Technology in Insurance Sector (India)

 Would think that AI would also change things strongly here.  How specific this is to India is unclear.

ACM NEWS

Technology Innovation in the Insurance Sector

By Express Computer (India), March 14, 2023

The insurance sector has experienced a paradigm shift because of big data analytics.

The insurance industry has long been known for its traditional, risk-averse nature. However, the emergence of technology has brought about significant changes in recent years. As consumers become more tech-savvy and demanding, the insurance industry has begun embracing technology in order to maintain its competitiveness and improve its services. A new wave of innovation known as "insurtech" has evolved, which refers to using technology to enhance and streamline insurance services. These companies are disrupting the traditional insurance market with new business models, products, and services. Thus, in order to provide specialized and effective insurance solutions, they use technology like big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Also, these businesses offer their clients a user-friendly and practical digital experience, which is critical in today's fast-paced world.

The insurance industry has benefited from technological innovation by enhancing ease, personalization, transparency, efficiency, profitability, and risk management. To fully utilize the potential of technology in the insurance sector, however, issues including legislation, client uptake, and data privacy and security must be addressed.

From Express Computer

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IISc Scientists Build Energy-Efficient Computing Platforms

More energy Efficient Computing

IISc Scientists Build Energy-Efficient Computing Platforms to Beat Power Deficit

TechCircle, December 2, 2022

An energy-efficient computing platform developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) uses memristors based on metal-organic complexes to reduce the number of necessary components in a circuit. IISc's Sreetosh Goswami said, "We have now discovered a molecular circuit element that can capture complex logic functions within itself, facilitating in-memory computations in a smaller number of time steps and using much fewer elements than usual." Performing computation and storage at the same physical location helps reduce computing energy needs. A circuit potentially could be adapted for multiple functions via small chemical modifications, such as adding or swapping ions in the complexes. Compared to a traditional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor circuit, the researchers said the new platform was 47 times more energy-efficient, 93 times faster, and took up only 9% of its physical footprint. ... '

Researchers Develop 3D-Printed Artificial Cornea

Researchers Develop 3D-Printed Artificial Cornea

The Hindu (India)

August 15, 2022

Indian scientists three-dimensionally (3D)-printed an artificial cornea and transplanted it into the eye of a rabbit. The device uses human donor corneal tissue, and the researchers said it contains no synthetics or animal residues. Each donor cornea can be used to produce three 3D-printed corneas, which can be fabricated in diameters ranging from 3 millimeters (mm) to 13 mm, and can be customized to the patient's specifications. Lead researchers Sayan Basu and Vivek Singh of the LV Prasad Eye Institute said in a statement, "The bio-ink used to make this 3D-printed cornea can be sight-saving for army personnel at the site of injury to seal the corneal perforation and prevent infection during war-related injuries or in a remote area with no tertiary eye care facility."  .... 

Overview of AI Labs in India

 An description and overview of Indian AI Labs via ODSC

Standout Artificial Intelligence Labs in India

ODSC - Open Data Science

Our passion is bringing thousands of the best and brightest data scientists together under one roof for an incredible learning and networking experience.

As dynamic fields, what we can do with and how we apply data science and artificial intelligence is almost constantly changing and growing. Research institutions, in particular, contribute to the discovery of new innovations and applications. Right now, we are seeing a significant amount of interesting research coming out of institutions in India, some of which are discussed below in this list of artificial intelligence labs in India.  ... '

India Analyzing Data Goals and Gaps with AI

Notable use  of AI and other pattern recognition approaches: What data do we have, its ability, to achieve certain levels of understanding of our economy.   Then what data, quality of data, and metadata is needed at what cost, to further tune that understanding?   Note out past looks at the 'data as an asset', for more explorations of this.   Gaps analysis to achieve goals.  With risks considered along the way.   Note the mention of real-time data. 

AI Is India's Solution to Fix Data Gaps   By Bloomberg Quint, February 11, 2021  in   ACM

India is turning from man to machines to improve the quality and speed of its economic data.

India's Ministry of Statistics is accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) usage for collecting, analyzing, and disclosing data to better monitor the economy, including an initiative with the World Bank employing an information portal that collates real-time data.

