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As part of Gandhi 150th the Hindustan Times gives pictures from archives of the independence struggle and Gandhi's efforts to get the British to quit India. After a period of 21 years in South Africa as a lawyer for rights of indentured laborers (coolies the British term) and of Indians in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India in 1914. He followed the program of personal responsibility starting with himself, that he had written in "Hind Swaraj" on a steamship from Britain to South Africa in 1910, for the next 20 years. He did not blame the British, and asked Indians to take responsibility for what had happened, and write a new chapter.   A period of home rule in the provinces with Congress party administrations in the 1930's ended by 1938. Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in 1942 with leaders Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The end of the war and the rejection of Churchill in Britain's post war election in 1945 led to a Labour government led by Clement Atlee that sent Lord Mountbatten to negotiate British withdrawal from India. Gandhi saw clearly that in a country largely of rural labor in subsistence agriculture, getting people to learn about their own dignity was a first and indispensable step.  Once this was done, home rule administrations could pick up the experience of local government  (Hind Swaraj). His idea was that a few tens of thousands of Britishers focussed on trade as the British were a nation of shopkeepers, in the midst of hundreds of millions of people with a new found  sense of dignity and participation in political life, would make the British realize there was little advantage in staying. By the end of the war in 1945 experts looking into the archives show John Keynes advising the British government to withdraw because the cost was too great for Britain to remain, particularly after the war had drained a lot of Britain's wealth. ...

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Latin America has made a huge turnaround through successful vaccination drives. Today more people are vaccinated as a percentage of the population in Latin America at 62% than in the US at 56% or Europe at 60%, according to Our World in Data project at Oxford University. There is little resistance to vaccines in Latin America after successful vaccine campaigns against yellow fever and other diseases. During the first year of the pandemic Latin America had one third of the deaths in the world with 8% of the population. Deaths after vaccination drives have dropped to 8%.  Brazil with 617,000 deaths from coronavirus was second only to the US with 800,000 deaths. Brazil is now back to normal after a successful vaccination drive that has 66% of the population fully vaccinated, and 80% with one dose, some of the highest rates in the world, according to Our World in Data at Oxford University. In Colombia with 50 million population about 50% of people are fully vaccinated. Cases have dropped from 30,000 in June to 2000 a day and deaths from 700 daily that month to 50 a day in December 2021. In Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, 83% of three million population are fully vaccinated, 14% have received a booster. Buenos Aires city health minister says Argentine society has an affinity for vaccination campaigns. "They rapidly accepted receiving them," he says. Yet from the point of view of new variants emerging there is a different situation in rural areas. In industrial states such as Sao Paulo 78% are fully vaccinated, yet less than 40% are fully vaccinated in poor Amazon state of Roraima.   We make it a point to honor the brave reporters in these countries who provide the reports in the WSJ, as we did earlier for NYT Stephanie Nolan's reports from South Africa and Zambia about frontline workers against Omicron in Africa.  Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo, Jenny Carolina Gonzalez in Bogota, and Sylvina Frydlewsky in Buenos Aires and Kejal Vyas writing this report from San Salvador. ...

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The contrast between lack of effective measures taken in the Lombardy region with the aggressive action in Veneto that has proved effective. Veneto followed the method of quarantining, mass testing for clusters and isolating the affected people.  The Italian government took the first steps to close off northern Italy Feb 22, and it was not till March 10 that a nationwide lockdown was done. The action taken in the Veneto region is shown here in this WSJ report with the town of Vo as an example of steps taken that worked. A microbiology professor and infectious diseases expert at the University of Padua, Dr Crisanti, developed a test for the coronavirus as early as mid-January using the information made public by Chinese doctors. Dr. Crisanti oversaw the testing of 95% of residents of Vo, a town of 3400 people in Veneto region. He found 3% of the population was infected, with half testing positive asymptomatic. Following the aggressive lockdown the tests were done two weeks later and the rate of infection had fallen to 0.1% with only 8 new infections. "The main lesson from VO is that when you have a cluster of infected people, you should do a very aggressive lockdown and then test as many people as possible," Dr Crisanti says. The results from Vo led to Veneto increasing testing in the rest of the region carrying out 80,000 tests, compared to 88,000 in Lombardy, with double the population and 5 times more infections. Lombardy followed government directives to test only those with symptoms. When it spreads it is harder to do the test isolate clusters, test isolate clusters, in a continual loop, yet this remains the method cited by Dr. Brx in the U.S. today as the right way to target clusters in a laser approach. In yesterday's briefing at the White House Dr Brx said this is a method the U.S. is familiar with and has used in Africa to tackle HIV, Ebola Virus. It is possible using GPS to target down to a specific clinic in a specific place, which is how it was successfully done in Africa. ...

