AAPI: December 2021

DELHI, 20th DECEMBER 2021

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21.1. India-born Parag Agrawal replaces Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO
21.2. We can do much with India on cyber security, tech, digital economy: Australia PM Morrison
22.1. Karnataka to set up Start-up Silicon Valley Bridge to enable local professionals to work for US firms
22.2. Reliance Industries weighs bid for UK’s telco BT Group
23.1. ‘India is running the world’s data centers’
23.2. Made in India CEOs continue to lead global tech giants; but 'USA benefits greatly from Indian talent'
24.1. Global hires go beyond IT, tap more desi talent
24.2. First of its kind program for lateral entry for women researchers in joint R&D projects between India and Germany launched
25.1. India unseats Brazil as No.1 food supplier to Arab nations after 15 years
25.2. WTO needs to reassess the way it has been conducting its affairs, says Mr. Piyush Goyal

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DELHI, 20th DECEMBER 2021

NEWSLETTER, 20-XII-2021

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1.1. L&T Technology's 6 big bets that will shape 'Factory of the Future'

ET CIO, Dec. 11, 2021

"We believe that these 6 big bets -- Electric Autonomous Connected Vehicles (EACV), 5G, Digital Products and AI, Digital Manufacturing, Med Tech and Sustainability -- will shape the industry of tomorrow, help us to scale and enable our engineers to stay ahead of the curve."

New Delhi: Last fiscal, manufacturing constituted around 17.5 per cent of India's GDP versus 15.3 per cent two decades ago. Over the next decade, this share may move significantly higher with policymaking focusing on 'Make in India' and Indian enterprises embracing digital technologies to achieve the target of becoming a global manufacturing hub. New technologies are profoundly changing industrial production, giving rise to "the factory of the future".

IANS spoke to Anand Vaitheeswaran, CIO at L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS), to understand how Indian manufacturing is evolving given the increasingly rapid adoption of intelligent automation, data analytics and IoT as well as LTTS's six big bets which will shape the industry of tomorrow. Excerpts from the interview: Q: The Indian IT industry is riding high on a digital transformation wave as businesses look to get more agile and resilient. Can you tell us about the trends you are seeing in what your customers will demand over the next 2-3 years? When we discuss digital transformation, we need to understand that it is not a commodity but a customer-sentiment driven change. Digital transformation implies tectonic shifts in the way organisations build and utilise resources and modify its operations. Keeping up with these customer demands has become more crucial than ever for every industry around the world. Since 2020, the world has marked the rapid shift in customer demand, with more client focus on digitisation of "experiences". We believe that these 6 big bets -- Electric Autonomous Connected Vehicles (EACV), 5G, Digital Products and AI, Digital Manufacturing, Med Tech and Sustainability -- will shape the industry of tomorrow, help us to scale and enable our engineers to stay ahead of the curve. Our various businesses also have a mandate to improve LTTS' technology quotient and build reusable assets that can be our differentiator in the marketplace. Q: How did Covid play the role of a catalyst in accelerating your digital transformation journey? After the pandemic hit, with the majority of our workforce operating remotely, our focus shifted to the safety of employees while maintaining the highest levels of productivity.

We devised ways and means to make the employees productive from wherever they connected through collaboration platforms that enabled them to connect with their teams and the organisations, chatbots to help with certain repetitive actions or simple applications that enabled our employees to be effective in delivering our commitments towards customers. We also invested in cybersecurity tools and processes that ensured us to tackle malicious threats. During this lockdown, we also developed and launched the 'WFX App' that helped with hotdesking and social distancing at the workplace. We deployed technology such as thermal scanning & 'Care App' to ensure those who were entering office buildings were healthy and safe. Q: Are Indian businesses prepared for the Factory of the Future? How do you see the manufacturing landscape in 5 years from now given increasing adoption of intelligent automation, data analytics and IoT? At a global level, many large Indian businesses are well prepared to align with the 'Factory of the Future', while many others are still planning to do so. However, the adoption of advanced digital manufacturing solutions has not been uniform across sectors, such as in food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, mining and water & waste water, where investments in automation solutions have not kept pace with global norms. On the other hand, pharma and healthcare segments have been able to achieve a good level of automation, with the oil & gas and automotive industries being at par with global trends. In this scenario, companies who are aligned to reap the benefits of being 'Factory of the Future' will have smarter machines, closed loop controls, significant unmanned operations, network of reliable systems on cloud, heavy use of Robots/Cobots/Drones/AGVs, IoT platforms. Q: What are the must have qualities of a successful CIO/CTO today? With the digital overtaking the physical platforms as the primary communication and collaboration platforms, IT has taken the centre-stage. The role of a CIO has crystallised during the pandemic - from being a technology leader to a cross-functional business leader. To be on the top of a rapidly changing technology landscape, a CIO must have an agile and growth-centric mindset - continuously learning the latest technologies not just in the enterprise landscape, but across the spectrum. One of the key qualities of a CIO is to operate in a product model of work, instead of a project-based model, while considering the revenue generation from IT towards the organisation. The ability to experiment and demonstrate quick decision making are important skill sets for a CIO. Q: What did cloud technology enable you to do that you couldn't do before? Owing to the pandemic which got us to rethink on WFX (Work from Anywhere), it would not be possible to sustain if we did not have cloud technologies. Under our umbrella business process transformation programme, all teams could work from anywhere to ensure timely deliveries. Critical workloads were secured, scaled up and were accessible from anywhere. Thanks to AWS, we could focus more on agility and deliver both to employees and customers. For example, we had provisioned the AMD processor but we realised during the cyclic load that we needed a better processor. With great support from AWS, we changed the same without downtime. Not just that, we were able to increase IOPS on the fly leading to effective use of resources. If not for such features, we would not have been able to design during peak load without burdening other resources. Availability of business-critical applications, one click addition or resources were made possible. Additionally, in terms of management efficiency - the way we could use resources, on demand scaling based on workloads meant we were on track to effectively use the investment. With the geographical selection of the workload, LTTS reduced latency for its US Operations to access storage from AWS. All business-critical workloads at LTTS are currently functioning on AWS. Key among them include ERP, Project & Quality Management platform, Data Lake and analytics platform. We also have some of our customer projects running on AWS. Additionally, proof of concepts using GovCloud for specific projects are in the pipeline and will be unveiled soon. Our entire procurement cycle and wait lead time for arrival of hardware was eliminated, thus reducing our 'time to deploy'. Lastly, instead of blocking capital expenses we were able to leverage the Pay as you go Model and remained agile to the business needs leveraging cloud. Q: How did cloud help you in terms of risk and compliance? Risks can be related to availability of workloads and can effectively be managed by placing workloads in two different availability zones. Similarly, compliance needs related to data privacy like restriction of data movements, can be planned and adopted better. On cyber security, AWS provided the Trust Advisor report which helped in managing all security aspects. Q: How is technology enabling your business to drive societal impact? LTTS has a vision to help build a more sustainable world. We leverage our deep engineering DNA and innovation-mindset and support customers to expand the use of renewable energy, drive water conservation measures, reduce carbon emissions, and develop Net Zero products. To that effect, we are also using cloud services, with multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments as part of our ongoing digital transformations. Cloud-based data management helps support ESG programmes by automating processes and standardising data -- which in turn improves transparency within the organisation as leaders try to understand the diverse social and environmental risks. The ESG data not only helps to know about greenhouse gas emissions and waste management but also manage resources, identify potential risks and maintain compliance.

1.2. Women in leadership roles: A glimpse into the current scenario

ETHRWorld, Nov. 30, 2021, Sakshi Bhatt

Studies have found that women possess a natural advantage when it comes to personality traits for leadership positions. Women were ranked higher in a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre Social and Demographic Trends, in which women were found more honest, compassionate and creative as leaders. No wonder, there has been a rise in the number of women in leadership positions globally. In India, efforts have only now begun to correct the gender imbalance, in the workforce and in leadership roles.

At the last count, only two percent of all Indian CEOs were women, and head hunters too glossed over women candidates when scouting for leadership roles.

Indian women have conquered many a male bastion, but still have a long way to go when it comes to breaking the glass ceiling – across occupations and professions. As compared to the women in the developed world, very few Indian women are in leadership positions.

At the last count, only two percent of all Indian CEOs were women, and head hunters too glossed over women candidates when scouting for leadership roles. For sure, there are a handful of women entrepreneurs like Falguni Nayar, CEO of Nykaa, who broke into the list of top 20 richest Indians who continue to inspire others. Recent research showed India has the third-lowest global representation of women managers – just 8 percent in management roles, 9 percent in business management roles, and a minuscule two percent in CEO positions. This is in stark contrast to progress made by women at the workplace, whose proportion in senior management roles grew to 29 percent in 2019 and 2020, as shown by a study by Catalyst, a global non-profit organisation. Greater participation of women in leadership positions, increasing gender diversity in the senior executive team, resulted in correspondingly higher performance of the company, said a report from McKinsey & Company. To understand why Indian women, lag behind, ETHRWorld interacted with Deepa Arora, Head of People and Culture, FarEye, and Aditya Malik, MD and CEO, Talent Edge. Women make better leaders Studies have shown a positive impact of an increase in women's participation in decision-making in companies.

A recent study by the Harvard Business School said the firms that increased their proportion of female partner hires by 10 percent, saw on average, a 1.5 percent spike in overall fund returns each year and also had 9.7 percent more profitable exits. Aditya Malik, MD and CEO, Talent Edge, said, “We are also seeing a lot of women founders getting funded. The companies that boast a higher representation of women on their boards, notably outperform the organisations that don’t. Women in leadership positions bring in their own perspectives and skills that make them a great asset. Their participation across the upper echelons of corporate leadership is only going to rise.” Over the decades it has been seen that women can strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Another study by BIS showed that women cared more about the wellbeing of employees as well as shareholders' interest. Deepa Arora, Head of People and Culture, FarEye, said women were better at multitasking and balancing work and emotions.

“They are open to demonstrating their passion for their work, compassion towards their fellow employees and society, and if needed, taking command of a situation,” she added. Women at the workplace drive employee engagement and retention, simply by bringing a family-like feel to the team, making the environment less authoritative and more cooperative, Arora said and added, women leaders were good communicators and capable of making bold and wise decisions.

In a similar vein, Malik said, “I think care and empathy come naturally to women and in today’s day and age when increasingly empathy is being cited as a critical component of leadership, this provides women with a fantastic edge that I am sure they will benefit from.” Challenges galore in leadership race for women But despite the findings of many surveys over the role of women in leadership positions, many organisations do not even consider them for the CEO roles. According to a 2020 report from Development Dimensions International, more than half of the companies surveyed said they did not even evaluate any women candidates when searching for their next CEO.

Persistent gaps in the pipeline for promoting women make the process inequitable. Factors like subtle sexism, broken rung, household responsibilities, harassment, and parental leaves, etc create obstacles for women to reach leadership positions at the workplace. Women faced many challenges in the workplace, and not all are professional. According to Arora, “Women rarely find themselves in the middle and top of the pyramid, simply because they are underrepresented at the C-level. Some of the reasons due to which this imbalance is prevalent are – overlapping roles in personal and professional lives; gender stereotyping; lesser networking opportunities, and so on.”

Arora said few facilities could go a long way in addressing some of the issues women faced at the workplace. Among them, would be providing crèche services, company transport for odd-hour work shifts, flexible working hours for working mothers, and incorporating policies that don’t just make women feel welcome at the workplace but also give them a seat at the leadership table. “Organisations need to create opportunities for women through training, counselling, and diversity-focused events. Heads of organisations need to build a robust structure of women candidates at all levels to ensure an equitable gender distribution,” said Arora.

In agreement, Malik opined that the current gaps were a function of how the societies were structured and the challenges that women faced in their careers while balancing their families. But now, those societal norms are being turned on their heads, with more and more corporations wooing women to the workplace. In achieving gender equality, men too have an equal role, Malik said. He further said, “The state of women’s progress in the workplace and at the leadership level isn’t just a women’s issue. It is an issue for all of us—so we can build communities where we can tap into the very best from each of us. Together, we shall build a better world that values people for their contributions and not because of the gender they belong to.” The future of women leadership Organisations are formulating initiatives like the Career Relaunch programme and training programmes to bring women into managerial positions. FarEye has 22 percent women in leadership positions out of a workforce of 798 employees.

“Programmes like Development Programme for Women Employees to train them to become strong leaders of the future and Women Network Group at FarEye to connect all our female colleagues to engage, support and mentor each other have been started to enhance the diversity at the leadership positions in the future,” asserted Arora. The male to female ratio at Talent edge is 60:40 with 25 percent of leadership positions being held by women. Malik believes that a better environment for and societal acceptance of women in leadership roles is visible in large and hugely successful corporations. Among them is a realization that choosing women to lead across roles will also benefit other women to feel empowered and confident about occupying not just the lead roles but also the corner offices.

2. PM inaugurates Purvanchal Expressway

Press Information Bureau, 17 Nov. 2021

Prime Minister Mr. Narenda Modi inaugurated Purvanchal Expressway. He also witnessed the Airshow on the 3.2 km long airstrip constructed on the Expressway in Sultanpur district.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said while laying the foundation stone of Purvanchal Expressway three years ago, he did not imagine that one day he would land on the same expressway. He said “this expressway will lead to a better future at a faster pace, this expressway is for UP's development, this expressway is for the building a new Uttar Pradesh, this expressway is a reflection of modern facilities in UP, this expressway is a proof of accomplishment of resolutions in UP and this is the pride and wonder of UP.”

The Prime Minister remarked that balanced development of the country is equally necessary for the overall development of the country. Some areas march ahead in development and some areas are left behind by decades. He said that this inequality is not good for any country. He said that the eastern part of India and North Eastern states, despite having so much potential for development, did not get much benefit from the development taking place in the country. The Prime Minister said the way the earlier governments ran for a long time, they did not pay attention to the overall development of UP. He expressed happiness that in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, at the moment a new chapter of development is about to be written.

The Prime Minister lauded the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mr. Yogi Adityanath, his team and the people of UP on the completion of Purvanchal Expressway. He also thanked the farmers whose land was acquired for this project. He lauded the workers and the engineers who were involved in the project.

The Prime Minister remarked that security of the country is equally important as the prosperity of the country. He said that keeping that in mind, emergency landing provision for fighter jets is made while constructing the Purvanchal Expressway. He said that the roar of these planes will be for those who ignored the defence infrastructure in the country for decades.

