FutureSkills Prime, a platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NASSCOM, has launched a digital upskilling incentives programme. FutureSkills Prime is an end-to-end re-skilling or up-skilling portal to foster innovation and talent in the country. According to a news report, the move will go a long way in funding the ambitions of eligible learners by enabling them to navigate careers in emerging technologies. The dynamic, AI-enabled platform will respond to the rapidly changing needs of the market. The platform will focus on bridging the talent gap at the entry-level and train India’s existing workforce in emerging technologies.
The FutureSkills Prime programme offers globally competitive curriculums, aligned with the industry, and approved by the government. It emphasises online learning (with no geographical barriers) to promote the democratisation of learning across India. It supports equitable learning and employability prospects for all. It allows a candidate to take a diagnostic test that provides information to aid their training and career-related decisions. An official stated that the platform should not be seen “just as an entry-level skilling platform but as a continuous dynamic ladder of skilling, upskilling, and rescaling. The outcomes and measures of upskilling are really about career progression.” The platform will also look to onboard specific skill sets and job roles from other verticals such as fintech and healthcare to the new requirement for hybrid professionals.
The platform also offers badges, ‘skills passports’, and a ‘learners’ ledger’ that are unique to the platform and lets the learner record their skilling journey. Furthermore, it provides blended learning modes, faculty development, formative assessments, and learning analytics. FutureSkills Prime ensures a comprehensive competency framework that addresses all skill levels, the news report stated.
An industry analyst noted that the pandemic has compelled the world to look not only at digital skills but business transformation, which ultimately means that technology is the glue binding the new world together. Under the incentives programme, potential learners can upskill in ten of the most in-demand areas of advanced technologies. The programme covers foundations and deep-skilling courses across technologies, including AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and augmented/virtual reality. While the FutureSkills Prime platform offers numerous industry-handpicked courses and pathways, many of them free of cost, the incentive programme will help candidates train in paid technical courses while being reimbursed on completion.
Employees in IT and non-IT firms, young professionals looking for a career in emerging technologies, central and state government employees, autonomous bodies, interns, and apprentices, are eligible for the programme. The government will provide an INR₹ 8,000 (US$107) reimbursement or 50% of the course fee for the deep skill courses, IN₹3,000 (US$40) or 50% of the course fee for the foundation courses, and IN₹3,000 (US$40) or 50% of the course fee for the bridge courses. Learners can sign up for the incentive scheme on FutureSkills Prime within 60 days of completing the course and clearing the assessments.
India’s demand for digital talent jobs is currently 8 times larger than the available talent pool and is expected to rise to twenty times by 2024. By FY2024, the demand for professionals in emerging technologies is projected to increase by 38%, while an increase in employed talent remains at 29%.
A forum to promote investment in information and communications technology (ICT) in the central city of Da Nang from the Republic of Korea (RoK) was recently held virtually. The event brought together representatives from over 200 enterprises and investors from the two countries. It introduced potential, advantages, preferential, and investment support policies of Da Nang to RoK businesses and investors, especially in ICT and high technology.
Addressing the event, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Phan Tam, noted that the RoK is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 9,000 projects worth over US$71.5 billion, including nearly 500 investment projects in the ICT field with the presence of the world’s leading technology corporations. According to a news report, to welcome more investments from the RoK, the Vietnamese government has been perfecting models, mechanisms, and policies to create breakthrough development for concentrated IT parks in key economic centres.
Da Nang’s municipal authority is working with the central agencies to build a digital ecosystem, giving priority to attracting foreign-invested projects in IT and high technology, towards developing the central city into a destination for global digital technology corporations, Tam said. Participants discussed the development of Vietnam’s ICT industry, investment of Korean firms in general, and Korean ICT enterprises in particular in Vietnam.
Korean investors also shared their investment experience in Da Nang. Consul General of the RoK in Da Nang, Ahn Min-Sik, stated that this is the right time to strengthen cooperation in IT to connect other sectors, expressing his hope that RoK corporations and Da Nang city will promote stronger ICT cooperation as well as in other fields for sustainable development. According to the Vice-Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, the city considers the RoK one of its key partners and wishes to promote connectivity and investment from Korean companies in its ICT sector. Da Nang pledges to create favourable conditions for RoK investors to set up and operate effectively projects in Da Nang.
The RoK is one of the strategic markets that Da Nang is calling for investment. The RoK is one of the five countries and territories that have the highest number of projects and investment capital in Da Nang, with 233 projects worth US$378.14 million as of this November. Information technology is one of the key areas that Da Nang city is focusing on calling for Korean investors. The city has set a target of earning 2.34 billion USD from the ICT sector by 2025.
