Month: January 2021

5G

Shabbir Chunawalla

5G should not be seen just in terms of internet speed. It is just a part of 5G. 5G is going to usher in fundamental shifts in our life style, work style and play style. It is a multi-dimensional shift. In fact, 5G uses spectrum too more efficiently than 4G. It packs more data than 4G in the same amount of spectrum.

5G will change the education sector completely. One can stream interactive virtual class rooms all over the country from anywhere. It would not be just video watching — it is going to be participatory. There could be a holographic teacher.

5G will change the healthcare sector. A local kiosk could connect to any advanced medical centre. There could be remote diagnostics, treatment and surgeries.

5G would change the agriculture. It will improve agricultural productivity. Sensors in the farms would throw up data regarding soil, humidity and temperature. It is going to be in real time. Farm diseases would be controlled. Water and fertilisers would be used more efficiently.

5G will support Industry 4.0. Factories would be smart. 5G will enable communications between machines and robots in manufacturing.

5G will support smart cities and smart homes. It will improve our gaming experience on computers. There are going to be quicker downloads — affecting entertainment. The latency will be low. Cloud data centres will move to the mobile edge. Entertainment streaming will be faster and better. New apps will develop. There will be new business models.

Media in the New Millennium

Shabbir Chunawalla

Journalism has been a respected in India till the electronic news media from satellite channels came on the scene in the early 90s. Journalism was affected by its association with the channels whose anchors act like politicians. There is bigotry and gracelessness in their talk. They do not use dignified language. They are judgmental. They shout down anyone voicing an opinion contrary to which they favour.

Media owners have business interests which come in conflict with an independent line of editorials. Even DD, the public service broadcaster, is not autonomous.

Indian media facilitates the polarisation of the population and assaults the unifying factor, the Indian Cinema. It is labelled as a place where nepotism rules whereas the truth is that in this field, only the merit counts. There is vilification of the manpower in this industry. Indian cinema has stood its ground for the last 100 years, without any government support. In fact, it generates revenue for the government and employs several lac people directly and many more indirectly.

Despite the black sheep in journalism, there are journalists who report news accurately and do an objective analysis.

Vividh Bharati

Shabbir Chunawalla

Vividh Bharati services on Aakashvani will be stopped with effect from April 1, 2021 in eight states including Maharashtra. Instead, local programmes will be broadcast. Radio Ceylone started broadcasting movie songs 63 years ago, and became a popular radio station in India. To compete with it, Vividh Bharati was commenced from 3rd October, 1957. The pioneers were stalwarts such as Keshav Pandey, Pundit Narendra Sharma, Gopaldas and Girija Kumar Mathur.

Vividh Bharati, apart from songs, broadcast a variety of programmes — interviews of celebrities, reminiscences of celebrities, radio plays or Hawamahal. Chhayageet, Bhule Bisre Geet were very popular. Jaymala has been presented by a number of celebrities for the jawans on the border.

Vividh Bharti was inaugurated in Maharashtra on 12 October, 1968.

Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

Shabbir Chunawalla

The draft of PDP Bill was first tabled in Parliament in December, 2019. In January 2020, a JPC or Joint Parliamentary Committee was constituted to study it.

The Joint Parliamentory Committee took up the Bill for discussion since January, 2020 and held 66 sittings spending 160 hours for deliberations on the Bill and discuss it clause by clause. There were 800 representations to the committee. It consulted the other concerned ministries, stakeholders and other members themselves. They have finalised the Bill after building consensus on all aspects of the final draft.

There were concerns about the proposed privacy law. There were concerns about the access given to the government to citizens’ data without consent. There was the issue of including the non-personal data in the new law. There was concern about the absence of judicial participation in selecting the head of the regulatory body.

It is to be seen how the data is to be stored. There are Standing Committee recommendations on important legislations being non-binding on the government.

There was high concern about Section 35, which allows the Centre to exempt its agencies from some or all of its provisions for national security and public disorder. Members were in favour of tightening the exceptions. Some had sought its total removal.

Gold and Bitcoin

Shabbir Chunawalla

Gold reached peaks and trouphs regularly between 2018 and 2019. When the prices fell, it was believed that gold had gone out of fashion. However, sentiments turned, to make gold climb, breaching $ 2000 an ounce. Since then gold has come down, and the volatility continues.

Though no Big Daddy monitors the cryptos, as they do with fiat money, it is surprising that investors are putting their money here.

There is similarity between gold and bitcoins — both are in short supply. And their value is independent of any controlling authority.

If in the perception of people, their assets or liquid assets ( fiat currencies) are eroding in value, they look for alternatives. The more it happens, the more people look for alternatives.

Bitcoin Boom and Crypto Exchanges

Shabbir Chunawalla

2020 will be marked as the year of bitcoin boom. It is a year of global uncertainties too, and that by itself has led to the boom. Cryptos are governed by the economic factors, the technology behind them and the prevailing and expected regulatory interventions. Bitcoin, since its introduction in 2009, has evolved over all these three factors. Today, the bitcoin rally has a lot to do with large institutional investors jumping into this space and showing trust in the underlying blockchain technology during these uncertain times.

