Uncertainty: We all live in such uncertain times that to predict the future would require epic levels of algorithms with master codes of Artificial Intelligence. Everything that we do today and the way we live is up for change. Let’s start with the vaccination for Covid-19, which is underway. But what is not uncertain is how long the antibodies will remain, and the word “mutation” is by far the most challenging word to know. How the virus will mutate and what strain it will take is beyond imagination. It can be catastrophic, or it can just take the Covid- 19 saga to the history books. Let’s take cars, for instance. The future is undoubtedly electric, but lithium is in short supply, and the amount of power we would need will quickly outpace the power we can generate to charge all the EVs in the world. Autonomous driving is around the corner, and flying cars will soon fly us to the distant future.
The shape of our smartphones is continuously changing. Foldable smartphones are here. Next could be rollable and expandables which can pose a severe threat to the television industry and maybe laptops to a certain extent and the tablet space whose existence as a category will be challenged. The embryonic chips in the works can be instead in your skull and mapped to your brain, which will throw internal projection to the “screen lenses” you will be wearing over your retina, just like the regular lenses. And the Siri commands in the future can change to “play the Avengers movie with Jr Brad Pitt as the actor”, and it will be playing in your eyes, all connected seamlessly through the chip. Scary, right? But this could be a reality, just like the dystopic society of Pitta Kathalu, with one episode starring Shruti Hasan streaming on Netflix. A reality check is essential.
For now, we have the real-life hero Rohit Shetty, who, apart from flying blowing cars [his last one was lexus], is a very humble soul who has worked his way up. Success does not come easy. You have to start early and work hard. His whole journey to be one of the most successful directors, which started at the age of 16, is an inspiration. Only people driven by passion reach somewhere. Coincidentally, we went with Ananya Birla in a Lamborghini Urus, whose tag line is driven with passion, and Rohit Shetty owns a URUS. Enjoy the issue
Just back from CES 2021, and not hungover for the first time. It was virtual, and it was not the same. Hopefully, it’s the last time that it will remain like this. Regardless of how technologically advanced we become, business and progress happen when minds meet physically and for a trade show of CES size. It’s just impossible to digest and absorb anything virtually. How many of
you followed it virtually? Don’t blame yourself; you are just average in this “new normal”.
Social media is a disruptive and disturbing place. Hackers and bots have started eyeing major Instagram accounts, and funny things are happening. We have to be very careful before clicking on anything which does not end appropriately after the dot. If it’s .ml or .cs or any other permutation just don’t fall for the bait, even if it’s 8 million dollars waiting for you. These new vices are apart from WhatsApp, ready to invade our privacy and Facebook tracking every move. Owing to the scary combination of bots and AIs and hacking dystopic brains, our digital footprints have to be cautiously navigated. This explains why fake news needs to be authenticated, and this explains the power of print which can’t be adulterated.
We got Shruti Haasan to do a badass shoot after a long stint of 7 years. Now she is raging in the southern industry and is our tech version of damsel in distress. She is a gamer, and in her upcoming flick is inspired by a dystopian tech society plunged into chaos. Exactly how we would like our sushi served. Precisely the kind of films techies like to indulge in and unwrap their popcorn for. The PS5 has been making a lot of news, and the world wants to get its hands on it. Till then, we have had a busy month playing it, that, and many more. Enjoy the issue; Enjoy February.
January without a holy trip to Las Vegas is something that I am not used to for the last 14 years. Holy because of CES and for a tech addict like me, there can’t be a better pilgrimage than to be at CES – the hotbed of all innovation. The city of Las Vegas is just the cherry on the “Prasada”. But we all know the world has changed and 2020 has been a catastrophic year taking away all the sunshine. The clouds are now beginning to break and with 2021 we can see that ray of sunlight in the shape of the vaccine. Vaccine or no vaccine, life has resumed. Covid-19 has already pushed the human race to the wall and it is bound to rebound. There is no other way but to move forward and swapping places with Covid and plastering it to the wall now.
