1.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
2.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
3.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
4.
Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
5.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
6.
Carlos Moedas
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Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas is a Portuguese banker and politician, who studied engineering at university. Moedas was born to a communist journalist and a seamstress at Beja, Alentejo, southern Portugal and he studied at Lisbon University, graduating in 1993 with a degree in Civil Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico. He spent his final year studying at the ENPC via the Erasmus Programme, after leaving university Moedas worked as a project manager for the Suez Group in France between 1993 and 1998. He then took postgraduate studies at Harvard Business School, graduating in 2000 with the degree of MBA, after which he came back to Europe to work in mergers, following the Eurozone crisis, Moedas was appointed coordinator of the Social Democratic Party Economic Research Unit. Moedas was elected to Parliament, becoming the first PSD Member of Parliament for that district since 1995, the day after entering Parliament, on the 21st of June 2011, the Prime Minister appointed him to his Cabinet in the XIX Constitutional Government as Under-Secretary of State. In 2014, Pedro Passos Coelho, Prime Minister of Portugal, nominated him as European Commissioner, on 1 November 2014, Moedas became European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. Following a reshuffle of the Juncker Commission in 2016, he was offered the post of European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society but eventually declined
7.
Soft power
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Soft power is a concept developed by Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ability to attract and co-opt rather than by coercion, using force or giving money as a means of persuasion. Soft power is the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal, a defining feature of soft power is that it is noncoercive, the currency of soft power is culture, political values, and foreign policies. In 2012, Nye explained that with power, the best propaganda is not propaganda, further explaining that during the Information Age. Joseph Nye coined the term in a 1990 book, Bound to Lead, The Changing Nature of American Power. ”He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power, the term is now widely used in international affairs by analysts and statesmen. And in 2014, Xi announced, We should increase Chinas soft power, give a good Chinese narrative, the top ten is completed by the United States, France, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, Netherlands. According to the 2016 Monocle Soft Power Survey, the United States holds the top spot in soft power, the Elcano Global Presence Report scores the European Union highest for soft presence when considered as a whole, and ranks the United States first by sovereign state. It includes China, Russia, Spain and Italy in the top ten, Joseph Nye introduced the concept of soft power in the late 1980s. For Nye, power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want. There are several ways one can achieve this, you can coerce them with threats, you can induce them with payments, or you can attract and this soft power – getting others to want the outcomes you want – co-opts people rather than coerces them. It can be contrasted with hard power, which is the use of coercion, Soft power can be wielded not just by states but also by all actors in international politics, such as NGOs or international institutions. It is also considered the face of power that indirectly allows you to obtain the outcomes you want. A countrys soft power, according to Nye, rests on three resources, its culture, its values, and its foreign policies. In this sense, it is important to set the agenda and attract others in world politics. This soft power – getting others to want the outcomes that you want – co-opts people rather than coerces them, Soft power resources are the assets that produce attraction which often leads to acquiescence. Nye asserts that, Seduction is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights, and individual opportunities are deeply seductive. Angelo Codevilla observed that an often overlooked aspect of soft power is that different parts of populations are attracted or repelled by different things, ideas, images. Soft power is hampered when policies, culture, or values repel others instead of attracting them, the book identifies three broad categories of soft power, culture, political values, and policies. In The Future of Power, Nye reiterates that soft power is a descriptive, rather than a normative, therefore, soft power can be wielded for nefarious purposes
8.
Liverpool
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Liverpool is a major city and metropolitan borough in North West England.24 million people in 2011. Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the south west of the county of Lancashire and it became a borough from 1207 and a city from 1880. In 1889 it became a county borough independent of Lancashire, Liverpool sits on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary and its growth as a major port is paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city was also directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, and was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic and others such as the RMS Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Olympic. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007, and it held the European Capital of Culture title together with Stavanger, Norway, several areas of Liverpool city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2004. The Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock, tourism forms a significant part of the citys economy. Liverpool is also the home of two Premier League football clubs, Liverpool and Everton, matches between the two being known as the Merseyside derby, the world-famous Grand National horse race takes place annually at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The city is home to the oldest Black African community in the country. Natives of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians and colloquially as Scousers, a reference to scouse, the word Scouse has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Pool is a place name element in England from the Brythonic word for a pond, inlet, or pit, cognate with the modern Welsh. The derivation of the first element remains uncertain, with the Welsh word Llif as the most plausible relative and this etymology is supported by its similarity to that of the archaic Welsh name for Liverpool Llynlleifiad. Other origins of the name have suggested, including elverpool. The name appeared in 1190 as Liuerpul, and it may be that the place appearing as Leyrpole, in a record of 1418. King Johns letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, the original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape, Bank Street, Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street, Moor Street, in the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, in 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. Since Roman times, the city of Chester on the River Dee had been the regions principal port on the Irish Sea
9.
