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.
Infineon Technologies will acquire Bengaluru-based C2i Semiconductors to boost its AI data center power management and semiconductor R&D capabilities in India. Formed by former Texas Instruments engineers, C2i makes smart power stage chips for high-performance AI servers.
Karnataka government has banned food licences of Amazon, Instamart and BigBasket after deadly datura fruits and seeds were identified for sale on their platforms, authorities said. Some of the products had FSSAI licence numbers and were stored as food items.
TCS has agreed to acquire Porsche subsidiary MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH for €320 million ($373 million) as it seeks to extend its automotive and digital transformation capabilities. The arrangement encompasses a five-year strategic partnership valued at €1.25 billion.
US-based AI wearables firm Plaud believes India is a huge potential opportunity and demand is surpassing its global expansion. Plaud launched in India in 2025 via Amazon and its website, but is now looking for offline retail partnerships and local support.
Godrej Industries Group has inked an MoU with the Haryana government to invest INR 20,000 crore in the state, reinforcing its presence across real estate, infrastructure and financial services. The investment is estimated to produce close to 40,000 jobs.
Urban Company has filed a complaint of defamation and disparagement against Kent RO Systems in the Delhi HC for allegedly using deceptive marketing targeting its Native water purifiers.
The Center has given in-principle clearance for leasing 11 AAI airports through five bundled public-private partnership concessions. The proposed 50-year leases will include airport operations, administration and development.
The FSSAI has stepped up its enforcement of food safety, sending over 150 notifications to big corporations like Nestle India, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola India, Mondelez, Red Bull and Ferrero for misleading claims, deceptive advertising and labelling violations.
KPMG Australia to axe 400 jobs, including 360 staff and 27 partners, due to sluggish consultancy demand, protracted economic woes and the aftermath from a confidential-information issue. Consulting revenue fell 17% to $632 million while the firm’s total revenue dropped 1% to $2.26 billion.
India has ordered Google to erase hundreds of accounts and links hosted on Firebase that are suspected to be engaged in cyber frauds and financial crime. Law enforcement discovered fraudsters posing as banks who spread malware and stole sensitive financial information through dangerous connections.
Deepinder Goyal’s Temple wearable is expected to be commercially launched by the end of 2026. The business claims their product to be the smallest wearable in the world by volume. The device is designed to measure brain function, tracking cerebral blood flow and other data.
TCS has refuted suggestions that it is deploying monitoring software to track staff actions on work laptops, calling the allegations "baseless and inaccurate." The IT firm stated its digital monitoring solutions are intended to improve network management, security, general performance etc.
Euler Motors is expanding its manufacturing facilities in Palwal to cater to the increased demand for electric commercial four-wheelers in India. The new plant will be able to produce models like the Storm EV and Turbo EV 1000 and will include comprehensive testing of critical vehicle systems.
Meesho is aiming to generate over 10 lakh seasonal jobs in its seller and logistics ecosystem over the forthcoming festive season. The e-commerce company expects to generate over 6.5 lakh opportunities from its seller network and over 3.75 lakh in logistics.
Ola Electric has offered an introductory deal on its Shakti Gen2 home inverter. The energy storage system that is powered by a lithium-ion battery is designed to run appliances during power interruptions. The inverter comes in 3 kW and 6 kW capacities and is being given at limited period discounts.
Australia has passed a new law that requires large technology firms to pay for local news or pay hefty taxes. Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and TikTok can dodge the fines if they make deals with at least eight publishers throughout their reporting period.
TCS has launched out a Digital User Experience surveillance application on company given laptops used by close to 6 lakh employees sparking concerns about employee privacy, data collecting and workplace surveillance. The system can measure app usage and time spent on apps.
PhonePe has tied up with MeitY to connect its PulsePro business intelligence platform with the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan portal. Using anonymised, aggregated transactional data, PulsePro delivers hyperlocal insights into market activity.
