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A last stand is a last resort in any battle and is taken because the defending force realizes the benefits of fighting outweigh the benefits of retreat or surrender. During the last resort, either the defending force takes heavy causalities or gets destroyed to ashes. 
 
The history is riddled with numerous last stands that depict heroism and sacrifice of the defenders. Some last stands have become a celebrated part of a fighting forces' or a country's history. 
 
A last stand is also when there is an unequal war and history never forgets the real heroes. 
 
Here are descriptions of 3 such greatest last stands taken in the history:

These are the 3 greatest last stands of history and one of them involves Sikh soldiers

<ul><li>The divergence between the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor is increasing world over but it’s particularly pronounced in India. </li><li>Inequality can impact the sense of community and common purpose influence how a common pool of resources — like the planet as a whole — is managed. </li><li>Interventions that ignore the linkage between nature and culture can further reinforce the poverty trap. </li></ul>Rising inequality is a barrier in the fight against <keyword id="6361617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change">climate change</keyword>. It can impact everything from policy to investments to actual on-ground implementation, according to rhe <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8">State of the Planet</a> report India is ranked among the top 10 performing countries on the <a href="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/CCPI-2021-Results.pdf">Climate Change Index</a>. The country’s Prime Minister, <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>, has also been lauded for initiating the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india-to-raise-non-fossil-fuel-target-to-450-gw-pm-modi/articleshow/71264791.cms">International Solar Alliance</a> — a collection of 121 countries working towards increasing the consumption of solar energy to drive down dependence on fossil fuels. The Modi administration has also been pushing for the use of <keyword id="6360114" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lpg">LPG</keyword> cylinders among the poor with its Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to replace coal burning. <div type="image" title="cylinder_edited" msid="81667237" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;LPG cylinders&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> While the intention behind these moves is commendable, implementation is key. The use of LPG cylinders, for instance, has been <a href="https://scroll.in/article/988886/india-s-poor-were-struggling-to-refill-lpg-cylinders-now-with-record-price-hike-many-have-given-up">plagued</a> by the increasing <keyword id="10985669" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cost-of-gas">cost of gas</keyword> leading users to go back to burning wood and coal. So, billionaires like <keyword id="111343" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gautam-Adani">Gautam Adani</keyword> can build <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/adani-green-wins-worlds-largest-solar-award-entailing-6bn-investment/articleshow/76282284.cms">2,500 acres of solar farms</a>, and ReNew Power can commission 531 gigawatts of wind energy, but none of it matters if people can’t afford it. <div type="image" title="floating solar power_edited" msid="81667198" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Two megawatt floating solar plant at Mudasarlova Reservoirunder the Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Mission &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> And, affordability comes from two places⁠ — the cost of using renewable energy and the income of the household. India is trying to curb the first but the income inequality is going from bad to worse. Moreover, the pandemic has only further exacerbated the problem. Inequality in India Inequality can impact the sense of community and common purpose influencing how a common pool of resources — like the planet as a whole — is managed. “Greater inequality can lead to more rapid environmental degradation because low incomes lead to low investment in physical capital and education,” said the report. The divergence between the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor is increasing the world over but it’s particularly pronounced in India. The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth, according to <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/india-extreme-inequality-numbers">Oxfam</a>. The non-profit group estimates that it would take nearly a millennium for a minimum wage worker in rural India to what a top executive at a leading Indian garment company earns in a year. <div type="image" title="Screenshot (684)_edited" msid="81666956" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The distance between the top 10% and the bottom 50% is growing in India&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> As India battles rural distress, the Economic Survey 2018 predictively warned that rising temperatures and poor rains threaten to hurt farmers’ incomes. Arvind Subramanian, the then chief economic advisor, estimated that a one-degree Celsius rise in temperature in a year could lower farmer incomes by about 6% in the Kharif and Rabi seasons in unirrigated districts. And, inequality doesn’t imply income inequality alone. The interconnections between inequality, the biosphere, and global sustainability go beyond the unequal distribution of wealth. When it comes to the environment, distributional, recognitional and procedural inequities also have a role to play. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Types of equity </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">What it means </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Distributional equity </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">How different groups have access to resources, and how costs, harms, and benefits are shared </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Recognitional equity </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Ongoing struggle for recognition of a diversity of perspectives and groups, e.g. referring to nationality, ethnicity, or gender </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Procedural equity </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">How different groups and perspectives are able to engage in and influence decision-making processes and outcomes </td></tr></tbody></table>Source: ‘Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere’ Here’s an example Every winter, the government of India and the state government in New Delhi finds themselves at loggerheads with the farmers around the national capital region to stop burning stubble but with little result. Until last winter, the farmers’ argument was that there is no incentive for them to stop doing it without realising that the toxic air hurts them and their children a lot more than people who live a few miles away. However, this year, the government has further alienated the farmers of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab with its new farm laws. The farmers have argued that the Narendra Modi government did not consult them or take into account their perspective before framing these laws and therefore, they should be repealed. <div type="image" title="stubble burning_edited" msid="81667315" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Stubble burning at Khuda Lahora Village in Chandigarh&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> If the status of the argument over the new laws remains as it is right now, the issue of stubble burning may not even be up for discussion before winter. The cost of which will be intense damage to the environment and the lungs of the common man. Fighting climate change is not just a regulatory activity. People have to agree with the cause and participate by investing their time, resources and energy. Since greater inequality leads to low investment, it can cause excessive pressure and degradation of natural capital, which — simply put — is the environment. This results in a downward spiral of incomes declining even further and increasing degradation. <div type="image" title="ezgif-4-3fd0bd17e77c" msid="81667092" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Examples of pathways of interactions between inequality and the biosphere in intertwined systems of people and nature&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> A study <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/21/5401">published in 2017</a>, highlights that climate change is projected to disproportionately influence disadvantaged groups, especially women, girls and indegenous communities. Therefore, interventions that ignore the linkage between nature and culture can further reinforce the poverty trap. Lack of access to basic resources, like fresh water, air to breathe, and food, will only exacerbate the problem of inequality. In India, examples of water shortage, lack of nutrition and clean air have been prevalent for nearly a decade and are only expected to get worse. According to the <a href="https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-india">Water Project</a>, children in 100 million households across the country lack water and one out of every two kids are malnourished. And, out of the 30 most polluted cities in the world — 21 are in India. Reducing inequality will lead to better policy Effective policy has the potential to not only reduce inequality, but strengthen the planet’s capacity for dealing with extreme events — both climate driven and otherwise. <div type="ExtQuote" text="In this decade we must bend the curves of greenhouse gas emissions and shocking biodiversity loss. This means transforming what we eat and how we farm it, among many other transformations.`" auname="Line Gordon, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre"></div> The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, has highlighted the vulnerabilities that currently exist in the system. India’s migrant labour force was seen fighting for its survival amid the lockdown, unable to go home and unable to earn money in urban centres. Reducing inequality will increase trust with societies, according to the State of the Planet report. This trust is integral for governments to make long-term decisions else the poor will be worse off for it. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/anupam-rasayan-ipo-lists-at-520-per-share-on-the-india-stock-exchange/articleshow/81663145.cms">Anupam Rasayan fails to dazzle on its stock market debut – shares down by nearly 8% soon after listing</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/elon-musk-announced-now-you-can-buy-tesla-cars-with-bitcoin/articleshow/81667459.cms">You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin, tweets Elon Musk</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/personal-finance/news/everyday-items-may-get-even-more-expensive-indian-homes-should-brace-for-a-rise-in-cost-of-living/articleshow/81667537.cms">Everyday items may get even more expensive ⁠— Indian homes should brace for a rise in cost of living</a>

