Month: August 2021

Surveillance Technology

Shabbir Chunawalla

Soon after the revelations of the media group of the use of surveillance software Pegasus sold by an Israeli firm NSO in 48 countries, there is focus on surveillance as an idea and surveillance technology.

In India, there is legal framework for surveillance allowed under the Indian Telegraph Act, Indian Telegraph Rules, the IT Act. However, the present law is not adequate to cover the new ways of spying on people, whether for national security or otherwise.

Besides, the current surveillance practices violate the fundamental right to privacy. There should be legislative reform to make surveillance transparent and accountable. This applies both to the public and private sector.

Apart from NSO Group and its Pegasus software, there are other surveillance tools. Celebrite, another Israel-based company, enables digital intelligence. One of its products is UFED or Universal Forensic Extraction Device. Celebrite does not sell to countries sanctioned by the US, the UK or Israel governments. Paragon is another Israel-based firm which offers hack software for WhatsApp and Signal.

Indian firms such as Shoghi Communications from HP and Clear Trail from Noida operate in this field. Shoghi designs counterintelligence strategies for its clients. ClearTrail provides a Trojan software called Astra to corrupt the device.

OTT First,TV Later

Shabbir Chunawalla

Happy Krishna Janmashtami

Broadcasters want to shift the TV viewing audience to video streaming platforms. In order to achieve this, they would first put their popular programme on OTT channel, and later on TV. Voot will video stream Big Boss hosted by Karan Johar six weeks ahead of the TV show on Colors hosted by Salman Khan.

It is in a sense a TV-OTT integration. It aims at introducing a new cohort of consumers into the OTT fold. It makes the audience wider. So far only youngsters who loved the edgy content on OTT channels patronised them. TV was skewed towards the family audience. There could be a shift of older demographic audience to OTTs. It is an attempt of audience expansion.

TV builds an audience of fans. OTT channels can inherit this audience of fans and build upon it. OTT channels could show spin-offs of TV shows. And there is more room on OTT channels for experimentation. There is also an attempt to offer premium content at a price. In OTT channels, the premium content is put behind paywalls.

OTT channels are working on expanding their inventory of the original content. They will have to invest more in content. Viewers will pay for exclusive content, rather than the content that is put first on OTT channel. It is also a question of pricing the content appropriately.

e-RUPEE Digital Payment Instrument

Shabbir Chunawalla

India has launched e-RUPEE digital payment instrument which is developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This is a voucher-based mode of payment — one-time contactless and cashless.

Each voucher will be confined to a specific individual for a desired purpose. It is delivered electronically to a beneficiary, through SMS or a QR code. It is pre-paid. As such the beneficiary can redeem its value at designated vendors and service providers. The beneficiary will receive intended goods or services in exchange.

e-RUPEE requires only a basic phone. It could be used for specific purpose, and thus avoids diversion of funds. No claims are to be submitted by the service providers, as the payment is instantaneous. It is real-time.

It is piloted for health sector, but could be used across the sectors, say providing scholarships to students, pay for vocational training, provide subsidy, deliver public welfare to targeted groups, reward tax payers, enable visits to heritage sites, for using CSR funds.

e-RUPEE can help in effective targeting of social benefit schemes. Monitoring is possible in real time. It generates data to provide feedback to policy makers, and to take corrective action.

There are challenges in the implementation of e-RUPEE. Privacy is to be ensured. Monitoring and evaluation mechanism is needed.

PayPal and Cryptos

Shabbir Chunawalla

PayPal is San Jose, California-based company, having 403 million accounts. It is a prominent financial company that enables access to cryptocurrencies to consumers. It launched crypto business of buying and selling in the US at the beginning of 2021. It has rolled out cryptocurrencies to the UK in August 2021. It will facilitate other mainstream players’ adoption of cryptos. This will pave the way for a network for digital currencies. They will comply with the regulators in the UK and other parts of the world. PayPal is now in competition with other crypto exchanges and fintech start ups such as Revolut.

Customers will be able to buy Ether, Bitcoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin cash using PayPal wallets online or on mobile app.

AI Machine as Patent Applicant

Shabbir Chunawalla

So far, patents have been granted in various countries to human beings for innovations so as to protect their IP rights. Of late, AI has been put to various uses. In fact, AI has been promoted and has been given research funding. It is a technology for the future.

Can AI be called an inventor? Can an innovation made by using AI get patent? Is it legally enforceable? If it is not, the firm using such AI-generated innovation loses competitive advantage.

Abbott was concerned about AI and its relation with law since 2013. He launched an AI Project and availed of the services of Stephen Thaler who had founded Imagination Engines. They intended to build a machine which can invent. As a result, they produced DABUS, a creativity machine.

This machine used AI and invented a beverage can and a device to attract added attention. They filed a patent application in 17 jurisdictions mentioning DABUS as an inventor.

South Africa and Australia ruled that artificial intelligence machine can be listed as an inventor on a patent. It has built pressure on the US and Europe to resolve this issue. In the US, it is an ‘uphill battle’. The European Patent Office is to hear the plea in December, 2021. Major investment decisions depend on AI’s listing as an inventor on patents.

AI performs the steps in innovation in an accelerated manner. It can affect remarkably the drug discoveries and autonomous cars.

Though AI can identify a potential new molecule for drugs, human researchers will have to do a lot later to make it marketable.

