Iran appeared to be preparing for a space launch on Tuesday as satellite images showed a rocket on a launch pad in the rural desert, just as tensions remain high over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Images from Maxar Technologies showed a launch pad at the Imam Khomeini spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province, the site of frequent recent failed attempts to launch a satellite into orbit.

A series of images showed a rocket on a carrier, preparing to be lifted and placed on a launch tower. An image later Tuesday afternoon showed the rocket apparently on the tower.

Iran did not acknowledge an upcoming launch at the spaceport and its mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, its state-run IRNA news agency said in May that Iran would likely have seven homemade satellites ready for launch by the end of the Persian calendar year in March 2023. A Defense Ministry official also said recently suggested that Iran may soon test its new solid-state powered rocket called Zuljanah.

It was unclear when the launch would take place, although the erection of a rocket usually means a launch is imminent. NASA fire satellites, which detect flashes of light from space, immediately saw no activity at the site on Tuesday evening.

Asked about the preparations, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington that the United States was urging Iran to de-escalate the situation.

“Iran has always chosen to escalate tensions. It is Iran that has always chosen to take provocative measures,” Price said.

A Pentagon spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, said the U.S. military “will continue to closely monitor Iran’s pursuit of viable space launch technology and how it might be linked to the progress of its global ballistic missile programme”.

“Iranian aggression, including the demonstrated threat posed by its various missile programs, continues to be a major concern for our forces in the region,” Lodewick said.

Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit, and in 2013 launched a monkey into space. However, the program has had recent problems. There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh program, a type of satellite-carrying rocket. A fire at the Imam Khomeini spaceport in February 2019 also killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.

The launch pad used during preparations on Tuesday remains marred by an explosion in August 2019 that even caught the attention of then-President Donald Trump. He then tweeted what appeared to be a classified surveillance image of the failed launch. Satellite images from February suggested a failed Zuljanah launch earlier this year, although Iran did not acknowledge it.

Successive failures have raised suspicions of outside interference in Iran’s program, which Trump himself alluded to when he tweeted at the time that the United States “was not involved in the catastrophic accident”. However, no evidence has been provided to show foul play in any of the failures, and space launches remain difficult for even the world’s most successful programs.

Meanwhile, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in April 2020 revealed their own secret space program by successfully launching a satellite into orbit. The Guard launched another satellite in March at another site in Semnan province, just east of the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Judging by the launch pad used, Iran is likely preparing for the Zuljanah test launch, said John Krzyzaniak, a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Earlier this week, Krzyzaniak suggested a launch was imminent based on activity on the site.

The name of the rocket, Zuljanah, comes from the horse of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Iranian state television broadcast footage of a successful Zuljanah launch in February 2021.

Preparations for the launch also come as the Guard reportedly saw one of its soldiers “martyred” in Semnan province in unclear circumstances over the weekend. Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, however, later claimed the man worked for them.

The United States alleged that the Iranian satellite launches defied a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The U.S. intelligence community’s 2022 threat assessment, released in March, says such a satellite launcher “shortens the time” for an intercontinental ballistic missile for Iran because it uses “similar technologies.”

Iran, which has long said it does not seek nuclear weapons, has previously maintained that its satellite launches and rocket tests have no military component. US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran abandoned an organized military nuclear program in 2003.

However, Iran’s likely preparations for a launch come as tensions have escalated in recent days over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran now says it will remove 27 IAEA surveillance cameras from its nuclear sites as it now enriches uranium closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before.

Iran and the United States insist on their willingness to rejoin Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw the Islamic Republic severely limit its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump unilaterally pulled America out of the deal in 2018, sparking a series of attacks and clashes from 2019 that continue today under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Building a nuclear bomb would take Iran even longer if it pursued a weapon, analysts say, though they warn Tehran’s advances make the program more dangerous. Israel has threatened in the past to carry out a preemptive strike to stop Iran – and is already suspected in a series of recent killings targeting Iranian officials.

(Except for the title, Indiatvnews.com has not edited the copy)

Read also | South Korea says North has completed preparations for another nuclear test

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On Tuesday evening, France officially signed NASA’s Artemis Accords – the space agency’s set of guidelines and principles for how the United States and other countries should explore the Moon in the future. The addition of France, long seen as a big boon to the Artemis Accords, brings the total number of signatory countries to 20, bolstering the international agreement ahead of NASA’s planned return to the lunar surface this decade.

