USD 700 billion) to India's GDP in 2025, a McKinsey report says. According to the new report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) titled 'The Power of Parity: Advancing Women's Equality in India', bridging the gender gap will have a huge economic impact and the boost could translate into 1.4 per cent per year incremental GDP growth for India. "Advancing gender equality can deliver sizeable additional economic growth and broad-based prosperity to the world - nowhere more so than in India," the report said, adding that delivering that impact will require tackling significant gender gaps in society and driving a national agenda for change that involves all stakeholders. About 70 per cent of the increase would come from raising India's female labour-force participation rate to 41 per cent in 2025, from 31 per cent at present. This would bring 68 million more women into the economy over this period. It now seems that bridging the gender gap will have a huge economic impact and could add Rs. 46 lakh crore ($700 billion) to India's GDP in 2025. India's share of women's contribution to GDP is at 17 per cent, much lower than the global average of 37 per cent, and the lowest among all 10 regions in the world analysed by MGI. Interestingly, 26 countries in McKinsey's dataset of 95 have a lower per capita GDP and human development index than India. However, many of these have higher levels of gender parity. The Indian economy will obviously gain if we bridge the gender gap in the workplace, but this gap cannot be plugged if we do not consider gender equality in society and change our social attitudes and unconscious bias towards women. The report draws on a recent McKinsey Global Institute research on gender gap around the world. In its analysis for India, MGI has introduced a new score - an India Female Empowerment Index, or Femdex - to measure gender equality at the state level. The report found that a huge variation in gender equality among India's 32 states. The average Femdex score of the top five states closest to gender parity are Mizoram, Kerala, Meghalaya, Goa, and Sikkim in the decreasing order while the bottom five are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh in the increasing order. While the top five states on Femdex account for a mere 4 per cent of India's female working-age population, the bottom 5 account for as much as 32 per cent. Focusing efforts here represents a large opportunity for improving India's national position on gender equality.
'Made in India' Gold Coins, Two Schemes In a bid to put some 20,000 tonnes of idle gold to productive use and cut imports worth $35-$45 billion annually, India launched three schemes related to the metal, including domestically minted coins with the images of Ashok Chakra and Mahatma Gandhi. The schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also included one to convert jewellery and other similar yellow metal assets with the people into interestbearing deposits, as also sovereign bonds with an eight-year tenure but with an exit option after five years. According to Modi gold has developed a tradition in the daily lives of Indians towards women empowerment and with India-minted coins people will no longer have to depend on foreign sources. Under the deposit scheme, gold will be accepted at notified collection and testing centres. Banks will then issue certificates in equivalence of 995 fineness of gold under short term (1-3 years), medium (5-7 years) and long-term (12-15 years) schemes. The interest rate in the medium term bonds has been fixed at 2.25 percent and for the long-term bonds is 2.5 percent for the bonds issued in 2015-16.These will be on behalf of the government. The short-term deposits will be on banks' own accord. In the bond scheme, the issuing body is the Reserve Bank on behalf of the central government, and will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of one gram. The minimum investment limit is two grams, with a maximum of 500 grams per person per fiscal year. The tenure of the bonds with an interest rate of 2.75 percent per annum payable semi-annually - will be eight years with exit option from the fifth year onward. They can also be traded in the bourses, and used as collateral for loans. The gold coins, on the other hand, will be in a physical form and will have the national emblem Ashok Chakra engraved on one side and the image of Mahatma Gandhi on the other. Initially, it will be available at MMTC outlets in denominations of 5 and 10 grams, apart from a 20 gram bar. To begin with, 15,000 coins of 5 gm, 20,000 coins of 10 gm and 3,750 bars have been earmarked. As regards the two monetisation schemes, the government has permitted designated banks to sell or lend the accepted gold for minting India Gold Coins (IGC) by MMTC, as also to jewellers. They can also sell it to other designated banks. According to the World Gold Council, an estimated 22,00023,000 tonnes of gold is lying idle with households and institutions in India. The annual imports amount to around 850-1,000 tonnes valued at $35-$45 billion.
