#Commissioning Services in Singapore

[astartesting01]

Enhancing Structural Integrity: The Importance of Post Weld Heat Treatment Services in the Oil & Gas Industry

Introduction: In the dynamic landscape of the oil and gas industry, ensuring the integrity and longevity of infrastructure is paramount. Post weld heat treatment (PWHT) services play a crucial role in enhancing the structural integrity of welded components, offering numerous benefits in terms of strength, durability, and resistance to corrosion. In this blog post, we delve into the significance of PWHT services in the oil and gas sector and explore how they contribute to maintaining operational efficiency and safety standards.

Understanding Post Weld Heat Treatment: Post weld heat treatment is a controlled process that involves heating welded components to a specific temperature range, holding them at that temperature for a predetermined period, and then slowly cooling them down. This process helps relieve residual stresses, improve mechanical properties, and refine the microstructure of the weldment, thereby enhancing its overall performance and reliability.

Importance in the Oil & Gas Industry:

Stress Relief: Welding generates residual stresses in the welded components, which can compromise their structural integrity over time, especially in high-pressure and high-temperature environments typical of the oil and gas sector. PWHT helps alleviate these stresses, reducing the risk of premature failure and ensuring the long-term reliability of critical infrastructure.

Strength and Toughness Enhancement: PWHT promotes the formation of a more uniform microstructure within the weldment, resulting in improved mechanical properties such as strength, toughness, and ductility. This is particularly crucial for components subjected to extreme operating conditions, such as offshore platforms, pipelines, and pressure vessels, where the integrity of welds is essential for safety and operational efficiency.

Corrosion Resistance: The oil and gas industry operates in highly corrosive environments, where exposure to various corrosive agents can accelerate the degradation of metal structures. PWHT can enhance the resistance of welded components to corrosion by promoting the formation of corrosion-resistant phases and eliminating microstructural defects that serve as initiation sites for corrosion.

Compliance with Regulatory Standards: Regulatory bodies and industry standards often require specific PWHT procedures for critical weldments used in oil and gas applications. Compliance with these standards is essential not only to ensure the integrity and safety of infrastructure but also to meet contractual obligations and liability requirements.

Conclusion: Post weld heat treatment services play a vital role in maintaining the structural integrity, reliability, and safety of welded components in the oil and gas industry. By relieving residual stresses, enhancing mechanical properties, and improving corrosion resistance, PWHT helps mitigate the risk of premature failure and ensures the longevity of critical infrastructure. Investing in high-quality PWHT services is not only a prudent business decision but also a fundamental requirement for achieving regulatory compliance and upholding industry standards in the challenging operating environments of the oil and gas sector.

A-Star Testing & Inspection (S) Pte Ltd No.5 Soon Lee Street, #03-36/37 Pioneer Point, Singapore 627607. Website: www.astartesting.com.sg WhatsApp/Call: +65 9183 5901 / +65 6950 8325 Enquiry@astartesting.com.sg

[world-of-wales]

─ •✧ WILLIAM'S YEAR IN REVIEW : NOVEMBER ✧• ─

1 NOVEMBER - The Prince of Wales held an Investiture at Windsor Castle. He gave a video message at Emergency Responders Mental Health Symposium. 2 NOVEMBER - The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay visited at Burghead Primary School and Brodieshill Farm. Subsequently they visited Day1 in Inverness. 4 NOVEMBER - William departed from Heathrow Airport for Singapore. He appeared in the BBC Earthshot Prize Trailer. He appeared in a video message to support the Stand Up To Cancer Campaign. 5 NOVEMBER - William arrived at Singapore Changi Airport and was received by the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Singapore. Afterwards, he attended a Welcome to Singapore event at the Jewel and was received by the Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. 6 NOVEMBER - William visited PAssion Wave @Marina Bay and joined in a Dragon Boat Race. He was received by The President of Singapore at the Istana. Subsequently, William called upon the Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore. He attended the United for Wildlife Global Summit. 7 NOVEMBER - William held Meeting with Finalists of the 2023 Earthshot Awards. Afterwards, he attended a Founding Partners' Lunch. He attended the Earthshot Prize rehearsals. He later visited EcoLabs. He attended the Earthshot Prize Awards. Subsequently he attended an Earthshot Prize Thank You Reception. 8 NOVEMBER - William visited TreeTop Walk at Central Catchment Nature Reserve. He attended the Earthshot+ Summit. He visited Centre for Wildlife Forensics. William attended a Meeting with UK Defence Advisers at the British High Commission. He attended a Reception for the Earthshot Prize. Finally, he departed from Singapore Changi Airport for the UK. William gave appeared in an Earthshot Q&A video. 9 NOVEMBER - He arrived at Heathrow Airport. 10 NOVEMBER - William appeared in BTS Earthshot Prize Portraits. 11 NOVEMBER - Will and Cat attended the RBL Festival of Remembrance. 12 NOVEMBER - The Prince of Wales along with The Princess attended the Remembrance Day Service of Remembrance and laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. The broadcast of the 2023 Earthshot Awards, featured a video of William and Catherine snorkelling with Coral Vita. 13 NOVEMBER - William received Lieutenant General Ian Cave & Brigadier Peter Dennis (Colonel & Secretary, Mercian Regiment) at Windsor Castle. Later, he attended the Funeral of Sir Robert Charlton. 14 NOVEMBER - William and Catherine attended The King's Birthday Party. 15 NOVEMBER - The Prince of Wales was represented by Miss Helen Asprey at the Service of Thanksgiving for the late Earl of Airlie KT. 16 NOVEMBER - William visited the Hideaway Youth Project in Manchester. Later, he visited Keeping It Real at Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse. Subsequently, he visited Jessie's Wall. 17 NOVEMBER - William appeared in a 'This or That' session video for Earthshot. 21 NOVEMBER - William and Catherine welcomed The President of the Republic of Korea and Mrs Kim Keon Hee at their Hotel. They then accompanied the Presidential Couple to Horse Guards and were met by The King and Queen. Afterwards, they viewed an Exhibition of the Royal Collection items relating to the Republic of Korea. Finally, they attended the State Dinner at Buckingham Palace. 22 NOVEMBER - Will and Cat held a Reception at Windsor Castle. 23 NOVEMBER - The Prince of Wales received Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown and Prince Radu of Romania. Later, he visited The Mercian Regiment on Salisbury Plain. 24 NOVEMBER - He received The Crown Prince of the Sultanate of Oman. 27 NOVEMBER - William held an Investiture at Buckingham Palace. Later, he attended the Tusk Conservation Awards. 28 NOVEMBER - William received Lieutenant Colonel Guy Bartle-Jones (Regimental Adjutant, Welsh Guards). Afterwards, he received submariners. He awrote a letter to Dr. Alex George. 30 NOVEMBER - William and Catherine received Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel of Sweden at Windsor Castle. Afterwards, they were we're joined by Victoria and Daniel for the Royal Variety Show.

[errantsquam]

ERRANT MERCH MANUFACTURER MASTERPOST

list of manufacturers i've tried. hopefully easier for other artists to get started in the merch game. Singapore/SEA centric. I update this whenever I feel like it.

Taobao manufacturers require some basic Chinese knowledge, but it's honestly not that bad. May set up a phrases masterpost in the future.

Use at your own risk because your experience might not be the same as mine. But this is what I've personally experienced!

[R] - Recommended. However, try at your own risk. Caveats will be mentioned

[NR] - Meh. Usable but probably not recommended

STICKERS/PRINTING

[R] Danlim - Self-service again. Less self-prep needed, the people there will give you feedback if they think your alignment is messed up (very helpful!). Supports self-collection or delivery (but delivery is on the expensive end). Supports holo which is very nice. Low MOQ.

