Qcomm cos on govt radar; Tata upskills in Taiwan
Qcomm cos on govt radar; Tata upskills in Taiwan
Also in the letter:
Govt may increase scrutiny on quick commerce firms following hygiene, food safety issues
Taking charge:
Second strike:
Last year, a raid by the Telangana food safety commissioner also flagged lapses at Blinkit warehouses.
In response, the FSSAI urged state authorities to step up inspections of quick commerce facilities.
The agency also amended norms, mandating that rapid delivery platforms supply products with at least 30% of their shelf life remaining or a minimum of 45 days before expiry.
In addition to concerns about food safety, quick commerce firms have also faced scrutiny over the use of manipulative design tactics, known as dark patterns.
Also Read:
Rapid expansion:
Tata Electronics sends hundreds of staff to Taiwan for semicon training
Driving the news:
Now hiring:
Talent hunt:
To build its talent pipeline, Tata Electronics is recruiting top executives from chipmakers such as Intel and GlobalFoundries, while also training less experienced employees.
Fresh graduates and professionals with some industry exposure are being sent to Taiwan as part of this programme.
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Flexiloans raises another Rs 375 crore from Fundamentum, Accion and others
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The round was led by existing investors, including Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum, US-based impact investor Accion, American asset management firm Nuveen, and Denmark-based asset management company Maj Invest.
British International Investment (BII), the UK's development finance institution, joined in as a new investor.
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Happy Wednesday! The government may increase surveillance on quick commerce dark stores because of increasing hygiene concerns. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ ETtech Done Deals■ Byju's US fire sale■ Meesho converts to public entityThe government is likely to increase oversight of quick commerce companies' dark stores following a spate of complaints about food safety violations at facilities run by leading players.Officials told us that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will lead the effort, with plans for surprise inspections at dark stores and other storage facilities across the country.The FSSAI, which falls under the health ministry, sets standards for the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food items.Source: HSBC Global ReasearchThe move follows recent action by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which suspended the licences of Blinkit and Zepto's dark stores in Mumbai and Pune after uncovering multiple hygiene breaches and violations of food safety norms.Industry executives and brand founders told ET that the fast and largely 'unchecked' growth of quick commerce platforms, which pushed both marketplaces and brands to scale at breakneck speed, may be at the root of the problem.Tata Electronics is ramping up preparations for its semiconductor fabrication (fab) and assembly and test (OSAT) facility by sending scores of employees to Taiwan for training.Sources told us that the electronics arm of the Tata Group has sent 'a couple of hundred' employees to its technology partner Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) for hands-on training in the specialised skills needed to operate the upcoming fab in Dholera.The training is being conducted in a phased and structured manner, as PSMC can accommodate only a limited number of trainees at a time.The Rs 91,000-crore fab in Dholera is expected to generate over 20,000 direct and indirect skilled jobs. Tata Electronics has started hiring in batches of 75, according to a person familiar with the matter."Different batches focus on distinct operations like equipment, yield engineering, process technology and another on quality engineering, which is generally a smaller group that doesn't need as many people,' the person said.ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and employees.Interested? Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@timesinternet.in to explore sponsorship opportunities.(L-R) Manish Lunia, Deepak Jain, Ritesh Jain, founders, FlexiloansNon-banking finance company Flexiloans has raised Rs 375 crore in a mix of primary and secondary capital to drive its expansion plans.The raise follows a Rs 290 crore infusion in October 2024 . That round had valued the company at $140 million, ET reported at the time. The current raise includes a significant secondary component.Flexiloans ended FY24 with revenue of Rs 263 crore and a net profit of Rs 3 crore. The company is yet to file its FY25 financials.'Through this round, we have given exits to the high networth individuals who had invested in the company in 2017. Most of our existing institutional investors have doubled down in the company,' said Deepak Jain, a cofounder of Flexiloans.Bengaluru-based wealthtech startup PowerUp Money has raised $7.1 million in its first major institutional funding round, led by early-stage investors Accel, Blume Ventures, and Kae Capital. This round also included participation from 8i Ventures and DeVC.Founded in April by Prateek Jindal, a former cofounder at Uni Cards, the startup offers direct mutual fund investments to retail investors.Drone startup Garuda Aerospace, backed by former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has raised $1 million in a funding round from the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office (NSFO). The company plans to use the funds to scale up manufacturing capacity from 8,000 drones annually to 12,000-15,000 units.Two US assets of troubled edtech company Byju's, coding platform Tynker and kids learning platform Epic, have been sold for a fraction of what the company paid for them. A US bankruptcy court approved both sales during a hearing on May 20, as reported by EdWeek Market Brief.The board of ecommerce marketplace Meesho has approved its conversion into a public entity in anticipation of a planned initial public offering (IPO), as stated in its filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT experienced an outage , with thousands of users encountering difficulties in loading and accessing results for their prompts. The company acknowledged the outage and stated that both ChatGPT and the image generation AI tool, Sora, have been affected.■ Trump's Tech Bros: Can Tim Cook save Apple from the trade war? ( FT ■ Tesla's Robotaxis are rolling out soon—with one big unanswered question ( Wired ■ Google's AI search features are killing traffic to publishers ( TechCrunch
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Hans India
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Boeing shares plunge over 6 pc in pre-market trade after Ahmedabad plane crash
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India Today
20 minutes ago
- India Today
Is the Indian dream of studying in the US over?
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated June 16, 2025)A chill wind is blowing through the hallowed halls of American academia, a wind carrying uncertainty and dashing the hopes of aspiring international students, particularly tens of thousands from India. The Trump administration, in a series of abrupt and unsettling moves, has begun to dismantle the welcome mat for global talent. The decision to pause new student visa appointments at US embassies worldwide on May 27, including in India, has plunged countless young scholars into a state of anxious limbo. This pause, officially justified by the need to expand the scrutiny of applicants' social media activity, is no mere procedural tweak; it signals a profound Indian students who have meticulously planned their futures around the promise of an American education, the dream now seems to teeter precariously on the edge of an opaque and shifting policy landscape, forcing many to question if the United States remains a safe or stable choice for their ambitions. One only has to look at the numbers to understand the implications of what is unfolding. In the 2023-24 academic year, the US hosted a record 1.13 million international students. Indian students accounted for 331,602, or around 30 per cent, of them, up by 23 per cent from the year before, while Chinese enrolment fell 4 per cent amid political tensions. A majority of the Indians choose STEM (scitech, engineering, mathematics) fields—42.9 per cent opted for maths and computer science, 24.5 per cent engineering that year. This is the talent that has helped fuel America's robust start-up ecosystem. While there is no nationality-wise break-up, estimates are that one in four US billion-dollar start-ups was founded by a former international student; immigrants have also co-founded nearly two-thirds of America's top AI (artificial intelligence) What makes the Trump administration's decision even more confounding is that the US risks losing the big bucks Indian students bring. According to the Indian Student Mobility Report, 2023-24 by global student housing marketplace University Living, Indian students were projected to spend $17.4 billion in the US in 2025, $10.1 billion on academic expenses alone, another $4 billion on accommodation, and the remaining $3.3 billion on other living costs. This is up from the $10.5 billion spent in 2022. 'International students fund American universities and enrich their intellectual climate,' says Timothy Gibson, president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors. 'If the administration continues to view them through a xenophobic lens, the US risks losing its standing as a global leader in science and research.' The Trump administration has also put a freeze on several federal grants and funding programmes that facilitate international scholarships and student exchanges, the Fulbright and Gilman scholarship programmes among them. Another area of concern is the potential restrictions on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, which currently allows international STEM graduates to work in the US for up to three years. If the administration decides to limit or dismantle OPT, it would drastically reduce the opportunities for foreign graduates to gain practical work experience, jeopardising their career prospects and deterring future Subscribe to India Today Magazine HIGH ANXIETYadvertisementMary Gogoi, head of admissions at Delhi-based education counselling firm eduVelocity Global, says, 'All these developments have bred anxiety in international students, as well as among American universities that rely on this cohort for cultural diversity and financial sustainability.' Nothing illustrates this better than the case of a 24-year-old girl student, who does not wish to be named. Admitted into a US university for a master's in computer science with specialisation in AI, her visa application was rejected for no clear reason, forcing her to reapply. Keen on only the US as she finds it the best for research and innovation, she is thinking of deferring her course by a year if visas are not scheduled Trump administration's latest directive—to vet social media accounts before sanctioning a student visa—is also adding to the consternation. Of course, as Rohin Kapoor, partner, education and skilling at global consultancy firm BDO India, points out, social media vetting is not unique to the US; Australia and Canada, too, screen the social media posts of applicants. The current US policy also builds on social media checks introduced in 2019. Now, however, the State Department has said it will use 'all available information' to identify 'antisemitic activity', 'pro-jihadist' views or 'anti-American' sentiments. Charles H. Kuck, founding partner of Atlanta-based law firm Kuck Baxter, which specialises in immigration laws, explains what this means. 'Social media vetting has existed for years,' he says. 'But now artificial intelligence reviews all postings. This violates the core American values of free speech and personal liberty; yet, the administration shows little concern for those principles when it comes to foreigners.' Poorvi Chothani, managing partner at immigration law firm LawQuest, also sees a stark departure from earlier policy. 'Previously, checks were random or suspicion-based,' she says. 