Lifeboat Foundation

While old business clans continue to dominate India’s rich lists, a tenfold expansion in its economy since its opening in the 1990s has spawned new tycoons in fields like technology. The number of billionaires in India more than doubled to 119 between 2013 and 2018, according to Knight Frank. And the country will lead the global growth in ultrahigh net worth individuals, with its numbers rising 39 percent to 2,697 by 2023, the researcher estimates.

India is going through one of the greatest periods of wealth creation — and destruction — all at the same time.

A new breed of self-made entrepreneurs is vaulting into the ranks of the wealthy, offsetting billions lost by debt-burdened industrialists and members of the country’s old dynasties. The changes are set to help India’s ultra-rich population grow at the world’s fastest pace.

Continue reading “The Rise of India’s New Billionaires (And the Fall of the Old)” »

Explorer and businessman Victor Vescovo descended 35,853 feet (10,927 meters) into the Pacific Ocean, breaking the record for deepest dive ever.

At the very bottom, he found colorful rocky structures, weird critters and the ever-pervasive mark of humankind — plastic.

Until now, only two people have successfully made it to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the planet’s deepest point at the southern end of the Mariana Trench. Back in 1960, oceanographer Don Walsh was the first to make it down to the trench successfully, reaching about 35,814 feet (10,916 m). He took the journey with Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard. [In Photos: James Cameron’s Epic Dive to Challenger Deep].

Continue reading “Explorer Reaches Bottom of the Mariana Trench, Breaks Record for Deepest Dive Ever” »

Olive trees don’t just dot the landscape in Puglia, Italy; they define it. They are so important here, in the heel of Italy’s boot, that locals use words like “patrimony” and “cultural heritage” when describing them. But what is worrying olive growers here is a disease that’s killing olive trees by the millions.

Paul Cappelli, who’d been an advertising executive in New York City until a few years ago, left his job and moved to a home on the ancient Appian Way surrounded by olive trees, and entered the oil business. “Not the Texas oil business; I’m in the real oil business!” he said.

Today, Villa Cappelli produces about 10,000 liters of olive oil, 95 percent of it sold in the U.S.

Continue reading “A pathogen is destroying Italy’s olive trees” »

Eric Kilhstrom (Director of Aging Analytics Agency and former Interim Director of the £98 million Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund) is interviewed about the agency’s recent “Longevity Industry in Israel Landscape Overview 2019” report.

New report shows that Israel’s academic and business ecosystem is the optimal base for an internationally recognized longevity industry hub.

Continue reading “Israel fast becoming world hub of aging industry” »

Glaciers are set to disappear completely from almost half of World Heritage sites if business-as-usual emissions continue, according to the first-ever global study of World Heritage glaciers.

The sites are home to some of the world’s most iconic glaciers, such as the Grosser Aletschgletscher in the Swiss Alps, Khumbu Glacier in the Himalayas and Greenland’s Jakobshavn Isbrae.

The study in the AGU journal Earth’s Future and co-authored by scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) combines data from a global glacier inventory, a review of existing literature and sophisticated computer modeling to analyze the current state of World Heritage glaciers, their recent evolution, and their projected mass change over the 21st century.

Continue reading “Almost half of World Heritage sites could lose their glaciers by 2100” »

Some very good news.

Tesla plans to sell its solar panels at a price that’s 38 percent lower than the national average in an attempt to halt the decline of its solar business. The New York Times notes that the head of Tesla’s solar department, Sanjay Shah, wants to sell panels for between $1.75 and $1.99 a watt, compared to the national average of $2.85.