One Thing Today in Tech

European lawmakers took a significant step towards regulating artificial intelligence (AI) with the advancement of new draft legislation, Reuters reports. The legislation aims to ensure that AI serves people, society, and the environment, emphasising the importance of protecting fundamental rights. Also in this report, Zoho said it's making investments across its portfolio of products to accelerate the strong growth it is seeing with larger customers, who now account for a third of the Chennai software company's overall business.

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European lawmakers took a significant step towards regulating artificial intelligence (AI) with the advancement of new draft legislation, Reuters reports. The legislation aims to ensure that AI serves people, society, and the environment, emphasising the importance of protecting fundamental rights.

The European Union's AI Act is expected to become the world's first comprehensive legislation governing AI, encompassing regulations on facial recognition, biometric surveillance, and other AI applications.

The bill, after two years of negotiations, is now set to proceed to the next stage of the process, involving the finalisation of its details with the European Commission and individual member states. The proposals classify AI tools based on perceived risk levels and impose different obligations on governments and companies accordingly.

Following a plenary vote in June, the bill will be subject to "trilogue" talks involving representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission. The final terms are expected to be agreed upon before a grace period of approximately two years for compliance with the regulations.

Zoho, India's biggest software products company, yesterday announced investments to step up what it calls its upmarket growth in India – meaning sales to the larger companies rather than the SMB segment.

The SaaS company saw a 65 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the mid-market and enterprise segment over the past three years, accounting for more than 50 percent of its ARR in India, Chennai-based Zoho said in a press release.

Zoho made a similar announcement in early May, and the company didn't give any financial details of its investments.

IBM yesterday said it had acquired Agyla SAS, a prominent cloud professional services provider based in France. This move aims to enhance IBM Consulting's localised cloud expertise for French clients and expand its hybrid multi-cloud services portfolio, the company said in a press release.

With this acquisition, IBM further strengthens its hybrid cloud and AI strategy in the region. This marks IBM's sixth acquisition of 2023, as the company continues to bolster its hybrid cloud and AI capabilities.

Uber has invested $20 million in Mumbai-based fleet management company Everest Fleet to support its transition to electric vehicles (EVs), TechCrunch reports. Everest Fleet manages over 10,000 vehicles operating on ride-sharing platforms Uber and Ola in India.

The funds will be used to accelerate the adoption of EVs, with a target of having 10,000 EVs in its fleet by 2026. Uber sees fleets like Everest as crucial in overcoming challenges related to charging infrastructure and the affordability of EVs for Indian drivers.

Accenture plans to invest $3 billion over three years in its Data & AI practice, joining the roster of global tech services and consulting giants investing heavily in generative AI, including Indian rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. Accenture also plans to double its AI workforce to 80,000. This news comes three months after the company announced 19,000 job cuts to reduce costs. Also, in this brief, India's technology minister reacts to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's allegations of bullying by the Indian government, including during the farmer protests in 2021.

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Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey has touched off another round of outrage in India, saying in a recent interview that India frequently demanded the removal of posts and accounts critical of the government, often threatening legal action against the social media platform, TechCrunch reports.

Dorsey claimed the Indian government threatened to shut down Twitter's operations, raid employees' homes, and close its offices. Twitter initially resisted such demands but eventually complied with India's new IT regulations.

India's technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has refuted Dorsey's statements, accusing Twitter of violating Indian laws and disregarding the country's sovereignty.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a significant outage yesterday, affecting numerous major websites in the US, including The Boston Globe and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City. The outage disrupted the ability of news organizations to publish coverage of former President Donald Trump's court appearance in Miami. The outage has been resolved.

Accenture has announced a $3 billion investment over three years in its Data & AI practice, joining the list of global tech services and consulting giants investing heavily in generative AI, including Indian rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

Accenture also plans to double its AI workforce to 80,000 professionals through hiring, acquisitions, and training, according to a press release yesterday. This announcement comes three months after the company announced 19,000 job cuts to reduce costs.

As part of the investment, Accenture has launched a platform called AI Navigator for Enterprise. The company will also establish a Center for Advanced AI to maximize the value of generative AI and other emerging AI capabilities.

