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Issues related to data privacy and rising <keyword id="20127272" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-frauds" source="keywords">online frauds</keyword> are emerging as significant hurdles in the growth of e-commerce in India, said the <keyword id="20613906" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Economic-Survey" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Economic Survey" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Economic Survey">Economic Survey</keyword> 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Monday. Citing third-party data, the survey said that the e-commerce industry in India is expected to cross USD 350 billion by 2030 and called for the need to educate users on the safe use of e-commerce platforms. "The rise of e-commerce is constrained by inadequate skills required for online selling, such as cataloguing. <keyword id="22505774" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="data-privacy-issues" source="keywords">Data privacy issues</keyword> and increasing online fraud have turned out to be the most significant hurdle in the growth of e-commerce in India. It becomes imperative to educate users on the safe use of e-commerce platforms," the survey said. The survey mentioned that India's e-commerce market has gained significant momentum during the past few years, owing to technological advancements, evolving new-age business models coupled with government initiatives like the Digital India program, UPI, One District - One Product (ODOP), Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), new foreign trade policy, easing of FDI limits and Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) (Amendment) Rules 2021. It has identified data privacy and <keyword id="19906883" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cybersecurity" source="keywords">cybersecurity</keyword> as critical concerns in the <keyword id="22505776" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digitisation-of-services" source="keywords">digitisation of services</keyword> in the country and called for adopting strong security measures, compliance with privacy regulations, and innovation, among others. "Data privacy and cybersecurity have become critical concerns with the increasing digitisation of services," according to the survey. It said that the government is spearheading data protection laws and cybersecurity policies to safeguard consumer data and strengthen cybersecurity measures in the services sector. "To further embrace technology with confidence, ensuring the adoption of strong security measures, compliance with privacy regulations, and fostering innovation in security technologies are essential," the survey noted. It said the future of e-commerce is built on the enhanced <keyword id="20290101" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="user-experience" source="keywords">user experience</keyword> through <keyword id="19899640" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI" source="keywords">AI</keyword>, seamless <keyword id="21332958" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-payment-methods" source="keywords">digital payment methods</keyword>, innovations like UPI, and business engineering data analytics for business operations and enhancements. The survey mentioned that the buyer ecosystem in India is evolving at a very sharp rate, and business models will need to innovate to serve the needs of a diverse shopper base regarding service expectations, price sensitivity and language requirements. "Local language platforms are needed as the shopper base expands to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Growing startups and innovative social media platforms provide an opportunity to test unique business models that might be targeted to specific demographic cohorts," the survey said.

Data privacy issues, online frauds emerging as e-commerce growth hurdles: Eco Survey

A bill seeking to provide for four nominees by a bank account holder was introduced in the <keyword id="19895394" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Lok Sabha" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Lok Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> on Friday to ensure better protection of depositors and enhance customer convenience. Introduced by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in the Lower House, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, has a provision for simultaneous and successive nominations to bank accounts, lockers, etc. As per the provision of the bill, a bank account holder can nominate up to four persons. The bill also seeks to transfer of unclaimed dividends, shares, and interest or redemption of bonds to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), allowing individuals to claim transfers or refunds from the fund, and thus safeguarding investors' interests. As the banking sector has evolved over the years, and with a view to improving bank governance and investor protection, it has become necessary to make certain amendments to five Acts, according to Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill. The Bill, which was approved by the <keyword id="19916620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-Cabinet" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Union Cabinet" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Union Cabinet">Union Cabinet</keyword> last week, proposes to amend the <keyword id="20824389" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reserve-Bank-of-India-Act" source="keywords">Reserve Bank of India Act</keyword>, 1934, the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the State Bank of India Act, 1955, the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980. The proposed bill seeks to improve governance standards, provide consistency in reporting by banks to the Reserve Bank of India, ensure better protection for depositors and investors, improve audit quality in public sector banks, bring customer convenience in respect of nominations, and to provide for increase in the tenure of the directors in co-operative banks. Another proposed change relates to redefining 'substantial interest' for directorships, which could increase to Rs 2 crore instead of the current limit of Rs 5 lakh, which was fixed almost six decades ago. Congress member Manish Tewari opposed the introduction of the bill, saying the power to legislate with regard to cooperatives vests with state governments. RSP member N K Premachandran opposed amending five legislations through one bill, while TMC member Saugata Roy termed the bill "superfluous", saying the the amendments proposed in the bill could have been done through administrative decisions. Responding to opposition's remarks, <keyword id="19956758" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Finance-Minister" source="keywords">Finance Minister</keyword> Nirmala Sitharaman said the various amendments done in Banking Regulations Act with respect to <keyword id="20814377" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cooperative-banks" source="keywords">cooperative banks</keyword> are not just one or two but several. "Simple understanding is we are not touching any aspect of the cooperatives other than that which claims under the name of banking...the sections which have been brought in for amendments, as also the court verdicts, have repeatedly reinforced the point that Banking Regulation Act and the Cooperative Banks do have this relationship and therefore it has to be taken through this route," she said. Otherwise, there is no attempt to undermine the cooperatives, particularly cooperatives dealing with everything other than banks, she said defending the Bill. The bill proposes to increase the tenure of directors (excluding the chairman and whole-time director) in cooperative banks from 8 years to 10 years, so as to align with the Constitution (Ninety-Seventh Amendment) Act, 2011. Once passed, the bill would allow a director of a Central Cooperative Bank to serve on the board of a State Cooperative Bank. The bill also seeks to give greater freedom to banks in deciding the remuneration to be paid to statutory auditors. It also seeks to redefine the reporting dates for banks for regulatory compliance to the 15th and last day of every month, instead of the second and fourth Fridays. "What's the rationale behind it? The current reporting Friday system has several limitations that impact the accuracy and effectiveness of the reporting of data. "These limitations are incomplete coverage of monthly data, seasonal fluctuations in banking activity which lead to inconsistent reporting, and the need for adjustment every 11th year which introduces complications and inconsistencies. That is why, in order to address the issue, it is proposed to amend the legislation," she said. The announcement about amendments to the Banking Regulation Act was made by the Finance Minister in the 2023-24 Budget speech. "To improve bank governance and enhance <keyword id="22728161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="investors-protection" source="keywords">investors' protection</keyword>, certain amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, the Banking Companies Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act are proposed," she had said.

