New Delhi, Jan 27 () Bank unions have threatened to go on a two-day nationwide strike from January 31 to press for early wage revision.
 The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of the nine bank unions including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).
 The meeting before Chief Labour Commissioner on Monday remain inconclusive so unions did not take back strike notice, AIBOC president Sunil Kumar said.
 The wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.
 In absence of no clear commitment from the Indian Banks' Association on demand from unions, the strike call stands, said AIBEA general secretary C H Venkatachalam in a statement.
 "IBA's rigid approach has left us with no option than to go on strike. We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA," he said.
 Many banks including SBI have informed customers that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the proposed two-day nationwide strike beginning January 31.
 If proposed strike materialises, it will coincide with beginning of the Budget session and presentation of Budget 2020-21.
 UFBU in circular alleged rigid approach of the Indian Banks' Association on demands for a fair wage revision settlement.
 "In this background, the meeting of UFBU held at Mumbai on January 13 came to the unanimous and inescapable conclusion that intensified agitational actions have to be resorted to press our demands for reasonable resolution and satisfactory settlement," it said.
 Unions are demanding wage revision settlement at 20 per cent hike on pay slip components with adequate loading.
 In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, the employees got a 15 per cent hike.
 Earlier this month, a section of bank employees had gone on a day-long strike on January 8 in support of 10 major trade unions' protest call against the government's "anti-people" policies. DP MKJ

Employees of PSU banks threaten to go on two-day strike from Jan 31

New Delhi, Jan 30 () Bank unions have decided to go on a two-day nationwide strike from Friday as talks with management of public sector lenders on wage revision have failed to reach a consensus.
 Many banks, including SBI, have informed customers that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the strike.
 The strike will coincide with the beginning of the Budget session of parliament and presentation of union Budget 2020-21.
 The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).
 Earlier this week, a meeting with the Chief Labour Commissioner remained inconclusive, AIBOC President Sunil Kumar said.
 The wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.
 "Today's talks with Indian Banks' Association (IBA) failed on demand from unions, so strike call stands," AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
 IBA's rigid approach has left unions with no option than to go on strike, Vekatachalam said, adding, "We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA."
 In a circular, UFBU accused the IBA of a rigid approach towards demands for a fair wage revision settlement.
 A meeting of UFBU held at Mumbai on January 13 came to the unanimous conclusion that intensified agitational actions have to be taken to press our demands, NOBW Vice President Ashwini Rana said.
 During the recent period, prices have gone up steeply and the workload on the banking workforce has also gone up enormously, UFBU said, adding that bank staffers expect a fair and reasonable hike in wages in the current settlement.
 Unions are demanding 20 per cent hike on pay slip components with adequate loading.
 In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, the employees got a hike of 15 per cent.
 A section of bank employees had gone on a day-long strike on January 8 in support of 10 major trade unions' protest call against the government's "anti-people" policies. DP ABM

Employees of PSU banks to go on two-day strike from Friday

DMK is winning in 133 constituencies in Tamil Nadu — here’s a full list of winners

Mumbai, Jan 31 () Bank employee unions went on a two-day strike on Friday to press for wage revision and other demands, hitting services like cash deposits, withdrawals and cheque clearances across the country.
 All India Bank Employees' Association claimed that around 31 lakh cheques amounting to Rs 23,000 crore remained uncleared across the country on the first day of the strike. 
 Various bank branches were closed in many parts of the country affecting services like cash deposit, withdrawal, cheque clearances, instrument issuance and loan disbursement. 
 ATMs of many banks across major parts of the country went dry, causing trouble to people on the last day of the month. 
 "In the clearing grids in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, about 31 lakh cheques worth about Rs 23,000 crore could not be cleared due to the strike," All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
 Close to 10 lakh bank employees and officers of various public sector banks, some old generation private banks and a few foreign banks are on a two-day strike, starting Friday, after the negotiation on wage revision under 11th bipartite settlement failed, unions said. 
 However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were operational.
 On Saturday, bank branches will continue to remain closed, adding to woes of the public on the salary day.
 With this strike, banks would be closed for three days including Sunday. Banks will open only on Monday, February 3. 
 The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).
 UFBU decided to go on strike after its discussion with Indian Banks Association (IBA) on wage revision failed in the recent round of negotiations held on Thursday.
 During discussions, the IBA on Thursday improved their offer to 12.5 per cent, but this was not acceptable, the unions said. 
 "The bank managements and IBA did not come forward to settle the demands with a reasonable increase in salary looking to inflation and heavy workload on the employees," UFBU said.
 However, the IBA in a statement said despite the revised offer of up to 19 per cent hike, including performance linked incentive, made by it during the meeting on Thursday, the unions decided to go ahead with the all-India bank strike.
 Wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.
 In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, employees got a hike of 15 per cent.
IBA also rejected the unions demand for five-day banking saying, "It is known to all that the economy of the country is going through testing times. Banks being the principal players in economic development, cannot afford to provide lesser number of working days for banking activities."
 The banking lobby said the country already has one of the highest numbers of public holidays and adding 26 more holidays would create more problems for the public.
 "IBA is claiming five-day banking is not possible due to the tough economic situation in the country. Then how RBI, Department of Financial Services (DFS), NCLT, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and other central and state departments are working for five days in a week? Are these institutions not worried about the economic slowdown?" asked a section of agitating bankers. HV MR
MR

