Technology

New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) Maruti Suzuki India on Monday said that it onboarded five startups to co-develop artificial intelligence (AI)-driven and sustainability-focused solutions aimed at improving operational efficiency, customer experience and business processes.

The selected startups -- MiniMines, Easework AI, Sarvam AI, Siftly and CodeMate AI -- are winners of the fifth cohort of the Maruti Suzuki Incubation Programme (MSIP), which is conducted in partnership with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore's startup incubator, NSRCEL.

Maruti Suzuki Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said the company has been actively collaborating with startups to develop practical solutions for real-world business challenges.

"We are delighted to collaborate with five more startups. One of these startups, MiniMines, will support us in safely recycling end-of-life batteries, while the other four startups will help improve customer engagement and drive efficiency across our business operations," he said.

According to the company, MiniMines will develop environment-friendly recycling solutions for end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and extraction of valuable materials.

Easework AI will automate procurement workflows for indirect consumables using agentic AI, while Sarvam AI will build multilingual generative AI agents to enhance customer interactions across multiple touchpoints.

Siftly will leverage generative AI to improve brand visibility, and CodeMate AI will develop AI-powered solutions to accelerate software application development for business operations.

The incubation programme, launched in August 2020, aims to nurture technology-enabled startups working on future mobility solutions, the auto firm said.

NSRCEL supports the initiative by identifying promising early-stage startups and providing mentorship along with access to IIM Bangalore's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The company said it has built multiple innovation programmes over the past seven years to support startups developing solutions for the automotive and mobility sector.

So far, Maruti Suzuki has screened around 7,400 startups, engaged with more than 250 and onboarded 38 as business partners.

--IANS

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New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) A national study that examined participation in Gram Sabhas across states and union territories found low citizen turnout and identified barriers and pathways to strengthen their grassroots engagement, an official statement said on Monday, adding that the report will be released on June 30.

The statement from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj said the National Study Report on 'Low Participation in Gram Sabha across States and Union Territories' will be released here by Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, Member, NITI Aayog.

The report -- prepared by the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj for the ministry -- is based on extensive field research covering about 7,790 respondents across around 400 Gram Panchayats in 26 states and union territories, including PESA and women‑led Gram Panchayats.

It examines dimensions influencing gram sabha participation, including awareness levels, communication systems, inclusiveness, institutional responsiveness, governance practices, infrastructure availability, and citizen perceptions, with the aim of identifying practical measures for strengthening participatory democracy and grassroots governance.

The report also provides evidence-based actionable inputs for policy formulation, institutional strengthening, and enhanced citizen participation in Gram Sabhas.

The Gram Sabha, envisaged under Article 243A of the Constitution, is the cornerstone of participatory local governance, the statement noted.

This National Study Report, seeks to identify the factors affecting citizen participation and recommend measures to strengthen gram sabhas, fostering more vibrant, inclusive, and accountable Panchayati Raj Institutions across rural India.

India’s Gram Panchayats have routed over Rs 3 lakh crore in cumulative payments through the eGramSwaraj platform and the AI‑powered SabhaSaar meeting tool is now available in 23 Indian languages.

Payments through eGramSwaraj are made directly to vendors and service providers in real time, ensuring complete digital traceability.

Additionally, the platform is integrated with the Public Financial Management System and it streamlined planning, accounting and expenditure at the Panchayat level.

The system replaced cash-based and paper-driven processes with a fast, accountable and fraud-resistant system.

—IANS

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New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Elon Musk on Sunday announced that xAI's latest artificial intelligence model, Grok 4.5, has entered private beta testing at SpaceX and Tesla, marking the first confirmed deployment of the model within Musk's companies ahead of a wider release.

In a post on social media platform X, Musk said Grok 4.5 is based on xAI's 1.5-trillion-parameter V9 foundation model and has undergone supplemental training using data from AI coding assistant Cursor.

According to Musk, early evaluations indicate that the model's performance is close to, and may even exceed, Anthropic's Claude Opus.

"Grok 4.5, based on our 1.5T V9 foundation model, with Cursor data added in supplemental training, is now in private beta at SpaceX & Tesla. Early evals show performance close to, perhaps exceeding Opus," Musk wrote.

