AAPI: July 2021

DELHI, 20th JUY 2021

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21.1. Nokia to deploy 5G SA Core for DISH in public cloud with AWS
21.2. Number of Indian professionals in Singapore up due to tech talent demand
22.1. IBM, IISc unveil lab to advance Hybrid Cloud research in India
22.2. IBM spinoff Kyndryl appoints Lingraju Sawkar as India president
23.1. UK-based Tide forays into India, commits Rs. 1,000 crore investment
23.2. New strategies for the New World
24.1. US-based Compass aims to double headcount in India
24.2. LG to expand cloud-based call centres amid pandemic
25.1. Biden's executive order may spur 'five-year mega growth' cycle for India's IT sector
25.2. Global tax deal backed by 130 nations

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DELHI, 20th JULY 2021

NEWSLETTER, 20-VII-2021

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1.1. ISRO gives nod to parliamentary panel to help implement satellite TV classrooms for school students

ANI, Jul. 03,2021, Ashoke Raj

ISRO scientists have appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Education on Friday and made a detailed presentation about the proposed satellite TV classroom for students.

New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday gave its nod to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education to provide technical assistance for satellite TV classrooms in the country to bridge the learning gap due to COVID-induced lockdown.

ISRO scientists have appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Education on Friday and made a detailed presentation about the proposed satellite TV classroom for students.

"Scientists from ISRO attended the meeting today and made a presentation about the use of satellite TV classrooms for the students before the officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Doordarshan," sources told ANI.

Meanwhile, ISRO scientists emphasized that the organization is ready to provide satellite rights to states to start satellite TV classrooms but asked if the "States will be willing to use the technology."

Vinay Sahastrabuddhe-led parliamentary panel had earlier sought help from ISRO scientists to provide technical assistants to start satellite TV classrooms for students who reported a learning gap in the school syllabus due to the COVID pandemic.

Education secretaries and senior officials of five states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh also attended the panel meeting.

Parliament sources told that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are planning to reopen schools for classes from 10 to 12 in the coming days and for this, they have prepared an SOP. Both the states apprised the panel members regarding this in the meeting.

The Committee explored satellite TV classrooms that will broadcast school-based educational programs and students can take advantage of it in cluster classrooms and the issue of smartphone and data connectivity can be resolved, especially in the rural areas.

Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports will be on a five-day visit to Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir in the next week. Around 30 members of the panels can take stock of the ground reality of schools, colleges, universities and sports complexes that are affected due to the COVID pandemic.

1.2. Greater Noida becomes the first smart city to give access to all urban services to residents via GNIDA GIS app

ET Gov. Jul. 14, 2021

The GIS map-based interface offers the details of all existing land allottees, list of vacant plots, directions, measurement of plots, list of landmarks and also details of its 13 urban services.

With digitisation of government services high on agenda, Greater Noida has become the first smart city in the national capital region to introduce new tech innovations that will give residents access to the geographical information system (GIS) of the entire region through the newly launched GNIDA GIS mobile application.

The new digitisation project by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) is in line with the Centre’s flagship Digital India programme. According to GNIDA, the programme is a digital step towards strengthening participation with residents.

The new system developed with the help of the National Informatics Centre, has an open-source geographical information system (GIS) of the entire town. Through this GIS map-based interface, GNIDA offers the details of all existing land allottees, list of vacant plots, directions, measurement of plots, list of landmarks and also details of its 13 urban services. OneMap mobile app provides the details of all land allottees on its dashboard.

The app is supported by OneMap that provides major support in governance by embedding GIS in all aspects of decision making in the GNIDA, bringing transparency and geo-spatial information support in decision-making. It also provides a sound process of monitoring development and identifying ‘gaps in development, planning, management and decision making’.

OneMap also makes GIS data available at all levels bringing accountability and responsibility in governance. The new app, GNIDA GIS, will also share the details regarding the status of vehicles deployed for cleaning and sweeping the roads, the status of solid waste management among bulk waste generators, road patchwork and road resurfacing with the residents.

“The idea is to provide information about other services on a real-time basis. Residents, after lodging a complaint, will get to see updates on the app. It puts more responsibility on our officials,” GNIDA CEO, Narendra Bhooshan said.

The information on the new app will also include macro and micro details about drainage, electricity lines, water pipeline, sewerage lines, piped gas network and other utilities. Earlier, all such details could only be viewed on a website. For now, the app is only available on the Google PlayStore. The interface for iOS users will be available soon.

2.1. Digital India: Kerala girl’s schools becomes first fully digital school in Thiruvananthapuram district

ET Gov., 23 Jun. 2021

With all the schools in the state already operating remotely, the state government has decided to distribute smartphones to the poor students to avoid any disruption in the education process.

In line with the Centre’s Digital India initiative, Government Girl’s Higher Secondary School in Kerala has been declared as the first fully digital school in Attingal municipality in Thiruvananthapuram district.

With all the schools in the state already operating remotely, the state government has decided to distribute smartphones to the poor students of the district to ensure there is no disruption in the education process.

The local member of legislative assembly O S Ambika while declaring the education institute in the municipality as the first fully digital school has also pitched in to distribute mobile phones to the poor students.

Further a smartphone company has also announced to support the initiative and has sponsored 10 mobile phones for the poor students. Besides the school teachers have donated about seven smartphones. These phones were given to the needy students who can now join digital classes as schools will continue to operate remotely due to Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.

As part of the digital classroom initiative in the school, the school administration has distributed about 40 mobile phones, under the phone library scheme, during the current academic year. According to the school administration, through this initiative, at least 150 students will be benefited as they will be able to attend the online classes.

The phone library programme is a digital learning initiative by the school to help the students who do not have smartphones to attend the online classes. Under this initiative the staff, a few parents and teachers of the school collected money to buy smartphones and was given it for free to the needy students.

Once the digital classes are over the students return the phones back to the school and these smartphones are then maintained by the school authorities in the library.

2.2. India's SaaS space can create $1 trillion in value by 2030

ET Bureau, Jul. 08, 2021

India currently has around 1,000 SaaS startups, including 10 unicorns, that generate a combined $2-$3 billion in annual revenue and employ nearly 40,000 people, the report, for which McKinsey & Company conducted third-party research and analysis, showed.

India’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry has the potential to be valued at $1 trillion and employ 500,000 people by 2030, rivalling the country’s large IT services industry, according to a report by SaaSBoomi, a collective of SaaS and product company founders.

The report - Shaping India’s SaaS Landscape - released on Wednesday estimates that Indian SaaS companies can grow revenues to $50-$70 billion by the end of the decade, lending the industry a $1 trillion valuation based on current public SaaS company revenue multiples.

“This (SaaS) is one of the biggest opportunities in front of India in the next decade. What the tech services industry has done for the country in terms of jobs, exports, value creation and entrepreneurship, we believe that the SaaS opportunity will actually rival that,” said Noshir Kaka, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company.

In 2020, Indian SaaS companies raised $1.5 billion despite the Covid-19 pandemic, representing a 4x jump over the previous two years.

The country also minted six SaaS unicorns - Postman, Zenoti, Innovaccer, HighRadius, Chargebee and BrowserStack - during the last one year.

“SaaS is expected to generate about 80% of software revenues by 2030, up from about 35% today. As a result of these broad secular trends, the global SaaS market could be worth about $1.3 trillion by 2030 led by growth in content, collaboration and remote work enablement software," SaasBoomi said in a statement.

Indian SaaS firms could capture 4-6% of this global opportunity, but in order to do so investments in product companies will need to grow by 3-4 times their current levels, while talent availability needs to scale by 3-6 times, SaaSBoomi said.

Further, the number of Indian SaaS unicorns will need to grow by 10x by 2030, it added.

“Today there is an opportunity for Indian companies to sell to global customers from India. Every category of software is up for disruption and one of the biggest tailwinds is that tech adoption by companies of all sizes is happening,” said Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO at Freshworks.

Growth can be achieved by strengthening India’s market position in traditional areas such as horizontal SaaS – CRM, ERP and collaborative applications - growing in the US and UK markets as well as Asia and MEA and capturing additional opportunities across segments such as new growth vectors such as data management and integration in middleware horizontals.

The report also highlighted four obstacles that need to be overcome for SaaS startups to realize their true potential.

It said Indian SaaS companies face significant challenges around growth in earlier stages through product and go-to-market excellence and developing talent at scale. It also highlighted the need to shift to a growth-first mindset with focus on investing in core operational capabilities to scale and win.

The Indian SaaS space also has had limited exits via acquisitions, buyouts or IPOs and so far only 5-10% of Indian companies have had exits in the last decade, compared to 20% of their US counterparts. The report said significant development of exit routes could drive the virtuous cycle of value-creation.

“While there are challenges ahead, these are not insurmountable and SaaSBoomi is of the view that there is nothing that can stop the Indian SaaS community from building on its strong foundation to make SaaS a preeminent industry in India that employs a lot of talent, contributes significantly to India’s GDP and creates unmatched global products and platforms,” said Manav Garg, CEO and Founder, Eka Software Solutions and founding partner of SaaSBoomi.

3.1. Rajasthan Government looks to make state leader in renewable energy: Gehlot

PTI, Jul. 03, 2021

To accelerate the projects related to the development of renewable energy, the state government has implemented the Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy-2019 and Solar-Wind Hybrid Energy Policy-2019, Gehlot said in a statement.

The Rajasthan government is looking to make the state a leader in the renewable energy sector, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday. To accelerate the projects related to the development of renewable energy, the state government has implemented the Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy-2019 and Solar-Wind Hybrid Energy Policy-2019, Gehlot said in a statement.

He said that the policies have encouraged investment in renewable energy and setting up of mega solar park projects in the state. Gehlot was addressing an online meeting of Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation. He said that the corporation should try to achieve the target of 30,000 MW of solar power and 7,500 MW of wind and hybrid energy generation for the state by 2024-25.

The chief minister said that the geographical conditions of the state are conducive to solar power generation and there is immense potential in the alternative energy sector. He said that Rajasthan has the potential to generate 2.7 lakh MW of solar and wind energy.

"We have to work with new thinking and technology towards achieving this goal. This will not only make the state a big hub in the field of energy, but it will also make it possible to create huge employment opportunities," He said.

The Chief Minister said that recently the state government has approved customised packages for some big power projects in the state, which is likely to attract an investment of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the state.

Gehlot said that coordination should be done with the central government to remove the hurdles in the implementation of Kusum scheme so that farmers who want to set up solar power plants in their land can get loans from financial institutions at low interest rates without collateral security.

3.2. Odisha builds 10,000 rainwater harvesting structures in 75 days

PTI, Jul. 03, 2021

The Odisha government on Friday said that it has built over 10,000 rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) across the state in 75 days to augment water conservation and groundwater recharge.

The Odisha government on Friday said that it has built over 10,000 rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) across the state in 75 days to augment water conservation and groundwater recharge. The Housing and Urban Development Department had launched a campaign on April 15 on the theme 'Catch the Rain: Where it Falls and When it Falls' in all the 114 urban local bodies.

The initiative has been taken under the flagship Mukta scheme, which provides wage employment opportunities for the poor and needy people staying in urban areas of the state.

In a tweet, the Chief Minister's Office commended the department for the work, which has been executed through Mission Shakti Groups and Slum Dwellers Association. The RWHS are cost-effective structures specially designed based on hydro-geological parameters prevailing in Odisha.

The structures are being constructed in parks, playgrounds, open spaces, and vacant lands inside the institutions available, depending on the technical feasibility and space availability.

The department said it had been able to construct 10,176 RWHS in 75 days, a step that would address the key challenge of water scarcity in urban areas of the state.

Encouraged by the success of the campaign, the H&UD Department has decided to construct an additional 10,000 RWHS, especially in the civic bodies of the western, northern and southern parts of the state where there is water scarcity. Odisha, located on the eastern coast of India, is considered a water-surplus state, but rainfall distribution is uneven and erratic.

