India's oil imports hit record high in January

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India imported a record 4.93 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in January to feed its expanded refining capacity and meet rising demand, ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts showed.

FILE PHOTO: A man climbs an an oil tanker parked outside a fuel depot in Mumbai, India, October 6, 2017. REUTERS/ Danish Siddiqui/File Photo

The world’s third-biggest oil importer shipped in 13.6 percent more oil in January than a year earlier and about 12.5 percent more than the previous month, the data showed.

Imports in January were high as state-run refiners, which operate two-third of India’s nearly 5 million bpd capacity, usually boost runs in the March quarter to meet government-set targets.

“All refineries are running high amidst a strong recovery in demand, leading to higher (oil) imports,” said Senthil Kumaran, senior oil analyst at FGE.

India, which imports about 80 percent of its oil needs, has emerged as a key driver for growth in global oil demand.

Due to higher imports and rising global crude prices, India’s oil import bill in January surged by 42.6 percent from a year ago to $11.66 billion.

The country is set to surpass China as the fastest-growing oil products market in Asia, with fuel demand growing by 6.1 percent in 2018, according to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

FGE expects India’s January crude runs to reach 5.27 million bpd, about 280,000 bpd higher than a year earlier, as the country’s new refining capacities are operating at almost full rate. India has not yet published refining data for January.

SPRING MAINTENANCE

“The (crude) runs are high before the spring maintenance in India and elsewhere in the region. Margins are good and so is demand, why wouldn’t they run?” Kumaran added.

India’s refining capacity addition of 170,000 bpd at the Kochi and Bathinda plants, along with Indian Oil Corp’s 300,000 bpd Paradip refinery, are operating at a full rate.

Last year Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, in western India, declared 30 percent higher capacity of its export focused plant.

India is increasing refining capacity to keep pace with expected growth in fuel demand, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to boost the manufacturing sector.

The country aims to lift its refining capacity by 77 pct to 8.8 million bpd by 2030, according to a government report.

Global oil majors Saudi Aramco, Rosneft, BP, Shell and Total are vying to tap a sizeable share of fast-growing Indian fuel markets.

India’s annual fuel demand rose 10.3 percent in January, with consumption of diesel and gasoline rising in double digits.

Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Holmes

What happened to Palestine's youth-led struggle?

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About 40 percent of Palestine's male population has been imprisoned by Israel since 1967 [File: Adel Hana/AP]

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Ramallah, occupied West Bank - What first began as a local protest in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp in December 1987 spontaneously spread to the West Bank and quickly grew into a massive uprising.

It was the beginning of the six-year-long First Intifada.

After two decades of illegal Israeli occupation in theGaza Strip and West Bank, Palestinians of all generations and political parties worked together in astounding unity as one force, demanding Palestine's liberation.

With their non-violent tactics, such as protests, general strikes, and a boycott of Israeli products, the First Intifada became a model for grassroots resistance.

"We were expecting that this intifada would bring a state for us Palestinians. [The movement] was that strong. It's not like these days," said Naila Ayyash, who was in her mid-20s when the intifada broke out.

"At that time, political parties were very strong, especially the women's movement inside the parties."

According to Rula Salameh, who was a freshman at Ramallah's Birzeit University when the intifada began, there wasn't a single student who hadn't joined a political party on campus. All students spent their time and energy helping their community and working towards the collective mission of liberating Palestine from Israeli occupation.

Salameh recalled sleeping in tents for three nights in a village near Tulkarm with 150 university students; the student council arranged the trip so they could help a Palestinian family collect olives on their land.

Since an Israeli military area and a settlement were located near their land, soldiers would typically prevent the family from reaching their lands during olive harvest season, Salameh explained.

"This was the first time that [the family] managed to collect all the olives without being attacked by soldiers," Salameh said.

"Compared with the situation today, it's totally different. Voluntary work was really a part of our life, part of what we were educated to do. Everyone felt that they were doing something positive for their community. We weren't wasting our energy."

While the student movement served as an engine that helped propel the First Intifada, today's youth face drastically different dynamics.

Rula Salameh [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

New obstacles

Following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in early December, both Fatah and Hamas called for a new intifada, but only some 3,000 protesters showed up, compared with tens of thousands of Palestinians on the streets during the First Intifada.

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Omar Kiswani, president of the student council at Birzeit University, told Al Jazeera the Palestinian Authority (PA) is the biggest obstacle for politically active youth today; students are regularly arrested and imprisoned for their political affiliations on campus.

The PA, formed under the 1993 Oslo accords that officially ended the intifada, has long been criticised as an obstacle to Palestinian resistance because of its security collaboration, as a quisling authority, with Israel.

Kiswani was arrested as he prepared his candidacy in student elections. He spent a year in Israeli prisons for his participation in a Hamas-affiliated group on campus.

"They say that our work is illegal," Kiswani said. "We get arrested regularly. Students from all parties get arrested, but Hamas students are arrested more. We're getting used to it."

In the past year, two presidents of the student union were arrested, as well as other members, said Kiswani.

PA-Israeli collaboration

Birzeit student Yahya Rabee, 21, was arrested at 2am by PA forces who raided his home. They detained him for three days before handing him over to Israeli forces. He was imprisoned in Israel for eight months, enduring physical abuse.

In his jail cell, he found seven friends from Birzeit also imprisoned for being part of the Hamas-affiliated group. All the young members of his family have been imprisoned for the same reason.

According to Birzeit's Right to Education campaign, since Trump's Jerusalem declaration, there has been an increase in student arrests. Currently, there are more than 60 Birzeit students imprisoned in Israeli jails, detentions that are illegal under international law.

WATCH

47:15

The Price of Oslo

Since 2004, more than 800 Birzeit students have been arrested. Some have been sentenced to more than one life sentence.

"Israel tries to destroy [the youth] by arresting them, imprisoning them and by attacking, especially, the student council," said Sondos Hamad, coordinator of the Right to Education campaign.

"The Israeli occupation feels threatened by student leaders, by members of the student council, by those who are our hope to change the status quo."

About 40 percent of Palestine's male population has been imprisoned by Israel since 1967.

Any Palestinian who has shown strong potential as a leader has either been imprisoned or assassinated.

"We believe and hope that every Palestinian in prison will be freed," Rabee said. "They're the ones who are able to lead Palestinians, not the PA. Some of them are doctors, professors; they have [the capacity] to lead."

Rabee and Ayyash both pointed out the Palestinians' financial dependency on the PA as a factor for some to avoid civil disobedience.

"Some people just care about their money and how they live. They're afraid of the PA and of being imprisoned," Rabee said.

The Palestinian Authority employs about 30 percent of the workforce in the occupied territories. An end to the PA could impoverish about one million Palestinians.

Birzeit University students Yahya Alawi, 20 (L) and Yahya Rabee, 21 (R) both spent time in prison for their participation in a Hamas-affiliated group on campus [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

Division and isolation

For Ayyash, the Oslo Accords were extremely detrimental for the Palestinian cause.

"After Oslo, everything changed," Ayyash said. "It brought us disconnected cities, settlements are more than before, the wall is everywhere.

WATCH: Palestine's Intifada marks 30th anniversary (2:49)

"After Oslo, hope continued, but many points in Oslo weren't in our interest, especially when they divided the land into Areas A, B and C. This is very bad. This is Palestinian land. Why divide it like this?"

Division and isolation is what Palestinians living in the besieged Gaza Strip have been struggling with for the past decade.

Besieged by Israel and Egypt, the UN has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian crisis unfolding.

Al-Azhar University student Randa Harara, 21, often attends non-violent demonstrations, and said they do make a difference in letting the world know about the suffering in Gaza.

Last December, an Israeli sniper shot her in the thigh while she was protesting near Gaza's eastern border. Harara had just finished giving a TV interview when she was shot, standing 300 metres away from the fence. Despite her painful injury, she is adamant about rejoining the demonstrations as soon as she recovers.

"This is our duty towards Jerusalem. As a Palestinian from Gaza, this is the least that I can do for my nation to fight against [oppression] … As long as we're besieged, it's normal that we keep protesting against it."

However, because of Gaza's isolation, it's difficult for protests to pick up momentum, as was the case with the First Intifada. For a population of two million, the number of people who join the demonstrations every Friday is low, Harara explained.

"There's a distance between us and Jerusalem. If we [weren't under siege], we could do more.

"There has to be a better way to organise the movement. We have to express our anger and frustration in any way that we can, because it's a big issue. There should be more people going to the streets, attending demonstrations. It's for the Palestinian cause. If we, the youth, don't move, then who will?"

Social stigma

Ayyash said during the First Intifada the majority of demonstrators were women. However, today, in Gaza, it is rare to see women participating in protests.

Many told Harara that, as a woman, it's better for her to stay at home or to focus on her education.

OPINION

What is next for Palestine?

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"I believe in what I'm doing. What people say about me is meaningless, as I'm sure I'm not doing anything wrong," Harara said.

"I think that if other women weren't facing social stigmatisation, which prevents them from attending demonstrations, there would be many more people willing to express their frustrations through demonstrations."

Ayyash and Salameh agree the role of Palestinian political parties has diminished since the Oslo Accords.

The new generation has the energy and willpower, but no one is guiding them in the right direction, Salameh said.

"This is what I hear all the time [from the youth]: 'We don't know what to do,'" explainedSalameh.

"[Political parties] aren't interested in working with the young generation and explaining to them the power that they have and how they should use it … We're not giving them a chance to replace [the old generation.]"

The key to success is unity, said Ayyash. The split between Fatah and Hamas has continued for 11 years and without unity, no goal can be achieved.

"Before, we were united [during the First Intifada]," Ayyash said. "There is a gap between the [political] leaders and the people, and Israel is playing with it."

Naila Ayyash [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

Going to university is more important than ever for young people

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Feb 1st 2018| SEOUL

IN A classroom in Seoul a throng of teenagers sit hunched over their desks. In total silence, they flick through a past exam paper. Stacks of brightly coloured textbooks are close to hand. Study begins at 8am and ends at 4.30pm, but some will not go home until 10pm. Like hundreds of thousands of South Koreans, they are preparing for the suneung, the multiple-choice test that will largely determine whether they go to a good university or a bad one, or to university at all.

Over the course of a single generation in South Korea, degrees have become close to ubiquitous. Seventy per cent of pupils who graduate from the country’s secondary schools now go straight to university, and a similar share of 25- to 34-year-olds hold degrees, up from 37% in 2000. Students scramble to gain admittance to the most prestigious institutions, with exam preparation starting ever younger. Sought-after private nurseries in Seoul have long waiting lists.

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South Korea is an extreme case. But other countries, too, have seen a big rise in the share of young people with degrees. In the OECD club of 35 countries, 43% of 25- to 34-year-olds now have degrees. In America the figure is 48%.

Between 1995 and 2014 government spending on higher education in the OECD rose from 0.9% of GDP to 1.1%, while private spending rose from 1.2% to 1.5%. As government subsidies for tuition fees flow through to institutions they have helped inflate costs. Since 1990 fees for American students who do not get scholarships or bursaries have risen twice as fast as overall inflation.

Policymakers regard it as obvious that sending more young people to university will boost economic growth and social mobility. Both notions are intuitively appealing. Better-educated people should surely be more likely to come up with productivity-boosting innovations. As technological change makes new demands of workers, it seems plausible that more will need to be well-educated. And a degree is an obvious way for bright youngsters from poor families to prove their abilities.

But comparisons between countries provide little evidence of these links. Richer countries have more graduates, but that could be because there is more money to spare, and less urgency to start earning. Rich economies grow more slowly, but that is probably because they have fewer easy ways to raise productivity, not because education depresses their growth.

A truth universities acknowledged

The main piece of evidence cited by policymakers is the “graduate premium”—the difference between the average earnings of someone with a degree and someone with no more than a secondary-school education, after accounting for fees and the income forgone while studying. This gap is often expressed as the “return on investment” in higher education, or the annualised boost to lifetime earnings from gaining a degree. Research by the New York Federal Reserve shows that the return on investment in higher education soared between 1980 and 2000 in America, before levelling off at around 15% a year. In other words, an investment equal to the cost of tuition and earnings forgone while studying would have to earn 15% annual interest before it matched the average value over a working life of gaining a degree.

The World Bank has produced estimates of this return for 139 economies. It varies from place to place, but is substantial everywhere. The Economist’s analysis of the data finds that returns are linked to the share of people with degrees, and the range of earnings. Returns in Britain and Germany are similar to those in America. In sub-Saharan Africa, where degrees are scarce and the least-educated workers earn little, they are around 21% a year. In Scandinavia, where wages are less unequal and two-fifths of adults have degrees, they are around 9%.

But as a guide to school-leavers considering going to university—and to policymakers considering expanding access to higher education—the graduate premium is flawed. Even within countries the average conceals wide differences. Most students know that a degree in mathematics or finance is likely to be more lucrative than one in music or social work. What fewer realise is that the graduate premium overstates the financial benefit of embarking on a degree if their school grades barely qualify them for entry, no matter what they study.

In a comparison of the earnings of people with degrees and people without them, those who start university but do not finish are lumped in with those who never started, even though they, too, will have paid fees and missed out on earnings. Their numbers are considerable. In America 40% of college students fail to graduate with four-year degrees within six years of enrolling. Drop-out rates across the developed world average around 30%. It is the students admitted with the lowest grades who are least likely to graduate.

Including dropouts when calculating the returns to going to university makes a big difference. In a new book, “The Case Against Education”, Bryan Caplan of George Mason University argues that the low graduation rates of marginal students, and the fact that, for a given level of qualification, cleverer people tend to earn more, mean that the return on a four-year degree in America ranges from 6.5% for excellent students to just 1% for the weakest ones.

Part of that difference is because the weakest students attend the worst universities, where drop-out rates are highest. When they make it into better institutions, the returns may be higher. In a study published in 2014 Seth Zimmerman of the University of Chicago compared the earnings of school-leavers in Florida whose grades were close to the minimum for admission to a good state university. Those just above the cut-off were much more likely than those just below to start courses in good institutions. They graduated at a rate similar to that of the broader student population. They went on to earn considerably more than those just below the cut-off, and their return on investment was substantial.

Overstating the graduate premium is not the only reason policymakers overestimate the wider benefits of increasing the share of young people who go to university. The usual way to calculate the social returns of higher education is to sum up all the graduate premiums and subtract any public subsidies. But degrees are in part a way to access a “positional good” that benefits one person at the expense of another. Part of the premium comes from gaining an advantage over others in the competition for a good job, rather than the acquisition of productivity-boosting skills and knowledge. A complete calculation would include not just gains to graduates, but losses to non-graduates.

Degrees are also signalling devices. The premium includes the income-boosting effects of personal characteristics that are more likely to be held by those with degrees, not because they acquired them at university, but because they possessed them on admission.

As degrees have become more common, their importance as signalling devices is rising. Recruiters, who pay none of the cost of jobseekers’ higher education, are increasingly able to demand degrees in order to screen out the least motivated or competent. A recent study by Joseph Fuller and Manjari Raman of Harvard Business School found that companies routinely require applicants to have degrees, even though only a minority of those already working in the role have them. This increases the graduate premium—but by punishing non-graduates rather than boosting the absolute returns to degrees.

Analysis by The Economist of American census data finds that between 1970 and 2015 the share of workers aged 25-64 with at least a bachelor’s degree increased in 256 out of 265 occupations. Some of these are intellectually demanding jobs that changed a lot over that period, such as aerospace engineer or statistician. Others are non-graduate jobs such as waiting tables. Sixteen percent of waiters now have degrees—presumably, in most cases, because they could not find a graduate job. But other jobs that are mostly done by graduates, such as journalism, nursing and teaching in primary schools, used to require only shorter training, often received while working. Today, having a degree is usually an entry requirement.

The Economist has produced a measure of over-education by defining a graduate job as one which was staffed mostly by degree-holders in 1970. We find that just 35% of graduates work in such occupations today, down from 51% 45 years ago. Judging by job titles alone, 26.5m workers in America—two-thirds of those with degrees—are doing work that was mostly done by non-graduates a half-century ago.

That calculation exaggerates the trend. Advances in technology have doubtless made some of these jobs more demanding. But not all of them, at least judging by pay. We find only a weak link between higher shares of graduates in an occupation and higher salaries. For around half of the occupations that employ higher shares of graduates now than a half-century ago, real wages have fallen.

Andreas Schleicher, the head of education research at the OECD, reckons that “countries have skills shortages, not degree shortages”. The way universities have come to monopolise higher education, he says, is a problem in part because universities do not suit all kinds of learners. And university dropouts tend to see little in the way of financial benefit from the part of their course that they have finished.

