'Save our future': Students across the world march to demand climate action

The global climate strike is inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
Reuters | Dawn.comPublished Sep 21, 2019 

Hundreds of thousands of students and workers left their schools, colleges and offices on Friday to take to the streets around the globe and demand that world leaders take urgent action to avert an environmental catastrophe.
The global climate strike, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, kicked off in the Pacific islands and followed the rising sun across Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia and then Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

It will culminate in New York when Thunberg, who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, will spearhead a rally at the United Nations headquarters, where heads of government are due to gather for a climate summit next week.

“This is about my future, not only my future, but the future of my entire generation and all the generations to come after ours,” said Tristan Vancleef, 16, among around 15,000 demonstrators who marched through the centre of Brussels.

Banners at the Brussels march included “Cool kids save the hot planet”, “I won't go to school until you make it cool” and “If it's melted it's ruined”.

Protesters are calling on governments to take immediate action to limit the harmful effects of man-made climate change.

Social media posts showed scores of demonstrations, ranging from a few dozen primary school children in Abuja, Nigeria, to tens of thousands of people in cities from Hamburg, in Germany; to Melbourne, Australia; Kabul, Afghanistan; Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi among 26 cities in Pakistan; and major cities in India.

“Our future on your shoulders,” read one banner stretched across a street by students in Berlin.

“Our oceans are rising, so are we,” was a popular slogan on placards, including one carried by a student in school uniform in Melbourne and another by a girl wearing a facemask in Kolkata, in eastern India.

Why the patriarchy is killing men

Gender equality isn’t just good for women. It also saves men’s lives.

A woman holds a sign reading "Feminism = Equality" as she takes part in a nation-wide women's strike for wage parity outside the federal palace, on June 14 in the Swiss capital Bern. (Stefan Wermuth/AFP/Getty images)
The health advantages of feminism for men are not evident only in Iceland. In other countries with stronger gender equality, men also tend to fare better. According to research by Norwegian sociologist and men’s studies expert Oystein Gullvag Holter, there is a direct correlation between the state of gender equality in a country and male well-being, as measured by factors such as welfare, mental health, fertility and suicide. Men (and women) in more gender-equal countries in Europe are less likely to get divorced, be depressed or die as a result of violence.
These findings undercut one of the favorite facts of men’s rights activists — that men die younger than women do. They use this data point to argue that feminism is unwarranted because women already live fuller (or at least longer) lives. But a world without feminism would exacerbate this problem, not solve it. Feminism is the antidote to shorter male life expectancy. Saying feminism causes men to decline is like saying firefighters cause fire.

America doesn’t just have a gender pay gap. It has a gender wealth gap

Women typically live longer than men because of several biological advantages that make them more resilient and give them more stamina (despite the stereotype that women lack it). But that’s only part of the equation. The other component of the life expectancy gap is what scientists literally call man-made diseases. These are cultural: Men are more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol, engage in high-risk behavior and have accidents at work. A report from the World Health Organization points to three reasons men don’t live as long: the way men work (they endure greater “exposure to physical and chemical hazards”), their willingness to take risks (thanks to “male norms of risk-taking and adventure”) and their discomfort with doctors (they’re “less likely to visit a doctor when they are ill and, when they see a doctor, are less likely to report on the symptoms of disease or illness”). When I became a lifeguard, I was shocked to learn that 80 percent of drowning victims are male , even though their aquatic skills are equivalent to those of women, because they’re less likely to wear life jackets, more likely to overestimate their swimming abilities and more likely to take risks. 

If men’s rights activists really want to improve men’s lives, then, they should join feminists in dismantling bygone ideals of masculinity. When researchers controlled for unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or drinking, for instance, they found that men who earned less than their wives for an extended period of time still experienced poorer health outcomes, shorter life expectancy and increased chances of cardiovascular problems like diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension and stroke. Because of the observable increase in men’s anxieties in these familial arrangements (and the lack of measurable change for women), researchers believe that these men lose the only sense of connection to their identity as breadwinners. Violating the code of idealized masculinity can be such a point of stress for men that it strains their overall health.

