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xAI, Musk’s Startup, Eyes $1B Funding

This marks the first publicly known fundraising round for Musk’s AI startup…reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has recently disclosed its intention to secure up to a billion dollars in funding, as indicated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fox Business reported.

The filing on Tuesday by X.AI Corp (dba xAI) outlined a plan to raise USD 1 billion in an equity offering, with more than USD 134 million already successfully raised. The document revealed that the company had entered into a binding agreement for the sale and purchase of the remaining USD 865 million.

Responding to a post by Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management on the financing, Elon Musk clarified on Wednesday, saying, “We are not raising money right now.” Munster’s post suggested that Musk’s fundraising efforts were aimed at competing with OpenAI and Anthropic.

According to a source cited by the New York Post, xAI is “raising money at a valuation that will likely be between $4 billion and $10 billion,” adding that the revelation is the first known fundraising round for Musk’s start-up.

This marks the first publicly known fundraising round for Musk’s AI startup, according to Fox Business.

Govt goes bullish on startups with ESOP holiday, tax relief.

The filing follows Musk’s announcement a month ago that xAI’s “Grok” chatbot, designed to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, had entered the beta testing phase.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and resigned from its board in 2018, launched xAI to compete with ChatGPT and other major players in the AI domain. He has been outspoken about his concerns regarding what he perceives as censorship in Big Tech firms’ AI initiatives and has expressed his intent to develop a truth-seeking AI that seeks to understand the universe.

Since its inception in July, xAI has attracted talent from notable AI research firms such as Google’s DeepMind unit and Microsoft.

Musk, also the CEO of Tesla and the proprietor of the X social media platform, clarified that xAI and the X social media platform are distinct entities, despite working closely together. xAI is actively collaborating with Tesla in addition to its interaction with the X social media platform, Fox Business reported. (ANI)

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Business Tech Lite Technology

Paytm Expands Credit Business

Paytm.

Paytm continues to focus on merchant loans that are lended to MSME as business loans. …reports Asian Lite News

Paytm, India’s leading mobile payments and financial services distribution company, on Wednesday said it will expand its credit distribution business in partnership with large banks and NBFCs by offering higher ticket personal and merchant loans to lower risk and high credit-worthy customers.

Owing to the strong portfolio performance and widespread acceptance of loan distribution, Paytm witnessed encouraging early trends when the company started working in this direction last quarter.

“As the lending distribution business is maturing, we see newer opportunities of expansion to offer high-value personal and merchant loans. We will continue to focus on originating the high portfolio quality for our lending partners, along with strict adherence to risk and compliance. We have seen great scale and acceptance for our loan distribution business, so we believe this expansion will further aid us to grow the business,” said a Paytm spokesperson.

In the light of recent macro development and regulatory guidance and in consultation with lending partners, the company remains focused on driving a healthy portfolio and has recalibrated the portfolio origination of less than Rs 50,000 – prominently the postpaid loan product will now be a smaller part of its loan distribution business moving forward.

Paytm continues to focus on merchant loans that are lended to MSME as business loans. Given that these loans are extended for business purposes to support small merchants, they remain unaffected by the recent regulatory guidance.

The company said it continues to add banks and NBFCs as its lending partners for its loan distribution business.

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Hero, Ather Unveil Fast-Charging Network

Through the collaboration, EV users will be able to seamlessly use both Hero VIDA and Ather Grids across the country….reports Asian Lite News

Hero MotoCorp and electric vehicle manufacturer Ather Energy on Wednesday entered into a partnership for an interoperable fast-charging network in the country, touted as the first-ever interoperable fast-charging network for EV two-wheelers anywhere in the world.

Through the collaboration, EV users will be able to seamlessly use both Hero VIDA and Ather Grids across the country. The combined network will cover 100 cities with over 1,900 fast-charging points.

“This largest charging network in the country will go a long way in providing a seamless and convenient ownership experience to customers. This fastest-growing network utilises the government approved connector-standard, thus ensuring current and future customers will be able to use and charge their vehicles without any hassles in the future,” said Dr Swadesh Srivastava, Chief Business Officer, Emerging Mobility BU, Hero MotoCorp.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) recently approved Light Electric Combined Charging System (LECCS), India’s first-ever indigenously developed AC and DC Combined Charging connector standard for light electric vehicles.

Customers will be able to locate and navigate to the charging stations through the “My VIDA” and Ather App. The interoperability will enable them to discover only compatible locations, locate their nearest charging station, view its availability, and navigate to the station.

