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State-run fuel retailers raised petrol and diesel prices on Saturday for the third time in eight days, extending a phased pass-through of higher crude costs to consumers after nearly four years of broadly frozen pump rates.

Petrol in New Delhi rose by 87 paise to ₹99.51 a litre, while diesel increased by 91 paise to ₹92.49 a litre. The latest increase takes the cumulative rise in both fuels to about ₹5 a litre this month, following the first retail fuel price increase since April 2022.

The pricing move reflects mounting pressure on oil marketing companies as international crude benchmarks remain elevated amid conflict in West Asia and supply concerns around key shipping routes. The controlled increases also point to a calibrated approach by the government, which is seeking to protect refiners’ balance sheets without delivering a sharp one-time shock to household budgets, freight operators and small businesses.

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation dominate the retail fuel market, operating more than 90 per cent of the country’s roughly 103,000 fuel stations. Their pricing decisions carry wide implications for transport costs, food supply chains, inflation expectations and fiscal calculations.

The latest revision follows a ₹3-a-litre increase on May 15 and another smaller increase during the week, marking a clear shift from the long freeze that had shielded consumers from global volatility while pushing losses onto state-run refiners. That freeze had become harder to sustain as crude prices climbed and the rupee’s movement added to import costs.

The country imports more than four-fifths of its crude oil requirements, leaving domestic retail prices exposed to global oil markets and exchange-rate swings. Refiners have been selling petrol and diesel at discounted rates relative to landed costs, with diesel under-recoveries remaining larger because of its central role in freight, agriculture, public transport and industry.

Losses on diesel sales have been estimated at ₹25-30 a litre even after the first hike, while petrol losses have been placed at about ₹10-14 a litre. The fresh increase narrows that gap only modestly, suggesting further upward revisions could follow if crude prices stay high or the currency weakens.

Diesel is the more sensitive fuel for the broader economy. It powers trucks, buses, farm equipment, construction machinery and a large part of the country’s goods movement. Even modest increases can feed into freight rates, especially for smaller fleet operators with limited capacity to absorb higher running costs.

Petrol demand has also stayed firm, supported by urban commuting, two-wheeler use and private vehicle ownership. April consumption data showed petrol sales at about 3.7 million tonnes, up more than 6 per cent from a year earlier, while gasoil sales stood near 8.3 million tonnes, marginally higher than last year. The numbers indicate that demand has not weakened sharply despite higher living costs.

Bulk fuel demand has added another layer of pressure. Large users such as transport operators, mining companies and industrial consumers often respond quickly to price differences between retail outlets and direct industrial supply. A spike in retail buying can worsen supply imbalances and deepen losses for refiners if pump prices remain below market-linked levels.

The government has so far signalled little appetite for direct subsidies to compensate refiners for continuing under-recoveries. That stance increases the likelihood of gradual price adjustments, particularly if global crude remains above levels assumed in company projections. A sudden subsidy programme would also complicate fiscal planning at a time when public spending priorities remain stretched across infrastructure, welfare and defence.

State-level taxes mean consumers across major cities will see different pump prices even when the base increase is broadly similar. Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad typically record higher retail rates than New Delhi because of local levies, dealer commissions and freight costs. That variation also affects inflation differently across regions.

Compressed natural gas prices have moved higher as well, with Delhi seeing another ₹1-per-kg increase, the third rise in ten days. The parallel increase in CNG adds pressure on taxis, autorickshaws and urban commuters who had shifted to gas-based transport as a cheaper alternative to petrol and diesel.

For oil marketing companies, the price increases may support margins but are unlikely to restore full profitability immediately. Investor attention is now focused on how quickly the companies can recover past losses, whether demand holds up, and whether policymakers allow market-linked pricing to continue if inflationary pressure grows.

