Tag: unwind

India ahead of world average on women in senior management, says report

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The country is ahead of global average in women working in senior management positions and ranks third globally on the same count, according to a report. The percentage of women in senior management in India stood at 39 per cent as against the global average of 31 per cent, consultancy firm Grant Thornton said in the report.

It added that this is representative of “the changing outlook of Indian businesses towards working women”. Lack of inclusion of women in corporate jobs, especially leadership roles, has been a key concern in the past few years and has led to some mandates as well, like the compulsion for listed companies to have women directors.

Over 98 per cent of businesses in India have at least one woman in senior management as against the global average of 90 per cent, the firm said. In fact, 47 per cent of mid-market businesses in India now have women chief executive officers, compared with 26 per cent globally, the firm said.

“It is heartening to note India ranks higher than its global counterparts in creating a gender inclusive culture. With more women taking on leadership roles and diversity on board, businesses will open new opportunities for growth,” Grant Thornton Bharat Chief Executive Vishesh C Chandiok said. The firm also undertook a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, which said 88 per cent of the respondents in India believe that new working practices will benefit women’s career trajectories in the long term compared with 69 per cent globally.

Other areas where India is above the world averages include actions taken by organisations to promote gender justice like ensuring equal access to developmental work opportunities, creating an inclusive culture, providing mentoring and coaching, formalising flexible working and gender quotas, it said. The firm surveyed 10,000 businesses, including both listed and private entities, across 29 countries as part of the report.

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

I’m an alien: Elon Musk’s wacky answer to Indian entrepreneur’s poser 

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk is undeniably a subject of fascination for many established and aspiring entrepreneurs, especially for his uncanny power to move markets with his tweets. In the past few weeks, one-word posts and hashtags by the Tesla CEO have driven up the price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin to record levels, making him an inspiration as well as an enigma for many.

On Friday, a curious Kunal Shah, founder of fintech startup CRED, thought out loud on Twitter about how Musk manages to disrupt multiple industries at the same time. Shah, an MBA dropout, sold Freecharge in 2015 for $400 million and launched CRED to allow credit card holders pay bills through an app that gives them benefits via Cred coins.

The Indian entrepreneur soon followed it up with a request to the techno-entrepreneur to drop by his handle and “answer if you see this”, addressing him as “dark lord”.

Elon musk may end up running 4+ 500 billion companies simultaneously at a relatively young age.

What I want to really understand: how does he do it? How does he manage context switching? How does he design his Org?

So many questions.

— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) February 11, 2021

Even as Tweeple got down to discussing Musk’s exploits and strategies, the world’s richest man decided to give a simple yet mind-blowing explanation. “I’m an alien,” he wrote.

I’m an alien

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2021

His wacky response has garnered 32.5k likes and has been retweeted more than 3,500 times. Some of his fans on the microblogging platform applauded Musk for the reply and said that they never doubted that he was indeed an alien.

So that settles it! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GVfdc0k9E5

— Jikku Jose (@JikkuJose) February 12, 2021

Luxury car company Tesla has brought in innovations in the automobile sector with electric vehicles while SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company founded by Musk in 2002, is disrupting the space sector with reusable rockets to send humans to the moon as well as Mars.

Musk is also the co-founder of Neuralink, a start-up that aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence, and The Boring Company that builds tunnels to transport people underground as a way of beating the crazy Los Angeles traffic.

Also read: World’s richest man doesn’t care about money, and other interesting Elon Musk facts

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

India fares better than Asia average in gender diversity in company boards: Report

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India fared better than Asia as a whole in gender diversity in both executive and non-executive chair roles, according to a survey by leadership advisory firm Egon Zehnder. Egon Zehnder’s 2020 Global Board Diversity Tracker noted that between 2012 and 2020, India has seen an 8.6 per cent increase in the percentage of women onboards, with women holding 17 per cent of board positions in 2020.

“India fared better than Asia as a whole in diversity of both executive and non-executive chair roles, with 5 per cent of executive chair roles filled by women in India and 10 per cent of non-executive chair roles,” Egon Zehnder said. Asia’s average in women’s executive chair roles stood at 2.6 per cent and for non-executive chair roles, it was 5 per cent, respectively.

Globally, women now make up 27.3 per cent of all board committee leaders globally, up from 25.5 per cent in 2018. This year’s report analysed data from 1,685 companies across 44 countries with a combined market capitalisation of more than USD 48 trillion.

“The results are clear while there is progress in gender diversity globally, the rate of change is insignificant. Despite increased attention to diversity and inclusion that has sparked conversation and movement, making tangible progress is still challenging,” Egon Zehnder said in a statement. This year, 89 per cent of major companies globally have at least one woman on their board, up from 85 per cent in 2018. While, in India, that number is higher, with 96 per cent of companies having at least one woman on their boards, as per the survey.

Moreover, between 2012 and 2020, India has seen an 8.6 per cent increase in the percentage of women on boards, with women holding 17 per cent of board positions in 2020. The survey noted that 18 countries, up from 13 in 2018, have on an average three or more women on the boards of their largest companies globally. In India, 23 per cent of large company boards average at least three women, up by 10 per cent from 2018.

