FinTech Batch 1: Final Exam. Question 1 is compulsory attempt any 3 questions out of the remaining 5.

Each question carries 25 marks.Time: 9am to 1.15pm

QUESTION 1Santander Bank would like to expand their market in Asia. After evaluating India and China population demographics they have decided to launch the Internet only Bank (IoB) in these two countries and they have secured relevant regulatory approvals. While talking to the press, CEO of the Santander Bank has indicated that they are planning to launch a variety of products suitable across various age group and demographics. They are going to invest heavily on technology and establish strong B2B & B2B2C network to generate leads and distribute the products.  

Internally the immediate mandate is to start working on the following roadmap: identify various APIs (both in terms of types and categories) that might be required identify various categories of partners (on both demand and supply side) develop various products with relevant features in line with CEO’s vision identify FinTech technology partners in Robo-Advisory and Realtime Voice Interaction through Chatbot

You are required to assume any two roles out of the given roles and outline the roadmap based on the information given above:

1. Product Head2. Chief Technology Officer (CTO)3. Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)4. Head of Strategic Partnerships (HSP)5. Chief Operating Officer (COO)6. Chief Financial Officer (CFO)7. Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)8. Head of Compliance/ Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)9. Business Analyst (BA)10. Founder of the FinTech Startup (who is approached by the bank for Robo Advisory or Chatbot)

Ans:Role of CTO

With the onslaught of technology from all directions, the role of Chief Technology Officer in business establishments is changing from that of a technical expert to driver of the business In the last few years, technology has driven businesses differently and the role that a Chief Technology Officer plays for business development has changed substantially. Hence, accordingly, a CTO has moved on from a support role to a partnership role, thus making our role more prominent for partnering the business.

RoadMap

identify various APIs (both in terms of types and categories) that might be required

API Types CategoryCloudWalk The CloudWalk API allows

developers to access all the functionalities of the CloudWalk platform.

Financial

CloudWalk is a transparent yet secure payment platform. The API enables applications to perform CRUD

Revolut Open Banking Webhooks

The Revolut Open Banking Webhooks API allows you to receive updates about your account. You can use this API to create a web-hook endpoint to receive a notification that will be posted, via HTTP

Financial

Xtremcoin The Xtremcoin API returns information related to cryptocurrency tickers, currency pairs, and open orders. Data is returned in JSON format. This platform supports Bitcoin, BitcoinCash, Litecoin

CryptoCurrency

Citibank Utilities The Citibank Utilities API allows you to retrieve an array of valid values, field properties and validations applied for a specific market.

Financial

Citibank Money Movement

The Citibank Money Movement API allows you to move money within the market of the account of the Citi customer who authorized your app.

Banking

Citibank Cards Give Citi customers the ability to manage their credit and debit cards The Citibank Cards API allows you to perform actions on the actual credit cards of the Citi Customer who authorized your app

Banking

Citibank Customers The Citibank Customers API allows you to retrieve basic Citi customer information such as name, mailing address, email address and phone numbers. 

Banking

Citibank Accounts The Citibank Accounts API allows you to retrieve account and transaction data for Citi Customers who have authorized your app. In most cases, you'll want to request a summary of all accounts

Banking

Citibank Authorize The Citibank Authorize API is an implementation

Banking

of the OAuth 2.0 framework, that allows you to obtain secure Citibank authorization using standard methods that can be integrated in your applications

Advent of APIS and Banking APIs

identify various categories of partners (on both demand and supply side)Partners: I would leverage the thriving FinTech ecosystem to accelerate demand-side of customer interface (offer better user journeys, faster TAT, and better banking experience, overall. Some of these partners could include Bank Bazaar/Paisa Bazaar (customer acquisition/On-boarding), Pay U Money, Razor Pay (Payments Transactions, Wallets), ScripBox, FundsIndia (Investment), Coverfox (Insurance), Faircent, I-lend (Lending), Aditya Birla My Universe (Account aggregation), Milaap (Agri)

develop various products with relevant features in line with CEO’s vision

Product Segment

Sub Segment Category Sub Category

Personal Accounts & Deposits Savings Account Savings Max Account, Regular Savings account, Women’s saving account, Kids Advantage Account, Senior Citizens

Account, Family Savings Group Account, Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account,Government/ Institutional Savings account, BSBDA Small Account, Govt Scheme Beneficiary Savings account

Personal Accounts & Deposits Salary Accounts Premium Salary Account, Regular Salary Account, Defence Salary Account, Classic Salary Account, Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account – Salary,Salary family Account, Reimbursement Account

Personal Accounts & Deposits Current Accounts 1. ULTIMA Current Account2. Supreme Current Account3. Apex Current Account4. EZEE Current Account5. Max Current Account6. Agri Current Account7. Plus Current Account8. Current Account for Hospitals

and Nursing Homes9. Trade Current Account10. Current Account for

Professionals11. Premium Current Account12. Merchant Advantage Plus

Current Account13. Regular Current Account14. Merchant Advantage Current

Account15. Flexi Current Account16. Institutional Current Account17. Smart Up solution for Start Ups18. Ascent Current Account19. RFC Domestic Current Account20. Exchange Earners Foreign

Currency (EEFC) Account21. E-comm Current Account

Personal Accounts & Deposits Deposits Dream Deposit,Regular Fixed Deposit,Recurring Deposit,5 Year Tax Saving Fixed Deposit,Overdraft Against Fixed Deposits,Sweep-in Facility

Personal Accounts & Deposits Safe Deposit LockerPersonal Accounts & Deposits Rural Accounts Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account –

Farmers, Kisan Club Savings accountPersonal Accounts & Deposits Pension AccountsPersonal Loans Personal LoanPersonal Loans Car Loans New Car Loans, Pre-Owned Car Loans,