[R] walyadfx.sg - Shopee manufacturer. Only tried them for transfer stickers. Self setup on an A5/A4/A3 sheet, but since they're transfer stickers there's no cutlines needed. Affordable and low-ish MOQ (if A5 sheets count as such lol) Came pretty fast and the quality was good

[NR] Gogoprint - Self-service is neat. However, you need to prep the files yourself, and a lot can go wrong. Some stuff to take note of is the correct PDF format (PDF X-1A), and making sure your strokes don't turn into vectors (there are some cases where this happens). High MOQ. Otherwise, more crisp than Vograce.

[NR] Vograce - Shipping isn't worth it. Printing is a little duller.

ACRYLIC CHARMS

[R] Juno Creative (Taobao) - Also on Alibaba at a slight markup. Good, affordable, better quality than Vograce. Hot stamped colors are gold/silver/red/green/blue/light blue/purple/pink. Please note that if you're doing hot stamping, DO EPOXY. The foil is not stable and will peel off otherwise. One-sided hot stamping otherwise. Use Weiyun to send larger files to them

[R] Bemick/Wenzhou Yadian (Alibaba) - My go-to for hot stamping. Supports single or double sided. Offer gold/silver/red/green/blue. Printing is generally better quality than both Juno and Vograce, but double sided prints "hover" slightly if that bothers you. Hot stamp is more iridescent than metallic. I like it though. Low MOQ but costly at lower MOQs.

[NR] Vograce - Still has the dull printing problem. Gross markup

PLUSHIES

[R] Gaopeng Toys (Alibaba) - Hesitant recommendation. They are the safe and commonly used option and have a low MOQ (as low as 1), but obviously low is expensive. Up to 3 changes allowed per sample, otherwise you pay the cost again. They handled the engineering of my complex sample pretty well. However, they have a tendency of using craft glue instead of something like a ladder stitch, which may be invisible or awful-looking depending on your product.

Have not mass produced with them yet. Treat as a cheap plush commission (assuming your local indie artist isn't open for comms).

[NR] Vograce (Manjuu) - They're probably middlemanning. They actually fucked up and sent my sample with its back upside down (yikes). Printing is dull (a common Vograce problem). Not sure who they're middlemanning for, but likely Doujin Studio (haven't tried) is my guess.

COINS

[R] Jinyin (Taobao) - Hesitant recommendation. WeChat needed for communication. Printing quality is nice, and they give advice to make your design read better. But the rep flipped out at me because I had an unusual shipping address (Taobao's warehouse).

[NR] Wenzhou Jinshi (Taobao) - WeChat needed for communication. Printing quality worse than Jinyin. Rep flipped out at me for sending the Chinese equivalent of Google Drive (Weiyun). Generally rude aside from that, no feedback given, and they get a lot of customers, so you're not important.

SPECIAL CLASPS

If yoiu're non-Chinese, you can order from here too! Do check the r/taobao subreddit for guides on setting up.

Please try to select 'Direct Shipping' instead of 'Consolidation' during payment though, otherwise you'll need to jump through some hoops with Alipay in order to pay Taobao. (Not impossible, just frustrating and scary if you think your packages are going to be held hostage)

Typical search term: 异形扣

Listing 1

Listing 2

Carbuncle Clasps

Jackpot

MANUS I'M STILL WORKING WITH

Kakubao (Taobao) - Soft (rubber?) PVC 3d charms, same as a lot of Sanrio charms. WeChat communication only. Generally the rep has been quite nice to me, but there might be revisions in more complex designs that may not be made known ahead of time. CAD is used to make the mockup. Generally recommended to familiarize yourself with the production process before doing your mockup.

Surprisingly, MOQ 1! Just pay the mold fee and they'll send you one sample for free. Unsurprisingly, the cost only becomes worth it around 100 units.

OTHER COOL LISTINGS I HAVEN'T PERSONALLY TRIED

Doujin Studio Bottle Cap Buttons (Taobao)

Wing Flapping Acrylic Charms (Taobao)

Medicine Pill Acrylics (yes, it is that weird) (Taobao)

Please view listings and reviews at your own risk! Reviews may be doctored/paid for. Things to look for are

Unusually eloquent praise of the manufacturer, mentioning stuff like rush orders, etc.

Pictures that look like they came from a factory. The factory ITSELF, not the package. Common tells are gloves/factory equipment in the back/etc that multiple reviews have.

[reubenyeoart]

State of the Thing: December

Heyo everyone, it's nearly the end of 2023, and what a wild ride it was. A return to full-time freelancing, as well as several new clients and pushing past my comfort zone with some of this year's new works. With the start of a new year coming, I figured this calls for a long-from article rather than the usual "Commissions for the month" post.

So, on the topic of commissions, due to several reasons (which will be brought up further down) I will be very busy in December, and as such will be offering 2 Rendered-style slots for the month of December! Since it also happens to be Black Friday, prices will be as follows if you book your slot from 24/11/2023 - 27/11/2023:

If you book your slot from 28/11/2023 - 01/12/2023, prices will be as follows:

For commission details, as well as terms and conditions and contact info: Here

Now, as for the dates that I won't be available for contact regarding work:

09/12/2023

I will be attending Singapore Comic Con 2023, and I'll be cosplaying Tighnari from Genshin Impact, so if you're in the area during that day, I don't know; say a friendly hello! I won't bite, and I might have a small gift to hand out.

15/12/2023 - 23/12/2023

My friends and I will be heading to Japan for a holiday trip during this period, so I will be not available for contact during this period. You can send email requests for commissions, but I may not be able to reply until I've returned.

25/12/2023 and 31/12/2023

Since these are the days where my friends, family, and I commemorate Christmas and New Year's Eve, I will not be available for contact during these days as well.

Now, let's talk about 2024; it's no surprise that 2023 wasn't the most fantastic in terms of earning my keep, what with the worsening state of the economy, the increasing efforts of social media to strangle the reach of creators, as well as the ongoing threat of unscrupulous users of AI. In light of all this, I've been thinking of a few possible things I could do to bring more to the table:

Streaming?

A few people have expressed interest in seeing my workflow, and so I was thinking of possibly streaming for 1-2 hours while I work on art. I'll be doing a few trial streams in January 2024 at different time zones to gauge interest, and if it pans out well, I'll iron out the kinks regarding the times when I'll stream, with possible expansions to content.

Restructuring of Ko-Fi subscriptions

Since my Ko-Fi Subcriptions haven't been gaining a lot of traction, I've been thinking about offering more stuff to entice others to join in. The $1 tier will remain the same, but there will be adjustments to the $3 tier and an additional $5 tier with addtional rewards (with updated branding to reflect the changes), and the changes will apply in January 2024.

The updated tiers and rewards will be as follows:

$1 (Wanderer -> Sampler)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

$3 (Traveller -> Purveyor)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

Downloads of high-res versions of artwork

Access to subscriber-only Discord subserver

$5 (New tier: Brewer)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

Downloads of high-res versions of artwork

Downloads of .psd files of artwork

Access to subscriber-only Discord subserver

This is only a preliminary description of the changes, and offerings may be adjusted within the coming year, including possible expansion of content with the aforementioned streaming.

Possible Price Adjustments

Since Singapore has been increasing Goods and Service Taxes to 9%, and most services (Paypal, website hosting, cloud storage) upping operation costs to compensate, it may be time to increase prices for commissions. I'll formulate an updated rate based on the current trend of living wages, and will probably announce the updated prices during the March commission announcement (at end of February).

And that's all that I should be covering for this article; if you read through the entire thing, thank you for your patience, and I'll see you all (hopefully) in the coming year!

Cheers! -Reuben (@ReubenYeoArt)

[mariacallous]

Fugitive Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek wasn’t just responsible for Germany’s largest financial fraud in history. He was also a decade-long Russian spy.

