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Bangkok Post
10 hours ago
- Business
- Bangkok Post
Thailand should author AI models
The 2025 Global Human Development Report delivers a sobering message: the world is experiencing an unprecedented slowdown in human development, with traditional pathways to progress, now being stalled. This stagnation comes on the cusp of an artificial intelligence revolution, dubbed the "new electricity" for the sheer breadth of its potential. Will Thailand seize the opportunity of an AI-powered renaissance, or slip towards a future of AI-deepened inequality? Thailand has been in relative strength, ranking 76th out of 193 countries in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s annual Human Development Index. Its HDI value of 0.798 places the kingdom in the "High Human Development" category. In terms of the country's commitment to sustainability, on the measurement called the Planetary Pressures-Adjusted HDI, Thailand scores 0.726. This is the highest in Asean, and only slightly behind Japan and South Korea. Thailand also stands out on gender metrics: the HDI for women (0.807) is higher than for men (0.798), a rare HDI trend globally. Women in Thailand outperform men in life expectancy and expected years of schooling, though income and education gaps remain. Thailand's progress, however, is eclipsed by persistent inequality. Thailand's HDI score loses a stark 15% of its value when inequality is taken into consideration. The wealthiest 1% of deposit account holders in Thailand control nearly two-thirds of bank deposits. The top 5% of landowners hold 80% of all land. These statistics are compounded by an education gap. While students are expected to spend over 15 years in school, on average, the actual number of years is closer to nine, with many students exiting the system early due to economic hardship or other challenges. AI could help reduce the education inequality in Thailand by offering flexible pathways for learning and skill development. Re-imagining education is just one example of how AI could reshape societies, just as the invention of the wheel, the light bulb, GPS, vaccines and the smartphone have done before. This year's Human Development Report from UNDP examines what distinguishes this new era of AI from previous transformations, including digital transformations, and what those differences could mean for human development. UNDP advocates a "People First" approach. We call on countries to create the conditions for AI to serve everyone, especially marginalised groups. For this to work, the metrics for AI's success in Thailand must extend beyond economic efficiency or GDP growth; the country's AI policies must feature inclusivity, equitable access and citizens' well-being. The National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council sees AI as pivotal for national competitiveness and sustainable growth. The Thai government, through initiatives like the prime minister-chaired National AI Committee and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation's plans to establish Thailand as an AI hub in Asean, clearly signal its commitment to leveraging AI for national competitiveness and advancement. AI presents Thailand with both opportunities and risks. AI can act as a "force multiplier", augmenting human capabilities in health and education and fostering a "complementarity economy" in which humans and AI work together, or significant risks could turn AI into a source of division. The digital divide remains stark in the country. With very low internet use among Thais aged 76 and above, Thailand's ageing society might be excluded from AI-driven services. The "cultural distance" of AI presents a significant challenge: AI models trained on Western data are not culturally neutral and may offer misaligned solutions for Thailand. Gender biases could become an obstacle as women make up only a third of Stem graduates in Thailand, and the creators of AI are predominantly male. Thailand also has an innovation gap and priority. For example, assistive technologies tend to cater to commercial consumption rather than Thailand's ageing population and people with disabilities. To counter these risks, Thailand should not just adopt AI; the country should author it. The future of AI in Thailand depends on the choices we make. The UNDP 2025 Human Development Report: Whose Tech? Our Choices places this responsibility squarely on this generation -- on us. Thailand can steer AI to be the next great accelerant of shared prosperity by following three rules of thumb: 1. Build a complimentary economy: The country's AI policy must help workers, not replace them. This requires immediate investment in mass re-skilling and up-skilling programmes through a united front. 2. Guide innovation with real intent: The country must create AI that can be used in Thai and other relevant languages. The policy must also prioritise assistive technologies. 3. Invest in human capacity: An AI-ready nation needs an AI-ready population. This starts with closing the gap between expected and actual years of schooling and cultivating digital literacy, creativity and critical thinking across society. It means closing the Stem gender gap and the digital divide for the elderly and marginalised through an all-of-society effort. AI is a development wildcard. Whether it can be successful for Thailand, as for the rest of the world, depends less on what AI can do and more on the power of our collective imagination to make the most of it.
Express Tribune
18 hours ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
The business of money: who pays for development?
