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Zen Technologies secures 54th Indian patent for laser training innovation

Zen Technologies secures 54th Indian patent for laser training innovation

Business Upturn5 hours ago

Zen Technologies has announced the grant of its 54th Indian patent titled 'Single ILU Long Pass Filter' , a key innovation in laser-based military training systems. This also marks the company's 82nd patent globally, underlining its growing dominance in defence R&D.
The new technology enables the integration of visible and infrared laser beams into a single, stable output—significantly improving the realism, precision, and responsiveness of combat training simulators. Unlike conventional systems that depend on multiple laser paths and frequent recalibration, Zen's compact filter design ensures durability, accuracy, and low maintenance in tough field conditions.
This innovation not only enhances India's defence capabilities but also strengthens Zen's export potential. With global interest rising in next-gen military training solutions, the patented system's portability and modular design make it ideal for both large-scale simulators and mobile setups.
Zen's achievement reflects India's ongoing push for self-reliance in defence manufacturing and highlights the importance of indigenous innovation.
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Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at BusinessUpturn.com

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Lemon Tree Hotels expands portfolio with new property in Surat, India
Lemon Tree Hotels expands portfolio with new property in Surat, India

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Lemon Tree Hotels expands portfolio with new property in Surat, India

Indian hotel chain Lemon Tree Hotels has expanded its portfolio with the addition of a new 108-room property in Surat, Gujarat, India. Wholly owned subsidiary Carnation Hotels will manage the upcoming Lemon Tree Premier hotel, which will cater to both business and leisure travellers. Amenities at the new Lemon Tree Premier encompass a restaurant, banquet space, meeting room, swimming pool, gym, and spa. Known as the 'Diamond City of India' and the 'Silk City', Surat is a commercial centre known for its diamond cutting and polishing industry, as well as its silk and synthetic fabric production. Lemon Tree Hotels managed and franchise business CEO Vilas Pawar said: 'We are excited to expand further in the eastern part of the country. This opening will be in addition to our nine existing and 17 upcoming hotels and resorts in the state. 'The rich culture and state's pro-business policies, infrastructure development and strategic location are a great draw for business and leisure travellers.' Lemon Tree Hotels operates across various segments and features seven brands, including Aurika Hotels & Resorts, Keys Prima, and Keys Lite. The company's portfolio currently includes more than 220 hotels, with over 100 new hotels expected to launch soon. This expansion follows the company's announcement in September 2024 of a new hotel signing in Gir, Gujarat. "Lemon Tree Hotels expands portfolio with new property in Surat, India" was originally created and published by Hotel Management Network, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

H-1B Middlemen Bring Cheap Labor to Citi, Capital One
H-1B Middlemen Bring Cheap Labor to Citi, Capital One

