Indian cosmology, Industry 4.0 and the coming end of work – Asia Times

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India’s ancient sages believed that a balanced society relies on the contribution of four “varnas”, generic categories representing workers, merchants, protectors, and teachers. When one of the four varnas is neglected or sidelined, society becomes conflicted and fails to reach its full potential.

The varna concept later devolved into a rigid caste system (jāti), used for political oppression, but its original framework remains valuable for understanding the modern world. The varna concept suggests that communism failed because it sidelined the merchants, and that capitalism is failing because it sidelines the workers.

Scholars have drawn parallels between the varna concept and Marxism, equating class struggle with “caste struggle.” They equate workers and merchants in the varna concept with labor and capital in Marxism. However, the four categories of the varna concept offer a more nuanced view of society and have a cosmological basis.

Varna is part of an ancient Vedic prophesy. The four varnas take turns leading society. Each varna stage advances the human condition to the next level until it reaches a new spiritual age. The prophesy is comparable to the Second Coming in Abrahamic traditions. Both offer a vista to a better world to come.

But the true value of the varna system today is that it offers a different lens for looking at the contemporary world with its many apparent contradictions, complexities, and conflicts, including the seemingly intractable conflict between the US and China.

Varna

The concept of varna was first mentioned in the Vedas around 1500 BCE. The ancient sages observed that people naturally gravitate toward specific roles within society. They classified these roles into four generic types or varnas: merchants, workers, protectors, and teachers.

Central to the varna concept is the idea that humanity moves through cycles in which each varna plays a leading role in advancing civilization, from barbarism to enlightenment. Once this cycle is completed, it starts again, reflecting the Vedic view of time as cyclical.

The four varnas cover all social human activity and are interdependent. All four are essential to a functioning society, but they hold distinct worldviews and have different desires, needs, and values.

– Teachers/Spiritual Seekers (Vipra): Enlighten others by valuing the mind, cultivating spiritual and scientific knowledge, and creating laws enforced by warriors.

– Warriors/Protectors (Kshatriya): Driven by competition, they value strength and valor, safeguarding society through order and security.

– Merchants/Entrepreneurs (Vaeshya): Skilled in managing resources, they advance society’s material prosperity.

– Workers (Sudra): Focused on practical labor, empathetic with others. They value security, but given their numbers, they can bring the system down if their needs are not met.

Varnas can overlap in each individual. Most people have traits of two or more varna types. A merchant type can also have a spiritual inclination, and a worker type can also have a merchant impulse. But one of the four varnas typically predominates in each individual.

The malignant caste system that developed in later centuries was the result of politics and human vanity. In the words of modern spiritual teacher Sadhguru, things went wrong “when the goldsmith started to feel superior to the blacksmith.” The caste system transformed the varnas from psychological profiles to lineages.

Modern applications

Despite the varna concept being tainted by centuries of abuse, it has found modern, constructive applications.

Australian scholars Peter Hayward and Joseph Voros developed the Sarkar Game, a role-playing game that is used in corporate training programs. Participants take turns assuming the role of one of the four varnas. This fosters empathy and understanding by stepping into the perspectives of others.

The game, created in collaboration with Professor Sohail Inayatullah, Chair in Futures Studies at UNESCO, helps participants navigate social dynamics and problematic hierarchies. When people adopt different varna roles, they make more informed decisions that address the concerns of all parties.

The Sarkar Game is named after Indian spiritual teacher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921-1990), founder of the socio-spiritual PROUT movement. PROUT promotes an all-encompassing social program based on the varna cycle, emphasizing physical, educational, cultural, and spiritual well-being.

Professor Inayatullah is one of PROUT’s most prominent proponents.

Varna and futurist Lawrence Taub

Varna is also central to the work of American futurist and macrohistorian Lawrence Taub (1936-2016). Taub made the daring claim that the Varna cycle can be mapped to actual (linear) human history.

Taub based his claim on the specific characteristics of the four varnas: their worldviews, ruling elites, sources of power, etc. He argued that one of the four varnas was predominant in specific cultural regions throughout human history up to the present time.   

In Taub’s model, the first Spiritual Age, Satyayuga I, was the prehistoric, animistic period. This age was global, not confined to specific regions. People believed that animals, plants, rivers, and mountains were imbued with a spiritual essence. Shaman leaders mediated the relationship between humans and nature.

The Spiritual Age was followed by the Warrior Age, the age of heroic conquest. It introduced the horrors of large-scale war but also advanced the human condition. Warrior kings Constantine and Ashoka spread Christian and Buddhist spiritual consciousness around the world.

The subsequent Merchant Age began in Europe in the early 17th century. It was marked by the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish occupiers. The Dutch Republic was ruled by merchants. They opened the world’s first stock exchange and created the Duch East-India Company, the first chartered, globe-spanning multinational trading company.

The current Worker Age began in the late 19th century when the Industrial Revolution gathered steam. Workers formed unions to fight for better working conditions, organizing strikes to press their demands. Solidarity was their most potent weapon and they gradually made progress.

In the 20th century, most industrialized countries introduced free basic education and social welfare programs. Even the US, the bulwark of capitalism, created a social safety net. President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society introduced Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the vulnerable.

Merchant fightback

Transitions between varna stages are marked by struggle. The ongoing shift from the Merchant Age to the Worker Age is no exception. The merchants, who retained an outsized influence on society, used a retrograde ideology, neoliberalism, in an attempt to reverse the gains of the workers.

In the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher embraced neoliberalism. They called for a reduction of the role of government in the economy, deregulation, privatization, free markets, and reducing the so-called welfare state.

