Govt to concentrate more on clean energy

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PUBLISHED: 28 May 2024 at 06: 11

Govt to concentrate more on clean energy

According to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, the state is promoting the use of fresh energy and solving global climate problems.

Mr. Srettha stated on Monday that he believes clean energy may accounts for 50 % of the nation’s electricity consumption in 15 years.

He made the comments in a statement at the “EARTH JUMP 2024: The Edge of Action” occurrence at Samyan Mitrtown.

He claimed that since his state first took office about nine weeks before, it has been monitoring global warming and making travel arrangements to draw foreign investors to Thailand.

According to him, he approached buyers who valued three things: benefits, independence of strength and fresh energy.

Thailand has to be ready to compete with different places, he said, adding that he believes the country has numerous advantages over its competitors, including the properly- getting of its citizens, low living expenses and its rules.

According to Mr. Srettha, Laos is Thailand’s potential source of fresh energy because it has a sizable source and has several rivers close by. He has had a conversation about the problem with Laos ‘ prime minister, he said.

He also urged private financial institutions to support clean energy-related businesses like solar farms and electric vehicle ( EV ) companies. The state is in discussions with the Thailand Stock Exchange about encouraging clean energy companies to move people, the perfect secretary added.

According to him,” I’m convinced that clean energy will account for 50 % of Thailand’s electricity use in 2040, or in about 15 years,” he said, adding that the state has a number of rivers that can generate a lot of fresh energy.

Additionally, he requested that big companies work with him to aid the government in accomplishing the goal.

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‘We don’t buy it’: Student activists protest ExxonMobil’s role in Sm low-carbon research lab at NTU

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” HIGHLY About” Given ExxonMobil’s bad ecological track record, which included reversing a much-publicized investment in algae renewables and blocking owners ‘ climate ideas, NTUDivest wrote in an Instagram post on May 12. &nbsp, In its post, NTUDivest wrote: &nbsp,” From climate breakdown to toxic environmental pollution, ExxonMobil is noContinue Reading

Equinix’s USmil dual metro data centers propel Malaysia’s digital economy ambitions

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  • exposure to international ecosystems via network- and cloud-deployed digital infrastructure
  • US$ 40m expense helps M’sia technology- up swiftly into&nbsp, online vibrant nation

The newly opened JH1 in Johor, Malaysia.

Equinix, Inc has opened two International Business Exchange ™ ( IBX® ) data centers in Johor ( JH1 ) and Kuala Lumpur (KL1 ). These carrier-neutral facilities, according to the digital facilities company, create a powerful digital infrastructure in Malaysia to support its goal of a digital economy.

A network-dense, cloud-adjacent, and on-demand digital equipment is a necessity as businesses continue to embrace modern transformation and cutting-edge technology like AI.

Platform Equinix ® plays a pivotal role as a facilitator of innovation, economic growth and empowerment for businesses to flourish in Malaysia, hosting more than 2, 000 networks and 3, 000 cloud &amp, IT companies, and partnering with global technology leaders. Importantly, information, finance, gambling and AI companies have now chosen to build their IT system on Platform Equinix in Malaysia. In addition, Day, Maxis, and various leading global and local community services providers have now joined Equinix’s system ecosystem in Malaysia to provide customers with Platform Equinix a highly interconnected and safe environment.

Jeremy Deutsch ( photograph ), President, Asia- Pacific, Equinix, said,” Malaysia is a core business and best location that is very sought after by our important clients. Our unwavering support for the Southeast Asian region demonstrates our belief that it has the ability to drive electric transformation and accommodate a growing digital-savvy population.

Equinix’s US$40mil dual metro data centers propel Malaysia's digital economy ambitions

Equinix’s entry into Malaysia even aligns with the Indonesian government’s 2021 MyDIGITAL initiative, which aims to lay out a plan for the country to accelerate the development of digital goods and services.

Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry ( MITI), said,” Equinix’s decision to expand its presence here reflects its continued confidence in Malaysia’s industrial landscape, which is undergoing key transformative initiatives as outlined in the New Industrial Masterplan ( NIMP ) 2030. One of NIMP’s missions is for Malaysia to tech- away quickly to make us a online attractive nation, and Equinix’s fresh data centers in Kuala Lumpur and Johor will support this mission by enhancing Malaysia’s electronic infrastructure. The most important outcome of Equinix’s purchase is that it will help to create high-quality employment opportunities and spur economic growth, empowering our citizens and businesses to thrive in the modern age.

