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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Republicans are projected to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives.</li><li>That means Trump is set to have a trifecta, as he did in the first half of his first term.</li></ul>After more than a week counting outstanding ballots across several states, Republicans are officially projected to maintain control of the House of Representatives.According to projections from NBC and CNN, Republicans will win at least 218 House seats, enough to claim the majority. Several races still remain undecided, with ballots continuing to be counted. The GOP currently holds a 220-seat majority.Democrats picked up GOP-held seats in New York, Oregon, California, Louisiana, and Alabama, while Republicans flipped Democratic-held seats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina.The GOP also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-win-senate-election-majority-election-2024-11">retook control</a> of the Senate, meaning President-elect Donald Trump will enjoy a governing trifecta for at least the next two years, as he did during the first two years of his first term.As a result of the GOP keeping the House, Trump will <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-balance-of-power-results-competitive-republicans-democrats-2024-11">avoid the resistance</a> he encountered from a Democratic-led House during the last two years of his first term. Furthermore, he'll be dealing with a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-republican-party-more-compliant-this-time-2024-11">far more obedient GOP</a> than existed during the first two years — after several successive election cycles, the party has largely been remade in Trump's image.Congress is particularly important for Trump when it comes to<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tax-cut-tariff-plan-outlook-presidential-election-scenarios-harris-trump-2024-10"> tax policy</a>. Many of his other policy goals can be accomplished via executive orders, but the incoming president will need congressional action to exempt tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits from taxation, as he's promised.About three dozen House races were considered to be competitive, ranging from Republican-held swing districts in traditionally Democratic states like New York and California to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/david-schweikert-profile-trump-realignment-arizona-economic-interests-abortion-2024-10">suburban districts</a> across the country where Democrats have made inroads in recent election cycles.It took far longer to determine who controls the House than the Senate or White House in large part due to the slow counting of mail-in ballots in Arizona and California.Both House Speaker <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-mike-johnson-republican-speaker-house-louisiana-2023-10">Mike Johnson</a> and House Minority Leader <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hakeem-jeffries-early-honeymoon-house-democrats-tension-progressives-2023-5">Hakeem Jeffries</a> are expected to remain in their respective roles, with internal leadership elections set to take place later this month.

Republicans keep the House, handing Trump a trifecta of government control

In a massive move for the country’s growing climate woes, India is aiming to control weather phenomena like rainfall, lightning, and hail within five years. Dubbed "<keyword id="23131560" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mission-Mausam" source="keywords">Mission Mausam</keyword>," this government-backed initiative includes the development of <keyword id="23148975" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mausam-GPT" source="keywords">Mausam GPT</keyword>, a weather AI model designed to enhance prediction accuracy and even manipulate the weather. This would make India one of the first countries to experiment with <keyword id="21369368" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="weather-modification" source="keywords">weather modification</keyword> on a significant scale. <h2>Mission Mausam</h2>India’s "Mission Mausam" aims to reshape the future of weather management by using technology to control rain. Over the next 18 months, the government will start with lab simulations to either enhance or suppress rainfall. The ultimate goal, as outlined by Earth Sciences Secretary M. Ravichandran, is to roll out full-scale weather modification within five years. He stated that the initiative could even target events like Independence Day, where “one can think about suppressing rain.” By deploying <keyword id="20644540" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cloud-seeding" source="keywords">cloud seeding</keyword> techniques alongside AI-driven weather prediction tools like "Mausam GPT," the mission seeks to significantly improve India’s ability to manage extreme weather conditions. A key aspect of the plan involves building a robust system of advanced radars, supercomputers, satellites with high-performance sensors, and GIS-based decision support systems. This cutting-edge tech is expected to boost India’s short- and medium-range weather forecasting accuracy by 5-10%, ensuring no event — such as cloudbursts — goes undetected. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113251187" title="India braces for an intensely harsh winter as La Niña takes hold" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>India is not new to weather manipulation efforts. The government has been running pilot projects, such as the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) in Maharashtra, to study cloud properties and enhance rainfall. <h2>Why is weather manipulation necessary and is it safe?</h2>Extreme weather events in India, like deadly floods, droughts, and hailstorms, have noticeably increased in frequency due to <keyword id="19907392" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change" source="keywords">climate change</keyword>. Mission Mausam could potentially give India an edge in combating these disasters. For example, imagine preventing a flood by suppressing rain or creating artificial rain during a drought. India’s investment of Rs 2,000 crore over two years certainly reflects the seriousness of the mission, which is expected to expand further as research progresses. However, weather modification, including cloud seeding, is not without controversy. Globally, cloud seeding has had limited success, with countries like the US, Russia, and China also experimenting with these methods but facing inconsistent results. Even former MoES Secretary Madhavan Rajeevan has noted that “the technology is complex” and still in its developmental stages. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112825937" title="Shivaji Maharaj Statue collapse: Identifying 5 reasons behind the accident" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Further, the potential downsides can't be ignored. While controlling the weather could save lives, meddling with natural processes is risky. Weather manipulation might have unintended ecological consequences, like shifting rainfall patterns that could harm ecosystems and agriculture. It may also pose geopolitical risks, as neighbouring countries could accuse India of altering weather systems that affect their own climates. Ultimately, while the idea of managing the weather may seem appealing, it opens up a Pandora’s box of environmental and ethical challenges that need careful consideration.

