Monthly Archives: June 2017

Zim’s biggest resource for economic development is its people – Bulawayo24 News (press release) (blog)

Posted: June 26, 2017 at 5:12 pm

If we looked at countries' natural endowments as a measure of their potential for economic development, very few in Africa would stand toe to toe with Zimbabwe. For ours is one of those rare countries that boast a wide range of mineral deposits and natural potential.

Zimbabwe hosts the second largest platinum group metals as well as the largest high grade chromite resource base in the world on the Great Dyke. A notable global producer of lithium and chrysotile asbestos, the country is also possessed with significant deposits of gold and diamonds.

Add to that the millions of hectares of arable and grazing land, which has historically ensured successful mixed farming and may yet see the country's commercial agricultural sector bounce back to its former glory.

But with a literacy rate that has consistently topped all of Africa, and a massive pool of skilled human resources across all sectors, it goes without saying that Zimbabwe's biggest resource is its people. These are the potential drivers of the country's economic development, if fully harnessed and deployed towards production, innovation and service delivery. However, over the past two decades especially, we've not been spared the exodus of skilled professionals and many others who trekked off to more developed economies in response to globalisation's pull, as well as the push of national economic hardships and political insecurity. Indeed, unofficial estimates claim the country may have lost as much as 60% of its qualified professionals, while up to three million Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country.

In the UK where I live, estimates put the total population of the Zimbabwean community at 400,000 that's about four times the size of a micro-state like The Seychelles. The sheer determination of my compatriots to carve out a space for themselves in their adopted home and get their pound of flesh was the single most inspiring factor that led me to found the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards in 2011.

The awards body was to serve as both a celebration of those small, significant steps of success that Zimbabweans were making as they worked their way up the UK's socio-economic ladder, as well as inspiration and motivation towards even greater achievements. In the seven years of our existence, we've gone from celebrating small community businesses to awarding professional architects delivering multi-million dollar projects across Africa. We've recognised cutting edge tech-start-ups worth millions, freight services serving global markets, and healthcare companies servicing huge government contracts.

Collectively as the Zimbabwean diaspora, we've consistently remitted billions of dollars back home over the years and compelled the government to pay attention to our net contribution to the economy of our home country. Dollarisation has helped cut off the forex black market, ensuring that all remittances go through the official channels. However, remittances are only a fraction of the diaspora's capacity to contribute towards national socio-economic development. To illustrate the limits of remittances to achieve broader community transformation, a case study from Bangladesh is worth referring to. About 95% of all British-Bengalis trace their origins to Sylhet division in north-east Bangladesh. The region receives around US $1billion in remittances every year from expatriate Bengalis in the UK alone and should, in theory, be the wealthiest and healthiest part of the country.

However, as The Guardian reported, "Sylhet has worse literacy and school enrolment rates than all other regions, child malnutrition rates are well over the WHO emergency threshold of 15%, fertility rates are the highest in the country and expectant mothers are more likely to die during child birth in Sylhet than any other part of Bangladesh."

And the reason for this discrepancy between the high volumes of remittances and the overall state of the community is that remittances are transferred to individual households rather than to charity or community development. As the Zimbabwean diaspora, we also find ourselves locked in this phase of financial contribution and have yet to fully inhabit our economic potential by broadening our investment beyond the family to achieve wider developmental impact.

At the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards, we have spread out from our UK base to all major diaspora centres South Africa, USA, and Australia. Through this community vehicle, we've networked with both individual professional Zimbabweans doing great things in their careers as well as entrepreneurs, businesses, social enterprises and philanthropic organisations.

Throughout the networks we've built, the one pulsating passion that courses through all of us is a deep-seated desire to contribute towards Zimbabwe's socio-economic development and make a difference. We've formed partnerships with corporates based in Zimbabwe that are at the forefront of kickstarting the country's brain gain by employing experienced Diaspora professionals and bringing them back home.

This is a trend that we fully support and as we believe that Zimbabwe's critical professional skills are indispensable in the reconstruction of the country after decades of economic lethargy and the loss of much needed human resources. Innovative human resources companies need to step up and start engaging the diaspora labour market to harness key skills and bring them back home, as has happened elsewhere across the world.

In China, for instance, huge numbers of professionals who left their country to study and work, have returned. These so-called "sea turtles" have brought back desirable skills, invaluable networks of international business contacts and innovative ideas to energise the economy.

India, too, has enjoyed a significant brain gain in recent years, with scientists returning home to take advantage of the relative strength of the Indian economy and growing opportunities there. By 2013, according to the scientific journal publishers Elsevier, India had become a net importer of productive scientific talent.

But that does not just happen home governments need to communicate clearly that expatriates are wanted and needed back home. Policymakers need to understand the diaspora and incentivise its involvement in the country's development. Emotional ties alone do not cut it - governments can actively do away with obstacles and create opportunities for diasporas to engage in economic development. Governments must be on their front foot if they are to harvest real benefits from their diaspora.

Even more importantly, the role of the diaspora as investors is very much under-appreciated within our own Zimbabwean context. One of the most prominent examples of diasporas investing in their home country is that of the Chinese. Between 1985 and 2000, the Chinese diaspora accounted for 70 per cent of China's foreign direct investment, which helped fuel the country's rapid economic growth over this period.

There is need for the Zimbabwean diaspora itself, the corporate sector back home as well as the government, to work collaboratively to facilitate diaspora investment. Apart from sending money to families, many in the diaspora do not have the information they need to make decisions about investment, nor do they know what investment opportunities are available.

There is need for mutual encouragement to organise better to facilitate this investment. It is very feasible for health professionals in the UK, for instance, working with government facilitation, to invest in a state of the art hospital that can provide world class medical care and save the country millions in dollars that are spent towards health tourism to India, South Africa, Singapore and other popular destinations.