This venture further underscores our commitment to creating an investor-friendly business environment, according to Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim Sikh Abdul Majid, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Investment Development Authority ( MIDA ). The innovative data centers from Equinix will offer important opportunities for local businesses, particularly those that are nearby, to innovate and develop as they integrate with the global ecosystem.

Essential Information

  • The two- story JH1 facility is situated at Nusajaya Tech Park (NTP ) in Iskandar Puteri, Johor. This information center, carefully located 15 km from Singapore, will meet the growing demand from both local businesses and those operating in neighboring areas.
  • With an initial investment of US$ 40 million, JH1 provides up to 500 cabinets and 1, 800 square meters of coworking area to bolster the government’s modern development.
  • The KL1 facility, located in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, is expected to provide a total of 900 cabinets and colocation space of 2, 630 square meters, once fully built out.
  • Equinix data centers in Malaysia are 100 % covered by renewables. Equinix’s efforts to incorporate clean renewable energy sources into its global operations are on track to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. This initiative extends to all facilities, whether newly constructed or recently incorporated into the company’s portfolio. In 2023, Equinix achieved 96 % Renewable Energy coverage across its global operations.
  • Both JH1 and KL1 will operate effectively in accordance with the A1A standards established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers ( ASHRAE ). This will help customers reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions while improving the overall effectiveness of the data centers, as per Power Usage Effectiveness ( PUE) measurements.
  • Equinix will provide robust interconnection and digital services at JH1 and KL1, including Equinix Internet Access in both locations in Q2 2024, Equinix Fabric® and Equinix Fabric Cloud Router in JH1 in Q2 2024 and KL1 in Q3 2024, and Equinix Internet Exchange ® ( IX ) soon after. These services enable seamless connectivity, enhanced scalability, optimized performance and increased flexibility to empower businesses to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

The generator that keeps the lights on.

The UPS that ensures uninterrupted operations for customers.

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China tariffs won’t make America great again – Asia Times

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Tokyo — It’s difficult to miss the time-warp active involving the US-China trade battle as it gets worse in real time.

Take US President Joe Biden’s new move to double taxes on China- made electric cars to 100 % and lever up import taxes on China’s developed batteries, solar cell, construction cranes, medical products, aluminum and steel.

These, Biden is reading from the Trumpian rulebook that dates back to the middle of the 1980s. And it’s a terrible tilt by a White House that started out pledging to increase America’s competitive activity and resist the protectionist policies that characterized Trump’s 2017- 2021 presidency.

The issue with both presidential candidates in November’s vote is that tariff-heavy responses to business problems attempt to revive an outdated financial system.

According to Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao,” We think isolationism from the West could be a near-term roof for Foreign EV/parts manufacturers aiming for rapid global growth.” However, we believe that it is unlikely to stop China’s long-term EV drive.

This trapped- in- 1985 issue can be found somewhere in Asia and above. The Japanese government’s focus for the past 13 years or so has generally been on restoring the Reagan administration’s trickle-down economy.

Shinzo Abe, the then-japanese prime minister, predicted that monetary easing may trigger a virtuous cycle by putting a gamble on the possibility of a boom in business profits.

The intention was to promote CEO fattening their wages, thereby accelerating economic growth and boosting stock prices.

The strategy for the property rally was properly executed by Japan. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average reached its peak earlier this year thanks to extreme Bank of Japan easing, a plunging renminbi, and some efforts to improve business management.

However, after decades of flat-line earnings, pay dropped for a second straight year in the fiscal year that ended in March, dropping 2.2 %. All” Abenomics” proved is that” Reaganomics” is even less effective in raising living standards now than 40 years ago.

Why, then, did South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government then been reading from Tokyo’s rulebook? Earlier this month, at Yoon’s two- time level in company, his federal went all- in on Abe’s returning- to- the- 80s strategy.

