To me, globalisation is sourcing capital from where it is cheapest, sourcing talent from where it is best available, producing where it is most cost-effective and selling where it is most profitable — without being constrained by national boundaries.

In this globalised or flat world, every nation that has something to contribute to the global bazaar can improve the lives of not just its own people but people throughout the globe — the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, the powerful and the weak, the educated and the not-so-well-educated.

Never before in the last 200 years did the developing countries have an opportunity to take their share of limelight as they do today and it is all thanks to globalisation. In fact, currently, more than half of the world’s GDP (measured on purchasing power parity) is accounted for by the developing countries.

The globalised world is essentially about how fast you can innovate and develop new ideas, implement them and gain competitive advantage in the marketplace so that you can create a better company, society, country and world. Thus, hardworking and well-educated people are the key differentiators for a nation in this flat world.

It is quite natural for people to wonder whether technology, in general, and software technology, in particular, have any major role in helping the poor in such a world. They do and let me elaborate. Technology makes the life of human beings more productive and more comfortable by reducing cost, improving productivity, saving time and improving comfort.

Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the power of IT for the poor. Fishermen in Pondicherry use wave pattern data on the high seas broadcast by the US Navy to improve their yield by as much as 40 percent. NASSCOM of India used IP-based videoconferencing to bring joy and relief to a taxi driver and his family at Mumbai by connecting him with his family in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh. A balance inquiry at a manned bank counter costs Rs 40. The same transaction costs Rs 8 at an automated teller machine while the internet brings the cost down to just Rs 2.

Technology is a great leveller. It does not distinguish between the rich and the poor. The use of the e-governance paradigm for deployment of inexpensive, efficient, quick and corruption-free community services is another case in point. Information technology enhances transparency in decision making and, thus, improves the confidence of people in the government.

Now, let me come to an important reason for why Bangladesh with its large educated population should embrace global software opportunities. Today, we live in a global village. No country can afford to isolate itself from the global market.

Even countries that did so for a few decades realised their mistake and got back to the global bazaar and have succeeded in improving their prosperity by enhancing the share of exports in their GDP.  We have to focus on an export orientation for a number of reasons.

First, every country leverages its competitive advantages to trade in the global bazaar products and services that leverage these advantages. This is the best way to create jobs in Bangladesh.

Second, you have to maintain a certain healthy proportion of exports and domestic revenues in order to ensure balanced and de-risked growth in the economy.

Third, an export orientation helps Bangladeshi enterprises benchmark their products and services on a global scale. If you succeed in the highly-competitive global market, you are likely to provide high-quality products at the best prices even in the domestic market.

Now, let me come to what areas of software export Bangladesh can focus on. Given its huge population and its large educated workforce, the export of services based on remote application development and maintenance (ADM) and business process outsourcing would be viable for Bangladesh for a long time. This model would succeed as long as the opportunity for outsourcing of software development and maintenance remained.

The opportunity for outsourcing would remain as long as the Bangladeshi software services companies introduce new IT service areas through innovation.

It is important to remember that these new services require the application development and maintenance skills though they may use different languages, operating systems, data bases, object orientation and a host of other new tools and paradigms.

The Bangladeshi software services companies must invest resources to continue to explore new opportunities in services by innovating new ideas and build on what they have already done.

They have to focus on attracting, enabling, empowering and retaining the best and the brightest. This can happen through hygiene factors like competitive compensation, good career planning, protecting dignity of the professionals as well as enabling factors like 24 week-long entry-level and week-long continuous training and certification programmes.

You have to invest in the latest technology and tools infrastructure, in new methods of requirement elicitation, analysis, design and software development and in new methods of improving quality and productivity.

You have to train your youngsters in understanding the difference between value (what the customers obtain from your company) and price (what your company gets from your customers). Your challenge is to enhance value leverage or the ratio of value to price.

A big advantage of Bangladesh is its pool of well-educated, high-quality, English-speaking people. In the software services industry, scalability is of paramount importance and analytical reasoning is critical.

Therefore, your talent pool is a unique asset. Your youngsters will succeed if they are willing to unlearn old ideas, learn new ideas, apply them and move from “reactive problem solving” to “proactive problem identification and solution” for your customers.

The bulk of software services opportunity is in the US. The 10 to 13 hours difference in time zones between Bangladesh and the US facilitates efficient project execution with compressed timeframes and through seamlessly-integrated cross-border teams. The resulting 24-hour virtual workday enables Bangladeshi software services companies and their clients to leverage the benefits of globalisation.

