Koo is an indigenous version of Twitter. It has seen 3 million downloads in less than a year. It intends to expand by tapping the regional audience. Koo is currently available in five vernacular languages — Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi for Android phones. The English version is right now exclusive for iOs. It proposes to expand to 25 languages by the end of 2021. The logo is that of a little yellow bird. Koo has an easy interface. It has features like trends, feed, hashtag and so on. The profiles are sorted on the basis of profession, popularity and profile descriptions. Koo has been backed by Vokal, a local language content platform. Koo is not unique, and will find it challenging to establish itself as well as Twitter. It is early days yet for Koo.
Month: February 2021
Agnikul Cosmos : 3D Printed Rocket Engine
India’s start-up Agnikul Cosmos test fired the country’s first 3D printed rocket engine in February, 2021. Agnikul intends to put micro or nano satellites in low earth orbits on demand. They recently test fired a fully 3D printed semi cryo rocket engine at IIT Chennai. It has been incubated by the IIT. It is building a small rocket that can launch 100 kg. satellites into low earth orbit. The first launch is expected by the end of 2022. Anand Mahindra has invested in this start up in his personal capacity.
Axate : Payment Tool for Media
Media, particularly print, has been affected by the Internet and digital media such as Google and Facebook. Media itself has remained lethargic about its revenue model, and expects others to try an appropriate model. Dominic Young with experience in News International and News Corp. launched Axate in 2018. It is a payment tool that enables publishers in the UK to avail of the paid subscriptions. Media available online can be accessed through Axate wallet. One can pay for a preferred article. This wallet works across the brands. The prices are set by the publishers. There are free offerings too after clicking to read a story, either for the rest of the day or week. Abroad, subscription-based models work for the market leader, say the New York Times. Others find it difficult to survive. In Axate model, the larger the network, the better it is. Currently, they have 30 British publications which use Axate. Most of these were previously free. They have some niche publications. There are wallet fill ups to keep them reading.
Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI)
It is a premier institute in the country that offers world class training and good placement. At times, candidates prefer CMI to the IITs. Its MSc data science course is a combination of math and computing skills. Though engineers were supposed to have good mathematical skills, the focus has now shifted to data and developments in computing in the last 4-5 years. Thus math on its own has come centre stage. The predictive models based on AI/ML across the functions depend on concepts such as probability, linear algebra, and others. Even the field of semiconductors do require math graduates. Many students at CMI pursue PG and doctoral courses. There is post-doctoral research too.
6G – Technology of the Future
Nations are vying with each other to pioneer the technology of the future — 6G as it has the potential to usher in the next Industrial Revolution. 6G could take a decade to become a reality. It is 100 times faster than the peak speed of 5G. One can envisage an internet-connected world, real time holograms, flying taxis, internet-connected human anatomy and cerebral systems. 6G competition is going to be fiercer than that for 5G. The US has formed Next G Alliance in 2020 to advance the US leadership in 6G. The member of the alliance are big tech firms such as AT&T, Qualcomm, Apple, Google and Samsung. The European Union has also revealed a 6G wireless project led by Nokia, and includes companies like Telefonica and Ericson.
Sandes (www.gims.gov.in) Messaging App
It is not desirable to exchange official information on WhatsApp by the government employees. A locally developed version of WhatsApp is required as the messaging application which could be downloaded from Google Play. Sandes is the alternative designed by NIC and it runs on both iOS and Android. It is developed in 2020.
It will be difficult to sustain the app unless NIC hands over the technical support of the app to a commercial firm.
It is an outcome of the concern of the government to transmit the data securely. Sandes is suitable for use on smart phones.
Clubhouse App
Clubhouse is backed by California-based venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. It debuted in March 2020 as the invite-only social app where users hold informal conversations.
Clubhouse is accessible in mainland China without needing a VPN which bypasses the firewall and accesses internet services. Clubhouse so far is only accessible on iPhone and users must have a non-Chinese Apple account. It is therefore available to a small audience and is not available to common public. It provides an opportunity to the audience to express their opinion.
There are silent rooms, room to discuss sexuality, rooms for safe topics and room for official China.
Big Corporates Invest in Bitcoin
Tesla has made a beginning by investing a massive sum of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, taking it to high price level of $44000. It intends to accept payments for its cars and other products in Bitcoin. Bitcoin has got acceptance among investors. Corporates in future could allocate to Bitcoin so as to follow Tesla. Each stakeholder of Tesla now owns Bitcoin by extension. Prior to this, Bitcoin has been supported by the financial institutions.
OTT vs TV
TV is watched by appointment. It is a pleasure to watch the live cricket matches on TV. TV helps to break the news and broadcasts the speeches of the head of state and head of the government. TV is watched by 130 million homes everyday. TV subscriptions, though kept alive, people do not watch too much TV. Subscriptions are kept alive since they are so economical.
To begin with, TV soap operas were typically middle-class, e.g. Hum Log. Later the themes shifted to family dramas and then reality shows appeared. Here the TV has stagnated. It has not innovated in terms of formats and genres.
The audience does not mind spending on ‘experiences’. Audience has not to keep the appointment. This is the typical OTT audience. OTT has gathered an audience of 10 million plus. It has attracted quality writers who write quality content. OTT caters to the needs of urban audience.
Automation to Autonomy
As the technology advanced, there was a wave of automation. Everything that was automatable was automated. Then came the Cloud and AI. That improved the potential of automation. Cars are on the way to become fully automatic or autonomous. In a similar fashion, the processes in an organisation are moving from automation to autonomous. Here the focus is on automating the whole process end-to-end.
We see the illustrations of autonomy in data centre operations and in e-commerce. Finance and accounting are fully autonomous. IoT processes too. Autonomy is achieved by automating complex decisions and end-use cases.
Here the tools are AI, cloud, data and intelligent automation. Cloud enables to deal with big data. In addition, there is computing power. That makes the environment conducive to the use of AI. There are lot of processes which move from low-touch to no-touch to fully autonomous processes.
Cloud adoption makes IT infra more efficient. It is further moving to modernisation. Digital transformation helps this. There is more scope for AI applications.