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The Hindu
14 hours ago
- The Hindu
View India's Gender Gap Report ranking as a warning
India is now a global economic power, a digital innovator, and home to the world's largest youth population. But the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report (2025) is a sobering reminder that when it comes to gender equality, India remains far behind. Structural issues India ranks 131 out of 148 countries, with particularly low scores in economic participation and health and survival — the pillars essential for meaningful gender parity. These are not just social indicators. They are signs of a structural failure holding back national progress. Despite progress in educational attainment, India continues to struggle in ensuring women's health and autonomy. The report shows that India's sex ratio at birth remains among the most skewed in the world, reflecting a persistent son preference. The healthy life expectancy for women is now lower than men's. Such outcomes point to chronic neglect in reproductive health, preventive care and nutrition, especially for women from lower-income and rural backgrounds. Increased Budget allocations for health, especially at the primary care level, are a necessity to improve women's well-being and their access to basic services, such as education and health care. Without good health, economic inclusion becomes impossible. Nearly 57% of Indian women in the 15 to 49 age group are anaemic — as reported by National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 — which reduces their ability to learn, work, or carry pregnancies safely. Such a widespread and correctable issue is emblematic of the broader failure to treat women's health as a national development priority. India ranks 143rd on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Women continue to earn less than a third of what men do, and female labour force participation remains stubbornly low. The McKinsey Global Institute, in 2015, had projected that closing gender gaps could add $770 billion to India's GDP by 2025. Yet, in 2025, India appears to have lost out on the opportunity. At the current pace of progress, it may take over a century to close the global economic gender gap — and India lags behind even that trajectory. A sidelining This is not just about employment numbers. Women remain busy in informal and subsistence work and are grossly under-represented in decision-making spaces — from boardrooms to budget committees. The result is a policy ecosystem that repeatedly sidelines women's lived realities. The burden of unpaid care work continues to be a major drag on women's time and agency. Indian women perform nearly seven times more unpaid domestic work than men, as highlighted by the Time Use Survey. Yet, this critical labour remains invisible in national accounting and underfunded in public policy. Investing in care infrastructure such as childcare centres, elder care services and maternity benefits would not only ease this burden but also enable millions of women to enter or re-enter the workforce. The vacuum in these services reflects both a gender and an economic blind spot. Central and State governments must begin to account for unpaid care work in their economic and social policy frameworks through time-use surveys, gender budgeting, and direct investment in care infrastructure. India can look to countries such as Uruguay and South Korea, which have begun integrating care economies into their development plans, with positive results. Supporting senior citizens India is at a demographic turning point. While it continues to draw benefits from a young population, its percentage of senior citizens is expected to nearly double by 2050, reaching close to 20% of the population. This demographic shift will predominantly comprise very old women, especially widows, who often experience high dependency. At the same time, fertility rates have already fallen below replacement level, as noted in the NFHS-5. This means that the working-age population will shrink and the care needs of the elderly will rise. The only way to sustain economic growth in this context is to ensure women — half the population — are healthy, supported, and economically active. Gender equality is no longer just a rights issue. It is a demographic and economic necessity. If women continue to exit or be excluded from the workforce, the dependency ratio will rise even faster, placing greater strain on fewer workers and undermining fiscal stability. Reversing this trend demands integrated policies that connect health, labour and social protection. India does not lack frameworks or ambition — the slogans are there. What is required is real investment: in public health systems that prioritise women's needs; in care services that redistribute unpaid work, and in policies that see women not as beneficiaries, but as builders of the economy. The Global Gender Gap Report is not just a ranking. It is a warning: unless India treats gender equality as central to its economic and demographic future, it risks squandering the gains it has worked so hard to achieve. Poonam Muttreja is the Executive Director at Population Foundation of India. Martand Kaushik is Senior Specialist—Media and Communications at Population Foundation of India
Time of India
15 hours ago
- Time of India
Bill Gates' bold prediction: AI won't replace this career even after 100 years; can you guess it
