Jun 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

Why India Shouldn't Fear Greenpeace





They also serve, the green fundamentalists

An Intelligence Bureau report has labelled Greenpeace a threat to India's economic security . It would be surprising if a report does not surface that claims that Amnesty International or India's own human rights organisations are a threat to internal security , concerned as they tend to be about the human rights of tribal people, convicts, putative terrorists and so on. Such assessments are one-sided, just as the reports of Greenpeace and human rights outfits tend to be. It is the job of the politician and public opinion to put things in balance, taking into account the skewed vision of these advocacy groups along with other concerns germane to society .Environmentalism, feminism and international concern for human rights and poverty removal are all things that started in the 1970s and have since gathered strength. Several organisations have sprung up to champion these causes. They influence politics and the public discourse and impact policy . In Germany , environmen talists have even formed a political party of their own. Greenpeace, Ac tion Aid, Amnesty International and the like are voluntary organisations that work across the world, draw their funding mostly from the rich countri es and draw volunteers in countries like India committed to the cause they represent. They serve an entirely legitimate purpose.
Their one-sided skew serves to compensate for another kind of one-sided skew that otherwise would drag social development away from the path that is desirable.
The point is not to demonise agencies like Greenpeace, but to appreciate and act on the sense in what they say .
Their huge grievance against coal should serve to mount pressure to adopt clean coal technologies, rather than to stop coal mining. Greenpeace had been among those agitating against the hazardous ship-breaking outsourced to India. This has helped bring in better regulation. The point is, in the absence of green fundamentalists, India would be a little too brown, grey and unhealthy than it ought to be and society would like it to be. Dissent and diversity of opinion work to the collective good, in short.

Jun 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Is obesity a disability? Court to decide

Kounteya Sinha

London TNN





Man Weighing 158Kg Sues Employers For Sacking Him, Alleges Discrimination

An overweight Danish citizen may make legal history by calling for employers across Europe to treat obesity as a disability.The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will on Thursday hear proceedings brought by Danish childminder Karsten Kaltoft, who alleges he was dismissed by his local authority Billund Kommune as he is obese.
The authority claimed that he was unable to perform his duties and needed the help of colleagues to even tie children's shoelaces.
The issue is whether Kaltoft's obesity falls within the definition of disability under EU law and whether, by dismissing him, his employer may have been guilty ofdisability discrimination.
If Kaltoft -who weighed more than 158 kg when he was dismissed -wins the case, obesity would need to be approached like any other physical or mental impairment, preventing an employer from treating an employee less favourably because of their weight, not because of consequential medical problems. This would include the ability to dismiss. The court, whose rulings are binding throughout the EU, will have to decide whether it is legitimate to discriminate on the grounds of obesity and whether the burden of proof in any future cases should be on the employer or employee. The ECJ will also consider whether, if there is a duty to prevent discrimination against those suffering from obesity, it applies just to the public sector or across the labour market.
The Danish court has asked for clarification from the ECJ as to whether the European Framework Directive, which sets the benchmark of discrimination laws across member states, can be interpreted to encompass obesity as a disability .
Audrey Williams, partner and head of discrimination at law firm Eversheds said, “The European court will consider for the first time where obesity sits in legal terms and whether it should be considered a disability in the case of Karsten Kaltoft v Billund Kommune. The outcome could prove significant for employers, triggering potential obligations to make reasonable adjustments at work or restricting opportunity to reject job candidates due to their weight. It will be some weeks before the European court publishes its decision in the Kaltoft case. However, depending upon the outcome, the impact could prove significant for employers, particularly those in the UK which continues to reveal the highest percentages of obesity in Europe. Discrimination law in the UK, the Equality Act, 2010, has been interpreted as protecting physical and mental conditions which result from obesity , to the extent they meet specified criteria in terms of their nature, effect and duration; obesity itself has been rejected by the UK courts as a disability in its own right. If the European Court reaches a contrary conclusion, the Equality Act would need to be applied very differently.“
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com

Jun 11 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India ranks 15th on global wealth list

New York PTI





According to Boston Consulting Group's report, India had 175,000 millionaire households in 2013 and is projected to become the seventh wealthiest nation by 2018