“It’s a massive win for Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate on scaling up charging infrastructure. This partnership will pave the way for consumers to access an extensive network of charging stations across the country, alleviating range anxiety,” said Swapnil Jain, Co-founder and CTO, Ather Energy.

Any OEM which adopts the LECCS standard will have access to Ather Grid across India, he added.

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India News Tech Lite

Google Pulls 17 Deceptive Android Loan Apps Targeting India

The total annual cost (TAC) of such loans, according to victims of these applications, is significantly more than stated, and the loan period is much shorter than stated…reports Asian Lite News

Researchers on Wednesday said that they found 18 deceptive Android loan apps that disguised themselves as genuine personal loan services. Google has removed 17 of these apps, targeting users in India and other countries, from their platform.

According to the report by ESET Research, these apps had more than 12 million downloads globally from Google Play before their removal.

Such deceptive Android loan apps are named as ‘SpyLoan apps’.

“These malicious applications exploit the trust that users place in legitimate loan providers, using sophisticated techniques to deceive people and steal a very wide range of personal information,” said ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko, who uncovered many of the SpyLoan apps.

According to the report, the originators of these apps, who blackmail and harass their victims, even with death threats, operate mainly in Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and Singapore.

Other than data harvesting and blackmail, these services present a form of modern-day digital usury, which refers to the charging of excessive interest rates on loans, taking advantage of vulnerable individuals.

The total annual cost (TAC) of such loans, according to victims of these applications, is significantly more than stated, and the loan period is much shorter than stated.

In some cases, borrowers were pressured to pay off their loans in five days, instead of the stated 91 days, and the TAC of a loan was anywhere between 160 per cent and 340 per cent, the report mentioned.

The researchers have traced the origins of the SpyLoan scheme back to 2020.

When a SpyLoan app is installed, the user is required to agree the terms of service and provide extensive permissions to access sensitive data saved on the device.

According to the privacy policies of these apps, if those permissions are not granted, the loan will not be provided. To complete the loan application process, users are also compelled to provide extensive personal information, the report noted.

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India News Tech Lite

Apple Seeks to Source iPhone 16 Batteries From India

Foxconn plans to invest $1.54 billion in India. In a stock exchange filing, Foxconn said that the investment will help it fulfil “operational needs.”…reports Asian Lite News

In an effort to diversify its global supply chain and move manufacturing out of China, Apple has informed its component suppliers of its preference to source batteries for the upcoming iPhone 16 from Indian factories, media report said on Wednesday.

According to the Financial Times, battery manufacturers, such as Desay of China, have been encouraged to establish new factories in India, while Simplo Technology, a Taiwanese battery supplier for Apple, has been asked to increase manufacturing in India for future orders.

Earlier this week, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp will manufacture lithium-ion (li-ion) battery cells for Apple iPhones in India.

“Another big win for PM @narendramodi ji’s visionary PLI scheme in shifting the mobile manufacturing ecosystem to India. TDK, a leading supplier of cells to Apple, is setting up a 180-acre facility in Manesar, Haryana to build cells for batteries which will be used in the #MadeInIndia iPhones,” he wrote on X.

Companies like Desay and Simplo package the electric cells produced by TDK and their counterparts into modules and send them to assemblers such as Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, the report mentioned.

Foxconn plans to invest $1.54 billion in India. In a stock exchange filing, Foxconn said that the investment will help it fulfil “operational needs.”

Meanwhile, Apple has asked the Indian government to exempt its existing iPhones from the requirement of a common charging port (USB-C) for electronics devices, as the Centre evaluates the possibility of mandating a common charger for most devices.

In a meeting with the IT Ministry officials late last month, Apple told the officials that if such a rule — similar to what has been proposed by the European Union (EU) to require devices to have universal charging ports — is brought, it may hamper its domestic manufacturing plans, reliable sources told.

Apple joins AI race

As artificial intelligence (AI) takes centre-stage across companies, Apple’s machine learning research team has released frameworks and model libraries designed to run on its silicon chips.

The company released MLX, a machine learning framework designed for efficient and flexible machine learning on Apple silicon.

“The design of MLX is inspired by frameworks like PyTorch, Jax, and ArrayFire. A noteable difference from these frameworks and MLX is the unified memory model,” according to Apple on GitHub.

“Arrays in MLX live in shared memory. Operations on MLX arrays can be performed on any of the supported device types without performing data copies. Currently supported device types are the CPU and GPU,” the Apple ML research team added.

Awni Hannun of Apple’s ML team posted on X that just in time for the holidays, “we are releasing some new software from Apple machine learning research”.

