Google to train 8000 journalists to curb fake news
The Network will select 200 journalists from cities across India, who will hone their skills in verification and training during 5-day train-the-trainer boot camps.

Technology giant Google is planning to train around 8000 journalists in India. The company in a statement said, “This training network aims to support journalists from across India in their fight against misinformation, providing in-depth and hands-on verification training to 8000 journalists across English and six other Indian languages over the next one year. The training will equip them with best-in-class skills required to debunk fake news.”

The Network will select 200 journalists from cities across India, who will hone their skills in verification and training during 5-day train-the-trainer boot camps. They will be trained in-person by global verification experts and top Indian fact-checkers, including First Draft, Storyful, AltNews, BoomLive, Factchecker.in and DataLeads.

The network of certified trainers will train more journalists in and around their region at 2-day, 1-day and half-day workshops organised by the Network. Training workshops will be conducted in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada in cities across India.

“When journalists and communities work together, armed with the online tools to verify information, they can build a bulwark of trusted media to fight the tide of misinformation,’ said, Irene Jay Liu, News Lab Lead, APAC

via News: Google to train 8000 journalists to curb fake news — People Matters

Gender parity to boost India’s GDP by $770 billion
A study by McKinsey Global Institute suggest that India can improve its GDP by 18% by addressing the gender inequality.

Earlier this year, International Monetary Fund’s Chief, Christine Lagarde and Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg, in a joint paper, stated, “Raising women’s participation in the labor force to the same level as men can boost India’s GDP by 27 percent.” Now, according to a recent study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) found that India could add $770 billion to its GDP annually in 2025, or 18% above business-as-usual GDP by realizing gender parity.

The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Asia Pacific, a research done by MGI, studied the economic cost of gender inequality and related issues. The study highlighted that advancing gender equality in the Asia-Pacific could add $4.5 trillion (a 12% increase in the business trajectory) to the region’s collective GDP by 2025. In absolute terms, at $2.6 trillion (a 13% increase) China would benefit the most. But in relative terms, India would get the most significant boost by addressing gender inequality that would add $770 billion (an 18% increase) to GDP.

Currently, Indian women contribute 18% to the GDP. In contrast, in China, women commit 41% to the GDP and constitute 44% of the workforce, and in Singapore, these figures are 39% and 45%, respectively.
In the Asia-Pacific region, women contribute 36% to GDP and make up 37% of the workforce, which is similar to the global figures of 36% and 39%. On gender equality at work, the six countries remotest from gender parity are Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan and South Korea. However, the entire region is facing the issue of the low participation of women in leadership positions. The only country that has achieved a female-to-male ratio of close to 1.00 on leadership indicator was the Philippines.

Across the Asia Pacific region, the report estimates that 58% of the opportunity ($4.5 trillion) would come from boosting the female labor force participation ratio, 17% from raising the number of hours women work and the remaining 25% from more women working in higher productivity sectors.

via News: Gender parity to boost India’s GDP by $770 billion — People Matters