India france technology summit - special magazine

Contents 04 05 06 08 11 13 15 18 20 23 26 30 31 34 37 40 42

Message: Francois Richier Ambassador of France to India Message:Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII Interview: Dr. Véronique Briquet-Laugier Ambarish Das Gupta of KPMG in a discussion with Maheswaran Gnanaprakasam, Editor-In-Chief, Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine Dengue as a complex System The EADS Group in India Complex Systems Science as a New Transdisciplinary Science SOFA: From Open Source Research Project to `Level-D` Training Simulator Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics and Cloud Computing Ecole Centrale Paris Multi-Cultural Management Companies Act, 2013 – a Paradigm Shift Towards a Lifelong Personalized Education for Everybody OTEC Experiences – Spin offs & Road Ahead Need for a Glue in Internet of Things Advancement towards Functional Architectural Coatings CLINATEC: A Technology Translational Research Center

Published by Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine in association with The Embassy of france in India Editor-In-Chief: Maheswaran Gnanaprakasam (mahesh@diplomacyandforeignaffairs.com) Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine S-442, Shakarpur School Block, New Delhi - 110092 India Tel. No. 011-32316194 Email : editor@diplomacyandforeignaffairs.com Disclaimer The opinions/ comments from writers are their own and Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs magazine does not endorse the claims made therein.

France Special

Message

I

ndia and France share a longstanding and very fruitful cooperation in science:the first agreement for scientific cooperation was signed in 1966, almost 50 years ago! Since then, this cooperation has been continuously strengthened, in accordance with the determination of both French and Indian leaders.

On 14-15 February earlier this year, President François Hollande devoted his first State visit in Asia to India. This event epitomised the immense importance he attaches to both the strategic partnership between France and India and the economic and scientific relations between the two countries. Accompanied by a large high-level delegation of ministers, including the Minister for Higher Education and Research, President Hollande underscored several times how much the intensification of scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries was in the common interest of France and India.

Indo-French cooperation has always been based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and mutual trust.CEFIPRA (Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research) is a case in point: this exemplary Indo-French funding agency was founded in 1987 and has since then supported more than 450 advanced scientific projects.

A country that has been steadily asserting itself year after year as an emerging power and is undergoing swift urbanisation, India could benefit from the know-how and technologies of French research centres and companies. As a matter of fact, France is already a top-ranking economic partner for India. Apart from their corporate headquarters and production units, French companies have alsoestablished important research and development or innovation centres, thus spurring India’s technological development. This shows that India is an attractive destination for French technology providers. France’s technological offer runs a wide gamut of fields: energy, infrastructure, water, food processing, and services; and France is eager to share with India its outstanding expertise and know-how in these areas. France and India have a lot to share and to develop for their mutual benefit, from cooperation in science and technology.

In this perspective, the 2013 India-France Technology Summit marks a crucial milestone in Indo-French cooperation. This two-day event will bring together an unprecedented 600 companies, universities and research organizations, from both countries, to share, compare and discuss cutting-edge technological issues and scientific innovation over 23 roundtables and 50 technology showcases.

There will thus be opportunities for the Indian and French public and private sectors to demonstrate their latest innovations and meet potential partners to develop new technologies and create new synergies in bilateral collaborations.

The India-France Technology Summit will build a beneficial “ecosystem” which will foster even closer ties between our two countries in the areas of science, technology, energy, higher education and research, and in which France and India will reach a new level of mutual trust and understanding.

With best regards Francois Richier Ambassador of France to India

4

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

Message

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII

I

ndia has a longstanding strategic partnership with France. Both the countries share a qualitative and quantitative relationship.

Our bilateral initiatives in the form of a Joint Committee for Economic and Technical cooperation, strategic dialogue instituted at the national security advisors level and the Indo-French CEOs Forum are playing an important role in taking efforts to the next level. Over the years, India and France have successfully cooperated in many critical areas. We have managed to leverage our partnerships in infrastructure, civil nuclear energy and defence, to mention a few. Cooperation in science and technology and space research has also continued to grow exponentially. Indeed, these strategic partnerships are of an enduring nature and offer new opportunities for businesses of both sides.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Department of Science & Technology have been organizing Technology Summit with a Partner Country every year for the last 18 years. The purpose of this annual event is to forge partnerships among Indian industry, institutions and government agencies and the similar organizations from the Partner Country, leading to better businesses and large-scale social benefits. CII is happy to have France as the Partner Country of the Summit this year. I see a new dimension of Indo-French partnerships through this Summit. We believe that the partnership between technology driven French SMEs and innovation driven Indian SMEs will result into co-development of many new products and services those are technology intensive and at the same time affordable to Indian market and to similar other markets in the world. The Summit will provide an ideal platform for forging such collaborations.

I wish the Summit all the success.

Chandrajit Banerjee

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

5

France Special

Interview

T

here has been exchange of technology and research collaborations between India and France for many years.

What are your views on the progress being made and what do you expect from this India-France Technology Summit in terms of further cooperation?

Continuously, since the 1950’s, India and France have expanded their long-standing and fruitful cooperation in Science.

This includes the decision taken last year, by both French and Indian governments, to make the CEFIPRA, the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research, evolve to better address industrial competitiveness and R&D-led innovation.

This was translated into an expansion of CEFIPRA to open up to resources to fund Indo-French programs in Research and Innovation, and allow CEFIPRA to be the platform for launching targeted programs funded by different Indian and French departments, agencies and companies. The Technology Summit will be the platform to announce that CEFIPRA is fostering new programs with two French companies, and we expect that many more of these challenge-oriented programs will be developed in a near future. Furthermore, agreements for three Indo-French joint laboratories in life sciences will also be signed during the Technology Summit, which involve a long-term close collaboration between researchers and students in the field of the joint laboratories.

6

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

C

an you list some of the initiatives or important projects that The Science & Technology Department (Service pour la Science & la Technologie, SST), has undertaken?

A list of all our initiatives will never be exhaustive; I invite you to visit our website www.frenchsciencetoday.org. Since its creation, about 10 years ago, the Science Department of the French Embassy to India is devoted to increase the collaborations between France and India. As an example, in the past three years, it resulted in the creation of six joint laboratories in Life Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science. An important step is the creation of the Research & Development Club of French Companies that became a platform to exchange best practices for collaboration with India, and the members of this Club are all sponsors of the Technology Summit. Besides implementing the evolution and expansion of CEFIPRA, our Science Dpt implemented with the Indian Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Technology the Raman-Charpak fellowships which is an exchange program for French and Indian PhD students in laboratories from both countries. Another example is the creation of the IFWN, IndoFrench Water Network, www.ifwn.org, with the NIAS, National Institute of Advanced Studies, that aims at gathering all the actors that are involved in water issues from both countries from SMEs to academics, and interdisciplinary researchers.

Dr. Véronique Briquet-Laugier, Head of Science Department, French Embassy, India in an interview to Maheswaran Gnanaprakasam, Editor-In-Chief , Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine.

Y

our priorities in terms of promoting certain technologies France is an innovative country, and is strongly willing to collaborate with India in fields where both our countries have complementarities. France has priorities in challenges such as energy storage, personal medicine, and big data. As for promoting our technologies, the Technology Summit will display some of our latest innovations in aeronautics, computer science, laser, biomass-transformed fuel, water technologies, and more.

T

he Ambassador recently said “the summit would open up new eco-system for extended collaboration between two countries.” Would you please elaborate on this?

To create an ecosystem between companies, research laboratories and higher education structures, you need platforms and tools. CEFIPRA is one of them, the Raman-Charpak fellowships another one, and particularly the Technology Summit will have a big impact here. The Technology Summit is the platform that will bring together more than 700 French and Indian key stakeholders to create links and new collaborations that would not have been thinkable a few years ago, such as cooperation in challenges for health, education or water issues.

Development Board during the State visit of the French President in February 2013 to launch new calls for proposals targeting Indian and French SMEs. French and Indian SMEs will be attending the Summit, so it is a good start.

Y

our views on the opportunities this Summit will offer to French tech companies in India This Summit is already a success with more than 700 participants registered, including 78 French companies.

The main opportunity is that it is the place where all Indian companies want to be to meet with French technologies and innovations. To this date 117 Indian companies are registered to the Summit. French scientists from public and private bodies are attracted by Indian scientists. It is also a new opportunity to create more public-private partnerships between France and India in the near future.

Dr. Véronique Briquet-Laugier, Head of Science Department, French Embassy, India. Life Science scientist, trained as a biophysicist, Véronique Briquet-Laugier completed her PhD in Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris. Then, she spent three years as a fellow at the Molecular Biology Institute of UCLA, Los Angeles, USA. Back to France, she set

W

e do not see French participation in SME segment in India. Are you taking any initiatives, will this Summit open up opportunities for SME sector which is quite big.

SMEs are entities that are dependent upon the market and the business. Up to now it has been difficult for both Indian and French SMEs to meet and collaborate. With the help of UBIFRANCE, which is the French agency for promoting French SMEs in India, we hope that this gap is going to be filled.

In addition, an agreement was signed between BPIFrance, the French innovation agency, and the Indian Technology

up her own team at INSERM, Hôpital Lariboisière in Paris, working on intracellular trafficking and imaging in the field of rare hemorrhagic diseases. During those years she sat on committees as an expert for the French Biomedicine Agency, Forensic and the European Commission.

In 2007, after completing her « Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches » (HDR), she joins the French funding agency for Research (ANR, Agence Nationale de la Recherche), as a senior Program Officer for Systems Biology, Nanomedicine and Alzheimer Disease. In September 2010 she joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; she still acts as an FP7 expert at the European Commission for the Marie Curie and the Support and Coordination Actions.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

7

France Special

Ambarish Das Gupta of KPMG in a discussion with Maheswaran Gnanaprakasam, Editor-In-Chief, Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

Y

our expectations from this India-France Technology Summit

KPMG response:

We expect to develop a deeper understanding of the following issues through this Summit: 1. Develop visibility of French expertise, innovations, products and services that can be leveraged especially in areas of technology transfer, R&D and market access 2. Explore synergies in bilateral relations and understand potential areas of collaboration between Indian and French companies including opportunities in public-public and public-private partnerships 3. Understand major areas of interest of French companies

8

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

willing to invest in India and major challenges faced by French companies investing in India or having plans to invest in India 5. Potential areas wherein Indian companies can invest in France and its potential benefits/France’s value proposition vis-à -vis other European destinations 6. Favourable policies, regulations and other support provided

by French government to Indian companies willing to invest in France.

7. How can we have more joint Indo French education initiatives in establishing colleges of Global repute operating from France and work out more educational collaboration between France and India.

W

hat are KPMG’s focus and priorities for technology vertical as it is one of the largest contributors to your revenues?

KPMG response: KPMG has been providing audit, tax and advisory services to some of the largest technology companies across the world.

Some of its priorities for the technology vertical include helping companies drive innovation, profitable growth, achieve process excellence, gain market entry, increase market penetration, understand consumer behavior and gather market intelligence. Other major areas of focus include helping companies drive digital transformation and digital consumerism.

KPMG works with various enterprises helping redesign their IT delivery systems to embrace digital transformation and adapt to digital consumerism.

KPMG has also worked with several city governments across the world to create smart city plans. These plans enable these cities to come up with a technology enabled ecosystems involving everything from transportation to energy to buildings and water.

Other priority areas include helping companies in building their technology infrastructure, identify and leverage market opportunities in areas arising out of digital transformation, run large scale enterprise transformational programs and provide CIO Advisory services.

W

hat according to you are the challenges the technology sector in India is facing and how the French collaborations can help?

KPMG response: The Indian technology sector is facing challenges on three fronts:

1. Macro-economic Challenges: •

Continuing economic slowdown in Europe, India and other key client markets along with unexpected currency fluctuations has impacted the growth of the Indian technology sector. Companies and governments are reluctant to spend on technology, and buying cycles have increased.

2. Business Challenges •

•

•

Competition from other countries like Philippines (voice BPO), Eastern Europe (Application Development) leading to some business moving away from India and rise of automated software development firms (e.g. IPSoft) can erode the cost competitiveness factor for Indian tech firms.

Lack of innovation: Indian IT-BPO vendors have been mostly confined to the low/medium end of the technology spectrum, with US and European firms occupying the high-end product development and consulting space. Indian firms need to invest in R&D to boost innovation to rise up the value chain.

Alternate low cost delivery centres coming up in Central Eastern Europe , Latam and some Asian countries.

• •

Unable to move from service to product organizations Margins getting squezzed.

3. Regulatory Challenges •

•

Immigration challenges: Countries are introducing regulatory changes in their visa policies leading to increased rejections and higher costs that will be counterproductive for Indian tech companies.

Vcz"kuuwgu< Several factors, including regressive tax laws, and a lack of clarity when it comes to existing laws are adding to uncertainty in current conditions.

French Collaboration French technology sector, which is one of the most advanced globally, can enter into tie-ups with Indian firms to combine ‘access to technology’ with ‘cost competitiveness’. They can also help India companies gain a toehold in the European market by helping them establish their presence in France by providing easy access and high-end talent to India companies.

French High Tech companies can also play a larger role in driving technology led transformation initiatives of the government. Lack of access to ICT, inadequate infrastructure, absence of a holistic and uniform framework across departments to procure and deploy technology solutions are typical roadblocks in eGovernance. French companies can provide their expertise in these areas giving a big boost to improving governance processes and citizen services in the country.

Large outsourcing of French companies IT work to India, outsourcing of RD work and creation of more captives in India.

A

lso, how KPMG can help these tech companies in both India and France

KPMG response:

KPMG can offer entire range of services covering audit, tax and advisory services.

It can assist companies in setting up operations in India by providing advisory services on strategy, entry strategy, operations setup and management, risk management, infrastructure, security, taxation and other similar areas. Further, it can help in identifying potential areas of collaboration, JVs, alliances and M&As with other Indian firms.

KPMG has a global presence across 156 countries worldwide giving its clients access to its global industry insights, market knowledge and network.

W

hat are the opportunities for tech companies that disruptive technology trends such as Digital Consumerism offer? Can you elaborate please?

KPMG response: Disruptive technological innovations are transforming the world around us in unpredictable ways. ‘Digital Consumerism’ is radically changing the way customers shop for products and

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

9

France Special

services. Understanding these ‘Digital Consumers’ and how they make their buying decisions is essential for any organization to be successful in today’s world. While technology has advanced at a rapid pace since the 1980s, the past few years have seen a further acceleration of this change in multiple dimensions.

The increasing velocity of change is rapidly driving stakeholders and firms in a tight embrace, with disruptive technologies eroding the boundaries separating these industries.

Firms are becoming more and more agile, and new technologies have emerged as the enablers for this agility. Some of the key opportunities in technology exist in areas such as cloud, big data, mobility, social media, social commerce, embedded systems, security services and applications and augmented reality. Disruptions are also expected in niche areas around gesture-based technologies and lifestyle-related applications.

