As the UAE transforms itself for the future, it views a data-sharing economy as a means for offering people-centric services that improve people’s lives, making the country a happier place.
“Smart cities are the future and data is the bedrock upon which a smart city is built. The UAE is at the forefront of global data management efforts and is driving the growth of the knowledge economy in the region and beyond," said Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of the Smart Dubai Office and CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment, earlier this year.
Industry reports indicate Middle East smart city innovations supporting the global Big Data market will grow to a record high of $7 trillion by 2021. IDC forecasts that worldwide data will swell to 160ZB by 2025, 10 times the amount of data today.
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Read more:
Can 'used' brains be made to act like supercomputers?
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This revolution is happening in the private sector as well throughout payments, banking, information technology, government, media, telecom, hospitality, retail, travel, healthcare and entertainment companies. Customer segmentation, radical personalised recommendations, price optimisation on the fly through big data analytics is the success “mantra” at Amazon. General Electric and United Technology are using sensor data for enabling proactive maintenance of machines through predictive algorithms to minimise equipment and asset failure. The Uber data and analytics platform collects and mines millions of customer transaction data for fleet placement and pricing.
Data science is advancing to greater heights every day, faster than many of us ever imagined. Companies are not only trying to develop this competency organically but also are acquiring niche and specialised companies to sharpen their overall capabilities in the analytics and machine learning space. This upsurge is rightly so because data science makes consumers’ lives better, brings a better return on investment for businesses and helps Government and non-Governmental organisations to monitor their citizen’s need and formulate appropriate policy measures for building a better society.
Investment in new technologies to capture data, better software, and hardware to store and process is growing, and hiring data engineers and scientists to harness insights from data is in high demand. For a recent job opening at Visa, the role of a data scientist is described as “critical in building market-relevant client solutions and intellectual property.”
Preparing the UAE's youth for the future global economy is a critical factor for achieving UAE Vision 2021's strategic objectives of creating a smart innovation-driven economy, and there is already a real talent crunch in data science. IBM predicts demand for Data scientists will soar 28 per cent by 2020, with 2.7 million data-savvy professionals in the United States alone[5].
Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google, has said, “The sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians.” So what does it take to be a data scientist? Data science is fundamentally an interdisciplinary science. Combing intellectual curiosity with mathematical and statistical skills to solve problems by applying machine learning, managing large data sets, and generating interesting visualisations are the crucial need of the discipline.
With the rising interest in data science from business and government leaders, it is also essential for a data scientist to be an excellent storyteller to build a good narrative around how to use data to solve business challenges.
Top-notch universities including MIT, Columbia, Stanford, and many others are offering courses in data science, business analytics, computational analytics, machine learning and big data which are in widespread demand today.
Data science is surging, faster than many of us anticipated. Understanding behaviour of the consumer and responding to their need, as defined by the consumer, in the quickest time and decisive manner is the only means to survive in future. Globally, we have started seeing many new graduates with data science skills who are eager to build a successful career in this field. We hope to see more UAE youth entering this field in the years to come.
Shyama Mahanty is a Senior Director and Data Science expert at Visa Middle East
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
If you go
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Santiago, via Sao Paolo cost from Dh5,295 with Emirates.
The trip
A five-day trip (not including two days of flight travel) was split between Santiago and in Puerto Varas, with more time spent in the later where excursions were organised by TurisTour.
When to go
The summer months, from December to February are best though there is beauty in each season
