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AI In Aid Of Knowledge Economy

In the Age of Information brought in by Information Technology, knowledge-based decision-making became the first priority of all business enterprises, writes D.C. Pathak

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has boosted the cause of business in many ways. It has speeded up the process of strategy formulation that derived new strength from a rapid analysis of comprehensive and relevant data relating to the past and the present.

It has also enabled businesses to deal with the new level of competitiveness that exists in today’s world, on the basis of an in-depth study of other players in the field as well as of the intricacies of the business environment.

Finally, AI is setting new benchmarks in human resource management in the matter of reconstituting teams to focus on creating new products and services and ensuring timelines of delivery.

In the Age of Information brought in by Information Technology, knowledge-based decision-making became the first priority of all business enterprises and towards that objective, arrangements were made to collate and analyse a given set of parameters for defining the future vision of the business entity to be achieved within a timeframe.

The scope of Business Intelligence has been infinitely enlarged by AI which is a tool for quickly examining an unprecedented amount of raw data and collated facts, analysing all risk factors and opportunities and producing a set of reliable-looking predictions. The AI-assisted analytics covers a volume of data that was humanly impossible to handle in one go. This has pushed decision-making to a level of near perfection in a competitive environment.

The potential of AI in strategic decision-making, however, yields the best results when it is used for augmenting human Intelligence with data-driven insights and operational efficiency.

AI puts the process of decision-making on a stronger footing by making it an evidence-based determination. Further, AI introduces an element of neutrality and objectivity and minimises the scope of biases creeping into that process.

AI has opened up the world of start-ups and helped to provide a level playing field to those who can “read the future better” and while pursuing a line of business, find an opportunity that had gone undetected earlier.

Application of AI-aided examination of information available in the public domain leads to a good assessment of the competitor’s behaviour as well as the industry dynamics.

Analysis of vast datasets through the application of AI can unearth patterns and trends that throw light on the modus operandi of a rival that was not visible to the human eye and which could be put to good use in a competitive setting.

Even while leveraging historical data, AI can read areas of success of a competitor and determine the scope for improvement there far more accurately thus creating a competitive advantage.

The more comprehensive the data, the better the outcome of the AI application.

It is possible to roll out new GenAI-based products and services to bring more value to investors and customers. AI-aided skills are extensively used now for profile writing, creating engaging headlines and understanding natural language for putting across the work being done by the business enterprise.

The use of AI in critical thinking, problem-solving and effective communication, is now well established.

Automated tasks are another developing area of corporate activity that is being put to good use.

As already mentioned, AI is proving indispensable for predictive analytics. Simulating market conditions and their probable outcomes accrued through advance scenario planning and risk assessment, is becoming a trendsetter.

In the arena of human resource development, work starts with the use of AI to improve the recruitment process itself. AI skills are needed in jobs requiring communication, analysis and sales promotion.

In content creation, it is found that more important than the time spent on writing is the time utilised for interactions and networking for the purpose of enhancing outreach and accessing new knowledge.

Upskilling is required since nearly half of the jobs in India are going to be affected by AI — fortunately, professionals in India are already using AI skills more than what was the case anywhere else globally.

AI offers a new level of personalisation of customer needs, helps the process of development of new products and facilitates the adoption of entirely new ways of sales promotion. Business enterprises need manpower that is attuned to working with others, finding solutions to the problem at hand and using critical thinking.

The new skills are also put to good use in evolving work-life balance that AI-based tasks could demand. One of the top challenges is to prepare a GenAI-ready workforce. One impediment to this is the shortage of expertise in the emerging tech streams such as cloud computing.

There are limited programmes for GenAI skills in the university curricula. Business corporates have to think of building the capabilities of their workforce in terms of technical skills through a tailored training programme on GenAI. This programme has to be based on enterprise-specific or even team-specific goals.

Professionals across operations, marketing, finance etc require basic familiarisation with GenAI to decide how to effectively leverage GenAI tools to improve ‘productivity’.

