The foremost lesson for India today is to beef up its air defence to cater for multiple drone attacks. As seen in Operation Sindoor, we have come a long way, but there's room for getting better. We must develop a robust and almost impregnable air cover over ourselves, asserts IAF veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
Despite the dominance of AI, creativity and innovation are the most in-demand skills, reveal LinkedIn's Skills On The Rise 2025 report.
Clearly, some of the bullishness of the early days has gone missing. Ola's market share is slipping amid rising competition from incumbents like Bajaj Auto and TVS.
rediffGURU Major Inderpaul Singh (retd) offers career guidance and helps students and individuals handle challenges in their professional lives.
From the Sensex firms, Eternal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, Power Grid and State Bank of India were among the laggards. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Titan, HCL Tech, Tata Motors, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were the gainers.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Tata Motors, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle and Maruti were also among the major laggards. HDFC Bank emerged as the only gainer from the pack.
An IIT Delhi professor has been booked for alleged negligence following the death of a PhD student during excavation work near the archaeological site of Lothal in Gujarat. The incident occurred in November 2024 when the student, Surabhi Verma, died after a 10-foot deep excavation pit collapsed on her while she and her professor, Yama Dixit, were collecting soil samples. The FIR was registered based on a complaint by the student's father, alleging that Dixit's negligence led to Verma's death. Dixit has been charged with causing death by negligence and endangering life. The investigation revealed that the team was unaware of the high water level beneath the visible dry soil, and had not informed police or local authorities before starting the excavation.
Heavy overnight rains severely affected parts of the city on Monday, leading to water-logged roads, inundated residential areas and traffic pile-up, as the city braces for more spells in the coming days.
Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions has signed a definitive agreement to acquire global engineering company Belcan for about $1.3 billion (Rs 10,853.7 crore) in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close in the September quarter. The total consideration includes $1.19 billion (Rs 9,935.31 crore) in cash and 1.47 million Cognizant shares, valued at $97 million (Rs 809.53 crore) based on the information technology services provider's closing share price on June 7, 2024.
'Binary fission will happen -- startups will lead to more startups.'
Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate is not seeking short-term profit but is in the business of creating wealth for the nation. Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting, he said all businesses of Reliance Industries Ltd continue to be key drivers of the Indian economy and have become a success story. "We are not in the business of pursuing short-term profit and hoarding wealth. "We are in the business of creating wealth for India," he said.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's scathing remarks on Indian startup ecosystem and its innovation priorities have drawn sharp reaction from the industry, with Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha putting up a strong defence citing the company's contribution to jobs, FDI and terming it a "miracle in Indian innovation".
Two years after his dismissive stance on India's AI potential raised eyebrows here, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday gave a ringing endorsement to Artificial Intelligence momentum in the country -- and billed India as an important market not just for the new-age technology itself but for the ChatGPT creator as well. In New Delhi on Wednesday, Altman -- while sharing dais with Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw -- said India is the second biggest market for the company and that Open AI had tripled its users here in the last year.
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys and the founding chairman of UIDAI, has donated Rs 315 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
Investors' wealth tumbled by Rs 9 lakh crore on Friday, in tandem with a sharp decline in the domestic equity market, where the benchmark Sensex plunged 1,414 points following a bearish trend in global equities. Fresh tariff threats that ignited global trade war fears and relentless foreign fund outflows dented investor sentiment, analysts said.
Bengaluru has emerged as the world's fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem in the world since 2016, followed by the European cities of London, Munich, Berlin and Paris, with India's financial centre of Mumbai in sixth place, according to new research released in London on Thursday.
'By extending the definition of 'personal' to include institutions and not just individuals, the State has equipped itself with a tool to block access to most kinds of information.'
Organisations that reward constant optimism and penalise negativity create environments where employees feel pressured to hide their struggles, notes Sonica Aron, founder of HR consultancy firm Marching Sheep.
'Because the same stupid questions are repeated year after year when an exam should provoke the students to think and not ask repetitive questions.' 'So, what do coaching institutes do? They teach students to memorise these questions and answers without understanding the subject.'
