 Qatar recently hosted a special edition of its flagship Monday Bites series, bringing together business leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and emerging talent to celebrate leadership, knowledge-sharing, artificial intelligence (AI), and growing India–Qatar ties.</p><p>The event, attended by Indian ambassador Vipul, observed a minute of silence in memory of those who lost their lives in the recent Ras Laffan incident. The gathering paid tribute to the deceased and expressed its heartfelt condolences to their families, colleagues, and loved ones.</p><p>IBPC Qatar president Thaha Muhammed Abdul Kareem highlighted the importance of continuous learning, leadership development, innovation, and community engagement in an increasingly dynamic global environment. </p><p>As one of IBPC Qatar%27s signature initiatives, Monday Bites has established itself as a premier platform for leadership dialogue, professional development, and knowledge exchange. By bringing together business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, industry experts, and professionals, the platform fosters meaningful conversations on emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges shaping the future of business and society.</p><p>Addressing the gathering, the ambassador reflected on the remarkable progress achieved in India–Qatar relations over the past three years and shared his perspectives on the expanding opportunities for collaboration between the two countries. </p><p>He highlighted the growing momentum across trade, investment, energy, technology, innovation, education, and people-to-people engagement, while emphasising the importance of continued cooperation in strengthening the strategic partnership between India and Qatar.</p><p>A major highlight of the event was the Monday Bites Signature Session titled ‘Build the BAT. Master the BAAP. Be the BATMAN. Attract What Others Chase’, delivered by Kareem.The session challenged conventional thinking around success and competition, encouraging participants to focus on building distinctive value, strong capabilities, and sustainable competitive advantages. </p><p>The event also marked the successful completion of the inaugural IBPC AI Advantage Certification Programme with Certificates of Participation presented to the graduates.As one of the first initiatives of its kind undertaken by IBPC Qatar, the programme represents an important milestone in the organisation%27s commitment to preparing professionals and business leaders for the rapidly evolving age of AI. </p><p>The certification covered key areas including prompt engineering, AI-powered productivity, content creation, automation, strategic decision-making, and digital transformation. By focusing on practical use cases and hands-on learning, the program empowered participants to confidently embrace emerging technologies and unlock new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and growth.</p><p>The initiative reflects IBPC Qatar%27s broader vision of fostering future-ready leadership and ensuring that its members remain competitive, adaptable, and well-positioned to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven global economy.</p><p>As India and Qatar continue to deepen cooperation across trade, investment, technology, energy, innovation, and human capital development, initiatives such as Monday Bites and the IBPC AI Advantage Certification Programme reflect IBPC Qatar%27s commitment to building a future-ready professional community while strengthening the people-to-people and business connections that underpin one of the region%27s most dynamic and successful bilateral partnerships.</p>__%20%20%20%20<p>Related%20Story</p>_%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20__%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20<img%20loading=?resize=150,150&ssl=1 "IBPC Doha Information holds Monday Bites consultation with Indian envoy")
In 1880, within the village of Chaironeia in central Greece, Greek archaeologists made a exceptional in finding: a in large part undisturbed mass grave of 254 historical squaddies, a few of whom are buried arm in arm.
The lads on this grave had been obviously a distinct crew, and it has most often been assumed that they had been the lifeless of the Theban Sacred Band (hieros lochos) – an elite preventing unit made up of 150 pairs of male fans, preventing facet via facet.
The Sacred Band have been arrange in about 378 BCE, after the folk of Thebes (in central Greece, north of Athens) had freed themselves from a short lived length of rule via the regional superpower of that generation, the Spartans.
This elite unit used to be a certified pressure of 300 closely armed soldiers who fought in Thebes’ wars, in central Greece, north into Thessaly, and south into the Peloponnese, used both as surprise troops or as a bulwark of defence.
A military ‘composed of lovers and their beloveds’
As all the time in Greek historical past, the proof is problematic.
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A lot of it comes from Greek-Roman thinker Plutarch, writing 500 years later however the use of previous assets now misplaced to us.
Or even Plutarch is wary. In his textual content Lifetime of Pelopidas 18.1–2, he depends upon imprecise language, writing:
Some say that this band used to be composed of fans and loved […] because the fans are ashamed to play the coward ahead of their loved, and the loved ahead of their fans, and each stand company in peril to offer protection to every different.
The thinker Plato, writing many masses of years previous – in all probability a bit ahead of the Sacred Band used to be shaped in about 378 BCE – wrote in his well-known Symposium 178e–179a of the way just right an army pressure composed of fans could be. They might, one of the vital audio system within the discussion claims, struggle for every different and to steer clear of shame in every different’s eyes:
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Due to this fact, if it might be organized {that a} town or a military be composed of fans and their beloveds, what higher means may they organise their affairs than via abstaining from all shameful movements and prizing honour in a single some other’s eyes? And if such folks had been to struggle along one some other, even a couple of of them may, to coin a word, triumph over the entire human race.
For a person in love who used to be breaking rank or throwing away his guns, would in fact a lot fairly be noticed via somebody else in any respect than via his loved. As an alternative of that he would select to die again and again. As for forsaking his favorite or no longer aiding him within the hour of risk, neatly there may be none so base that Eros may just no longer encourage him against excellence, to be equivalent via nature to the easiest.