The Indian government is taking steps to control rainfall and weather within five years — is it too risky of a move?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Department of Government Efficiency wouldn't be a department, but an outside advisory group.</li><li>Under current law, Congress needs to approve most budget changes, limiting the DOGE's power.</li></ul>President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a new effort to slash what he sees as federal inefficiency, with Elon Musk as cost-cutter-in-chief.Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-cabinet-election-x-2024-9">made good on a campaign promise</a> when he tapped Musk to co-lead the proposed "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE, alongside former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.Musk says he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget to make it more efficient and effective. Beyond that, though, little is known about how the DOGE will function and how much power it — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-adopts-elon-musk-plan-cut-government-spending-efficiency-reform-2024-9">and Musk</a> — will have.Musk did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment for this article. A representative for Ramaswamy declined to comment.<h2 id="2dc0c03e-9977-4403-9201-3d55e844524d">What do we know about the DOGE?</h2>Despite its name, the DOGE will <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-doge-gets-a-government-checkmark-on-x-2024-11">not actually be a government department</a>, as departments are permanent and can only be created by Congress. Instead, it will function "outside of the government" and disband by July 4, 2026, Trump said in a statement.<div type="image" title="Trump and Musk at a rally" height="2584" width="4184" msid="115360794" hostid="261" sizebytes="161264"></div>The name DOGE is an homage to Musk's preferred cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, which shot up in value after Trump won the election. Under current law, the DOGE might not be able to accomplish much, since Congress controls federal spending."They have no power. No power at all," Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who led efforts to reform the federal government under former President Bill Clinton, told Business Insider. "They do make recommendations, and once they make recommendations, the expectation is that the government will act on them."There's no guarantee that a recommendation will turn into a policy, especially given that many of the DOGE's suggestions will likely require congressional approval, Kamarck said.<h2 id="0f11a880-6c1f-4025-a722-a860ae33d16c">The DOGE's $2 trillion goal is something of a pipe dream.</h2>Federal spending <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-department-government-efficiency-doge-2024-11">reached $6.75 trillion in 2024</a>. Multiple experts told BI that it's unlikely Musk will be able to cut his desired $2 trillion without sacrificing programs that have wide bipartisan support or fall under federal mandatory spending, like Medicare and Social Security. Kamarck called the $2 trillion goal the "most unrealistic" part of the whole DOGE plan.Trump has long been preoccupied with cutting what he sees as Washington's waste and fraud."The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will ultimately be staffed and dedicated to this mission," Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team, told BI in a statement.Quoting former Rep. Barney Frank, Kamarck said that excess federal spending is "marbled" <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-what-us-spends-2024-11">throughout the budget</a>, like fat throughout a steak, making the DOGE's desired $2 trillion in cuts tricky."It just doesn't work, unless you decide to start cutting Social Security benefits or Medicare, at which point all hell breaks loose," she told BI. "And you know, the bromance between Trump and Musk will end very quickly."Known for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-efficiency-companies-tesla-spacex-x-2024-11">streamlining efficiency at his companies</a>, Musk says he wants to cut bureaucracy, shrink the federal workforce, and trim the number of federal agencies down to no more than 99 (there are currently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies">more than 440</a>).Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told BI that he doubted that the loosely defined group would be able to accomplish much given its sprawling $2 trillion target."It is hard for me to get seriously ginned up about it until there's a real structure there that suggests that this makes some sense and has a purpose," he said. "If something is designed to do everything, it will do nothing."<h2 id="6bcaf431-1be5-4839-9b83-d0f24a7146cf">The DOGE will exist "outside of government."</h2>In one scenario, the DOGE could function as an advisory committee, which Trump can create through an executive order. The president-elect said the DOGE will work with the Office of Management and Budget, which prepares the president's budget request for Congress."They have made clear that this is a non-governmental department, which is not a familiar term, and so it's not really clear how the organization will operate because of that," Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the progressive nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen, told BI. "It might be an advisory committee of non-governmental actors, but even from that posture, it won't have the authority to alter budgets or fire employees or rescind regulations."<div type="image" title="Donald Trump and Elon Musk" height="1910" width="2707" msid="115360796" hostid="261" sizebytes="118134"></div>Kamarck said that there are specific rules laying out how much interaction external committees can have with the government, but it's not clear how Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy envision the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-doge-hiring-staff-how-to-apply-2024-11">internal infrastructure of the DOGE</a>."How are they going to talk to each other? How are they going to meet with each other? Are they going to go talk to anybody in the government, or are they just going to make up things from 50 miles away?" she said.On November 14, the DOGE <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/DOGE/status/1857076831104434289">said in a post on X</a> that it is seeking "super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ per week on unglamorous cost-cutting." Musk said on his <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1857112441529700671">personal X account</a> that the positions will not be paid.<h2 id="4c25da3e-39de-44e2-a1c5-c7249f9fc728">Trump has talked about changing a key law that limits his federal spending power.</h2>Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy may try to circumvent the congressional obstacles standing in the way of their cost-cutting agenda. Last year, Trump expressed interest in going after the Impoundment Control Act, a 1974 provision that requires the president spend funds that Congress has appropriated."Bringing back Impoundment will give us a crucial tool with which to obliterate the Deep State, Drain the Swamp, and starve the Warmongers," the president-elect <a target="_blank" href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-using-impoundment-to-cut-waste-stop-inflation-and-crush-the-deep-state">said in a video</a> in June 2023.Holtz-Eakin said attempting to skirt the impoundment act would be like rewriting history, and Kamarck told BI that any attempt to not spend money that Congress has appropriated poses big Constitutional questions."If he tries to change the law so that he can impound funds, my guess is there'll be a fight in the Congress and he'll lose," she said.<h2 id="4956dc95-91da-4028-b1b3-d843a1509397">Musk could bump up against many conflicts of interest but likely wouldn't have to divest from his companies.</h2>If the DOGE is a federal advisory committee, Musk and Ramaswamy would likely be "special government employees," who are experts or consultants that can work for a federal agency or the White House for up to 130 days. They do not get paid and, crucially, would not have to divest from their companies."They've been clear also that they're staying in their roles as the heads of companies and in other places," Gilbert said. "Not being a part of government means they don't have to deconflict themselves."In a press release for Public Citizen, Gilbert said that Musk's "own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack" as the DOGE co-lead.<div type="image" title="Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy" height="5504" width="8256" msid="115360795" hostid="261" sizebytes="4296554"></div>In the role, Musk and Ramaswamy would still be bound to federal ethics laws and have to recuse themselves from conversations that affect them personally, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-14/doge-what-can-musk-do-with-the-department-of-government-efficiency?srnd=homepage-americas">Bloomberg</a> reported. With his companies under investigation from at least 20 federal regulatory agencies and SpaceX having more than $15 billion in federal contracts, Musk could face many such conflicts.Kamarck said that there's no "firm line" about when employees need to take themselves out of discussions, but that lawyers address questions on a case-by-case basis.Musk has expressed public frustration with what he views as overbearing federal oversight, which he said has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/politics/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-trump.html">slowed down his pace of business</a>.By law, meetings of advisory committees, like the kind the DOGE could be, need to be open, and Musk has no problem with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-doge-leaderboard-federal-government-spending-trump-2024-11">transparency</a> — in fact, he seems to invite it. In a post on X, the billionaire promised to post all of the group's actions online <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-leaderboard-government-spending-marketing-genius-doge-donald-trump-2024-11">"for maximum transparency</a>" and said the public should chime in with their opinions.It's also possible the group might intentionally avoid becoming a federal committee because of the increased oversight and scrutiny, Holtz-Eakin said."It's not a federal committee as far as I can tell," he said. "I think that's deliberate. If you do that, then you're subject to lots of things like a conflict of interest you have to sign off on, and I think that would be a nightmare for Mr. Musk. And so they're not going to let it tiptoe toward federal jurisdiction."Until Trump actually forms the DOGE, if he ever does, the legal and bureaucratic details remain murky, and the experts BI spoke with aren't convinced that it will work well."It sounds a little screwy, frankly," Kamarck said.

How Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could actually work

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elon Musk has proposed a crowd-sourced leaderboard to crack down on government wastefulness.</li><li>It taps into our natural drive for competition and play, psychologists say.</li></ul>It was perhaps inevitable that Elon Musk — a tech titan and a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-video-games-grand-theft-auto-elden-ring-2023-12">prolific gamer</a> — would try to turn <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-leaderboard-government-spending-marketing-genius-doge-donald-trump-2024-11">government spending</a> into a game.As soon as Musk became co-leader of a newly-minted <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-doge-leaderboard-federal-government-spending-trump-2024-11">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE for short)</a>, he proposed a crowd-sourced leaderboard for the dumbest uses of tax dollars. It's a natural move for Musk, who came up in the tech world in the early 2000s, as "gamification" took hold. The concept — using gaming features like points and leaderboards to optimize real-world scenarios — was <a target="_blank" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vDxTBgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA31#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">first described</a> by software engineers in 2008. The gamification movement in business and tech was born from the central idea that "reality is broken," as futurist Jane McGonigal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reality_Is_Broken/yiOtN_kDJZgC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;pg=PT11&amp;printsec=frontcover">wrote</a> in her 2011 bestseller. "Game developers know better than anyone else how to inspire extreme effort and reward hard work," McGonigal wrote.Fundamentally, these features — real-time updates and comparisons — tap into our natural appetite for control, Adrian Hon, cofounder of the gaming studio Six to Start and author of "You've Been Played" on the dark side of gamification, told Business Insider."Most common forms of gamification are based around ideas of reward and punishment. That's basically behaviorism that's 100 years old," Hon said. "It's very easy to do. It's very easy to understand."These days, gaming features are baked into the fabric of much of modern life, particularly social. Millions of people "like" opinions on X, down-vote news on Reddit, and earn badges on DuoLingo. We chase steps, close rings, and compete with strangers to spin the fastest.The question is how to add context to make complex goals understandable, exciting, and achievable.Urging someone with a sprained ankle to hit <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walking-10000-steps-for-health-not-science-based-in-marketing-2021-7">10,000 steps a day</a> regardless could do more harm than good. In government, pointing to a simple metric that captures "efficiency" is a tall order — on paper, slashing budgets could look good but bring unintended consequences, according to Richard Landers, a psychology professor at University of Minnesota who specializes in gamification."The number one most efficient way to have a firefighting department in a small town is don't have one, because then they never fail," he said. "That's that kind of logic that you end up having if you're not really cautious about how it's designed."<h2 id="7b471489-75c6-444a-b6f2-8827e89f261e">Why comparing scores is hardwired into our psychology</h2>A game undeniably makes tasks more digestible — something Musk has been talking about for years. He <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz3A6AtX27c">argued</a> at SXSW in 2014 that education should be "as close to a video game as possible." "You do not need to tell your kid to play video games. They will play video games on autopilot all day. So if you can make it interactive and engaging, then you can make education far more compelling and far easier to do," Musk told the audience.Throw in other players, and you've got a race.Humans have a natural competitive streak. Going head-to-head with a rival can help boost our focus, enhance our attention, and motivate us to stick to a task, <a target="_blank" href="https://academic.oup.com/book/45435/chapter-abstract/389436570?redirectedFrom=fulltext">research</a> suggests, but it can also backfire if the pressure gets too intense.A leaderboard works psychologically by incentivizing behavior with a reward like public recognition, maybe a prize, or a sense of accomplishment at winning a competition.It's often used for behaviors people already want to do, but need an extra nudge, according to Landers. Think taking a spin class when you're tempted to watch Netflix, or walking more so you can get the highest step count in the group chat."Good gamification is hypothetically the same way, so that when you achieve well on the Nike app, you're like, 'yeah, I really did do something for myself this week. That was great,'" he said."There's no question that it motivates people," said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, professor of history at the New School and author of "Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession.""You're in the gym running next to someone on the treadmill, you see them speed up, and you want to speed up. Take that experience and multiply it by however many people you're ranking."<h2 id="ac2e7636-bdbf-425b-8204-07cd0abd6bbe">Politicians love leaderboards</h2>Leaderboards zero in on a specific, measurable goal, like your step count for fitness.That's not so straightforward in politics, but it's incredibly alluring. "Politicians like them because it makes them feel like they have more knowledge and real-time knowledge than they might get otherwise," Hon said, referring to rankings of programs like schools, hospitals, and fire departments.Take healthcare. Increasing productivity in an emergency department is complicated — more complicated than any hospital ranking can communicate. In the real world, that sometimes translates to doctors turning down tricky cases in favor of easy ones to pump up their success metrics, according to Landers.This is one of the biggest unanswered questions facing gamification — can boiling down complex issues into crunchable numbers miss the point?Landers said leaderboard systems generally require one precise, agreed-upon goal in order to work. If a metric is oversimplified, it can risk losing sight of the original goal as participants start to value the game for its own sake."Empowering individuals to call out true waste is not inherently a bad idea," Landers said. "The challenge would be in defining that. How do you know when something is legitimately wasteful?"For the government, that might hinge on what counts as waste and whether Musk's leaderboard can get people to agree."You can't just call it waste because you're like, wow, I don't think Jill over there is a good use of money. You should fire her. It's not a productive approach. Trying to figure out how to create a system like that would be incredibly complicated," Landers said. "They would have to do that investment in really understanding the problems deeply and then creating a system to reward what actually should be rewarded."<h2 id="7d6f8bf4-31df-4ff6-8c83-b288ff90ae8b">Gaming the system can backfire</h2>At the height of Peloton's popularity, the home fitness brand's competitive leaderboard quickly became overrun by people <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peloton-bike-tablets-rooted-watch-netflix-spotify-hacked-cheat-leaderboards-2019-9">hacking their Pelotons</a> to artificially boost their scores.As a result, some users felt less motivated instead of more."The demotivating power of being low on a leaderboard is well understood," Landers said. "If you're like 500,000th, nobody cares. You're like, why even try?"Petrzela said that even if people play by the rules, overgamifying might mean missing out on valuable but hard-to-quantify things."If your only goal in Peloton is to be at the top of the leaderboard, you completely sacrifice a lot of the things that might slow you down but make your ride injury-free or something you really enjoy," she said. "Musk's proposed leaderboard is a much higher stakes version of that."In terms of government services, a goal like reducing wait times for doctors' visits might translate well to a leaderboard, since they're easy to compare. But more complicated variables — like whether a cancer program can treat a patient's specific diagnosis — might fall through the cracks, particularly when people without healthcare expertise are doing the ranking without the full context.To create a leaderboard that can make meaningful change, it's crucial to understand what context matters. Otherwise, Hon said gamification might have short-term benefits but backfire in the long term as important, less-tangible factors are crowded out by overemphasizing one metric.Case in point: Hon said he's currently hooked on a popular puzzle game. The online leaderboard keeps him logging in long after the game itself stopped bringing much joy to his routine."It's just like, what's the point of this really? Am I just playing this game to maintain my position? Do I even really enjoy it anymore?" he said. "I probably would play it less if actually that leaderboard didn't exist. So that is really for the benefit of the site. It's not for the benefit of me."

Elon Musk's 'gamification' of government spending taps into our natural competitive instinct

