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Market watchdog SEBI has come out with a consultation paper in a bid to ease the functioning of <keyword id="22476006" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ESG-Rating-Providers" source="keywords">ESG Rating Providers</keyword> (ERPs), pushing for the development of a <keyword id="23760035" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="subscriber-pays-model" source="keywords">subscriber-pays model</keyword>. As of July 2024, nine ERPs are registered with SEBI to operate in the country. These include <keyword id="23760037" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CRISIL-ESG-Ratings" source="keywords">CRISIL ESG Ratings</keyword> &amp; Analytics, ESG Risk Assessments and Ratings, GlobeTrend Climate Impact Institutional Investor Advisory Services, <keyword id="23760038" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NSE-Sustainability-Ratings" source="keywords">NSE Sustainability Ratings</keyword> and Analytics, PGS Impact, Pragati Development Consulting, CARE ESG Ratings, and SES ESG Research. Per the paper's proposal, ERPs won't be required to disclose ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings to the bourses, provided they confirm that there is no non-public information that could potentially affect the rating. Another proposal was the simultaneous sharing of the ESG rating reports both to the rated companies and to the subscribers who pay to access these reports. ERPs should ensure that rated entities, their group companies, or associates cannot subscribe to their own ESG ratings, SEBI said in its consultation paper. Some of the other suggestions put forth by SEBI include: 1. Companies will have a specific timeframe to respond to the ESG report, and any such comments should be included in the report as an addendum. 2. In case the ERP does not agree with the remarks issued by the rated company, they can add their comments to the report as well. 3. ERPs can rate unlisted issuers or other products, provided they meet specific guidelines from relevant regulators. SEBI is receiving public comment on these proposals until November 15, 2024. <h2>Steady returns </h2>Of the 11 ESG mutual fund schemes available to Indian mutual fund investors, the Quant ESG Equity fund has generated the highest returns of about 45.44% over one year, data from ValueResearch showed. Simply put, had you invested Rs 10,000 every month in this fund for three years, you would have accumulated a corpus of Rs 5,47,525. Over three years, the returns on this fund come to around 26%. This was followed by the ICICI Pru ESG Exclusionary Strategy fund, which yielded 44.73% returns over the same period. However, over ultra-short terms, i.e., 1-3 months, ESG funds have largely delivered negative returns, underscoring their suitability only as a long-term investment avenue. Only the SBI ESG Exclusionary Strategy Direct Fund and Quantum ESG Best In Class Strategy Direct Fund have been around for 5 years, during which they have generated returns of about 16.67% and 18.7%, respectively. <keyword id="23760036" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ESG-mutual-funds" source="keywords">ESG mutual funds</keyword> typically select and invest in companies that are ESG-compliant, i.e., who weave in environmental conversation, social welfare, and robust <keyword id="20392393" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="corporate-governance" source="keywords">corporate governance</keyword> practices into their working philosophy and work ethos, while simultaneously generating decent financial returns for stakeholders as well.

SEBI mulls measures to facilitate ease of doing business for ESG Rating Providers (ERPs)

