Category: India LIVE

Central Board of Secondary Education has cancelled all Class 12 board examinations scheduled between March 16 and April 10 across several Middle Eastern countries, citing security concerns linked to the widening conflict involving Iran and regional powers.

The decision affects CBSE-affiliated schools in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where thousands of expatriate students were preparing for the final phase of the 2026 board examination cycle. The

Dubai-based technology firm Solstice Data has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kerala government to invest ₹52,600 crore in a large-scale data infrastructure project at the KINFRA Industrial Park in Mattannur, marking one of the biggest technology investments proposed for the state’s digital economy. The agreement envisions the development of advanced artificial intelligence-driven high-performance computing data centres on approximately 100 acres of land in Kannur district, a move officials say could reshape

New Delhi has pressed Tehran to allow more India-bound vessels to cross the Strait of Hormuz after two liquefied petroleum gas carriers carrying critical fuel supplies cleared the strategic waterway, highlighting the vulnerability of energy flows through one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

Officials confirmed that two Indian-flagged LPG carriers, Shivalik and Nanda Devi, passed through the strait with cargo bound for ports in Gujarat, transporting roughly 92,700 tonnes of cooking gas.

Bosch SDS and NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies have unveiled plans to launch a sovereign artificial intelligence cloud platform designed to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption across India’s manufacturing and industrial sectors. The initiative aims to give enterprises secure domestic infrastructure for deploying advanced AI applications, including predictive maintenance, asset optimisation and real-time industrial data orchestration from factory floors to cloud platforms.

The partnership brings together Bosch’s software and digital engineering capabilities with NxtGen’s

Government plans to establish an $11 billion fund aimed at accelerating semiconductor development, a move designed to strengthen the country’s position in the global electronics supply chain and reduce dependence on imported chips. The proposed initiative, valued at more than ₹1 trillion, is under active discussion and could be unveiled within months as part of a broader push to expand domestic technology manufacturing.

Semiconductors form the backbone of modern technology, powering devices

Pressure on cooking gas supplies has pushed households and businesses across the country toward more polluting fuels, including kerosene, biomass and fuel oil, highlighting the vulnerability of energy supply chains during geopolitical upheaval.

Authorities have authorised the wider use of alternative fuels to ease the strain on liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas networks after disruptions to shipments from West Asia tightened availability and drove up prices. The shift marks a temporary reversal of a decade-long policy drive aimed at replacing

Engineering group ABB has committed about $75 million to expand manufacturing and research operations across five locations in India, a move aimed at strengthening production for sectors such as renewable energy, metro rail systems and data centres. The investment reflects rising demand for advanced electrification and automation technologies as infrastructure projects accelerate and digital capacity expands across the country.

ABB said the spending will upgrade and enlarge facilities that produce critical components including switchgear, power distribution equipment and industrial automation systems.

Government officials confirmed that a warship from Iran was granted permission to dock at a naval facility in Kochi shortly before another vessel from the same flotilla was sunk by a United States submarine in the Indian Ocean, an episode that has drawn global attention to maritime diplomacy and escalating naval tensions around South Asia.

The vessel, identified as IRIS Lavan, sought permission to enter Kochi harbour

Stock markets across India tumbled sharply as escalating conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran heightened geopolitical risks and rattled investor confidence. The benchmark Sensex plunged by more than 1,000 points, slipping beneath the 81,000 mark, while the Nifty 50 index lost upwards of 300 points, breaching the crucial 25,000 support level as traders moved out of riskier assets. Over two trading sessions, equities have shed value significantly, wiping out approximately ₹11 lakh crore in market capitalisation, underlining how

India’s economic expansion has moderated to 7.8 per cent, yet the country continues to outpace other major economies, reinforcing its position as the fastest-growing large market amid a fragile global backdrop.

Official data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed that gross domestic product growth eased compared with earlier quarters, reflecting softer manufacturing momentum and uneven external demand. Even so, the figure places India ahead of the United States, China, Japan

OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman delivered a candid message to students at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, telling them that conventional career guidance may be of limited value as artificial intelligence reshapes the world of work. Speaking at an interactive session in Dogra Hall, Altman said that younger generations will have to trust their own instincts and adapt to fast-changing technological landscapes rather than relying on established rules or advice from

Tata Group, Tata Consultancy Services and OpenAI unveiled a landmark strategic partnership that aims to redefine the landscape of artificial intelligence deployment across enterprise, infrastructure and workforce development. With a multi-year agreement signed at a major AI summit in New Delhi, the collaboration is centred on building out AI infrastructure in India, rolling out Enterprise ChatGPT to thousands of employees and co-creating industry-tailored AI solutions.

