One Thing Today in Tech

Vedanta, Foxconn to invest $7.4 billion to build India chip foundry

In a move that could give India at least a toehold in the global semiconductor fabrication market, Vedanta Group and Foxconn are partnering to build a chip foundry in India that could be ready as early as 2024, Economic Times reports. The fab will focus on 28nm technology to make chips that could go into smartphone components, among other things, and Vedanta Group will invest $7.4 billion in the project, according to ET.

Apple expected to release new laptops with the faster M2 chip

Apple is gearing up to release several new Macs with an M2 chip later this year, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. The company will debut a 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, 24-inch iMac, and a redesigned MacBook Air, all running on the new M2 chip, and Gurman expects the new chip to be slightly faster than its predecessor.

He expects the M2’s CPU to also share the same eight-core architecture as the M1, but have more graphics cores.

In more Apple news, some retail employees are beginning to quietly unionise, in part because hourly wages have remained stagnant while Apple’s profits have soared, Futurism reports, citing news from the Washington Post that is behind a paywall.

Two store locations are preparing to file paperwork with the US National Labor Relations Board and more are in earlier stages, and many of the organisers have switched to Android phones to avoid any potential spying from Apple, according to the report.

Pine Labs raised $150 million at the valuation of over $5 billion

Pine Labs has raised $150 million in a mix of primary and secondary funding from Alpha Wave Global, in a deal that values the New Delhi fintech company—headed for an IPO—at more than $5 billion, Economic Times reports. The equity and secondary investments are about half and half, according to ET.

CRED in talks to invest in smallcase

In more fintech startup news, CRED, entrepreneur Kunal Shah’s credit card and data company, is in talks to invest in another Bangalore startup, smallcase that helps people invest in small, curated baskets of stocks, TechCrunch reports.

CRED’s proposed investment values smallcase in the range of $300 million to $400 million, according to TechCrunch. smallcase is backed by investors including Amazon, Sequoia Capital and Zerodha, India’s biggest online broker.

BigBasket acquires Kerala startup Agrima Infotech

BigBasket, India’s biggest online grocer, has acquired Agrima Infotech, a startup incubated by Kerala Startup Mission, which has developed a customer vision technology platform, the company said in a press release. BigBasket will implement Agrima’s technology at the self-checkout counters of its offline stores—a segment that the company has been looking to expand into, after its acquisition by the Tata Group last year.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Uniphore, a conversational automation tech company, yesterday announced its Series E funding round of $400 million, led by NEA, at a valuation of $2.5 billion. IBM has acquired Neudesic, a cloud consultancy. And the top 10 percent of the global population, by consumption, are responsible for almost half of the carbon emissions on the planet, a new study has found.

Notes:

Uniphore raises $400 million in Series E funding

Uniphore, a conversational automation tech company, yesterday announced its Series E funding round of $400 million, led by NEA, at a valuation of $2.5 billion. This brings Uniphore’s total funding to $610 million, the company said in a press release. March Capital and other existing and new investors also participated.

Uniphore will use the money to invest further in voice AI, computer vision and tonal emotion, and expand its business operations in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific.

IBM acquires Neudesic, a Microsoft Azure consultancy

IBM has acquired Neudesic, a US cloud services consultancy specialising primarily in the Microsoft Azure platform, along with bringing skills in multi-cloud, the company said in a press release yesterday. This acquisition will expand IBM’s portfolio of hybrid multi-cloud services and advance the company’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy, IBM said.

Headquartered in Irvine, California, Neudesic has more than 1,500 cloud and data experts located in the US and India.

The top 10 percent of the world responsible for half the CO2 emissions

The top 10 percent of the global population, in terms of wealth and therefore consumption, are responsible for almost half of the carbon emissions on the planet, a new study has found. The results of the study, by researchers at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, University of Maryland, in the US, and Shandong University in China, were published in the journal Nature Sustainability on Feb. 14.

