by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Markets, News, SMEs, Startup Basics, Startup Financing, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : A decade ago, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was unknown to many of us mortals. Lately, however, AI and related buzzwords like Machine Learning (ML) or Big Data Analytics are more visible — staring at us from clumsy signage boards hanging at the entrance of private IT training institutes.
The bare fact is that this new category of intelligence is undoubtedly diversifying human thinking rather than replacing it as some of us fear. The technology, especially the conversational one, has shown tremendous potential — the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector being the early adopter.
Sensing the immense opportunity ahead, nearly 200 AI start-ups in India are today innovating and creating AI-based solutions for various industries.
Chatbots are slowly becoming the default customer support solution for most services and Mumbai-based Haptik is one such AI-based platform — building applications for consumers, publishers and enterprises.
Having grown 10 times in revenue in just one year, its partners and clients include Coca-Cola, HDFC Life, Samsung, Edelweiss Tokio, Goibibo, Amazon Pay, ClubMahindra, ICICI Bank and Tata Docomo, among others.
According to Kartik Poddar, Business Head, Haptik, they are amazed as well as encouraged by industry’s response and awareness regarding AI technologies in the country.
“The days of concept-selling are over and organisations are deploying AI tech for real use-cases within their businesses, with substantial knowledge regarding its general capabilities and purpose-oriented utility,” Poddar told IANS.
More than 50 per cent of Indian retail companies will be operating on AI by 2020, said PeopleStrong, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) HR technology and solutions company.
According to an Accenture analysis, AI has the potential to add $957 billion to India’s economy in 2035.
“We are just scratching the surface of the possibilities and applications of AI in business. There is huge demand and a lot of open source tools are available for start-ups to use and build interesting applications on,” informed Poddar.
For Arun Gupta, Chief Executive Officer at MoMagic Technologies — an AI and Big Data-driven mobile tech firm — India is currently witnessing an all-time high and growing online user base, especially the millennials.
The abundance of data and increased need of its error-free analysis has forced companies to turn towards technologies like AI, resulting in more and more start-ups diving into AI-driven business offerings.
According to Gupta, the digital wave is bringing in a behavioural change and technologies like AI and ML play a key role in analysing that change via the data captured
“In a country like India, with its huge population and vastly diverse demographic spread and customers available on multiple connected devices, AI today presents a big opportunity for businesses across sectors,” Gupta told IANS.
The cost of building AI-powered experiences has been reduced with disruptive technologies being democratised.
Poddar said that companies are mandated to work with innovative start-ups to develop and implement AI-driven solutions to meet specific business challenges.
“We have seen some really interesting AI applications in retail, e-commerce, healthcare, travel and banking, etc. Even the government sector has warmed up to incorporating AI-driven solutions in various public sector initiatives,” the Haptik executive told IANS.
Pune-headquartered digital entertainment firm JetSynthesys is not only developing in-house technology for AI in gaming but also scouting opportunities for new AI start-ups which can address various problems in India.
“Adoption of AI is definitely on the rise so there is space for the right start-up. Also, start-ups in India need to benchmark against global activity in this space which has also heated up significantly in the past two years,” noted Rajan Navani, MD and CEO, JetSynthesys.
According to him, manufacturing, media and entertainment, logistics, urbanisation and smart cities — along with education and healthcare — will benefit significantly from adoption of AI in the country.
A new Tata Communications study says AI is now being viewed as a new category of intelligence that can complement existing categories of emotional, social, spatial and creative intelligence.
“What is transformational about multiplicity is that it can enhance cognitive diversity, combining categories of intelligence in new ways to benefit all workers and businesses,” said study co-author Vinod Kumar, CEO and Managing Director at Tata Communications.
The seeds of AI are being sown in India and start-ups await big financing deals and dollars from venture capitalists which helped neighbouring China harbour one of the biggest clusters of AI start-ups in the world, after the US.
“Big industry players that have the financial strength and business experience to invest in AI research and development typically lead the strategic charge on global competitiveness for their country,” the Accenture analysis noted.
Will they take cognizance of the thriving Indian start-up scene in AI which has the potential to “innovate” for the world?
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Markets, SMEs, Startup Basics, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : As small and medium businesses (SMBs) and start-ups in India begin to embrace Cloud for their digital transformation, global tech major Oracle is witnessing growth at an unprecedented pace among them in the country, says a senior company executive.
“For the third time in a row, India has won the best performing region award in all of JAPAC (Japan and Asia-Pacific). We are signing on hundreds of new Cloud customers every year and witnessing strong growth in our Cloud revenue,” Shailender Kumar, Managing Director, Oracle India, told IANS.
Some of the big Cloud clients for the Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle in the country are the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Persistent Systems, among other.
