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What becomes of you outside the college gates should not be decided by your neighbour and other Sharmajis. We bring you five choices your relatives never thought could pay your bills.

It is the time for board examinations, and the time for graduations. DJ rightly said in Rang De Basanti, that the life beyond the gates of the school is an entirely different, perhaps more cruel one. The one factor to making it seem less cruel, and in fact enjoyable, is to choose a profession that makes you hate Mondays a tad less. Here are five offbeat career prospects that have the power to make you rich, content, or both:

1. Cartoon making: So Many of the world’s artists spend their entire lives with their heads stuck in a math problem, when they would much rather use the last page for a sketch of Mr. Bean. It is time to make money from your “hobby”. Every acclaimed newspaper and magazine has a dedicated space for cartoons nowadays, while television and movies provide more possibilities to your love and skill for doodling. Asian Academy of Film and Television, National Institute of Design, and National Institute of Fashion Technology are only some of the excellent institutes to hone the skills needed to cut it in this profession.

2. Pet Grooming: As a student of the University of Delhi, you must have become accustomed to having dogs and cats enter your vicinity at any time. If you enjoy petting them more than you love engaging with humans then, there is a future in it for you. It requires patience, and an understanding of the needs of those who cannot express themselves in words. There are no essential qualifications for this profession, but it requires immense skill and hard work. To grow further over the years, you can start a pet salon or a pet cafe, and work with organisations like PETA as well.

3. Rural Studies: If you are one of those people who find the lack of attention given to the 70% of the population of the country, residing in the rural areas, appalling, then there is an excellent opportunity in the field of rural studies for you. You can work with NGOs, the government, or open a business of your own, focussing on the area that interests you the most. There are Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees offered in this course at colleges in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

4. Museology: The main reason to pursue this is, of course, the “I dig you” memes. The other important reason is your passion for something considered atrociously boring by the science-inclined population of the nation, i.e. history. Study museums, their significance, and the stories of the past with this career. University of Calcutta and National Museum Institute of History of Arts, offer the best programmes for this opportunity.

5. Bartending: There are careers that are fun, and then there are jobs which make everybody envious. Bartending is a profession that has been around for a long time, but it is only in the recent past that its mainstream value in making money has been realised. If you enjoy listening to people’s drunk break-up stories, and have a love for alcoholic drinks, then this job is for you. You should be a graduate in any subject, if you want to be hired by high-end bars. A knowledge of alcohol, and preferably a diploma is appreciated for this career. Indian Institute of Bartending (Chennai), B’Mann School of Bartending (Chennai), Liquid Art Bartending School (Hyderabad), and Institute of Bar Operations and Management (New Delhi) are the best institutes to acquire a degree for the profession.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Monster 

Anushree Joshi

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With automation and technological advancement threatening the employment sector, will Bill Gates’s idea of ‘Robot Tax’ prove to be helpful?

What is Robot Tax?

In the near future, automation is definitely going take over our world and change the face of the employment sector as we know it.  Recently, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft in an interview proposed that robots should be taxed in the form of Robot tax. He anticipates that automation will replace large numbers of the work force over the next 2 decades. This is indeed a serious threat that will change humanity, and steps must be taken to smoothen the transition.

What is Gates’s central argument?

The most vital part of his argument is that in order to be “net ahead” as a society once a robot has taken the job of a human, the displaced labor must be able to perform various kinds of work so that there would be an increase in production which leads to economic growth. He argued since the displaced labor needs retraining, the robot must be taxed, and that the funds thus raised could be used to retrain and financially support displaced workers, who could then move into new jobs in other sectors like health care, education where the human touch is needed. He further added that, by taxing the robots, we would slow down the pace of automation which will mitigate public resistance to automation.

Is this idea feasible?

No, this idea is not very feasible because firstly, for the purpose of levying, paying and collecting ‘Robot tax’ levying, paying and collection, how does one define robots? If at all the puzzle of ‘ defining robots’ is solved, we would come to the question of who pays the taxes. Since robots can’t pay taxes by themselves, presumably either the owner or the manufacturer of robots will pay the tax.

If the manufacturer is to pay tax for producing robots it will give rise to a new type of tax — production tax and if it is levied will lead to double taxation. This will lead to an increase in consumer burden, where manufacturers increase the price of commodities to make up for their losses.

Moreover, this idea is not feasible because of the simple reason that manufacturers of robots can simply move to countries that don’t tax them, which would also mean a loss of job opportunities for the country that loses the manufacturer.

What then?

Gates’s idea can only be successful if this robot tax is accompanied by safety measures that ensure the displaced workers find employment in the case of a robot apocalypse.

 

Image Credits: www.robotscompanion.edu.com

Anahita Sahu

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