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In private conversations, Paul Volcker has advised administration officials, that in implementing the Volcker Rule, regulators should follow the practice in money laundering laws. There the government bans a certain behaviour, and then the burden is on the banks to screen for red flags and to ensure compliance. His advice is to ban banks from trading with their own funds if they benefit from any kind of government guarantee. Banks would be required to police their own actions, and the Fed examiners ensuring they are in compliance. The recently passed regulatory reform bill left a lot to the regulators, who have to fill in the blanks. Volcker's concern is that narrow rules would invite gamesmanship from the banks to evade the intent of the law. At one Congressional hearing Volcker suggested a Potter Stewart type of approach- Stewart as Supreme Court Justice said about pornography: "I know it when I see it." For Volcker bankers know what proprietary trading is and is not, and he does not want to let bankers tell anybody anything different. Thw new Financial oversight Stability Council is charged with the task of coming up with a course of action by January 2011, and then writing the rules by October 2011. The fear among a group of 18 senators is that bankers will weaken the Volcker rule protections. A letter pointing this out was sent by the group to the Oversight Council last week....

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Are there costs or are there savings from the Obama health care bill? Does it affect jobs and how? The Congressional Budget Office says the health care law will save $230 billion in ten years based on a whole set of calculations and assumptions. Commonsense and basic math leads others to question how spending $930 billion on insuring 32 million Americans could end up with significant savings. The different view argues that the Budget Office erred in making some calculations, by counting $70 billion in premiums from long term care because they would be used to pay benefits later, omitted $115 billion in spending to adminster the law, and omitted $208 billion needed to prevent scheduled reductions in Medicare payments to doctors. The money needed on the Stimulus, on two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the uncertain prospects of the US economy in the longer term till debt and other issues are resolved, injects the critical element of difficult choices and priorities. If state and local budgets are severely strained in 2011-2012 would that require federal help and will there be other needs that will have to be met by the federal government that are critical such as another unexpected downturn, or a resolution of unresolved bad debt at the large US banks There is also a sense that the health care law does not do enough to reduce the cost of health care that will be needed over the next decade so that other priorities are not neglected. Both parties are not up to the task in this respect for running the country's finances withot using the numbers to tell different stories....

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Theresa May, the new British prime minister, announces her choice for cabinet positions- Liam Fox is new minister for International Trade, David Hammond is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer replacing Osborne. Hammond was Foreign Secretary under Cameron and helped negotiate the Iran nuclear accords. David Davis, a former minister for Europe, is in charge of a new ministry created to arrange Britain's exit from the EU. Boris Johnson replaces Hammond as Foreign Secretary. Johnson was Mayor of London and was a key figure in the Leave campaign. Michael Gove is out. David Davis and Johnson were in the Leave campaign and are now given responsibility for working on Brexit, a move that puts to rest any doubts about steps to be taken for Brexit, and is an effort to reunite the Conservative Party. With Osborne out, a principal architect of the austerity budgets of the 6 years of Cameron's government is now replaced by Hammond, who will now reflect the desire of Theresa May to come up with policies that "benefit everyone" and fight "burning injustice" to use May's first words as she assumed office at 10 Downing Street.  ...

