Special Reports provide in-depth FT coverage of countries around the world, as well as industries from tech to luxury and themes ranging from workplace health to entrepreneurship.

Japan & Sustainability

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 23 July 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

(1) Prime minister Yoshihide Suga had only been prime minister for a couple of months when he made a dramatic and unexpected announcement: Japan will go carbon neutral by 2050. After years of half-measures, Japan is finally getting serious about climate change, but the energy-poor island has always struggled to find ways to generate power without emissions. How will Suga live up to his promises?

(2) Are the Games more sustainable due to Covid? 

The global pandemic caused the postponement of the Olympics for the first time and has created unprecedented logistical and organisation issues as Tokyo battles to hold the games in 2021 with no spectators allowed in from outside and other strict limitations. The games were always pitched as a model of sustainability, but is it possible that the conditions under which the games must be held could create a new template for sustainability as the IOC looks to a post-Covid world? 

(3)   Fuel cell buses are now a prominent sight on the streets of Tokyo and they will have a high profile at the Olympics. The city of Tokyo has introduced the hydrogen-fuelled vehicles onto several busy urban routes. But how is hydrogen working out in practice? How much does it increase costs and how far does it reduce flexibility? In other words, is this technology for real? 

(4)   Companies from SoftBank to Hitachi and Olympus have outlined new targets to reduce their carbon footprint by 2030 as investor pressure increases for businesses to lay out a practical and near-term strategy to combat climate change. With prime minister Yoshihide Suga also setting an ambitious goal for 2030, what immediate steps are Japanese companies taking to hit their carbon targets? 

(5)   Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the largest nuclear power plant in the world and since 2011 it has not generated a single kilowatt of electricity. Owned by Tokyo Electric - which ran the ill-fated reactors at Fukushima Daiichi - it was plagued with safety problems even before those meltdowns. Restarting it would cut Japan’s carbon emissions and transform the viability of Tepco. But will the public ever allow Kashiwazaki to generate power again? 

(6)   Is the Government Pension Investment Fund still serious about ESG? Under its charismatic former chief investment officer, Hiro Mizuno, Japan’s $1.7tn pension fund established itself as the world’s biggest proponent of ESG investment, with demands made of its external asset managers that have become templates for other sovereign wealth funds and big institutions. But with Mizuno now gone, the fund appears to have re-examined its commitment to ESG, and begun questioning whether the fiduciary duty to seek high returns should receive a greater emphasis. 

(7)   In 2012 Japan launched an ambitious project aimed at encouraging investment in solar and other renewable energy projects. It did this with exceptionally generous tariff offers that successfully drew hundreds of funds in to build solar farms, but created significant financial difficulties when those tariffs were reduced. Hundreds have gone bankrupt, which has triggered unprecedented legal actions against the Japanese government, and also posed the question of whether the country’s solar project can continue to grow. 

(8)   Company Interview 

We will profile a leading Japanese company and its sustainability plans. For example, Honda has laid out an ambitious plan to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040. How is Japan's second-largest carmaker going to achieve it and what prompted this shift in strategy in a country where gasoline-electric hybrids continue to be a big part of car sales? 

(9)   Coal Exports 

Japan has promised to curtail its official funding for new coal power stations abroad. However, three big plants are still in the pipeline: Vung Ang 2 in Vietnam, Indramayu in Indonesia and Matarbari Phase 2 in Bangladesh, drawing intense criticism from campaigners. How do local communities see these plants and will they go ahead? 

(10)   Whaling 

Japan has restarted commercial whaling, backing its fishing communities in the teeth of international opposition. Some experts, however, think that forcing whaling to show its commercial viability will eventually lead to its abandonment. How is the whaling restart getting on and is the product selling?

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Sunny Sun +81 903207 7568, sunny.sun@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised, the Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Business Education: 

Masters in Management

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 13 September, 2021

We are likely to include the following articles (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

After an extraordinary period for Masters in Management (MiM) students and business schools alike, what have we learnt and how are they preparing for the future, when the pandemic subsides? Schools have been forced to reconsider how they deliver the degree and students have had a very different experience - yet applications are rising.

