Burdened telecom sector awaits government intervention

 This article I wrote appeared in the Deccan Herald on 13th Sep. The article is about the current state of the Mobile Telephony industry in the back drop of the near bankruptcy situation for Vodafone Idea. 

1) We need at least 4-5 mobile operators based on HHI analysis

2) Can BSNL+VIL become a game changer ?

3) Satellite Broadband services must be started .This will help provide internet access to people in the remote areas where terrestrial/Mobile internet cannot be reached. 

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Curb corruption in real estate

 This one I wrote appeared in Deccan Herald Edit page on 30th July 2021.  Despite 4.8 years of Demonetization , Black money continues in Real estate. 

1) Apartments are constructed in residential sites violating all rules.

2) 30-50% of transaction value happens in cash

3) The nexus between the authorities, builders and legislatures look to be too obvious. 

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Mishandling of Covid 2.0

 This article I wrote appeared in the Business Line on 7th July 2021. We need to be paranoid and be better prepared . Government , Healthcare sector and the citizens need to play an active role

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Monitoring Digital content

This article I wrote appeared in the Hindu Business Line Newspaper on the 14th April 2021. The article comes in the back-drop of the content moderation guidelines for OTT and Digital Platforms and the never ending clarifications the government is providing and  with the Supreme Court also getting involved

1) Need to balance the needs of the players in the two sided market place

2) Global actions on Content moderation

3) While Guidelines are really needed, it is a fine balance and will need transparency, maturity and practicality for this to succeed.

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Can RBI fix flaws in NEFT?

This article I wrote appeared in the Deccan Herald on 4th Feb 2021.

1) NEFT is a popular mechanism used for transferring money between individual Bank accounts. 

2) But NEFT has flaws. The Payee details are not validated during registration or during transfer. 

3) This needs to be addressed by RBI so that erroneous transfers can be completed eliminated.

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Time to strengthen digital banking

This article was published in the Hindu Business Line Web portal. Making the NEFT system foolproof, ensuring customers of merged banks are not deprived of digital services, and mandating OTP for even cash withdrawals are among steps that need to be taken

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India’s EV conundrum: Incentives in place, but no infrastructure

 This article I wrote appeared in the Deccan Herald on 31st Dec 2020. In spite of the government actions to improve EV uptake, the numbers are not encouraging. . 

1) India has 22 cars per 1000 people now and this is expected to touch 175 by 2040. Even a fraction  is assumed to be EV, the infrastructure required is huge and we are way off the mark. The global average is 1 public charging station for every 7-8 cars. 

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2) EV price is about 25-30% . But the Maintenance and Running costs will add upto  about 15-18% or ICE price. Net-net the car becomes cheaper than ICE car in over 4 years of regular driving. 

3) OEMs and government need to invest in R&D. We need to steps-up R&D spend on upcoming technologies like Induction charging or Solid state batteries. 

Overall, the government has to take the lead with proactive investment in Infra OEMs and we the public must also support. 

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Should kids code or not?

 This one I wrote appeared in the Deccan Herald Panorama page. The article argues that it may not be a good idea to mindlessly push children into software programming. 

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Education and the town-country divide

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This article I co-authored with Prof PV Krishna bhat is published in the. This  Indian Express on 2nd Sep 2020. The article looks at the following:

1) We need a large scale orientation programme for teachers similar to the one done by Germany soon after unification

2) We need rural focus by creating Bridge infrastructure, Significantly improve R&D spend on Agriculture and allied industries.

3) Need to building rural leadership that can help in generating jobs in Agri and allied industries. 

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Much ado about banning Chinese apps

This article I wrote appeared in the Deccan Herald on 16th July 2020. The article brings out the impact of the government banning 59 apps.

1) Internet by nature should not have boundaries, there is no end to the blocking game . Will we block American apps later?

2) Just asking for alternate apps from India is not sufficient. The user experience must be best in class3) We have fundamental issues on the internet ecosystem in the country , be it stable connectivity, or policies on Data storage and Data processing. 4) Top technology institutes who were ranked high - An opportunity to task them on next generation technology research 

5) Overall an opportunity for India to test it’s strength. It is a pity that being the 3rd largest country in terms of internet users, we lack world class apps and solutions that the world will look upto.  

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Multimode delivery: The best way to impart learning

This article I wrote, appeared in the Financial express on 16th June 2020. 

1) India will have to go with Multi mode education delivery ( class room, online interactive  And recorded )

2) Bridge  Digital Divide -providing Tablets and internet connection with teaching faculty intervention will help

3) TV in households is much better than Mobile and internet reach . 95% of South indian homes have TV.

4)  We should use TV as a main stream methodology for imparting learning . Move beyond the DD Gyan . Incentivise Free to air Channels  to carry daily education content .  Localised content and the teachers can talk to Students weekly to monitor progress.

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Jio-FB deal: Kirana stores to benefit, but the govt must be vigilant

Some Caveats to Jio-FaceBook deal

This article I wrote appeared in The Hindu Business Line on the 8th May 2020.

While the on-boarding of kirana stores onto a digital platform like JioMart will give a fillip to these stores, the government will have to address issues of data privacy, Predatory pricing and  Net neutrality

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