Technology & COVID-19
April 1st, 2020
Dear Reader,
It has been a while since our last newsletter. While we had a tremendous response to our initial run, for which we would like to thank all of you, a combination of factors made it increasingly difficult for us to take the time every week to put together the newsletter. However, with all of us now in the midst of a lockdown of some form, whether in India or abroad, we thought we would take a second stab at the newsletter. To try and give ourselves a more sustained run, we teamed up with the good folks over at The Bastion. There is a natural convergence in both our areas of interest, and we cannot think of a better set of people than The Bastion team to help provide a more formal administrative structure for us to keep publishing.
On that note, it is inevitable at an unprecedented time like this that we will focus on COVID-19 and its intersection with the tech world, both in India and abroad. Read on below for our COVID-19 related articles for this week. But there are also other interesting developments happening which have been buried under the relentless focus on COVID-19 and need to be flagged. The biggest such is the EARN IT Act in the United States. This is a bipartisan legislation that ostensibly seeks to protect ‘children online’. But the actual effect of the bill might be to strip away end-to-end encryption altogether. As Wired notes, this has severe implications for privacy around the world as it hits at the technological heart of ubiquitous messaging apps like WhatsApp.
The other interesting development is the news that Facebook is looking at a potential multi-billion dollar investment in Reliance Jio. This is remarkable for two reasons. One, this would be Facebook’s first investment in a telecom company, which gives it access to the all-important physical side of communications technology. And two, this might be a round-about way for Facebook to give itself some sort of unfettered access to 370 million Indians, Jio’s current subscriber base. Facebook’s previous attempt to directly insert itself in India’s communications network, through Free Basics, was a PR debacle and Facebook had to beat a hasty retreat. Could an investment in India’s largest telecom company be Facebook’s second attempt at this? We can only wait and see.
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Women Do it Best
India’s fight against COVID-19 is going to be an uphill one. Take this: for a country of 1.3 billion, we’ve only 40,000 ventilators! The best way to mitigate the avalanche of cases that may soon befall our healthcare system? More testing. That’s been made possible by Pune based virologist Dr. Minal Dakhave Bhosale. The founder of Mylab Discovery, Bhosale and her team have developed an ICMR approved testing kit that will provide COVID-19 results in 2 hours. It’s cheap too (a Mylab kit costs only ₹1,200) and can test 100 samples at a go. Wait, but why do women do it best again? Bhosale led these efforts while nine months pregnant, and delivered her baby just after submitting the project proposal to the Indian FDA!
Bluetoothing COVID-19
Not sure how to protect yourself against COVID-19? Five IIT-Delhi students have got you covered: they’ve developed an app that uses Bluetooth to help tell you whether you’ve been in contact with a COVID-19 positive case or not. The app sends the user an alert when within a 2m radius of a positive case, while also providing details to nearby healthcare facilities. Also included: tips on how to self-quarantine and look after yourself at home. Why is this cool? There’s no GPS tracking or storing of minute personal data in this fully encrypted app. Also cool: there’s a different version available for healthcare providers and governments, that allows them to keep track of positive cases, and take strong preventive measures when necessary.
+ Debolina Biswas, Your Story
Surveillance for Survival
If the footage of the Delhi Police filming anti-CAA protests was anything to go by, it’s become clear that government forces are all geared up to use snazzy technologies to maintain law and order. Right now, they’ve got their hands full with trying to enforce a country-wide lockdown that besides stranding migrants, has brought the bustling country to a standstill. How do you make sure people don’t break orders when police forces are stretched thin? Patrol the streets with drones of course, as has been seen in Surat, and many other cities across the country.
Presenting Corona Kavach
In this fight against COVID-19, what you really need is Corona Kavach. No, this isn’t a pendant being sold on a telemarketing channel. It’s actually an app released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology that uses smartphone locations to detect and track positive COVID-19 cases. It’s one amongst many such location-tracking apps being used by the Indian government to tackle the rising number of COVID-19 cases. An important question though: could such apps, which make use of national databases and registries, also result in violations of privacy and free speech?
What’s in a Peer Review? A Google Doc By Any Other Name Would Read As Sweet
Heard of chloroquine? It’s an anti-malarial drug that’s shown promise in treating COVID-19 patients. Soon to be published research by scientist Didier Raoult will tell us more about its efficiency as a treatment. Yet that’s not why this relatively ignored drug otherwise is famous right now. All the hype around it is based on a Google Doc tweeted by Elon Musk titled “an effective treatment for Coronavirus.” The problem is the Doc was drawn up by a lawyer, is not peer-reviewed research (although it does cite Raoult), and shouldn’t be taken as serious scientific evidence that chloroquine will work. Why does this Fox News-friendly lawyer think chloroquine will save us all? Is there any method to his claims?
Love in the Times of Corona
The Beatles said it first: all you need is love, love is all you need. This bare necessity is becoming more apparent as people across the world self-isolate. How do you date someone when the option of going to your local watering hole, or to the cinema, or even to the park is no longer available? And so, as a result of COVID-19, people are using dating apps more than ever. How they behave on them has changed too. Been on a plane recently? That’s serious grounds for unmatching for some discerning users. Dating apps have stepped up their game as well, with many providing users with helpful tips on personal hygiene and having strictly socially distant fun. Wired gives you a peek into love in the times of Corona is this breezy read.
Your COVID-19 Data Pack
Looking for some good data on the spread of COVID-19? Check out the global mapping of coronavirus created by Johns Hopkins University. When it comes to broken down analyses of trends in positive cases, Our World In Data does it best. For India specific data, check out Worldometer for the basic numbers. For a deeper dive, take a look at covid19india.org a crowdsourced tracker (that you can be a part of too! Fun!)
