Knowledge Economy

By Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and Bror Saxberg, vice president of learning science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Edmondson and Saxberg are members of the Consortium for Advancing Adult Learning & Development (CAALD), convened by McKinsey & Company. Also, Edmondson is the noted author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, and Saxberg has recently joined the CZI team ultimately lead by Mark Zuckerberg who is “I’m pro-knowledge economy” rather than a Democrat or Republican.

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MBRSC announces launch of 1st edition of Science Event on October 21

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, has announced the launch of the first edition of Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre Science Event to be held under the patronage of Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, on 21st October. …

The event will host ministers and high-level speakers from the UAE who will present their vision for the future of the country on its transformational journey towards becoming a knowledge economy, in-line with its ambitious plans and strategies.  Rest

New Members of Abu Dhabi Executive Council take Oath

Shaikh Mohammad [Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council] said the new phase of development requires creative and innovative ideas due to the unprecedented and rapidly changing world. “This phase needs us to keep pace with this development in terms of work and thoughts — a move that can be done by enhancing economic diversification, building knowledge economy and investing in human capital, with education being given a top priority as the main driver of development,” he said. Rest

Dubai FDI to build on growing investment inflows from US

Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI) and Dubai Exports, both agencies of Dubai Economy, are heading to the US on a mission to draw focus on to the development strategies and policy initiatives transforming the emirate into a knowledge economy and innovation hub. Rest

UAE President Issues VAT Decree-Law with One of the Lowest Rates in the World

“The new tax system will provide extra support for the Government to implement the vision of the UAE leadership and build a diversified and productive knowledge economy,” H.H. Sheikh Hamdan [bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Federal Tax Authority] added. “The newly introduced Value Added Tax that shall be implemented in the GCC depending on readiness of each member State between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2019 pertaining to the Common VAT Agreement of the States of the GCC, will have positive results on the economy, far exceeding its 5% rate, given that revenues will be redistributed to development projects that benefit society at large and accelerate progress until the UAE reaches the top of global rankings across all sectors.” ​ Rest​​

A patently absurd proposition.

The idea that higher education provides real and significant benefits is consistent with what we hear from employers across the country: that the economy of the future will continue to require graduates, and lots of them.

The steady rise in the level of formal qualifications held by those in employment does not simply reflect qualification inflation caused by large increases in the supply of graduates, as Pessimists maintain.

It is happening as a result of more fundamental changes in the occupational structure of the UK as a knowledge economy. Some 1.8 million new jobs will be created between 2014 and 2024, and 70% of them will be in the occupations most likely to employ graduates

What is more, international comparisons confirm we are on the right track.

Only 42 per cent of young people in the UK are expected to graduate from university in their lifetime, according to the OECD, which is lower than the average of 45 per cent, and significantly lower than Japan at 58 per cent, the US at 53 per cent and New Zealand at 58 per cent.

The idea that cutting numbers of people with higher levels of education is the route to a more competitive economy simply does not stand up to scrutiny.  Full Speech

The FWS.us/about_us page (relevant excerpt below) takes us back to an article Mark Zuckerberg wrote 4 years ago about immigrants

The new knowledge economy has the potential to produce dynamism as well as dislocation, innovation as well as inequality. It’s up to us to fashion a future that reflects tech’s best values and virtues. We must push for policies that not only move the knowledge economy forward, but give everyone the opportunity to participate in it. Every day we bring incredible ingenuity and passion to our work; it’s time to bring that same spirit to our democracy.

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Today’s economy is very different. It is based primarily on knowledge and ideas — resources that are renewable and available to everyone. Unlike oil fields, someone else knowing something doesn’t prevent you from knowing it, too. In fact, the more people who know something, the better educated and trained we all are, the more productive we become, and the better off everyone in our nation can be.

This can change everything. In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are the talented people we educate and attract to our country. A knowledge economy can scale further, create better jobs and provide a higher quality of living for everyone in our nation. …

That’s why I am proud to announce FWD.us, a new organization founded by leaders of our nation’s technology community to focus on these issues and advocate a bipartisan policy agenda to build the knowledge economy the United States needs to ensure more jobs, innovation and investment.

