Web3 gaming is becoming popular. Indian developers are creating NFT and Web3-based games. How is this different from traditional gaming? Web3 gaming is associated with cryptos, the decentralised currencies. In addition, there is decentralisation in gaming. In traditional gaming, in-game assets, acquired through in-game purchases or through playing the game, are the property of the game publisher. Gamers spend resources to acquire these assets. However, if the game is banned for some reason or the publisher shuts down the central servers, or a player loses interest in the game, these assets are lost. The reason is that they are confined to the game. Web3 enables the creation of NFTs for these assets, and NFTs can be bought and sold. Thus the game acquires the characteristic of a play-to-earn. The gamers thus are vested with the complete ownership of these assets.

There is an element of interoperability in certain gaming. These NFTs can be traded across different gaming platforms on the blockchain.

Gaming is for entertainment. As long as gaming provides it, gaming can survive temporary deceleration due to crypto crash.

In India, it is necessary to have regulations for Web3 gaming. The government may have apprehensions about the crypto part of Web3 gaming.

Sodium-ion batteries are likely to replace lithium-ion batteries in certain segments of the automobile market. India could emerge as a major hub for the manufacturing of sodium-ion batteries. What are the reasons for sodium-ion gaining traction? Of course, lithium-ion rule the market for electric vehicles. Sodium-ion has some inherent advantages. First of all, sodium is abundantly available. Its extraction costs are very low. Lithium, in comparison, is not so widely available ( that is why it is costly).

A sodium-ion battery uses aluminium, whereas lithium-ion uses copper. Copper is costlier. Sodium-ion is safer, and can be transported at zero volt. Lithium-ion batteries have to be stored with a minimum charge at all times. There could be a fire hazard.

Sodium-ion is 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than lithium-ion. Sodium-ion charges faster, and lasts more. In 7-8 minutes, sodium-ion can charge up to 80 percent.

The average range of sodium-ion is 30 per cent lower and could rise to 50 per cent. Thus a sodium-ion battery is relevant for 3-wheelers and public transport. Range limitation is a key issue for passenger cars.

India is on the verge of getting 5G and will soon have 6G in future. Let us examine the evolution of network.

1G: Voice Calls

You must have seen bulky phones with unreliable network reception. There were elongated antennas and poor battery times. This is how the mobile communication commenced. The communication was enabled between two supported devices. It was an analogue system. It supported only voice calls. The quality of the calls was not satisfactory. These served a fixed area, as there was no roaming service.

2G: Telephony Services

Some of the drawbacks of the first generation were fixed, and new features were added. The digital system replaced the analogue system for wireless transmission. It was called the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). The quality of calls improved. There were data services of SMS and MMS. The mobile network supported roaming facility. Sending and receiving calls became easier. Telephony services matured. Later, there was support of GPRS — General Packet Radio Service and EDGE — Enhanced Data GSM Evolution. Before moving to 3G, there was 2.5G.

3G: Age of Apps

It heralded high-speed internet services pawing way for the smart phones and application eco-system. There was mobile TV, radio and email. Video calling became possible. Phone apps defined this era. iPhones and Android phones appeared in the market. In those days, the internet speed was stated in kilo-bytes-per-second (Kbps). However, the shift was not direct from 2G to 3G. There was 3.5G in-between, which gave internet speeds in mega-byte-per-second (Mbps). There was introduction of HSDPA — High Speed Downlink Packet Access and HSUPA — High speed uplink packet Access.

4G: Internet calling

We are now in 4G era. The data speed increased. There were advanced multi-media services. It perfected LTE — Long-term Evolution system. It improves data rate, and makes possible simultaneous transmission of data and voice. VOLTE or voice-over-LTE made possible internet calling. VoWiFi or voice-over-WiFi is possible for enabling voice calls in areas with low or no internet reception.

5G: IoT and Enterprises

Significant changes are seen in network while moving from 1G to 4G. 5G is different. It is a network both for the smart phone and enterprises. There are improvements in data speeds. At the same time, there is low latency and high throughput. This makes it ideal for enterprises. It is conductive for automation and connected eco-system. It will enable technologies such as metaverse.

