Speaking at an event “Future Decoded” here last week , Nadella applauded the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as first step towards securing data privacy, The Registrar reported.

“All of us will have to think about the digital experiences we create to treat privacy as a human right,” Nadella was quoted as saying.

“GDPR as a piece of legislation, a piece of regulation is a great start and we’ve done a lot of hard work to become compliant with GDPR,” Nadella added, adding that the companies need to develop ethical standards around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Nadella said that 54 Azure Cloud regions worldwide is “more than any other provider”.

According to him, underwater data centres will play a key role in expanding Microsoft’s Cloud computing platform.

Under its “Project Natick”, Microsoft has already deployed a 40-foot data centre pod on the seafloor off the coast of Scotland.

“Since 50 per cent of the world’s population lives close to water bodies, we think this is the way we want to think about future data centre expansion,” Nadella said.

Microsoft also unveiled an AI report titled “Maximizing the AI Opportunity” for businesses.

The company announced at the event that the health agency NHS Scotland will deploy Office 365 to all of its 161,000 employees, moving away from a complicated organisation that included more than 100 separate computer systems.

Microsoft also formed a strategic partnership with Centrica, the British energy and services company behind brands like British Gas, Dyno and Direct Energy.

Centrica plans to transform field operations by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Artificial Intelligence, providing employees with real time and actionable insight so they can improve customer service.

“Among the 99 local startups which procured more than 3 billion won (Bt0.08 billion, $2.65 million) in investment in 2017, only eight, or less than 10 per cent, were tech-based startups.

“This signals that Korea’s startup ecosystem is particularly tough for tech startups,” Song said in his keynote speech at a conference hosted by Naver’s startup accelerator, D2 Startup Factory.

For startups in all fields that procured at least 3 billion won worth of investment individually, the sum total was 790 billion won. But only 5 per cent of this amount was invested in tech startups, according to Song.

A tech startup refers to a company looking to create a profitable business model from original information technology capabilities. Tech startups differ fundamentally from companies that focus on building platform services or service-oriented mobile applications.

Despite possessing globally competitive technologies, Korean tech startups tend to be bogged down by hurdles that impede fundraising, the CTO said. These stem from investors’ incomplete understanding of complex technologies and lack of entrepreneurship experience, as well as difficulties in expanding markets.

Meanwhile, many foreign tech companies are evolving into companies with billion-dollar valuations, such as China-based SenseTime, a leading artificial intelligence and facial-recognition technology startup, as well as US-based Dataminr, a real-time information discovery company, he noted. “(Superior) technology is the core of a tech startup. And tech startups must harbor the ability to quickly develop and introduce technology that is needed in the market,” Song said.

The Naver CTO’s remarks came on the sidelines of the inaugural “Tech Meets Startup” conference hosted by D2 Startup Factory. The event brought together officials from local tech startups, venture capitals and regulatory agencies to discuss ways to resolve challenges faced by Korean tech startups. Discussions focused on how to overcome market difficulties and successfully commercialize products in Korea and abroad.

Presenters included Korean tech startups LetinAR, FuriosaAI, Linkflow, Vuno, Lablup and Sualab, as well as venture capital investors Blue Point Partners, Futureplay and Lotte Accelerator.

This year, Korea’s venture investment volume is expected to hit a record 3.3 trillion won ($2.9 billion), more than double the 1.5 trillion won logged in 2014, according to projections by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Venture Capital Association.

“We were intimated through an advisory of international payment scheme and detected some abnormal activities on transactions through debit cards,” a top official of BankIslami, who didn’t want to be quoted, told The Dawn.

Initially, reports in local media suggested that the bank had lost about US$6 million but officials said the amount stolen was in rupees.

“We have checked almost all transactions after shutdown of international payments and we are sure that Rs2.6 million was the final figure that we lost,” said the official.

Since the link was disconnected between the international payment switch, the amount reported by International Payment Scheme via international transactions ($6.1m), was neither processed by bank’s system nor deducted from any customer account, said the bank.

It is believed that the International Payment Scheme has lost $6.1 million globally.

“We are still not aware from which country or place the hackers launched the attack to steal the money,” said the official. Initially, it was reported in media that it was carried out from Brazil.

The banker said they are in consultations with the IT experts and are trying to identify weaknesses in the system.

Meanwhile, the State Bank directed banks to foster arrangements to ensure security of all payment cards across the country and monitor their activity – especially those involving overseas transactions.

“Immediately coordinate with all payment schemes, switch operators and media service providers the banks are integrated with to identify any malicious activity of suspicious transactions,” said the SBP.

BankIslami said that all domestic ATM cash withdrawal transactions using bank biometric services have been restored. “However, as a precautionary measure, all transactions routing through the international payment scheme have been stopped and will be restored once the bank is confident that all risks of unauthorised international transactions have been mitigated,” said a press release of Bank Islami issued yesterday.