Neoliberalism was a partial return to the laissez-faire capitalism of the 19th century. The merchants prioritized profits over people and moved factories to low-income countries. They deindustrialized a large part of the US and alienated millions of workers.  

Moreover, the American economy became increasingly financialized. Everything from real estate and sports franchises to art objects were traded like commodities. Money became an asset to make more money rather than to produce goods or services. The concentration of wealth increased and income disparity returned to levels not seen since the 19th century.

Ironically, billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump was the first president to seriously challenge the neoliberal power structure. While his supporters were mostly workers, Trump had a merchant worldview. As president, he mostly adhered to the neoliberal agenda of his predecessors but gave neoliberalism a nationalistic twist.

Neoliberalism opened up the world economy and stimulated global trade, but it had a fundamental flaw. Antithetical to government interference in the economy, it prevented the country from setting national goals to deal with a changing world. The problems caused by a lack of planning and foresight became apparent in the first decades of the 21st century.

Instead of developing a long-term vision, the US government simply reacted ad hoc to global challenges. It resorted to sanctions, tariffs, subsidies for vulnerable domestic industries, and the weaponization of the dollar. The latter had the opposite of its intended effect, resulting in a global movement to de-dollarize bilateral trade.

China’s market reforms

The start of the neoliberal era coincided with China’s market reforms under Deng Xiaoping. Deng opened the country to foreign investment and allowed commerce to flourish. Communism under Mao Zedong had sidelined the merchants, but Deng, putting pragmatism over ideology, reintegrated the merchants into Chinese society.

As was the case in Russia, China’s communism movement was a revolt against the merchants, both domestic and foreign (neo) colonialists who had plundered China for a century. Led by the intelligentsia (vipras), the communist revolution was widely supported by the workers and the warriors.

Deng’s reform, which prioritized outcomes over ideology, transformed China into a global economic powerhouse. Using 5, 10, and even 50-year plans, the Chinese economy grew at breathtaking speed. The goal was Xiaokang or the creation of a “moderately prosperous society.”

Deng’s market reforms liberalized the economy, but the Communist Party retained control, in part to prevent the merchants from building a political power base and coopting government policy.

When tech billionaire Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, questioned the economic policies of the Chinese government, the government cut him down to size to let him know who is in charge.

Other billionaires got the message. Zhong Shanshan, the billionaire founder of a bottled water company, set up the “Common Prosperity Fund.” Tech giants Tencent, Alibaba, and other big companies made large contributions to the fund or launched similar initiatives in the name of “common prosperity.”

China’s rise was spectacular. The Chinese middle class today is the largest in the world by far. But its rise was predictable. In the 1980s, Japan virtually destroyed the Western consumer electronics industry and the Western automobile industry came close to meeting the same fate, rescued only by import restrictions.

China, ten times larger than Japan, applied a similar formula. Taub calls it teamwork capitalism informed by the worker worldview. He wrote: “Both value society (the State) over the individual. They stress conformity, group-mindedness, linkage, cooperation, a collective attitude, sensitivity to others, and a desire to live securely.”

The end of work

Worker varna qualities will play a key role in the Fourth Industrial, the next stage of technological development. Industry 4.0 combines multiple technologies and the social sciences to integrate Industry 4.0 into daily life. China is leading in most of the technologies that are crucial to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, China’s economic and technological influence in the world is likely to increase. For the US to keep up, it needs a plan. The same applies to the rudderless EU, like the US taken over by neoliberals. Without a plan or destination, the ship of state is lost at sea, at the mercy of the force of history.

Taub warns against the West imitating China. The Worker Age is the shortest of the four varna ages and will be superseded by the new Spiritual Age, Satyayuga II. Harbingers of this new era are the growing interest in yoga, meditation, mindfulness and ecology.

Taub argues that several traits cultivated during the merchant era – such as a well-developed ego and individualism – were out of step with the Worker Age, but these merchant traits will align more closely with Satyayuga II than the Confucian-inspired emphasis on teamwork and prioritizing society over the individual.

This may be true but the world must first navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Industry 4.0 will gradually lead to the end of most work and transform society. China leads this transition and has the economies of scale to set global standards. It is bound to play a key role in mediating the transition to Setyayuga II.

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Kolkata trams: Iconic Indian city landmark faces extinction

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AFP In this photo taken on September 8, 2024, passengers commute in a tram along a street in Kolkata. Introduced in the sprawling eastern city in 1873 during the early days of the imperial British Raj, trams in Kolkata were initially horse-drawn, then steam-driven. Electric-powered trams took to the streets in 1900. AFP

Last week, authorities in the Indian city of Kolkata announced plans to eliminate trams entirely, retaining only a small heritage loop. In response, a group of activists is fighting to ensure that trams remain a vital mode of transport rather than mere nostalgic joyrides. Sandip Roy reports.

In February 2023, Kolkata celebrated 150 years of its tramways with music, cake, a beauty parade of vintage trams, including a century-old wooden car, and a cheerful tram conductor, Roberto D’Andrea, who travelled all the way from Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne and Kolkata boast two of the oldest operational tramways in the world. Melbourne’s trams date back to 1885. Kolkata’s first tram, a horse-drawn one, started in 1873.

That’s where the similarities end.

Melbourne’s tram system is going strong despite the government once attempting to get rid of them. The system has been upgraded and some trams are solar-powered.

Kolkata’s trams have been steadily declining over the years. From 52 routes in the 1970s, down to 25 in 2015 and now to just three.