“Our results confirm extreme carbon inequality across the world,” the researchers said in their paper. To visualise this inequality, they divided the global population into the bottom 50 percent, the middle 40 percent and the top 10 percent of carbon emitters.

The consumption of the bottom half of global carbon emitters was contributing only one-tenth of global carbon emissions. Meanwhile, the lifestyle of the middle 40 percent accounted for 43 percent of global carbon emissions. Consumption of the top 10 percent was contributing almost half of all emitted CO2.

Moreover, the global top 1 percent were responsible for about 15 percent of global CO2 emissions, the researchers estimated.

GOQii raises $50 million in series C funding

GOQii has raised $50 million in series C funding, led by Sumeru Ventures, to invest further in its smart-tech-enabled platform for preventive health care, the company said in a press release yesterday. GOQii’s products include fitness trackers, mobile app, coaching, a health store, and insurance.

Proactive For Her raises $5.5 million in series A funding

Proactive For Her, a digital clinic that offers products and services for outpatient health concerns of Indian women, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India with participation from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, the Bangalore company said in a press release.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

Twitter is making its Safety Mode auto-blocking feature available to a wider set of users in its beta version, to help people protect themselves from abuse on the microblogging platform, the company said yesterday. Microsoft has a new powerful laptop aimed at professionals. Plus, Offgrid Energy Labs, a battery tech startup, has launched its first product ZincGel

Notes:

Twitter expands the reach of the Safety Mode beta version

Twitter is making its Safety Mode auto-blocking feature available to a wider set of users in a beta launch to help people protect themselves from abuse on the microblogging platform, the company said yesterday. The expanded coverage of the beta version of Safety Mode will reach about 50 percent of users in English-speaking markets, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, according to The Verge. India does not figure in this rollout.

Twitter is also testing a feature to send direct messages right from a tweet, which could make it easier for cyberbullies to send unwanted messages, according to The Verge.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio open for pre-orders

Microsoft India yesterday announced that its new Surface Laptop Studio will be available from March 8. Built as the ideal product for developers, creative professionals, designers, and gamers, this device brings you the power of a desktop, the portability of a laptop, and a creative studio all in one, Microsoft said in a press release. Pre-orders are open and the laptop starts at Rs. 156,999.

EdgeQ appoints Ajit Pai, former US FCC chair, to the advisory board

EdgeQ, a 5G wireless startup founded by Indian American entrepreneur Vinay Ravuri, yesterday announced the appointment of former US FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to the company’s board of advisors. Pai joins EdgeQ as the company scales to deliver the industry’s first software-defined 5G and AI Base Station-on-a-Chip for wireless infrastructure, EdgeQ said in a press release.

Pai is credited with implementing major initiatives during his tenure at the FCC, including freeing up cellular and unlicensed spectrum and instituting reforms to encourage private sector investments in wireless infrastructure. He also modernised outdated regulations to promote 5G backhaul and wide-scale fibre deployment; and held the first-ever FCC-led fora on open radio access networks and artificial intelligence, according to the press release.

5ire blockchain venture raises $100 million ahead of IPO

5ire, a blockchain network founded by two entrepreneurs of Indian origin—Pratik Gauri and Prateek Dwivedi along with crypto financier Vilma Mattila—has secured $100 million in capital commitment from GEM Global Yield (GGY), as it seeks to file for an IPO, the company said in a press release yesterday.

Offgrid Energy launches first product, ZincGel for stationary batteries

Offgrid Energy Labs has come out of stealth mode with its first product, a rechargeable zinc-based battery, with the brand name ZincGel. Backed by investors including Shell Ventures, Ankur Capital, and APVC Singapore, Offgrid Energy Labs is targeting the energy storage market through new materials and designs for stationary batteries, the company said in a press release yesterday.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Warrant Buffett bought a billion dollars worth of Activision Blizzard shares weeks before Microsoft announced its deal to acquire the gaming company, according to a regulatory filing by the billionaire investor’s company Berkshire Hathaway. Jio Platforms, the digital services unit of Reliance Industries, has formed a satellite internet JV. Separately, Jio will also invest $200 million in Glance.