“MLX is an efficient machine learning framework specifically designed for Apple silicon (i.e. your laptop!),” Hannun said.

MLX is a NumPy-like array framework designed for efficient and flexible machine learning on Apple silicon.

“The Python API closely follows NumPy with a few exceptions. MLX also has a fully featured C++ API which closely follows the Python API,” according to the Apple ML team.

Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the company is investing quite a bit in AI and will do it responsibly for product enhancements over time.

Cook said that the company views AI and machine learning as fundamental technologies and they’re integral to virtually every product that they ship.

“When we shipped iOS 17, it had features like Personal Voice and Live Voicemail. AI is at the heart of these features. And then, you can go all the way to the life-saving features on the launch end of the phone like fall detection, crash detection, ECG on the watch. These would not be possible without AI,” he told analysts during the company’s earnings call.

Cook said that Apple has work going on related to AI for quite some time.

“I’m not going to get into details about what it is, because we really don’t do that. But you can bet that we’re investing, we’re investing quite a bit, we’re going to do it responsibly and you will see product advancements over time,” the Apple CEO said.

In August, Cook said the tech giant has been working on generative AI and other models for years.

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Tech Lite

GenAI Sparks Security Worries Among 92% of Indian Firms

In a worryingly trend, 22 per cent of those surveyed are not monitoring the GenAI usage at all, and 36 per cent have yet to implement any additional GenAI-related security measures, though many have it on their roadmap…reports Asian Lite News

As Generative AI tools take centre stage in India’s digital economy, at least 92 per cent of organisations consider GenAI to be a potential security risk, a new report showed on Wednesday.

While 95 per cent of organisations in India are using GenAI tools in some form, 75 per cent of them admit lack of skill or talent for not yet using GenAI tools like ChatGPT, according to the report by Cloud security provider Zscaler.

About 71 per cent in India agree that IT teams, not general employees, emerge as the overwhelming force behind usage. “Our survey underscores the dynamism of GenAI adoption, highlighting the need to sharpen focus on both Zero trust principles and skill development to unlock the full potential of GenAI technology,” said Sudip Banerjee, CTO, APJ, Zscaler.

“Therefore, integrating a zero-trust solution can provide full control over technology’s usage per user and application, allowing organisations to maintain a secure and controlled environment,” he added.

In a worryingly trend, 22 per cent of those surveyed are not monitoring the GenAI usage at all, and 36 per cent have yet to implement any additional GenAI-related security measures, though many have it on their roadmap.

“With the current ambiguity surrounding their (GenAI tools) security measures, a mere 30 per cent of organisations in India perceive their adoption as an opportunity rather than a threat,” said Sanjay Kalra, VP Product Management at Zscaler.

“This not only jeopardises their business and customer data integrity, but also squanders their tremendous potential,” he noted.

Despite mainstream awareness, it is not employees who appear to be the driving force behind current interest and usage – only 3 per cent of respondents in India said it stemmed from employees. Instead, 71 per cent said usage was being driven by the IT teams directly in India.

“The fact that IT teams are at the helm should offer a sense of reassurance to business leaders,” Kalra said.

With 75 per cent of respondents in India anticipating a significant increase in the interest of GenAI tools before the end of the year, organisations need to act quickly to close the gap between use and security, the report mentioned.

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Apple, Google Face Scrutiny as Senator Exposes Government Espionage

Apple App Store, Google Play

The threat notification probe is currently being conducted by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)…reports Asian Lite News

Some unidentified governments around the world are spying on Apple and Google phone users through their push notifications, US Senator Ron Wyden has warned in a letter written to the Justice Department.

The letter said that his office received a tip in 2022 that government agencies in foreign countries were demanding smartphone “push” notification records from Google and Apple.

“My staff have been investigating this tip for the past year, which included contacting Apple and Google. In response to that query, the companies told my staff that information about this practice is restricted from public release by the government,” the letter further read.

Push notifications are the instant alerts delivered to smartphone users by apps, such as a notification about a new text message or a news update. They aren’t sent directly from the app provider to users’ smartphones. Wyden said that Apple and Google can be “secretly compelled by governments to hand over this information.”

Last month, Apple sent “threat notifications” to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries, including in India. Apple is sending a team of experts to delve deep into the issue of some Indian politicians receiving threats notifications last month, warning them of state-sponsored hackers targeting their devices.

The threat notification probe is currently being conducted by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

“Apple and Google should be permitted to be transparent about the legal demands they receive, particularly from foreign governments, just as the companies regularly notify users about other types of government demands for data,” Wyden wrote in the letter.