The tram cars rattle and wheeze, having not been updated in years. Even the signs inside have not changed. “Beware of pickpockets”, “No change available for 100 rupees ($1.19; $0.89) or 50” and “To stop the car please ring the bell only once”.

Now, the state government has announced that it wants to do away with trams entirely, save for one small loop as a heritage route.

But a dogged group of tram activists is fighting back.

“It’s a huge backward step as cities worldwide are ‘decarbonising transport’ because of global warming and climate change,” says Mr D’Andrea, who has helped foster a Kolkata-Melbourne tram friendship over the years.

“More than 400 cities run tram systems. Cities that dismantled their tramways are rebuilding them at great expense in places like Sydney and Helsinki and all over France. Hong Kong runs trams at high frequency on narrow streets,” he says.

But West Bengal transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty told the media: “The population and vehicular count of Kolkata have multiplied several times but the city’s roads have not widened. Road space continues to hover around 6% which is way less than Mumbai’s 18% and Delhi’s 10%.”

Both those cities once had trams. Mumbai had double-decker ones. Both have done away with them, leaving Kolkata as the only Indian city to hold onto the trundling streetcars.

In a way they have become emblematic of the city itself.

The city has other landmarks – the steel Howrah bridge, the white-domed Victoria Memorial monument, the colonial buildings in the city’s centre. But just as London has its iconic red double-decker buses, Kolkata has its trams. The ding-ding sound of the first tram of the day rattling down streets was the alarm clock many in Kolkata woke up to.

They are a familiar sight in films made in the state.

“I have used trams in two of my films and the tram depot as well,” says filmmaker Anjan Dutt.

Mahanagar (1963), by celebrated filmmaker Satyajit Ray, opens with a stunning two-minute-long tram sequence, sparks flying from the overhead cables before the camera moves inside to settle on the protagonist’s tired face as he returns home from work. Here, the tram stands in for the city itself, both its dreams and the daily grind.

In fact, Kolkata’s Belgachia tram depot, once bustling with workmen repairing, maintaining, even building trams, nowadays often doubles as a film set. “Even on a working day I saw films being shot in the workshop,” says Subir Bose, a tram company worker who retired in 2022 after 39 years of service. “A Kolkata film means they have to show a tram.”

Getty Images Trams in KolkataGetty Images

Trams are very much part of the history of the city and its sense of itself.

In 1902, Calcutta as it was known then, became the first Asian city with electric trams. Even after independence, the Calcutta Tramways Company was run from London and was listed on the London Stock Exchange till 1968. The cars were built by companies with names like Burn Standard and Jessop.

And it wasn’t just a transportation system. The tram lines knit the city together.

When bloody Hindu-Muslim riots gripped Calcutta during partition in 1947, tram workers patrolled the city in empty trams to help restore normalcy.

“My own father helped save some people from a mob,” says tram driver Gopal Ram. “Tram workers were like a family. It didn’t matter if you were Hindu or Muslim.”

Mr Ram’s great grandfather Antu Ram was a tram employee from the steam-powered days. His grandfather Mahavir and father Jagannath worked for the trams as well. Mr Ram retired recently, the fourth and last generation of his family in Kolkata trams.

In some ways, the mystery is that Kolkata’s trams have survived this long.

“In the 1950s and 60s, during the personal automobile boom, people were getting rid of trams everywhere, not just in India,” says transport consultant Suvendu Seth.

“Now they are making a comeback. The light rail in many cities in the United States is just a newer version of trams. It’s sad that we had it all the time and are neglecting it instead of improving it.”

Mr Seth says that instead of complaining about lack of road space, an innovative solution could be to make some roads open only to pedestrians and trams.

AFP oberto D'Andrea, tram conductor of Melbourne, enjoying the joyride in a newly decorated tram to celebrate the 20th anniversary (1996 - 2016) of Kolkata Melbourne Tramjatra approaching Esplanade, on December 10, 2016 in Kolkata, IndiAFP

Debashis Bhattacharyya, a retired academic and president of the Calcutta Tram Users Association, thinks trams survived in Kolkata all these years because they connected the city’s schools, hospitals and cinemas.

In the 1990s, as the count of cars and buses increased, the then Communist government in the state called trams “obsolete” and wanted to get rid of them.

“I protested,” says Mr Bhattacharyya. “If trams went, I felt my whole existence was threatened. I did exhibitions, slide shows, brought in foreign experts. The government should be applying for UNESCO heritage status for trams instead of trying to kill it off. ”

Recently, activists have been trying to use culture to save trams.

Since 1996, filmmaker Mahadeb Shi has been organising the Tramjatra festival, often in collaboration with Mr D’Andrea. Art students paint the trams and local bands perform in the streetcars.

Each Tramjatra has a theme, like Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali or the city’s Durga Puja festival.

“Tramjatra helped expose younger people to trams too,” says Shi.

One north Kolkata tram route was reopened recently. The West Bengal Transport Corporation also tried to make trams cool again with special projects like a tram library, an Independence Day special tram and a short-lived Tram World museum.

AFP A tram rolls along a main road which is usually jammed with traffic, during a 12-hour general strike in Kolkata on January 22, 2009. AFP

When Kolkata received a C40 Cities “Green Mobility” award in Copenhagen in 2019, mayor Firhad Hakim said trams were a key part of his vision to make the city’s transportation all-electric by 2030.

But now he seems to have forgotten that pledge. The government admits trams are a “green” mode of transport but says they are investing in other forms instead – electric buses and cars and expanding the underground metro system.

