Latest news with #Gopalan
India.com
29-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
KALP Decentra Foundation appoints distinguished economic administrator R. Gopalan to Board of Directors
KALP Decentra Foundation appoints distinguished economic administrator R. Gopalan to Board of Directors KALP Decentra Foundation, the non-profit entity governing the world's first permissioned cross-chain ecosystem, today announced the appointment of Mr. R. Gopalan to its Board of Directors. With his extensive 36-year career in economic and financial administration, Mr. Gopalan brings valuable expertise to strengthen KALP's mission of democratizing digital infrastructure worldwide. 'Mr. Gopalan's appointment represents a strategic milestone for KALP Decentra Foundation. His exceptional expertise in financial governance, policy formulation, and international trade negotiations perfectly complements our vision of creating an inclusive and equitable digital future,' said Mr. Tapan Sangal, Director, KALP Decentra Foundation. 'His vast experience in both public and private sectors will be invaluable as we continue to develop our regulated-by-design blockchain ecosystem and expand our global digital infrastructure initiatives.' Distinguished Background and Expertise Mr. Gopalan brings remarkable credentials to the KALP board, including a Master's in Public Administration & Management from Harvard University, an MA in Economics from Boston University, and a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Madras University. His illustrious career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) featured leadership positions including Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, and Member of the Public Enterprises Selection Board8. His extensive experience spans establishing venture capital funds, managing industrial undertakings, overseeing infrastructure financing, and formulating national policies in finance, trade, and economy. Mr. Gopalan has also consulted various business entities as well, where he demonstrated exceptional leadership and strategic vision. 'The digital transformation journey requires robust governance frameworks that balance innovation with regulatory compliance,' said Mr. R. Gopalan. 'KALP Decentra Foundation's pioneering approach to creating secure, inclusive digital infrastructure aligns perfectly with the evolving needs of global economies. I am honored to join an organization that is shaping the future of decentralized systems while prioritizing security, compliance, and accessibility for all.' Strengthening Leadership for Global Impact Mr. Gopalan joins an accomplished leadership team at KALP, which includes Tapan Sangal (Director), a legal expert with 30 years of experience in consulting and technology ventures; Abhilash Puljal (Director – Global Affairs), a strategic advisor with 20 years of experience in policy design and economic development initiatives across Asia, Africa, and Europe; and Dr. Joël Ruet (Non-Executive Director), a Ph.D. in industrial economics and member of G20's Think20 and Business20 task forces. The KALP Decentra Foundation will leverage Mr. Gopalan's extensive experience to accelerate its mission of creating a sustainable and stable digital public infrastructure using cutting-edge Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). His expertise will be particularly valuable in establishing strategic partnerships with governments and international organizations while ensuring the highest standards of regulatory compliance. About KALP Decentra Foundation The Kalp Decentra Foundation is a not-for-profit organization building a digital ecosystem which enables global inclusivity and democratization of advanced technology. The Kalp ecosystem is an innovative approach offering a regulatory-compliant, decentralized, and comprehensive digital public infrastructure designed to resolve real world challenges, enable RWA tokenization and achieving growth through technology. Website:
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'We have to try lifting ourselves': USAID workers fired months ago are still scrambling for jobs
They were among the first of the federal employees to lose their jobs, and months later, laid off workers for the U.S. Agency for International Development are still struggling to regain their footing. Wayan Vota, who spent decades improving technology across developing countries, created a Substack site to help his former colleagues search for new jobs. But he doesn't have one himself. Sara Gopalan, who worked as a USAID contractor for 20 years, surveyed nearly 100 other humanitarian aid workers who, like her, are currently searching for new employment. Roughly 95% said they had lost savings and retirement funds, 60% lost access to health care, and 37% have already lost their housing. Many said they will have trouble paying their bills in the coming months. "The job market is now flooded with these highly-skilled professionals, many of whom have dedicated 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years to international development work," said Gopalan, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who has applied for more than a dozen jobs. "The burden of pivoting after, say 30 years, feels insurmountable and weighs heavily on their heart." The former aid workers also reported experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, stress, and even shame. It wasn't just the loss of a job, Gopalan said, it was the destruction of their career and their life's passion. Those feelings resonate with Lindsay Alemi, a contracted worker who lost her job in March. "I worked through three administrations and worked through all of the ebbs and flows, as we helped some of the poorest regions in the world," said Alemi, 39, who also lives in Silver Spring. "To have done everything as a good Samaritan your whole life and then to see people call USAID a scam and a fraud, is gut-wrenching," said Alemi, who has done humanitarian work since she was in college. "This is more than just a job for us, this is a calling." Billionaire and top Trump adviser Elon Musk called USAID a "criminal organization" earlier this year, without providing evidence, saying it was "time for it to die." The aid organization was the first target in the massive cuts that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made across the federal government in what he calls an attack on wasteful spending. Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates slammed Musk and the administration for the USAID cutbacks, saying they would lead to the death of millions of children around the world. 'The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one,' Gates said in an early May interview with the Financial Times. And though Americans like to complain about how many of their tax dollars support the rest of the world, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (86%) overestimate how much of the federal budget goes to international aid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in March. USAID comprises less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget, roughly $40 billion a year. About $1 for every $167 the government allocates is used for foreign aid. For decades, USAID has had bipartisan support in Congress because it built good-will for the United States abroad, helped combat infectious diseases that might spread here, and prevented local problems from becoming global ones. The KFF poll found that two-thirds of Americans agree with Gates that eliminating USAID will lead to more illness and death globally, but almost half (47%) believe that dissolving it will reduce the deficit and help fund domestic programs. Of those surveyed, believe the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid, but when they were informed that foreign aid accounts for a tiny percentage of spending, that percentage dropped to 50% among Republicans, 39% among independents and just 15% of Democrats. "We live in the largest country that is willing and wants to support others; there's a moral obligation to lift those less fortunate," Vota said. "Now, we have to try lifting ourselves." Vota had been working as a senior digital management adviser, in a role primarily funded by USAID. For two decades, he'd worked to improve technology across Africa and Asia, including in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Indonesia. Now 52, Vota told USA TODAY he was recently passed over for a private sector tech job because, despite his time in "crazy" cities like Jakarta, he was told they doubted he could keep up with the pace. Another hiring manager near his Chapel Hill, North Carolina home worried Vota wouldn't be a good salesman, though Vota let him know: "I have convinced adult men in Tanzania to go for voluntary medical circumcision, and I increased our rate of circumcision by 50% …If I can convince grown men to get circumcised, I think I can sell plumbing supplies in North Carolina." He didn't get the job. The Substack site Vota created the day after he was laid off, called Career Pivot, helps his former USAID colleagues update their resumes and actively search for new jobs. The free site features job listings as well as mental health resources, discussion boards, and networking events. A major emphasis of Career Pivot is helping former federal employees and contractors translate their skills into terms the private sector understands. The site has more than 12,000 subscribers, he said, many of whom are mid-to-senior-level staffers who have spent the majority of their professional lives in the international development field. "There are thousands ofhumanitarian workers with deep, rich, beautiful experiences who are self-motivated and dedicated, who are struggling to define their value to private sector employers who speak a completely different language," said Vota, comparing the site to a startup which now also helps former federal employees from other agencies. Gopalan, 42, a married mother of three kids, is among those using Career Pivot. has spent more than 20 years working as a USAID contractor for five organizations monitoring, evaluating and creating policies for USAID-funded programming for developing countries, before being put on a DOGE-implemented administrative leave. Her job ends June 1. On hold: US Supreme Court halts reinstatement of fired federal employees Gopalan said, according to USAID Stop-Work, a coalition including current and former USAID-related employees and other supporters, nearly 177,000 jobs have been lost among governments and institutions involved in global assistance. "Whether these are American federal workers or those who receive USAID funding, the dismantling has been done so chaotically, it has caused such irreparable damage, and is so unnecessary to do to public servants," Nidhi Bouri, USAID's former deputy assistant administrator for Global Health, told USA TODAY. Many of the displaced humanitarian workers are suffering from "layoff trauma," said Dr. Anne Justus, an American Clinical Psychologist living and working in Cairo since 2007. The sudden loss of a job that is appreciated worldwide, but demeaned by many in their homeland, is devastating, Justus said. "These people are certainly not doing it to be wealthy; they truly want to do global community building, and the ripple effect is widespread and enormous," said Justus, who recently gave a presentation to Vota's Career Pivot members. "They are not even sure about what they are going next." Whatever jobs the former humanitarian workers may hold going forward, it might not compare to the impactful work they did, said Charles Kenny, a senior fellow for the Center for Global Development. He said those workers who were let go in similar shuttering agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, are facing similar circumstances. "These are smart, enterprising and driven people, and some will find jobs they like a lot less because it might mean doing a lot less good in the world," Kenny said. "I hope they will find them rewarding in whatever capacity." 