Category: Food For Thought

Explained: Economics Nobel for contributions to labour economics and to the analysis of causal relationships

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Three US-based economists have won the Nobel Prize for Economics for 2021. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, in memory of Alfred Nobel, to David Card, 65, Joshua D. Angrist, 61, and Guido W. Imbens, 58.

The three economists were credited for providing additional insights and data on how labour markets behave, and the causality of different experiments.

David Card, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA was given the prize “for his empirical contributions to labour economics”, Joshua Angrist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, and Guido Imbens from Stanford University, USA were recognised for their work “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships”.

“This year’s Laureates – David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens – have provided us with new insights about the labour market and shown what conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments. Their approach has spread to other fields and revolutionised empirical research,” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Also Read | Us Based David Card, Joshua D. Angrist, And Guido Imbens Win 2021 Nobel Prize For Economics 

Canadian-born Card studied the effects of minimum wages, immigration and education on the labour market in the early 1990s. Against the conventional wisdom of the time, Card along with his late research partner Alan Krueger, was one of the first to come to the analysis that increasing minimum wages would not lead to fewer jobs.

His work on comparative analysis of the US and Canada highlighted how immigration, now a very politicised vote point, leads to negligible to no impact on wage levels for people born in the country. Card’s work that highlighted the importance of schooling for changing labour markets was also seminal.

Also Read | Before Abhijit Banerjee And Esther Duflo, 5 Couples Won The Nobel Prize. Here Are They

Angrist, a former doctoral student of Card and Krueger, is one of the top economists in labour economics, urban economics, and the economics of education, and is one of the most influential economist researchers of the time. He has worked on issues from research on the determinants of student learning to identifying causal relationships in labour markets with his quasi-natural experiments.

Imbens, a frequent collaborator of Krueger and Angrist, was instrumental in developing the methodologies to conduct the natural experiments that were used to identify causal relationships in the real world. Imbens introduced a model called Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) that helped researchers to draw causal inferences from observational data in collaboration with Angrist. Imbens was also influential in developing econometrics tools so that researchers could link qualitative statements to quantitative data.

The prize of 10 million Swedish kronor was split in half between Card, and the other half being awarded jointly to Imbens and Angrist.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: Big tech betting big on green energy to reduce carbon footprint

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google recently updated its Search, Maps, Travel and Nest to help users make more sustainable and eco-friendly choices. The features, which range from choosing ground transportation to booking flights and hotels, focus on reducing carbon emissions.

The initiative aligns with Google’s pledge to operate on carbon-free energy by 2030. Google turned carbon-neutral in 2007.

But this is not the only step that Google and its ilk have taken to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Data centres use huge amounts of power

A Forbes report in May said big tech needed to add at least 20 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear energy generation capacity or 40 GW of renewable energy or 30 GW of mixed within the next nine years.

Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook require huge amounts of electricity for their data centres, which use power to cool their servers.

According to a Financial Times report, the combined power usage of the top five tech companies is more than 45 terawatt-hours a year. As the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning goes up, this amount is set to grow. At present, the energy use of all data centres is a little over 200 TWh/yr. Only 22 nations across the globe use more energy than this.

Also Read | Climate Crisis Faq: What Is Carbon Neutrality, Net-Zero Emission, Climate Positive? 

In the last decade, there has been a rise in extremely large data centres owned or contracted by large tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, Arij van Berkel, vice-president at Lux Research, told Forbes.

“While the information technology sector as a whole has seen very modest increases in electricity consumption, these companies have seen an average year-over-year increase in electricity consumption of 20 per cent, reaching as high as 43 per cent in some years,” Berkel said.

Also Read | Data Centre A Billion-Dollar Opportunity In India, Seeing Positive Traction: Abb India 

Electricity shortage in China

The ongoing energy crisis in China could crimp the global economy that is struggling to counter the impact of the pandemic, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

China’s electricity shortage could impact the tech world as well, given that China is the world’s biggest production hub of gadgets like iPhones and gaming consoles. It is also a major centre for the packaging of microchips used in vehicles and appliances. If the situation in China worsens, it could affect production at companies like Dell Technologies and Sony Group which are already reeling under the pressure of a global chip shortage.