Quality is a hygiene factor for software services companies. Quality models like the ISO 9000 and Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of the Software Engineering Institute form the process quality benchmarks for the Bangladeshi software industry.

Bangladesh must provide easy access to latest hardware and software technologies from advanced countries. Further, consultancy services in software development, marketing, branding, quality and productivity related areas from developed nations must be made available to Bangladeshi companies.

Broadband communications infrastructure will help Bangladeshi companies implement the global delivery model and use local talent to service customers across the globe.

Bangladesh may like to introduce economic reforms to abolish industrial licencing, rationalise taxes, create a strong thrust on exports, reduce import tariffs, simplify foreign exchange regulation, introduce free pricing of IPOs, encourage foreign participation in your capital markets and to create a regulatory framework that permits employee stock option plans.

Venture capital should be available in plenty for your entrepreneurs. Further, debt finance should be available from banks as well as from state-owned institutions even for companies that do not have large physical assets.

Bangladesh must provide at least limited convertibility on the capital account to Bangladeshi global software corporations.

Acquisition guidelines must allow proven Bangladeshi software companies to acquire software companies in the developed world.

Bangladesh must invite leading software companies from across the globe to set up captive software development activities there.

Bangladeshi software companies must improve their brand image to move up their price points.

If Bangladesh implements most of the suggestions, I have no doubt that Bangladesh will become a vibrant player in the global software services market.

He is handing the people around him something. And trying to get closer you feel silly when you realise that this not at all the scene of an accident. The people are gathered around a cart parked there and they are there for chana chaat!

“This is the best chaat in the world!” says a customer digging into his plate with his spoon.

“It is the cheapest, best tasting chaat in the world!” He is corrected by another customer enjoying spoonfuls while still on his motorcycle.

On being asked, the sellers of the snack say that a plate costs Rs40 each … “But the crowd present there is also growing because they want to buy a plate or two before we go away,” says the tall fellow in the middle who is wearing a dark green apron with the Starbucks logo in the middle. “We come here for three hours only, from 3pm to 6pm,” he explains.

“What to do? We are all sold out in three hours anyway,” he smiles. There is no name on the cart. “We don’t have any name. We are just known as Iqbal Chholay Wala, our father’s name,” he adds.

Another cart nearby is selling pakoras and samosas along with French fries. One customer there buys a potato samosa to break it up into pieces before asking the chaat seller on the other side to pour his chaat and chutney over it. “I had heard of someone combining the two to make chaat like that here but I couldn’t find them. So I decided to innovate myself,” he smiles.

“It is so hot and humid these days. One just doesn’t feel like downing heavy meals at lunch or dinner time so we look for tasty snacks that would satisfy the hunger and not make us feel heavy,” says another customer still undecided between bun kebab and kachori across the road.

The bun kebab is for Rs30 each. And it is the real thing and not a confused thing made to look like a burger with coleslaw and ketchup. The squarish little bun has a kebab in the centre made of beef and lentils. And instead of cabbage there are onions and tomato and chutney, no mayonnaise.

The kachori is Rs10 each with free aloo tarkari (potato curry) and pickles. “We are here from 11am till 9.30pm every day but the rush we experience only after 5.30pm, which is also tea time for many Karachiites,” says the kachori seller.

There is also young Faisal at his Classic Gol Gappay stall wondering why he isn’t getting many customers. Perhaps asking Rs60 for a plate makes him the most expensive one among the lot. “But my paani phulki plate comprises eight gol gappay and a bowl of bittersweet water to fill them with before bursting them in your mouth to experience an explosion of flavours,” he says. Just his description makes you order a plate.

Dahi Baray is slightly more expensive and the place more famous for it is not Pakistan Chowk but Burnes Road. Here you see waiters willing to serve you in your air-conditioned car. There is a proper menu to choose from and the snacks are also served in disposable plates with disposable cutlery and tissues. So a plate of dahi baray or chaat at Rs75 is fine too. The samosas too are served very hot. But that’s where the car air-conditioning also comes in handy. Just hold it up against the air ducts on the dashboard before taking a bite.

As the room is darkened and the ceiling lights replaced by a bright tripod light behind the dalang, the air turns thick with the unfamiliar melody of gamelan music and the loud rattling of keprak cymbals.

The show has begun and for almost an hour the students watch in awe as Pak Sumardi, the dalang, breathes life into an assortment of wayang kulit puppets in the ancient tradition of wayang shadow-puppetry storytelling.