India had 175,000 millionaire households in 2013, ranking 15th in the world, according to a wealth report which said the total number of millionaire households in the world rose to 16.3 million last year.The Boston Consulting Group’s 14th annual report on the global wealth-management industry ‘Riding a Wave of Growth: Global Wealth 2014’ said global private financial wealth grew by 14.6% in 2013 to reach a total of $152 trillion.
The rise was stronger than in 2012, when global wealth grew by 8.7%. The key drivers, for the second consecutive year, were the performance of equity markets.
India ranked 15th last year and had 175,000 millionaire households. Its position improved slightly from 2012
when it had ranked 16 in the world for its number of millionaire households.
India is projected to become the seventh wealthiest nation by 2018. The number of ultra-high-net-wort households in India, those with $100 million or more, stood at 284 last year.
The total number of millionaire households reached 16.3 million in 2013, up strongly from 13.7 million in 2012 and representing 1.1% of all households globally.
The US had the highest
number of millionaire households at 7.1 million, as well as the highest number of new millionaires at 1.1 million.
Robust wealth creation in China was reflected by its rise in millionaire households from 1.5 million in 2012 to 2.4 million in 2013, surpassing Japan. The number of millionaire households in Japan fell from 1.5 million to 1.2 million, driven by the 15% fall in the yen against the dollar.
“As the debate over the global polarization of wealth rages on, one thing is certain:
more people are becoming wealthy,” the report said.As in previous years, North America at $50.3 trillion and Western Europe at $ 37.9 trillion remained the wealthiest regions in the world, followed closely by Asia-Pacific at $37 trillion.
A key driver in the rise of private wealth in the AsiaPacific region has been strong GDP growth over the past five years, especially in China, India, and Indonesia, the report said. Globally, the amount of wealth held privately rose by $19.3 trillion in 2013, nearly twice the increase of $10.7 trillion seen in 2012.
The highest density of millionaire households was in Qatar (175 out of every 1,000 households), followed by Switzerland (127) and Singapore (100).

Jun 11 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

SECOND OPINION - What a waste

Jug Suraiya





India's undiscovered youthful talent goes abegging in foreign lands

In a piazza, in the historic centre of Rome, a man in the saffron robes of a yogi held a four-foot high pole on which another saffron-clad yogi sat with perfect balance. It was an amazing act, worthy of any circus. Here it was being performed for the small change passers-by might chose to throw into the box in front of the two yogis.All over Rome, there were young men from the Indian subcontinent earning a precarious livelihood by being streetside performers, or selling tacky souvenirs. Most were illegal immigrants, keeping a wary eye out for the police.
Almost anywhere you go in the world you will find young Indian men, on the fringe of the underworld, economic refugees in an alien land so remote in every sense from their home. To survive they must learn foreign languages, keep out of reach of the long arm of the law, and hone a variety of skills to earn whatever they can, however they can.
Financial desperation compels them to leave home and family to seek whatever scant and chancy fortune they might find in a distant and inhospitable clime. Unlike the contract workers who go to the Gulf, and earn enough to send remittances home, these gypsy-like vagabonds who swarm all over Europe and Southeast Asia have no regular jobs or source of income; they live on the edge, with no scope for savings.
We talk about the `brain drain' which depletes India of educated profes sionals like doctors and computer buffs who go to live abroad to better their prospects.
This represents a huge loss for the country in terms of trained human resources. Few, if any, compute the loss to the country repre sented by the unrecorded, and often illegal, flight of unskilled emigrants ­ sometimes referred to as `kabutars', or pigeons ­ who are forced by brute economic necessity to flee to foreign shores, more often than not with the untrustworthy help of unscrupulous touts and racketeers who exploit and fleece them before abandoning them to their hazardous fate.
The ability to survive against the odds, often in a hostile environment, is proof of the innate aptitudes, the `street smarts', that these self-willed exiles must possess. Properly harnessed, the talents that so many of them display could be put to use for the benefit of their home country .
The elections have witnessed an induction of more than 150 million firsttime voters. The greatest challenge that the new government faces is to devise ways and means to put to productive use this collective energy which could transform the country , economically and socially .
The solution lies not in the creation of yet more sarkari jobs and adding to an already bloated bureaucracy . The answer lies in out-of-the-box thinking: micro-financing grassroots entrepreneurs, encouraging self-employment through vocational training, creating sources of productive livelihood instead of creating unproductive government jobs.
Unless this is done, millions of India's `kabutars' will continue to fly out of the country to far-off lands, to perform tricks and sell trinkets and live on the uncertain kindness of foreign strangers, living evidence of India's begging bowl.
secondopinion@timesgroup.com http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/

