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Forecasts that the global economy will overcome the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 are not justified, according to a study from experts at the Higher School of Economics together with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Against the background of new waves of the pandemic that have engulfed many countries in recent months, it is already obvious that the initial forecasts of a full-fledged recovery of the global economy from the crisis in 2021 are not being justified, the study said.

The experts noted that, the factors that negatively influenced the global economy in 2020 have not yet been eliminated. Different intensities of quarantine restrictions and different rates of vaccination against COVID-19 in individual countries, as well as the emergence of new dangerous strains of the virus, will continue to negatively affect the state of national economies and global supply chains, experts believe.

All this means, the report concluded, that governments will need to adapt their economic policies to the conditions of a longer recession. At the same time, the prospects for economic recovery will depend not only on government actions, but also, to a large extent, on plans and expectations at the level of enterprises.

During the pandemic, the state has demonstrated its ability to effectively help businesses however, interfering in pricing and strengthening the role of state-owned companies can lead to negative consequences, according to a study.

The crisis pushed both companies and the state to actively interact. At the federal level, the state has demonstrated the ability to talk with business. The result of such interaction was the prompt solution of a number of problems of industry regulation and the mitigation of certain restrictions, the study said.

In addition to direct support, businesses were aided by measures that positively affect demand various financial instruments for direct support of the population during the crisis.

State intervention

According to the experts, there are risks to the economy due to increased control over businesses that have received state support, and interference in pricing. A separate significant risk is the increased government intervention in pricing processes in competitive sectors (retail, pharmaceutical industry). This can lead to significant distortions in the respective markets, the report said.

The authors of the study also drew attention to the possibilities of controlling business that appear with the introduction of new technologies. State digitalization creates a new platform for interaction with business, increasing the efficiency of tools for state support, coordinating changes. However, it is possible to strengthen attempts to control business in all decisions, the report noted.

Such approach, according to experts, can lead to accumulating risks and disparities in conditions of high economic and technological uncertainty.

In addition, the report said that the takeover of promising companies continues, including by large companies with state participation.

Administrative burden does not decline

The authors of the study noted that one of the goals of the anti-crisis policy was a reduction in the administrative burden and a moratorium on inspections. However, at the company level, there was persistence and, in some cases, an increase in pressure on business. The latter was more typical for small companies, for which inspections mean high transaction costs, the experts write.

The study noted that during crises, the state defines the goal of reducing the administrative burden on business as a priority. However, at the post-crisis stages, the corresponding activity is significantly reduced. It is necessary to search for mechanisms to sustainably reduce administrative pressure, which implies changing motivations and criteria for assessing activities of control bodies, the report said.

The digitalization of business processes

Development of Russian companies in the period after the pandemic will be associated with the digitalization of business processes and an increase in the role of human capital, according to a study.

Digital transformation processes will intensify in all sectors, and in small companies, in sectors with horizontal coordination, the models and formats of business activities will change, the study said.

According to experts, after overcoming the crisis caused by the pandemic, the companies will continue the trend of developing their own distribution and direct interaction with customers will grow.

The demand for human capital will significantly change: the demand for the skills of big data analysis and predictive analytics of sales, Internet marketing will increase. The business models of companies will transform towards creating an ecosystem around a person: their health, safety, nutrition, entertainment, the authors of the study noted.

Along with the increasing role of intangible assets, knowledge and skills in the development of companies, competition for human capital will intensify.

In addition, according to the forecast of HSE experts, a number of traditional sectors, for example, retail trade, are becoming a driver of digital transformation and a source of demand for human capital effective in the digital economy.Source: TASS

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Global economy will not be able to get out of crisis in 2021 study - Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

McDonalds India (West and South) has roped in the popular film celebrity - Rashmika Mandanna, as its brand ambassador for its key advertising campaigns. Rashmika is a household name and a popular face among millennials, especially in the Southern states of the country. She has enthralled audiences through Telugu and Kannada films that include hits like Chalo, Kirik Party, Sarileru Neekevvaru, Geetha Govindam and Dear Comrade which have garnered over 200 Million views on YouTube. Rashmika will soon be seen in magnum opus project Pushpa with Allu Arjun and is also set to foray into Bollywood with two back-to-back Hindi films. In a short time, she has become a youth icon and has a strong following on social media with over 15 million followers on Instagram alone.

This association marks a significant step for McDonalds as it looks to reinforce its brand leadership in its key markets. McDonalds restaurants in West and South India are operated by Westlife Development Ltd. (WDL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary.

Speaking on the announcement of this collaboration, Arvind RP, Director - Marketing and Communications, McDonalds India (West and South) said, We are delighted to have Rashmika onboard. She is someone who connects strongly with millennials and is a popular youth icon.

Rashmika, popularly known as the 'National Crush has expressed her love for food through her social media handles, on several occasions. Rashmika will be a part of key brand campaigns and will play a pivotal role in enhancing brand love for McDonalds across key markets.