Power purchase agreements

Tech firms have been under pressure from governments and civil groups to reduce or eliminate their carbon footprint.

In a bid to ensure their investments reduce emissions, the technology sector has been pushing toward renewable energy, securing sustainable electricity deals to power large data centres.

In June, Amazon committed to buying 1.5 GW of production capacity from 14 new solar and wind plants around the world to cover its activities by 2025, the Wall Street Journal said.

Google plans to align its consumption with renewable energy hour by hour, the report said. The company is trying to use carbon-free energy from electrical grids at times of peak demand.

Last year, Facebook said it was striking new power deals to feed its growing energy use. In 2020, the social media giant’s electricity use rose 39 per cent, according to its annual sustainability report.

Although not yet disclosed, Microsoft is said to possess power-purchase deals that will make it one of the world’s biggest green-energy buyers.

According to research firm BloombergNEF, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are among the top six largest corporate buyers of publicly disclosed renewable energy purchase agreements. They make up about 30 per cent, or 25.7 GW, of the total from global companies. Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser across the globe.

Also Read | Adani, Ril, Tata Bet Big On Green Energy 

Google, Microsoft and Amazon are also investing in energy start-ups.

Climate experts believe the best way forward is a mix of renewables and nuclear to decarbonise in time. However, most tech firms are yet to embrace small modular nuclear reactors.

One question that still haunts big techs is if these power purchases will replace power from carbon-emitting plants or add more power to feed the growing global energy consumption.

The Forbes report suggests power purchase agreements will not be sufficient in the future. Big techs will have to offer more value-added services such as providing energy management solutions catered toward their data centres to reach their target.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

This Aussie CEO sat on a toilet for 50 hours to raise $50,000, then $30 million funding followed

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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An Australian start-up, which donates half of its profits from its toilet paper sales towards building sanitary facilities for those in need, recently raised $50,000 from crowdfunding after its CEO sat on a toilet seat for 50 hours.

Simon Griffiths, the CEO of ‘Who Gives A Crap’, said in the team’s crowdfunding video on Indiegogo, “I’m sitting down for what I believe in, and I’m not getting up till I’ve got some toilet paper.”

Who Gives A Crap is among the new generation of businesses that put sustainability and social responsibility on equal footing to profits. Founded in 2012, the company aims to sell sustainable, everyday hygiene products and using half of the profits to build toilets in places that need them.

The Melbourne-based company was co-founded by Griffiths, Jehan Ratnatunga and Danny Alexander after the trio found out while working with humanitarian organisations that more than 2 billion people across the world still had no access to toilets.

“There are still two billion people without access to a toilet, that’s why we donate half our profits to help provide access to clean toilets and clean water,” Griffiths told CNBC.

Also Read | In Crowdfunding Platforms, A Surge In Fundraisers For Children Needing Urgent Liver Transplants 

After two years of development, the team finally had a product that was eco-friendly and comfortable. They just needed the funding to make their first bulk order. To get funding for their first production order, the company relied on crowdfunding. They worked out a plan that required Griffiths to sit on a toilet in the company’s empty warehouse on a live feed for as long as it took to reach the funding goal.

It took Griffiths 50 hours to reach the goal.

Crowdfunding has quickly emerged as a popular way for companies to receive funding directly from potential consumers. Companies, showcasing their products, services and goods, have managed to raise millions of dollars through crowdfunding.

Also Read | Meet The Software Engineer Who Gave Up His Career In Us To Clean Toilets In Slums

The company shipped its first order in March 2013. Since then the company has expanded its services to the US, the UK, and is preparing to launch in Canada. It has also given away 10.8 million Australian dollars ($7.8 million) to sanitation projects to date.