Infosys Finacle, the core banking software subsidiary of Infosys, has won a contract from Belgium's Keytrade Bank to modernize its core banking system to make the bank's operations more efficient and provide a better customer experience.

This implementation will replace the bank's legacy banking systems, Infosys said in a press release. The bank is subscribing to Finacle via a software-as-a-service model on Microsoft's Azure cloud.

Hyderabad is set to host the Second India Data Observability Conference this Friday, June 16, organized by Unravel Data, a data observability platform provider.

Researchers from Macquarie University, in collaboration with teams from Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy, have achieved a new speed record for an industry-standard optical fibre. The breakthrough was made possible by a compact glass chip developed by Macquarie University, which allows signals to be fed into the fibre's cores simultaneously with low levels of losses.

The government of India has tasked the country's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) with investigating an alleged data breach revealing personal details of people vaccinated against Covid-19. Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that a "Telegram bot" accessing previously stolen data was the culprit and that there was no direct breach. Reddit went down yesterday after thousands of 'sub-reddits' went dark to protest a new API policy. Also in this brief, Stellaris and Entrepreneur First ran a hackathon around generative AI.

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India's Health Ministry has dismissed reports of a data breach in the CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) portal, calling them "mischievous in nature," The Hindu reports.

The ministry stated that the portal is safe and has adequate safeguards for data privacy. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been asked to investigate the issue and provide a report.

Electronics and Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar clarified on Twitter that the CoWIN app or database was not directly breached, but rather data accessed by a Telegram bot seemed to be previously breached or stolen data from another source.

Concerns have been raised about the integration of CoWIN with other apps such as Aarogya Setu and UMANG, which provide services for registration, appointment scheduling, and certification of COVID vaccinations. The current data breach appears to be possible by entering a person's mobile number, which would reveal sensitive information like identification numbers, gender, date of birth, and vaccination center details, according to The Hindu.

Reddit experienced a widespread outage as thousands of its communities went dark to protest the company's new API policy, TechCrunch reports. The planned protest, aimed at challenging a policy that would eliminate third-party apps, caused Reddit's website to go down.

The protest was in response to Reddit's new API pricing policy, which would significantly increase costs for developers, leading to the closure of many third-party Reddit apps.

Salesforce has introduced its own AI Cloud, a suite of capabilities designed to improve customer experiences and company productivity through generative artificial intelligence (AI) for enterprise applications.

The AI Cloud helps sales reps to auto-generate personalized emails, service teams to create tailored chat replies and case summaries, marketers to engage customers with personalized content, commerce teams to provide customized recommendations, and developers to auto-generate code and predict potential bugs.

The AI Cloud Starter pack is available for $360,000 annually and includes essential components and an AI-readiness assessment from Salesforce Professional Services.

Stellaris Venture Partners and Entrepreneur First organized a Generative AI Hackathon in Bengaluru focused on the theme "AI for India."

More than 150 participants formed 60 teams to develop innovative AI solutions for India-specific challenges. Notable projects included an emergency response application, a generative video solution, and a platform for rural India to access government schemes.

Uber has announced a new integration of Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, with its Uber Eats app, developed by the company's engineers in India. The integration allows Uber Eats users in the US to track their food orders using their Amazon Echo devices.

India’s OTT businesses are pushing back against a government mandate to curtail the glorification of cigarette and tobacco use online. The Internet and Mobile Association of India has flagged “fundamental concerns” and “practical difficulties” in complying with the new rules that the government issued last month, Economic Times reports. Meanwhile, Disney+ Hotstar is looking to win some users back, by offering cricket streaming free to mobile users, TechCrunch reports. Also in this brief, QNu Labs wins an Indian Navy contract; Capillary makes another buy; and Tiki shuts down.

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India’s OTT businesses are pushing back against a government mandate to curtail the glorification of cigarette use online. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has flagged “fundamental concerns” and “practical difficulties” in complying with the new rules that the government issued last month to include anti-tobacco warnings on video streaming platforms, Economic Times reports.

On May 31, the health ministry notified amendments in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2004, which mandate over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms to display anti-tobacco warnings and disclaimers on the lines of such warnings displayed in movies in theatres.