Loan against CarPersonal Loans Business LoanPersonal Loans Loan on Credit Card Insta Loan, Insta Jumbo Loan, Balance

Transfer on EMI, Smart EMI

Personal Loans Loans for professionals

Personal Loans Loan Against Securities

Personal Loans Home LoanPersonal Loans Two Wheeler Loans Two Wheeler Loan, Super Bike LoanPersonal Loans Gold LoanPersonal Loans Loan Against

PropertyPersonal Loans Educational Loan Education Loan for Indian Education,

Central Govt Interest Subsidy Scheme, Education Loan for Foreign Education

Personal Loans Government Sponsored Programs

Personal Loans Rural Loans Retail Agri Loans, Tractor LoanPersonal Loans Smartdraft -

Overdraft Against Salary

Personal Loans Loans Against Assets Loans against Securities, Loans against Rental Receivables

Personal Loans Consumer Durable Loan

Personal Cards Credit Cards Featured Cards/Super Premium/Co-brand/Professional/Premium Travel/Premium Women/Premium/Regular/Commercial/Cashback

Personal Cards Debit Cards Times Points Debit CardEasyShop Platinum Debit CardJetPrivilege HDFC Bank Signature Debit CardHDFC Bank Rewards Debit CardEasyShop Titanium Royale Debit CardEasyShop Titanium Debit CardEasyShop Debit CardEasyShop Business Debit CardEasyShop Womans Advantage Debit CardEasyShop NRO Debit CardEasyShop Imperia Platinum Chip Debit CardEasyShop Gold Debit CardRuPay Premium Debit CardEasyShop Rupay NRO Debit Card

Personal Cards Prepaid Cards Regalia ForexPlus CardMulticurrency Platinum ForexPlus Chip CardISIC Student ForexPlus CardHajj Umrah CardForexPlus CardForexPlus Chip Card

ForexPlus Platinum CardGiftPlus CardFoodPlus CardMoneyPlus CardApollo Medical Benefit CardFASTag - Hassle-free Toll Payment

Personal Cards Credit Card Rewards Program

Personal Cards Loan on Credit CardPersonal Demat Demat AccountPersonal Demat 2 in 1 AccountPersonal Demat 3 in 1 AccountPersonal Demat Investment AssistPersonal Investments National Pension

SystemPersonal Investments Atal Pension YojanaPersonal Investments InvestTrackPersonal Investments Investment ProductsPersonal Investments Investment Advisory

Group ReportsPersonal Investments Public Provident

FundPersonal Investments Sukanya Samriddhi

AccountPersonal Insurance Life InsurancePersonal Insurance Health and Accident

InsurancePersonal Insurance Motor InsurancePersonal Insurance Travel InsurancePersonal Insurance Home InsurancePersonal Insurance Two Wheeler

InsurancePersonal Insurance Student Travel

InsurancePersonal Forex Travel SolutionsPersonal Forex Remittance ProductsPersonal Forex Other Forex ServicesPersonal Forex Forex HelpPersonal Forex Buy ForexCardPersonal Premium Banking Imperia BankingPersonal Premium Banking Preferred BankingPersonal Premium Banking Classic BankingPersonal Premium Banking Prime BankingPersonal Private Banking Private BankingPremier Accounts & Deposits Savings AccountPremier Accounts & Deposits Salary AccountsPremier Accounts & Deposits Current AccountsPremier Accounts & Deposits DepositsPremier Accounts & Deposits Safe Deposit Locker

Premier Accounts & Deposits Rural AccountsPremier Accounts & Deposits Pension AccountsPremier Loans Personal LoanPremier Loans Car LoansPremier Loans Business LoanPremier Loans Loan on Credit CardPremier Loans Loans for

professionalsPremier Loans Loan Against

SecuritiesPremier Loans Home LoanPremier Loans Two Wheeler LoansPremier Loans Gold LoanPremier Loans Loan Against

PropertyPremier Loans Educational LoanPremier Loans Government

Sponsored ProgramsPremier Loans Rural LoansPremier Loans Smartdraft -

Overdraft Against Salary

Premier Loans Loans Against AssetsPremier Loans Consumer Durable

LoanPremier Cards Credit CardsPremier Cards Debit CardsPremier Cards Prepaid CardsPremier Cards Credit Card Rewards

ProgramPremier Cards Loan on Credit CardPremier Demat Demat AccountPremier Demat 2 in 1 AccountPremier Demat 3 in 1 AccountPremier Demat Investment AssistPremier Investments National Pension

SystemPremier Investments Atal Pension YojanaPremier Investments InvestTrackPremier Investments Investment ProductsPremier Investments Investment Advisory

Group ReportsPremier Investments Public Provident

FundPremier Investments Sukanya Samriddhi

AccountPremier Insurance Life InsurancePremier Insurance Health and Accident

InsurancePremier Insurance Motor Insurance

Premier Insurance Travel InsurancePremier Insurance Home InsurancePremier Insurance Two Wheeler

InsurancePremier Insurance Student Travel

InsurancePremier Forex Travel SolutionsPremier Forex Remittance ProductsPremier Forex Other Forex ServicesPremier Forex Forex HelpPremier Forex Buy ForexCardPremier Premium Banking Imperia BankingPremier Premium Banking Preferred BankingPremier Premium Banking Classic BankingPremier Premium Banking Prime BankingPremier Private Banking Private Banking

NRI Accounts & Deposits Savings AccountsNRI Accounts & Deposits Current AccountsNRI Accounts & Deposits Salary AccountsNRI Accounts & Deposits DepositsNRI Accounts & Deposits Accounts for

Returning NRIsNRI Accounts & Deposits Offshore Accounts &

DepositsNRI Accounts & Deposits Overdraft against

DepositsNRI Premium Banking Imperia BankingNRI Premium Banking Preferred BankingNRI Premium Banking Classic BankingNRI Loans Home LoanNRI Loans Loan against