Editor’s Letter: Looking at developments in business education and our coverage. 

Analysis

What does this year’s Financial Times ranking of MiM courses tell us about trends in the market? 

Management Column

Andrew Hill, the FT’s management editor, explores current thinking around leadership. 

Professor’s Column

A business school professor shares their thoughts and research on challenges facing ethical business today. 

Interview

An in-depth interview with a graduate or student about their studies and what their masters has meant for their career.

Chartering Masters Data

The FT’s rankings team use graphics to explore trends in the data that went to make up this year’s top 100 list.

Digital

Unlike some other business degrees, MiMs have traditionally been delivered full time, in person - but will the experience of the pandemic change this, with remote and blended learning on the rise?

Pandemic Response

Looking at schools’ reactions to Covid and what students’ can expect on campus and beyond.  

Human Rights

How business school programmes are increasingly putting human rights on the curriculum.

Getting on Course

At a time when MiM applications are up as potential students look to strengthen their qualifications amid pandemic uncertainty, how do you make your application stand out?

Jobs

How business schools are helping graduates with their job searches in a challenging market - and what tips do experts offer? 

Student View

Masters in Management students and graduates share their experiences of study and what came next.

Technology

An FT tech specialist explores developments that will affect business and our working lives. 

In Real Life

A graduate explains what it was like to take a Masters in Management and how it has affected their career, in their own words.  

Editorial information:

Special Reports are written by FT staff journalists and a small number of selected freelance writers. They will be specialists in the field and already have regular contacts to update them. It is therefore difficult for an unsolicited submission to be so compelling that it forces its way on to a writer’s agenda. However, it does happen occasionally. We ask that all submissions be sent to ftreports@ft.com, from where they are forwarded to the appropriate writer.

Please also note that due to the volume of material received, it is not always possible to acknowledge or reply to every submission.

■ Recently published Surveys and FT Reports, as well as a list of forthcoming FT Reports and their synopses can be downloaded by going to www.ft.com/special-reports and clicking on the link to the Reports library.

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

■ Back issues of printed Survey and FT Reports can be obtained from: Historic Newspapers, Signature Online Limited, No 1 waterside Station Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 4US; Tel. no: 0870 165 1470; Fax no: 01582 469 248; or email: info@back-issue-newspapers.co.uk

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Supplements and Special Reports.

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

 Gemma Taylor +44 (0)20 7873 3698, gemma.taylor@ft.com

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Jackie King +1 917 551 5113, jackie.king@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

FTfm: ETFs 2

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 13 September 2021.

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Democratisation vs the Nanny State

Since the Reddit rebellion - when retail investors used the messaging platform to coordinate buying of out-of-favour stocks - exchange traded funds have found themselves in the frontlines of an ideological battle. It has been between those who believe that retail investors should be allowed to take risks and those who believe they should not. For example, Bitcoin exchange traded products have been approved for trading in Europe (and Canada), but remain off limits to US investors. What evidence is there that retail investors cannot make rational decisions? How are these differing opinions on retail investors’ capabilities likely to play out in the ETF market?

Thematics

Over the past year, huge interest in the Ark suite of innovation-focused ETFs helped triple the assets under management in so-called “thematic” funds. Thematics accounted for around 15 per cent of all new ETF listings in the US and 80 per cent of investors surveyed by Brown Brothers Harriman planned to increase their exposure to them. Thematics have been welcomed by many retail investors who have embraced the opportunity to be able to express their conviction that there will be future growth in areas such as clean energy or cannabis. But is this enthusiasm for more narrowly focused ETFs wise? Fees tend to be higher and in some particularly narrow sectors there can be a shortage of investable companies resulting in huge concentration of ownership in illiquid companies. 