Notes:

Warren Buffett buys stake in Activision weeks before Microsoft deal

Warrant Buffett bought a billion dollars worth of Activision Blizzard shares weeks before Microsoft announced its deal to acquire the gaming company, according to a filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission by the billionaire investor’s company Berkshire Hathaway yesterday.

Berkshire Hathaway purchased 14.7 million shares of Activision—maker of such games as the ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’—taking an almost 2 percent stake worth $975 million, at the end of December, Business Insider reports, citing the SEC filing. And in January, Microsoft announced its deal to acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal for $69 billion.

Jio Platforms, SES form satellite internet joint venture

Jio Platforms, the digital services unit of Reliance Industries, and SES, a satellite-based content connectivity solutions provider based in Luxembourg, yesterday announced the formation of a joint venture—Jio Space Technology Limited—to deliver satellite broadband services in India, Reliance said in a press release yesterday.

JPL and SES will own 51 percent and 49 percent equity stake in the joint venture, respectively. The joint venture will use multi-orbit space networks that are combinations of geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations capable of delivering multi-gigabit links and capacity to enterprises, mobile backhaul and retail customers across India and neighbouring regions.

Jio Platforms to invest $200 million in Glance

Separately, in more Jio news, Jio Platforms is also investing $200 million in Glance Inmobi, a lock screen content and commerce platform provider. Glance will use the money to expand into the US, Brazil, Mexico and Russia, the company said in a press release.

Glance will also integrate its lock screen tech into the JioPhone Next smartphones that Jio has launched with Google.

Startup new — MFine, Bizongo, Slice, BiteSpeed

MFine, a healthcare tech startup, has teamed up with Datar Cancer Genetics, a cancer research company to launch a cancer screening programme on the MFine app, the company said in a press release. MFine users will be able to book tests for various cancers as well as diabetes.

Bizongo, a B2B ecommerce and supply chain enablement platform provider, completed its first share buyback from employees, in a programme worth $3.7 million, Bizongo said in a press release. And Slice, a fintech startup in the credit cards space, also announced its first share purchase plan for employees, worth about $8.6 million.

BiteSpeed, a SaaS company that helps ecommerce businesses use conversational tech to reach customers, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding led by Sequoia India’s Surge, with participation from First Cheque, Whiteboard Capital and various angel investors.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

N Chandrasekaran has been reappointed as the chairman of Tata Sons for a further five years, the salt to steel conglomerate said in a statement after its board met on February 11. Freshworks crossed the $100 million quarterly revenue milestone in its fiscal fourth quarter ended December 31. UK regulators have warned the country’s banks on the use of AI for lending decisions.

Tata Sons reappoints Chandrasekaran for another five-year term

N Chandrasekaran has been reappointed as the chairman of Tata Sons, for a further five years, the salt-to-steel conglomerate said in a statement after its board met on February 11.

Chandrasekaran, who was CEO and MD of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT company, was tapped to lead Tata Sons at a time of turmoil for the $104 billion group, owing to a dispute with Cyrus Mistry, its second-largest shareholder, in October 2016. Chandra, as he’s popularly known within the group, took over in January 2017.

This year Chandrasekaran was the only Indian CEO to be in the top 25 list of corporate leaders in Brand Finance’s index.

Freshworks crosses the $100 million quarterly revenue mark

Freshworks, which makes cloud-based help desk and customer service software, crossed the $100 million quarterly revenue milestone in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2021, the company said in a press release on February 10. Sales for the three months ended December rose 44 percent to $105.5 million from a year earlier.

Freshworks went public in September 2021, listing on the Nasdaq, becoming the first Indian founder-led SaaS company to do so. On a sequential basis, Q4 revenue compares with $96.6 million in the September quarter of 2021. Losses came down to $56.4 million in Q4 from $140 million in Q3.