When the finalized Artemis Accords were presented under the Trump administration in October 2020, NASA announced that eight countries had signed the document, including the United States. But there were a few notable absences from this list. Two of the world’s biggest space superpowers – China and Russia – have not signed on, and Russia’s space chief has made it clear the country is not interested in partnering with NASA in its efforts lunar exploration. Two of Europe’s biggest space nations, France and Germany, were also not on board.

Now, after two years, France has finally come to the table, and the country is considered the most important signatory of the Accords to date. “It was essential to put France on the same wavelength as us for our lunar exploration and other plans, because it is the dominant actor in Europe with Germany,” said Gabriel Swiney, political adviser principal at NASA and one of the original authors. Agreements, tells The edge. France is the main contributor to the budget of the European Space Agency. The United States also has a long-standing partnership with France’s space agency, CNES, and the country plays a pivotal role in operating the launch site and rockets of Europe’s leading launch provider, Arianespace.

France was not completely convinced of the Accords at the start. “They’ve been open about the need for clarity on some of the issues with the Artemis Accords,” Swiney said. Now it appears the country’s issues with the deal have been resolved, giving the deals a major stamp of approval from a once skeptical nation.

Although the Artemis Accords are an international document, they are intrinsically linked to NASA’s lunar ambitions. The name Artemis comes from NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface as soon as 2025. While the timing of that landing is subject to change, NASA saw the need to have a pre-emptive international agreement with other nations before humans walk on the Moon again, detailing the rules and standards to be applied to lunar exploration. “What we’re trying to do is establish standards of behavior that every nation can accept,” former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in 2020. NASA worked with the Department of U.S. state to craft the final rules.

The Artemis Accords build on the backbone of international space law, known as the Outer Space Treaty. Entering into force in 1967, the treaty creates a loose framework for how nations should explore space. The signatories agree to explore space peacefully, not to claim sovereignty over celestial objects like the Moon and Mars, and not to place weapons of mass destruction in space. But the Outer Space Treaty is vague by design, which has left many of its principles open to interpretation and debate over the past half-century.

The Artemis Accords go further, focusing on slightly more rigid standards for Moon exploration. For example, the agreement establishes areas on the Moon called “safe areas”. If a nation carries out works on a region of the lunar surface, it will inform the other signatories and the other countries will not interfere in this zone. The agreements also call for the preservation of heritage sites, such as the landing sites of the Apollo missions, and also protect the “extraction and use” of space resources. This way, countries can mine the Moon for materials and then use those materials in their lunar exploration efforts.

When the Artemis Accords were first introduced, they got their fair share of criticism. A major criticism revolved around the use of lunar resources, with some claiming the deals were a US land grab in space. The concept of using space resources is seen by some to conflict with the Outer Space Treaty’s instruction not to claim sovereignty over a celestial object. In fact, that was partly one of France’s early concerns, according to Swiney.

“France was one of the countries that made it clear that they thought space resources were something the international community really needed to spend time and think about,” he said. “So that it doesn’t become a Wild West gold rush situation, or that it just replicates some of the same inequalities that we see on Earth.”

NASA and government officials worked with the French space agency, trying to combat what they saw as a misperception that space assets were prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty. In the end, France got its act together, with NASA presenting the Artemis Accords as merely a starting point – not the end of the space resource discussion. Under the Accords, nations can extract resources, but “You have to do it legally and you have to keep talking about it and resolving some of these big issues.” Swiney said. “So I think they realized that was a good place to start, to then address the issues that are still very much on their minds.”

The next big European conquest would be Germany, the ESA’s second-largest contributor, and Swiney is optimistic about that prospect. “I think it just takes time for countries to become familiar with the Accords,” he says. “They’re hearing not just one US administration, but two US administrations talking about it…And as we move forward with [Artemis] missions, which are really centered around science and exploration, I think people are realizing that the Artemis Accords are really exactly what they claim to be, which is trying to create rules for the exploration and science.