Fixed income ETFs

As 2020 drew to a close, industry participants were predicting that fixed income ETFs had finally come of age and were predicting massive growth in bond ETFs. Global assets under management in fixed income ETFs have grown from $100bn in 2008 to $1.75tn today. And, during the pandemic-fuelled market meltdown of March 2020, bond ETFs are thought to have offered advantages - by providing liquidity that was lacking in the underlying securities. However, fears of a return to a high inflationary environment for the first time in decades has seen an increase in flows to shorter duration bond ETFs - and a significant rise in inflows to inflation-linked ETFs. If there is a sharp rise in inflation, will bond ETFs still look attractive compared to other ways of accessing the fixed income market? 

China ETFs

The first onshore China ETF was launched in 2004, but there are now more than 450 ETFs offering exposure to mainland China with combined assets under management of $240bn. Growth looks set to continue with providers apparently keen to capitalise on China’s commitment to reach net zero in carbon emissions by 2060. But what else are China’s ETFs investing in? Have the vehicles helped domestic investors access overseas investments? Is that likely to change? 

ESG

2020 was the year when climate change rose to the top of many investors’ agendas. It resulted in a proliferation of ETF products, especially in Europe, which promised investors a more sustainable and ethical investment product. However, there has been criticism that many of the ETFs on offer have been guilty of “greenwashing” - overstating their credentials. Consequently, there has been a shift towards ETFs that track indices that give more weighting to companies that are positively doing good, rather than simply avoiding sin stocks like coal producers. But what are the best ESG ETFs if you want to maximise returns?

Leveraged and crypto ETFs

Leveraged and inverse exchange traded products might only account for 1 per cent of the nearly $6tn US ETP market, but they have been drawing heavy interest, especially from retail investors. These products, which offer geared returns on underlying index movements, can multiply gains but can also lead to staggering losses for investors if the market moves against them. Losses can be even larger if they have been bought on margin - or borrowed money. At the same, investors in Europe have been swarming over cryptocurrency ETFs that have yet to be approved in the US. But how great is the risk?

Advisor models and robo advisors

Some of the largest asset managers have decided to invest in businesses  that will provide tailor made portfolio solutions for investors who feel they want help to manage their investable cash. JPMorgan bought Nutmeg, a UK robo advisor in June. In the same month, BlackRock said it expected to attract half its US ETF flows from these “adviser models”, and Vanguard said it expected demand for financial advice to grow exponentially. If there is evidence of greater tolerance for risk, why is there also growing demand for advice?

Commodities

As the global economy cranks back into gear, market participants are talking increasingly about the diversification benefits of investing in commodities such as metals. But if diversification is actually the aim, is it better to invest using ETFs in a wide basket of commodities or in a more narrowly focused product that focuses on only one segment of the broader commodities market? And if inflation really is one of the driving fears, what prospects do gold ETFs offer?

Debate

A debate between a proponent of risk-taking with ETFs, such as Will Rhind of  GraniteShares,  and a professional who advises strongly against that idea - possibly James McManus of Nutmeg. 

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Chris Holt,  +44 (0)7415136450, chris.holt@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

FT Health:

Communicable Diseases

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 27 September 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note this list is provisional):

Covid and the Resurgence of Communicable Disease

After heavy investment in non-infectious diseases such as cancer, coronavirus has refocused attention on the risks from communicable diseases, which are killing millions of people, leaving  lingering long term effects and imposing trillions of dollars of economic damage.

Covid’s Long-term Consequences

An examination of the progress being made in better efforts to diagnose, prevent and treat coronavirus as it continues to spread and mutate, including tackling the lingering side effects of “long covid” for many of those infected.

Healthier Lifestyles for Prevention

The disproportionate vulnerability to coronavirus of groups with “lifestyle” diseases such as obesity and diabetes linked to lack of exercise and poor diet is sparking fresh debate about measures to control advertising, tax unhealthy food and stimulate more exercise.

Health Systems

As the experience of countries including India has demonstrated in the pandemic, the ability to detect, support and respond to communicable diseases is driven by the capacity of doctors, clinics and hospitals, and the ability of governments, employers or patients to pay. That has sparked fresh debates on universal health coverage and new ways to fund the spiralling costs of health. 

