Augmented reality (AR) v/s Virtual reality (VR)

Published Date : January 21, 2021

Augmented reality (AR) adds digital elements to a live view often by using the
camera on a smartphone. In AR, the user is provided with additional system
generated information that enhances their perception of reality, whereas Virtual
reality (VR) replaces reality with a completely new 3D digital environment. For
example, in architecture, VR can be used to create a walk-through simulation of the
inside of a new building; and AR can be used to show a building's structures and
systems super-imposed on a real-life view.

Singapore based Omniaz provides an end-to-end AR solution for the retail and
FMCG sectors with the ability to converge the online and offline shopping
experiences in order to better serve and engage with consumers. The startup
transforms spaces and product packaging into engagement channels to digitize
brick-and-mortar FMCG stores. OmniAZ enables brands to provide extended
product information, recommendations and gamified content. To help consumers
make better choices, especially in the beverages industry, it engages customers by
educating them about wine selection while simultaneously entertaining them.

The US-based startup Receive provides beauty brands with a co-branded solution
to create customized interactive consumer experiences for their products. The
solution integrates across all touchpoints on mobile and web-based AR for e-
commerce companies. The startup’s proprietary AI and AR beauty technology
enable real-time personalized engagement with customers. The solution is
particularly useful for skincare, health, wellness and color-based cosmetics
products. The AR Makeup Advisor and Virtual Try-on allow consumers to virtually
try cosmetics before they buy them. Further, Receive intends to transform the
beauty experience with advanced 3D live-video makeup try-on and personalized
recommendations by allowing customers to use an AR mirror or other novel AR-
enabled hardware.

Bangladeshi startup Azmi Studio specializes in tailor-made mobile or desktop

platforms and virtual try-on solutions that help brands engage their customers and
boost the retention rate. The startup offers its Virtual Try-On AR Store, enabling
brands to integrate AR experiences into social media platforms. The solution also
integrates into physical stores, making it easier for companies to create and
manage 3D models for their products.
Emerging technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are transforming
the way people interact, experience and visualize things and businesses. The
application of these technologies in various fields like fashion, beauty, architecture,
healthcare etc. is changing the way the world looks at the diverse use cases and
enormous potential that comes with them. According to a report, the global market
for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is estimated to reach USD 766 billion by
2025, registering a 73.7% CAGR during the period from 2018 to 2025.

Chatbots in E- Retail
Published Date : January 20, 2021
There’s no doubt that Covid-19 has caused an inflection in e-commerce penetration
globally driven by consumers’ need for safety and convenience. Even in India, a
significant portion of shopping has moved online, in turn spurring transformation
across the retail value chain.

According to ETRetail, The Indian e-retail market is primed to reach nearly 300 to
350 million shoppers over the next five years—propelling the online Gross
Merchandise Value (GMV) to $ 120 billion by 2025.

With increase in online customers, Chatbots are emerging across e-commerce and
retail to help keep online shoppers engaged and provide a personalised
experience. For example, Sephora, a French personal care and beauty products
company, has achieved huge teens’ engagement, which was possible thanks to
creating a truly unique experience through its chatbot assistant.

Chatbots are also acting as a virtual store concierge, where they are answering
customers’ questions and directing them towards relevant products. Built on
Facebook messenger bot, Masha.ai is being used by 600 international brands. It is
designed to advise on shopping choices, while even helping users to place orders.
In addition to its consulting skills, Masha.ai offers notifications about new products
from the brands one is observing, she can also provide some shopping inspirations.

To ease holiday shopping stress, the objective of Ralph bot is to steer shoppers
through LEGO’s extensive catalog of products — the company says it has produced
3,700 different varieties of LEGO brick — and the bot recommends gifts that fit the
recipient’s age and personality as well as the buyer’s budget.

Nexc is a personalised electronics shopping assistant, still in the developmental

stage. Its job is to make your electronics shopping experience more convenient,
quicker, simpler and let you compare a big number of offers at once. Nexc collects
and analyses all the relevant data needed to make decisions, from technical
specifications all the way to human experience with the gear.

While organizing jeans into numbered codes has helped Levi’s build a more
extensive catalog that can cater to a range of body types and preferences, it has
also made it more difficult for online shoppers to choose what to buy. Levi’s
chatbot, Ask Indigo, helps customers sort through its catalog using simple
language.

Levi’s bot is another example of the power of Chatbots as a personalization and

curation tool. We believe, that the likelihood to purchase increases when
consumers can find exactly what they’re looking for, and a chatbot can guide them
there directly.

Smart Lending
Big data application and machine learning has enabled the growth of digital
lending. Availability of multiple data points ensures better credit assessment of the
applicant. AI promises that theoretically it can analyze all of these data sources
together to create a coherent decision.