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About 15% of Americans are below the official poverty line of $23,492 for family of four. In 1975 3.7% of Americans were in deep poverty, defined as being 50% below the offical poverty line. In 2012 the Census Bureau Population Survey shows 6.6% of Americans in deep poverty, close to doubling the percentage of people in deep poverty. States in the southern U.S. and midwest have some of the largest increase in deep poverty- Georgia's going from 5.3% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2012. Mississippi and Indiana show similiar increases. And in D.C. with high income levels the deep poverty rate is at 10.4%, affluent communities have high deep poverty rates in their midst, higher than rates in 2009.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Dec. 13, 2016, that it would increase its benchmark short term interest rate by 0.25 percentage point, to between 0.50% and 0.75%. The increase will also be reflected in business and household borrowing costs. The Fed also announced its intention to make 0.75% percentage point increase in 2017, possibly in 3 quarter percentage point moves. The Fed's forecast is for the fed-funds rate to reach 2.1% at the end of 2018, and 2.9% at the end of 2019. The Fed's policy is based on a sense of strong labor market with unemployment falling, and says it is based on discussion at a 2 day meeting, and "in view of realized and expected labor-market conditions and inflation." This reflects a view that there is now not that much slack in the labor market, that further improvements could trigger higher inflation. Fed forecasts for inflation are for it to increase from 1.5% in 2016 to 1.9% in 2017 and to the target of 2% in 2018. The unemployment rate of 4.6% in 2016 is forecast to go to 4.5% in 2017 and remain at that level till 2019. Economic growth is forecast at a median annual rate of 1.9% in 2016, 2.1% in 2017, only a slight improvement from last forecast in Sept. 2016. Support for chairwoman Yellen's policy decision was unanimous. See the link on views of NYT's Binyamin Applebaum and Neil Irwin on how Fed rate policy and economic growth under the Trump administration is likely to play out, and Ian Talley's report on impact on exports with a stronger dollar in WSJ. These views also are in line with the Fed's forecasts and policy decision as they reflect the concerns of the Fed about inflation, and also reflect the Fed's view that growth will be close to 2% in 2017-2019, and not the 3-4% stated by Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Fed rate policies to keep inflation at about 2% tend to counter stimulus spending by the Trump administration and effect of tax cuts. The size of the stimulus and the tax cuts are also likely to be much smaller than stated because of Republican concerns about the deficit in the U.S. Congress, according to these views. The stronger dollar also has the paradoxical effect of making trade gains more difficult while increasing trade friction in tougher bargaining supported by Trump, making the higher growth targets harder to reach.   ...

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Questions about Wagoner's leadrship at GM especially decisions like not changing the product mix fast enough. With Toyota and Ford also unable to anticipate changes in the product mix and only Honda somewhat better off inproduct mix Wagoner continues to get support from the Board and elsewhere. He wins points on his overseas strategy of building up sales in China, Brazil and other places. But GM's stock is hurting at a 53 year low and about $10 a share.

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Foreign investment in the auto industry is having a significant impact in the growth of Mexico's middle class. VW has plants in Puebla, General Motors in Silao, Chrysler in Toluca, Nissan in Aguascalientes. Production increased by 24% in February 2012 over the prior year. The growth is likely to continue. Facilities in Mexico have high productivity and are technologically equiped comparable to plants in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Nissan plans a $2 billion investment in a plant in Aguascalientes. Because of the lower cost of living, with food, transportation and health care costing less, even though household appliances cost more, workers at a Mexican plant earning $4 an hour in pay and benefits or $130 a week can still have a decent standard of living. Foreign investment is likely to grow with Mexico's emphasis on technical education - about 130,000 engineers graduating each year according to Mexico's president Calderon- the work ethic of young Mexicans joining manufacturing plants, the productivity of these lower cost plants, and a growing market in Latin America. Nissan plans to produce 1 million cars in Mexico with an investment of $2 billion in Aguascalientes. Nissan has succeeded in taking over from VW as the preeminent manufacturer in Mexico, and has 32,000 workers in the Aguascalientes area, once a small town but now a thriving city of 700,000. Drug cartels have no interest in places like Aguasalientes, which is why foreign investment continues to come into Mexico. The lack of economical credit- interest rate on car loans is about 10%- and the flow of about 600,000 used cars each year into Mexico from the U.S. has restricted growth in Mexico's automobile market. Jose Munoz, Nissan's senior executive for Latin America sees this changing as more credit including Nissan's new financing center in Aguascalientes make lower cost credit easily available to a growing middle class....