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Dubai has frozen private school fees for the 2026-27 academic year, giving families relief from education cost pressures as the emirate moves to balance household affordability with the stability of a fast-growing private education sector. Knowledge and Human Development Authority confirmed that schools under its regulation will not be permitted to raise tuition fees in the next academic year. The decision follows directives […]

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Brazilian refiner Acelen has secured $1.5 billion to begin construction of a major biofuels refinery in Bahia, advancing Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala-backed strategy to build a large-scale renewable fuels platform in Latin America. The project, led by Acelen Renováveis, is expected to start operations in 2029 and produce up to 1 billion litres a year of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. The financing […]

Google’s publication of exploit code for an unresolved Chromium security flaw has intensified scrutiny of how browser vulnerabilities are handled when technical details surface before a patch is ready. The issue affects the Chromium codebase that underpins Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and several other browsers used across desktop and mobile environments. Security researchers say the flaw can be abused through the Background Fetch API […]

Anthropic PBC is moving towards closing a funding round that could exceed $30 billion at a valuation above $900 billion, a transaction that would place the Claude maker among the world’s most valuable private companies and intensify the capital race reshaping artificial intelligence. The San Francisco-based company is expected to complete the round as soon as next week, though final terms could still change. The deal, if […]

Hong Kong’s competitive weekend dining market is getting a sharper culinary edge as Lobster Bar & Grill at Island Shangri-La turns its Sunday roast brunch into a guest-chef platform linking hotel dining with some of the city’s most recognisable restaurant names.

The 2026 Sunday Roast Guest Chef Series runs across selected Sundays from February to October, with further dates expected for November and December. Priced at HK$898 per guest, plus a 10 per cent service charge, the programme gives each participating restaurant one Sunday to reinterpret the classic British roast through its own cuisine, while retaining the familiar three-course structure of starter, roast or seafood main, and dessert.

The format reflects a wider shift in Hong Kong’s premium dining scene, where luxury hotels are moving beyond standard brunch buffets and using chef-led collaborations to attract diners who want novelty, scarcity and recognised culinary talent. For Lobster Bar & Grill, long associated with seafood, grills, cocktails and live jazz, the series also positions brunch as a curated dining event rather than a routine weekend offering.

The 2026 line-up began with NOI on 8 February, bringing contemporary Italian cooking shaped by Chef Paulo Airaudo’s wider culinary approach and Hong Kong-based Chef Luigi Troiano’s execution. It continued on 15 March with 22 Ships, known for modern Spanish flavours under Chef Antonio Oviedo, and on 12 April with Yong Fu Hong Kong, whose Ningbo seafood cooking added a refined Chinese coastal identity to the Sunday roast template.

The next phase brings Neighborhood on 31 May, Leela on 28 June and Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic on 19 July. Neighborhood, led by Chef David Lai, enters the series with strong recognition from both Michelin and Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, where it ranked No. 24 in the 2026 list. Its reputation rests on market-led European bistro cooking, generous sharing dishes and a style that combines technical control with an understated dining room culture.

Leela, led by Chef Manav Tuli, adds a modern interpretation of regional cooking from India, using refined technique, spice layering and tandoor-led elements. Its participation broadens the series beyond European and Chinese traditions, giving the roast format a more expansive culinary identity at a time when Hong Kong diners are showing stronger interest in regional specificity and chef-driven storytelling.

Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic brings the strongest fine-dining profile in the May-to-July phase. The Landmark restaurant, guided in Hong Kong by Chef Marc Mantovani, earned two Michelin stars in the 2026 Hong Kong and Macau guide. Its contribution is expected to bring a more composed French approach to the format, with emphasis on precision, balance and luxury ingredients.

Lobster Bar & Grill’s regular Sunday roast brunch already leans towards abundance, with appetisers such as lobster bisque, smoked salmon and steak tartare, followed by individually plated roast or seafood choices. Signature sides include duck-fat roasted potatoes and honey-glazed carrots, while desserts include banoffee pie, triple chocolate mud pie and seasonal creations. The guest-chef model keeps those anchors intact while allowing each collaborator to alter the flavour profile.

Executive Sous Chef Cary Docherty remains central to the concept. His role is not merely to host outside chefs, but to co-create menus that fit the kitchen’s seafood-and-grill identity while allowing each restaurant’s style to remain visible. That balance is crucial: too much hotel polish could dilute the individuality of the guest chefs, while too much experimentation could alienate diners expecting the comfort of Sunday roast.

The commercial logic is clear. Hong Kong’s dining market remains crowded, and premium hotel restaurants face intense competition from independent restaurants, private clubs and destination bars. A one-day-only brunch creates urgency, encourages repeat visits and lets diners access high-profile kitchens in a less formal setting than full tasting menus. For visiting chefs and independent restaurants, the collaboration offers exposure to a hotel audience with strong spending power.

