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.
E-commerce giant Amazon plans to make a mega-investment of $35 billion, over Rs 3.14 lakh crore, in India by 2030 across its businesses with a focus on AI-driven digitization, export growth and job creation, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the tech giant will soon launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbot called 'Bard', aimed at countering the popularity of the ChatGPT tool backed by Microsoft. According to a blog post by Pichai, the conversational AI service will be assessed by a group of "trusted testers" before being rolled out to the public in the coming weeks. "Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity," Pichai, the Indian-origin CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said on Monday, adding that Google's chatbot will be able to explain complex subjects like new discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a nine-year-old.
India's $280-billion IT industry heads into 2026, balancing visa-related headwinds and global trade uncertainty against its biggest-ever push into artificial intelligence and the rapid expansion of global capability centres (GCCs). Heightened scrutiny of the US H-1B visa programme - including a proposed $100,000 fee for new visas and concerns over a potential 25 per cent outsourcing tax - has complicated cross-border delivery for Indian firms, even as companies accelerate efforts to reduce reliance on onsite staffing.
Asia takes the lead, boasting four Indian cities on the list, according to the 2024 Savills Growth Hubs Index.
hile depicting Google as prying the texts of emails to decipher user discussions to put up ads accordingly, Microsoft's ads urge people to switch to the less intrusive Outlook.com.
While Google's phenomenal growth may by the envy of many, Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer criticised the Internet company for trying to grow too fast.
As the Apple CEO put it to his staff, the choice is stark: Adopt AI or risk being left behind. The same applies to everyone preparing for the future of work.
Google pre-empted Microsoft's plans for a significant relaunch of its internet search service as it revealed on Tuesday changes to its own search results pages that echo some of the moves planned by its arch-rival.
'Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft have large operations in India and rely on smooth trade and data flows.' 'Restrictions could raise their costs, limit AI chip exports, and complicate their India strategies.'
Kaifu Lee, embroiled in the ongoing acrimonious legal battle between Microsoft and Google, has taken up his post as the latter's head in China.\n
Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
A proposed online search advertising deal between Yahoo and Google came under fire at a US Senate hearing as Microsoft claimed that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang had himself admitted that the agreement would hurt competition.
Google's Chrome OS will soon challenge the software giant's stranglehold in the operating system market.
The operating system would be based on Google's Chrome browser, The New York Times reported. Google plans to make the announcement on its blog on Wednesday afternoon, the daily said.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
India, the world's fourth largest economy, is set to maintain the 'goldilocks' phase with tailwinds of good growth, low inflation and robust banking performance as well as reform initiatives poised to sustain the economic pace witnessed during 2025.
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.
'We do not need short-term measures but long-term ones. Companies seem to have given up on the infrastructure part. Long delays are fuelling more traffic crisis.'
'I don't see how a company like OpenAI can honestly expect to generate revenue significant enough to maintain its spending habits via John and Jane Q. Public,' points out Sree Sreenivasan.
'The Indian developer community is one of the most vibrant communities.' 'Indian builders are incredibly passionate, curious, and excited to embrace new technologies.'
Online search giant Google has come out openly against Microsoft's $45-billion takeover bid for Yahoo, terming the deal as a threat to openness of the Internet.
With a confident new generation of innovators, India now has the scale and self-belief to shape its own digital destiny marked by creation, observes Ajay Kumar chairman, UPSC.
5 simple ways you can protect your passwords from being stolen by hackers.
They wanted to learn about the set-up and support entrepreneur there.
'Returning Indians can leverage their international skills and the strong funding environment for start-ups here.'
Google was slowly but surely tightening its grip around Microsoft mainstay products
'Good for us, bad for them'. That's what Microsoft's Chief Information Officer, Tony Scott, has to say to competitors like and Google.
Rajan Anandan, the former Managing Director of Microsoft, has joined search giant Google as the Vice President (Sales and Operations) and Head of India region.
If Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker, were to install Google's operating system on netbooks, Microsoft Windows could face strong competition
The magnitude of the new H-1B visa application fee for fresh petitions - math of which works out to USD 500 million in case of 5,000 filings - may nudge IT companies to expand offshore delivery or increase local hiring, according to Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Though Ballmer was caught off guard, he pulled himself together and went on record: "Oh no, not at all. Why should we be? We are the market leaders. Every day is a day of opportunities for us and we are eager to take those opportunities."
It has also filled a key gap in its payment systems team by hiring Ravi Byakod, a senior Google engineer.
They don't just want better returns -- they're looking for global opportunities, more variety and smarter ways to grow their money, says Soubho Moulik, CEO, Appreciate.
The long-running rivalry between Microsoft Corp and Google Inc is turning into a schoolyard brawl.
AI is changing jobs in India faster than ever, but professionals are learning the real skill isn't coding -- it's adaptability.
'New announcements are made every day which brings tremendous amount of instability and uncertainty.' 'Relying on America has become a big problem.'
Software giant Microsoft and Internet major Yahoo! on Wednesday signed a 10-year search deal that will see the two firms jointly challenging the dominance of Google in the search business.
An entrepreneur-friendly environment in India could lead to the next Microsoft or Google emerging from domestic shores.
