40 technologies and buzz words

Technology is changing faster than we can cope. There are hundreds and hundreds of technologies and buzz words that are thrown around us. A look at 40 of them.

CyberMedia turns 40! We have for 40 years been simplifying technology for our readers and influencing India in all matters IT. That’s the reason we are coming out with this “40 on 40” monthly section. We hope you are finding it quite enlightening and useful.

1 3D Printing

While this still has not reached critical mass, in theory a 3D printer could make anything that is manufactured in any industry today. Both personal and industrial models are gaining ground.

2 5G

While we waited indefinitely for this to come to India, it is finally expanding at breakneck speed with the government targeting 2024-end for total coverage. Integral for a smart city with smart homes, smart factories, smart utilities and smart grids.

3 Artificial Intelligence

While AI was always around us, generative AI in the form of ChatGPT and GPT-4 has become an accelerant and the world will be transformed thanks to this in just a few years.

4 AgriTech

One survey a few years back said that India had not even tapped 1% of its potential. However, some progress has taken place due to a pandemic and this will be critical on our road to becoming a developed country.

5 Assistive Technology

There are now 21 recognized disabilities that cover 7.5% of the world. Anyone of us may become temporary disabled and we all will become senior citizens. Anyone may need assistive tech at any point in time.

6 Blockchain

This is one of the least understood technologies but highly useful for transparency and tracking. Hence, we are seeing Blockchain-as-a-Service startups to demystify it for the companies.

7 Collaboration

The pandemic kicked this into high gear, and this has been very useful both for the home and office front. Mere videoconferencing is a thing of the past. We are even looking at 3D conferencing.

8 Cloud

This is no longer about just storage but services and all our daily work being done on the cloud. Data centers continue to increase as India has made great strides in this regard and it’s important to store our data locally.

9 Cryptocurrencies

While crypto is down right now, you can’t deny that Bitcoin crossed $1 trillion and one point while other cryptos like Ethereum were worth hundreds of billions. They may still make a big comeback.

10 Cybersecurity

With a proliferation of devices and the concept of remote work gaining ground this is even more important. This has more to do with data privacy-theft and ransomware, rather than the viruses of the past.

11 CRM-CX

With Digital Transformation spreading everywhere and the rise of the digital platform and digital customer both Customer Relationship Management and customer experience are key.

12 Digital Twins

With Digital Twins, you can simulate real world projects and events and run various scenarios thereby saving you the trouble of actually carrying them out during testing, training, maintenance etc.

13 Drones

Drones are great for delivering, especially in remote and hazardous areas. They are ideal for surveillance and 3D mapping. They come in all shapes and sizes and India finally has a national drone policy.

14 EdTech

With the power of EdTech a single teacher can reach a record number of students. Costs can come down and we can reach remote areas. While current Indian EdTech companies are facing flak, the potential is still boundless.

15 Edge

Edge is essential for the smart grid and all its constituents, and for Industry 4.0. Remote monitoring, autonomous vehicles and AI at the Edge will all be useful. With the introduction of 5G, we can expand this.

16 Electric Vehicles

EVs are gaining ground all over the world and they require technological breakthroughs both in their operation and optimizing batteries. Another ambitious agenda which India has undertaken.

17 ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning software has become totally essential for business. Cloud is playing a big role here as is the whole data revolution.

18 Exascale computing

We need to be a supercomputing power and for that exascale computing is key. India has launched projects for this, though we have a long way to go.

19 FinTech

There have been great advances in this field during the pandemic and India has made great strides with its India Stack-UPI projects and the Open Network Digital Alliance. There’s great progress in the private sector too.

20 HealthTech

Another much needed upgrade during the pandemic. It was not just the hospitals that adopted technology, but the government got its act together with CoWIN and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

2 1Industry 4.0

A need of the hour post-pandemic with the no touch and remote work imperatives. With 5G being implemented, we can go ahead with this too.

22 Gen IV nuclear energy

There hasn’t been much progress in the nuclear plant industry since the mid-Twentieth century. But Gen IV N-plants have used tech to become smaller, safer, more powerful, and better at waste management.

23 Internet of Things

There are tens of billions of IoTs all over the world which send data 24X7. They are handy in smart homes, traffic systems, tractors, agricultural pumps etc. We could soon have hundreds of billions of them.

24 Li-Fi

Communication through light, it is an old concept which shows great promise. It is a superior system in areas which can be affected by electromagnetic interference.

25 Lithium batteries

There are various types of Lithium batteries. While lithium-ion has been a big hit, there’s also lithium-titanate, lithium cobalt/manganese oxide, lithium polymer, lithium-air etc.

26 Low Code/No code

Thanks to these types of coding both programmers and non-programmers can code using a graphical user interface. With the addition of ChatGPT to the mix, coding threatens to enter a totally new dimension.

27 Machine Learning/Deep Learning

ML is a subset of AI. DL is a subset of ML. Generative AI is a subset of DL. While all this is very confusing for the common man, you could say it’s a combination of all of that which will do the job.

28 Computer Vision

One from the AI family, it helps autonomous vehicles navigate the roads, robots in their motion, identification and inspection, visual surveillance, computer-human interaction etc.

29 Metaverse

This was a really hot term just some time back but not so now. Facebook stock crashed after it took the name Meta. The Metaverse won’t happen till AR-VR finds great acceptance from the masses.

30 NFTs

Along with the Metaverse, non-fungible tokens were the rage. After Bitcoin, another precious application of blockchain, NFTs were worth millions for celebrities, but not so now.

31 Nanotechnology

During the pandemic, it was used to make PPE kits. Nanomedicine involves targeted drug delivery and is being experimented with for tissue engineering. Nanoparticles have widespread uses. There are also carbon nanotubes.

32 Neuralink

The machine-human interface is getting a practical shot with this Elon Musk venture. But it’s not the only one. Blackrock Neurotech has implanted brain chips in dozens of patients as a new era has begun.

33 Quantum computing

The world is vying for quantum supremacy with US and China in the lead. India has approved a Rs 6000 crore National Quantum Mission. Once this comes, it will change the rules of computing.

34 Robotic Process Automation

RPA was a really hot buzz term a few years back. While it may not have lived up to its great expectations, it is still quite useful in automating a lot of processes and we already have many bot armies.

35 Robotics

This has also made great strides in the last couple of years, again thanks to the pandemic. Most popular are the Boston Dynamics videos, which have gone viral.

36 Sensors

If we have tens of billions of IoTs, then we have trillions of sensors across the world transmitting useful information working totally in the background.

37 Streaming

Technology has totally taken over the way we watch TV. Now it’s all about OTT platforms on multiple devices according to our convenience. There are global, national and regional players as content has exploded.

38 Wearables

These are cool to wear and a lifeline in the healthcare industry. They quietly tell us about our heart, oxygen levels and sleep cycles. Insurance companies love them as they help monitor their customers better.

39 Web3

Most people still don’t know what exactly Web 1.0 and 2.0 mean and this is more a buzz term among technologists. It’s supposed to be about the Metaverse, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, decentralization and the like.

40 XR

Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) have all come under the umbrella term extended reality, though this is also something all the same for the common populace, something which you have to wear a helmet or glasses.