Foreign investors have withdrawn nearly Rs 20,000 crore from Indian stock markets in just five trading days (November 4–8), continuing a trend of large-scale selling that began last month. Experts say investors are now moving their money to China, largely due to the high valuations presently prevailing in Indian markets. In early November, FPIs have offloaded as much as Rs 19,994 crore in Indian markets. The month prior, i.e., October, was one of the worst months in terms of foreign outflows, with FPIs making a net withdrawal of Rs 94,017 crore. Before this, Indian markets faced such a situation during the pandemic, when FPIs withdrew Rs 61,973 crore from equities in March 2020. <h2>Why Are Investors Leaving? </h2>According to Himanshu Srivastava of Morningstar Investment Research India, two main factors are driving this exodus. First is China's renewed appeal due to lower stock valuations and new economic stimulus measures. In a bid to nudge the domestic economy and bail state governments, China recently approved a 10-trillion yuan (US $1.4 trillion) package. Per reports, approximately 60% of this stimulus focuses on allowing local governments to refinance the mountain of debt on them. Srivastava explains foreign investors are also flocking to US dollar and Treasury yields, which have appreciated significantly in the recent past, leading FPIs to anticipate a stronger US economy going ahead. Moreover, high valuations in Indian markets are discouraging foreign investors from putting more money in the economy. As a result, over the past week, the selling pressure eroded Rs 74,563 crore in market value for Reliance Industries, while Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank lost Rs 26,274 crore and Rs 22,254 crore, respectively. The combined market valuation of six of the top 10 most-valued firms dipped by Rs 1,55,721.12 crore last week. <h2> Silver linings</h2>Despite the ongoing outflux of funds since last month, November also saw unprecedented applications of about 40–50 new FPI registrations, which are eyeing to enter the Indian market. This was due to markets SEBIs recent relaxation to NRIs, permitting them to participate up to 100% and announcing measures for ease of entry and operations in India. On the other hand, FPIs invested Rs 599 crore in the debt general limit and Rs 2,896 crore in the debt voluntary retention route (VRR) during the period under review. So far this year, FPIs have invested Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the debt market. <li class="whitespace-normal break-words"></li>Going ahead, investors will be looking for certain macroeconomic cues, which include corporate earnings reports, India's inflation (CPI) and industrial production (IIP) data on November 12, the US inflation report on November 13, and wholesale price index (WPI) data on November 14.

FPIs withdraw nearly Rs 20,000 crore from equities in the last 5 trading sessions, make a beeline for China and US