While the company has mostly relied upon self-funding, it recently managed to raise $30 million from investors for which Griffiths didn’t have to sit on a toilet for hours. Verlinvest, The Craftory, Jamjar Investments and Grok Ventures were some of the companies that invested in the business. The funding would be used to help accelerate the growth of the company, and in turn, help more people have accessible toilets.

Also Read | Covid-19 Lockdown: Impact On Menstrual Hygiene Management 

“When we think of the goal and the problem we’re trying to solve … if we’re going to put a serious dent to that problem, we need to be accelerating the growth that we’re seeing today and try to reach as many people as possible,” said Griffiths.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

How ‘deliberate listening’ builds bonds between managers and workers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The digital transformation of the workplace has created greater opportunities for new forms of work arrangements — remote, hybrid, distributed and flexible work.

While in-person meetings create opportunities for conversation, employees in online meetings tend to drop off immediately at the end of the meeting and return to their work in a split second.

Physically, we may no longer work in the same office, have hallway conversations or grab a quick lunch or coffee together. The spontaneous conversations that occur in a shared physical environment require deliberate attention with remote work.

Even before the pandemic, research has shown that remote workers feel left out and are less engaged with their work.

Also Read | View: Prolonged WFH can trigger mental fatigue, depression

They worry that colleagues talk behind their backs, or that their work is considered a lower priority in the eyes of their supervisors. It’s more difficult to interpret body gestures and facial expressions through a computer screen; the lack of informal yet physical nods of approval in the traditional setting can also let our negativity take over and paranoia hinder productivity.

These experiences have an impact on employees’ sense of shared reality — the perceived commonalities with other people when it comes to feelings, beliefs and concerns about the world. As researchers on listening, we provide some perspectives for managers to build this shared reality through what we call deliberate listening.

Here are three practices to deliberate listening:

The idea of shared reality arises from our fundamental need to bond with other people and to understand the world around us. We communicate in order to share our realities, which also form the basis of our thoughts.

Listening builds bridges between different experiences and perspectives. Co-workers and employees may hesitate to share their struggles at home or their conflicts with colleagues if not asked. They often only talk about these experiences via deliberate listening.

Also Read | ‘Cab facilities, WFH option, insurance’: What employees want to return to office

Managers can engage in deliberate listening to acknowledge differences, reduce defensiveness and bridge the gaps between “us and them.” Employees can express themselves more fully, expand their thinking and correct faulty generalisations.

Questions aimed at listening — such as a simple as “How are things at home?” or “What’s on your mind?” — can bridge these gaps and the invisible barriers created by distance.

Sharing our inner thoughts strengthens our social connections. People tend to feel more connected if they have the same interpretation of events. American psychologist and researcher E. Tory Higgins introduced the idea that “sharing is believing” — people not only tweak what they say to fit with their communication partner’s attitude, they also subsequently remember the observations they share.

In order to listen well, managers can use external tools, like taking notes, to help them. Larry Bossidy, the former CEO of Honeywell, used the technique of dividing a sheet of paper and scribbling notes of what he heard on one side and his thoughts about the matter on the other.

Listeners can also intentionally adjust tones and descriptions to align with the attitude of their conversation partner. Sentences like “I feel the same way” and gestures such as nods build a two-way communication relationship in which interaction partners build on common beliefs and feel closer to each other.

Successful listening results in people feeling they clicked and fuels a desire to maintain this close relationship. That feeling can extend to other colleagues and thereby create a sense of cohesion at work.

When others disclose negative emotions, mere listening as support offers minimal help, and can actually perpetuate the frustrating situation.

Also Read | Employee burnout on the rise in India, says LinkedIn report; many look forward to hybrid model

If the listener validates the negativity, the speaker can brood by immersing in the negativity and replaying the adverse reaction. The magic recipe for constructive listening is attentiveness plus some enlightenment.

