The scale of illegal gambling and betting in India is staggering, with 1.6 billion visits recorded between October and December 2024 across four analysed platforms -- Parimatch, Stake, 1xBet, and Battery Bet.
'...helping the government, citizens, and companies get the balance right.' 'As great as technology is, these are societal questions, not just technical ones.'
It was amusing to hear Minister Jaishankar's argument of tech companies being influential non-State actors. If only he looked at his own party before saying what he did, notes Shyam G Menon.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, summed it up well as he explained the reason for the company sacking 13 per cent of its employees. He said no one predicted that the boom for digital services during the Covid pandemic would die out. "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended.
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Monday nominated Indian-American Harmeet K Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice.
I think they cannot be brushed under the carpet, saying you should not question them because then you are attacking freedom of speech. I think that's a cop-out. Obviously, it serves their interests, he said.
Microsoft has become the first global Big Tech company to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an Indian government initiative for developing a first-of-its-kind open network for digital commerce. The world's second-largest technology firm intends to introduce social e-commerce via its app in the Indian market later this year. ONDC is expected to open to the public in Bengaluru over the next fortnight as it enters into the next phase of the pilot for further fine-tuning before rollouts in other cities, according to a source in the know.
None of the Big Tech companies or tycoons appears to be playing a meaningful role in the testing, spread, cure, or eradication of the virus or even in contact tracing so far, says Prosenjit Datta.
Blockchain's promise: Dramatically speeding up transactions, explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
Their startup investments number 13 so far, compared to 17 deals in 2020.
Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has never minced words while talking about the giant technology companies, referring to them on multiple occasions as "centres for entrenched and unchecked dominance". The anti-trust regulator has, in fact, been cracking down on big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and others, after they were hauled up by regulators and lawmakers in Europe and Australia. However, in several instances, existing regulations have prevented the CCI from going all out against these companies for anti-competitive activities.
Concerned over household savings moving towards alternative investment avenues, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday asked banks to mobilise deposits through innovative products and services by leveraging their vast branch network. "Banks are taking greater recourse to short-term non-retail deposits and other instruments of liability to meet the incremental credit demand. "This, as I emphasised elsewhere, may potentially expose the banking system to structural liquidity issues," he said.
Taking a strong view of Google pulling out some apps from its Play Store, the government on Saturday said delisting of Indian apps cannot be permitted and that the tech company and the startups concerned have been called for a meeting next week. In an interview to PTI, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the startup ecosystem is key to the Indian economy and their fate cannot be left to any big tech to decide. The minister's comments assume significance as Google on Friday began removing some apps, including popular matrimony apps, from its Play Store in India over a dispute on service fee payments, even as apps and well-known startup founders cried foul.
A user just needs to download any app floated by such fraudsters and apply for instant loans. These apps are mainly concentrated on Google Play considering the reach and popularity of Android systems.
After startups and Big Tech, the layoff season may have begun at the $245 billion Indian information-technology (IT) industry. Bengaluru-based IT major Wipro is looking to cut hundreds of jobs, targeting mid-level employees working onsite as the company looks to improve margins, according to a media report, citing two sources. The company has said it is aligning its business and talent to the changing market environment.
'We went from zero to about 10 million users in three months. Paytm came out with the wallet play and we came out with the UPI play.'
'Global coordination, convergence, market complexities and dynamics and cross-border enforcement compound the existing challenges we face.'
Meta is working closely with the Election Commission. This enables the Commission to flag unlawful content.
What all global leaders need to understand is that no Generative AI regulation will work unless they start with the basics, which is data collection, asserts Prosenjit Datta.
The Delhi high court on Monday said it would hear on May 10, pleas by internet and social media giants, Facebook, Twitter and Google, challenging an order directing them to remove, block or disable on a global basis links to a video containing defamatory allegations against yoga guru Ramdev.
Both sports and digital will drag down the healthy operating margins that entertainment television continues to make.
The CEOs of four tech giants -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google -- appeared before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law on Wednesday to address concerns that their businesses may be harming competition.
To provide a 'data lake' solution, the markets regulator had issued a notice in May, inviting expression of interest (EoI) from interested parties. The selected company will be responsible for designing, implementing and supporting a big data solution with analytical capabilities.
'In the next 15-20 years, India will have at least 50 new (AI-driven) billion-dollar companies that are going to solve problems for the largest companies around the world.'
It is only the Indian approach of holding on to multiple realities and contradictory ideas simultaneously that is likely to deliver peace and progress. Binary logic is out of sync with reality, notes R Jagannathan.
'In India, the GenAI startup ecosystem is unfolding with remarkable speed, signalling a new era of technological advancement and investment opportunities.'
The Competition Commission of India has introduced draft regulations for combinations or mergers, under the new competition Act, to bring global deals in the digital space, including those involving Big Tech companies, under its scanner. The draft regulations would provide guidance on the valuation of merger transactions and the criteria for assessing sustainable operations in India for companies. The proposed rules mention that if the number of users and subscribers, or the turnover or gross merchandise value in India is over 10 per cent of the global figure, the company would be considered to have substantial business operation in India and would need CCI approval for the merger.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
'Unless the government comes up with the rulebook, the technical requirements will not be clear to us.' 'Going by the Act, non-technical provisions can be complied with within six months.' 'But we need up to 24 months for provisions like parental consent.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on Friday reeled out statistics to show how India has turned into an exporter of mobile phones from being an importer and how big tech companies -- from Apple to Google -- are lining up to become manufacturers in the country. He said after the fastest rollout of 5G mobile telephony services, India will lead the world on 6G. Recalling the launch of 5G technology in the country on October 1, 2022, he remarked that within a year there are about 5 lakh 5G base stations across the country.
'It will dictate the flow of funds into the index. We will maintain caution on mid/smallcaps.'
The US market has been a standout performer this year, with the benchmark Standard and Poor's 500 (or simply the S&P 500) gaining over 16 per cent during the first half of calendar year 2023 (CY23) in what was its best first-half show since 2019. By comparison, India's National Stock Exchange Nifty 500 has gained 6.4 per cent. On the surface, it appears that the US markets have done exceedingly well. However, a deeper analysis reveals the gains in the domestic market to be more well-spread.
Walmart-owned fintech firm PhonePe said it has crossed 500 million lifetime registered users on its platform. With this milestone, 1 in 3 Indians are now on PhonePe. The company said it is the first Indian internet company to have reached this scale globally. This milestone has been achieved in just over 7 years since the PhonePe UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments launched in August 2016.
The tech creators, or the ones who made billions, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
'There is a need for an innovation sandbox where the PSBs can collaborate and then they can do their own innovation on top of it.'
The president's moves will make it easier for entrepreneurs to work in the United States
'It's a big technology company and may offer good remuneration, but stability in my career is equally important to me.'
The latest cuts come after the company announced earlier this year that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. "Given the uncertain economy... and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount," Jassy said in a memo to staff.
The government will come out with proposed modalities and terms of references for setting up grievance appellate committees to address social media users' complaints in the next 10-12 days, and expects the panel to be in place by November 30, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.
The Union Cabinet has approved the modalities for holding 5G spectrum auctions, and 72097.85 MHz of radio waves will be put on the block by July-end, an official release said on Wednesday.