Monthly Archives: April 2021

The unpredictable course of US policy in Asia – The Tribune

Posted: April 23, 2021 at 12:37 pm

Sandeep Dikshit

Deputy Editor

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar may have been expressing the anxiety being felt by the South Block over the zigzag course taken in foreign policy by the Biden administration when, in a span of one week, he twice declared that the Quad will never become an Asian NATO.

It now emerges that when the first-ever Quad summit convened by US President Joe Biden on March 12 was waxing eloquent on the launch of a landmark partnership with India to further accelerate the end of the Covid pandemic, the White House was doing the exact opposite.

A fact sheet after the Quad summit spoke of undertaking shared action necessary to expand safe and effective Covid vaccine manufacturing in 2021. But the on-ground situation in Washington was vastly different. Indian Ambassador to the US

Taranjit Singh Sandhu was at the same time telling the Biden administration that its invoking of the Defence Production Act has affected vaccine production in India due to a shortage of cell culture media,

single-use tubing assemblies and certain chemicals.

The end-game of enticing India into a Quad grouping with military teeth had already been jolted when the US Navys USS John Paul Jones sailed unannounced into the Indian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on April 7. The freedom of navigation sail could have been brushed under the carpet like the US Navys many such earlier forays.

But for those who might have missed out on this brief India-US scrimmage-that-wasnt, the US Seventh Fleet helpfully put out a press release that declared its warship sailed inside Indias EEZ, without requesting Indias prior consent.

The US Navy did clarify that its Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) are not about one country, nor are they about making political statements. But if the US

professes to place India in the

top drawer of its allies, why was there no prior word to the Indian Navy or its liaison officers posted in several of the US Navys Asian outposts? Otherwise, the Indian Navy would not have reacted with a counter-press release that stated the US warship was tracked as soon as it entered the EEZ, about 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands.

On March 18 and 19, in stark contrast to its public image of going for an all-out war against Beijing in supply chains, defence build-up and high technology, Bidens two top foreign policy czars, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan were closeted with their Chinese counterparts for two days in Alaska.

The opening lived up to the public billing of an extremely upset US trying to pressure China on all its vulnerabilities Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, South China Sea et al. In fact, it was an unprecedented diplomatic dust-up. But the opening exchange did not appear to materially affect the rest of the meeting. A senior administration official told me that the moment the cameras left, the Chinese side went back to business as usual, working through the list of issues on the agenda, including non-proliferation and Iran, said an Atlantic article.

As is well known, China already has a substantial handle on the US economy which has kept its

citizens satiated with debt. The fiscal dependence the US owes over $1 trillion to China can shake the economy if it is suddenly dumped. The trend to lean on China had spiralled during the Obama years when Biden was his second-in-command.

The US presidential elections, during which candidates are closely scanned for character flaws, saw the peddling of Hunter Bidens business deals with China (besides Ukraine) by the pro-Trump media. The Biden team dismissed most of it as Russian disinformation but it is incontrovertible that Hunter flew with his then Vice President father to Beijing in 2013. While there, he also shared a cup of coffee with an investment banker and was on his companys board 12 days later.

There is no evidence that the US foreign policy was influenced by the deal, but the charges cut to the bone. Joe Biden had to promise during the Presidential stumping that no one in his family will hold a job with a foreign corporation or government.

This incident, however, leads to the assumption that the US under Biden might not be thinking of a zero-sum game against China, as is being fondly imagined in many quarters in India. The vaccine dust-up apart, the Quad merely renewed the long-pending promise of meeting acute Indian strategic interest in critical and emerging technology by setting up a working group. This leads to the apprehension whether the current contradictions between the US and China have a temporary character? The Donald Trump-Mike Pompeo duo, which put the Quad in high gear, in contrast had an existentialist fear of China putting an end to the American exceptionalism that has ruled the world after World War II.

There is certainly a vacuum as multilateralism has fallen short. This has led the trend to move towards groups of countries that can work together. But Bidens national security policies premised on a growing rivalry with China are grating with the on-ground situation. This may have led Jaishankar to issue two clarifications within a week about India seeing no dividend in forming a military block with the Quad in the Indo-Pacific.

