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The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Anakaputhur, a former weavers' colony, now on the verge of development
Flanked on two sides by the Adyar River, Anakaputhur is a tiny, nondescript place that is now part of the Tambaram Corporation. The area is now poised to witness some fast-paced development. The famous Real Madras Handkerchief, Bleeding Madras and Madras Checks came from the handlooms of this village near Pallavaram. They used to export it to Nigeria for a long time. 'We used to have 5,000 looms at one point. But now there are just a hundred-odd left. After the Nigerian market crashed and due to lack of marketing avenues, we stopped the Madras Checks and switched over to lungies, and then to jute-based products and also to sarees. Some of us make silk cottons and others jute-cottons. The clear waters of the Adyar ensured our colours stayed and did not fade easily. It gave depth to our colours. Now the river is polluted. Unless steps are taken to prevent waste from leather factories near Nagalkeni from entering the river, the quality of the water will not improve,' said C, Sekar, a third-generation weaver who, along with his family, makes cotton sarees infused with banana fibre. Anakaputhur used to be known as Aanai Kattu Puthur or the place where elephants were tied up for the kings of nearby Pallavapuram or Pallavaram, which is nearby. Despite being just 3km away from the Meenambakkam airport, many portions of the locality remain laid back and quiet during non-peak hours. 'The old settlements where homes still have tiled roofs have not yet changed much. Some of those remain empty too as people want modern facilities in homes. Most streets in these areas are muddy and turn slushy during rains. However, areas like Balaji Nagar and Gurusamy Nagar have witnessed slow redevelopment over the years. Housing plots have turned into flats with six or four houses each,' explained S. Arjun, who runs a real estate business in nearby Pallavaram. The widening of the Pallavaram – Kundrathur – Poonamallee Road taken up by the Highways Department and removal of encroachments along the river by the Water Resources Department offer the promise of development. The winding 13 km-long road that runs via Anakaputhur, connects GST Road in the south to Poonamallee High Road in the west. 'This road will offer connectivity to the proposed greenfield airport at Parandur from Meenambakkam. On widening to 24 metres, the road will become safer and allow larger vehicles to take it. Thus, leading to more development,' explained a retired Highways engineer. Residents hope that the upgradation of the Anakaputhur Municipality and merger with the Tambaram Corporation would bring about improvements in the infrastructure. Underground drain works are nearing completion in several places. 'We were a municipality with just 18 wards with no wherewithal to provide basic facilities. Now things are looking better. We were told that our roads would be soon laid,' said Krishnaveni, a resident.
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
AI Promises to Make Blue-Collar Work Safer and More Efficient
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Across the workforce, automation, machine-learning and generative AI seem to be reshaping everything. While there is little doubt that the latest tech is driving huge changes in how knowledge workers operate, manufacturing and other physical, on-site work is also increasingly adopting emerging technology. Technology leaders in blue-collar industries and vendors in this space point to a few developments helping push AI forward, even though SaaS and cloud uptake has been somewhat slower in these fields than in others. The latest technology is largely being used to prepare, inform and connect frontline workers so they can operate more efficiently and spend less time on admin work. "It was actually hard to get data from physical operations, historically," Kiren Sekar, chief product officer at Samsara, told Newsweek. "If you think about trucks driving all over the place, equipment out at remote sites, workers performing field services 10 or 20 years ago, it was hard to understand what was going on. Versus in a financial institution, you can connect all of the electronic banking records into a computer: same for retail, same for health care." Samsara offers camera, sensor and analysis systems that help operations leaders in manufacturing, logistics, waste management, other municipal services and food production to improve safety and efficiency. Its first product was a sensor that tracked temperature, GPS location and vehicle diagnostics, and, later, the company added dashboard cameras. Sekar notes that the cost of sensors and cameras going down, the improved coverage of wireless networks and, finally, cloud data storage paired with machine learning and generative AI has allowed for the world of "physical work" to accelerate technology adoption. "You need to get all the data from the physical world that previously was offline, bring it into the software, and then once you get it into software, you should be able to make these operations a lot better," Sekar explained. "That was the thesis for starting our company." At Axis Water Technologies, a Texas-based water treatment and services company, chief technology officer Aaron Bagwell began in field service and operational management roles, learning Salesforce administration while working as a general