About 94 per cent of automotive firms struggle to recruit talent in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, according to a report on Friday.

The report by EdTech platform Skill-Lync is based on an extensive survey, involving over 220 leaders from the engineering and HR divisions of top automotive firms in India

It showed that 94 per cent of people find it challenging to recruit in specialised fields such as software-defined vehicles (SDV), and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). About 60-65 per cent of the talent requirements in companies are for mid-level professionals with 3-7 years of experience.

Amid the changing landscape where cyber-criminals use novel methods to steal personal data, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 upholds individuals' rights to safeguard their data, incorporating established principles for its protection, the government has said.

According to Ministry of Electronics & IT, these principles include obtaining consent for lawful and transparent use of personal data, limiting its use to specified purposes, minimising data collection to necessary levels, ensuring data accuracy and timely updates, restricting storage duration to the required period, implementing robust security measures, and enforcing accountability through penalties for breaches and data adjudication.

The Act also imposes stringent protections on personal data transfers, as exemplified by the Reserve Bank of India's directive under Section 10(2) and Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, mandating the storage of payment system data within India.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has announced its foray into the search market dominated by Google, with launching SearchGPT which is an AI-powered search engine offering real-time access to information across the web.

The Sam Altman-run company said it is testing SearchGPT, “a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources”.

SearchGPT is designed to combine the strength of its AI models with information from the web to give the users fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.

OpenAi said it is first launching the search engine with a small group of users and publishers to get feedback.

“While this prototype is temporary, we plan to integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future,” said the company.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has reached 100 million users in the US, said its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This is the first time the social media company has revealed its US figures for the WhatsApp service.

Meta also said that over 50 per cent of WhatsApp’s users own iPhones.

Compared to the US, WhatsApp has with more than 500 million monthly active users in India.

Globally, the popular mobile messaging service has over 2 billion users.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that will help users stay safe in group messaging.

Global IT services and consulting provider Tech Mahindra on Thursday reported a 1.2 per cent decrease in revenue for the April-June quarter (year-on-year) at Rs 13,005 crore.

On a quarterly basis, the revenue went up 1 per cent for the IT company.

The consolidated PAT was at Rs 851 crore, up 23 per cent (YoY), for Q1 FY25, while EBITDA reached Rs 1,564 crore, up 16.9 per cent YoY.

The company reported total headcount at 147,620, down 677 annually, for the June quarter.

Taking on Google, Apple has announced to bring Maps on the web in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser.

Apple Maps on the web is now available in English, and is compatible with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad, as well as Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs.

The company said that Apple Maps users can get driving and walking directions, find great places and useful information including photos, hours, ratings, and reviews.

They can also “take actions like ordering food directly from the Maps place card; and browse curated Guides to discover places to eat, shop, and explore in cities around the world”.

The iPhone maker said that additional features, including Look Around, will be available in the coming months.

The share of young intra-day traders (age less than 30 years) grew 48 per cent in FY2022-23 as compared to 18 per cent in FY2018-19, a study by markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Wednesday, warning against the risks involved with intra-day trading in equity cash segment.

Around one in three individuals who trade in the equity cash segment, now trades intraday. The study also noted a surge of over 300 per cent in the number of individuals participating in intraday trading in the equity cash segment in FY23 compared to FY19.

The country now has 5,293 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations along the national highways and has set a target of establishing 5,833 more along the highways out of a total of 7,432, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said on Wednesday

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said a capital subsidy of Rs 800 crore has been provided to three oil marketing companies towards the establishment of 7,432 EV charging stations.

Out of the current 5,293 EV charging stations, 4,729 were set up under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at an expenditure of Rs 178 crore.

Tech giant Apple on Wednesday launched its watch for kids in India that comes with easy calling, texting, and activity monitoring.

The Apple Watch for kids is functional “even if they don’t have their own iPhone”, said the company in a statement.

It may help parents who do not want to give mobile phones to children.

“Apple Watch For Your Kids is available in India, on cellular models of Apple Watch Series 4 or later or Apple Watch SE, paired with iPhone 8 or later running the latest watchOS and iOS,” Apple said.

Elon Musk-run Tesla has reported $1.5 billion in profit for the April-June period (Q2) this year, down 45 per cent from the same period in 2023.

