NewzIntel.com

Category: Banking

  • MIL-OSI Banking: From Cities to Heartlands: Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Sparks Innovation in Bihar and Jharkhand

    Source: Samsung

     
    As Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Season 4 sweeps across the nation, its message is clear – innovation is not confined to metro cities; it belongs to every young dreamer with a problem to solve. After energizing campuses in the North, South, and North-East, the programme has now reached the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, drawing hundreds of students into the fold of purposeful innovation.
     
    At the heart of this new chapter were three prestigious institutions in Ranchi Gossner College, St. Xavier’s College, and Marwari College where design thinking open houses transformed classrooms into idea labs. Meanwhile, students from IIT Patna joined virtually, proving that geography is no barrier when it comes to shaping India’s future.
     
    For Suraj, a student from Marwari College, the workshop was an eye-opener. “It was the first time I saw how structured thinking could turn the problems around me into actual projects. I’ve always been aware of local issues — lack of sanitation, waste management — but now I feel equipped to do something about them,” he said, his notebook filled with early sketches of a waste-segregation solution designed for small towns.
     
    At Gossner College, the energy was electric as students engaged in empathy mapping and rapid prototyping. Neha, who is pursuing her graduation, couldn’t stop smiling as she shared her idea to build a low-cost, solar-powered attendance system for rural schools. “This workshop showed me how ideas can grow when you collaborate and think beyond the obvious,” she said. “It gave me the courage to believe my solution can work — not just in Ranchi but in every village with a chalkboard.”
     
    Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a nationwide contest designed to inspire students to create innovative solutions to address some of society’s most pressing challenges by leveraging technology.
     
    Samsung ‘Solve for Tomorrow 2025’ will provide INR 1 crore to the top four winning teams to support the incubation of their projects, along with hands-on prototyping, investor connects, and expert mentorship from Samsung leaders and IIT Delhi faculty.
     
    Prashant, who joined the online session from IIT Patna, was deeply moved by the larger purpose behind Solve for Tomorrow. “It’s not just about tech or startups. It’s about building the India we want to live in. I want to create a platform that helps farmers access real-time data about soil health and crop cycles — something my own family has struggled with,” he shared.
     
    In every city Solve for Tomorrow has touched, it has brought with it not just tools and techniques, but also belief. In St. Xavier’s College, Adnan, a computer science undergraduate, found his mission. “There’s so much talk about AI and automation — but very little about using it for people at the margins. I’m working on a chatbot that can assist elderly people in accessing government healthcare schemes. This programme made me realise that innovation is not just a Silicon Valley word. It belongs to us too.”
     
    A Movement for Nation Building
     
    Since its launch on April 29, Solve for Tomorrow has rapidly grown from a competition to a nation-building movement. With students from metros, towns, and heartland cities like Ranchi and Patna now thinking critically, ideating boldly, and designing empathetically, the next generation of changemakers is rising — from every corner of the country.
     
    Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is not just nurturing ideas — it’s nurturing a mindset. A belief that young Indians, no matter where they come from, have what it takes to solve for India and the world.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: As of today: free online chatting on all Lufthansa long-haul flights

    Source: Lufthansa Group

    Lufthansa is now also offering unlimited free chatting on its intercontinental flights. Passengers can send and receive any number of messages from their own smartphone or tablet via the familiar apps, regardless of their travel class during the flight, including photos.

    Many passengers would like this free service to be introduced because they want to stay in touch with family and friends via text messages even on long flights.

    The new free service is offered with the support of Mastercard. To use it, passengers have to log in to FlyNet with a Miles & More service card number or an email address registered with Lufthansa Group Travel ID. They can also sign up or register during their flight.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Preventing the next pandemic: One Health researcher calls for urgent action

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hung Nguyen-Viet, Program Leader (ai), HEALTH at ILRI / CGIAR, International Livestock Research Institute

    The world is facing daunting health challenges with the rise of zoonotic diseases – infections that are transmissible from animals to humans. These diseases – which include Ebola, avian flu, COVID-19 and HIV – show how the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and ecosystems are closely connected.

    Zoonotic diseases have become more and more common due to factors such as urbanisation, deforestation, climate change and wildlife exploitation. These dangers are not limited by borders: they are global and demand a coordinated response.

    By looking at health holistically, countries can address the full spectrum of disease control – from prevention to detection, preparedness, response and management – and contribute to global health security.

    The World Health Organization has a basis for such an approach: One Health. This recognises the interdependence of the health of people, animals and the environment and integrates these fields, rather than keeping them separate.

    I lead the health programme at the International Livestock Research Institute, where we are looking for ways to effectively manage or eliminate livestock-related diseases, zoonotic infections and foodborne illnesses that disproportionately affect impoverished communities.

    My work focuses on the link between health and agriculture, food safety, and infectious and zoonotic diseases.

    For example in Kenya we are part of an initiative of the One Health Centre in Africa to roll out canine vaccination and have so far vaccinated 146,000 animals in Machakos county.

    In Ethiopia and Vietnam we worked in a programme to improve the hygiene practices of butchers in traditional markets.

    In another project we work in 11 countries to strengthen One Health curricula in universities.

    The lessons from the One Health projects implemented with partners across Asia and Africa are that there’s an urgent need for action on three fronts. These are: stronger cross-sectoral collaboration; greater engagement with policymakers to translate research findings into actionable strategies; and the development of adaptable and context-specific interventions.

    But, having been active in this area for the last decade, I am impatient with the slow pace of investment. We know that prevention is better than cure. The cost of prevention is significantly lower than that of managing pandemics once they occur. Urgent steps, including much higher levels of investment, need to be taken.

    What’s in place

    In 2022 the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Organisation for Animal Health developed a joint One Health plan of action. They identified key areas to respond more efficiently to health threats. These included:

    • Reducing risks from emerging and re-emerging zoonotic epidemics. Actions include, for example, tightening regulations around farming and trade in wildlife and wild animal products.

    • Controlling and eliminating endemic, zoonotic, neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases by understanding the attitudes and knowledge of communities bearing the greatest burdens of these diseases. And boosting their capacity to fight them.

    • Strengthening action against food safety risks by monitoring new and emerging foodborne infections.

    • Curbing the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance, one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.

    Other collaborations include the Prezode (Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence) initiative to research all aspects of diseases of animal origin. This was launched in 2021 by French president Emmanuel Macron.

    The Africa One Health University Network operates in ten African countries to address One Health workforce strengthening in Africa.

    One Health has gained traction globally. But there’s still a great deal to be done.

    The cost of inaction

    According to a 2022 World Bank estimate, preventing a pandemic would cost approximately US$11 billion per year, while managing a pandemic can run up to US$31 billion annually. So the investment return of 3:1 is an important reason to call for investment in One Health.

    The Pandemic Fund was launched in November 2022 by leaders of the Group of 20 nations and hosted by the World Bank Group to help low- and middle-income countries prepare better for emerging pandemic threats. US$885 million has been awarded to 47 projects to date through the two rounds in the last three years.

    However, relative to the US$11 billion per year required for prevention, this investment is modest. Urgent investment in One Health needs to be made by countries themselves, in particular low- and middle-income countries.

    The last two World One Health congresses (in Singapore in 2022, and in Cape Town in 2024) called for investment in One Health. There were also calls for investment in One Health at regional level to prevent zoonotic diseases and the next pandemic.

    At the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) formally adopted by consensus the world’s first Pandemic Agreement. The landmark decision culminates more than three years of intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    This is major global progress in One Health and disease prevention.

    But the lessons of COVID-19 have shown us that the cost of inaction is incalculable in terms of lives lost, economic turmoil and societal disruption. To date, there have been over 777 million cases of COVID-19, including more than 7 million deaths worldwide.

    According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, COVID will have caused a cumulative production loss of US$13.8 trillion by 2024.

    The choice is clear: invest today to prevent tomorrow’s pandemics, or pay a heavy price in the future.

    – Preventing the next pandemic: One Health researcher calls for urgent action
    – https://theconversation.com/preventing-the-next-pandemic-one-health-researcher-calls-for-urgent-action-255229

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Quavo Fraud & Disputes Named “Best Dispute Management & Resolution Solution” by Fintech Futures

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WILMINGTON, Del., June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Quavo Fraud & Disputes has been recognized as the winner of the “Best as-a-Service Solution – Dispute Management & Resolution” category at the 2025 Banking Tech Awards USA, hosted by Fintech Futures. The award honors Quavo’s QFD® platform, an end-to-end SaaS solution purpose-built to transform and streamline dispute management for financial institutions and deliver a seamless experience for accountholders.

    This prestigious accolade underscores Quavo’s continued commitment to innovation in fraud and dispute resolution, enabling financial institutions to reduce operational costs, ensure regulatory compliance, and deliver trust-building experiences that foster loyalty among accountholders.

    “This award is a testament to our team’s relentless focus on customer experience, compliance, and AI advancements,” said Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, David Chmielewski. “By building QFD® with intelligence from the ground up, we’ve created a platform that adapts to change, scales with demand, and earns trust with every interaction.”

    Quavo’s flagship solution, QFD®, is an AI-powered platform built exclusively for financial institutions to automate and streamline the entire dispute lifecycle. The platform delivers a compliant, scalable, and highly automated experience, enabling financial institutions to act quickly and accurately while empowering consumers with transparency and control.

    Now in its fourth year, the Banking Tech Awards USA celebrates the most innovative and impactful achievements across banking and fintech. This year’s competition featured more than 80 leading banks, credit unions, and technology providers across 40+ categories, including technology excellence, leadership, and project implementation.

    About Quavo, Inc.

    Quavo is a leading technology partner and strategic advisor, helping financial institutions (FIs) build trust-driven customer relationships through faster, more transparent dispute resolutions. Our mission is to restore financial trust by simplifying fraud and disputes. Quavo’s award-winning technology automates the entire dispute lifecycle, from intake to resolution. FIs can pair this end-to-end solution with our expert-led back-office investigation team in one turnkey managed service. Scalable for institutions of all sizes, Quavo’s solutions reduce losses, ensure compliance, and enhance customer loyalty. Learn more at www.quavo.com.

