Indian extradited to US from Singapore in call center fraud

Yahoo – AFP, April 20, 2019

Workers in a call center in India: in 2016 US authorities charged five such call centers
with operating fraud schemes targetting South Asians living in the United States
(AFP Photo/AFP)

Washington (AFP) - Singapore has extradited an Indian national to the United States to face charges in a call center fraud that scammed millions of dollars from victims in the United States, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 42, of Ahmedabad, India, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in a Houston, Texas federal court for his role in a case that was first announced in 2016, charging 60 people with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Patel ran the HGlobal call center, one of five India-based operations which allegedly worked together in an operation which targeted mostly South Asians living in the United States.

Callers pretending to be US tax or immigration officials threatened them with arrest and deportation if they did not remit money to the government.

The victims were then directed to people working with the call centers in the United States to collect the "fines" through prepaid debit cards or wire transfers, and the money was quickly laundered out of the country.

"This extradition once again demonstrates the Department's unwavering commitment to disrupt and dismantle the India-based call center scam industry and to work with our foreign partners to hold accountable those who perpetrate schemes that defraud our citizens," said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski in a statement.

Justice officials said that in the past six years more than 15,000 people have been cheated of over $75 million in scams in which callers pose as agents of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal tax agency.

So far, in the Indian call center case, 24 domestic US defendants have been convicted and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, the Justice Department said.

"The remaining India-based defendants have yet to be arraigned in this case," they said.

Related Article:

US charges dozens in India-based call center fraud racket

Singapore Airlines denies snooping with seatback cameras

Yahoo – AFP, 21 February 2019

Singapore Airlines says the cameras on its latest inflight entertainment systems
have been disabled

Singapore Airlines insisted Thursday that cameras on its planes' entertainment systems had been disabled after an outcry online from worried passengers who spotted the tiny lenses peering at them.

Travellers took to Twitter and other social media to raise the alarm over the cameras at the bottom of seatback screens on a number of the Singapore flag carrier's newer aircraft.

"Just found this interesting sensor looking at me from the seat back on board of Singapore Airlines. Any expert opinion of whether is a camera?" passenger Vitaly Kamluk tweeted.

His tweet was accompanied by photos of the monitor with the embedded camera.

Another passenger urged the airline in a tweet to "notify all your passengers and get their consent, particularly EU residents, that you are doing this, why, what are you doing with the data and how long you keep it".

The airline confirmed that some of its latest inflight entertainment systems did have fixed cameras -- but assured passengers that they had been disabled.

"These cameras have been intended by the manufacturers for future developments. These cameras have been permanently disabled on our aircraft and cannot be activated on board," the airline said in a statement.

"We have no plans to enable or develop any features using the cameras."

Singapore PM defends government Internet blockage

Yahoo – AFP, June 10, 2016

Singapore is one of the world's most Internet-savvy societies, offering
broadband speeds envied by many (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman)

Singapore's prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has defended the country's controversial decision to cut off civil servants' work computers from the Internet, calling the move "absolutely necessary" to keep information systems secure.

"Are we happy? I don't think so, because it will slow us down in terms of day-to-day productivity. In terms of security, safety of our systems, safety of our citizens and information concerning them, it's absolutely necessary," he told Singapore media during a visit to Myanmar.

Lee said that the defence and foreign affairs ministries already have separate computers for Internet access and for handling sensitive communications.

There was a huge backlash on Wednesday when The Straits Times newspaper reported that some 100,000 government computers would be affected by the Internet blockage, aimed at keeping data secure and preventing the spread of malware.

It quoted a cyber security official as saying that there were 16 attacks on government systems from unnamed sources in the last year, but the malware was detected and destroyed.

Singapore's prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (L) has defended the country's 

controversial decision to cut off civil servants' work computers from the Internet, 

calling the move 'absolutely necessary' to keep information systems secure

(AFP Photo/Mohd Fyrol)

Malware is software specifically designed to disrupt or damage a computer system.

Civil servants would still be able to access the Internet on their personal devices such as tablets and mobile phones.

Public-school teachers and lecturers would not be affected by the move, officials said.

Singapore is one of the world's most Internet-savvy societies, offering broadband speeds envied by many.

A wide range of government services are available online, including registering for marriage, filing complaints to the police and video consultations with doctors.