Ankit Panda The Pew Research Center has released a fascinating new set of global public opinion data on global attitudes toward climate change. The release is timely as it comes weeks before global leaders convene at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) United Nations climate talks in Paris later this month. There, they will be under pressure to come up with a binding set of credible commitments to slow the pace of global climate change. But for many countries, especially democracies, doing so without consideration of public opinion will be impossible. The new Pew data, which was collected in 40 major countries, shows majorities in all of them citing climate change as a very serious problem to be dealt with. Asia is of particular interest here since several Asian states are major emitters of greenhouse gas. China and India, in particular, come in at first and third place respectively in terms of total emissions. What's stark about the Pew
data is that the Asia-Pacific region, while worried about climate change overall, is less worried than other parts of the world. The percentage of AsiaPacific respondents that agreed with the statements that "Climate change is a very serious problem," that "Climate change is harming people now," and are "Very concerned that climate change will harm me personally" is lower than the global median. 45 percent of Asia-Pacific respondents agreed with the first statement, 48 percent with the second, and 37 percent with the third. The only other region where fewer than half of all respondents expressed similar beliefs was the Middle East. At a more granular level, opinions on climate change vary across Asia. In Asia, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam are among the most concerned about the effects of climate change with 76 percent, 72 percent, and 69 percent of respondents respectively stating they agree that "Global climate change is a very serious problem." Pew found in a separate study of Indian attitudes toward the foreign policy
of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that Indians see climate change as their top international concern, outranking cyberattacks, economic instability, ISIS, and territorial disputes with China (I wrote on that survey here). That same study showed that 74 percent of Indians see air pollution as a major problem. The latest Pew climate data shows that China is an outlier in terms of attitudes toward climate change in Asia. Just 18 percent of Chinese respondents cited climate change as a very serious problem. This number is low, but somewhat out of sync with a recent survey conducted by Chinese state media agency Xinhua. The Xinhua survey, which focused on Chinese expectations for the 13th five-year plan, saw environmental protection issues at the top of what Chinese citizens were concerned about. In that survey, 73.8 percent of respondents noted that the environment was their top concern. Though environmental protection is substantively different from cli-
mate change, the Xinhua survey also asked respondents to cite what they'd like to see as a policy focus within environmental protection. Here, respondents were clearer: 76.4 percent wanted more investigation of polluted companies, 72.3 percent wanted improved air quality, and 58.6 percent wanted a low-carbon lifestyle. Interestingly, the new Pew data shows that China experienced a statistically significant dip of 23 percentage points since 2010 in the number of Chinese who saw climate change as a very serious problem. In 2010, 41 percent of Chinese respondents cited the issue as a very serious problem. The new Pew survey also finds that most major Asian states see drought as the top most concerning negative consequence of global climate change. Respondents in India (53 percent), Philippines (51 percent), South Korea (47 percent), Australia (45 percent), Vietnam (44 percent), and China (38 percent) all cited drought as their top concern. Malaysia (36 percent), Japan (45 percent), and Pakistan (34 percent) cited severe
weather as their top concern (Malaysians are equally concerned about extreme heat). What should be reassuring ahead of the Paris climate talks is that, with the exception of Pakistan, all Asian states surveyed in the new Pew dataset have majorities supporting government action on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Even in Pakistan, the one outlier among the 40 states surveyed, support stands at 48 percent. Notably, though Indians are the most concerned about climate overall, at 70 percent, Indian support for government action on limiting emissions is the third-lowest among the Asian states surveyed. South Korea and Japan, the two most devel-
oped Asian states in the sample, voice full-throated support for emissions limits with 89 percent and 83 percent in support respectively. As authors in the Diplomat and elsewhere have discussed recently, China, India, and other Asian states will receive much attention in Paris. Heading into the Paris talks, Asian leaders can head in knowing that even if they have to agree to emissions caps that will ultimately suppress their rate of growth or development, they will generally have the backing of public opinion back home. With 60 percent of the world's population, how Asians see climate change will matter deeply for global policymaking.
