Saturday, March 07
China’s Belt and Road program is not in retreat, although many have been predicting its untimely demise for some time. Far from shrinking, President Xi Jinping’s signature lending plan is adapting, and in doing so becoming harder to counter. It’s shifting from financing megaprojects to becoming a long-term development partner, particularly for fast-growing economies in the Global South. Washington and its partners cannot afford to be complacent if they want to stay relevant in countries that will drive growth in the future. Fresh data shows China’s new reach. Engagement last year was at its highest since the initiative began in 2013, according to the latest China Belt and Road Initiative Investment Report 2025 from the Queensland-based Griffith Asia Institute. It clocked up $128 bi
Mumbai: Leading Indian drugmakers such as Sun Pharma and Glenmark are exploring the use of AI as a necessary tool to cut the time taken and costs for new drug development. The two drugmakers, in particular, are seeing a growing contribution from their new discovery research programmes in their global revenues as Indian companies see a shifting trend to innovative drugs from generics.Use of AI in pharmaceutical research is already picking up pace across the world. According to Precedence Research, last year global drugmakers invested $6.93 billion in AI for drug discovery, which is expected to swell to $16.5 billion by 2034.Dilip Shanghvi, executive chairman, Sun Pharma, told ET, "We are seriously evaluating how we can get help in terms of expertise which can leverage our capabilities to st