“Now even start-ups and mid-size firms have started to adopt Oracle Cloud,” Kumar noted.
According to him, Blockchain — touted as one of the most promising transformative technologies — is witnessing a rapid adoption worldwide and Indian firms too are embracing the technology across industry sectors.
The Blockchain technology — based on distributed storage of data — has the potential to fundamentally change how every industry does business by making interactions more secure, transparent, efficient and cost-effective.
“Customers here in India have shown encouraging responses. Some are running pilot projects too. Moreover, Blockchain projects are quickly moving from pilot to production as enterprises and governments begin to see the inherent value of distributed ledgers and smart contracts,” Kumar noted.
A Blockchain is a continuously growing list of records — called blocks — which are linked and secured using cryptography.
According to IT industry’s apex body Nasscom, by increasing productivity and reducing cost, Blockchain technology has the potential to create value of up to $5 billion in India in the next five years.
Worldwide spending on Blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $11.7 billion in 2022, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). In 2018, global blockchain spending is expected to hit $1.5 billion — double the amount spent in 2017.
According to the IDC, Blockchain spending will be led by the financial sector ($552 million in 2018), driven largely by rapid adoption in the banking industry.
Kumar, however, has seen Blockchain adoption beyond the Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) sector in India.
“There is a lot of interest from the Indian organisations across sectors, beyond BFSI, where we have witnessed initial uptake. We see opportunity in pharma, oil and gas, retail and telecom, among other sectors,” Kumar informed.
Forward thinking companies in the healthcare space are experimenting with Blockchain for supply chain management, combating spurious drugs in the system as well as for clinical trials.
“Oil companies are keen on using Blockchain technology for checking the authenticity of the bids and security,” Kumar told IANS.
To help businesses build Blockchain networks to drive efficient transactions, Oracle in July made its “Blockchain Cloud Service” available in India.
Indian Oil, Arab Jordan Investment Bank, CargoSmart, Certified Origins, Intelipost, MTO, Neurosoft, Nigeria Customs, Sofbang, Solar Site Design and TradeFin are among the organisations which are early adaptors of Oracle’s Blockchain platform.
“Businesses around the world have been deploying an early adopter version of Oracle ‘Blockchain Cloud Service’, which allows organisations to easily build blockchain networks to drive more secure and efficient transactions and to track goods through supply chains on a global scale,” Kumar explained.
Another latest addition in Oracle offerings is “Oracle Soar” — world’s first automated enterprise Cloud application upgrade product that enables businesses to reduce the time and cost of Cloud migration by up to 30 per cent.
“We have provided a complete set of automated tools and proven cloud transition methodologies for the Soar solution that enables customers with applications running on premises to upgrade to Oracle Cloud Applications in as little as 20 weeks for a reasonably complex implementation,” said the company executive.
Autonomous Cloud is the next generation of Cloud services which free up the most valuable and expensive resources — humans — to create more value for the business.
Moving forward, said Kumar, the company’s strategic priorities in India will focus on growing its Cloud business, growing the volume business through its new digital sales business unit and transforming the company’s sales culture.
“We want to make doing business with us easy and quick. We will continue selling Oracle Cloud technologies and services to small and medium businesses, including start-ups, in the country,” Kumar emphasised.
The global tech major last year announced plans for a dedicated data centre in the country.
“Our India data centre is a work in progress and is expected to launch soon,” said Kumar.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Markets, Networking, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R.S. Sharmas open Aadhaar challenge to critics and hackers is nothing but a case of “misplaced enthusiasm” which dilutes the debate on securing the Aadhaar eco-system, emphasise cyber law experts.
Sharma, who made his 12-digit Aadhaar number open on July 28 and created a tweetstorm — not as a government servant but “as a normal citizen of India” — can set a dangerous precedent for millions of Indians who are still not aware what privacy is all about.
“Throwing such a challenge only shows misplaced enthusiasm. He is treading a dangerous path which can be detrimental in days to come as his personal and bank details are now out in the open,” Pavan Duggal, one of the leading cyber law experts in the country, told IANS.
What the TRAI Chairman has perhaps forgotten is that the central data repository at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) may be secure, but several third-party vendors are now increasingly accepting Aadhaar as a key document — and that opens it up for misuse, especially given the weak cyber security laws in the country.
“Several FIRs have been lodged against Aadhaar misuse across the country. People’s confidence in Aadhaar is slowly being eroded and, at this juncture, rather than working extensively on securing Aadhaar, we see a top government official posting his Aadhaar number on Twitter,” Duggal lamented.
Ethical hackers have exposed at least 14 personal details of the TRAI chairman since he revealed his Aadhaar number — including mobile numbers, home address, date of birth (DoB), PAN number and voter ID, among others.