Cascais
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Cascais is a coastal town and a municipality in Portugal,30 kilometres west of Lisbon. It is a suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 206,479, in an area of 97.40 square kilometres, the former fishing village gained fame as a resort for Portugals royal family in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Nowadays, it is a vacation spot for both Portuguese and foreign tourists. It is located on the Estoril Coast, in the Greater Lisbon subregion and it has an airport for general aviation serving the Lisbon Region in Tires, the Cascais Aerodrome, that also offers domestic scheduled flights by Aero VIP. It was during the Neolithic that permanent settlements were established in the region, their inhabitants utilizing the natural grottoes, the bodies were buried along with offerings, a practice that continued to the Chalcolithic. Roman dominion over the territory also influenced place names in the region, as was the case with the word Caparide, the development of Cascais began in earnest in the 12th century, when it was administratively subordinate to the town of Sintra, located to the north. In its humble beginnings, Cascais depended on the products of the sea and land, during the 14th century, the population spread outside the walls of its fortress castle. The settlements prosperity led to its independence from Sintra in 1364. On 7 June 1364, the people of Cascais obtained from King Peter I the elevation of the village to the status of town, necessitating the appointment of local judges and administrators. The townspeople were consequently obligated to pay the Crown 200 pounds of gold annually, owing to the regions wealth, these obligations were easily satisfied. The castle of Cascais was likely constructed during this period, since by 1370, King Ferdinand had donated the castle and these privileges were then passed on to his successors, among them João das Regras and the Counts of Monsanto, and later the Marquess of Cascais. Meanwhile, despite its conquest and sack by Castilian forces in 1373, by the end of the 14th century this resulted in the creation of the parishes of Santa Maria de Cascais, São Vicente de Alcabideche and São Domingos de Rana. From the Middle Ages onward, Cascais depended on fishing, maritime commerce, and agriculture producing wine, olive oil, cereals, due to its location at the mouth of the Tagus estuary, it was also seen as a strategic post in the defence of Lisbon. Around 1488, King John II built a fortress in the town. On 15 November 1514, Manuel I conceded a foral to Cascais and it was followed on 11 June 1551 by a license from King John III to institutionalise the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Cascais. The fortress was enlarged towards the end of the 16th century by King Philip I, turning it into a typical Renaissance citadel with the flat profile. Of these structures, the citadel of Cascais, which was constructed alongside the fortress of Nossa Senhora da Luz, in 1755, the great Lisbon earthquake destroyed a large portion of the city
10.
Sheffield
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Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, its derives from the River Sheaf. With some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is 569,700, Sheffield is the third largest English district by population. The metropolitan population of Sheffield is 1,569,000, in the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Known as the Steel City, many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel, Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, the 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield along with other British cities. Sheffields gross value added has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £9.2 billion in 2007, the economy has experienced steady growth averaging around 5% annually, greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber. The city is in the foothills of the Pennines, and the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries, the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin. 61% of Sheffields entire area is space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield is believed to have inhabited since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period. The earliest evidence of occupation in the Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the Brigantes and it is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill forts in and around Sheffield. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira, a Celtic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield. The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, however, date from the half of the first millennium. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, after the Norman conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to protect the local settlements, and a small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city. By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, from 1570 to 1584, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor. During the 1740s, a form of the steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of a better quality of steel than had previously been possible
11.
Government of West Bengal
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It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of West Bengal, a judiciary and a legislative. Like other states in India, the head of state of West Bengal is the Governor and his or her post is largely ceremonial. The Chief Minister is the head of government and is vested with most of the executive powers, Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal, and houses the Vidhan Sabha and the secretariat. The Calcutta High Court is located in Kolkata, which has jurisdiction over the whole of West Bengal, the present Legislative Assembly of West Bengal is unicameral, consisting of 295 Member of the Legislative Assembly including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. Its term is 5 years, unless sooner dissolved, the strength of this council was gradually increased by subsequent acts. Under the Indian Councils Act of 1892, the strength of the council was increased to 20 members out of which seven members were to be elected. After the Indian Councils Act of 1909 the number raised to 50 members, archived from the original on 2006-08-18. Council of Ministers in West Bengal,2016
12.
Yusuff Ali M.A.
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Yusuff Ali M. A. is an Indian businessman from Nattika in Thrissur district of Kerala. He is the Managing Director of Abu Dhabi-headquartered EMKE LuLu Group of companies that owns the Lulu Hypermarket chain in Middle East, with an annual turnover of US $5.5 billion globally, LuLu Group International employs the largest number of Indians outside India. According to Forbes, Yusuff Ali is currently the 24th wealthiest Indian, in 2013, Ali acquired 4. 99% equity in the 93-year-old Thrissur based Catholic Syrian Bank and increased his stake in the Aluva-based Federal Bank to 4.47 per cent. In 2016, Ali purchased the Scotland Yard Building in London, according to 2013, Yusuff Ali hold 9.37 per cent share in Cochin International Airport. Yusuff Ali was born in Thrissur district on November 15,1955 and he completed his schooling from Nattika and moved to Gujarat where he did his diploma in Business Management & Administration. After the studies he left India in 1973 to Abu Dhabi where his uncle, MK Abdullah, the Chairman. He developed the import and wholesale distribution of the group and ventured in to the business by launching Lulu Hypermarket. While the entry of Continent in 1995 changed the face of business in Dubai. The EMKE Group alias LuLu Group International commenced its operations as a business venture. After joining the business, Yusuff Ali diversified the business to import and distribution of frozen products from Europe. The products were not only in Abu Dhabi but also in the interiors of the Emirates too. The business was expanded to include both food & non-food categories. The group also started cold storages, meat and food processing plants, large-scale import and distribution to groups, catering companies. By the 1980s, the group had a share of the wholesale. The Group headquartered in Abu Dhabi has grown into a group with operations spread over three continents. LuLu Shopping Mall in Kochi, Kerala was opened on 10 March 2013 and it is the group’s first retail venture in India and currently the largest shopping mall in India. Another ambitious project in progress is the Riyadh Avenue Mall in Saudi Arabia, the Group has a vast organizational structure of over 35,600 employees, representing 37 different nationalities, out of which more than 28,900 are Indians. Indian operations mainly include Food Processing, Export of Food & Non food products and convention center with bases in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, deloitte has ranked the Group as one of the ten fastest growing retailers in the world
13.
