Paint it black

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The security agencies and the Department of telecom are getting agitated with the BlackBerry's encryption technology that it says poses a national security risk.

But security is the USP of the BlackBerry, and the reason why it is so popular with senior government officials and corporate executives. Click on the images on the left for a detailed look at the issues involved.

Compiled by Bibek Bhattacharya

Women Power: Services sector is the prime employer

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More women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to get low-productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights or voice at work, according to a recent ILO report.

The number of employed women grew by almost 200 million over the last decade, to reach 1.2 billion in 2007, compared to 1.8 billion men. However, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 million to 81.6 million over the same period. The report shows that improvements in the status of women in labour markets throughout the world have not substantially narrowed gender gaps at the workplace. The share of women in vulnerable employment-either unpaid contributing family workers or own-account workers, rather than wage-earning workers-decreased from 56.1 to 51.7 per cent since 1997. However, the burden o vulnerability is still greater for women than for men, especially in the world's poorest regions.