    Media Contact:
    Julia Lum
    PR & Events Specialist
    Julia.Lum@quavo.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Erik Thedéen: On risk, uncertainty and geoeconomic fragmentation

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    The last five years have been unusually turbulent. We have lived through the worst pandemic in a hundred years, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and the United States has started trade conflicts with several of its most important trading partners, including China and the EU. We have also had a period of very high inflation that has now fortunately fallen back to normal levels; see Figure 1.

    In recent months, uncertainty in the global economy has increased strongly, not least due to the United States’ new trade policy. In our latest Monetary Policy Update, published last week, we assessed that international developments – particularly the elevated uncertainty – are dampening the economic prospects in Sweden. In turn, this suggests that inflation, in the long term, may become lower than in our most recently published forecast from March. But we also pointed out that there are several risk factors, such as those linked to companies’ global value chains, and that inflation thus could well become unexpectedly high.

    This illustrates, almost too clearly, that the economic outlook and inflation prospects are always uncertain and there are several reasons for this. One of them is that our models cannot capture all the complex relationships that characterise real economies. There could also be uncertainty over political decisions or how developments abroad affect the Swedish economy. However, regardless of the reason, we cannot exactly know what inflation will be in two years or how changes in the policy rate will affect inflation. The pandemic also reminded us that sometimes unpredictable events happen that can have major economic consequences.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Preventing the next pandemic: One Health researcher calls for urgent action

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hung Nguyen-Viet, Program Leader (ai), HEALTH at ILRI / CGIAR, International Livestock Research Institute

    The world is facing daunting health challenges with the rise of zoonotic diseases – infections that are transmissible from animals to humans. These diseases – which include Ebola, avian flu, COVID-19 and HIV – show how the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and ecosystems are closely connected.

    Zoonotic diseases have become more and more common due to factors such as urbanisation, deforestation, climate change and wildlife exploitation. These dangers are not limited by borders: they are global and demand a coordinated response.

    By looking at health holistically, countries can address the full spectrum of disease control – from prevention to detection, preparedness, response and management – and contribute to global health security.

    The World Health Organization has a basis for such an approach: One Health. This recognises the interdependence of the health of people, animals and the environment and integrates these fields, rather than keeping them separate.

    I lead the health programme at the International Livestock Research Institute, where we are looking for ways to effectively manage or eliminate livestock-related diseases, zoonotic infections and foodborne illnesses that disproportionately affect impoverished communities.

    My work focuses on the link between health and agriculture, food safety, and infectious and zoonotic diseases.

    For example in Kenya we are part of an initiative of the One Health Centre in Africa to roll out canine vaccination and have so far vaccinated 146,000 animals in Machakos county.

    In Ethiopia and Vietnam we worked in a programme to improve the hygiene practices of butchers in traditional markets.

    In another project we work in 11 countries to strengthen One Health curricula in universities.

    The lessons from the One Health projects implemented with partners across Asia and Africa are that there’s an urgent need for action on three fronts. These are: stronger cross-sectoral collaboration; greater engagement with policymakers to translate research findings into actionable strategies; and the development of adaptable and context-specific interventions.

    But, having been active in this area for the last decade, I am impatient with the slow pace of investment. We know that prevention is better than cure. The cost of prevention is significantly lower than that of managing pandemics once they occur. Urgent steps, including much higher levels of investment, need to be taken.

    What’s in place

    In 2022 the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Organisation for Animal Health developed a joint One Health plan of action. They identified key areas to respond more efficiently to health threats. These included:

    • Reducing risks from emerging and re-emerging zoonotic epidemics. Actions include, for example, tightening regulations around farming and trade in wildlife and wild animal products.

    • Controlling and eliminating endemic, zoonotic, neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases by understanding the attitudes and knowledge of communities bearing the greatest burdens of these diseases. And boosting their capacity to fight them.

    • Strengthening action against food safety risks by monitoring new and emerging foodborne infections.

    • Curbing the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance, one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.

    Other collaborations include the Prezode (Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence) initiative to research all aspects of diseases of animal origin. This was launched in 2021 by French president Emmanuel Macron.

    The Africa One Health University Network operates in ten African countries to address One Health workforce strengthening in Africa.

    One Health has gained traction globally. But there’s still a great deal to be done.

    The cost of inaction

    According to a 2022 World Bank estimate, preventing a pandemic would cost approximately US$11 billion per year, while managing a pandemic can run up to US$31 billion annually. So the investment return of 3:1 is an important reason to call for investment in One Health.

    The Pandemic Fund was launched in November 2022 by leaders of the Group of 20 nations and hosted by the World Bank Group to help low- and middle-income countries prepare better for emerging pandemic threats. US$885 million has been awarded to 47 projects to date through the two rounds in the last three years.

    However, relative to the US$11 billion per year required for prevention, this investment is modest. Urgent investment in One Health needs to be made by countries themselves, in particular low- and middle-income countries.

    The last two World One Health congresses (in Singapore in 2022, and in Cape Town in 2024) called for investment in One Health. There were also calls for investment in One Health at regional level to prevent zoonotic diseases and the next pandemic.

    At the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) formally adopted by consensus the world’s first Pandemic Agreement. The landmark decision culminates more than three years of intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    This is major global progress in One Health and disease prevention.

    But the lessons of COVID-19 have shown us that the cost of inaction is incalculable in terms of lives lost, economic turmoil and societal disruption. To date, there have been over 777 million cases of COVID-19, including more than 7 million deaths worldwide.

    According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, COVID will have caused a cumulative production loss of US$13.8 trillion by 2024.

    The choice is clear: invest today to prevent tomorrow’s pandemics, or pay a heavy price in the future.

    Hung Nguyen-Viet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Preventing the next pandemic: One Health researcher calls for urgent action – https://theconversation.com/preventing-the-next-pandemic-one-health-researcher-calls-for-urgent-action-255229

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Pilot project to restrict access to phishing sites launches

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Document

    Order of May 31, 2025 No. 1403-r

    Starting June 4, 2025, Russia will begin implementing a pilot project to restrict access to phishing sites and applications that are created under the guise of official sites of government agencies and companies, and then used by fraudsters to steal passwords and other personal information of citizens. An order to this effect has been signed.

    The goal of the pilot is to create an effective mechanism for identifying and promptly blocking fake Internet resources and applications that may use a domain name very similar to the real one of a government agency, company or bank.

    The objectives of the pilot project include developing mechanisms for interaction between various government and non-government structures in identifying and blocking fraudulent websites and applications, as well as preparing proposals for the regulatory consolidation of such mechanisms.

    The participants of the pilot project from the state side will be the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Service, Rospatent, the Bank of Russia and the Prosecutor General’s Office. The project also involves the participation of the autonomous non-profit organization “Coordination Center for the National Domain of the Internet” and the research institute “Integral”.

    The pilot project is scheduled to be completed on March 1, 2026. Its implementation will provide new opportunities to protect citizens from fraudulent activities and enhance their security on the Internet.

    The work is being carried out within the framework of the federal project “Cybersecurity Infrastructure”, which is part of the new national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State”.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Financial news: On June 6 at 15:00 there will be a press conference on the results of the meeting of the Board of Directors on monetary policy

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Central Bank of Russia –

    The event will be attended by the Chairman of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina and the Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Alexey Zabotkin.

    Elvira Nabiullina will make a statement on monetary policy.

    The press conference will be held at the Bank of Russia press center. The broadcast of the speech will be available on our website, channel inTelegram, as well as on the official page inVKontakte.

    Accreditation for journalists is open until 17:00 on June 4 at the following address: Media@kbr.ru.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

    HTTPS: //vv. KBR.ru/Press/Event/? ID = 24668

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Mary-Elizabeth McMunn: Outcomes and opportunities – responding to challenge and change

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Good morning.  Thank you to Irish Funds for the invitation to address their Annual Global Funds Conference today.

    The theme of this year’s conference – ‘Towards 2030: Acceleration, Transformation & Innovation’ – is a fitting one. 

    Given the volatility of global events over the last few weeks, it is more important than ever that we continue to look to future.  Both to understand and be able to take advantage of potential opportunities – particularly with regard to transformation and innovation – but also to be prepared for whatever the future may hold.  

    But before I look to the future, I will spend a few moments looking back – and taking stock of recent and potentially seismic global developments. 

    Shifting geo-political plates

    The last few months and indeed weeks have seen a sudden shift in geo-economic fragmentation both in terms of an accelerated pace and scale. 

    While a return to more protectionist policies had been forecast for some time – and specific events such as COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine provided concrete examples of trade fragmentation and heightened geopolitical tensions – the recent and potentially significant fracturing of trading relations has come about quite suddenly.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Edward S Robinson: Welcome remarks – 12th Asian Monetary Policy Forum

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Good morning.
    Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, 
    Managing Director Chia Der Jiun,
    Distinguished speakers, central bank colleagues,
    Honoured Guests.

    Introduction

    Thank you for taking the time to be here for the 12th Asian Monetary Policy Forum. We are greatly honoured that DPM Heng Swee Keat has been able to join us. He provided the impetus to the inception of ABFER/AMPF a decade ago and has continued with strong counsel and encouragement.  DPM as a policymaker internalises the economic way of thinking. He applies careful and thoughtful analytical reasoning based on the evidence to a range of policy issues, including enhancing the economy’s macro-competitiveness. He has made significant contributions to the strengthening of Singapore’s international trade relationships and holds a deep conviction in the benefits of comparative advantage and broader economic complementarities across countries. DPM has played a pivotal role in ingraining the principles and practices that define Singapore’s robust, forward-looking approach to economic policy making. 

    The Global Economic Context

    In 2024, the global economy was showing clear signs of recovery. Inflation was easing, growth was holding steady at potential, and central banks were beginning to cut policy rates. Yet today, prospects have darkened against conditions of underlying unpredictability.