Responses that gently challenge the validity of the aggrieved person’s feelings or their appraisal of a perceived problem are most effective for mitigating negativity. Such an approach can motivate people to re-evaluate their initial reaction to the problem and reposition themselves, cognitively and emotionally.

Listening to others is often undervalued as only passive acceptance. But effective listening as people disclose details of both their professional and personal lives, including hardships and emotions that affect the workplace, takes dedication and skills.

Listening is not passive. It creates a shared reality — one that is crucial for understanding, collaboration and action.

By bridging, affirming and challenging, listeners can build a shared sense of belonging and understanding that shape the realities of our work and the world around us. That’s regardless of whether we work in a physical office or online.

Also Read | Why work from home is better for environment than traditional models?

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Climate change causing drop in brightness of Earth: Study

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Warming ocean waters have caused a drop in the brightness of the Earth, according to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It also found that our planet is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square metre than it was 20 years ago.

The study used decades of measurements of earthshine, the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon.

The researchers also analysed satellite measurements, finding that there has been a significant drop in Earth’s reflectance, or albedo, over the past two decades. They found that Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square metre than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years of earthshine data.

Also Read | How a drowning girl statue in Spain got people talking about climate change

That is the equivalent of a 0.5 percent decrease in the Earth’s reflectance, according to the researchers. Earth reflects about 30 per cent of the sunlight that shines on it, they noted.

“The albedo drop was such a surprise to us when we analysed the last three years of data after 17 years of nearly flat albedo,” said Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the lead author of the study. Goode was referring to the earthshine data from 1998 to 2017 gathered by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California.

When the latest data were added to the previous years, the dimming trend became clear, the researchers said. They noted that two things affect the net sunlight reaching the Earth: the Sun’s brightness and the planet’s reflectivity.

The changes in Earth’s albedo observed by the researchers did not correlate with periodic changes in the Sun’s brightness, meaning changes in Earth’s reflectiveness are caused by something on the Earth.

There has been a reduction of bright, reflective low-lying clouds over the eastern Pacific Ocean in the most recent years, according to satellite measurements made as part of NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project.

Also Read | Explained: How NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite will help combat climate change

That is the same area where increases in sea surface temperatures have been recorded because of the reversal of a climatic condition with likely connections to global climate change, according to the researchers. The dimming of the Earth can also be seen in terms of how much more solar energy is being captured by Earth’s climate system, they said.

Once this significant additional solar energy is in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, it may contribute to global warming, the researchers explained. This is because the extra sunlight is of the same magnitude as the total anthropogenic climate forcing, or a number of human-induced factors, over the last two decades, they added.

“It’s actually quite concerning,” said Edward Schwieterman, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Riverside who was not involved in the study. Many scientists had hoped that a warmer Earth might lead to more clouds and higher albedo, which would then help to moderate warming and balance the climate system, he said.

“But this shows the opposite is true,” Schwieterman added.

Also Read | In pics: India’s 10 most polluted cities according to WHO

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Work-from-Home does not mean end of workplace sexual harassment

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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“My male colleague persistently calls me in the name of connecting for work, even at night.” 

“My boss insists on video calls, even during odd hours.”*

These are some of the messages received over the past year on the chat helpline of Sheroes, a social networking platform exclusively for women. (*Following principles of counselling, the messages have been re-worded by Sheroes and are not verbatim)

Even as several companies moved their employees to a work-from-home model since the start of the pandemic last year, it has not meant an end to the sensitive issue of workplace sexual harassment, of which women are more often the victims.

“Sexual harassment doesn’t necessarily mean physical harassment. In fact, workplace harassment usually isn’t physical,’ said Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

“Sexual harassment could be in the form of inappropriate remarks or gestures to make a woman feel uncomfortable. With several employees now working from home, there seems to be a thin line between cyber harassment and sexual harassment. Calling at odd times seems to be a common problem now, while other cases also include putting up inappropriate pictures in the background during a video call,” she added.