Located on Level 6 of Pacific Place on Supreme Court Road in Central, Lobster Bar & Grill benefits from a business-district address and the broader Island Shangri-La dining ecosystem. Its Sunday and public holiday brunch service runs from 11.45am to 3.30pm, with last orders at 2.30pm, giving the collaboration format a defined weekend window rather than an open-ended promotional run.

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Islamabad has moved to contain a political storm over deportations of Pakistani nationals from the United Arab Emirates, after opposition lawmakers accused the government of failing to protect workers who they said had been detained, expelled and denied access to savings and belongings. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told the Senate that 3,494 Pakistani citizens had been deported from the UAE between […]

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OKX is moving beyond digital assets into oil-linked derivatives through a partnership with Intercontinental Exchange, marking a fresh step in the convergence of crypto trading platforms and traditional commodity markets. The crypto exchange plans to introduce perpetual futures contracts tied to ICE Brent Crude and ICE WTI Crude benchmarks, giving eligible users exposure to two of the world’s most closely watched oil price references without using conventional […]

Hackers are turning Middle East telecoms and hosting networks into a major command-and-control layer, exposing a regional cyber risk that now extends beyond compromised devices to the infrastructure patterns that sustain attacks. A three-month mapping of malicious activity between 1 February and 1 May identified more than 1,350 active C2 servers across 98 infrastructure providers in 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, Israel, Iraq, Iran, […]

Recognition reflects TDCX’s evolution into a global firm helping clients navigate digital and AI transformation with a combination of human expertise, intelligent technology, and operational precision

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 May 2026 – TDCX, a leading global customer experience (CX) solutions firm, has been named to the Outsource Accelerator (OA) 500 2026 Index Top 50, marking its fourth consecutive year on Outsource Accelerator’s global ranking of leading business process outsourcing firms. The OA500 evaluated 3,369 BPO companies worldwide across more than 20 performance metrics over a 15-month assessment period, drawing on independent data sources including Crunchbase, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and ZoomInfo.

TDCX named among the world’s Top 50 outsourcing firms by Outsource Accelerator for the fourth consecutive year
TDCX named among the world’s Top 50 outsourcing firms by Outsource Accelerator for the fourth consecutive year



The recognition comes in TDCX’s 30th anniversary year and seven months after the company unveiled its refreshed brand and Enable the Future positioning. The new identity reflects TDCX’s evolution into a global firm helping clients navigate digital and AI transformation with a combination of human expertise, intelligent technology, and operational precision.

Mr. Laurent Junique, founder and CEO of TDCX, said: “Outsourcing is shifting from cost arbitrage to capability arbitrage. The companies that win in this market will be the ones that combine deep human expertise with intelligent technology, and bring them together with judgment. Four consecutive years in the OA500 Top 50 says TDCX is doing that in a way the market recognizes.”

Mr. Derek Gallimore, founder and CEO of Outsource Accelerator, said: “TDCX’s fourth consecutive year in the OA500 Top 50 reflects something rare in this industry: sustained, disciplined execution paired with real strategic evolution. They’ve moved decisively beyond traditional CX into digital and AI-enabled service for some of the world’s most demanding brands. As outsourcing shifts from headcount to outcomes, TDCX is one of the operators best placed to lead that transition.”

The OA500 Index assesses BPO firms across criteria including global delivery footprint, online presence, employee sentiment, LinkedIn engagement, third-party analyst data, and operational benchmarks. With more than 20,000 employees across 37 campuses spanning Asia, Europe, and the United States, TDCX serves clients in digital advertising and social media, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, healthtech, media, technology, and travel and hospitality.

Hashtag: #TDCX #OA500 #CX #Outsourcing #EnableTheFuture

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About TDCX

Singapore-headquartered TDCX is a leading global customer experience solutions firm that provides customer experience (CX) solutions, sales and digital marketing services, and content moderation for clients across various industries. These include digital advertising and social media, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, healthtech, media, technology and, travel and hospitality.

With a focus on helping companies enable the future, TDCX’s smart, scalable approach, driven by innovation and operational precision, positions it as a key partner for companies targeting tangible outcomes. With more than 20,000 employees across 37 campuses worldwide, TDCX provides its clients with comprehensive coverage in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

For more information, please visit .