Disney+ Hotstar has decided to offer free streaming of cricket tournaments to mobile users in India, following the success of Reliance's JioCinema, which has attracted millions of viewers, TechCrunch reports.

The move comes after JioCinema surpassed Hotstar's record for concurrent views during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

WhatsApp last week announced the launch of WhatsApp Channels, a feature that allows users to follow people and organizations within the app. Initially rolling out in Singapore and Colombia, Channels will offer a private way to communicate, with phone numbers and personal information of both admins and followers kept confidential, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. The one-way broadcast tool enables admins to share text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls with their followers.

Channel updates will only be stored for 30 days, and admins can even choose to block screenshots and forwards. While Channels are not end-to-end encrypted by default, WhatsApp is considering encrypted channels for specific audiences in the future. The company also plans to support admins in building businesses around their channels through payment services and promotional opportunities in the directory.

Tiki, a short-form video app, is shutting down its operations in India on June 27, joining a roster of ventures that failed to fill the void left by the ban on TikTok in India, TechCrunch reports. Despite having around 35 million monthly active users in India, Tiki announced its closure in a social media post.

QNu Labs, backed by investors including early-stage deep-tech VC firm Speciale Invest, has won a contract with the Indian Navy to deploy its Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) based systems. The Indian Navy aims to enhance its cybersecurity capabilities by using large-scale quantum-based encryption systems, making it the first agency in the country to do so.

Capillary Technologies, a customer loyalty and engagement solutions provider, has acquired Tenerity's Digital Connect Assets, expanding its presence in the US and Europe. The acquisition adds a rewards ecosystem to Capillary's portfolio and will be rebranded as Rewards+.

Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports. Also in this report, Germany’s Thyssenkrupp is close to a multi-billion-dollar deal to build six submarines for the Indian Navy, offering the engineering and tech knowhow for India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to execute the construction; Meta Verified comes to India; And US based Digibee, a low-code software integration platform provider, has raised $60 million

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Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has launched its verification program, Meta Verified, in India, replacing its earlier verified badge system on Facebook and Instagram, TechCrunch reports. Meta Verified aims to provide a mark of authenticity and credibility to prominent individuals, ensuring that users can trust their accounts.

The program will allow eligible users to apply for verification, which will be evaluated based on various criteria such as account completeness, adherence to community guidelines, and authenticity.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on June 6 in New Delhi that the German company Thyssenkrupp AG is likely to bid for a project to supply six submarines to the Indian Navy, Reuters reports. The move comes as India seeks to bolster its domestic defence manufacturing to counter China's increasing presence in the Indian Ocean, Reuters notes.

In a separate report, Bloomberg pegged the value of the deal – seen as a move by Germany to help India reduce its dependence on Russia – at $5.2 billion.

Thyssenkrupp's marine arm is expected to sign the deal with India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, with the agreement's value estimated at around 7 billion euros. India's navy, which currently has 16 conventional submarines, approved a budget of $6.8 billion in March to replace its aging fleet.

Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports.

However, reaching the upper end of the range will depend on closing mega deals at a faster pace. Improving margins would be a tall task, company executives said in the conference. The external environment has remained unchanged since Infosys' last earnings announcement, and the lower end of the revenue growth guidance has already accounted for macro uncertainty, they said.

Meanwhile, Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's investment firm, Catamaran Ventures, is reportedly in advanced discussions to invest between $100 million and $150 million in Ola Electric, the electric vehicle arm of ride-hailing services provider Ola, Economic Times reports.

The potential investment is part of Ola Electric's ongoing funding round, which aims to raise $300-500 million to support its expansion plans. Ola Electric has emerged as the top electric scooter seller in India, selling 35,000 units in May, Business Standard reported on June 4.

Digibee, a low code software application integration platform provider, has raised $60 million in a recent funding round, TechCrunch reports. The investment was led by VC firm Felicis Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Wing Venture Capital and GFC.

Apple yesterday revealed its long-anticipated mixed reality headset, called Vision Pro, which the company describes as a spatial computer that merges digital content with the physical world. The pricey device will only be available next year in the US. Apple also announced a slew of other updates, including the M2 Ultra chip, new Mac computers and iOS 17. Meanwhile, Kerala has kicked off a project to bring free internet connections to the poor in the state, and at affordable rates to everyone else. A thousand households got connections upon inauguration yesterday, Manorama reports.