Without moves to loosen labor markets, level playing fields, boost innovation and empower women, a rallying Kospi index wo n’t enrich the vast majority of Korea’s 51 million people.

Trump had undoubtedly attempt to rewrite the 1980s-era plans in a subsequent term. His own plan to implement 60 % taxes on all Chinese products and remove Beijing of its “most popular state” position is as sentimental as they come.

Donald Trump claims that if elected, he will increase taxes on products made in China. Photo: X Screengrab

Trump may go much further, of training. A shift to undermine the US dollar is one of the many laws that could rule a Trump 2.0 White House.

In subsequent weeks, Western media outlets have detailed the desire among advisers like Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former global trade representative, to hinge to a beggar- thine- neighbor crouch on trade.

The former president has long been fascinated by a 1985 currency agreement, which still stands today as history’s most significant realignment of exchange rates.

The Plaza Hotel, a landmark hotel in New York that Trump once owned, signed the deal to significantly raise the yen’s value against the dollar.

When Trump was first introduced, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and advisors like Peter Navarro discussed Trump’s desire for a new Plaza Accord, only this time significantly raising the Chinese yuan.

Surely, Chinese leader Xi Jinping would refuse in a Trump 2.0 era. Even at this point, Xi and Premier Li Qiang are aware of how the pact’s 1985 pact exacerbated Japan’s asset bubble, which burst forth five years later, and the decades that came afterward.

Today, as China’s property crisis fuels deflationary pressures, Xi’s team would be loath to repeat past mistakes made by Japan, the US or the broader Group of Seven nations.

Sadly, Biden’s administration is de- emphasizing its earlier commitment to prioritize increasing US innovation and productivity.

Moves to sign the$ 80 billion CHIPS and Science Act and other legislation in 2022 gave new life to the semiconductor industry and scientific research in America. It was a back-up to promises to lead to new high-tech jobs and put the US back in the game against China.

It also was a sign of economic realpolitik. In recent years, Xi has thrown trillions of dollars at leading the future of aerospace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, chips, electric vehicles, green infrastructure, renewable energy and other hot sectors.

Trump barely tried. The massive$ 1.7 trillion tax cut that Trump’s Republican Party enacted in 2017 was more the stuff of 1985 than a strategy to reanimate American competitiveness. It did little to encourage corporate executives to compete with China in a natural way by improving the US economy.

Trump’s significant tariffs on Chinese goods, steel, and aluminum did nothing to lower US households ‘ costs or protect businesses from global risks.

Without Team Biden’s swift response to its new China tariffs, they are destined to fail. Or cause more problems than they solve, including a possible new spike of inflation.

US inflation might be declining rather than ingraining itself if Biden’s White House had introduced a CHIPS and Science Act 2.0 sooner.

Joe Biden wants more American chip production. Image: X Screengrab

The Federal Reserve, it follows, might’ve long since eased rates by now. Instead, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s team is grappling with consumer prices expanding at a 3.4 % rate year- on- year.

Though a galaxy removed from the 9.1 % peak in 2022, prices are still quite a distance away from the Fed’s 2 % target.

Global markets are sort of going into a holding pattern with the 162 days between now and the US election on November 5. Investors are n’t sure what to expect from Xi’s government in terms of retaliation despite tight polls and Biden and Trump trying to out-stay their positions on being tough on China.

As trade tensions escalate between Washington and Brussels, Beijing warned last week that it might levy taxes as high as 25 % on imported vehicles with large engines. Whether European Union officials will impose their own new restrictions on Chinese-made imports is a big question now.

Analysts at Eurasia Group claim that China’s retaliatory trade investigations and warnings do not dissuade the EU. With its EV investigation, Brussels is eager to send a clear message to Beijing that the EU will stop Chinese subsidies and overcapacity.

According to Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics,” Europe will raise barriers to trade and investment with China in the upcoming months and years.” However, policymakers will try to strike a balance between opposing goals, which could lead to a gradual rise in protectionism with measures targeted at particular goods.

The EU, he adds, could follow Washington’s lead and ratchet up import taxes on Chinese autos. However, Brussels may be cautious out of concern that China might stifle mainland investment in Europe.

