NEW DELHI: Hundreds of jobless young people marched Thursday through the streets of the Indian capital demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government tackle what they called a rising unemployment crisis.
The protesters disputed the government’s claim that it has created millions of jobs since it came to power in 2014 with the economy growing around 7 percent annually. They marched from the 17th century Red Fort to a park near India’s Parliament building.
Dismissing the economic expansion as a jobless growth, the protesters said authorities should immediately fill 2.4 million vacancies in government jobs to reduce unemployment.
Media reports say the government is suppressing data showing the country’s unemployment rate has hit a 45-year high of 6.1 percent. The government says the figures are premature and official numbers will be announced in March.
“We are frustrated. I think this government has to give lot of answers to a lot of us today,” said Ngurang Reena, a 27-year-old university student.
Amlokant Mako, another marcher, noted that Modi had promised to create 20 million new jobs a year. “He has not kept his promises,” he said.
In a sudden move in 2017, Modi’s government demonetized high currency notes of 500 rupees and 1,000 rupees to try to reduce black-market dealings and encourage digital transfers. But that hit India’s informal economy badly, with tens of thousands of jobs lost and businesses in several cash-intensive industries taking a beating.
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Jobless youth march to protest Indian ‘unemployment crisis’
Jobless youth march to protest Indian ‘unemployment crisis’
- The protesters disputed the government’s claim that it has created millions of jobs since it came to power in 2014
- They marched from the 17th century Red Fort to a park near India’s Parliament building
Germany eyes lasers, spy satellites in military space spending splurge
SINGAPORE: Germany is weighing investments ranging from spy satellites and space planes to offensive lasers under a 35 billion euro ($41 billion) military space spending plan aimed at countering growing threats from Russia and China in orbit, the country’s space commander said.
Germany will build an encrypted military constellation of more than 100 satellites, known as SATCOM Stage 4, over the next few years, the head of German Space Command Michael Traut told Reuters on the sidelines of a space event ahead of the Singapore Airshow.
He said the network would mirror the model used by the US Space Development Agency, a Pentagon unit that deploys low-Earth-orbit satellites for communications and missile tracking.
Rheinmetall is in talks with German satellite maker OHB about a joint bid for an unnamed German military satellite project, Reuters reported last week.
The potential deal comes as Europe’s top three space firms — Airbus, Thales and Leonardo — are seeking to build a European satellite communications alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Traut said Germany’s investment in military space architecture reflected a sharply more contested space environment since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Berlin and its European allies, he said, needed to bolster their deterrence posture by investing not only in secure communications but also in capabilities that could hinder or disable hostile space systems.
“(We need to) improve our deterrence posture in space, since space has become an operational or even warfighting domain, and we are perfectly aware that our systems, our space capabilities, need to be protected and defended,” Traut said.
INSPECTOR SATELLITES AND LASERS
Germany will channel funding into intelligence-gathering satellites, sensors and systems designed to disrupt adversary spacecraft, including lasers and equipment capable of targeting ground-based infrastructure, Traut said.
He added that Germany would prioritize small and large domestic and European suppliers for the program.
Traut emphasized Germany would not field destructive weapons in orbit that could generate debris, but said a range of non-kinetic options existed to disrupt hostile satellites, including jamming, lasers and actions against ground control stations.
He also pointed to so-called inspector satellites — small spacecraft capable of maneuvering close to other satellites — which he said Russia and China had already deployed.
“There is a broad range of possible effects in the electromagnetic spectrum, in the optical, in the laser spectrum, and even some active physical things like inspector satellites,” he said.
“You could even go after ground segments of a space system in order to deny that system to your adversary or to tell him, ‘If you do something to us in space, we might do something to you in other domains as well.’”
Germany will build an encrypted military constellation of more than 100 satellites, known as SATCOM Stage 4, over the next few years, the head of German Space Command Michael Traut told Reuters on the sidelines of a space event ahead of the Singapore Airshow.
He said the network would mirror the model used by the US Space Development Agency, a Pentagon unit that deploys low-Earth-orbit satellites for communications and missile tracking.
Rheinmetall is in talks with German satellite maker OHB about a joint bid for an unnamed German military satellite project, Reuters reported last week.
The potential deal comes as Europe’s top three space firms — Airbus, Thales and Leonardo — are seeking to build a European satellite communications alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Traut said Germany’s investment in military space architecture reflected a sharply more contested space environment since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Berlin and its European allies, he said, needed to bolster their deterrence posture by investing not only in secure communications but also in capabilities that could hinder or disable hostile space systems.
“(We need to) improve our deterrence posture in space, since space has become an operational or even warfighting domain, and we are perfectly aware that our systems, our space capabilities, need to be protected and defended,” Traut said.
INSPECTOR SATELLITES AND LASERS
Germany will channel funding into intelligence-gathering satellites, sensors and systems designed to disrupt adversary spacecraft, including lasers and equipment capable of targeting ground-based infrastructure, Traut said.
He added that Germany would prioritize small and large domestic and European suppliers for the program.
Traut emphasized Germany would not field destructive weapons in orbit that could generate debris, but said a range of non-kinetic options existed to disrupt hostile satellites, including jamming, lasers and actions against ground control stations.
He also pointed to so-called inspector satellites — small spacecraft capable of maneuvering close to other satellites — which he said Russia and China had already deployed.
“There is a broad range of possible effects in the electromagnetic spectrum, in the optical, in the laser spectrum, and even some active physical things like inspector satellites,” he said.
“You could even go after ground segments of a space system in order to deny that system to your adversary or to tell him, ‘If you do something to us in space, we might do something to you in other domains as well.’”
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