Listen to article At the heart of development lies a simple yet unresolved question: how do we finance a fairer future? Today, the business of money is failing those who need it the most. There are five years remaining in the 2030 Agenda with fewer than 20 per cent of SDG targets on track. The 2024/25 Human Development Report warns that decades of progress, reflected in the Human Development Index, have flatlined, with no clear recovery from the blows dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent crises. With deep cuts and reductions from traditional donors, along with rising, but still aspirational funding possibilities from non-traditional donors, philanthropies and the private sector, development needs still face a widening financing gap at a time of fiscal stress uncertainty. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country's external debt stock reached around $271 billion as of March 2025. Debt servicing has nearly tripled over the past 15?years – from $4.5?billion in FY2008-09 to $14.7?billion in FY2023-24. The recently announced FY2025-26 federal budget allocates nearly $28.9?billion to debt servicing, amounting to almost half of total federal expenditures. In contrast, development spending is budgeted at just $3.5?billion. This sharp disparity highlights the deep fiscal compression Pakistan faces and the urgent trade-offs between stabilisation and investment. The tension between austerity, fiscal reform and stabilisation, investment, and growth has never been more acute. For these new uncharted development financing waters, the question is not if we need more financing; it is where it will come from, and how will it be blended and deployed for maximum effectiveness. Globally, resources exist. But with the traditional aid paradigm rapidly changing, the misalignment between development needs and resources is hard to ignore. For example, the UNDP SDG Finance Hub estimates that $4.2 trillion annually is required to bridge the development financing gap and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. With global private wealth exceeding $460 trillion, redirecting just 1 per cent could bridge the divide. As the world prepares for the fourth international Financing for Development Conference (FFD4) in June 2025, a growing consensus is needed: a new, integrated, inclusive development finance architecture is required that puts people and results at the centre, and crowds in more investors. For Pakistan, aligned with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Reform and Economic Transformation Plan, the way forward will require renewed fiscal discipline, stronger domestic resource mobilisation, and bold policy reform. It will also require a shift from transactional support to transformational capital. Encouragingly, local innovations are showing the way, many of which are profiled in the latest issue of Development Advocate Pakistan: The Business of Money – a flagship quarterly publication by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Pakistan. The Government of Punjab's pioneering Integrated Financing Strategy places climate finance, private-sector engagement, and impact investing at the heart of provincial development planning. UNDP's Insurance and Risk Finance Facility is helping to build the foundations of a national risk financing ecosystem, one that protects both vulnerable people and public finances. There are also signs of growing investor confidence. In early 2025, the State Bank of Pakistan launched its first Shariah-compliant Green Sukuk. Initially valued at over $100 million, the instrument was oversubscribed five-fold, underscoring strong appetite for climate-smart investments. This momentum is reinforced by the State Bank's draft National Green Taxonomy, released in February 2025, which sets out clear criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Once adopted, it is expected to improve transparency, build investor trust, and direct public and private capital toward the estimated $348 billion required for climate mitigation and adaptation by 2030. Pakistan's venture capital market, while volatile, remains a space of enormous potential. Between 2015 and 2024, Pakistani startups raised approximately $1 billion in funding. Though 2024 saw a significant decline, from $355 million in 2022 to just $37 million, the underlying fundamentals remain strong: a thriving digital economy, a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, and one of the world's youngest workforces. Philanthropy also holds untapped promise. Pakistan's charitable donations represent about 1 per cent of GDP. Structured philanthropic finance, or donor-backed blended models, as piloted by the Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company, can bring new resources to the table for social impact at scale. What Pakistan needs now is not just more money, but better financing: smarter, aligned, and anchored in national priorities. A deliberate approach that builds trust, reduces risk for private investors, and normalises public-private collaboration will be essential. Ultimately, the business of money must become the business of purpose, where public and private financial decisions serve people, and where inclusion, dignity, accountability, and sustainability guide every investment. The future depends not just on how much we receive and how much we spend, but on the transformational quality of development financing and expenditure. Pakistan, today, appears willing and able to meet this challenge.