SecuritiesNRI Payment Services BillPayNRI Payment Services DirectPayNRI Payment Services InstaPayNRI Payment Services NetSafeNRI Payment Services Online DonationsNRI Life Insurance Life InsuranceSME Accounts & Deposits Current AccountsSME Accounts & Deposits Merchant ServicesSME Accounts & Deposits Cash Management

ServicesSME Financing Working Capital

FinanceSME Financing Term LoansSME Financing Business LoansSME Financing Health Care FinanceSME Trade Finance Export ServicesSME Trade Finance Import Services

SME Trade Finance Remittance ServicesSME Trade Finance Bank GuaranteeSME Trade Finance Letter of credit

Wholesale Corporates Large CorporatesWholesale Corporates Supply Chain

PartnersWholesale Corporates Agricultural LendingWholesale Corporates Smart HubWholesale Financial Service Provider BanksWholesale Financial Service Provider Financial InstitutonsWholesale Financial Service Provider Mutual FundsWholesale Financial Service Provider Capital Commodity

and Market BrokersWholesale Financial Service Provider Insurance CompaniesWholesale Financial Service Provider Commodity

BusinessesWholesale Financial Service Provider TrustsWholesale Financial Service Provider Smart HubWholesale Investment Banking Debt Capital MarketsWholesale Investment Banking Project and

Structured FinanceWholesale Investment Banking Equity Capital

MarketsWholesale Investment Banking Corporate Finance

AdvisoryWholesale Trusts BanksWholesale Trusts Financial InstitutonsWholesale Trusts Mutual FundsWholesale Trusts Capital Commodity

and Market BrokersWholesale Trusts Insurance CompaniesWholesale Trusts Commodity

BusinessesWholesale Trusts TrustsWholesale Trusts Smart Hub

Agri Kisan Dhan Vikas eKendra Aggregated Services

identify FinTech technology partners in Robo-Advisory and Realtime Voice Interaction through Chatbot

Robo-advisory & Voice commerce: Since Santander’s focus is on emerging technologies I would offer Robo

advisory to Santander’s customers to offer a seamless, end-to-end experience on sourcing, on-boarding,

advisory, and transaction monitoring. I would recommend to CDO/Sales teams to work with FinTech partners

like Future Advisor,Betterment,Wealth Front and TradeKing to offer such capabilities to customers.

Voice Interaction through Chatbot – I would recommend exploring partnership with Amazon (and build out Alexa skills)

Role 2: Founder of Fintech startup

As a Founder of Fintech startup, I would ensure Santander’s customers have a seamless experience right from initiation through transaction & servicing. I would approach the bank to understand the following aspects.

- Bank’s vision ,mission and values statement- Pricing, Targeting and customer segmentation- Business Requirement translating to Technical Requirement for Implementation- Technology roadmap – core systems, API economy available, ease of integration, Implementation challenges

and Addressing the Challenges, Feasibility Study- Access to Various Policies, Operating Models and Procedures of the Bank- Legal, Technical and Commercial Viability and Return on Investment- Expectation from Proof of concept,Demo, User Acceptance criteria for the products offered- Roll out & Implementation plan- Bank’s roles & responsibilities, teams, corporate governance- Procurement Planning for Implementation and Capacity Planning for future requirement and Scalability- Costing involved to implement the solution- Aadhar or National ID Integration requirements – Biometric fingerprint or Iris scan

QUESTION 21. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a continuum of innovative technologies used to automate processes

and operations traditionally done by humans. RPA solutions are frequently achieved with software robots and best applied to repetitive, predictable, rules-based activities. Management of Omega Insurance company is considering organization-wide RPA implementation. Following is the overview of their current processes.

Rating and Pricing: The insurance company receives an email from the actuary which contains a standardized template for different product wise rating/risk & likelihood of loss and the pricing is derived based on the same. Currently, this data is manually entered into the pricing system. Once the pricing system gives the product wise output, the same is circulated through email to all the relevant product heads. Again, this is a manual process.  

Underwriting Policy: The top management has clear underwriting policy in place. It clearly specifies the types of insurance to be written, territories to be developed, forms to be used, various reports to be filed or inspections to be made, risk and pricing policy, accepted/borderlines or prohibited business; amounts of insurance to be written vs compulsory reinsurance requirement.

Application & Reports: Currently all the customers or agents are filing the online form which is integrated into the main system through APIs. However, agent’s report (their initial appraisal of the client) is received through the mail. Currently, all the agents have their own format of reporting. An inspection report by external reviewers also faces the same issue.

Acceptance or Rejection of Policy Issuance: Currently the entire review for some of the products takes more than a week’s time. The maker does the initial verification, data entry and generates the report which goes to the checker for his review. Reviewer reverifies this data report and informs the maker about the inconsistency found, otherwise it goes to reinsurance team (to check appetite for reinsurance), legal and compliance team who checks the same from a regulatory perspective and finally it goes to the authorizer who approves the same based on all the inputs received so far.

Reinsurance: Reinsurance Team normally has reinsurance partners. Some of them get involved on a case to case basis while some work on a contractual basis. Currently, the data shared with different reinsurers in different formats through email attachments.   

Claim Settlement: Once the notice of loss is received by the company from the claimant, the first step is taken to verify that the loss has occurred, and it is covered under the active policy. If yes, then to what extent the same is covered. Once it is established, the claim goes for processing and currently this entire process is manual which takes around 2 weeks’ time.As a consultant, considering product wise   nuances (of 3 to 4 products max as an example) and based on the aforesaid information, you are required to prepare a report outlining the roadmap for the RPA implementation, its advantage, identifying processes which can be more efficient, challenges that one may expect to encounter and enumerate various cost-saving avenues. Based on the case study shared by Infosys BPM you are planning to recommend Infosys RPA agent for implementation. Further, you are also planning to implement smart contracts (using IBM's   Hyperledger   Fabric   Blockchain ) along with RPA to bring more efficiency and transparency in the overall process.  

