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Vivo became top smartphone choice in India in Q1CY25, shows data

Vivo became top smartphone choice in India in Q1CY25, shows data

In the global market, Vivo phones do not make it to the top-10 list, and only Xiaomi's Redmi 14C 4G is the lone Chinese brand standing in the list at number eight
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Surajeet Das Gupta New Delhi
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Apple's iPhone 16 might be the hottest-selling smartphone in the world, with half of the top 10 models coming from its stable in the first quarter of calendar year 2025 (Q1CY25). But in India, the top honours go to Chinese mobile maker Vivo's Y29 5G model (starting from ₹13, 999), which was launched last December. Vivo has three out of the top 10 phones sold in India from the company in the same quarter, according to data from Counterpoint Research.
The Cupertino-headquartered company might be a big exporter of its smartphones from the country, but iPhone 16 is only the

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China issues rare six-month valid earth licenses to suppliers of top US automakers amid global trade tensions
China issues rare six-month valid earth licenses to suppliers of top US automakers amid global trade tensions

Mint

timean hour ago

  • Mint

China issues rare six-month valid earth licenses to suppliers of top US automakers amid global trade tensions

China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three U.S. automakers, two sources familiar with the matter said, as supply chain disruptions begin to surface from Beijing's export curbs on those materials. At least some of the licenses are valid for six months, the two sources said, declining to be named because the information is not public. It was not immediately clear what quantity or items are covered by the approval or whether the move signals China is preparing to ease the rare-earths licensing process, which industry groups say is cumbersome and has created a supply bottleneck. China's decision in April to restrict exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has tripped up the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. China's dominance of the critical mineral industry, key to the green energy transition, is increasingly viewed as a key point of leverage for Beijing in its trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. China produces around 90% of the world's rare earths, and auto industry representatives have warned of increasing threats to production due to their dependency on it for those parts. Suppliers of three big U.S. automakers, General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis got clearance for some rare earth export licenses on Monday, one of the two sources said. GM and Ford each declined to comment. Stellantis said it is working with suppliers "to ensure an efficient licensing process" and that so far the company has been able to "address immediate production concerns without major disruptions." China's Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. China's critical-mineral export controls have become a focus on Trump's criticism of Beijing, which he says has violated the truce reached last month to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions. On Thursday, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a lengthy phone call to iron out trade differences. Trump said in social-media post that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products." Both sides said teams will meet again soon. U.S. auto companies are already feeling the impact of the restrictions. Ford shut down production of its Explorer SUV at its Chicago plant for a week in May because of a rare-earth shortage, the company said. The approval for the auto suppliers follows a green light granted to a U.S. electronics firm's suppliers last week and another one issued earlier this week to suppliers of a U.S. non-auto company, the first person said, declining to name the companies. "We have to give the Chinese the benefit of the doubt that they're working through this. It's up to them to show that they are not weaponizing it," said the person. Reuters reported on Wednesday that China has introduced a tracking system for its rare earth magnet sector in a move to improve its control over the sector and crackdown on smuggling.

Trump's campus crackdown an opportunity for India to create its own Ivy League but it has a rival
Trump's campus crackdown an opportunity for India to create its own Ivy League but it has a rival

First Post

timean hour ago

  • First Post

Trump's campus crackdown an opportunity for India to create its own Ivy League but it has a rival

