India can leave behind China and the US to emerge as a global leader for decentralised finance. It should enable cryptocurrency functionalities on existing digital platforms such as UPI and Aadhar. This is what Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase contends in his concept notes. This adding could solve for oversight risks, India can attract investments too. India can lead a movement of countries for decentralised crypto protocols. All these countries would benefit, but no country would control. Cryptos can be added to IndiaStock, a software built by Ispirt which allows organisations to across rails (Aadhar, Digilocker and UPI) in a separate blogspot. A crypto on IndiaStock can bridge the gap of India’s SME finance. Indian starts ups could get crypto crowdfunding. Indian students can get personal tokens.
Month: May 2021
Evolution of AI
AI is fast evolving and has been accepted by an increasingly large number of organisations. AI helps in unlocking value from data. IBM Research India focuses on AI initiatives or the use of AI for hybrid cloud or speeding up hybrid cloud. There are three critical areas for AI adoption. One such area is automation of AI itself. It consists of the task of creating, deploying and managing models. The second area is that of trust. Here we have to concentrate upon fairness and bias monitoring . We have to measure and explain the robustness of models. The third area is language or written information in all forms.
IBM deals with the trust aspect by making AI trustworthy, governance-friendly and ethical. Ethical AI goes beyond technology.
There is some research on the quantification of uncertainty — how does the model know what it does not.
Jeans
In 1800s, the word jeans referred to twill colton fabric used for trousers. It originated in Genoa, Italy and Nimes, France. It was later that what was the name of textile came to be associated with the garment.
Jacob Davis, a tailor and Levi Strauss, proprietor of a wholesale fabric house in San Francisco were the ones to get the patent for jeans in 1873.
Jeans were worn by the miners and labourers. They were distinguished by the copper rivets on the pockets which strengthened them.
In the 1920’s and 30’s, jeans became the uniform of the cool coco boys thanks to Hollywood stars John Wayne and Gary Cooper. Promotional material where celebrity actors Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard wore jeans attract the attention of the fair sex. Vogue too gave its approval to jeans calling it western chic.
In the 1950’s jeans wore associated with rebellious antiestablishment youth. Rock stars adopted it. In the 1960s and early 70s, hippies and anti-war protestors adopted the outfit. Feminists too joined in making it a uni-sex garment. Jeans emerged as counterculture by the 60s.
In late 1970s and early 80s, jeans crossed the working class image and acquired in-fashion image. Jeans has the sex appeal.
To convey angst against conservatism and restrictions, jeans made a political statement in the 1970s.The ripped jeans signified this rebellion. It was called distressed denims. Ripping is done either by laser or by hand. There could be a slash at the knee. Rips are chosen, and are not random.
It takes lot of water to produce a pair of jeans. The dyeing consumes water. Chemical dyes are used to make distressed jeans. There are serious health hazards both to the worker and wearer.
Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) Abolished
The Centre promulgated The Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Services) Ordinance, 2021. It has done away with the appellate authorities under nine acts, and has vested the high courts with the appellate powers. The Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) has been removed. It was established in 1983 under the Cinematograph Act. It was a statutory body constituted to hear appeals of filmmakers aggrieved by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) order.
FCAT was a very fast and economical mechanism. In contrast, high courts are already overburdened and have little time. FCAT arranged screening speedily for the aggrieved filmmakers. It could focus on repeated screenings of the disputed material if necessary. It also took into consideration similar past films. It was being fair to the film makers.
The government treats it as a cost reducing exercise. Here the public at large is not a direct litigant. As it is, very few films go in the FCAT. In the last two-three years, only 0.2 per cent films were taken to FCAT. If CBFC works efficiently and pragmatically, there is hardly any need to have a tribunal.
Paradigm Shift in Digital Advertising
In near future, there is going to be drastic change in the digital advertising market. As we know, there are algorithms to track the behaviour and surfing history of the users. Google intends to stop such tracking by 2022. It is a pre-emptive move to address the increasing privacy concerns. As we know, the global advertising market is shared by Google and Facebook. This move of Google is likely to exert pressure on Facebook to follow suit.
