One Thing Today in Tech

Leading today’s briefing is news that Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos plans to be one of the passengers, when New Shepard, the reusable rocket built by Blue Origin, the space company he started over 20 years ago, makes its first manned flight on July 20th. Also on the programme, Apple’s WWDC; Google to pay a fine in France; the Nevera electric hypercar; and later, we talk to Ranjith Mukundan, CEO of S...

Over the last five years, interest and investments in quantum computing have picked up considerably, with technology companies as well as national governments committing billions of dollars to developing commercial quantum computers. Heike Riel, IBM Fellow, Head of Science and Technology and Lead, Quantum, IBM Research Europe, and Gargi Dasgupta, Director of IBM Research India and CTO of IBM India...

Leading this briefing is news that SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks with Flipkart to invest again, four years after it sold its stake in the Indian ecommerce company to Walmart, according to news reports. SoftBank’s Vision Fund could invest $600-700 million in Flipkart. Also in this programme, TCS commits to net zero carbon footprint by 2030; and we speak with Prasad Vanga, CEO of Anthill Ventures...

Leading today's briefing is news that Urban Company, a tech-enabled home services marketplace, plans to go public in the next 18-24 months after it announced a fresh $255 million funding round Wednesday. Also in the programme, Clubhouse hires FB’s Aarthi Ramamurthy; Locus raises $50 million; and Probhir Roy Chowdhury, a partner at the law firm J Sagar Associates, says cryptocurrency regulation in...

Leading today’s briefing is news that some of India’s cryptocurrency exchange businesses have set up a self-regulatory code, and are setting up a board to oversee its implementation. Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council, a lobby formed by these businesses, welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s clarification to banks on Monday—you can hear more on Monday's tech brief. Also in the programme, the rise...

Leading today’s briefing is news that The Reserve Bank of India has told banks that they cannot refer to its April 2018 circular—struck down by the Supreme Court in 2020—to caution customers about trading in cryptocurrency. This comes at a time when Indian banks have been reportedly sending notices to customers, warning of penalties and account closures if it is being used for crypto transactions....

Leading today’s briefing is a reminder that unlimited uploads on Google Photos end today. From tomorrow, if you upload photos and videos to Google Photos, they will count towards the 15GB free limit that Google provides as a free account. Also today, Amitabh Saran, co-founder and CEO of Altigreen Propulsion Labs, talks about painstakingly building electric vehicles that work well even in India’s h...

Leading today’s briefing is news that Paytm, India’s biggest digital payments provider, is planning an initial share sale to raise about $3 billion, or 218 billion rupees, around November, according to Bloomberg. This would be India’s biggest IPO. Later, we talk to Mudit Dandwate and Gaurav Parchani, founders of Dozee, who have digitalised a 150-year-old technique of listening to the human heart t...

Leading the briefing today is news that Clubhouse has hired Justin Uberti, creator of the WebRTC standard and the Google Duo video chat app. He leaves Google after nearly 15 years at the company, where he was most recently the engineering lead for Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service. Also, Google strikes a deal to get more healthcare data; Amazon buys MGM; and we speak with edtech startup UpGrad...

Leading the briefing today is news that US biotech company Moderna’s vaccine against Covid 19 was found to be 93 percent efficacious in teens in a study of 3,700 participants between 12 years and 18 years of age. Also, IBM is opening up its quantum computers to India’s top research and tech institutes; and we talk to Tapan Barman, co-founder and CEO of Mihup Communications, which makes the voice a...

Leading the briefing today, Zeta, a banking tech startup co-founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakia, has secured 250 million dollars in investment from SoftBank Vision Fund II. This is Zeta’s Series C funding and the deal values the startup at $1.45 billion. Also, Clubhouse Android gets a million downloads in two weeks; and we talk to Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharat Daka, co-founders of...