Likewise, a lot of the infrastructural projects in Zimbabwe can also harness the investment and participation of diaspora-based engineers, many of whom are members of diaspora chapters of the Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers. Many other types of diaspora investment, such as collective investment in community projects through hometown associations, can be fully explored and practical steps towards facilitating them taken.

Clearly, there is a lot of unexplored potential in the Zimbabwean diaspora, and a strong relationship needs to be fostered between the diaspora and the government as well as the corporate and charity/philanthropic sectors. To this end, ZAA International will be hosting a Zimbabwe Economy Forum in Dubai from 21-24 September this year to explore these and other key issues concerning our national economy.

One of the projects I hope to launch at the forum together with partners like Vavaki Architects is a holiday housing complex in the great Victoria Falls that Zimbabweans in the diaspora can buy into. This falls firmly within the greater vision to see a Victoria Falls that will be a leisure and tourist hub of the region, complete with state of the art facilities to complement its world heritage natural offering.

Conrad is Founder of Zimbabwe Achievers Awards and can be contacted via Conrad@cmgmedia.co.uk

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Should all Americans receive a guaranteed income? – KHOU

Posted: at 5:11 pm

Magnify Money and Kalyn Wilson , KHOU 1:10 PM. CDT June 20, 2017

Photo: Thinkstock (Photo: Phekthong Lee)

Having a monthly, tax-free, no-strings-attached income that would cover the basics for life may sound too good to be true, but its no fantasy. The idea of universal basic income (UBI) already has been implemented in some regions, such as Canada, Europe, and even Alaska, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently revitalized discussion about the concept.

Zuckerberg endorsed UBI during his 2017 commencement speech at Harvard University as a means of leveling the economic playing field and opening the doors of entrepreneurship to everyone.

"We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure that everyone has a cushion to try new ideas," Zuckerberg told graduates. Now its time for our generation to define a new social contract.

What Is Universal Basic Income?

Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, and other tech executives, including Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, have turned to this notion in response to the re-emerging concern about unemployment in the tech sector.

But the concept was originally developed hundreds of years ago as a way to lift citizens out of poverty.

Universal basic income (UBI) actually dates to the 16th century and the Renaissance, when the idea of a minimum income guarantee originated as a way to help poor people. Then in the 18th century, the idea of a basic endowment emerged to help alleviate theft, murder, and poverty in Europe.

The concept has changed through the years. When people talk about UBI today, theyre referring to an unconditional cash grant regularly distributed to all members of a community without any means test or work requirements, according to the Basic Income Earth Network. The concept means that everyone receives a set amount of money each period, no matter their circumstances.

Photo: Thinkstock (Photo: stevanovicigor, (C)2016 Igor Stevanovic, all rights reserved)

Despite its existence for even centuries, UBI did not take the stage like other social assistance programs, such as Social Security, food stamps, and unemployment benefits, which some critics believe would be outperformed by UBI, if implemented.

Jason Murphy, assistant professor of philosophy at Elms College in Chicopee, Mass., and U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) coordinating committee member, says UBI would remove the conditions placed on existing social assistance programs that limit who receives help and how. The program would better target communities that are especially vulnerable and overlooked ensuring that no one has to go hungry and everyone starts on equal footing, he adds.

Still, with UBI in place, Murphy says he thinks not only does it give everyone a chance to cover essential needs, but it also opens the door for others to invest, start businesses, and create more jobs for the economy.

Critics argue that UBI could cause inflation, cause people not to work, or be an unfair tax on the rich, but research shows this isnt likely. A study by MIT and Harvard economists found that "no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work" in poor countries and, in some cases, encourage it.

Karl Widerquist, an economist, philosopher, Basic Income Earth Network board member, and visiting associate professor at Georgetown University-Qatar, says he thinks with a decent tax policy, the program would serve as an automatic stabilizer, alleviate income inequality, and help everyone financially.

The average worker is no better off than they were in the 1970s when you adjust for inflation, Widerquist says.

Some Places Are Already Benefiting

Regions around the globe including Ontario, Canada, and Finland, and, in the U.S., North Carolina, and Alaska are putting UBI to the test.

In the late 1990s, a tribe of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina began distributing some of the profits from the tribes casino to its 8,000 members, the New York Times reported. It amounted to about $6,000 per year for each member.

A long-term study on the tribes universal income experiment was published in 2016 by Duke University epidemiologist E. Jane Costello. She found that children in communities with a basic income experienced improvement in the education system, better mental and physical health, lower stress levels and crime rates, and overall economic growth.

Finland began a similar experiment in 2017, promising to give 2,000 citizens $600 per month through 2019. And Alaska has offered a basic income to its residents since the early 1980s.

With these small, pilot projects, social scientists and politicians are observing the effects of a basic income on the economic, social, and personal well-being of residents before launching large-scale programs.

Can UBI Really Level the Playing Field?

With a cushion, Widerquist says people will be less likely to settle for certain jobs and living arrangements, causing employers and property owners to cut better deals and prioritize clients, customers, and employers.

I think it will promote growth, Murphy says.

The rich and well-off may use the extra money to invest, and possibly begin investing in low-income communities, which works in favor of those in both social classes, Murphy says. He also says it could revitalize local economies, because those who rely heavily on the cash grants are more likely to spend locally.

Whats the Catch?

Murphy says the tax reform needed to make UBI a reality must be progressive. That way, it will avoid a major concern for the middle class the upper class will evade taxes, and the middle class will have to fit the bill for the non-workers of the world.

Photo: Thinkstock (Photo: utah778)

Widerquist argues that implementing this program requires open minds that are willing to move away from an economic system where the upper class maintains control over the flow of cash through ownership and stringently structured government programs. Instead, he thinks the government and society should first focus on eradicating poverty, and the roads to economic prosperity will follow.

The con is that the devil is in the details, Widerquist says. There are some [programs] that want to redistribute less to the poor that would not be better than the programs we already have.

