Developing Countries in the New Economy: The Role of Demand-side Initiatives

ICT, developing countries

Technological roots and structural implications of the double bubble at the turn of the Century

This paper argues that the two boom and bust episodes of the turn of the Century – the Internet mania and crash of 1990s and the easy liquidity boom and bust of 2000s– are two distinct components of a single structural phenomenon. They are essentially the equivalent of 1929 developed in two stages, one centred on technological innovation, the other on financial innovation. Hence, the frequent references to that crash, to the 1930s and to Bretton Woods, are not simple journalistic metaphors for interpreting the “credit crunch” and its solution, but rather the intuitive recognition of a fundamental similarity between those events and the current ones. The paper holds that such major boom and bust episodes are endogenous to the way in which the market economy evolves and assimilates successive technological revolutions. It will discuss why it occurred in two bubbles on this occasion; it examines the differences and continuities between the two episodes and presents an interpretation of their nature and consequences

Learning from accidents : machine learning for safety at railway stations

In railway systems, station safety is a critical aspect of the overall structure, and yet, accidents at stations still occur. It is time to learn from these errors and improve conventional methods by utilizing the latest technology, such as machine learning (ML), to analyse accidents and enhance safety systems. ML has been employed in many fields, including engineering systems, and it interacts with us throughout our daily lives. Thus, we must consider the available technology in general and ML in particular in the context of safety in the railway industry. This paper explores the employment of the decision tree (DT) method in safety classification and the analysis of accidents at railway stations to predict the traits of passengers affected by accidents. The critical contribution of this study is the presentation of ML and an explanation of how this technique is applied for ensuring safety, utilizing automated processes, and gaining benefits from this powerful technology. To apply and explore this method, a case study has been selected that focuses on the fatalities caused by accidents at railway stations. An analysis of some of these fatal accidents as reported by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is performed and presented in this paper to provide a broader summary of the application of supervised ML for improving safety at railway stations. Finally, this research shows the vast potential of the innovative application of ML in safety analysis for the railway industry

Great Surges of development and alternative forms of globalization

The present understanding of globalization is inextricably tied to the free market ideology for both proponents and opponents. This paper will argue that globalization has many potential forms of which the neo-liberal recipe, applied up to now, is only one. Globalization need not be neo-liberal. A pro-development version of globalization has not yet been designed or defended as such. It will be argued that, without it, not only would it be very difficult to relaunch development in the South but also to overcome the present instabilities, imbalances and recessionary trends in the economies of the North.

Big Data Risk Analysis for Rail Safety?

Computer scientists believe that the enormous amounts of data in the internet will unchain a management revolution of uncanny proportions. Yet, to date, the potential benefit of this revolution is scantily investigated for safety and risk management. This paper gives a brief overview of a research programme that investigates how the new internet-driven data-revolution could benefit safety and risk management for railway safety in the UK. The paper gives a brief overview the current activities in this programme and infers whether big-data techniques provide a sensible addition to the safety and risk sciences. The overview shows that there is added value for introducing these techniques in the safety and risk domain but serious challenges need to be addressed

A new economy?

Along human history there were periods in which advanced technology and changes in business management generated both social and economic upheavals. These events do not only bring forth an increase of productivity in a leading economic sector but they also offer solid instruments for all social-economic sectors, producing such major transformations so that we can speak about an economic revolution or the emergence of “a new economy”. Nowadays we are the witnesses of a transition period towards “a new economy” often called “Knowledge Economy”.new economy, productivity, knowledge economy, information economy

Information policy for a new millennium

Previous revolutions, the Agrarian and Industrial, are examined and their features compared with the Information Revolution. Lessons are drawn from the comparison and a range of global issues identified. The nature of the Internet is considered and its pretensions argued to be inflated. The role of the state in developing an information society is discussed. A national information policy is identified as a feature and its application in and implications for Scotland are considered. Key features of an Internet culture are indicated and discussed, with lessons and conclusions for social development within the information society presented

Competition Issues in Restructuring Ports and Railways, Including Brief Consideration of these Sectors in India

One important issue facing reformers considering the restructuring of the seaports and freight railways sectors of a developing country is the creation of competition ­ or, alternatively, avoiding the creation or preservation of monopoly power. In seaports a crucial distinction is often that between intraport and interport competition; in freight railways, between competition among train operating companies over a monopoly track and competition among vertically integrated railways. In both cases it is useful to frame the issue as one of competition at the component level within an open system versus competition between closed systems. In both cases as well, the market definition paradigm suggested by the Horizontal Merger Guidelines of the U.S. competition agencies provides a useful framework for analysis.competition, ports, railways, market definition, India

Innovation, design and CAE in new product development

There seems to be a need for clarification on a number of issues that are seminal for the design community: for example, the constructs of invention, of creativity and of innovation (or innovative) appear to be used interchangeably. They are all a vital interest for design but they are different things. Furthermore there is a failure to distinguish between what design has a legitimate interest in or should contribute to and that which is its direct responsibility. The authors of this paper will seek to clarify these and other issues. One of these interests is the increasing demand for sustainable practice: design has a crucial role here and this paper will explore how computer aids can be a powerful tool in this area and also more generally in both design and manufacture