Natalya Kaspersky
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In addition, she is one of the wealthiest women in Russia and one of the most influential figures in the Russian IT industry. Natalya Kasperskaya was born on 5 February 1966 in Moscow into a family of engineers, Natalya was elected as a member of her school pioneer council, and later as a member of the district pioneer headquarters, and was also a Komsomol member and organizer. In the eighth year of her education, Natalya moved from a secondary school to a physics-mathematical school run by the Moscow Aviation Institute. After finishing this school, Natalya passed the exams for the Lomonosov Moscow State University but was not enrolled. However, her results were enough to gain entry into the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics. Later, she also has a degree in business from the Open University in the UK. Natalya started her career in IT at the age of 28 and she believes that all personal data, such as search history, geolocation, contacts, correspondence, photo and video materials, should belong to the State. In September 1994, Natalya became head of a department of AntiViral Toolkit Pro. Revenue was divided between the team and the company until 1997, when the future founders of Kaspersky Lab decided to start their own business. Natalya launched the Kaspersky Lab foundation in June 1997, was key to the naming of the new company, shares in Kaspersky Lab were initially split between Eugene Kaspersky, his two team-mate programmers Alexey De-Monderik and Vadim Bogdanov, and Natalya Kasperskaya. In 1997, Kaspersky Lab sales started to double yearly, with turnover reaching around $7 million in 2001, in August 2007, Natalya was unseated and suspended from her key management functions by Eugene Kaspersky due to the couple’s divorce and the deepening ideological divide between the two. Under Natalya’s supervision, Kaspersky Lab turned into a leading antivirus corporation with a network of offices worldwide. After the change in management, the rate of growth dropped visibly, with global revenue growing by 40% in 2009,13. 7% in 2011, 3% in 2012. In December 2013, a subsidiary called InfoWatch was established to develop, Natalya Kasperskaya has been CEO and majority owner of InfoWatch since October 2007, with her stake in the company being linked to the business separation deal with her ex-husband. Natalya made her main investments in InfoWatch, Kribrum and Nanosemantics co-owned by her and Igor Ashmanov, and G Data Software AG, InfoWatch software had only vague prospects at the time of the spin-off and was an albatross around Kaspersky Lab’s neck. This required a different skill set and approach, with Natalya’s previous experience in management turning out not to be particularly relevant. Nevertheless, in 2012 InfoWatch, which was unprofitable, recorded its first earnings. Among longstanding clients are Russian governmental organizations, as well as Sberbank, Beeline, Lukoil, Tatneft, Surgutneftegas, Sukhoi, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, in addition, InfoWatch is actively developing the German, Middle East, and South-East Asian markets
14.
Rahul Bajaj
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Rahul Bajaj is an Indian businessman, politician and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Indian conglomerate Bajaj Group and member of parliament, Bajaj comes from the business house started by a Rajasthani Marwadi businessman Jamnalal Bajaj. He was awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 2001, Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard Business School in USA, St. Stephens College, Delhi, Government Law College, Mumbai and Cathedral and John Connon School. He took over Bajaj Group in 1965, on the Forbes 2016 list of the worlds billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion. His sons Rajiv Bajaj and Sanjiv Bajaj are involved in the management of his companies and his daughter Sunaina is married to Manish Kejriwal, the former head of Temasek India. Profile at Forbes Interview with Karan Thapar for CNN IBN Lufthansa CNBC TV18 All for this one moment – Interview Rahul Bajaj
15.
Vladimir Yevtushenkov
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Vladimir Petrovich Yevtushenkov is a Russian billionaire business oligarch. He is the majority owner, Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Strategy Committee of Sistema PJSFC, Yevtushenkov has masters degrees in chemistry and economics, and a PhD in economics. Yevtushenkov resigned in 1993 to establish Sistema and he is the major shareholder and Chairman of the Board of the Russian investment holding company Sistema. Yevtushenkov took Sistema public in February 2005, in a $1.35 billion IPO that was Russia’s largest ever at the time, today Sistema is the largest shareholder in MTS, Russias largest telecommunications company. Other major Sistema assets include children’s good retailer Detsky Mir, pulp and paper holding Segezha Group, in 2009, Sistema purchased oil and gas companies in the Republic of Bashkortostan. This would be the foundation of the oil and gas company Bashneft, currently, Yevtushenkov owns 64% of the total conglomerate. In 2014, according to Forbes, he was Russias 15th richest businessman with a fortune of around US$8.3 billion, on the Forbes 2016 list of the worlds billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion. In September 2014 Russian investigators placed Yevtushenkov under house arrest, accusing him of money-laundering in connection with the acquisition of shares in oil producer Bashneft, 72% of Bashnefts shares were owned by Sistema. Sistema said it considered the accusations baseless, in December 2014 as ruled by the Moscow Arbitration Court Bashneft was re-nationalised. Following the return of Bashneft to State ownership, in February 2015 the Moscow Arbitration Court awarded Yevtushenkov’s Sistema RUB70.7 billion in damages from the loss of Bashneft. And in January 2016, all the accusations against him in connection with the acquisition of Bashneft has been dismissed as it was found that no crime had been committed and he is married with two children, and lives in Moscow
16.