Introduction:

Robotic process automation (RPA) is bringing massive increases in productivity and innovation across enterprises worldwide. By allowing companies to multiply workforce productivity and utilize data more effectively, these technologies can help companies partially or fully automate nearly any task. From document processing to IT and accounting, RPA has had a major impact on almost every aspect of the way companies do business.

As a consultant, I have taken 3 Product categories, and explained the workflow as below1. Mortgage Insurance:

Current Process:The mortgage industry is known for being process- oriented as well as engaging with a wide number of players, including loan officers, processors, and underwriters across processes such as fraud checks, appraisal orders, title orders, and so on.

Scope for automation:Mortgage fraud is on the rise and there are numerous measures being adopted by lenders to mitigate losses due to fraud. Today, lenders have a loan origination system (LOS) that interfaces with fraud detection applications, enabled with predictive analytics, to determine the risk propensity of a given loan.

2. Healthcare InsuranceThe healthcare industry has the potential to save billions over the coming decade with the recent addition of robotic process automation (RPA) systems into hospitals and clinics. RPA uses sets of structured data with proper design, planning and governance to optimize the value of its intelligent automation framework.Here are four ways you can use RPA to improve work processes in medicine:

a. Boosting Revenue Cycles: Organizations can benefit greatly from the technology’s ability to improve the revenue cycle and administrative processes. Outdated systems often must deal with numerous changes in code that take place during the billing cycle, but RPA is capable of adapting to these changes in an easy and seamless manner. The technology automates menial, time-consuming and repetitive processes such as data digitization

and accounts payable, which can ultimately improve billing efficiency and a lower proportion of write-offs. This ultimately helps healthcare providers save their resources.

b. Offering Optimal Care: RPA has great benefit in medical records as it can provide analysis and data based on a patient’s condition and how they’re progressing. The technology can monitor a patient’s journey from when they first showed symptoms to where they are now and offer a smart diagnosis and treatment options by analyzing data from vast databases of medical knowledge and wisdom. Healthcare providers can improve the care cycle greatly as it streamlines much of their work and, ultimately, helps the patients. The technology is effective in care management, including coordinating that care, case and utilization management, population wellness and remote monitoring.

c. Claims Administration: One of the most time-consuming tasks that healthcare administrators must deal with is spent handling claims. This includes inputting and processing claims, as well as adjusting them and dealing with appeals. With machines equipped with RPA, organization can be at the forefront of the digitization movement in claims management.

d. Savings in Human Labor: RPA will not replace human workers, but instead will help elevate them into churning out higher-value work that maximizes the clinical training they have. The technology helps human workers become more focused and devoted to patient care and their positions within the industry.

3. Life Insurance:The factors that make life insurance operations ideal for RPANature of operations: RPA works best where the underlying processes are rules-based, repetitive and frequent, and use structured data as inputs. The time-consuming tasks in life insurance processing such as application handling, claims processing and data entry can be easily automated using robotic software.No need for complex system integration: RPA interacts with individual systems in the same way as a human user, eliminating the need for complex system integration. Given the number of complex legacy systems that still exist in most life insurers’ operations, this can be a tremendous benefit and reduce the risk of insurance modernization programs.Cost effectiveness: A successful RPA implementation can yield a 40–80 percent reduction in processing costs and an up to 80 percent reduction in processing time. Licensing and infrastructure costs are also relatively low.No need for talent refresh: Platforms that deliver RPA are built with business users in mind—they are intuitive, and process based, and do not require users to know software development languages to develop and configure the “bots”.Quick implementation: Accenture has found that a simple-to-moderately complex process can be automated in as little as 6 to 8 weeks, including the design, configuration, testing and transition to production.

Value Proposition of RPA for Life insurers

Productivity boost: Software bots don’t take lunch breaks and work seven days a week at machine speed! Their work is only limited by the responsiveness of the underlying applications and the method that they use to “read” the screen. This technology can reduce average handling time by 40 percent.

Improved operational efficiency: RPA has the operational ability to dynamically manage resource capacity and address peak volumes.

Substantial savings: This low-cost solution can perform routine administrative tasks of multiple human workers. One bot equates to average of 3–4 FTEs at less than half the cost of an offshore resource.Robotics can deliver payback on investment within 12 months when implemented at scale

Higher quality: RPA can deliver major improvements in quality by eliminating almost all processing errors. It also helps in fraud detection and compliance as it generates a high volume of operational process data and supports advanced analytics to derive operational intelligence. The data and metrics can also be used for customer experience management, among other things.

Advanced analytics: RPA software bots execute the same processes as humans do, but the bot captures all the details of the process and stores it for later use in auditing and analytics. This way, RPA aids quick and intelligent decision making.

Implementation speed: RPA sits on top of an organization’s existing infrastructure, interacting with various systems and databases at the user interface (UI) layer. This makes it an inexpensive and a timely automation solution.

Enhanced satisfaction: By automating monotonous tasks, RPA enhances staff satisfaction and allows them to focus on higher-value work.

Apart from the benefits above, RPA ensures data accuracy, improves regulatory compliance and streamlines claims processing. Life insurers using advanced RPA solutions can go beyond cost reduction and operational efficiency to transform the customer experience, create new products and services, and provide coverage for different types of risk. Moreover, the financial benefits realized through RPA can be reinvested in emerging digital technologies that underpin personalized customer relationships.

RPA Roadmap

The RPA roadmap should be divided into five key stages: plan, pilot, implement, scale and steady state. Each of these stages will build upon the previous one, so it is important that each step be solid. This helps companies prepare for the future and stay competitive as technologies and solutions evolve. By building a strong foundation for RPA, companies can rapidly innovate and achieve a positive ROI more quickly.

