The Knowledge to Decide

With the implementation of the Companies Act 2013 earlier this year, the Indian government has made history by requiring eligible Indian businesses to “turn CSR from voluntary activities to mandated responsibilities”. Will this succeed in boosting the non-profit sector without hobbling economic competitiveness? And will it set an example for the world to follow? CSR in India The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) came into common usage in the early 1970s. The 20th century witnessed a shift in focus of global CSR from traditional philanthropy – giving out donations – towards more direct and sustained engagement by business in both broad-based and cause-specific interventions. In India, CSR has traditionally been an activity that was performed in a perfunctory manner, but not deliberated. Although India’s CSR still remains within the philanthropic space, its focus has shifted to institutional building (educational, research and cultural) with the aim of lifting communi

As more users explore e-shopping and e-payment options, retailers are transforming the online e-shopping experience in Indonesia. Jeffrey Bahar, Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group, was honored to be a guest speaker at GATES Indonesia ICT Reseller Channel Summit 2017 on e-commerce opportunities in Indonesia. In his presentation, Bahar shared his insights on the growth of modern retail turnover in Indonesia, focusing on consumer trends and the e-payment eco-system. Bahar mentioned that the growth of modern retail for 2017 was 10%, contributing 5.4% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With 88.1 million internet users in 2016 (34% of Indonesia’s population), the number of Indonesian online shoppers grew from 7.4 million in 2015 to 8.7 million in 2016. Methods used to pay for on-demand services in 2016 were cash (69%), e-money via applications (28%) and credit cards (12.46%). Bahar’s presentation deck on “E-commerce in Ind

As dependence on big data and analytics grows, so does the risk of IT security breaches. The imperative for companies and governments to protect their IT systems has never been stronger. IT security today is a USD60 billion industry with the U.S. at its forefront. As the number of threats increases, will our existing IT security tools be enough to hold the line? The IT security industry is poised for growth. Its core product offerings continue to perform well: firewalls, anti-malware, authentication and encryption, plus 80 other product categories. Investors in the US are bullish about this sector. They ploughed USD3 billion into IT security companies between 2011 and 2013, eventually funding some 300 firms. The most recent instance of a wildly destructive IT threat was the Heartbleed bug, discovered in April 2014. It left 600,000 servers vulnerable. The Achilles heel it exploited was the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) – an encryption technology