Metaverse is a virtual environment where we interact with each other and the world around us. Metaverse integrates the physical environment with the digital environment. In this study, the author explored the extent to which different metaverse technologies have been disclosed in sustainability reports and integrated reports. For this, specific Indian companies have been selected from the Nifty 100 index that have made ‘metaverse technologies'-related disclosures in these reports. Further, the sustainability reports of these companies have been extracted to analyse the content to see the extent to which metaverse technologies have been reported by major Indian industries. The study also attempts to highlight important internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR) technologies-based platforms, initiatives and projects initiated by Indian industries to improve their productivity and operational efficiency and ensure safety at the workplace.
TopIntroduction
Metaverse is an evolving next-generation internet platform where digital reality integrates physical reality. It is a virtually shared place for people to play, work and socialize (Wang et al., 2022). The word “Metaverse” comes from the “meta-universe” that is an integration of physical and digital space into a virtual universe (Pamucar et al., 2022). There has been a continuous ‘platformization’ of data infrastructures and digital reality in urban spheres with the advent of the metaverse. Metaverse is such a recent platform project launched by “Meta” as a global platform company (Allam et al. 2022).
Metaverse involves use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) technologies, Internet of Things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (VR) /Augmented reality (AR). These tools have been consistently applied and implemented by today’s organizations in their daily operations. AI tools have been used by companies such as ‘Authbase’ (Reliance Industries Limited) to mitigate hack and bot attacks in real-time. Reliance has also reported its ‘Mygov Corona helpdesk’ (by Jio Haptik), which served as a powerful ‘ChatBot solution’ during COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, ML technologies have been used by these corporations to forecast the future health of any equipment. The organizations also create Virtual Reality simulators to train the employees to deal with difficult equipment in simulated environments to ensure safety at operations. All these tools are not only making organizations efficient in its operations but also leading them towards sustainability such as Tech Mahindra Limited has been doing water management through “pipeline monitoring”. This pipeline monitoring is based on Machine Learning Technologies that automatically detects and predicts any possibility of fault.
Metaverse has a great potential to achieve overall sustainable development. Its ‘platformization’ should be optimally utilized in achieving United Nations’ Sustainable development goals (SDGs). Metaverse is capable of turning imagination into reality with the help of virtual reality, so ‘sustainable education’ can be achieved as metaverse is free from time and space constraints (Park & Kim, 2022; Lee & Hwang, 2022). It can help in providing a ‘game-like experience’ for sustainable learning. Innovative educational environments can be created with the help of products of metaverse. So, the United Nations’ fourth sustainable development goal (Quality Education) can be achieved with the use of metaverse.
In addition to education, transport also plays a major role in sustainable development. The role of ‘transport’ in sustainable development was first recognized at the United Nation’s Earth Summit in 1992 and was reinforced in the document ‘Agenda 21’. But the second Global Sustainable Transport Conference, held in 2021, provided a platform to discuss sustainable transport and propose options for the way forward. It has been recognized that sustainable transport plays a crucial role in achieving SDGs as it provides safe, efficient and resilient mobility infrastructure that will minimize carbon emissions and huge environmental impacts (UN’s Interagency Report, 2021). Thus, the metaverse technologies can be used to change transportation systems. It may involve training public transport operation ensuring safety, traffic operation, and ‘autonomous driving’ using AI to obtain sustainable transportation (Pamucar et al., 2022).