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The unpredictable course of US policy in Asia - The Tribune

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EP resolution to urge government to continue to seek justice – Times of Malta

Posted: at 12:37 pm

The European Parliament is expected to call on the Maltese government to continue deploying all the necessary resources to bring to justice all those implicated in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, but also those linked to all other cases she brought to light before her assassination.

In a draft resolution seen by Times of Malta and which is expected to be put to the vote on Wednesday, European parliamentarians are due to express their deep concern about the latest revelations in the investigations into the assassination, particularly the possible involvement of government ministers and political appointees.

While acknowledging the progress made in the murder investigations, despite the delay, MEPs denounced the repeated offer and use of presidential pardons in the context of the murder trial. They stressed that testimonies offered for other crimes should be very carefully assessed and should not be used to evade full justice for murder.

The resolution notes, however, that a presidential pardon and plea bargain were two of the elements that led to the arrest in November 2019 of one of the individuals suspected of commissioning the assassination.

The resolution was drafted following the debate held last month at the request of the European Peoples Party.

Co-signed by all seven European Parliament groupings, including the Social and Democrats which Labour MEPs form part of, the resolution outlines a series of concerns EU parliamentarians have about Malta and calls on the Commission, among other things, to investigate whether Malta is compliant with EU anti-money laundering laws.

It reiterates that the Maltese government must consider the fight against organised crime, corruption and the intimidation of journalists as of the utmost priority.

Protect the media, judicial independence

MEPs particularly refer to serious and persistent threats to the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights, including questions on the freedom of the media, the independence of law enforcement and the judiciary from political interference and the freedom of peaceful assembly.

While praising the governments progress in relation to the rule of law through the implementation of some of the recommendations of the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission, they are expected to encourage the government to continue to pursue endeavours to strengthen its institutions.

The MEPs will also welcome structural reforms proposed by the government following the Commissions findings in its 2020 Rule of Law Report on Malta, notably deep corruption patterns, noting that the Commission should use all the tools and procedures at its disposal to ensure full compliance with EU law on the efficient functioning of judicial systems, the fight against money laundering, banking supervision, public procurement and urban planning and development.

They reiterate their call for the full and continuous involvement of Europol in all aspects of the murder investigation and all related investigations and welcomed the continuation of the public independent inquiry into the Caruana Galizia murder. They said all recommendations stemming from the inquiry ought to be fully implemented.

In their resolution, the MEPs stress that all allegations of corruption and fraud, especially at a high political level, should be investigated and prosecuted with the appropriate rigour, including in relation to the possible involvement of foreign actors.

On media freedom, the MEPs stress that the government should take further action, including through long-term legislative and policy measures, to address existing concerns related to media freedom and the independence of public media from political interference as well as the increasing use of hate speech on social media.

They call for the protection of investigative journalists and whistleblowers and for the protection of the personal safety, livelihoods and independence of journalists and whistleblowers to be ensured at all costs and at all times.

They will also urge the commission to propose EU anti-SLAPP legislation to protect journalists from vexatious lawsuits since investigative journalism should receive particular consideration and financial or fiscal support as a tool serving the public good.

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Vaccine Spending Wont Put Strain On States Finances; They May Have To Spend Only Rs 20k Cr In All (Less Than Goas Budget) – Swarajya

Posted: at 12:37 pm

On 19 April, the Union government liberalised its vaccination policy which would come into force from 1 May. In the third phase, vaccine manufacturers are given more flexibility in deciding price of their doses, half of the supplies will go to the Centre while other half to states and open market and everyone above 18 years of age will now be eligible to get a jab.

The Modi government has faced a three-pronged attack on the new vaccine policy so far:

First, the centre is being accused of being unfair to poor by not giving vaccine to everyone for free and allowing vaccines to be sold at Rs 600 in the open market.

Of course, those who are making these allegations are forgetting the fact that 50 per cent supply is going to the Centre and the rest will be divided up between States and the private hospitals.

It means very little quantity will go to open market and at least 50 per cent of the available vaccines from the Centre will continue to be available for free.

If the States also decide to subsidise, then 70-80 per cent of the total vaccine supply will be given for free in India. The rest of the people are middle class and rich folks who can easily afford to pay for it. One wonders if the Opposition wants to also champion subsidising the rich just to follow the opposition dharma of criticising anything the government does.

Second, the freedom given to vaccine manufacturers to decide prices for vaccines is being criticised.

