NEW DELHI: India and Japan will jointly set up a $250 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Sri Lanka, the first collaboration between the two nations to counter China’s growing influence in the Island nation.
Petronet LNG Limited, India’s biggest gas importer, last year proposed to set up a 2-million-tonne (MT) liquefied natural gas import facility on the coast of Sri Lanka to meet its energy needs.
Sri Lanka, however, wanted Japan to have a role in it. “An agreement has been reached between the governments of India, Sri Lanka and Japan to set up the LNG terminal as a 50-50 joint venture by Petronet and a Japanese company,” Petronet Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Prabhat Singh said.
Japan is yet to identify the company which will form an equal joint venture with Petronet for setting up the terminal. Without giving more details, Mr Singh said the LNG import facility will be set up at Kerawalapitiya on the western coast of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has plans to build a 300 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Kerawalapitiya, adjoining an existing power plant. The existing plant which uses oil to generate power would also be converted to LNG once the terminal is set up and gas import start.
LNG has become significantly cheaper since last year and many countries have begun switching their power plants to LNG. Mr Singh said the LNG terminal, which will import super-cooled natural gas, will take two-and-a-half to three years to build.
The LNG terminal in Sri Lanka is part of Petronet’s vision to own 30 MT per annum of LNG import and re-gasification capacity by 2020, Mr Singh said. Petronet already operates a 15 million tonnes per annum import facility at Dahej in Gujarat and has another 5 MT terminal at Kochi in Kerala.
Petronet also signed a preliminary agreement to build a 7.5 MT LNG terminal in Bangladesh and is looking at setting up a smaller facility in Mauritius. Mr Singh said Dahej is being expanded to 17.5 MT over the next two years.
The India-Japan collaboration comes after a string of Chinese successes in Sri Lanka. China has managed to revive its flagship $1.4 billion Colombo Port City project and is also engaged in expansion of major infrastructure projects it built in the past. These projects include expansion of Hambantota port and Mattala airport.
- NDTV
Note that this correlation does not prove or disprove causation, but it clearly shows that when unlicensed software rates are lower, malware encounter rates are also lower.
Cyber-Security Threats
Pirated software tends to undermine a computer’s security features. And often leaves it open to malware that could compromise data, or jeopardize the security of a computer network. Any one of these problems could quickly escalate into costly damages that become far more expensive than the money a pirate could have saved by buying or illegally downloading the unauthorized software.
Furthermore, people that use pirated software have no guarantee that their sensitive data, activities and communications will be safe from cybercriminals that intend to do harm. Kaspersky, a cyber security consulting firm, has been warning its clients that pirated software disrupts computer operations, gathers sensitive information, and displays unwanted advertising for over a decade.
In 2014, a study published by IDC and the National University of Singapore (NUS) revealed significant amounts of malware in unlicensed software after testing more than 800 PCs purchased with unlicensed software pre-installed, unlicensed software DVDs, and through unlicensed software and activation keys illegally downloaded from the Internet. The tests covered over a dozen countries across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The study concluded that on average, a user of an unlicensed software package has a one-in-three chance of encountering malware. [4]
Moreover, infection rate multiplied by the number of unlicensed software packages in the world suggests there are in excess of 500 million infected unlicensed software packages in circulation. The report also found that more than 40% of consumers did not routinely install automated security updates, which can also enable malware infections of PCs. [5]
In a corresponding survey of nearly 1,000 PCs from 15 countries, the IDC-NUS study found that 1 in 5 respondents said that unlicensed software infected their PCs with a virus; 2 in 5 said it substantially slowed their computers and had to be uninstalled; and 1 in 10 said it destroyed files. [6]
For these reasons, software piracy directly affects the profitability of the software industry. And because of the money lost to pirates, software publishers have fewer resources to devote to product development and research, have less revenue to justify lowering software prices and are often forced to pass these costs onto their customers.
Conclusion
Given the evidence, it should come as no surprise that BSA’s 2016 Global Software Survey found that computer users around the world cited exposure to security threats from malware as the main reason not to use unlicensed software.
Those who use unlicensed software: increase their risk of exposure to a debilitating virus that can destroy valuable data; are subject to significant fines for copyright infringement; and risk potential negative publicity or personal embarrassment. It sounds extreme, but it happens a lot more than one might think. Businesses worldwide spent up to half a trillion dollars (USD 491 billion) cleaning up after pirated software in 2014. That’s USD 127 billion dealing with security issues and USD 364 billion dealing with data breaches. [7]
If these reasons have not deterred you enough, consider the following. Users of unlicensed software forfeit some practical benefits as well. Increasing their chances of the software not functioning correctly and depriving themselves of access to customer support, upgrades, technical documentation, training, and bug fixes.
So do the right thing for you and your business. Ensure that you protect your IT infrastructure and data by investing in licensed software.
[1] 