Is UBI Feasible?

The answer is yes, Widerquist says.

The net cost of a basic income, large enough to eliminate poverty in the United States, is $539 billion a year, Widerquist says. Thats only a fourth of what the government is spending on entitlements.

Although it would be a big item in the federal budget, Murphy says he thinks its even cheaper to implement and maintain than Widerquists projections suggest.

Its going to take a commitment, but some of the calculations that are out there are actually way too high, he says.

With no means testing, Murphy says, there is no need to hire people to interview citizens, which saves money compared to requirement-driven social assistance programs.

The money poured into a basic income program would represent about 3% of the gross domestic product, which would put everyone above the poverty line, Murphy says.

Also, Widerquist and Murphy suggest that while universal basic income is possible without drastically cutting other programs, like unemployment benefits or universal health care, there are other ways to keep costs down. Those include trading UBI for programs like food stamps (since it is a cash grant), or taxing items like pollution, traffic, and electronic financial transactions.

MagnifyMoneyis a price comparison and financial education website, founded by former bankers who use their knowledge of how the system works to help you save money.

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Daily Report: Automation’s Effect on Developing Tech Economies – New York Times

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Photo Sudhakar Choudhari was recently laid off from his job at Tech Mahindra. Credit Atul Loke for The New York Times

That many workers in the United States will eventually be replaced by technology seems inevitable. The question is when not if it will happen. For the workers counterparts in India, the concerns are similar.

Over the last decade or so, Indian outsourcing companies have managed to lure a number of jobs out of the United States, leading to a growing tech middle class in their home country.

Now those Indian workers are worried that automation artificial intelligence, in particular will replace them. As Nida Najar reports, processes that can now be automated may lead the fast-growing Indian information technology industry to shed jobs in the coming years.

So far, the impact is not clear. But a 2015 study released by the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the Indian technology industry trade group known as Nasscom, and McKinsey India found that 50 to 70 percent of workers skills would be irrelevant by 2020, Nida writes.

The hope is that new jobs could be created by that automation. Just like in the United States.

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Daily Report: Automation's Effect on Developing Tech Economies - New York Times

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Infosys says it has released 11000 jobs due to automation – YourStory.com

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In its 36th annual general meeting held in Bengaluruon Saturday, IT giant Infosys admitted to releasing 11,000 jobs due to automation. According to Chairman R. Seshasayee, the revenue per full-time employee (FTE) increased by 1.2 percent as a result of automation, utilisation and productivity improvements.

[RELATED READ:The future of work: why all bets are on freelancing and robotics]

The rapid digitisation of everything around us is disrupting entire industries in an irreversible and profound way. As this revolution accelerates, the opportunity for us is two-fold, stated Seshasayee, the Economic Times reported.

The company has been actively encouraging the idea of bringing automation and software-led efficiencies to the core of their technological services for a while now. This, they said, would help them utilise the new technologies in order to innovate better, which in turn, would allow them to assist their clients through their own digital transformations.

Infosys annual report cited that the release of the 11,000 jobs on account of automation is a clear indication of the crucial role that software is to play in the business model of the second-largest IT company in India.

The meeting, which took place at Christ College, was an attempt by the company to clear up all the speculations that the media and others have conjured up, in the past few months. Another key issue that the company addressed was the accusations for wide compensation gap between its top management executives and employees. Recognising the fact that the administration could have worked more efficiently to reduce the gap, the company hoped to assure the masses by putting forth their plan of a restructured compensation package, which would include stock-based rewards.

Additionally, the company also announced their decision to undertake three key transformations for a better future for both itself and its clients. These include business transformation, cultural transformation and transition to independent board.

The first is business transformation from a traditional IT services to an innovation-led software-plus services company, which is formidable enough; second the cultural transformation that comes along when you induct global leadership talent; and third, the abrupt transition from the promoter-led Board to an independent Board, Seshasayee was quoted saying, at the meeting.

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What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future – The Guardian

Posted: at 5:11 pm

According to a 2013 report from Oxford academics, 47% of workers in America have jobs at high risk of potential automation. Photograph: Mona Chalabi

The robots are coming, the robots are coming!

Regular reports warn us that an automation apocalypse is nigh. In January, a McKinsey & Company study found that about 30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be computerized and last year, the Bank of Englands chief economist said that 80m US and 15m UK jobs might be taken over by robots.

Of course, not all jobs are created equally. In 2013, a highly cited study by Oxford University academics called The Future of Employment examined 702 common occupations and found that some jobs telemarketers, tax preparers and sports referees are at more risk than others including recreational psychologists, dentists and physicians.

In the past, reports of the death of human jobs have often been greatly exaggerated, and technology has created a lot more jobs than it has wiped out. Its called the Luddite Fallacy, in reference to the 19th century group of textile workers who smashed the new weaving machinery that made their skills redundant. Further, in the last 60 years automation has only eliminated one occupation: elevator operators.

While there have been optimistic predictions that new technology would increase prosperity and lower drudgery, very few of us are working the 15-hour work week that, in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted would be the norm for his grandkids. If anything, were working 15-hour days.

Todays technological revolution is an entirely different beast from the industrial revolution. The pace of change is exponentially faster and far wider in scope. As Stanford University academic Jerry Kaplan writes in Humans Need Not Apply: today, automation is blind to the color of your collar. It doesnt matter whether youre a factory worker, a financial advisor or a professional flute-player: automation is coming for you.

Before we get too deep into doom and gloom, its worth stressing that automation isnt synonymous with job losses. Speaking to me over the phone, Frey was quick to point out that his work doesnt make any explicit predictions such as 47% of US jobs will disappear. It simply says that these jobs are exposed to automation.

In other words, the jobs themselves wont entirely vanish; rather, they will be redefined. Of course, as Frey concedes, from the perspective of the worker there is not much of a difference between work disappearing and being radically redefined. Its likely theyll lack the new skillsets required for the role and be out of a job anyway.