1. Plan: A comprehensive plan based on well-defined business objectives is important for any major initiative. This helps lay the foundation for the initiative and ensures that the goals of the project are aligned with the goals of the organization as a wholea. Understand RPA – The opportunities to leverage RPA are endless and can be implemented in many ways. It

is important that the initiative leaders fully understand best practices for RPA and what it can and cannot do and how it aligns with business goals. A major component of this step is identifying the most suitable tasks for automation, since it is not suited to all processes. In general, the best candidates are ones that involve repetitive tasks with simple rules and that use a significant amount of manual resources.

b. Define RPA governance – RPA ownership can be handled in many ways, each providing benefits and negatives. Which governance system the enterprise uses will depend on specific needs and goals. A centralized governance structure can improve collaboration between business units and make it simpler to ensure compliance. This structure may make sense for highly regulated industries, such as those in the financial sector. A more decentralized approach in which each business unit implements RPA solutions on its own can improve innovation and allow for individual solutions for each unit but may suffer from reduced organization and governance. In many cases, a hybrid approach with a centralized Center of Excellence (CoE) may make the most sense. The CoE can drive innovation and compliance standards, while allowing business units freedom to choose solutions that meet their own needs.

c. Build support – Major initiatives need support from all key stakeholders, from business leaders to end users, to be successful. It is important that initiative leaders make the case for RPA early on and demonstrate how it can deliver value. After implementation, rigorous tracking of results and regular reporting out to key stakeholders is critical.

d. Choose the best approach – There are many possible ways to implement automation in the enterprise and it is important that the company choose an approach that fits its needs. Narrow-focus automation can be implemented at the individual level for unique use cases or use cases that require high levels of human worker interaction. Automation also can be implemented at the backend to manage a high volume of mission-critical work across multiple teams. Creating a proof of concept can help companies determine what approach works best for them. The initial iteration also can be scaled up later to deliver more value

2. Pilot

When a plan with support from all stakeholders has been finalized, the initiative can move onto the pilot stage. This stage will allow the company to demonstrate the value of RPA and learn how to implement it effectively with minimal risk

a. Test on a small scale – Pilot projects should target low-hanging fruit that requires minimal investment. This allows the initiative to score easy wins and tests the ability of the enterprise to adapt without risking large amounts of time or resources. Examples include very repetitive data management processes, IT operations processes, and human resource processes such as form-filling for new employees

b. Work with a trusted vendor – It is important that the pilot project be in collaboration with a trusted vendor that can walk the team through the process and be ready to help if anything goes wrong. There are several important considerations when choosing a vendor, including product ease of use, experience in the field (which can translate to a more mature solution), implementation time and process (how quickly you can get up and running), scalability, pre-built automation actions, financial stability, transparent pricing, total cost of ownership, tool selection, support, and frequency of upgrades.

c. Review – The pilot project should be viewed as a learning tool to help identify pitfalls and gaps in the plan. To this end, it is critical that the results of the project be carefully measured and reviewed. The team must decide whether the project met business goals, what areas can be improved, and how the plan needs to be adjusted for the full-scale implementation.

3. ImplementWhen the team has completed implementation of the pilot project and reviewed its successes and failures, it is time to move on to the full implementation. This is a critical step and it is important for the team to be prepared for new challenges when RPA is deployed at scale.a. Set timeline and expectations – The pilot project should allow the team to recalibrate their expectations and

set more realistic benchmarks for success. Before deployment, the team should reconvene for an additional planning phase to learn from what went right and what went wrong in the pilot phase and add a timeline for solution deployment and assessment.

b. Work closely with your vendor – The RPA vendor is a key partner in any RPA initiative. Its help and input are extremely important during the implementation stage. The team should work closely with the vendor to ensure necessary training and timely implementation. It also is important to review the deployment and ensure that the vendor is delivering everything that was agreed upon.

c. Conduct audits – To improve solutions and identify areas of opportunity, it is critical for the enterprise to understand how solutions are performing. The team should regularly conduct internal RPA audits and focus on optimizing ROI. Underperforming solutions should be improved or eliminated, while effective solutions should be emulated and adopted in other areas of the business.

4. ScaleAfter the initial deployment, the RPA initiative team can begin looking for ways to improve current solutions and implement new ones. Automation is a rapidly evolving field with expanding opportunities. This makes it important that the enterprise continually scale its solutions to be more powerful and encompass a wider range of processes. a. Look for new processes to automate – An initial deployment may be focused on the most obvious targets

for RPA solutions, such as document processing and data entry. However, there are many more areas where RPA can deliver significant benefits. Modern solutions can automatically diagnose and fix IT issues, deliver rapid customer service, and generate insights. This makes it important to regularly review business processes across the enterprise and identify new targets for automation. •

b. Build in cross-functionality – Automated solutions provide significant opportunities for data sharing and collaboration across business units. Effective implementations can, for example, automatically forward customer service information about a customer looking for a new product to sales, allowing companies to more effectively leverage the data they collect. The RPA initiative team should regularly look for these opportunities and integrate them into existing solutions.

5. Steady State

As the enterprise adapts to the new RPA solutions, there may be a tendency for the team to stop innovating and looking for new ways to improve. RPA leadership in the enterprise must strive to avoid stagnation and constantly look to sustain and improve RPA systems by cultivating a culture of automation.a. Manage and monitor – The RPA CoE will continue to monitor systems throughout the organization and work

to ensure RPA is sustained across the organization. Continuous testing with an integrated data gathering and analytics tool will allow the company to ensure ongoing optimization of processes, find additional automation opportunities, and determine the RPA solution’s ROI.

b. Achieving RPA success – Each organization must define what RPA success looks like and analyze the results of its solution to identify areas that can be improved. By analyzing, learning, and growing, the company can stay updated of new solutions and continuously improve.

