Stomp cemented its place as a website of choice by clinching the Gold Award for Best in Social Media Engagement and Bronze for Best News Website at the 8th Asian Digital Media Awards (ADMA) on Wednesday (Nov 1).
Jointly presented by WAN-IFRA and Google, the ADMA 2017 recognises publishers who have adopted digital media and mobile strategies as part of their total product offering to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information today.
Stomp’s top prize for Best in Social Media Engagement can be attributed to its continuous effort in reaching out to readers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The website’s award-winning approach to social media can be summed up in these five strategies of engagement:
1. Breaking news: Obtaining information when we want it, in real time
2. Activating readers: Stomp connects directly with readers to get information, photos and videos
3. Getting things done: Readers help us to answer public appeals for help
4. On-the-ground reporting: Through the use of live videos, Stomp provides readers with news as they happen
5. Promoting civic-mindedness: Using social media to encourage positive behaviour
For the Best in Social Media Engagement category, Singapore Press Holdings’ Lianhe Zaobao bagged the Silver Award while Indonesia’s PT Kompas Media Nusantara took home Bronze. A total of 18 entries were received and reviewed by the judging panel.
Stomp’s Award for Best News Website comes after a revamp in June.
The new and improved site provides better user experience with bigger visuals and a wider layout to take advantage of the modern wide monitor.
Stories on the website’s homepage are now organised neatly in ‘containers’. This clean, modular design allows for streamlined navigation through the many stories on Stomp.
Over the past year, Stomp has also gone beyond reporting on numerous occasions by leveraging on the strength of its community to reunite loved ones with family members as well as lost items with their owners.
For the Best News Website category that saw 29 entries, the South China Morning Post clinched both Gold and Silver.
This is the third year in a row that Stomp has received awards at the ADMA.
Last year, the website won Silver and Bronze for Best News Mobile Service and Best Reader Engagement respectively.
Stomp’s interactive iPad app won Gold in the Best New Product category at the 6th ADMA in 2015.
Singapore Press Holdings clinched a total of 11 awards at this year’s ADMA.
TEN months into his presidency, any picture of US President Donald Trump’s definitive policy on the Asia Pacific region remains unclear. As he sets off for his maiden visit to five countries in the region on Friday, Asia waits in trepidation to see what this unpredictable president will bring.
Trump has so far proven to be somewhat of a curve-ball president when it comes to foreign policy. While some of his fiery campaign trail rhetoric has come to fruition – such as withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – regional leaders have been relieved to see that there are others he has stepped back from, such as his threats to abandon allies who didn’t pay their fair share for defence.
But whether he will push his isolationist agenda in keeping with his message of “America First,” essentially abandoning the Obama-era pivot, or extend the arm of diplomacy and collaboration, at this point, is guess work says Ian Chong, Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump (R) during their meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. Source: Reuters/Jim Bourg
While his foreign policy advisors are trying to encourage Trump to reach out more, the man himself has not shown any indication of how he intends to play the visit, Chong told Asian Correspondent.
However, the fact that he’s taking the trip at all is an encouraging sign.
Trump will spend 12-days travelling from Japan to South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. During his visit he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit but is choosing to skip the East Asia Summit (EAS) in the Philippines and return to Washington a day early.
This unexpected move to pull out of the EAS already has some speculating that Trump’s commitment to the region is far from guaranteed.
“It is a big deal. The Obama administration made a point of investing in these regional institutions in order to demonstrate we are an Asia Pacific power, a resident power in the region. This will only raise more questions about American credibility,” Derek Mitchell, former US ambassador to Burma told The Washington Post.
“Multilateralism in Asia is often just about showing up, but even that appears to be hard for him.”
The summit is organised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and is also attended by Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and South Korea. It is commonly scheduled to accommodate the attendance of the president. But while it may be frustrating for attendees, Chong does not believe Trump’s absence is such a disaster.
In practical terms it is not significant at all, and, whilst his absence may “underline his relative disinterest in the region” symbolically, there are other indicators that more accurately depict the role the US presidency will play going forward, Chong said.