4. Tech for mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 to be installed in Parliament: S&T minister Jitendra Singh

PTI, Jul. 14, 2021

The technology has been developed by the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), affiliated to the Union Ministry of Science & Technology

UV-C disinfection technology meant for mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 will be installed in the Central Hall, Lok Sabha Chamber and Committee Rooms 62 and 63 during the monsoon session of Parliament, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday. The technology has been developed by the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), affiliated to the Union Ministry of Science & Technology, an official statement said.

"The minister later informed that, to begin with, the technology meant for mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 will be installed in the Central Hall, Lok Sabha Chamber and Committee Rooms 62 and 63," it said.

Singh, however, cautioned that even after installation of this disinfection technology, everybody is advised to strictly adhere to COVID-appropriate behaviour, including use of face mask, maintaining social distance and avoiding crowds.

The UV-C air duct disinfection system can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, classrooms and malls among others as its provides a relatively safer environment for indoor activities in the current pandemic. It can also be used in buildings and transport vehicles.

The UV-C deactivates viruses, bacteria, fungus and other bio-aerosols with appropriate dosages using 254nm UV light. Use of UV-C may also help in ameliorating the fungal infections being witnessed during the current wave of the pandemic, the statement said.

Addressing a semi-virtual conference of scientists from across the country at the CSIR headquarters here, Singh said inter-ministerial formal arrangements for better coordination is needed to further step up efficiency of different departments.

Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is particularly keen about this initiative, Singh urged the officials to explore the feasibility for the same without delay, the statement added.

Urging the CSIR to preserve and showcase its achievements over the decades, Singh said the feasibility of setting up a museum in the national capital needs to be explored.

5.1. Achieved 50 times faster speed than 5G in 6G technology: Samsung

PTI, Jun. 23, 2021

South Korean technology giant Samsung on Tuesday claimed to have achieved 50 times faster speed in 6G research compared to 5G. Samsung Electronics Senior Vice President, Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business, Wonil Roh during the company's presentation on new 5G transmission equipment, said it has achieved speed of 5.23 gigabit per second (gbps) on 5G network.

"6G is going to open up a whole new world of opportunity combined with diverse emerging technologies which will completely shape the paradigm of emerging experiences and services. "We are excited to make 6G a reality. In fact we have already demonstrated terahertz communications -- a testament to our 6G progress," Samsung Electronics network business SVP, head of advanced communications research, Sunghyun Choi said.

The presentation slide mentioned that the speed of its 6G technology is 50 times faster than that of 5G.

According to a white paper by the company, Samsung expects that the completion of the 6G standard and its earliest commercialisation could be as early as 2028, while mass commercialisation may occur around 2030.

Choi said the company is constantly exploring new areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, visual technologies and security for future technologies.

"XR -- a new term that combines augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality which will push boundaries of entertainment, medicine, science, education and manufacturing industries," Choi added.

The company also said it has virtualised most of its system to simplify network operations.

"In India, we operate the world's largest single virtualised core network with capacity to support hundreds of millions of customers," Samsung Electronics network business EVP, head of global sales and marketing, Woojune Kim said.

5.2. Tremendous potential for proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots in India: Trai Chief

PTI, Jun. 20, 2021

Tremendous opportunity exists for the rapid proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots in India, and the PM WANI initiative can result in a massive scale-up of the internet in rural areas, which will be transformative, Trai Chairman said on Friday.

India needs all kinds of technology to serve its digital ambitions, and the technology-neutral stance will serve as a prime catalyst for the required growth, P D Vaghela, Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), said.

"There is a tremendous opportunity in India for the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots. PM WANI (PM Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) can result in rapid scale-up of the internet in rural areas, which will be transformative given the low level of penetration (there) compared to urban areas," he said while speaking at a virtual event organised by industry body Broadband India Forum (BIF).

India's appetite for data appears to be insatiable, with the country now having over 750 million broadband connections. "However, the potential for growth is still very high. I think, probably over 500 million more to be connected, especially in rural areas," he pointed out.

Terming the internet as one of the most powerful socio-economic engines of growth, Vaghela said this is true not only for India but for the rest of the world.

"Wi-Fi 6 and 5G expand opportunities for digitisation across all industries...and enable organisations to be just everywhere, while increasing productivity and offering the best user experience," he said.

The PM WANI initiative has been a historic step forward, he said, referring to the ambitious programme that aims to fuel broadband internet proliferation in the country through a mesh of public Wi-Fi networks and access points by local Kirana and neighbourhood shops.

"PM WANI system is a best low-cost alternative, which offers a way forward to connect low revenue consumers...," he noted.

The BIF digital dialogues event also witnessed the release of an industry white paper titled 'Role and importance of next-generation Wi-Fi technologies in the acceleration of digital transformation'.

Some gaps need to be ironed out for the PM WANI scheme to pick up, the white paper said, flagging the need to create wider awareness about the scheme, its technical design, the utility of Public Wi-Fi services and associated benefits.

"A regulation prescribing ceiling rate with guaranteed QoS (quality of service) may be considered by Trai to ensure that ISPs/TSPs (internet and telecom service providers) do not exercise discriminatory practices in allocating bandwidth and pricing for PDOAs/PDOs," BIF said summing up key suggestions contained in the white paper.

The government should facilitate easy bank loans or funding from USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) for small entrepreneurs to invest in the PDO/PDOA business, it said while calling for suitable modifications in the WANI framework to facilitate roaming.

"Spectrum in both 6 GHz and V band has been delicensed in several countries, to increase capacity and accelerate economic growth. Need to explore releasing these bands in India at the earliest to unlock their economic value through use in Wi-Fi services," it added.

The government had earlier approved the setting up of public Wi-Fi networks and access points by local Kirana and neighbourhood shops through public data offices that will not involve any licence, fee or registration.

The public Wi-Fi Access Network initiative is aimed at bringing a massive Wi-Fi revolution in the country. The public Wi-Fi networks, under WANI, have an architecture involving multiple players -- Public Data Office (PDO), Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) and app providers.

- Agriculture, Fishing and Rural Development

6.1. Andhra government to launch veterinary telemedicine to ensure healthy livestock

ET Gov. Jun. 18, 2021

Through the telemedicine facility, the livestock farmers from remote areas can avail of expert medical care from the state and district headquarters, minister Appalaraju said.

The animal husbandry department of Andhra Pradesh is launching a telemedicine facility for animals on July 1. While announcing this at a review meeting with the district level officials of the department, the Minister for Animal Husbandry Seediri Appalaraju said the state government is committed to the healthcare needs of animals as much as the people and this first of its kind initiative in the country will go a long way in ensuring a healthy livestock.

The facility is being launched with the support of the Centre for the first time in India, he said, adding that disease diagnosis is very important for animals just like humans. Towards this goal, the state government is implementing the Pashu Sanjivani programme and deployed 108 ambulance service for animals in each Assembly constituency.

With the telemedicine facility, the livestock farmers from remote areas can avail of expert medical care from the state and district headquarters, Appalaraju said.

The state's animal husbandry department is in the forefront when it comes to adopting technology for animal welfare, which is not very popular in mainstream society. In the recent months, some private veterinary telemedicine services like PetPal and Practo have come up, but they are mostly confined to pets' healthcare. They serve the health issues of pets such as diet management for pets, medication for fleas and ticks, food allergies among pets, and behavioural problems among pets.

The veterinary telemedicine being launched by AP government focuses on the diagnosis and healthcare of livestock which is raised by farmers for agriculture and commercial purposes.

The department had earlier bagged the Special Interest Group on e-Governance Awards-2020 at the national level for providing timely, transparent and corruption free services to the livestock farmers to uplift their socio-economic status.

The department developed around 42 web and android applications for capturing real-time data on implementation of welfare schemes, supply of medicines, vaccinations, deworming, inputs supply, staff recruitment, monitoring of ongoing works, staff training without any manipulations.

The Computer Society of India has announced this award for the year 2019-20 to AP State Animal Husbandry Department for being outstanding.

Poonam Malakondaiah, the Special Principal Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, also participated in the review meeting.

7.1. Karnataka to use Israeli technologies to boost horticulture

IANS, jun. 17, 2021

The project is being implemented under the government-to-government (G2G) cooperation between the Agriculture Ministry's mission for integrated development of horticulture division and Israel's agency for international development cooperation.

Under the Indo-Israel agriculture project, Karnataka would use Israeli technologies to increase horticulture production in the southern state, an official said on Wednesday.

"Under the project, three Centres of Excellence (CoE) have been set up to improve and boost production of mangoes at Kolar, pomegranate at Bagalkote and vegetables at Dharwad," said the official.

The three centres were virtually unveiled jointly by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi and state Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa here.

"The three CoEs in the state are part of 29 such centres in operation in 12 states across the country to use advanced Israeli agro-technology tailored to local conditions," the official said in a statement.

"The CoEs will demonstrate best practices and train the growers to choose and adopt the technology that suits them to boost output and double income," said the official.

For instance, the CoE at Kolar will generate new varieties of mangoes by adopting best cultivation practices and using Israeli rootstocks, based on commercial hi-tech nursery management.

"The centre will define canopy management guidelines to rejuvenate old trees and plant new young orchards. It will also implement drip-irrigation and fertigation systems for optimal water use," said the official.

Similarly, the CoE at Bagalkote will introduce irrigation management-based on precision agriculture by satellite imaging, advanced fertigation and beneficial demonstration of super Bhagwa canopy management techniques to improve and increase pomegranate production.

Fertigation is the application of specialty fertilisers through drip-irrigation.

"The CoE at Dharwad will produce quality seedlings, demonstrate best practices in greenhouse structures with Israeli standards, introduce Israeli vegetable varieties and generate nematode solutions," said the statement.

The cooperation between the two countries envisages the setting up Indo-Israel Villages of Excellence (IIVoE) to create a model ecosystem in agriculture in eight states, including Karnataka, and link it with the CoEs at Bagalkote and Kolar.

"The IIVoE will establish modern agriculture infrastructure, support farmers with capacity building activities and enhance market linkage to optimise the profitability of farmers," said the statement.

Lauding the partnership, Yediyurappa said there is scope for adoption of new technologies in crop production and post-harvest management to boost horticulture production in the state.

"The CoEs will help the growers in the state to access Israeli technologies and adopt them to increase production and productivity for doubling their income," said Tomar on the occasion.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who hails from Dharwad, said the centres would help farmers in getting quality seeds and technologies with automation irrigation and fertigation.

Israeli Ambassador to India, Ron Malka, said the partnership would give local farmers a competitive edge in the domestic and overseas markets for exports and for doubling their income.

7.2. First commercial shipment of Mishri variety of cherries from Kashmir exported to Dubai

Press Information Bureau: July 07, 2021

In a step towards boosting horticultural crops exports, a first commercial shipment of Mishri variety of luscious cherries from Kashmir valley has been exported to Dubai from Srinagar. APEDA assisted the shipment of cherries to Dubai by MS Desai Agri-Food Private Limited, a venture company of MS Innoterra, Dubai.

Prior to this shipment, a sample consignment was sent in the middle of June 2021 from Srinagar to Dubai through air which were transhipped from Mumbai. Following an encouraging response from the consumers in Dubai, the first commercial shipment of Mishri variety of cherries were exported to Dubai.

Mishri variety of Cherries are not only taste delicious but also contain vitamins, minerals and plant compound with health benefits.

The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir produces more than 95% of the total country’s production of commercial varieties of cherries in the country. It produces four varieties of cherry — Double, Makhmali, Mishri and Italy.

Prior to the shipment, the cherries were harvested, cleaned and packed by APEDA registered exporter while the technical inputs were provided by the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Kashmir.

