Quartz

Now, five years and thousands of dollars later, Bhat is still waiting for his car, and the company hasn’t yet shared any update on when it will deliver vehicles in India. “I keep pestering the firm with my emails to get an update, [but] so far there hasn’t been any,” …

Class 10 students following the Indian government’s syllabus will no longer learn the periodic table of elements. Environmental sustainability has also been removed from the curriculum. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which oversees school syllabi for around 134 million students aged 11-18, had earlier even removed …

India is bracing for an alarming increase in the number of summer heat waves in coming years, putting lives at risk and leaving the economy scorched. But there is one group that could gain from this torrid scenario: power companies.Analysts forecast that the 30-odd power-generating companies in India, like Tata …

Mumbaikars, as residents of the country’s financial capital are known, spend the least on transport among all Indians living in major cities. Mumbai also has the highest public transport patronage with adequate availability spanning the city, including at night, according to the Ola Mobility Institute Foundation’s Ease Of Moving Index …

In a sign of times to come, an Indian court turned to ChatGPT seeking a broader outlook on jurisprudence on bail.While examining the bail plea of an accused yesterday (March 28), a Punjab and Haryana high court judge asked the artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot: “What is the jurisprudence on bail …

Nobody saw this car launch coming. And now they can’t stop talking about Mada 9.Mada 9 comes from a war-torn and dirt-poor country whose ruling militia is best known to use Toyota pick-ups and SUVs for its personnel to drive around the country’s rugged terrain. Even last year, when the …

On Monday, (Oct. 31), BYD Auto, the Warren Buffet-backed Chinese electric vehicle firm, opened its first passenger vehicle showroom in Chennai. It was the first step in BYD’s bold ambitions for India: By 2030, BYD hopes to capture at least 40% of the Indian EV market.“With their own learnings in …

For the past few years, prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has been pushing businesses to “make in India” and lessen his country’s reliance on China-made goods. The idea is to reduce India’s trade deficit with its neighbour. A trade deficit happens when a country’s imports exceed its exports.Yet, after spending …

India has granted relief to a bunch of big companies, including legacy businesses like Tata Sons and the Adani group, in cases related to overextraction of groundwater. This has come merely days after some of their projects were branded “illegal” by authorities for such a breach of law.The country’s central …

It isn’t only Asia’s richest billionaire who has helped India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win elections over the past few years. Facebook, too, played a friendly role.An investigation by Reporters’ Collective, a non-profit media organisation based in India, and ad.watch, a research project studying political advertisements on social media, …

NEWJ, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms which is owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group, has paid for a series of advertisements on Facebook, according to a media investigation by the Reporters’ Collective. The campaign helped push the BJP’s agenda on Indian social media just before the 2019 parliamentary elections in …

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani last week built on the often-used “data-oil” adage to say why the first of the duo was better.“Data is indeed the new oil. But this new oil is fundamentally different from the traditional oil,” the 63-year old billionaire said at an event on Dec. 3. While …

On Nov. 25, Delhi’s air quality stood at “very poor.” People were inhaling 171 micrograms of toxic particles per cubic meter of air when 25 is the World Health Organization-designated “safe level”. Not surprising then that watery eyes and sore throats are common.Yet, this was an improvement. On Nov. 4, …

Since November 2020, thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting against the alleged attempt to undermine their autonomy and financial security as cultivators.Now, with a victory on their horizon, this may be the time to look back at the trajectory their protest took …

Family issues are driving Indians the most towards death by suicide, resulting in 33% of all the reported cases in 2020. Physical and mental illnesses were the second most important factor, the latest government data show.Up to 153,052 deaths by suicide were recorded in 2020 from across the country, according …

“It has already become a reality…Reduced agricultural productivity, heightened water insecurity, extreme weather events, stressed ecosystems, and elevated health risks are some of the manifestations of this climate change,” credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report released on Thursday (Oct. 7).While the country’s gross domestic …

But the conversation around the long hours and low pay didn’t begin with those ads. Instead, as the buzz around delivery app valuations heightened in recent months ahead of Zomato’s July IPO, a number of social handles whose users say they are delivery riders have been dishing the dirt on …

In 2015, not long after India first got high-speed 4G internet, the cost of 1GB of mobile data in India was 225 rupees ($3). But just over five years later, the industry has witnessed a remarkable decline in pricing that helped truly launch the country’s internet economy.The dramatic fall in …

Shopping malls across India have remained shut or operated partially for most of the last 18 months. Now, even though they are permitted to reopen in some states, shoppers are not very keen on visiting these establishments as they prefer open-air areas to ensure Covid safety.“Just before the second Covid-19 …

Delhi-based Manforce, an arm of pharmaceuticals major Mankind Pharma, has become the country’s most-selling condom brand by using a unique marketing approach. “The existing brands and several government campaigns have already established the fact that using a contraceptive will ensure safe sex but what beyond that? That’s where we advertised …

India has over 12 million kirana stores. These small shops—often with a clientele limited to one street or a block—have been declared obsolete many times in the past, especially as e-commerce picked pace in the country and giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Reliance entered the grocery segment.Yet, on March 25, …

After conquering telecom connectivity within India, the country’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is now all set to place the India at the centre of an international submarine cable network.“Implementing these critical initiatives in the shadow of a global pandemic is a challenge, but the ongoing pandemic has only accelerated the …

After weeks of farmer protests, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL) announced this month that the company wasn’t going to embark on “corporate or contract farming.” It also promised to ensure its suppliers would always provide farmers a fair deal. The statement aimed to address farmer fears that farm reforms passed …

Several Chinese manufacturers have switched the “Made in China” label on their products to “Made in PRC,” which makes it harder for a shopper to instantly identify the country of origin. PRC or the People’s Republic of China is the official name of the country.The change may be minor, but …

It’s 2020 and many Indians are still clueless about their sexual wellbeing.While a majority of Indians still don’t use any contraceptive, the ones who do remain mostly unaware of the various options and their benefits, according to a survey conducted by MTV Staying Alive Foundation, an organisation working for youth …

“Reliance has proved its mettle time and again as a company with great tech execution prowess, owing to which it has a high chance of acquiring a seat at the high stake table,” said Ravinder Vashist, co-founder of Mumbai-based venture capital fund, Roots Ventures. “It may take some time to …

A 120-year-old Indian business conglomerate may be headed for a legal battle on allegations of sexism within the family that has run it for five generations.Valli Arunachalam, a 59-year-old New York-based scientist and part of the Murugappa family that runs the $5.7 billion (Rs38,105) Murugappa group, has alleged that the …

If tech giant CEOs were a high school clique, Mukesh Ambani would be its newest member, and everyone’s invited to a party at his house. India’s richest man, Ambani heads up conglomerate Reliance Industries, whose digital arm, Reliance Jio, is swiftly becoming India’s answer to Amazon, AT&T, and Huawei—all rolled …

On July 13, internet search major Google said it would invest $10 billion (Rs75,000 crore) in India over the next five to seven years. The investments, according to CEO Sundar Pichai, will be made in forging new partnerships, and in building stronger infrastructure and ecosystems. The move “is a reflection …

Besides banning a host of Chinese apps, the Indian government has reportedly advised all states to avoid signing any agreements with companies from the east Asian nation. Following the instructions, the western state of Maharashtra has put on hold three deals worth over Rs5,000 crore ($670 million) that were signed …