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Day: August 16, 2019

How AI in The Energy Sector Can Help to Solve The Climate Crisis?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

How AI in the Energy Sector Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis

Have you not complained about the crisis that is looming large in our environment? The news reports of untimely floods, missing rain patterns, fires in forests, carbon emissions and smog affect each and every one of us. The Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum threw up some important measures that we need to take in enabling AI, ML and technology as a whole in symbiotically tackle the climate crisis of all times.

The main cause of the changes in climate is being attributed to emissions of carbon and greenhouse gases. And each and every person in tandem with AI, technology and the big industrial players have a bounden duty to support such measures and immediately move to reduce these emissions if we wish to halt such catastrophic climate changes. Noteworthy is the funding of nearly billion dollars in such ventures by Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Here is the list of the top suggestions. In all these measures one looks to technology and artificial intelligence to aid and achieve what we singularly cannot do. This is because the noteworthy improvements brought about by AI are

AI helps compile and process data:

We just are not doing enough to save our planet. The agreement between countries in Paris to be implementable means elimination of all energy sources of fossil-fuel. AI enabled with intelligent ML algorithms can go a long way in processing unthinkable volumes of data and providing us with the insight and forecasts to reverse the climatic changes, use of fossil fuels, reduction of carbon emissions, waste etc, and setting up environment-friendly green systems of operations.

AI can help reduce consumption of energy by ‘server farms’

The widespread use of digitalization has led to server farms meant to store data. According to the Project Manager, Ms. Sims Witherspoon at Deepmind the AI British subsidiary of Alphabet when speaking to DW said that they have developed a bot named Go-playing with algorithms that are “general purpose” in a bid to reduce the cooling energy of data centers of Google by a whopping 40%. This does amount to a path-breaking achievement when you consider that a total of 3 percent of the energy globally used is just used by the ‘server farms’ to maintain data!

Encouraging the big players to be guardians of the climate.
The industrial giants are using technology, AI and ML to reduce their footprints of carbon emissions. AI tools from Microsoft and Google are aiding maximized recovery of natural resources like oil, coal, etc. Though with no particular plans or place in the overall plan-of-action such measures do go a long way in preserving the environment through reduced emissions and set the trend into motion.

Using smartphone assistants to nudge for low-carbon climate-friendly changes.
The rampant use of smartphones and devices of AI makes this option possible and along with zero-click AI enabled purchases the virtual assistant bolstered through ML algorithms and tweaked infrastructure can be used to influence choices of low-carbon climatic and emission-reduction changes.

Social media can transform education and societal choices.
The biggest influencer of social change is the social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc these can be harnessed to publicize, educate and act on choices that help reduce such carbon emissions and use of resources.

The reuse mantra and future design.
Almost all designing is achieved through AI which can help us design right, have default zero-carbon designs, commit to the recycling of aluminium and steel, reward lower carbon footprints, grow and consume optimum foods and groceries and create green and clean smart cities.

Summing up the suggestions to be placed at the UN Global Summit for Good AI at Geneva, it is high time we realize that the future lies in data and its proper use through AI and empowering ML. We need new standards for use of the media and advertising digitally. All countries need to globally work to reduce the use of fossil fuels in automobiles and transportation. We must cut our emissions by half in less than a decade and this is possible through proper use of data, AI, ML, and digitization.

If you care enough to be a part of this pressing solution to environmental change, learn at Imarticus Learning, how AI has the potential to harness data and control the damage to our environment. Act today.

Role of Peer to Peer Networks in Creating Transparency and Increased Usage of AI:

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

With Amazon’s facial-recognition, face-IDs, use of facial-recognition at airports and on smart-phones, the police use of TASERs to immobilize suspects, and voice-cloning apps, the peer-to-peer networks aim of creating a transparent data system through increased usage of AI seems to have been accepted widely.

Artificial Intelligence applications have scored for their ease of operations; quick and unbelievable data-processing, identification capabilities, and flexible application amend-abilities.