Singapore announced in 2014 it was stepping up IT security measures following attacks on a section of the prime minister's website, as well the website of the presidential residence.

Singapore tops global IT readiness report

Want China Times, Lin Kuo-pin and Staff Reporter 2015-04-19

Visitors at Taipei Computex, June 2, 2014. Taiwan ranked No. 18 in this
year's report. (Photo/Wang Ying-hao)

Taiwan ranked 18th in the networked readiness index (NRI) of the Global Information Technology Report 2015, which was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on April 15, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Commercial Times. Singapore claimed the first place,

The NRI measures economies in terms of their capacity to prepare for, use and leverage information and communications technologies. In the 143 economies surveyed this year, Singapore moved up from No. 2 last year to overtake Finland as the world's most network-ready country.

Finland dropped to second after topping the ranking for two years in a row. Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the US were ranked third to seventh. The UK moved up one place to be No. 8 and Luxembourg moved up two places to No. 9. Japan advanced six places from last year to No. 10, only the second Asian country in the top ten.

Russia climbed nine places to 41 while China remained the same at No. 62. South Africa was ranked 75, Brazil 84 and India 89.

Taiwan was ranked 18, the lowest position since it was first evaluated in 2002. Taiwan's highest ranking was No. 6 in 2011 and No. 7 in 2006.

Singapore Firm Launches Mobile App for Halal Foodies

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 07, 2015

A photo illustration shows a man displaying the ‘HalalTrip’ app outside a
restaurant in Singapore on Jan. 7, 2015. (AFP Photo/Mohd Fyrol)

Singapore. A Singapore-based company on Wednesday launched a mobile application that enables Muslim foodies and travellers to share halal restaurant discoveries around the world.

The free “HalalTrip” app, available for Apple iOS and Android devices, enables users to take and upload photos of halal dishes, write comments and share them through social media.

Clicking on a photo gives details about the dish as well as the location of the restaurant. The app, which has English and Arabic interfaces, also uses a traveler’s location to display photos of halal dishes served in nearby restaurants.

The term halal is used for food, products and services that comply with Islamic requirements.

“Halal food is one of the biggest drivers of tourism for the Muslim market,” said Fazal Bahardeen, chief executive of HalalTrip, part of a Muslim-oriented business group called CrescentRating.

“When traveling, one of the main concerns of Muslims is halal food. What we did is to bring in a social media element into discovering halal food and making it more fun and more intuitive,” he told AFP.

Fazal predicted the Muslim travel market would be worth $192 billion a year globally by 2020, up from $140 billion in 2013.

Agence France-Presse

We're heading for a decentralized Internet, but will we get there by 2015?

Deutsche Welle, 27 March 2014

It was all talk in Singapore. But with the US withdrawing from ICANN, the body that governs the Internet, in 2015, doubt is rife. The world's digital community may not get a new "world stewardship" model in time.

It was hardly a surprise. People had been calling for it for ages. But when the US Department of Commerce finally announced it was planning to relinquish control of a vital part of ICANN - and with it, the Internet - by October 2015, the chatter really began.

The announcement has "electrified" this week's ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore.

"We're in a situation where the announcement was only made last week so we're into an interesting period of reflection," says Nigel Hickson, ICANN's vice president for global stakeholder engagement in Europe.

Hickson, who was at the meeting in Singapore, along with 2,000 other delegates, including academics, lawyers, business people, members of civil society and governments, says the timing of the US announcement is important.

But he also refers to the plans as a "proposed transition," which clearly hints at the mammoth task ahead. This is not only about "names and numbers" - it's time to talk about the future of the global governance of the Internet.

"Someone or something has got to run the Domain Name System (DNS)," says Hickson. "And if you're going to have a single open Internet, rather than lots of fragmented internets, you need a technical infrastructure that is managed in a way that it remains open."

While everyone's been talking about golobal governance, ICANN's
been rolling out new TLDs like .africa

So what's at stake

Specifically, the US is giving up its control of the IANA function. This involves the allocation of unique names and numbers for use in Internet protocols - domain names and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IANA falls under ICANN's remit.

A non-profit organization, ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It takes care of Internet databases, it doles out generic Top Level Domain names [gTLDs], such as .com, .org, .berlin and .africa, and effectively governs the Internet under a contract with the US Department of Commerce.

