Technology

Gandhinagar, May 27 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) in Gandhinagar on Wednesday announced a major academic expansion under the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 by establishing seven new university schools and introducing a multidisciplinary academic structure that will allow students to study subjects beyond their traditional streams, including artificial intelligence and philosophy.

The institution, established in 2010, said the restructuring marked a significant step in its transition towards becoming a “University of National Importance” and adopting a multidisciplinary academic model in line with the NEP framework.

Announcing the development, IITE director Dr. Mehul Dave said the university would become the first institution in India dedicated to preparing educators in artificial intelligence. “IITE will become India’s first university to prepare AI educators,” Dr. Dave said.

He said the state government had sanctioned a grant of Rs 127 crore for new buildings and hostel facilities as part of the university’s expansion plans.

According to the university, the revised academic structure has been designed to provide holistic education, strengthen skill-based learning, and encourage advanced interdisciplinary research.

Dr. Dave said the expansion also broadens the scope of teacher education beyond conventional classroom teaching.

The new framework includes not only government teachers but also mentors and professionals from fields such as computer education, gym and fitness training, theatre and coaching, as well as disciplines such as science, languages, social sciences, and physical education.

The university said the changes were introduced with ongoing transformations in global education systems and the increasing importance of interdisciplinary learning in mind.

The seven newly established schools are the School of Education in Sciences and Mathematics, the School of Education in Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Physical Education & Sports and Yoga, the School of Education in Performing Arts and Fine Arts, School of Education in Commerce, Management and Educational Leadership, School of Education in Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Areas, and School of Special Education.

Under the new academic model, subjects such as artificial intelligence, sports, arts, and management will be integrated with mainstream education programmes.

University officials said the structure would enable students to undertake interdisciplinary research using newer and more flexible academic approaches.

As part of the revised policy, students from science streams will also be allowed to choose optional subjects such as philosophy or artificial intelligence, according to their interests.

The university said the expansion would open new opportunities for PhD and advanced research in science and technology, the humanities, educational leadership, and the arts and sports.

It added that the restructuring was aimed at preparing educators and academic leaders with multidisciplinary knowledge and skills suited to evolving educational requirements.

--IANS

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Mumbai, May 26 (IANS) A marathon board meeting of Tata Sons held at Bombay House in Mumbai on Tuesday focused extensively on the financial performance, future projections and strategic direction of several loss-making group businesses amid growing engagement between Tata Sons and Tata Trusts.

The nearly six-and-a-half-hour meeting, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. with a lunch break in between, was described by sources as an “involved interaction” where several group CEOs made detailed presentations on their businesses before the board.

According to reports, the meeting did not take up discussions on the possible listing of Tata Sons or the continuation of N Chandrasekaran for a third term as executive chairman. Both issues are expected to be discussed at the next board meeting scheduled for June 12.

The special review session was reportedly convened following concerns raised earlier by Noel Tata, who is also a nominee director on the Tata Sons board.

During the February 24 board meeting, Noel Tata is understood to have questioned the profitability and long-term viability of businesses such as Air India, Tata Digital and Tata Electronics.

The concerns were reportedly linked to discussions around Chandrasekaran’s proposed third five-year term beginning February 2027. Tata Trusts had already passed a resolution in July 2025 supporting his continuation.

Several senior executives, including Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, Tata Electronics CEO Randhir Thakur and Tata Digital CEO Sajith Sivanandan, were present at Tuesday’s meeting and answered questions related to business performance, profitability and future strategy.

Reports said Noel Tata appeared satisfied with the explanations and presentations made during the session, although he is believed to have sought additional clarifications on certain aspects of the group’s new-age and capital-intensive businesses.

Further review meetings involving Tata group companies may also be held in the coming months.

However, neither Tata Sons nor Tata Trusts officially commented on the board meeting.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Piyush Goyal, Secretary, Ministry of Mines on Monday urged closer coordination between the Centre and state governments to expedite statutory clearances, facilitate early commencement of mining operations, and ensure timely production from auctioned blocks.

Goyal chaired a monthly review meeting with senior ministry officials and Category-A mineral bearing States to review the progress of mineral block auctions and operationalisation across the country, an official statement said.

The meeting focused on accelerating reforms in the mining sector, enhancing domestic mineral production, and ensuring timely operationalisation of auctioned mineral blocks.

In FY 2025-26, a record 212 mineral blocks were auctioned — the highest in any financial year since auctions began.

Auction of 22 critical and strategic mineral blocks were among them, reflecting the government’s continued focus on securing critical mineral resources essential for India’s economic growth and clean energy transition.