The question of transparency has however been oft-discussed and flouted with impunity in instances of protecting privacy, ethical, legal and misuse issues. Selling of data to third parties, forced use of facial recognition, misuse of voice-cloning, and excessive use of TASERs did not result in data accountability. It appears to have become a nagging fear of constant governmental-surveillance and has come close to defeating the very purpose of its creation of transparency.

The following trends in 2018 may be important in the use of AI and transparent use of data which presently globally governments, countries and companies are vying to harness and control.

AI becomes the political focus

Some argue AI creates jobs while others claim to have lost work because of AI. A case in point is self-driven trucks and cars where more than 25 thousand workers become unemployed annually as per CNBC reports. The same is true in large depots working with very few employees. If the 2016 campaign of President Trump was about immigration and globalization, the midterms of 2018 would focus on rising unemployment due to the use of AI.

Peer-to-peer transparent networks will use blockchains

ML and AI used together are becoming useful in apps like Google, Facebook etc. where computing power and enormous data is processed in fractions of seconds to enable decision making. However, transparency in the decision making has been under a cloud and not in the control of users.

Peer-to-peer networks using block-chain technology transformed the financial sectors and are set to revitalize small industries and financial organisations functioning transparently. Ex: Presearch makes use of AI peer-to-peer networking to induce transparency in search-engines.

Other interesting trends using peer-to-peer networks and AI set to overhaul efficiency, transparency, productivity and profits are

Logistics and deliveries efficiency set to increase.
Self-driving cars rock.
Robo-cops will take-on action.
Content creation through AI.
Consumers and technology to become buddies.
Data scientists will rule in demand over engineers.
ML to aid and not replace workers.
AI will aid the health sector development.
The use of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant show that they use AI which currently understands advanced conversational nuances. The creation of robots, chatbots and such have raised questions of immortality, displacement of workers, and whether ML can be controlled at all to get machines to do what we humans tell them to do? It has become an issue of human wisdom vs AI- intelligence debate. Morality issues, misuse of intelligence, and subjective-experiences in humans allow us to feel, be ethical and transparent in use of AI intelligence data.

In conclusion, one must agree that the increased use of peer-to-peer networks, AI, ML, data analytics and predictive technologies are here to stay and can lead to increased transparency in data-transactions across sectors. Human wisdom and morality will be the traits that set us, humans, apart from our intelligent creations whose data-processing and learning capabilities and potential can fast spin out-of-control when these traits are not used to restrain AI.

India becomes The World’s Second Largest Fintech Hub: Here’s All You Need To Know

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There are few nations in the world which are the growing hub of fintech startups. Fintech startups refer to those which work in implementing technology in traditional finance processes and play a huge role in modernizing any society. Most of the online financial services we use today were at some point proposing something radical that society had not thought of – and many startups today, are growing up to be similarly disruptive.

India is growing to be one of the best places in the world to have a fintech startup, as statistics suggest – this is no surprise, considering the support systems that the government has put in place to support entrepreneurship. India is currently home to more than 2000 startups operating in the field, and the number is second only to that of the United States. This is almost a three-fold rise in the last 5 years, with the number having been only around 700 in 2014.

The cumulative amount raised by these startups together amount to more than $2 billion, just in 2018. This fundraising was done over 165 deals, in the year. Most of the fintech startups currently operate in Payments, but there are plenty of promising companies which are trying to carve a market in wealth tech, personal lending, insurance and much more.

The Two Leading Cities

A large number of these startups are based out of two Indian cities alone – Mumbai and Bangalore. The two cities are home to close to 42 percent of all the fintech startups in the nation, and the other prominent cities include Delhi, Gurgaon, and Hyderabad. The smaller towns of the nation, however, still remain untapped by the services or presence of fintech startups, as stated by the India Fintech Report 2019.

