Category: Arizona

India is a Favorite Destination for Global Corporate Giving

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

India topped the list of countries where most corporate giving went from international businesses in 2012, according to a recent report by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP). Among 60 large multinational companies that gave a total of $6.8 billion, nearly 70 percent earmarked a share of   their corporate giving to India.

The study, authored by CECP’s Carmen Perez found that most large businesses chose to invest their  funds in geographical neighbors and emerging markets. The study  tracked giving according to three categories, namely direct cash, foundation cash and in-kind contributions.  Total giving per company ranged from $450,000 to about $1.5 billion. The median total giving was $29.25 million.

Below are key points from the study that show trends in global corporate giving :

  1. Global corporate giving remains unevenly distributed. Some companies elected to give large contributions to a select few countries while the others received much less.
  2. A company’s strategic business needs dictate corporate giving, especially among multinationals investing in emerging markets.
  3. Corporate interests govern giving and funds typically flow into neighboring countries or to emerging markets.
  4. Emerging markets namely India, Brazil, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico received larger charitable contributions in 2012, driven largely by robust economic growth.
  5. Businesses gave less in countries like Turkey and Venezuela citing instability and political turmoil.

Teach kids to convert information into intelligence

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

Education should teach students to convert information to intelligence, said Jaime Casap, Google’s Global Education Evangelist. Casap was speaking at a recent kick-off event for the Arizona SciTech Festival in Scottsdale.

“The tools are all here and we do not need any further information. All we need is to convert this information into intelligence and do it well.”

Are our schools equipped to do that? Are teachers making efforts to teach a young generation to selectively use data, learn to interpret it well and actually use it in real life situations?

Education, according to Jaime needs to go through a radical design. “While we know that children learn in different ways, how do we make this happen?”

On a typical day, 1000 teachers quit the teaching profession in this country. There is a constant turnover of instructional leaders in middle schools and there is a crisis in educational leadership.

States like Arizona must “grow their own farms” to attract more high-tech industries, says Casap. “To do this we need to support incubators, offer tax breaks and interest rates for folks who want to stay here.”

“A quality workforce is what we need, not quantity,” he added. In the U.S. only 14 percent of students are graduating in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) fields. In China it is 42 percent while in Korea it is 32 percent.

We have only two options: either radically design education to fit the needs of the individual learner or stay with the factory model of the 1950s.

The choice is ours but time is not on our side.