- Arvind's Newsletter
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- Arvind's Newsletter
1.Specialised skills are killing it! MBA seen losing edge, reports Economic Times
An MBA degree — regarded by many as a ticket to the corporate corridors — may just be losing its premium value in the job market.
Average monthly active job openings with MBA as minimum qualification at entry and mid-junior (0-6 years’ experience) levels dropped by 55% in 2023 versus a year ago, according to data from LinkedIn and other popular job boards put together for ET by Xpheno. This compares with a 25% decline in the overall white-collar job market in 2023.
Several company officials and HR heads ET spoke to say a classical MBA degree is losing out to the current market trend of hiring talent with specialised skills and those who come at a lesser cost. Ironically, this fall in demand for MBA degree holders comes at a time when their supply is increasing. A record 330,000 candidates from across India registered for the Common Admission Test (CAT) in 2023, a 30% increase from the previous year — a reflection of the aspirational value of the degree
MBAs from top institutes expect a starting salary of ₹25-30 lakh (~$30,000-$36,000), which is also a deterrent for potential employers. There are 230,000 MBAs entering the job market every year and top IIMs struggled to place students even for summer internships in 2023.
US students are shunning MBA. Domestic applications for Ivy League MBA programmes have been declining since 2017.
2.The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has unveiled a new assault rifle with a Kalashnikov-like rivet-free design. Called Ugram—ferocious in Sanskrit—the rifle can shoot 7.62X51mm bullets up to 500 metres in single and automatic mode using a 20-round magazine.
While DRDO designed the gun, Hyderabad-based private firm Dvipa Armour India made the prototypes. The Indian Army just got clearance to buy 73,000 US-made ‘Patrol’ Sig rifles after India’s collaboration with Russia to make the AK-203 rifles here jammed due to the Ukraine war.
The Narendra Modi government has rained incentives on the private sector to boost indigenous defence manufacturing. A Bengaluru automotive spring maker, which has diversified into weapons, recently showed off locally developed sniper rifles. India’s arms exports hit a record ₹16,000 crore (~$1.9 billion) to 85 countries in 2022-23.
3.War over Taiwan would have a cost in blood and treasure so vast that even those unhappiest with the status quo have reason not to risk it.
Bloomberg Economics (BE) estimate the price tag at $10 trillion, equal to about 10% of global GDP—dwarfing the blow from Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and 2008 financial Crisis.
BE modelled two scenarios—one where mainland China launches a full-blown war that draws in the US too, and another where China imposes an economic blockade against Taiwan from the rest of the world. In the first instance, BE estimates a $10.2 trillion cost to global GDP due to Taiwan’s indispensability in semiconductors, and the cascading effects the disruption will have on everything from manufacturing and logistics to emerging technologies and consumption.
4.A DeepMind spinoff wants to halve drug discovery times.Currently, it takes up to a decade and close to $3 billion to discover and develop a new drug.
The head of Google DeepMind believes its drug discovery spinout will halve the time taken to find new medicines, attracting the attention of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies which are looking to artificial intelligence to revolutionise the lengthy process.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Demis Hassabis, who co-founded Google’s AI unit and also leads the drugs offshoot Isomorphic Labs, said the goal was to reduce the discovery stage — when potential drugs are identified before clinical trials — from the average of five years to two. “I think that would be success for us and be very meaningful,” he said.
Hassabis stated the goal days after announcing Isomorphic Lab’s first two pharmaceutical partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis, which came to a combined value of up to $3bn, in deals set to transform the finances of the unprofitable group.
Isomorphic Labs uses an AI platform to predict biochemical structures, which aids the creation of new drugs by recommending which potential compounds will have the desired impact in the body. Including clinical trials, it often takes up to a decade to discover and develop a new drug, costing on average about $2.7bn, according to research by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.
5.A Chinese state-backed institution has devised a way to identify users who send messages via Apple’s popular Airdrop feature, the Chinese government claims.
The Beijing institute developed the technique to crack an iPhone’s encrypted device log to identify the numbers and emails of senders who share AirDrop content. The declaration drew attention to an iPhone feature that activists around the world have employed to spread their message. Requiring just a nearby Bluetooth connection, it was widely used by protesters to share pro-democracy slogans during the 2019 riots in Hong Kong.
6.World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2024: Misinformation, conflict, and environmental perils at the forefront
The Global Risks Report 2024, released on January 10 by the World Economic Forum, delves into some of the most serious threats that the world may see in the coming years, considering the impact of technological advancements, economic instability, climate change, and armed conflict.
Worries about an enduring cost-of-living crisis and the threats posed by AI-driven misinformation, disinformation, and societal polarization took center stage.
The key findings from the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Perception Survey, which collected opinions from approximately 1,500 specialists worldwide in industry, government, academia, and civil society, are outlined below.
7.New York Times’ 52 places to go in 2024
Every year, the New York Times Travel desk offers up a list of travel spots. This year’s list features an elephant rehabilitation program in Kenya, sea-sculpted monoliths in Quebec and a lesser-known home of masterpieces in Italy.
Here are some more picks:
Mustang, Nepal: This ancient Himalayan kingdom is a bastion of traditional Tibetan culture, preserved for centuries by its remoteness. Visitors can take wilderness treks through mountain ranges and visit the well-preserved medieval fortress of Lo Manthang.
Yamaguchi, Japan: It’s called the Kyoto of the West, but this compact city has considerably less “tourism pollution.” The Rurikoji Temple is a national treasure, and Yamaguchi’s winding lanes offer pottery kilns, chic coffee shops and counter-only restaurants.
New Zealand, by train: Road-tripping via camper van is a free-spirited traveler’s dream. But a simpler and more sustainable way to go is by train, which can take you past volcanic peaks, world-class vineyards and dolphin pods.
Only Ladakh in India finds place in this list.