Tech companies which are able to understand this era of digital consumerism will emerge as leaders in the next decade.

They will have to come up with new technology platforms, solutions and delivery models to serve digital consumers.

C

an you name some of the verticals with technology-driven growth that might be of interest to French companies in India?

KPMG Response: French companies are already showing interest and participating in certain strategic sectors including sensitive segments of defence, aerospace, energy and civil nuclear sectors.

Collaboration opportunities in areas of solar energy, urban transport and infrastructure, waste and water management will also be of some interest.

Other technology-led growth can occur in sectors like financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, automotive, retail, engineering and construction.

Y

our views on how India and France can deepen their partnership further in terms of technology collaboration.

KPMG Response:

Both the countries can work as strategic partners. Potential areas of collaboration can be explored wherein French companies can provide a platform for Indian companies to enter Europe through France. France can be a long-term partner and could provide strategic support.

French companies have big presence in India with total French investments at $17 Billion. There is a major focus on urban development and structuring development of big cities wherein French companies can provide assistance in India.

France has one of the densest transportation networks in the world and technologies like line operating systems, centralized fleet management, real-time passenger information, electronic sales equipments, e-Money can be leveraged in India on a broader scale.

With the ongoing negotiations in aerospace and defense,

10

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

energy and nuclear sectors, there is a huge potential to extend this strategic alignment between the two countries in other sectors like healthcare, telecom, retail, engineering and construction.

Y

our suggestions at “Policy Level” for both the Governments of India and France.

KPMG Response:

The Government’s role in the future of this sector is multi-fold.

Favourable policy actions by the government around the following aspects will encourage the Indian players to strengthen their services for the global marketplace and foster innovation that can be taken global. In addition, MNCs will be encouraged to invest more in R&D specific work in India, helping build the ecosystem and talent pool required for idea incubation and development.

• Help create an environment that is conducive to innovation and growth by drafting and strengthening policies around IP Protection, Cybercrime and Funding • Provide adequate future-ready infrastructure to nurture the industry by developing IT/Technology hubs in Tier 2/3 cities, satellite townships, increasing broadband connectivity, computing infrastructure and framing policies for establishing world-class institutions • Help develop the domestic market - Government investment will be vital to encourage increased technology usage through e-governance initiatives. The government needs to expand the scale and scope of its existing efforts to provide citizen services online. The government should also encourage greater industry participation in sectors such as healthcare, education, public services, financial services, defense, space, nuclear energy, etc.

• Rationalize taxation structures and transfer Pricing Laws including catering to concerns around retrospective taxation • Setup programs to foster collaboration and investment in specific areas of interest for Indian and French companies; provide government support and favourable regulatory policies for Indo-French partnerships to work well in longterm.

• Indo French Business Council to be more active • More bilateral exchange programs and trade shows

about the author Ambarish is a Partner and Head of Management Consulting in KPMG. He is a member of Advisory Leadership Team and Global Management Consulting Leadership team. He was a Partner and has been the National Leader of the Consulting Practice of PwC India.

He was also a member of the India Leadership Team and also Advisory Leadership Team, PwC India.

Dengue as a complex System

By Dr Eric DAUDE

E

pidemics encompass numerous disciplines: virology, sociology, entomology, medics, epidemiology, geographyetc. This diversity highlights the complex multifaceted conditions leading to epidemics, especially those of an urban nature such as dengue: to understand the processes involved, many elements at different scales must be considered, from virus to environmental parameters, from mosquito dynamics to human behaviour,from general population awareness to infrastructures.

Dengue fever, one of the most important arthropod-borne diseasestransmitted by Aedesaegypti mosquitoes, is a rapidly growing public health problem intropical and sub-tropical countries. Any of the four serotypes antigenically distinct viruses, designated DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4, belonging to the family Flaviviridae, can cause DF, an acute viral infection characterized by fever, rash, headache, muscle and joint pain, and nausea. Occasionally, DF progresses to dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), a potentially life-threatening illness associated with vascular leakage, hemorrhage, and shock.

Escalations in the number of outbreaks and people involved have increased and the population-at-risk is increasing yearly. More than 3.5 billion people (approximately 55% of worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population) are at risk of dengue infection, including asymptomatic infections, which potentially increase the risk for the individual to develop severe disease following subsequent infection. It is estimated that every year, there are 70-500 million dengue infections, generating 36 million cases of DF and 2.1 million cases of DHF, with more than 20,000 deaths per year.In recent years, the global burden of dengue disease has been rising dramatically and this prolific increase has been connected to societal changes such as population growth, urbanization,human migration (potentially including infected hosts) and international travel introducing new vectors and pathogens into novel geographic areas. In addition, rising temperatures andglobal climate change may lead to the expansionof the range of major mosquito vectors into new areas, extension of the transmissionseason in areas with currently circulating dengue virusand increase in the mosquito vectorial capacity.

In its Global Strategy for Dengue Prevention and Control, WHO points out the need for the development of models which include space and time to identify the risk of dengue outbreaks at micro-geographical scales.Indeed, climatic (e.g. temperature), human (e.g. density, history of infection) and environmental (e.g. mosquito habitat) variables are highly heterogeneous in tropical urban spaces, thus introducing a considerable spatial dimension in human-mosquito contact and one that alters temporally. The

extent to which such detail impacts upon the force of infection is not known but likely to be of importance given the very local (i.e. spatially heterogeneous) nature of dengue transmission.

Among these different research programs, CSH (Centre des Sciences sociales de Delhi) and Pasteur Institut (IP, Paris) study dengue epidemiology in two cities of differing dengue endemicity, health system infra-structure, urban development and global connectedness: New Delhi, India and Bangkok, Thailand. We develop spatially explicit dynamic models using human, mosquito and environmental parameterson a local scaleto understand the influence of the different factors and, on a larger scale, the mechanisms of emergence of dengue epidemics.

Context, economic and societal challenges Cities world-wide are areas of predilection for the disease: the principal mosquito vector is adapted to an urban niche. Urban human population densities in tropical and semi-tropical countries have now reached unprecedented levels, 30 000 inhabitants / km in Mumbai (India), 24 000 in Kolkata (India), 20 000 inLahore (Pakistan). The rapidity with which such urbanisation and population growth has occurred is not without consequences; most particularly there is an amplifying infrastructure crisiswith ever-increasing problems of environmental conditions. The health sector, the supply of running water, electricity, availability of housing are all generally inadequate.

Endemic and epidemic dengueimposes economic and social stress on health care systems,affected households, and society at large. A recent multi-country study evaluated the economic burden in five countries in the Americas and three in Asia; with an annual average of 574,000 cases reported, the aggregate annual economic cost of dengue for the eight study countries was estimated to approach $1.8 billion, without incorporating costs of dengue surveillance and vector control. The economic burden was notably higher in the Asian countries, likely reflecting the higher costs associated with hospitalisation, proportionally higher in Asia because of the higher incidence of severe dengue disease compared to self-limiting dengue fever. Particularly notable from this and other studies was the economic burden due to direct non-medical costs (egexpenses associated with seeking and obtaining medicalcare and/or household members visiting patients at the hospital) and indirect costs such days of school lost, lost days of work, and dayslost by either the patient or any other household memberwho provided care to the patient during an illness episode. A recent study from India estimated the total economic burden to be US$27.4 million. The personal and societal cost of school absence is difficult to value, but will clearly

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

11

France Special

have a significant impact on childhood educational development.

Although such studies provide only very general estimates that are subject to the confounding influences of health reporting, health infra-structure and treatment-seeking behaviour, it is clear that there are considerable immediate economic lossesand long-term detrimental societal effects imposed upon developing countries as a result of dengue. Whilst such effects are generally considered at a society level, it is undeniable that the burden of disease has a direct impact on the quality of life that an individual has, either because of the direct result of infection or the financial and personal stress that accompanies disease in a family member.

A crucial step towards assessing the relative importance of dengue intervention for already over-stretched public health resources is to improve both the quantity and the quality of data reporting. This spans individual awareness and health-seeking behaviour to the implementation of more accurate, simple and cost-effective diagnostic methods. Improved knowledge on dengue epidemiology will then enable the identification of risk factors that may offer relatively simple, inexpensive options for intervention. For example, the tight association of the dengue mosquito vector with household larval breeding sites can lead to source reduction through community level awareness programs.

However, such methods may not be possible, pertinent or even effective in every situation. Local studies are therefore required.

The ultimate aim is to develop systems and models that give advanced warning of epidemics. This is dependent on a good understanding of the key factors involved in the local dengue epidemiology. Such systems enable targeted intervention at appropriate moments, thereby reducing overall cost.

Emergence and complex systems Extension of large-scale regional climatic patterns to the urban micro-climate, studies of local mobilities and the description of micro-environmental conditions are vital, as it is at this scale the mosquito and human interact. Recent studies have clearly demonstrated the highly localised nature of dengue transmission, whether via a focal case approach or a population density approach. Seasonal and micro-climatic conditions will impact upon mosquito life-span and potentially have considerable consequences on mosquito vectorial capacity. Empirical data relating mosquito population structure to local dengue epidemiology will be vital for generating biologically pertinent parameter estimates for incorporation into models. Local interactions, spatial and social heterogeneities and individuality are important to understand and explain the behaviour of the global system.

Our study benefits from over 6 years of work on establishing detailed geographical information system (GIS) databases for both sites.Using detailed hospital-based index cluster case approaches, we detail local dengue epidemiology and gather key empirical data for input into an ABM. In addition to defining key risk factors for local dengue propagation, our aim is to identify, by simulation, the extent to which specific interventions, whether concerning the environment, mosquito or human, can

12

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

undermine an epidemic. At a larger scale, we try to address the extent to which the two sites, which differ significantly in their infrastructural development, history of dengue and approach to intervention, can develop robust feasible strategies to defuse epidemic potential.

Our researches are positioned within the paradigm of complexity. In a complex system, emergence is defined as a new property (law, pattern) arising at a level as a consequence of various interactions between entities that compose other hierarchically distinct levels. This emergent phenomenon at macro-scale has the particularity of not being deducible by the simple analysis of the processes occurring at micro-scale. In this perspective, the worldwide emergence of dengue can be considered as an epiphenomenon reflecting the evolution of local environmental changes.

We develop ABM models to study the dengue complex system.

ABM treat each individual as unique and its behaviour (rulebased) is followed through a set of probabilistic or deterministic rules that govern for example, human mobility, mosquito dispersal, probability of encounter etc. Each individual owns attributes such as sex, age, health, wealth, immunity, space knowledge etc. These human-agents with diverse immune systems move within the virtual city, travelling to and from work for example, where they mingle with mosquito-agents with their own attributes and behaviours. These behaviours contribute to the spread of the epidemic. Although ABM requiresexplicit information, they can help to identify key parameters that determine the dynamics of interacting host-pathogen populations ABM iswell suited for understanding the consequences of complex interactions occurring both at large and very local scales. They can incorporate feedback dynamics and are spatially explicit. One can model macro level decisions to analyse effects at the local level, such as the effect of school closure or mobility restrictions on the global dynamics of an epidemic.

At the individual level (mosquito or human), it is possible to model different sources of influence on virus diffusion or health outcome.They finaly combine the identification of risk factors associated with exposure to the mosquito and virus to the immunological state at both the individual and population level (i.e. herd immunity).

about the author Eric DaudĂŠ is CNRS researcher (Geography) at the Centre des Sciences Sociales of Delhi (India). He works on spatial diffusion processes and agent-based modeling in the domains of health (epidemics diffusion) and technological risk.

Eric DaudĂŠ is head of MAGĂŠo project (ANR-FEDER) and MOSAIIC project (GRR SER) and involved in AEDESS (ANR) and DENFREE (FP7) projects headed by Pasteur Institut.

The EADS Group in India

E

ADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2012, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of Euro 56.5 billion and employed a workforce of over 140,000. EADS is also a partner in the turboprop joint venture ATR and missile systems provider MBDA. The Group is committed to build on its long-standing relationship with India, developed over the past 50 years by EADS and its predecessor companies. EADS has established a reputation of being a reliable supplier in the country and is willing to transfer technology and expertise. The Group will continue to contribute to the modernization of India’s Armed Forces as well as to the development of the commercial aerospace sector. In parallel, EADS offers a complete portfolio of cutting-edge technologies and the

very best products and services in India - in civil aviation, defence and security and space.

EADS currently has about 460 direct employees in India and this total is expected to increase further in coming years. Over 300 Indian engineers are directly working for EADS in research and engineering centres across the country and over 3,000 Indian engineers indirectly through our global supply chain. This is India’s contribution to the growth of EADS. EADS India Private Limited - a 100% owned subsidiary of EADS - was registered in 2006 and is leading the development of the Group in India. EADS is expanding its industrial presence in India through different initiatives at the corporate and divisional level.

At the end of 2009, EADS Innovation Works opened a research and technology centre in Bangalore to run its own projects and cooperate with Indian research and education organizations.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

13

France Special

EADS Group’s activities in India Airbus / Airbus Military Airbus’ partnership with India dates back almost 40 years.

Today Airbus is India’s aircraft of choice with a market share of around 70 percent of all commercial aircraft (100+ seats) in the country. Currently, half of all A320 forward passenger doors and all flap track beams are produced and assembled in India.

Operational since mid-2007, the Airbus Engineering Centre India (AECI) in Bangalore now employs over 350 highly skilled local engineers working in high end analysis and design on all Airbus products. The centre is expected to grow to 450 in the coming years. Airbus recently established a second pilot training centre in Noida (in cooperation with Interglobe and CAE) to complement the existing pilot training facility (in Co-operation with CAE) in Bangalore. Airbus directly and indirectly supports over 2,000 jobs in India’s aviation sector.

Airbus Military meanwhile has been selected as preferred bidder with the A330 MRTT aircraft and is promoting its very successful C295 transport aircraft in India for future competitions.

Airbus Military also is the manufacturer of the A400M military transport aircraft, a heavy airlifter which on the long term could provide ideal capabilities for a country like India.

Astrium Astrium, the space division of EADS, has a long-standing industrial partnership with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The agreement with ISRO covering the joint manufacturing of small telecommunications satellites has been extended for another 5 years. This agreement led to the joint development and worldwide marketing of communications satellites such as the Highly Adaptable Satellite (HYLAS 1), which was designed and built by Astrium and ISRO at sites in the U.K. and India and is today operational in orbit.

The other key long-term agreement for launching Satellites by ISRO’s PSLV launcher, signed in 2008, has allowed the successful launch in 2012 of Spot 6 Earth Observation Satellite, important satellite invested and built by Astrium for its Geo Info Services.

Through these initiatives, Astrium is building on its decade-long relations with India by establishing itself as a premier foreign industrial partner of ISRO and the Indian space industry.

