Latest news with #Free
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 days ago
- Business
- First Post
How modern trade agreements are powering fintech-led flows and digital economy
As global commerce becomes increasingly digital, fintech is no longer just a sector—it's an infrastructure, and trade agreements are becoming its enabler read more For fintech firms, especially in emerging markets, these modern agreements are creating smoother pathways for cross-border operations, compliance harmonisation, and access to capital. Representational image: Moneycontrol Trade agreements in the 21st century are no longer just about reducing tariffs. Increasingly, they are evolving into frameworks that facilitate data flows, digital services, and financial innovation. They are evolving into frameworks that facilitate data flows, digital services and financial innovation. According to the World Trade Organisation over 60 per cent of newly signed trade deals contained more provisions related to e-commerce and digital finance. For fintech firms, especially in emerging markets, these modern agreements are creating smoother pathways for cross-border operations, compliance harmonisation, and access to capital. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As global commerce becomes increasingly digital, fintech is no longer just a sector—it's an infrastructure, and trade agreements are becoming its enabler. To a country like India, focusing on a viable strategy on the digital highway could mean more enterprises exporting services, ability for more financial organisations to provide capital elsewhere. Besides financial and diplomatic benefits, this is an immensely rewarding opportunity to innovative start-ups, fintechs and even Indian citizens to leverage. But, when money flows faster through the click of a button there are an equal number of challenges. And the global architecture of trade needs to reflect such economic realities and the associated solutions to such challenges. FTAs Tailored on Digital Aesthetics for Economic Diplomacy Free Trade agreements (FTAs) have been a way that countries have leveraged to improve their trade numbers. Digital economy focused trade agreements such as UK–Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) or UK–Australia Free Trade Agreement, or India-UK FTA, and scores of multilateral initiatives such as DEPA have been used as a stepping-stone towards a smarter and forward-looking approach. What makes such agreements particularly relevant is their capacity to unlock the potential of innovation, improvement of financial technology (fintech) and accessibility of digital finance. Several governments and businesses have sought resilience and inclusivity and perceive such trade agreements as viable tools to better their fintech cooperation, data interoperability, and even regulatory alignment. A classic example is the India-UAE CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) that includes dedicated chapters on digital trade, online consumer protection, and even digital identities allowing smoother regulatory alignment for Indian services platforms to offer value in the Gulf. The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), signed by Singapore, Chile, and New Zealand, is another example that goes further by introducing modular approaches to digital trade governance. What makes this deal strikingly unique are the chapters on fintech collaboration, digital identities, and data innovation - making it one of the first trade pacts designed from the ground up for a digitised economy. As a blueprint, DEPA shows how nations can align on principles while allowing flexibility for local regulations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Digital for Economic Diplomacy Focusing on digital nuances offers more opportunities to fintechs, financial enterprises and even countries. Fintech today is more than just a sector—it is a means of scaling financial inclusion, improving transparency, and enabling seamless business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-client (B2C) commerce. Trade agreements prioritising on fintech do more than promote commercial interests; they help build the financial plumbing of the future. Conversations hence around open finance frameworks, digital wallets, and interoperable payment can do more than just reduce friction for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Countries that evaluate trade on such parameters enable their SMEs and organisations to participate meaningfully in the global economy. Smart trade agreements also realise that the game is not only about reducing tariffs but removing regulatory fragmentation, inconsistent cybersecurity standards, and even opaque cross-border data policies. However, addressing such issues requires more than goodwill—it also demands harmonised frameworks. Hence, provisions that support e-invoicing, electronic signatures, secure digital authentication, and real-time payment systems are not only technical footnotes but competitive advantages. Doing these may seem like too much. But the pursuit of such exercises creates a multiplier effect. It reduces transaction costs, increase access to credit for underserved businesses, and enables transparency that benefits regulators and participants alike. Smart trade architecture is therefore, not just pro-growth, it's also pro-governance. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD DNAs of a Modern Trade Agreement The most forward-looking trade deals share a distinct set of traits: they treat data as a tradable asset, digital infrastructure as a public good, and fintech as a strategic growth lever. The UK–Singapore DEA exemplifies this shift. It ensures the free flow of data with strong privacy protections, removes unjustified data localisation requirements, and encourages cooperation in fintech and regtech. These aren't symbolic add-ons—they're foundational elements that enable real-time cross-border payments, digital identity verification, and compliance automation, which in turn reduces the cost of doing business internationally. Similarly, the UK–Australia FTA includes an innovation chapter—an uncommon but powerful feature. This dedicated space for dialogue on emerging technologies fosters collaboration in digital payments, open banking, and AI regulation. It recognises that trade today is as much about trust in digital standards as it is about trust in goods and services. Building a Digital Trade Commons As more countries prepare for next-generation trade agreements, the opportunity lies in building a shared digital trade commons—open, secure, and inclusive. Multilateral initiatives like SADEA (Singapore Australia Digital Economy Agreement) or the DEPA (Digital Economy Partnership Agreement) show that it's possible to design agreements that are agile, modular, and deeply attuned to the digital age. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The next phase of global trade will be driven less by the movement of containers and more by the movement of code, artificial-intelligence, or even compliance standards and capital flow. To policymakers therefore, the choice is clear: integrate fintech and digital finance as central pillars of trade policy, or risk creating agreements that are out of sync with economic realities. Those countries that embed digital economy thinking into their trade frameworks will hence not only future-proof their economic strategy but will emerge as new hubs of economic power. As the digital economy expands, aggregators and technology would become pivotal — not just in connecting services, but in shaping how countries, companies, and consumers participate in the global financial system. This is not just an opportunity for growth; it's a responsibility to help build the backbone of a more open, agile, and inclusive global economy. Rohit Arora is CEO and Co-Founder of Biz2X and Biz2Credit. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Al-Ahram Weekly
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Monster mash - Culture - Al-Ahram Weekly
Mohamed Adel, a Nineties-born student at the Academy of Arts' Theatre Institute, is one of the most interesting up-and-coming figures on the Egyptian stage today. In an odd, cross-generational handshake, his is an ideological and spiritual extension of the Free Theatre movement of the 1990s. His works are not on the epic scale (and, for that reason, are free of the flaws) that characterised his spiritual predecessor, the late Mohamed Aboulsoud. Together with the 1990s pioneers inspired by the first CIFET festivals, Aboulsoud formed the Free Theatre Movement, and there is something in the sensibility of Adel's productions, a kind of delicacy and craftsmanship, that recalls Free Theatre pioneers who burst onto the scene in the early 1990s when slide projectors were still cutting-edge technology. Adel, not unlike the late genius, is an auteur in the mould of the Frenchman Antonin Artaud, who predicted that the director, scenographer and scriptwriter would eventually merge into one person. This can be seen in his process: selecting classic texts from the Western and Eastern canon, and producing them through the lens of his own interpretation, with a moody mise en scene and characters perennially vulnerable in their lost and lonely humanity – politics entirely optional. What is so reminiscent of Aboulsoud is that there is something of the poetry of theatre in Adel's work, something of that intangible presence that sometimes manifests between two actors conversing or a single actor at a moment of vulnerability – the greater issues thematically evoked and manifested emotionally and intellectually. One thing about truly well-crafted dramatic art – I speak here of both theatre and cinema, and perhaps narrative art in general – is that as the story progresses, the individual events, characters, and details begin to recede, making way for the audience to see dimly the larger shapes of theme and concept, like fabric-draped sculptures whose planes can be discerned if you tilt your head at just the right angle and if the light hits them just so. On its surface, The Monster — shown at the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts' Theatre Institute International Festival — is a straightforward Victorian-era stage adaptation of both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and, Adel states, the play of the same title written by Nick Deere, which the director translated, adapted to suit his purposes, and then put on stage. It appears at first to be a costume drama, complete with Frankenstein's spastic creation, Dr and Mrs Frankenstein, together with an odd pair: Rita, a part-time prostitute, and her blind father, who form an unlikely friendship with The Creature (who, the director is careful to note, is a 'creature' rather