Q3 2024: India's technology news

India’s technology news headlines across 2024’s third quarter – that’s July, August & September – covered tech and startup items including: India’s many moves to create, and fast-track, its own electronics and semiconductor manufacturing industries; the looming impacts of artificial intelligence technologies on India’s workers; Indian space technology advancements; and many more.

Asia’s Tech News, Weekly newsletter >

EY Tech Trends Series: India

Indian Tech in September 2024

Tata Electronics is to hire 20,000 more employees at Hosur iPhone assembly plant, doubling the workforce to tap into Apple’s aims to boost India manufacturing / full article
India’s Bharat Web3 Ass’n inks agreements with Australia’ Digital Economy Council and Asosiasi Blockchain Indonesia for collaboration, standards development and more / full article
Karnakata state to set space policy, developing a space technologies Centre of Excellence with sights on services for 10% of the global industry / full article
Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s PSMC ink agreement for major semiconductor manufacturing facility in Gujarat, with investment projected at $11BN / full article
Taiwan’s Foxconn is mulling construction of a $1BN smartphone display modules assembly facility in Tamil Nadu, with operating model side-stepping China components / full article
“An estimated 20% of the global semiconductor engineering workforce is of Indian origin… Despite this… [the] sector has struggled to generate significant financial returns…” / full article
India’s GalaxEye space-technologies firm gains $2M backing from Infosys Innovation Fund, seeing opportunities in multi-sensor satellites and comprehensive datasets generated / full article
Gov’t has approved space projects including Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return mission, a first space station module, and Venus Orbiter Mission / full article
China’s Lenovo announces AI server manufacturing in India, alongside inauguration of state-of-the-art Infrastructure Solutions R&D lab / full article
Uttar Pradesh unveils plans for state’s first semiconductor park in Noida, aiming to attract global chip firms with a range of subsidies / full article
Government is to launch the Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry – BHASKAR – initiative under Startup India, aiming for a one-stop platform for firms and investors / full article
India’s Tata Electronics inks MoU with Tokyo Electron Limited, accelerating production of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Gujarat, and assembly & testing in Assam / full article
Tata Consultancy Services reportedly now working with Tata Electronics, leveraging different positions in value chains to roll out first made-in-India chips by 2026 / full article
Gov’t unveils 4 new initiatives to address growing cybercrime including national criminal suspect registry and training of 5000 new cyber roles / full article
Pixxel becomes the first Indian space firm to secure NASA contract to provide a hyperspectral earth imaging satellite constellation / full article
US’ Applied Materials inks MoU with Tamil Nadu gov’t for AI-enabled tech Center of Excellence focused on semicon manufacturing & equipment / full article
“India’s space agency expects a 20%-30% increase in its budget in the coming years…” with pricing aiming for on-par with SpaceX / full article
Silizium Circuits and Calligo Technologies, semiconductor and RISC-V startups respectively, and the support received from Taiwan’s semicon industry / full article

NASSCOM: India’s Gen Artificial Intelligence Startups Landscape 2024

Tata Consultancy Services and Google Cloud expand partnership with 2 new AI-backed cybersecurity solutions covering single, multi-, and hybrid cloud environments / full article
Techno Electric & Engineering Co is preparing to build edge datacenters for RailTel telco in 102 Indian cities, boosting the country’s digital infrastructure / full article
India’s Kaynes Semiconductor approved for Gujarat assembly, testing, marking & packaging facility, backed by near $400K investment under gov’t India Semiconductor Mission / full article
“India has emerged as a global research powerhouse, ranking among the top 5 countries in 45 out of 64 critical technologies in 2023…” / full article
US-India AI Fellowship Program applications are open, offering a 12-month program for early and mid-career professionals in industry, government, academia, and civil society / full article
Philippines’ franchise holder of McDonald’s partners India’s Tata Consultancy Services for cloud-focused upgrade of more than 760 restaurants. / full article
National University of Singapore and UK’s Plexal unveil 10 cybersecurity startups for cohort 1 of CyberBoost Catalyse programme / full article
Australia: AICRAFT AI firm secures SA Space Collaboration & Innovation Fund backing, partnering India’s Guerin space-tech for miniaturized SAR radar / full article
Malaysia’s Cradle Fund and Invest India form strategic India-Malaysia Startup Alliance to strengthen startup ecosystems in both nations / full article
Country profiles for Australia, India, Japan and Singapore, via the cmspi ‘Payments Regulation in Asia’ report / full article

