Bharti has received a letter of intent, (LoI) from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for satellite internet in India in August, 2021. Bharti has a tie-up with OneWeb and would like to cover globally by mid-2022 using a constellation of 648 low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites.

DoT has issued LoI for global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) license to OneWeb.

The company has to submit all compliances, fees etc. after which the license will be issued to the company. It will take a month to do so. Thus Bharti will be the only Indian company with both satellite and terrestrial communication services.

These days we are dealing with global supply chain which is large and complex. IoT facilitates the competitiveness and collaboration of international business. The traditional logistics industry is subject to delays, misrouting of goods and lower productivity. Even then logistics pioneered the adoption of technology to bring about operational efficiencies, reduce uncertainties and reduce costs. It enhances the quality of customer service.

Fleet operation is managed digitally. There is predictive analysis for route management and delivery status. It starts with the procurement of raw materials, components and parts, storing these and transporting these. It ends with order fulfilment after operation management in the plant. India’s tracking industry is lifeblood of economy. The terrestrial region of India is diverse. There is en route monitoring with real time fleet and cargo monitoring.

To regulate the content of the social media and to address the content-related complaints, it was proposed in the IT Rules, 2021 that social media with 5 million plus users must have a resident grievance officer to decide on content-related complaints.

The IT Amendment Rules, 2022 proposed that since the grievance officers of the social media do not address issues satisfactorily, Grievance Appellate Committees consisting of a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the Government must be set up.

Social media platforms must remove content that is unlawful or violates IP rights within 72 hours of reporting.

Coursera is the world’s largest online course provider. They have tied up with universities and academic institutes to join the Coursera platform which is focused on skilling talent. Several million students or learners are on the Coursera platform — at present they have 110 million learners globally, of which 17 million are from India. The US has 20 million learners. In India Coursera is growing by 34 per cent per year.

Many prestigious institutes have partnered with Coursera — IIT-B, IIIT-Bangalore, IISc, IIM-A, IIT- Roorkee, and BITS-Pilani. More than half the content users are from outside India.

A partnering university is called UP — university partner.

The UPs reach learners in several countries. Indian UPs reach learners in over 55 countries. ISB is one of the oldest UPs for Coursera.

Coursera coursed are used on campus. The online method popular during pandemic will continue even post-pandemic.

There are certificate courses and Coursera have tie-ups with Google, Meta, IBM and Tally to build on these certificate courses.

New Education Policy (NEP) puts stress on online education and multi-disciplinary studies. Coursera will be fulfilling a crucial role to further the objectives of NEP.

Coursera also gives full online degree courses. Companies tie-up with it to train their manpower. Even learners from smaller towns will benefit from Coursera courses.

In the digital age, very few believe in the power of magazine journalism. Most magazines are struggling to survive. A fresh journalist would hardly opt for a career in existing magazine brands.

Magazines, in fact, were the cultural icons of our times. They are now struggling to make transition to the digital world. They had highs in the last fifty years. India Today, Illustrated Weekly, Sunday, Business India had captured public imagination. Their feature articles made a deep impact. Business World under Tony Joseph made a remarkable turnaround. Most publishers since the concluding part of the first decade of the millennium have shifted to the newspapers.

The existing magazines must focus on most important events of our times. Instead, they believed in delivering immediate news. In other words, they ignored new significant agenda, and focused on news agenda.

In the older format, the magazine proceeded on a pacy note. The middle was in-depth. The back changed the pace distinctly. Today, while choosing articles, people have their own choices. It is a more complex world. The news brand, by their analysis, make the world simpler. In fact news media has acquired magazine-like qualities. In past, news media just reported yesterdays news today.

Magazines may make a comeback. The story-telling is changing. There could be a better curated digital experience. In print too, just as vinyl gave traction to music, magazine in new avatar could get traction.

These days news rooms have started building traffic. They want to get digital advertising. The editorial material is data-driven. There is no human curation. Journalists are given traffic targets.

Importance is given to page views. It is a challenge to sustain loyalty. The digital media publish several hundred stories everyday out of which majority of readers, read hardly one or two stories.

There could be new niches for digital magazines with an aim to build strong communities. The issues could be monthly or quarterly print editions.

Media has adopted to the digitalisation to cater to the evolving customer needs and aspirations.

