Euronet Worldwide, Inc., Uses Its REN Ecosystem to Drive Digital Growth Strategy and Modernization of Payments Systems for Cosmos Bank in India -…

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LEAWOOD, Kan., Dec. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euronet India Services Pvt. Ltd, a division of leading global financial technology solutions and payments provider Euronet Worldwide, Inc., (NASDAQ: EEFT), announced today it has migrated Cosmos Bank in India to the modern processing technologies of Euronets REN Ecosystem.

Cosmos Bank, the second largest co-operative community bank in India with more than 114 years of service, selected Euronet to drive the next level of its digital growth strategy. To achieve the project goals, Euronet implemented an on-demand pay as you grow services model for powering the banks card-based and real time account-based payment services. Euronet is using globally proven payments technologies and products from its next generation REN Ecosystem to replace the banks on premise switching system through cloud-based solutions that include:

The REN-based services and core processing platform are hosted and managed in a private cloud at Euronets data centers where they are API-accessible for building custom solutions and constantly monitored to meet the banks high reliability, accessibility, and security (RAS) parameters. In addition, the project was delivered on time in a matter of months despite challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cosmos Bank has been scouting for a trusted partner to modernize our payments infrastructure, said Arti Dhole, Chief Information Officer for Cosmos Bank Ltd. After running our due diligence, we are proud to partner with a global leader like Euronet. Since our inception, Cosmos Bank has used technology to offer an innovative banking experience to our customers. With this partnership, we reiterate our commitment to customers via implementation of a state-of-the-art core payments platform.

Cosmos Bank is one of the most digitally savvy banks in India, and Euronet is pleased to partner with them on their journey of modernizing their core payments infrastructure, said Pranay Jhaveri, Euronet Country Manager for India/South Asia. This is a landmark partnership for Euronet and provides more validation for the company as a partner of choice for leading banks and national networks in India and the Asia Pacific region.

About Cosmos Bank

Established in 1906, theCosmos Co-operative Bank Ltd. is the second oldest and second largest bank in India with 114 years of service and multi-state scheduled status in 1997. The bank has nurtured its traditional values in business practices and in serving the small customers. At the same time, the bank has adopted new technologies and advanced banking tools to add value to its services. Cosmos Bank has carved a niche in the banking sector due to its rich heritage, integrity, adherence to prudent banking practices, technology advancement, customized products and services and most of all due to its experienced, qualified and professional Board of Directors. The banks website is http://www.cosmosbank.com.

About Euronet Worldwide, Inc.

Euronet Worldwideis an industry leader in processing secure electronic financial transactions. The Company offers payment and transaction processing solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers and individual consumers. These services include comprehensive ATM, POS and card outsourcing services, card issuing and merchant acquiring services, software solutions, cash-based and online-initiated consumer-to-consumer and business-to-business money transfer services, and electronic distribution of digital media and prepaid mobile phone time.

Euronet'sglobal payment network is extensive - including 43,956 ATMs, approximately 324,000 EFT POS terminals and a growing portfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services which are under management in 61 countries; card software solutions; a prepaid processing network of approximately 717,000 POS terminals at approximately 328,000 retailer locations in 55 countries; and a global money transfer network of approximately 447,000 locations serving 159 countries. With corporate headquarters inLeawood, Kansas, USA, and 66 worldwide offices,Euronetserves clients in approximately 175 countries. For more information, please visit the Company's website atwww.euronetworldwide.com.

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Learning Ecosystem: Why You Need One, How to Build It – ATD

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During times of crisis, such as the ones we have been experiencing during 2020, learning and development (L&D) leaders must provide continuous learning to help the workforce navigate difficult times. To provide continuous learning frameworks for their employees, organizations should build their learning ecosystems. Learning ecosystems help organizations withstand crises and generate long-term benefits for employees by fostering creativity and innovation, which in turn affect product and services delivered to customers.

Organizations that build learning ecosystems show better performance results. Creating a learning ecosystem requires a focus on the people, content, technology, data, and governance in the organization. Today, every learning and development professional needs to ask two critical questions: Why do we need a learning ecosystem? and How can we build one? Lets explore my answers to these two questions.

A learning ecosystem is a symbiotic environment where people interact with the content, technologies, and data that surround them to facilitate and deliver learning experiences based on the governance guardrails set by the organization. A learning ecosystem can be broad and organization-agnostic, open, and accessible to anyone. For example, think of LinkedIn and how much you learn, connect, and engage with other professionals daily.

A learning ecosystem can also be specific and organization-centric (existing within your organization). The resilience and survival of the ecosystem depends on the variety and diversity of the people and content in it as well as the frequency, ease, and depth of the interaction facilitated by the underlying technologies. As a learning leader, you can focus on building an organization-specific learning ecosystem, which is more within your control. An organization-specific ecosystem that embraces diversity of content, access, and types of learning fosters innovation and is more resilient to change than a closed and rigid ecosystem. Now, lets see how you can build a learning ecosystem.

People. The main beneficiaries of your organizations learning ecosystem are the employees. Additionally, the quality and depth of the ecosystem in turn benefits your customers. The better your employees learn through the ecosystem, the better the quality of the products and services theyll provide to your customers. The ecosystem may include other stakeholders such as university faculty, professional association members, policymakers, and other industry vendors that your employees engage with during their learning journeys.

Content. The content in the ecosystem includes the learning courses your organization offers, from formal learning including online classroom instruction-led, to informal learning including asynchronous courses, videos, articles, podcasts, on-the-job tools, guides, e-books, and webcasts, among others. Content curation is critical because it will enable you to address your learners educational needs and preferences.

Technology. The most viable technology to support and foster a learning ecosystem is a learning experience platform (LXP), which is increasingly replacing the traditional learning management system (LMS). Bersin by Deloitte defines an LXP as a single-point access, consumer-grade system that can curate and aggregate content; create learning and career pathways; enable networking; enhance skill development; and track multiple learning activities delivered by multiple channels and content partners. LXPs provide detailed data, which empowers the learner to track and own their learning journey and enables the employer to make talent management and retention decisions for the organization.

Data. Data is critical for your ecosystem because it will help you analyze the behaviors of your employees. Through the data, you can collect from your underlying ecosystem technology platform and glean more about how, when, and where your employees like to learn. You can track which type of content and modality your employees prefer. Based on the data on employee preferences, you can make decisions about which learning assets to keep, which to expand upon, and which to eliminate.

Governance. A key concern when it comes to governance is balancing the need for centralized coordination of the various ecosystem elements with the flexibility to allow the ecosystem to grow organically. You and your team will have to address several questions relating to the ecosystem members focusing on aligning the content, the technologies, and the processes with the context, mission, vision, and strategy of your organization.

In addition to these building blocks, you will need to consider the three phases of the learning ecosystem lifecycle so you and your team can be prepared to manage the challenges of each phase before progressing to the next. To learn more about how to build a learning ecosystem and how to track your organizations progress, read the chapter I wrote in the book Forward-Focused Learning: Inside Award-Winning Organizations, which was published by the Association for Talent Development.

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Learning Ecosystem: Why You Need One, How to Build It - ATD

VHA Innovation Ecosystem Taps MDClone to Leverage Synthetic Data for Faster Healthcare to Veterans – – HIT Consultant

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What You Should Know:

Data analytics and digital health company MDCloneannounced a partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) VHAInnovation Ecosystem to democratize data and provide better, smarter, fasterhealthcare to U.S Veterans.

By leveraging MDClones data platform, the VHA is able to tackle this massive problem by securely accessing, organizing, and analyzing the critical health data of Veterans with the use of synthetic data a breakthrough method pioneered by MDClone.

MDClone,a digital healthcompany, and the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, a division of the United StatesDepartment of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced a partnership todemocratize data at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The partnershipwill provide unprecedented, secure access to clinical data to better understandand improve the health of the more than nine million veterans it serves.

Partnership Details

The VHA Innovation Ecosystem aims to empower a wider network of VHA clinical and operational staff to explore data and discover insights that can be used to impact the lives of veterans nationwide. MDClone worked closely on this initiative with Dr. Amanda Purnell, Senior Innovation Fellow at the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, who is part of the Care & Transformational Initiatives (CTI) in the VHA Innovation Ecosystem. This program is specifically focused on testing and refining innovative care models and transformational initiatives that can be meaningfully scaled to impact Veteran care.

Improving Healthcare for Veterans with Synthetic Data

MDClone ADAMS from MDClone on Vimeo.

