The government has rejected a request for a rollback of the new UPI Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) structure for some transactions exceeding INR 2,000, stating that the decision was taken after comprehensive deliberations. Consumer-to-consumer UPI payments will remain free.
Meta has introduced Meta One, a paid subscription that offers enhanced access to Meta AI, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp features. There are Core and Premium plans that come with expanded AI capabilities like image and video production, Instagram Restyle and customisation features.
The Gates Foundation will spend $1 billion over the next two years to extend access to AI in healthcare, agriculture and education in the world’s poorest regions. Funds will be allocated to AI training data sets, agricultural programs, healthcare efforts and education projects.
MeitY has given an in-principle approval for setting up an Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI-CoE) at Bhubaneswar, Odisha to be executed by STPI. The industry partner will be Blue Cloud Softech Solutions, which is planning to invest INR 4 crore in the center.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined Rapido INR 10 lakh for adopting dark patterns that allegedly nudged users into paying higher rates. The authority found tactics such as “Confirm Shaming” and “Interface Interference” on Rapido’s ride-booking interface.
OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are in discussions about potentially collaborating on AI safety guidelines as concerns mount about the perils of developing artificial intelligence.
Canva has teamed up with Reliance Jio to provide qualified Jio members with free access to Canva Pro or Canva Pro Lite for up to 12 months. The INR 399 Jio plan will feature Canva Pro while the INR 349 plan and select 2GB-per-day plans would have Canva Pro Lite.
The 22-member UPI & Services Steering Committee under NPCI is anticipated to take a decision on MDR charges for some UPI transactions exceeding INR 2,000. The suggested fees are aimed at helping UPI remain financially sustainable and invest in its infrastructure, cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
Accenture is paying $25 million to settle US government charges over its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) recruiting and promotion practices. The settlement with the US Department of Justice includes civil penalties and interest but does not imply an admission of wrongdoing.
Samsung has invested $231 million in Dutch AI chipmaker Euclyd as demand for alternatives to Nvidia GPUs rises. Euclyd has funded €200 million in a Series Funding to create AI inference processors that cut energy use and data-centre costs.
Google DeepMind has chosen four Indian firms - Climitra Carbon, Terrastack, Farmers for Forests and Varaha Climate - for its first-ever AI for the Planet accelerator. The program is supporting 16 organisations around the Asia-Pacific to use AI and advanced technologies to address climate issues.
Meta will submit suspected cases of child sexual abuse to law authorities, as India escalates its assault on social media sites over kid safety online. The corporation will also raise concerns through the I4C and will work with authorities to tackle harmful content.
The RBI has recommended a 60-day restriction on temporary bank account holds in relation to cyber-enabled financial theft in its draft KYC Amendment Directions, 2026. Banks would have to say to clients look at what they say and pass on suspicions of money mule activity to the authorities.
Oracle has started another wave of layoffs as it steps up expenditure on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The layoffs follow a 13% drop in the company’s employment in FY26 that reduced its headcount to around 141,000 personnel.
Solar Industries will be acquiring South Africa-based Omnia Holdings through its step down company Solar SA Investments in an all cash deal valued at over INR 12,951 crore. Mining, agriculture, fertilisers and industrial explosives are the areas of activity for Omnia in 23 countries.
Airtel and Jio have urged the TRAI to direct Vodafone Idea (Vi) to investigate the charges of unfair trade practices and file a report. Telecom rivals also want stronger rules on fraudulent client acquisition practices related to mobile number portability (MNP).
Amazon is extending its India logistics network with 150 last-mile delivery locations, 20 fulfilment centers and six sort centers ahead of the festive shopping season. The development is part of its approximately INR 2,800 crore investment in infrastructure and operations.
PwC India and PwC US are entering into a joint venture to combine PwC India’s consulting business with PwC US’s acceleration centers in India. The planned JV will employ about 40,000 people and will be owned 49.9% by PwC India and 50.1% by PwC US.
Essar Group has bought UK petrol station operator SGN Retail, which has 118 outlets, to add to its existing fuel retail network. The acquisition will see Essar Energy Transition Retail’s UK petrol stations increase to 235 as the firm seeks 800 locations by 2031.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has emphasised that AI should be for the good of humanity and under human control. He urged for ethical AI development, wider access to technology and a balance between open-source and closed-source models.