6G: Connected Eco-system

6G will be used at the enterprise level. It will extend the use cases of 5G, e.g. metaverse. India may start 6G services by 2025.

There are two methods to offer broadband 5G services — Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband or Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH). In FWA, fibre is replaced with wireless in the last mile — there is no digging or right of way needed. The main cost is that of the router at the premises of the customer — $200 likely to fall $100 later. Reliance Jio is in favour of FWA, and wants to reach 100 million homes through it. FWA roll out is easier and scales up also easily.

Airtel favours FFTH. It feels it is not the right time to adopt FWA. It is to be seen whether it is competitive. Airtel estimates that FFTH home connection will cost $35 – 45 or even less.

Facebook has pioneered no-cost equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for advertisers in India. It will satisfy the working capital (WC) needs of advertisers. The EMIs will be spread over three months for advertising campaign. Facebook will bear the interest cost. Thus it is an upfront discount to the business on ad spends. Advertisers can choose any amount between Rs.3200 and Rs.5 lac. The programme will be applicable to over 19000 pin codes across India. It almost covers the whole of India. The programme has been launched after the first ever decline in the revenue of Facebook. Facebook will also provide 24×7 chat support to the advertisers.

what3words is the simplest way to identify locations. It has delivered the world into 3 meter squares, and has given each square a unique combination of 3 random words. For example, what3words headquarters in London is at ///filled.count.soap on the third floor, Studio Number 301.

Every precise location in the world has a unique and accurate 3 word address.

People can seek the what3words address of any location on the free what3words app available on both Android and iOS. There is also an online map at what3words.com. The information is available in 50 plus languages which include 12 Indian languages.

People can err and enter wrong what3words address. This can be prevented by AutoSuggest feature. It displays a drop-down list of suggested what3words addresses along with contextual location information. It facilitates error correction.

Many industries use what3words. Delivery companies use it to facilitate the customers to provide the exact delivery locations. Ride-hailing apps use it for pick-up and drop-off locations. Car companies have built-in app to facilitate the navigation for the drivers. Emergency services use it to help people in distress. Food deliveries are facilitated. Restaurants can use it.

Customers provide regular street address. In addition, they can enter what3words address at the checkout, or can ping it. It is easier.

what3words ensures accuracy in deliveries, and is cost saving.

There is a difference between Google Maps and what3words. Google Maps is a navigation tool. It searches point of interest. what3words provide the precise location. They are used together. The location is found through what3words app, and Google Maps are then used to navigate to it. It provides route and directions.

Use what3words app. There are some simple steps to find what3words address.

Tap the search bar. Enter a street address or place name. You will get search results. Select the correct search result.

You can use satellite mode. Zoom in and adjust the map until you see the precise location. Tap the exact square to see the what3words address displayed at the top of the screen.

You can share this address and save it. You can get directions to it by using a navigation app.

what3words address works for ground level. It gives the address for building entrance. You can then add the floor, flat or office information.

Gajanan Mangesh Rege was a student at J. J. School of Art. He later taught there Advertising Art and Ideas. He had also completed B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology. He completed MA in Sociology. He shifted to London and got training in advertising from College for Distributive Trades. He worked for Richard Wood and Partners, an ad agency. After returning to India, he joined as Head, Publicity of Asian Paints.

He developed the idea of a mascot of a naughty boy for Asian Paints. The face of this boy was drawn by R. K. Laxman. This naughty boy with a paint tin and brush started putting paint on various surfaces, even on the bald head of a grandfather sitting in arm chair. The tag line was ,’ Any surface that needs paint, needs Asian Paints.’

Gajanan Rege decided to name the mascot. He arranged a competition with a prize of Rs.250 to name the mascot. Many wrote a letters suggesting different names. The competition’s dead line was extended, and the prize was raised to Rs.500. The period was 1959-60. Out of 47 letters, the selection committee selected the name Gattu. Two readers Rele and Aras shared the prize of Rs.500 for suggesting this name.