Inequality is only increasing in India — the resulting lack of trust may make climate change a tougher challenge to tackle

<ul><li>The letter dated July 6 from Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association( ICPA) and <keyword id="964626" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Pilots-Guild">Indian Pilots’ Guild</keyword> (IPG) suggested steps that Air India should take in the times of coronavirus.</li><li>The letter said the 10% pay cut across the board treats “unequal people equally.” </li><li>The pilot body also suggested that it is time for the national carrier to look at its employment policies and cut back on the excessive employee strength in the backend departments. </li></ul><keyword id="9003469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Air-India-pilot-Association">Air India pilot association</keyword> tells chairman Rajiv Bansal that the national carrier should take cues from private airlines in cost-cutting measures during the coronavirus pandemic. The letter from the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association( ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) listed various steps that Air India should take at this time when the aviation sector and the company itself is a facing major cash crunch due to the economic slowdown. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="76806028" title="Top Air India officials to retire, squabble for posts begins" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> “Air India should also be guided by how other players in the aviation sector are battling the adversities of the coronavirus pandemic. We understand that a leading private carrier has an employee strength of 250 in finance and 130 in HR, handling a fleet of 255 aircrafts. This may be contrasted with Air India, which has more than 1600 employees in HR and Finance for a mere 125 aircrafts,” said the letter. <div type="twitter" handle="shukla_tarun" handlename="Tarun Shukla" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1274006662542528512/NZLGI9vJ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="43" retweetcount="6" status="Air India pilot association tells chairman Rajiv Bansal, AI should follow pvt airlines in cost-cutting. There are… https://t.co/IBkPoos0Cs" createdat="1594022270000" id="1280048296191393792"></div> Salary cuts should be steeper with rising pay grades It further added that the 10% pay cut across the board treats “unequal people equally.” The class IV employees are the ones that are severely impacted by the pay cut than the ones at the top of the ladder, the letter explained. “While prima facie appearing to be fair, this scheme distributes the financial burden across the various categories of employees in an extremely discriminatory manner amounting to treating unequal people equally,” said the pilots in the letter. It also suggested that Class IV workers should be kept away from the allowance cut. The pilot body also recommended that it is time for the national carrier to look at its employment policies and cut back on the excessive employee strength in the backend departments. “Since Air India is in financial distress on account of the pandemic, the employee strength should be brought at par with other market players through common-sense measures like compulsory leave without pay till such time normal operations resume,” it said. “This is nowhere in line with market standards, and since operations have been scaled back, their workload has reduced drastically. It is prudent for Air India and the MoCA to take cognisance of this excess manpower and trim costs as our aircraft stand under-utilised,” it added. “If any meaningful cost-saving has to be effected, the financial burden must be fairly distributed between all employees based on their job functions and emoluments,” the letter said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/markets/news/these-are-the-top-10-stock-to-buy-in-july-according-to-axis-securities/slidelist/76808620.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">These are the top 10 stock to buy in July, according to Axis Securities</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/a-bankers-checklist-for-msmes-who-want-a-loan/articleshow/76809382.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">A banker's checklist for MSMEs who want a loan</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/icmr-clarifies-that-august-15-was-not-a-deadline-for-covid-19-vaccine-after-experts-called-out-how-impossible-it-was/articleshow/76806783.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">ICMR ‘clarifies’ that August 15 was not a deadline for COVID-19 vaccine after experts called out how impossible it was</a>