With Trump's stricter US immigration policies, experts see India as a potential global education hub. Top universities are improving but face challenges like low funding and limited academic freedom read more As US President Donald Trump intensifies his tough stance on international students, experts say India has a unique opportunity to position itself as a global education hub—though it faces stiff competition from China. According to The Economist, India is home to nearly half of the world's college-age population. Its top universities are improving and gaining recognition, even as the country struggles with low public spending on education and limited academic freedom. Trump's immigration and education policies have made the US a less welcoming destination for foreign students. This shift has opened the door for countries like India to attract global talent—students and researchers who may now be reconsidering their academic futures in the United States. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD India's top colleges have a lot working in their favour. In fact, admission rates at the country's most prestigious institutions can dip as low as 0.2%, compared to Ivy League acceptance rates of 3–9%. English language proficiency, a deeply ingrained culture of academic ambition, and a vast youth population give India a competitive edge. Half of the world's university-age population resides in India. Parents instill a strong sense of ambition in their children, and India has an advantage due to its broad English language competence. However, India is currently not listed in the top 100 worldwide league rankings. China, on the other hand, now holds the top spot in numerous polls despite only making it into the worldwide top 100 in the 2010s. China is already actively working to recruit global talent as part of a years-long strategy. To entice Chinese scholars back from the West, China has lavished money on one-time incentives and large research grants during the last decade. When the Trump administration said it would work to 'aggressively revoke' the visas of Chinese students in 'critical fields', Chinese institutions have moved quickly to capitalise. Universities in Hong Kong and Xi'an have announced that they will simplify admissions for Harvard transfer students. An ad from a body affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences welcomed 'talents who have been dismissed by the U.S. NIH,' or National Institutes of Health. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD India, by contrast, has the demographic advantage and a growing higher education sector. If it can address key issues in its education system, it has the potential to build its own Ivy League and compete globally in higher education. Money has a significant role in the issue. India has allocated 4.1% to 4.6% of its GDP on education over the last decade. China's spending as a percentage of GDP may be comparable, but its GDP per person is five times that of India. China's intellectual charm offensive is outmatched by India's shortage of rupees. In recent years, more scientists have returned to China, driven in part by government recruiting schemes that promise millions of dollars in financing, as well as housing subsidies and other benefits. China's spending on R&D is currently second only to the United States. Chinese schools such as Tsinghua and Zhejiang University are now consistently ranked among the top in the world for science and technology. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Another concern is intellectual freedom. Indian academics teach from a government-mandated syllabus and are overseen by the University Grants Commission. When planning a conference with overseas colleagues, researchers must obtain authorisation from central ministries, as well as government permission to travel abroad for work. Hiring at public colleges is subject to the whims of the ruling party, as the government monitors top-level selections. India's best shot at building a globally competitive higher education system may lie in the rise of private universities. Two decades ago, fewer than 20 private universities existed; today, there are more than 400, accounting for around a quarter of total enrolment. Many of these are backed by major industrial houses, boast world-class campuses, and are increasingly attracting international faculty. Experts believe these private institutions are poised to outperform their public counterparts, largely due to their greater autonomy. Freed from extensive affirmative action mandates and political interference in faculty appointments, private universities can hire top talent more freely and respond faster to global academic trends. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If the Indian government can find a way to support private universities without overstepping, India may finally be able to create its own Ivy League, and emerge as a serious player in global higher education.

iPhone 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Two good phones and you gain some, you lose some
iPhone 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Two good phones and you gain some, you lose some

India Today

timean hour ago

  • India Today

iPhone 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Two good phones and you gain some, you lose some