Luminous Power Technologies to invest INR 2,000 crore over 5 years to accelerate expansion, expand solar & energy storage companies The firm is establishing a 1.2 GW solar cell manufacturing unit in Odisha and a 500 MWh lithium-ion battery facility in Himachal Pradesh.
Ultraviolette Automotive will invest INR 779 crore to establish a new BIGGA Factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu to increase its electric car manufacturing capability. The plant is expected to produce 250,000 vehicles a year initially, with capacity for 500,000 units as demand increases.
Flipkart’s finance platform Super.money is introducing AI agents capable of shopping on Flipkart themselves and buying gold when prices hit certain levels. The company aims to expand these agents to bill payments and investments, giving 20% of its IT budget to agentic AI.
Anthropic warned of potential misuse of its AI models, including the Claude series, for developing missiles, conducting cyber-espionage and surveillance activities. The business said it had broken up an alleged enterprise in northern Yemen that employed Claude.
Supreme Court seeks Centre’s reply within 10 days on deadline for food warning labels on packaged products The proposed labels would highlight items rich in added sugar, salt and saturated fat as concerns about food safety and public health mount.
Google announces five new efforts in India to help the country’s climate goals by merging AI, renewable power and climate technologies. Initiatives include a 150 MW solar project in Rajasthan with ReNew Power, rooftop solar intelligence on 300 million structures and more
India has modified its Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 to increase transparency and address dark patterns, misleading offers, search manipulation, and undeclared sponsored listings.
HDFC Bank gets a legal reprieve as Bahrain High Civil Court throws down all 7 investor cases relating to Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds. The investors had sued the bank of carelessness, deception and inadequate disclosure over their bond transactions.
The Delhi High Court has blocked home-care company Beco from launching an advertising campaign against Hindustan Unilever's Vim and Surf Excel products. HUL took on Beco’s #WarOnWhatsHidden campaign, arguing that it was portraying its products as a physical hazard.
Amazon tightened its internal food safety measures after officials in Karnataka detected food goods with expired and improper labels at two units in Bengaluru. Medicines reportedly held without a valid licence were also seized by officials.
Flipkart is trialling its “Eat In” meal delivery service among employees in Bengaluru as it looks to foray into online food shopping. The Walmart-backed company is also testing a separate Flipkart Minutes app with limited consumers ahead of a larger launch before the Big Billion Days sale.
Axis Bank is speeding up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to promote company growth but is cutting down the rate of hiring new staff. The lender has a net headcount of nearly 101,000 employees, down 3% after adding 400 branches in FY26.
The CCI has completed its antitrust probe into Google’s rules for real money gaming applications, stating that regulatory reforms had changed the market drastically. The examination follows a complaint by WinZO Games in 2022 that stated Google exploited its leading position.
Qualcomm has given Amazon rights to purchase 25 million Qualcomm shares worth $4 billion, as part of a new cooperation with AWS to develop customised data center chips. The transaction boosts Qualcomm’s push into AI infrastructure, especially inference, and raises competition with Nvidia.
Paytm is entering the artificial intelligence industry with Pi, an AI agent platform for banks and insurers in India and the UAE. Trained on Paytm’s financial and consumer data, Pi is capable of assisting in sales, customer service, fraud detection, credit evaluation and insurance claims.
Singapore has maintained its support for Singapore Airlines’ investment in Air India, notwithstanding the increasing public scrutiny of the carrier’s financial woes. Temasek owns 25.1% of Air India via Singapore Airlines.
NCPCR has summoned Meta India’s Managing Director and Head on charges that Instagram is running adverts promoting Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM). Child rights body opens official investigation after BBC Eye report and Meta’s response.
Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) is selling a 5.54% interest to a consortium that includes Alpha Wave Global, Temasek, Premji Invest and funds managed by BlackRock for INR 9,825 crore ($1 billion). The transaction values AAHL at some $18 billion before the investment.
Meta has launched a new AI agent, called Muse, that can access apps and do things like write emails, plan flights, make payments and manage calendars. Muse, first made available in the US through WhatsApp and a custom application, may operate standalone on cloud-hosted virtual computers.
The US Department of Labour has temporarily put a hold on Cognizant’s PERM green-card filings amid the Trump administration's crackdown on alleged fraud involving H-1B and permanent labour certifications. That suspension bars Cognisant from filing fresh PERM applications.
JSW Group and Skoda Volkswagen India have inked an MoU to develop a strategic joint venture to bolster Volkswagen's foothold in India. The alliance might increase local sourcing, manufacturing, product development and electric car localisation.