These companies should be permitted to generally reveal whether they have been compelled to facilitate this surveillance practice, to publish aggregate statistics about the number of demands they receive, and unless temporarily gagged by a court, to notify specific customers about demands for their data, he added.

The letter, however, did not specify which foreign governments have asked Apple and Google for push notification information. “Apple is committed to transparency and we have long been a supporter of efforts to ensure that providers are able to disclose as much information as possible to their users,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information and now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests,” the spokesperson added.

A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company shares Wyden’s “commitment to keeping users informed about these requests.”

“We were the first major company to publish a public transparency report sharing the number and types of government requests for user data we receive, including the requests referred to by Senator Wyden,” according to Google.

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Why Reading Matters?

Storybooks often address emotions, feelings, and social situations that children might be encountering for the first time. Reading about characters who experience similar emotions helps children understand their feelings and develop empathy…writes  Priyanka Shah

Every successful person ends up having one thing in common- their thirst for knowledge. And what do they do to gain such intellect? They read! They read and read about everything on god’s green earth and then form their own thoughts about the many things they’ve read. Sounds easy enough, right? However, it is not.

Let’s be honest, none other than habitual readers can pick a book and start reading it. Developing this habit is a lot harder when you are 30 years old. As consumable content duration shrinks and our tolerance with it, parents must recognise that now is the right time to develop a love for reading early in kids which will surely help them when they grow up. This will give them an early advantage and set them up for success.

Reading storybooks should be a part of every child’s life and it should start as early as possible. One can even start with reading board books to one’s 6 months old baby. In fact, reading books early has many lesser-known benefits such as:

Reading plays a crucial role in a child’s development and overall well-being. The importance of reading and exposure to storybooks cannot be overstated, as they contribute to a wide range of cognitive, emotional, social, and educational benefits.

Reading stimulates brain development by encouraging critical thinking, imagination, and problem-solving skills.

Exposure to books and reading from a young age lays the foundation for early literacy skills, such as letter recognition and understanding the structure of written language.

Storybooks often address emotions, feelings, and social situations that children might be encountering for the first time. Reading about characters who experience similar emotions helps children understand their feelings and develop empathy.

The habit of reading is something that pays off for a long time! Children who enjoy reading are more likely to seek out knowledge and continue exploring new ideas as they grow older.

However, the screen time dilemma has become every parent’s nightmare. No matter how much parents try, the screens dominate every child’s life and it is close to impossible to keep them away from screens all the time. Finding the right balance and managing screen time effectively is crucial for the healthy development and well-being of children.

But in a screen-dominated world where do the pretty little paperbacks fit? How does one walk the tightrope between screen and story? While we are surrounded by technology, we often forget that we are living in the age of knowledge where we can find solutions to many challenges. Here is a list of platforms that took this challenge head-on. These platforms are constantly working on bridging to make screen time worthwhile by helping kids develop cool reading habits in a digital playground:

Jumbaya

Jumbaya brings a curated library of just the best storybooks from around the world covering genres like folktales, mythology, adventure, animals, morals, sci-fi, bedtime stories and many more! All their storybooks are done in a thoughtfully animated read-along format with SLS (Same Language Subtitling) that can help significantly improve a child’s reading abilities as well as develop vocabulary and language skills. They also have storybooks in Hindi and plan to bring storybooks in other Indian and global languages.

Epic

Epic is a platform dedicated to bringing storybooks from the page to the screen. This app makes books more accessible to kids. A lot of their books have a read-aloud feature that makes it easier for kids to follow the words while reading. 

StoryWeaver

An initiative by Pratham books, this is a free library of multiple books from around the world for kids. Most of their storybooks are also available in many Indian and international languages. They even follow a unique system of ‘Levels’ which can be used to map out a book to a kid’s reading ability.

In a world where screens beckon from every corner, finding meaningful experiences becomes a need of the hour. But with moderated content and platforms you’ll soon find that your child’s screen time can be a source of smiles through the pleasure of reading! In the digital playground, let literature be your guide to a more fulfilling and enriching use of technology. With these cool reading habits, the digital world becomes a playground for the mind and soul.

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Common Charger: Apple Requests India to Exempt Older iPhones

EU plans to make common charger mandatory for all smartphones

Reuters was first to report about this development. When reached, Apple did not comment on it…reports Asian Lite News

Apple has asked the Indian government to exempt its existing iPhones from the requirement of a common charging port (USB-C) for electronics devices, as the Centre evaluates the possibility of mandating a common charger for most devices.

