Is the world sleepwalking into a crisis? Global risks are intensifying but the collective will to tackle them appears to be lacking. Instead, divisions are hardening. The world’s move into a new phase of strongly state-centred politics, noted in last year’s Global Risks Report, continued throughout 2018. The idea of “taking back control”— whether domestically from political rivals or externally from multilateral or supranational organizations— resonates across many countries and many issues. The energy now expended on consolidating or recovering national control risks weakening collective responses to emerging global challenges. We are drifting deeper into global problems from which we will struggle to extricate ourselves.

Transit packaging in simple terms is the additional layer or secondary packaging done over the primarily packed product, utilized for shipping the product from one destination to another. The global transit packaging market has witnessed a considerable transformation over the years from being a protective wrapping to a useful promotion tool. A lot of effort, calculations, estimates, product selection, shipping amenities, and package designing goes into the eventual transit packaging process. A wide variety of products are selected for packing and transporting a range of products in the global transit packaging market.

Sri Lanka is a low value IT market, but during the review period it was a regional and global outperformer with sustained strong growth in spending throughout 2012-2017. Hardware demand expanded, in contrast to much of the rest of emerging APAC, because of the peace dividend, though this dynamic had weakened by 2017. Software and services spending growth was robust, driven by public and private sector digitisation, with an intensifying focus on mobile-first service development as the review period progressed.

Singapore has distinguished itself as one of the leading oil refining and petrochemicals players in Asia. Despite lacking indigenous hydrocarbons resources, it boasts thriving upstream as well as downstream sectors. Petrochemicals and refining remain the lifeblood of Singapore, with strong regional demand growth meaning there is potential for capacity expansion - although investment in countries such as China and Vietnam has led to increasingly fierce competition. With dedicated government backing, the chemicals industry as a whole has proved to be one of the largest contributors to the country's manufacturing output. A strong base in refining, availability of world-class infrastructure, cost-effective logistics and a location at the crossroads of Asia, with ready market access to the Asia-Pacific region, the US, the Middle East and Africa, set the pace for the development of a world-class petrochemicals industry. Major players include US-based ExxonMobil, Netherlandsheadquartered Royal Dutch Shell, Japanese Mitsui, Sumitomo Chemical Singapore (a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Company) and Eastman Chemical Singapore.

The Hungarian defence market is small in comparison to other European states. After the effects of war and occupation, independent Hungary had little in the way of advanced weapons manufacturers. The industry is dominated by privately owned SMEs, which have weak demand domestically and often diversify into the civilian segment out of necessity. Such firms produce ammunition, defence electronics and some light vehicles, which necessitates the importation of more advanced hardware. The recently announced Zrinyi 2026 plan - alongside earlier commitments to increase defence spending by 0.1% of GDP per annum - will create opportunities for domestic firms where possible if fully implemented. However, a number of big-ticket purchases have already been made with international firms, underlining the Hungarian defence industry's inability to produce more high-value hardware. Moreover, we maintain a level of scepticism in relation to spending increases.

We have estimated the probiotics ingredients market by segmenting it in terms of ingredients, applications, end uses, and regions. The ingredients segment includes bacteria, yeast, and spore formers. For study purview, bacteria segment has been further bifurcated into lactobacilli, bifidobacterium, streptococcus, and other bacteria. The applications include probiotics food & beverages, probiotics dietary supplements, and animal feed probiotics.

The pressure sensitive tapes market value chain consists of raw material suppliers, manufacturers, product distributors, and end–users. These tapes are used for interior and exterior applications such as bonding and paint protection in building & construction and automotive industries. Pressure sensitive tapes market is characterized by the presence of a large number of companies across each stage of the value chain. The analysis of the value chain commences with raw material suppliers, which include companies like BASF SE and Henkel, engaged in providing products such as paper, adhesives, and release liners. Value addition in this stage occurs through the processing and production of advanced grades of the aforementioned materials. The physical and/or chemical requirements are tailored specifically in order to facilitate the use of these materials in the production of pressure sensitive tapes.

Several national and global scientific associations and organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Urological Association (AUA), and the European Association of Urology (EAU) have offered many univariate and multivariate operational definitions for PE. However, several definitions are vague and unclear as they do not clearly describe the disorder. The table below enlists a few of the definitions about PE being followed in different regions/countries.

The global medical tapes and bandages market is anticipated to witness substantial growth owing to rising geriatric population base as the people of this age group are expected to experinece a growth in the prevalence of chronic wounds such as venous status ulcers and pressure ulcers. According to estimates published by the WHO, the global base of population pertaining to the age group, 60 years and above is expected to reach 2 billion in 2050. Since the skin of older people is easily damaged, their cells do not multiply quickly and might not have required response to stress in terms of gene upregulation of stress related protein, hence impacting the growth of the medical tapes & bandages market positively.