Mr Bhattacharyya says tram routes have been gobbled up by tuk-tuks which generate more employment and votes for the government. The tram depots also sit on valuable real estate the government can sell.

But Shi insists the final bell hasn’t rung yet, as the issue is now with the Calcutta High Court, which formed an advisory committee last year to explore how Kolkata’s tram services can be restored and maintained, with the state awaiting the committee’s report before taking further action.

Mr Bose, the retired tram worker, says the government could have shut down the trams long ago, but that something held it back every time. Perhaps because it too senses what trams mean for the city, he says.

“Three things made Kolkata Kolkata – the Howrah Bridge, the Victoria Memorial and the trams. It’s heart-breaking to think we could be losing one of them.”

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Commentary: Could mandatory climate reporting make SGX less attractive?

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SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS MOST CRUCIAL

Meanwhile, mandatory Scope 3 reporting, which has taken a back seat under the new reporting regime for now, remains the most problematic.

Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions that occur along the value chain of a company’s operations with upstream (such as suppliers) and downstream (such as customers) activities included.

The mandatory implementation of Scope 3 has met with pushback globally. Scope 3 emissions account for the majority of the carbon footprint for most companies, even making up to 80 per cent or 90 per cent of emissions in some cases.

Voluntary Scope 3 reporting therefore translates into a technical loophole for companies, creating opportunities for greenwashing.

To illustrate, a company could outsource its polluting operations to suppliers or sell their polluting assets to a private company, which will shift the emissions classification from Scope 1 to Scope 3. The company then could simply claim it has reduced its carbon footprint without any genuine change in the overall emissions along the value chain.

This is no different from sweeping dust under the rug – the dirt is still there, just hidden from sight.

Until Scope 3 reporting becomes mandatory and subject to strict audit requirements, mandatory Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reporting still lacks the horsepower to fully drive genuine decarbonisation.

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Singapore’s prime office market subdued amid cautious business spending

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The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is another concern looming in the minds of businesses.

“If you are going to apply AI across several functions, the question has become ‘do you need the headcount?'” said Savills’ Mr Cheong.

“This is still being figured out, so many businesses are still waiting for a decision from their head offices. In the meantime, they don’t have the budget to move and fit out a new space.”

This uncertainty explains why in recent time, businesses with expiring leases have chosen to renew at their current location – but for a smaller space and a shorter time, according to Mr Cheong.

Doing so means paying higher rents per square foot as landlords are asking for a premium for shorter leases, he added.

Still, office tenants typically find this a better deal given the difficulty in finding a similarly priced Grade A office space in CBD, and the rising costs involved in refurbishing a new space.

“This is why short-term renewals have been the main activity we saw in 2023 and early 2024, and that is why rents went up marginally, not because of overwhelming new leases,” Mr Cheong said.

Meanwhile, hybrid work arrangements have continued after the pandemic, presenting another key factor for firms to reassess their office spaces.

Even though some have appeared to buck the trend – such as Amazon which has mandated its employees to return to office five days a week – experts still think hybrid work will remain the new normal.

“If more companies implement policies requiring employees to return to the office, the demand for office space could increase. However, this shift would take time as leases are typically signed for three to five years and existing space allocations are fixed,” said Ms Tricia Song, head of research for Southeast Asia at CBRE Singapore.

“In Singapore, where real estate costs are high, some companies might continue to favour hybrid work arrangements or adopt collaborative and flexible office designs to accommodate the rise in in-office employees.”

LOOKING AHEAD

That said, the market is still seeing pockets of demand.

Knight Frank noted that Meta’s space at South Beach Tower has “broadly been backfilled by smaller occupiers”.

These smaller businesses have been among the most active in seeking out new office spaces, with “modest demand” coming from firms such as those from North Asia that are establishing new offices in Singapore, the consultancy added.

JLL also observed that a “significant portion” of Meta’s space has been re-let or is currently in advanced negotiations.

Demand is coming from existing occupants looking to expand within the same building, and others relocating from elsewhere in the CBD. These are firms from the professional services and tech industries, said Dr Chua.

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Indonesian miner BUMA secures 1 trillion Rupiah bond issuance | FinanceAsia

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Mining services firm Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama (BUMA), the principal subsidiary of Indonesia Stock Exchange-listed Delta Dunia Makmur, has completed the successful issuance of the BUMA II 2024 Rupiah bonds (BUMA II 2024 bonds) with a total value of Rp1 trillion ($65.7 million).

The bonds were oversubscribed by 1.4 times and were issued in three series: Series A with a nominal value of Rp251 billion at a fixed interest rate of 7.25% per annum, maturing in 370 calendar days; Series B with a nominal value of Rp332.71 billion at a fixed interest rate of 9.25% per annum, maturing in three years; Series C with a nominal value of Rp416.26 billion at a fixed interest rate of 9.75% per annum, maturing in five years.

A “wide range” of Indonesian pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, asset managers, and banks invested in the offering, a BUMA spokesperson told FinanceAsia.   

Indra Kanoena, president director of BUMA, commented, “The strong market response to BUMA II 2024 bond offering reinforces confidence in BUMA’s strategic direction, robust cash flow management, and credit profile. This bonds issuance allows us to further diversify and solidify our financial foundation, driving growth in our business while strengthening our position as a leading mining service provider and advancing toward becoming a diversified global mining company.”

The proceeds will be used to manage its debt maturity profile and fuel future growth. BUMA has operations in Indonesia and Australia, and in June this year it bought the Atlantic Carbon Group in Pennsylvania for around $122 million, and subsequently BUMA became the leading producer of anthracite coal in the US. 

