Month: December 2020

OTT : New Medium

Shabbir Chunawalla

Since the pandemic set in, the only way people entertained themselves was through streaming service or playing games. Gaming, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) have become a part of our lives. It is argued that what is watched on a smart phone is ‘private screening’ as opposed to ‘public exhibition’ of films in cinema theatres. Thus it is a matter of discussion how much it should be regulated. Such so called private watching did become collective watching of a family during the pandemic. The issue is how the content is consumed.

Streaming services do provide disclaimers, age-related classifications and qualify content containing nudity, drug consumption, and abusive language. Content creators should educate people on what content is deemed correct for whom.

Though creative freedom is an exploratory concept, there should be concern for cultural nuances of a country. To illustrate, France is okay with frontal nudity, whereas the US is not. France has problem with mafia films, whereas US does not. It should be left to the content creators to take cognizance of this. It is not necessary to subject the content to formal certification. Sacred Games was seen in 127 countries in the world, and it was an Indian product.

The new medium must be understood. Age-related classification is a way forward. Responsibility must be shared both by the viewers and content producers.

India has great tradition of storytelling. We have the potential to lead in the digital space.

Evolution of Advertising

Shabbir Chunawalla

Advertising in formal sense coincided with the emergence of printing which could print commercial messages on handbills and posters. Before print advertising appeared, there were sign-boards and town-criers. Newspapers came on the scene in the 18th century, and started accepting classified advertisements.

In 1848, the first ad agency Volney Palmer was set up in Philadephia. In 1864, J. Walter Thompson was set up. In 1868, N.W.Ayer started the commission system for placing the ads. The JWT created the post of account executive — a link between the agency and the client.

Advertisers expected the messages to work for them and that paved the way for professionalisation of advertising. Slowly, advertising theory crystallised. Albert Lasker called advertising as salesmanship in print in 1880’s.

McCann agency called advertising ‘truth well-told.’ By the end of the 19th century, the practice of commodities being branded became prominent.

Advertising’s visual quality was much emphasised in Europe. To begin with only artists, and illustrators worked for advertising. In the 20th century advertising, we created the position of art director.

Television commercials appeared in the early 1950s. They were rated by Neilsen rating method (1952).

Marketing practices such as product differentiation, market segmentation, positioning ( Ries and Trout, 1969) evolved over a period of time.

Advertising in the 1960s and 1970s focused on creativity. Ogilvy relied on brand image and brand claims.

Advertising has to deliver results. It should be accountable. Advertising, therefore, must be effective. This was emphasised in the 1970s. There was testing and measurement of advertising in the 1980s and 1990s. Advertising, must be socially responsible too.

Late 1990s ultimately ushered in the digital era. The new concept of integrated marketing communication was widely adopted. In the early part of the new millennium, the social media era emerged. Communication became interactive. Consumers too generate brand messages. Organisations and consumers can have one-to-one talk.

Cryptocurrency as Asset Class

Shabbir Chunawalla

The US allows the listing of cryptocurrencies as an asset class on exchanges. Though other countries too have done this, it is a welcome step coming from the world’s largest economy. S & P Dow Jones Indices will launch a cryptocurrency index in 2021, in association with virtual currency data solution company, Lukka.

Cryptocurrencies have yet to find common acceptance, but as they do more investment in them as an asset class, things may change. The government may respond by bringing suitable regulation. It will bring certainty to the cryptocurrency eco-system.

As investment is drawn to cryptocurrency, there is going to be more stimulation to investment in blockchain technology, leading to innovations in other areas.

India is skeptical to cryptocurrencies. She can take cues by regulations implemented by other countries. Some of the cryptocurrencies are not as volatile as Bitcoin. They are pegged to other commodities such as gold or gasoline. Even bitcoins are not as volatile as they were previously. India needs to treat cryptocurrencies with lesser skepticism.

Marmik

Shabbir Chunawalla

Marmik was born on August 13, 1960. It was a weekly that went beyond the traditional writing of the Sunday edition of Marathi newspapers.

It carried strong editorials, front-page and centre-spread cartoons by Balasaheb Thackeray and film reviews by Shrikant Thackeray. As you are aware, Maharashtra state was created in May, 1960. Marathi speakers were aggrieved that they were denied the jobs and outsiders, mostly from South, snatched them away. Marmik was born out of this injustice meted out to Marathi people. It published a list of non-Maharashtrians in public and private sector. This resonated well with the Marathi youth. To provide an organised form to vent these grievances, at the instance of Prabodhankar Thackeray, a political party called Shiv Sena was launched on June 19, 1966.

Balasaheb was 33 year old political cartoonist when Marmik was launched and he had left the Free Press Journal (FPJ). The cartoon weekly was planned on the lines of Shankar’s Weekly of K. Shankar Pillai.

Marmik was on the stalls on the Fridays, though dated for the Sundays. Shiv Sena’s first public meeting was announced on October 30, 1966 in Marmik. Later an eveninger Saanj Marmik was launched between 1967 and 1972. Raj Thackeray too drew cartoons for Marmik. Marmik took a back seat after they launched the Marathi daily Saamna (1998) and its Hindi version Dopaharka Saamna (1993).

Marmik is in its diamond jubilee year in 2020. It has been relaunched in a new avtaar with a decent print run. Rashmi Thackeray is the new editor of Marmik. It plans to have physical as well as digital editions, and will experiment with contents like memes. The cover price will be increased from Rs. 5 to Rs. 15.

Earlier they focused on stall sales. They would encourage subscription-driven sale now.

AI and Ethics

Shabbir Chunawalla

Amazon has used a recruitment algorithm in 2015. It was reported that it had a bias in favour of men and against women. It had used resumes submitted over a decade, and mostly they were from men. Thus automatically such a.bias entered.

Biases are not just related to gender. AI used by lower courts in the US called COMPAS was used to determine the probability of an offender to commit a crime. Researchers noted that this was biased against African Americans.

A healthcare algorithm in October 2020 had shown favourable bias to Caucasians rather than African Americans.

These examples indicate the need to have some form of ethical training of the AI software. India’s NITI Ayog has released a draft document on creating Responsible AI mechanisms. The adoption of AI/ML is encouraged but the discussian on ethical aspects is muted.

There could be an oversight body, though self-regulation is the best. There could be sector-specific regulation. Some issues such as black-boxing fall outside the domain of regulation. There should be unrestricted research to avoid human prejudices affecting AI products. We need to rope in ethicists and social researchers.

Regulation of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)

Shabbir Chunawalla

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended to the Government that an industry body may be set up to regulate cloud service providers (CSPs). All industry associations have written to DoT to take them into confidence before framing any policy for regulation of the CSPs. It is not necessary to create an additional regulatory body. It is not conducive for attracting investment in this sector. As such, CSPs are not a part of the telecom sector. They are technologically different. And the ministry of electronics and IT already regulates them. The key players in this field are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, VMWare, Google, compute engine, Netmagic, Red Hat, Salesforce, Zoho, etc. There should be balance between the statutory regulation and a free market. The existing laws that apply to CSPs are the IT Act, 2000, the Indian Contract Act, 1872, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the proposed Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB), 2019.