    The Economics of Protectionism

    Economists readily acknowledge the firm case against protectionism. Import taxes destroy trade benefits by disrupting efficient resource allocation and reducing consumer surplus, as domestic households face higher prices and fewer choices. Both the targeted and tariff-imposing economies suffer. 

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Asian Development Blog: Why Central Banks in Asia Should Consider Cutting Interest Rates

    Source: Asia Development Bank

    Amid global trade uncertainty and moderating inflation, several Asian economies face growing pressure to reduce interest rates. Falling inflation, high real interest rates, weakening growth, and a softening US dollar suggest conditions may be right for monetary easing in parts of the region.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • Indian companies post satisfactory Q4 results despite global challenges: Bank of Baroda Report

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Corporate performance of Indian companies in the fourth quarter of financial year 2025 remained satisfactory despite a tough global economic environment, according to a recent report by Bank of Baroda.

    The report highlighted that most companies are optimistic about their future growth prospects, and there is potential for further improvement once consumption demand picks up in FY26.

    The report said, “Corporate performance in Q4 FY25 was on the whole satisfactory and there is scope for an upward movement once consumption pick up in FY26. Importantly, despite a challenging global environment, companies remain positive on future growth prospects”.

    The report pointed out that certain sectors are already showing signs of recovery. Sectors linked to infrastructure are experiencing steady growth even though they are being compared to a high base from last year.

    In the case of consumer-related sectors like FMCG and consumer durables, strong rural demand and seasonal factors have played a key role in supporting recovery.

    The services sector has also continued to grow at a steady pace, driven by strong demand.

    The report noted that stable commodity prices, low inflation in India, a favourable monsoon outlook, trade agreements, government spending on infrastructure, and tax benefits are expected to be important drivers of growth and demand in the coming months.

    According to the report, aggregate net sales of a sample of 1,893 companies increased by 5.4 per cent in Q4 FY25, while net profits rose by 7.6 per cent. Expenses and interest costs remained under control, which helped improve the debt repayment ability of companies.

    However, some slowdown in sales was seen in large sectors such as oil and gas, textiles, and iron and steel. This had a negative impact on the overall performance of the sample. But the report suggested that this is likely a one-time occurrence and not a long-term concern.

    Similarly, the BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance) sector, which performed strongly last year, saw some moderation in growth. This has been linked to a slowdown in credit growth.

    Overall, the report painted a positive picture of India Inc’s performance in Q4 FY25 and suggests that companies are well-positioned to benefit from improving demand and supportive policy measures in the next financial year.

    (ANI)

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia’s lowest paid workers just got a 3.5% wage increase. Their next boost could be even better

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Buchanan, Professor, Discipline of Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney

    Carlos Castilla/Shutterstock

    A week ago, the Australian Financial Review released this year’s “Rich List”. It reported the number of billionaires in Australia increased from 150 to 166 between 2024 and 2025.

    A very different story is happening at the other end of the market. On Tuesday the Fair Work Commission awarded the lowest paid 20% of wage earners a 3.5% increase as a result of its annual review.

    The commission acknowledged even with this increase, our lowest paid employees will not be earning as much in real terms as they did before the post-COVID inflationary surge of 2021-2022.

    Why such a meagre increase?

    In Australia it has long been accepted that – all things being equal – wages should move with both prices and productivity.

    Adjusting them for inflation ensures their real value is maintained. Adjusting them for productivity means employees share in rising prosperity associated with society becoming more productive over time.

    This “prices plus productivity” model of wage rises is, however, subject to economic circumstances. In recent times the key circumstance of concern has been inflation.

    Depending how it is measured it peaked at between 6.5% and 9.6% in 2022-2023.

    Since 2022, economic agencies such as the Reserve Bank and state treasuries, along with finance sector economists, have been preaching about the threat of inflation persisting.

    Cutting real wages to control inflation

    Interest rates were increased to tame the inflation dragon. And these
    agencies all issued dire warnings about the threat of long-term inflationary pressure if wages were adjusted to maintain lower and middle income earners living standards.

    In its last three decisions the Fair Work Commission accommodated this narrative. Since July 2021 it ensured wages for the lowest paid 20% of employees did not keep up with inflation.

    Unsurprisingly, real wages for award-dependent employees fell.

    The commission has done its best to look after those on the absolute lowest rates: that is the 1% or so on the national minimum wage.

    Their wages have fallen by 0.8% over the period since July 2021. For those in the middle of the bottom 20% of employees dependent on awards the fall has been in the order of 4.5%.

    For example, this is the fall experienced by an entry level tradesperson in manufacturing dependent on an award.

    Because inflation is currently running at about 2.4%, the 3.5% increase marks a modest 1% real wage gain for a worker on or close to the entry level manufacturing tradesperson rates.

    In making this increase, the commission argued if real wage cuts continued, the entrenchment of lower minimum award rates was likely. It noted the economy is in pretty good shape – not just in terms of inflation and employment – but also many firms are turning a profit.

    What about productivity?

    The other striking feature of the post-COVID economic recovery has been poor productivity performance. It initially went backwards and more recently has flatlined.

    The commission rejected arguments recent poor performance in national productivity numbers should prevent raising the minimum award higher than inflation.

    It did this because it distinguished between productivity in the market and non-market sectors. In the former, productivity growth has been modest, but positive.

    Poor numbers in the non-market sector like health and social services were an artefact of both measurement problems and the need for more workers per unit output to boost the quality of these services.

    Silver linings?

    It is always a judgement call as to what is the appropriate scale of any wage increase. Given low paid workers were not the source of recent inflationary pressure, it is reasonable to claim now is the time to reverse the recent trends of cutting their real wages.

    Whether the increase had to be so modest is something the commission has
    indicated it is open to considering in future hearings. It has sent this signal by floating two novel arguments.

    The first argument concerns how cuts in real pay are calculated. In its decision it makes the very important point that conventional measures of real wage movements use monthly measures of inflation but wages only increase annually.

    It’s on this basis the 4.5% cut for the benchmark entry level trade worker in manufacturing was calculated.

    The commission notes, however, that if you take into account wages only rise once a year and inflation rises continuously, the overall loss of earnings power for such workers has been 14.4% since July 2021.

    This is a much higher account of real wage cuts than has previously informed debates on wages policy.


    FairWork Commission Annual Wage Review 2025, CC BY-NC-ND

    Secondly, the commission has noted consideration should be given to phasing out some of the lowest classifications in the award system. This is something it has done in the past.

    In this way it does not have to “increase rates” for low paid
    classifications as such. Rather, it just eliminates the possibility of having rates for exceptionally low paid jobs – and so raises the base rates dramatically for the lowest paid workers.

    Next year, things could be better. Australia has a long history of having a wages system that takes seriously the needs of all workers, and especially the low paid. This decision marks a break with the recent habit of using the lowest paid workers as a shock absorber for macroeconomic policy.

    The 3.5% rise is a modest increase but an important one. More important is the framework the commission has set up for decisions in future years. Devising a more accurate measure of real wage cuts and noting the importance of abolishing whole classifications of low paid work lays the foundations for potentially very exciting developments in Australian wages policy in coming years.

    John Buchanan has undertaken research on wages policy for over forty years. His most recent work has been supported by funding provided by the Electrical Trades Union, the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union and the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (NSW Branch). He is member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and Branch Council Member of that union at the University of Sydney.

    – ref. Australia’s lowest paid workers just got a 3.5% wage increase. Their next boost could be even better – https://theconversation.com/australias-lowest-paid-workers-just-got-a-3-5-wage-increase-their-next-boost-could-be-even-better-258072

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI: HashiCorp Expands Unified Lifecycle Management for Hybrid Cloud Operations

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LONDON, June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today at HashiDays London, its first international user conference as an IBM company, HashiCorp unveiled the vision for partnering with IBM to shape the future of hybrid cloud automation. Despite widespread adoption, most enterprises have not reached cloud maturity — out of the 94% using cloud services, only 20% are receiving full ROI. IBM estimates that one billion new AI applications will emerge by 2028, driving greater cloud complexity and forcing enterprises to make critical decisions about their hybrid cloud strategies. Together with IBM’s software automation portfolio, HashiCorp is delivering the automated hybrid cloud platform that unifies infrastructure and security workflows, reduces complexity, and enhances visibility and control.

    At HashiDays London, HashiCorp announced new products and integrations that expand the capabilities of its Infrastructure Cloud across Infrastructure and Security Lifecycle Management (ILM and SLM) to help organizations automate hybrid infrastructure delivery, reduce operational risk, and improve security posture throughout the entire application lifecycle.

    “I’m excited to welcome our global community to HashiDays 2025, where we are sharing our vision for how HashiCorp and IBM will work together to build an automated hybrid cloud platform,” said Armon Dadgar, CTO and Co-Founder, HashiCorp. “With this vision, we’ll deliver a unified control plane that powers hybrid applications, embedding policy, automation, and observability into every layer of the stack, so enterprises can modernize securely, streamline operations, and unlock AI-driven automation at scale.”

    For more than 10 years, HashiCorp has helped thousands of customers across every geography and industry do cloud right. At HashiDays, customers from EMEA and APAC, including Booking.com, BT Group, Helvetia Insurance, HTX, InfoCert, shiftavenue, Trust Bank, SPH Media, and more, are sharing stories of how they manage cloud infrastructure and security with HashiCorp.

    Infrastructure Lifecycle Management

    As customers scale their hybrid strategies with IBM and HashiCorp, Infrastructure Lifecycle Management (ILM) continues to be a foundational priority. From building landing zones to enabling secure Day 2+ automation, organizations are using ILM to drive faster delivery and infrastructure resilience across teams and environments.

