2022: What Awaits In Politics, Business, Technology, Sports And Movies

Cryptocurrency is the hype for 2022. The Indian parliament has deferred the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 and it was not voted upon in the last session of this year. According to industry tracker Trackxm, India attracted $638 million in cryptocurrency investments in 2021. While crypto investors and exchanges look the year 2021 as a ray of hope due to the government's ambiguous stance on the digital currency and the emerging crypto opportunities, 2022 will see a deeper engagement of Indians in the cryptocurrency market. 

While the economy was still in the aftershock of the initial lockdowns of the pandemic, the Stock market was on a boom. Sensex touched its highest at 62 thousand this year in October. Will the rise continue or its time for some course correction in 2022 is something investors will decide. 

Indian startup ecosystem saw 44 more unicorns (companies with valuation of over a billion USD) and 9 IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). With more and more Fintech and IT startups gaining prominence, investments are bound to flow into the Indian markets in 2022. What is also expected from 2022 is for LIC to release its IPO.

Tech 

2022 is going to a year for Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Artificial intelligence entering seamlessly into our lives.

The amalgamation of Web 3.0 and Facebook's Metaverse have opened up new corridors for the possibility of physical reality and virtual reality (VR) merging together. Microsoft is also working on 'Mesh', a platform which could incorporate virtual experiences directly into Microsoft Teams. Companies are looking forward to extend their the concept to VR to sectors like education, healthcare and of course, gaming. 

Since the work from home and pandemic lockdowns environment confined people to their homes, gaming industry grew more than ever. So much so that the Indian gaming industry is expected to become a $2 Billion industry by 2023. 

As companies are dealing with employees accustomed to work from home, cloud computing and office management technologies will continue to thrive. With it, the cybersecurity market also deems to go up. Smith Gonsalves, who runs CyberSmithSECURE, a cybersecurity company tells us, "The cybersecurity market in India has a lot of potential in the upcoming year. With the Data Protection Bill round the corner, companies are looking forward to make their cybersecurity postures more robust. To comply with latest cybersecurity standards, they will continue to engage with the cybersecurity market which will lead to its massive growth this year." 

As the world enters into yet another year with the piled up pandemic, 2022 will also see some long-awaited superhero fare like The Batman, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One); action and adventure with Uncharted and The Lost City; rousing family films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2. 

OTT platforms are going to overpower cinemas just like they have been doing for the past two years amid pandemic restrictions.