According to Kenningham,” Europe is set to increase tariffs and use other… instruments to de-risk its economy from China.” ” But we think it will do so gradually and with carefully targeted measures” .&nbsp,

Tobin Marcus, head of US politics at Wolfe Research, advises investors to expect” some Chinese response, but that Beijing will aim for proportionality, which means the US fallout should be limited”.

In fact, Xi and Li may choose to remain more focused on fixing China’s fundamental financial flaws rather than engage in a destabilizing tit-for-tat trade war on the global stage.

The biggest is a property crisis, which stifles growth and turns away foreign direct investment. As a growing number of businesses decoupled their operations from the mainland, FDI last year was the lowest since 1993 at just$ 33 billion.

Although Beijing has a long way to go to get real estate back, recent policy changes have left economists more confident in the prospect of stronger growth. These include lowering down payment parameters.

According to Hui Shan, chief China economist at Goldman Sachs, some of these measures are unprecedented: the minimum downpayment requirement was never ever below 20 % before. However, they are still insufficient in comparison to the estimated$ 1 trillion ( US$ 38 billion ) funding needed to start digesting excess inventory and allow new home prices to find a bottom within a year.

Even so, there’s a growing sense that Xi’s government is finally moving more decisively in the right direction.

Beijing has already switched from building public housing to ensuring the delivery of numerous pre-sold homes to rebuild buyers ‘ confidence, according to Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings.” This is a significant step in the direction of cleaning up the big mess,” says Ting Lu.

” However, this is proving to be a daunting task, and we think markets need to exercise more patience when awaiting more draconian measures”, Lu added.

Overall, though, Lu says,” we believe Beijing is headed in the right direction with regard to ending the epic housing crisis”.

A porter walks on a bridge in Chongqing, China with new residential buildings in the background. Photo: CNBC Screengrab

China’s efforts to stabilize its underlying financial system will require a lot of multitasking from Xi’s government to address the ways that the 1980s are making a wrong-timed comeback in the West.

Then, as now, such blunt- force trade clashes are as much about politics as they are about economics. But at least they were still effective some time later.

Four decades on, Team Biden seems to be forgetting the lessons of Reagan, Abe, Trump and others. The biggest is that the best way to combat China right now is to develop new domestic economic muscle.

Biden and Trump are making a pivot down memory lane as the liberal trading order-fueled global economy cannot afford.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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‘War on talent’: Malaysia’s semiconductor industry plagued by lack of skilled workers

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International Alumni May Get ALLOWED

In order to meet growing demand, the nation’s national semiconductor corporate commission is looking into hiring foreign graduates. &nbsp,

Wong Siew Hai, leader of the Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association, stated that his organization has developed a program to address the engineering lack. He also referred to the position as a talent war. &nbsp,

Because everyone is quick on ability and they are looking for skills outside, he told CNA,” I call it the battle on ability.”

Malaysia’s multinational companies are also encouraged to teach young engineers.

The government introduced the Academy in Industry program last year as part of the labour market reforms, subsidizing coaching for school graduates to meet business needs. It anticipates the arrival of technology companies.

United States-based device manufacturer Intel, which established its first global manufacturing facility in Penang 50 years ago, is investing US$ 7 billion to expand its operations it.

By the end of this year, it is expected to finish its new innovative packaging service. It will make about 4, 000 higher- paying jobs at the company’s primary international facility for advanced 3D chip packaging.

Under the New Industrial Masterplan 2030, the state is even aiming to make 700, 000 higher- paying jobs.

For AT&amp, S’s Ms Azzuani, she got to acquire significant training when she was sent to the bank’s Chongqing plant in China for six weeks.

She has been “very excited” about making integrated circuits materials for use in unnatural knowledge. She also hopes to work as a senior director in the future and get a professional in her industry.

” Actually, right now, there are a few companies ( that ) want to ( be in the ) same industry like AT&amp, S. ( It depends ) on you whether to accept”, Ms Azzuani told CNA.

” The most important ( thing ) other than salary is knowledge that I gained”.

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Asia Mobiliti addresses allegations of improper conduct against it winning 9-month contract with Selangor state

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  • 2018 launched business forerunner in Demand-Responsive-Transit in M’sia
  • Opportunity to prove itself in arguably first of its kind state-program in Lake

The 2022 launch of DRT Mobility pilot by Asia Mobiliti. Founder and CEO Ramachandran Muniandy is 2nd from right.

