1 US Fed keeps interest rates on hold (Gulf News) The
US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but strongly
signaled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year as the
labor market improved further.
The Fed said US economic activity had picked up and
job gains were “solid” in recent months. “The case for an increase in the
federal funds rate has strengthened,” the US central bank said. The Fed has
held its target rate for overnight lending between banks in a range of 0.25
percent to 0.50 percent since December, when it raised borrowing costs for the
first time in nearly a decade.
The Fed also projected a less aggressive rise in
interest rates next year and in 2018, and cut its longer-run interest rate
forecast to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent. But in a sign of growing confidence,
the Fed said the near-term risks for the economic outlook “appear roughly
balanced.” That means
policymakers think the economy is about as likely to
outperform forecasts as to underperform them.
2 Zuckerberg & Chan aim to tackle all diseases (Leo
Kelion on BBC) Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan
have pledged $3bn to fund medical research over the next decade. They said their
ultimate goal was to "cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of
the century".
The funds will be distributed by the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative, which they created in December 2015. Tech leaders are increasingly
turning their attention to health. Earlier in the week, Microsoft said it
intended to "solve" cancer by using artificial intelligence tools.
Google's DeepMind unit is working with the NHS to
find a way to use computers to more accurately diagnose diseases. And IBM and
MIT announced a tie-up earlier this week to develop AI-based systems that could
help clinicians improve the care of elderly and disabled patients.
Even so, the Chan Zuckerberg plan is marked by its
ambition. Mr Zuckerberg said that at present 50 times more money was spent on
treating people who are sick than on curing the diseases that would stop them
getting ill in the first place, and added that this needed to change.
Ms Chan said they had already committed $600m to
creating a new research centre called the Biohub, which will bring together
engineers, computer scientists, biologists, chemists and other innovators.
The Biohub will initially work on two projects. The
first is the Cell Atlas, a "map" that describes the different types
of cells that control the body's major organs. The second is the Infectious
Disease Initiative, which will try to develop new tests and vaccines to tackle
HIV, Ebola, Zika and other new diseases. Mr Zuckerberg predicted that by 2100
the average life expectancy would be beyond 100 years.
Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Chan announced in December 2015
that they planned to give away 99% of their shares in Facebook to fund good
causes following the birth of their daughter. The organisation's stated mission
is to make long-term investments in work that advances human potential and
promotes equality.
3 Learning and unlearning at Unilever (Chia Yan Min
in Straits Times) Only "paranoid" companies prepared to innovate
aggressively will survive in this era of disruptive technologies, Unilever
global chief executive Paul Polman said.
The British-Dutch multinational consumer goods giant
sells a vast array of food, personal care and other brands, such as Dove soap,
Lipton tea and ice cream brands Ben & Jerry's and Wall's.
The digital revolution and the ubiquity of mobile
devices have permeated every segment of the company's business, from
manufacturing to marketing, said Mr Polman. He said Unilever was exploring new
frontiers, such as predicting consumer behaviour with data analytics, making
use of virtual reality in retail, and using robotics and sensors in its
manufacturing facilities.
"We're growing nicely in South-east Asia, but
in order to get that growth, we had to work twice as hard as we did five years
ago. The trends are changing incredibly fast," he said. The company is
looking to partner start-ups around the world to stay at the forefront of these
changes. It launched The Foundry - a global platform to connect its brands with
innovative start-ups - in May 2014.
There is need to develop a company culture where
people are receptive to "learning and unlearning" - by no means an
easy feat.
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