Daily Archives: February 19, 2020

Fiji and Tonga to hold talks on the Minerva Reef – FBC News

Posted: February 19, 2020 at 3:46 am

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Inia Seruiratu says his Ministry is currently looking at inviting his Tongan counterpart to hold discussions.

Seruiratu says the discussion will focus around the dispute over the Minerva Reef that is locatedto the South of Fiji and Tonga.

He adds that both countries hold different opinions of what the reefs are as Tonga believes it is an island while Fiji believes it is a submerged reef.

Seruiratu says the Tongan Foreign Minister was invited for discussions in November last year however that did not eventuate and he is looking at inviting him over again.

It is very critical for us now to register our baselines and all our claims because of the rise in sea levels. Because may be who knows in the next few years some of these baselines will be under water again and that is why we need to quicken the process.

The Minister has also revealed an invitation was sent in November last year to the Tongan Foreign Minister, however there was no response.

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Our economy doesn’t work for the common good – The Sydney Morning Herald

Posted: at 3:45 am

This indirect approach didnt work well. We gave our bankers and business people greater freedom from government regulation, but they abused our trust. The lenience of regulators has seen business become remarkably lawless. Too much of the extra income the economy has generated has gone to the very highest income-earners, leaving too little going to middle and lower income-earners.

This era of economic rationalism and microeconomic reform has ended, leaving Scott Morrison with much damage to clean up. Meanwhile, many voters are disillusioned and distrustful of both main parties, and are turning elsewhere to populists such as Pauline Hanson, who not only have no answers to the problems that bother us, but also seek our support by blaming our troubles on unpopular scapegoats Muslims, city-slickers etc.

The economic rationalists solution to misbehaving businesses, caveat emptor let the buyer beware is good advice but, in the modern complex world, its impractical. There arent enough leisure hours in the day for us to spend most of them checking that all the businesses we deal with arent overcharging us or taking advantage of us in some way, and our employer isnt underpaying us.

So why dont governments cut to the chase and simply make treating us in such ways illegal? And when doing so is already illegal as it usually is why dont they resume adequately policing those laws?

Something almost everyone craves in their lives, but politicians and economists long ago lost sight of, is a high degree of security. We want the security of owning our own homes and we want security in our employment.

And yet weve allowed home ownership to become unaffordable to an increasing proportion of young people. Why? Because weve put the interests of existing home owners ahead of would-be home owners. We could fix the unaffordability problem if we were prepared to put the interests of the young ahead of the old.

Some degree of flexibility in the job market is a good thing provided it works both ways. Under economic rationalism, the goal was more flexibility for employers without any concern about what this did to the lives of casual workers mucked about by selfish and capricious employers.Its good that part-time jobs are now available for those who want one students, parents of young children, the semi-retired but we could do more to make part-time jobs permanent rather than casual.

Many young people worry that were moving to a gig economy in which most jobs are non-jobs: short-lived, for only a few hours a week and badly paid, with few if any benefits.

I dont believe we are moving to such a dystopia, mainly because I doubt it would suit most employers interests to treat most of their employees so shabbily. But, in any case, the way to avoid such a world is obvious: governments should make it illegal to employ people on such an unacceptable basis.

And governments will do that as soon as its the case that not to do so would cost them too many votes. That is, we have to make democracy work for the masses, not just the rich and powerful.Of course, the security many of us would like is to live in a world where nothing changes. Sorry, not possible. Economies, and the mix of industries within them, have always changed and always will often for reasons that, though they disrupt the lives of some people, end up making most of us better off.

New technologies are a major source of disruptive, but usually beneficial, change. Another source of disruptive change is the realisation that certain activities are bad for our health (smoking, for instance) or for the natural environment (excessive irrigation and land clearing, burning fossil fuels) and must be curtailed.

Adversely affected interest groups will always tempt governments to try to resist such change at the ultimate expense of the rest of us. The right answer usually is for change to go ahead, but for governments to help the adversely affected adjust. Just what we havent been doing.

Ross Gittins is the Heralds economics editor.

Ross Gittins is the Economics Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Our economy doesn't work for the common good - The Sydney Morning Herald

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Heaven in History | Peter J. Leithart – First Things

Posted: at 3:45 am

History and Eschatology:Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theologyby n. t. wrightbaylor, 365 pages, $34.95

In the broadest sense, natural theology attempts to describe God and his relation to the world by attending to nature or natural revelation, without taking special revelation or supernatural truth into consideration. For several centuries, natural theology has ignored historyspecifically the history of Jesus. So argues N. T. Wright in his Gifford Lectures, published by Baylor Press as History and Eschatology. Wright proposes to fill this gap. Even on the premises of natural theology, Jesus deserves a place. Jesus and the church he founded, after all, exist within the natural world. Natural theology can and should be evangelized.

Wright blames the truncated state of natural theology on the modern revival of Epicureanism. Epicureanism is popularly known as a hedonist philosophy of Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. But the Epicurean lifestyle is founded on a metaphysics and physics that proved attractive to secularizing elites in the early modern period. God or gods may exist in an Epicurean universe, but he or they are too distant and indifferent to be relevant to us. Religion offers private comfort, but the enlightened know its merely a human invention to pacify the masses. Epicureanism is materialist atomism; the world hums along on its own steam as atoms combine, separate, and recombine. Death is the end, so theres nothing to worry about.

On Wrights account, Epicureanism splits reality and human experience. It forces us to choose between a godless world and a worldless god. The supernatural, if it exists at all, occupies a realm apart from nature. Orthodox Christians often unwittingly accept this dualistic framework, clinging to the supernatural and to faith but skirting the risky task of understanding history and the natural world. Gotthold Lessing spoke of a great ugly ditch between the contingent truths of history and the necessary truths of reason. Secularists settled comfortably on the history side of the ditch, the orthodox on the other.