'Will I have a job?': Federal workers full of uncertainty, fear over Trump, DOGE plans As a project manager for a USAID-funded nonprofit, Alemi worked to prevent malnutrition and starvation in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Her programs spent tens of millions of tax dollars buying crops grown in America ‒ which now may not have a buyer, harming Americans as well as Africans, she said. Diplomacy dismantled: USAID aimed for 'soft power' but ended up in DOGE's crosshairs. Here's how. Alemi has applied for about 30 jobs, but other than a few rejections, she's heard nothing. The mother of four said she's getting worried she might lose the home she and her partner bought in 2021 with a 3% mortgage interest rate, less than half the national average. "No good news yet," Alemi said. "There's nowhere to go for everybody in our sector, so you may have to be open to making an entire career change." Still, Alemi, Gopalan and Vota say they remain optimistic. "My dream is that I hope I can get a job by the end of summer," Vota said. "I don't know if that will happen. " This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOGE cuts: USAID workers fired months ago still scrambling for jobs
USA Today
19-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
'We have to try lifting ourselves': USAID workers fired months ago are still scrambling for jobs
'We have to try lifting ourselves': USAID workers fired months ago are still scrambling for jobs Show Caption Hide Caption Fired USAID employees applauded leaving DC office for last time Demonstrators outside the USAID offices in Washington, D.C., broke into applause as fired employees returned to pick up their belongings. They were among the first of the federal employees to lose their jobs, and months later, laid off workers for the U.S. Agency for International Development are still struggling to regain their footing. Wayan Vota, who spent decades improving technology across developing countries, created a Substack site to help his former colleagues search for new jobs. But he doesn't have one himself. Sara Gopalan, who worked as a USAID contractor for 20 years, surveyed nearly 100 other humanitarian aid workers who, like her, are currently searching for new employment. Roughly 95% said they had lost savings and retirement funds, 60% lost access to health care, and 37% have already lost their housing. Many said they will have trouble paying their bills in the coming months. "The job market is now flooded with these highly-skilled professionals, many of whom have dedicated 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years to international development work," said Gopalan, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who has applied for more than a dozen jobs. "The burden of pivoting after, say 30 years, feels insurmountable and weighs heavily on their heart." The former aid workers also reported experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, stress, and even shame. It wasn't just the loss of a job, Gopalan said, it was the destruction of their career and their life's passion. Those feelings resonate with Lindsay Alemi, a contracted worker who lost her job in March. "I worked through three administrations and worked through all of the ebbs and flows, as we helped some of the poorest regions in the world," said Alemi, 39, who also lives in Silver Spring. "To have done everything as a good Samaritan your whole life and then to see people call USAID a scam and a fraud, is gut-wrenching," said Alemi, who has done humanitarian work since she was in college. "This is more than just a job for us, this is a calling." Federal aid misunderstanding Billionaire and top Trump adviser Elon Musk called USAID a "criminal organization" earlier this year, without providing evidence, saying it was "time for it to die." The aid organization was the first target in the massive cuts that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made across the federal government in what he calls an attack on wasteful spending. Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates slammed Musk and the administration for the USAID cutbacks, saying they would lead to the death of millions of children around the world. 'The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one,' Gates said in an early May interview with the Financial Times. And though Americans like to complain about how many of their tax dollars support the rest of the world, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (86%) overestimate how much of the federal budget goes to international aid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in March. USAID comprises less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget, roughly $40 billion a year. About $1 for every $167 the government allocates is used for foreign aid. For decades, USAID has had bipartisan support in Congress because it built good-will for the United States abroad, helped combat infectious diseases that might spread here, and prevented local problems from becoming global ones. The KFF poll found that two-thirds of Americans agree with Gates that eliminating USAID will lead to more illness and death globally, but almost half (47%) believe that dissolving it will reduce the deficit and help fund domestic programs. Of those surveyed, believe the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid, but when they were informed that foreign aid accounts for a tiny percentage of spending, that percentage dropped to 50% among Republicans, 39% among independents and just 15% of Democrats. "We live in the largest country that is willing and wants to support others; there's a moral obligation to lift those less fortunate," Vota said. "Now, we have to try lifting ourselves." Job hunting after USAID Vota had been working as a senior digital management adviser, in a role primarily funded by USAID. For two decades, he'd worked to improve technology across Africa and Asia, including in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Indonesia. Now 52, Vota told USA TODAY he was recently