The surprise announcement by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that all 500- and 1,000-rupee notes will be scrapped has been met with shock.

Indian media described the move variously as a “surgical strike” on tax evaders in the country’s overwhelmingly cash economy and a “big bang note”.

On Tuesday there were serpentine queues at ATMs as people tried to withdraw 100 rupee notes, which are still legal.

Banks and ATM machines were shut on Wednesday.
The surprise move, announced on Tuesday evening, is part of a crackdown on corruption and illegal cash holdings. New 500 and 2,000 rupee denomination notes will be issued to replace those removed from circulation……
bbc.com

On a Saturday afternoon in late September, I sat in the brand-new auditorium of my former high school in Beijing, watching the gala for my 10-year reunion. Near the end, teachers stepped onto the stage to deliver speeches.

“Girls, I hope you will focus on finding your life partners,” said the Chinese-language teacher, with the same stern air as when she urged us to succeed on the college entrance exam. “Marriage cannot be delayed,” the biology teacher said. The physical education teacher offered to set up single alumnae with eligible bachelors at her husband’s company.

At the dinner afterward, the conversation at my table turned to career changes. A friend surprised everyone by announcing that she would move to Shenzhen, a southern city, to look for a new job. Marveling at her courage but concerned about her decision, another classmate asked if she was aware of the “complications” faced by a childless woman seeking employment in her late 20s.

My female classmates and I, beneficiaries of China’s economic boom, are cruising along exciting professional paths…..Why chinese women still cant get a break /nytimes

Lisk Feng

Is it a wonder, then, that a growing number of professional women in China, buttressed by their education credentials and financial independence, are deciding to delay or forgo marriage and family? A 2010 study shows that half of the women with a university degree or above are unmarried or divorced. Derided as “leftover women” in the news media and by the government, they are subjects of well-intentioned exhortations, like those from my high school teachers, as well as less-than-generous assumptions from society at large.

2. SYDNEY — And the Australian share market looks set to open higher as the recent recovery in oil prices and a batch of positive economic data from Australia to the US calms fears of a global economic slowdown. At 0645 AEDT on Thursday, the share price index futures contract was up 15 points at 5.029.

3. WASHINGTON — US businesses added a healthy 214,000 jobs last month, another sign that the US job market remains resilient despite economic weakness overseas and tumult in financial markets.

4. WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve says the economy was expanding in most of the country in January and February, helped by gains in consumer spending and home sales. But there were also rising headwinds from falling oil prices and a strong US dollar that held back some sectors.

5. BEIJING — China plans to target broadbased money supply growth of about 13 per cent this year, sources said, a signal that further monetary policy easing is likely during a painful economic restructuring that could result in millions of workers losing jobs.

6. MOSCOW — Russia’s Rosneft, the world’s biggest listed oil producer by volume, is considering a cut to domestic production to balance the global market and as the firm faces a natural decline this year.

7. BRASILIA — Mining company Samarco agreed with the Brazilian government to pay more than 24 billion reals ($A8.6 billion) in damages for a deadly dam spill in November, an environment ministry memo seen by Reuters says.

8. LONDON — Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to sell SABMiller’s stake in China’s Snow Breweries for $US1.6 billion ($A2.23 billion) to ease regulatory concerns about the merger of the world’s two biggest beer-makers.

9. LAGOS — Tens of thousands of Nigerian fishermen and farmers are suing multinational oil giant Shell in two new lawsuits filed in a British High Court, alleging that decades of uncleaned oil spills have destroyed their lives.

Females earn more than 70 per cent of the income, mainly as traders, in the country

North Korea is a militarised, male-dominated society, but it is women who are making the money as the insular nation allows an unofficial market-based economy to take shape.
Women earn more than 70 per cent of household income in North Korea, mainly as traders in the informal markets that have proliferated in recent years, research by the South Korean government-run Korea Institute for National Unification (Kinu) found.
That is despite women making up only about half of the 12 million economically active North Koreans, experts say.
Women make the money in male-dominated North Korea

Andy Sambidge reports: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has launched a talent development platform that aims to empower Emirates women in the job market.

The new platform, named Tamooha, will provide job opportunities that suit women’s social norms and family responsibilities by enabling them to choose to work from or near their own home or in ADCB’s dedicated women-only operations centre in Al Ain, the bank said in a statement.

It added that additional centres are being developed in the Western Region and the Northern Emirates in order to accommodate a total of more than 300 female employees.

ADCB said that female employees will be responsible for non- customer facing roles including data entry, auditing and validating the accuracy of transactions received from branches and call centres, such as new account requests, clearing checks as well as outbound customer experience calls.

Tamooha is part of ADCB’s ambition to promote Emiratisation at various administrative levels in line with the directives of the UAE’s leadership. This includes providing more opportunities and bigger roles for Emirates women and creating an appropriate environment for them, the statement added.

Ala’a Eraiqat, ADCB’s CEO, said: “At ADCB, we’re committed to supporting the right of Emirates women to pursue their careers without compromising their social norms.  “We are proud to be the first bank to provide a unique career structure that enables Emirates women to join the workforce while meeting their everyday life responsibilities…We have already received encouraging feedback on the initiative and have hired 100 women in addition to the women administrative officers in charge of work teams who are responsible for training and supervising operations.”

Employment for Emarati Women