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A new survey of senior lending officers of 45 emerging market banks by the Institute of International Finance is similiar to surveys done by central banks in U.S., Europe and Japan. The IIF is an asssociation of large global banks. The IIF's chief economist says the survey shows strong demand for loans in these countries. Emerging market banks are becoming cautious, but its difficult considering the strong demand for loans. In China and Brazil, banking authorites are trying to cool the huge increase in loans as asset bubbles are developing. The IIF's first survey shows strong demand for loans aross the board, especially in Brazil. Similiar information from Turkey shows strong loan demand. An index of loan demand for consumer loans in emerging markets- with a score of 50 indicating expansion of loan demand and below 50 contracting loan demand- is at 64.1. Similiar indexes for the U.S. are at 50.1, for Europe 49.8, Japan 48.5, according to the recent surveys by central banks. While 56% of emerging market banks say corporate loan demand has grown in the 1st quarter 2011- the similiar number for the U.S. is 35% in the Fed survey, and 28% for Europe in the ECB survey. The IIF survey looked at the bank's lending practices and found banks in emerging Asia were tightening standards while banks in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East were lowering the standards. 25% of emerging market banks tightened corporate lending standards, 16% relaxed standards, and the remainder left things as they were. A similiar Fed survey for the U.S. showed no banks tightening corporate lending standards, and 16% relaxing standards. And an ECB survey shows more banks tightening standards than relaxing them....

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The loss of some 4 million jobs is expected by experts in 2009, and Obama economic advisor Christina Romer has presented information at a meeting that shows the current downturn will be more severe than anything we experienced in the last 50 years. At that meeting on December 16, 2008, Obama met with Romer and other economic and policy advisors for 4 hours. It was decided that the target for jobs should be 3 million jobs created in 2009 and 2010. This still means a lot of the 4 million job loss will still occur in 2009, even if the infrastructure jobs estimated at $136 billion by the nation's governors get off to a fast start as they are supposedly ready to go. Money to states and local governments will reduce job losses and loss of services, and money in the form of lower payroll taxes would probably be saved to reduce debt by the public. Money to the poor to support medicaid and health care services and expanding healthcare coverage for those who lose coverage will be safety net reinforcement and support. So finding places to spend where jobs can be created quickly will be a challenge going forward and some of the $1 trillion stimulus will not go directly to job creation but as support. For the December 16 meeting Romer consulted with Martin Feldstein the senior Republican economist who said that " without action the economy will continue to decline rapidly." For a long time Martin Feldstein has been advocating strong action especially to reduce foreclosures and help stabilize housing prices. As the economy has weakened he has revised upwards what needs to be done, and his estimates are close to the lower end of the $800 billion to 1.3 trillion that is being estimated for 2 years. Lawrence Lindsay and other economists are supporting upto $1 trillion stimulus. ...

