India Archives — Carrington Malin

August 8, 2023
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Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence could prove to be an ideal hub for global tech founders looking to co-create future technology applications.

I was recently asked for my views on the opportunities for Indian AI startups in Dubai and my answer was, naturally, that Dubai and the UAE as a whole offers great potential for many AI startups. And I’m not just saying that because I’m based in the UAE. The crucial difference between the UAE and many other countries, is that it not only ‘talks the talk’, but it also ‘walks the walk’!

I am frequently find myself impressed by how fast the government moves to create new programmes that help its AI policies gain traction. Teams in government departments across the country are actively looking for the most innovative AI technologies and solutions all the time. So, if you’re the founder of an AI startup that solves a new problem for government, public services or national issues in general, there’s going to be someone, somewhere in a government department that would like to talk to you.

The UAE holds great potential for many AI startups, most of all because the government actually ‘walks the talk’!

The recently created Dubai Centre for AI, which was announced in June 2023, hopes to accelerate Dubai government efforts even further. The new centre has already organised innovation programmes in 30 different government entities to identify AI use cases and implement solutions. Meanwhile, in July the Dubai Future Foundation launched a programme to encourage pilot schemes for generative AI tech in government departments.

The UAE is, no doubt, a fiercely competitive technology market and developers do need to ensure their plans are grounded in reality. However, for the foreseeable future, there is that opportunity to engage with enthusiastic government departments and authorities that are on the lookout for new, innovative approaches.

You can read UAE-based journalist  Megha Merani‘s full story in The Times of India here.


July 16, 2019
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A Bengaluru-based start-up is developing India’s first attack swarm drone prototype in conjunction with state-owned contractors Hindustan Aeronautics

report from NDTV last week confirmed that India’s military is developing weaponised autonomous swarm drones. It has been much publicised that these are being developed by China, Russia and the U.S., but not so India — until this year.

There’s been talk about India’s military need for swarm drones for a couple of years now and the possibility of leveraging home grown UAV startups, but not much buzz about the development of weaponised swarm drones.

Continue reading this story on Asia AI News (Medium)


July 8, 2019
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The first Modi 2.0 budget has been called cautious, incremental and lacking a blueprint; Will India be able to implement the right programmes at the speed required to remain competitive?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Modi government’s budget for 2019/2020 to India’s parliament on Friday, in a statement full of vision for the future, drawing heavily on the themes from the national Economic Survey 2018–19 released last week. In a speech that aimed to garner popular appeal, Sitharaman prioritised infrastructure, digital economy and job creation. You can review the government’s online presentation here.

As expected, the new budget has received both praise and criticism, while inspiring some tough questions, depending on the economic and political leaning of the commentators.

Continue reading this story on Asia AI News (Medium)


July 2, 2019
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The G20 Summit in Osaka ended on a high note for some, with the meeting between the presidents of the two largest economies in the world stealing a lot of the headlines. U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed after the meeting that his government will continue to allow sales of American technology products to Huawei, likely pleasing the likes of Intel and Micron.

If the biggest success of G20 was a reset for China-US trade negotiations, one of the biggest failures was arguably the Osaka Track digital economy declaration to formulate rules on digital governance under the concept of “Data Free Flow with Trust”, but without the support of India (a country that expects to make $350 billion from IT and BPM by 2025).

Continue reading this story on Asia AI News (Medium)