Revenue Up 35.4% Year-on-Year API Token Call Volume Surges Nearly 6 Times

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 May 2026 – Phancy Group Co., Ltd. (“Phancy” or “The Company”, stock code: 6682.HK), a leading general artificial intelligence company, today announced its unaudited consolidated results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2026.

During the period, Phancy achieved revenue of approximately RMB1.458 billion, representing a 35.4% year-on-year increase. Gross profit margin remained at 35.1%. Phancy leveraged its deep expertise in full-stack AI cloud services, to capitalize on the accelerating adoption of localized computing power and strong enterprise demand for AI solutions. The Company achieved robust growth in its core businesses, accelerated product innovation, and secured several major partnerships, sustaining strong operational momentum.

2026 First Quarter Business Highlights:

Unified Enterprise AI Platform Drives Explosive Core Business Growth

Global computing resources remain constrained, while demand for both private enterprise AI deployments and API-based model calls continues to grow rapidly. Phancy’s enterprise-grade AI platform is built on a unified core architecture that seamlessly supports both API calling scenarios and dedicated private deployments. This significantly boosts AI application efficiency and resource utilization. Supported by a mature computing power supply chain developed over many years, Phancy’s deployable computing power resources have increased by over 200%. This enables the Company to effectively meet surging Token demand and consistently deliver stable, high-quality AI services to its customers.

In the first quarter of 2026, API Token call volume surged nearly 6 times compared to the same period in 2025, and already accounted for nearly 40% of the full-year 2025 total. Meanwhile, the Agentic AI business expanded rapidly, with deepening commercial adoption. Orders on hand grew nearly 100% compared to the end of 2025, emerging as a major growth driver for the Company.

AI Technology Iteration Accelerates, Commercialization Beats Expectations

Building on its continued push into digital employee applications and AI empowerment across business units, Phancy has significantly shortened the product development cycle from R&D to commercialization, enhancing overall operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

As of mid-May 2026, ModelHub XC has completed adaptation and optimization for over 70,000 AI models on domestic chips, achieving more than 70% of its full-year target – well ahead of schedule.

In May, Phancy launched PhanthyMovie, a professional-grade AI video generation platform designed to enhance creativity, control, and stability in video production, enabling standardized and large-scale content creation for the industry.

Leveraging its advanced technology and proven execution capabilities, PhanthyMovie achieved rapid commercial traction. Just days after launch, the Company entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Huanxi Media, covering approximately US$200 million in AI Token usage. The two parties will also collaborate on the development of a next-generation AI-powered film and television content production platform, further strengthening Phancy’s position in the AI-driven cultural and creative sector.

Core Products Align Closely with Policy Trends, Strengthening Compute-Model Integration

Since May 2026, China’s AI sector has seen a series of positive policy developments focused on computing infrastructure, data element circulation, and open-source compliance governance. Phancy’s core products, including HAMi vGPU and ModelHub XC, are well-aligned with national policy directions and mainstream industry trends.

In terms of computing resource allocation, policies emphasize cross-regional collaboration and broader access to computing power. Phancy’s HAMi vGPU offers unified scheduling and fine-grained resource partitioning, effectively improving utilization rates, optimizing data center energy efficiency, and supporting unified management across multiple chips to boost single-card efficiency.

In data and model governance, the government continues to promote high-quality dataset development and compliance management. ModelHub XC supports multi-model adaptation and optimization, incorporates data traceability and security certification features to help enterprises reduce compliance risks, and uses the EngineX engine for batch adaptation of domestic chips and models. This significantly improves compatibility while enhancing Token output efficiency through targeted model tuning.

Through deep integration of its computing and model layers, Phancy has built a comprehensive “Compute–Model” integrated solution. This addresses key industry needs such as efficient computing utilization, secure data supply, enterprise compliance, and domestic substitution, while strengthening its technological moat. The Company is well positioned to capture policy dividends and industry opportunities, supporting enterprises in their digital and intelligent transformation.

Hashtag: #PhancyGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Phancy Group

Phancy Group (6682.HK) is a leading full-stack AI cloud services platform, providing comprehensive solutions for the AI 2.0 era. Our offerings include SageAIOS, HAMi vGPU and ModelHub XC, delivering efficient and scalable AI infrastructure with end-to-end capabilities. We provide a complete solution from heterogeneous compute resource management and optimization to the deployment of intelligent agent models. These solutions empower digital transformation across a wide range of industries, supporting our vision of building a large-scale and efficient “Token Factory.”

