Four Indians among world’s 100 most powerful women’

This year’s class has 15 billionaires with cumulative net worth of nearly $75 billion.

SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia are among the world’s 100 most powerful women, according to the Forbes’ annual list which is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Two women of Indian-origin PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi and Cisco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padmasree Warrior also make the list.

Forbes’s 12th annual list of the 100 most influential women feature extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary CEOs, politicians, celebrity role models, billionaire activists and pioneer philanthropists who are “transforming the world” and have been “ranked by dollars, media presence and impact“.

The top 10 include US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (2), philanthriopist Melinda Gates (3), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (3), GM CEO Mary Barra (5), IMF Chief Christine Lagarde (6), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (7), Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (8), YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (9) and US First Lady Michelle Obama (10).

The 59-year-old Bhattacharya has been ranked 30th on the list, followed by Kochhar on the 35th spot, Mazumdar-Shaw (85) and newcomer on the list Bhartia is on the 93rd spot.

On Bhattacharya, Forbes said she oversees 2,20,000 staff members in 16,000 branches and services 225 million customers at the country’s largest lender (assets $ 400 billion) with offices spread over 36 countries.

“Recognising the multiple roles of working women, Bhattacharya pioneered a two—year sabbatical policy for female employees taking maternity leave or give extended care to family,” it added.

The SBI Chair-Managing director was ranked 36th last year and moved up six spots in the 2015 list.

Kochhar also moved up eight notches in the rankings, from the 43rd spot last year.

Forbes said the 53-year-old ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director has been credited with “leading a remarkable transformation” at India’s largest private sector bank, which experienced major setbacks after the 2008 financial crisis.

“Her focus on ‘mobile banking’ in rural areas to reach more clients has been praised as a model for low cost expansion in a country with a burgeoning middle class,” it said, adding that Kochhar has also been an outspoken proponent of clearer banking laws.

Mazumdar-Shaw moved up from the 92nd spot last year to 85 in the 2015 rankings.

The 62-year-old founded Biocon in 1978 and turned it from a small industrial-enzymes company to India’s largest publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, which had $460 billion in revenue last year and distributes its products in 85 countries around the world, Forbes said.

Forbes said Bhartia, who makes her debut on the list this year, is a “media baroness” who chairs and runs listed HT Media, publisher of English daily Hindustan Times, a Hindi daily of the same name, and business paper Mint.

India—born PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi is among the seven “Hall of Fame” women, who had appeared on the inaugural list in 2004 and are still making to the list. Nooyi is ranked 15th on the list.

“The 59-year old PepsiCo CEO rang in PepsiCo’s 50th anniversary by throwing a bone to an activist investor threatening to ruin the party. By handing a board seat to Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, who thinks the food and beverage giant should split up, Nooyi avoided a messy proxy fight,” Forbes said.

India-born Warrior, however, dropped in rankings this year to 84 on the list from 71 last year. Forbes said in her seven years in the USD 138 billion technology company, Warrior has helped Cisco grow in influence through acquisitions, including six in 2014 and 10 in 2013.

The 54-year old Cornell-trained engineer mentors other women in the tech industry and “believes a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education informs creativity,” according to her Forbes profile.

The 2015 Most Powerful Women list features eight heads of state (plus one monarch) who run nations with a combined GDP of USD 9.1 trillion with over 600 million citizens.

The 24 corporate CEOs control nearly USD 1 trillion in annual revenues, and 18 of the women founded their own companies or foundations.

This year’s class has 15 billionaires with cumulative net worth of nearly $75 billion. The total social media footprint (Twitter, YouTube) of all 100 Powerful Women is nearly 475 million followers.

Merkel has made the list ten times over the past 12 years — nine times as No 1. She was first elected in 2005 and won a historic third term in 2013.

The list also includes media mogul Oprah Winfrey (12), singer Beyonce Knowles (21), Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (22), Vogue Editor—in—Chief Anna Wintour (28), Queen Elizabeth II (41), TV personality Ellen DeGeneres (50), actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie (54), Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed (59) and singer Taylor Swift (64).

Forbes added that as of January 2015, 10 women served as heads of state and 14 as heads of government. Women currently hold 23 (4.6 per cent) of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.

Of a total 1,826 global billionaires, 197 are women — 11 per cent of the total. Only 9 per cent of executive officers in Silicon Valley are women.