In the city of Lipetsk, 300 miles south of Moscow, stands a yellow chapel. Somewhat out of place next to a modern mirrored-window building, situated on the lip of a roundabout, the 200 year-old Church of Holy Transfiguration caters to the faithful of a large mining town that dates back to the era of Peter the Great. Inside, Father Konstantin Baiazov performs the customary rites and rituals for his flock. Dark and bearded, with a short, military-style buzz cut, the church’s archpriest’s routine is standard – services twice a day. Father Konstantin inherited the job — and the calling — from his own father, a revered Orthodox priest who, as local legend goes, had challenged the authority of the formidable KGB during Soviet times.

Konstantin, the father of three, used to travel abroad. He liked visiting Europe, and was particularly fond of Rome. However, he has not left Russia since September 2020. Since the fifth of that month, Father Baiazov’s official passport, numbered 763391844, has not belonged to a man of God. Rather, it belongs to someone who wears a different kind of white collar, looks a lot like him, and is the most wanted man in Europe.

For more than four years, Jan Marsalek, the former chief operating officer of the disgraced German financial services company Wirecard, has been living in Russia under this assumed identity, a year-long investigation by The Insider, Der Spiegel, ZDF, and Der Standard has uncovered. Wirecard, the German equivalent to PayPal was once a DAX-30 listed company, one of the wealthiest traded entities on the German stock exchange, with a valuation of $28 billion. Then came June 2020, when, in the midst of an audit, Wirecard could not locate €1.9 billion in assets it claimed were being held somewhere in the world – Russia, the United Arab Emirates or the Philippines. In fact, the money didn’t exist. Wirecard’s worth was predicated on commissions supposedly earned from three companies, Al Alam, Senjo and PayEasy, based in Dubai, Singapore and Manila, respectively. Wirecard money flowed into all three but the only documented flows in reverse existed in the German conglomerate’s imagination. Or, as the now imprisoned former CEO Markus Braun claims, it had been funneled away to a complex web of offshore accounts controlled by his then number two, Jan Marsalek.

Marsalek, the man responsible for overseeing the forging of company records, money-laundering, and extensive espionage and harassment campaigns against the journalists and speculators who exposed the enormity of Wirecard’s graft, fled in a sinuous route from Germany to Austria to Belarus to Moscow on June 19, 2020, at a moment when COVID-19 lockdowns made movement across borders more difficult than usual for ordinary citizens. But Marsalek is not only an internationally accused swindler. He is also an agent of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, and he has been for the last decade. More recently, since his defection to Russia, he has also done jobs for the FSB.

The Insider’s investigation is based mainly on confidential documents, emails, and chat transcripts, as well mobile phone and travel data. Research into Marsalek’s past also included interviews conducted by our consortium partners with people close to the accused. Among these are his mother and his longtime recruiter-handler, whom Der Spiegel met up with in February at a five-star hotel in Dubai.

The never-before-told story of how the Austrian-born “whiz kid” was recruited to Russia’s largest and most notorious spy agency, the GRU, bears all the hallmarks of a genre-bending ham thriller. Sacha Baron Cohen as Bernie Madoff the Bond villain. It is a saga replete with honey traps, MiG fighter jets, erotic models, sinister ex-spooks, even more sinister mercenaries, counterfeit passports, fake priests taking Syphilis tests, and cheap disguises. More ominously, the story also involves surveillance and kidnapping plots, including surveillance targeting a member of the team that investigated Marsalek’s case, Christo Grozev.

[ltwilliammowett]

Captain John Percival's writing desk, which he used aboard USS Constitution, c. 1840

Captain John Percival (1779-1862) was born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a master's mate and was made a midshipman on USS Delaware in 1800. He served on several ships during the War of 1812 as a sailing master. His service during the war earned Percival a lieutenant's commission and a Congressional sword in 1814. From 1825 to 1827 he sailed on the schooner Dolphin in the Pacific Ocean recovering mutineers from the whaling ship Globe. He was promoted to captain in September 1841. Captain Percival took command of USS Constitution in 1843 and began a circumnavigation cruise of the ship in May 1844. During the trip the ship visited Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Madagascar, Zanzibar, and Sumatra. In Singapore the crew was welcomed by Commodore Henry Ducie Chads who surrendered the frigate HMS Java to Constitution on December 29, 1812. From there the ship visited Borneo, China, Manila, and Honolulu where he received orders to report to the Pacific Squadron. After reaching Mazatlan, Mexico, the ship remained there until April 1846 when Constitution sailed for home reaching Boston on September 27, 1846. By this point Captain Percival was near the end of his career and was placed on the reserve list in 1855 until his death seven years later in Banstable, Massachusetts.

[agtictl23]

SESSION 5. COMPUTER CRIME

READ: ICTL TEXTBOOK CHAPTER 4

OPTIONAL REFERENCE: L&T BOOK CHAPTER 19

‘Computer Crime’ v. ‘Cybercrime’: Computer and internet usage is on the rise due to lower costs and easier accessibility. As it is another mode of transaction and one that is heavily dependent on the interaction through computers and automatic agents rather than face-to-face meetings, it is another avenue for crimes to perpetuate. What we call “cybercrime” largely consists of common crime, the commission of which involves the use of computer technology, and for which penalties already exists under the Penal Code. Substantively, there is no difference between generic individual crimes such as fraud, theft, extortion, harassment, forgery, impersonation, etc. and their cyber-analogues. Only those that relate specifically to computer usage and materials, etc. are specialized offences for which the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) was specifically enacted to tackle. What is the difference between “Computer Crime” and “Cybercrime” and how are they treated under Singapore’s criminal law?

The Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act: The original Computer Misuse Act (CMA) arose directly out of the increased usage of computers and the internet as well as to protect certain features from objectionable activities. We will be generally considering the Act, its coverage and effect, and some cases illustrating the offences committed thereunder. To deal with new potential abuses of computer systems, the Computer Misuse Act entered into force in 1993. Thereafter, the CMA was amended from time to time to keep up with the changes in technology and to addresses new potential computer abuses such as denial or interruption of computer services and unauthorised disclosure of access codes. The Act was renamed in 2013 as the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act (Cap 50A, 2013 Rev Ed) (CMCA), and provided for penalties proportionate to the different levels of potential and actual harm that may be caused by an offence. For example, it defines a class of critical computer systems (“protected computers”) and provides them with enhanced punishment in case of an offence. This applies to computers used by important institutions including the police, civil defence force, the military, national utilities companies, telecommunications companies, transportation services, major banks, and various emergency services. The CMCA also sought to enhance security, deter computer criminals with harsh penalties, and broaden the powers of the police to investigate such misdeeds. The CMCA was amended in 2017 with additional provisions to deal more with cybersecurity concerns; however, in 2018, after the enactment of the Cybersecurity Act (CA), the CMCA reverted to CMA with the security provisions moved to the CA.

Computer Crime Offences: The offences under the CMA are found in Part II of the Act, from sections 3 to 10. All the provisions provide for enhanced penalties when damage is caused, but the question is damage to what, and in what form? Also, under section 11, there is further enhanced punishment if the computer concerned is a “protected computer” (e.g. computers used for public safety, national defence, hospitals, etc.). The abetment and attempt of any of the CMA offences also constitutes the offence abetted or attempted and is punishable as that offence under section 12. The extra-territorial scope of the CMA is provided for under section 13. What is its effect and how effective can it be in the cyberspace where many actors can be sited, and acts can be committed, in other countries?

Consider the following:

Unauthorised Access to computer material (s.3 CMA): Mainly enacted to deal with hacking, it has since shown that it can extend to other forms of modus operandi. Present some reported cases and scenarios to explain how the provision works and what is required to make out a case under this provision. Do the “knowledge” relate only to the act of securing access or does it also relate to the lack of authorisation? What constitutes “unauthorized access”?

