Apple partners with Tata Group for iPhone, MacBook repairs in India
In a move that could expand iPhone manufacturer Apple Inc.'s footprint in India, the company has announced a partnership with the Tata Group to manage after-sales repairs for its iPhones and MacBook devices in the country. According to a report citing sources, the repairs will be conducted at Tata's existing iPhone assembly campus located in Karnataka. Tata is taking over the repair mandate from ICT Service Management Solutions, the Indian arm of Taiwan's Wistron.
While Apple's authorized service centers across India handle basic repairs, devices requiring more complex servicing will now be shipped to Tata's specialized facility. Wistron's ICT unit will continue to provide services for its other clients, excluding Apple.
The announcement comes despite warnings from US President Donald Trump, who urged Apple CEO Tim Cook to manufacture iPhones intended for the US market domestically—or face a 25% tariff. This marks the second instance in which the US president publicly discouraged Apple from expanding its manufacturing base in India. On his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that he told Cook to ensure iPhones for American consumers are made in the US, not in India or anywhere else. In May 2025, during a business trip to Qatar, Trump reiterated his opposition to Apple increasing its investments in Indian manufacturing.
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Time of India
40 minutes ago
- Time of India
Buyer with ties to Chinese Communist Party got VIP treatment at Trump crypto dinner
The Trump White House has repeatedly sounded an alarm about visitors with ties to China's Communist Party coming to the United States, arguing that they are a potential security threat. But the administration appears to have literally left the door open to a member of a Chinese government group when it went along with a plan to give the biggest purchasers of President Donald Trump's digital currency access to the president and the White House. Trump launched a so-called meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency, just days before his inauguration. To bolster sales, the president's business partners created a contest in April, offering the coin's top buyers a tour of the White House and a private dinner with Trump at his Virginia golf club. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If You Eat Ginger Everyday for 1 Month This is What Happens Tips and Tricks One of those buyers was He Tianying, who is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, according to government documents in China examined by The New York Times. That government group, referred to as the CPPCC, is an advisory body that seeks to broaden the Communist Party's influence and solicit support from influential people in Chinese society. Live Events He, who was registered at the Trump event as a resident of Hong Kong, advises the Chinese government through his role as a delegate of the Fangshan CPPCC, a district of Beijing. He is listed as a member of the organization's science and technology committee. The Times could find no indication that He is a member of the Communist Party, and the government body he serves on is fairly low-level. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories There were no restrictions on who could buy the Trump meme coin -- which was marketed like a collectible baseball card -- including foreign nationals. But the winning buyers were given the opportunity for close proximity to the president. It is not clear why He wanted to attend. Still, at a time when the administration is seeking to scrutinize and revoke the visas of Chinese students with ties to the Communist Party, the incident illustrates inconsistencies in the Trump administration's approach to how it handles Chinese nationals, as well as potential weaknesses in the background checks the Trump administration did on the guests who bought his meme coin. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in an interview that the dinner was a private event and that government officials were not closely involved. "As the White House has always maintained, this was not an official White House event," she said. Once a crypto skeptic, Trump has done an about-face and declared himself a digital coin enthusiast, raising ethical concerns and blurring the line between his personal business ventures and the presidency. His family's company has issued its own cryptocurrency, and he has also heavily promoted the meme coin, known as $TRUMP. The meme coin dinner engendered strong criticism from Democrats, government watchdogs and even some Republicans about the appearance of monetising the presidency for personal gain. The event was arranged by the president's business partners to directly enrich the first family, even as Trump spoke that evening behind a stand emblazoned with the presidential seal. Bidders competed to accumulate the largest holding of the coin over several weeks. The top 220 won a dinner with Trump, and the top 25 also got a "VIP" tour of the White House. The buyers used self-adopted nicknames that disguised their identities, but the Times obtained copies of several pages of an official sign-in sheet for the dinner and over the past two weeks has been examining the biographies of many of the attendees. He, using the nickname Sky, owned $3.7 million worth of the meme coin, public transaction records show, at the time the contest ended. He was ranked as the seventh-largest buyer of the cryptocurrency, which entitled him to a gold-colored VIP wristband for the event. The day after the dinner at Trump's golf club, He was