From Monday, Nolla Health’s app can send acne prescriptions straight to pharmacies in Utah, the first time a state has let AI stand in for the doctor, under a ‘narrow exception’ from Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy.
Patients scan their face and enter their medical history; the AI scores acne severity and picks from eight approved topical treatments, with no pills or hormone therapies.
Oversight tapers: a physician checks the first 100 patients before anything is sent, the next 400 weekly after the fact, and then at least 10% of prescriptions each month. The pilot runs a year, renewable for two more.
8
topical drugs only
~$5/mo
app; visits $150–300
10%+
later doctor checks
Why it matters A tightly fenced test of whether software can do a doctor’s routine job.
Other side Scripts still carry a clinician’s name and doctors review a share of them. The AMA’s John Whyte doubts AI can meet the standard humans are held to. A safe shortcut, or a precedent for riskier drugs?
Japanese firms with a presence in China fell to 10,118 in June, the lowest since the survey began in 2010: down 22% in two years and almost 30% from the 2012 peak of 14,394.
Reasons cited include China’s property slump, rare-earth export curbs, overcapacity, state-backed rivals, worsening relations and detentions of Japanese nationals.
Japanese money is moving into India’s finance, not just factories: SMBC bought 20% of YES Bank (~$1.6bn), MUFG 20% of Shriram Finance (~$4.45bn), and Mizuho’s securities arm a majority of Avendus.
10,118
Japan firms in China, June
~1,400
Japanese firms in India
Why it matters Japan is buying into India’s banks, not just building factories.
Other side China is too big to abandon, and the US, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand compete for the same capital. Skill shortages and reliance on Chinese inputs could cap India’s gains.
Cognizant launched Cognizant Activate on Monday, a unit for companies with $1–5 billion in revenue, as AI puts pressure on the big outsourcing contracts the industry was built on.
It is the third big IT firm in six months to do this, after Accenture Edge ($300M–$3B clients) and HCLTech Pulse ($500M–$5B), and it puts Cognizant up against Coforge, Mphasis and Persistent.
It will sell pre-configured bundles in data and AI, cybersecurity, cloud and managed services, starting with financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and consumer goods.
$1–5B
client revenue band
3rd
big IT firm in 6 months
Why it matters Mid-tier IT firms now face the giants on their home turf.
Other side Mid-sized clients rarely award the $500 million multi-year deals tier-1 firms grew on, though analysts say there are thousands more of them and margins can be better. Can giants move small and fast?
The pension regulator PFRDA launched NPS Swasthya on 1 October: a healthcare investment account bundled with a mandatory super top-up group health policy.
Cover can be bought from 18 to 70 and renewed to 85, with no medical tests; a ₹30 lakh cover with a ₹3 lakh deductible costs ₹1,732 a year at 18–40 and ₹4,953 at 61–70.
Joining needs ₹1,000, a ₹200 yearly administrator fee and the first premium; the corpus can pay the deductible or network outpatient bills, but withdrawals are capped at 25% of contributions.
₹1,732
₹30L cover/yr, age 18–40
Up to 70
entry age for cover
Why it matters Entry up to 70 without medical tests could help older buyers who struggle to get cover.
Other side Pre-existing diseases wait a year, about 15 serious illnesses may be excluded or cost extra, and like-for-like price comparisons are hard. The real test is how claims are handled.
On 17 September every Tata Sons director except Noel Tata asked N. Chandrasekaran to stay on, after he had decided to leave when his term ends in February 2027.
Joseph says Noel Tata, chairman of the Trusts that own 66% of Tata Sons, has been isolated, the Trusts are divided, and there are whispers of political influence.
On listing, he argues the Trusts wouldn’t lose control if a quarter of Tata Sons floated, yet Noel Tata opposes it; the RBI wants it listed.
66%
Trusts’ stake in Tata Sons
17 Sep
board backs Chandrasekaran
Why it matters Who steers India’s largest business group is now openly contested.
Other side The political angle rests on whispers and perception, not proof; both sides claim principle, and with 66% the Trusts’ grip can’t easily shift.
Zimbabwe is negotiating with NPCI International Payments, the overseas arm of the body that runs UPI Unified Payments Interface: India's instant mobile payment system, run by NPCI., to use its technology as shared rails linking banks, mobile-money operators and fintechs in real time.
Central bank governor John Mushayavanhu says talks could conclude by 31 October; that is a deadline for the talks, not a launch date.