Cassidian Cassidian considers India to be not just a key market with increasing defence and security needs but also a rapidly growing country which offers new opportunities for long-lasting strategic partnerships. Therefore, Cassidian is committed to invest in India's industry and people. In the past few years, Cassidian created several partnerships with organizations such as the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which build a solid basis to expand the cooperation with Indian aerospace and defence companies.

An example of Cassidian’s commitment to increase its industrial footprint in India is the new Cassidian Engineering Centre in Bangalore which was opened in February 2011. It was

14

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

established to provide engineering services to European partners as well as Indian customers. The Engineering Centre is the first defence related centre of this kind created by a foreign company in India. Indian engineers working for this Engineering Centre have been sent to Cassidian in Germany to attend technical training courses.

India plays a key role in Cassidian's globalization strategy. Our presence there has now been firmly established. As a next step, Cassidian is starting to build on its Indian base to strengthen its reach in other Asian markets.

Eurocopter Since its inauguration in 2010, Eurocopter India has been building on Eurocopter’s five-decade relationship with the Indian industry, achieving great success in 2012 by capturing majority of the civil and para-public market with a large success on the EC135.

For the 3rd consecutive year, Eurocopter India leads the Indian helicopter market with a market share of 43% in terms of registered deliveries. Significantly, Eurocopter delivered an impressive three out of four helicopters in the single and medium class last year.

Industrial co-operation with major local partners such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and the Mahindra Group remain a focal strategy to boost the local aviation industry.

HAL has, under license agreements, manufactured more than 600 helicopters of the Alouette 3 and Lama types since 1962.

Furthermore, HAL became part of Eurocopter’s global supply chain with the production of composite chipsets for Eurocopter’s Ecureuil / Fennec family.

To keep at the forefront of helicopter operations in India, Eurocopter India has also developed an MRO network with approved maintenance centres in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. Pawan Hans Ltd, the largest civil operator of the AS365 Dauphin worldwide with a fleet of 35, is also a Eurocopterapproved provider of MRO services for Dauphin helicopters in India.

Eurocopter is able to provide a full suite of support and services to customers across India, from spare parts supply and technical assistance, to training, retrofits and customization. It is also fully committed to developing the Indian helicopter market.

Not only has it successfully introduced the right products to answer the unique challenges of operators in this country especially with regard to high temperatures and altitudes, Eurocopter India is also looking to develop new market segments, such as emergency medical services, law enforcement and heli-tourism.

ATR European turboprop manufacturer ATR has become the world leader on the market for regional aircraft with 90 seats or less.

ATR has sold over 1,200 aircraft and has 182 operators in 92 countries. Currently, there are more than 30 ATRs flying in India.

Jet Airways has recently introduced in the country the newest ATR 72-600 aircraft. ATR is an equal partnership between EADS and AleniaAermacchi.

Complex Systems Science as a New Transdisciplinary Science

By Paul Bourgine

T

he new science of complex systems will be at the heart of the future of the Worldwide Knowledge Society.

It is providing radical new ways of understanding the physical, biological, ecological, and technosocial universe. Complex Systems are open, valueladen, multi-level, multi-component, reconfigurable systems of systems, situated in turbulent, unstable, and changing environments. They evolve, adapt and transform through internal and external dynamic interactions. They are the source of very difficult scientific challenges for observing, understanding, reconstructing and predicting their multi-scale dynamics. The challenges posed by the multi-scale modelling of both natural and artificial adaptive complex systems can only be met with radically new collective strategies for research and teaching.

Complex systems science bridges the gap between the individual and the collective: from genes to organisms to ecosystems, from atoms to materials to products, from digital media to the Internet, from citizens to society. It cuts across all disciplines. It enables new and shorter paths between scientists and integrates the flow of scientific knowledge. It reduces the gap between pure and applied science, establishing new foundations for the design, control and management of systems with unprecedented levels of complexity, which exceed the capacity of current approaches. It will benefit the environment and industry, the health and education sector and all public and social actors.

Understanding complex systems will be the basis of worldwide wealth and socio-economic wellbeing in the 21st century.

The Complex Systems Digital Campus (CS-DC) has been recognized by UNESCO as an UniTwin. An UNESCO UniTwin is “twinning universities” for launching a new science, here Complex Systems Science. The CS-DC UNESCO UniTwin will federate the Research and Education Institutions all around the world wishing to deal with the scientific and societal challenges of complex systems science. It has in October 2013 more than eighty founder members in twenty two countries and four continents. It will coordinate an evolving social network involved in identifying the scientific challenges through living complex systems roadmaps, and facilitate sharing all the research and educative resources for overcoming them. The Digital Campus will be structured through transdisciplinary education and research e-departments. Each e-department with its e-laboratories is federating the e-community addressing the

research and education challenges of its chapter. The Digital Campus will be strongly connected to a Citizen Cyber-science by involving citizens with their sensing, computing and thinking resources towards ubiquitous observing, learning and computing.

This large scale collaborative work will embody social intelligent strategies towards new scientific and educational practices, dealing with the difficult societal and environmental challenges of an increasingly interconnected world.

Environmental, societal, technical and economic benefits stem from complex systems engineering. These benefits come from predictive, adaptive and robust integrated models that allow us to live with and protect the complex systems within and around us. The most noteworthy results will be improved understanding of complex systems, increasingly personalized health and education, the prevention of, and resilience to epidemics and more generally, extreme events. Reducing uncertainty regarding the impact of our actions on complex systems will lead to a transformation in the relationship between science and society, engineering, economics, politics and ethics.

What are Complex Systems?

In general terms, a “complex system” is any system comprised of a great number of heterogeneous entities, where local interactions among entities create multiple levels of collective structure and organization. Examples include natural systems, ranging from bio-molecules and living cells to human social systems and the ecosphere, as well as sophisticated artificial systems such as the Internet, power grid or any largescale distributed software system. The specificity of complex systems, generally underinvestigated or simply not addressed by traditional science, resides in the emergence of non-trivial superstructures that often dominate the system’s behavior and cannot be easily traced back to the properties of the constituent entities. Not only do higher emergent features of complex systems arise from lower-level interactions, but the global patterns that they create affect in turn these lower levels—a feedback loop sometimes called immergence. In many cases, complex systems possess striking properties of robustness against various largescale, multi-dimensional perturbations. They have an inherent capacity to adapt and maintain their stability. Because complexity requires analysis at many different spatial and temporal scales, scientists face radically new challenges when trying to observe

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

15

France Report

complex systems, learning how to describe them effectively, and developing original theories of their behavior and control.

Complex Systems Science & Engineering as a Transdisciplinary Approach Complex systems demand a transdisciplinary approach.

First, because the universal questions those they raise can be expressed under almost the same formulation for widely different objects across a broad spectrum of disciplines—from biology to computer networks to human societies. Second, because the models and methods used to tackle these questions also belong to different disciplines—mainly computer science, mathematics and physics. Last, because standard methods in specialized domains rarely take into account the multiple-level viewpoints needed in the context of complex systems, and attained only through a more integrated and transdisciplinary approach.

Two main types of transdisciplinary approaches can be envisioned. The first path involves working on an object of research that is intrinsically multidisciplinary, for example “cognition”. Here, one poses various questions about the same object from multiple and somewhat disconnected disciplinary viewpoints (neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, etc.)—in contrast to integrated and interdisciplinary. This first path leads to integrative and predictive sciences, like an integrative biology, ecology, cognitive science, social science, geoscience. The second path consists in studying the same question, for example “synchronization”, in connection with different objects of research in different disciplines (statistical physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, etc.). This second approach establishes the foundations of a true science of complex systems. However, the success of these two approaches, which are complementary to one another, is critically dependent on the design of new protocols, new models and new formalisms for the reconstruction of emergent phenomena and dynamics at multiple scales. It is in this joint goal of (a) massive data acquisition on the basis of a set of prior assumptions, and (b) reconstruction and modeling of these data, that the future science of complex systems can develop and thrive. There remains much to do in the theoretical domain in order to build concepts and models able to provide an elegant and meaningful explanation to the so-called “emergent” phenomena that characterize complex systems.

The Complex Systems Roadmaps The role of complex systems roadmaps, for example the European, African and Latino-American ones, is to identify a set of wide thematic chapters for complex systems research over the next ten years. Each chapter is organized around a theoretical transversal question or an experimental multi-level object and proposes a relevant set of “grand challenges”, i.e., clearly identifiable problems whose solution would stimulate significant progress in both theoretical methods and experimental strategies.

Vjgqtgvkecn"vtcpuxgtucn"swguvkqpu are varied. An important aspect is to take into account different levels of organization. In

16

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

Complex systems demand a transdisciplinary approach. First, because the universal questions those they raise can be expressed under almost the same formulation for widely different objects across a broad spectrum of disciplines— from biology to computer networks to human societies. Second, because the models and methods used to tackle these questions also belong to different disciplines— mainly computer science, mathematics and physics complex systems, individual behaviour leads to the emergence of collective organization and behaviour at higher levels. These emergent structures in turn influence individual behaviour.

This raises important questions: what are the various levels of organization and what are their characteristic scales in space and time? How do reciprocal influences operate between the individual and collective behaviour? How can we simultaneously study multiple levels of organization, as is often required in problems in biology or social sciences? How can we efficiently characterize emergent structures? How can we understand the changing structures of emergent forms, their robustness or sensitivity to perturbations? Is it more important to study the attractors of a dynamics or families of transient states? How can we understand slow and fast dynamics in an integrated way?

What special emergent properties characterize those complex systems that are especially capable of adaptation in changing environments? During such adaptation, individual entities often appear and disappear, creating and destroying links in the graph of their interactions. How can we understand the dynamics of these changing interactions and their relationship to the system’s functions?

Questions related to the reconstruction of dynamics from data also play a central role. They include questions related to the epistemic loop (the problem of moving from data to models and back to data, including model-driven data production), which is the source of very hard inverse problems. Other fundamental questions arise around the constitution of databases, or the selection and extraction of stylized facts from distributed and heterogeneous databases, or the deep problem of reconstructing appropriate dynamical models from incomplete, incorrect or redundant data.

Finally, some questions are related to the governance and design of complex systems. “Complex systems engineering” concerns a second class of inverse problems. On the basis of an

incomplete reconstruction of dynamics based from data, how can we steer the system’s dynamics toward desirable consequences or at least keep the system away inside its viability constraints?

How can control be distributed on many distinct hierarchical levels in either a centralized or decentralized way—a so-called “complex control”. Finally, how is it possible to design complex artificial systems, integrating new ways of studying their multilevel control?

All these general questions are detailed in the roadmaps.

The first questions concern different aspects of emergent phenomena in the context of multiscale systems. The question of reconstructing multiscale dynamics addresses the problem of dealing with incomplete, badly organized and underqualified data sets. Another important aspect to consider is the importance played in complex systems by the reaction to perturbations: it can be weak in certain components or scales of the system and strong in others. These effects, central to the prediction and control of complex systems and models, must be specifically studied.

In addition, it is also important to develop both strategies for representing and extracting pertinent parameters and formalisms for modelling morphodynamics. Learning to successfully predict multi-scale dynamics raises other important challenges, as the question of being able to go from controlled systems to governed systems in which the control is less centralized and more distributed among hierarchical levels. The last general question addressed in this roadmap concerns the conception of artificial complex systems.

Gzrgtkogpvcn"ownvkngxgn"qdlgevu"for complex systems research draw their inspiration from different kinds of complex phenomena arising from different scientific fields. Their presentation follows the hierarchy of organizational levels of complex systems, either natural, social or artificial. Understanding this hierarchy is itself a primary goal of complex systems science.

In modern physics, the understanding of collective behaviour and out-of-equilibrium fluctuations is increasingly important.

Biology (in the broad meaning of the word, going from biological macromolecules to ecosystems) is one of the major fields of application where complex behaviours must be tackled. Indeed, the question of gaining an integrated understanding of the different scales of biological systems is probably one of the most

difficult and exciting tasks for researchers in the next decade.

Before we can hope to integrate a complete hierarchy of living systems, from the bio-macromolecules to ecosystems, each integration between one level and the next has to be studied. The first level concerns the cellular and subcellular spatiotemporal organization. At a higher level, the study of multicellular systems (integrating intracellular dynamics, such as gene regulation networks, with cell-cell signalling and biomechanical interactions) is of great importance, as is the question of the impact of local perturbations in the stability and dynamics of multicellular organizations. Continuing on the way to larger scales raises the question of physiological functions emerging from sets of cells and tissues in their interaction with a given environment. At the highest level, the understanding and control of ecosystems requires integrating interacting living organisms in a given biotope. In the context of human and social sciences, too, the complex systems approach is central (even if currently less developed than biology). One crucial domain to be investigated is learning how the individual cognition of interacting agents leads to social cognition. An important situation requiring particular attention due to its potential societal consequences is related to innovation, its dynamical appearance and diffusion, frequency and coevolution with cognition. Complex systems approaches can also help us gain an integrated understanding of all components, hierarchical levels and time scales in a way that would help moving society toward sustainable development.

In the context of globalization and the growing importance of long-distance interactions through a variety of networks, complex systems analysis (including direct observations and simulation experiments) can help us explore a variety of issues related to economic development, social cohesion, or the environment at different geographical scales.

Finally, the fast growing influence of information and communication technologies in our societies and the large number of decentralized networks relying on these new technologies are also in great need of studies and solutions coming from complex systems research. In particular, the trend going from processors to networks leads to the emergence of socalled “ubiquitous intelligence”, which plays an increasing role in how the networks of the future will be designed and managed.

about the author Paul Bourgine is the President of the UNESCO UniTwin CS-DC, the founder and honorary director of the French National Network of Complex Systems, the founder of the Complex Systems Institute of Paris Ile-de-France. He is also a co-founder of the CECOIA conferences in economics and artificial intelligence (1986), the ECAL conferences in artificial life (1990), the ECCE conferences in cognitive economics (2004) and the ECCS conferences in complex systems science (2005). His current research field include genetic networks, neural networks and social cognition and learning and co-evolutionary dynamics. He Graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and obtained a PhD in Economics in 1983, and a Habilitation in cognitive science (1989). He published several books including, Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems and Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL 2011

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

17

France Special

SOFA: From Open

Source Research Project to `Level-D` Training Simulator

T

he medical field has been a domain of application for computer science for more than a decade, and several tools, such as image processing, are now an integral part of modern medicine. Large-scale projects such as the Virtual Physiological Human promoted by the European Commission or the Virtual Physip y ological Patient Project launched in 2012 by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) aim at providing comprehensive, virtual and validated computer models of human anatomy and pathologies.

French initiatives such as the IHU (University Hospital Institutes) promote the use of computer simulation in a clinical context.

In that perspective, interactive simulations of the behavior of anatomical structures can lead to a continuum of exciting possibilities, from advanced training systems to planning and per-operative guidance through the combined use of patient-specific models and robotics. From a scientific standpoint, medical simulation is a strong multi-disciplinary domain that involves many scientific domains such as bio-mechanics, applied mathematics, robotics, computer graphics... To gather efficiently

18

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

all these different skills and expertises, and to ease collaboration between different academic fields or between academics and industries, a common framework had to be set up.