Men’s reluctance to care for themselves is especially perturbing when it comes to mental health. Unsurprisingly, the more a man associates with traditional and inflexible ideas about masculinity, the less likely he is to seek counseling. For too many men in America who suffer from mental health issues, it’s easier to get a gun than a therapist , especially in rural areas, where 80 percent of counties don’t have a single psychiatrist. No wonder suicide rates are rising in rural states with the highest gun ownership rates and that the vast majority of those deaths are among men. Although women are three times more likely to attempt suicide, the suicide rate for men is four times higher because men tend to use more violent means when choosing to end their lives — the most effective and violent of which is, of course, a firearm. And the connection between gun ownership and traditional masculinity is hard to deny, especially when we see gun manufacturers like Bushmaster instructing men to get their “man card” reissued by buying a gun. 

When feminism is met with violence

The Plight of Pakistan’s Journalists

The free press is being suffocated in Pakistan.

In Pakistan, journalists’ woes have been one constant. Whether under civilian or military rule, the multidimensional challenges faced by journalists have remained the same. Kamran Khan, the well-known Pakistani anchor on Dunya TV, in a recent program equated journalists’ current predicament to the conditions under former dictator General Zia-ul-Haq’s (1977-88) rule. Adding support to his argument, Islamabad, the capital city, has reportedly been dubbed the “most dangerous place to practice journalism in Pakistan.”

Indeed, journalists are living in a constant nightmare in the capital following cases of abductions and beatings; on some occasions reporters have been targeted just because of their journalistic work. As a result, there are also reports of journalists fleeing Islamabad. A case in point is that of outspoken journalist Taha Siddiqui, who is currently living in exile in France.

Democracy was restored in Pakistan in 2008. In 2018, for only the second time in Pakistan’s history, the country will mark a peaceful transfer of power between civilian governments. Yet despite these developments, mainstream political parties have not paid any serious attention to the press. Even pro-democracy political parties have failed to provide succor for a free and vibrant press. Instead, these parties have only further bullied the press and media organizations upon coming.

It is constitutionally guaranteed in Pakistan that journalists can perform their duties independently. A free and independent press protects the fundamental norms of democracy. But unfortunately, in Pakistan, even so-called champions of democracy have ditched the media organizations, unless they are trying to use the media for their own vested interests.

In a telling example, Pakistan’s most famous television network, Geo TV, was shut down in April and told to remain off the air unless or until a deal was reached with the establishment for Geo TV to avoid reporting on certain issues, including the military and judiciary.

After that warning shot, Pakistani columnists shared their articles on Twitter, saying The News had refused to publish them. (The News and Geo TV are both owned by the Jang Group). One of The News’ regular columnists, Mosharraf Zaidi, claimed on Twitter that this was the first time in 10 years that the English-language paper had refused to publish his article.

This pressure on the media comes just a few months ahead of the 2018 general elections in Pakistan. Journalists and politicians, especially those belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), fear that control over the press is meant to manipulate the elections. In the recent Senate elections, the PML-N’s candidate could not win the chair despite the party holding the most seats. All the other parties rallied together against Sharif and his party; the same thing is expected in the upcoming general elections.

Dawn’s crime is simple: it ran and published the interview. Although Dawn is Pakistan’s oldest newspaper — started by Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah on October 26, 1941, in Delhi before the partition – it is currently being put under tremendous pressure over its independent policies, which the paper is trying to maintain against all odds.

International NGO Reporters Without Borders denounced the move to block distribution of Dawn. “It is clear that the military high command does not want to allow a democratic debate in the months preceding a general election. We call on the authorities to stop interfering in the dissemination of independent media and to restore distribution of Dawn throughout Pakistan,” Reporters Without Borders said.

The future of free and independent press in Pakistan is at stake. Electronic media is already controlled, and now print media is being brought to heel — precisely because it provides space to dissent, critical thinking, and independent reporting.

The future of higher education in Pakistan

A recent newspaper article calls for transforming Pakistan’s university system by turning universities into low-level community colleges that primarily focus on undergraduate teaching. It was insinuated that Higher Education Commission (HEC) previous reforms and initiatives to promote and support postgraduate research were not beneficial and failed to advance Pakistan’s economy. Although the HEC reforms and initiatives were highly lauded by international observers such as education experts from UN, USAID and World Bank, there has been a widespread public misconception that the only outcomes of the HEC programs were production of large numbers of PhDs and even higher numbers of ‘research’ papers. It has also been conjectured that the reforms-led high research outputs in Pakistan were useless since no profit-seeking businesses making use of these papers and patents. However, the centrality of research in the Western university system was linked to foundation of a solid undergraduate teaching programme.