QUESTION 41. Indian Government has recently learned about the plastic bank initiative (https://www.plasticbank.org/)

where Plastic Bank and IBM are working on blockchain to exchange waste for digital credits, helping the environment and communities in need. The Government would like to implement similar Blockchain based reward system but at a much larger scale to address issues like waste management, food wastage, donation of clothes, toys & books, blood donation, and maintenance of public places.Another proposal is to establish a ‘responsible citizen index’ where based on your score cost of public utility will vary. Everyone will start at the same index but then it will reduce based on fines and penalties charged to an individual by the Government (for instance disobeying traffic rules, spitting, littering, carrying plastic bag, involved in public nuisance, other civil crimes etc) or it can improve if someone does social service, become volunteer in government approved schemes or becomes a catalyst for the change.    The Government would like you to provide the report after critically evaluating both the proposals. You are also required to provide the approach to be taken to make the implementation most effective.Ans:

Several pan-India initiatives have been launched to fight plastic pollution like clean-up drives of public spaces, national reserves, forests, and beaches. These initiatives also include making 100 monuments across the country into plastic and litter-free zones. Even the Tourism Ministry contributed their lot to the cause by vowing to avoid plastic straws at public places.

Several developmental measures have already been initiated by various states across the country to lower their plastic consumption and handle the existing waste across their jurisdiction. Below are some initiatives adopted by the municipalities, the state administration and the common public to tackle the plastic crises at their own level across the country.

1. Use of recyclables in government offices in Kerala

Many government offices in Kerala are contributing in their own way towards the Beat Plastic Pollution initiative of the government to make India plastic free. The employees in these offices have shifted from using plastic-made items like plastic water bottles and disposable teacups to steel cutlery, and from pens made of plastic to pens made of steel. This action of the government offices was mooted by the Suchitwa Mission and Haritha Keralam Mission, which aimed at making the government departments an example of a clean environment. This step can also be easily implied in corporate and private organizations while paving the way for an environment-friendly work culture.

2. Extracting of plastic waste from water bodies in Kerala

It’s sad that the marine creatures are paying the price of our callousness and impotence to handle the plastic waste. It becomes very depressing when multiple reports highlighting the dead bodies of the marine animals found on the seashores, with plastic waste inside their tummies. To handle this grave situation, Kerala’s Suchitwa Mission has launched an excellent project in which 28 fishermen have been employed from the Neendakara harbor in not just finding the fishes but also extracting the plastic from the water bodies that either gets stuck in the fishing nets or float on the sea. The Mission has managed to retrieve 25 tons of plastic waste in last 10 months of the project launch.

3. Tackling plastic use in Sikkim

Sikkim has always been at the forefront when it comes to tackling the plastic pollution. Its success in restricting usage and sale of plastic bags is an example for the other states to learn from. This success is not achieved by Sikkim by just imposing random fines on the plastic use, but by making people aware of the dangers caused by plastics. In 1998, it became the first Indian state to ban disposable plastic bags and single-use plastic bottles. Sikkim government took two bigger decisions in 2016. Firstly, it targeted the government offices for imposing a ban on the use of packaged drinking water on its premises to reduce an unnecessary burden on the dump yards. Secondly, it completely banned the consumption of Styrofoam and thermocol disposable plates and cutlery in the entire state to reduce harmful effects of the plastic pollution and tackle its ever-increasing garbage problem. Since 2005, the state has been engaged in conducting significant campaigns to spread awareness among people about the harms imposed by plastic on the environment. Similar success stories have emerged out of Nainital and Jaipur, where shopkeepers have begun to use chargeable cloth bags instead of plastic ones.

4. Utilizing plastic for road surfacing

Due to the plausible efforts of Professor Rajagopalan Vasudevan of the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai, the road surfacing using plastics is now a reality. The plastic which is banned and considered a waste can now be utilized in flagging off development projects across the country. Many states in India are planning to implement this pioneering technique to manage their plastic waste. The states of Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have already started to work on this unique technique.

5. Recycling plastic for better purposes

It is an impossible task to dispose of such huge amounts of plastic waste generated in India at one go. The only option available is to use this plastic waste in an eco-friendly manner that the burden on the country’s dumping grounds gets reduced. Many organizations in India have been recycling plastic in an efficient manner to avoid any harmful effects caused by it. The plastic is being utilized and recycled in construction materials, making of threads and fabrics for the textile industry, and many other better purposes. The government’s recent proposal to introduce plastic currency notes is a major step in reusing plastic waste.

6. Adoption of ‘‘co-processing of waste” technique in Gujarat to deal with plastic pollution

The Gujarat state government, in association with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, had introduced the concept of ‘‘co-processing of waste” to the industries producing huge amounts of plastic wastes and working closely with them on this concept. Co-processing is the process of utilizing waste materials in the industrial processes or substituting them for primary fuel or raw material. The paper mills in Vapi collected their plastic byproducts and then used them to fire cement plants. This co-processing of hazardous waste in the cement production is an eco-friendly and sound method for its disposal. GPCB has arranged a number of meetings with Gujarat Paper Mill Association and the owners of the cement industries to make ‘‘co-processing of waste” a reality. Thereafter, a trial run for use of plastic waste in the kiln was organized at the cement mills. After the success of the trial run, many companies in the cement sector have incorporated large quantities of plastic waste in their feeding system.

7. The state of Andhra Pradesh has started a scale-out program to convert 6 million farms from conventional synthetic chemical agriculture to Zero-Budget Natural Farming.

8. Introduction of “Beat Plastic Pollution” drive by Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) in East Delhi schools. The SEEDS implemented a drive in view of beating plastic pollution in six Schools in East Delhi to encourage safe environmental practices among students, children, teachers, parents, and communities in Delhi.

