Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we have Ambassador Bhadrakumar with us and we are going to discuss something that he's been following very keenly over the years. That is of course the Iran, the United States nuclear standoff, particularly with Trump reneging on the U.S. agreement, pulling out of the nuclear agreement. And what has followed is Iran slowly stepping up the pressure on the, at least the American allies, that they should do something concrete about the deal. Otherwise it's a completely non, it's completely something which Iran cannot accept if it continues this way. Do you think, Ambassador Bhadrakumar, that there is now some possibility of change with Biden having taken in the process of taking over in the U.S., because we don't know which way things may still fall out? Looks like now the game is over for Trump. Thank you, Praveer. Let me, first of all, let me wish you a very happy new year. You've done a lot of very good work. I call it the work every sense I look at it through the last year and I hope this good work will continue. And probably you will step up further. Wish you all the best and thank you. Thank you. Say to you too. Yeah. Now, you see the first point is the transfer of power Trump has now conceded openly. To my mind, the kind of precipitated situation that he tried to create in Washington has boomeranged. And from this point onward, it's a downhill slide for him or Trump, because I heard on BBC Radio early this morning some interviews, it's a program of interviews from the political class in the U.S. And I find that even not only the top figures like Raham, Lindsey Raham, even middle-level politicians in the Republican party find that this is something Trump is carrying it in a way, proceeding in a way that is detrimental to America's long-term interests and the political foundations of the state. So I think we can safely assume that Trump's exit is certain. The second point is that I think the chances of his playing the role of a spoiler in the sense to create some sort of a ugly situation from a military point of view involving Iran, which is something that Israel wanted badly. And even the United States is allies in the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia in particular had also been looking forward to. I think that's not going to happen now. So in the remaining 13 days, the Iran issue is not likely to flare up. Let me put it like that. That's also a second good thing. And the third thing is the incoming election results from Georgia, the Senate runoff elections. And if one was already in the back of the Democrats and the other one seems to be also leaning that way. And if that is the case, then we have a position here where the House of Representatives and the Senate are both in the control of the Democrats. This would certainly strengthen Biden's hands across the board, not only on the Iran issue. But in the case of Iran issue, there was always the apprehension that the Israeli lobby and the residual influence that the Saudis have in the Beltway might be deployed to store any real progress. I think that there on that score, I think Biden is now going to be on a stronger wicket. This is the third point which is going to work in the favor. So we have in the course of the past 24 to 48 hours, dramatic things have happened in the US politics, which are going to be game changers. That's how I evaluate. So do you expect the Biden administration to be able to re-continue the old JCPOA agreement, bring it back in some form? You see, Praveer, the fact of the matter is that much of what Trump has done is possible to undo from Biden's point of view through executive orders. That is Iran's primary demand is with regard to lifting the sanctions. Now getting back into the JCPOA is a different process altogether. But Iran has indicated that if the sanctions are lifted, it is quite willing to roll back the steps that it has taken in terms of its enrichment program and other attendant details and perform once again within the four walls of the JCPOA, which means the purity of the enrichment process should be kept to a low level, 3% or something like that. Stockpiles will not be there because earlier time also the purified uranium was taken every to Russia, which was storing it under the 2015 deal. Now that was not possible because Trump imposed sanctions. So the stockpiles are increasing and according to a report I saw a week ago or something in the IAEA, the as of August of September already, the stockpiles had increased to something like 12 times what has been provided for under the JCPOA. So it's still much lower than what was there in 2015. So that's the other side of it. Yeah, that is the other side. But the point is, the point I'm making here would be this that the timeline is going to be very important. First, as we both agree, the climate has become more conducive for a forward movement for an end of a stalemate. The political opinion generally in the US is also leaning towards this that the maximum pressure approach toward Iran has not brought the expected results or the results that Trump promised, which is that Iran would be in a much weaker position. Iran is certainly weak in one sense in terms of the sanctions having a debilitating effect on its economy. But on the other hand, we don't see any acceptable shift in the Iranian attitudes. And would I be right in saying that what you're saying is it is possible to bring back it's not maybe the US into the JCPOA, which is a different issue. But at least that Iran continues to adhere to the JCPOA terms and the sanctions are lifted. And more importantly, the European Union is also able to trade with Iran because because of the sanctions, that's what they were not able to do. It's really the financial sanctions that was biting the countries, including India, that you couldn't really trade with Iran because your banking system or whatever financial instruments you have, they will all come under US sanctions. It's not international sanctions, but US sanctions. And unfortunately, the financial controls of the world still are with the United States. You see, there are two broad categories of US sanctions on Iran. As you know, US sanctions on Iran have been a reality ever since the Islamic Revolution. So let's be clear that on this plane today, we are discussing the nuclear related sanctions. Then there is the other bit of sanctions, which are also very severe in terms of non nuclear issues. That is Iran's regional policies, the US allegation that Iran is masterminding terrorist groups operating in the region, that it is policies are detrimental to American regional interests and the insecurity of its allies and so on. So there is a package of sanctions relating to that which date back actually to the early 1980s, the time of that from the time of that hostage crisis immediately after the revolution. Iran is not getting into that part. That is something which is linked to a normalization of relations with Iran with between the two countries, which is going to take a long, long time. What we are talking about are the nuclear sanctions and you have exactly summed up when you said that the nuclear sanctions, once they are removed, Iran couldn't care less whether the other sanctions, the non nuclear sanctions, American sanctions are in place or not because the JCPOA then provides a very high degree of almost total integration of Iran into the world economy. Now, which means it can generate even its own income, let alone the block funds. The block funds will have to be released, which runs into fantastic amounts, very big amounts, tens of billions of dollars. But apart from that, on a day to day basis, Iran can generate its own income because it can sell oil and also one oil can buy it from Iran. So the market forces then come into play and Iran is quite happy with that. And then there is no particular distress in Iran in the society. The economy can start moving into a state of normalcy and so on. So what you said is absolutely the point. The point is that once the sanctions are removed, the Trump sanctions on nuclear thing is removed, then the JCPOA's full potential is liberated. And then Iran can come back to a state of normalcy. So that is what is important. And the main factor here is we have to discuss that. There we get into the Iran domestic situation. That is the other question I wanted to ask you. Having faced this pressure of the United States and the belief that the United States is not treaty capable, even if it removes and the bind in the sanctions four years later, again the first set of sanctions can come in. And therefore the Iranian positions, can it harden to the extent that they will then not normalize relations? Would that be something which would stand in the way? Is that possible? You see, Iran will certainly have drawn certain lessons from its experience. But having said that, what happened also didn't come entirely as a surprise to Iran, because it was always on guard that this sort of an eventuality may develop. The Gold Post may get shifted further, etc. But here, you know, the advantage for Iran is that if the agreement is not jettisoned and the agreement is preserved, whether the United States is part of it or not is not very important, because the agreement has a dynamics of its own. For example, as of last October, Iran is now possible to trade in weapons. And by 2024, the capping on Iran's ballistic missile program is going to be lapsing. In fact, the period beyond Iran is going to regain all its prerogative and rights as a non-NPT nuclear member state. As you know, the safeguards which have been imposed on Iran are unprecedented. No country on earth has ever accepted this sort of a tight regime. More than tight, Iran is a very, very intrusive IAEA regime. In fact, one of the issues of that is, have the past IAEA inspectors passed information with the United States used in the assassination of the nuclear physicist Pakris Ali. You see, that is exactly what I meant, that extremely intrusive inspections and Iran at every stage had to concede more ground to them, like they can hold surprise inspections. They can enlarge the list, like India also has an agreement with IAEA. But you know better than I do, that that is on the basis of a certain charter, a certain listing order for assets. And they are restricted to those assets. But in the case of Iran, it's not like that. The inspectors suddenly one fine day get a feeling that XYZ installation may have something to do. They suspect they have information. Then Iran comes under pressure to open up that also. This has happened also in the past. So you see the point here is that despite all that, if Iran agreed in the 2015 deal, that is because Iran fundamentally doesn't have any intention to make nuclear weapons. And I would imagine that in terms of their political culture and the Islamic system, they do take very seriously the fatwa that was given by Imam Khomeini. And it is, I don't think any leader in Iran would have the gumption to bypass it. And he has called it anti-Islamic to make nuclear weapons like this is a horrifying weapon. And, you know, that's a kind of mindset that Iran has on this issue. So that is never very important for them. And this enrichment in a big level of food stockpiles of enriched uranium and so on, it's not very important for them. They agreed for the 2015 deal, because even if there is a passage of time up to 2024, where they may have all these restrictions on them, there is going to be a future where they'll be, they can get rid of all this and live a normal life as a member of the whole community in every sense and can get market forces to prevail. Because we must understand that this is a country which is phenomenally rich in mineral resources. And it's not just oil and gas across the board, you know, it's very rich in minerals. And it has got a very big market, relative terms close to about 100 million people. And it has got also another thing, a very strong, well-developed agriculture and by far the highest capacity of any country in that region, any regional state in the absorption of technology, high technology. It's a very innovative society also. The human resources are very rich. And you look at the kind of, we