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This is a companion short article to the longer article of Gordon fairclough's trip in a Chinese company made Cherry A1 compact with friends through the 1700 mile Silk Road in Xingiang Province of China. This is a very important piece of writing as its the first time someone has taken a Chinese small car in for a difficult 3 day test drive through mountainous and desert regions for 3 day in a remote region nearly 1700 miles. The Cherry A1 is advertised by China as a worldclass vehicle for about $7000. Is it really is the question. And Gordon says it passes his test admirably. Note that its built with help from Italian auto design firm Bertone, powered by a 1.3 litre enginedeveloped with help from Austrian engineering firm AVL, and made with parts from Honeywell International and Visteon. And finally assembled in Anhui province, a poor province of China, with workers who earn $1 an hour. The Cherry is a government owned company started in 1997. This Cherry will be marketed under the Dodge brand in Latin America and other developing markets by end of 2008. It will be modified for safety and environmental rules and marketed in USA and Western Europe in 2009. SAys Gordon Fairclough that for a small car the car ride was realyy smooth and quiet and even at 100 miles an hour there was only a slight vibration on the steering column. The airconditioning worked well in the desert. The car had a CD player and a USB port for MP3 players. The acceleration was a bit sluggish considering the small size of the 1.3 litre engine and with 4 passengers on this journey through Xingiang province. ...

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The events leading to the EU brokered deal and the final hours of tense negotiations are described in this exceptional reporting by Benoit, Norman and Fidler. Chancellor Merkel played a critical role in the developments and Catherine Ashton, EU policy chief, played a supporting role. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, Steinmeier, Fabius and Sikorsi, conducted the tense negotiations with president Yakunovych and protesters in Kiev's Independence Square. At one point the foreign ministers Steinmeier and Sikoski actually talk to protesters in the Square to clear up differences and get support, something that German and Polish leaders have never done together in a Eastern European country. Russian president Putin acquiesced in the agreement by sending an experienced Russian diplomat to help support the negotiations, another first, confirmed by the Polish foreign minister. In a joint presentation with Hollande to media in Paris, Merkel set the serious way Germany viewed the developments- we have seen much go wrong in Europe, Merkel said, now Germany and France would take the action for things to go right. ...

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China's National Bureau of Statistics made an announcement in Beiijing that 51.27% of the Chinese people now live in urban areas. In 1949 the figure was 10.6%, in 1979 it was 19%. In the space of three decades China has urbanized rapidly. This has brought with it economic growth, infrastructure development and increased employment in the manufacturing sector as new workers moved from rural areas to the cities. With it also come major problems for the country and the leaders of the Communist party led government. Of the 691 million urban residents, 253 million are migrant workers- 37% of urban residents and 19% of the population are in this grey zone described as the "hukou" or household registration system. Under "hukou" these migrants from rural areas cannot access public services in the cities, and have rights to access them in their own villages where they are registered. Integrating these migrant workers who are different than their more affluent and better educated neigbors in the cities so that they become truly a part of the urban areas will remain a huge challenge for China. One of the ways China is addressing this is with the plan to build 36 million units of affordable housing for these migrant workers by 2016. Ever so gradually Chinese officials are relaxing the restrictions on migrant workers- such as Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng's announcement for allowing all migrant workers to rent subsidized housing in the outer parts of Shanghai and committing to "increase the migrant population's involvement in the community affairs, cultural life and show genuine care for them." Food security is another issue as more development on prime agricultural land means less land available for agriculture. Appropriation of agricultural land for industrial use is bringing the country down to the limit of 120 million hectares of agricultural land needed for self sufficiency in food, according to the Land Ministry. At the same time China's leaders want to avoid what the World Bank calls "the middle income trap," where a country reaches a level of modernization and urbanization, and then stalls at that level- the level being around $3000 per capital GDP, which is China's GDP per capita today, according to the National Bureau of Statistics in China. Li Keqiang, who takes over from premier Wen Biao, sees the building of affordable housing for migrant workers as a critical way to continue the urbanization process, and shift the country from its export focus by increasing consumption and the development of industries that support this. A slowing economy dominated by state owned companies focussed on a decelerating export model and an aging but still growing population- NBS says China's overall population was up by 4.8% in 2011 over 2010 and has reached 1.35 billion- presents a tougher set of challenges to the new leadership in China than was faced by the current leadership....

