Business Daily

How can educators ensure that every child in the world - and particularly every girl - has access to a decent school? And how should the curriculum prepare young people for a workplace about to be transformed by artificial intelligence?

Tanya Beckett hosts a debate in Dubai with Vikas Pota, chairman of the Varkey Foundation; Elizabeth Bintliff, chief executive of youth NGO Junior Achievement Africa; and Dr Amy Ogan, professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Plus Tanya speaks to Peter Kabichi, a Kenyan monk and science teacher, who was the winner of this year's Global Teacher Prize awarded by the Varkey Foundation.

(Picture: Girl learning English in Lalibela, Ethiopia; Credit: hadynyah/Getty Images)

Can a burger help save the planet? The Business Daily team try out the plant-based burger designed to convert meat eaters. Dr Marco Springmann from Oxford University explains why eating less meat can help slow climate change. Simeon Van Der Molen, founder and CEO of food technology company Moving Mountains outlines the future for the meat-free food industry.

(Photo: a burger made by Beyond Meat, Credit: Beyond Meat)

India's bid to capture a slice of global shipping. The east-west shipping line off the southern coast of India carries around 30% of the world's cargo. As container ships get bigger, the Kerala state government wants to build a deep-water container port at Vizhinjam. But the $1.2bn project has been badly delayed by Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 and by last year’s torrential rains and flooding in the region. Fergus Nicoll speaks to Karan Adani, CEO of Adani Ports and hears the concerns from a boat owner and fish vendors concerned for their livelihoods.

Plus Stephen Ryan speaks to transgender workers on the Kochi metro in Kerala.

(Photo: A container ship off the coast of Kerala, Credit: Getty Images)

Should governments spend more money? 'Modern monetary theory' or MMT is gaining traction, particularly in the US. It says governments should worry less about balancing the books. Its detractors call it the 'magic money tree'. Manuela Saragosa speaks to hedge fund founder Warren Mosler - the man who first proposed MMT - and economist Frances Coppola about the criticisms facing the theory.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Photo: a magic money tree, Credit: Getty Images)

Could a new scheme alleviate the crippling cost of university fees for young Americans, who have already accumulated a trillion and a half dollars in student debts?

Dr Courtney McBeth tells Ed Butler how under the "income sharing agreement" scheme that she is piloting at the University of Utah, the amount that students repay depends on how much money they manage to earn in their future careers. This new approach frees graduates up to start a family or risk starting their own company, according to Charles Trafton, who runs a student loan marketplace called Edly.

But the financing is provided by investors looking to make a profit, in contrast to similar government-run schemes in the UK and Australia. And according to David Robinson of British think tank the Education Policy Institute, this means that the US scheme may not do much to improve social mobility or meet the needs of the jobs market.

(Picture: Coins stacks stepping up towards a money jar topped by a university mortar board; Credit: marchmeena29/Getty Images)

Was the NotPetya attack, that struck Ukraine and then the world in 2016, a portend of potentially devastating cyber-wars in the future?

Ed Butler goes back to ground zero of that sophisticated cyber attack to speak to Oleh Derevianko of the Ukrainian cybersecurity firm ISSP, and Valentyn Petrov who heads Ukraine's information security service. How did a piece of malware allegedly designed by Russia to devastate the Ukrainian economy go on to infect the computers of multinational corporations such as shipping firm Maersk and pharmaceutical Merck?

Are such state sponsored attacks becoming more commonplace? And why has Russia - widely accused of being one of the worst perpetrators of such attacks - just passed new legislation to defend itself from a cyber attack in the future? We hear from Bryan Sartin, head of global security at US telecoms conglomerate Verizon, and Emily Taylor of the international relations think tank Chatham House.

(Picture: Malicious computer programming code in the shape of a skull; Credit: solarseven/Getty Images)

With the sea level rising and storms strengthening thanks to climate change, will much of the world's most valuable real estate find itself underwater?

Justin Rowlatt visits London's main line of defence against the sea - the Thames Barrier - a hugely expensive piece of engineering that will need to be replaced by an even larger barrier later this century, according to its operator Steve East, and coastal risk manager Cantor Mocke.

The oceans will eventually rise by two metres at the very least, says climatologist Ben Strauss of US think tank Climate Central, putting many of the world's great cities at severe risk of inundation. The giant global real estate investment firm Heitman has been looking at which properties in its portfolio are most at risk. Company strategist Brian Klinksiek tells of his fear that the market has yet to price in the cost of the giant storms of the future.

The biggest city in the world vulnerable to the rising waters is Shanghai in China, and flood risk researcher Qian Ke of the Delft University of Technology explains the work she is already doing with the Shanghai city authorities to prepare for the coming storm.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: People are taken ashore in a boat after being rescued from their homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Getting more disabled people into the workforce. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Rich Donovan, a trader who forged a successful career on Wall Street with cerebral palsy. Alice Maynard, a business advisor on inclusion in the UK explains the challenges still facing disabled people at work. And blind skateboarder Dan Mancina talks about his career.

(Photo: Wheelchair user at work, Credit: Getty Images)

In Mozambique, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth did tremendous damage to the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in March and April. The country is still trying to get the crisis under control, as flooding, cholera and poor food and aid provision continue to threaten lives.

Dorothy Sang is Humanitarian Advocacy and Campaigns Manager for Oxfam, and gives Ed Butler the view from the ground in Mozambique. Thoughts are turning as well to the future, as the economy based largely on subsistence farming and tourism attempts to rebuild. Rebecca Nadin of the Overseas Development Institute speaks to Ed about whether, and how much, reconstruction is actually possible, given that climate change is expected to cause more natural disasters to occur.

(Picture: A flooded street of the Paquite district of Pemba, Mozambique on April 29, 2019; Credit: Emidio Jozine/AFP/Getty Images)

Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tinkering with the reservation system nothing more than a bid to grab votes in the general election?

India has long had a system of positive discrimination to enable people from lower castes to get political representation, government jobs and university places. But as Rahul Tandon reports, the Prime Minister's decision to broaden the quotas to include anyone from an economically deprived background, irrespective of caste, has proved divisive among voters.

Ed Butler speaks to Ashwini Deshpande, economics professor at Ashoka University, who claims that Modi's move won't even help the underprivileged group it purports to. Plus former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, gives his considered opinion of the successes and failures of five years of economic policy under Modi.

(Picture: An Indian voter queues to cast her vote; Credit: Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images)