The Ministry's Kshatrapati Shivaji said, "There's a growing need for more and more data, faster data, and also more refined data products," and end-to-end computerization "will enhance the quality, credibility, and timeliness of data."

He added that AI will see extensive use, and help to overcome staffing limitations.

Shivaji said, "Because of automation and technology-intensive applications, the capability and productivity of staff is getting enhanced substantially. Wherever there is a component where we're able to squeeze the time with the help of technology, we're trying to do that."

From Bloomberg Quint in ACM

Alexa in India

Apparently quite popular in  India. I did a quick survey of contacts in Germany and could not get much response. Will look more deeply.   Anyone with a pointer to other country stats?

Amazon Highlights Alexa’s Popularity to Celebrate Three Years in India By  Eric Hal Schwartz in Voicebot

Amazon is celebrating Alexa’s third anniversary in India by showcasing how popular the voice assistant is. The tech giant pulled together some notable numbers around Alexa ahead of a major 24-hour sale on Alexa-enabled devices in the country on Feb. 15. The stats show appreciation of Alexa in Indis continues to rise, with interactions up 67% in 2020, among other indicators.

INDIA LOVES ALEXA

Amazon’s decision to celebrate Alexa’s place in India is not surprising, as the voice assistant is central to a lot of the company’s greater efforts in the country. Just five months ago, the company celebrated the first anniversary of Alexa learning Hindi, the introduction of Alexa to the country was always going to get its own celebration. Though it didn’t warrant a new video, Amazon did put together some charts to show off the voice assistant’s spread and people’s love for it in India. That isn’t just an abstract love, either. Amazon claimed that Indians told Alexa I love you 19,000 times a day, a 1,200% increase from 2019, with marriage proposals coming 6,000 times a day.   ... "

India Bets Big on 5G

Have yet to see any compelling arguments for new business models.    My new phone seems to have quietly dropped the option.

India Bets Big on 5G Technology Going Mainstream in 2021

Business Standard

The role of 4G networks in helping to keep the global economy afloat during the pandemic has helped convince leaders in India to support the nation's telecommunications sector and launch future technologies like 5G faster. K. Ramchand with India's Department of Telecommunications said it would soon announce 5G spectrum bands for auction, signaling that 5G adoption is a government priority. Cellular Operators Association of India director general S.P. Kochhar said, "5G technology is poised to open up a plethora of possibilities in terms of business models, and overall, enhanced lifestyles for one and all. We seek the support of the government in enabling the industry to play its role as an enabler of horizontal growth and a boost to the nation's economy."

IBM Using Contract Tracing App with Employees in India

The general idea seems to be expanding, with resulting data.  Systems to date are voluntary.  Some details at link about use, data, privacy implications.

IBM testing COVID-19 contact tracing app with employees in India

IBM is testing an opt-in mobile app in India that will track employees' locations to help monitor the spread of the coronavirus, Protocol reported Thursday. The app will identify and notify employees who might have "come in close contact with a person affected in the last 14 days," a spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. IBM joins major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft that are leveraging location data to track COVID-19, raising concerns about how users' privacy will .... 

Walmart vs Amazon in India

Some acquisitions seem to indicate new activity in India. Follow ModernRetail for more.

‘The last untapped retail behemoth’: India is the next battleground for Walmart and Amazon  By Anna Hensel  in ModernRetail .... '

India Developing Blockchain Strategy

Expect to see more of this, both method, application emphasis and regulation, and likely smart contact approaches.

India is developing a national blockchain strategy 
November 27, 2019 
by Yogita Khatri in TheBlock

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is preparing a national blockchain strategy 

The move has been taken considering the potential of blockchain and different uses cases, said a minister

Banking, finance, and cybersecurity are some of the sectors being explored for blockchain application 

India’s government is set to embrace blockchain through the adoption of a national strategy focused on the emerging technology   ... " 

India Planning Big Face Recognition Program

Both China and India underway.  Will we regulate it away?

