One Thing Today in Tech

The International Monetary Fund yesterday revised upward its global growth projections for the year, after better-than-expected data on spending by American households and businesses, and in other countries, and Europe’s handling of its energy crisis, CNBC reports. Also in this report, pet fish apparently changed their owner’s Nintendo username, downloaded a new avatar, set up a PayPal account and...

The US Justice Department yesterday accused Google of abusing its dominance in digital advertising, and said the internet giant should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, Reuters reports. Venture capital funding of startups fell more than 38 percent in 2022 versus 2021, GlobalData finds. Indian software-as-a-service companies, however, were a relative bright spot, according to a separate repor...

Amazon has launched Amazon Air, its dedicated air cargo fleet in India, partnering with Quickjet, the ecommerce giant said in a press release yesterday. It will start with Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Activist investor Elliott Management’s next target is Salesforce, Wall Street Journal reports. Also in this brief, Microsoft invests more money in OpenAI, and GPT3, the AI chatbot, just pa...

India’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected Google’s ask that an order by the Competition Commission imposing a fine and changes to its market practices with respect to Android software be stayed. Google had approached the top court after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, earlier this month, had refused to stay the Competition Commission’s order while it heard the matter. Also in this brie...

GoMechanic, a car service startup backed by VC investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management and Chiratae, will cut 70 percent of its staff and undergo an independent audit of its books, the company’s co-founder Amit Bhasin said in a post on LinkedIn yesterday. Also in this brief, Microsoft yesterday confirmed the 10,000 job cuts that had previously been reported in the news, and a...

Microsoft will likely announce thousands of job cuts soon resulting from a decision to cut 5 percent of its global workforce, Sky News reported yesterday. With more than 220,000 employees at Microsoft, that could mean more than 10,000 layoffs, The Verge pointed out. Also in this brief, Apple’s new MacBook Pro laptops with the M2 chips, Google’s plan for an Airtag-like tracker, and investors take I...

ShareChat, yesterday, joined a growing list of Indian startup unicorns that have laid off employees amid a funding winter. The company has laid off 20 percent of its workforce to conserve cash, as the current global economic slowdown has made it harder to raise funding, according to multiple reports. The desi social media venture is among the most funded startups in India. Also in this brief, a Sw...

Infosys yesterday raised its revenue outlook for FY23 citing strong growth momentum from the first nine of the fiscal year and a record order book, even as a recession looms large in its biggest markets. The company’s numbers beat street expectations and CEO Salil Parekh said its strong capabilities in cloud technologies and automation had helped Infosys win the highest number of large contracts i...

Normal air traffic operations are slowly resuming in the US after flights were halted across the country on Wednesday, due to a software glitch in the Federal Aviation Administration’s computer systems, BBC reports. Also in this brief, Jio crosses 100 cities with its 5G services; and Maruti Suzuki India expects to launch the eVX, an electric SUV, by 2025 with a range of 550km per charge, the Japan...

Microsoft is in talks to invest $10 billion into OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, the AI app that has gone ultra-viral, Semafor reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter. OneWeb yesterday confirmed the successful deployment of 40 satellites launched by SpaceX, taking it to a total of 542 low-earth-orbit satellites and a step closer to offering “global” connectivity. Also in this brie...

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services company, said its quarterly revenue has crossed the $7 billion mark, with sales for its fiscal third quarter, the October-December period, coming in at $7.075 billion. A near-term slowdown in demand is apparent in the staff addition numbers. TCS saw a net reduction in its workforce, for the first time since the Covid pandemic began to fan out...

Apple may not be releasing a new iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who bases his predictions on sources in the supply chain, The Verge reported on Jan. 7. The Infosys Prize for 2022 was announced on Jan. 7, by Infosys Science Foundation. The Prize carries a pure gold medal, a citation, and a cash purse of $100,000 each in categories including science, engineering and humanities...

