1)Revision of Civil Services Examination :-

The Union Public Service Commission has so far constituted following committees for review of different aspects of Civil Services Examination including the language issues:-

i) Kothari Committee

ii) Satish Chandra Committee

iii) Y.K. Alagh Committee

iv) Anandakrishnan Committee

v) Bhattacharya Committee S.K. Khanna Committee

vii) Nigavekar Committee

viii) Purushottam Agarwal Committee.

ix) Baswan Committee.

Except for the Baswan Committee, which is yet to submit its report, all other Committees have since submitted their reports and in none of these reports, any recommendation has been made for revising the Civil Services to set questions in all the languages listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution.

The Central Government has constituted an Expert Committee under chairmanship of Shri B. S. Baswan, vide Notice dated 12.8.2015 to examine the various issues connected with the Civil Services Examination. The Committee has been asked to submit its report within 06 months of its constitution.


2)Initiative to promote use of Construction & Demolition waste :-

As part of ongoing efforts under Swachh Bharat Mission, the Union Government has now permitted substantially enhanced use of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste in construction.

In consultation with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of Urban Development has decided to allow use of C&D Waste to the extent of 20% of coarse and fine aggregates, known as ‘bajri’ in construction of load bearing items and up to 100% for non-load bearing purposes.

The new provision allowing use of C&D Waste is expected to significantly help in reuse of such waste since more than 100 lakh metric tones of C&D Waste is being generated per year in urban areas, making its disposal in a safe and sanitary manner, a major challenge.

With growing urbanization, a shortage of 14,000 crore tones of construction aggregates in housing and road construction sector is estimated in coming years. Reuse of C&D Waste under new provisions can to certain extent address this shortage.


3)Ground Water Level in the Country :-

As per the latest assessment (Year-2011) of Dynamic Ground Water Resources, carried out jointly by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and the State Governments, out of 6607 assessment units (Blocks/ Mandals/ Talukas/ Firkas/ Districts) in the Country, 1071 units falling in 16 States and 2 UTs have been categorized as Over-Exploited. In addition¸ 217 assessment units are ‘Critical’ and 697 Semi-Critical on the basis of declining ground water level and stage of ground water development.

What the report says:-

  • Rainfall is the main source of annual replenishable ground water resource.
    Most part of India receives rainfall mainly during South West monsoon.
  • Major part of the country including Northern, Central and Eastern India receives annual normal rainfall between 75 and 150 cm. Highest rainfall of more than 250 cm is received in the North Eastern States and along West Coast in the Konkan region whereas western Rajasthan receives about 15 cm of rainfall in an year.
  • In north western part in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Western Uttar
    Pradesh where though replenishable resources is abundant but there have
    been indiscriminate withdrawals of ground water leading to overexploitation.
  • In western part of the country, particularly in Rajasthan, Gujarat
    where due to arid climate, ground water recharge itself is less leading to
    stress on the resource and in peninsular India like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
    and Tamil Nadu where due to poor aquifer properties, ground water
    availability is less.
  • Sustainable development and efficient management of water is an increasingly complex challenge in India. Increasing population, growing urbanisation and rapid industrialisation combined with the need for raising agricultural production generates competing claims for water.
  • Ground water has an important role in meeting the water requirements of agriculture,
    industrial and domestic sectors in India. About 85 percent of India’s rural domestic water requirements, 50 percent of its urban water requirements and more than 50 percent of its irrigation requirements are being met from ground water resources.
  • Most of rainfall (about 75%) occurs during a short span of four Monsoon months (June to September) resulting into eight relatively dry months.This leave India with a small span of time for ground water recharge.
  • Optimized-rain1
  • Rainy day is defined as a day when rainfall recorded is at least 2.5 mm.
  • rain day

Several reports by organizations such as World Bank, United Nations International Children`s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Food & Agriculture Organization(FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) etc have mentioned about ground water related issues and challenges in the Country, and suggested a number of measures like:-

  1. increase in water tariffs in urban settings
  2. optimizing crop water requirements
  3. conjunctive use of surface and ground water in specific areas
  4. ground water recharge to manage over-exploitation of ground water

What the Government has done :

