by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Jobs, Corporate Reports, Employment, Private Jobs
San Francisco : When it comes to jobs in the growing cyber security industry, there is a huge gender crisis, with men holding 87 per cent of the chief information security officer (CISO) roles at Fortune 500 companies, a new report revealed on Monday.
According to the global market research firm Forrester, the CISO role is dominated by men and Fortune 20 companies fare a bit worse, with only two female CISOs within that cohort.
“Calling a discrepancy this large a gender gap is a clear understatement. This is an emergency signal warning us that the cybersecurity industry has major issues welcoming, developing, and promoting female cybersecurity talent,” said Jeff Pollard. Principal Analyst.
“It’s difficult to sympathise with those claiming talent shortage challenges when roughly half of the population is so
underrepresented,” he added.
Among Fortune 500 companies, 45 per cent CISOs have MBAs, demonstrating the growing need for CISOs to understand, speak and think in business terms despite technology backgrounds.
Only 11 per cent of Fortune 500 CISOs list a military background, with only 4 per cent previously employed by law enforcement, the report noted.
“Fortune 500 CISOs have longer tenure than expected at four years, which is plenty of time to strategise, develop plans, execute, and look ahead to the next step in their career path,” it added.
Securing the role of CISO proves to be difficult for longstanding employees.
Nearly 59 per cent of CISOs were external hires with that number jumping to 64 per cent in Fortune 100 companies.
While Fortune 100 companies are reluctant to hire rookie CISOs, Fortune 500 companies are much more interested in individuals who are new to the role, with rookies making up 2/3 of Fortune 500 CISOs.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Central government to file its response on plea alleging discriminatory practice in the Muslim personal law on inheritance and sought equal rights for Muslim women.
The court asked the Ministry of Law and Justice to respond on the issue and posted the case on April 9 next year.
The Centre told the court that the Law Commission has been examining the issue of Uniform Civil Code.
Seeking to amend the Muslim personal law on inheritance, the plea filed by NGO Sahara Kalyan Samiti said that the law fundamentally discriminates against women.
The plea claimed that Muslim women were discriminated on issues relating to sharing of property in comparison to their male counterparts.
Under the Muslim personal law, the male heirs, or sons, get twice the share of the daughters. This is in violation of the fundamental right to equality of women as enshrined under Articles 14, 19, 21 and other relevant provisions of the Constitution, it added.
It claimed that as per the Muslim personal law a wife shall receive an eighth of the property of her husband on his death if they have children. In case there are no children borne out of marriage, she is entitled to a fourth of the property. A daughter shall receive half of the share of a son.
It further said that in stark contrast, the men shall receive a fourth of the property of his wife on her death if they have children. In case there are no children out of the marriage, he is entitled to half the property. A son shall receive double the share of the daughter.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, News, Social Entrepreneur, Women Entrepreneur

Musharraf at her sanitary producing unit in Kupwara (left) // Mubeena Khan, a Kashmiri entrepreneur, at her sanitary napkin manufacturing unit in border district of Kupwara. (Photo credit: IANS)
By Sarwar Kashani,
Kupwara, (Jammu and Kashmir) : Growing up in a society that stigmatises menstruation, two women social entrepreneurs in this border village of Jammu and Kashmir are battling the taboos attached to what is a routine biological process. They are not only creating awareness but also manufacturing and selling sanitary napkins to help poorer women who cannot afford branded products.
Mir Musharraf, 18, and Mubeena Khan, 25, who grew up in an orphanage here, began their entrepreneurial journey two years ago, knowing well the arduous task they had chosen for themselves.
“We have experienced what women in Kashmir, particularly in the border and rural areas, go through during their periods. It’s not only about the stigma, it is also about hygiene during periods,” Mir told IANS.
Khan added: “It was never going to be easy. We knew that. Talking about menstruating is not easy even with women in Kashmir. But we wanted to defeat the stigma.”
Mir, who originally hails from Keran village, some 100 km north of state capital Srinagar, lost her father, a farmer, to blood cancer when she was still young. Keran, the last village of the eponymous border sector on the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan, has often faced the brunt of military skirmishes between the armies of the two countries.
Mir’s family had to relocate to Kupwara in the early 1990s after frequent heavy cross-border firing ripped the village apart. That was when militancy in the Kashmir Valley was at its peak and Pakistan was actively pushing armed insurgents into the Indian side under cover of border firing.