This is the main role of SOFA (Simulation Open Framework Architecture http://www.sofa-framework.org/), a project jointly y Harvard Medical School and Inria in 2005 started by and continued as a collaborative R&D project funded by Inria (French institute of Computer Science and Control www.inria.fr) since 2007.

SOFA is an open-source software framework targeted at interactive computational (medical) simulation. SOFA facilitates collaborations between specialists from various domains, by decomposing complex simulators into components designed independently.

Each component encapsulates one of the key aspects of a simulation, such as the degrees of freedom, the forces and constraints, the differential equations, the linear solvers, the collision detection algorithms or the interaction devices. The simulated objects can be represented using several models, each of them optimized for a different task such as the computation of internal forces, collision detection, haptics or visual display. These models are

synchronized during the simulation using a mapping mechanism.

CPU and GPU implementations can be transparently combined to exploit the computational power of modern hardware architectures. Thanks to this flexible yet efficient architecture, SOFA can be used as a test-bed to compare models and algorithms, or as a basis for the development of complex, high-performance simulators. As proof of its success, SOFA has been downloaded nearly 150,000 times (statistics available on https://gforge. inria.fr/), and is used today by many research groups around the world, as well as a number of companies. The mailing list used to exchange with the community includes several hundreds of researchers. SOFA is at the heart of a number of research projects, including cardiac electro-physiology modeling, interventional radiology planning and guidance, planning for cryosurgery and deep brain stimulation, robotics, percutaneous procedures, laparoscopic surgery, non-rigid registration.... SOFA is reported being used as the main simulation tool by several French universities but also by foreign universities or research institutes such as Old Dominion University, Cardiff University, CSIRO in Australia, KAIST in South Korea... (50 academic partners total).

Moreover some companies such as Collin Robotics, Altran, Siemens Corporate Research (10 industrial partners) use SOFA for R&D projects or some other for their products: Digital Trainers, SenseGraphics, Moog and InSimo. SOFA is about to become a reference for academic research, and is increasingly gaining recognition for product prototyping and development.

The best illustration of this worldwide positioning is the role of SOFA in the challenge set by the Help Me See foundation to win the contract for the develop of the most ambitious and high-risk project on cataract surgery simulation. HelpMeSee (www.helpmesee.org) is a global campaign to eliminate cataract blindness endemic in developing countries. HelpMeSee is making sight saving surgery available to the millions who cannot afford the high cost, through the development of a new procedure, known as manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS), which is quicker, as efficient, and more cost-effective than the cataract procedure practiced in developing countries but the procedure is harder to master.

To reach this goal, there is projected need for 30'000 additional MSICS surgeons in order to treat all cases of cataract

blindness in the developing countries. In order to train those surgeons, HelpMeSee aims at developing a high-fidelity MSICS interactive simulator. Members of the HelpMeSee nongovernmental organization have previous experiences in flight simulation and have been part of the Flight Safety International training program that has developed many 'Level D' flight simulators (highest level of qualification available). Their idea is to transpose their expertise in simulators and training curriculum in medical simulation.

Through a competitive process that has involved several research groups and companies, HelpMeSee has selected a consortium lead by Moog (http://www.moog.com/) which includes SenseGraphics (http://www.sensegraphics.com/) and InSimo (http://www.insimo.fr/) to design and produce a highfidelity virtual reality Eye Surgery Simulator and courseware model to train cataract surgeons to proficiency enabling them to perform high quality, high volume surgeries to save the sight of millions of blind people worldwide. Moog designs and manufactures high performance motion control solutions in a range of industrial applications including simulation for pilot, medical and dental training. Sensegraphics provides a high performance application development platform which enables integration of haptics and 3D stereo visualization into multimodal software applications. InSimo is a start-up company issued from the Inria team named Shacra (https://team.inria. fr/shacra/) dedicated to medical simulation. Shacra is one of the founder of SOFA and one of the most active contributors of the SOFA platform. The software framework chosen to design the MSICS simulator for HelpMeSee is SOFA. This important contract is the direct result of Shacra research efforts in the field of ophthalmology and the impact of SOFA in terms of "rapid" prototyping of new applications.

People involved in the SOFA community are now seeking for users and contributors to test the software, enrich it with new and original features in order to make SOFA a tool to fasten collaborations between research groups and industries and to re-use existing components in order to build original applications to build tools to help surgeons to train, to plan and to perform procedures.

about the author Jeremie Dequidt completed a Ph.D. thesis in Computer Science at the University of Lille 1 in 2005. He previously earned his Master in Computer Science from the University of Lille and an Engineering Diploma in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Systems Analysis and Control (IMA) from EUDIL (now named Polytechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Lille) in 2002. As a post-doctoral fellow he joined the SimGroup at CIMIT (Boston, MA) and then INRIA Alcove team, working on interventional radiology simulations. Since September 2008, he is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Polytechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Lille (Engineering School of University of Lille).

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

19

France Special

Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics and Cloud Computing

I

nternet of Things is a reality today. Data is generated on a continuous basis from multiple sensors attached to all kinds of animate and inanimate objects. The large volume of data that is generated at a continuous rate with high velocity is also widely varied in nature. Starting from the queries that are generated due to internet-search to the geo-spatial signals that are generated by the querying devices constitute Big Data. Data generated from sensors attached to inanimate objects for the purpose of monitoring are also continuous contributors to the stream of data. Social-media is also a major contributor to the Big Data repository. Be it about product reviews, or about patients sharing experience about illness and drugs, social media content is being increasingly viewed as immensely powerful indicators of future in different contexts. Harnessing, analyzing and utilizing this data thrown up exciting challenges to organizations.

Since most of this data has spatial information about its source associated to it, Big data analytics has given birth to a new term called â&#x20AC;&#x153;location intelligenceâ&#x20AC;?. Location intelligence gleaned out of location awareness is a gold-mine for the consumer industry, health-care sectors and also benefit a number of services like agriculture, mining, oil-refineries etc. thereby redefining the term Business Intelligence. In this article we shall briefly touch upon a few scenarios that depict the transformation of Business Intelligence to incorporate this new aspect and how it is utilized by organizations.

While Big Data has come with its new technology stack, for many organizations, a lot of this data is not really new. However, it does call for a new look at the way organizations have been amassing and using data. First and foremost, Big Data calls for unification of data that existed in Silos all over the organization and opt for a single version of truth. Given that, organizational

20

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

architectures often did not allow that in the past, it is a major challenge to be overcome both mentally and physically. The second most important change is the need for organizations to embrace outside data and merge it with internal data to derive meaningful insights. Enterprises have been extremely possessive and protective about their data and rarely cared for data that was outside their firewalls. Big data is forcing them to take a relook.

Organizations today are as much interested about what their customers or employees are doing on the Internet as they are about the information captured in their own databases. Since this radical change in approach calls for huge investment, Cloud-based solutions are gaining popularity by offering storage and analytics solutions which can be bought as per need. These solutions cater to almost everything required for Big Data analytics - right from offering required Data to the platforms and tools required for performing analytics on large collections of data.

In the next few sections we first take a look at the emerging possibilities of using Big Data in an enterprise context as well as different utilitarian sectors. Later we shall discuss a few benefits of using Cloud-based solutions for Big Data Analytics.

Big Data Analytics for Consumer Intelligence With the increasing use of smart-phones, consumers are now used to location-based search for restaurants, petrol-pumps, hospitals or coffee-shops within a neighbourhood. In the process they have been active contributors to the Big Data collection which not only stores the search query and the exact location of the source of the query, but also a lot of information about the user, which could be either explicitly obtained via the phone-number or derived from thelocation-data associated to all information emanated from the phone.

Big data generated from different kinds of sensors is an area of growing interest due to the immense possibilities it offers to all organizations because of the tacit knowledge embedded in it be it about customers, employees or society in general. Understanding the customer is of central interest to any organization, and location intelligence enriches it with information about demographics, lifestyles etc. which can be inferred from the spatial data. It helps in customer profiling and segmentation thereby contributing to Business Intelligence and strategic planning.

While search applications simply aimed at providing the relevant information back to the user, location intelligence proactively reaches out to the consumer and makes them aware about these services. Big Data platforms can also make it possible to club location intelligence with customer intelligence, thereby customizing and personalizing offerings for each individual. Not restricted to the consumer alone, organizations are also getting increasingly interested in the consumer as a social being, where the interest lies in understanding the consumer’s interactions with his or her social connections.

Big data is also finding increasing uses at enterprise level decision making and strategy planning. Retailers are increasingly using location intelligence to determine profitable locations for new stores or product planning. Big data analytics is also used for more efficient demand forecast even before opening a store without the need for site-visits, based on local demographics, economic data and geographic factors like transportation access, the location of competitors and site sustainability. Big data from consumer mobile devices is also seen as an enabler to design and optimize sales territory and improve sales force productivity. Data on customer density, travel times between different sites, the locations of customers with high buying potential and other factors can be brought together and analysed to ensure that territories are set up to reach customers both effectively and efficiently.

Health-care and Internet of Things Healthcare industry has also seen great opportunity in locationaware devices and the big data generated thereof. The main goals here are to improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of Dr. Lipika medical services.Dey This sector offers a win-win situation for both the health-care providers and those who avail the service namely the patients. Since loyalty and trust forms the basis of relationship in this sector which only matures with time and knowledge, complete historical medical data about patients holds the key to a successful relationship. Sensor implantation has reduced the need for hospitalization for non-critical patients who may need monitoring but only for pre-emptive purposes. This often includes geriatrics, infants and people with special needs. However, the monitoring can now go on remotely and continuous real-time sensor data analytics at the hospital servers are able to detect discrepancies and predict disasters well in advance. The servers then automatically generate alarms and alerts for all concerned including the medical practitioner who may be at a different geographical location from the patient.

Doctors are also excited about the possibility of using Big Data

based Intelligence about new patients based on their past medical history and other information like their demographic dispositions, life-style factors and psycho-social make-up based on data gathered from publicly available non-medical sources like social-media.

The knowledge helps doctors toprepare themselves even before a patient has walked into their premises, thereby making it possible to gather much more information during the interaction than would be possible in a completely unknown set-up. It is also providing patients with the facility to compare and contrast treatments given to others with similar conditions and share experiences.

It is also possible for them to gather information about medical practitioners and make more informed judgments. In each case, big data is offering “clinical intelligence” that is making it easier for both patients and doctors to handle complex scenarios, ideally resulting in improved healthcare for more with fewer medical errors and faster feedback loops to learn about errors and rectify.

Just like actionable business intelligence, sensor data has reduced the time to actionability effectively in the health care industry.

Social Media as a Predictive Indicator The perception of Social Media has totally changed from being a platform for entertainment to a gold-mine of information.

At any time-point, the social media is viewed as a snap-shot that effectively captures the world-psyche - complete with information about events happening all around the world along with people’s reaction to them. Hence, when analysed correctly, it also becomes a very effective predictor for the future events. Some of the recent successes in this direction include Google’s efforts in predicting the spread of flu across various geographies based on analysing the trends in search queries related to Flu originating from those locations. Predicting spread of epidemics has also been attempted through analysis of tweets and location intelligence which track people’s travel to and from infected areas.

Social media analysis has also redefined Competitive Intelligence gathering principles for enterprises. Tracking competitor promotions and customer reactions to those, helps an organization to get better understanding of competitor strengths and weaknesses. It is also possible to have better prediction of demand for their own products thereby optimizing profit.

Utilitarian Sectors and Big Data Social computing has added a completely new dimension to supply chain management. Manufacturers who work with suppliers located few continents apart have traditionally faced huge risks due to ignorance about potentially disruptive events like natural disasters, political unrest, terrorist attacks, labour strikes, fires in factories etc., some of which were locally reported but almost never reported in International News and most of which were never reported anywhere. However, location-based social media applications like Twitter or its equivalent have proved to be a gold-mine with information about all major and minor events being reported by citizens. Intelligent information fusion platforms collect such informationand analyse them in conjunction with enterprise data like location of suppliers or partners for

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

21

France Special

risk mitigation. These systems perform just-in-time analysis of supply-chain networks in conjunction with external event information to generate early warnings and plans for recovery in case of disruptions. Location-based applications also help improve distribution planning and execution by supporting processes such as optimized multi-modal transportation routing and geo-fencing which creates virtual boundaries and provides alerts when vehicles or goods cross them.

Resource-intensive organizations like those in the Oil and Natural Gas sector or telecom are the largest generators and consumers of big volumes of sensor data emanated from geophysical and physical assets spread over large geographical regions. This data plays a big role in preventive maintenance, risk analysis and disaster management. Location intelligence about field personnel employed in these sectors to install or repair equipment or provide maintenance and other services to consumers is also used in gainful way to track their safety and also alert customers when technicians approach their neighbourhood.

The data also helps in optimized vehicle routing for maintenance personnel and increases customer satisfaction by minimizing wait time. Real time tracking and visualization of data emanating from employees have also been used by companies to identify people who are spatially closer to pair for car pools and thereby reduce carbon footprint.

The agricultural sector which is heavily dependent on weatherrelated events is another major consumer of this emerging technology. Smart farming methods are being adopted to reduce crop damage. Adoption of this new technology also helps remove inefficiencies in storage and delivery of crops. Precision agriculture adopts extensive usage of sensor data from farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fields and clubs it with environment data to help make better farming decisions.

Real-time weather data along with images of crop and sensor data providing information about soil, humidity, air-quality etc. allow for high-quality decision making. It helps farmers to assess risk in an efficient way to mitigate crop damage and loss.

Collaborative technologies built around smart-analytics platforms are also ensuring that these benefits are not restricted to big farms but can also benefit small farms. These platforms encourage peerto-peer information exchange and experience sharing, thereby increasing awareness about disasters and their remedies. These platforms are also utilized to provide expert advice at low-cost.

Cloud Computing and Big Data Analytics The success of Internet of things and the big data generated thereby lie in its effective use in Predictive analytics. The power of big data lies hidden in the data and can be unlocked with appropriate analytical tools. Cloud technologies offer an effective, scalable and pervasive platform to store and analyse big data. Cloud based Big Data Analytics prove to be economically viable and also provide new ways to exploit big data. It is also possible to sharedata and collaborate on analytics, thereby reducing operating costs.

Before ending, let me share some statistics about social-media usage, which makes it clear why cloud-based solutions are perfect

22

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

for Social-media data analysis. There were 175 million tweets sent from Twitter every day in 2012. Facebook has nearly 850 million users, of which around 480 million users use Facebook mobile.

Facebook has seen a 41 percent growth in active users from Russia, South Korea, Japan, India and Brazil during 2012. 13. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day and around 41 million pages are visited by at least 10 users every day.