GITEX Asia Tech Conference & Expo: April 2025 in Singapore

India’s tech news: August 2024

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka compete to attract Taiwan’s Foxconn for ‘Foxconn City’ facilities, each offering thousands of acres for construction / full article
NxtQube drones infrastructure gains seed funding, targeting Universal Docking Station compatible with multiple manufacturers, battery-swapping, and drone swarm docking / full article
FinTech in India: “The survey highlighted that 84% of FIs and FinTechs in India prioritise strategies to understand and meet evolving customer demands…” / full article

Asia Tech News Podcast: Audio headlines round-up to mid-October 2024

PhonePe digital payments major rolls out Credit Line on UPI service, linking users credit lines to the national Unified Payments Interface / full article
Tamil Nadu’s Space Zone India launches Rhumi-1, the country’s first reusable liquid-solid fuel rocket, from a mobile platform, delivering 3 cube-sats and 50 PICO-sats under 1kg / full article
Country’s first small-scale quantum computer nears completion, feeding into National Quantum Mission with plans for 24-qubit computer in 3 years and 100-qubit system within 5 / full article
“India is set to become a global leader in the semiconductor industry, with demand projected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion by 2030” – US International Trade Administration / full article
Taiwan’s Foxconn preps to construct battery energy storage systems unit in India, potentially leading to a tie-in to Foxconn’s 3+3 focus on EVs, digital health and robotics / full article
India-Australia RISE Accelerator applications closed September 15th for startups and SMEs with agri-tech solutions / full article
An overview of the current state-of-play in the Indian LLM space, looking at the opportunities and challenges in the country’s AI sector / full article
“The unit in Karnataka will soon become the 2nd-largest Foxconn plant after China’s unit. It will create 40,000 direct jobs, especially for middle-level educated individuals…” / full article
Coursera e-learning platform rolls out 10 Professional Certificates from Google and IBM which align with National Skills Qualification Framework / full article
3rd Small Satellite Launch Vehicle completes launch and assessment, placing sat in orbit and paving the way for low-cost, fast-turnaround, low-infrastructure launches / full article
Zepto ‘instant delivery’ startup finalizes $340M funding, valuing the firm at $5BN, racing to take market share in India’s fast-growing quick-commerce market / full article
Japan’s Incubate Fund Asia VC firm closes 3rd fund with corpus of $30M, with 80% focus on India’s early-stage startups / full article
India’s Kazam preps for roll-out of EV charging infrastructure to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, alongside further build-out of Indian 2- and 3-wheeler charging / full article
Report: “…in India, 31% of working hours will either be automated or augmented by generative AI… an additional $675 billion in economic value…” / full article
India has granted a $300M loan to Vietnam to boost maritime security, alongside discussing cooperation in AI, cloud computing, semiconductors and more / full article
Madhya Pradesh state may be set to gain Google Cloud startup hub and Center of Excellence, alongside interest from NVIDIA chip giant / full article
Andhra Pradesh state government and Google prepare MOU, ‘AI for Andhra Pradesh, Powered by Google‘, looking at AI applications in agriculture, skills, healthcare and beyond / full article

