Today, 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66% by 2050 according to the United Nations. The development of creative industries is getting increasing attention from city governments and recent research has ranked global cities on the policies and actions in achieving a high degree of innovation and entrepreneurship.

As a New York City based entrepreneur, I've been excited to watch as the Big Apple has become the epicenter for innovation on the East Coast. While I mentioned that another industry might be having the biggest 2015, funding for healthcare startups have grown significantly over the past two years. According to a report by Rock Health, over $2 billion has already been invested into health care tech companies this year with a lot of this activity happening locally. In New York, there's an extremely diverse mix of innovators including accelerators, startups and hospitals.

Kansas University’s Entrepreneurs@KU program won the Award of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the national University Economic Development Association, KU announced Friday.

KU Innovation and Collaboration, the university’s bi-campus technology commercialization office, gave a presentation as a finalist and was selected as a winner during the annual University Economic Development Association Summit this week in Anchorage, Alaska.

In case passing the final year of aerospace engineering wasn’t pressure enough, Rahul Goel has a job. When he’s not in class, the University of Toronto undergraduate is also co-founder of PheedLoop, an event engagement tool.

PheedLoop started as a way for conference speakers to incentivize feedback from their audience. Attendees receive access to slides and contact info when they leave their thoughts in the app. But Goel soon realized that conference talks were just a small part of a broader market that needed someone to serve it.

Entrepreneurs are fascinating people. We are all interested in how their minds work, how they make decisions, and most of all, how they succeed. As angel investors, we have a vested interest in learning the path to entrepreneurial success. If we can understand it, our odds of selecting winning entrepreneurs and supporting their startup success expands exponentially.

Crows are everywhere. There is no denying it. What is fascinating is that unlike many animal species, crows live in harmony with humans (along with rats and cockroaches), and in fact choose to live with humans instead of away from them, continuing to evolve in order to thrive in areas where humans dominate the landscape.

Image: http://www.innovationexcellence.com 

Shorya Awtar, an engineer, had an idea for a medical device that could help surgeons perform complex operations inside the body without cutting patients open — and that may be worth billions.

Among academics, the concept won acclaim and recognition. Still, the University of Michigan professor said, he realized that unless he — and other academic researchers — were able to turn their ideas and years of study into actual products that are sold in the marketplace and used, their ideas would forever remain just ideas.

Image: FlexDex Surgical Inc. 

All businesses must labor, to one degree or another, under a certain amount of mythology.

Some are general myths, such as “We’re good friends and work well together, so let’s form a partnership!” Some are more specific, such as “I’m a great cook. I should start a restaurant!”

The startup and scale-up worlds in Wisconsin are no different in most ways. Not only are there widely held beliefs that apply to particular types of startup businesses, but some apply to the entrepreneurial sector overall – as well as Wisconsin as a place to start and grow a business.

This summer, as Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, I had the opportunity to honor an innovative business accelerator called First Batch. This isn’t your typical business accelerator. First Batch is a product accelerator in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, that focuses on helping entrepreneurs and makers bring physical products to market. It’s a great resource supporting the intersection of technology and manufacturing, and it’s another example of the resources communities are using to build entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Among slogans and political advertising this election season, one line is curiously missing: “Get Rich From Your Ideas!” Even the leaders’ debate devoted entirely to the economy showed that our political leaders have no interest in addressing innovation. The words “entrepreneur” and “innovation economy” only made it into party talking points this past week.

This is troubling for two reasons: 1. Entrepreneurs commercializing ideas is how new and enormous wealth is generated in the innovation economy; 2. Canada’s prosperity depends on succeeding in the global innovation economy.

The innovation arena features the most aggressive teams of experts competing for the title of 'world champion'. For years and years, the winning team is among them. However, suddenly, in the competition for the World Cup also teams of experimenters qualify. When this happens, sooner or later so many established and highly prestigious champions will be losing their supremacy. It is very well known the ascension to heaven followed by the fall into hell of experienced players and great stars the likes of BlackBerry and Nokia.

One thing that has always intrigued me about Silicon Valley is how easy it is here to dismiss products, investments, and sweat with the "fail fast, fast often" mindset. Sure, it enables our experimentalist culture and fast learning. But there has to be a balance. Headlines such as " Failing Cheaper", " Fail Fast", " Experiment. Fail. Learn. Repeat." in the tech media and thought leader blogs - and even on t-shirts - encourage a culture of give-up-ism. And post-mortem articles are a new way to celebrate your failure. Continue Reading

Singapore kept its position as the world's second-most competitive economy this year despite concerns over rising business costs, tighter labour policies and slowing growth.

This is the fifth year running that Singapore has come in second behind Switzerland, which stayed in pole position in the annual Global Competitiveness Report, compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The ranking of 140 economies is seen as the most comprehensive assessment of its kind.

Image: Shoppers at the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Cabinet today gave approval to set up 50 incubation centers for promotion of startups in the state and new policies for MSME and biotechnology sectors.

The meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also approved a scheme for the revival of sick micro and small units.

Distressed units will be given benefits for their revival and rehabilitation, Social Justice Minister Arun Chaturvedi said.

"The biotechnology policy will be focused on bio technology, fertiliser, fodder production, public health, environment and energy, he said.

Image: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Calcium has long been touted as a bone-boosting mineral, but the latest evidence confims that consuming more of it may not have the effects experts once thought, according to two new reports from New Zealand.

The reports, both published today (Sept. 29) in the journal BMJ, looked at the effects of calcium intake on bone density and risk of fracture in adults over age 50.

BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- University of Maryland Research Park today takes home top honors as the Association of University Research Parks' 2015 Outstanding Research Park, at the AURP Annual Awards of Excellence, hosted by Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. This award program recognizes the achievements of outstanding university research parks and those who direct them, and encourages the development of best practices.

It wasn’t that long ago that if you were a freelancer, you felt bad about what you did—like you were somehow less than your peers. It was something that you did as a default move—you went through a life change, or you were trying to break into an industry that wouldn’t have you. That may never have been true; these days, it’s just dead wrong.

"Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change." Those were the words shared—on Twitter—by Pope Francis, Time's "Person of The Year" in 2013, who assumed the pontificate that year and has since projected a transformational leadership style.

Capacitors. Open up your computer and they stick out like rocks on a sandy beach. They’re the one kind of electronic device that never made it to Lilliput. If they finally obeyed Moore’s Law by squeezing themselves down to the microscale, it would make life a lot easier for electronics engineers.

Image: http://spectrum.ieee.org

One of the more interesting documents of the information age was posted on the Internet 11 years ago, as part of the initial public offering of Google. That document, signed by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, conveyed both a deep enthusiasm for technological innovation and a mistrust of Wall Street. Page and Brin suggested that it would be possible to balance risk-taking with a sense of fiduciary responsibility. They would implement “a corporate structure that is designed to protect Google’s ability to innovate.” Above all, Google would not be a company that existed merely to reap profits and expand market share—rather, it would aspire “to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.” Page warned: “As an investor, you are placing a potentially risky long term bet on the team, especially Sergey and me.”