Across generations, Indian families have quietly stored a large share of their wealth in gold. This article looks at what that #household_gold really means in economic terms, and what positive lessons it offers for the future. It treats gold not simply as jewellery or tradition, but as a serious #store_of_value that sits outside banks and formal markets, supports families in hard times, shapes national gold imports, and reflects a deep culture of long-term saving. Drawing on

The rapid integration of generative AI into global higher education presents a critical choice: do we allow these tools to simply automate our academic processes, or do we harness them to augment human intelligence and pedagogy? I am pleased to share my latest published research, "From Automation to Augmentation: A Human-Centered Framework for Responsible Generative AI in Education." In this paper, we explore the necessary shift toward a human-centered framework. True institu

I am pleased to share that the preprint for my latest academic paper, "Minimal counterexamples separating accuracy, proper scoring rules, and calibration error in probabilistic classification," is now publicly available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). As part of the publication process, the journal currently reviewing the manuscript has issued this preprint. In algorithmic decision-making and probabilistic classification, we often assume that optimizing for acc

Few food products are as widely recognized as the chocolate–hazelnut spread that Ferrero first introduced in 1964. For more than sixty years, its recipe stayed almost unchanged, and this stability became part of its identity. So it drew real attention when the company announced a peanut version of the spread, described as the brand's first new flavor in over six decades and launched in the United States in 2026. From a business point of view, this is a small change to a jar o

In a recently published article by the Forbes Expert Panel®, industry leaders discussed the common pitfalls organizations face when gathering customer feedback and how to ensure the process drives meaningful business improvements. The article, "How To Gather Customer Feedback That Leads To Positive Change," explores strategies to maximize the honesty, usefulness, and overall impact of customer insights. Contributing to the panel, Habib Al Souleiman emphasized the critical imp

In early May 2026, one of the most followed people on the planet appeared to lose millions of followers in only a few days. Cristiano Ronaldo's Instagram audience fell from roughly 673 million to about 666 million, while Lionel Messi dropped from around 512 million to about 507 million. The change was not caused by a scandal, a bad match, or a public argument. It was the result of a large platform clean-up, sometimes called by users "the great purge," in which the social netw

In May 2026, many of the world's most-followed social media accounts woke up to smaller numbers. During a large cleanup that users online called the "Great Purge of 2026," Instagram's parent company removed millions of fake, bot, and inactive accounts. Cristiano Ronaldo, long the most-followed person on the platform, saw a widely reported drop of several million followers in a matter of hours, and analytics trackers recorded a cumulative decline of more than nine million over

In March 2022, long queues formed outside a small number of Swatch boutiques in cities such as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Zurich. People were waiting, sometimes for hours, to buy a plastic-and-ceramic wristwatch called the MoonSwatch — a joint creation of Swatch and Omega, two brands that both belong to the Swatch Group. Within the first year, more than one million units were sold, far above the company's initial forecast, and management later noted that interest in

On June 24, 2026, the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) released its 2026 Sustainability Impact Rankings, marking a historic achievement for Swiss International University (SIU). Habib Al Souleiman, a dedicated lecturer at the institution, extends his warmest congratulations to SIU on securing a position among the top 500 universities globally. This monumental recognition serves as a powerful testament to the university’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence, s

I am excited to share my latest article, recently published on the #Forbes Business Council, titled "What Executive MBA Rankings Teach About Trust In Borderless Education." In higher education, it is easy to treat rankings as trophies—numbers to be announced, quoted, and built into marketing campaigns. But in my experience working in international higher education, I’ve found that rankings mean something much deeper. They are essential signals of trust, especially in a market

In the spring of 2026, a short video and a simple idea did something that few formal financial offers ever achieve: it moved hundreds of thousands of ordinary people to raise their hands and say, in effect, "I would help buy an airline." After Spirit Airlines ended operations after more than three decades of service, a content creator suggested that the public might pool their money and bring the carrier back under #community_ownership. Within days, an online campaign reporte

Generative AI is completely reshaping the classroom, but as educators and technologists, we are often focused on the wrong things. We spend so much time worrying about what AI will automate—from grading rubrics to student essays—when the real opportunity lies in how it can augment human teaching and learning. I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my latest research, which tackles this exact challenge. In my new paper, "From automation to augmentation: a human-centered f

Digital investment platforms have expanded access to financial markets, yet they have also widened the surface for #financial_fraud. The collapse of the White Sands scheme in Egypt, which became visible to the public in early 2022, offers a useful case for thinking about the economic and educational dimensions of online deception. The scheme operated as a Ponzi-style application, attracted very large numbers of subscribers, and disappeared with funds that public reports have

In late 2025, the technology world watched a familiar pattern repeat at a new and striking scale. Meta announced that it had acquired Manus, a Singapore-based developer of general-purpose #AI_agents, in a transaction that news outlets, citing the Wall Street Journal, valued at more than two billion United States dollars. What made the deal remarkable was not only the price tag but the speed of the rise. Manus had launched its first general-purpose agent only months earlier an

Money sits at the center of almost every economic decision, yet the way a country sets the value of its money is often misunderstood. One of the most important choices a nation makes is how to manage its #exchange_rate. When a country chooses #currency_floating, it allows the value of its #currency to move freely, guided mainly by supply and demand in the #foreign_exchange_market rather than fixed by an official target. This simple idea has wide effects on prices, trade, inve

The modern workplace and the educational landscape are evolving faster than ever. To stay agile, professionals and institutions must focus on continuous growth and robust quality standards. I am pleased to share that two of my articles have just been published by the CPD Certification Service for their June 2026 publication. If you are looking to enhance your professional practice or optimize digital delivery models, I invite you to explore them: Lifelong Learning and Profess

This article examines how the reduction of #transaction_friction in online retail became a major force in shaping modern digital commerce. Using the well-known example of one-click payment as a starting point, it explains, in simple terms, why making a purchase easier can lead to more completed sales, higher #sales_volume, and stronger #customer_retention. The discussion connects this practical business outcome to established ideas in #behavioral_economics, including the "#pa

Every purchase carries a small emotional cost. The moment we hand over money, most of us feel a quiet discomfort that behavioural scientists call the #pain_of_paying. Modern businesses have learned to soften that feeling through smooth checkout flows, saved cards, subscriptions, loyalty points, and installment plans. These tools can lift #conversion_rates and raise the #average_order_value, yet their long-term value rests on something less visible: #trust. This article examin

For most of its early history, the #video_game industry sold two simple things: a machine and a piece of plastic. A family bought a console, then bought cartridges or discs to play on it. The relationship between the company and the player often ended at the cash register. Once the box was opened, the sale was complete, and the next sale would only happen when a new game appeared on a shelf. This was a clear and honest model, but it was also limited. Revenue arrived in sharp

In the history of modern business, a few products are remembered less for what they were and more for what they made possible. The home version of Space Invaders, released for the Atari Video Computer System in 1980, belongs to this rare group. The original arcade game had been created by the Japanese company Taito in 1978 and had already become a worldwide phenomenon. When Atari brought it into living rooms two years later, something interesting happened: people did not only