Bill Gates' bold prediction: AI won't replace this career even after 100 years; can you guess it Bill Gates has spent almost fifty years pushing software forward, so when he says a single profession will stay human long after artificial intelligence rewires the rest of the economy, people listen. Speaking in early July, the Microsoft co-founder told interviewers that programming will 'remain a human job for at least a century'. He is not brushing off AI's power as the WEF (World Economic Forum) 2025 report projects automation could erase 92 million roles by 2030, while creating about 170 million new ones, but he draws a clear line around code. Writing software, he argues, is less about typing syntax and more about spotting unseen patterns, judging trade-offs and making a leap no algorithm can anticipate. AI can already draft snippets, debug routine errors and suggest architectural templates, yet the spark that turns a half-baked idea into working logic still comes from a person at a keyboard. Bill Gates' latest AI prediction Gates shared the view in separate conversations with The Economic Times and The Tonight Show, then echoed it during a podcast with Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath. Each time he circled back to the same point: tools like Copilot and ChatGPT are power chisels, not replacement carpenters. They shorten grunt work but leave the blueprint to us. Why programming, of all careers, stays human by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Providers are furious: Internet access without a subscription! Techno Mag Learn More Undo Code often starts with an ill-formed idea—say, turning sensor data into a flood-prediction dashboard. A machine can crunch numbers, yet deciding which signals matter and how the user will act on the output involves judgment, negotiation and a few flashes of intuition. Gates calls that the 'creative leap' AI cannot copy. Large models spit out plausible text, but a misplaced bracket or misunderstood requirement can crash a critical system. Spotting edge cases takes domain insight and lived experience, qualities still thin in training data. Gates says AI can help with 'boring stuff like debugging,' but final responsibility sits with a human reviewer. APIs are deprecated, laws shift, and users click in ways nobody predicted. The best programmers keep adapting code to fit messy reality. AI excels at frozen snapshots; humans excel at moving targets. Other jobs that Bill Gates thinks are safer Gates singles out biology and energy as disciplines where scientific curiosity, ethical trade-offs and crisis management require a person in charge. Sports, he jokes, will also stay human because nobody wants to watch robots play baseball. How does this prediction fit broader job-market numbers The World Economic Forum projects a net gain of +78 million jobs by 2030, despite losses in clerical and routine design roles. Programming sits on the creation side of that ledger, not because AI is weak, but because software problems keep mutating faster than the models that try to automate them. Related FAQs 1. What job did Bill Gates say AI will not replace? He said programming will remain human for at least the next hundred years. 2. Why does he think coding is safe? Gates argues that programming relies on creativity, judgment and deep problem-solving, traits he believes AI cannot fully mimic. 3. Can AI still help programmers? Yes. Tools can draft boilerplate code, suggest fixes and catch simple bugs, but humans guide architecture and make final calls. 4. Are any other careers safe according to Gates? He also lists biologists, energy experts and professional athletes as roles likely to stay human-led. 5. Does Gates dismiss AI risks? No. He acknowledges AI could displace millions of workers and says society must rethink how people use their newfound free time. Also read | Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's net worth soars $1 billion as the chipmaker joins the $4 trillion club AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Indian Express
a day ago
- Indian Express
World's top 10 biggest tourism economies in 2024–25: India breaks into top 10 at this rank
World's Top 10 Biggest Tourism Economies in 2025 List: Amid a strong post-pandemic recovery and despite challenges such as climate pressure and local tourism fatigue, the global travel and tourism sector contributed US$10.9 trillion to the world economy in 2023, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The WTTC's 2024 Economic Impact Trends Report shows the industry on an upward trajectory, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) forecasting the sector to hit $16 trillion by 2034, representing over 11 per cent of global GDP. As per the WTTC, the United States remains the world's largest tourism economy in 2024, contributing an unprecedented $2.36 trillion, nearly double that of its closest competitor. China ranks second with $1.3 trillion, and is projected to become the global leader within the next decade. Japan, notably, climbs to fourth place with a $297 billion contribution. While established players like Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain continue to hold strong positions in the top 10, Asian economies such as Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, and the Philippines are fast emerging as regional tourism powerhouses. Several countries have also seen significant jumps in international tourism spending compared to pre-pandemic levels. These include Saudi Arabia (+91.3 per cent), Türkiye (+38.2 per cent), Kenya (+33.3 per cent), Colombia (+29.1 per cent), and Egypt (+22.9 per cent). Source: WTTC Economic Impact Research (EIR) India's global position explained: India has made notable progress, now ranking as the eighth-largest tourism economy worldwide with a contribution of $231.6 billion, up from its previous position of tenth. This advancement highlights the country's increasing significance in the sector, with the WTTC forecasting a rise to fourth position within the next decade. Cherry Gupta is an Assistant Manager - Content at The Indian Express. She is responsible for crafting compelling narratives, uncovering the latest news and developments, and driving engaging content based on data and trends to boost website traffic and audience engagement. One can connect with her on LinkedIn or by mail at ... Read More