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Apple yesterday revealed its long-anticipated mixed reality headset, called Vision Pro, which the company describes as a spatial computer that merges digital content with the physical world. The headset can even display your eyes on its front-facing screen to show others if the headset wearer is fully immersed in something or looking at them, for example.

Apple announced the headset at its annual worldwide developer conference that started yesterday. It features an ultra-high-resolution display system that uses micro-OLED to deliver 23 million pixels spread across two displays and a dual-chip design.

With the headset, Apple also introduced visionOS, which again, Apple describes as a spatial operating system, enabling users to interact with digital content in a three-dimensional user interface controlled by natural inputs like eyes, hands, and voice.

Vision Pro's design incorporates advanced materials and a compact wearable form factor, but also an external battery pack – about the size of an iPhone – that connects to the headset via a cable. It features a high-performance eye-tracking system and a Spatial Audio system for immersive sound. Privacy and security are prioritized, with features like Optic ID for secure authentication and privacy-focused eye tracking.

The headset starts at $3,499 and will be available early next year in the US, with more countries to follow.

On the silicon front, Apple, unveiled the M2 Ultra, at the opening of its worldwide developer conference, WWDC. M2 Ultra is a powerful new system on a chip (SoC) for Mac devices. The chip offers significant performance improvements and completes the M2 family, Apple said in a press release.

Apple also announced a 15-inch MacBook Air, which features a large 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, the M2 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, and a six-speaker sound system. The laptop boasts a thin and light, fan-less design, making it the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop.

In the US, the 15-inch MacBook Air is available for order, with shipping starting on June 13, and pricing starts at $1,299.

Apple also announced the release of iOS 17, the next full update to its operating software for iPhones. The update includes some nifty upgrades to the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, as well as new features like Journal and StandBy.

Meanwhile, Kerala has become the first Indian state to provide high-speed internet access free of cost to the poor. Some 14,000 poor households and 30,000 government offices are soon to get these connections as part of its ambitious project, the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), Manorama reports.

The initiative, launched in 2019, aims to provide internet connectivity to all of Kerala's 35 million citizens, with a particular focus on the 2 million individuals living in poverty. KFON, the first network of its kind in India, will be established across 35,000 km of optical fibre network spanning the state's 14 districts.

Apple's annual flagship meet, the worldwide developer conference starts today at 10:30 p.m. India time. On day one of the week-long events, almost everyone is expecting the iPhone maker to finally reveal its version of an extended reality headset. Apple is also widely expected to release the next iterations of its Mac computers as well as the beta version of iOS 17 operating software for its iPhones. Also in this brief, Puneet Chandok, head of AWS in India and South Asia has quit; and Venture Intelligence on how startups are faring in India at the series A level.

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Apple's annual flagship meet, the worldwide developer conference starts today at 10:30 p.m. India time. On day one of the week-long events, almost everyone is expecting Apple to announce an extended reality headset. Much of the rest of the week will be more around developer sessions.

Apple, which has come under scrutiny for taking as much as 30 percent of the in-app sales made by developers via its ecosystem, is hitting back with a report in which it says the App Store ecosystem generated an impressive $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2022.

Puneet Chandok, the head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in India and South Asia, has resigned, surprising industry insiders just weeks after AWS announced a $12 billion investment plan for India by 2030, TechCrunch reports.

AWS confirmed the development to TechCrunch, adding that Vaishali Kasture, head of enterprise, mid-market, and global businesses at AWS India and South Asia, will assume the role of interim leader of commercial business at the unit with immediate effect.

Pixxel, a private commercial satellite company in India, has raised $36 million in a Series B funding round. The funding includes participation from new investors such as Google, alongside existing investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, GrowX, Sparta, and Athera, according to a press release last week.

The investment will advance Pixxel's mission to build the world's first and highest-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation, delivering actionable climate insights globally, according to the company. It will also support the development of Aurora, Pixxel's AI-powered analytics platform for accessible hyperspectral analysis.

