Speaking at the convocation ceremony at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology in Jammu, PM Modi said that the future of agriculture lay in AI and blockchain technology. Embracing AI and Block Chain Technology would be beneficial for our agriculture sector. According to reports, he said, "The changes that blockchain technology and AI will bring about in agriculture will be revolutionary. As of now, farmers in a few parts of the country are already using this technology in their practices." He also added that the the BJP-led government has done a lot of work to ensure that "agriculture touched new heights".

HONG KONG – After Steven Yang left his coveted job at Google, he asked his mother whether he should take venture capital money to fund his business idea. If his online consumer electronics enterprise was a risky bet, she told him, go with the venture capitalists. But if building the business into something great was his destiny, he instead should use her money from her pharmaceutical career in China. So Yang combined his Google money with his mom's, and with less than $1 million in seed capital he moved from California to Shenzhen -- a hub in southern China for technology companies. Seven years later, Anker Innovations Technology Co. sells products ranging from smartphone chargers to portable power banks on Amazon.com.

The Pioneers'18 conference happening this week in Vienna, Austria, is focused on early-stage startups and investing. The startup conference season is now officially opened in Europe with some of the continent's largest entrepreneurship events happening this month of May, like The Next Web (TNW) in Amsterdam, Vivatech in Paris, France, Infoshare in Poland or Latitude 59 and Arctic 15, in Estonia and Finland respectively, for startups in the Nordics region. However, Pioneers'18, formerly the Pioneers Festival which is happening this week in Vienna, Austria, is quite unique with its maniacal focus on early-stage startups and investing and emerging and future technology themes (space, artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, science…). "Over the years, Austria has emerged as an early-stage startup hub," told me ahead of the event Oliver Csendes, the CEO of Pioneers. "And this year, we've handpicked 550 early-stage startups, from all over the world, to attend the event and pitch hundreds of investors, corporations, public sector representatives and media."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic of discussion in many industries for a while now, with healthcare, retail and hospitality, to name but a few, starting to speculate on the massive opportunities its development could bring to how their business is run, and how customers interact with those businesses. Many articles are already predicting the demise of human workers as a result of AI making inroads into our lives because we are on the verge of true artificial intelligence. But when it comes to the biggest challenges facing business, these technologies are yet to have their big breakthrough. This may all change as we progress into this information age, and for me, the first proof point will be IT security. Having grown into one of our biggest international threats of 2018 with attacks spanning the globe and affecting every country including Middle East ones, a new defence is being developed that will allow companies in Bahrain to tackle the latest threats as soon as they appear on the network. This new defence is based on machine learning, a key component of a security framework that can move as quickly as those who are looking to breach the network.

BANGKOK – Household product maker Lion Corp. has opened the first movie theater for children in Thailand, in collaboration with the largest local cinema complex operator, naming it after Lion's own "Kodomo" brand for kids' products to boost name recognition. Lion recently launched Kodomo Kids Cinema with Major Cineplex Group Public Co. at Mega Bangna Shopping Mall in Bangna, in the east of Bangkok, aiming to attract children aged 5 to 12 along with their parents, according to the Japanese company. The cinema offers 84 candy-colored seats, ranging in type from single seats to double sofa-beds, and also houses entertainment facilities such as a long slide and an indoor playground. Ticket prices are between 200 baht and 500 baht ($6.20-$15.50). The cinema, located in a district with 31 international and elementary schools, is scheduled to show 20 movies this year -- including one featuring Doraemon, the robotic cat from Japan's popular cartoon series -- while various events like fashion shows and drawing workshops are held, according to the local partner.

Vymo, a software-as-a-service start-up, is gearing up for expansion across Asia Pacific, following a round of engagements with key banking and insurance customers. On the back of customer success in Singapore and Hong Kong, the start-up is currently building strong pipeline within the wider region. As part of this expansion, Anurag Srivastava, former head of financial services at Kofax, has been appointed head of APAC for the business, reporting directly to CEO, Yamini Bhat. "We will follow this up with building the regional capability of customer success, delivery and support teams in key strategic markets in Asia Pacific apart from relationships with cloud solution providers and services partners for local deployments," Bhat said. A developer of an AI-personal assistant used by some leading banks and insurers sees the APAC region as a major growth opportunity.

Artificial intelligence or AI as it is more commonly referred to will have a strong economic impact in the U.A.E., a new study has found. According to a report by Accenture, AI will boost economic growth within the U.A.E. by 1.6 percentage points, adding $182 billion to the national economy by 2035. The report examined the impact of using AI on 15 industries in the U.A.E. and 13 in Saudi Arabia. As per the findings, AI was found to have the maximum impact on the financial services, healthcare, transport and storage industries with increases of $37 billion, $22 billion and $19 billion, respectively, in their annual gross value added (GVA), which measures the output value of all goods and services in a sector. AI is also set to lead to an increase of $6 billion and $8 billion in GVA within labor intensive industries such as education and construction respectively, the report found. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, AI will increase GVA by $215 billion.

NEW DELHI: Humanoid robots, armed with lethal weapons, to guard the long borders with Pakistan and China? Or, unmanned tanks, submarines and aircraft to take the battle to the enemy? Well, all this as of now may be in the realm of pure science fiction for India, which does not even have aerial combat drones. But India does not want to miss the bus in the new global arms race to develop artificial intelligence(AI)-powered weapon and surveillance systems for futuristic wars. The country's defence establishment is now working towards harnessing the expertise of the information technology industry and academia in this arena, taking a cue from countries like the US and China that are focusing on AI and MI (machine learning) to develop lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS).

The local authority, Council of Agriculture (COA), guided seeds manufacturers to improve F1 hybrid seed collecting techniques that resulted in superior harvest performance of cruciferous vegetables, watermelons and cherry tomatoes. The featured exhibitors invited to showcase at the pavilion of Taiwan Seed Varieties this year include Besgrow Seed, Ching Long Seed, Agronew Trading, Taiwan Banana Research Institute, Known-You Seed and Sing-Flow Seed Trading. One of the exhibitors - CH Biotech, developed'Weather Mend,' a product to regulate plant gene expression system with non-genetically modified active components, which is seen as a crucial solutions for crops in facing extreme climate change. This product aims to increase plant survival rate and helps steady food supply. Not only will it initiate plants' defence mechanism in advance, but also reduce losses caused by severe weather.