I. Technology
1.
Blockchain can protect privacy during
coronavirus crisis
Citizens the world over typically
demand their governments respond to catastrophes by reaching out and helping
people when they are most in need. The coronavirus pandemic is no different –
and political leaders know they must step up. But when institutions stretch out
a hand, should we blindly accept the way governments take so much new control
over our lives in exchange for their help?
It is clear there must be some
restrictions on normal life to fight a pandemic. But we risk the crisis
response becoming an overreach and imposing limits on personal freedoms that
could last long after the virus is defeated.
How much privacy are we willing
to sacrifice to protect populations from the virus? In Israel, the government
has authorised its security service to track mobile phone location data of
people suspected to have coronavirus using techniques originally deployed for
anti-terrorism surveillance. China took advantage of facial-recognition systems
to trace people’s movements in its anti-virus fight. And the United States is
engaging in public-private partnerships with the likes of Palantir, a
data-scraping company known for its predictive policing tools.
These emergency measures risk
normalising monitoring mechanisms in much the same way that the 9/11 terror
attacks triggered legislation enabling broad spying on citizens. That
ostensibly temporary legislation remains largely unchecked almost two decades
later.
But just as technology empowers
governments to ratchet up their surveillance, so can technology unleash
opportunities to protect people’s privacy – and help keep them safe. The
solution lies with Blockchain, a decentralised technology offering data
sovereignty that facilitates individuals choosing what data they are willing to
share and with whom.
By combining Blockchain and
secure hardware, smart devices can achieve their intended purpose while also
preserving privacy. For example, residents in an apartment building or a gated
neighbourhood can use a Blockchain-powered security camera and choose which
agencies receive the data generated by the camera. This is ‘privacy-by-design’
built to protect individuals.
It avoids data being held in any
central point such as a government or corporation, where all too often leaks
and hacks or profit-driven data-selling deprive people of any chance of
privacy. With Blockchain’s unique ability to store information in a decentralised
way, the data has no such vulnerability.
2. Human-centred
privacy protection
There is an
emerging philosophy in privacy spheres, which is ‘bring the code to the data,
not data to the code’. One technology that employs this is confidential computing
which combines encrypted data from users and open-source algorithms from
companies in a trusted, neutral hardware environment to run privacy-preserving
computations. This human-centred approach protects users’ privacy while still
providing the insights that governments need. It also ensures user data is only
used for its intended purpose, as the algorithms applied to the data can be
verified.
Blockchain
also plays an important role here. In these privacy-preserving computations,
Blockchain technology coordinates the activity – such as uploading or deleting
data – for various stakeholders in the decentralised process. Blockchain
ensures the data can always be audited, meaning the consumer who provided the
information will always be able to tell if their data has been used for the
purpose they intended it, and for that purpose alone.
3. Keep
safe and keep your privacy
Protecting data privacy in the
ongoing coronavirus crisis is a bigger concern than many people might realise.
Just as people have come over time to understand how important it is to wash
their hands with soap, so will people increasingly learn to practice data
hygiene to keep ownership of their own data.
People need to be aware that once
data is out there, it is impossible to fully rein it back in. Scraping data
that users voluntarily put on the internet is one thing. But leveraging fears
in a crisis to incentivise them to upload highly sensitive data that they never
intended to share is dangerous and permanent.
For example, U.S. President
Donald Trump directed anxious Americans to Google’s Project Baseline, citing
that it would help with coronavirus. But its Terms and Conditions state: ‘If
you withdraw your consent, information that has already been gathered will be
retained. Once you join, your membership could last indefinitely, or could be
ended at any time without your permission.’ Talk about giving up any rights to
your own data!
These kinds of crises initiatives
highlight how vulnerable we all are to surveillance and losing control of our
data. Still, the good news is that Blockchain means we do not have to trust a
government or a Google. Instead, we can rely on Blockchain to enable us to
share only what we want to share. In short, we can help keep ourselves safe –
and keep our privacy, too.