Hindustan Power has achieved financial closure for its 435 MWp/300 MW solar power project in Lalitpur district of UP with IREDA sanctioning INR 1,135 crore in loan financing. The project has signed a long-term PPA with UPPCL and is projected to contribute to the renewable energy capacity of UP.
India probes Oppo for alleged screen flaws in Reno 5 series phones after some consumers complained lines on the display. The DCA is investigating if the problems are a sign of a manufacturing fault and whether they could lead to repairs or reimbursement outside of warranty periods.
Urban Company has grown its footprint in the Middle East by extending its e-commerce relationship with Unicommerce to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. “Urban Company will use Unicommerce’s Uniware platform to manage inventory, fulfilment and replenishment of service kits and consumables in real-time.
India’s commercial satellite internet rollout is still delayed, with permissions for Jio, Starlink and OneWeb held up over security concerns. The government is also looking at hazards arising out of foreign satellite networks bypassing Indian gateways.
Google is enhancing Gemini and Search with AI-powered learning tools to make it easier for students to study. New features include interactive simulations, customised practice tests, Lens-based learning, study materials created from PDFs and more.
Escorts to set up new manufacturing plant in Uttar Pradesh’s YEIDA industrial region with investment of over INR 2,000 crore The 154-acre complex will manufacture tractors, agricultural equipment, construction gear and engines for domestic and global markets.
Gujarat has permitted 12-hour work shifts at Micron’s semiconductor plant in Sanand, but statutory limit of 48 hours work per week will continue to apply. The measure comes with a view to assist semiconductor manufacturing and attract strategic investments to Gujarat.
KKR signs definitive deal to buy minority share in BookMyShow, supporting Indian entertainment platform’s next stage of expansion. The investment would assist BookMyShow in expanding its live entertainment business and enhancing its full-stack solutions across India.
Swiggy shareholders have given their approval to the business’s plan to become an Indian owned and controlled company (IOCC), with foreign ownership capped at 49.5%. The resolution was passed with 99.99% backing at its AGM on 18 August, a major obstacle after an earlier proposal was rejected.
Inox Clean Energy completes INR 6,000-crore acquisition of Vena Energy India, a renewable energy platform supported by GIP and BlackRock. Inox Clean’s portfolio will include 2.7 GW of solar and wind projects and 1.3 GWh of battery energy storage capacity with the deal.
OpenAI is pausing some training of frontier AI amid growing cybersecurity and safety worries over more strong models. The corporation has put certain reinforcement learning for its next Astra model on hold, while tightening standards for alignment, security and monitoring.
The company has added better safety controls for its chat experience for teens, automatically applying safety limits to users aged 13-17 or accounts that are detected as a minor. The “ChatGPT for Teens” approach controls content around self-harm, violence, eating disorders, and explicit sexuality.
India’s MoRTH has proposed to extend the operational life of electric, hydrogen and CNG vehicles by five years by revisions to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. The move might help save ownership costs, boost car residuals and encourage cleaner mobility.
Google intends to move production of its Pixel smartphone, smartwatch and wireless earbuds away from China to Vietnam and India by 2027. The move is part of Google’s drive to diversify its supply chain and lessen reliance on Chinese manufacturing amid US-China trade concerns.
Razorpay has built an AI-powered payment foundation model trained on 4 billion transactions to increase payment success, fraud detection and checkout customisation. It examines more than 3,000 transaction signals and achieved payment success rates up to 8-10% higher during early testing.
Colgate-Palmolive India has handed over Palmolive’s D2C and e-commerce business to Bombay Shaving Company in a bid to speed up the digital expansion of the personal care brand. The agreement leverages Colgate's strengths in product, supply chain and marketing, with BSC's digital-first know-how.
ByteDance has struck an AI copyright agreement with the MPA in Hollywood to boost intellectual property safeguards for its Seedance video and Seedream image-generation models. The agreement comes after a cease-and-desist letter in Feb & complaints from Disney and other studios.