know the kind of the systems with all these sanctions and all the handicaps they had that they were able to develop in a way that the United States has now forgotten that there is even a military option against Iran. They did not do that. So you see, all these things make it very clear that the Iranians are confident that if the nuclear sanctions are lifted, they will become unstoppable as a regional, global power. You know, this is the point. And that we have to put aside the Western propaganda about Iran. It's not like that at all, that country's ethos, its culture, its endowments and so on. So I think they are, they made their calculations. But you write from the experience of the 2015 deal, they will have brought certain contusions. And if at any moment they are going to get into any kind of negotiations and deal with the United States, hopefully the United States, I think the Europeans also didn't really fulfill. We know that. They stayed on, they profess their interest in preserving the JCPOA. They disagreed with the American, except from the JCPOA. And they urged Iran constantly to abide by the terms of the JCPOA. But they didn't fulfill. The moment the American sanctions were imposed, the European companies squatted. And the European governments did not really give any kind of protection, which would have encouraged their own countries, national companies to stay put in Iran. So you see, it's a harsh word. And we have to recognize that. But within all that, I think the Americans understand now that this is a road to nowhere. And only by coming back into the framework from this platform and negotiating now, you have seen the Jake Sullivan's interview with Fareed Sakaria. Now, it's a very interesting point that he did not mention about negotiating another nuclear deal. He spoke about follow on negotiations. So it's very, very important distinction he has made there. That is the signal to Iran that they are not going to, Americans know that Iranians will not renegotiate this deal. And there has to be a forward movement in a different way. So that point has been considered. And overall, I think Sullivan's remarks and Sullivan's remarks are very important because Sullivan was the person who opened the back channel, operated the back channel and create and brought the situation to that point where John Kerry and Wendy Sherman stepped in and began negotiating. So he had a very big role at that time in that. And he knows the subject. He knows the protagonist in Iran. And therefore, that is why his interview was of much interest actually. No, I think what you're saying sounds extremely logical. Of course, as you know, when it comes to world history, when sometimes do not follow logic, but nevertheless, the forces at this point of time seem to be tipping towards the direction that you've suggested. And I think one very important point that you have made that Iran is a country, barely 100 million people with the kind of resources it has, most importantly, not oil resources alone, but the resources as human resources and the cultural history it has not only as a country, but also in the region, its influence has been far wider than people sitting in the West or even in India would really understand its influence in West Asia as well as in Central Asia. So given that history that if Iran is able to emerge and I think what you are saying, I agree with that it looks like that the game for the Trumpian approach is over. Then we are going to see a new correlation of forces arise in the region, not free from conflict, but certainly giving a much greater role to Iran than we have seen till today. Because Iran in spite of all of the forces against it has played a very important role as we saw in West Asia against the Daesh, ISIS against various other forces arranged over there. So I think that can only grow bigger with time and that's what you are indicating. So I think at this moment it seems to be a situation where things may start looking better after Trump leaves and hopefully the Indian government will also take lessons from what is happening and relook at its West Asian policies which I think at the moment has been rather one-sided. But I'm going to leave that discussion for another day. Thank you very much Ambassador Bandrakumar for being with us.


First, very briefly, just to pick up on the earlier discussion in the morning, just to reiterate some of the differences between the Afghan and the Pakistan Taliban situation. I think this is quite important to understand. First of all, in Pakistan, the Taliban are using religion as a political tool. They're using it as they have traditionally done, even in the past century or more, whenever they've fought whichever the central power is that they're fighting, that they use religion as a kind of political glue to bring tribes together and to battle them. Secondly, there is, of course, socioeconomic grievances and there are charges of absence of justice and particularly in Swat, which is not in the tribal belt. There was a big gap after the princely state of Swat was enveloped into the government of Pakistan. In the princely state, there was actually a very rudimentary form of justice, but it was very rapid justice. So every month they used to be an opportunity for ordinary citizens to gather and present their grievances to the Wali of Swat, the ruler of Swat, and he would immediately reach a decision and pronounce judgment. So people knew that they had recourse to justice. When it was enveloped into the state of Pakistan, there was no provision made for giving people the same level of care and control and justice. And so over time this situation deteriorated, allowing people who wanted to take advantage of this chaos and confusion to start asserting their power grab and using religion as a tool. Another big difference is that unlike Afghanistan, Pakistan has a very well disciplined and organized and a very large military. And it has, unfortunately, and this is a huge difference, it is fighting its own people. In Afghanistan, this is a big difference. The Taliban are using the fact that there are foreign troops to galvanize support for them to even coerce people into helping them in the battle against the U.S. and NATO forces. In Pakistan, this is not the case and in fact this becomes a serious issue for the Pakistan military itself because when you are fighting your own people, there are huge repercussions on issues like collateral damage, whether it's damage of property or people. And just to give you another big difference between the battle in Afghanistan and the battle in Pakistan, Pakistan for the first time since independence when it had removed all its troops from the area that's now known as the federally-administered tribal area by agreement with the tribes and on the orders of the first, the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, they removed all the British garrisons and all the troops that Pakistan had inherited. They emptied the cantonments of Wana and Rasmukh and all the other traditional sites. And so for the first time under General Musharraf, the Pakistan army was entering Fata and it was seen as an alien force. It was seen as a surrogate of the U.S. And it saw itself as an alien force too largely because of the composition of the army. It is still predominantly based on the population, 60 percent Punjabi dominated military with about 14.6 percent Bakhtuns. So by the very nature of the composition of the military it was seen as an alien force and it saw itself as an alien force. No attempt was made at the time that the force was injected to try and identify those regiments that had 50 percent Bakhtun composition to send them in because they're the officers and the junior commission officers and would have been able to speak Pashto and would have been able to converse to the locals. So these are some of the differences. There are similarities too going back to Michael's and the other comments that were made earlier. When we talk of the Taliban in Pakistan it's a conjury of very disparate groups. You have the TTP which originated in Waziristan but it's now basically a brand name that has provided an umbrella for bringing all the other disaffected groups and some of them are just plain crooks who are taking advantage of the situation to cover their criminal activities. And you also include much older groups like the TNSM which Intiaz referred to and which Rodney also referred to in the settled area of Swat which has actually been in existence since 1989. So it predates the arrival of the word Taliban in Pakistan's polity. There are also regional satraps, I mean there are tribal groups as well as individuals within tribes who want to assert their power and control over resources and so they have aligned themselves in this kind of trans-tribal conglomerate. And then behind it all is Al Qaeda which as was said in the morning session is using this as a very useful leverage in order to exercise its kind of franchise arrangement and it has also attracted the Punjabi militant groups, the Sunni Punjabi militant groups from Central and Southern Punjab that had formally been trained by the ISI as part of the Kashmir Jihad which have now aligned themselves in the fighting inside Fatha on a sectarian basis in the Quraam agency for instance but have also increasingly become a franchisee of Al Qaeda and the TTP in the rest of Pakistan and have been involved in a number of the attacks inside Pakistan and copper including against the military. So these are sort of some of the factors that one needs to recognize and there isn't a silver bullet that will allow us to deal with this whole agglomeration. Now as Imtiaz has pointed out when you talk of negotiations it's really groundhog day. It is a constant repetition of the same old, same old and when I say same old, same old I don't just mean in the last few years just yesterday I was looking at a Waziristan report from 1894 and I tell you it is exactly the same story. A tribal group would launch an attack or snipe at Razmak or Bana or one of these places or kidnap someone, a Hindu boy in one case or an officer or a soldier and then there'd be a punitive expedition and the tribes would be beat up by a large force mainly natives commanded by British 2000 but against the Masoods the largest ever force was 10,400 in those days which was a lot of manpower and then once they were beat up basically they would come crawling back in Sioux for peace and a peace deal would be signed and then they would be compensated, they'd be given money and not only that but those that were more conciliatory than the rest would be made mullocks and would be put on the official dome and that practice has continued since the late 19th century till this day. It has involved the kind of corruption of the tribal system and of the Jirga so you now have official Jirga and this is at the root of the governance issue in this part of the world so you basically, it's very interesting that even the British report uses the word Hayatoba which is the Paktun tribes would come and basically beg for forgiveness and then they'd be rewarded so there was a kind of a built-in incentive structure which allowed the rebellion or the insurgencies to faster and to continue. Let me put a little more historical background on the rise of talibanization and I think here I need to pull back to a much wider canvas as Rodney promised you as I would. First of all, Fata is a forgotten part of Pakistan, 62 years after the country became independent it has the worst socioeconomic indicators of any part of Pakistan so can you blame anyone if they feel that they were forgotten in fact in the local language nobody refers to it as Fata which is an English acronym it is still called Ilaka Reir which is the foreign land you know it's as if it doesn't exist it's not a part of Pakistan so politically economically socially and even physically it has it is still behind the so-called prickly hedge that the British talked about so there is really no belonging sense of belonging and no sense of participation in the polity and economics of Pakistan. Secondly over time the state of Pakistan has become a very changed state from the Pakistan which was conceived by the founder Mr. Jinnah as a state where