ZestFinance is using machine learning to process alternative data to get

information on so-called “thin file borrowers” — those with no or little credit
history. Zest Automated Machine Learning (ZAML) platform, leverages machine
learning for end to end credit underwriting. The platform utilizes thousands of data
points and provides transparency, which helps lenders better assess populations
traditionally considered at risk. ZestFinance recently finished a study with Ford
Motor Credit Company to use machine learning in their auto financing.

One startup aggressively using advanced machine learning to comb through vast
sources of alternative data to predict an individual’s creditworthiness is Lenddo.
The company started in 2011, focuses on emerging markets where rising middle
classes often lack traditional credit histories or even bank accounts. Lenddo looks
at a potential applicants’ entire digital footprint to determine their creditworthiness
by having individuals download their app. They claim to analyse over 12,000
variables including social media account use, internet browsing, geo location data
and other smartphone information. Their machine learning algorithm turns all this
data into a credit score, which banks and other lenders can use.

One of the most high-profile startup companies using AI to determine

creditworthiness and streamline the loan process is Upstart. Upstart started by
focusing on younger adults who lack credit history. In addition to traditional FICO
scores and years of credit, Upstart also takes into account education, SAT scores,
GPA, field of study and job history to use machine learning to predict an individual’s
creditworthiness.

Scienaptic Systems provides an underwriting platform that gives banks and credit
institutions more transparency while cutting losses. Currently scoring over 100
million customers, Scienaptic's Ether system connects myriad unstructured and
structured data, smartly transforms the data, learns from each interaction and
offers contextual underwriting intelligence.

Some privacy, ethical and legal issues will be posed by the use of machine learning
to evaluate alternative loan and credit rating data. Even with these issues, the use
of machine learning to process alternative data is likely to expand dramatically to
assess creditworthiness.

Fraud Detection 2.0

Published Date : January 18, 2021
With the advent of innumerable electronic payment channels including UPI, QR
code, cards, wallets, etc., the exposure to online frauds has also increased
exponentially. As per IBM research, online fraud costs the financial industry
approximately $80 billion annually. The sheer volume of loss attributed to frauds in
electronic payments is making financial services companies to develop solutions to
identify and prevent frauds in online payments. At the same time, in order to
achieve more accurate and less intrusive fraud detection system, financial
institutions are increasingly banking on fintechs to perfect analytics technology
used to spot and combat fraud.
Some fintechs like Featurespace are leveraging deep machine learning and
adaptive behavioural analytics, thereby reducing ‘genuine transactions declined’ by
over 70% and incidence of undetected fraud by 25%. Similarly, German fintech
Fraugster has raised $5 million in funding for developing real-time fraud detection
technology which can anticipate fraudulent attacks even before they happen. On
the other hand, Signifyd is employing Big Data analytics for its fraud detection
mechanism which involves 120 offline and online parameters like public records,
negative lists of merchants, location, transaction history, social graph, device
fingerprint etc.

Even institutions like Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) are
working with fintechs like NetGuardians for taking machine learning and artificial
intelligence (AI) technology in financial fraud detection to the next level. Similarly,
technology firms are leveraging power of fintechs to offer better fraud analytics
solutions. For instance, SAP Ventures has partnered with Feedzai, a data science
company, which uses alternate data sources, including mobile and social data
streams, to create deep learning profiles for each customer, merchant, location or
POS device, with up to a three-year history of data behind it. Similarly, Mastercard
has acquired fintechs like Brighterion and NuData Security to deliver online and
mobile anti-fraud solutions using session and biometric indicators.
Thanks to emerging technologies like Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial
Intelligence (AI), fintechs are riding on analytics wave to help financial institutions
not just to identify actual fraudulent transactions, reduce the number of ‘genuine
transactions declined’, but reducing the costs associated with managing blocked
customers as well.

Credits : Akhil Handa

XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service)
Published Date : January 15, 2021
As-a-Service (aaS) has already become the standard to turn into a truly digital-native
enterprise. The new pattern in the aaS model is Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS)
where services delivered will totally dwell on the cloud with virtual access to nearly
everything. Tools, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence
(AI) will play a critical part in building these services or expanding existing services
to accomplish the digital-native status quo.
As more and more companies embrace digital transformation, Everything-as-a-
Service models (XaaS) are becoming more prevalent. Companies such as Adobe,
Workday, LinkedIn and Salesforce have successfully implemented this model by
enabling customers to use software applications in the cloud for years.

Every product is a service. Both B2B and B2C sales models revolve around giving
customers exactly what they need, how they need and when they need it. Whether
it is a monthly sock subscription service, selling compressed air as a service or
renting engines to airlines on a usage by hour basis – everything is a service (XaaS).

The global XaaS market was worth around US$ 115 bn. in 2019. Global Anything-as-
a-Service Market is expected to touch US$ 344.3 bn. by 2024, expanding at a CAGR
of 24%.

Huge investments made by the key market players in XaaS solutions have proved
beneficial for the IT infrastructure by significantly reducing redundancies. In global
everything-as-a-service market, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corporation and
Google Inc. are leading the market.