Access to computer material to commit/facilitate the commission of other offences (s.4 CMA): Examples are fraud, impersonation/identity theft or theft of finances such as credit card skimming, Phishing, Carding, Pharming. Explain the statutory limitations/conditions to the scope of this provision and the need to read/couple it with a substantive provisions in other criminal law statutes (esp. the Penal Code). Which offences/provisions in the Penal Code are relevant here. What are the differences between ss.3 & 4 of the CMA?

(a) Unauthorised Modification of computer material (s.5 CMA): The usual cases involve the defacing of websites through the use of computer viruses or worms, etc. Explain the elements of the provision and provide real world examples of such offences. (b) Unauthorised Use or Interception of computer services (s.6 CMA): The cases often involve phone/pager cloning and the tapping of cable broadcast service for free usage or mischief. Explain the elements of the provision and provide real world examples of such offences.

(a) Unauthorised Obstruction of computer usage (s.7 CMA): This will apply, for example, to system attacks, e-mail bombing and denial of service attacks. Explain the elements of the provision and provide real world examples of such offences. (b) Unauthorised Disclosure of access codes (s.8 CMA): An example is the transfer of one’s password to another to gain access to a computer or network without permission. What constitutes “wrongful gain”, “unlawful purpose” and “wrongful loss”? Explain these elements of the provision and provide real world examples of such offences.

(a) What is the objective and effect of the new provisions of the CMA in relation to the use of personal data obtained through existing offences and the act of obtaining tools to commit CMA offences (new ss.9 & 10 CMA). Compare these provisions to the existing provisions of the Act (e.g. the current provision on abetment and attempted (s.12 CMA). (b) What is the purpose and effect of the changes to the jurisdictional provision, particularly from the cybersecurity standpoint? (amended s13 CMA).

Future of Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity is increasingly an issue that the government is concerned with. Although the CMA contained provisions for the Minister to act and for investigations into cybersecurity issues, the Act was amended in 2013 to give the Minister even stronger powers to prevent or counter threats to national security, etc. by taking any measures necessary to prevent or counter any threat to a computer or computer service or any class of computers or computer services. These may cover the “cyberterrorism” phenomenon. Due to the heightened concerns with cybersecurity, the Act contained interim provisions on the issue until a standalone Cybersecurity Act was enacted in 2018. Nevertheless, the CMA provisions continues to be relevant as a part of the arsenal against cyber attacks and to address security concerns.

Cybersecurity Act: The 2018 Act is mainly procedural and relates to CIIs, empowering the Cybersecurity Commissioner to investigate and prevent breach/leak incidents, certification of service providers as well as breach reporting obligations. The approach is one of ‘light touch’ and can overlap with the work of the PDPC and the police under the CMA.

Reference: (optional)

Gregor Urbas, An Overview of Cybercrime Legislation and Cases in Singapore, ASLI Working Paper Series No. 001, December 2008

Cases:

Lim Siong Khee v Public Prosecutor [2001] 2 SLR 342; [2001] SGHC 69 [ss 2(2), (5), 3(1), 8(1)]

Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Nuzaihan bin Kamal Luddin [2000] 1 SLR 34; [1999] SGHC 275 [ss 3(1), 5(1), 6(1)(a)]

Statutes: (for reference in class, important provisions will be highlights during class)

Computer Misuse Act (2020 Rev. Ed.)

Cybersecurity Act (No. 9 of 2018)

CoE Cybercrime Convention

[agnivesh09]

Regulatory Services in the UK: Ensuring Compliance and Safety

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, regulatory services play a crucial role in ensuring that companies operate within legal frameworks and adhere to industry standards. The UK is no exception, with a robust system of regulatory services designed to maintain safety, integrity, and consumer trust across various sectors.

What Are Regulatory Services?

Regulatory services encompass a wide range of activities aimed at monitoring, enforcing, and advising on compliance with laws and regulations. These services are essential in sectors such as healthcare, finance, environmental protection, and consumer goods. They ensure that organizations meet required standards and that consumers are protected from potential risks.

Key Areas of Regulatory Services in the UK

Healthcare Regulations: The UK has stringent healthcare regulations managed by bodies such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). These organizations oversee the safety and efficacy of medical products and services, ensuring that healthcare providers adhere to high standards.

Financial Compliance: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates financial markets and firms to protect consumers and enhance market integrity. Compliance with financial regulations is vital for maintaining investor confidence and preventing fraud.

Environmental Protection: Regulatory services in the UK also focus on environmental sustainability. The Environment Agency oversees compliance with environmental laws, promoting practices that safeguard natural resources and public health.

Consumer Protection: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ensures fair competition and protects consumer rights in the marketplace. This includes overseeing pricing practices and preventing anti-competitive behaviors.

Comparison with Other Countries

While the UK has a comprehensive regulatory framework, it’s insightful to compare regulatory services in different regions:

Regulatory Services in the USA: The US regulatory landscape is shaped by various agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), each focusing on specific sectors to ensure safety and compliance.

Regulatory Services in Canada: Canada’s regulatory framework emphasizes transparency and consumer protection, with agencies such as Health Canada and the Canadian Securities Administrators playing pivotal roles in their respective fields.

Regulatory Services in Germany: Germany’s regulatory services are known for their rigor, particularly in industries such as automotive and pharmaceuticals, where compliance with both EU and national regulations is mandatory.

Regulatory Services in Australia: Australia’s approach combines federal and state regulations, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ensuring fair trading and competition across the nation.

Regulatory Services in New Zealand: Known for its straightforward regulatory environment, New Zealand focuses on reducing compliance burdens while maintaining safety and quality standards across industries.

Regulatory Services in Singapore: Singapore has established itself as a global business hub with stringent regulatory services that promote transparency and protect investors, driven by agencies like the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Conclusion

Regulatory services are vital in maintaining a balanced and fair market environment, protecting consumers, and ensuring compliance across various sectors. The UK’s regulatory framework is robust and effective, drawing on best practices observed in countries such as the USA, Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. As businesses navigate this complex landscape, understanding and adhering to regulatory requirements is crucial for long-term success and sustainability.

[whattheabcxyz]

2024-09-06

Singapore

Holland Drive hawkers baulk at record-high $7K bid for stall

5 Gurkha officers here ran illegal money transfer services, with 1 case involving nearly $3m

Decade-high SGD effects felt by importers, exporters, shoppers, tourists

Newly-revamped SimplyGo app now lets users do more - these "new" features should've been rolled out from the start 🙄

Tepid take-up of new guidelines on property agent commissions - How 'bout we just buy/sell/rent properties without the parasitic housing agents taking a cut for doing what anyone can on their own??? Ever thought of that??? 😠😠😠

Traffic Police officer admits to speeding on motorbike before hitting pedestrian, who later died

SAF officers to receive more cash bonuses + full CPF contributions from July 2025

Library@Orchard to close from 28 Oct for revamp - full opening only expected in 2026

106 vehicles booked for offences during 5-day LTA operation

Singapore tycoons’ wealth rises 10%, with Eduardo Saverin topping Forbes’ rich list again - we only attract those rich tax evaders 🤨

Business

Singapore: Giant to shut its Toa Payoh supermarket later this month, its 9th closure this year alone

Food

China launches probe into goji berry contamination after claims of chemical use - but in the meantime, Singapore retailers are still bringing in goji berries from China! 😖😖😖

Health

^ Does text therapy really work? - I personally think it's better than nothing

Society

Indonesian police detain 7 in failed plot to attack Pope Francis

[infinitywebinfopvtltd]

redBus API INTEGRATION/ Seat Seller API Integration BY Infinity Webinfo Pvt Ltd

Infinity Webinfo Pvt Ltd offers specialized API integration services, including redBus API / Seat Seller API, to facilitate seamless bus ticket booking solutions on travel portals. The integration enables businesses to provide their customers with real-time access to bus routes, availability, pricing, and other essential features directly on their platforms.