Bill to provide up to four nominees to a bank account introduced in Lok Sabha

The <keyword id="19895221" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Competition-Commission-of-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Competition Commission of India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Competition Commission of India">Competition Commission of India</keyword> has dismissed a complaint against <keyword id="20201307" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Google India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Google India">Google India</keyword> alleging that the tech giant abused its <keyword id="22202852" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dominant-Position" source="keywords">dominant position</keyword> to favour <keyword id="20200171" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Truecaller" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Truecaller" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Truecaller">Truecaller</keyword> in the market for caller ID and spam protection apps, as it found no evidence of violation of <keyword id="20854369" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Competition-Law" source="keywords">competition law</keyword>. While dismissing the complaint, the fair trade regulator said, "The Commission finds that no prima facie case of contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act is made out against <keyword id="6355629" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google" source="Orion">Google</keyword> in the instant matter". Section 4 of the Competition Act, deals with the abuse of dominant position. The ruling came on a complaint filed by Rachna Khaira (informant) accusing Google of granting exclusive access to Truecaller to share private contact information while prohibiting other apps from doing the same. Further, she alleged that this practice has distorted the market and created a monopoly for Truecaller. The informant also alleged that Google's developer policy prohibits unauthorised disclosure of non-public contacts, and Truecaller's privacy policy, to which she argued allowed the sharing of such information. Further, Khaira alleged that Google favoured Truecaller due to commercial arrangements involving Google's cloud storage and advertising services. The regulator after reviewing submissions from both Google and Khaira, found that the informant's claims were unsubstantiated. "...the allegation of the informant remains unsubstantiated and despite sufficient opportunity, the informant has not provided any evidence to prima facie establish that Google is according either preferential treatment to Truecaller or resorting to discriminatory practises by allowing access to user's contact data to Truecaller while denying the same to the competing applications," CCI said in an order on June 24. The competition watchdog also addressed the commercial relationship allegations against the tech major, stating that mere commercial relationships do not imply preferential treatment unless proven. However, the regulator found no evidence suggesting that these changes granted Truecaller a competitive advantage over its rivals. The request for interim relief by the informant to temporarily block Truecaller from operating on the Play Store was also rejected by the competition watchdog."The Commission finds that no prima facie case of contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act is made out against Google in the instant matter. Accordingly, the Information is ordered to be closed," the fair trade regulator said.

