Why the slowdown? The answer lies in inflation, which is extremely volatile in India. Driven by food prices, it has been oscillating between 5% and 6% for the past few months. Prices are putting pressure on wages, which are stagnating or even falling slightly, and thereby on household consumption, the…
The Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement, formerly the Vice-Chancellor's Award, are held annually to recognise exceptional achievement, innovation, and creativity in developing research engagement and impact plans with significant economic, social, and cultural potential. Awarded in three categories, the winners for 2024 are:Established Academic Winner: Professor Sander van der…
Does this sound familiar? A company spends more than $50 million a year on cloud services with a small FinOps team dedicated to tracking expenses. This team, supported by contract labor, uses various solutions to monitor and control spending and to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. Yet cloud waste…
Middle East: Evolution. 2010–2025. Valdai Discussion Club’s Collection of Reports ISBN 978-5-907845-26-8 The Middle East is a region characterized by constant change. There has not been a single century, or even decade, without a visible transformation of the landscape. However, there is another distinctive feature: no transformation can erase the…
Asia is entering a new era that could pave the way for a meaningful expansion of its global influence. By 2040, Asia could contribute 42 percent of global GDP, be home to 60 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies, and have 55 percent of the world’s total workforce, our analysis…
Frontiers Understanding Chinese companies’ place-based strategies for growth can be valuable to companies everywhere. Shameen Prashantham and Lola Woetzel February 03, 2025 Reading Time: 10 min Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Harry Campbell/theispot.com The phrase “chu…
Worldwide, 2024 was a difficult year for the residential solar market. After several years of 30 percent annual growth in installations, 2024 saw a decline: fewer panels were installed in many markets, and companies’ valuations declined. This led to large capital injections, major bankruptcies, and job losses.Although these conditions might…
Today’s financial advisors are operating in a dramatically shifting market. Consolidation and competition have changed firm dynamics as advisors try to provide more comprehensive wealth-management services to their clients, often leaving small advisors squeezed. At the same time, there’s huge promise and opportunity related to the fact that, over the…
Dr Fabian Braesemann. Credit: University of Oxford. We are seeing the beginnings of a possibly fundamental economic transformation due to the widespread adoption of generative AI tools in many sectors. Facing the impressive capabilities of AI tools in solving demanding cognitive tasks, many have expressed worries about potential job losses…
The Council for Science and Technology is formed of 19 independent members who are made up of senior figures from the fields of science, engineering and technology. Professor Shadbolt joins seven other new members who will advise the Prime Minister and Cabinet on strategic science and technology policy issues that…
In October 2024, Stanford reported preliminary enrollment data for the entering undergraduate Class of 2028, the first class to be admitted under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race-conscious admissions.Stanford has now reported final enrollment numbers for the class as part of the 2024-25 Common Data Set, a data-reporting…
Hitting the current national 2030 quotas for solar and wind energy could reduce the volatility of electricity markets by an average of 20% across 29 European countries, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge. The intensity of spikes in power prices are predicted to fall in every country…
Your customer of tomorrow may be rather unlike your customer today. And if you are not connecting with them, there is a lot of catching up to do. Wedged between heritage and changing customer behaviours, the world of luxury perhaps feels the need to remain relevant most acutely. In a recent…
In December 2024, US President-elect Donald Trump threatened the BRICS nations with 100 percent tariffs if they go ahead with “their de-dollarisation plans”. In reality, last year’s documents adopted at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan contained no references to “de-dollarisation” or an “alternative payment system”. Instead, in their 2024…
In briefli]:su-m-0">Compared with mining and processing new chemicals, the battery recycling process analyzed in the study:Emitted 58% to 81% less greenhouse gas emissionsUsed 72% to 88% less waterAnd used 77% to 89% less energyCarbon emissions aside, energy use correlates with air pollutants like soot and sulfurRecycling lithium-ion batteries to recover…
Quick Hits OCR will enforce Title IX protections under the 2020 Title IX Rule, not the 2024 Title IX Final Rule. The 2020 Title IX Rule provides procedural protections for complainants and respondents and requires supportive measures. The 2024 Title IX Final Rule, which was criticized for impermissibly expanding the…
The Dalai Lama Shares Thoughts on China and the Future in a New Bookby Alexandra Altervia New York Times on January 23, 2025 How (un)popular is China’s Communist Party?via The Economist on January 23, 2025 China’s anti-spy agency urges travellers to protect state secrets during holiday tripsby William Zhengvia South…
What makes a career truly transformative? The business media might suggest it's all about finding your bliss, achieving perfect work-life balance, or aligning with some other set of buzzword-heavy corporate values. But new research from Perceptyx’s Center for Workforce Transformation reveals something more complex and far-reaching: a fulfilling career acts…
In briefli]:su-m-0">Stanford’s new Mail and Package Services (MPS) centralizes mail handling with a Newark receiving warehouse and same-day campus delivery via electric vehicles.Redesigned package centers and 24/7 lockers offer students flexible, secure access to their packages.The program cuts delivery truck traffic, reduces emissions, and incorporates waste diversion to support Stanford’s…
We are pleased to announce that OpenAI’s new o3-mini model is now available in Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. Building on the foundation of the o1 model, o3-mini delivers a new level of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and reasoning capabilities. We are pleased to announce that OpenAI o3-mini is now available in Microsoft…
