Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) releases volatile Sulphur, giving the sea its distinctive smell. This compound is produced by copious algae floating close to the sea surface. Thus, it is a sign of life or biosignature.

In April 2025, a paper has been published in Astrophysical Journal of Letters suggesting the presence of DMS on a distant planet, 124 light years away, named as K2-18b. It is a study by a Cambridge Scientist Nikku Madhusudhan. DMS concentration is there much more than on the earth.

NASA’s Kepler mission discovered the planet K2-18b. It is a planet outside the solar system. It is far bigger than the earth but smaller than Neptune. Such sub-Neptunes are located in the Goldilocks Zone of a star. This area is not too hot, nor too cold. It may contain water and holds the promise of life.

Sub-Neptunes are poorly understood. They are overshowed by the parent star. Therefore, it is difficult to study their atmosphere because of the dazzle. The research team overcomes this obstacle by analyzing the light of the parent star while it passes through the atmosphere of the sub-Neptune. They identified methane and carbon dioxide there in 2023. The team found DMS, but the research paper published in Astrophysical Journal of Letters offers stronger indication of the gas. Later, the scientists will inter from this after running some more studies. The major issue to be studied is whether DMS there behaves the same way as it behaves on the earth.

There is always a quest for life outside the earth. It accelerated after the launch of the JWT telescope in 2021. It enables us to study the composition of the atmosphere from the light of the stars. It will extend the boundaries of human knowledge.

Surprising, the overall alcohol consumption has gone possibly into a decline.

As you know, alcohol is habit forming. It is necessary to consume more quantity get the same effect as the body cells get used to it. Alcohol consumption is as old as civilization itself. Alcohol slackens the inhibitions at social gatherings. It adds colour to an otherwise monotonous life. It puts a little sparkle to our routine life. The very fact that alcohol consumption is dwindling gives us hope that other long-standing practices could also alter in time to come — non-vegetarian food, smoking and sexual promiscuity. It is difficult to assess a decline of such a practice until years after it happens. Such shifts are mysterious. They are difficult to forecast. A hiker always feels he is at the peak, while in reality he has not got there. However, transitions do happen.

Grape wine reached a peak production of 37.5 million metric tonnes (equivalent to 50 billion bottles) in 1979. Since then, it has fallen by about 27 per cent. Wine consumption is promoted for its health benefits. In beer too, 190 million tonnes were brewed in 2016, or roughly half a trillion standard bottles. Per capita consumption in drinking has fallen down from 5 liters of pure alcohol per adult (2013) to 3.9 liters (2023). If we add demographics here, the thirst was at its peak in 2016 (25.4 billion liters) from where it has fallen about 13 per cent.

The world population now is 8 billion plus. It may reach 10.3 billion in the 2080s. The hardest drinking parts of the world (Africa to S.E. Asia) already had demographic booms. The Muslim world is unlikely to be a strong market for brewers.

It is easy to surmise that the world has already passed peak booze consumption (2015). It amounts to six standard drinks per adult per week.

A historic moment for humanity which fiddle with alcohol from pre-historic times. Remnants of fermented grains were left about 13000 years ago in Israel. People used to collect and eat wild grass seeds. It led to domestication of cereal crops. That led to urbanization. Civilization itself could have been a by-product of alcohol consumption.

Despite consuming a lower quantum of alcohol, we may have to pay more for it as we take to finer spirits to align with our wealthier lifestyles.

Though the world continues to sober up, it has not altogether kicked off the habit yet.

There is an unprecedented attack on premium US universities from Washington — fund-cuts to crackdowns on student visas.

The student community of any university must show diversity. This is necessary for academic excellence and innovation. Academic leadership must be neutral, and allows the student community to feel safe. Different people have different views. The diversity is not a luxury, but a necessity. It fosters excellence in research and teaching. At London School of Business (LBS), 90 per cent of faculty are international. LBS cannot compromise on its capacity to bring people from around the world.

In a global company, you have to deal with people with different cultures and different sectors. The UK government supports LBS. Indian students constitute the biggest group in LBS. It accounts for 20 per cent of the student body.

Freedom of speech is sacrosanct. The students could hail from countries not aligned with each other. Maybe, some of these countries are not at peace with each other. They may not recognize each other’s borders. They may have different values. They are brought together and get an opportunity to work together. LBS has been doing this for a number of years.

If universities do not bring the best faculty and students from around the world, they undermine their capacity to excel in innovation, education and research.

IIMs in India have now started accepting foreign students. It already welcomes foreign trained faculty. It has improved its rankings of excellent institutions in the world.