Muslims could lead their own lives as Muslims and everybody else of every other faith could lead his or her life according to that faith to a state which became first the Republic of Pakistan and then interestingly under so-called secular leadership the Islamic Republic of Pakistan so there was a gradual descent into a kind of introduction of ritualistic Islam that took over Pakistan polity and society and this is the blowback from from that movement in my humble view. Over time Islam became a tool of government it was used for cynical purposes by all the political leaders whether they were military or civil starting with Zeyaul Haqq and even before him by President and then Prime Minister Bhutto who used Islam in order to win some tactical advantages but they didn't end up saving his government in 1977 I don't know if many of you recall but it was he who banned the Ahmadis as a Muslim group and created a sectarian divide there it was he who made Pakistan officially a dry country it was he who made Friday the day of holiday in Pakistan in fact stealing the thunder of poor Zeyaul Haqq who would have wanted to have made all these moves and and carried favor with the population in general so over time there's been a kind of a blowback as a result of this official sponsorship of ritualistic Islam and a very convoluted interpretation by many individuals and groups along the periphery of what they call Sharia in fact there is no consensus on what is proper Sharia there was no consensus in the 50s when the Munir Commission in Pakistan looked at the idea of sectarian violence and came to the conclusion on the basis of testimony by all the leading Ulima the religious scholars who were all asked one question can you define a Muslim and none of them could come to the same definition so there's obviously a desire to create some kind of homogenous view of Islam in Pakistan but it has failed because it's a very pluralistic society regardless and so the whole idea of creating this homogenous view of Islam was also supported by the fact that the center wanted to control everything although Pakistan was a federation the periphery was always disregarded and Fata is the extreme periphery so Balochistan had its grievances and that's why they were insurgencies as Balochistan East Pakistan had its grievances because that was the periphery and we saw what happened there it became an independent entity and now of course parts of NWSP and Fata are the scene of an insurgency because they feel that their governance their economic interests are not being regarded by the center so somehow the lack of pluralism as well as this kind of fall into the lap of ritualistic Islam is fostering the Talibanization of Pakistani society and so there's a lack of economic opportunity now what can we do first of all we have to differentiate between the Afghan Taliban who as was pointed out earlier use Pakistan as a sanctuary but they've been very smart they use their tribal ties and local support in order to come and go and they have not raised any military action against the state of Pakistan and as a result the state of Pakistan has been hedging its bets on what will be the outcome in Afghanistan and they have therefore not lost any operations against the Afghan Taliban so you have to separate them it's the local Taliban the TNSM and the Punjabi militants that the government needs to deal with and the question here is are you going to cede space to them which is what happened in each of the deals that Imtiaz talked about because you you agreed to withdraw the military to camps and when you withdrew you created a vacuum and they filled the vacuum you didn't have the administration you didn't have the civil judicial system in place to give people the kind of support that they needed for their daily lives and economic activities and the Taliban stepped in and they started resolving disputes and executing justice rapidly and I use the word executing as a pun because they did they would bring in two people and say what are your problems and appoint Akhazi on the spot and Akhazi would pronounce the judgment and one person would get shot and the other would win the argument so they provided justice very rapidly this was the kind of brutal horrific system and the agreement that they signed I just one point of contention on Imtiaz I actually saw the April 2008 agreement and it's a very simple agreement it says you know they will not burn girls schools so they were very straightforward conditions that was signed by the ANP leadership and the the TNSM leadership and the very next day they burnt the schools but the ANP government was so scared that they didn't want to challenge them on it and they kept the military in the camps till the situation got so much out of control that the military had to be called out again the same thing happened in the most recent deal which after a period where the military was withdrawn while the government was discussing the issue of the Nizami Adil the system of justice that they would bring to Swat that the Taliban swarmed the area and took over so the military had to eventually come in because of this one video of this poor girl being beaten that created so much support for military action in the rest of Pakistan but then the military action did not anticipate the IDPs and there was 2.5 3 million whatever you call it a huge number of internally displaced people and that issue still remains and it's going to bedevil the situation the conclusion I come to is this that military operations are only a way of addressing the symptoms they do not address the root causes you have to address the socioeconomic needs of the people and in Fatha in particular you need to be able to create jobs and it's by my calculation it's only 300,000 jobs that need to be created this is the 17% of the male youth that are part of the youth bulge of the population of Fatha total population 3.5 million half women they only have a 3% literacy rate so you cannot employ them immediately so you have to create jobs for the young men and if you create these 300,000 jobs you basically soaking up the entire catchment pool of recruits for the Taliban if you do that you can help start changing the thing the United States has been pushing the ROZ's and we know the Pakistani government has been pushing ROZ's these will be a heavily subsidized way of creating jobs they're not ideally located economically because the Chinese experience has shown us that they need to be their large urban areas they need to be there heavy infrastructure and communication and all that is missing in Fatha so my suggestion would be if you want to reconcile if you want to bring people over to your side you need to create opportunities for work for them you need to get infrastructure construction projects build roads connecting Fatha to the rest of Pakistan build small dams build embankments to control the rivers set up tube wells provide a livelihood and a possibility of a livelihood to the people and they will solve their own problems but then at least they will feel connected they'll feel that something is being done for them what should be the US role that is a question that Rodney has posed to us I think the US role is really ideal only in creating an enabling environment for the government of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan to do all these things to create a political situation that is mature that develops civilian supremacy over time so that the threat of military intervention is reduced but the US should not intrude too overtly nor be seen as siding with any single individual or party or a group or institution the moment you do that then it's groundhog day all over again for the US Pakistan relationship and that's a totally different story and I spent a lifetime covering that they're trying to capture it in my books I'm not going to bother with you that let me stop here thank you very much


Dear learners, I Dr. Prasanchit Das, from KK Hendrick State Open University, welcome you to the MOOC on Professional Writing in English. Learners, as you know, English has gained the status of a global language which is increasing use in all arenas of professional engagements. This course aims at equipping you with the required knowledge and skill for using English as a medium of communication for diverse professional purposes. Accordingly, the course has been designed to teach you some of the basics of English in professional writing, the different means of professional writing and the important skills and types of professional writing. Professional writing refers to a form of writing or drafting meant to be used for professional communication in a variety of professional, technical and occupational fields. Therefore, for performing professional writing, one needs to acquire the skills of a professional writer whose primary task is to convey information to another person or party as clearly and effectively as possible. As the information to be conveyed may be too complex in a professional setting, the primary task of the professional writer is to analyze the information and present it in a format that is easy to read and understand on the part of the targeted readers or receiver. However, the job of a professional writer may differ depending on the industry and company where they are employed in. They may work with a variety of team members functioning as the mediators between the more technical stuff and less technical readers. They will have to work closely with these teams to develop a communication strategy. Thus, their responsibilities often extend beyond just writing. Hence, if you want to become a good professional writer, you must acquire a strong writing and communication skill. While conveying this intended information through words as a professional writer must, you must be proficient with the English language itself. While commonly associated with the work environment in a 21st century technology-dominated world, professional writing covers a wide range of genres and means of communication. For example, press releases, emails, briefs, memos, business proposals, data sets, product descriptions and specifications, white papers and job applications are but a few examples of documents that are often considered part of professional writing. The course called professional writing in English at certificate level is designed to improve the use of English among the learners who enroll in this program. As communication continues to be the most sought-after skill in the professional workplace, improving your skills while writing complex documents is important. You must learn many skills that employers find desirable, which may help you to secure a job in publishing, marketing, management etc. Some of the skills include the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, to edit, review and design professional documents, to analyze, interpret and present data, to present information clearly and creatively and to understand how people use writing to teach, delight and persuade. The MOOC course on professional writing in English, shall help you to explore exactly what a writer in the professional setting does and what they will need to do to become a good professional writer. The course is divided into four modules and the duration of this course is three months. This course is meant for any learner who wants to join a company or any profession where English is mandatory. Thus, the main objectives of this course are to train the learners on the basic principles of the English language, to enable the learners to use English in different academic and professional contexts, to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, to improve the proficiency of the learners in oral and written communication. The learning outcome of this course shall be to develop the ability to use English effectively in their personal as well as professional life, to bring in clarity in the use of English where there is a need to use English language professionally, to help the learners to develop skills and vocabulary, to discuss the broad range of technical and professional issues with colleagues and clients in the business environment. I welcome you to this course and wish you all the very best, thank you.