If ICANN sounds like the sort of organization that is just too boring to know, think again.

It's said that, while it's never made use of this power, the US could, through its control of ICANN, make a website nameless and therefore make it disappear. It's the sort of thing you might hear about under dictatorships - that is, if the Web became a fragmented grouping of separate internets. But there are no known cases of the US ever having done this, and so it is seen as an arbiter and protector of the free Internet.

"There are some governments that would frankly like to control the Internet, so that you or I, or the people in that country, don't get to see everything they'd like to see," says Ryan Heath, spokesman for Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission responsible for Europe's Digital Agenda.

Some countries, often led by China and Russia, have pushed for the Domain Name System to become part of the United Nations' remit. They argue this on the basis of ensuring a country's "sovereignty" on the Net.

But it's not the sort of model that the European Union wants to see.

"No, definitely not," says Heath. "What we need is a decentralized system, where all countries and all people who use the Internet, can have a stake in how that's run. We're not saying that governments have no role in how the Internet is run, but the Internet grew as a space for democracy and freedom, and those values will need to be respected in future models of Internet governance."

The challenge is stopping individual governments from controlling
people's access to the Net

Real-time planning

There's no doubt that it will be difficult to design a new model for Internet governance, which includes government interests (but at arm's length), and incorporates business, social concerns and civil liberties for all of the world's Internet users - but that's the aim.

It is time, as ICANN's CEO Fadi Chehadé puts it, to move from a single state stewardship to a world stewardship.

"When ICANN was established, the United States had nearly 90 percent of the world's Internet users. Now it has 13 percent of the world's Internet users. So you can't have one country having 95 percent of the control anymore," agrees Heath.

The question is whether it will happen in time for the transfer.

"[The US] has strictly ruled out any single government, or group of governments, or a multinational government-led organization being in charge," says Dr Jörg Schweiger, CEO of DENIC, which administers Germany's own TLD .de.

"So this is really the tough part," says Schweiger, who was also at the Singapore meeting, "and this is why we are at first talking 'meta' before we talk about a concrete model to be designed by 2015. But if it doesn't happen in time, there may well be another assignment of the existing contract to the existing organization."

ICANN's Nigel Hickson makes the same concession.

"I think there's a degree of confidence that we'll have some sort of model by 2015," Hickson says, "and of course 2015 is not a hard-and-fast deadline, the current IANA contract finishes in 2015, but it can be extended."

Heath shares Hickson's confidence in a positive outcome, but he rejects the idea that this may be, as some have hoped, Europe's opportunity to step into the US's big boots.

"We have a series of conferences between now and then. And if they go well, then we will meet the deadline," says Heath. "And it is possible to have a system where governments are one of many voices in Internet governance - that's the system we've got now. The difference between now and hopefully 2016, is that instead of it being one government having a voice, everybody can have a voice."

Following the ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore, which ends this Thursday (27.03.2014), the next conference is NETmundial in Brazil and an Internet governance forum in September.

But don't hold your breath for an early outcome.

Related Articles:

US to relinquish key oversight role for Internet
Internet governance too US-centric, says European commission

‘The internet is a gift from God’ - Pope Francis

The Internet  - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20,2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

Bitcoin exchange CEO found dead in Singapore

Google – AFP, Martin Abbugao (AFP), 6 March 2014

A Bitcoin dispensing machine is seen at a shopping mall in Singapore on

March 6, 2014 (AFP, Roslan Rahman)

Singapore — The 28-year-old American boss of a Bitcoin exchange has been found dead at the base of a Singapore apartment block, police and reports said Thursday, in the latest misfortune linked with the troubled virtual currency.

Singapore police said they were investigating the "unnatural" death of Autumn Radtke, chief executive of Singapore-based First Meta, on February 26, but that no foul play was suspected.

A local technology website first reported she may have committed suicide, but later updated its report to say it was "unclear" how she died.

Broadcaster Channel NewsAsia said on its website Thursday that Radtke "was found dead at the bottom of an apartment block".

Singapore's police are investigating the

 "unnatural death" of a young American

woman who headed a company dealing

in the Bitcoin virtual currency (Getty/AFP/

File, George Frey)

Her death comes as the virtual currency community is in turmoil after the collapse of Tokyo-based MtGox, one of the longest-established Bitcoin exchanges, due to a suspected theft worth nearly half a billion dollars.