Last week, Donald Trump announced the creation of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-department-of-government-efficiency-donald-trump-ramaswamy-2024-11">Department of Government Efficiency</a>, which promises to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." And to run the new cost-cutting department, Trump tapped the businessman he calls the world's "greatest cutter" — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senator-waste-list-influence-elon-musk-spending-cuts-2024-11">Elon Musk</a>.If you're looking to take a chainsaw to the federal government, Musk seems perfectly suited to the job. At <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-x-elon-musk-startup-competitition-town-square-election-2024-10">Twitter,</a> he eliminated a staggering 80% of the staff — over 6,000 people. At <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-salary-database-elon-musk-pay-strategy-2024-11">Tesla</a>, he cut 10% of the workforce, saying the company needed to be "absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction." He also laid off 10% of employees at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-jared-isaacman-interview-polaris-dawn-space-walk-2024-11">Space X</a>, insisting his teams need to be scrappy and nimble. Cutting, for Musk, is generally Job No. 1.For the most part, Musk's slash-and-burn tactics have paid off. Twitter usage, according to Musk, is at an all-time high. Tesla's stock is up 28% over the past year. And SpaceX — now valued at $250 billion — is grabbing rockets out of the sky with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-landing-super-heavy-2024-10">giant chopsticks</a>. In the world of business, fewer workers often translate into higher profits.The question is: Can the cost-cutting tactics Musk has employed in the private sector work to corral waste and bloat in the federal government? Musk and his DOGE cochair, the biotech billionaire <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-elon-musk-cutting-federal-spending-could-work-2024-11">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>, have said they're looking to hire "super high-IQ small government revolutionaries" to help make $2 trillion in cuts — about a third of all federal spending — and to slash the federal workforce by as much as 75%. It's a dream that has eluded every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan — and it's one that may prove elusive even for Musk, the man now anointed as America's cost-cutter in chief.There's certainly no shortage of waste and inefficiency in the federal government that cries out to be streamlined. In 2019, the Defense Department forked over $22 million for lobster tails. In 2020, the IRS sent $1.4 billion in tax refunds to dead Americans. Millions of square feet in federal buildings sit unoccupied.In theory, a bold, outside figure like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-elected-shadow-president-2024-11">Musk</a> could be the very thing needed to downscale an operation as vast and intractable as the federal government. Large organizations need a force of "creative destruction" to change, says Michael Morris, a professor at Columbia Business School. "Things don't go away on their own. You have to have somebody with a willingness to deliberately dismantle things if you're going to have innovation." And when a new figure institutes a massive shock to the system — whether at the government or private level — "it often backfires," says Morris. "There's often very fierce, active resistance to change." As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-corporate-gerontocracy-aging-ceos-retirement-succession-replacement-2024-8">CEO</a>, Musk has the latitude to push past that resistance and overhaul company culture. But things are going to be different with DOGE. Despite its branding as a "department," the new outfit will operate only in an advisory capacity: Congress holds the ultimate responsibility for authorizing spending and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doge-how-to-apply-dm-job-application-elon-musk-2024-11">eliminating agencies</a>. Government, by design, is an intensely collaborative process, intended to hammer out the competing needs of different constituencies. Musk, by contrast, is accustomed to ruling by fiat."Musk certainly exercises a great deal of control in his companies that he won't have in the environment of the federal government, where we have checks and balances," says Andy Wu, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. "Even if Musk had the right idea for things, it's not so clear he could implement any of them."The federal government is infamous for holding on to past practices, even when they no longer make sense. Linda Bilmes, a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, cites the continued minting of the penny, each of which costs three cents to produce. Last year, in an economy that has largely moved away from cash, the government spent $179 million forging pennies and nickels. Yet past calls to get rid of the penny haven't amounted to one red cent."The danger is if Elon Musk were to somehow think he is the first person who has ever looked at cost cutting in government," says Bilmes. "Many people who know a lot about government have proposed many good ideas. The potential for usefulness would be if he could take some already reasonably good ideas and help them get implemented."The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watchdog-dod-must-speed-up-weapons-deliveries-to-maintain-advantage-2024-6">Government Accountability Office</a> and inspectors general have already recommended a variety of potential targets. They aren't always flashy: This year, the GAO recommended agencies use predictive models to schedule maintenance, saying they could save $100 million or more. It also urged the IRS to focus on collecting taxes owed by sole proprietors, which could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. If the government implemented all 5,480 of its suggestions, the GAO estimated, it would "produce measurable financial benefits" of up to $208 billion.But so far, Musk has seemed more interested in the kind of flashy, small-bore proposals that attract clicks on X. He's taken to resharing what he sees as examples of waste — everything from $3 million spent on drug research that involved watching "hamsters fight on steroids" to a $20,000 grant that funded drag shows in Ecuador — and crowdsourcing them on the platform. Those sorts of items might generate outrage on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-donald-trump-elon-musk-2024-11">Fox News</a>, but eliminating them won't do much to trim the federal government's $6,200,000,000,000 in annual spending.Then there's the politics of budget cutting. The last time Republicans succeeded at slowing government spending, under <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reagan-secret-service-agent-says-trump-shooting-failure-for-agency-2024-7">Ronald Reagan</a>, they made deep cuts to areas of government that proved unpopular — including social welfare programs, student loans, and job training. Musk may see plenty of areas he'd like to slash, but a wide range of constituencies will inevitably push back against cuts to programs they consider essential. When it comes to federal spending, one person's waste is another person's bread and butter."People support the idea of improving how the government delivers services," says Joel Friedman, the senior vice president for federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. "I think people would take a different view if you end up gutting programs they depend on and care about." Efficiency always sounds like a good thing, until it comes for something you love.Beyond the question of where to cut, Musk will face intense scrutiny over why he's targeting certain areas of government. His role at DOGE is rife with the potential for conflicts of interest. SpaceX, for example, has received nearly $20 billion in federal contracts since 2008, and Musk has been sharply critical of the Federal Aviation Administration, viewing it as an obstacle to launching his powerful <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-spacex-starship-rocket-milestone-election-2024-10">Starship</a>. And his massive investments in electric vehicles and social media are dependent on all sorts of federal spending and oversight. When it comes to how the government interacts with the marketplace, the world's richest man inherently has a lot of skin in the game. Musk's companies did not respond to requests for comment. But Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team, says it plans to ensure that those involved with DOGE "are compliant with all legal guidelines related to conflicts of interest."Those concerns also touch on the larger question of what Trump and his allies hope to accomplish by reducing the size of government. Calls for reducing "inefficiency" and "bureaucracy" have long been a euphemism for Republicans eager to reduce or eliminate federal oversight of everything from industrial pollution to airline safety. Less government is not necessarily better government, and there are plenty of federal agencies that remain so understaffed and underfunded, from the IRS to the Veterans Administration, that they're unable to perform even their most basic functions. The GOP's aim of cutting spending, a leading Reagan ally once acknowledged, is to shrink government to the size where conservatives can "drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." On Friday, Ramaswamy directly linked DOGE to the Reagan-era dream of smaller government, promising that the new agency will finish its work by July 4, 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.And even when conservatives have succeeded at cutting costs, it's done nothing to slow the pace of government spending. Reagan slashed $22 billion in social welfare programs during his first two years in office — savings that were more than offset by his tax cuts and military spending, which nearly tripled the national debt. And in 1981, when a deep recession hit, carving up the safety net left the millions of Americans who were mired in poverty with even fewer resources to get by.It's also important to remember that Musk did more than downsize X — he also used the platform to elevate far-right talking points and unfounded conspiracy theories. In short, he reshaped it to serve his own political ends, making it meaner as well as leaner. It remains to be seen if Musk will do the same with DOGE. There are plenty of places where Uncle Sam could spend America's hard-earned tax dollars more wisely. But there are also plenty of places where the man Trump's family now refers to as "Uncle" Elon could deploy what DOGE calls "unglamorous cost-cutting" to bend the federal government to serve his own financial needs.Musk has acknowledged that Americans will feel "hardship" as a result of the cuts he wants to see implemented. But that doesn't mean he won't be able to juice more performance out of fewer resources, as he did at his own companies. When Musk slashed the workforce at Twitter, critics predicted that the app would collapse without enough staff to maintain it. Two years later, after a few initial glitches, it works much the same as before — at a far lower cost. Doubting Musk, even when he seems to be operating at his most extreme, can be a fool's game.<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/amanda-hoover">Amanda Hoover</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