It is the agreements that Trump tears up or the deals that he reneges on that could risk America paling into irrelevance. As allies and adversaries address problems without American involvement, the president’s leverage and the US bargaining position will be weakened on regional priorities – such as trade and North Korea – and will likely see China stepping into the role.
Trump interacts with Xi at Mar-a-Lago state in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on April 6, 2017. Source: Reuters/Carlos Barria
Both trade and North Korea are the only topics the region expects Trump to address during this visit, with little to no focus paid to regional issues, such as the Rohingya crisis in Burma or the South China Sea that has dominated previous conferences.
Trump’s bombastic rhetoric threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary has not been met with great enthusiasm by most leaders in Asia Pacific.
While no one wants a belligerent North Korea armed with nuclear weapons, there is a feeling in the region that if you push them too hard they might crack, eliciting a whole raft of other problems to deal with, said Chong.
“There’s wariness about US being too provocative and pushing North Korea into corner…It’s a difficult balancing act for all the actors in the region,” he said.
Even in the case of China, who Trump has repeatedly called on to rein in the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang, they cannot be certain how far they can push North Korea before they lash out. With this in mind, diplomacy over rhetoric will be central to the leaders’ message to Trump.
As for regional leaders’ approach to Trump on other matters, expect them to “make nice,” says Chong, who believes that expectations of the Trump administration are so low that as long as the visit goes off without any major hitches or disruptive outbursts, it will be considered a success and the region will return to business as usual.
“Let Trump have a victory,” said Chong. “Mollify him, give him something he can claim as a win, and the visit will be considered a success.”
PETALING JAYA – Good news for local Jacky Cheung fans. The organiser for Cheung’s upcoming A Classic Tour concert in Kuala Lumpur, StarPlanet, has added a third show. Tickets for the previously announced shows on Jan 26 and 27 were sold out.
Fans who missed out can now get tickets for Cheung’s newly scheduled concert on Jan 28 at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
StarPlanet confirmed the extra date for Cheung’s concert via its Facebook page today.
Tickets for the Jan 28 show will go on sale on Nov 13 from 11am and can only be purchased online through www.myticket.asia. Buyers are limited to fours tickets each.
Citi card members get the chance to purchase tickets earlier on Nov 10 from 11am onwards. Purchases are limited to two tickets each and only 2,000 tickets are allocated for this sale.
Tickets for Cheung’s previously announced shows sold out within 24 hours when it went on sale on Oct 21. Some fans spent two nights sleeping at Quill City Mall in KL just to be the first in line. These fans also had no problems forking out up to RM988 (S$320) for the front row seats. The rest of the tickets are priced at RM888, RM748, RM618, RM488, RM368 and RM258.
A check on online ticket marketplace site Viagogo showed that resellers are putting up VIP tickets for up to RM3,800 each. Category Two tickets which originally priced at RM618 are now being offered at RM1,900 to RM3,800.
On another reseller site StubHub, Gold Category tickets which are priced at RM988 can be bought for RM5,000 each.
LUCKNOW, India – An explosion at an Indian power plant Wednesday killed at least 16 workers and seriously burned dozens of others, police said.
The blast occurred at a coal-fired power plant in Raebareli district of northern Uttar Pradesh state, run by the government-owned National Thermal Power Corporation.
Images showed thick grey plumes of smoke rising into the sky before ambulances rushed to the scene.
“Raebareli #NTPC death toll increases to 16,” the official Uttar Pradesh police Twitter account tweeted late Wednesday.
The state’s principal secretary, Arvind Kumar, said up to 100 were injured in the explosion, according to the Press Trust of India.
Anand Kumar, a director-general of police in the state capital Lucknow, said preliminary findings suggested that ash had collected in the furnace below the boiler, causing the explosion.
“Ash had accumulated for some reason which should not have happened. And due to that, pressure built up inside and led to the blast,” he said in a video statement uploaded on YouTube.
The state operator said there was a “sudden abnormal sound” at one of the units in the plant.
“An enquiry has been set up by NTPC management to investigate the reasons for the accident,” it said in a statement late Wednesday.
