Book Review - The Cult of the Amateur

A book that is almost a decade old but most of the concerns raised largely remain even to this day and I would say has increased multi fold. With the advent of Web 2.0 , Social media we have seen a unprecedented rise in the no of blogs or YouTube by amateurs on various topics ranging from sociology to Politics. The author has given the downside of this information age where unverified news by amateurs has led to a surge in fake news which eventually shape public opinions on critical topics which should ideally be handled by reputed media houses. It is unfortunate that this phenomenon has led many educated very informed internet users to fall prey to such fake news .

The likes of Wikipedia or YouTube have in one sense made information and self expression universally democratic but at the same time given rise to millions of amateur who are not trained nor are they subject matter experts take the place of trained media professionals. From media to music to news the threat of Web 2.0 with its uncontrolled growth is something the future generations will have to deal with.

A thought provoking book to understand the past and future of information age

Book Review - Aadhaar India's 12 Digit Revolution

Couldn't find a better book to read at a time when Aadhaar and the controversies surrounding it have become a daily affair. Right from data privacy to where Aadhaar can be used are debated and legislations framed on this basis.

Coming to the book it a well researched book by the author and covers the entire period from when the project was conceptualised and the key players and decision makers involved in making this project stand on its feet as of today. The Congress govt under MMS had desperately wanted Aadhaar to succeed at a time when the economy wasn't doing well and cases of corruption against the government had reached an all time high, the mood was of gloom and the state of the Government finances were in a extremely bad shape and the govt had marketed Aadhar as one of the ways to reduce corruption and ensure all benefits reach the intended beneficiaries.

The opposition on the other hand from day one weren't too convinced about this project as there were numerous attempts in the past to create a national registry but no one of them took full shape. In spite of numerous objections the Congress govt implemented Aadhar under the UIDAI and stated the national roll out in 2010.

Once the new government was in place in 2014, the same government that had opposed Aadhar had to now look at things more pragmatically and after consultation with various stake holders including the man behind it Nandan Nilekani the NDA gave Aadhar legal backing with a statutory status and ever since have backed this project.

Points to learn from this book is the kind of parliamentary procedures involved in passing and framing laws, the scale of this huge project and the no of use cases it could handle, the importance of getting the right talent be it from the private sector or within the government itself is critical in deciding the success or failure of a project.

A worthwhile read of you want to know about one of the biggest biometric citizen identification projects in the world which will be case study in the years to come.

India's vision for mobility - Can India replicate the Telecom revolution for its electric cars.

The NITI Aayog's recommendation to have a deadline of 2032 for all cars to be only electric is surely a welcome sign. On the face of it I am sure it will make most of the people who work in the area of sustainable living give this a thumbs up. The recommendations to the government 

 include lower tax and interest rates on loans to buy these cars. This step will mark a key shift in a market which is the second fastest growing passenger car market for conventional cars in the world.

A similar scenario has happened in India almost a decade and half back when land line phone were still penetrating households in India and tele density was in its growth phase and the mobile revolution took over India. With the opening up of the telecommunications sector and private sector investment pouring in the sector grew phenomenally over the next decade.Call rates fell dramatically and at the end almost every other Indian had a mobile phone connection. The shift from landline phones to mobile phones was a quantum leap. Even before people could own a landline phone the mobile telecom industry was in place to ensure that every citizen could now afford a mobile phone.

Can we expect the same in the case of cars, can the shift from conventional cars to electric cars be replicated in the same way as the telecom revolution,can we avoid the mistake that developed markets in the west made of going through the entire cycle of owing conventional cars and then shifting to Hybrids before finally moving to Electric vehicles? The answer is yes but it comes with its own caveats. There are many steps that should happen for this vision to become a reality in the coming decade. Most important addressable issue is on the cost part of the battery and the charging infrastructure around it. The government must subsidize battery manufacturers to bring the cost of cars on par with regular cars. Enough charging points , standardized batteries for all cars is also something that the NITI Aayog has recommended. Incentivizing electric cars used as Taxi's with lower per kilometer charges is also another welcome step.

The commission had also planned to have a restriction by way of a lottery on the sale of conventional cars, however this does not make sense at this stage in a nascent market like India and will have a negative impact on the entire ecosystem. With limited and pathetic public transport this will be shooting oneself in the foot.

Currently India has only one electric vehicle maker which is the Mahindra group the makers of Reva. Ever since Mahindra has taken over Reva they have consistently been investing in technology to make the car better on all aspects. There has been talks of Tesla the American EV giant also wanting to enter India, the company in its latest press release denied that they will not want to enter India anytime soon as there were some restrictions in terms of percentage of local components sourcing. Any such conditions should be sorted out on a case to case basis and competition should be encouraged to come and invest in India. This will not just ensure that the consumer gets the latest technology but also competition ensures that the best practices in the industry are shared by all manufacturers. In an industry which is still get its feet on the ground this is the need of the hour.

The target to go fully electric by 2032 is a bold one but surely not one that cannot be achieved !!

Book Review - Intel Trinity

Anyone even remotely connected with the semiconductor industry should read this definitive guide of how Intel Corp becomes the most important company of the digital age, silicon valley and its impact on humanity.

A combination of three unlikely technocrats who came together from Fair child Semiconductor and then founded Intel...the trinity of Bob Noyce know for his vision and jaw dropping risk taking ability, Gordon Moore , the soft spoken technological genius ( founder of the Moore's law ) and Andy Groove( author of Only the Paranoid Survive) the business Wizard with super human energy is stuff of legends.

The defining moments when Bob Noyce co-invented the Integrated circuit ( had be been alive in 2000 he would have got a noble prize for the same) , the creation of the revolutionary 8086 Intel microprocessor which powered millions of computers in the 80s and last the greatest hitech marketing campaign of the century which is Intel Inside for the pentium chip is beautifully detailed out.

As with most businesses complacency and fatigue seems to have crept in and Intel has been caught on the wrong foot with nothing really worthwhile to contribute in the mobile era and have lost the game to more nimble companies from Korea and the Valley itself.

Nevertheless great corporations dont die away easily and are known to comeback with even more greater products and intel with its technological prowess is capable of doing it .