As per the Vishaka guidelines formulated by the Supreme Court in 1997, ‘Sexual Harassment’ includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; Sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or nonverbal conduct of sexual nature.

The Vishakha guidelines became the foundation for the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and made it mandatory for companies to put in place measures to prevent and redress sexual harassment in the workplace (POSH Rules).

According to the database of the National Commission of Women, 125 complaints of sexual harassment of women at the workplace were received in 2021 so far. In 2020, NCW received 201 such complaints. This is lower than the 330 such complaints received in 2019, a year when most employees were still in their offices.

On the Sheroes helpline too there has been a drop in workplace sexual harassment-related complaints. Earlier about 20 percent of the overall daily messages would be about the issue, but over the past year, that number is under 5 percent, according to founder Sairee Chahal.

While the number of cases may have dropped from the previous years, the problem still persists, and the nature of workplace sexual harassment may have become more difficult for women to identify or report, according to Shakun Vijay, Head of the Ask Sheroes Helpline.

“The signs can be subtle and many times women may not be able to identify sexual harassment or may not know how to report it when they are working remotely,” Vijay said.

While many industries in the essential services sector still had a lot of their staff reporting to offices during the pandemic, several corporates, especially those in the tech space, were able to transition most employees to work from home.

For example, IT companies moved nearly 90 percent of their employees to work from home since the beginning of the pandemic.

But even then these companies reported cases of workplace sexual harassment in FY21, though there has been a drop as compared to the previous year.

TCS, which employed nearly 5 lakh people as of FY21, received 27 complaints of sexual harassment in the fiscal as per the annual report as compared to 86 such cases in FY20.

The annual report shows that out of the 27 complaints in FY21,  19 complaints have been resolved with appropriate action taken and 8 complaints remained pending as of March 31, 2021.

Infosys reported 25 workplace sexual harassment cases in FY21, as per the annual report, down from 88 in FY20.

Wipro’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Saurabh Govil recently said that the company was working to create awareness on sexual harassment, especially as the nature of such harassment is changing.

“There is a clear shift in the nature of workplace harassment. People expect others to be on videos at odd hours. We have instituted awareness training on sexual harassment for employees in this context because new ways of working bring up new issues,” Govil said during Microsoft’s ExpertSpeak sessions on July 20, in response to a question from CNBC-TV18.

Wipro had reported 43 complaints regarding sexual harassment of women at the workplace during FY21. In FY20, the company had seen 125 such complaints.

Work-From-Office

It is important to note that not all employees and staff had the privilege to work from home. All essential services sectors continued to work out of physical locations through the pandemic and that meant regular shifts at the office.

E-grocery platform BigBasket continued to offer delivery of groceries and other products during the pandemic, which required roughly 27,000 of its workers at the warehouses and for deliveries to come in daily. The company reported 8 cases under Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) in FY21, most of which were reported from the company’s warehouses.  This compares to 14 cases the previous year.

“There has been no change in the nature of sexual harassment. All cases that were reported involved in-person interactions. Most cases reported in the past, and now, continue to be in our physical warehouses and dark stores,” said TN Hari, the Head of HR at BigBasket.

Hari said BigBasket has taken steps to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace through “education and awareness among employees, including those on contract, on their rights and recourse, active  internal complaints committees across all locations, bringing external women members of repute to aid and assist in the investigations, ensuring speedy, and fair investigations, and exemplary action in cases where sexual harassment is established irrespective of immediate consequences on the business.”

Under the “POSH Rules”, any company with over 10 employees must set up an internal committee that can address grievances of employees on sexual harassment complaints.

False Reporting, Misreporting Persists

Another issue that persists is the identification of a sexual harassment case as distinct from other issues such as discrimination and sexism.

“Gender discrimination cases are also being filed as sexual harassment complaints since there is no other avenue,’ NCW’s Sharma said. “We should have a gender discrimination policy for workplaces,” she added.