APEDA-National Referral Laboratory at National Research Centre for Grapes, Pune provided support for ensuring food safety and quality in the shipment, which would help create brand for cherries especially in the middle east countries.

The commencement of commercial shipment of cherries would provide huge opportunities for exports of several temperate fruits like plums, pears, apricot and apples from Kashmir to specially to middle east countries in the forthcoming seasons.

APEDA has been conducting interactions with farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), government officials and other stakeholders for boosting exports potential of agricultural produce from Kashmir such as apples, almonds, walnuts, saffron, rice, fresh fruits and vegetables and certified organic products.

Several rounds of virtual awareness creation programme involving the local producers, suppliers, FPOs and exporters from Kashmir are being conducted for ensuring export of temperate fruits from the region.

For ensuring exports of quality agricultural produce which adhere to global standards, APEDA has also initiated awareness programme on National Programme on Organic Production and ISO-17065 requirements for the officials of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The purpose of such programme was to acquaint officials of the UTs with the third-party certification system for organic products as well as international trade of organic products.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

8.1. PMAY-Gramin: Rajasthan's 31 districts feature among top 100 in India

TNN, Jun. 19, 2021

In a first, all districts of Rajasthan, except two, featured among the top 100 districts in the country in terms of performance under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), states data received from the rural development department.

Also, six districts of Rajasthan featured among the top 10 districts, 14 among the top 25 and 22 districts among the top 50 in the country (as on June 15).

Only Tonk (109 rank) and Sirohi (156 rank) didn’t feature among the top 100 districts in the country in terms of performance under PMAY-G. The six districts of the state which feature among the top 10 include Dungarpur (second), Nagaur (third), Bharatpur (fifth), Jhunjhunu (sixth), Bikaner (eighth) and Udaipur (ninth).

“This has happened for the first time that 31 out of 33 districts in the state featured among the top 100 districts in the country. This proves that despite the financial crunch, there is steady progress of work on the ground,” said an official.

Meanwhile, amid tussle between the state government and the Centre over release of Rs 682.07 crore (for financial year 2020-21), the state’s treasury has released Rs 150 crore for payment to the beneficiaries under the scheme. Krishna Kant Pathak, secretary, rural development department, said, “We have got a fresh target of 3.90 lakh houses (for 2021-22).

The beneficiaries who get selected under the scheme, priorities should be fixed by filtering the names. Moreover, this time a new initiative has been taken to connect every house under PMAY-G with nutri gardens and it will be converged with MGNREGA. Also, information related to benefits provided to PMAY beneficiaries under Ujjwala scheme and power connection will be marked on the portal.”

Earlier, it was reported that amid a tussle between the state and the Centre over delay in release of funds amounting to Rs 682.07 crore (for financial year 2020-21), pending since December last year, has resulted in non-payment of second and third installment of 76,764 beneficiaries under the scheme, inducing a total liability of Rs 425.27 crore.

The state’s chief secretary Niranjan Arya had written a letter to the Centre last month (May) urging release of its share of Rs 682.07 crore for building houses, sanctioned in the year 2020-21, under PMAY-G.

9.1. These three areas are transforming the retail industry

ET CIO, Jun. 22,2021, Riya Pahuja

Speaking at The Economic Times Spectrum, Piyush Chowhan, Group CIO, Lulu Group presented these factors as the top transformational trends and areas in the retail industry.

We are living in a transformative era. The retail industry has never seen transformation happening at such a rate. Because of the pandemic, we today see two types of retailers. One which was forced to close and shut down and the others who showed record results.

So, what is the differentiating factor if the external environment is the same for both

Speaking at The Economic Times Spectrum, Piyush Chowhan, Group CIO, Lulu Group presented these factors as the top transformational trends and areas in the retail industry.

“Recently the market has seen a lot of bankruptcies and we have seen retailers after retailers and store after stores getting shut. The next big thing was the closing of Debenhams. The only question that comes to mind, after reading these news stories is ‘Is this the doom's day for the physical retail stores?’ And the answer is absolutely not,” Chowhan said

“The reason is that some of these retailers are not able to catch the trends and adapt to the change,” he added.

Let’s see what these trends are:

1. Digital Divide is becoming larger:

“When I say digital, I do not mean E-commerce. The divide between the retailers which are digital and the ones which are not is getting bigger. The larger is becoming larger and the weaker is becoming weaker. Hence, while the retailers filed bankruptcies, a lot of retailers like Walmart, Tesco showed record results,” Chowhan said.

If organisations are not willing to adopt the digital approach, they will suffer. Chowhan suggested that if you want to survive in this era, you have to adopt the digital mantra. Meaning digital transformation has to be your key strategy.

2. Customer Experience will be the differentiator:

Leaders should not think of their business as an operational machine but as a customer service or a customer experience platform. Unless they move their focus towards making their company as a customer experience platform, they will not understand your customer fully.

“Retailers need to build data platforms so they can get a lot of customer data, process it and offer personalised products and services to the customers. Gone are days where having the best supply chains and best product assortment channels made you the leader. Today you need to revolve your entire business around customer experience and transform each and every part of your organisation to work towards customer experience,” Chowhan said.

3. Omnichannel will drive the growth:

“Create that omnichannel view of the customer. The customer does not want a siloed offering. Most of the retailers are still interacting on the online channel and the offline one but there is a very limited barring of data across these channels to provide a holistic offering to the customer. This is the friction between online and offline which is not letting the retailers create an experience for the customers which is unique for them,” he said.

Chowhan suggests creating an omnichannel strategy and an omnichannel experience so that you are able to share the data seamlessly and create an offering which is frictionless.

“Build your store as an experience and adopt an omnichannel commerce paradigm. Unless you marry your physical stores with online ones and create an omnichannel experience, you can not survive in the current situation,” he concluded.

10.1. TCS crosses 500,000 headcount

ET, Bureau, Jul. 09, 2021

The company added a total of 20,409 new employees during the quarter, its highest ever quarterly net headcount addition.

India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services said it had crossed the 500,000 milestone with a total headcount of 509,058 at the end of the first quarter of 2022 it said in a press release. The company added a total of 20,409 new employees during the quarter, its highest ever quarterly net headcount addition.

The company also reported low attrition levels of 8.6%. Over 478,000 employees have been trained in Agile methods and over 407,000 employees have been trained on multiple new technologies. TCS’ philosophy of investing in people and its progressive workplace policies have resulted in industry-leading talent retention, it said.

The company continues to invest in organic talent development initiatives, with employees logging in over 10 million learning hours in Q1. Over 478,000 employees have been trained in Agile methods and over 407,000 employees have been trained on multiple new technologies. “During the months of April and May, the second wave of pandemic has been quite demanding for the TCS Family. Our thoughts are with the families who suffered personal loss despite our best efforts. I want to acknowledge the temperament and personality of our associates who stood by each other in these stressful times. We continued to place a premium on associate health and wellbeing and have taken vaccination as a priority for all our associates, dependents and contract staff. In less than two months, over half a million associates and family members and over 70 percent of our associates have been vaccinated, and we are on track to vaccinate all TCSers and families by September,” said Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer. “The TCS family crossed a new milestone, with over 500,000 associates this quarter. We continue to attract the best talent across the globe with a net addition of 20,409 associates to the TCS family this quarter.”

Women now comprise 36.2% of the workforce and the company has employees across 155 nationalities.

- Industry and Manufacture

11. India gets Asia's longest and world's fifth longest High Speed Track for automobiles

Press Information Bureau, Jun. 30, 2021

Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Mr. Prakash Javadekar today inaugurated NATRAX- the High Speed Track (HST) in Indore which is the longest such track in Asia. NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land, is a one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests for widest categories of vehicles from 2 wheelers to heavy tractor trailers.

High-Speed Track is the heart of any proving ground for the auto sector. Today, inaugurated the longest high-speed track in Asia at Indore.

A proud moment for India and a key initiative in realising PM Mr. Narendra Modi's vision of #AatmaNirbharBharat pic.twitter.com/lTnaz0ppQv

— Mr. Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) June 29, 2021

Speaking at the e-inauguration of the world class 11.3 km High Speed Track, Mr. Javadekar stated that India is destined to become a hub of automobiles, manufacturing, and spare parts. The Minister said, we are fast moving towards an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and all round efforts are being made in this direction. He said, his ministry is committed to fulfil Prime Minister’s dream of ensuring that India becomes a hub of auto manufacturing. He said, expanding automobiles and manufacturing industries will help generate the employment.

The Minister further said that projects in railways, highways and waterways which were languishing for years are today getting completed because of the strong political will.

Many projects in the railways, highways etc. which were languishing for years are today getting completed because of the strong political will. NATRAX- the high speed track completed and inaugurated today is another example that shows how Modi govt. works. pic.twitter.com/MsHNxG8mB4

— Mr. Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) June 29, 2021

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal, said, the government is promoting manufacturing and automobile industry as it will help empowering the nation at a larger scale.

The NATRAX centre has multiple test capabilities like measurements of maximum speed, acceleration, constant speed fuel consumption, emission tests through real road driving simulation, high speed handling and stability evaluation during manoeuvred such as lane change, high speed durability testing, etc. and is a Centre of excellence for Vehicle Dynamics.

HST is used for measuring the maximum speed capability of high-end cars like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla and so forth which cannot be measured on any of the Indian test tracks. Being centrally located in Madhya Pradesh, it is accessible to most of the major OEMs. Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions . At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high speed track abroad for high speed test requirements.

It is one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests, being one of the largest in the world. It can cater to widest category of vehicles; say from two wheelers to the heaviest tractor trailers. Vehicle can achieve max speed of 375 Kmph on curves with steering control and it has less banking on ovals making it also one of the safest test track globally.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

12.1. This manufacturer is using data analytics for identifying supply chain bottlenecks

ET Cio, Jun. 21, 2021, Bhragu Haritas

Forbes Marshall is using BI tools for data analytics to make critical business decisions – such as to identify bottlenecks in the supply chain, planning and enhancing sales.

For every manufacturing firm today, gathering and using data has become imperative to achieve business growth. Steam engineering firm Forbes Marshall has also realised data’s potential and is using it to make faster business decisions.

The company manufactures products and services that help industries to save energy, improve process quality and throughput, and run a clean and safe factory. With six manufacturing facilities in India, UK and Singapore, Forbes Marshall has over 1,500 employees.

To achieve its aim of becoming a leader in energy and process automation solutions, the manufacturer is leveraging technology in various areas.

Forbes Marshall uses a variety of digital tools and platforms, and these are a mix of those built in-house and some from third-party suppliers/service providers. Beena Nayar, CIO, Forbes Marshall has a team of 30 IT professionals.

Forbes Marshall uses BI tools for data analytics which helps in making critical business decisions – such as to identify bottlenecks in the supply chain, planning and enhancing sales, amongst others.

The applications have been built based on lean manufacturing principles to reduce waste and enhance productivity.

“This is integrated with test rigs for extracting test data directly from the SCADA systems and for enabling material flow from one operation to another during production. This integrates seamlessly with ERP and ASCP during the entire flow,” Beena Nayar, CIO, Forbes Marshall.

This has reduced waste, like time for replenishing material for the job, Kanban bins, time taken for responding to issues because of ANDONs. This also ensures a smooth flow of material from one stage to another and also recording the issues, reworks, rejections which can be used for further improvements in the value streams.

The company’s IT landscape comprises Oracle ERP and ASCP, as well as bespoke applications which have been customized for enabling digitization and automation.

All these are built and tuned for enhancing productivity and efficiency of members and also for enabling and enhancing business. “For example, the mobility solutions we have built automates transactions and also enables traceability of material movement end-to-end,” said Nayar.

Nayar is a believer of keeping data centers as thin as possible and moving most of Forbes Marshall’s apps and data on the cloud.

