One Thing Today in Tech
-
PM Modi launches digital health mission; India's top young scientists named; and a chat with ION Energy's CEO Akhil Aryan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission today at 11 am via video conferencing. The main components of this platform include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account to which personal health records can be linked and viewed via a mobile app. Healthcare Professionals Registry and a Healthcare Facilities Registries will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine. And in our tech conversation today, we catch up with Akhil Aryan, the co-founder and CEO of ION Energy
-
EU USB Type-C rule will likely affect Apple; Uber's pension plan for UK drivers; and a chat with the founders of DataSutram
Apple users of the lightning connector will likely be the most affected if a proposed rule to make the Type-C USB connector a common charger standard is adopted as a law in Europe. The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, Thursday said it is putting forward legislation to establish a common charging solution for all the relevant devices. That, and in our tech conversation today, the founders of Extrapolate Advisors unpack their data-as-a-service platform, called DataSutram
-
Freshworks surges on Nasdaq listing; Facebook's new CTO; and a chat with the founders of CoffeeMug.ai
Freshworks became perhaps the first Indian-founder-led cloud software venture to publicly list in the US, on September 22, after a successful initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shares of the company, which listed under the symbol FRSH, were 32 percent higher at $47.55 at the close of normal trading on the exchange. The shares rose to over $49 in after-hours trading. In tech conversation, we catch up with the founders of a new networking platform for professionals, entrepreneurs and angel investors, CoffeeMug.ai
-
Freshworks' $10 bln IPO; Karnataka bans 'games of chance'; Amazon's new Kindle; and a chat with ex-Googler Kanan Rai
Freshworks will become perhaps the first Indian founder-led cloud software venture to become a publicly listed company in the US, on Wednesday. The company will sell its shares at $36 each—on strong demand — after initially setting a range of $28 to $32 and then raising it $32 to $34. At $36 a share, Freshworks will raise about $1 billion and have a market value of $10 billion. In our tech chat, Kanan Rai speaks about her experience as a non-techie woman building businesses within Google
-
Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for 5 to 11-year-olds; Salesforce invests in Razorpay; and a chat with SatSearch's COO Narayan Prasad
Pfizer and BioNTech have said that the first test results of their Covid-19 vaccine tested on children, age group of 5 to 11 years, showed the vaccine to be effective. The Covid-19 vaccine was well tolerated, with side effects generally comparable to those observed in participants in the age group of 16 years to 25 years, the companies said in a press release. In our tech conversation today, Narayan Prasad Nagendra, COO of SatSearch, explains the new space tech opportunities for Indian companies
-
CCI report on Google; SpaceX civilian crew returns; and a chat with smallcase's Vasanth Kamath
Google has adopted anti-competitive, unfair, and restrictive trade practices in the mobile operating system and related markets in India, the investigative arm of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said following an investigation that started in April 2019. That, and SpaceX's first civilian crew returns, and in today's tech conversation, we speak to Vasanth Kamath, founder and CEO of smallcase, on the company's evolution into a powerful tech platform
-
Byju's to acquire Tynker; a16z may invest in CoinSwitch; and Ultraviolette's founders on their F77 EV motorcycle
Byju's, an EdTech company and India's most valuable startup, is acquiring Tynker—a coding platform for children in the US—to accelerate its expansion in America. Tynker's creative coding platform has been used by over 60 million kids and 100,000 schools in 150 countries. a16z may invest in CoinSwitch. In our tech conversation, Ultraviolette Automotive's founders give us an update on their electric performance bike F77
-
Telecom gets 100 percent FDI clearance; No passwords for Microsoft; and a chat with Amagi's CEO Baskar Subramanian
On Wednesday, India's government announced a relief package and a series of structural reforms for the cash-strapped telecom sector. Union Minister for IT and Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the cabinet has approved 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment in the telecom sector through automatic route—from 49 percent earlier. In our tech conversation, we talk to Amagi's co-founder and CEO Baskar Subramanian
-
India, Singapore to link UPI and PayNow; Apple unveils iPhone 13; and a chat with Innovaccer's CEO Abhinav Shashank
India and Singapore will link their digital payments systems to enable "instant, low-cost fund transfers," making cross-border transactions between the two countries very convenient. According to the central banks of both countries, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow network will be linked by July 2022. Apple unveiled its iPhone 13 models on Tuesday. In our tech conversation, we speak with Abhinav Shashank, co-founder and CEO of healthcare data management unicorn Innovaccer
-
Special briefing: A conversation with TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan on his plan for the company's transformation
Change comes from within, and that is what Tata Consultancy Services—one of the world's biggest IT services providers—has been undergoing, even before Covid-19 struck. In this free-ranging conversation with Forbes India, CEO Gopinathan articulates what it takes to change an organisation that has more than half a million employees—most of them engineers. The aspiration is to set the company on to its next phase of evolution, to retain and build on its engineering prowess, but also to step up much more as a trusted strategic business advisor
-
Study shows mRNAs may kill cancer too; Apple-Epic lawsuit ruling; and a chat with Qlik India's Varun Babbar
Messenger RNAs, or mRNAs, that became famous because they can fight Covid-19, as German company BioNTech showed in its vaccine, can fight cancer too, the company has found. BioNTech has just started human tests of a cancer treatment that uses mRNAs, which was found to completely shrink tumours in mice. Apple must allow developers to point to their own payment options, a judge ruled in California. In our tech conversation today, we talk to Varun Babbar, managing director of Qlik India