1.

SDG and New Tech

 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global
Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to
action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all
people enjoy peace and prosperity. INTRO
 The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will
affect outcomes in others and that development must balance social,
economic, and environmental sustainability. STRUCTURE OF SDGs
 5 Ps of SDGs

 SDGs are universal aims while MDGs were only limited to Developing
nations.
 Core features of SDGs are the mobilization of Resources and
Innovation and the Transformation of eco-friendly technologies.
 According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), less than
half the world's population still does not use the Internet.
 17 SDGs;………………………………………………………………………………………..

2.Gender Debate and New Tech

 A significant gender gap in the access, use, and ownership of digital technologies
still exists in many G20 economies and beyond, limiting the equitable
realization of digital transformation's benefits. The transformation profoundly
changes the content and nature of jobs and the skills needed to perform them.
 G20 Ministers responsible for the Digital Economy are part of the broad effort
that G20 economies are making to promote gender equality globally, including
through the debates on skills in the digital era by proposing “2017 Roadmap
for Digitalization: Policies for a Digital Future”. [SDG] 5
 root causes of the digital gender divide: hurdles to access, affordability,
lack of education and technological literacy, as well as inherent biases and socio-
cultural norms that lead to gender-based digital exclusion. 25% of the women are
generally not interested in using the Internet/ “technophobia.” (50%)
 Market-related factors, including investment dynamics and regulations,
disproportionately affect women’s access to digital technologies in rural areas.
Structural constraints, such as serving as free agricultural employees, further
hinder and seizing their opportunities.
 In the case of women, the global Internet penetration rate1F 2 is about 45%, as
compared to about 51% for men – this corresponds to having 250 million fewer
women than men online.
 While the diffusion of satellite technologies, among others, has enabled the
spread of mobile phones and of (almost) worldwide coverage, women remain
disproportionally disadvantaged because of their relatively scarcer ownership
and usage of mobile phones and smartphones.
 Barriers to using smartphones do not differ from the ones hindering women to
own a basic mobile phone. The high prices of mobile phones, which are even
higher for smartphones, make purchasing and owning such devices simply not
easy or possible for many.
 Digital financial inclusion is a priority for the G20. It highlights the
importance of financial literacy for consumers and small businesses, especially in
the increasingly digital financial landscape. Closing gaps in financial knowledge,
particularly among vulnerable groups, is crucial.
 Notably, between 2013 and 2017, the gap generally narrowed in developed
economies, including Europe and the Arab States (about 3%, 1.5%, and 2%,
respectively). In contrast, it widened in LDCs and Africa (by 3% and 4%,
respectively).
 Digitally enabled possibilities create opportunities for workers to enjoy the
flexibility and benefits of freelancing and to top-up their income with additional
work in other jobs, thus leading to the flourishing of the “gig,” “on-demand”
or, more generally, the “platform economy.”
 Data from the United States indicate that most online platform economy
participants are men. Similarly, approximately 69% of gig workers in the United
Kingdom are male.
 Recent studies on labor platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Design99 show
that workers’ evaluations correlate with gender. Women often receive less
positive evaluations than men, and this may affect their further employment
opportunities and reinforce existing gender biases.
 For women to thrive in platform-based or enabled jobs, it is important not only
they do not feel discriminated against when working as freelancers but they
succeed in being formally employed by platform companies and tech companies.
Only a small percentage of women do so, and leading regions like Silicon Valley
and elsewhere still suffer from little gender diversity.
 The UK Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce estimates that there are 1.1 million gig workers in Britain and that
female part-time self-employment increased from 439,000 to 812,000 between
2001 and 2016. Also, two million women are expected to become their own
boss by 2019, driven by job characteristics like freedom over working hours and
greater control over earnings.
3.AI, Its impact in commercial domain and
strategic dynamics
 AI is not hype but has the capability of transforming the global economy. (Industrial
Revolutions 1, 2.0 uptill 4.0) History -Primarily, advancement in AI is the heart of the
enhanced performance of all other technologies and the evolution of Industry 4.0 that would
facilitate human-to-machine interactions, change the logic of business models, and transform
the lifestyle and living standards of the human. Route and traffic mapping by Google maps, price
estimation of rides by Uber and Lyft, friends’ tag suggestions at Facebook, spam filters in our
email, recommendation for online shopping and cancer detection are only a few examples of AI
technological innovations simplifying our lives. “Just as electricity transformed almost
everything 100 years ago, today I actually have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don’t
think AI will transform in the next several years” Prof. Ng 1/6 top AI thinker.
 According to the new growth economics, Neo-Schumpeterian Economics, there are three major
forces which drive the economic dynamics: innovation, knowledge, and entrepreneurship . The
root of Neo-Schumpeterian Economics is to learn and search experimentally in permanently
changing environments; thus scientific knowledge is considered to be the second major driving
force of economic dynamics. Finally, the emphasis has been given on an entrepreneur; an
economic actor who kicks off economic development by introducing novelties. MODEL
 The 63-year journey of AI has not been smooth, the period of hypes was followed by periods
with reduced funding (also known as AI winters). However, despite these setbacks today we
have AI back in limelight due to development of ‘deep learning’ neural networks with many
hidden layers. Ai growth two major factors: the increasing availability of big data and
hardware accelerators (GPUs-graphics processing units and TPUs- tensor processing units),
are making AI the core technology responsible for extreme automation and connectivity
and thus, taking the world towards the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution.
 Impacts on governments, communities, companies (the involvement of the
autonomous technology in almost every sector and launch of a large number of AI-
based machines and services would improve health, educational opportunities, security,
transportation, safety, trade and every other aspect of living),
Impacts on individuals (This is leading to the development of assistive technologies and
products for the disable and elderly people. This is also advancing the toy and gaming
industry which will enhance the entertaining experience and develop cognitive &
emotional intelligence of children).
An intelligent agent (IA) takes in the data from the environment, makes an informed decision
based on the input data and past experience, and finally performs an action affecting the
environment. This IA can be a machine (industrial and home robots, self-driving cars) or a
software agent (chatbots, recommender systems).
 Dark-side: there are some security, privacy and ethical concerns associated with the use
of AI technology which needs a lot of attention.
 “AI divide” and “dark side” to AI”- It is surprising to know that out of a total of 195 countries
in the world, AI17 and AI18 are located only in thirteen countries i.e. top global AI start-ups are
located in only 6.6% of the countries on the earth.