    Helvetia Insurance | How Terraform supported an ambitious cloud migration

    Founded in 1858 and headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Helvetia Insurance Group is a major player in the European insurance market. A few years ago, the cloud enablement team started a complete migration from on-premises datacenters to the public cloud. The ambitious goal: move 200 applications to AWS and Azure within one year. Using HashiCorp Terraform, Helvetia’s cloud enablement team created landing zones — fully configured cloud accounts with connectivity and policies — for its internal product teams. They then collaborated with a partner to build modules for hardened virtual machines and other critical resources allowing them to follow a lift-and-shift approach, expediting the migration without sacrificing security or governance. “Terraform was instrumental in achieving our migration goals. Without it, moving 200 applications in about a year would have been impossible. Our teams now have the tools to work faster and with greater confidence,” said Matthias Mertens, Cloud Solution Architect, Helvetia Insurance.

    HashiCorp’s ILM capabilities help platform and operations teams accelerate delivery, enforce policy, and optimize infrastructure from Day 0 to Day N. Today’s announcements expand support for secure, policy-enforced infrastructure delivery with new features across Terraform, Packer, Nomad, and Waypoint. These updates automate critical workflows that improve team productivity and infrastructure resilience throughout the full lifecycle.

    Build: Define and provision infrastructure in a standardized, scalable way to avoid configuration drift and manual rework.

    • Terraform ephemeral resources (GA): Protect sensitive values from persisting in state files
    • Sentinel policy library for AWS (GA): Enforce secure-by-default configurations with pre-written policies
    • Terraform + Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform: Enable orchestration of complex infrastructure workflows with end-to-end infrastructure as code

    Deploy: Enable repeatable, secure, and policy-aligned delivery of applications and environments.

    • HCP Waypoint actions (GA): Offer Day 2+ lifecycle workflows like rollback and restart, exposed through UI or CLI, to provide an internal developer platform that shields users from the underlying infrastructure complexity

    Manage: Monitor, update, and deprecate infrastructure components securely and efficiently across teams and environments.

    • HCP module revocation: Prevent use of revoked modules in HCP Terraform as part of module lifecycle management
    • HCP Terraform Premium SKU: Unlock advanced governance and private VCS support
    • Dynamic host volumes (Nomad): Enable more flexible, scalable provisioning of persistent storage across Nomad clients, essential for stateful workloads that require resilient storage operations in dynamic environments
    • Terraform provider for IBM Z: Empower organizations to integrate their mainframe platforms into modern workflows and hybrid cloud strategies

    Security Lifecycle Management

    As organizations modernize their infrastructure, their security surface area grows, along with the need to continuously inspect, protect, and govern sensitive data. Security Lifecycle Management (SLM) ensures that identity-based security, secrets management, and access governance are built directly into hybrid workflows, rather than bolted on after deployment.

    IG Group | Strengthened security while accelerating delivery with HCP Vault

    “As a security leader, my job is to reduce risk for my company without slowing down our development teams,” said Andrew Blooman, Platform Security Team Lead, IG Group. “Over the past few years, HashiCorp has helped us achieve these goals as we adopted multiple products for a number of use cases. We started with Community Edition versions of Vault, Nomad, and Consul, used HashiCorp Professional Services to accelerate this deployment, and added HCP Vault this year. We now have 63 teams onboarded to HCP Vault, with a centralized GitOps workflow allowing for version control, change approvals, and an audit log of newly onboarded teams.”

    HashiCorp’s SLM capabilities help security and compliance teams safeguard sensitive data, enforce access policies, and maintain governance from Day 0 through Day N. These updates provide proactive tools for visibility, access control, and cryptographic assurance across hybrid environments, and reflect continued investment in helping teams move faster without compromising control.

    Inspect: Identify and address potential security gaps before infrastructure or applications reach production.

    • HCP Vault Radar (GA): Detect and remediate unmanaged secrets and credential sprawl across environments
    • Consul 1.21 (GA): Simplify external service monitoring architecture for enhanced observability and service registration in complex environments

    Protect: Enforce identity-based access and secure application communication across environments.

    • Boundary transparent sessions (GA): Provide secure access to systems without altering user workflows
    • Vault and Consul integrations for Red Hat OpenShift: Streamline secure access across containerized workloads
    • Bring your own DNS to HCP Vault Dedicated: Improve connectivity and security posture in regulated environments, available now in AWS and coming soon to Azure

    Govern: Automate governance of credentials, policies, and encryption standards across systems and teams.

    • Vault Enterprise 1.19: Includes post-quantum cryptography updates, constrained certificate authorities, and automated root password rotation

    Together with IBM, HashiCorp is delivering the unified lifecycle foundation that modern enterprises need to scale securely and confidently in a hybrid world. Recent announcements, including Terraform Enterprise support for IBM Z and Vault Enterprise support for IBM Z and LinuxONE, bring HashiCorp’s ILM and SLM expertise to the mainframe, further enabling hybrid cloud automation that stretches from on-premises to private and public cloud.

    For more information and detailed coverage of all Infrastructure and Security Lifecycle Management announcements at HashiDays 2025, please visit the HashiCorp blog.

    About HashiDays
    HashiDays is taking place in London on June 3 and Singapore on July 22. During the multi-city event, attendees will hear from community members, partners, and customers about the latest advances in HashiCorp’s cloud infrastructure products. The HashiDays London keynote and morning sessions will be available to watch via live stream. The live stream link will be shared on the HashiDays homepage 30 minutes before the keynote begins at 9:30 a.m. BST.

    About HashiCorp
    HashiCorp, an IBM company, helps organizations automate hybrid cloud environments with Infrastructure and Security Lifecycle Management. HashiCorp offers The Infrastructure Cloud on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) for managed cloud services, as well as self-hosted enterprise offerings and community source-available products. For more information, visit hashicorp.com.

    All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

    Red Hat, the Red Hat logo, OpenShift and Ansible are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries.

    Media and analyst contact
    media@hashicorp.com 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Mary-Elizabeth McMunn: Central banks and innovation – delivering our mandate in a digitalising world

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Many thanks for the invitation to speak to you today.1

    Speaking about innovation to a room full of innovators is no easy task, but I do think it is important to share the perspectives of a Central Bank and Regulator on innovation in the financial sector, in particular given the increasingly important role technology is playing in financial services.

    And as I have said before, while naturally associated with the private sector, I believe the public sector also has a crucial role to play in innovation – not just by enabling it but also in ensuring its safe adoption.

    Given this important role, as well as our strategic commitment to anticipating and responding proactively to changes in the economy and financial system,2 the Central Bank has put an increasing focus on innovation in the financial sector in recent years.

    As evidenced by your agenda today there is a huge breadth of innovation taking place in financial services.

    And while there is so much we are focused on that I could cover in my remarks, from Ireland’s growing and international Payments sector, to the increasing importance of operational and cyber resilience to the rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence and its use in the financial sector, I would like to discuss two important aspects today.

    Firstly I would like set out how the Central Bank of Ireland thinks about and approaches innovation in financial services; and secondly I would like to focus in more detail on our role in one of the big potential technological shifts underway in the sector – namely digital assets, including tokenisation.

    Central Banks and Innovation

    Central Banks and Regulators are sometimes cast as anti-risk and indeed anti-innovation. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

    While obviously our jobs are to ensure risks in the financial sector are being well managed – so that the system is stable, firms are safe and sound, consumers and investors’ interest are protected and the integrity of the system is upheld – we do not do this by eliminating all risk. One of the core functions of the financial system is to manage and take risk – and so if Regulators do not accept risk and make risk-based decisions ourselves, then the system doesn’t work.

    Similarly while it is our responsibility to ensure the risks from new entities, products or ways of serving customers are being well managed, we do not do this by unduly stifling innovation.

    Rather the Central Bank of Ireland supports innovation in the financial sector, as we recognise the benefits it can bring. But, to state the obvious, to deliver these benefits such innovation must be done well, which includes properly managing the risks that could arise to consumers and the system.

    In this regard contrary to being anti-innovation, in line with peer Central Banks we have been adapting our approach to better support and anticipate it.

    And as with all of our work, our approach to innovation is guided by our mission and mandate, serving the public interest by maintaining monetary and financial stability while ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.

    In terms of Regulation and Supervision specifically, there are many ways by which we seek to ensure innovation in the financial sector is operating in the best interests of the whole.

    This includes:

    Regulation – which not only enables innovation, but through appropriate guardrails helps establish trust, essential for innovation to be widely adopted, particularly in the area of financial services. PSD2, MICAR and DORA are all positive examples of this – enabling and enhancing digital finance and safe financial innovation in Europe.

    Authorisation – which plays a pivotal role in ensuring entities, products and individuals meet the high standard to be trusted with the public’s money. While authorisation is just the start of the supervisory relationship it is also about setting firms up for success, which is both in the firms’ own interest as well as in their customers’.3

    Supervision in turn provides a mechanism for maintaining trust through the cycle, by ensuring innovative firms are well run, products are appropriately designed, and neither introduce undue risks for their consumers or the system.

    This includes supervisory engagement ensuring regulated entities are being sufficiently innovative in adapting their business models and managing their operational resilience, where technology can be both part of the problem and part of the solution.

    In addition to these I would also add that the Central Bank also plays role in encouraging and fostering good innovation in the financial sector, in line with our public policy objectives.

    This includes our catalyst role for payments, and the convening power of a Central Bank, where we seek to drive and influence positive change at a system level to improve market efficiency, integration and security.

    And finally it includes our broader engagement with the innovative ecosystem, something we have been deepening and enhancing in recent years and which I would like to touch on now briefly.

    Engaging with innovation – Hub and Sandbox

    You will all be aware of the work of our Innovation Hub, which was established in 2018 and has gone from strength to strength. The Hub is open to all innovators in financial services, no matter the size or whether they are new entrants or established entities. And it has proven a valuable form of engagement both for us and the sector.

    For us, alongside other engagement and initiatives, it has helped us deepen our understanding of innovation in the financial sector, amidst a period of rapid digitalisation. And for the sector, you have reported the benefit of early engagement in terms of better understanding of our regulatory expectations and, for new entrants, what being a regulated entity entails.