India Planning Huge China-style Facial Recognition Program
Bloomberg     By Archana Chaudhary

India plans to deploy a massive facial recognition system similar to China's that centralizes data recorded by surveillance cameras and connects with various databases. The move concerns critics because the country has no data protection or privacy laws, and a lack of safeguards for sensitive databases makes them prime targets for hackers and black markets. Supporters of the effort hope a properly implemented facial recognition system will make India's police force more effective, but others are unsettled by the potential for misuse, including spying, illegal hacking, and data leakage to foreign governments. Said Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer and executive director of the non-profit Internet Freedom Foundation, “We’re the only functional democracy which will set up such a system without any data protection or privacy laws. It’s like a gold rush for companies seeking large unprotected databases.”   .... ' 

Google Federated Learning

New way to share data for training prediction models. 

Google's Federated Learning Architecture Can Enhance Privacy While Ending the Centralized Dataset     Analytics India     By Abhijeet Katte

Google engineers recently announced Federated Learning, a new cloud architecture for processing machine learning data for models that are trained from user interactions on mobile devices. In the past, machine learning has required that data be in the data center or on the machine on which the model is being trained. Federated Learning uses mobile phones to collaborate and learn a shared prediction model, with training data remaining on the device and not transmitted to the cloud. With the new architecture, the mobile device downloads the current model and improves it by learning from data on the phone. The phone then generates a summary of what it has learned, which is sent to the cloud and aggregated with other user summaries to refine the shared model. This type of architecture enables smarter models, reduced latency, and lower power consumption while ensuring data privacy through encryption. The researchers say Federated Learning "has only scratched the surface of what is possible" with this type of distributed prediction model. ... " 

Twitter in India: Real time, Mobile First

In K@W:   Podcast and transcript.

" ... Twitter has changed the advertising world, a development that company vice president Shailesh Rao describes as a positive-sum game for traditional and social media. .... 

Shailesh Rao, vice president of Asia Pacific, the Americas and emerging markets for Twitter, sees himself as an educator and an evangelist. He did not know how much he would fit into this role until he arrived in India in 2007 as Google’s head for that country and discovered lack of understanding about the Internet. According to eMarketer, India is set to become Twitter’s largest market after the U.S. with a projected 40 million users by 2018, up from 17 million this year.

Twitter, says Rao, is powerful. It is a platform that enables a specific kind of communication and exchange, which is real time, public and conversational. Everybody on the planet is able to get value and use Twitter, he adds. “It is almost like we are tapping into the collective consciousness of humankind and able to see it reflected back to us.”  ... "  

Massively Complex Agent Environments

I am reposting this article from over a year ago to remind myself and readers of interesting work done in very large scale agent models. Here from Simulex, (Simulex link no longer works) which positions itself as developing Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation. Simulex originated via expertise at Purdue. Although I cannot provide many details, Simulex tailored its SEAS agent-based economic models, developed for DOD applications, to important regional demand and growth applications for us.

" ... we use our exclusive license to SEAS to provide the next generation of consulting services to our clients in government and the private sector. Instead of experimenting with real people, SEAS allows clients to interact with synthetic people and observe what is happening. Using agent-based modeling in a business war-gaming environment, SEAS seamlessly incorporates all aspects of managerial decision making to provide a complete and integrated view of economies, industries, and organizations ... ".

Some of their application case studies, (Simulex links no longer work) with strongly visual outputs. Worth a closer look for bottom-up economic and interaction system simulations. Note also the inclusion of gaming environments.

IBM Sets up Indian Analytics Center

In my early days in the enterprise we worked directly with IBM to use their optimization software and resources to solve tough analytics problems. Over the years this changed to other sources of expertise augmenting our own. Now they are building huge centers of expertise in this area. Visited Bangalore a few years ago and was impressed with data mining/analytics resources via the Universities there.

IBM has set up a center in Bangalore that will focus on offering high-end expertise to the business analytics market worldwide.

The center, called the Business Analytics Center of Competency, will have over 200 consultants in the area of business analytics who will interact with customers worldwide, said Simon Thomas, service line leader at IBM India for the global delivery of business analytics and optimization services.

IBM's global business services operation in India is already doing work in the area of business analytics and optimization with about 2,000 staff. But most of the work done so far consisted of developing applications, and delivering services and support to customers ... '