Another standing criticism of the agreements revolved around the fact that NASA had not gone through the traditional treaty-making process through the United Nations. “I think that concern has really only been allayed by the signatories we’ve gotten,” Swiney says. The Artemis Accords include a diverse group of non-traditional space nations, such as Colombia and Bahrain. As more countries sign on, it’s possible that the Artemis Accords will serve as a new framework for international space agreements in the future – one that could be slightly faster and more nimble than the the often slow path of treaties.

“It’s the idea that all of these things are complementary, and that the Accords will then feed back into the UN process,” Swiney says. “But at the same time, we’re not going to sit and wait for the whole international community to provide advice when we’re about to go back to the moon and we need rules.

Swiney says he is looking for even more signatories in the coming months. Besides Germany, he notes that India would be a particularly welcome signatory given the country’s robust space program. And soon, the Artemis Accords will move from theoretical policy guidelines to implementation once flights to the Moon begin, which will ultimately be the hardest part of the process. But the fact that the document has won so many supporters so far has been a great victory.

“We knew these were topics that needed to be addressed before we started showing up on the Moon and beyond, especially persistently,” Swiney says. “But we just weren’t sure it was something we could achieve. And I think since 2020, that narrative has really changed.

With the announcement of the date for the presidential elections, the countdown has begun for the big day, July 18, when legislatures will elect India’s 15th president. As the curtain draws back on the tenure of the 14th and current President Ramnath Kovid, let’s take a look at India’s past presidents.

List of Indian President

1. Rajendra Prasad 1950 to 1962 (12 years, 107 days)

He was a politician, lawyer and journalist. Prasad was a central figure in the Indian independence movement. While studying in Calcutta, Prasad first became involved with the Indian National Congress in the annual session of 1906, which he attended as a volunteer. He officially joined the Indian National Congress in 1911, when the annual session was again held in Calcutta.

2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962 to 1967) 5 years, 0 days

He was a political leader and a philosopher who served as the second President of India, he served as the first Vice President of India.

Teachers’ Day is celebrated to recognize the value of teachers in our lives and to honor the legacy of the First Vice President of India.

During his lifetime, Radhakrishnan was knighted in 1931, Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 1954, and an honorary member of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963.

3. Zakir Husain Khan (1967 to 1969) 1 year, 355 days

He was also a co-founder of Jamia Milia Islamia, where he served as vice-chancellor from 1928 until his death. Jamia became heavily involved in the Indian liberation movement under Husain. In 1963, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian honour).

Varahagiri Venkata Giri took over the office after the untimely death of President Zakir Hussain Khan for just 78 days. Later, Mohammad Hidayatullah took over for 35 days.

4. Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1969 to 1974) 5 years, 0 days

He was an outstanding legislator, freedom warrior, and labor leader who dedicated his life to service to the country. VV Giri has become known as a defender of the rights of the country’s working class.

5. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974 to 1977) 2 years, 171 days

He was a lawyer and the country’s second Muslim president, as well as the country’s second president to die in office.

Basappa Danappa Jatti briefly took office for 164 days after the death of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.

6. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977 to 1982) 5 years, 0 days

After Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Anantapur in July 1929, Reddy joined India’s struggle for independence from the British Raj and dropped out of the university in 1931. He went on to hold various critical posts in independent India, including that of Prime Minister in leader of Andhra Pradesh. He was an active member of the Youth League and participated in student satyagraha.

7. Giani Zail Singh (1982 to 1987) 5 years, 0 days

He was the first Sikh to be elected to this post. Prior to becoming President, he was a member of the Indian National Congress party and served in the Union Cabinet in various capacities including as Home Secretary. He was also president of the Non-Aligned Movement at the time. Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 all took place during her reign.

8. Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987 to 1992) 5 years, 0 days

He was an Indian lawyer, politician and independence activist who served as Union Minister and ninth President of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tanjore district of Madras Presidency.

9. Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992 to 1997) 5 years, 0 days

He received the Living Legends of Law Award of Recognition from the International Bar Association for his extraordinary contribution to the legal profession internationally and his commitment to the rule of law.

10. Kocheril Raman Narayanan (1997 to 2002) 5 years, 0 days

He was the tenth president and ninth vice-president of India. He was an Indian statesman, diplomat, academician and politician.

11. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (2002 to 2007) 5 years, 0 days

He was an aerospace scientist from India. He worked as a scientist and science administrator for the next four decades, mainly at the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), where he was involved in the Indian civil space program and military missile development operations.

As a result of his efforts in developing ballistic missile and launch vehicle technologies, he became known as India’s “Missile Man”. In 1998, he also played a key organizational, technical and political role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test, the first since the country’s first nuclear test in 1974.

12. Pratibha Devisingh Patil (2007 to July 2012) 5 years, 0 days

She was India’s first female president. She is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC). She also served as Governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007.

13. Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (2012 to 2017) 5 years, 0 days

He was a prominent member of the Indian National Congress and held several ministerial posts in the Indian government. Mukherjee served as the Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 before being elected President. In 2019, his successor, President Ram Nath Kovind, awarded him India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

14. Ram Nath Kovind (2017 at 4 years, 320 days)

Politician who is the 14th and current president of the country since July 25, 2017. He is a member of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). He is also the first President of India from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Prior to becoming President, he served as the 26th Governor of Bihar from 2015 to 2017 and a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2006. He practiced as a barrister for 16 years in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India until 1993, before entering politics.

The excitement in Kenya’s vibrant tech community was palpable when, in the space of a few weeks in April, several major tech companies took steps to dramatically increase their presence in the country.

Microsoft has launched one of two Africa Development Center (ADC) sites in Nairobi and is looking to hire at least 450 full-time staff. Google has announced that it is hiring more than 100 employees for its upcoming product development center in Nairobi, the company’s first such facility in Africa. Visa had just launched its Innovation Hub, one of six in the world. Amazon’s plan to launch an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Local Zone has been unveiled.

For Kenya’s tech talent pool, which ranks fourth on the list of African countries with the most professional developers at 58,866, behind Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, increased competition for talent translates into higher compensation and fuels the growth of the broader local ecosystem.

However, not everyone is winning in Kenya’s battle for tech talent. Even though Kenya added around 2,000 new developers (pdf) to its tech talent pool in 2021, startups in particular face an uphill battle to retain talent. Big telecom companies and banks, long considered the highest paying organizations for technicians in Kenya, are also losing their top talent to big tech.

Silicon Savannah has renewed interest in global technology

Renewed confidence in Kenya as a tech hub for the continent recalls a similar boom a decade earlier that earned Nairobi the nickname “Silicon Savannah”. At the time, what drove companies to locate here was increased public investment in internet infrastructure, the meteoric rise of mobile money and a rapidly growing economy.

One of the main factors attracting big tech to Kenya today is engineering talent. A quick check of tech-related vacancies in Nairobi reveals several vacancies at Google and Microsoft for engineers, designers and researchers.

Growing competition for Kenyan tech talent is causing companies to rethink their talent acquisition and retention strategies. This calls for a deeper look at Kenya’s talent development pipeline and what the future looks like.

For those who welcome big tech, the prevailing school of thought is that their entry will be a catalyst for the development of Kenya’s tech ecosystem. They expect a more lucrative and vibrant market that benefits not only giants but also startups and emerging talent in Kenya.

“The transfer of technology and the pipeline are very important in order to be able to develop a local ecosystem. This is what has allowed all the great talent- and innovation-driven countries in the world to grow. India, Singapore, China, Japan, Estonia etc…all grew up this way,” writes Sheilah Birgen, senior technical managerclaiming that their entry could only be a good thing.

Jack Ngare led the fintech arm of Kenya’s largest bank by assets, Equity Bank, until 2019 when he joined the then recently announced Microsoft ADC as Managing Director and led a major recruitment that has seen startups among other companies lose some of their best engineers. He left Microsoft for Google shortly after the launch of a massive new Microsoft ADC site in Nairobi in April 2022. He too believes increased investment in Kenya by big tech will boost the local ecosystem.

“The ecosystem effect is a driving force in our industry and we are seeing something similar in Kenya,” Ngare told the FinancialTimes in October last year.

Is this a win-win for big tech and Kenya’s tech ecosystem?

Proponents point to Africa-focused initiatives being undertaken by big tech. For example, Google’s $4 million Black Founders Fund for start-up startups founded by black people in Africa, or Microsoft’s involvement in developing a coding curriculum for primary and secondary schools in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Education.

