GENDER BIND / UNFAIR SHARE

In Times of India [ March 08,2011 ], Ms. Rema Nagarajan provides following insights :

• Women own 1 per cent of the world’s wealth, have a 10 per cent share in global income

• Women comprise half the world’s population but occupy just 14 per cent of leadership positions in the private and public sector

• Of the 1.4 billion people living on less than $ 1 a day, 70 per cent are women and girls

• Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, but earn only 10 percent of the income

• Women produce half of the world’s food, but own just 1 per cent of its land

• Of the almost 900 million adults worldwide who can’t read or write, two-thirds are women

Will mankind [ on “ Women’s Day “ 2011, should I say, womankind ? ] manage to bridge this gap by end of 21^st Century?

Hemen  Parekh

Seven Billionth Baby

According to United Nations, the symbolic six billionth baby was born in Bosnia on Oct.12,1999.
When ( – and where ) will the seven billionth baby get born ?
As to “ When “,you can make a quick calculation from the following figures of the number of babies born all over the world :
> 267 per minute
> 16,000 per hour
> 384,000 per day
Latest UN estimate is 31st Oct. 2011
As to the question of “ Where ? “, my guess is, it will be India with 51 babies born every minute ( – the highest rate in entire world ! ).
Which Indian state ? I would bet on Uttar Pradesh ( which has current population of 199.5 million ), where 11 babies are born every minute.

With regards

hemen parekh

Poverty Declines !

We must believe Montek Singh Ahluwalia ( Deputy Chairman – Planning Commission of India ), when he says poverty declined during 2007 – 2012.

Poverty in India, according to him, came down from 37 % ( in 2004 ) to 32 % ( in 2009 ).

Now, that is 70 million people !

It is another story that the Supreme Court of India, criticized the Planning Commission for employing the daily expenditure criteria for deciding the “ Below Poverty Line – BPL “ people as those whose daily expenditure ( on food / shelter / clothing ) is less than,

Ø  Rs.12 ( $ 0.26 ) in rural areas

Ø  Rs.17 ( $ 0.38 ) in urban areas ( enough to buy 4 cups of tea )

In the next Plan Period ( 2012 – 2017 ), how about pulling-up 200 million people above the poverty line by changing the daily expenditure criteria to

Ø  Rs.7   ( $ 0.15 ) in rural areas

Ø  Rs.12 ( 0.26  )   in urban areas

Montek may want to “ export “ this innovation to other poor countries.

With regards

hemen  parekh

Impossible Task ?

Bombay Municipal Corporation relaxed the labor recruitment criteria to run 4 Km distance in 25 minutes now, against the 15 minutes stipulated earlier.

Candidates are complaining that its an impossible task, considering that not a single candidate could successfully run 4 Km in 15 minutes.

But then, interviewing 300,000 candidates is not an easy task either !

Even if the interview panel was to interview 1 candidate every minute and for 8 hours per day, it would take 625 working days !

And since Municipal Offices work for no more than 150 days in a year, that would take more than 4 years to select 3,916 conservancy workers.

So what ? Streets of Mumbai are cleaned only once in 4 years !

With regards

hemen  parekh

Entertainment for Jobless

According to one estimate , British Government spent $ 34 millions on the Royal Wedding of Prince William with Kate Middleton.
Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne must be thinking ,
“ What the hack ! This is peanuts when compared to my 2011 Budget deficit of $ 426 billions. And surely the British population of 62 million enjoyed $ 0.5 worth of entertainment watching the wedding. Many are jobless in any case and have nothing better to do. And don’t try to confuse people by saying British industry will lose $ 50 billion because of long 3 day holiday. “
Ministers of India’s Central and State Governments are not least impressed with this logic.
They have been using this argument for decades !

With regards

hemen parekh

Poll Statistics — 2

In the 4 Indian states where polls are under way [ April – May 2011 ], how many current MLAs have assets more than Rs. 1 Crore ( 10 million ) ?
Take a look :
> Tamil Nadu 57 [ 27 % ]
> Assam 16 [ 13 % ]
> West Bengal 7 [ 0.02 % ]
> Kerala 8 [ 0.05 % ]
{ % refer to MLAs analyzed }
Don’t be surprised if these numbers go up 300 % in the new legislature ! And don’t ask for the secret of multiplying wealth several folds as soon as you get elected ! May be your voters gifted on your birthday !
And “wealth-multiplication “ has nothing to do with what party you belong to !

With regards
hemen parekh

Good looks kill job chances !

Bradley Ruffle and Ze’ev Shtudiner sent 5000 CVs against 2500 advertised job openings.

For each application they sent two CVs, one without a photograph and the other containing a photograph of either an “ attractive looking ” man or woman or a “ plain looking ” man or woman.

Here is what they found :

Ø  20 % of the “ attractive “ men received a response

Ø  9  % of the “ un-attractive “ men received a response

Ø  14 % of the men who did not include their photo, received a response

What happened to the women applicants ?

Ø  Women who attached no picture to their CV were 22 % more likely to receive a response than women with “ plain ” picture – and 30 % more likely than women with an “ attractive “ picture !

Likely reason ?

Investigators’ guess ( after meeting those who screened the applications ) :

 >   Persons screening applications were “ Single, Young Women “ !

Not difficult to figure out the results if the persons screening were “ single, Young Men “ !

[ source : Times of India / April 20,2011 ]

With regards

hemen  parekh

A Vote of No Confidence ?

Times of India [ Feb. 03,2011 ], reports the findings of a survey done by Synovate – a global market research agency – which polled 2500 respondents in Delhi,Mumbai,Kolkata,Chennai,Bangalore,Hyderabad,Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

Here are the findings :

Ø  Price rise has impacted family budget………………………………. 97 %

Ø  Blame Centre / State for inflation………………………………………..86 %

Ø  Say Govt hasn’t done all it can to curb prices…………………… 62 %

Ø  Say corruption at all-time high………………………………………….  83 %

Ø  Feel politicians main culprit……………………………………………….  60 %

Ø  Say Govt not serious about tackling graft…………………………. 64 %

Ø  Say Central Govt’s image damaged by spate of scams……..96 %

Has the Central Government got courage to conduct a national referendum ( only tick, YES  or  NO  ) asking :

“ Shall this Govt resign and conduct a mid-term election ? “

With regards

hemen  parekh