In 2014, Da Nang was the first city in Vietnam to launch an e-government system and transferred it to 16 cities and provinces in 2016. The city has maintained its leading position in terms of readiness for ICT development and application, topping the Vietnam ICT Index rankings for another year in 2020. This was the 12th consecutive year it had secured first place in the ratings of Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces. The city posted a total score of 0.9238 in last year’s rankings; 12% higher than that of the runner-up – neighbouring Thua Thien-Hue province. It scored 1.00 in the category of IT applications.
Researchers and businesses preparing to head to the moon can test their technologies in a new facility established by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. The purpose-built facility in Brisbane provides a Moon-like environment for testing and evaluating rovers and related equipment with an initial focus of exploring lunar terrain and resources.
Apollo program astronauts observed first-hand the challenges of working on the moon. One of those challenges was the fine abrasive dust that covered their spacesuits and instruments. CSIRO’s new In-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) Facility includes a sealed dust area to safely handle and manage various types of lunar regolith simulant – fabricated moondust – with properties like those on the surface of the moon. The facility also incorporates smaller tanks and pits for smaller-scale tests and a mission control room to remotely monitor rovers, payloads and related equipment.
CSIRO Space Program Director Dr Kimberley Clayfield said the facility is an excellent addition to the suite of facilities CSIRO manages and will complement CSIRO’s space research and the activities of the Australian space sector. “Our ability to simulate the lunar terrain at this scale is an exciting advancement for the development of space technology in Australia.”
The facility is the latest example of the agency’s commitment to stimulating innovation, supporting industry and solving the greatest challenges through space science, technology and exploration. CSIRO is looking forward to working with researchers and businesses from across the space sector to test their technology and systems for future space missions. Several international space agencies and companies are planning new missions to the Moon’s surface to identify materials that could support further exploration and potentially habitation.
The CSIRO ISRU Project Leader explained how the lunar regolith is both the solution and one of the major challenges facing these robotic missions. Scientists know the regolith will contain useful materials like oxygen that could be used for fuel or breathable air, however, they need to first identify these elements and develop ways of extracting and processing them. The challenge is the moondust is powdery, sharp and electrostatically charged so it sticks to everything and has the potential to damage the technology sent to investigate it. The new facility offers technology developers the opportunity to test their equipment closer to home, in a safe environment to find solutions to this dusty problem.
The facility is located at CSIRO’s Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies, home to other testing facilities including the robotics playground where CSIRO’s robotics team trained for their silver-medal performance in the recent DARPA Subterranean Challenge. “Integration and access to other facilities and equipment on site is another advantage that will benefit future users of our facility,” CSIRO ISRU Project Leader said.
Despite significant contributions to advances in astronomy and international space endeavours, the Australian local space sector is young, compared with its global peers. The sector generated approximately $4.8 billion in 2018-19, which is equivalent to 0.25% of Australia’s GDP, up from an estimated $3.8 billion in 2015. By comparison, the revenue of the space sector in Canada is equivalent to 0.4% of GDP, and globally space sector revenue is equivalent to 0.5% of GDP.
In leading space nations, it is higher. Space sector revenue in the United States is equivalent to 1.0% of GDP, while the UK space sector’s revenue is equivalent to 0.7% of GDP. Recognising the rapid growth of the global space industry and its economic potential for Australia, the Australian Government established the Australian Space Agency (the Agency) in July 2018 to support the sector and drive further growth.
The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is partnering with private-sector cybersecurity providers in an initiative that has the potential to prevent millions of dollars of cyber harm. A new cyber defence capability recently launched by the GCSB’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will make the centre’s cyber threat intelligence available to commercial cybersecurity providers to help defend their customers’ networks.
GCSB Director-General, Andrew Hampton, explained that the key to scaling the benefits from NCSC cyber defence capabilities is to work in partnership with other cybersecurity providers. The Malware Free Networks (MFN) capability makes that possible, providing a platform to share indicators of malicious activity with security service providers so they can detect and disrupt that activity on their customers’ networks.
MFN is the NCSC’s threat detection and disruption service that provides near real-time threat intelligence reflecting current malicious activity targeting New Zealand organisations. The MFN threat intelligence service can be integrated with other systems and platforms to increase the range of malicious activity MFN customers are defended against. MFN complements commercial threat intelligence by detecting and disrupting against indicators identified through NCSC’s advanced cyber defence capabilities and sourced from the NCSC’s international cyber security partnerships.