READ MORE: LUMS instructor 'disappears' after students file sexual harassment complaint

Confining the intellectual life of Pakistan universities system to rote classroom activity would be a fatal flaw for our education system. Instead, our universities should celebrate a culture of research- a system in which research is uniformly expected, discussed, produced, and valued. Without a research component, a relevant and modern undergraduate curriculum does not exist in developed countries. Several studies have revealed that undergraduate research enhances students’ critical thinking skills and equips them with fundamentals and skills needed for success in their careers. It also helps them to discover their passion for research, and prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of the future. Undergraduate research is an inquiry-based learning that allows students to apply their knowledge in an experience-​based learning environment.

No one doubts that a solid undergraduate programme is important towards a common goal of increasing scientific understanding. However, in practice, a cadre of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students runs the advanced research conducted in developed countries instead of undergraduate students. The USA, which is home to only 4.3% of the world’s population but houses 43 of the world’s top 100 universities, had more than 40000 postdocs in 2013. Many of the postdocs and graduate students are non-US citizens, who completed their undergraduate training in developing countries around the world. Certainly, human resource is instrumental in the advancement of R&D. However, availability of adequate infrastructure and research funds are also key ingredients for R&D and innovation. Pakistan’s R&D expenditure is more than 216 times less than USA, 73 times less than Japan, 22 times less than India, and about 7 times less than Turkey.

READ MORE: Air Arabia declared best low-cost airline in M. East and N. Africa

Bridging the gap between the academia and industry is important for the translation of research into practical applications. We need to make curriculum more relevant by including 10 to 15% of courses that are industry specific and solicit feedback from the stakeholders about the status of the academic programs. We should enable our faculty to invite an industry expert in his/her domain to co-teach the curriculum, who may bring case studies, technology road maps, and state of-the-art practices and technologies into the classroom. The industrial exposure of our students needs enhancing through industrial internships, industrial projects, and counselling activities with industry. We should also facilitate industry experts to sit in our advisory bodies.

READ MORE: Ahsan Iqbal says 'minus one agenda' coming from PTI

Confining the intellectual life of Pakistan universities system to rote classroom activity would be a fatal flaw for our education system.

These 19 developments shaped Pakistan's economic future in 2018

Take a look at the major ups and downs on the economic front in the outgoing year.
Overall, 2018 saw Pakistan's economy buckle under increasing pressure, with decreasing foreign exchange reserves, increasing trade deficit, circular debt as well as foreign loans taking a toll on macroeconomic health.
As a result, the economy suffered while resources were diverted to handling power crises, import bills, and other issues. The country's foreign exchange reserves also remained under pressure.
During the first half of the year, a tax amnesty scheme was launched for foreign asset holders. During the outgoing year, stricter regulations were imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on asset inflows and outflows.

The central bank also raised its policy (target) rate by 150 basis points (bps) to 10 per cent near the end of the year.

Here's a look at the few of the major developments on the economic front throughout the year.

1. America suspends entire security aid to Pakistan

In the first week of January, the Trump administration suspended its entire security assistance to Pakistan until Islamabad "proved its commitment to fight all terrorist groups operating in the region".

According to the State Department, the cut-off is not permanent and only affects military assistance.

Under the new approach, funds would be allocated to a particular purpose identified with the allocation and would be released only after that target was achieved. The targets identified with the allocation could be strategic as well as issue specific.

2. EU renews GSP+ scheme for two years                                                                                               

      EU Parliament renews GSP plus scheme for Pakistan for another two years.— AFP/File

The Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) scheme passed smoothly through the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (CIT) in February, enabling Pakistani exporters to enjoy preferential duties on exports for the next two years

   3. Tax amnesty scheme                                                                                                                                       

  The scheme enabled people with undeclared income earned before June 30, 2017 to bring it in the tax net by paying only a 5pc penalty.— Photo courtesy of imlaak.com
In April, the then prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, announced a tax amnesty scheme through which people with undeclared income earned before June 30, 2017 on assets held within the country were allowed to declare them by simply paying a five per cent penalty.

People holding undocumented assets outside the country were also invited to declare them through the new amnesty scheme. Foreign exchange could also be brought back to the country by paying a 2pc penalty. Foreign liquid assets like cash, securities and bonds held abroad and in local dollar accounts could be declared with a 5pc penalty.

The Business Of Video Games: Market Share For Gaming Platforms in 2019 [Infographic]

Kevin Anderton

Recently, a company called NewZoo released a Global Games Market Report. Within that report were many predictions for the upcoming year and beyond. I had a chance to read over it the other day and I am going to be talking about some of the highlights. Primarily I will be talking about the market shares of different gaming platforms like mobile devices and consoles and what we can expect in the coming years according to Newzoo.
A market research company

First a little about Newzoo so we know where this information is coming from. This company creates market forecasts for the gaming industry which includes games, esports, mobile devices and more. They have 11 years of experience and their forecasts are fueled by data from the market itself. Their data is harvested by tracking billions of devices, millions of app users, epsorting events, and more. Their consumer research is conducted in 30 different countries and by interviewing 70,000 individual consumers each year. All that information gets plugged into marketing models and analysis to create forecasts for the future.

All of that seems pretty credible to me but let's look at the forecasts and then you can decide for yourself if you think Newzoo is on the ball or not.
Market share for gaming platforms in 2019

Last year the gaming market generated somewhere around $138.7 billion in revenue. The prediction from Newzoo is that in 2019 it will increase by about 9.6% to generate 152.1 billion. The video game industry grew about 10% in 2018 so to say that it will grow a similar amount seems to make sense.

If we break that prediction down by platform the information gets fairly interesting. The largest segment, 36%, will be generated by smartphone games. Which is not too surprising. You can’t walk across the street without running into someone playing Candy Crush, Pokemon Go, or something like that. On top of that, the largest segment of the market logically goes to the device that most people have access to and it seems like everyone has a smartphone. The smallest segment of the market, 2%, will go to Browser PC Games. These are games like Runescape and Quake Live that you can play through your PC’s browser instead of downloading them. Honestly, this is a category that I forgot existed. I used to play games like this all the time but I haven’t found a game that held my interest in a long time. The prediction is that browser-based games will continue to lose market share in 2019 and over the next few years.

The total break down of the market in 2019 has console games accounting for 32% of the revenue and will actually grow faster than smartphone games in the coming years. Regardless of this increased growth console games will not overtake smartphone games any time soon.

How Fast Fashion Is Destroying the Planet

By Tatiana Schlossberg

Sept. 3, 2019FASHIONOPOLISThe Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of ClothesBy Dana Thomas

There is that old saying, usually attributed to Yves Saint Laurent: “Fashion fades, style is eternal.”

Literally speaking, that actually may no longer be true, especially when it comes to fast fashion. Fast-fashion brands may not design their clothing to last (and they don’t), but as artifacts of a particularly consumptive era, they might become an important part of the fossil record.

More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill (about 85 percent of textile waste in the United States goes to landfills or is incinerated), it will not decay.

Nor will the synthetic microfibers that end up in the sea, freshwater and elsewhere, including the deepest parts of the oceans and the highest glacier peaks. Future archaeologists may look at landfills taken over by nature and discover evidence of Zara.

And it is Zara and other brands like it that have helped plant flags on the farthest reaches of the planet. In “Fashionopolis,” Dana Thomas, a veteran style writer, convincingly connects our fast-fashion wardrobes to global economic and climate patterns and crises, rooting the current state of the fashion biosphere as a whole — production methods, labor practices and environmental impacts — in the history of the garment industry.

Throughout, Thomas reminds us that the textile industry has always been one of the darkest corners of the world economy. The defining product of the Industrial Revolution, textiles were crucial to the development of our globalized capitalist system, and its abuses today are built on a long history. Slave labor in the American South supplied factories in both England, where they were notorious for child labor and other horrors, and the United States, where factory fires took the lives of recent immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. Thomas reports that there are immigrant workers in Los Angeles today who are victims of wage theft and exploitation, not to mention the Bangladeshi, Chinese, Vietnamese and other laborers who face working conditions that are at best grim and at worst inhumane. Fashion is an industry that has depended on the toil of the powerless and the voiceless, and on keeping them that way.

In one of the most powerful part

Entrepreneurial Education for Young Children & Adults

Kevin Miller Sep 6, 2017 ·

A successful business runs on a great idea and creativity is the key reason. Some seem so simple while others are so revolutionary, we wonder how anybody could have thought of them at all. Ideas for start-ups often begin with a problem that needs to solve and they don’t usually come when you sit idle. They tend to reveal themselves while you are hard at work on something else.
Owning a business teaches kids and young adults risk taking, financial competency, communication skills and practical skills of life. Self-confidence, autonomy, strong work ethic, ambition, empathy are traits of a successful entrepreneur.

