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Apparently Zimbabwe’s plan to sell off the conflict diamonds from their Marange diamond fields is simply not going to come through as long as the HRW (Human Rights Watch) has any say in the matter. The HRW specifically instructed the leading diamond jewelry providers in the world to keep their distance from any diamonds from Zimbabwe. Specifically, Arvind Ganesan, Director of the Business & Human Rights Division at HRW, released an official warning regarding a full on embargo of Zimbabwe diamonds due to their many violations of serious human rights conditions. According to Arvind Ganesan, Zimbabwean diamonds are conflict diamonds in every sense of the term, and as such the HRW is requesting that jewelry retailers and jewelry consumers boycott these diamonds until the human rights infringements reach their end. In fact, Arvind Ganesan wrote a letter asking as much from leaders in the diamond jewelry industry, such as Cartier, Tiffany’s, and Zale.

Arvind Ganesan has turned to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as well as the World Diamond Council in an attempt to expand the current definition of blood diamonds to contain diamonds acquired by governments in conflict and not only diamonds by rebel groups. In his letter, the Director of the Human Rights Watch requested that major diamond jewelry retailers issue public statements regarding refusal to purchase Zimbabwean diamonds. Such acts on the parts of the major players in the diamond retail community will surely have some significant long-term effects on diamond production from the Murowa diamond mine, as well as the River Ranch diamond mine, which are thought to be channels for the sale of diamonds from the Marange fields in Zimbabwe.

In the letter, Arvind Ganesan also appeals to the powerful members of the diamond industry to use their influence on the Kimberley Process to ensure that Zimbabwe is fully suspended from the group up to the point when they actually meet basic human rights standards. As per reports from HRW, such human rights infringements as killing, smuggling, and child labor have been going on until just this October and there are no signs of any considerable changes since then. These diamonds have been smuggled to neighboring countries mixing with diamonds from other nations and basically causing a situation where conflict diamonds are traded worldwide.

Hence, it is up to the jewelry retailers to be responsible enough to make sure that they do not vend such conflict diamonds to their jewelry consumers. As diamond consumers are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about conflict diamonds and requesting certifications as to the origin of their diamonds, it was only a matter of time before Zimbabwean diamonds became too risky to be associated with.

The problem is that generally speaking, jewelry providers can’t just boycott their diamond jewelry items, but then again, nobody wants to be linked to conflict diamonds either. It looks like we’ll just have to wait and see how the major members of the diamond jewelry community intend to comply with the demands of the Human Rights Watch.

Five Emerging Trends for the Insurance Industry
Over the past few months, I have delivered a number of insurance oriented keynotes and, later this week, Ill be addressing a conference on Emerging Technologies for the insurance industry. While I cover a wide variety of trends in the information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors, here are five trends already impacting the insurance industry and which will only grow more prevalant over the coming years:

1. Genomics: Since 1998, the price of sequencing a base pair of genes has plummeted 100 million-fold. An individual can now have his or her genome sequenced for about $10,000. Obviosly, this still isnt practical or affordable for the average person but the price will soon decrease to $1000 and then $100and eventually even lower. The impact on human health will be profound and the implications for the insurance insurancein terms of life expectancy alonewill be immense.

2. Gaming Dynamics: The ability for smartphones to monitor everything from a persons heart rate and blood pressure to their glucose levels is impressive. To date, however, most of this data was just collected and then transferred wirelessly to healthcare providers who helped the patient make sense of it. This is about to change and gaming dynamics will lead the way by providing users new ways to engage, interact and, ultimately, control their own healthcare. Imagine, for example, receiving a lower insurance rate because you could verify that you exercised for 40 minutes and burned 400 calories. The potential for gaming dynamics to unleash new, innovative business models for the insurance industry is real.

3. Locational Intelligence & Pervasive Connectivity: Due to the exponential advancement of GPS technology and sensors, it is now possible to know a persons location to within a few feet. While this has made it easier for the “directional-challenged” to find their friends house a little quick, the technology is poised to revolutionize the insurance industry by making it feasible to monitor a persons driving habits. For instance, if a person is going too fast, braking too suddenly or driving or parking in a crime-ridden area, itll be possible to adjust that persons insurance rates accordingly. Undoubtedly this raises significant privacy concerns which might ultimately doom the technology, but it is just as feasible that cost-conscious consumers will be willing to provide access to such information in return for lower rates.

4. Computational Analytics and Data Mining: When a mild earthquake hit Washington, DC this past August, the first Twitter report reached New York 40 seconds ahead of the quakes shock waves. An impressive feat to be sure but itll pale in comparison to the type of information that will soon be delivered by data-mining Twitter and numerous other social networking sites. Officials at Southeastern Louisiana University recently reported they could track influenza outbreaks by collating the rise of Twitter texts from people complaining about flu symptoms. Other researchers have discovered there is a strong correlation between a persons physical health and the health of their friends. One future possibility is that publically-available social network data can be data-mined by insurance companies to offer discounted rates to individuals who travel in healthier social circles. (Again privacy concerns and regulations may prevent such uses but, then again, maybe not.)

