KACHARAGADLA

This year's Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences was announced on 12 October 2015, the recipient none other than the Cambridge-educated Princeton don, Prof. Angus Deaton. The Royal Academy honoured Prof. Deaton 'for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare.'  Prof. Deaton work has been driven by understanding measurement and relies extensively on data for making sense of individual consumption choices. He has also worked in India for understanding poverty as well as it impacts on healthcare outcomes, consumption choices, etc. His work has several important lessons for India. These lessons while not exhaustive do tell important areas for improvement.  The most important message that Prof. Deaton also mentioned in a recent interview was that there seems to be a statistical discrepancy in the data for India. It is because the household survey results do not reconcile with the fact that there seems to be an exceptional increase in income data coming

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which draw near to completion in 2015, have given way to the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched at the UN General Assembly. The event and an array of other events including the SDG Business Forum, the Social Good Summit and the Clinton Global Initiative saw large participation from various stakeholders.  In understanding and evaluating the presentations at these events, some of the pertinent points that look seemingly obvious are: First, few presentations gave any indication of serious learning from the wins-- and losses--during 20 years of MDG work. A delineation of the models that work (i.e., more sustainable and scalable) is seen as clearly missing. Second, in the absence of learning frameworks, presenters reiterate the same problems, now expanded to 17 goals and 169 targets. The result is a plea for more resources to support the new SDGs without any evidence that those resources will be employed more effectively. Thir

Hong Kong:  Is there anybody out there? A massive engineering and scientific project in China is expected to take us one step closer in our quest to discover if we are truly alone in the universe. The country's military-led space program is constructing the world's largest radio telescope, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, and Chinese state media recently released images of the amazing structure nearing completion. The massive construction project -- when completed the dish itself will be the size of 30 football pitches -- has the potential to be a game-changer for our understanding of the universe, and our search for life on other planets. When it is finished it will potentially be able to detect radio signals -- and potentially, signs of life -- from planets orbiting a million stars and solar systems. China's state-run Xinhua news agency  says  FAST will be completed in 2016 -- allowing researchers to detect radio signals from

Concepts such as incubation, early stage start-ups and others are at a nascent stage in India and mostly confined to urban areas and much can be done to strengthen their scale, scope and efficiency, said a report of the expert committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The committee, headed by noted academician Tarun Khanna, comprises eminent persons from India Inc and experts. It was constituted under the NITI Aayog. In the report, which was made public a few days ago, the panel said a survey commissioned by it showed that approximately 50 per cent of respondents feel the need to improve formal networking within their sector through associations, and to enhance their ability to work cooperatively with the government. "Approximately 60 per cent of the respondents stated that access to global markets needed to be strengthened - another area where incubators can help. Surveys also highlight that widespread investment, rather than focused investment in urban are

In a move widely perceived as the formal takeover of Century Textiles  by the Aditya Birla group, the board of the company has appointed Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Vice Chairman with immediate effect. Kumar is grandson of company's chairman BK Birla. The company's stock was trading flat at Rs 552 a share. Kumar's mother Rajshree Birla is also a director on the company's board and joined the board in May this year. The move was a foregone conclusion as  BK Birla  had made it clear that Kumar will takeover the company from him. Apart from textiles, Century has a sprawling cement business which, analysts believe, will be ultimately merged with Aditya Birla group owned Ultratech. Ultratech is India's biggest cement company with 67.7 million tonnes per annum of capacity.  BK Birla group companies  -- Century Textiles has 12.8 million tonnes of cement capacity while Kesoram Industries has 7.25 million tonnes. The Aditya Birla group  companies  have also

Philippines Domestic and International Money Transfer Industry Outlook to 2019 - Driven by Mobile Money and Increase in OFWs Philippines international remittance market is expected to reach USD 36 billion by 2019 Philippines domestic remittance market is expected to reach USD 8,814.5 million by 2019 Future growth of the remittance market is expected to be lead by mobile money transfers and regions such as the US and Saudi Arabia Major banks include Banco de Oro, The Bank of Philippine Islands and the Philippines National Bank whereas major MTOs include Palawan Pawnshop, LBC and Cebuana Lhuilier Ken Research announced its latest publication on “Philippines Domestic and International Money Transfer Industry Outlook to 2019” which provides a comprehensive analysis of international and domestic remittances in the Philippines. The report covers various aspects such as market size on the basis of total volume of domestic and international remittances and bills paid. The report

Geneva:  The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Thursday set up a vision for the development of 5G mobile, in a bid to provide lightning speed, omnipresent, ultra-reliable mobile communications in the short future. The "IMT-2020" vision, endorsed by a resolution in ITU's Radiocommunication Assembly, established overall "vision" for 5G systems, along with the goals, process and timeline for its development, is now in place, Xinhua reported. The detailed technical performance requirements for the radio systems to support 5G will be developed, in close collaboration with industry and national and regional standards organizations, following the stringent timelines defined by ITU. "The new ITU-R Resolution sets the stage for the future development of 5G mobile technologies," said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. Mobile communication has seen revolutionary developments and growth in recent years. New demands, including appli