Nri Problems: Common Ai Framework Recommended To Cover All Sectors Across The Board

ANSWER: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended the setting up of an independent statutory body to ensure development of responsible artificial intelligence (AI) across all industry and consumer sectors. According to the TRAI, the impact of artificial intelligence is not limited to the telecom sector because it has the potential to impact health care, finance, transportation, education, agriculture and others. Therefore, it has recommended a common framework which will cover all sectors across the board. The regulatory framework should ensure that specific AI use cases are regulated on a risk based platform and that the high risk use cases are regulated through legally binding obligations. TRAI has also suggested that the independent statutory authority should have a multi stake holder body which will act as an advisory body. The regulation should ensure that they cover each phase of AI framework lifecycle, such as design, development, validation, deployment, monitoring and refinement. Model ethical codes also need to be developed for adoption by public and private entities in different sectors. Therefore, the independent statutory body should put in place an overarching framework for ethical use of data.

Question: Some of the well known information technology companies have forecast a lower rate of growth for the current financial year 2023-24 which has dampened market sentiments. Will this impact the India growth story?

A NSWER: The top three IT companies in India have indeed forecast a declining growth trend during the next few months. However, this is mainly due to the fact that their overseas companies are tightening their purse strings and spending less. Further, the competition to corner the fewer opportunities has become fierce and therefore there has been price cutting. Discretionary spending has been reduced in Western countries due to a possible recession. The subdued demand environment has reduced operating leverage through growth because overseas customers are getting more aggressive on price. The competition for large and mega deals have drastically reduced the margins. However, all the IT companies are confident that double digit growth is achievable over the next five years. Foreign clients are still willing to spend on long term projects as the structural drivers for demand are intact. Clients are in the execution phase of cloud transformation and the leverage of new technologies will continue to power growth.

Question: In most securities markets of the world it takes about two days for payments to be received when securities are sold. Is the Indian securities market more efficient in terms of settlement?

ANSWER: At present in India settlements are made on T+1 basis whereas the global standard is T+2. Therefore, currently India is ahead of global markets both from the buyers and sellers point of view. According to the Securities & Exchange Board of India, India is the first major economy which moved into T+1 settlement for all its scrips. This has brought several benefits for the stock market ecosystem. However, SEBI is currently working on a mechanism for instant settlement of trades by introducing a T+0 system. With T+0 system being put in place in the near future, funds and securities would circulate faster which will lead to higher trading volumes. According to SEBI, faster settlement would carry lower risks and less money will remain idle. When the T+0 system is implemented, India would move ahead of developed markets, some of which are still struggling to move to a T+1 from a T+2 system. According to market analysts, an efficient payment mechanism and an evolved share transfer process by depositories in India will facilitate instant settlement.

H. P. Ranina is a practising lawyer, specializing in tax and exchange management laws of India.

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