Month: January 2021

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Shabbir Chunawalla

A successful blog or website depends on SEO process. It is a tool of internet marketing. On searching , if the website is displayed on the landing page, it is the optimisation of the search process. The website has to appear on the earlier pages of the search engine results. Search query makes the website accessible. There are search engine bots or software for display. While doing so, there are many consideration, e.g. the overall of design of the website, the quality of content, relationship with the key words used in search queries, people’s liking of the website, backlinks and a host of other things.

On internet, there are millions of pages pertaining to one topic. When we search by typing the key words in the search box, the best results are on the first page. The engine scans the best pages and the best results are displayed on the first page. This is done with the help of an algorithm — search engine ranking rules.

After scanning the pages information is gathered. This is called crawling. Next to crawling is ranking of the webpages. The best results are displayed first. A search query leads to the display of the most relevant webpages out of the previously indexed webpages. It is a complex process and is done by an automated software. A website preferably must be Search Engine friendly.

When improvements are made on pages and websites, it is on-page SEO. In off-page SEO, a link is built to the website. A website has to be shared socially. When rules of the search engine are ignored, it is called Black Hat SEO. The opposite is White Hat SEO where methods are employed keeping search engine in mind.

Search engine optimation increases our noticeablity. The visibility of the site is more. Bots are used to crawl pages to put them in index. These pages are then analysed by algorithms. Here a number of criteria are used. There are the ranking factors. These serve as proxies for certain aspects of the user experience. When a site is optimised by factoring in the factors or criteria, the pages fall into higher ranks in the search results.

SEO is the fundamental part of digital marketing.

I&B Ministry’s Proposed Content Guidelines for OTT Channels

Shabbir Chunawalla

Video streaming platforms called OTT channels would soon have to comply with the content guidelines by the government. In 2020 September, there was a proposal of self-regulation code by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) but it was rejected by the I & B Ministry. It was signed by major OTT players including Amazon Prime. The main ground of rejection was the lack of complaint redresssal system and the absence of third party monitoring mechanism.

Previously, in January 2019, the industry had released a self-regulation code for online curated content providers. Some OTT players signed the code but Amazon Prime did not.

Thus the consultations are in progress since 2019. The industry bodies are again working out on another document for submission to I&B ministry. There is no say given to the users of the OTT channels.

It is to be decided what penalty should be imposed on a member if there is violation of the code. And then if there is repeated violation, whether membership can be revoked.

I&B Ministry as the nodal ministry, is now working on specific legislative changes in consultation with the officials of the three concerned ministries. Previously, the Ministry of Defence, has made it compulsory to get an NOC before putting any content on air regarding the armed forces.

There are many OTT channels. There are some fly-by-night operators. The Ministry is examining the codes in other countries of the world.

Demand for Mathematical Skills

Shabbir Chunawalla

In previous years, those trained in mathematics used to serve either in research institutes or academics. Since then the avenues open for mathematics graduates have multiplied fast. Mathematics is a pre-requisite for most of the digital jobs and technology jobs.

In the new world technologies, we learn artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cyber-security and data science. All these fields require a strong foundation in mathematics.

Mathematics graduaties are very much in demand in the financial sector. They work on financial modelling. They do the quantitative work. The fixed income and derivatives pricing is one such area. Then there is projection of cash flows. There is risk analysis.

In the finance sector, those working in quantitative field must have knowledge of probability, functional analysis, algebraic geometry, topology, algorithms, linear algebra and statistical methods.

There is a demand for maths graduates in the field of forecasting. They run time series models and regression. They help in compliance with regulatory aspects.

Data scientists are a big help in analytics in corporates. They have good mathematical and programming skills.

In digital marketing too, we require candidates with a good knowledge stats and maths.

India’s IITs have increased the intake in maths courses. Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) produces good maths graduates. Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata provides good stats graduates. They are good at running statistical tests. There are courses of pure maths and applied maths these days. Despite all this, HR managers find there is gap between skill sets of a fresh graduate and the kind of analysis job he/she is expected to perform.

Cloud and Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

Shabbir Chunawalla

In a sports tournament, more than 10 matches may be played simultaneously. As TV viewers, we could get only the highlights of the individual matches. It is possible that in one such match, India is participating. However, it could not be telecast live. If all the matches are to be beamed live, it would be an expensive proposition. The equipment cost is high. Even then, as the tournament progresses, many teams are out of the tournament. By the time, the semi-finals come, there could be two teams only. The equipment, therefore, would lie idle.

The dramatic change came after the introduction of SaaS — Cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS). It makes media broadcasts easier. There is no need to invest capital in equipment. You can spin up or spin down the infrastructure depending on your need. It is a question of positioning the cameras depending upon the viewer interest.

In the coming Olympics, you will receive hundreds of different streams coming live.

Videos consume too much storage space and huge bandwidth. There is a complex cloud factory serving as the backend. There are encoders which change video into different bit rates. This enables all to watch the stream with different kinds of internet connections and screen sizes.

It is surprising that with Cloud and SaaS, an OTT platform can be launched in 6-8 weeks. The same thing required previously 6 months to a year.

It makes use of machine learning or ML. Information is automatically extracted from the videos to create highlights, thumbnails and promos. A machine is trained to comprehand football and its intricacies. Thus highlights are created as soon as the match ends.

India needs manpower trained in Cloud, programming, data and algorithms. It will give a big boost to many more media companies.

Rise of Paid Subscribers of OTT Channels : 2020

Shabbir Chunawalla

In the year gone by (2020), OTT video streaming channels had a good run as there was no fresh content on TV due to lockdown and there were no theatrical releases of films. OTT channels spruced up their libraries with new original content. The number of paid subscribers rose up. There were specially designed mobile only plans. Movies were acquired for digital premieres. Several movies had direct-to-OTT releases. Indian OTT platforms had a freemium model. They realised that subscriptions offer better monetisation opportunities.