These leaders, who reflect the breadth and depth of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture, include Reid Hoffman, Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer, Drew Houston, Ron Conway, Chamath Palihapitiya, Joe Green, Jim Breyer, Matt Cohler, John Doerr, Paul Graham, Mary Meeker, Max Levchin, Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi.

As leaders of an industry that has benefited from this economic shift, we believe that we have a responsibility to work together to ensure that all members of our society gain from the rewards of the modern knowledge economy.

How quickly is India progressing in its digitization journey

Post demonetisation move, the government has taken several initiatives emphasis on digitisation and bringing in greater transparency in economic transactions.

Narendra Modi had launched ‘Digital India’ programme in an order to create transparent and responsive government. With this launch, the government took a big step towards the transforming the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy.

By the end of 2019, the project is aiming to provide high speed internet services to its citizens in all gram panchayats. Bank accounts will be given priority at individual level. People will be provided with safe and secure cyber space in the country. Government services will be available online where citizens will be ensured easy access to it. Transactions will be made easy through electronic medium. Rest

India, is emerging as a knowledge based economy, poised for double digit growth

India, is emerging as a knowledge based economy, poised for double digit growth, and needs to strengthen social infrastructure by investing in health and education.

The education policies need to be designed with focus on learning outcomes and remedial education with interventions which work and maximize the efficiency of expenditure. There is need for bio-metric attendance of school staff, independent setting of examination papers, neutral examination and for DBT for schools. There is need to adopt outcome measures for the education and skilling activities to ensure improvement in delivery of schemes/ programmes.  Rest

India’s blurry battle between digital freedom and security

In Indian Kashmir’s capital Srinagar, a middle-aged woman enters a small boutique. On her phone is a dress she has spotted online, on the shop’s Instagram page. A prolonged mobile shutdown last year saw their sales drop 40 per cent, owners and sisters Afshan and Mehnaz Mir say. “We don’t want it to happen again and again,” Afshan says. “It really affects us,” added Mehnaz. “Nowadays you can see, the marketing, everything, is done on internet, online.”

According to the aim of its digital India policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government wants to, “transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy“. It aims to improve computer literacy, save money and eliminate corruption by migrating government services and transactions online. Senior ministers have acknowledged the conflict between the policy and the trend. “The trouble is people are misusing it, so temporary intervention has to be there,” IT and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said when asked earlier this year about the impact on Kashmir’s economy and citizens in particular. “But I do take your point that Kashmir does need proper uninterrupted availability of Internet.”  Rest

Be a part of Digital India, but don’t let Net rule you

Telecom subscribers in India, as per the latest TRAI report, crossed 121-crore mark by June end. The overall mobile subscriber base in the country grew to 118.6 crore. This is good in a way as it will speed up the campaign for Digital India, which is one of most ambitious projects in the world, seeking to digitally connect all of the country’s villages and gram panchayats by broadband internet, promote e-governance and transform India into a connected knowledge economy. However, it will take some time before the connectivity issue is resolved and the general public becomes technically aware and get comfortable with the technology.  Rest

Abu Dhabi: Sandooq Al Watan, a national initiative launched by prominent Emirati businessmen to support research projects for the post-oil era, has received a new Dh10 million contribution from the Bin Hamoodah Group, bringing its total amount raised since its inception to Dh558 million. …

“Our responsibility towards society compels us to support Sandooq Al Watan, and to play our part in creating a sustainable knowledge economy for future generations,” said Bin Hamoodah Group Chairman Faraj Ali Bin Hamoodah. “We support the fund’s efforts to stimulate creativity and innovation, and to drive development and economic diversification. Sandooq Al Watan plays a positive role in society as it works to develop the skills of an entire generation of future leaders. This resonates with our strategy to invest in national talent to serve the UAE’s development ambitions.” …

The initiative is aligned with the UAE leadership’s directives — particularly, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces — to set plans for a sustainable knowledge economy in the post-oil era.  Full article

REID HOFFMAN: I want to acknowledge that most companies don’t have the option of hiring rocket scientists, Olympic athletes and Super Bowl winners. But Eric does have more pragmatic advice for companies that can’t set the bar at Himalayan heights.