Its not difficult to understand the rationale behind the move. The current price of Rs 150 per dose that the Centre was paying to Serum wasnt sustainable for it had to give half of the money as royalty to AstraZeneca.

Still, Adar Poonawalla must be lauded for taking a huge risk in stocking up tens of millions of doses before they were approved and then selling more than 12 crore doses at such cheap rates.

But now, the need is to rapidly ramp up production to meet the huge upcoming demand for vaccines in the 18-45 age group.

Its unwise to expect manufacturers to scale up production while making losses. The only way was to provide financial support and have a liberalised pricing in place.

Thanks to the efforts of the Centre in the past week, SII should be able to increase its production from 6.5-7 crore doses per month to 10 crore doses in May and then to 12 crore doses from June. Similarly, Bharat Biotech will increase its production from 1 crore doses per month currently to 6-7 crore doses by July and to 10 crore doses per month by September.

This wouldnt have been possible without the change in pricing policy by the government.

Third, the governments opposition in every sphere (politics, media, academia, cinema, etc) spread misinformation that Serum will charge state governments Rs 400 per dose and Rs 150 from the Centre. The propaganda around this continued until Poonawalla himself clarified that Rs 150 price tag was only for initial supplies and both the Centre and States would be charged Rs 400 from 1 May.

Even if we take the scenario where Serum charged the Centre a lower price of Rs 150, who wouldve benefited? The vaccines being procured by Centre are going to the States anyway. This is a classic case of mindless opposition which does more harm than good.

The fourth charge against the Centre is that it has left States to their own devices in procuring vaccines and paying for them. With other criticisms falling flat, the opposition-ruled States are doubling down on this aspect.

Ironically, when the Centre was controlling all the vaccine supplies, they were complaining about lack of freedom. Now, they are cribbing about the freedom granted by the Centre.

Central government has abdicated its responsibility of ensuring universal vaccination. The new policy will create serious strain on state finances, chaos in vaccine procurement, escalation of prices, and exclusion of the poor. Net result would be prolongation of the calamity, Keralas Finance Minister Thomas Issac tweeted.

The crux of the matter is that while they want the freedom to procure vaccines, they want the Centre to pick up the tab. Basically, all the rights but none of the responsibility. Many are complaining about their inability to pay. Lets see if this criticism is justified.

Total India population above 18 years of age is 80 crore as per 2011 census. To achieve herd immunity, lets say we need to vaccinate 65 crore people which translates to over 80 per cent of the eligible population.

That means, we will need 130 crore doses. The supply wont be a problem as we estimated here and India should be able to administer 130 crore doses by end of this year.

Before 1 May, India is positioned to reach 16 crore vaccinations. That was all taken care by the Centre. It means that now, 114 crore more jabs are needed to be given.

Coming to cost, for the sake of simplicity, lets say every dose is priced at Rs 400. The total budget would come around to Rs 45,600 crore. Given that half the supply is being procured and paid for by the Centre, it means States would need to pay Rs 22,800 crore.

Of course, this assumes an ideal scenario where the States would procure the whole 50 percent supply meant for them and the private sector. That wont be the case.

If private sector takes 10 per cent share, cost for states would fall to Rs 20,520 crore. At 30 per cent share, it would come down to 15,960 crore and at 50-50 per cent division, their budget will fall to just Rs 11,400 crore.

Lets take examples of some individual states now for more clarity.

Maharashtra is the worst hit. One can assume that it will keep getting more vaccines from the Centre. Around nine crore of the states population is above 18.

To achieve herd immunity (at 80 per cent coverage), it will need around 14.2 crore doses. 1.3 crore doses have been provided so far and at current pace of vaccination of 2.5-3 lakh doses, this is set to reach 1.7 crore by end of this month.

That leaves us with a target of getting 12.5 crore more jabs. If Maharashtra procures half i.e. 6.25 crore (worst case) doses, it will have to pay Rs 2,500 crore only at Rs 400 per dose.

To put this in perspective, total budgeted expenditure for the current fiscal in the state is Rs 4,84,091 crore. The budget for vaccine is thus merely 0.51 per cent of the total budget. With private sector pitching in, it would be much lower.

Lets take an example of a small state like Haryana. To give jabs to 80 per cent of its 18+ population, it will need additional 2.2 crore doses from 1 May onwards. At Rs 400 per dose, total expenditure is Rs 900. With half coming from the Centre, it wont have to spend even Rs 500 crore which is similar to its budget of age old pension.

