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The legal profession could witness changes since there is anticipated arrival of foreign law firms and adoption of AI. Accordingly, the old guard is going for a makeover — corporatization and professionalization.

Manpower working in law firms was drawn mainly from the legal profession. There is entry of multi-disciplinary professionals now — HR people, accountants and CAs, IT and computers guys. Non-lawyers are being hired into top corporate roles. The policy followed is to make the way for right people at the right time. There should be adaptation to digital transformation. Digital and information officers are being roped in. It improves client service delivery.

Professionals bring in value add-on.

We can easily spot CAs and MBAs of the leading institutes. The firms so far were mom and pop shops. They are becoming one stop shops for integrated legal solutions. Non-lawyers are being recruited. There is restructuring of organization structure.

Into the Board, they are inducting next generation partners. There are COOs or Chief Operating Officers to enhance operational practices across finance, HR, administration and legal services. Each service is headed by professionals.

Some firms appoint Chief Revenue Officer who oversees business strategy, financial management and organizational governance.

Traditionally, non-lawyers occupied support functions. These days they wear leadership hats.

Google plans to help developers build AI assistants for a variety of tasks. It will help Google to market its cloud services — the developers will depend on these services. It will generate revenue for Google.

Google plans to release its Agent Development Kit. It will be a set of open-source tools to facilitate building of AI agents. It will also have a menu of ready to use agents in its cloud computing platform.

These agents will be used by clients to write code — it will enable clients to create fewer than 100 lines of code. Agents will create marketing material and streamline clients’ operations. It may boost Google’s client revenue if it becomes popular.

Google is embracing a product that has come into vogue in Silicon Valley in recent months.

Google also unveils its Agent2Agent protocol. It will make the co-ordination between agents possible. The competing companies such as Anthropic, Deloitte, Saleforce, SAP and ServiceNow have signed on to use the protocol. There are some notable exceptions here — Microsoft and OpenAI.

JioHot-Star in March 2025 has crossed 100 million paid subscribers. It is well-ahead of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. It has introduced Sparks on the lines of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Insta has a user base of 363 million in India while YouTube has a user base of 491 million in India. SnapChat is less popular at 202 million.

Short-form video platforms generated revenues of $95-100 million in 2024. Influencer marketing is projected to reach $3-4 billion by 2029, there is a huge potential for growth and monetization.

Sparks offers exclusive, premium content that is highly engaging. It could be a possible game changer. Sparks offers creators the means to raise the quality of their content. Money could be directed from the social media platforms to sparks.

Audiences when bored by force of habit head to Instagram and YouTube. Sparks will have to change the consumer habits. It is a challenging task to break the habit.

There is a cause for concern about the placements of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Over the years, the IITs were considered to be immune to a decline in placements, especially the older elite IITs. The deluge of jobs has stopped in recent years. Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, there has been a decline in job offers. The decline amounts to 10 percentage points. Among second generation IITs, only three–Jodhpur, Patna and Goa could achieve over 90 per cent placements. A similar trend was observed among the NITs too

The dipping percentage may not point to a deficit in skills. It is also true that IITs should not be treated as placements centers. There are other criteria to rank them — teaching, learning, resources, research, outreach and perception. However, the student community treat IITs as a passport to a lucrative career. Maybe, there are other reasons for the decline. Students may be opting for higher education or may be interested in setting up startups. However, these reasons do not account for the full explanation of the decline. A few students opt for higher studies, civil services and management programmers. However, the number of students signing for placements has also gone up in most of the IITs. There could be a rising number of students who get jobs independently.

Covid affected placements. Post-Covid, there is a rise in placements. The batch sizes became bigger. The world environment suffered a slowdown in technology and software sector. AI acted as a disruptor. Bill Gates is of the opinion that only three occupations would survive — coders, biologists and energy professionals. Indian IT sector has opted for automation.

The institutes should revive the curricula in alignment with the fast-changing industry trends. The government should encourage IITians for technical roles. Interesting core engineering jobs must be revived, and placement should not be restricted to just IT and technology jobs.

Movie making is an expensive business, and to create a blockbuster, Hollywood studios prefer a beaten track and utilize action stars such Schwarzenegger or Stallone, or convert best selling books such as Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code into movies. They also indulge in a trend and post-Star Wars, they exploit sci-fi.

These days superheroes are drawn from video games, e.g. Steve, the player avatar of Minecraft by Microsoft. Superhero films have been the staple of Hollywood bestsellers for 15 years, but of late the audience interest is flagging. The success of Minecraft suggests video games can be the next big-screen things.

One of the reasons to create such films is to have the younger audience. And the game universe is intricate and detailed. It is rich in lore and converts into successful adaptable content.

The adaptations are not drastic but are adjusted to what the fans want.

There are some 40 movies in production based on game franchises.

The world is struggling with trade war. China, however, is focusing on AI to deal with the situation. Alibaba released a new open-source model for generating videos (Little Dragon Zhipu AI). DeepSeek has been widely deployed. The turmoil caused by tariffs will not knock off China’s AI development.

The AI sector is receiving government support. The Chinese President continues to meet tech executives. The government has set aside a fund of $8.2 billion for AI investment.

The Chinese population has embraced the technology with open arms. AI’s potential has been recognized by 83 per cent adults, as against 39 per cent in the US. They believe that AI will make the economy better. The exhuberance plays out beyond the corridors of tech companies. China intends to support high-tech industries.

The ban on the export of high-end chips could help the sector rather than hinder it in the long run.

There are three key players in digital advertising — advertisers who spend the money, publishers who earn it and the ad tech firms that sit in between. Many firms either over index on one side or fail to evolve the value they add, which can lead to a breakdown in trust or long-term viability.

Ad tech innovations are transforming this space — there are three key areas where innovations are creating impact. First is AI-driven ad content (static, dynamic or video). It is governed by generative AI. It used to take a long time to develop the creative — it is now being done in real time. The creatives could be personalized, and high impact creatives could be generated at scale.

Another level where innovations work is automated targeting. It was based on key words. This has become obsolete. AI agents parse the web content, understand the context and identify autonomously brand-safe high relevance placements. Targeting is more precise and scalable now.

Third area of innovation is measurement and attribution. Advertisers are intreseted in outcomes. Previously these were probabilistic. These days they have become deterministic. These models are AI-powered. And there are LLMs. Both these facilitate attribution. Ad tech firms today are expected to take ownership of outcomes.

There should be a balance between the three key players. To begin with, ad tech firms just aggregated the supply. Later, they added targeting and optimization layers. These days they are expected to take the ownership of outcomes. Ad tech firms have to evolve as the industry shifts its position, and the bar is constantly rising. Instead of being middlemen, the ad tech firms must become enablers of efficiency and impact.

What was an alchemist’s dream to turn baser metals into noble metals such as Gold has become a reality in large hydrogen collider (LHC) located near Geneva, Switzerland.

Lead ions were passed through the LHC at the speed of light and they smash each other. At times, instead of smashing, the ions pass in close proximity creating an electromagnetic pulse.

Lead has 82 protons, and when it is subjected to extreme conditions, its nuclei reach the speed of light. Their electromagnetic fields create pulses of energy, leading to interaction with the lead nuclei. These nuclei then shed three protons converting lead into a gold atom, with 79 protons.

Some other elements too emerge apart from gold — thallium, mercury.

However, the quantity produced of gold is minuscule — 29 picograms or 29 trillionths of a gram. The quantity is too small to be seen with the naked eye. The gold lasts for a microsecond and decays into other particles. It is so ephemeral.

The experiment has implications in particle physics. We get insight into interactions of particles under extreme conditions. It is a maiden experiment to detect gold production and its analysis. It is a rare event.

The detectors are able to handle head-on collisions producing so many particles. They are also sensitive to collisions where only a few particles are produced. It thus paves the way for rare electromagnetic ‘nuclear transmutation.’ It is a potential field of research. It decides also the way particle accelerators will be used in future.

Is it possible to fall in love with AI? Many would say it is not. However, Gen Z does not mind establishing an emotional connect with AI. AI relationships are described by a new coinage — AI-lationships.