“Today, we see attention and acknowledgement that we need more diverse boards; however, diversity spans far beyond gender,” said Jill Ader, chairwoman of Egon Zehnder. Ader further noted that “it is now more important than ever to move beyond traditional D&I metrics and prioritise building teams that are representative of all different backgrounds”.

She added that board leaders have the power to modernise governance with a few bold steps. “Change is within our grasp.” Globally, new board appointments made up 13.5 per cent of all board positions in 2020, up from 11.4 per cent in 2018. Of that number, 30 per cent were women, up from 27 per cent in 2018. In India, women comprised 16.3 percent of new board appointments.

“In reality, this means that only 4 per cent of all directors are women new to the board, only a 0.9 per cent increase from 2018,” Egon Zehnder said.

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

Books by 3 Indian writers feature in 2020 ‘100 Notable Books’ selected by The New York Times

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Critically-acclaimed books by three Indian writers have featured among this year’s 100 notable books list of The New York Times that also includes former US president Barack Obama’s newly released memoir ‘A Promised Land’. Editors of The New York Times Book Review selected 100 “notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction” works from around the world.

The prestigious list also includes the work of fiction ‘A Burning’ by India-born Megha Majumdar. “A brazen act of terrorism in an Indian metropolis sets the plot of this propulsive debut novel in motion, and lands an innocent young bystander in jail. With impressive assurance and insight, Majumdar unfolds a timely story about the ways power is wielded to manipulate and crush the powerless,” the report said of the book.

‘Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line’ by Deepa Anappara, who grew up in Kerala, also features on the list. “This first novel by an Indian journalist probes the secrets of a big-city shantytown as a 9-year-old boy tries to solve the mystery of a classmate’s disappearance. Anappara impressively inhabits the inner worlds of children lost to their families, and of others who escape by a thread,” the leading daily said.

Samanth Subramanian’s ‘A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane’ is a nonfiction work. “Haldane, the British biologist and ardent communist who helped synthesise Darwinian evolution with Mendelian genetics, was once as famous as Einstein. Subramanian’s elegant biography doubles as a timely allegory of the fraught relationship between science and politics,” the report said.

Subramanian is a journalist and lives in London. ‘Red Pill’ by British-Indian author Hari Kunzru also features in the list.

“A fellowship at a study center in Germany turns sinister and sets a writer on a possibly paranoid quest to expose a political evil he believes is loose in the world. Kunzru’s wonderfully weird novel traces a lineage from German Romanticism to National Socialism to the alt-right, and is rich with insights on surveillance and power,” the report said.

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

Moon may hold frozen water in more places than suspected

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The moons shadowed, frigid nooks and crannies may hold frozen water in more places and in larger quantities than previously suspected, good news for astronauts at future lunar bases who could tap into these resources for drinking and making rocket fuel, scientists reported Monday.

While previous observations have indicated millions of tons of ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moons poles, a pair of studies in the journal Nature Astronomy take the availability of lunar surface water to a new level.

More than 15,400 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) of lunar terrain have the capability to trap water in the form of ice, according to a team led by the University of Colorados Paul Hayne. Thats 20% more area than previous estimates, he said.

These ice-rich areas are near the moons north and south poles. Temperatures are so low in these so-called cold traps minus 261 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 163 degrees Celsius) that they could hold onto the water for millions or even billions of years.

We believe this will help expand the possible landing sites for future lunar missions seeking water, opening up real estate previously considered off limits for being bone dry, Hayne said in an email to The Associated Press.

Using data from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers identified cold traps as small as a few yards (meters) across and as wide as 18 miles (30 kilometers) and more, and used computer models to get all the way down to micrometers in size.

Since the little ones are too small to see from orbit, despite being vastly more numerous, we cant yet identify ice inside them, Hayne said. Once were on the surface, we will do that experiment.

For a second study, scientists used NASA’s airborne infrared observatory Sofia to conclusively identify water molecules on the sunlit portions of the moon, just outside the polar regions. Most of these molecules are likely stored in the voids between moon dust and other particles or locked inside glassy volcanic material.

Scientists believe all this water on the moon came from comets, asteroids, interplanetary dust, the solar wind or even lunar volcanic eruptions. They’ll have a better idea of the sources if we can get down on the surface and analyze samples of the ice, Hayne said.

The lead researcher, Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral fellow at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, said at a news conference that she wanted to make it clear the Sofia study had not found puddles on the moon. Rather, the identified hydrogen and oxygen molecules are so far apart, they are neither in liquid or solid form, she noted.

NASA is under White House direction to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024. The space agency wants its new Artemis moon-landing program to be sustainable, unlike the Apollo program a half-century ago.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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

3 Durga Puja committees theme celebrations on Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Three neighbourhood Durga Puja committees in Kolkata have joined hands to pay tribute to Satyajit Ray having themed their celebrations on the auteur’s Apu trilogy. While Badamtala Asar Sangha, one of the popular pujas in the city.

themed their celebrations on the Pather Panchali, two other neighbourhood clubs located within a distance of one km, completed the cycle with the sequels – Aparajito and Apur Sansar.

A spokesman of Badamtala told .

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