He added that reinforcement learning continues to improve the model's capabilities and said that xAI's internal coding system, referred to as the "Grok Build" coding harness, is becoming more effective over time. Musk also thanked the teams involved in developing the model.

Musk further revealed that xAI intends to release new AI models that are "completely trained from scratch" through SpaceX every month for the remainder of the year, suggesting an accelerated development cycle for the company's AI efforts.

The V9 foundation model, which Musk first disclosed in late May, completed training with 1.5 trillion parameters. The model is roughly three times larger than the 0.5-trillion-parameter "v8-small" model that currently handles Grok's production workloads on X.

At the time, Musk had said the training process included a significant amount of data from Cursor, the AI coding assistant that SpaceX agreed to acquire earlier this year in a deal valued at $60 billion. The integration of Cursor data was intended to significantly enhance Grok's coding capabilities.

The rollout of the V9 model has proceeded gradually. Musk confirmed the completion of training in late May, while subsequent updates had pointed to a mid-June public release window for the underlying V9-Medium model. Sunday's announcement marks the first indication that a version officially branded as Grok 4.5 has advanced to private testing.

--IANS

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Thiruvananthapuram, June 27 (IANS) Aerospace engineer N. Jayan, who led the development of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine that powers India's LVM3 heavy-lift launch vehicle, has been appointed Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), one of the Indian Space Research Organisation's most strategic establishments responsible for developing propulsion systems for the country's launch vehicles and space missions.

Jayan's appointment marks the elevation of one of the key architects of India's cryogenic propulsion programme to head the ISRO centre at the heart of the nation's rocket engine development.

The CE20 cryogenic engine, developed under Jayan's leadership, represented a major technological breakthrough for India's space programme.

Powering the cryogenic upper stage of the LVM3, formerly known as GSLV Mk III, the engine significantly strengthened India's ability to launch heavy satellites and undertake complex missions using indigenous technology.

The achievement was widely regarded as a defining milestone in India's quest for self-reliance in advanced space propulsion.

Before assuming charge as Director, Jayan served as Associate Director of LPSC and earlier held key assignments as Project Director of the Cryogenic Stage Project and Project Director of the ambitious Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) programme at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET), Jayan later earned a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, graduating with a Gold Medal.

Over a career spanning several decades, he has played a pivotal role in advancing India's indigenous propulsion technologies, contributing to the country's emergence as a leading spacefaring nation.

His contributions have earned him several prestigious honours, including the Astronautical Society of India Space Gold Medal, three ISRO Team Awards, and the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, India's highest civilian honour in science, conferred by the President in 2025 for his outstanding contributions to space research.

A native of Thiruvananthapuram, Jayan now takes charge of LPSC at a crucial phase as ISRO accelerates work on next-generation launch vehicles, advanced propulsion technologies and missions aimed at expanding India's capabilities in space exploration.

--IANS

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Bengaluru, June 27 (IANS) The World Intellectual Foundation (WIF) on Saturday released its first-of-its-kind report on the Responsible Nations Index (RNI) 2026 here, with experts saying that the index has been developed to assess how nations treat the planet and the people of the world.

In January this year, India launched the RNI, a global framework aimed at assessing countries on ethical governance, social well-being, environmental stewardship and global responsibility, moving beyond traditional measures of power and economic strength.

“The thought behind this is that all the indices issued so far have largely been produced by the powerful countries of the world. They have assessed every country according to their own criteria. In many of those indices, the parameters are based on how powerful a country is, how much ammunition it has, how many weapons it possesses, and its overall strength,” WIF Chairman Professor Jagdish Mukhi told IANS.

The Responsible Nations Index is the result of a three-year academic and policy research initiative led by the World Intellectual Foundation, with scholarly contributions from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Indian Institute of Management Mumbai.

The framework seeks to redefine how national success is measured in an increasingly interconnected world.

T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Aarin Capital and former CFO and board member at Infosys, told IANS that the aim is to create an index showing where various countries stand.

“The Responsible Nation Index has been developed to assess how nations treat the planet and the people of the world. While every country has the right to pursue its own interests, we all live on the same planet. We must ensure that whatever we do within our own country does not destroy the planet or harm the prospects of other people, because that is what it means to be a responsible nation. Our culture and civilisation have always taught us that we are part of one global family,” Pai mentioned.