42.29% of the proceeds, amounting to Rp422.9 billion, is being allocated to repay debt under BUMA I 2023 Series A, which matures on January 8, 2025. Additionally, 28.86% of the funds will be used for capital expenditure to purchase heavy equipment, enhancing BUMA’s production capacity and operational efficiency, the media release said. 

The remaining 28.85% will support BUMA’s ongoing operational activities, enhancing the company’s ability to manage cash flows and control costs effectively.

The issuance has further diversified the company’s financing strategy, which consists of both USD and IDR bonds, conventional and Shariah bank loans, and leasing financing schemes. The strategy strengthens the company’s financial resilience, enhances its ability to navigate market volatility, broadens its financial base, placing the company in a better position for future growth, according to the media release.

The BUMA II 2024 bonds received an A+ rating from Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo) and Fitch Ratings. BNI Sekuritas and Trimegah Sekuritas Indonesiawere the joint lead underwriters for the bonds’ issuance.

Delta Dunia Group also owns two new subsidiaries: Bukit Teknologi Digital (BTech), offering mining technology solutions, and BISA Ruang Nuswantara (BIRU), a social entity dedicated to education, vocational schools, and fostering a circular economy. In July 2024, the group established Katalis Investama Mandiri to support its long-term strategy in environmental, social and governance (ESG).


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Risks rising for Asian banks from climate change | FinanceAsia

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Bankers are assessing how these dangers are playing out for their risks and how the so-called” passive” credit risk may be growing as a result of the recent severe storms that have ravaged Asia Pacific ( Apac ).

In early September, Super Typhoon Yagi caused billions of dollars of financial losses and cost hundreds of lives across Hainan, Guandong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, and to a lesser degree Hong Kong. Banks need to realize how climate change makes lending more prone to risk because the insurance gap is also significant throughout the area. Banks are currently protected by ( re )insurance against the most extreme weather events, but if that becomes more expensive or difficult to access, the physical risks of climate change become more directly transmitted to the banks.

Tom Mortlock, weather threat expert guide – analytics, Apac, Aon, told FinanceAsia:” Financial institutions and the stream of credit is key to economic development across Asia, but so too is the insurance that sits behind this, that de-risks the lending. Sadly, Asia’s plan distance is one of the largest in the world, with only 14 % of economic costs covered by insurance in 2023, making banking in areas with high climate risk a potentially dangerous task.

Why is climate change important for financial institutions? is a report that Aon has just released.

Mortlock remarked,” Climate change is increasing the underlying risk profile in many locations and over time scales that banks are lending on. Low insurance coverage and high climate risk, combined with low insurance coverage and high climate risk, can pose a” silent” credit risk on lenders ‘ books, which has so far gone unnoticed.

Analytical analysis might be essential to weighing the risks. We are now starting to see a variety of financial institutions use traditional insurance-based analytics to understand their climate risk exposure and incorporate this into their loan origination and risk appetite decisions, according to Mortlock. &nbsp,

Although extreme weather is almost unavoidable in every region, some Asian cities are much better suited to extreme weather than others thanks to investments in drainage systems.

The Climate Risk Group’s Head of Corporate and Financing Sector Engagement, Philip Tapsall, head of the Cross-Department Initiative, stated:” Hong Kong is better prepared than other cities and regions for extreme weather events that are expected to worsen with climate change, particularly typhoons and flooding.”

However, banks operating in Hong Kong are significantly more exposed to less developed regions like south-eastern China and Southeast Asia ( SEA ), where climate change raises financial risks to balance sheets due to direct losses and economic effects.

Exposures can be caused by disruptions to trade, construction delays in supply chains, or direct financial losses caused by bank office shut downs, etc. &nbsp,

In order to help banks assess their physical risks to climate change in the city earlier this year, XDI collaborated with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and KPMG. &nbsp,

Regulation rising

Aon’s Mortlock also noted a rise in the region’s incoming regulatory issues.

He noted that” we have a raft of climate-related regulation coming in across Asian jurisdictions where businesses will have to start making their climate related risks known to the market.” In fact, according to some analysis we conducted, over 10,000 listed companies will be required to disclose climate information by 2027 for the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Mortlock, “at the same time, regulators are beginning to conduct their own climate stress tests on the financial services sector to make sure there is enough money in the system to withstand climate shocks both now and in the future,” &nbsp,

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Islamic finance players eye Middle East growth | FinanceAsia

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The main banks and financing method used by Muslim communities is Islamic finance. The Shariah-compliant section was created in accordance with Islamic law, which forbids specific activities like the collection of interests and investments in dangerous businesses like tobacco and pornography.

Islamic finance accounts for around 3 % of the global financial markets by valued assets, with key activities in Southeast Asian ( SEA ) markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, and the Middle Eastern region. Islamic finance consists of Islamic banking, Sukuk ( fixed income ), Islamic equity funds and Islamic insurance, among other lines of business. &nbsp,

In the Middle East, the Islamic finance market is estimated to be worth$ 2 trillion in 2024 and is expected to reach$ 2.57 trillion by 2029, according to reports. Iran and Saudi Arabia are two of the world’s largest markets by Shariah-compliant assets, with over$ 400 billion in both countries.

According to S&amp, P Global Ratings, the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC ) countries had the highest percentage of Islamic banking assets in 2023, making up 70 % of that percentage.

In this part, FinanceAsia spoke to promote players to find out where they see the most options.

Sukuk: an alternative funding cause

Data from S&amp, P Global Ratings suggested that 37 % of the Sukuk securities in 2023 came from manufacturers based in GCC places, revealing a growing Islamic money have from Arab businesses. Saudi Arabia has been the major growth drivers, especially in dollar-denominated Sukuk securities.