Its no secret that Veterans have historically had a difficult time adjusting to normal life following service, which leads to many mental health issues that go unnoticed and un-treated often leading to homelessness and the tragic loss of lives. By leveragingMDClones data platform, the VHA is able to tackle this massive problem by securely accessing, organizing, and analyzing the critical health data of Veterans with the use ofsynthetic data a breakthrough method pioneered byMDClone. Synthetic data sets are virtually identical to the original patient data, so theres no identifying information that can be traced back to individual patients. Synthetic data also has the potential to help the VHA collaborate with external agencies, healthcare providers, and the industry.

Non-technical users can quickly ask important questions, find answers, and take action dramatically shortening timelines for quality improvement, innovation, and grassroots clinical research. The initial collaboration withMDClonewill center aroundsuicide prevention, chronic disease management, precision medicine, health equity, and COVID-19. For example, practitioners can tackle issues like suicide by identifying leading indicators and proactively intervening with patients most at risk.

The VHA has long been at the forefront of healthcare informatics and the use of data to improve patient outcomes and drive operational improvements, said Ziv Ofek, Founder and CEO, MDClone. The selection of MDClones unique platform builds upon this tradition. With one of the largest medical databases in the world, the VHA requires enterprise-scale tools to explore data, innovate, and improve patient care. MDClones dynamic environment will help VA staff deliver on their mission to provide the best healthcare services to Veterans across the U.S.

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VHA Innovation Ecosystem Taps MDClone to Leverage Synthetic Data for Faster Healthcare to Veterans - - HIT Consultant

FreedomPay and Sightline Payments Partner to Create World’s First Cashless Ecosystem for Casinos, Resorts and Gaming Operators – GlobeNewswire

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Partnership transforms end-to-end user experience and shifts multiple industries from cash and legacy tech to cutting-edge, fully integrated digital platform

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FreedomPay and Sightline Payments; two powerhouse FinTech solution providers serving the gaming, lottery, sports betting, entertainment, retail, and hospitality ecosystems, today announced they have formed a strategic partnership to jointly develop, market and deliver a breakthrough new cashless digital payments and patron loyalty platform. The system will offer the broad industry reach and unprecedented features for which both companies are widely regarded and promises to transform the burgeoning gaming and entertainment industries.

Todays announcement is a first of its kind, taking the integrated resort customer experience to the next level by integrating state-of-the-art cashless digital payment solutions with robust customer loyalty programs for in-house gaming properties, digital and mobile gaming, food service, retail channels, and more. The platform merges proprietary business intelligence and behavioral data from both organizations to create a robust patron persona. Now, resort operators are empowered to deliver a personalized and immersive experience both on and off the gaming floor.

The events of 2020 have dramatically and permanently changed many attitudes, behaviors and even industries around the world, and chief among them is an incredible urgency to move our society away from cash to innovative new cashless payment technologies, said Joe Pappano, Chief Executive Officer of Sightline Payments. This strategic partnership between two leading FinTech payments providers not only promises to deliver a digital payment solution to the gaming industry, but it opens up entire new industries like retail, sports, and entertainment, creating incredible new opportunities for partnerships in a much bigger and broader gaming and hospitality ecosystem.

The partnership with Sightline Payments is a first for the sector and brings a new and elevated customer experience that transforms the world of gaming and hospitality, said Christopher Kronenthal, President & CTO at FreedomPay. A completely digital experience not only gives customers more flexibility but also allows integrated resorts to drive relevant discount and incentives to guests through secured data. This has never been achieved in the industry before and we believe this will be a true game changer for the sector.

FreedomPay and Sightline Payments serve many of the premier gaming and entertainment operators in the United States including the top 10 sports betting and gaming operators. Additionally, Play+, Sightlines flagship solution for seamless and secure pay-and-play with nearly 1.5 million enrolled accounts, is the leading cashless mechanism for users to safety and easily store money and fund their entertainment on gaming apps, on the gaming floor, and on sports platforms with instant access to their money, anytime, anywhere all from a smartphone.

Background

About FreedomPay

FreedomPays Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world-class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in-store, online and on-mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. http://www.freedompay.com

About Sightline PaymentsSightline was founded in 2010 and awarded Deloitte's prestigious Technology Fast 500TM in 2019. The company is leading the way in gaming to build the first truly cashless ecosystem with its flagship solution, Play+. Named "Most Innovative Gaming Technology Product of the Year", Play+ allows consumers a cashless and seamless mobile commerce experience for hospitality and gaming, including online, mobile, on-premise slots, table games, and sports. The Play+ digital platform is embraced by integrated casino resorts, sports betting and lottery platforms, including the largest and most well-recognized casino resort and sports betting brands in the world. Sightline is based inLas Vegas, Nevada. Learn more athttps://sightlinepayments.com/.

Media ContactsSusan Donahue Skyya PR for Sightline PaymentsPh: (646) 454-9378E: susan.donahue@skyya.com

Gug KyriacouFWD Consulting (for FreedomPay)gug.kyriacou@fwdconsulting.co.uk

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FreedomPay and Sightline Payments Partner to Create World's First Cashless Ecosystem for Casinos, Resorts and Gaming Operators - GlobeNewswire

If the startup ecosystem can survive a pandemic, it can survive anything – Ruchira Shukla and Alok Goyal – YourStory

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This year has been tough for individuals, businesses, and entrepreneurs. And yet, many have not only survived but also thrived in this crisis.

On the sidelines of announcing the first cohort of the IFC and Stellaris Venture Partners programme, AI4Biz, focused on supporting early-stage AI-focused enterprise SaaS startups, Ruchira Shukla, Regional Lead, South Asia, Disruptive Technologies - Direct Equity and VC funds, IFC; and Alok Goyal Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners, speak about their lessons from 2020, and what they expect from startups in 2021.

Ruchira Shukla

Edited excerpts of the interview:

Ruchira Shukla (RS): For me, the big message that came out this year for the startup ecosystem is that it is a very resilient and robust ecosystem. If it can survive a pandemic, it can survive anything.

The startups have all come out stronger. They have kept going even in the worst situations. It hasnt mattered whether people have had to pitch to investors on a video call, or if they have had to relook at their business models, let go of important and talented people, and also keep the employees motivated.

There are companies that have taken on new businesses they never thought they would be in, and theyve been able to change the way solutions or services are offered. And investors still say they believe in India - both on a fund level and as limited partners (LP levels).

This tells you there is a strong promise in the Indian startup ecosystem, and we have proven that we can deliver results. In this backdrop, building a programme like AI4Biz has only been encouraging and positive.

Alok Goyal (AG): Resilience is a big takeaway for me. Apart from that, if you look at the macro-economic numbers, you realise that the economy has shrunk, but despite that, the startups have chugged ahead.

Alok Goyal, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners

RS: I feel there is nothing worse than fear itself. In March, we were surrounded by fear, and we survived those few months and survived well. Many companies have reached their February numbers now, so in 2021, even with the unknowns, I dont think it will be worse than what weve seen.

Also, tech adoption has seen at least a three-to-four years jump across all sectors. We are at this onset of a mega trend, and best investor returns are generated when you spot a trend at the right time.

This is the time for AI for enterprise tech, there is a wide breadth of solutions across sectors. There is great scope for economic value creation and development. There will be improved access and affordability of services to segments of the population where the services are not available.

AG: We are still going through a period where the future is unpredictable, but there are some bits that leaves us optimistic. If these companies have navigated the way they have in the last nine months, we believe that 2021 should only be more positive. Despite the lockdowns, people have found ways to get going and working.

However, one thing that makes me cautious about 2021, and it is more from a lack of visibility perspective, is the macroeconomic impact of the last nine months. The form and shape next few years will take is an unknown.

But, early-stage tech will see secular growth, and I am optimistic about it.

AG: Apart from having to choose from over 108 applications, we were impressed by the use of AI and tech that these companies displayed. Almost all had expertise and experience in building AI that is beyond just a namesake value.

What is interesting is that India hasnt created that many infrastructure companies, these are softwares used by other developers. And yet, close to 20 percent companies were in that bucket. And in a new category like AI to have companies in the DevOps space is encouraging.

RS: I was pleasantly surprised by how smart the younger generation of founders and founding teams are. These founders bring a confluence of multiple skills that is hard to find in young people. They have a lot of technical depth and commercial prowess at the same time.

This means, apart from answering detailed questions on technology, the founders are able to cater to what the customers need, and they also know how to monetise, go-to-market etc. Everyone thinks practically about the customers problem, and have ambitions to sell their products within India and other markets.

Another important factor is the team chemistry, and we find that in young startups. Generally in young teams, this becomes a little choppy, but there is a comfort and ease of doing business.