Competition Commission dismisses complaint against Google India

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Lou and Jennifer Zeidberg raised their kids in the US.</li><li>Both their kids went to <keyword id="20186836" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="college" source="keywords">college</keyword> in <keyword id="19897269" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Europe" source="keywords">Europe</keyword>: Their son attends college in France, and their daughter will attend college in Spain. </li></ul>When it was time for his children to apply to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/is-college-worth-it">college</a>, Lou Zeidberg faced a conundrum. Part of him wanted them to experience the traditional American college life he had as a student at the University of California, Berkeley. "When I was in college, I was really into that stuff," Lou, a marine science lecturer at California State University, told Business Insider about collegiate life. "So when they were little, I thought, oh, you'll be a football player, and you'll want to go to a college with a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-football-recruiting-athletes-locker-rooms-training-facilities-texas-florida-2024-2">big football team</a>, which is a very American thing." However, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-son-applying-to-many-colleges-stressful-2023-11">university application process</a> was lengthy and stressful for his son, Jacob. Jacob <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/successful-ivy-league-college-application-look-insider-2024-5">applied</a> to almost 30 schools in 2019, only to be waitlisted or rejected from all of them. Eventually, he pivotedandchose to attend a junior college in San Diego. "It was demoralizing on a level of extreme," said Lou's wife, Jennifer, a physician. "Our son did well in high school, did well on his SATs, and was not accepted at schools that are supposed to support California students. It was really such a bizarre thing to watch." So when a patient told her about her children's experience attending college in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/american-moved-from-japan-to-netherlands-happier-less-lonely-2024-7">Netherlands</a>, Jennifer was inspired. Using a service called "Beyond the States," the family looked through European college options and found one that ticked Jacob's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-choose-college-campus-tour-data-2023-12">criteria</a>. It was a three-year program, had hands-on teaching methods, offered internship opportunities — and was all the way in Toulouse, France. Jacob applied to Toulouse Business School and received an interview within two days. Two weeks later, he received an offer. "It was so shockingly different," Jennifer said, adding that the process took place over Christmas. Lou said he was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/daughter-heading-college-considered-moving-close-campus-2024-2">worried and excited</a> about his son moving so far from home. "College was an important experience growing up, so I was jealous. This kid was going to France!" he said with a laugh. "I wanted him to go." <h2>Adapting to college in Europe</h2>Jacob said he initially faced <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paris-syndrome-tiktok-reasons-to-visit-paris-2023-7">culture shock</a> and language barriers, but he took French lessons and gradually assimilated into the French culture. He visits his family in Monterey Bay, California, during Christmas and over the summer — "Kind of like your standard college kid experience," said Lou. <div type="image" title="A boy standing on a balcony that overlooks Toulouse" height="1536" width="2048" msid="111976163" hostid="261"></div>Being in Europe also gave Jacob the advantage of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boomer-seeing-the-world-never-too-late-to-travel-2024-3">traveling and seeing a world</a> beyond the comfort of his home. "When Jacob takes a little weekend away, he goes to Morocco. He's made friends in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus," said Jennifer. "I mean, his passport is almost full!" <h2>Following in her brother's footsteps</h2>After her brother struggled with the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-applications-advice-admissions-expert-apply-2023-10">American college application</a> process, Phoebe, 18, also set her eyes on Europe. She had graduated cum laude from high school and had a good chance of getting into colleges in California, Jennifer said. But Phoebe already had a taste of the European college experience. In her junior year, she spent 11 days on an overseas program at IE University in Spain. She liked the class sizes of 30 to 40 students. "It was really hard to convince our daughter to go through the American process," Jennifer said. So when it came to applying for colleges, she only applied to one university: IE University. A few weeks later, she was offered a spot to pursue a dual degree in Law and International Relations. <h2>Amid soaring <keyword id="20752497" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tuition-fees" source="keywords">tuition fees</keyword> in the US, college in Europe was a compelling choice</h2>The <keyword id="22630584" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zeidberg-family" source="keywords">Zeidberg family</keyword>'s decision to seek higher education opportunities outside of the US comes as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-us-universities-wildly-expensive-education-tuition-fees-america-2024-3">tuition costs domestically continue to hit new highs</a>. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities" target="_blank">U.S. News &amp; World Report</a> said last year that among colleges in its annual rankings, tuition fees at private universities increased by 40% from 2004 to 2024, while in-state tuition fees for public universities rose by about 56% over the same time period, adjusted for inflation. Although grants and scholarships are available, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends%20Report%202023%20Updated.pdf">data from the College Board</a> showed that around 51% of people who graduated with a bachelor's degree in the 2021 to 2022 school year still graduated with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends%20Report%202023%20Updated.pdf">student debt</a>. The average debt per student was $29,400. Many Americans have become <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-tuition-costs-too-much-make-degrees-matter-less-jobs-2023-9">disillusioned with the high cost</a> of college. In July 2023, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-value-of-college-higher-education-student-debt-tuition-2023-12">Business Insider and YouGov surveyed</a> over 1,800 Americans on their attitudes toward higher education. Among the more than 600 Gen Z respondents, 46% agreed that college is not worth the financial cost. Isabella Ambrosio, who grew up in Chicago and moved to Ireland when she was 15,previously wrote for BI that four years of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moved-to-ireland-from-us-benefits-drawbacks-college-save-money-2024-6">college in Ireland</a>cost the same as one year at a school she had wanted to attend in the US. Ambrosio also found benefits to life abroad beyond merely the financial. She enjoyed immersing herself in the Irish culture and its bustling restaurant scene. Similarly, Dalia Goldberg, an American from Philadelphia, wrote for BI that she considered college in the US but was daunted by the steep fees. She eventually <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-overseas-abroad-canada-mcgill-university-no-debt-2024-7">opted for a university in Montreal</a> and graduated debt-free in 2014. <h2>Multiple benefits to studying abroad</h2>For the Zeidberg family, the lower tuition fees in Europe were an added bonus. A three-year bachelor's program at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.tbs-education.com/program/bachelor-in-management/admission-fees/">Toulouse Business School</a> costs around $13,400 a year, and a dual degree program at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ie.edu/university/admission/payment-methods/">IE University</a> costs around $32,700 a year, per the university's website. Phoebe, who earned a scholarship and has a portion of the fees offset, would have to pay around $6,500 yearly. In comparison, the tuition fee for a California resident to attend UC is around $14,436 yearly, excluding housing and meal fees, according to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/tuition-financial-aid/tuition-cost-of-attendance/">University of California</a> website. At <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/Pages/campus-costs-of-attendance.aspx">California State University</a>, where Lou teaches, undergraduates pay around $5,742 a year for tuition. Although the family would have been able to afford Californian schools, Jennifer told BI their children ultimately wanted to explore a life outside the US. "It was really more the experience of truly going away, not just from home, but from the comfort of what they've known their whole lives," she said. Lou added that he recognizes their family is fortunate to provide their children with options: "We just tried to show them as much of the world as we could so that they would pick something they like." Do you have a story about choosing to attend college outside the US that you want to share? Get in touch with the reporter, Erin: <a target="_blank" href="mailto:eliam@businessinsider.com">eliam@businessinsider.com</a>. Correction: July 26, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the inflation-adjusted increase for in-state tuition at public universities from 2004 to 2024, as indicated by U.S. News &amp; World Report. It was 56%, not 38%.