Guided by the mission of “AI for Everyone” and positioned as the “Navigator of AI,” Phancy Group is committed to becoming a global leader in Artificial General Intelligence.

Hyundai Motor Group has committed to placing more than 25,000 Atlas humanoid robots across Hyundai Motor and Kia factories, setting up a major test of industrial automation as its South Korea labour union warns that no deployment can proceed without a formal labour-management agreement. The plan, outlined to investors this week, marks one of the most ambitious humanoid robot rollouts yet proposed by a global carmaker. The […]

Seychelles and Bangladesh have moved to accelerate bilateral cooperation, with pending agreements and memoranda of understanding now expected to take clearer shape this year after talks in Victoria between Bangladesh High Commissioner Dr Zokey Ahad and Seychelles Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Minister Barry Faure. The meeting, held on 21 May at Maison Quéau de Quinssy, centred on formalising cooperation frameworks that have been under discussion since Dr […]

Dubai motorists will pay 5 per cent value-added tax on public parking and Salik toll services from June 1, 2026, in a shift that will raise daily transport costs while accelerating the emirate’s move towards digital payments. Parkin Company PJSC, Dubai’s main paid parking operator, will apply VAT across its services, including on-street parking, off-street parking, seasonal cards, permits and reservation services. Salik Company PJSC will apply […]

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 May 2026 – Thai Cement Manufacturers Association (TCMA) marked a significant national milestone in advancing the decarbonization of Thailand’s cement and concrete industry toward Net Zero 2050. This progress is driven by strong collaboration among government agencies, industry players, and international partners under the “Decarbonization of the Cement and Concrete Sectors in Thailand” project, while accelerating the adoption of technology, innovation, and green investment to enhance competitiveness and support long-term economic growth.

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Dr. Chana Poomee, Honourary Chairman of TCMA and President of ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM), stated that today’s “National Milestone” reflects the power of collaboration at both national and international levels. The initiative is led by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in partnership with TCMA and key Thai government agencies, including the Department of Climate Change and Environment and the Department of Industrial Works, with financial support of CAD 8 million from the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), to accelerate tangible greenhouse gas reductions in the cement and concrete sector.

TCMA, as the industry representative, serves as a central platform connecting stakeholders across the entire value chain, driving the implementation of the “Thailand 2050 Net Zero Cement and Concrete Roadmap.” This aligns with Thailand’s NDC 3.0 targets, strengthening industrial competitiveness, attracting green investment, and fostering sustainable economic growth.

“Decarbonization is not only a pressing challenge but also a strategic opportunity to enhance national competitiveness. The progress achieved under this project spans policy development, innovation, technology deployment, standards, and capacity building-key enablers that will accelerate the industry’s transition toward Net Zero”, Dr. Chana said.

A key technological advancement under the project is the introduction of the Mobile Carbon Capture Unit (MCCU) from CETRI, Canada. This advanced and flexible technology is designed for real-world industrial operations and will be piloted starting in June, rotating across cement plants of TCMA members in the SARABURI SANDBOX. The pilot aims to validate performance under diverse operational conditions and pave the way for large-scale industrial application.

“The deployment of MCCU in Thailand highlights the strength of international collaboration in bringing advanced technologies into real-world application. It accelerates learning-by-doing, validates technological performance, strengthens local technical capabilities, and reduces investment risks-laying a strong foundation for future scale-up”,
Dr. Chana added.

From an investment perspective, the development of technology-ready and standards-aligned projects enhances investor confidence, increases the attractiveness of green investment, and improves access to sustainable finance-key drivers in accelerating the industry’s transition to Net Zero.

TCMA continues to advance the industry under a “Collaborative Mindset-Action-Value,” promoting the systematic adoption of low carbon technologies, including low carbon cement innovations such as Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3), Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS). These solutions not only reduce emissions but also improve efficiency, lower long-term costs, and strengthen global competitiveness.

At the regional level, TCMA is expanding its role through AFCM by fostering collaboration and advancing the AFCM Decarbonization Roadmap, which serves as a shared framework to reduce carbon emissions across ASEAN’s cement industry while enhancing regional technology, standards, and competitiveness.

“As President of the AFCM, TCMA is committed to driving ASEAN toward becoming a low carbon region by leveraging collaboration as a key mechanism to accelerate technology transfer, strengthen the industry capabilities, and unlock new regional economic opportunities”,
Dr. Chana said.