Asia Mobiliti, a Malaysia Digital ( MD) status company has been subjected to a recent online campaign by certain unidentified parties that have casted doubts on the process by which we were appointed by the Selangor state government to operate Demand-Responsive Transit ( DRT ) service for the public.

Our appointment as one of two DRT service providers for the Selangor Mobility program was first announced at a public forum organised by the Selangor state government with Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam ( MBSA ) and Menteri Besar Selangor Incorporated ( MBI ) on 15th June 2023. This was followed by the standard opening of the Selangor Mobility company logo and area statement at the Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention ( SDEC ) on 20th October 2023. This session was likewise announced in our own press release at that time which was carried by several media companies and published on our site.

DRT is a ground-breaking technologies for public transport that enables on-demand expressed rides services with the use of clever, machine-learning algorithms to manage fleet dispatch and optimise vehicle routing to perform effective pick-up and drop-off of passengers headed to different destinations. Tickets are made via a customer application while drivers are guided by a vehicle app. Operating within a geofenced area, this provides for more effective and cost-effective primary- & last-mile customer services, freed from a fixed routine and fixed way of normal public transport solutions.

As the inventors of DRT in Malaysia with Trek Rides, we conducted a secret captain of the company in September 2021 in Petaling Jaya for appropriate partners and clients which was commonly reported next. Following the successful pilot and the validation of use, we were the first to be licensed by Agensi Pengangkutan Awam Darat ( APAD ) to operate a ‘bus-on-demand ’ service in December 2022 and remain the only company with a made in Malaysia system, designed and developed by our Engineering & Technology team as part of our Mobility-as-a-Service ( MaaS ) platform, Trek.

Aside from Trek Rides, the platform consists of various proprietary and revolutionary products including a attached vehicle system, drive-by condition monitoring systems for railway tracks and road surface, an IoT connectivity platform, a transit data feed service consumed by a worldwide mapping client based in the Netherlands, a data analytics tool for city-wide mobility insights, and a bidirectional journey planning and ticketing engine that connects all modes of transport in a city.

Founded in 2018, we are a proudly Malaysian startup co-founded by Premesh Chandran and Ramachandran Muniandy that have since earned global and regional recognition, among which includes the Newton Ungku Omar Fund Grand Challenge 2019 winner; a global semi-finalist for Toyota Mobility Foundation’s 2020 CATCH challenge; a global Top 150 semi-finalist for X-PITC H 2021; sole Malaysian representative in the Entrepreneurship World Cup Global Finals 2022; Trek Rides recognised as a global Top 100 solution in the 2023 AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge; winner of the Carsome Mobility Lab accelerator program which was the first auto ecosystem-focused accelerator in Southeast Asia; and most recently, selected into the 100Soonicorns program consisting of technology startups in Malaysia with the potential to be a unicorn.

Our support of the Selangor Mobility program underscores the need for ecosystem building and for strategic public-private partnerships without which it would be impossible for Selangor to be the first in Malaysia to provide DRT services to the public. Across the five zones which we operate ( four of which are for Selangor Mobility which began in November 2023 ), we are on track to achieve a record high of 14,000 ridership this month ( May 2024 ).

We regularly bid for tenders and like any other competitive business, we are successful with some and not so successful with others. Being a highly transparent and ethical business which is an extension of the personal values of our co-founders, we abhor collusion and anti-competitive practices by any party, especially government agencies and corporates.

In the context of the Selangor Mobility appointment process, we understand the reasons given for awarding two companies instead of one. An open tender in this situation of a highly specialised new service and with only two qualified companies in Malaysia would have created a monopoly situation in the state. This would have stifled competitiveness and robbed the opportunity for the state to pilot the service in a real-world setting and assess the performance of the service providers over a reasonable period.

It must be noted that the appointment is only for a period of nine months and required extensive investment from both service providers in terms of procuring vehicles, hiring drivers and continuous optimisation and development of the technology that powered the service. The state received the best value for its investment and provided the opportunity for two companies to prove themselves and design a new service for the state which is arguably the first of its kind state-program anywhere in Southeast Asia.