UK regulators warn banks on the use of AI

UK’s banking regulators have warned banks in the country that they must ensure that using artificial intelligence to approve loan applications will be allowed only if the banks can show that the AI won’t be discriminatory towards minorities, pymnts.com reports, citing news from the Financial Times, which is behind a paywall.

Minorities already have trouble borrowing as it is, and watchdogs have been getting more stringent against the biggest British banks on how they’ll combat the issues with AI, according to pymnts.com.

Swipe raises $2 million in seed funding from Y Combinator

Swipe, a fintech start-up has raised $2 mln in seed funding led by Y Combinator. The start-up was incubated at riidl, Somaiya Vidyavihar University. Swipe is a simple billing and payments app for small businesses in India, the company said in a press release.

Lost Ark hits 1 million concurrent users within a day of launch

Lost Ark crossed one million concurrent players within 24 hours after launch, becoming the second most played game in Steam history by concurrent counts, The Verge reports. The MMO game (massively multiplayer online game) was launched over the weekend by Amazon Games which collaborated with Smilegate RPG to localise and translate Lost Ark and make it available in English.

It’s now in second place on the top concurrent list behind PUBG. Lost Ark was originally released in 2019 in South Korea. It has millions of active players in South Korea, Russia, and Japan, according to The Verge.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Binance Holdings, the parent company of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is making a strategic investment of $200 million into the 105-year-old media company Forbes, Bloomberg reports. Patrick Hillmann, Binance’s chief communications officer, and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, its venture capital arm, will join the Forbes board when the transaction closes.

“Forbes editorial independence is and will always be sacrosanct. The strength of the Forbes brand and our investment depends on that continued independence,” Binance’s founder, billionaire Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, said on Twitter. 

Google has released Android 13’s first developer preview, Android 13 Preview 1, the company said in a blog post yesterday. The next version of the Android operating system, the most used smartphone software in the world, will continue Google’s ongoing effort to add security and privacy as well as developer productivity features, the company said in the post.

In more Android news, OnePlus will release its Nord CE 2 5G smartphone in India on February 17, the company said on Twitter. The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is expected to be similar to its predecessor, the Nord CE 5G, according to Android Central. The phone is expected to be equipped with a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G chipset, with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage.

A launch by Astra, a small rocket company in the US, carrying cubesats built by various universities, failed yesterday a little more than three minutes after takeoff, The Verge reports.

“We experienced an issue in today's flight. I'm deeply sorry we were not able to deliver our customer's payloads. I'm with the team looking at data, and we will provide more info as soon as we can,” Chris Kemp, CEO of Nasdaq-listed Astra said on Twitter.

Disney+ added 11.8 million new subscribers last quarter to reach 129.8 million subscribers, Disney said in its Q1 2022 earnings release. The company said it’s on track to reach 230-260 million subscribers by 2024.

Disney+ has 42.9 million subscribers in the US and Canada and 41.1 million worldwide. It also has 45.9 million subscribers for the Disney+ Hotstar service in India.

Swiggy’s consolidated revenue from operations fell 27 percent to Rs 2,547 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, compared with the previous fiscal year, Economic Times reports, citing regulatory filings from the food delivery service company. Swiggy’s net losses also came down by about 59 percent to Rs 1,616 crore, according to ET.

Lockdowns, restrictions and multiple emergencies because of the Covid-19 pandemic, hurt sales, the company said in its filings, according to ET.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

James Murdoch, Uday Shankar return to India with $1.5 billion from QIA

James Murdoch and Uday Shankar have launched a new company called Bodhi Tree, with $1.5 billion from Qatar Investment Authority, to focus on opportunities in India and Southeast Asia.

Bodhi Tree would be “designed to invest in media and consumer technology opportunities in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on India,” Murdoch and Shankar said in a statement, according to the LA Times.

James, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was previously making investments through his firm Lupa Systems, which also he had started with Shankar. Shankar built Star India for 21st Century Fox, the Murdoch family’s media conglomerate that was acquired by Disney in a deal that was completed in 2019.