There have been more than 40,000 indicators of compromise deployed to MFN since the new service was piloted and went live in September last year. Hampton stated that these indicators are derived from a range of sources, including the operation of the NCSC’s cyber defence capabilities, through incident response work, and from international partners. As of 30 November 2021, MFN has disrupted more than 10,000 threats. According to a news report, he claimed that MFN is preventing real harm. As the span of capability grows, and more partners include MFN in their services the benefit for New Zealand organisations both public and private will increase exponentially.
The NCSC reported earlier this month that the operation of its cyber defence capabilities helped reduce harm to New Zealand organisations by $119 million in the last financial year, and more than $284 million since these capabilities became operational in 2016. The MFN capability was first piloted as part of the rollout of those capabilities. While the pilot showed it has significant potential, it also highlighted a range of technical challenges. Since the pilot, the NCSC has worked extensively with a range of local partners to address technical challenges and deliver a technology platform that can take cyber threat information and promptly turn it into actionable threat intelligence which partners can deploy.
The NCSC currently has agreements with nine MFN partner organisations. These partners are progressively offering the MFN service as part of their managed security products. The achievement in developing those partnership relationships and delivering the MFN service platform reflects the commitment and considerable technical capability of the NCSC staff, Hampton informed. Responding to the ever-growing threats that New Zealand’s organisations face today, there needs to be increased partnership and collaboration across the public and private sectors. The delivery and scaling of MFN capability is an example of that, Hampton explained. However, no single cybersecurity capability is a silver bullet. He added, “We still need organisations to ensure they have effective cyber security governance, understand their critical systems and risks – particularly across their supply chain and to have a plan for how they would respond to a cybersecurity incident.”
Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiyawut said that digital technology has become an important part of daily life and the digital economy is expanding. There are many unexpected development opportunities in digital technology and businesses and consumers are accelerating transformation initiatives. Everything is more connected to the world and cross border / globalised services are no longer geographically restricted. Minister Chaiyawut said new trends are driving change in a more digital world underpinned by technology – surveillance, tracking and storage.
To move with the flow and maximise Thailand’s economic development with digital technology, the government has given priority to 5 G as it sees opportunities and potential. He reiterated the government’s commitment to leverage 5G for economic development and to increase the competitiveness on the world stage for Thailand. At present, the Ministry of Digital has accelerated the push to pilot the use of 5G technology in a total of nine projects spread widely across all regions of the country in various sectors including agriculture, health, industry, education, transportation and Smart City.
Government spending in Thailand increased to THB 417833 million in the third quarter of 2021 from THB 407010 million in the second quarter of 2021 showing an upward trend. Further, Thailand’s overall IT spending is expected to hit THB 819 billion in 2021, up 7.4% year-on-year.
Thailand’s IT spending is expected to grow 6.4% year-on-year to THB871 billion in 2022 with strong growth in enterprise software, driven by continued hybrid work and remote services, according to research by a global research firm. The projected IT spending growth for next year, however, is still higher than the global growth of 5.5% with US$4.47 trillion in IT spending expected in 2022. To put it in context, worldwide IT spending in 2021 is expected to reach $4.24 trillion, up 9.5% year-on-year.
Enterprise software is projected to see the highest growth of 14.8% to THB61.3 billion in 2022, followed by IT services with a growth of 9.8% to 85.4 billion and devices with a growth of 9% to 220 billion. Communication service is expected to see the lowest growth of 3.8% next year but would maintain the largest IT spending segment in the country at THB483 billion – about half of the total market.
Spending growth on devices, primarily PCs and tablets, reached a peak of 21.7% in 2021, buoyed by people working and studying from home. Individuals and enterprises upgraded their devices or invested in multiple devices for remote or hybrid work. Spending on data centre systems is projected to rise 4.6% to THB21.6 billion.
An industry expert noted that enterprises will increasingly build new technologies and software, rather than buy and implement them, leading to overall slower spending levels in 2022 compared to 2021. However, digital tech initiatives remain a top strategic business priority for companies as they continue to reinvent the future of work, focusing spending on making their infrastructure bulletproof and accommodating increasingly complex hybrid work for employees going into 2022.
Other reports note that the vast majority of businesses have been propelled by digital disruption with most executives globally admitting its transformative impact to an extent. Furthermore, the implementation rate of advanced technologies, except robotics, and basic technologies has all increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This indicates a digital adoption of all technologies across business sectors at a rapid pace during the COVID-19 period. It is therefore crucial and intriguing to identify digital disruption perspectives and approaches to digital implementation across companies in Thailand.