India's quick commerce business is also growing fast, with consumer demand reaching about 9.5 million daily orders, says Datum Intelligence. Blinkit has 36.7%, Zepto 26.2% and Swiggy Instamart 14.4%. Order volumes are growing for Amazon Now, BigBasket and Flipkart Minutes.
The government has approved 31 projects for INR 7,877 crore under the fifth tranche of the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) supporting companies such as Kaynes Technology, Wipro, Motherson and Micromax. The projects are estimated to create manufacturing worth INR 82,243 crore.
Ola Electric has unveiled a complete energy storage portfolio for home, commercial and utility scale applications. Beside electric vehicles, the business is working on new battery energy storage devices, Ola Shakti 2, Shakti Rack and Mahashakti, to broaden the company’s energy offerings.
The Maharashtra FDA has suspended Parle Agro's licence after expired Frooti, Appy and Apple Fizz worth almost INR 99,970 were found at its Chembur warehouse. The measure is part of a wider assault on food safety in restaurants, warehouses and quick-commerce platforms across the state.
Concerns over fresh food safety have been raised after a rat was allegedly discovered inside an ice cream freezer at a Blinkit store in Thane, prompting calls for regulatory action. The incident follows inspections by the Maharashtra FDA that had identified hygienic issues at many Qcomm stores.
FSSAI said six food enterprises corrected false statements, trademarks and product labels after regulatory notices. Livyor Ventures eliminated the "vegan & healthy" term from its roasted edamame beans, and other companies changed trademarks and more.
Amber Enterprises will start commercial smartphone manufacture in India for Oppo, OnePlus and Realme from Q1 FY28 after trial production in Q4 FY27. Amber has partnered with Oppo Mobiles India and plans to manufacture roughly 8 million smartphones in the first year.
India has told public and private refineries to boost output of LPG as problems related to the Strait of Hormuz issue, thru which over 90% of the country's LPG imports pass, have hit supplies. Domestic refiners have already increased output from 36,000 tonnes a day to 54,000 tonnes a day.
MakeMyTrip has worked with the Ministry of Tourism to promote guided tours across India delivering about 350 experiences in more than 60 locations. The trips, which will feature local guides and experts, will be available for booking on MakeMyTrip from Independence Day.
IBM and Open AI have established a strategic alliance to accelerate enterprise AI deployment across sectors like finance, retail, government and telecoms. IBM will create an OpenAI practice inside IBM Consulting and train thousands of consultants on OpenAI tools OpenAI models and products.
OpenAI has released Ultrafast mode for GPT-5.6 Sol, which provides AI inference speeds up to 14x faster than regular processing. Ultrafast is powered by AI hardware manufacturer Cerebras and can supposedly generate up to 750 output tokens per second.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises has won interim relief from SAT to go ahead with its proposed fundraise of INR 3,143 crore, even as it faces a prohibition on market access from SEBI. The remission is subject to Zee depositing the entire penalty assessed by SEBI within a week.
Vertex Group has said it will hire 2,000 employes in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR in August 2026, which will be one of its biggest ever monthly hiring campaigns. The hiring push coincides with Vertex Group’s 10th anniversary and is part of its expansion strategy.
Google has announced Gemini 3.7 Flash, a new AI model for coding, software development and autonomous agent workflows. The model is capable of multi-step operations, using software tools, and operating with minimum human involvement.
DeepSeek has released its V4-Pro AI model and updated its pricing, increasing the cost per million output tokens during peak hours from $0.87 to $3.96. Even with the price, DeepSeek is still cheaper than competitors like Anthropic’s Fable 5.
L&T’s data center division Vyoma.AI secures Rs 10,000-15,000 crore order from Together AI to establish India's largest Nvidia B300 AI facility in Chennai It will be used for large-scale AI training, fine-tuning and inference with space for up to 10,000 Nvidia B300 GPUs.
The Supreme Court has questioned the Center and FSSAI on their reluctance on front-of-pack warning labels on goods high on sugar, salt and saturated fat. A bench said that public health, particularly children’s health, had to take precedence above industry concerns.