manager to get on his current path to CTO. He said Axis Water uses Salesforce's AI-powered frontline service to support pre-visit prep, knowledge sharing and post-visit summaries. The company also uses a sales coach to help teams with customer conversations. "They can fix problems faster in the field and get the customer taken care of much quicker," Bagwell told Newsweek. "If someone runs across a problem that's not in a manual, we can go create a knowledge base article; that way, when another guy comes across the same problem, he doesn't have to spend the same two hours troubleshooting the next time." Bagwell points to the importance of building advocates to drive adoption and identifying high performers and other respected people across various teams to help make the case for new tech. He said that in the first month, around 10 percent of the field had used the products, and a few months later, it's up to around 90 percent. "Some of our technicians have been in here since we were still on pen and paper," Bagwell said. "Those guys are a little bit harder to get buy-in from. They say, 'I could have filled up my invoice in five minutes on paper.' But look what you gave the customer now. We're able to give this long paragraph of post-work summary with photos and everything ... give them a good, curated document." Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva Efficiency in the Field As Newsweek previously covered, some simple AI tools are expanding pathways into blue-collar work and also making significant progress on safety. For companies with vehicle fleets, such as moving, delivery, field technicians and truck drivers, decreasing accidents can be a significant driver of cost savings. Samsara is helping companies optimize operations and incentivize safe driving in a way that is also helping with retention. "It's a traditionally very high turnover environment," Sekar explained. "[One client] was dealing with increasing accident costs, and of course, there's a human cost of that as well," Sekar said of a prominent shipping and logistics company working with Samsara. "Their accident cost dropped by 49 percent ... a lot fewer injuries. Then they started using the technology to help reward safe driving, and they sawtheir job turnover and vacancies drop by half." Samsara has grown to over $1.5 billion in recurring revenue and expanded a client list that includes DHL, Sysco, Home Depot and the City of Denver. Before Samsara, Sekar's last company, Meraki, sold to Cisco, where it remains a thriving business unit. He shared that before that he and some of his cofounders were installing Wi-Fi networks for businesses. "We're seeing this really rapid adoption, whereas 10 years ago, you saw a lot of pen and paper, clipboards. The computer systems were literally green screens of text, and that's been really changing rapidly over the last handful of years," Sekar said. Taksina Eammano, EVP and GM of field service at Salesforce, reiterated that emerging technology is improving the capabilities of information capture for people who work on-site. "There are so many more next-generation products that have signals that tell us what we need to do. They can warn us before something needs maintenance and needs repair, so we can be more efficient and [environmentally friendly]," Eammano told Newsweek. She emphasized that technicians can collect much richer information in advance of their appointments to make them go smoother and ease the transportation burden on field teams. "Our mobile devices are so much more powerful now to be able to get data to search this moment," Eammano explained. "You don't need all your measurement pools, because you can use AR to fairly accurately measure and screen where things are." These sensors can save field workers small chunks of time that would be spent on guesswork or early diagnosis. "Say you're an elevator company and you're servicing, like, a hotel," Eammano said. "Saving you 20 minutes of not just walking around—and knowing the exact location to walk to—is really powerful. ... This is all the things that happen in the background getting you prepared to get on-site." Saving 10–20 minutes over the course of four to seven visits per day across thousands of employees can add up to significant time savings. "When you call the contact center, you don't just say the machine is broken. We have more detail," Eammano said. "So the technician goes out there, and they feel like, you know, they know what's going on." Making the Job More Attractive Despite a lot of effort to highlight the stability and strong pay of trade work, especially for electricians and plumbers, younger people remain heavily interested in other buzzy fields, such as technology and social media or entrepreneurship. But opportunities run aplenty in trade fields, which typically experience high annual turnover. Increasingly, software is being deployed to focus on connection and information-sharing, with the ultimate goals of retention, onboarding and ongoing training. "Because of high turnover, every year, the vast majority of the workers in a job are new. So anything you can do to bring that down and make new people more effective is super valuable," Sekar notes. These industries also often have a glut of older, highly experienced workers. This creates two challenges: transferring knowledge to new employees and the possibility of understaffing as waves of older workers retire. Though some recent research suggests interest in blue-collar work