TCMA reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening collaboration and welcoming international support in both technology and finance to accelerate the transition toward a low carbon industry, while enhancing Thailand’s competitiveness on the global stage.

Hashtag: #TCMA #CementActionToNetZero #NetZero2050 #Decarbonization

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Young people across India have turned an insult into a digital badge of defiance, transforming the cockroach from a symbol of contempt into the emblem of a fast-spreading satirical protest movement.

The Cockroach Janta Party, a social media-driven collective built around humour, mock manifestos and political parody, has surged across Instagram, X and short-video platforms within days of its launch. What began as an online response to courtroom remarks by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has become a wider expression of frustration over jobs, living costs, institutional distrust and the limited space many young citizens feel they have in public debate.

The phrase took off after remarks during a Supreme Court hearing on May 15, when the bench was dealing with a petition linked to the designation of a lawyer as Senior Advocate. Comments referring to some unemployed young people, social media users, media figures and RTI activists as “cockroaches” and “parasites” triggered anger online. Justice Surya Kant later said he had been misquoted and clarified that his criticism was directed at people using fake or bogus degrees to enter professions, not at the youth of the country.

By then, the phrase had already escaped the courtroom. Memes, posters, mock campaign material and parody slogans began circulating at high speed. The Cockroach Janta Party, widely abbreviated as CJP, framed itself as the “voice of the lazy and unemployed”, turning a disparaging label into a collective identity. Its creator, Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old based in Boston, positioned the project as peaceful, satirical and democracy-oriented rather than a conventional political outfit.

The scale of the online response has been striking. The group’s Instagram presence crossed the 10 million mark and was later reported to be nearing 15 million followers, temporarily putting it ahead of several established political accounts in visibility. More than 400,000 people were said to have signed up through its online channels, with a large share of participants falling in the 19–25 age group. The numbers also triggered scepticism, with claims that overseas users or bots had inflated the following. Dipke rejected the allegations, saying the overwhelming majority of followers were from India.

The movement’s appeal lies partly in its absurdity. A creature usually associated with dirt, survival and infestation has been reimagined as a metaphor for resilience. Supporters have used the cockroach to signal that a generation facing unstable work, high rents, exam pressure and limited upward mobility is refusing to disappear. The image has proved adaptable: it works as a meme, a protest costume, a party logo and a joke that can carry political weight without sounding like a formal campaign speech.

That flexibility has helped the trend move beyond online humour. Young volunteers in Delhi dressed as cockroaches while taking part in a Yamuna clean-up activity near Kalindi Kunj, linking the meme to civic action. Satirical spin-offs, including rival parody groups, appeared almost immediately. The trend also crossed borders, with users in Pakistan and Bangladesh adapting similar cockroach-themed political humour to their own domestic frustrations.

The timing has sharpened its resonance. Youth unemployment in the 15–29 age group stood at 9.9 per cent in 2025, with the urban youth rate higher at 13.6 per cent. A formal decline from the previous year has not erased anxiety among graduates and first-time job seekers, many of whom say the labour market offers either low salaries, insecure contracts or intense competition for public-sector posts. Inflation in housing, education and transport has added to the strain.

Gen Z’s political language in India is also changing. Earlier protest cultures relied heavily on student unions, party fronts, street marches and television visibility. The new pattern begins on reels, memes and comment threads, where humour lowers the cost of participation and helps users test political ideas before attaching their real identities to them. The Cockroach Janta Party sits within that shift: it is not a registered party with electoral machinery, but it has generated a recognisable symbol, a support base and a vocabulary of dissent.

Companies are pushing vulnerable software into production even as artificial intelligence expands the speed, volume and complexity of application development across global supply chains. New industry findings show 75% of organisations often or sometimes deploy code they already know contains security weaknesses, underscoring a persistent gap between software delivery targets and risk controls. The figure marks only a limited improvement from last year’s 81%, suggesting that boards […]

India’s rapid AI adoption is exposing weak points in software supply chain security, with enterprises expanding automated development faster than their ability to detect compromised packages, unsafe containers and unverified AI components.

A 2026 software supply chain security assessment shows that about 65 per cent of organisations in India cannot detect malicious packages, while 71 per cent do not use container security tools. The findings underline a widening gap between the speed of AI-led software development and the controls needed to secure code, dependencies, models and deployment pipelines before they reach production systems.

