Over 40% of India's graduates are unemployed; And, China's visa denial for Arunachal athletes sparks a row

Market Watch

• Indian benchmark indices ended the day in the red, with the Sensex decreasing 221 points at 66,009 and the Nifty declining 68 points at 19,674.
• Sectorally, Nifty Healthcare (-1.59%) and Pharma (-1.55%) shed the most, while PSU Bank (+3.51%) and Auto (+0.21%) gained the most.

Four things:

• Jet Airways’ lenders have stated that they have not received any payment from the Jalan Kalrock Consortium yet.
• Vedanta Ltd’s board of directors has given approval to raise funds up to Rs 2,500 crore through the private placement of NCDs.
• The Supreme Court has granted SpiceJet permission to clear its outstanding dues to Credit Suisse in installments.
• JPMorgan Chase will add India to its benchmark emerging-market bonds index, possibly bringing in billions to India’s debt market.

42.3% of graduates under 25 unemployed, finds latest State of Working India report

The?State of Working India 2023 report shows over 40% of Indian graduates under 25 were unemployed in 2021-22, despite the country's overall unemployment rate dropping to 6.6% from 8.7% in 2017-18.

Key takeaways:?The?report, published by Azim Premji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, suggests a trend where the unemployment rate increases with higher educational qualifications, but decreases with age.?

• While 42.3% of under-25 graduates are unemployed, the figure falls to 22.8% for the 25-29 age group, and is just 1.6% for those over 40.?
• The high unemployment rate among graduates can be attributed to their higher aspirations, minimum wage demands and their economic ability to stay unemployed, often hailing from high-income households.
• While the post-Covid unemployment rate has shown improvement compared to pre-Covid levels, 15% of graduates across all age groups still remain jobless.
• Additionally, workforce formalisation has slowed down. While the number of salaried or regular wage jobs was growing quickly in the 2000s, it has decreased since 2019 due to the impact of the pandemic.?
• Upward mobility has also increased — casual-wage workers’ sons are increasingly likely to take up regular-wage or salaried jobs. However, within SC/ST castes,?the effect is much less pronounced.?

Trends in gender: Employment of women is influenced by the employment status of their mother-in-law, highlighting deep-rooted gender norms.

• If a mother-in-law is employed, 70% of urban women and 50% of rural women are likely to work. However, these numbers drop to 30% (urban) and 20% (rural) if the mother-in-law is not employed.
• Furthermore, the report notes that female employment is falling due to pandemic-related distress, as there is a shift from formal employment towards self-employment driven by falling household incomes.
• On a positive note, the gender wage gap is narrowing, with women’s earnings in 2022 being 76% of their male counterparts, up from 70% in 2004.

Trends in caste: Caste-based segregation in employment has decreased since the early 1980s, as the share of Scheduled Caste workers in waste and leather-related jobs has fallen.?

• However, lower-caste entrepreneurs are under-represented even in small firms, and are barely represented at all in firms with more than 20 employees, whereas upper-caste business owners’ representation in business ownership increases with the size of the firm.?

Of note: A previous report found that half of all graduates in India will be unemployable in the future due to graduating with limited or no skills.

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After China denies visa for Arunachal athletes, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur cancels visit

In response to China denying visas and accreditation to athletes from Arunachal Pradesh, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has cancelled his visit to China in a formal protest against the move.

The context: Three wushu players from Arunachal Pradesh, namely Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega, and Mepung Lamgu, were not allowed to travel to Hangzhou for the Asian Games due to a lack of clearance, despite receiving their accreditation cards from the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC).

• The remaining seven players of the Indian wushu team flew out to Hong Kong and then boarded a flight to China’s Hangzhou.

The response: The Indian government has accused China of discriminatory actions against Indian sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh, preventing them from participating.

• India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated that it lodged a “strong protest,” and that Thakur has cancelled his trip to China for the Games.

The other side: The Chinese authorities claimed it did not refuse any visas to the players, with chairman of OCA’s Ethics Committee Wei Jizhong stating that these athletes did not accept the visa.

The intrigue: In July, China had issued stapled visas to the same three players for the World University Games in Chengdu, due to which India withdrew its entire team.?

• These moves indicate Beijing’s rejection of India’s claim to Arunachal Pradesh, which it had also depicted as part of China’s territory in the 2023 edition of its standard map.?

ICYMI

• BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri stirred controversy by calling BSP lawmaker Danish Ali a “terrorist” in the Lok Sabha.
• Both houses of Parliament have passed the Women’s Reservation Bill, which now awaits ratification by the President.
• 92-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch will step down as the Chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
• The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government over DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks on Sanatana Dharma.
• Long queues formed outside Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi as the much-anticipated iPhone 15 series officially went on sale in India.
• Akasa Air has accused the DGCA for its current hardships by not intervening in its pilot resignation crisis.
• A group of famous authors, including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement.
• Polling has revealed that the majority of Canadians prefer conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre for PM over Justin Trudeau.