Google on Wednesday launched its global 'Be Internet Awesome' programme for children in India in partnership with Indian comic book publisher Amar Chitra Katha to interweave critical internet safety lessons across eight Indian languages. The tech giant has also launched an enhanced Google Safety Centre in eight Indic languages as part of its efforts to step up safety of users on the internet. Google has significantly increased its resources dedicated to India's Trust Safety teams, including product policy analysts, security specialists, and user trust experts that support over 10 vernacular Indian languages, enabling its central teams to benefit from the local nuance and inputs.
The report, funded by the global chipmaker with input from the United Nations and U.S. State Department, among others, points to stubborn gaps in women's access to the Internet in Africa, the Middle East and other developing parts of the world.
In a sign of the expanding Apple supplier ecosystem in India, American multinational Jabil Inc will set up an electronics manufacturing facility in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. Jabil is one of the 14 Apple suppliers in India, of around 200 globally, while another 14 have reportedly received preliminary clearance to form joint ventures with Indian companies to set up facilities. Interestingly, of the 14 existing manufacturing units in the Apple supply chain, seven are already in Tamil Nadu.
The US launched an investigation, focusing on whether the tax in India and other countries discriminated against American companies, were retroactive, and reflected unreasonable tax policy.
US hedge fund Tiger Global and Japanese investment giant SoftBank have trimmed their investments in Indian start-ups by over a third - from $3.8 billion in the second half of 2021 to a mere $1.08 billion in H1 2022, according to data from Venture Intelligence. While SoftBank's investments in India dropped from $1.9 billion in H2 2021 by more than a fifth to only $0.33 billion in H1 2022, that of Tiger Global fell from $1.92 to $0.74 billion in the same period. Private equity (PE) fund trackers point out that this year most of the deals that Tiger Global has invested in are in the early stage (up to series D), and only a few are in the series E and above.
Microsoft received over 400 requests from India last year for inquiries regarding criminal activity, affecting nearly 600 different accounts, according to the American tech giant.
Tech Mahindra was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 3 per cent, followed by NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank and Reliance Industries. NSE Nifty fell 185.60 points to 17,671.65.
Japanese tech investor SoftBank may end up investing around $1 billion in India in 2022, nearly a third of what it did last year, according to people closely tracking its plans. Last year, SoftBank undertook investments of $3.2 billion in 12 deals. In the first five months of CY22, the giant investor has invested $400-500 million in five deals.
Tech giant Microsoft Corporation has invested nearly $5 million (about Rs 37 crore) in OYO through the issuance of equity shares and compulsory convertible cumulative preference shares on a private placement basis by the latter, according to a regulatory filing by the hospitality chain. An extraordinary general meeting of Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd (OYO), which runs the OYO Rooms chain of hotels, on July 16 approved issue of the equity shares and Series F2 compulsory convertible cumulative preference shares (Series F2 CCCPS) for "an aggregate consideration amounting to rupee equivalent of $4,971,650 to Microsoft Corporation on a private placement basis", as per an RoC filing by the company.
Apple Inc is commencing assembly of its iPhone 12 model in the country, a move that is expected to help the US tech giant further consolidate its position in the burgeoning smartphone market in India. Apple has partnered with third-party manufacturers like Foxconn and Wistron to make some of its phones in India. These include iPhone SE, iPhone 10R and iPhone 11.
The foundation for a Digital India will be intelligent networks.
Calling out the need for a global consultative approach towards the creation of regulations around artificial intelligence (AI), Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for information technology, said India has taken the lead in framing such regulations. He also stated that these frameworks will be presented by June-July this year. "India has taken the lead in creating this draft paper.
US media reports that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, could be the latest technology giant to downsize its workforce have triggered trepidation among its 300-400 employees in India, according to people familiar with the matter. "We have not heard much about the impact (of downsizing) on India. "It's a wait-and-watch situation. Certainly, there is uncertainty," said a source.
What technologies do you fancy in your new car? Here are some popular cars in India with the most sought after technologies.
None of the Big Tech companies or tycoons appears to be playing a meaningful role in the testing, spread, cure, or eradication of the virus or even in contact tracing so far, says Prosenjit Datta.
Jack Ma, China's billionaire and founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has travelled to Europe for an agriculture study tour, his first trip abroad since he ran into trouble with the Chinese government last year over violating anti-monopoly regulations.
Google will lay off 12,000 jobs across the globe, its CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Friday, becoming the latest tech giant after Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon to retrench staff en mass amid the global economic downturn. In an email to employees, the Indian-origin CEO said: "I have some difficult news to share. We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles." Pichai said the layoffs at Google were carried out after a "rigorous review" of its operations.
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.
Hiranandnani's new venture is well-timed, but it will face heavy competition from both international majors and domestic peers like Adani Group.
