Sunday Reads - Mango People & The Self-Destructive USSR

• How the Soviet Empire's ambitions contained the seeds of its destruction. (Book Review; The Economist)

• Daniel Craig on being James Bond. (Vanity Fair)

• The Economist who saves lives. (BBC)

• Mango people and media monsters. (Indian Express)
  
  Women make up half of the world (some say, the better half!). The Economist has an insightful graph on the economic contribution of women. Says the note for the graph: In the next decade nearly 1 billion women are likely to enter the global labour force. But their economic potential is largely unrealised. According to a report by Booz & Company, a consultancy, if female employment rates matched those of men, GDP would increase by 5% in America and 9% in Japan by 2020. The impact would be even larger for developing countries, home to most of the world’s women who lack adequate education and support (social and political). Increasing female employment would increase GDP significantly in countries like India and Egypt, where female labour-participation rates are below 30%. These countries rank low in Booz’s index of women’s economic empowerment.