  1. National Water Policy (2012) has been formulated by Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR which, inter-alia, advocates rain water harvesting and conservation of water and highlights the need for augmenting the availability of water through direct use of rainfall.
  2. CGWB carried out Aquifer Mapping and Management programme .Under this program, about 8.89 lakh sq.km prioritized water stressed areas has been taken up with an aim to delineate aquifer disposition and their characterization along with quantification and for preparation of aquifer/ area specific ground water management plans.
  3. As per Schedule-I of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the water conservation and water harvesting structures to augment ground water constitute a special focus area for MGNREGA works and about 2/3rd of the expenditure is directly related to construction of water harvesting structures.
  4. CGWB has prepared a conceptual document entitled “Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Ground Water in India” during 2013, involving ground water scientists/experts. The Master Plan envisages construction of 1.11 crore rain water harvesting and artificial recharge structures in the Country   to harness 85 BCM (Billion Cubic Metre) of water. The augmented ground water resources will enhance the availability of water for drinking, domestic, industrial and irrigation purpose.
  5. CGWB has been organizing mass awareness programmes in the Country to promote rain water harvesting and artificial recharge to ground water.

Conclusion:-

India faces scarcity of water.One of the reasons why even though India has an ample amount of shale gas , yet it has not been realized because , shale gas extraction requires abundant water .Moreover, many water bodies in India are polluted or degraded due to misuse or abuse.With growing population , ground water plays a critical role in ensuring safe drinking water for majority of population.Also, states like Punjab , Haryana etc have relied heavily on ground water for agricultural purposes, which ultimately led to salinization of the land and rendering the land unfit for agriculture.In this aspect ground water management becomes essential – water abundant area should be aware on how to use the ground water judiciously which requires awareness campaign and water deficit areas need – rainwater harvesting and necessary construction to do ground water recharge – not only by the government itself but also by each and individual house and this needs both – awareness campaign and a helping hand on the “know-how” by government of India.


 

3)ISRO launches 6 Singapore satellites:-

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation recently put Singapore’s first commercial earth-observation satellite in space through a launch on the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).
  • As such , the payloads are not important from examination point of view , unless the satellite is going to do what no other satellite did.

The important part is :-

  • ANTRIX is the commercial wing of ISRO
  • This  a very good initiative on part of ISRO.By selling it’s capability , it is essentially becoming self-reliant as long as financing is concerned and reducing the burden on the Govt. of India.
  • If other wings of government  can commercialize their capability , which , of course does not have national security issues and after following necessary protocols , it would be a game changer for the various  government organizations.
    • For eg- DRDO is doing it , however , we are still an arms importing country than exporting one.(Selling arms – ethical or unethical is a different question altogether ,  but as long as the arms trade exists – India should evolve capacity to sell it )
  • This makes immense sense as long as India is concerned , the reason is simple – the cost involved is proportionally small and this can be the single most important  selling factor for Indian organizations.
  • There are organization around the world and they can deliver what India can deliver , however , the only difference is the cost.Hence , in this regard , India has to first establish credibility in the particular capability, have world-class infrastructure and a cost – effective regime ; which can make it attractive.
  • One can argue that , other countries such as China can also offer the same to the world, however India’s profile is different in global arena ( thanks to our leaders) and hence , India has been a destination of high-end technology .It is undoubtedly clear that China is world’s manufacturing hub , however India is world’s service hub and it has to go from strength to strength.
  • As a NASSCOM chief put it very candidly in an interview :- “ Indian poor will prefer to learn computer than assemble  an i-phone “– so to say the social affinity for high-end technology is almost a part of Indian culture and psyche.This needs promotion.However, this does not mean that , we don’t need manufacturing – it is the only sector that can transform lives of million and get them out of agriculture.

 

4)World Bank loan for Swachh Bharat:-

  • World Bank has approved a $1.5-billion loan for a support operation project of Swachh Bharat, a sanitation campaign launched by the Union government.
  • World Bank data show that of the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation worldwide, over 750 million live in India, 80% of them in rural areas.
  • More than 500 million of India’s rural population continue to defecate in the open, suffering from preventable deaths, illness, stunting, harassment and economic losses.
  • One in every 10 deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation. And studies show low-income households bear the brunt of poor sanitation.
  • World Bank will also provide a $25-million technical assistance for building the capacity of select State governments.

5)Google CEO – Sundar Pichai advocates for Project Loon Connectivity in INDIA.

Read more regarding Project Loon here :- Click Here


Questions of the Day(150-200 words)

  1. Do you think India should sell arms ? Don’t you think it would hurt India as  a peace-loving nation in global arena.
  2. Write the development of Indian space technology in brief.
  3. Do we need foreign fund ? After all, we have to pay in rupee for the works under Swachh Bharat – why just can’t we mint more money and give it rather than getting loan from world bank and paying interest ? How does it makes sense ?

