Imagining telecom and radios for next decade and India to take the lead

Imagine post COVID-19 lockdown, you are driving home and your favourite TV channel is being beamed to your mobile phone from sky by likes of say Tata Sky, Dish TV, DD Direct or any other service provider of your choice (e.g. Jio DTH, Airtel Digital TV, Sun Direct…) What does it mean? First, the quality of the video will remain good and will not deteriorate during your car ride like it does even with best mobile coverage. Secondly, your mobile data pack will not have to fork out the bandwidth as the television channel is broadcast and doesn’t not come thru the cellular network. What about HotStar, Netflix or Amazon Prime? Well you have the option of pulling it from the Internet or if your DTH broadcaster includes these, they too will come via sky. What more? A COVID-19 related alert or a flash flood warning can also be broadcast to your mobile phone. This can make a difference between life and death. Last year there was flash flood in South Pune where several vehicles and ground floors of housing societies were submerged in water in minutes as the water came too fast breaking all barriers. A person who was driving home called his wife saying he would be ~30 minutes late as there was incessant rain hence traffic was slow but moving. He never reached as his car was submerged. What if he had a warning voice / video message on his mobile phone about the water rising from Pune civic administration via TV broadcast.

People have been using mobile phones primarily for voice calls, Internet browsing and social networking. And, now those working from home log into their company servers. Students use video conferencing for online classes. So, can one have the Internet connection for tweets, social media etc. while videos in all of this and others come via broadcast medium like the television Direct to Home (DTH). It all gets integrated in the mobile phone and other personal computing devices in the hands of the end user.

TV channels directly on the mobile phone is an interesting idea. Quality of the video is based on the instantaneous speed rather than average speed. If you are downloading a file, average speed matters. But a video requires good instantaneous speed to provide good viewing experience. Unicast method used by mobile communication (4G and even 5G) doesn’t guarantee this. Further, it is predicted that the video content will increase by 8-10 times between now and 2023. Post COVID-19, this may go up even beyond.

India is a large, diverse and a content rich country. And, why not? There are 22 scheduled languages, over 1500 spoken languages, several powerful and rich regional cinemas besides giant Bollywood, 20000 culinary heritage recipes in a culture and civilization that goes back thousands of years. In addition the country is home to a giant IT services industry and now expanding to many other services such as tele-medicine, Yoga and what not. Post COVID-19, video traffic may zoom even beyond the factor of 10. Many activities like working from Home, education and others that have gone online will continue in that mode increasing overall digital traffic. Should we then be driven by the current stale state-of-the-art of mobile communication wherein more data means fatter pipes or deploy smart radios to create smart pipes.

Current communication architecture (Internet, mobile telephony and broadcast) does not have the provision for receiving broadcast on mobile phones. And, there is no native support for Over-The-Top content. Unicast mechanism for video will have run its course for the volume India will require in next few years. It will become uneconomic for telecom service providers. Even Jio may find it tough.

It is therefore necessary to look at broadcast spectrum, mobile spectrum and other point to point and point to multi point radios in a wholesome manner for the next generation communication topology. Further there is need  to optimize overall radio spectrum by utilizing underused broadcast spectrum to ease the pressure on the cellular spectrum. In a content rich but spectrum starved country like India, this is a MUST.

It’s fine grain mixing of mobile spectrum and broadcast spectrum to take video, text and data traffic together, split the video traffic to be sent over broadcast while rest of the traffic travels on mobile, fibre etc. Now, with this architecture, the input can be TV channels, Content providers like HotStar, Netflix and free to Air channel like Doordarshan. The traffic is desegregated into video and non-video and traverses over broadcast medium, Internet and cellular to be reassembled at the receiving end for consumption by the end user. Over the top (OTT) content should move from unicast to broadcast networks. We should create smarter pipes rather than put weight on our networking infrastructure by using clumsy fatter and fatter pipes. Just the way WiFi offload has been useful for mobile data, video offload is the next progression to optimize spectrum usage. Let’s look at TV, OTT, social media, voice and data as different facets of human interaction and take the lead in creating next generation communication technologies for these.

While working from home, online education and entertainment are obvious to people, tele-medicine, disaster alerts, secure communication for armed forces, communication for difficult to reach areas like high altitude or remote rural areas are other applications that will love video desegregation and smarter pipes. Even industry verticals like automotive can gain from this as there will be more software and electronics in cars than mechanical parts. Most interesting part of building infrastructure technologies such as telecommunication is that people find usages through innovative thinking that technology developers never thought of.

Now, is this wishful thinking or does the technology exist for all of above. The answer is that technology not only exist but has been developed in India. Direct to mobile TV may look futuristic but is possible today. Who would have thought we can create a movie on a mobile phone or watch a YouTube video comfortably on a mobile phone even three years back. System integration capability that is required to deploy, operate and manage such technologies is available in abundance in India.

What is needed for next generation communication revolution is visionary and forward looking policies coupled with the right regulatory mechanism. These must act as catalysts to bring these innovations to commercial implementations and create the ecosystem. It will impact not only India but many parts of the world, where countries are tired of high handed approach and cartelization by few global players and would welcome Indian leadership. Specifically, my request is for the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Defence Ministry to come together as major stake holders and come up with new guidelines on usage of radio waves. PMO can provide the trigger and over-arching guidance. This requires political attention at the highest level. Once that is available, we have expertise in the country right from semiconductor to system integration. And, if India takes the lead, it can lead next wave of telecom revolution with global impact.

We are into Lockdown phase 2 now. This week as described by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is most stringent. The Government is between a rock and a hard place (or “pahad” and “khaee” as the saying goes in Hindi). Longer the lockdown, worse it is on the economy. Maximum brunt is being born by the daily wage worker or the migrant worker Government has to feed now as they have lost their livelihood. How does one strike a balance?

Can the giant wheel of Indian economy start moving without violating the norms set to protect one from the corona virus? In order for the wheel to move, people have to start working. How do we have both the work and COVID-19 guidelines in place at the same time. Luck has it that it is possible to work from home for many people. But how about the work that’s not possible from home? A CEO can work from home but the shop floor mechanic, cannot. Let’s see the nature of workplaces people go to. A manufacturing company has manufacturing plants, warehouses, supply chain such as trucks, trains and even air cargo where their employees and contractors work. A bank will have offices and branches from where their business is done. On the other hand, an IT company will have offices from massive campuses to small remote offices. There may be special places like a data centre, mobile workplace like a truck, car, train and even let’s say an ambulance. Now human density in these places is well understood. For example, number of people in a warehouse or on manufacturing shop floor is far less than an office. Even within an office, a call centre IT company will be lot denser than a software development centre. And executive floor in a corporate office may have less human density than even an automated manufacturing plant. This list is not complete as retail meaning shops and stores, especially unorganised ones are in millions in India. And, one must not forget colleges and schools as many people are gainfully employed behind educational institutions. I know some of the leading Universities in US are thinking of how to get going as students live in hostels and physical classrooms are worst from social distancing point of view.

Question is, can these workplaces be made COVID-19 safety guidelines compliant? Then a supply chain company or a manufacturing plant can start operating, giving critical push to the giant wheel and alleviate the pain. WFH

Three key practices for protection from COVID-19 are: social distancing, washing hands with soap for minimum of 20 seconds and, wearing a mask. There are others but if I am asked to report to work to drive a truck, I will wear mask, carry a bottle of soap water myself and never go closer than 1 meter to anyone including my co driver and the cleaner. Same when my workplace is a warehouse or shop floor. or an office. If I am driver, I will ask my fellow driver and the cleaner continue to wear the mask and stay away as far away from each other while the truck is on the move.

Now can businesses enhance their quality processes to cover a pandemic. They sure can. India has rich expertise in ISO and other standards. Software export industry has demonstrated compliance to STPI guidelines thru self-regulation. Decades back, a Customs inspector used to sit outside software export companies to ensure there are no violation. Today STPI units ensure self-compliance. No one from STPI or Excise & Customs physically monitor day to day activities. CCTV cameras have been installed in most offices, manufacturing facilities etc. These can be used to track human movement and density. I will go one step further, wireless technologies such as Cell towers can give an approximation on human density say within a kilometre while a WiFi access points in a workplace can give the same within 50-100 meters. Geo spatial technologies can help a lot. These are good indicators to check if social distancing may be getting violated. And, let's err on the side of caution, technology gives a warning when problem may not be there.

These technologies are in use throughout India. What is laid out here is a different use case. You don’t need to look to US or other countries for expertise. Human density in a workplace is something we have better understanding than anybody else.

Companies have to worry about employees and contractors going home and coming back to work as well as mobile work force like drivers. But their tasks are simpler than police and Healthcare people.

I have not thought through detail implementation. Some may feel this is difficult. But these are not normal times. Extra ordinary circumstances require extra ordinary measures. It is difficult but not impossible. Close collaboration and active participation of all can make it happen.

Government in collaboration with industry associations like CII, FICCI, NASSCOM, TIE and many others can design and implement this. These can take into account Corona hotspots, red, orange and green zones.

@narendramodi, @CMOMaharashtra, @FollowCii, @Ficci_India, @Nasscom

Supporting Working From Home and Workplace (WFH&W) to protect people and economy both from Covid-19 Pandemic

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on India and specifically Maharashtra has been severe leading to Maharashtra Government ordering shutdown in four major cities including Pune. Hon. Prime Minister Modi suggested working from home and other measures in his recent address to the nation. He made exception for those working for National Critical Infrastructure (NCI) namely, telecom, water supply, electricity grid, health care facilities, petroleum and natural gas, transport, Defence and Police. Maharashtra Government has exempted designated essential services. At this point the entire focus of the national State and local Governments is on social distancing to arrest spread of Corona virus and, rightfully so.

Working from home or WFH has emerged as a preferred way. However, many businesses can’t have WFH for some of their operations. For example, how does a truck driver, a shop floor mechanic or someone does electronics assembly work from home. Should we not think about such businesses. We can withstand a shutdown for a short duration. However, it will deliver a fatal blow to a large number of small businesses that are the lifeline of Indian economy. I am not talking about sick or badly run businesses. Those will need to tone up to survive. It’s about good and upcoming companies but are small in their life’s journey. Even if these remain small over their life, very large number of such very small companies contributes more to the economy than several mega companies put together. Economy is already weak, and jobs are very hard to come by. These companies provide a crucial lifeline here.

Several founders of startups and CEOs of such businesses want to find a way to continue the business and protect from Covid-19. I happened to have detail conversation with three founders / CEOs since March 19. And all of them are close friends as we support TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur), world’s largest not-for-profit organisation for entrepreneurs and by entrepreneurs.

First Founder & CEO runs a fast growing brick and mortar company with manufacturing facilities, warehouses, dealers and most crucial a mobile work force of truckers. Some of these are permanent employees while others are on contract but nevertheless part of my friends’ workforce. As a good employer, he never differentiates between contract staff and those on company payroll.

Second Founder & CEO in fact runs a software product company. One may think most of the people can work from home. Wait, they have a specialised computing environment in which impact and containment of computer malfunction is tested. How do you make such a team work from home? Similarly, a wireless radio company may have an anechoic chamber that will make it difficult to work from home.

The third Founder runs an electronics products company, one of the few in India. He was at pains to explain that he has to shut down. He mentioned they have received shipments of components but can’t put together their own end products because of the shutdown. Anyone will notice, one has to pay for components but no way to sell end products.

These three companies will survive temporary shutdown but many others that are small and too early in their life’s journey will disappear. And, Pune with diverse base of manufacturing, electronics, software businesses and a long-standing tradition of engineering entrepreneurs, there would be tens of thousands of such businesses.

So, I decided to create a mixed mode model where people can work from home as well as work from a workplace and not home. Workplaces can be geographically distributed and, can be mobile pan India. My mixed model is given at the end of this article for those who are interested. However, I want to bring few points for Government, business and industry to think about.

1.     Government unfortunately has a problem of unprecedented nature on hand – weak economy, Covid-19 pandemic and people’s social and other habits. It will be most desired if one can create a mechanism by which as many businesses as possible can continue to operate without risking people’s lives thus reducing Covid-19 impact on the economy.

2.     Small to medium businesses (please note many startup businesses belong to this category) will need specific financial; infrastructure and supply chain help to tide over this crisis. Can this be supported by the Government and large corporations in a participative model. For example, a mobile work force requires medical facilities at multiple places or help with wages and other costs because of increased cost of operations.

3.     Government and say top 200 corporations by profit can create a corpus to support business continuity of small businesses as these businesses implement protection of their employees, contract staff and the families from Covid-19.