Theoretically, since this data is generated in an uncontrolled fashion and it is not known what may be of importance to an organization, sifting through the entire hay-stack in order to look for the needle may be the only option. However, it is obviously not possible and utterly wasteful for all organizations to do so.

Third-party solutions are the perfect options for this. Several commercial organizations offer big data platforms for storage and High Performance Computing tools for their analysis. With the increasing importance of social-media data in decision making, companies are making use of cloud-based solutions for harnessing of social-media data, often gathered and managed by third-parties. Cloud based platforms allow companies to take advantage of elastic computing capacities and opt for ondemandprovisioning.

Conclusion The ordinary consumer today has become a producer of information by generating content all over the Internet and Intranet, that cannot be ignored. Organizations are therefore breaking their moulds and reaching out to use the huge repository of data that lies outside its ambit in order to make a mark. The data is extremely complex, large and difficult to interpret. It is not possible to analyse all this data using traditional relational database management systems alone. It is a powerful mix of platforms and technologies that need to be deployed to analyse this data and derive meaningful insights from it.

A large portion of this data is typically unstructured. It includes text as well as relationship data like people and their friends or groups as well as interaction patterns observed over those groups.

Big data analytics is undergoing a transformation from being a buzz-word to a serious technology which can make an impact provided it is used in a thoughtful fashion.

about the author Dr. Lipika Dey is a Senior Consultant and Principal Scientist at Tata Consultancy Services, India. She heads the Web Intelligence and Text Mining research group at Innovation Labs, Delhi. Lipika has an Integrated M.Sc in Mathematics, M.Tech in Computer Science & Data Processing and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering - all from IIT Kharagpur.

E

coleCentrale Paris is a 200 year old top French University, College of Engineering. Since its foundation in 1829, EcoleCentrale Paris has followed the same calling: training engineers capable of meeting the greatest challenges of their area. This tradition of excellence is extended throughout Centrale Parisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pedagogical project. Thus, Centrale Paris prepares three dimensional engineers for companies, governments and institutions: high level scientific and technical generalists, experts in initiating and piloting innovative projects and with a strong international culture.

EcoleCentrale Parisis one of the Centrale Graduate Schools associated as the GroupeCentrale network with its sister institutions (Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Nantes).

EcoleCentrale Paris is characterized by a highly competitive national entrance exam for French students. It also welcomes 30% of international students, mostly through exchange

programs. It is accredited to confer graduate (Engineering and Master Degrees) and post-graduate degrees (PhD). Its curriculum emphasizes close articulation between technical expertise and management skills, combined with a multidisciplinary approach.

All of the teaching activities are organized in collaboration with industry, especially those within the framework of original industrial partnership operations.Strong link with companies and industry contributes to develop the vocation of students to become entrepreneurs. Ten Company Chairs were created to answer the need for innovation in the development of new skills in leading-edge sectors of activity.

Research at Centrale Paris plays also a major role to contribute to the elaboration of innovative solutions to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technological and societal challenges and to transfer them to the business world and society as a whole. Over 400 people in 7 research units are everyday involved to this creation of innovation.

Ecole Centrale Paris

By HervĂŠ BIAUSSER

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

23

France Special

A Grande Ecole EcoleCentrale Paris is a Grande Ecole. In France, the majority of managers and executives in both industry and commerce are graduates of GrandesÉcoles. More than 60% of the presidents and managing directors of the 100 largest French companies are graduates from these Ecoles.

The French "ingénieur" that graduates from a Grande Ecole plays an essential role in the research and development of innovative technologies such as the Ariane satellite launcher, the European Airbus, the High Speed Train System (Train à Grande Vitesse -TGV), electro-nuclear power stations, software development, etc. The international scientific community recognizes these engineers in their fields; some are members of the Académie des Sciences. The GrandesEcoles, the leading institutions for educating engineers and managers in France, deliver graduate degrees. The "diplômed'ingénieur", (equivalent to a Master of Engineering) is accredited by the Commission des Titresd'Ingénieurs, created in 1934.

Mahindra EcoleCentrale

Because human are not using most of his creativity sense, Ecole Centrale Paris stimulate the creativity of its students by giving to them lot of opportunities to show their potential on its partners company projects in the world. Neither than being a simple graduated, EcoleCentrale Paris allows students to respond to the market needs, to change the market rules of games by being the leader who can face to the quick changes.

More than a simple learner, students participate actively on most of greatest projects of EcoleCentrale Paris partners groups.

It is in this context that EcoleCentrale Paris wasvery proud to announce the establishment of a world class engineering college in India in collaboration with the Mahindra Group,precisely Mahindra Educational Institutions, 100% subsidiary of Indian multinational corporation Tech Mahindra (in collaboration Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad, a premier Indian institution with academic and research oriented courses)..

Mahindra EcoleCentrale will lead the creation of a world class educational institution that would build leaders, impart quality and Industry ready higher education. Our integrated curriculum will develop students with the unique ability to adapt to global engineering challenges.

Opened to the world

Mahindra EcoleCentrale will offer:

EcoleCentrale Paris has also been recognized for its international outlook for more than 20 years thanks to a network of 120 partner universities among the best in Europe and in the world. The school exports its model overseas and has established in 2005 the first Centrale engineering school abroad, EcoleCentrale Beijing, followed by Geqngegpvtcng" Ecucdncpec (Morocco) which will be inaugurated in during summer 2014.

The school, reputed for its international orientation, has 122 partnerships with the best universities in 36 countries all over the world.

Among those partners, EcoleCentrale Paris has developed partnerships with 4 Indian Institutes of Technology: KKV"Dqodc{ since 2011: Programs of academic cooperation in the fields of research and education; KKV" Fgnjk since 2009: areas of mutual interest: science, engineering, technology, management and sociales sciences; KKV"Mcprwt since 2009: Exchange of students at undergraduate, graduate and PHD levels, exchange od faculty and scientists.

KKUe"Dcpicnqtg since 2008: joints seminars, conferences and workshops.

For GeqngEgpvtcng"Rctku. the establishment of an engineering college in India is the next step in its international development strategy.

• •

Innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership

24

The international scientific community recognizes these engineers in their fields; some are members of the Académie des Sciences. The GrandesEcoles, the leading institutions for educating engineers and managers in France, deliver graduate degrees

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

A truly international program with a focus on the sciences Environment of unique cultural immersion – of participants, faculty and staff • International Exchange Program with mandatory internship • A research driven program with close links to industry • Inter-disciplinary approach with a blend of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Philosophy The institution will also be committed to providing worldclass infrastructure to support a strong research vision in the thrust areas such as Energy, Environment, Communications, Infrastructure, Transportation, Materials, and Defense.

For Vineet Nayyar, Executive Vice Chairman, Tech Mahindra, “It was a proud moment for us to have launched Mahindra EcoleCentrale. The Mahindra Group enjoys a leadership position in various sectors that it operates in and there is growing need for skilled, industry-ready engineers. The institution will aim to bridge this employability gap addressing the needs of the Indian Industry. We believe that education is the single most powerful intervention for transforming lives and Mahindra EcoleCentrale would lead our effort in this just cause.”

The Institution’s multidisciplinary approach is the guarantee of the program's modernity. Through this institution the students will develop ability to adapt to change, to master the complexity

of organizations, and to understand and adapt new technologies that are still in their infancy or as yet unknown.

MEC shall employ national and international faculty who work at the frontiers of academic enquiry and follow the developments of the real world in order to educate students to become experts in their disciplines. More information on this important academic project will be announced in due course of time.

India-France Technology Summit EcoleCentrale Paris, which participates in the promotion of the French model for education will participate in the IndiaFrance Technology Summit will promoting itsacademic program, research domainsand its pedagogical innovations that it is developing. To appreciate and meet the great challenges of the

21st century, the world needs ever more engineers – “threedimensional” engineers: high level scientific and technical generalists, experts in initiating and piloting innovative projects and with a stronginternational culture.It is these new scientific leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators that Centrale Paris trains and prepares for the companies, governments and institutions of today and tomorrow. These men and women will know how to respond to the issues of their age using the science and technology.

By developing its alliances with the most prestigious companies, universities, laboratories and research centers in France and overseas, as Mahindra Group in India with the launch of Mahindra EcoleCentrale, EcoleCentrale Paris responds to the willingness to promote its education excellence to the world.

about the author Hervé Biausser is the Vice-President of CGE (Conférence des Grandes Ecoles Françaises), the Vice-President of the Board of Ecole Centrale Beijing and the President of the Ecoles Centrales network (Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Marseille). From 2007 untill 2009, he was the President of the «Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research » (CESAER) and he is the current President of the TIME European network.

Hervé Biausser is Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, and received in 2005 the Grande Médaille of the French Society of Metallurgy and Materials.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

25

France Special

26

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

Multi-Cultural Management

by Jagdeep S. Chhokar

“M

ulti-cultural management” is an umbrella term that can mean many things. It actually means different things to different people. In its simplest interpretation, it will mean managing in a culture other than one’s own, which might also be called ‘managing across cultures’. It its broadest form, it might mean managing a work force consisting of people from many diverse cultures. The most common example that comes to mind is of the captain of a merchant navy ship on which the crew may be from more than one country, all-different from the country of the captain. In business organizations, this phenomenon is relatively new but growing rapidly over the last decade or so.

The other major dimension of multi-cultural management is working with organizations, as opposed to people, of different countries. This kind of working relationship, which is often referred to as B2B, can be from its simplest form of a firm in one country buying something from or selling something to a firm in a different country, in simple terms, import and export. But it can also take much more complex forms such as setting up an agency or a distributor in a country other than one’s own, or setting up an office of one’s own, to setting up a manufacturing plant in what may be called the “host” country as wholly owned by the company in the “home” country, or the most complex form, setting up a joint venture in the “host” country in collaboration with a company in the “host” country. It can of course get even more complex when two companies belonging to two different countries set up a joint venture in a third country.

Given this range of possibilities, it is not a surprise that multicultural management is a very complex process in and of itself.

The complexity is compounded by the fact that culture itself is phenomenon that is very hard to understand.

What is Culture?

Social scientists, particularly anthropologists, have been trying to understand culture for a very long time, leading one observer to comment, “culture is one of the most written about

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

27

France Special

but least understood topic in the social sciences.” While there are many definitions of culture , none of them has been found to be all-inclusive or exhaustive. Therefore, trying to come up with a precise definition is not really worth attempting. For the purposes of our discussion here, it seems adequate to say that culture is something like the “way of life” in a society or a nation-state, if we take that as a unit of analysis or understanding. This “way of life” is often very saliently influenced by some fundamental values and beliefs that the society holds very dear. These values and beliefs are often guided by some basic assumptions that the society holds about such abstract issues such as the nature and purpose of life, and of humanity itself; the place of nature in the overall scheme of things, is nature meant to be exploited by human beings for what they think is their betterment or should it be preserved and nurtured as something of fundamental value and importance to human existence.

Culture does not concern itself with only abstract issues, two examples of which have been mentioned in the immediately preceding paragraph, it also manifests itself in day to day life such as how do, and should, people relate with one another; matters of kinship and other human relationships; religion; language; gender relations; parenting or parent-child relationships; what is acceptable to society and what is not and what can be ignored.

Characteristics of Culture Notwithstanding the complexity in conceptualizing and studying culture, some things can be said with a high degree of confidence, bordering on certainty.

Culture is learnt and not innate. It is not that one is born with a culture. Culture is acquired as one grows up and is obviously heavily influenced by the environment in which one grows.

Of course, the growing up does not stop at any age but some formative influences remain for very long times.

Culture is a group phenomenon; it is not an individual phenomenon. It is actually impossible to imagine an individual growing up in complete isolation but if we did imagine that, how would it be assessed as to what is the culture of that individual.

It is therefore more appropriate to think of culture as being that of a group and not of an individual.

The next feature of culture is actually an outcome—culture distinguishes members of one group from those of another. For example, it might well be possible to distinguish a group of white, Caucasian tourists in Asia or Africa based on their broad behaviors to say whether they are Americans or European.

As a result of the above, it is possible to predict the behavior of groups based on an understanding of their culture. It is this possibility of prediction of behavior that makes culture a very valuable tool in the practice of management, almost the very basis of multi-cultural management.

Levels of Culture Another complication with the study of culture as a phenomenon is that experience has shown it to operate at multiple levels. The most obvious level that culture operates on

28

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

is that of society, societal culture, which is often also used for nation-states for ease of representation though examples of multicultural countries which have more than one culture operating within one country abound.

It is not difficult to see that if a group of people living within one spatial region have the tendency to develop a commonly understood and generally accepted “way of life”, it is not impossible but is actually quite likely that a group of people who are thrown together for a significant length of time, for any reason, may, or will actually, develop commonly accepted, and also expected, ways of working. This is where work organizations come it.

Organizations are shared common places where large numbers of people spend considerable time together, in pursuit of a broadly common goal. While societal culture will of course broadly guide their behavior, some peculiar and specific constraints and requirements will also be created by the need to achieve the objectives of the organization. It is these specific requirements and the specific behaviors required to achieve the organizational goals that provides the building blocks of what is called organizational culture.

While these two levels, societal and organizational, are the most relevant for the discussion here, it is worth pointing out that there are also other levels of culture. One prominent example is what is called functional culture which often operates cutting across organizational or even societal or national boundaries.

Examples of functional cultures can be seen in some of the similarities in the behavior of marketing managers of all business organizations. The behavior of marketing managers of industrial products will of course differ from that of marketing managers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) such as toiletries.

That brings into focus the existence of what are called industry cultures. We could also think of professional cultures, which refer to the ways in which members of specific professions behave irrespective of the organizations or societies or countries they work in. Accountants, military officers, medical practitioners, lawyers, come to mind as ready examples.

Conceptual And Theoretical Moorings Of MultiCultural Management The field of multi-cultural management evolved out of problems experienced by managers working in cultures other than their own, and by organizations working with organizations from other cultures, and as a result of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. As managers and management researchers looked for ways of dealing with such issues, the focus moved to understanding culture and applying these concepts to organizations.

Understanding culture had been a long-standing activity in anthropology and management borrowed heavily from those efforts. Building on that body of work, management scholars developed schemes of classifying cultures by comparing cultures with one another. One of the first of such schemes was developed by the American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher,

Edward T. Hall (1914–2009)) in the late 1950s and early 1960s, who classified cultures as being low-context and high-context.

Over time the focus shifted to studying, defining, and describing the characteristics of individual cultures rather than merely comparing cultures. These definitions and descriptions of course arose out of large-scale comparative studies. The pioneer in this was Geert Hofstede (1928- ), a Dutch socialpsychologist, who developed four dimensions of societal cultures in 1980, based on a study of IBM employees in conducted in 40 countries between 1967 and 1973. The four dimensions were: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism versus Collectivism, and Masculinity versus Femininity. Subsequently, based on the work of Michael Harris Bond, a social-psychologist of “Anglo-Canadian stock”, and his colleagues led to the addition of a fifth dimension called Long- versus Short-Term Orientation in 1991.