Kuku Technologies will hire 1,000 personnel to build its AI-powered content creation unit by the end of the financial year. The startup plans to leverage its AI Storytelling Stack to speed up micro-drama creation, reduce expenses by 30-50% and ramp up output for Indian and global markets.
Reliance Jio is gearing up to enter India’s satellite internet business and intends to launch its first test satellite in September 2027. Jio has applied for slots from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for satellite launches and has received the green signal from IN-SPACe.
TCS has bagged a Rs 122.6 crore contract to construct an AI-enabled governance platform for the Odisha government, called OSWAS 3.0. TCS DigiBOLT will include workflow automation, analytics, security and digital services as part of the six-year project.
IRDAI has levied a penalty of Rs 1 crore on ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company for violation of outsourcing practices and corporate governance requirements. The penalty comes after an examination by IRDAI and show-cause notices in 2024.
ANI has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the judgement to refuse interim relief in its copyright suit against OpenAI for using news articles to train its AI model, ChatGPT. The appeal was scheduled before a Division Bench on Sep 8, 2026, but the hearing was adjourned to Sep 14.
Udaan has purchased Swiggy-owned LYNK in a share-swap deal worth INR 500 crore, bolstering its B2B retail distribution network in major Indian regions. An additional investment of INR 75 crore will provide Swiggy a 3.2% ownership in Udaan.
Samsung India has began dismissing employees in its television and home appliance divisions. About 80–100 executives have reportedly been asked to quit, due to rising memory chip prices, greater raw material costs, currency depreciation and decreasing customer demand.
Swiggy has introduced a 24x7 food safety helpline and an in-app “Food Safety” channel to enable customers report any concerns about their orders. Customers can raise complaints, attach photographs and monitor cases using ticket numbers.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to shed up to 4,000 jobs over the next two years as part of a £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) cost-cutting makeover. Tata Motors’ premium manufacturer is facing more competition from Chinese rivals, U.S. tariffs and a recent cyberattack.
Hyundai Motor India aims to raise its women workforce to 20 per cent by 2030, boosting its diversity, equity and inclusion policy. Women today make up more than 8% of the company’s senior workforce of more than 4,000, while roughly 45% of its 2026 Management and Engineer Trainees were women.
The FSSAI has suspended the licenses of Kailash Formulation and Sanecure Water Project based in West Bengal after inspections uncovered major food safety, hygiene and sanitation violations. Concerns raised over the Sanecure Water Project included bug infestations, poor sanitation and more.
According to the TRAI data, BSNL attracted 68,560 net wireless subscribers in Haryana in July 2026, outpacing Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in the addition of mobile subscribers. The state-owned telecom operator contributed over half of the total net additions of subscribers in Haryana.
Modern Bazaar halves store network as quick-commerce platforms transform India’s retail space. With a revenue of roughly INR 250 crore, the Delhi-NCR-based luxury grocery chain has down-sized its branches to around 14 and is now concentrating on the smaller Express stores.
Adani Defence & Aerospace has entered into a five-year arrangement with Indo-Russian Rifles Pvt Ltd for the supply of Made-in-India 7.62x39mm ammunition for the AK-203 assault rifles. The arrangement intends to boost India’s domestic military industry ecosystem.
Ola Electric is building its first dealer-led stores across seven states as it transitions away from its own stores to company-led outlets. The EV producer is planning to have 500 dealerships around the country in two quarters to boost local sales and service.
President William Ruto has directed Tata Chemicals to cease operations in Kenya, intensifying a row over its Magadi soda ash company in Kajiado County. The company had been functioning in the region for decades but had not generated enough local economic value, said Ruto.
Meta has released Muse Spark 1.3, an improved AI agent that emphasises improved coding, instruction-following and longer-running processes. The concept enhances multitasking, memory, tool use and decision-making, while decreasing superfluous interactions.
The Aditya Birla Group has forayed into the wires and cables business in India with an investment of INR 1,800 crore through its Ultravolt brand. The Gujarat-based facility will enable pan India distribution to over one lakh shops across 500 districts and 6,000 pin codes.
India’s top medicines regulator has cancelled three import registrations of Korean cosmetics importer Skintl Enterprises for labelling and warehousing irregularities. The company was found to be utilising wrong registration numbers, keeping products without necessary license etc.