XaaS is relatively easy to manage as it replaces the conventional methods and is

highly customizable for supporting mobile workforces. Consequently, it finds
applications in various industries such as telecom, insurance, manufacturing,
healthcare, government, banking and finance.

Organizations worldwide are currently undergoing digital transformation, which

has resulted in the robust growth of corporate data. Companies that have made
the switch to XaaS are growing 5x faster than their peers. Clearly, a shift has
occurred and while companies used to focus on developing the best product with
the best features, they now need to navigate their transition from a product to
platform-centric organization.

Credits : Akhil Handa

Gamification for Employee Engagement
Published Date : January 13, 2021
It’s no secret that gamification makes things interesting and engaging. It is being
applied to various sectors right from education to insurance. It is aptly suitable for
employee engagement as more than 70% of workers report feeling disengaged in
their work, as per Gallop research. This disengagement translates into nearly $350
billion in lost revenue.
In order to improve employee engagements and further improve HR processes,
organisations are adopting innovative techniques like gamification. Gamification
applies the attributes of games like fun, play, transparency, design and competition
to a range of HR processes like recruiting, learning & development, performance
management etc.

A number of organizations like Marriott, Cognizant, Deloitte, Aetna etc. are using

gamification to improve workforce alignment, enhance employee skills, solve
complicated issues and tap into new talent pools. Price waterhouse Coopers
(PwC) has launched  a game called Multipoly, which allows PwC job candidates to
virtually test their readiness for working at the firm by solving real world business
problems in a  virtual environment. Since PwC launched Multipoly, the firm has
reported 190% growth in job candidates with 78% of users reporting they are
interested to learn more about working at PwC.
Similarly, Walmart has been using gamification to deliver safety training for 5,000
associates in eight Walmart distribution centers. These gamification efforts have
resulted into ensuring a widely dispersed workforce adhering to safety procedures
on the job. On the other hand, Qualcomm is modelling gamification techniques to
its internal Q&A process where employees ask and answer technical questions and
the best answers are voted up. In this form of gamification, Qualcomm employees
receive points for their level of activity and engagement and then badges for doing
unique things above and beyond, like answering a question that’s remained
unanswered for 30 days.
Back home in India, Whirlpool has been significantly using gamification in the form
of cryptic puzzles to engage prospective employees to keep the brand connect
alive. Similarly, TCS is implementing game engines that allow the creation of real-
life environments with built-in networking features, enabling the development of
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) to make HR processes
more interesting.
Leveraging the engagement created by gamification, HR executives of organisations
across diverse sectors can create a more interactive, rewarding and attentive
workforce. However, implementing it requires significant financial investments as
well as co-ordinated efforts from top management in order to increase the visibility
and importance of gamification in the HR processes in the organisation.
Automated Driving
Published Date : January 12, 2021
Automobile industry is pioneering increased innovation, technology adoption and
development of high-performance and fuel-efficient vehicles. The global
automotive industry is moving towards stringent passenger safety driven by
consumer awareness. Factors such as strict driving safety norms and rising
investment in research & development in the automotive industry are propelling
the driving simulator market.

Economics of the driving simulator market is lucrative. The global driving simulator
market is projected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2025 from an estimated USD 1.7
billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 6.32% as per a research report by MarketsandMarkets.

Deep learning autonomous simulation developed by Israel based Cognata gives

the learner a real feel of the actual driving conditions. Using patented technology
and deep learning algorithms they create an entire city-simulator including
buildings, roads, lane marks, traffic signs, etc. Further they can add dynamic layers
of drivers and pedestrian behaviour along with local weather conditions based on
historical data.
Driving conditions from vehicles as well as human movements affect traffic.
Mastering human traffic movements can be key in certain close call situations while
driving.

Latent Logic provides AI-based human behavior models for autonomous vehicle

simulation. The company leverages machine learning to develop hyper-realistic
human behavior models & driving simulators. By extracting and extrapolating raw
data  to detect patterns in road usage by users  & tracking their movement, Latent
Logic develops AI models to imitate those usage behaviors. Its virtual human
models can be integrated with preferred simulators via standard APIs. This
simulator gives driving learners a real life like situation to master.
Ascent Robotics utilizes AI-based software for robotics and autonomous vehicles.
The software enables autonomous robots & vehicle models to represent an
abstract understanding of the world that is interpretable to humans. They use
simulation, traditional engineering and a rapid development cycle for incorporating
machine learning methods.
Increased Government regulations pertaining to driving simulators for training are
expected to boost demand. Driving simulator startups are responding
enthusiastically and giving a filip to road safety for the entire eco system.
Quantum computing across industries
Published Date : January 11, 2021
It has been long foretold that quantum computers would tackle problems which
involve an overwhelming number of variables and probable outcomes much
quicker than any classical computer. And we are now seeing some of these
prophecies taking shape.