Fu Chengyu
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Fu Chengyu is the Chairman of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the largest Asian refiner. He previously worked at the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which foresaw an increase in its profits during his presence. Fu was born in 1951, and is a Chinese citizen of Han ethnicity and he graduated from the Northeastern University, and received a masters degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California. He later studied at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, in December 2014, Fu was named among the most influential people in the shipping industry according to Lloyds List. His early experiences in the oil industry were at the Daqing, Liaohe, in 1994 he became Deputy General Manager of CNOOC Nanhai East Corporation and Vice President of Phillips Asia Inc. A year later he was appointed General Manager of the Xijiang Development Project, the following year Fu was named Vice President of CNOOC and concurrent President of CNOOC Limited. In 2002 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of China Oilfield Services Limited and he became President of CNOOC, Chairman and CEO of CNOOC Limited in 2003. On 16 September 2010, he resigned from his CEO position at CNOOC Limited while keeping the position of Chairman and he finally became the Chairman of the Sinopec Group on April 2011
17.
Sanjiv Goenka
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Sanjiv Goenka is the chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group which has an asset base of over INR32,000 crore. The Group has over 50,000 employees and over a thousand shareholders with annual revenues of up to INR16,000 crore. Besides, he is also the co-owner of ISL football club, the new IPL team, Rising Pune Supergiants is also owned by Sanjiv Goenkas New Rising. Mr. Goenka has been the youngest-ever President of Confederation of Indian Industries, a past Chairman of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, he is also a former President of All-India Management Association. Currently he is Chairman of International Management Institute which has campuses in Delhi, Kolkata, mr Goenka is presently a Member of the National Foundation for Corporate Governance set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. He was also a Member of the CII National Council on Corporate Governance, Sanjiv is the younger son of Rama Prasad Goenka, effective founder of the RPG Group. He grew up in Kolkata and graduated from St. Xavier’s College and he then began assisting his father and elder brother Harsh in running the family business empire. In the mid-1980s, Sanjivs parents arranged for him to marry a girl of suitable family, belonging to his own Agarwal community, and he duly married Preeti. They are now the parents of two children, The Goenka family belongs to the Marwadi community of money-lenders and tradesmen, and hails originally from Rajasthan in western India. As early as the 19th century, a member of the family, Ramdutt Goenka, set up base in Kolkata, which was then the capital of India. The family prospered in its traditional vocations of money-lending and trade and it was in the 1970s that Rama Prasad Goenka leveraged the familys wealth to take over a variety of industries and corporates and thus create a ready-made business conglomerate. In a series of takeovers, RPG acquired such companies relatively cheap and used his financial resources, in this way, by the end of the 20th century, RPG had cobbled together a significant business empire. In 2010, Rama Prasad RP Goenka formally divided his business empire between his two sons, Harsh and Sanjiv, the following major companies fell to Sanjivs share, CESC Limited Spencers Retail Phillips Carbon Black Saregama One part of Harrisons Malayalam. In 2009-10, Sanjiv Goenka became president of the All India Management Association and he was chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Goenka became President of the Confederation of Indian Industry in April 2001, at 41, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, succeeding his father. Goenka is the son of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Groups Chairman Emeritus, Late Dr. Rama Prasad Goenka. They have a daughter, Avarna, and a son, Shashwat, Goenka Is also the owner of IPL team Rising Pune Supergiants. He was criticised for removing M. S. Dhoni as the captain of IPL team
18.
RPG Group
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The RPG Group is an Indian industrial conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was founded by R. P. Goenka in 1979, and initially encompassed the Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute, and Murphy India companies. R. P. Goenka held the title of Chairman Emeritus until his death in 2013, today the RPG Group comprises over fifteen companies in the areas of infrastructure, tyres, technology, and speciality. The conglomerates major companies, subsidiaries and affiliates are divided among the following 4 divisions, CEAT is the flagship company of RPG Enterprises, with an annual turnover of Rs 4822 crore. CEAT Manufactures the largest range of tyres in India and it is the largest exporter of tyres in India, exporting to over 100 countries. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and it has manufacturing plants in Mumbai, Nashik, and Halol. CEAT owns 6 manufacturing plants, as well as 10 outsourcing units for tyres, tubes, and flaps, and 3 dedicated 2-3-wheeler plants controlled by CEAT. Entering the Sri Lankan market in 1992, CEAT India formed a joint venture with AMW and subsequently a three-way venture with Kelani Tyres in 1999, to manufacture and market CEAT tyres in Sri Lanka. This significant venture resulted in the creation of CEAT Kelani Associated Holdings, formerly Kelani Tyres, the exit of AMW in 2009 resulted in a joint venture between CEAT Kelani Holdings and CEAT India. Commencing operations with one plant in Kalutara, the company today has three plants, including a radial plant constructed in 2006, CEAT Kelani is the single largest brand in the radial tyre segment in Sri Lanka, commanding a 20 percent market share. KEC is one of the largest power transmission engineering-procurement-construction companies in the world, the Company has developed power infrastructure in over 45 countries across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, Central Asia, and the Americas. While power transmission is its largest vertical market, the company also has a presence in power systems, cables, railways, telecommunications. In April 2010, the set up the worlds largest tower testing station at Butibori. The new test station will facilitate validation of the largest towers ever designed for the country’s futuristic Extra High Voltage energy network and this acquisition created the second largest steel lattice tower manufacturer in the world with approximately 300,000 tons of annual production capacity. The company is entering the renewable energy business, being set to bid for engineering, procurement and construction contracts to install solar plants. Zensar Technologies is an information technology services and business process outsourcer headquartered in Pune. It offers a range of integrated technology and BPO products. Zensar has a presence in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, South Africa
19.