“We started with building new applications on the cloud and then started moving older applications onto the cloud. Over the years we have been moving older applications as and when the server on which they were running on-prem required a refresh,” Nayar maintained.

As of now most of the applications have been moved to the cloud.

“When we were planning for a refresh for our ERP servers, we evaluated a few options. Given we were already using Oracle because of ERP and ASCP, we realized running these applications on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) was the best option, even from a future upgrade and capability enhancement perspective,” she added.

Using OCI, substantial improvement in reporting and analytics have been observed--especially with respect to long running and time consuming reports/procedures-- an average 30% improvement has been observed.

“Further, for IT, the time required for cloning instances and time taken for backup have reduced by 50%,” she said.

Additionally, the company is using RPA for automating some mundane transactions. Nayar plans to continue this journey in combination with OCR and AI/ML to automate and also to enable faster, better decision making. “We are also working on AR/VR projects for enabling our customers and field engineers.”

12.2. Piyush Goyal takes charge as textiles minister, confident of big growth in sector

ET Bureau, jul. 09, 2021

Minister for commerce and industry, and consumer affairs and food & public distribution Piyush Goyal on Thursday took charge of the textiles ministry from women and child development minister Smriti Zubin Irani.

“Textiles is a big sector for employment so this is a big opportunity that through this sector, the government will try to give a big support to the income of all the people employed in this sector, especially women,” the government said in a statement, quoting Goyal.

Goyal also said that he would ensure that this sector can be further improved and exports can be boosted, as the government wants to promote Brand India and Indian textiles, which have earlier played an important role in building brand India, will again play a key role.

“The minister expressed confidence that there will be a big growth in this sector,” the textiles ministry said. The textiles and apparel industry provides direct employment to 45 million people and 60 million people in allied industries, according to Invest India, and contributes 5% to India’s gross domestic product.

The minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants this sector to be strong and become an even bigger support for the economy, and envisions a synergy between commerce and industry, and textiles sectors and that is perhaps the reason that he has been given the charge of this ministry also.

Both these ministries are based in Udyog Bhawan in the capital. Besides commerce and industry, and consumer affairs, Goyal also held the railway portfolio before the latest rejig. While Ashwini Vaishnaw is the new railway minister, Goyal takes over the textiles ministry, previously headed by Irani. The Minister of State for Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh also took charge.

13.1. Nokia, HFCL among 25 companies register under PLI scheme for telecom sector

IBEF, Jun. 22, 2021

According to official sources, nearly 25 companies including HFCL and Nokia have applied for production linked incentive scheme for telecom sector with an outlay of Rs 12,195 crore.

Local businesses Tejas Networks and Dixon Technologies have confirmed to apply for the scheme before the deadline ends on July 3, 2021.

An official source told PTI, “ So far 25 firms have registered for the Rs. 12,195 crore (US$ 1.64 billion) PLI scheme. There are other large organisations who have expressed interest and are expected to apply for the before the deadline.”

Under the scheme, an investor could receive incentive for incremental sales up to 20 times the dedicated investment, empowering them to achieve global scales and develop their idle facility and expand production.

Key stakeholders from HFCL and Nokia have confirmed that both the companies registered for the scheme.

Coral Telecom managing director, Mr. Rajesh Tuli stated that there are no option for any micro, small and medium companies as they would become non-competitive by 7% if they do not join in the scheme and perish.

He said the telecom sector PLI is a brilliant scheme, although significant weightage should be offered to 'the local value addition to the selection standards.

"Otherwise, there may be 10 large investors or even traders seeking in MSME category each pledging to invest Rs. 50 crore (US$ 6.74 million) who would do repairing and assembly which is ~ 7% of the manufacturing cost.

Mr. Tuli said, “This 7% would be compensated by the government. One has to be cautious and uphold against such circumstances where we may only build traders who upscale themselves by one step.”

Dixon Technologies executive chairman, Mr. Sunil Vachani and Tejas Networks chief executive officer and managing director, Mr. Sanjay Nayak stated they would be applying for the scheme.

ITI Limited, a state-owned telecom gear manufacturer is also in the development of submitting applications.

Investments made by winning applicants in India from April 1, 2021, onwards and up to FY25 would be eligible for incentives, subject to qualifying incremental annual limits.

Under the scheme, the government announced to provide the support for a period of five years from FY22 to FY26.

The scheme is expected to attract an investment of > Rs. 3,000 crore (US$ 404.65 million) and build tax revenue of ~ Rs. 17,000 crore (US$ 2.29 billion).

The government anticipates that over a period of five years, the scheme would boost the equipment manufacturing worth Rs. 2.44 lakh crore (US$ 32.91 billion), with exports of ~ Rs. 2 lakh crore (US$ 26.98 billion).

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

14.1. NSDC partners WhatsApp to launch digital skill programme for youth

ET Gov. Jun. 24, 2021

Through this programme, school and university students will be coached to imbibe digital and online skills. WhatsApp and NSDC will also award a ‘Digital Skill Champions’ certification to these students.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), apex body to manage Central backed Skill India or the National Skills Development Mission of India campaign has announced a tie-up with global digital platform, WhatsApp, to launch the ‘Digital Skill Champions Program’ to train youth on digital skills, and make them employment ready.

According to NSDC, through this programme, school and university students would be coached to imbibe digital and online skills that would culminate with WhatsApp and NSDC awarding a ‘Digital Skill Champions’ certification to these students.

Meanwhile, NSDC, MD & CEO Manish Kumar said the corporation aims to extend scope of virtual learning for youth across India. “It aims to empower youth with new-age skills to make them employable and more productive in their work environment,” Kumar said.

The course will be based on a module-format and will target campuses across tier 3 and 4 towns and cities throughout the country. WhatsApp said as part of the WhatsApp Digital Skills Academy, young adults from tier 3 and 4 cities will be trained on critical aspects of digital safety and online privacy.

The initiative will initially begin with a pilot across 50 campuses in five states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The programme will be imparted through WhatsApp's project implementation partner InfiSpark.

Under the programme to be conducted digitally, WhatsApp will conduct sessions for Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra trainers about the WhatsApp Business app. The training will cover modules on leveraging the WhatsApp Business app and to make small business entrepreneurship 'aspirational'.

Speaking on the launch, Shivanth Thukral, director of public policy at WhatsApp India said: “As India embraces digital innovation and entrepreneurship, it is imperative that the youth today are made aware of and educated about how they can upskill themselves and take charge of their presence online. At WhatsApp, we believe that online safety and privacy are vital drivers to a progressive digital society. Through this partnership, we are committed to enhance the digital skills of the aspiring entrepreneurs and empower the youth of our country to create a safe digital environment for all.”

As per WhatsApp, there are about 15 million monthly users of the business app in India. The messaging giant said it has played an instrumental role in helping small businesses optimise sales especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

15.1. PLI Scheme for IT Hardware manufacturing herald a new era in Laptops, Tablets, All-in-One Personal Computers (PCs) and Servers electronics manufacturing

Press Information Bureau, Jul. 02, 2021

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and his visionary initiatives like the “Digital India” and “Make in India” programmes, India has witnessed an unprecedented growth in electronics manufacturing in the last five years. The National Policy on Electronics 2019 envisions positioning India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by focusing on size and scale, promoting exports and enhancing domestic value addition by creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY) has approved 14 eligible applicants under the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware. PLI Scheme for IT Hardware notified on 3rd March 2021, extends an incentive of 4% to 2%/1% on net incremental sales (over base year of FY 2019-20) of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India to eligible companies, for a period of four years (FY2021-22 to FY 2024-25). The target segments under the PLI Scheme for IT Hardware include Laptops, Tablets, All-in-One Personal Computers (PCs) and Servers. The scheme proposes production linked incentives to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in the value chain of these IT Hardware products.

While giving approval to eligible applicants under the PLI Scheme, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications, Law and Justice said that PLI scheme has been huge success in terms of the applications received from Global as well as Domestic manufacturing companies. Industry has reposed its faith in India’s stellar progress as a world class manufacturing destination and this resonates strongly with Prime Minister’s clarion call of Atmanirbhar Bharat - a self-reliant India. Minister further said that “we are optimistic and looking forward to building a strong ecosystem across the value chain and integrating with the global value chains, thereby strengthening electronics manufacturing ecosystem in the country”.

Four companies have been selected under the category IT Hardware Companies which include Dell, ICT (Wistron), Flextronics and Rising Stars Hi-Tech (Foxconn).

Under the category of Domestic Companies, 10 companies namely Lava International Limited, Dixon Technologies (India) Limited, Infopower Technologies (JV of Sahasra and MiTAC), Bhagwati (Micromax) Neolync, Optiemus, Netweb, Smile Electronics, VVDN and Panache Digilife have been approved.

Over the next 4 years, the approved companies under the PLI Scheme for IT Hardware are expected to lead to a total production of more than Rs. 1.61 lakh crore. Out of the total production, the approved companies under IT Hardware companies’ category have proposed a production of Rs. 84,746 crore. The approved companies under Domestic Companies category have proposed a production of Rs. 76,007 crore. The scheme will bring additional investment in IT Hardware manufacturing to the tune of Rs. 2,517 crore.

The scheme will generate an additional direct employment opportunities of more than 36,000 in next 4 years along with creation of additional indirect employment of nearly 3 times the direct employment. Domestic Value Addition is expected to grow from the current 10-15% to 25-30%.

With the demand for electronics in India expected to grow manifold by 2025, Hon’ble Minister expressed confidence that PLI scheme and other initiatives to promote electronics manufacturing will help in making India a competitive destination for electronics manufacturing and give boost to Atmanirbhar Bharat. Creation of domestic champion companies in electronics manufacturing under the Scheme will give fillip to vocal for local while aiming for global scale.

Given the current global scenario, the world of manufacturing is undergoing a paradigm shift. Manufacturing companies across the globe are looking to diversify their manufacturing locations to mitigate the risk involved in depending on a single market.

PLI Schemes will help in making India a globally competitive destination for electronics manufacturing and create domestic champions to further our mission of achieving an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

- Services (Education, Healthcare, IT, R&D, Tourism, etc.)

16.1. Noida Airport's revised master plan sent to central agencies for nod: NIAL tells UP govt

PTI, Jun. 24, 2021

A revised master plan of the Noida International Airport has been sent to central agencies for permission to go ahead with the development work on the mega project, officials informed the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday. Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari was apprised of this during the 10th board meeting of the Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) in Lucknow where the status report of the Greenfield project was presented to him.

NIAL CEO Arun Vir Singh, airport project's nodal officer Shailendra Bhatia, among others, were present in the meeting chaired by Tiwari.

"A master plan for the airport was submitted to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry and other central agencies for review and permission. A revised master plan has been sent to them with recommended changes for approval to go ahead with the project," Singh informed Tiwari, according to an official press statement.

Tiwari in turn instructed the officials to ensure timely completion of work on the project.

The Noida International Airport, billed to be the biggest in India upon completion, is planned across 5,000 hectares with its first phase being spread over 1,300 hectares.

The project is being managed and operated by NIAL, a special agency floated by the Uttar Pradesh government, while Swiss firm Zurich Airport International AG has been selected as the developer for the mega project.

Zurich Airport has floated a separate entity named Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) for the project.

16.2. Indian IT industry revenues will see double-digit growth in FY22: Azim Premji

PTI, Jul. 07, 2021

Wipro founder-chairman Azim Premji believes the Indian IT industry revenues will grow in double digits in the current financial year.

Mumbai: Wipro founder-chairman Azim Premji believes the Indian IT industry revenues will grow in double digits in the current financial year. Throughout the pandemic, which saw lockdown measures to curtail the spread of the virus, the information technology industry has kept the world running and has also adapted to the changes, Premji said, speaking at an event of the Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society on Tuesday evening.

