Digital Revolution

Make AI in India, work for India is vision for nation's AI revolution: Min

Union Minister Jitin Prasada on Monday asserted the vision to develop artificial intelligence (AI) in India, for India, and all, and said the country is poised for an AI revolution. Prasada, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, in a keynote address at the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF) 2024, said India is not only the largest democracy, but also a vibrant digital economy setting new benchmarks for innovation and inclusivity. He said discussions today should not only focus on addressing the challenges of internet governance but also on exploring transformative solutions. "Artificial intelligence is a cornerstone of these transformative solutions. Our vision is to make AI in India and make AI work for India, as well as AI for all. Today, India is placed for a transformative AI revolution," he said. The minister quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "If earlier, human civilisations were based around rivers and oceans, then later around highwaystoday's ...

Farm to fork goes digital: Indian agri on the cusp of a tech revolution

Indian farmers have shown their ability and, more so, willingness to embrace new technology

India key market, committed to bring digital revolution: Google India MD

Google sees India as "a very important market" both from users and research and development perspectives, India MD Roma Datta Chobey said on Thursday asserting that the global tech giant is geared up and fully committed to playing a significant role in India's digital revolution. In an interview with PTI, Chobey said Indians are adopting and adapting AI in a big way, and added that the company is sharply focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to democratise information and opportunities and keen to play a significant role in developing a thriving AI ecosystem here. The Google India top boss also outlined the company's big bets in the country in areas such as AI, payments and device manufacturing. To a question on regulatory structures that are taking shape in India, she said that Google believes that AI should be regulated, in a way that ensures user benefits and fosters innovation. "Google believes in regulations...we believe that technology should be regulated and ...

Google says Iranian group trying to access mails linked to US prez campaign

Google has said that an Iranian group linked to the country's Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump since May. The tech company's threat intelligence arm on Wednesday said the group is still actively targeting people associated with Biden, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate last month when he dropped out. It said those targeted have included current and former government officials, as well as presidential campaign affiliates. The new report from Google's Threat Analysis Group affirms and expands on a Microsoft report released Friday that revealed suspected Iranian cyber intrusion in this year's US presidential election. It sheds light on how foreign adversaries are ramping up their efforts to disrupt the election that is now less than three months away. Google's report said its threat researchers detected and

Evolving digital revolution

Policy and regulation will need consistent adaptation

Revolut gets RBI nod to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments in India

Revolut India on Friday said it has received an in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) including prepaid cards and prepaid wallets in the country. This enables it to operate as a domestic player in the market, the global fintech firm said in a statement. This approval builds upon the existing licences which Revolut India has successfully obtained from RBI to operate as a Category-II Authorised Money Exchange Dealer (AD II) and to be able to provide multi-currency forex cards and cross-border remittance services, it said. It also puts Revolut in a unique position in India, to be able to offer customers both international and domestic payment solutions on a single platform, it said. Revolut, a London-based neobank and financial technology company, has been gearing up for its entry into India, working closely with the RBI over the past two years. This licence and the approvals that preceded it are an encouraging ...

Tejas Networks, Telecom Egypt sign pact to speed-up vision of Digital Egypt

Tata Group-backed telecom gear-maker Tejas Networks on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Telecom Egypt, Information Technology Industry Development Agency and National Telecom Institute to replicate its experience of implementing Bharatnet (Rural Broadband Project) and NKN (National Knowledge Network) projects in Egypt. The agreement aims to accelerate the vision of Digital Egypt, upskill Egyptian engineers and technicians, establish local manufacturing and R&D facilities, and set up technical support services in Egypt, according to a regulatory filing. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect has been signed with Telecom Egypt (TE), ITIDA (Information Technology Industry Development Agency) and NTI (National Telecom Institute). "Other broad areas of cooperation include capacity building of Egyptian engineers and technicians on state-of-the-art telecom and networking technologies, establishing local manufacturing and R&D facilities for Fiber-to-the-Home ...