is growing in the youngest cohort of the workforce. "There's certain customers and industries where they're facing silver tsunami retirement challenges and [loss of] institutional knowledge from out in the field," Eammano said. "We also had this whole COVID break, where we didn't send as many apprentices for on-the-job training. So there's been this knowledge gap." At ABM, a facilities management company that provides services like custodial, HVAC, parking and landscaping, a heavy emphasis has been placed on retention with this group, even though high turnover has long been considered a cost of doing business. "We're piloting different things at our frontline supervisory level," Lisa Syacsure, VP of field operations at ABM, told Newsweek. "And hopefully it'll make a huge impact on our retention." Because chain restaurants and coffee shops often offer higher pay than ABM, Syacsure said, ABM's retention strategy has been focused on manager quality and career guidance. Syacsure pointed to updated leadership training and an AI coaching tool that is customized for different roles and geographies. "We've developed playbooks, refreshing those playbooks and really focusing on that frontline manager and ensuring that they onboard correctly and hire well," Syacsure said. "Then ensuring our frontline supervisors engage and support those team members." Syacsure is also working with her team of around 100 HR reps to share their technology wins. She admits she was a novice to AI when she was recently promoted to her VP role but has since embraced the emerging technology and its possibilities. "I have a weekly Friday call with my entire team, and we do case studies," she said. "I would pull up ChatGPT, and then, with the 24/7 coach that we've been piloting, I started showing my team: I have this issue, What would I do? ... [I] share my screen, and I show them how to use it and how it works. So now that they are utilizing the coach virtually as well, they're seeing the impact that it can have on their role." Another company, the Montreal-based WorkJam, offers an intranet built to connect and develop frontline employees. It can also help with flexible shifts and even pay-as-you-work plans. So far it has been particularly popular with retail and convenience store clients. "The adoption levels are fairly low for a typical intranet," Steve Kramer, cofounder and CEO of WorkJam, told Newsweek. "The adoption level for frontline is maybe 20 to 25 percent," in part because these workers still need to log into other systems to manage their pay, benefits or schedule. WorkJam aims to combine all of these in a solution that is purposely built for the frontline employee and has met some early success with clients like Ulta, Shell, Kroger, Hilton, JCPenney and Circle K. "We're typically getting like 95 percent plus adoption with high 80 to 90 percent weekly average usage," Kramer said. Kramer's philosophy is that keeping frontline workers connected and informed is going to be the best way to drive retention and high customer satisfaction. WorkJam also has modules for learning and recognition. "The employers will be able to drive operational excellence in a way that they weren't able to before, but at the same time, the frontline workers are able to have better clarity and knowledge around what they should be doing, how they should be servicing their customers and also potentially get recognized in a more objective way for the work that they're doing as well," Kramer said. With high turnover, an improved onboarding and ongoing education experience could lead to more internal promotions, improved customer satisfaction and wider best-practice sharing. "Organizations are not educating their frontline in the most effective way, so it has an impact on customer service, on service consistency," Kramer said. "It certainly has a big impact on compliance too."
India Gazette
19-06-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
BJP conducting this for political gains: TN Minister Sekar Babu on Murugan conference in Madurai
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], June 19 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Minister Sekar Babu has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is conducting the Murugan Conference in Madurai for political gains. Speaking to ANI, Sekar mentioned that they did not call any politicians and ask for money from any devotees when they conducted the conference. 'The Tamil Nadu state government didn't call any politicians, and we didn't ask for any money from devotees when we conducted the Lord Murugan Conference. They (BJP) are conducting this conference for political gains,' Sekar Babu said. However, Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Nainar Nagendran neglected DMK's claims and said that the conference is completely spiritual. 'This conference is completely Spiritual. I am not totally aware whether such a conference has been organised earlier. There is no politics in this... any party can participate in this... We are inviting everyone to this, and it's not even 1% political... I have mentioned earlier calling for unity for alliance, but we haven't received any reply so far from others,' Nagendran said on Tuesday. Earlier on Wednesday, DMK's youth wing, Dravidar Kazhagam, held a protest against the Union government for not recognising the Keeladi excavations report. This came after the Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, on June 10 said the reports submitted to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) by archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna, who headed two phases of excavations and unearthed an ancient civilisation in Keeladi in the Sivaganga district, are not technically well supported. 'Further scientific studies are required to validate the findings,' he said. Recently, the ASI had asked Ramakrishna to resubmit his report on the excavation after making necessary corrections to make it 'more authentic' and to take further action. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday slammed the Centre for not validating an archaeological report that unearthed an ancient civilisation in Keeladi in the Sivaganga district. 'How many obstacles are there for our Tamil race? For thousands of years, we have resisted all of them, establishing the greatness of our heritage with the support of science!' Stalin said in a post on X. 'Yet, some minds still refuse to accept it. It is not the reports that need correction; it is some hearts! Tomorrow, in Veeranoor, Madurai, let us gather in large numbers at the protest organised by DMK Student Wing to express the sentiments of Tamil Nadu to the Union Government! Let us make them correct their ways,' he added. (ANI)
Business Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
SEA's tech giants revel in lending boom, but major test looms
NANDA Sekar, a homemaker from the Indonesian city of Bogor, is a frequent user of BNPL services on platforms like Shopee, Gojek, and Tiket. Doing so lets her manage expenses so they 'don't pile up.' But there's also the discounts – since platforms are still focused on growth, using BNPL can be cheaper than paying in full. Sekar uses it not just for one-off big purchases like plane tickets, but also for monthly necessities. In Indonesia, there are many users like Sekar. Outstanding BNPL debt in the multifinance sector – which includes fintech and non-fintech providers – reached 8.2 trillion rupiah (US$485 million) as of February, up 59 per cent year on year (YoY). This has driven a lending boom for Southeast Asia's tech giants. Sea Group's fintech arm, SeaMoney, saw its loan book for Q4 2024 surpass US$5 billion, which was a 60 per cent YoY growth. Similarly, Grab recorded a 36 per cent YoY revenue increase in Q1 2025, while GoTo Financial – whose loan book grew 108 per cent YoY – achieved positive adjusted EBITDA for the second consecutive quarter. But a big test may be approaching. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Across many markets, including in Southeast Asia, ballooning consumer debt and increased buy now, pay later (BNPL) usage is colliding with a global economic slowdown. That has raised concerns about a debt trap, and not just for the younger consumers that BNPL platforms typically target. 'A macro wobble, say gig-worker layoffs or a spike in living costs, would test just how thin borrowers' safety nets really are,' Singapore-based industry analyst Zennon Kapron tells Tech in Asia. Alarm bells ringing? In the past two years, BNPL has seen users shift from the younger generation to older age groups. Fintech firm Kredivo, for instance, recorded consistent YoY growth in users over 36 years old, reaching 39 per cent as of September 2024. The company also noted that transactions during this year's Ramadan period were dominated by users who were 30 and above. This rise comes as a wave of layoffs have hit several Indonesian industries: According to data from Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower, more than 18,000 people were laid off in the first two months of 2025 alone. Though it's not immediately clear whether the two are linked, Nailul Huda, director of digital economy at Jakarta-based insights firm Celios, says that 'this shift is driven by rising needs but weakened economic conditions.' So far, credit quality is showing minimal signs of stress. The country's gross non-performing loan (NPL) rate rose from 3.37 per cent in January to 3.68 per cent in February. Still, there are concerns that this could worsen, especially amid the present macroeconomic conditions. 'Current default rates look calm largely because balances are young and ticket sizes small,' Kapron points out. Independent economist Gundy Cahyadi notes that the gradual increase in the country's NPL rate could serve as an alarm bell if it 'more than doubles' within the next year. However, he agrees that as it is, BNPL's current value is relatively small – thus limiting the risk it would pose to the country's overall financial system. There are concerns that many people affected by layoffs might turn to BNPL or loans just to 'make ends meet.' However, not everyone who uses such services does so out of financial desperation, he says. BNPL's issues aside, it's clear that the service is fulfilling consumer demand – especially in countries with low credit penetration like Indonesia or the Philippines. Both countries have lower household debt-to-GDP ratios compared to more developed parts of Southeast Asia, which Cahyadi says is partly due to limited access to credit. Countries like the US and China have ratios of 70 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively. Part of the problem is the general lack of credit histories, which BNPL helps to solve. In Indonesia, pay-later loans are recorded in the country's Financial Information Service System, thus contributing to a user's credit score. On the flipside, this means missed BNPL payments, which may not seem like a big deal, can hurt a user's rating. This could eventually make it more difficult for them to secure bigger-ticket financing, like a mortgage for a house. 'We [at Celios] are not anti-debt,' Huda emphasizes. 'But we are cautious of signs that point to unproductive and excessive consumerism.' Age isn't just a number Even with the boom, lending apps as well as BNPL providers have felt headwinds of late. On the whole, players linked to either an ecommerce or fintech platform have fared better than pure-play BNPL providers. The reason is obvious: These bigger platforms can count on their vast ecosystems to provide large data points on every borrower. As Forrest Li, Sea Group's chief executive, illustrated in the company's Q4 2024 earnings call, SPayLater purchases within Shopee's marketplace are a 'first and very natural touch point' that lets borrowers build an initial credit track record. 'Once we understand users' credit behavior, we give them access to other products with longer tenures and larger quantums,' he said. 'And when we have built a credit risk model for each market which we feel confident of, we then start to scale our loan book.' But promoting responsible borrowing has become more urgent for these platforms – and not just because many users are first-time borrowers. As the likes of SeaMoney scale, they are also increasingly targeting borrowers outside their ecosystems. 'Across our Asia markets, off-Shopee loans now account for about half of our loan book,' Li said during the earnings call. 'In 2025, we expect loan book size to grow meaningfully faster than Shopee's GMV annual growth rate.' Companies have implemented measures to manage credit risk and prevent defaults. Others, like Lazada and Tokopedia-TikTok Shop, partner with local licensed third-party lenders. More crucially, several Southeast Asian countries have implemented BNPL-specific regulations or are in the process of doing so. Two of them, namely Indonesia and Singapore, have age-related requirements. 'Young people need to be paid special attention to,' Celios' Huda says, especially since amid the current economic conditions, the demand for pay-later and online loans will continue to grow. Analyst Kapron echoes the concern. 'BNPL is fantastic for inclusion,' he says, 'but without nudges and sensible limits, it can turn into a habit that's hard to stop.' TECHINASIA
Gulf Today
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Singer Rara Sekar draws inspiration from nature, encourages people to return to simple living
Rara Sekar closed her eyes in meditation after performing a song that speaks of rays of light that cut through the fog as one political prisoner faced death more than six decades ago. The song, which recalls a period of political turmoil in Indonesia, has become a symbol for the singer who has focused on encouraging people to be creative in responding to the climate crisis in Indonesia, her homeland. The prisoner's song is "very healing," Sekar told The Associated Press after performing Thursday at the Skoll World Forum, an annual event focused on ideas for change on issues ranging from climate change to health and human rights. "When I find myself hopeless doing climate activism, or other activism, I sing it.' Sekar's campaign for a healthy environment in Indonesia focuses on a return to "low-waste life,' which includes foraging in the forest for wild food and communal potlucks. Between 2022 and 2023, she organized bicycle rides on the island of Java, where erosion and flooding have engulfed homes, that she said were meant to show locals the joys of communing with nature. "I try to give back to nature in everything I do,' she said. "Not just about the songs I write but also how I live.' A vast tropical archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest rainforest, with a variety of wildlife and plants, including orangutans and elephants. But environmental degradation is widespread, and the nation has faced extreme weather events in recent years that range from flooding to landslides. Indonesia is consistently ranked as one of the largest global emitters of plant-warming greenhouse gases, stemming from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, along with deforestation and fires of wetland ecosystems called peatlands. Since 1950, more than 74 million hectares (285,715 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest - an area twice the size of Germany - have been logged, burned or degraded for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, mining and other commodities, according to Global Forest Watch. Sekar performed "Kabut Putih' at Skoll, which takes place in Oxford, England. She sang as part of the Found Sound Nation, a New York-based group that works to engage communities through music. "Kabut Putih' - or "White Fog' - was written in 1971 by Zubaidah Nuntjik, an Indonesian woman who is believed to have died after being freed from the prison camp where she and many others had been detained. Sekar released a recording of the song in 2024, working with a group that includes families of victims and survivors of the 1965 mass killings that targeted suspected members of the Communist Party of Indonesia. Sekar, who also performs under the name hara, said the song's spirit "gave me strength just to be hopeful' as a climate campaigner. "Most of my songs are inspired by nature,' she said. "I guess I try to incorporate ways of educating people about climate, the climate crisis, through my tour.' Associated Press
