by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Corporate Governance, Markets, Medium Enterprise, SMEs, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
Seattle (Washington) : While the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is making its presence felt across the spectrum globally, India needs to prioritise AI-based predictive analysis to improve outcomes in three core areas — agriculture, healthcare and education, a top Microsoft executive has emphasised.
The initial results in India are promising and if deployed at big scale, AI-based models can help farmers, doctors and educators keep building success stories, Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of Cloud AI Platform at Microsoft, told IANS here.
“For example, AI can help us foresee signs of a student being at risk of dropping out. We have done first such experiment in Andhra Pradesh involving thousands of students,” Sirosh informed.
In 2017, the Andhra Pradesh government expanded the rollout of the experiment to all 13 districts in the state.
In Visakhapatnam district, an application powered by Azure Cloud Machine Learning (ML) processed the data pertaining to all students — based on parameters such as gender, socio-economic demographics, academic performance, school infrastructure and teacher skills — to find predictive patterns.
The results showed that some of the factors leading to students dropping out were insufficient furniture, inadequate toilet infrastructure, etc.
Based on these results, the state government identified about 19,500 probable dropouts from government schools in Visakhapatnam district in the next academic year (2018-19).
“Not just India, AI-based predictive analysis has also helped Tacoma School District here in Washington state improve graduation rate from under 60 per cent to over 83 per cent by managing dropouts,” Sirosh noted.
When it comes to agriculture, Microsoft, in collaboration with the non-profit International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has developed an AI-sowing app for farmers in India.
The tech giant is using AI and historic weather data to predict the best time for sowing seeds and other stages of the farming process, and pass on that information to farmers via SMS.
“We have done some amazing work, like informing farmers when to sow crops, what is the best time to plant crops during the year, etc. The result is 30 per cent more yield,” Sirosh told IANS.
The farmers do not need to install any sensors in their fields or incur any capital expenditure. All they need is a mobile phone capable of receiving text messages.
To determine the optimal sowing period, the Moisture Adequacy Index (MAI) is calculated. MAI is the standardised measure used for assessing the degree of adequacy of rainfall and soil moisture to meet the potential water requirement of crops.
The data then is downscaled to build predictability and guide farmers to pick the ideal sowing week.
According to Microsoft, ICRISAT has scaled sowing insights in 2018 to 4,000 farmers across Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for the Kharif crop cycle (rainy season).
“We have made AI-based applications very simple for common people to comprehend. They don’t need to be tech-sophisticated. We have simplified the technology for the end-users,” Sirosh added.
The company has also developed a multi-variate agricultural commodity price forecasting model to predict future commodity arrival and the corresponding prices.
The model uses remote sensing data from geostationary satellite images to predict crop yields through every stage of farming.
According to the company, the model, currently being used to predict the prices of “tur” pulse, is scalable and can be generalised to other regions and crops.
On the health front, the Telangana government has adopted Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE), which was developed in partnership with Hyderabad-based LV Prasad Eye Institute.
MINE uses ML and advanced analytics to predict regression rates for eye operations, enabling doctors to pinpoint the procedures needed to prevent and treat visual impairments.
“Under the MINE global consortium, we have built AI models that are very accurate for eyecare, especially for children,” Sirosh said.
The Telangana government is using Microsoft’s Cloud-based advanced analytics solution to screen children from birth to 18 years of age for major conditions affecting their health.
“We are also working hard to improve citizen services in India by creating user-friendly application programming interfaces (APIs) for enhanced speech recognition and translation solutions,” Sirosh added.
People are just starting to understand the power of AI-enabled Cloud in India.
“Our partners like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and Accenture are leaning in and adopting AI. These are exciting times for AI and its real adoption in the country,” Sirosh said.
(Nishant Arora was in Seattle on an invitation from Microsoft. He can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodity Market, Emerging Businesses, Investing, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : Playing a crucial role in future research and development (R&D) of a revolutionary aluminium smelting technology, Apple has committed investment in a joint venture that resonates the iPhone-maker’s take on environment-friendly technology innovations.
The joint venture could change global manufacturing. Aluminium is a key material in many of Apple’s most popular products and for more than 130 years, it’s been produced the same way. But that’s about to change, the company said in a blog post late on Thursday.