Nvidia to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion as chip giant makes huge expansion into AI software and open source Tech. The deal will provide Hugging Face more resources, infrastructure and worldwide reach while keeping its open platform.
Volkswagen to cut 100,000 jobs by decade's end in global overhaul. The German carmaker has agreed to slash a further 50,000 jobs in addition to 50,000 already announced. Volkswagen is also considering the long-term viability of a number of German operations.
Tata Sons has cleared an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore in Air India, subject to significant criteria that call for thorough business justifications for future financial infusions. The cash comes as Air India is looking for fresh equity to fuel its turnaround.
Bengaluru-based British LifeSciences faces FSSAI action for sale of expired, mislabeled infant food goods The food safety regulator said it ordered the destruction of 3.7 metric tonnes of expired infant food and the seizure of wrongly labelled products during an examination.
Uber is exiting Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect as part of a wider worldwide operational revamp led by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The ride-hailing company said it was reviewing operations and focused resources on areas with greater potential, such as driverless vehicles.
Adobe acquires Indian AI firm Rilo to bolster its agentic AI and marketing automation strategy Dhruv Jaglan and Georgi Boby, both alumni from IIT Bombay, founded Rilo in 2025. The company has built AI workflow automation solutions.
Uber is undergoing a massive restructuring under its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, which would see the company cutting around 3,300 jobs globally, including in India. Uber’s layoffs will impact around 10% of the staff, and management roles will be slashed by about 20%.
OpenAI is getting ready to roll out its new Astra AI model with better cybersecurity defences following a recent attack that affected Hugging Face systems. “Astra meets the ‘Critical’ cybersecurity capability threshold of OpenAI,” it said.
The fintech giant is laying off 600 people in India, or about 10% of its local workforce, as it seeks to cut expenses and streamline its global operations. The job losses hit professionals in technology, engineering, operations, payments and finance.
Two chipmakers strengthen their relationship in AI data center technology with Nvidia planning to invest $3.5 billion in MediaTek. Nvidia will purchase convertible bonds that can be converted into MediaTek shares and MediaTek will utilise Nvidia technology.
upGrad has finalised its acquisition of Unacademy for slightly over $200 million, down significantly from Unacademy’s highest valuation of $3.44 billion during the edtech bubble of the epidemic era. The acquisition comes after the Competition Commission of India greenlit the deal.
ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox have been classed as “Very Large Online Platforms” by the European Union under the DSA, which places harsher safety, transparency and accountability rules on them. The designation refers to platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU.
OpenAI, the AI company, has attained a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in its advertising business, a big milestone as the firm gears up for a potential IPO, and under pressure to justify its $852 billion valuation. ChatGPT ads are currently available in more than 40 countries.
Sony Music and Warner Music sued Anthropic in federal court in California, saying the AI startup exploited copyrighted songs, lyrics and sheet music to train its Claude AI models. The publishers say Claude can reproduce copyrighted songs verbatim.
The fast-fashion giant, Shein, started trading on Hong Kong’s stock market on September 1 after a long IPO process, with its valuation falling to $26.5 billion from almost $100 billion in 2022, a report said. The Shein Hong Kong IPO comes amid additional US and EU tariffs.
Mumbai police have busted an alleged multi-crore food fraud involving tampering of manufacturing and expiry dates on packaged items of names like Lay’s, Kurkure, Maggi, Knorr, Hellmann’s, Thums Up and Limca.
Oracle employees are apparently ready for another wave of layoffs, with September 1 – the beginning of Oracle’s fiscal second quarter – being a likely target date for cuts. Teams are more on edge after surprise “6 AM” termination emails in March.
Zomato has taken a zero-tolerance approach on imitation paneer and substitute dairy products, eliminating reported listings from the platform and urging eateries to verify ingredient labels. The action comes in the wake of increased scrutiny of fake paneer in India.
Zomato has laid off up to 250 people in its current round of workforce reorganisation, including close to 240 employees impacted by the shutdown of its Hyderabad Customer Delight operations, reports said. The corporation is centralising remaining in-house support functions in Gurgaon.
Ola Electric has received INR 95.8 crore in PLI incentives from the Ministry of Heavy Industries under the Production Linked Incentive scheme for vehicles and auto components. The recent permission comes on top of INR 367 crore in FY25 and INR 73.74 crore in FY24.
Cashfree Payments unveils Relay, an AI-powered agent that helps merchants streamline payment operations and recoup lost sales. Relay may make retries on unsuccessful payments, follow up on abandoned carts, track failed subscriptions, disputes and validate cash-on-delivery orders.
