Artificial Intelligence (AI) is placing professionals who rely on cognitive skills at the highest risk of job replacement, a fundamental change from previous technological shifts, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.
India is a global leader in software development services, IT enabled services, knowledge process outsourcing services and contract R&D services relating to software development, Sitharaman said noting these business segments are quite inter-connected with each other.
The Union Budget on Sunday proposed a tax holiday till 2047 for foreign companies that provide cloud services to customers globally using data centres located in India, signalling the government's push to make the country a major hub for AI and digital infrastructure.
Shares of information technology (IT) companies were in demand on Friday, with the National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty IT index rallying 3.3 per cent on . This came after Infosys reported steady sequential growth, driven by health care boost and large deal rampup in a seasonally weak quarter (Q3FY26).
'I request every social media user not to support AI-generated nonsense. There is a difference between using and abusing technology.'
Global risks include a potential delay in the US-India trade agreement, the possibility of a sharp correction in US equity markets, and renewed geopolitical tensions.
HCLTech expects its recent large acquisitions to contribute about 1.5 per cent to revenue in 2026-27 (FY27), Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director C Vijayakumar said, as the company looks to build newer revenue streams in a subdued macroeconomic environment.
'The real question is how best to leverage technology to deliver better services, all the way to the last mile, where we still haven't been able to get across the financial literacy that can enable us to unlock the potential of the entire country.'
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed concerns about population imbalance, citing religious conversion, infiltration, and low birth rates as key factors. He advocated for 'ghar wapasi' and vigilance against infiltrators, while also emphasizing the importance of family and employment.
Air India's use of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on the airline major's call centre volumes and the technology integration has reduced costs by 100 times, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. The airline launched its own chatbot AI.g, earlier known as Maharaja, in May 2023. The chatbot has answered approximately two million queries since its launch, handling 93 per cent of customer inquiries without needing to pass them on to call centre agents, said Sathya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India.
The government's Budget announcements providing tax holiday for data centres, setting up of city economic regions (CERs) and funding to improve infrastructure in Tier-II and -III cities may give an indirect boost to India's realty sector, said industry executives.
'Today, we are at a stage where we have launched a voice-to-voice model that supports 14 Indian languages.'
Cognizant reported a significant increase in net income for the December quarter, driven by AI efficiencies and strong performance in the financial services sector. The company also announced a major deal and provided guidance for the upcoming year.
With demand for AI skills continuing to grow across India, a report on Wednesday showed that AI-related job postings increased to 11.7 per cent this September from 8.2 per cent in the same month a year ago. In September, 11.7 per cent of Indian job postings explicitly mentioned AI in their job descriptions, up from 10.6 per cent three months earlier and 8.2 per cent a year ago, global hiring platform Indeed said in a report.
Banks cannot treat compliance as a quarter-end activity, and must have stronger operational discipline and data governance throughout the year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Swaminathan J said in a speech at the Third Annual Global Conference of the College of Supervisors.
'The trade deficit in some sectors is huge and that is an area of opportunity to localise.'
The idea of back-loading the target of fiscal consolidation is perhaps guided by the government's desire to be prepared for any adverse developments in the coming year, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Hiring was strongest in education and training, healthcare services, retail, financial services and wellness.
Restoring weighted tax deductions and adopting a petty patents regime can foster firm-level innovative activity critical for competitiveness, points out Nagesh Kumar.
The integration of artificial AI-based judicial assistance tools into the district court management framework has accompanied the shift.
When elephants are identified close to or on the tracks, real-time alerts are sent to locomotive pilots, station masters and control rooms, allowing trains to slow down or stop in time.
The sovereign AI park will be a first-of-its-kind, purpose-built district in India, integrating AI compute infrastructure, secure data frameworks, model research labs, and AI innovation clusters, along with a dedicated institute for AI in governance.
'If X fails to comply with these directions, appropriate action will be taken against the platform, including 'the loss of the exemption from liability under Section 79 of the IT Act, and consequential action as provided (for) under any law including the IT Act and the BNS.'
Gor also announced that India will be a member of the Pax Silica alliance.
FDI inflows into India are expected to register robust growth in 2026, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, big-ticket investment announcements, sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business, and a new generation of investment-linked trade pacts.
The Mahayuti alliance has released its manifesto for the upcoming Mumbai civic elections, promising technology-led governance, concessions for women, and addressing issues like illegal immigration and infrastructure.
India is aiming to win multiple medals in disciplines like aquatics and cycling at the 2036 Olympic Games as both these events offer over a 100 medals.
Pawar was addressing an election campaign rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad and announced the development.
The country's largest IT services company TCS on Monday reported 13.91 per cent decline in December quarter net profit at Rs 10,657 crore. The Tata Group company had posted a net profit of Rs 12,380 crore in the October-December period of FY25 and Rs 12,075 crore in the preceding September quarter.
'Headcount expansion is more likely in revenue-linked and product-critical teams than in broad based hiring.'
This is the second-worst performance by the pack during this period over the last five years since CY20.
'Given that India underperformed emerging markets by 28 per cent in 2025, the worst performance in over 30 years, the timing of the sharp STT hike could have been better.'
US lawmakers have urged President Donald Trump to reconsider his proclamation on H1-B visas, including the USD 100,000 fee, asserting that Indian nationals are central to American leadership in IT and AI, and the restrictions will negatively impact US-India ties.
Sunil Gavaskar approached the high court, seeking to prevent the unauthorised use of his name, images, persona and likeness by social media platforms and e-commerce websites, and to protect his personality rights.
Investors and startup executives are calling for extending the period for an entity to be recognised as a startup from 10 to 15 years for deep-tech companies.
This Budget positions India's taxation ideology as not merely a revenue source but as a strategic catalyst for growth, inclusion and long-term confidence.
Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India's 64 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) alone could unlock over $500 billion in economic value, but the country must pivot from an "adopt-first" to an "invent-first" mindset to realise this potential, according to a new report.
'The bigger unknown remains global geopolitics, which is inherently unpredictable, including developments in our neighbourhood.' 'Another concern is the increasing tilt of government finances towards welfare subsidies, especially at the state level.' 'This could constrain capital expenditure, which is critical for long-term growth.'
In order to optimise branch efficiency, public sector banks (PSBs) are reworking their strategies to streamline operations and reduce cost amid changing customer behaviour. The strategies include closing or merging low traffic branches and reducing their size in smaller centres.
India and Israel on Tuesday signed a defence pact that will facilitate sharing of advanced technologies and promote co-development and co-production of key weapon systems and military hardware, in a major move to further bolster their already robust strategic ties.
