The Indian government's announcement of 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year, part of a plan to add 75,000 seats over five years, has been welcomed by education experts and stakeholders. The move aims to address the shortage of medical professionals and reduce the outflow of Indian medical students to other countries. The budget also includes infrastructure expansion at five new IITs to accommodate 6,500 more students and an allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education.
Call centres, once the engine room of India's BPO exports, are evolving too. Depending on the complexity, 30 to 50 per cent of voice and chat volumes are now handled by conversational AI.
Computer science has been an evergreen choice among engineering aspirants. However, with the rise in AI, students are increasingly realising the potential of automation and robotics.
White-collar hiring activity in December witnessed a 9 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year, driven by high-skill and strategic roles, a report said on Thursday. According to Naukri JobSpeak, the index reached an impressive 2,651 points in December 2024, reflecting a robust 9 per cent year-on-year growth, a promising sign for the year ahead.
'Right now, silver -- and especially platinum -- are very cheap compared to gold. If I were buying today, I would choose platinum.'
AI-driven and deepfake-enabled cyberattacks are anticipated to become increasingly prevalent in 2025 with sectors like healthcare and finance most prone targets, according to a recent report. The India Cyber Threat Report 2025 by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and Seqrite, spotlighted the evolving tactics of cybercriminals and the rise of AI-driven attacks as a major concern. "Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used to develop highly sophisticated phishing campaigns utilising deepfake technology and personalised attack vectors, making them harder to detect.
'Binary fission will happen -- startups will lead to more startups.'
Simplifying investment policies at the micro level and introducing a time-bound framework will be critical for India's growth targets, notes Krishna Ella.
India's e-commerce market alone is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026, making it a prime industry for ambitious entrepreneurs, explains rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
The outage raised broader concerns about the dependency on a few large tech companies controlling critical platforms.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), climate tech and fintech sectors will be the hot areas for venture capitalists and founders in the next year, according to the prediction by Prashanth Prakash, founding partner of the global venture capital firm Accel Partners in India and the chairperson of Karnataka Startup Vision Group. Prakash said that about $25 billion has been invested into building Gen AI globally. But a lot of that capital has not yet come to India, opening up huge opportunities for startups in the country.
These are the highlights of the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday.
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is not keen on a composite license but it is looking to buy less than 50 per cent stake in a standalone health insurance company to enter the health insurance segment such that they have a say in the management of the company, without having to run the company, sources in the know said. "LIC doesn't need a composite licence. "Even if it is introduced, they will not opt for it.
Healthcare has become one of the largest sectors of the Indian economy and is expected to reach $372 billion in 2022, according to a report by Niti Aayog released on Tuesday. The report outlined a range of investment opportunities in the country's healthcare sector across hospitals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The report, titled 'Investment Opportunities in India's Healthcare Sector', also said India's healthcare sector has the potential to generate 27 lakh jobs in India between 2017 and 2022 -- over 5 lakh new jobs per year.
Retail investors have become a force to reckon with in the last 10 years with their ownership of Indian equities rising 800 basis points, or 8 per cent, to 23.4 per cent during this period, suggests a recent note from Morgan Stanley. This number, Morgan Stanley said, is set to rise in the next few years as Indian households are still underinvested in equities. India's demographics, policy framework, investor education and modest positive real rates, it said, will fuel the 'equity cult' in India.
'If you can simplify the technology, you don't need a doctor or a highly qualified technician to work on the technology; even an Asha health worker or a similar front line health worker can use it with minimal training.'
Dabur's performance in the July-September quarter of the current financial year (Q2FY25) was weak but in line with consensus. Consolidated revenue declined 5 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) due to a temporary adjustment in General Trade (GT) inventory. Indian revenue declined 7.6 per cent, while international business grew 13 per cent Y-o-Y in constant currency (CC) terms.
Ahead of Trump's inauguration here on January 20, the debate on foreign guest workers visas for highly skilled professionals, the H-1B, has intensified which has literally created divisions in both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
'It is the first technology in history which is not just a tool, it is an agent.' Yuval Noah Harari on the dangers on AI.
Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani on Friday India is well-placed on the government and businesses fronts to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in unique ways to solve challenges and tap into opportunities. Nilekani noted that over the last few years, the government has focussed on how to make transactions more efficient and effective, which has driven digitisation across the board. He added that as a byproduct of this, huge data now across systems has been generated and that the time is right to apply AI across the board to India's most challenging issues across areas like healthcare and education.
Amid a surge in dengue cases in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said he has instructed officials to take all necessary precautionary measures to prevent spread of the vector borne disease and urged the people to give utmost priority to cleanliness in their neighbourhoods.
"Emerging fields, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of things, blockchain, and big data can take India to new heights of development, and improve the quality of life of its citizens," he said, adding for India, this is not just an industrial transformation, but a social transformation.
Jobs requiring AI skills carry a significant wage premium, with some roles offering up to a 25 per cent increase in wages, notes Manoj Nagpal, vice president, professional services, OpenText, an information management company.
The process of discovering and developing a new drug can take decades and costs hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. However, technological advances like artificial intelligence can help speed up and transform the time-consuming and labor-intensive exercise. In India, Peptris Technologies, a Bangalore-based AI drug discovery company, has announced $1 million in pre-seed round investment led by Speciale Invest.
'Artificial intelligence works best on unstructured data. And no other country has the amount of unstructured data like India has.'
Tech giant Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new programme Microsoft AI Innovate for nurturing and scaling start-ups that are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI). The 10-week initiative will support start-ups in India leveraging AI technologies, helping them scale operations, drive innovation, and build industry expertise. Both B2B and B2C start-ups from various industries, including financial services, healthcare, education, agriculture, space, manufacturing and logistics, retail, and e-commerce can participate in the quarterly cohorts of this programme.
'Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to strive to realise Gandhiji's dreams. His watchwords, truth and nonviolence, will continue to remain relevant for the whole world. He also taught us that rights and duties are but the two sides of the coin - indeed, the true source of rights is duty. Today we recall his lessons in compassion too - compassion not only for our human neighbours but also for our other neighbours, namely, flora and fauna, rivers and mountains.'
Automation, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and virtual reality would demand more jobs.
Google unveiled on Wednesday a slate of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies for Indian developers at its first I/O Connect event for India, being held in Bengaluru. The company made accessible for Indian developers its faster, more accurate large language AI model accessible through PaLM API, Makersuite, as well as features on Google Cloud's Vertex AI. Google Cloud officially launched a new initiative in collaboration with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, to help sellers build and scale commerce platforms across the country.
At least 14 of the top 20 venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds in India reduced new deals with start-ups by a fifth in 2022. The number fell from 572 in 2021 to 456 this year, according to data from Venture Intelligence. Sequoia Capital, a leader in investments, retained its top slot but its number of deals fell from 110 in 2021 to 70 this year.
All the global transitions are working in India's favour, giving it the potential to become a force in today's uncertain world, but one of the country's biggest challenges is inclusive growth, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. In his address at the JRD Tata Oration, the head of the Tata group also asserted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay and it will be beneficial if India prepares for it. Post the cold war era of relative stability and prosperity, the world appears to have given way to unpredictable conflicts and economic uncertainty, he said, adding that the pandemic resulted in supply chain shocks of gigantic proportion.
Education, healthcare and personal care are the most violative categories of ads, according to the annual complaints report of India's advertising regulator for the last financial year. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Tuesday released its annual complaints report for April 2021-March 2022, taking into account print, television and digital media as it processed 5,532 ads - a sharp rise of 62 per cent from 2020-21. It processed 7,631 complaints - an increase of 25 per cent from last year. Of these, 75 per cent were taken up suo motu by the regulatory body's own artificial intelligence-based tracking system.
The Consumer Electronics Show, currently on in Las Vegas, is showcasing exciting new products, enhanced with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
Did you know that ethical hackers earn anything between Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 per hour?
'AI is not a new thing for us. We started our AI journey in 2015.'
There is a high demand for IT professionals who can envision, design and develop applications for the future.
Microsoft will lay off 10,000 workers, about five per cent of its total workforce, its CEO Satya Nadella announced on Wednesday, terming it a hard choice that the tech giant had to make to remain a "consequential company" amid global economic uncertainties. Microsoft is the latest company after Facebook and Amazon to cut jobs as the bloodbath continues in the technology sector in 2023. Describing the current times as "significant change", Indian-origin Nadella said customers who accelerated their digital spend during the Covid-19 pandemic, are now optimising their digital spend to do more with less.
Amphibious drones for maritime inspection... devices that extract pure oxygen from water for patients in need... self-balancing electric bikes...
Hinduja Group's business process management entity, Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HGS) said on Wednesday that it has entered into definitive agreements to divest its Healthcare Services business to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), at an enterprise value of $1.2 bilion. The deal is subject to closing adjustments, and is expected to complete within 90 days, subject to shareholder and other regulatory approvals. "The cash that will come in as a result of this transaction will be deployed to growing the business as well as looking at buying some capabilities...where capabilities are important for being able to do a good job of customer experience transformation.
'Historically, the markets tend to perform well during election years as governments aim to increase spending and call attention to growth.'
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