Their son did well in high school and on his SATs, but got rejected from 30 US colleges. So they set their sights on Europe.

They're building <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/data-centers-ai-artificial-intelligence-farmland-power-2023-7">data centers</a> pretty much everywhere these days. The<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prologis-warehouse-compass-data-centers-industrial-real-estate-2024-3"> sprawling, windowless buildings</a> are the physical engines of the internet and the cloud; more are now <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-invest-billions-into-japan-ai-data-centers-2024-4">under construction</a> than ever before, and the<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-data-energy-centers-water-energy-land-2023-10"> new breed is bigger and hungrier</a>. A typical center used to consume 10 megawatts of electricity; now they're being built to suck up 10 times that much. Last year all the data centers in the world had room for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-scientist-invented-new-units-measurement-ronna-quetta-2023-1">10.1 zettabytes</a> of information — roughly 456 billion Wikipedias. And with the rise of artificial intelligence, which requires vast quantities of data and power, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/research/data-center-outlook">the global capacity of data centers is expected to double</a> by 2027. If you don't live <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/virginia-data-center-boom-power-grid-utility-2023-11">near a data center</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/viral-tiktok-anger-data-centers-northern-virginia-2024-3">you will soon</a>.But cloud computing and AI aren't the only things driving the push for "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-stocks-to-buy-for-ai-data-centers-power-demand-2024-5">hyperscaled</a>" data centers. About 65% of the capacity in global centers is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/quarterly-cloud-market-once-again-grows-by-10-billion-from-2022-meanwhile-little-change-at-the-top">owned by just three companies</a>: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Like the railroad magnates of old, they're racing to control the market, because they understand something that has eluded the rest of us. Data centers are more than just vast digital warehouses. They're the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/data-centers-electricity-consumers-discounts-utilities-2024-4">essential infrastructural technology</a> on which pretty much every other company in the world must run. When companies need pretty much any computing service these days — networking, security, data processing, platforms, you name it — it's easier and cheaper to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aws">just rent it</a> from Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. The more data centers those companies have, the more of those services they can offer, and the more storage and number-crunching capacity they can provide. By trying to corner the market on data centers, they're not just creating bigger warehouses for data — they're aiming to be a one-stop shop for all of the tech a company needs.That's even more true of AI startups. When an innovative newcomer needs access to the large language models that are required to train and run generative AI, they pretty much have to go through Big Tech to get them. And now the tech giants are making venture investments in those startups by offering them "credits" for using the company's cloud. That's how Microsoft made a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.semafor.com/article/11/18/2023/openai-has-received-just-a-fraction-of-microsofts-10-billion-investment">chunk of its investment in OpenAI</a>, for example — by giving the startup access to its data centers. It's a lucrative inducement to join a proprietary ecosystem."This is where the real business is," says Cecilia Rikap, an economist who is the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.common-wealth.org/publications/dynamics-of-corporate-governance-beyond-ownership-in-ai">a new report</a> called "Dynamics of Corporate Governance Beyond Ownership in AI." "The more AI is consumed, there's more cloud consumption, and therefore not only more money for these companies but more digital technology that is intertwined and tangled inside their infrastructure."And that entanglement is what worries many economists and legal scholars. Regulators call the problem "locking in." Changing from one data ecosystem to another isn't like moving your office to a new building; the programming interfaces between Microsoft Azure, say, don't just port over to Amazon Web Services. Getting into one is easy, but like the Hotel California, you can never leave. Once a tech giant gives a startup access to its cloud services and its large language models, it has pretty much assured itself a form of control over a fledgling firm that might one day have grown into a competitor. "Market leaders benefit from early-mover advantage coupled with network effects and high switching costs that lock-in customers," a congressional subcommittee warned in a <a target="_blank" href="https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=14921">450-page report</a> back in 2020. The rush to build data centers is, in no small part, a move by Big Tech to secure the keys to the coming AI kingdom.In the short term, the rise of data centers has actually been a good thing for startups. "Until recently, the perception among academics was that the rise of cloud computing was great for startups and innovation," says Matthew Wansley, a law professor at Yeshiva University who studies competition and regulation. "It used to be that if you were a startup, you had to build your own servers. That's a huge, fixed up-front cost."That's not true anymore. The price of cloud-computing services has fallen every year since 2006, when Amazon opened its cloud. And it absolutely crashed in 2014, as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/measuring-and-ac%20counting-innovation-twenty-first-century/rise-cloud-computin%20g-minding-your-ps-qs-and-ks">a team of economists noted</a>, when Microsoft and Google started advertising their competitive prices. From 2010 to 2014, AWS database prices dropped by 