--- --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 15 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 15, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 15, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**India and the U.S. have much to gain from strengthening their “unique but sometimes frustrating partnership.”**](http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/01/14/india-comeback/c2Yl1UfOQe5q8lhT2PsPiN/story.html) By Nicholas Burns in the Boston Globe **2\.** [**Big energy is betting on power storage tools that let customers take advantage of variable energy prices and stock up when rates are low.**](http://www.forbes.com/sites/uciliawang/2015/01/07/why-big-energy-companies-want-to-invest-in-energy-storage-startups/) By Ucilia Wang in Forbes **3\.** [**With class replacing race as a dividing line, some find South Africa is a “less equal place” now than under apartheid.**](http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-14/what-south-africans-and-americans-could-learn-each-other) By Jeb Sharp at PRI’s The World **4\.** [**Preliminary research with stem cells shows how the versatile therapy could effectively cure type-1 diabetes.**](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/01/steering-stem-cell-trafficking-into-pancreas-reverses-type-1-diabetes/) By Haley Bridger in the Harvard Gazette **5\.** [**A critical piece of improving American education is improving teacher quality, and that is finally happening.**](http://educationnext.org/gains-in-teacher-quality/) By Dan Goldhaber and Joe Walch in Education Next  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 15 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3669149/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-15/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3669149/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-15/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 15","datePublished":"2015-01-15T17:01:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:11.636Z","description":"Strengthening the India-US partnership, banking power when it's cheap, new divisions in South Africa, rising teacher quality, and more.","url":"https://time.com/3669149/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-15/","keywords":["Innovation","South Africa","Education","India","Obama","Race","energy","Narendra Modi","Stem Cells","Schools","John F. Kerry","Power","investment","diabetes","Electricity","Teachers","storage","Class","Apartheid"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3669149/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-15/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 15"}}]}] ```