Donald <keyword id="19906203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Trump" source="keywords">Trump</keyword> and <keyword id="19903807" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="keywords">Elon Musk</keyword> have apparently become great friends over recent months. Musk poured millions of dollars into Trump's successful election campaign and has been a vocal and visible supporter of the president-elect. In return, he's been given a new job, in joint charge of the new <keyword id="23593857" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Department-of-Government-Efficiency" source="keywords">Department of Government Efficiency</keyword> (Doge), where he will be tasked with streamlining government operations and reducing bureaucracy. This "department"—actually an advisory group—will aim to cut unnecessary spending and make the general functioning of the US government more efficient. The idea is that within a federal budget of over US$6 trillion, there are opportunities to make some big savings. Musk's appointment—like many things he's involved with—has sparked controversy. The richest man in the world has already said he wants to cut spending by US$2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) and mentioned setting up a "leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.". Some are concerned about the impact he could have on public services. Others fear he will use his position to promote his own business interests. On the positive side, Musk has a very impressive CV when it comes to big organisations. He has created (or co-created) multi-billion-dollar businesses, including Paypal, <keyword id="19895433" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tesla" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Tesla" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Tesla">Tesla</keyword>, and <keyword id="19905255" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="SpaceX" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="SpaceX" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="SpaceX">SpaceX</keyword>. He has founded startups involved in AI (xAI), tunnelling (the Boring Company), and medicine (<keyword id="19985233" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neuralink" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Neuralink" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Neuralink">Neuralink</keyword>). And research suggests that much of Musk's success comes down to a relentless focus on efficiency. He has also been praised for the depth of his analytical thinking and innovative problem solving. Tesla's factory in California went from being the least productive car manufacturing plant in the US when it was owned by General Motors to the most productive under Musk's ownership. SpaceX has vastly reduced costs in the space cargo business. So he has form. And Musk is not the first American business leader to offer private sector expertise to the world of politics. Back in the 1960s, Robert McNamara, former president of the Ford Motor Company, served as secretary of defence under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara brought significant innovations to <keyword id="22668770" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="government-efficiency" source="keywords">government efficiency</keyword> that drew on his corporate experience. He championed cost-benefit analysis and a data-driven approach to decision-making and was keen on reducing bureaucracy and promoting accountability in complex governmental processes. To achieve this, McNamara recruited a team of experts from the worlds of academia and business. Known as the "Whizz Kids," they brought new perspectives to the White House. In the UK now, the Labour government's minister of state for investment is Poppy Gustafsson, a former venture capitalist and tech founder. Its minister for prisons is James Timpson, former CEO of the Timpson Group, a family firm renowned for hiring ex-offenders. These people—and there are many other examples around the world—were brought into the political sphere because of the knowledge and vision they have demonstrated in the private sector. The hope is their talent and leadership will improve policy and practice. <h2>Data-driven reform</h2>The same must be hoped for Musk: that with his co-leader, Vivek Ramaswamy—a biotech entrepreneur and former Republican leadership candidate—he will bring expertise in cost-cutting and innovative strategies. This will probably include comprehensive audits and data-driven approaches to reform. Critics refer to prior examples of Musk's approach, such as the mass layoffs and aggressive cost-cutting measures at Twitter (now X), with concerns that there could be similarly drastic reductions in the federal workforce and public services. But big job cuts were happening across the tech sector at that time. They came in the wake of reduced revenues and a need to reduce bloated workforces and ineffective functions—not unlike the challenges faced by the US government. Nevertheless, while proponents see Musk as an experienced leader capable of streamlining bureaucracy, sceptics fear the advent of harmful austerity measures that risk disruption to essential public programs. Concerns have also been raised about potential conflicts of interest, as Musk's business empire benefits from government contracts. However, since Doge will operate as an advisory body, concerns over him gaining advantage through any self-dealing seem overblown. Besides, two of Musk's companies (SpaceX and Tesla) have been awarded US$15.4 billion (£12.3bn) in federal contracts in the last decade. Perhaps then, success precedes influence rather than the reverse? Doge will also be governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which maintains legal and ethical guardrails. And Congress will have the final say over any decisions. Fears of the worst possible outcome to Musk's appointment are a natural human response in the face of uncertainty. It is part of the reason that negative headlines get more clicks than positive ones. It is also true that Musk has aligned himself with a politician who divides opinion like few others. By leveraging his billions of dollars and 200 million followers on X to help Trump to victory, he made it clear which side he was on. And in a highly polarised US political landscape, the anguish about his governmental role may be little more than a knee-jerk reaction from the millions of people whose side he did not choose.

Love him or loathe him, Elon Musk is a champion of efficiency and could save the US government a fortune