In a meeting with the IT Ministry officials late last month, Apple told the officials that if such a rule — similar to what has been proposed by the European Union (EU) to require devices to have universal charging ports — is brought, it may hamper its domestic manufacturing plans, reliable sources told IANS.

According to the tech giant, if such regulation is implemented on older models of mobile phones, Apple may not be able to meet the PLI (product-linked incentive) targets.

Reuters was first to report about this development. When reached, Apple did not comment on it.

India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo told IANS that the industry is completely aligned with the government in implementing a uniform charging port regulation in the country to reduce e-waste and promote ease of living for consumers.

“The mobile phone industry has already adopted the Type-C USB port for charging and 100 per cent of the new models launched and sold in India are with type-C. We are working with the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) for a smoother transition of all the notified products like mobile phones, laptops, and tablets, which will be covered under the regulation,” he said.

The latest iPhone 15 series models have been launched with the USB-C port and according to Apple, “the design of the earlier products cannot be changed”. According to industry experts, Apple’s fortunes in India have primarily been tied to older-generation iPhones, as the masses are using old-generation iPhone models.

“An early transition to USB-C, including on older-gen iPhones, could potentially strain Apple’s supply chain and hit its fortunes,” Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group at CMR, told IANS.

In August, the Department of Consumer Affairs met industry representatives to evaluate the possibility of mandating a common charger for most devices. In the meeting with Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, the ICEA and other industry stakeholders discussed the viability of a common charging port (USB-C) for electronics devices, including mobile phones.

“The charging port ecosystem has largely become rationalised, with the vast majority of feature phones (375 million) using micro-USB, and vast majority of smartphones (500 million) using USB-C. Low power devices (such as hearables /wearables, Bluetooth speakers) are also moving towards USB-C for higher-end items,” Mohindroo had said.

The government is aiming at the possibility of adopting a universal charger model for all electronic devices, and will set up a panel seeking views on the proposal.

Apple iPhone shipments saw a 68 per cent (year-on-year) growth in India in the first half of 2023, driven by iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 series. Apple is likely to garner 7 per cent market share in 2023, according to CMR data. The growth in the Indian smartphone industry has been primarily driven by the Apple ecosystem, which alone crossed a record $5 billion in exports from India in FY23.

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RBI Eyes Status Quo on Rates

According to credit rating agency CARE Ratings, the RBI will continue with its cautious pause with the repo rate at 6.5 per cent….reports Asian Lite News

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to maintain the repo rate at 6.5 per cent and there would be no rate hike this fiscal, said economists at credit rating agencies and Bank of Baroda.

They also said RBI’s MPC at its upcoming meeting would revise upward the gross domestic product (GDP) forecast.

According to credit rating agency CARE Ratings, the RBI will continue with its cautious pause with the repo rate at 6.5 per cent.

The repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow from the RBI.

“The economic outlook has improved significantly with a robust expansion of economic output in H1 led by upward surprise in Q2 GDP growth. The RBI may revise its earlier growth projections for FY24 up by about 20-30 bps,” CARE Ratings said.

Despite the commendable overall economic performance, specific challenges persist in certain pockets, particularly in rural demand. Agricultural growth remains muted amid lower-than-expected kharif output and lower reservoir levels impacting rabi sowing, said CARE Ratings.

Inflation pressures eased but food prices remain a cause of concern. A decline in agricultural production could pose an additional upside risk to inflation figures.

According to CARE Ratings, the RBI will focus on liquidity management and personal credit. While an overall tight liquidity situation is anticipated, the RBI aims to ensure that it does not unduly impede credit growth.

The RBI is likely to continue supporting economic growth, while remaining cautious on inflation.

“Therefore, we anticipate that the RBI will keep its policy rates and stance unchanged. We do not anticipate any further rate hikes by the RBI in this fiscal year,” CARE Ratings said.

“With the GDP data for Q2 FY2024 appreciably higher than the MPC’s last forecast, and continuing concerns on various aspects of food inflation, we expect the MPC to pause in its December 2023 review, amidst a fairly hawkish tone of the policy document,” said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head Research and Outreach, ICRA Ltd

“The high growth witnessed in Q2 in GDP will provide assurance that the economy is on track. The low core inflation numbers in the last few months will provide comfort that there is no need to increase rates even while headline inflation is likely to be volatile in the upward direction,” said Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda.

“Some direction on liquidity will be useful to the market as the system is in deficit for quite some time. There can be some upward revision in the GDP growth numbers though will not be very significant. We believe an upward revision of 0.1-0.2% can be expected here. Inflation forecasts may remain unchanged and, if at all there is a revision, will be upwards,” he added.

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