Owing to the huge promise that these startups are currently showing to the government, it is no surprise that a large number of states are now showing interest in fostering promising startups. In the last year, a Special Fintech Committee was drafted by the government expressly for the purpose of supporting the growth of the sector. The Mumbai Fintech Hub and the Fintech Valley in Vizag are similar developments, which are meant to support this system. The creation of these areas represents how interested the government is in building up a strong segment and promoting entrepreneurship. The Marathi government even went a step further to create a fintech policy, and have already disbursed more than Rs. 9 crores to various startups in the form of prize money and grants in the state. The state even has a specially appointed fintech officer for pushing growth in this niche sector.

In any case, there is no doubt that India is emerging as a strong player in the world of fintech. Fintech is a sector with great promise, mainly because it is something that digitizes or deals with something that is the main aspect of human life. These startups not only promise to make life easier but also improve society greatly.

What Are The Sources To Learn Corporate Banking?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

The scope of a job in Corporate Banking depends and varies depending on the following factors. These factors are:

The bank that employs you:

All banks do not offer the same bouquet of services. Some focus on smaller firms and the middle-market segment requiring a variety of skills specific to the field of work. Your knowledge base and skills required may be different when you work with the larger banks.

Further, some banks may offer certain specialized services like infrastructure finance or asset-backed lending and so on. You will soon discover that no matter where you learn corporate banking you practice on the job and what you study depends also on whom you work for. Chase Bank and Citi Group of banks have the best corporate banking divisions.

In which country you are employed:

Banks have to be licensed to operate in a country and provide key services. Often the particular country may not have the required infrastructure or availability of local talent to fill specific job roles and key areas. As an example consider that in Western Europe one needs to incorporate a legal entity in Germany alone to offer cash management services. After Brexit happens the UK will need a similar procedure. This restricts the bank’s offerings and their payouts also need to be on par with the areas average payouts.

The area of operation in the bank:

Banks offer a variety of roles in corporate banking. You could be from the technical/ administrative support areas, a relationship manager, or the treasury products sales associate, or a specialist in account opening. The area of operation and job roles varies and so also do the payouts, skills or learning required. Blockchains are the buzz word and a lot of hiring is around this technology. Anti-laundering, risk-management, compliance, and regtech are also very happening areas requiring skills depending on the job role and operational area of the bank.

Since you will have to suit your job, one of the best routes to learn corporate banking is to do a course at reputed institutes like the Imarticus Learning Academy. The banking courses are not all that different. What sets Imarticus apart, is that they offer specialization courses to both career seekers and career changers suited to their interest areas and equipped with certifications to advance your career.

Corporate Vs Investment banking:

The corporate banks are IBs who are also lenders of capital at various scales and from different branches under the same umbrella. They could be direct investors and most often act as intermediaries helping to raise investment capital. Some examples are of companies raising funds are in the issuances of bonds, IPO’s and OIUs. Different branches like retail banking, corporate finance, wealth management, etc are involved in offering funds to corporate firms, syndicated financial institutions and the governments for infrastructure projects.

IB also deals with HNI individuals, syndicated funds, etc to SMEs and retail products like credit/debit cards, bank accounts for individual investors. IB often plays the role of an intermediary in the acquisitions and merger deals. They advise on equity markets, mutual fund investments, and play a consultant to borrowers in their financial and borrowing journeys. Their profits are in the interest rates, charged fees, consultancy retainers and such. Banks may also have in-house trading facilities.

The key differences:

The main difference between corporate banking and investment banking is in whom they lend to. The banks offer loans at interest. Banks can be the intermediaries of the venture capital deals and the M and A deals. They also target different kinds of customers. The banks are relatively risk-averse and have investors and borrowers from whom they earn fees or interest for their involvement. IBs work with financial institutions and firms who also have access to global markets, and capitals markets abroad. Corporate bankers specifically work with institutions, corporate firms, churches; foundations, etc helping them invest their funds and offering them loans.

If you are interested to learn corporate banking the courses at Imarticus Learning are highly recommended. The banking jobs are prestigious, pay well and are constantly facing a demand for well-trained professionals.

