One of the harshest lessons we learned during the recent pandemic is the power of exponentials. As human beings, we are linear thinkers and can’t fathom how doublings of viruses — or technologies — can be destructive and disrupt everything. In my university classes and talks to business executives, I have always had to explain… Read More
Author: Vivek Wadhwa
A Crash Course in the Future of Technology
Like US and China, India must ensure foreign tech companies are locally owned
Synopsis: India could learn from both countries, requiring that Facebook India be sold to one of India’s tech tycoons. This would be one step to ensuring that all data be kept locally and tightly protected, and that the algorithms that determine the information that users will receive – which, after all, influences their behaviour… Read More
Innovating to Survive
The global COVID-19 pandemic has almost shut down entire industries, forcing companies of all sizes to adapt and evolve. It has also done incredible things for a pivot to innovation.
Safety has had to come first. And for many, that meant changing how they worked, using technology to power a shift to remote work and servicing of customers.… Read More
Why we will all benefit from the next space race
Until January 3, no human being had ever set eyes upon the “dark side” of the moon: the side always facing away from the Earth. It always remained a mystery. But no longer. China’s National Space Administration successfully landed a lunar lander, Chang’e-4, at South Pole-Aitken, the moon’s largest and deepest basin. Its lunar rover… Read More
Designer babies are here ready or not!
A Chinese scientist from a university in Shenzhen claims he has succeeded in creating the world’s first genetically edited babies. He told the Associated Press that twin girls were born earlier this month after he edited their embryos using CRISPR technology to remove the CCR5 gene, which plays a critical role in enabling many … Read More
Why Apple failed in India and how it can recover
Apple iPhone sales in India are expected to have fallen dramatically this year to two million, from three million phones last year. Reuters reports that at the peak shopping season, in Diwali, Apple stores were deserted. This occurred in the world’s fastest-growing market, in which smartphone sales are increasing often by more… Read More
Trade war could be the tipping point for American manufacturing
When Western companies moved manufacturing to China, it was all about minimizing costs. China was a developing country with labor costs among the lowest in the world. It also offered massive subsidies and readily turned a blind eye to labor abuse and environmental degradation.
Today, China is the world’s second-largest economy… Read More
How technology is hacking love
Go into any bar in New York City or San Francisco (or increasingly Mumbai and Sydney) popular with the younger crowd and you will find a curious transformation. The majority of the patrons spend at least as much time checking their phones as they do checking out potential mates or talking to people they are with. Why? They are on Tinder.… Read More
Facebook and WhatsApp are not just flawed they are downright dangerous
Facebook’s woes are spreading globally, first from the U.S., then to Europe and now in Asia. A study by researchers at the University of Warwick in the U.K. has conclusively established that Facebook has been fanning the flames of hatred in Germany. The study found that the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, and those… Read More
What the world should not learn from Silicon Valley
Learn all you can from the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley but don’t become like them. This was my advice to a group of 91 Indian students who are visiting here on a program sponsored by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. In a talk I gave this weekend, I encouraged them to take home the Valley’s optimism and culture of openness… Read More
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