Security teams are facing a more complex threat environment as AI coding assistants, model registries, agent frameworks and machine-learning libraries become embedded in day-to-day software engineering. AI is no longer confined to application features or analytics layers. It is becoming part of the software supply chain itself, influencing how code is written, tested, packaged and deployed.

Enterprises in India have been quick to adopt AI tools to improve developer productivity, reduce repetitive work and accelerate product releases. Yet the same shift has increased reliance on open-source packages, pre-trained models, plug-ins and automated build systems. Each of these components can introduce hidden risks if provenance, integrity and behaviour are not continuously verified.

Global software repositories are now attracting sustained attacks because they provide a direct route into enterprise development environments. Malicious npm packages rose by 451 per cent during 2025, while more than 48,000 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures were disclosed worldwide, a rise of about 20 per cent from the previous year.

The pressure on security teams is being amplified by the volume of AI-generated code. Developers in India are spending about 51 per cent of their time reviewing, validating and hardening code produced by AI tools. About 53 per cent treat such output only as a starting point and review every line before use, while 11 per cent rewrite AI-generated fixes from scratch.

This shift has altered the economics of software engineering. AI may reduce the time needed to draft code, but it can also transfer effort to verification, testing and security review. Weaknesses such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection and missing authorisation checks can still be reproduced by automated tools, particularly when developers rely on generated code without adequate scrutiny.

Governance is emerging as another area of concern. Nearly 97 per cent of organisations surveyed said they had certified AI model governance programmes, but only 59 per cent claimed full provenance visibility across production environments. About 48 per cent still needed a week or longer to produce audit-ready compliance evidence.

That gap points to a difference between policy and enforceable control. Many enterprises have AI governance frameworks on paper, but fewer can prove where every model, library, container image and software artefact came from, how it changed, who approved it and whether it complies with internal policy.

CERT-In has also warned that software supply chain compromises are increasingly targeting developer tools and trusted repositories. Its April 2026 activity note referred to attacks affecting npm, PyPI, GitHub Actions and container registries, including incidents involving Checkmarx, Trivy, LiteLLM, Axios, Telnyx and npm packages linked to the CanisterWorm campaign. The payloads observed in these attacks included credential harvesting, data exfiltration, remote execution and persistence within developer systems.

Model registries have added another layer to the risk. Around 1.4 million new AI artefacts were published on Hugging Face during 2025, representing 58 per cent of all new software packages tracked in one assessment. Researchers identified 495 malicious AI models in public repositories with active payloads capable of credential theft, command execution and reverse-shell activity, along with 969 malicious AI-agent skills designed to exploit developer environments and automation workflows.

For enterprises in India, the challenge is sharpened by the country’s role as a major software engineering and global capability centre hub. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Gurugram host large engineering teams serving banking, retail, telecoms, manufacturing and cloud services. These centres are increasingly responsible not only for maintenance work but also for product development, AI integration and security-sensitive digital platforms.

Regulatory and customer expectations are also tightening. Buyers are asking for software bills of materials, vulnerability disclosure processes, provenance records and proof that build pipelines are protected. CERT-In’s technical guidance on SBOM, QBOM, CBOM, AIBOM and HBOM has emphasised regular updates, vulnerability exploitability exchange documents and staff training around software supply chain visibility.

Security leaders are therefore moving towards stronger controls across development pipelines. These include automated malicious package detection, container image scanning, secrets detection, signed artefacts, dependency pinning, model provenance checks, policy enforcement in CI/CD systems and continuous monitoring of developer environments.

The investment case is becoming harder to ignore. Software supply chain attacks can bypass perimeter defences because they enter through trusted development channels. Once inside, malicious packages can steal credentials, alter builds, move into cloud environments or compromise downstream customers. AI raises the stakes because it can accelerate both legitimate development and attacker experimentation.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has pushed beyond its former record, turning a sharp 24-hour rally into one of the most closely watched moves in the digital-asset market as trading volumes, exchange activity and listed-product demand converge around the decentralised derivatives platform. HYPE traded above $62 after gaining strongly through the week, surpassing the previous peak near $59 set in September 2025. The move lifted the token into the […]