IB career-scope and payouts:

In terms of career prospects, salaries, job roles, and working conditions there is a lot of overlap between various divisions in the investment banking sectors. However, corporate banking has a slight lead in job prospects. According to Payscale reports, in early 2004, the average IB salary was USD 315,000. Ten years later the figures for the IB salary was USD 288,000. Investopedia claims the average 2015 banker’s salary was between USD 75,000 to 85,000.

Conclusions:

Corporate bankers are important as they are client-facing jack-of-all-trades bankers with a wide knowledge and skills base. You can learn corporate banking at Imarticus Learning where careers are born and honed. Start today!

For more details and for further career counseling, you can also contact us through the Live Chat Support system or can even visit one of our training centers based in – Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Banglore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Ahmedabad.

Breaking into the new ground – Renuka’s transformation from IT to investment banking

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

Renuka recounts the various challenges she had to face as she made the career change and how Imarticus enabled her to achieve her dreams.

It was Renuka’s ambition to work for a top tier investment banking firm like Morgan Stanley and this was one of the reasons as to why she had enrolled in Imarticus learning’s certified investment banking course, in the first place. In fact, her very first questions to us were regarding Morgan Stanley and her chances of landing a job there.

Renuka comes with a background in IT with her bachelor’s in computer science and her additional IT-related courses, which ranged from programming languages to IT architecture. But despite excelling in her respective field, Renuka had always had an interest in investment banking, one that was set to grow further over the years. Of course, she had no idea on how to affect the change and then, she came across the Imarticus learning’s certified investment banking course and the rest fell into place. She reviewed the course, the course curriculum, consulted with her peers and then, took the leap of faith, so as to speak.

Given the fact that Renuka had little to zero experience in the banking field, she naturally found the course to be overwhelming at the start. But soon, she got the hang of it, thanks to our platform that enables all students to review the various modules, notes and more, 24X7. The course came with a detailed curriculum that covered everything from the basics of banking to commodity trading, CFDs and more. Granted that the learning curve may have seemed a little steep for Renuka but thanks to the detailed modules she was able to manage the same effortlessly.

According to Renuka, the course was exceptional in the sense that it introduced innovative teaching methods and applications to simplify a complicated subject. And as a result, she was able to understand most of the aspects of banking which simply was not possible before.

The course came with a combination of physical classes as well as a self-paced online module which helped Renuka and students like her to keep up with the rest of the class.  And as a result of this course, Renuka was able to achieve the transformation that she had sought and in the process, she managed to achieve her ambition as well.

Even before the completion of the course, Imarticus encouraged Renuka to apply for Morgan Stanley’s current recruitment drive in Mumbai. She was reluctant at first on account of the fact that she had not yet completed her course, but soon decided to go for it as the interview process itself should prove to be quite invaluable.

Imarticus stepped in and made Renuka prep for her interview and even provided her with a set of resume building workshops as well. Well, all these attempts paid off solidly since her interview went through without a hitch and Morgan Stanley made her an offer as well. Renuka was naturally in cloud 9 over the fact that she managed to snag a job offer from Morgan Stanley.

But before she left us for Morgan Stanley, she made it indubitably clear that it was the course that made it all possible. Imarticus provided her with support and assistance when she needed it the most, with detailed lectures and modules; it was this that helped make it possible for Renuka to achieve her dreams.

So the only question that you have to ask yourself is whether you are aspiring to be an investment banker? And if the answer happens to be a yes, then you know what course to opt for – so call us today.

For more details and further career counseling, you can also contact us through the Live Chat support system or can even visit one of our training centers based in – Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Banglore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Ahmedabad.