The higher digital transformation rate coupled with and an immense and unforeseeable impact from the COVID-19 pandemic across all businesses are evident. Businesses are and should be more active in the digital transformation movement and the digital environment in the market, given the persistent and increasing VUCA world. For the most part, a majority of the companies have entered a digital adopter stage post-COVID-19 compared to the digital evaluator stage that existed pre-pandemic. As expected and borne out by performance in a post-pandemic landscape, financial services, life sciences and healthcare have seen astronomical growth, propelled by accelerated digital initiatives.
The Centre on AI Technology for Humankind (AiTH) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School has rolled out recommendations on how society and organisations should approach Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ways that truly promote human interests and well-being.
The manifesto “The Road to a Human-Centred Digital Society: Opportunities, Challenges and Responsibilities for Humans in the Age of Machines” advocates an approach that empowers human experiences of competence, belonging, control and well-being. It offers seven high-level recommendations that can guide businesses and policymakers in their pursuit of a Human-centered approach to AI (HCAI).
Most of us interact with AI systems on a daily basis, even if we do not realise it. Many of these systems are focused on promoting human performance with the narrowly defined goal to increase efficiency, and hence productivity. But to make our tech efforts sustainable and build a truly humane and creative society, we need to focus on developing tech that optimises and enriches a variety of experiences that make us uniquely human. Our recommendations guide both individuals and organisations in their AI approach.
– Professor David De Cremer, Founding Director of AiTH
One recommendation is that digital transformation and the adoption of intelligent technologies should be a collaborative effort driven by unique human values, not just by profit. The value companies and society want to create for end-users should serve as the basis for any kind of AI adoption and provide a lens for evaluating the appropriateness and necessity of technological interventions.
Making technologies available is a judgment call is one that humans, are responsible for. AiTH makes the argument about the need for better education for leaders and decision-makers in better ways so that they are equipped with the necessary soft skills to understand what building a human-centred society truly means.
For organisations that are embarking on their AI journey, AI deployments used solely for cost-cutting purposes will not only fail to reveal immediate returns but will also prove to be unsustainable. Instead, cost-cutting efforts need to be accompanied by equal investments in “human upskilling” – to ensure that the abilities, actions and interests of humans are further cultivated with the support and assistance of technology.
When companies integrate AI tools with the human workforce, it is important not to treat human and machine intelligence as equivalent or interchangeable. The future of work will have to be a collaborative one: where AI systems are deployed in ways that respect and connect with the skills and abilities that make us uniquely human – such as creativity, autonomy, and social belonging. Researchers should be advancing and developing machines to serve humans in their full existence, rather than preparing humans to adapt and serve the logic of machines.
OpenGov Asia reported Singapore’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) research is intended at accelerating the country’s transformation into a Smart Nation. AI has been used effectively in Singapore to either supplement human intellect or develop automated methods and systems to improve people’s quality of life.
Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) recently announced their collaboration to address this topic at the Singapore Defence Technology Summit 2021.
The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) conducts basic research in all areas of computer science and artificial intelligence. CSAIL is dedicated to pioneering new theoretical approaches as well as the development of applications with broad societal impact.
“In the global emerging technologies field, artificial intelligence (AI) research has been a particularly exciting space on the cusp of game-changing findings and applications. Collaborations with leading research institutions such as MIT ensure that DSTA is primed to translate such innovations into capabilities for defence and beyond,” said the DSTA Deputy Chief Executive for Information.
Transport for NSW is conducting a new trial, believed to be world-first, involving using artificial intelligence and edge computing technology to reduce congestion. The agency has partnered with a US-based networking hardware company to explore ways to use technology to improve the experience for commuters, travellers and public transport users.
The Minister for Transport and Roads of NSW stated that the partnership aims to investigate how a real-time view of vehicle supply and customer demand, and performance, can guide future network decisions and monitor road conditions to identify where repair work is needed.
As part of one trial, Transport for NSW is using AI, Wi-Fi and edge computing on Pitt St near Central Station to capture real-time data and identify high-risk events. Road user movements are also being tracked at several intersections in Newcastle, using intelligent sensors to help improve overall road safety.
Another trial involves connecting several buses, ferries and light rail vehicles and then using real-time data to help identify ways to improve the services. The Minister noted that buses fitted with this technology can also monitor asset and road conditions, and provide us with real-time information on vehicles.
The networking hardware company is providing several technologies for the trial, including IoT, edge computing, AI and other capabilities. Transport for NSW and the company have an existing partnership aimed at using technology to solve pressing and common transport problems.