Startups in Kenya are being forced to improve their employee offerings to keep pace with big tech. Those who have invested in training their own engineers are particularly feeling the effects. To attract and retain talent, they are also banking on staff equity and the promise of greater accountability in startups compared to big tech companies.

The rush for talent, however, has sparked renewed interest from companies large and small to invest in talent development. Coding schools and tech mentorship programs are announcing more partnerships with tech companies and internships for their students.

KamiLimu is a Nairobi-based technology mentorship program that equips students with the skills they need to thrive in the industry. Last year, six of their mentees joined major technology companies, including Microsoft, as engineers and program managers.

This speaks to the growing market appetite for refined tech talent. For Microsoft and Google, which are planning billion dollar investments in Africa, having top local talent is a requirement, not an option.

The increased flow of venture capital investment to African startups also means that the pool of potential employers for the continent’s tech talent is widening, especially in key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, Africa of the South and Egypt.

The 2021 Africa Developer Ecosystem Report (pdf) indicates that 81% of venture capital funding in Africa went to the top four countries with the largest population of software developers: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.

“Led by Nigeria and Kenya, developing countries have secured more funding than ever in 2020, and this success has enabled their startup ecosystems to grow faster than ever and take advantage of digital transformation. spurred by the pandemic,” the report said.

Here are today’s top new trends from the tech world. News we think all tech enthusiasts should keep an eye on.

1)

ICT Tac‘s the parent company wants to re-enter the Indian market

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of popular short-video app TikTok, is reportedly planning to re-enter the Indian market. According to media reports, ByteDance is currently in talks with several Indian companies to set up a joint venture. However, there is no information on what type of joint venture ByteDance wants to set up in India. ByteDance has reportedly said it has no plans to relaunch the TikTok app in India. The Indian government banned the TikTok app almost two years ago due to security concerns. Incidentally, TikTok’s parent company also reportedly sold its stake in Indian short video app Josh.

2)

Elon Musk says he won’t cut jobs at Tesla

There will be no job cuts at Tesla. This was confirmed by Elon Musk himself, who said last week that he planned to cut 10% of jobs at his electric vehicle business, citing that the US economy is in bad shape. But the tech billionaire has now reversed that decision. Musk has now said that Tesla’s workforce will increase over the next 12 months, but wages will remain roughly flat. Meanwhile, the US president slammed Musk for making negative comments about the US economy.

3)

Meta’s COO may have quit over a scam

Sheryl Sandberg, one of Meta’s most powerful executives, may have quit last week over a scandal. According to US media, Meta had launched an internal investigation against Sandberg for allegedly using company funds for his personal use. Reports also claim that in recent months Meta CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg was not at all happy with Sandberg over his recent controversial activities. For anyone unaware, Sandberg resigned from Meta last week after 14 years of association with the social media giant.

4)

Narayana Murthy criticizes Indian startups’ obsession with IPOs

Infosys co-founder and IT legend Narayana Murthy has given a strong opinion on what he describes as Indian startups’ unhealthy obsession with IPOs. Speaking at a business conference, Murthy said Indian startups should stop viewing IPOs as just another round of funding and just a way to give venture capitalists profitable exits. He added that startups should realize that making a company a publicly traded company comes with huge responsibilities, with the most important responsibility being to deliver profitable returns to all shareholders, including small retail investors.

5)

China successfully sends three astronauts to its space station

China has taken another important step in its race to become a space superpower. This after the communist giant successfully launched and docked three astronauts to its station in space orbit. These three Chinese astronauts will spend almost six months in the space station. The launch of this space mission was broadcast live across China. Over the years, the Asian giant has added many feathers to its space program, in particular by sending a rover to Mars.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched a new three-person mission on Sunday to complete assembly work on its space station in permanent orbit.
The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on Tiangong Station, during which they will oversee the addition of two lab modules to join Tianhe’s main living space which was launched in April 2021.
Their spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. (0244 GMT) atop the crewed spaceflight program’s Long March 2F rocket. Fifteen minutes later, it reached low Earth orbit and opened its solar panels, drawing applause from ground controllers in Jiuquan and Beijing.
The launch was broadcast live on state television, indicating a growing level of confidence in the capabilities of the space program, which was promoted as a sign of China’s technological progress and global influence.
Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module structure joining the existing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, which are expected to arrive in July and October. Another freighter, the Tianzhou-3, remains moored at the station.
The arrival of the new modules “will bring more stability, more powerful functions, more complete equipment,” said Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016, at a press conference on Saturday.
Liu, 43, is also a space veteran and was the first female Chinese astronaut to reach space aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making her first trip to space.
China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it the third country to do so alone after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples, and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the Moon.
China’s space program is run by the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the United States to bar it from the International Space Station.
Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the end of their three-to-five-day mission by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the first time the station will have six people on board.