Will India Deliver Attack Helicopters to Afghanistan? The aircraft would be the first offensive weapons supplied by New Delhi to Kabul. Franz-Stefan Gady India is considering transferring four Russianmade attack helicopters to Afghanistan to help the government in Kabul battle the ongoing insurgency in the country as per reports. The Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai will visit New Delhi this weekend to discuss details of the possible weapons transfer, according to an Indian government source interviewed by The Hindu. The visit of the Afghan delegation is being seen
as a "reach out" to India by the Afghan government the source explains. Afghanistan so far has received only limited military aid from India including a number of jeeps, three unarmed Cheetal Helicopters, manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and periodic training programs for Afghan officers. According to local media, India's National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, extended an invitation to his counterpart during a phone conversation 12 days ago. The Afghan delegation is also scheduled to meet with India's Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. The
major topic of discussion will first and foremost be the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. "They are under pressure, there's no doubt about it," a government official told The Hindu discussing the visit of the Afghans. "Our conversations will be about taking forward the process of close consultations agreed to by PM Modi and President Ghani who have met twice this year." India has been reluctant to deepen ties with the Afghan government under President Ashraf Ghani given his efforts towards a rapprochement with Pakistan. The Mi-25 (Mi-24D) would be the first offen-
sive weapons supplied by New Delhi to Kabul. The aircraft is an upgraded
support aircraft armed with a YakB fourbarrelled, 12.7mm, built-
India is considering transferring four Russian-made attack helicopters to Afghanistan to help the government in Kabul battle the ongoing insurgency in the country as per reports. variant of the Russianmade Mi-24 attack/transport helicopter. The Afghan Air Force is already operating five heavily armored older Mi-35 supplied by the Czech Republic in 2008 but they are rarely operational. The Mi35 is an export version of the Mi-25. The Mi-25 is a close-air
in, flexibly mounted machine gun, as well as rocket and grenade launchers. It can be deployed against ground troops including armored and slow moving air targets. It can also serve as a low-capacity troop transport (up to eight paratroopers), and be used for medical evacua-
tion missions. As I reported previously, Russia is currently also in talks with Afghanistan over the purchase of an unknown number of Mi35 (likely the M or "Hind E" variant) combat helicopters. Additionally, the United States has been trying to support the the fledgling Afghan Air Force by dispatching U.S.-made MD530 F light attack helicopters to the frontlines as a stopgap measure due to delays in the delivery of 20 Brasilian-made Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucanos, aka A-29s, fixed-wing aircraft specifically designed for counter-insurgency operations .
OIL's Predicament Via-a-Vis Recruitment demands from many students unions and organizations that vacancy of post must be filled up by their members. We simply refrain from commenting on recruitment process followed by OIL in the past. But now the scenario has undergone a radical change with the cropping up of good number of students unions and organization and it is also not possible on the part of OIL to concede to the demands of all such organizations accommodating each and every member of their organizations in different posts of OIL. The incident happened in the wake of declaration of results of the unskilled labours. The OIL authority has been prompted to tighten the process of recruitment by outsourcing. Now.a.days, almost all the Public Sector undertakings recruit their officials by outsourcing the recruitment process so that there must not be any Achilles heel in the process. It seems, the students have been pampered so much that even Sir, The recent allack on officials of Oil India Limited the reign of terror let loose by these youths are (OIL) deserves condemnation from all quarters. The silently borne by the authority for fear of reprisal. misdoers ought to be apprehended and exemplary The attack on the OIL officials is a case in point. punishment be meted out to them. There have been OIL authority, too must show impartiality in re-
cruitment process devoid of nepotism and favouritism. Everywhere, the maxim 'Survival of the fittest' should apply with specific focous of local unemployed youths. Yours etc. .Ashok Bordoloi Dibrugarh
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