AG: I would like to take a cricketing analogy. Prior to the Indian world cup win in 1983, if anyone would have said that India would win the world cup, they would have been termed as foolish. As until then we hadnt even made it to the semi-finals. But 1983 gave precedence, and players soon started joining the team to win the World Cup.

When you have precedence, the perspectives shift. So in the startup ecosystem context, today we have that precedence. Today, SaaS entrepreneurs are bold, and have a belief that didnt exist seven to eight years back.

RS: These are very positive events. Irrespective of where the exit is, if the fund is well known globally and has actively invested in India, and shows a positive outcome, it helps the ecosystem significantly.

It makes entrepreneurs believe that this can happen to us. Today, the world is flat, it doesnt matter if a large exit happened in India or elsewhere in the world, it happened in a model and business we understand. And we have parallels of the business in the country. It gives encouragement and makes people more determined in their own ways to deliver.

It also gives optimism to investors. A good exit is something most investors worry about and when these events happen, it sets a benchmark and belief that if we can grow our portfolios in the same way we can possibly achieve a similar result.

It is also a big positive for Softbank. These exits brings more capital into the country from them and others into the country. It is overall a positive thing.

AG: I think driving a startup is like driving into a tunnel. You dont know how long it is going to be, what are the twists and turns, and we drive into it because we believe in the light at the end of the tunnel.

These IPOs are super encouraging. It just isnt Softbank, even several late-stage investors from technology have seen exits. There is a belief that even the traditional investors are gravitating towards technology. This capital bodes well.

Also, I think that companies now want to remain private longer than they used to. When you look at Amazons IPO in 1997 versus companies that IPO today, the bar has shifted significantly. This means there is a need for more late-stage capital.

AG: For early-stage entrepreneurs, the time has never been better to be a tech entrepreneur from India. I am so encouraged by the resilience that the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem has shown in 2020. I believe the worst is behind us, and there is a lot more fuel to help entrepreneurs realise their dreams. It is now important for entrepreneurs to follow their gut and follow their dreams.

RS: Go solve the tough problems. Entrepreneurs are ready and so is the market. There are team capabilities, market readiness, availability of capital, and cross country linkages. The perfect recipe is in place, you just need to put your force behind it and go solve the tougher problems.

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If the startup ecosystem can survive a pandemic, it can survive anything - Ruchira Shukla and Alok Goyal - YourStory

Leverage the Westcon-Comstor Services Bench partner ecosystem – ARNnet

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For any enterprise, migrating some or all of its IT Infrastructure to AWS can be very rewarding, bringing levels of functionality, flexibility, cost reduction and innovation well beyond what they can achieve with on-premises IT.

However, migrating IT resources to AWS and managing them on AWS requires many new AWS-specific skills. So many organisations turn to specialist AWS partners for help.

AWS offers over 175 fully featured services and APN Navigate, the AWS partner enablement program, lists 20 different specialisation tracks.

Its a growing market, with plenty of opportunity, but also with challenges. Organisations looking to make use of public cloud with AWS undertake considerable research before having a conversation with a partner to help them on their journey.

They develop strong views on what they want from AWS, which offers a huge range of services: a potential partner may not have the full range of AWS competencies sought or have the capacity to take on more projects.

An AWS partner may be unable to provide service and support in all the locations required by a potential client.

This is where Weston-Comstor comes in. As an AWS distributor we provide a host of services to help individual AWS partners support their clients. In particular we offer the Westcon-Comstor Services Bench. Its a partner eco-system platform that helps AWS partners find and collaborate with others, enabling them to provide clients with all the services they need from AWS, wherever they need them.

Weston-Comstor a leading AWS distributor

Weston-Comstor has been the leading AWS distributor in Asia Pacific for the last five years.

These programs have been developed from more than five years of experience as an AWS distributor, working successfully with our partners to help them build, market, differentiate and grow their businesses.

Services Bench: our partner matching service

Westcon-Comstor Services Bench is our private cloud-based platform. As a Weston-Comstor AWS partner you can post details of any AWS partner specialisation you require for a customer opportunity through the platform. Based on the criteria you specify it will match instantly with partners that have the capability to delivery on those requirements.

Services Bench means no more searching social media or scrolling through lists of contacts or calling companies trying to find much needed skills.

We have more than 300 contractors and 40 organisations that possess AWS capability and certifications on Services Bench across Australia and New Zealand. This means you never have to turn down another AWS opportunity due to a lack of capacity or in-house capability for that project.

The Weston-Comstor Services Bench means you never have to pass up on an AWS opportunity. You can quickly scale your business with additional resources when required, and take on new projects to support your customers when they may not have the capacity or the capability in-house for a project.

You simply enter details of the AWS skills you need. The platform matches potential partners or resources instantly based on the criteria and requirements entered and contacts those that match.

You will receive offers from suitable suppliers within hours. Westcon-Comstor can facilitate the engagement, or you can contract with your potential partner directly. And you can manage the entire engagement with your chosen partners via the platform: it provides full visibility of communication, offers and reporting.

Find contract staff, with Staff Augmentation Bench

We also offer our Staff Augmentation Bench. If you need an AWS skill to fulfil a tactical short to mid-term engagement, either in-house or contracted to your end customer, we can identify a suitable contractor and facilitate the transaction based on yours or your end customers criteria.

Service Bench enables you to manage partners, contracts and projects effectively from start to finish, tracking bookings, revenue and expenditure.

Westcon-Comstor will assign dedicated resources that specialise in staff recruitment for ICT to support you and help you find the right resources for those contracted positions.

Our Staff Augmentation team will work closely with you to capture client requirements, pain points and the challenges faced by your project. Team members will look beyond the technical requirement of your project, taking note of the cultural fit and soft skills needed for your project to succeed.

The Westcon-Comstor Services Bench is a two way street: if you have staff with AWS skills that are not currently engaged, you can find work opportunities through Service Bench where those skills can be put to good use.

Our specialised services and capabilities include:

In summary

Being an AWS partner can be highly rewarding. Demand for AWS is growing rapidly. In the third quarter of 2020, global revenues were up 29 percent on the preceding quarter.

So theres plenty of opportunities, but also challenges. AWS is constantly adding new capabilities. Its Whats New with AWS List for 2020 has more than 1,000 entries.

With the breadth and depth of technology provided by AWS a partner could be forgiven for not having the in-house resources and technical knowledge to support everything on offer.

But not having a key competency required by a client could mean losing the business. Partnering is an ideal solution as spoken about by CIOs during the recent ARN EDGE 2020. You get access to the right specialist AWS skills when you need them, and only when you need them. You dont have to carry the overhead of maintaining currency in an AWS skill you rarely need.

But first you have to find the right partner and then manage the relationship. Weston-Comstor Services Bench can help you do both by leveraging the partner ecosystem we provide.

Check us out today, and take your AWS business to the next level.

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Tags channel partnerAWScloud platformAWS partner networkWestcon-Comstor

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Leverage the Westcon-Comstor Services Bench partner ecosystem - ARNnet

Cybersecurity Stocktaking in the Connected and Automated Mobility Ecosystem – Lexology

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On 20 November 2020, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity ("ENISA") published a report on the connected and automated mobility ("CAM") cybersecurity ecosystem ("Report").

The Report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the CAM cybersecurity ecosystem, to map the key stakeholders in the European Union, and to provide an overview of the critical services, systems and infrastructures. The CAM ecosystem encompasses multiple stakeholders from the original equipment manufacturers and users (drivers, passengers, pedestrians) to suppliers, automotive aftermarket operators, industry associations, telecommunications companies, IT suppliers and other services providers, and national and international authorities.

The Report outlines the interactions among the main stakeholders which are required to create a secure CAM ecosystem. It also summarises whether the interaction among stakeholders with regards to cybersecurity is mandatory (i.e. based on a legal requirement in EU or national legislation) or voluntary under current rules.

The Report highlights that new cybersecurity challenges and threats have been brought about by the increasing connectivity and automation of vehicles and the associated mobility infrastructure. As a result, policymakers are developing cybersecurity standards and measures to facilitate safe infrastructure and service delivery. For example, the World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), which is a part of the UN Economic Commission for Europe ("UNECE"), has approved two regulations providing a framework for type approvals of vehicles with regard to cybersecurity earlier this year:

The European Commission is expected to transpose these UN Regulations into EU law and, amongst others, require car manufacturers to secure connected vehicles against cyberattacks from July 20223. According to the Report, transposition of these texts shall take into account the needs of all CAM stakeholders.

ENISA states that one of the aims of the Report is to help the European Commission and national authorities in EU Member States in transposing the UN cybersecurity regulations into EU policy. However, the Report might also be helpful to original equipment manufacturers and other stakeholders involved in the CAM ecosystem in understanding the key issues they need to consider from a cybersecurity standpoint.

Businesses involved in the CAM ecosystem might also be interested in an earlier ENISA report on good practices for security of smart cars published in November 2019. ENISA is also expected to soon publish Recommendations for the Security of Connected and Automated Mobility which will aim to "contribute to the improvement and harmonisation of cybersecurity in the CAM ecosystem in the European Union".

While the United Kingdom is unlikely to adopt the European Commission's proposals after the end of the Brexit transition period, UK businesses involved in the CAM ecosystem might expect UK specific regulation on cybersecurity of connected and automated vehicles which will implement the UN Regulations. The UK implementation is likely to build on the eight key principles published by the UK Government in 2017. Furthermore, any UK business in the CAM ecosystem wishing to operate on the EU market will likely be required to comply with the European Commission's proposals with regards to cybersecurity of connected and autonomous vehicles.

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Cybersecurity Stocktaking in the Connected and Automated Mobility Ecosystem - Lexology

MDClone Partners with VHA Innovation Ecosystem to Provide Better, Smarter, Faster Healthcare to U.S. Veterans – Business Wire

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BEER-SHEVA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MDClone, a digital health company, and the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, a division of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced a partnership to democratize data at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The partnership will provide unprecedented, secure access to clinical data to better understand and improve the health of the more than nine million veterans it serves.

The VHA has long been at the forefront of healthcare informatics and the use of data to improve patient outcomes and drive operational improvements, said Ziv Ofek, Founder and CEO, MDClone. The selection of MDClones unique platform builds upon this tradition. With one of the largest medical databases in the world, the VHA requires enterprise scale tools to explore data, innovate, and improve patient care. MDClones dynamic environment will help VA staff deliver on their mission to provide the best healthcare services to Veterans across the U.S.

The VHA Innovation Ecosystem aims to empower a wider network of VHA clinical and operational staff to explore data and discover insights which can be used to impact the lives of veterans nationwide. MDClone worked closely on this initiative with Dr. Amanda Purnell, Senior Innovation Fellow at the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, who is part of the Care & Transformational Initiatives (CTI) in the VHA Innovation Ecosystem. This program is specifically focused on testing and refining innovative care models and transformational initiatives that can be meaningfully scaled to impact Veteran care.

By implementing the MDClone platform, non-technical users can quickly ask important questions, find answers, and take action - dramatically shortening timelines for quality improvement, innovation, and grass roots clinical research. The initial collaboration with MDClone will center around suicide prevention, chronic disease management, precision medicine, health equity, and COVID-19. For example, practitioners can tackle issues like suicide by identifying leading indicators and proactively intervening with patients most at risk.

Veterans privacy and health information will be protected through the use of synthetic data, a groundbreaking new technology from MDClone that surpasses traditional de-identification methods. Synthetic data will broaden access to clinical data and catalyze innovation across the VA. Synthetic data also has the potential to help the VHA collaborate with external agencies, healthcare providers, and industry.

To learn more about how the partnership between MDClone and the VHA Innovation Ecosystem is unlocking data to accelerate innovation, research, and quality improvement, visit https://go.mdclone.com/get-started.

About MDClone

MDClone democratizes data, empowering clinicians, researchers, and executives to explore, discover, and collaborate to improve patients health. With MDClone, any user can ask and answer any question in real time. This paradigm shift is made possible by MDClones unique technology for organizing, accessing, and protecting the privacy of patient data. Founded in Israel in 2016, MDClone works with major health systems, payers, and life science companies in the U.S., Canada, and Israel.

About VHA Innovation Ecosystem

VHA Innovation Ecosystem advances care delivery and service through mission-driven innovation. The Ecosystems four portfolios, VHA Innovators Network, Diffusion of Excellence, NCi2I, and Care & Transformational Initiatives, are tasked with identifying and scaling innovations and best practices by empowering front-line employees.

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MDClone Partners with VHA Innovation Ecosystem to Provide Better, Smarter, Faster Healthcare to U.S. Veterans - Business Wire

Path of destruction: Road to Anjaneri hilltop could threaten fragile rocky outcrop ecosystem – Mongabay-India

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Merely 20-kilometres away from Maharashtras Nashik city, the Anjaneri plateau has a good forest patch and is home to at least 105 species of forest and grassland birds including those who have the highest protection under Indias wildlife laws. The plateau also has steep vertical cliffs where long-billed vultures nest in caves but this habitat is now threatened by a road development project.

Following opposition to the project, Maharashtras Minister of Tourism and Environment Aaditya Thackeray had recently assured that the road project will not be pursued. But the assurance did not translate into anything concrete and now the project is up for approval under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 seeking diversion of about 17.9 hectares of forest area for it.

Currently, there is a road only up to the foot of the mountain through Anjaneri village. But the concrete road proposed by the Nashiks public works department would approach the temple from the Mulegaon side of the cliff that goes up to the temple. The estimated cost of the project is about Rs. 200 million.

Pankaj Garg, who is deputy conservator of forests, Nashik West, informed that the project is in progress.

The Anjaneri plateau has a conservation reserve the public works department will have to procure a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state and central wildlife boards, Garg told Mongabay-India.

He explained that the deputy conservators office will inspect the site proposed for the road project after which it will be sent to the central government who will then decide if the project will get clearance for diversion of forests or not.

Five environmental organisations (Nature Conservation Society of Nashik, Eco Echo, GIVE, Apla Paryavaran, Pakshi Mitra Mandal) and 32 social organisations are opposing the road project citing ecological and social concerns.

Kamlu Kadali of the tribal Thakur community, who has been the member of the local administration for several years said there is already a motorable road till the foot of the mountain, from where you need to walk up stone steps to reach the plateau.

Instead of building a new road, repairing the existing road and steps will solve the problems of access here, said Kadali.

Abhijeet Mahale of Eco Echo Foundation, suggests that instead of the road a palanquin service should be started to help senior citizens reach the top of the hill. This will avoid the ecological damage that a road/ropeway would cause, and also generate livelihoods for the local people, he added.

Read more: Proposed tiger safari in Dumna reignites opposition against projects in the reserve

The plateau is also considered the birthplace of Hindu deity Lord Hanuman and every year over half a million people visit the place. The devotees carry water from downhill to offer it to the deity on the top. On Hanuman Jayanti, a yearly festival to celebrate Lord Hanumans birthday, devotees even walk barefoot from villages as far as 80100 kilometres away to visit the temple on the plateau.

Its an arduous journey to the top of the plateau that gives these devotees the time to think about the different habitats they see on the way and the natural heritage found here. This connection that binds local communities to nature is sacred and must not be cut off, Jui Pethe, an independent ecological researcher associated with Nisargabhaan, Nashik-based educational research centre, told Mongabay-India.

The area is important not just for the devotees but also for the Mahadeo Koli and Thakur tribes who comprise approximately 70 percent of Anjaneris population. Both communities worship the natural heritage found on the hill.

We never consume anything we have harvested in our community without first offering it to Anjaneri mata (mother) every agricultural season, emphasised Kadali.

Yogesh Ganpat Shid, a 23-year-old farmer from Anjaneri village said that the villagers in Anjaneri are concerned that if such a road is built, tourists will go from Mulegaon to the Anjaneri hilltop without passing through their village, which will reduce the cultural importance of their village, and also affect their livelihood opportunities. He pointed out that as of now, there are some small businesses (guides and food shops) which would be adversely affected if tourism through Anjaneri is diverted.

Read more: Goa destroys green cover to enable infrastructure projects

Anjaneri is also home to 105 species of forest and grassland birds of which five species are listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and five others who are endemic to the Western Ghats. The yellow-footed green pigeon, which is the state bird of Maharashtra, can also be spotted at the place. It also has steep vertical cliffs where long-billed vultures nest in caves.

There is also a grasslands habitat where leopards and hyenas roam and karvy (a plant found in the Western Ghats) covers the mountain which will be affected if the road is built. A road to the top of the plateau from any direction will have to drill through these habitats, said Shid.

He said vultures were regularly spotted in Anjaneri village until a decade back but now they are rarely seen. The numbers of the vultures had declined and are stabilising only now through conservation efforts. A road cutting through their habitat would definitely hurt their population, Shid told Mongabay-India.

The disturbance in the population of vultures has had some unexpected consequences for the villages around the area as well. With the dipping numbers of vultures, the number of dogs increased, and with dogs as easy prey, leopards started entering human settlements to prey on the dogs. This led to an increase in human-animal conflict, Pratiksha Kothule, project coordinator and wildlife biologist at the Nature Conservation Society, Nashik, told Mongabay-India.