Elon Musk downsized Big Tech. Can he do the same to Big Government?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President-elect Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk with slashing government spending.</li><li>Defense could be a prime target: It's the largest discretionary spending category in the federal budget.</li></ul>President-elect Donald Trump has tapped <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-ceo-elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> to help spearhead cuts to government spending, and the defense sector could be a prime target.The Defense Department's budget for the 2024 fiscal year is $841 billion, roughly 12.5% of the total federal budget, and the Pentagon has struggled with cost overruns and waste.Musk plans to review federal spending as part of a newly created "Department of Government Efficiency" — or <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-department-government-efficiency-doge-2024-11">DOGE</a>. It's not an official agency, and Congress controls budgets for federal agencies. DOGE's role may be limited to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-what-us-spends-2024-11">offering advice to Trump</a>.There are still a lot of unknowns around DOGE as it solicits direction from X, formerly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter">Twitter</a>, including where and how it'll find up to $2 trillion in promised cuts.But Musk's past comments hint at one area he could target: defense contracts.Musk has criticized government contracts with top defense companies that put the government on the hook for overages in the construction of warships, aircraft, and combat vehicles. And his company, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">SpaceX</a>, has won some government contracts by bearing higher risks of cost overruns.<h2 id="83ac3479-807f-4415-a020-96d80c7f3594">Musk's way of doing business</h2>Before Musk founded SpaceX in 2001, NASA and the Pentagon often used "cost-plus" contracts, which reimbursed contractors for their expenses and provided a set profit margin.<div type="image" title="President-elect Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month." height="2365" width="3541" msid="115359364" hostid="261" sizebytes="435768"></div>The contracts allowed for cost overruns and placed much of the risk on the US government, Clayton Swope, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, told Business Insider.Musk compared the contracts to "gravy trains" in journalist Walter Isaacson's biography of the billionaire. "You just can't get to Mars with that system," Musk said. "They have an incentive never to finish. If you never finish a cost-plus contract, then you suckle on the tit of the government forever."Musk built SpaceX's business model around fixed-price contracts. This means the government and contractors set a price for the project at the onset, and the company is paid predetermined amounts once it hits certain milestones.SpaceX has had several fixed-price contracts with NASA, including a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/first-contracted-spacex-resupply-mission-launches-with-nasa-cargo-to-space-station/">$1.6 billion contract</a> in 2008 for 12 missions under the agency's Commercial Resupply Services program and a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/spacex_nasa_crs-5_presskit-105.pdf">$2.6 billion contract</a> in 2014 that covered six crewed missions to the International Space Station.The US government previously reserved fixed-price contracts for off-the-shelf products that did not need to be specially made for the government, but SpaceX demonstrated that it could fund missions more efficiently, Swope said.Without the processes and tracking required for cost-plus contracts, companies like SpaceX "can be more agile to changes in the market and iterate on their products faster," Swope said. "When it's done right, it can be beneficial to both the government and the company."<div type="image" title="A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with a NASA spacecraft bound for Jupiter lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in October." height="2969" width="4453" msid="115359363" hostid="261" sizebytes="315044"></div><h2 id="b3b24f6e-1253-4bfb-9623-5ba146b04d68">Overspending and delays</h2>The Pentagon has often been criticized for mismanagement, delays, and ballooning costs on expensive systems. Earlier this year, for instance, a government watchdog found that the F-35 stealth fighter program has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-f-35-stealth-fighters-to-fly-less-costs-soar-2024-4">become more expensive</a>, with expected lifetime costs topping $2 trillion, even with the aircraft flying less often than in the past.The defense industry, like the military, has also been called to account. Major shipbuilding projects, for example, are severely delayed. Coming off problems with the Zumwalt-class destroyers, first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford, and the Littoral Combat Ship, new constructions like the next Ford-class carrier, Constellation-class frigate, and Columbia-class submarine are, in some cases, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-grappling-with-another-ford-class-supercarrier-delay-2024-4">years behind schedule</a>. This is a concern as the US military aims to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-not-ready-china-war-military-economy-2023-5">maintain its edge</a> against its "pacing challenge" China.Separately, DoD has faced criticism over use-it-or-lose-it spending toward the end of the fiscal year, overpayment for common products, and seven consecutive failed audits of the department's $4.1 trillion in assets and $4.3 trillion in liabilities.To tackle the contracting conundrum and save money, Mike Gallagher, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and the current head of defense at Palantir Technologies, suggested in a Wall Street Journal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/two-years-to-prevent-world-war-iii-trump-sec-def-needs-to-overhaul-bureaucracy-cut-waste-c9a162d8?mod=opinion_lead_pos5">op-ed</a> this week that the incoming Pentagon leadership should enforce fixed-price contracting to put more burden on private contractors rather than the US government."The Defense Department's cost-plus contracting model has destroyed competition and innovation while exploding costs," Gallagher wrote, adding that the defense secretary should be required to sign off on cost-plus contracts.Musk's new initiative could recommend exactly this: a move away from cost-plus contracts toward fixed-price contracts.<div type="image" title="The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia in April 2016." height="2475" width="3841" msid="115359367" hostid="261" sizebytes="649290"></div>But fixed-price contracting may have its own set of problems. Bryan McGrath, a retired naval officer and the managing director of The FerryBridge Group LLC, responded to Gallagher's article <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/conswahoo/status/1857138300307624153?s=46">on social media</a>, saying private companies shouldn't have to face all the costs for systems that only the US government wants to buy.Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on defense strategy and budgeting, said switching from cost-plus to fixed-price contracting doesn't necessarily save the government money. It also doesn't necessarily produce more effective systems designed to withstand combat or decades of use."What it does is, by moving the risk to industry, it creates more stability for government and what they're going to pay for things," he told BI, adding that "it puts better incentives on industry, because if industry has a cost overrun, they pay for it — it's coming out of their profit. If they can deliver below cost that they expected, they can make more money. So it really just changes the incentives."Harrison said that there had already been a shift toward firm-fixed-price contracts, which tends to advantage smaller and newer defense companies — a trend he expects will accelerate during the Trump administration. But there are some areas where cost-plus contracts are sure to continue.Shipbuilding, especially for projects like aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines, is often arranged with large, multi-year contracts. This is because there may be only one company that can build the system, with one buyer (the Pentagon), and the product is unique to the US military.<div type="image" title="A digital rendering of the Constellation-class frigate." height="869" width="1876" msid="115359361" hostid="261" sizebytes="144122"></div>"In those areas of the defense-industrial base," Harrison said, "you have to manage it more like a public utility, where the free market does not exist, and free market principles do not work."<h2 id="719bae83-1982-40bc-bd4e-defb6b11920c">More efficient programs</h2>Mid-development changes to weapons systems designs are a major cost driver. To tackle this, the government could fix requirements for these systems early in the design process and enforce stricter rules around changes."One way that we know saves money is if you fix a design and don't add features," Michael Bohnert, a licensed engineer at the RAND Corporation, told BI.Today's F-35, for example, is "almost a different plane" than what was defined in its original requirements. Changes in scope have added costs. "You look at other programs that have been pretty narrowly defined — they've stayed in budget," he said.Archer Macy, a retired Navy admiral and missile defense expert at CSIS, told BI there's a history of abusing contracts where there's too much fluidity with requirements and specifications, making them vulnerable to changes.He said the government needs to find the "right type of contract for the right purpose (where you are in the development and acquisition cycle), stick to and don't abuse requirements and specs, and make people accountable."<div type="image" title="Aerial view of the Pentagon" height="3598" width="5396" msid="115359368" hostid="261" sizebytes="1410730"></div>Musk's new initiative may target other areas of Pentagon spending, as well.He could consider reducing the Pentagon's large civilian workforce and officer corps, for example, or crack down on instances like the US Air Force paying more than <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-wildly-overpaid-c-17-bathroom-soap-dispenser-2024-10">80 times the regular commercial value</a> for bathroom soap dispensers for its C-17 aircraft.Overall, experts warned against any changes that could harm US warfighting capabilities or compel companies to cut corners and deliver substandard weapons systems."However well-intentioned, the reach for efficiency could also undercut your military effectiveness, and you got to keep that in balance," John Harvey Jr., a retired Navy admiral, told BI.In fact, some members of Congress think the US should spend even more on defense. Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2024/5/senator-wicker-unveils-major-defense-investment-plan">warned earlier this year</a> that the country's defense investment is not sufficient to counter America's adversaries."Our defense industrial base is underfunded and unprepared for the wars of today, tomorrow, and the foreseeable future," his office said in May.

