The mobile phone is a great democratic technology: it will play a decisive role in providing universal access to telecommunications. New voice and data connections, made possible by affordable, accessible mobile phones, mean more opportunities for trade and wealth creation. Central and eastern Europe is a region with rapidly-rising mobile penetration: subscriptions rose 25% in…

Contrary to popular belief, Islam is well suited to economic, social and personal development, says Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as long as we interpret it correctly There is a popular view, especially in the West, that Islam has not come to terms with the modern world. This view holds that whereas Christianity “secularized” itself and shed…

In the past year or so natural disasters of biblical proportions have been visited on the world. Maria Ahmed asks whether these are random events, or has mankind had a hand in them? Natural disasters have caused massive death and destruction over the past year or so. In December 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed…

Long before today’s dating scene, Ovid had compelling, if cynical, advice on seduction, says Roy Gibson The American bestseller The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss caused a minor sensation last year by offering its male readers a detailed set of strategies to “get laid”. Almost two millennia ago, a…

Technology and cooperation are key to global data security, says Christopher Rodrigues In the time it takes to read this sentence, Visa’s worldwide payments network will have processed more than 3,000 transactions. By 2010, the Visa network will be processing about 160 million payments, valued at more than $12 billion, on any given day. Some…

American private equity firms have expanded overseas, to the benefit of themselves and their hosts, says David Rubenstein. But that process will reverse, and America will have to be ready In less than two decades, private equity has grown from a small and local form of investment to a gigantic business with brand-name firms, possessing…

The insurance industry can help to protect communities like that of New Orleans, says James Schiro, but it needs stable laws to do so In the past 14 months, the world had to cope with natural catastrophes on an unprecedented scale. It began with the tsunami at the end of 2004, followed by floods in…

Creativity has been described as the ability to connect the seemingly unconnected. And, as we gather to look at what 2006 holds and to shape the global agenda, it is this ability that joins us in the common cause of trying to make sense of a rapidly-changing world. It is this creativity in pursuit of…

Manmohan Singh pledges to create an environment conducive to private enterprise so as to secure prosperity for all Indians Angus Madison, a Cambridge historian, has estimated that in 1700 India and China each had a share of world income of about 23%, about the same as Europe’s. By 1950, Europe’s had increased to around 30%,…