Some proceeds from the Sukuk issuances are channelled to activities related to energy transition and sustainability, on top of general business operations, according to Sue Lee, director and Asia Pacific ( Apac ) head of index investment strategy at S&amp, P Dow Jones Indices.

This coincides with a trend across the majority of Arab governments to cut back on oil-related economy. New technologies like natural technology and clean energy are higher on the agenda in the context of the growth travel. For instance, Saudi Arabia wants to use 50 % of alternative energy by 2030 and has a goal of going from zero to zero by 2060.

In order to accomplish these objectives, significant funding is required to support the development of the region’s facilities and engineering, which in turn increased the volume of fixed income bonds issued.

Sukuk, as a Shariah-compliant alternative to conventional ties, provides lenders with a diversified revenue resource by tapping into a unique investment pool, Lee said. For instance, markets in SEA, such as Malaysia, are long-time officials within the Islamic banking area.

In the first quarter of 2024, Sukuk items performed statistically better than its competition on the secondary marketplace.

Lee explained that this is related to a shorter Sukuk lifespan on average, which is typically less than five centuries. Short-term lending has become advantageous for the Muslim fixed income solution in a market with rising interest rates.

However, green Sukuk is growing rapidly from a small foundation, supporting the energy transition of Arab countries.

Equity money: growing buyer demand

Munirah Khairuddin, chief executive officer ( CEO ) Malaysia and managing director, strategic distribution and institutional client relations, Southeast Asia and global Shariah, at Principal Asset Management, said that the teams is seeing growing interest from Middle Eastern investors, especially those based in Saudi.

” As Middle Eastern markets grow and expand, there will be an increased need for Shariah-compliant purchase goods. Traders who are guided by Islamist beliefs will look for opportunities that are in line with their beliefs, she said.

A premium is currently relevant to other asset lessons as well as Shariah-compliant opportunities.

For example, the S&amp, P 500 Shariah, an index which covers all Shariah-compliant constituents of S&amp, P 500, offers a 1-year return at 26.77 %, slightly higher than that of S&amp, P 500 at 26.15 %. Over the past five decades, according to Lieu, Shariah-compliant global capital indices generated on average 2.5 % extra return per year compared to their regular counterparts. &nbsp, &nbsp,

The Shariah-compliant index, filtered with Shariah rules, taking out monetary stocks and high-leveraged sectors such as energy, which in turn leads to an increased conduct of other sectors such as technology stocks. Islamic indices will typically outperform financials in times of outperformance for the information technology ( IT ) sector.

Steven Larson, investment manager, world stocks, at Principal Financial Group, echoed these views, expecting boosting returns generated from IT, logistics, medical and biological sectors.

He claimed that the worldwide Islamic finance sector’s assets are just growing swiftly in a select few key markets.

Larson added:” Additionally, we see an increased appetite for private market materials, however, the market lacks shariah-compliant structures to cater to the rising demand. However, we are seeing more efforts from property managers to create more shariah-compliant strategies in real property, private financing and secret equity”.

On top of that,” Shariah rules share a lot of commonalities with environmental, social and governance ( ESG) principles. And as more buyers look to these rules while investing, results of ESG or Shariah-compliant firms may get affected”, Lee pointed out.

She said that a rise in silent property should be a potential prospect because Islamic cash ‘ percentage of quiet assets under control is much lower than that of regular ones.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur-based Khairuddine pointed out how regional initiatives and partnerships can help standardise practices, enhance liquidity and create larger markets. To make Islamic finance more accessible, improvements are also made to trading platforms, settlement systems, and regulatory frameworks.

Digitising Islamic finance

Islamic finance also faces a problem of limited products, as well as investment appetites. Saif Khan, founder of iFintechpro, a fintech player focussing on Islamic finance, said enhances in technology and digitisation would help.

Middle Easterners are increasingly using digital products, with more and more people opting for them. The landscape is shifting towards a digital-first approach”, he told FA.

These include digital Islamic banking, digital Sukuk issuances, and tokenisation of real-world assets, on which Khan’s team is working on. He claimed that the blockchain technology would lower thresholds and improve risk profiles of investment projects, thereby making Islamic investment more accessible. For example, assets like buildings, solar farms and agricultural projects can be tokenise, enabling retail investors to invest and benefit.

” Technology can reduce the wealth gap by making high-quality investment products available to everyone”, he said. &nbsp, &nbsp,

Khan claimed that some Middle Eastern markets have already established a welcoming regulatory framework despite the fact that the practice is still in its infancy. The Dubai Financial Services Authority ( DFSA ) introduced its rules over investment tokens in Dubai in 2021 as part of its digital asset regime. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also put in place the same guidance.

According to Islamic law, tokenization of Waqfs, which refers to endowments of property that are given for religious and charitable purposes, could be a useful application.

” This can lead to tremendous social impact by providing transparency, traceability and greater trust”, he explained. ” With smart contracts on chain, updates could be automated and simplified for stakeholders”.

To press ahead, more communication between regulators and different players is needed, Khan added. For example, legal structuring, investor protection, liquidity and market education are some aspects to carefully consider.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Wanting a break from work but fearing ‘bad impression’, woman forged MC to get hospital leave

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SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S$ 5, 000 ( US$ 3, 890 ) by a court on Tuesday ( Oct 1 ) for forging a medical certificate (MC) in order to obtain hospitalisation leave from her company.

She was concerned about her family’s health and wanted a break from work because she was drowsy. &nbsp,

However, she felt that taking hospitalization left was a good reason to be away from work because she did not want her employer to have” a negative impression of her.”

She had been paid S$ 3, 541.15 for the duration of her hospitalisation left, comprising nine working days.

Su Qin, 37, even forged the dying certificate of her mother in order to allow her to remain in China while her mother was ill.

The Chinese national admitted to one count of fraud, two others of which were brought up for the allegedly forged death certificate and a MC. &nbsp,

WHAT HAPPENED

Su was a software engineer for ETC Singapore SEC, the court was informed.

She wanted to take a crack from her job in the spring of this year, so she used Adobe Photoshop to build a MC.

She changed the title to” Saints Luke’s Hospital,” which was close to her home, using a reputable certification from a previous occasion.

She edited the times of hospitalisation leave to remain Mar 23, 2024 to Apr 3, 2024 and put a deadline of Mar 31, 2024 on the MC. The QR script on the report was then blurred out by her.

Su was able to obtain leave after giving the made file to her employer. She eventually resigned on April 4.

As part of the company’s procedure for resigning staff, the head of human resources ( HR ) checked Su’s leave and benefits.

She noticed the muddled QR code on Su’s fake MC when she saw it. She discovered that the online website had broken when she attempted to access it using the link.

She asked Su to post an original version of the document. Su created a QR code and created a website that looks similar to the target on the forged document.

She gave HR the following MC she had created.

But, the head of HR confronted Su over the two made credentials, and the company fired her with 24 hours ‘ notice.

The HR mind then filed a police statement.

Su after compensated the business.

According to Su’s prevention appeal, she worked mildly as a full-time consultant for Century Games from November 2023 to Apr 15, 2024.

Su informed Century Games that her mother had died after being informed of a troubling phone call from a Chinese hospital that had informed her that her mother’s situation had significantly deteriorated, according to her attorney Mr. Richard Lim from Richard Lim &amp, Company.

According to Mr. Lim, she returned to China the same day and after submitted a forged document in exchange for an extension of her stay in China while caring for her thoroughly poor mother.

This fee was taken into consideration for punishment.

The prosecutors sought a fine of S$ 5, 000 to S$ 6, 000 for Su, noting that she had forged two types of documents.

A BITTER LESSON: Military

In his prevention appeal, Mr Lim asked for a “lenient fine”, saying Su’s steps were certainly driven by hatred or economic ambition, though “undeniably wrong”.

They were the aggressive selections of a person who was under enormous emotional and physical stress, he claimed.

The accused has had terrible night worrying about this issue, according to the attorney.” The accused has learned a harsh training. She is currently unemployed and has been fired from both organizations as a result of her actions.

Su, according to the prevention appeal, arrived in Singapore at the age of 18 in 2005 after receiving a scholarship from the Ministry of Education.

She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Nanyang Technological University, and she immediately began working as a software engineer.

Mr. Lim claimed that Su is the only child in the family and bears full responsibility for her parents. She is the single father for her old families.

Her family has been battling various diseases as she has aged as well as being hospitalized in recent years, according to the attorney. The accused has taken care of her family’s medical bills on her own, as a dedicated child.

He claimed Su took on her next independent position to complement her income and pay for her mother’s extensive medical bills. There was no paid leave for the independent place.

Su’s main motivation for forging the two MCs was not to confuse the company for monetary gain, but more” a hungry need for rest,” according to Mr. Lim, because her mother’s condition at home was quite severe and she lacked the energy to work.

When confronted by HR following the “badly created” next made MC, Su “immediately admitted to the fabrication, expressed her deep dread, and sought forgiveness”, said Mr Lim.

He claimed that even before the police called her up, she volunteered to and paid ETC for the money she received during her “hospitalization left.”

Mr. Lim, who requested a liberal good so his client could care for her mom soon, said Su’s mother is still “in a grave condition” and requires constant care back home in China.

For fraud, she could have been jailed for up to four years, fined, or both.

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13 businesses selected for Tegas Fundraising Accelerator batch 3

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  • The throttle helps startups develop pitches, bring capital
  • aims to place native startups at the top 20 in the global business ecosystem by 2030.

Participants engaged attentively during a session on the first day of the TEGAS Fundraising Accelerator.

Through its TEGAS Digital Village ( TDV), Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak ( TEGAS ) has made the selection of 13 businesses for the third cohort of the TEGAS Fundraising Accelerator ( TFA ) program. The TFA is designed to promote the growth of local businesses and social organizations, aligning with Sarawak’s Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy and the Sarawak Digital Economy Blueprint 2030.

In a statement, the agency confirmed that the selected organizations for the program include NR&amp, Sons Holdings, Best Academy, Evolving Brilliance Technologies, Ensera, Harapan Anak Urang Sarawak, Fit Two Shape, OINC, Spearcompute, Miaw Destiny Solution Management, Noms Fochun Founders, Ark Hill, Zinsolar Engineering, and HY Energy Services.

TEGAS is responsible for the four-day TDV Kuching program, which is co-hosted by PitchPlatforms Sdn Bhd ( pitchIN ) and MyStartup. While MyStartup, a national initiative created by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation ( MOSTI ) and Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, aims to boost the competitiveness of local startups with the goal of achieving a top 20 position in the Global Startup Ecosystem by 2030, PitchIN is Malaysia’s Digital Fundraising and Investment Hub.

