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Yet many women lag behind men when it comes to using assets to plan and build financial security.... Women are a growing economic force and expected to add about $6 trillion in earned income globally over next five years according to the research by the Boston Consulting Group. Yet many women lag behind men when it comes to using those assets to plan and build financial security. This phenomenon is termed as “the female financial paradox”. In Delhi, many women see financial planning as a way to protect themselves against the unexpected. The problem with concentrating savings in lower risk assets like cash is that money will not grow fast enough to help fund retirement and other long-term goals. One area where women need help is to learn — how and where to invest. However, the stock market and women still seem poles apart. Why does financial literacy and stock market appear so dull on the women front?

The HinduLOOKING AHEAD: The Polavaram project shows that Odisha should revisit all inter-State river water sharing agreements, which will pave the way for settlement of water disputes and for comprehensive development of the water sector in the State. In the picture, tribals from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha stage a protest against the project. The Polavaram multipurpose project has faced rough weather with non-compliance of environmental assessment and large-scale displacement

With an El Niño brewing, there is disquiet over what that might mean for the coming monsoon. Many droughts experienced by this country have, after all, been associated with the exceptional warming of the equatorial waters of the Pacific that is characteristic of an El Niño. The forecast issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday is in line with other predictions that warn of poor rains this year. Using a statistical model, the met agency has put a 33 per cent probability of the monsoon being ‘below normal’, a category where nationwide rainfall during the season is between 90 per cent and 96 per cent of the long-period average. That is almost twice the climatological probability based on how the monsoon fared in past years. The IMD forecast, however, also indicates a significantly enhanced risk this year of nationwide rainfall during the monsoon slipping below 90 per cent of the long-period average and turning ‘deficient’. Such a mon...

PTI China's Navy Chief Admiral Wu Shengli being received on the deck of INS Shivalik by its Captain Puruvir Das when he visited the ship at Qingdao on Tuesday. Admiral Wu Shengli, China’s Navy Chief, this week caught Indian officials off guard by asking for an impromptu tour of the most sensitive nerve centre of the advanced Indian missile frigate, INS Shivalik, while on a brief courtesy call on the visiting ship. The Shivalik arrived at this eastern port city, which is the base of the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) North Sea Fleet, on Sunday to take part in exercises on Wednesday to mark the Chinese Navy’s 65th anniversary. Indian officials told Admiral Wu that the ship’s operations room — the Combat Information Centre — was among the Indian Navy’s most advanced and was kept locked when the frigate was docked at harbour. Under standard operating procedures, it cannot be opened without exception. The Admiral’s request surprised Indian officials as navy official...

To become a developed country, India’s GDP will have to grow at 12 per cent per year for at least a decade. Technically this is within reach, since it would require the rate of investment to rise from the present 28 per cent of GDP to 36 per cent The question before a probable Narendra Modi-led government in 2014 is whether the statistically undeniable economic slide of the last decade can be halted and a fresh impetus be given to growth in the

When an electoral system structurally discriminates against particular categories such as persons with disabilities, it is tantamount to a failure of the democracy as a whole The citizens of India are in the process of casting their votes in what is being widely hailed as the largest election in human history. By sheer size, the 16th Lok Sabha elections signal a triumph not only for India, but for democratic exercises around the world.

The Supreme Court’s verdict permitting resumption of iron-ore mining in Goawith a temporary cap of 20 million tonnes per annum is welcome for more reasons than one. First, the lifting of the mining ban will restore livelihoods to a vast number of people in a State whose economy is powered by the twin engines of mining and tourism. By the Court’s own finding, more than 1.5 lakh Goans depend on the mining industry directly, and then there are downstream beneficiaries such as truck operators and other service providers. The State’s economy has suffered, as indeed the country’s exports, due to the 18-month ban. The verdict represents an acknowledgement that the problem with mining is not the activity itself;