As per a CB Insights report, funding to quantum computing-focused startups have

climbed steadily over the last few years and set a new record in 2020 with 37 deals.
PsiQuantum is the most well-funded startup in the space, with $278.5M in total
disclosed funding. Backed by Microsoft’s venture arm, the company claims that its
optical-based approach to quantum computing could deliver a 1M qubit machine in
just a few years.

Cambridge Quantum Computing is focused primarily on quantum computing

software and has raised $95M in disclosed funding from investors including IBM,
Honeywell and more. It offers a platform to help enterprises build out quantum
computing applications in areas like chemistry, finance and machine learning.

There are several industries that would directly get impacted by quantum
computing. In Healthcare, Drug Discovery would be one aspect directly affected.
ProteinQure, is tapping into current quantum computers to help predict how
proteins will fold in the body.

Another pharma company, Biogen has partnered with quantum computing

software startup 1QBit and Accenture to build a platform for comparing molecules
to help speed up the early stages of drug discovery.

Manufacturing and Industrial Design is another sector looking keenly at Quantum

computing. Take for example, Airbus which has established a quantum computing
unit in 2015 and has also invested in quantum software startup QC Ware and
quantum computer maker IonQ for the purpose of efficient airplane designs. A
Machine Learning startup Solid State AI is already offering quantum-supported
services for manufacturing industry.
In the area of logistics, DHL is eyeing quantum computers to help it more efficiently
pack parcels and optimize global delivery routes.

Coming to cybersecurity, the commonly used encryption models today are

threatened by powerful quantum computers. Now there are companies such as
Isara and PostQuantum developing new encryption methods, collectively known as
“post-quantum cryptography.”

In a data-heavy world, ever-more powerful computers are essential to calculating

probabilities accurately. With that in mind, several financial institutions are turning
to quantum computing capabilities, as well. We believe that It is only a matter of
time before quantum solutions will enter the mainstream making changes across
Industries.

Credits : Akhil Handa

Mass Media With AI
Published Date : January 07, 2021
The last few years have witnessed a renaissance in media-focused startups.
Powered by initiatives like Artificial Intelligence and blockchain, the new breed of
companies have sought to answer some of the key issues that have dogged media
and publishing companies for the past decade.

Pico is a solution for media companies who want to develop membership and
subscription based systems. The three-year-old New York based startup has
created what it calls an ARM (audience relationship management) platform. It is
driven by two key conversion points – turning anonymous users into email signups
and getting readers to pay. Its system integrates email signups, on-site analytics
and payments.

Aiden.ai, SF-based, addresses medium and smaller publishers, running ads on

social platforms which can be a time consuming and fractious process. It essentially
enables companies to monitor ads on multiple platforms (Google, Facebook,
Instagram etc.) via a straightforward-to-use interface. The Pro version of the tool
then harnesses AI to make suggestions as to how they can improve the
performance of these ads.
Recording podcasts in quality audio invariably entails face to face interviews and
this means that journalists spend more time away from their offices and produce
fewer stories than they otherwise would. Zencastr provides a high end voiceover IP
communication system which is optimised to enable the users to make high quality
recordings. It archives each channel separately so they can either be edited later or
spliced together using Zencastr’s basic editing functions.

For some publishing companies there is a requirement to mine third party data to
help them to understand their audiences better, or maybe research new areas in
which they might experiment. Attest is an online Consumer Growth Platform,
where business can ask market research questions to audiences of over 100 million
people across 80 markets. It is an intuitive web-based self service platform and
provide fast and accurate results.

US company Hearken provides a new model for including the public in the process
of reporting. The company’s proprietary technology platform is called the
Engagement Management System. It helps newsrooms generate actionable insights
from the public to create more relevant, representative and original content.
Editorial staff can keep engagement processes organised, and Hearken also helps
revenue-focused staff generate qualified email leads and connect to newsletters
and CRMs.

Future new media will use computer programs to enable users to supplement real
or virtual world environments with digital objects. In a broader sense virtual reality,
intelligent systems and automation could slowly replace different aspects of
industry, human interaction and progress of the human species at large.

Credits : Akhil Handa

Analytics 2.0
Published Date : January 04, 2021
Over the last decade, visualisation-based data discovery tools have transformed the
traditional analytics tools. Additionally, with the introduction of next-gen
augmented analytics, organisations are able to generate not only simple
forecasting, visualising and clustering data, but also automated and actionable
predictive and prescriptive guidance.

Augmented analytics tools work as virtual data scientists which can iteratively
perform data-to-insight-to-action activities like preparing the data, deciphering data
patterns and building models and distributing and operationalising the data
findings. This saves both time and resources used for getting relevant business
insights from the available data. As per SBWire, Global Augmented Analytics Market
is expected to grow at CAGR of ~11% from 2018 to 2025.