Total revenue was up 2 per cent (year-on-year) at $25.5 billion, but automotive revenues was down 7 per cent to $19.9 billion, according to the electric car-maker.

“In Q2, we achieved record quarterly revenues despite a difficult operating environment. The Energy Storage business continues to grow rapidly, setting a record in Q2 with 9.4 GWh of deployments, resulting in record revenues and gross profits for the overall segment,” Tesla said in a statement.

The company is looking at a possibility of selling fewer EVs in 2024 than 2023.

The government on Tuesday said the last date of its Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024, which aims to provide further impetus to the green mobility and development of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing ecosystem in the country, is July 31.

The scheme’s duration was 4 months (April 1 till July 31) with an outlay of Rs 500 crore. “Total payout under the demand incentive is limited to Rs 493.55 crore (supporting 3,72,215 vehicles).

In case the funds for the Scheme or its relevant sub-components are exhausted prior to July 31, 2024, then the Scheme or its relevant sub-components will be closed accordingly, and no further claims will be entertained under the EMPS 2024, said the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

The striking labour union of Samsung Electronics held a rally on Monday, a day before resuming talks with the company to resolve the industrial action over a wage hike, union officials said.

About 1,200 unionised workers of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) joined the rally at a Samsung building in Yongin, south of Seoul.

Clad in black T-shirts and wearing headbands with "general strike" printed on them, the unionised workers pledged for a "victory" in their strike, reports news agency.

Son Woo-mok, head of the NSEU, told the workers that the strike "will not change all at once, but let's change it one by one."

"Let's make our Samsung Electronics with a long breath," Son said.

Crypto platform WazirX, which lost a staggering $234 million worth of digital assets in a cyber breach, on Sunday announced $23 million in bounty to recover the stolen funds.

The company invited white hat hackers, blockchain forensics experts, and cybersecurity professionals from around the world to join the recovery mission.

WazirX said it offers a reward equivalent to 10 per cent of the recovered amount, subject to successful recovery and verification. "This could potentially amount to $23 million, making it one of the largest bounties ever offered in the crypto industry," said the crypto platform.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recommended a grant of Rs 5 crore for the Sona Incubation Foundation (SIF) project, with a 20 per cent contribution by the Sona College of Technology, the SIF said on Sunday.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has also recommended Rs 2 crore as part of the ‘Startup India Seed Fund’ to the incubator.

The SIF said in a statement that it will select startups across India and fund worthy ideas, allowing SIF to have equity participation.

It is inviting applications from startups, particularly in sectors such as wearable technologies, assistive technologies, healthtech, edtech, SaaS, and industry automation.

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia are set to post an operating profit exceeding 8 trillion won ($5.7 billion) in the second quarter on improved product mix and production adjustments, a survey showed on Sunday.

Hyundai and Kia are estimated to report an operating profit of 4.28 trillion won and 3.76 trillion won, respectively, in the three months ended in June, according to a Yonhap Infomax survey of local brokerages.

Hyundai and Kia's second-quarter operating income likely rose 1 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, from the same period of last year, the survey showed.

The executive council of the African Union (AU) has approved its Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy and African Digital Compact to boost Africa's digital development, an official said.

AU Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitization Amani Abou-Zeid said this in an interview Friday during the 45th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council, a prelude to its 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting, in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, reported news agency.

"Our council approved the AU strategy for artificial intelligence and the strategy for using digital technologies, which will set the path for Africa's use of digital technologies for development," Abou-Zeid said.

These strategies would provide direction on the use of technology to find solutions to Africa's challenges, help fast-track many projects and programmes, and guard against the unethical use of technology, she said.

Private sector lender Yes Bank on Saturday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 502 crore for the April-June quarter of 2024-25 which represents a 47 per cent jump over the corresponding figure of Rs 342.5 crore for the same period of the previous year.

The interest earned by the bank during the quarter rose 19.8 per cent to Rs 7,719 crore from Rs 6,443 crore in the same period last year.

The asset quality of the bank also improved during the first quarter with the gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank coming down to 1.7 per cent of total loans as of June 30, as compared to 2 per cent in the year-ago period.

The digital payment growth continues to surge and Unified payments Interface (UPI) is now adding up to 60 lakh new users every month.

The stupendous growth in UPI transactions has been fuelled by the RuPay credit card on UPI, and the launch of the service in foreign countries.

