Design Thinking in Public Service
Public service regulates externalities in the market and provides services for citizens. Yet, as governments develop policies to meet the needs of the public, boundaries between the roles of customers, taxpayers and citizens are increasingly blurred. The growing demands from the public …
Understanding the Emerging Middle Class
Emerging Middle Class (EMC) consumers represent the next driver of demand for multinational companies. Depending on the income definitions used, there are over three billion EMC consumers expected by 2020, with China and India alone accounting for one billion then. EMC consumers …
Sunny outlook for China’s solar leadership
While Germany continues its leadership in new solar technology development, China, the world’s largest energy consumer, has recently achieved a global solar market share of 50%. China has previously used feed-in-tariffs to successfully develop the biggest wind power industry in the world. It …
China’s Great Leap to Green
China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, with carbon emissions that increased by 32.5 per cent between 2006 and 2009. To address this, Beijing has launched an ambitious program to close factories which do not meet emissions targets, develop its …
SE Asia’s race towards clean energy
In the Asia-Pacific region, the SE Asia countries have traditionally been overshadowed by clean energy funds flowing into China and India, but recent developments are putting them into a new investment spotlight. In Nov 2010, Norway’s Renewable Energy Corp (REC) announced the …
Frugal Innovation hits SE Asia’s automotive sector
Asian countries are leading the advance of Frugal Innovation – also known as Constraint-Based Innovation – to tap into the immense potential of its bottom-of-pyramid populations. P&G & Hindustan Unilever first introduced single serve sachets to meet the needs of emerging market consumers …
Tissue engineering for human regeneration
Tissue engineering is emerging as a multidisciplinary field in healthcare which combines biomaterials, engineering design, informatics, medicine, and the life sciences to create biological substitutes that restore, maintain, grow, or improve tissue function or a whole organ. It involves principles such as …
Japan to invest $1.5bn in green cities in Asia
Japan’s Innovation Network Corp of Japan, a public-private network, is financially backing its companies with JPY 130bn to build smart and green cities, communities with low pollution and renewable energies with efficient and clean power supplies, housing, public transport, and water and …
China Makes Nuclear Fuel Breakthrough
Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in spent fuel reprocessing technology that could potentially solve China’s uranium supply problem. The technology, developed and tested at the No.404 Factory of China National Nuclear Corp in the Gobi desert in remote Gansu province, enables …
Siemens Invests in Expanding Wind Power
Siemens got into the wind business only in 2004, when it acquired a maker of wind turbines in Brande, Denmark, which remains the headquarters of the wind unit. In 2009, Siemens acquired Solel, an Israeli company that makes components for plants that …