March 11th 2024

In today’s top ten:

Tech

• India announces an ambitious AI-as-a-service plan with investments to procure 10,000 GPUs and increase semiconductor manufacturing output.

• OpenAI meets the Indian election commission to discuss AI misuse prevention in elections.

• India's election commission rectifies website flaws exposing private citizen data.

• Google restores Indian apps to Play Store amidst row over high fee structure.

• Unified payment interface goes live for India-Nepal cross-border transactions.

Culture

• “Performative inclusivity” and “marketable authenticity” in Silicon Valley’s corporate culture baffles Indian immigrants.

• Navigating work stress with mindfulness techniques from the Bhagavad Gita.

• Celebrating International Women's Day: Highlighting five exceptional female Indian artists.

• Deepti Asthana's introspective photography reveals life of rural women in India.

• Mangala Bai Maravi brings Baiga tribal tattoos to global stage in bid to protect tradition.

Tech

India announces an ambitious AI-as-a-service plan with investments to procure 10,000 GPUs and increase semiconductor manufacturing output. LINK

• India announced a $1.25 billion Artificial Intelligence Mission that will provide access to 10,000 graphic processing units as digital public infrastructure that can offer AI-as-a-service for AI-based applications and model training. 

• The plan aims to boost India's position in the global race for AI dominance and provide targeted funding for AI startups. 

• IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also announced India's entry into semiconductor equipment production, a significant move to become self-reliant and meet increasing domestic demand.

OpenAI meets the Indian election commission to discuss AI misuse prevention in elections. LINK

• Officials from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, recently met with the Election Commission of India to discuss steps being taken to prevent AI misuse in the upcoming general elections.

• Tech giants like OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and Google pledged last month to fight AI generated content meant to deceive voters, using methods like invisible watermarks and annotations to identify AI-generated content.

• The move comes amid warnings from the World Economic Forum about the risk of AI-driven disinformation potentially undermining newly elected governments in an election year where over 25 countries are going to polls.

India's election commission rectifies website flaws exposing private citizen data. LINK

• The Indian Federal Election Commission has fixed flaws in its Right to Information (RTI) portal that exposed data on citizens' private information including voting eligibility queries, details about political candidates, and technical details  about electronic voting machines. 

• Security researcher Karan Saini discovered the issues, which permitted access to RTI requests and responses without proper user login authentication; the commission took action to fix these following intervention by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

• Although Indian law does not regard RTI applications and responses as confidential, a 2014 High Court ruling mandates hiding such data to protect applicant privacy, making these flaws a serious privacy concern.

Google restores Indian apps to Play Store amidst row over high fee structure. LINK

• Google has reinstated Indian apps Shaadi.com, Matrimony.com, BharatMatrimony, Naukri, 99acres, Kuku FM, and Stage after last week’s delisting over a fee dispute.

• This comes after criticism of Google's preferential treatment to larger companies like Spotify and growing discontent with Google's fee structure.

• Google stands by the legitimacy of their rules, stating that fewer than 60 Indian developers are subject to fees above 15%. Meanwhile, dissenting firms are pushing for regulatory intervention from the Indian government and the Competition Commission of India.

Unified payment interface goes live for India-Nepal cross-border transactions. LINK

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a digital payment system that allows users to access multiple bank accounts through a single mobile app. UPI is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

• NPCI announced that UPI is now operational in Nepal, enabling cross-border transactions between India and Nepal through QR-code-based UPI transactions.

• This initiative comes as a result of a partnership between NPCI International Payments Ltd and Nepal's largest payment network, Fonepay Payment Service, further promoting trade and economic ties between the two nations.

“Performative inclusivity” and “marketable authenticity” in Silicon Valley’s corporate culture baffles Indian immigrants. LINK

• Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley grapple with understanding the subtle cues of corporate America, leading to misinterpretation and mixed messages.

• The politically-correct environment, filled with surface-level small talk and apparent insincerity make these spaces challenging to navigate for some Indian employees.

• This is a stark contrast to Indian workplaces where employees “bring all their emotions to work – anger, sadness, frustration, joy.”

Navigating work stress with mindfulness techniques from the Bhagavad Gita LINK

• With recent polls claiming increasing dissatisfaction among U.S employees at work, Clemson University’s Robert J. Stephens reflects on lessons from the Bhagavad Gita that help with navigating the modern workplace. 

• The mindfulness technique, "nishkama karma" prescribes acting without desire for results, which may provide useful guidance to preserve your work-life balance.

• Stephens draws parallels with the concept of "flow state”, i.e. being fully immersed and present in a task, underlining the importance of focusing on the task at hand rather than its outcomes.

Celebrating International Women's Day: Highlighting five exceptional female Indian artists LINK

• In celebration of International Women's Day, read how five female artists are contributing to social commentary, personal expression and the fight for gender equality. 

• Sam Madhu, Namrata Kumar, Srishti Guptaroy, Anjali Mehta, and Gargi Chandola challenge societal norms through powerful narratives across a variety of media. 

Deepti Asthana's introspective photography reveals life of rural women in India. LINK

• Self-taught photographer Deepti Asthana uses her lens to tell often unseen or invisible  stories of sisterhood and resilience of women in rural India.

• Asthana's work captures the harsh realities of drug use, gender bias, climate change and the weight of societal systems, using photography as a medium to explore bigger existential questions.

• Awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society, Asthana documents the water crisis in Uttarakhand to highlight its impact on the daily lives, health and education of teenage girls in the region.

Mangala Bai Maravi brings Baiga tribal tattoos to global stage in bid to protect tradition LINK

• Mangala Bai Maravi, a tattoo artist from the Baiga tribe in Lalpur, Madhya Pradesh showcases her tribe’s traditional tattoo art at the University of Sydney.

• The prehistoric Baiga tattoo tradition is fading as younger generations shy away from the practice due to fear of being singled out or ridiculed for their cultural identity. 

• As part of her residency at the University of Sydney, Mangala's work aims to preserve and revive the Baiga tattooing tradition, which includes unique designs inspired by nature.

In other news:

• Meet Iris: India's first AI humanoid robot teacher who speaks three languages. LINK

• Manipur begins deportation of Myanmar nationals who fled ethnic conflict. LINK

• Forest officials thwart operation to smuggle Ugandan monkeys. LINK

• Indian government extends support to Indian students in the U.S. following recent deaths. LINK

• India pressures Russia for release of deceived nationals employed in the Russian army. LINK

• India issues advisory to 18,000 citizens employed in Israel. LINK

• European four-nation bloc signs ink free trade agreement with India. LINK

• How Sajhe Sapne is preparing women in rural India for careers in STEM. LINK