4.     All or major portion of CSR funds for 2 to 3 quarters can be directed to this initiative.

5.     Economic Task Force being constituted under Hon. Finance Minister of Government of India can devise the mechanism working with industry association and chambers of commerce. Same can be done at the State and even city level for businesses under their purview working with National task force and local industry associations and chambers of commerce.

This help is not for sick or badly run businesses. It’s for small and young companies that have been hit hard because of the pandemic and have to invest significant resources to provide safety to its work force during this time. Money can be returned once climate improves and the beneficiary company can afford to return the funds provided to them. Detail mechanisms can be worked.

Above founders by the way are all IIT alumni. These and many other founders I know are socially conscious, run ethical businesses and worry about job creation and social welfare as much as the profit. They can be trusted and if needed contractually bound to return the subsidy once their businesses improve and are back on track.

My shot at guidelines for businesses which require Work from Home and Workplace (WFH & W) to ensure same level of protection and care whether one is at work or working from home:

1.     Close specific locations if the Government / relevant authorities have mandated shutdown. This is complex for businesses distributed in geography with multiple regulators and Governments. Many pan India Indian businesses fall into this category. But this will have to complied with.

2.     Organisational guidelines and remediation for non-home workplaces:

2.1.   Onsite medical professional – doctor or a paramedic for each working shift. If work force is mobile, medical help needs to be extended over a geography.

2.2.   Extend work to more shifts if it helps to decongest the working say in a warehouse or on shop floor (by spacing production)

2.3.   Daily thermal check during entry and departure of workers. Self-check for mobile workers or at both starting and destination points.

2.4.   Adequate supply of soaps sanitisers throughout the premises and with mobile work force.

2.4.1.For shop floors and warehouse with large floor areas, create temporary facility for hand washing so that workers don’t have to walk long distance to wash hands.

2.4.2.Mobile hand washing kit for each mobile worker.

2.5.   All machines, bins, door handle, vehicles and other objects to be sanitised frequently and fumigated at least once a day.

2.6.   Surveillance cameras to be installed and live eyeballing of the premises from a central location. Videos captured to be analysed every day to detect unwell workers who have been skipped in live surveillance, for medical attention.

2.7.   Large screens connected to personal computers for video conferencing for the CEO / Senior Executives to address people at workplaces (shop floors, warehouses etc.). Screens to be in enough quantity so that not more than four people gather around a computer and that people are standing sparse (more than 2 meters away) while attending a video conferencing call. Enough wireless mikes (sanitised) to be provided so that staff can interact with CEO / Senior Executives live.

2.7.1.Mobile connectivity with easy to log into corporate website and for Executive video call.

2.8.   Help at residences of workers

2.8.1.Sanitisers / soaps etc. to be made available to staff at home as the people travel to and back from the workplace / home.

2.8.2.Staff asked to strictly prohibit visitors to their residences. If that happens, the person checked and if needed to be sent home for home quarantine. This is to be enforced strictly.

2.8.3.Staff to identify medical facility close to their residence. Organisation to inform all such facilities that it will take care of testing and other expenses for the worker and the family if needed.

a.     If a worker lives in congested community or a house with more than 3-4 family members, special attention and remedial steps such as organisation sponsored sanitisation of the residence.

No disruption in wages for people who are not able to attend the work temporarily during this emergency because of Covid-19.

AAP Victory - A Message from the People

Victory of AAP Government is more significant than the simple fact of people electing AAP for their good work in Education and Healthcare. I was in Delhi last week. Every Uber / OLA driver and Riksha-wala had this message – “Kaam achha kiya hai, vote unhi ko denge”.

It is a strong signal to the entire political class, not to take people of India for granted. I recall an article by eminent scholar Prof. Bhabani Sengupta long time back wherein he proved that that the people of India have rewarded good Governments and punished bad Governments. This may not be the popular view but Prof Sengupta gave direct evidence from national and State elections over a period of time.

Let’s see some examples. Mr. VP Singh won national election on the simple message of being Mr. Clean. Bofors was on people’s mind. And, later, Janata Dal was out for the mess that was created due to Mandal Commission for which the then Prime Minister had to take the blame. Mandate in 2009 was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his clean image and the Nuclear deal he negotiated. But in 2014, Mr. Modi was helped by people’s view that an honest PM like Mr. Manmohan Singh was not able to control scandals. One can trace the history all the way back to 1971 and even 1967 when several non-Congress State Governments came to power.

