Day: August 12, 2020

Graphology

Graphology is the study of hand writing to assess the personality traits of a person. It is the evaluation of physical characteristics and patterns of a handwriting to identify personality characteristics. It is also used to identify the writer and their mental state during the time of writing. The word graphology has been derived from the Greek word grapho meaning writing and logos meaning study or discussion. Graphology has been used by European psychologists and counsellors. It says that there is a relationship between personality, conducts, intellectual level, temper and character in handwriting. Hand writing can be analysed according to pressure, size, slant, zones, layout (margins, spaces between letters, words and lines). At present there are also some AI tools and websites which can be used.

 Alfred Binet conducted a study on handwriting and called graphology “the science of the future”. In 1929, Milton Bunker founded The American Grapho Analysis Society. It made two different branches in the world of American graphology – graphoanalysis and holistic graphology.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

Graphologists

The works of some graphologists are mentioned below:

Max Pulver had authored three graphology books (from 1931 to 1949) and several articles. He has worked on pressure, intelligence, and crime. He developed the theory of symbolism of space and founded the Schweizerische Graphologische Gesellschaft (Swiss Graphological Society) in 1950 and was its president until his death.

Camillo Baldi was an Italian philosopher who worked on a variety of subjects. His best known essay on graphology was the first detailed investigation of the discipline.

Robert Saudek was a Czech-born graphologist. He was also a writer of novels, stories, poems and plays. He had considerable influence on the content and standing of graphology worldwide and published numerous articles in many languages like The Listener, the Journal of Social Psychology. He founded the Professional graphology society in the Netherlands and started two academic periodicals: in Dutch and English. Many graphologists worldwide today refer to Saudek’s work without knowing the origin. He published Experimental Graphology in 1929. Saudek examined the speed in handwriting and quantified handwriting by using a microscope, caliper, pressure board, ruler, protractor and slow-motion pictures. He also dealt with graphological phenomena in terms of the experimental psychologists.

Sheila Lowe is a British-born novelist and graphologist. Her first book was published in 1999 and was a bestseller in the Complete Idiot’s Guides series. In 2007, the first edition of Poison Pen, the first of her Claudia Rose forensic mystery series came out, published by Capital Crime Press. She is at present the president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation.

Studies

There have been studies in the U.S. on handwriting and sex. According to the research sex could be determined through writing at a significant level. Studies on ethnicity, race, age, nationality, sexual orientation, weight have got mixed results. According to the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, handwriting analysis without informed consent is considered to be a privacy violation.

Controversy

Graphology has been a controversial topic for about a century. Some suggest that empirical studies have failed to show its validity to perform personality evaluation. Although it has got support from the scientific community in the mid twentieth century, recent researches have rejected the validity of graphology as a tool for assessing personality and job performance.

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Standardised Testing and the Coaching Class Culture

A better love story than Twilight.

Standardised testing. A serial dream killer. Hope undermining, man-made catastrophe.

The need for an absolute overhaul is inevitable for the sake of sanities of many. A change in the thought processes of the society would be the apt stepping stone for such a revolution.

As we approach the third decade of the twenty-first century, I guess it’s time to do away the standardised testing as a measure to test the overall capacity of an individual. Following such ancient methods of evaluating young minds in such a fast paced world is absolutely bonkers, we, should know better.

Experts across the fields have endorsed the need for knowledge based learning over memory based learning. But still many are capitalising on the status quo. With millions at the receiving end having it for the worse.

We all have at least appeared for one or the other such tests in our lives. There’s no denying that, the education system is wired in such a manner that there’s no other way around it. Best to succumb to it and make it out in one piece.

It’s saddening to the very least to admit to the fact that many of our dreams were often short-lived by courtesy of such devious measures. Figuring out one’s capacity to follow up his dreams and aspirations over memory based evaluations. Preposterous.

We all have friends and acquaintances who were not able to tread upon a path close to their hearts due to their inability to mug up and show up for standardised tests.

We might even know significant numbers of people, who could’ve been significant figures in their respective favourite fields if they haven’t had fallen prey to the societal norms and ambit of such tests to pursue mainstream degrees and careers.

If you’re somebody who has not been shot down by such a measure, count your blessings. You’re indeed one of the rarest of the rare.

With every passing year, millions of students are pushed into the rat race of such tests by the pressure implied by their guardians, mostly. The crazy obsession over a few courses and institutions in lieu of a trend that has long passed, but is still not accepted by the masses. People are suckers for a safe and secure career that is entirely overrated. 

With the passing of each year, new and newer coaching centres for prepping the kids for such exams are coming up in every nook and corner of our societies. Coaching centres are definitely and will be the black for a while. 

Another number synonymous with the pass numbers of such institutions are the suicide rates among the ones that go there. With the crammed up schedules to only learn and nothing else, millions of kids are traumatised by the agony inflicted upon them.

The only good, such institutions do are their unbridled role over building smaller economies. Pressured with the need to cater to the high numbers of students joining such institutions, they’re forced to establish bigger institutions to accommodate the same. 

Hence, they resort to remoter areas where land is cheap and set up shop there. With more and more families trying to put their kids through such a process, they move closer to such institutions and play their part in fuelling the growth of such rural economies.
A blessing in disguise for many.

We live in a country where the education policies are over three decades old. Since then we’ve liberalised the markets, had massive growth of population and numerous other socioeconomic changes, but this sector falls short to such changes.

With every passing year, education becomes more political than the year before. Higher passing percentages are a matter of concern for political parties to market false bravado. Unaware of the millions who fall prey to such a process.

Rewarding students based on their abilities to rot learn and awarding them with grace marks for selfish reasons might seem reasonable in the short term. But in the long run, bringing out generations of students proficient, theoretically, would just drag this great nation to the dirt. 

“A stitch in time saves 9”, better act up before it’s too late.

Do express your views in the comments below.

Learn to Say No

We all have that kind of behaviour where we put others first than ourselves. Our priority changes with people who are more important to us. But don’t you think keeping oneself to backseat every time will not help in a long run process. We have to prioritise thing for our own self too. Sometimes the most empowering decision is also the most painful decision.

Pleasing people attitude is be rooted in us since childhood. We might have been raised to be a good girl or boy, praised for being “mummy’s little helper”, or we might not have been given enough attention, and so sought it by pleasing others, even at the expense of ourselves.

Sometimes we just get so used to it that we are not answerable to our own-self what we want? Let us thing why we can’t say a simple word ‘no’ is it so hard to express it is a word with only two alphabets easy and too simple to understand but then to we just can’t speak it as we have a fear of rejection, we have a feeling that they will be disappointed by us, angry, hurt their feeling, unkind to them or rude.

We have been to many coffee dates with a person which we are not that interested in but, we just said yes as we can’t say no keeping our time, money, feelings on stake.

Learning how to cure the ‘people pleasing’ urge is a day to day process. But it is important to do it, to put boundaries and set limits, so you don’t end up living in other’s terms, but in yours.

How to set boundaries step by step

  • Realize the importance of boundaries

The first step of this journey is to realize how having no-boundaries affects our daily life and personality. Pleasing people all the time, putting them before our health and our life is the main reason of our exhaustion, stress and lack of self-esteem.

  • Be prepared

You will meet people who will try to break your boundaries but you have to mentally, physically prepared for such situation. You will have to be strong and confident on your values.

  • No guilt or fear

We mostly forget that the first person’s feeling we have to take care for is our own self and that the fear of losing others will make us lose ourselves.

  • No justification

Justifying their negative attitude towards you, will keep you ‘under their spill’. Try to be rational about this. If a friend keeps putting you down, keep blaming you for their own failures, is he/she really a friend? We should draw the line between being a good friend, and letting toxic people run your life.

  • Change your behaviour

You cannot change others, but you can change your behaviour towards them to step on all your values, they continue to do so. But when you take charge and stop them from doing it, there’s not much choices for them.

  • Make your statement and a request

After you have come to the conclusion, make sure to calmly talk to the person that made you feel uncomfortable. Take this step when you are calm enough to be rational, not when you are filled with anger and pain.