13 businesses selected for Tegas Fundraising Accelerator batch 3The TEGAS Fundraising Accelerator was created to assist business owners with little or no experience in obtaining additional funding. Through this ongoing initiative to nurture startup growth in Sarawak, founders will be equipped with essential techniques and insights needed to successfully raise capital”, said Len Talif Salleh ( pic ), Deputy Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration, and Environment, who is also Chairman of TEGAS.

” This program offers an in-depth investigation into the subtleties of funding, ensuring businesses are better prepared for buyer engagement”, he added.

Xelia Tong, Chief Operating Officer of pitchIN, is one of the instructors for the project, alongside other significant early-stage owners, funding organizations, and venture capitalists. These experts may offer valuable insights into the fundraising process and give participants a thorough understanding of buyer expectations and tactics to secure financing.

The accelerator aims to help startups improve their pitches, navigate challenging investment environments, and maximize their potential to get additional funding.

” Since partnering with TEGAS in 2019, we’ve seen remarkable growth in the local habitat, especially in nurturing Sarawak companies. We’re confident that this program will help local entrepreneurs expand their fundraising capabilities and help them grow and contribute to the state’s expanding firm landscape as we approach the second year of operation of the Sarawak fundraising accelerator,” said Tong.

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Nobody talkin’ about an AI smartphone revolution – Asia Times

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In: Asia, Technology

Last year, Apple unveiled a new series of iPhones, as is customary at this time of year. The only thing that was promised to make these new gadgets appealing to us was AI, or Apple Intelligence, as they called it. However, customer technology’s global community has cooled down.

Over a hundred billion dollars were soon wiped off of Apple’s share price because the lack of enthusiasm from the public was so obvious. Fans of all new things technology, yet the Wired Gadget Lab podcast, did not find anything in the new features that would compel them to switch to the iPhone 16

The addition of a fresh lens lock button on the side of the mobile did not seem to cause much excitement, but rather the inclusion of a new camera shutter button. Something is obviously wrong if a box is a better selling level than the most gimmick-filled technology of the past few years.

The Media Copilot described Artificial as having passed what its “wondering period” as. We were pleasantly surprised two years ago when conceptual AI systems like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and others were able to produce clear writing and practical images from a few words in a text quick.

But then, AI needs to show that it can really be successful. Since their launch, the concepts driving these activities have become much more powerful – and rapidly more expensive.

However, Google, NVidia, Microsoft and OpenAI just met at the White House to explore AI system, suggesting these companies are doubling down on the systems.

According to Forbes, the industry is US$ 500 billion short of recovering the significant investments in AI hardware and software, and the$ 100 billion in AI revenue projected for 2024 is not even close to this figure.

Apple must also support the inclusion of AI features in its products for the same purpose that Google, Samsung, and Microsoft are doing it to give customers a reason to purchase a new system.

Strong market?

Before AI, the industry was attempting to spread awareness about the Metaverse and virtual reality, which probably peaked with the release of the Apple Vision Pro helmet in 2023 ( a product that, ironically, was hardly mentioned in previous week’s news ).

Tech firms needed something else to generate income after the Metaverse failed, and AI has come to be the new bright object. However, it’s still to be seen if users will adopt AI-based features like reading and photo-editing capabilities.

This does not mean that the current AI is ineffective. AI systems are used in billion-dollar market applications, in everything from online advertising to care and energy optimization.

Restaurant
Apple’s Physical Intellect allows the telephone lens to be aimed at things, like a cafe, to get information without doing a search. Photo: Heiko Kueverling via The Talk

Generative AI has also grown to be a useful tool for practitioners in a variety of areas. A study found that 97 % of software developers have employed AI tools to support their work. Some editors, visual artists, musicians and artists have adopted Iot tools to create content more swiftly and more effectively.

Despite attempts at AI-supported search proving to be prone to mistakes, the majority of us are not really willing to pay for a company that draws hilarious cartoon cats or summarizes text. Apple’s strategy for deploying unnatural intelligence seems to be largely a jumble of existing functions, many of which are now integrated into well-known third-party apps.

Apple’s AI can help you build a custom icon, record a telephone call, edit a photo, or read an email – beautiful, but no more groundbreaking stuff. There is also a feature called Reduce mode that is supposed to make you feel less unimportant and only through important notifications, but it’s anyone’s guess how well that will actually work.

The one forward-looking feature is called Visual Intelligence. Without performing a search on your part, you can use the camera to point it at something in the air and get information. For instance, you might take a picture of a restaurant sign and receive a phone message with the menu, reviews, and possibly even assistance with table reservations.

Although this is very reminiscent of the Lens in Google’s Pixel phones ( or ChatGPT’s multimodal capabilities ) it does point towards a future use of AI that is more real-time, interactive, and situated in real-world environments.

Apple Intelligence and the Reduce mode could change into what has been envisioned and demonstrated in research projects since the 1990s, but the majority of the time it has n’t developed into a real product category. This has been done since the 1990s.

The ironic part of all this is that Apple Intelligence is not yet really accessible for anyone to try, as the new iPhones do not yet include them. They might turn out to be more valuable than the lack of details seems to suggest.

However, Apple used to be known for only releasing products when they were fully and truly ready, which meant that the use-case was unmistakably perfect and the user experience was flawless.

This is what made the iPod and iPhone so much more appealing than the previous generation of MP3 players and smartphones. It’s anyone’s guess if Apple’s AI strategy will be able to recover some of the lost stock price, not to mention the hundreds of billions that they and the rest of the tech industry have invested.

After all, AI still has a lot of potential, but it might be time to step back and consider where it will actually be most useful.

Lars Erik Holmquist is professor of design and innovation, Nottingham Trent University

The Conversation has republished this article under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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