Science & Technology

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 may 2015

Value of data lies with how it can be utilized for better and improved decision-making and subsequent beneficial actions. Governments collect and hold substantial amount of valuable data on variety of parameters. Open data movement intends to give wider digital access to public data to increase government transparency, efficiency and accountability. A report by McKinsey Global Institute estimates global economic value of open data at US$ 3 trillion. Open Data Research Network, funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre and led by World Wide Web Foundation, is exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries and how it can help address specific challenges. In Chennai (India) researchers found that existing municipal data on the urban poor is unreliable. Lack of data on the number and location of public toilets, hinder public sanitation investments to reach vulnerable communities. Local officials with the help of researchers significantly improved their procurement processes by creating and connecting different open databases. Another case study in India focused on the extractive energy sector, where no publicly available data has hindered regulatory enforcement in the production of coal, oil and natural gas. In Phillippines, researchers looked at how business, media, civil society and other groups benefit from national open data policy introduced in 2011 that required local governments to disclose financial and procurement related data on their websites. This project identified where local governments can be more accountable. Read on...

Phys.org: Strengthening governance through open data
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 may 2015

According to S. Ayyappan, Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE) and Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), 'Multidisciplinary research and applications are required to improve agriculture in India.' He suggests, 'The future of India and the world lay in everyone becoming interested in the outcomes of agriculture, since it's everybody's business.' Vijay Chandru, Chairman and CEO of Strand Life Sciences, says 'Innovations are happening in genome sequencing and it might soon become personalized and a precise way of diagnosing diseases. There is need for biologists, bioinformaticians and information scientists to collaborate in this regard.' Read on...

The Hindu: Research needed to improve agriculture, says expert
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 apr 2015

Using technology to bring social change and improve people's lives is a challenging task. 'One-size-fits-all' approaches to implement technology strategies may not be effective and provide expected results. There is need to have proper context, clarity of purpose and supportive environment to fulfil the promises that technology intends to bring for the well-being and welfare of the society. Professor Kentaro Toyama of University of Michigan, in his latest book 'Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology', argues that technologists undermine efforts at social progress by promoting 'packaged interventions' at the expense of more difficult reforms. Prof. Toyama has worked extensively in India and launched various projects that sought to use computers and Internet connectivity to improve education and reduce poverty. Following are selected excerpts from his Q&A session done by Brian Bergstein, deputy editor of MIT Technology Review - • 'There are already several randomized, controlled trials of schools with and without One Laptop per Child. Generally, what most of these studies show is that schools with laptops did not see their children gain anything in terms of academic achievement, in terms of grades, in terms of test scores, in terms of attendance, or in terms of supposed engagement with the classroom.' • 'I think it's perfectly sensible for parents to want a certain amount of exposure to technology for their children, both as a form of explorative play and as a way to get them used to technology that they'll undoubtedly encounter later in their life. I think the fundamental error people make is that, therefore, we should have the computer be the primary instrument of education for all children...I think one of the issues is we tend to think of education as being the content. We overemphasize the importance of content, as opposed to emphasizing the part that's really difficult in any good education, which is adult-supervised motivation - the motivation of the child to learn something.' • 'If you measure some positive benefit in the technology case, your conclusion is that technology helped. But it was always the people that we worked with, the partners that we chose and the people on the ground who interacted with the people that we wanted to support. All of those human factors were required for the technology itself to have an impact; whether the technology helped or not was really up to people.' Read on...

