• View from India: Digital rupee pilot carries promise of sovereign backing

    The RBI is India’s central banking institution, which controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee. Last week, it rolled out its CBDC, also known as Digital Rupee, e-Rupee or e₹ . The State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC are the nine banks that are part of the pilot project. As per CBDC, the digital rupee would be legal tender in a digital form of fiat currency, which can be understood as the Indian rupee. The Digital Rupee is a currency issued by central banks responsible for governing and managing the asset. It is also exchangeable one-to-one at par with the fiat currency. What comes to mind is whether the digital rupee is similar to crypto currency. The differentiator is that the…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Hands-on review: MioFive 4K UHD dash cam

    We've looked at a number of dash cams lately and you'd be forgiven for thinking that there can only be so much variation in the basic shape and styling of these all-streaming, all-recording driving companions. Yet with the MioFive, the grandly named, Chinese-owned company Cruise Cloud Technology Corporation has come up with quite a neat refinement to the look and feel of these omnipresent, watchful black boxes. With the understanding that virtually every dash cam is typically installed in front of (or rather, behind) the rear-view mirror, keeping it well out of the driver's eyeline, the MioFive adopts the size and shape of a standard rear-view mirror. Seems logical: is.   Its slim body, with a crisply contoured edge, dark mirrored surface, laser-engraved LED light and carbon-fibre texture…

  • Sizewell C nuclear plant placed under review

    The UK government's plan to limit its spending overall includes a review of the project to build the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.  The new reactor, located in principle 30 miles northeast of Ipswich, was expected to be built by French energy firm EDF. The government had pledged to support the project by buying a 20 per cent stake in the reactor for £700m, as part of its target of achieving UK energy security in the midst of an energy crisis.   The total cost of the Sizewell C project could be around £20bn, according to reports. “We are reviewing every major project – including Sizewell C,” a government official told the BBC.  The statement was backed by a senior Treasury source, stressing “we’re looking at all capital spending”. Although the project could support the…

  • Gadgets: Yale Floodlight Camera, Honor 70 smartphone and more

    Yale Floodlight Camera This weatherproof, mains-powered, HD camera features a 2,000-lumen floodlight, 10m night vision, two-way talking and a 110dB siren. Add a memory card to store footage, so you can use it via Wi-Fi – with app alerts, live view and recent recordings – all without paying a monthly fee. £169.99 yalehome.co.uk Honor 70 A sleek smartphone with a bright OLED screen and top-notch cameras. Triple sensors include a 54MP primary and 50MP wide-angle, plus a 2MP sensor for arty bokeh. Its unique solo-cut mode can shoot two videos at once: a wide shot plus a tight shot that tracks an individual, perfect for vlogging. From £429.99 hihonor.com Read E&T reporter Jack Loughran’s full hands-on review LG OLED Flex ...

  • Letters to the editor: volume 17, issue 11

    Judge progress by outcomes I recently had my credit card cancelled by John Lewis because I was unable to provide a mobile number for two-factor authentication. My argument that using a landline works currently and is more secure, and that in the end the mobile is merely a communication channel, cut no ice with them. This experience set me thinking that progress should be measured by outcomes, not process. As somebody who has installed and commissioned IT and telecoms systems for around 40 years it is a given to me that technical developments have advanced beyond imagination over that period. However, it is not apparent that services for the ordinary citizen have improved; I would suggest that they have significantly deteriorated. Health, transport, welfare, police and so on are up to their…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK space policy is ‘uncertain and disjointed’, MPs say

    The Members of Parliament have described the UK's approach to space policy as “uncertain and disjointed”, despite the industry's £16bn valuation. The Committee has said it is “concerned” that the first-ever UK satellite launch has been plagued by licensing delays and has raised doubts regarding the benefits of the taxpayer-funded £400m stake in OneWeb. The government's investment in the satellite company – as part of a consortium with India's Bharti Global – was announced in July 2020 and described as a means to rescue the company from bankruptcy . At the time, the move was seen as an attempt to give the UK a platform in the highly coveted low Earth orbit (LEO) space, providing internet connections for businesses and governments around the world. However, the committee said success from…