Wright has long described himself as an historian rather than as a theologian. He has been criticized for constructing a historical Jesus behind the Jesus of the Gospels, a fifth Gospel to measure the canonical four. In History and Eschatology, he dismisses the charge, claiming he only aims to understand the canonical sources more accurately and deeply. More broadly, Wrights goal is to formulate a non-Epicurean mode of historical study and historical writing. He rejects rationalism in favor of a critically realist epistemology in which love is the primary posture of knowing. Taking up his task of historian, hes open to the possibility that, by using the tools of historical investigation, we can study real-world events as signs of heavens presence and power.

An Epicurean framework inevitably distorts the ancient Jewish and biblical view that heaven and earth overlap. In the temple, heaven takes an earthly address. Sabbath is a temple of time, when we may taste the future day of Gods eternal rest. As images of God, human beings mediate between heaven and earth. God works through us to spread his order and wisdom in the world and to construct a cosmic temple where glory dwells.

Modern Christians have abandoned this worldview, and so have replaced the biblical hope for new creation with what Wright calls a Platonic hope for heaven. A similar error led Albert Schweitzer to conclude Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet who expected the end of the world and died in despair when it didnt happen. (Wright cleverly suggests that Schweitzer picked up his obsession with the end not from patient study of ancient sources but from the collapse of Valhalla in Wagners Ring cycle.) Much modern scholarship explains the New Testament and early church as a massive adjustment to unrealized hope. The mythology here, Wright rightly argues, is entirely that of modern scholarship. No ancient Jews expected the end of the world in the sense Schweitzer suggested. Jesus hoped for and prophesied the end of a disjointed world order, not the end of the space-time universe. Schweitzers eschatological mistake has massive implications for natural theology. If Jesus expected the end of nature, he wont have much to say about nature.

What happens when Jesus is reintegrated into natural theology? Wright sketches a natural theology by expounding on seven universal human aspirations: justice, beauty, truth, power, freedom, spirituality, relationships. Each stands under a paradox. We know, for instance, that justice and beauty are necessary to a fully realized human life, but we also know justice is partial and beauty is broken. All seven signposts, Wright suggests, converge on Jesuss cross, the broken signpost to which all other broken signposts point.

Yet Christians confess a meta-paradox: This broken signpost is where God reveals himself, where heaven is present on earth. Here God suffers the ultimate injustice, his beauty effaced. Here the God who is love is crushed by brute force. Here Truth is drowned out by Pilates scoffing question and the shouts of the mob. Because Jesus rose from the dead, though, this broken signpost becomes the source of universal renewal: fresh springs of justice, new depths of beauty, a kind of powerless power, a freedom that isnt limited by chains or imprisonment, a social body of mutual edification. New creation emerges out of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, as the ordinary lives of ordinary followers of Jesus become a natural revelation of the presence and power of God.

The churchs confession is contestable and contested, and Wright wont permit a retreat into fideism. Once we refuse to foreclose the possibility of resurrection and new creation from the outset, we can treat Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, Pentecost, and the churchs history as historical phenomena, subject to historical investigation and confirmation. Jesus the rejected stone becomes the chief cornerstone of a renewed natural theology.

Wrights wide-ranging book is primarily about the two topics of his title, history and eschatology. On both, his central arguments are convincing. Natural theology should attend to history, and since Jesus is a historical figure, it needs to attend to him. Wright is also correct that New Testament eschatology is about the renovation, not the removal, of creation. Jesus, Wright knows, shakes natural theologians, and every other sort of theologian, out of our slumbers. Once we admit the Gospels into the historical record and really grasp Jesuss apocalyptic prophecies, well see more than weve dreamt of, a strange world where the sky cracks, veils tear, and gravestones roll away.

Peter J. Leithart is President ofTheopolis Institute.

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How the Devil Became a Dreamboat: Exploring the Byronic Hero with Kylo Ren – Film School Rejects

Posted: at 3:45 am

Welcome to Elements of Story, a biweekly column about narrative tropes, what they mean, and why they just wont go away.

For the inaugural installment of Elements of Story, and just in time for Valentines day, Im going to dissect an archetype that has been causing a stir and setting hearts aflutter for centuries: the Byronic hero.

Definitions of the Byronic hero vary by source, but the basic gist is that hes an arrogant yet emotionally sensitive rebel who rages against societal norms, is usually haunted by a dark and mysterious past, and has been a staple of romantic storylines for hundreds of years. You could literally write a book about the history of the Byronic Heroindeed, multiple people already haveso for the sake of concision and also my continued sanity, were going to investigate the Byronic hero through the specific example of one of his most recent appearances: Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

Ever since The Force Awakens first premiered, Darth Vaders grandson and #1 fan has been a point of contention within the Star Wars fandom, particularly with regards to his dynamic with protagonist Rey (Daisy Ridley). While things have calmed down somewhat following the underwhelming finale that was The Rise of Skywalker, if you want to start a fight online about a galaxy far, far away, mention Reylo and see what happens.

One of the most genuinely befuddling things about the discourse surrounding Reylo is the frequently held opinion that its allure is anyway inexplicable or unforeseeable. Similarly, the common, lazy narrative that its popularity can be explained away as Adam Drivers thirst-club projecting their desire onto the Star Wars universe reeks of ignorance. Whether borne of conscious intent or sheer coincidence, Kylo Ren is a villain who also fits a centuries-old romantic archetype like a glove in ways that are hinted towards in The Force Awakens and laid increasingly bare in each subsequent installment. That some viewers picked up on the Byronic subtext early while others did not simply speaks to the variance in media consumption habits and tastes between audience members. If youre familiar with an archetype, youre going to spot its likeness, and view said likeness through the lens of the implications baked in with that lineage. If youre not, you wont.