According to the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data, the number of transactions on the UPI platform went up 49 per cent year-on-year to 13.9 billion in June and the transaction value rose 36 per cent to Rs 20.1 trillion.

Also, the average daily transaction count was 463 million and the average daily amount was 66,903 crore.

The Civil Aviation Ministry said on Saturday that airline systems across airports in India have resumed operations normally after a mega Microsoft Windows outage hit systems globally.

According to the Ministry, travel adjustments and refund processes are being taken care of, as it constantly monitors the situation at the airports.

“Since 3 am, Airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now,” the Ministry said in an update.

“There is a backlog because of disruptions yesterday, and it is getting cleared gradually. By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved,” the statement read.

As millions of Windows computers were left crippled for hours, disrupting the services of airlines, banks, hospitals and stock exchanges worldwide, cyber-security platform CrowdStrike on Saturday tried to explain what actually went wrong at their end.

According to the company which provides third-party security updates to the Satya Nadella-run tech giant, on July 19, at 9.30 a.m. (India time), it released a sensor configuration update to Windows systems.

Sensor configuration updates are an ongoing part of the protection mechanisms of the Falcon platform.

“This configuration update triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems,” said CrowdStrike.

Hitting hard at Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that the mega Windows outage “gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain”.

Although systems at his companies Tesla, SpaceX and X social media platform were working, several of Tesla's suppliers were badly hit by the Crowdstrike-Microsoft outage.

“We just deleted Crowdstrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all,” said Musk.

“Unfortunately, many of our suppliers and logistics companies use it,” he added.

Centre will play a crucial role in shaping standards and infrastructure for 6G networks worldwide, Dr Neeraj Mittal, Secretary (Telecom), has said.

Inaugurating a centre of excellence on 6G at IITM Research Park, Chennai, Mittal said this initiative is aligned with the ‘Bharat 6G Vision’ document released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March last year.

PM Modi has envisaged India to be a front-line contributor in the design, development and deployment of 6G technology by 2030.

Mittal emphasised that the initiative aims to create a cohesive and coordinated effort in advancing 6G technology, ensuring that all projects benefit from collective expertise and resources.

US cybersecurity agency CISA has warned that hackers are trying to take advantage of Microsoft outage for phishing and other malicious activity, as the tech giant’s Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said they are working hard to safely bring systems back online globally.

The US cybersecurity agency warned individuals to “avoid clicking on phishing emails or suspicious links,” which can lead to email compromise and other scams.

“Threat actors continue to use the widespread IT outage for phishing and other malicious activity. CISA urges organisations to ensure they have robust cybersecurity measures to protect their users, assets, and data against this activity,” it said in a statement

JSW Steel on Friday reported a 64 per cent decline in the consolidated net profit to Rs 845 crore for the April-June quarter of 2024-25 on the back of lower sales volume and realisation.

The Sajjan Jindal-led company had made a net profit of Rs 2,338 crore in the same quarter last year.

Consolidated crude steel production for the quarter stood at 6.35 million tonnes (mt), lower by 1 per cent Y-o-Y and 6 per cent Q-o-Q. Capacity utilisation at the Indian operations was 87 per cent during the quarter. Steel realisations have been impacted by imports at lower prices.

IT major Wipro reported a 4.6 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 3,003 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal (FY25), as revenue dropped 3.8 per cent to Rs 21,964 crore.

The company added 337 employees during the quarter, reversing the trend of declining headcount after six quarters. With this, the company now has 2,34,391 employees. Wipro's attrition rate declined marginally to 14.1 per cent.

"We recorded another quarter of total large deal bookings over $1 billion, with our largest win in recent years," said Srini Pallia, CEO and Managing Director.

The Centre on Friday issued an advisory on the outage of Microsoft Windows owing to CrowdStrike agent 'Falcon Sensor' update.

Union Minister for Railways, I&B, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnav informed about the advisory on X social media platform, saying “CERT-In advisory on the outage of Microsoft”.

The CERT-In said it has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowd strike agent "Falcon Sensor" are facing outages and getting crashed due to a recent update received in the product.

The concerned Windows hosts are experiencing a "Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)" related to Falcon Sensor.

Alternative credit platform BlackSoil NBFC, an arm of BlackSoil Group, on Friday, said that it raised Rs 208 crore debt in the first half of the year.

Sixty per cent of this funding came from new debt investors, said the company.