ERIC SCHMIDT: So today I would suggest that—and this has since been confirmed by many studies—that persistence is the single biggest predictor of future success. And so we would look for persistence. And the second thing was curiosity. What do you care about? The combination of persistence and curiosity is a very good predictor of employee success in a knowledge economy.

full Masters of Scale transcript

Remarks by Prime Minister Modi of India in Joint Press Statement with President Trump

I am very clear about the fact that India’s interests lie in a strong, and prosperous, and successful America.  In the same way, India’s development and its growing role at the international level are in the USA’s interest.

One of our common priorities will be the development of trade, commerce, and investment links.  And in this regard, in the technology, innovation, and knowledge-economy sectors, the expansion and deepening of cooperation is also among our priorities.  Towards this end, we shall take steps to further strengthen our successful digital partnership. Full Remarks

Commissioner Moedas: “Research & Innovation – Shaping Our Future”

As policy makers, we must also step outside of our comfort zones. For example, I very much welcome the fact that the Lamy group included education in their report and proposed some new ideas. Such as including more training activities in collaborative research projects. Or introducing incentives for university reforms. And capitalising on the education and training activities of the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities.

I also fully agree with the need to break down the silos between the Framework Programme and Structural Funds. This is very important to really integrate the EU13 Member States in the global knowledge economy.  Rest

 Cristina Garmendia, Chair, Fundación Codec and member of the HLG #Innov4Impact – speaking about the first recommendation of the HLG report on maximising the impact of future EU R&I programmes.

Inspire the young vote with an upbeat vision of Brexit

Paul Marshall is chairman of Marshall Wace (a hedge fund in London) and co-chaired the Prosperity UK conference. He writes in a personal capacity. The following is an excerpt from his June 12th opinion piece in the Financial Times.

The message must be crafted for the young, for it is they who will inherit this economy and it is they who are being taken in by Mr Corbyn’s blandishments. A core component must be a more generous vision of immigration, which recognises the limits to the absorption capacity of some communities but equally recognises the vital importance of skilled workers and the place of our universities at the heart of any knowledge economy. Students must be taken out of the immigration numbers. And our universities must be brought together to help set a national strategy for the knowledge economy.  Rest

UAE prepares for post-oil era

“Our Future initiative is a foundation upon which we can create a knowledge economy by supporting innovative ideas and start-ups that propose solutions to the challenges of the future and growing them into a global phenomenon,” said Mohamed Tajeddine Al Qadhi, Director-General of Sandooq Al Watan.

“The initiative is unique because it supports the projects from inception – all the way to growing the company into a local and global leader.”

The initiative is aligned with the UAE leadership’s directives, particularly His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to set plans for a sustainable knowledge economy in the post-oil era.  Rest

Ideas and ivory towers

The knowledge economy demands seamless interaction between government, academia, industry

A former professor of robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology has helped create a robotic tailor that can stitch a perfect circle: If you can stitch a perfect circle, then you can perform almost any complicated sewing task that, in the past, could only have been undertaken by skilled and experienced hands. The only seemingly viable option for the garments industry in the Asian region is to seek to import such machines. There goes a part of our plan to keep unemployment figures down.

There are many lessons that need to be imbibed by us in India from this troubling future of the garments industry. These lessons transcend the garments industry and need to be brought to the attention of educationists, policymakers and several arms of the government. The success of this robotic stitching device provides us with a near-perfect example of the power of a knowledge-based economy.  Rest

Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland and the devolved governments must have their say before any more Brexit negotiations

Our natural resources, our long-standing reputation for innovation and our educated workforce give Scotland a head-start. The European Single Market, already the world’s biggest, represents a massive opportunity for these areas of Scottish strength – in the digital economy, the services sector, energy, retail, the green and knowledge economy.  Rest