Analytics 2.0 has already being put to test by multiple organisations. For instance,
US government authorities have partnered with augmented analytics players like
Stories.bi to find the most important insights from public data sets on the U.S.
opioid crisis. Similarly, U.S. Health Insurance Company have been utilising
Salesforce's AI-infused analytics tool, Einstein Discovery to track cost metrics based
on the sickness of patients. Similarly, Workday is taking a further step with the
introduction of augmented analytics to generate actionable insights around HR
data.

Multiple bigtechs like Google and Microsoft have also developed products around
augmented analytics. For example, Chevron Corp., US-based multinational energy
corporation, is an early adopter of Google's augmented AutoML technology, which
is designed to help users with limited machine learning expertise, build and train
analytical models. The seismic processing and imaging team at Chevron have used
the alpha version of an AutoML Vision image analysis tool to help analyze internal
documents as part of the process of evaluating new opportunities for oil drilling.

Similarly, Microsoft also added next-gen analytics functionality to its cloud-based

Azure Machine Learning platform, enabling the software to identify algorithms that
will run applications efficiently and optimize the performance of analytical models
for users. In addition to bigtechs, other organisations such as DataRobot, H2O.ai
and ThoughtSpot have also developed advanced analytics platforms.

To quote Gartner, analytics 2.0 has the potential to become the future of data
analytics because it moves us closer than ever to the vision of ‘democratized
analytics.’ Ten years ago, it was almost impossible to find a single business
application driven by analytics. Ten years from now, we won’t find one that isn’t.
Analytics 2.0 will be a driving force of this change.

Credits : Akhil Handa

Edge AI
Published Date : January 01, 2021
Edge AI is a system that uses Machine Learning algorithms to process data
generated by a hardware device at the local level. Edge AI eliminates the privacy
issue of transmitting millions of data and storing it in the cloud, as well as the
bandwidth and latency limitations that reduce data transmission capacity.

Edge AI refers to AI algorithms that are processed locally on a hardware device. The
algorithms are using data (sensor data or signals) that are created on the device. It
can process data and take decisions independently without network connectivity. In
orderto use Edge AI, one need a device comprising a microprocessor and sensors.

Edge AI will allow real time operations including data creation, decision and action
where milliseconds matter. Real time operations is important for self-driving cars,
robots andmany other areas. Reducing power consumption and thus improving
battery life is super important for wearable devices. It will reduce cost for data
communication because less data will be transmitted.

Octonion, a start-up that integrates artificial intelligence into low-power

microcontrollers, exemplifies how intelligence can be imbued into industrial
products. The technology helps companies make smart decisions in real time,
locally, by using continuous learning models and machine health scores. Examples
include deploying edge AI on industrial motors and pumps to improve monitoring
and develop predictive maintenance capabilities.
2017 Bank of Baroda. All rights reservedFinTech, Partnerships & Mobile
BankingBaroda Sun Tower, SixthFloor, C-34, G-Block, BKC, Bandra (E), Mumbai -400
051, India. T: 022-6759 2873To Subscribe: tiny.cc/FinTalk© 2017 Bank of Baroda. All
rights reservedThe major key player in the global edge AI software market are
International Business Machine (IBM), Microsoft, Foghorn Systems In Vision AI,
Anagog, Amazon Web Services, TIBCO, Imagimob AB., Veea Inc. andTact.ai
Technologies Inc.

Considered the next wave of artificial intelligence, edge AI is a network

infrastructure that makes it possible for AI algorithms to run on the edge of a
network. The sudden and dramatic changes in network traffic that have
accompanied Covid-19 lockdowns and the shift to working from home are likely to
accelerate the move already underway towards edge computing.
Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) software market size ispredicted to grow from US$
355 Million in 2018 to US$ 1,152 Million by 2023, at a CAGR of 27%.

Tech Trends 2021

Published Date : December 30, 2020
Every year, the technology trends seem to emerge more rapidly. But the Covid-19
pandemic has augmented technology growth and uptake like never seen before.
The pandemic has forced businesses and individuals alike to adjust to the new
normal.

During this process, some technological innovations have evolved much faster than
they would otherwise have. As digital collaboration, remote work and
videoconferencing became a part of our lives, the need for better internet speed
has become all the more real. It is already clear enough that 5G could become real
in 2021.

The World Economic Forum, quoting IHS Markit research, anticipates 5G, to reach a
global economic output of $13.2 trillion and generate 22.3 million jobs by 2035.

The uptake of wearable devices has been on the rise but with the covid19 push,
there are innovative use cases being brought to the forefront. Apart from covid19
detection and contact tracing, the wearable tech is being used in a big way for
sports and home fitness.

Companies like Peloton have defined the “new normal,” with at-home athletics
becoming synonymous with smart workout devices, wearables and remote
competitions and leaderboards — with everyone tuning in from their living rooms.