(Source: International Business
Times – Opinion by Raullen Chai, 26th March, 2020
Raullen Chai is the co-founder
and CEO of IoTeX, a technology company that uses Blockchain to secure hardware
devices and data storage to build end-to-end encrypted device ecosystems for
the Internet of Trusted Things)
4.
E-commerce faring better now, issues
being resolved, says DPIIT Secretary
Secretary in the Department for
Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra has said
that thanks to several follow-ups, relaxations have been given to e-commerce
players by the Home Ministry. The government has held several meetings with
them to resolve issues arising due to the lockdown and the situation is now
improving on a daily basis. ‘The e-commerce position is much better now than
what it was on Day One of the lockdown’.
E-commerce representatives had
shared the problems faced by them in the movement of essential goods by
delivery boys due to the lockdown.
Traders and e-commerce companies
had raised concerns over police beating up delivery boys in various states
while they were doing their duty.
Commerce and Industry Minister
Piyush Goyal had earlier said the government was committed to ensuring that
essential goods reached people in the most safe and convenient manner.
Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and
the DPIIT Secretary also held detailed meetings with traders and e-commerce
firms in this regard.
The DPIIT has set up a control
room to monitor the real-time status of transportation and delivery of
essential commodities amid the coronavirus lockdown. It is also monitoring
difficulties being faced by various stakeholders.
(Source: Business Standard –
Press Trust of India, 4th April, 2020)
II. Markets
5.
Coronavirus outbreak eats into stock
valuations, market plunges 34%
The Indian
stock market has plunged 34% from its record high. As a result, the
price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for the Nifty50 Index has declined to 12.3 from
18 at the start of the year. The Nifty’s valuation is still slightly above the
2008-09 global financial crisis trough level, when it had fallen to 11.
However, a
record 50% of the Nifty stocks are currently trading at a single-digit P/E
ratio. So, is this a good time for bargain-hunting? Experts say such low valuations
are a signal that the market is pricing in huge disappointment in earnings due
to the demand shock created by the lockdowns to contain Covid-19.
Stocks whose
outlook is better haven’t got much cheaper. For example, Nestle India,
Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Britannia still quote at valuations of
more than 40 times.
(Source: Business Standard – By
Samie Modak, 4th April, 2020)
III. Business
6. Coronavirus
pandemic delivers a major blow to struggling shipping industry
The developing Covid-19-related
scene brings to light once again the symbiosis between the global shipping
industry and world economic growth.
The furious speed at which
Covid-19 has spread from the most populous of all continents, Asia, to Europe
and then to the US killing thousands of people, is sending the global economy
reeling. As country after country, including India is enforcing a comprehensive
lockdown of life the economic cost of which remains anybody’s guess, all
stakeholders of shipping and ports across the globe are scurrying for cover.
The possibility of a repeat of lockdowns in India and elsewhere cannot be
dismissed at this stage. Thanks to Covid-19, maritime operators are likely to
contend with a crisis bigger than what they faced in the wake of the economic
meltdown of 2008-09.
The developing Covid-19-related
scene brings to light once again the symbiosis between the global shipping
industry and world economic growth that, in turn, leaves a major impact on
merchandise and services trade among nations. International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warns that the damage being wrought by
the Covid-19 pandemic could be the ‘gravest threat’ to the global economy since
the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Describing Covid-19 as the ‘No. 1
risk for the world economy with multidimensional ramifications’, ratings and
research organisation CRISIL has drastically cut the gross domestic product
(GDP) growth forecast for India for 2021 fiscal to 3.5% from the earlier 5.2%.
To the horror of maritime
operators, who are facing the greatest existential challenge in decades as
Covid-19 deals a major blow to trade, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) says global growth this year could sink to
1.5% from 2.9% forecast ahead of the virus outbreak.