Bank employees unions go on 2-day strike; troubles likely on salary day

Bank employees are facing major issues while dealing with customers lining outside banks to withdraw and deposit cash. Bankers are being locked up, harassed and even beaten up by irritated public for not providing cash. 
 In this regard, bankers want branches to be shut until the Reserve Bank of India (<keyword id="30067" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="RBI">RBI</keyword>) assures sufficient supply of currency notes. 
 
"RBI should take a view to stop banking operations for 15 days till adequate money is available. Let RBI close the banks till money comes. 
This is an unplanned move - everyone supports removal of black money - but this won't remove black money and is harassing ordinary people and bank employees,” CH Venkatachalam, chief of the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), told ET. 
 Since <keyword id="3315394" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="demonetisation">demonetisation</keyword>, people are facing acute <keyword id="6380684" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cash-Crunch">cash crunch</keyword> and lining up outside ATMs and banks for cash. When the supply dries up, they resort to unfair means. 
 
Last week, a Punjab National Bank branch in Jamshedpur was ransacked as angry customers smashed glasses and injured a lady staffer. Likewise, in Dhanbad too, a bank branch was ransacked after the manager declared it had run out of cash. 
 
"There has been no action to our appeals to the finance minister, RBI and IBA. How can we manage when there is such scarcity of money in branches?” asked Venkatachalam. 
 
"We can't blame the people - how will they manage without cash? Hardly any ATMs are operating - it's complete chaos,” he told ET. 
 
The AIBEA wrote to the finance minister on December 2, raising the issue of the acute cash shortage. "While RBI is repeatedly making public statements that adequate cash is being supplied to banks, the reality is otherwise,” it said in the letter, a copy of which is with ET. "These statements are making the public to feel that RBI is supplying cash to banks and bank staff are deliberately not extending payments.”

Harassed bankers don’t want to work until RBI supplies enough cash

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>For the second year in a row, the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in a tie, as 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam and 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar both got to take home a trophy.The two were crowned co-champions after the list of 25 final round words was exhausted. The eighth graders went head-to-head for 10 rounds before nailing their final words, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/national-spelling-bee-ends-in-tie-for-2nd-year-in-a-row-2015-5">according to the Associated Press</a>.Shivashankar's final word was "scherenschnitte," a German word meaning the art of paper cutting design. Other words she spelled in the head-to-head round include zimocca, Bruxellois, and myrmotherine.Going last, Venkatachalam spelled the word "nunatak" - which is derived from Inuit and means a hill completely surrounded, but not covered, by glacial ice. He had previously tackled words such as paroemiology, nixtamal, and pyrrhuloxia in the championship round. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/11-smartest-boarding-schools-america-sat-scores-education-2015-4">Here are the 11 smartest boarding schools in America</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="I5Z2FkdDrir3YYbsrx4l-yIeZosYXrxw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Here were the 2 winning words in this year's National Spelling Bee