After her husband’s death, Mir’s mother had no other means of income to sustain the family. She got her daughter admitted to Basaira-a-Tabasum, an orphanage in Kupwara town run by Borderless World Foundation, a Pune-based non-governmental organisation that helps with the socio-economic development of people in border areas.
At the orphanage, Mir became friends with a “like-minded” Khan, who had also lost her father when she was just two-and-a-half.
The girls grew up in the orphanage that not only sheltered and fed them but also equipped them with entrepreneurial skills to be the agents of socio-economic changes in Kupwara — an area where an estimated 40 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Remembering their days in the orphanage, both Mir and Khan recalled how they used to talk for hours daily, planning what they wanted to do in their lives.
“I always wanted to do something for women, particularly those living in border areas. But I had not imagined even in my dreams that I would be talking about menstruation so openly, leave aside producing sanitary napkins,” Mir said.
“Actually, Mubeena came up with the idea and you know why,” she asked matter-of-factly.
Khan had always felt perplexed about the treatment women got during their menstrual cycles. They are not allowed inside kitchens, they are not allowed to pray, they become untouchables during their periods.
“The most difficult battle in the war against such evils was with ourselves. We, as women, too believe in the traditions and it is very, very difficult to break the norm. And believe me, many girls drop out of schools because of this,” Khan, whose village, Helmatpora, also lies on the LoC, told IANS.
And equally important was making women aware about hygiene and other health issues associated with periods. Hundreds of studies have conclusively revealed that the practice of using cloth during periods is associated with very high risk of cervical cancers.
“When we get our first period, our mothers generally hand us a bunch of rags with strict instructions that we should not talk about it openly and stay away from the rest of the family,” she said.
“Imagine when we set out to talk about this openly. I remember how people, in fact girls, used to whisper about our ‘shamelessness’. But nothing would stop us.”
The two girls have conducted hundreds of awareness camps in schools, colleges and community centres talking about the issue.
The next step was their own self-empowerment and the empowerment of as many women as possible in their extended neighbourhood.
Eventually, they spoke with the Borderless World Foundation and shared the idea of setting up a cost-effective sanitary napkin manufacturing unit in Kupwara.
They began researching on the Internet, reading about their proposed business — before travelling to NIRMA Industries training centre in Solapur, Maharashtra, where they were incubated for three months and taught how to handle machines, grinders and other nitty gritty of the business by experts.
The real challenge was to raise the money needed for investment and also working capital. Iqra Javed, project officer with the Borderless World Foundation in Srinagar, said the foundation itself invested nearly Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) to set up and run the unit.
Apart from this, the foundation helped them win Rs 300,000 as investment at a 2016 start-up competition by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Chinar Internationals, a Srinagar-based NGO helping start-ups.
And finally came the time to make a “Happy Choice” — the name they gave to their business unit. Machines and raw material were brought and the unit was set up at the Borderless World Foundation-run women development and social-entrepreneurship centre, Rah-e-Niswan, in a shanty structure in Solkute, 6 kms from Kupwara town.
The plan was to start production at the Solkute centre and establish a supply chain to distribute the product to other villages of the district.
“It was a 24-hour job. Right from the production purchases to the product, and then marketing, was all done by the two of us,” Mir said. “It was a challenge worth taking, though it took a heavy toll on us.”
The production rate was 250 packs of six pieces each a day. Each pack was sold at Rs 26 — against an average market price of Rs 35. A profit margin of Rs 16 was still significant.
Their lives got better and they started contributing to their family incomes and came the basic essentials like kitchenware, flooring and clothes for their mothers and siblings.
But the sales dipped after a while. The product and its packaging did not match market standards. “Happy Choice” did not have flaps that fold over the sides to help prevent the fluid from leaking. The packaging in an ordinary polythene cover with a sticker attached was also below standard.
To improve, they needed a packaging machine and a machine that would make and attach wings to the pads. But it would mean another investment of about Rs 900,000. Starved of funds, the two had to temporarily close their unit and have set out on an investment hunt.
“So far nobody has come forward. But we will keep striving till we get it. And we are sure — it is about ‘when’ not ‘if’,” Mir said.
But the awareness campaign is on. “We will keep talking about menstruation till everybody talks about it without attaching a taboo,” Khan intervened. “The battle is on. We have not lost it. We have paused it.”