Tech giant IBM on Tuesday said it has received 9,130 US patents in 2020 - topping the US Patent List for the 28th consecutive year - with India being the second-highest contributor. "IBM scientists and researchers received 9,130 US patents in 2020, the most of any company, marking 28 consecutive years of IBM patent leadership. "IBM led the industry in the number of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, quantum computing and security-related patents granted," IBM said in a statement. For the fourth year in a row, IBM India was the second highest contributor to IBM's global tally with 930 patents granted to inventors from India in 2020.
On his personal Google+ page, the 52-year old announced his plans.
Tech Mahindra is building 5G use cases with US-based hospitals to help manage devices remotely and eventually manage remote surgeries that will require seamless network connectivity.
Apple is hoping to assemble in India 25 per cent of all iPhones produced globally to reduce its heavy dependence on China.
Meta is working closely with the Election Commission. This enables the Commission to flag unlawful content.
Tech giant Apple on Wednesday said it has slashed its App Store commission by half to 15 per cent for small businesses earning up to $1 million (about Rs 7.4 crore) per year on the platform. In the past, tech majors Apple and Google have been criticised for the high commissions charged from app developers. Apple, in a statement, said the new developer programme will accelerate innovation and help small businesses and independent developers propel their businesses forward with the next generation of groundbreaking apps on the App Store.
If you are interested in working with OpenAI, feel free to email Sam Altman. In a free-wheeling fireside chat with university students on Thursday in Delhi, the CEO of OpenAI and his team seemed eager to welcome bright young IT practitioners of India into the OpenAI work space. Asked about the steep degree requirements for applying to tech giants such as Microsoft and Google, Altman said that his company was open to hiring undergraduates and even college drop-outs.
India will be an important country in terms of manufacturing in future, Young Liu, chairman and CEO of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) has said, his latest comment adding to a growing chorus of global voices acknowledging the country's bold moves to position itself as electronics and hi-tech production powerhouse. In an interaction with reporters in Taipei, the top honcho of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant said the development of the entire ecosystem and industrial chain, and opportunities for development in India are "very, very huge opportunities". "If there is no big change, India will be a very important country in terms of manufacturing in the future," Liu said.
Despite the robust growth in this country, Apple's India share in its overall global sales remained modest -- constituting 1.5 per cent of its overall turnover of $389 billion in FY23.
The government wants a collaborative model with a public-private partnership to fact-check social media content.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Ola, is encouraging developers to switch from Google Maps to Ola Maps. Ola is offering developers a year of free access to Ola Maps on the company's Krutrim Cloud and over Rs 100 crore in free credits. This initiative comes after Ola replaced Google Maps with its own Ola Maps, leading to annual savings of around Rs 100 crore.
US tech giant Microsoft is in the final stages of talks with the Telangana government to set up a data centre with a total investment of Rs 15,000 crore. According to sources in the state government, the company has zeroed in on a land parcel near Hyderabad for the facility. "In the information technology (IT) space, Telangana is already seeing some major investments. "Microsoft is establishing its data centre here, and it may come out with a public announcement soon," said a source.
Online biggies and global retail giants are working on being omnipresent in both the virtual and the real world to see what helps them get the numbers, says Karan Choudhury.
This time, Apple will be more aggressive in India and has already signed over 100 partners.
The Hyderabad Garage will collaborate with teams in Silicon Valley, Redmond, Vancouver, Washington, New England, Israel and Beijing.
Work-related stress can impact one's mental health. Which is why Saurabh Tiwari says he's fortunate that his company understands this and is doing whatever it can to help mitigate that stress. "My company provides opportunities according to my interest, and if anyone is feeling stressed or has additional workload, they can talk with their supervisor to resolve it," says the 31-year-old who's working from home for a Bengaluru-based IT firm. Not everyone's as lucky.
India has to put in place legislation and rules which seek more clarity and transparency from technology companies. Domestic and global companies that use consumer behaviour data to enhance addictive behaviour must be scrutinised and controlled. Currently the intermediary guidelines focus mostly on content management and grievance redressal. However, the underlying software engines that influence online consumer behaviour need oversight, too.
The list of guests included celebrities from across the globe, politicians, the who's who of Hindi and south Indian cinema world and almost all the top cricketers of the country.
'The pressure on relative performance and the feeling of being left out among many investors may also account for the belief among many that this has to be a technology stock bubble.' 'The feeling of a bubble is also reinforced by the extreme performance gap between growth and value investing.' 'While at first glance, one can only stand back awestruck by the wealth creation delivered by technology stocks globally. It does not seem at all like the internet bubble of 1999-2000, says Akash Prakash.
Their startup investments number 13 so far, compared to 17 deals in 2020.
