Latest news with #post-COVID
Korea Herald
8 hours ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Panduit Wins Asia Responsible Enterprise Award 2025 for Empowering Youth through Skills Development
SINGAPORE, July 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Panduit Corp has been awarded the prestigious Asia Responsible Enterprise Award (AREA) 2025 under the Social Empowerment category for its flagship initiative, the APAC Skills Change Lives Campaign. Presented by Enterprise Asia, the award recognizes Panduit's outstanding contributions in bridging the skills gap and advancing youth empowerment across the Asia-Pacific region. Panduit, a leading global manufacturer of high-quality electrical and network infrastructure, launched the APAC Skills Change Lives Campaign in response to rising youth unemployment and a growing skills mismatch in the Asia-Pacific region — an issue magnified in the post-COVID digital economy. Through strategic partnerships with educational institutions, industry leaders, and government agencies, Panduit empowers students with vocational education, technical training, and real-world experience to thrive in a fast-evolving job market. The campaign began in Singapore and has since expanded to China and Japan, creating sustainable opportunities for youths across the region. The initiative is built on four key pillars: technical training centres, online learning platforms, skills competitions, and internships. Notable efforts include two state-of-the-art labs at ITE College East in Singapore, a simulated data center at Shanghai Zhonghua Vocational School, and support for youth skills forums in Japan. Students benefit from industry-relevant instruction, real-world experience, and access to Panduit's online learning platform. The program also sponsors major skills competitions such as WorldSkills Singapore and WorldSkills ASEAN, giving students opportunities to gain national recognition and boost their career readiness. "We are honored to receive the AREA 2025 award. This recognition reinforces our belief that investing in youth skills is a powerful way to uplift individuals and communities," said Mr. Harry Woo, Managing Director and Senior Vice President (Asia Pacific) of Panduit Singapore. Expanding Impact Across APAC Looking ahead, Panduit aims to expand the campaign into more Asia-Pacific markets, with a focus on underserved youth. Plans include opening new training centers, enhancing digital learning access, and tailoring programs to local workforce needs. The goal: to equip the next generation with in-demand skills in network infrastructure, smart manufacturing, and digital technologies — building sustainable careers and inclusive economies. Why Panduit Was Recognized Enterprise Asia selected Panduit for this award based on the campaign's lasting social impact and its strong alignment with six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company's ability to align business expertise with community needs set it apart. The campaign demonstrates a clear commitment to: Enterprise Asia commended Panduit for setting a benchmark in how business can be a force for good—using innovation not only to lead markets but to uplift lives and strengthen the social fabric of the Asia-Pacific region. About Panduit Panduit is a leading global manufacturer of high-quality electrical and network infrastructure and connectivity solutions. Operating from our headquarters in Tinley Park, Ill., USA, and across 112 worldwide locations, we drive innovation through strategic R&D investments and breakthrough product development while providing seamless global support and service. Since 1955, our commitment to our customers and partners has remained constant. And together, with them, we create exceptional solutions that support their businesses in a way that's good for them and good for the world. Panduit is making connections that matter. For more information, visit
Sydney Morning Herald
15 hours ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cutting HECS debt is the least Albanese could do for young Australians. He should do more
You don't pay the tuition fee upfront – the government pays the university on your behalf, and you repay the government. But, unlike any commercial loan you'll ever get, when you to have start repaying, and the size of your repayment, depend on how much you're earning. So, in principle, you should never be paying more than you can afford. Loading You don't pay interest on the loan, but the outstanding balance is indexed to the rate of inflation – which, to an economist's way of thinking, means you're paying a 'real' interest rate of zero. If you never earn enough to be able to repay the loan – say because you become a monk – you never have to pay the loan back. That's by design, not accident. Trouble is, successive governments have not only made the scheme less generous, the post-COVID inflation surge has added greatly to people's HECS debts. Debts have become so big they reduce the size of the home loans banks are willing to give graduates. Worse, in the name of encouraging young people to take supposedly 'job-ready' courses such as teaching, nursing and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), in 2021 the Morrison government reduced their annual tuition fees, whereas fees for courses such as business, law and the humanities were greatly increased. Fortunately, this half-brained scheme did little to change students' choices, but did mean abandoning the previous arrangement in which the fees for various courses were geared roughly to the size of the salaries those graduates were likely to earn. The cost of an arts degree is now about $17,000 a year, or a massive $50,000 for the full three years. So it's people who have studied the humanities who now have debts quite out of whack with their earning ability. Smart move, Scomo! Albanese's 20 per cent cut in debt levels will do little to fix this crazy misalignment of fees with future earning potential. The cut will have a cost to the budget of about a huge $16 billion in theory, but more like $11 billion when you allow for all the debts that were never going to be repaid anyway. By making it a percentage cut rather than a flat dollar amount, too much of the benefit will go to highly paid doctors and lawyers. And, in any case, of all the young adults having trouble with the cost of living in recent years, those on graduate salaries are hardly the most deserving. On the other hand, at a time when, justifiably, the young feel the system has been stacked against them, I can't be too disapproving of Albo's flashy measure to help keep the younger generation's faith that, in the end, the democratic process will ensure most age groups get a reasonable shake. Loading The young are right to feel bitter about the way earlier generations have enjoyed the ever-rising value of their homes while allowing the cost of home ownership to become unreachable for an ever-growing proportion of our young. And that's before you get to other features of our tax and benefits system that favour the old. Thankfully, the government is making the rules for HECS repayments much less onerous, making them work the same way as the income tax scale. The minimum threshold for repayments will be raised from income of $56,000 a year to $67,000. Your income between $67,000 and $125,000 will require a repayment of 15 per cent, and 17 per cent on income above that. This will yield significant savings to those with debts. But, of course, the lower your repayments, the longer it will take to clear your debt and the more your outstanding balance will be indexed for inflation.