Ethical hackers can’t go beyond this as creating financial break-ins will land them in legal trouble.
“By the way, were you able to cause any harm to me, because now you know my Aadhaar number?” Sharma tweeted to a French security expert, who goes by the nickname Elliot Alderson and uses the twitter handle @fs0c131y, as his personal details began flying all over Twitter.
Alderson replied: “If your phone numbers, address, DoB, bank accounts and others personal details are easily found on the Internet you have no #privacy. End of the story.”
According to Duggal, personal privacy breach begins with the phone number and it is a tragedy that most Indians – unlike Europeans or Americans – are still not aware what exactly constitutes privacy.
“Your phone number (becoming public knowledge) is the first hint that your private space has been breached. Would you wait for hackers to clean up your bank accounts?” asked Duggal.
As part of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force from May 25, EU citizens may, at any point, object to an organisation’s handling of their personal data.
The regulation specifically names “direct marketing and profiling” as personal data uses to which individuals may object to.
The Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee on data protection in India has also suggested amendments to the Aadhaar Act to provide for imposition of penalties on data fiduciaries and compensations to data principals for violations of the data protection law.
The 213-page report suggests amendments to the Aadhaar Act from a data protection perspective.
Jared Cohen, a former US State Department official and an expert on social media and cyber-crime issues, has also stressed there are serious concerns about the collection of biometric data for Aadhaar cards in India and these must be allayed.
“I don’t want to meddle in India’s politics. But there are concerns (about collection of personal details for Aadhaar card),” Cohen told an IANS correspondent on the sidelines of the third annual BCTECH Summit at Vancouver, Canada, in May.
Cohen, currently the CEO and Founder of Jigsaw, a Google arm started to tackle threats to online security, conceded there are arguments on the merits of the Aadhaar system but there are also concerns that must be addressed.
According to Duggal, “Not just cosmetic changes, there is an urgent need for addressing newly-emerging legal and cyber-security challenges concerning the Aadhaar ecosystem on an urgent basis.”
“There is a need for a more comprehensive legal framework to protect and preserve data and the privacy of individual Aadhaar account holders in particular, and the Aadhaar ecosystem stakeholders in general,” he noted.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Technology
The high-precision HD map created by Genesys.
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : Although self-driving cars remain a distant reality for the Indian roads, a Mumbai-headquartered firm has become the first desi company to develop high-precision HD maps for a customer in the United States which is at the forefront of autonomous vehicle technology.
Established in 1995, Genesys International Corporation Ltd has completed an extensive HD mapping of road and street network for an autonomous driving project in North America that will enable residents to access self-driving taxis at their doorstep.
Core to the autonomous vehicle technology, HD self-navigation maps enable, aid and guide autonomous cars to self-drive and navigate.
The HD map has high-precision navigational geometry and 360 degree panoramic imagery leading to a unique “fingerprint” of every stretch of the road.
“We cannot disclose the customer name as we are bound by non-disclosure. Through our technical expertise, we were able to support our customer to quickly verify the assumptions on large-scale areas,” Kuldeep Moholkar, CEO-Designate, Genesys International Corporation Ltd, told IANS.
“Once we completed initial data deliveries, we were able to scale up to the customer’s requirements. This has now given us the confidence to undertake HD map creation for large volume of work involving counties, states and even entire countries,” Moholkar emphasised.
The HD maps are created from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) source data which consists of billions of pixels — commonly referred to as a point Cloud.
These billions of data points are curated to extract the features to create a machine-readable image of the road as well as the entire surrounding environment.
LiDAR sensors calculate how far a given object is, by measuring how long it takes for a pulse of infrared laser light to reach a car and bounce back.
Currently, Google’ Waymo and global cab-hailing service Uber rely on the LiDAR technology but not Elon Musk’s Tesla that uses high-end computer vision technology via cameras.
HD maps aid the autonomous vehicle in real time decision-making capability, by localising the earth spatially and letting the vehicle know the position of its exact location, thus guiding the vehicle to align to the road, when to drive, where to head and when to stop.
The HD map content is currently being rigorously tested on autonomous cars for real world readiness and large scale deployment. Once successfully passed, the autonomous car fleet will start using the HD maps data for self-navigation within the community in the US,” Moholkar explained.
Genesys has nearly 2,000 professionals with expertise in Geographical Information System (GIS) and Geospatial Engineering domain.
The company is working in the fields of remote sensing, LiDAR, aerial survey, photogrammetry and GIS-based e-governance solutions.
Based in the financial capital, Genesys also operates production and software development centres in Dehradun and Jaipur.