Elon Musk is looking for trillions in government waste, and defense is a massive potential target

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elon Musk says a leaderboard of "dumb" government spending will expose waste — and he wants your two cents.</li><li>Experts say the board "gamifies" the conversation — and it's likely going to get a lot of attention.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> wants to gamify the act of slashing government spending — and experts said it's a savvy strategy to get people to pay attention to a dry subject.The Tesla CEO said this week that he plans to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-doge-leaderboard-federal-government-spending-trump-2024-11">post a public "leaderboard</a> for the most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.""This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining," Musk posted, along with a promise to let the public weigh in on specific potential cuts.Musk would create the leaderboard as part of a new position in President-elect Donald Trump's administration: head of a new "Department of Government Efficiency," or <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-what-us-spends-2024-11">DOGE, which would be charged with cutting federal spending</a>.Musk said all the activities of DOGE — which he will lead alongside <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-department-government-efficiency-doge-2">businessman Vivek Ramaswamy</a>, and which is named after a Musk-linked cryptocurrency — would be published online in the name of transparency.While the effectiveness of Musk's leaderboard remains to be seen, experts told Business Insider that it revealed his marketing savvy — even if it could also encourage "gotcha" moments that need more context.The board promises entertainment, competition, and interactivity marketed to a group with skin in the game: the American public with an eye to their tax dollars.And it would turn an often wonky exercise — government budgeting — into a participatory game of winners and losers. In the process, it would also likely give Musk a valuable prize: our attention.<h2 id="ecf50696-d41c-44af-a191-d6e041165dae">A 'leaderboard' can gamify a wonky subject — and help it go viral</h2>Natalie Andreas, a communications studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin and digital strategy consultant, said Musk's leaderboard "has intriguing potential as a viral, high-impact marketing strategy."She said that, like a social media feed, the format "encourages frequent checking and sharing" and that public involvement through voting or sharing could fuel viral momentum.Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science and marketing at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, said a leaderboard takes advantage of a "gamification" strategy.Such a strategy can be entertaining — which helps a prospective audience stay engaged. And an engaged audience can be more likely to pass on information to their friends and other social media contacts, disseminating a message.Or, as Musk himself said about the leaderboard: "The entertainment value will be <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1856524169338314838">epic</a>."<h2 id="419ad8c4-6323-4c1e-bac7-7bc5394716b5">Interactivity helps give an audience a feeling of control</h2>Musk has promised a virtual suggestion box where the public can give him tips on what to cut or protect. "Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" he wrote. Musk and Trump's representatives didn't return a request for comment.Especially in a dry realm like government spending, Musk's plans are bound to grab eyeballs — and perhaps make people feel more invested in the outcome. And in an environment with so many distractions — social media, streaming video, text messages — attention is a valuable commodity.Andreas said the leaderboard could strengthen Musk's brand "as a bold, transparency-driven disruptor," though she also cautioned that it also would need "careful handling" to let the people and organizations targeted by the board add context.She said allowing users to vote or contribute examples of perceived waste "could drive high engagement and user-generated content, making the leaderboard both interactive and addictive."Karen North, a clinical professor of communication at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said the venture also speaks to Trump's unique ability to spark an emotional investment — and sometimes encourage vilification — in American politics. North previously served in the Clinton administration's science and technology policy office.She said the leaderboard marks another example of how the president-elect turns politics "into a show.""There's nothing more boring than talking about reducing spending in government. It's worse than just doing math for the sake of math," North said.<h2 id="90bc8724-304c-43f5-b31a-17725260dea9">There are risks to the gamification strategy</h2>North said the gamification strategy comes with risks. "People will be so easily drawn into playing 'gotcha' and being outraged that they may get caught up in the outcome rather than the meaningful details," she said.But gamifying the subject makes it fun — and social media has created a "participatory society" where people feel even more involved and invested, she said.There is some precedent for Musk's leaderboard, North said, noting that former Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, began to issue the "Golden Fleece Award" for wasteful spending throughout the 1970s and '80s via monthly press releases.North said it is often considered one of the most successful PR campaigns in government history, though she cautioned that it did lead to some unforeseen consequences: Some research that was initially ridiculed as wasteful government spending — including the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.goldengooseaward.org/01awardees/screwworms">sexual behavior of screwworms</a> — later proved critical to the US livestock industry and significantly reduced beef costs for Americans.And Amy Jo Kim, a game designer who has a doctoral degree in behavioral neuroscience and who's taught game design at Stanford, said that a leaderboard can inherently contain a point of view: Who's to determine, for instance, what's "waste" and how that's defined.It's "a storytelling device," Kim said. "It's the opposite of transparency, but it'll be seen as transparency by people that don't realize that it all comes back to who defines waste."