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This report in The Times shows that from April to October the Tory red wall seats in the north of England have been hit hard by the coronavirus, much harder than the south of England. The infection rates in October are about three or four times in the north of England. The second lockdown came earlier in the north, in Liverpool Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. The result is that instead of levelling up the great disparities in wealth and income that are seen between the south, London and the north of England the gap is widening under the impact of coronavirus. Deindustrialization in the north after their prominent role in Britain's industrial revolution was followed by the same type of decline seen in parts of the American midwestern states. Imports from China and globalization, hit these areas in a sort of second wave, just as America was hit first by the wave of Japanese imports, followed by an even bigger wave of imports from China and complete loss of manufacturing. With it the loss of well paying jobs for workers in manufacturing and the decline of industrial cities. Influx of cheap labor from other parts of the European Union also affected the north. The result is that the popularity of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives with 58% approval rating in April in the north of England is replaced by a rating of about 31% in October 2020. The 40 Tory MP's in the Northern Research Group expressed their serious concern to the prime minister. ...

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The Biden vaccination target of 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated with one dose by July 4, 2021 remains elusive as vaccination rates have dropped. From a high of 2 million a day vaccinations have dropped to 400,000 a day during the first week of June 2021. Vaccination skepticism particularly in the south and western part of the US is making it harder to vaccinate the rest of the US population. This poses increasing risks as the new variants of the virus such as the Delta variant found in India, and now the most widely prevalent strain of virus in the UK, remain a serious problem. The unvaccinated population in the US is too large for any degree of safety in numbers vaccinated. Consider that at the press briefing given by the White House on June 3, 2021, only 28 states out of 51 states have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their population. There is a large variation between different states with states in the south such as Mississippi as low as 34% at least one dose and a similar situation in Alabama. In Arkansas, Georgia, Carolinas, and Louisiana  it is higher at about 50% with at least one dose. Even these figures are deceiving as in some parishes in Louisiana only 20% have even one dose. Studies show that only after the second dose are enough antibodies released to protect well against coronavirus. This is why vaccine experts at Baylor College of Medicine cited in NYT foresee a second wave in the southern US because of the South so underachieving in the case of vaccination.  ...

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SDP candidate Olaf Scholz is seen as the most convincing of the candidates, and ahead of the Green's Baerbock and CDU's Laschet in a poll following the 90 minute television debate on German television. Scholz maintained an unperturbed demeanor as he responded to an attack from Laschet on a money laundering investigation being conducted on the finance ministry. He said Scholz was presenting a misleading picture because it was centered on the possibly illegal activities of a single employee in Cologne. He added that he had increased the financial oversight at the ministry since he took over in 2018. Looking at the problems facing German industry, and the challenges from climate change facing Germany,  Scholz had this to say on the scale of the effort needed in renewable energy- "We have 250 years of economic and industrial history behind us, based on coal, gas, and oil. And if we are to change that now that means we have to do an awful lot, for it to really work." The SPD goes into the election at this point with a six point lead over CDU. SPD at 26% vs CDU at 20%, Greens at 15%, in the INSA poll. The election debate on television continues to give SPD and Scholz the confidence needed to stay ahead. Unlike the period facing Merkel Germany after the pandemic faces challenges in social, safety net, child care, climate change, and foreign policy that require new thinking and ability to tackle new frontiers. ...

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In this joint interview with Le Monde (France), Der Standard (Austria), and Financial Times (Japan) Annalena Baerbock, the Greens candidate in German elections, calls for asharp break from the policies of Merkel. Following the scale of the Biden's administration's efforts to loosen debt rules to spend massively to renovate crumbling infrastructure, Baerbock says Greens support loosening debt rules to spend $500 billion over 10 years on Germany's broken infrastructure. In this rare interview she says- " The major lesson from the euro crisis is that austerity can end up suffocating an economy, which is why fiscal reform was needed. Germany and Europe need to be the engine room for innovation again." Baerbock calls for a complete transformation of the German economy to achieve carbon neutrality in 20 years. She says Merkel was soft on Russia and China. She says Germany is not dependent on China for climate change policy. China is pursuing climate change because it is in her own interest. Baerbock would impose duties on Chinese imports that violate environmental standards or are subsidized. Where Merkel saw Germany as a country of 80 million and compared to China's 1.2 billion with which she was overawed,  Baerbock sees the European Union as a sovereign power with a population of 500 million. Where Merkel was faltering on European integration, Baerbock believes in European integration- "We want to make Germany a driving force for European integration."   ...

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A Conservative MP crosses over to the Opposition in parliament causing Mr. Johnson's government to lose its one vote majority in Britain's parliament. As a minority government its future is uncertain. Johnson called for a snap election which will require a two thirds majority in parliament and is unlikely if called by the minority  government. With 31 Conservative rebel MP's led by Mr. Hammond former finance minister, and Labour MP's, Scottish National Party MP's, the Opposition is planning legislation to delay Brexit till January 2020. This is likely to happen now that it has a majority. The next step- the Opposition unites behind Mr. Corbyn to form a government or in the event of that not happening a general election is called.  Even though there is support for Brexit in the country it is not known whether the mood of the country has changed in the years since the referendum with the debacle in the Conservative Party. The Conservatives are badly divided, and the entry of  Mr. Cummings running Mr. Boris Johnson's government  election campaign has distanced the party from Mr. Farage's UK Independence Party, Conservative moderates. All these factors could lead to a change in government. The general election is also likely to be fought on terms other than just Brexit- with the future of the country, and a change of direction, becoming the challenge facing Britain, as the damage done by divisive politics and the precarious economy, living standards, begins to be better understood. ...

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Tokyo has the reputation for being the city with the longest working hours. Overwork leading to death has a term for it in Japan- "karoshi." But this is changing. Recent studies show Mumbai as the city with the longest working hours per worker per year at 3315 hours. The Japanese government had a law passed this year limiting legal overtime work to 45 hours a month, with an extension in busy periods to 100 hours for a maximum of 6 months. Yet the culture is taking time to change, even though long hours often leads to low productivity. It does not mean productivity is high in Mumbai or Tokyo. Dublin, Ireland has one of the highest productivity scores, workers in Dublin worked 1856 hours a year and still created $84 in GDP every hour- compared to this in Mexico City the third hardest working city had only $18 in GDP per hour. This is calculated by dividing GDP by the hours worked. Occupational health psychologists say working longer hours can be less productive because of the drain on performance, resulting in poor concentration, memory and compromised problem solving and creativity. The lack of rest means resources are not replenished with rest, and can deteriorate physical and mental health. Singapore a fairly liveable city has the highest percentage of people working more than 48 hours per week, in a Kisi study. Suggestion for work life balance include taking holidays and short breaks, and switching off from work mentally, using mindfulness and meditation. Practicing self-compassion and prioritizing self-care is needed. ...

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Ashwani Lohani, head of the Railway Board for Indian Railways says the bullet train is creating a paradigm shift in how people travel in India. That the distance from the city where Mahatma Gandhi had his Ashram to Mumbai is covered in less time than it takes to travel by air is a huge shift for India. Some media reports have incorrectly stated that the money used for the bullet train could have been used for improvements to the railway system. Lohani says it is important that people understand that the money for the bullet train is coming from Japan and would not be available if the bullet train was not built. It is also at interest rates of 0.1% and a moratorium period of 15 years making the loans almost free. The advantage of the project is also that it has a demonstrative effect showing that a lot can be done in bringing Indian Railways into the pattern of rapid rail travel prevalent in Europe and now in China. China has shown the way by developing its rail system and also developing the technology for bullet trains using Kawasaki technology from Japan and building on this. It is imperative that India do this and modernize its own system. This is an aspect of infrastructure also that has a massive impact on people's lives. When trains can travel at bullet speed between city centres in India it also creates a new energy for bringing the rest of the system to higher technology standards.     ...