One of the most popular and lucrative sporting events is the FIFA World Cup, and next year’s (2026) World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US.

The issue is whether the US will be able draw fans around the world or will tensions, tariffs and deportations alienate the visitors.

The upcoming 2025 FIFA World Cup kicks off in 11 US cities in June 2025. The Club World Cup highlights professional teams while the World Cup features national teams. The signs are obvious this year too — ticket sales of the Club event are underwhelming. Overseas fans are avoiding the US. Overseas visits to the US have dropped. Air travel has dipped. Land crossings from Canada and Mexico have dipped. There are more UK-based tourists to the US, and they too show a decline. These are dismal signs.

The FIFA governing body projects that 40 per cent of match attendees will be foreigners. They could collectively spend more than $1.6 billion during the event.

Unless the tensions and tariff fears dissipate in time, attendance will certainly get affected at 2026 World Cup.

Los Angelas expects to host 1.5 lac more tourists. If this does not happen, there will be losses.

The missing tourist dollars is one issue. Another issue is advertising and marketing activity. Lenovo, a consumer electronics Chinese firm, has bought marketing rights at a prohibitive cost. It faces a dilemma now. The event could have offered a massive sports fans audience. The Chinese products face high tariffs. Lenovo could have second thoughts about the sponsorship.

Lenovo is not alone. Hyundai, Kia and Adidas face high tariffs. The issue is whether it is worthwhile to advertise to the US audience. American advertisers are already holding back. Tariffs do influence ad spending.

Apart from short-term and medium-term effects, tariffs could be corrosive in the long-term. FIFA wants to build a post-cup legacy of health and fitness and stimulate health sports equipment production. It will be expensive outfitting kids.

Till the tensions and tariffs persist, the US will not be able to reap the benefits of the FIFA World Cup. Things can still be changed, before it is too late. It is a desirable goal.

Law firms are streamlining their operations. On a global level, top level law firms are opting for mergers to consolidate their positions. The new entities will have diversified talent and enhanced revenues. Top level Indian firms have started taking baby steps to consolidate so as to create specialized legal entities. They have also entered a hiring phase. They are expanding headcount. They are building capability in specialized practice areas.

They are investing in top level talent. The talent is required in niche areas. They are setting up verticals where they previously had limited preserve.

Seasoned lawyers are given a platform with deep pockets. They are given time to establish themselves. Routine appointments are made with an understanding that results will be shown in a short period, say one year. This strategy gives the firms readiness to deliver.

In large and complex assignments, the size and scale of the firm matters. The consolidation happens two ways — organic expansion and inorganic lateral hirings. Some lawyers are made equity partners through lateral route. The compensation structure rewards merit and performance. The talent compensation is fair and transparent.

Future belongs to those firms that build up scale and depth.

More than half of the world’s population (5.5 billion people) is on the internet. Of course, there are glitches and disruptions, but the most visited sites are obvious. Among the most visited sites are the search engines such as Yahoo and Google, social media platforms such as Facebook and X and chatbots such as ChatGPT. India too follows the global pattern and is fond of WhatsApp. There is a deeper story about the exceptions from internet in the dry list of websites. It shows that perhaps internet has not lived up to its promise.

The World Wide Web had its golden age. Internet promised to be an equalizer. It was later that misinformation became prevalent. Knowledge on internet was accessible to all — there were no gatekeepers. A villager could access the lectures from the hallowed lecture halls of the best universities. In fact, knowledge was just a click away.

However, internet has lost its halo. There are no barriers but that has allowed falsity to creep in. It is indistinguishable from truth. The social media could connect people, but they divide people too. The algorithms are content agnostic. There is AI revolution in the offing — it has brought in anxieties about the future of work, art and creativity.

Despite the gloom, everything is not lost. You can still find a fan of a literary figure if you look hard enough.

A workplace has emotional tone or vibe. This has to be gauged using technology and data analytics, thus offering actionable insights that bridge the gap between organizational goals and human emotions. This is the core of vibe coding. The underlying idea is that AI translates human intent into working code through ambient inputs, natural language and contextual understanding.

In tech circles, vibe coding is the latest buzzword. It has caught the imagination of software developers in the Silicon Valley in San Francico Bay Area of California as well as the IT hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The word has been coined by Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI co-founder in February 2025. It is an AI-driven approach to software making. It accelerates projects and lowers the barrier to creating software. The coders can focus on the creative aspects of development rather than being bogged down in technical details.

Imagine giving voice inputs to your computer in plain English and getting an app or software built in just a few minutes. Your application comes to life before your eyes. Vibe coding is the latest way for both the developers and citizen coders to build apps with AI taking their natural language prompts and going from idea to running an app without the need to edit the code manually.