  • Northern Powerhouse Rail and other infrastructure projects under review

    Business secretary Grant Shapps hinted that Northern Powerhouse Rail would be scaled back, amid confusion over the commitment to a new nuclear plant in Suffolk. A senior Treasury source stressed they were rethinking “all capital spending” after an official told the BBC: “We are reviewing every major project – including Sizewell C.” Others, along with sources in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, insisted that Sizewell C was not being scrapped or delayed. A government spokesman said they are “seeking to approve at least one large-scale nuclear project in the next few years”. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are looking for sweeping cuts that can be made ahead of the 17 November budget, as the Bank of England warns of the longest recession…

  • Electricity customers offered discounts to cut peak-time use

    The launch of the electricity system operator's Demand Flexibility Service, which will run until 31 March 2023, means a typical household could save approximately £100 through the limited scheme while industrial and commercial businesses with larger energy usage could save multiples of this. Electricity suppliers and providers can join the service and work with their customers in an effort to boost engagement and participation. In the coming days the ESO will look to run the first demonstration events for this service, with those providers that have ensured they are ready and able to participate from the first day of this service. Ofgem, which is the Britain's energy regulator, said that these demonstration events will include a guaranteed acceptance price for the providers that participate…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Europe and Australia report a significant rise in cyber attacks

    The investigations in Australia and the European Union showed a rise in cyber threats over the past twelve months, fuelled by the war in Ukraine and wider geopolitical tensions.  The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)'s annual cyber threat report said the company received 76,000 cyber-crime reports last financial year, up 13 per cent from the previous period, and resulting in costs of A $39,000 for a small business and A$62,000 for a large business. These numbers equated to one attack taking place every seven minutes, the agency said.  The Australian Signals Directorate’s latest annual cyber threat report, published on Friday, also warns that cyberspace “has become a battleground” and is “increasingly the domain of warfare”. "It's not just about the frauds or the texts that you…

  • UK’s new car market recovers but concerns remain over lack of chargepoints

    According to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), EV registrations increased by 23 per cent to just under 20,000 and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) by 6.2 per cent to 8,899. However, uptake was less than the overall market, meaning that October is the first month to see EV market share fall year on year since May 2021. The SMMT blamed the fall largely on supply challenges, with the ongoing global chip shortage continuing to impact car makers around the world. It also said that the decline in growth demonstrates the importance of increasing public chargepoint provision. At the start of October, the UK had 34,637 public standard, rapid and ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging devices, with 1,239 new rapid chargers and 5,023 new standard chargers installed…

  • View from India: Flex-fuel vehicles drive green demand

    Automobile major Toyota recently unveiled the Corolla Altis FFV-SHEV (Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicle). The new variant has a flex-fuel engine and an electric powertrain, a combination that is said to enable better use of ethanol and greater fuel efficiency as it can travel for quite some time in EV mode. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has urged car makers to develop flex-fuel compliant engines for their forthcoming portfolio. Flex fuel is when regular petrol combines with either methanol or ethanol and is stored in the same tank as the fuel that is used by the engine. The ethanol-petrol blend can be adjusted, but the common ratio could be that of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol. Ethanol could be described as a derivative of biomass left…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Engineered bacteria could be used to detect water pollutants

    The team behind the research believes that living biometric sensors could be the key to quickly reporting the presence of a variety of contaminants in the water supply and alert about possible  environmental catastrophes – such as chemical spills – before they escalate. The cells used in the study belonged to Escherichia coli (e.coli) – a type of bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals – to release an electrical current that can sense pollutants quicker than traditional methods. When detecting water contamination, timing is vital. Scientists have pointed out that chemical spills in rivers that go unnoticed for 20 minutes are incredibly difficult to remediate, so a tool like theirs could have a significant impact on the environment.  “A lot of times…

  • Hands-on review: JLab JBuds Air Pro earbuds

    Now launched in the UK after their States-side debut earlier this year, the JBuds Air Pro earbuds are JLab's update on its strictly Air (no Pro) earbuds from 2020.   What is it about these buds that earns them the Pro moniker? JLab says it's the "class-leading features" that distinguish the Air Pros from other competing products, with their true wireless set-up, Bluetooth multipoint connectivity for easy multi-device management, and longer battery life, all for around £75. The multipoint connectivity is the headline feature, as it's something that typically only comes with more expensive products. It enables seamless switching between devices without having to constantly pair and unpair the earbuds, as well as connecting to two different devices simultaneously. This makes the Air Pros more…

  • Drone-powered device uses Wi-Fi to see through walls

    The device, nicknamed Wi-Peep, can fly near a building and then use the inhabitants’ Wi-Fi network to identify and locate all Wi-Fi-enabled devices inside in a matter of seconds. The Wi-Peep exploits a loophole the researchers call polite Wi-Fi. Even if a network is password-protected, smart devices will automatically respond to contact attempts from any device within range. The Wi-Peep sends several messages to a device as it flies and then measures the response time on each, enabling it to identify the device’s location to within a metre. “The Wi-Peep devices are like lights in the visible spectrum, and the walls are like glass,” said Dr Ali Abedi, who studies computer science at UW. “Using similar technology, one could track the movements of security guards inside a bank by following…

  • Why prioritising digital skills is essential for business growth

    Businesses throughout the UK continue to face extreme turmoil. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the uncertainty of regulations from week to week made it difficult to plan and prioritise. Now, with decisions in government changing hourly, it is understandable that businesses don’t know whether they are coming or going. What is clear is that growth, throughout the UK and across all sectors, is important for the country to prosper on the global stage. AND Digital’s recent research report, ‘ The Nature of the Digital Skills Gap ’, reveals that over half (61 per cent) of business growth depends on digital outcomes. Based on our estimations, this equates to £50bn per year across the UK economy, and more than £240bn between now and 2026. What will be key to achieving growth is investment in people…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Book review: ‘Memo for Nemo’ by William Firebrace

    In my lifetime, I’ve been lucky enough to have met and befriended one true polymath. Before I reveal his name, however, let’s remind ourselves what that word actually means. According to online dictionaries, it describes an individual whose knowledge and skills span a substantial number of different subjects. The best known polymath in history was probably Leonardo da Vinci , whose multiple areas of expertise included painting, engineering, science, sculpture and architecture, to name just a few. Among other historic polymaths (some of whom featured in a 2019 E&T article ’Great polymaths of history’ ) were, in no particular order, Benjamin Franklin, Aristotle, Lomonosov, Tesla, Newton and my favourite ones, Emmanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish theologian, engineer, scientist, biologist…

  • China unveils plans for ‘green technology innovation system’

    The Chinese government has introduced a new environmental action plan with the goal of seeking high-tech solutions to remedy its complex environmental challenges. The Asian nation said its "green technology innovation system" will be built over the next three years, to tackle air, soil and groundwater pollution, reduce waste and protect ecosystems, noting that current technologies were not mature enough to serve the country's long-term needs. To finance the plan, China is expected to encourage enterprises and financial institutions to provide more support to innovative green technologies. The system will also be  backed by tax incentives and new “green technology banks”, the government said. The ultimate aim of the strategy, according to the country's Ministry of Science and Technology…

  • EU’s CO2 emissions fall for first time since pandemic

    The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said that emissions had fallen by 5 per cent over the past three months compared to the same time last year. Its analysis is based on a new near-real-time emissions tracker, developed by CREA, which shows the recent fall in emissions has brought to an end a 16-month surge following significant falls during the pandemic. The Covid-19 lockdowns had a dramatic impact on emissions, which fell by a record amount in 2020. But the drop was temporary and emissions surged back as economies reopened. The tracker draws on real-time data from the EU electricity and gas transparency platforms, as well as on monthly Eurostat data on oil consumption. It shows demand for fossil fuels is currently falling due to high prices and strong wind and solar…