The same is true for all states in the country. In fact, rich states like Maharashtra and Gujarat which are most hit by Covid-19 can even partner with foreign manufacturers and afford to get millions of vaccines in short time without putting a strain on the local supplies.

This would still be a fraction of their total annual expenditure. The economic fruits of opening up fully post vaccination are too big to be ignored for lack of funds.

The total expenditure all the states are looking would be somewhere between Rs 10-20,000 crore. Even Goas annual budget is higher than that.

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Vaccine Spending Wont Put Strain On States Finances; They May Have To Spend Only Rs 20k Cr In All (Less Than Goas Budget) - Swarajya

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Paritosh Jauhari Joins Successive Technologies as Chief Technology Officer – PR Newswire India

Posted: at 12:36 pm

Former Director of Technology at Publicis Sapient, Paritosh Jauhari with over 17 years of engineering and digital transformation experience takes the helm of Successive Team

NOIDA, India, April 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Successive Technologies, a next-gen (CMMI Level-3) technology consulting and services company headquartered in India, is proud to further strengthen its leadership team with the appointment of Paritosh Jauhari, as the Chief Technology Officer.

With over 17 years of experience of delivering IT innovation and driving digital transformation programs, Paritosh will be responsible for creating new business models, enabling strategic engineering initiatives and supporting M&A & organization partnerships by working closely with multi-disciplinary teams across Successive Technologies.

In addition to his CTO charter, Paritosh will contribute hands-on to expanding the enterprise consulting space, advising clients on how to harness & optimize their product investments, define roadmap prioritization, KPIs and archetypes for platform assessments. This will support the company's broader platform and infrastructure strategy, drive rapid innovation for customers and contribute to the company's ongoing leadership in the digital ecosystem.

Prior to joining Successive Technologies, Paritosh spent over 14 years at Publicis Sapient. During his tenure at Publicis Sapient, he focused on scaling complex omnichannel digital transformation enterprises in the Travel & Hospitality, Retail & Commerce, Energy & Commodities and Financial Services industries. Paritosh holds a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad.

"I am looking forward to what the future holds. I am extremely impressed by the passion and values displayed by the leadership of the company," says Paritosh. "My vision for Successive is to bring in enterprise mindset & engineering maturity in our operations by leveraging modern and industry-focused engineering practices. We are in the midst of a digital revolution and using leading-edge innovation is the only way to sail through the current volatility in the business world. This mission at Successive really resonates with me."

Sid Pandey, CEO of Successive Technologies, comments:

"We are extremely excited to bring Paritosh onboard. He has worked with several industry segments and has a profound understanding of the corporate landscape. We needed someone with exceptional knowledge of the technology ecosystem and significant leadership experience to offer a fresh outlook on our existing processes and accelerate our continued growth towards the transformation of our client's business."

Gary Malik, Chief Strategy Officer at Successive Technologies, comments:

"Onboarding a person like Paritosh Jauhari opens a lot of doors for Successive Technologies. He brings an incredible wealth of experience and knowledge which will surely be valuable for us as we continue to grow and scale globally. We are fortunate to have his perspective and leadership in the team."

About Successive Technologies

Founded in 2012, Successive is a next-gen technology consulting services company purpose-built for modern business speed. Our expertise includes digital transformation, enterprise cloud, mobility, application security, and application development solutions. We specialize in Cloud Consulting, Cloud Migration, DevOps Automation, DevSecOps & Enterprise Content Management. Our innovative approaches, thought process, and automation mindset help businesses build a strong business transformation foundation and customer satisfaction.

For more information, please visit http://www.successive.tech

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1312400/Successive_Technologies_Logo.jpg

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Amazon’s cashierless checkout technology is coming to its new supermarkets – CNBC

Posted: at 12:36 pm

Inside Amazon's first Amazon Fresh grocery store in Los Angeles.

Amazon

Amazon's cashierless checkout technology could soon be coming to its growing line of Fresh grocery stores.

Features of Amazon's automated checkout technology, called "Just Walk Out," appear in planning documents for a store under construction in a suburban shopping plaza in Brookfield, Connecticut. The technology allows customers to skip the checkout line by tracking any items they grab and charging them when they leave.