ANANTH, a Hyderabad-based aerospace and defense manufacturer, has launched a spacecraft manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. ISRO President Dr. S Somnath inaugurated the facility.

Located in the Karnataka Industrial Zone Development Board (KIADB) Aerospace Park, the state-of-the-art spacecraft manufacturing facility can simultaneously perform integration and assembly testing of four large craft spatial. It is also the first ever private spacecraft manufacturing and testing facility in India.

ANANTH strives to indigenize advanced aerospace technologies to support India’s development and security. From mission computers to control systems, sensors to communication systems, Ananth is the largest contributor of subsystems to India’s space program. Ananth realizes the entire coupling of the ISRO PSLV launcher.

“The facility will open new frontiers of development in space research and help develop high-tech space manufacturing in the country,” Dr Somnath said.

ANANTH’s core offerings include the manufacture of mission-critical aerospace systems and high-value geospatial services. Both products and services have been internationally certified (AS 9100C & ISO 9001:2008).

Most people at least know that blockchain is the technology on which bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are built, but a digital ledger that timestamps and orders transactions in an easily traceable and immutable way has many more uses. .

In this fourth article in PYMNTS’ Blockchain in Action series, we’ll look at how a distributed digital ledger can create a sharable digital identity without giving up privacy and trust, as it cannot be tampered with or tampered with.

See also: Blockchain in action: how to track everything in real time

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We are not talking about the type of anti-money laundering (AML) digital identity, but the type of credentials you would need to present to a bank or cryptocurrency exchange to meet the requirements of know your customer (KYC) .

There are a few facets to this use of blockchain technology, known as token identity or digital identity.

One is privacy. We’ll get to the “how” later, but the idea is that people could have tokenized, and presumably biometrically accessed, ID documents that they can control, giving only the necessary details: is this person a citizen ? Yes. Does the company or agency collecting this person’s information now have their social security number in their highly hackable database? No.

Another facet is security. Using blockchain to create a distributed identity token rather than using the current system where various service providers all have highly hackable centralized databases of digital identity and connected data.

So what would blockchain bring? An unalterable record – immutable, in cryptographic jargon – that cannot be tampered with or altered.

What is won?

“National ID programs are growing in importance as countries strive to establish a unified database of strong and unique citizen identity documents to facilitate governance,” said Aravind Srimoolanathan, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan in November.

By combining blockchain, artificial intelligence and biometric scanners, digital IDs will make transactions ranging from mobile banking to driver’s license registration easier and more secure, Srimoolanathan said, predicting that “identity single token digital for individuals” will be in place by 2030.

Read more: Deep Dive: How Blockchain Technology Can Help Ease Digital Identity Verification, Onboarding

Proponents say it will reduce identity theft and take away private data from tech giants and other companies by limiting what they collect, putting control back to the people.

In a 2021 study, PYMNTS and Equifax found that enterprise interest in digital identity is on the rise, with more than two-thirds of enterprises “planning to invest in digital authentication solutions to gain new customers” and also streamline their own internal processes.

And in the wake of the pandemic, nearly 40% of businesses that responded said digital identity verification was becoming increasingly important.

See also: The next wave: Enterprise adoption of digital identity protection

On the other hand, a digital ID system – especially a nationally issued system – is more likely to limit access to information that can be collected, either by design or by law. An employer would need access to degrees and qualifications, but would not need access to medical data, except for providing proof of coverage.

Read more: Deep dive: Why social media platforms need to rethink how they handle digital identity to maintain user trust

More broadly, a blockchain-based digital ID program that connects users to their data via a cryptocurrency token would be simpler, more reliable, and much easier to make interoperable across everything from private businesses to international borders. .

How it works?