The latest seminal work in multi-cultural management is a multi-country, multi-phase multi-cultural project called the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Research Program, led by Robert J. House (1932-2011) who was the Principal Investigator and Founder of the GLOBE from 1993 through 2003. The program covered 62 countries and consisted of 170 researchers spread over these 62 countries. A particular strength of the GLOBE program was it research design, which combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research.

The first book of the GLOBE program, Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies was published in 2004. It was based on results from about 17,300 middle managers from 951 organizations in the food processing, financial services, and telecommunications services industries. The second major book of GLOBE, Culture and Leadership across the World: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies" became available in early 2007. It complements the findings from the first book with in-country leadership literature analyses, interview data, focus group discussions, and formal analyses of printed media to provide in-depth descriptions of leadership theory and leader behavior in those 25 cultures.

The GLOBE project refined and expanded the four, later expanded to five, dimensions of culture identified by Hofstede, to nine. The nine dimensions identified by GLOBE are: Assertiveness, Future Orientation, Gender Egalitarianism, Humane Orientation, In-Group Collectivism, Institutional Collectivism, Performance Orientation, Power Distance, and Uncertainty Avoidance.

Another extension was linking societal culture to the leadership style by identifying those behavioral attributes that were likely to promote effective leadership and those that were likely to inhibit effective leadership. Two-level aggregation of these behavioral attributes resulted in the identification of six culturally-endorsed leadership theories (CLTs). The six CLTs are: Charismatic/Value-Based, Team Oriented, Self-Protective, Participative, Humane Oriented, and Autonomous.

The 62 countries included in GLOBE were grouped into ten clusters based on a variety of considerations. The ten clusters,

with the number of countries included in each, are: Anglo (7), Latin Europe (6), Nordic Europe (3), Germanic Europe (5), Eastern Europe (8), Latin America (10), Sub-Saharan Africa (5), Middle East (5), Southern Asia (6), and Confucian Asia (6).

How Can Multi-Cultural Management Help?

The body of knowledge that has been accumulated through research across the world, now provides us with a reasonably rigorous basis for coming up with suggestions on what is likely to be effective in each culture. Such suggestions or guidelines for action can be of use to corporations and managers contemplating doing business in or with cultures other than their own which is the sine qua non of all international business.

All international business begins with a minimum of crosscultural sensitivity, which transforms to multi-cultural sensitivity as a company moves to global business. Therefore, a minimal level of appreciation for, if not a high level of understanding of, multi-cultural management is essential for any organization that is even thinking of going global. Existing international and global corporations, of course, know the criticality of multi-cultural management but very often the actions taken stop at training of prospective expatriate managers in the mannerisms and some of the superficial social practices of the host country, along with some attempt at understanding the political governance of the host country. These are of course, essential, but as the saying goes, they are necessary but not sufficient.

The effective use of existing theoretical and scientific knowledge in multi-cultural management is still quite rare though some progressive and forward thinking corporations have been using it to very good effect. An understanding of the fundamental core values and beliefs of a host country’s society, and the basic assumptions underlying these, can go a long way in contributing to the success of any business venture to be undertaken there by a company in a foreign country whether it is setting up a branch sales office or a manufacturing plant or a joint venture.

about the author Jagdeep S. Chhokar is former p ro f e s s o r a n d D e a n o f t h e Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India, and is the lead editor of Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies (http://www.routledge.com/books/ details/9780805859973/) He lives and works in New Delhi, and can be reached at jchhokar@gmail.com.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

29

France Report

Companies Act, 2013 – a Paradigm Shift

By Akhil Bansal

T

he Companies Act, 2013 (“the Act”) is in the process of implementation with the Rules being placed in the public domain for comments. There are controversies around the date of implementation and the need to refer to the 1956 Act to give effect to many of the provisions. While these debates continue, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the Act represents a paradigm shift on how Companies would be regulated and, in particular, on various aspects of governance. Let me refer to a few of the critical changes which have multi-dimensional and far reaching impact.

First, is the entire issue relating to fraud. The Act, for the first time defines fraud in fairly broad terms to include an act, an omission or concealment of a fact or any abuse of position. One can appreciate the wide ranging impact of the list of the aspects viz. abuse of position where any fraud is committed by a Company personnel, it is recognized as a cognizable offence not entitled to a bail and significant penal provisions including imprisonment of 6 to 36 months has been provided. As a further step in this direction, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (“SFIO”) has been given significant powers. The whistle blower mechanism has been made mandatory for every listed Company, a Company that accepts deposits and those having borrowings in excess of Rs.50 Crores. I would call this as a Satyam impact on the Corporate Laws. In addition, an Auditor has now been entrusted with the responsibility of reporting the fraud directly to the Central Government immediately upon its detection.

The next aspect I would like to deal with is the increased reporting framework. Apart from prescribing for a common financial year, consolidated financial statements and definition of subsidiary, associate and joint venture, that provides for revision of the financial statements and the Board report where there has been fraudulent financial reporting or mismanaging affairs, etc. This may be done either voluntarily or by a regulatory intervention. This will place greater vigour on the drawing up of the accounts with an understanding that a regulatory intervention can supercede what the Board and General Body has done. The other provisions with regard to rates of depreciation and reporting on internal controls as well as mandatory internal audit will, again, ensure that the disclosure requirements and the acceptance of onus by the Companies of the financial statements is more rigourous.

One more aspect of the Act which is radical is with regard to appointment of Independent Directors. First, the onus placed on the Directors to act in good faith and in the best interest of the stakeholders places an acknowledgement of a responsibility. The provisions regarding the need to avoid conflict of interest and the exercise of diligence and reasonable care are welcome. If properly implemented, the Act seeks to place heavy responsibility on the Independent Directors, makes them significantly accountable for

30

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

their acts and restricts the number of Directorships that can be held. I believe that this will go a long way in the Independent Directors taking their job seriously and ensuring that they have the interest of shareholders in mind as they discharge their duties.

Another important aspect in relation to governance concerns transactions with related parties, something seen as creating conflicts and diluting the shareholder value. That seeks to formally define related parties and provides for an arm’s length basis for transactions between related parties. This includes transactions for sale and purchase of goods, services and leasing of profits as also executive remuneration. This brings the concept of Transfer Pricing within the ambit of Corporate Law. Also, the Act contains stricter provisions on insider trading of securities. The Act introduces the concept of class action suits against the Company, its Directors, its Auditors and Advisors in the event of fraudulent unlawful or wrongful acts. While there is an apprehension that this might lead to substantial litigation similar to that prevalent in the USA, it will certainly bring about accountability and serve as a note of caution.

Finally, let me deal with the provisions relating to Auditors.

Indeed, there can be a debate on the need for National Financial Reporting Authority (“NFRA”). From a public perspective an independent regulator provides comfort on the actions of those regulated. The provisions relating to mandatory rotation of Auditors implemented by the Act seem to reserve it globally and more and more countries are considering this proposition. The need by an Auditor to report on book entries which are prejudicial to the Company’s interest, on the provision for foreseeable losses on derivatives, etc. will, to an extent, force the Auditor to go beyond the statutory reporting requirements and look at the proprietary aspects of the operations. I am sure that as time goes by many of the provisions which currently appear to be highly subjective will be an acceptable framework. Overall, the Act promises to significantly raise the benchmark on Corporate Governance and will radically alter the framework in a positive sense.

about the author Akhil Bansal holding the position of Chief Operating Officer for KPMG in India since November 2009.

He is currently serving as the Head of Assurance. As the Chief Operating officer of KPMG India he was responsible for oversight of operations of the firm and ensuring its smooth functioning.

Towards a Lifelong Personalized Education for Everybody

By Paul Bourgine

T

he rapid evolution of science, engineering, economy and society in the age of globalization also requires a rapid evolution of skills and thus necessitates massive life-long education, massive know-how training and re-training. At the same time, education must become more personalized, as the skills needed to master an increasingly sophisticated technological world continually

change and become more diversified. Thus Lifelong Personalized Education for Everybody becomes more and more necessary to the modern world.

Any Massive Personalized Education Ecosystem has to reconcile the scalability of MOOCs (Massively Online Open Courses) with Personalization. Personalized Education must have the following specific requirements as with the personal tutor of ancient times: firstly, a strong personal involvement of the students to actively participate to their own education; secondly,predictive strategies for guessing the next step toward the best skill level in the preferred domain of knowledge for each student; finally, preventive strategies for avoiding future difficulties, especially withdrawals. We call such conjunction of participative, predictive, preventive and personalized education 4P Education or more simply Personalized Education, if the emphasis is not on the preconditions but on the result.

In the envisioned Personalized Educational Ecosystem, learning can be seen as a journey among pedagogical resources that one must view, understand, integrate, and remember. The journey uses a multidimensional knowledge map where students go from one geo-localized location (their prior knowledge) to a chosen destination (the learning goals).Personalization can be reached by actively exploiting user profiles in terms of prior knowledge and learning goals. A pMOOC is rctvkekrcvkxg if the learner defines the destination advised by the 4P Educational Ecosystem, the teachers and the other learners. As the 4P Educational Ecosystem records all paths on the knowledge map, it can be rtgfkevkxg by matching the actual learner profile to the recorded ones. Thus, it can predict the outcome of the

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

31

France Special

current stage (e.g., this course may be difficult for you, so pay attention) and next stages (e.g., you may like this, as others on your trajectory did). Prediction is also a basis for rtgxgpvkqp (avoiding failure). And like a human tutor of the ancient times, the personalized education ecosystem may not always provide the absolutely best learning path, but it can offer trajectories that have proven successful in the past.

What are the different kinds of MOOCs ?

C"ocuukxg"qrgp"qpnkpg"eqwtug"*OQQE+ is an online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, tutors, teaching assistants and professors. MOOCs are the most recent development in distance education.

Three types of MOOC can be distinguished: « xMOOCs », « cMOOCs » and « pMOOCs » • xMOOCs resemble oqtg" vtcfkvkqpcn" cpf" ygnn/hkpcpegf" eqwtugu, such as those offered by great Universities (e.g. through Coursera and edX). They use closed licenses for their course materials, while maintaining free access for students. The feedback is automated through objective, online assessments, e.g. quizzes and exams.

• cMOOCsemphasize several principles stemming from eqppgevkqpkuvrgfciqi{, e.g.:i) aggregation of a massive amount of contents to be produced online in different places, which are later aggregated as a web page accessible to participants ii) Remixingthat is, associating materials created within the course with each other and with materials elsewhere iii) Re-purposing of aggregated and remixed materials to suit the goals of each participant iv) Feeding forward, sharing of re-purposed ideas and content with other participants and the rest of the world v) Crowd-sourced interaction and feedback by leveraging the MOOC network, e.g. for peer-review, group collaboration.

• pMOOCs for rgtuqpcnk|gf education, by completing the connectionist principles above by additional ones stemming from eqpuvtwevkxkuv" rgfciqi{: i) the criteria of success are twofold: the degree of learner’s involvement (like in connectionist pedagogy) and the learner’s strength w.r.t strength of questions, exercises, courses, curricula, ii) massively observing the life long educational trajectories of the learners and iii) predictive and preventive personalized advices at the level of questions, exercises, courses, curricula for new entering learners based on the educational trajectories of the previous learners.

The synergy between personalized education and massive education It can seem that massive education and personalized education are antagonistic objectives. Before developing, let us first remark that on the contrary, they are in synergy. Without a massive number of previous observed educational trajectories,

32

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

the educational ecosystem will be not able to guess the best future for a new trajectory. Best guessing supposes the data assimilation of a massive number of such trajectories. Thus, the participation of everyone to such an educational ecosystem is extremely desirable, for any human of any age to come back to education, for actively and quickly learning more and something different from what he already knows.

Such synergy between massive and personalized education is only possible within a 4P Educational Ecosystem designed asa social intelligent ICT Ecosystem.

A massively participative educational ecosystem The educational ecosystem will involve the learners in many individual and collective educational activities for their mutual benefit: assessment, inter-tutorship and construction of dynamical Knowledge Maps. All these activities are in relation with the main functions of the educational system, i.e.: l A first function is to construct and visualize the dynamic Knowledge Maps of domains as well as the individual, the MOOC and the Curricula trajectories. This function is useful to students when they have personalized choices to make and to professors for examining the consistency of their MOOC inside a Curriculum or the consistency between Curricula.

Conversely, crowdsourcing by students is useful for extracting a corpus from a new domain and for constructing a new Knowledge map. l A second function is inter-tutorship: each student has a tutor, who is also a student who is more advanced in the same curriculum; the student can ask questions to his tutor. If no answer is found, then the tutor can forward the question to his own tutor and again and again, until there is no tutor anymore and the question reaches a professor. l A third function is an automatic assessment depending on success/failure along the personalized trajectories of students. Different automatic assessment methods will be proposed: sophisticated MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions), open responses to open questions, automatic correction of exercises remediation proposals. But peer-to-peer exchange will be also used either when it is known to bring an advantage or in order to compete with automatic assessment until there is no doubt about the best between peer-topeer assessment and automatic assessment. Peer-to-peer assessment is recognised to be of mutual benefit. Whatever is the assessment method to test, this method provides a skilllevel evaluation like Elo-points in chess or Tennis ranking. The skill-level of students and the difficulty-level of the tests are co-evolving until the student skill-levels and tests difficultylevels are consistent. Because tests do not evolve, they form a stable basis that can be used to evaluate relative students skill-levels. l A fourth function is to let students bring new questions and new contents. As a part of their evaluations, students are asked to imagine new questions for a particular content. The quality of the proposed questions can be evaluated by their

discriminating power and their ability to correctly discern between good and bad students. Then, above a certain Elo skill-level, the system can offer a student to come up with new contents that will be inserted in the education ecosystem.

Good contents will find their way into participatively evolved trajectories, while bad contents will eventually get discarded.

The individual and crowdsourcing activities will be observed by the Educational Ecosystem and controlled by professors, who will serve as moderators as they make sure that the contents remain sound and of good quality. Online data assimilation of individual educational trajectories will allow to createintegrated individual profiles (including a skill-level) as the best summary of the past activities of the student. Similarly, data assimilation of crowdsourcing activities will allow creating an integrated social profile (including a reputation-level) by best summarizing the past.

The reputation-level is increasing for a tutor whose student has a rapidly increasing skill-level.

A predictive educational ecosystem An essential quality criterion for personalized education is to maximize skill-level increase on the best preferred curriculum.

This is obtained through a best individual educational trajectory.

The main problem is the same as for the ancient personal tutor: choosing for the student a very limited number of next steps for his best trajectory while leaving to the student the final guess of the next step.

It is conjectured that, given an individual profile, the best next incremental step is determined in probability by the distribution of the choices of previous learners with similar profile. This conjecture is the Personalized Educational Man-Hill Problem, because of the similarity with ants' collective behaviour, which is known to quickly find optimal paths towards food sources.

