The technology czars of today get as much space and time in the Indian media as visiting heads of state. This is a sure sign of how much the world has changed and shrunk. The giants of Silicon Valley have grown so much in the last decades of computing that they can even take an altruistic look at India, which is what Microsoft under Satya Nadella is also aiming to do in terms of helping out with India’s massive connectivity infrastructure needs. This “race” between Google, Facebook and Microsoft to connect the rural hinterland in “digital India” is a welcome phenomenon.
Microsoft’s urban push with the country’s emerging “smart cities” is another front on which we can hope to leapfrog to the future without dwelling too much on how to put the high-technology pieces together. Of interest to users of computers, gadgets and gizmos is Nadella’s promise to deliver soon a password-free world. What a relief that would be for billions of users who currently have to find smart ways to remember a hundred usernames and passwords while worrying all the time about giving away information to cyber criminals who can their valuables as well as identity. Biometric access is no longer futuristic thinking. If MS does crack the code fully to offer safety for all Internet users, the world would beat an e-path to Microsoft’s door and, of course, Windows. The Microsoft-smart future he promises in an agnostic device and system environment may be at odds with the MS history created by founder Bill Gates, but it is something the world would welcome.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
