1 China, India ink deals worth $22bn (The Guardian) China
and India signed deals worth more than $22bn in areas including renewable
energy, ports, financing and industrial parks. Namgya C Khampa, of the Indian
embassy in Beijing, gave the information at the end of a three-day visit by the
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, during which he sought to boost economic
ties and quell anxiety over a border dispute between the neighbours.
Khampa said: “The agreements have a bilateral
commercial engagement in sectors like renewable energy, industrial parks,
power, steel, logistics, finance and media and entertainment.” China is
interested in more opportunities in India’s $2tn economy.
During a visit to India in 2014 by China’s
president, Xi Jinping, China announced $20bn in investments over five years,
including the establishment of two industrial parks. Since then, progress has
been slow, in part because of the difficulties Modi has had in getting
political approval for easier land acquisition laws.
2 Unlocking talent for the 21st century
(Klaus Schwab in Straits Times) When financial policymakers attempt to promote
economic growth, they almost invariably focus on looking for new ways to unleash
capital. But, although this approach may have worked in the past, it risks
giving short shrift to the role that talent plays in generating and realising
the ideas that make growth possible.
Indeed, in a future of rapid technological change
and widespread automation, the determining factor - or crippling limit - to
innovation, competitiveness and growth is less likely to be the availability of
capital than the existence of a skilled workforce. By some estimates, almost
half of today's professions could be automatable by 2025. Speculation about
what will replace them ranges from predictions of unexpected opportunities to
forecasts of large-scale unemployment as machines displace most human labour.
Global unemployment has topped 212 million,
according to the International Labour Organisation, and another 42 million new
jobs will need to be created each year if the world economy is to provide
employment to the growing number of new entrants into the labour market.
As technology increasingly takes over knowledge-
based work, the cognitive skills that are central to today's education systems
will remain important; but behavioural and non-cognitive skills necessary for
collaboration, innovation and problem solving will become essential as well.
Today's schools and universities, which are dominated by approaches to learning
that are fundamentally individualistic and competitive in nature, must be
redesigned to focus on learning to learn and acquiring the skills needed to
collaborate with others.
Uniquely human skills, like being able to work in
teams, manage relationships and understand cultural sensitivities will become
vital for businesses across all sectors, and must become a core component of
future generations' education. Moreover, with education increasingly becoming a
lifelong pursuit, businesses must rethink their role in providing for a
competitive workforce. Some companies are already investing in their employees'
continual learning, re-skilling, and up-skilling. Yet most employers still
expect to obtain pre-trained talent from schools, universities and other
companies.
Given rapid change in the skill sets required for
many occupations, business must redirect investment to on-the-job training and
lifelong learning, particularly as millennials enter the workforce, seeking
purpose and diversity of experience where their predecessors sought
remuneration and stability. Unlocking the world's latent talent requires us to
look beyond business cycles and quarterly reports. The future is full of
potential, but only if we are smart enough - and courageous enough - to grasp
it.
3 Using stress to your advantage (Kelly McGonigal in
The Wall Street Journal) For a research paper, Harvard Business School
professor Alison Wood Brooks recruited 140 people to give a speech. She told
part of the group to relax and to calm their nerves by saying to themselves, “I
am calm.” The others were told to embrace their anxiety and to tell themselves,
“I am excited.”
Members of both groups were still nervous before the
speech, but the participants who had told themselves “I am excited” felt better
able to handle the pressure and were more confident of their ability to give a
good talk. Not only that, observers who rated the talks found the excited
speakers more persuasive, confident and competent than the participants who had
tried to calm down. With this one change in mind-set, the speakers had transformed
their anxiety into energy that helped them to perform under pressure.
The Harvard study is part of a growing body of
research to find that the best way to handle stress is to embrace it rather
than to minimize it. Whether it’s a student facing a final exam, an executive
delivering a big presentation or an athlete preparing for a championship game,
welcoming stress can boost confidence and improve performance. When you stop
resisting it, stress can fuel you.
A positive view of anxiety also can make you less
likely to burn out in a demanding job. In a study published in 2014,
researchers at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, followed midcareer
teachers and physicians for a year to see if their views on this issue
influenced their well-being at work. At the beginning of the year, the teachers
and doctors were asked if they saw anxiety as a helpful feeling, providing
energy and motivation, or as harmful.
At the end of the year, those who saw their anxiety
as helpful were less likely to be burned out, frustrated or drained by their
work. The upshot? When you are anxious before having to perform at a big
event—whether it’s a meeting, a speech, a competition or an exam—remember that
there is a fine line between tension and excitement. Embrace your nerves.
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