  • State the consequences

If the other person is unable to meet your request the next step is to take care of your-self. You now let the other person know how you are going to deal with the situation. It’s important to plan how you are going to behave before you make your boundary request. That’s means that if they don’t accept your terms, you have thought of some consequences on their relationship with you.

  • Mean it

If there is no persistence then the boundary doesn’t even exist. Remind yourself of the importance of your physical, mental and emotional health and how putting these boundaries is helping you protect them.

Conclusion

Choosing yourself doesn’t always feel good yet you must learn to find the wisdom that lies within the ache. The ache is where you meet your power.

History of Psychology

Psychology is an exciting field because we have explored deep beneath the oceans, above the skies but we haven’t explored ourselves. Since every person is unique therefore this branch of science is challenging than any other. And knowing the history of the field helps to make sense from where it has grown and developed. History is very crucial for understanding something. Whether you are meeting someone for the first time seeing a physician, talking to a counselor, or applying for a job, everything starts with history. the history of psychology has no definite answer, some say it started with ancient Greece, some trace it back to the 19th century when psychology was formally proposed and instituted. Precursors to psychology could be found in philosophy and physiology. In the early 1800s, these principles were taught as courses on mental and moral philosophy that taught mind based on the faculties of intellect, wills, and senses. Philosophical questions about the nature of mind and knowledge were matched in the 19th century by physiological investigations of the sensory systems of the human observer. German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) measured the speed of the neural impulse and explored the physiology of hearing and vision which indicated that our senses can deceive us and are not a mirror of the external world. This showed that even though the human senses are fallible, the mind could be measured using the methods of science. An important implication of his work was that physical reality and psychological reality are distinctive. The question of the relationship between mental and material was investigated by several German Researchers called psychophysics, which would serve as the basis for the new science of psychology. But the formal development of modern psychology was credited to a German physician, psychologist, and philosopher Wilhem Wuhnt. The researches conducted by Wilhelm attracted students from across the globe to study experimental psychology. On such student, Edward Bradford Titchener brought this idea to America and named it “structuralism”. Structuralists were interested in the contents of the mind. While structuralists were expanding in America, others like William James inspired by Darwin’s evolutionary theory formed “functionalists” who were interested in activities of the mind. Opposed to the idea of Titchener, James believed consciousness is continuous and cannot be reduced to elements. Consciousness helps us to adapt to the environment, make decisions, and have personal responsibility for the choices.  Throughout the first half of the 20th century, psychology continued to grow and flourish, one good example was Gestalt psychology whose perspective is “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Most of the practitioners of Gestalt psychology were Jewish and were forced to flee Germany during the Nazi Regime. They came to America where they demonstrated their new audience how Gestalt could be used to perception and learning and thus could be said as the precursor to the rise of cognitive psychology. Behaviorism emerged early in the 20th century Championed by psychologists such as John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner, it rejected any reference to mind and viewed overt and observable behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology. For decades behaviorism dominated American psychology. Modern intelligence tests were developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet whose goal was to develop a test that would identify schoolchildren in need of educational support. His test, included tasks of reasoning and problem solving, was introduced in the United States by Henry Goddard and later standardized by Lewis Terman at Stanford University.  Clinical psychology was also an early application of experimental psychology in America. Lightner Whitmer, a Ph.D. in experimental psychology believed that because psychology dealt with the study of sensation and perception, it should be of value in treating children with learning and behavioral problems. He is credited as the founder of both clinical and school psychology.  Given that psychology deals with the human condition, it wouldn’t be surprising that psychologists would involve themselves in social issues  Helen Thompson Woolley and Leta S. Hollingworth were pioneers in research on the psychology of sex differences who proved that emotions didn’t influence women’s more than men nor menstruation. Among the first generation of African American psychologists, Mamie Phipps Clark and her husband Kenneth Clark studied the psychology of race and demonstrated how school segregation negatively impacted the self-esteem of African American children. 

