From 5G in India to Big Tech mass layoffs, biggest news headlines from 2022

The year 2022 will end in a few days. While the predictions for 2023 in terms of economic growth and development don’t appear very endearing until now, one can only hope that the new year is less chaotic and crazy like the year 2022. This year was erratic especially for the tech industry. From witnessing the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war to companies firing its employees left, right and center, the tech industry saw some of the biggest changes in its history.

With the year coming to its end, here is a round up of some of the biggest tech news that happened this year to help you catch up with everything that happened so far and what you should expect from the year 2023.

Russia-Ukraine war effect

The Russia-Ukraine war contributed major uncertainties in the market. Both the countries are home to a major size of software developer workforce which was unavailable during the prolonged period of war. Its trickle-down effect was also felt in India’s IT industry.

Big tech companies like Meta, Twitter and YouTube blocked Russian media and government accounts from their platform. Apple paused its production sales in Russia soon after the war began. Google also announced that it had stopped selling all online ads in Russia. Samsung also suspended product shipments to Russia. Many other tech companies like Microsoft, Netflix, Sony, NVIDIA, Intel and more also made their exit from Russia.

End of work from home policy and return to offices

Many tech companies ended the work from home flexibility for employees. Major tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and more made it mandatory to come to offices seeing the receding effect of Coronavirus. Musk informed his Tesla employees that working from home was no longer permissible. He later did the same for Twitter employees leading to mass exit of people from the company.

Elon Musk buys Twitter

Microblogging platform Twitter got its new CEO- Elon Musk. After months of discussions, meetings and threat to walk out the deal, Musk finally closed the USD44 billion Twitter deal. He acquired the company and in less than a week fired top execs of the company including CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal and other top names. Musk also dropped an ultimatum to his employees telling either to commit to the hardcore working environment at Twitter 2.0 or leave with a severance pay. He also brought in place a new rule that mandates employees to work atleast 40 hours per week from the company’s premises with exceptions to only those who’ve personally been approved by him.

Mass layoffs at tech companies

Major tech companies like Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and more announced job cuts due to growing economic inflation, and supply demand mismatch to support their balance sheet and save on the operational cost. Amazon is said to have removed some 10,000 employees and said it plans to remove more in 2023. Meta also cut down its headcount by 10 per cent blaming it on poor earnings, and soaring costs. Cupertino giant Apple has also paused all its hiring for jobs outside its research and development till 2023.

Nothing launches its first phone -Nothing Phone (1)

Smartphone brand Nothing which is owned by Carl Pei-the founder of OnePlus launched its first phone- Nothing Phone(1). The phone sports a unique design with a transparent rear body composed of 400 components. It has Glyph Interface which the company says is the new way of communicating through a system of microLEDs.

Twitter data breach

A hacker under the name of ‘devil’ hacked the personal data of 5.4 million Twitter users and posted them for sale on the dark web. This data included the phone numbers and email addresses of the users.

Apple iPhone 14 series launch

Apple launched its iPhone 14 series along with new iWatches and Airpods Pro 2 at its Far Out event. The new series includes four phones- iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

5G goes official in India

5G officially launched in India in October. The DoT announced that the service will initially launch in 13 key cities with others to follow soon. Jio and Airtel are aggressively working towards the expansion of their 5G services across the country. Jio announced Stand Alone 5G while Airtel launched Non Stand Alone 5G services in the country.

AIIMS data breach

A cyberattack on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi exposed the personal data of millions of patients. The hackers demanded a ransom of Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency.

India starts CBDC pilot

The Reserve Bank of India announced the launch of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). It is the digital form of a country’s fiat currency. It is regulated and issued by the country’s central bank. There are two versions of this currency- general purpose or retail (CBDC-R) and wholesale (CBDC-W). CBDC-R is for general users while CBDC-W is restricted to select financial institutions.

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