Business Daily

The barcode has become an essential part of the modern world. There are 10 billion barcode scans every day and they are used on products in every country.

It started as a few lines drawn in the Florida sand and today it turns 50. It changed the way we shop and trade, without them global supply chains could not function.

Presenter / producer: Sam Fenwick

As India is poised to overtake China as the world's most populous country, we put questions from World Service listeners to the author of 8 Billion and Counting. Dr Jennifer Sciubba explains how the number of humans is growing in some countries, declining in others, how people are moving around the world and why that matters when it comes to money and work. She also discusses the issue of fertility and birth-rate, and it's close links to factors such as government support and childcare.

Presenter: Devina Gupta

(Image: A mother and child. Credit: Getty Images)

Japan is the world’s fastest ageing country, nearly 30% of Japan’s population is already over 65. Devina Gupta looks into what the ever decreasing workforce means for businesses in Japan.

Many companies are pouring resources into developing advanced robots and artificial intelligence to do human work. Mikio Okumura- president of one of Japan’s largest insurance companies - Sompo Holdings, tells us his company has recently started using AI to analyse complex data to predict the health risks of individuals.

Many small and medium businesses owners nearing retirement age are also struggling to find successors. Japan’s trade ministry has warned that by 2025 over half a million profitable businesses could close, costing the economy $165 billion. Tsuneo Watanabe, a director of Nihon M&A Center, a company that specializes in finding buyers for such enterprises tells us how they're trying to solve the problem.

Producer / presenter: Devina Gupta

Bisi Adebayo investigates why so many young, highly skilled people leave Nigeria, known in the country as Japa.

Bisi hears from journalist Victoria Idowu who re-located to Canada with her family and a teacher in Lagos who is about to pack her bags and move to the UK.

We also hear from an expert in employment data Babajide Ogunsanwo who tells us how much this costs Nigeria and Wale Smart an employer who explains how tricky it is to find and retain staff.

Presenter / producer: Bisi Adebayo

Italy’s population has decreased by approximately one million residents in the space of one year and forecasts predict that this is likely to worsen.

Hannah Mullane speaks to a mother in Rome about what it’s like to start a family in Italy and a business that’s implementing its own policies to support staff who choose to have children.

We take a look at what the government is planning to do to encourage more people to have children and head to the north of Italy to the Bolzano region, the only part of the country where births are increasing to see what they’re doing differently.

Presenter/producer: Hannah Mullane

Devina Gupta reports on India's growing population and what that means for people living, working and running businesses there.

66 year old Radha Gupta and her daughter Aashima Gupta live in India’s capital city, Delhi. They tell us how population dynamics have changed their lifestyle over the years, and business woman Vineeta Singh tells us how she has capitalised on a growing number of consumers in India and how this is attracting global finance.

Presenter / producer: Devina Gupta

David Reid delves into the debate around the repatriation of problematic art and treasures. He visits one museum in the north-west of England attempting to decolonise its collection by returning thousands of items to the countries and communities they were taken from.

In this episode we meet curators like Dr Njabulo Chipangura, from Manchester Museum, who says the best way to guarantee the future of collections is to give parts of them away. Also, Professor Kim A. Wagner from the University of London tells us the story of the skull of Alum Bheg, which he would dearly like to return to India.

Is this ultimately the right way to treat problematic artefacts and treasures? Or could this movement end up destroying hard to acquire expertise and render Museums meaningless and economically unviable?

Producer/presenter: David Reid

(Photo: The skull of Alum Bheg: Credit: Kim Wagner)

Ten years ago this month, in March 2013, Venezuela’s charismatic socialist leader Hugo Chavez died and current president Nicolas Maduro took over.

In the decade since, the South American nation suffered an extraordinary economic collapse – the economy shrunk by two thirds, inflation hit six digits, the government chopped 11 zeros off the bank notes, oil production slumped and millions of people fled abroad to escape economic hardship.

We talk to Venezuelans who lived through that collapse, from a shopkeeper who went bankrupt to a university professor whose salary in the local currency, bolivars, is worth just 25 US dollars a month.

We also ask if the worst is over and what the future holds for this once wealthy nation – a founding member of Opec that sits on some of the world’s largest oil reserves.

Producer and presented by Gideon Long

(Image: A Venezuelan man holding a Chavez/Maduro balloon. Credit: Getty Images)

AI chatbots are everywhere at the moment - but how are they being used by business? Business Daily presenter Rick Kelsey heads to one of the world's financial hubs, Canary Wharf in London, to find out how this technology is changing jobs.

Sarah Kunst, the managing director of Cleo Capital, which invests in tech companies in San Francisco, tells us how some start-ups are using AI bots to deep search the internet, but also about her concerns with misinformation.

Chante Venter is from Wise Move, a removal firm in South Africa. She has recently started using the chatbot for communication with customers and says that it's helping her team enjoy their work more. Rochelle Garrad from Chards, a coin and bullion dealer in Blackpool in the north west of England, talks about how chatbots can create content like blogs and YouTube scripts very quickly, but sometimes less accurately.

Producer / presenter: Rick Kelsey

Arguably the fastest growing music genre in the world, Afrobeats artists are playing to sold out crowds in the most coveted venues across the globe.

What started as an umbrella term in London, UK, to encapsulate pop music of African extraction has become a major force in pop culture.

But is Afrobeats able to emerge as a major economic force within the continent and can it leverage on its global appeal to boost other sectors including fashion and the arts?

We hear from the pioneers like Abass Tijani, one of the very first DJs to play Afrobeats in UK clubs and Ayo Shonaiya who created the first TV show featuring musicians from Nigeria and Ghana.

We also hear from Weird MC and Paul Play Dairo – two artists whose experimentation of sound in the mid-1990s contributed immensely to the growth and appeal of the genre.

Produced and presented by Peter MacJob.

(Image: Burna Boy performing at the NBA All Star game 2023. Credit: Getty Images)