India withholds X account of Chinese state media outlet Global Times
Published 14 May 2025, 11:19 AM IST Mint Image
India withholds X account of Chinese state media outlet Global Times
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
US licenses Nvidia to export chips to China, official says
The commerce department has started issuing licenses to Nvidia to export its H20 chips to China, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday, removing a significant hurdle to the AI bellwether's access to a key market. The U.S. last month reversed an April ban on the sale of the H20 chip to China. The company had tailored the microprocessor specially to the Chinese market to comply with the Biden-era AI chip export controls. The curbs will slice $8 billion off sales from its July quarter, the chipmaker has warned. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. A spokesperson for Nvidia declined comment. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company said in July it was filing applications with the U.S. government to resume sales to China of the H20 graphics processing unit, and had been assured it would get the licenses soon. It is unclear how many licenses may have been issued, which companies Nvidia is allowed to ship the H20s to, and the value of the shipments allowed. Nvidia disclosed in April that it expected a $5.5 billion charge related to the restrictions. In May, Nvidia said the actual first-quarter charge due to the H20 restrictions was $1 billion less than expected because it was able to reuse some materials. The Financial Times first reported Friday's developments. Nvidia said last month that its products have no 'backdoors' that would allow remote access or control after China raised concerns over potential security risks in the H20 chip. Exports of Nvidia's other advanced AI chips, barring the H20, to China are still restricted. Successive U.S. administrations have curbed exports of advanced chips to China, looking to stymie Beijing's AI and defense development. While this has impacted U.S. firms' ability to fully address booming demand from China, one of the world's largest semiconductor markets, it still remains an important revenue driver for American chipmakers. Huang has said the company's leadership position could slip without sales to China, where developers were being courted by Huawei Technologies with chips produced in China. In May, Nvidia said the H20 had brought in $4.6 billion in sales in the first quarter and that China accounted for 12.5% of overall revenue during the period.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
It's time India scales up production to tide over shuttlecock scarcity arising from change in Chinese food preferences
Trust the French to notice that char siu (barbecued pork) has taken over the land of the Peking duck, on the Chinese dinner table. It's not that their own confit base protein was suddenly affected, to kick off se plaindre (the complaining). The unrelated news arrived through badminton. The last three months have witnessed a steep rise in prices of shuttlecocks, and academies all over India are having to factor in this escalation in their running costs, grin and bear even though shelling out the extra cash can't ensure that stocks will arrive. The reason cited is shortage of raw materials, arising from fewer ducks being harvested. The shortage – either naturally resulting from a diet switch or artificially contrived, as several coaches guess – means that though India's top players will continue to be catered to by the big corporations, Yonex and Li Ling, the vast majority of upcoming shuttlers are expected to feel the pinch in the coming months. They face anxiety not just over playing the game, but also over when the next stocks will arrive, and uncertainty if training sessions can go on without a supply glitch. ALSO READ | Shuttlecock prices spiral and stocks drop in India as China's tastes shift from fowl to pork While national coach Pullela Gopichand spoke of the dependency on goose feathers needing a long-term solution, coach Vimal Kumar recalled an intrepid project from 40 years ago when India had attempted to get a headstart in shuttle manufacturing, but got priced out by imports that were more cost-effective and also better in quality as the years went on. In 1994, Kannur's plywood businessman Mayen Mohamed, an engineer by vocation, had set out to expand into manufacturing shuttles. Kerala had a bit of a history of rearing ducks for meat, and he set up a plant to make high-quality shuttles. In this endeavor, he was joined by the legendary Prakash Padukone and Vikram Singh, another well-known shuttler. Gopichand's All England title was still seven years away, and Indian bureaucracy dawdled as the sport developed at a glacial pace. But the entrepreneurial spirit was buzzing. The shuttles produced under the brand name 'PraVik' on a small scale were high in quality, but it was never going to match Chinese large-scale manufacturing units. A box of 10 shuttles was prized, but the feather market globally would get flooded by cheaper, inferior quality shuttles, though the technology from giants Yonex and subsequently Li Ning and Victor kept improving, driving Indian brands to the periphery. The plant did not lack innovation, but when markets opened in India, survival was near impossible. The scaling up didn't quite happen, though it remained an experiment that had briefly worked. The kuttanad tharavu mappas (duck curry) remains popular, but this side chick-goose business hasn't quite taken off. Even today, shuttles which get labels stuck on by domestic brands like Skylark and Albatross get made – not in Kerala, but in Bengal. In the Uluberia belt of the state where hasher mangsho (duck meat) remains a delicacy, and hence ducks are raised, smallish industrial units spit out shuttles of varying quality. There's no consistency in these handmade shuttles, and one can't ensure that they will travel around at a uniform speed. They are either too fast, wobble or wither quickly. 