Asian Games champion Pranavi Urs aims to become the first home player in a decade to win the Women's Indian Open in Gurugram, facing strong competition from defending champion Shannon Tan (winner in 2025) and a host of international and Indian golfers, including past champions Liz Young (2024) and Pornanong Phatlum.
India's leading IT companies are anticipated to report subdued revenue growth and largely stable margins for the July-September quarter, as clients maintain tight discretionary budgets, with analysts closely watching the conversion of strong bookings into revenue and the impact of AI on traditional services.
Regional OTT platform STAGE is set to release India's first AI-made biopic on farmer leader Sir Chhotu Ram. The project leverages artificial intelligence for various aspects of filmmaking, from visualisation to character generation, aiming to reduce production costs and expand storytelling possibilities for underserved cultures and languages.
HCLTech announced a robust 21.18 per cent increase in its Q2 FY27 consolidated net profit, reaching Rs 5,132 crore, largely propelled by the strong performance and higher margins from its advanced AI operations and a reduced tax burden.
Microsoft has inaugurated its India South Central datacenter region in Telangana, marking its fourth cloud region in the country. This expansion aims to bolster India's cloud and AI infrastructure, with Telangana targeting 5 GW of datacenter capacity by 2029 and attracting significant investment in the digital ecosystem.
India's IT Ministry sources state the country will not slow down its Artificial Intelligence development, distinguishing its focus on people-centric applications from global concerns over frontier models. The government acknowledges AI safety risks and is tightening incident reporting norms, with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasising regulation for user safety.
IIT Guwahati researchers have developed SH²RFSSM, a model inspired by how biological neurons communicate.
India's Karan Singh and Digvijay Pratap Singh have set up an all-Indian singles final at the ITF Men's M25 Mumbai Open. Singh reached his second consecutive final by defeating Chirag Duhan, while Pratap Singh overcame Garrett Johns. In the doubles, S. D. Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha won the title in a thrilling tie-break.
Microsoft India and South Asia President, Puneet Chandok, discusses the company's strong belief in human-centric AI development, significant investments in India's cloud and AI infrastructure, and the country's pivotal role as an AI market, talent hub, and technology builder. He highlights AI's impact on jobs and the need for responsible innovation.
A Bain & Company report projects the global AI market must reach nearly USD 6 trillion annually by 2031 to sustain massive infrastructure investments. This growth will largely depend on new innovations beyond productivity gains, with a significant gap needing to be filled by emerging revenue streams like autonomous vehicles, physical AI, and new AI-driven products. The report also highlights the surge in hardware and semiconductor industries due to AI compute demand and the importance of AI absorption for Indian companies.
Researchers at IIT Indore have developed HGAST, an AI tool designed to correct gender-specific errors in translations from English to Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati. The tool acts as a correction layer, identifying and rectifying masculine verb forms often used by AI systems when translating female speech, significantly improving accuracy for female speakers without retraining existing models.
An Indian-origin Metropolitan Police officer, PC Harman Singh, has been charged with one count of attempted rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of intentional strangulation. The charges relate to alleged offences against a woman in her 20s in January 2026. Singh was arrested on January 10, suspended from duty, and is due to appear in court on Monday.
Samsung India has launched an Innovation Campus in Karnataka, in partnership with Nrupathunga University, to train 2,000 young individuals in industry-relevant AI skills. This initiative aims to support Karnataka's goal of building an AI-native ecosystem and developing a future-ready technology workforce, expanding access to practical AI education.
AI4Bharat at IIT Madras and Josh Talks AI have launched 'Voice of India', a multimodal AI evaluation platform designed to assess AI systems against Indian conditions, languages, accents, and dialects. This platform aims to provide scientifically rigorous, India-specific evaluations, covering areas like Voice AI, large language models, document processing, safety, cultural appropriateness, and Indian legal reasoning, to build trust and enable informed deployment decisions.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel addressed AI Manthan 2.0, advocating for the comprehensive integration of Artificial Intelligence across all university subjects rather than as a standalone course. She urged universities to develop clear, time-bound AI roadmaps covering education, research, healthcare, and agriculture, emphasising indigenous AI development, employment creation, and the importance of "Safe and Trusted AI." The event also saw the formation of an AI Policy Advisory Group and an AI Implementation Group to drive these initiatives.