The Singapore Police Force said they received a call early on February 26 requesting assistance at a public housing block on the fringe of the central business district.

"A woman in her 20s was found lying motionless," they said in a statement.

"She was pronounced dead at scene by paramedics. Police are investigating the unnatural death," it added. "Preliminary investigations show that no foul play is suspected."

The term "unnatural death" is used to refer to suspected suicides and other deaths not due to natural causes like an illness. The cause of death is subsequently determined by a coroner.

A US embassy official confirmed that Radtke is an American citizen and that it has provided assistance to her family.

News of Radtke's death first surfaced in the technology startup community, which has a thriving presence in Singapore.

First Meta confirmed her death in a statement on its website but did not give a cause.

"The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke," it said.

"Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed."

According to her profile on business networking site LinkedIn, Radtke began her career in enterprise cloud computing and in 2007 worked with Apple to supply the Aqua Connect server product to major corporations including the Aerospace Corporation.

It said she "passed on an opportunity to work at Apple to stay in the fast-paced world of technology start ups".

She moved to Singapore in 2012 to head First Meta, a web-based exchange for users to buy, sell and trade virtual currencies for real money.

Her death comes as controversy surrounding the Bitcoin sector grows.

After the MtGox exchange filed for bankruptcy protection last month, Canada-based Flexcoin was also forced to shut down, saying that someone attacked its systems and stole nearly $600,000 worth of Bitcoins.

First Meta last year secured funding of Sg$588,000 ($464,000) from Silicon Valley-based technology firm Plug and Play Tech Center.

Singapore is Southeast Asia's main hub for technology startups as well as global computer and software companies and financial institutions.

Its central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has cautioned that virtual currencies are not legal tender and those who deal in them should be aware of the risks.

"MAS does not regulate Bitcoin, including its purchase, sale or use, whether online or via other means such as physical vending machines," it said last week in reaction to the MtGox collapse.

"Businesses and individuals who choose to accept virtual currencies in exchange for goods and services or to transact in them should be cognizant of the risks and nature of virtual currencies."

Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen has said that the US central bank has no authority to regulate Bitcoin.

"This is a payment innovation that is taking place entirely outside of the banking industry," she said.

Apple Takes a Wrong Turn With 'Maps' App

Jakarta Globe, Trevor Tan - Straits Times, September 26, 2012

On Apple’s new Maps app (right), a search for City Square Mall in Kitchener
 Road turns up Northpoint Mall in Yishun, while the Google Maps on an Android
phone (left) puts it in the right location. (ST Photo/Dios Vincoy Jr).

              

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Singapore. According to Apple's new Maps application, Bedok Reservoir is the same as Bedok North.

That is what businessman Leonard Wee found out when he used the app in his new iPhone 5 to trace a Housing Board block near Bedok Reservoir.

"Luckily, I knew the place and didn't have to rely on the app to get there," said Wee, 38, adding that the app pointed him to Bedok North, about 1 km away from his destination.

Singaporeans and consumers elsewhere have voiced frustrations over the app's inaccuracy in pinpointing an exact location, as well as the lack of details of buildings, sites and points of interest.

The problem affects those who are using the iPhone 5, which runs on the iOS 6 operating system, or those who upgraded devices like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S to iOS 6.

The brouhaha started last Thursday — just before the iPhone 5 was launched — though the brickbats did not dent demand for the smartphone, which notched sales of over five million in three days.

Apple, which replaced Google Maps with its own Maps in iOS 6, had relied on Google's navigation service in its products, like the first iPhone and iPad, since 2007.

Some analysts think the move to drop Google Maps could be linked to Apple's wariness of Google's own attempts to be a major mobile phone player.

Apple Maps' features include turn-by-turn spoken directions to get to destinations, and Flyover 3-D views that you can pan, zoom into and rotate. But it does not have public transport information, which Google Maps has.

Some 3-D views look either flat or comically distorted, while the Flyover feature is not available in Singapore.

Said technology consultant Kenneth Tan, 42, who had upgraded his iPhone 4S to run on iOS 6: "The 3-D views do not show the buildings as advertised."

And when he used Apple's Maps app to seek out City Square Mall in Kitchener Road, it showed Northpoint mall in Yishun.