This is our Exhibit Tech Awards 2020 special. Again, we could not host all the stakeholders of the Indian Consumer Tech Industry, but we followed the process of public voting and for the first time had a virtual jury meet where Rakesh Biyani joined from London, Siddharth Sharma joined from Toronto and rest of us including Mr Brian Bade, Dj Aqueel, Nucelya, Avinash Gowarikar all through their screens “zoomed” in and together we picked the winners that you can meet in the following pages. Just to add some flamboyance in the Exhibit way, we booked the 38th-floor lounge of St Regis and laid out all the winning gadgets against the beaming Mumbai skyline and
a pompous setup and did a walkaround video that is now live on our Youtube channel. Next year hopefully, we will revert to the meeting, greeting and awarding in person and have perhaps a high decibel gala awards night as always.
It’s the start of 2021 and already from the automotive industry, invitations are trickling in for launch events and hopefully, the tech industry will follow suit and we will all get back to business as usual, perhaps with the masks on. Did you know that the face mask market is projected to grow from USD 737 million in 2019 to a whopping USD 22143 million in 2021 [Source: markets and markets research Pvt ltd]? No one could have anticipated that. We are waiting to see some interesting tech innovations coming for the masks and sanitization market, which will become a way of life even after the pandemic is gone. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who has visited Japan anytime in 2019 or earlier, and they will tell you that people with masks on was a common sight in Japan even then and it just got more layered up in 2020.
There is plenty of anticipation and expectation from the year ahead, but don’t forget to take away all the learnings from 2020 which is to survive you need basics and we have to be there for each other because we are all in this together.
When SpaceX’s latest launch, the SN8, burst into flames, millions of dollars evaporated but there was not a single wrinkle on Elon Musk’s forehead. In fact, the mad scientist went on to congratulate his team on the failure! That’s how the man is built; taking failures into his stride and on a mission to do the impossible. The idea of building a colony on Mars is the wildest and weirdest dream anyone can have, and if anyone has the ability to execute it in our lifetime, it is probably Musk. I have always been fascinated by him, his journey, his tweets, the hero of startups, and one crazy soul who does first, think later, and goes all in. Read his book, Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance and you will start believing even in Spiderman and Superman. Why Elon Musk, you ask? Because it’s that time of the year when you will be making new year resolutions, and in that it’s a must that you should slide in after you have browsed through our take on 31st parties in these Covid times.
The turn of the year always brings positivity, aspirations, and hope. 2021 will definitely go down the century as the year where hope for 7.5 billion people are all glued in for the vaccine, for the skies to open, to live freely, to stay alive! By this time, the preparations for CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas are in full swing, like many things now it’s a ritual which will be missed massively in fact for the first time ever since the first edition of Exhibit came about – 15 years ago.
Since then, we have seen a lot of highs and lows, though nothing as radical and life-changing as this pandemic. Nevertheless, it is our Nature to bounce back harder than we are hit and that’s exactly what we have done. We persevered through the toughest of times and faced the highest of pressures. But as they say, only the coal that can sustain the highest pressure turns into a diamond. It’s a wrapping issue of 2020, and we have just dropped our podcasts on Spotify and other platforms, next time give us a thumbs up, we will have plenty of conversations, tech hacks coming up there. Moving forward to the next year, all we can wish to carry forward from this year are the learnings, the lessons, and the alterations that we have voluntarily done to our lives. Otherwise, I think you all would pretty much agree that 2020 should have never existed!