It wouldn’t be possible to mention the rich history of psychology in such a short space, thus omissions and errors are plausible. This brief history provides some glimpse of the history of psychology, hoping for you to see connections and have an appreciation for both unity and diversity of the field of psychology.

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Glory or Suffering?

WAR is the fight or conflict between two countries ,religion ,caste ,greed ,power the list goes on
and on .The word WAR itself says the fight to get something or which can not be obtained by
normal means . In the 21st century the war is for water ,food and jammu kashmir.
I will elaborate the war which is normalised in society with the help of the past example of
American civil war. Everyone is little bit familiar with what is american civil war .The civil war is
the central event recorded in the american history .The revolution of 1776-1783 created the
United States civil war of 1861-1865 which will determine what kind of nation it would be. The
civil war was fought between northern united states and southern united states .The primary
reason for the war was long standing controversy over the enslavement of black people .The
main reason was the colour (black and white)which lead to the biggest in the american history.
War broke out in april 1861 when the american forces attacked fort sumter in south carolina
shortly after Abraham lincoin had inaugurated as the new president of the United states.
There was a great loss of about 620,000to 750,000 lives which is more than a u.s.military
deaths in all other wars .So the war leads the great loss to the environment ,family,extreme
destruction to the material and lives of the people.This is not only one war there had been lot of
wars for other reason also as which had took place in past as INDO PAKISTHAN WAR, SINO
INDIAN WAR,KARGIL WAR ,BATTLE OF PLASSEY,THIRD BATTLE OF PANIPAT etc.
If we go for the overview of all the war fought it shows that either the war was for land
,empire,money,strength,or revenge.War is not only between the two parties it is between the
societies ,it’s between the mentality. War is evil but not all the time as for example in speaking
about the war as the conflict of interest in certain situation war is necessary which turns out into
a thing to be proud of as the attack of indian force over the pakistan in november 2018 where
74 terrorist were killed by the Indian para commando ,yes it was a revenge of india but its good
in the sense that they entered in their land and destroyed the whole terrorist cell of about the
whole village it was all under the president’s order and all came back safely and had dinner
with the president that shows the strength and power id Indian army and forces to their enemies
.If i go with the socio economical sense point of view which states that war is motive power of
progress and effective method of keeping the situation stable.
Entering into the question of why it is normalised nowadays as ,recalling the past history we
come to this conclusion that when any country or the normal person has raised their voice
leading to war they have got it . So war is the best medium to get thing done or to take
something forcefully by the mean of shedding blood , money and great loss to the environment .

Trends in fashion among youth

Every individual on the planet is engulfed with fashion fad . In today’s world clothes the outer
look, defines the man status in the society . Fashion world has undergone many notable
changes with change of time . It is really hard to coping up with such furiously changing trends
and styles . Every fashion houses bring up their lines in each season with wide variety of styles ,
trends , colors , themes and patterns . although it is tough to copy up with changes but some
time it allows one to add all fresh and new fun to the wardrobe .
Fashion is a tyrant; no tyrant is greater than that of fashion. Everyone tries to imitate the latest
fashion trends . The youth specially are mad after this . Youth does not mind any expenditure to
be made in fashion . They must have their clothes cut according to the latest vogue;their hair
made up according to the latest style, even if these places a heavy burden on their parents .
Today youth knows that this particular fashion will soon pass ;than also they spend lots of
money over it . Costly articles of dress are often discarded,only because the fashion has passed
away. Educated girls are more mad behind the fashion ,dresses, cosmetics,hair
styles,makeup,footwear,jewelry,ornaments etc.
When it comes on the different cultures ,how youth is mad on the fashion trends now days.
Many different cultures have lot of different fashion styles, ways and senses. Every fashion
trends experiences different variations and changes.( English culture) Every body is aware of the
elegant style of English men and women. Heavy dress and complex suits are out of fashion now
days. But it does not stop English fashion incorporating some of the traditional pieces into
their every day wardrobe. Man still wears suits or add some classic touch such as vintage
cuff links or blower hats. Accessories are very important to women ,too much that it is not
surprising to see any women wearing stable jewelry, reminiscent of old times. This is all about
the common man and women but when it comes on the youth ,we can see sporty roll looks
females with high heck look top ,ripped jeans and stylish heels.
Whereas,the Indian culture,the inspiration of fashion world is Indian culture . It is the role
model of fashion world . Beautiful colors, fabric ,and their flowery texture became extremely
popular and Indian designers has outdone themselves in this matter.The colorful Indian sarees
started to represent some of the Indian re flexion as an art . The quality and fabric used in the
clothes is very fine and elegant . Indian culture is known for its jewelries and their perfection in
their work of art which gives the clear view of India . Youth of India is in trap of different cultures
as it wears western dresses and make Indian dresses more of it stylish and attractive . The glow
of Indian culture is increasing with more additional ways and looks , design etc.
The fashion trends in youth is getting more and more as they them selves make their own
design as cutting their jeans into shorts and normal jeans into ripped jeans .