9. Fishermen of Kerala turning plastics from ocean into roads

The fishermen in Kerala are pulling out plastics dumped in the oceans with the help of their nets. They have set up first-ever recycling center in Kadalamma with the help of several government agencies to clean, sort, and process all the sea-tossed plastic bags, bottles, straws, etc. that they fish out. The plastic which is damaged, eroded, and cannot be recycled is shredded into a confetti and then sold to the local constructors to be used in paving of the roads.

2. Considering the Government proposal to implement to implement similar Blockchain based reward system but at a much larger scale to address issues like waste management, food wastage, donation of clothes, toys & books, blood donation, and maintenance of public places. This initiative can help in the long run to manage the wastage of items that are taking place on a larger scale throughout the country.

3. Electronic Waste: According to the International Telecommunications Union, it is estimated that a whopping €55 billion ($47 billion) has been lost to electronic waste. The biggest contributor of value is gold, which is used in the construction of a wide variety of electrical components. Technology improves at an alarming pace and, as a result, products become obsolete in only a few years. Most customers don’t know how to properly dispose of their electronic waste. This, unfortunately, means that most of it ends up in landfills.

Waste Sharing Initiatives

The current model of waste management means we centralize trash in landfills. This creates a concentration of waste which produces methane as a by-product. Methane is more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide, up to 25 times in fact. If we were to distribute our waste among the population we would be able to achieve a couple of key benefits: the waste would decompose quicker, and we could create fertilizer for local gardening projects. Blockchain for the environment is not necessarily just a tech-based solution. By sharing responsibility and knowledge of recycling efforts we can imitate what the most powerful cryptocurrency networks are already doing. On the other hand, kicking the proverbial trash can down the road does not make our waste go away, it simply delays the inevitable.

Waste Delivery

A decentralized approach will no doubt cause some existing companies to become obsolete. But this is the price of progress. And let’s be honest, many of them are paid to cut corners, not take care of the environment or community at large. As these players disappear we can expect new opportunities to rise in their place, one of which would be waste delivery. That may not sound like an enterprising business but given the huge volume of rubbish we’ve already created, smart blockchain projects could distribute and decentralize the waste from these previously concentrated areas and make a good chunk of change in the process.

There are numerous waste management sectors for which blockchain based projects could bring some real benefit. A notable addition is in the household and industrial waste sector. While number of ICOs are, in fact, launching to address this, the cryptocurrency community remains cautious. Revolutions are built on the back of action, not promises.

Our world is on a collision course with disaster if we don’t change our habits. Blockchain will certainly have an important role to play in helping us get there. But blockchain is just a technology and technology can be used for great evils or for the common good. Consequently, if blockchain truly is going to change the world then we first need to change ourselves. Countries like Sweden are leading the pack as they recycle nearly 100 percent of all household waste. Their recycling plants are so efficient that they import waste to operate at maximum capacity. By combining both the mind-shift to recycle with the technology that blockchain waste management solutions can provide, we may just have a chance to prevent the sort of apocalyptic future we so often see on TV.

With Blockchain technology, it is easy to build fast and secure network for transfer of data. It is a robust protocol on which safe platforms can be built and eventually give promising results. There are numerous ways Blockchain can address our wastage issue. For efficient results, it is necessary to observe full cycle of every product from how they are created to when and where they are thrown away. While comprehending this life cycle, it is vital to hold companies responsible, who are engaged in the production process and in the supply chain. Introduction of laws and standards will reinforce responsibility to every sector i.e. producer, distributor and consumer and costly fines for those who violate them.

Some standards are already in place but nations are not implementing them, largely due to various issues surrounding the water management concept like waste tracking and rules enforcement. Here, Blockchain technology can be a great help. For instance, the production of goods at each level can be recorded as a transaction on Blockchain. This will give a unique identity to the product, making every company responsible for its production. Now, when the products are sold in the market and circulated,

they carry their identity on package, which cannot be destroyed. After the product is used and disposed of in landfill, a new transaction will be recorded and stored on Blockchain. Everything will be accessible through QR code printed on each product. In case, if a Blockchain encrypted product ends up as trash on beach somewhere, we can easily identify the responsible person or company with the help of Blockchain Technology. Introduction of this system brings up many practical contemplations like setting-up amount, running costs, the process of monitoring and how to enforce them. The process is difficult but not impossible especially when we are determined about finding a worldwide solution of waste disposal. Blockchain technology is on its way to reap benefits for waste management problem. Various companies are implementing this technology and are coming out with innovative applications and cryptocurrency coins to deal with waste management. Let’s take a quick look at the companies, who use Blockchain Technology to manage waste disposal.

SwachhCoin is a nonprofit organization that uses Blockchain technology with the aim to renovate waste management sector. It plans to generate an environment that will make citizens to understand their roles and act responsibly. Further, to make industries and individuals participate in waste management program, they have made different application based on other relevant technology like Big data, IoT and Artificial intelligence. For instance: SWATEL is the acronym for Swachh Adaptive Intelligence, which is a customized application of Adaptive Intelligence technology. This application augments the efficiency of machines by making them intelligent to get the desired output during waste processing or any other activity.Similarly, SWATA i.e. Swachh Big data is an application based on Big Data that collects information from past and apply them in the activities like collection, transportation and distribution in an integrated manner via intelligent machines. SWIOT or Swachh Internet of Things gives complete access to regulate waste processing equipment both outdoor and indoor to increase efficiency. And SWBIN i.e. Swachh Bins is a waste collection bin encompassing features like linked user identity database, automatic opening and closing lid, integrated waste separation, reward distribution etc. The Govt need to implement more such proposals in Donation of Clothes drive, Toys , Blood Bank etc on similar basis

Coins4Clothes are the world's first charity to only accept and only spend crypto-currency, namely Bitcoin Cash (BCH). They collect Bitcoin Cash (BCH) donations from all over the world, which we use to purchase gently used clothing from everyday people in the community. They then distribute those clothes to various Toronto based charities. In this way they aim to introduce many new people to Bitcoin Cash (BCH), while providing clothing to those in need. Govt of India must implement similar such initiatives in India

Blockchain in Blood Donation

Right now, there are two key issues contributing to the problem: On one hand side, there are many people out there who don´t participate in the process of regular donations. Most of them don´t feel engaged to the topic or they dislike the lack of transparency how their donation is used. On the other hand, there is a huge number of donations that goes straight to the bin and is never used to save a life. But how does this happen so often? The core of the problem is the tracking and allocation of the donation during it´s useful life.