As per Nasscom, the IT industry revenues stood at USD 194 billion in FY21. The lobby group has ceased giving estimates of the topline growth a few years ago.

Companies will start reporting financial results for the first quarter from Thursday.

"This financial year (FY22), I'd not be surprised if the industry grows in very decent double digits," Premji said, noting that despite the pandemic, the industry grew 2-3 per cent and added 1.58 lakh new jobs on a net basis in FY21.

He said within weeks of the onset of the pandemic, the IT industry shifted to working from home and over 90 per cent of the staff continues to deliver on projects remotely even now.

The 'hybrid model', where people work partially from home or from offices, presents a huge competitive advantage, Premji said, speaking about the model which is being spoken of as the future of work.

He said the hybrid model is very inclusive, with advantages like ensuring better participation from all parts of the country and also giving women the flexibility to continue with their careers.

"We will have to work together to figure out the optimal balance and optimal approach so that we strengthen India as the skill hub of the world," he said.

Premji said the IT industry is well positioned to drive the next phase of India's growth, and will contribute significantly in achieving the ambition of a USD 5 trillion economy.

17.1. Intel partners with Reliance Jio, to work on 5G network technology

Reuters, Jun. 22, 2021

Intel's venture capital unit last year invested $250 million in Reliance Industries Ltd's Jio Platforms unit, saying the two companies would find areas of technology partnership. On Monday, Intel said it will work on "co-innovations" with Reliance Jio for its 5G radio-access network (RAN), among other things.

Intel Corp on Monday said it will work with India's Reliance Jio to develop 5G networking technology.

"This is the fruit of that partnership," Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the data platforms group at Intel, told Reuters in an interview. "5G in India is going to be massive, and (Reliance Jio) are doing it in a non-legacy way."

Reliance Jio is one of many carriers around the world using a new approach to build 5G networks. Rather than using gear primarily from telecommunications-specific firms such as Nokia, Ericsson or Huawei Technologies Cos, carriers are shifting toward using software to handle more network functions and tapping the same kind of standard computing equipment used in data centers to run the networks.

Intel, for its part, has been losing share in its core data center and personal computing markets to rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc after years of manufacturing troubles. But networking chips have become an increasingly important part of its business, growing 20% in 2020 to account for $6 billion of its $77.9 billion in overall sales.

Dan Rodriguez, general manager of Intel's network platforms group, said part of that growth has come from Intel's decision nearly a decade ago to invest in software akin to an operating system for its network chips. The system, called FlexRAN, lets carriers or software firms write code for 5G networks.

Intel said Monday that software from Cohere Technologies could double utilization of some network spectrum using Intel's chips, benefiting carriers that spend billions acquiring spectrum rights.

17.2. Airtel and TCS join hands for 'Made in India' 5G

TimesofIndia.com, Jun. 21, 2021

Bharti Airtel and Tata Group have announced a strategic partnership for implementing 5G networks solutions for India. Tata Group has developed a ‘state of the art’ O-RAN based Radio & NSA/SA Core and has integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the Group capabilities and that of its partners. This will be available for commercial development starting Jan 2022.

"Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) brings its global system integration expertise and helps align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards, as the network and equipment are increasingly embedded into software," says a media statement.

Airtel will pilot and deploy this indigenous solution as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022, as per the guidelines formulated by the Government of India.

The company claims that the ‘Made in India’ 5G product and solutions are aligned to global standards, and inter-operate with other products based on standard open interfaces and those defined by the O-RAN Alliance. Airtel plans to take these 5G solutions global, once commercially proven in Airtel’s network will open export.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to join forces with the Tata Group to make India a global hub for 5G and allied technologies. With its world-class technology ecosystem and talent pool, India is well positioned to build cutting edge solutions and applications for the world. This will also provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination.”

N Ganapathy Subramaniam from the Tata Group/ TCS said, “As a Group, we are excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities. We are committed to building a world-class networking equipment and solutions business to address these opportunities in networking space. We are pleased to have Airtel as our customer in this initiative.”

Airtel is a Board member of the O-RAN Alliance and is committed to explore and implement O-RAN based networks in India. Earlier this year, Airtel became the first telecom company in India to demonstrate 5G over its live network in city of Hyderabad. The company has started 5G trials in major cities using spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom.

The Tata group's telecom and media enterprises cater to the communication requirements of global business houses to SMEs, and from wholesale to home networks. Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is a member of the O-RAN Alliance.

18.1. SonyLIV partners with TCS to transform customer experience and drive growth

ET CIO, Jul.06, 2021

Tata Consultancy Services will help speed and scale SonyLIV’s innovation to accelerate its journey towards becoming a next-generation OTT player

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services organization, has entered into a strategic partnership with OTT streaming platform, SonyLIV, to help create an innovative business model enabled by digital technologies and enhance customer experience.

The partnership will leverage TCS’ next-gen digital capabilities, domain knowledge and innovation ecosystem to define SonyLIV’s platform transformation roadmap for India and global markets. TCS will help enhance its core OTT platform to leverage AI and machine learning to provide personalized experiences to subscribers across devices. It will also help SonyLIV use data and insights to monetize content and create new revenue streams.

Additionally, TCS will set up a world-class Experience Design Center leveraging its innovation labs, where it will deploy its Location Independent Agile Model to accelerate innovation by rapidly prototyping and helping SonyLIV launch new best-in-class features ahead of the market. The partnership will help SonyLIV reimagine the customer experience and engagement, enhance its brand, establish competitive differentiation in the marketplace and drive growth.

Danish Khan, Business Head, SonyLIV, Sony Entertainment Television and Studio Next, said, “We are delighted to have TCS on board as our technology partner. We will work closely with the TCS leadership team in India, US and UK to enhance the user experience of SonyLIV. Further, we hope to harness the TCS global talent reach, infrastructure and global centers of excellence to bring innovations that will improve engagement and provide a delightful consumer experience.”

18.2. Vodafone Idea partners Cisco for developing 5G-ready network for retail, enterprise users

ET Telecom, Jun. 23, 2021

Vi is working with Cisco to design and build a cost-efficient network architecture to drive greater speed to market with emerging opportunities in 4G & 5G, cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT), an official statement said.

NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea (Vi) has joined hands with CIsco to automate its network to support 4G and, in the future, 5G use cases for offering enhanced user experience to its consumer, retail and enterprise customers.

Under the partnership, Cisco will deploy its Ultra Packer Core to Vi’s network architecture which will enable the telco to deploy innovative new software applications and services, including voice-over-WiFi (VoWiFi). Cisco’s offering will also enable Vi to leverage functions such as automation and analytics, the statement added.

"We are committed to providing seamless connectivity to our customers and enhancing user experiences, empowered by an intelligent and automated network," said Jagbir Singh, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Idea Ltd. "As part of our digital transformation journey, we are happy to partner with Cisco to bring innovative new services to more people in the digital era."

"Vi is committed to delivering best-in-class services to their subscribers and bridging the digital divide that separates urban from rural areas… This is a significant step forward in India's transformation journey. It puts Vi in a strong position to take advantage of the future opportunities that 5G, cloud and IOT Services will bring, supporting critical industry sectors such as healthcare and education,” said Adam MacHale, Vice President of EMEAR Service Provider, Cisco.

This comes close on the heels of Airtel’s strategic partnership with Tata Group to deploy Open-RAN-based 5G radio and core solutions, which the latter has developed locally.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco said that it will pilot and deploy this indigenous solution developed as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022.

Airtel and market leader Jio have already leaped ahead of Vi in the 5G race.

Airtel made its 5G trial network live in Gurgaon’s Cyber Hub in the Millennium city while Jio switched on its 5G trial network in Mumbai, ET reported recently.

For this, Airtel has deployed Swedish Ericsson’s 5G telecom gear but Jio has gone ahead with its indigenously developed 5G equipment and technology.

Vi though is yet to undertake its 5G network trial. The Mumbai-based telco has been reiterating that its network is "future-ready" for rolling out 5G services.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had recently allocated 5G trial spectrum in the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands to Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) to develop India-relevant use cases on the next-gen fast wireless broadband technology.

The telecom department had recently asked Indian telcos to conduct trials in rural, semi-urban settings and urban settings so that the benefit of 5G technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas.

With 5G trials, the DoT said that it aims to test various use cases such as telemedicine, tele-education, augmented/ virtual reality, and drone-based agricultural monitoring.

19.1. 3 ways AI is being used for good

ET Cio, Jun. 23, 2021, Sanket Atal

As health providers increasingly come to rely on AI systems during this pandemic and into the future, and governments across the globe consider ways to mitigate the risks of new technologies, it’s imperative that the public sector and businesses work together to ensure a values-driven approach to the design and use of AI.

Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) still feels pretty new, yet in the years ahead, like electricity, it will become part of the fabric of everyday life. It’s already changing our lives for the better, and in many ways you might not expect. If you have a computer, smartphone, or other smart device, you’re using AI. It’s reminding us to follow up on emails, helping us make reservations at restaurants, and making shopping easier on the go.

As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has evolved over recent weeks, particularly in India, the application of AI technologies is proving essential in transforming how we connect with people, live our lives, do business, and how we tackle the virus head-on. At Salesforce, we have always believed in the power to use AI for good, and that encouragement for innovators to develop this new technology must be matched with consumers’ confidence in how it is applied.

We’re used to embedding AI functionality directly into apps used by businesses everyday, saving them time and money, and helping them make smarter decisions. With voice technology, in particular, Salesforce’s development of “two-way bots” means that AI systems of the future won’t just learn the knowledge we teach them, they will also gain the capability to analyse a user’s sentiment and engage in full conversations.

We envision a world in which AI will be democratized for everyone in society, a natural part of human interaction. By baking trust into every step of the AI journey we can ensure it’s safe, inclusive for all, and works for us. Simply put, we see the future of AI as conversational, evolving with purpose and nurtured by values.

Here are three ways that AI is being used for good - to tackle the spread of the coronavirus and better protect communities now and long into the future.

1. Speeding up discovery and development of drugs

Drug discovery for rare diseases, a traditionally slow process, has proved much easier, faster and likelier to succeed with the assistance of AI systems. Beyond helping us to understand the coronavirus, how it can be managed and its effects can be contained, algorithms and machine learning are speeding up the development of the design and re-purposing of drugs as well as the planning of clinical trials.

As medical researchers seek a treatment for the coronavirus, AI systems are being applied to study mounting literature related to the virus to highlight commonalities and differences and spot things scientists may have missed, consider the suitability of drugs, and propose a list of drug candidates for clinical trials. What’s more, it’s estimated that using AI to generate new medicines cuts the early-stage drug development cost by nearly a third.

Making technology accessible to everyone, and keeping us connected

AI, developed and applied correctly, can be a great equalizer. Easy-to-use and easy-to-understand voice-enabled platforms are helping to ease daily interactions with technology during this pandemic, particularly for older people and for those who are not tech-savvy, or literate. The device is always there, ready to listen and answer questions. Language translation capabilities also allow AI technologies to translate audio into different languages, and into text, helping those who are deaf or experiencing hearing loss.

AI is not only helping companies to stay connected with customers during the public health crisis, it’s also ensuring their safety. As the need for AI-powered contact center messaging has risen, for instance, AI agents are helping businesses to solve customer problems while facilitating ‘social distancing’ among their workforce.

Last year, only months before the onset of the global health crisis, research from Salesforce showed that already 75% of business buyers considered emerging technologies such as chatbots and voice assistants as changing their expectations of companies. In future, we can expect voice technology to be an integral part of apps that companies offer, making it easier for customers of all backgrounds to use in any situation, re-framing the way we engage with technology.

3. Creating a more efficient and resilient health service

Health providers are also utilising AI systems to help predict demand for intensive care beds and ventilators – something which has the potential to revolutionise how our health systems operate today and long into the future.