Inc42: The Rise of India’s Semiconductor Startups

Punch secures $7M seed with comprehensive stockbroking platform focusing on risk awareness, beginner guidance and ease of use / full article
EtherealX raised $5M seed funding to develop fully-reusable medium-lift launch vehicles, focusing on returning both upper stage and booster sections / full article
WazirX, crypto exchange that suffered $230M cyberattack, proposes remedy of users accessing 55% of their assets, but locking 45% in Tether-equivalent tokens / full article
Tata Group’s Assam semiconductor plant is expected to be operational by mid-2025, with projected jobs boost of 27K positions in total / full article
Vaanam private sector space-tech accelerator launches in Tamil Nadu, set to host the country’s 2nd launchpad / full article
GalaxEye Space secures $6.5M in new funding to launch inaugural ‘Drishti Mission’ satellite, with use cases in defence, agriculture, aquaculture and beyond / full article
Near 300 small Indian banks back online and able to access payments systems following tech service provider ransomware attack / full article
Bharat Web3 Association boosts cybersecurity focus following $230M hack on WazirX crypto exchange, looking also to lift consumer protections / full article
Inidia’s T-Hub startup incubator inks MOA with Malaysia’s Beyond4 accelerator ecosystem, targeting cross-border innovation and market access opportunities / full article
‘Taiwan-India Chips Cooperation and the Logic of Choosing India’ / full article

Cushman & Wakefield: Asia Pacific Data Center Market H1 2024

July 2024: Tech news, India

An intro to India’s Silizium Circuits semiconductor startup, working with TSMC on 2 semiconductor chips and with more in development / full article
iVP Semi secures $5M pre-A and unveils chip design center plans for Chennai and Bangalore, alongside licensing semiconductor chip product IP from Taiwan, Japan and the US / full article
Matter EV startup secures $35M with focus on electric motorbikes and development of proprietary tech stack consisting of drive-train and energy storage devices / full article
Reserve Bank of India joins Project Nexus, collaborating with Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to facilitate instantaneous cross-border retail payments / full article
Download: ‘Realising “AI for all” in India’ from EY (direct pdf link) / full article
India’s Zypp Electric secures $15M funding led by Japan’s ENEOS energy conglomerate with goal of taking electric vehicle rental services to wider SE Asia markets / full article
India and Bangladesh partner on emerging tech including civil nuclear and space, and development of a small satellite for Bangladesh for launch via an Indian launch vehicle / full article
India’s Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities’ semiconductor opportunity: “”…expenses up to 30% lower than in Tier-1 cities, including employee salaries, real estate, and administrative costs.” / full article
India’s L&T engineering and infra conglomerate acquires Bengaluru’s SiliConch Systems, a fabless semiconductor design company, fast-tracking L&T’s chips presence / full article
Download: ‘FinTech – powering India’s USD 5 trillion economy by fostering innovations, enabling inclusion and building a sustainable future’ from PwC India (pdf link) / full article
WazirX crypto exchange halted withdrawals following security breach that resulted in the loss of $230M, near half its reserves / full article
Google has rolled out availability to a range of AI-focused tools for Indian developers, including next-gen AI models and developer studio / full article
“Project Nexus aims to connect domestic instant payment systems to improve… cross-border payments… with the central banks of India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore & Thailand” / full article
India’s Jio conglomerate and Taiwan’s MediaTek semiconductor giant to supply India’s electric scooter market with digital dashboards and Android-based operating system / full article
India and UK partner for tech security initiative, aiming to work closely on crucial technologies and supply chains across critical minerals, AI, semiconductors, telecoms and beyond / full article

Securing critical minerals for energy transition

Critical minerals and the energy transition

‘How India Shops Online: Consumer preferences in the metropolises and Tier 1-4 cities’, a brief overview from PwC India / full article
Startup Sprint 2024 from Buhler India opens applications, seeking food- and agri-tech startups focusing on food processing and related value chains / full article
Ecom Express logistics firm to raise $172M, adding to 3000 existing e-commerce focused facility centers serving over 2700 towns / full article
Download: ‘Anchoring the Bay of Bengal in a Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ from India’s Observer Research Foundation, and Global Policy Journal / full article
Singapore state investment giant, Temasek, to invest up to $10BN in India over 3 years, seen in part as a response to underperformance on China investments / full article
Australia’s Space Machines Company inks Launch Service Agreement with NewSpace India, government company under Indian Space Research Organisation, for SMC’s next sat launch / full article

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For a one-shot round-up of each week’s technology news headlines, gathered across Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific, you should read Asia’s Tech News, Weekly, the Startup News Asia newsletter, on LinkedIn and via Substack.