The World Trade Organisation
(WTO) goods trade barometer published on 17th February showed the
real-time measure of trade trends at 95.5, down from 96.6 recorded in November,
2019, well below the baseline value of 100. This suggests below-trend growth in
goods trade. In WTO’s reckoning, services trade will remain under growing pressure
as well. What the two WTO readings, however, say only partly captures the
likely economic impact of Covid-19. The next couple of WTO barometer readings
of goods and services trade will invariably show further declines with their
consequential impact on shipping, ports and related services.
London-based analytics group, IHS
Markit, said in an early January report, well before coronavirus started
spreading its fangs across the globe and lockdowns in major trading
nations, that after global trade grew by
a disappointingly low 0.6% in 2018 and 0.3% in 2019, the ‘world merchandise
trade volume is forecast to grow 2.7% in 2020.’ If this happens, global
merchandise trade volume this year would reach 14.175 billion tonnes (bt) from
13.804 bt in 2019. But the IHS Markit forecast was based on world real GDP
growth of 2.5% in the current year, so trade growth prediction will also fall
on its face. Shipping is, therefore, destined to bear the brunt as around 90%
of world trade is carried by sea.
Headwinds buffeted global dry
bulk trade through most of last year. Trade tensions between the US and China
left in their trail collateral damage on many other trading nations. Major
mining disasters in Brazil and then weather-related disruptions in prominent
Australian mining regions upset iron ore and coal shipments. A toxic
combination of geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions and low GDP rise
restricted global trade growth to around 1% in 2019. As a result, points out
New York-based maritime consulting Seabury, global container cargo volume last
year amounted to around 152 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), a
piffling growth of 0.8% on 2018.
For both global shipping and
logistics giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, India is an important centre for
delivery and receipt of cargoes in containers. What will be the precise impact
of the still unfolding pandemic on the shipping industry and ports is a subject
of speculation. Maersk of Denmark, which made a 2019 earnings forecast of $5.5
billion in February, has now decided to ‘suspend’ it. It says in a statement:
‘The current situation gives great uncertainties about global demand for
containers as a result of Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken by
governments to contain the outbreak.’ Incidentally, several seafarers of Maersk
vessels suspected of coronavirus infection had to be evacuated for treatment in
the Chinese city of Ningbo.
In a tone similar to Maersk,
Germany headquartered Hapag-Lloyd says: ‘The year 2020 will be very unusual,
after we have seen that conditions in many markets have changed very rapidly in
recent weeks as a result of the coronavirus.’ China, on which the rest of the
world has become heavily dependent for supply of components and semi-finished
and finished products, claims to have controlled Covid-19. But the global
shipping crisis was progressively spawned by Chinese ports becoming
non-operational January onwards as logistics support, including movement of
goods-carrying trucks and wagons, came to a standstill due to the nationwide
lockdown. China is an important trading partner of India – our 2019 imports
from China were $74.72 billion and exports to that country $17.95 billion – and
major disruptions in sailings between the two countries upset the production
schedules of many companies here.
Hapag-Lloyd says China returning
to normal is ‘positive news’ for the shipping industry. But this is
‘considerably overshadowed’ by all the major economies of the West standing in
the throes of ‘collapse’. Such developments can only have serious consequences
for the shipping industry. Indian port operators are experiencing a drop in
cargo volumes since February and no one is certain about the turnaround time.
Container shipping lines are idling vessels at a record pace, resulting in
growing numbers of boxes being removed from the trade network, as they go on
cutting sailings on all major trade lanes.
Only a few
very large shipping lines with plenty of cash such as Cosco of China, Maersk
and Hapag-Lloyd will be able to weather the current storm, albeit
with profits taking a hit. But how will smaller Indian companies, forced to
cancel sailings generate cash to pay for chartered ships, ship maintenance and
staff salaries? In the current situation, New Delhi is left with no option but
to shelve the disinvestment of Shipping Corporation of India whose performance
has been uninspiring for a long time.
(Source:
Business Standard – By Kunal Bose, 2nd April, 2020)