“That these wretched stats continue year after year is a serious and pressing issue. But there’s hardly a void of powerful women — and the numbers are growing. That is, if we enlarge our focus from just who owns the greatest wealth or the heaviest corporate hammer to include the women whose influence and impact may be greater than the sum of their title,” it said.

Nearly half the women featured are “female firsts”, such as GM’s Barra, the most world’s most powerful businesswoman, and Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the top global state banker.

Drew Gilpin Faust is the first female president of Harvard, and Folorunsho Alakija is the first self—made African billionaire.

More than half of the women (59) on the list are American, including immigrants such as von Furstenberg (Belgium), Weili Dai (China) and Warrior (India).

Asia-Pacific citizens make the second strongest showing at 18. Latin America and the Middle East have four regionals on the list, and there are 12 Europeans and three Africans with a slot.

Keywords: Forbes list, most powerful women list, four Indian women

Vedanta - Hate Hurts Hater Too

ASIF JALAL





According to the social psychologist Erich Fromm, the first step in understanding our destructive disposition is to recognise the two kinds of hate inherent in humanity .One, `rational hate', which is expressed in reaction to a threat to one's own freedom, life or ideas. It has a biological self-protecting function and isn't against life but for life.This type of hate is manifested in the cry of a baby who is hungry . Two, `irrational hate', which is a trait inherent in some people and is marked by the readiness to be hostile to others. This is a passion to cripple life and its practitioners don't wait for an incident to occur, they create it.
Destructiveness is the outcome of the unlived life. A destructive person violates the principles of life in himself as well as others. This truth was revealed to Esarhaddon, the king of Assyria, when he intended to execute King Lailie after destroying his kingdom.
A wise old man told Esarhaddon, “I have let you see that in doing evil to others, you have done it to yourself also. Life is one in all, and yours is but a portion of this same common life. You can only improve life in yourself by destroying the barriers that divide your life from that of others, and by considering others as yourself. You injure your life when you think of it as the only life.“ Indeed, a destructive person is unhappy even if he has attained the aims of his destructiveness.

second opinion - Caste one's lot

Jug Suraiya





How India marches ahead by going backwards

India is a unique country in many ways. And one of the uniquer ways that it is unique is that in order to get ahead it goes backwards, literally.The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) has asked the government's permission to sub-categorise OBCs ­ other backward classes ­ into three separate divisions: the merely backward, the even more backward and the most backward.
The reason is that there is growing apprehension that the so-called `creamy layer' among the OBCs are benefiting disproportionately from the 27% job quota reserved for backward castes at the expense of the most backward. So if all goes according to the NCBC's plan, the country will see a multiplication of OBCs: the backward, the backwarder and the backwardest.
Similarly, among dalits there are the regular dalits and then there are the mahadalits, who are supposedly more dalitical than the ordinary dalits. Ever since Mandal, the politics of what might be called competitive backwardness has gained momentum with not only more and more people wanting to claim backwardness, but more and more people claiming even greater backwardness.
Backwardness has become a prized commodity, like gold or diamonds, and everyone wants a chunk of it. For instance, the Jat community ­ which is known for its assertive forwardness in getting its own way in all manner of things ­ is aggressively pressing its demand to be classified under the OBC rubric. Demands have also been raised that Muslims and Christians too should be given backward quotas within their respective folds, which is all the more intriguing in that many converted to these faiths in order to escape the caste system.
With everyone racing in reverse gear to get backward ­ and then even more backward ­ status, India will witness a boom in backwardness, which will become one of the fastest growing industries in the country . Indeed, backwardness has made so much progress that in some places so-called upper castes, like brahmins, are laying claim to be designated as backward.
If this trend continues, we can pride ourselves on having devised the world's only society that is truly back-to-front.