The Prime Minister lamented that in spite of such a large area blessed with the Gangaji and other rivers, there was no development till 7-8 years ago. He said in 2014, when the country gave him an opportunity to serve the country, he gave priority to the development of UP. He envisioned that the poor should get pucca houses, the poor should have toilets, women should not have to defecate in the open and everyone should have electricity in their homes and many such works are needed to be done here. Criticizing the previous Government, the Prime Minister said he was deeply pained that the then UP government did not support him in providing these amenities. He said that “the people of UP will hold the government accountable and remove it for the unfair treatment of the people of UP, discrimination done in development and the way only the interest of their family was being served by the then government.”

The Prime Minister asked who can forget how many power cuts used to happen in UP earlier, who can forget what was the law and order condition in UP and who can forget what was the condition of medical facilities in UP. He said in the last four and a half years in UP, whether in the East or the West, thousands of villages have been connected by new roads and thousands of kilometres of new roads have been built.

The Prime Minister said with the active participation of the people, the dream of development of UP is now visible. New medical colleges are being built, AIIMS is coming up, modern educational institutions are being built in UP. Just a few weeks ago the international airport in Kushinagar was inaugurated.

The Prime Minister said it was also a fact that parts of a vast state like UP were earlier cut off from each other to a great extent. People used to go to different parts of the state but they were troubled due to lack of connectivity. For the people of East Uttar Pradesh, even reaching Lucknow was quite a task. “For previous Chief Ministers, development was limited to where they had their homes. But now, the demands of Purvanchal are given equal importance as the demands of the West” the Prime Minister stressed. He said that this expressway will connect those cities with immense aspiration and huge potential for development with Lucknow. He said where the good road leads, good highways reach, there the pace of development increases, job creation happens faster.

The Prime Minister noted that for industrial development of Uttar Pradesh, excellent connectivity is necessary, every corner of UP needs to be connected. He said as expressways are getting ready in UP, the work of the industrial corridor has also started. Very soon new industries will start coming up around Purvanchal Expressway. In the coming days, in the cities situated along these expressways, work on products related to food processing, milk, cold storage, storage of fruits and vegetables, cereal, animal husbandry and other agricultural products are going to increase rapidly. He said skilled manpower is essential to the industrialization of UP. So work has also been started to train the manpower. ITI and other training institutes and medical institutes will also be established in these cities.

He said that the Defence Corridor being built in UP is also going to bring new employment opportunities here. He said these infrastructure works in UP, will give new heights to the economy in the future.

The Prime Minister said even if a person builds a house, he first worries about the roads, examines the soil, and considers other aspects. But in UP, we have seen a long period of such governments who showed dreams of industrialization without worrying about connectivity. The result was that due to lack of necessary facilities, many factories located here were locked. In these circumstances, it was also unfortunate that both Delhi and Lucknow were dominated by the dynasties. For years and years, this partnership of family members kept crushing the aspirations of UP.

The Prime Minister said the double engine government in UP is working considering the common people of UP as their family. An environment is being created for new factories. He said keeping in mind the needs of this decade, infrastructure is being built to build a prosperous Uttar Pradesh.

The Prime Minister also lauded the Government of Uttar Pradesh for its excellent work done for Corona Vaccination. He lauded the people of UP for not allowing any political propaganda against the vaccine made in India to propagate.

The Prime Minister said the government is working day and night for the all-round development of UP. Along with connectivity, top priority is also being given to infrastructure in UP. He said in just 2 years, the UP government has almost provided piped drinking water connection to 30 lakh rural families. And this year the double engine government is fully committed to provide piped drinking water to lakhs of sisters at their homes. He said it is our duty to be engaged in nation building with the spirit of service, we will do the same.

(…).

3. Integration of education and skilling ecosystem will make India global skill capital: Dr. NS Kalsi

ET Gov. Nov. 18, 2021

The higher and technical education sector should dedicatedly work on improving the curriculum by introducing new age skills and technology-based knowledge experience and build partnerships with business industry and skill assessment organisations to contribute to reforming hands-on learning strategies and to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

With the clarion call of the Prime Minister to build India self-reliant, the youth of the country need skills that make them self-confident, reliant, purpose-driven, and also future-ready. To deliberate on the innovation in technical and vocational education, ET Government organized a special session on Creating Skill Manpower for Industry 4.0 and ‘Self-reliant’ India in the second edition of Education Innovation & Skill Summit 2021 with the senior government officials and technology leaders. Panelists were of the view that the higher and technical education sector should dedicatedly work on improving the curriculum by introducing new age skills and technology-based knowledge experience and build partnerships with business industry and skill assessment organizations to contribute to reforming hands-on learning strategies and to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem. It has become necessary to impart newer skills in technical and vocational education to meet the demands of Industry 4.0 and to build a ‘self-reliant’ India, said Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, Chairman, National Council for Vocational Education & Training, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India.

He said, “The Government is thinking to leverage existing infrastructure of skill ecosystems like ITIs, Polytechnics, PMKVY Centres and training centres. There are 3500 polytechnics and the same number of engineering colleges which would have additional space for conducting these kinds of training. So far, NCVET has approved more than 4,500 qualifications which have been developed by the skilling ecosystems, aligned with the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). The entire skilling ecosystem is dependent on Sector Skill Councils. Integration of education and skilling ecosystem will make India global skill capital.” Dr. Kalsi further added, “Vocational and education training needs to be made aspirational and embedded as an integral part of higher and technical education and school education system as per NEP 2020. We need to focus on the courses and new age technologies such as IoT, AI, ML, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Robotics, AR, VR, Datascience, Cloud computing etc. At the same time, we must also have special emphasis on higher order learning skills such as analysis, evaluation, synthesis, critical thinking, problem solving and innovation etc. We should have practical training and internships as well.” Speaking about Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission’s skill development programmes and initiatives to bridge the gap of demand-supply of required skilled manpower, Andra Vamsi, Mission Director, UPSDM said that database management is a critical thing for quality assessment.

“There are many people who have been trained and got placement over the years but their data has not been digitised. Similarly, information related to the migrant labourers who are also skilled in their work and human resources who have been trained by ITIs and polytechnics should be updated in a centralised database. Skill development is a PAN India subject, not state specific. Therefore, we have to create a pool of sustainable jobs and placement that should be abided by Labour laws,” said Vamsi. Emphasizing the need of emerging and digital technologies in technical and vocational education to cater to the rapid industrialization and globalization, Dr. Sridhar Srivastava, Incharge Director, National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education, Government of India said, “We are trying to reimagine skill and vocational education. Any education without skill is not going to sustain hence making vocational exposure to 21st century new age skills will help prepare children for futuristic jobs. Children should be able to unlearn, learn and relearn.

Modern and emerging technologies are very important from a global perspective but we should also think about localised skills and requirements of the industry.” The job market is changing rapidly, especially in the post-COVID world, creating an overpowering need for a skilled workforce to meet the demands of the new sets of skills, quality and relevance as expected from the industry. Sharing views on fostering new-age skills and innovations in technical and vocational education to ready future workforce as well as the existing workforce, Prof. Ambarish S Vidyarthi, Vice Chancellor, Bikaner Technical University said, “There are a variety of jobs available - regular jobs, specialised jobs and niche or strategic futuristic jobs. Higher Education Institutions have fully understood the dynamics of industry and their requirements. NEP 2020 is a great step towards this. BTU is the first university offering various programmes based on AI, data science on the lines of NEP recommendation.”

4.1. India poised to become $313 billion education and skills market by 2030: Report

ETHRWorld, Nov. 19, 2021

It points to a way forward for developing and building human capital in keeping with the needs of the 21st century education and job market.

The pandemic has led to an unprecedented jump in online education and job upskilling in the country. India will soon become a $313 billion online education market, according to a new report.

New Delhi: With the pandemic contributing to an unprecedented jump in online education and job upskilling in the country, India will soon become a USD 313 billion online education market, according to a new report. The report, titled "Investing for Impact: Education, Skills and Ed Tech", talks about 10 disruptive investment ideas which can bring about a transformational change in the way Indians receive their education as well as post-education skilling and training facilitated and catalysed by new-age educational and training technologies. It points to a way forward for developing and building human capital in keeping with the needs of the 21st century education and job market. "Even as the pandemic has precipitated an unprecedented jump in online education and job upskilling uptake in the country, India is soon to become a USD 313 billion online education market," said the report released by Aspire Circle, a not-for-profit forum promoting social leadership in India through fellowships and research.

The 10 ideas which have been identified in the report are technology-enabled K-12 education, online test preparation platforms-led inclusion and affordability, supplemental and extra-curricular education, teacher training and development, affordable education loan platforms, gig economy and unbundled micro-tasking, affordable student housing, innovative finance in education and skilling, micro and alternative credentials for employability skills, and social and emotional learning. "During COVID-19, almost 150 million girls were affected directly by school closures, with almost 90 million girls across rural India without any significant learning opportunity," said Safeena Husain, founder of 'Educate Girls'.

"If technology-driven access to quality learning is provided to these girls backed by adequate investments in affordable education loan platforms, student housing, extracurricular and supplemental education, and social and emotional learning as brought out in this report, it will go a long way in unlocking the impact that is much needed at this point," she added. This was the second in a series of reports by Aspire Circle as a part of the larger programme of generating "100 Impact Ideas for India's Inclusive Growth".

"The top 10 ideas in 21st century education and skills lie at the intersection of technology and impact. India's education and skills market will grow double this decade, from USD 180 billion in 2020 to USD 313 billion in 2030, while creating five million incremental jobs and impacting 429 million learners. We hope investors, entrepreneurs and policy-makers will engage with our research-based recommendations to help India truly realize its demographic dividend," said Amit Bhatia, founder of Aspire Circle.

4.2. Byju's continues acquisition spree, buys Austrian math-learning co GeoGebra

IBEF, Dec. 09, 2021

The world's most valuable ed-tech company, Byju's acquired GeoGebra headquartered in GeoGebra. This is Byju's 9th major acquisition this year, and the transaction amounts to US$ 100 million based on certain sources. GeoGebra has a dynamic, interactive and collaborative mathematics learning tool.

Complementing Byju's overall product strategy, this acquisition integrates GeoGebra's capabilities to create new product offerings and learning formats to its existing mathematics portfolio. It expands Byju's aim of making math an engaging subject to better learning outcomes. The two like-minded companies can bring comprehensive, personalized and immersive learning experiences to all students.

Under the leadership of its founder and developer, Mr. Markus Hohenwarter, GeoGebra will continue to operate as an independent unit within the Byju's group.

The Chief Strategy Officer at Byju's, Ms. Anita Kishore, said, "The GeoGebra team has built a powerful and stimulating platform that complements Byju's mission of providing impactful learning for students. Designed to improve mathematical understanding, it offers significant features that provide interactive resources that adapt to every child's style and pace of learning." She also added, "At Byju's, with the help of innovative teaching and technology, we have been making math fun, visual, and engaging. And with GeoGebra on board, we will continue to enhance further, reimagine and transform the way Math is taught and learned."

With a rapidly expanding community of over 100 million learners across over 195 countries, GeoGebra brings geometry, spreadsheets, graphing, algebra, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use format. GeoGebra's interactive, multilingual, and stimulating learning environment will help make Math fun, visual and contextual. Mathematical thinking is grounded in visual processing. However, the value of the transactions hasn't been released by the company.

Byju's was launched in 2015 and since then has been a leading firm for schools and students in India to provide personalized learning programs. It has over 115 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 7 million paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 86%.

Anita Kishore added, "Together with our combined strengths; we will have a wider reach and the best resources to build innovative and exciting next-generation learning formats."

The platform includes dynamic and interconnected geometry and algebra learning tools that assist in formulating and proving geometric conjectures. The software can be downloaded as an app or utilized online, and it has a simple user interface. For students worldwide, the curriculum is provided in several languages.

Markus Hohenwarter said, "GeoGebra was born out of a passion for helping students learn math in a visually appealing and engaging manner.

Our shared passion for learning and teaching resonates with BYJU'S, making them a perfect partner for our onward journey." He also added, "I am confident that this partnership will help millions of students to learn mathematics in an interactive way, in turn making them overcome their fear of math and learn to master it."

Markus, along with Michael Borcherds and Stephen Jull, the co-founders of GeoGebra founded in 2013, is on a mission to deliver rapid, sustainable growth in order to ensure GeoGebra has solid footings from which to deliver its vision over the long term. GeoGebra involves an enterprise as well as a philanthropic non-profit organization. Their commercial services help more than 300 established education service organizations and startups, while their non-profit helps students, teachers, researchers, and government agencies all around the world.

Byju welcomes the social mission of GeoGebra and acknowledges its importance in the world of mathematics. The firm is making sure that GeoGebra's current apps and web services will continue to be available free of cost to put the power of mathematics into the hands of students and teachers at any given time.

As the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online education, Byju's has been on an acquisition spree in India and all over the world. As the schools and offices remain shut, students and professionals are looking forward to upgrading their skills.

For about US$ 200 million, Byju's acquired US-based Tynker in September 2021, according to sources. Various other deals include the US$ 1 billion buy of New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services (AESL) in April and the US$ 600 million acquisition of Singapore-headquartered Great Learning, a leading global player in professional and higher education.

It also bought Gradeup, one of India's leading online test preparation services, in September. Byju's paid US$ $500 million for Epic, a digital reading platform based in the United States, in July of this year. It also purchased Osmo, a US-based educational game business, for US$ 120 million in stock and cash in 2019 along with WhiteHat Jr, a company that teaches coding to youngsters, for US$ 300 million in August 2020.

Byju's wants to be one of the biggest companies in the industry in the United States, with a goal of US$ 1 billion in revenue in the next three years.

Besides Tynker, Byju's has also acquired two additional major ed-tech companies Osmo, and Epic, in the US, over the last year and a half. Byju's ambition of investing US$ 1 billion in the US ed-tech sector over the next three years is reflected in all three acquisitions.

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

5. More than 14 Crore Health IDs created in the country under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)

Press Information Bureau, Dec. 15, 2021

As of 3rd December, 2021, 14,15,49,620 health IDs have been created in the country under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (AB-DM) aims to create an online platform enabling interoperability of health data within the health ecosystem to create longitudinal electronic health records of every citizen, make healthcare accessible for all citizens, reducing the cost of care and enabling greater efficiencies in health service delivery.

The digital health ecosystem created by ABDM supports continuity of care across primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare in a seamless manner. It ensures the availability of health care services through electronic means, particularly in remote and rural areas where generally such specialist care may not be available. As it reduces the need for repeated diagnostics through the availability of longitudinal health records, it helps in reducing the cost of care.