Aspen Institute
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The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, the institute is headquartered in Washington, D. C. United States, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado and near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay at the Wye River in Maryland and its board of trustees includes leaders from politics, government, business and academia who also contribute to its support. Young-leader fellowships around the globe, which bring together for an intense multi-year program. The fellows become better leaders and apply their skills to major challenges, policy programs, which serve as nonpartisan forums for analysis, consensus building, and problem solving on a variety of issues. Public conferences and events, which provide a commons for people to share ideas, the Institute was largely the creation of Walter Paepcke, a Chicago businessman who had become inspired by the Great Books program of Mortimer Adler at the University of Chicago. Paepcke and Bayer envisioned a place where artists, leaders, thinkers, shortly thereafter, while passing through Aspen on a hunting expedition, Oil industry maverick Robert O. Anderson met with Bayer and shared in Paepckes and Bayers vision. In 1949, Paepcke organized a 20-day international celebration for the 200th birthday of German poet, the celebration attracted over 2,000 attendees, including Albert Schweitzer, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Thornton Wilder, and Arthur Rubinstein. In 1950, Paepcke founded the Aspen Institute, and later the Aspen Music Festival, Paepcke sought a forum where the human spirit can flourish, especially amid the whirlwind and chaos of modernization. He hoped that the Institute could help business leaders recapture what he called eternal verities, the values that guided them intellectually, ethically, inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler’s Great Books seminar at the University of Chicago, Paepcke worked with Anderson to create the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar. In 1951, the Institute sponsored a national photography conference attended by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Berenice Abbott, in 2005, it held the first Aspen Ideas Festival, featuring leading minds from around the world sharing and speaking on global issues. The Institute, along with Atlantic Monthly, hosts the festival annually and it has trained philanthropists such as Carrie Morgridge. Today, the Aspen Institute seminar programs include sessions such as Global Values and Leadership, the Aspen Strategy Group convenes prominent foreign policy and national security experts to consider the important challenges facing the United States. The Business and Society Program is dedicated to developing leaders for a sustainable society and it creates opportunities for executives and educators to explore new pathways to sustainability and values-based leadership. The program hosts the Corporate Values Strategy Group and the Center for Business Education and its websites, CasePlace. org and BeyondGreyPinstripes. org, are used by business schools around the world. The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program promotes dialogue and decision-making in the fields of communications and it convenes leaders to assess the impact of modern communications and information systems and develops new models for communications policy. The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs is a network of organizations that examine entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The networks members provide financing and business services to small
20.
Boao Forum for Asia
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BFA is modeled after the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. It has its address in Boao, Hainan province, China. The forum known as the “Asian Davos”, inherits its name from the town of Boao, located in China’s southern Hainan province, the Forum is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals. Initiated in 1998 by Fidel V, the founding of the BFA was driven by the Peoples Republic of China and founded by 26 Asian and Australasian states on 27 February 2001. The organisation held its first meeting from April 12–13,2002, discussions at the BFA focus on economics, integration, cooperation, society, and the environment. In the past the forum also addressed Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization, the geopolitical strategy Chinas peaceful rise was a topic of discussion for the forum in 2004. In addition to its meeting, the BFA also sponsors other forums. The Boao Forum For Asia Annual Conference 2008 was held on April 10–13,2008 and it was attended by heads of government from countries including Australia, Pakistan, Norway and Kazakhstan. It also saw the meeting of Taiwans Republic of China Vice President-elect Vincent Siew. The Energy, Resources & Sustainable Development Conference for the organisation was held in Perth, the conferences brought together business, industry and political leaders in the region to discuss energy and resource security, development and trade. Bill Gates, George Soros and Christine Lagarde attended, xi Jinping delivered the keynote address. The 2014 forum was held in Hainan, from 8-11 April,2014, Indian business tycoon Mr. Ratan Tata was appointed as a member of the Board of Boao Forum. The post is a distinction for an Indian in the Chinese government-backed influential body
21.
Clinton Foundation
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The Clinton Foundation, and from 2013 to 2015, briefly renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit corporation under section 501 of the U. S. tax code. Its offices are located in New York City and Little Rock, through 2016 the foundation had raised an estimated $2 billion from U. S. corporations, foreign governments and corporations, political donors, and various other groups and individuals. The acceptance of funds from wealthy donors has been a source of controversy, the foundation has won accolades from philanthropy experts and has drawn bipartisan support. Charitable grants are not a focus of the Clinton Foundation. This foundation is an organization to which anyone may donate and is distinct from the Clinton Family Foundation. According to the Foundations website, neither Bill Clinton nor his daughter, Chelsea Clinton, when Hillary Clinton was a board member she, too, received no income from the Foundation. The origins of the foundation go back to 1997, when then-president Bill Clinton was focused mostly on fundraising for the future Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Bill founded the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2001 following the completion of his presidency. Longtime Clinton advisor Bruce Lindsey became the CEO in 2004, later, Lindsey moved from being CEO to being chair, largely for health reasons. Other Clinton hands who played an important early role included Doug Band, additional Clinton associates who have had senior positions at the foundation include John Podesta and Laura Graham. Most of the successes came from Bills worldwide fame and his ability to bring together corporate executives, celebrities. Similarly, the areas of involvement have often corresponded to whatever Bill suddenly felt an interest in. Preceding Barack Obamas 2009 nomination of Hillary Clinton as U. S. Accordingly, by 2011, Chelsea Clinton was taking a dominant role in the foundation and had a seat on its board. To raise money for the Foundation, she gave paid speeches, in 2013, Hillary Clinton joined the foundation following her tenure as Secretary of State. She planned to focus her work on issues regarding women and children, Accordingly, at that point, it was renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Extra attention was paid to the due to the 2016 United States presidential election. In July 2013, Eric Braverman was named CEO of the foundation and he is a friend and former colleague of Chelsea Clinton from McKinsey & Company. At the same time, Chelsea Clinton was named chair of the foundations board. The foundation was also in the midst of a move to two floors of the Time-Life Building in Midtown Manhattan, Chelsea Clinton moved the organization to an outside review, conducted by the firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
22.