Instead of victory memorials, Sri Lanka needs a monument to commemorate all casualties of the war In the hot plains of the Vanni, a larger-than-life stone soldier emerges out of a block of concrete, an AK-47 in one hand and the Sri Lankan flag in the other. Hardly visible from the ground, a dove sits on the machine gun. This is a “victory memorial” created by the Army after the end of the hostilities between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Army in May 2009. Beneath it, two plaques commemorate its creation. They are in Sinhala and in English, but not in Tamil, the majority language there.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures: supersession is rare in the Indian military hierarchy, and experience in heading an operational command is normally a prerequisite for becoming the Chief of the Naval Staff. The Indian Navy’s new chief, Admiral R.K. Dhowan, who was slated to retire on May 31 on turning 60, has neither headed an operational command — as was the case with a couple of others before him — nor is he the seniormost officer. But the Defence Ministry recommended the name,

An unscientific report on ‘mitigating’ EM radiation effects The document hardly has any scientific basis, uses scary language and is riddled with questionable claims On March 27, 2014, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) uploaded a draft document titled “Guidelines for mitigation of the effects of electromagnetic radiations in built places” on its website (accessed on April 15). The document hardly has any scientific basis. The document uses scary language, too. “Electromagnetic radiations are energy waves having time varying electric and magnetic fields at right angles to each other and form the most pervasive and prominent man-made hazard in today’s environment. These can also be termed as electromagnetic pollutants exposing human beings to greater health risks.”

Importantly, the Supreme Court accepted the broad definition of transgender as including persons who did not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth The Supreme Court judgment recognising the rights of transgendered persons is a landmark ruling and restores faith in the Court’s ability to recognise gross injustice. The Bench comprising Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri has also restored the image of the Court as capable of bold moves when it comes to addressing the denial of the right to be human simply on the basis of one’s sexual status and conduct. The Court’s progressive image was in tatters after the  Suresh Kumar Kaushal v. NAZ Foundation  ruling in December 2013 that re-criminalised gays and lesbians, and overruled the 2009 Delhi High Court’s decision that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was not applicable to consensual sexual relations between adults.

The latest edition of the IMF’s flagship publication,  World Economic Outlook , is cautiously optimistic on the prospects for the global economy. The update, prepared on the eve of the spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington, projects a modest growth in world output by about 3 per cent in 2013, going up to 3.6 per cent in 2014 and to 3.9 the next year. This increase is attributable to the pick-up in the industrial economies led by the U.S. Economic conditions around the world have not changed substantially since the last report released in October 2013. Global economic recovery is becoming broader, but across many countries it is still uneven and below par. Reiterating its earlier observations,

Price rise is one of the key issues in this election, and the latest data on inflation spell bad news for the incumbent UPA government; the monster is rearing its head again after lying low over the last three months. Retail inflation, specifically food price inflation, has rebounded in March on the back of rising prices of vegetables and fruits. Wholesale food prices rose 9.9 per cent with rice shooting up 12.6 per

The April 11 resignation of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) SecretaryKathleen Sebelius shows both the importance of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation, passed in 2009, and the extreme partisan divisions which obtain in the U.S. Congress. Ms. Sebelius has ostensibly resigned over the problems faced by those Americans who tried to enrol online for health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the scheme opened in October 2013.

By recognising the transgender community as a third gender entitled to the same rights and constitutional protection as all other citizens, the Supreme Court has put in place a sound basis to end discrimination based on gender, especially gender as presumed to be assigned to individuals at birth. Further, beyond prohibiting discrimination and harassment, the Court has extended global principles of dignity, freedom and autonomy to this unfairly marginalised and vulnerable community. The verdict lays down a comprehensive framework that takes into its fold not merely the negative right against discrimination, but also “the positive right to make decisions about their lives, to express themselves and to choose which activities to take part in.” In particular, its direction that they should be treated as ‘socially and educationally backward’ and given reservation in education and employment, is a far-reaching contribution to their all-round development. The jurisprudential basis for the jud...