<keyword id="21244010" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="government-measures" source="keywords">Government measures</keyword> such as mandatory quality control orders and increasing customs duty have helped boost exports of <keyword id="25284" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="toys" source="Orion">toys</keyword> from India, but there is a need to do much more for the sector, a top official said on Wednesday. Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajesh Kumar Singh also indicated that they are diligently pursuing the proposal of extending fiscal incentives under the production-linked incentive scheme for the sector. He said that the industry is wondering about one proposed major policy intervention and "let me assure you that we are still pursuing that". In the interim Budget in February, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has recommended an outlay of Rs 3,489 crore for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for toys to boost domestic manufacturing of the sector. As the scheme is yet to be cleared by the Union Cabinet, the interim Budget has made a token provision of Rs 1 lakh towards the scheme for 2024-25. The scheme aims to attract investments in key sectors and cutting-edge technology; ensure efficiency, bring economies of size and scale in the manufacturing sector and make Indian companies and manufacturers globally competitive. Singh said that the country's <keyword id="21563576" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="toy-exports" source="keywords">toy exports</keyword> have jumped to USD 325.72 million in 2022-23 from USD 96.17 million in 2014-15 as the government is providing all-around support for creating a conducive manufacturing ecosystem for the toy industry. Imports of toys dipped by 52 per cent from USD 332.55 million in 2014-15 to USD 158.7 million in 2022-23. "The national action plan for toys and other initiatives has had a good impact, but we need to do much more," Singh said, adding the sector holds huge exports and job potential. In order to make India a global hub for toy manufacturing, the government has undertaken a series of initiatives including the formulation of a comprehensive National Action Plan for Toys (NAPT) to promote the designing of toys, using toys as a learning resource, monitoring quality of toys, and promoting indigenous toy clusters. The secretary was speaking at a toy workshop in New Delhi. In order to enable further growth, increased market access and development of new-age marketing skills, DPIIT conducted a workshop with Flipkart and the Indian Toy Industry. Flipkart, Walmart and the Toy Association of India participated in the event. Joint Secretary in the DPIIT Sanjiv said that the workshop was aimed at enhancing India's position and capabilities in the global toy supply chain. It will help the toy manufacturers understand the nuances of online selling which shall in turn help in the growth of sales and market access, Sanjiv said. The issues figured out in the workshop included ways to increase sourcing by online platforms, onboarding of manufacturers on the Flipkart platform and upskilling. It was also aimed at supporting online selling, scaling domestic consumption and upskilling/reskilling workforce. Last year, Flipkart informed toy makers about their requirements and expected quality standards, as it is directly engaging with domestic toymakers for sourcing. The online platforms provide greater access to a much wider customer base across India, expanding their market reach significantly. E-commerce eliminates the need for physical stores, reducing operational costs. It also provides valuable brand exposure to a large audience. Additionally, e-commerce platforms offer data on consumer buying habits and preferences, allowing manufacturers to develop products that cater to market demands. India raised import duties on toys beginning in February 2020. The basic customs duty was increased from 20 per cent to 60 per cent and then to 70 per cent in July 2021.

Govt steps have boosted toy exports from India, but more work still needed: DPIIT Secretary

Narendra Modi, elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will take oath as <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword>'s prime minister for a historic third term on Sunday evening at 7:15 PM. After a decade of full majority governance, Modi will now run a <keyword id="20018803" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coalition-government" source="keywords">coalition government</keyword>, with the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United) as key partners. Despite being in coalition, experts feel that there won't be much change in the new government's economic agenda. Economists believe that <keyword id="20509939" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Modi-3-0" source="keywords">Modi 3.0</keyword> will not slow down the reforms and to achieve the goal of Vikshit Bharat by 2047, <keyword id="20404815" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-reforms" source="keywords">economic reforms</keyword> and policy reviews need to be continued across multiple sectors, including infrastructure, labour, and manufacturing. These reforms are deemed essential to drive economic growth and development in India. "The oft-repeated target of becoming a developed country by 2047 requires far-reaching reforms in the factor market, opening up of the economy and infrastructure development and a thrust towards labour intensive manufacturing. In a coalition environment it may not be easy to carry out big bang reforms, but the thrust of incremental reforms should be in this direction," said M Govind Rao, Member, Fourteenth Finance Commission and former Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. Economists have noted that spending on <keyword id="20229510" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="populist-measures" source="keywords">populist measures</keyword> will increase because of coalition politics, however, the government will continue with its focus on "<keyword id="20054650" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Made-In-India" source="keywords">Made In India</keyword>" reforms. Sectors like infrastructure and manufacturing will remain the priority of the government. "There's likely to be a swerve towards greater populist spending and some commitment of resources to states of alliance partners is also likely. But India's public finances are in relatively robust health and to be augmented by significant reserves from the RBI. India's infrastructure spending will continue apace but perhaps with greater private sector participation. Expenditure on defence modernisation and indigenisation will also undoubtedly continue" said Gautam Sen, retired political economist London School of Economics and author, Former member of the Indo-UK Roundtable and Senior Consultant UNDP. The full budget expected to be announced in July, will reflect the economic agenda of Modi 3.0. Many economists expect the Budget will likely see a spurt in welfare and support schemes mainly for farmers and poor. The Budget will indicate the policy priorities for the new coalition government and decide the growth trajectory for the next five years, On the economic front, economists have cautioned the government about the potential setbacks from a sluggish global economy and geopolitical crisis. "One constraint remains the sluggish world economy, which could suffer worse setbacks next year, though Indian growth has risen despite it. The unknown is the impact of external shocks of intensifying wars and uncertainty over energy prices" added Sen. Meanwhile, in a significant boost to the start of Modi 3.0, the Reserve Bank of India on June 7 revised upwards the <keyword id="19972825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GDP-growth" source="keywords">GDP growth</keyword> projection for the current fiscal to 7.2 per cent from 7 per cent on rising private consumption and revival of demand in rural areas. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) placed India's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 8.2 per cent in 2023-24.