Since the auction regime began in 2015, 108 mineral blocks were auctioned through FY 2020-21, the statement from the Ministry of Mines said.

The pace of auctions accelerated significantly, with 364 mineral blocks successfully auctioned between FY22 to FY25, averaging about 90 blocks per year.

The meeting also reviewed the operationalisation status of auctioned blocks and found that in FY26, a total of 36 mineral blocks, including 28 greenfield blocks and 8 brownfield blocks, have been operationalised.

As many as 58 blocks comprising 20 greenfield and 38 brownfield blocks operationalised during the entire period from FY16 to FY25.

Secretary also underscored the importance of critical mineral development in achieving the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and strengthening India’s mineral security.

Recent surveys have identified substantial reserves of Rare Earth Elements (REEs), Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs) and critical rare metals across multiple blocks in Rajasthan’s Siwana Ring Complex.

The Union Ministry of Mines has already assigned technical evaluation work for three blocks to specialised agencies, signalling that exploration has moved beyond preliminary assessments.

—IANS

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New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) India’s push towards ethanol blending and renewable energy is helping reduce the country’s dependence on imported crude oil, Krishnakumar Gopalan, former Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited said on Monday.

Speaking to IANS, he said the government had realised early the need for an energy transition and has been working closely with oil companies to reduce vulnerabilities arising from high crude imports.

Speaking about India’s fuel strategy, Gopalan said around 85 per cent of the country’s crude oil requirement is imported, making the economy highly exposed to global developments and price fluctuations.

“To address this challenge, India has introduced 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol, which is gradually being accelerated further to cut dependence on crude imports,” Gopalan said.

“That is one step where we are trying to reduce our dependency. The second step is we have made our efforts in increasing renewable assets, be it solar, wind, hydrogen. We are even looking at hydrogen retail outlets,” he told IANS.

Gopalan also highlighted the role played by oil marketing companies in managing fuel supplies efficiently despite global uncertainty.

“They have been managing supplies very well. There are hardly any cases of dry outs except where there are localised crises and the oil companies, I think, have done a very commendable job in managing the supplies,” he added.

On fuel prices, the former BPCL chief said oil companies have absorbed a major part of the cost burden despite rising global crude prices.

According to him, the current under-recovery on petrol is around Rs 13 to Rs 14 per litre, while diesel under-recovery is close to Rs 38 per litre.

"The loss in petrol is about 13 to 14 rupees and diesel is about 38 rupees, so whatever increase has happened is only partial,” he stated.

“The good fact is crude has started coming down, there are positive indications about negotiations working and if that does happen, that will be a great relief, there won't be much increases required that will offset and the crude economy also will benefit," he told IANS.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) India’s capital goods industry is projected to see a revenue growth of 12-14 per cent this fiscal, buoyed by sustained government spending, steady capacity expansion in power, mining, oil and gas, metal and auto-linked sectors, and increasing opportunities from emerging segments such as data centres and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, a report showed on Friday.

The ongoing developments in West Asia are unlikely to materially impact growth as diversified order books and limited regional exposure to the middle east provide a cushion with revenue largely accruing from the domestic market, said the Crisil report.

“The operating margin is expected to remain range-bound at 12-13 per cent this fiscal, supported by strong execution, long-term client relationships and improved operating leverage despite geopolitical cost pressure,” it added.

The order books of large companies have risen 1.5 times over the past two fiscals to Rs 5.2 lakh crore (as of December 2025) with the book-to-bill ratio improving to 3.7 times in fiscal 2026 from 3.1 times in fiscal 2024.

The growth is driven by increased power sector capex, raising its share to 50 per cent from 32 per cent, alongside steady growth in defence and railways outlays.

“We expect capital goods companies to report revenue growth of 12-14 per cent this fiscal, driven by strong double-digit growth in capex spends across the power sector, particularly the renewable energy value chain. Growth is further supported by increased government spending in key sectors such as railways and defence, where capex allocations this fiscal have risen 11 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively,” said Aditya Jhaver, Director, Crisil Ratings.

According to the report, power capacity additions of 58–62 gigawatt (GW) this fiscal, led by renewables, should boost demand for heavy engineering and equipment. Transmission capex is expected to stay strong, driven by renewable integration, rising demand and grid modernisation.

“Railway capex is set to recover, supported by expansion and modernisation, while defence spending continues to rise with a focus on indigenisation. Private capex in core sectors such as steel, cement and oil and gas remains steady, driven by steady domestic demand even as emerging areas such as data centres and EV infrastructure gain traction,” the report noted.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) At a time when many companies are doubling down on workplace culture and employee wellbeing, fintech startup Bolt is taking a sharply different path.