The recent Strategic Technology Trends for 2021 report by Gartner talks about
Internet of Behaviour (IoB) as an upcoming trend that we’ll hear more of in 2021. It
combines existing technologies that focus on the individual directly – facial
recognition, location tracking and big data for example – and connects the resulting
data to associated behavioural events, such as cash purchases, device usage etc.
The distributed cloud model will see further uptake in 2021, as the model provides
businesses with greater flexibility by moving workloads between cloud solutions as
needs and costs of a business fluctuate.
According to Interpol, the Covid-19 crisis has created an unprecedented
opportunity for cybercriminals to increase their attacks. As organizations accelerate
digital business, security must keep pace with the rapid change. Cybersecurity
mesh enables a security model that maintains the pliability necessary to operate in
the current conditions and offers security without hindering growth for the
company. These tools are already being deployed in some capacity by leading
organizations and the tech is likely to see further growth in the coming year. With
the boundary between the physical and virtual worlds rapidly disappearing, we are
learning to use technology for reimagining the workplace, creating more insightful
experiences and bolstering human initiatives.

Banking with Cognition

Published Date : December 28, 2020
In the last two years alone, 90% of the world's entire data has been created. With
an ever-increasing deluge of information being generated across the globe,
traditional algorithm-based systems have been unable to derive maximum value
from available data.

In order to address this challenge, some innovative techniques like Cognitive

Computing have been developed which mimic the way the human brain works.
International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that Cognitive Computing will save US
companies $ 60 billion a year by 2020 and lead to a 20 % improvement in IT
efficiency for financial services firms by 2022.

This technology, inspired from IBM’s supercomputer system ‘Watson’, holds huge
promise in banking as well. Cognitive Banking has been employed by few banks to
improve loan underwriting process. Australia’s ANZ Bank applied cognitive
computing in market data, financial statements, product disclosure statements etc.
to save 1,000 man-hours of back office activity. With increased automation, loan
application processes for more than 150,000 customers of the bank have been
streamlined.

Cognitive Computing has improved Wealth Management Services as well. Using

cognitive systems, banks can analyse multiple sources of investor information to
explore the latest market changes, calculate risks and limits to provide customised
recommendations based on customers’ personal profiles. DBS Bank from
Singapore has already implemented this technology to offer highly customized
investment ideas for its customers based on their present and future needs in
wealth management.

Back home in India, Yes Bank is combining the power of Cognitive Computing and
APIs to improve the digital experience of bank’s partners, developers and corporate
clients. On the other hand, InspireOne Technologies, one of the first users of
Cognitive Computing in India, has built a product that assesses employees’
leadership capabilities by gathering intelligence through employees’ e-mail
communications.

Considering major industry challenges such as commoditization, discerning

customers and disruptive competitors, it is high time for banks and financial
institutions to adopt innovative techniques like Cognitive Computing. As per
Accenture’s research, in 2015, only a fifth of the technology investments were
allocated to innovative projects such as cognitive analytics.

Credits : Akhil Handa>

Cybersecurity Mesh
Published Date : December 18, 2020
A Cybersecurity Mesh involves designing and implementing an IT security
infrastructure that does not focus on building a single ‘perimeter’ around all devices
or nodes of an IT network, but instead establishes smaller, individual perimeters
around each access point.

Cybersecurity mesh is a distributed architectural approach to scalable, flexible and

reliable cybersecurity control. Cybersecurity mesh essentially allows for the security
perimeter to be defined around the identity of a person or thing.

With the cybersecurity mesh, one can get to any digital security asset – regardless
of its location. The advantage of this technology is that it permits individuals to put
the security divider around people instead of the whole organization.

The abrupt ascent in remote workforces and cloud technology has influenced the
security of company assets outside the organization’s edge. Because of the
assistance of the cybersecurity mesh, the security border goes beyond and covers
people working remotely.

The global cyber security market size was estimated at USD 156.45 billion in 2019
and is expected to reach USD 326.36 billion by 2027 growing at a compound annual
growth rate of 10.0%.

Some key players operating in the cyber security market include IBM, Symantec
Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., Checkpoint Software Technologies Ltd. Fortinet Inc.
and Palo Alto Networks Inc.

Key factors that are driving the market growth include the vulnerable data on web
and computer, loophole in new technologies such as IOT and big data, along with
deployment of the cyber solutions across industries such as retail, financial
institutions and IT sector.

The last few years has witnessed a dramatic expansion in the number and
complexity of devices and processes connected to the internet – collectively known
as the Internet of Things (IoT). With a proliferation of devices and activity on the
internet, the number of potential access points for hackers to steal data has
increased too. As the security of an IT system is only as strong as its weakest link,
this situation has resulted in a new approach to IT security.