Indian Space Research Organisation and Microsoft yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to together help space-tech startups in India. They will offer technology tools and platforms, go-to-market support and mentoring to help Indian space startups scale and become enterprise ready. Amazon’s layoffs are bigger than originally rumoured. And also in today’s briefing, scientists in the US make...

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms was fined 390 million euros or $414 million in the EU’s latest fine against the social network apps provider, Wall Street Journal reports. In India, Google’s appeal seeking an immediate stay against a Competition Commission fine has been declined by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Tech Circle reports. Cloud CRM giant is the latest...

India currently doesn’t plan to put restrictions on how much time individuals, including youngsters, spend playing games online, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s minister of state for electronics and information technology, told the lower house of the country’s parliament on Dec. 14, according to a government statement. Also in today’s brief, Moneycontrol reports that SaaS company Freshworks has laid...

Infosys turned 40 this year, and the journey has seen many firsts for India—from listing in the US to the distribution of wealth across the rank and file of the enterprise. The story of the company, widely seen as the bellwether of India’s IT services industry, includes chapters in which the founders came back from retirement—not once, but twice. In this extended edition of the tech brief, we brin...

Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest IT services company, is facing a class-action lawsuit in the US, the company’s biggest market. TCS has been sued by Shawn Katz, a former employee, who alleges that the IT giant discriminates against non-South Asian and non-Indian applicants and employees, Money Control reports. Also in this episode, Vivo’s latest Switch Off report shows smartphone addicti...

Google, last week, followed Apple, in releasing its version of what’s called a passkey, which if widely adopted could take us closer to a passwordless future. Air India is close to placing historic orders for as many as 500 jetliners worth tens of billions of dollars from both Airbus and Boeing, Reuters reported yesterday, citing industry sources. Also in this episode, opposition to Blackrock’s ES...

Einride, a freight mobility technology company, said yesterday it has raised $500 million in financing, comprising $200 million in Series C equity investment and a $300 million debt facility. Blume Ventures has announced the close of its Fund IV at more than $250 million, bringing its assets under management to more than $600 million. Apple has delayed the launch of its EV, and separately, is bein...

Sorrento Therapeutics has received clearance from the US FDA to initiate clinical trials with its new mRNA vaccine against Omicron variants of the Coronavirus. One Peak, an investor in growth-stage B2B software companies in Europe and Israel, has closed its latest fund at $1 billion, Private Equity Wire reported yesterday. Israeli AI inference chip venture NeuReality has raised $35 million in seri...

Apple may bring some of its iPad production to India from China if talks with the Indian government are successful, CNBC reported yesterday, citing two sources close to the government. Microsoft has hiked prices in India by up to 11 percent to match prevailing dollar-based pricing in Asia, the company said in a post. And nutritional supplements seller HealthKart has raised more money in a funding...

India’s Department of Telecommunications has told the country’s top telcos to stop setting up 5G networks close to airports, over concerns that they could interfere with airplane instruments, Press Trust of India reports. India’s EV scooter sales continue to grow as established players raise their game. And in agri tech, DeHaat, one of the biggest startups in the sector, has raised series E fundin...

Google will face damages claims for up to 25 billion euros ($25.4 billion) over its digital advertising practices in two lawsuits to be filed in British and Dutch courts in the coming weeks by a law firm on behalf of publishers, Reuters reports. Tata Group is looking to buy a facility in Bangalore, from Apple contract manufacturer Wistron, Economic Times reports. And San Francisco’s board of super...

India will conduct the first pilot of the e-rupee for retail digital currency on December 1, Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank said yesterday in a statement. Meanwhile, the central bank has rejected the NBFC licence applications of some well-known fintech startups, The Hindu Businessline reports. And Vikram Kirloskar, the well-known industrialist, widely seen as being responsible f...

Amazon Web Services at its annual re:Invent conference, which began yesterday, said it will be water positive by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations, according to a press release. Table Space, a co-working space provider, has raised $300 million in fresh funding, Economic Times reports. And the high-end versions of next year’s iPhones may not have physic...