According to an earlier OpenGov Asia article, Transport for NSW is hoping that aggregated data collected by a Dutch consumer electronics company and LiDAR systems might provide it with more timely insight into conditions and hazards on the state’s road network.
The agency, in collaboration with iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), currently relies on videos taken by crews for safety assessments, from which certain road attributes are extracted. However, TfNSW wants to speed up the process, and has embarked on a project that will “convert raw data… into an international standard five-star rating system”. The project will deliver 20,000 km of road attributes in NSW using TomTom’s MN-R map data, as well as prove feature extraction techniques and machine learning for LiDAR data.
MN-R is the model that the consumer electronics company uses to keep its mapping data up-to-date. It combines several layers of data collection techniques, including from the use of its navigation systems and from sensors. In addition to understanding road conditions and hazards, TfNSW hopes the project could also lead to the development of predictive algorithms around injuries and fatalities in the future. The project will feed into a global ‘AiRAP’ initiative from a non-profit roads rating agency, the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP).
TfNSW is also working with the University of Technology Sydney and geospatial data experts an NSW software company on the project. The local company has previously partnered with the consumer electronics company to extract more than 50 road assets and safety features such as road markings, safety barriers and trees from LiDAR data.
The IRAP global innovation manager, who is overseeing the project, said AI had the “potential to reduce costs and increase the frequency and accuracy of data”. She noted that making faster and more affordable data collection possible means that safety assessments can be done on an annual basis across the whole road network.
The project comes at a time when the federal government is planning to tie infrastructure funding to “measurable improvements in safety”, according to the draft national road safety strategy 2021-30. Canberra has previously set targets for 90% of national highways and 80% of state highways to meet a three-star or better safety standard.
The country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), recently announced that it would launch Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based digital payment solutions for feature phones, eliminating the need for an Internet connection. RBI will also launch an ‘on-device’ wallet in UPI applications, which will simplify the process for small-value transactions. UPI was developed under the Digital India initiative and is run by the RBI. The UPI is a system that powers several bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features.
Until now, only smartphone users have been able to use UPI services for payments. India has around 1.2 billion mobile users, and of which only 740 million have smartphones. The UPI service for feature phones, which lack the advanced functionalities of smartphones, is expected to benefit a large number of consumers. A news report by The Indian Express noted that 50% of transactions through UPI were below IN₹200 (US$2.65). Low-value transactions utilise significant system capacity and resources, leading to customer inconvenience because of transaction failures as a result of connectivity issues. The ‘on-device’ wallet will conserve banks’ system resources without any change in the transaction experience.
Further, to encourage the use of UPI by retail investors, RBI also proposed to enhance the transaction limit for payments through UPI for Retail Direct Scheme and Initial Public Offerings (IPO) applications from IN₹200,000 (US$2,645) to IN₹500,000 (US$6,613). As per an official, this is an important step in widening the primary market investor base. Until now, the facility was available mainly to retail investors, who are categorised as those who invest up to US$2,645 in an IPO. By increasing the limit, the market is now open to high-net-worth Individuals (HNIs).
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the country’s umbrella organisation for retail payments, recently reported that over 7.6 million mandates were created in November compared with just 1.14 million in the preceding month. RBI’s move is expected to further increase these numbers. UPI is currently the single largest retail payment system in the country in terms of volume of transactions. This November, UPI recorded 4.1 billion transactions.
UPI has become a popular payment option for IPOs and the transaction limit in the UPI system was increased from IN₹100,000 (US$1,322) to IN₹200,000 (US$2,645) in March 2020. UPI has passed several significant milestones since its launch in 2016. It crossed a billion transactions for the first time in October 2019, and the next billion came in under a year. Since the start of 2021, the monthly transaction value has grown by close to 79%. The number of transactions, meanwhile, has increased by more than 83% from 2.3 billion in January.
RBI has also proposed to issue a discussion paper, which will cover aspects related to various channels of digital payments such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid payment instruments (cards and wallets), and UPI. The paper will also seek feedback on issues related to convenience fees and surcharges, and the measures required to make digital transactions affordable to users and economically remunerative to the providers. The paper will be released in a month.
The RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das, also announced that banks can now infuse capital in their overseas branches and subsidiaries without prior approval of the central bank. Currently, banks seek prior approval of RBI for infusing capital in their overseas branches and subsidiaries. He also proposed to revise the all-in-cost ceiling for new foreign currency ECBs (external commercial borrowings) and TCs (trade credit), from 450 bps to 500 bps and from 250 bps to 300 bps, respectively over the ARRs (alternative reference rate).
