India doubled its exports of smartphones to $11.1 billion (about Rs 91,000 crore) in 2022-23 (FY23) over the previous year's figure of $5.48 billion (Rs 45,000 crore), thanks largely to the Apple juggernaut, according to data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "With the doubling of exports of smartphones to over Rs 90,000 crore, India is well on its way to becoming a leader in the global mobile device market." On the flip side, despite the government prodding Chinese companies to export more, their smartphone shipments fell steeply by 26 per cent from $214 million in FY22 to $157 million in FY23.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for many telecom flip flops that took place during its regime.
An independent MP on Tuesday announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone providing credible information to police about the vandals who desecrated the Amar Jawan Memorial in Mumbai.
Owners of these accounts are being identified for action under the law, Minister of State for IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
Vote right and vote responsibly. Make your vote count for a better Bangalore, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar in this special column for Rediff.com
The move is expected to offer a breather to companies, who have been on tenterhooks following Thursday's order. DGFT will soon issue a notification on timeline extension, IT Ministry sources said. In a post on 'X' social media platform (earlier known as Twitter), Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: "There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect, which will be notified soon".
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Global tech major IBM, which employs over a lakh individuals in India, on Wednesday termed moonlighting an unethical practice. Moonlighting, the practice of taking up secondary jobs after the regular work hours, has been highlighted by many tech companies of late. IBM's managing director for India and South Asia, Sandip Patel said, at the time of joining, the company's employees sign an agreement saying they will be working only for IBM.
Tech giant Microsoft has unveiled a blueprint for India on artificial intelligence (AI) governance, and proposed a regulatory architecture to oversee safety protocols, according to a whitepaper released on Thursday. The whitepaper titled "Governing AI: A Blueprint for India" comes amid Microsoft raising its stakes in its artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. The proposed AI regulatory architecture includes regulations prescribing safety and security requirements, then license deployment for permitted uses in a licensed Al data centre with post-deployment safety and security monitoring and protection.
India is all set to make its presence felt in the $47 billion global outsourced semiconductor testing and packaging market, an arena where Malaysia and Vietnam have been way ahead so far. The Cabinet last Thursday cleared two projects, the Tata's assembly testing and packaging plant (ATMP) and the Murugappa-owned CG Power with Renesas from Japan as its tech partner. These, together with Micron's assembly and testing plant which is already being constructed in Sanad in Gujarat, will collectively invest Rs 47,300 crore to set up the factories.
The estimated investment for the facility, which will undertake domestic and international projects, would be $100 million.
Apple Inc has requested the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) to give it 18 to 24 months' exemption to comply with the European Union (EU) regulation of putting an USB charging port in all its older smartphones, mainly iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, which are assembled, exported and also sold in the domestic market. Apple's stance is different from that of Samsung, which has been pushing for an immediate implementation of the EU regulation. All smartphones by the South Korean giant already comply with the EU rules.
There can be no serious argument for not having an independent regulator in every sector. Regulators in a sector are akin to independent directors on the board of a company who ensure that the game is played by some rules.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar-promoted Jupiter Aviation kickstarted the development work at Hassan airport.
More than 6,000 URLs, accounts or websites were blocked in 2021, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Since most projects can be shifted to other states, the problem will be minimal, especially if industry can find ways to make farmers partners in their profits.
Amit Malviya said Twitter was in violation of India laws for an extended period (between 2020-2022).
Joining the rush of companies looking for spectrum, BPL Mobile has applied for a unified access service licence in 21 of the country's 23 telecom circles.
Unlike film stars, who rarely attend sessions and seldom raise questions, industrialists seem to be better Parliamentarians.
The microblogging site has challenged a government order issued in June 2022, terming the blocking orders 'overbroad and arbitrary', adding that the requests failed to provide notice to the originators of the content and were disproportionate in several cases.
India Inc on Monday asked the government to pull out all stops to ensure availability of enough money to drive the economy on a high growth trajectory despite the global meltdown.
India has launched Operation Ajay to facilitate the return of those who wish to come back home as a series of brazen attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas militants over the weekend triggered fresh tension in the region.
In response to a query asked by MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Rajya Sabha on the release of the report, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "The report has been recommended to be declassified in the national security interest."
'Why does a State that sees a national security issue at every turn not recognise the seriousness of the data from sensitive databases being breached?'
The Centre has rubbished the charges, saying Dorsey's Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law.
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 Cellular Operators Association of India on Tuesday announced the appointment of Dilip Modi as its chairman for a period of one year.
The government fully supports foreign and Indian companies in leveraging Internet as "force of good" but will take all measures to ensure that Internet remains open and is not dominated by some big corporates, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. Chandrasekhar said the government wants to make sure that intermediaries and the big platforms such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and others develop a culture of mutual respect and accountability between the platform and its users. "And we also want to make sure that given that a billion Indians are going to be there... women, children, elderly, pensioners, all of them, that the internet is also safe and trusted.
Among the 36 new faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals.
The Company Law Board on Monday adjourned for July 30 the hearings of the main petition filed by BPL Group patriarch T P G Nambiar against the alleged sidelining by his son-in-law and CEO of BPL Communications Rajeev Chandrasekhar in the telecom busi
'Banning a game is not the solution, rather, there should be laws that restrict the number of hours spent a week playing a game.'
In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political parties are extensively using social media to propagate their achievements and seek support from voters.
The Congress on Monday shifted all its MLAs to a hotel ahead of the biennial election to fill four vacancies from Karnataka in Rajya Sabha apparently to keep the flock together.
Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "poisonous snake", drawing strong rebuke from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said "hate is coming out" with such comments and sought an apology from the veteran leader.