TWTW Weekly Wrap Up: 1-6 August

Tech News Of The Week : 

• On Wednesday, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Information and Technology, withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

• Over Rs 1.5 lakh crore was paid for 51,236 MHz of spectrum at the end of the 5G spectrum auctions. The major mid-band and high band were heavily purchased by telcos Jio and Bharti Airtel

• On Wednesday, Bharti Airtel revealed that it has inked 5G network contracts with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, and that 5G deployment would start in August 2022 

• According to VK Singh, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, the government would not object if private companies used drones for distribution

• The Indian Information Technology sector received a boost when industry group National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) forecasted that the sector would expand twice as fast as India's GDP in the previous fiscal year

• After 13 years, at least three collapses, dozens of frauds and Ponzi schemes, and hundreds of billions of dollars gained and lost, cryptocurrencies have now captured the attention of Congress, whose legislators and lobbyists have flooded Capitol Hill with recommendations on how to regulate the business

• Decentraland, a well-known metaverse platform, has launched the first metaverse ATM. Decentraland, a virtual reality platform, is powered by the Ethereum blockchain 

• While cloud computing isn't going away, some firms that deploy machine learning models and the tech vendors that provide the tools to manage them believe machine learning is having an on-premises moment

• Scientists and engineers are continuously creating new materials with unique qualities that may be utilised for 3D printing, but figuring out how to print with these materials can be a difficult and expensive task 

• Semantix, Inc., Latin America's first fully-integrated data platform, concluded its previously announced merger with Alpha Capital, a Latin America-focused special purpose acquisition firm.

Focused Story of the Week #1: IT Industry, A Growth Driver For The Indian Economy

It is with great pride that I can write about the industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) forecasting that the Indian tech sector would grow twice as fast as India's GDP in the past fiscal year. 

The market for tech in India is expected to reach USD 19.93 billion by 2025. According to Gartner projections, IT investment in India will reach USD 81.89 billion in 2021 and USD 101.8 billion in 2022, representing a 24 per cent year-on-year increase. 

In FY21, the IT industry's revenue increased by 2.3 per cent to USD 194 billion. Export revenues increased 17.2 per cent to USD 178 billion.

“This has been a watershed year for the tech industry, thanks to the persistent focus on customer-centricity. The industry has added USD 100 billion in 10 years; the first USD 100 billion took 30 years,” said NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh.

The industry will add immense value to the GDP and additionally provide jobs for millions of people, but I feel that we have miles to go still. A true setup which incentivises cutting edge research, marriage between industry, academia and startups and a strong setup which emphasises on stronger bodies such as NASSCOM, CII and FICCI are key to unlocking a great future for tech and for India.

“Customer centricity, hunger to digitalise, and a robust ecosystem can see Indian tech scale to a trillion dollar industry”

Focused Story of the Week #2: Artificial Intelligence – An Alternative Approach To Controlling Digital Manufacturing

Manufacturing procedures are changing greatly because of AI (Artificial Intelligence). A combination of data from machines, humans, and sensors are gathered by AI and used with specifically crafted algorithms to improve operations According to MIT Technology Review Insights, 60 per cent of manufacturers were using AI for better speed and visibility across supply chain, to improve product quality, and optimize inventory management.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. AI can furthermore intervene and supply precise numbers required to help avoid an expensive surplus. Businesses are able to model better, using data from numerous sources, all collected from thousands of sensors. The final product parameters may thus be predicted with a high degree of precision using this trained model, and the precise additive quantities required for each batch can also be calculated.

My belief is that implementation of AI will be a key gamechanger in a saturated market, where companies are constantly struggling to differentiate themselves. A backbone of automation, robust learning platforms, smart HR interventions and a strong performance analytics will be the true leapfrog that the industry will see in the coming few years. 

“Scalability, Agility, Sustainability – brought to you by AI”

Do reach out for comments and suggestions @twtw and @jagdishmitra