Doctors, hospitals, and others concerned can access the medical and other records of the individual only after consent for access is provided by the individual. Moreover, ABDM has been built on the principle of ‘privacy by design’ and federated architecture to facilitate secure data exchange between the intended stakeholders after the citizens’ consent.

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

6. India, ADB sign US$ 300 million loan to improve primary health care in India

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 25, 2021

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a US$ 300 million loan to strengthen and improve access to comprehensive primary health care in urban areas of 13 states that will benefit over 256 million urban dwellers including 51 million from slum areas.

Mr. Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, signed for the Government of India the agreement for Strengthening Comprehensive Primary Health Care and pandemic preparedness in Urban Areas Program while Mr. Takeo Konishi, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, signed for ADB.

After signing the loan agreement, Mr. Mishra said that the programme supports the Government of India’s key health initiatives - Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC) and Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PM-ASBY) - which has been renamed as Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) - by expanding availability and access to quality primary health care services particularly for vulnerable populations in urban areas.

Ayushman Bharat programme, launched in 2018, aims to improve access to comprehensive primary health care as a key strategy to achieve universal health coverage in India. With the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that put additional pressure on the country’s health system, the government launched PM-ASBY later renamed as PM-ABHIM in October 2021 to adopt a long-term approach to system strengthening to prepare for future pandemics and other emergencies.

“Ensuring equitable access to non-COVID-19 primary health care is critical amid challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic to India’s health system,” said Mr. Konishi. “The programme complements the government’s efforts to bridge the health care gaps by strengthening institutional capacity, operation, and management of urban health and wellness centers at the central, state, and municipal levels.”

The programme will be implemented in urban areas across 13 states: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal. Beside the pandemic response, interventions through the program promote increased utilisation of urban HWCs with provision of comprehensive primary health care packages including noncommunicable diseases and community outreach services such as awareness raising activities on health care options, particularly for women. Delivery and health information systems for primary health care will be upgraded through digital tools, quality assurance mechanisms, and engagement and partnership with the private sector.

The programme is supported by a US$ 2 million technical assistance grant from ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to provide support for programme implementation and coordination, capacity building, innovation, knowledge sharing and application of scalable best practices across the healthcare system.

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

7.1. Amazon Saheli: E-commerce giant partners with 4 state Governments to Support growth of women entrepreneurs.

ET Gov. Nov. 21, 2021

The collaborations, as part of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day, are aligned with Amazon's commitment to digitise 1 crore Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and enable $10 billion in e-commerce exports and create 20 lakh jobs by 2025.

E-commerce giant Amazon India on Friday announced collaboration with four government entities as part of its programme Amazon Saheli to accelerate the growth of women entrepreneurs across the country. The entities include Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM), Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS), Chhattisgarh State Forest Department (CG Forest) and Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS). The collaborations, as part of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day, are aligned with Amazon's commitment to digitize 1 crore Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and enable $10 billion in e-commerce exports and create 20 lakh jobs by 2025, the company said in a statement. Amazon.in also launched a special WED storefront with a selection of products made available by women-owned businesses.

The WED storefront will help customers discover and purchase from close to 98,000 unique products including selections like handicraft, handloom, fashion accessories, grocery and more. As part of the collaboration, the Amazon Saheli programme offers extensive training and skill development workshops for its participants to help women entrepreneurs understand the nuances of online selling and develop skills and capabilities necessary to grow their business on Amazon.in. Amazon.in looks to bring in regional selection and unique products across categories like grocery, home and fashion accessories offered for sale by women entrepreneurs from across Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Assam to millions of Amazon customers across the country.

"In line with our commitment to digitise 1 crore MSMEs by 2025, we are proud to announce that we are collaborating with leading government bodies including UPSRLM in Uttar Pradesh, ARIAS in Assam, CG Forest in Chhattisgarh and JSLPS in Jharkhand to directly impact and empower lakhs of women entrepreneurs across the four states," said Sumit Sahay, Director, Seller Partner Services, Amazon India, in the statement.

"We want to enable and empower women entrepreneurs who nurture the dream of starting something of their own and help them unleash their true potential by providing a comprehensive suite of marketplace services and continued support. Through these collaborations, we seek to transform the lives of women sellers by helping them kick start their e-commerce journey," Sahay added. Amazon India launched Amazon Saheli programme in 2017 to enable women entrepreneurs to become successful sellers on Amazon.in. Currently, Amazon Saheli works with over 50 partners such as National Urban Livelihood Mission, JSLPS, ARIAS, etc, with a reach of over 10,00,000 women entrepreneurs. (With IANS inputs)

7.2. Walmart CEO commits $10 billion exports by 2027 from India

IBEF, Dec. 15, 2021

Walmart International CEO, Ms. Judith McKenna reiterated the company's promise to export US$ 10 billion worth of goods out of India annually by 2027, which she claimed will boost the Make-in-India initiative by creating a network of small and medium firms selling to Walmart's customers worldwide.

"We think this will open a global opportunity for SMEs to spread the communities and accelerate India's progress as a manufacturing destination that can export to the world," Ms. McKenna told a CII conference on Monday. "I actually love the phrase 'Make in India for the world," she added.

Ms. McKenna is in charge of Walmart's global operations, including 24 foreign markets outside of the US. Walmart employs over 140,000 people in India, most of whom work for its Flipkart Group unit.

Walmart inherited PhonePe, a digital payment company, as part of its Flipkart acquisition. According to McKenna, PhonePe processes around 20 billion UPI transactions every year. McKenna praised India's entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly in the digital economy.

"We have seen incredible signs of India's enterprising spirits accelerating through Covid, and I hope the way the world looks at India, they see what we see ... that is extraordinary public commitment to make it a digital economy," she said over video conferencing. "We see a nation of entrepreneurs with a spirit that is hard to match, and we see an opportunity to support and build new businesses that can realise India's potential."

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

8. AI can digitise Indian farm sector’

BENGALURU, NOV. 20, 2021

India will become a financial superpower if it uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to digitise its vast farm sector, said Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. In his virtual address atBengaluru Tech Summit 2021 on Friday, Prof. Schwab said India had the technological capability and prowess to propel the agricultural sector into the digital world.

“As the world is witnessing the fourth industrial revolution, accessibility of internet services and its speed will play a major role in it,” he said.

However, he regretted that in India at least 50% of citizens do not have access to the internet. He called upon the Indian and Karnataka governments to work on bridging this digital divide.

Prof. Schwab said the World Economic Forum has been working with telecom companies to bring technologies and their businesses closer. Some 35 million new jobs are likely to be generated by 2025 as a result of this industrial revolution all over the world, adding that India should not let go of this opportunity.

He said there was a need for another green revolution in the world with zero carbon emissions and also the world needs to ensure that new discoveries are made in this direction swiftly.

9. National Crop Forecast Centre for Yield Estimation to use cutting edge technologies for accurate crop estimates: Minister

ET Gov. Dec. 2, 2021

High resolution satellite data, drones, advanced multi-parameter crop models, mobile applications for field data collection, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning approach, sensor networks, Internet of Things, field based digital photographs, handheld instruments and scientifically designed sampling plans are being used for crop yield/loss estimation.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar (PTI)

The government of India plans to migrate towards technology based yield estimation from the conventional Crop Cutting Experiment (CCE) based yield estimation approach. Towards this, few pilot studies have been initiated by taking various government and private agencies on board. During Kharif 2019, pilot studies were conducted through 12 agencies in 64 districts of 15 states for 9 crops envisaging innovative technologies such as high resolution satellite data (optical and microwave), unmanned aerial vehicle (drones), advanced multi-parameter crop models, mobile applications for field data collection, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning approach, sensor networks, Internet of Things, field based digital photographs, handheld instruments and scientifically designed sampling plans. These approaches were validated in Rabi 2019-20 in 15 blocks of six states. Giving a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said the pilot studies were scaled up to 100 districts with the help of seven agencies for paddy crop in Kharif-2020, and for paddy and wheat in Rabi season of 2020-21 in 100 districts of 13 states. The agencies have submitted the technical reports to Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC). Further, the expression of interest for yield estimation of non-cereals (other than paddy and wheat) has been initiated. A total of 20 agencies/organisations (10 government and 10 private) have been identified.

Tentative time period for this study is Rabi 2021-22 and Kharif 2022. Towards assessing accurate crop yield/loss at insurance unit, the government has taken an initiative to develop a protocol for crop yield estimation at Gram Panchayat level by using innovative technologies, the minister said. For this, various technology agencies in government as well as private sector at national and international level have been deployed, which have showcased the various yield estimation approaches such as multi-linear regression, machine learning, advanced simulation modelling, light-use efficiency models, Food and Agriculture Organization Evapo-transpiration (FAO-ET) model, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), and Machine Learning that involve advanced analytics tools, like Google Earth Engine, Python, Internet of Things (IoT). In this regard, the agencies have submitted the final work report, the applicability and feasibility of which will be worked out by the Technical Experts Committee, the minister said.

During Kharif 2020, approval of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been sought for flying the UAVs in 100 pilot study districts including drone based imaging in 37 districts for paddy crop, Tomar added.

10.1. Driving India’s agricultural growth

ET Gov. Dec. 14, 2021

Horticulture got a major boost post 1991 reforms when the markets began to liberalise and small and marginal farmers spotted the business opportunity in cultivating fruits, flowers, vegetables, and spices

As the number of marginalised farmers in India continues to swell, diversification of cropping patterns assumes significance. Horticulture in these times has emerged as a popular diversification to adapt to the changing needs given the current rise in urbanization, higher disposable incomes, changing dietary habits of the populace, etc. As per the latest Food and Agriculture Organization data regarding the situation of farmers in India, small and marginal farmers increased from 65% in 1980 to 82% in 2019. This group of farmers face several challenges owing to the diversification of cropping patterns. The new trends have, however, resulted in higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products beyond staple cereals and ultimately led to sustainable growth in the Indian agricultural sector.

The background: India attained self-sufficiency as well as market surplus in food grains after the successful launch of the green revolution. This shifted the focus of Indian farmers from ‘subsistence farming’ to ‘sustainable farming’. Since the 1980s, the government of India promoted diversified cropping patterns in agriculture, through various research institutes and extension services, in order to make it lucrative. Consequently, horticulture got a major boost post 1991 reforms when the markets began to liberalise. More specifically, the small and marginal farmers spotted the business opportunity in cultivating fruits, flowers, vegetables, and spices which are in high demand and are relatively remunerative when compared to food grains. Hence, the gross cropped area increased from 3.97% in 1980 to 6.77% in 2016, and the value of output in the horticultural sector more than doubled from 13.37% to 32.13% during the same period (Government of India, 2019).

Issues in horticulture: While the importance of horticulture and livestock activities is well recognized for better income of small and marginal farmers and nutritional security of the nation, some researchers highlighted the challenges faced by the farmers engaged in horticulture: lack of access to adequate and timely bank finance, absence of market intelligence and infrastructure (post-harvesting) facilities.

The farmers don’t have free access to institutional credit due to huge documentation formalities, lack of collateral security, financial literacy & education, etc. Besides, insufficient storage and processing facilities make the horticultural produce as highly perishable commodities. The horticultural crops such as cashew, mango, and rubber have longer gestation periods when compared to food grains and are capital intensive. Unlike other agricultural crops, horticulture does not enjoy a safety net in the form of Minimum Support Price (MSP). It is a formidable challenge for small and marginal farmers to cope with the high price fluctuations especially when the supply exceeds the demand in the market. This is also evident from demonetization and Covid-19 times when the prices of fruits and vegetables were highly volatile. Further, the farmers don’t have market intelligence which deters them in capitalizing on export business opportunities.

Horticulture as a growth driver: Notwithstanding the above, India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and holds the first rank in production of banana, ginger, lemon, mango, okra, and papaya. India’s total horticulture production stood at 313.85 million tonnes during 2018-19. According to Table 1, horticulture emerged as a key driver of growth in the Indian economy between 1992 and 2017. Table 1: Growth Rate of Agriculture and Horticulture (%) Period

However, India’s share in export of processed fruits and vegetables is less than one per cent of the global market. Essentially, horticulture development is a function of rainfall/irrigation, availability of fertilizers, average size of land holding, population density, per capita income and marketing infrastructure, etc. As the average size of land holding of Indian farmers (1.08 ha) has been shrinking continuously, small and marginal farmers resorted to cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and flowers since family labour is normally available for them. The way forward: Indian farmers can double their income sooner than later if all the stakeholders strive towards integration of horticultural activities i.e., from farm to home.

Around 30 per cent of fruits and vegetables produced in India are wasted and do not reach the final consumer owing to inefficient supply chain management. As a result, post-harvest losses are estimated at around Rs 2 lakh crore per annum. Government’s recent initiatives such as extension of ‘Operation Greens (TOP – Tomatoes Onions Potatoes)’ to all fruits and vegetables, creation of farm-gate infrastructure for cold chains will enable long-term investments in agriculture thereby strengthening agricultural value chains as well as post-harvest management, thereby reducing wastages. Focus should be on creation of rural infrastructure such as all-weather roads, ports, power, telecom, cold storages (physical infrastructure facilities), hospitals, schools (social infrastructure facilities), etc.

This will ensure that horticulture will continue to be a profitable business. Similarly, the cluster-based approach and scheme for formalization of Micro Food Enterprises will create sustainable livelihoods for the small scale entrepreneurs in food processing industry and leverage on consumption driven/self-reliant Indian economy. As the small and marginal farmers do not reap the benefits of economies of scale due to structural issues in agriculture, farmer producers organizations (FPOs) have the potential to take off in a big way as in the case of Sahyadri Farms in Nashik, that exports grapes to Europe at remunerative prices. Further, convergence of FPOs with self-help groups helps in reaping the synergies of entire agricultural value chain i.e, farm to fork.

The PM Street Vendors Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, that provides affordable and collateral-free working capital loan to street vendors, may be extended to small and marginal farmers cultivating fruits and vegetables. Further, the training and capacity building of farmers should take place in respect of various government schemes namely Krishi UDAAN (better air connectivity for export of perishable commodities), PM Kisan Sampada Yojna (capital subsidy of up to Rs.5 crore for establishing food processing units), and Production Linked Incentive Scheme (for Food Processing Industry to support creation of Indian food brands in the international markets). In sum, horticulture is a promising source of income enhancement, rural development, and export promotion. India can process 25% of its fruits, and vegetables and become a major exporter if sufficient emphasis is given to resource allocation, technology, infrastructure development, and better policy framework for the horticulture sector. (Srikanth is Associate Professor and Director (Finance), DDU-GKY, and Narendra Kumar is senior IAS officer posted as Director General, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad. Views are personal.)

10.2. Flipkart, Walmart up Ninjacart investment

Asia Fruit, Dec. 15, 2021, Liam O'Callaghan

India fresh produce supply chain start-up receives US$145m in new funding

Flipkart and Walmart have announced a US$145m investment in Indian fresh produce supply chain start-up Ninjacart.

This is the third investment Flipkart and its US-based majority shareholder Walmart, have made in Ninjacart with the other two rounds coming in October 2020 and 2019.

The funding will be used to power Ninjacart’s goal of ensuring better access to high-quality fresh produce for more retailers and consumers across India while also creating economic opportunities & better incomes for farmers in India.

Ninjacart works over 100,000 farmers across 150 villages to date, to implement new supply chain technologies and help solve problems such as distribution inefficiency and price risk.

Thirukumaran Nagarajan, co-founder and chief executive of Ninjacart, said Ninjacart has been investing significantly in tech platforms and supply chain infrastructure over the past two years.

“Thanks to our employees, farmers, retailers, and all ecosystem players. The funds will enable us to dream beyond organising the farmer-to-retailer ecosystem to a much larger goal of organising the complete agri ecosystem and enabling transparent commerce,” said Nagarajan.

“We are ecstatic that Flipkart and Walmart continue to partner with us in making this vision a reality by believing in our technological expertise and core values. India is at a cusp of formalising the agriculture industry, with the advent to better road connectivity, GST, seamless payments, digital infrastructure, etc.

“This opens up a tremendous opportunity to organise our agri ecosystem landscape like never before. We are investing in this huge potential to create value. The funds will be deployed to build world-class teams, scalable tech platforms to organise and grow the network.”

E-commerce company Flipkart currently offers grocery in 1,800 Indian cities and towns. Flipkart Group chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy, said fresh fruits and vegetables will play an integral part in plans to take its offering to 2,000 more towns by mid-2022, as will Ninjacart.

“As a homegrown company we have constantly focused on creating the right infrastructure and technological solutions that support local farmers, producers, and food processors. With this investment, we are further able to strengthen our grocery footprint and offering as consumers across the country throng to e-grocery for quality and affordable options in the fresh category,” said Krishnamurthy.

“Through technology, we are able to bring great efficiencies in the value chain and create an impact by providing the farming community additional opportunities for better income.

"Our investment and partnership in Ninjacart over the years is a testament to the continued commitment and success we have seen in our endeavour to create a democratic and organised agriculture market. At Flipkart, we are well poised and committed to building a sustainable ecosystem for fresh produce and uplift the communities associated with it in the process.”

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- INDUSTRY & MANUFACTURE

11. Andhra Pradesh aims to attract Rs 10000 crore investment at EMC Kopparthi and generate 30000 jobs: CEO, APEITA.

ET Gov. Nov. 16, 2021

The state has attracted investments and interests from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Germany.

Andhra Pradesh has the world’s largest ODM and OEMs including Foxconn, Wingtech, TCL, Karbonn, Dixon, Neolync and Celkon. The state has four electronics manufacturing clusters – two of which are in Tirupati, one in Sri City, Tada and the YSR EMC in Kopparthi. Our vision is to develop AP as a global hub for electronics manufacturing and we aim to attract Rs 10,000 crore investment through YSR EMC and provide employment to 30,000 people, says Nanda Kishore Reddy, Group CEO, Andhra Pradesh Electronics and Information Technology Agency (APEITA) and Managing Director, Andhra Pradesh Technology Services (APTS) in an interview with ETGovernment’s Arpit Gupta.

Excerpts: APEITA is mandated to bring investment in Andhra Pradesh. Which sectors are preferred for investment and who are the top investors?

APEITA has been the nodal entity for implementing the Andhra Pradesh IT and Electronics Policies of 2021-24 by attracting investors in the IT and electronics sectors. We have always been passionate about creating a comprehensive, robust and inclusive ecosystem for welcoming investments in the Electronics and IT industry from start-ups to mega enterprises. Andhra Pradesh has been the only state housing four Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) – two of which are in Tirupati, one in Sri City, Tada and the last one being YSR EMC gearing up in Kopparthi. Our objective has been to get investors on board to set up shop in Andhra Pradesh for electronics manufacturing by showcasing our advantages and the infrastructure and incentive support that the state offers in line with the new electronics policy. For electronics, we are positioned to equip ourselves to manufacture anything in line with what the digital economy needs, from electronic chips to TV panels to mobile handsets to integrated circuits and semiconductors. We already have the world’s largest ODM and OEMs producing out of Andhra Pradesh. Some prominent names include Foxconn, Wingtech, TCL, Karbonn, Dixon, Neolync and Celkon, to name a few.

Andhra Pradesh has been ready to embrace investments in all areas of electronic manufacturing; the crucial focus areas would be the manufacturing of mobile handsets, fibre technologies and 5G equipment, display panels for TVs and PCs, microelectronics and in the future, even focus on defence and aerospace manufacturing given the boosted PSU and defence presence in the state. In terms of countries, we have had cordial relations and attracted investments and interests from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Germany. At the same time, many other countries too have expressed interest wherein we are building some pathways and events to welcome them. How would YSR EMC at Kopparthi give an impetus to electronics manufacturing in Andhra Pradesh and provide opportunities for employment?

Our EMC at YSR, Kopparthi, is one of the largest in the country and is gearing up to welcome organizations. For this, we are focusing on a ground-zero approach to obtain all clearances, approvals and applications in the shortest time possible for the investors. Our aim is to attract Rs 10,000 crore in investments within 340 acre land of YSR EMC at Kopparthi and provide employment to 30,000 people. The YSR EMC is situated close to the proposed multi-modal logistics park of 400 acres and the Mega Industrial Park spanning about 2,744 acres. Investments in YSR EMC will be tied up with the production linked incentives scheme, which will offer up to 100 percent FCI as incentives. We have a single desk portal for all clearances and incentive applications. We are looking at a small timeline of just 120 days to facilitate project proposal submission to the handover of plug-and-play sheds.

When it comes to infra offerings, the total land bank of 540 acres will be split into anchor units of 24-60 acre size plots. The EMC will have a cargo terminal and conveyor system, which is proposed to link it with the Kadapa airport, apart from a good network of roads, supported by 24x7 power and water with power being invoiced at a mere Rs 4.50 per unit.

What is the future roadmap for creating a big IT and electronics infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh and generating more employment opportunities?

The objective of APEITA is to attract more investments in the earmarked sectors. The state’s new electronics and IT policies offer investor support through infrastructure offerings from co-working spaces to dedicated plug and play spaces and land banks for electronics manufacturing. But for society too, it provides a vast potential for employment. Given the employment incentives on offer for companies to recruit and employ local talent and the amount of stress on skilling colleges and developing industry-relevant courses in addition to initiatives like 'work from hometown (WFHT), we can see a plethora of opportunities for the youth in these sectors over the coming years. Even in the pandemic era, our IT sector had created over 11,000 new job opportunities. For IT, Andhra Pradesh has been a key contributor in terms of our workforce. We have distinguished names like HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Zoho with their bases in Andhra Pradesh. With some of our out-of-the-box initiatives like work from hometown (WFHT) coming in and with the development of IT parks and concept cities, we can surely expect more names to join the bandwagon. We are also budding start-up development in the areas of emerging technologies through our centres of excellence and incubation facilities. Our priorities would be to develop the IT Parks in Vizag to position itself as a global hub while also devoting focus to the IT concept cities. Besides, there would always be a focus on facilitating by realizing investor needs and expectations. Our infrastructure development avenues with APTS will also invite more employment opportunities, as we need more young minds to make use of the data and implement e-governance schemes by the government. We would aim to capitalize on managing these projects effectively.

What are your plans to leverage the potential of startups and emerging technologies?

We have seen the emergence of many start-ups over the past few years. Andhra Pradesh should gear up to establish its prominence on this map. We have some dedicated centers of excellence, incubation facilities and R&D labs. These should be exercised to mould entrepreneurship development in areas like IoT, AI/ML/NLP, Big Data, Quantum Computing and additive technologies by identifying opportunities. The corpus from the fund of funds created could also be effectively put to use for this. Our vision would be to develop Andhra Pradesh as a global hub for electronics manufacturing given our geographic advantage and proximity to the east, and the ecosystem we are building. For the IT space, we have to position ourselves as a global hub housing satellite IT centers of the who’s who in the sector, given our cost leadership advantages and the abundant talent pool in the state. For APTS, our immediate focus would be on initiatives like the online movie booking portal on behalf of the state. Over the longer run, we are looking to partner with many technology companies on various offerings in domains ranging from Software as a Service (SaaS) to cloud and analytics offerings.

What are the e-Governance and ICT initiatives undertaken by the government to ensure transparency and efficiency?

Some crucial e-governance initiatives have been implemented focusing on the end-user, the citizen, since the government adopts a citizen first approach. APTS has been a nodal agency for executing some of them. The government of Andhra Pradesh has authorized the use of digital signatures for all official documents. They improve efficiency, reduce cost, eliminate the use of paper and more importantly, enable the signing of documents from any location. This introduces an element of transparency, too and was facilitated by APTS. Our e-Aadhaar services facilitate citizen welfare by the government to the deserving people. At the same time, our operations of APSDC have ensured that even citizens in the most remote areas are connected to the government schemes and benefitted. We have been the nodal agency to implement cybersecurity infrastructure through APCSOC, ensuring data privacy and security of the state’s IT infrastructure. Even for APEITA, we have been the single and only standpoint and go-to team to invest in the state’s IT and ESDM sectors.

12. How SRF technical textile is transforming into a future-digital organization

ET CIO, Nov. 25, 2021, - Vanshika Sharma

The organization is presently concentrating on AI analytics and automation to improve the efficiency of its operations and the quality of products.

The Indian textile industry is one of the most distinctive, brimming with cultural traditions and techniques-driven. With the support of ever-changing technology, the sector has undergone a rapid transition over the years. The advanced adoption of technologies has improved machinery, quality evaluation, workforce efficiency, and data management for organizations. SRF technical textile, a multi-business chemicals organization that manufactures industrial and specialty intermediates, is a leader in textile technology innovation.

The organization is well-known for its adoption of modern technologies and is the first to welcome any new technological endeavors. Continuing the outlook, SRF technical textile has initiated the digital road by concentrating on the production, process, and people. All components will enable the business to boost its market expansion. “At SRF technical textile industry, we have always been an early adopter of the latest technology. We are focusing on upscaling predictability, sustainable operations, and a faster decision-making process. That's the objective, and we will continue to dive towards being more digital,” said Bimal Puri, Chief Information Officer of SRF technical textile.

In the textile sector, product quality is pedestaled as the market king, stronger product quality results in a better reputation and consumer sales. Therefore, to maintain product quality, the business is focusing on AI, video, and predictive analysis. Through leveraging AI, Puri says, the company wishes to upscale the standardization of the product quality and utilization rates. “The organization has been actively utilizing the video analytics on fiber. It is a technique to detect visible damages on fabric with which the operation team can take quick action before it is done to the entire fabric. Thus, it saves the product from any future risks and cost losses,” he added.

Furthermore, predictive analytics is adopted to estimate product quality in the case of a disaster to enhance the assessment of the fiber. Puri expands and says, that predictive analytics may help in detecting the temperature of a product and alert them to a catastrophe if it is uncontrollable. Hence, it protects them from product damage and increases machine uptime while also reducing maintenance costs. Uplifting employee efficiency and automation To save the machines from damages, an early warning system is activated on a real-time basis to detect machine damage and protect the equipment from downtime. He elaborates, “For example, If the motor of the machine is overheated or there is any problem, then the sensors signal about the cause and inform the team regarding the same which did not allow further harm to the machines". Along with placing product quality as a priority, increasing team productivity inside the organization is equally vital. Concentrating on this, the organization ensures that all decisions are based on up-to-the-minute data and real-time analytics.

Puri cited those real-time analytics may help an employee in case of a manufacturing delay, by alerting them beforehand saving their time to perform alternate activities. Additionally, implementing the shop floor automation or automated guided vehicles (AGV), will speed up the process and allow the personnel on the job to work more efficiently. AGV is computer-controlled and can load carriers that go across a facility's floor without an onboard human, as the combination of software and sensor-based navigation systems directs their movement. “All these initiatives help in mitigating risk as it is helping us to be on the stand and safeguard when the machine requires immediate actions. It makes the process simpler, faster, accessible, and controllable, which will help the organization in the long run,” he said. To be continued supply chain and data plans The organization is strengthening its supply chain visibility, which will bring in automated planning and tracking in the supply chain. It provides data on logistics and supply chain operations in near-real-time. Such data assists organizations in navigating inventory shortages, avoiding bottlenecks, satisfying regulatory demands, and monitoring products through delivery.

As industrial machines are capable of recording the data, the organization uses a normal analytics, a data mining technique that detects or observes the regular behavior of a dataset. Anomalous data reveal significant situations, such as a technological fault, or prospective possibilities. In the future, they plan to elevate their data science and analytics team for sponging out the insightful information, enabling the team to make concrete decisions. He adds, "We are working on the dedicated efforts to bring the data science and analytics team on board and make us a data-driven cultured organization".

13.1. India's Tata in talks to set up $300 million semiconductor assembly unit

ET Telecom, Nov. 26, 2021

While Tata has previously said it would likely enter the semiconductor business, this is the first time news about the group's foray into the sector and its scale has been reported.

India's Tata group is in talks with three states to invest up to $300 million to set up a semiconductor assembly and test unit, two sources familiar with the matter said, as part of the conglomerate's push into high-tech manufacturing. Tata is talking to the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana and scouting for land for the outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) plant, the sources said, declining to be identified as the matter is not public. While Tata has previously said it would likely enter the semiconductor business, this is the first time news about the group's foray into the sector and its scale has been reported. An OSAT plant packages, assembles and tests foundry-made silicon wafers, turning them into finished semiconductor chips. Tata has looked at some potential locations for the factory, one of the sources said, adding a venue was likely to be finalised by next month.

"While they (Tata) are very strong on the software side of things ... hardware is something they want to add to their portfolio, which is very critical for long-term growth," the source said. Tata group and the three states did not respond to requests for comment. Tata's push will bolster Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' drive for electronics manufacturing, which has already helped turn the South Asian nation into the world's second-biggest maker of smartphones. The Tata group, which controls India's top software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services and has interests in everything from autos to aviation, plans to invest in high-end electronics and digital businesses, its Chairman N. Chandrasekaran has previously said.