The success of the Selangor Mobility program has also led to Prasarana and the Ministry of Transport announcing the adoption of DRT as a replacement for conventional feeder bus services with RapidKL running a very successful pilot in May 2023 with Trek Rides in UM-Bangsar South which we continue to operate independently.

As a company committed to its responsibilities towards its clients and shareholders, we take these recent accusations seriously and will exercise our legal options where necessary in safeguarding our reputation and credibility. We view this as an unsubstantiated attack against a Malaysian technology startup.

We remain committed to our mission of improving mobility in cities of the developing world, beginning with Kuala Lumpur, with the use of cutting-edge technology and data. We will continue to invest into creating value in Malaysia and prove that good things can come out of Malaysia.

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India election: Fighting for votes in ‘the world’s biggest data mine’

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10 minutes before

Meryl Sebastian,BBC News, Delhi

Getty Images A supporter of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses his mobile phone before a roadshow by BJP candidate ahead of the second phase of voting for country's general elections, in Hyderabad on April 24Getty Images

They are the apps every Indian has on their telephone- the one where you buy your car, your food, get your second date. Benign, everyday, ordinary to trillions around the world.

In India, these are also likely the apps telling officials everything they could probably want to know about you- whether you want them to or not.

A woman’s religion, family tongue,” the way you review a message to your colleague on social media” have all become points of data politicians are eager to get their hands on, according to political strategist Rutwik Joshi, who is working with at least a dozen unknown lawmakers on their re-election campaigns this election.

And India’s combination of high device take-up and weak regulations allowing secret companies to market data mean that most social parties have gathered” the data to do everything”- also down to knowing “what you are eating today”, he claims.

The question is, why do they care?

Put simply, says Mr Joshi, this level of information can predict the vote-” and these predictions usually never go wrong”.

But perhaps the bigger question is: why should you care?

Microtargeting- described by Privacy International as the use of personal data “to target you with information and adverts to an unprecedented degree of personalisation ”- is not new when it comes to elections.

But it was in the wake of former US President Donald Trump’s 2016 win that it really hit the headlines.

Back then, political consultancy Cambridge Analytica was credited with helping him to victory using data sold by Facebook to profile people and send them pro-Trump content. The firm denied these allegations but suspended its CEO, Alexander Nix.

In 2022, Meta agreed to pay $725m (£600m) to settle a class action lawsuit over a data breach linked to Cambridge Analytica.

Getty Images Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 Getty Images

It left people questioning whether the adverts they had seen had swayed their votes. Countries around the world were concerned enough about the impact on democracy that they swung into action.

In India, a Cambridge Analytica affiliate said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress party were its clients- which both denied.

The country’s then IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also warned of action against the company and Facebook if it misused data of Indian citizens.

But there has since been little to stop micro-targeting of voters, data and security researcher Srinivas Kodali says.

” Every other election commission- like in the UK and Singapore- they all tried to understand the role of data and micro targeting in elections, they created certain forms of checks and balances, which is what normally an election commission should be doing, but we are not seeing that happen in India,” he says.

In India, the problem is compounded because it’s” a data society that was planned and built by the government without any safeguards”, Mr Kodali says.

Indeed, there are some 650m smartphones users in the country- all boasting apps which could potentially share their data with a third party.

But you don’t necessarily need a smartphone to be vulnerable: one of the biggest holders of personal data is the government itself – and even it has been selling personal information to private companies.

“The government built large databases of citizens, shared it with the private sector, ” Mr Kodali says.

This has all left citizens vulnerable to increased surveillance with little control over what information remains private, warns Prateek Waghre, executive director at the digital rights organisation Internet Freedom Foundation.

Getty Images An women scanning her eyes during an Aadhaar registration process in Guwahati, Assam, India on October 8, 2018Getty Images

Meanwhile, a data protection law passed by the government last year is yet to be implemented, experts say. The lack of rules is an issue, says Mr Kodali.

” It’s like the wild, wild west- except on the internet. “

And the result of all of this available data? As Mr Joshi puts it, India entered the election year as” the biggest possible data mine in the world right now”.