“All possible measures are being taken to provide immediate relief to the families of affected people in close coordination with the district administration.” Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath offered his condolences to the families of the dead and offered each compensation of 200,000 rupees ($3,096).
Workplace accidents are common in India, where poor safety standards and lax enforcement of regulations have led to horrific deaths.
India’s power distribution system is prone to accidents, mostly because of poor maintainance and underfunding in rural areas.
An electricity transformer exploded outside a wedding in the western state of Rajasthan Tuesday evening, killing at least 13 people including a pregnant woman.
Dozens of guests had assembled for the ceremony in Jaipur when the transformer blew up, spewing hot oil and metal shards.
Nearly 10,000 people died of electrocution in India in 2015, according to the most recent data available from the national crimes records bureau.
SINGAPORE: According to a study by the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore, solar energy could possibly meet as much as a quarter of Singapore’s energy needs in 2025, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) last week.
However, to reach this figure, solar energy generation would have to double every two years, from generating 140 MWp today to 2 GWp in 2025.
This is possible only if Singapore deploys solar generation technologies more innovatively and efficiently, and overcomes the challenges of limited land and solar intermittency. It also shows how much Singapore’s energy landscape could shift to meet the country’s growing energy needs.
Indeed, the global energy landscape has seen several significant shifts in the past decade, driven by technological advances and geopolitical shifts. Improvements in fracking technology have heralded a boom in unconventional oil and gas production in North America, which has changed the dynamics of the global markets.
Advances in renewable technologies and energy storage have made it more economical for countries to reduce their carbon footprint, even as the Paris Climate Change Agreement provide greater impetus to do so.
These changes present opportunities for policymakers and companies to chart out a pathway for energy that is not only competitive, secure, and sustainable, but can also turn shortcomings into advantages.
This is especially important for Asia where half a billion people still lack access to modern energy services, and where the transition to clean energy will be essential for sustained growth in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.
REGIONAL HUB FOR NATURAL GAS
Singapore is an example of a country that has sought to capitalise on these trends. Since it has no natural resources of its own, Singapore is almost completely reliant on energy import.
Relying on natural gas for 95 per cent of its electricity needs, Singapore previously imported all of its natural gas from Malaysia and Indonesia through pipelines.
However, Singapore is now able to import gas globally through a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal constructed in 2013. This has allowed Singapore to benefit from changes in the global gas market, such as the availability of LNG from the US and Australia.
The Singapore liquefied natural gas import terminal in Jurong Island is used for importing LNG, reloading and re-gasification and storage. (Photo: SLNG)
Singapore has also sought to leverage its geographical location to position itself as a regional gas hub that handles LNG trading, bunkering, and small-scale LNG solutions for the region.
Supporting the sector, firms providing technical, legal, financial and consultancy services have also grown, creating a local talent pool in constant demand in the Asia-Pacific region.
SOLAR ENERGY FOR A TROPICAL NATION
Singapore has also sought to improve its energy security and competitiveness by taking advantage of its tropical climate and capitalising on advancements in solar photovoltaic technologies.
The Government is aggregating demand for solar across the public sector to spur demand in the private sector, and has launched the world’s largest floating solar photovoltaic testbed at Tengeh reservoir.
Singapore has also been working to develop expertise in distributed energy grids, which will be able to better incorporate such renewable energy sources while still ensuring that the electricity grid remains stable.
Solar energy may meet as much as a quarter of Singapore’s energy needs in 2025, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Singapore International Energy Week.
SMART ENERGY
In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, energy companies in Singapore are now aiming for performance improvement through increasing intelligent remote sensors, demand prediction through data analytics and getting closer to end users and customers through value-added applications.
These initiatives are part of Singapore’s wider effort to invest in and harness technology and innovations to meet our energy challenges and sustainable development objectives.
Under the national Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan, S$375 million has been set aside for key research, development and deployment initiatives in the energy space, focusing on areas such as solar, energy storage, smart grids, and green buildings.
Singapore has also been active in using market mechanisms to spur competition, innovation, and efficiency.
Since the 1990s, Singapore has gradually liberalised the gas and electricity market by separating segments of natural monopoly, in transmission and distribution for instance, from contestable segments, in generation and retail for instance.