Elon Musk's promise of an 'epic' leaderboard of 'dumb' government spending reveals his marketing savvy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>About 700,000 passengers were affected by air traffic control chaos in the UK in August 2023.</li><li>A report found an engineer struggled to log in remotely, meaning it took longer to resolve the issue.</li></ul>An engineer's login struggles hindered attempts to solve an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/becoming-air-traffic-controller-career-pros-cons-of-job-2022-1">air traffic control</a> meltdown that affected 700,000 passengers in the UK.The details were revealed Thursday in a report by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority about the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/london-airports-travel-chaos-flight-delays-europe-photos-2023-8">August 2023 travel chaos</a>.It estimated the event cost airlines, airports, insurers, passengers, and others between £75 million and £100 million ($127 million) — and that about 300,000 people had their flights canceled. Another 95,000 were delayed by more than three hours, and a further 300,000 faced shorter delays.The incident was caused by a software failure. A single flight plan for a journey from Los Angeles to Paris — passing over the UK — contained two waypoints with the same name.This confused the automatic flight planning system, causing both the primary and the backup to shut down within 20 seconds.The system can usually process 900 flight plans an hour during peak periods, but <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-traffic-control-problems-delays-travel-chaos-holiday-weekend-uk-2023-8">air traffic controllers had to process them manually</a> — reducing its capacity to just 60 an hour, the report found.It also identified numerous factors that meant it took longer to identify and rectify the problem.One such factor was that a Level 2 engineer systems expert was on call but couldn't intervene remotely because their login and password "could not be readily verified due to the architecture of the system."It took the engineer 90 minutes to reach the air traffic control site — just over three hours after the meltdown began.All the traffic regulations implemented due to the incident were lifted after a total of nine-and-a-half hours.Delays and cancellations had knock-on effects on airline schedules, causing further issues for the next week. The report estimated that airlines lost £65 million ($82 million) as a result.The report recommended that NATS, the UK's air traffic control provider, has a Level 2 engineer working on-site during busy travel periods.Its 34 recommendations include government legislation, requiring airports and airlines to review the support available for affected passengers, and for NATS to provide earlier notices of possible disruption.UK Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said, "My department will look to introduce reforms, when we can, to provide air travelers with the highest level of protection possible."A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ryanair-ceo-calls-air-traffic-control-boss-resign-flight-chaos-2024-9">NATS</a> spokesperson said in a statement that it welcomed the report and apologized "for the inconvenience passengers suffered because of this very unusual technical incident. Over the 15 months since this incident, we have worked hard to address the lessons from it, and to ensure this particular issue cannot happen again."NATS has implemented most of the 48 recommendations from its own investigation, including "improving our engagement with our airline and airport customers, our wider contingency and crisis response, and our engineering support processes."

Air traffic control chaos affecting 700,000 passengers was made worse when an engineer couldn't log in remotely

A public interest litigation (<keyword id="19957723" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PIL" source="keywords">PIL</keyword>) has been filed in the <keyword id="19905533" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bombay-High-Court" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bombay High Court" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Bombay High Court">Bombay High Court</keyword>, urging the establishment of stringent guidelines to curb <keyword id="21811854" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="black-marketing" source="keywords">black marketing</keyword> and <keyword id="23311384" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ticket-scalping" source="keywords">ticket scalping</keyword> for major events. The PIL comes in the wake of widespread concerns over alleged irregularities during the online sale of tickets for the British band Coldplay’s upcoming concert in Navi Mumbai, scheduled for January 2025. Filed by advocate Amit Vyas, the PIL highlights the growing menace of ticket scalping and black marketing at large-scale events, including concerts, live shows, and sports matches. The plea calls for a thorough investigation into illegal ticket sales and the manipulation of online ticketing platforms, with specific reference to Coldplay's highly anticipated concert. The plea was mentioned on Monday for urgent hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice D. K. Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar. Noting that a police inquiry into the matter was already underway, the court adjourned the hearing to November, after the Diwali vacation. <h2>Allegations of <keyword id="23627270" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ticketing-irregularities" source="keywords">ticketing irregularities</keyword></h2>The PIL specifically alleges foul play during last month’s sale of tickets for Coldplay's concert on the popular online ticketing platform, <keyword id="20215809" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BookMyShow" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="BookMyShow" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="BookMyShow">BookMyShow</keyword>. According to the petition, many potential buyers were locked out of the website within minutes of the ticket sales opening, only to discover that the tickets had been sold out. Shortly thereafter, these same tickets appeared on secondary platforms at exorbitant prices, fueling suspicions of deliberate manipulation. Vyas, in his submission, noted that secondary websites were still selling tickets at inflated rates. He argued that this exploitative practice deprived fans of their right to fair access to entertainment, violating the <keyword id="20003683" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="consumer-protection" source="keywords">Consumer Protection</keyword> (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which mandate fair and non-deceptive practices by e-commerce entities. The PIL underscored that this problem extends beyond the <keyword id="22044624" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Coldplay-concert" source="keywords">Coldplay concert</keyword>, pointing to similar issues during other major events, including the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, the 2023 Cricket World Cup, and concerts of global artists like <keyword id="19897184" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="taylor-swift" source="keywords">Taylor Swift</keyword> and Diljit Dosanjh. In each case, fans were exploited through black market ticket sales, with prices soaring well above their official rates. According to Vyas, there is an urgent need for the government and judicial system to intervene, as ticketing platforms and event organisers are either complicit or failing to regulate secondary market sales effectively. <h2>Call for stricter guidelines</h2>The plea calls for the Bombay High Court to lay down stringent guidelines to prevent the black marketing and touting of event tickets. Vyas has asked for a framework that would ensure transparency and fairness in <keyword id="23627269" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-ticket-sales" source="keywords">online ticket sales</keyword> and reduce the exploitation of fans. The PIL emphasises that the lack of proper regulations in India’s ticketing sector has allowed platforms like BookMyShow to bypass rules, leaving consumers vulnerable to deceptive practices. It urges the court to consider the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, as the basis for implementing stricter regulatory measures in the ticketing industry. <h2>Ongoing police investigation</h2>Following last month’s irregularities, Vyas lodged a police complaint with the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police, which is currently conducting an inquiry. The PIL has highlighted the need for a more immediate judicial intervention to prevent further exploitation in upcoming events. As the Coldplay concert approaches, the spotlight remains on the High Court’s response to this plea and whether it will pave the way for reforms that will bring much-needed transparency and accountability to India’s ticketing industry. The court is expected to hear the matter again in November. (With inputs from agencies)

Coldplay concert chaos aftermath: PIL filed in Bombay HC to demand stricter controls over online ticket sales

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Australia plans to ban social media for users under 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.</li><li>The ban comes amid a global effort to curb kids' use of social media.</li></ul>With young people using social media more than ever, and those social media companies perfecting the algorithms that keep them engaged, concerns about social media addiction are taking root all over the world. Now, Australia wants to ban social media for everyone under 16.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the plan on Thursday. Australia's social media ban will be introduced into Parliament during its final session this year, which begins on November 18. If passed, social media companies will have 12 months to figure out how to keep minors off their apps before the law is enforced, he said."This one's for the moms and dads," Albanese said in a press conference. "Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I'm calling time on it."Albanese told reporters that the proposed law would "put the onus" on social media companies to show that they are taking reasonable steps to keep children off of their apps, and not on parents."There will be no penalties for users," he said.Australia's announcement comes on the heels of a multistate lawsuit in the United States that seeks to hold TikTok accountable for deploying "addictive" strategies aimed at kids and teenagers.In October, attorneys general from 14 different states <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ny-ag-letitia-james-stealth-trump-fraud-tiktok-2024-10">filed lawsuits against TikTok</a>. They said the app is addictive and profits from damaging the mental health of children.Internal TikTok documents from the lawsuit filed in Kentucky showed that TikTok employees determined that young users can become addicted to the app after viewing 260 videos. Given that most TikTok videos are about 8 seconds, Kentucky's authorities calculated that a child could be addicted after just 35 minutes of using the app, the document says.In the UK, meanwhile, lawmakers introduced a bill in October that would require social media companies to exclude children under 16 from algorithms that harvest their data. The law is meant to make it more difficult for companies to push addictive content to children, according to The Guardian.In Australia, Albanese said that social media has seeped into every part of life, which led him to believe that a ban for underage users was "absolutely the right thing to do."Around 97% of teens use social media across various platforms in Australia, according to <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/australias-planned-social-media-ban-raises-teen-isolation-fears-2024-10-15/">Reuters</a>."This would be the number one discussion outside the schoolgate, on the sideline of tennis, cricket, football, netball, swimming — as parents gather, it's something of enormous concern," Albanese said.Albanese called the legislation "world-leading," but some experts oppose the ban, calling it too broad. More than <a target="_blank" href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/young-and-resilient/news/in_media/young_and_resilient_research_centre_joins_chorus_of_nearly_150_australian_and_international_experts_opposing_social_media_ban_for_u16s">140 experts</a> from Australia and other countries signed an open letter opposing the law, saying that the ban doesn't do enough to address children who need access to critical services through social media, among other concerns.Jackie Hallan, director at ReachOut, a youth mental health service, told the Associated Press that she also opposed the ban. According to Hallan, 73% of young people in Australia needing mental health services access it through social media."We're uncomfortable with the ban," Hallan told the outlet. "We think young people are likely to circumvent a ban and our concern is that it really drives the behavior underground and then if things go wrong, young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because they're worried about getting in trouble."Meta's head of safety, Antigone Davis, told The Associated Press that the company would respect any age limitations that the Australian government wants to introduce."However, what's missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections, otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place," Davis said in a statement.Davis added that stronger parental control tools in app stores and operating systems would be a "simple and effective solution" to keep children from downloading unwanted apps.