On being the brands ambassador, actress Rashmika Mandanna, said McDonalds has been one of my favourite brands since I was a kid. Id literally live on McDonalds when I was in college. When they reached out to me for this association, I was absolutely thrilled! I am delighted to represent a brand that is passionate about serving yummy food with great quality to its consumers. McDonalds has been serving Indian consumers for 25 years and counting now and is definitely a preferred choice across all age groups. I am really excited about my partnership with such an amazing and trusted brand.

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McDonalds India (West and South) ropes in actress Rashmika Mandanna as brand ambassador - Exchange4Media

Power Gummieshas roped in Shraddha Kapoor as the brand ambassador and the face for their Hair & Nails Vitamin Gummies.

With this association, the brand aims to bring forth its vision amongst millennials while reinforcing its values and philosophy. The campaign is focused on happy hair just every day.

Commenting on the association,Divij Bajaj, CEO & Founder, mentions,Shraddha is a powerhouse of talent and seamless fit for Power Gummies. Her versatile, vibrant, energetic, lively and sparkling personality knits a perfect horizon and panache for our brand. Altogether, a power-packed blend that enables what we envision for our brand. We are delighted to have Shraddha on board with us as the brand ambassador for our Gorgeous Hair & Nails Vitamin Gummies. She personifies the key prepositions of changing trends of beauty, health & fitness. We are ready to thrill the gen-next customers together with Shraddha.

Through this association, we aim to help a wider range of people to move towards preventive care and nutrition for their health and wellness.

Power Gummies has been changing the health game with the newly launched nutritional format of chewable & tasty vitamin gummies. Bringing convenience, moments of nostalgia, trust and fun to the customers with health & happiness going together in pursuit of nutrition is the core aim for Power Gummies to come into existence taking away all the health concerns, removing the fear of pills or bad-tasting supplements. The brand has been revolutionising the nutraceutical industry since 2018 creating a galactic storm with their showstopper variant Gorgeous hair & nail vitamin gummies taking away growth, damage and hair fall issues.

Delighted to represent the brand,Shraddha Kapoor elaborates,As an actor, my constant battle is to maintain my hair health after never ending hairstyling, which is a must for me. Wherein, something as easy as chewing a gummy for my hair health is just an amazing idea, especially when I can just take 2 gummies a day for my daily nutritional intake. I always wanted some easy resort to solve it for me.

Power Gummies are just mind-blowing and totally, hard to resist. Also, it is the only gummy brand in India with proven results and clinical trials. Being fit and healthy should be the most prime factor for customers in todays time.

The actor also adds,I feel my best when I am healthy and that makes me excited to be on board with Power Gummies and look forward to how gummies change it for you all and become a part of everyone's lifestyle just like me.

The tasty unisex vitamin gummies are vegan, gluten-free, gelatin-free, and cruelty-free, which is the key reason for her association with the brand.

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Power Gummies onboards Shraddha Kapoor as brand ambassador - Exchange4Media

Amul has released a poignant topical, paying tribute to the late Anil Billy Kapoor, Chairman Emeritus at DraftFCB+ Ulka.

The creative features the Amul girl engaged in a discussion with Kapoor with the words You will always be a part of our family in the background.

Kapoor was an integral part of many of Amuls memorable campaigns and the launch of a number of its brands. Such a tribute, considering their long-standing association, is befitting.

Many industry leaders also came out and lauded Amuls creative, with IPG Mediabrands Shashi Sinha calling Amul an amazing client. Ashish Bhasin, CEO, Asia Pacific and Chairman India, Dentsu also applauded the creative.

Anil Kapoor, Chairman Emeritus at DraftFCB+ Ulka, passed away on April 12 after a prolonged battle with cancer. One of the doyens of the Indian ad industry, Kapoor has been behind some of the most memorable ad campaigns the country has ever seen.

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'Always a part of our family', says Amul in tribute to Anil Billy Kapoor - Exchange4Media

The future may see us living on Mars, paying for everything with crypto, and relaxing or working as we travel effortlessly about in our driverless cars. But theres an even bigger change coming for many of us, and thats the gradual advent of quantum computing (QC) and what it means for the world of business.

People in the tech business are used to hearing about quantum computing, because its effects as and when it can be delivered at scale will be so gigantic. At the same time it tends to get put in the same folder as fusion power or directed energy weapons, technologies that have been perpetually five years away for many decades.

This long-established position, for many readers, may have obscured the new reality: Quantum computing is actually here in the real world nowadays, albeit on a small scale. Its in use right now by businesses such as IBM and Amazon. This month EU/US audiences (April 21st) and those in APAC (April 22nd) can learn all about the new state of play at a free-to-attend webinar with GlobalData analysts, focused on the real-world business landscape rather than academic theory.

That academic theory of QC is usually explained by saying that where a normal computer operates using bits of information, a quantum computer uses quantum bits or qubits. A normal bit is 1 or 0, on or off: a qubit is much more complicated. When it is measured it will be either 1 or 0; before that, it exists in a quantum superposition of those two states. The quantum superposition is usually described using complex numbers, mathematics based on the so-called imaginary unit, the square root of minus one.

