Basics

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Cashless economy not happening in India yet but the groundwork is laid

Nearly eight months after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shocked the economy by banning 86 percent of the country’s currency, business has more or less returned to usual. On the one hand, that’s a testament to the Indian economy’s resilience. On the other, it also means that Modi’s hopes of creating a cashless economy will not be immediately realized.

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Protecting animals in disasters helps protect lifelines for rural families

Protecting livestock can greatly improve rural communities’ ability to recover after a major disaster, relief organizations have found. “Without animals, families lose one of their main sources of income and are often left with no way to rebuild their lives,” said a veterinarian who works on such disaster prevention and recover efforts.

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Investing in poor children saves lives, and money

The total number of children that die of preventable causes worldwide continues to decline, says the United Nations children’s agency, but such progress disguises a still-massive and intolerable death toll. At the current pace of progress, UNICEF has estimated, some 70 million children will die before turning 5 years old by 2030 from easily preventable causes.

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Women’s rights groups condemn ban on pregnant schoolgirls in Tanzania

Women’s rights groups have condemned Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s comments that schoolgirls who give birth should be banned from state schools. More than 55,000 Tanzanian schoolgirls have been expelled from school over the last decade for being pregnant. Experts warn that low education rates are tied to a lack of proper healthcare for mother and child, illiteracy and poverty.

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‘Anti-Forbes’ list of world’s Bottom 100 highlights widening wealth gap

Every year, publications like Forbes release their lists of the world’s richest. While often dismissed as the financial equivalent of the world’s sexiest man, some say these lists can be useful for economists trying to evaluate who’s winning and losing. This week, an organization has published what might be called an anti-Forbes list, the Bottom 100, the faces and stories of 100 of world’s poorest.

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Rise in poverty rate in Paraguay shows farmers hit hardest

Paraguay had been making progress against poverty over the years, but the government has reported a recent rise in poverty that some say stems from an inadequate focus on agricultural communities. Despite the country’s overall economic growth last year, the total poverty rate rose from 26.6 to 28.8 percent.

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Ethiopia running out of food aid money, magnifying regional threat

Food aid for millions of Ethiopians will run out by the end of June, according to the United Nations. The Ethiopian government appears to be playing down the crisis, for various reasons. But the UN says if nothing is done, the country’s food crisis could expand and destabilize a region with two neighboring countries already facing famine.

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Social norms continue to undermine women’s role in workforce

The share of women in the labour market globally is not increasing even though most females want paid work, according to a major report on employment trends. Social norms of what a woman’s role should be, as well as practical obstacles such as a lack of childcare and transport to get to work are holding women back, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said.

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Tillerson’s ‘less is more’ strategy for foreign aid meets bipartisan skepticism in Senate

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent the past two days in Washington defending proposed massive cuts to the foreign affairs budget, using the ‘less is more’ approach. Critics on both sides of the aisle characterized his proposal to cut the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by about 30 percent as “reckless” and “divorced from reality.”

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