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow has defended his controversial decision to eliminate the company’s entire human resources department, arguing that HR teams often create unnecessary complications instead of solving problems.

Speaking at Fortune’s Workforce Innovation Summit, the 31-year-old founder said the move was part of a broader effort to restore speed and efficiency at the once high-flying fintech company.

“We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn’t exist,” Breslow said during a conversation with Fortune editorial director Kristin Stoller. “Those problems disappeared when I let them go.”

Founded in 2014, Bolt became one of the fastest-growing fintech startups during the pandemic-era tech boom, reaching a valuation of $11 billion in 2022. However, the company’s fortunes later reversed dramatically. After Breslow stepped down as CEO that same year, Bolt’s valuation reportedly fell to nearly $300 million by 2024 -- a decline of almost 97 per cent.

Breslow returned to lead the company in 2025 and described the current phase at Bolt as “wartime,” requiring a more aggressive operational approach. Earlier this year, the company laid off nearly 30 per cent of its workforce and dismantled its HR division altogether.

According to Breslow, traditional HR structures are better suited for large, stable companies rather than startups trying to move quickly in a competitive environment.

“We’re back in startup mode again, and those HR professionals have really important insights when you’re in a peacetime and when you’re at a larger company,” he said.

Instead of a conventional HR department, Bolt has introduced a leaner “people operations” team focused on employee training and support functions.

Breslow has repeatedly voiced skepticism about traditional HR practices. In a LinkedIn post earlier this year, he wrote that “HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach,” adding that people operations teams help companies “move at lightning speed” by empowering managers and streamlining decision-making.

At the Fortune summit, Breslow further criticized what he described as a culture of inefficiency inside HR teams.

“We need a group of people who are very oriented around getting things done,” he said. “There is just a culture of not getting things done and complaining a lot.”

--IANS

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Seoul, May 19 (IANS) The Bank of Korea (BOK) has estimated that a general strike at Samsung Electronics Co. could cut 0.5 percentage point off South Korea's economic growth this year, officials said on Tuesday.

The central bank recently compiled a closed-door report on the matter and submitted it to the finance ministry, according to the officials, reports Yonhap news agency.

The report estimated losses from the potential strike at around 30 trillion won (US$20 billion), noting it could take up to three weeks to restore production if the company's memory chip lines come to a complete halt.

Earlier, the BOK projected the South Korean economy would grow 2 percent in 2026. Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 1.7 percent in the first quarter, marking the fastest growth in more than five years, driven by robust exports of semiconductors.

The report came as unionized workers announced plans to stage an 18-day large-scale strike starting Thursday, with more than 50,000 members expected to participate, demanding higher bonuses linked to the company's operating profit.

Meanwhile, Samsung and its largest labour union resumed government-led wage mediation on Tuesday, entering the final day of talks in a last-ditch effort to avert a strike at the world's largest memory chipmaker.

The two-day negotiations resumed days after the first round of mediation ended without a deal, as the two sides remained divided over performance-based bonuses ahead of an 18-day strike set to begin on Thursday.

Labor and management remain sharply split over performance-based bonuses tied to earnings from the tech giant's artificial intelligence (AI)-related semiconductor business, amid an ongoing global memory supercycle.

Park Soo-keun, chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission, hinted at the possibility of reaching an agreement, saying the two sides were narrowing some differences during the previous day's negotiations.

"Ultimately, we will see whether the two parties can reach a settlement, and if not, we will issue a mediation proposal," Park told reporters before entering the meeting. "There is still a possibility of a deal, so we will wait and see."

The company has proposed maintaining the current excess profit incentive system while allowing the bonus pool to be calculated based on 10 per cent of operating profit. It also proposed introducing a special compensation system, saying it would create a more flexible incentive structure.

In contrast, the union is demanding fixed performance bonuses equal to 15 per cent of the semiconductor division's operating profit, along with the removal of payout caps.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) US-based tech giant Meta will begin laying off 10 per cent of its global workforce from Wednesday, May 20, and bolster its artificial intelligence initiatives as part of a sweeping reorganisation aimed at streamlining operations, as per multiple reports.

According to them, the company seeks to eliminate some managerial roles and reorganise teams to create “AI‑native” structures with smaller teams intended to speed up decision‑making, according to multiple reports.

The company reportedly indicated that it will close about 6,000 open positions and that the overall changes, including transfers, will affect roughly 20 per cent of its current workforce.

If implemented at that level, the job cuts could affect roughly 16,000 employees, based on Meta’s workforce of nearly 79,000 people as of December 31.

Some employees have reacted strongly to the overhaul, staging protests at company offices and posting complaints on Meta’s internal platform, Workplace.

