India is at a "tipping point" and a major focus for Apple, the technology giant's CEO Tim Cook has said, terming the opening of its first two retail stores in the country - in Mumbai and Delhi - as a "milestone" for the company. Speaking at Apple's Q2 2023 earnings call on Thursday, Cook emphasised the dynamism and vibrancy in the Indian market, calling it "unbelievable". "Looking at the business in India, we did set a quarterly record, grew very strong, double digits year-over-year.
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Investments by private equity and venture capital funds declined by 44 per cent to $3.7 billion in February compared to the same period a year ago, a report said on Monday. The bets by the long-term investors were 13 per cent lower when compared to the investments in the preceding month of January, the report by industry lobby Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association and consultancy firm EY, said. "...rising global recession concerns, increasing cost of capital and mismatch in valuation expectations between sellers and investors are turning out to be major impediments in the deployment of capital," EY's partner Vivek Soni said.
A drone from Skye Air Mobility on Tuesday covered an aerial distance of 104 km in West Bengal to deliver a medicine consignment of Flipkart Health, the longest commercial delivery using an unmanned vehicle in the state, a company statement said on Tuesday. The drone took off from Flipkart's Baruipur hub in South 24 Parganas and delivered medicines at the Healthbuddy Matangini in the state's Purba Medinipur district, it said. The distance between the two places is 185 km by road, and it takes about four-five hours to cover by the surface transport.
Four-nation grouping Quad on Tuesday launched a major new initiative for the Indo-Pacific that allows the partner countries to fully monitor the waters on their shores and help ensure peace and stability in the region, a move that comes amid China's increasingly intimidatory behaviour.
Recently, Slice, a payment app, acquired a 5 per cent stake in North East Small Finance (NESF) for $3.42 million - the first such deal by a fintech in a small finance bank. Slice (valued at $1.5 billion, and backed by Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank) will technically get a toehold in a scheduled commercial bank if NESF were to get a licence to morph into one down the line Such a transition is well within the banking regulator's declared framework. The transaction has to be seen in a larger context.
In other countries, Street View's content comes from two sources -- Google and individual contributors. However, in India, these will be collected by the tech giant's new local partners.
There is little appetite among combat aircraft engine makers to share the IP that results from a co-creation project. But Rolls-Royce is willing to walk the Aatmanirbhar talk.
Education finance is a complex and dynamic sector. There are too many variables -- the course, the calibre of students, the universities, and the job prospects once the course is over, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
State-owned BHEL on Friday said it is in talks with SAIL and Vizag Steel to tie up for manufacturing high grade steel, while Korean steel maker Posco may join the proposed joint venture company as a technology partner.
Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-origin technology executive, is "helping out" Twitter's new owner Elon Musk as he revamps the social media giant following its acquisition by the billionaire entrepreneur.
As India and the United States are set to begin negotiations on two transformational deals -- Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement (RDP) -- the Pentagon has said that the defence industries of the two nations will come together once the negotiations conclude.
Interoperability with other insurance companies - apart from banks, medical centres, among others - would be the eventual goal
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The company wants to put Android handset in every hand.
'...to bring the Global South and others to the negotiating table on the basis of Gandhi's non-violence so that we can leave a safer world for our children.'
In a projection of India's growing maritime prowess, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday addressed the top naval commanders onboard the country's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in the Arabian Sea and witnessed a mega wargame, amid China's increasing military posturing in the Indian Ocean region.
India believes in sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayaas and walks ahead with it, Modi said.
The American platforms at the exercise 'Cope India' that started off Kalaikunda will also include a fleet of F-15 E fighter jets, C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft.
Google, the world's largest search engine and one of the biggest internet brands, is understood to be eyeing opportunities in the third generation of mobile telephony, or 3G, in India.
If reports that Apple Inc plans to triple its iPhone production in India come true, it is likely to help the country become a supply hub for the American company. There are some 190 Apple suppliers globally, but only 12 have manufacturing facilities in India now. Apple's strategy is to focus on India and a clutch of other countries as it diversifies its supply chain out of China.
Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's conglomerate on Friday announced a major business shake-up, with flagship Vedanta Ltd approving a spin-off of its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses into separate listed entities and an overhaul of lucrative zinc unit planned as part of value creation and reducing debt load. Vedanta will issue one share of the five demerged businesses for every share held in the company, the firm said in a statement. The entire exercise, which would require shareholder and lender approval as well as a nod from the stock exchanges and courts, is expected to be completed in 12-15 months, its president for finance Ajay Agarwal said.