WAR

“Separation from the wife, disgrace from one’s own people, an enemy saved in battle,
service to a wicked king, poverty, and a mismanaged assembly these six kinds of evils, if
afflicting a person, burn him even without fire.”—Chanakya.
Since the Dawn of humanity war has been an integral part in the lives of people. War simply
shows the greedy nature of human beings. The hunger for power, for richness overrules
morality. People are ready to kill each other for some metaphorical gain. Earlier the
common people used to fight wars for their survival and protection against unknown
communities. As time passed there arisen a separate segment of people designated just for
war. The soldiers. These people have been named different things such as Kshatriya or
Vikings or Roman fighters. They were glorified because they could kill and die.
But why did war originate in first place? In earlier times getting resources were not that
easy so people had to move around in search of resources.
Professor Hanson says, “Ultimately, war is a question of economics, in which the options of
all states are confined by their ability to produce goods and services; thus, every armed
force calibrates the greatest military power for the least cost. Armies in the Dark Ages and
medieval era, like their classical predecessors, were not immune from such constraints, and
so learned quickly that man for man, infantry could be provided for at a tenth of the
expense of mounted troops.” Victor Davis Hanson, Carnage and Culture at p.213 (Anchor
(New York, 2001).
That caused wars but nowadays when we are capable of supplying resources to every part
of the world and still survive, we still fight wars. From necessity War has become an egoistic
game for the ruling people. the kings used to fight wars to consider themselves more
powerful and now governments fight wars for display of power. And somehow, we as a
society have accepted these things. Majority of the people today support war and feel that
their country should fight was against the countries to show that they are powerful. very
often we can see people in India speaking that we should wage a war against Pakistan.
This is because most of the people don’t have active participation in war since they don’t
have to be on ground zero, they don’t get the situations that are there on battlefield. A
soldier dies protecting people He doesn’t even know for a idea called country. Dying in war
is glorified, people dying in words are called Martyrs. But what will be there as long as there
is difference between humans as long as there are different communities as long as there
are different types of people because difference always creates conflict. With the
advancement in technology people are coming together more than ever. And the gap
between communities are slowly getting narrow down I believe they will soon come a time
when what is no longer necessary and humanity will come as a whole to solve the new
enemies of humanity that day is a day which we should look forward to.