Sharma said that there are also multiple cases of false reporting, especially when some form of action is taken against a woman employee.

However, industry members said false reporting is usually a small part of the number of complaints, and that it was an encouraging sign that women are raising other workplace issues as well.

“Women are showing the courage to report even small incidents, some which don’t fall under the purview of sexual harassment and may be better classified as general harassment, sexism, misogyny, bad leadership, poor awareness of the nuances of what constitutes personal space etc. And we see this as a great sign, and an opportunity to further refine the vocabulary and help everyone understand the +nuances better and nip them in the bud,” BigBasket’s HR Head Hari said.

Domestic Violence Cases Rises

Another grave concern has been rising complaints of domestic violence cases that have shot up over the past year and a half.

Domestic violence complaints received by NCW nearly doubled from 2,960 complaints in 2019 to 5,297 in 2020.

In 2021 so far, NCW has already received over 3000 complaints of domestic violence.

“During the lockdown, domestic violence cases had increased sharply, especially since women were stuck at home with their abusers and could not go out to families, or even the police,” Sharma said.

On the Sheroes’ helpline, 30 percent of the queries are now around domestic violence issues, which is double from the previous years, Chahal said.

“We are now seeing many cases of domestic violence being reported from smaller towns, and many even from abroad,’ Vijay said.

Domestic violence could be physical, financial, verbal, or emotional, Vijay explained.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

37 heads of states feature in ‘Predators of Press Freedom’ 2021 list

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Thirty seven heads of the states from across the world have made it to the 2021 list of ‘Predators of Press Freedom’ published by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). These leaders have been criticised for granting the “lowest freedom to the media” under their jurisdiction.

India ranks at 142nd out of 180 countries in the RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Nearly half (17) of the names in the RSF’s list are making their first appearance in 2021, which RSF published five years after the last one in 2016, says a statement.

The average age of the listed names is 66 years. More than a third (13) of those in the RSF’s list are from the Asia-Pacific region. For the first time, the list includes two women and a European strongman.

The first two women in RSF’s list are Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong special administrative region, and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The new entrants include Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old crown prince, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and European entrant Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán.

The lists also names Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksha, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, Myanmar’s military head Min Aung Hlaing, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Nineteen of these ‘predators’ rule countries that are coloured red on the RSF’s press freedom map, meaning their situation is classified as “bad” for journalism, says RSF. And 16 rule countries coloured black, meaning the situation is “very bad.”

The RSF statement said, “All are heads of state or government who trample on press freedom by creating a censorship apparatus, jailing journalists arbitrarily or inciting violence against them, when they don’t have blood on their hands because they have directly or indirectly pushed for journalists to be murdered.”

Some of these ‘predators of press freedom’ have been operating for more than two decades, RSF said.

RSF mentioned that Bashar al-Assad (President of Syria), Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Iran), Vladimir Putin (President of Russia), Alexander Lukashenko (President of Belarus), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (President of Equatorial Guinea), Isaias Afwerki (President of Eritrea) and Paul Kagame (President of Rwanda) are among those who have retained their places since their first list was published in 2001.

Based in Paris, RSF claims to be an independent NGO with consultative status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

RSF’s foreign bureaus in 10 cities, including Brussels, Washington, Berlin, Tunis, Rio de Janeiro, and Stockholm, and its network of correspondents in 130 countries give the organisation the ability to mobilise support, challenge governments and wield influence both on the ground and in the ministries and precincts where media and internet standards and legislation are drafted.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

View: Why reading in more than one language is vital for children

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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There are two very fundamental processes that complement learning, i.e., reading and language. For the longest time, humankind has been exploring ‘language’ as to whether it is emergent or innate. There has been an ongoing debate on whether ‘reading’ is only a visual process (where we interpret visual symbols).

Well, the explorations are not conclusive. Yet, we are sure they help not only in gaining new knowledge, but also in gaining skills and neural pathways that help us learn new things better.