Air India pilots are angry over pay cuts⁠— want salaries to be reduced in a graded manner

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dr. Fauci said rich countries are failing India as the country battles a record COVID-19 surge. </li><li>"The only way that you're going to adequately respond to a global pandemic is by having a global response," he said.</li><li>India recorded a record of 360,960 new cases Tuesday as its health systems buckle. </li></ul>Dr. <keyword id="225564" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Anthony-Fauci">Anthony Fauci</keyword>, the White House chief medical advisor, said that rich countries have failed India in its struggle with a record surge in COVID-19 cases. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/28/were-all-in-this-together-dr-fauci-says-world-has-failed-india-as-covid-cases-surge">an interview with the Guardian</a>, Fauci said that nations had failed to form a global response to the pandemic. He said that the crisis in India, where 200,000 deaths have been recorded, highlighted the unequal access to healthcare that was the key problem. "The only way that you're going to adequately respond to a global pandemic is by having a global response, and a global response means equity throughout the world," Fauci said."And that's something that, unfortunately, has not been accomplished."Often when you have diseases in which there is a limited amount of intervention, be it therapeutic or prevention, this is something that all the countries that are relatively rich countries or countries that have a higher income have to pay more attention to."India on Tuesday recorded 360,960 new cases - the worst ever daily case load for a single country - as well as 3,293 deaths, <a href="https://www.mohfw.gov.in/">according to health ministry figures.</a>The total number of infections in India since the start of the pandemic now stands at 17 million, which some experts believe to be an undercount. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delhi-getting-requests-trees-funeral-pyres-covid-surge-2021-4">According to reports,</a> forests have been felled for makeshift funeral pyres in Delhi as crematoriums fill. President Joe Biden has come under pressure to make vaccines more widely available to countries battling COVID-19 surges.The US, like other rich nations, had prioritized its own vaccination campaign and ordered more doses than it needed to vaccinate its own population, hoping to reduce the risk of supply-chain problems slowing the process.On Monday officials announced that the US would be making 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine available to foreign countries. Health experts have warned that is too few, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/us/politics/biden-vaccine-india.html">The New York Times reported. </a>While wealthier countries have begun mass vaccine rollouts, developing world nations are struggling with new waves of the disease."The United States has really revved up their activity in helping out India … we're sending oxygen, remdesivir, personal protective equipment, a variety of other medications and soon we'll be sending vaccine to help out," Fauci said."So I think that that's a responsibility that the rich countries need to assume. Right now it's a terrible tragic situation where people are dying because there's not enough oxygen, where there's not enough hospital beds. We have to try, looking forward, to get as much equity when it comes to public health issues as we possibly can."Because we're all in this together. It's an interconnected world. And there are responsibilities that countries have to each other, particularly if you're a wealthy country and you're dealing with countries that don't have the resources or capabilities that you have."

Fauci said rich countries failed India by focusing on their own COVID-19 outbreaks at the expense of the rest of the world

<ul><li>The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that India’s smartphone industry will only see mid-to-high single digit growth for the year 2019. </li><li>This is despite the third quarter marking a new record for smartphone shipments at 46.6 million. </li><li>One of the reasons is the growth of online platforms as offline sales channels are on the decline.</li></ul>India’s smartphone market hit a new record shipping 46.6 million phones during the third quarter of 2019 — the highest in a single quarter so far. Despite the record quarter, the International Data Corporation (<a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP45640019&amp;utm_medium=rss_feed&amp;utm_source=Alert&amp;utm_campaign=rss_syndication">IDC</a>) expects India to see mid-to-high single digit growth for the Indian smartphone market for the year. "This can be attributed to a strong undercurrent of passive consumer sentiment and muted shipments in the last quarter of the year due to a record 3Q19 when channel stock levels went up," stated Navkendar Singh, Research Director with IDC India. A wave of change in consumer preferences Normally Xiaomi and Samsung are battling it out over who can garner the greater market share. But, this quarter’s numbers show that while Xiaomi’s shipping volumes have increased 8.5% since last year, Samsung’s have fallen by the same amount. <div type="image" title="idc1" msid="72006332" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Market share between top 5 smartphone companies in India&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 Even Samsung’s market share has fallen from 22.6% last quarter to 18.9% this quarter. And, Xiaomi’s strengthened its hold with 27.1% market share. On the other hand, Oppo’s sub-brand — RealMe — continues to increase it market share, overtaking its parent brand. RealMe has 14.3% market share versus Oppo’s 11.8%. According to the IDC, RealMe has grown by 401.3% over the past year. Festive season and online sales The record shipments of smartphones were mostly due to online sales, new phones launching and price correction on a few key models, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The high numbers had a key role in turning global sale numbers around. Worldwide smartphone shipments increased by 0.8% in the third quarter of 2019, reversing seven quarters of decline and India led emerging markets in total. However, the growth of shipments in unequal. Online platforms continue to lead the charge as the offline sales channels face challenges. This quarter, online sales grew at a yearly rate of 28.3% while offline sales fell by 2.6%. Offline players tried to match e-commerce platforms will attractive deals of their own while dealing with leftover inventory from previous quarters. "The unabated aggression of the online players will continue to be a challenge for the offline channel, which remains the largest channel for smartphones in India. All these give us an indication of sluggish growth next quarter," said Singh. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/oneplus-smartphone-sales-in-india-are-nearly-double-that-of-apple-and-samsung/articleshow/70465846.cms" style="">OnePlus smartphone sales in India are nearly double that of Apple and Samsung</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/gadgets/news/realme-sold-5-2-million-phones-during-the-festive-season-thanks-to-massive-discounts/articleshow/71920229.cms" style="">Realme sold 5.2 million phones during the festive season, thanks to massive discounts</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/miscellaneous/apple-just-got-bumped-down-to-4th-place-in-a-list-of-the-worlds-top-smartphone-makers-heres-how-it-stacks-up-against-rivals-like-samsung-huawei-and-lg/slidelist/70577805.cms" style="">Apple Just Got Bumped Down To 4th Place In A List Of The World's Top Smartphone Makers - Here's How It Stacks Up Against Rivals Like Samsung, Huawei, And LG</a>