Congratulations, you are now on Unit 4 of the Edgy Goals MOOC. I'm Shelly Sanchez-Terrell, and I will guide you through the key ideas of this unit. In this unit, you will learn how to effectively manage a classroom by building a teacher survival kit to face unexpected obstacles. You will also collaborate with peers in designing digital content that helps you build partnerships with your students' parents. To manage a classroom effectively, teachers need to be prepared to meet unexpected challenges, especially when integrating technology. No matter how much you plan and prepare for your lessons, obstacles will arise, such as fire drills, assemblies, bad weather, or technical difficulties. When these challenges arise, you must keep calm and continue the flow of learning. If students see you distracted, they become distracted, and the learning stops. In this unit, you will prepare a teacher survival kit to help you be prepared to adapt a lesson or introduce another activity quickly to keep students focused and learning. Being prepared is an important key to successful classroom management. Another key aspect of classroom management is working with parents to ensure their children succeed in your class. Technology can help us communicate quickly and securely with parents about their children's progress. Parents need to help their children navigate through this vast digital world. It is important for teachers to be transparent and let parents know what technologies their children will be using to achieve learning goals and how the school protects their child while using technology. In this unit, you will evaluate various digital materials created by teachers to keep parents informed. You will evaluate websites, slide presentations, wikis, and podcasts created for parents by teachers that provide parents with valuable resources and tips to help their children use technology responsibly and safely. After evaluating this content, you will collaborate with peers in this course to create your own digital materials to keep parents informed. Congratulations on the goals you have achieved so far in this course. We hope you already feel like a more confident and equipped teacher who is ready to transform their students' learning. Your completed tasks in this unit will help you manage a classroom effectively so the learning continues even when plans go awry. You will also know how to use technology to help you quickly and efficiently communicate with parents. We look forward to seeing what you will create with your peers. We also look forward to learning about what you plan to include in your teacher's survival kits and to reading your reflections about this unit in your portfolio.


In a bid to fight food insecurity in the state, the Oregon State government has trained farmers towards contributing their quotas to the production of dairy. The dairy collection and milk production training was organized in conjunction with International Milk Producing Company, as they trained 85 dairy farmers for the first batch. Addressing newsmen after presenting certificate of completion to participants, Commissioner for Agriculture Samson Odedina stated that the commissioning of the milk processing facility a few months ago necessitated the need to train farmers in the sustainable management of an inclusive supply chain of the milk industry. Relationship between the Oregon State and the farm make and turn on. That facility is not going to run on its own. That facility will benefit every young people in the Oregon State who is interested in supplying milk to the facility, supplying food or supply content. So every single person in conjunction with the farm already trained these people and they are going to be supplying milk to this facility. Transfer this to the local communities, to the families, to the people that can transform their activity actually in a profitable economical process that can support their life and the country. Some of the beneficiaries spoke, applauded the organizers for training, noting that it had been an eye-opener for them in the dairy value chain. It's a very good program. They've taught us so many things. They've opened our highs to so many things that we didn't know before. So now we know how to get our animals, our cows. We now know all the criteria that we can use to select our male animals especially. So we are very, very proud of the program. We like the vibe. We are very, very grateful for the value addition. In the training, we are being taught how we can plant grass. So this aspect of grass is another business venture whereby the ranch is being set up and this also can also solve the issue of a farmer-header crisis too. Because once the farmer has grass, the cattle can feed on. There's no need for him to be foraging about causing disturbances to the farmers.


Latent variables are commonly used in statistical modeling. People normally associate the concept of latent variable with factor analysis models, but this is actually a more general concept. Let's take a look at what latent variables are. The variables in a statistical model can be divided into latent variables and observed variables. The difference between observed variable and latent variable is that for observed variables we have scores for individual cases. So if we have our data set, which is like an actual sheet, then observed variables are columns in the data, then we have rows to observations and each variable observation pair identifies a value, which can be missing, but most of the cases want to have data for those cases. In latent variables we assume that the variable exists, but we don't have data for it. For example, if we study intelligence we assume that intelligence exists, but we don't have data for intelligence, we have data for some imperfect measures of intelligence. Normally we want to say something about these latent variables by analyzing the observed variables. So we assume typically that the latent variables exist and they cause variation in the observed variables and that variation in the observed variables allows us to say something about latent variables that are unobserved sources of various. Latent variables are also sometimes referred to as random effects. So this builds a link between a factor analysis and structural ecosystem models and econometrics, which uses the random effects term. These latent variables, we don't have the case values, they can be estimated, but typically the estimation of case values cannot be done perfectly, so during estimating a statistical model we actually don't use the case values. Instead we assume a distribution for a variable, typically we assume that the distribution is normal and then we estimate the variance of that normal distribution assuming that the mean is zero. Let's take a look at different models that include latent variables. The first thing that comes to mind is the factor analysis model. So we assume that we have our three indicators, growth willingness indicators, and then we fit a factor analysis model, where we say that all these indicators are affected by one common factor, which is presented by a latent variable in the model, and then we want to estimate how much of the variation in the indicators can be attributed to this one unobserved common source. Another commonly used model, which contains latent variables or actually a latent variable, is the normal Richardson analysis. So we can see here that error term is not observed, it is a latent variable. So whenever a variable is not observed, then we don't have values for it, then it's latent. So that's the definition. If it has case values, then it's not the latent variable, but it's an observed variable. If we take some of these X indicators, we have a specific value for its company, that sum is an observed variable, not a latent variable. Another useful latent variable model is the multi-level model. So in this multi-level model we have our three latent variables, the error term, and then we have this level two effect. So we have the random interest and the random slope. They are latent variables. We estimate their variances, but we don't estimate our specific case values. And this is the equation in the mixed model format. This same equation can also be expressed as a path diagram, in which case we would be talking about a latent growth model. We have a latent variable, intercept latent variable, slope, and this is actually exactly the same model as the one before, but instead it is shown as a path diagram. So these latent variables, even if you don't do factor analysis, they are very commonly used in different estimation techniques and modelling approaches. For example, you can take the HECMAN Selection model and it's actually a latent variable model as well. So there's a latent variable, an omitted variable, that we estimate during the analysis process, that affects both wages and whether a person chooses to work. This is of course HECMAN's classic example.