One promising development is that of “micro-credentials” or “nano-degrees”—short vocational courses, often in computing and IT. Udacity, an online education company, offers a variety, including one in self-driving cars approved by Uber and Mercedes-Benz, and another on digital marketing approved by Facebook and Google. EdX, a collaboration between MIT, Harvard and other leading universities, offers similar courses free. Students can take exams to prove their mastery of the material for a few hundred dollars.

Boot campus

For now, such courses are mostly add-ons to degrees, rather than replacements. Three-quarters of edX’s students already had a bachelor’s degree upon enrolling. But the collaboration with sought-after employers makes it more plausible that they could eventually become established as a stand-alone testament to a job applicant’s worth.

In the meantime the decision not to go to university remains risky, even though many graduates will end up doing work that used to be done by non-graduates—or struggle to find a job at all. Around half of unemployed South Koreans now have degrees. For them, the very concept of a “graduate premium” may seem a mockery. Kim Hyang Suk, a recruiter in South Korea, says that half the applicants for customer-service jobs at her firm are graduates, even though only a secondary-school education is specified.

She would prefer school-leavers with experience, says Ms Kim, to inexperienced graduates whom she will have to train. She is not looking for swots, but people who are “engaging, good on the phone”. But when few employers are this open-minded, most young people will want a degree. It may not boost their earnings as much as they had hoped, but without one, they will probably fare even worse.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline "All must have degrees"

Why Finding Alien Life Would Be Bad. The Great Filter

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Fraser Cain द्वारा Since the Universe is big and old, and life on Earth didn't take relatively long to evolve, then life should be everywhere in the Universe. And yet, no matter how hard we look, we don't see any evidence of it out there, not on Mars, not sending us radio messages, and not taking over entire galaxies and using up all their energy. This, of course, is the Fermi Paradox, and it's one an absolutely fascinating concept to think about. There are many possible resolutions to the Fermi Paradox, but most of them are unsatisfying. Sure, we could be living in a cosmic zoo, or we fundamentally misunderstand how difficult it'll be to travel to another star. And maybe we're just the first lifeforms in the observable Universe that have reached the level of technology that can conceive of exploring the Universe. But then, what are the chances of that? That really seems unlikely. But then there's the idea of the Great Filter. That there's some kind of event that affects every single intelligent civilization, stopping it from reaching out into the galaxy, sending out signals, and exploring other worlds. Something wipes them out every time. And considering the fact that we're on the verge of becoming a multi-planet species ourselves, this concept of the Great Filter becomes even more unsettling. It could be right around the corner from us. Our friends at Kurzgesagt just released a video all about the Great Filter, and honestly, I think it's the best video they've every done. The animation, as always, is excellent, but the way they approach the Great Filter is really innovative, showing how evidence of life in the Universe is actually a bad sign, since it means we're probably not the first life forms out there. Which means the Great Filter is even more likely. If you want to support what Kurzgesagt is doing, join their Patreon program and help them make even more videos. Fraser Cain | फ़रवरी 1, 2018 को 11:45 पूर्वाह्न | URL: https://wp.me/p1CHIY-A11

Reuters launches new e -sports wire for media

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FEB 1, 2018 00:00 EST NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1, 2018 – Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news provider, today announced the launch of a new wire service devoted to coverage of esports, available now to Reuters News Agency customers. The Reuters Esports Wire features global coverage of the competitive gaming industry, including breaking news, player acquisitions, sponsorship deals and coverage of the largest esports tournaments. The Reuters Esports Wire is designed for easy use across print, digital and social media, and provides unique, in-depth coverage targeted towards a younger demographic. Coverage of esports will be delivered with the same detail and analysis as any major sports league, with content provided through a partnership with sports text provider Field Level Media. ”Esports has grown increasingly popular around the world and demand for coverage of the sport has never been stronger,” said Josh Duboff, Reuters Senior Product Manager, Sports & Entertainment Verticals. “This offers us a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of offering coverage of the sport to global media customers as they see a rising interest in the competitive gaming industry from their audiences.” For more information and access to the Reuters Esports Wire, visit https://agency.reuters.com/en/coverage/sports/esports.html. Reuters Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Follow news about Reuters at @ReutersPR. For more information on Reuters News Agency, visit: www.reuters.com/newsagency. CONTACT Heather Carpenter PR Manager, Head of Special Projects Reuters heather.carpenter@thomsonreuters.com 646-223-8551 © 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Click here to view the online version of this release.