  • Most ‘compostable plastics’ in the UK end up in the soil without degrading

    The researchers at University College London (UCL) also said that citizens are confused about the labels of compostable and biodegradable plastics, leading to incorrect plastic waste disposal. A recent OECD report showed that plastic consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years and yet only 9 per cent of plastic waste is recycled globally. Some 50 per cent ends up in landfills, 22 per cent evades waste management systems, and 19 per cent is incinerated. In response to this pollution crisis, several countries have set targets to eliminate all single-use plastics and to make plastic packaging 100 per cent recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025. Compostable plastics are becoming more common as the demand for sustainable products grows. The main applications of compostable plastics…

  • Oil giants use search engines for greenwashing, study finds

    Nearly half of the $23.7m (£21m) large oil and gas companies spent on Google advertising have targeted search terms on environmental sustainability, according to a new report.  These are the conclusions drawn by a team of researchers with the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US nonprofit group that studies disinformation online. The team examined more than 32,000 search ads on Google's US site paid for by five major fossil fuel companies – ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, and Aramco – and targeting 61,000 different climate-related queries over the past two years.  The scientists' goal was to understand how search engines could be used to downplay the industry's impact on global warming.  The nonprofit's findings, published in its latest report , stressed that  Google has…

  • Money & Markets: Financial institutions are addicted to leverage

    Archimedes said, as I’m sure you recall, ‘Give me a big enough lever and a place to stand and I will move the world’. What he did not note was that in the process he might throw the planet off its orbit with a catastrophic result. He certainly used levers to upend the Romans. In markets it is simple: ‘Leverage kills.’ If you lever up your position 1,000 per cent, a 10 per cent move against you will lose you everything. A 10 per cent move in your direction will double your money. Greed is, of course, the one side of the trading coin that this risk/reward ratio speaks to most loudly. It is a trap set for anyone foolhardy enough to reach for more returns than are usual. Markets wobble. They do so because the process of markets is noisy. Leverage amplifies that noise and noise is power law…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Smart windows could provide green Wi-Fi alternative

    Smart windows could offer a low-energy alternative to Wi-Fi or cellular data transition by using light to send information.  The innovative design features a glass system that would modulate the s unshine streaming through the window, encoding data into the light, which could then be detected and decoded by the electronic devices in the room. The leader of the research team,  Basem Shihada, said he had been exploring data encoding into an artificial light source when he had the ‘lightbulb moment’ to use sunshine. “I was simply hoping to use a cellphone camera to record a video of the encoded light stream to try to decode the video to retrieve the data; that's when I thought, ‘Why not do the same with the sunlight?’” Shihada said.  “This would be much easier and can be done over the…

  • Rishi Sunak urged not to ‘back track’ on sustainable farming reforms

    Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), which represents 67 environmental organisations, has said that ‘Environmental Land Management’ (ELM) scheme funding should be maintained at current levels, with increases expected from 2025. ELMs were introduced by Defra in a bid to boost sustainable farming practices such as reducing inorganic fertiliser and pesticide use, taking care of local soils and improving farmland biodiversity, water quality, air quality and carbon sequestration. It also included programmes to allow nature to thrive within farmed landscapes and payments to landowners who want to take a large-scale approach to producing environmental and climate outcomes through land-use change and ecosystem restoration. Proposals on the future of farming funding are expected later this month…

  • The self-driving vehicle fallacy explained

    It’s a question that comes up time and again: “How will self-driving robotaxis improve the world?” The short answer is, they won’t. And yet robotaxis have long been the primary focus of many companies developing autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. It’s what I call a vertical fallacy. Robotaxis represent one of the most complex product verticals to commercialise, requiring years of hugely difficult and costly development - only to create a market-ready passenger vehicle that moves only one or two people, thus delivering less value but at a significantly higher price. In fact, putting more single-occupancy taxis on the road closes off an important route to addressing congestion, safety and carbon emissions. Chief among the obstacles that robotaxis face en route to market is the challenge…

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