Doha Bank Q P S C : Positive Side of the Pandemic

Positive Side of the Pandemic

A Virtual Global Economic Summit 2020 was organized on 28th December till 30th December 2020 by World Tamils Economic Foundation, Madras Development Society. Doha Bank CEO, Dr. R. Seetharaman participated and spoke on 'Changing Dynamics and Opportunities post COVID'. There were other dignitaries and speakers from various professions.

Dr. R. Seetharaman said 'Today there are 80MN COVID-19 cases globally and it has resulted in lives of more than 1.8MN people. To combat the crisis, the central banks across the globe has announced adequate liquidity measures. The central banks have assured sustainability measures in global norms. Globally approximately USD30Trillion of liquidity is pumped. The liquidity has played role to hold the balance, making sure the economy doesn't get crippled out. The COVID-19 has changed way of doing business globally, Work from home culture has increased, and no one is any more location centric, it is information centric world'. The global trade has dipped by 9% and is expected to bounce back going ahead in 2021.

Dr. R. Seetharaman said there are four risks which needs to be mapped 1) Social risks 2) Economic risks 3) Human risks and 4) Environmental risks. The COVID has reignited the pace of digital governance across the globe with acceleration in digitalization across all the industries has led to rise in cybersecurity. Cybercrime costs include damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, and theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, and post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.

Digital Governance plays a key role in transforming the organization globally. A 5% digital access can reduce carbon emissions nearly by 538MN tons which is nearly 230MN coal mines capacity, this will ignite the green economic growth. He said greenhouse gas emissions need to be estimated for major economic sectors in areas of operation to determine the carbon footprint. Based on the carbon footprint in various economic sectors, various initiatives should be proposed to promote green economies, such as lending for green projects, CDM scheme, and paperless banking. 'The allocation matrix should be such that the greater the carbon footprint in the relevant economic sector, the higher the allocation of capital for green banking and sustainable projects. 'The carbon footprint will be different across various geographies and economic sectors and hence, country wise and sector wise allocations should be explored. This forms the basis for green banking and brings prudency into the capital framework,' he added.

Dr. R. Seetharaman gave insight on Global economies. He said 'According to IMF October 2020, Global growth is projected at 5.2 percent in 2021. The Advanced economies growth is projected to strengthen to 3.9 percent and emerging and developing economies are expected to recover by 6 percent in 2021. The US economy is projected to contract by 4.3 percent in 2020, before growing at 3.1 percent in 2021. A deeper contraction of 8.3 percent is projected for the euro area in 2020, reflecting a sharper downturn than in the United States in the first half of the year.

Dr. R. Seetharaman said 'United Nations highlighted seventeen sustainable development goals for achieving better and more sustainable future for all, this are known as global goals. The goals are 1) Ending poverty 2) Ending Hunger 3) Good Health and well-being 4) Quality education 5) Gender equality 6) Clean water and sanitation 7) Affordable and clean energy 8) Decent work and economic growth 9) Reduced inequalities 10) Sustainable cities and communities 11) Responsible consumption and production 12) Climate action 13) Life below water 14) Life on land 15) Peace and justice 16) Partnership for goals and 17) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure'. It is important for countries to adopt and follow this goals for sustainable economic growth going ahead, the current pandemic is an opportunity to drift towards the same.

Dr. R. Seetharaman said given changing dynamics of business 'Internet of Things is based on the fact that everything will be connected to each other i.e. multiple objects and devices working in tandem to seamlessly deliver solutions and services. Research firm Gartner estimates that nearly 5.5 million new things will get connected every day in 2016 while around 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide this year, up 30 per cent from 2015. There are 50Billion gadgets that can be used today. Areas where AI can be used in Banking are a) AML pattern detection b) chat bots c) Algorithmic trading d) Fraud detection e) customer recommendations. Robotics, enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is proving to be a game changer that can bring unique operational efficiencies to the financial services industry. The opportunities are reflecting positive side of pandemic.