The principle of digital identification based on the blockchain is really very simple. Most blockchain digital ID platforms typically have six parts.

See also: Crypto Basics Series: What is a Blockchain and how does it work?

• First an owner. The person (or thing) identified by the digital ID.
• Second, a blockchain on which the digital ID lives. The data here cannot be deleted or changed, but can be added. For example, if the owner graduates from college, obtains (or loses) a security clearance, or purchases health insurance.
• Third, a transmitter. A company or – often a state agency – that verifies the identity of the owner of the ID and signs the confirmation of accuracy with a private key that cannot be reused.
• Fourth, a digital wallet. The tool that allows people to create and enrich their digital identity over time, and allows them to provide access to service providers
• Fifth, a numerical identifier. The DID verifies that the person (or thing) is who they claim to be. This usually includes biometric data.
• Sixth, service providers. Agencies or businesses that accept digital identification as a means of accessing services or obtaining goods.

The front lines

This technology has already been tested in programs focused on the billion people in the world who do not have identity papers, ranging from refugees fleeing violence and oppression to the poorest people in developing countries. who simply cannot obtain ID – thus keeping them unbanked, unable to prove they own land, unable to vote and generally trapped in poverty.

Read more: From refugee camps to Indian coffee farms, digital ID is already being paid for to the poorest

This is largely thanks to the United Nations, which has made digital identification for all a development goal for 2030. As early as 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began using documents blockchain-based digital IDs in Zaatari, a 75,000-person Syrian refugee camp inside Jordan, allowing residents to obtain monthly food aid payments and use them to store through a eye scanner.

See also: Securing personal identity with a digital ID connected to the user’s biometrics

Just last month, the India time reported that researchers are building a next-generation version of the country’s Aadhaar digital identity program, considered by far the largest digital identity system in the world with more than a billion users. Using both eye and fingerprint scans, Aadhaar links a person to a 12-digit ID number that can be used as a digital KYC document in virtually any interaction with the state as a preventative measure. from fraud and has become widely necessary for any type of business interaction, such as opening a mobile phone or bank account.

Payment systems regulators (PSRs) in the UK announced on Tuesday (May 24th) that they will have to extend an important deadline for businesses to comply with new requirements to combat authorized push payment (APP) fraud. However, the regulator plans to expand the number of companies covered given the success of the program.

In 2020, the regulator started working with the UK’s six largest banking groups to adopt so-called Confirmation of Payee (CoP) bank account name verification services. CoP was designed to help stop fraud and accidentally misdirected payments by verifying that a payee’s account name matches the name and account details provided by a payer.

In February 2022, the PSR released a new rule that paved the way for more banks and building societies to adopt the CoP. The deadline to comply with phase 1 was May 31. However, the regulator has just announced that this deadline will be extended until June 30. This change occurred because some Phase 1 participants experienced technical issues while migrating to the Phase 2 technical environment. This delayed their readiness to deliver the CoP in the Phase 2 environment before until Phase 1 is officially decommissioned on May 31.

“The PSR allowed for a short extension of the operation of the Phase 1 technical environment to allow delayed companies to undertake the work necessary to complete their migration to Phase 2,” the regulator said in a press release.

On the same day, the regulator announced new plans to increase the number of companies offering CoP to 400 by 2024, from 33 companies currently offering the services, including banks and payment service providers (PSPs). ). The regulator has launched a consultation which will be open until July 8.

According to analysis by the regulator and CoP participants, the program has shown that it has helped curb increases in certain types of APP fraud, reduced levels of fraudulent funds received on accounts by PSPs that have implemented the CoP, and that there has been a reduction in payments accidentally misdirected to the wrong person/account.

“Protecting people who make payments should be a top priority for all financial companies. Those who have not yet introduced beneficiary confirmation need to step up their efforts to ensure their customers are protected,” said Genevieve Marjoribanks, Policy Officer at PSR.

This data likely encouraged the regulator to push for wider acceptance of the CoP. Yet, given the volume of PSPs involved and the different levels of readiness, the regulator proposes to divide the requirements for PSPs to implement the CoP into two groups.

The first group will be prioritized based on the complexity and size of the institution and/or businesses where adopting CoP could have the greatest impact on preventing APP scams. This first group would see an increase in CoP coverage from 92% of transactions made through Faster Payments to 99%. This group should have implemented the CoP by June 30, 2023.