Meta’s new US teen safety standards have reignited India’s discussion about age verification, child protection and social media regulation. The settlement also requires stronger age detection technologies and sets default limits on screen usage.
Apple may raise India’s share of global iPhone manufacture to 30-35% from about 25% in the next five years, adding to the country’s importance in its global supply chain. Apple’s suppliers and contract manufacturers are likely to be backed up by government incentives and long-term tax benefits.
The company behind the LLM said an internal inquiry months before a hack on Hugging Face found hostile AI activity, with agents purportedly talking, creating notes and getting illegal internet access. The company said the agents took advantage of security gaps.
Nvidia is buying open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, expanding its influence in the ecosystem of AI tools and models. Hugging Face allows developers to share, experiment and cooperate on AI models and tools.
Amazon to triple purchases of Nvidia GPUs amid AI demand surge Amazon has agreed to install a further 2m processors across its AWS data centers in 2027 and 2028, on top of tripling its orders for Nvidia GPUs. This is in addition to Amazon's earlier plan to deploy more than 1 million Nvidia GPUs.
Salesforce and Anthropic have announced the launch of Claudeforce, which will expand their cooperation to incorporate Salesforce CRM capabilities directly into the Claude AI. The interface allows users to view, edit and act on real-time CRM data without accessing Salesforce.
Meta has agreed to a historic $18 billion settlement with US states on charges that Facebook and Instagram fuelled underage social media addiction. The deal includes improved child-safety measures, such as default time limitations and the ability to turn off features like “like” counts.
AESL has bagged a INR 4,700 crore transmission project in Maharashtra to carry 4,500 MW of renewable power from Karnataka to key consumption centers. The Satara project would enhance grid connectivity, enable pumped storage projects and accelerate India’s sustainable energy transformation.
Bournvita producer Mondelez India, Amway and several other food companies have dropped or modified health and nutrition claims after action by India’s food safety regulator FSSAI. Mondelez pulled Bournvita claims and ads listed as misleading.
Google launches Gemini Enterprise for Legal, AI-powered automation tools, specialist plug-ins and AI agents for law firms and legal departments. It’s a platform built to make legal workflows — contract review and negotiation, data discovery and more.
Deloitte has agreed to pay $21.5 million to settle a US government probe into its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. Deloitte took race and sex into account when making recruiting and promotion decisions and had internal targets for diversity, the US Department of Justice said.
Air India’s losses are mounting as the airline continues its recovery and is said to be seeking about $1.5 billion in fresh equity capital from owners Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. Air India and Air India Express together had a loss of $2.33 billion for the fiscal year ended March.
Honasa Consumer has called off its proposed acquisition of 58% share in nutraceuticals firm Fluence Pharma for INR 135 crore as some critical closing criteria were not completed. Mamaearth’s parent firm is dedicated to growing its nutraceuticals business both organically and inorganically.
SpaceX has plans to spend at least $100 billion on a new Starbase Louisiana spaceport to enable thousands of Starship flights annually. The Vermilion Parish project is estimated to produce more than 3,000 employment, with development expected to begin in 2027.
The Bombay HC will again take up Volkswagen’s $1.4-billion customs tax challenge, after an earlier bench had freed the matter following a delay of 18 months in pronouncing its verdict. The disagreement relates to Skoda Auto Volkswagen India’s import of automobile parts for its Aurangabad facility.
Sources say the chipmaker is mulling a stake in AI firm Perplexity that could value the company at more than $30 billion, more than 50% more than its prior valuation. Perplexity’s annual revenue has reportedly soared above $750 million.
Taiwanese research firm TeamT5 says Chinese state-affiliated hackers are increasingly employing DeepSeek and other open-source AI models to scale intrusions. The researchers uncovered AI tools for reconnaissance, vulnerability exploitation, developing exploit code and domain mapping.
Healthify and Berry Street to Team Up to Scale AI-Powered Metabolic Health Care in India and US. The combined business will merge Healthify’s AI nutrition platform, Ria assistant and meal tracking tech with Berry Street’s virtual nutrition services, clinician network and US insurance infrastructure.
Amazon and Flipkart have changed seller fees and penalties ahead of India’s Christmas shopping season, causing alarm among small and medium-sized enterprises. Amazon will increase the closure fee from September 7, citing increasing shipping and gasoline expenses.