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Dearness allowance is part of international workers’ basic income

Dearness allowance is part of international workers’ basic income

iStockPhoto I was on an assignment to Canada during the period of January 2014 to April 2015.

After I came back, India’s Social Security Agreement with Canada came into effect on 1 August 2015. While I was there, I paid all the social security taxes in Canada. However, as I was not receiving any salary in India, my provident fund contributions were null. Does this now qualify me as an international worker? Currently, my employer is treating me as an international worker and deducting my provident fund at 12% on ‘total salary’ instead of 12% of ‘basic salary component’. […]

The Seven Commandments for Surviving the Smart Machine Age

The Seven Commandments for Surviving the Smart Machine Age

For decades, people have been grumbling over manufacturing jobs moving overseas. Indeed, keeping jobs in the U.S. was a theme during the recent election. And yet, regardless of any political hay that may or may not be made, we’re in deeper trouble than we may realize. The impending age of automation will cause tremendous job loss nationwide over the next fifteen years—much more than we’ve witnessed to date. Research from the University of Oxford states there is a high probability that 47 percent of jobs in the U.S. will be automated over that time. That’s over 70 million jobs […]

Universal Basic Income Accelerates Innovation by Reducing Our Fear of Failure – Evonomics

I can’t help but feel, that the "reduces our fear of failure" argument, while it will be a desirable outcome of UBI, shouldn’t be put forward as a central argument justifying it – it’s muddying the water & that’s dangerous.

The central argument for UBI should be A) that humans will not be able to compete economically with robots & AI in a free market economic system & B) the wealth generating capacity of that economy, and its existing wealth in stocks, pension funds, property, etc – will steadily collapse if less and less people can earn money to consume […]

Universal Basic Income shoots in the wrong direction

Universal Basic Income shoots in the wrong direction

The latest Economic Survey released this month introduces public debate on a radical new idea: the proposal is to roll out Universal Basic Income (UBI) across India – a guaranteed minimum income for all individuals (or, as the Economic Survey concedes in the Indian context, at least 75 per cent of the people).

The survey points out that a basic income scheme would help plug leakages in India’s byzantine welfare system, replacing most targeted schemes with a basic income that would allow citizens avail those goods and services for themselves.

This makes some economic sense. A basic income scheme would be […]

Universal Basic Income will be set in motion over next 1 year, hopes Arun Jaitley

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Amongst the countries preferred by these companies, Ireland tops the list.The survey revealed that Ireland topped the poll as the most popular country targeted for expansion.The findings further showed that currently only 15 percent of fintech firms operate in […]

“The Relentless Pace of Automation”

“The Relentless Pace of Automation”

Last October, Uber had one of its self-driving trucks make a beer run, traveling 200 kilometers down the interstate to deliver a cargo of Budweiser from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. A person rode in the truck but spent most of the trip in the sleeper berth, monitoring the automated system. (The test came just a few weeks after Uber had announced its driverless car service in Pittsburgh .) The self-driving truck developed by Uber’s recently acquired Otto unit reflects remarkable technological achievements. It also provides yet another indicator of a looming shift in the economy that could have […]

Universal Basic Income Accelerates Innovation by Reducing Our Fear of Failure

Universal Basic Income Accelerates Innovation by Reducing Our Fear of Failure

Almost two centuries ago an idea was born with such explanatory power that it created shock waves across all of human society and whose aftershocks we’re still feeling to this day. It’s so simple and yet so powerful, that after all these years, it remains capable of making people question their very faith.

The idea of which I speak is that through random mutation and natural selection, every living thing around us was created through millions and even billions of years of what is effectively trial and error, not designed by some intelligent creator. It is the process of evolution […]

Will Universal Income Be The Cure To Poverty?

Will Universal Income Be The Cure To Poverty?

In a chaotic world of dividing political views and rising inequality, it comes as no surprise that the term universal basic income has been thrown around incessantly in an attempt to see it as the missing ‘ cure ‘ to the mess in some of the world’s leading economies.

The concept of an unconditional cash payment given to all citizens seems strangely bizarre. After all, why do rich people need this ‘ unconditional cash payment ‘ if they already have millions sitting in the bank? However, this peculiar idea has received support from people at varying degrees on the ideological […]

From Hong Kong to India, 2 ideas of social welfare that will never get off the ground

From Hong Kong to India, 2 ideas of social welfare that will never get off the ground

An Indian child at a temporary shelter in Hyderabad. The country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is considering introducing a universal basic income. Photo: AFP All of a sudden, Asia is talking about welfare. For years the region’s policymakers dismissed the idea of state welfare as somehow un-Asian. Public schemes to dole out benefits to the poor were regarded as a flabby Western idea; a corrosive and alien notion in a region renowned for its can-do attitude to work and its strong culture of supportive family ties.

Lately that has begun to change. Worried about persistent poverty and rising inequality, politicians […]

Time to adapt to an automated future

Time to adapt to an automated future

CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY The tsunami of technological innovation will continue to change profoundly how we live and work, and how our societies operate. In what is now called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technologies that are coming of age－such as robotics, nanotechnology, virtual reality, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and advanced biology－will converge. And as these technologies continue to be developed and widely adopted, they will bring about radical shifts in all disciplines, industries and economies－in the way that individuals, companies and societies produce, distribute, consume and dispose of goods and services.

These developments have given rise to […]