Using machine learning, during the pandemic a number of hospitals in England’s National Health Service (NHS) have trialled a new predictive system which will provide statistics, forecasts and simulation environments to the health provider, helping the service to more effectively plan the deployment of resources and whether to share capacity with neighbouring hospitals.

Beyond coronavirus-related cases, AI solutions can help hospitals to streamline decisions around how they assign beds to patients and which patients are ready to leave hospital and who should stay. Where previously medical professionals had to rely on tedious tasks such as phone calls and paper lists, and managers had to guess days in advance whether to discharge patients, AI is helping health providers to score patterns on patients’ individual vital signs. Checking blood pressure and heart rate, for instance, health professionals may be able to make smarter decisions faster whilst reducing risks.

How we use AI for good

Each of these examples shows how AI is being used for good as we work to tackle the coronavirus and its impact on communities. They also show how crucially important it is that technology evolves with purpose, is provided - effectively trained - with correct data, and is nurtured with values.

The author is SVP and MD (Sites), Salesforce India

19.2. Andhra Pradesh govt plans to develop Visakhapatnam as IT sector hub

ET Gov. 24 Jun. 2021

CM Jaganmohan Reddy said plans are afoot to set up a top level university in the IT sector in Visakhapatnam, which is going to be a one-stop destination for all high-end and modern technology courses

Visakhapatnam, the proposed executive capital of Andhra Pradesh, will be developed into the main hub of the IT industry in the state, said Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy. The government is committed to provide all the infrastructure support including a specialized IT university and international airport to make the city globally attractive for the giant corporates in the sector, he said while reviewing the new IT policy on Wednesday.

Providing as many jobs as possible to our youths should be our ultimate goal, Jagan instructed the officials sharing his plans on the development of the IT sector in the state. Incentives in various forms will be provided on yearly basis to the companies coming forward to set up operations, the CM said.

"Top priority will be given to companies that come up with skill development programmes along with IT jobs," he told the officials and instructed them to take measures to impart high-end skills to the students. The city should be made a center for quality education so that talented human resources will be available.

The CM said plans are afoot to set up a top level university in the IT sector in Visakhapatnam, which is going to be a one-stop destination for all high-end and modern technology courses. Internship should be provided for students in companies to equip students with sufficient skills to get better job opportunities.

Jaganmohan Reddy directed the officials to identify locations for concept cities in Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Anantapur and draft plans for the same.

Industries & Information Technology Minister Mekapati Gowtham Reddy, Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopala Krishna Dwivedi, Information Technology Principal Secretary G. Jayalakshmi, Energy Secretary Nagulapalli Srikanth, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar, YSR Electronic Manufacturing Clusters CEO M. Nanda Kishore and other officials participated.

20.1. Reimagining India's future through video

ET CIO, 28 Jun. 2021, Sandesh Kaup

This major transformation, which involves the move to digitise physical access and integrate them with video management systems, will enable organisations to correlate metadata of people’s activities and behaviours.

The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged one nation after another, leaving economies and businesses in shambles. The vaccination drive kickstarted aggressively across the globe now offers a ray of hope for recovery. India is also witnessing the second wave of the pandemic subsiding on the back of its vaccination drive. However, businesses that are looking to revert to pre-pandemic status would have to confront the twin challenges of reclaiming growth and implementing new operational norms to curb the spread of the virus.

The dominant role played by technology in ensuring business continuity in the last year has underscored its importance. Healthcare facilities, retailers, airports, and other businesses are, therefore, looking at technology solutions and tools that can enable them to overcome the challenges and align with the new normal.

One such disruptive technology is video. Already being leveraged by companies for access control and loss prevention, it has come across as a powerful solution for complying with Covid-19 safety guidelines, protecting employee and customer health, and eventually enabling businesses to stay open.

A network of cameras connected to a state-of-the-art software platform (a Video Management System or VMS), which delivers advanced functionality and integrates with other technologies, have found applications in diverse functions across varied businesses.

Driving operational efficiency in Retail and Healthcare through video analytics

A lack of preparedness has impacted healthcare facilities globally. According to the American Hospital Association, US healthcare systems and hospitals lost $202.6 billion in revenues, while low- and middle-income countries lost about $52 billion every four weeks to provide an effective healthcare response to COVID-19.

The impact of the pandemic on the retail sector has also been hard. As per a survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI), around 95% of the non-essential retailers across the country have suffered huge losses due to lockdown and these retailers are expected to earn 40% as compared to last year’s revenues. Video can play an important role in getting these sectors back on their feet.

In the retail industry, it is extremely critical to get insights into consumer behaviour. With the video analytics software, business and technology leaders can track emotional reactions, foot traffic, and eye movements to improve operational productivity and customer experience while ensuring safety.

The information can be leveraged to control queues efficiently, manage inventory by recording which items are getting sold and save costs, and efficiently distribute air conditioning to match customer comfort and safety. A combination of POS (point-of-sale) analytics video can also minimize theft as well as fraud prevention and detection.

In times of crisis, emergency management hinges on four pillars -- preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. An effective response to an emergency entails seamless and quick coordination among various systems including, video cameras, fire alarms, and audio sensors, amongst others.

As remote monitoring gains traction so are central monitoring stations at healthcare facilities. Cameras, integrated with biotelemetry devices, can be monitored by paramedics from such facilities. These extra “eyes and ears” help in cutting response time from minutes to seconds.

Video will also plug the gap caused by a shortage of healthcare professionals that has led to a skewed patient to healthcare provider ratio in the country.

According to the renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr Devi Shetty, even before COVID-19, a shortage of medical specialists in government hospitals was as high as 76%. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has one medical doctor for every 1,404 people and 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people. This is below the WHO benchmark of one doctor and three nurses per 1,000 people.

Being a healthcare worker is also one of the most demanding jobs. Nurses, for example, must take care of many patients and are constantly working under high pressure. Video technology in this instance can help notify nurses if a patient needs assistance or when his dressings need to be changed.

Similarly, an open video management system can work fall detection analytics and with mobile applications to send an alert when a patient falls from his bed, quickly directing staff to the right location.

Healthcare will see a robust deployment of video. Already, the Indian video camera market according to the Mordor Intelligence report is expected to witness a CAGR of 22.35% from 2021 - 2026. The pandemic has further highlighted the need for constant monitoring in hospitals. Several state governments, including Maharashtra and Delhi, have made video cameras mandatory in all the COVID-19 wards.

Making Travel Safer

With the rise in Covid-19 cases, several state governments are strengthening their borders. For instance, the Kerala state health department is allowing only COVID negative patients to enter its territory. Video cameras, installed at the check posts, have played an important role in this initiative.

It is only a matter of time before the government reopens air corridors allowing overseas travel. Video has the potential to play a crucial role in making travel stress free and more seamless for travellers. Several airports and airlines across the world are already deploying thermal cameras to assure passengers of implementing measures for tackling Covid-19.

It is known that vigorous temperature screenings can significantly lower the chances of a localized outbreak. Video, in conjunction with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) IoT, proximity sensors, and 3D stereoscopic sensors will keep a tab on travellers who have higher than normal body temperatures and assist with crowd planning and physical distancing.

Video as a security cover for industries

Several organisations in India are deploying physical security solutions to better protect everyone by maximizing the use of video technology and advanced intelligence capabilities. The trend of cybersecurity becoming more and more interwoven with physical security is clearly perceptible in areas such as critical infrastructure, transportation, border management, and urban security.

An intelligent and open security solution will be able to integrate video, access control, and audio as a single platform, leading to the benefits of lowered cost of ownership. Pairing with wireless and IP-based infrastructure that has easier configurations will enable organizations to always stay a step ahead of security threats while making it less vulnerable during the pandemic.

While there is a watertight business case for a VMS, the market is today cluttered with several players, which makes it tough for an organization to make the right choice. The best-of-breed VMS must be reliable, customizable, scalable, user friendly, and secure.

A VMS that meets the requirements of organizations of all shapes and sizes should take an Open Platform approach. This would make sure it is highly customizable and gives organizations the freedom to add cameras and other devices in the future. Besides, the VMS should be compatible with a company's existing infrastructure. This would help the company in maximizing its current infrastructure without the need to 'rip and replace.'

The pandemic has taught us that regardless of the situation, humans will always adapt. In a post-Covid-19 world, technology will be the lynchpin for businesses and video has proven to be invaluable, as it can be easily integrated with and yield innovative solutions.

The applications and usages of video would undoubtedly make their way into other sectors such as healthcare, defence and transportation - a game-changer for smart cities. For businesses looking to bounce back to growth, and sustain it, the video makes for a compelling case.

The author is Country Manager, India at Milestone Systems.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

20.2. Nvidia gives health researchers access to UK supercomputer

Reuters, 07 Jul. 2021, Stephen Nellis

The chip supplier spent about $100 million on its Cambridge-1 system, which uses artificial intelligence to solve health research problems and was announced in October. In the case of AstraZeneca, for example, the system will learn about 1 billion chemical compounds represented by groups of characters that can be assembled into sentence-like structures.

Nvidia Corp on Wednesday said it opened what it claims is the fastest UK supercomputer to outside researchers that include both academic scientists and commercial firms such as AstraZeneca PLC and GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

"They can use the technology to finetune the molecules for aspects they care about, like binding to proteins or making them safe for human consumption," Kimberly Powell, vice president and general manager of Nvidia's healthcare business, said in an interview.

King's College London and a National Health Service unit will also use the system, as will privately held Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

The move is among the steps Nvidia is taking to show a commitment to the United Kingdom as it works to complete its $40 billion acquisition of Arm Ltd from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. British antitrust regulators are scrutinizing the deal, which would transfer ownership of one of the country's technological crown jewels from one foreign entity to another.

In conjunction with the deal, Nvidia has said it also plans to build a supercomputing center in the United Kingdom using Arm-designed chips.

Powell said the Cambridge-1 is aimed at researchers already using smaller Nvidia-based systems for research. Nvidia said it is offering use of the system for free and it will use what it learns running the system to improve its future healthcare-specific products.

India and the World

21.1. Nokia to deploy 5G SA Core for DISH in public cloud with AWS

ET Telecom, Jun. 23, 2021

Nokia said the deployment of the 5G SA Core on AWS will allow DISH to support new enterprise and consumer 5G use cases quickly, securely, and across cloud stacks at end customer premises.

NEW DELHI: Finnish telecoms gear maker Nokia said it will deploy its 5G Standalone (SA) Core for DISH on Amazon Web Services (AWS), marking the industry’s first deployment of 5G in the public cloud to support DISH’s cloud-native, OpenRAN-based 5G network.

As per an official statement, Nokia is providing its voice core, cloud packet core, subscriber data management, device management, and NetGuard network security, as well as end-to-end security services for DISH to help the latter deliver new 5G-era services while enabling it to manage its network with near zero-touch automation, and ensuring adherence to Service Level Agreements compliant to DISH Service-Based Architecture (SBA).

Nokia said the deployment of the 5G SA Core on AWS will allow DISH to support new enterprise and consumer 5G use cases quickly, securely, and across cloud stacks at end customer premises.

“Running the Nokia 5G SA core on AWS will optimize our network operations to launch new software and services rapidly and efficiently, enabling the integration of countless innovative use cases for customers. This collaboration is an important step forward on our mission to deploy the United States’ first cloud-native, OpenRAN-based 5G network,” said Marc Rouanne, Chief Network Officer, DISH.

DISH has previously partnered with both, Nokia and AWS.

The American direct-broadcast satellite provider recently announced a partnership 5G network partnership with Dell Technologies Inc.

“We are pleased to break new ground in the telecom industry with AWS and DISH leveraging our cloud-native core to bring innovative 5G capabilities to enterprises and consumers. This collaboration places AWS and DISH at the forefront of the industry, delivering key 5G benefits such as agility and scalability to their customers over Nokia’s proven distributed core architecture,” added Raghav Sahgal, President, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia.