Reading encourages a child’s mind to wander into many modes of thought – multiple senses are triggered and multiple meanings are derived. Inculcating this habit of reading among children at an early age sets the base for a strong learning journey ahead and boosts their cognitive development.

However, I believe, reading in more than one language — especially one that includes native tongue — can go a long way in widening a child’s learning horizon.

While English is most commonly the first language in schools, parents must chime in to provide their children with a holistic learning experience at home — by making them speak and read in different languages, including their native language.

Introducing children to read multiple languages, at an early age, bridges the gap between the culture at home, the school, and society. It broadens the general outlook of the education system, increases tolerance, and fosters respect for cultural diversity. It also teaches children to look at things from multiple perspectives!

In fact, our nation’s new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also suggests that parents and schools must supplement early education (preferably until Class VIII) in a regional language or their mother tongue. Several pieces of research have also shown that new languages, if read and learned at an early age, are acquired faster, retained better, and spoken cleaner.

Regular reading sessions in one’s mother tongue spurs personality and behavioural development, knowledge of many languages, and gives a way to express a broader range of emotions.

There’s more to multi-lingual reading than just acquiring a skill to speak another language:

1. Exposure to native tongue improves empathy – When kids start to read and converse in their mother tongue, they’re introduced to customs and values belonging to their society. This encourages them to think about cultural sensitivity.
2. Increased grasping power – Children who read and write in more than one language have a learning advantage, are less inhibited, and open to exploring/accepting changes and new perspectives.
3. Expanded vision– Each language has its style, idioms, cultural references, and heritage. Exposure to these features helps kids think more, boost ideologies, strengthen vocabulary and grammatical variation, thereby equipping them with the right tools to understand the world in completely new ways.
4. More positive attitude – Children exposed early to other languages display more positive attitudes to the cultures associated with those languages. It makes them more curious, tolerant, and optimistic.
5. Boosted Academic Achievement – The cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages have a direct impact on a child’s academic achievement. Bilingual or multilingual children have better reading and writing skills and sharpen their analytical and logical abilities.
6. Strengthened mental ability – Learning a second language boosts problem-solving, critical thinking, and listening skills, in addition to improving memory, concentration, and the ability to multitask. Children proficient in other languages also show signs of enhanced creativity and mental flexibility.
7. Newer opportunities – Young children can learn multiple languages at the same time. Not only do they naturally navigate multilingual environments, acquiring a second language early in life trains the brain to learn multiple other languages, opening a world of opportunities for later on.

In my opinion, this is true of any learning – make the information sources and experiences richer – and you will see better outcomes.

– Aswin Vijayaraghavan is a Teacher, AVP Media, and Creative Content at BYJU’S. Views expressed are personal.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China-Pak planning Al Jazeera like news platform; to be funded by Chinese state: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China and Pakistan are planning on collaborating for a new media platform that will help achieve “information dominance” and an alternative to the narrative of Western news media, the Hindustan Times reported.

The media organisation will be created on the lines of new agencies like Al Jazeera, RT Network and others. It is going to be funded by the Chinese state and will employ international journalists of pedigree and stature, sources told HT on conditions of anonymity.

The sources said, “The current project aims to establish a media house to project a so-called correct image of Pakistan. Though the documents do not refer to China directly in terms of content, the very fact that financing would be provided by China is proof that China intends to use this channel as a platform to improve its image.”

The organisation will be established within Pakistan and will be funded by China, the latter having its own state-run Xinhua news agency to disseminate information within its borders. This isn’t the first time when Pakistan has tried to undertake the project of establishing an English news television channel. Pakistan had tried to cooperate with Turkey and Malaysia in establishing a TV channel to combat growing Islamaphobia and correct the global image of Islam, but the project fell through due to apparent disinterest from both the countries.

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping had recently addressed the country’s Communist Party meeting, saying China needed to create a “trustworthy, loveable and respectable” image. Jinping had said that China would need to improve the way it shared its “stories” and develop an “international voice.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow