Tag: Economics

Economic Impact of the Olympics

Many believe that the level of tourism and foreign investment that result from hosting the games can be an economic boon. However, hosting the Olympics actually tends to be more negative for the country’s economy than anticipated. Many countries bid tens of millions of dollars for the chance to host the Olympic games. Most cities have ended up falling massively in debt after hosting the games, cities without the necessary infrastructure may be better off not hosting the games. Submitting a bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the Olympics itself costs millions of dollars. On top of that a small fortune is spent on consultation fees and event organization. For example, Tokyo lost approximately $150 million on its bid for the 2016 Olympics and spent approximately $75 million on its successful 2020 bid. When a city wins a bid for hosting the games, cities commonly add roads, build or renovate airports, and construct rail lines to accommodate the large influx of people. Housing and facilities for the thousands of athletes must be provided as well. All these costs add up to well over $5 billion.

There are certainly benefits to hosting the Olympics. Hundreds of new jobs are created for the building of infrastructure and its improvement. Additionally, thousands of sponsors, media, athletes, and spectators typically visit a host city for six months before and six months after the Olympics, which brings in additional revenue. In 2008, Beijing spent over $22.5 billion constructing roads, airports, subways, and rail lines, as well as almost $11.25 billion on environmental cleanup. This created a lot of jobs and did help the economy.

However, The boost in job creation for cities hosting the Olympics is not always as beneficial as initially perceived. Most of the jobs went to workers who were already employed, which does not help the number of unemployed workers. Moreover, many of the profits realized by construction companies and hotels go to international companies rather than better the city’s economy. The icome generated from the Olympics has often never covered the total expenses incurred. London brought in $5.2 billion and spent $18 billion on the 2012 Olympics. Actually, Los Angeles is the only host city that made a profit from the games. This was because the required infrastructure already existed. It is actually very difficult to ascertain exactly which benefits come from hosting the Olympics.

To summarize, hosting the Olympics tends to put the city in an economic defecit. Unless a city already has the existing infrastructure to support the surge of tourists and athletes, it would be best to hold off on hosting the games.

What Is Fast Fashion?

Clothes shopping used to be an occasional event—something that happened a few times a year when the seasons changed or when we outgrew what we had. But about 20 years ago, something changed. Clothes became cheaper, trend cycles sped up, and shopping became a hobby. Enter fast fashion and the global chains that now dominate our high streets and online shopping. But what is fast fashion? And how does it impact people, the planet, and animals?

It was all too good to be true. All these stores selling cool, trendy clothing you could buy with your loose change, wear a handful of times, and then throw away. Suddenly everyone could afford to dress like their favourite celebrity or wear the latest trends fresh from the catwalk.

Then in 2013, the world had a reality check when the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 workers. That’s when consumers really started questioning fast fashion and wondering at the true cost of those affordable t-shirts. If you’re reading this article, you might already be aware of fast fashion’s dark side, but it’s worth exploring how the industry got to this point—and how we can help to change it.

What is fast fashion?

Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears. It plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas and that if you want to stay relevant, you have to sport the latest looks as they happen. It forms a key part of the toxic system of overproduction and consumption that has made fashion one of the world’s largest polluters. Before we can go about changing it, let’s take a look at the history.

How did fast fashion happen?

To understand how fast fashion came to be, we need to rewind a bit. Before the 1800s, fashion was slow. You had to source your own materials like wool or leather, prepare them, weave them, and then make the clothes.The Industrial Revolution introduced new technology—like the sewing machine. Clothes became easier, quicker, and cheaper to make. Dressmaking shops emerged to cater to the middle classes.

Many of these dressmaking shops used teams of garment workers or home workers. Around this time, sweatshops emerged, along with some familiar safety issues. The first significant garment factory disaster was when a fire broke out in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. It claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, many of whom were young female immigrants. By the 1960s and 70s, young people were creating new trends, and clothing became a form of personal expression, but there was still a distinction between high fashion and high street.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, low-cost fashion reached its zenith. Online shopping took off, and fast-fashion retailers like H&M, Zara, and Topshop took over the high street. These brands took the looks and design elements from the top fashion houses and reproduced them quickly and cheaply. With everyone now able to shop for on-trend clothes whenever they wanted, it’s easy to understand how the phenomenon caught on.

How to spot a fast fashion brand

Some key factors are common to fast fashion brands:

  • Thousands of styles, which touch on all the latest trends.
  • Extremely short turnaround time between when a trend or garment is seen on the catwalk or in celebrity media and when it hits the shelves.
  • Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety and complex supply chains with poor visibility beyond the first tier.
  • A limited quantity of a particular garment—this is an idea pioneered by Zara. With new stock arriving in store every few days, shoppers know if they don’t buy something they like, they’ll probably miss their chance.
  • Cheap, low quality materials like polyester, causing clothes to degrade after just a few wears and get thrown away.

What’s the impact of fast fashion?

On the planet: Fast fashion’s impact on the planet is immense. The pressure to reduce costs and speed up production time means that environmental corners are more likely to be cut. Fast fashion’s negative impact includes its use of cheap, toxic textile dyes—making the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture. That’s why Greenpeace has been pressuring brands to remove dangerous chemicals from their supply chains through its detoxing fashion campaigns through the years.

Cheap textiles also increase fast fashion’s impact. Polyester is one of the most popular fabrics. It is derived from fossil fuels, contributes to global warming, and can shed microfibers that add to the increasing levels of plastic in our oceans when washed. But even ‘natural fabrics’ can be a problem at the scale fast fashion demands. Conventional cotton requires enormous quantities of water and pesticides in developing countries. This results in drought risks and creates extreme stress on water basins and competition for resources between companies and local communities.

The constant speed and demand mean increased stress on other environmental areas such as land clearing, biodiversity, and soil quality. The processing of leather also impacts the environment, with 300kg of cehmicals added to every 900kg of animal hides tanned. The speed at which garments are produced also means that more and more clothes are disposed of by consumers, creating massive textile waste. In Australia alone, more than 500 million kilos of unwanted clothing ends up in landfill every year.

On workers: As well as the environmental cost of fast fashion, there’s a human cost. Fast fashion impacts garments workers who work in dangerous environments, for low wages, and without fundamental human rights. Further down the supply chain, the farmers may work with toxic chemicals and brutal practices that can have devastating impacts on their physical and mental health, a plight highlighted by the documentary The True Cost.

On animals: Animals are also impacted by fast fashion. In the wild, the toxic dyes and microfibres released in waterways are ingested by land and marine life alike through the food chain to devastating effect. And when animal products such as leather, fur, and even wool are used in fashion directly, animal welfare is put at risk. As an example, numerous scandals reveal that real fur, including cat and dog fur, is often being passed off as a faux fur to unknowing shoppers. The truth is that there is so much real fur being produced under terrible conditions in fur farms that it’s become cheaper to produce and buy than faux fur!

On consumers: Finally, fast fashion can impact consumers themselves, encouraging a ‘throw-away’ culture because of both the built-in obsolescence of the products and the speed at which trends emerge. Fast fashion makes us believe we need to shop more and more to stay on top of trends, creating a constant sense of need and ultimate dissatisfaction. The trend has also been criticized on intellectual property grounds, with some designers alleging that retailers have illegally mass-produced their designs.

Crowdfunding and How it works?

Crowd Funding dates back to 1713 when Alexander Pope united his subscribers to find the translation of Homer’s Iliad into English. He had promised to include the 750 donors’ names in the book in exchange for two gold guineas.

The Internet has modernized crowdfunding by connecting people in search of funds with the general public. Crowd funding is generally defined as the collective – ‘Crowd pooling funds’ to support a specific project or an organization. Crowd fund serves as an alternative source of capital to support a wide range of ideas and ventures. Crowd funding can also be a great way to fund ideas and it can also be a great way for new businesses to get some funding in the initial stages.

An entity or individual raising funds through crowd funding typically seeks small individual contributions from a large number of people. Crowdfunding campaigns have a specified target amount to be raised. It can also be a goal and an identified use of those goals.

The entrepreneur of the company usually offers donors non monetary goods in return for their donation. The reward is personal satisfaction. This makes crowd funding a very efficient and cost effective method to raise money. Some of the most popular platforms for crowdfunding are Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

But we also have to realize that not all the companies or entrepreneurs are successful in funding their campaign. The majority of the campaigns fail. They usually fail to hit their financial targets. Kickstarter’s success rate sits around 38%.

The ways to Endure a successful campaign

One of the ways to ensure a successful crowdfunding is when the entrepreneur defines the objective of their campaign. They also need to factor in how much money is being spent, thus consideration of the costs is also very critical. The entrepreneur also has to be content creator and talk with experts to improve upon the product or the idea. Wise use Networking is also very important to increase the reach of the campaign.

The different types of crowdfunding are:

Donation based crowdfunding

Donation based crowdfunding involves amassing high amounts of donations without needing to provide the investors with anything in return. It is usually used for charities and NGOs.

Rewards based crowdfunding

Rewards-based might seem similar to Donation based crowdfunding but there are key differences that make it one of the most popular forms of crowdfunding. This form of crowd funding is also the most feasible to startups to utilize. One of the main differences is that investors are provided with different tiers of rewards which directly correspond with the numerous wage pledges.

Equity based crowdfunding

This form of crowd funding is increasingly getting very popular among startups. One of the primary reasons is that startups are usually short of money and by providing investors with shares in their company can be a great way to raise funds rapidly.

Royalty based crowdfunding

It is a type of crowd funding that gives its backers a smaller percentage of the revenue that’s gained once the venture or project becomes successful and starts to generate money. One big difference between Equity based funding and this one is that backers will only get royalties based on sales that are made from the product they invested in.

Loan or debt based crowdfunding

This form of crowd funding is beneficial for the owners of the company because they do not need to give shares and royalty. Instead this is more similar to a typical loan where the project initiator has to repay the amount within a certain period of time. It can also be used to raise a comparatively large amount of money.

References:

Gig Economy

What Is the Gig Economy?

In a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend to hire independent contractors and freelancers  instead of full-time employees. A gig economy undermines the traditional economy of full-time workers who often focus on their career development.

Understanding the Gig Economy

In a gig economy, large numbers of people work in part-time or temporary positions or as independent contractors. The result of a gig economy is cheaper, more efficient services, such as Uber or Airbnb, for those willing to use them. People who don’t use technological services such as the Internet may be left behind by the benefits of the gig economy. Cities tend to have the most highly developed services and are the most entrenched in the gig economy. A wide variety of positions fall into the category of a gig. The work can range from driving for Lyft or delivering food to writing code or freelance articles. Adjunct and part-time professors, for example, are contracted employees as opposed to tenure-track or tenured professors. Colleges and universities can cut costs and match professors to their academic needs by hiring more adjunct and part-time professors.

The Factors Behind a Gig Economy

America is well on its way to establishing a gig economy, and estimates show as much as a third of the working population is already in some gig capacity. Experts expect this working number to rise, as these types of positions facilitate independent contracting work, with many of them not requiring a freelancer to come into an office. Gig workers are much more likely to be part-time workers and to work from home. Employers also have a wider range of applicants to choose from because they don’t have to hire someone based on their proximity. Additionally, computers have developed to the point that they can either take the place of the jobs people previously had or allow people to work just as efficiently from home as they could in person.

Economic reasons also factor into the development of a gig economy. Employers who cannot afford to hire full-time employees to do all the work that needs to be done will often hire part-time or temporary employees to take care of busier times or specific projects. On the employee’s side of the equation, people often find they need to move or take multiple positions to afford the lifestyle they want. It’s also common to change careers many times throughout a lifetime, so the gig economy can be viewed as a reflection of this occurring on a large scale.

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, the gig economy has experienced significant increases as gig workers have delivered necessities to home-bound consumers, and those whose jobs have been eliminated have turned to part-time and contract work for income. Employers will need to plan for changes to the world of work, including the gig economy, when the pandemic has ended.

Criticisms of the Gig Economy

Despite its benefits, there are some downsides to the gig economy. While not all employers are inclined to hire contracted employees, the gig economy trend can make it harder for full-time employees to develop in their careers since temporary employees are often cheaper to hire and more flexible in their availability. Workers who prefer a traditional career path and the stability and security that come with it are being crowded out in some industries.

For some workers, the flexibility of working gigs can actually disrupt the work-life balance, sleep patterns, and activities of daily life. Flexibility in a gig economy often means that workers have to make themselves available any time gigs come up, regardless of their other needs, and must always be on the hunt for the next gig. Competition for gigs has increased during the pandemic, too. And unemployment insurance usually doesn’t cover gig workers who can’t find employment.

In effect, workers in a gig economy are more like entrepreneurs than traditional workers. While this may mean greater freedom of choice for the individual worker, it also means that the security of a steady job with regular pay, benefits—including a retirement account—and a daily routine that has characterized work for generations are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Lastly, because of the fluid nature of gig economy transactions and relationships, long-term relationships between workers, employers, clients, and vendors can erode. This can eliminate the benefits that flow from building long-term trust, customary practice, and familiarity with clients and employers. It could also discourage investment in relationship-specific assets that would otherwise be profitable to pursue since no party has an incentive to invest significantly in a relationship that only lasts until the next gig comes along.

Ways to Manage Stress

Stress is part of being human, and it can help motivate you to get things done. Even high stress from serious illness, job loss, a death in the family, or a painful life event can be a natural part of life. You may feel down or anxious, and that’s normal too for a while. Talk to your doctor if you feel down or anxious for more than several weeks or if it starts to interfere with your home or work life. Therapy, medication, and other stategies help. In the meantime, there are things you can learn to manage stress before it gets to be too much. Consider these suggestions:

Exercise

To start with, physical activity can help improve your sleep. And better sleep means better stress management. Doctors don’t yet know exactly why, but people who exercise more tend to get better deep “slow wave” sleep that helps renew the brain and body. Just take care not to exercise too close to bedtime, which disrupts sleep for some people. Exercise also seems to help mood. Part of the reason may be that it stimulates your body to release a number of hormones like endorphins and endocannabinoids that help block pain, improve sleep, and sedate you. Some of them (endocannabinoids) may be responsible for the euphoric feeling, or “runner’s high,” that some people report after long runs.

People who exercise also tend to feel less anxious and more positive about themselves. When your body feels good, your mind often follows. Get a dose of stress relief with these exercises:

Applications

Property Rights

What Are Property Rights?

Property rights define the theoretical and legal ownership of resources and how they can be used. These resources can be both tangible or intangible and can be owned by individuals, businesses, and governments. In many countries, including the United States, individuals generally exercise private property rights or the rights of private persons to accumulate, hold, delegate, rent, or sell their property. In economics property rights form the basis for all market exchange, and the allocation of property rights in a society affects the efficiency of resource use.

Understanding Property Rights

Property is secured by laws that are clearly defined and enforced by the state. These laws define ownership and any associated benefits that come with holding the property. The term property is very expansive, though the legal protection for certain kinds of property varies between jurisdictions.Property is generally owned by individuals or a small group of people. The rights of property ownership can be extended by using patents and copyrights to protect:

  • Scarce physical resources such as houses, cars, books, and cellphones
  • Non-human creatures like dogs, cats, horses or birds
  • Intellectual property such as inventions, ideas, or words

Other types of property, such as communal or government property, are legally owned by well-defined groups. These are typically deemed public property. Ownership is enforced by individuals in positions of political or cultural power. Property rights give the owner or right holder the ability to do with the property what they choose. That includes holding on to it, selling or renting it out for profit, or transferring it to another party.

Acquiring Rights to a Property

Individuals in a private property rights regime acquire and transfer in mutually agreed-upon transfers, or else through homesteading. Mutual transfers include rents, sales, voluntary sharing, inheritances, gambling, and charity. Homesteading is the unique case; an individual may acquire a previously unowned resource by mixing his labor with the resource over a period of time. Examples of homesteading acts include plowing a field, carving stone, and domesticating a wild animal. In areas where property rights don’t exist, the ownership and use of resources are allocated by force, normally by the government. That means these resources are allocated by political ends rather than economic ones. Such governments determine who may interact with, can be excluded from, or may benefit from the use of the property.

Private Property Rights

Private property rights are one of the pillars of capitalist economies, as well as many legal systems, and moral philosophies. Within a private property rights regime, individuals need the ability to exclude others from the uses and benefits of their property. All privately owned resources are rivalrous, meaning only a single user may possess the title and legal claim to the property. Private property owners also have the exclusive right to use and benefit from the services or products. Private property owners may exchange the resource on a voluntary basis.

Private Property Rights and Market Prices

Every market price in a voluntary, capitalist society originates through transfers of private property. Each transaction takes place between one property owner and someone interested in acquiring the property. The value at which the property exchanges depends on how valuable it is to each party. Suppose an investor purchases $1,000 in shares of stock in Apple. In this case, Apple values owning the $1,000 more than the stock. The investor has the opposite preference, and values ownership of Apple stock more than $1,000.

Financial Literacy

What Is Financial Literacy?

Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. Financial literacy is the foundation of your relationship with money, and it is a lifelong journey of learning. The earlier you start, the better off you will be, because education is the key to success when it comes to money.

Read on to discover how you can become financially literate and able to navigate the challenging but critical waters of personal finance. And when you have educated yourself, try to pass your knowledge on to your family and friends. Many people find money matters intimidating, but they don’t have to be, so spread the news by example.

Understanding Financial Literacy

In recent decades financial products and services have become increasingly widespread throughout society. Whereas earlier generations of Americans may have purchased goods primarily in cash, today various credit products are popular, such as credit and debit cards and electronic transfers. Indeed, a 2019 survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco showed that consumers preferred cash payments in only 22% of transactions, favoring debit cards for 42% and credit cards for 29%.

Other products, such as mortgages, student loans, health insurance, and self-directed accounts, have also grown in importance. This has made it even more imperative for individuals to understand how to use them responsibly. Although there are many skills that might fall under the umbrella of financial literacy, popular examples include household budgeting, learning how to manage and pay off debts, and evaluating the tradeoffs between different credit and investment products. These skills often require at least a working knowledge of key financial concepts, such as compound interest and the time value of money. Given the importance of finance in modern society, lacking financial literacy can be very damaging to an individual’s long-term financial success.

Being financially illiterate can lead to a number of pitfalls, such as being more likely to accumulate unsustainable debt burdens, either through poor spending decisions or a lack of long-term preparation. This in turn can lead to poor credit, bankruptcy, housing foreclosure, and other negative consequences. Thankfully, there are now more resources than ever for those wishing to educate themselves about the world of finance. One such example is the government-sponsored Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which offers a range of free learning resources.

Strategies to Improve Your Financial Literacy Skills

Developing financial literacy to improve your personal finances involves learning and practicing a variety of skills related to budgeting, managing and paying off debts, and understanding credit and investment products. Here are several practical strategies to consider.

Create a Budget—Track how much money you receive each month against how much you spend in an Excel sheet, on paper, or with a budgeting app. Your budget should include income (paychecks, investments, alimony), fixed expenses (rent/mortgage payments, utilities, loan payments), discretionary spending (nonessentials such as eating out, shopping, and travel), and savings.

Pay Yourself First—To build savings, this reverse budgeting strategy involves choosing a savings goal (say, a down payment for a home), deciding how much you want to contribute toward it each month, and setting that amount aside before you divvy up the rest of your expenses.

Pay Bills Promptly—Stay on top of monthly bills, making sure that payments consistently arrive on time. Consider taking advantage of automatic debits from a checking account or bill-pay apps and sign up for payment reminders (by email, phone, or text).

China’s 5 Year Plan (2021-2025): Proposed Dam on River Brahmaputra

The five-year plans are a sequence of economic and social development initiatives furnished by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) since 1949. The five-year plans were inspired by the five-year plans from the USSR and the focus was on launching new schemes, reforms and setting new growth targets.

Since the 11th five-year plan (2006-2010), the Chinese government has mentioned it as ‘Guidelines’ instead of plans. Currently China is on its 14th five-year plan/ guidelines. Unlike the previous five year plans, there is no specific GDP growth target and instead, the government announced that growth would be kept in “reasonable range” and an annual target would be set based on the specific conditions each year. The focus of the current plan is on self-sufficiency as the country had to endure difficulty after the United States had restricted China’s major chip makers from using American technology. Other areas of focus will be on the above 7 percent growth in the research and development spending. The government will also try to raise the urban residents to 65 percent of the population while maintaining green development and increasing the life expectancy by 1 year. Infrastructure will also be an area of priority with a focus on high-quality development of the belt and road initiative.

One of the biggest infrastructure projects of the 14th The five-year plan (2021-2025) has been officially approved to build a series of dams in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet before it flows into India.

The proposed dam would be in Medog, Tibet region will have a maximum possible capacity of 60 gigawatts and could potentially produce 300 billion kWh annually. The location is an area called ‘the great bend’ also known as ‘Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon’ where the river goes through a very drastic U-turn and then the river descents from an elevation of 3000 meters to around 800 meters. Due to the drastic elevation change, the river flow is quite strong and is also an ideal location to build the dam.

The location of the dam could be a strategically risky move by china as it is very close to the Indian border but the other issue is that this proposed dam can undermine the water security of India. India relies heavily on the Brahmaputra River for agriculture and various other purposes.  Due to this, the proposed Dibang Dam by India in downstream (Arunachal Pradesh) might be the solution to offset the effect of the Chinese proposed dam. Although the majority of the catchment area of Brahmaputra is on the Indian side there is still the issue of water flow from the upstream as Assam usually suffers from floods in the rainy season and any additional water flow from the Chinese dam would make the situation worse. The problem will not only affect India but also Bangladesh due to its low-lying land and flood-prone region. Problem is that the region is ecologically diverse and sensitive and any kind of development in this region will negatively affect the ecology of this region. Due to turbulent tectonic plates, there are high chances of landslides and earthquakes as well. India will have to be vigilant and develop its strategy according to the developments on the Chinese side.

References:

Unemployment

Unemployment has become one of the biggest problems around the world. When an individual is an implied, he or she will know very less about the mankind. It is so difficult to face situation and handle situations when the individual is unemployed. Unemployment leads to many silly mistakes. And an unemployed person cannot take over the family and lead the family as well. There is a huge competition in highly populated countries like India. In order to be employed, the only method is to study hard and improve the skills and score better. Basically, the students are not showing good amount of interest towards the studies. Let us now see how to motivate them.

Covid crisis has made many people unemployed. It has taken away the basic need of living. Many people are left with the unfilled stomachs. Some people are dead about by not finding a way to live.

Types of unemployment :

There are four main types of unemployment in an economy frictional, structural, cyclical, and seasonal and each has a different cause.

1. Frictional unemployment :

Frictional unemployment is caused by temporary transitions in workers lives, such as when a worker moves to a new city and has to find a new job. Frictional unemployment also includes people just entering the labor force, such as freshly graduated college students. It is the most common cause of unemployment, and it is always in effect in an economy.

2. Structural unemployment :

Structural unemployment is caused by a mismatch in the demographics of workers and the types of jobs available, either when there are jobs available that workers don’t have the skills for, or when there are workers availabes but no jobs to fill. Structural unemployment is most obvious in industries undergoing technological advancements.

3. Cyclical unemployment :

Cyclical unemployment is caused by declining demand. When there is not enough demand in an economy for goods and services, businesses cannot offer jobs . According to keynesian economics , cyclical unemployment is a natural result of the business cycle in times of recession: if all consumers become fearful at once, consumers will attempt to increase their saving at the same time, which means there will be a decrease in spending, and businesses will not be able to employ all employable workers.

4. Seasonal unemployment :

Seasonal unemployment is caused by different industries or parts of the labor market being available during different seasons. Fot instance, unemployment goes up in the winter months, because many agricultural jobs end oncr crops are have harvested in the fall, and those wotkers are left to find new jobs.

Consequences of unemployment in an Economy :

Low unemployment is key to economic stability High and long- term unemployment can cause significant stress on a nation in three key areas.

* Individuals :

Unemployed people have no ability to fulfill their financial obligations and can become mentally stressed, ill, and even homeless.

* Economic efficiency :

During times of high unemployment many job seekers will accept new jobs below their skill level, a situation called “underemployment ” which translates to a loss of human capital for an economys labor market. Unemployed workers will also significantly decreases their consumer spending, which is one of the driving forces of economic growth. Without consumer spending, the economy will slow dramatically.

* socio- political stability :

If unemployment remains high, citizen dissatisfaction can rise to the point of widespread civil unrest.

Possible solutions for Unemployment :

Solving unemployment is a hotly debated topic, and no economists agree on one simple way to do it. However, in the U.S ,if unemployment rises noticeably, the government usually steps in with specific policies designed to lower the total number of unemployed people.

1. Monetary policy :

Monetary policy is financial influence implemented by a central bank . Monetary policies usually come in the form of lower interest rates, which increase the total money supply within an economy by allowing banks and businesses more access to loans and therefore, more accessible spending power.

2. Fiscal policy :

If expansionary monetary policy doesn’t adequately lower the unemployment rate government agencies will turn to fiscal policy. Fiscal policy is fiscal stimulus implemented by the national government and fiscal policies include spending on infrastructure, proposingtax cuts , increasing the minimum wage, or implementing unemployment benefits. These methods are designed to inject more demand into private economy and strengthen economic activity.

Let us now see some of the ways to motivate the students to study and get employeed.

• Make things easier :

Showing the things easier and explaining them with clarity helps the students to show better interest on the subject and makes them to pay more attention on what the teacher is trying to convey. When the topics are shown easier for the students, they start learning them and they feel achieved and they pay more attention to study. When a student learns a particular topic or a question, he/she feels comfortable and happy for getting it. Once if they start reading, they develop the interest in them and they continue to read more and more.

• Tell the importance :

The students must be motivated with good number of words to understand the need of studying and what happens if they don’t study. A student is like a bird without the wings when they don’t study. So, it is very important to motivate students to study and to make them understand the need of the situation. Motivation brings the right change in the students who are not interested in learning. It develops the interest in them to study.

It seems good if the government provides good number of jobs.

WHAT IF 1RUPPEE IS EQUAL TO 1 DOLLAR ?

Before we get to that point we need to know the contrast between the two currencies. Dollar is considered as the strongest currency in the World. Each country in this World needs to have their cash as solid as Dollar since it is accepted that Stronger money = Stronger Economy. Be that as it may, is it in every case valid ? Since Countries like Japan and China have lower cash yet they are checked under nations with Strongest Economy.

So how is that conceivable that notwithstanding having the more fragile cash they have solid economy ? Fundamentally it relies upon , regardless of whether a nation is trade(export) orientated or import orientated ? The nations which purchases items or work from different nations are called import situated nations and these nations like to keep their money esteem higher so they can purchase merchandise from different nations at modest expense. Then again , nations which offer merchandise to different nations are called send out(export) orientated nations and these nations like to keep their cash esteem low so different nations purchase more and their creation builds which befits the economy. Nations like USA are import orientated while nations like China are trade orientated.

Currency - Overview, Origin, Foreign Exchange Trading

So what kind of nation is India is it import orientated or trade orientated ? India purchases products from different nations so it is significantly import orientated, yet larger part of India’s economy comes from exportation. India gives best specialists to I.T Sectors . At the point when organizations of different nations visit India they employ our people to work for them which consequently offers advantage to our economy. Numerous financial analyst accept that our economy ought to be more lower , while some accept that it ought to be higher.

india gdp growth: Indian economy to contract by 7 pc in FY21: SBI Research - The Economic Times

PROS OF THE SITUATION:

*With more grounded rupee imports would be less expensive; you could now get the most recent iPhone for only 1000 INR. So everybody would claim an iPhone if 1 USD rises to 1 INR.

*Purchasing products from different nations in a global market will be less expensive which is advantageous for a non-industrial nation.

*Unrefined petroleum costs would go down significantly which we import the most, in this way the cost of petroleum and diesel will fall making the transportation cost modest if 1 USD approaches 1 INR.

*As the transportation cost would diminish the items that are made in India would be less expensive and effectively accessible to purchase.

*One would not travel abroad for a task. For instance, in the event that they get 3000$ abroad that will simply be equivalent to 3000 INR. So why bother voyaging? Yet, there is another side to it as well.

CONS OF THE SITUATION:

*Full stop on sends out we can trade merchandise due to the money contrast. The fares will become costly and on the off chance that we contrast Indian items if and other cutthroat nations, we will turn out to be far more costly and this will hamper our fares which isn’t useful for our economy.

*No unfamiliar venture: unfamiliar organizations put resources into India because of modest work now if an organization used to pay the laborer Rs20000 that is 300$ now they need to pay them 20000$ so they would begin putting resources into different nations as opposed to in our own if 1 USD approaches 1 INR.

*We will confront financial closure and expansion in joblessness for instance if my organization beneficiaries a designer from India for Rs75000 that is around 1000$ and if 1INR = 1 $ for what reason will I pay quite a lot more to the Indian specialist when I have choices. In this way, the Indian laborers need to deal with less expense or leave the work. The equivalent would occur with different callings too.

*In case they are chipping away at such a lot of lower compensation how might they pay their EMI? They proved unable. Joblessness will influence the banks as advances would be left neglected.

*We will confront financial log jam as cash would not be exchanged at a similar speed if 1 USD approaches 1 INR.

RESOUCES:

  1. https://infokoala.com/what-if-1-usd-equals-1-inr/
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfLd329ovRI

The utterly butterly delicious story of Amul

Over the years, Amul, one of the most beloved brands of our country, has become the taste of India, just as its tagline claims. Every Indian millennial has grown up listening to the jingles of its many dairy products, and the Amul girl, the brand’s mascot in the polka-dotted dress, has become a nostalgia-evoking symbol. Amul has truly come a long way since its founding in 1946.

The beginning

Amul was formed as a part of a cooperative movement against Polson Dairy in Anand, Gujarat, which procured milk from local farmers of Kaira District at very low rates and sold it to the then Bombay government. Everyone except the farmers benefited from this trade. The farmers took their plea to Sardar Patel, who had advocated farmers’ cooperatives since 1942. The result was the formation of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited in Anand.

The union started pasteurising milk produced by a handful of farmers for the Bombay Milk Scheme and grew to 432 farmers by the end of 1948. The rapid growth led to problems including excess production that the Bombay Milk Scheme couldn’t accommodate. To solve this issue, a plant was set up to process all that extra milk into products such as milk powder and butter.

Amul is born

The late Dr. Verghese Kurien, rightly called the Milkman of India, was Amul’s true architect. His journey at Amul began in 1949 when he arrived in Anand to manage a dairy as a government employee. He went from helping farmers repair machinery to revolutionising India’s dairy industry with the White Revolution (or Operation Flood), the largest dairy development programme in the world.

The new dairy with the milk processing plant was ready for operation in October 1955, the year that also saw a breakthrough in dairy technology —buffalo milk was processed to make products for the first time in the world. The word ‘Amul’, derived from ‘Amulya’, which means ‘precious’ or ‘priceless’ in Sanskrit, was used to market the range of milk products developed by the Kaira Union. It is also an acronym for Anand Milk Union Ltd.

Dr Kurien had a vision. He wanted to offer small-scale dairy farmers quality-control units and centralised marketing, which were missing at the time in the dairy economy. Thus, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was created in 1973 to market milk and all milk products produced by six district cooperative unions in Gujarat. GCMMF is the largest exporter of dairy products in India and Amul is the umbrella for all of its products.

Awards, accolades, and a global presence

Over the years, Amul, together with GCMMF, has won numerous awards. Some of these include the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award, 1999; the Golden Trophy for Outstanding Export Performance, 2009-10; Best Marketing Campaign, 2014; and World Dairy Innovation Award, among many others. Amul earned recognition all over the world when GCMMF  introduced it on the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) platform, where only the six top dairy players across the world sell their products.

More than a mere slogan

Amul’s famous slogan, which is now a part of its logo, was created in 1994 by Shri Kanon Krishna of a Mumbai-based advertising agency called Advertising and Sales Promotion (ASP). According to Amul, the Taste of India slogan is more than just corporate positioning or advertising jargon. This slogan lends meaning to the brand’s never-ending commitment to taking quality food and products to the rural man, which he otherwise couldn’t have afforded.

The Butter Girl

Amul did not always have the round-eyed moppet as its mascot. The Butter Girl was born in 1966 when Sylvester daCunha, the then MD of the advertising agency handling Amul butter’s account, created her for its campaign. It was a pleasant change from the dull, corporate ads that the previous agency had come up with. Being a seasoned marketer himself, Dr Kurien gave daCunha complete creative freedom to create and release the ads without taking the company’s permission. 30 years later, the Utterly Butterly Girl still wins hearts wherever she is, whether on a billboard or on the packet of butter.

Amul is not just a brand; it is also a movement that represents farmers’ economic freedom. The name is now a household term that is here to stay, and the chubby-cheeked Amul girl will continue to cast a spell on the public.

Greed vs Generosity: Which Gives a Better Competitive Advantage?

Many people think that in the professional world, selfishness and greed are the characteristics that pay dividends. But the truth is, excepting win-lose situations, that the most successful people in the medium and long term are those who are the most generous in their business and personal lives.

Ambition is a desire to take on more than you can realistically accomplish, to constantly strive for improvement, to grow both personally and professionally, and, of course, the desire to generate more income. However there comes a time when ambition crosses a line, and when that happens it becomes greed. Greed is the desire to chew more than you can eat, a desire that distracts you from realistically possible goals. Greed is wanting to get more than what you have actually earned, obtaining maximum profit at minimum cost, or as an old adage has it: “Grasp all, lose all.”

Today there is an abundance of courses and books on finance, limitless knowledge on hand with a simple click. But to know what is right, to subdue the pirates of greed and to follow your trading plan- this is another story. People who look for easy money invariably find that there is no such thing, paying a heavy price for this lesson. Ego, vanity, and revenge play a part, causing people to fail on their trading accounts. This is one of the factors that explains why people might not fall into the exclusive 10% that ‘win’, and find themselves one of the 90% that lose.

Literature and film are full of greedy and stingy characters, and the moral of films like ‘A Christmas Carol’ or ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is always the same: the fate of the greedy is heartbreaking. Their addiction to work means that they live a lonely life, and their search for wealth means that at the end of their lives, they have only the sober memory of their friends from the Stock Exchange.

GIVE AND TAKE

People do not realize that giving without expecting something in return could be a competitive advantage, as well as making ones outlook more positive. Studies have shown that the most successful people are generous. At least this is the affirmation of Adam Grant, a psychologist and professor at Wharton and author of “Give and Take”.

A generous person builds bigger and stronger networks, improves communication with their existing contacts, and also finds it easier to interact with people outside of their core network- this gives them access to new contacts and valuable sources of information. Generous people inspire in others a predisposition, or positive receptivity, to reconnect with them, as well as a greater willingness to collaborate.

Moreover, being a giver encourages persistence because givers are able to enthusiastically motivate people, inspiring confidence, because they are liberal with praise. They create a generally positive environment. Talent is important, but the most important factor in success is persistence. And what’s even more interesting is that being a giver has an energizing effect that increases levels of happiness.

According to Bill Williams, famous trader and writer of “Trading Chaos”, people with a ‘giving’ mindset enjoy more happiness and success. For example, later in his career Bill always traded two accounts, one for himself and one for his charities. The charity account always made more money, even though he traded using the same method with both accounts. In the charity account he never veered from his strategy, while in his own account he would sometimes take a trade based on a “feel”, or get in a trade before the actual signal. This shows us the importance of sticking to a plan, but also the importance of being a ‘giver’.

Giving distracts us from our problems, adds meaning to our lives and helps us feel valued by others. This explains why avidity and egoism are the trader’s worst enemy. Having a benevolent mindset while trading helps the trader to increase performance. Happy people earn more money on average, score higher yields, make better decisions and contribute more to their organizations. Furthermore, traders who are givers are at the top of the most successful trading operations.

THE GREED EFFECT

Focusing only on money results in the ‘greedy effect’, something that all professional traders know. In fact, one of the most common pieces of (rarely followed) advice that newbies receive is to shift their focus from trade results to the trading process, analyzing and following the rules of their trading system. Another suggestion is to start reasoning in pips and ticks instead of dollars. This reduces the greedy mindset and develops a more reliable attitude.

However we can make a further effort to improve our performance by shifting our focus to be more generous. One example is trading for charitable purposes like the aforementioned Bill Williams, another could be simply committing a small part of your monthly or annual profit to microcredits, which promote a world of stability and self-sufficiency, key to overcoming poverty.

Material things can be recovered, but feelings of guilt, helplessness and loneliness cannot be solved with money. If humans would be more understanding of and generous to others, the world would be a very different place. And that is why those who practice generosity, making it part of their daily lives, experience an uplifting of their mental and emotional state, and are generally filled with more satisfaction in their professional and personal lives.

In conclusion, we see that generous people are the most successful in their daily trading performance for the reasons described above. Having a giving mindset helps professionals become part of that exclusive group, the 10% of winners.

Financial Inclusion by Indian Public sector banks

In today’s world, where the main focus of private banks is to earn profits, it is important to understand the role and need for public-sector banks especially in a heavily populated country like India.

What are Public-sector banks?
Public sector banks are those banks in which the government has majority shareholding at least 51 percent.
In other words, we can say that the government controls such banks to protect the interests of the people and regulate the supply of money in the economy.

This article is based on one such role or function of Public-sector banks, i.e., financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is an effort to make every day financial services available to more of the world’s population at a reasonable cost. The objective is to make financial services or products accessible and affordable for all citizens irrespective of their professions, level of income, location etc.

Here are some strategies and initiatives taken by Indian public sector banks for Financial Inclusion:

  • SMALL ACCOUNTS: Those persons who do not have any of the ‘officially valid documents can open “Small Accounts” with banks. A “Small Account” can be opened on the basis of a self-attested photograph and putting his/her signatures or thumb print in the presence of an officials of the bank. 
  • BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT AGENTS (BANK MITRAS) are retail agents engaged by banks for providing banking services at locations where opening of a brick-and-mortar branch / ATM is not viable. Scope of activities of Business Correspondents / Bank Mitra are as under:
    a) Creating Awareness about savings and other products and
    education and advice on managing money and debt counselling.
    b) Identification of potential customers.
    c) Collection and preliminary processing of various forms for
    deposits including verification of primary information /data.
  • LOANS AND ADVANCES TO WEAKER SECTIONS: It offers advances to weaker sections, consisting of beneficiaries belonging to scheduled castes/scheduled tribes, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers, rural artisans, beneficiaries under Govt. Sponsored schemes.
  • CREDIT FLOW TO WOMEN BENEFICIARIES
    Women are assuming greater responsibilities and playing an active role in the economic growth of the nation but remain under-represented while receiving the credit delivery from the financial institutions of the
    country. So, for strengthening of credit flow to women, OBC has implemented 14-points action plan as advised by the government of India. Banks have designated 10 branches as specialized branches for women entrepreneurs. Credit schemes like Oriental Mahila Vikar Yojana, Loan scheme for Professional & Self-employed women, Loan scheme for Beauty parlour/Boutiques/Saloons/Tailoring, Oriental Swaran Yojana etc. are designed by the bank especially for women.
  • SWARN JYANTI GRAM SWAROJGAR YOJANA
    The scheme is operative in rural areas of the country and covers the aspects of self-employment such as organisation of rural poor into Self- Help Groups (SHGs) training, Credit technology, infrastructure and marketing.
  • PRADHAN MANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA: The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana under the National Mission Mode envisages provision of affordable financial services to all citizens within a reasonable distance. It comprises of the following six pillars: –

1.1 Universal access to banking facilities: – Mapping of each district into Sub Service Area (SSA) catering to 1000-1500
households in a manner that every habitation has access to banking services within 5 km.

1.2 Providing Basic Banking Accounts with overdraft facility and RuPay debit card to all households: – To all households, efforts should be made to first cover all uncovered household with banking facilities. Facility of an overdraft of Rs.10,000/- through RuPay debit card.

1.3 Financial Literacy Program: Financial literacy would be an integral part of the Mission in order to let the beneficiaries make best use of the financial services being made available to them.

1.4 Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund: Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund would be to cover the defaults in overdraft accounts.


1.5 Micro Insurance: To provide micro-insurance to all willing and eligible persons by 14th August, 2018, and then on an ongoing basis.

1.6 Unorganized sector Pension schemes like Swavlamban: By 14th August, 2018 and then on an ongoing basis.

Conclusion

We can say that Public-sector banks are playing an active role in making financial services and products available and
affordable for various groups/categories of people. These schemes and their implementation help in bridging economic
opportunities with outcomes in the following ways-

  • Access to credit enables businesses to expand, creating jobs and reducing inequality.
  • Providing access to financial services opens doors for families, allowing them to smooth out consumption and invest in their futures.
  • By increasing consumption level of households and investment level of private sector, it leads to increase in opportunities for economic growth.
  • Direct cash transfers to beneficiary bank accounts, instead of physical cash payments against subsidies will become possible.
  • This also ensures that the funds actually reach the intended recipients instead of being siphoned off along the way.
  • It also helps in bridging the wage gap between the rich and the poor and reducing poverty rates.