The Age
15 hours ago
- Business
- The Age
Cutting HECS debt is the least Albanese could do for young Australians. He should do more
You don't pay the tuition fee upfront – the government pays the university on your behalf, and you repay the government. But, unlike any commercial loan you'll ever get, when you to have start repaying, and the size of your repayment, depend on how much you're earning. So, in principle, you should never be paying more than you can afford. Loading You don't pay interest on the loan, but the outstanding balance is indexed to the rate of inflation – which, to an economist's way of thinking, means you're paying a 'real' interest rate of zero. If you never earn enough to be able to repay the loan – say because you become a monk – you never have to pay the loan back. That's by design, not accident. Trouble is, successive governments have not only made the scheme less generous, the post-COVID inflation surge has added greatly to people's HECS debts. Debts have become so big they reduce the size of the home loans banks are willing to give graduates. Worse, in the name of encouraging young people to take supposedly 'job-ready' courses such as teaching, nursing and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), in 2021 the Morrison government reduced their annual tuition fees, whereas fees for courses such as business, law and the humanities were greatly increased. Fortunately, this half-brained scheme did little to change students' choices, but did mean abandoning the previous arrangement in which the fees for various courses were geared roughly to the size of the salaries those graduates were likely to earn. The cost of an arts degree is now about $17,000 a year, or a massive $50,000 for the full three years. So it's people who have studied the humanities who now have debts quite out of whack with their earning ability. Smart move, Scomo! Albanese's 20 per cent cut in debt levels will do little to fix this crazy misalignment of fees with future earning potential. The cut will have a cost to the budget of about a huge $16 billion in theory, but more like $11 billion when you allow for all the debts that were never going to be repaid anyway. By making it a percentage cut rather than a flat dollar amount, too much of the benefit will go to highly paid doctors and lawyers. And, in any case, of all the young adults having trouble with the cost of living in recent years, those on graduate salaries are hardly the most deserving. On the other hand, at a time when, justifiably, the young feel the system has been stacked against them, I can't be too disapproving of Albo's flashy measure to help keep the younger generation's faith that, in the end, the democratic process will ensure most age groups get a reasonable shake. Loading The young are right to feel bitter about the way earlier generations have enjoyed the ever-rising value of their homes while allowing the cost of home ownership to become unreachable for an ever-growing proportion of our young. And that's before you get to other features of our tax and benefits system that favour the old. Thankfully, the government is making the rules for HECS repayments much less onerous, making them work the same way as the income tax scale. The minimum threshold for repayments will be raised from income of $56,000 a year to $67,000. Your income between $67,000 and $125,000 will require a repayment of 15 per cent, and 17 per cent on income above that. This will yield significant savings to those with debts. But, of course, the lower your repayments, the longer it will take to clear your debt and the more your outstanding balance will be indexed for inflation.