In today’s special briefing, we look at how Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest and one of the world’s largest IT services companies, is expanding its network of innovation centres under a brand and architecture called Pace. These centres are physical-digital hubs in Tokyo, New York and now in Amsterdam, bringing together the best that TCS has to offer with some of the finest universities a...

Apple CEO Tim Cook may appear in court as early as today, in a lawsuit brought against it by Epic Games, which is accusing Apple of abusing its market power with its App Store policies. Google reveals there are now over three billion Android users; and we chat with Madhav Sheth, CEO of Realme India and Europe, about the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset and why it makes sense to buy a 5G pho...

Leading today’s briefing is news that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has told WhatsApp in a letter to withdraw its privacy policy update on sharing more user data with Facebook. With the update, that became effective on May 15, WhatsApp has given itself the right to share more data on users interactions with businesses with Facebook so it can more sharply target...

Leading today’s briefing is news about new privacy features that Google is incorporating into its upcoming Android 12 software for smartphones. Google previewed these features at its ongoing annual I/O conference. Also in the programme, Tata Consultancy Services’ CEO Rajesh Gopinathan sees a decade-long shift towards cloud ecosystems; how Nvidia is trying to get its chips back to gamers; and an in...

Leading today’s briefing is news that WhatsApp has confirmed to the Delhi High court that, while it will not immediately delete accounts of users who don’t accept its January privacy policy update, it will do so eventually. The court was hearing petitions filed in India challenging WhatsApp’s update. Also on the programme, AT&T strikes a deal to combine WarnerMedia with Discovery; Google I/O s...

Leading today’s briefing is a report that India’s ed-tech sector will continue to see strong growth over the next few years. Also on the programme, Elon Musk continues his crypto-market-moving tweets; Find out what Twitter Blue is; and we speak with Tauseef Khan and Nishant Mahatre, co-founders of Gramophone about their ongoing effort to build an integrated tech stack to help farmers in India with...

Top of the briefing today is news that Vitalik Buterin, cofounder of the Ethereum blockchain, donated a billion dollars towards India’s efforts to fight Covid-19. Also in this podcast, Google struck a deal to bring SpaceX’s Starlink satellite-based internet broadband to customers around the world; Apple’s laptops and computer sales surged in India in the first three months this year; and we speak...

Leading today’s tech briefing is news that the US is in talks with India to find a way to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine in India. The US is also working on a list of raw materials India needs urgently to boost vaccine production. Also on the programme, VMware gets an Indian-born CEO ,  and later, we talk to Rajat Verma, an entrepreneur who is keen on making lithium...

Leading today’s tech briefing is the news that Google Pay has started allowing its users to send money across borders in partnership with two international money transfer services. To begin with, Google Pay users in the US can send money to India and Singapore, thanks to a new integration with Western Union and Wise, Google said in a blogpost Tuesday. Also in the briefing, we talk t...

Leading today’s tech briefing is an open letter from America’s state attorneys general to Facebook to abandon its plan to build a version of Instagram targeting children below the age of 13. In the letter, they wrote: “It appears that Facebook is not responding to a need, but instead creating one, as this platform appeals primarily to children who otherwise do not or would not have an Instagram ac...

Top of the news in today’s tech briefing starts with a reminder that WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy is set to become effective this weekend. Users who are yet to accept the policy will not have their accounts deleted come May 15, however, over a period of several weeks, users will get persistent prompts, lose app functionality and eventually won’t be able to use it anymore. Also in today’s brie...

Leading today’s tech briefing is news from Google that the search giant will add a new safety section in its Play app store to make developers provide more information on the data collected and shared by their apps. Users will start seeing this section early next year, Google said Thursday. Also in this briefing, IBM’s chip design breakthrough with a two-nanometre process, Brave, a cool browser al...

Leading today’s tech briefing is news that the US has reversed its stance on intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines. It will now back negotiations proposed by India and South Africa to waive the protections in an effort to boost production of the vaccines worldwide. Also in the briefing, former US President Donald Trump remains banned on Facebook, a look at Wipro’s tech moves, Indi...