Potential clients of Tata's OSAT business include companies such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and STMicroelectronics. The factory is expected to start operations late next year and could employ up to 4,000 workers, the source said, adding availability of skilled labour at the right cost was key to the long-term viability of the project. "Once Tata starts, the ecosystem will come around ... So it's very critical to find the right place from a labour standpoint," the source said. Separately, Tata is already building a high-tech electronics manufacturing facility in southern Tamil Nadu state.

13.2. India plans a Rs 76,000-crore red carpet for semiconductor companies

ET Telecom, Dec. 10, 2021

The scheme is likely to go to Cabinet next week for approval and after that, the ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY) would work out the granular details and invite applications.

The government is planning to provide incentives worth Rs 76,000 crore towards setting up over 20 semiconductor design, components manufacturing and display fabrication (fab) units over the next six years, in a bid to make India a hub for electronics. "Through various PLI (production linked incentive) schemes, the Centre has tried to broaden the scope of manufacturing and export from India while the semiconductor policy will help deepen India's manufacturing base," a senior government official told ET. The government's target includes one to two fab units for displays, and 10 units each for designing and manufacturing components, officials added. Semiconductors are used for making a wide range of products ranging from automobiles to handsets.

The scheme is likely to go to Cabinet next week for approval and after that, the ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY) would work out the granular details and invite applications.

"...(after the Cabinet approval), the final contours of the policy will be drawn later and advertised, seeking interest from companies to invest," another official said. India should act fast, say experts "The world has been reeling under the shortage of semiconductor chips affecting production targets across almost all industries. Since everything - from cars to TVs, laptops, earbuds, and even washing machines - use semiconductors, the policy is coming at the right time and the right place," said Kanishka Chauhan, principal research analyst at Gartner. "If the policy can lure some of the foundries (fabrication units) to our country, it would go a big way in making our country self-reliant". A wafer is designed and manufactured in fabs, also called foundries, by companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TMSC) as per the requirements of chip manufacturers like Samsung, NXP and Qualcomm. The chipmakers then package, test and sell the chips to equipment manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Cisco. The government's move comes nearly a year after it invited companies to express their interest and requirements for setting up semiconductor fab units. Previous attempts to lure companies had failed despite the government offering a capital subsidy of as much as 40%.

14. Trends impacting hiring in the pharma industry

ETHRWorld, Nov. 29, 2021, Rajesh Nair

The Indian pharma industry requires a highly skilled workforce which can work on automated processes while complying with all the regulatory requirements.

India is the largest manufacturer of generic drugs globally. It stands third in the world for pharmaceutical production by volume and at fourteenth by value. The sector is seeing a boom which is unprecedented and according to estimates, it is expected to grow by 11% over the next two years. The industry is investing increasingly in ramping up its R&D infrastructure with spends ranging between 2-10% of its revenue. While the industry strongly believes in creating alternate avenues for API manufacturing, many domestic companies are also focusing on increasing in-house capacity of API production to address the anticipated future demand.

The Indian pharma industry requires a highly skilled workforce which can work on automated processes while complying with all the regulatory requirements. Indian pharma firms are constantly exploring alternate avenues for filling up the talent pipeline. Newer technologies and systems are being used to source, screen and select right candidates for the right roles. The industry itself is going through a massive automation overhaul and in the process new job roles are emerging while some are becoming obsolete.

Hence, companies need to be prudent in identifying their requirements and plan their talent pipeline accordingly. Meeting regulatory compliances is the need of the hour Domestic pharma companies are eager to explore and expand to newer geographies and markets. They are constantly updating their systems and processes to meet the latest regulatory guidelines. To achieve this, they require talent that can understand the local regulatory environment and enable a rapid expansion to grow quickly in a limited period of time. Good Manufacturing Practices are key guidelines to operate for pharma companies. There are stringent rules and regulations that the companies need to adhere to during manufacturing operations and the employees need to ensure that.

As a result, both adaptability and integrity become key factors. Government’s emphasis on ‘Make in India’ The Indian pharmaceutical industry has entered into a growth phase at a time when there is also a lot of emphasis by the Indian Government for their ‘Make in India’ programme and hence the sector has been in the limelight. The Indian pharma companies have exhibited stellar performance and has attracted increased healthcare spends from the government as well as investment from the private sector funds. This has also given a newfound impetus to the fresh graduates and top-tier talent to consider joining this sunrise sector. Focus on digitisation Under ‘Industry 4.0’, there is an increased focus towards digitisation and automation. Compared to other sectors, the pharma sector has historically been slow to adopt newer technologies. However, the onset of Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this transition. Digitisation has taken place not only at the manufacturing and R&D sites but also at the front-end rewriting how products are sold. The advent of online pharmacies such as PharmEasy, Netmeds and Tata 1mg has opened a completely uncharted market space and provided a new channel for manufacturers. To succeed here, pharma firms require talent with a different set of skills leading to the hiring of diverse talent for the industry. Covid therapies and vaccine leaders

The Indian pharmaceutical industry must be lauded for its efforts in stepping up to the challenge of providing critical medical supplies required for the treatment of Covid-19. On the vaccine development front, Indian companies have made the nation proud by helping it emerge as a global leader. The contributions of Indian pharma companies in the fight against pandemic are particularly noteworthy. The new innovations and technologies have also created a demand for pharma firms to hire talent skilled in these areas. To quote an example, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, an Emcure subsidiary, is developing India’s very first indigenously developed mRNA-based vaccine. Gennova also plans to use the mRNA platform to develop vaccines for Zoster, Zika and Rabies. This has spurred the hiring of candidates in this field at the company.

These newer platforms and technologies are expected to usher in a sea change in the pharma industry’s hiring demands and will encourage talent with newer skill sets to join the industry. Basis the above-mentioned trends on national, global and industry specific fronts, the industry is highly optimistic on the future of its talent acquisition plans. The trends will also provide an opportunity for the Indian pharma sector to look at completely new domains, for newer set of skills and also bring in a lot of diversity to make it an inclusive and exciting sector to work in, brimming with hope, opportunities and optimism. The author, Rajesh Nair, is Executive Vice President – HR at Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

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

15. Exports of Gems and Jewellery more than double and rise to US$ 23.62 billion in first 7 months this FY as compared to last year

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 29, 2021

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Mr. Piyush Goyal said “India can emerge as the largest diamond trading hub in the world. In a video message during the Inauguration Ceremony of Gems & Jewellery Manufacturing Show - 2021”, organised by the Surat Jewellery Manufacturing Association (SJMA), Mr. Goyal said the Government has declared the Gems & Jewellery sector as a focus area for export promotion.

“We have established ourselves as the largest player in diamond cutting & polishing, we can become the largest international diamond trading hub,” he said.

Exports of gems and jewellery this FY in the first 7 months upto October’ 21 was US$ 23.62 billion, as compared to US$ 11.69 billion (+102.09%) for the same period previous year.

“Superior quality of our manufacturers has enabled us to penetrate markets like Dubai-UAE, USA, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Latin America,” he said.

Mr. Goyal said the Government has taken various measures to promote investment for growth of the sector, - Revamped Gold Monetisation Scheme, Reduction in import duty of gold and mandatory hallmarking.

“We have the best artisan force for designing and crafting in the world, there is a need to focus on strengthening creativity & systematic skill development of artisans,” he said, adding, “We should make our products a benchmark of quality, to further expand in new markets & deepen presence in existing ones.”.

Mr. Goyal laid out four points to make India’s Gems & Jewellery a pioneer industry in the world:

Focus on Design (creation of patented designs) in order to increase value add of our products and make our manufacturing more profitable.
Diversification of export products: Emphasis on products like pearls, silver, platinum, synthetic stones, artificial diamonds, fashion jewellery, non-gold jeweller, etc.
Collaboration with other nations for cost-effective methods to enhance production of fusion jewellery.
Promote Lab-Grown Diamond: They are environment friendly & affordable and will contribute to India’s export as well as generate employment.

Mr. Goyal said Surat is, perhaps, one of the fastest growing cities in the world and is home to more than 450 organised jewellery manufacturers, importers & exporters. It has the potential to become the jewellery manufacturing hub of the world, he added.

“I visited the Diamond Bourse in September on the day of the Honourable Prime Minister’s birthday and I was impressed by the efforts put to create the world's largest office building which will serve as the hub of all Diamond trading activities. It is an example of Prime Minister’s Aatmanirbharta and your Aatmavishwas. It is a testament of the fact that if we are willing enough we can do anything on our own. Jewellers are woven into the fabric of our nation. People don’t just spend money when they buy gold & jewellery in our country but invest their life’s savings when they do so. Jewellers are the repositories of trust and faith of our people,” said Mr. Goyal.

The Minister said, the SJMA, since its inception in 2016, has championed the cause of improving the jewellery industry in Surat. “Their ‘Make in Surat’ programme has facilitated innovation & promoted skill development to build a robust jewellery manufacturing ecosystem.”

Stating that India’s Gems & Jewellery sector is known all over the world for its Charm & Cost Effectiveness, Mr. Goyal said this sector embodies the spirit of New India, contributing about 7% of India’s total GDP & employing more than 50 lakh workers. “Our jewellers have mastered the art of diamond manufacturing & jewellery making and have made it a shining example of ‘Make in India’,” he said.

Quoting a proverb, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”, Mr. Goyal said our G&J sector has the potential to realise the goal of “Local Goes Global and Make in India for the World” and become the driving force of New India. “For progress there is a need for change in mindset,” he said.

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. India's digital transformation in pandemic akin to mobile revolution: IBM's Arvind Krishna

ET CIO, Nov. 17, 2021

India’s rapid digital transformation over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic is similar to what the country did with its mobile phone revolution, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna says.

New Delhi: India’s rapid digital transformation, including in payments, over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic is similar to what the country did with its mobile phone revolution, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said on Tuesday. “The 18 months of the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in India, which is equal to 15 years in the area of digital payments or online commerce or internet banking,” Krishna said during an interactive session, moderated by Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, at The Economic Times India Leadership Council. “You can see that impact. You can see the (Indian) government now beginning to talk much more seriously about what they're doing around the key marketplaces for procurement and what they do to government payments.”

“It is much like India leapfrogging from having few (landline) phones to…800 million to 1 billion mobile phones,” Krishna said. Gurnani lauded Krishna’s bold attempt to spin off IBM’s IT infrastructure business Kyndryl as an independent company, with IBM focusing on platforms and products. The US-based firm, under Krishna’s leadership, is betting big on hybrid cloud and Edge computing. “It was a hard decision between the management team and the board. For Kyndryl, that was the time it was important that they get to go on their own journey. They need their own capital structure, they need their freedom,” Krishna said. “They need to have their own margins; they need to have their own partners and to do all that under the auspices of IBM.” Kyndryl, with a revenue of $19 billion, listed as an independent entity earlier this month.

Krishna and Gurnani discussed the India advantage in terms of talent for global technology companies as well as the opportunity for services companies to help customers transform their businesses using technology. Global firms will spend over $10 trillion on technology over the next 10 years, Krishna said. “Only 20% (of the applications) has been modernised with any kind of microservices, modern cloud container-based architecture. The other 80% is still sitting in (servers and databases) how it used to…so our current bets on hybrid cloud and probably a current and future bet on Edge computing remains,” he said.

IBM, he said, was looking at data sovereignty by countries, automation, artificial intelligence and Edge computing to drive demand for hybrid cloud. “Data sovereignty is deep inside the soul of every nation. They want to control, and they want to know the destiny or where the data is and where the critical infrastructure is going to go wrong. And that's the conversation pretty much every country is having, be it India, in the UAE, in Saudi Arabia, France, Germany or the UK. So, you got to have all of that presence. You need to make sure that that data stays within boundaries,” he said. “The very question of automating factories and bringing AI is going to imply Edge computing. You bring those together, and that is why we fundamentally believe in the strategy of hybrid cloud,” he added.

16.2. India & World Bank sign loan agreement to improve quality of learning for over 5.0 million students across Andhra Pradesh

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 24, 2021

The Government of India, Government of Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank on 18th November 2021 signed the legal agreements for US$ 250 million for a project which aims to improve quality of learning for over 50 lakh students in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Students from all grades and stages of school education will benefit from the project. The beneficiaries are about 40 lakh students (between the age of six and fourteen) in over 45,000 government schools, and over 10 lakh children (between the age of three and six) enrolled in Anganwadis (Integrated Child Development Centers), and about 1,90,000 teachers, and more than 50,000 Anganwadi workers.

The Supporting Andhra's Learning Transformation Project will encourage professional development of teachers; provide remedial learning courses for children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; and pay special attention to students from marginalized groups, including children with special needs, scheduled tribes, and girls.

The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, stated that “Providing universal access to quality education is central to India's economic and social development. The Project will support the state of Andhra Pradesh in fulfilling its vision of transforming government schools into vibrant institutions focused on foundational learning for young children, including addressing learning losses for children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The agreement was signed by Mr. Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India; Mr. Budithi Rajsekhar, Principal Secretary, Department School Education on behalf of the Government of Andhra Pradesh; and Mr. Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, India on behalf of the World Bank.

The state has adopted a new competency-based teaching-learning approach. The project will improve teaching practices through classroom-based mentorships, need-based teacher training for teachers of all grades and subjects, Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) methods, and other forms of remedial education linked to standardized school-based assessments.

Developing the institutional capacity of schools for delivering these services will go a long way in building community confidence and improving the learning environment. The project will help with better maintenance of school facilities, support involvement of parents in school management and monitoring, make data available, and enhance school safety.

The focus on foundational learning would be through short-term in-service training courses for Anganwadi workers and early grade (Grade 1 and 2) teachers and the supply of pedagogically appropriate Teaching Learning Material (TLM) across these centres and schools. Such attention to foundational learning will improve the readiness of schools in preparing children with the cognitive, socio-behavioural, and language skills needed for future labour markets. The project will introduce a one-year preschool-level course in 3,500 schools in the tribal blocks. It will help address the issue of low learning levels amongst the tribal community.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, home-based learning opportunities for students are of top priority for the state. Given the low availability of digital devices amongst students, the focus will be on developing physical learning kits and content for television and radio broadcasts. It will help in reducing the learning losses that children are likely to face due to school closures because of the ongoing pandemic, future natural disasters, or other disruptions related to climate change.

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

17.1. Apple investing significantly to grow its operations in India

ET CIO, Nov. 19, 2021

“Today, Apple supports around 1 million jobs in India from our own employees to the fast growing iOS app economy to our work with supplier partners," Apple's VP (Operations) Priya Balasubramaniam says.

