Not Tomorrow’s War

Yes, the globe is warming up. No, don’t trust Trump on this.

Yes, there are multiple efforts to counter climate change. No, they aren’t doing enough. But at least there is widespread acknowledgement of the scale of disastrous effects of climate change and remedial steps are being purported.

Global warming is already upon us. News bulletins shout out “never before” droughts, rains and floods from time to time. There is something that is still in a nascent stage, that might have just as deleterious effects as global warming. Am talking about electronic waste.

E-waste is piling up, quite literally, in dump yards. The Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), which counts the UN and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as founding members, predicts e-waste will reach 74 metric tonnes in ten years, double the number in 2014.

The tortoise doesn't win here

We might have come across reports about 5G rollout in "developed" countries in recent times. Popular YouTubers have also given their takes on the mind blowing speeds (albeit limited coverage) on mobile data using 5G technology. Notably, Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson already have 5G equipment up and running in multiple parts of the world and leading consumer electronic companies like Apple, Samsung and OnePlus have launched mobile phones that support this advancement.

Telecom giants in India like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have also promised roll outs of the cutting edge technology in different phases in 2021. Now, in sharp contrast to these developments is the recent announcement from the state run telecom enterprise- BSNL.

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility

Spread of misinformation and fake news is rampant today. On one hand, social media platforms are becoming mainstay as a source of news and announcements from political leaders and on the other they are (inadvertently?) acting as sources of unverified and ill-researched opinion that tend to be construed as news/facts.

In the aftermath of the 2016 USA Presidential elections, alleged Russian interference by means of Twitter and Facebook triggered multiple Congressional hearings on the issue of the companies’ platforms being used as a means to spread misinformation.

The not-so-noticeable side of the covid epidemic

A set of phrases are commonplace today, you see it in the news, the print media, social networks, everywhere: unprecedented crisis, mounting death toll, economic impact and accelerated vaccine development to name a few.

With this “unprecedented crisis”, we, as a global community are advised to follow some guidelines. The most important of which is to avoid contact as far as possible. Given the characteristics of the virus, this is a no brainer.

While the battle against the virus rages in the world under the spotlight of global media, there is an undertone to the whole exercise: the”unprecedented” increase in hours spent in front of digital screens.