Ten Contracts for Your Next Agile Project

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Ten Contracts For Your Next Agile Project

An iterative approach like Agile Project Management, guides a project throughout the production process, just like in Agile Software Development, where several iterations are reviewed and critiqued by stakeholders before moving onto the next step of the project. There are different types of contracts governing various types of agile projects. Such contracts or agreements may seem to be a set of guidelines or rules to be followed, but they hold significance as fixed instruments, which can lead to unfavorable consequences if not obliged to. Agile contracting lets the parties focus on the result of the Agile in a collective manner.

Here are ten contracts for your next agile project:

1. Fixed Price

Here the risk is mostly associated with the developer or supplier who agrees on the deliverables. The customer intends to have this sort of a contract since the target price is fixed; the developer tries to complete the project at a lower cost than the target cost and the satisfaction of the customer is guaranteed. After all, that is the prima facie of developers. However, if the project takes longer or costs more than the fixed price, then the cost is borne by the developer leading less scope for changes in this type of contracts.

2. Incremental delivery contracts

The project is broken down into segments, wherein the customer reviews the development stage at predetermined review points. Both parties evaluate the pros and cons at each review point and then decide on the further steps. At the end of each successful review point, both parties have incentives. Each increment subsequently improves the overall development of the project that ultimately is a result of cooperation leveraged in incremental delivery contracts as opposed to the rigidly fixed price contracts.

3. Time and materials

It is one of the most convenient forms of contracts wherein the supplier makes the payment for the amount of work or service that is done using necessary materials for creation. Since the customer holds the edge of changing minds, the supplier enjoys this type of contracts. However, such agreements sustain firmly on the legitimate efforts of the supplier to cut down the cost for the benefit of the longevity of the arrangements.

4. Time and materials with fixed scope and a cost ceiling

In this form of contract, if the supplier completes the task early, the payment will be made only for the actual efforts. There is no scope for incentives for finishing the project early. Having said that since the cost of the project is capped, the supplier will aim to achieve the maximum capped cost of the project.

5. Time and materials with variable scope and ceiling

As a consequence of the capped limit, the financial risk associated with the customer is less. The variable range and capped budget bring a collaborative approach from both supplier and customer to complete the project. This sort of contract is ideal for budget oriented projects. A constructive relationship upholds this type of contracting in achieving desired business.

6. Bonus/Penalty clause

As the name suggests, the supplier will be rewarded with the bonus upon early completion of the task and will be penalized for late deliveries. Such contracts reduce the potential risk of late deliveries for the customers. Penalty clause makes the supplier forsee the consequences related to delay and drives towards completing the task on time or even early.

7. Joint Ventures

The two parties involved in the agile project agrees upon to invest in a project with mutual interest. Though the development phase of the project may not be rewarding for either of the parties involved. There must be a return on investment for both parties either from the revenue or by the end result of the project. Here the project itself to be considered as a separate company which needs to be developed and marketed for a common benefit.

8. Money for nothing changes for free

This type of contract was created by Jeff Sutherland, which involves two clauses. The first clause is altered for free. This clause essentially leverages space for any new features to be added in a project without charging any fee for the changes made. Secondly, money for nothing clause is a win-win situation for both supplier and customer. Here the supplier separates the different segments of a project and delivers the most prioritized segment first.

9. Fixed profit

Every project ideally has a predetermined cost and profit estimation. By using fixed profit contracts, the parties involved in making the said project, agree upon a fixed amount regardless of the time period of the work completed. Since there is an incentive set for both, parties like the customer save cost, and the supplier has the chance of seeing higher profits.

10. Sprint contract

A sprint contract is ideal for Scrum projects wherein a project is broken down into bits. An agreement between the product owner and a team performing a sprint is known as a Sprint contract. The team tries to convince the product owner by delivering expected quality work in one sprint.

In a nutshell, having proper contracts reduces the risk associated with your clients, as it increases human accountability at both ends. Though your agreement does not serve as your project manager, it certainly acts as a risk mitigation technique. So even if you have a cordial relationship with your clients, a contract in place never hurts!

To know more about the Contracts for your next Agile Project, you can also consider our Agile Scrum Certification.

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