Welcome to the course on computer programming. In this session, we will see how to write a basic C++ program and a simple CPP program using code blocks ID on Windows. So, let us begin by writing a basic C++ program to add two numbers.  Code blocks ID will appear here, which has just appeared. Now, we will create a project and click on file new project. Select simple CPP project in this window and click on go. You can check this button, skip this page next time so that it does not appear next time and click next. Graphics only is selected by default. You can ignore this and click next. Over here, we need to enter a project title. For example, we have to create a project for add two numbers. So, we will write add two numbers as a project title. We will create it on desktop. We will make a new folder called C++ underscore programs on desktop. We will keep it in this folder. As you can see, the path is desktop C++ programs. If you notice the project file name, which was blank earlier, has appeared here as add two numbers dot CBP, CBP is code blocks project. Click next. GNU GCC compiler is selected. Click on finish. We have now created a project. Now, we need to add a file. For this, we will click on file new file. Click CC++ source and click on go. Click this check button and click next. C++ is selected by default. So, let us click on next. We will enter the file name, say add two numbers dot CPP, which is the C++ extension. We need to keep it in our project directory. C++ underscore programs add two numbers is a project directory. We will save it over here in this folder. Click on debug and release. This is important for debugging our project and click finish. Now, double click on add two numbers, double click on sources and double click on add two numbers dot CPP. This is the left pane, which is the workspace window. Over here, we need to write a program. We will start writing by hash include IO stream using namespace std int main return 0. This is our template program. We will write int num1, num2. We will ask the users to enter two numbers, cout enter two integer numbers, n del is nothing but newline character. We will accept two numbers from the user using the cn statement num1 and num2, semicolon. We will now print the addition of two numbers is and we will compute the addition over here itself num1 plus num2 semicolon, sorry, n del semicolon. This completes our add two numbers program. Now, we can either build using the build and run option available here or you can also click on build, build and run. What we expect is a terminal, which has just appeared. It asks us to enter two integer numbers, which was printed using the cout statement. We will enter two numbers say 45 and 34, we will press enter. Addition of two numbers is, which was displayed here, has appeared over here in the terminal and num1 plus num2, which is equal to 79, has appeared over here. This is how we write a basic C++ program using code block citing. Press enter to exit the terminal. Let us now see how to write simple CPP programs. So, we will create another project file, new project, simple CPP project and click on go. Graphics only, which is selected by default, click next. Project title. Say we want to draw three polygons. So, we can say draw polygons as a project title. It will be displayed over here in this directory. The code blocks project dot cpp is created over here and we will click on next. GNU GCC compiler is selected. Click finish. As you can see, there is no much difference in creating simple CPP and basic programs. Now, we will add the file. We will select draw polygons project. We will click on file, new file. Select C++ source and click on go. C++ is selected here. So, we will click next. We will now write draw polygons dot cpp. We will browse in which directory it has to be created, we will click save, we will click on debug and release which is most important, we will click finish. As you can see, the draw polygons dot cpp has appeared over here. We already have a program written. We will just copy paste this in code blocks id. We will save it, control s and we will build and run it. As you can see, the three polygons have been drawn over here. This is one way of writing a program. Another way is to create a source code file and not the project. Please note that simple CPP code should not be created using this way. For simple CPP, you need to create a project itself which we have just done. So, let us now close both the projects as it will interfere with our new program. We will close the add to numbers project, right click close project. Yes, we will save the changes, right click close project and we will save the changes. Now, we will write a simple program hello world, file new c++ source go, select c++ click next. File name with the full path, we will browse to the directory first, we will go to the directory called c++ programs which is present on add a store, we will give the title hello world dot cpp and we will click save. Please note, there is no debug or release available here for a file and we will click finish. Hello world dot cpp has just opened. Now, we can write a simple program hash include IO stream using namespace std int min c out hello world end in and return 0. We will save it and we will build and run it. As you can see, hello world has been displayed on the terminal, press enter to continue. Now, let us examine the folder in which we have created both our projects. If you recollect, we had created our project on desktop c++ programs directory. So, let us go into the directory. We will minimize code blocks. This is our desktop c++ programs, double click connect. If you see, we had created two projects add to numbers and draw polygons. Hello world dot cpp was a file which was created. As you can see, hello world dot exe and hello world dot o is already present here because we built and run our program. We will learn about dot exe and dot o when we examine the add to numbers folder. Let us go into this folder add to numbers dot cpp. This is the code blocks project file add to numbers dot cpp is our source code that is our main file where we actually added two numbers and printed it. This is a layout file. The layout file contains the settings of the workspace of a project which files were opened and where they were positioned etc. The two folders bin and object where bin contains the executable of a project which is a dot exe file whereas the object contains the object file. Object file is nothing but the file that contains translatable machine code. In this session, we have seen how to write simple cpp programs, basic programs and have examined what files does code blocks project creates. Thank you.


Hey everyone, this is Nick from When I Work. Let's do a quick overview of how to use WorkChat. WorkChat is the latest communication tool from When I Work. It gives all users the ability to chat with their coworkers in real time, sending messages and pictures on their Android and iOS devices, as well as on the web. To start a conversation, open the WorkChat tab on your device. You can send a message to everyone in the business, like an announcement of a new product, or a question you need an answer to. You can also start a group conversation, let's say just between the people who work the same position, like breezes at a coffee shop, or you can keep it between just two people, like between a manager and employee. Every message sent has a timestamp so you know when it was sent, and your messages will show how many people have seen it. WorkChat makes it super easy for your team to stay connected on and off the job. For more information, check out the When I Work Help Center at help.oneiwork.com.


Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us here for a very special conversation on gender parity and the need for gender parity to try and foster the cause of economic recovery. My name is Shirin Bal and it gives me great privilege and pleasure to welcome here on this panel a very special set of guests who are going to be talking to us about this very important conversation that we hope to mainstream. I am also going to make this interactive so it would be nice if you do have questions and comments. I will get to you towards the end of our panel discussion and we will engage with all of you as participants as well. To contextualize where we stand as far as the gender gap is concerned and why it is so important to have this conversation here in Davos 2023. There have been significant setbacks through the course of the pandemic. On your screen, that is the number that you need to focus on, 151 years to gender parity. That is the number that we need to all focus on and that is the kind of work that is required to ensure that we bridge the gap, that we bridge the deficits. Why is it important? It's not just the just thing to do. It is not just the fair thing to do. It is the right thing to do because it makes economic sense. It makes business sense. And there are studies, innumerable studies that highlight the importance of unlocking value by ensuring that women actually have access to credit, women have access to education, women have access to employment and that is what we hope to address here on the panel today on why it is important that we actually put fiscal measures in place, monetary measures in place. We involve the private sector to try and ensure that we can bridge this very significant gap. Through the course of this conversation, I will bring up other data points as well, which point us in terms of not just what the diagnosis is of the problem but also provide a prescription about the road ahead. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to our panelists here today. Let me start from my left, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning at Nigeria, Zainab Shamsuna. Emma, thank you very much for joining us. Smriti Irani, the Minister of Women and Child Development representing India. Mr. Irani, thank you very much for joining us. Ilyan Goldfine, the President Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. The lone man on the panel. Thank you very much for joining us here as well. And Gabriella Booker, the Executive Director at Oxfam International, Kenya. Thank you very much, Gabriella, for joining us. I also want to make a note of the fact that CNBC TV18, of course we are India's leading news brand, we have started a campaign called the Future Female Forward Initiative. It is a women's collective. We launched this in November and we hope to mainstream this conversation, not just in India, but take it global and that is why we're here having this conversation. Minister, let me start by asking you. You talk about the need to unlock the value that women can make, the difference that women can make as far as economic recovery is concerned, economic resilience is concerned. From your experience in Nigeria, in terms of how you are looking at gender budgeting, for instance, what is the way forward, what has been the experience so far? Well, let me thank the organizers for inviting me and it's really a privilege to be here. We do realize in government that we have to make deliberate policies and take deliberate actions to make sure that there's more inclusiveness of women in every facet of our society, not just in government, but in every facet of our society. And during the COVID it became very, very glaring that whether it's the impact of COVID or impact of climate change or economic slowdown that the most affected people are actually women. So in designing any policy, whether it's fiscal, monetary or trade, we have to consciously take into account how does this affect women. And we found a way to cause that to happen in Nigeria. First of all, when we were designing the economic sustainability plan to support us during the COVID period, we designed a cluster of programs and we required that each program should have at least 50% of the beneficiaries to be women. So that was one of the targets that was set for every agency of government that was provided with funding to implement the economic sustainability plan. Then in our national budget, we also made a provision to and ensure that MDAs consciously look at their programs and project with the gender lens. So you need to be asking, how can I implement this program in a way that women will benefit? Whether it is road construction or economic empowerment. For example, when we developed the social register to be able to provide support to the most vulnerable in the society, we ended up having a situation even before the COVID, that 92% of the caregivers on our social register that is meant to provide cash transfers to people are women. And also we found out that when we provided small loans, very small businesses, that performance of the loans from the women in terms of