Knowledge Economy

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Cabinet

20-August-2014

Digital India – A programme to transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy

The Cabinet today at the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi gave its approval for Digital India – A programme to transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy.  This is a follow up to the key decisions taken on the design of the programme during the meeting of the Prime Minister on Digital India Programme on August 7, 2014, and to sensitize all ministries to this vast programme touching every corner of the government.  This programme has been envisaged by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

The vision of Digital India aims to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.  The programme will be implemented in phases from the current year till 2018.  REST

Nick Berry is a data scientist at Facebook, and he recently spoke at Casual Connect USA 2014.  The complete GameSauce.org post can be found here with a 24 minute video of Nick’s remarks.  Most interesting was the following excerpt (emphasis added):

Being a data scientist gives Berry a unique perspective on data, and he is an advocate of data “trust,” which he feels is a better term than “data privacy.” “‘Privacy’ is the wrong word to use these days,” he explains. “We should be using the word ‘Trust.’ We are living in a knowledge economy, and the value many of us add in this industry is in the manipulation of information — not in the creation of some tangible hardware product. We take raw data (often customer data), and add value to it. We should use this data respectfully. People trust us with it. Without trust, people will not share, and data is the fuel of the knowledge economy.”

Eric Schmidt, at the New America Foundation event Globalization Goes Digital (currently being webcast at http://newamerica.net/events/2014/globalization_goes_digital), as part of his answer to a question from Thomas Friedman:

Quote: The knowledge economy has arrived.

The event was related to the recently release McKinsey Global Institute report, “Global Flows in a Digital Age: How trade, Finance, People, and Data Connect the World Economy.”

RT if you agree-“The knowledge economy has arrived”- Google CEO @ericschmidt. pic.twitter.com/tkidUIAm06

— New America (@NewAmerica) May 22, 2014

Incubators, hubs and accelerators that may have seemed peripheral to the health of the economy just five years ago, such as Communitech in Waterloo, the MaRS building in Toronto and GrowLab in Vancouver, are increasingly seen as drivers of healthy local economies looking to join the 21st century and as models that can be replicated almost anywhere.  Not to mention that the economic impact these hubs have generated makes the prospect of investment by provincial and municipal governments in their development kind of a no-brainer.  “Building on the momentum of other downtown initiatives, Council’s priorities this term included exploring a technology centre to aid in the continuing revitalization of Downtown,” said Kelowna mayor Walter Gray. “The City supports driving the knowledge economy, innovation and entrepreneurship, which in turn will create high paying sustainable jobs.”  A 2012 Deloitte report estimated Communitech Hub’s economic impact at $14 generated per $1 of public money spent. Considering that Communitech’s goal when it opened in 2009 was to attract $100 million in equity investment for the companies under its roof, and that by 2012 it had attracted $350 million, the initiative would appear to be a success. … Full article here.

From Claire Lambrecht’s SmartPlanet article “Want to invest early in the next big startup? Ask Michael Moe”

“To Moe, the key to sifting gold from garbage is identifying major trends in the economy. One megatrend that Moe is particularly enthusiastic about is the concept of the knowledge economy, an economy based on high-value knowledge workers. “Silicon Valley is probably the most hyper example of that, where the way that these companies compete is pure and simply is if they can attract the smartest talent,” he said.”  [emphasis added]

Transitioning to a Knowledge-Based Economy in Detroit

Take the case of Chicago versus Detroit. … Both have strong histories of manufacturing, yet Chicago was able to make the switch to a knowledge sharing economy while Detroit did not.   rest

Facebook had a study done by Deloitte a few weeks ago called “Value of connectivity” (the link to the full report is here http://internet.org/press/value-of-connectivity) and the foreword reads as follows (bold added):

The knowledge economy is the future of the world economy and the Internet is its backbone. Yet, currently, only about 1 out of every 3 people can go online. Internet.org’s goal to make access available to the remaining two thirds of the world will bring the same opportunities available in the connected parts of the world to everyone.

As a global partnership, Internet.org is working to harness the experience, wisdom and resources of people and companies across the world to understand and solve the challenges of the connectivity gap. Driven by this goal, Facebook engaged Deloitte to assess the economic and social impact of extending Internet access in the developing world. This report is the outcome of that initiative. And Deloitte’s conclusions are compelling: global connectivity will help lift millions out of poverty and drive important positive social and economic change.

This project is the first in an ongoing series of sponsored research projects that will also examine barriers to affordable access and the efficacy of potential solutions. We look forward to engaging with other independent research organisations and academics on projects that support the goal of extending access to the Internet.

At our core, we believe everyone, everywhere, should have the same opportunity and ability to be connected to each other and to connect to the knowledge economy.

Facebook, on behalf of Internet.org

The first and only, to my knowledge, B-School named after a woman continues its leadership in international business education.  The 3 minute video starts slowly showing a celebration event but warms up with the Moore School’s leaders talking about the U.S. News & World Report #1 rankings.

US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker – excerpt from remarks in Abu Dahbi

Let me be clear: This trade mission is not a one-time push. Instead, this is the continuation of a long and fruitful partnership that began decades ago, and will extend for decades to come as the businesses on our trade mission become part of the fabric of the UAE economy. And I am pleased to know that the UAE leadership also takes a long-term view. For example, transformative infrastructure and economic development plans are part of Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 – which is investing $90 billion dollars through 2017 in key projects. With Abu Dhabi’s population set to more than double in just 15 years, businesses from both our countries can help this emirate fulfill its potential as it moves toward a diversified, knowledge-based economy.

Complete remarks here