H&R Block, one of Americas largest tax preparation providers, is now using Watson, IBMs AI platform

Professor Richard Susskind, author of The Future of the Professions and Tomorrows Lawyers, echoes this distinction. What youre going to see for a lot of jobs is a churn of different tasks, he explains. So a lawyer today doesnt develop systems that offer advice, but the lawyer of 2025 will. Theyll still be called lawyers but theyll be doing different things.

So which professions are at greatest risk?

Martin Ford, futurist and author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, explains the jobs that are most at risk are those which are on some level routine, repetitive and predictable.

Telemarketing, for example, which is highly routine, has a 99% probability of automation according to The Future of Employment report; you may have already noticed an increase in irritating robocalls. Tax preparation, which involves systematically processing large amounts of predictable data, also faces a 99% chance of being automated. Indeed, technology has already started doing our taxes: H&R Block, one of Americas largest tax preparation providers, is now using Watson, IBMs artificial intelligence platform.

Robots will also take over the more repetitive tasks in professions such as law, with paralegals and legal assistants facing a 94% probability of having their jobs computerized. According to a recent report by Deloitte, more than 100,000 jobs in the legal sector have a high chance of being automated in the next 20 years.

Fast food cooks also face an 81% probability of having their jobs replaced by robots like Flippy, an AI-powered kitchen assistant which is already flipping burgers in a number of CaliBurger restaurants.

Ford, the futurist, classifies resilient jobs in three areas.

The first is jobs that involve genuine creativity, such as being an artist, being a scientist, developing a new business strategy. Ford notes: For now, humans are still best at creativity but theres a caveat there. I cant guarantee you that in 20 years a computer wont be the most creative entity on the planet. There are already computers that can paint original works of art. So, in 20 years who knows how far its going to go?

The second area is occupations that involve building complex relationships with people: nurses, for example, or a business role that requires you to build close relationships with clients.

The third area is jobs that are highly unpredictable for example, if youre a plumber who is called out to emergencies in different locations.

You can see these parameters at play in the jobs The Future of Employment identifies as least at risk of automation, which include recreational therapists, first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, repairers, occupational therapists and healthcare social workers.

While being in a creative or people-focused industry may keep your job safe for the next 10 years or so, its very hard to predict what will happen 20 years into the future. Indeed, Susskind stresses that we should be wary of downplaying just how much computers might change the working world.

She says she believes that the 2020s are going to be a decade not of unemployment, but of redeployment. Beyond that, however, the picture is far less clear: I dont think anyone can do long-term career planning with any confidence. As Susskind notes, we make assumptions about the indispensability of human beings, but machines are already doing things we thought only humans might be able to. Theyre composing original music, for example, and beating professional players at complex board games with creative moves.

Theyre even helping us with our relationships with God. While the clergy only has a 0.81% probability of automation, according to data from The Future of Jobs, Susskind believes even algorithms might one day replace the ordained. As he notes, there are already apps like Confession which offer drop-down menus for tracking sin.

Machines are already doing things we thought only humans might be able to: composing original music, for example

While weve been doing a lot of robot-bashing, it should be noted that automation isnt the only phenomenon having an impact on the job market. Saadia Zahidi, head of the education, gender and work system initiative at the World Economic Forum (WEF), says that we shouldnt forget that there are other drivers of change.

A 2016 WEF report identified such drivers as climate change, the rise of the middle class in many emerging markets, aging populations in certain parts of Europe and East Asia, and the changing aspirations of women as factors that will have significant impacts on jobs. Its really the coming together of these various drivers of change that then leads to disruptions in the labor market, Zahidi notes.

The report warns that were going to see significant ramifications from automation very soon. Zahidi explains: The next three years will be a period of flux and a period of relatively higher losses than gains. This is not meant to be alarmist in the sense that there will be heavy job losses. But if we do nothing then this will be where we end up.

Automation may also exacerbate gender inequality, Zahidi says. Women dont make up a large proportion of people who are going into science, technology, engineering and math (Stem) and IT fields, which are likely to be the areas in which jobs will grow. On the other hand, Zahidi notes, there do tend to be more women in care-related professions, such as healthcare and education, which are at a lower risk of automation.

In the long run, women may actually end up faring better from technological change. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report found that a higher proportion of male than female jobs are at risk of automation, especially those of men with lower levels of education.

Justin Tobin, founder of the innovation consultancy DDG, says he believes: More and more independent thinkers are realizing that when being an employee is the equivalent to putting all your money into one stock a better strategy is to diversify your portfolio. So youre seeing a lot more people looking to diversify their career.

Faith Popcorn, a futurist, echoes the idea that we will all have to become as agile as possible and have many forms of talent and work that you can provide the economy.

In the future, she says, well all have seven or eight jobs, with the average adult working for a number of companies simultaneously rather than working for one big corporation.

Were in the midst of this huge sweeping change that is going to impact all levels of society, Popcorn warns.

Predicting the future is Popcorns livelihood, and shes made herself a bit of a legend over the years doing so, but even she seems a little unsettled by the pace of change today. As she tells me with a world-weary sigh, it just makes you want to have some more tequila.

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Industrial Automation Market is expected to reach USD 15.52 billion by 2023 – PR Newswire (press release)

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The industrial automation market for oil & gas is expected to reach USD 15.52 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 3.2% between 2017 and 2023.

Key driving factors for the growth of the industrial automation market for oil & gas are the need for optimum and effective exploration of aging reservoirs and the Internet of Things adding value to the industrial automation for the oil & gas industry.

DCS is expected to hold a major share of the industrial automation market for oil & gas during the forecast period.

Distributed control system (DCS) is expected to hold a major share of the market by 2023.

The distributed control system controls various components that are distributed in the overall system of industrial automation for oil & gas, enabling the maintenance of digital communication between various components such as distributed controllers, workstations, and other computing elements.

The DCS controls processes such as oil & gas refineries, pipeline transport, and extraction in the oil & gas industry.

Field instruments market expected to hold the largest size of the industrial automation market for oil & gas

The field instruments market is expected to hold the largest size of the industrial automation market for oil & gas in 2017.

Field instruments comprise three types of transmitterspressure, temperature, and flow, which are used for various processes involved in instrumentation.

Pressure transmitters are extensively used in the oil and gas sector for the measurement of flow, level, pressure, density, and viscosity, among which flow measurement is the most common application area.

"The industrial automation market for oil & gas is expected to exhibit significant growth potential between 2017 and 2023" The industrial automation market for oil & gas is expected to reach USD 15.52 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 3.2% between 2017 and 2023. Key driving factors for the growth of the industrial automation market for oil & gas are the need for optimum and effective exploration of aging reservoirs and the Internet of Things adding value to the industrial automation for the oil & gas industry. However, the instability of the oil & gas market in Middle Eastern countries, increasing shift toward the adoption of renewable energy sources, and declining and fluctuating oil and gas prices are considered to be major restraints for the industrial automation market for oil & gas.

"DCS is expected to hold a major share of the industrial automation market for oil & gas during the forecast period." Distributed control system (DCS) is expected to hold a major share of the market by 2023. The distributed control system controls various components that are distributed in the overall system of industrial automation for oil & gas, enabling the maintenance of digital communication between various components such as distributed controllers, workstations, and other computing elements. The DCS controls processes such as oil & gas refineries, pipeline transport, and extraction in the oil & gas industry.

"Field instruments market expected to hold the largest size of the industrial automation market for oil & gas" The field instruments market is expected to hold the largest size of the industrial automation market for oil & gas in 2017. Field instruments comprise three types of transmitterspressure, temperature, and flow, which are used for various processes involved in instrumentation. Pressure transmitters are extensively used in the oil and gas sector for the measurement of flow, level, pressure, density, and viscosity, among which flow measurement is the most common application area.

"The industrial automation market for oil & gas in APAC expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period" The industrial automation market for oil & gas in APAC is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2017 and 2023. The demand for industrial automation for oil & gas is very high in APAC owing to the increase in the number of refinery plants and other related plants in the oil & gas industry. The implementation of automation is increasing in APAC because of the rising demand for high-quality products along with increased production rates. It also helps reduce labor costs and human interference.

Breakdown of the profiles of primary participants for the report has been given below:

By Company Type: Tier 1 = 49%, Tier 2 = 30%, and Tier 3 = 21% By Designation: C-Level Executives = 58%, Directors = 28%, and Others = 14% By Region: The Americas = 35%, Europe = 19%, APAC = 30%, and the Middle East and Africa = 16%

The key players in the industrial automation market for oil & gas include ABB (Switzerland), Emerson Electric Co. (US), Honeywell International Inc. (US), Schneider Electric SE (France), Siemens AG (Germany), Endress+Hauser AG (Switzerland), General Electric Co. (US), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), Rockwell Automation Inc. (US), and Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan).

Research Coverage The research report analyzes the industrial automation market for oil & gas based on solution, instrument, and geography. The market has been segmented on the basis of solution into supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), programmable logic controller (PLC), humanmachine interface (HMI), distributed control systems (DCS), safety automation, advanced process control (APC), and manufacturing execution system (MES). On the basis of instruments, the industrial automation market for oil & gas has been classified into field instruments, control valves, leakage detection system, and flow computer. The report covers the market segmented on the basis of 4 major regions: the Americas, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East and Africa.

Key Benefits of Buying the Report: Illustrative segmentation, analysis, and forecast for the market based on solution, instrument, and geography have been conducted to give an overall view of the industrial automation market for oil & gas. The value chain analysis has been utilized to provide an in-depth insight into the industrial automation market for oil & gas. Major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges for the industrial automation market for oil & gas have been detailed in this report. The report includes a detailed competitive landscape along with key players and their revenue. Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04960853/Industrial-Automation-Market-for-Oil-Gas-by-Solution-Instruments-and-Geography-Global-Forecast-to.html

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Industrial Automation Market is expected to reach USD 15.52 billion by 2023 - PR Newswire (press release)

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Letter: Automation rapidly changing 21st century workplace – INFORUM

Posted: at 5:11 pm

President Trump promised to bring back the coal industry. Coal mining is now a highly-automated industry requiring far fewer miners than in decades past. However, Trump never discusses the fact that cheap abundant natural gas is replacing coal along with renewable sources. Modern combined-cycle natural gas plants are nearly twice as efficient as our older single-cycle coal power plants.

Most of our coal plants are 40 to 50 years old and are at the end of their life cycles. Wall Street banks refuse to finance new coal plants while the costs of renewable sources and natural gas power plants are replacing coal plants everywhere. The Sierra Club tracks coal plants saying over 200 coal plants have been shut down in the last decade with hundreds more coal plant closings on the way in coming years. The coal industry analysts say coal is on a bleak permanent decline that will never be reversed because natural gas, solar and wind turbines are more cost effective period.

The Trump cult also blames undocumented immigrants and global trade agreements for the decline of the manufacturing labor force in America. Most economists will tell you immigrants and global trade agreements make our country stronger.

Trump also promised to bring back labor intensive manufacturing jobs in the Rustbelt states. At least 85 percent or more of the decline of manufacturing jobs in the industrial Midwest over the last 30 years have been because of automation in the workplace.

Trump has promised to revive the steel industry as well. Modern steel minimills are now highly automated but produce large amounts of recycled steel with only a few highly-skilled workers. Most modern manufacturing plants only employ about one-fifth the number of workers they did 30 years ago. A General Motors plant that employed 25,000 workers in 1980 would today only employs about 5,000 workers to produce the same number of cars. Most industrial jobs require a worker to have excellent computer skills as a precondition of employment.

Automation will likely displace at least five million more workers by 2020. How will the cult of Trump compete against industrial robots and machine tools controlled by artificial intelligence in the 21st-century workplace?

We need a Medicare public option that makes health care more portable for workers with vastly improved vocational and technical retraining programs that help displaced workers find the high-tech jobs that exist. We must learn to adapt to automation in the information technology economy of the future. The Trump cult wants to go back to the industrial age of the 20th century that is the road to nowhere in the automated computer information age of the 21st century.

Stoutenburg lives in Moorhead.

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Letter: Automation rapidly changing 21st century workplace - INFORUM

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Jubilant crowds, union members gather at Buffalo’s Juneteenth celebration – People’s World

Posted: at 5:10 pm

Photo courtesy of Push Green.

BUFFALO, NY Juneteenth, the mid-June holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 on which enslaved people of African descent in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, has been growing in popularity. Buffalo, New York now hosts the third largest Juneteenth Festival in the nation, and the largest on the eastern seaboard. Filling Martin Luther King Park June 17 with a procession of music, drumming, and dance, the 2017 celebrations were jubilant. The smell of smoked foods swirled through the park as stands displayed traditional African-American clothing and handicrafts alongside various community organizations.

The holidays history is a bittersweet one. Led by the laboring base of the Southern economy, the revolution that won the Civil War established a Reconstruction of the South. Historian Eric Foner has called the Reconstruction period Americas unfinished revolution, because it was cut short with a counter-revolution: Jim Crow.

The system of convict leasing, which Pulitzer-Prize winning author and journalist Douglas Blackmon calls slavery by another name, also persisted into the twentieth century; todays version of subminimum-wage labor in prisons is its direct descendant.

In Buffalo, the celebration and parade included many labor groups including: New York State Nurses Association; Communications Workers of America Local 1168, the Buffalo Teachers Federation; the United Auto Workers Local 774, 897, and Region 9; and AFSCME D.C. 35 .

Also participating in the festival were the Young Black Democrats of Western New York, and open Buffalo, an organization which helps coordinate organizations and coalitions struggling for a more democratic Buffalo, including People United for Fair Housing (PUSH), Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ), Prisoners Are People Too, Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition, VOICE-Buffalo, and others. Leaders of Community Voices Heard (CVH) were also represented in the CPUSA contingent.

Stacy Fernandez of the Buffalo News also noted an increased police presence at the festival this year.

The Young Black Democrats of WNY alerted festival participants of the need to vote for Bernie Tolbert for Erie County Sheriff. Tolbert is running to replace Timothy B. Howard. Under Howards watch, many people have reportedly died in jail while waiting for trial, the use of devices known as Stingrays have been used to tap peoples cell phones, and Howard himself spoke at a Trump rally with people holding the Confederate flag behind him.

The Community Voices Heard members, together with members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), highlighted another piece of slaverys legacy: forced labor in the Work Exchange Program (WEP).

Put into place by the Clinton administration in 1996, WEP required people on public assistance to work without pay. Public workers received rewards for connecting people to poverty wage jobs at places like McDonalds, and after the six month period of working for free, public benefits recipients were frequently fired. Disproportionately affecting racially and nationally oppressed people, the work-for-free program resulted in a spike in homelessness in New York City, and was finally ended by a CVH-led campaign and a progressive Mayor, City Council, and Human Resources Commissioner at the end of 2016. However, a similar program called WeCare persists, and what appears to be a lack of communication between HRA and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) has resulted in outcomes similar to those that followed WEP.

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Jubilant crowds, union members gather at Buffalo's Juneteenth celebration - People's World

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Family found living off rainwater from rusty can in a Derbyshire field – Derby Telegraph

Posted: at 5:10 pm

A family of human trafficking victims was discovered cowering under tarpaulin in a Derbyshire field, drinking rainwater from a rusty can to survive.

It is just one example of the disturbing crime revealed by police, who say they have dealt with nearly 300 reports of suspected human trafficking in the last few months in Derbyshire.

In Derby, other victims were found being paid a wage of 33p an hour while being plied with cheap vodka.

Now police have issued a list of tell-tale signs of trafficking victims and asked the public to help spot them. They say "modern slaves" have been found working in prostitution, nail bars, car washes and the building trade but officers say it could be any area of work.

They say trafficking victims can be refugees in the country illegally, and therefore reluctant or unable to approach authorities for help when exploit. They could also be people who come here for legitimate work but then lose that job and fall on hard times, becoming susceptible to criminal.

Or they could even be people born here who become vulnerable when they suffer a life crisis. Traffickers keep a hold on their victims by threatening to tell authorities if a person is here illegally, or even taking away their passports or documentation.

They also use physical or mental violence to intimidate workers into doing what they want, often paying them a pittance and forcing them to live in squalid and cramped conditions.

Detective Sergeant Gareth Smethem, from Derbyshire police, said the force needed the help of the public. He said: "This is a crime which the public can really be on board with us on. When you go to a car wash, have a look at the demeanour and attitude of the people there.

"I want to be clear not all car washes are going to be like this. But some will. If you see people looking down, tired and scared, that could be a sign. Please let us know.

"They may look withdrawn or scruffy. If there's something there that does not seem right, then please tell us.

"If you have work done at your house and an English-speaking man arrives but the work is being carried out by reserved foreign nationals who speak little English, that is a warning sign - especially if the English speaking man comes and collects the money at the end. If you see anything suspicious, please let us know."

Detective Sergeant Smethem is part of a new Derbyshire unit - Operation Wilberforce - established by the force to find the true scale of the problem. Wilberforce officers say they have their eyes open" but have no no idea" of the true scale of the problem they face.

The team was formed in March and Detective Chief Inspector Paul Tatlow, who oversees the operation, said it had been contacted 296 times since then by people concerned that human trafficking and modern-day slavery was taking place.

Detective Constable Andy Hulland said the most shocking example the team had come across was a family who had been trafficked twice.

He said: We got a call from a member of the public to say they were concerned about people in a field in Derbyshire who were living under a tarpaulin. We got there and established they had no money. They were collecting rain water in a rusty can to drink. They spoke no English and that's the situation they dealt with.

We established that they had been trafficked twice in the UK and had just been dumped. We have worked with other agencies to get them some food and somewhere secure to live in the county. It's all about identifying the victims and then getting them the help and support they need.

We've come across victims in Derby who were being forced to work long hours for just 33p per hour. They were being given cheap vodka as well as a reward.

These are the abhorrent crimes we're coming across. They are preying on the weak all of the time. The work we do is really rewarding."

Derbyshire hit the headlines back in 2013 with Operation Atwood, which saw the jailing of two Slovakian brothers for seven years and eight months for trafficking people from their own country into Derby. Twelve victims were identified and it was revealed in court they were made to work in car washes and factories and only received a small amount of their real earnings.

Mr Tatlow said: Operation Atwood was the first time we'd come across more than one person being exploited for money. Since then, we have started to become more and more aware of it. Operation Wilberforce is the first line of help for anybody we find. We want to work out what the size of the problem is we face and then the impact of that.

Our ultimate goal is to stop people from being exploited. We want to get people out of the vicious cycle they find themselves in. Some of them do not know they are being exploited. There are people that are in these relationships and they do know they are victims but what they are involved in is better than back in their own country. They are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Which is better? This can affect all parts of society."

He said that, after Operation Atwood, the force's organised crime teams tackled modern day slavery but now the new unit has been set up to deal with it and identify potential victims rather than waiting for it to happen and then deal with it. Mr Tatlow added: This is a real change in our ethos. We're now going out to try and find it."

One of the challenge they face is that not all victims see themselves as such.

Mr Tatlow said: "It's very complex. Although the fact we've had 296 people get in contact it is still vastly under-reported.

"One thing that's important to get across is this is not always nail bars and car washes. It could be farmers getting someone in to help and not paying them what they should and not treating them right. It could be in Normanton, Derby city centre or the suburbs.

"We used to associate slavery with something happening hundreds of years ago on ships. It's very different now."

If anyone has concerns about human trafficking, they should call police on 101.

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Volte-Face Over Georgian Constitutional Amendments Triggers Uproar – RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Posted: at 5:10 pm

In the best soap-opera tradition, the ongoing process of constitutional reform in Georgia has yielded drama aplenty over the past week.

Just days after the Council of Europes Venice Commission of legal experts made public its final comments on the proposed draft amendments, the 115 lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party unanimously approved a slightly different text in first and second readings at an emergency parliament session on June 22 and 23, ignoring appeals by President Giorgi Margvelashvili and NGOs to resume discussion of the draft with the aim of achieving the widest possible consensus.

The last-minute change, which triggered outraged protests from NGOs and opposition parties, reflected the decision taken by Georgian Dream on June 19 behind closed doors to postpone from 2020 until 2024 the proposed transition from the current mixed majoritarian-proportional electoral system to a fully proportional one. Observers attribute that volte-face to a rift within Georgian Dream, with a younger generation amenable to change being effectively held hostage by older majoritarian lawmakers averse to risking the loss of their mandates. One majoritarian, Kakha Okriashvili, is on record as telling the news portal InterpressNews on June 15 that the mixed system is better for Georgia and should not be replaced by a fully proportional system.

Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, the constitutional lawyer who chaired the state commission tasked with drafting the amendments, have both hailed the parliament vote, which the three opposition parliament factions all boycotted, as a step forward in Georgias democratic development.

By contrast, parliamentary and extraparliamentary opposition parties alike have denounced what they perceive as an attempt to codify changes aimed solely at facilitating the preservation indefinitely of Georgian Dreams constitutional majority. The Alliance of Patriots, which has six mandates in the 150-member parliament, and the extraparliamentary Free Georgia party have threatened to launch street protests, the news portal Caucasian Knot reported.

The planned transition from the current mixed majoritarian-proportional system, in which 73 of the 150 lawmakers are elected from single-mandate constituencies and the remaining 77 under the proportional system, to a fully proportional system is one of the two issues that proved most contentious during the four-month discussion of the proposed amendments that got under way in January. The second is the role of the president, including as head of the National Security Council, and the planned abolition of direct presidential elections.

Those two provisions consequently figured prominently in both the preliminary comments and the more detailed and critical subsequent evaluation of the draft amendments handed down by the Venice Commission. With regard to the electoral system, the Venice Commission expressed overall approval of the planned transition to a proportional system, noting that a mixed system tends to lead to the governing party receiving an overwhelming parliamentary majority.

At the same time, it strongly criticized three related provisions that its experts perceived as deviating from the principles of fair representation and equality of the vote. Those were the imposition of a ban on electoral blocs, together with the preservation of the existing 5 percent threshold to qualify for parliamentary representation, with the party that polled the largest number of votes being granted an additional bonus in the form of those mandates that remain unallocated as a result of votes cast for parties that fail to surmount the 5 percent hurdle. In the five parliamentary ballots between 1999 and 2016, an average of 12.85 percent of votes were cast for parties that failed to qualify for representation; in 2016, the figure was 19.82 percent.

The Venice Commission said that, taken together, those three mechanisms limit the effects of the proportional system to the detriment of smaller parties and pluralism, and deviate from the principles of fair representation and electoral equality to a larger extent than seems justified by the need to ensure stability. It further questioned whether the winner-take-all model for distributing unallocated mandates serves to guarantee political pluralism.

The commission therefore strongly recommended considering other options that would ensure a more equitable division of parliament mandates. Those alternatives included lowering the threshold for representation to 2-3 percent and/or establishing a maximum upper limit for the number of wasted votes allocated to the winning party so that the latter has a workable, but not an overwhelming, parliamentary majority.

Alternatively, the commission suggested, the constitution could provide that 9/10 of the parliament seats (i.e. 135 out of 150) shall be distributed to the parties that have received more than 5 percent of the votes according to the principles of proportional representation, while the remaining 15 seats will be given to the winning party (or the winning party and the second party) as premium.

With regard to the election of the president, the Venice Commission expressed approval of the decision to delay the transition from a direct to an indirect ballot from 2018 until 2023. But it also advocated checks and balances to ensure that a ruling party with a large parliamentary majority would not automatically be in a position to engineer the election as president of its preferred candidate, thereby undermining the role of the president as an impartial arbiter.

In the event, Georgian Dream tweaked the draft amendments on June 21 to lower the barrier for representation under the proportional system in the 2020 parliamentary election to 3 percent. In line with the Venice Commission recommendations, it agreed on the maximum number of additional parliament mandates the winning party will receive as a result of votes cast for parties that do not qualify for representation. Indirect presidential elections will require a qualified majority in an open vote in the first round. In addition, candidates for the Supreme Justice Council and the Constitutional Court, and for the post of public defender, must receive three-fifths of the vote in parliament.

Sixteen opposition parties from across the political spectrum, including the former ruling United National Movement and European Georgia, which split from it earlier this year, have nonetheless addressed a statement to the Council of Europe secretary-general, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Venice Commission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and foreign ambassadors in Tbilisi calling for a halt to parliamentary discussions of the draft (which the three parliamentary opposition parties boycotted last week) and the submission of a revised draft to the Venice Commission, all of whose recommendations would then be incorporated into the final version. They characterized the amended constitution unilaterally endorsed by Georgian Dream as antidemocratic, adding that it does not reflect the will of the Georgian people, and cannot be considered a legitimate document.

The 16 signatories warned that failure to reopen the discussion and amend the draft could undermine democratization and long-term political stability.

Meanwhile, 16 of the 23 NGOs aligned in the Coalition for a European Georgia launched a parallel appeal to suspend discussion of the proposed amendments in order to enable foreign experts to advise on those provisions, such as the planned abolition of the National Security Council hitherto chaired by the president, that directly affect the countrys defense capacity.

Individual opposition parties and political figures have been even more outspoken in their criticism. European Georgia, which has collected 150,000 signatures in support of its demand that the proposed constitutional amendments be submitted to a nationwide referendum, branded the document approved by Georgian Dreams parliament faction as not the constitution of Georgia, but that of constitution of Georgian Dream and [its founder, billionaire] Bidzina Ivanishvili.

(European Georgia split earlier this year from the former ruling United National Movement, which in 2010 similarly pushed through parliament, disregarding opposition criticism and without the monthlong public debate Georgian Dream conducted, constitutional amendments intended to enable then-President Mikheil Saakashvili to remain in power as prime minister after the end of his second presidential term.)

Opposition claims that the text of the amendments voted on by the Georgian Dream parliament faction last week was completely different from that approved by the Venice Commission appear to be a classic example of Georgian hyperbole. Similarly open to question is the opposition parties claim that during the discussion of the proposed changes by the state constitutional commission, not a single proposal by the president, the public defender, or opposition parties was taken into consideration.

That assertion is at odds with parliament first deputy speaker Tamar Chugoshvilis statement that 80 percent of such proposals were taken into account. It also ignores the fact that President Margvelashvili and his staff chose to boycott the work of the commission from the outset, a decision that the Venice Commission deemed regrettable.

Among the concessions Georgian Dream made in the course of the discussion were the postponement from 2018 to 2023 of the transition from direct to indirect presidential elections and that beginning in 2023 the president should be elected not by the 150 lawmakers as initially envisaged but by an electoral college that would also include representatives from all of Georgias regions, including the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Under the existing constitution, the proposed constitutional amendments will be submitted for a third and final reading at the start of the autumn parliamentary session. The hypothetical possibility thus exists for further revisions to be made. Whether the widest possible consensus, which both the Venice Commission and President Margvelashvili have called for, is realistic is questionable, however, in light of the intense animosity that exists between Georgian Dream and the United National Movement on the one hand, and between Margvelashvili and his team and parliament speaker Kobakhidze on the other.

Minister for Internally Displaced Persons Sozar Subari, who in 2009 publicly excoriated then-President Saakashvili for turning a blind eye to corruption and police brutality, summed up the perception that the United National Movement and its offshoot European Georgia systematically challenge and criticize every single statement by Georgian Dream, regardless of its merits.

Reaching consensus with the United National Movement is impossible...If we announced that tomorrow we shall win back [the breakaway republic of] Abkhazia, they would stand up and walk out of parliament [saying] You shouldnt do that, InterpressNews quoted Subari as saying on June 22.

As for the well-documented hostility between Margvelashvili and Kobakhidze, the two crossed swords yet again last week: When Kobakhidze invited the president to engage in a live televised studio debate about the merits of the proposed constitutional changes, Margvelashvili countered by proposing that a debate be held in the presidential palace in the presence of representatives of all political parties and NGOs, an audience that would be largely on his side. Kobakhidze rejected that format, complaining that the presidents role with regard to amending the constitution has been destructive from start to finish. Margvelashvili for his part complained that the only substantive constitutional changes are directed against the president.

Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio is scheduled to travel to Georgia later this week, Caucasus Press reported on June 23, quoting Buquicchios spokesperson. Whom he intends to meet with is not clear. Kobakhidzes credibility may have been damaged by the postponement of the transition to a fully proportional system, given his constant assurances, which the Venice Commission noted with satisfaction, that the Georgian authorities would not adopt any proposed amendment that the commission assessed negatively.

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Volte-Face Over Georgian Constitutional Amendments Triggers Uproar - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

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