Tag: basic income

Biotech firm Moderna reported Tuesday that the results of its early-stage trial for an experimental COVID-19 vaccine were positive. Of the 45 patients that received the vaccine, all showed an “immune response.” This means the body’s immune system prepared itself to attack an introduction of the virus into the body. Is this the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic? What will this mean for markets going forward?

As of the publication of this article, pre-market futures pointed to a major rally across U.S. financial markets. This implies that investors believe that Moderna’s vaccine is promising. With the development […]

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Face biometrics technology from FaceTec has been integrated with an app to support universal basic income delivery by GoodDollar

The GoodDollar UBI wallet application scans users’ faces for identity verification on sign-up, or the next time they use it in the case of existing customers, and then again every two weeks to make sure each person has only one account. Users can then claim daily ‘GoodDollar coins (G$),’ with distribution recorded on the blockchain.

FaceTec ZoOm provides accurate biometric identity verification with liveness checking through a two-second selfie video. The technology averages only one error for every 12.8 million users, according […]

Full Post at www.biometricupdate.com

Small business development minister Lindiwe Zulu wants to revive a decades-old plan for a universal income grant. Picture: TREVOR SAMSON Few people dispute that putting the economy back on a robust growth path, accompanied by labour policy that encourages companies to hire, is our best bet in getting millions of South Africans out of poverty, and working.

With the economy having barely grown in the past decade, more than 10-million people have been left scrambling for survival income. With the Covid-19 economic destruction set to crush output by double digits, some economists are predicting large-scale retrenchments that will push the […]

Full Post at www.businesslive.co.za

New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The concept of universal basic income (UBI) should be delinked from the response to coronavirus pandemic, as even with the UBI in place, the government would have to do something more, Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan said on Wednesday.

"In a pandemic governments are expected to respond by giving something more than what you already have. So the limited point I am making is, the case for universal basic income must stand or fall on its own without a linkage to special calamities or incidents like the pandemic because that is not going to be […]

Full Post at www.outlookindia.com

About 3-million South Africans have lost their jobs during the country’s nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 . An additional 1.5-million workers have lost their incomes as a result of the lockdown.

This is according to the findings from the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (Nids-Cram), released on Wednesday. Researchers surveyed 7 000 South Africans to compile the study, which can be considered the most nationally representative survey that currently exists.

During the course of 2020 there will be at least four more waves of data collection, following the same 7 000 respondents.The survey found that already […]

Full Post at mg.co.za

New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Nobel prize winner Abhijit Banerjee on Wednesday said that in the short run, the government should loosen its purse string to provide bigger funds to the poor as the recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be longer and more painful.

"In the short run, I think the government”s basic general thinking is use whatever instruments you have to give people some money. That”s probably a good instinct. I think the amounts are wrong, it should be bigger, it”s going to be a longer and more painful recovery and that will […]

Full Post at www.outlookindia.com

THE Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, has said that the government was holding “discussions” on the introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG). Picture: Supplied. Durban – THE Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, has said that the government was holding “discussions” on the introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG).

Speaking on Monday, Zulu did not give details of how the grant would be funded, or its size, but told a virtual press briefing it would be considered “post-October”.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the government had planned to spend R309.5billion on social security payments this year.The pandemic prompted President […]

Full Post at www.iol.co.za

Last October, a fire tore through the apartment complex in Stockton, California, where Laura Kidd-Plummer had lived for five years. Nearly a decade earlier, Kidd-Plummer, who will turn seventy this year, had retired from her job in the wardrobe department at the Oakland Coliseum, where she had worked for twenty-one years. She eventually moved to Stockton in search of cheaper rent. After the fire, she and her dog, Poopee, a Pomeranian-Yorkie mix, were left homeless. Ever since, she told me, “I’m just trying to keep my head above water.” She stayed in a motel for a couple of months, […]

Full Post at worldnewsera.com

A basic-income program in Stockton, California, is moving into its final stretch, and requests for advice from programs in development in other cities are flooding in. Last October, a fire tore through the apartment complex in Stockton, California, where Laura Kidd-Plummer had lived for five years. Nearly a decade earlier, Kidd-Plummer, who will turn seventy this year, had retired from her job in the wardrobe department at the Oakland Coliseum, where she had worked for twenty-one years. She eventually moved to Stockton in search of cheaper rent. After the fire, she and her dog, Poopee, a Pomeranian-Yorkie mix, were […]

Full Post at www.newyorker.com