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India's telecom regulator TRAI has amended commercial communications rules to require caller-ID and call-management apps to forward user spam reports to a blockchain-based platform run by telecom operators. Truecaller, whose largest market is India with over 350 million monthly users there, has criticized the move as a one-way, anti-competitive data transfer that benefits telecom companies at its expense.
Amazon has launched its conversational AI assistant Alexa+ in India in Early Access, supporting both Hindi and English, including mid-sentence language switching. The assistant will be free for Prime members after testing, while non-Prime users will pay ₹2,000 per month, and it integrates with local services like Swiggy, District, MakeMyTrip, EazyDiner, and JioSaavn.
India's Central Consumer Protection Authority has sent its investigation into the 2024 iOS 18 update to a specialized probe unit, examining claims that the update caused screen discoloration and microphone faults on iPhones, leaving owners to pay for repairs since software isn't covered under warranty. Apple denies wrongdoing, calling the 75 complaints insufficient to prove a systemic flaw and arguing it shouldn't be treated as an insurer for all software-related risk.
India's National Payments Corporation announced that starting October 15, merchants will pay a 0.4% fee on UPI transactions exceeding ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 for payments of ₹75,000 or more. Consumers will still use UPI for free, and small merchants earning up to ₹100,000 monthly through UPI, along with transactions of ₹2,000 or less, are exempt. Certain sectors like railways, telecom, insurance and fuel will instead pay a flat ₹5 fee on larger transactions.
South Korean gaming company Krafton will invest an additional $250 million in India over the next three to four years, expanding beyond gaming into artificial intelligence, robotics, and deep tech. This brings its total planned India investment past $500 million, on top of a separate $670 million India-focused growth fund launched with Naver and Mirae Asset.
Once dismissed as inedible 'dog fruit' left for dogs to scavenge, avocados in India began gaining popularity after actress Shilpa Shetty publicised using them for skincare around 2011, sparking demand and rising prices. Plantations like Cottanad in Kerala's Wayanad region, which initially grew avocado trees only for shade, have since expanded cultivation to 40 acres, with output expected to grow fourfold within a few years.
Reliance Jio has expanded its JioPC cloud computing service beyond its own broadband subscribers, making it available to anyone with an internet connection regardless of telecom provider. The service streams a virtual PC with up to eight virtual CPUs, 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, letting even computers up to eight years old run modern AI applications without hardware upgrades. Subscriptions range from about $11 for two months to roughly $53 for a full year of the higher-spec plan.
Canadian auto parts maker Magna International is investing an additional $35 million into Yuma Energy, a Bengaluru-based battery-swapping startup spun out of Yulu in 2023. The new funding raises Magna's stake beyond the 51% it held since the joint venture began, diluting Yulu's share, though the exact new split wasn't disclosed. Yuma has completed over 60 million swaps and has roughly 100,000 batteries deployed for electric two- and three-wheelers.
India's government has introduced the Prime Minister Research Chair Scheme, offering 120 overseas Indian-origin researchers up to 50 million rupees (about $520,000) in grants plus stipends and allowances over five years to work at Indian institutions. The initiative targets strategic fields like AI, quantum computing, biotechnology and advanced materials, joining similar brain-drain reversal efforts by China, France, Germany and Denmark.
Sandhya Devanathan, who has led Meta's India and Southeast Asia operations since June 2024 after over a decade at the company, is moving to OpenAI. Based in Singapore, she will report to OpenAI's Asia-Pacific head Kiran Mani and take charge of consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships and regulatory engagement across Southeast Asia and Australia. Meta's India managing director Arun Srinivas will now report directly to the company's Asia-Pacific VP Benjamin Joe.
OpenAI has begun showing advertisements to users on its free tier and the 399-rupee ($4) Go plan in India, one of its biggest markets by user activity. The feature, already active in 38 countries including the US, Japan, South Korea and much of Europe, excludes users who are or are predicted to be under 18.
OpenAI announced it will begin showing advertisements to users of ChatGPT's Free and Go subscription plans in India, starting with roughly 50 brands via partnerships with ad agencies WPP and Omnicom. The company plans to launch a self-serve ad manager next month, requiring a minimum daily budget of about ₹725 ($7.60) for marketers to run campaigns.