Economic Times: “Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Dahej and Dholera in Gujarat. Manesar in Haryana, Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and Shendra-Bidkin and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. These new Gurgaons are promising to be new industrial and population hubs, taking away the pressure from overcongested New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad. Urban planning and development experts believe these new satellite cities that tap into the overflow from abutting megacities could be the real answer to India’s urban woes.”
NYTimes: “Leadership is an action, not a title. And many of our leaders are paralyzed by broken, perverse incentives that impair their abilities to fulfill institutional missions and mandates. Paradoxically, many leaders feel that any reduction in their visibility brings with it a promise of reward. Increasingly, I worry that well-intentioned boards of directors are selecting rising leaders for safety, appointing executives who have assiduously avoided controversy rather than those most adept at managing it. Then, they counsel toward caution, not conscience…Effective leadership requires managing nuance and complexity, seeing all sides of an issue from the perspective of every stakeholder, and then setting a course, and communicating with clarity, consistent with common values.”
WSJ: “There’s an art to crafting the perfect email intro. Dewane, the Chicago architect who’s orchestrated thousands of introductions, is constantly scanning his mental Rolodex for pairs of contacts who can solve each other’s problems. He usually gets preapproval to reach out from both parties, then turns to his formula. There’s two paragraphs—one for each person. He describes what they do, why he thought of them, and how they’re perfect to connect on this particular thing. He includes hyperlinks to both LinkedIn profiles. And he always puts the person who stands to gain more from the interaction last, queuing them up to initiate contact. “I get kind of paranoid if intros just hang there,” he says. If there’s a big difference in power between the two people, he choreographs the thread even more intricately.”
Daren Acemoglu: “Technological transitions, such as the shift to agriculture or the Industrial Revolution, have always been pivotal moments requiring adaptation and choice. During these transitions, societies make critical choices about how to utilise new technologies, and these choices shape their future trajectory. The current age of AI presents a similar opportunity and requires careful consideration of its potential benefits and risks…While human innovation, creativity, and state capacity remain crucial, the specific skills needed in the 21st century are evolving. Generative AI is likely to automate certain tasks, reducing the value of skills related to information processing, retrieval, and certain types of manual labour. However, human creativity and flexibility will remain central.”
WSJ: “There is one idea that encapsulates the approach to innovation that makes all of it possible—and it’s maybe the closest thing to a grand unified theory of Apple. It’s a philosophy of just four words that describe Apple’s past, present and definitely its future. Four words that help explain why this was the year the company plowed into spatial computing and artificial intelligence. During one of those epochal years when it feels like everything is about to change again, I heard them over and over, in conversation with Apple executives and Cook himself: Not first, but best.”