    Last year, following public consultation, we began implementing proposals to evolve our approach by:

    1. Enhancing our Innovation Hub to deliver deeper, clearer and more informed engagement with the innovation ecosystem; and
    2. Establishing an Innovation Sandbox Programme.

    In terms of the first point, we have found the changes made are leading to deeper more productive engagements, making better use of our collective resources. In addition to the 8% year on year increase in Innovation Hub Engagements last year, this represents a substantial uplift in terms of the quantity and quality of our engagements with the ecosystem.   

    On the second proposal, as you will be aware our Innovation Sandbox Programme aims to inform the early stage development of selected innovative initiatives that promote better outcomes for consumers and the financial system.

    Our first programme launched late last year; and consistent with our aim of fostering innovation to support outcomes consistent with our public policy objectives, the theme was Combatting Financial Crime.4

    While the programme is still ongoing, both from our perspective and from feedback received from the 7 participants, the first programme has been a very positive experience. The final module will take place in June, alongside a showcase of the participants’ innovative solutions at an event in the Central Bank.

    In line with our wider commitment to continuous improvement, we will adopt an iterative approach to our Innovation Sandbox Programme, learning and improving from each one. We are also committed to sharing our key learnings, and will publish a report on outcomes and findings from our first programme later this year.

    Central Bank approach to Crypto

    I would like to turn now to digital assets, a wide-ranging and growing topic.

    Given its breadth, I will just touch on two specific areas: firstly crypto-assets, and in particular our approach to this sector and the implementation of MiCAR, before turning to the potential next wave of innovation, in terms of the tokenisation of the financial system.

    Firstly, we are often asked about the Central Bank’s approach to crypto-assets.

    I will begin by saying that as with all innovation in financial services we seek to ensure it is done well, and is delivering benefits to consumers and the system while appropriately managing any risks.

    It should go without saying that there are inherent risks in crypto-assets, and some forms of crypto-assets have higher risks than others.

    It is for this reason that we have issued warnings to consumers concerning crypto, and have expressed scepticism about business models which are driven by the heavy marketing, offering and distributing of unbacked crypto-assets to retail customers for speculative purposes.

    MiCAR will not provide the same levels of protection that exists for traditional financial investment products, nor of course will it enable all the significant risks linked to crypto-assets to be mitigated.  However, it is a welcome step forward.

    Nevertheless, it is important for consumers to be aware, that MiCAR will not cover all crypto-assets, with some of the most well-known crypto-assets, such as Bitcoin and Ether, not within scope of the regulation given they have no identifiable issuer.

    But while it is true speculative and highly volatile forms of crypto-assets remain a concern for the Central Bank, in particular from a consumer protection point of view, it is equally true that we recognise the important innovations distributed ledger and crypto technology could potentially lead to for financial services – and indeed we have recognised this for some time.

    It is important to note, however, as with all aspects of financial services this potential will only be realised if the technology and the providers can be trusted, to be resilient, to provide benefits to consumers and to help uphold, rather than jeopardise, the integrity of the financial system.

    It is these outcomes that inform our regulatory approach to crypto-assets. And indeed are informing our approach to the implementation of MiCAR, both in our engagement with regulatory peers, as well as our authorisation of applicant firms under the new framework.

    In that regard we have put in place a well-resourced and expert team to deal with the CASP authorisation process – ensuring it is both efficient as well as sufficiently robust.

    The team have been engaging extensively with the sector and applicants, and we have held a number of industry events dedicated to MiCAR.5 This is part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, clarity and openness, in particular in our authorisation processes but also in our engagement with innovation.

    But while we are committed to a timely and quality authorisation process, the role and approach of applicant firms is also key in this regard.  Our assessments of MiCAR authorisation applications will be guided through many perspectives including the use case and utility, suitability, and the risks associated with a crypto product or service. 

    The importance of good culture and conduct risk management in delivering on new obligations under MiCAR cannot be overstated. The stronger their risk management, the better position firms are in to understand, calculate and mitigate risks, in turn strengthening their business model, and their relationship with their customers. 

    Regardless of the services, the target customer base, or whether the business is retail focused or aimed at institutional clients, safeguarding of client assets and governance are critical considerations for the Central Bank – given the fundamental role they play in protecting people’s money.

    And as I said earlier, authorisation is only the beginning of the supervisory relationship and so firms should demonstrate at the Gate that they will be well-run once they are through it.

    Tokenisation – private and public roles 

    Finally I would like to turn more broadly to the topic of tokenisation, which as we all know is the digital representation of traditional assets on a programmable platform6 and the potentially transformative potential of distributed ledger technology.

    I say potentially transformative, as some visions of a tokenised financial system, such as the  ‘finternet’ or ‘financial internet’7 put forward by the BIS, would truly be so, promising huge efficiency and disintermediation gains, reducing costs and complexity and empowering businesses and consumers.

    While this is on the further end of the tokenisation spectrum, there are a number of areas of the financial system where the potential benefits of tokenisation are being explored.

    This includes tokenisation of real assets, as well as financial assets such as money, securities, collateral, bank deposits, and funds. The potential benefits in terms of peer to peer transactions, smart contracts, and settlement and clearing are clear, leading to lower costs and indeed less risks. For time is money and time is risk as they say.8

    While there is a large amount of work ongoing by both the private and public sector, I wanted to touch on what I see as the Central Bank’s role in this regard.

    Firstly from a regulatory point of view, there is an onus on us to ensure there are no unintended regulatory impediments to tokenisation of traditional assets; as well as to engage in dialogue with the sector to see if enabling regulation is required.

    Secondly in line with our desire to foster innovation that delivers good outcomes for consumers, we can seek to drive and influence change at a system level. There is also a need for central banks to deepen our knowledge and engagement with this innovation, as well as to enhance our thinking and capabilities, given the far reaching changes implied should this wave of innovation materialise.

    These are all things we and peer Central Banks are doing, and indeed will further focus on in future – and something the BIS and other Central Banks have been leading on, with Project Agora, which is testing a multi-currency wholesale cross border payments using DLT, and Project Guardian, which seeks to enhance liquidity and efficiency of financial markets through asset tokenisation, both important examples.

    Given Central Banks’ fundamental role in the monetary system, it is important that public innovation keeps pace with private innovation, particularly in payments and settlements systems.

    In order to maintain the crucial role of public money in a tokenised world, future proofing our monetary system, facilitating innovation and increasing the resilience of the payments system, the Eurosystem is stepping up its efforts to support and foster innovation in market infrastructures. For example, in February the ECB announced its decision to expand its initiative to settle transactions recorded on DLT in central bank money.9

    In addition, the work the Eurosystem is doing around the Digital Euro is key, both in terms of a retail Digital Euro as the representation of public money in a digital world, but also importantly in terms of wholesale central bank digital currency, as a tokenised central bank asset to operate in a tokenised system.10

    Conclusion

    Before I conclude I would like to touch briefly on the rapidly changing external environment we are all operating in.

    In a future focused speech, it would be remiss of me not to mention the potential great structural changes underway in terms of geo-political developments and geo-economic fragmentation.

    The challenges facing our economy are clear; but amongst these challenges are opportunities.

    Innovation is often borne out of times of challenge, turning risks into opportunities.

    But also as we deal with short run risks, it is too easy to take our eyes off these longer term opportunities.

    I am sure this room full of innovators will heed the call to focus on continuing to deliver innovation in the interest of consumers and the wider economy. We as a Central Bank will also continue to anticipate, engage with and respond to innovation in the system.

    But I would also call on firms and investors to not lose sight of the need to continue to innovate and invest in technology. While economic cycles come and go, the digital transition rolls on, and we cannot be left behind.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Vasileios Madouros: Navigating economic cross currents

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Just miles from here, off the southwest coast of Cork, the Atlantic does not flow uniformly. Tides push in one direction and swells in another. Cross currents are a fact of life at sea, and even experienced sailors need to stay alert. The aim is not to avoid cross currents, but to recognise them, be ready to respond, and keep steering with purpose.

    Cross currents are also a fact of economic life. And we are navigating one at the moment. In one direction, global shocks are weighing on the domestic economic outlook. In the other, the domestic economy is entering this period from a position of strength, and – if anything – has been bumping up against domestic capacity constraints.

    Today, I would like to expand on how these different forces are shaping the economic outlook and discuss the implications of these developments for domestic economic policy. 

    The outlook for global growth has shifted downwards

    Let me start with the global context. Since the beginning of the year, we have seen three interrelated shocks affecting the international economy. A material shift in trade policy; a sharp increase in policy uncertainty; and an increase in market volatility. Without a change in direction, these will continue to weigh on the global growth outlook. Let me briefly cover each in turn.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Toyota Group to Accelerate Collaboration Towards Transforming into a Mobility Company Through Privatization of Toyota Industries Corporation

    Source: Toyota

    Headline: Toyota Group to Accelerate Collaboration Towards Transforming into a Mobility Company Through Privatization of Toyota Industries Corporation

    Toyota Group, with its mission of “producing happiness for all,” is taking on the challenge of “transforming into a mobility company” and aiming to contribute to the development of the mobility industry in Japan and the world through these challenges.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community meets with Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia, ASEAN, and Timor Leste

    Source: ASEAN

    H.E. San Lwin, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community received a courtesy visit from H.E. Ambassador Ina Ruth Luise Lepel. Their discussions explored potential cooperation within the socio-cultural development spheres, encompassing health, disaster management, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), social inclusion, climate cooperation and environmental protection.
     

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Klaas Knot: Banking on buffers – why we need resilience in times of uncertainty

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    A very good morning to you all. Welcome to De Nederlandsche Bank. We are very happy to host this event here in our newly renovated building. I strongly support these kinds of exchanges of views between banks, academia and the public sector, and the IBF plays an important role in facilitating them.

    This Round Table bears an interesting, and perhaps somewhat surprising, title: ‘Tougher Times for Banks: Torn between Resilience, Competition and Stability’. Personally, I regard resilience, competition and stability all as good things, so I was wondering what you find so disturbing about this. But perhaps I should read the title as diplomatic language for ‘Torn between competitors, difficult regulators, and a world that has gone insane.’ You understand, being Dutch, I have a certain reputation to maintain.