Other users have also noted that a search for directions to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital would either point them to the right location, or that of the Singapore General Hospital.

According to analysts, the shortcoming is more acute outside the United States.

A Tumblr blog titled "The Amazing iOS 6 Maps" has been set up by a student in Britain to showcase screenshots of Maps' mishaps. Some screenshots show Las Vegas and Chicago "melting" and cities that look like they have had an apocalyptic transformation.

Apple has tried to minimize the damage to its reputation. In a statement to technology news site AllThingsD, Apple's spokesman Trudy Muller said: "Maps is a cloud-based solution, and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better."

Users can report any bugs to the company using the "report a problem" link in the Maps app.

However, there are some who are willing to give Apple time to iron out the kinks. They note that the app is not without its charms or usefulness. "It's actually more fun; I'm amazed to see these little cars in satellite view," said marketing executive Sharon Ng, 34.

Commenting on the turn-by-turn instructions, membership relations manager Celine Yeo, in her mid-40s, said, "as long as it is able to direct me from A to B, it is good enough for me."

Muh Hon Cheng, 31, developer of apps like SG NextBus, said you can still bookmark Google Maps on your home screen. He thinks Apple is being harshly judged as Google Maps has set a very high standard. "I think, compared with other available maps, Apple Maps is probably not far off," said Muh, who feels Apple will act swiftly to fix the issue.

Earlier, there were reports of some users here and elsewhere who had trouble logging into Wi-Fi networks with their iPhone 5 or any other iOS 6 device.

The problem was traced to the gadgets using an Apple web page to ascertain whether they were connected to the Web, and that page was down. It has since been fixed; the problem will go away by turning the Wi-Fi switch on the iOS 6 device off, and on again.

How to get Google Maps back on your iPhone



You can get Google Maps back on your iPhone in the form of a Web app.

In other words, it is a shortcut key that brings you to Google Maps on your mobile browser.

You will be able to get transit directions and more location information. However, there is no Street View or turn-by-turn voice directions.

Here's how to do it:

    •    Start the mobile Safari browser and go to "maps.google.com".

    •    Once it has finished loading, it will prompt you to tap on the arrow icon.

    •    Then tap on the "Add to Home Screen" option.

    •    You will then have Google Maps as a Web app on your home screen.

Reprinted courtesy of The Straits Times

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Apple CEO 'Extremely Sorry' for Maps Shortcomings

Apple apologises for Maps switch 'frustration'

Singapore Tops IT Competitiveness in Asia Pacific, Ranks No. 3 Worldwide

Jakarta Globe, Irene Tham - Straits Times Indonesia, September 27, 2011

Singapore has raced past Australia to become the most competitive IT market in Asia Pacific, a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows.

Worldwide, Singapore has clinched the third place, after traditional heavyweights the United States and Finland.

The fourth report Investment for the future: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2011 scores 66 countries around the world on six key indicators: overall business environment, technology infrastructure, human capital, legal framework, public support for industry development, and research and development landscape.

The bi-annual study was sponsored by non-profit anti-piracy trade group Business Software Alliance. The United States has consistently retained its pole position as the world's most competitive IT market.

EIU ranked Singapore first in the region and third globally due to the nation's strong showing in its R&D environment and the Government's support for industry development.

Globally, Singapore surpassed Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.

In 2009, Singapore ranked ninth globally and second in Asia Pacific in IT competitiveness.

Google To Lay Undersea Telecom Pipes To Asia (GOOG)

Silicon Aley Insider, Alaska Miller|Dec. 14, 2009, 4:40 PM

Google and a consortium of five telecommunication firms have joined together in a $400 million project to connect southeast Asia with the fastest undersea fiber-optic pipe in the world. The project is called Southeast Asia Japan Cable.

This investment is the second major undersea telecom project undertaken by Google.

Previously, Google joined another international consortium to build a trans-Pacific bandwidth pipe code-named Unity.

That project cost $300 million and took two years to connect a 6,200 mile pipe from Los Angeles to Chikura, Japan. Unity is now in the testing phase and will be officially online in early 2010. It's capable of delivering 960 gigabits a second from each of its 5 fiber optic lines.

The SJC will initially connect Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Phillipines, and Japan to provide 17 terabits per second of bandwidth, upgradeable to 23 Tbps. When finished the SJC will provide the fastest connection in the world.