What is redBus / Seat Seller:-

redBus is a leading online bus ticketing platform that operates primarily in India, providing users with a seamless way to book bus tickets for intercity travel. Founded in 2006, Redbus connects passengers with bus operators across multiple routes, offering a wide range of choices in terms of bus operators, types of buses (e.g., sleeper, semi-sleeper, luxury), and ticket prices.

It allows users to compare bus schedules, book tickets, and make secure payments directly through its website or mobile app. redBus has expanded its services to countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The platform's convenience and vast network of bus operators make it a popular choice for travelers.

API Services Provide by redBus / Seat Seller:-

redBus / Seat Seller provides several API services to enable seamless integration of bus ticketing functionalities into third-party applications and websites. These APIs allow businesses to offer bus search, booking, and management services directly to their customers. The key redBus API / Seat Seller services include:

Bus Search API: This API enables users to search for buses based on parameters like origin, destination, and travel date. It provides detailed information such as available buses, operators, timings, and types of buses (AC, Non-AC, Sleeper, etc.).

Seat Layout API: This API provides the layout of the selected bus, allowing users to choose specific seats. It shows available, booked, and reserved seats in real-time, giving users full control over their seat selection.

Booking API: After selecting a seat, the Booking API is used to confirm the booking. It handles payments, ticket generation, and confirmation, making it seamless for users to complete the transaction. It also handles customer details, preferences, and contact information.

Cancellation API: This API allows users to cancel their booked tickets. It interacts with the redBus backend system to ensure that cancellations are processed smoothly, and refund details are provided based on the operator’s cancellation policies.

Booking History API: For businesses integrating redBus API, the Booking History API provides access to the user's booking history. It allows users to view their previous bookings, ticket details, and journey information.

Real-Time Data: One of the strengths of the redBus API is its ability to provide real-time data, including seat availability, price fluctuations, and bus schedules. This helps customers make informed decisions and increases the reliability of the service.

Benefits of Integrating redBus API / Seat Seller API

Customization: Businesses can customize the look and feel of the booking process to match their brand identity while leveraging redBus’s infrastructure.

Scalability: The API is highly scalable, handling large volumes of searches and bookings daily. This is crucial for businesses experiencing high traffic.

Wide Network: With access to thousands of bus operators and routes across India and other countries, businesses can offer diverse options to their customers.

Revenue Generation: Travel agencies and online platforms can generate additional revenue by offering redBus services to their users. With commission-based models, it also opens new revenue streams for platform owners.

User-Friendly Experience: The reBbus API’s flexibility ensures smooth integration, providing an intuitive and seamless user experience, improving customer satisfaction.

Affordable Price:- redBus API’S Provided Affordable price on seat bookings and give big discounts and offers in every other bookings.

Steps for redBus API Integration / Seat Seller API Integration

Obtain API Access: Register with redBus as a business partner or developer to obtain access credentials (API key, secret key).

Implement Search API: Use the Search API to retrieve available buses based on user inputs like origin, destination, and date.

Integrate Seat Layout: Once a bus is selected, use the Seat Layout API to show the available seats.

Booking Process: Implement the Booking API to handle payment, seat selection, and booking confirmation. Ensure that error handling is implemented for smooth transactions.

Cancellations and Modifications: Use the Cancellation API to allow users to manage their bookings, including canceling or modifying trips.

Test and Launch: Conduct thorough testing to ensure all APIs are functioning properly, especially with live data from redBus servers. Once confirmed, you can launch the integration on your platform.

Use Cases of redBus API Integration / Seat Seller API Integration

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): OTAs can integrate redBus to offer bus ticketing alongside flights and hotels, providing a one-stop solution for travelers.

Corporate Travel Management: Companies that manage large-scale employee transportation can use the API to streamline bus bookings for their staff.

Mobile Apps: Mobile developers can integrate the redBus API to build travel booking apps that provide users with real-time bus ticket availability and booking options.

redBus API Integration / Seat seller API Integration by INFINITY WEBINFO PVT LTD

Infinity Webinfo Pvt Ltd offers a comprehensive solution for integrating redBus API into travel portals. They specialize in developing B2B and B2C travel platforms that incorporate a wide range of services, including bus ticketing systems through redBus. Their travel portals often feature additional integrations, such as flight and hotel bookings, IRCTC train reservations, and mobile recharges.

For redBus API integration / Seat Seller API Integration, Infinity Webinfo Pvt Ltd focuses on providing smooth and efficient implementation, allowing businesses to offer seamless bus ticket bookings to their users. The integration is part of their broader suite of services, including TBO (Travel Boutique Online) API for bus, flight, and hotel bookings, payment gateways, and admin management systems

Conclusion

redBus API integration / Seat Seller API Integration is a robust solution for businesses looking to offer bus booking services. With a range of features, real-time data, and a large network of bus operators, it provides an efficient way to enhance a platform’s offerings and create a better experience for users. Whether you are a travel agency, app developer, or corporate service, redBus API / Seat seller API makes bus ticketing seamless, scalable, and user-friendly.

By integrating redBus API / Seat Seller API through Infinity Webinfo Pvt Ltd, businesses can enhance their travel services, offering customers a comprehensive bus booking experience alongside other travel-related services like flights and hotels.

Contact Us On: - +91 9711090237

[palmoilnews]

GRAINS-Soybeans drop 1%, corn hits four-year low on forecast of bumper US crops SINGAPORE, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Chicago soybeans slid 1% on Monday and corn fell to its lowest level in four years after a widely tracked crop tour of key U.S. growing areas forecast bumper harvests. Wheat slid to a one-week low amid ample world supplies. "The U.S. crop tour has estimated some big yields," a Singapore-based grains trader said. "It is the continuation of the same theme for beans and corn in Chicago futures today. Everything is pointing to a big production out of the U.S." The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 fell 1.1% to $9.62-1/4 a bushel, as of 0245 GMT, and corn CV1 lost 0.5% to $3.89 a bushel, the lowest since October 2020. Wheat Wv1fell 0.4% to $5.26 a bushel, the weakest since Aug. 16. The U.S. soybean harvest will be even bigger than the U.S. government's record forecast, advisory service Pro Farmer said on Friday, though it forecast a smaller corn crop than the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pro Farmer forecast a soybean harvest of 4.740 billion bushels, which would be about 6% above the 2021 record and more than the 4.589 billion bushels forecast by the agriculture department. The tour estimated record corn yields this week in top producers Iowa and Illinois, though crops in Minnesota were disappointing. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered on Saturday a halt to work stoppages at the country's largest railways, signalling an end to an unprecedented service disruption at both main freight rail carriers that threatened to hammer Canada's export-driven economy. Relatively strong demand for corn and a series of flash sales reported to China and unknown buyers have provided a market floor and suggested that lower prices are driving up demand. Farmers continue to sell old-crop corn and soy to make room for the upcoming harvest and to generate cash flow, traders said. Large speculators increased their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to Aug. 20, regulatory data released on Friday showed. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and increased their net short position in soybeans.

[threelittlepigspro]

Lead Generation for Financial Advisors Without Cold Calls

I generated more than six figures in my first dating advice consulting business for men, which relied on high-quality lead generation, appointments, and in-person sales. I also worked for one of the biggest digital insurers in the region, selling millions in premiums per month during my enterprise days. The consulting business is similar to the financial advisory business. Today, there are multiple marketing agencies providing lead generation to financial advisors and insurance agents in Singapore. They take different approaches from selling the product directly, to branding the agent... to Tiktok videos... etc. However, here is how I'll do if I was in in the shoes of a financial advisor.