observed by a reporter from the Times entering the White House for the tour that had been set up by Trump's business partner Bill Zanker, who created the Trump meme coin. Zanker and the Trump family share in the revenues from the meme coin business, which has already totaled at least $320 million, according to an estimate by Chainalysis, a crypto forensics group. After the tour, He, using a social media account under his Sky pseudonym, posted a series of photos from the dinner and White House tour, which he electronically modified to cover his face. The Times was able to establish his identity through publicly available information, including photos and biographical information on his company website. He made several waves of purchases during the three weeks of the meme coin contest, according to the transaction records. "May I have the pleasure?" he wrote in one social media post, showing off his standing as one of the top owners of the meme coin, several days before the contest ended. He declined to comment as he entered the White House, and he did not respond to follow-up emails, calls and text messages from the Times. The dinner invitation sent to He stands in contrast to the statement Trump issued Wednesday, arguing that his administration needed to urgently move to block visas for certain Chinese nationals, including those attending Harvard University, as "the Chinese Communist Party has sent thousands of midcareer and senior bureaucrats" to the United States. He said this order was for "crucial national security reasons." A senior White House official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said this week that the presence of He at the dinner and White House tour was unfortunate and that overall, the meme coin dinner had created unnecessary questions. But the White House official added that it had occurred because Trump "carelessly committed" to his longtime friend and business partner Zanker that he would be a part of it. The official added that Trump was not notified who would be attending and was unaware of He's background. Supporting the party The mission of the Fangshan District division of the CPPCC, which lists He as a member, is to "uphold the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China and strengthen the common ideological and political foundation," the group says in describing one of its meetings this year. CPPCC committees are advisory bodies to China's rubber-stamp legislatures at the national, provincial and, like Fangshan, district or county levels. Members can make policy recommendations to the legislative bodies, called People's Congresses. These committees are part of the Communist Party's United Front system, which is devised to co-opt broad segments of the population, including entrepreneurs like He, into supporting and carrying out the party's policies. The CPPCC bodies also act as networking clubs. "When you are a CPPCC member, you are expected to be a part of the United Front system and carry the water where the party asks you to," said Peter Mattis, the president of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation who studies the United Front. The Times turned up documentation on Chinese government websites showing He's participation in the CPPCC group, as well as an attendance list for the committee's gathering in Beijing in January that included He's name. Chinese government records show that He is the majority owner of a Beijing-based investment firm, TechSharpe (Beijing) Capital Management Co., which says on its website that it uses artificial intelligence to "conduct quantitative investment in stocks." Recently, He has also promoted a crypto firm called LuckyFuture and has interacted on social media with Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the giant crypto exchange Binance. In a social media post, responding to an inquiry from the Times, Zhao said he learned about LuckyFuture after He reached out to him in the last few weeks. (A Binance spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.) He came to the United States from China about a decade ago to get a master's degree in finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before returning to China and becoming active in the CPPCC, which is noted in his TechSharpe biography. This made He just the kind of student Trump is now targeting. But there was no hint of those kinds of fears in gracious invitations sent via email in mid-May to the dinner guests. "Congratulations!" said the notice sent to He, with a photo illustration of a muscular, smiling Trump at a dinner table, with an American flag on his lapel. "We can't wait to see you at the Gala Dinner." (He posted a copy of these emails on his social media account.) A table of foreign visitors According to a video taken at the dinner, the VIPs at just one table illustrated how many of the guests had traveled from overseas, including from China. He's dining companions included Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who was the contest's single largest buyer and one of the largest investors in the Trump family's other crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. Sun also has experience as a CPPCC member. In 2016, he was named as a delegate for a committee in a district in Guangzhou, a city in southern China. Only 26 at the time, he was among the youngest people in the country to sit on a CPPCC body. "I feel that the responsibility is very heavy, and I must strive to adapt to the new role as soon as possible," Sun was quoted in state media as saying at the time. (His representatives did not respond to a request for comment.) Also seated at the table were Cheng Lu, a