There is limit to which this will continue, and after that the regulators are bound to step in. If cryptos and sovereign currencies become equivalent as a source of funding, regulators will move beyond interim regulations, and adopt policy level changes. It is not going to happen too soon,

Fiat currencies are here to stay for a long time. Banks are today intermediaries for transactions. Blockchain technology removes the intermediary. Central banks have started figuring out blockchain. Globally, they are experimenting with Central Bank Digital Currency ( CBDC).

Previously, there were people who held cryptos, but there were few trades. But since March 2020, in a global boom, there is a 12 per cent jump in the number of trades that took place in India. Cryptomining is a technical topic. However, crypto trading concerns the masses.

Anyone who has an account with exchanges can buy, sell or hold cryptocurrencies. These platforms are technical and match the buyers and sellers, taking into consideration the quantity and the prices. There is interest earned for the currencies held on the platform, just like the banks. Either the transaction is free, or there is an exchange fee to the tune of 0.1 – 0.2 per cent of the transaction value.

Crypto exchanges also educate the customers-traders. They educate them on blockchain technology and crypto-trading. They would like to make the crypto experience as simple as conventional stock trading.

Policy on Cryptos

Shabbir Chunawalla

India must formulate a clear policy on cryptocurrencies. There are daily trades worth Rs.35-40 crore which are rupee denominated. Its tax treatment is to be decided. There is a lurking threat of these currencies being banned by legislation.

Bitcoin has appreciated in 2020 by 300 per cent, and ethereum by 650 per cent. There is cryptocurrency index called CC130 Index which has escalated by 200 per cent.

Though cryptocurrencies have become expensive, they can be traded in small units. Bitcoins are fragmented into a hundred million Satoshis, named after its creator. Indian trade can happen at minimum value of about Rs.150.

Governments and financial institutions including investment banks have started treating cryptos as mainstream assets. In the US, there is a draft of proposed regulation. Several other countries and such as Japan, Estonia, Finland, Australia and South Korea have legislation governing cryptos. China proposes to launch its own cryptocurrency. The S&P proposes a cryptocurrency index. It is likely that hedge funds will have higher crypto exposure. There are crypto-investment services. Cryptos are economical in cross-currency trades. Cryptos will have greater share in global remittance market.

It is necessary to take all these factors into account while framing policy on cryptos.

Cryptocurrency Trade

Shabbir Chunawalla

There are signs of non-traditional banking services to be more active in crypto trade. A larger network may support cryptos. Cryptos could thus be easily exchanged into rupees.

An institution called UNICAS has been launched. It is crypto friendly and has 43 branches. It is a tie up between Cashaa and United Multistate Credit Co-operative Society from Jaipur. UNICAS offers traditional banking services along with crypto-banking services. They operate online as well as through physical branches.

Bitcoin holders and holders of other cryptos can access UNICAS to convert them into Indian rupees to pay merchants. Merchants will be paid in a regular way by payment processors. UNICAS will settle with the bank to make payment with the processor.

Cashaa started dealing with cryptos when RBI banned banks to do so. Almost 90 per cent of banking services to India’s crypto exchanges are provided by Cashaa. They also advance loans against the collateral of bitcoins, where the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is 50-70 per cent.

To day, there are estimated 8-10 million accounts of cryptos with various exchanges. It is estimated Indian investors hold 8000-10000 bitcoins in their individual wallets.

If cryptos are treated as a commodity, they will attract GST but the rate and valuation will remain a subject of debate.

Short Films

Shabbir Chunawalla

Even during lockdown due to pandemic when theatres were closed and film shootings were stopped, there was no constraint on making short duration films to tell stories. These films are easier to make. The consumption of short films have gone up. These are made professionally these days. They earn revenues and profits. Short films are very much in demand to feed the OTT channels. They look out for fresh content to satisfy the need of the Indian audience.

Short films have different economics. There are small crews, indoor shooting and lower cost of production. They are good snackable content. Viewers do not have to invest much time to match them. To begin with they had a budget of 1 lac. Today, the budget has reached Rs. 2.5-3 lac. It is a learning experience for the aspiring full-length film makers. These establish the credentials of the makers and actors who can approach mainstream actors and crew for their full-length feature films.

OTT : Media Renaissance

Shabbir Chunawalla

All theatrical releases have a two hour window. OTT frees the content from this constraint. Viewers are hooked on the basis of crisp content and strong performances. The makers are not worried about the opening numbers. There is no concern for the weekend collection. OTT’s freedom is enjoyed both by the makers and actors. The content is judged only against two criteria — writing and performances. There is a time period of 6-8 hours to say what you want to say. Already, we had the silver screen and TV screen. OTT has given the third screen that takes you to an untapped wider audience all across the world, and into the deep interiors. There are unique stories and long-format content — it allows actors to explore unconventional roles and characters. They can experiment, evolve and attain fame. It is a big universe for a well-made show. If the audience does not like the content, they can stop watching in minutes. It is true democracy.

OTT has massive reach. What is required is a good actor that justifies a role. The actor’s salability or star power does not matter for him or her to be successful. We can call it rennaisance of media and entertainment. All kinds of stories are being told. All genres are being explored.