Competition in the liberalised power generation sector has encouraged companies to switch from steam plants powered with fuel oil to more efficient combined cycle gas turbines fuelled by natural gas.
The progressively liberalised retail electricity market has seen more independent electricity retailers offering innovative price plans to cater to consumers’ needs and preferences.
Today, larger consumers who account for about 80 per cent of consumption can choose their electricity retailer.
The Energy Market Authority (EMA) of Singapore has recently announced that from the second half of 2018, all remaining 1.4 million accounts, mainly households, can choose their electricity retailer and enjoy choice, flexibility, as well as more innovative plans, to better suit their different needs.
The key to improving security, competitiveness and sustainability at the same time is to improve energy efficiency. Singapore has thus pursued the improvement of energy efficiency on multiple fronts, including in industry, power generation, buildings and households.
For example, EMA’s Project OptiWatt pilot allows users to better understand their electricity use so that they can shift electricity demand away from its peak periods.
Arising from the project, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research has shifted about 0.3 to 0.4 MW of their electricity load by adjusting the timing of its washers and sterilisers to operate outside the system peak period, and without affecting its operations.
The liberalisation of the electricity market in other countries has brought about increased competition and innovation. (File Photo: REUTERS/David Gray)
In line with its pledge under the Paris Agreement, Singapore consulted with the industry and announced that it will introduce a carbon tax from 2019 to better reflect the cost of using fossil fuels on the environment.
The carbon tax will provide the price signal for businesses and consumers to reduce emissions. For example, pricing in carbon will shape companies’ decisions to invest in more energy-efficient equipment and technologies at the onset.
MUST REMAIN PLUGGED IN
Ultimately, the global nature of energy issues means that Singapore must remain plugged into global energy discussions and work with partners around the world.
Standing at the crossroads of Asia and the world, Singapore is well placed to work with countries and companies from the world to contribute towards a more sustainable energy future.
Singapore joined the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an association country last year and will assume the chairmanship for the ASEAN energy track in 2018, where it will continue to play an active role in driving greater energy cooperation and capacity-building initiatives in the region.
During SIEW last week, EMA and the IEA co-organised a forum on energy financing in Asia’s clean energy sector. The forum saw robust discussions among regional energy stakeholders on issues such as digitalisation, energy R&D, and grid transformations.
While energy investments are key to meeting ASEAN’s growing energy needs, ensuring environmental sustainability through cleaner forms of energy remains a priority. As a global financial centre, Singapore can help link ASEAN, its Dialogue Partners, and other stakeholders to facilitate energy investments in the region, while encouraging greater adoption of clean energy.
Singapore’s small size and lack of resources have provided it with the impetus to find innovative and practical solutions to improve the security, competitiveness, and sustainability of its energy supply. It has also learnt from others and adapted best practices for its own circumstances.
In turn, Singapore can serve as an example to other cities and countries on how they can address their own energy challenges.
Irving Low is partner and head of Risk Consulting and Markets at KPMG. Tim Rockell is director of the Global Energy Institute at KPMG Singapore.
Read also: A commentary on the benefits of an Open Electricity Market to households and small businesses.
SINGAPORE: As wars are increasingly won and lost on urban battlefields, defence research and development organisation DSO has produced a game-changer in the region in terms of how surveillance is done.
The V15 is Singapore’s first locally developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can take off or land vertically.
A major breakthrough is its ability to team up with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), which can act as the drone’s landing platform, to explore unfamiliar terrain.
Equipped with one day and one night camera, the V15 is used for surveillance in built-up areas where there is no space for conventional launch and recovery systems.
“We can take off from very confined spaces, like from a small urban canyon or from the rooftop of a building,” said Mr Jonathan Yong, a senior research engineer in DSO’s guided systems division.
While the V15 can take off from a space the size of a small table, conventional UAVs require an area 10 times larger, Mr Yong said.
This is because they use a bungee launcher, which Mr Yong described as a “giant rubber band shooting a paper plane”. In contrast, the V15 has four electric rotors that allow it to take off vertically.