Jun 11 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

What Women Want





Before next Parliament session, Modi must solidify support for women's reservation Bill

Like the Nirbhaya tragedy two years ago, the Badaun rape-murders have galvanised national outrage. In both cases statements by politicians, reiterating instead of rejecting traditional misogyny, have been sadly out of sync with public sentiment. But change is on the horizon. Giving voice to the new government’s priorities, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday spelled out a commitment to 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies. Rolling out the women’s reservation Bill will send a very powerful, consequential signal of women’s empowerment.In the 2014 election campaign the issue of women’s welfare rose to ground-breaking prominence, in part because female voters outnumbered male counterparts in many states. Unfortunately increase in female turnout isn’t matched by increase in female candidates. Leaders across the political spectrum – including Brinda Karat, Jayanthi Natarajan and Sushma Swaraj – have emphasised that entrenched patriarchy rules the roost even in ticket distribution.
When UPA tried to pass the women’s reservation Bill, intransigent parties like SP carried much more weight. But the legislative landscape has shifted. Not only is the NDA government stronger, on this issue it can count on Sonia Gandhi’s support. Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee would be sympathetic, as would the Left. So the odds of passing this longmothballed legislation have never been as strong as now. This is a chance that must not be missed.
We are not votaries of reservations across the board. For example, rather than caste quotas for education and jobs, it’s better to have universalisation of school education of a decent standard, along with expansion of higher education with scholarships for poor students. But the women’s reservation Bill is a special case, for two reasons. One, the appalling extent of misogyny in the country that ensures, for example, that sex ratios get skewed or that rape of women and girls in Badaun is a routine affair without check from authorities. This wouldn’t be possible if a lot of politicians were women. Two, it’s an issue of political representation rather than merit. One isn’t talking about recruiting aircraft pilots or surgeons, so there can’t be any question of lowering of standards if one abandons merit-based criteria – commonsensical qualities rather than technical skills are pertinent. On the heels of an election campaign where many political parties said they were committed to women’s empowerment, it’s now incumbent on them to walk the talk and pass the Bill.

Why People Don't Acknowledge You

How important is it that you get recognition from others?   

More often than not, people don’t—or won’t—acknowledge you for your contributions and accomplishments. Which may seem a little strange since almost all of us harbor hopes for such recognition—one reason, perhaps, that the expression “fishing for compliments” is so well-known. But though it might seem intuitive that people would be more than willing to give what they’d greatly appreciate getting themselves, this typically isn’t the case.
Assuming that you’re like the majority of us, wishing (maybe even yearning) to be explicitly recognized for what you do relates to the fact that validation from others just feels good. Reaching all the way back to childhood and your need for your parents’ reassurance and approval, being acknowledged by others helps you feel more accepted and secure. And, consequently, more comfortable inside yourself. More important still, such recognition assists you in perceiving yourself as desirable, valuable, and esteemable. In a word, special.

In one way or another, virtually everybody dreams of standing out, being admired, acclaimed—even, well, applauded. To be viewed, and to view ourselves, as merely “average” or “adequate” really doesn’t do very much for us—or rather, our ego. And this may be all the more so because we live in a meritorious, American-Idol-type society that refuses to celebrate or lavish praise on individuals unless they’re judged exceptional. This circumstance explains why we may experience a certain envy when we hear drums banging for someone else. Secretly, we long to hear a drum roll beating for us.

Granted, there may be an element inherent in our nature—grandiosity, no doubt—that makes us wish to be thought highly of. For when complimented, we’re likely to glow internally. Approbation from others whose authority we respect serves to verify our sense of inner worth. And such external approval is especially important for those still plagued by self-doubt. Unfortunately, master manipulators can take advantage of this almost universal susceptibility to compliments by guilefully employing them to seduce us into emptying out our wallets. As long as we’re tricked into trusting their ingratiating kudos, we’re liable to be taken in by them. For to feel favorably recognized wonderfully addresses one of our heart’s (okay, ego’s) deepest desires.

