Google reaches new deal with French newspapers on licensing rights

Google and a trade group representing almost 300 French newspapers have achieved a new agreement on content publishing rights, the two parties announced on Thursday. According to a joint statement, the agreement indicated that negotiations on how much to pay publications for utilising their material in Google search results, which began in September, were successful. In January, Google and the French publishers’ lobby announced that they had reached an agreement on a copyright framework that would allow the US internet giant to pay news publishers for online content, paving the…

Read More

India no longer just a low cost centre but main innovation hub: Chandra Reddy, head of engineering and R&D – India, Capgemini

Digital practises are increasingly accounting for a larger share of revenue for IT services firms. Digital has effectively cut across major core engineering verticals—manufacturing, automotive, wireless technology, logistics, and many more—with Covid-19 accelerating digital adoption. Despite Covid-19, according to a recent Zinnov report, engineering, research, and development (ER&D) spending has remained resilient, increasing by 3% year over year. It also predicted that global ER&D spending would reach $2.1 trillion by 2024, with a CAGR of 9%. This massive opportunity has attracted IT services brands from around the world to capitalise…

Read More

Google debuts subscription service Play Pass in India

Google, which has been at odds with the Indian startup and developer community for months, has announced the launch of Google Play Pass in India. Google Play Pass is a subscription service that provides access to many apps and games without ads, in-app purchases, or upfront payments. It is currently available in 90 countries. Play Pass will have 1,000+ titles from 59 different nations, including many from India, in 41 different categories. Play Pass, which has the ability to reach users in 90 countries, would provide Indian developers of all…

Read More

HP’s Make in India plans focused on local procurement of subcomponents

HP’s shipments grew by 58.7% per cent YoY in CY2021. While the company continues to grow in both the commercial and consumer segment, until now, the majority of HP’s hardware was imported in the country. The American multinational intends to change this with its “Made in India, for India” plans. The company has been manufacturing commercial desktops in India for a long time but it has now commenced local manufacturing of laptops in the country. Laptops including HP’s EliteBooks, ProBooks and HP G8 series notebooks are being made at the…

Read More

Byju’s-owned upskilling platform Great Learning buys recruitment firm Superset

The upskilling platform Great Learning, which is owned by Byju, announced on Tuesday that it had acquired Superset, a recruitment platform backed by Blume Ventures. The transaction’s value was not disclosed by the company. Great Learning said in a statement that Superset will continue to operate under the leadership of its co-founders Naman Agrawal and Pranjal Goswami. Agrawal told VCCircle in an interview that Blume Ventures had exited the company as part of the deal. Superset was founded in 2017 by Weblength Infonet Pvt. Ltd with the goal of using…

Read More

Fintech startup Perfios raises $70 Mn

Perfios, a fintech startup, has raised around $70 million in a Series C round led by Warburg Pincus and Bessemer India. In November 2019, the Bengaluru-based startup raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Warburg Pincus and Bessemer Venture. According to Perfios’ regulatory filings, the company has passed a special resolution to allot 416,336 Series C preference shares at an issue price of Rs 12,610 per share to raise Rs 525 crore ($70 million). In this round, Warburg has put in Rs 412.5 crore, while Bessemer has…

Read More

Vedanta team visits Pune to check feasibility for setting up semiconductor plant

A team from Indian conglomerate Vedanta visited Pune on Friday to assess the feasibility of establishing an electronic chip plant in the district, according to a government official. Under the government’s incentive scheme, Vedanta Group companies have applied to set up semiconductor and display manufacturing units in the country. By 2024, it expects to have display units for mobile phones and electronics devices on the market, as well as electronic chips made in India by 2025. Several automobile companies have manufacturing plants in Pune. Vedanta intends to start with 28…

Read More

We should go for indigenous manufacturing in defence sector : PM Modi

Cyber security is no longer limited to just the digital world as it has now become a matter of national security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday. He also noted that the process of importing defence items is so long that by the time they reach our security forces, many of them have become outdated and therefore, the solution is to go for indigenous manufacturing. “Even during the period of slavery and immediately after Independence, the strength of our defence manufacturing was very high. Weapons made in India played…

Read More

Google Workspace users to migrate from Hangouts to Chat in March

Google has been working on moving users from Hangouts to Chat for a long time, and they now have a timeline. The time to permanently switch to Chat is rapidly approaching, and Google’s most recent update has set a deadline for when users will be moved. Google is ready to move Hangouts into the final phase, according to a blog post on Workspace, and this follows the opt-out migration option it rolled out last year. If they haven’t already done so, all users will have “Chat preferred” enabled in their…

Read More

Infosys launches Metaverse Foundry, to ease enterprises with metaverse adoption

Infosys has announced the launch of its Metaverse Foundry to help enterprises explore the metaverse, including virtual and augmented environments, for their customers, workplaces, products, and operations. The Foundry, according to the company, will bring together domain and design expertise, platforms and digital accelerators, as well as strong relationships in a rich creator-partner economy. This confluence of capabilities will be available as on-demand services, allowing businesses to scale up and down their explorations as needed. This will enable them to create their own metaverse environment on-demand, deliver signature experiences in…

Read More