than a 'monster'). The twist is that Dr Frankenstein (Mina Nabil) is being interrogated on suspicion of multiple murders – dozens, if the prosecutor is to be believed. The prosecutor, Smith (Ahmad al-Ramadi), knows nothing of the creature's existence and is blaming Frankenstein for the murders, scoffing at Frankenstein's panicked protests that 'the monster did it!' Mrs Frankenstein (played with aplomb by Nevine Hossam el-Din), a cold and ambiguous collaborator, now condemns, now supports, further muddying the waters. The structure appears at first like a whodunnit: there have clearly been numerous murders committed, brutal and bloody murders, and the audience is never quite sure at the start whether Dr. Frankenstein's frantic and emphatic denials, as the prosecutor sneers at his defense of 'the monster did it', are mendacious. Is Frankenstein a murderer? Is his wife an accomplice? What happened? Who killed these people? In a choppy-montage, vignette-lit, non-linear presentation, the audience is made privy to the sequence of events, cutting between scenes of the prosecutor's interrogation of Dr and Mrs Frankenstein and flashbacks – first of Frankenstein's dubious achievement of creating a human entity and then of that creature's journey through the world. We see the creature's gradual acquisition of consciousness, of language, of some degree of morals and values. We see him discover friendship and open his heart to love; we see him struggle with his father figure's disgust and abandonment, being a target of scorn and derision, being alone in the world without a family or others who resemble him. The parallel emerges unbidden and undeniable: in his loneliness, in his grief and desolation and heartbreaking innocence, the Creature is the quintessential human; he is every one of us, in our loneliness, our vulnerability, our doubt. He is created from lightning; he seeks the love of his creator, his father figure, but is met with only coldness, cruelty, and scorn; he seeks love and is rejected; he seeks family and finds none. In an ironic misunderstanding, he finally imagines that his only friend, Rita's blind father, has betrayed him. The ironic and heartbreaking twist in the story is thatm throughout, our sympathies are with the monster (thanks to the boundless charisma of Saïd Salman). We suffer alongside him, see firsthand his genuine, poignant innocence, experience his shy and trembling attempts at love and friendship, and share his heartbreak at finding himself rejected by the one who made him. We never quite believe that he was the murderer, because we believe in his innate goodness and see within him our own humanity. We see his innocence with our own eyes: the shattering of that innocence, and of our illusions, when he strangles the good-natured friend who has never been anything but kind and loving to him, is the shocking climax of The Monster. It is in the final part of the play that we see that even the kindest and most guileless creature (us? all of us?) can be driven too far, that cruelty, violence, rejection and loneliness can transform such a creature into a monster (or was he a monster all along? the insidious question can only enhance the ambiguity), who starts by killing his best friend and then goes on a rampage, a killing spree. It is revealed in the shattering climax that the creature has even murdered Rita, the woman he is hopelessly in love with, and we see Frankenstein's doomed attempts – at his creation's insistence – to bring her back to life as he once did with the creature who loved her. The Monster could easily have devolved into sentimental bathos, but restraint rules here with an iron fist. There is no melodramatic screaming, no gratuitous tears, and even the Creature, while aware of his wretchedness, sternly shies away from self-pity. The result is a show that entirely avoids sentimentality and melodrama, and has a kind of self-contained dignity to it, one without which its themes could never shine through. Having seen this play without set and costumes in a run-through, I can say with confidence that it is the strength of the directing and the acting that makes it, far more than the low-budget set design (the Theatre Institute clearly spent the bare minimum here, to say nothing of the fact that I saw with my own eyes a senior professor striding onto the stage in an attempt to sabotage the dress rehearsal), the costumes, which were less a period reconstruction than an attempt to evoke Europeanness and past-ness with a combination of Victorian and generic poet-pirate style, and the admittedly evocative and occasionally inspired lighting. Some plays are about painting pretty pictures; some are about capturing humanity in all its hubris and pathos, and this latter function is what The Monster does. Saïd Salman, beyond his spasticity and visible battle to gain control of his body and acquire human speech and mannerisms, has a profound charisma and vulnerability that is evident despite the monstrous makeup, and might have benefited from perhaps less greasepaint. Salman has two likewise deeply charismatic foils: the young prostitute Rita (Nellie al-Sharqawi), and her blind father (Abdel-Fattah al-Deberky). The scenes between Salman and Nellie are riveting, the chemistry between them stealing the audience's hearts and minds in its tenderness and fragility. In anything like an equitable world, Nellie would be a box-office star within