Bengaluru: Apple Inc., one among the world’s most valuable companies with a market cap of over $2.5 trillion, said it already supports around one millions jobs in India, both directly and indirectly, and is investing significantly to develop its operations further in the country and engage with more suppliers. The company said its estimates of employment in the country include its own employees, developers of apps for its iOS ecosystem, and workers with its supplier partners who support its manufacturing operations for several models of its flagship product, the iPhone, in the country today.

“Apple has been operating in India for more than two decades, and in 2017, we began manufacturing iPhones at a facility here in Bengaluru. Since then, we've expanded to Chennai, manufacturing several iPhone models for the domestic market and for export,” said Priya Balasubramaniam, VP of operations at Apple. Balasubramaniam, who is a native of Bengaluru and lived in the city before moving to the US to pursue higher education, told audiences at the Bengaluru Tech Summit on Thursday that, “Today, Apple supports around 1 million jobs in India from our own employees to the fast growing iOS app economy to our work with supplier partners.”

While not detailing Apple’s investments in India, she said that the company after making available its entire range of products to customers in India through its online storefront last year, is now looking to open physical retail stores, adding that Apple views India can play a role in the transformation of the manufacturing sector that is unfolding globally She said that while some people describe manufacturing as a career of the past, but that was far from the truth, with it being transformed by technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, advanced robotics, and 3d printing, among others. “Our manufacturing operations in India achieved the goal of zero waste to landfill very quickly, and went further by taking the learnings of waste reduction into local communities where employees live. In India, our suppliers achieved a record for gaining platinum Zero Waste certification, seven suppliers in just six months,” Balasubramaniam added.

Keeping with the theme of utilising advanced technologies in manufacturing, she said that Apple was piloting the use of video machine learning to monitor and control production at its plants in India, improving productivity. She added that for countries to take full advantage of these transformations in manufacturing, they need to ensure a large part of their workforce is trained in skills such as AI, ML, 3d printing and robotics, and need to be committed to lifelong learning. Apple CEO Tim Cook in the most recent quarterly earnings call told analysts that the company has doubled its business in India. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple was the fastest growing brand in the quarter ended September with a 212 per cent growth in sales compared to the corresponding quarter last year, giving it a 44 per cent share in the market for smartphones priced above Rs 30,000 in India.

17.2. IBM bets big on India, to open more software development centres

ET Telecom, Nov. 20, 2021

US tech giant IBM is betting big on the India growth story and plans to open more software development centres in the country as it looks to partner with the government in its digitisation journey, its Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said on Friday.

New Delhi: US tech giant IBM is betting big on the India growth story and plans to open more software development centres in the country as it looks to partner with the government in its digitisation journey, its Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said on Friday. On a visit to India, Krishna met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar to discuss deeper collaboration including skilling and workforce development. The firm that originally designed the technology and system behind ATMs, barcodes and the US social security net, is greatly enthused with the speed at which the Indian government is willing to make decisions and where it is moving, he told a select media briefing. "We feel good about our business in India. We have a good footprint in financial services, in telecom, in government (business) in the industrial sector amongst many others. We are very pleased with the progress of our business here," he said.

Stating that IBM does not reveal country-specific numbers, he said Asia did well in the third quarter (July-September) and "India was a big piece of that". "With the world's geopolitics, I would not name countries, I think India is a unique opportunity to leapfrog even more than it has in the past two decades," he said. Globally, 70 per cent of its revenue will now come from software and consulting, higher-value businesses that both saw strong growth in the third quarter. The India market revenue will mirror the global trajectory. IBM has acquired 17 companies since Krishna became CEO to bolster its hybrid cloud and AI capabilities - both tech and high-value consultative services. In the past six months, it has expanded in tier-II cities in India and accelerated hiring. "IBM has expanded dramatically in India.

We have large centres at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune and a smaller one in Delhi on R&D (research and development). "We have just announced that we will be opening centres near Ahmedabad and near Kochi. That are just two of few more that we have planned. I will not pre-announce the rest," he said. The firm is globally targeting USD 35 billion of cash generation over the next three years for re-investment into business expansion including in India.

On his meetings with the Indian ministers, he said focused around skilling and workforce development. "We are not talking about people out of IITs (but) what can we do much deeper to get people ready for the digital revolution that is coming," he said. IBM in India spends 100 per cent of its CSR money on workforce development and skilling. "We don't do other projects for show. 100 per cent of CSR is into this area, that is substantive." The discussions also focused on the 'Gatishakti' - using digitation in government platforms to allow more services to be much more quickly availed by the citizens. "We at IBM will be very very motivated to help to be part of it. These are government systems, they have to own them, they have to be eventual decision-makers.

"We will be very happy to participate in helping them build out systems, add scales, in a secure way, in a way they can be trusted, in a way they cannot be misused," he said. Krishna, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K), knows the potential the country has and has gone bullish on India, especially on the R&D and innovation to create for the world. In the last six months, IBM has expanded in India. Besides opening IBM Software Labs development centers in Kochi, Kerala and Ahmedabad, Gujarat, IBM Client Innovation Center (CIC) specialising in design, software engineering and analytics were launched in Mysuru and IBM Consulting Business Process Operations started a new centre in Hyderabad, Telangana.

It will accelerate the building of skills and digital innovation - providing a strong foundation for the IT/ITeS sector in the states. IBM will offer cybersecurity training to 5 lakh people in India over the next five years. It has registered over 6.2 lakh learners on SkillsBuild from India - a key milestone in its skilling commitment to the nation.

18.1. AI Cameras at KSR Station will see through your mask

ET CIO, Dec. 9, 2021

Last month, a 41- year-old mentally disturbed woman went missing from east Bengaluru. The Railway Protection Force (RPF)’s control room in Bengaluru division received an alert and photograph of the woman at 11.35 pm from a group of citizens. At 11.47pm, RPF personnel managed to trace the woman who was wearing a full-mask at KSR Bengaluru City railway station. The swift tracking happened with the help of AI-enabled face-recognition cameras.

“We could trace her in just 12 minutes. In fact, relatives of the woman were also surprised that we could find her in such a short time,” said a RPF official. For the past nine months, a trial run of recognition cameras was on at the station. South Western Railway (SWR) officials said a full-fledged launch of the Rs 2.4- crore project will be held from next month. “We have installed 120 of the 150 AI-enabled cameras. We could identify 43 criminals in the last nine months through this system. We’ll install them at 18 more stations in Bengaluru division,” said a senior SWR official.

A TOI report, ‘KSR, Yeshwantpur railway stations to get face-recognition cameras’ (May 6, 2019), had highlighted the plan. While facemasks are mandatory in public places after Covid-19, SWR officials said these cameras will detect people with masks too. Face-recognition cameras will recognise the face of a repeat offender/wanted persons involved in human trafficking, child kidnapping, smuggling, terrorist activities and other cases, then alert in cases of overcrowding stations, unclaimed baggage/objects, keep track of those who frequent ticket counters, including touts. “We never anticipated that all will have to wear face-masks. But we had thought of people entering the station covering their faces, using sunglasses or hats and other scenarios, so it has come handy now,” said an official. Asked about privacy concerns, another official said: “We’re not storing any data. We’re just matching faces in the database to records. In fact, most airports also have face-recognition cameras. Only criminals need to worry about this.”

18.2. IT sector jobs: Why global tech turns to Indian talent

ET CIO, Dec. 9, 2021

Executives and experts say that beyond the South Asian nation's sheer size, the phenomenon is due to multiple push-pull factors and skillsets including a culture of problem-solving, the English language, and relentless hard work.

Twitter's new CEO Parag Agrawal is the latest alumnus of India's prestigious technical universities appointed to head a multi-billion-dollar US tech firm, and Shivani Nandgaonkar wants to follow in his footsteps. The 22-year-old student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay -- Agrawal's alma mater -- has already been recruited by Google to become one of the thousands of IIT graduates at major American tech companies. "When I heard about Parag, I was so happy," she said. "One IITian is also CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. So this is my (stepping) stone now." Twitter's Agrawal is the youngest chief executive in the S&P 500 at just 37. Like Google-parent Alphabet's 49-year-old CEO Sundar Pichai, he left India after his IIT degree to pursue a postgrad in the United States before working at several American companies.

Other Indians at the highest corporate tech echelons include IBM's Arvind Krishna and Palo Alto Networks' Nikesh Arora -- both IIT alumni -- along with Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Shantanu Narayen at Adobe. Executives and experts say that beyond the South Asian nation's sheer size, the phenomenon is due to multiple push-pull factors and skillsets including a culture of problem-solving, the English language, and relentless hard work. IIT graduate and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla believes that after growing up with multiple communities, customs and languages, Indians have the ability to "navigate complex situations".

"Educational competition in India and societal chaos helps hone their skills in addition to the rigorous technical education at the IITs," the billionaire venture capitalist told AFP. 'Creme de la creme' Silicon Valley demands technical expertise, managing diverse communities, and entrepreneurship in the face of uncertainty from its top executives. "In innovation, you have to be able to break the rules, you're fearless. And... you can't survive a day in India without having to break one rule or the other or dealing with incompetent bureaucracy or corruption," said Indian-American academic Vivek Wadhwa. "Those skills are very useful when you're innovating in Silicon Valley, because you have to constantly challenge authority." And they are valuable: ride-hailing giant Uber this month offered IIT Bombay students first-year packages of $274,000 for jobs in the United States.

The contest for such prizes begins early in a country of more than 1.3 billion people with a longstanding focus on education. The IITs are seen as India's top universities, and more than one million pupils apply each year for just 16,000 places. For one-and-a-half years, Nandgaonkar studied up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Some other students started preparations at just 14 or 15, she added. "Imagine having an entrance which is 10x more difficult than MIT and Harvard. That's what the IITs are," Wadhwa said. "So it's the creme de la creme of the country." India's biggest export? The IIT network was established in 1950 by the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who envisaged a pool of highly trained science and engineering graduates to help build India after the end of British rule in 1947. But the supply of engineers was not matched by sufficient domestic demand, so graduates looked further afield, particularly in the United States where there was hunger for highly skilled workers as the digital revolution took off.

"In the '60s '70s, and '80s, even into the '90s, Indian industry was not yet at the advanced (stages) and... a lot of those who wanted to do cutting-edge technology felt the need to go abroad," IIT Bombay Deputy Director S. Sudarshan said. Agrawal, Pichai and Nadella spent a decade or more working their way through the ranks of their respective companies, building up insider knowledge while gaining the trust of the firms' American founders. And for years, more than half the applicants for US H1-B skilled immigrant visas have been from India, and mostly from the tech sector.

In contrast, engineers from even more populous China had the option of finding jobs at home or returning after completing their US postgrads as their domestic economy boomed, said Johns Hopkins University professor Devesh Kapur, an IIT graduate himself. The phenomenon may wane in time as India's own tech sector thrives, offering the country's best and brightest minds greater domestic opportunities, but for Nandgaonkar, becoming a tech boss like Agrawal or Pichai is not a far-fetched idea. "Why not?" she said, "Dream big!"

19.1. Tourism Sector contributes around 15% in total employment of the country as per 3rd Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 30, 2021

Key Highlights:

 Tourism Sector Contributes approx. 15% in overall employment of the country: 3rd TSA

 Approx 228 million jobs (both direct and indirect) due to tourism

The Ministry of Tourism under its Swadesh Darshan scheme has sanctioned 76 projects under identified themes which includes 2 projects under Rural Theme. Identification, Promotion and Development of Tourism is primarily the responsibility of the State Government.

As per estimation in accordance with 3rd Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for subsequent years namely 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, the contribution of Tourism in total employment of the country is as under:

INDIA AND THE WORLD

21.1. India-born Parag Agrawal replaces Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

ET CIO, Nov. 30, 2021

Jack Dorsey, has resigned as CEO of Twitter Inc., a company he cofounded in 2006. The board of directors of the company has unanimously appointed Parag Agrawal as CEO and a member of the board, effective immediately.

India-born Parag Agrawal took over as the chief executive officer of Twitter on Monday as its cofounder Jack Dorsey stepped down after 16 years at the helm of the San Francisco-headquartered microblogging platform. Agrawal, an IIT-Bombay and Stanford University alumnus, was the chief technology officer of Twitter before the elevation that caught investors by surprise. Twitter stock went up by as much as 10% with the news in opening trade. The two most powerful people at Twitter will now be India-born—the other being Vijaya Gadde, its policy and safety lead director. Agrawal will join the league of several India-born executives, such as IBM's Arvind Krishna, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, to lead large US technology companies that have a presence globally.

Dorsey said the Twitter board of directors ran a rigorous process to look for a successor and "unanimously" appointed Agrawal who will also be appointed to the Twitter's board. In a letter to Twitter employees that he shared on the platform, Dorsey said Agrawal has "been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around". "He's (Agrawal) curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep," Dorsey wrote. Agrawal — who has a PhD in computer science from Stanford University — began his career at Microsoft Research with stints in R&D units of Yahoo and AT&T Labs before joining Twitter as a software engineer in October 2011. "I joined this company 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees," he wrote to Twitter employees in a letter that was shared on his handle.

"While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me. I've walked in your shoes, I've seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter's incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us... Our purpose has never been more important. Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world. There is no limit to what we can do together."

As Twitter's chief technology officer since October 2017, Agrawal has been responsible for the company's technical strategy, leading work to improve development velocity while advancing the state of machine learning across the company. Prior to being appointed CTO, Parag had risen to be Twitter's first distinguished engineer due to his work across revenue and consumer engineering, including his impact on the re-acceleration of audience growth in 2016 and 2017, the company said in its statement.

21.2. We can do much with India on cyber security, tech, digital economy: Australia PM Morrison

ET Telecom, Nov. 18, 2021

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said that there is so much to do with India in the field of technology, adding that both the countries are already cooperating on cyber security, critical and emerging technologies, critical minerals, digital economy.

Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said that there is so much to do with India in the field of technology, adding that both the countries are already cooperating on cyber security, critical and emerging technologies, critical minerals, digital economy. Speaking at Sydney Dialogue for "Deepening technology Partnership among Quad countries", Scott Morrison informed that he will be speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, India's biggest technology summit today and will expand on some of the complementary initiatives with India. "There is much we can do with India in this area - some of which I have already touched on today, including as part of our Quad partnership," he said at the inaugural Sydney Dialogue on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.