passed over for a private sector tech job because, despite his time in "crazy" cities like Jakarta, he was told they doubted he could keep up with the pace. Another hiring manager near his Chapel Hill, North Carolina home worried Vota wouldn't be a good salesman, though Vota let him know: "I have convinced adult men in Tanzania to go for voluntary medical circumcision, and I increased our rate of circumcision by 50% …If I can convince grown men to get circumcised, I think I can sell plumbing supplies in North Carolina." He didn't get the job. The Substack site Vota created the day after he was laid off, called Career Pivot, helps his former USAID colleagues update their resumes and actively search for new jobs. The free site features job listings as well as mental health resources, discussion boards, and networking events. A major emphasis of Career Pivot is helping former federal employees and contractors translate their skills into terms the private sector understands. The site has more than 12,000 subscribers, he said, many of whom are mid-to-senior-level staffers who have spent the majority of their professional lives in the international development field. "There are thousands ofhumanitarian workers with deep, rich, beautiful experiences who are self-motivated and dedicated, who are struggling to define their value to private sector employers who speak a completely different language," said Vota, comparing the site to a startup which now also helps former federal employees from other agencies. Struggling to 'do less good' in the world Gopalan, 42, a married mother of three kids, is among those using Career Pivot. has spent more than 20 years working as a USAID contractor for five organizations monitoring, evaluating and creating policies for USAID-funded programming for developing countries, before being put on a DOGE-implemented administrative leave. Her job ends June 1. On hold: US Supreme Court halts reinstatement of fired federal employees Gopalan said, according to USAID Stop-Work, a coalition including current and former USAID-related employees and other supporters, nearly 177,000 jobs have been lost among governments and institutions involved in global assistance. "Whether these are American federal workers or those who receive USAID funding, the dismantling has been done so chaotically, it has caused such irreparable damage, and is so unnecessary to do to public servants," Nidhi Bouri, USAID's former deputy assistant administrator for Global Health, told USA TODAY. Many of the displaced humanitarian workers are suffering from "layoff trauma," said Dr. Anne Justus, an American Clinical Psychologist living and working in Cairo since 2007. The sudden loss of a job that is appreciated worldwide, but demeaned by many in their homeland, is devastating, Justus said. "These people are certainly not doing it to be wealthy; they truly want to do global community building, and the ripple effect is widespread and enormous," said Justus, who recently gave a presentation to Vota's Career Pivot members. "They are not even sure about what they are going next." Whatever jobs the former humanitarian workers may hold going forward, it might not compare to the impactful work they did, said Charles Kenny, a senior fellow for the Center for Global Development. He said those workers who were let go in similar shuttering agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, are facing similar circumstances. "These are smart, enterprising and driven people, and some will find jobs they like a lot less because it might mean doing a lot less good in the world," Kenny said. "I hope they will find them rewarding in whatever capacity." 'Will I have a job?': Federal workers full of uncertainty, fear over Trump, DOGE plans Open to career change As a project manager for a USAID-funded nonprofit, Alemi worked to prevent malnutrition and starvation in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Her programs spent tens of millions of tax dollars buying crops grown in America ‒ which now may not have a buyer, harming Americans as well as Africans, she said. Diplomacy dismantled: USAID aimed for 'soft power' but ended up in DOGE's crosshairs. Here's how. Alemi has applied for about 30 jobs, but other than a few rejections, she's heard nothing. The mother of four said she's getting worried she might lose the home she and her partner bought in 2021 with a 3% mortgage interest rate, less than half the national average. "No good news yet," Alemi said. "There's nowhere to go for everybody in our sector, so you may have to be open to making an entire career change." Still, Alemi, Gopalan and Vota say they remain optimistic. "My dream is that I hope I can get a job by the end of summer," Vota said. "I don't know if that will happen. "
The Star
10-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Low wages impact women more
THE gap between the minimum wage and the actual cost of living is more pronounced among women workers due to the existing gender pay gap. And as there are more women employed as unskilled labour, such as cleaners and helpers – who make up most of the minimum wage earners segment – the living wage remains a further reach from their existing minimum wage, says Gopalan K. Papachan, the executive director of Empower, a non-governmental organisation working on women's rights and equality. 'Their security of employment is also quite low. At the same time, they will be at the lower end of the heap due to, among others, gender stereotyping practices (such as physical strength pre-requisites) that discourage them from taking up vocations that pay more,' says Gopalan. In February, the minimum wage was revised to RM1,700 a month from RM1,500. However, this wage still falls short of workers' actual needs, especially for single mothers. It remains well below Bank Negara's 2018 recommendation of a living wage of RM6,500 for a family with children living in an urban area, specifically Kuala Lumpur. CLICK TO ENLARGE The gap is also evident in the Employees Provident Fund's Belanjawanku 2024/2025 guide – for example, the estimated budget for a single parent with one child in the Klang Valley (with the highest cost of living estimate) is RM5,120 while in Alor Setar (the lowest) it's about RM3,970 to cover basic expenses like rent, transport and food. Gopalan points to the Depart-ment of Statistics' median monthly salary for women in the formal sector which was RM2,700 in June 2024 and RM3,000 in December 2024. 