Amazon declined to comment. News of Amazon's plans was first reported by Bloomberg.

The documents show gated entry and exit lanes at the front of the store, where shoppers would presumably scan an app or credit card as they come in, as well as hardware to potentially house ceiling-mounted cameras that track which items shoppers pick up in the store. The documents also mention an electronic shelving system, a feature Amazon has deployed in its Fresh and cashierless Go convenience stores.

Additionally, a large staging area appears at the front of the proposed store layout. Fresh stores have a dedicated section where customers can pick up amazon.com or grocery orders placed online or return their packages for free.

It's unclear if the store will incorporate other high-tech elements featured in Fresh stores, such as its recently launched Dash Carts, which are smart shopping carts that let shoppers check out without waiting in line.

In September, Amazonopenedits first Fresh grocery store in Los Angeles' Woodland Hills neighborhood. It hassince openeda dozen stores, located in southern California and in several suburbs of Chicago. The company also plans to open a handful of stores on the East Coast.

If Amazon ends up launching cashierless checkout technology in Fresh stores, it would represent an industry feat. Start-ups such as Standard Cognition, AiFi and Grabango have all developed autonomous systems for retailers, but widespread adoption has been slow, as the technology remains costly and challenging to deploy in large store formats.

Amazon Fresh stores are roughly 35,000 square feet, or about the size of a store in Amazon's other grocery chain, Whole Foods. The format incorporates a blend of in-store and online shopping, while offering consumers a variety of products at lower price points than the largely upscale options offered at Whole Foods.

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Blockchain Technology Market Value Reach US$ 3.7 Billion By 2020 Covering Pre And Post COVID-19 Market Analysis: Acumen Research And Consulting -…

Posted: at 12:36 pm

LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Blockchain Technology Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 80.2% during the forecast period 2020 to 2027 and to reach around US$ 3.7 Bn by 2020.

Increasing adoption of blockchain from various end use industries across the globe is expected to drive the growth of the global blockchain technology market.

The market in North America is expected to account for a major revenue share in the global blockchain technology market due to the increasing adoption of blockchain from various industry verticals. Government spending on development of healthcare sector is increasing. Their approach towards integration of blockchain to improve the interoperability standards while maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of patient records is gaining importance. Major players are enhancing their business capabilities through introduction on innovative service this is expected to impact the growth of blockchain technology market.

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In 2020, Microsoft a global IT company integrated Lition blockchain into Azure. This integration is expected to help Microsoft Azures enterprise clients can develop, test, and deploy Lition side chains and applications with ease on its platform.

In 2018, the company collaborated with Interswitch Group. The collaboration was focused on launch of a blockchain-based supply chain financing service in order to ensure fast and seamless trade financing in the entire supply chain system.

In 2020, IBM a global IT service company partnered with Nestle with the focus to use the IBM Food Trust enterprise blockchain solution in order to trace its Zogas coffee brand. This solution would help the consumer to track the origin of the coffee beans used in their coffee.

The market in Asia Pacific is expected to witness faster growth in the target market due to high government spending on development of present IT infrastructure. In 2019, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) division of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came out with a blueprint of blockchain platform for the banking sector. Interestingly, a consortium of 11 of Indias largest banks including ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Axis Bank, have launched the first ever blockchain-linked loan system in the nation.

VIEW TABLE OF CONTENT OF THIS REPORT@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/blockchain-technology-market

Increasing awareness among consumers related to blockchain and rising demand for secure, and transparent payment systems from financial firms are major factors expected to drive the growth of global blockchain technology market. In addition, high adoption from retail enterprises is expected to support the growth of target market. Introduction of innovative solutions by major players in order to attract new customers is expected to boost the blockchain technology market growth.

In 2018, IBM a global IT enterprise launched a new Sterling Supply Chain Suite. The product will aid distributors, manufacturers, and retailers to integrate their data and networks with suppliers into a Hyperledger-based blockchain to track and trace products and parts. Factors such as uncertainty in regulatory regulations related to blockchain and lack of skilled labor are factors expected to hamper the growth of the global blockchain technology market. In addition, rising security and privacy concern is expected to challenge the growth of target market. However, changing government regulations and high spending on infrastructure development for easy adoption are factors expected to create new opportunities for players operating in blockchain technology market over the forecast period. In addition, increasing demand from retail and real estate sector is expected to support the revenue transaction of the target market.