AI developers need to be nurtured to understand the science behind ‘deep learning’ and make the choice to pick the right models. Advanced teams may be needed to develop niche expertise in product engineering.

Even at the leadership level specific GenAI programmes have to be devised to enhance the trickle-down effect in creating motivation and ambition across the hierarchies. These are also needed for strategy formulation and possible policy amendments that could be required for better implementation.

Today, an understanding of Learning & Development (L&D) and Large Language Models (LLMs) and their importance in business is needed at the leadership level itself.

The main point of understanding and acceptance by the leadership is that AI’s first impact on business was to enable the enterprise to reduce cost and increase the efficiency of its operations so that there was better ROI resulting from the value-add created by AI.

In a nutshell, AI primarily works through data and analytics to help companies to build new products and services and to enhance their customer base.

Machine learning automation is assisting human resource management in screening resumes and scheduling interviews. Screening enables the management to match applicants for positions requiring knowledge, experience and special skills for the job.

Targeted and personalised promotion campaigns are also helped by AI. A simple illustration is ‘machine learning’ that notes the difference between a customer who scans information for high-end eating places and then searches for clothes online and a customer who is only searching for clothes. In the first case, AI lays out fashion garments while in the other case, it would offer a range covering different categories.

Decision-making is one of the most important areas depending a great deal on AI because the latter can scrutinise large databases on customer preferences, text images and videos that are made for knowledge-based decisions- considered so important for standing against the competition. Supply chain management, security enhancement and customer experience data are among the basic advantages that AI-aided programs could provide.

Above all, India is quite aware of the promises and perils of AI and that is why it has asked tech firms to seek government approval before releasing under trial or unreliable AI tools and to caution the customers that the programme may not be able to answer every query of the user.

AI tools should be used with the basic understanding that they are governed by the input-output principle and that any predictive analytics provided by them rested on the detection of patterns and keywords in an unusually large database. Best results therefore are achieved when human intelligence works in conjunction with data-driven insights.

(The writer is former Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Views are personal)

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US spearheads first UN resolution on AI

The draft recognizes the rapid acceleration of AI development and use and stresses the urgency of achieving global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems…reports Asian Lite News

The United States is spearheading the first United Nations resolution on artificial intelligence, aimed at ensuring the new technology is safe, secure and trustworthy and that all countries, especially those in the developing world, have equal access.

The draft General Assembly resolution aims to close the digital divide between countries and make sure they are all at the table in discussions on AI and that they have the technology and capabilities to take advantage of its benefits, including detecting diseases, predicting floods and training the next generation of workers.

The draft recognizes the rapid acceleration of AI development and use and stresses the urgency of achieving global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems. It also recognizes that the governance of artificial intelligence systems is an evolving area that needs further discussions on possible governance approaches.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States turned to the General Assembly to have a truly global conversation on how to manage the implications of the fast-advancing technology of AI.

The resolution would represent global support for a baseline set of principles for the development and use of AI and would lay out a path to leverage AI systems for good while managing the risks, he said in a statement to The Associated Press.

If approved, Sullivan said, this resolution will be an historic step forward in fostering safe, secure and trustworthy AI worldwide.

The United States began negotiating with the 193 UN member nations about three months ago, spent hundreds of hours in direct talks with individual countries, 42 hours in negotiations and accepted input from 120 nations, a senior US official said. The resolution achieved consensus support from all member states and will be formally considered later this month, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they are an important barometer of world opinion.

A key goal, according to the draft resolution, is to use AI to help spur progress toward achieving the U.N.’s badly lagging development goals for 2030, including ending global hunger and poverty, improving health worldwide, ensuring quality secondary education for all children and achieving gender equality.

The draft resolution encourages all countries, regional and international organizations, technical communities, civil society, the media, academia, research institutions and individuals to develop and support regulatory and governance approaches and frameworks for safe AI systems.

Lawmakers in the European Union are set to give final approval to the world’s first comprehensive AI rules on Wednesday. Countries around the world, including the U.S. and China, or global groupings like the Group of 20 industrialized nations also are moving to draw up AI regulations.