'Now they're mandatory for all student visas.'advertisementHowever, things aren't easy even for those who manage to secure visas. They face constant scrutiny: US agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now wants students to show proof of full-time enrolment and perfect attendance, with deportation a looming consequence for any slip. Pablo S. Bose, professor of Geography and Geosciences and associate dean of research and graduate education at the University of Vermont, points out how Trump's crackdown is not restricted to new enrolments. The administration has revoked more than 300 visas, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming the real figure may be in the thousands. Many of the students are targeted for presumed links to pro-Palestinian activism or alleged online support for 'terrorism'. Another 5,000 students have been expelled for minor infractions, ranging from underage drinking to traffic these measures affect who universities can host, whether current students can stay, and if graduates can work,' says Bose. 'The confusion and anxiety created have already had disastrous consequences.' The mood of many Indian students enrolled in the US is one of fear and extreme caution, with most keeping a low profile and staying informed. Lubaina Kapasi, 19, a sophomore at the Savannah College of Arts, a private university in Georgia, has so far not felt the full brunt of the clampdown on international students compared to those studying in some public universities in the US. Yet, she says, 'It doesn't mean we are fully in the clear. International students, especially from India, give up a lot financially and personally to study here. To then be faced with policy uncertainty and visa complications feels like a nightmare.' THE POLITICS OF ITThe Trump administration's clampdown on international students has been cast as a matter of national security, yet it reeks of a very different, cultural, battlefield. It stems from a desire to police campus discourse, with the administration viewing many universities as excessively 'left-wing' and failing to curb pro-Palestinian activism, which it flatly equates with antisemitism or support for terrorism. Officially, the White House insists the heightened vetting is a 'commonsense measure' to ensure newcomers pose no threat. 'It's a privilege, not a right, to study in the United States,' says White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. The State Department says every visa decision is 'a national security decision'. Trump has suggested that foreign student enrolment at Harvard be capped at 15 per cent from the current 31 per cent, claiming that Americans are losing out. J.D. Vance, his vice president, shares the sentiment, arguing that foreign students 'take spots from American kids'.It is not fooling anyone. Gibson says this is less about immigration, more about tightening controls on universities. 'Trump views colleges with suspicion. The knowledge they produce challenges his worldview,' he says. Issues like climate change and Covid-19 exemplify this, where scientific findings trump Trump's claims. Prof. Rajiv Sethi of Barnard College, Columbia University, recalls how Vance once declared that American conservatism would triumph only by capturing or dismantling elite Mukherjee, Jerome L. Greene clinical professor of law, and director, Immigrants' Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School, says the policy 'seems driven by cruelty, white nationalism and racism', with visa decisions now vulnerable to prejudice arising out of race, religion and political views. This security narrative has expanded to include counter-terrorism and antisemitism. The Department of Homeland Security warns that 'antisemitic activity on social media' and 'harassment of Jewish individuals' may affect migrant visas. Visa eligibility is now linked to the administration's stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is also part of a wider ideological assault on universities deemed too liberal. Harvard, for instance, is accused by the Trump administration of fostering antisemitism and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, which it sees as racist (see column Anatomy of a Standoff). Columbia University, on the other hand, risks losing its accreditation over claims it violated the civil rights of its Jewish students. LIMITED LEGAL RECOURSEAs international students, particularly from India, navigate the uncertainties thrown up by the Trump administration's new visa policies, they are exploring the legal avenues available to them, the specifics of the expanded social media vetting, and support structures. For individual students, the financial stakes are steep. B.K. Shukla of The Ivy League Edge, a college application consultancy, notes that university applications alone cost Rs 10,000-15,000 per institution, while education consultants typically charge Rs 5-6 lakh. Many students have already paid tuition fees or booked housing, sums that may not be refundable. The real blow, though, Shukla says, is in the opportunity cost. 'Losing a year means forgoing a degree, work experience and an early start to a career.' The risk is not just in the money, but also the Indian students whose visa applications have been put on indefinite hold, direct legal avenues seem severely limited. The US Supreme Court has ruled that the State Department is immune from lawsuits over the denial of a visa abroad under what is called the consular non-reviewability doctrine. 'When a person requests a visa for a country, it is a request to that government, not a right,' says BDO's Kapoor. 