MIT Technology Review: Putting Technology in Its Place
Author: Brian Bergstein

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 02 apr 2015

India's growing number of Internet users, about 300 million and just behind China and US, is facilitating the rise of e-commerce. Considering the ease, convenience and available choices for consumers to buy online indicates that e-commerce will stay and continue to grow. But legal experts view the current laws regarding internet businesses insufficient to handle the unique attributes of e-commerce business processes and transactions. Click-wrap agreements on various e-commerce websites that act as 'user agreements/e-contracts' also involves sharing of customer's personal information with third party service providers that are invisible to users/customers. In India, the Information Technology Act, 2000, deals with the concept of violation of privacy in a very limited sense (from a handling of data perspective). All contracts in India, whether electronic or otherwise, are governed by Indian Contract Act 1872, which mandates free consent, lawful consideration, lawful object and competency to contract. Specific legal framework related to e-contracts and online agreements is still underdeveloped and doesn't provide much recourse to consumers in cases such as violation of privacy or misuse of personal information by third parties in e-commerce transactions. E-commerce websites operating in India are 'intermediaries' as per the provisions of the IT Act. The IT Act has exempted intermediaries from any liability in respect of third-party information, data or communication link hosted by it. The Consumer Disputes Act, 1986, does not address the role played by online marketplaces and evolving forms of service providers. This need to be addressed. Online businesses are currently governed by multiple laws like IT Act, Indian Contract Act, Companies Act 2013, Indian Penal Code 1860, and also other taxation, intellectual property and employment laws. Considering the dynamic nature of e-commerce and internet businesses there should be a unified and distinct legislation that governs these businesses. Read on...

The Financial Express: Indian digital economy needs clear laws
Authors: Sharanya G. Ranga, Pooja Thacker

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 mar 2015

Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to transform and disrupt various industries like healthcare, infrastructure management, transportation, utility etc. Recent report by Verizon estimates that by 2025, organizations that extensively use IoT technologies in their products and operations will be upto 10% more profitable. According to Arun Kundu, Director of Professional Services at Verizon Enterprise Solutions, manufacturing sector will be hugely impacted by IoT. He says, 'IoT is creating opportunities to capture and interpret data leading to new services, avoiding commoditisation. And of course, manufacturers are always looking for ways to streamline processes and increase efficiency. IoT-enabled asset tracking not only provides manufacturers with better control of their logistics, but using the data can also enable them to offer their customers near real-time tracking of shipments, an appealing differentiator.' He further adds, 'The factory of the future will be more capital efficient and flexible. Updates from product design teams will be introduced more quickly, and customisations incorporated more easily. Schedules will reflect changes in demand within hours, not days. Managers will be able to see what stock and raw materials are on hand, and exactly where they are, from their tablet.' Remote monitoring of the conditions of the equipment and visualize indicator's of imminent failure, and production-line monitoring and automation leading to predictive maintenance are some other uses of IoT that Mr. Kundu mentions. Read on...

Business Standard: Internet of Things can have massive impact on manufacturing
Author: Rakesh Rao

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 nov 2014

Advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) with expanded internet access and connectivity through various devices, gadgets and machines, also brings security risks. Security community has to be prepared to face variety of cyber attacks and plug loopholes and vulnerabilities. Symantec's APJ (Asia-Pacific/Japan) security predictions for 2015 explores issues that will affect individual customers, businesses and governments in the region - (1) Attacks on the Internet of Things (IoT) will focus on smart home automation. (2) Mobile devices will become even more attractive targets. (3) Machine learning will be a game changer in the fight against cybercrime. (4) Privacy will continue to be sacrificed for mobile apps. (5) Scammers will continue to run profitable ransomware scams. (6) The prominent data leaks of 2014 will keep cybersecurity in the spotlight in 2015. (7) Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) will continue to rise as a threat. (8) User behaviour will take centre stage as security moves beyond passwords. (9) The Cloud will take us to Infinity and Beyond. (10) The front lines of cybersecurity will be strengthened by closer industry partnerships and collaborations. Read on...

InformationWeek: Top 10 security predictions for 2015
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 nov 2014

India has a rural population of about 80%, and according to a Deloitte report 60% of the hospitals are situated in the urban areas. Another study by Indian Institute of Public Opinion found that 89% of rural patients in India have to travel about 8 kms to access the basic healthcare and the rest have to travel even more. This data shows a huge rural-urban healthcare divide in India. To bridge this gap with the help of advancements in mobile technologies a collaborative effort between Balabhai Nanavati Hospital (BNH) and UST Global resulted in a telemedicine app that connects rural communities to medical specialists in tertiary hospitals. It eliminates the cost of travel and provides affordable care to rural population. According to Bipin Thomas, President of UST Global Health Group, 'As the app connects tertiary hospitals to primary and secondary care hospitals in remote locations where patients can get primary care consultation, only those requiring advanced treatments or surgeries will need to travel to specialty hospital in city centres. Mobile collaboration technology also helps multiple specialists to attend to a case.' He further adds, 'We are also looking to add more advanced features including integration with Google Glass, wearable medical devices, telecardiology and teleradiology in our future releases.' Read on...