The US draft calls on the 193 UN member states and others to assist developing countries to access the benefits of digital transformation and safe AI systems. It emphasizes that human rights and fundamental freedoms must be respected, protected and promoted throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems.”

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield recalled President Joe Biden’s address to the General Assembly last year where he said emerging technologies, including AI, hold enormous potential.

She said the resolution aims to build international consensus on a shared approach to the design, development, deployment and use of AI systems, particularly to support the 2030 UN goals.

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India’s Mobile Manufacturing Triumph

From just two mobile phone factories in 2014, India now has become the second largest mobile phone producer in the world….reports Asian Lite News

The growth of mobile phone production in India over a decade is being described as an unmatched success story in the manufacturing sector.

While 78 per cent of all the mobile phones sold in the country in 2014 were imported, about 97 per cent of the mobile phones are now manufactured in India.

According to the industry body, India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), mobile phone production, in value terms has surged from Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to an estimated Rs 4.10 lakh crore in FY24, registering over 20 fold increase.

Cumulatively, over 245 crore mobile phone sets have been produced in India during the last 10 years.

In 2014-15, mobile phone exports from India were a mere Rs 1,556 crore.

The industry expects to end FY24 with an estimated export of Rs 1,20,000 crore. Driven by this export growth, mobile phones have now become India’s fifth largest export as an individual commodity.

This exponential growth in production, exports and self-sufficiency stems from a conducive policy environment, and a close working relationship between industry and key government Ministries such as the Ministry of Electronics & IT, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, NITI Aayog and the PMO, the experts said.

In May 2017, the government announced the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) initiative to promote the domestic production of mobile handsets. It helped in building a robust indigenous mobile manufacturing ecosystem in the country and incentivised large-scale manufacturing.

From just two mobile phone factories in 2014, India now has become the second largest mobile phone producer in the world.

According to experts, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) and for IT hardware is advancing towards making India a competitive destination for electronics manufacturing.

The PLI scheme offers incentives ranging from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the incremental sales value for a stipulated period to eligible players.

The PLI scheme has attracted leading global contract manufacturers, including Foxconn, Pegatron, Rising Star and Wistron, to set up a production base in India.

Samsung on the other hand, operates the world’s largest mobile phone factory in Noida.

In the field of smartphones, Apple and Samsung, have played a crucial role in boosting mobile phone exports from the country. India-manufactured devices are being exported in large volumes to the UK, Netherlands, Austria, and Italy, besides Middle East, North Africa and South American markets.

With a large domestic market and a growing export market, the outlook for mobile phone and electronics manufacturing in India remains upbeat, the experts mentioned.

ALSO READ: India’s Global Economic Ascendancy

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‘IndiaAI Mission’ Wins Industry Praise

The IndiaAI Mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalysing AI innovation through strategic programmes…reports Asian Lite News

The industry leaders on Friday hailed the government’s IndiaAI Mission initiative, the country’s first artificial intelligence (AI) mission that was approved with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore.

The IndiaAI Mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalysing AI innovation through strategic programmes and partnerships across the public and private sectors.

“The focus on funding deep tech AI startups, developing open source databases, as well as domain-specific large language models will play an instrumental role in fueling AI innovation in the country, making India a global leader in harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence,” said Tilakraj Parmar, Co-Founder & CEO, QX Lab AI.

He also mentioned that the government’s move to provide financial support and a strategic roadmap for AI integration will act as a catalyst for economic growth and innovation.

Prashanth Kaddi, Partner, Consulting, Deloitte India, said that this move gives a fillip to the startup ecosystem “to drive innovation helping India leapfrog into areas such as text summarisation, video/image generation, and next-gen chatbots etc., including enablement across Indian languages”.

The Mission will be implemented by ‘IndiaAI’ Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC).

According to an official, the approved IndiaAI Mission will propel innovation and build domestic capacities to ensure the tech sovereignty of the country.

It will also create highly skilled employment opportunities to harness the demographic dividend of the country.

