Opinion

  Bhavani Castro SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently embarked on an impressive five-nation tour that included countries as diverse as Afghanistan and Mexico. Modi’s international travels have rendered fruitful results, bolstering diplomatic ties and giving India more visibility in the international community. The six-day tour included visits to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the United States, and …

  Anushka Wijesinha SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Sri Lanka is in an enviable location. The busy East-West shipping route passes just six to ten nautical miles south of the island. More than 60,000 ships ply this route annually, carrying two-thirds of the world’s oil and half of all container shipments. Sri Lanka is also at the doorstep of a dynamic …

An iOS app called Prisma has been taking 10 post-Soviet nations by storm, reaching the No. 1 spot in app stores in record time. At first glance, the software does nothing special: It’s a collection of image filters that make photos look like paintings. But the technology is far more complex and troubling: It uses artificial intelligence to completely “repaint” …

  The doomsday narrative of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Bank of England and their official friends around the world is setting a course for a self-fulfilling financial panic. They insist that the British economy will be permanently poorer and global markets will be roiled if the British public votes to leave the European Union in a referendum on …

  Here’s what the world could look like on June 24 if the “Leave” camp won the previous day’s referendum on whether the U.K. should continue to be part of the European Union: The foreign exchange markets are in turmoil, with the pound falling 7 percent to 10 percent and the euro down about 3 percent to 5 percent. Stocks …

  World Refugee Day, which is observed on June 20 every year, yet again highlighted the plight of migrants worldwide amid gruesome UN reports the number of refugees and others fleeing their homes worldwide has hit a new record of 65.3 million people by the end of 2015. “This is the first time that the threshold of 60 million has …

  Casey Michel SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS For the past year, there’s been a distinct distance between the rhetoric surrounding the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade (CASA-1000) project and the unfurling realities on the ground. Regional officials, most especially within Tajikistan and Pakistan, have heaped continued praise on the project, and have found themselves supported by voices …

  A few weeks ago, Apple’s Tim Cook was all smiles as he stepped into a sedan operated by Didi Chuxing. Apple had just invested $1 billion in the ridesharing company, and Cook was no doubt feeling satisfied. But he was probably feeling another emotion too: relief at getting a piece of China’s “internet of vehicles” before it’s too late. …

  James D.J. Brown SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS On May 6, 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. This was a bold move by the Japanese leader, as it was seen as breaking ranks with the G7’s policy of isolating Russia in response to the 2014 annexation of Crimea. U.S. President …

  The political context around Hillary Clinton has changed. Until now, complaints about her have pervaded public commentary, usually with a predictable refrain. In a May podcast, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart couldn’t find much good to say about the next leader of the Democratic Party. He imagined Hillary Clinton, he said, “to be a very bright woman without …