"As part of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with India, our two countries are already cooperating -- on cyber security, critical and emerging technologies, critical minerals, the digital economy, and so much more." He added, "I am also speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit today, which is India's biggest technology summit. I will expand on some of the complementary initiatives with India at the Summit." Speaking further on Quad, Morrison said that Australia will also deepen its technology partnerships through the Quad.

"Together with India, Japan and the United States, Australia is working to harness our respective nations' capabilities to enhance the resilience of Indo-Pacific supply chains and foster an open, accessible and secure technology ecosystem," he said. "At September's first in-person Quad Leaders Meeting in Washington DC, we agreed to strengthen lines of effort across a number of very important areas, including, Technical standards, 5G deployment and diversification and detailed horizon scanning and mapping, with an immediate focus on supply chain security for semiconductors and their vital components, as well as exploring opportunities for cooperation on advanced bio-technologies," he added. He finally extended his wishes to those including Prime Minister Narendra Modi for participating in Sydney Dialogue, organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). PM Modi is expected to deliver a keynote address outlining India's technology evolution and revolution, at the inaugural Sydney Dialogue on November 18.

Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of "specified skilled workers" in 14 sectors such as farming, construction and sanitation have been allowed to stay for up to five years, but without their family members.

22.1. Karnataka to set up Start-up Silicon Valley Bridge to enable local professionals to work for US firms

ET Gov. Nov. 21, 2021

The bridge will also serve as a connection between start-ups of both the countries enabling sharing of knowledge and other resources as part of the new initiative.

Karnataka's Minister for Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Higher Education, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood CN Aswath Narayan on Friday announced the setting up of a 'Start-up Silicon Valley Bridge' to help skilled employees of the state to work for start-ups located in the US' Silicon Valley, which are facing human resource shortage. In his valedictory address at the 24th edition of the 'Bengaluru Tech Summit-2021' (BTS) here, the minister said the bridge will also serve as a connection between start-ups of both the countries enabling sharing of knowledge and other resources as part of the new initiative. He also stated, 'Beyond Bengaluru StartUp Grid' will be set up to facilitate growth of emerging industries in other cities of the state outside Bengaluru. Taking a cue from the success story of India's leading stock broking company Zerodha, a homegrown fintech venture, Dr. Narayan announced the constitution of a fin-tech task force to attract investments in the financial sector.

He said the government plans to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) and a back office in Mangaluru for the purpose. Similarly, an entrepreneur has evinced interest in setting up an electric battery manufacturing unit at Hubballi, he said. The minister said the BTS 2021 has attracted investments to the tune of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the aftermath of the announcement of the government's new ESDM policy with industries evincing interest in setting up semiconductor plants, motors for air conditioners, solar cell units, and electric vehicle among others. Notwithstanding the raging pandemic, Narayan said a million people had changed jobs in the last six months and another 4 lakh candidates were getting ready for employment. He said for the first time, the government of Karnataka conducted pre-events in the cities of Mangaluru, Hubballi, and Mysuru in the run-up to the BTS 2021 to promote the concept of industries going beyond Bengaluru. "Tech Summit was held in these clusters with strong participation notwithstanding the pandemic," he said.

The minister said the government of Karnataka has received invitations from various participating countries in the BTS 2021 to visit their countries to further strengthen investment ties. He said the Sydney Conclave and the Indo-US Conclave were successes as it saw the interaction between prime ministers of India and Australia and the US Consul General in Chennai. Narayan also said the 25th edition (silver jubilee) of the BTS to be held in 2022 between November 16 and 18 will be bigger and better and all preparations will go to make it grand and successful than its previous editions. (With IANS inputs)

22.2. Reliance Industries weighs bid for UK’s telco BT Group

ET Telecom, Nov. 29, 2021

May make an unsolicited offer to buy into co or partner fibre arm Openreach. Co's mkt cap at $21 bn. If successful could become the largest outbound M&A by an Indian company.

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani may have set his sights on the UK to expand Jio’s telecom footprint. Reliance Industries is weighing a bid for UK telecoms group, BT, formerly British Telecom, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. This comes just two months after Reliance was outbid by a PE consortium of Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus who scalped T-Mobile’s Dutch unit for €5.1 billion (Rs 43,329 crore as per current conversion rate). Nonetheless, the unexpected bid for the Dutch telecom unit signalled Ambani’s global telecom aspirations. Ambani also has been shuttling between Mumbai and London, after buying the iconic Stoke Park for £57 million. With multiple shareholders in the mix — some 419 institutions own shares in the company — and with some strategic investors said to be open to cashing out if provided with the right offer, the sources cited above expect Reliance to make an unsolicited offer to buy into the company or even stake a claim to corner a controlling share.

Alternatively, it may propose to partner networking or fibre optic arm Openreach and fund its expansion plans, even though the company had last month said it was shelving the earlier plans of roping in a financial or strategic joint venture partner to connect an additional 5 million homes. BT said it would fund the expansion and roll out itself.

The current market cap of BT Group, an FTSE 100 company, is $20.63 billion, as on November 26. If RIL were to take over BT, this will arguably be the largest outbound M&A involving any Indian corporate. However, the sources mentioned above cautioned that these are early-stage deliberations and may not eventually fructify into a transaction. It is unclear if Ambani has met with the BT brass — CEO Philip Jansen and outgoing chairman Jan du Plessis. BT is the UK’s incumbent operator for fixed line telecom services. It has, over the years, added fibre broadband, IP TV, television and sports broadcasting and mobile services among its offerings, that are now provided to over 170 countries worldwide.

However, it has long been derided as retaining its government-like bureaucratic structures from the 1980s when it was privatised. The company has experienced boardroom upheavals. Its stock has fallen 53% in five years, touching an 11-year low in 2020-21. BT declined to comment on what it described as speculation. However, when specifically asked if BT was open to inducting a strategic or financial partner for its fibre arm Openreach, the company spokesperson told ET, “Openreach remains a core, long-term, strategic asset for BT and is performing very well. Whilst we are always open to value creating options for BT, we are currently focussed on building fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) at pace, scale and at a low cost.” Mails sent to Reliance on Saturday did not receive any response till Sunday press time.

Shifting equations BT has been the subject of speculation ever since BT Group’s single-largest shareholder, the Franco-Israeli telecom’s tycoon Patrick Drahi, has been keen on increasing his stake to extend his influence at the British company, betting that its fibre-optic rollout will boost value. Drahi’s new investment vehicle Altice UK is BT’s largest shareholder with a 12.1% stake, having spent over $2.5 billion to accumulate a large pie, ahead of Deutsche Telekom, that operates the T-Mobile brand, which owns 12.06%.

The coming weeks are expected to be crucial for Altice and Reliance. Drahi, 58, has so far backed BT’s plans to build a fibre-optic network serving 25 million homes by the end of 2026 but if he monetises his telecom infrastructure investments elsewhere in Europe (France and Portugal), many believe he will push ahead and pressurise BT to induct partners for the fibre business in a market where rivals Virgin Media, Liberty Global, City Fiber are making rapid inroads into both retail and wholesale segments.

BT last month also announced it is beefing up takeover defences by adding extra protection for holders of its subordinated bond in the shape of change-of-control clauses. Moreover, Drahi’s six month “standstill” agreement lapses on December 11, when he can hike his stake or even bid for the whole company. UK takeover rules disallow anyone who pledges not to launch a takeover attempt from doing so for six months. Last June, Drahi publicly said he wasn’t looking at taking over BT. Many expect Reliance to step into the ring at that point. Even Deutsche Telekom’s CEO has repeatedly shown his interest in reviewing options for its stake, with Tim Hoettges going on record in September to say he wants to keep “all options open” regarding BT. Deutsche Telekom holds the BT stake in its pension fund. “I would say that in the next 12 months something is going to happen with the asset because the shareholder side is changing rapidly,” Hoettges said in response to a question from an analyst this September.

“BT has always been a potential target for activism or a takeover with no government stake per Orange and Deutsche Telekom, and with no mechanism in place to defend the company such as with KPN. BT’s response today is to welcome investors supporting its strategy, but clearly this represents a new dynamic,” said David Wright, analyst with Bank of America. “So far Altice’s official commentary is supportive of strategy and management. A full takeover would surely face major obstacles with government involvement over security and fibre coverage etc. also with the pension deficit.” The business has improved after two years of turbulence (2017-19) and BT CEO Jansen has been advancing his vision for the company resulting in bolder and braver decisions, forecast revisions, a dividend cut and share price underperformance. Earlier this year, it advanced its target to achieve an additional £2 billion cost savings by the end of its fiscal 2024, a year ahead of plan. It also shaved its peak capital expenditure outlook in the financial year to 2023 by £200 million to £4.8 billion and achieved an initial £1 billion of savings 18 months ahead of schedule. UK media outlets reported Amazon, ITV, British sports streaming service DAZN Group have been in talks to buy into BT’s sports broadcasting business which airs English Premier League and Champions League Football. “Growth is turning positive, and BT benefits from tax breaks and lower spectrum costs to bridge investment calls on cash flow. Cost cutting accelerated as BT held on to Covid savings. There is sizeable potential for cost-cutting at BT, given the business has the lowest incumbent domestic margins and particularly with £6.2 billion labour cost (2x similar sized Orange France at €3.7 billion),” said Jakob Bluestone, an analyst with Credit Suisse, this November.

23.1. ‘India is running the world’s data centers’

ET CIO, Nov. 26, 2021

Cloud is the biggest enabler of data in today’s world. The use of data in understanding the needs of businesses adds an extra dash of intelligence and understanding. That said, there could also be challenges around the data deluge. Let’s understand some of the issues around cloud, data management in the cloud, the speed at which services can be accessed, and the issues like privacy, and security. Ravi Chhabria, Managing Director of NetApp in a conversation with the Senior Editor of The Economic Times, Ashutosh Sinha spoke of the various opportunities and advantages that cloud-based services offer. Is it a perfect time to be in the cloud business? The shift to cloud started almost two decades ago with the main objective of cost optimization. Today, we are presented with some real questions. During the pandemic, the very existence of the businesses was challenged. We see that businesses who have managed to really thrive in the context of the cloud are doing better than others.

They are accelerating - to the point that they are creating a wave that other businesses are catching on to. Predictably, there is a monumental shift towards Cloud Services that is building in momentum. Companies at times have too much of data, so how do you classify it, so that the storage cost is optimized and the performance of services that the end users access, and the businesses access is not compromised? Over time, we have gone from systems that were very good at transacting to systems that are now very good at interacting. The video output from any virtual event translates into data in the cloud that needs to be accessed by people from various devices. This segment is going to grow two-fold in the next year itself. So that’s been one big difference.

But the notion of obtaining value out of data has been an age old one. One must be able to optimize data in massive amounts and be able to derive value from the bits that matter – in any given moment, while not losing the ability to maximize the value that you could get at another moment. Optimization of data is very important, and protection of data is exceptionally important, along with its security. Irrespective of whether the data is in your country or another, governance is yet another significant factor to be considered. Our goal as an industry is to take the complexity out of it so that the businesses can derive value out of it – to make data an enabler. There are many success stories to prove that data is now being seen as the new oil.

What are some of the steps that smaller companies can take so that they can ride on the data and the cloud opportunity?

If you and I were to start a business fifteen years back, we would be planning for our IT infrastructure to begin with. We would be thinking of a data center, we would be raising capital and building out an IT infrastructure and do more of what is not core to our business. What you see today is the generation of innumerable unicorns. People have built these humungous businesses without building data centers. In today’s world, the compute capability, and the IT capability is easily consumed as a utility- or as a service. In our startup accelerator program in India – the NetApp Excellerator, we have 23-year-olds, who have never seen a data center. They are building up businesses across verticals that are built on AI and ML or other modern technologies without having to worry about the infrastructure.

This is how the cloud has enabled new businesses, as well the transition of legacy businesses moving to the cloud. With challenges getting real and harder, now is the right time to look at what is designed for the cloud and what is not. If you are a small and a young business, it’s easy. On the other hand, if you are a legacy company and are running a data center, you would need help. That’s the kind of capabilities that we have been building up – to enable new businesses with cloud and help transition existing businesses to the cloud. Traditional businesses have a certain way of working.

What are some of the best practices for hot and cold- data that you recommend, keeping in mind this can also be for legacy businesses?

If you pick any of our largest customers globally, you will realize that at the core of their data center, they have specialists- people who are specialized in managing storage. There is a lot of insight or experience that they bring to their organization. A few things have changed on this in the cloud world; we now have systems that are self-optimizing.

The things that we built to modernize the data center are absolutely paying off dividends in the cloud. Because the cloud user does not really have the data management expertise. They are consuming storage and are expecting their storage consumption to increase with the increase in business revenues. They also feel that the operations need to be cost optimized. They hope to cut costs on offerings that are not being used – basically spend more mindfully and only as they use them. So, at some point, there must be introspection on data without calling on a specialist.

NetApp wants your systems to be the specialist. To put it in the context of our portfolio, we have products like CloudInsight to tell you what’s happening. The system gets a view of the data, optimizes it, all without any initiative from the end user. It is making your data report to you in an intelligent manner. Also, this exclusive partnership with Amazon is making headlines around the world.

What more could it mean as services for the enterprise customers?

The partnership has been a result of our 9 year-long relationship with AWS, through which we are pulling off something which is exceptionally simple for our customers. It’s an integration that took about three years. It has culminated today in a manner that allows us to reach our customers in a new fashion. We have essentially created an opportunity that literally scans every single choice, a business small or large, new, or legacy which they choose and want to engage with. And we have done it not because we have put in 10 times the effort, we have taken the same effort, the same operating system for storage and have created a big business. That is unique. There is not anybody that can tell you that they have this intermediary to manage data, to secure data, that remains constant as you move from one cloud to another to the third that facilitates the movement, to be born in the cloud, and move back in the data center or be in the data center and burst into the cloud. Therein comes our uniqueness.

In the India market, what’s happening in the public cloud at NetApp?

There used to be a time when we used to think that the India market, or the Indian IT sector is lagging globally which sis no longer the case. Today however, most of the world’s data centers are now running in India. If you look at what we used to consider to be Indian Tech companies, they are running the world’s data centers, from wherever they are in the world. There has been a shift in the way technology has been built out even in India. Few decades ago, we were supplying talent to the world. A decade ago, we started doing what was very core development. Currently, if you look at across our broad IT ecosystem, India is basically running the world’s data centers regardless of where they are. But things like the cloud capability allows a company like NetApp to scale like it never did. What ended up happening a week ago was that with a switch of a button, a NetApp service that was lying in your data center, was suddenly made available to you anytime, anywhere with the most frictionless transaction possible.

