Apprenticeship guarantee

In these times of divisive and confrontational politics it must go to the credit of the Congress to include, as part of its five “guarantees” for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Right to Apprenticeship for every diploma holder or college graduate below the age of 25.

A one-year apprenticeship gives an assured first job with a private or a public sector company along with a stipend of ₹1 lakh a year to every youth.

Estimates put just 1 per cent of people who enter the workforce annually are apprentices in India. In any modern economy, apprentices should comprise 3-4 per cent of the total workforce, which would roughly translate into a total of around 20 million apprentices.

India is poised to reap its demographic dividend for at least another decade, as the youth population will be 23 per cent of the population in 2036, down from the 27 per cent in 2021, but still one of the highest among nations. But lack of earnest skilling would result in poor harvest of human potential.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

The new gold rush

Referring to the article on “the fuelling the new gold rush” (April 20), I sense that gold rates have always had a sporadic rise whenever a crypto asset like bitcoin plummets.

Excluding the first halving on November 28, 2012, all the subsequent halving episodes have made Bitcoin experience a short-term sell-off and also fuelled an upward-rally in gold prices there-after.

Gold rates spiked from $1477/Oz to $2038/Oz in a matter of 88 days after the 2020 halving and a similar trend was witnessed after July 2016 too.

This is evidence of transferring of value from Crypto Assets to Real gold.

The capital from the crypto sell-off flows into yet another dead asset called Gold thus triggering an unrealistic price rise. Moving forward in both short and long run, a mean reversion in gold prices is conspicuous.

Nandagopal

Chennai

Make easy health insurance

People worldwide are living longer. Today most people can expect to live into their sixties and beyond. Every country in the world is experiencing growth in both the size and the proportion of older persons in the population.

While this shift in distribution of a country’s population towards older ages — known as population ageing — started in high-income countries, it is now low- and middle-income countries that are experiencing the greatest change.

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population over 60 years will live in low- and middle-income countries.

There is a significant difference in the premium of a young person versus a senior citizen.

However, this may vary from insurer to insurer.

Let the seniors plan and bring out the best health care policy for the future care and health benefits.

CK Subramaniam

Mumbai

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