11%. Over the next two years, they plunged by 22%.Cloud computing also made it easier for startups to get funding. Venture capitalists adopted a <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.03.001">"spray and pray" approach to investing</a>, meaning they placed bets on more companies but put less money into each one. They also ratcheted back their direct involvement in running the companies, trusting the marketplace to sort out the winners from the losers.The whole scene has been especially great for AI startups. "Smaller companies like us could get access to compute power and the scalability that the larger service providers offer," says Jonas Jacobi, CEO and cofounder of ValidMind, a fintech company. "You have a few large players dominating the AI space, but there are startups trying to compete with them as well. The only reason they can is because of the cloud vendors."The trick, Jacobi says, is to write code that can work with any of the three providers, so you don't get locked in to a single company. You have to stay "neutral to the tech stack," he says. Sure, one of the tech giants can always swoop in and build their own version of your software. There's data suggesting that Amazon has made it a standard operating procedure to "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-and-commercial-open-source-in-the-cloud-its-complicated/">engulf</a>" the products of small, open-source competitors and repackage them as part of its own suite of services, as it did with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elastic-open-source-licenses-amazon-elasticsearch-kibana-2021-1">Elastic search engine</a>. "But that's part of the journey as a startup," Jacobi says. "It's just up to us as a company to be faster and nimbler."But over time, economists warn, nimble won't be enough. In the battle to create foundational tech — the "<a target="_blank" href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w32474">key complementary assets</a>" of the business — AI startups will inevitably lose out to the tech giants that control the data centers. "AI is a general-purpose technology," says Rikap. "It's being applied to everything. But what type of AI we get and what type we don't get is going to be affected by the power of just three companies. It's an intellectual monopoly. What they are controlling is data and knowledge." By locking startups into their systems, Google and Amazon and Microsoft can effectively play favorites, offering better deals and cheaper services to the companies <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-sabotages-new-startups-businesses-coopting-disruption-2024-3">in which they have the largest stake</a>. Rikap has also found that their growing control of data centers also gives Big Tech an incentive to work together to share information and protect their joint interests. In a paper with Bengt-Åke Lundvall, an economist at Aalborg University in Denmark, Rikap notes that articles in technical and academic journals from researchers at Microsoft, Google, and Amazon consistently had <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89443-6">coauthors employed by their competitors</a>. Now, for sure, computer science is a small world. But the joint authorship, Rikap says, is "a pure way to tell they are collaborating and know what each other are doing" — a hallmark of anticompetitive behavior.For the moment, there is still reason to hope that innovation can win out over monopolization. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are still competing on price and features, which is good for everyone. And in Europe, where regulators are taking a more aggressive approach to tech generally and <a target="_blank" href="https://techmonitor.ai/technology/cloud/is-cloud-computing-market-anti-competitive-antitrust">cloud computing in particular</a>, the Big Three are busy pointing fingers at one another. A Google Cloud exec recently <a target="_blank" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-google-steps-microsoft-criticism-194847058.html">denounced Microsoft as a "monopoly"</a> and a "walled garden," and a trade group that includes Amazon <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-talks-end-trade-bodys-cloud-computing-complaint-2024-02-07/">filed an antitrust complaint</a> over Microsoft's cloud-computing licenses. As they vie for market share, the companies aren't in lockstep yet — and that creates an opening, albeit a small one, for nimble, faster competitors.There's also a tendency, over time, for mature technology companies to shift from trying to innovate themselves to simply charging other people who innovate. Among economists, that's known as "<a target="_blank" href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w32359">rent-seeking behavior</a>," and it looks an awful lot like what Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are doing with cloud computing and data centers.So what's the best way to make sure Big Tech doesn't use data centers to short-circuit innovation? Researchers point to Google, which is offering a friendlier kind of partnership to startups. "The Google Cloud Division partners with promising database start-ups, contributes to open-source projects, and collaborates with open-source foundations," two scholars <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00323292231183806">recently observed</a>. It's an "architecture of participation," they say, that enables Google to profit while fostering the growth of new companies and ideas.Even more important, the Federal Trade Commission, aware of the threat posed by data centers, has ordered the Big Tech companies to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/ftc-launches-inquiry-generative-ai-investments-partnerships">hand over information on their AI investments</a>. Just as new laws eventually caught up to the pricing practices of the railroads in the 1880s, today's regulators may well catch up to the futuristic, technological tangles of cloud computing. One reason to think so: The lead author of that 450-page House subcommittee report about Big Tech's anticompetitive behavior was a lawyer named <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ban-noncompete-agreements-approved-ftc-challenges-await-2024-4">Lina Khan</a>. Today's she's the hard-charging head of the FTC.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