Singapore-based crypto investor, who told the Times in an interview outside the White House that he bought a large amount of the family's meme coin because he wanted a chance to privately meet with Trump. Sheldon Xia, the founder of BitMart, a cryptocurrency trading platform backed by China-based Fenbushi Capital, joined them at the table, along with Sangrok Oh, the CEO of Hyperithm, a Seoul- and Tokyo-based firm that manages digital assets for institutional investors. Guests invited to the dinner were "required to fill out a brief form as part of the security background check to gain entry to the event," according to an email sent to the winners. The questionnaire was created with a service called CryptoComply offered by the New York-based firm Canaria Consulting. It requested information such as name, date of birth and place of residence. The 25 top Trump meme coin holders had their names submitted to a background check system called White House Worker and Visitor Entry System, a government official told the Times. This system compares the names of the pending visitors with government databases that include terrorist watch lists and lists of known criminals. "The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for vetting all White House visitors and guests, and we fully trust their process in doing so," Leavitt said. Some guests at the dinner said they were surprised at how lax the security appeared at the event. People not on the guest list were in certain cases allowed to enter the golf club grounds that evening and remain there after Trump arrived, the Times also confirmed. "I expected more from the security questions," said Nicholas Pinto, a Florida resident and crypto trader who attended the dinner. "It was very basic. And next thing you know, I am standing there in the room with President Trump."
United News of India
an hour ago
- United News of India
Indian Astronaut led Axiom-4 crew to dock at ISS after 28 hr flight journey
Chennai, June 8 (UNI) Setting the timeline for landing of four crew members on board the Axiom Mission 4 at the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said the crew would dock after a flight journey of 28 hrs. NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX mission will take off at 8:22 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 10, as part of the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS Axiom Mission 4. The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew, including those from India, US, Poland and Hungary, will travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. The targeted docking time is approximately 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 11. NASA's mission responsibility is for integrated operations, which begins during the spacecraft's approach to the space station, continues during the crew's approximately two-week stay aboard the orbiting laboratory while conducting science, education, and commercial activities, and concludes once the spacecraft exits the station. Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. As part of a collaboration between NASA and ISRO, Axiom Mission 4 delivers on a commitment highlighted by President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station. The space agencies are participating in five joint science investigations and two in-orbit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics demonstrations. NASA and ISRO have a long-standing relationship built on a shared vision to advance scientific knowledge and expand space collaboration. The private mission also carries the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station. Following is the timeline for launch and docking. NASA's mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations): Tuesday, June 10 6:15 a.m. – Axiom Space and SpaceX launch coverage begins. 7:25 a.m. – NASA joins the launch coverage on NASA+. 8:22 a.m. – Launch NASA will end coverage following orbital insertion, which is approximately 15 minutes after launch. As it is a commercial launch, NASA will not provide a clean launch feed on its channels. Wednesday, June 11 10:30 a.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+, Axiom Space, and SpaceX channels. 12:30 p.m. – Targeted docking to the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module. Arrival coverage will continue through hatch opening and welcome remarks. All times are estimates and could be adjusted based on real-time operations after launch. The International Space Station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy. NASA's goal is to achieve a strong economy off the Earth where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA's commercial strategy for low Earth orbit provides the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions. UNI GV 0640
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Trump ropes in Palantir to compile data on Americans
US President Donald Trump WASHINGTON: In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal govt to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm. Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies - the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service - about buying its technology. The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including DHS and the health and human services department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, govt officials said. Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on govt data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labour rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access, questioning whether the govt could weaponize people's personal information.