recovery is about 99%. So it just meant to us that taking care of what the women need is actually a very wise economic decision. You're able to get more mileage for whatever limited resources that you have. So we're doing that in every sector of the economy and we're beginning to see the results. We've designed a monitoring framework that enables agencies of government to report to us with data in a disaggregated format. So we see what the outcomes are of the plans and the funding that we have deployed. Well, thank you very much for your opening comments. And I think that's a very important point that you make and it's well articulated. It's not just important and imperative to bank on women. Women are also good to bank with. And I think that is the experience that the financial sector will certainly validate. Minister Irani, let me address that same issue with you. You know, we just heard here from the Minister from Nigeria talking about the need for financial inclusion, access to credit. There are several measures that the Indian government has already put in place, opening bank accounts for instance, the Mudra scheme for instance, for the benefit of our participants here and those who are watching, it is a scheme to try and ensure that there is access to credit for women who are looking at creating their own enterprises. How has the journey been so far? But more importantly, as we look ahead, given the context of the setbacks that we have seen through the course of the pandemic and the disproportionate impact it's had on women, what more needs to be done? Shireen, you began this conversation with a very ominous figure on the wall, which is 151 years needed to bring about parity and economic participation by women. How do you arrive at that number? Which level of economic participation or empowerment do you measure to reach that number? Let me give you an Indian context. We are a billion plus society of which 1.35 billion is the population of which 1.3 billion Indians now have a digital identity. Men and women equally so. We are a 700 million literate people of which 600 million are in the workforce, men and women included, some in the organized sector, some in the unorganized sector. When you talk about fiscal services, we need to see what did India do pre-pandemic because not much can be spoken of, post-pandemic or as we've transitioned out of pandemic from a gender perspective, just leave without recognizing what happened before the pandemic. Now in the year 2014, the prime minister said that in a billion plus society, we have close to 400 million people who are unbanked, out of which 220 million were women. The banks reached out for the first time in India. No individual walked up to a bank branch. Banking correspondents reached out to our society at large at zero deposits, opened up bank accounts for 440 million Indians of which 220 million were women. Now you speak about Mudra Yojna. It was not a gendered fiscal service. Mudra Yojna was basically a financial service where up to a million rupees for small industry, cottage industry, that credit support without collateral was proposed by the government. There was no subscription that this would be the agency of only women. What surprised people in the fiscal world was that 70% of the 320 million loans given out were taken by women, which means many recognize that at the entry level of enterprise, you have a female talent which by that time was appearing to be unrecognized. Then we came to a stage where we said if we want to provide support physically for mid-sized companies, the startup regime, should we do this again? Not a gendered financial service, but stand-up India came about. Nobody expected that 80% of the beneficiaries will turn out to be women, which means that in a world which is talking about and especially in Davos where we speak about scaling, re-skilling, this was a latent talent which was unrecognized. Women had the skill sets to drop a business plan, go to a bank, convince the banking sector of their business potential and as ministers rightly said, even in India, the NPA is 1% or less, which means when you support the agency of women, what do you support? It makes fiscal sense, it is societally empowering and it is civilizationally beneficial. Again, I'll go back to the number that you have pronounced here. How does India feature in that gap in dice? Which part of Indian womanhood is not recognized in that in dice? You speak about political power. I have 1.4 million women who get elected to office in the grass root structure of governance which is up in Chayat. These are women who spend money from the Indian treasury on issues which impact not only women's issues but also society at large, looking at infrastructure, the grass root, health, education, they don't get recognized in that in dice. It's as though they don't exist. I have 15 million women today in India who sit in administrative governance positions who don't get recognized by the in dice. Do they not exist? They very well do. I have 80 million women in India who handle singularly close to $32 billion worth of credit for themselves as a coalition. They skill themselves digitally and physically on many issues. They are a part of a supply chain of craft, of agro-processing. They don't figure there because they are not large industrial houses to sit at tables such as this and say we matter. We keep the economic wheels turning. So when you put money behind the agency of women, is it only enough to do so fiscally? What are the human development issues on which if you put that money on infrastructure, particularly supporting women, that it'll have a GDP impact. So again, I turn the clock back to 2014 when the prime minister said from the ramparts of the Red Fort, if we speak of gender justice, can we start by building toilets for women? Now no man in my country, and I'm sure I can speak for many democracies across the world, would ever stand on Independence Day and say let's build toilets for women. It's not politically glamorous, but my prime minister did. We built 110 million individual household toilets for women. Now if you look at the fiscal impact, in 2013 the World Bank report said that due to the lack of sanitation facilities, there is a negative 6% impact on our GDP. So while this looked like a pronounced intervention for women's health and sanitation, it had an impact on the economy as a whole. So I think that if we are looking at the cause of women to be served, we need to recognize, and we have set an example in India, that it cannot be siloed. Only fiscal, only academic, only skill, it has to be a holistic enterprise. Governments, policymakers, private sector, all have to come together. It is not about the revolution that can be walked singularly. No, it is absolutely not about a revolution that can be walked singularly. You need all stakeholders on board and all hands on deck. But Mr. Goldfein, picking up from what Minister Irani said, and of course she's also questioned the metrics that are used to come up with the gender parity survey that the World Economic Forum puts out. I want to understand from you about the civilizational impact, the economic impact that emancipating women brings to the table. The work that you are doing, for instance, as an agency at this point in time, take me through the empirical evidence that suggests that if you put more fiscal and monetary might to address this issue, we are going to be able to see multiplier impact. Well, thank you. Thank you for being here. I think it's an honor. It's a pleasure to be here. There are quite a few initiatives for development banks. All the financing linked to indicators. When you give financing to governments, to local governments, even to the private sector, they are linked to gender gaps and good practices. There are also initiatives of putting businesses and societies and governments together in platforms. We have a platform called Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiatives. They are also the accelerators with the World Economic Forum. There's also financing new innovations. For example, we're working with Laboratoria, which is a social enterprise initiatives that train women to get digital skills. So all of this is part of the effort. But you are asking me something which is more, I will say, economy-wide. What is the impact of not having the gender party in terms of growth and in terms of resilience, which is quite important. I will say, at least from the region, we are coming, there are three very important impact. First, we know that women represent 60% of university graduates in Latin America. But we are not using this talent in the labor market. For several reasons. So if we were able to use that to reduce the gap, you could be able to generate more growth, more productivity, just because you're putting in the labor market more talent that you're not using. That's the first one. The second is that we're getting old in the region. Latin America will become old, not so far away. And we will be having more people retiring than working. So if we are not able to put a very important part of the population, female part, into the labor market, this lower worker participation will get worse. So that's the second reason why it affects growth. The third one, which is very Latin America, informality. If there's a gender gap in informality, informality in the sense that we have more females in the informal sector. And informal sector have two problems. One, it's less resilient because if you have a pandemic and you need to have public services, you don't get to them. And also, we also know that in the informal sector, productivity is lower. And this is very, formalities has been very pervasive in Latin America. So what we can do? Well, you will say, well, let's use fiscal tools. What does it mean, fiscal tools? Usually when you have income gaps on other gaps, you use the tax system to do it. But in the informal sector, you're not gonna reach them because they're not formally, the tax system cannot really reach them. So what can we do? There are ways to try to be transparent. And we mentioned here about the gender budgeting, which is basically the way I understand it, is being very transparent and open and see the gender gap in all the fiscal measures. Both the services you provide, the subsidies you give, the sectors you finance, see what are you doing in terms of gender from your fiscal policy. And there are a lot of things you can do. You can allocate spending to either services that reach women in a direct way like healthcare or you can finance sectors, service sectors, where you have more female participation. So there are things you can do from a macro perspective, even though you don't use the tax system. Or for example, you can use other indicators, which is having in public procurement, buy from those that suppliers that have a better practice in terms of gender. So all of this is part of the toolkit, micro toolkit that you can use even though you have to reach a more informal sector. That's a very valid point that you make that very often the participation of women is on the informal side, that's not captured and that also makes it harder for them to be able to access the financial system. And of course, the toolkit that you spoke of in many parts of the world in different ways, shapes and forms that toolkit is being used. Gabriela, I wanna understand from you. You believe that the impact of the pandemic on gender parity and gender inequality has been profound and staggering, but you also believe that it is not an inevitable issue, that it is an issue that can be fixed. Now outside of some of the fiscal measures that you spoke of and I know that Oxfam is asking for higher taxes, tax the rich to be able to finance some of these goals that we spoke of, what is the roadmap that you want us to take forward? Thank you, so good questions and I would like to build on what the other panelists have said and go back to the 151 years because as was said, this is a figure, a target that we have, but it's in fact sliding back instead of going forward and the pandemic hit a very unequal world, unequal in so many ways economically, socially, gender unequal and it hit women disproportionately. And so we know on issues like education, of course there was already a huge education gap between boys and girls, but unfortunately in the crisis moment, more girls were pushed out of education. So that's not only an issue for the present but for the long-term future. So it's not just as you were saying earlier an issue of their rights, but also of their future economic contribution. So that's a big concern. Also women lost many more jobs than men for multiple reasons and young women lost twice the amount of jobs that young men lost. So that again is long-term