'The skilling gap is a serious issue.' 'We partner with the government on skilling, but as a company we have several skilling programmes, and we work closely with the partner ecosystem.
Hong Kong-based private equity firm Saif Partners plans to invest $100-150 million more in India in the next two years in sectors like technology, media financial services and telecom.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for a global framework for ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as he flagged concerns surrounding bias in such modern technologies and their impact on the society. Days ahead of the G20 Summit, the prime minister also made a strong case for developing an integrated approach to deal with issues concerning cryptocurrencies. Modi, addressing B20 Summit India 2023 organised by CII, said India is preparing a global framework for Green Credit and urged industry leaders to adopt life and businesses with emphasis on planet positive actions.
Speaking at a joint press event with Macron, Modi, who is in Paris on a two-day official visit, said a roadmap to strengthen India-France strategic ties over the next 25 years was being prepared with bold and ambitious goals on the anvil.
Around $200 million worth of deposits of Indian start-ups have been withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which was taken over by US banking regulators last week after it collapsed, and moved to the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) IFSC, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state (MoS) for electronics and information technology said on Thursday. "It turns out that there was over a billion dollars of deposits of Indian start-ups in SVB. "The existential, solvency crisis that was there six-seven days ago has become much more manageable, even the short-term liquidity crisis is being addressed as the bank allows access to deposits," the minister said while speaking at Lenovo's Tech World India Edition event.
'There is definitely a skill war, or a talent war going on.'
In January, Visa's chief executive officer, Al Kelly, said during an earnings call that "there's been a burst of the balloon in valuations in the fintech world". Noting that the trend of lower valuations "is a helpful characteristic of the current environment", he added: "We will look for capabilities and management teams that will bring more value to Visa than we can bring ourselves." Data from KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H2'22 shows that global fintech investment - via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms - at $164.1 billion in 2022, was down 31 per cent over the year before. Indian fintechs held up better during this timeframe, attracting $6 billion, or a fall of 24 per cent.
The US is making investments in defence ties with India to uphold a favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Thursday indicating that strengthening ties with New Delhi is one of the key factors to address the pacing challenge from China.
India and Saudi Arabia on Monday called on states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries and prevent access to weapons, including missiles and drones, to commit acts of terror.
Food aggregator platform Zomato has discontinued its 10-minute delivery offering, Zomato Instant, as the business has struggled to grow and faces challenges in turning profitable, media reports said. The company has denied these claims, stating that the business is just being rebranded. This comes as the company's CEO Deepinder Goyal announced 800 job vacancies across 5 roles via a Linkedin post.
Google, in its latest appeal to the Supreme Court, has said the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is protecting Amazon's interests after having complained that India's anti-competition body (CCI) had copied part of a European Commission ruling against it for allegedly abusing the market dominance of Android. The latest twist to the Google-CCI case comes as Google filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on June 26, against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT's) March 29 order. The tech giant's contention is that the NCLAT failed to apply the "effect analysis" part in the CCI order.
TCS will manage 'Question Creation Wizard' to frame question papers unique to each candidate with the same level of difficulty.
Three senior executives have resigned from Byju's at a time when the most valuable edtech company has been trying to address challenges such as due diligence issues, legal battles with lenders, challenges in raising fresh capital, and a markdown in its valuation by investors. Prathyusha Agarwal, the chief business officer of Byju's, has quit, according to sources. They said Himanshu Bajaj, business head of Byju's tuition centres, and Mukut Deepak, business head for Class 4 to 10, have also moved on.
Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta's Sterlite Copper on Monday came out with an advertisement inviting expression of interest (EoI) for carrying out plant "restart activities" at its Thoothukudi unit in Tamil Nadu, that got closed more than five years ago following an order issued by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB). The EoI for restart comes when the company is still awaiting the final judgement on the issue, and the court has only allowed it to do maintenance work. "We have initiated the upkeep and maintenance activities at the plant as allowed by the Supreme Court vide its order dated May 4, 2023, in coordination with the district authorities.
Modi called business communities and governments to work together to ensure usage of ethical AI as "we have to sense the potential disruptions in different sectors. This problem has to be solved under the global framework."
Auctioneers have said its Evening Sales, however will not be included in the partnership.
It is the first mega exercise involving the two aircraft carriers after induction of the indigenously-built INS Vikrant in September.
According to the agreement, RIL will transfer its existing textile business under the Vimal brand into a newly incorporated company in which RIL will hold 51 per cent stake. The remaining 49 per cent stake will be sold to Ruyi.
The dinner Jill Biden and her husband US President Joe Biden hosted for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, June 22, at the White House brought together, Indians and Americans from so many firmaments.
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