Panasonic has introduced new integrated Kairos platform to meet the expectations of the broadcasters and production houses. It is an integrated digital solution that provides hassle-free experience for live IP workflows.

Pansonic’s Kairos takes the various components of a broadcast programme and virtualises them. It makes production dynamic. There is intuitive GUI. The layers and effects are managed with ease. Kairos gives smart live production. It brings down the operational cost.

Kairos is a low-latency IP-based video production platform. There could be live video switching with versatile input-output options. It provides immersive experiences.

News channels can use Kairos to modify or layer-up and can send their live news feed seamlessly without using multiple switchers or OB vans. There is complete creative and operational freedom to broadcasters.

Tokyo Olympics were broadcast using Kairos solution. It is a comprehensive solution for sports, live events, smart studios and video production houses.

This tool can be customised as per customer requirements.

At present, 50 percent plus chips required by the world are provided by one company — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). It also provides 90 per cent plus high-end chips required by the world. Chip manufacturing mainly happens in Asia. The technology used is Deep ultraviolet (DUV) which allows chips up to the size of 10 nanometers (nm) to be manufactured optimally. The latest technique is Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) from ASML that can produce chips of smaller sizes, say 5 nm and below 5nm.

The smaller chips are employed in nuclear missile, aerospace and stealth sectors.

A significant amount of chip-related software code is written in India, say in the gaming sector and the niche industries.

As we have learnt, blockchain is distributed ledger-based technology. The data is shared across business networks. It is not possible to access or edit any data stored on blockchain unless there is consensus among all the participants in the network. It protects the data — the data is temper-proof and immutable.

There is huge demand for blockchain solutions worldwide. It is a niche technology. The blockchain solutions are used in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI). In addition, these are used in pharma, e-governance, healthcare and farming.

In India, we have a formidable pool of 2 million software developers. However, just 5000 of them have blockchain skill-sets. In blockchain technology, the job titles are blockchain developer, blockchain consultant, blockchain crypto developer, crypto analyst, solution architect, research analyst etc.

There is a demand supply mismatch. The institutes have launched B. Tech in blockchain technology. IITs and IIITs too have come forward with blockchain courses. Private universities too have started B.Tech in blockchain. upGrad offers an executive programme in software development, with specialisation in blockchain. IIM, Nagpur has a PG certificate course in blockchain.

Web 3.0 is an omnibus term that covers new decentralised internet, with equal access to all participants, and has its own native crypto payment system. Web 3.0 offers incentives, and economic models, rather than relying exclusively on trust.

Along with other countries, India too is emerging as a centre for Web 3.0 development. In Web 3.0, people get control over their own data. It is not restricted to privacy concerns. It has huge monetisation potential. Content creators can retain a larger share of advertising revenue. As India has a huge base of internet uses, 70 crore people, this has vast economic significance.

The World Wide Web (www) was launched in 1989. RSA standards for cryptography were first published in 1977. Merkle Trees patented in 1979 were used by Haber and Stornetta in 1991 to build a cryptographically secured chain of block carrying document timestamps. Satoshi Nakamoto created the first blockchain in 2008. Secure hashing developed between 1993 and 2001. It resulted into Hashcash, the first proof-of-work (POW). Coinbase crypto wallet was set up in 2012 in San Francisco. In 2014, the term Web 3.0 was coined by wood, Ethereum co-founder. Ethereum launched Beacon chain in preparation for Ethereum 2.0. Polygon was launched in India as Matic Network in 2017. It records millions of transactions per day.

Fast adoption of new age technology, talent and startups facilitate the rise of Web 3.0 in India. In the first half of 2022, there are 450 Web 3.0 startups in India. Several of them are working on areas outside cryptos, say DeFi and entertainment.

Many such startups have shifted their base from India to other countries on account of regulatory uncertainty.

India is moving towards the convergence of broadcasting and 5G. The 5-G enabled smartphones in India can directly receive broadcast signals. It can give India a strategic lead. Today the social media platforms control the live streaming. Instead, the broadcast would be delivered directly to smartphones. It would be a critical public service to meet the emergencies and calamities. The cellular broadcast could be on the public-private partnership model. There should be availability of ultra high frequency spectrum above 520 MHz for D2M broadcasting. The broadcast could be extended to in-vehicle D2M. It could pave way for digital radio services. Consumers would be happy to receive a common converged broadcast interface through which video, audio and data could be received on a range of devices from smartphones to car dashboards.