The scary secret behind the boom in data centers

<ul><li>Global data breaches decreased in Q1 2023, but <keyword id="28249" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="europe" source="Orion">Europe</keyword> was the only region that increased.</li><li>Russia, Taiwan, France, and <keyword id="6363645" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="spain" source="Orion">Spain</keyword> were among the countries with the highest number of breached accounts in Q1 2023.</li></ul>Global data breaches decreased by 48.5% in the first quarter of 2023, according to a new report from <keyword id="12163251" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="surfshark" source="Orion">Surfshark</keyword>. The report found 41.6 million accounts were leaked in Q1 2023, down from 80.8 million in Q4 2022. The report also found that the most common type of data breach in Q1 2023 was a credential stuffing attack, which occurs when hackers use stolen login credentials to access accounts on other websites. Other common types of data breaches included phishing, SQL injection, and malware attacks. Russia, Taiwan, France, and Spain were among the countries with the highest number of breached accounts in the last quarter, indicating an increase in data breaches. Russian data breaches surged by 27.4%, with 6.6 million accounts leaked in 2023'Q1 compared to 5.2 million in 2022'Q4, making Russia the country with the highest number of data breaches globally in the current quarter. Taiwan saw the most significant quarter-over-quarter increase, jumping from 26th place in 2022'Q4 with 191,000 breached accounts to 3rd place with 4 million leaked accounts in 2023'Q1. Similarly, France and Spain experienced significant increases of almost four and five times, respectively, with 3.2 million and 3.1 million breached accounts in 2023'Q1 compared to 841,900 and 571,700 in 2022'Q4. However, the US reported a 25.4% decline in leaked accounts, from 6.7 million in 2022'Q4 to 5 million in 2023'Q1, it still accounted for one in eight breached accounts worldwide. Conversely, <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>, China, and South Sudan, which were among the top five in the previous quarter, saw significant declines in leaked accounts in 2023'Q1. India's numbers dropped from 8.5 million to 2.1 million, and China's declined by almost 30 times, from 15.4 million to just over half a million. South Sudan had the largest quarter-over-quarter decrease, falling 108 times from 18.3 million to 169,300 breached accounts, dropping it to 18th place. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Europe is most affected by breaches in 2023" comment="subhead" text="Europe is most affected by breaches in 2023">Europe is most affected by breaches in 2023</cmsannotation> Europe ranks top in total number of leaked accounts in the first quarter of 2023, with 17.5 million recorded, surpassing any other region. Asia followed with 10.6 million, while North America reported half of that, with 5.3 million leaked accounts. Moreover, Europe was the only region with a significant quarter-over-quarter increase in data breaches. The number of data breaches nearly doubled, rising from 9.9 million in 2022’Q4 to 17.5 million in 2023’Q1. To provide context, 2 out of 5 accounts breached in 2023’Q1 were of European origin, and 38% were Russian. Among the countries in the region, the highest quarter-over-quarter spikes in data breaches were recorded in Czechia (almost 9x), Switzerland (6x), and Spain (over 5x). What can you do to protect yourself from data breaches? <ol><li>Use strong passwords and change them regularly.</li><li>Enable multi-factor authentication whenever possible.</li><li>Keep your software up to date.</li><li>Be careful about what information you share online.</li><li>Be wary of phishing emails and other scams.</li><li>Back up your data regularly.</li></ol>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/is-whatsapp-secretly-listening-to-your-private-conversations-heres-how-to-check/articleshow/100155980.cms">Is WhatsApp secretly listening to your private conversations? Here’s how to check</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/artificial-intelligence-takes-center-stage-at-google-i/o-here-are-all-the-ai-announcements-made-at-the-annual-conference/articleshow/100151380.cms">Artificial Intelligence takes center stage at Google I/O: Here are all the AI announcements made at the annual conference</a>

Data breaches continue to be a problem, with one account being leaked every second in Q1 2023