BlackSoil's total debt raise reached over Rs 1,570 crore (as of June 30).

"This substantial debt raise, particularly the 60 per cent from new investors, validates our business model and emphasises the trust we have built in the alternative credit space,” said Ankur Bansal, Co-Founder and Director at BlackSoil.

US tech giant Microsoft on Friday experienced a significant outage, affecting its services for users across many countries including India, the US, Japan, and Australia.

According to crowd-sourced website Downdetector, users are experiencing outages across Skype, Office 265, Bing, Azure, Teams, and Xbox.

Users are seeing blue screen of death (BSOD) errors which reportedly are due to a Crowdstrike application update.

"We have widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts, occurring on multiple sensor versions. Investigating the cause. Technical alert (TA) will be published shortly," according to a pinned thread on Reddit.

Industry leaders on Friday said that the country must seize the opportunity to create a conducive environment for Global Value Chains (GVCs) to thrive, in order to build a large-scale and globally competitive electronics manufacturing industry.

Reacting to NITI Aayog’s latest report that envisions achieving a $500 billion target in electronics manufacturing by FY2030 and creating 60 lakh jobs, the industry leaders said that true growth potential lies in the global market.

“GVCs not only drive large-scale job creation but also build technology capabilities within the domestic industry. They bring in large-scale manufacturing, driving the scale of production, reducing costs, and enhancing competitiveness,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

Tyre manufacturer CEAT Ltd on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit to Rs 154.2 crore for the April-June quarter of 2024-25 which represents a 7 per cent increase over the corresponding figure of Rs 144.01 crore for the previous year, according to a company statement.

On a consolidated basis, the RPG group company’s revenue closed at Rs. 3,192.8crore, EBITDA margin stood at 12.2 per cent, a contraction of 124 bps vs Q4 FY23-24.

The company said it incurred a CAPEX of Rs.254 crores during the quarter, largely from internal accruals, in order to meet rising demand ahead.

IT giant Infosys on Thursday reported a drop in headcount by 1,908 in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal (FY25).

The company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jayesh Sanghrajka said during the company's quarterly earnings call that they are looking to hire up to 20,000 freshers this year, depending on the growth.

The total headcount at the company was 315,332, down from 317,240 at the end of the March quarter. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the overall headcount reduced by 20,962.

For Infosys, it was the sixth quarter of headcount decline in a row.

Infosys on Thursday reported 7.1 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 6,368 crore for the April-June quarter of the current financial year compared to the same period of 2023-24.

India's second-largest IT company registered a 3.6 per cent increase in revenue from operations to Rs 39,315 crore during the first quarter, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The IT major has also raised its revenue growth guidance by 3 to 4 per cent for 2024-25.

Infosys retained the guidance for its EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margin or the operating margin at 20-22 per cent for the current financial year.

India's largest insurance company, LIC's shares railed 78 per cent over the last one year, following strong operational performance or positive sentiment for PSU shares among the investors.

LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) share price was Rs 1,101 at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, which was Rs 620 on July 18, 2023.

The company's revenue in the financial year 2023-24 has been Rs 8.46 lakh crore, which was Rs 7.84 lakh crore in the financial year 2022-23. During this period, the company's profit increased from Rs 35,997 crore to Rs 40,885 crore.

Talking about other insurance sector stocks, HDFC Life Insurance has given negative returns of about two per cent. In the last one year, the share price of HDFC Group's life insurance company has declined from Rs 656 to Rs 645.

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has advocated for a carbon dioxide tax to confront the ongoing climate change crisis.

Musk said in a post on social media platform X on Wednesday that a CO2 tax, if properly levied, would provide much leverage in solving the problems of the fast-rising CO2 levels.

He added, "If we do need something to tax, it should be something potentially harmful, instead of something potentially beneficial, as is done for vegetables and fruits, instead of tobacco and liquor."

The consumption of natural gas in India went up 7.1 per cent in June to 5,594 million metric standard cubic metres (MMSCM), this year compared to the same month last year, as more households across the country are using the fuel for cooking; the demand is also rising in the urban transport segment, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

While there was an increase of 2.9 per cent in domestic gas production to 2,993 MMSCM during the month, which helped to meet the rising demand, imports went up by as much as 11.3 per cent during the month.

The gas companies have been expanding their network to meet the rising demand for the green fuel.