Khushi fares better in emotional scenes but her chemistry with Junaid has the passion of a toothpaste campaign, observes Sukanya Verma.
'I certainly hope the two can avoid a trade war and believe they will.' 'I expect some in India will push for retaliatory tariffs if the Trump administration applies significant reciprocal tariffs.'
'You don't need massive industry or huge energy resources.' 'You could start with just 3 or 4 people in a coffee shop and invent the world.'
'AI may perform tasks, but deep expertise and specialisation remain uniquely human.'
'It was inspired by the Hamas attack and was like their attack -- well planned and well executed.'
'We also realised that locking customers to our Cloud was not fair to them.'
'Many were caught in a burnout race, chasing unsustainable growth without innovating.'
With cricket being included in the 2028 Olympics, its popularity will further surge. I'm humbled and excited about this unique collaboration between the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands.
'I tell young entrepreneurs if you don't have a great idea, if you don't have a good business model, don't think of a start-up.'
Several technology companies are seeking to step up hiring from Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India in 2024 to tap into a vast talent pool of skilled professionals churned out by educational institutions and training centres in these regions. Tier-II and Tier-III cities such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Mohali, Vadodara, Chandigarh, and Indore contribute around 12-15 per cent of the country's tech talent, hinting towards the strong talent availability in these regions, according to Randstad India, a talent management firm.
Billionaire and Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra along with top Silicon Valley investors Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan are backing space tech start-up Agnikul as part of a new funding round. Chennai-based Agnikul said, on Thursday, that it has raised $11 million in Series A funding round led by Mayfield India. It is the largest funding round for a private Indian space technology company in the country. Existing investors pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and Artha Venture Fund also invested in this round.
Research and development (R&D) spending by BSE 100 companies has grown steadily, rising from 0.89 per cent of revenue in FY20 to 1.32 per cent in FY24, averaging around 1 per cent over the period in-between, according to data compiled from Bloomberg and company annual reports. Also, these companies more than doubled their R&D spending in absolute terms over these five years: From Rs 25,041 crore to Rs 63,072 crore. While this reflects a prioritisation of innovation, corporate R&D investment remains relatively conservative.
The Uttar Pradesh government has deployed two senior IAS officers, who were part of the team that successfully conducted the 2019 Ardh Kumbh, to oversee the smooth conduct of the Maha Kumbh Mela in the wake of the recent stampede that left at least 30 pilgrims dead. The officers, Ashish Goyal and Bhanu Chandra Goswami, have extensive experience in administration in Prayagraj, including crowd management and inter-agency coordination. They will join Mela Adhikari Vijay Kiran Anand, forming a trio that was part of the mega fair six years ago. The government has also deployed additional senior police officers to strengthen security and crowd management ahead of Basant Panchami, one of the key bathing days of the festival, on February 3.
From the Sensex stocks, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Infosys were the laggards. HDFC Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestle India and Asian Paints were among the gainers.
The generation of quality jobs and skill development should be the focal point, cutting across ministries and departments, asserts Nivedita Mookerji.
India and the US have signed an agreement to promote innovation through increasing cooperation among startups, address regulatory hurdles and share best practices on fundraising by entrepreneurs, an official statement said on Wednesday. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) on enhancing innovation ecosystems through an innovation handshake under the framework of India-US Commercial Dialogue was signed on November 14 in San Francisco. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is in San Francisco.
'We have reached 70 million monthly active users during this festival season, which is another great milestone for us.'
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.
A 15 per cent corporate tax rate for services companies in SEZs, setting up a fund for deep-tech startups and establishing clusters to demonstrate design-to-manufacturing capabilities of tech firms were some of the key demands made by the IT sector at the pre-Budget consultation on Monday. The participants shared their views and suggestions regarding Big Data, incentives for encouraging setting up of data centres, fiscal incentives for data localisation, incentives for pushing digital penetration in rural areas, and corporate guarantee to startups for competing with other nations.
'After his warm and affectionate farewell speech, the Chief of Staff of the formation asked me, "So, now you are off to Coorg to look after your coffee estates?"' For the last time, in Army uniform and much to his surprise, I replied, "Sir, I am not from Kodagu.".'