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Racist, Sexist: Musk Slams Google Gemini

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX criticized Google Gemini as highly discriminatory…reports Asian Lite News

 X owner Elon Musk on Wednesday continued his tirade against Google, saying its artificial intelligence (AI) model Gemini is super racist and even “sexist”.

The billionaire responded to a follower who said that Google Gemini replied to his prompt that “white people should absolutely acknowledge their white privilege”.

“Google Gemini is super racist and sexist,” said the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.

Another follower commented to Musk’s post that “Gemini holds Asians to similar standards as Whites when it comes to privilege”.

“This just shows more and more how Gemini is programmed with the exact same narratives that our higher education teaches,” an X user posted.

Musk recently accused Google of running “racist, anti-civilisational programming” with its AI models.

“Given that the Gemini AI will be at the heart of every Google product and YouTube, this is extremely alarming,” he had posted earlier this week.

One of his followers commented on his latest post on Google Gemini, saying “just remember who is programming it.

“There’s your problem and your answer. If the left can control the narrative, we will never have honesty again. Truth will be censored or not even added to the database. It will only be left talking points. That’s scary.”

Musk had claimed that a senior Google executive called him after screenshots of Gemini’s response to “misgender” Caitlyn Jenner to avoid a nuclear apocalypse went viral on social media.

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AIADMK releases AI-generated clip of Jayalalithaa

Palaniswami also released the party’s election slogan: “Let’s reclaim Tamil rights, Let’s save Tamil Nadu,” on the occasion….reports Asian Lite News

An Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated audio clip of AIADMK’s iconic leader and late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa seeking support to party General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for the upcoming Lok Sabha election was released by the party on Saturday.

In the AI voice clip, released on her 76th birth anniversary, the former party supremo could be heard recalling the AIADMK government’s welfare initiatives and appealed to the members of the public to strengthen Edappadi K Palaniswami’s hands in establishing “people’s rule.” She repeated her popular catchphrase: “I am because of the people, I am for the people” (Makkalal naan, makkalukkagave naan).

Palaniswami also released the party’s election slogan: “Let’s reclaim Tamil rights, Let’s save Tamil Nadu,” on the occasion.

Annamalai hails Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on Saturday remembered former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on her 76th birth anniversary.

“It is former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha’s birthday today. The welfare programs implemented by her for the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu and for the welfare of the society shouts out her fame,” Annamalai said in a post on X.

Earlier AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswamy paid tributes to the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

“Today is the 76th birthday of the Guardian of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Whether in government or in politics she served without any compromise, without doing any harm to anyone, with balance, equality and social justice. ..Let us pledge to continue on the path of success shown by her. All of us will pledge that the leaders of our association and the brothers and sisters of the association will work day and night for the election and get a great victory in the coming parliamentary general election and present that victory to the leader of the revolution” Palaniswamy said in his post on X.

“She embraced us all with love, taught us political lessons and guided us. On the birthday of our beloved mother, may we all work tirelessly to achieve great success! Let’s work!. The year 2026 will also be the year of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the state” he added.

Jayalalithaa, fondly called ‘Amma’ by the people of Tamil Nadu, served the state for three terms, 1991-96, 2002-06 and 2011-14 as chief minister.

She had acted in around 130 films. She joined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in 1982.

She was made the propaganda secretary of the party in 1983, and a year later she won a seat in the Rajya Sabha. In 1989 Jayalalitha was elected to the state legislative assembly.

She was even imprisoned for a month in 1996 after a raid by authorities seized a large quantity of jewellery, clothing, and shoes from her home.

In 1998, Jayalalithaa brought the AIADMK into the national coalition government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with which the party has now severed ties.

In September 2014 she was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to four years in prison. She relinquished her post to O Panneerselvam, who had served as chief minister in 2001-02 when Jayalalitha was not able to hold the office. (ANI)

Three-term TN Cong MLA joins BJP

Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, a three-time Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu, S Vijayadharani on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party’s headquarters in the national capital.