It is always a bittersweet moment for dalang Sumardi, who has held performances at Australian schools for more than a decade.

“Every time I perform, I’m reminded that while I should be grateful and happy that Australian students readily embrace the art of wayang kulit puppetry – and do so with such enthusiasm – the same cannot be said for Indonesian children and that deeply saddens me.”

Through an Australia-based organization called Cultural Infusion, Sumardi has been able to visit Australia for several months at a time since 2006 for the sole purpose of performing at schools across the country.

Driving alone in an old, beaten-up station wagon with his gear piled up in the back, Sumardi is nothing less than a traveling showman – an occupation that, in Indonesia, is declining as rapidly as the popularity of wayang kulititself.

In Australia, however, Sumardi is likely to remain gainfully employed, thanks to an ongoing national interest in multiculturalism, school curriculums that promote cultural understanding and the teaching of Bahasa Indonesia as a second language in many Australian schools.

Sumardi’s job has taken him multiple times on the three-day journey across the deserts and vast Nullarbor plains separating the continent’s western and eastern seaboards; it has brought him as far north as Cairns in Queensland and south to Hobart in Tasmania – feats that most Australians cannot begin to claim.

It doesn’t seem a big deal to him, though, and so far the problems he has encountered during his time on the road have been “minor”: Apart from getting his wheels bogged down in sand and dealing with an engine oil leak and harassment from locals in some remote town along the Nullarbor, his trips have generally been hassle-free. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for what looks like a bleak future for his trade in Indonesia.

“The biggest obstacles to having wayang performances in Indonesian schools is the lack of interest from school administrators and the lack of facilities. Unlike Australia, very few schools have a hall or large covered area that can accommodate wayang shows. Also, many parents can’t afford to pay the extra money needed to host a performance,” he said.

Then there were the parents who considered traditional arts like wayang so old fashioned that there was little hope they would encourage their children to take an interest in the art.

“Our dalang association was once invited to perform at an international school in Jakarta, where parents could easily afford our show. Unfortunately, the dalang used Javanese [the traditional language for Javanese wayang kulitshows] – not Indonesian – which even teachers couldn’t fully understand, so it didn’t really work,” he said.

In Australia, Sumardi delivers his stories in English and, true to his Sragen, Central Java roots, his speech – as well as that of his characters – is laced with a thick, authentically Javanese accent.

For his performance at the school in Perth last month, he turned a section of the Ramayana epic into a 50-minute story that featured fast-paced battle scenes, colorful dialog with slapstick humor and a genuinely Indonesian (albeit slightly sexist) take on husband-wife relationships.

That day, Sumardi held three separate sessions for about 400 students aged 8 to 11; during each session he had students swap their seating midway through the show so everyone had the chance of watching the play from both sides of the screen.

“When I first started my job, I learnt from my Australian colleagues that I should avoid violent scenes because schools don’t like it. So, I have been very careful. For example, I replace drawn-out battle scenes with funny ones; I have Bagong prodding, instead of stabbing, a demon with a weapon and I get a demon to bite Petruk’s nose,” he said.

For students, the most memorable parts of the show might be the funniest, but for Sumardi they come after the performance, when students express their genuine interest in his craft and trade during a question-and-answer time. He loves the variety of questions – from how long it took him to become a dalang, to why wayang kulitpuppets needed to be colorized, when they were “only being used for their shadows”.

Even as Sumardi is packing away his gear at the end of the day – rolling up the screen, storing his precious wayang kulitin wooden flat packs, and folding up the tripod light – a handful of students stay back; some want to ask more questions, others drag their parents, who are picking them up, to see the puppets and a few want their photos taken with the puppets.

“I wonder if there will ever be a time when Indonesia’s schools have the same level of appreciation for wayang kulit,” he says.

Students Edwin Tan, 17 and his friend, Evonne Tan, 16, were among those who woke up early to join the walk.

“I think this is just the right way for us to celebrate our heritage city, as we can enjoy a slow-paced walk through the city.

“This allows us to stop by the road and take photos of our otherwise usually packed streets and heritage buildings,” he said after completing the walk at Beach Street.

Participants went on a five-kilometre walk through Church Street, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Chulia Street, Penang Road and Buckingham Street before heading back to Beach Street.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said participants would be able to gain an in-depth insight into the rich culture and heritage of George Town.