'India should seriously look at setting up shuttle-making factories around Kerala and Bengal. The quality of feathers is key, but with what's coming in terms of shortages and price rise, I'm not sure why we cannot,' says Vimal Kumar, who says most national federations camp in Hong Kong and Canton and buy the best ones that Yonex or Li Ning offer. The feather shortages however, have hit all makers big and small with even Lingmei, a smaller brand, facing supply delays. Shuttles are broadly either ACPTR (used by academies) or higher end AS-2, used by players on the competitive circuit. The absolute elite play with AS-30, 40, 50. Duck feathers are cheaper than geese but are more prominent because the stem is stronger. The cork of the shuttles, which weighs 4.5 to 5 grams, comes from Portugal and the glue from Burma. One Bengaluru coach mentions that shuttles in recent months have 'felt artificial', though he's unable to put a finger on what could have changed. Dealerships are also grappling with a supply lag, originating from Bangladesh to China. Apparently, for a certain cost segment of feather shuttles, ducks from Bangladesh are sourced, though the import of birds is largely for meat. The alternatives The Badminton World Federation has been experimenting with clones and alternative materials for a long time, but the sport, though not as expensive as tennis, remains mighty picky about feathers. Plastic shuttles are good enough to smash and drive, but shuttlers can pen ballads and reams of poetry for the delicate feel of the 'tumble at the net'. It's how the feather shuttle slows in flight that makes it special, while a plastic one will travel like an ugly bullet. Though it seems absolutely ridiculous that an entire sport could be at the mercy of whether the Chinese fancy pork or duck for dinner, that is where the sport is at the moment. While plenty of feeder academies survive on nylon shuttles and hybrids, the feather shuttle is a thing of beauty. The air drag, flight and tumble is just not the same. 'Synthetics – they are crap,' says a Chennai coach, struggling big time with the price rise. Maybe, the Kerala and Bengal units need to get more ambitious, and look at this crisis as an opportunity. Indians are not likely to give up on badminton just because the bird costs got prohibitive. The country is too deep now to take a step back.
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Time of India
Qualifications that techies Mark Zuckerberg has hired personally at $100 million-plus pay packages have: Degree in ...
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is aggressively recruiting top AI talent for his new superintelligence lab, using a curated document known as 'The List' to target the industry's brightest minds. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The recruits on 'The List' typically have PhDs from elite schools like Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. As a report in WSJ said, "The recruits on 'The List' typically have Ph.D.s from elite schools like Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. They have experience at places like OpenAI in San Francisco and Google DeepMind in London. They are usually in their 20s and 30s—and they all know each other. They spend their days staring at screens to solve the kinds of inscrutable problems that require spectacular amounts of computing power." Zuckerberg has personally spearheaded the recruitment, diving into technical papers and strategizing with two Meta executives in a group chat dubbed 'Recruiting Party' to discuss hundreds of candidates and outreach methods, such as email, text, or WhatsApp. The List prioritizes candidates with PhDs in AI-related fields, experience at leading labs, and significant contributions to AI breakthroughs. Meta's recent hire, an algorithm design enthusiast, exemplifies the profile. The people who get notes from Zuckerberg reportedly have a few things in common: They need to know calculus, linear algebra and probability theory, like one of Meta's recent hires, who says he's fascinated by algorithm design. The AI community is tight-knit, with researchers forming Slack and Discord groups to share and discuss job offers, often leveraging competing offers to boost their value. Two sources familiar with these groups confirmed this practice. Meta has targeted dozens of OpenAI researchers, intensifying the Silicon Valley talent race. Leading Zuckerberg's superintelligence team is 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, a New Mexico native and son of Chinese immigrant physicists. Meta recently invested $14 billion in Wang's company, Scale AI, making him one of the most expensive hires in history. Meta has also reportedly made offers to dozens of researchers at OpenAI. This is said to have forced OPenAI to change its compensation structure. Not just this, the company's CTO also sent an open letter to employees asking them not to fall for Zuckerberg's offer. The company also shut down for almost a week. OpenAI's ex-CTO Mira Murati too has said that Mark Zuckerberg has also offered engineers in her company multi-million-dollar packages, but not even a single employee has so far accepted the offer. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