The second group includes all other companies that either use unique sort codes or build companies using a Secondary Master Data (SRD) reference type. This group should have implemented the CoP by June 30, 2024.

Read more: UK payments regulator to get more powers to tackle authorized push payment fraud

Additionally, the PSR closed a consultation in January 2022 where the regulator proposed several measures to combat APP fraud. Under the proposal, some of the biggest banks will have to publish data on their performance with regard to APP scams, levels of reimbursement for victims, and the bank and building society accounts that are used to receive the fraudulent funds.

Special purpose acquisition firms, known as SPACs, have been all the rage in the investment world for the past two years and have taken over the media space, but is the trend slowing?

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Known as “blank check corporations,” SPACs are publicly traded investment vehicles that raise capital solely to acquire existing businesses. They are often led by a well-known personality and are considered a simpler alternative to going public via an IPO. They can also offer ordinary investors the opportunity to take advantage of the strong growth that some companies experience in their early years. At the same time, of course, a disappointing start can register significant losses.

In some cases, SPACs will be announced with specific investment goals in mind, such as when Virgin Galactic achieved a successful SPAC merger in 2019 and started a trend of similar efforts over the past two years. On other occasions, the SPAC will launch without disclosing specific goals, instead offering investors insight into its broader strategy.

Deadline Disruptors in Cannes: read them all here

Last year, former Reliance Entertainment CEO Shibasish Sarkar, one of the biggest names in the Indian media landscape, left the company to start his own SPAC, International Media Acquisition Corp. $230 million IPO on the Nasdaq in August. In an interview with Deadline in December, Sarkar said he was targeting acquisitions in three areas and would complete the first deals before the July 2022 deadline. “We want to be active in three areas: production companies , whether film, television or animation – to create the largest content creation company in India; the exhibition space, where the goal is to be a significant player in the industry, the third or the fourth largest; and the opportunity to take a significant position in a streaming platform,” says Sarkar.

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Warner Media

Also last year, Iris Knobloch, former president of WarnerMedia in Europe (and announced new president of the Cannes Film Festival), left the company after 25 years to launch a $300 million SPAC through Euronext Paris with the billionaire’s backing. French Francois-Henri. Pinault’s Artemis. Called I2PO, the company is the first of its kind to target the European entertainment and leisure industries. “Europe is home to many strong companies with high potential in this sector, which with the infusion of capital, resources and expertise from I2PO will have the support needed to take their business to the next level,” Knobloch said at the time. “I see a huge opportunity to consolidate a fragmented market and go beyond Europe to other markets.”

I2PO recently confirmed its first deal: a merger deal to take French music streaming service Deezer public at a valuation of $1.1 billion. Pinault described the move as an opportunity to “develop Deezer as the leading independent music streaming platform through strong positions in selected key markets.”

However, there have been many cautionary tales in the SPAC space over the past 12 months.

Former Disney executive couple Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, along with retired basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, raised $350 million for their SPAC Forest Road Acquisition Corp II in March this year. last, and quickly struck a merger deal to take fitness companies The Beachbody Company and Myx Fitness Holdings public. After an initial rebound, the combined entity has since fallen 80% in value and is struggling to recover, serving as a warning that such big-money deals can also turn sour.

Digital media company Buzzfeed went public via the SPAC merger in December, but its share price underperformed. Following an earnings report in the first quarter of this year that fell short of what the company promised investors when it launched its SPAC, pressure from those who had bought shares led to cuts to Buzzfeed’s news division, some reportedly urged CEO Jonah Peretti to shut down the Pulitzer. Fully award-winning news crew.

In turn, Buzzfeed’s example appears to have deterred several other digital media companies from pursuing their own proposed SPACs. Long-running chatter about Vox Media and Vice Media going public through SPAC has died down in recent months.

There may have been choppy waters for SPACs over the past year, but the trend looks set to continue. OnlyFans, the social media platform famous for its adult content, has been in talks about going public via a SPAC merger, while Asian funding bigwig Jason Wong, known as “the godfather of SPACs” in Asia, recently predicted that Hong Kong could see at least 40 blank investment vehicles launched in the city in 2022.

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