So, who is this Byronic Hero guy, anyway? Well, the tl;dr version is that hes basically Satan and his origins predate Lord Byron by at least a few hundred years.

In truth, the Byronic Hero is so old that tracing his origins gets quite speculative. Theres not a singular definitive answer so much as a collection of theories. To give a relatively cohesive explanation of who this guy is and how he got here without writing a novel, Im going to things down into two key questions:

To address the first question, lets start by talking about the Devil. Im not going to say that John Milton was the first storyteller to make Satan cool, but he sure did make such a characterization mainstream with Paradise Lost. The most beautiful of Gods angels, Lucifer chafes at Gods omnipotence, convinces a number of his brethren to join him in a rebellion that ultimately fails, is banished to Hell and eternally damned, but stubbornly stands by his choices because, better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. Miltons Satan was, to use modern parlance, a beautiful trash firea handsome, passionate dreamer whose quick-tempered fervor proves self-destructive in spite of his considerable intellect. He is, in other words, smart enough to know that his hubris will be his downfall, but too in thrall to his passions for that knowledge to save himself from such a fate. He is a tragic hero as defined by Aristotle, an inherently sympathetic figure not as much in spite of his flaws as because of them.

Lets stop for a second so I can convince you Kylo Ren fits this pattern, in case you arent convinced already. With his journey from Ben too much Vader in him Solo to Kylo Ren, his rejection of his heritage and violent rebellion against Luke Skywalker, he follows the same basic trajectory of Miltons Lucifer. And as far as personality is concerned, Ben didnt gel well with the there is no passion Jedi code, and unlike Anakin Skywalker, it didnt even take the development of a particular relationship for things to reach a breaking point.

Now, as far as how Satan became a romantic figure, we need to make a stopover with the Romantics because the journey from Romantic to romantic is really just semantics. Romanticism was a prominent intellectual and artistic movement in Western culture that took place in the late 18th and 19th centuries and encompassed everything from literature and painting to architecture and music. It emphasized emotion, spontaneity, irrationality, and the individual with a particular focus on subjectivity, and is generally regarded as a reactionary movementa rebuttal against the rationalism that defined the Enlightenment.

Romantics loved Miltons Satan. My favorite hero, Miltons Satan, Robert Burns gushed, lauding Satans intrepid, unyielding independence, desperate daring, and noble defiance of hardship. That Byron, one of his contemporaries, would channel his admiration for the same figure into a series of mercurial protagonists that would codify an archetype is hardly surprising. While crediting Byron with inventing the Byronic hero is a significant stretch considering the archetype is really just Satan rebranded, there is one key component of this character that Byron did add to the equation, and that is a particular kind of longing that a number of commentators have likened to homesickness. Love is homesickness, Sigmund Freud wrote in his seminal essay on the Uncanny. In terms of understanding the human mind, Freud is one small step above total quack, but as far as narrative theory is concerned he made some compelling arguments, this being one of them. As Deborah Lutz says in her essay Love as Homesickness: Longing for a Transcendental Home in Byron and the Dangerous Lover Narrative, the Byronic hero often[] is a criminal, an outlaw who is not only self-exiled, but actively, hatefully, works against society as a murderous pirate, yet also often feels, pains of remorse, not only for his crime but also for his self-inflicted homelessness. Kylo Ren, with his laments of Im being torn apart, and let the past die, kill it if you have to rhetoric interspersed with explosive bouts of self-loathing, could not be more emblematic of this facet of the Byronic hero if he tried.

All of this helps explain what makes this archetype emotionally engaging, but not how self-hating emotional clusterfuck became sexy. In order to get to the bottom of that, we actually need to go back quite a bit. In Western culture, sexuality, death, and evil have been birds of a feather since the nascence of Christianity, which took vague correlations between these concepts already present in several Greek mythological figures and ran with them. While the Devil is often depicted as a hideous beast, the concept that he might also take the form of a manspecifically, an attractive onedates back centuries (Lucifer was the prettiest, remember), and is apparent in a number of surviving records of witch trial confessions detailing demonic encounters. But taking on a handsome face is not the only attribute frequently bestowed upon Satan and his kin. As Toni Reed writes in her book Demon Lovers and their Victims in British Fiction, identifying Satan and other demons with sexuality, especially with huge phalluses, may well trace back to Greek mythology.

Thats right. Satan has serious BDE. Do with that information what you will.

Its worth noting that the Byronic hero is ultimately a beloved romantic fantasy not because it represents something many people want in real life, but precisely the opposite, much like how enjoying seeing the lions at the zoo doesnt mean you want one in your house. Hes a darkly tempting, narratively intriguing prospect that is enjoyable to experience vicariously through fiction, a Pandoras box that can be opened and then closed again without repercussion. Times and tastes change and the Byronic hero evolves to suit themdevil, tempestuous gentleman, wannabe Sithbut his defining characteristics and their guilty pleasure appeal are eternal.

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Judaism Reclaimed: Philosophy and Theology in the Torah – The Jewish Voice

Posted: at 3:45 am

(Mosaica Press, 2019), by Shmuel PhillipsReviewed by: Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein

In this outstanding book, Shmuel Phillips examines various facets of Torah and Judaism from the so-called rationalist viewpoint. He puts that approach to Judaism in perspective by offering an uncensored presentation of Maimonides views without cherry-picking passages to match a certain preconceived notion of what Jewish rationalism ought to be. In doing so, Phillips offers a fair and open-minded analysis of Maimonidean thought.