Under the pact, TCS’ HyperVault unit will

Air India has scrapped all its flights to and from New York City and Newark Liberty International Airport for both Monday, 23 February and Tuesday, 24 February, citing a powerful winter storm bearing down on the US East Coast that has forced widespread travel disruption and grounding of services. The airline said heavy snow, strong winds and hazardous conditions forecast across New York, New Jersey and adjoining states would significantly disrupt airport

India is pushing ahead with a rapid build-out of artificial intelligence data centres, even as concerns mount over water stress and rising electricity demand in the very regions chosen to host them.

Global technology groups including Microsoft, Amazon and Google have pledged billions of dollars to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across the country, betting on strong digital adoption, a vast developer base and policy support from New Delhi. At the same time, domestic conglomerates such as Reliance Industries and the

Agentic artificial intelligence is forcing a fundamental reassessment of how enterprise software is sold, bought and priced, with implications for licensing models, cloud economics and the broader SaaS market worldwide. As autonomous AI agents that can plan, execute and optimise complex workflows proliferate across enterprises, traditional per-seat software licensing is coming under pressure, major vendors are redesigning pricing frameworks and investors are recalibrating valuations around AI’s transformative potential.

Industry executives and analysts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a high-profile artificial intelligence summit to project India as a pivotal force in the global AI race, even as logistical strains and policy gaps underscored the scale of the challenge ahead.

The gathering brought together senior executives from global technology firms, domestic start-ups, academic leaders and policymakers, signalling a concerted push by New Delhi to position the country as both a major market and a development hub for AI. Modi framed the technology as central to

India has joined the Pax Silica Initiative, signing the Pax Silica Declaration and a Joint Statement on the India–U. S. AI Opportunity Partnership at a special event held on the margins of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, marking a new phase in strategic cooperation on advanced technologies.

The twin agreements signal a coordinated push to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence research, semiconductor supply chains and standards-setting at a time when global competition over emerging technologies is intensifying. Officials described

OpenAI has announced a sweeping expansion of its global education strategy by forging deep partnerships with a group of India’s most influential higher education institutions to embed artificial intelligence tools, training and research into campus life and academic workflows. The initiative, unveiled in New Delhi this week, aims for institutional transformation by offering enterprise-grade AI access and structured integration support across disciplines including engineering, management, health sciences and creative industries.

The programme

OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has said that India now has 100 million weekly active users of ChatGPT, elevating the country to the position of the platform’s second-largest market globally after the United States and underscoring its growing influence in the artificial intelligence ecosystem. Altman disclosed the figure in an opinion piece published ahead of the Global AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where government officials and global tech leaders are convening to discuss the future of AI and

India has emerged as the second-largest market globally for Claude, the generative artificial intelligence model developed by US-based start-up Anthropic, underscoring the country’s expanding influence in the global AI ecosystem.

Debjani Ghosh, who leads Anthropic’s operations and policy engagement in India, said the scale of adoption by developers, enterprises and start-ups has placed the country just behind the United States in terms of usage and integration of Claude’s models. She described India as a “strategic growth engine” for the company, citing

Artificial intelligence is being positioned as a catalytic force in reshaping biomanufacturing, with policymakers, scientists and industry leaders outlining a roadmap that blends computational power with biological science to accelerate drug discovery, industrial enzymes and sustainable materials. Discussions at the India AI Impact Summit placed BioAI at the centre of a strategy aimed at using genomics, in-silico modelling and closed data loops to build scalable and trusted production systems.

The convergence of AI and

Nvidia’s chief executive officer, Jensen Huang, will not attend the India AI Impact Summit scheduled to begin in New Delhi on February 16, the company confirmed over the weekend, citing “unforeseen circumstances” that prevent his planned trip. Nvidia said it remains committed to participating in the five-day event and will instead dispatch a senior leadership delegation to represent its interests at the summit, which is positioned as a global forum on artificial

New Delhi has approved a proposal worth about $39 billion to expand the country’s fleet of Rafale fighter aircraft, marking one of the largest defence procurement decisions in its history and signalling a further shift towards advanced Western platforms in its combat air strategy.

The clearance by the defence ministry paves the way for negotiations with France’s Dassault Aviation for additional Rafale jets, building on an earlier $8.7 billion contract for 36 aircraft for