Switzerland's Chiara Tamburlini leads the Women's Indian Open after day one with a 5-under 67. Indian golfers Pranavi Urs and Avani Prasanth are tied for fifth place. Singapore's Shannon Tan and Argentina's Magdalena Simmermacher are tied for second. Play was suspended due to darkness at the DLF Golf and Country Club.
India's IT services industry is witnessing a surge in mergers and acquisitions, particularly among mid-cap companies, as AI-led pricing pressure and macroeconomic uncertainty compel firms to seek scale, capabilities, and broader market reach. This trend is exemplified by the recent merger of Happiest Minds Technologies and ITC Infotech, aiming to offer end-to-end solutions and compete for larger transformation programmes.
13-year-old amateur golfer Ojaswini Saraswat has made history by becoming the youngest Indian ever to make the cut at a Ladies European Tour event, achieving this feat at the Hero Women's Indian Open with a remarkable three-under 69 in the second round.
Indian golfer Pranavi Urs, who won a gold medal at the Asian Games, was presented with a cheque of Rs one crore by MP Anurag Thakur on behalf of the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) in recognition of her achievement.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has identified a significant opportunity for India as the company transitions its enterprise systems to an AI-first model. He emphasised India's crucial role, leveraging its extensive pool of technology professionals and partners, in this global technological transformation, which he likened to a "Y2K moment" for engineering.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the UPSC centenary, urged a fundamental shift in civil services recruitment and governance. He highlighted the need for services to adapt to an "instant-delivery world" powered by AI, focusing on citizen-centricity and evaluating candidates' motivation beyond academic knowledge. The PM also praised Captain Smit Machchhar's bravery during his address.
Indian IT companies are experiencing a growing trend towards outcome-based pricing models, moving away from traditional time and material or fixed-price contracts, as artificial intelligence reshapes client engagement and deal structures.
Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, highlighted Artificial Intelligence's transformative potential in healthcare, emphasising its role in augmenting doctors' capabilities and enhancing efficiency. Speaking at PGIMER's Foundation Day, he stressed the need for India to develop AI solutions tailored to its unique healthcare realities, moving beyond being a mere consumer of Western-trained systems. PGIMER Director Vivek Lal also detailed the institute's expansion and commitment to affordable healthcare.
Indian athletes achieved a clean sweep in the men's discus throw F44/64 event at the Asian Para Games in Nagoya. Devender Kumar secured the gold medal, with Rakesh and Pardeep Kumar winning silver and bronze respectively. The event featured athletes with lower limb impairments, classified as F44 (without prosthesis) and F64 (with prosthesis).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called for enhanced accountability and safeguards for artificial intelligence, particularly as it integrates into critical sectors like finance. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest, she highlighted the dual nature of AI, capable of accelerating transactions but also amplifying fraud and cyberattacks. Sitharaman stressed the need for human and institutional responsibility in AI-driven decisions, urging regulators and companies to scrutinise high-risk AI applications. She also proposed a federated industry platform for Indian tech companies to navigate international regulations and ensure tax compliance globally.
Arundhati Bhattacharyya, Salesforce President and CEO for South Asia, highlighted how cloud and AI are democratising capabilities, offering India a unique opportunity to leapfrog in the technology revolution. Speaking at the IMC Chamber of Commerce, she emphasised that AI will create more jobs by addressing unmet business demands and could significantly boost India's GDP, with NITI Aayog estimating a USD 500-600 billion addition by 2035. She urged Indian businesses to transform using technology, focus on data, redesign work, and invest in skills, stressing that AI is not just for large corporations.