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The global blockchain technology market is segmented into type, component, application, enterprise size and industry vertical. The type segment is bifurcated into public, private, and hybrid. Among type the hybrid segment is expected to witness faster growth in the blockchain technology market. The enterprise size segment is divided into large enterprises and small & medium enterprises. Among enterprise size the large enterprise segment is expected to account for major revenue share in the global market.

Players operating in the global blockchain technology market are IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Linux Foundation, BTL Group Ltd., Chain, Inc., Circle Internet Financial Limited, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Digital Asset Holdings, LLC, Global Arena Holding, Inc. (GAHI), and Monax. The market is highly competitive due to presence of large number of players operating on global level.

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Blockchain Technology Market Value Reach US$ 3.7 Billion By 2020 Covering Pre And Post COVID-19 Market Analysis: Acumen Research And Consulting -...

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Verrency Ranked Number 1 Fastest Growing Technology Company in Australia on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2020 Ranking – PRNewswire

Posted: at 12:36 pm

MELBOURNE, Australia, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Verrency today announced that it ranked Number 15 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2020, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Asia Pacific. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. Verrency grew 2,752% percent during this period. Verrency was the highest-ranking Australian company on the index.

Verrency's CEO & Founder, David Link, credits the company's modern technology platform, dedicated global team, and Verrency's ability to meet the exponentially increasing need for banks to differentiate themselves around the moment of payment with the company's 2,752% revenue growth over the past three years. He said, "We are honoured and thrilled to have Verrency recognised by Deloitte as the fastest growing technology company in Australia in their 2020 Fast 500 Ranking. Our commitment to driving payments innovation for banks on the global stage - as an enabling infrastructure SaaS platform - has been core to our operations since Verrency started in 2016."

"Being ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is an impressive achievement, especially because today's technology companies are thriving in extraordinarily competitive and changeable environments," said Mike Horne, Asia Pacific Deloitte Private Leader. "We applaud Verrency for being the top ranked Australian company on the index."

Overall, companies that ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2020 program had an average growth rate of 551 percent.

Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific selection and qualifications

The Technology Fast 500 list is compiled from the Deloitte Asia Pacific Technology Fast 50 programs, nominations submitted directly to the Technology Fast 500, and public company database research. To qualify for the Technology Fast 500, entrants must have had base-year operating revenues of at least US$ 50,000. Entrants must also be public or private companies headquartered in Asia Pacific and must be a "technology company," defined as a company that develops or owns proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues; or manufactures a technology-related product; or devotes a high percentage of effort to the research and development of technology. Using other companies' technology in a unique way does not qualify.

About Verrency

Verrency puts financial institutions back at the centre of customer engagement. Verrency's highly secure "low-code" industrial-grade payments innovation platform helps issuers to acquire and retain customers and increase payment spend while increasing security, control and connectability. Verrency works behind the scenes to enable new customer experiences and delivery of value-added services for an issuer's customers quickly and easily without major changes to existing payments infrastructure or the need to integrate to point-of-sale systems. Verrency also enables issuing banks and processors to rapidly connect to third-party services via its extensive FinTech ecosystem with little to no integration. For more information, see http://www.verrency.com.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ("DTTL"), its global network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") and each of its member firms and their affiliated entities are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL does not provide services to clients. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/about to learn more.

Deloitte Asia Pacific Limited is a company limited by guarantee and a member firm of DTTL. Members of Deloitte Asia Pacific Limited and their related entities, each of which are separate and independent legal entities, provide services from more than 100 cities across the region, including Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Osaka, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo.

Deloitte Private is the brand under which firms in the Deloitte network provide services to privately owned entities and high-net-worth individuals.

2020. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

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Verrency Ranked Number 1 Fastest Growing Technology Company in Australia on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2020 Ranking - PRNewswire

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Wearable technology market was valued at USD 116.2 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to reach USD 265.4 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 18.0%…

Posted: at 12:36 pm

New York, April 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Wearable Technology Market by Product, Type, Application And Geography - Global Forecast to 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p04664172/?utm_source=GNW

The growing demand for wearable technology in applications such as sports and fitness tracking and for multi-featured and hybrid application mobile devices are expected to provide major growth opportunities for the wearable technology market.