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Flydubai and Cyprus Airways have launched an interline partnership that gives passengers from Larnaca wider one-stop access to destinations across the Gulf, Asia, Africa and the Indian Ocean through Dubai International. The agreement allows customers to book travel on a single itinerary, with coordinated baggage handling and smoother transfers at DXB. For Cyprus Airways passengers, the arrangement opens connections beyond Dubai to flydubai […]

Cybercriminals are expanding phishing infrastructure built around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with threat researchers mapping 222 malicious or suspicious domains to 203 unique IP addresses as fraud campaigns target fans, sponsors, travel operators and online shoppers before the tournament opens on 11 June. The findings point to a much broader operation than the first wave of 79 lookalike domains that impersonated FIFA and ticketing-related services. The […]

AMD has committed more than $10 billion to Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem, targeting advanced packaging and manufacturing capacity as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure intensifies across global data centres.

The investment is designed to strengthen the chipmaker’s partnerships with foundries, packaging houses, substrate suppliers and server manufacturers that are central to its next generation of AI systems. The programme places Taiwan at the centre of AMD’s effort to scale production of high-performance processors, accelerators and rack-level systems built for increasingly complex AI workloads.

A major focus will be Elevated Fanout Bridge, or EFB, a 2.5D packaging technology intended to improve the speed and efficiency of connections between chip components. AMD plans to use the technology in its sixth-generation EPYC central processing units, codenamed “Venice”, which are being positioned for AI, cloud and high-performance computing deployments.

The move comes as AI infrastructure spending shifts from individual chips towards complete systems that combine CPUs, graphics processors, high-bandwidth memory, networking and software. Advanced packaging has become a critical bottleneck because AI workloads require large volumes of data to move quickly between processors while keeping power consumption and heat within manageable limits.

AMD Chair and Chief Executive Lisa Su said customers were rapidly expanding AI infrastructure to meet rising compute demand. The company is seeking to combine its high-performance computing portfolio with Taiwan’s manufacturing and packaging capabilities to support integrated, rack-scale AI systems.

AMD is working with partners including ASE, SPIL, Powertech Technology, Wiwynn, Wistron, Inventec, Unimicron, AIC, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus. These companies cover key parts of the supply chain, from advanced packaging and substrates to server assembly and mechanical architecture. Sanmina is also involved in manufacturing support for the company’s Helios platform.

The investment will support both wafer-based and panel-based EFB interconnect development. AMD and Powertech Technology have qualified what they describe as the industry’s first 2.5D panel-based EFB interconnect, a step aimed at improving scalability and production economics for high-volume AI processors.

The technology is expected to help the “Venice” EPYC processors deliver higher interconnect bandwidth and better power efficiency. That matters because data centre operators are increasingly constrained by electricity availability, cooling capacity and rack density, not only by chip performance.

AMD has also begun ramping production of “Venice” CPUs using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s 2-nanometre process technology in Taiwan. Future production is planned at TSMC’s Arizona facility, extending the supply chain beyond Taiwan while preserving the company’s close reliance on TSMC’s leading-edge manufacturing.

The “Venice” chips will be a central element of AMD’s Helios rack-scale platform, which also includes AMD Instinct MI450X graphics processors, advanced networking and the ROCm open software stack. The platform is scheduled for deployments beginning in the second half of 2026, with AMD describing the opportunity in terms of multi-gigawatt AI infrastructure rollouts.

The strategy puts AMD in a more direct contest with Nvidia, which dominates AI accelerator sales and has built a strong lead through its GPUs, networking, software ecosystem and full-rack systems. AMD’s challenge is not only to deliver competitive silicon but also to prove that it can scale complete AI infrastructure with dependable supply, efficient packaging and broad software support.

AMD’s data centre business has become the company’s main growth engine. First-quarter 2026 data centre revenue reached $5.8 billion, up 57 per cent from a year earlier, driven by demand for EPYC processors and the ramp-up of Instinct GPU shipments. That performance has strengthened investor expectations that AMD can capture a larger share of AI and cloud infrastructure spending.

Taiwan remains critical to that effort because of its concentration of semiconductor expertise. TSMC anchors the foundry side, while packaging, substrate and system-assembly partners provide the manufacturing depth needed to turn chip designs into deployable infrastructure. The concentration also creates geopolitical and supply-chain risks, particularly as governments and companies seek greater resilience across strategic technologies.

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