JNU Vice Chancellor, Professor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said during the event that “We are the only university with 1,000 faculty members for 10,000 students and the only university funded by the Central Government of India... JNU is now presenting its own antidote”.

--IANS

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New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) India's engineering goods exports crossed the $12-billion mark for the first time in May, rising 24.48 per cent year-on-year to hit a record despite geopolitical tensions in West Asia and disruptions to global trade, as per industry data released on Friday.

The Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) India said that engineering shipments stood at $12.31 billion in May 2026, compared with $9.89 billion in the corresponding month last year, according to the latest quick estimates released by the government.

The sector accounted for 27.2 per cent of India's total merchandise exports during the month, it added.

The strong performance was driven by higher exports of electric machinery and equipment, ships, boats and floating structures, motor vehicles, and iron and steel products.

As many as 28 of the 34 engineering product panels recorded positive export growth during the month.

Commenting on the performance, EEPC India Chairman Pankaj Chadha said that as global companies are reworking their supply chains to reduce overreliance on a single country, especially China, new opportunities are emerging for Indian engineering firms.

"The support of the Commerce Ministry in terms of faster policy relief, cheaper trade finance, and stronger risk protection would also be of utmost importance in this regard," he said.

With the proper guidance of the government, we will be able to achieve the desired export target of $250 billion by 2030, Chadha said.

Region-wise, North America remained the largest market for Indian engineering goods, accounting for 19.3 per cent of exports in May, followed by West Asia and North Africa (16.7 per cent) and the European Union (15.2 per cent).

The exports to the West Asia and North Africa region rose about 44 per cent in May despite the geopolitical crisis, while shipments to the region were up 14 per cent during April-May.

--IANS

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New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) Goldman Sachs has raised India's GDP growth forecast to 6.8 per cent for calendar year 2026 from 6.5 per cent earlier, following the US-Iran peace deal that has led to lower global oil prices and eased supply chain disruptions.

The investment bank has also raised its FY27 GDP growth forecast for the country by 40 basis points to 6.5 per cent.

In its latest report, titled ‘India: Improved macro outlook after the US-Iran deal’, the global investment bank said it has revised its forecasts after the sharp decline in crude oil prices reduced risks to the Indian economy.

It has also lowered the headline inflation forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 4.4 per cent year-on-year and lowered the current account deficit forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 1.1 per cent of GDP. The investment bank now expects a balance of payments surplus of 0.7 per cent of GDP for the year.

The Goldman Sachs report said: "The Indian economy remained resilient through the Middle-East shock, as fiscal and quasi-fiscal measures absorbed much of the increase in energy costs and limited pass-through to consumers."

The investment bank said that stronger-than-expected economic activity in the first quarter of CY26, along with lower crude oil prices, prompted it to revise its growth outlook upward. India's real GDP growth in the first quarter came in at 7.8 per cent year-on-year, supported by resilient investment and robust services activity.

While Goldman Sachs expects consumption growth to moderate during the second and third quarters due to the earlier increase in fuel prices, it believes the decline in oil prices has significantly reduced the need for further retail fuel price hikes, limiting additional pressure on household spending beyond the third quarter.

The report added that softer global commodity prices are expected to reduce the government subsidy bill on fertilisers and petroleum products. "The sharp correction in global urea prices should reduce upside risk to the fertilizer subsidy bill versus our earlier expectations... together with lower oil prices, should help ease near-term fiscal pressures," the report states.

On inflation, Goldman Sachs said lower crude oil prices have substantially reduced the risk of further increases in petrol and diesel prices and eased pressure on petrochemical products, leading to lower projections for both core and headline inflation.

The report added that lower oil prices and stronger remittance inflows have improved India's external sector outlook.

Goldman Sachs, however, maintained that weather-related uncertainties and the impact of earlier fuel price increases could remain short-term headwinds for consumption before the economy gathers further momentum later in the year,

--IANS

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Seoul, June 26 (IANS) South Korea's bourse operator on Friday activated a circuit breaker for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) as stocks crashed due to a slump in tech heavyweights.

Trading of KOSPI-listed shares was halted for 20 minutes. The Korea Exchange (KRX) triggered the measure after the KOSPI plummeted more than 8 percent from the previous session's close, reports Yonhap news agency.

The benchmark index came under heavy selling pressure as investors dumped large-cap technology stocks on profit-taking. It marked the fifth time this year that the KRX has activated a circuit breaker.