The Print
4 days ago
- Business
- The Print
India has the fastest growing number of billionaires. This isn't a good thing: Veerappa Moily
McKinsey Global Institute has quoted in its report—'India needs to increase the relatively low participation of its citizens in labour markets and sustain fast productivity growth as the country has just 33 years until it is as 'old' as advanced economies. 'India still has some time to benefit from its demographic dividend for economic growth but is aging faster than many realize.' Despite very fast progress, India is still a low-income country. If India is to achieve the status of being the fourth-largest economy by the end of 2025 and to be a real powerhouse in the world, our policies must be transformative. Citing IMF data, NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam has expressed confidence that India could become the third-largest economy in two and a half to three years. The 2024-25 Economic Survey stated, India will need to improve its global competitiveness through grassroots-level structural reforms and deregulation to reinforce its medium-term growth potential. The survey pitched for less state control and easier rules, stating that lowering the cost of business through deregulation will make a significant contribution to accelerating economic growth and employment amid unprecedented global challenges. It also said that India is projected to reach the same support ratio (number of working-age individuals per senior 65 or older) in the 2050s as seen in advanced economies, but its GDP per capita is just 18 per cent of the World Bank's high-income threshold. Also, in per capita terms, we are still near the bottom of the global scenario tables—136 in nominal GDP and 119 in PPP terms. India still has the lowest GDP per capita among G20 nations. Human Development Indicators are still poor, with challenges in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction. Referring to the reports that India is set to pass Japan as the fourth largest economy, Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at Hong Kong investment bank Natixis, said. 'Inequality is also an issue, certainly compared to Japan.' As of 2023, nearly 45 per cent of India's workforce was still employed in agriculture, while Japan's was at around 3 per cent, with a considerable rise in employment in industrial and service sectors. The share of salaried workers with formal employment contracts was just 23.9 per cent in India, while that of Japan is around 91 per cent. Apart from these criteria, the life expectancy in India is 72, while that of Japan is 84. India's Human Development Index is just 0.685 out of a highest possible of 1. Japan's HDI has crossed the 0.9 mark. India needs to increase the relatively low participation of its citizens in labour markets and sustain fast productivity growth. Additionally, India is ranked 142 out of approximately 190 countries in terms of press freedom, with a nominal per capita GDP of around $2700. India's GDP growth of 6.5 per cent in FY 2025 is the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21. The risk is that a GDP growth of 6.5 per cent will not be able to generate enough jobs to fully absorb the labour force growth. The most worrying factor is that industries are not adding capacity that will generate more jobs. Creating more jobs in the organised sector is also seen as the biggest challenge to the government. Considering the magnitude of joblessness, there is an urgent need to incentivise state governments to improve the business environment and investments, which in turn will augment the labour force and sustain growth. A growing gap Surprisingly, India is also home to the largest and fastest growing number of billionaires—India has around 200 billionaires today—third globally in billionaire count. The Economic Survey has also warned of the disproportionate rise in corporate profits concentrated largely among a few large corporations. No wonder the gap between the rich and the poor, economic inequality and wealth distribution are widening day by day. The imbalance between profit growth and declining wages will have major macroeconomic consequences. If household earnings do not increase, consumer demand will weaken, undermining the very growth of GDP. This depicts the dark side of India's growth story that we are celebrating! Again, the share of manufacturing in India's GDP in 2023-24 is the same as it was in 2013-14. Where does the PM's favourite 'Make in India' sloganeering stand today? More so, as per the RBI's KLEMS database, the contribution of manufacturing to job creation is lower at 10.6 per cent compared to 11.6 per cent in 2013-14. As per the data from the PRICE ICE 360 survey, the richest 20 per cent of households, which account for Rs 155 trillion in income, save Rs 57 trillion and consume just 63.6 per cent. The bottom 20 per cent earn Rs 22 trillion but spend Rs 23 trillion, resulting in negative savings and the highest debt-to-income ratio of 15.4 per cent. The middle 60 per cent, earning Rs 159 trillion and saving Rs 28 trillion, are the backbone of consumption but remain economically vulnerable, highlighting a macro-micro disconnect. To bridge the gap, we need to shift focus from redistribution to empowerment of the bottom 20 per cent—creating job opportunities and skilling youth, affordable insurance, pension schemes, and tax-friendly saving instruments. The bottom 20 per cent must live without the fear of debt traps or income loss. We also need to look at rationalising GST. The GST council should work out a roadmap for levying petroleum products, electricity and real estate and bring it into the GST regime. Both slabs and rates have to be rationalised. Liberate financial markets to ensure adequate and reasonable business borrowing rates. RBI should also create a roadmap to phase out the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), which compels commercial banks to buy government bonds. Tariffs on intermediate goods and inputs are too high to push manufacturing in India Roadblocks to growth The harsh reality faced by millions in the country, with rising inequality, stagnating wages, and weak job creation, should prompt serious introspection by the government. The benefits of the so-called economic growth have been concentrated among a minuscule segment of the population, while the wage earners and informal sector workers continue to struggle. India's ascension to the fourth position in global GDP ranking is masked by foundational cracks in the economy. According to the International Monetary Fund's 'World Economic Outlook' released in April 2025, India's GDP is projected at $3.91 trillion for FY 25, while Japan is estimated at $4.03 trillion for FY 25. These figures put India in the fifth spot for now. Niti Aayog CEO saying India has overtaken Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy is premature. And if India has to overtake Germany to become the third-largest economy in the world, we need to have faster, sustainable, and inclusive growth at all levels. India needs to fast-track the infusion of new technologies and infuse greater investment in research and development both in the government and private sector along with upgradation of human capital with training, skilling and employability. The current trend is dangerous unless growth translates into better livelihood for people and reduces inequalities. M Veerappa Moily is former Chief Minister of Karnataka & former Union Minister. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Scoop