and there are issues like if I was talking about the 60% graduates number in Latin America, why is it that they're not represented in the job market? And this, of course, the point that we haven't talked so much about is women's work in unpaid care work. There's unpaid and paid care work and that is central to our economies and it was central to our economies before the pandemic, but it became much more visible. This very invisible work became more visible and it's the reason behind many of these trends that we're now seeing and it's something that is not recognized in, for example, we measure countries GDP. So care is silently a motor behind that we need to make more central and something else that happens after the pandemic we've had all the shocks that we all know about and we have a huge debt crisis around the world. So countries have very tight fiscal spaces, very little maneuvering in order to invest in what matters. Health would be a priority after what we've lived through, but on average countries are spending $1 in health versus $4 in debt repayments. So that is the situation of very difficult choices and if we don't look at it more holistically as a system problem, we're not going to address it by initiatives here and there. So we do have an economic system that is predicated on benefiting the few and the reason we talk about taxation of wealth, as you're saying and the report we launched yesterday is because in reality the tax system has been shifting over the last 40 years to be on the shoulders of workers and on the average citizen who buys products and services of VAT and wealth is not taxed in the majority of context. So only four cents in every dollar of taxation comes from wealth and this change in taxation mix is actually a very feminist concept because in reality most of the billionaires, if you know, if you see are mostly white men and that's actually the system that is both patriarchal, neocolonial and that perpetuates these inequalities continues to perpetuate this. And so if we change this tax mix, the women on the other side are more represented in poverty, unfortunately. So we need to address this by looking at the sources of funding, the budget that is going to allow us to invest in what matters more to women and there, the care economy is fundamental, education, health and that will be the basis for more equal participation. I think many important aspects and specifically as far as the care economy is concerned, forget the fact that large part of it continues to be unpaid and hence not measured and hence the contribution isn't acknowledged as well but for women to fully be able to integrate into the labor market, care economy and evolving the care economy, making it affordable and accessible is going to be crucial because a disproportionate part of the burden of care falls on women. But minister, the context has been set very clearly by each one of you. And I think there is a lot of convergence in thoughts and ideas on what needs to be done to ensure that we do better on this front. And I want to understand from you specifically when we talk about social protection, when we talk about fiscal choices and fiscal space and it is getting constrained as Gabriella pointed out, the debt burden increasing at this point in time when an error of higher interest rates and high inflation as well. How do you as a leader, as a policy maker make those choices? What are those choices going to be as you move forward? Well, it's indeed very difficult times. The world has been going through a number of crises, whether it's COVID or climate, several things that we have to cope with on a daily basis. It means we have to do more, we have to find how to do more with less because the fiscal space is indeed very, very constrained. A lot of our resources is going towards debt service. So for every Naira we spend, we try to see how do we get the most benefit from it? And that's one of the reasons why we have to take the decision to say, how does it affect women? Because not only because they're half of the population, but because they are farther behind than the rest of the population and also because they tend to, when you give a small business, a woman's small business money, they tend to manage it better and therefore more results, more outcomes. And we need to do this on a consistent basis and we need to do this according to our plan. So we did a national, medium-term national development plan that across all of the sectors in the plan, we had the gender lens. And we costed the plan to require $775 billion years. 15% of that plan is, contribution is from the government. So we need to now also find how we can support private businesses, both large small as a medium, as well as small enterprises to contribute more to the economy. We need to also look at how do we create partnerships between the public and the private sector to enable the private sector channel its resources that is required to fund the development plan in the best possible way. While they get returns, we also get the contribution to the growth that is very important to need. And in all of this, there has to be a systematic system of monitoring of what are the outcomes of these targets that we have set. We have supported our National Bureau of Statistics that for every category of data that they produce, they must make sure that the data is also disaggregated, especially for social reporting like on poverty index on jobs, that the data is disaggregated. So we see whether we're on the right track or we need to continuously remodel. In the financial services also, we have seen data that shows that women further behind in terms of financial inclusion. So there's a conscious effort also within the financial service using digital ID to bring as many women, unlike India, we have a lot of population that are still not banked. They're not in the banking system and the largest proportion of those are women. So when you bring women into the banking system, you're able to give them financing through the banking system more seamlessly. Whether, and if government has interventions to provide, you're able to do that because they are bank accounts and identity numbers that you're able to channel those supporters. So the policy has to be deliberate and it has to be consistent whether it is a private sector company, whether it is a public sector company or even whether it is the financial services and other services. We need to start also at the ground level in engaging youths. Well, by the way, we don't have the problem we have. We have like 60% of our 206 million people are youths and very active youths, very vibrant. So in engaging youths, we have to begin to make that provision to say a certain percentage of the youth we employ whether we're government or business should be girls so that they're from the beginning, they grow through the system and then they have a chance to grow to the top. Well, you ended on an aspect which is controversial, an aspect that I think evokes a fair amount of discussion and debate on whether there should be reservation for women in different sectors. Should it be at the board level? Should it be at the entry level? And I think many companies and countries are grappling with this issue. But you talked about collaboration with the private sector and I want to move that forward, Minister Irani, to talk about global collaboration as well. This is a universal problem. It's a universal challenge. It is not Nigeria's problem or India's problem. You need to customize and design solutions that are relevant for each country or each company but this is a universal challenge. In the context of that, I want to address with you, India takes on the G20 presidency. One of the issues that has been prioritized for global collaboration by India as part of the G20 agenda is women-led development. So what can we expect on that front? I think, Shirin, we have to recognize that the vocabulary of gender justice is undergoing a change without much reflection. On this panel today, we spoke about women from the context of the labor market. Not many of us prioritize women as entrepreneurial leaders as though we as a gender are to feed just the labor market. So when we talk about the vocabulary of gender justice, we spoke today in this house about emancipation of women. And I'm very proud that the Prime Minister changed that narrative and we saw a tectonic shift where we now say women-led development which means that for any nation to prosper, women have to be the helm of economic affairs. We have a female finance minister. That being said, I want to just elaborate on one or two challenges. We need to recognize that we will not have a one size fits all solution. We have differentiated national potentials. We have differentiated national responsibilities and national challenges. Now, people say that technology is a great leveler and enabler for all genders. But what is the language of technology today available for women? I will not speak from any other experience but the Indian experience. We are looking at an age of automation. The language of automation is English. India has 16,000 dialects, 125 languages which are constitutionally recognized. If you want to empower the agency of women technologically, do we have that technology in my native languages? That is one issue that needs to be addressed. It is not only a solution that we are seeking for gender justice. I think it has great financial potential for companies. The second issue is that when you talk about the presidency and India at the helm of that affair, we also look at the digital transformation. Gabriella spoke about the red flagging of health spend. Now let's take another Indian example which is the Ayushman Bharat program which is the world's most, I think, elaborate, ambitious health program. We put money behind ensuring that for 1,300 diseases which includes cardiovascular issues and many other challenges that emanate from the health systems, 26,000 hospitals across the country are in panels servicing 100 million families which means at least 100 million women where they can seek access free of cost for 1,300 diseases. Now what is the impact? Societally and culturally it was presumed that issues like breast cancer and cervical cancer are not largely spoken of given the cultural context of close societies, that is the presumption one had. Now if you look at just one component of the success of the Ayushman Bharat program, the health program, we have in the past two years seen 130 million Indian women get themselves scanned for cervical cancer and breast cancer and receive treatment if they deemed it medically fit. Free of cost, governance and democracy has delivered on the health aspect at least in India. So what is the agency that we bring to the G20 presidency? That when you talk about digital transformation it need not be limited again to fiscal engagements, to building of corporations, to building of enterprise. It can have a cumulative effect across various segments. Academics, we had a stagnant education policy for three decades. We brought about a new education policy. Did we do it only in the halls of power in New Delhi? No, we did not. The Prime Minister ensured that we have over 260,000 village education councils. All the councils were called upon. Universities and college systems and parent teacher associations across all districts of India were asked, what is the kind of academic support you seek for your children? The parents' alliance, the alliance of young students were all called upon. Then a policy was arrived upon. And one of the benefits of that collaboration between government and citizens is that for the first time India now has a gender inclusion fund in our education policy to help build academic infrastructure particularly aimed at young girls and women. So the other issue which we hope through W20 to also leverage is the desire to ensure that we transition from innovation, especially in the gender space to enterprise because a lot is left to be done in that segment. Today 42% of STEM graduates in India are women. How do I encourage them that innovate for enterprise? And I think if that becomes a global call for action, much change can happen because do we reduce women only to consumption of technology or do we want to support them to become leaders of technological institutions or technological enterprise? So I think that the G20 gives us a unique opportunity to speak about our experiences, speak about our commitment, but also say to the G20 coalition that we hope that this expression of experience somewhere percolates to the global south, to empower the global south because we as a part of the presidency are saying that this is not about the Indian future. This is about global future and gender justice for all women across all geographies. Absolutely, and I think that is the perfect opportunity for us to get our comments in from our participants here because it is going to require, as I pointed out, dialogue at different levels, dialogue within countries, within companies and within the international alliance as well. So yes, ma'am, you have a question. I'm going to get a microphone across to you. Please go ahead. So thanks again for this opportunity. I'm Luana Genoa from Brazil. I work with Inclusion Deliber Market. I'll be brief. In Brazil, in Latin America, we are more than 210 million black and indigenous women and from marginalized groups. And I just would like to get to know from different reality standpoints. How do you ensure intersectionality in policymaking and addressing marginalized groups needs?  