India’s tech news in January 2024 covered a wide range of technologies and developments, including: Tamil Nadu’s bid for semiconductor manufacturing; India’s National Quantum Mission; the growth in use of the e-Rupee, India’s central bank digital currency; Tata Group’s plans for a Gujarat lithium-ion battery factory; and more.
SNA’s other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and our Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies, quarterly across Q4 2023
PwC: Indian Payments Handbook 2023-2028
- India: Gov’t space agency successfully launches orbital observatory to study astronomical objects including black holes
- Download: ‘India’s booming space economy – Opportunities for downstream spacetech’ from Deloitte
- India: Vodafone Idea states rumours around tie-up talks with Elon Musk’s Starlink are not accurate, seeing share values fall after initial 21% surge
- India: Vietnam’s VinFast electric vehicles maker to establish battery plant in Tamil Nadu, targeting production of up to 50,000 cars per year with initial expenditure of up to $200M
- India: Asia’s first hyperloop test track set for construction near Chennai, backed by India’s Ministry of Railway and IIT Madras
- India: Reserve Bank hits 1M daily digital currency transactions via ‘e-rupee’, in part through bank disbursement of some employee benefits to CBDC wallets rather than salary accounts
Deloitte: NewSpace, India’s space perspective
- India: Tamil Nadu Semiconductor & Advanced Electronics Policy 2024 to allow chip design entities to be eligible for payroll reimbursement if they employ Tamil Nadu residents, in bid for manufacturing base
- India: Google News Initiative Startup Labs rolls out latest cohort of 10 early-stage Indian news startups producing in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu
- India: Mylapay fintech raises $550K seed funding with single platform for payments processing, incorporating API connectivity for both payment aggregators and banks
- India: Tata Group close to finalising plans for a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Gujarat state, alongside plans for a 20GW lithium-ion batteries factory
- India: Infosys IT services major to acquire Bengaluru’s InSemi semiconductor design and services provider for around 433M, looking to develop Infosys’ chip-to-cloud strategy
Critical Scalability: TrendMicro Cybersecurity 2024
- India: Micron US tech giant and NAMTECH – New Age Makers Institute of Tech education initiative join to grow a globally-competitive talent pool as part of the India Semiconductor Mission
- India: National Quantum Mission calls for proposals to establish 4 technology hubs to focus on communications, computing, metrology and sensing, and materials
“The [National Quantum] Mission, spanning eight years, seeks to build a quantum communications network covering 2,000 kilometers and achieve a quantum computing power of 1,000 qubits. This ambitious goal will be realized through collaborations between industry and academia, as well as support for startups developing quantum computing applications.”
- India: Taiwan’s Foxconn partners HCL Group IT consultancy major for JV to establish a semiconductor assembly and testing facility
- India and Argentina sign agreement for exploration and mining of lithium, with India accessing over 15000 hectares of Argentine ‘lithium blocks’
- India: GoPurple agri-tech secures $180K pre-seed funding with indoor ‘fogponics’ farm and R&D centre, focusing on crops and seeds suitable for growing in soilless environments
WEF Quantum Economy Blueprint – January 2024
- India’s Tata Consultancy Services partners Australia’s Macquarie University to launch TCS GoZero Hub, a research and innovation centre focusing on a net-zero future
- India: TechSparks startups-and-tech conference 2024 edition is set for Mumbai from February 29th to March 1st
- India: Bounce Infinity partners Sun Mobility for swappable batteries in 30K scooters in city markets, using SUN’s network of 600+ swap stations with batteries claiming 95km range
“India’s stock market capitalization has overtaken Hong Kong’s for the first time… while global capital pours out of China….Indian exchanges reached $4.33TN as of Monday’s close vs $4.29TN for Hong Kong…”
- India: Gov’t announces program under which up to 10M households could install rooftop solar
- India: Marwari Catalysts VC launches Aarohan ReligionTech Startup Acceleration Program
Deloitte, NASSCOM, ISA: Opportunities for Indian downstream spacetech
- India: An overview of the country’s moves to become quantum technology-ready in 2024, growing around the $735 million National Quantum Mission
- India: CureBay e-clinics chain secured $7.5M with focus on rural health, looking to boost clinic presence in underserved communities in India to 200
- India: A brief overview of the nation’s moves to secure and develop a lithium supply chain
- Google Pay and India’s NPCI Int’l Payments ink MOU around expanding Unified Payments Interface payments beyond India, enabling payments from India without foreign currency, credit or forex cards
Orbiting Now / Satellite orbit data
- Indian Space Research Organization sets sights on minimum of 12 space missions through 2024, with NASA satellite collaboration and Venus study mission in development
- Available to download: ‘The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific – Policy Recommendations’ from the Stockholm-based Institute for Security & Development Policy
“If this is the case, then Quad states need to work on
ensuring redundancy but understand that these cables may be used by belligerents via neutral parties in the event of conflict. So, what’s to be done? Perhaps look at space and the robust space capabilities of Japan, India, and the U.S. and the development of communication satellite infrastructure that can be used in the event of cable rupture.”
- India: BluSmart EV ride-hail & charging firm backed to $25M by Switzerland’s responsAbility impact investor, with vertically-integrated tech stack claiming savings of circa 26K tons of CO2 to date
- A brief overview of Indo-Pacific space-technology developments, and rising concerns, from Nikkei Asia
IPSC: Indo-Pacific Studies Center
Indo-Pacific Tech news: Daily
- Indo-Pacific tech, daily on LinkedIn
- Asia’s tech news, daily on Twitter / X
- Asia tech news daily – Facebook
Note: Our mobile app is offline due to the ongoing breakdown of Twitter/X. The app will be back, much-improved and with broader functionality, late in Q1 of 2024.
Google Whitepaper: Artificial Intelligence Opportunity Agenda for ASEAN
Weekly Asia Tech newsletters
In the January 23rd newsletter:
South Korea’s semicon mega-development,
India-Argentina lithium mining,
Singtel adds Starlink for maritime use,
India’s quantum technology moves,
Huawei adds Changan and JD for OS growth,
Google backs Pacific Connect undersea cable…
● January 23rd newsletter on LinkedIn
● January 23rd newsletter on Substack