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Recent Posts

  • Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,

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    Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.

    This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.

    It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.

    The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.

    Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.

    India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.

    More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.

    An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.

    India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.

    Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.

    And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.

    A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.

    We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.

    We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.

    In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.


  • On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.

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    No need to remember all the data, only pick out few important ones to use in your answers.

    The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

    The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.

    Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.

    The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

    Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

    The indicators of the four main components are

    (1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
    o Labour force participation rate,
    o wage equality for similar work,
    o estimated earned income,
    o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
    o Professional and technical workers.

    (2) Educational Attainment:
    o Literacy rate (%)
    o Enrollment in primary education (%)
    o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
    o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).

    (3) Health and Survival:
    o Sex ratio at birth (%)
    o Healthy life expectancy (years).

    (4) Political Empowerment:
    o Women in Parliament (%)
    o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
    o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
    o The share of tenure years.

    The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.

    Global Trends and Outcomes:

    – Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.

    – The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.

    – The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.

    – Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.

    In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.

    India-Specific Findings:

    India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.

    India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.

    Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.

    It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.

    The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.

    India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.

    Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.

    India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.

    In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.

    Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.

    Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.

    The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.

    Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.

    Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.

    Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.

    India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.

    With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.


    2021 WEF Global Gender Gap report, which confirmed its 2016 finding of a decline in worldwide progress towards gender parity.

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    Over 2.8 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. As many as 104 countries still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 countries have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it is astonishing that a handful of countries still allow husbands to legally stop their wives from working.

    Globally, women’s participation in the labour force is estimated at 63% (as against 94% of men who participate), but India’s is at a dismal 25% or so currently. Most women are in informal and vulnerable employment—domestic help, agriculture, etc—and are always paid less than men.

    Recent reports from Assam suggest that women workers in plantations are paid much less than men and never promoted to supervisory roles. The gender wage gap is about 24% globally, and women have lost far more jobs than men during lockdowns.

    The problem of gender disparity is compounded by hurdles put up by governments, society and businesses: unequal access to social security schemes, banking services, education, digital services and so on, even as a glass ceiling has kept leadership roles out of women’s reach.

    Yes, many governments and businesses had been working on parity before the pandemic struck. But the global gender gap, defined by differences reflected in the social, political, intellectual, cultural and economic attainments or attitudes of men and women, will not narrow in the near future without all major stakeholders working together on a clear agenda—that of economic growth by inclusion.

    The WEF report estimates 135 years to close the gap at our current rate of progress based on four pillars: educational attainment, health, economic participation and political empowerment.

    India has slipped from rank 112 to 140 in a single year, confirming how hard women were hit by the pandemic. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two Asian countries that fared worse.

    Here are a few things we must do:

    One, frame policies for equal-opportunity employment. Use technology and artificial intelligence to eliminate biases of gender, caste, etc, and select candidates at all levels on merit. Numerous surveys indicate that women in general have a better chance of landing jobs if their gender is not known to recruiters.

    Two, foster a culture of gender sensitivity. Take a review of current policies and move from gender-neutral to gender-sensitive. Encourage and insist on diversity and inclusion at all levels, and promote more women internally to leadership roles. Demolish silos to let women grab potential opportunities in hitherto male-dominant roles. Work-from-home has taught us how efficiently women can manage flex-timings and productivity.

    Three, deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the education and skilling of women and girls at the bottom of the pyramid. CSR allocations to toilet building, the PM-Cares fund and firms’ own trusts could be re-channelled for this.

    Four, get more women into research and development (R&D) roles. A study of over 4,000 companies found that more women in R&D jobs resulted in radical innovation. It appears women score far higher than men in championing change. If you seek growth from affordable products and services for low-income groups, women often have the best ideas.

    Five, break barriers to allow progress. Cultural and structural issues must be fixed. Unconscious biases and discrimination are rampant even in highly-esteemed organizations. Establish fair and transparent human resource policies.

    Six, get involved in local communities to engage them. As Michael Porter said, it is not possible for businesses to sustain long-term shareholder value without ensuring the welfare of the communities they exist in. It is in the best interest of enterprises to engage with local communities to understand and work towards lowering cultural and other barriers in society. It will also help connect with potential customers, employees and special interest groups driving the gender-equity agenda and achieve better diversity.