'That means half of all salaried women in Malaysia get no more than this. This is barely a living wage,' he says, adding that almost all of those engaged in housework or family duties – about three million – are also women, whose unpaid contributions remain invisible in our political and economic systems. Citing the May Day Declaration of Malaysian workers issued by the civil societies on May 1, Gopalan urges the government to increase the minimum wage to at least RM2,000 and introduce a universal basic income of RM1,000. Earlier this year, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said tackling wage issues requires a multipronged approach by various stakeholders. She was commenting on the '2023 Graduate Statistics Report' by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, which found female graduates on average earn RM900 less than their male counterparts despite having equivalent academic qualifications. CLICK TO ENLARGE To illustrate the grinding increase of wages, Khazanah Research Institute research associate Shazrul Ariff Suhaimi says the key economic and structural factors contributing to the general wage gap and the actual cost of living are primarily due to the slow growth of wages for the labour force. 'When we examined the wage distribution between 2010 and 2019, we found that for the bottom 50% of workers, there was an average annual increase of only RM56 per worker in real terms.' Gopalan says perceptions of the types of jobs that should only be dominated by one gender persist. 'I mean you don't see a woman working as a plumber or a carpenter. This is all skilled work that can extract good value and a good source of income for women as they do for men. 'There are also other jobs such as electricians, welders and riggers. Women can do them all, especially with the aid of technology. It's not about masculinity and masculine strength. It's about working in teams and doing work that leverages on technology.' Other than just looking into the wage system, the government should also be deliberate in setting up women to participate more and remain in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, Gopalan adds. 'There are a lot of women university graduates that, due to the patriarchal setup in this country, choose to get married and leave the workforce. 'There's a net benefit for women to participate at all levels in every vocation in this country. We are not giving them that fair level of income.'
Time of India
10-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Undercounting of Covid deaths: New birth & death records strengthen parents' legal case
New government data reveals a significant undercounting of deaths during the pandemic in India, offering hope to parents who believe their children died from Covid vaccine side effects. The data from the Civil Registration System shows 2.1 million more deaths in 2021 compared to 2020. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The new data from the country's official record of births and deaths that suggests undercounting of deaths during the pandemic has given a ray of hope to the parents of children who may have died due to the side effects of Covid parents, who are fighting a legal battle, will use the government data in the court, they to the data from the Civil Registration System (CRS), about 2.1 million more deaths were registered in 2021 - the year that witnessed the deadly Delta wave - compared with 2020."This report confirms what we have witnessed in our circles and in news items and social media over last few years, and it gives hope to us that this authoritative data from Census Department validates our arguments and buttresses our case with one more irrefutable evidence," said Venugopalan Govindan, one of the petitioners in the case. He lost his daughter after she was administered with Covid next date of hearing is on May per the data, the spike in deaths is about six times the official Covid death toll for 2021, which was pegged at 330,000 that the Sample Registration System (SRS) data, released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, on May 7 showed that the number of people who died in the country every year from 2007 to 2019 ranged from 8.1 million to 8.6 SRS, one of the largest demographic surveys in the world, contains estimates of various demographic, fertility and mortality indicators based on the data collected through the SRS sample in 2021, more than 10.2 million deaths were registered in the country - 2.1 million more than the 8.115 million deaths registered in 2020, the first year of the said the new data confirms the bitter truth vaccine victims such as him and many keen observers have known and seen empirically since 2021. "There have been so many excess deaths since the start of the vaccination drive," he Covid was rampant in the country (and globally) in 2020, and India had its first Covid case as early as January 2020. In fact, the sero surveys conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in 2020 showed rapid spread of Covid in the country."It is very important to note that we did not have a corresponding all-cause mortality in the country in 2020, confirming the very low IFR (infection fatality rate) of Covid as has been known and confirmed in worldwide data by then," Gopalan said the CRS data published by the Census Department is of utmost importance and should be studied in detail, as nothing has the finality as parents have been fighting the legal battle since 2022. In their petition, they have said that excess deaths were negligible before vaccination, but they spiked after vaccination started.