But, and probably much more often than not, the recognition that we hope for simply isn’t going to happen. So when someone fails to acknowledge you when you think what you’ve done deserves acknowledgment, it’s wise not to take this to heart. For various reasons, it’s crucial that when you’ve executed something well, demonstrated skill or talent, behaved generously or selflessly, you learn how to congratulate yourself. That way you can avoid the let-down, the frustration, discouragement, or disgruntlement—and maybe even the anger and indignation—that otherwise will likely accompany your disappointment. Think of it. It always makes sense not to have to depend on others’ reactions in order to regard yourself positively. Ideally, your goal should be to feel unconditionally good about who you are independent of any external “favorability meter”—and also free of whether you’re presently embarked on some course of self-improvement. (And in this respect, you might want to look at my post “The Path to Unconditional Self-Acceptance”.)
What I’d like to suggest here is that by better grasping the underlying causes of why so many people might resist offering you the acknowledgment you wish for, their denial should be a lot easier to take. So consider the descriptions below that explain why many people (including—just possibly—yourself?!) can be so stingy with compliments:

• If they were “recognition-deprived” in growing up (by parents far more likely to criticize than to commend them), praising another might feel uneasy or unsettling (and for reasons that, consciously, they can only dimly perceive). Bestowing on someone else the acknowledgment they never received themselves might open the lid on long-suppressed psychic pain, making them experience afresh never-healed emotional wounds.

• If they’re competitive—because they need constantly to prove themselves—then explicitly paying tribute to another’s achievements might make them feel as though they’re admitting inferiority, ineptitude, or defeat—a confession of failure their fragile ego might lack the strength to tolerate. Even beyond that, some individuals can only feel good about themselves by putting others down, in which case the only compliments they're capable of are backhanded ones.

• If they think that another’s accomplishments and contributions (particularly their children’s) are no more than what ought to be expected from them, they may not regard such acts as even worthy of acknowledgment.

• If they believe (or had drilled into them by praise-withholding parents) that lauding another for their achievements might go to the recipient’s head—that is, lead them to become conceited, cocky, or egotistical—then they may intentionally withhold recognition (and regardless of how much the situation might warrant it).

• If they’re in denial about their own unmet need for acknowledgment, it might not even occur to them that positively recognizing another—and for that person’s efforts, as well as accomplishments—might be in order. For example, commending a friend, when appropriate, is a responsibility (in fact, almost a “requirement”) in a close relationship; yet they’re unable to do so.

• If they have a strong sense of entitlement (because, say, their parents actually prompted them to believe the privileges they received were actually “rights”), then whatever recognition they receive from others will be expected, or taken for granted. And so any sense of obligation to respond in kind won’t be part of their (narcissistic) behavioral repertoire. They actually won’t even consider expressing appreciation, thanks, or gratitude when someone acts generously or kindly toward them.

All of which is to say that your not being acknowledged likely says much more about the other person than it does about you—or your worthiness. So in such situations you’ll be far better off once you learn to be content simply through becoming more adept at self-acknowledgment.

Jun 10 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

Rats show regret, once thought to be uniquely human

MM





New research from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota reveals that rats show regret, a cognitive behaviour once thought to be uniquely and fundamentally human. Research findings were recently published in Nature Neuroscience.To measure the cognitive behaviour of regret, David Redish, a professor at the University of Minnesota and Adam Steiner, a student who led the study, started from the definitions of regret identified in the past.
“Regret is the recognition that you made a mistake, that if you had done something else, you would have been better off,” said Redish.
“The difficult part of this study was separating
regret from disappointment, which is when things aren’t as good as you would have hoped.The key to distinguishing between the two was letting the rats choose what to do.” Redish and Steiner developed a new task that asked rats how long they were willing to wait for certain foods. “It’s like waiting in line at a restaurant,” said Redish. “If the line is too long at the Chinese restaurant, then you give up and go to the Indian restaurant across the street.” In this task, which they named “Restaurant Row,” the rat is presented with a series of food options but has limited time at each “restaurant.” Research findings show rats were willing to wait longer for certain flavours, implying they
had individual preferences. Because they could measure the rats’ individual preferences, Steiner and Redish could measure good deals and bad deals. Sometimes, the rats skipped a good deal and found themselves facing a bad deal.“In humans, a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex is active during regret. We found in rats that recognised they had made a mistake, indicators in the orbitofrontal cortex represented the missed opportunity. Interestingly, the rat’s orbitofrontal cortex represented what the rat should have done, not the missed reward. This makes sense because you don’t regret the thing you didn’t get, you regret the thing you didn’t do,” said Redish.