?If There’s One Story To Read Today
Dear ed-tech, please ‘solve’ this problem!
What’s so holy about technology, that it can absolve an education start-up of strict regulatory norms? A question that Indian lawmaker Karti P Chidambaram shoots back when asked whether regulation can stifle innovation in the industry. He is surely one of those who are calling for regulations in the Indian Ed-tech sector.
From exploitation of parents’ aspirations by businesses to the government’s free hand to such companies, the Ed-tech space is just getting murkier. While calls for help by consumers on social media fall on deaf ears, the companies boast of venturing into offline activities too.
As universal public education goals go for a toss, there are very few, especially parliamentarians, who have set their eyes on the deepening problem. In a chat with MediaNama, Chidambaram goes on to list the not-so-cool factors about Indian Ed-tech companies and the sheer lack of a political will to bring them under scrutiny. Catch everything he said here
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? Your Tech Policy Agenda
- IAMAI summit in Delhi: The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is hosting its 17th ‘India Digital Summit’ which brings industry players and stakeholders together to discuss the present and future outlook of the digital economy and digitalization that is underway in India. The summit will be held at The Lalit, New Delhi from February 20-21, 2023. Find details here.
- Bringing CIOs together: The Smart CIO summit in Mumbai on March 2, 2023 at Radisson Blu Hotel, Andheri brings CIOs together to discuss and exchange ideas on trending themes in IT lie cyber-security and risk management, discuss strategies and best practices, and provide a platform for representation in key policymaking spaces in industry and government. Find details here
- Technology and Humans: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is an international hybrid conference from 23-28 April around interactive digital technologies. There are various workshops as well. Register here.
?Today’s Top Stories
DIGITAL PAYMENTS
When in India, do as Indians do: Last week, when RBI said that it will allow foreign travellers to use UPI, we guessed that this might be facilitated by giving them a temporary prepaid account linked to UPI that can be filled with INR. RBI has now issued new rules that confirm this is exactly how it will work. 10/10 for our guessing game! [Read ?, 2 minutes]
Binance courts another controversy: Binance is no stranger to controversies. It locked horns with Indian crypto exchange WazirX over its ownership. It was only a few months ago that Binance feuded with FTX and caused a meltdown. It seems to be in the crosshairs of the US government after it stopped Paxos from minting its stable coin. [Read ?, 3 minutes]
One step forward and two steps back: This seems to be the message the Indian government is sending to predatory loan apps. They keep popping up, and keep getting banned. In its latest move, the country’s central bank cancelled the licenses issued to two NBFCs for engaging in illegal digital lending activities. One of these NBFCs was even reprimanded last year for work with three dozen digital lending apps, many of Chinese origin. [Read ?, 1 minute]
PLATFORM REGULATION
MapMyIndia invests in drones: On February 13, MapMyIndia announced that it has invested ₹ 7 crore to acquire 20 percent stakes of drone service provider Indrones Solutions. The company is known for its high-resolution data solutions having works in projects related to aerial mapping and agriculture. Is this simply another step to improve customer experience or is it another way of furthering MapMyIndia’s plans for better geospatial data? [Read ?, 2 minutes]
? Tech Policy from Around the World
Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT [Read] (Ron Amadeo/ Ars Technica)
Apple denies claim that a Maps bug shared user locations without consent [Read] ( José Adorno/ BGR)
A teacher writes: Challenges posed by ChatGPT are an opportunity to initiate long-overdue educational reforms [Read] (Arun Kumar/ Indian Express)
Twitter is just showing everyone all of Elon’s tweets now [Read] (Emma Roth/ The Verge)
Eric Schmidt is building the perfect AI war fighting machine [Read] (Will Knight/ Wired)
Online smartphone sales cross offline numbers for first time ever in 2022 [Read] (BS Web Team/ Business Standard)
As ChatGPT’s popularity explodes, U.S. lawmakers take an interest [Read] (Diane Bartz/ Reuters)
Democratizing good privacy and compliance practices [Read] (Anna Heim/ Tech Crunch)
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