Aluminium giants Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminium announced the venture called “Elysis” to commercialise patented technology that eliminates direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process — a key step in aluminium production.
Apple has partnered with both aluminium companies and the governments of Canada and Quebec, to collectively invest a combined $144 million to future R&D.
“Apple is committed to advancing technologies that are good for the planet and help protect it for generations to come,” company CEO Tim Cook said.
“We are proud to be part of this ambitious new project, and look forward to one day being able to use aluminium produced without direct greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing of our products,” he added.
Aluminium smelting process involves applying a strong electrical current to alumina, which removes oxygen. Companies use a carbon material that burns during the process, producing greenhouse gases.
Alcoa Corporation designed a new process that replaces that carbon with an advanced conductive material and instead of carbon dioxide, it releases oxygen.
“Elysis” would work to further develop this technology for larger scale production and commercialisation, with a package planned for sale beginning in 2024.
The company would continue to provide technical support as well, Apple said.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
By Gokul Bhagabati,
Moscow : Aiming to overcome infrastructural limitations to its economic growth, Russia is now relying on an increased university-industry collaboration to integrate breakthrough technologies in building a new economy for the country — and there are lessons India can learn.
The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) MISIS has been mandated to create centres of excellence that can act as a playground for government departments and private companies to test new ideas.
One such centre that has come up in recent times is the “Center of Blockchain Competencies”. Set up just about six months ago in collaboration with NUST MISIS and Vnesheconombank (VEB), a government-run bank, it is a first-of-its kind centre to help government services to implement blockchain technology.
Although the use of blockchain technology has largely been limited to Cryptocurrencies worldwide, Vladimir Demin of Vnesheconombank, who oversees the implementation of this technology in the Russian economy and the country’s public administration system, believes that blockchain creates value and its use will soon spread to other sectors of the economy.
Addressing a group of journalists from around the world, Demin, an expert in innovation and blockchain technologies with over 20 years of experience in information technology (IT), said that widespread use of blockchain technology is almost unstoppable for three reasons.
First, as this technology is based on distributed storage of data, it brings transparency to any transaction, keeping everyone involved in the system aware of all the details.
While transparency is critical for the new economy, the other two crucial benefits of blockchain are that it can increase the speed of transactions while reducing the cost as this technology introduces peer-to-peer transactions and removes the need of intermediaries.
“Such is the transformative power of blockchain technology that it will eventually expand to every sector of the economy,” said Demin, who also serves as the Advisor to the Vnesheconombank Chairman.
But it is not easy to understand blockchain. And it is even more difficult to make someone implement this technology.
So the Center of Blockchain Competencies, which is commonly referred to as the “Blockchain-Commune” as it is designed to work like a community of like-minded people, educates the representatives of the government departments on the importance of the new technology and how to put their work on blockchain.
“We inform the state officials what is blockchain and how to implement it. This, in turn, brings us new projects,” said Demin while stating that the centre had already completed five projects in six months and was currently engaged in 20 new projects.
The centre brought together leading world experts as well as Russian researchers for implementing pilot projects based on blockchain technologies in various areas of public administration — from registration of real estate transactions to monitoring supply chains to subsidised medicines in the country – where there are chances of corruption.
Another such centre that the university recently set up is the “Center for Industrial Prototyping of High Complexity”, a multi-purpose high-tech digital laboratory for the creation of functional industrial prototypes.
Creating prototypes is important for the industry to understand and test the viability of their concepts.
The centre is designed to develop a prototype of any complexity — from micro-elements to satellite or bioorganisms — to cater primarily to the aerospace industry, biological engineering, medicine, space exploration and defence technologies.
Such a centre has especially proved useful for those players in the industry who cannot afford to create prototypes in their own factory.
In addition, the university also provides its expertise and space to private companies so that they can carry out research required for bringing out innovative new solutions for the economy.
One such company that has benefited from NUST MISIS expertise is TEEMP which is now part of the Renova Group, a principal investment firm specialising in investments in multiple sectors.
TEEMP, which is in a partnership with India’s Tata group to power their electric vehicles, claims to have developed a special energy storage solution that can work in both Arctic-like conditions and also in above 60 degrees Celsius conditions.