Vibe coding has been made possible by the convergence of several factors. AI’s ability to write the code has advanced dramatically (since late 2022). There are advanced LLMs such as Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro. It is a major shift. A developer acts as a pilot giving instructions and AI handles execution. These models can write code, generate documentation, create test cases and enhance efficiency. These tasks took days. These can now be completed in minutes.

Engineers will have to reskill and upskill. They could remain relevant previously by writing boilerplate code. Now LLMs can generate thousands of lines of such code in minutes. Developers should shift solving complex problems involving layered thinking.

Custom algorithms and non-standard workflows will still require human inputs.

At its core, coding is problem solving. Fundamental coding skills are essential. Even if AI advances, the developers will have to set the direction, provide the context and make the final decision. Developers will have to guide AI to review its output.

Vibe should be separated from velocity. AI tools are powerful but not infallible. There should be guardrails. The code can be beautiful but functionally fragile. There should be testing, reviews and governance.

Tamasha troupes are booked to perform almost all days in Chaitra and Vaishakh. Only 10 free days are left. The mood during this period is upbeat in villages and residents want entertainment and are ready to pay for it.

The groups congregate at Narayangaon. They are from neighboring districts and all parts of Maharashtra. They pitch their tents and welcome village leaders who come here to book the shows. There is fair in Narayangaon — an annual ritual. It is a meeting ground for tamasha groups and buyers (say a village sarpanch or mukhiya).

The tamasha groups are named after their founder. Almost 30 groups come for the fair. This year (2025) is good for sales — the group is paid Rs. 3 lac for an evening’s programme. The team managers represent the troupes. The combined earnings of 30 groups are around Rs.12 crore.

An average tamasha group has 40 artistes. There are as many supporting staff — cooks, technicians, drivers of vehicles. These troupes take loans from private money lenders around May and repay them the next April. The loans sustain them to the next season.

Previously, there used to be a full tamasha programme beginning with Gan Gavlan — an ode to Ganesha and Krishna Leela to Vagnatya — featured plays. There were social messages about alcoholism and female foeticide. These days the performances consist of Hindi-Marathi music, dances and orchestra. The audience for Natak is dwindling. It used to start late at night.

Previously, tamasha was brought to the village for yatra of Gram Devta. That has not changed.

It will be difficult to fund a tamasha programme. There were no alternatives for earlier generation. These days we have cell phones and TV.

People leave as soon as the Natak starts. Still the payment remains — Rs.2- Rs. 2.5 lacs per show.

Many troupes do not perform for seven months. The performing days are reduced to 40-50 days of Chaitra and Vaishakh. Formerly, the audience consisted of 3000 people. These days there is a crowd of 300 people. The salaries of artistes have gone up to Rs. 2000 -Rs 2500 per show. Banks do not finance the shows.

The established groups are putting up a fight. They get repeated booking since the audience loves them. There should be a supportive scheme for tamasha artistes providing them a minimum 100-days performance at state events among others.

Pocket FM is audio platform launched in 2018, which provides a TV-show like content in audio. The episodes are 10-minutes byte-sized and offer serialized fiction. It has all the elements of cinematic experience such as voice acting, sound effects and a background score.

In 2020, the consumption time per user per day has increased from 30 minutes to 120 minutes. The first viral show was Kitni Mohabbat Hai commanded a million downloads.

They experiment with different pivots to find the product-market fit. They got investors after reaching a target of 1000 users. It has now 200 million users globally and has successfully expanded into the US market. Currently, 73 per cent is their revenue come from the US and 5 per cent from Europe. Their seven audio series have joined the Rs.1000-crore club.

Their aim is to empower creators to reach their audiences without gatekeepers.

Millions of consumers use q-commerce platforms to order essentials, fashion, cosmetics, kitchen appliances. They can now monetize their large user base through targeted advertising.

These platforms are now generating an estimated Rs.3000-3500 crore annual recurring revenue (ARR) from advertisements.

Blinkit leads with a lion’s share of 45 per cent, followed by Zepto 35 per cent and Swiggy Instagaram at 20 per cent. Amazon India’s ad revenue for 2024 stands at Rs 6700 crore (only twice as much), though q-commerce accounts for only 8 per cent of online shoppers.

The surge shows a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. Q-commerce started as a top-up channel. It is evolving into weekly and monthly purchases channel. This change gives a boost to advertising.

Q-commerce is affordable and high-impact way to build visibility and test products in the market. The biggest drives are impulse-buying products, e.g. ice cream packs, beverages.

The cost-per-click rates are on par with or even higher than Amazon’s.