The meaning of this conjecture is that the educational ecosystem plays exactly the same role as the ancient personal tutor, thanks to the large number of students: it collects all the educational trajectories, categorizes them dynamically using personal profiles and uses the empiric distribution of successful next steps observed for the same profile of previous trajectories.

The most difficult operation is automatic categorization that can however be obtained thanks to data-mining techniques.

This conjecture holds when the number of educational

trajectories tends to infinity. But it is never the case because the dynamic Knowledge Map is never stationary, because of the arrival of new hot topics that can be provided by students through crowdsourcing. And the students can observe the scientific trajectories of these hot topics and even better: observe how the old domains are splitting or splicing into new domains.

A preventive educational ecosystem The other essential quality criterion of personalized education is the minimum of failures towards the best preferred curriculum.

The indicator for a good prediction and proposed direction is the withdrawal probability (but also the predicted distribution of probability of the withdrawal time).

If the withdrawal probability increases above a threshold, prevention starts by offering the learner some remediation training drills to prevent failure. If the withdrawal probability continues to increase, recurrent contact with a more advanced tutor with higher reputation-level is provided. If the withdrawal probability goes beyond a predefined threshold, a discussion with a professor is offered. The prevention process follows the same kind of path as in preventive medicine.

A 4P Educational Ecosystem and its multi-level Quality Measurements Currently, the two main quality criteria of an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance is the success/failure rate and the skill-level attained in case of success. The performance of a MOOC, a Curriculum or a Personalized Educational Ecosystem Performance is simply the mean of the individual performances. If a MOOC has a bad performance, psychophysical and neurophysiological measurements can be performed to diagnose which parts obtained less attention from the students. The presence of clear performance criteria is a crucial factor for a permanent improvement of Curricula and Personalized Educational Ecosystems.

Such a Personalized Educational Ecosystem is taking the advantages from the bestof traditional xMOOCs with their automatic assessment andof the connectionist cMOOCs with their crowdsourcing activities. It can implement the state of art in automatic assessment for MCQ, in open response to open questions and in solutions to exercises.

about the author Paul Bourgine is the President of the UNESCO UniTwin CS-DC, the founder and honorary director of the French National Network of Complex Systems, the founder of the Complex Systems Institute of Paris Ile-de-France. He is also a co-founder of the CECOIA conferences in economics and artificial intelligence (1986), the ECAL conferences in artificial life (1990), the ECCE conferences in cognitive economics (2004) and the ECCS conferences in complex systems science (2005). His current research field include genetic networks, neural networks and social cognition and learning and co-evolutionary dynamics. He Graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and obtained a PhD in Economics in 1983, and a Habilitation in cognitive science (1989). He published several books including, Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems and Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL 2011

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

33

France Special

OTEC Experiences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Spin offs & Road Ahead

By Dr. Purnima Jalihal

T

oday all over the world, there is an awareness that existing fossil fuels on earth are getting fast depleted and soon there will be none left. The modern world with all the technological advances needs power in large quantities today and the requirement is only ever increasing. The world over therefore, the effort to tap renewable sources of energy is being attempted on a war footing.

Land based renewables will soon be facing constraints due to conflicts over land use and the rising land costs. While solar, wind, biomass and other forms are already being tapped across the globe, energies which can be harnessed from the vast ocean have yet to move from the research arena. The oceans offer huge spaces where new technologies can be tried and tested without affecting human settlements or the environment. Hence the need of the hour is to develop technologies for harnessing marine renewable energies. Costs and risks are high in the marine scenario, which become a deterrent for attempts to harness ocean energy. But the need of the hour is to make attempts and develop technologies while parallely working out the costs.

Ocean energy can be harnessed in the form of waves, currents, tides and temperature gradient.

India is a tropical country and has surface temperatures in the range of 27oC â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 32oC throughout the year and about 7oC at 1000 m depth. Thus the thermal gradient in deep seas is a constantly available energy. Thus harnessing ocean energy from thermal gradient assumes importance. Desalination is one of the spin offs of the OTEC cycle. In fact water discharged from OTEC can be reused to generate fresh water.India has a long coast-line of 7500 kms and thus the potential of harnessing energy from thermal gradient is large.The 1000m contour in the East-coast of India is closer to the land compared to the west-coast. Either shelf mounted or floating OTEC plants could be designed and installed. As is known, cold water rich in nutrients would boost the aquaculture economics to a large extent, if combined with OTEC power generation. Even the potential for air-conditioning can be tapped if an OTEC plant is positioned closer to a coastal city. It is estimated that a hybrid OTEC plant of 50MW capacity can generate desalinated water of the order of 1,00,000 tonnes/ day which may be of great support for a city like Chennai. There are potential locations in many of the island groups in the Indian Ocean for producing OTEC power and water.

Depending upon the availability of deep water, OTEC plants

34

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

can be either land based or shelf mounted or on floating platforms in deep waters. While extensive work has been carried out in the heat transfer related areas, the complexities of the offshore platforms in station keeping and the cold water conduit design and installation are yet to be understood fully. Corrosion and fouling are also important issues to be addressed in OTEC plants.

If the plant is offshore, power transmission also needs to be addressed. The National Institute of Ocean Technology(NIOT) took up the challenge of putting up a floating offshore barge mounted 1 MW OTEC plant, which is discussed in the following paragraphs.

In the year 1998, NIOT embarked on the efforts towards setting up a 1 MW floating OTEC plant in 1000 m water depth about 40 km from the coastal city of Tuticorin in South India [1].

The baseline design conditions were: Gross power rating

1 MW

Temperature of warm water

290C

Temperature of cold water

7oC

Warm water flow rate

2100 kg/s

Cold water flow rate

1490 kg/s

Working fluid flow rate(ammonia)

31.6 kg/s

Net Power

605 kW

The essential components of the power module for producing electrical energy from the heat energy are an evaporator, turbinegenerator, condenser and pumps for circulating the working fluid and sea water. The liquid ammonia is to be stored in a specially designed storage tank. A mist eliminator after the evaporator ensures that dry saturated vapor is entering the turbine.

The power plant used titanium plate heat exchangers for the evaporators and condensers. These heat exchangers were the largest in size ever used for such application. The evaporators were low chevron angle plates having a special steel coating on ammonia side to enhance the nucleation of liquid ammonia. The ammonia turbine was a 4-stage, axial flow, horizontal axis turbine working with a low pressure ratio of 1.4 and temperature range of 10oC. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was done to determine the blade profiles and it was predicted to operate at 87% adiabatic efficiency, which is significant for the OTEC power cycle. The power system flow rates and the net power are dependent on the turbine efficiency. Any fall in adiabatic

efficiency adversely affects the performance of the OTEC power cycle. Vertical turbine pumps of low head were used to pump sea water. All the components were assembled on the floating barge [2].

The major challenge was the design of the platform and the cold water pipe. A non self-propelled barge was designed to suit the purpose with special features like three moonpools and a retractable cold water sump to suit the NPSH requirements of the pumps. The barge was built in a shipyard on the west coast of India and was named ‘SagarShakthi’.

rough weather conditions loss of the pipelineoccurred. Hence the project could not be completed. Later the same barge was used for mounting desalination equipment and fresh water was first generated in shallow water.

Low Temperature Thermal Desalination(LTTD) – Spin-offs Island based plants Desalination utilizing ocean thermal gradient is one of the spin off technologies of OTEC. Along with attempts on OTEC, NIOT initiated research activities on thermal desalination. Extensive laboratory studies using evaporators, condensers, vacuum systems, demisters etc. was carried out in laboratory level. This was followed by establishing pilot LTTD Plants on the Islands.

NIOT setup a land based demonstration plant in Kavaratti with a capacity of producing 1 lakh litre per day of freshwater in May 2005 [3]. The sea bed bathymetry near the island was such that 350m water depth was available at about 600m from the shore. Temperature gradient of 15oC was utilised (Temperature at surface water at 28oC, water at 350 m depth at 12oC).

The mooring arrangements for OTEC plant

The final configuration of barge with pipe / mooring is shown in Fig.1 As part of commissioning activities various subsystem qualification tests were carried out on shore as well as inshallow waters.

The barge was towed from the west coast of India to Tuticorin port on the east coast with all equipment on board. The cold water pipe made of high density in polyethylene of sections of 12m and diameter 1 m was joined by thermal fusion in the Tuticorin port.

The end connections made of steel were assembled on it and finally the pipe was towed 40 km away from port at a location with water depth of 1000m as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3 View of the Kavaratti Desalination Plant

Fig.2 – OTEC pipe towing

All heavy metallic components had to be floated with buoyancies.Sufficient offshore handling facilities were notavailable on the eastern coast of India, hence the deployment had to be carried out with serous limitations. Twice with two different pipe / mooring systems, lack of infrastructure and

A High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipe of 630mm diameter and 600m long was deployed to draw cold water from a depth of about 350m. This was a complex and challenging task and was the first successful pipe deployment after the difficulties faced in the OTEC pipe deployments [4]. The sea water pumps inside the partitioned sump supply warm and cold water to the plant on the land. Fig. 3 shows a view of the Kavaratti Desalination Plant [5].

The plant has been running continuously ever since, fulfilling the needs of the 10000 strong local community for over seven years.

The salinity of the freshwater produced was reduced from 35000 ppm of the seawater to 280 ppm whereas the permissible limit for drinking water is 500 ppm. Subsequent to the commencement of the plant water supply for drinking water needs, there has been a significant drop in the incidence of water borne diseases among the consumers. NIOT subsequently set up similar plants in two more islands of the region. Figs 4 a and b show the Agatti and Minicoy plants respectively.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

35

France Special

Application of LTTD in Power Plants

Fig.4 a Overall view of Agatti plant

Thermal power plants discharge warm water from their condensers. The process that involves transfer of tremendous levels of energy usually includes heat recovery systems like cooling towers or heat dissipating open channels before the condenser reject water at acceptable temperatures is discharged back into the surrounding environment. However power plants still discharge warm water than desirable and the resultant thermal pollution by the power plants is a serious issue today.

One of the aspects of LTTD is that it transfers the available heat from warmer water to the colder water while generating fresh water from the warm water. This aspect could therefore be aptly used in thermal power plants resulting in the double benefits of cooling the condenser reject water and generating the fresh water. With the idea of demonstrating the concept in a coast based thermal power plant, where the coexistence of warm power plant condenser reject water and the nearby surface sea water with a gradient of about 8o-10oC presents an ideal case for LTTD application, NIOT took up the task of setting up the LTTD plant in North Chennai Thermal Power Station. Fresh water was successfully generated and the process of scaling up is in progress.

Road Ahead

Fig. 4 b Overall view of Minicoy plant

Barge- mounted LTTD Plant For a LTTD plant meant for the mainland needs, NIOT has demonstrated an experimental 10003m /day (1 Million litres per day) barge mounted desalination plant 40 km off Chennai coast [6]. Temperature gradient of about 18oC was utilised with surface water at 28oC and the water at 550m depth at 10oC. The plant was commissioned in April 2007 and the sea trials were successfully conducted for a few weeks. The barge with the plant and the mooring buoy are shown in Fig. 5.

NIOT has gained a vast experience in designing OTEC & desalination plants as also in their installation particularly offshore. The complexities in the installation of the long cold water conduits offshore have been understood. Since most of the equipment are of Indian make, capacity now exists for putting up OTEC and desalination plants from conceptualization to reality.

Efforts are on to combine the OTEC and desalination cycles and scale up the desalination for coastal areas of the mainland.

about the author Dr. Purnima Jalihal is a senior scientist and the head of EFW at National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai.

Fig. 5 A View of the Barge Mounted Desalination Plant

36

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

Need for a Glue in Internet of Things

By Sandoche Balakrichenan

I

nternet of Things (IoT) is a domain which is gaining momentum. Many of the big companies in the IT domain, network and equipments have started funding large projects involving innovation in the IoT. Not only the industries, the public stakeholders such as governments have also recognized the importance of this domain. Many of the developing/developed nations have been massively funding research and development in this domain. Particularly, China has released the 12th five year plan for IoT development. The EU also has added IoT in its 2020 numeric agenda.

The term "Internet of Things" was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999 while he was working in the Auto-Id labs at MIT. At that time, the concentration of IoT was only on RFID associated devices and the application focus was in the supply chain industry. But now in 2013, IoT has applications in diverse arenas and it impacts all aspects of life such as agriculture, sports, health etc.

In IoT, "Things" could be computers, sensors, human, actuators, refrigerators, TVs, vehicles, mobile phones, clothes, food, medicines, books, etc. These "Things" could exhibit totally different functionalities such as size, their storage and energy capacity, the type of technology they use to identify and facilitate data transmission and their application arena.

These things by themselves are not precisely identifiable.

Identification of the things is made possible by different technologies such as RFID, Sensor etc. The devices associated with the things should be identified at least by one unique way of identification for the capability of addressing and communicating with each other and verifying their identities.

If we look at sensor or RFID, there exists already an identification mechanism. For example sensor can be identified

by IPv6 address. Similarly devices such as RFID or NFC can be identified uniquely. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take the example of RFID. One of the widely used mechanisms for identifying an RFID tag uniquely is called the Electronic Product Code (EPC). The EPC is mostly used in the consumer industry.

In the case of identifiers such as IP address, domain names or telephone numbers we use every day, there is a similarity in all of them. All of them have a unique organization which manages it globally. For example, an IP address block is allocated to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The RIRs then sub allocate the blocks allocated to them to different Internet Services providers (ISPs) which in turn distribute them to the end user. Similarly if we look a telephone numbers, the Country code to each Country is allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Then each Country may sub allocate based on regions etc. This is the case in domain names also. The root "." is under the control of ICANN. The branch under the ICANN is delegated to Top Level Domains (TLDs). It could be Country based TLDs such as ".fr" or general TLDs such as ".com".

In all these examples mentioned, there is a global organization and then there are different branches which are controlled by regional/national organization. The beauty in all these allocations are they are hierarchical and control is decentralized and the nature of allocation makes sure that there is no duplicity. For example there could not be two "www.afnic. fr", but there could be a "www.afnic.com". Thus anyone from

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

37

France Special

any part of the world typing a unique domain will not have two different responses. The hierarchical nature of such allocations makes sure that anyone from any part of the world can access any service/user in any other part of the world uniquely.

Similarly, the identifiers used by the devices such as RFID, the hierarchical and decentralized nature are existent. If we could take the example of EPC, it is managed globally an organization called GS1 global. Like in the case of telephone number each Country has been allocated a block of numbers.

For example, France has been allocated the prefixes from 300379. Many of the Countries have their own GS1 organizations which manages the sub block. For example, GS1 France which manages the block 300-379 allocates to the companies in France from this block. The company which has this block sub allocates the block to different products etc. So what we are seeing is that the identification schemes for identifiers in IoT are also hierarchically structured.