In addition, the duopoly of Google and Facebook are inclined to share the revenues with publishers.
Google intends to block all third party cookies in Chrome, its popular browser on desk tops (not on mobile). These cookies are the usual means of tracking the internet users. They record the data about surfers tastes and interests. It enables the customisation of ads.
Facebook too uses third party cookies and plans to shift to other means. Firefox and Opera browsers block third party cookies by default. Apple has Intelligent Tracking Prevention Feature. It too blocks cookies. Thus Google may also be trying to retain traffic on its browser Chrome.
Another way of tracking surfers is the use of fingerprinting. Here every surfer is identified by a detailed analysis of the browser and OS. Facebook has shifted to Facebook Pixel. It is a first party cookie. It sends back data if the user clicks on ad while on Facebook. Google would also use similar first party means on its search engine and YouTube platforms.
Business is interested in targeting ads to clusters of consumers with similar interests — a type of segmentation. Google is studying this. It has developed FLOC or Federal Leasing of Cohorts to track clusters, rather than individuals. Thus the individual privacy gets protected behind a cluster or a crowd. Further extrapolation by algorithms could lead to predictions of other interests.
Digital advertising thrives by being contextual which print and conventional advertising cannot. Though there is going to be paradigm shift, it may not affect the duopoly as the other players have no capacity to access first party information that these two possess.
Allow Cryptos as Assets
Bitcoin is a product of technology — here it creates its own stock and currency called crypto-tokens or simply tokens or coins. The underlying blockchain technology consists of distributed ledgers — all records are shared with and kept by all participants. There is high-end cryptography in mining, which makes hacking next to impossible. Bitcoin is a digital token that can be sent electronically from one user to another anywhere in the world. It is also the name given to payment network on which the tokens move. The network is not run by one single company or person. It is decentralised network of computers around the world. There is no central authority and so no compulsion to reveal the identities of the users. It keeps the government out of the network.
Cryptocurrencies mimic official currencies and thus face the opposition of the governments. Blockchain platforms and crypto-tokens are inseparable siamese twins. Governments have a tough choice. They cannot allow cryptos to substitute official fiat currency. It, at the same time, cannot allow its citizens to enter into an artificial bubble of surging valuation of cryptos.
It, therefore, requires rational thinking. Crypto tokens can be allowed as assets with tight regulations and taxation policy.
OTT Channels
There are currently about 40 providers of OTT services. OTT has become affordable, and its delivery on internet is also affordable. The rising penetration of broadband has played a key role in speeding up the growth of OTT. As the content is accessible on smart phones, content can be accessed anytime and anywhere. People do not want to be tied down to specific times to view the content. This is the main reason for the rise of OTT.
5G
There are now two standards for 5G. One is 5G Non-standalone (NSA). The current networks around the world use this standard in which 5G and 4G technology can be combined. The other is 5G Standalone which of course ensures lower latency.
In 5G NSA, data uploads can use existing 4GLTE advanced network and radio, providing speeds comparable to a 4G phone. Most consumers download more data for which they need higher speeds ( rather than upload).
ENDS
Electronic Nicotinic Delivery System (ENDS) or e-cigarettes were banned by an ordnance in September 2019 which was converted into a Bill in November 2019. Ultimately it became The Prohibition of Electric Cigarettes Act, 2019 which was notified in Dec.2019.
Facebook to Pay for Content
Facebook has agreed to pay mainstream media in the UK to license their articles. Most British newspaper groups have signed up to the programme under which their articles will appear in a dedicated news section on the site. Currently, the news is consumed through links shared on a user’s main newsfeed. Contractors will be roped in to select the main stories of the day. In return publishers are promised substantial returns. The stories could be curated. The stories could be chosen algorithmically to reflect a user’s interests.