5. Hyper-Personalization: The foundation of the insurance industry is based on the idea of pooling risk. This strategy has worked well for centuries but in the not-to-distant future it is entirely possible that many individuals will prefer to be insured based on their individual actionsand not the statistical average of a large group. This is especially true if the person in question is healthier, a better and safer driver, and cost-conscious to the point that they arent concerned with sharing certain data with the insurance provider in return for securing a lower premium for themselves.
This future is coming. The only question is whether you, your business, your association or your industry is ready.

His latest book is Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future.

The freight shipping industry has been on a fantastic ride for the last few years. The volume of shipments has increased exponentially and the number of freight forwarders and shipping providers has increased dramatically in order to keep up with demand. Although the freight shipping industry was impacted by the global recession in 2008 with many companies facing bankruptcy or going into receivership, overall the industry has remained bullish. The reason for the strength of the industry is simple businesses and individuals will always need to have their goods and products shipped to their customers.

Since the global marketplace has opened up drastically worldwide, it is now possible for consumers to shop twenty-four hours a day and for e-tailers to remain open in order to meet that demand. Naturally, with constant business being transacted, it means that freight shipping providers will always have work. The biggest problem currently facing the freight forwarders of the world is how to sustain the level of growth that they have been experiencing. It may not seem like a very complex issue, but it is, in fact, one of the most important that the shipping industry must resolve. The worlds shipping needs are currently being met because the infrastructure needed to sustain it is already in place. The problem arises from the fact that the current infrastructure is being used almost to capacity. If the freight shipping industry wants to continue expanding, it will have to begin creating new infrastructure to support the increase.

Now, creating the infrastructure requires financing something that the freight shipping companies may lack, and governments might not see the need to invest in building new ports, airports, railways and highways if they cannot see an immediate financial return from doing so. However, even if the governments from around the world were able to commit to building the needed infrastructure to allow the freight shipping industry to continue expanding, the creation of these new ports and airports will take time. The time needed to build the necessary infrastructure will, inevitably, have an impact on the speed of growth that the freight shipping industry is experiencing.

So, while it is true that the freight shipping sector can continue to expand for the foreseeable future, the long range forecast is far from clear. What is definitely clear is that the industry will have to begin investing in its future and also in finding ways to mitigate the eventual slowdown that all industry analysts know is coming.

The other very important point of consideration when it comes to the freight shipping industry is its negative environmental footprint. Engineers working for the shipping industry have been working on creating more powerful, more efficient engines for their sea and air carriers and they have also been working on ways of eliminating waste from their business model. However, the progress in this area is limited and still needs a lot of research and development to produce significant results. At least the reduction of the freight shipping industry footprint is on the agenda and being worked on diligently.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge from the time that mobiles were unheard of in India to the present where they have become almost ubiquitous. Beginning from those days, Indian subscribers paid around Rs. 16.40 for a mobile to mobile call and around Rs 32.80 for a mobile to a landline call. Today, as per recent statistics, customers pay far lesser for calls and occasional text messages that add up to around Rs 300 a month and upwards.

Now that mobiles have moved into the affordable bracket, there is a great demand for additional mobile services such as mobiles, email, stock market quotes, and astrology services, just to name a few.

A recent survey pointed to the fact that for most customers, mobile phones have become an extension of their personality. Many go a step ahead to say that mobile phones define their individuality as well.

In such a scenario, it is worthwhile to compare the growth of the mobile phone industry vis-a-vis the computer industry in India. According to recent statistics, there are nearly 300 million mobile phone subscribers as compared to just around 30 million PCs in the country. Additionally, around 8 million subscribers are signing up every month for mobile services alone.

For most individuals, mobile phones are becoming a single point of contact for the world surrounding them covering a wide range of utilities like emailing, entertainment, and banking.

More and more people are looking out for more than just talk time on their mobiles. All this is generating a lot of enthusiasm for mobile companies. A number of serious players in this industry are looking at a range of such value added services, which have the capability to boost their bottom line.

Not only are Indians enthralled, but they started spending a considerable amount on these services too. This figure amounted to around $250 million last year. This figure is expected to reach $1.7 billion by the year 2010. This is a boon in disguise for Indian cellular operators who are seriously looking forward to enhance their revenues. Currently, nearly 80% of the revenues come from services like ring tones and SMS. This makes India the second largest mobile market on earth.

The young mobile savvy generation currently feels less privileged in nearly every sector. And thats precisely what is fuelling the growth in mobile services across the country. As the market expands but fulfilling the needs of mobile users by providing them attractive services, mobile phones are becoming a new vehicle for reaching out to the mobile generation.

Mobile content providers also visualise a big jump in their services. These include many global companies such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, which have signed up with many Indian operators like Airtel, Bharti, Vodafone, Tata, and Reliance Communications. Together, they offer a host of services based on the local and regional markets in their area of operation.

The Indian mobile scenario seems to be all set for the next stage expansion and consolidation, but there are a few complications as well. Not all users can afford costlier services beyond messaging and talk time. What is expected is increase in the already growing user base so such services can become affordable to one and all in the long run.