Xiaomi, Samsung and others have Flipkart and Amazon to thank for record shipment of smartphones⁠ — but it’s not good enough

<ul><li>Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> will be presenting the Union <keyword id="6358021" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget">Budget</keyword> amidst unprecedented circumstances. </li><li>The digital progress made in health and education has not reached everyone and the gaps need to be fixed. </li><li>The COVID-19 pandemic has also posed a risk to the battle against malnourishment and food coupons may be a way out.</li></ul>There are high expectations from the <keyword id="8420431" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget-2021">Budget 2021</keyword>, which comes about a year after India recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case. With the pandemic severely disrupting business as usual, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget amidst unprecedented circumstances. The crisis has opened up opportunities in education and health but the new ideas have not been able to cross the social fault lines of an unequal society. So, it may be time to bridge those divides with innovative programmes like food coupons for the malnourished, and spending money to ensure that no one is left behind in all the digital progress made in health and education. The pandemic has underscored the importance of social sector schemes It is not all about challenges. The “new normal” has also created opportunities to build back better. One such opportunity is to prioritise and invest in what has traditionally been considered “social sectors”. One hopes that the pandemic has demonstrated beyond doubt that these so-called social sectors are, in fact, critical for economic progress and workforce productivity as well. Of course, the budget is not the only window of opportunity for the government to implement measures for strengthening these sectors but to the extent that the budget signals priorities and sets the tone at the highest levels, it is crucial that areas like health, nutrition, education and gender equality feature prominently. The budget must increase allocation for health as well as promote telehealth While India has fared much better on COVID-19 management than most would expect, the outbreak has also shone a spotlight on the underlying gaps and inequities in the health system in terms of access to and quality of physical infrastructure, human resources as well as drugs and medical devices. Further, the lockdown, which was a necessary response for gearing up the health system to respond to COVID-19, resulted in disruptions to some essential services in areas like maternal and child health, tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiac ailments and chronic kidney disease. India is committed to ramping up its spending on health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 as per the National Health Policy, 2017. However, in the post-COVID scenario, the government might need to consider achieving this level of spending on health before 2025. This will not only enable India to build a strong and resilient public health system to address the ongoing challenges faced by the population more effectively and equitably but will also ensure that the country is better prepared for such disease outbreaks in the future. A timely increase in spending is necessary to equip the already stretched health sector to cope with new and additional challenges posed by the pandemic, including a rise in mental health and stress-related issues. Further, the budget must emphasise initiatives for making full use of the opportunities that have emerged during the COVID era, most notably the adoption of digital health interventions, like telemedicine. The Indian government released the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in March 2020 to enable access to remote healthcare consultations. By early December 2020, over 1 million teleconsultations had taken place through e-Sanjeevani, the Government’s telemedicine service, across 550 districts in the country. A survey of 800 physicians conducted by Boston Consulting Group between March-May, 2020, revealed a trend of accelerated digital adoption, with 85% of clinicians using digital platforms and telemedicine during the lockdown period. Going forward, there is tremendous scope to expand telemedicine services to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well as rural areas, where the unmet need for access to quality healthcare is the highest. Nutrition sector Nutrition is another sector which has suffered from disruptions to essential services like mid-day meals in schools and hot, cooked meals in Anganwadi Centres, on account of the pandemic. <div type="image" title="anganwadi" msid="80477523" hostid="261"></div> For instance, under normal circumstances, 1.3 million Anganwadi Centres provide supplementary food to pregnant and lactating mothers as part of the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Adverse effects on livelihoods further exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity. Besides restoring programmes delivering essential nutrition services fully, the budget could also consider food purchasing assistance (in the form of coupons) for people from low-income backgrounds. Budget must provide the infrastructure needed for the have-nots to access online education In 2020, the government released the National Education Policy outlining several ambitious measures for transforming the education sector. It is crucial that the Budget supports the implementation of these interventions with the requisite financial allocations, in line with the overall plan to increase public spending on education to 6% of GDP from the current approximately 4.6%. Specifically, to tackle the challenges posed by COVID-19, it is essential to ensure adequate funds for enabling schools across the country to reopen with the necessary water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in place. <div type="image" title="classroom" msid="80477582" hostid="261"></div> Additionally, steps need to be taken to bridge the digital divide. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), ownership of smartphones in student households increased significantly between 2018 and 2020. However, the report noted that only one-third of school children were pursuing online education. Thus, while COVID-19 has undoubtedly given a fillip to the use of technology, it has also widened the digital divide, with students from underprivileged families finding it challenging to participate in online classes or access digital content. There is, therefore, a case for the budget to make a provision, perhaps in the form of a dedicated fund, for promoting manufacturing of equipment like tablets and providing an enabling digital ecosystem targeted at students who are currently getting left behind. The pandemic has hurt women the most both in terms of life and livelihood Finally, across sectors, COVID has worsened gender inequality in much of the world. Research conducted by Azim Premji University suggests that the work participation rate for Indian women reduced to 5.8% in August 2020 from 9.15% in December 2019. Women have also had to bear a disproportionate burden of caregiving during the pandemic. Contraceptive supply chains have suffered from disruptions, which could lead to an increase in the number of unwanted pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted diseases. Further, due to the confinement during the lockdown period, job losses, and absence of the usual support networks like Self-Help Groups (SHGs), instances of domestic violence are also believed to have increased over the last several months. Additionally, economic distress could lead to parents making choices about sending only male children to school, perpetuating intergenerational inequalities with respect to the education of girls. Restoring existing health, nutrition, and social safety programmes for girls and women in their entirety must therefore be a top priority. As of July 2020, there were around 66 Lakh SHGs formed under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission with over 70 million women members. This network of SHGs should be strengthened through credit linkages and access to digital literacy and tools to create suitable economic opportunities for women. Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author.