It follows NPCI International’s May 2024 deal to help Namibia build a UPI-like instant-payment system, and fits Zimbabwe’s own March push for QR codes that work across providers.
Oct 31
talks may conclude
May ’24
Namibia deal
Mar 2
Zimbabwe QR rules
Why it matters India is exporting the payment rails, not just letting tourists pay abroad.
Other side Savings, fees, budget and a timetable are all undisclosed, and prices will depend on how banks and payment firms join in. Does better plumbing cut costs on its own?
The US Bond yield The annual return a bond pays at today's price; rising yields mean borrowing is getting dearer. closed at 5.29% on 30 September, the highest since 2002; Britain’s 30-year topped 6% for the first time since 1998, and France’s 10-year hit a near 25-year high.
Three causes at once: costly oil reviving inflation fears, the US Fed raising rates again on 16 September, and governments borrowing more than lenders like.
India’s 10-year is about 7.2%, near a two-year high; a one-point rise on a ₹50 lakh, 20-year home loan adds about ₹3,100 a month.
5.29%
US 10-yr, 2002 high
6%+
UK 30-yr, since 1998
~7.2%
India, ~2-yr high
Why it matters Government yields set the floor for every loan, so borrowing costs rise without any central bank acting.
Other side Savers get better rates on new deposits and bonds, and emerging markets, India included, have held up better so far. A crisis, or a reset to normal rates?
More than two-thirds of the Russell 1000 is linked to AI, per Citigroup research, and Big Tech Hyperscaler The giant cloud companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle) that build the biggest data centres. and AI beneficiaries are about 16% of the US high-grade bond market, its biggest group.
Fund managers at Amundi, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton say clients want returns that don’t move with AI: global macro and long-short hedge funds, systematic strategies, mining and renewables.
Amundi’s Vincent Mortier says clients are looking more at emerging markets, including local stocks and bonds in India, China and Latin America; a turn in AI is ‘not imminent’, he says, ‘but I think it will come’.
2/3+
large US firms tied to AI
~$1tn
AI build-out by a few firms
Why it matters When one theme dominates both US stocks and bonds, spreading risk gets hard.
Other side The same managers say no sell-off is imminent, and the right hedge funds are hard to find and often closed. Prudence, or trying to time the market?
Sotheby’s will sell ‘Jodi’, a Nanotyrannus found in Montana in 2019, in New York at the end of October, estimating $6–9 million; it is one of three specimens known to science.
It follows a record $50.1 million for the T. rex ‘Gus’ this year, after a 10-minute bidding battle, and Ken Griffin’s $44.6 million Stegosaurus in 2024.
A paper last year by Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli settled an 80-year debate: Nanotyrannus was its own genus, not a young T. rex. Jodi is the first to sell since.
$6–9mn
auction estimate
3
known specimens
Why it matters Fossils have become a trophy asset for the very rich.
Other side Griffin’s Stegosaurus is on museum display, but where ‘Gus’ went isn’t public. Should rare finds that settle science debates go to private buyers?
Columnist Lionel Laurent says France’s bond risk premium is at a decade-plus high, with a deficit above 5% of GDP, debt near 120% and the gap over German bonds at new highs.
FROGS, coined by research firm Rexecode, stands for French Oversized Government and Social Security; he expects a slow squeeze rather than a sudden, Truss-style shock.
Debt sharing with northern Europe is off the table, and any ECB rescue risks a populist backlash, with next year’s presidential election looming.
>5%
budget deficit, of GDP
~120%
debt to GDP
Why it matters Bond markets, not voters, may now set France’s budget.
Other side He concedes France is no Greece: its economy is large and diversified and its banks well capitalised, ‘too big to bail’, as one economist puts it. Squeeze, or scare?
Wall Street’s biggest trading house overtook JPMorgan last year, with almost $40 billion of trading revenue, yet has no named CEO and, on purpose, no partners list.
Regulatory records show a management committee that meets monthly and decides on risk across the firm; a few dozen people, many of them company lifers, steer it.
Co-founder Rob Granieri, the last of the four founders still there, has had no official title or headshot in the staff directory.
None
named CEO
Monthly
risk committee meets
Why it matters If you own an ETF Exchange-traded fund: a basket of shares or bonds you can buy and sell like a single stock., it was likely traded by a firm few can map.
Other side The firm says a conventional org chart misses leaders spread across a flat, collaborative structure. Is opacity a risk, or its edge?