Another way of visualising this is that normal bits are like coins lying on a table. They are either heads or tails up: they can be flipped over. A qubit, however, is like a coin spinning in the air. It can interact with other spinning coins, affecting how they spin, but none of them are heads or tails up until the quantum operations are complete.

Theoreticians can describe what qubits will do in a network of quantum logic gates, even if they dont have any actual machinery capable of carrying out the process. As a result, algorithms can be, and have been, developed for QC machinery even before there was any rather in the way that Ada Lovelace famously wrote some of the first conventional computer programs for Charles Babbages proposed 19th-century mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine, even though it was never actually built.

Thus we know many of the things that QC could achieve. Its effects, when it becomes available at appropriate scale, will be enormous. Quantum computers will find a use anywhere there is a large and complicated problem to be solved. That could be anything from predicting the financial markets, to improving weather forecasts, to cracking encryption systems.

Privacy advocates already fear that quantum computing could one day crack todays secure encryption and the many things built on it. Those with a stake in cryptocurrency may naturally be concerned, according to GlobalData analyst Sam Holt.

Bitcoin and other cryptos use an elliptic curve signature scheme where public and private encryption keys are used to verify transactions, Holt explains to Verdict. Older signature tech doesnt hash (fingerprint) the public key and this can therefore be known by anyone. Around 25% of bitcoins are stored using this older tech, and are vulnerable. At the moment, it remains difficult for bad actors to find out the private key. As early as 2027, however, quantum computers could be at the point where they could use the public key to break the encryption.

It could take only one quantum-crypto-heist for investors to lose confidence.

Before this happens though, fellow GlobalData analyst Mike Orme forecasts post-quantum cryptography (PQC) will have been developed using classical computers.

It wont take quantum computers to develop PQC (so) there doesnt seem to be a case for dumping Bitcoin, Orme believes. But there is a case for governments and enterprises to think seriously about shifting out of current RSA-encrypted systems.

Quantum computings capacity for number crunching may make it a lucrative option when it comes to cryptocurrency mining but its not yet at a suitable stage. Todays most advanced mining technology is extremely fast compared to the current clock speed of what quantum computers can offer now or in the short term, and its likely to stay that way for the next decade at least.

For a quantum computer to work in many of the applications which have already been worked out for it, it would need hundreds of thousands, even millions of qubits. The highest we can manage today is around a hundred. The process of a qubit calculation is so sensitive, that the apparatus around it has to block out various forms of interference, especially that of heat. The supply chain for this kind of tech cant yet be called a chain, and expertise is scarce.

But there is nonetheless already a QC market. GlobalDatas recent thematic report on quantum computing notes the QC market size in 2020 to have been somewhere in the range of $80m-$500m (the exact figure is hard to pin down).

Where is this money coming from? One source is Canadian QC company D-Wave, which has been selling quasi-quantum computers since 2011 for $20m each, notably to US national labs. These computers are based on the quantum annealing method, meaning they are suited to solving optimisation problems, but incapable of handling more advanced algorithms and problems.

Most revenue in quantum computing lies in cloud-based quantum service businesses from IBM, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon and others. These Quantum-as-a-Service (QaaS) providers rent time on prototype quantum processors and simulators, often built using conventional compute power, to the rapidly swelling band of researchers and developers from government, major corporates and start-ups navigating through the quantum world.

These developers know there is money to be made on the software and application side, especially when it comes to algorithms. While it will be years until fully-fledged versions of quantum algorithms can be run on full-size quantum computers, there is scope to develop algorithms for intermediate-scale quantum devices in areas such as logistics optimisation. Such algorithms are likely to work in hybrid systems where some qubits are combined with classical computers in the next five years. Quantum simulators meanwhile, which essentially mimic quantum computers but run on classical computers, are becoming increasingly popular as a way of testing quantum computation without the need for an actual quantum computer.

The last few years have seen some road tests of quantum power, literally: a reduction of car waiting times by 20% in a large-scale traffic simulation, for example. This was achieved by Microsoft in partnership with Toyota Tshuso and Jij, a Japanese quantum algorithm start-up. Algorithms based on a realistic QC model were run on classical computers to reduce the waiting time for drivers at red lights, saving about five seconds on average for each car. In 2019, Volkswagen and D-Wave optimised routes in real-time for a fleet of municipal buses running between stops in Lisbon, considering potential traffic jams and passenger numbers. While hardware development in QC may be stuck in a metaphorical traffic jam, its a different story for QC software.

If youd like to find out more about real-world quantum computing, you can register for GlobalDatas free-to-attend Quantum Computing webinar on 21st April 2021 at 4pm (BST). APAC audiences will find a more suitably scheduled session on the 22nd; sign up free here. These expert-led sessions will explore the risks facing QC investors, and why and when quantum computing will change the game for business.

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Quantum computers, here but not here what businesses need to know - Verdict