And, it is not just election votes. People of India are even understanding of good steps that may be painful. Demonetization is a good example. In spite of extreme inconvenience of not having cash, people gave the prime minister benefit of doubt as it was a bold step to reduce black economy. Same goes for Government revoking special status granted to the State of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370. People are concerned but are patient. And, restraint and composure shown by the people of all communities with Supreme court Ayodhya verdict speaks volume about their maturity.

AAP victory proves that core value propositions like health and education will be rewarded. My son who lives in Delhi told me that Government owned schools in Delhi are as good as the private school he went to in Pune. Imagine the impact it has on children of poor and lower middle class. They get quality education at an affordable price. Many of us who went to IITs (including victorious CM of Delhi who is from IIT Kharagpur) and many other good Government colleges got educated literally free and benefit from that education every day. This can be extended to all Government owned schools in other cities and towns. Why only Central Schools or Delhi Govt schools, all municipal schools in the country can be as good.

It can also serve as a model to be adopted for Urban India. Urbanization is a reality. And if urban India is vibrant and benefits from good Governance, everyone rural or urban will benefit. Second tier cities like Pune, Surat, Indore, Vadodara, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Coimbatore, Kochi etc. have suffered long and will benefit immensely if the local city administration is efficient and is empowered. If these cities and even tier III towns like Nasik, Hubli-Dharwad, Meerut etc. get into the act, not just $5trillion but even higher targets would be achievable. Let’s set GDP growth target for top 50 towns in the country besides metropolitan cities.

My last point is a compliment to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. Here is a politician who did a complete turn around from an activist Chief Minister to focus on Governance, go off media and produce results for the people and AAP. Other politicians, please THINK.

World of a classical Designer and a Software Designer

I recently attended Pune Design Festival (PDF) organized by ADI (Association of Designers of India), Pune Chapter. Having relieved myself of the organisational responsibilities at TiE Pune and Mojo Networks, I felt I have more bandwidth for me to soak into the ADI world.

At the outset, I must say the objective of soaking with ‘Designers’ and breathing the same air was achieved. I came out ‘thinking’ more about ‘Design’ as ADI Designers think and ‘Design’ in software that that has occupied my mind for the past 35 years or so.

‘Design’ may mean many things to many people. It appeared to me that Designers from ADI express their design as an artefact, a physical object, a sketch or a drawing or a painting, with colours, contours, styles, typefaces etc. Designs were very visible. You can touch and feel these. And, I must say everything was artistic and beautiful. Aesthetics was in abundance. At times designs intended to tell a story, convey a philosophy and even build a brand, very serious and difficult endeavour. Some of the work combined rich and diverse arts and artisans in India with the contemporary world. It was amazing. There was also a session on applying principles of Design to designing businesses. Art was part of the discussion. Someone said, “Design evolves to an art”.

While soaking in Designers’ world, the idea was to get a better understanding of the design of an ADI Designer world and the world of a software designer.

Explicit expression is ingrained in the Designer world. While in software, many aspects of design are often implicit. In software, somehow we feel we are dealing with the inanimate world. So the beauty of design does not seem to find an expression. Beauty and aesthetics may be far from software designers’ mind while dealing with aspects like reliability, scalability and extendibility. ADI Designers are more live with their creations. Simplicity and elegance of design is prevalent in both.

Designers create objects and many were on display at the PDF Expo. An object whether it's a logo or classy furniture is intuitive to Designers. On the other hand, software ‘object’ was not so evident to software designers. Its birth took a long time and even longer for it to be adopted by the community.  While it has evolved, its expression is still incomplete.

A well designed algorithm, workflow, specification of a program is a work of art. If there is mathematics at the core of such a design, it's a work of art. Researchers and designers of advanced techniques like machine learning are creating profound mathematical objects de art and must be having the same feeling. Even routine software presents significant challenges and good design can be an object de art.

This must interest not only to people whose profession is ‘Design” but also CEOs, CTOs, other corporate executives and entrepreneurs as technology not just enables or supports a business, technology is the business. And software is the kernel of any technology today.

Leaning from Designers, we in software world should celebrate Software Designers. My soaking continues.