The funds will enable the launch of six satellites in 2024 and 18 satellites by 2025. Pixxel, founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal five years ago, has so far raised $71 million in VC money, according to the company.

A study by Venture Intelligence reveals that less than one-third of startups that receive seed funding can secure follow-on funding in the form of a Series A round. Venture Intelligence, which tracks the VC and private equity investments in India, has released the findings of its study in the 2023 edition of its series A landscape report.

Out of over 2,500 startups that raised seed funding between 2015 and 2022, only 29 percent managed to raise a Series A round, according to Venture Intelligence.

The number of companies raising Series A rounds increased by 8% annually from 2017 to 2022, which is an indication of the maturity and quality of the startup ecosystem in India, according to Venture Intelligence. The study also highlights Sequoia Capital India as the top investor in creating successful pipelines for Series A rounds, followed by Blume Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Elevation Capital, 3ONE4 Capital, Axilor Ventures, India Quotient, and Kae Capital.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to approve a deal that would allow General Electric (GE) to manufacture jet engines for Indian military aircraft in India, Reuters reports exclusively. Meanwhile, after setbacks to two major proposed projects, The India Semiconductor Mission is reopening its application window for semiconductor fab proposals starting today, Mint reports. Also in this report, the US is funding eight pilot projects aimed at developing nuclear fusion; and Capillary Technologies has raised $45 million in fresh funding.

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Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is expected to visit India and participate in an event hosted by Economic Times and sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services, according to announcements that have appeared in the newspaper for the past few days. The event is scheduled for June 7 in New Delhi.

India has launched a pilot project called Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing (ERSO) to make India the global repair hub. The project, supported by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, aims to attract outsourced repair services for ICT products and generate revenue of up to $20 billion over the next five years.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to approve a deal that would allow General Electric (GE) to manufacture jet engines for Indian military aircraft in India, Reuters reports exclusively.

The agreement, which is expected to be announced during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States on June 22, aims to deepen military and technology ties between the two countries as a counterweight to China's influence in the region.

Meanwhile, India's plans to establish semiconductor manufacturing facilities have suffered setbacks as two major projects face hurdles, Reuters reported yesterday in a separate report. A $3 billion facility by chip consortium ISMC, with Israeli chipmaker Tower as a partner, has been stalled due to Intel's ongoing takeover of Tower.

Additionally, a $19.5 billion joint venture between India's Vedanta and Taiwan's Foxconn is progressing slowly, with talks to involve European chipmaker STMicroelectronics deadlocked.

The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) is reopening its application window for semiconductor fab proposals starting today, Mint reports. This decision comes after the initial application period in January 2022 yielded only three applicants for 28nm fabs.

In some renewable energy news, The US Department of Energy yesterday said that eight American companies working on nuclear fusion energy will receive $46 million in taxpayer funding to pursue pilot plants. These plants aim to generate power from fusion, a process that mimics the energy source of the sun and stars.

Capillary Technologies, a Bengaluru SaaS company in the loyalty management space, has secured $45 million in funding to expand globally and pursue mergers and acquisitions, TechCrunch reports.

Led by Avataar Ventures, the Series D round saw participation from Pantheon, 57Stars, Unigestion, Filter Capital, and Innoven Capital. Capillary Technologies, founded in 2012, offers loyalty management and customer engagement solutions.

India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has announced plans to invest Rs. 1 trillion ($12.1 billion) by 2030 to increase its renewable energy capacity and reduce direct emissions. The company aims to scale up its renewable energy capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a significant increase from the current 189 megawatts. The world’s biggest AI experts have captured in one sentence the risk of AI. Blackrock, the world’s biggest money manager, has slashed the valuation of BYJU'S by 62 percent. Also in this brief, the C919, China’s challenge to Airbus-Boeing takes flight.

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Some of the world’s top AI experts, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, have signed a short statement to make it easy for everyone to understand that the risk of extinction of the human race due to artificial intelligence is very real.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement reads, published by the Center for AI Safety.

Among the other signatories on the list, which runs into a couple of hundred experts from around the world, are Geoffrey Hinton, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, University of Toronto, A pioneer in the field of deep learning and neural networks; Yoshua Bengio, Professor of Computer Science, U. Montreal / Mila, a leading researcher in the field of deep learning and co-founder of the deep learning framework, "Theano"; Demis Hassabis, CEO, Google DeepMind, an influential figure in the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and deep reinforcement learning; and Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic.