It’s the only time when I can look back and maybe pat my own back. 15 incredible years have just gone by, where we experienced recessions, floods, earthquakes, government changes, the social media revolution, and writing this in the middle of a pandemic. It was a blank canvas that we filled with the first issue of Exhibit, had no idea how this journey will unfold and whether we will last the first mile. Learned on the job the nuances of teamwork, editing, design language, printing, and managing finances, while staying broke most of the early startup days. Still a startup – An evolved one. As it’s said, the first step is important and the path gets unfolded. My first startup was mobile charging stations when the times were of the Nokia 5510 and Motorola Razr (not the folding one) we were manufacturing and installing mobile phone charging stations and supplying to Vodafone, Reliance, and Airtel and also installing in public places and selling advertising space on it. That’s where we picked up advertising and understood technology with fast charging and circuit boards. When the dream monopoly run of 1 year ran out, we sold the business and merged the two learnings, and launched Exhibit. I was a young chap back then, and young still 🙂
Honestly, our fate has been written before we even start crawling and every time I have faced this question of the print industry dying or magazines having no future, we always stood firm that we are much more than just a magazine company. We turned green within the 1st year of operation and to date, we have never raised a penny nor do we have any debts, in spite of having access to the biggest VCs in the country and calling them friends of Exhibit. Recently, we also took over a brand that I have grown up reading- BBC Topgear Magazine, and introducing it would be like reminding you of your name. In the peak lockdown, we launched aviatorsbuzz.com, thus completing our trajectory of Tech, Auto, Aviation. The three things I am passionate about and can be found daydreaming about!
We pivoted into the digital platform and events long back and got some of the biggest IPs under our belt, with all of them stitched together with the fabric of tech. Exhibit tech awards, which is in its 8th year is undoubtedly the biggest spectacle in the tech industry which is as glamorous as techy. Exhibit Startups, made us connect with 1000 startups so far and some of them are on the course to becoming a billion-dollar enterprise. Having first made their pitch on our platform, Haptik is one of them. Tech Fashion Tour, which has had global recognition since its first edition, which was 7 years ago and where international designers like Cute Circuit, London, Jasna Rok, Belgium, and others have showcased the future of fashion and technology and where stars like Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan have walked the ramp. Influencex – Top 100 Digital Influencerswhich is just two editions old has become the most viral IP yet. The first season had some of the biggest content creators like Bhuvan Bam, Prajakta Koli, Ashish Chachlani, and other Top 100 influencers all coming together for one big awards night which got converted to one big party. This year, of course, we did it virtually, ensuring it went viral.
Today, We run Influencex – which has 2000+ influencers content creators on our speed dial, we make TVCs and digital films, celebrity endorsements, and can deliver a feature film. We have three big Digital Destinations: www.exhibit.tech, www.topgearmag.in, and aviatorsbuzz.com that together caters to almost 3 million monthly visitors and the graph is continually growing. We can think through, ground-up any idea, and convert it into a spectacular show. The destination is neither known nor important and the goalposts have continuously shifted, but do we have stories to tell? Hell yes! The journey is exciting to the brim and as cliched as it may sound but we are just getting started. And yes we are still a magazine company.
The viral issue in the new normal. Last year, we started one of our strongest IPs, where we curated 250 content creators who in their category had been relevant, with a meaningful fan following and put them up for public voting to choose “The Top 100” Class of 2019. Almost immediately, we had a huge spike in our web traffic; touching 500k hits daily as a consequence of these content creators who had influenced their fans to go and vote. This is when realisation dawned that they are real influencers! What came next was our first-ever Influencex awards where the “Top 100” had flown in from different parts of the country for the “Influencex” awards night. The vibe was strictly informal and it soon converted to one big party. The celebration still continues and thereafter we started a dedicated “Influencer marketing Division” which has been busy ever since with curating and executing huge influencer marketing campaigns.
This year we repeated last year’s event, albeit with a twist. Our website continued to spike during the voting days to 5000%. Nothing changed. Only the awards went virtual right from this screen. We fixed one day and all the winners came together one by one. It was a field day chatting on Zoom sessions with 15 winners across – Entertainment, Fitness, Tech, Travel, Fashion, Lifestyle, Social Media ,Beauty, Changemaker, Gaming, Food and Automobile. All of them have a few things in common, they have huge fan bases – If I put all the following of only these 15 of them it would stack up to 50 Million+. Secondly, they are all chilled out and know what they are doing and come up trial and error and thirdly, humble with feet on the ground.
The entire day-long session has been curated and cut to feel like an awards ceremony into a 30-minute session and is resting pretty at our channel youtube.com/exhibitmagazine. The process of choosing the winners is also straight forward. There is no jury round and it’s up for public voting with some tech in play which will map votes to the unique IP and the results have always been “on display” mode since day one of voting.