The university offers all-round support to such small enterprises, boosting the start-up ecosystem of the country in the process.
The university follows a policy of involving its students in the implementation of scientific and innovative projects, which are funded by both the state and industry partners of the university.
It also provides its students opportunity to implement their own scientific projects and launch start-ups based on the development and research of the university.
It is, therefore, not without any reason that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said that a university stands for the adventure of ideas and that “if the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the Nation and the People.”
The people of Russia realised this long ago and its universities continue to power innovations and also help the country implement breakthrough technologies for the economy of tomorrow. Time for India to do the same.
(Gokul Bhagabati was in Moscow at the invitation of NUST MISIS. He can be contacted at gokul.b@ians.in )
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Events, News, Politics, Social Round-up
By Aroonim Bhuyan,
New Delhi : When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Sweden and England from April 16 to 20, during the course of which he will participate in the first ever India-Nordic Summit and this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), cooperation in the areas of innovation, technology and education will top his agenda.
Modi will reach Stockholm on April 16 evening in what will be the first prime ministerial visit from India to Sweden in 30 years since the visit of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.
On April 17, Modi and his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven will hold a bilateral summit during which bilateral, regional and global issues are expected to figure.
According to Sweden’s Ambassador to India Klas Molin, innovation is an important aspect of the India-Sweden relationship.
“How do we cooperate further, how do we get our best and the brightest people together, how do we also perhaps think about funding certain areas, how do we go into areas where we can cooperate even more and develop new technologies, create employment and sustainable solutions on a number of issues,” he said.
During Modi’s visit, an India-Sweden Innovation Partnership is also expected to be launched.
“I think it is something we are discussing with the Indian side but exactly how this will look, of course, will have to be finalised,” the ambassador said.
“But I think it is a way of focusing our attention on both sides to create a platform that, in turn, can attract investments, that can attract companies to plug in.”
With education being another sector in which the two sides are expected to forge deeper ties, Molin said “we are hoping to increase exchanges between our universities”.
“Student exchanges… graduates, doctorate and post-doctorate. The sky is the limit here,” he said.
On bilateral economic relations, the Ambassador said that trade is growing on both sides “and quite impressively so”.
Though bilateral trade dipped to $1.9 billion in 2016-17 from $2.17 billion, both countries have set a lofty total trade target of $5 billion.
There are over 170 Swedish companies in India that have invested $1.4 billion since 2000 while 70 Indian companies have established their presence in Sweden.
On April 17, India and Sweden will also co-host the first ever India-Nordic Summit, where, apart from Modi and Lofven, the Prime Ministers of the other four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway will also be present.
Molin said that Nordic countries are close as neighbours and cooperate very closely in a number of issues.
“But we are not a political entity in that way,” he said. “It’s not like the EU, it’s not a regional organisation in any way. It’s a convenient forum.”
According to Subrata Bhattacharjee, Joint Secretary (Central Europe) in the Ministry of External Affairs, the Nordic region represents a prosperous society with high incomes and a strong focus on quality and innovation.”
“For India, Nordic countries are a potential source for clean technology, environmental solutions, port modernisation, cold chain, skill development, innovation etc.,” Bhattacharjee said at a media briefing here in connection with the upcoming visit.
According to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry, India’s trade with the Nordic countries totaled around $5.3 billion in 2016-17, with cumulative foreign direct investment in India at $2.5 billion.
From Sweden, Modi will leave for Britain on April 17 evening. This is the third exchange of prime ministerial visits after Modi’s visit to Britain in November 2015 and British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to India in November 2016, her first outside the European Union after assuming office.
At a separate media briefing here, British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith said the visit comes at a time when the bilateral relationship is in “very, very good health”.
Modi’s visit to Britain this time has been themed “Living bridge and tech partnership”. Modi and May are scheduled to hold a bilateral summit on April 18.
Stating that trade between the two countries increased by 15 per cent in the last one year, Asquith said that it is “remarkably balanced” in terms of trade in goods and services.
In terms of finance, he said the London Stock Exchange is playing an increasingly important role as a place to raise money to meet India’s huge infrastructure requirements.