RBI to introduce offline digital rupee transactions soon: Governor Das

Digital rupee users will soon be able to execute transactions in areas with limited internet connectivity as the RBI on Thursday announced that offline capability will be introduced on the Central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project. Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said that programmability-based additional use cases will be introduced as part of the pilot project. RBI launched a pilot of the retail CBDC in December 2022 and achieved the target of having 10 lakh transactions a day in December 2023. It can be noted that other payment platforms, especially the very popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI), already offer offline possibilities. "it is proposed to introduce an offline functionality in CBDC-R (Retail) for enabling transactions in areas with poor or limited internet connectivity," Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy review. He said multiple offline solutions, which include both proximity and non-proximity based ones, will be tes

Govt planning to set up index to track states on their digital initiatives

The index will establish better coordination among states for learning from each other's work in the domain

Public good enablers to drive India's digital revolution: BankBazaar CEO

Public good enablers like digilocker, account aggregator system and video e-KYC will drive India's next digital revolution as the country sits on a mammoth volume of 50 billion digital transactions, according to BankBazaar.com founder CEO Adhil Shetty. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently spoke about the digital revolution in India and that the country has reached 50 billion digital transactions in 2022. This is three times of what it is in the US and UK, and this is built on the digital public good platforms such as UPI, RuPay and Aadhaar across the digital payment revolution, Shetty said in an interaction. "The point BankBazaar wants to make is there is another revolution happening and the world will recognise it in one or two years from now. And that's going to be the next digital revolution which will be driven by Gen 2 digital public good. The Gen 2 digital public good are digilocker, account aggregator, and video eKYC etc," Shetty said. Stating the numbers, he said th

India Inc's freshers' hiring intent surges 61% in HY22, says report

Freshers' hiring intentions have increased to 61 per cent for the July-December 2022 period as employers across India look to hire due to the accelerated rate of tech and digital advancements, according to a report. There is a more than threefold increase in the share of employment opportunities for freshers as overall freshers' hiring intentions for the current HY increased to 61 per cent as compared to July-December 2021, according to TeamLease EdTech Career Outlook Report. At the beginning of the second half of 2022, attracting and retaining talent emerged as a top priority for many leading companies and business leaders, it added. "There is a substantial increase in job openings for freshers, but many demand updated skills and experience due to the accelerated rate of tech and digital advancements globally. Breaking down the hiring intent thus helps identify the right path for students and corporations equally in the times of talent wars," TeamLease EdTech founder and CEO Shanta

Govt to adopt digital manufacturing processes: Mahendra Nath Pandey

On the occasion, 175 electric vehicles for Gujarat and Karnataka were flagged off under the FAME Scheme

MoS Devusinh Chauhan highlights India's success in digital infrastructure

Union Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan held a bilateral talk with Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation

Regulating Digital India

Discriminatory algorithms will be the most complex of challenges for regulators

India's digital revolution offers investment opportunities to US, says FM

India's digital revolution offered investment opportunities for the United States, the South Asian country's finance minister said on Wednesday

Creative education, health to play big role for future economies: Basu

Speaking at eighth Pravin Visaria Memorial Public Lecture, Basu stated that for countries like India to emerge as a winner going forward, focusing on creative education and health sectors will be key

Plan India partners Ericsson to digitally connect teachers, rural students

A single digital learning centre costs roughly Rs 10 million per annum to run, and this includes the one-time set-up costs

Does closing physical borders make sense in a world of mobiles, internet?

Borders just seem like a twentieth-century contrivance that slows everything down, like those paper forms you still have to fill out at the doctor's office

More trade in assets will be 'taken over by machines', warns Quant chief

Industry now 'teaching the machine how to make that decision'

The digital revolution - II: Crowds & machines

While the digital revolution has provided many benefits, there are many threats as well, such as from the possible advent of killer robots