Globalization
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Globalization or globalisation is the action or procedure of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Advances in transportation and in telecommunications infrastructure have been factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the connectivity of the worlds economies and cultures grew very quickly. The term globalization is recent, only establishing its current meaning in the 1970s, further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and overfishing of the ocean are linked with globalization. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, academic literature commonly subdivides globalization into three major areas, economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization. The term globalization is derived from the word globalize, which refers to the emergence of a network of economic systems. One of the earliest known usages of the term as a noun was in a 1930 publication entitled Towards New Education, a related term, corporate giants, was coined by Charles Taze Russell in 1897 to refer to the largely national trusts and other large enterprises of the time. By the 1960s, both began to be used as synonyms by economists and other social scientists. Economist Theodore Levitt is widely credited with coining the term in an article entitled Globalization of Markets, However, the term globalization was in use well before this and had been used by other scholars as early as 1981. Levitt can be credited with popularizing the term and bringing it into the mainstream audience in the later half of the 1980s. Due to the complexity of the concept, research projects, articles, sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society. Globalization can be located on a continuum with the local, national and regional, without reference to such expansive spatial connections, there can be no clear or coherent formulation of this term. A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements, extensity, intensity, velocity and it pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on the other side of the world. The ideological dimension, according to Steger, is filled with a range of norms, claims, beliefs and they have also argued that four different forms of globalization can be distinguished that complement and cut across the solely empirical dimensions. According to James, the oldest dominant form of globalization is embodied globalization, a second form is agency-extended globalization, the circulation of agents of different institutions, organizations, and polities, including imperial agents. Object-extended globalization, a form, is the movement of commodities. He calls the transmission of ideas, images, knowledge, and information across world-space disembodied globalization and he asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow. Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined economic globalization as the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital and he used political globalization to refer to the emergence of a transnational elite and a phasing out of the nation-state
23.
Milken Institute
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The Milken Institute is an independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California. It publishes research and hosts conferences that apply market-based principles and financial innovations to social issues in the US, the Institute is a 501 nonprofit organization and is nonpartisan and non-ideological. The institute was founded in 1991 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Michael Milken and it focuses on human capital, financial capital and social capital. The Institute has published studies relating to human capital, access to capital, financial structures and innovations, regional economics, healthcare economics and it hosts a series of conferences including two annual conferences, a variety of financial innovation labs and a series of forums and private events. The Milken Institute Global Conference, first held in 1998, is a forum focused on economic. Speakers include figures from business, finance, government, education, the institute also hosts an annual State of the State Conference, which examines major issues facing the state of California. The Institute operates a series of focused on particular economic. The centers are, The Asia Center, The California Center, The Israel Center, The Center for Financial Markets, notable reports include, An Unhealthy America, The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease. This report was updated with Checkup Time, Chronic Disease and Wellness in America, the Future of Higher Education and How America Will Pay For It. Milken Family Foundation The Milken Institute website
24.
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
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Each year, more than 4,000 people from over 60 different countries take part. The key purpose of the Forum is to provide a tool for business, helping to overcome the barriers. The Forum welcomed more than 1,500 attendees from 50 countries, the Russian and Belarusian governments signed credit agreements worth RUB500 billion. An investment contribution was provided by Leningrad Region. Petersburg, and recommended that the St. Petersburg Economic Forum International Foundation be allocated the required funding, until 2004, the SPIEF Organizing Committee consisted of the Council of the Federation and the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the CIS. In 2005, President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the Forum for the first time, through his participation, the forum attained the informal status of a presidential event. In 2006 the President of Russia announced his support for the proposal of the Russian government to hold an annual forum in St. Petersburg. Under the auspices of the ministry, the current format of SPIEF is more of a successor to its previous incarnation than its continuation, Sergei Mironov was made Co-chairman of the Organizing Committee, which he held until his departure from the Council of the Federation in mid-2011. The Forum was then restructured under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, since 2006, SPIEF had been held at the Lenexpo Exhibition Complex, situated on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg. Prior to this, the Forum was held at the Tauride Palace, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum Foundation was established in March 2007 to deal with the organizational and technical aspects of running the forum. Anton Troyanov was appointed Director of the Foundation, the first Forum in the updated format was held in 2007, organized by the SPIEF Foundation under the leadership of the Organizing Committee. The same year a partnership between the World Economic Forum and SPIEF was announced, on January 25,2007, St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and World Economic Forum representatives met in Davos to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation between the WEF and the SPIEF. In 2007, Herman Gref left his post at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development to take a position at Sberbank of Russia, as a result, the Organizing Committee became headed by Elvira Nabiullina, who was appointed to the post of Minister of Economic Development that same year. On January 22,2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree to form a new SPIEF Organizing Committee, at the same time, the Russian government was instructed to set aside a budget to finance the preparation and running of the Forum. Herman Gref was appointed Co-Chair of the new Organizing Committee, since 2008, Sberbank of Russia has remained the Forums largest sponsor. Between 2008 and 2011, the Forum was held with the participation of Dmitry Medvedev in his capacity as President of Russia, at that time, Vladimir Putin served as Prime Minister. During one government meeting, Prime Minister Putin expressed disappointment at his colleagues who took part in the Forum, at the same time, Vladimir Putins comment came following a statement by Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeyev, and was not addressed directly to one particular person. In April 2009, Alexander Stuglev was appointed Director of the SPIEF Foundation, Alexander Stuglevs post also means he is automatically included in the Organizing Committee
25.