    But still, even if my interpretation is right, I should speak a word of caution here. Or in fact, reassurance. Because sometimes we tend to see trade-offs where in reality there aren’t any.

    Let’s take regulation for example. Banking regulation often seems to resemble the swinging motion of a pendulum. After a financial crisis, lessons are learned and financial regulation is tightened. We saw this very prominently after the great financial crisis of 2008. And then after some years, the memories of the crisis fade in the rearview mirror, and calls go up for relaxing financial regulation. And this is what we currently see.

    That seems to assume that there is a trade-off between banking regulation and all the good things of economic life: profitability, dynamism, economic growth. And I know that many in the banking sector view regulation as a constraint, something that limits profitability and imposes undue costs.

    But, and that should not come as a surprise to you, I would argue against that. In fact, it’s just the other way around. Banking regulation is not an obstacle to growth, it is an enabler of sustainable, long-term growth. Banks with strong capital positions and sound liquidity management are better positioned to extend and rollover credit, invest in new technologies and finance large-scale projects. They are better able to maintain lending during an economic downturn. And stronger banks can secure more favourable funding conditions, attract long-term customers and build partnerships that increase shareholder value.

    That’s not just theory. We have seen it in practice. During the Covid pandemic the banking sector was able to function as a shock absorber, rather than a shock amplifier. Thanks to stronger buffers, banks were able to absorb losses and continue extending credit when the economy took a hit as a result of the lockdowns. That was in large part thanks the comprehensive reform of banking regulation after the great financial crisis. Suppose we hadn’t done this. We would probably have had a banking crisis on top of a global health crisis.

    Even after the pandemic, we had a number of shocks that triggered financial market turmoil. Such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ensuing energy crisis, double digit inflation, and recently, a trade war. During all of these episodes, although surely there was instability at the fringes, the core of the financial system, including the banking system, held up relatively well. I am convinced that this is the result of the hard work we did on strengthening the system in previous years.

    Now, have lawmakers and regulators done a perfect job? No, of course not. That would have been highly remarkable. Over the past 15 years, a great deal of regulation has been introduced from various angles. At the global, EU and national level. Micro versus macro. New risks are identified while older ones seldomly disappear. Regulation always creates new imperfections, and there is indeed some overlap, for example in resolution versus recovery. And at times there is a lack of proportionality for smaller institutions. That is certainly something we can look into.

    But for those arguing for simplification beyond this, please keep in mind that simple rules are less risk-sensitive and thus lead to stricter requirements. You want simpler rules? Sure, but those rules are then calibrated at a more prudent level. That is the logic behind the standardised approach. That is also the logic behind the leverage ratio.

    Most importantly, we should be careful not to confuse simplification with deregulation. Deregulation means effectively lowering buffers by relaxing the rules. That would increase both vulnerability in the banking system and the likelihood of financial crises. That would be a big mistake.

    We should be wary of undoing the hard work that has gone into strengthening the financial system over the past decade and a half. Especially now, in this time of unusually high uncertainty, both on the economic and political front.

    So we need to maintain the overall level of resilience. And in fact, in some areas, our work to make the banking sector more resilient is not yet complete. For one thing, the final Basel III standards, that are meant to repair key weaknesses in banking regulation, still need to be implemented in many jurisdictions. In the meantime, the banking turmoil of two years ago was a reminder that bank failures are not a thing of the past.

    Also, the non-bank financial sector has greatly expanded. Recent episodes of market turmoil have confirmed weaknesses in this sector when it comes to leverage and liquidity. So now we need to bring the NBFI sector to an equal level of resilience as the banking sector. At the Financial Stability Board, we have pushed hard for this, and we will continue to do so.

    The title of this Round Table also mentions competition. John D. Rockefeller once said: ‘Competition is a sin.’ I might have felt the same way if I had been in his position. But from today’s perspective, I would say: unfair competition is a sin. And as regulators, if there is one thing we can do to promote fair competition, it is to provide a level playing field. Banking rules work best when they work everywhere. If regulation is implemented unevenly across jurisdictions, a patchwork of regulations will arise that opens the door to regulatory arbitrage. Banks may be tempted to shift operations to regions with looser standards. An uneven playing field undermines confidence in the global banking system, disrupts competition, and ultimately increases systemic risk.

    Since the financial system is a global system, we need global rules. And for this we need global cooperation. It is obvious that this is where the big challenge lies today. If we want to meet today’s challenges to financial stability, we have to continue to work together as nations. And we need to stay committed to the institutions we have built to underpin that cooperation, such as the Basel Committee and the FSB.

    Let me wrap up. There is no trade-off between financial stability and economic growth. Rather, financial stability is a necessary precondition for sustainable economic growth. And for that, we need a resilient banking sector, supported by strong buffers. This is a message I will be repeating over and over again in my final weeks as the president of DNB. By the end of June you will all be completely fed up with me. That’s ok. As long as you remember the message. Because, somehow, we tend to forget.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI China: Announcement on Open Market Operations No.103 [2025]

    Source: Peoples Bank of China

    Announcement on Open Market Operations No.103 [2025]

    (Open Market Operations Office, June 3, 2025)

    The People’s Bank of China conducted reverse repo operations in the amount of RMB454.5 billion through quantity bidding at a fixed interest rate on June 3, 2025.

    Details of the Reverse Repo Operations

    Maturity

    Rate

    Bidding Volume

    Winning Bid Volume

    7 days

    1.40%

    RMB454.5 billion

    RMB454.5 billion

    Date of last update Nov. 29 2018

    2025年06月03日

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Result of the Daily Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction held on June 03, 2025

    Source: Reserve Bank of India

    Tenor 1-day
    Notified Amount (in ₹ crore) 25,000
    Total amount of bids received (in ₹ crore) 5,019
    Amount allotted (in ₹ crore) 5,019
    Cut off Rate (%) 6.01
    Weighted Average Rate (%) 6.01
    Partial Allotment Percentage of bids received at cut off rate (%) NA

    Ajit Prasad          
    Deputy General Manager
    (Communications)    

    Press Release: 2025-2026/461

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • 98% of ₹2000 banknotes returned to banks: RBI

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provided an update on the status of ₹2000 denomination banknotes on  Monday, confirming that 98.26% of these notes have been returned to the banking system since their withdrawal from circulation was announced in May 2023.
     
    As per the RBI, the total value of ₹2000 notes in circulation stood at ₹3.56 lakh crore as of May 19, 2023, the date on which their withdrawal was announced. This figure has now come down sharply to ₹6,181 crore by the end of May 31, 2025.
     
    The facility for deposit or exchange of ₹2000 banknotes was initially available at all bank branches across the country until October 7, 2023. Following this, the exchange facility has remained operational at the 19 Issue Offices of the Reserve Bank. Since October 9, 2023, these offices have also been accepting ₹2000 notes for deposit into individual or entity bank accounts.
     
    In addition to the RBI Issue Offices, the public has also been availing the option of sending ₹2000 banknotes via India Post from any post office in the country to designated RBI offices for direct credit into their bank accounts.
     
    Despite the withdrawal from circulation, the RBI has reiterated that the ₹2000 banknotes continue to remain legal tender. The central bank had first announced the withdrawal through a press release dated May 19, 2023, and has been providing periodic updates since then. The latest status was shared through a press release dated May 2, 2025.
     
    The move to withdraw the ₹2000 notes was part of the RBI’s ongoing currency management operations and has now seen the vast majority of these high-denomination notes returned to the formal banking system.

  • Markets open marginally lower; midcaps, smallcaps outperform

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Indian equity benchmarks opened slightly lower on Tuesday amid ongoing consolidation, with heavyweight stocks like L&T and Bajaj Finance trading in the red.
     
    At 9:24 am, the BSE Sensex was down 152 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 81,221.39, while the NSE Nifty slipped 36.40 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 24,680.40.
     
    Despite the weak opening in frontline indices, broader markets witnessed buying interest. The Nifty Midcap 100 index gained 167.85 points, or 0.29 per cent, to reach 57,943.40, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up by 107.85 points, or 0.60 per cent, at 18,202.05.
     
    Sectorally, gains were led by auto, PSU banks, pharma, metal, realty, and media stocks. On the other hand, financial services, FMCG, energy, and private bank sectors saw some pressure.
     
    Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, and Zomato emerged as top gainers. Meanwhile, L&T, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Maruti Suzuki were among the major laggards.
     
    Most Asian markets traded higher, with Tokyo, Shanghai, Jakarta, and Hong Kong contributing to the regional gains.
     
    Analysts noted that the market is currently in a consolidation phase, where indices tend to trade within a defined range. “Buy on dips is the most suitable strategy in the current scenario,” said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. “Amid global uncertainty related to geopolitics, tariffs, and trade, markets are likely to remain volatile.”
     
    On the technical front, Nifty is expected to find immediate support at 24,700, followed by 24,600 and 24,500 levels. Resistance is seen near 24,800, with further upside barriers at 24,900 and 25,000.
     
    In terms of institutional activity, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to reduce their exposure for the second straight session on June 2, offloading equities worth ₹2,589 crore. In contrast, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) maintained their buying streak for the tenth day, investing ₹5,313 crore on the same day.
     
