New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) In a major boost to India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, mobile phone exports from the country gained much ground in FY24 as manufacturing giants like China and Vietnam fell behind.

Railways, I&B and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted on X on Monday that “Bharat’s focus on manufacturing with ‘Make in India’ and PLI scheme is showing good results.”

As tech giants like Apple continue to shift iPhone manufacturing to India amid political stability and friendly government policies, India captured almost half of the lost market (40.5 per cent) from China and Vietnam in the last fiscal year.

Mobile phone exports from China went down from $136.3 billion in FY23 to $132.5 billion in FY24.

On the other hand, Vietnam saw a drop from $31.9 billion in FY23 to $26.27 billion in the last fiscal year, according to the latest industry data.

India, on the other hand, became a natural choice for mobile phone manufacturers owing to the PLI scheme.

Mobile phone exports from the country touched nearly $16 billion in FY24 from $11 billion in FY23.

Mobile phone production surged from Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to an estimated Rs 4.10 lakh crore in FY24, registering an increase of 2,000 per cent, as per top electronics industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

The overall electronic manufacturing in the country is expected to reach around $250 billion in the next five years.

At present, the electronic exports of the country stand at around $125 to $130 billion. More than 12 lakh new jobs have been created in the electronics manufacturing system in the country.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head, the Industry Intelligence Group at market intelligence firm CMR, expanding the PLI scheme to electronic components manufacturing is a strategic move to address a critical bottleneck in India’s domestic electronics ecosystem.

By incentivising local production, the policy will aim to boost domestic manufacturing capabilities and create a more resilient end-to-end electronics value chain.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday announced that its overall auto sales for June stood at 69,397 vehicles, a growth of 11 per cent, including exports.

In the Utility Vehicles (UV) segment, the company sold 40,022 vehicles in the domestic market, a growth of 23 per cent and overall, 40,644 vehicles, including exports.

The domestic sales for commercial vehicles stood at 20,594.

“June has been a momentous month, as we rolled out the 200,000th XUV700 from our facility. We also celebrated 25 years of Bolero Pik-Ups, a category creator and a market leader in the LCV segment,” Veejay Nakra, President, the Automotive Division, M&M, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra has announced to invest Rs 12,000 crore in its electric vehicle (EV) unit over a period of three years.

In a stock exchange filing, the automaker said that it has approved an investment of Rs 12,000 crore in Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited (MEAL) to fund its EV journey over the next three years.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) As the development of Galaxy AI involved multiple R&D teams working across cultures and borders, Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B), the company’s largest R&D centre outside South Korea, collaborated with teams globally to develop artificial intelligence (AI) language models for Indian, British and Australian English as well as Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian, the company said on Monday.

Recently, core engineers from other Samsung Research centres visited Bangalore where the SRI-B team helped ramp up the technology to bring Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian to Galaxy AI.

“Every language has its challenges. But when you consider the end goal of bringing people to communicate in other languages, it’s worth every ounce of effort. We couldn’t wait to bring Hindi to Galaxy AI,” said Giridhar Jakki, Head of Language AI at SRI-B.

SRI-B developed the Hindi language for Galaxy AI. According to the company, developing the Hindi AI model “wasn’t simple”.

The team had to ensure over 20 regional dialects, tonal inflections, punctuation and colloquialisms were covered.

“Hindi has a complex phonetic structure that includes retroflex sounds — sounds made by curling the tongue back in the mouth — which are not present in many other languages,” said Jakki.

“To build the speech synthesis element of the AI solution, we carefully reviewed data with native linguists to understand all the unique sounds and created a special set of phenomes to support specific dialects of the language,” he added.

Moreover, the company mentioned that the collaborative efforts between Samsung and academic partners were instrumental in developing the AI language model.

The Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) helped secure almost a million lines of segmented and curated audio data on conversational speech, words and commands.

Galaxy AI now supports 16 languages, allowing more people to enhance their language capabilities. Users can now access on-device translation in features such as Live Translate, Interpreter, Note Assist, and Browsing Assist, even when offline.

–IANS

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Seoul, July 1 (IANS) SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has met with leaders of global tech giants, including Amazon and Intel, to discuss ways to broaden business cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, his company said on Monday.

Chey, who has been on a US trip since June 22, held talks with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at the headquarters of the US multinational technology company in Washington, last week, to explore ways to enhance cooperation in the AI chip sector, according to SK Group.

Amazon has unveiled its own AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia, as part of its plans to expand its business portfolio to include designing AI chips and offering AI services, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The US company is one of SK Hynix’s clients for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a core component for AI semiconductors. SK Hynix is leading the HBM market with its latest fifth-generation HBM3E product.

Later, Chey also met with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger at its headquarters in California.

During the meeting, the two leaders celebrated the long partnership between the two companies and shared views on future technologies and business collaborations in the sector of AI chips.

In partnership with Intel, SK Hynix developed the fastest DRAM for servers, DDR5 Multiplexer Combined Ranks Dual In-line Memory Module, in December 2022.

Last year, SK Hynix’s DDR5 product for servers received approval for Intel’s fourth-generation processor for the first time in the industry.

During his stay in the US, Chey has also met with other tech moguls, including Sam Altman from OpenAI and Satya Nadella of Microsoft.

Meanwhile, SK Group unveiled its reform plan to secure 80 trillion won ($58 billion) by 2026 to increase investment in AI and semiconductors, aiming to keep up with the AI-led industry transition.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Video telematics startup Cautio on Monday announced a pre-seed raise of Rs 6.5 crore led by Antler, 8i Ventures and AU Small Finance Bank.

The funding round, a mix of equity and debt, also saw participation from Cautio’s early believing customers and angel investors.

“With the support of our friends at Antler, 8i and AU, we are primed to escalate our efforts in deploying cutting-edge safety solutions across the country,” Pranjal Nadhani, Co-founder & CTO, Cautio, said in a statement.

Cautio offers cost-effective video telematics products and delivers tailored solutions aimed at mitigating safety issues prevalent in India.

Through customisable dash cam devices and an AI-powered operating system, Cautio ensures accountability, improves driver conduct, minimises revenue loss, and adopts an API-first strategy, the company said.

“The Cautio model is not just about capturing telematics data but transforming it into actionable insights to enhance driver behaviour, increase safety, and pave the way for autonomous vehicles,” said Nitin Sharma, Partner at Antler.

According to Ankit Acharya, Co-founder & CEO of Cautio, telematics in India has rapidly advanced from GPS, Bluetooth and portable navigation to embedded connectivity.

“India, ranking first in global road fatalities, recorded 1,68,491 deaths in 2022, with overspeeding responsible for 70 per cent of these fatalities, along with approximately 4.4 lakh injuries,” said Acharya.

“Video telematics and dash cams, driven by demand from the commercial vehicle sector, will be crucial in eliminating hearsay and enhancing road safety,” he added.

–IANS

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