DABUS is a test case. There are legal uncertainties in patent eligibility and patentability. There are no easy answers yet. AI itself is an invention that has potential to be an inventor.

Media Company

Shabbir Chunawalla

Can we say that Amazon, Google or Facebook are only Big Tech firms? Amazon operates as an e-commerce company too. Google runs YouTube, the world’s largest OTT. Facebook is used by 2.8 billion people the world over — you get posts from your friends, the news clips, the video clips, the business promoting ads and write-ups. It connects you with family and friends. Facebook Live allows you to broadcast your message. Its WhatsApp brand allows us to share chats, videos and pics. Is it an aggregator? Is it a media giant?

It is to be appreciated that telecommunications, technology and media have converged, and have formed a new eco-system. The spread of internet has facilitated this eco-system.

A media company was so far defined in terms of content. But modern media companies do indulge in e-retailing too. Technology experts have entered into media space. All this has one aim — to keep audiences with them. They seek audiences across the geographies. They may use technology to do so. They have become multi-lingual. They cater to diverse tastes. They design varied formats and use different devices.

Modern media companies do not share much metrics with the advertisers. They just share basic numbers. Their revenue models are either subscription or advertising driven. At times they use hybrid models. Traditional media share detailed metrics with the advertisers. New media companies deal directly with the consumers. A large part of this eco-system remains unregulated and hence offers more creative freedom. It is a melting pot, and is evolving.

The traditional media company is already dead.

Cloud and ERP

Shabbir Chunawalla

Cloud is driving the systems, digitalisation, remote working, financial operations, book closure, producing statements and controlling suppliers. It is a big shift happening from SaaS and finance standpoint.

Oracle had a number of go-lives for cloud ERP and they have more than 8500 customers for Cloud ERP alone.

There Cloud applications for across ERP, SCM, human capital management (HCM), and CRM.

In India and Asia Pacific, there is growth in back-office segment, i.e. Fusion ERP, Fusion HCM and growth in MSME with the NetSuite.

Industry-specific applications plus horizontal-applications like back-office are given a strong foundation of cloud. It enables the customers to avail of the advantages of AI, ML, IoT, Blockchain, analytics, user experiences and mobile experiences.

Semiconductors

Shabbir Chunawalla

The foundries used to supply chips to a major player. These days there is a change of strategy. Foundries are being built across the world to supply chips for third-party players. Gelsinger follows this strategy.

There is a business of Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Testing (OSAT). This is a stage below the setting up of a foundry plant. There is a good global market for OSAT. The players in this field are ASE, Taiwan and some independent global players. OSAT requires an investment of $0.5 billion — $1billion.

There is a business of making high nano-metre chips of 28 nm. This is a low-tech, low margin business, but it has large volume market. It requires an investment of $2 — 5 billion.

The market is shifting fast to smaller nanometre chips since companies demand more processing power and less power consumption. High-tech fab technology ( 12 nm and below) requires huge investment — $10 –15 billion. Technology upgradation requires another $10-15 billion in next 5-10 years. The break-evens could take more than a decade.

International chip makers such as TSMC, Intel and Samsung have committed $20 to $30 billion over the next 2-3 years.

A fab plant has to sell 80 per cent of its production globally and 20 per cent to domestic users to survive.

There is a route of specialty fabs which are waters of gallium nitride or silicon carbide. These have multiple applications in chargers, EVs, base stations and data centres.

Tata proposes to be a part of semiconductor industry. They will have to consider the above options carefully. They can also buy a second hand foundry.

Vegan Burger: Meat Alternative

Shabbir Chunawalla

An experiment was made to develop a vegetarian burger having nutritional equivalence of the beef burger, and resemblance in terms of smell, taste and texture. The raw material used are the leguminous plants to extract leghemoglobin which is called plant blood.

First, they sequence the genomes of a number of leguminous plants in the lab. Secondly, they identity the specific genes responsible for the production of leghemoglobin. Thirdly, they insert the native genetic code for heme production in yeast called Pichia pastoris. Fourthly, there was fermentation. The yeast with the code was given glucose. Pichia pastoris produced a frothy red plant blood. Fifthly, this blood was decanted and purified. This leghemoglobin is ready for further use.

To scale up, they use Soy leghemoglobin. They have studied neurochemistry of beef in terms of aroma, sizzle, blood oozing and tried to replicate it. They have used vegetable proteins like coconut oil to give it juicy fat while being made.

Meat Alternatives

Shabbir Chunawalla

There are two alternatives to meat products. Plant- based meat substitutes and lab-grown or cultivated meat ( here no animals are reared for consumption).

Plant-based meat mimics meat derived from animals. Here the resources used are soya beans, potatoes, peas, beetroots, and other substances. Beyond Meat and Impossible Food from the US produced plant-based meat alternatives.

Singapore is the first country which has allowed sale of lab-grown meat. Foetal bovine serum (FBS) is commonly used as low-cost growth supplement. Researchers are working on how to to dispense with FBS completely to produce meat which is completely animal-free. Cost is a big constraint. Upsid Foods has been successful in lowering costs, and wants to bring it on par with the cost of natural meat or even lower than that.

Ahimsa Food and Good Dot in India are working in the field of plant-based meat products.

When such substitutes will flourish, meat business will be curelty-free, environment-friendly and healthy.

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad is working on cell-based meat products.

In India, the full evolution of this sector may take a decade or more.