India gets its 1st transgender college principal

Priyanka Dasgupta

Kolkata:





India, or probably the world, will get the first transgender college principal when Manabi Bandopadhyay takes charge of Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal on June 9. Manabi is currently associate professor in Bengali at Vivekananda Satobarshiki Mahavidyalaya.“This decision was taken by the College Service Commission. I don't interfere in their decisions. They are aware of our open mind. I am happy with this decision,“ state education minister Par tha Chatterjee said.
Technical educa tion minister Ujjal Bis was, who is chairman of the college govern ing body , said: “We were in need of a principal with a strong personality to run the college smoothly .“
Welcoming the decision, Rattan Lal Hangloo, vice chancellor of Kalyani University to which Krishnagar Women's College is affiliated, said, “Manabi is a fine human being, a good academician and an able administrator. We are hopeful her appointment will empower other members of the transgender community.“ On Tuesday morning, Manabi visited the college, sporting Ray-ban sun glasses, curly hair done up in a careless coiffure.
Accompanied by her adopted son Debasish Manabiputro and transgender friend Jyoti Samanta, she was untouched by the ex citement around her. “It is not the post that I sought after. My 92-year-old father lives in Naihati. I took up this offer because I knew it will help me stay close by and look after him. My new colleagues had seen me on tele vision but I had only heard their voices. I wanted to meet them personally before joining,“ she said.
A beaming Debasish said: “Maa wanted to pay a surprise visit. So, we tagged along.“
Colleagues and students are excited.“Manabi Bandopadhyay is a strong individual. She has faced many upheavals. We are optimistic about the development of the college during her tenure. She is a celebrity and her sexual orientation isn't an issue for us,“ said Jayasree Mondal, assistant professor, geography .
Bengali assistant professor Prakash Mondal said: “She is free-spirited. She has a good command over her subject. This college has not had any principal for long. We are happy to have her as our principal.“
Student Payal Mallick considers her an inspiration. “She is a celebrity . It is good news that we are getting her as our principal,“ she said.
Manabi is flooded by calls and friend requests on social networking sites. Jyoti, who ekes out a living playing women in jatras, said, “Manabidi is an inspiration for us. Today , people back home have accepted my identity . I have even portrayed my own fate in a play that dealt with the plight of transgenders. Manabidi's news is a great boost for me. I am taking her help to undergo sex realignment.“ Manabi realizes that problems are aplenty and a lot remains to be done.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani attends World Education Forum at South Korea 

New Delhi: The Press Briefing on Union Human Resource Development Minister Smt Smriti Irani attending the World Education Forum (WEF) organized by UNESCO in Incheon, South Korea was held here in New Delhi today. The Union HRD Minister was in South Korea from 19th May to 22nd May 2015. The Press release was issued during the Press briefing which was addressed by the Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Ms. Vrinda Sarup. The Press Release on the World Education Forum organized by UNESCO which was attended by the Union HRD Minister is as follows:

The Human Resource Development Minister Smt Smriti Irani attended the World Education Forum (WEF) organized by UNESCO, in Incheon, South Korea. The WEF was a landmark of world education leaders, as they met to draw up the world’s education goals for 2030. The efforts of the world community to provide education for all which began at Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 and then in Dakar in 2000, had now gathered at Incheon, South Korea to shape the next stage of education agenda for the time frame 2015 to 2030. 

Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all is the 4th Sustainable Development Goal as part of the new SDGs to be finalized by the UN in September 2015. The WEF expressed its vision to transform lives through education recognising the important role of education as a main driver of development and re-affirmed education as a public good, a fundamental human right and essential for peace, tolerance, human fulfilment and sustainable development. 

The significance of the WEF 2015 is in that it seeks to focus the efforts of the nations on access, equity and inclusion, quality and learning outcomes within a lifelong learning approach, which recognises education as key to achieve development and poverty reduction. India through its Human Resource Development Minister played a key role in including in the Incheon declaration two very critical elements for further implementation of the Education 2030 goals. First, the Human Resource Development Minister played a leading role in ensuring that the Incheon Declaration and the Framework For Action emerging from it includes flexibilities for UNESCO member states. Smt Irani’s lead won resounding support from majority of the countries present and was duly adopted by the WEF i.e the member states have a contextualised strategy based on their national priorities, resources, capacities and challenges to attain the global benchmarks of Education 2030 in an incremental manner. The Framework of Action would respect the autonomy of member states to plan for and progressively develop annual, intermediate and accelerated targets for meeting the global benchmarks. 

The Indian leadership and endorsement of the funding arrangement for the 2030 education goals through a commitment from the developed countries to contribute additional resources (0.7% of GNP) as development assistance to developing countries, especially the least developed countries won wide support and acceptance. 