Niching Down in Your Market

Firstly, I'll ignore most of the total market and narrow down to a specific segment. You'll want to carve out a market segment that has both the ability and willingness to pay. This ensures that you’re not just generating any leads, but those who are most likely to convert into profitable clients. For example, products like retirement or savings plans are high-margin products and offer high commissions for financial advisors. There is going to be a certain client profile that is seeking out such products. Once, an insurance agent acquaintance of mine told me he doesn't want to sell to anyone below 40 years old because investors below that age are more hands-on and wouldn’t require a financial advisor. That is a form of honing in on a niche market. This also makes sense from an economic perspective, helping you recoup and make a profit on advertising spend. Yes, these products may be similar across insurance companies. However, it is how you deliver your message and consult clients that'll set you apart. - Economics of Lead Generation Let’s say you make $1,000 profit per sale of a retirement plan, and it costs you $30 to get one webinar sign-up. If the net conversion rate on live webinars is 5%, you’ll need 100 sign ups to convert 5 leads, hence resulting in $5,000 in revenue. The key idea here is to get the economics of your business right from the get go. Hence, you’ve got to refine this process until your live webinars convert at the right rate before scaling.

The Pitfalls of Quick Lead Capture

One common mistake is running an ad and immediately trying to capture contact information. There are many Facebook marketing agencies that do this. They run simple lead form ads and all the user has to do is to fill in their information, and the user become a lead.

This may generate a large number of leads, but the quality of those leads are often low. The reason? The resistance to becoming a lead is minimal, which means many people may sign up without any real intent to follow through. High quality lead generation exists on a continuum. On one end of the spectrum, highly qualified leads are those who have consumed your content and are genuinely interested in your services. On the other end, you have low-quality leads—those who may have signed up out of curiosity or by accident. The goal is to increase the quality of your leads by creating a process that naturally filters out those who are less likely to convert. This is commonly known as a sales funnel in the online marketing industry.

Live Webinars, Is it a Dinosaur Method Today?

Instead of trying to capture leads immediately, consider a more structured approach: run an ad that leads to a live webinar, and then encourage attendees to book a call. You can't automated a webinar until you're sure that the live version converts. Here’s why you got to go LIVE: - Live Webinars Provide Valuable Feedback Hosting a live webinar allows you to interact with potential clients in real-time, gathering feedback that can help you refine your marketing message. This interaction is crucial because it ensures that your content resonates with your audience. You can ask questions, get them to fill in survey forms, and most of all, it allows you to tweak your messaging from the first to second one, so on and forth. - Test Before Automating Many people rush to automate webinars before perfecting their live presentations. However, if your live webinar doesn’t convert, automation won’t save you. It simply makes sens right? There fore, you got to focus on honing your live webinars first, ensuring that your conversion rates are where they need to be before automating the process.

Refinement Is Key: Listen to Customers

The different mechanisms of your lead generation process can then be continually refined based on customer feedback and data. After each webinar, you can gather feedback from attendees, what resonated with them, what didn’t—and use this data to improve your approach. - Send out SMS and ask for feedback - Listen to them on free consults - Send out emails and survey forms This ongoing refinement can significantly boost your conversion rates. For instance, if you initially convert at 4%, but through refinement, you double that to 8%, you’ve just drastically increased your profitability. I can't stress this enough but successful campaigns, whether in e-commerce or lead generation both rely on constant feedback from customers. Hence forth, by listening to their needs and refining your messaging accordingly, you can adjust both the message and the offer of your products.

Scaling Your Business

Once you’ve refined your front end lead generation process and have consistent conversion rates, scaling becomes a matter of increasing inputs such as ad spend and impressions. This can't be achieved if you're losing money if your conversion rates at poor or negligible. Lastly, the big profits come from lifetime value (LTV) of a customer without additional advertising costs. The lifetime value of a customer represents the total revenue you can expect from a single customer over the entire duration of your relationship with them. - Repeat purchases, upsells, down sells and side sells - Referrals Therefore, your email list and sms data base becomes an asset. Your email list is a direct line of communication with your customers and potential clients, allowing you to nurture relationships, build trust, and maintain engagement over time. You can send them content pieces, such as informative blog posts or exclusive video content. You can look for a graphic explanation of the system here:

Conclusion

Everyone is a lead in the financial advisory business. However, it is the quality leads that matter. The key is to build a process that naturally filters out the noise. Our choice is a live webinar. It can seem daunting to go live, but live webinars  allow you to interact directly with potential clients, tweak your approach on the fly, and get a ROI positive conversion rate  before going on to automate it. Then build up an asset base such as an email list and continually to value add to your audience through content pieces. Read the full article

[qocsuing]

Unveiling the Best Brokerage Firms Worldwide: A Comprehensive Guide

Unveiling the Best Brokerage Firms Worldwide: A Comprehensive Guide In the ever-evolving world of finance, choosing the right brokerage firm is crucial for investors. With a plethora of options available, it can be challenging to determine which firm best suits your needs. WikiStock, a comprehensive guide to global brokerage firms, aims to simplify this process by providing detailed information and ratings on brokerage firms worldwide. This article delves into the key features and benefits of some of the top brokerage firms as highlighted by WikiStock.To get more news about WikiStock, you can visit our official website.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) Interactive Brokers (IBKR) stands out as one of the top-rated brokerage firms globally. With a WikiScore of 9.43, IBKR is regulated in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, China (Hong Kong), Canada, Japan, and Singapore. The firm offers a wide range of services, including options, stocks, futures, investment advisory services, ETFs, mutual funds, and securities lending. With over 2.52 million users and custody assets worth $115.1 billion, IBKR is a reliable choice for investors seeking a comprehensive brokerage service.

HSBC HSBC is another top contender, with a WikiScore of 9.33. The firm is regulated in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and China (Hong Kong). HSBC offers services such as stocks and options trading, with a user base of 39 million. The firm charges a commission of 0.25% and has no inactivity fee, making it an attractive option for investors looking for cost-effective services.

Mizuho Securities Mizuho Securities, with a WikiScore of 9.20, is regulated in the United Kingdom, the United States, China (Hong Kong), Japan, and Singapore. The firm offers a variety of services, including options, stocks, futures, ETFs, mutual funds, and securities lending. With 1.69 million users and a commission rate of 0.34650%, Mizuho Securities is a solid choice for investors seeking diverse investment options.

Webull Webull is a relatively newer player in the brokerage industry but has quickly gained popularity with a WikiScore of 9.162. The firm is regulated in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, China (Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and Canada. Webull offers a wide range of services, including options, stocks, futures, ETFs, mutual funds, and securities lending. With 13 million users and custody assets worth $28 billion, Webull is a competitive option for investors looking for a modern and user-friendly platform.

Nomura Nomura, with a WikiScore of 9.14, is regulated in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, China (Hong Kong), India, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea. The firm offers a comprehensive range of services, including options, stocks, futures, ETFs, mutual funds, securities lending, investment advisory services, bonds, fixed income, annuities, and margin loans. With 5.35 million users and a commission rate of 1.43%, Nomura is a robust choice for investors seeking a wide array of investment options.

Conclusion Choosing the right brokerage firm is a critical decision for any investor. WikiStock provides a valuable resource for investors by offering detailed information and ratings on brokerage firms worldwide. Whether you are looking for a firm with a long-standing reputation like Interactive Brokers or HSBC, or a newer, innovative platform like Webull, WikiStock’s comprehensive guide can help you make an informed decision. By considering factors such as regulatory status, service offerings, user base, and commission rates, investors can find the brokerage firm that best suits their needs and investment goals.

[tdasx]

Tdasx 2022 Annual Review: Abundant Product Innovation and User Service Achievements

In the past few years, the cryptocurrency market has been a highly-discussed topic, with its volatility and potential profits attracting the attention of countless investors. 2022, as a year full of hope and challenges, witnessed the continued development and transformation of the cryptocurrency market. Despite experiencing significant fluctuations throughout the year, the market demonstrated strong resilience and potential.

In addition to mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the emergence of new technologies such as Web3 and the metaverse has diversified and complicated the development trends of the cryptocurrency market. Furthermore, with the prospect of BTC ETF gaining approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, further development of the crypto market is eagerly anticipated. These new developments bring more possibilities and opportunities for the future of the crypto market while providing investors with more choices and challenges.

