Weekly High with LSD

This week, we had Lloyd Mathias -- an angel investor and business strategist-- with us on the 'Weekly High with LSD' show. Lloyd is a Board Member and advisor to many companies in the technology and consumer space, and has held senior leadership roles in many companies including HP, Tata Docomo, Motorola India and PepsiCo South Asia, besides also being the Chairman of MRUC--the publishers of the Indian Readership Survey. We discussed the rise of Dogecoin in the context of the Indian government mulling the ban of cryptocurrencies; the government's idea to set up a local "safer" internet; the government spat with Twitter and other social media companies on hate speech; and the need to have more young investors to create the next cool startup.

This week, we had with us Srinivas Prasad M R--an Innovation and Transformation Leader. He was former CEO Philips Innovation Campus, and a Former State and India Cricketer. We discussed AI and healthcare, a bit about Srinivas' cricket career and a lot about India's chances of becoming an AI superpower even as the US remains the leader with China close on its heels. We also discussed another important development--that of the change of guard at Amazon with Jeff Bezos handing over charge to Andy Jassy.

This week, we were joined by Anurag Agarwal who heads a San Francisco-based SMB IT Market Research and Industry Analyst firm called Techaisle. We talked about the age of humanoids being ushered in with the planned mass production of Hanson Robotics' Sophia and four other robots; Data privacy legislation since we celebrated International Data Privacy Day on January 28; The World Economic Forum (WEF)'s 'The Global AI Action Alliance' that brings together a multi-stakeholder group including more than 100 companies to accelerate the adoption of inclusive, trusted and transparent AI; Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO of software development firm Zoho Corporation, being awarded the Padma Shri this year. 

This week we had Siddharth (Sid) Pai, Consultant, writer, and investor in deep tech/science, joining us on the show. Sid is Founder of Siana Capital; has held senior executive roles at IBM, KPMG and TPG/ISG; and advised and completed over $20 Billion worth of deals till date. We spoke about the transition from the Trump regime to that of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the US and the impact on India's tech industry (H1-B, deals, startups, etc.). We also discussed the implications of SEBI's approval for the Reliance-Future deal on India's digital and ecommerce landscape. We talked a bit about "vaccine passports" and last, but not the least, spoke about how investors look at entrepreneurs who invest in deep tech (AI, IoT, blockchain, 3D Printing, etc.).

This week, we discussed the ongoing WhatsApp privacy issue for businesses; the Indian IT industry's good health report on the back of a falling rupee and increasing digital thrust; the increasing sophistication of phishing tools as the high-profile Indian journalist Nidhi Razdan's case demonstrated; and the nifty tools and futuristic toys displayed at the all-digital CES 2021, which included rollable phones, OLEDs for smaller screens and smart beds.

This week was a very eventful one. Along with Jayanth Kolla, Founder & Principal Analyst of Convergence Catalyst, we discussed developments including Alphabhet (Google's parent) employees forming a union; Twitter, Facebook ousting the sitting US President from their respective social media platforms; the implications of Facebook now being able to use WhatsApp data -- What it means for users and advertisers; the Catch 22 situation of investing (or not) in Bitcoins; and the filip to the 'Make in India' movement, triggered by Lava phones. For more enterprise tech news and opinions, visit CXOtoday.com

Since it was the first episode of this year, we focused more on Looking Back at 2020 and Looking Ahead at 2021 rather than just the week's development in the technology sector. We were joined by Kashyap Kompella, Founder and Chief Analyst of consultancy firm RPA2AI, who shared his insights on the bias in AI, digital transformation in general and a whole lot of other engaging topics.

We sat down with Sundeep Khanna, Columnist and Author of the recently-released book 'Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions' to discuss the hot trends of 2020 and place them in perspective. These trends included Work From Home, Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity, the unrest over delicensing of 6 GHz, and Governments punishing Big Tech

Leslie D'Monte, Publishing Director and L Subramanyan, Founder & CEO of #Trivone discuss the week's vibrant topics like 'Silicon Valley remains under attack', given that 38 US states have now targeted Google for #antitrust laws after Facebook. They also talk about 'Nation-state sponsored cyber attacks' or #cyberwars, and more.