1) Now we have
drones doing something good for the world. The startup, Biocarbon Engineering,
makes and uses drones to plant trees and grasses at abandoned mines in
Australia and on sites in other parts of the world.
The project began in
2012, after the government began opening the country’s borders to international
business. More than six million trees have been planted so far, and the
nonprofit plans to plant another four million by the end of 2019. But it also
recognizes that humans can’t easily cover the amount of land that could
potentially be restored.
2) By 2025, China’s
leaders want annual sales of new-energy vehicles –- including pure-battery
electrics, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars -- to reach 7 million units.
That’s the equivalent of about 20 percent of China’s total auto market.
There
are now 486 EV manufacturers registered in China, more than triple
the number from two years ago. While sales of passenger EVs are projected to
reach a record 1.6 million units this year, that’s likely not enough to keep
all those assembly lines humming, prompting warnings that the ballooning EV
market could burst and leave behind only a few survivors.
A study made for
Europe says India has the highest levels of small particulate-matter pollution
(PM2.5)
globally, according to the WHO, and is home to 16 of the 30 most-polluted
cities in the world. A Lancet report from 2018 found that air pollution in
India causes about 1.2
million early deaths a year. Reducing pollution will have profound
impact on life-expectancy and lower healthcare costs. Yet, unfortunately, no
political party talks about it in an election year.
4) A wonderfully
detailed look at platform businesses.
Though they come in
many varieties, platforms all have an ecosystem with the same basic structure,
comprising four types of players. The owners of platforms control their
intellectual property and governance. Providers serve as the platforms’
interface with users. Producers create their offerings, and consumers use
those offerings.
To understand how
the rise of platforms is transforming competition, we need to examine how
platforms differ from the conventional “pipeline” businesses that have
dominated industry for decades. Pipeline businesses create value by controlling
a linear series of activities—the classic value-chain model. Inputs at one end
of the chain (say, materials from suppliers) undergo a series of steps that
transform them into an output that’s worth more: the finished product.
Apple’s
handset business is essentially a pipeline. But combine it with the App Store,
the marketplace that connects app developers and iPhone owners, and you’ve got
a platform.
5) If you want to
understand where China is heading, the best guide may be private equity veteran
Weijian Shan. His take on his country’s current economic predicament: Its
slowdown has only just begun, but its long-term health looks sound.
The first of two
immediate problems, he says, is a severe contraction in credit. “Two years ago,
the government started cracking down on the ‘shadow banking’ network that
provided most of the credit to the private sector,” he says, adding that
private enterprise is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in
China. Beijing was worried that trust companies and other lenders in the
“shadow” system were dangerously over-extended, and the motley group might
crash, hobbling the economy.
The second
deadweight is the trade dispute with the U.S. “The direct impact on business is
small,” he says. “But the impact on business confidence is large. The dispute
is hitting confidence among Chinese producers, and discouraging them from
investing.”
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