a few years, and likewise Salman and Deberky. The latter's scenes together are just as riveting, the only moments when the lost and lonely Creature finds human care and affection, developing into friendship and eventual tragedy. There is an acting quality that the great director Peter Brook called 'the still point' – the actor's ability to reach a neutrality that can then be inhabited by any character. Every actor on stage had this to some degree, which makes the directorial hand apparent, of course; but the show is undeniably bursting with raw talent. The Monster would, I think, have benefited from being an hour rather than an hour and fifteen minutes long; it would also have benefited from someone who could smooth out some of the clunky Arabic phrases and correct grammatical errors. Still, it is my hope that this can be remedied for the sake of a play that deserves to be shown more widely than in a festival that is 'international' only in name. It is so-called because it presents foreign ('international') texts in translation. I fervently hope that The Monster can be honed and shown again, with better resources, to an appreciative audience. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
After FAFSA hiccups, more WV students completing the financial aid application
West Virginia's Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rate stands at 49.8%. (Getty Images) More West Virginia students are completing the college financial aid application, known as the FAFSA, following pandemic interruptions and nationwide issues with the form over the last year. According to data tracked by the National College Attainment Network, the state's Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rate stands at 49.8%. The state now ranks 15th in the nation for students completing the FAFSA, which is up from 19th last year, according to a news release from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Brian Weingart, senior director of financial aid at the commission, said the HEPC has worked side-by-side with schools, counselors and communities to make sure students had 'a clever path to financial aid.' HEPC credits the success to statewide partnerships. 'Whether it's through hands-on FAFSA events, real-time data tools, or text message nudges, we're meeting students where they are and helping them take that critical next step toward college. Behind every completed FAFSA is a student who's one step closer to their future,' he said. The federal government's 2024 botched rollout of the new FAFSA form prompted former Gov. Jim Justice to declare a state of emergency and suspended a requirement that college-bound high school seniors fill out the FAFSA in order to receive state financial aid, including the state's Promise Scholarship. Unlike some other states, West Virginia didn't have a statewide FAFSA mandate. Instead, the HEPC said it focused on strategic outreach and community engagement. A WV FAFSA day in February brought together more than 50 high schools and colleges. The organization also used 'TXT 4 Success,' a text message program that provides personalized guidance and nudges to help students stay on track with financial aid deadlines. 'West Virginia's success, and approach, offer a lot for other communities and states to learn from,' said Bill DeBaun, senior director at the National College Attainment Network in Washington. 'Thoughtful, coordinated efforts like these that support practitioners in districts and schools make a big difference.' West Virginia's Chancellor of Higher Education Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker added, 'We built momentum through strong partnerships with our schools and counselors, innovative tools and a shared commitment to our students' futures. I am deeply proud of our team and the many school counselors, educators, and families who have rallied around this cause. Together, we're showing what's possible when we put students first.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PagerDuty's (NYSE:PD) Q1 Earnings Results: Revenue In Line With Expectations But Full-Year Sales Guidance Slightly Misses Expectations
IT incident response platform PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) met Wall Street's revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, with sales up 7.8% year on year to $119.8 million. The company expects next quarter's revenue to be around $123.5 million, close to analysts' estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.24 per share was 28.3% above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy PagerDuty? Find out in our full research report. Revenue: $119.8 million vs analyst estimates of $119.2 million (7.8% year-on-year growth, in line) Adjusted EPS: $0.24 vs analyst estimates of $0.19 (28.3% beat) Adjusted Operating Income: $24.36 million vs analyst estimates of $17.95 million (20.3% margin, 35.7% beat) The company dropped its revenue guidance for the full year to $496 million at the midpoint from $503.5 million, a 1.5% decrease Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $0.98 at the midpoint, a 5.4% increase Operating Margin: -8.6%, up from -19.5% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 24.2%, similar to the previous quarter Customers: 15,247, up from 15,114 in the previous quarter Billings: $113.4 million at quarter end, up 6.4% year on year Market Capitalization: $1.47 billion Started by three former Amazon engineers, PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps companies respond to IT incidents fast and make sure that any downtime is minimized. Examining a company's long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last three years, PagerDuty grew its sales at a 16.2% compounded annual growth rate. Although this growth is acceptable on an absolute basis, it fell slightly short of our standards for the software sector, which enjoys a number of secular tailwinds. This quarter, PagerDuty grew its revenue by 7.8% year on year, and its $119.8 million of revenue was in line with Wall Street's estimates. Company management is currently guiding for a 6.5% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter. Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 8.5% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. This projection doesn't excite us and indicates its products and services will face some demand challenges. Today's young investors likely haven't read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next. Billings is a non-GAAP metric that is often called 'cash revenue' because it shows how much money the company has collected from customers in a certain period. This is different from revenue, which must be recognized in pieces over the length of a contract. PagerDuty's billings came in at $113.4 million in Q1, and over the last four quarters, its growth was underwhelming as it averaged 7% year-on-year increases. This performance mirrored its total sales and suggests that increasing competition is causing challenges in acquiring/retaining customers. PagerDuty reported 15,247 customers at the end of the quarter, a sequential increase of 133. That's a little better than last quarter and quite a bit above the typical growth we've seen over the previous year. Shareholders should take this as an indication that PagerDuty has made some recent improvements to its go-to-market strategy and that they are working well for the time being. We were impressed by PagerDuty's strong growth in customers this quarter. We were also glad its full-year EPS guidance trumped Wall Street's estimates. On the other hand, its full-year revenue guidance was lowered and came in below expectations. The company's EPS guidance for next quarter also fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock traded down 2.6% to $15.69 immediately after reporting. The latest quarter from PagerDuty's wasn't that good. One earnings report doesn't define a company's quality, though, so let's explore whether the stock is a buy at the current price. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Short-Term Government Bond Funds to Buy for Consistent Returns
A short-term government bond fund is a mutual fund that is limited by its investment objectives and fund bylaws to invest primarily in short-term obligations of the federal government or its agencies. Depending on the fund's definition, the short term can be up to five years. Mutual funds that invest in government debt securities are among the most secure investment options that provide regular income while protecting the capital invested. Funds that are part of this category bring a great deal of stability to a portfolio with a large proportion of equity. They pay out dividends more frequently than individual bonds. Hence, these are considered the safest in the bond fund category and are ideal for risk-averse investors. Below, we share with you three top-ranked short-term government bond mutual funds — GMO US Treasury GUSTX, Federated Hermes Short-Term Govt IS FSGVX and SEI Short-Duration Government TCSGX. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds. GMO US Treasury invests most of its net assets in Direct U.S. Treasury Obligations and collateralized repurchase agreements that include U.S. Treasury bills, bonds and notes and other securities issued by the U.S. Treasury, as well as Separately Traded Registered Interest and Principal Securities and other zero-coupon securities. The fund has returned 4.5% over the past three years. As of November 2024, GUSTX had 33.41% of its net assets in U.S. Treasury Floating Rate Note. Federated Hermes Short-Term Govt IS primarily invests in a portfolio generally consisting of U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. government agency securities with maturities of not less than one year and not more than three years, and related derivative contracts. The fund has returned 3% over the past three years. J. Andrew Kirschler has been one of the fund managers of FSGVX since July 2013. SEI Short-Duration Government invests the majority of its assets in U.S. Treasury obligations and other issues such as mortgage-backed securities and repurchase agreements that are guaranteed by various agencies or instrumentalities of the U.S. government. The fund has returned 3.3% over the past three years. TCSGX has an expense ratio of 0.48%. To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all short-term government bond mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of short-term government bond mutual funds. Zacks' free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >> View All Zacks #1 Ranked Mutual Funds Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (GUSTX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (TCSGX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (FSGVX): Fund Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