Bloomberg

timean hour ago

  • Bloomberg

H-1B Middlemen Bring Cheap Labor to Citi, Capital One

By Marie Patino Silicon Valley's hunger for innovation has made H-1B visas a pipeline for top global talent in science and engineering. Yet new data obtained by Bloomberg News shows a broader array of businesses, including banks and telecommunication companies, are also among the largest H-1B employers. Unlike large tech firms, however, these companies often use the visa program to hire lower-paid workers — and do so indirectly, through staffing and outsourcing companies that capture about half of the 85,000 new visas allocated each year. Banks, Telecom Firms Were Biggest Users of H-1B Middlemen New H-1B workers hired between May 2020 and 2024 Citigroup Inc. added 3,000 new H-1B workers from May 2020 through May 2024, the data shows. That's more than many tech giants, including Nvidia Corp., Oracle Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., added over that four-year period. Yet few of Citi's H-1B workers were Silicon-Valley-type researchers and engineers; most weren't even actual Citi employees. Instead, about two thirds were IT contractors from staffing and outsourcing agencies that pay their visa-holders substantially less than those whom Citi hired directly. These two types of companies — staffing firms and outsourcers — function in effect as visa middlemen. Staffing firms provide a pool of relatively low-level information-technology workers to corporate clients. And outsourcing companies supply positions with an eye toward helping their clients move back-office functions offshore. Some visa middlemen have been accused of mistreating workers and discriminating against US employees. Citi's largest supplier of H-1B contractors, the outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., is currently under investigation by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for alleged discrimination against non-Indian workers. There is no indication the investigation involves Citi. In a statement, a TCS spokesperson said: 'Allegations that TCS engages in unlawful discrimination are meritless and misleading. TCS has a strong track record of being an equal opportunity employer in the US, embracing the highest levels of integrity and values in our operations.' A Citi spokesperson said the company supplements its 71,000 US workers with 'highly skilled H-1B visa holders to address specific, timely needs. When we do so, we follow relevant laws and regulations, including anti-discrimination laws.' To be sure, the H-1B contractors Bloomberg identified constitute only a small portion of Citi's workforce, and the data is limited to new H-1Bs issued over the four-year period ending in May 2024. The government does not keep track of how many pre-existing H-1B contractors are working at each company or how many jobs have been moved offshore. So, experts say, Bloomberg's analysis captures only a fraction of the jobs US firms have outsourced. 'This is the tip of the iceberg,' said Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. While there's been a national debate about the US reliance on imported goods, she said, not enough attention has been paid to the offshoring of service jobs, 'Not because it doesn't happen or isn't important, but because we don't have good data on it.' Congress conceived of the H-1B visa in 1990 as a way to recruit the world's top talent and to help the US dominate the emerging tech industry. The visas became so popular that demand quickly outstripped supply, forcing the government to hold annual lotteries to determine who could apply for the limited number of H-1Bs allotted each year. Visa middlemen soon found ways to manipulate the lottery, giving them an advantage over sponsors seeking a specific worker for a specialized role. H-1B rules require applicants to have a 'bona fide' job offer for each visa they seek. Yet staffing firms used webs of connected companies to submit multiple lottery registrations for the same applicants. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services called this practice, known as 'multiple registration,' fraudulent in a 2023 report and took steps to end it last year. A second strategy – flooding the lottery with thousands of interchangeable applicants – provides a major advantage for large outsourcing firms that tend to have vast overseas workforces. The middlemen who win the lottery then farm out the visa-holders on contract to their business clients and take a portion of each worker's pay. Academics and labor advocates say this practice distorts the H-1B program, resulting in a system that undercuts US workers, creates a kind of second-class workforce with fewer job protections, and tilts the labor market in favor of employers. 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At least six of those firms supplied eight workers to Capital One, the data shows. Overall, more than half of Capital One's 905 H-1B contract workers turned up in multiple registrations over the four-year period reflected in the data. That's the highest ratio among the top-10 end-clients in Bloomberg's analysis. Capital One drew its H-1B contractors mostly from smaller staffing firms that regularly filed multiple registrations. During the four years captured in the data, the company added new H-1B workers from 429 different staffing firms. Of those firms, 361 had used multiple registration. Capital One Drew Heavily from Firms that Gamed H-1B Lottery Capital One used hundreds of small staffing firms that filed multiple registrations. Citi, the largest user of H-1B contractors, relied on them less. Middlemen firms that relied on multiple registrations Other middlemen In response to questions, a spokesperson for Capital One declined to confirm whether the company worked with the six staffing firms reflected in the data, but said Capital One is unaware of any government accusations of visa fraud against its third-party vendors, and that it would 'take appropriate action' if it becomes aware of any investigation. Regardless of how the visas were obtained, the data show that middlemen companies paid workers far less than H-1B holders who didn't go through staffing or outsourcing firms. Immigration law requires visa sponsors to pay H-1B workers no less than their similarly-situated American colleagues, but because contract workers are not directly employed by the end-client, they can be paid lower salaries than their direct-hire counterparts in the same office. Steve Hall, Chief AI Officer at Information Services Group Inc., a technology research firm that advises clients on IT outsourcing, said at least part of the pay differential can be attributed to contractors working lower-level and less technical jobs. Some H-1B holders serve as liaisons, he explained, connecting US end-clients with the outsourcers' offshore workforces. However, a Bloomberg analysis of the 10 largest end-clients shows that even when job titles are similar, the pay differential persists. Of the nearly 5,300 H-1B 'software developers' hired by those companies from 2020 through 2024, more than 75% were contractors. A typical contractor was paid about $48,000 less, the data show, than a worker employed directly by the company that sponsored her visa – even after accounting for education level and age. One out of every three such contractors was paid the minimum salary required by the Department of Labor. 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In 2013, Hutchinson helped 12,000 visa workers win a $29.75 million settlement from TCS after plaintiffs alleged the outsourcer took out illegal deductions from their salaries and required them to sign over their tax refund checks to TCS. Attorneys say they regularly encounter outsourcing firms that impose employment contracts requiring workers to use arbitration, complicating any legal remedies for unfair labor practices. 'There's a lot of fear,' Hutchinson said. 'If they lose their job and lose their status in the US, there may not be any protection against retaliation.' Asked about the settlement, a TCS spokesperson said: 'In 2013, to avoid the cost and expense of further litigation, TCS agreed to settle the litigation. In settling the case, TCS admitted no wrongdoing and none was found by the court.' Congressional Republicans have been mulling legislation to overhaul immigration, but it's unclear if President Donald Trump would return to the H-1B policies of his first term, when he sought to eliminate the program. Months after a public dustup pitting his nativist supporters against his new allies in the tech industry, a separate nasty feud broke out between Trump and Elon Musk, who had been the most prominent advocate for high-skill immigration within the administration. Just before leaving office in January 2021, the first Trump administration issued a Department of Labor guidance that held end-clients accountable for ensuring H-1B contractors are paid the same as their American counterparts. Former President Joe Biden's Labor Department rescinded that guidance on his first day in office without explanation. Regarding any new guidance on pay equity, 'The DOL could reissue this tomorrow,' said Hira, the Howard professor. 'The Fortune 1000 would be up in arms, of course.' Edited by Jason GrottoYue Qiu Methodology Before submitting an H-1B petition, employers must file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor, attesting to paying at least the prevailing wage for the position and location as well as certifying that the hiring does not adversely affect US workers. Although LCA data is regularly published, not all LCAs lead to H-1B approvals. By linking H-1B petition data obtained from the USCIS to LCA data publicly released by the DOL, reporters pieced together, for the first time, exactly how many H-1B contractors each staffing firm sent to each end-client. Because visa sponsors manually input end-client names on a government form without standardization, reporters used a machine learning algorithm in conjunction with manual labeling to normalize company name spellings and to identify the top-10 end-clients: Citigroup Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., American Express Co., Apple Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Capital One Financial Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., United Services Automobile Association, and Ford Motor Co. To identify staffing firms that likely engaged in multiple-registration, Bloomberg calculated how many H-1B approvals were associated with candidates whose names were submitted multiple times in the same lottery. Since some multiple registrations might reflect legitimate job offers made by more than one company to the same individual, reporters included only staffing firms that had at least 10 lottery registrations per year and multiple-registered individuals in more than 50% of their registrations. When analyzing individual wages in the H-1B petition data, reporters included only H-1B workers who were classified as a 'software developer' by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Standard Occupational Classification system. Reporters excluded annual salaries that were below $40,000 or above $200,000. The analysis did not include H-1Bs that are awarded to certain university- and government-affiliated research organizations, because they are exempt from the annual H-1B cap. An approved H-1B petition is necessary for, but does not always result in, an H-1B visa, which is a travel document.