Union Minister of State L Murugan, BJP in charge, who has been given the responsibility of overseeing preparations for Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and party leader Arvind Menon were present. The party’s co-incharge for the state Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy was also present.

Earlier in the day, Vijayadharani informed that she resigned from the primary membership of Congress through a post on X.

“I am resigning from the primary membership and related posts held by me in the Congress party,” she said.

She shared her resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Vijayadharani, a three-time legislator, was elected from the Vilavancode Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari District.

The development is being seen as a blow to Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May this year.

The BJP is seeking to strengthen its base in states where it is relatively weak. Congress is part of the ruling DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. (ANI)

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Major cellular outage after AT&T, other networks go down

AT&T acknowledged that it had a widespread outage but did not provide a reason for the system failure…reports Asian Lite News

A massive outage was reported in the United States on Thursday, after AT&T’s network went down for many of its customers across the country, leaving customers unable to place calls, text or access the internet, CNN reported.

Later in the day, AT&T said that three-quarters of its disrupted network had been restored and it is working to quickly restore the services of all remaining users.

Although Verizon and T-Mobile customers also reported some network outages, those appeared far less widespread. These two firms said their networks were unaffected by AT&T’s service outage and customers reporting outages may have been unable to reach customers who use AT&T.

On Thursday morning, more than 74,000 AT&T customers reported outages on digital-service tracking site DownDetector, with service disruptions beginning around 4 am ET (local time), as reported by CNN.

AT&T acknowledged that it had a widespread outage but did not provide a reason for the system failure.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them,” AT&T said in a statement. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

By late morning, AT&T said most of its network was back online.

“Our network teams took immediate action and so far, three-quarters of our network has been restored,” the company said. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

Although AT&T provided no official reason for the outage, the issue appears to be related to how cellular services hand off calls from one network to the next, a process known as ‘peering’, CNN reported, citing an industry source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But, there is no indication that Thursday’s outage was the result of a cyberattack or other malicious activity, the industry source said.

As a result of this massive outage, AT&T’s stock fell more than 2 per cent on Thursday, on a day when the market was rocketing higher.

AT&T has encountered sporadic outages over the past few days, including a temporary 911 outage in some parts of the south-eastern United States. Although outages happen from time to time, nationwide, prolonged outages are exceedingly rare.

However, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand[s] ready to offer any assistance needed,” says Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity.

Several local governments also said that AT&T’s outage was disrupting their services.

San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said in a statement on X Thursday morning that its 911 centre remained operational, but many AT&T customers were unable to reach the emergency line because of the outage. It suggested people call from a landline or find someone with a rival’s service to dial 911.

The Fire Department in Upper Arlington, Ohio, said the AT&T outage was affecting its fire alarms. St. Joseph County, Michigan, advised residents to use Wi-Fi to place 911 calls if they can’t reach 911 on AT&T’s network

New York Police Department officials told CNN that they were not able to make calls or utilise emails on AT&T phones Thursday morning unless they were connected to Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 outages were reported by both Verizon and T-Mobile customers, according to DownDetectot website, the two telecom firms said that they are “unaffected.”

“We did not experience an outage,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Our network is operating normally.”

“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” Verizon said. “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

According to CNN, it is almost certain, that the Federal Communications Commission will investigate this week’s incident, multiple experts said.

The FCC requires carriers to report information linked to network disruptions. Fines may be possible in connection with 911 outages, although they aren’t a certainty, said Blair Levin, a telecom policy analyst and another former FCC official. (ANI)

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‘AI Poses Job Threat, but More Opportunities Ahead’

Patel said that he has seen technology and multiple innovations evolve over a period of time….reports Asian Lite News

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) begins to threaten certain jobs, Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia, has said that AI will actually create more job options that it destroys.

Speaking to IANS, Patel said that he has seen technology and multiple innovations evolve over a period of time.

“I firmly believe AI will create more jobs than it destroys. People are usually very scared when imagining entirely new jobs. For example, take the Internet, when the Internet came right, and you had web publishing and all things that were web-enabled, it led to job decline in certain sectors like newspaper printing,” he explained.