Vaccination

The pressure, funding and scientific breakthroughs around Covid vaccines have reinvigorated the field, with wide-ranging applications of mRNA technology, and new models of financing and production to tackle many preventable diseases.

Biosecurity

Debates about the origins of Covid-19 have rekindled discussion on the dangers of seeking to identify, analyse and manipulate viruses in laboratories, raising the risk of leaks and accelerated development of new health threats. 

Antimicrobial Resistance

Spurred by efforts in countries including the UK and the US with its Pasteur act, the G7 has called for fresh efforts to develop financial incentives to support the development of new antibiotics to tackle growing drug resistance for tuberculosis, hospital-acquired infection and other conditions.

HIV

40 years after Aids was first identified, much progress has been made in tackling the epidemic despite the absence of either a vaccine or a cure. That brings important lessons for Covid but also highlights the importance of human rights and broader societal factors in tackling disease.

Malaria

I lower income countries, malaria remains the largest killer and creates a heavy burden of sickness. Climate change risks pushing the parasite in to richer countries and more highland areas long shielded from its burden.

Disease Eradication

Alongside smallpox, efforts continue to remove guinea worm and polio, yet the costs, complexities and duration of those campaigns bring broader lessons on the difficulties of eradication

Neglected Tropical Diseases

Schistosomiasis and other debilitating conditions that cause illness and introduce long-term barriers to social and economic development remain widespread in poor, rural areas. They can be tackled using simple low cost drugs and help build networks to support broader development, but recent aid cuts and pressures from coronavirus have reduced support.

Op-ed

A view from a leading clinician, scientist, policymaker or investor about approaches to better tackle communicable disease.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Sunny Sun +81 903207 7568, sunny.sun@ft.com

Nick Phillips on +44 (0)20 7873 4216, nick.phillips@ft.com

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Oliver Higgs +44 (0)20 7775 6823, oliver.higgs@ft.com

Ashley Hamilton +44 (0)7565 060 179, ashley.hamilton@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Sustainable Development Goals/ Global Goals

for manufacturing/ energy

The Financial Times proposes to publish this Special Report in 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

The FT plans a series of special reports to assess progress towards achieving the UN sustainable development goals by a looming deadline of 2030.

FT correspondents around the world will examine the extent to which countries and businesses have advanced towards the core goals of the 17 SDGs.  

Since they were agreed by the world five years ago. This stock-taking comes at a key turning point for boardrooms as they face growing demands from investors and stakeholders to pursue purpose beyond making a profit.

One group of reports will focus on best practice in Energy,  Mobility and Manufacturing sectors to progress towards SDGs, both new developments from big business and start-ups. The goals that  are most relevant to these industries are:

1. Climate change mitigation
2. Affordable and clean energy
3. Responsible consumption 
4. Sustainable cities and communities
5. Health and wellbeing
6. Partnerships for the goals
7. Industry, innovation

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Nick Phillips on +44 (0)20 7873 4216, nick.phillips@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Technology: Latin America

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on May 01^st, 2020

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

Latam tech is coming of age. After a slow start, the arrival last year of major investors such as Japan's Softbank and Chinese players such as Tencent have brought a flood of new money. Investment in 2019 totalled around $5bn and the number of venture capital firms active in the region is growing fast. 

Interview with leading tech fund investor in the region

Tech for Good

While Brazil is not likely to create a new social network or score a moonshot, there is a great deal of space for technology to improve people's lives in a country with huge social needs, whether in terms of tech-enabled education programmes to improve literacy, healthcare programmes to lower the cost of care or group buying to reduce the price of basic goods. 

Incumbents Play Catch-up

Brazil's old guard companies embrace tech. Some of the country's biggest companies - banks Itaú and Bradesco and beverage giant Ambev - are offering "fast tracks" to start-ups to supply innovations. The companies know they can't attract the talent that start-ups do, so their thinking is this "fast track" is a way to obtain cutting edge tech. 

Mexico Tech

Why does Mexico, Latin America's second biggest economy, not have a single unicorn? Part of the answer relates to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his tech problem. López Obrador's vision for the economy is one fired by fossil fuels and powered by state-led development. Tech is not a word often heard in the government's vocabulary. 