“We are in discussions with auto-makers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and various product/services companies in the autonomous vehicle eco-system to partner and provide value-based services.
“We are also close to signing a formal MoU with another technology company for supporting their autonomous vehicle initiative. We will talk about that subsequently,” Moholkar told IANS.
Considering the existing infrastructure, driving culture and the breadth of our geography, lamented Moholkar, the idea of an autonomous vehicle being fully functional on the Indian roads looks a little distance away at the moment.
“Having said so, Genesys and many Indian technology companies are investing heavily to build competence in this space via LiDAR technology, deep learning and Machine Learning (ML),” the Genesys executive said.
Hundreds of technology startups are currently engaged in creating products and services related to autonomous vehicles in the country.
“The resultant technology stack can be potentially used to build and implement our very own indigenous autonomous cars which will operate within a small geographical area such as corporate campuses, universities, airport lounges and large industrial premises, etc,” Moholkar noted.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
Google Glass
By Nishant Arora,
Washington : Google Glass — an eye-wearable device that made headlines in 2015 but failed in the consumer technology space — has now rekindled the hopes of millions of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) globally, including in India. Although no official numbers are available, at least 70 million people have autism worldwide, including over 10 million in India.
According to Dr Ned Sahin, Founder and CEO of Brain Power, a US-based science-driven company, Augmented Reality (AR)-powered wearable computers can help those with ASD gain confidence, clarity, understanding, social integration and self-sufficiency.
There is no cure for autism but early diagnosis and intervention with therapies does improve the long-term outcome.
“We need help. We need families and schools to support the first wave of technology for autism and special school communities.
“I am open to collaboration if there is an interest from schools, organisations and families from India. We can customise our Google Glass-based applications for autistic people in India,” Dr Sahin told IANS.
Brain Power is currently working with several schools in the US. The “Empower Me” wearable system has been used by hundreds of children and adults on the autism spectrum.
In this technology, the child or adult wears light, computerised Glasses and sees and hears special feedback geared to the situation — like digital coaching on facial expressions of emotions, when to look at people, feedback on the user’s own state of stress or anxiety.
“The apps also encourage them to make eye contact and control repetitive behaviours — both of which are big challenges related to autism,” said Dr Sahin, a famed neuroscientist who studied at Harvard and MIT.
According to Dr Sahin, contrary to what most of the people think, kids actually treat wearable devices as fun and are facing no problem using them.
“We have discovered scientifically that people with autism enjoy using wearable devices and embedded software for socio-emotional learning,” Dr Sahin told IANS.
Each software module connects to Brain Power’s Cloud-hosted portal where Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms produce insights and predictions in real time.
The game-like apps collect numerical behavioural data — scientifically and rigorously — and present the child, family, school or clinic with insights and answers they can readily understand.
At AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington DC last month, Dr Sahin announced a couple of new products.
“We now have a package for schools consisting multiple AR devices. The devices and the software add more functionalities than we had before. It generates very good data about how kids are learning, their progress and whether young adults have the right skill-sets to get a job,” Dr Sahin explained.
Another new product is called “Learning Eye”.
In this technology, a camera is placed in the classroom which is connected to a computer that runs Machine Learning (ML) algorithms.
“AWS gave us access to its new product called Deeplens months before releasing it to the public. ‘Learning Eye’ uses Deeplens’ capabilities to run ML in the classroom in order to assist teachers as well as kids,” noted Dr Sahin.
The technology can detect if a student is paying attention or not. It can also detect if a student is writing a message on his smartphone in the classroom, giving a warning to the student while alerting the teacher.
“The teacher can also assess when the student is bored and initiate an immediate feedback to improve the student’s mood. She can get entire data about what is happening in the classroom,” Dr Sahin informed.
AWS Deeplens helps the Brain Power team run deep learning models locally on the camera to analyse and take action on what it sees.
DeepLens is easy to customise and is programmable using AWS Lambda — a serverless compute service that makes it easy to build applications that respond quickly to new information.
“We are very serious about maintaining privacy. Video footage stays in the classroom and is never sent to Cloud. Video processing is done at the edge of the Cloud to maintain complete privacy,” Dr Sahin told IANS.
The company has also developed a method known as “Fidgetology” which rapidly quantifies body language to assess mental health or to estimate enjoyment of ads or other media.
“Fidgetology” was developed in collaboration with AWS, using the company’s Cloud-based AI, ML and computer visions tools.
Dr Sahin is positive that Indian schools and organisations working in the field of autism will come forward to a life-changing experience.
“We would like to expand our capabilities to India. It all depends on the desire of the people to have the new technology and empower children and adults all along the autism spectrum to teach them practical life skills,” the neurotechnology entrepreneur hoped.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