To conclude, these schemes and efforts by Public-sector banks and the government of India have led to a substantial increase in availability of various financial services for various people divided into categories like- farmers, small rural organisations and businesses, self-employed and working women (rural and urban areas), SCs, STs and the general public.

Demand and Supply

What is Demand?

Demand refers to the quantity of goods that consumers are willing to buy at given level of income during a given period of time. In order to understand the relationship of demand with different variables, let’s take a look at the factors that can influence demand.

Factors affecting demand

  1. Price of the Given Commodity: One of the most important factors affecting the demand of the commodity is its price. An inverse relationship exists between price and demand of a commodity. This means that as the price of a good increases its demand falls due to fall in the level of satisfaction of the consumer.
  2. Price of Related Goods: Demand of a product is also determined by the prices of other related products. Related products include Complementary and Substitute goods. Complementary good refers to goods that are usually bought together by consumers. For example, pencil and erasers. If the price of pencils goes up, the demand for erasers also decreases because they are used together (direct relationship). Substitute goods refer to goods that can replace each other. For example, Coke and Pepsi. If the price of Coke increases, the demand for Pepsi would increase. (inverse relationship)
  3. Income of the Consumer: Income of a consumer plays a major role in determining the demand of the product. Higher level income groups generally have higher demand than lower level income groups. If the income of a consumer increases, his demand and purchasing capacity also increases (direct relationship).
  4. Tastes and Preferences: Tastes and preferences of the consumer directly influence the demand for a commodity. They include changes in fashion, customs, habits, etc. An individual who prefers rice over bajra might not get affected by the increase in the price of rice where as a small increase in price of bajra will discourage them to buy bajra.
  5. Expectation of Change in the Price in Future: If the price of a certain commodity is expected to rise in future, then consumers will demand more of that product in the future than they normally would. There exists a direct relation between expectations of change in prices in future and its demand in current period of time.

What is Supply?

In economics, supply is the amount of a resource that firms, producers, laborers, providers of financial assets, or economic agents are willing and able to provide to the marketplace or directly to another agent in the marketplace.

Factors affecting Supply

  1. Price of the given Commodity:
    Price of a commodity is one of the most important factors which determine the supply of a commodity. Generally, price of the commodity and its supply are directly related, that is as the price of product increases, its supply will also increase and vice-versa. The price rise in the market promotes the producers to produce more, in order to earn more in the market.
  2. Prices of Other Goods:
    The quantity supplied of a commodity depends not only on its price, but also on the prices of other commodities. Increase in the prices of other goods makes them more profitable in comparison to the given commodity. As a result, the firm shifts its limited resources from production of the given commodity to production of other goods, reducing its supply (Inverse relationship).
  3. Prices of Factors of Production (inputs):
    If there is a rise in price of factors of production like:- land, labour, capital etc. the cost of production also increases as a result of which the product becomes less profitable and suppliers might reduce the production of that commodity and vice-versa (inverse relationship).

4. State of Technology: Advancements in technology plays a major role in determining the supply of the product. Introduction of new technology in the market reduces the cost of the product which increases the profit margin and induces the supplier to increase production of the product.

  1. Government Policy (Taxation/ Subsidy Policy):
    Increase in government taxes reduces the profit margin of product due to increase in the cost. This demotivates the supplier as a result of which he will reduce the production of that particular commodity (inverse relationship).

Universal destruction

How could it be possible that when the time gets worse we often ignore the vulnerable?

Nikhil Meshram

We are living in the world , where no one can intrude . A life , where you can’t touch the one you want . A life, where one has to stay away from his own . A life , where no one can go in one’s home . Yes , it’s a life we are living ‘ A life of a LOG’ .

Coronavirus , I believe it’s not a new word in your dictionary . This eleven letter word creating a massive destruction all over the world . I know you are well aware but the real question is , are you following the protocols properly?

Firstly let’s get some knowledge about coronavirus.

The origin .

The recent outbreak began in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China. Reports of the first COVID-19 cases started in December 2019.

Coronaviruses are common in certain species of animals, such as cattle and camels. Although the transmission of coronaviruses from animals to humans is rareTrusted Source, this new strain likely came from bats, though one study suggests pangolins may be the origin.

However, it remains unclear exactly how the virus first spread to humans.

Some reports trace the earliest cases back to a seafood and animal market in Wuhan. It may have been from here that SARS-CoV-2 started to spread to humans.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can cause disease in both animals and humans. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus strain known as SARS-CoV is an example of a coronavirus. SARS spread rapidly in 2002–2003.

The new strain of coronavirus is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus causes coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19).


Around 80%Trusted Source of people with COVID-19 recover without specialist treatment. These people may experience mild, flu-like symptoms. However, 1 in 6 peopleTrusted Source may experience severe symptoms, such as trouble breathing.

The new coronavirus has spread rapidly in many parts of the world. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO)Trusted Source declared COVID-19 a pandemic. A pandemic occurs when a disease that people are not immune to spreads across large regions.

It’s okay take a deep breath . Yes, it’s a lot to take in but we all know how china played with the whole world .

The protocols.

  • Wear masks ,
  • Wash hands ,
  • Use sanitizers ,
  • Social distancing , etc,.

Is it important to follow protocols ?

You say NO , I say ‘if you want to die you can easily ignore the protocols ’ . Well I don’t want to die , I have my whole 20s , 30s and so on…… .

According to the survey, people have been moving around freely, meeting different social groups and attending gatherings, going to malls and markets. This indicates that a pandemic fatigue has set in after after a year of restrictions on movement, social distancing and strict mask wearing norms.

Well , if you are saying this is what following protocols is than I am happy to stay home rather than chilling around like a monkey . Like really , a monkey also has a common sense that when to do chilling and when to fight for himself . What we are doing is putting masks in our pocket to showcase the world that I have one . Haha it’s kinda funny .

We long to return to normal, but **normal led to this**. To avert the future pandemics we know are coming, we MUST grapple with all the ways normal failed us. We have to build something better. I hope this piece, in showing what went wrong, helps.

Link :