AP Photo/Andrew HarnikVanya Shivashankar, left, 13, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, hold up the championship trophy as co-champions after winning the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee.Can you spell "sauerkraut" without looking? How about "Chihuahua," or perhaps "pneumonia?"If spelling those words trips you up, don't worry - you're not alone.Google published a graphic Tuesday of "America's most misspelled words," a state-by-state look at the most common word preceded in Google searches by the phrase "how to spell.""Pneumonia," and its legendary silent "p," topped the chart in three different states: Alabama, Maine, and Washington. "Beautiful" claimed even more victims, leading the way in California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York.The graphic coincides with the 90th edition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which kicks off Tuesday night. In that event, young spellers from around the country will tackle considerably harder words, such as "juamave," "tetradrachm," and "Gesellschaft," all of which made appearances in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T2jDSAHr64">final rounds</a> of last year's competition.Americans don't seem to be googling those terms in high volume, but they are turning to the internet for help on simpler words - "tomorrow," "maintenance," and "schedule," for example.Check out the graphic below:<a class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/592dc902b74af4ce008b535e-960/dbggllfv0aagkdq.jpg"></a>Google <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ddp-yoga-diamond-dallas-pages-fitness-wwe-2017-5">We took an intense yoga lesson from a WWE legend</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Here's the hardest word to spell in each state, according to Google

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"> Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunchChamath Palihapitiya</div></div></div><ul><li>Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Silicon Valley venture firm Social Capital, let go more than six members of his staff, including four partners, on Thursday. </li><li>According to sources, the layoffs occurred shortly after a call with the firm's limited partners.</li><li>Despite a rift in the firm that resulted in the departures of many of the firm's founding members beginning last year, sources said that the layoffs took members of the firm by surprise. </li></ul>On the same day that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chamath-palihapitiya-interviewed-by-business-insider-2016-7">Chamath Palihapitiya </a>, the founder of Silicon Valley venture firm Social Capital, published a <a href="https://medium.com/@chamath/the-reports-of-our-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated-11bcc80ee4ab">post to Medium insisting that the firm was not in dire straits</a>, he let multiple members of his staff go, according to sources familiar with the matter.Among the people who multiple sources confirmed were let go are partner Adam Nelson, partner Ashley Carroll, senior associate of growth Kiel Zsitvay, head of communications Kira McCroden, partner Kristin Baker Spohn, and partner Sandhya Venkatachalam.Still more members of the firm are said to be laid off, and Business Insider is reaching out to confirm the exact number of people who were let go. A spokesperson for Social Capital declined to comment on the layoffs.According to people familiar with the matter, the layoffs took place as a part of what Palihapitiya described as his desire to turn Social Capital into a technology holding company in lieu of a traditional venture fund. Indeed, <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/social-capital-founder-gives-his-account-of-turmoil-at-firm">in an interview with The Information on Thursday</a>, Palihapitiya noted that the new incarnation of Social Capital would have a smaller headcount of about 40 people, compared to 70 at its peak.Still, the layoffs took the firm's members by surprise, multiple sources told Business Insider. Palihapitiya abruptly gave several people their walking papers immediately after a conference call with the firm's limited partners advisory committee."He told them that there was a team there, that everything was totally fine. And then, after that he let everybody go," one source told Business Insider. The sequence of events is all the stranger in the context of <a href="https://www.axios.com/social-capital-collapse-0c3257ab-b599-4047-b5cc-5d465419b373.html">an Axios report on Friday</a> which quoted a source describing Palihapitiya as repeatedly dodging tough questions about the future of the firm and about who was managing the investors' money. The firm has already experienced a talent exodus leading up to Thursday's change, with multiple departures over the course of the preceding year.As <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-capital-finger-pointing-chamath-palihapityia-limited-partners-2018-9">Business Insider previously reported</a>, Palihapitiya's involvement in the firm has been inconsistent.<h3>Read more about Social Capital's meltdown:</h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-capital-finger-pointing-chamath-palihapityia-limited-partners-2018-9">'Shame on the LPs': Insiders say the unraveling of Silicon Valley's hottest VC firm, Social Capital, could have been avoided</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tribe-capital-new-vc-firm-from-social-capital-partners-2018-7">We have new details about the VC firm being started by the Social Capital defectors - including its official name</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-space-tourism-2018-9">How SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan on taking you to space</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

6 members of Social Capital, including 4 partners, were let go right after Chamath Palihapitiya got off the phone with a committee representing his investors

Around 10 lakh <keyword id="6477319" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bank-Employees">bank employees</keyword>, belonging to public and private sectors, have decided to observe a day-long strike on July 29, as a protest against the "anti-people" banking reform policies that the centre has announced. 
 
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which consists of nine trade unions across the country, have around 10 lakh bank employees and officers, all of which would be taking part in the strike. 
 
The employees have several demands, including not to privatise public sector banks or to increase private capital in such banks, while also protesting against Foreign Direct Investment in the banking sector. 
 Other than this, the unions are also opposing move to privatise regional rural banks, co-operative banks, consolidate and merging banks among others, said All India Bank Employees Association (<keyword id="327672" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="AIBEA">AIBEA</keyword>) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam. 
 