Hari Nindekar, van mazdoor (temporary forest guard) with the forest department working on Anjaneri hilltop said that as of last month, there are 400 vulture nests in the Anjaneri cave habitats.

Kiran Rahalkar, a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Trust, cautioned that hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals visit the Anjaneri plateau every year and a concrete road anywhere near the vulture habitat will result in the extinction of the vulture population in this area.

While Ganesh Chavhan, another council member of the Anjaneri village, said karvy plant found on the Anjaneri hill would be lost if the road is built. Karvy is an extremely useful and important plant. My father and grandfather have told me stories about how karvy leaves were fed to cattle during the 1972 drought to help them survive when there was no other fodder around. All this flora will be destroyed in case the project is pursued, Chavhan told Mongabay-India.

Read more: Linear infrastructure severely affects large forest patches in India, finds study

Known as sadas in the local language, rocky outcrops provide essential ecosystem services to communities.

For instance, Hanuman Talaab, a foot-shaped pond on the hill, is a tourist attraction and is used by the local people for bathing. This pond which is in the shape of a foot is considered to be sacred by the local people, as it is believed that Lord Hanuman once stepped here. A decade or two back, it used to have clean water, which we would use for drinking. If a road is built here, along with the destruction of the biodiversity the local people will lose this source of water, said Brahmagiri Maharaj, a saint who runs an ashram in the Anjaneri village.

The Anjaneri dam at the foot of the hill is fed by aquifers on the hill, which will be damaged due to concretisation of the hill for the road and parking on the hill, Ganesh Chavhan stressed.

Also, the medicinal plants found on the plateau are used by several local people to cure bruises and minor ailments, said Kamlu Kadali.

A critically endangered plant, Ceropegia anjanerica, endemic to Anjnaeri is also found here. The tubers of this plant called lahaani kharpudi or kandil phool in the local language used to be consumed by local people as well as langurs.

When there is a drought and our harvest is not enough, my forefathers used to get kharpudi and make bread from it for consumption. Now my family does not eat it so often, but we still see monkeys digging up the plant and eating its tubers, said Kadali, who is now a farmer who grows tomatoes, finger millet and barnyard millet.

Almost 50 percent of the 350 species of plants found on the Anjaneri plateau have some medicinal use, said Jui Pethe, based on a study she conducted in 201213.

People from all around come to Anjaneri to collect these medicinal plants. Today, the number of species found here has increased to 430450.

Another study conducted by Pethe in 2015 revealed that there are 57 non-timber forest products on the plateau that provide livelihoods to people from around the Anjaneri area. This ecosystem needs to be preserved not only for its biodiversity but also to preserve the livelihoods of the people, said Pethe.

Read more: Navi Mumbai couple fights to save a bird haven from becoming a golf course

Banner image: Anjaneri is home to the critically endangered long-billed vulture, now known as Indian vulture. Photo by Nature Conservation Society of Nashik.

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Path of destruction: Road to Anjaneri hilltop could threaten fragile rocky outcrop ecosystem - Mongabay-India

Open Mainframe Project Welcomes New Project Tessia, HCL Technologies and Red Hat to its Ecosystem – PRNewswire

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SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Mainframe Project (OMP), an open source initiative that enables collaboration across the mainframe community to develop shared tool sets and resources, today welcomes Tessia, atool that automates and simplifies the installation, configuration and testing of Linux systems running on the Z platform, to its ecosystem. Additionally, HCL Technologies and Red Hat join the project to strengthen their commitment to open source mainframe technologies.

"Open Mainframe Project has experienced record growth this year in terms of membership and projects," said John Mertic, Director of Program Management at the Linux Foundation. "We look forward to strengthening our role as the number one resource for programs that advance the technology and training for the mainframe, especially with new members HCL and Red Hat who will expand our leadership and expertise."

OMP Projects Increase by 1500 Percent Since LaunchWhen Open Mainframe Project was launched in 2015 by The Linux Foundation, there was one open source project under its wing that helped advance mainframe technology. Today, OMP has become an umbrella project that is home to 16 different open source projects including a COBOL Working Group and a Zowe Conformance Program. This is a 1500 percent increase over time.

Today, Tessia joins ADE, Ambitus, ATOM, CBT Tape, COBOL Training Program, Feilong, GenevaERS, Mainframe Open Education, Mentorship, Polycephaly, Software Discovery Tool, TerseDecompress, Zowe and Zorow as projects led by the Open Mainframe community.

Tessia, an open source project for Z resource management and automated installation of Linux distribution, manages relationships between Z datacenter resources and allocates them to specific projects and users according to a role-based schema. Using these resources, Tessia canbe included into existing pipelines and with pre-release distributions and drive faster release cycles and adoption of new technologies. Additionally, it enables developers to effortlessly bring up their environments or try out new releases before migration. In general, the mission of the new project improves experience with Linux on Z, which in turn facilitates faster adoption of open source on Z platform.

The OMP Ecosystem Increases by 225 PercentThe Open Mainframe Project, which launched with 12 founding members, is now comprised of 41 business and academic organizations including the newest members HCL Technologies and Red Hat. HCL is a leading global technology company with three main businesses including IT and Business Services (ITBS), Engineering and R&D Services (ERS) and HCL Software.

Red Hat, which is now a subsidiary of OMP Platinum member IBM, has a long history of building and supporting products and solutions from open source projects and giving back to those communities.

The new members will collaborate on vendor-neutral open source projects with the mission of building community and adoption of open source on the mainframe. The project strives to build an inclusive community through investment in open source projects and programs, career development, and events that provide opportunities for the mainframe community to collaborate and create sustainability.

To celebrate its 5th anniversary, Open Mainframe Project hosted its inaugural Open Mainframe Summit event in September. More than 385 seasoned professionals, developers, students and leaders from 175 companies attended the virtual conference to share best practices, discuss hot topics, and network with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the mainframe industry. Learn more about the event and the audience statistics in this blog.

Momentum for Open Mainframe ProjectsAs an umbrella, the Open Mainframe Project hosts projects that expand training the next generation of mainframers or how modern mainframe technology integrates with existing systems. Through the vendor-neutral governance structure, OMP invites developers and members worldwide to participate in the open source community. The community's passionate and talent has helped move several of the Open Mainframe Projects to important milestones including:

Zowe, an open source software framework for the mainframe that strengthens integration with modern enterprise applications, has released version 1.17 with some notable features and enhancements. Learn more in the release notes.

Polycephaly, a set of Java and Groovy classes that enables building z/OS source code files with Jenkins and Git, now offers developers an opportunity to choose their IDEs to use, including the popular Open Source Eclipse. Learn more in this blog.

The annual Open Mainframe Project Mentorship program, which has helped more than 40 students learn more and gain experience with Linux, open source, and mainframes, welcomed 11 new mentees in May. These mentees were paired with mentors from OMP member organizations such as IBM, Rocket Software, SUSE, Vicom Infinity, and Zoss Team LLC for four months and delivered a presentation at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit Europe. The videos can be foundhere.

Students interested in participating in the 2021 Open Mainframe Project mentorship program can join a webinar on January 12th, 2021 at 10:00 am US Eastern Time to learn more about the program and projects participating. Register here for this webinar.

About the Open Mainframe ProjectThe Open Mainframe Project is intended to serve as a focal point for deployment and use of Linux and Open Source in a mainframe computing environment. With a vision of Open Source on the Mainframe as the standard for enterprise class systems and applications, the project's mission is to build community and adoption of Open Source on the mainframe by eliminating barriers to Open Source adoption on the mainframe, demonstrating value of the mainframe on technical and business levels, and strengthening collaboration points and resources for the community to thrive. Learn more about the project at https://www.openmainframeproject.org.

About The Linux FoundationThe Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world's top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at http://www.linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Maemalynn MeanorThe Linux FoundationOpen Mainframe Project[emailprotected]

SOURCE Open Mainframe Project

http://www.linuxfoundation.org

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Open Mainframe Project Welcomes New Project Tessia, HCL Technologies and Red Hat to its Ecosystem - PRNewswire

Accelerated digitalization, beefed-up edge among other key trends to watch across digital ecosystem in 2021 – Business Review

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As the world moved online seemingly overnight in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the criticality of data centers and the unrelenting reliance on them across all walks of life became an enduring storyline of the crisis.

This reality will manifest in new ways in 2021 as the data center and the information ecosystem orbiting it emerge from the pandemic with a fourth utility criticality, complete with all the expectations and responsibilities that implies. This is among the emerging 2021 data center trends identified by experts from Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions.