Under the agreement, the two companies will develop what they call a smart-cart robot that can automatically identify obstacles and follow shoppers as they walk through aisles. LG said the new robot will free visitors from the hassle of pushing heavy carts by themselves.

The South Korean tech giant said the robot will be developed by its research lab, which has been releasing various robots under the CLOi brand.

So far, LG has released eight different products under the brand, which are suited for different tasks, including guiding, cleaning and even mowing the lawn. The company unveiled the CLOi SuitBot, which can help workers lift and move heavy objects easier as well.

LG said it has been making efforts to bolster its robot business by joining forces with different clients, including airports, bakeries and retail shops.

CLOi stands for clever, clear, close operating intelligence, LG said.

The company has been making investments in robotic firms, including Robotis, AI startup Acryl and U.S.-based robot maker Bossa Nova Robotics.

A call drop is a situation in which calls are cut off before the speaking parties have finished conversation or one of them has hung up.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday published a report, which showed that there were 222.15 crore call drops in total in the last 13 months and operators were supposed to give back 69.38 crore free minutes as compensation. However, the top three operators only returned 22.06 crore minutes to their customers.

According to the regulation, if customers face more than two drops a day, they will receive compensation from the third drop and will get one minute back for every drop.

The telecom regulator introduced the compensation system in 2016 amid huge call drops in different parts of the country across all operators.

Mobile phone users are facing severe call drops and the overall service quality has deteriorated.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed raised the issue in Parliament on Sunday and expressed dissatisfaction about the call drop related to market leader Grameenphone.

The telecom regulator’s report, however, said the call drop situation has improved in September compared to the same month a year ago.

In September last year, call drop totaled 21.21 crore times and it came down to 18.02 crore times in September this year.

Robi’s call drops increased to some extent compared to what was last year, while Grameenphone, Banglalink and Teletalk have all improved the situation.

The rate of machinery use in agriculture in the delta is higher compared to other regions in Viet Nam. However, the area’s rice processing capability is only average when compared to other Asian regions, which makes it harder for Vietnamese rice to compete with other rice exporting countries, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agro Processing and Market Development Authority.

Rice from the Mekong Delta accounts for over 90 per cent of Viet Nam’s rice exports. The area has produced more than 31 million tonnes of rice this year, about 1 tonnes more than in 2017, according to the ministry’s Department of Crop Production.

Rice production, however, remains inefficient because of the lack of co-operation between farmers, the inconsistent quality of production materials, and the inefficient usage of medicine, fertilisers and seeds, all of which hinders profits.

In addition, the country’s supporting industry and logistics sector remain lacklustre at a time when the global supply of rice is on the rise.

Revenue from rice exports could fall if a solution was not found, said Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import-Export Department.

Nguyen Van Sanh, former director of the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute, said that more support policies for rice farmers would encourage more production.Farmers who earn low profits could one day decide to quit growing rice, he noted.

More than 100 new products and technologies will make their debut at the first China International Import Expo, said the Ministry of Commerce.

Wang Bingnan, vice-minister of commerce, said that the first import-themed expo will be divided into two sectors: goods and services.

Over 3,000 companies have signed up to participate, including over 200 big-name enterprises from the Fortune 500 list.

More than 100 new products and technologies are going to debut during the event, with some being shown to the world for the first time. – China Daily

AI-developed chocolate captures tastes of the times

Japan’s Technology firm NEC Corp and Japanese chocolatiers at US-based chocolate chain Dandelion Chocolate have jointly developed chocolate bars with flavours associated with symbolic events that shaped the times by utilising artificial intelligence.

The chocolate bars of five different flavors, including one epitomising the first manned landing on the moon in 1969 and another depicting the peak of Japan’s economic bubble in the second half of the 1980s, will be sold for 1,620 yen (Bt 472) apiece at the chain’s online store and outlets in Tokyo and Kyoto from December 21.

In the project, the AI was first taught to choose a certain taste for each word, such as “sweet” for words associated with “growth” and “bitter” for those related to “anxiety.”

It then screened newspaper articles published during the subject periods and picked frequently used words to decide the flavours.

The chocolatiers worked to realise the flavours specified by the AI. – The Yomiuri Shimbun

Foldable phone launched by Chinese firm Royole

Chinese company Royole Corporation has launched what may be the world’s first foldable phone.

The company, which specialises in manufacturing flexible displays, unveiled its FlexPai smartphone last week at an event in Beijing.

The device has a 19.8cm screen with a thickness of 7.6mm and can fold in half, which would then split the screen into three separate smaller screens on the front, rear and spine. It weighs 320g, over 50 per cent more than the iPhone XS Max or Galaxy Note 9, both weighing slightly over 200 g.

Royole said that the Flexpai had been tested to withstand more than 200,000 open-and-shut movements, meaning it should offer years of use before any damage to the picture, reported BBC.

“It is a historical moment that we have been waiting for years to see,” said Bill Liu Zihong, 35, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of the company. – The Straits Times