With Indians rushing to file their ITRs ahead of the July 31st deadline that's coming up tomorrow, did you know that residents of just one Indian state are exempt from filing <keyword id="19901478" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="income-tax" source="keywords">income tax</keyword> returns, or paying taxes at all? Yes, <keyword id="19903425" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sikkim" source="keywords">Sikkim</keyword> is the only state in the country where the residents do not have to pay income tax. But why is that the case? Let's delve into it. An erstwhile princely kingdom for almost 333 years prior to its amalgamation, Sikkim merged into independent India in 1975, thereby becoming the country's 22nd state. But this happened on one condition- that it will be allowed to continue with its old <keyword id="21152786" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tax-laws" source="keywords">tax laws</keyword> post the merger. Sikkim has its own income tax manual, which stipulated that no resident of Sikkim was to pay taxes to the center. Hence, honoring the merger agreement, the Indian government granted a special tax exemption to Sikkimese residents from Indian income tax regulations. This changed in 2008, when the <keyword id="19908389" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-Budget" source="keywords">Union budget</keyword> repealed the state's tax laws. However, to maintain the exemption status enjoyed by the state's residents, it inserted section 10 (26AAA). Under this section, any income generated by a Sikkimese, be it from a source within the state, or by way of dividend or interest on securities, would be tax-exempt. At present, any individual who has been domiciled (noted as having fixed, principal and permanent residence) in Sikkim as of April 26, 1975 would be considered a Sikkimese, and hence, exempt from paying income tax. As per data from PRS Legislative Research, the state's estimated own tax revenue for 2023-24 stood at Rs 1,727 crore. However, if a Sikkimese has rental income from properties situated outside of the state, or has an income from source that is not located in Sikkim, it will be subject to relevant taxes. Nevertheless, the provisions of tax exemptions would not apply to any Sikkimese woman, who marries a non-Sikkimese or an outsider, on or after April 1, 2008. Market regulator SEBI has also exempted residents of Sikkim from mandatorily having a PAN card for investing in Indian stock markets, equities, cash market and even mutual funds. <h2>Decoding Section 10 (26) of the IT Act</h2>All these income-tax exemptions also extend to a few other regions in the country, but only if you are a member of the scheduled tribes. Section 10(26) of the Income Tax Act applies to Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and <keyword id="19919396" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tripura" source="keywords">Tripura</keyword>, along with the North Cashar hills district, Karbi Anglang district, Chakma district, Mara district, and Lai District. Simply put, it stipulates that if you belong to the scheduled tribes and generate any income, the source of which lies in the above mentioned regions, or by way of dividend or interest on securities, your income would be tax-exempt. But any income generated outside of these regions would be taxable.

Did you know about the only Indian state exempt from paying any income tax? Know all about it here

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The EU Parliament has approved the Artificial Intelligence Act.</li><li>The act, born in 2021, plans to categorize AI risk and ban unacceptable use cases.</li></ul>The European Union is forging ahead with its <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-act-european-parliament-voted-in-favor-2023-5">plans to regulate artificial intelligence.</a>On Wednesday, the European Parliament <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240308IPR19015/artificial-intelligence-act-meps-adopt-landmark-law">approved the Artificial Intelligence Act</a>, with 523 votes in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions."Europe is NOW a global standard-setter in AI," Thierry Breton, the European internal market commissioner,<a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/ThierryBreton"> said on X</a>. "We are regulating as little as possible — but as much as needed!"It's the <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/">first attempt at sweeping AI control</a> by a major regulator to protect its citizens from the technology's potential risks. Other countries, including China, have already brought in rules around specific uses of AI.The legislation has been questioned by some commentators, such as AI and deepfakes expert Henry Ajder, who called it "very ambitious." While calling it an overall positive step, he warned it risked making Europe less competitive globally."My concern is that we will see companies explicitly avoiding developing in certain regions where there is robust and comprehensive regulation," he told Business Insider. "There will be countries that almost act as AI policy tax havens where they explicitly avoid enforcing harsh legislation to try to attract certain kinds of organizations."The act has been in the works for some time. First mooted in 2021, it was provisionally agreed in negotiations with member countries in December 2023.The EU legislation plans to assign the <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-boom-nvidia-1995-moment-analyst-2024-2&amp;post-bottom-piano-recommendations">risks of AI applications</a> into three categories, with applications that <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-regulation-2023-us-eu-china-100-10">cause unacceptable risk set to be banned</a>.High-risk applications assigned to the second category will be subject to specific legal requirements, while applications in the third will largely left unregulated.<h2>Key milestone</h2>Neil Serebryany, CEO of California-based CalypsoAI, told BI that while the "Act includes complex and potentially costly compliance requirements that could initially burden businesses, it also presents an opportunity to advance AI more responsibly and transparently."He called the legislation a "key milestone in the evolution of AI" and an opportunity for companies to consider social values in their products from the earliest stages.The regulation is expected to come into force in May, providing it passes final checks. Implementation of the new rules will then be phased in from 2025.How exactly the rules will apply to businesses is also still relatively vague.Avani Desai, CEO of cybersecurity firm Schellman, said the Act may have a similar impact to the EU's general data protection regulation (GDPR) legislation and require US companies to meet certain requirements to operate in Europe.Companies uncertain about the rules can expect more details on the specific requirements in the coming months as the EU Commission establishes the AI Office and begins to set standards, said Marcus Evans at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright."The first obligations in the AI Act will come into force this year and others over the next three years, so companies need to start preparing as soon as possible to ensure they do not fall foul of the new rules," he added.

Europe is trying to regulate AI. That could backfire.