Economists expect big bang reforms to continue under Modi 3.0

<keyword id="19896018" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kerala" source="keywords">Kerala</keyword> is on high alert following the death of a 14-year-old boy from <keyword id="20824677" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="malappuram" source="keywords">Malappuram</keyword> district due to the <keyword id="21881533" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nipah-virus" source="keywords">Nipah virus</keyword>. To prevent the situation from escalating further, the central government has stepped in to assist the <keyword id="73082" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kerala-government" source="Orion">Kerala government</keyword> and safeguard the public. A zoonotic illness, the <keyword id="20197512" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nipah" source="keywords">Nipah</keyword> virus,infection is transmitted from animals like pigs and fruit bats to humans, as well as through contaminated food and contact with an infected person. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has even flagged the virus as a priority pathogen due to its epidemic potential. The boy from Malappuram showed symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and was initially treated in Perinthalmanna before being transferred to a higher health centre Kozhikode. The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune subsequently confirmed the <keyword id="22489646" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nipah-virus-infection" source="keywords">Nipah virus infection</keyword>. In response, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sent monoclonal antibodies for patient management and a mobile Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) laboratory for testing additional samples from contacts. Unfortunately, the boy's “poor general condition” prevented the administration of the antibodies. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Health ministry advises Kerala to take four immediate public health measures" comment="subhead" text="Health ministry advises Kerala to take four immediate public health measures"><keyword id="19896140" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="health-ministry" source="keywords">Health ministry</keyword> advises Kerala to take four immediate public health measures</cmsannotation> The 14-year-old’s demise in Malappuram has triggered an urgent public health response from the Centre, with the Union health ministry advising Kerala to take four immediate health measures to ensure public safety. They are as follows: 1. Active Case Search: The state government should begin active case searches within the family of the confirmed case, the neighbourhood and other areas with similar topography to identify any additional cases. This proactive approach will help in early detection and containment. 2. Contact Tracing: The state should trace contacts the identified case had over the past 12 days. This includes monitoring these contacts for symptoms and taking steps to prevent further spread of the virus. Detailed records of interactions and movements of the infected individual will be crucial. 3. Quarantine and Isolation: Contacts of the confirmed case should be strictly quarantined, and any suspects showing symptoms should be isolated. This measure is essential to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading within the community. 4. Sample Collection and Testing: Samples from potential contacts and suspects should be collected and transported for laboratory testing. This ensures early detection and allows for a swift response to any new cases that may arise. To assist the Kerala government, a multi-member joint outbreak response team from the National ‘<keyword id="15536661" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="One-Health-Mission" source="Orion">One Health Mission</keyword>’ will be deployed. This team will help investigate the case, identify epidemiological linkages and provide technical support. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111771996" title="What is the Chandipura virus that has already claimed the lives of 6 children in Gujarat?" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Meanwhile, Kerala Health Minister Veena George has confirmed that an additional 60 people have been identified as high-risk for contracting the disease. Amid this situation, residents in vulnerable areas have been instructed to take precautions, such as wearing masks in public and avoiding hospital visits. The Nipah virus has been linked to dozens of deaths in Kerala since its first report in 2018. The state has faced multiple outbreaks, with the most recent occurring in 2023 in Kozhikode district.

Nipah virus: Health Ministry instructs Kerala to enforce four immediate safety measures following 14-year-old's death

<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.

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