Climate tech gets more funding in India

Climate tech businesses received $7 billion in equity funding in 2021, a 4X increase over the $1.87 billion in equity funding raised by all climate tech sectors in 2020, according to the ‘State of Climate Finance in India’ report, released by Unitus Capital on Feb 8.

The bulk of the climate financing still goes towards renewables, with electric vehicles a distant second. Later stage rounds skew the funding that has gone into climate tech—the 25 Series C and beyond deals tracked by the impact investment firm constituted 86 percent of the $7 billion in funding.

In early-stage financing, funding interest is expanding into other areas of climate innovation. Renewables were responsible for only 12 percent of the 182 deals Unitus tracked in 2021. Electric mobility was the largest segment with 68 deals. Agri and F&B sectors saw 52 deals spread across the value chain, although agri-tech needs more focus at the farm level, according to Unitus.

Starlink loses 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

Starlink has lost 40 satellites that were meant to be part of its low-earth orbit constellation to a geomagnetic storm, the company said in a statement on Feb. 8.

These satellites were part of the 49 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, the company said. The de-orbiting satellites pose no collision risk with other satellites and will burn up in the atmosphere, so no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts will hit the ground.

Xpressbees raises $300 million, becomes a unicorn

Xpressbees, a third-party logistics services provider, has raised $300 million in Series F funding, led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital. Existing investors, Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners, also participated. With this round, the total amount of funds raised by Xpressbees exceeds $500 million.

The Pune-based company will use the money to expand operations, invest in product development and hire more people. The latest investment makes the six-year-old startup a unicorn, co-founder and CEO Amitava Saha told Forbes India in an interview.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Two arrested in connection to 2016 crypto heist worth $4.5 billion today

The US Department of Justice has arrested two people in connection to a crypto heist in 2016. The two, Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, are accused of conspiring to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during a hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, in 2016, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion.

Thus far, law enforcement officials have seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack, the justice department said in a statement yesterday.

Razorpay starts international expansion with Malaysian acquisition

Razorpay has acquired a majority stake in Curlec, a Malaysian fintech company, as part of its strategy to expand into Southeast Asia, the Bangalore based payments and financial services platform company said in a press release yesterday. Kuala Lumpur-based Curlec, founded in 2018, is building solutions for recurring payments for modern businesses of all sizes, according to the release.

Razorpay didn't provide any details on the terms of the transaction, which marks its first overseas acquisition and fourth overall.

Startup news

Airmeet, an online meeting software provider, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. New investors Prosus Ventures, Sistema Asia Fund, RingCentral Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, DG Daiwa Ventures and Nexxus Global participated alongside existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Accel India, the company said in a press release.

Mudrex, a Y Combinator-backed crypto startup with operations in Bangalore and Silicon Valley, has raised $6.5 million in a pre-series A round from Arkam Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Bolt by QED Investors. This round follows $2.5 million in seed funding four months ago led by Nexus Venture Partners and Village Global with participation from Kunal Shah, Anand Chandrashekharan and Anjali Bansal.

US-based SaaS blockchain orchestration platform Cion Digital, dedicated to R&D and crypto financing and payment solutions, is opening its first office in India. The expansion strategy includes setting up an R&D centre in Pune, investing Rs. 50 crore. And Cion aims to hire more than 100 engineers with expertise in blockchain technology.

TrayamBhu Tech Solutions, a blockchain startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed money from US-based Octave Ventures and others, the company said in a press release. TrayamBhu plans to develop newer blockchain products on climate tech covering ESG, Carbon Credit, and Tokenisation Carbon Assets.

Infina, a Vietnamese startup targeting millennials interested in the capital markets, has raised $6 million in seed funding from investors including Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks.