21.2. Number of Indian professionals in Singapore up due to tech talent demand

PTI, Jul. 06, 2021

The increase was driven by the rapid growth of Singapore's digital economy and finance, as well as trends in the global demand and supply for tech talent, and not because Indian nationals are given "favourable treatment" under the CECA

Singapore: The proportion of Indian professionals in Singapore has doubled from 13 per cent to 26 per cent between 2005 and 2020, a senior minister said on Tuesday, underlining that the rise in their numbers was due to the global trend in the demand and supply for tech talent and not because Indian nationals are given "favourable treatment".

As Singapore's economy slows down amid the coronavirus pandemic and job losses mount, the locals blame that the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) -- a free trade agreement signed in 2005 between Singapore and India -- are letting Indian nationals into Singapore to steal jobs from locals.

The proportion of employment pass (EP) holders in Singapore who are Indian nationals has doubled from 13 per cent to 26 per cent between 2005 and 2020, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng told Parliament.

The minister also pointed out that there was a misconception that if Indian nationals do not take up such jobs, these positions would go to locals instead.

While there is a "good Singaporean talent pool", it was not enough to meet the needs of multinational enterprises investing in Singapore, he said.

"As every sector seeks to be digitally enabled, their need for tech talent has grown significantly," the minister said, emphasising that Singapore currently does not have enough locals to fill the jobs available. In the infocomms sector alone, 6,000 jobs remain unfilled, the Straits Times reported.

As per manpower ministry data, there are 1,231,500 foreign workers, including 177,000 EP holders, in Singapore as of December 2020, with most of them in the information and communications technology (19 per cent), professional services (19 per cent) and finance sector (15 per cent).

An Employment Pass allows foreign professionals, managers and executives to work in Singapore. Other types of passes include S pass for mid-level skilled staff; Work Permit for semi-skilled foreign workers in the construction, manufacturing, marine shipyard, process or services sector; and Work Permit for foreign domestic workers.

Tan said Singapore cannot close itself off to foreign workers and tell foreign investors that they can only hire Singaporeans, as this would lead to many not investing in the city-state.

Dismissing the misconception that most of the foreign workers are Indian nationals, Tan said the countries where most EP holders come from are China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and the United Kingdom.

These nationalities have made up two-thirds of all EP holders since 2005.

While the percentage of workers from India has doubled since 2005, that of EP holders from China has remained relatively stable.

Tan said while China and India are two of the largest suppliers of tech talent globally, many startups worth over USD 1 billion have emerged in China which led to many Chinese staying put in their home country to work.

Indian nationals with tech skills, however, continue to look overseas, partly because they have the advantage of being able to speak English, the minister said.

Underling that the migration of Indian tech professionals is not unique to Singapore, Tan gave the example of how India is now the second largest source of immigrants in the US and the third largest in the UK.

"Given our relative shortage of manpower, even if the workers don't come from India, they will come from somewhere else...The point is: are they helping our companies, are they helping us to grow our economy and create better Singaporean jobs? The answer is yes," he said.

Tan, however, acknowledged that this increasing concentration has caused social friction and anxiety among Singaporeans and this is understandable and to be expected given the transient nature of EP holders.

"Apart from some EP holders who settle down and become Permanent Residents (PRs) or Singapore Citizens, most of them work here for a few years and they either return home or move on elsewhere. So it is to be expected that they are different, and we feel they are different," he said.

The current situation with Indian nationals, said Tan, is similar to what happened in the 2000s when there was some anxiety when the share of Chinese nationals working in Singapore increased significantly.

"We have to bring in the talent and skills to keep our economy growing, while tracking that the number of foreigners in our midst stays at a level we are able to cope with, and manage the social frictions that will arise from time to time. This is a series of trade-offs.

"It is not a once-off adjustment. It is a constant balance that we have to continuously monitor and get right," Tan said, adding that the government does monitor the concentration of nationalities in firms through the Fair Consideration Framework.

Tan reiterated that the government has zero tolerance towards discriminatory hiring practices and all employers are required to comply with the Fair Consideration Framework. Companies have to first advertise vacancies on the MyCareersFuture job portal for Singaporeans before they can hire foreigners, he said.

"The simple point is that while we have a good Singaporean talent pool, our pool is not large enough to fulfil all of the needs, the breadth and the depth of these enterprises. And very often also foreigners bring in skills which complement the Singaporeans' skill sets as well," he said.

22.1. IBM, IISc unveil lab to advance Hybrid Cloud research in India

IANS, Jun. 23 2021

IBM in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on Wednesday unveiled the 'IBM-IISc Hybrid Cloud' lab to advance research in hybrid cloud technologies and drive breakthrough innovations in this area.

Bengaluru, IBM in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on Wednesday unveiled the 'IBM-IISc Hybrid Cloud' lab to advance research in hybrid cloud technologies and drive breakthrough innovations in this area.

Located at the IISc campus in Bengaluru, students and faculty across departments of the institute will work alongside IBM scientists that can help organisations leverage the power of the hybrid cloud by enabling faster, seamless and more secure adoption of hybrid cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"The IBM-IISc lab will bring together two leading research organisations in industry and academia to create an ecosystem for Hybrid Cloud research in India, for India and the world," said Gargi Dasgupta, Director, IBM Research India.

The lab will engage not just with academia but also the broader open-source community for wider adoption and acceleration of innovation.

The lab will start with an initial set of projects involving faculty and students from the IISc Departments of Computational and Data Sciences, Computer Science and Automation and Supercomputing Education and Research Centre, alongside scientists from IBM Research's India lab, in several areas including building autonomous, self-healing computing systems that use AI to predict emerging issues, diagnose and heal faults while maximising availability and minimising the cost of operations.

Adopting microservices and optimisation of cloud-native applications that leverage and advance cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes and serverless.

This will enable enterprises to bring substantial agility into their IT services and drive new cloud-enabled business models.

Creating AI-based Information Management that enables enterprises to govern, consume, draw insights and create value from data across a hybrid footprint of edge, cloud and diverse data sources.

In addition to IBM's commitment to foster innovations that enable faster adoption of Hybrid Cloud technology, the lab will take an open-access approach by jointly presenting the research findings in premier conferences, hosting workshops and releasing open-source material to the community.

The lab will serve as a hub for fostering the exchange of ideas not just for the members of the two institutions but for the research and industry community in the region.

22.2. IBM spinoff Kyndryl appoints Lingraju Sawkar as India president

ET Bureau, Jul. 02, 2021

Lingraju Sawkar, who is currently the general manager of IBM Global Technology Services for India and South Asia, is a key appointment in the building of Kyndryl’s new simplified leadership model.

Bengaluru: Kyndryl, a spinoff from US-based International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), announced on Thursday the appointment of Lingraju Sawkar as its president for India.

Sawkar, who is currently general manager of IBM Global Technology Services for India and South Asia, is a key appointment in the building of Kyndryl’s new simplified leadership model, the company said.

“I am pleased that Lingraju will lead our team in India, a key market and innovation base for Kyndryl,” CEO Martin Schroeter said. “His strong customer relationships and knowledge of the services market will be critical as we help our customers reach their peak digital performance and achieve their biggest ambitions.”

Commenting on his appointment, Lingraju said, “I am very excited to take on this role to serve our customers’ technology transformations which is a great responsibility because these are the vital systems that power human progress.”

Kyndryl, which will be an independent public firm built out of IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, said that more announcements of key leadership positions will follow in the near future. The separation is expected to occur by the end of 2021.

23.1. UK-based Tide forays into India, commits Rs. 1,000 crore investment

IBEF, Jun. 30, 2021

On Tuesday, Tide, an UK-based firm announced its entry into the Indian market, by committing an investment worth Rs. 1,000 crore (US$ 134.71 million) over the next five years, to focus on offering administrative and financial solutions to small businesses.

The corporation, which intends to target the small and medium businesses, plans to recruit 1,000 employees in field, software development, product development teams to develop its business.

Mr. Gurjodhpal Singh, the chief executive of Tide India, stated that the company has raised a capital of GBP 100 million and has been gaining substantially from its operations in the UK.

He stated that the company intends to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) starting from incorporation to routine conduct of business in a compliant way. In the next five years, the company targets to have 2.5 million SMEs as clients.

Mr. Singh said, “The company is intending to launch a dedicated bank account in collaboration with RBL Bank in a manner that other neo banks do and will also seek to implement its machine learning and artificial intelligence engines to support the SMEs access working capital.”

Mr. Singh stated that Tide plans to function from Hyderabad tech centre, which was began in early 2020 and employs 200 employees, and its business office in Gurugram.

Mr. Singh stated that India is the first market that the company has decided to expand into. The company also plans to take further its services to other countries.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

23.2. New strategies for the New World

ET Cio, Jul. 08, 2021, Viral Thaker

Consistently bringing together the best human and technology capabilities in the form of ‘next generation command center’ can help organizations to successfully create the optimal strategies required to survive and thrive in the exciting world we will live in.

Renowned Jamaican singer, Bob Marley, once famously said that ‘you never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice’. Who would have thought that this simple quote will so aptly describe what most organizations deeply felt as they valiantly navigated the turbulent economic conditions unleashed due to the unforgiving and rapidly mutating COVID pandemic. However, as airline pilots will concur, navigating turbulent weather is very challenging and risky and often requires dynamically invoking and skillfully integrating multiple disparate capabilities.

Many organizations found out that effectively responding to a crisis-of-the-generation situation requires bringing together the best-of-breed capabilities of human (for example, empathy, altruism, persistence) and machines (for example, search, inform, connect). At Deloitte India, we achieved this ‘human + machine convergence’ in an initiative we stitched together (called ‘We@Care’) wherein a ‘technology-enabled-human-centric-command-center’ helped us to take quick, informed and holistic decisions as the 2nd wave of pandemic rolled menacingly over us. Many of our clients also ran very similar initiatives to handle the tough situations they found themselves in. So, are there some lessons we learnt here that can help us to better handle future crises?

See Better: Without good baseline information, it becomes very difficult to see clearly in murky conditions. Information such as home location of employees and their current health status suddenly became very essential as organizations scrambled to understand the number of employees impacted by COVID, assess its impact on business continuity and extend timely and focused help. Going forward, organizations can do better ‘scenario planning’ to identify potential crises scenarios and proactively collate associated information and store it in a secure, access-controlled cloud environment in a simple and structured ‘command center’.

Communicate Clearer: Pandemic brought in significant disruption in every facet of business (including supply chains, employee and risk management policies). Many organizations used the opportunity to communicate clearly with all their key stakeholders (including customers, employees, vendors, regulators) about the changes they are making and associated impact.

Respond Faster: The pandemic also taught us that the key to respond faster in an unfolding crisis situation is to have a much more flexible operating model. Many of our clients (including a shared service center of a large European bank) increased the ‘flexibility quotient’ of their operating model by doing 2 key things – (a) leveraging combined capabilities of ‘formal’ business applications (for example, web portal) and ‘informal’ social applications (such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook) (b) creating and leveraging highly motivated small volunteer groups who came together from all levels, regions and functions to achieve one single purpose – do everything possible to save every life. These diverse volunteer groups were comfortable working without a very prescribed structure / hierarchy and were nimble and adaptable enough to integrate multiple disparate capabilities on-the-go to respond to complex emergency situations. This learning (of fusing together the ‘formal/structured’ and the ‘informal/volunteer’) has huge implications as we design the ‘highly flexible’ organization of the future to deal with increased complexity, ambiguity and unpredictability.