Ways to Become a Successful Entrepreneur
1.Think about what interests you and offer a service that fills a need.
2.Teach your child how to communicate with clients politely and respond to emails and phone calls.
3.Start with one simple plan and execute it. It is better to start small and build slowly than back out of a large project.
4.Talk about your child’s ambitions with his/her teachers, friends and business colleagues. Support comes in many forms such as financial backing or exceptional advice.
5.Every successful entrepreneur experiences a few fail ideas. Each experience offers valuable educational opportunities.
Attend Entrepreneurship Workshops to Develop Skills
Students should have to avail workshop programs that develop leaders. Use these to develop the knowledge, competencies and skills. Leaders use this experience to influence individual and groups to achieve a common goal.
Mindsets program recognizes skills and offers positive entrepreneurial opportunities to individual. It also highlights how education provides cognitive ability to individual. Higher levels of education links with better entrepreneurial performance, as well as higher rates of enterprise formation through interactive lectures. They can also increase thinking skills and innovation.

Marketing Your Business Locally
Word-of-mouth advertising is a great way to start your business. Make business cards and ask customers to spread the word about your business.
Social Media can Globalise Your Business
Current marketing relies on social media platforms to globalise your business. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram can easily get you more customers if you present your products and business effectively. You can get more followers and likes for these.
Conclusion
Entrepreneur’s willingness to try to turn the idea into reality makes a business successful. Entrepreneurship by nature has inherent risk. Risk taking comes into picture at the start of a business and not when business is well settled. It is necessary to take calculated risks to become a true entrepreneur. Young children can achieve more if you encourage them as free thinkers. Expose them to successful people to discover their potential for a more fulfilling career and life.

The Art of True Confidence

By Jordan Harbinger | August 1, 2018

Confidence is one of those game-changing qualities—like rapport, empathy and courage—that is both incredibly valuable and highly elusive. As soon as we “try” to be confident, we’ve already failed. As soon as we “act” more confident, we’re already pretending. Telling someone to “be more confident” is like telling someone to be taller. That’d be nice, but how?

The answer to that question requires a new approach to confidence—one that goes beyond the “fake it till you make it!” mentality, and moves toward something more authentic, more grounded and more holistic.

So let’s start at the beginning and get a good handle on what confidence really is.
What Is Confidence, Exactly?
We might not always have a firm grasp of textbook confidence, but we know it when we see it. We know it because we feel it, and we know what it feels like to be around it. Which is one reason the definition of confidence can be so hard to pin down. Confidence is really an experience—both of ourselves and of other people.
We also know when we don’t feel it. In the presence of an insecure person—or, even more telling, a person pretending to be confident—we not only notice their lack of confidence, but also their shaky attempts to compensate for it.
Interestingly, when we’re in the company of an unconfident person, we often tend to feel un confident ourselves. We struggle to organically connect, we begin second-guessing our words and choices, and we notice ourselves feeling uneasy, uncertain and un engaged.

So what is true confidence, really?
"To put it simply, true confidence is a feeling of self-assurance that is grounded in an authentic experience of our own ability, perspective and sufficiency".

 Confidence is an amplifier of quality and success:-
Contrary to the view of many self-help experts, confidence is not a proxy for quality, depth or character. It should not be an end in and of itself, and it will never compensate for good old-fashioned hard work. Even the most confident people need to be confident about something—themselves, their work, their identities—and confidence divorced from content will always fall apart sooner or later.

Instead, we think about true confidence as an essential part of our character and work.

Bangladesh plans to ban e-cigarette amid growing health concerns:-

Bangladesh plans to prohibit the sale and use of electronic cigarettes and vaporisers, a health official said on Sunday, as countries around the world move to ban devices that have been linked to health risks and teen addiction.