South Korean stocks extended losses as investors dumped tech shares to take profit from the previous session's sharp rally amid lingering woes on artificial intelligence (AI) investment.

A selling spree by foreign and institutional investors weighed heavily on the market following a 5.42 percent spike the previous day.

Wall Street was choppy as tech heavyweights finished in negative territory amid lingering concerns over the future of large-scale investment AI infrastructure.

Latest data showed that U.S. consumer prices rose 4.1 percent in May, far higher than the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, adding to projections that the central bank will change its monetary approach to tame the inflationary pressure.

In Seoul, semiconductor shares were among the biggest losers. Tech giant Samsung Electronics sank 6.56 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix slumped 7.16 percent.

Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip equipment manufacturer, dropped 4.4 percent, and SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, tumbled 9.58 percent.

Major shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean skidded 4.92 percent, and pharmaceutical giant Celltrion dipped 4.04 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,548.75 won against the U.S. dollar at 11:20 a.m., down 6.65 won from the previous session, said the report.

—IANS

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New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) US-based technology giant IBM on Thursday unveiled what it described as the world's first sub-1 nanometre (nm) chip technology, a major breakthrough for the semiconductor industry as it approaches the physical limits of conventional chip scaling.

The new chip is built on a 0.7 nm, or 7-angstrom, process node and features a novel three-dimensional transistor architecture called nanostack, according to the company.

The chip enables continued improvements in performance and energy efficiency at atomic-scale dimensions, it added.

It packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a device roughly the size of a fingernail, almost doubling the transistor density of its 2 nm chip technology unveiled in 2021.

The new technology is projected to deliver up to 50 per cent higher performance or 70 per cent greater energy efficiency compared to its 2 nm node chips, the company said.

The advancement is expected to support demanding applications such as generative AI, cloud infrastructure and next-generation electronic devices.

"IBM's latest chip breakthrough marks a landmark moment in computing, pushing technology beyond the nanometre era to the scale of atoms," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow.

The company said its nanostack architecture vertically stacks and staggers transistors, allowing more components to be packed onto a chip while enabling different materials to be optimised independently for performance and power efficiency.

Meanwhile, IBM researchers demonstrated that the architecture can significantly improve SRAM scaling, helping chip designers build more efficient processors capable of handling high-bandwidth AI workloads.

The company said it expects the earliest commercial adoption of the technology within the next five years.

In addition, the research was conducted at IBM's semiconductor research facility in Albany, New York, in collaboration with industry partners including ASML, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron and SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions.

--IANS

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Mumbai, June 24 (IANS) India has emerged as a key market for Amazon’s expanding quick-commerce ambitions, with the company’s ‘Amazon Now’ service becoming its fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in the country, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Wednesday.

Sharing his experiences after visiting an Amazon Now micro-fulfillment center in one of Mumbai’s busiest neighbourhoods, Jassy said the service is witnessing exceptional growth as customers increasingly opt for deliveries within minutes of placing orders.

The micro-fulfillment centers are designed to rapidly pick and dispatch everyday essentials such as groceries, shampoo, baby products and household items, enabling customers to receive their orders within minutes.

"Great to be in India and visit an Amazon Now micro-fulfillment center in one of the busiest areas of Mumbai," he said.

"The things you need quickly -- groceries, shampoo, baby products, and more -- get picked and delivered just minutes after ordered," he added.

According to Jassy, Prime members who begin using the service increase their shopping frequency significantly, with their purchase activity tripling after adoption. He added that order volumes have been doubling every quarter since the launch of the service in India.

"Customers are loving it… Prime members triple their shopping frequency once they start using it, and we've seen orders double every quarter since launch," he mentioned.

Calling the business Amazon’s fastest-growing ecommerce segment in the country, Jassy said the company plans to expand the service to more than 300 cities as part of its broader strategy to build India’s largest delivery-in-minutes network.

He noted that the innovations and operational lessons gained from building the quick-commerce model in India are now helping Amazon scale similar services across the United States and other international markets.

Expressing confidence in the company’s future growth in India, Jassy said he was proud of the teams, associates and partners who have contributed to building the business and added that the company is still at the beginning of what is possible in the Indian market.

--IANS

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