Bond Together: Neuroscience taught us that the neurons that fire together, wire together and that is the key to developing any new habit and achieving a different and better outcome. As organizations look to create the next-generation crisis response capabilities, it is vitally important to find ways to improve team bonding, increase trust and collaboration, and focus on enhanced well-being of all stakeholders (customers, employees, vendors, alliance partners). Some companies (including a shared service center of a large retailer) used innovative means (for example, creating smart videos to highlight the contribution of volunteers and sharing it widely inside and outside the organization, providing avenues for people to express gratitude for the help received) to improve team bonding and collaboration and hence, in turn, significantly enhance the resiliency and immunity of the organization.

It is said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. While a crisis typically creates feelings of anxiety and despair in the short run, it can also shake an organization out of its existing inertia and help it to rediscover, regenerate and reposition itself. The learnings from last 15 months clearly demonstrate that successful organizations of the future will need to develop new capabilities and new ways of working to better sense their environment and respond more decisively and empathetically to potential crises situations.

The author is Partner, Deloitte India.

24.1. US-based Compass aims to double headcount in India

IANS, Jul. 02, 2021

Leading real estate technology company Compass on Thursday said it aims to double its headcount in India at the Compass India Development Centre (IDC) over the next few months, with a focus on technologies such as artificial intelligence, Cloud computing and mobility.

New Delhi, Leading real estate technology company Compass on Thursday said it aims to double its headcount in India at the Compass India Development Centre (IDC) over the next few months, with a focus on technologies such as artificial intelligence, Cloud computing and mobility.

The Compass IDC, located in Hyderabad, is the only technology hub Compass operates outside of the US and complements the company's tech hubs in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Compass' global technology talent pool of more that 850 product and engineering professionals has made a significant contribution towards the substantial business growth of the company, it said in a statement.

"India is home to some of the finest technology talent powered by entrepreneurial thinking and innovation critical for transforming industries. Their ability to adapt to a fast-paced and changing work environment accompanied by strong technical skills makes them perfect candidates for an organisation like ours," said Joseph Sirosh, Compass Chief Technology Officer.

The Compass IDC has over 200 employees, with agile, highly-skilled software engineers and product teams who have developed multiple cloud based services since launching the centre in Q1 2020.

The company provides an end-to-end platform that empowers residential real estate agents to deliver exceptional service to seller and buyer clients.

The Compass platform includes an integrated suite of cloud-based software for customer relationship management, marketing, client service and other critical functionality, all custom-built for the real estate industry and enabling the company's core brokerage services.

"We believe in providing technology innovators with the freedom to work independently and by embracing the power of entrepreneurial thinking we've been able to build an extremely competent team despite these challenging times," said Sirosh.

"We're looking for people who move fast, dream big, and want to shape the direction of their own careers while shaping the future of real estate through cutting-edge innovation," he added.

Since its inception, the India Development Centre has proved to be a highly valuable asset for the organisation in terms of innovation and support.

24.2. LG to expand cloud-based call centres amid pandemic

IANS, Jul. 06, 2021

With its recently launch of cloud-based call centres in the United States, LG said they will be also available in 10 more countries, including Brazil, France, Vietnam and South Korea, by the end of this year.

Seoul: LG Electronics said on Tuesday it will expand cloud-based call centres to offer better customer care services and protect its workers from the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Cloud-based call centres allow employees to work wherever internet is connected, which will promote a work-from-home environment amid the pandemic.

Its new system will help customers speak with LG call center workers swiftly, according to LG.

Powered by Amazon Web Services and Genesys' cloud solutions, LG said its call centres will also enable easy updates of new services, such as chatbots.

LG Electronics is likely to report strong second-quarter earnings, as its mainstay home appliance business continued to rack up solid results.

The South Korean tech company was projected to log 17.6 trillion won (US$15.5 billion) in sales in the April-June period, up 37 percent from a year earlier, while its operating profit was estimated to soar 140 percent on-year to 1.2 trillion won over the period, according to the data from seven local brokerage houses compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.

25.1. Biden's executive order may spur 'five-year mega growth' cycle for India's IT sector

ET Bureau, , Jul. 12, 2021, Ainoor Peermohamed & Priyanka Sangani

Indian IT companies earn over a third of their revenue from banking and finance customers globally.

India’s $150 billion IT services sector is expected to witness a “five-year mega growth” cycle due to the speed at which American enterprises transform themselves digitally, outsourcing experts told ET, following US President Joe Biden’s executive order last week to increase competition in the US economy.

US businesses will show increased appetite to migrate to the Cloud and adopt technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of things (IoT) in the next few years, leading to increased offshore and onshore outsourcing opportunities for IT services providers.

“The latest direction from the US administration adds to the growing backlog of digital transformation projects in the marketplace. This bodes well for the Indian IT industry and will further accelerate an already hot market for them,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive officer of Everest Group, a US-based IT advisory and research firm.

“We believe that the market is at the start of a five-year mega cycle as digital transformation and modernization move into its scaling phase,” Bendor-Samuel added.

The Biden administration’s plan unveiled last Friday to spur growth in the US economy by curbing corporate abuse includes 72 specific initiatives that make it easier for customers to switch banks and take their transaction data with them.

Indian IT firms earn over a third of their revenue from banking and finance customers globally.

The plan also includes mandating an end to excessive contract termination fees charged by internet service providers, allowing the sale of hearing aids over the counter, removing non-compete clauses signed by millions of workers in the country and getting airlines to refund fees to fliers over baggage delays and WiFi issues.

Large Indian IT services firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HCL have already indicated that they would post double-digit growth this year, driven by the increased adoption of cloud and other technologies by enterprises in the backdrop of the receding Covid-19 pandemic in markets such as North America, UK and Europe.

“US businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on the Indian IT majors in this emerging economy,” said Phil Fersht, CEO of IT advisory HFS Research.

Talent and India

There were over 1 million unique active job vacancy postings in computer occupations in the United States as of March 7, 2021, up 11% from 12 months earlier, an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) showed based on data from Emsi Job Posting Analytics.

US businesses’ growing need for infrastructure modernisation will further exacerbate shortages of workers with IT, data and AI skills, leading them to turn to IT services providers who have large, trained talent bases in India.

This talent shortage in the United States will also allow IT services players to raise billing rates that can offset anticipated cost increases.

“In pre-pandemic times, many US politicians advocated against offshore resources, but this is no longer an option as the talent shortages in the US are a serious issue. I see a continued growth period for hybrid offshore/onshore outsourcing over the next few years, which will accelerate as we gradually emerge from the pandemic over the next few months,” Fersht said.

The US talent shortage could also lead to a more liberalised visa policy to facilitate the migration of workers with IT skills into the country.

“I believe President Biden will ease visa restrictions in line with the easing of the pandemic, but do not expect to see any legislation put forward until next year,” added Fersht.

The United States is suffering from a talent shortage and the Indian majors, as they increasingly globalise, will become critical partners to the majority of the Global 2000 (companies) over the next couple of years, he pointed out.

TCS, which has made offers to 40,000 fresh graduates this year, says India's talent base has made global companies look at the country for their technology people needs.

“There's nowhere else in the world that you will get such phenomenal talent and the scale that it will get in India,” TCS chief operating officer NG Subramanian said on Friday before the Biden move. “If somebody says that Indian talent is becoming more expensive and salaries are higher than Poland and Eastern Europe because that's available at lower cost, I will be very surprised because we are into this globally.”

Biden’s reforms specifically target industries such as banking and financial services, healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and big technology, to curb monopolistic behaviour and promote competition that will aid in lowering prices for consumers. These sectors today constitute a large customer base for Indian IT services players.

“The Executive Order touches on the key facets of creating broad-based opportunities for labour, preventing monopolies and enhancing competitiveness,” said Shivendra Singh, Vice President and Head of Global Trade Development at It industry association Nasscom.

“While the Executive Order will need to be implemented by federal agencies that build the rules, anything that drives greater adoption of technology across sectors and increased opportunities for partnership between Indian and US companies will be helpful,” Singh added.

The order “commits the federal government to full and aggressive enforcement of our antitrust laws. No more tolerance for abusive actions by monopolies. No more bad mergers that lead to mass layoffs, higher prices, fewer options for workers and consumers alike,” Biden said.

The executive order also directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue rules to address competition concerns from big tech players such as Google’s parent Alphabet Inc, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, and limit “killer acquisitions” where internet platforms acquire potential competitors only to stifle their growth.

25.2. Global tax deal backed by 130 nations

AFP, Jul. 02 2021

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed at a rate of at least 15 percent once the deal is implemented.

Paris: A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the OECD said on Thursday, but some EU states refused to sign up.

The new tax regime will add some $150 billion to government coffers globally once it comes into force, which the OECD said it hoped would be in 2023.

"The framework updates key elements of the century-old international tax system, which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised 21st century economy," the OECD said.

The formal agreement follows an endorsement by the G7 group of wealthy nations last month, and negotiations now move to a meeting of the G20 group of developed and emerging economies on July 9-10 in Venice, Italy.

US President Joe Biden said the latest deal "puts us in striking distance of full global agreement to halt the race to the bottom for corporate taxes."

Germany, another backer of the tax reform, hailed it as a "colossal step towards tax justice", and France said it was "the most important tax agreement in a century".

British finance minister Rishi Sunak, whose country holds the G7 presidency, said "the fact that 130 countries across the world, including all of the G20, are now on board, marks a further step in our mission to reform global tax".

'In everyone's interest'

But EU low-tax countries Ireland and Hungary declined to sign up to the agreement reached in the OECD framework, the organisation said, highlighting lingering divisions on global taxation.

Both countries are part of a group of EU nations also including Luxembourg and Poland that have relied on low tax rates to attract multinationals and build their economies.

Ireland, the EU home to tech giants Facebook, Google and Apple, has a corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent.

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned that the new rules could see Ireland lose 20 percent of its corporate revenue.

On Thursday, Donohoe said Ireland still "broadly supports" the deal, but not the 15-percent tax floor.

"There is much to finalise before a comprehensive agreement is reached", he said, adding that Ireland would "constructively engage" in further discussions.

Also expressing concerns is Switzerland -- known for its banking secrecy laws -- which said it would support the measures despite "major reservations" and that it hoped the interests of "small, innovative countries" be taken into account.

An agreement for the implementation of the plan is planned for October.

Nine of the 139 participants in the talks have so far not signed on to the agreement.

But China, whose position was being closely watched as it offers tax incentives to key sectors, endorsed the agreement.

"It is in everyone's interest that we reach a final agreement among all Inclusive Framework Members as scheduled later this year," said OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann.

"This package does not eliminate tax competition, as it should not, but it does set multilaterally agreed limitations on it," Cormann said, adding that "it also accommodates the various interests across the negotiating table, including those of small economies and developing jurisdictions".

'More equitable' global economy

Finance chiefs have characterised a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate.

For Biden, a global tax agreement will help maintain US competitiveness since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs programme with a price tag of around $2 trillion.

Biden -- whose tax plans face a potentially uphill battle in Congress -- hailed an "important step in moving the global economy forward to be more equitable for workers and middle class families in the United States and around the world."

He noted that those nations who signed up make up more than 90 percent of the world's economy.

The OECD's statement said the package "will provide much-needed support to governments needing to raise necessary revenues" to fix their budgets and invest in measures to back the post-Covid recovery.

Oxfam, a charity, meanwhile said that the deal fell short of a tax level needed to give poorer countries a sufficient share of additional tax revenue.

Calling the deal "skewed-to-the-rich and completely unfair", Oxfam said that signatories had missed a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a profoundly more equal world".

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Sunday 18 July 2021

NEWSLETTER, 20-VII-2021

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

– AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

– INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE

– SERVICES (IT, R&D, Tourism, Healthcare, etc.)

NEWSLETTER, 20-VII-2021

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

- Agriculture, Fishing and Rural Development

- Industry and Manufacture

- Services (Education, Healthcare, IT, R&D, Tourism, etc.)

India and the World