The thing is, no one is doing anything illegal, says Mr Joshi.

” I am not asking [the app],’ Give me mobile numbers of how many users you have and all the contact numbers of those users as well’. But I can ask,’ Are people eating veg or non-veg in your area? ‘” he explains.

And the apps are able to hand over that data – because the user gave them permission.

” For example, there are 10 different Indian apps in your mobile phone- you have given access to your contacts, to your gallery, to your mic, to your speakers, to your location, including the live location,” Mr Joshi, whose company, Neeti I, has been using data to understand voter behaviour patterns in particular constituencies, says.

And it is this data – along with data collected by party workers- which is then used to help decide who the candidate should be, where the candidate’s wife should go to do a puja or aarti ( offer prayers ), what kind of speeches they should give- even what to wear.

But does this level of targeting really work to change people’s mind? That remains unclear.

Getty Images Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi (C) waves after offering prayers on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi on May 14, 2024, during the country's ongoing general electionGetty Images

But campaigners say on a basic level, it is a violation of people’s privacy. Extrapolating it further, having this level of detail could be used against people in the future.

” Just the fact that it is happening is problematic. ” says Pratik Waghre, executive director at the digital rights organisation Internet Freedom Foundation.

” What we’ve seen is that there often does n’t seem to be a clear distinction between how data is being handled when someone is beneficiary of a government scheme and how that information is then being used by that particular political party which happens to be in power in a particular state or at a national level to then use that to micro target people with campaign messages. “

The law also allows the government and government bodies to exempt themselves from vast sections on its discretion. It also has the powers to process, use or share this personal data with third parties.

Mr Waghre fears future administrations could take it a step further.

” It can also be: ‘Let’s collectively see who’s supporting us and only give them the benefits’. ”

Getty Images Customers interact with the staff of Realme showroom store at Karol Bagh in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022Getty Images

The use of such data also comes against the backdrop of India’s larger misinformation problem, Mr Kodali says. And when combined with the amount of data on offer, it is a real problem.

” When you talk about artificial intelligence, targeted advertisements, micro targeting of voters- a lot of this falls under the idea of computational propaganda,” he explains. ” Questions of this were raised heavily during the 2016 Trump election, where this election is considered as something that was influenced by foreign actors. “

Mr Kodali says use of data and technology in election campaigns must be regulated just like money and ad spending currently is in order to keep elections fair.

“If you have one or few set of political parties or groups with access to these technologies gaming elections, they may be free but they will stop looking fair, ” he warns.

BBC in-depth India election coverage

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Govt eyes Italian touch for Land Bridge feeder network

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PUBLISHED: 25 May 2024 at 09: 39

Govt eyes Italian touch for Land Bridge feeder network

Businesses in Italy are interested in investing in Thailand’s Land Bridge proposal which may, in turn, improve the country’s road system, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit monday said.

Mr. Suriya said the discussions involved exchanging technical expertise and promoting trade and investment between the two countries after meeting with top executives of European private firms.

Additionally, the discourse covered a variety of investment strategies, particularly those involving the land bridge project that connects the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand coastline.

According to him, Fincantieri, Italy’s leading manufacturing company, showed involvement in investing in the venture. He claimed that the business could take part in various port development projects and provide maintenance for cargo ships.

In addition, Webuild, a leading provider of civil engineering and construction services, made a proposal for large-scale system structure technology and expressed interest in funding the project.

Additionally, Mr. Suriya mentioned that Paolo Barletta, the CEO of Arsenale Group, a luxury hospitality developer, has expressed his desire to work with the State Railway of Thailand ( SRT ) to upgrade train carriages to a luxury level that fits with Thailand’s long-term tourism strategy.

A Milan- Rome- Milan way that is anticipated to open in November is being created in collaboration with Arsenale and Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.

Mr Suriya said he also met with Michele Straniero, vice chairman of Blue Engineering &amp, Design, a firm specialising in successful mechanical, rail, and aircraft architectural design. The department hoped to use this information in upcoming events.

Also, the transport secretary talked with representatives from Nplus, who presented systems for inspecting the quality of equipment.

He claimed that the business was well-known for its device systems and applications that analyze, alert, and accurately report structure sturdiness.

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