<a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/multimedia/dynamic/02414/BL23_04_BANK_2414766f.jpg">Image source </a>

10 Lakh bank employees to go on strike on 29th July, protesting against unfriendly reforms

Tamil Nadu state assembly election 2021: Winning candidates across all constituencies

DMK is poised to make a comeback in Tamil Nadu after a decade with the MK-Stalin led alliance in the lead

Post demonetisation, the whole nation has understood that all you need to survive is your smartphone. You can literally buy candies and also transfer money with your smartphones and it’s also timesaving. 
 
"In the near term, wallets will do well as they are more popular,” Niren Shah, MD of Norwest Venture Partners, told ET. 
 So far, people have grabbed whatever is easily available to pay for coffee, bills, movie tickets, cab rides and just about anything, and here, m-wallet <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword> has scored over others. 
 
Users comfortable with mobile wallets today could shift to an easier digital platform. 
 "Frictionless payments are the future,” R Venkatachalam, managing director for India &amp; <keyword id="52011" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="South-Asia">South Asia</keyword> at FIS Global, a global provider of financial services technology. That is, any payment mechanism which is effortless, without requiring users to remember too many passwords, PINs etc, perhaps biometrics-enabled, told ET. 
 
There's more to providing a smooth digital payment experience than aspects such as security and ability to attract customers who are used to transacting in cash and are reluctant to change. 
 
"Three things are important for any payment option - access, interoperability and financial sustainability of the operator,” said Anant Bhagwati, partner, Bain &amp; Company. 
 People are using mobile wallets as they offer the least hurdles to complete a payment. Paytm alone has 173 million users but they have limitations. They are not interoperable and transferring money requires sender and receiver to have the same company's account - it's Paytm to Paytm, <keyword id="143842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mobikwik">MobiKwik</keyword> to MobiKwik and <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">Freecharge</keyword> to Freecharge. 
 
And furthermore, the money transferred to a wallet does not earn interest. Small merchants such as owners of corner shops and neighbourhood kirana stores can't draw more than Rs 25,000 a month from a digital wallet, which affects cash flow. Even the founders of some mobile wallet companies are not so optimistic about their future if challenges like interoperability persist. 
 "That's why we don't call it a Paytm wallet - it's a Paytm account that people have with us,” <keyword id="198636" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vijay-Shekhar-Sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma</keyword>, founder of Paytm, told ET. 
 The account could be a digital wallet, <keyword id="6358921" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="UPI">UPI</keyword> or anything else that is permitted. 
 
"The fight is about owning consumers and merchants - protocols can change,”, Sharma said. 
 
At present, wallet companies are not allowed to enable users to access UPI, which enables funds to be transferred from one bank account to another. By the end of 2017, it's quite possible that people could be ditching their digital wallets and opting for UPI or even voice commands to digital avatars to complete payments. 
 
"Wallets need to mature, evolve into something else and be interoperable to be relevant,” Bipin Preet Singh, founder of MobiKwik, a wallet company with 45 million users, told ET. 
 
In India, 27% of the more than 1 billion mobile phone users have smartphones - compared with 70% in China - and the rest use feature phones. Affordability, among other factors, has hindered the faster adoption of smartphones. The digital payment option for feature phones is USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which transmits data over GSM networks and is popular in Kenya, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Zimbabwe with their respective services, mPesa, bKash, Wing and EcoCash. 
 
Plastic Lacks Reach; UPI Fills Void If mobile wallets face multiple headwinds, one of the oldest cashless options - credit and debit cards - have limited reach. About 800 million people carry plastic (mostly debit cards, less than 10% are credit cards) and they are generally used to withdraw cash from ATMs. 
 
Today, digital wallets are popular. Tomorrow, direct payment systems will score over intermediaries such as mobile wallet and plastic money companies.

Mobile wallets will lose their popularity with time, here’s why

The Reserve bank of India has slashed the repo rates by 25 basis points. And no doubt that banks have followed suit. But can we expect our <keyword id="6388045" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="emis">EMIs</keyword> to come down in real sense, so much so that our month-end savings see a considerable increase? 
	 “No. The base rate cuts by the banks are just for the sake of it. They will not reduce the rate of interest substantially since banks have their own economics,” said <keyword id="2603828" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="CH-Venkatchalam">CH Venkatchalam</keyword>, general secretary of All India Bank Employee Association. 
	 