Many critics of mainstream contemporary Judaism have misappropriated rationalism to support their own whims. As Rabbi Micha Berger so eloquently put it, The mind is a wonderful organ for justifying decisions the heart already reached. In his work, Shmuel Phillips shows that rationalism does not necessarily entail rejecting traditional Judaism and actually dovetails nicely with it. He demonstrates how even Maimonidesthe hero of so-called Rational Judaismdid not endorse free-standing rationalism, but rather a rationalism grounded in certain immutable truths, which the mature scholar can only absorb through rigorous character development and the study of both the Written and Oral Torah.

This heavy book (both in terms of its physical weight and the weighty nature of its discussions) calmly provides the reader with a rationalist view of the Torahs attitude to such sensitive topics as homosexuality, polygamy, rape, eshet yefat toar(comfort women in war zones), and gender roles.. He tackles raging controversial topics like slavery and genocide (i.e. wiping out Amalek) in the Torah, and the ubiquitous questions of objective morality and how to reconcile Torah and Science. Phillips also gives logical and rational justifications for such occurrences as halachic loopholes, ritual law, anti-Semitism, miracles, and prophecy.

Phillips takes on Biblical criticism by citing such scholars as Prof. Joshua Berman who explain away linguisticand even thematicsimilarities between the Bible and other ancient writings by invoking the notion that the Torah writes in the way that people spoke and could be most easily understood and internalized by its original audience. While following this approach, Phillips convincingly argues that this approach is entirely in line with Maimonidean thought. In doing so, Phillips tone remains authoritative and non-apologetic, and his arguments are conservative, yet cogent. Phillips invokes Rav Hirsch to quell the concerns of Bible Critics by characterizing the Written Torah as written in a sort of code that can only be deciphered through the Oral Torah. This, of course, accounts for all sorts of stylistic and thematic inconsistencies and redundancies.

Phillips also expounds on the Torahs Universalist message by following Rav Hirsch in characterizing the struggle between Noahs three sons as an allusion to the fight between unbridled violence (Ham), the culture of aesthetics (Japheth), and spiritual enlightenment through Godliness and morality (Shem). The ramifications of this three-way conflict continue to reverberate throughout the world as it stands as the basis for the contemporary clash of cultures.

This book also broaches the topic of how to view Aggadic Midrashim. More Kabbalistically-inclined authorities tend to take theseaggadotat face value and understand them as the intended meaning of the texts which they interpret. However, rationalists in the mold of Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, andto some extentRadak beg to differ. They maintain that the tradition ofaggadotought to be treated separately from the texts upon which they nominally expound, and said texts should only be understood in their simplest, literal sense. While some have understood that the rationalistsreject aggadot, Phillips demonstrates that they simply compartmentalizeaggadotand create a clear barrier between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, without rejecting the latter. Moreover, Phillips demonstrates that even some of the Kabbalists, like Maharal and possibly Rashi, maintain that while all exegeses are connected to the Torahs text (which must contain the totality of all truths), they can sometimes be interpreted as referring to the spiritual dynamics which underpin the plain meaning.

Each chapter takes the reader on a masterfully-written journey through the rationalistic perspective on a different topic. Truth is, you can probably write an entire book for each chapter, but given the framework, this exceptional work does an excellent job at concisely treating each issue with much erudition.

Phillips has a knack for turning a phrase in a way that clarifies complex ideas in just a few words. His skilled use of subtle humor and witty alliteration make the subtitles in each chapter almost as fun as reading the content itself. He is clearly a talented writer who has the ability to write up complicated philosophical/theological arguments in an easy-to-read English, without sacrificing accuracy or complexity.

This reviewer respectfully disagrees with Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks approbation which characterizes Philips book as providing a remarkable new philosophical approach to Torah and Jewish faith In this reviewers opinion, Phillips has offered the reader nothing new other than an unbiased presentation of the theosophies of Rambam, R. Yehuda HaLevi, Rav Hirsch, and R. Meir Simcha of Dvinskessentially allowing the timeless words of these great luminaries to speak for themselves. Phillip does update the presentation of those philosophies in order to express them in more contemporary terms, but he is certainly not offering anything radically new. He essentially presents the ideas behind the rationalist stream of traditional Judaism in a sophisticated and contemporary way, and for this alone he deserves to be commended.

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is the author of the book God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry and of the book Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew. He is a member of the RCA, and currently serves as an editor for the VeromemanuFoundations new edition of Machberes Menachem. He resides in Beitar Illit, Israel and can be reached via email at[emailprotected].

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Impact Assessment of Automation in the Indian Manufacturing Sector, 2019 – Proliferation of Industrialization Driven by Government, Corporate &…

Posted: at 3:43 am

The "Impact Assessment of Automation in the Indian Manufacturing Sector" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The manufacturing sector is one of the foundations of the Indian economy. It is imperative that India invests in emerging technologies and research for the growth of the factories of the future. The Indian government has been prompt in realizing the importance and value addition of manufacturing to India and have unlocked several investments to sustain its position in the global market. Government initiatives are promoting global investments, collaborations, and global companies to set up plants in India. This way the Indian manufacturing sector will begin its journey into the realm of digital and connected era meeting international standards of manufacturing.

The constant support from the government and the FDI has initiated the evolution of new partnerships that focuses on adoption of technologies associated with industrial internet of things (IIoT). Technology-driven processes will further offer customers visibility and transparency surging growth of the Indian manufacturing market to become a manufacturing hub and a knowledge center in the future. The Indian market is slowly opening its wings toward offering services and technology that aim to support and transform the existing and upcoming manufacturers. With high returns expected from automation technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), industrial software solutions, older generation must invest to experience the vast benefits of industrial technologies to extract the true potential of the business.

Key questions answered in the study:

What is the next phase in industrial operations?

What are the global trends and implications of industrial automation?

What is the impact of industrial automation in India?

What are the factors impacting digital technology adoption in India?

What are the key funding and initiatives encouraging adoption of industrial automation?