“We are actively working to impose a ban on the production, import and sale of e-cigarettes and all vaping tobaccos to prevent health risks,” said Shaikh Yusuf Harun, Secretary at the health education and family welfare division of the Ministry of Health and Family welfare.
The health ministry had taken into consideration the recent spate of deaths and illnesses linked to e-cigarette use in the US, he said.
A ban on e-cigarettes and vaporisers will be incorporated in the tobacco control policy 2019, now being drawn up by the government, he added. It will then be submitted to parliament for approval.
E-cigarettes are available everywhere in Bangladesh from small street corner shops to e-commerce sites.
Public health officials in the US recommended against using e-cigarettes after 12 deaths and 805 cases of illnesses linked to e-cigarette use were reported.
The global market for e-cigarettes was worth $15.7 billion in 2018, according to data from Euro monitor International, and is projected to more than double to $40 billion in 2023.
Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2019

What Is the Major Impact of Social Media?

Information and communication technology has changed rapidly over the past 20 years with a key development being the emergence of social media.
These factors have caused social networks to evolve from being a handy means for keeping in touch with friends and family to being used in ways that have a real impact on society.
Social media is being used in ways that shape politics, business, world culture, education, careers, innovation, and more.

1.Impact on social media:-

In comparison to other media, social media’s influence in political campaigns has increased tremendously. Social networks play an increasingly important role in electoral politics — first in the ultimately unsuccessful candidacy of Howard Dean in 2003, and then in the election of the first African-American president in 2008.

The New York Times reports that “The election of Donald J. Trump is perhaps the starkest illustration yet that across the planet, social networks are helping to fundamentally rewire human society.” Because social media allows people to communicate with one another more freely, they are helping to create surprisingly influential social organizations among once-marginalized groups.

2.The Impact of Social Media on Society:-

Almost a quarter of the world’s population is now on Facebook. In the USA nearly 80% of all internet users are on this platform. Because social networks feed off interactions among people, they become more powerful as they grow.

Thanks to the internet, each person with marginal views can see that he’s not alone. And when these people find one another via social media, they can do things — create memes, publications and entire online worlds that bolster their worldview, and then break into the mainstream.

Some argue that social sharing has encouraged people to use computers and mobile phones to express their concerns on social issues without actually having to engage actively with campaigns in real life. Their support is limited to pressing the ‘Like’ button or sharing content.


This is a very human reaction when people are given options that absolve them from responsibility to act. A 2013 study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business found that when people are presented with the option of ‘liking’ a social cause, they use this to opt-out of actually committing time and money to a charitable cause. On the other hand, when people are allowed to show support in private, they are more likely to show meaningful support in terms of making a financial contribution.

3.The Impact of Social Media on Commerce:-

The rise of social media means it’s unusual to find an organization that does not reach its customers and prospects through one social media platform or another. Companies see the importance of using social media to connect with customers and build revenue.

Businesses have realized they can use social media to generate insights, stimulate demand, and create targeted product offerings. This is important in traditional brick-and-motor businesses, and, obviously, in the world of e-commerce.

How Businesses Can Prepare for Generation Z in the Workplace:-

While businesses finally started to understand how to work with millennials, they now need to figure out how to deal with the incoming workforce—Generation Z (also known as the iGen or Gen Z). Roughly defined as those born between the mid-nineties and 2010, Generation Z now outnumbers both baby boomers and millennials, at 25 percent of the US population. To attract and retain the best talent, businesses need to understand their expectations of technology and workplace environments.

What Employers Need to Know to Attract Top i-Gen Talent:-

While it’s impossible to lump the entire generation into one clear bucket, there are general observations about this one that business leaders need to consider as they prepare to accommodate this gigantic inbound workforce.

Technology matters, but… – While this generation is coming to the table with seemingly innate technology skills and expectations, they also value face-to-face communication. They want to know that their ideas are heard in real-time and aren’t simply buried in someone’s email inbox.

They’re visual – Growing up with smartphones, social media, and YouTube, Gen Z-ers are visual communicators and learners. Good luck getting their attention with text-heavy emails. To keep them engaged, employers should provide internal documentation with graphics and videos.

They’re independent – While they tend to be more loyal to the right companies, they are also fiercely competitive. They know they have a ton of options, can upskill at any time, and find a new gig if they aren’t happy with what they have. To retain them, employers need to listen to their ideas and validate their contributions.

Money is critical – After watching how their families suffered in the Great Recession, Generation Z is understandably concerned about their finances. They can easily see what their peers are earning at other companies and won’t hesitate to move on for a better salary.