Asian Leadership Conference
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The Asian Leadership Conference is an annual international conference hosted in Seoul, South Korea, by the The ChosunIlbo, a major Korean daily newspaper. The inaugural conference was in March 2005, the conference addresses important issues in Asia and the world. The conference has hosted over one hundred and fifty speakers and over one thousand guests, the inaugural conference was convened after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with the theme, Cooperation and Rebuilding after the Tsunami. The ChosunIlbo proposed that South Korea, after overcoming extreme poverty and political turmoil, Korea needed to be a model and provide the vision for future development. While the conference was initially a forum for Asian issues, it developed into an international event finding commonality in political, economic, the conference of 19 to 20 May 2015 was held at the Shilla Hotel, Seoul, Korea. The main theme was Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Future referring to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 70th anniversary of Korean independence. H. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All, Murayama Tomiichi, Former Prime Minister of Japan, Jack Ma, the conference of March 2014, was titled One Korea, New Asia. It examined Asian regional security, the integration of the Koreas, the conference agenda included, Envisioning a Unified Korea, Asia’s Turning Point, New Order in the Asia-Pacific and Seeking a New Engine for Creative Growth. In 2014, George W. Bush attended, julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, Lothar De MaizÈre, Prime Minister of East Germany, Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary General of ASEAN, Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense of the United States. ALC2013 was convened on a background of turmoil from the 2008 global financial crisis, ALC2013 kept the tab-ference initiative that began with the ALC2012. ALC2013 also continued its partnership with Table for 2, One percent of registration fees were to be donated to the International Vaccine Institute to help treat cholera. ALC2012 was held from 6 to 7 March 2012 at the Shilla Hotel, the main theme of the conference was Capitalism 4.0, Searching for Post Crisis Solutions. Over 40 speakers and 900 guests attended, discussion focussed on topics such as the global financial crisis, social welfare, and CSR. ALC2012 was the worlds first tab-ference, a paper-free conference conducted entirely through tablet PC, ALC2012 was a joint venture with Table for 2 an international entity that seeks to reduce obesity in developed countries and malnutrition in third world countries through a calorie transfer program. The Shilla hotel, which was catering the conference, reduced the meal to ten to fifteen grams of food per serving for approximately one US dollar per serve, money saved on the conference meal was donated to feed children in developing countries. The conference also featured a session for university students called the Chosun Talk. One hundred university students were chosen through a competition at the official conference website. Each speaker spent approximately twenty-five minutes giving motivational speeches and answering students’ questions, the 2012 key note speakers were, Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
26.
TED (conference)
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TED is a media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan ideas worth spreading. TED was founded in February 1984 as a conference, which has been held annually since 1990. TEDs early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural. The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, prior to 2014, the conference was held in Long Beach. TED events are held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. They address a range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative, TEDs current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson. Since June 2006, TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, as of March 2016, over 2,400 TED Talks are freely available on the website. In June 2011, TED Talks combined viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, not all TED Talks are equally popular, however. Those given by academics tend to be watched more online while art, TED was conceived in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the community, like Nicholas Negroponte. The event was unsuccessful, it took six years before the second conference was organized. In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur, Andersons UK media company Future bought TED. And in November 2001, Andersons non-profit The Sapling Foundation acquired TED from Future for £6m, in February 2002, Anderson gave a TED Talk in which he explained his vision of the conference and his future role of curator. Wurman left after the 2002 conference, in 2006, attendance cost was $4,400 per person and was by invitation only. The membership model was shifted in January 2007 to a membership fee of $6,000, which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools. The 2017 conference will be $8,500 per attendee, in 2014, the conference was relocated to Vancouver. TED is currently funded by a combination of revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees
27.