4 days ago
- Science
- Scoop
Hopeful New Way To Measure Human Progress
In response to the climate crisis, a new way to measure how well people and nature are living together has been announced in Nature. A hopeful new way to think about human progress has been announced today in the world's leading scientific journal Nature. Rather than focusing on what we're doing wrong, the new global framework offers a way to measure how well people and nature are thriving together. Led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and created by a group of international experts in various disciplines, the Nature Relationship Index (NRI) will track countries' progress in three key areas: a thriving and accessible natural world, responsible and respectful use of nature, and protection from pollution and harm. It builds on the success of the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures average achievements in a country in three broad categories: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The University of Auckland's Peter Kraus Professor of Philosophy Krushil Watene (Te Hikutu, Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei, Tonga) is one of the researchers who contributed to the novel framework, bringing both a philosophical and Indigenous perspective. 'The NRI takes our relationships with nature as foundational to the way we should think about well-being, development, and justice,' she says. 'Such a philosophical shift requires our commitment to the realisation of social and environmental justice, and to fostering new concepts, practices, and institutions – both locally and globally.' Just as the HDI transformed global development thinking, Watene says researchers hope the NRI will redefine progress to include healthy human-nature relationships, not just economic growth. The Nature Relationship Index is planned to be prominently featured in the 2026 Human Development Report, with annual updates planned for all countries thereafter. Its authors, who include leading marine ecologists, psychologists, economists, environmental scientists and policy specialists, believe it represents a hopeful and inclusive approach to environmental stewardship, rooted in the belief that when people work together, humanity and nature can thrive. 'Ultimately,' says Watene, 'the NRI values and relies on the diversity in our knowledges and knowledge-making, pluralism in our diverse and distributed social practices, and solidarity, grounded in the rich and interdependent networks of stewardship that exist – and that could yet emerge – across all corners of the globe.' An aspirational approach to planetary futures by Erle C. Ellis, Yadvinder Malhi, Hannah Ritchie, Jasper Montana, Sandra Diaz, David Obura, Susan Clayton, Melissa Leach, Laura Pereira, Emma Marris, Michael Muthukrishna, Bojie Fu, Peter Frankopan, Molly K. Grace, Krushil Watene, Nicholas Depsky, Josefin Pasanen and Pedro Conceição is published in Nature (June 2025).
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Business Standard
6 days ago
- Health
- Business Standard
Child deaths down, vaccinations up-but India's health fight isn't over
India has made notable progress in achieving health targets under the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. From lowering maternal and child mortality to improving immunisation and disease control, key health indicators suggest that the country is on track in several areas. What the UN Human Development Report says about India's health progress According to the UNDP Human Development Report 2025, India's Human Development Index (HDI) has increased by over 53 per cent since 1990—outpacing both global and South Asian averages. This has been driven by robust economic growth and welfare schemes like the National Rural Health Mission and Ayushman Bharat. Life expectancy has climbed to 72 years in 2023, the highest since the index began. 'India's life expectancy reaching its highest level is a testament to the country's recovery from the pandemic and its investments in human development,' said Angela Lusigi, Resident Representative, UNDP India. SDG 3 score rises sharply, says NITI Aayog India's SDG 3 score rose from 52 in 2018 to 77 in 2023, as per the NITI Aayog SDG Index. Multiple states are now classified as 'front-runners' in health outcomes: Maternal mortality dropped to 97 per 100,000 live births. Eight states, including Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have met the 2030 target of 70. Under-5 mortality fell to 32 per 1,000 live births. Kerala leads with just 8 deaths. Child immunisation (age 9–11 months) reached 93.23%, with several states surpassing 100%. HIV incidence remained at 0.05 per 1,000 uninfected individuals; Kerala reported 0.01. Tuberculosis case notification hit 87.13 per cent; Gujarat and UTs like Delhi surpassed national targets. Institutional deliveries stood at 97.18 per cent, with Lakshadweep achieving 100 per cent. Suicide rate was 12 per 100,000 population in 2022. Bihar had the lowest at 1. Malnutrition still affects children and women Despite gains, India still faces serious challenges: 35 per cent of children under five are stunted 19 per cent are wasted 67 per cent of under-five children and 57 per cent of women (15–49) are anaemic These figures from NFHS (2019–21) point to deep-rooted nutritional deficiencies that threaten long-term health outcomes. India's NCD burden rising fast Non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer accounted for over 60 per cent of all deaths in India in 2019, according to the NCD portal. Experts warn that without targeted prevention and early detection, the NCD crisis could derail SDG progress. What India must do to stay on track for 2030 To meet SDG 3 goals, experts recommend an integrated strategy that: Expands last-mile healthcare delivery Scales up NCD screening and treatment Closes the nutrition gap in children and women Invests in mental health and injury care Increases funding for primary healthcare As the 2030 deadline approaches, bridging rural–urban divides and ensuring healthcare equity will be crucial to India's success in achieving SDG 3.