Data centers have long been held to high availability standards, but the shift toward utility-like status will be noticeable in two ways. First, those high expectations for network availability will extend deep into rural and remote areas, bringing critical applications to more of the population. This will increase pressure on data centers to maintain connectivity even at the outer edges of their networks. Second, any distinction between availability and connectivity will be erased, as the ability to ensure and protect connections across increasingly distributed hybrid networks becomes as much of a requirement as any traditional measure of data center uptime.

Data centers have been moving toward public utility-type status for some time, but the pandemic has crystalized the need to establish the kinds of official guardrails that have been commonplace across other utilities, said Gary Niederpruem, chief strategy and development officer for Vertiv. This isnt just about working from home, although that is part of it. More importantly, it is about supporting the digital economy in its most mission-critical forms, which include increased reliance on telemedicine and health, enhanced e-commerce, and global telecommunications and mass media.

The pandemic effectively established a new baseline for digital infrastructure as the industry adjusts to and eventually moves beyond the global shutdown. Against this backdrop, Vertivs experts identified several other emerging trends to watch in 2021. They are:

Recovery requires a change in mindset for most organizations, said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, in a recent statement. There is no bouncing back. There needs to be a reset focused on moving forward.

Wherever there is a high density of data processing, there will be a demand for edge computing. That demand, and scale, will necessitate more resilient and intelligent edge infrastructure, said Giordano Albertazzi, president of Vertiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). We are seeing expansion of the edge in many countries and that will eventually extend to emerging markets. Edge deployments are also closely aligned to other key trends such as 5G and environmental sustainability, and the integration of edge sites with energy grids can support the transition towards renewables.

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Accelerated digitalization, beefed-up edge among other key trends to watch across digital ecosystem in 2021 - Business Review

Gotransverse Closes 2020 with Globalization, Business Intelligence, Ecosystem, and Personalization Features for Innovative Monetization Models -…

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AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As 2020 comes to a close, Gotransverse (www.gotransverse.com), the leading provider of enterprise order-to-cash solutions, today announced that the company had added a variety of new globalization, business intelligence, ecosystem, and personalization features to its intelligent billing platform. These new features provide global enterprises with new billing capabilities as they adopt new recurring revenue and pay-as-you-go pricing strategies.

To improve globalization of the Gotransverse intelligent billing platform, the company has added new features such as payment gateway integrations with Adyen and GoCardless, making it easier to accept payments from markets where credit cards and ACH payments are less common. SureTax Communication tax integration for the telecommunications market was added, as well as OneSource sales tax integration. Also new to the platform is support for European Strong Card Authentication (SCA), multiple currency support for a single customer, and extended Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit payment notification.

As global companies embrace new and enhanced monetization models, we have continued to expand Gotransverses capabilities to make billing as frictionless as possible, said James Messer, CEO and Founder of Gotransverse. We have added new business intelligence, personalization, and add-ons to increase the value of our billing platform and to power new revenue options. As subscription billing saturates global markets, we have also seen a dramatic increase in the adoption of pay-as-you-go services, and we want to make sure Gotransverse is there to support them.

Other features added to Gotransverse introduce new business intelligence tools to enable enhanced business insight and reporting capabilities, including expanded data views for core and microservice data sets across the platform and new standardized reports. Gotransverse also has enhanced its extensibility through configurable ERP connectors, additional microservices, API orchestration, new API endpoints, and business logic scripting. There also are new configurable mediation services, industry-specific features, and added support for external application integrations.

To enhance customer experience, Gotransverse has added new personalization functions to drive new revenue streams for our customers and deliver a personalized experience for the end-customer, including:

About Gotransverse

Gotransverse provides cloud-based software that enables companies to operate as a subscription business model, including the often-challengingaspects of usage-based pricing and monetization at internet scale. Founded by globally recognized billing experts, the company offers an intelligent billing and subscription management platform that automates the subscription order-to-cash process, including billing, rating, collections, mediation, analytics, and revenue recognition. Gotransverse was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

For more information, visit http://gotransverse.com.

Press Contact:Tom WoolfGotransverse415.842.7398twoolf@gotransverse.com

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Gotransverse Closes 2020 with Globalization, Business Intelligence, Ecosystem, and Personalization Features for Innovative Monetization Models -...

IBM outlines commitment to developing the Quantum ecosystem in India More than 1,400 students trained on Qis.. – ETCIO.com

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IBM outlines its commitment to grow a quantum ready workforce and build an ecosystem to nurture the quantum community in India.

With the announcement of the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications, interest in quantum computing has been surging in India and it is an opportune time to make it ubiquitous and accessible to a diverse audience to unlock its true potential. Since making the quantum computer accessible via the cloud in 2016, IBM has focused on developing an ecosystem of developers, scientists, educators, and professionals through open-source access to its real quantum hardware and software (Qiskit is an open-source quantum software development kit built by IBM).

Given Indias demographic dividend it has the potential to be a leading source of quantum computing skills and IBM has been driving numerous initiatives to build and grow quantum community in India. The Global IBM Quantum Challenges, Qiskit Global Summer School, and Qiskit Challenge India have witnessed a growing interest and participation from quantum enthusiasts in India.

Gargi Dasgupta Director, IBM Research India said, India was selected as a growth market for IBM Quantum due to the growing interest and investment in quantum computing. However, for India to have a leading role in the new quantum industry, concerted efforts are required to bring together industry, academia and government across skills, training, research, technology access, industry, and economy. IBM aims to advance the quantum ecosystem in India by hosting skill-building programs like Qiskit Challenge India which are open to all, and Qiskit India Professor Meetup by providing access to educational resources, software as well as real quantum hardware, accessible over the IBM Cloud.

And contributors from India continue to shape our learning materials, submitting edits and input to the Qiskit textbook, and routinely responding to requests for feedback as we continue to build better educational materials and tools. As we develop more training focusing on quantum computing applications, we anticipate that learners in India will continue to participate and refine the material with us helping new learners and the existing workforce get quantum ready.

Anamita Guha, Global Product Lead, IBM Quantum & Qiskit, said Our growth team has seen unprecedented enthusiasm in quantum computing and Qiskit from India, and has eagerly supported this burgeoning quantum community. Were excited to continue offering opportunities like hackathons, contests, and professor meetups, to build the foundation of a quantum ecosystem that we hope will make India a global leader in this exciting field.

IBM now has more than 130 organizations on the IBM Quantum Network (including Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, research labs, and startups), who have access to more than 30 different quantum computers deployed since 2016, and an active community of more than 280,000 registered users, who run more than one billion quantum circuits on these systems every day for research and industry use cases.

IBM recently unveiled its Quantum Roadmap with a suite of increasingly advanced quantum processors, with the goal of deploying a 1,121-qubit system by 2023, which IBM sees as an inflection point that will mark our ability to implement error correction and scale up our devices, while simultaneously be complex enough to explore potential Quantum Advantagesproblems that we can solve more efficiently on a quantum computer than on the worlds best supercomputers. From computer science courses to chemistry and business studies, students need to become familiar with this technology in order to consider career paths rooted in quantum computing. The possibilities that the quantum era offers are profoundly exciting, and it needs far greater participation to leap forward building a pipeline of talent with the right set of skills is a forward step.

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IBM outlines commitment to developing the Quantum ecosystem in India More than 1,400 students trained on Qis.. - ETCIO.com

CrossTower Added as Liquidity Source to the Blockfills ECN Ecosystem – GlobeNewswire

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NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CrossTower Inc., a digital asset exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset investing, today announced it has been added as a liquidity source to the Blockfills ECN. Launched earlier this year, CrossTower is one of the fastest growing U.S.-regulated crypto exchanges.

Blockfills is an electronic, off exchange, digital liquidity provider that operates using an electronic communication network model (ECN). Blockfills offers its clients deep liquidity and cutting-edge technologies to deploy this liquidity and market data to end-users anonymously and in an impactful way. Adding CrossTowers liquidity and competitive pricing to the Blockfills ECN will give Blockfills clients an opportunity to trade at even lower costs. In addition, CrossTower will gain deep liquidity access from Blockfills.

Being added to the Blockfills ECN is recognition of the liquidity weve built on our platform in such a short time, said CrossTower Co-Founder and CEO Kapil Rathi. Were excited to partner with BlockFills and look forward to helping their clients achieve best execution and lower their total cost of trading.

We believe our clients will greatly benefit from having CrossTower added as a source of liquidity on our ECN, said Blockfills CEO, Nick Hammer. Weve been keeping an eye on CrossTower and found the spreads and depth of their order book to be among the best in the digital asset industry. They should be a great source of liquidity and a very attractive place to trade given their creative and competitive pricing model.