    -IANS

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Investing in Biodiversity and Nature in Asia and the Pacific

    Source: Asia Development Bank

    This brochure details how ADB is addressing Asia and the Pacific’s biodiversity crisis by enhancing safeguards, scaling up nature financing, and embedding nature-positive approaches across its operations. It highlights how biodiversity and nature loss threaten food security, livelihoods, and resilience in the region.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Money Market Operations as on June 02, 2025

    Source: Reserve Bank of India
    (Amount in ₹ crore, Rate in Per cent)
      Volume
    (One Leg)    		 Weighted
    Average Rate    		 Range
    A. Overnight Segment (I+II+III+IV) 5,92,508.67 5.67 0.01-6.75
         I. Call Money 13,896.23 5.79 4.85-5.85
         II. Triparty Repo 4,00,348.25 5.66 5.35-5.73
         III. Market Repo 1,76,824.99 5.67 0.01-6.75
         IV. Repo in Corporate Bond 1,439.20 5.88 6.85-6.75
    B. Term Segment      
         I. Notice Money** 230.90 5.72 5.50-5.80
         II. Term Money@@ 535.00 – 6.15-6.15
         III. Triparty Repo 2,950.00 5.76 5.75-5.80
         IV. Market Repo 600.00 6.04 6.04-6.04
         V. Repo in Corporate Bond 0.00 – –
      Auction Date Tenor (Days) Maturity Date Amount Current Rate /
    Cut off Rate
    C. Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) & Standing Deposit Facility (SDF)
    I. Today’s Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo Mon, 02/06/2025 1 Tue, 03/06/2025 5,150.00 6.01
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (III) Long Term Operations^          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
    3. MSF# Mon, 02/06/2025 1 Tue, 03/06/2025 1,109.00 6.25
    4. SDFΔ# Mon, 02/06/2025 1 Tue, 03/06/2025 2,92,229.00 5.75
    5. Net liquidity injected from today’s operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*       -2,85,970.00  
    II. Outstanding Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (III) Long Term Operations^          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
    3. MSF#          
    4. SDFΔ#          
    D. Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) Availed from RBI$       8,594.62  
    E. Net liquidity injected from outstanding operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     8,594.62  
    F. Net liquidity injected (outstanding including today’s operations) [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     -2,77,375.38  
    G. Cash Reserves Position of Scheduled Commercial Banks
         (i) Cash balances with RBI as on June 02, 2025 9,54,329.81  
         (ii) Average daily cash reserve requirement for the fortnight ending June 13, 2025 9,41,551.00  
    H. Government of India Surplus Cash Balance Reckoned for Auction as on¥ June 02, 2025 5,150.00  
    I. Net durable liquidity [surplus (+)/deficit (-)] as on May 16, 2025 3,48,763.00  
    @ Based on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL).
    – Not Applicable / No Transaction.
    ** Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 2 to 14 days tenor.
    @@ Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 15 days to one year tenor.
    $ Includes refinance facilities extended by RBI.
    & As per the Press Release No. 2019-2020/1900 dated February 06, 2020.
    Δ As per the Press Release No. 2022-2023/41 dated April 08, 2022.
    * Net liquidity is calculated as Repo+MSF+SLF-Reverse Repo-SDF.
    ¥ As per the Press Release No. 2014-2015/1971 dated March 19, 2015.
    # As per the Press Release No. 2023-2024/1548 dated December 27, 2023.
    ^ As per the Press Release No. 2025-2026/91 dated April 11, 2025.
    Ajit Prasad          
    Deputy General Manager
    (Communications)    
    Press Release: 2025-2026/460

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Trial Offer of MEA System Capable of Simultaneous Measuring and Recording Data from Approximately 237,000 Electrodes

    Source: Sony

    Japan — Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (Sony), SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd. (SCREEN), and VitroVo Inc. (VitroVo) today announced that they have jointly developed and will offer on a trial basis a microelectrode array (MEA) system powered by high-density CMOS-MEA*1 equipped with approximately 237,000 electrodes. Combining Sony’s advanced sensing devices, SCREEN Group’s cellular electrical activity measurement technology, and VitroVo’s MEA-driven compound evaluation and data analysis knowledge, the MEA system makes it possible to measure and record high-density cell activity data which was previously difficult, and to visualize cellular activity in high definition. This innovation is aimed to contribute primarily to neuronal and cardiac disease research and drug discovery.

    MEA System Hardware

    Application and UI

    In the field of drug research and development, improved accuracy in efficacy assessment and safety evaluation in nonclinical testing, and further streamlined development processes are in demand. There have been currently growing needs for the new methods with advanced technologies and microphysiological systems such as organoids, human iPSC- derived nerve cells and cardiomyocytes, which enable the high accurate evaluation of the effects of compounds on a human body without the usage of experimental animal. They can offer a new approach to animal testing which is currently mandatory prior to clinical trials of new drugs. Also, the acquisition of more sophisticated cell data is expected to contribute to disease research initiatives.

    The three companies have come together to develop the high-density MEA system with the cooperation of the Tohoku Institute of Technology (Tohtech). Based on cell electrical activity data, the system enables observation of the differences between diseased and healthy cells and the response of cells to compounds on the single cell level. More specifically, Sony’s high-density CMOS-MEA,*1 which is currently in development, and the SCREEN Group’s cellular electrical activity measurement technology were combined to detect extracellular electrical potential with the high-density array of microelectrodes, which is then output as image data. Through this process, users can monitor the cell firing*2, measure and record the reaction. Furthermore, the system is equipped with an algorithm optimized by VitroVo (based on joint research by Sony and Tohtech) for compound evaluation and an analysis software to enable better operability for users. This makes it possible to quickly display analysis results such as cell firing frequency as calculated from electrical potential and image measurement data, on a monitor. These measurement and analysis capabilities enable acquisition of cell activity data with greater density than with conventional methods, allowing users to obtain test results that were difficult with conventional measurement methods.

    This system can support research on disease phenotypes based on high-density cellular activity data and the risk assessment or the more efficient efficacy evaluation of compounds for new drugs as alternatives to animal testing. Because the system enables observation of neurons, it will also likely be used in the research and development of new drugs for mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia, neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in basic neuroscience research.

    To verify the efficacy of the system and evaluation method as well as promote technical development in the lead-up to commercialization, the three companies will jointly provide the system to corporations and research institutions involved in drug development on a trial base. In addition to SCREEN providing the system, VitroVo will offer support for introducing the system by consulting on cell culture procedures, custom data analysis, and interpreting test results. At the same time, VitroVo will begin offering contract research services to verify the effectiveness of the system. This trial offer will allow the three companies to accelerate system development and market surveys based on feedback from users, with the goal of commercializing MEA systems utilizing CMOS-MEA.

    *1  CMOS-MEA: A device that uses complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology and a microelectrode array to detect cell electrical activity
    *2  Cell firing: The phenomenon in which nerve cells generate action potentials, causing electrical excitation, releasing neurotransmitters, and transmitting information to surrounding nerve cells. Cell firing enables signal transduction in the brain and nervous system.

    About CMOS-MEA
    ・CMOS-MEA is a device capable of measuring cellular electrical activity in real time. A microelectrode array (MEA) in a dense formation on top of the sensor chip measures the electrical potential generated by the influx and outflux of ions associated with cell activity, then processes the signal and outputs it as image data. This technology makes it possible to check the effects of drugs and other compounds on cells and propagation processes using images.
    ・The CMOS-MEA currently being developed by Sony uses a reduced pitch between electrodes, resulting in a compact design with a highly dense array of approximately 237,000 electrodes. The high-speed A/D conversion and interface technologies that Sony has cultivated while developing image sensors make it possible to read data from all electrodes at once.
    ・Joint research between Sony and Tohtech has revealed that CMOS-MEA will enable high-definition cell monitoring that was difficult with conventional technology, and data analysis on the single-cell level. It has also shown promise for applications not only in drug discovery but also in a wide variety of disciplines such as biotechnology, biomedical science, medicine, and pharmacology. The results of their research have also been applied to the development of the system.

    ※Related Publications:
    ・Ikuro Suzuki, Naoki Matsuda, Xiaobo Han, Shuhei Noji, Mikako Shibata, Nami Nagafuku, Yuto Ishibashi, Large-area field potential imaging having single neuron resolution using 236,880 electrodes CMOS-MEA technology
    Advanced Science：https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202207732;DOI：https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202207732
    ・N. Matsuda, N. Nagafuku, K. Matsuda, Y. Ishibashi, T. Taniguchi, Y. Matsushita, N. Miyamoto, T. Yoshinaga, I. Suzuki, Field potential Imaging in human iPSC- derived Cardiomyocytes using UHD-CMOS-MEA.
    bioRxiv：https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.31.646249v1; DOI：https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.31.646249
    ・H. Takahashi, N. Matsuda, I. Suzuki, Analysis of β rhythm induction in acute brain slices using field potential imaging with ultra-high-density CMOS-based microelectrode array.
    bioRxiv: ・Sony: Hardware development including provision of the CMOS-MEA sensor
    ・SCREEN： Development of software involved in cellular data measurement and analysis, customer support for trial system offering
    ・VitroVo：Provision of contracted research services using the system, consulting on cultures and analysis upon introducing the system, and development of new utilization and analysis technologies

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for June 3, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 3, 2025.

    In her memoir, Jacinda Ardern shows a ‘different kind of power’ is possible – but also has its limits
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Imagine getting a positive pregnancy test and then – just a few days later – learning you’ll be prime minister. In hindsight, being willing and able to deal with the

    Google’s SynthID is the latest tool for catching AI-made content. What is AI ‘watermarking’ and does it work?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University HomeArt/Shutterstock Last month, Google announced SynthID Detector, a new tool to detect AI-generated content. Google claims it can identify AI-generated content in text, image, video or audio. But there are some caveats. One of them

    What parents and youth athletes can do to protect against abuse in sport
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fanny Kuhlin, PhD candidate in Sport Management (Sport Science), Örebro University Ron Alvey/Shutterstock From the horrific Larry Nassar abuse scandal in United States gymnastics to the “environment of fear” some volleyball athletes endured at the Australian Institute of Sport, abuse in sport has been well documented in

    Astronomers thought the Milky Way was doomed to crash into Andromeda. Now they’re not so sure
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruby Wright, Forrest Fellow in Astrophysics, The University of Western Australia Luc Viatour / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA For years, astronomers have predicted a dramatic fate for our galaxy: a head-on collision with Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbour. This merger – expected in about 5 billion years

    Is the private hospital system collapsing? Here’s what the sector’s financial instability means for you
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuting Zhang, Professor of Health Economics, The University of Melbourne lightpoet/Shutterstock Toowong Private Hospital in Brisbane is the latest hospital to succumb to financial pressures and will close its doors next week. The industry association attributes the psychiatric hospital’s closure to insufficient payments from and delayed funding

    Trump’s steel tariffs are unlikely to have a big impact on Australia. But we could be hurt by what happens globally
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott French, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UNSW Sydney Shestakov Dymytro/Shutterstock Just one day after the US Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated the Trump Administration’s Liberation Day tariffs of between 10% and 50% on nearly every country in the world, Trump announced tariffs on all US imports of

    Tax concessions on super need a rethink. These proposals would bring much needed reform
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Murphy, Visiting Fellow, Economics (modelling), Australian National University fizkes/Shutterstock The federal government has proposed an additional tax of 15% on the earnings made on super balances of over A$3 million, the so-called Division 296 tax. This has set off a highly politicised debate that has often

    The surprising power of photography in ageing well
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tricia King, Senior Lecturer in Photography, University of the Sunshine Coast Marcia Grimm Older adults are often faced with lifestyle changes that can disrupt their sense of place and purpose. It may be the loss of a partner, downsizing their home, or moving to residential aged care.