Over 1,000 staff have signed a petition opposing new mouse-tracking software the company is using to train AI systems, citing privacy concerns.

Meanwhile, global tech layoffs are accelerating in 2026, with more than 80,000 jobs already cut in the first quarter and total losses likely to exceed 3 lakh this year, led by companies like Oracle, Amazon, and Meta, a report has said.

Another recent report by TradingPlatforms highlighted that the latest wave of layoffs builds on a broader post-pandemic correction, with over one million tech jobs lost globally since 2021 as companies recalibrate hiring after the Covid-era expansion.

AI and automation have emerged as key drivers of this transformation, with nearly half of all layoffs in 2026 linked to AI-related restructuring.

Moreover, the US remains the worst-hit market, accounting for nearly 77 per cent of global layoffs so far this year, with over 61,000 job cuts across 62 companies.

Among companies, Oracle has reported the highest number of layoffs globally in 2026, cutting more than 25,000 roles as part of a major restructuring tied to its AI infrastructure push.

—IANS

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New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Nearly forty percent of government organisations across the globe will establish dedicated TrustOps functions by 2028 to combat deep fake identity impersonation and disinformation-as-a-service (DaaS), a report said on Monday.

The report from a business and technology insights company Gartner, Inc. urged government organisations to urgently establish trust capabilities, such as transitioning from reactive fact-checking to a proactive trust architecture, to defend against deepfakes.

"These threats manifest as public-facing disinformation campaigns, such as impersonating leaders to issue misleading public statements, and in attacks on internal systems," the report said.

Deepfakes aims to compromise automated biometric authentication (voice or face) or use social engineering to manipulate employees into harmful actions, typically by rapidly establishing authority and urgency.

“Deepfakes can undermine or even weaponize notions of digital identity, attacking the credibility of the State itself,” said Daniel Nieto, Sr. Director Analyst at Gartner.

Government organisations can consider implementing solutions such as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) protocol in the long term, he said.

“They should mandate outbound content grounding by adopting the C2PA protocol, embedding tamper-proof cryptographic metadata into all official digital media,” Nieto added.

The report called on organisations to orchestrate an oversight role in consultation with primary stakeholders

Another recommendation is to identify and audit high-risk administrative workflows, such as financial disbursements.

Implement security measures that require multiple approvers and application-level authentication to eliminate single-point-of-failure vulnerabilities exploitable by voice-cloned executives, the firm said.

To mitigate the existential risk of institutional irrelevance, CIOs must shift from reactive fact-checking to proactive trust architecture, the report said.

The implications of deepfakes at scale, resulting from the marriage of social media and synthetic content demand an orchestrated, rapid, enterprise wide defence.

Government organisations should avoid relying on reactive takedowns as they cannot outrun a deepfake once it is viral, the report said, adding that organisations must saturate the information space with the truth first.

—IANS

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New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The MeitY-backed ChipIN Centre -- focused on semiconductor design education and VLSI research -- has been inaugurated at Sona College of Technology in Tamil Nadu on Saturday to strengthen India’s semiconductor ecosystem and support the country’s ‘Make in India’ chip push.

The ‘Sona ChipIN Centre’, established at the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), has been set up under the Chips to Startup (C2S) programme supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), C-DAC and the ChipIN Centre initiative.

The facility is equipped with advanced Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools valued at Rs 100 million, enabling students, researchers and faculty members to work on semiconductor design, VLSI research and industry-oriented innovation projects.

The centre was inaugurated by Dr V Veerappan, Chairman of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association, and Shekar Viswanathan, former Vice-Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Sona Institutions Chairman C Valliappa said the Centre should work towards developing a ‘Made in India’ chip within the next 24-36 months in alignment with the government’s India Semiconductor Mission.

Meanwhile, Sona Institutions Vice Chairman Chocko Valliappa said the initiative assumes significance amid India’s rapidly growing semiconductor ecosystem and the country’s entry into advanced 3nm chip development capabilities.

He added that apart from indigenous chip development, the centre will help produce industry-ready semiconductor engineers.

According to the institution, the ECE Department will utilise the facility to train students across multiple programmes, including Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Electronics Engineering VLSI Design and Technology, Electronics and Computer Engineering, and ME VLSI Design.

The software ecosystem at the centre includes semiconductor and chip design platforms from leading global technology firms.

The C2S Programme is a national capacity-building initiative launched by MeitY in 2022 with an outlay of Rs 250 crore over five years to strengthen India’s semiconductor and chip design ecosystem across academic institutions.

The programme aims to create 85,000 industry-ready professionals across undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels in chip design and VLSI-related fields, according to the government.

--IANS

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