Global Stories

CSR has gained a lot of attention in recent years at a global level. The humanitarian image that it is associated with has attracted marketers of big corporates. With the alignment of a social cause or public service endeavour with a company’s core beliefs and ethics, CSR helps in building a brand identity beyond...

By Haoyu Huang One of the regions people don’t usually think of related to extremism is Southeast Asia. Yet, extremism is prevalent there, and like many other types of extremism, it is rooted in religious and ethnic challenges. When people talk about Thailand, they often think about peaceful beaches, Buddhism, and even rice fields. Although these...

Only about 10% of banks and finance institutions in the world view climate change as an issue that can have either a positive or negative impact on their balance sheets. In January 2019, the Bank of England, with the assistance of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, set up a joint climate risk...

By Gabriel M. Piccillo The international community is concerned about stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects, and the knock-on effects on regional stability, and international tranquility. 25 years of diplomatic initiatives have failed to bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. In 1991, at the Madrid Peace Conference, the two sides met and negotiated in person for the...

Climate change is a rising concern for all the people across the globe. This has called upon bolder climate actions by governments, businesses and investors. In fact, people have become conscious of the choice of the products they use based on their sustainability in its production and post usage phase. While the current pace and...

The UN, tech giants, and the policy, finance and science communities today teamed up to launch major new pushes on using cutting-edge technology to create cleaner, greener and more efficient solutions to sustainable development. Key figures from these sectors are joining civil society representatives in Nairobi at the second UN Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment,...

UN Environment launched in March 2019 a new tool that allows countries to see “hotspots” of unsustainable practices in consumption and production. The tool, known as the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool, is an online application that analyses the environmental and socio-economic performance of 171 countries over the past 25 years to provide...

August 2018 saw the launch by New York-based Village Marketing of the first Instagram-centric apartment. The 2,400-square-foot SoHo space, which is decked out with plush sofas in millennial pink, gold and cream leather stools and cushion-strewn four-poster beds, was conceived as a place for influencers to stage photoshoots. However, the launch was greeted with...

Masculinity has been often portrayed with sexism, violence and aggression. This flawed image of what it is to be a man has been circulating in major ad films and short films across the world. Most of the male grooming brands feature conventionally attractive men dressed in fancy clothes who get away with sexist or...

Research collective Synflux has developed a system of digitised couture that reduces the amount of fabric needed to make clothes by creating garments that exactly fit the wearer's body. Called Algorithimic Couture, the project was presented at Design Indaba last month and involves 3D-scanning a body to determine its exact proportions, which are used to...

Food waste is a global issue that poses a plethora of challenges at humanitarian, environmental and economic levels. However, the threat that it actually poses is often overlooked or underrated. The people working in the hospitality industry witness a large amount of food that gets wasted each day by the hotels alone. While the...

According to a report by the World Health Organisation, there are about 56 million people suffering from depression and 38 million people suffering from anxiety disorders in India. Despite such a huge number of people suffering from mental illnesses, the issue is not addressed very well in the country. With rising awareness about the issue,...