KAKOOS

The documentry is all about manual scavenging, which refers to the practice of manually
cleaning, carrying, disposing or handling in any manner, human excreta from dry latrines
and sewers. The people mostly involve here are from similar caste or basically lower caste
who don’t have any income source are engaged in such activity so that they can earn their
living the serve the family. Constitution of India has banned cleaning manual scavenging
,but it has several loopholes government has mostly outsourced the work to contractors
who give minimum wages and there is lesser job security and hygiene related to work
which is most important factor. Although the government has invested crores of ruppes
for toilets and sewer cleaning but the work given to contractors are not performed well ,
workers are given gloves and masks, but the quality of those products is so bad that they
get rashes, itches and affect their skin and health . there has been many of the cases where
the people involved in such work ( sewer cleaning) are affected by severe diseases which
causes death at last and government takes not responsibility for this . These deaths if
shown on TV are termed as Accident, Slipped and Fell and some were as ridiculous as a
person’s phone fell so he jumped in. No accountability of government or contractors. It is
shown that Government has promised to provide 10 Lakhs to the family of the deceased
worker. Even this amount is not a substitute for human life. There are Dalit Communities
that take a fee or commission out of it as a form of funding the Dalit Revolution.
Government will rather spend 10 Lakhs to give the dead instead of paying for equipment
or tools to make the work less hazardarous. Documentary has 27 cases of men who died
in cleaning privates and public enterprises the report says more then 1,370 people have
died in sewer holes in last four year .
MEASURES TO BE TAKEN
As Individuals, we should realise we are equally guilty and responsible:
 Never throw tampons, condoms and plastic in the drainage. They frequently stall
the drainage.
 Throw garbage only inside dustbin. Never in the street, septic tank or outside the
dustbin.
 Ensure your garbage to be thrown in dustbin is in a proper bag, doesn’t contain
glass, and human excreta.
 Do Not use the Train toilets while the train is halted in a station.
 If you come across any manual scavenger, at the very least check if he is wearing
protective gloves and other equipments.
 If the person isn’t wearing anything for safety, consider intervening and asking the
contractor. If he doesn’t comply, you may take a video and report to police.
Government:
 First and Foremost: The Government has to invest in buying machinery which can
clean ditches, septic tanks. Incase such a device is Not fully available, import them
or invest in engineers and startup to build.
 Ensure usable and quality protective gears are provided to sanitation workers.
 Provide Immunization for workers.
 Increase minimum wage of sanitation workers.
 Implementing rehabilitation schemes (law is already there) for transitioning manual
scavengers to other work.
 Implementing schemes (law is already there) for education to children of manual
scavengers to finish schools. Enable more people to get benefit of reservation and
come up

All divided

The policy of reservation has become very much biased now, but at the time is was
implemented it was good for SC/ST generation, for promotion and upliftment of their
generation, but afterward it was like it affected the general caste category so badly that people
till now create difference among themselves. We would have left the mindset of caste system
so long bhut because of these reservations that people have, if we talk little amount of
reservation that everyone think that there is some biased-ness’ prevails. When reservation
policy was implemented it was for upliftment for 10-15-year policy but now it is used as a
vote bank policy and being used to play politics so get the advantages of SC/ST and OBC
advantage. It differently was a fraudulent act by the politician and created Outrageous for
creamy layer the general category people in term of job and education sector because not all
general caste people are rich they also need to have equal opportunities in order to compete
with other people.

Now, foreign investors allowed to invest in ‘Alternative Investment Fund’ without PAN

In what has come as a relief to non-residents investing in category I and II alternate investment fund (AIF) located in International Financial Services Center (IFSC), the income tax department has amended rules to exempt such entities from obtaining permanent account number (PAN) on a mandatory basis.

The carve-out for such investors from section 139A of the Income Tax Act is contingent on non-residents not earning income other than from said funds. Additionally, these funds are also required to deduct TDS on such income.

Further, the exempted non-resident investors are also required to furnish declaration containing name, address, country of residence and tax identification number of the country or specified territory of their residence. Among other conditions, to avail the relaxation, the funds are required to furnish quarterly statement for non-resident investors in the newly notified format.

Sunil Gidwani, partner at Nangia Andersen LLP, said, “The demand for exemption has been based on the fact that the fund operating from IFSC would be withholding tax payable by the investors. This would go a long way in making it easy for the fund managers to attract foreign investors in a fund set up in IFSC and would give impetus to IFSC as a fund jurisdiction.”

Under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, any person who has earned taxable income in the previous financial year must apply for PAN.

Want to invest in government securities? Here is how you can do it!

If you want to buy government securities or G-secs, what better way to do it than buy it on NSE app! The NSE goBID is a mobile app and web platform for investing in government securities in primary market. It provides a facility for eligible retail investors to participate in auction of government securities on noncompetitive basis. Through this platform investors can invest in Treasury Bills (T-Bills) and GoI Dated Bonds.

 How to register on NSE goBID platform? 