They are looking for career advancement – They aren’t a lazy bunch and are open to any and all opportunities to advance their careers. If employers can’t offer this, they will look for ones that can or even upskill on their own time and create their own venture.

Diversity and activism – Generation Z is the most diverse to enter the workplace. For perspective, nearly 50 percent of the iGen identify as ethnic or racial minorities. Only 18 percent of baby boomers do. On top of that, this generation is more interested in working for companies that not only embrace diversity but also stand behind a cause.

There’s No Better Time than Now to Prepare

Some are still in high school, but many have already joined the workforce or are about to. In short, it's time for businesses to prepare for Generation Z in the workplace. Many will choose not to go to college at all—instead, going to a trade school or even starting their businesses by building mobile or cloud apps. By gaining an understanding of what their career goals and technology preferences are, modern businesses can leverage the next young and eager generation's potential and stay ahead of the game in this hyper-competitive world.
If you want to attract and retain the top Generation Z talent, it’s now more important than ever to offer them opportunities to advance their careers through online learning. Simply learn works with businesses to provide your teams with online corporate training programs in the latest technologies and best business practices. We do this through a blend of online self-learning (OSL), live instructor-led classes from industry experts, practice exams, and by enabling learners to earn the top certifications. Check out our free resources to become more familiar with the wide range of careers in which we offer training and certification

E-BOOK READING:-

Short for electronic book, an e-Book or e-book is a book published in an electronic format. It allows for instant access to a book by downloading it over the Internet. The book can be read on the computer, e-reader (e.g., the Amazon Kindle), smartphone, or tablet. An eBook can be published in different file formats, for example, plain text, PDF, Rich Text Format, as image files, and others.
On July 19, 2010, Amazon announced that it was selling more e-books than hardcover books. Below is a short listing of the many different places to find legal and free e-books.
Here are the Top 8 Advantages of e-Books over Printed Books:

1. One Device, Many Books:

e-Books are portable and lightweight, making it easy to carry around. Instead of carrying multiple bulky books, one e-Book reader can hold thousands of e-Books. It saves a lot of space- in your home and in your bag. One doesn’t have to worry about the storage limit.

2. Accessible Everywhere:

eBooks can be downloaded and stored for later use. One can carry the eBook around and read them whenever they want. Students and employees can go through the learning material while at home and even while travelling. It is convenient for people on the go. Some e-Readers come with the option of offline accessibility, allowing people to use it even in the absence of an internet connection.

3. Easily Updates:

The contents on the eBooks are mostly cloud-based, meaning it can be updated any time. Authors and publishers can always add the up-to-date information, providing users with the latest digital content. This saves reprinting costs and the time involved in the process.

4. Shareable Content:

You can share the e-Book contents with multiple users. The social feature on the e-book allows sharing and liking of content, which is not possible with printed books. You might share a printed book with one person at a time, but an eBook can be shared with many people at once. Students and employees can use this feature to collaborate with their peers.

5. Augmented Reality Experience:

Augmented reality has taken the e-Book experience to a whole new level. Texts and images can now be embedded with an augmented three-dimensional visual which pops up on the user’s screen. Readers can view a computer-generated 3 D model of the image, which makes reading and learning a much more immersive experience.

6. Read Aloud Feature:

e-Books have been designed with text to speech or read aloud features. This allows people to listen to the eBooks if they are too busy to read it, for example, while driving, or while doing some chores.
This feature is also helpful for children and adults with a learning disability or with visual impairment. It is also useful to help the user understand how a particular word is pronounced.

7. Easy on the Eyes:

e-Readers these days come with features where you can adjust the brightness of the screen according to the time of the day and depending upon your preferences.
Many e-Readers even have read in the dark feature, with lights that won’t strain your eyes, and neither would they disturb others around you. Users can even change the fonts of the text. They can increase or decrease the size of the font. Basically, eBooks ensure that your eyes are taken care of.

8. Interactive Elements:

Including interactive features in an eBook makes the reading experience a more engaging one. eBooks can be embedded with audio and videos. External links can be included to offer additional information.
The user can even bookmark a certain page or find a word in a quick and effortless way. It also allows users to make annotations. There are multiple such interactive features which can be included in order to enhance the overall reading experience.