OYO Becomes the Most Profitable Indian Startup with $72 Million Profit
OYO Becomes the Most Profitable Indian Startup with $72 Million Profit

Associated Press

timean hour ago

  • Associated Press

OYO Becomes the Most Profitable Indian Startup with $72 Million Profit

06/26/2025, New Delhi // PRODIGY: Feature Story // OYO Founder Ritesh Agarwal shared in an employee town hall that the company has now become the most profitable Indian startup. The company reported profit after tax (PAT) of ~$72 million in its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, a 172% increase from ~$27 million in FY24. According to documents accessed by PTI, as per its unaudited financials, the company achieved an adjusted EBITDA of ~$132 million in FY25, compared to ~$104 million in the previous fiscal year, marking a robust 27% year-over-year growth and its 10th consecutive quarter of EBITDA profitability. Consequently, OYO's earnings per share (EPS) reached $0.93 for FY25, up from $0.36 in FY24, reflecting a 158% increase as the company continues to enhance shareholder value. The platform reported a 54% increase in Gross Booking Value (GBV) to $1.92 billion and its revenue grew to ~$754 million, a 20% increase year-over-year, fueled by the company's premium offerings through its Company-Serviced Portfolio (including the mid-segment Townhouse Hotels and Softbank- and Oravel-promoted Sunday Hotels) across India, UK, and the SEAME region, as well as the successful integration of G6 Hospitality. The company has strategically expanded its premium offerings with the launch of over 30 Sunday Hotels in the last 12 months across various regions, including India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Southeast Asia. In the SEAME region alone, company-serviced property additions grew from 7 in Q4 FY24 to 256 in Q4 FY25. The fourth quarter of FY25 proved to be OYO's strongest, with GBV reaching ~$744 million, a 126% growth compared to the same period last year, driven by its growing hotels business across India, USA, and SEAME and the acquisition of G6 Hospitality in Q3 FY25. Revenue for Q4 stood at ~$218 million, up 41% year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 61% to ~$51 million compared to Q4 FY24. The quarter saw significant expansion with the company's hotel storefronts increasing by 25%, buoyed by the addition of G6 hotels in its portfolio, and the homes segment growing by 42% year-over-year. Hotel GBV per storefront per month surged by 161% to ~$8,940, reflecting the success of OYO's premiumization efforts and strategic acquisitions. OYO's global presence now includes approximately 22,700 hotels and 119,900 homes, along with 91,300 listings across its platform. The company significantly strengthened its position in developed markets, particularly in the US, where it experienced 55% growth in storefronts and 45% growth in GBV during FY25. International rating agencies have recognized OYO's improved profitability and strengthened credit metrics, with Moody's upgrading the company's rating, citing OYO's improved profitability over recent quarters. For the current financial year, FY26, Ritesh Agarwal has earlier shared a target of reaching over ~$233 million in EBITDA and $1.31 EPS, by growing its current annualized EBITDA run-rate of ~$198 million. The company expects its US operations to be a significant driver, with projected consolidated GBV growth of 3.4x in FY26 compared to FY25. In FY 2025, OYO demonstrated the highest PAT growth compared to leading hospitality players such as IHCL, Lemon Tree, Ixigo, and Royal Orchid. OYO's revenue outperformed Lemon Tree, Ixigo, and Royal Orchid, though it trailed IHCL. Note: Financial figures in USD are converted using the exchange rate of 1 USD = ~85.7 INR as of June 9, 2025. Contact Details Tech Observer Md Ujaley +1 931-358-3248 [email protected] Company Website Original Source of the original story >> OYO Becomes the Most Profitable Indian Startup with $72 Million Profit

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