Credits : Akhil Handa

How Covid lockdown crippled Indian economy

From contracting by an unprecedented 23.9 per cent to plunging into a technical recession, the
trajectory of India’s economy saw a steep decline in 2020—primarily due to the Covid-
19 pandemic. The staggering fall in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which was
already in a slowdown before the pandemic, reflected the total suspension of economic activity
in the first quarter of this fiscal due to the series of lockdowns to stem the spread of virus.
The April-June quarter figure was not only India’s lowest growth rate since the country started
reporting quarterly data in 1996, but also worse than the 21.7 per cent contraction reported by
the UK economy in the June quarter—one of the sharpest GDP contraction among the top 20
global economies. To put things in perspective, the Indian economy has recorded an average of
7 per cent GDP growth each year since economic liberalisation in the early 1990s. This year, it
is likely to turn turtle and contract by 7 per cent.
Barring agriculture, all other major indicators of growth in the economy were massively
impacted. The worst affected sectors were construction (–50%), trade, hotels and other services
(–47%), manufacturing (–39%), and mining (–23%). It is pertinent to note that these are the
sectors that generate the maximum new jobs in the country. In a scenario where each of these
sectors is contracting so sharply — that is, their output and incomes are falling — it would lead
to more and more people either losing jobs (decline in employment) or failing to get one (rise in
unemployment).
Within the next three months, India entered a technical recession after GDP contracted for the
second straight quarter through September. Although the 7.5 per cent contraction in the July-
September quarter was a significant improvement over the 23.9 per cent contraction in the
preceding quarter, the Indian economy remained one of the worst performers among major
economies.

As compared to just one sector adding positive value in the first quarter, three sectors –
agriculture, manufacturing and utilities – recorded positive growth in the second quarter.
Moreover, in three of the remaining five sectors, the rate of decline decelerated.
With this, the GDP growth rate in April-September, the first half of this financial year, contracted
by 15.7 per cent compared with a 4.8 per cent growth during the same period last year. In July-
September last year, GDP had grown by 4.4 per cent.
How the Government responded to the biggest crisis since 1979
All anecdotal evidence available, such as hundreds of thousands of stranded migrant workers
across the country, suggested that the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) were the
worst casualty of Covid-19 induced lockdown. Hence, the government laid its primary focus to
lift the stressed MSME sector with its relief packages, especially a massive increase in credit
guarantees to them. It essentially means that the government has resorted to taking over the
credit risk of MSMEs should they want to remain in business. A credit guarantee by the
government helps as it assures the bank that its loan will be repaid by the government in case
the MSME falters.
The Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) package, rolled out in several tranches to mitigate
the biggest crisis since 1979, reinforced the ‘fiscal conservatism’ ideology of the government
under Prime Minister Narendra Modi — rather than large cash transfers, the growth philosophy
centres around creating an ecosystem that aids domestic demand, incentivises companies to
generate jobs and boost production, and simultaneously extends benefits to those in severe
distress, be it firms or individuals, reported our executive editor Vaidyanathan Iyer in this piece.
“The headline numbers — stimulus of Rs 29,87,641 crore or 15 per cent of GDP till date — are
more for optics,” Iyer reported. “For instance, Sitharaman last month said the government’s
contribution to the stimulus imparted so far was 9 per cent of GDP, the balance 6 per cent being
attributed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). She put the size of Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 at Rs
2,65,080 crore. Even if one takes an optimistic account of the extra spend this year, it will add
up to just Rs 1,18,200 crore, not even half of what she said. The Rs 1,45,980 crore expenditure
in the form of production-linked incentives (PLIs) to 10 new sectors will be over five years, and
likely kick in only next financial year.