GoalTeller, an automated financial planning platform provider, has raised $500,000 in pre-series A funding, the company said in a press release.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Polygon raises $450 million in fresh funding

Polygon, a blockchain startup, has raised about $450 million through a private sale of its native MATIC token in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Interactive, Tiger Global, Republic Capital and prominent angel investors, the company said in a blogpost yesterday.

SatSure raises $5 million from Baring PE

SatSure, a startup working at the intersection of space-tech, Artificial Intelligence, and Software as a Service, has raised $5 million in Pre-Series A funding in a round led by Baring Private Equity India, joined by ADB Ventures. Other investors include Flowstate VC, Force Ventures, IndigoEdge Advisors, Toch.ai, Nishchay Goel and Saikiran Krishnamurthy.

SatSure, which was founded in 2017 by Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, along with Abhishek Raju, will use the money to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia and accelerate its product development, which also includes launching its proprietary payloads to Low Earth Orbit.

L&T and Microsoft team up to offer cloud services

Larsen & Toubro and Microsoft India, yesterday announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a regulated-sector focused cloud service. In line with emerging regulations, L&T and Microsoft will co-engage with a defined set of large customers in regulated sectors to develop architectures and roadmaps to modernise their traditional data centres to potentially hybrid models and advance their digital transformation goals.

FirstMeridian buys RLabs

FirstMeridian Business Services has completed its acquisition of RLabs, an IT staffing and consulting firm with more than 1,200 technology professionals servicing customers in over 40 locations in India. This marks the sixth acquisition by the FirstMeridian Group since the founding of the Bangalore company in mid-2018.

HaystackAnalytics releases universal infectious diseases test

HaystackAnalytics, a Mumbai based health-tech startup, supported by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, has developed a Universal Infectious Diseases test that deploys Next-Generation Sequencing technology to identify existing and emerging infections while providing information on drug resistance to support and identify correct treatment options for patients, the company said in a press release.

Gold Setu raises $1.2 million

Gold Setu, a mobile-first micro SaaS platform for jewellery retailers, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Village Global, Better Capital, Titan Capital, iSeed and Anjali Bansal for Avaana Seed, the startup said in a press release. The company will use the money for its go-to-market initiatives and launch new products on its platform.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Vitamin D deficiency linked to Covid-19 severity and mortality

There is a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 severity and mortality, according to a study conducted by Israeli researchers at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University in Safed and the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. They published their results on February 3 in the journal PLOS ONE, Scitechdaily reports.

Patients with vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have a severe or critical case of Covid-19 than those with more than 40 ng/mL, the study found, according to the Scitechdaily report.

Amazon, Nike are considering independent bids for Peloton

Amazon and Nike are among potential buyers of Peloton, whose stationary bikes and streamed fitness classes became a rage during the pandemic, but have since lost steam, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.

Peloton became a hit at the beginning of the pandemic when people were looking for fitness alternatives after their gyms closed due to lockdowns. But, as the US opened up and rivals cropped up with cheaper alternatives, the company lost its sales momentum to the extent that it recently stopped some production lines, according to CNBC.

IIT-Gandhinagar researchers develop affordable water desalination technique

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar have developed a water desalination technique to make seawater potable by removing more than 99 percent of salt and other impurities with natural processing, according to a Press Trust of India report.

The researchers have found a way to expand the space between layers of graphite in a controlled manner to selectively allow water, while filtering out salt, in a way similar to how trees take up water using a process called capillary action. The research findings have been published in the international journal Nature Communications.

These findings could eventually help in designing affordable water desalination filters and other applications including gas purification, proton exchange in a fuel cell, chemical separation, recovery of precious metal from waste among others.

Microsoft launches Cyber Signals, a quarterly brief on security

Microsoft has launched Cyber Signals, a cyberthreat intelligence brief informed by Microsoft’s latest threat data and research, Vasu Jakkal, a corporate vice president for security, compliance and identity, at the company, wrote in a blogpost on February 3. These quarterly briefs are designed to give security professionals and journalists a quick look at the most important trends, tactics and solutions in today’s threat landscape, Jakkal writes.

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds