Technology
threat of an economic downturn?
Amazon, Meta, Netflix: Why Big Tech Is Facing Massive Layoffs Wall Street Journal Nov 18, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYVMuWGCtK4
Tech companies saw exceptional growth in both revenue and employee headcounts through the pandemic. But now, they’re cutting thousands of jobs. WSJ explains the macro — and micro — reasons for the industry’s massive layoffs.
Layoffs Aren’t a Good Look for Big Tech’s Growth Story https://www.wsj.com/articles/layoffs-arent-a-good-look-for-big-techs-growth-story-11668045118
Meta Platforms, Twitter and other tech companies have shown they are economically sensitive, puncturing the myth of ‘permanent acceleration’
But part of what made fast-growing tech companies appealing to investors was their ability to defy economic cycles...When companies begin to succumb to economic cycles instead, they start to look more like the legacy businesses they were supposed to disrupt...Meta has been so desperate to rebrand itself in investors’ eyes that it changed its name from Facebook to reflect its “metaverse” product before it even existed...But the urgency now is to slash costs and bring in revenue. “Chief Twit” Mr. Musk is now looking at ways to bolster his newest business through subscriptions, video and paywalls. ..
TikTok Is Still Hiring as Competitors Shed Jobs https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-is-still-hiring-as-competitors-shed-jobs-11668819207
Social-media company has said it would add 3,000 engineers, plans to boost head count at Mountain View, Calif., hub TikTok, which is roughly only five years old, is on a different growth trajectory than many of the older American tech giants that are now shedding thousands of jobs. By some measures, TikTok has surpassed Facebook and Meta-owned Instagram in popularity, especially among American teens. But TikTok still brings in a fraction of the revenue of Meta, which had $118 billion in sales in 2021.
7 Years of Smart Cities Mission, India – A Review https://www.cenfa.org/7-years-of-smart-cities-mission-india-a-review/
By Gaurav Dwivedi and Kenneth Gomes | September 14, 2022
This report is aimed at assessing the targets set under the mission; and what has been achieved so far. A thorough and complete assessment of SCM would involve asking fundamental questions about the need for these projects; questions of whom they are meant to benefit, and whether decision-making on choice of projects and priorities accorded to them was democratic. ..The data used for the study has been accessed from the Smart Cities Mission website dashboard to project a national picture of the status of work under the mission.
The full report is available at https://www.cenfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/7-Years-of-Smart-City-Missions-in-India-A-Review.pdf
although the Smart Cities Mission nears completion, several questions remain: The
future of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), for instance. Will these continue to own/operate
and maintain these projects? Financial support to SPVs for constructing new projects and
operating existing ones, and the long-term impact of SPVs on existing structures of
governance, especially given the increasing privatisation of public assets and services,
remains to be addressed. Will there be universal access to these public services in future?
Will we see increase in tariffs for using these services?
..The use of online mediums and social media platforms for consultation with local people for
voting on projects needed in area-based development led to the exclusion of various
marginalized communities due to non-accessibility to the internet -- in Bhopal, lack of local
participation happened since voting was done via social media platforms, and the poor
had no access to the internet. In Tumakuru, upon interviewing members of urban deprived
communities including Pourakarmikas, Underground Drainage System workers, street-
vendors and leaders and activists of organizations working across various low-income
settlements, it was found that they were not included in any survey or outreach programme
during the development of the Smart City Proposal. Exclusion of such communities is also
prominent in the implemented projects and expenditure.
The Digital Revolution and the State | #7 | Venture Capital in the 21st Century https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mQxfEPD-xQ The digital revolution was pioneered by the mission-driven State, and has evolved considerably since. Janeway considers the impact of the digital revolution, and how it might have led to the puzzle of productivity growth slowdown. This includes large increases in industrial concentration, rising inequality, overall decline in business dynamism, increased globalization and financialization, and its attendant fragility, and political polarization. The digital revolution, enabled by the State and speculation, has fed back to transform the market economy and the State's ability to offset the consequences of its own disruptions.