Melbourne Melbourne (Australia), Jul 31 (360info) The <keyword id="18212065" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="european-unions-ai-regulation" source="Orion">European Union's AI regulation</keyword> has some predicting a spate of Brussels copycats. Close, but not quite. "It is the AI moment." So went the declaration from International Telecommunications Union Secretary-General Doreen Bodgan-Martin at the conclusion of a UN summit in Geneva on 7 July 2023. At a historic UN Security Council meeting 11 days later, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed. So did nations and regulators. A desire has emerged from powerful quarters to protect citizens from the potential harms of AI - issues that are known (discrimination, privacy violations, copyright theft) and those which are not. Yet. Most nations have approached issues like this by allowing sectors to individually regulate AI, such as aircraft design and flight safety. The infamous Boeing 737 MAX - which was grounded for over 18 months following two crashes within five months that killed 346 people - is one egregious example of regulatory failure. Other fields that have proactively regulated on AI include medical information (presiding over robot surgery and scan analysis), automated vehicles (the yet-to-materialise Tesla robot taxis and 'Full Self Drive' [sic]) and policing social media networks to protect against harms like disinformation. Some countries, such as the US, Japan and the UK, don't see the need for regulation to go beyond the combination of adaptive sectoral regulation and potential international agreements supplementing more speculative risks discussed in the so-called G7 Hiroshima Process. Others want to go further. More can be done. Generic laws could regulate AI across broader society. China has already published its law governing AI as part of its social control measures, which includes internet filtering through its 'Great Firewall of China' and a social credit scoring system. China intends to strictly control the use of AI much like it has with social media, banning Facebook, Google and TikTok from operating inside its borders (even though the latter has a Chinese parent company). Liberal democracies will not adopt the Chinese approach but may go further than the US, UK and Japan. The largest consumer market, the European Economic Area, is planning to adopt the so-called 'AI Act', which is actually a European Regulation on AI. Over two years since it was first proposed, the Act is locked in negotiations within the EU. It may take until April 2024 to properly pass. But it's not possible to simply lift the EU's AI Act and implant it in a different jurisdiction: it is part of a series of laws in European institutions and such an Act would be lost in translation. There's a name for when EU law is adopted and adapted in other nations: the '<keyword id="18212067" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="brussels-effect" source="Orion">Brussels Effect</keyword>', named after the city which hosts the EU's headquarters. It most often is invoked when describing the reaction to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in 2018 and has been widely hailed as setting a much-copied global standard for data protection. But an unnuanced analysis of the Brussels Effect is problematic. Many countries did not adopt the GDPR, but instead a separate law (the <keyword id="6359680" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="convention" source="Orion">Convention</keyword> 108+) from the <keyword id="113558" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="council-of-europe" source="Orion">Council of Europe</keyword>, a Strasbourg-based 47-member human rights organisation which predates the EU. In 2023, a group of interdisciplinary experts unanimously concluded that the Brussels Effect either wasn't possible or, if it was, would be limited. They found the AI Act would sit within the 'digital acquis', a large body of previously agreed laws with an interlocking web of powers and powers, all of which would need reproducing to make sense of the additions the AI Act provides. If such a Brussels Effect in AI is unlikely or highly constrained, there is a model nations could adopt. Despite the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and UN Education Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) both agreeing declarations of AI ethics principles, these are non-binding. That leaves Strasbourg's Council of Europe. Unlike EU laws, Conventions by the Council of Europe do not take direct effect in national law. Other nations beyond the Council's 47 members can sign onto Conventions through international agreement. For instance, the Council's Convention 108+ has 55 members, including Canada and countries across Latin America and Africa. The Council of Europe has brokered beyond its members going back decades, notably a 2001 cybercrime treaty that included not only Canada, but Japan and the US. The Convention 108+ is proof of what Oslo University's Lee Bygrave has described as a 'Strasbourg Effect', an alternative to the Brussels phenomenon. The Strasbourg Effect could fuel the way forward on AI. The Convention will likely be similar to the EU's AI Act, but with key distinctions. The Convention is being negotiated with the US, UK and Japan and is likely to adopt a more flexible approach, with more co-regulation with industry and independent experts where appropriate. As the Council of Europe is primarily a human rights organisation, it is also likely to pay more attention to the human rights implications of AI deployment. The Convention also has the advantage of being created in mid-2023, as opposed to the EU's Act which started in 2021. This means it can better address the foundational Large Language Models that emerged in early 2023, such as ChatGPT, Bard and others. In 2024, as the EU's AI Act and the Council's AI Convention are finalised, other liberal democracies, such as Australia, UK, Brazil, Japan and US, are expected to adopt and adapt these laws. When the rush starts, there is more likely to be a Strasbourg Effect of nations copying the Convention than any Brussels Effect. AI's regulation 'moment' that Bodgan-Martin heralded in July will last for years and be an exercise in international legal coordination. It best be comprehensive and careful to ensure the power of AI is deployed for the good of humanity. Chris Marsden is Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Technology and the Law at Monash University and an expert on Internet and digital technology law, having researched and taught in the field since 1995. <keyword id="18212066" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="george-christou" source="Orion">George Christou</keyword> is Professor of European Politics and Security at the University of Warwick, UK. He has published widely on European Politics and Security and he is the Editor for Palgrave's New Security Challenges Series. (360info.org) PY PY

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