Raghuram Rajan charts services as a path ahead for India

Raghuram Rajan charts services as a path ahead for India

By Ritu Jha- India missed the bus on a China Plus One strategy that involves developing independent manufacturing and supply chains. But economist Raghuram Rajan feels India needs to focus more on its service and agriculture sectors to boost its economy and create jobs. Rajan, the former Reserve Bank of India governor, and the Katherine […]

Priya Vijayarajendran named CEO of ASAPP

Priya Vijayarajendran named CEO of ASAPP

ASAPP, a provider of AI-powered contact center software, on Tuesday, March 4, appointed Priya Vijayarajendran to the position of CEO.

As ASAPP’s former CTO and president of technology, Vijayarajendran brings three decades of AI and software leadership at global enterprises, including Microsoft, IBM and SAP.

ASEI Silicon Valley hosts groundbreaking AI summit, celebrates 10 years of impact

On February 15th, the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) held its highly anticipated AI Summit at the UCSC Silicon Valley campus, marking a significant milestone—the 10-year anniversary of its Silicon Valley chapter.

The event brought together an impressive lineup of academics, researchers, innovators, and industry leaders from the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to discuss the latest advancements, applications, and challenges in this transformative technology.

India developing indigenous AI models, ready to share expertise, says PM Modi

India is advancing AI applications for the public good and is home to one of the largest AI talent pools in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday, February 11, highlighting the country’s commitment to ensuring that the “AI future is for Good, and for All”.

Speaking at the ‘AI Action Summit,’ PM Modi revealed that India is working on its own large language model (LLM), developed with its diverse population in mind. He also pointed out India’s unique public-private partnership model, which allows resources such as computing power to be made available to startups and researchers at an affordable cost.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman lauds India’s AI vision, says willing to collaborate

As the global race for artificial intelligence (AI) intensifies, India has rolled out an ambitious strategy to develop a comprehensive AI ecosystem, with OpenAI expressing willingness to collaborate on this mission.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Electronics and IT Minister, shared this development on Wednesday after meeting OpenAI Co-founder and CEO Sam Altman in the national capital.

OpenAI investigates DeepSeek over potential use of ChatGPT data in AI training

As Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek continues to make waves in the technology industry amidst the U.S.-China trade tensions, OpenAI has raised concerns that its ChatGPT data may have been used to train DeepSeek’s cost-effective AI models.

OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, has discovered indications that DeepSeek employed a technique known as “distillation,” which is commonly used to train AI models by extracting data from large language models (LLMs). Both OpenAI and Microsoft are now investigating whether DeepSeek utilized their APIs to train its own models.

Indian-origin faculty from top U.S. universities join 'MARG' mentoring initiative for academic excellence

U.S.-India ICT Working Group reaffirms commitment to secure digital connectivity and infrastructure

India and the United States have reaffirmed their commitment to fostering secure, reliable, and interoperable digital connectivity and ICT infrastructure during the U.S.-India Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Working Group meeting.

The discussions, held in New Delhi on Friday, January 17, highlighted areas of collaboration, including advancements in 5G and 6G networks, artificial intelligence, cross-border data flows, and the promotion of Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN).

U.S. Supreme Court judges lean toward upholding TikTok ban over national security concerns

A majority of the judges on the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, January 10, seemed inclined to uphold a federal law that would impose a ban on the video-sharing app TikTok in America after January 19 if the Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance divests from the platform, ABC News reported.

TikTok vs Garland is the legal case that pits the social media platform against all three branches of the U.S. government, which have a similar view that the app poses a serious risk to national security. During arguments, concerns regarding intelligence threats posed by China and potential future weaponization of the app appeared to override concerns about potential restrictions on free speech rights.

Meta to scrap fact-checking program before Trump’s inauguration, CoHNA lauds move

Ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, social media giant Meta has said it is going to stop using fact-checkers. Meta said that this move is to “restore free expression” and rely on Facebook and Instagram users to add notes or corrections to posts, which is similar to the system that exists in Elon Musk-owned X. The move has been lauded by Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA)

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on social media: “We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X (formerly Twitter), starting in the US.”

Purdue University’s Vijay Raghunathan appointed member of NSTC

Purdue’s vice president for global partnerships and programs, director of semiconductor education, and a professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vijay Raghunathan, has been appointed as an inaugural member of the Workforce Advisory Board for the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), the university notified on January 7.

Raghunathan is one of only four representatives from major universities selected to join the 18-member board, it said. He will serve as a key voice in national efforts to build and strengthen the semiconductor talent pipeline.

India’s new data protection act requires parent’s consent for child’s data, govt releases draft

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Friday, January 3, released the draft rules for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which make it mandatory for a Data Fiduciary to ensure verifiable consent of a parent before processing any personal data of a child.

The Act was passed in Parliament in August 2023 and the government is seeking feedback on the draft rules through the MyGov portal till February 18, 2025.

Crypto criminals steal over a billion in 2024, pushing total theft to $12.7 billion

Crypto criminals have stolen over $1.71 billion worth of cryptos this year, pushing total thefts to shocking levels at $12.7 billion across more than 1,000 heists to date, data showed on Monday, December 23.

The high value and anonymity of cryptocurrencies make them a magnet for criminals, helping the total value of criminal crypto transactions to hit shocking highs, according to the report by CryptoPresales.com.