The Minister also participated as a panellist on the thematic debate -- Innovating through technology: Shaping the future of Education wherein the initiatives taken by India to integrate technology in the educational system for ensuring transparency and ease of delivery of educational services were highlighted. The Minister also informed about the portals like Know Your College and School Report Card that provided free critical information regarding educational institutions. The recent initiative of Shaala Darpan that leverages mobile technologies to ensure parents are connected to schools, enabling them to monitor the progress of their children was mentioned along with SWAYAM, the Indian MOOCS platform, and the e-Library and availability of IT-broadband infrastructure in Universities to ensure availability of free world class education for free to anyone interested in learning. 

Smt Smriti Irani held several key meetings on the sidelines of the conference in support of the effort to build consensus on the Education 2030 target setting implementation arrangements and monitoring systems. Her initiative saw successful meeting of minds with the E-9 group of the most populous countries, the SAARC group of south Asian countries and the powerful emerging economies in the BRICs group. 

With a view to jumpstart India’s commitment and resolve to the new global education agenda, she also held bi-lateral meetings with carefully selected countries with proven success in improving quality in education and learning outcomes, ranging from Japan, Norway, Finland, Brazil etc. for improved science and technology learning, research, teacher education, learning assessment systems and ICT for quality education. 

TN village gets rain after 200 goats sacrificed

Erode TNN





Erode: People from 10 hamlets in Andhiyur forest range in Erode district performed a special puja praying for rain to their deity Lord Muniappan on Sunday , which received a heavy downpour soon after.They sacrificed 200 goats to the deity and organized a feast for more than 5,000 devotees. Since morning, people from 10 villages started gathering at the temple in the reserve forest.
Officers from the forest department were deployed at the temple to oversee the rituals.There was rain shortly after they dispersed. Villagers believed that their lord accepted their offerings.

Thinktank: Govt using IIT research selectively

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Monday alleged that the Centre resorted to “selective use“ of studies by IIT-Delhi to argue that vehicles were minor contributors to PM 2.5 (fine, respirable particles) levels and that banning older diesel vehicles would not help in improving the city's air quality.The Union ministry of road transport and highways has so far submitted three scientific studies to substantiate their argument against the ban on old vehicles. Two of them are by Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) of IIT-Delhi and another by University of Birmingham, Desert Research Institute, Reno and the Central Road Research Institute. The ministry has also tried to argue that the transport sector's contribution to air pollution may have been overestimated by people. But CSE said two important issues have been hidden from the NGT bench--the impact of diesel fumes from vehicles in the breathing zone and the toxicity of diesel, which is graded as a carcinogen by WHO.
“While resorting to number crunching to prove that vehicles do not contribute much to ambient PM2.5 levels, the IIT-study and the affidavits are silent on health risks from direct exposure to vehicular fume, especially diesel fume that is of bigger concern.While the NGT order covers all old diesel vehicles in both private and commercial segments across the NCR, this study focuses only on old cars in Delhi to stop the NGT ban,“ CSE said in a statement.
It assessed the IIT-D studies that were submitted to NGT and said they could be misleading. The study states that the number of vehicles in the 11-15 years' age bracket is very small--only 6% of the total fleet, which contributes 1% to PM 2.5. “The emission load from diesel vehicles that are 11-15 years' old and meet older emissions standards emit a lot more on a per vehicle basis than those that are between 1 and 10 years' old. Compared to a BS-IV car, a 15-year-old diesel car emits 7.6 times higher particulate matter and 3.4 times higher NOx,“ CSE added.
Emissions from one old diesel car are equal to that from four to seven new cars.“A 10-year old diesel car emits 2.4 times higher PM. Removing old vehicles will reduce direct exposure substantially .This benefit will be much higher if the old diesel trucks are also removed or bypassed,“ CSE said.
“It is inexplicable why MoRTH has considered the estimates of only one study on the estimates of vehicles' contribution to PM 2.5. The IIT-D study fails to highlight the health risk from the direct exposure to vehicular fume that is of serious concern globally . Vehicular emissions take place within our breathing zone,“ the environmental think-tank said.
For example, studies by Health Effect Institute have shown that the influence of vehicular pollution is maximum up to 500 metres from roadside and more than half of Delhi's population lives within this breathing zone, the statement said. CSE also said that IIT-D had not guided the government and NGT about the toxic risk and the fact that WHO and IARC have classified diesel exhaust as class-I carcinogen for its strong link with lung cancer.