Google's investment are not typical. Most content providers simply lease bandwidth access. Google's involvement stems from its belief that major growth in Internet use in Asia in the coming years warrants direct investments. Google will not divulge how much money it has paid in both projects.

Today over 738 million Internet users originate from Asia. China has 338 million users. With those numbers it makes sense for Google to heavily invest into the telecommunications projects.

Related Article:

Google improving the South-East Asian Internet with 17Tbps link

Singapore, China Shine in Global IT Index

The latest World Economic Forum rankings list Singapore as Asia's most "networked" economy. China is No. 46, up from 57th last year

BusinessWeek, By Vivian Yeo, Friday 27 March 2009

Singapore—the island-state is the most ICT-savvy economy in Asia, according to a new report released today.

The country was ranked No. 4 on the Networked-Readiness Index (NRI) of the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, the eighth produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in partnership with business school Insead. Last year, Singapore was fifth worldwide.

The index examines ICT effectiveness of economies based on three dimensions: business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; readiness of individuals, businesses and governments to benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of the latest technologies available. Through a combination of public data and executive perception surveys, a record 134 economies were reviewed this year.

In a repeat of last year, Denmark and Sweden were ranked first and second, respectively in the new index. The United States climbed up one spot to No. 3, while Switzerland fell two notches to fifth. Other Nordic countries—Finland, Iceland and Norway—also made it to the top 10, while the Netherlands and Canada took the last two spots.

ASIA: MORE MARKETS SLIP IN RANKINGS

In the case of Singapore, the strong focus on ICT, education and public-private partnership transformed the resource-lacking economy into a high-tech powerhouse within just a few decades, Irene Mia, senior economist and director at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the Cisco-sponsored report, said in a briefing via Cisco's TelePresence technology.

"Singapore's prowess in the ICT readiness has much to do with its excellent market and regulatory environment, conducive to innovation and ICT advances, as well with the prominent and consistent role played by the government in setting a vision for ICT penetration and innovation-based development," she pointed out. "This is confirmed by the first and second positions Singapore got for the government readiness and usage, respectively.

Elsewhere across the region, several economies ascended the index. China made the most significant move up the index, occupying No. 46 compared to last year's No. 57.

At the same time, the world's most populous nation overtook India for the first time to lead the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, said Mia. China, she told ZDNet Asia, improved "very much" over the last year in terms of ICT readiness of its stakeholders. The Chinese government, for instance, has increased its focus on ICT, which has also been worked into political agendas. "This translates into better services and efficiency," she said.

On the other hand, the country also faced some weaknesses, in terms of a low penetration rate for broadband connectivity, given its mass, she noted. There appears also to be improvement needed on the regulatory front, such as protection of intellectual property, as well as in its business environment in terms of availability of venture capital.

Nonetheless, it was clear that "China is a country that has been progressing consistently" on the index, said Mia.

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research, said in an e-mail that in 2008, the number of Internet users in urban areas of China grew 35.6 percent over 2007, while the online population in rural areas increased 60.8 percent year-on-year to reach 84.6 million. Last year, the country's total Internet population hit 298 million.

"This trend is likely to continue as the government is investing to ensure that broadband coverage is increasingly comprehensive outside of major cities," Rein noted, adding that the authorities are likely to focus on the western and central regions where broadband penetration is currently significantly lower.

Taiwan and Japan, both in the top 20, also climbed up several notches. Vietnam, ranked No. 73 last year, rose by three places to No. 70.

However, a number of Asian economies also slid in this year's rankings. Cambodia was the worst hit at No. 126, down 11 places from No. 115 in the last edition. Indonesia and Thailand both fell seven spots to No. 83 and No. 47, respectively.

According to WEF's Mia, Indonesia seemed to lag as it did not progress as much as other countries in terms of absolute scores, while Thailand's recent political turmoil may have affected business sentiment.

India dropped four notches to No. 54, while the Philippines fell by the same margin to No. 85. Malaysia and Korea dropped two positions each, to No. 28 and No. 11, respectively.

Brunei made its entry into the index at No. 63.

Provided by ZDNet Asia—Where Technology Means Business

Related Article:

The Networked Readiness Index 2008–2009 rankings (Pdf)