From food coupons to a fund to provide laptops and tablets to the poor⁠— NITI Aayog’s public policy analyst has a wishlist too

Can you imagine that for one whole month way back in the early 1990s no stocks were traded in Mumbai? It did not matter whether you were a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Tata">Tata</a> or a<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=+Birla"> Birla</a> or an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ambani">Ambani</a> or a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Godrej">Godrej</a> or a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=wadia">Wadia</a> or for that matter the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Life+Insurance+Corporation+of+India">Life Insurance Corporation of India</a>. You just did not know the value of your stocks lying in your cupboard. 
 
Not so long ago the Indian government, listed stocks, company managements and investors of all hues were hostages to a closed coterie of brokers running our financial markets. It was THE private club to belong to, only that entry was restricted to a few. 
 
They decided when the markets would open, who would get paid for shares sold and who would get delivery for stock purchased. In short, their control was total. 
 
It wasn’t a gang of people who had white skins and ran our markets from overseas. They certainly weren’t aliens either but everyone accepted their rule without murmur. 
 
Since it is August 15th today this is just the right time to check out how hard investors fought for their freedom. 
 
So, read on: 
 
Today a transaction happens at the push of button on a mobile phone. Invisible shares are transferred to your demat account or money hits your bank in less than 3 days. But imagine if you did not get paid for 3 months for the shares you sold, or worse you did not get the stocks that you purchased for as long as 6 months? 
 
Life was tough for an investor until the late 1990s. The poor fellow needed more than just luck to make money. He needed a huge effort just to keep his legitimately purchased portfolio in his name. All around him were fake share certificates, many brokers who would refuse to pay on time, if at all, and often hand out bad deliveries when pressed to the wall. 
 
The poor investor did not even have a government mandated regulator until the mid-1990s. He had just no shoulder to cry on. 
 
The world of investing was unequal. It was cruel as well. 
 
Unlike today where the dominance of the National Stock Exchange is unquestioned, Indian markets were fragmented. From the early 1900s to the 1990s there were more than a dozen stock bourses across the country even though the dominant alpha male remained the Bombay Stock Exchange. A broking ticket on the BSE could set you back by a cool 4 crore rupees and it wasn’t available off the shelf even if you had the money lined up. 
 
Right up till the mid-1990s, a broker on the BSE was like GOD: in capital letters. The broker was the ultimate He-Man. He controlled the destinies of investors, listed companies and their managements. In him rested the power to push any stock to stratospheric levels or to bring it down into the basement in a matter of a few trading days. His wealth was unimaginable. 
 
An investor would pay at least 2 percent brokerage on either side to just get his transaction completed. Since there were no screens and trading was done in a small ring, invariably the fellow was billed the highest rate when he bought the stock and the lowest price when he sold it. The misery did not end here. 
 
The world of share certificates was physical. You got a handful of dirty, greasy and torn share certificates in exchange of money paid weeks, perhaps, months in advance. They had a transfer deed attached on top of them with a signature of the current holder. You stuck revenue stamps at the back of the transfer deed and sent it to the company’s address to get the shares transferred in your name. 
 
Most investors were God fearing. They had to be. 
 
It was entirely possible that the share certificates would come back as fake, or the company could sit on them for months together to create an artificial scarcity of the stock in the market. If you DON’T have delivery, you CAN’T sell, can you? 
 
In the meantime the price would be jacked up and you couldn’t do a thing to benefit from that lovely rise in the value of your holdings because you did not get the shares returned to you! They would come back once the price settled about 50 percent lower. 
 
And if you were really unlucky, the seller’s signature on the transfer deed wouldn’t match the one kept in the company’s records. 
 
There were scams galore. You think of it and it happened here in India. IPO scams, aqua-culture companies without ponds and Timber companies without forests merrily raised money and ran away. 
 
So, how did all this end? 
 
Well, there was a massive scam in 1991 led by a broker called Harshad Mehta. No one will EVER come close to Harshad’s charisma. No one. Harshad was much bigger than Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan all rolled together. Waves and waves of investors would come to greet him when he stepped out of the BSE. Harshad mesmerised everyone from the government, to investors, to companies, to managements and the retail investors. 
 
All came under his spell. 
 
Harshad misused a local financing tool to raise funds. When the scam broke out, the government came down heavily on the coterie of brokers. It wanted someone to be punished for the crime which saw many PSU bankers losing their jobs. 
 
And how did the brokers respond? They shut the BSE for one month. No trade was done. No scrip was quoted and no one knew what his or her portfolio was worth. 
 
A government held hostage struck back with equal ferocity. The Securities &amp; Exchange Board of India was set up. 
 