The consumer electronics segment recorded the largest shipment of wearable device in 2020The consumer electronics segment registered the largest shipment of wearable devices in 2020.The reason behind the growth of this market is that a majority of consumers use wearable technology products to address their health and fitness tracking needs.

Wearable technology and the development of related mobile apps further increase the benefits of wearable devices (such as smartwatches and smart bands).Furthermore, sports companies are taking the initiatives to develop new fitness-related applications suitable for wristwear.

For instance, Under Armour, Inc. (US), a company developing sports clothing and accessories, launched applications such as MapMyRun, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo. It also added advanced features such as smart scale and heart-rate fitness tracker to its app. Considering all such developments, the consumer electronics market is expected to register the largest shipments by 2026.

Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region in the wearable technology marketAPAC is the fastest-growing region in the wearable technology market and is made up of 4 major countriesChina, Japan, South Korea, and India.Applications such as consumer electronics, industrial, healthcare, and textile contribute significantly to the growth of the market for wearable technology in this region.

Asia Pacific has become a global focal point for large investments and business expansion opportunities.In addition, wearable technologies are widely used in oil refineries (for communication and safety purposes).

The major consumer electronics companies operating in APAC include Samsung Group (South Korea), Sony Corp. (Japan), Panasonic Corp. (Japan), and LG Electronics (South Korea).

The breakup of primaries conducted during the study is depicted below: By Company Type: Tier 1 43 %, Tier 2 36%, and Tier 3 21% By Designation: C-Level Executives 38%, Directors 22%, and Others 40% By Region: Americas 45%, Europe 17%, APAC 30% and ROW 8%

Research CoverageThe report segments the wearable technology market and forecasts its size, by volume and value, based on region (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW), Product (Wristwear, Headwear, Footwear, Fashion & Jewelry, Bodywear), Type (Smart Textile, Non-Textile), Application (Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Enterprise & Industrial).The report also provides a comprehensive review of market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in the wearable technology market. The report also covers qualitative aspects in addition to the quantitative aspects of these markets.

Key Benefits of Buying This Report This report includes market statistics pertaining to the product, type, application, and region. An in-depth value chain analysis has been done to provide deep insight into the wearable technology market. Major market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities have been detailed in this report. Illustrative segmentation, analyses, and forecasts for the market based on product, type, application, and region have been conducted to provide an overall view of the wearable technology market. The report includes an in-depth analysis and ranking of key players.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04664172/?utm_source=GNW

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Wearable technology market was valued at USD 116.2 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to reach USD 265.4 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 18.0%...

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Sharing Economy International Invests to develop NFT Technology into ECrent to Open Up Digital Items Sharing – PRNewswire

Posted: at 12:36 pm

HONG KONG, April23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Traditionally, when we talk about sharing economy, people would think about cars, bicycles, mobile rechargers, apartments, or may be even umbrella, toys, etc.All about sharing economy has been some solid tangible things which be shared out to the needed consumer through a rental arrangement.The sharing item will go and come back through physical transactions.But in the digital world, digital products such as digital arts, music, video games are more difficult to control and record the ownership and usagethrough a P2P sharing model.

As the pioneer in the sharing economy market, based on the Sharing Block engine which is the transaction engine based on blockchain technology that Sharing Economy International Inc. (OTCQB:SEII) has developed to handle the transactions of sharing items between people in ECrent today, SEII engineers and technology partners while revamping and improving the ECrent platform and applications, also decides to add NFT technology on top of the Sharing Block engine.NFT technology will allow users to share their digital products and assets to other people, either free of charge, or at a defined fee by the digital product owner.

"NFT gives a breakthrough to the sharing market which allows us not only to share our tangible items, but also any of the intangible digital items," said Parkson Yip, SEII's advisor on corporate development."SEII is always looking for solutions which can improve the ways how people can share.Apart from drills, cars, bicycles, there is always a market need for the sharing of digital products, and ECrent being the platform in helping people to connect through sharing their resources, we must move fast into the digital product sharing market."

"Blockchain technology fits very well with the development of sharing economy solutions.Its secured decentralised ledger concept can help us to develop a secure and trustful P2P sharing solution based on ECrent.With the development of NFT technology, we will be able to extend to facilitate the sharing of digital items between people as well.We can see that NFT will apply to a lot of digital items, as well other items, such as art works, which facilitate the tracing of ownership and transaction history of the items with a very trustful mechanism.While NFT is attaching directly with the products, the information would allow cross-platform support, so items can be shared through different platforms as well, as soon as we all follow the same protocol," says Yip.

Working with technology partners, ECrent will expect to complete and test the new NFT supported model by third quarter of 2021.

About Sharing Economy International Inc.

Sharing Economy International Inc., through its affiliated companies, focused on targeting the technology and global sharing economy markets, by developing online platforms and rental business partnerships that will drive the global development of sharing through economical rental business models. Moreover, the Company will actively pursue blockchain technology in its existing and to-be-acquired business, enabling the general public to realize the beauty of resource sharing. For more information visit http://www.seii.com

SOURCE Sharing Economy International Inc.

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Sharing Economy International Invests to develop NFT Technology into ECrent to Open Up Digital Items Sharing - PRNewswire

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Inclusive Making course focuses on disabled users in technology spaces – Daily Northwestern

Posted: at 12:36 pm

Photo courtesy of Marcelo Worsley

Inclusive Making students present their work at a class expo. McCormick Prof. Marcelo Worsley teaches a class on technology accessibility.

When McCormick Prof. Marcelo Worsley started teaching Inclusive Making in 2017, he wanted to increase technology access to the disability community.

LRN SCI 309 educates students on the historical exclusivity of creative design spaces and challenges them to construct final projects that facilitate greater access. Worsley said his past interactions with maker communities that excluded people with disabilities inspired him to create the course.

Worsley added that making entails combining digital and physical methods to produce a tangible object.

Making is also about the power of big ideas, the power of letting people imagine, letting people create and bringing that together with the opportunities to actually instantiate those ideas, Worsley said.

The class incorporates perspectives of disabled individuals into the curriculum through guest speakers and conversations with members of local organizations.

When Mez Perez (McCormick 19) walked into the class in 2017, she said she was skeptical of whether the instruction would actually focus on disabled product users instead of designers.

But after a quarter of applying a critical disability studies lens to design, she said she has reconsidered how society frames accessibility. She said she realized society typically places blame on disabled people rather than acknowledging the inaccessibility present in certain spaces.

This class totally blew me away, Perez said. Its like a real partnership and it takes down some of those binaries of who has knowledge about what.

After Perez took the class, she joined Worsleys lab to work on a project that helped kids learn about making. Perez then went on to pursue postgraduate studies in computer science education, an interest she solidified after enjoying the class and working alongside Worsley.

But this year, because of the pandemic, the class looked a little different. Students were unable to meet in-person, and Meg Butler (SESP 21) said the distance made students feel uneasy to assert themselves in disablity spaces for the purpose of completing an assignment.

Butler, who is disabled, said although there were times when she identified ableism during the course, she was glad that Worsley and the teaching assistant encouraged her to speak up on her own terms.

There were times when Id be like, I dont want to be annoying. I dont want to be that person. And theyd be like, No, you be that person. Push back on people, Butler said. But also knowing that I never felt like I had to because that can also be exhausting.

Mmachi Obiorah (McCormick 15, 20) said she appreciated that the hands-on nature of the class enabled students to work in groups and try new things. Her final project, she said, was a tactile version of block-based programming intended for children with visual impairments.

We created physical blocks, and each block had a meaning so when you touch it, you understand that this is the block that carries out a particular function, Obiorah said.

Worsley and Ph.D. candidate David Bar-El, the class former teaching assistant, published a paper on March 24 reflecting on the courses evolving impact.

The report found that engaging with stakeholders in later iterations of the curriculum helped students better understand their needs and design products accordingly.

Worsley said he is working on several other projects that tie into inclusive making, such as designing a multimodal interface for Minecraft. He plans to work with Park School in Evanston to introduce more maker technology to students with disabilities.

The University, Worsley said, also has significant work to do to support students with disabilities. He suggested initiatives such as the redesign of physical spaces on campus, more comprehensive training for faculty and an internal audit of NU policies.

What can we, as an institution, do better to make sure that we are welcoming to everyone? Worsley said. And not just welcoming, that were really celebrating the various identities, the various facets of peoples identities that they have.

Email: [emailprotected]Twitter: @rjleung7

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Inclusive Making course focuses on disabled users in technology spaces - Daily Northwestern

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