One Thing Today in Tech
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HCL's Shiv Nadar steps down; Pegasus can hack iPhones with no clicks; and Sandeep Nailwal explains Polygon's basics (Part 1)
HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar has stepped down from his position as chief strategy officer and managing director, India's third biggest IT services company told the stock exchanges on Monday. The company has named Nadar as chairman emeritus and strategic advisor. CEO C Vijayakumar has been named managing director as well, for a term five years. In today's tech conversation, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, explains the basics of the rising blockchain protocol
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Lenskart gets $220mn; Captain Fresh raises series A funding; and Sumit Sarawgi at BCG explains the need for 'responsible AI'
Lenskart has raised $220 million in an investment led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital, taking its total to $315 million. Peyush Bansal-led Lenskart is now valued at $2.5 billion and will use most of the fresh funds to expand into Southeast Asia and West Asia. In the tech conversation today, Sumit Sarawgi, MD and senior partner at BCG, talks about efforts worldwide to promote 'responsible AI'
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Xiaomi displaces Apple; Wipro's best quarter ever; and Kausambi Manjita of Mason on the promise of 'no code' tech
Xiaomi has displaced Apple to become the world's second-biggest smartphone vendor by the number of handsets sold for the April to June period, according to data from market research company Canalys. Wipro reported its best quarter ever, with sales surging in the April-June quarter. And, in our tech conversation today, Kausambi Manjita—CEO of Mason—explains the promise of 'no code' tech
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Infosys raises revenue forecast; Pratilipi gets $48mn; and Pankhuri Shrivastava on online social commerce for women
Infosys, increased its full-year revenue forecast on Wednesday on the back of its strongest quarterly growth in 10 years, and accelerating demand ahead. India's second biggest IT services company reported that revenues for its fiscal first quarter rose 16.9 percent from the same period a year ago, and 4.8 percent sequentially. And in our tech conversation, Pankhuri Shrivastava talks about online social commerce for women at her eponymous company
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Google fined $593mn in France; OPPO releases 6G strategy; and Taranjeet Singh Bhamra of AgNext on AI in agriculture
Google, has been fined 500 million euros (or $593 million) by France's competition authority, for failing to comply with the regulator's orders on how to conduct talks with the country's news publishers in a row over copyright. Smartphone maker OPPO has released a paper on its 6G strategy; and in today's tech conversation, Taranjeet Singh Bhamra—CEO of AgNext—talks about bringing AI to agriculture
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Flipkart valued at $37.6 bn; CCI approves SoftBank's $450 mn Swiggy investment; and Aman Sanduja's plan for a Twitter for crypto
Ecommerce company Flipkart, a Walmart unit in India, has raised $3.6 billion in an investment led by GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart. Competition Commission of India has approved SoftBank's plan to put $450 million in Swiggy; Ola Electric and Hero Electric raise money for expansion; and in today's tech conversation, Aman Sanduja talks about his ambition to build a Twitter for crypto, at his startup Moving.so
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Richard Branson makes space flight; Ola raises $500 mn; and Ashish Lachhwani on Steradian Semiconductors's plans
Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of the Virgin Group, made a brief flight to space on Sunday, from a spaceport in New Mexico in a plane built by his company Virgin Galactic. Ride-hailing services company Ola has raised $500 million ahead of an IPO. And in today's tech conversation, Ashish Lachhwani, co-founder and director at Steradian Semiconductors talks about plans for the company's 4D imaging radar technologies
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TCS crosses half a million employee mark; and a chat on why InMobi's Glance and Collective Artists Network have teamed up
Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest and one the world's largest IT services companies, crossed the half a million employee mark in the three months ended June 30, the company said on Thursday—reporting its fiscal first quarter results. The company also hit $6 billion in quarterly revenue run rate in a period that was "personally challenging" to many, CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan said. Later, we also have a chat on an innovative JV between Glance and Collective Artists Network.
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Wharton educated Ashwini Vaishnaw is India's new railways, IT minister; and Amit Anand at Jungle Ventures on India's startup scene
Ashwini Vaishnaw is India's new minister for railways, and electronics and information technology, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first major cabinet shuffle since he took on his second term in 2019. Vaishnaw has an MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and has worked with GE Transportation and Siemens. And in today's tech conversation, Amit Anand, founding partner at Jungle Ventures, talks about why the money that has gone into the Indian startup ecosystem so far is only the tip of the iceberg
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IPO-bound Pine Labs hits $3.5 billion valuation; and Sameer Sawarkar of Neurosynaptic Communications on its next phase of growth
Pine Labs, which provides digital payments technologies to merchants, has closed a $600 million funding round that values the Noida fintech company at $3.5 billion. Rival PayU may be in talks to acquire BillDesk for as much as $4 billion. And in today's tech conversation, CEO Sameer Sawarkar talks about the next phase of growth at Neurosynaptic Communications
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ByteDance sells short video AI in India; and Pooja Goyal at Avishkaar on how gender bias starts early in STEM
China's ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, has started selling the AI technology of its short video app to other companies, including in India where the app is banned. And in today's tech conversation, Pooja Goyal at Avishkaar talks about the implications of a survey finding that 95 percent of children polled recalled only male role models in STEM fields