DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY – THE 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION & BEYOND

The growth of Digital technology has seen a significant growth in emerging as well as developed nations over the past two decades. This journal report examines the opportunities for India’s future digital growth in verticals like Retail, Finance, and Agriculture. This also covers the need of adoption of digital technology during the crisis and challenges faced by the consumers in digital era.

Building the Pipelines

Chapter 4 (‘Building the Pipelines’) recounts the development of online cash machines in Japan, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. Particular attention is given to the industrial organization of the early years of the industry as well as the collaboration between Lloyds Bank and IBM to develop a special project than then grew to become a whole line of business for IBM. In the early 1980s, when the adoption of ATM was about to take off, ‘Big Blue’ was positioned to take over this segment of retail finance. Instead it left the market. With hindsight, it was perhaps an error to try to sell ATMs as terminals of specific computer systems rather add-ons to banks’ established capacity.

New Philippine investment openings are coming in 2018

Significance There is an ongoing two-level push for further, wide-reaching foreign investment liberalisation. If successful, this would open significant and sensitive Philippine economic sectors to much greater foreign investment. Impacts The amendments and new FINL could quickly boost foreign investment in retail, finance, telecoms, education and power generation. The changes could boost the Duterte administration’s infrastructure-building programme. The changes could increase anger and protests from the political left against the Duterte administration. Challenges to the changes could be brought in the Supreme Court.

Blockchain for architects: challenges from the sharing economy

Concepts of the sharing economy are gaining traction in retail, finance, business and law. What has it to do with architecture? We examine the sharing economy's basis in peer-to-peer exchange, and its relationship with the intriguing technology known as the ‘blockchain.’ We look critically as the practical applications of the technology to architecture in areas such as the exchange of digital assets and the automation of certain types of contracts, as well as the metaphors about the city it brings to light as a stimulus to design.