In 2022, as one of the leaders in the cryptocurrency market, Tdasx demonstrated strong resilience and continuous innovation amidst market volatility. As a leading digital currency exchange, Tdasx is committed to driving industry development and providing users with more diversified products and services.

At the beginning of the year, Tdasx launched a variety of diversified digital asset products to meet the needs of different users. These new products cover a wide range of digital asset categories, from mainstream cryptocurrencies to emerging tokens, providing users with more diversified investment portfolio choices and enhancing the market competitiveness of the platform.

In addition to product innovation, Tdasx hosted several international forums globally, strengthening connections with the global digital asset community. In March, Tdasx successfully hosted the "Digital Assets and Future Finance" forum in Singapore, bringing together experts and industry leaders in the global digital asset field. This forum provided an important platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration within the industry, promoting the development and innovation of the digital asset industry.

The services of Tdasx are not limited to specific regions or groups but are global, witnessing the revolution of human civilization driven by decentralized technology. As an open and inclusive platform, Tdasx is willing to explore, innovate, and build a more just and transparent future together with users from around the world. In May, Tdasx was awarded the "Best Customer Support" award at the 2022 ADVFN International Finance Awards, demonstrating its outstanding performance in user experience and customer service. This honor not only recognizes Tdasx but also affirms its continuous improvement and enhancement of user experience.

Mid-year, Tdasx received a positive evaluation from cryptocurrency rating agency Weiss Crypto Ratings, further enhancing user trust and confidence in the platform. This evaluation highlights the outstanding performance of Tdasx in platform security, transparency, and user experience, adding new luster to its leading position in the global digital asset trading market.

In 2022, Tdasx achieved significant milestones not only in product innovation and user service but also in regulatory compliance in the crypto market. As a global digital currency trading platform, Tdasx has always been committed to compliant operations, complying with local regulations, safeguarding user asset security, and promoting the standardized development of the industry.

With the rapid growth of the crypto market, regulatory policies are gradually catching up, and the crypto asset industry faces stricter regulatory requirements. Tdasx actively responds to regulatory changes, strengthening the Know Your Customer (KYC) process and enhancing platform trading compliance. In December 2022, Tdasx was awarded the high-level certification of Cryptocurrency Security Standard (CCSS), reflecting the high standards of the platform in data protection and transaction security, further consolidating user trust in the platform. In the future, Tdasx will continue to uphold principles of compliance and legality, striving to provide users with a secure and compliant trading environment. Tdasx will continue to adhere to the "User First" principle, focusing on technological innovation and service optimization, strengthening cooperation with top global institutions, expanding into new market areas, and striving to maintain a leading position in the increasingly competitive market. In 2023, as an open and inclusive platform, Tdasx will explore and innovate with users from around the world, creating a more secure and transparent trading platform, laying a solid foundation for reaching the milestone of ten million users, and jointly building a more just and transparent future.

[ranasingingbowlcentre]

3 Important Factors of a Financial Advisor

Outlined here, are some of the factors that should help one in making the right decision when seeking the services of a financial advisor.

Financial goals are aligned

It is important to understand that all the financial advisors do not give a similar advice, or strive towards the same achievement or aim. Some may incorporate the planning of retirement expenses while others may have specific concern on planning for your children’s school fees expenses.

This way, they will be in a position to give better advise dependent on their specialization, it is advisable to select a financial advisor who gives advise based the objectives of the client. If they do not share the same goals you may not maximise your profit out of your investments, for their advice is not entirely beneficial to you.

Compensation In my opinion, before going for any sort of service, one of the crucial aspect where a person stands to lose a lot is the amount which is spent in order to avail that service. And like that, you require information on how much your financial advisor will be paid for the services to be rendered. You also have to know whether you are, or they are to earn some commission on the investment opportunities that you are being led to.

It is not illegal for a financial adviser for British citizens in Singapore to consider and focus on their profits more. However, since you are the one paying their fees, you should consult them only if they offer a breakdown of the fees they charge.

Firm’s affiliation

Some firms offering financial advice are independent in their structure, whereas some are dependant on other businesses and are loyal to them. While it is not necessary that you choose a firm with an independent structure, it is necessary to do background check so you know who you are trusting to help increaseyour wealth. If the firm’s recommendations are influenced byother factors, you should not trust them to offer impartial advice which benefits you.

Conclusion

Before starting the search for a firm, you need to know what services you need. If you require assistance with Financial planner for Australians in Singapore, this is what you should search for rather than using general terms like financial advisor in Singapore. This allows you to narrow down and shortlist firms according to your requirements.

[mariacallous]

In 2020, Nazia was working at a data entry office in Hyderabad, but dreamed of being a beautician. Then, on YouTube, she saw a video about Urban Company, a platform similar to the US site TaskRabbit, which promises to connect workers—plumbers, electricians, painters, beauticians, and others—with clients who need their services. Workers who join the platform as beauticians often pay upward of $500 to register and receive a salon equipment kit. For Nazia, it felt like an investment worth taking.

When it launched in 2014, Urban Company was revolutionary for India’s disjointed home services market, providing customers with vetted and trained workers through an easy-to-use interface. Nazia was one of tens of thousands of workers who joined the platform, which grew and grew thanks to consecutive rounds of fundraising from investors including Tiger Global and Prosus Ventures, becoming the largest home services provider in India, valued at almost $3 billion. Then it expanded into the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. In 2023, it launched in the US.

For workers it promised an opportunity to work flexibly, and earn well. In 2020, Fair Work, a research group that studies gig work companies, rated the company the best for workers in India, giving it a score of eight out of 10 on parameters that include fair pay and working conditions. (Uber scored one out of 10).

Nazia got stellar ratings and reviews from customers on the platform—so much so that she was invited to pay $300 to upgrade her account to Prime, which gave her access to better-paying jobs.

“Everything was going great,” she says. “With the money I made, I was able to help my family, buy a two-wheeler, and save money for my wedding.”

Urban Company fostered an identity for itself that was different from other gig work platforms, particularly for women. But since the start of the year, things have gone downhill, fast. Thousands of workers have found themselves arbitrarily dumped from the platform for not meeting new targets that they say have been set unattainably high. Nazia is among them. The platform, it seems, is subject to the same cycle of “enshittification” as its peers, sacrificing the incentives it had offered to get workers onto the platform in order to turn a profit—and abandoning its promises of flexibility in the process.

Urban Company declined to comment.

The first sign of trouble at Urban Company started in 2021, as the pandemic hit the home services business. The company slipped in Fairwork’s rankings, scoring five out of 10. Workers twice held protests demanding lower commissions and safer working conditions. After a media storm, Urban Company published a Medium blog introducing a “12 point program” to “improve partner earnings and livelihood”—which included lowering commissions and introducing an SOS helpline for women’s safety. In an attempt to be more transparent, the company started publishing a partner earnings index, but it also filed lawsuits against four protesters for “illegal and unlawful” actions.

But things got really difficult for Urban Company’s workers in 2023. The platform introduced a new rule stipulating that workers had to maintain an acceptance rate of at least 70 percent, a customer rating of at least 4.7 out of 5, and cancel fewer than four jobs per month. Failure meant being blocked from the app. Nazia managed to keep her ratings above 4.8 until May 2023, when they slipped to 4.69. She was temporarily blocked and put into “retraining”—an online video course followed by 10 bookings that she had to take free of charge in an attempt to boost her rating. Unfortunately, for Nazia, her rating did not budge from 4.69. Since then, she’s been out of work.

“It all happened so quickly,” Nazia says. Now she’s stuck with $2,500 in loans.

I spoke to more than a dozen women like Nazia, all of whom asked for anonymity to protect themselves from retribution and say they were blocked by the platform after failing to meet what they believe were unrealistic expectations.