Going into the question why do we need glue? There is already glue existing in the Internet. This glue is called the Domain Naming System (DNS). Since human brain is quite capable of remembering names, rather than numbers, we use domain names such as "www.afnic.fr" to access a service in the Internet. But since the computers/server understand only binary, they can be accessed using numbers such as IP addresses. Hence DNS the name resolution service on the Internet, acts as glue basically translating "human-friendly" computer host names on a TCP/IP network into their corresponding "machine-friendly" IP addresses.

Do we need glue in the IoT? Since the identifiers in the IoT such as RFID are identified by identification schema which is hierarchically structured, there has been discussion whether they can be converted to domain names. There exists overlay mechanisms services such as Object Naming Service (ONS) [EPC global standard] and Object Directory Service (ODS) [ITU-T standard] which uses the DNS to resolve the object identifiers (their respective identification schemes) to its related digital information.

Resolution Using ONS : An example Let's suppose the thing is a "pepper mint" box. A passive RFID tag is attached to it. The tag constitutes a microchip and an antenna which usually contains a unique code. There are different coding schemes for structuring this unique code and in this example we use the EPC coding standard. The unique code

38

Hence DNS the name resolution service on the Internet, acts as glue basically translating "human-friendly" computer host names on a TCP/IP network into their corresponding "machinefriendly" IP addresses is just a reference for the object and the information about the object is stored in different servers across the Internet.

To resolve the thing (pepper mint box) information in the Internet, ONS is used. Since ONS uses DNS, the EPC has to be converted into a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to query the ONS infrastructure. The conversion process is explained here.

To read the code from the tag associated with the pepper mint, a RFID reader is needed. The RFID reader connected to a computer reads the code in Binary form. A conversion tool is used to convert the binary data into Hexa Decimal format as follows "3074B77F2861B34000000001". The obtained data is then converted into an URI "urn:epc:id:sgtin:3006410.100045.1" of the following format. The URI is explained by the following table: Using the "narrowest to widest" structure for host name, the URI is rewritten as 8.0.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.9.0.0.3.sgtin.id.onspeer.eu. The serial number is ignored since the ONS resolution stops at the object reference level. The serial number is used to distinguish between different objects of the same class. For example, to distinguish one pepper mint from another. The string "ons-peer.eu" is added at the end of the converted string to point to the ONS root.

By using normal DNS procedures, the domain name could be resolved to more information about the pepper mint box as shown in the Figure below. This way of providing more information about a product is called “Extended packaging” in the supply chain industry.

Afnic – Federated ONS platform Afnic is the French network information center which has been working in the IoT domain since early 2008. In respect to

Field

Description

URN

Indicates that data is of Uniform Resource Name (URN) standard format

epc

Indicates that data is of EPC format

id

Indicates that the data is an EPC identifier

sgtin

Indicates that data is a Serialized Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

3009345

The company prefix of which first three numbers “300” is the Country prefix

678908

Item Reference

2343

Serial number

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

a set of high level requirements (which will not be explained here), Afnic proposed, implemented and tested a Federated ONS platform and successfully demonstrated that resolution of objects could be done via DNS. Afnic FONS platform is as shown in figure 2: Afnic's effort in this work has resulted in Afnic being one of the principal contributors for the ONS Standard 2.0.1.

Also, as part of the WINGS project (www.wings-project.fr), which benchmarks DNS with a DHT infrastructure for object resolution, Afnic has asserted that DNS is the best possible/ feasible solution for object resolution in IoT. To our knowledge Afnic's FONS platform was the first of its kind for object resolution using ONS.

The Scope of DNS It will be nearly impossible to have one global identification scheme for all the objects in the world. The main reason for this is because there are industries which are using their proprietary coding standards (i.e. identification schemes) for a long time. It

is quite impossible to convince them to move to a newer object identification system. Another difficulty is that it will require consideration of a wide variety of object identification schemes to achieve a global object identification schema.

An object itself will not usually contain useful information about the object. The object identifier needs to be resolved to the digital information corresponding to the object. Similarly, if an object needs to communicate with another object, it needs to identify the location of the particular object in the network.

Hence, an object resolution service is one of the key and essential elements of the IoT. In a dynamic environment such as IoT, where new objects and services keep on evolving and network topologies keep on changing, automated discovery mechanisms are needed for overall communication management. The discovery mechanism should enable interaction between objects or identify suitable services for objects which are not pre-configured or hard coded as far as the objects addresses or service end-points are concerned.

As of now, the only feasible solution seems to be using the DNS.

about the author Sandoche Balakrichenan received the MSc in Computer and Communication networks from the Institut National des Télécommunications and PhD in Computer Science and Networks from the Université Pierre-Marie Curie. He joined AFNIC where he is currently working as a full time Engineer in the R&D department.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

39

France Special

Advancement towards Functional

Architectural Coatings

By Dr. Randhir Parmar The Coating Industries The global coating industries contribute to USD 121 by value and 38 MMT by volume of which decorative / architectural coatings contribute to 50 % of the total market. If we look at the region wise break up in terms of market segmentation, Asia Pacific contributes 44 %, Europe about 24%, America 18 % and others 14 %. Amongst these regions Asian Pacific is growing at highest CAGR of 10.5 %. The China and India with the business contribution of 57% and 16 % respectively are the countries of the Asia Pacific with very high growth potential.

Indian coating industries produce 2.6 MMT coatings products annually with the value of USD 5.6 bn and CAGR of 14%. Per capita consumption is 2.4 kg, the lowest amongst all the regions which shows high growth potential of coating industries in India.

The architectural coatings and protective coatings are the fastest growing segments in India where as automotive OEM has shown a slowdown of late. The key players are Asian Paints, Berger paints, Kansai nerolac paints, Akzo Nobel (The top 12 playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; controls 60 % of the market share). Also there are more than 2000 SMEs which contribute to 40% of the market. The volume ratio of decorative to industrial is 74%: 26% which in terms of value is 68%: 32%. This clearly shows that the market is dominated by the architectural coatings and not industrial. Also the water based architectural coatings are growing at high rates. Accordingly the technologies related to emulsion and water borne polymers and associated building blocks for architectural applications are in great focus.

Global Technology Trend in Architectural Coatings The coating industries worldwide is focusing on various performance features in each of the segments namely interior and exterior coatings for architectural applications. For interior applications the basic performance properties like stain resistance, wet scrub resistance, burnish resistance, smoothness and feel as well as optical properties like color and opacity etc are the primary importance. Now customers are looking for these properties along with the additional performances like microbial performance (anti fungal and anti bacterial), low odor and environment friendly features in one products. Similarly in case of exterior products the basic performance properties like dirt pick up resistance (DPUR), anti algal resistance, crack bridging and weathering resistance (water and UV light resistance), chemical resistance and other mechanical properties are the primary expectation by the customers. Additionally customers are looking for the features like self cleaning, water repellents, water proofing and photochemical activity for dirt cleaning, and very long term (life time) durability in one product/ product system.

40

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

Thus the market trend is the multifunctional performance in one product which may be technologically challenging many a times due to controversial requirement e.g. having a product with good DPUR along with good elastomeric performance for better crack bridging as well. This forces the technocrats to think differently and address these expectations with unique technology solution.

Regulations, Eco-labels and Life Cycle Approach for Going Green There is a push from the governments in various countries to avoid use of the toxic materials in formulating the products to be used for the house hold applications, architectural paints are one of such products. Here the restrictions on amount of Volatile Organic Compound (VOCs) present in the product as well as several such ingredients like heavy metals (lead) etc. are becoming stricter. Several eco-labels like green seal, green guard, blaue engel, Eco-mark, EU eco-label etc. specify the criteria to be met in order to have these environment labels for respective products. These eco-labels have become more popular and consumers have choice to select a product based on their green preferences along with the quality of the product. Also there are voluntary initiatives by the industries to go for the green and environment friendly products and solutions for long term sustainability of the business. The industries are taking a life cycle approach for going green where the impact of the product and process to the environment and health safety of each of the stake holder is being considered right from the product design to its manufacture, storage, distribution, application and post application disposal. Hence addressing the sustainability is becoming important and many of the development efforts are directed towards the above.

This has challenged researchers to develop the technology solutions meeting the required quality expectations and also simultaneously take care of the sustainability for the entire life cycle of the product and process.

The Technology Development Direction Thus all the current efforts for new technology development are focusing three major areas namely performance, feasibility and sustainability. This is to ensure that the new technology will address the customer expectation in terms of meeting the quality of the products with required features or functionalities at the same time keeping its feasibility and sustainability in mind. The feasibility aspect also covers the commercial feasibility in terms of the raw materials and key building blocks and their availability.

The technology must be able to address these three elements along with the final cost of the product.

The key Technologies of Promise The old philosophy of paint or coating composition with resin/ polymer, pigments, solvents and additive each with their basic function is now no more a reality. To meet the expectations of consumers and business sustainability, the technocrats have been exploring each of the above areas beyond their basic functions.

The polymers are being developed to function beyond their basic function of film formation or pigment binding/ adhesion on the substrate. The novel polymers are being designed with well defined architect and specified morphologies. They enable the polymer which impart the properties like reduced MFFT in emulsion paints, improve the mechanical properties along with the reduced surface tack and better block resistance. Also the polymers with better mechanical properties along with good surface hardness for better DPUR in exterior coatings are being designed. The functional monomers of various types enable the emulsion polymer with the good pigment binding, adhesion on variety of the substrates, corrosion resistance and stain resistance.

Several reactive surfactants which are acting as monomers during polymerization are also called as polymerizable surfactants improve the water resistance to a great extant.

The equal emphasis is given to developments in the area of pigments. The scope of the pigment is being extended from the mere opacity and color to various style finishes like pearlescent, iridescent, and metallic with variety of luster and brilliance. Due to the trend of higher durability and increased warranty for exterior products, the pigment industries are putting their efforts for developing range of hues in super durable pigments. The range of the heat management products now utilizes the IR reflective pigments which enable the coatings which saves energy cost for the consumers. Some of the companies have programs to offer the eco premium solutions which has additional feature of the heat management apart from the basic set of parameters, thus adding more value for the consumers.

The set of products for interior applications are now using the low odor, low VOCs and â&#x20AC;&#x153;greenâ&#x20AC;? as the basic additional features.

Several products are being marketed with the claim of zero/ low odor and are also additionally have features like hygiene coatings (anti bacterial) to make the proposition attractive. The approaches like encapsulation of the antifungal agents, use of anti bacterial additive like nano silver or nano zinc etc. can be a good technology choice for the paint with good acceptance by the consumer.

Several inorganic- organic hybrid systems are being commercially available with the improved surface performance and exterior durability. The major trend in exterior coatings is a life time product warranty and hence the use of fluoro and silicone chemistry along with the other building blocks. The paints are also available with the self cleaning performance based on the photochemical reactivity mechanism (TiO2 nano particles) for the exterior organic dirt. The same concept is also being used for the interior paints which are used as a anti pollution coatings /

formaldehyde absorbing coatings etc. Also the paints with anti asthma feature are popularly sold for the schools and offices also use the new functional materials very wisely.

The table below from lux research is a good summary of the technology status along with the sustainability status for the range of new technologies for architectural applications.

Conclusion The challenge for researchers is to have the multi-functionality in single products along with the sustainability and feasibility which drives innovations across the coating industries for the extra stretch. The access to global technologies, alliance with the vendors, improved consumer awareness and great technology work force are all helping this industry in India. The large players have increased their research and development focus. This industry still has more than 2000 of SMEs with limited research and technology capability and contributing to 40 % of the business. The market is const sensitive and consumers are not very much involved in the painting process. In days to come, the increased disposable income of the middle class across countries together with development at construction industries will bring more affordability and hence these products with improved functionalities will be a preference.

about the author Dr. Randhir Parmar completed masters in industrial polymer chemistry from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar Gujarat. in 1994 and worked with medium scale paint companies in the area of industrial and decorative paints for about 4 years. Since April 2005 working for Asian Paints limited at Research and Technology Center and currently responsible for the new technology development in the area of emulsion polymers for water based architectural paints and coatings.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

41

France Special

CLINATEC: A Technology Translational Research Center

By Professor Francois Berger

A

major biomedical need is supporting therapeutical innovation in the field of neurology. We are moving from anatomo-pathological medicine (detecting and treating pathology at the macroscopic level) to cellular and molecular medicine (detecting and treating at the micro-nano level). However, induction of molecular resistances, side effects related to systemic diffusion of the drugs, lack of adequate technology to define diseases biomarkers, as well as disease complexity motivate to renovate the molecular medicine model.

Brain inaccessibility and functionality probably explain the major delay observed in molecular annotation and therapy for brain diseases. Deciphering the mechanisms of inaccessible brain functional areas and treating them with non-lesional strategies locally addressing neuronal network dysfunction is mandatory. Deep brain stimulation is a perfect example of implanted technology acting locally in a reversible and functional way. It paved the way for more elaborated devices benefiting from the miniaturization and multifunctionality provided by the exponential development of micro-nano-technologies and electronics.

CLINATEC is a technology translational biomedical center implanted inside the technology MINATEC campus. Its objective is to accelerate and make safer translation at the bedside of innovative micro-nano and electronics technologies. 5 connected platforms are available, including a biomedical system integration facility, a biocompatibility and translational biology platform, a preclinical platform, an imaging platform and at the end of the process a clinical unit. The clinical unit is devoted to clinical technology proof of concept trials in the field of medical devices. It is supported by a unique high technology surgery room and multimodal monitoring associating multimodal intraoperative imaging, electrophysiology, and behavior analysis and biomolecular explorations. This unique situation should favor an

42

Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine | October 2013

early synergistic connection between physicians, technologists and biologists from the clean rooms to the bedside.

Several projects have been already implemented. The Brain computer interface program is developing the first integrated ECOG implant for Brain computer-interface. Explorer program develops innovative micro-nano-biomarker-interfaces technologies for the deciphering of inaccessible human brain areas. The NIR program is developing an infra-red optical stimulator for neuroprotection in Parkinson disease. Innovative pump and catheters are also developed for brain delivery of innovative therapies. Clinatec is also an hotel project open to academic and industrial research which could benefit from the platform.

The residence of Indian neurosurgeons in Grenoble University hospital initiated an active collaboration several years ago. We are now planning a synergistic collaboration exporting our technology and clinical trial in Indian hospitals. The challenge is also to enhance this technology by an active scientific collaboration, benefiting from the high level research available in India in the field of neurosciences, nanosciences and electronics. Developing a common innovation benefiting from both countries, a rigorous valorization and me be a common industrialization will be the main challenges. At the end, franco-indian collaboration should bring a synergistic medical and economic progress for both countries.

about the author Franรงois Berger, MD, PhD had a dual scientific and clinical education in the field of neurology, oncology and molecular and cell biology.

For the last years he coordinated the Brain Nanomedicine Group. He continues to have a dual clinical and research activity has professor of cell biology and neuro-oncology.

October 2013 | Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine

43