However, it also resulted in entirely new job categories like web design, data science, digital marketing and web publishing, which employ millions of people, he added.

“So, one of the things which we have been very articulate about and keep harping on is that re-skilling will play a very important role,” Patel stressed.

While 46 per cent of the companies in India are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with automation and AI tools, it leaves room for a lot more to be done.

“This is something that the government clearly recognises,” he said.

When we look at employees within the organisation, 50 per cent say they are excited to work with new AI and automation tools.

“So, the question now is how do you train a vast pool of people? Everyone can’t be a coder or AI developer and so on and so forth. You have to learn to work with these technologies as they evolve,” Patel told IANS.

According to Minister of State for IT and Skill Development Rajeev Chandrasekhar, technological talent, not chip-driven compute power, is the key to India’s progress in AI.

“Talent is a much more fundamental challenge in AI. We need universities to churn out masters and PhDs in AI. Talent is something that keeps me awake at night. The infrastructure pieces will get solved very quickly,” he said at an event last December.

There is a serious need for the tech industry and academic institutions to work along with the governments globally in shaping the future pipeline of talent for AI-related jobs, he stressed.

ALSO READ: Fishermen’s E-Market Soon

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Fishermen’s E-Market Soon

The initiative will offer economies of scale to marginal fishermen by centralizing their scattered businesses on a shared digital platform for product sales…reports Asian Lite News

With the aim of providing fishermen with an e-market platform, the Department of Fisheries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on February 19.

The officials said that the MoU will be signed in the presence of Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala and Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying L Murugan at Krishi Bhawan in the national capital.

E-commerce player Dunzo.(photo:www.dunzo.com/bangalore)

“This essential step will provide a digital platform for fisherfolks, fish farmers producers organisation, entrepreneurs, SHGs, fishermen cooperatives and other relevant stakeholders in the fisheries sector to access wider markets, expanding their reach and potential customer base,” the officials said.

They said that the collaboration between Department of Fisheries and ONDC will facilitate the implementation of technology-driven solutions, improve efficiency, collectivisation and competitiveness of the small scale producers and marketers.

“ONDC is a unique platform of e-marketing and will play a significant role in the fisheries sector to connect maximum FFPOs and other fishermen cooperatives,” they said.

The officials said that by providing a direct channel between producers and consumers, ONDC will support in reducing the reliance on intermediaries, leading to higher profits for fishers and lower prices for consumers.

“This initiative will also provide a scale of economy to the marginal fishermen engaged in scattered business through a common digital platform for their products,” the officials said.

They said that the adoption of digital technical solutions will serve various benefits for fisheries industries like enhanced trust, reduced transaction costs, increased market reach, improved transparency, increased competitiveness, innovation, and employment generation.

“In the long term, the ONDC network will facilitate seamless integration for harnessing the benefits of collectivisation between producers, processors, and distributors within the fisheries sector, enabling efficient supply chain management, value chains and market access,” the officials said.

They said that this collaboration will facilitate capacity building and raise awareness through educational workshops for MSMEs, start-ups, SHGs, small and marginal fishermen, FFPOs, fishers, and market participants in the fisheries sector.

“Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is incorporated as a Section 8 company, an initiative by DPIIT, Ministry of commerce and industry, aiming at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks,” the officials said.

They said that it has recorded more than 6.3 million transactions in the month of November’23 across 600+ cities. The sellers and service providers are spread across 500+ cities expanding the geographical coverage of the ONDC network.

Presently, over 3000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) have registered to be a part of the ONDC through various network participants. Also, around 400 Self-Help Groups (SHGs), micro-entrepreneurs and social sector enterprises have been onboarded on the network.