India's Karan Singh and Digvijay Pratap Singh have secured their spots in the singles semifinals of the Mumbai Open ITF Men's M25 Tennis Championship. Other Indian players also advanced, while the doubles competition saw two Indian pairs reach the final.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff highlights India's crucial role in the company's shift to an AI-first enterprise system. He emphasized India's vast pool of technology professionals and partners as key to this transformation, underscoring the country's importance in Salesforce's global strategy.
A PwC India report highlights that the competitiveness of India's industrial manufacturing sector hinges on the seamless integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into business strategies and operations. The report indicates that a significant majority of Indian manufacturers view AI as crucial for achieving strategic goals and are accelerating automation across various functions to build intelligent enterprises and gain sustainable competitive advantage.
India has secured three medals in the men's singles SL4 badminton competition at the Asian Para Games, with defending champion Suhas LY, Naveen Sivakumar, and Abhijeet Sakhuja advancing to the semifinals. Suhas LY will face Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan, while the other semifinal will be an all-Indian clash between Naveen and Abhijeet.
Indian tennis players Arnav Paparkar, Karan Singh, Digvijay Pratap Singh, Sidharth Rawat, and Chirag Duhan have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mumbai Open ITF Men's M25 Tennis Championship. The doubles team of SD Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha also secured a win. The next rounds are scheduled for Friday.
The 29th season of the CTR-JK Tyre FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship is set to begin this weekend at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. The event will feature 17 races across various categories, including LGB Formula 4, Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup, and Novice Cup, with participation from national, international, and women racers.
Indian golfer Vani Kapoor has taken a one-shot lead on the penultimate day of the Hero Women's Indian Open, positioning herself to become the first home winner in a decade. She carded a three-under 69, staying ahead of defending champion Shannon Tan and Thailand's Pornanong Phatlum, while other Indian golfers like Pranavi Urs and Tvesa Malik also performed well.
Experts at AI Manthan 2.0 in Kanpur stressed the need for Artificial Intelligence to be customised for India's specific requirements in education, healthcare, agriculture, and governance. Discussions highlighted the development of local language models, AI solutions for farmers like crop loss assessment and a single-window platform, and AI's role in healthcare for diagnosis and reducing doctors' workload, all while ensuring data privacy through federated learning.
In the next 36 months nearly 25 to 40 per cent of jobs will be under threat from AI and job losses are inevitable.
Indian physicist Ashoke Sen has been awarded the prestigious 2026 Oskar Klein Medal, making him the first Indian to receive this honour. Sen, a leading figure in modern string theory, was recognised for his pioneering work, including contributions to S-duality, black-hole entropy, and string field theory. He delivered a memorial lecture on October 22 in Stockholm.
An Indian national has been arrested in the US for allegedly falsely claiming American citizenship to vote in the 2024 general election in Minnesota. He faces charges that could lead to a maximum of five years in prison on each count if convicted.
The Haldwani forest division has launched India's first AI-based forest acoustic surveillance system. This innovative technology uses AI, acoustic sensors, and long-range wireless communication to detect illegal logging, poaching, and other suspicious activities in real-time, even in remote areas. Powered by solar energy, the system provides continuous monitoring, significantly enhancing forest protection, wildlife conservation, and biodiversity monitoring efforts.
Indian tennis players, including top seed Dhakshineswar Suresh, Arnav Paparkar, and Sidharth Rawat, have successfully advanced to the second round of the men's singles at the Mumbai Open ITF M25 event. Several other Indian and international players also secured wins in both singles and doubles matches on Wednesday.
PGTI president Kapil Dev stated on Friday that Pranavi Urs' recent gold medal at the Asian Games is a crucial step in popularising golf in India, hoping to inspire young talent to achieve global success. He also announced the Shri Shashi Ruia Memorial Golf Championship, set to begin next year with a significant prize purse. Additionally, Dev shared his observations on the evolving mindset within Indian cricket regarding global tournament victories.