The Conference Board
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The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501 non-profit business membership and research group organization. It counts approximately 1,200 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, the Conference Board convenes conferences and peer-learning groups, conducts economic and business management research, and publishes several widely tracked economic indicators. The organization was founded in 1916 as the National Industrial Conference Board, at the time, tensions between labor and management in the United States were seen as potentially explosive in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 and the Ludlow Massacre in 1914. After additional crisis meetings, the National Industrial Conference Board was officially founded May 5,1916, at the Hotel Gramatan in Bronxville, although many of the organizations’ founders—including former AT&T president Frederick P. Fish and General Electric executive Magnus W. Its recommendations—based on cooperation between representatives of employers, employees, and government—were adopted in full, during and after the war, the NCIB conducted pioneering research into workers compensation laws and the eight-hour workday, and established the U. S. The organization today remains funded by the contributions of members, often Fortune 500 companies, by the 1930s, however, it had already lost most of its character as an industry lobby. Unions soon joined the NICB alongside corporations for access to its research, conferences, the organization is now considered an unbiased “trusted source for statistics and trends, second only to perhaps the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”. After World War II, The Conference Board—the shortened name adopted in 1970—expanded to non-U. S, today, it has offices in Brussels, Beijing, Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The Conference Board of Canada was spun off as an independent non-profit in 1981, the Conference Board publishes a number of regular indicators for United States and international economies that are widely tracked by investors and policy makers. Consumer Confidence Index – Begun by The Conference Board in 1967, results from the household survey are tabulated to provide a barometer of the U. S. economy. In December 1995, The Conference Board took over the business indicator program from the government and continues to publish leading, coincident, and trailing indexes for the U. S. economy each month. It also helps business executives sharpen their short- to medium-term hiring, the monthly data series compares labor supply against demand to determine the tightness of the job market for individual metro areas and occupation categories. The online program is the successor of the Help Wanted Advertising Index, CEO Confidence Survey – The quarterly Measure of CEO Confidence gauges the outlook of chief executives in their own industries and the economy as a whole. The organization also releases regular global and regional growth outlooks and commentaries on economic news, in 2008, The Conference Board named Professor Bart van Ark of the University of Groningen as its first non-U. S. In addition to reports, The Conference Board organizes conferences, leadership events. Economy & Business Environment including economic indicators, consumer dynamics, innovation, human Capital including diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, analytics, labor markets, and strategic workforce planning. The Conference Board also published a magazine of ideas and opinion, which was called Across the Board from 1976 to 2006 and The Conference Board Review until June 2014, many of these recommendations have been adopted. In 2009, The Conference Board convened a task force on executive compensation, in February 2012, The Conference Board launched The Demand Institute in collaboration with Nielsen
28.
World Economic Forum
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The World Economic Forum is a Swiss nonprofit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva. The Forum is best known for its meeting at the end of January in Davos. The meeting brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international leaders, economists. Often this location alone is used to identify meetings, participation, and participants with such phrases as, a Davos panel, beside meetings, the foundation produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector specific initiatives. The forum was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva and he then founded the WEF as a nonprofit organization based in Geneva and drew European business leaders to Davos for the annual meetings each January. Political leaders soon began to use the meeting as a neutral platform. The Davos Declaration was signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey, in 1992, South African President F. W. de Klerk met with Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the annual meeting, their first joint appearance outside South Africa. At the 1994 annual meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat reached an agreement on Gaza. In late 2015, the invitation was extended to include a North Korean delegation for the 2016 forum, in view of positive signs coming out of the country, North Korea has not been attending the WEF since 1998. In 2017, the World Economic Forum in Davos attracted considerable attention when for the first time and he sharply rebuked the current populist movements that would introduce tariffs and hinder global commerce, warning that such protectionism could foster isolation and reduced economic opportunity. Headquartered in Cologny, the forum also has offices in New York, Beijing, on October 10,2016, the Forum announced the opening of its new Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco. The World Economic Forum strives to be impartial and is not tied to any political, partisan, the foundation is committed to improving the State of the World. Until 2012, it had observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the foundations highest governance body is the foundation board. During its annual meeting, more than 2,500 participants from slightly fewer than 100 countries gather in Davos, approximately 1,500 are business leaders, drawn from its members,1,000 of the worlds top companies. The foundation is funded by its 1,000 member companies and these enterprises rank among the top companies within their industry and/or country and play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry and/or region. Membership is stratified by the level of engagement with forum activities, with the level of membership fees increasing as participation in meetings, projects, and initiatives rises. As of 2011, an annual membership costs $52,000 for a member, $263,000 for Industry Partner. An admission fee costs $19,000 per person, in 2014, WEF raised annual fees by 20 percent, making the cost for Strategic Partner from SFr500,000 to SFr600,000
29.
World Social Forum
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The World Social Forum is explicit about not being a representative of all of those who attend and thus does not publish any formal statements on behalf of participants. It tends to meet in January at the time as its great capitalist rival. This date is consciously picked to promote their alternative answers to world problems in opposition to the World Economic Forum. 2) The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localized in time, 3) The World Social Forum is a world process. All the meetings that are held as part of this process have an international dimension and they are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity will prevail as a new stage in world history. 6) The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No one, therefore, will be authorized, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, neither party representations nor military organizations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity. 10) The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. The World Social Forum first met in 2001, but it had its roots in Latin American activism, namely the encuentro, a meeting which emphasizes dialogue and exchange of ideas among activists. One of the originators of the World Social Forum, Oded Grajew, of the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility, said in an interview with InMotion Magazine in 2004, Then I had the idea. Why not create the World Social Forum, as we have the World Economic Forum, why not have the World Social Forum -- the social is more important than the economic -- to have a space to show that we can have an alternative. This is not the way you can see the world. We have another way to see it, and, at the same time, force people to look, to make a choice. What is your vision of the world, the assertion that another world is possible is now an absolute necessity. The WSF was sponsored, in part, by the Porto Alegre government, the town was experimenting with an innovative model for local government which combined the traditional representative institutions with the participation of open assemblies of the people. 12,000 people attended from around the world, at the time, Brazil was also in a moment of transformation that later would lead to the electoral victory of the PT candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The second WSF, also held in Porto Alegre from 31 January to 5 February 2002, had over 12,000 official delegates representing people from 123 countries,60,000 attendees,652 workshops, and 27 talks
