Menu
Print Edition of the Magazine, Available from JANUARY 2024 onwards, Contact us to subscribe.
During these trying times when the industry is heavily affected with economical issues came up the pandemic called Covid 19 and disrupted the industry completely. We at Industrial Automation Magazine have taken an initiative to bring the industry together and share their viewpoints so that others reading can take measures accordingly to have minimal damage.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented.
Hands-on Technologist and Enterprise Architect with 15+ yrs. of experience working across Investment Banks, Stock Exchanges, Media, Telecom and Cloud Computing Companies. Specialized in Artificial Intelligence, IoT and Edge Computing Applications and Architectures. Active contributor, speaker, and evangelist to Tech Forums, Conferences, Corporates Trainings and Webinars. Currently, running 2 Initiatives Eureka Moment and Storypedia to motivate youth and also, mentors many students on technology and career.
Unaware - No, since humans have seen pandemics before also, the recent being SARS and MERS.
SARS-Cov virus in 2003 was 95% similar to current SARS-Cov-2 (Covid-19), so we were aware of that. Lockdown was implemented in 2003 also. So, operationally we were aware of what needs to be done in such a situation.
Unprepared- Yes, the reason for this exponential spread is because airline travel has increased 4 folds post 2003 and thus the spread is uncontrollable.
Also, we did not prepare SARS-Cov vaccine at that time since research was halted post 2003.
Businesses are impacted when there is a change in the purchasing power of individuals. Many sectors are interdependent on each other for services. For e.g. Tourism will be highly impacted and thus the sales at that location, tourism-related services, transportation will also be impacted. Also, even if Online Retail is having a positive impact they are not able to meet the demands since logistics is highly impacted due to a shortage of employees. However, to mitigate long term impact businesses will need to remodel their existing business plans and processes.
This should be a global effort rather than a specific government/s, here human existence is at stake. Currently, every country is left on its own to contain the disease and thus the spread is at different levels at different places. The policies should be created at the global level and centralised organisations should be empowered to enforce such policies as soon as a threat is seen.
Also, technologies should also be created at the global level, we see so many trackers, applications and systems used. There is no standardization here which makes the operations worse.
A person infected by coronavirus takes 4-10 days to shows symptoms like fever but he is a carrier from day 1. Thermal scanners can only help detect a person with high temperature but it doesn't mean he has fever only due to coronavirus, it could be a normal fever too. So, buying thermal scanners at every checkpoint will not wise. Rather few high accuracy thermal scanners should be bought for doing basic checks when required.
Instead of being reactive, we should take a proactive approach to reduce the spread by implemented simple steps like penalising people for not wearing a mask. Also, at every checkpoint before entering and leaving people should be compulsorily made to clean their hands thoroughly using sanitisers. This should be monitored and it can effectively reduce the spread. Also, in airlines/trains/buses seats, toilets and surfaces should be sanitised frequently or some intelligent way to sanitize them should be developed.
Virtual Jobs were growing at a good rate before the pandemic also, so there was always a move towards this direction. Due to traffic and pollution, people were looking out for options to work from their place itself. This pandemic acted as a catalyst for that, this will help in long run since people will not move out frequently if not required which in turn will reduce traffic and places won't crowd up. Imagine people living in their hometowns and working for a large enterprise abroad wouldn't this be a good paradigm shift?
Yes, definitely. Jobs which required fieldwork will be replaced by robots soon. Starting with logistics, drone-based deliveries of autonomous cars delivering the good to your place will be near future. This is boost to manufacturing since this will require automation machines, ai based manufacturing systems. Everyone will prefer making their homes as offices henceforth.
1) Clear defined policies, methodologies and processes need to be created at Global Level rather than Country Level
2) There should be co-sharing of research, methodologies, technologies, communication at the Global level
3) Companies should be location agnostic and not dependent on employees to travel unless absolutely necessary. This will help them cope up with BAU during such situations thus boosting the economy
4) Panic is more dangerous than the crises itself
#April 2020 Covid Special
To say the world is passing through trying times is to state the obvious. Also evident is the fact that for too long the world has been ignoring the warning signs of environmental degradation fuelled by human excesses and greed. But this is no time for ifs and buts, nor recrimination. Instead, the crisis should be used as an opportunity to make the required course correction to make the world a safer place for all living beings, and the ecological balance, restored.
Industrial Automation invited a cross section of industry leaders to offer their views and possible course of action as a way forward from this situation, even as governments across the world and the people are trying to make sense from the still evolving scenario.
To read the full cover story Please click here
© 2019 IED Communications Ltd | All right reserved. www.industrialautomationindia.in
 }})
