It has been roughly four decades since industrial robots - with mechanical arms that can be programmed to weld, paint and pick up and place objects with monotonous regularity - first began to transform assembly lines in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Yet walk the floor of any manufacturer, from metal shops to electronics factories, and you might be surprised by how many tasks are still performed by human hands - even some that could be done by machines.
Free-market capitalism says that the only purpose of business is to create shareholder value and that the unfettered market can regulate itself. In the last 30 years, that definition changed to, "the only purpose of business is to create shareholder value measured by short-term results and with little or no regulation."
The widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) could eliminate the more than 30,000 annual U.S. road fatalities, improve travel time by as much as 40 percent, recover up to 80 billion hours lost to commuting and congestion, and reduce fuel consumption by as much as 40 percent.
Speaking at this year's International Union of Marine Insurance conference in Berlin, Simon Williams, chairman of IUMI's offshore energy committee, reported continuous growth in the sector with 2015 capacity reaching around $7bn, although he cautioned that $5.5bn was more realistic.
Which cities in China have the most dynamic economies and why? The Milken Institute’s inaugural Best-Performing Cities China Report seeks to identify the urban areas with the most exceptional economic performance in the country.
Six companies dominate the business of farm supplies. The interest of Monsanto, the world's biggest seed producer, in buying Syngenta, the largest agrochemicals firm, had threatened to whittle them down to five. That raised worries about whether the reduction in competition would mean less innovation - and thus slower improvements in crop yields - as well as higher costs for farmers.