Here’s to the new era of Infleuncers and marketers to have a new honorific in their blue book which has quickly flipped pages to the fore of their communication strategies and medium.
When I heard that CES 2021 is going virtual, it took me a few days to come to terms with that as I could not stomach this piece of news. Firstly, in my mind, 2020 is not to be counted and the start of 2021 without being at CES looked like an extension of 2020. In fact, for the last 9 years, it was nothing short of a religious process to start January submerged with all the tech and meet all my friends and folks who “download” themselves in Las Vegas from all over the world and in between the casinos and the exhibition halls, the year was shaped. But this was inevitable and an expo of that scale in between the pandemic would have been catastrophic. Even if we are at the tail end or in a better situation with vaccines being produced. So just like the virtual launches that we have got used to now with the Hector Plus, Tucson, Kia Seltos, the OnePlus Nord (With its AR launch), Samsung Galaxy unpacked event and the rest, Virtual CES is something that will be painful to swallow but will be in line with the new normal.
This month, launches kept dropping from the tech and auto world and the signs that we are in the midst of a pandemic started to diminish; perhaps signs of the economy opening up. Amidst all, the OnePlus Nord virtual AR launch was something that was a spectacular treat and satisfied the nerds in us. The auto sales this month are also almost neck to neck with July 2019, at 197,523 units. This is also the first issue since lockdown when we went to a studio, had a stylist, pro lensman, hair, makeup, studio and the entire sanitization frills along with the man of the moment Sonu Sood just like we used to do pre-COVID times, nowadays called ‘BC’ (Before COVID).
I have known Sonu for 4 years now and the first time I had met him was when he walked Exhibit -tech fashion tour. I had observed how the media and photographers lap on him. Because of his affable nature, having come from ground zero and made his own niche in south and Hindi film industry, it was hardly surprising when he came forward and has now made a name for himself in the history of “The Great India Migrant Movement’. Sometimes you just need to do your bit and a movement starts. Sonu Sood is that example and when we are in the cusp of celebrating our 74th independence with 74 gadgets that have changed our lives, there can be no better person to dote our cover.
His fearlessness and the decision to go out and meet 1000s of people amidst the COVID proves a point, either he believes in his immunity – the fitness freak that he is or in karma. I think it’s a bit of both. Now as we have learnt to live with the virus, we should never unlearn that it’s only the essentials that matter in life, rest everything is a chase a mirage which engulfs our whole life.
This is our second issue from home, amidst these gloomy times when suddenly every email, phone or WhatsApp starts with “How are you?” in a meaningful way. If you have never believed in God or are a staunch atheist, it’s time for you to do some good karma, just like Sonu Sood sending thousands of migrant laborers back and like a real ‘hero’ standing there in person to waive them and thankfully not contracting COVID-19 himself. This explains a few things.
He did not want us to abuse the climate and get to a point where global warming is alarming.
He did not want the rich and crony capitalist to become very powerful, almost like an oligarch, and get a feeling of invincibility. Covid-19 has come out as the greatest equalizer, it doesn’t spare anyone.
He wanted all of us to reflect and not run 9-6 with extra hours in travel, or worse, fly to another city for a 30 minute meeting, which today is just a zoom call away.
He wanted us to emphasize that only essentials matter in life, just like the stone age. Air to breathe, food grains to eat, water to drink. We can add the internet to this tech age as an essential and may be single malt every now and then too.
He wanted us to spend time with our loved ones, which we take for granted, converse with the kids and enjoy the simple pleasures.
He wanted to stop such massive urbanization and mass exodus to cities. Now the migrants have gone back and almost 50% will not return and some fine gentlemen like billionaire Sridhar Vembu of Zoho, who spearheaded a new movement with Zoho schools, has set up his corporate office in a small village 650 km off Chennai. This, after living in the sophisticated Silicon Valley for decades. He is our God or the Superpower or the almighty or the creator up there.
The fight is on, with the invincible COVID-19, with our physical neighbours at the borders, with the falling economy, joblessness and total chaos. The real winners are those who can find their real purpose in life and if the whole world starts believing in karma then the #WorldHasChanged for the better.
That was my spiritual side because I consider myself blessed to be nestled in my complex apartment along with the people who matter in life having all amenities including ice-creams and single malt delivered to my doorstep unlike many unfortunate ones who are fighting for the daily means of livelihood. During this lockdown, I held many roundtable webinars with industry heads and the conversations are laid out in pages ahead. All of them were universally and reciprocally enjoying this downtime with family while working more from home sharing some other great insights into the new world order.
Now coming to Rakul Preet Singh, the actress who I have known for a long time and seen her rise to fame with a whooping 14.1 million fans on the gram. We did this whole shoot at her home with the smartphone camera without the frills of hair, make up, lights, any ace photographers and rounded up with an interview via a video call. Her strong hesitance to shoot was soon overcome by her sportiness and some rounds of convincing.
We devised a strategy, the magazine’s in-house stylist, Simran had sourced her clothes before the lockdown which helped us tremendously and we delivered that alongside the new Moto Razr to her house to be taken in after surface quarantine of 24 hours. Since Mumbai skies decided to turn gloomy, we sent across a ring light which we use in the office for YouTube videos which was Armageddon and what you see in the cover and the pages ahead, is a result of that.
Enjoy the issue and stay safe and start believing in karma or Sonu Sood or both.
So, the forced party is finally over. Yes, the “party” because we all were confined to our homes and the commerce and business had stopped. It was universal so we had a sense of being together in this. The plight of migrants walking on the highways and sheer mismanagement of their home journey can bring tears to your eyes at the same time put curse words for all stakeholders responsible for this. But now the economy is slowly getting the green light, while the red and orange zones are waiting in the lurch. Finally, good sense prevailed and we now have only two zones – Containment & Non-containment. Of course, the sentiments will be down to the graveyard, moving around will be cautiously done. For me, how do we open the office without being sure if the housekeeping who comes to clean the office is not COVID positive? That’s the starting point. Then comes your office boy travelling in local transport, milkman to replenish the coffee machines and other staff members who travel publicly. Will we endanger their lives and others? How long can #WFH actually work out? An ocean of difficult questions with no easy answers.
I was trying to analyze all possible scenarios which will unfold as we open our gates considering all angles. But universally, whichever country cracks the vaccine first will be the king, just praying it’s not the Chinese. “Dua” and “dard” both from China will make the world dance to the dragon.
Scenario 1 – Idealistic
Everyone wears a mask, maintains social distance, WFH continues, offices work on 10 -30% capacity, our hospitals, and medical facilities keep pace with the no’s of COVID Cases and slowly we limp back to normal. One confirmed news break from any of the 110 pharma companies globally of a possible vaccine or cure will push the economy into full throttle. If that happens to be an Indian pharma company – Serum Institute of Adar PoonaWala, for Example [haven’t you seen him suited in news channels these days?] will really put India on a SpaceX rocket which will take us towards the “superpower” colony – just like Elon Musk has successfully sent the two NASA astronauts to ISS.
And yes, China retreats from the borders and a pact is achieved wherein there’s no more claiming of Indian land in return of no more uninstall of TikToks.
Scenario 2 – Most Likely
As we open up, our COVID cases will surge through the roof – 10 lakh, maybe 20 lakh with 2-3 % succumbing to it. We will develop herd immunity and develop antibodies and by September or October, the virus will mutate and give us a real Diwali. Yes, hospital beds will be scarce, there will be mismanagement, the political blame game will be all time high, the economy and job losses will be so deep that everyone will be willing to work at 30-50% of their income with loans and defaults rising at alarming rates. By October, we get a grip and things tread back to the new normal and most likely vaccine developments show impressive results. Meanwhile, China and India continue their dog fight. Maybe a few tanks fire cannons, sorties by fighter jets on each other, show of muscle and nothing significant.
Just like when you have those street fights “Hath Laga kar Dekh” and by July end, Indo x China Bhai Bhai T-shirts begin to sell again. TikTok uninstalls continues and Micromax, Intex, Xolo, Karbonn and other earlier versions of Vivo & Oppos of the world start relaunching their smartphones. It’s possible.
Scenario 3 – Extreme Situation:
It’s July 15, 2020 and the COVID-19 scoreboard reads 50 lakh cases in India. Lockdown 5.0 gets implemented, doctors and nurses are taking the hard decision of whom to save. China versus India intensifies its fight and Pakistan, Nepal & Russia joins the party while the rest of the world backs India to corner China. There’s tension at the border and nerves are stretched. It’s a cold war but nothing happens at the end. Deaths and infections are everywhere, our medical facilities begin to collapse and there are protests and riots everywhere.
Those who lose their loved ones because of callousness, in all likelihood will lose their sanity. It’s grim news and madness everywhere and illegal sales of guns blossom.It’s the Economy which is now to be saved because suicides and poor mental state are killing more people than COVID-19.
In all of the above scenarios, by October either we will have a vaccine announcement or we will have herd immunity. Now comes the lawlessness, going outside, walking will be dangerous snatching, kidnappings will be frequent. Joblessness and poverty will push the dragon in people to fend for themselves. Now comes the Phishing scenarios – we recently faced a situation where a concentrated effort was taken to get money transferred. My accountant – Tanaya Ghosh received a fraudulent mail from my name, [E-mail ID was different] asking her to transfer. Normally, no one will check the Email-ID, just the name but her good sense prevailed and she double-checked with me. In most businesses, CFOs and Accountants are powered to make transactions of up to a capped amount.
We have to tread the next 3-4 months with caution and sanity. I have had friends who in spite of being financially well off get panic attacks even now. Our belief in the human spirit must be reinforced that’s supreme and believe in the supernatural power above you. Maybe it’s his way of resetting the climate, so we don’t have to travel to other planets to set up shop. Are you still seeing Toronto or New York from your bedroom anywhere in India?
The world order has changed, forever. Things will never be the same again, at least for a long time. Those hugs and kisses, those tight handshakes, and international flights. Video meetings, virtual concerts, sanitizers, facemasks and the biggest of all LOCKDOWN which was never thought of or written about. History Repeats itself, from Spanish flu of 1919 to COVID-19 of 2019, one century ago where it unleashed havoc and took away millions of lives around the world. Meanwhile, the Ebola virus came into existence and Swine flu tested us, but our vaccine dropped faster without them earning the destructive tag of a ‘Pandemic’. Today we are sophisticated, technologically advanced but still fighting the same battle and we don’t know who and what we are fighting. Superpowers like the USA, medically advanced countries like Italy and the whole world is stuck together and fighting together without knowing what is coming next.
COVID-19 has got the pollution levels down, accidental deaths down, psychology levels down and along with it took the world economy to shambles. Is it a Bio War or an Experiment gone wrong? Or is it nature’s way of balancing? Whatever it is, it is dangerous and uncertain. So much uncertain that for next issue, whether I will be writing this piece with a percentage of the world population wiped out or rejoicing on the newfound vaccine or picking up pieces of the post COVID era is uncertain. The hardcore optimistic are bewildered at which way things will unfold, all leaders everywhere putting up brave faces and doing their best knowing deep inside that the enemy is hidden and is firing canons through droplets, like a rogue alchemist converting human beings to ticking time bombs ready to explode on each other.
Saving the economy is secondary and human lives are primary. Billionaires, millionaires and everyone in every way are generously donating and doing their best to fight the Coronavirus, and we are all equally vulnerable and at stake is the entire civilization. Staying home has become heroic, work from home is the new normal, and technology is the saviour. Imagine 1919, when the pandemic of Spanish Flu broke, no internet, no Netflix, no broadcasting news, no video call apps, no Zoom or Houseparty or WhatsApp which are all the fabric responsible for keeping us sane and connected now.
They survived, we will too and come out stronger and develop immunity against the flu and most of the materialistic things which this world has to offer. When everything is over, people will realize that life is unpredictable and living your life and making the most of it while you can go outdoors is called living. Rest is a mystery.