In Bengaluru, Shabnam—who used a friend’s credit card to pay the $500 joining fee—found that Urban Company started assigning her jobs farther and farther away from home. With rising costs and high commissions, taking these distant trips was “as good as earning nothing,” she says. She turned down the jobs that weren’t economically viable, and soon her response rate—the number of jobs she accepted—dropped to 20 percent. In June, she was dropped from the platform.

Seema, who had worked for Urban Company for five years, had a miscarriage earlier this year. As she was being rushed to the hospital, she didn’t have time to mark in the Urban Company app that she wasn’t able to work that day. Her acceptance rate of bookings fell to 30 percent. She couldn’t get her rate back up to the mandated 80 percent, and she was permanently suspended from the platform. “I went to the office with the doctor’s prescription and everything. They still did not agree to reinstate my account,” Seema says.

In Hyderabad, Sunanda says her account was deactivated earlier this year after a death in the family meant she had to cancel some jobs. She pleaded with a company representative on its helpline and in person—she even submitted the death certificate, but she’s still blocked. “They said they cannot reinstate my account because my rating is not 4.7 or above. I told them my rating is 4.69 and if they give me a chance I will bring it back up, but they refused,” Sunanda, 42, said. “They have given the customers this one weapon: ratings.”

As well as the stick of targets and quotas, Urban Company also offered a carrot for workers: shares in the business.

In 2022, the company announced its Partner Stock Options Program (PSOP), granting shares worth $18 million over the next five to seven years. The following November, they awarded stocks worth approximately $635,000 to 500 partners. But while the PSOPs seemed to be almost guaranteed for workers, the process of accessing them is heavily gamified.

Pratima, an Urban Company beautician, was very excited at the end of 2022 when she realized she’d made it to the top 10 list of workers in her category in Bengaluru. If she continued to stay in the top 10 until April, she was told she’d be granted the company’s stock options that following November. “They call us partners, but don’t treat us like it,” said Pratima, requesting to be referred to under a pseudonym. “I was hoping that if I get a share in the company, maybe then I will be treated like a partner.”

By February, Pratima had completed more than 200 jobs, and she was still in the top 10. Then, a series of low ratings by disgruntled customers pulled down her overall rating, blocking her temporarily and dropping her off the leaderboard. She kept at it, worked back-to-back jobs, and got herself unblocked and back into the rankings. April came around, and she was in the top 10. But then the company seemed to have extended the contest—the leaderboard has kept on counting, but the workers don’t know what’s going on. “It’s like they are making us run a marathon in the name of shares,” she says.

For women who were sold Urban Company’s promises of flexibility and empowerment, the shock of losing their livelihood or being forced to work longer and longer hours has been exacerbated by a sense of betrayal.

“For women especially, a lot of times they have care responsibilities at home, and so there’s hope to find work that’s flexible, that allows them to pick up their kids from school or take junior to the doctor,” says Alexandrea Ravenelle, an author of two books on gig work and a sociology assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. “A lot of these platforms are playing off of that need for flexibility because, for many of the workers who are coming to these platforms, an alternative isn’t a white-collar job in a tech office where they can bring the play pen and set the kid up.”

The mismatch between the promise of these platforms and their reality becomes clear when the businesses move from their early growth phase, in which they are able to burn investors’ cash, to one where they have to start to turn a profit.

When two-sided marketplaces that match workers with clients grow, they try to make things as comfortable as possible for workers to create a deep pool of available services. “The shortcut way to do this is to offer incentives to them—be it sellers, drivers, or other gig workers—showing them that this is a lucrative business,” says Rutvik Doshi, a general partner at VC firm Athera Venture Partners.

Companies spend big on marketing as they try to grow as fast as possible (during the 2021–2022 financial year, Urban Company spent close to $30 million on marketing and clocked a loss of over $60 million), working on the assumption that one day the demand for their services will become organic, the suppliers will start making enough money without incentives, and the platform will be able to raise the commissions it takes off its workers.

But when this doesn’t happen, companies desperately rework their models. When they need to curb spending, or when they struggle to raise new funding, marketing is the first thing they cut. Demand drops, creating an oversupply of workers on the platform. “And the excessive supply on the platforms feels the pinch. That’s the typical cycle with a two-sided marketplace,” Doshi says.

On July 10, Urban Company CEO Abhiraj Bahl released a video to the company’s workers explaining the new strict policies. He said that each year, 45 percent of customers use the platform just once and don’t make a second booking, while 15 to 20 percent of workers leave. “And as a result of all of this, Urban Company is still a loss-making company,” he said in the video, part of which has been viewed by WIRED. “So we are losing customers and we are also losing money.”

He blamed the decline in customers on “poor quality service” and “off-platform jobs”—that is, workers making private arrangements with clients and taking their work off Urban Company, something that’s a serious risk to the company’s model. “It’s kind of an existential question: They need the workers and the customers to stay on their platform in order to remain an intermediary,” says Ambika Tandon, a tech and labor researcher at the Center for Internet and Society think tank.

All of this has led the company to push its workers into a mold that essentially has all the downsides of regular employment but few of the benefits. For workers who joined the platform for its flexibility and autonomy, this reality of platform work becomes difficult to reconcile with.

“Urban Company is trying to imagine an ideal worker for this particular model to be someone who is always available, gives their 100 percent, [doesn’t] cancel at all, has no family responsibilities,” Tandon says. “But a lot of these workers are single parents, who have family responsibility and children to take care of. These are not folks who will fit into this model of having a 80 percent, 90 percent acceptance rate.”

In June, WhatsApp groups used by Urban Company workers were flooded with messages about one of their peers, who had reportedly died by suicide after the company deactivated her account—leaving her with no source of income. Several workers I spoke with said that while the news was shocking, none of them knew the victim. “We were vexed,” Seema from Bengaluru says, “But the problem is that all of us are so isolated from each other. The platform doesn’t have any get-togethers, nothing. We all don’t have any relationships, which is a plus point for Urban Company.”

But, like their peers across the platform economy, Urban Company workers are now getting organized. In June and July, hundreds of Urban Company workers took to the streets in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Kolkata. Shabnam was present at one of the protests last month in Bengaluru, demanding that the company reinstate her account. With this, they have joined thousands of Indian gig workers from Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Blinkit and more.

There have been at least half a dozen such protests across different cities in India since the beginning of the year—all of them essentially fighting for the same reasons: better pay and working conditions, a ban on unfair practices, and laws governing gig work that workers can lean on for safety and protection. “It’s not just Urban Company that has been blocking accounts,” said Shaik Salauddin, founder of Telangana Gig and Platform Worker Union. “Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon, Flipkart—all aggregator companies are doing this.”

Rikta Krishnaswamy, a coordinator with the All India Gig Workers Union, said that the union has had conversations with the labor departments across different cities, including Delhi and Pune. Another meeting is coming up in Mumbai. “We have raised complaints against these illegal dismissals, and the labor departments in Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram have sent notices to the company for a meeting,” she said. “Let’s see if they actually show up.”

Some of the workers whose accounts were blocked have been able to get it reinstated, provided their rating was not lower than 4.7 and they weren’t blocked for trust and safety issues. But, if the video shared by Bahl is any indication, things are only going to get worse by the end of the year. The company has launched a salon quality improvement program called Project Shakti, under which, by December, the performance metrics are going to get even stricter for beauticians: an acceptance rate greater than 80 percent, no more than three monthly cancellations, and “100 percent orders delivered on UC app only.” The rating threshold will continue to be at a minimum of 4.7.

The new policy is being hammered home. Workers whose accounts have been reinstated and those already active on the platform are being called for a meeting to the Urban Company office in small groups of around 10. Some have to watch Bahl’s video. Then they are presented with new terms and conditions to sign, which include consent for them to be permanently blocked from the platform if they miss their targets.