The crisis also led to the inception of the government backed National Stock Exchange which guaranteed the following: Trades would be settled on each Tuesday. Money would hit your bank on Wednesday or the shares would be delivered to you within a week. Your trade was guaranteed by the NSE. It would result in either payment of money or delivery of shares. 
 
Slowly but surely investors started to move their transactions to the NSE. The BSE lost its sheen. Later, the government mandated that all share certificates be dematerialised and physical deliveries be stopped. By early 2000 all deliveries became electronic and trading was screen based. 
 
The trading ring in the BSE fell silent. 
 
At the same time Badla financing was replaced by Futures and Options trading. Slowly the BSE followed the NSE in its settlement and payment procedures. But the battle was lost. All regional stock exchanges died a natural death. 
 
It’s a rare business case where a public sector company won handsomely against a privately run giant. And it all happened in India! 
 
Today, investors and traders enjoy unparalleled freedom on Indian stock exchanges as they are the best in the world when it comes to technology, speed and transactional quality. I hope this continues well into the future. 
 
But it was one heck of a battle that the small guy won and won handsomely! 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

#IndependenceDaySpl: How Indian
financial markets won their freedom from a
Broker-run coterie

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US Soccer Federation filed a motion to dismiss the USWNT's equal pay and gender discrimination lawsuit against its governing body and de facto employer.</li><li>Publicly available filings from the suit reveal that Carlos Cordeiro, the current president of US Soccer, has previously made comments that seem to support the women's claims of unequal treatment.</li><li>Back in 2018, Cordeiro told <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/club/united-states/660/blog/post/3345079/carlos-cordeiro-ussf-presidential-candidate-answers-espn-fc-questions">ESPN's Jeff Carlisle</a> "we clearly need to work toward equal pay for the national teams."</li><li>The year prior, Cordeiro found himself in hot water with then-US Soccer president Sunil Gulati after publicly stating "our female players have not been treated equally," according to court documents acquired by Business Insider.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>The US Women's National Team players are engaged in a very contentious and highly publicized legal battle with the US Soccer Federation - their employer - over "pay discrimination" due to "gender stereotyping."And recently-released documents suggest that support for the women's inequality claims came from an extremely unlikely source - Carlos Cordeiro, the current president of US Soccer.As president of the federation, Cordeiro sits at the helm of US Soccer and is the foremost representative of the organization acting as the defendant in the equal pay lawsuit. Presumably, Cordeiro's opinion is that of US Soccer and vice versa, but past statements appear to contradict this notion.When he was just running for president of the federation back in January of 2018, Cordeiro spoke with <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/club/united-states/660/blog/post/3345079/carlos-cordeiro-ussf-presidential-candidate-answers-espn-fc-questions">ESPN's Jeff Carlisle</a> about various topics pertinent to the organization. Unsurprisingly, equal pay for the USWNT and USMNT came up. More surprisingly, the Bombay, India, native's response seemingly supported the women's players' claims of discrimination."I'm a strong supporter of greater equality, diversity, and inclusion throughout US Soccer, and we clearly need to work toward equal pay for the national teams," Cordeiro told Carlisle. "I believe that where existing agreements are unfair, adjustments should be made immediately. To ensure equal pay going forward, we need to be open to new paradigms while recognizing the specific needs and desires of the WNT and MNT... Beyond player salaries, my platform calls for equal resources for our women's program, from the coaching staff to the training facilities to the travel accommodations."We don't need to wait for CBA negotiations to make these changes; we can start now," he added. "It's the right thing to do."One of the USWNT players' top attorneys, Jeffrey Kessler, quoted these comments in the motion for partial summary judgment he penned on behalf of the women. Additionally, Kessler included an even more damning statement from Cordeiro in which he appears to contradict US Soccer's line of defense."Our women's teams should be respected and valued as much as our men's teams, but our female players have not been treated equally," Cordeiro said, according to the lawsuit filings.That comment got Cordeiro - who had held various roles with US Soccer since 2007 - into quite a bit of hot water with former US Soccer president Sunil Gulati. In an email from December 2017, Gulati refers to his colleague's comments as "incredibly irresponsible" considering the federation had "a pending EEOC charge" at the time.Despite Cordeiro's apparent contradictions, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uswnt-lawsuit-players-suing-equal-pay-2020-2">USSF filed a motion for dismissal of the USWNT players' case</a> Thursday night, alleging that the men's and women's players "perform such different jobs" that there's no basis for a direct comparison between the two and thus no grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.The women, meanwhile, are seeking $67 million in back pay from the US Soccer Federation based on purported violations of Title VII and the Equal Pay Act. Their lawyers argue that the amount - split between the 38 EPA class members and 72 Title VII class members - is commensurate with the amount they would have been compensated had they been given the rate in the men's collective bargaining agreement with US Soccer.Should the presiding judge - Gary Klausner - reject both the USWNT players' motion for summary judgment and the USSF motion for dismissal, the lawsuit will likely move to trial. Though both parties requested a trial date after the 2020 Olympics, Klausner set the date for May 5, mere months before the games begin in Tokyo.<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uswnt-lawsuit-players-suing-equal-pay-2020-2">US Soccer says unequal pay for women is fair because 'men are bigger, stronger, faster,' as USWNT sues for $67 million</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/usmnt-on-uswnt-lawsuit-women-should-earn-triple-mens-pay-2020-2">US Men's National Team players broke their silence on equal pay and gender discrimination, calling for the women's team to earn 'triple' the men's pay</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/serena-williams-daughter-uswnt-inspired-gender-inequality-fight-2020-2">Serena Williams credits her daughter and the USWNT for inspiring her renewed efforts to combat gender inequality in sports: 'They encourage me to want to continue to fight'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uswnt-olympic-roster-cuts-stars-left-off-team-tokyo-2020-2020-2">The USWNT has an embarrassment of riches, and it could be a problem heading into the 2020 Olympics</a></li></ul><p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"> <a title="View Carlos Cordeiro Sunil Gulati Email on Scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/document/448288774/Carlos-Cordeiro-Sunil-Gulati-Email#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;">Carlos Cordeiro Sunil Gulati Email</a> by <a title="View Meredith Cash's profile on Scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/user/71398685/Meredith-Cash#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;">Meredith Cash</a> on Scribd