Today, CrossTower operates two exchanges, CrossTower Global supports international customers and CrossTower US supports domestic United States customers.

Those interested can access the CrossTower platform here.

ABOUT CROSSTOWER

CrossTower is an exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset trading and investing. We have built a multi-asset platform for institutional and individual investors with best-in-class safeguards, services and capabilities to make the next-generation financial markets a reality. CrossTower has methodically built its platform, leveraging its trading experience, technology, operational infrastructure, innovative pricing as well as regulatory and client service models, to ensure the success of the exchange at launch and well into the future. For more information, visit http://www.crosstower.com.

ABOUT BLOCKFILLS

Blockfills was the first electronic, off-exchange, digital liquidity and technology provider operating using an electronic communication network model (ECN). The Company has successfully built and deployed a cutting-edge multi-asset technology platform that provides price discovery, electronic order matching, smart order routing and trade reconciliation solutions for institutions in the digital spot, derivatives and lending markets. Blockfills has clients in over 50 countries with offices in Chicago, New York, London and the Cayman Islands. For more information, visit https://www.blockfills.com/

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CrossTower Added as Liquidity Source to the Blockfills ECN Ecosystem - GlobeNewswire

code Talks: a podcast series on driving innovation with an open health care ecosystem – cerner.com

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2020 has taught us that health IT must evolve at a rapid pace to meet the needs of patients and providers. Creating a seamlessly connected world is key to breakthrough innovation.

The Cerner Open Developer Experience (code) program encourages third-party vendors and care organizations to build apps on top of Cerner technology that can quickly advance the health industry through improved interoperability capabilities.

In our three-part podcast series,code Talks, tech leaders share their insights around advancing care through collaboration and open and interoperable health ecosystems.

In this episode, we hear from Aaron Sheedy, chief operating officer and co-founder ofXealth, a platform that enablesclinicianstointegrate, prescribe and monitordigitalhealth tools forpatientsfrom one location in the electronic health record (EHR). Aaron talks about how the Cerner code validation and certification process helped drive quality, safety, security and usability for the Xealth app. He also gives his outlook for digital health and application programming interfaces.

Amwell offers telehealth integration within the Cerner EHR to give providers a single, unified workflow and improve access to care for patients. In this episode, Amwell Senior Vice President of Devices, Cory Costley, dives into the rapid growth of telehealth during COVID-19, examines how the Cerner code program helps break down barriers to health IT adoption and explores the industrys shift toward more proactive care.

Shez Partovi, M.D., worldwide lead of business development for healthcare, life sciences, genomics and medical devices at Amazon Web Services (AWS), discusses the importance of connecting patient data across the care continuum. Dr. Partovi also explains the role of interoperability, open standards in reducing care costs and providing more personalized health care.

The code program is leading health care innovation by opening our ecosystem to create new technologies and applications. Developers interested in building applications that integrate into client workflows can learn more here.

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code Talks: a podcast series on driving innovation with an open health care ecosystem - cerner.com

Building a Cost-Effective, High-Performing BI Ecosystem on the Cloud – Datanami

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Sponsored Content by Kyvos

The shift from on-premise environments to the cloud is happening at a tremendous pace. However, once enterprises move their data to the cloud and make it available to their business users, they face several challenges, such as performance slowdowns and an explosion in cloud costs. Thats because, in a typical business scenario, when the data is available across the enterprise, a large number of users begin to run complex analytical queries. Now, if each query needs to scan billions of rows or do joins, group by, or other computations at runtime, it consumes a lot of resources.

The problem escalates further as data volumes rise and usage increases. Queries become slower and more expensive, and you can soon run into unconstrained costs. The question now is how to build a future-ready BI ecosystem on the cloud that delivers high-performance for users across the enterprise while still controlling costs.

An innovative way to overcome these challenges and perform interactive analysis on the cloud is topre-aggregate data and build OLAP cubes directly on your cloud storage or data warehouse. Once these cubes are built, queries can be served directly from the cube, and you dont have to go back to the data warehouse to process the information.

However, this cannot be achieved using traditional OLAP solutions as they can neither sustain the scale of modern data workloads nor fit in the cloud ecosystem. To solve this, Kyvos has developed a cloud-native OLAP technology Smart OLAP that can not only deal with todays data but scale effortlessly for future data requirements.

The Four Pillars of Smart OLAP Technology

Designed for the cloud, Smart OLAP leverages the native elasticity of the cloud to build cubes on extremely large datasets and then stores them on the cloud infrastructure itself. So, now when the query comes in, there are two advantages:

Watch this 4-minute video to learnhow Smart OLAP transforms BI on the cloud

For the business user, the experience is seamless and transparent. They can get their hands on huge amounts of data at the granularity they need, with the response times they are looking for, without the added cost burden. Another key advantage is that they can plug-in their existing BI tools to these cubes and perform interactive analytics in a familiar environment.

Download this whitepaper to learn how Smart OLAP combines the power of scalable data platforms with OLAP-based analytics, making it easy for you to build a cost-effective, high-performing BI ecosystem on the cloud.

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Building a Cost-Effective, High-Performing BI Ecosystem on the Cloud - Datanami

GPX India adds NIXI to the GPX Interconnection Ecosystem – Express Computer

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GPX India has added National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to the GPX Interconnection Ecosystem. It is the 5th Internet Exchange operational at the GPX Mumbai Data Center campus, in addition to AMS-IX, Bharat IX, DE-CIX, and Extreme IX. GPX is the only Data Center in India with the presence of a total number of five Internet Exchanges.

GPX Data Center campus offers a Carrier Content Cloud rich neutral ecosystem comprising 12 Carriers, 140+ ISPs, 5 Internet Exchanges, 8 Cloud Service Providers, 9 CDNs, and leading global content providers. With the addition of NIXI to the rich Interconnection Ecosystem, GPXs customers now have the opportunity to connect to NIXI, the oldest and one of the most significant Internet Exchanges in the country for low-latency and cost-effective interconnection solutions to expand their reach. NIXI has played a pioneering role in being an enabler for improved interconnection between ISPs and Telecom Service Providers.

Manoj Paul, Managing Director, GPX India, said, GPX would like to thank NIXI for setting up their PoP at its Mumbai DC campus. NIXI was the only major Internet Exchange of India, which was not present at GPX. NIXI will be connecting to OTTs and CDNs for the first time at GPX, as in all other PoPs, NIXI provides interconnections only between ISPs and Carriers. NIXI has a distinct value proposition for ISPs, and its IX PoP at the GPX DC will leverage and further strengthen GPXs unparalleled and high-performance Interconnection Ecosystem. We will work with NIXI along with other Internet Exchanges and the Ministry of IT to further develop the Internet Ecosystem in India to add new customer segments and enhance our value proposition.

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GPX India adds NIXI to the GPX Interconnection Ecosystem - Express Computer

Ecologists have studied the role carrion plays in the ecosystem of the Bavarian Forest National Park – India Education Diary

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In the photograph you can see a lynx, standing in the depths of the forest, with both forepaws placed possessively on the cadaver of a deer. The picture comes from one of the many photo-traps set up as part of a study by a team headed by Prof. Dr. Marco Heurich. Heurich is the wild animal ecologist for the Bavarian Forest National Park and Professor of Wild Animal Ecology and Nature Conservation Biology at the University of Freiburg. The aim of the study was to rethink the importance of carrion in the ecosystem, he says. To reach their result, the researchers analyzed 270,279 photos shot over a total of 15,373 nights spanning roughly six years.

Enjoy your meal! The lynx is a rare predator. Photo: Bavarian Forest National Park

Previously the Bavarian Forest National Park disposed of or sold the bodies of wildlife that were run over or else hunted in accordance with stock management rules. Now we leave dead animals be, as it would be in the natural cycle of an ecosystem, Marco Heurich explains. Things arent as natural as all that, however, as the scientists vary the choice of cadavers available. Amongst other things, the team observed whether scavengers preferred eating the meat fresh or thawed, if one time of year was better than another for setting out carrion, and whether large animals like the lynx, which range the national park along with 29 other related species, would rather eat deep in the woods or out in the open.

The photo-traps capture diversity

The photo-traps not only reveal predators such as lynx which are strictly protected and rare and foxes fairly common but also pine marten, badgers, wild cats, buzzards, red kite and white-tailed eagles, which were also interested in the cadavers. Three of the seventeen species of vertebrates that frequented the cadavers put out for them are on the Red List of species threatened with extinction, Heurich states. Two of the birds that were observed are also on the Red List of endangered birds in Bavaria.