In terms of investments, he said that while Britain is the largest investor in India among the G20 countries, India is the fourth largest investor in Britain.
“Then what will be very much a focal point is the technology partnership between the two countries,” he said. “The complementaries, strengths that each of us have and they are truly complementary.”
Asquith said that both sides will look into putting more resources in this sector in areas like digital aspect of technology, collaboration, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and data protection and the fintech that goes with that among others.
According to K. Nagaraj Naidu, Joint Secretary (Europe West), both sides are looking at announcing an India-UK Tech Alliance which will comprise young CEOs from both the countries who have done exceptionally well in the tech space.
In terms of cooperation in education, Asquith said that there was a 30 per cent rise in the number of student visas issued by his country to Indians last year.
Stating that 14,000 Indian students go to Britain for masters degree programme every year, he added that “we want to build on that”.
Regarding this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which Modi will attend in London on April 19-20, the High Commissioner said that around 50 heads of state and government will be present.
The agenda, he said, will include climate change, vulnerability of small island nations, peacekeeping and helping poorer countries.
(Aroonim Bhuyan can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in )
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Events, Investing, Medium Enterprise, SMEs
India-Britain
New Delhi : Trade, investment, technology and flow of people and ideas will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Britain next week, British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith said here on Friday.
Modi and his British counterpart, Theresa May, are scheduled to hold a bilateral summit on April 18.
Briefing the media here ahead of the visit, Asquith said it comes at a time when the bilateral relationship is in “very, very good healthy”.
This is the third exchange of prime ministerial visits after Modi’s visit to Britain November 2015 and May’s visit to India in November 2016, her first outside the European Union after assuming office.
“It (Modi’s visit) comes at a time also when I think our priorities are very well aligned,” Asquith said.
Stating that trade between the two countries increased by 15 per cent in the last one year, he said that it is “remarkably balanced” in terms of trade in goods and services.
In terms of finance, he said the London Stock Exchange is playing an increasingly important role as a place to raise money to meet India’s huge infrastructure requirements.
“Over the last two years, 5.3 billion pounds has been raised by Indian issuers on the London Stock Exchange,” the High Commissioner said.
In terms of investments, he said that while Britain is the largest investor in India among the G20 countries, India is the fourth largest investor in Britain.
“Then what will be very much a focal point is the technology partnership between the two countries,” Asquith said. “The complementaries, strengths that each of us has and they are truly complementary.”
Modi’s visit to Britain this time has been themed “Living bridge and tech partnership”.
Asquith said that both sides will look into putting more resources in this sector in areas like digital aspect of technology, collaboration, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and data protection and the fintech that goes with that among others.
He said that matching of regional expertise in Britain with that of the states of India is another aspect of the bilateral relationship.
Stating that defence is another area of cooperation, he said that Britain was one of our four countries whose defence minister attended the ongoing DefExpo, India’s premier defence trade exhibition, near Chennai.
Regarding the “living bridge” part of the theme, Asquith said that it is about exchange of people, ideas and ingenuity both ways.
Stating that it goes much beyond the fact that there are 1.5 million people of Indian origin in Britain, he said it is about relationships between institutions, universities, and research bodies.
The High Commissioner also said that there was a 30 per cent rise in the number of student visas issued by his country to Indians last year.
Stating that 14,000 Indian students go to Britain for masters degree programme every year, he said that “we want to build on that”.
At the same time, he expressed the hope that one particular issue that should be looked into is the fact that Indian universities do not recognise the one-year masters degree offered by British universities for doing Ph.D.
Asquith also said that Britain issues more work visas to Indians than all other nationalities combined.
Regarding this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which Modi will attend in London on April 19-20, the High Commissioner said that around 50 heads of state and government will be present.
The agenda, he said, will include climate change, vulnerability of small island nations, peacekeeping and helping poorer countries.
As for trade between the 53 Commonwealth countries, he said that the idea is to increase from the current $700 billion to $1 trillion.
Asked what will be the Commonwealth’s position on terrorism, Asquith said: “I imagine that one of the focus areas will be to discuss and I hope come up with an agreement on how to ensure that terrorists do not make use of the internet.”
—IANS