Gajanan Rege used to change jobs. He wrote a book Advertising Art and Ideas. Later its Marathi version was published. Gajanan Rege was later associated with Goa Art College. He was a good calligrapher too. He used to review the research dissertations of the students.

In the emerging digital environment, cloud computing has become the buzz word. There are scaling demands, which are unpredictable. The team sizes are limited and resources too. It constrains the scaling. Cloud computing comes to our rescue in such circumstances.

Cloud computing makes it possible to scale up easily. There is server storage of data. There is remote access via internet from anywhere. The costs are controlled. How well a cloud performs depends on certain factors that maintain its stability.

In managed cloud services, the requirements are catered to by professional and skilled workforces which handle cloud-related activities. Managed Cloud Services provider provides features like disaster recovery, data backup and secure, scalable and reliable environment.

There are three main types of cloud environments — public clouds, private clouds and hybrid clouds. There is an additional community cloud too.

Public cloud is provided by an external agency. It ensures remote availability of its resources to the users. It has huge spaces to allow easy scalability. Public cloud offers services to multiple businesses via the internet on the pay-per-use basis. Cloud provider manages the creation and maintenance of resources.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and OpenStack offer public cloud services.

Businesses have the freedom to scale up and down to meet the demands.

Private cloud offers exclusive services to an individual, business or organisation. It makes better use of resources. It has the added advantage of remote server, rather than a shared server. Users do not have to share resources with anyone. It has dedicated access. Though there is better security and performance, it is costlier than the public cloud. It is an optimal solution for large-scale business seeking customization and additional security. It limits access to confidential data. It lets you move your data anywhere.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is an amalgamation of the two main cloud deployment models — public and private. It is combined with the on-premise infrastructure and methods for an integrated solution.

In hybrid cloud, a data centre on premises is connected to a public cloud.

Community cloud is not very popular. Here the cloud infrastructure allows to access the services to share information. It may be operated by the organisation or by the third party service provider or by both.

Hybrid cloud brings different customers together to work on a centralised cloud infrastructure. It allows various organisations to work on a shared platform.

Private clouds work independently, that too behind firewall settings.

Hybrid cloud combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, with proprietary software enabling communication between each distinct service.

The best thing about hybrid cloud is its agility. In digital business, the main need is to adapt and change direction quickly.

The workload may demand cyclical resources, and you do not want to add permanent resources, then you can choose hybrid. It gives you better control on IT infrastructure.

In many organisations, there is data centre or cloud provider. One will have to do Business Impact Analysis and Cloud Readiness Assessment. These are for planning projects. You will come to know the existing workloads that require to be extended to clouds. You will also understand apps, users and data sets for cloud migration. While adopting Hybrid Cloud, you have first to select the hardware — server, storage, network, complete platforms. You have to choose Moonshot chassis, Nutanix platform and Cisco UCS or other blade-based systems.

Next, you have to create a virtual platform. A modern data centre is software-defined. One has to look at logical and virtual controls. Big Data is on a Hadoop cluster.

Then there are replication and distribution mechanisms. You have to know how data is moved, backed up and optimised. The data is either closer to the user or the bursts and branch locations are controlled. Data replication is a tedious process. Take security into consideration. Data must be secured at source, through the route, and at the destination.

Last, incorporate automation/orchestration. You have to set automation tasks. There are technologies — CloudPlatform, OpenStack, and Eucalyptus. These offer direct extensibility into a hybrid cloud. Automation makes replication and control easier.

The whole thing is subject to Management and Control.

There are three types of cloud computing services —

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

Platforms-as-a-Service(PaaS)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Hybrid Cloud: A Game Changer

A company cannot afford just a single public cloud or on-prem(ises) environment while dealing with voluminous data, and abiding by security regulatory requirements, and managing mission-critical applications. Almost all organisations in India are using varied combinations of hybrid cloud architecture.

The companies start by adopting hybrid cloud, and have to get business value from it. It is called harnessing the hybrid cloud. It facilitates business performance. There is seamless orchestration, management and application portability.

