Human-Machine Interface-Is it a Good Thing?

 

Photo by Raman deep: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-person-1102257/

Human-machine interface is something that we are all living with most of our waking lives, ever since smartphones slowly became a must-carry accessory for most of us. Without our realizing it our relationship with our smartphones became as intimate as it was with our heartbeat. We use it to communicate, work, shop, bank, entertain, look after our health, and so much else besides. We suffer pangs of intense separation anxiety if we are denied access to it. In Elon Musk’s words, we are already cyborgs, albeit very inefficient ones, given how much we rely on smartphones and computers in our day-to-day existence.

Going forward, this reliance on machines and computers is only going to grow exponentially, as evidenced by the fact that technologies like machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence are increasingly permeating most fields of human activity and endeavor. This is presumably going to usher in unimaginable levels of efficiency, productivity and growth. But the question we perhaps don’t pay enough attention to is at what cost. Let’s hark back just a mere two and a half decades back and look at life then. By all accounts, it was still a very modern and technologically advanced world.

There were super-fast aircraft and trains, the most amazing automobiles, extremely reliable telephone networks, and the ever-reliable fax machines for instant transmission of documents to every corner of the world. People were connected better socially, as they spent more time in face-to-face meetings, and the loneliness epidemic that has made people so prone to depression in today’s world was not the huge problem it is today. People were genuinely aware of things and didn’t have a superficial knowledge that seems to be the norm these days amongst the so-called digital generation.

People back then actually read books, newspapers, and magazines to acquire both knowledge and communication skills. The less one talks about the communication skills and the ability to dive deep into a subject and learn about it in intimate detail, when it comes to most Gen Z youngsters, the better it is. There are literally kids these days who would lose their way back from the office if they didn’t have Google Maps to guide them.  If you showed them a physical paper road map, they would probably not be able to follow it.

If all the digital systems were to fail overnight, the 21st-century-born kids would now know what to do to get about their daily lives. How good is the appalling reliance on technology, when animals relying merely on instinct are able to get from one place to another with ease?  There definitely needs to be much more research carried out about the impact of prolonged interface with electronic gadgets on young people born in the 21st century.

Humans have a long history of technological innovation, dating back to prehistoric times, which has enabled them to become the dominant life species on planet Earth, allowing them to accomplish many wondrous things. The harnessing of fire, the invention of the wheel, and a multitude of incredible scientific discoveries have made humans own the world on land, sea, and the skies and beyond, and in the process given mankind the ability to live a life that the gods of yore would envy. So, technology by itself is not a problem. It is giving precedence to technology, as seems to be the case these days, that is worrisome.

There is an old adage that goes you eat to live, you don’t live to eat. The same could be applied to technology. Technology should serve human beings; human beings should not serve technology. The problem that the world faces is that the world’s technology behemoths are dictating a surrender to increasingly autonomous artificial intelligence entities who will deploy or not deploy human resources as they see fit, with the intention of generating maximum profits for themselves. There is nothing that is happening for the greater good of mankind. That AI may one day turn rogue and turn on the human race itself is a clear and present danger we should clearly worry about. We have to take a call about how much technology is really good for us and where one should be drawing the line.

Love affair with motor vehicles in pre liberalisation India

 

                                                 

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For millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, India of the very recent past may as well have been the proverbial land of snake charmers. With so many flashy car brands offering a host of cutting edge features buzzing up and down India’s many roads and highways across its many cities, towns and increasingly villages, they would conjure up images of a medieval dystopia about what was after all a very modern 20th century India with myriad outstanding achievements to its credit.

It is true that before the launch of the Indo- Japanese Maruti-Suzuki 800 in the early 1980’s most Indian cars and motor vehicles were outdated, sluggish and inefficient when compared with what was driven in other countries around the world, including our neighbouring ones. The liberalization of the Indian motor vehicle sector continued into the 1990s,  dazzling the people of the country with the world’s leading automobile brands. Apart from Suzuki, the likes of Honda, Kawasaki, Mazda, Opel, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, Isuzu, Daewoo and many other renowned motor vehicle legends graced the Indian roads ushering in the modern Indian automobile revolution. Today the Indian automobile market has some outstanding international and homegrown car brands to cater to the needs of the country's huge middle class and its increasingly large number of millionaires and billionaires. The roads of cities and towns throughout the length and breadth of India see all manner of cars these days- from the humble hatch backs to luxury vehicles from the stables of Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Jaguar, not to speak of sporty SUVs where the bigger the better is the mantra.

But that does not mean that the pre-liberalisation generation of India did not have its own love affair with motor vehicles of which the country in fact boasted a rich tradition and history harking  back to the earliest days of the twentieth century. The maharajas and the British high officials of the day were the first ones to use automobiles in India. By the time the country gained independence, the well heeled among the local populace too started owning cars.

This was the era of premium luxury automobiles which reflected the class and status of their owners. Brands like Rolls Royce, Plymouth, Bentely, Chevrolet,and Buick were owned and flaunted by royalty and wealthy business people like the Parsees. Other well to do people had their Morris Minors the precursor to the grand old Ambassador car the emblem of pre liberalisation India of languid pace.

Some enterprising Indians would dazzle their compatriots by buying contemporary foreign brands of cars at auctions conducted by the State Trading Corporation and driving around the streets of large cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Imagine the looks of envy when someone would drive by in their massive Chevrolet Caprice among a sea of dreary  Ambassadors and Fiats!

The children who grew up in the 1970s to 1980s, however,  carry vivid memories of the era of stately and graceful, if lumbering vehicles that took them to their destination albeit not at today's frenetic speed to this day. It was the era of the great Indian triumvirate of Ambassador, Fiat and Standard cars which remained pretty much the same vehicle barring a few minor and cosmetic  upgrades from time to time for decade upon decade. Other much loved vehicles from that era were the Matador Van and the Jonga jeeps and the Shaktiman trucks, which were used largely  by the army. All the buses and trucks were from Tata and Ashok Leyland, save a few by Hindustan Motors and some by Dodge, which one saw occasionally.

Among the two wheelers, it was the Bajaj Chetak scooter that ruled the roost, alongside the stately Lambretta. The most coveted of the bikes was the Enfield Bullet 350, with its iconic thumping sound which the armed forces and the police forces of the country bought in large numbers. The Yezdi and Jawa bikes were also very popular among the young for their stylish appeal. The Rajdoot Mini, which Rishi Kapoor popularised in his debut film Bobby, was also quite popular with the young and trendy. Rajdoot also mass produced other bigger bikes for the masses, including milk-men who would attach large cans of milk to either side of a bike and go on their daily deliveries.

Three wheelers from Bajaj and Lamberetta became the poor man's taxi, with the larger Tempo three wheeler with its distinctive growl being used to ferry goods across short distances. 

These vehicles coexisted with bullock carts, cycle rickshaws and interesting hybrid vehicles like old American second world war leftover Hardly Davidsons being repurposed in Old Delhi as the iconic Phut Phut rickshaws capable of carrying six to eight passengers.

Automobiles had character in those times and people loved their cars and bikes dearly, almost like a family member, as they often were with them for years, sometimes even decades. It was a very different time, when cars didn't have air conditioning, but small electrically operated fans to circulate a weak breeze amongst the passengers. Other cars would show up with straw mats on the roofs of their cars on which their owners would spray water on hot summer days, to create some manner of primitive air conditioning. 

Those were indeed very different times, but splendid times, nevertheless. Like the old Dylan song goes- ‘the times,  they are a changin.” It's a pity they are.

India’s tryst with ethanol

When I was in school, I learned about how Brazil transitioned to largely using ethanol-blended fuel for its automobiles, as it could source it from sugarcane, which grows in abundance in Brazil. Given that India has always relied excessively on imported petroleum products to power its automobiles, I had wondered then why India, which, along with Brazil, is among the top two sugarcane-growing nations in the world, shouldn’t follow suit?  Doing so would not only have shaved off billions from India’s import bill, but it would also have made it less susceptible to geo-strategic blackmail like the one it finds itself subject to on account of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

​While India is trying to pivot away from its reliance on imported oil by stepping up domestic oil exploration and encouraging the widespread adoption of EV technology, it is in leveraging its natural advantage of being home to one of the largest agriculture-based economies in the world and making a move to biofuels like ethanol that it may find true energy security. While oil is messy, polluting, expensive, and causes global warming, the EV industry is heavily reliant on Chinese imports, making it a potential security nightmare. Besides, EVs or electric vehicles are non-polluting only if the electricity used to charge them is produced in a non-polluting way. With most of India’s power plants being coal-powered, going for large-scale adoption of EVs might not help fight the raging pollution levels across the Indian urban landscape. The advantages of using ethanol are many. These include, among other things, better engine performance, higher fuel efficiency, and the kicker being ensuring the energy security of the nation.

Photo by Atlantic Ambience

​India’s ethanol journey

 India embarked on an Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme in the early 2000s and has gradually enhanced the ethanol component in the fuel mixture from 5% to the present 20%. A 10% target was achieved five months early in June 2022, and an even more impressive 20% target was achieved by July 2025, an incredible five years ahead of schedule. The government caught on with the potential of using ethanol as a game changer at a particularly fortuitous time, given how global warming is having a visible impact across the length and breadth of India, and the tumultuous global geo-strategic landscape is impacting the nation’s ability to secure its energy needs.

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The Path Ahead

One of the biggest hurdles in the adoption of ethanol-blended fuel in India is the large number of old vehicles that may not be entirely suited to running efficiently on it. The newer vehicles have no such issues. As a matter of fact, automobile manufacturers in the country should look at making flexible fuel vehicles like they have for years in Brazil, capable of running on variable proportions of a petrol-ethanol blend. Brazil even has vehicles that run on pure ethanol, comprising 95% ethanol and 5% water.

​It is heartening that major Indian automobile companies have stepped up to the plate with their plans to foray into the exciting world of flexible fuel vehicles. With the government planning to extend the same incentives that it extended to EV manufacturers to flexi-fuel vehicle manufacturers soon, the future for rapid adoption of such automobiles seems to be quite bright. In the meantime, it is important that the required fuel dispensing infrastructure be developed and people be made aware of the benefits of using flexible fuel vehicles, also known as FFVs.

​Making a move to an ethanol-blended fuel dispensation does have its critics, who argue that the fuel is not compatible with a large number of old vehicles used in the country. Then there is the whole argument about the diversion of food crops like rice and maize towards ethanol production, which might impact the hard-fought-for food security of the nation. Other possible problems could be in the shape of using sugarcane and other water-intensive crops in the manufacturing of ethanol.

​However, given the vastness of India and the natural resources it possesses, these are not deal breakers, and solutions can be worked out that adequately address these concerns. India’s tryst with ethanol has been a fruitful one, and continuing down this path will help the nation secure its energy needs for all times to come.

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The Indian Wellness Industry is Growing and How

 

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stacked-of-stones-outdoors-289586/

India, the birthplace of yoga, the millennia-old system of achieving physical, mental, and spiritual wellness, is rightfully seeing a huge rise in the formal wellness industry. That a land which always emphasised that the purpose of life was to strike the right balance in whatever one undertook in life, should now prioritise personal well-being over mindless “growth” and accumulation of material assets, is something that signifies a homecoming of sorts.

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People have come to understand that the conventional approach to healthcare and wellness, which often involves expensive treatments and healing, is all very well, but adopting a preventive, wellness-oriented lifestyle may help them lead fuller and healthier lives. India, with its traditions of yoga and ayurveda, which evolved from the soil of this land, is best suited to evolve a wellness culture that combines the ancient wisdom of the land with the best modern scientific practices in the realm of health and wellness.

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Given the growing awareness of lifestyle diseases resulting from modern, fast-paced lifestylesit is not surprising that the Indian health and wellness market achieved an impressive market size of $156 billion in 2024. This figure is expected to reach as high a figure as $256.9 billion by 2033, representing a CAGR growth of 5.3% in the 2025-33 time period.As a matter of fact, India is poised to benefit substantially from the growing international wellness tourism industry as well, which is expected to reach $1.3 trillion in size this year.  

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There are several factors that are propelling this stupendous growth in the Indian wellness industry in particular, which is expected to achieve a market size of $72 billion by the end of 2025. The Indian  corporate wellness market, which achieved a creditable $639.1 million revenue in 2024 is projected to hit $809 billion in 2030 representing a CAGR of 4% in the 2025-30 time period.

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The employment generation potential of the wellness industry too is quite large on account of the growing demand for qualified and experienced professionals who can help wellness companies meet the ever growing demand for their products and services. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that the beauty and wellness segment employs as many as 12.3 million people. What’s more, 66% of such employees are women. Hearteningly, the number of people employed in the sector is expected to grow to about 20.3 million by 2027.

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Furthermore, in light of the growing importance given to personal wellbeing in the post pandemic era, more and more people are looking to India for solutions, given its association with yoga, ayurveda, and a rich age age-old tradition of turning to nature for wellness and good health. Large numbers of Indian and foreign tourists have started taking regular wellness holidays. This explains why the Indian wellness tourism  industry boasted a value of $19.43 billion in 2024, which is expected to reach $29.88 billion in 2031, achieving a CAGR of 6.45%.

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One of the most important reasons for the rapid growth of the Indian wellness industry has to be the massive growth in digitisation witnessed in the country. With a very high smartphone penetration, more and more people are accessing wellness services via healthcare apps and online platforms.

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The government’s promotion of digital healthcare through its Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has played an important role in raising awareness about the need for a comprehensive digital health approach in the country. It is not surprising, then, that the Indian digital fitness and welfare platforms market is already valued at $1.5 billion.

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The Indian wellness industry is definitely a bright spot on the Indian economic horizon, with plenty of tailwinds to ensure its exponential rise in the times ahead.

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