Eligible retail investors are required to complete one time registration on NSE goBID platform. Investors can select from any two options available for registration: 

1. All eligible retail investors (individuals, firms, corporate, trusts etc as specified by RBI) who are clients of NSE trading members (stock brokers) can sign up by selecting their respective trading member. Trading members of NSE are permitted to offer their clients use of goBID platform for placing order. If a trading member is registered on goBID platform his name will be available for selection. 

Investors will be required to provide basic details like PAN, demat account details, mobile number and email at time of registration. The account is activated in one business day after e-verification of demat details and client account details with selected trading member. 

Portals to link job-seekers and employers a good idea, also offer reskilling opportunities

While the economy continues to grapple with the economic consequences of Covid-19, the worst affected are the youth, facing mass unemployment and loss of jobs. According to data compiled by CMIE, about 41% of people aged 15-29 were out of work in May; 27 million people aged 20-30 had lost their jobs in April. Even before the pandemic started, India’s economic growth was sluggish, and youth unemployment rates were record high. The job losses due to the pandemic have only exacerbated the situation, and this is going to have severe long-term implications unless there is immediate and effective policy intervention.

The recent launch of Rozgar Bazar portal by Delhi government and the upcoming Unnati portal of the NITI Aayog are welcome steps in this direction. These portals intend to make job opportunities available to the youth, who lost employment due to the lockdown. They allow employers to update job requirements and job-seekers to update qualifications and experience. While this can definitely serve as a great medium to bring job-seekers and employers on one platform, to ensure a better and improved matching of vacancies with the unemployed, it must be complemented with efforts to address skill mismatches in the labour market. As per the government estimates, less than 5% of India’s workforce is formally skilled. Workers in the manufacturing sector particularly have staggering levels of under-education.In 2011-12, in textile and clothing sector alone, around 54.5% people with no formal education, close to 66% with below primary education and 53.7% with primary education held jobs that require higher education levels. On the other hand, close to 82% with secondary education, 76.5% with higher secondary education, 47.8% graduates, and 45.2% postgraduates held jobs requiring lower education levels.

Skilling and education are central for enhancing the employability of the rising workforce, but they would become even more important following the pandemic. Many countries are ramping up their efforts to source and curate jobs through job-matching services in order to restore jobs lost due to lockdown. Workforce Singapore (WSG), a statutory board under the ministry of manpower, Singapore, through its career-matching services, managed to match 10,000 local residents with suitable jobs over the first half of this year, taking its number of placements to be similar to the same period last year, despite the labour market being hit badly due to Covid-19. WSG complemented its job-matching efforts with a range of programmes and resources to support the career development of the job seekers, at no cost. Infosys Ltd, in partnership with pymetrics-the leader in fair talent matching-recently launched the ‘Reskill and Restart’ solution to reskill the American workforce and fulfil employment needs. While these career/talent matching services, like India’s job-matching portals, bring job-seekers and employers on one platform, they also complement it with reskilling, career-coaching, workshops and networking events, supporting workers by familiarising them and upgrading their skills to meet the changing employment needs. This also enables employers to review the available talent pool for the right match effectively.

The world of work, post Covid, will transform, and so would the kind of jobs available for the youth. Recently, while addressing the Digital Skills Conclave on the World Youth Skills Day, the PM emphasised on the need to “Skill, Reskill and Upskill” for surviving in the rapidly changing business environment. Industry 4.0 had begun to transform the world of work even before the outbreak. The pandemic has only accelerated the process. From remote working becoming the new norm to a global reappraisal of the care economy and forced digitalisation and increasing automation, the change would have otherwise taken years. Employers globally are struggling to deploy people with the required skill set, whereas a huge number of displaced workers with limited skills are striving to regain livelihood. We, therefore, need to strengthen our skilling ecosystem today so as to enable workers to regain income and meet their career aspirations by securing quality jobs on the one hand and addressing the needs of employers and firms by providing them with the requisite talent for them to stay competitive on the other. While it is definitely important to provide a platform to the workers who have lost jobs to regain employment, it is equally important to address the persisting and ever-widening skill gaps in the labour market.