Landing is a breeze too. While other UAVs land using a parachute or airbag, Mr Yong said, the V15’s vertical landing capability is more accurate and “removes landing shock to the aircraft”.
Improvements are also seen in set-up time.
Because the V15 can be assembled without tools, a two-man team can snap it together in two minutes. Combined with improved autonomous pre-flight checks, the drone is ready to go in less than 15 minutes.
This is two times faster than conventional UAVs, which require the set up of a bungee launcher, Mr Yong said. “When it comes to military operations, time is always of the essence.”
The V15 can be assembled in less than two minutes without tools. (Photo: Howard Law)
During operations, the V15 uses onboard sensors to fly through waypoints. It also takes off and lands with the flick of a switch, Mr Yong said.
“So, you don’t have to have a trained pilot to operate the UAV,” he added. “All you have to do is plant waypoints on your tablet, tell it where to go and where to look.”
UNMANNED AIR-TO-GROUND TEAMING
The V15, which took two years to develop, is so smart that it can even take off and land on a moving unmanned ground vehicle or driverless vehicle.
“It’s able to use vision sensors to home in on a tracker board on top of the vehicle and come in for landing after a mission,” Mr Yong said.
The V15 can take off and land on a moving unmanned ground vehicle. (Photo: DSO)
This is useful, for example, when a driverless truck is being used to deliver supplies in unfamiliar territory. “What you will do is send the drone to pave the way and make sure that it is safe for the unmanned ground vehicle,” he added.
Weapons and Equipments Editor at Jane’s by IHS Markit Kelvin Wong said the technology on the V15 is “nothing groundbreaking”, but noted that DSO is highlighting a “high level of control and integration, especially with another unmanned vehicle”.
“Vertical take-off and landing type UAV designs are already mature at this stage, with numerous products already available to civilian and military users alike,” he said, adding that American and Israeli companies have developed similar designs.
The V15 specifications. (Source: DSO)
According to an Aerospace and Defence News report, citing a 2016 MarketForecast study, the market for military vertical take off and landing UAVs will grow from S$110.4 million in 2016 to S$535.7 million in 2022.
Countries that have “bought or intend to buy” such UAVs include the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and the Philippines, the report added.
“As far as I am aware, regional forces still use conventional designs and launch and recovery methods,” Mr Wong said.
NO GPS REQUIRED
Meanwhile, the unmanned vehicle is designed to operate in areas where Global Positioning System (GPS) does not really work, like in thick forests or dense urban areas with tall buildings.
This capability is the first of its kind worldwide, said Mr Stephen Chai, a system engineer who works on the driverless vehicles.
In the absence of GPS, it navigates using lasers or cameras. The lasers map precise distances, while the cameras provide a visual and textural representation of the terrain. The team is working on integrating the two.
“With all these capabilities, what you can do is just give a waypoint and it will drive there by itself, day and night, while avoiding static and dynamic obstacles,” Mr Chai said. “All these without much intervention from the operator.”
In addition, Mr Chai stressed that the unmanned ground vehicle technology is platform-independent.
For example, it has been tested on vehicles as small as a robot vacuum cleaner and as big as an armoured troop carrier. Right now, it is being trialed on a commercial pick-up truck.
The unmanned ground vehicle can navigate without GPS by using lasers or cameras. (Photo: DSO)
“We can adapt these sensors to different platforms in accordance to the needs of the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces),” he said. “They have a whole fleet of vehicles, so whatever they need that for, we will adapt it.”
This opens up the possibility of having an unmanned tank paired with a V15 charge into battle, but Mr Chai was quick to point out that the team is focused on developing the technology and reducing manpower for surveillance.
The team is also scaling up the project so multiple V15s and unmanned vehicles can work together simultaneously, Mr Yong said. “Anything in our arsenal, we’re linking them all together. We’re teaming whatever is available to us to form a bigger picture of things.”
Besides wartime missions, these unmanned teams can be used for homeland security. For instance, Mr Yong said, unmanned vehicles can supplement police cars in providing regular patrols.
“So, we relieve manpower requirements from local law enforcement to further improve our round-the-clock surveillance of the country,” he added.