What happens when art meets technology, AI, and data? You get the trailblazing digital artist and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), lecturer Refik Anadol. For this episode of At the Edge, Anadol sat down with McKinsey Senior Partner Lareina Yee at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos.…
1 February 2025Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European CommissionRemaining competitive is fundamental for Europe’s future. We need faster economic growth and higher productivity to protect the quality of life for Europeans – from their jobs and incomes to their…
It’s been a year and a half since McKinsey published “Empty spaces and hybrid places: The pandemic’s lasting impact on real estate.” The comprehensive report examined the effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on office attendance, occupancy, and demand. It also examined related factors, including residential moves from urban centers to…
Quick Hits Under the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, employed parents whose babies are admitted to neonatal care within the first twenty-eight days of birth and remain in hospital for at least seven consecutive days have a right to up to twelve weeks of leave and pay. The…
The word ‘boomtown’ was practically invented for the mining industry, which has a history of gold rush euphoria followed by equally intense busts. The pattern has continued through the past decade, with mining companies buffeted by a global pandemic, trade tensions, and geopolitical conflicts (Exhibit 1).Very few of them have…
For anyone serious about becoming a top athlete, well-known steps to success include intense conditioning, a health-conscious diet, and grueling hours of practice. However, a unit developed by Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) Professor Jo Boaler highlights a variable often overlooked in the formula for athletic achievement: the ability to…
Frontiers In the digital age, brand is signaled by marketers, but meaning is cocreated with consumers. Marcus Collins January 30, 2025 Reading Time: 10 min Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Jon Krause/theispot.com The image and meaning…
Topics AI in Action This column series looks at the biggest data and analytics challenges facing modern companies and dives deep into successful use cases that can help other organizations accelerate their AI progress. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Colgate-Palmolive, the consumer…
Personality characteristics have long been thought to predict a wide range of personal outcomes, including career success: being conscientious, for example, will take you further professionally than, say, being neurotic. However, because personality has primarily been measured through surveys, obtaining large-scale, detailed data on personality traits has been challenging.…
Here’s the challenge facing brands and retailers: Communicate clearly with a vast array of consumers who speak thousands of languages, hail from countless different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, and make purchasing decisions based on highly personal preferences. It’s no easy feat to reach all of these consumers on a broad…
The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty does not necessarily entail alignment and a desire to confront the US. Rather, its main goal is to utilise largely unused capacities in relations on the one hand and to try to define ordering mechanisms in the region on the other in order to provide…
The RLRH launched in 2020 to address the lack of refugee-authored scholarship and under-representation of refugees and displaced people in higher education, particularly at graduate level. By providing access to training, mentorship and funding, the RLRH aims to redistribute power and opportunity to researchers and students from displacement backgrounds so…
Quick Hits The SCHA requires that higher education institutions participating in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 programs collect, report, and publicly disclose hazing-related incidents and implement hazing prevention and awareness programs. The SCHA also mandates that institutions, as part of their Clery Reports, begin collecting hazing…
DeepSeek R1 is now available in the model catalog on Azure AI Foundry and GitHub, joining a diverse portfolio of over 1,800 models, including frontier, open-source, industry-specific, and task-based AI models. As part of Azure AI Foundry, DeepSeek R1 is accessible on a trusted, scalable, and enterprise-ready platform, enabling businesses…
The new method, published in npj Vaccines, analyses the vaccine vial label and its adhesive and therefore allows the vaccine vials to be retained in the supply chain. Furthermore, the study has shown that the technique can also differentiate genuine Covid-19 vaccine liquid from falsified vaccine surrogates, using a recently…
The Omama study, undertaken by Dr Michelle Fernandes and the F1000 research group, focused on Roma children living in poor communities in Eastern Slovakia who are subjected to the “triple threat” of poverty, stunting and early developmental delays, with many prevented from achieving their full developmental potential by age five…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the workplace, and HR functions are no exception. From recruitment to onboarding and even manager training, AI-based platforms are becoming the go-to solution for many organizations. These programs promise scalable, customizable courses with instant feedback and on-demand accessibility, an enticing prospect for companies seeking efficiency.…
Closing the approximately $700 billion annual nature financing gap is essential to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Alongside the necessary governmental action, the private sector has a critical role to play in mobilizing the funding needed. To support businesses in these efforts, this road map outlines the steps…
On January 29, 2025, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion dedicated to historical memory in the context of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. Anton Bespalov, the moderator of the discussion, noted that although Nazism was defeated by the joint efforts of the West…
Recent volatility has added new layers of complexity to a topic that already challenges business leaders: prioritizing investments. When executives want to understand the trade-offs between different initiatives, they typically compare the projects’ net present values (NPVs)—the measure of an investment’s worth over its entire lifetime discounted to today. In…