It can be obviously from desegregated data standpoint, but also from a tax standpoint. But I just would like to know how do you do affirmative actions in different realities? Would you like to take that? Thank you. And a very good question and something that I was beyond the intersectionality that you're talking about in terms of different ethnic backgrounds. We also need to speak about different gender identities, queer, non-binary, all the different identities that people have. We've been speaking very much in a binary way and that's part of our challenge going forward is great, as you say. And it's something for us to work on together on how policies can really address the intersecting identities. And we know already we're starting from 178 countries that have laws that restrict full participation of women, let alone all these different gender identities that need to be central. So policies that are centered on what the different groups would require specifically. So it would be depending on context, on difficult to say, a global response, but to say that it should be central to any policy work. Absolutely. We have a question here as well. Can I get the microphone? Thank you. My name is Paola Escobarra. I'm a Chilean journalist. And I wanted to ask you about quotas, because in Chile, we had a very interesting debate about gender parity regarding the new constitutional process. So it was accepted to have gender parity in the organ that's going to write the new constitution. The first project was rejected, but now we are going to a new one. And gender parity is the one thing, is one of the few things that is going to be, again, part of the project. So it's going to be written 50% women, 50% men. But that is about political participation. Now the government wants to pass a law on 40% quota in corporations. So there's debate, you know? Business people, they don't like to be, to have this kind of affirmative action by law. So there's debate about that. So I wanted to know, what do you think about quotas? Specifically, incorporations. Thank you. Mr. Goldfinne, would you like to take that? And as I said, this is a controversial issue. And I think every country is grappling with it. In India, we now have made it mandatory for women to have representation on boards. But there is a larger debate on how much and what more needs to happen if at all you go down the reservation road or the affirmative action road. Your thoughts? Well, there are different, I would say, political realities. And I think each country has an intelligent way of dealing with it. In terms of the regional banks, what we have been doing is having indicators and targets for gender. And I realize that there are different identities that should be incorporated in that regard. There's this issue about the transversality of gender versus development. But I think we have to have the three of them, gender, development, ethnicity, and other things. We need to put them together. I think the world is getting more complex. But for now, what the regional bank has been doing is looking at the targets has something to achieve for the loans you give, for the projects we do, for everything we do. But we don't have, we don't promote the regulations for the country, the countries do the regulations by themselves. Fair enough. And I think the private sector at this point in time is many CEOs have actually mandated, self sort of mandated that they should have targets in terms of 25% of women in leadership roles, 50%. And I think that varies across different companies. Yes, ma'am, you wanted to make a point. Thank you so much. My name is Minta Diop. I'm from Senegal, the founder of the Pharmafix Solidarity, but also a special envoy of the African Union on women, peace, and security. I think we all say that investing on women is the right thing to do, but not just the right thing, but the smart thing. As minister have said, you know, it's impact on the economic growth and that's the reality. But now we wanted to see how it translates in what you have said in the leadership, the participation of women in decision making, in the boardroom, in the political participation, but also in many areas. You know, in some of our countries, we have seen the patriarchal system, which is very strong. Even if you spend a lot of resources on the women's empowerment, it's still the glass ceiling. And I like this 151 years to come, 151 before we get there. Even though we invest on education, on health, on everything. What we have realized is women are still, you know, the glass ceiling is still there. So the role of men, what's the role of men in this? We need to look at that in the cultural barriers, the traditional barriers, the so many barriers that we need also. So I don't know what will be, like what we say in Africa, the positive masculinity. How do we engage with the boys as well to make sure that it's not the financial situation only, but there are other aspects that we need to take into consideration. I couldn't agree more with you. We need much more of positive masculinity. And minister, let me end by asking each one of you in exactly, I think we've got 30 seconds for each of you. You know, you've previously said that women must have a seat at the table and they must be co-creators of any strategic intervention. And to the point that was made here by the lady, how do we get more women to get a seat at the table? It's actually what she said is engaging more men, finding more he for she's is what we call it. Last year, we tried to amend our constitution to be able to have a commitment of 30% elected positions for women and we failed despite all of the campaigning because the men were asking, okay, if we give you the 30%, what about the 70%? Are you going to be also a part of that? And it didn't go through. So it's really very important to get, and there are some men that are very sympathetic to get more men on our side because that's the only way you can make progress. Absolutely. Minister Irani. Well, I think that I can very happily today elaborate on how if men are at the helm of this partnership, things change. Nobody expected Prime Minister Modi to speak about building of toilets. He did and he got it done. He's the first Prime Minister, irrespective of his gender, let me say this, who gave India its first menstrual hygiene administrative protocol. He is the first Prime Minister in India who passed in both Houses of Parliament medical termination of pregnancy at 24 weeks for women without a whimper or a noise from any other man in Indian politics. He is the first man or woman for that matter who stood on Independence Day just, I think, two years ago and spoke about access to menstrual hygiene products by girls and women in our administrative systems. For one rupee, he said, go get it. The fact that a man at the helm of affairs has brought about a change not only in discourse but also in administrative capacity ensured the gender justice percolates. I think it's a very fine example to reiterate what she says. The lady says, yes, we need that partnership. What is significant is that we talk about gender parity today in a room which has a smattering of gentlemen. Yes, we need more rooms like this. We need more conversation and we need equal participation. I absolutely agree. I'm gonna give Mr. Goldstein the final say, but Gabriella, very quickly, 20 seconds, we're out of time. How do we get more women at the seat of the table? And of course, how do we engage and partner more with men? So I think we need to go back to the subject matter of the panel, so economic recovery. And I think it is about, we're saying it's a holistic rethinking and we're not wanting to recover to where we were before. We want to really transform a system where we're all at the table in meaning that we are valuing all our identities and understanding that together we make societies that thrive but both because it's a right but also because it makes economic sense. And the care economy being at the center and I'm happy that the West is creating a council for the care economy and we are participating on it and it's working across sectors that we transform. Mr. Goldstein, the final 10 seconds to you. I just want to say that we are already engaging with positive masculinity here with me. Well, we have an example of that right here on the panel. Ministers, Gabriella and Mr. Goldstein, thank you so much for joining us here. It has been an interesting conversation with many ideas and insights on the table on what we can do to take this course forward, what we can do to champion the case for more women to participate in the global economy. And of course, as we've all pointed out, there is no one size fits all solution. It will need to be customized but there needs to be greater degree of collaboration. On your screens, ladies and gentlemen, that is the final slide that we are going to show you. That is what is happening at the World Economic Forum, the many initiatives of the forum to try and see that we can bridge this gap, we can mine the gap. That's of course the global gender gap report. I know Ms. Irani has issues with that but that's a debate for another day. We've got the gender parity accelerators and the global parity aligns. So, you know, the QR codes are there if you want to find out more about any of these initiatives, go ahead and do so. Do send us your feedback in your comments, your suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Once again, many, many thanks to my panel and many thanks to the participants. You've been a wonderful audience. Thank you very much for joining us here this morning.


Moodle 4 – Custom Reports Custom Reports, a feature of Moodle Workplace, is now available in Moodle LMS, bringing improved reporting functionality, making it easy to create, share and schedule custom reports using predefined data sources. Our administrator accesses this new feature from Site Administration, Reports, Report Builder, Custom Reports. She can click to create a new report, choosing her source from cohorts, courses or users. And in the Custom Reports editor she can remove columns, add columns and arrange the report using drag and drop. She can set conditions and filters, define the initial sort order and define the layout of the report when viewed on narrow devices. From Audience, our administrator can specify who will see this report, for example those with a specific system role, named individuals or members of a cohort. And from Schedule she can configure the automatic delivery of the report to the specified audiences, including how often the reports will be sent and an optional message. Access shows the list of users who have access to this report as defined in the audience. And finally from the Custom Reports page she can edit, delete and view her report. To summarise, custom reports from Moodle Workplace bring improved reporting functionality to Moodle LMS4.


Sailor Station on Okinawa gathers for a Sailor of the Year award banquet at Camp Shields to recognize this year's award recipients from the Island-Wide Navy Command. One thing that was very common with everybody was just, there was no I in their award. It was about what they did for the mission, what they did for the command, what they did for their junior sailors, and not just their junior sailors, but what they do for the senior leadership as well. If it wasn't for sailors like these, it would be difficult for the senior listed leaders to be able to go out and do other jobs that we're tasked with. So we rely heavily on our sailors that were in this room specifically to be that top one percent of the top ten percent. The sailors received their awards for the overall impact and contributions they made to their command. I just want to show people that I love what I do and teach people how to be great medical professionals and care for people, and that's literally why I do what I do. And that's what helped me get this far. Reporting from Okinawa, Japan, I'm Lance Corporal Michael Deloach.