Five challenges in the Journey

IBM has identified five challenges while dealing with hybrid cloud. Varied workload, first of all is put, on multiple clouds, which makes the architecture complex and costly. It is also less secure and less likely to deliver outcomes.

Secondly, people work as if in silos. There is dearth of talent. There are few developers and engineers. The resources are not sufficient.

Third, there are unintegrated cloud components. That escalates the security risk.

Fourth, there is cost of moving data. Last, organisations have to deal with a number of eco-system partners in their journey to hybrid cloud.

Organisations will have to make concerted efforts to overcome these challenges. It is necessary to move away from a hybrid of clouds to a single integrated hybrid cloud platform. The components must not be discrete. There should be a complete system. Employees must possess critical cloud skills.

In the coming years, the demand for hybrid cloud will increase. Here technology serves as a fundamental source of competitive advantage. The core technologies in the digital age are the hybrid cloud, data, AI and security. Clients across the world are moving more workloads to the cloud, and automated processes.

India has decided to take a policy initiative in setting up chip-making industry here in India. Chips, as we know, are integrated circuits (IC) imprinted on silicon wafers. They are the vital components of so many manufacturing plants such as automobiles and telecom gear. They are needed in solar panels and defence equipment. In the digitised world of AI and ML, they become all the more important. Chip making is highly capital intensive and requires cutting edge research. It has thus centralised this business in half-a-dozen companies which command global market.

Many governments are introducing incentives to chip manufacturing units, and these incentives run into billion of dollars. The US, the EU and China are in the race. Samsung plans a massive investment in new chip factories. India too has a massive market for chip-based products, and as a fastest growing economy in the world, wants a share in the fast growing chip market. It has decided to offer $10 billion dollars as capital subsidy. The issue is whether this is adequate for self-reliance, or it is better to remain a part of the eco-system which is complex.

In the chip-manufacturing eco-system, the tools in the factories come from Japan. It is the Dutch specialisation to do the photolithography — the process of photo-printing circuits on silicon wafers. Materials such as Neon and palladium which go into the making of the finished product come from Russia and Ukraine. China has concentrated on the supplies of some rare earths and minerals. The US has tied up with several countries for the supply of minerals. Thus there is so much of inter-dependence.

The US enjoys leadership in logic chips, S. Korea in memory chips. Wafer fabrication is outsourced by Intel and others to Taiwan. Japan’s chip manufacturing uses older technology. Intel, US has not yet broken 10-nm barrier, whereas TSMC and Samsung can produce 3nm chips. China has broken through to 7nm. Japan and US have collaborated to produce 2nm chips. Such alliances are likely to emerge.

India is trying to enter electronics manufacturing. It has been encouraged by its success in mobile manufacturing. It wants to manufacture display units, and it is to be seen how it succeeds. India may look at chip manufacturing of mid-range, say 28nm used by automobile industry and certain smart phones.

Should we full-scale or should be specialise? India has the talents and skills. It has an advantage in labour-intensive part of chip making — assembly, testing and packaging. It could invite component manufacturers or sub-assembly makers to invest here. These will help feed the assembly lines. In future, an eco-system with global linkages can develop.

The government prefers full-spectrum approach — avoid imports of chips and downstream products. However, in the meantime, India can continue to upstream imports of materials and production equipment.

Wafer-fabrication is highly capital intensive. There are constant technological changes. Thus investments of huge capitals are constantly needed. Still India cannot isolate itself from this game.

The CHIPS and science Act, 2022 received presidential assent in the US. Its aim is to push leading edge investments — nodes containing 5-7 nanometer (nm) chips. These chips in fact gave the world its original Silicon Valley — coined after an accumulation of silicon chip manufacturers around San Francisco, California.

India’s focus nodes of 28 nm is where the demand is in the Indian market, and in white goods globally. It is the right strategy for India.

The top crop in semi-conductor manufacturing –Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix, Texas Instruments and Global Wafers — are ramping up investments in the US and Europe in the wake of Chips Act. Even the EU has its own CHIPS Act.