	He added that if the banks reduce the rate of interest on loans by a considerable basis points, it will severely impact the fundamentals of the banks. “If they reduce the interest rates on credit, it will be at the cost interest offered on deposits to the consumers,” explained Venkatchalam. 
	 Naveen Kukreja, managing director of <keyword id="2881890" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paisa-Bazaar">Paisa Bazaar</keyword>, an online credit comparison website and subsidiary of Policy Bazaar, too shared a similar sentiment. He said that the banks are expected to slash rates most by 15 basis points to 20 basis points. “ In our discussions with the banks, we came to know most major banks will not cut rates immediately and will wait to see how things pan out in the future,” noted Kukreja. 
	 
	Venkatachalam attributed the reluctance to cut interest rates to the weak financials of the banks in the past few years. It should be noted that in the last few years, the provisions for Non Performing Assets (NPAs) have been consistently increasing. Most banks have converted their NPAs into Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDRs) in a bid to hide their rising numbers of NPAs. 
	 However, banks such as Allahabad Bank and the country’s largest state-run bank State Bank of India have cut their interest rates by 30 bps and 15 bps respectively. “If <keyword id="13222" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SBI">SBI</keyword> and <keyword id="6357149" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="HDFC-bank">HDFC bank</keyword> slash rates, other banks will also emulate because of competition. Public sector banks are expected to cut rates while we will have to watch out for any such signal from private sector banks,” explained Kukreja. 
	 
	Interestingly, it seems difficult for the apex bank to slash rates in the future after it downgraded monsoon forecast. It should be noted that in recent times, the crude oil prices to have gone up. While untimely monsoon have damaged crop production across the country, El Nino effect on the monsoon this year could result in retail prices of food commodities to spike considerably, which in turn could result in inflation surging.

Spoiler Alert: Know why RBI’s repo rate cut will not impact your home,
auto loan EMIs

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_Gala_du_Disque_Populaire_1974_-_Barry_White_927-0098.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>Soul legend Barry White</div>At least in an abstract sense, many people associate a deep voice with authority, power, and seriousness. Exactly the things one would expect or hope for in a CEO.
<a href="http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(13)00023-8/abstract">A new study</a>, "Voice <keyword id="78716" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pitch">Pitch</keyword> Predicts Labor Market Success among Male Chief Executive Officers" from William J. Mayew and Mohan Venkatachalam of Duke University, and Christopher Parsons of UC San Diego, takes a look at the voice pitches of <keyword id="6407546" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="CEOs">CEOs</keyword> of large public companies, and found this to be true.
A CEO's voice that becomes lower by a <a href="http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(13)00023-8/abstract">1% decrease in the pitch</a> correlates with $30 million more in assets for the company they manage, and a $19,000 increase in their salary. 
Those on the <a href="http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(13)00023-8/abstract">deepest end of the voice scale</a> run companies that have $440 million more in assets and earn some $187,000 more. Deeper-voiced CEOs were also found to stay at their jobs longer. 
The average CEO in the study comes in at 125.5 Hz, which is about average for an adult male. By way of comparison, James Earl Jones, famously the voice of Darth Vader, has a voice pitched at around 85 Hz.
The effect is more pronounced when a CEO has more decision-making power or discretion, and was separate from experience, education, and age.
It's easy to be skeptical about the idea. But it turns out there's a fundamental biological advantage to having a deep voice. Women find deep-voiced men <a href="http://www.putslab.psu.edu/pdfs/puts_07_voice_dom.pdf">more attractive</a>, they <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/6/682.full">father more children</a>, and they're viewed as more socially and physically dominant.
There's not much you can do to change the natural pitch of your voice, but it might be worth curbing a tendency to speak higher or faster when excited, and try to speak slower and lower.