“Ever since George Town was listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, many heritage houses have been renewed and kept properly.

“Most of the residents have moved out and commercial businesses have moved in, causing it to lose its innate character.

“So we hope the people and the state can work together to preserve our heritage city and sites,” he said before flagging off the walk at Beach Street on Sunday.

Students Edwin Tan, 17 and his friend, Evonne Tan, 16, were among those who woke up early to join the walk.

“I think this is just the right way for us to celebrate our heritage city, as we can enjoy a slow-paced walk through the city.

“This allows us to stop by the road and take photos of our otherwise usually packed streets and heritage buildings,” he said after completing the walk at Beach Street.

Participants went on a five-kilometre walk through Church Street, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Chulia Street, Penang Road and Buckingham Street before heading back to Beach Street.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said participants would be able to gain an in-depth insight into the rich culture and heritage of George Town.

“Ever since George Town was listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, many heritage houses have been renewed and kept properly.

“Most of the residents have moved out and commercial businesses have moved in, causing it to lose its innate character.

“So we hope the people and the state can work together to preserve our heritage city and sites,” he said before flagging off the walk at Beach Street on Sunday.

The ruling Congress- Janta Dal-Secular coalition government in Karnataka appears to be teetering on the edge when 11 lawmakers quit on Saturday.

H Vishwanath, a lawmaker of the Chief minister’s JDS said, “We have given our resignation to the Speaker’s office. We have brought this to the notice of the governor as well. We urge that our resignations be accepted,” after meeting the Governor.

Mr Vishwanath was removed as JDS state president just days ago.

Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy told news agency ANI, “I have come to submit my resignation to the speaker,” while waiting at speaker Ramesh Kumar’s office.

“I am not going to blame anyone in the party or the high command. I somewhere feel I was being neglected over some issues,” he added.

The Congress and JDS together have 116 in the 224-member state assembly where 113 is the majority mark. The coalition will crash if 11 lawmakers quit.

Speaker Ramesh Kumar said, “If the Speaker accepts the 11 resignations, the coalition will lose majority in the 224-member Assembly as its strength will come down to 104 against the BJP’s 105. The coalition’s current strength, including those who have resigned, is 118 (Congress-78, JD(S)-37, BSP-1 and Independents-2), besides the Speaker”, he was not in office when the legislator arrived.

The move comes days after another Congress MLA, Anand Singh, resigned on July 1.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is still in the US on holiday, when Eight Congress and three Janata Dal-Secular legislators submitted their resignations to the Speaker on Saturday while he was not in the office.

The MLAs who have resigned are H Vishwanath, Y Gopalaiah and KC Narayana Gouda from the JDS; the Congress MLAs are BC Patil, Mahesh Kumatahalli, Ramesh Jharkiholi, Shivaram Hebbar, Prathapgouda Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, Byrathi Basavaraj, N Munirathna, S T Somashekhar and Anand Singh.

According to the sources, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, among the senior-most party leaders in Karnataka, enjoys good relations with many of the MLAs who have resigned or are contemplating to switch sides, and hope he will arrest the slide.

This follows a pilot project in 2017 carried out in eight areas in Selangor that showed reductions of between 50% and 80% of dengue cases in each location.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could also reduce dependence on the use of insecticides to control the mosquito population.

“Insecticides may have other side effects,” he said at the launch programme at Apartment Sri Rakyat in Bukit Jalil.

He added that there was a 92.4% increase in dengue cases nationwide in the first six months of 2019.

“There were 62,421 dengue cases between Jan 1 and June 29 this year with 93 deaths compared to 32,435 cases with 53 deaths in the same period last year,” he said.

Malaysia is the second country after Australia to use the bio-control strategy.

The programme involves placing release containers containing Aedes mosquito eggs infected with the bacteria at 11 locations in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Selangor before releasing the hatched insects in phases.

The Wolbachia bacteria stops the dengue virus from replicating so the mosquito does not spread the virus when it bites.

When an infected female mosquito mates with an uninfected male, they will produce Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes.

It is the same when both infected mosquitoes mate.

But when a Wolbachia-infected male mosquito mates with an uninfected female, the eggs won’t hatch.

The bacteria does not pose any danger to humans.

The Health Ministry is expected to extend the programme to other states in September.

The Chief Minister said the arrangement to offer the RM1bil as contra payment to the state loan of some RM2.4bil had been agreed in principle by both parties.