Australia wants to ban kids under 16 from social media as world governments seek to crack down on the 'addictive' apps

<ul><li><keyword id="19897349" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ola-electric" source="keywords">Ola Electric</keyword> has come under the scanner after a surge in customer complaints.</li><li>The company’s sales and market share have also been declining.</li><li>The government has reportedly issued a show cause notice to <keyword id="19945904" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ola" source="keywords">Ola</keyword> Electric.</li></ul>Ola Electric was once considered the most promising electric automaker in the country, from dominating the electric two-wheeler with its electric scooters to introducing multiple electric bikes simultaneously. The company had many things going for it, hosting a vast distribution network via its cab-hailing platform and a conducive policy environment that incentivised the growth of EVs. But within a few years of its launch, somewhere something seems to have gone awfully wrong! The Bhavish Aggarwal-led company has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, from the company’s founder engaging in an online spat with comedian Kunal Kamra to customers taking to social media to complain about their scooters. But that’s not where the company’s problems end. One of the seemingly direct effects of the rise in customer complaints has been subdued sales in recent months. Besides this, the company has also come under the government’s scanner. <h2>Surge in complaints</h2>According to a recent report, Ola Electric recently formed a new service team to deal with the surge in customer complaints. As per the report, the electric two-wheeler maker is receiving as many as 80,000 customer complaints per month, overwhelming its service infrastructure. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113699039" title="Ola Electric plans to expand sales and service infra to 10,000 outlets by 2025-end" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> The high number of complaints reportedly resulted in high wait times for customers, resulting in growing customer dissatisfaction, which is regularly played out on social media. <h2>Declining market share</h2>It’s not just social media, the company’s market share has also been on the decline along with its sales. From nearly a 50% market share in April 2024, the company’s market share declined to 27% in September 2024. While the company still leads the Indian electric two-wheeler market, legacy automakers like Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor are closing in. While Bajaj Auto reported a 21.5% market share in September 2024, TVS Motor reported a 20.3% market share. From occupying nearly half of the market, Ola Electric has now been restricted to a quarter and by the looks of it, the company may not even be able to hold the top position by the end of the year if the current trend continues. <h2>Ola Electric comes under the government’s scrutiny</h2>Amid rising complaints, Ola Electric has also come under the government’s scanner. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), India’s consumer watchdog issues a show-cause notice to Ola Electric over potential violations of the Consumer Protection Act (2019). According to a report, The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) run by the Department of Consumer Affairs has received 10,644 complaints against Ola Electric since September 2023. When the NCH approached Ola Electric, the body was reportedly met with apathy by the company. Out of the 10,644 complaints, 3,389 relate to delays in providing service to the vehicles, 1,899 are around delivery delays for new vehicles and 1,459 customers have complained about services that were promised but not provided. According to a report by CNBCTV-18, CCPA chairman Nidhi Khare has said the complaints against Ola Electric have been classified in 10 categories, including “delayed and unsatisfactory service”, “refusal or delay in warranty services”, “recurrent defects despite services”, “unprofessional conduct and complaint closure” and more. <h2>A customer’s harrowing experience</h2>Business Insider India spoke to Mr Rakesh (name changed), an Ola Electric customer who has been facing issues with his Ola S1 Pro. The customer paid for the vehicle in August 2023 and the scooter was delivered in January 2024, after a five-month wait. The first issue that the customer faced was that despite the scooter only being delivered in January 2024, the scooter’s warranty began in August 2023, depriving the customer of five months of warranty. Not just this, the vehicle’s insurance began in November 2023, two months prior to the delivery. While this is a concerning issue, this was the least of the customer’s problems. <div type="image" title="1" msid="114120836" hostid="261" sizebytes="68242" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Ola S1 Pro being towed&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> As per the customer, his scooter repeatedly faced issues, not even turning on at times. Rakesh said that he was forced to restart his vehicle four to five times a day just to be able to use it and if this didn’t work, he was forced to remove and re-insert a plug placed under the seat. However, even this failed several times and in less than eight months of usage, Rakesh was forced to get his vehicle towed to the service centre multiple times with the help of roadside assistance (RSA). He claimed that he faced the issue nearly 30 times so far. He further said that the scooter has spent the majority of its time at the service centre, which is extremely disappointing after spending over ₹1.6 lakh on a vehicle. <div type="image" title="2" msid="114120876" hostid="261" sizebytes="65944" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Ola S1 Pro being towed again&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> At the service centre, the service executives were unable to find the exact cause of the issue. To try and solve the issue, the scooter’s control unit was reportedly changed twice and there were multiple software updates. Rakesh has had a disappointing experience so far, especially with the service executives being unable to diagnose the issue and him having to repeatedly visit the service centre. <h2>A wake-up call?</h2>Many users on the internet have labelled Ola vehicles as subpar and not fit for this competitive market that’s growing rapidly. The initial marketing was good, helping the company conquer almost half of the market share. But a bad quality product can dent the reputation of a company severely in the long run. This must serve as a wake-up call for <keyword id="1543567" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bhavish-Aggarwal" source="Orion">Bhavish Aggarwal</keyword> and everyone at Ola Electric and the consumers hope that the company not only works on improving its quality control but also overhauls its service infrastructure to more efficiently diagnose and solve issues with their vehicles. During an interaction early in the company’s journey, Aggarwal once said that he hopes to sell around 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh scooters a month, which is close to what one of the popular petrol scooters manages to do each month. While this dream looked achievable at one time, the journey now seems quite tedious. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/september-auto-sales-automakers-report-a-decline-mahindra-and-mahindra-overtakes-tata-motors/articleshow/113925972.cms">September Auto sales – Automakers report a decline, Mahindra and Mahindra overtakes Tata Motors</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/ola-electric-continues-to-lose-market-share-as-bajaj-auto-and-tvs-motor-gain/articleshow/113900252.cms">Ola Electric continues to lose market share as Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor gain</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/pm-e-drive-scheme-with-10900-crore-outlay-announced-for-electric-vehicles/articleshow/113816837.cms">PM E-DRIVE scheme with ₹10,900 crore outlay announced for electric vehicles</a>

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