President of US Soccer once admitted USWNT had 'not been treated equally' despite arguing for dismissal of their gender discrimination lawsuit

AP Photo/Esteban FelixHolding signs that read in Spanish, from left, "We pay Cops Salaries and subway fare, and here they are against us," "Save on your ticket," and "The people united will never be defeated," students block the turnstiles to the subway protesting against the rising cost of subway and bus fare, in Santiago, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)<ul class="summary-list"><li>Zach Silk is the president of Civic Ventures and a recurring cohost on the "Pitchfork Economics" podcast.</li><li>He says that Chile represents "the tip of the proverbial spear in the fight against income inequality." The protests there have captured the attention of elites through economic erosion and show that people will lash out when they realize they're playing a rigged game.</li><li>For more on this topic, listen to the latest episode of "<a href="http://pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/the-pitchforks-are-here-with-cesar-hidalgo/">Pitchfork Economics</a>."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>It's been more than five years since Civic Ventures founder Nick Hanauer <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014">made a dire prediction about global economic inequality in Politico Magazine</a>. The piece was titled "The Pitchforks Are Coming ... for Us Plutocrats," and in it Hanauer predicted that after four decades of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer, it was only a matter of time before the people rose up in anger."You show me a highly unequal society," Hanauer wrote, "and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It's not if, it's when."He was right: The pitchforks are here. If you have any doubt as to what <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-11-25/iran-chile-hong-kong-protests-around-the-world">this kind of inequality-fueled uprising might look like, Melissa Etehad described it in the Los Angeles Times last month</a>: "From Chile to Sudan, Lebanon to Colombia, mounting anger and frustration over rising economic and social inequality, political corruption, and disillusionment with democratically elected and authoritarian governments have led to a wide array of mass protests in recent months."Each of these protests started over a seemingly modest matter. Chile's protest began with a few dozen high school girls demonstrating against a small subway fare price hike. A tiny tax on calls to and from the popular messaging app WhatsApp kicked off nationwide turmoil in Lebanon. Iran and Ecuador saw unrest rise over slashed fuel subsidies. In Sudan, it was a one-two punch of fuel and bread subsidy reductions that inspired people to take to the streets. An uptick in the price of onions inspired mass action in India. These protests all began in urban areas and spread like wildfire. People were injured, and even killed, in clashes with law enforcement.But it's clear now that these uprisings aren't just about a few dimes here and there. They're about an ever-growing majority of the global populace that has become fed up with cost of living increases, low wages, the erosion of public trusts like health insurance and pensions, and a corrupt justice system that protects the wealthiest citizens from the consequences of their actions while penalizing the poorest citizens for smaller and smaller infractions. In Chile, a relatively small 3.75% increase in subway fare was simply the spark that started the fire.This week on our podcast "Pitchfork Economics," Nick Hanauer and Civic Ventures Fellow Paul Constant interview physicist César Hidalgo about the protests in Chile and what they might mean for the rest of the world. Chile represents the tip of the proverbial spear in the fight against income inequality. It's nearly 65% more unequal than the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/">OECD</a> average. Perhaps that's why the protests have been so much more consequential than in other nations: At last count, some 26 people have died, with untold thousands injured since the first actions on October 18. The chaos has caused over a billion and a half dollars in property damage, and battles with law enforcement have become commonplace.These protests have inspired uncertainty in Chile's economy, leading the nation's finance minister to lower the annual economic growth for 2019 from 2% to 1.4% and lower next year's forecast by over a full percentage point. In response, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/03/chile-announces-5point5-billion-economic-recovery-plan.html">Chilean leaders are rolling out a five-and-a-half billion-dollar recovery plan</a> to keep the economy from collapsing. The people, in other words, have captured the attention of the elites who run the nation by threatening them in the only language they understand: money.Courtesy of Zach SilkZach Silk.And they've been heard. This coming April, Chile will hold a referendum to decide the fate of the nation's constitution, which was written under a dictatorship. Voters will decide if they approve of launching a new constitution. If so, they'll also decide whether the current government should be in charge of writing the new foundational document or not.Uncertain times always exact an unthinkable toll from a nation. But uncertainty also brings with it an opportunity to remake things for the better. Hidalgo is helping to shape the discussion as Chile moves forward to a potential new constitution. He's working to develop an online platform called <a href="https://chilecracia.org/">Chilecracia</a>, a kind of Tinder for government on which protesters can rank the policies that mean most to them. The mobile app clearly met a demand with Chileans: Within 10 days of launch, Chilecracia had logged more than seven million votes for and against proposed policies. "We found that the list [of policies] that people produced made sense very quickly," Hidalgo says on Pitchfork Economics. Within the first week of policy selection, voters prioritized pension reform, for instance - increasing the minimum pension to at least match the nation's minimum wage. Many of the other policies selected "were punitive toward the rich," according to Hidalgo. Chileans want to see prison sentences for wealthy people who commit tax fraud, price fixing, and other forms of corruption. In the end, Chilecracia seems to confirm this global unrest comes down to a very simple principle: People can tell when they're playing a game that's been rigged in someone else's favor. And if they lose too many times, they're likely to lash out in anger.These are uncertain times, and no nation is safe from these kinds of populist uprisings. It's impossible to predict exactly which straw will break the proverbial camel's back, but it's obvious that the breaking point is nearer than it's ever been in modern times. With all this talk of protests and pitchforks, it's important to remember that there's plenty of good news. Thinkers like Hidalgo are creating new technological ways for citizens to be heard in a decentralized, inclusive manner. People around the world are more aware than ever of the problem of income inequality, and demanding bold new ways to address it. Make no mistake: This is a moment of global crisis. But we also live in a historically unique moment, one in which the nearly instantaneous communication and transmission of ideas is open to everyone. Unlike the revolutions of the past, people today have the opportunity to construct a new, and more just, system without destroying everything that came before. For those of us who believe in the inherent decency and inclusive tendencies of human beings, these protests represent an opportunity to address the mistakes of the past and forge a new path forward with better outcomes for everyone - not just those at the top.This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s). <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-jay-z-and-diddy-made-millions-off-of-cheap-alcohol-zack-omalley-greenburg-2018-3">How Jay-Z and Diddy used their fame to make millions off of 'cheap grapes'</a></h3>