Both the problems need to be tackled as soon as possible especially behind the background that we face an increasing demand of blood donations. Most of the modern complex therapies such as chemotherapy, organ transplantation and heart surgeries, require a massive amount of blood and blood products.One way to resolve one of the biggest problems in healthcare would be to applicate the Blockchain technology on the blood donation system. With a strong and decentralized database, more information could be stored and accessed without violating data protection regulations. By storing the data in the Blockchain it becomes not manipulative and further analytics can be applied to enhance the allocation of donations within the system. With an insightful end-to-end visibility, with respect to the donor´s personal data, an automatic push notification system can be established. That gives a donor direct feedback when their blood is used to safe another human’s life. As the country of Sweden already introduced a more simplified way of notifications, the willingness to donate and the engagement of the donors went up tremendously..

QUESTION 61. There are multiple types of API aggregation business models. In summary, the first category of API

aggregation platforms, like ProgrammableWeb, purely provide directory listing and discovery services. The second category of API aggregation platforms, like Humanapi or IFTTT, provide API integration services where users can easily consume the service at one click without worrying about the integration nuances.  The third category of API aggregation platforms, provide a single gateway for multiple different APIs (ie API of APIs), making it easier for developers to develop using single API endpoint instead of integrating multiple different APIs.    However, the marketplace model interests you the most as it provides services encompassing all the three categories.You would like to open one consolidated marketplace, named APIBazzar, covering all the emerging technologies. You plan to have a shared inventory model with marketplaces like Mashape, Rapidapi, Algorithmia, Kaggle, and Thingverse. Shared inventory model means search returns value from all the different marketplaces and presented to the user in a single view. You also want to support the OpenAPI initiative and would like to offer automatic API conversion using services like APIMATIC.

You are required to prepare the research report and revenue sharing model for such integrated marketplace of marketplaces.  How it can be marketed, different pricing models and target customers. 

Role: Consultant

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API. In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building application software. In general terms, it is a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software componentsMarket place:

Marketplaces differ from portals as they aggregate many API providers into a single view and typically add search functions so developers can browse many different APIs. APIs are often categorized by area of focus (Finance, Social, Accounting, etc.) Mashape is an example of this kind of functionality

The attraction of using a marketplace is one of simplicity. Developers can come to one place for majority of their needs as an API consumer. This attraction is piqued with added value features like webhook aggregation (as recently released by RapidAPI), integrated API onboarding, centralized support, and issue tracking. By using these features developers only need to do one integration across many API providers. The approach also has positives for API providers. Being part of a marketplace can increase exposure for their APIs, especially for developers and smaller providers without huge market presence. For some providers, deploying to a marketplace can mean dispensing with a portal altogether — they simply need to provide an API specification and they are off-and-running. However, if many competing API providers participate in marketplaces, how do developers differentiate between similar services to find value? And on the other end, how do API providers make their offerings stand out in the crowd? For example, if there are 10 payment APIs in the marketplace, how does a developer know which one is best? This is where the idea of an evolved API marketplace starts to take shape.An evolved API marketplace would have three key features that differentiate it compared to current offerings:An improved classification system that helps build a more sophisticated view of the APIs in the marketplace. This system would enable contextual or even semantic search capabilities.Support for search by applications as well as humans. Ultimately this means providing a search API — REST, GraphQL, or otherwise — that can be used to interrogate the marketplace.Support for integration at an application-level i.e. an API can be selected from the marketplace based on the search results and integrated with automatically.

While APIs exist in the industry, there are no marketplace models that aggregate APIs across industries. Hence as an independent consultant, I would recommend that the Start-up should go ahead, and implement the idea, as it is unique form that perspective.Revenue Model: Listing of all API providers under one roof and creating an aggregator of aggregator model. To illustrate,Kaggle – Provider of data sets based on machine learning. Kaggle is the world's largest community of data scientists and machine learners, owned by Google, Inc. Kaggle got its start by offering machine learning competitions and now also offers a public data platform, a cloud-based workbench for data science, and short form AI education.Rapid API – Which is a general-purpose API market place offering computer vision to Pinterest to Yelp. RapidAPI is an open-source API marketplace. RapidAPI allows developers to easily discover and connect to the world’s top APIs and manage multiple API connections in one place.Human API – Which offers health data of consumers to developers, enterprises, and users.Mashape – Which offers public APIs for consumptionApimatic – Which consolidates APIs into simple SDKs

Pricing:B2B (typically for developers of start-ups and enterprises) Pricing can be free to get started, and upto 1000 calls/per user/per organization.Premium for unlimited credentials to access full range of products subject to minimum usage-based fees that can be determined by the start-upCustom offering for users requiring mega request/responses – say, government/quasi-government organizations.

Other revenue streams:- Subscription based value added services for technical help, trouble-shooting- Subscription based value added services for maintenance, change management, enterprise support/Annual maintenance ContractDedicated account management teams

Target customers: Governments, B2B (Typically developers of Startups), SMEs, Corporate Houses