What are the industrial automation technologies and some of the key participants in the Indian market?

What are some of the strategic shifts that will reshape current manufacturing businesses in India?

Key Topics Covered:

Story continues

Executive Summary

Industrial Transformation

Global Scenario

Global Market Value

Industrialization in India

Current Scenario- India Manufacturing Sector

Factors Impacting Digital Technology Adoption in India

Problems Faced by a Majority of the Participants in the Indian Manufacturing Industry

Potential Strategies and Opportunities for Industrialization in India

Key Funding & Initiatives

Existing and Ventures for Long-term Growth

Trends in Government Initiatives

Government and Industry Initiatives and Collaborations Facilitating Digital India

Key Funding & Initiatives

Industrial Sectors Anticipated Automation Potential

Role and Impact of Automation in Other Industries

Technology Assessment in India

Market Segmentation

Role of Industrial Automation

Key Market Participants in Industrial Automation Solutions

Role of Industrial Software

Key Market Participants Offering Industrial Software Solutions

Role of New Technologies

Key New Technology Participants Offering Robotic Solutions

Key New Technology Participants Offering AI Solutions

Key New Technology Participants Offering IIoT Solutions

Key New Technology Participants Offering 3D Printing Solutions

Applications with Hardware and Software Installations

The Future of Indian Automation

Key Approaches Within The Indian Smart Factory Market

Bosch Bridges the Gap Between Existing Machinery via Smart Sensor Solutions

GE Facilities to Enable India as a Manufacturing Hub

Leading Firms Gradually Shift Toward Automated Solutions

The Way Forward

Strategic Shifts to Reshape Current Business Models

Key Contacts

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/khwytt

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200218005837/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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5 Hot network-automation startups to watch – Network World

Posted: at 3:43 am

With the combined challenges of tight IT budgets and scarcer technical talent, its becoming imperative for enterprise network pros to embrace automation of processes and the way infrastructure responds to changing network traffic.

Not only can automation help address these problems, they can also improve overall application-response time by anticipating and addressing looming congestion. Modern applications, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and architectures that incorporate IoT and hybrid cloud have yet to reach their true potential because network capacity seems to always lag behind demand.

A common problem is that too much networking infrastructure is still manually maintained and managed, but major vendors are starting to addressing these issues, as are startups that seek to break bottlenecks through automation.

Among the innovations implemented by the automation startups described here are a novel network operating system, digital twin software, network-security automation and large-scale automated Wi-Fi-assurance tools.

Collectively, they have raised more than $150M in funding, attracted top-tier leaders with long, successful track records in the networking industry, and are on a mission to modernize networking from the datacenter to endpoints.

Year founded: 2016

Funding: $11M

Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.

CEO: Emile Vauge, who was previously a lead developer/DevOps professional at Zenika, Thales, and Airbus

What they do: Provide a multi-cloud network management platform.

According to Containous, multi-cloud networking is too complex and too labor-intensive with too many unwieldy tools with far too little integration among them. Even worse, the time DevOps teams spend on networking is not spent building, iterating, and shipping software.

Containous multi-cloud network-management platform is built for cloud-native applications and microservices. It condenses multiple network visibility and management features into a single, centralized platform.

The platform auto-discovers applications, containers, and microservice and automatically manages routing, encryption, load balancing, and mirroring at the cloud edge.

The Containous open-source cloud edge router, Traefik, integrates with all major cloud-native tools and orchestrators. It automatically monitors the health of cloud-based enterprise assets, alerting IT teams to problems, and features auto-scaling tools that allow enterprises to add or subtract resources at will.

Containous has also built a service mesh that provides visibility into container environments and manages traffic flows inside clusters.

Competitors: HAProxy, NGINX, Istio, and KongCustomers: None publicly announced

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: With IDC forecasting that there will be more than 1.8 billion enterprise container instances by 2021, the demand for network intelligence and management tools will mean a demand for Containouss products.

The company just closed a $10M Series A funding round in January 2020, and while this is CEO Emile Vauges first stint in the C-suite, he brings 15-plus years of development experience with multinational corporations. COO Vincent Pineau adds exit experience to the mix, having helped two companies to successful exits. He was VP of Global Support and Service at Talend when it became the third French company to be listed on NASDAQ. He was also co-founder and COO of Influans, which was acquired by Ogury.

Containous says its software has already been downloaded 1.4 billion times, indicating that it is gaining traction.

Year founded: 2013

Funding: $62M

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

CEO: David Erickson, a contributor to the OpenFlow specification and the author of Beacon, the OpenFlow controller used by Big Switch Networks, Cisco, Floodlight, and others

What they do: Provide digital-twin software for the management of large networks.

According to Forward Networks, any enterprise network with more than a few dozen devices is so complex that it is nearly impossible for resource-strapped IT teams to stay current with real-time, end-to-end network behavior. Its even harder to ensure that all the devices are properly configured.

Forward Networks software automatically searches, verifies, and predicts the behavior of enterprise networks by creating a software copy, or digital twin, of the entire network, including both on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

The software analyzes how the network responds to changing demands, traffic patterns and infrastructure changes. Forward Networks contends that it can do this in seconds using a proprietary approach. Via the twin, network engineers can see how applications will behave over their network, while quickly pinpointing where devices or software configurations are out of alignment with required policies.

The digital twin automatically stays up-to-date through continuous monitoring, which can also be set to verify network configurations against corporate policies.

Competitors: Cisco, VMWare (through the Veriflow acquisition), Intentionet, NetBrain, and Solar Winds

Customers: Goldman Sachs, PayPal, Telstra, and UBISOFT

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Forward Networks is backed by $62M raised in three rounds of funding from Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold Ventures, and A. Capital. With the rise of multi-cloud networks, which are difficult to maintain and manage, Forward Networks has already carved out a viable market niche and landed some top-tier customers.

Year founded: 2014

Funding: $38.2M

Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.

CEO: Avi Freedman, who previously served as Chief Network Scientist for Akamai

What they do: Provide SaaS-based traffic-analysis and network-management software.

Kentiks AIOps platform, a network traffic analysis and management platform, unifies network data from cloud and on-premises infrastructure to deliver a complete end-to-end picture of the state of hybrid networks.

The platform can analyze traffic across networks where packet capture is not feasible because of traffic levels and decentralized infrastructure.Kentik ingests multiple sources of real-time and historical monitoring data, adds contextual insights, applies AI/ML to recognize patterns and anomalies worthy of actions, and gives network pros the ability to automate corrections.

Competitors: Netscout (through its Arbor Networks acquisition), Nokia (Deepfield acquisition), SolarWinds, and Turbonomic (through its SevOne acquisition)Customers: Box, eBay, GoDaddy, IBM, Netskope, Sky UK, Twitch, Yelp, and Zoom

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Kentik has the backing, team, and early customer traction to be viable. The startup has raised $38.2M in three rounds of funding from August Capital, First Round Capital, Engineering Capital, Data Collective (DCVC), Glynn Capital, Tahoma Ventures, and Third Point Ventures.

Kentiks C-level team knows network management inside and out. Founder Avi Freedman has decades of experience managing large networks. In 1992, he founded Philadelphias first ISP, Netaxs. He spent a decade at Akamai, first as VP of Network Infrastructure and then as Chief Network Scientist. Before founding Kentik, he was CTO at ServerCentral. Chief Scientist Ian Pye was Cloudflares first hire. As the lead analytics engineer, he wrote many of Cloudflares backend systems. CTO Jonah Kowall previously served as VP of Market Development and Insights for AppDynamics, helping position the company for its $3.7B acquisition by Cisco in 2017.

The customers it names are major enterprises.

Year founded: 2012

Funding: $31M-plus

Headquarters: Lehi, Utah

CEO: Marc Chenn. was director of sales with Compliance11, which was acquired by Charles Schwab in 2011.

What they do: Provide an automation and collaboration platform for network security.

IT and security teams cant keep up with the complexity and scale of modern infrastructure. According to Gartner, 99% of exploited vulnerabilities occur on misconfigured or non-compliant systems. SaltStack says the Achilles heel of the current approach to this problem is that it lacks automated remediation, which means IT and security teams are always in reactive mode.

SaltStacks software platform fully automates the mapping of security policy to infrastructure configuration, scanning the infrastructure against desired policies, managing vulnerabilities, and automating remediation of vulnerabilities at scale.

Competitors: Microsoft, Red Hat, Puppet, and BMC

Customers: None publicly announced.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: With stricter privacy laws and the growing popularity of SD-WAN, security is becoming ever more important, which assures a strong demand.

SaltStacks CEO Marc Chenn has experience leading startups to successful exits. He played a critical role in the 2002 IPO of Altiris and its eventual $1 billion acquisition by Symantec. Chenn also helped lead SaaS provider Compliance11 to an acquisition by Charles Schwab.

Year founded: 2016

Funding: $9M

Headquarters: Marlborough,Mass.

CEO: Roger Sands, who was previously mobility business line manager for HP.

What they do: Provide autonomic Wi-Fi assurance software.

According to Wyebot, large, mission-critical Wi-Fi networks, are difficult to monitor, manage, and repair. The traditional approach to fixing Wi-Fi issues is sending a network engineer to troubleshoot using handheld tools. Wyebot says its AI engine software can accomplish remotely what network engineers do on site.

Wyebots Wireless Intelligence Platform provides visibility into large Wi-Fi networks and analyzes network behaviors using AI and multi-radio sensors. The platform automatically identifies problems and recommends fixes.

Automated problem resolution combined with a remote client for end-user applications and performance metrics give IT visibility into what is going on throughout all locations at the organization. This allows problem solving without having to go onsite.

The company claims this approach results in up to a 90% reduction in mean-time to problem resolution, up to 50% reduction in Wi-Fi problem tickets, and up to 80% reduction in onsite problem-solving visits.

Competitors: Ekahau, Metageek, 7Signal, and HP (Cape Networks acquisition) Customers: Tampa Prep, Hachette Book Group, and Audi FIS Women's Ski World Cup at Killington, Vt.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Wyebot has raised a total of $9M in two seed rounds, will be raising its Series A round this year, and has already landed named customers.

CEO Roger Sands and CTO Anil Gupta have solid track records in this space. Sands served as Co-CEO of Colubris Networks, where he built its enterprise business and led its sale to HP. After the acquisition, Sands ran HPs global Wi-Fi business. Gupta has nearly 25 years of experience in the networking industry. He served as a principal software engineer at Colubris Networks until its acquisition by HP. Then, he served in various designer/architect roles at HPE Aruba. Gupta also holds 15 Wi-Fi patents.

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5 Hot network-automation startups to watch - Network World

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Adjust Launches Pioneering Automation Technology to Fundamentally Simplify Mobile Advertising Processes and Foster Creativity – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 3:43 am

With marketers citing repetitive workflows as a top pain point, Adjust's new Control Center automates campaign management, empowering them to focus on creativity, strategy and pushing boundaries

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Adjust, the industry leader in mobile measurement, fraud prevention and cybersecurity, today announced the launch of its pioneering new product, Control Center, which will be part of the Adjust Automate suite. With its release, Adjust aims to dramatically simplify the process of mobile advertising management for today's marketers.

Adjust 3 Pillars - Measure, Protect, Automate

Mobile has become the new undisputed king of digital, and eMarketer predicts marketers are poised to invest a record-breaking $286 billion in mobile ad spend in 2020. But as the industry grows, the process behind ad management has become increasingly complex.

According to new research by Adjust:

Adjust's Control Center was built to simplify these processes. Designed as a cross-app, cross-partner and cross-network dashboard, marketers will be able to view data across all their apps and campaigns and act on it. The product is part of the company's third product suite, Adjust Automate. It follows Measure, which focuses on attribution and analytics, and Protect, which encapsulates its fraud prevention and cybersecurity solutions. These three product suites make marketing simpler, smarter and more secure for the 32,000 apps working with Adjust.

"Mobile is one of the most sophisticated and technical channels in marketing today, but it relies on a huge amount of manual work," commented Paul H. Mller, co-founder and CTO at Adjust. "According to our research, marketers would have to adjust over 250 distinct bids and spend limits. That means even a moderate number of campaigns can become complex to keep updated."

"With Control Center, marketers can offload manual, routine tasks, leaving them free to focus on being creative and pushing the boundaries of what marketing can achieve," Mller continued. "The product also has the potential to be an equalizer in mobile marketing, massively increasing the number of campaigns one person can manage, and allowing smaller teams to compete with larger marketing departments. With it, the battle will gradually shift from out-spending to out-thinking competition."

Control Center will be available as a separate package for clients and integrated into their existing dashboard, along with an Enterprise version that is fully customizable for the most sophisticated of advertisers.

The launch follows a strong period of growth for Adjust. In 2019, the company announced multiple acquisitions, hiring of top talent and one of the year's biggest rounds of funding in Europe. In 2020, Adjust will be focusing on consolidating its existing product to become the definitive growth engine for the mobile marketing ecosystem.

Methodology: The research, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Adjust, polled one hundred user acquisition managers and digital marketers based in the United States.

About AdjustAdjustis the industry leader in mobile measurement, fraud prevention and cybersecurity. Born at the heart of the mobile economy and grown out of a passion for technology, the globally operating company now has 16 offices around the world. By making marketing simpler, smarter and more secure, Adjust empowers data-driven marketers to build the most successful apps in the world.

Story continues

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Adjust Launches Pioneering Automation Technology to Fundamentally Simplify Mobile Advertising Processes and Foster Creativity - Yahoo Finance

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Industry Forecast on the South East Asia Industrial Automation and Process Control Market (2020 to 2025) – Featuring Siemens AG, ABB Group, Fanuc…

Posted: at 3:43 am

The "South East Asia Industrial Automation and Process Control Market by Product Type (DCS, PLC, SCADA, PLM), Industry Vertical (Textile, Oil and Gas, Food and Beverages, Life Sciences, Automotive, Packaging) - Industry Forecast to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% from 2019 to 2025 to reach $4.97 Billion by 2025

The growth of industrial automation and process control in Southeast Asia is majorly supported by government initiatives, growing demand for industrial automation backed by growing production demands, and the advent of Industry 4.0. Growing needs for mass production and mounting pressure for reducing operational cost is also contributing to the overall growth of this market. However, high capital investment and the direct impact of industrial automation on employment are the major restraining factors for the consistent growth of this market.

Based on product type Southeast Asia industrial automation & process control market is segmented into product lifecycle management, distributed control system, supervisory control, and data acquisition system, variable frequency drive, general motion control, programmable logic controller, sensors & transmitters, manufacturing execution system, flowmeters, machine safety systems, enterprise asset management, human-machine interface, process safety system, operator training simulators.

At present, product lifecycle management commanded the largest share of the Southeast Asia industrial automation & process control market by product type and expected to witness high growth during the forecast period.

A programmable logic controller is expected to grow with the fastest CAGR throughout the forecast period. PLC can continuously monitor and help industry to make decisions based on the data collected. This certainly helps industries to save a considerable amount of time, money, and energy spent on impulsive decisions.

Based on industry vertical, the Southeast Asia industrial automation & process control market is majorly segmented into the process industry and discrete industry. In 2019, the process industry dominated the overall Southeast Asia industrial automation and process control market and is expected to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period. The process industry offers immense opportunities to incorporate disruptive technologies such as robots and automation & process control.

An in-depth analysis of the geographical scenario of the market provides detailed qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries including Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In 2019, Singapore commanded the largest share of Southeast Asia industrial automation & process control market followed by Vietnam and Thailand.

The large share of this country is attributed to the high per capita income in the region with the manufacturing industry as a major contributor to it. The high advent of Industry 4.0 and rapid automation of industrial manufacturing & processing industry backed by strong government initiatives such as National Robotics Program is also aiding Singapore to emerge as the most dominating country in the Southeast Asia industrial automation & process control market.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Share Analysis, by Key Players

4. Executive Summary

5. Market insights

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Market Dynamics

5.2.1. Drivers

5.2.1.1. Government Initiatives to Promote The Adoption of Automated Systems in Various Industrial Verticals

5.2.1.2. Increasing Demand for Automation From Various Manufacturing Sectors

5.2.1.3. Growing Innovations in Industrial Automation Systems

5.2.1.4. Growing Need for Mass Production With Reduced Operation Cost

5.2.2. Restraints

5.2.2.1. Growing Risk of Unemployment

5.2.2.2. High Capital investments

5.2.3. Opportunities

5.2.3.1. Digital Transformation and Rapid Technological Advancements

5.2.3.2. Industry 4.0 Revolution

5.2.3.3. Growing Manufacturing Sector in Emerging Economies

5.2.4. Challenges

5.2.4.1. Lack of Skilled Workforce

5.2.4.2. Automated Cyber Threat

6. Southeast Asia Automation and Process Control Market, by Product Type

6.1. Introduction

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6.2. Product Lifecycle Management

6.3. Distributed Control System

6.4. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (Scada)