Slowly and steadily, we are witnessing a resurgence of compact smartphones in the market. Two phones launched in recent memory are the iPhone 16e — this one launched about three months ago. While, the other one launched earlier this week — the OnePlus 13s. In fact, Apple is not new to compact phones in a way. While it's true compact flagship phones were the iPhone 12 and 13 Mini, in the modern day and age, when you look at the standard iPhones too — the 6.1-inch models — those are also not big phones. In fact, Android phone makers market a Galaxy S25, S24, Xiaomi 14, 15, and the likes, with displays in the realm of 6.2 inches, as compact unlike iPhones, the common complaint among compact Android phones has been battery life. As good and handy as the Galaxy S25 is, or the S24 was, the battery life isn't among the best. The simple reason is — a compact phone can only fit in a decent-sized when it comes to iPhones, even with batteries ranging between 3,000mAh to 4,000mAh, the battery life has been stellar. And these are the standard 6.1-inch iPhones we are talking about — not even going to the Plus and Pro Max, which have battery life on another level. Read here - iPhone 16e review: Apple Intelligence and Visual Intelligence for the winWhich brings us to the current scenario. The OnePlus 13s is a modern-day Android phone, which is as compact as the iPhone 16e, but comes with a big 5,850mAh battery in a sleek and handy package. By the way, this is one of the first compact phones to come. Vivo is planning to bring its own compact flagship, rumoured to be the X200 FE, and similarly, we are pretty sure more will follow. But, that's a story for a different now, the iPhone 16e and OnePlus 13s are two compact phones, available for under Rs 60,000, from the iOS and Android camps. In both phones' cases, expect to see stellar battery life. And since we have established that both these phones have solid endurance, and this is one area you need not worry about. What are the other factors that you should keep in mind when choosing between the iPhone 16e and OnePlus 13s?As the headline says — two good phones and you gain some, you lose some. Let's break it 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Design and buildBoth the iPhone 16e and OnePlus 13s feature metal and glass sandwich designs. They have an aluminium frame, flat front and rear, and a sleek profile. The OnePlus 13s is a tad thicker and heavier than the 16e, but the difference isn't much. The iPhone also has a better IP68 dust and water resistance rating versus IP65 on the it comes to colour options, the iPhone 16e comes in black and white, while the OnePlus 13s is offered in more lively colours, like olive green, a beautiful pink, and an industrial black here - OnePlus 13s review: This small phone delivers big on every frontadvertisementOf course, looking at the design — from the front — the OnePlus 13s looks more modern, simply because of thinner bezels and a hole-punch cutout for the camera, something you can't say about the iPhone 16e, which comes with a notch. However, that notch has a big functionality advantage in the form of Face ID, aka IR-based face recognition, which is something Android phones design-wise, while it is easy to count the iPhone 16e out, for its notched look, it does have a big advantage. As for the OnePlus 13s, if you are willing to trade in Apple's Face ID system for an in-display fingerprint solution, then there's nothing like are good-looking devices, and it is only a matter of subjectivity — which one you like more. While the OnePlus 13s is definitely more modern looking, along with an extra camera at the back, the iPhone 16e is surely the more robust one with its IP68 16e vs OnePlus 13s: DisplayAs we keep moving up through the segments, it's going to get tougher to choose one over the other. Take for one — the display. The iPhone 16e, in simple words, has a 6.1-inch OLED display with 800 nits support in High Brightness Mode. On the other hand, the OnePlus 13s has a slightly larger 6.3-inch AMOLED display, with double the support in High Brightness Mode at 1,600 nits and double the screen refresh rate at 120Hz. This is, by the way, an LTPO AMOLED display, which supports variable refresh most folks out there, you won't even notice a thing when using both these phones' displays side by side. Honestly, both have nice and vibrant panels, with almost the same FHD+ resolutions. However, truth be told, the OnePlus 13s does have a big advantage in the brightness department, which will definitely show up under the bright sun. On a sunny day, the OnePlus 13s will be the brighter option over the 16e, hands down. As we mentioned, most folks will not even care about the brightness issue, and the 16e's brightness will suffice. However, in reality and in comparison, if a brighter display is what you want, not to mention a smoother one at that — 120Hz on the 13s and 60Hz on the 16e — the OnePlus here does have the upper 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Performance and batteryThis is where things get fascinating. On one hand, there's the iPhone 16e powered by the A18 chip, including a 6-core CPU and a 4-core GPU, paired with 8GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. On the other hand, there's the OnePlus 13s, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is