The glory made in those passages between “lovers” (erastai or agapontes) and “beloved” (eromenoi or paidika) displays the truth that in historical Greece sexual relationships had been hardly between folks of the similar age.
In Athens, first marriages had been most often between a person in his overdue 20s and a woman of about 14.
In a similar fashion, homoerotic relationships, which have been quite common, had been most often between an older guy and a youngster formative years, anyplace from possibly round 12 (in accordance with vase art work) to each time the adolescent began to develop a beard.
Erastai (fans) weren’t completely gay: they might in most cases additionally marry and feature youngsters (as, sooner or later, would their eromenoi, or loved).
Those had been sexual relationships however this hasn’t all the time been brazenly said via historians. Nineteenth-century Classicists most commonly sought to defend the Greeks from the imputation that that they had engaged in homosexual intercourse. Nowadays, the concern is extra about under-age intercourse.
The erastes–eromenos courting had a facet of mentoring however, inside social calls for of the time for a undeniable modesty, it used to be additionally obviously sexual.
Combating in combination, drowsing in combination
The issue with the Theban Sacred Band is that the eromenoi would want to be sufficiently old to stand the large bodily demanding situations of combat, in most cases reserved for males over about 20. That suggests other social mores in Thebes from the ones at Athens.
In Athens, there have been lifelong homosexual {couples}, together with two of the characters in Plato’s Symposium, however they may frequently be the objective of mockery. Athenians particularly idea there used to be one thing shameful in an grownup guy being the “passive partner” in homosexual intercourse.
However in all probability attitudes had been other at Thebes, the place homosexual {couples} appear to have pledged their love to one another on the tomb of Iolaos, the eromenos, or loved, of Herakles (occasionally identified via his Roman identify Hercules).
The {couples} who made up the Sacred Band can have come in combination when the more youthful one used to be a youngster and easily endured into maturity. Have been they nonetheless sexual companions?
Neatly, a passage in Greek creator Xenophon’s personal textual content (also referred to as Symposium, in all probability written in resolution to Plato’s paintings of the similar identify) explicitly and seriously refers to squaddies who fought in combination and had been additionally drowsing with every different.
So, most certainly sure.
Fanatics who died in combination
Even though some historical historians stay sceptical, because the Nineteenth century the tale itself – whether or not true or no longer – has been inspirational to many.
The website the place the Sacred Band is assumed to be buried is marked with a statue of a lion.
Philipp Pilhofer/Wikimedia
The Theban Sacred Band got here to be identified for his or her power, self-discipline, and ferocity.
Amongst their most renowned successes used to be the vital function they performed in defeating the as soon as tough Spartans on the Struggle of Leuctra in 371 BCE, which ended Spartan supremacy.
The lads of the Sacred Band of Thebes died within the Struggle of Chaironeia in 338 BCE, when Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander (later identified to the arena as Alexander the Nice) defeated Greek forces led via the towns of Thebes and Athens.
Possibly those squaddies, found out arm in arm in a mass grave in central Greece greater than 2,000 years later, truly had been fans who died in combination within the Band’s ultimate defeat.
Nowadays, the website is marked with a statue of a lion – symbolic of this elite preventing unit’s satisfaction and power.
 2026 places Qatar’s average time to startup exit at nine years, compared to a global average of 11.2 years.</p><p> </p><p>The gap, the report states, reflects the cumulative effect of coordinated demand-side investment and points to an ecosystem moving from activation toward economic impact.</p><p> </p><p>Venture capital inflows reinforced that trajectory, according to the report. Funding into Qatar-based startups reached $58.7mn (QR214mn) in 2025, nearly doubling year-on-year. Early-stage deals accounted for 93% of activity, the stage at which corporate validation and pilot opportunities carry the most weight.</p><p> </p><p>The country now supports more than 300 active technology startups, backed by a network of over 22 incubators and innovation platforms facilitating engagement with corporates and public-sector buyers, the report stated.</p><p> </p><p>JF Gauthier, founder and CEO of Startup Genome, said Qatar’s progress reflected a level of institutional coordination that most ecosystems take far longer to build.</p><p> </p><p>Qatar’s progress reflects a high level of coordination across institutions,” Gauthier stated.</p><p> </p><p>He added: “By aligning demand creation across government and corporates, the ecosystem is accelerating the path from innovation to commercialisation and positioning itself as a platform where startups can not only start, but scale into regional and global markets.”</p><p> </p><p>The report positions the exit-speed finding within a broader global pattern. In Singapore’s fintech sector, startups reach exit in roughly six years on average against a global average of 10, a gap the report attributes to strong financial-sector demand and early bank partnerships.</p><p> </p><p>In Boston’s life sciences cluster, the report stated that startups exit in approximately eight years compared to a global average of 11, driven by deep collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and research institutions. Qatar’s nine-year figure puts it in comparable territory, the report pointed out.</p><p> </p><p>Startup Genome’s analysis identifies ecosystem value, the combined measure of startup valuations and exits, rather than programme volume as the primary lens through which Qatar now evaluates its own progress. The report also noted that the shift matters because it redirects institutional attention away from activity metrics and toward commercial outcomes.</p><p> </p>__%20%20%20%20<p>Related%20Story</p>_%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20_%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20__%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20<img%20loading=?resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Doha Information startup exits now sooner than international moderate amid leap in undertaking investment")
