by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Reports, Investing, Markets, Technology
New Delhi : With over 36 per cent of large financial establishments investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven technologies and 70 per cent planning to embrace it, India is well poised for AI-led economic transformation, a PwC India and Assocham report said on Friday.
Yet, While AI, Machine Learning (ML) and robotics have a wide range of use cases in financial services sector, their potential has not been fully realised in India, said the joint report.
“Establishing data access frameworks and guidelines for open application interfaces from financial institutions will act as an enabler for increased adoption of AI in the sector,” the findings showed.
AI can be leveraged to protect economic sectors and infrastructure such as airports and power plants that are vulnerable to attacks.
“Anomalous behaviour detection in individuals and infrastructure disruption prediction (natural/man-made causes) powered by the use of distributed sensors and pattern recognition are examples of AI usage potential in the sector,” the report added.
Along with AI applications in defence, robots can be used to perform jobs which are unsafe for humans-
such as recovering explosives, detecting mines, space exploration, deep water probes, scouting for hostile territories, etc.
AI-enabled cyber security systems rely on historical data of cyber attacks and apply ML to predict and detect similar threats likely to arise in the future.
Having automated systems in place for monitoring and detecting risks helps to free up human agents from the time-consuming tasks of having to continually check and categorise these red flags based on their threat level, said the report.
AI-enabled assistive technology for differently abled individuals is an untapped market in India.
“AI, in combination with other emerging technologies like 3D printing and IoT, has great potential to fuel widespread availability, affordability and feasibility of innovations in smart prosthetics,” said the report.
“Forming cooperative relationships with some of the front-runners in AI — such as Japan, the UK, Germany Singapore, Israel and China — to develop solutions that tackle social and economic challenges can aid and accelerate strategy formulation,” it added.
Policy planning in AI must be aimed at creating an ecosystem that is supportive of research, innovation and commercialisation of applications.
The centre and state governments could look at providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for AI research/ deployment, the report advised, adding that setting up centres of excellence supporting inter-disciplinary research can further fuel AI adoption in India.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Politics, Technology
New Delhi : Taking a cue from industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s oft-repeated statement that ‘data is the new oil’, the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ravi Shankar Prasad urged entrepreneures to help India become a big centre for data analysis.
“How can you help India become a big centre of data analysis? …as someone said, data is the new oil,” Prasad said, speaking at an event to recognise start-up ventures jointly organised by MeitY, Assocham and Ericsson.
The minister said the government needed data for policy making but the data procured should be anonymous.
Giving an analogy, the minister said: “Suppose in a particular area a large number of children get affected (by some diseases) and the government wants to have a policy (to help them). I seek your (start-ups) support. You must have the data, why this particular ailment is happening in this part of the country — geographical, social, economic (data).”
“But data must be anonymous, so that victims (people) are not known.”
Prasad further said: “My take on data privacy is very simple. There has to be a balance between data availability, data utility, data innovation, data anonymity and data privacy.”
Saying that “we generate a lot of data”, the minister added that it should be properly safeguarded.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Economy, Markets, News
New Delhi : Welcoming the RBI’s move to explore introduction of an official virtual currency in India, industry chamber Assocham on Sunday cautioned that extreme care be taken to ensure safety of the data trail that cryptocurrency transactions can leave behind.
Placing a ban on all regulated entities, including banks, from dealing in virtual currencies like bitcoins, the Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday that it is exploring a “fiat digital currency”.
“Of course the inter-departmental study group of the RBI would examine all the safety aspects when it starts working on exploration of the cryptocurrency which has been introduced by private parties in several parts of the world and has attracted a lot of attention,” an Assocham release said here.
“The need for safety is highlighted more by the recent and serious incidents of breach of the Facebook data of as many as 87 million users all over the world,” the release said.
The industry body said that “it is quite pragmatic and courageous of the RBI to initiate exploratory steps towards the world of virtual currencies”.
“A high level of coordination among all the central banks would be required along setting up some kind of a global oversight to guard against misuse of the new currency by the anti-social elements, terrorists, enemy countries,” it said.
“We cannot isolate ourselves from the ever rising number of technology platforms. Each and every individual who would be using the virtual currency must be protected against fraud, data leak, etc.”, Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said.
“Needless to say, the liability of the RBI as is the case with the hard currency would be clearly defined in the case of virtual currencies,” he added.
Briefing reporters earlier this week in Mumbai, RBI Deputy Governor B.P. Kanungo said regulated entities already providing services to any individual or business dealing in digital currencies have been given three months to exit the relationship.
Noting, however, the benefits that blockchain technology, which underlies cryptocurrencies, can potentially bring for financial inclusion and in increasing financial system efficiency, Kanungo said the central bank is exploring a “fiat digital currency”.
“Several central banks are debating the possibility of introducing a fiat digital currency as opposed to the private digital tokens. These, issued by the central bank, are considered its own liability,” he said.
“They will be in circulation in addition to the paper currency and also hold the promise of reducing the cost of printing of notes,” he added.
According to investigation agencies here, with the demand and price of cryptocurrencies on the rise, cyber criminals have found innovative ways to dupe those looking to invest.
Bitcoins in India have been trading at more than Rs 10 lakh each, while people are investing amounts ranging from Rs 3,000 to several lakhs of rupees.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi : An annual trade deficit of as much as $150 billion with the US alone does not allow India room to retaliate in the event of a global trade war being unleashed by recent protectionist trends in the developed world, since the country’s imports are mostly of an essential nature, industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) statement here comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump slapping import tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium earlier this week, unfolding the prospect of an all-out global trade war.
“He (Trump) has also said that more items could be brought under high import tariff, triggering fears of retaliation from Europe, Japan and China. As far as India is concerned, even if we want to retaliate we cannot do it without pain since, our imports are of essential nature,” Assocham said.
“We cannot flex too much of our importing muscle, even if our exports face consequences of trade war and are subjected to tariff barriers.
“So, the best course would be to keep engaged with the major trading partners, without aligning ourselves too much into a single bloc,” the statement added.
The industry lobby suggested that in cases where exports are affected, India must engage bilaterally and use the channel of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“However, the WTO route could be time consuming. So, the best course would be to stay bilaterally engaged,” it said.
Citing India’s hefty trade deficit with the US, which is marked by an import bill of $450 billion against exports of about $300 billion, Assocham said almost a fourth of such imports would be crude oil and related items.
“Then, there are essential imports of plastics and fertiliser for which the country does not have an immediate domestic capacity,” it said.
The industry body pointed out, however, that even before the outbreak of the recent trade war, India has seen a huge jump of 21 per cent in annual steel imports at $1.15 billion in February, and of non-ferrous metals by 33 per cent at $1 billion.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz
Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat
New Delhi : The alleged Rs 11,300 crore fraud on state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) committed by accused diamantaire Nirav Modi should not halt the entire system of corporate lending as demoralisation would set in among public sector bank (PSB) employees, industry body Assocham said on Sunday.
The country can “ill-afford” such fraud induced credit slowdown at a time when credit growth is showing signs of recovery and the economy set to grow at a higher pace, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a release here.
Noting the disturbing reports about banks clamping down certain impractical rules and procedures for trade finance, affecting both importers and exporters in the wake of the PNB scam, Assocham said the letters of credit (LOC) or letters of undertaking (LOU) allegedly misused by the diamond traders are legitimate instruments in global trade.
“While we may seek long-term solutions like privatisation of the banks, the need of this hour is to rally around honest bank officers and the honest business entities which have built trust on each other,” Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said in a statement.
“Let one or a few black sheep not derail our financial system, which is resilient enough to withstand this kind of shocks, though ideally such jolts are better avoided and averted through systemic reforms,” he added.
According to Assocham, “letters of credit or letters of undertaking are an internationally accepted system of global trade.”
“While we need to ensure safe and sound functioning of the system and not allow loopholes like those in the PNB system of money or guarantee transfer, let banks not over-react and hit the trade and industry.”
Noting that Indian exports in January showed a deceleration in growth “even when the global economy is on the uptick”, Assocham said: “The pick up in the domestic economy would require higher imports. Thus, both imports and exports are key to our economy.”
“How else we encourage investment and jobs if we do not infuse confidence and trust in our financial system.
“By all means, punish the offenders at a fast speed and set examples; but the business should not be allowed to halt. There is a need for vigilance among all the lenders, even in the private sector,” the statement added.
Meanwhile Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has criticised regulators, as well as bank managements and auditors, for their failure to detect bank frauds saying “politicians are accountable but regulators are not”.
“We must always remember that regulators have a very important function. They ultimately decide the rules of the game and they have to have a third eye kept perpetually open and turned towards the sector. But unfortunately, in the Indian system, we politicians are accountable, the regulators are not,” Jaitley said on Saturday at the ET Global Business Summit here.
—IANS