Meat Substitutes

Shabbir Chunawalla

To many, animal eating may not be appealing. Meat substitutes have attracted research. Can we produce meat in the lab? Yes, theoretically DNA of animals can be used and culture of cells can be cultivated. There are efforts to produce chicken meat and red meat. Animal stem cells can be used to create cultured meat.

Another idea is to create plant-based meat. Its texture and taste resembles real meat. Additives such as pea protein, beet root, soya can be used.

The third method is to create fermented meat. Alternative proteins are fermented using microorganisms.

Meat substitutes could capture the market, but require investment in research. There are problems of scalability and costs. Lab grown meat costs over Rs.1000 for a gram. A kg of meat would cost Rs.10 lac. As against this natural products are very available at very competitive rates. The process would be affordable if we could find substitutes for serum.

As the meat is produced in vitro, it can be made healthier by appropriate research. To illustrate, one can produce less fat, more protein variety of meat.

India has a large meat consuming population, say 70 per cent of 15 plus population consume meat. Per capita meat consumption in India is low, and thus it is a potential market.

Meat subsitutes are safer than the natural products.

This is a good area for start ups to flourish.

India has run meat marketing in antiquated traditional way since long. Its time to break new ground. Regulators like FSSAI will have to set standards for meat alternatives. As there is lack of standards, India does not allow the import of meat substitutes right now.

Uncertain Environment

Shabbir Chunawalla

The pandemic has changed one business environment. Vijay Govindarajan, Tuck School, suggest a three box solution.

Box 1 The core business is the performance engine. It must be operated at peak efficiency .

Box 2 The past success could be inhibiting. It is better to avoid those traps.

Box 3 Breakthrough ideas must be explored and a new future could be invented.

The short term challenges are addressed (box 1). There should be focus on long-term future (box 2 and 3).

Corporates must understand their customers and stay with them in adverse tines. When the environment changes for the better, these customer reward you like never before.

The emphasis was on manufacturing and supply chain during the pandemic. They should now concentrate again on customer.

Letterboxd

Shabbir Chunawalla

New Zealand-based web designers Buchanan and Karl were passionate about developing apps and websites for a clientele . Buchanan had an idea about a media site for films. He came up with a social media network called Letterboxd. It is appropriately called ‘Goodreads for films.’ Movie goers wrote about their watching habits, informed about their favourites and wrote reviews.

It gained popularity, and has more than 3 million accounts. They have two revenue streams — from advertising and from paid memberships.

On the site, you will find reviews written informally. They have a kind of wild-west quality. There are memes, essays and a few cryptic sentences. Letterboxd has a free spirit — anything goes. It has that unedited feel. It is not puritan grammar respecting language. It is unconventional. Here you get information about the new movies. At the same time, you get new critics.

The audience consists of mostly 18-24 years olds. These youngers evolve their tastes. Letterboxd audience is not restricted to hardcore cinephiles. The appetite for film content is growing in younger age groups.

Tally — the Accounting Software

Shabbir Chunawalla

Tally Solutions is business management software provider. Tally the accounting software, has been introduced since the days of DOS or disk operating system. It has evolved over a period of time and has now adapted to cloud computing. It competes with many domestic and international products. It keeps on adding features. The latest feature is that enables the clients to access the reports from anywhere. All their core products have operated offline too and on premise. Tally engages itself with the customers on daily basis. The products are developed according to the needs of the customers. The very first version of Tally was simple and of value. It keeps on adding modern technologies. It has a market share 70-80 per cent. It started as a simple book-keeping software. Today it provides solutions for the whole enterprise. It is reliable. It works offline. It works in remote interiors.

Tally collects data and unlocks value out of it. Tally is sold is 100 countries. It has 7 million users. It caters to 2 million businesses. There are 28000 business partners doing customer service.

They focus on SMEs, accountants, tax consultants, start ups, banks and so on. It is working on B2B connecting software. It is exploring cybersecurity issues. It is using encrypted technologies.

C Proramming Language

Shabbir Chunawalla

Demis Ritchie at Bell Labs developed C. It was a small utility programme for Unix operating system in 1972. Thus next year, C will complete 50 years. Its efficiency and power was such that the whole unix was rewritten in C. By 1980’s C was considered the high performance software.

As C is used to programme machine, It is called low-level language. Jawa and Python are called high-level language used in web and mobile applications.

C is used to develop the kernel of any operating system (OS). A kernel is the interface between the OS and machine. OS is wraps the hardware and provides access to the internals of the hardware. The kernel enables us to access the private parts of the hardware such as CPU, the memory, the network card and the file system.

C is an open source project maintained by GNU. It is run by Free Software Foundation.

C uses fewer libraries. Libraries have pre-written codes for specific tasks. C developers thus have better control over the code. C is a lean, fast and powerful language. In C unused code is cleaned manually. There is no garbage collector to do this.

C is appropriate for embedding it in various devices and to facilitate machine-to-machine communication in IoT. Most IoT devices are programmed using C. It consumes least memory resources. The system performs in real time. Washing machines or TV remote run on firmware are programmed in C. Ethernet, the building block of Internet, is programmed in C.

C keeps on evolving even offer 50 years. There are new versions. There are new features.

India has not enough C programmers-there are about 30000 of them in India. Though engineering syllabus teaches C, students migrate to other languages like Jawa and C++.

India proposes to develop electronics and semiconductors. There is going to be a demand for C programmers.