Protests in Chile around subway fare price hikes are just another example of how economic inequality has become a global crisis. But there may be an opportunity for a more just system.

Come February, the citizens of India wait for newspapers with bated breath. The young men and <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> look for cool new places that have parties going on, children prepare for exams ahead and the others would rather see what the budget discussion would throw up to them. Will they be left with more money in hand? Will the car prices go up? Will the housing loan interest rates come down? Can they invest more? How to save taxes? And so on… 

	The current fiscal year’s budget discussion is due to begin soon and Indians will know how their new government will help them with more disposable income, and also create assets for future.
 

	<keyword id="6358360" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="gender">Gender</keyword> bender?
 In real sense, though the budget doesn’t have a focal point such as one for men, and women; there surely is a perspective that can be gender oriented. The <keyword id="6360189" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Union-Budget">union budget</keyword> 2015 -16 is expected to dole out some pleasant surprises for middle class families, aiding more margin in <keyword id="6354751" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Income-Tax">income tax</keyword> limit for women as well. <keyword id="227781" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="home-maker">Home maker</keyword>s, who constitute a huge section of the great Indian middle class, have already voiced out their demand. After all, how can we forget the fact that <keyword id="22195" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Inflation">inflation</keyword> hits the home budget much more than anything else? A slight decrease in LPG rates can have a home maker heave a sigh of relief, for she will be left with additional amount of disposable which can then be invested/spent on something that’s been a dire need of the family. 

	They also want an increase in the limit of taxable income, so that the additional money gets routed for education of children or a deposit which can earn more money than sitting idle as cash.
 

	This, in some manner, is what the men wish for too equivocally. Salaried class, whether men or women, want the income tax limit raised to Rs 3 lakh, from the current Rs 2.5 lakh. This apart, they would also like some deduction for housing loans up to Rs 5 lakh, which can help them save more and perhaps rotate as an investment in markets, or savings. As per a survey, more than 92% respondents wanted the taxable income cap to be raised by Rs 50,000 in addition to the existing limit. So, this really is the voice of India.
 

	Women’s safety
 

	The rising number of crimes against women have been petrifying to say the least. So, would we factor in, setting aside money to create safe environment for women as government’s contribution towards better society building?
 

	In some ways, it would be counted as a gender-centric measure since this would not only help today’s women, but also set a trend in some ways for all the future generations too by way of showing the road ahead.
 

	Less is more
 

	Though governments may often have a perspective that favours women more than men when it comes to economic measures, the demonstration is often less compared to the overall picture. Generic measures that would benefit both men and women, usually with a male-favouring perspective, forces women to fight the battle on grounds that are unequal. For instance, when housing loan interest rate is the same for both men and women, it becomes difficult for women with lower income brackets to afford it. Single women, single mothers and even those women who wear the pants in their marriage find it a tad difficult to afford the same rate of interest as a working man with relatively less domestic responsibilities would have done.
 

	So, this is when the common ground becomes an ‘uncommon’ and ‘unequal’ ground.
 

	Experts Speak
 

	Aaron Kipnis (Ph.D) working as a Clinical Psychologist, and author of many books such as ‘The Midas Complex: How Money Drives Us Crazy and What We Can Do About It’, ‘Angry Young Men’, ‘Knights Without Armor’ and ‘What Women and Men Really Want’ has been working on the topic of gender sensitivity and resource allocations by the state.
 

	According to him, gender sensitivity in resource allocations is an essential trend toward greater equity and fairness in public policy. Women and men are not the same in every way and conscious efforts need to be made to assure that no one is excluded from opportunity by virtue of their gender. This aspect seems to be the same world over, including India where being a woman is both a strength and vulnerability at the hands of state and agencies.
 

	“Most gender budgeting initiatives have focused largely on better inclusion of females. This is a good thing in arenas where females have been excluded from resources and opportunities due to gender role bias. Gender sensitivities, however, should swing both ways” he says.

	While lack of education and opportunities, he notes, is turning men in some kind of antisocial beings, the same condition applied to women is turning them in to even more hardworking persons. Only, the level of exploitation among women rises with lowered access to state, and opportunities. But, men lose track completely turning into some kind of challenges for the society.
 

	(Image: Reuters)

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