Male CEOs With Deeper Voices Run Bigger Companies And Make More Money

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scrippsbee/18029304410/">Via Flickr</a>Vanya Shivashankar (l) and Gokul Venkatachalam (r)</div></div></div>Legacies are a special phenomenon in major competitions.Murderers' Row - the New York Yankees squad of the 1920s - owned baseball for an entire decade. The Chicago Bulls ruled the 1990s. And for <a href="http://spellingbee.com/champions-and-their-winning-words">the last 17 years</a>, Indian-American children have dominated the Scripps National Spelling Bee.The last 10 winners were Indian-American, with the last two years featuring back-to-back co-champions, simply because neither speller committed an error.But, unlike the reign of the Yankees and the Bulls, both of which can be explained by the chemistry of each team, there is no one factor that explains how Indian kids have accomplished their feat.So what's going on?How has an ethnicity that makes up <a href="http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk">less than 1% of the US population</a> saturated the modern spelling bee's win column?<h2>The underground circuit</h2>Shalini Shankar, head of the Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University, <a href="http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/shankar.html">has been trying to solve this mystery</a> for the last three years. She's even writing a book on the topic: "Spellebrity: Inside the Selfie Generation's World of Competitive Spelling."Shankar's research suggests the trend of Indian winners involves the combination of a minor-league spelling circuit, strong community involvement, an Indian-American love of so-called "brain sports," and, as of late, the growing rigor of the National Spelling Bee itself, which inspires more kids to take up the hobby.While the trend has lasted the better part of two decades, it may have its roots slightly further back.In 1989, an India-based non-profit called the <a href="http://www.northsouth.org/public/uscontests/finals/nationalfinals.aspx">North South Foundation</a> set up shop in Illinois. Among <a href="http://www.northsouth.org/public/aboutus/aboutus.aspx">its goals</a>: "Promote excellence in human endeavor by organizing Educational Contests for the kids in USA," primarily among the South-Asian community. Since 1993, the NSF has been hosting contests of its own, including national spelling bees.But unlike the public school system, which normally begins holding spelling bees once kids hit third grade, the NSF lets kids enter as early as first grade. It also hosts year-round competitions, unlike Scripps, which only has a national competition each May.Nearly all Indian contestants who compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee also compete in the NSF bees, honing their skills on the side as they prepare for the lead up to May's competition.According to Shankar, that gap of two to three years of continuous training translates into NSF 9-year-olds having thousands more words under their belt, not to mention the practice of spelling in a high-pressure environment."They have that exposure," Shankar says of the kids competing in the NSF. "They are becoming habituated to what it means to be in this sort of competition."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Cliff OwenScripps National Spelling Bee co-champion Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kan., is embraced by her father Merl Shivashankar, right, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2015.</div></div></div><h2>1,000 words an hour</h2>Shankar's research also points to the overwhelming amount of support Indian kids get from their families and surrounding community to participate in competitive spelling.Oftentimes, when a student ages out of eligibility for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, their family will pass the study materials onto another family. The parents of the older child may even step in to help with studying directly, Shankar says.In visiting more than a dozen families, she says she's noticed that Indian kids will spend time studying not just ordinary dictionaries, but dictionaries made up solely of prefixes and suffixes. Leading up to the Scripps finals, it isn't uncommon for a child to blaze through 1,000 words an hour, Shankar says.And contrary to popular belief, parents aren't barking orders to make all this happen."You can't push your kid to win a national spelling bee," she says. "You just can't."Instead, the spellers tend to see their long study hours on par with fielding ground balls or shooting free throws. It's hard work, but it's fun and in the pursuit of something much larger. "As several parents explained to me, spelling bees are the 'brain sports' equivalent of travel soccer or Little League," Shankar <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/why-are-indian-americans-winning-national-spelling-bee-340130">wrote in an op-ed for Newsweek</a> last year.<h2>Keeping the legacy alive</h2>Decades-long trends don't go unnoticed.Beginning with the 2002 documentary "Spellbound," which showed Nupur Lala winning the 1999 Bee, Indian-American families have entered into something of a feedback loop in pursuing spelling stardom. According to Shankar, the more visibility Indian spellers get, the more interest that gets generated in the community, which produces more winners."It just kind of clicked together," Shankar says.Though she can't prove the theory, all the right factors seemed to have coalesced in the early 2000s: That's when "Spellbound" broke onto the scene, and also when 6- and 7-year-olds in the 1993 NSF bee (the first one) would have been turning 12, 13, and 14 - the prime age for spelling bee winners.In a weird stroke of luck, in other words, the NSF planted a seed in 1993 that perfectly blossomed in time for a game-changing documentary. Suddenly, a niche activity that took place inside one community had become a national phenomenon, and an entire support network had already been set up to help these new spellers succeed for the next decade and a half."A variety of different factors that were perhaps never intended to all align, aligned," Shankar says. "And this is what came out of it." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tip-sleep-easier-science-study-hack-temperature-2016-2">This one tip has helped hundreds get a better night's sleep</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="w0Zmw5MTE6YI2EVyyPf_ALHAEoMrvx7w" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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