Content Marketing Trends for 2020:-

In the beginning, content marketing was more like a trending buzzword, and companies were adopting it for marketing as an experiment. Fast forward to today, content marketing has become a necessity for a brand's marketing strategy. It has developed into a proven marketing channel for maximizing role. It has evolved to include a variety of other channels and analytical tools to test and prove what works and what doesn't. Buffer, the popular social media brand used guest blogging to boost their growth initially—publishing content multiple times a day, on high performing websites. This was one of the critical growth hacking strategies that helped Buffer attract its first 100,000 users. On its blog, Buffer attracted individuals who influenced their customers by creating high quality and highly shareable content. Currently, with around 400,000 users and approximately a million followers across multiple social channels, Buffer is a trusted brand with four blogs, including the Transparency blog and Open blog, where they share their failures and successes over the years.
It’s clear how Buffer has utilized several advanced content marketing tactics and strategies built on proven growth frameworks to help them achieve unparalleled success over the last few years.  The way they have used guest posts to help gain traction and brand awareness by borrowing other audiences to their websites is worth following. They have also curated and re purposed content to create value for readers.
This article takes you through the current content marketing practices that are trending, how they are coherently working with traditional methods, why data-driven content marketing will become more critical in 2020, new advancements in the industry, and more. But before we dive deeper, let’s quickly glance through how content marketing fared in 2019.
2019, An Overview
The Content Marketing Institute Report for 2019 gives an in-depth analysis of the content marketing trends and processes that are changing the digital work space. The report indicates how and where organizations are allocating their budgets, provides details on what's working, and predicts where the industry is moving towards. Here are the key highlights from the report:
1.95% of B2C use content marketing on some level.
2.96% of the most successful B2C digital marketers say audiences see their business as a trusted resource. All because of the content that they produce.
3.The most significant area for spending on content marketing in 2019 is content creation (56%).

Agency Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs
The above chart is evidence enough that content marketers today are exploring newer forms of content, and businesses are willing to try them out because they see value in them. While written, printed content is losing its charm, online audiovisual content like videos, live streaming, and webinars are drive results. Written forms of content like eBooks, info graphics are also emerging as valuable assets in the content marketing arsenal.
With newer ways of marketing being explored ever so frequently now, missing out on one or a few content marketing channels can result in loss of leads and business opportunities for companies. For this purpose, we’ve compiled the top content marketing trends you should watch for in 2020, and some of the job opportunities that are emerging because of them.

Tourism in Pakistan:-

Tourism in Pakistan is a growing industry. In 2010, lonely planet termed Pakistan as being

"...tourism's ‘next big thing’ for more years than we care to remember.but world media headlines always send things off the rails". The country is geographically and ethnically diverse, and has a number of historical and cultural heritage sites. The upsurge in tourism in the past few years has been aided by the Government of Pakistan recent decision to end mandatory No Objection Certificates for foreign tourists seeking to visit certain parts of the country.

In 2018, the British Backpacker society ranked Pakistan as the world's top adventure travel destination, describing the country as "one of the friendliest countries on earth, with mountain scenery that is beyond anyone’s wildest imagination."Forbes ranked Pakistan as one of the ‘coolest places’ to visit in 2019.

 The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report placed Pakistan in the top 25 per cent of global destinations for its World Heritage sites, which range from the mangroves in the Indus delta, to the Indus Valley Civilization sites including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.

 According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to Pakistan's GDP in 2016 was US$7.6 billion (PKR 793.0 billion), constituting 2.7% of the total GDP.By 2025, the government predicts tourism will contribute ₨1 trillion (US$7.1 billion) to the Pakistani economy.

In October 2006, one year after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, The Guardian released what it described as "the top five tourist sites in Pakistan" to help the country's tourism industry



 The sites included Lahore, the Karakoram Highway, Karimabad and Lake Saiful Muluk. To promote the country's unique cultural heritage, Pakistan launched the "Visit Pakistan" marketing campaign in 2007. This campaign involved events throughout the year including fairs and religious festivals, regional sporting events, arts and craft shows, folk festivals and openings of historical museums

In 2013, 565,212 tourists visited Pakistan contributing only $298 million, which has risen to over 1.9 million tourists in 2018 By comparison, Pakistan's domestic tourism industry is estimated at 50 million tourists who travel in the country on short trips usually between May to August. The largest tourism inflow of tourists are from the United Kingdom, followed by United States, India and China.

Refrence:- Malik, Javeria (6 May 2015). "Tourism's Impact on Pakistan Economy : Tourism and its Impact on Pakistan economy"