an 8-core CPU, paired with 12GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. Just looking at the numbers alone, you might think the OnePlus 13s has the upper hand. Well, it's not as easy as it be told, both phones offer top-tier performance, whether you are using the devices for casual tasks or for playing graphics-intensive games. Speaking of which, both chipsets come with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing in supported games. This means games such as Asphalt 9: Legends and BGMI can take advantage of realistic-looking lighting effects and course, with all that raw power comes battery consumption. On paper, the iPhone 16e has a much smaller battery (4,050mAh) than the OnePlus 13s (5,850mAh). However, in the real world, because Android is a more resource-hungry OS in comparison to iOS, Android phones have generally used bigger batteries than iPhones. Having said that, one can expect to see a similar kind of battery life from both. A heavy user can easily expect to see at least a day's endurance on both when the choice comes down to which one performs better? This is going to be a hard one because both phones here are pretty evenly matched. However, we will give it to the OnePlus 13s, which comes with faster 80W charging, compared to the iPhone 16e's 20W support. That said, for what it's worth, the iPhone 16e has wireless charging, albeit at 7.5W 16e vs OnePlus 13s: SoftwareiPhone 16e comes with iOS 18 and, as it's seen with iPhones, expect to get at least 6–7 years of software support. For instance, the iPhone 11 from 2019, which is 6 years old, is set to receive the next-gen iOS update, so longevity-wise, Apple never disappoints when it comes to timely the Android world, while phone makers have gotten better with software updates, they are not as good as how Apple promises. For what it's worth, the OnePlus 13s is set to receive four major OS updates and six years of security top of this, both phones are loaded to the brim when it comes to AI features. While the iPhone 16e has the Apple Intelligence features, which include photo search, intelligent emoji creation (Genmoji), and AI processing on devices that focus on privacy. The OnePlus 13s comes with its own suite of AI features, like AI Detail Boost, Reflection Eraser, VoiceScribe, and also a productivity tool called Mind once again these phones are pretty evenly matched and are software-rich. Of course, longevity-wise, just in case you are that person who uses their device for at least five to six years, the iPhone 16e will get timely and assured software see, when it comes to software, there's not really a choice here as to which is better. It's simply a matter of preference — whether you prefer Android or iOS. Both have their own 16e vs OnePlus 13s: CameraStraight up in terms of numbers, the OnePlus 13s has more cameras and higher megapixel counts. There's a dual-camera setup at the back — 50-megapixel primary + 50-megapixel telephoto — along with a 32-megapixel selfie snapper. The iPhone 16e, on the other hand, has a single 48-megapixel rear camera along with a 12-megapixel snapper at the it comes to photography and videography, these phones are definitely not the best out there. But, since these are high-end phones, and high-end phone cameras in general have gotten so good, that in ideal conditions, both phones' cameras will perform they do have an advantage over one another. While the iPhone 16e has better video-recording capabilities, as iPhones are known for, the OnePlus 13s is a more versatile camera with the addition of that 50-megapixel telephoto lens, and not to mention a higher resolution front camera, that does slightly edge out the iPhone 16e in terms of 16e vs OnePlus 13s: Price in IndiaThe iPhone 16e, without any card offers, is officially priced at Rs 59,900, Rs 69,900, and Rs 89,900, for the 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options, respectively. 8GB RAM is standard on all OnePlus 13s, on the other hand, is priced at Rs 54,999 and Rs 59,999, for the 256GB and 512GB storage options, respectively. 12GB RAM is standard on both 16e vs OnePlus 13s: It's a tough pickChoosing between the iPhone 16e and the OnePlus 13s isn't easy, and that's because both of these phones get the fundamentals right. If you're after a compact phone with solid battery life, sleek design, and reliable day-to-day performance, either option will serve you well. The iPhone 16e has the edge in terms of long-term software support, IP68 water and dust resistance, and more polished video recording. It also benefits from the Apple ecosystem, and features like Face ID offer a different level of security and ease. However, the 60Hz display feels a bit dated in 2025, and wired charging speeds are slow by today's the other hand, the OnePlus 13s offers more value on paper — a brighter, smoother display, faster charging, more RAM, and a versatile camera system with a telephoto lens. It also comes with more vibrant colour options and a sleeker front design. That said, it lacks the refinement of iOS, true water resistance, and wireless charging. So, your decision here really depends on what you prioritise more — software longevity and video chops or better hardware value and versatility on the Android side.

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