India likely to benefit as UK lifts limit on PhD level work visas

According to the most recent UK Home Office data, Indians form the largest group of highly-skilled professionals within the Tier 2 (General) category of work visas.

London: Indians are among the largest group of professionals set to benefit from a new UK government plan to remove any limit on the number of PhD-level work visas to be granted.

UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced on Wednesday in a Budget update, referred to as the annual Spring Statement, that from later this year all such highly-qualified roles will be exempt from any cap on the numbers that can apply and come to work in Britain.

“[A] key pillar of our plan is backing Britain to remain at the forefront of the technology revolution that is transforming our economy. And to support that ambition, from this Autumn we will completely exempt PhD-level roles from the visa caps,” Hammond said in his speech in the House of Commons.

“From Autumn 2019, PhD-level occupations will be exempt from the Tier 2 (General) cap, and at the same time the government will update the immigration rules on 180-day absences so that researchers conducting fieldwork overseas are not penalised if they apply to settle in the UK,” he added in his statement.

According to the most recent UK Home Office data, Indians form the largest chunk of highly-skilled professionals within the Tier 2 (General) category of work visas, accounting for 54 per cent of all such visas granted in 2018.

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Indian nationals also marked the largest increase in the grant of Tier 2 visas last year, up by 6 per cent at 3,023 more visas compared to the previous year.

The UK government’s latest PhD-level visa exemption was welcomed by UK universities, who are key employers of international researchers.

“This is fantastic news for Indian researchers who would like to work in the UK, and for UK universities who thrive on bringing together a diversity of brilliant minds from around the world,” said Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International, the main representative body for UK higher education institutions.

“Many of the UK’s leading researchers, in fields ranging from biomechanics to gender politics, come from India. Outside of Europe, India is the third-largest country of origin for academic staff in the UK,” she said.

Universities UK International said that despite making up only 0.9 per cent of the global population, the UK is responsible for 15.9 per cent of the world’s most highly-cited research articles.

“The achievements are made possibly as a result of the international community of researchers that work at and with UK institutions,” Stern said.

The new announcement comes soon after doctors and nurses were removed from the cap to address shortages in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) last year.

Currently, only a limited number of visas are issued every year under the Tier 2 skilled worker section of the visa system. The government’s latest announcement is seen as the first step towards the complete removal of a cap on visas for skilled workers in 2021, when a new immigration system comes into force.

“We already issue more skilled worker visas to Indian nationals than to the rest of the world combined, and I am delighted to see many Indian students coming to study at our world-class universities,” UK immigration minister Caroline Nokes had said following a Migration Dialogue with Indian government officials in January this year.

“Under the new system, operating from 2021, we will always be open to the brightest and best from India, who wish to come to live and work in the UK,” she said.

Source: https://theprint.in/india/india-likely-to-benefit-as-uk-lifts-limit-on-phd-level-work-visas/205857/ (Accessed on 16 March, 2019)

The Solutions State: Why the digital needs the human

Leveraging technology for effective program delivery poses unique challenges. Technology is a tool that requires a capable state to be effective; also, it creates new power asymmetries. Three well-known economists weigh in.

Read the full article at:

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/the-solutions-state-why-the-digital-needs-the-human-5625290/

Investors feel today's CInvestors feel today's CEOs not fit to handle tomorrow's tasks: StudyEOs not fit to handle tomorrow's tasks

Two-thirds of investors believe today’s private-sector leadership is unfit to handle future challenges. That sobering statistic comes from a survey done by consulting firm Korn Ferry as part of a larger study on whether leaders have qualities that will allow them to handle challenges in coming years and decades.

“A majority of leaders can’t make decisions, take smart actions quickly enough, motivate people effectively, or build trust — all of which is needed to ensure their organization’s survival into the future,” Korn Ferry said in a statement on release of the report.

According to the survey, 67 per cent of investors believe the current leadership stock isn’t fit for the future. At the country level, the figures were 82 per cent in China, 70 per cent in the US, with Singapore coming in at 51 per cent. “Investors are looking at, ‘Who can tell me the growth story I want to believe?’” Dennis Baltzley, Korn Ferry’s global solution leader for leadership development, said in an interview from the US on Wednesday. 

ALSO READ: Corporate leadership ill-prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow: Study

“They care about the talent and the bench” of upcoming leaders, he said. The survey had 795 investor and analyst participants from 18 markets globally, and included people from firms with at least $1 billion in assets under management. About two-thirds of the top 400 money managers by assets took part in the research, Korn Ferry said.

What can corporations do to make sure their executive maintain investor confidence and are prepared to handle future challenges? “We have to be a little more disruptive,” Baltzley said. “Energise, manage information flow. Let people have a place to be heard. There’s a theme of care, positivity and optimism that these leaders bring when they’re doing it right.”

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/management/investors-feel-today-s-ceos-not-fit-to-handle-tomorrow-s-tasks-study-119031401180_1.html (Accessed on 16 March, 2019)

IISc engineers take fetch to a whole new level

India's first commercial walking robot Stoch uses machine learning to move around


The robot is the size of a small dog with four legs and a thick but flexible spine. When connected to a battery, it starts walking on slender, articulated limbs, like a canine. 

It even has a 'face' that looks vaguely like that of a pug. The developers at the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-physical Systems at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are calling it 'Stoch' and they say it's on target to become the country's first commercial "walking" robot.

Stoch has been under development since January last year. The first version was displayed a month ago at Aero India - it was heavy-footed and clumsy. A sleeker second version was developed just two weeks ago and a third will be ready in three months. A commercial variant is about a year away. 

The robot uses machine learning to figure out how to walk by itself. Specifically, it uses reinforcement learning, where the machine learns over time to take the best possible action in return for the best reward. 

After several million attempts - performed in computer simulation - ؙthe robot learns to walk. Some Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IISc have been working on such devices in the past few years. There aren't any commercial versions in the market and no institution other than IISc has a prototype that uses reinforcement learning to teach the robot to walk.

The IISc project started when a student, Shounak Bhattacharya, did a master's project in the department of mechanical engineering. After the project, the Bosch Centre at IISc took over development by bringing together professors from other departments. 

It also hired engineers and put together a development team. "We wanted to explore the field of data-driven robotics," said Bharadwaj Amrutur, professor of electrical engineering at IISc and chairman of the Robert Bosch Centre.

Data-driven robotics is a set of technologies that use data to get a robot to learn by itself. As the IISc project got off the ground, it was joined by Shishir Kolathaya from Georgia Tech University. Kolathaya, who has been working with walking robots since the undergraduate level, studied legged robots for his PhD.

When he joined, the Bosch Centre had a non-working prototype. The first real prototype - Stoch 1 - didn't carry batteries. Stoch 2 was twice as powerful, was designed to carry batteries and could walk for 15 minutes without being plugged into an electrical outlet. The third version will improve on looks and be even more powerful. The commercial prototype, when ready, will be bundled with an applica tion.

The Bosch team is mulling several applications - climbing coconut trees, doing surveys in difficult terrain, inspecting construction sites and so on. The project now has five engineers, apart from some faculty members. "We are planning to put a software development kit for people to programme," says Dhaivat Dholakiya, who is technical associate of the project.

Source: https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/iisc-engineers-take-fetch-to-a-whole-new-level/68418892 (Accessed on 16 March, 2019)