Of course, AI-lationships are not a substitute for real human connections. Real connections provide emotional support enhancing the emotional well-being. Some Gen Z members feel that AI partners can fully replace human companionships.

Chatbots are trained to be nice. They replicate mammals in intimate relationships. They are patient listeners. They are not judgmental. It is a non-judgmental space. Humans can express and there is no stigma attached. This could lead to dependence. It is a red flag. AI and especially voice AI and simulated bodies replicate or imitate human connection, say by non-verbal cues like the warmth of voice.

There is a change seen in how the youth socialise. Interacting with AI is on par with texting with friends. It becomes a sort of emotional safety net. It is available always. There are no frustrations.

Generative AI relationships pose a danger to children. There are platforms such as Replika, Nomi and Character AI, and these show alarming results. Adolescents are unduly influenced. They can commit unwanted things. They can promote harmful behavior.

The safeguards are not enough. There are mental illness identifiers incorporated on the models. These are not uniformly effective. They are not enforceable too.

Some models are immersive and some general purpose. We should draw a line of distinction. ChatGPT, and Gemini are general purpose models. They do not try to mimic emotional relationships.

At present, we vacillate between technological innovation and emotional velnerability AI-lationships provide solace but at the cost of ethical issues, mental health issues, and future of fundamentals of human connection.

IPL started in 2008. Cricket professionally went a step ahead. According to BCCI and Deloitte, the cricket economy in India is worth $5.3 billion in 2023. IPL enhanced the entertainment value of cricket. It also enhanced the cricked watching audience. The advertising revenue reached unprecedented level. Cricket has become a part of Indian culture. People are passionate about cricket.

Owing to smart phones and social media, the nature of entertainment in India has changed. People carry smartphones all the time. They are addicted to smartphones. The content makes secretion of dopamine in the brain. According to neuroscientists, there is stimulation of similar parts of brain while using a smartphone and while gambling. The part that is activated in the brain is called nucleus accumbency. The person gets into reward system. While playing fantasy sports, the quantum of dopamine in a person’s brain goes up by 400 per cent. It paves the way for addiction. The secretion while playing is four times more than the normal secretion. The runs made by a team’s player, when a wicket is taken or when the team become victorious — all this contributes to dopamine secretion.

Fantasy sports companies describe themselves as ‘games of skill’. It has been approved by SC in 2017. It has been taken away from betting games. Still some states have banned fantasy sports. There citizens play the game through VPN.

There are virtual of players on the platform. There is competition based on their real play. Indian fantasy sport is 4 % of global figure. The users of fantasy sports in India are 22.5 crore. They form 16 per cent of Indian population. Sixty percent of players show signs of addiction. Some 28 per cent admit they have lost money affecting their family life.

Whether it is a game of skill or game of digital gambling is the issue.

Fantasy sports started in India in 2001 along with ESPN’s Super Selector. Ravi Shastri organized this. The real expansion came in the wake of IPL’s start in 2008. Dream II was initiated in 2012. Initially, the focus was on cricket. Later, football, kabaddi, basketball were included. In the pandemic, the sport received a boost.

By 2023, Dream II, MPL, My II Circle, Fantasy Power II became popular apps. Dream II sponsored cricket team.

The revenue generated by fantasy sports in 2024 is Rs.9100 crore. It showed a CAGR of 30 per cent. The revenue declined later but will improve by 2026.

In an international game, people commit about Rs. 15000 crores, and double the amount in an IPL match.

The identity documents demanded are PAN card, Aadhar card. These companies spend Rs. 1000 crore on advertising. They give endorsement money to celebrities. Dream II got sponsorship rights of IPL team for Rs. 222 crores.

The government charges 28 per cent GST. It is a burden on these companies.

Fantasy sports activate three systems in the brain — dopamine reward system, cortex on account of uncertainty and amygdalae for social acceptance. It is called a ‘perfect storm’ in psychology.

A loser undergoes near-miss effect provoking him to play again.

The game is designed deliberately as ‘so very near but somewhat far off’. The user feels the next time the chance to win is bright.