Hans India
a day ago
- Business
- Hans India
Combating counterfeiting with a smartphone
Mangalur: Enno venture, Inc. is transforming global brand protection with invisible cryptographic signatures on packaging, empowering consumers and businesses to combat counterfeiting using just a smartphone. In a digital-first world increasingly plagued by counterfeit products, Ennoventure, Inc. is redefining brand protection through innovation that's both smart and invisible. Headquartered in Massachusetts with operations in Dubai and India, this SaaS company is quietly powering some of the world's biggest brands with cutting-edge packaging authentication technology. At the heart of Ennoventure's solution is its patented invisible signature, powered by artificial intelligence and cryptography. This encrypted layer is embedded into product packaging without requiring any changes to existing production lines—a key differentiator that has helped Ennoventure gain rapid traction across industries such as FMCG, pharmaceuticals, automotive spare parts, agrochemicals, and industrial goods. The technology operates through Ennteract, Ennoventure's end-to-end SaaS platform that enables brands to secure packaging with invisible signatures, while also offering deep analytics about product scans across geographies. At the consumer end, the Vyu mobile application—customisable and user-friendly—allows anyone with a smartphone to instantly verify product authenticity by simply scanning the packaging. With this seamless integration, Ennoventure is addressing not just the issue of counterfeit goods but also closing the information gap between manufacturers and consumers. Scans can reveal not only authenticity but also vital product details like manufacturing date, ingredients, expiry, and safety information. Speaking to The Hans India Padmakumar Nair Founder and CEO of Ennoventure, said, 'The moment that sparked it was a conversation at MIT,', 'A classmate shared how a child dies every five minutes in Africa due to counterfeit antimalarial drugs. That statistics shook me. It revealed the devastating human cost of fake products, especially in pharmaceuticals.' This emotional realisation quickly transformed into a mission-driven venture. 'We didn't want to build another expensive, disruptive solution. We needed something simple, scalable, and powerful—something that could work with what brands already have. That's how the idea of embedding an invisible cryptographic signature on packaging was born,' Nair explains. The post-COVID landscape—with its accelerated shift to online shopping—has only magnified the urgency for such solutions. In India alone, counterfeiting causes economic losses estimated to exceed ₹1 lakh crore annually. Sectors like pharma and FMCG are particularly vulnerable. Yet with smartphone usage and digital awareness at an all-time high, the moment is ripe for consumer-driven verification mechanisms. 'Today, Ennoventure is not just protecting brands. We're enabling trust throughout the supply chain—from manufacturers to end-users,' says Nair. The company's commitment to scale is backed by robust investor confidence, with $13.9 million raised so far. Its clientele spans the US, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia, with applications ranging from personal care products to industrial components. Behind Ennoventure's technological edge is a team of experts. Prasenjit Ghoshal, Head of Engineering, brings cross-domain expertise in security, finance, and telecom, while Nikhil Narayan, VP of Data Science, leads innovation in computer vision with a decade of R&D experience and multiple patents to his name. The road ahead looks promising. With billions of product packages already carrying Ennoventure's invisible signature, the company is setting new benchmarks for scalable, cost-efficient, and covert anti-counterfeit systems. 'Our journey from prototype to deployment has been incredibly fulfilling,' says Nair. 'We've stayed true to our founding principle—solving real-world problems through innovation. While we're proud of our progress, we're even more excited about what lies ahead. The fight against counterfeiting is far from over, but we're committed to leading it—one secure package at a time.'
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
State Street consolidating Boston offices, pulling out of Fort Point
For at least the past five years, State Street has used One Channel Center as the headquarters of its asset management arm, which recently changed its name from State Street Global Advisors to State Street Investment Management. Sarnoski said the asset management division will move into two floors at One Congress, including one where a new trading desk is being built. Sarnoski said the primary reason for the office consolidation is to make the workforce more efficient, by putting more people under the same roof. Starting in the fall of 2023, State Street required workers to be in the office at least four days a week, one of the most aggressive post-COVID return-to-office mandates in the city. Advertisement 'The reason here [for the move] is purely we've seen the value of working in person,' Sarnoski said. 'It's been reinforced with our return-to-office mandate. ... It makes much more sense to have people in person in the same building.' Advertisement Cost savings, he added, is also a benefit, though not the driving force. State Street last week told investors it would take a $100 million charge to account for severance packages associated with layoffs of 900 people across its global workforce; the move out of One Channel Center is unrelated. (The company declined to say how many Massachusetts jobs were cut.) State Street still has several years left on its lease with landlord Tishman Speyer. Sarnoski said it's possible State Street will try to sublease the space, but the company is also talking about a deal to buy out the rest of the lease so Tishman Speyer can look at new tenants to fill the building, and offer a lease that lasts for longer than a few years. (State Street's lease expires at the end of 2029.) State Street is one of Boston's biggest employers, and there are only a few that could use an office building as large as 500,000 square feet. For comparison, Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro and P&G's Boston-based Gillette division, two big employers currently considering moves in Boston, are seeking offices that are roughly half that size. Commonwealth Ventures and Ares Management began developing the building and its adjacent 970-space garage for State Street more than a decade ago. The building opened in late 2014, and it was Advertisement Tom Ready, a board member at the Fort Point Neighborhood Association, said the departure would have a relatively low impact on the surrounding neighborhood, in part because State Street employees have tended to use the corporate cafeteria instead of eating out at local restaurants. 'They've been consolidating their footprint over time and reducing the size of their workforce in Greater Boston,' Ready said of State Street. 'It's not a surprise to us that they're either moving out entirely or don't require the full building anymore. [But] it is a surprise they're leaving before their lease is up.' Jon Chesto can be reached at