ALSO READ: India Emerges as Digital Powerhouse

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India Emerges as Digital Powerhouse

Using a new approach called the CHIPS (connect–harness–innovate–protect–sustain) framework, the report benchmarked the scale and depth of India’s digital transformation with respect to G20 countries as well as for Indian states and UTs…reports Asian Lite News

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India now ranks as the third largest digitalised country among the G20 nations after US and China, when compared by the aggregate level of digitalisation, a new report showed on Friday, stressing that India’s global ranking significantly improves when the full spectrum and scale of digitalisation is taken into account.

Digitalisation has made dramatic progress but the way it is being measured globally has not.

Most global indices do not completely capture the path of digitalisation adopted by developing countries, according to the ‘State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) 2024’ report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the global consumer internet group Prosus.

“The world does not still truly get how technology has weaved itself into the daily life of Indians, which to me, is the real digital economy. India is truly a digital native country — not just the young that are born to technology, but even the older population take to technology,” said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom, while releasing the report here.

“When you think of the digital economy of India, you should think in terms of the lens of impact and livelihoods,” she added.

Using a new approach called the CHIPS (connect–harness–innovate–protect–sustain) framework, the report benchmarked the scale and depth of India’s digital transformation with respect to G20 countries as well as for Indian states and UTs.

This approach is better suited for developing countries like India as it captures both the opportunities and risks created by digitalisation.

Unlike global indices that focus entirely on the average user, it recognises the scale of the network and breadth of use of technology at the economy-wide level by proposing two separate indices — one to measure digitalisation at the economy-wide level and second at the user-level, the report by ICRIER-Prosus Centre for Internet and Digital Economy (IPCIDE) noted.

“There is a huge amount of work already done in terms of innovation, government support, financial access and skills. As an emerging economy India has truly leapfrogged into the digital age,” said Pramod Bhasin, Chairperson, ICRIER.

India has the world’s second largest internet network with more than 700 million users. It has also seen one of the fastest rollouts of 5G, after its launch in October 2022.

During its G20 presidency, India was recognised as a champion of using digital public infrastructures for large scale delivery of public services. It has issued more than 1.3 billion biometric IDs through the Aadhaar system.

More than 83 billion UPI transactions took place in India in FY2022-23, the highest volume of real-time digital payments for a country, followed by China and Brazil.

“By highlighting the latest thinking on India’s digital transformation and presenting a new approach to measuring digitalisation, the SIDE report can help Indian policymakers make informed decisions,” said Sehraj Singh, Managing Director, Prosus India.

62% of Enterprises Seek Third-Party AI Solutions

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About 62 per cent of enterprises globally plan to rely on third-party providers for generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and enhanced technical capabilities, a new report said on Friday.

According to the report by the management consulting company Everest Group, supported by WNS Global Services, there is real transformative potential for gen AI in Customer Experience Management (CXM) operations across industries.

Gen AI’s capacity to create new content in a variety of formats (text, image, video, code and synthetic data), recognise patterns within data, and analyse data and content to deliver relevant insights has the potential to transform CXM processes.

The report discovered that there is a significant awareness of gen AI and its applications across text (75 per cent), code (62 per cent), and image generation (52 per cent) capabilities.

The report surveyed CXM, digital transformation, and innovation leaders from 200 companies across North America, the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific with annual revenues of more than $500 million.

More than 90 per cent of companies recognise its high potential in text generation, with about 70 per cent expressing confidence in its capabilities for code and image generation in CXM.

Enterprises all over the world are proactively investing significant resources in generative AI initiatives, conducting trial projects, and prioritising personnel upskilling to realise its full potential.

According to the report, a notable trend emerged as 14 per cent of firms plan to allocate between $5 to $10 million for gen AI technology within the next 12 to 18 months.

About 60 per cent of companies said that the main areas of help they expect from third-party providers are supporting in-house technical teams, aiding maintenance and troubleshooting activities, and supervising the functioning of gen AI solutions.

Moreover, the report mentioned that about 58 per cent of enterprises said they need significant strategic support from third-party providers in activities such as designing the gen AI adoption strategy and redesigning CXM processes and customer journeys to incorporate gen AI solutions.

However, 52 per cent said they leverage third-party providers to help implement privacy, security and regulatory compliance measures.

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