'A case filed in an Indian court will have no locus standi to direct a foreign government. The only recourse for students is to send a petition to the US embassy in India requesting an update on their visa status or seeking expedited processing.' Kuck offers some practical advice: 'Students can better prepare for an interview, ascertain the underlying reason for the denial, and bring evidence and verbal description of how to overcome that initial decision.' Indian consultants also recommend students erase even mild political posts or join 'safe' groups on social though the Trump administration's new student visa measures will primarily affect individuals and institutions, they may also have diplomatic reverberations. The Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) has publicly urged the US to 'ensure timely issuance of student visas based on merit'. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while acknowledging that 'a visa is a sovereign right of a country', emphasised this appeal and reiterated that 'the welfare of Indian students abroad remains a top priority for the Government of India'. A GLIMMER OF HOPEEven as the clouds of uncertainty hover, many see it as a temporary reset rather than a permanent barrier for the world's best and brightest. Vibha Kagzi, a Harvard alumna and founder of foreign education consultancy believes the 'American dream' is merely being recalibrated, not extinguished. 'Historically, policy shifts in international education have corrected themselves, especially with strong pushback from universities, industry leaders and lawmakers who value global talent,' she says. She also believes the US still offers unmatched advantages in scale, research funding, alumni networks and global Chaturvedi of study abroad platform Leverage Edu, thinks likewise. 'This isn't a shutdown,' he says, 'but a systemic reset in how the US engages with global talent. America has always bounced back, and these cyclical shifts often create more inclusive and outcome-focused systems.' Shukla believes top-tier universities will remain largely unaffected. 'The crackdown seems aimed at filtering those who misuse admissions at obscure institutions just to settle in the US,' he says. 'For highly skilled roles, like data analysis or cybersecurity, US still needs international talent.'There are also those who think the new vetting process of international student visas will improve immigration screening. University Living founder and CEO Saurabh Arora says, 'Scrutiny of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers from applicants over the past five years will better verify identities, prevent fraud and ensure a safe environment for living in the US.' Aman Singh of GradRight, an agency that guides students on finding suitable colleges and funding, believes legitimate applications will continue to be processed. 'Students actively stoking anti-US sentiment may face trouble, and new vetting steps could slow decisions,' he notes. 'Yet, with sophisticated AI tools parsing global chatter, delays are unlikely to be drastic.' ALTERNATIVES TO AMERICAIn the long run, the Trump administration's visa clampdown threatens not just foreign students, but also the economic lifeblood of higher education in the US and its innovative edge. Many universities, especially those outside the Ivy League, depend on full-paying foreign students to subsidise domestic education. A drop in enrolment would plug this crucial revenue stream. Indian students are already exploring backup plans. They are considering deferring admissions, or looking at alternative countries. Bengaluru-based Nishant (name changed), who will complete his BTech in electronics engineering next May, is among those reconsidering their choices. 'People who have already finished their master's [in the US] still haven't found jobs,' he says. 'Is it worth it then to spend so much in the US when places like Germany offer more subsidised tuition?'Enrolment patterns of Indian students reflect the shift. Between 2023 and 2024, Germany saw a 49 per cent rise in Indian students, from 23,296 to 34,702, as per a response by Union minister of state of education Sukanta Majumdar in Parliament. Kalpesh Banker of EduShine Search Partners, an education strategy consulting firm, lists the advantages of other destinations. 'Canada has friendly visa policies and post-study work permits, Australia and the UK offer strong research and shorter courses. Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE, too, are rising education hubs, with low fees, cultural diversity and robust facilities.'Meanwhile, the Trump administration's crackdown on international students signals more than just bureaucratic tinkering; it portends a potential reordering of America's relationship with global talent. Cloaked in the garb of national security, a legitimate concern for any country, these policies are sowing confusion and fear, eroding the very advantages that have underpinned American academic and innovative pre-eminence. A recalibration is indeed in order: one balancing security with openness and reaffirming the value of international students. Else the US could squander its role as a magnet for the world's brightest.—with Ajay SukumaranMust Watch
The Hindu
25 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Phone 3 will be made in India, the company announces ahead of its launch on July 1
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