In winter carrion plays an important part as an additional source of nutrition. The meat can deteriorate too rapidly in summer, causing difficulties for the animals, the researcher adds. In the warmer months, insects, bacteria and fungi are responsible for decomposition. If dung beetles and blowflies find the carrion before the large animals do its soon gone. Unique vegetation also develops on the plot of land as a result of the nutrients absorbed at the site of the spoils. It becomes a hotspot for life, says Heurich. This hotspot of microbes and fungi is now increasingly interesting the scientists, The focus of our first study was on vertebrates, but now were broadening our focus to include all those involved in this nutrient cycle.

Carrion is part of the ecosystem

The wild animal researcher is unhappy that scavengers such as vultures or corvids have a bad reputation and that the word Aas is an insult in German. Devouring carrion is an important and completely natural process in an ecosystem, stresses Heurich. So what was the scavengers response to the food set out for them? The animals turned out not to be fussy about the freshness of the meat, whether or not it was thawed. They also werent bothered about the timing when the lure was set out.

On the other hand, they were concerned about the choice of location. Birds preferred low-density woodland, while for lynx it was denser areas. Foxes have a clever trick, according to Heurich, Theyre alert to gatherings of corvids, because that is a sign of prey. So its no surprise that foxes were the most frequent visitors to the feeding sites, closely followed by pine marten and the common raven. Best were large cadavers such as red deer with a weight of 70 to 80 kilograms, as they offered enough food to satiate many species, the researcher explains.

Less intervention is better

In the Bavarian Forest National Park were intervening less and less in the processes of the ecosystem, and the lynx is helping us to keep the red deer population in equilibrium, says Heurich. Roe deer havent been hunted for a long time now, however wild boar and red deer are still hunted. This is carried out to protect the managed forests and fields in the vicinity of the national park; to prevent wild boar from digging up gardens, for example.

From the study, the scientists deduce that feeding with carrion in winter in accordance with the latest findings can play an important role in the ecosystem of the national park. This is also worthwhile for the new population of wolves which is being added to the group of major predators, says Heurich. Weve already observed a wolf on a cadaver, and were delighted that there havent yet been any problems with the newcomers.

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Ecologists have studied the role carrion plays in the ecosystem of the Bavarian Forest National Park - India Education Diary

ICON blockchain expands DeFi ecosystem with ETH Orbit Bridge integration – CryptoNinjas

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ICON, one of the worlds largest decentralized networks, today announced an integration with ozys Orbit Bridge, allowing Ethereum-based digital assets to be transferred onto the ICON Network. Orbit Bridge is a decentralized Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) platform. Its interoperability protocol will help ICON expand its DeFi capabilities by connecting it to other top blockchains and their applications.

This integration brings more value to the ICON Network, specifically its DeFi ecosystem, by bridging assets between different blockchains and bringing more economic activity to the ICON Network. Traders can now take advantage of arbitrage opportunities, and DeFi projects built on ICON can now enable borrowing and lending of assets across different networks and bridges. Ultimately, this all leads to more transactions and more value exchange on the ICON Network.

The Orbit Bridge integration is an exciting next step for the growth of the ICON DeFi ecosystem, and we look forward to bringing this technology to the community, said Ricky Dodds, Strategy and Communications Lead at ICON. As blockchain technology continues to progress, there will be a number of different ways to bridge assets between different networks. For example, we expect to see Orbit Ethereum and BTP Ethereum on ICON when ICON 2.0 launches. We look forward to our continued collaboration with the ozys team.

Orbit Bridge is already in production with two other blockchains, making ICON the third. The integration will allow the following Ethereum-based assets to be transferred onto the ICON Network:

Additionally, ICONPOOL will add liquidity pools for all 14 assets and pair them with ICX. ICON will also introduce liquidity mining programs for some tokens. ICON plans to roll out additional DeFi products in Q1 of 2021.

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ICON blockchain expands DeFi ecosystem with ETH Orbit Bridge integration - CryptoNinjas

Half of Ontario’s medical schools are now named after wealthy donors – The Conversation CA

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With the September announcement of a record $250-million donation to the University of Torontos medical school, renamed the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, three of the six medical schools in Ontario are now named after wealthy donors.

Should we simply celebrate philanthropic donations to medical schools or hospitals for that matter? There are reasons to look closer. As political scientist Rob Reich of Stanford University notes:

Philanthropy is an exercise in power . In a democratic society, wherever we see the exercise of power in a public setting, the first response it deserves isnt gratitude but scrutiny.

All 17 universities with faculties of medicine in Canada are public universities part of Canadas largely public higher education landscape.

Similarly, Canadian hospitals are almost all public institutions, the result of policy developments that culminated in the the Canada Health Act in 1984.

In Ontario, 145 of 155 hospitals in the province are public hospitals. These institutions are funded by taxpayers money and work within the rules set forth by the act prohibiting user fees and mandating public administration.

But defunding of both higher education and health has occurred, in the form of direct cuts and indirectly through stagnant budgets in the face of rising costs and yearly inflation starting in the 90s onwards. This defunding has presented institutional administrators with significant financial challenges.

In post-secondary institutions, part of the solution has been to seek and secure private donations from wealthy individuals or corporations.

It is not very different in the public health-care system, where entire hospitals or important parts including health-care programs are also named after wealthy donors.

The root cause for this pervasive and insidious practice is the lack of adequate government funding.

The practice should be challenged for many reasons, including the transparency and democracy of public institutions, institutional independence and equity in education and health-care delivery.

The rightful owners of a public institution are citizens and taxpayers. Although the share of public funding of universities has been slowly eroded, government funds and student fees still make up the largest proportion of revenue together, at 46 per cent and 30 per cent respectively, while private/corporate funds makeup 24 per cent.

Whether a charitable donation to a university or hospital is large enough to cover an entire years budget or not, many many more years of funding post-donation are still needed to run these institutions over the long term.

Even according to the logic of business and shareholders, how is it that the smaller contributor/donor (minor shareholder) gets their name on the front door?

How is it that such important decisions are made without transparent or wide consultation with the people that are the soul of these institutions and that make them what they are?

Here, I mean the nurses, physicians, allied health providers and communities of patients in the case of hospitals or faculty members, students and alumni in the case of universities. Where is institutional transparency when deals are announced as fait accompli after theyve been signed behind closed doors?

Not uncommonly, large donated funds are earmarked for specific educational, research or health-care services, as requested by the donor, and potentially set priorities for the recipient university or hospital.

In a publicly funded institution, such priorities should be set independently by the institution itself, informed by societal and community needs.

We should be seriously concerned about potential donor influence in institutional decisions, such as selection of leadership positions. The University of Torontos law school recently faced criticism after allegations that a donor influenced a hiring decision, prompting the Canadian Association of University Teachers to pass a motion of censure.

Equity in access to health care and education remains a reason to justify public funding.

Many factors clearly influence medical institutions ability to garner donations: these include the geographic location of institutions (affluent versus poorer neighbourhoods or cities); how some diseases, often those that have captured mainstream attention and affect the more affluent, can more easily attract donors; or what may be deemed the business relevance or marketability of particular specialities or programs. By extension, philanthropy can impact inequitable service provision.

When a rich familys name is on a faculty building and new medical students see this as they arrive on campus especially those who already experience wealth inequities or other structural barriers such as racism what kind of message do they receive about exactly whos in power and what their place may be?

Until adequate funding for medical education and health care is restored, public universities and hospitals will continue to struggle financially.

The solution on a more fundamental level must, at least in part, be in the taxation of wealth, as supported by a majority of Canadians, to ensure adequate funds and to level wealth inequity, which is a critical determinant of health, among other inequities.

Meanwhile, if we accept that large private and corporate funding is essential to the very sustenance of these institutions, they must ensure contributions are universal, transparent and regulated.

I propose a number of measures to minimize the detrimental impact of large private and corporate donations:

Ideally, donations would be anonymous (and no, this does not make large donations impossible), so that brand advancement is not a given with philanthropy. Where this is perceived as impossible, a name on a plaque with the prohibition of any naming of whole institutions or part should suffice.

Donors should strictly deal with the institutions foundation department. Any direct contact between faculty, deans and physician leaders should be prohibited.

Agreements regarding major donations should be made public and presented for binding consultation with institutional stakeholders named above.

There should be a transparent process of vetting the business practices of major donors on an ethical basis (for example, as related to fair labour practices or how they engage with Indigenous land rights).

There should be a truly independent body to investigate complaints exposing influence and coercion and to protect whistleblowers.

Scrutiny and strict regulation of corporate funding of public universities and hospitals is essential for maintaining institutional independence and equitable provision of education and health care. Such regulation must be coupled with demands for increased government funding.

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Half of Ontario's medical schools are now named after wealthy donors - The Conversation CA