The Center has asked Uber, Rapido and other ride-hailing platforms to eliminate the advance tipping choices and said tips should be voluntary and only after a journey. The Road Transport Ministry said pre-ride tip prompts may breach consumer protection standards and aggregator policies.
President Donald Trump has been sued over Truth Social’s controversial Truth API service, which gives paying customers early access to posts that could move markets. The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed the complaint in federal court in Manhattan.
SEBI has issued a show cause notice to Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and CFO Madhur Deora on the timing of the company’s disclosure in 2023 on reducing small personal loans in the wake of RBI’s consumer lending curbs. Executives have 14 days to respond.
Bank of America would spend up to INR 18,268 crore ($1.9 billion) to buy a share of up to 49.9% in NBFC Jio Credit, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Financial Services. The investment would initially provide Bank of America with a 26.5% ownership.
Maharashtra FDA suspends licences of four Domino’s Pizza locations, three in Mumbai, for food safety, hygiene issues The affected places are Vile Parle West, Borivali West, R-City Mall Ghatkopar and Malkapur in Karad district.
KFin Technologies has introduced Klarity, an agentic AI tool that identifies signature forgeries while minimising incorrect rejections of legitimate ones. The approach employs biometric analysis of stroke pressure, curvature, angles, and handwriting patterns to identify complex fraud.
Ola Electric has bagged a two-year extension under the government’s Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) PLI scheme, unlocking up to ₹7,240 crore incentives thru 2031 for its 20 GWh battery cell allocation. The new timeframe provides for quarterly incentive payments as Ola scales up manufacturing capacity.
Oracle is gearing up for another wave of layoffs, cutting costs related to employes while boosting investments in AI and cloud infrastructure. The corporation is seeking managers to identify staff affected by the latest round of job cuts due to be completed by September 1.
Anthropic is adding machine-readable watermarks to text and files written or processed by Claude to improve transparency of AI content. The invisible text watermark is robust to copying and some alteration and files may include signed provenance metadata based on the C2PA standard.
Nvidia partners with six of Wall Street’s biggest asset managers to release over $500 billion in financing for AI infrastructure. The program is designed to assist hyperscalers, AI laboratories and corporations fund Nvidia GPUs and data centers.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) aims to manufacture rare earth magnets in India as the government looks to minimise dependence on China, the world’s largest producer. L&T is likely to seek a INR 72.8 billion incentive package and perhaps join hands with a technology specialist.
The Parliament has cleared the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the UPI transactions will continue to be free for consumers. The legislation does not levy any UPI transaction.
Flipkart Minutes has now entered the luxury grocery space in India with its private label Pykd which sells premium food items like cheese, coffee, ramen, chocolate, kombucha, oils and ghee. The move raises up competition with Zepto, Blinkit and FirstClub.
The Delhi High Court has stayed an order of the FSSAI directing Dabur India to stop selling food products with “100%” claims, including “100% Pure” and “100% Natural.” The court observed that a ban order was issued against Dabur without giving it an opportunity to be heard.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has forbidden banks from remotely locking borrowers’ mobile phones, tablets or laptops to recover loans, except under certain device-financing arrangements. Restrictions must only take effect after 30 days of default and be phased in over 60 days under new standards.
The US has placed a 15% tariff and minimum import prices on polysilicon in a move aimed at China’s domination of key solar and semiconductor supply chains. The move by President Donald Trump is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing, energy security and advanced computing infrastructure.
Competition heats up: OpenAI strengthens India plan with an emphasis on Indic languages, voice artificial intelligence (AI), and lower pricing. The company has slashed the prices of its GPT-5.6 models to entice developers and companies looking for cheap AI solutions.
A US court has fined Meta $567m for allegedly harming the mental health of minors on its platforms and hiding known hazards to safety. Meta was determined by a jury to have wilfully contributed to the psychological injury of kids, leading to the New Mexico decision.