    What birds can teach us about repurposing waste
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Farrier, Professor of Literature and the Environment, University of Edinburgh Some birds use deterrent spikes to make their nests. Chemari/Shutterstock Modern cities are evolution engines. Urban snails in the Netherlands and lizards in Los Angeles have developed lighter shells and larger scales to cope with the

    Human Rights Watch warns renewed fighting threatens West Papua civilians
    Asia Pacific Report An escalation in fighting between Indonesian security forces and Papuan pro-independence fighters in West Papua has seriously threatened the security of the largely indigenous population, says Human Rights Watch in a new report. The human rights watchdog warned that all parties to the conflict are obligated to abide by international humanitarian law,

    Will surging sea levels kill the Great Barrier Reef? Ancient coral fossils may hold the answer
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jody Webster, Professor of Marine Geoscience, University of Sydney marcobriviophoto.com In the 20th century, global sea level rose faster than at any other time in the past 3,000 years. It’s expected to rise even further by 2100, as human-induced climate change intensifies. In fact, some studies predict

    Pro-Trump candidate wins Poland’s presidential election – a bad omen for the EU, Ukraine and women
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia Poland’s presidential election runoff will be a bitter pill for pro-European Union democrats to swallow. The nationalist, Trumpian, historian Karol Nawrocki has narrowly defeated the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, 50.89 to 49.11%. The Polish

    Australia’s latest emissions data reveal we still have a giant fossil fuel problem
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Lovell, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney According to Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, the latest emissions data show “we are on track to reach our 2030 targets” under the Paris Agreement. In 2024, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions were “27% below 2005

    What is retinol? And will it make my acne flare? 3 experts unpack this trendy skincare ingredient
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurence Orlando, Senior Lecturer, Product Formulation and Development, Analytical Methods, Monash University Irina Kvyatkovskaya/Shutterstock Retinol skincare products suddenly seem to be everywhere, promising clear, radiant and “youthful” skin. But what’s the science behind these claims? And are there any risks? You may have also heard retinol can

    Pasifika recipients say King’s Birthday honours not just theirs alone
    By Teuila Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist, Iliesa Tora, and Christina Persico A New Zealand-born Niuean educator says being recognised in the King’s Birthday honours list reflects the importance of connecting young tagata Niue in Aotearoa to their roots. Mele Ikiua, who hails from the village of Hakupu Atua in Niue, has been named a

    Eugene Doyle: Writing in the time of the Gaza genocide
    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle I want to share a writer’s journey — of living and writing through the Genocide.  Where I live and how I live could not be further from the horror playing out in Gaza and, increasingly, on the West Bank. Yet, because my country provides military, intelligence and diplomatic support to Israel

    Decades of searching and a chance discovery: why finding Leadbeater’s possum in NSW is such big news
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Until now, Victorians believed their state was the sole home for Leadbeater’s possum, their critically endangered state faunal emblem. This tiny marsupial is clinging to life in a few pockets of mountain

    In Bradfield, the election is not yet over. What happens when a seat count is ultra close?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graeme Orr, Professor of Law, The University of Queensland Election day was over four weeks ago. Yet the outcome in one House of Representatives remains unclear. That is the formerly Liberal Sydney electorate of Bradfield. In real time, you can watch the lead tilt between Liberal hopeful,

    Is there a right way to talk to your baby? A baby brain expert explains ‘parentese’
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Herbert, Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology, University of Wollongong 2p2play/Shutterstock You might have seen those heartwarming and often funny viral videos where parents or carers engage in long “talks” with young babies about this and that – usually just fun chit chat of no great consequence.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: Policy measures for realty taking effect

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    China’s top 100 developers recorded combined sales of 1.44 trillion yuan ($199 billion) from January to May, a 10.8 percent year-on-year decline, according to the latest data from real estate market consultancy China Index Holdings.

    The contraction remained largely unchanged from the first four months of this year, with only a marginal 0.6 percentage point narrowing, underscoring the continued challenges faced by the sector.

    The monthly data also revealed an intensifying downward trend, with May sales alone falling 17.3 percent year-on-year, a 0.5 percentage point wider decline compared to April.

    The gradual deterioration in sales performance came despite some variations across different tiers of developers.

    While firms ranked 31-50 managed to limit their sales decline to 3.6 percent, other segments saw more pronounced decreases, particularly those ranked 51-100 where sales plummeted by over 15 percent, according to the CIH data.

    In addition, market concentration appeared to be increasing, with 33 developers maintaining sales above 10 billion yuan, matching last year’s performance in the same period.

    Within this group, the number of developers surpassing 50 billion yuan actually increased by one to eight, while those crossing the 5 billion yuan threshold fell by six to 64, highlighting how larger developers are demonstrating relative resilience even as their smaller counterparts face growing operational pressures in an increasingly competitive environment.

    Despite persistent market headwinds, there are also emerging signs that supportive policy measures and sales strategies are starting to take effect.

    Real estate information provider CRIC data showed that more than half of leading developers saw month-on-month sales improvements in May, with 22 firms posting gains of over 30 percent. Several major players such as Greentown China and China Jinmao achieved both year-on-year and month-on-month growth.

    The rising signs of stabilization come against a backdrop of significant policy easing.

    In May, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, implemented a comprehensive monetary easing package, including a 50-basis-point cut to the reserve requirement ratio and a 10-basis-point reduction in the policy interest rate, with the current 5-year loan prime rate adjusted downward from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent.

    Looking ahead to June, CIH expects the current policy loosening to continue, potentially bolstered by developers’ midyear sales pushes.

    “With the midyear sales season approaching, developers are expected to accelerate project launches and intensify promotional efforts,” it said.

    While core cities may sustain their recovery momentum, market divergence across different cities and between new and existing projects is likely to persist, CIH said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Kennedy champions bill to end the CFPB’s unfair pay advantage

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator John Kennedy (Louisiana)

    WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today reintroduced the CFPB Pay Fairness Act, which would increase accountability at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by requiring the agency to pay its employees according to the same standards that apply to other federal employees. 

    “The CFPB’s convoluted funding scheme gives them an unfair pay advantage over other agencies. That’s a waste of taxpayer money, and it needs to stop. My bill would put CFPB salaries on equal footing with the rest of the government and end the accounting trick that let them avoid the standard federal pay scale,” said Kennedy. 

    Background:

    • The CFPB’s funding mechanism operates outside the regular congressional oversight process.
    • As a result, many CFPB employees receive salaries comparable with those of members of Congress and cabinet secretaries.
    • The CFPB Pay Fairness Act would give the CFPB 90 days to bring its employee salaries in line with the General Schedule pay scale for federal employees. 

    Full text of the CFPB Pay Fairness Act is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rosen Returns from Visit to Israel, West Bank, Jordan, Iraq focused on Strengthening Regional Stability

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV)

    WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, & Counterterrorism, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, visited Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, and Iraq to meet with heads of state and government leaders to discuss ways to increase stability throughout the region. During her visit to the region, Senator Rosen advocated for increased regional security, strengthening of the Abraham Accords, development and humanitarian partnerships with the U.S., and ways to counter Iranian aggression. While in Israel, Senator Rosen paid her respects at the sites where Hamas attacked innocent men, women, and children on October 7, 2023, including the site of the Nova Musical Festival, Kibbutz Nir Oz, and a military outpost near the Gaza border.
    While in the Middle East, Senator Rosen met with deployed U.S. servicemembers, including Nevadans, to express her gratitude for their service and discuss how she can best support them in Congress.

    “As Iran continues its destabilizing efforts in the Middle East, it couldn’t be more important to strengthen long-lasting relationships with our allies and partners in the region at this moment,” said Senator Rosen. “I had very productive meetings with heads of state and government officials in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, and Iraq to discuss ways the United States can work with them to increase stability, combat Iranian aggression, strengthen partnerships with the U.S., and foster regional cooperation.”
    In visiting these countries, Senator Rosen had meetings with government officials, including:

    ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid to discuss reinforcing and strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship, the war in Gaza and freeing the hostages, rising antisemitism, and regional security. 
    WEST BANK: Prime Minister of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad Mustafa, and Vice President of the PLO Hussein Al-Sheikh to discuss economic, governance, and prisoner payment reforms.
    JORDAN: His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan, and Director of the General Intelligence Department Maj. Gen. Ahmad Husni to discuss combating terrorism and pursuing peace and security in the Middle East.
    IRAQ: Government of Iraq (GOI) meetings included Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani, Minister of Migration and Displacement Evan Faeq Jabro, and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein to discuss U.S.-Iraq priorities in the fight against ISIS and other security threats, economic development, displaced persons, and countering Iran. Senator Rosen also met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani on maintaining U.S. security partnerships, regional developments, and improving relations between the KRG and GOI.  

    MIL OSI USA News –