My fortnightly column, A Dose of IT that discusses on the opportunity for Robotic Surgery in India Kapil Khandelwal QuoteUnquote with KK www.kapilkhandelwal.com

1. c m y k c m y k
Google
finances
projects to
test digital
library. Technomics
Tesla, Toyota
teaming up to
make electric -
powered utility
vehicles.
Japan's NTT
to buy South
Africa's
Dimension
Data.
Indian effort on spies squeezes
cellular phone service operatorsHEATHER TIMMONS
New Delhi
July 18: As India prepares
to adopt new import regula-
tions designed to thwart spy-
ing and sabotage, the coun-
try’s mobile phone operators
say the costs of implement-
ing the rules could squeeze
their thin profits even fur-
ther and accelerate an
impending wave of consoli-
dation in the industry.
The proposed rules would
require phone operators in
India to have all foreign
equipment they purchase
inspected by third-party lab-
oratories in the United
States, Canada or Israel for
the presence of spyware or
“malware” — software that
could monitor or shut down
the country’s mobile phone
networks.
The rules are being
reviewed by the Indian Min-
istry of Law and Justice and
are expected to be intro-
duced shortly, said Rajan
Mathews, director general
of the Cellular Operators
Association of India, a trade
group.
The rules would apply to
network equipment like
towers and switches but not
to consumer handsets.
India is concerned about
spying and sabotage from
neighboring countries, par-
ticularly China and Pak-
istan. A report this year by
the Citizen Lab at the Uni-
versity of Toronto said a
gang of computer hackers
based in China had conduct-
ed extensive spying opera-
tions in India, including
obtaining information from
the Department of Defense.
The costs of implementing
the regulations could accel-
erate consolidation in the
world’s second largest
mobile market by sub-
scribers, after China. Some
Indian operators are already
unprofitable and most
charge less than one penny a
minute for local calls. Last
month, Reliance Communi-
cations, one of India’s
biggest operators, said it
would sell 26 percent of the
company to raise cash.
“At this point, no one has a
clue” about how the new
rules will affect operators,
said Mr. Mathews of the
trade group. He said the
rules are an interim step and
that India plans to set up its
own testing center for
telecommunications equip-
ment in the next few years.
It could cost $100 million to
set up that facility, he esti-
mated.
Mobile operators say that
the companies that could be
approved to do the inspec-
tions are EWA Canada of
Ottawa; Infoguard, an infor-
mation management compa-
ny in a Lansdale, Pennsylva-
nia; and Altal Security Con-
sulting, based in Israel.
Since December, telecom-
munications operators in
India have been required to
vet the purchase of any for-
eign equipment with the
Ministry of Home Affairs,
which deals with security
concerns. The ministry has
approved a few dozen pur-
chases, and hundreds more
are still waiting, operators in
India say. Chinese equip-
ment manufacturers have
been effectively shut out of
the country, operators say.
The strain on Indian
mobile phone networks is
being felt strongly in some
urban areas, with phone
users facing dropped calls
and “network busy” mes-
sages. Some personal data
devices do not get signals
for hours at a time.
“All orders have been on
hold for the last seven
months,” said one telecom-
munications executive who
did not want to be identified
because of the sensitivity
about security concerns. The
company has been unable to
build its network in some
rural areas, and service qual-
ity is being affected in other
areas where it has gained
new subscribers, he said.
On Friday, A. Raja, a cabi-
net minister in the Ministry
of Communications and
Information Technology,
told reporters on the side-
lines of a conference that he
had recently met the minis-
ter of Home Affairs. “We do
hope the issue will be
resolved with the Home
Ministry in a couple of
weeks,” he said.
A Ministry of Home
Affairs spokesman declined
to comment. At the end of
May, India had 617 million
mobile phone subscribers.
Indian phone operators
spent about $34 billion on
equipment and other capital
expenses in the past fiscal
year, the trade group esti-
mates, with about 40 percent
of that from China. Many
individuals in India have
mobile phones but do not
have landline phones,
broadband Internet or any
other telecommunications
connection, making the
mobile phone network
incredibly important, opera-
tors here say. “In India, you
only have one network,”
said Mr. Mathews. “If that
goes down, you are
finished.” — NYT
bITs
Apple goes
on the
offensive
M
any expected a
mea culpa from
Steven P. Jobs,
Apple’s chief executive.
Instead, he turned the
iPhone 4’s antenna prob-
lems into a marketing event
on Friday. The so-called
iPhone “death grip.”
At a news conference at
Apple’s headquarters here,
Mr. Jobs acknowledged
that there were issues with
the antenna, which wraps
around the outside of the
device. But he insisted that
the problems, which can
result in dropped calls
when the device is held a
certain way, affect all
smartphones — a claim
that was challenged by
some Apple competitors.
And he accused the news
media of exaggerating the
scope of the issue, saying
customers and reviewers
were thrilled with the new
phone.
“This has been blown so
out of proportion that it is
incredible,” he said.
Mr. Jobs said that to put
the controversy behind it,
Apple would give free
bumpers — cases that wrap
around the rim of the phone
and seem to reduce the
problem of dropped calls
— to all iPhone 4 buyers
who want them.
Those who have already
bought the cases will be
reimbursed, and customers
who are still not satisfied
can return the phones for a
full refund. The cases will
remain free at least until
Sept. 30, when Apple will
consider whether it can
offer a different solution.
Some marketing experts
said Mr. Jobs had been
effective at deflecting a
potentially damaging crisis
and predicted Apple would
suffer little damage from
the antenna ruckus.
“It is inexcusable that this
problem was not found out
in advance,” said Peter
Sealey, a former chief mar-
keting officer of the Coca-
Cola Company who teach-
es at the School of Manage-
ment at Claremont Gradu-
ate University. But he said
Mr. Jobs “did what he
needed to do. He is the best
marketing guy in America,
and this is just a bump in
the road.” Mr. Jobs offered
some contrition. He said
Apple was not perfect and
apologized to customers
affected by the antenna
problem. “We are human
and we make mistakes,” he
said. — NYT
BILL RIGBY
NEW YORK
July 18: Microsoft Corp co-
founder Paul Allen, who has
been treated for non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma, said
on Thursday he is commit-
ting most of his estimated
$13.5 billion fortune to phi-
lanthropy after his death.
Allen follows in the foot-
steps of former business
partner Bill Gates and bil-
lionaire investor Warren
Buffett, who have both
pledged the vast majority of
their wealth to philanthropy.
Allen, the 37th richest per-
son in the world according
to Forbes magazine, co-
founded Microsoft in 1975
with Gates and resigned as
an executive in 1983 as he
overcame a first bout with
cancer.
He has been involved with
philanthropy in the U.S.
Pacific Northwest for 20
years, largely through his
Paul G. Allen Family Foun-
dation, handing out more
than $1 billion in grants and
funding for local projects.
“Today I also want to
announce that my philan-
thropic efforts will continue
after my lifetime,” said
Allen in a statement. “I've
planned for many years now
that the majority of my
estate will be left to philan-
thropy to continue the work
of the Foundation and to
fund nonprofit scientific
research.” He gave no
details of how his fortune
would be directed after his
death. Unlike the Gates
Foundation, Allen funds his
own foundation's grants
directly.
Born and raised in Seattle,
Allen has close ties to the
region. He owns the Seattle
Seahawks American foot-
ball team and is a minority
owner of the Seattle
Sounders soccer team. He
created the Experience
Music Project pop museum
in the city and is leading the
development of a run-down
area near Seattle's Lake
Union into a center for
biotech research. Since
announcing his non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma diag-
nosis last November, Allen
has successfully completed
a course of chemotherapy
and currently has no med-
ical issues, his spokesman
said. — Reuters
As Facebook users die, their ghosts reach outJENNA WORTHAM
NEW YORK
July 18: Courtney Purvin
got a shock when she visited
Facebook last month. The
site was suggesting that she
get back in touch with an old
family friend who played
piano at her wedding four
years ago. The friend had
died in April. “It kind of
freaked me out a bit,” she
said. “It was like he was
coming back from the
dead.”
Facebook, the world’s
biggest social network,
knows a lot about its rough-
ly 500 million members. Its
software is quick to offer
helpful nudges about things
like imminent birthdays and
friends you have not con-
tacted in a while. But the
company has had trouble
automating the task of figur-
ing out when one of its users
has died.
That can lead to some dis-
turbing or just plain weird
moments for Facebook users
as the site keeps on shuffling
a dead friend through its
social algorithms.
Facebook says it has been
grappling with how to han-
dle the ghosts in its machine
but acknowledges that it has
not found a good solution.
“It’s a very sensitive
topic,” said Meredith Chin, a
company spokeswoman,
“and, of course, seeing
deceased friends pop up can
be painful.” Given the site’s
size, “and people passing
away every day, we’re never
going to be perfect at catch-
ing it,” she added.
James E. Katz, a professor
of communications at Rut-
gers University, said the
company was experiencing
“a coming-of-age problem.”
“So many of Facebook’s
early users were young, and
death was rare and unduly
tragic,” Mr. Katz said.
Now, people over 65 are
adopting Facebook at a
faster pace than any other
age group, with 6.5 million
signing up in May alone,
three times as many as in
May 2009, according to the
research firm comScore.
People over 65, of course,
also have the country’s high-
est mortality rate, so the
problem is only going to get
worse.
Tamu Townsend, a 37-
year-old technical writer in
Montreal, said she regularly
received prompts to connect
with acquaintances and
friends who had died.
“Sometimes it’s quite com-
forting when their faces
show up,” Ms. Townsend
said. “But at some point it
doesn’t become comforting
to see that. The service is
telling you to reconnect with
someone you can’t. If it’s
someone that has passed
away recently enough, it
smarts.”
Ms. Purvin, a 36-year-old
teacher living in Plano, Tex.,
said that after she got over
the initial jolt of seeing her
friend’s face, she was happy
for the reminder.
“It made me start talking
about him and thinking
about him, so that was
good,” she said. “But it was
definitely a little creepy.”
Facebook’s approach to
the deaths of its users has
evolved over time. Early on
it would immediately erase
the profile of anyone it
learned had died.
Ms. Chin says Facebook
now recognizes the impor-
tance of finding an appropri-
ate way to preserve those
pages as a place where the
mourning process can be
shared online. Following the
Virginia Tech shootings in
2007, members begged the
company to allow them to
commemorate the victims.
Now member profiles can be
“memorialized,” or convert-
ed into tribute pages. Griev-
ing friends can still post
messages on those pages.
— NYT
Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen in a file photo.
DDCC 13Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 19 July 2010
Philanthropy: Paul Allen follows Gates
Dell close to
settling SEC
enquiry
T
he computer maker
Dell said Friday that
it was getting closer
to settling investigations by
regulators into its account-
ing and the actions of its
chief executive Michael
Dell. Dell Inc. said Friday it
had proposed settlements to
the staff of the Securities
and Exchange Commis-
sion. The company said the
agency’s staff will recom-
mend the deal to the com-
missioners. Dell has
already set aside $100 mil-
lion to cover the cost of set-
tling charges that employ-
ees had misled auditors and
manipulated results to meet
performance targets. In
2007, it restated four years
of earnings — NYT
You saved my
life, Dr Robot
KAPIL KHANDELWAL
W
e have all
grown up fasci-
nated by robots
in sci-fi and Star Wars in
our childhood and con-
tinue with the same fan-
tasy. Did we ever imag-
ine that robots could
also be managing com-
plex tasks such as sur-
gery?
It is an active area of
research on the applica-
tion of information com-
munication and technol-
ogy (ICT) and robotic
technology to surgery, in
planning and execution
of surgical operations
and in training of sur-
geons. In robotic
telesurgery, the goal is
to develop robotic tools
to augment or replace
hand instruments used
in surgery.
As the robots helped in
the Star Wars characters
in difficult situations,
the United States gov-
ernment and NASA fan-
tasizing about remote
telesurgery via satellite
and autonomous robotic
surgeons on the battle-
field, robotic surgery
gained practicality when
minimally invasive sur-
gery (MIS) ideology
gained popularity in the
late 1980s.
MIS include
laparoscopy (abdominal
cavity), thoracoscopy
(chest cavity),
arthroscopy (joints),
pelviscopy (pelvis), and
angioscopy (blood ves-
sels) and many more
'scopy' procedures. Thir-
ty years on, from the ini-
tial vision of robotic sur-
geons operating on the
battlefield, the ICT
issues today are not
satellite or internet
bandwidth available, or
the network characteri-
sation and the latency or
the quality of video and
the encoding technology
to transmit the images in
120 to 180 millisecond
range from the robot
surgeon's site to the
operator sitting at the
other end of the world
but the cost. The issue in
India is the cost of such
technology that can
become widespread and
provide access of expe-
rienced MIS surgeons in
remote towns and vil-
lages. Can you imagine
the amount of carbon
credits these robots
would save India from
avoiding travel of
patients and their fami-
lies to major cities or
doctors to these remote
places from their place
of practice in the cities if
we were able to install
robotic telesurgery sta-
tions at major district
hospitals in India?
Presently, robotic tech-
nology has afforded
NASA's initial dream of
robotic telesurgery, with
the da Vinci and Zeus,
popular robotic surgical
systems that have
become widespread use
across the US. These
multi-million dollar sur-
geon-directed robots
have proven more suc-
cessful in certain proce-
dures-such as cholecys-
tectomies (removal of
the gall bladder), than
traditional open surgical
techniques. We also
have artificially-intelli-
gent, pre-programmed
robot surgeons are now
in the stages of develop-
ment and field trials.
Novel breakthroughs
allowing for more artifi-
cial neural networking
with the MIS tools,
bringing the future of
autonomous robotic sur-
geons within grasp.
Robotic systems are
very complex. They
depend on many
enabling technologies
and pose many chal-
lenges of how to inte-
grate these into a func-
tional system. These
technologies and chal-
lenges require a signifi-
cant amount of R&D,
are dependent on ICT
technologies and each
other progress at differ-
ent speeds. Human-
machine interface
designs, sensor systems,
mobile energy supply,
energy efficiency and
biocompatible materials
are some of the main
issues. The fascination
for robots in healthcare
has extended to innova-
tion in other spheres of
healthcare other than
telesurgery. We are talk-
ing of nanobot that will
be able to move itself, or
be externally steered, to
have a closer look at
internal tissues, take
samples or even destroy
unwanted tissue.
Wondering when there
could be something sim-
ilar to NASA's vision of
robotic surgeons coming
out of our Chan-
drayaan's labs suited to
India and Indians that
can be prototyped and
commercially devel-
oped!
Kapil Khandelwal is Director, EquNev
Capital, a niche investment banking and
advisory services firm and a leading
healthcare and information communication
technology (ICT) expert.
A dose
of IT
A dose
of IT
Facebook suggested that Courtney Purvin get in touch with a friend who had died in
April.