In advance of its Annual meeting, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has designated 69 people as Technology Pioneers for 2002. The list includes five people of Indian origin. Five others from India, including K. Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's Lab and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon India, have been reinvited for the second year running.

For the first time in its 31 year history, the WEF will not hold its annual event at Davos, Switzerland. Instead, in a gesture to the Big Apple, the organisers have decided to hold it in New York from January 31 to February 4. Not surprisingly, 9/11 has determined the agenda: "Leadership in Fragile Times: Vision for a Shared Future".

It will give the world leaders a moment to stand back and reflect on events, albeit not with the Swiss ski slopes in the backdrop, and the way they have unfolded in the past three months. Economic stabilisation and unbridled reliance on market forces will also be on their minds, especially since both point to an enhanced role for the government.

Professor Klaus Schwab, president and founder of the WEF, says that the four guiding points of this year's summit would be creating and sustaining economic growth, bridging the global divide, sharing and respecting values and addressing security issues.

But the network of global protesters have their own spin on the event. Not deterred by the sombre air that has come to dominate New York, they plan their usual turnout to protest-in the wake of mass lay offs-the event. It will be interesting to see how newly crowned mayor Michael Bloomberg-no mean tycoon himself-deals with the protesters.

-Anil Padmanabhan

SPY VERSUS SPY
Listening to the Other President

When President Jiang Zemin of China meets US President George W. Bush on February 21, he may have a few sweet nothings to whisper into Bush's ear. Chinese intelligence officials have found more than 20 advanced satellite-controlled spying devices in a Boeing 767 purchased for Jiang's use from the US, including some in the bathroom and bed. The bugs were found when they started emitting static during a test-flight in China three months ago. The Chinese tried to suppress the matter, and the Americans, of course, are keeping mum.

Anthrax Mystery

The news that a batch of 27 specimens of pathogens, including anthrax and the ebola virus, had gone missing in February 1992 from a US Army lab in Maryland, a Washington suburb, has triggered intense speculation that the mystery surrounding the anthrax attacks in the US is about to be solved. But that may take a while to happen since the revelations don't reveal so much.

The reports, which appeared in Connecticut newspaper Hartford Courant say the anthrax stolen was not weapons grade. Moreover, experts say the germs would have been killed before being put on slides. However, since anthrax spores are notoriously resilient, it is possible that some of them may have survived and they might have been recovered from the samples and converted to weapons grade, they add, though that is a very difficult and expensive process. So who did it?

More Woes for IT

Asia's information technology (IT) sector will see a further shakeout in 2002 through job losses and supplier consolidation, according to an AFP report quoting research firm Gartner. "Half of all IT suppliers that existed in 2001 will disappear by the end of 2003," the report said. Storage vendors are likely to be hardest hit.

The telecom service provider market in the region will also hot up, meaning cut-throat competition. The good news is sparse: Internet-delivered software services and corporate wireless networks are among the few areas for which growth is predicted.

Gartner had predicted the Asian dotcom bust in May 2000.