“We have also sent a letter (regarding the matter) to the Ministry of Finance (MOF),” he told reporters at the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Satok Gawai Raya event at Kampung Segedup here Saturday (July 6) night.

Commenting on a statement by the MOF yesterday that the state government had yet to provide any official feedback to the federal government on the matter, Abang Johari also said he was not notified of any changes in the initial agreement with Maszlee during their meeting last May.

He had yet to see the details of the four prescribed legal mechanisms by the MOF on the proposal for the Sarawak government to utilise the contra loan repayments to repair the dilapidated schools, the Chief Minister said.

In the statement, the Finance Ministry had said the federal government’s stand on the method of dilapidated school repairs in Sarawak via four legal mechanisms had been explained to the Sarawak government during a meeting at the ministry on March 11, 2019, followed by a letter dated March 20, 2019.

Firstly, the Sarawak government must repay up to RM1bil from its total debt from the federal government into the Federal Government Consolidated Fund in accordance to the law and the Federal Constitution.

Secondly, the federal government will channel the same amount as repaid by the state government as allocation for use for projects to repair dilapidated schools in Sarawak.

Thirdly, the repair works of the dilapidated schools in Sarawak should be offered by open tender, to ensure transparency and fair value based on the current federal government financial arrangements.

Fourthly, the federal government is willing to take into account the priority of the Sarawak government in determining the schools to be repaired.

Broadcasting director-general Abdul Muis Shefii said the trial run results of the station’s two digital channels – the 24-hour Berita Ehwal Semasa (BES) news channel and the high-definition RTM Sports channel – had been very satisfying.

“The trial-run successfully met the required standards,” he told Bernama at the Perlis Broadcasting Director Cup Futsal Carnival 2019 here Saturday (July 6).

Abdul Muis, however, did not give the exact date when a fully digital transmission would commence.

Previously, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo had reportedly said that RTM’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasting was expected to commence in the middle of this year.

More than 6,600 people have caught dengue fever this year, exceeding the total number for both 2017 and 2018.

Mr Chew Ming Fai told The Sunday Times that although the NEA and grassroots leaders had stepped up checks, citizens need to play a bigger role in keeping their homes mosquito-free and helping neighbours to do the same.

Urging greater community involvement, Mr Chew said: “We need all stakeholders to chip in. We’re coming out of two lull years (as regards dengue cases), and there’s a sense that we need to do more to raise people’s awareness.”

He recommended that individuals exercise their personal influence on those around them, as combating mosquito breeding required more than just individual effort.

“Very often, when we (NEA) do our surveillance, people will tell us that they’ve done their due diligence, but it’s their neighbours who may not have done so.”

Number of people who have caught dengue fever this year, exceeding the total number for both 2017 and 2018.

But instead of pointing fingers, he reiterated that individuals should remind those around them to remain vigilant and continue practising preventive measures, such as the five-step Mozzie Wipeout, a checklist of steps to prevent mosquito breeding.

An example of greater community involvement has been taking place in the Chai Chee cluster, which NEA said has had a total of 119 reported cases as of last Friday .

NEA was first notified of the cluster, which spans Chai Chee Avenue, Chai Chee Drive, Chai Chee Lane, Chai Chee Road and Chai Chee Street, in late April. Since then, there have been at least 18 outreach efforts, involving personnel from NEA, dengue prevention volunteers and people living in the cluster.

Spearheaded by the NEA, these outreach efforts see the grassroots volunteers conducting house visits from block to block to heighten awareness of the dengue situation in the cluster, as well as remind residents to take preventive measures.

An NEA spokesman stressed that residents and stakeholders all had a part to play in stemming dengue transmission in the Chai Chee cluster, and recommended that they apply insect repellent and continue checking their premises daily for potential mosquito-breeding habitats.

Although NEA has destroyed 139 mosquito-breeding habitats, data from the Gravitrap surveillance in the area indicates that the Aedes aegypti population in the area continues to remain high.

Gravitraps are small black cylinders that trap female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes looking for water surfaces to lay their eggs.

A spokesman for the Marine Parade Town Council also said they have been working closely with NEA to carry out vector control operations in the Chai Chee cluster.

Although the overall dengue situation seems to be escalating, with 499 cases last week marking the highest weekly number in more than three years, Mr Chew said more than half of the 550 dengue clusters that emerged in the first half of the year have since been eliminated.

NEA is currently fighting 150 ongoing dengue clusters.

“But this is not a reason to be complacent. It’s only just the beginning of the season,” he said.