Colombia Tech

Despite President Duque's enthusiastic rhetoric promoting what he likes to call the "Orange Economy", tech companies in Colombia have had mixed fortunes. Uber's experience is a sobering lesson: following a battle over regulation, Uber exited the country earlier this month amid acrimony. 

Medellin

Better known as the hometown of one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers, Colombia's second city is re-inventing itself as a tech hub. Chosen as the only city in Latin America to host one of the Centres for the 4th Industrial Revolution, Medellin is now working on cutting-edge blockchain and AI projects. 

Montevideo

Tiny Uruguay has become an unlikely software star. Supportive government policies, a well-educated population, low costs and good internet access mean the country of 3.5m now exports software to more than 52 nations. 

Buenos Aires

Argentina has been the premier origin of Latin America's unicorns, with retailing giants such as Mercado Libre (Latam's Amazon). But will the new Peronist government promote the knowledge economy or will their protectionist and statist bent undermine all that? 

Chile

A look at Start-up Chile, a public start-up accelerator created by the Chilean Government for high-potential entrepreneurs. Today, Start-Up Chile is the leading accelerator in Latin America and among the top 10 globally. 

Company Profiles

Brazil Fintech

Known for its high costs and bureaucracy Brazil’s economy remains dominated by five big, traditional banks. The flipside is that this is making it an increasingly attractive target for agile technology start-ups.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page.

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports.

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries.

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

John Moncure +1 917 551 5036, john.moncure@ft.com

Brazil

Alessandre Siano +55 11 992 912 814, alessandre.siano@ft.com

Argentina, Chile, Uruguay & Paraguay

Gonzalo Rio +54 9 11 5497 6679, gonzalo.rio@ft.com or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content

Business Education: EMBA

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 18 October, 2021

We are likely to include the following articles (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

Executive MBA participants have traditionally been highly mobile, often travelling the globe as part of their studies. How have EMBA providers and students navigated this and other challenges of the pandemic and how might the degree change?. 

Editor’s Letter: Looking at developments in business education and our coverage. 

Analysis

What does this year’s Financial Times ranking of EMBA courses tell us about trends in the market? 

Management Column

Andrew Hill, the FT’s management editor, explores current thinking around leadership. 

Professor’s Column

A business school professor shares their thoughts and research on challenges facing ethical business today. 

Charting EMBA Data

The FT’s rankings team use graphics to explore trends in the data that went to make up this year’s list.

Interview

An in-depth interview with a graduate or student about their studies and what their EMBA has meant for their career.

Travel

This has traditionally been a key part of the EMBA experience, with trips to experience business abroad and study sessions overseas to ensure an international education. How are schools responding to the restrictions on travel in the pandemic era?    

Student Support

Executive MBA programmes are intense and highly demanding and the pandemic has added an extra layer of difficulty. What are schools doing to support participants on what some call the “divorce course”?

Funding

How UK apprenticeship funding controversially came to be used by companies to support EMBAs for senior staff. This was not the original aim of the schemes and caused embarrassment to the government, which banned the practice - but has it really ceased?    

Entrepreneurship

EMBA programmes have traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to the top of an organisation, but as employer funding dwindles, more students have been turning to entrepreneurship. What are EMBA programmes doing to support this?

Getting Political

Looking at those who have used the EMBA as a gateway - in both directions - between politics or public service and the private sector, and how it helped the transition.

Student Views

EMBA students and graduates share their experiences of study and what came next.

Technology

An FT tech specialist explores developments that will affect business and our working lives. 

In Real Life

A graduate explains what it was like to take an EMBA and how it has affected their career, in their own words.  

Editorial information:

Special Reports are written by FT staff journalists and a small number of selected freelance writers. They will be specialists in the field and already have regular contacts to update them. It is therefore difficult for an unsolicited submission to be so compelling that it forces its way on to a writer’s agenda. However, it does happen occasionally. We ask that all submissions be sent to ftreports@ft.com, from where they are forwarded to the appropriate writer.