InformationWeek: Indian hospital shows how mobility can improve healthcare
Author: Jasmine Kohli

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 sep 2014

India can take advantage of its demographic dividend only when its younger population is provided right direction and opportunities. It is one of the countries with an acute talent crisis with even the educated youth having insufficient skills to be effectively absorbed in the job market. India lacks behind in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) investment, with only 0.88% of its GDP in science research while US (7-8%) & South Korea (3-4%) are way ahead. Former Director General of DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organization), Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, last year mentioned that only 4 out of 1000 young students opt for science & technology or research as their future career as compared to 8 in China, 55 in the USA, 76 in Israel, 76 in Germany, 46 in Korea and 110 in Japan. According to a survey, by 2020 India is estimated to have a shortfall of 1.5 to 2.2 million engineers. To be a successful developed nation, India has to focus on a comprehensive program for STEM education. Moreover it has to encourage the spirit of creativity & innovation and promote students to also pursue true research. Intel Corporation is pursuing a program in a public-private partnership, Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS), with Department of Science & Technology and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) to popularize science and the spirit of innovation among students of Class 5-12. The program selects innovative students through project-based competition and then these students are mentored to represent India at a global platform, Intel ISEF, and showcase their projects to win awards and scholarships. India has to develop a mechanism where students who have shown creative and innovative abilities are nurtured within the current education system and encouraged & supported to build upon their ideas. More involvement of private sector is also required to promote STEM proficiency. Debjani Ghosh of Intel, the author of article, further mentions, 'We need to encourage project based learning and inquiry based interdisciplinary approaches in the classroom. Without the change happening at the basic level, STEM will remain a periphery for our students.' Read on...

DNA: India needs a literacy movement for science, technology, engineering and maths
Author: Debjani Ghosh

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 sep 2014

Indiscriminate, inappropriate and excessive use of antibiotics leads to an undesirable consequence of multi drug resistant bug. In 2009 metallo lactamase NDM-1 was first detected in a patient in New Delhi. In a recent study conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Asad Ullah Khan and Dr. Shadab Parvez of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), have found a deadly bacteria variant known as NDM-4 from the samples of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital's sewage. This is the first recorded occurence of NDM-4, which is also called 'super bug' and is a more deadly variant of NDM-1, in India. According to Dr. Khan, 'We have to spread more awareness nationwide regarding the urgent need of taking due precautions with regards to safe drinking water and uncontaminated food.' Dr. Khan mentioned that high risk group for this bacteria are people with very low resistance such as cancer and HIV patients. Read on...

The Financial Times: Antibiotic resistant 'super bug' found by Aligarh Muslim University researchers
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 sep 2014

India has successfully placed itself as the leading hub of low-cost 'generic' pharmaceuticals in the world. But similar development and success is needed in case of medical technology (MedTech), one of the other main component of healthcare ecosystem alongwith pharmaceuticals and services. It includes variety of technology-based devices, diagnostics, equipment etc. Currently 2/3rd of India's MedTech market constitutes high-priced imports from other countries. Professor David Kelso of Northwestern University says, 'If people began designing devices specifically for resource-poor settings, they could come up with much better solutions.' India has to focus on becoming a hub of low-cost, innovative MedTech products and learn from the development and creation of innovative MedTech industries in Israel and Singapore. It can facilitate entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem through public-academic-private partnership (PAPP). The MedTech market in India is substantial and can't be ignored with majority of low and mid-income consumers. MedTech spend in India is estimated to grow from US$ 6 billion (Rs 36000 crore) today to over US$ 40 billion (Rs 250000 crore) in 2025. Read on...

The Hindu: India can be more than a pharma hub
Author: Siraj Dhanani

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