23.2. Made in India CEOs continue to lead global tech giants; but 'USA benefits greatly from Indian talent'

ETHRWorld, Dec. 2, 2021

Global tech giants "Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter are run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants," tweets Patrick Collison, to which billionaire SpaceX chief Elon Musk responded: USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!

As the world's largest democracy, India can boast of this as a great achievement, but what about its own ambition of making India a USD 5 trillion economy and global power house by 2024-25?

Do the government leaders have any plans to attract this kind of extraordinary talent to lead Indian corporates?

It may be a matter of great pride for 1.3 billion Indians that more and more of their countrymen (and women) continue to lead global tech giants, but it's the USA that benefits the most from this talent, as a cross section of people sum up on Twitter, which is now going to be run by one more India-born Parag Agrawal. Global tech giants "Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter are run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants," tweets Patrick Collison, to which billionaire SpaceX chief Elon Musk responded: USA benefits greatly from Indian talent! However, on a matter of factly note, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao @ramgopal_rao, Director of @iitdelhi reacts: All of them had a free education in India at the cost of Indian tax payers money. High time American philanthropy extended to supporting Indian higher education.

As the world's largest democracy, India can boast of this as a great achievement, but what about its own ambition of making India a USD 5 trillion economy and global power house by 2024-25?

Do the government leaders have any plans to attract this kind of extraordinary talent to lead Indian corporates? As a Twitter user puts it, can we hope: #MakeInIndia program will create good opportunities for all these talented people to work and grow in India? Many Herculean tasks await new CEO? Parag Agrawal, 37, who succeeds Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey after a four-year stint as CTO, is the youngest person to run a company in the S&P 500, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Agrawal earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and then a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University before joining Twitter in 2011.

As CTO, he oversaw Twitter's pursuit of blockchain and other decentralized technologies. What this low-profile technologist is going to inherit is a social network that has underperformed the market, slow to introduce new products, and struggled to moderate harmful content under a leader long criticized for divided attention. On the other hand, the stand-alone social media platform is also going to face tough competition from Donald Trump's upcoming Truth Social. In a continued battle with Twitter, the former POTUS Donald Trump in October announced that a new social media app called Truth Social was to be launched by his Trump Media & Technology Group. The platform was slated to enter limited beta in November, before a full public launch in 2022.

This way, not one, but many Herculean tasks await Parag Agrawal who is reportedly undergoing a crash course now on how to be a high profile global CEO. Making peace with India? In the backdrop of the war that has been going on with India's powers that be, and given the sentimentality of the people, the Twitter Inc's decision to appoint Parag Agrawal in the top post can also be seen as a strategic move to smoothen the disturbed relations with India, which accounts for the platform's third largest user base of over 24.45 millions, only after the USA (77.75 million) and Japan (58.2 million). The platform’s reach in India may be relatively small, but it proved to be critical for political communication and that's the reason the government wants some control over it.

Beginning this year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian government continue to take on the social media platform in various forms like the introduction of a new set of rules for social media platforms and digital news outlets, called the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code. The new rules mandate that social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook need to censor speech as per an expanded set of definitions, set up a compliance team that resides in India and take down content within 36 hours of being ordered to do so by the government. This followed by raids on Twitter's offices by the Delhi Police, which were seen as an expression of the government's displeasure over the ruling party’s propaganda being labeled “manipulated media” by the social network.

Later on June 16, the Uttar Pradesh police sought to question the India head of Twitter for allowing an elderly Muslim man’s hate crime allegations to be published on the platform. Twitter has moved the Supreme Court to stay any coercive action by the government for now. Parag had worked as a researcher for Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc. and AT&T Corp., according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined Twitter in 2011 as an engineer at a time when the company had fewer than 1,000 employees. In that role, he worked on boosting audience growth and revenue and was named Twitter's first distinguished engineer, according to the company.

In the role of CTO since 2017, he led the company's technical strategy including overseeing advancements in machine learning, the company website says. India-born global CEOs Satya Nadella has been the CEO of Microsoft since 2014, the third after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Born in Hyderabad, Telangana, Nadella received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, and MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Satya also got an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Google CEO Sundar Pichai (since 2015), earned his degree in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, and holds an MS from Stanford University in materials science and engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Shantanu Narayen, has been the CEO of Adobe since 2007. Narayen earned a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from the University College of Engineering, Osmania University, Hyderabad.

He did a master's in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and later received an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Arvind Krishna has been the CEO of IBM since April 2020 and took over as chairman in January 2021. Krishna has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur, and did his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. Aman Bhutani has been serving as the CEO of GoDaddy since 2019. Bhutani did his bachelor's from the University of Delhi and an MBA from Lancaster University. Jayshree Ullal, the CEO of Arista Networks since 2008, did her BS in electrical engineering from the San Francisco State university and a master's from the Santa Clara University in engineering management. Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, has been with the company since 2014 and has joined as the Head of Global Marketing. Sud has graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BSc in Finance and Management and did her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Revathi Advaithi, the CEO of Flex, an American multinational electronics contract manufacturer, has been leading the company since 2019. She did her bachelor's degree from BITS Pilani and has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Nikesh Arora has been the CEO of Palo Alto Networks since 2018, before which he worked in Google and SoftBank. Arora has a bachelor's degree from the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University, and an MBA from Northeastern University, besides an MSc from Boston College. Sanjay Mehrotra has been the CEO of Micron Technology since 2017. A co-founder of SanDisk, Mehrotra served as the president and CEO of San Disk until its acquisition by Western Digital (WD). Grorge Kurian became the CEO and president of data storage company NetApp in 2015. He has studied engineering at IIT Madras, and later pursued the same course from Princeton University. He got his MBA from Stanford University.

Aneel Bhusri, the CEO of Workday, co-founded the company in 2005 and has been serving in the position since inception. Bhusri got a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Brown University and holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate Business School. Steve Sanghi, the CEO of Microchip Technology Inc., is also the company's founder and first president. He was named the President of Microchip in August 1990 and has been CEO since 1991. Sanghi pursued a master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

24.1. Global hires go beyond IT, tap more desi talent

ETHRWorld, Nov. 27 2021

Jobs from various global markets are being outsourced to skilled talent in India, and this is not restricted to IT alone.

MUMBAI: India appears to be the flavour of current times for recruiters globally with Indian talent the most sought after amid a rise in cross-border hiring. Jobs from various global markets are being outsourced to skilled talent in India, and this is not restricted to IT alone. Recruitment firms say the trend is broad-based and is also playing out in non-IT fields such as digital marketing, content, design, accounting, administrative, project management, supply chain and even manufacturing.

The twin advantages for outsourcing jobs to talent here is skills as well as proficiency in English language. Global recruitment firms are said to be at an advantage given that they can leverage the expertise in sourcing jobs from across the world. Sanjay Shetty, head (search & selection) at Randstad India said, “Randstad’s other operating companies have expressed interest in how India can deploy talent for their customers in those markets. We are also receiving direct inquiries from customers themselves on these lines. There are global manufacturers who have only liaison offices in India, but they are keen on hiring senior people and deploying them on Randstad’s rolls till they firm up their plans. Till then, these executives will be on our payrolls.”

Shetty said organisations across countries like Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Belgium and Singapore, to name a few, who do not yet have operations in India, are hiring people on Randstad’s rolls. “We are deploying this talent till these companies sort out their books of account and begin operations. As a staffing company, we are using our hire-and-deploy model till companies set up their permanent offices in India. Earlier, we used to keep only junior level talent on our payrolls, but now we are doing so for senior executives as well,” said Shetty. TeamLease Services EVP & co-founder Rituparna Chakraborty said talent acquisition professional is one of the biggest profiles being sought from India for cross-border jobs. “The biggest demand is coming from the Middle East. We are also seeing enquiries from the UK and some from Europe,” said Chakraborty.

While most markets earlier followed a decentralised system, the last 18-20 months of work-from-home has turned things around. “The pandemic has altered cost structures and companies are keen on investing in India. India also has the requisite skills, the availability of which may be an issue in some other countries. Language is another big plus for Indian talent. Such organisations do not want talent to migrate out of India, rather they are keen that they continue to work from here,” said Shetty. Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com, a Quess company, said, “Hiring has become location-agnostic at a global scale. A lot of organisations outside India are looking for talent that can stay and work out of India. Salary difference between what someone makes in an overseas market and India is narrowing because of the demand-supply gap.” The difference in salary between top talent working on specific jobs in India and abroad is 30-40%. “This gap has been reducing consistently for 10-15 years. The trend has accelerated over the last 5 years,” said Shetty. Given the current trend, Shetty believes cross-border hiring could grow to account for 10% of the pie for any professional recruitment firm over the next 2-3 years. “Currently, it contributes 2-3%.”

24.2. First of its kind program for lateral entry for women researchers in joint R&D projects between India and Germany launched

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 29, 2021

A first-of-its-kind programme to promote women in the field of research and development through lateral entry was launched. The programme called Women’s Involvement in Science and Engineering Research (WISER) program was launched by Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) for encouraging women researchers in joint R&D projects.

Mr. SK Varshney, Indian co-chair and Head, International Cooperation Division, DST, pointed out that WISER will enable gender equality and women’s participation in Science and Technology through IGSTC’s program.

Speaking on behalf of German co-chair and German Education & Research Ministry, Dr. Ulrike Wolters, Member Secretary, IGSTC/BMBF, said that this programme will be in addition to the ongoing flagship 2+2 program of the Centre.

This program by IGSTC, a joint initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Government of Germany, will support women scientists holding regular/long term research positions in academia or research institutes/industry. The involvement in the program will be possible through lateral entry.

There is neither requirement of break-in-career nor any age limit, and it will enable easy participation.

IGSTC is going to support the awardees with a maximum amounting to Rs. 39 lakh from the Indian side & € 48,000 from the German side. WISER program offers 20 awards per year.

The program was launched in the presence of eminent woman scientists from both countries. From Indian side, Dr. Tessy Thomas, DRDO, and Dr. Muthayya Vanitha, ISRO, welcomed and appraised the program. From the German side, Dr. Nicola Marsden, University of Applied Sciences Heilbronn, and Ms. Petra Lucht, Technical University Berlin, explained the need of such programs for enabling woman participation in the science and technology. Dr. Nisha Mehndiratta, Head WISE-KIRAN, DST, was also present at the launch.

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

25.1. India unseats Brazil as No.1 food supplier to Arab nations after 15 years

IBEF, Dec. 09, 2021

After 15 years, India outpaces Brazil to become the top food exporting country to the League of Arab states.

According to Arab-Brazil Chamber of Commerce, The Arab League of States is one of the top trade partners of Brazil. Amid Covid-19 pandemic, Brazil’s geographical limitations acted as a barrier after the global logistics rattled. In 2020, Brazil accounted for almost 8.15% of total Agri-based products import to the 22 League members. However, India registered 8.25% of that trade, putting an end to Brazil’s 15-years of dominance. Brazil also lost its advantage to other exporters like Turkey, the US, France, and Argentina due to the negative effects of the pandemic on traditional shipping routes. Shipments from Brazil to Saudi Arabia took 60 days instead of 30 days. However, the geographic advantage helped India ship fruits, vegetables, sugar, grains, and meat in less than a week.

In 2020, Brazil’s agricultural exports to the Arab League increased marginally by 1.4% to US$ 8.17 billion. Between the months of January and October 2021, sales were up 5.5% to US$ 6.78 billion only.

The chamber stated that China featured their own inventories during the pandemic and rerouted some of Brazil’s trades with the Arabs. Countries like Saudi Arabia are big buyers but also net exporters of food.

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

25.2. "WTO needs to reassess the way it has been conducting its affairs", says Mr. Piyush Goyal

Press Information Bureau, Nov. 22nd, 2021

The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Mr. Piyush Goyal has said the WTO needs to reassess the way it has been conducting its affairs. Pointing out that certain countries don’t give market access equitably and openly, and extend hidden subsidies, Mr. Goyal said the developed countries should do more and meet their obligations such as providing clean and green technology to achieve the SDGs and achieve Climate goals and meet the needs of billions of people.

“It think it’s so unfair! I can understand a discussion on which countries should be considered developing and which should now be considered developed, I think the world should be open to a discussion on that. But to deprive countries from certain differentiated treatment in their business practices when they are at levels of US$ 600-3000 per capita income and putting them on the same benchmark as a country which makes US$ 60,000 or US$ 80,000 per capita is grossly unfair. So, I think the developed world should look at their priorities,”said Mr. Goyal, while interacting during a session on “Enhancing Global Footprint: India’s Big Opportunity” at the CII Global Economic Policy Summit -2021.

Pointing out that the world’s second largest number of STEM Graduates are Indians or Persons of Indian Origin, Mr. Goyal said, “the most powerful countries in the world now are concerned about the growing dominance of non-transparent and non-market economies and, therefore, are looking to engage with India because in their own ecosystem they are not preparing as many STEM graduates as a country like India does.”

Stating that the world is looking at India’s contribution to Innovation and Sustainability, Mr. Goyal said, “India is a land of disruptive ideas and our industries will play a critical role in growing our global footprint as we undertake bold reforms for achieving aggressive targets.”

Mr. Goyal said the Government should have no role in running businesses, rather it should act as a facilitator.

“Boosting the role of the private sector and engaging both the Government and the private sector to work possibly through private-public partnerships, through greater engagement with the private sector and the government, but leaving the work of running businesses to business. So the Government’s job to keep expanding our footprint or our engagement into businesses, our role should be more and more facilitating businesses. And Prime Minister Mr. Modi has over the last seven years focussed a lot on getting businesses to be run by business persons and government to act more as a facilitator. And we hope to be able to take that forward in a much bigger way.”

Mr. Goyal said the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had assured at the G20 Summit that India will manufacture five billion vaccines during the next year to make the world a safer place.

“The world’s first DNA vaccine is coming out of India, the world’s first nasal vaccine, we will soon have a RNA vaccine which will match the best in the world, in fact be better than the best in the world, it won’t need Minus 60-70 degrees temperature to store that vaccine, it can be done between Minus 2-10 degree. Look at the huge impact it will have in the logistics chain and the ability to deliver that worldwide at affordable prices in a very cost competitive manner,” he said.

Mr. Goyal said: “The contribution that India is proposing to make in the next few months completely overrides the contribution of any other country or any other region when it comes to truly making vaccines available to every nook and corner of the globe, particularly the Less Developed Countries and the developing countries.”

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

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Sunday 19 December 2021

NEWSLETTER, 20-XII-2021

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

– AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

– INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE

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

NEWSLETTER, 20-XII-2021

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT