Akshat Jiwan Sharma

This summer I had the opportunity to meet Candace Johnson, a pioneer in space communication systems. She co-founded and grew SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) into one of the largest satellite fleets in the world. SES is significant because it represents one of the early attempts at privitisation of the space sector along with Intelsat. Prior to this space was exclusively controlled by the government and was confined to mostly research and military operations.  Led By Candace SES provided Direct To Home satellite and radio broadcast services that democratised information access to millions of citizens in Europe and in the rest of the world. Listening to her speak about how this sector evolved and broke free from the control of the government I was able to connect the dots on how telecommunication became the primary business model of the space industry.  Historically speaking the evolution of satellites from the initial Low earth orbits to medium earth and geo...

One of the reasons that I love beat ‘em ups is because of their over-the-top action packaged in a comic book type story. They are short but highly replayable, and despite their linear progression, they offer a surprising amount of depth in terms of movesets, character positioning, and destructible environments that players can experiment with while reaching for high scores. Streets of Rage 4 gave me everything that I expected and continued to surprise me even after I had beaten it as I learned more tricks. The story in the game is reminiscent of 80s and 90s action movies where a group of vigilantes have to take down an evil syndicate. This is basically the plot of 90% of beat ‘em ups, but what really separates them are character, enemy, and stage designs. SoR4 is set in an urban environment, so most of the time you're fighting in the city, but occasionally the game puts you in special thematic zones like in Chinatown where you have to take down baddies expert in martial arts. There...

The world tourism day was celebrated in El Salvador last week on September 27. AI took the centerstage as this year's theme was how AI could help transform the tourism industry.  On several occasions officers and leaders at the UN have emphasized the importance of technology serving humanity. AI has already demonstrated it's capability to outperform humans in several tasks. The debate at the event therefore revolved around how AI could best serve the travel industry and enable growth—focussing more on the positive aspects of technology.  A few suggestions stood out. First was how destinations can take advantage of increasing AI usage and help people recommend less crowded locations that can manage the flow and prevent over tourism. The other was how AI could become fairer and offer suggestions to tourists in a way that allows small businesses to remain competitive .  The underlying question,the subtext of the discussion was very simple but decisive. Who will s...

I had never played a souls-like game before,so when I saw that blasphemous was on sale earlier this summer I decided to buy and give it a try. I had heard a lot of good things about this game but it still managed to surprise me with the depth of its world.  The entire game takes place in a small town of cvstodia but the amount of lore it manages to pack is simply amazing. Rooted in Spanish christian mythology weaving together themes of religious devotion,inquisition,fanaticism, penitence and authority , the main story in the game is very unsettling.  Those who like fairy tales will find the narration familiar with each segment concluding with a moral lesson — but that lesson is entirely twisted and almost nightmarish. Exactly the opposite of a happy ending in a classic fairy tale.  The 'miracle’, a god-like entity, grants people's wishes in the most ironic ,punishing manner possible and people bear these tortures without complaining, thinking of it as a blessing.  Cv...

Over the past 5 years I have been advocating  unification and industrialisation of Africa. During this time I have had the pleasure of interacting with several African business and political leaders from Tanzania,Kenya,Nigeria, South Africa,Uganda,Egypt,Sudan,Malawi,Liberia and more who share this vision. Africa is one of the largest contiguous land masses on the planet,with one of the world's youngest populations, an immense coastline ,deserts, mineral resources and arable land.  Its location provides it with supreme geopolitical advantage that can potentially project it's influence over all of Asia and the EU. Yet historical factors combined with present economic conditions has not only prevented Africa from actualising its potential but has also made it entirely dependent upon developed nations to satisfy the demands of modern nation states.  Predictably what we have seen in Africa is a continuation of extractive economics where African states supply raw ma...

Lignocellulose has emerged as one of the most important material systems of recent times. It is a promising green platform that can be used in structural and functional applications. Wood has millennia of engineering history behind it—lignocellulose based materials are a natural evolution of wood engineered after extracting the raw material from wood/woody biomass itself.  Researchers have been able to tune the properties at the cellular level and learnt how to fibrillate wood into its constituents or apply steam and pressure to mold it like plastics. The paper and pulp industry has played a prominent role in helping us understand lignocellulose chemically and develop chemical tools to manipulate it.  Lignin, largely  a byproduct of paper and pulp , has been receiving a lot of attention by chemists not only because it constitutes 30% of mass of the plant materials but also because of its unique chemical properties —ring like structures and hydroxyl groups that can be func...