Please also note that due to the volume of material received, it is not always possible to acknowledge or reply to every submission.

■ Recently published Surveys and FT Reports, as well as a list of forthcoming FT Reports and their synopses can be downloaded by going to www.ft.com/special-reports and clicking on the link to the Reports library.

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

■ Back issues of printed Survey and FT Reports can be obtained from: Historic Newspapers, Signature Online Limited, No 1 waterside Station Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 4US; Tel. no: 0870 165 1470; Fax no: 01582 469 248; or email: info@back-issue-newspapers.co.uk

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Supplements and Special Reports.

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

 Gemma Taylor +44 (0)20 7873 3698, gemma.taylor@ft.com

Rachel Spence +44 (0)20 7873 3290, rachel.spence@ft.com

Jackie King +1 917 551 5113, jackie.king@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Tech Talent in India

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 28 October 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

India’s Tech Workforce and the Impact of Covid-19

India’s devastating second wave of Covid-19 has hit its global services industry hard. As the world’s leading back-office hub, with nearly 4.5m people doing everything from answering customer service calls to software development to mortgage processing, the country has been chosen by global banks and technology groups as an operations base. But with infections out of control and hospitals overwhelmed, businesses have been forced to move work overseas, delay projects and build their own treatment facilities for employees. Can India’s tech talent recover from this?  

Digital Winners Emerge as India Battles the Pandemic 

A recent Nikkei report highlighted the way India is catching up with China in the creation of $1bn-valuation tech start-ups - so-called “unicorns”. It  highlights a growing investor appetite for tech businesses as the pandemic accelerates the adoption of digital services. Over the past year, 15 companies from India raised capital at a valuation of $1bn or more for the first time, according to CB Insights and company announcements gathered by Nikkei Asia. Ten of them became unicorns in 2021. By comparison, only two of the 15 companies from China that joined the list over the past year did so in 2021.

India’s Next Generation of Tech Talent 

According to the co-founder of Infosys, the first stage of technology development in India gained momentum in the 1990s, with the rise of IT outsourcing. Then, from the mid 2000s, the second stage of tech innovation began: startups in ecommerce and services: Flipkart, Ola, Paytm, Oyo. But India is still waiting for a technology titan like America’s Google, Facebook and Amazon or China’s Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Given all of the entrepreneurial talent available, why is it taking so long? 

Facebook’s Bet on India

Last year, Facebook placed a huge bet on India’s tech market: the US tech giant invested $5.7bn in Reliance Jio, for a 9.9 per cent stake in the telecoms company. Its aim appeared to be creating a “super app” to connect India’s 400m WhatsApp users and the country’s 60m small and medium-sized businesses - a bit like a “WeChat” for India. This Chinese “super app”, owned by Tencent, can be used to message your friends, do your shopping, hail a taxi and perform a host of other services. And Facebook admitted it wanted to “enable new opportunities” for small businesses across India. Will it do the saem for India tech workers? 

India versus China: App Wars  

In 2020, New Delhi banned scores of Chinese apps from operating in India - escalating a campaign against Chinese tech companies that began after a border clash between the two countries left 21 Indian soldiers dead. This so-called “digital strike” has hit large Chinese tech companies including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance.Relation between the countries are still not normalised - but has this helped Indian tech companies in any way? Have their app makers been able to compete more effectively for customers or talent?   

Will India’s Tax Plans Deter US Tech Companies? 

India set up a showdown with US president Joe Biden’s administration earlier this year, after announcing one of the world’s toughest taxes on foreign technology companies. Narendra Modi’s government announced several amendments to a 2 per cent “equalisation levy” on digital services, which amounted to an expansion of the tax. The measure, which applies to everything from ecommerce to video streaming, follows a similar 6 per cent levy on digital advertising from 2016, known as the “Google tax”. The latest levy is one of several examples of bold but contentious steps New Delhi has taken to assert control over US tech companies. But will it put them off and affect their operations? 

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