But even the Rs 1,18,200 crore extra spending this year, by no means, is insignificant: it
accounts for 0.6 per cent of GDP,” he continued.
The first package on March 27, the highlight of which was the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Yojana, totalled Rs 1.08 lakh crore; the second set of announcements made over five days in
May added up another Rs 1.08 lakh crore to the Centre’s fiscal cost; the third package in
October had a capital expenditure component of just Rs 37,000 crore. Put together, all Covid-19
relief measures would increase the Centre’s actual fiscal outgo by under 2 per cent of GDP in
2020-21.
5 Trillion Economy:
Prior to the lockdown, India was expected to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025. The 2019-
2020 Economic Survey had projected a growth rate of 6-6.5 per cent for the fiscal year 2020-21.
The onset of COVID-19 has upset all projections. The national income data released by the
National Statistical Office (NSO) projects a 7.7 per cent contraction for FY2021. Even prior to
the pandemic, there were significant pre-existing hurdles in India’s drive towards a $5 trillion
economy. The stagnancy of the manufacturing sector which grew at a sluggish rate of 7 per cent
in FY2019 and 2 per cent in FY2020 was a major roadblock.
In this backdrop, a key channel through which the manufacturing sector could be rejuvenated is
by increasing the number of countries participating in global value chains (GVCs). Last year’s
Economic Survey points out that GVC exports could contribute a quarter of the increase in
value-added for the $5 trillion goal and generate four million jobs by 2025 and eight million by
2030 via the Make in India initiative.
The notion of increasing India’s integration with the global economy gained further momentum
with the onset of the pandemic, which highlighted the risks associated with greater dependence
of the globe on China. This opened up avenues for India to attract foreign investors looking to
move production away from China. Yet, it was countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh that
benefited from the reorganisation of value chains. India seemed to have missed the bus.
At present, India’s infrastructure is not simply good enough to facilitate expansion of the
manufacturing sector, let alone its integration into GVCs. The poor logistics setup encompassing
the manufacturing sector results in delays, rising inventory costs, and often higher operating
expenses. This severely cripples the efficiency of MSMEs, which form the bedrock of the Indian
economy.
Infrastructure development is of the utmost importance when it comes to integrating into GVCs.
China’s rapid rise in the GVC channel is also an outcome of its substantial investment in
infrastructure development. Between 2001-06, China spent more money on its infrastructure than
it did in the second half of the 20th century. The result of this continued investment is that China
is not only the centre of the world production but it is also at a stage of becoming a “self-reliant
China”.
Recently, India announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign as a post-pandemic developmental
model. The campaign aims at transforming India into a major player in the global economy,
specifically, by enhancing the role of the manufacturing sector. However, the campaign has
offered conflicting signals to foreign MNCs. For starters, in the previous year, India banned
imports of various non-essential commodities. In October, a blanket ban was imposed on import
of air conditioners with refrigerants. In the same period, a 10 per cent import duty on imported
smartphones display and touch panels. Earlier in June, there were curbs on the imports of certain
pneumatic tyres used in automobiles.
These import restrictions are touted as a strategy to boost domestic production by providing
protection for domestic producers. But these policies go against the idea of transforming India
into the manufacturing hub for the world and against the crux of GVCs. Firms integrated into
GVCs produce a facet of the production chain. Imports and exports together facilitate the smooth
operation of GVCs. According to the recent World Development Report, almost 80 per cent of
global trade can be characterised as GVC related trade. Studies highlight that over 60 per cent of
global trade is trade in intermediates (raw materials, parts, and components). As a result, banning
imports on the outset may present itself as a policy aimed at protecting domestic firms, but in
actuality, it would deter the participation of domestic firms in value chains and act as a deterrent
for those MNCs on the lookout for a new production hub. Besides, restrictions on imports are not
a recent phenomenon either. According to WTO, India’s applied tariff has increased from 13.5
per cent in 2014 to 17.6 per cent in 2019. These tariffs result in higher input prices, making
domestic production using intermediate inputs more expensive and thus leading to less, not
more, competitive exports. This problem is more prominent in a country like India, where
discounting the automotive industry, the regional supply chains are not robust enough to produce
inputs that could enable MNCs to maintain both export competitiveness and quality. This trade-
off obstructs the integration of Indian firms into GVCs and inhibits foreign MNCs from moving
their production base to India. Besides, protectionism would have an adverse impact on MNCs
already operating from India, forcing them to look out for new production bases.
To achieve the vision of building a $5-trillion economy and transforming India into a next
manufacturing hub, the government needs to have policies that attract more foreign investment
into the country and remove stumbling blocks such as tariffs on imports of intermediates.
First, the government must provide the necessary infrastructural support and an open trade
environment that enables the free flow of goods and services. Improvement in infrastructure is
also important for the successful use of the performance-linked incentive (PLI) launched for
sectors like pharmaceuticals, technology products, telecom and solar cells: PLI would be able to
spur investment only when the supporting environment in terms of logistics and infrastructure is
well developed. In this regard, the Rs 111 lakh crore investments in the National Infrastructure
Pipeline (NIP) is a welcome step. Proper and timely implementation is important in reaping the
gains from such investments. Further, the NIP consists of investment from the Centre (39 per
cent), state governments (20 per cent) and private sector (21 per cent). Considering the financial
stress being experienced all around, any shortfall in the contribution towards NIP should be
taken care of by the Centre.
Second, policies need to address the rising tariffs on intermediate inputs that dents the export
competitiveness of Indian firms. Third, it remains an anomaly that a labour abundant country like
India is a key exporter of goods that are more capital and skill intensive. Automotive and the
pharmaceutical sectors, the latter being pipped as the source for global production of COVID-19
vaccine, epitomises the capital and skill intensive nature of India’s export basket.
On the flip side, it points that India’s labour-intensive industries have not been able to establish
its foothold in the global market. The Economic Survey had highlighted that the contribution of
traditional unskilled labour-intensive industries (textiles, garments, footwear, etc.) in India’s
merchandise exports declined from almost 31 per cent in 2000 to a little over 16 per cent in
2018. Therefore, it is important to formulate policies that lead to greater integration of traditional
labour-intensive industries in the export landscape of the country. These sectors have to be in the
ambit of the Make in India initiative so that jobs are created. The upcoming Union Budget
should focus on changing the trajectory of Indian manufacturing.