Population Pressure; Dreading Dogs; Waging War
Opinion Watch
Population Pressure
The Asian Age has said that India possibly already having become the most populous country after a gap of three centuries is not a badge of honour. The daily said that while India needs to create nine crore jobs annually, the state of unemployment and underemployment in the country is frightful.
The daily listed the challenges of education, healthcare, skilling, caring for the elderly population. It stressed Chinese claim of 90 crore trained people to run its economy. The daily also flagged the growing inequality along with inadequate representation of women in the workforce.
A Bloomberg report this week said that half of the graduates in the country are not employable. Leading IT firms are insisting on training the engineering graduates before giving them jobs. Evidently, India is missing the skilling bus, and the rising population risks becoming a liability for the nation.
Dreading Dogs
Viral videos, one emerging from the campus of Aligarh Muslim University, showing a pack of dogs literally hunting a young man to death, must be frightening. The Hindu has nailed the dog menace in its Editorial by quoting the World Health Organisation to state that India accounts for 36 per cent of the world’s and 65 per cent of Southeast Asia deaths due to rabies.
During 2012-22, the Chennai-based daily said that there were 6644 suspected deaths due to dog bites. The editorial was in the backdrop of the government notification of the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023. The daily argued that the approach of neutering and vaccinating dogs has been lopsided.
Municipal governance across the country is horrendous. Municipal bodies are perceived as mecca of corruption by the people. Even in metropolitan cities, the people are not safe from dogs. This has to be disgraceful.
Waging War
The Telegraph has noted in its Editorial that the ever expanding NATO is now pushing the world into a state of frozen war as is the case in the Korean peninsula. The daily, commenting on Finland’s admission in NATO and the consequent expansion by 1340 kms of border with Russia, has stated that the group is now seeking to evolve from a defence grouping to one with aim to deter enemies.
The daily stated that Sweden too has applied for membership of the NATO. Expansion of NATO, said the Kolkata-based daily, alongside the border of Russia will further stoke existential threat in Moscow. The 32-member group is seeking an expansion of mandate, which may include preventive strikes from sources of threats, suggested the daily.
The business of war is most profitable, and the American industry is at its forefront. Europe is sleep-walking into the arms of the vested business interests of the US, which have disproportionate influence on the executive. This calls for a third axis, which can be a source of sanity amid war-mongering.
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