(This feature is part of a special series that seeks to bring unique stories of ordinary people, groups and communities from across a diverse, plural and inclusive India and has been made possible by a collaboration between IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said sex with wife below 18 years of age is rape, striking down the provision of criminal law that permitted sex with wife aged between 15 and 18.
The husband is liable to be prosecuted if the woman files a complaint within a year of the sexual act, the Supreme Court said.
The landmark order comes at a time when the apex court is already hearing petitions calling for marital rape to be declared crime and a debate over the age of consent.
The court, however, made it clear that it was not saying anything on the larger issue of marital rape even though the verdict would have a prospective affect on that.
Rape and child marriage laws of India disagree on age of consent. Section 375 of the Indian Panel says sex with a girl less than 18 is rape but it makes an exception allowing sex with wife who is 15 or above, saying it is not rape even if it is without her consent.
A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta — in separate but concurring judgements — said the exception was “arbitrary, discriminatory and capricious”.
Justice Lokur said the exception has no rational nexus with the objective sought to be achieved by the different statutes.
Describing as artificial the distinction between minor girl and a minor girl in child marriage, Justice Lokur said it was contrary to the philosophy of many statutes like Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The court also urged the Centre and the state governments to take proactive steps to discourage child marriages.
Justice Gupta said the exception carved out in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code was violative of Article 14, ArticLe 15 and Article 21 of the Constitution.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions

Sheikh Hasina and Aung San Suu Kyi
By Subir Bhaumik,
Sheikh Hasina and Aung San Suu Kyi have much in common. They are daughters of great fathers who spearheaded the freedom struggles of their countries (and both lost their fathers early). Both fought bitter, protracted struggles against brutal military juntas to restore democracy in their countries. Both now run their countries but live under threat of conspiracies to unseat them, trying to control their powerful militaries and rising religious fundamentalist forces, often backed by men in uniform.
But they differ in some ways.
Suu Kyi married a British professor after her initial education in India where her mother served as ambassador of Burma (before it became Myanmar). Her style is sometimes more British than Burmese due to her Oxbridge education. Despite her long years in prison and successful leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in sweeping the 2015 elections and coming to power, some say she is still coming to terms with the realities of a country ravaged by conflict and poverty. She is the daughter of Aung San, the independence war hero who tried to forge a stable federation with Myanmar’s diverse people but was murdered, like Mahatma Gandhi, just when the country was attaining freedom.
Hasina survived the assassination of almost her entire family, spent some years in India before she returned to revitalise her father’s Awami League party and bring down the military junta in a fierce street agitation. She led it to power for a term in 1996 and then again in 2008. After two terms in power and 11 assassination attempts, Hasina is a strong grassroots leader with a clear vision to make Bangladesh a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed economy by 2041. Once derided as a “basket case”, Bangladesh has seen a steady 6 per cent plus GDP growth through her two terms in office (2009-14 and 2014 to now) in a world marked by economic downturn.
She has managed to control the army and enforce civilian supremacy, which Suu Kyi aspires to but has so far failed to do, as the recent Rakhine crisis seems to indicate. Hasina faces Parliament elections next year amid increased anti-incumbency and a refugee crisis that is stretching Bangladesh’s meagre resources. Hasina’s government has managed to handle nearly half a million Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh after the brutal Burmese military crackdown that followed alleged jihadi attacks on August 24 against 30 police stations and one army base in northern Rakhine.
As Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate for her fight for democracy, stayed away from the UN General Assembly in the face of severe criticism, with some even suggesting that her Nobel Prize be taken back, Hasina has been striding the global stage confidently, winning nomination for the Nobel for her leadership in the fight against climate change and terrorism and all-round human development in her once-poor nation ravaged by frequent natural disasters.
Suu Kyi could emulate Hasina in at least three areas — unleashing powerful forces of human and economic development, controlling the military and terrorist groups who often complement each other, and restoring a sense of national pride by resolving fractious domestic issues.
Both “Daughters of the East” represent the legacy of their great fathers and on their governance success and depth of vision depend the future of Asia’s most strategic link region that connects South to Southeast and East Asia. It is time the two big Asian powers, India and China, step in to back both these women in their governance challenges against violent separatism, religious fundamentalism, poverty and refugee crisis.
(Subir Bhaumik can be reached at sbhaum@gmail.com)
—IANS