4.Energy security and New Tech

5.Education and New Tech

6.Party Politics and New Tech

 Challenges: profiling of voters
 History, Door to door compaign and public gatherings visual and emotional
Radio, Tv
 Evolution; Internat – Global compaign and engaging Int. Audience
 TYPES of Tech
1. digital compaigns
2. communication tools
3. Data analytics
4. voter engagement tools
5. Cyber security measures
 Parties use technology to: Mobilize citizens, Promote platforms,
Interact with voters wants and needs, Build party structures,
Communicate internally.
 A campaign’s “digital strategy” in western democracies is important
to victory. However, it is less clear how digital technology in developing
world (lacks open political environment and widespread technological
advancement) has affected political campaigns.
 Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns were lauded for their digital savvy, while his
opponents were derided for failing to grasp new approaches. Donald Trump has utilized social
media extensively, particularly Twitter, both as a campaigner and as president.
 The existing academic and policy literature on political parties’ use of digital technology tends to
revolve around three core theories, which progressed sequentially:
1. Equalization_ Early equalization perspectives focused on the democratizing potential of the
internet and emphasized the capacity of digital technology to undermine traditional political
institutions, including parties, and replace them with new forms of participation.
2. Normalization_In response, empirical studies of the first wave of digital campaigns tended
to find that digital technology reinforced existing institutions and inequalities, a perspective
that became known as the normalization hypothesis.
3. Hybridization_

5.New Technologies & IR Theories