India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has announced plans to invest Rs. 1 trillion ($12.1 billion) by 2030 to increase its renewable energy capacity and reduce direct emissions. The company aims to scale up its renewable energy capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a significant increase from the current 189 megawatts.

ONGC's chairman, Arun Kumar Singh, said that while fossil fuel demand in India may continue to grow until 2040, the company is committed to balancing its portfolio with green energy projects.

Amazon India has launched a limited introduction of bill payments at select restaurants using Amazon Pay. The feature, currently available in certain areas of Bengaluru, allows users to make payments using various methods such as credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, Amazon Pay Later, TechCrunch reports.

China's domestically built passenger jet, the C919, completed its maiden commercial flight, on May 28, marking a significant milestone in the country's ambition to challenge the aircraft manufacturing duopoly of Boeing and Airbus, Quartz reports.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) developed the C919, which flew from Shanghai to Beijing with approximately 130 passengers on board. Despite facing delays and design flaws, Comac has signed contracts for 1,035 C919 jets with several dozen customers.

Blackrock, the world’s biggest money manager, has slashed the valuation of BYJU'S by 62 percent to $8.4 billion in the March quarter, down from its previous valuation of $22 billion, The Hindu Business Line reports. This marks the second markdown by Blackrock, which holds a 0.9 percent stake in the company.

The funding winter and worsening macroeconomic conditions have prompted private investors to reduce valuations of several start-up unicorns, with cuts ranging from 30-50 percent, according to the report.

JioCinema set a new global record for concurrent views during a live-streamed event, yesterday attracting more than 33 million simultaneous viewers for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament finale, surpassing the previous record held by Disney's Hotstar, TechCrunch reports. Apple is expected to introduce new Mac models at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), according to Bloomberg. Also in this brief, a US fund has cut the value of Indian ed-tech unicorn Eruditus

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JioCinema set a new global record for concurrent views during a live-streamed event, yesterday, attracting more than 33 million simultaneous viewers for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament finale, surpassing the previous record held by Disney's Hotstar, TechCrunch reports.

Hotstar's record of 25.3 million concurrent viewers had remained unchallenged for years. Viacom18, which secured the digital rights for IPL in a $3 billion bidding war against Disney, offered free streaming of the tournament through its JioCinema app. The move is seen as a potential game-changer in the South Asian streaming landscape.

Apple is expected to introduce new Mac models at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Although WWDC is primarily focused on software, it has historically seen the launch of new Macs and related technologies. Gurman suggests that Apple will facilitate the purchase of these new models by expanding its trade-in program to include the Mac Studio, 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, and 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro.

Trade-ins for these current-gen versions are anticipated to begin on June 5, the same day as the start of WWDC.

A Japanese public-private partnership is set to embark on an ambitious project aimed at beaming solar energy from space to ground-based receiving stations as early as 2025, engadget reports. The initiative, led by JAXA, Japan's equivalent of NASA, builds upon previous successes in wireless power transmission.

The goal is to create a satellite array capable of generating 1 gigawatt of power, equivalent to the output of a nuclear reactor. However, this ambitious endeavour is estimated to cost $7 billion with existing technologies.

Toyota Motor Corp has become the first automaker to enter a racing car powered by liquid hydrogen into an official race, Japan Today reports. The move is part of Toyota's efforts to promote hydrogen as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles do not emit carbon dioxide when burned. Toyota believes that offering a variety of green vehicles, including hybrids and hydrogen-powered cars like their mass-produced Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is more effective in reducing carbon footprints than solely focusing on electric vehicles.

The race at Fuji Speedway in Japan aims to test the functionality and address challenges of using liquid hydrogen as a fuel source.

The Private Shares Fund, a US-based asset management firm, has lowered the fair value of edtech unicorn Eruditus by 9% in the first quarter of 2023, Moneycontrol reports. The fund, which holds a 0.2% stake in Eruditus, now values the company at $2.9 billion, down from its previous valuation of $3.2 billion.