6.5. Variable Frequency Drive

6.6. General Motion Control

6.7. Programmable Logic Controller

6.8. Sensors and Transmitters

6.9. Manufacturing Execution System

6.10. Flowmeters

6.11. Machine Safety Systems

6.12. Enterprise Asset Management

6.13. Human-Machine interface

6.14. Process Safety System

6.15. Operator Training Simulators

7. Southeast Asia Automation and Process Control Market, by Industry Verticals

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Process Industry

7.3. Discrete Industry

8. Southeast Asia Automation and Process Control Market, by Geography

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Singapore

8.3. Vietnam

8.4. Thailand

8.5. Malaysia

8.6. Indonesia

8.7. Philippines

8.8. Others

9. Competitive Landscape

9.1. Introduction

9.2. New Product Launches

9.3. Partnerships, Collaborations, Alliances & Agreements

9.4. Expansions

9.5. Mergers & Acquisitions

10. Company Profiles

10.1. Siemens AG

10.1.1. Business Overview

10.1.2. Financial Overview

10.1.3. Product Portfolio

10.1.4. Strategic Developments

10.2. ABB Group

10.3. Fanuc Corporation

10.4. Rockwell Automation, Inc.

10.5. Emerson Electric Corporation

10.6. Universal Robots

10.7. Schneider Electric SE

10.8. Honeywell international, Inc.

10.9. Panasonic Corporation

10.10. Eaton Corporation

10.11. Scott Automation & Robotics (A Subsidiary of Scott Technology)

10.12. Yokogawa Electric Corporation

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8fkad3

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200218005521/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Industry Forecast on the South East Asia Industrial Automation and Process Control Market (2020 to 2025) - Featuring Siemens AG, ABB Group, Fanuc...

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Eckhart Grows Specialty Automation Capability With 3M and KUKA – Benzinga

Posted: at 3:43 am

Eckhart, an Industry 4.0 solutions provider, today announced participation in the 3M (NYSE:MMM) Robotics Network with a focus on the automation of metal finishing processes using KUKA's innovative ready2_grind pre-configured and coordinated application package. All three companies seek to grow the role of robots as an alternative to the manual deburring, polishing, and grinding of components that dominate the factory floors of agricultural & mining equipment manufacturers, medical device makers, and defense companies. The 3M Robotics Network centralizes best practices and increases awareness in the industrial market for what has historically been considered a niche robotic application.

Eckhart's participation in the 3M Robotics Network builds upon their existing relationship with 3M which includes the successful co-development of the 3M Automated Taping System (ATS), a collaborative robot-based solution for tape application.

"At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to improve life. Transforming metal by grinding, sanding, and deburring is a harsh process traditionally done by humans, but one that's increasingly suited for off-the-shelf automation. We see a significant opportunity to define and grow the ecosystem of abrasive process experts and automation providers in order to ultimately deliver real value to 3M customers," said Matthew Purdin, 3M Global Robotics Marketing Manager. "The Robotics Network contains a small number of preferred integrators, like Eckhart, that have demonstrated a high capability in the space and see the opportunity in the marketplace like we do."

Daniel Burseth, Eckhart's Vice President of Business Development, adds, "Eckhart is excited to grow our relationship with 3M and KUKA in a new way. The market reaction to the 3M Automated Taping System has been fantastic, and we see similar potential to grow the role of abrasive process automation within our Fortune 500 customer base."

Eckhart designs, builds, and sustains custom automation systems for the world's largest manufacturers and expects the chronic labor shortage in the manufacturing sector to accelerate. "When factory leaders evaluate which positions are hardest to fill, they find few applicants interested in pushing a grinder around a weldment for 10 hours a day," Burseth continues. "This quality of life consideration, coupled with the ease of a pre-configured solution like ready2_grind, make this collaboration a very exciting opportunity for Eckhart and our customers."

Ready2_grind is the latest offering in KUKA's ready2_use collection of pre-configured and coordinated application packages. Alongside offerings like ready2_spray and ready2_spot, ready2_grind bundles years of best practices into an integrated solution consisting of a KUKA robot & 3M grinding tool, abrasive, and process expertise. "We believe that ready2_grind drastically simplifies the effort to automate. Component selection and integration, as well as the method for process development, have all been optimized," said KUKA Senior VP of Sales & Marketing, North America, Simon Whitton. "Manufacturers in the welding industry are looking to improve production rates, and ready2_grind's accuracy and precision enable consistent production and maximum efficiency."

Integration of ready2_grind through the 3M Robotics Network is generally available for any manufacturing environment. Learn more at http://www.eckhartusa.com

About 3M

3M applies science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $33 billion in sales, our 93,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M's creative solutions to the world's problems at http://www.3M.com or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.

3M is a trademark of 3M Company.

About Eckhart

For over 60 years and based in Warren, Michigan, Eckhart designs, builds, and sustains advanced industrial solutions that enhance the quality of life. Eckhart's proven portfolio of Industry 4.0 technology includes AUTOCRAFT autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs), collaborative robotic systems, traditional robotics, assembly line design & simulation, 3D printing tool development & production, and Factory of the Future consulting for the world's largest manufacturers. Eckhart serves an established and loyal blue-chip customer base of leading automotive and industrial original equipment manufacturers. Learn more at http://www.eckhartusa.com.

About KUKA

KUKA is a global automation corporation with sales of around EUR 3.2 billion and around 14,200 employees. As a leading global supplier of intelligent automation solutions KUKA offers its customers everything from a single source: from robots and cells to fully automated systems and their networking in markets such as automotive, electronics, general industry, consumer goods, e-commerce/retail and healthcare. The KUKA Group is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200218005371/en/

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Eckhart Grows Specialty Automation Capability With 3M and KUKA - Benzinga

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