Latest news with #Bengaluru-based
Time of India
an hour ago
- Business
- Time of India
Sambalpur man loses Rs 65L in online investment scam
Bhubaneswar: A 37-year-old man from Badbazaar area in Sambalpur district has lodged a complaint with the cyber police station after he allegedly lost Rs 65 lakh in an online investment scam. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Amia Dungdung, inspector of the cyber police station, on Friday said the company named in the FIR is involved in multiple scams across the country, and many of the perpetrators have already been arrested. The victim, identified as Ranjan Panda, alleged that the Bengaluru-based investment company had contacted him and pursued him to invest, assuring an interest of 7% on his deposit. Panda was convinced by sharing the details of another investor from Odisha. He made his first investment of Rs 2,50,000 on July 7, 2024. The company organised multiple meetings with Panda to convince him to invest more money. In online meetings, some 'fake' investors displayed their luxurious lifestyle after investing in the company. Panda was influenced by the success stories and invested Rs 79,60,000, out of which he got back Rs 14,60,000. In Nov 2024, he found the official website of the company stopped working. When he approached the company, he was assured that the money would be returned within 90 days. However, when he and other investors again contacted the company, the representatives started threatening they won't get back anything if they approached the police. Recently the investors learnt from media reports that the company is involved in a scam and several of its staff have been arrested. On Tuesday, Panda lodged a police complaint at the cyber police station here against Priyaranjan Swain, Abinash Sahoo, and Ajay Sharma. Dungdung told TOI, "Complaints have been registered in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and other places in the state against the company. Two of the accused are from Odisha, and another is from Bihar. We are verifying their identities."
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Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
AstraZeneca Pharma Q4 FY25 net profit jumps 48% to Rs 58.25 crore
AstraZeneca Pharma India on Friday reported a 48 per cent rise in consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended 31 March to Rs 58.25 crore. Total revenue from operations stood at Rs 480.48 crore, up 25.3 per cent year-on-year. The company also recorded significant growth across therapeutic areas, achieving a 32 per cent increase in full-year revenue compared to the previous year. Profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 84.15 crore in Q4FY25, compared to Rs 54.36 crore in the same quarter last year. 'FY2024–25 marked significant progress for AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited, driven by strong growth of 32 per cent. This reflects our strategic focus on science, specialists, and the strength of our innovation-led portfolio. As we scale impact across therapy areas, we remain committed to delivering sustainable value to the people, society, and the planet,' said Bhavana Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer and Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited. In its oncology business, the pharma major reported revenue of Rs 315.85 crore in Q4FY25, a rise of 31.62 per cent. Additionally, revenue from biopharmaceuticals (cardiovascular, renal and metabolism; respiratory and immunology; and vaccines and immune therapies) rose 1.9 per cent to Rs 122.74 crore. The rare disease segment grew to Rs 2 crore in Q4FY25, up from Rs 0.17 crore in Q4FY24. 'We are pleased to share that our company has, for the first time, crossed the Rs 1,700 crore mark ($200 million). Science is sustaining and growing the success of our company, helping us transform the future of healthcare, and the health of people, society, and the planet,' said Sanjeev Panchal, Country President and Managing Director of the company. The Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical firm announced its results post-market hours. Shares of the company were trading at Rs 7,980 apiece, up 0.78 per cent on the NSE.
The Hindu
3 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Three more start-ups selected to get GPU access for Indian AI models
Three firms — Gurugram-based Soket AI, Delhi-based and Bengaluru-based — have been selected in the IndiaAI Mission's ongoing drive to facilitate the development of an indigenous foundational AI large language model (LLM). 'Like Sarvam AI, which was selected earlier this year as the first such firm, these three teams also have a very big target in front of them,' Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said. By being selected, these firms will get access to the Common Compute facility, giving them access to thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) on which AI models are trained and deployed. With the government's facility, operated by a clutch of large tech firms like Sify, set to have a total of 34,000 GPUs soon, Mr. Vaishnaw said that the 'worry' of whether 'India will be able to get that kind of compute' is 'practically over'. co-founder Ganesh Gopalan said that the company had been 'developing voice-to-voice large language models for India and the world, because we believe transformative AI must speak the language of the people it serves.' The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh said that the IndiaAI Mission has also been working on hackathons with 'allied Ministries' like the Ministry of Home Affairs — for classifying cyber crimes — and with the Geological Survey of India for mineral discovery. 'Very soon we will be working with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other ministries for launching more problem statements to give opportunities to our startups and researchers to contribute to solutions,' he said.
Mint
4 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
IndiaAI Mission gets 16,000 new GPUs, three more foundational models
New Delhi: The Union government on Friday approved the empanelment of 15,640 new graphic processing unit (GPU) processors from data centre and cloud service providers, and also appointed three new startups that will get access to these chips for free, to train their artificial intelligence models. Sanjeev Bikhchandani's Info Edge Ventures-backed AI startup, was one of the three startups appointed to build a sovereign foundational AI model for voice-based AI services. The startup will build a 14-billion parameter voice AI model and real-time speech processing and 'advanced reasoning capabilities.' Foundational AI models are typically better when they are based on larger volumes of training data. But, smaller models are less expensive to train, are more targeted towards specific industries, and are easier to run. The other two startups appointed include Bengaluru-based Sokal AI Labs, and Noida-based Gan AI. While Sokai AI is building a 120-billion parameter foundational AI model catering to defence, education and healthcare sectors, Gan AI will build a 70-billion parameter multilingual foundational model for varied applications. Sovereign AI models refer to foundational algorithms built for usage in generative AI applications, but not by global companies. Sovereign models are typically trained on a nation's indigenous datasets, which theoretically help in adding local market data, language and context to AI applications. The three startups join Peak XV-backed Sarvam AI, which became the first startup appointed by the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) to build a foundational AI model for India. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the first of the four foundational models will be rolled out before the end of 2025. In terms of compute, Hiranandani Group's Yotta Data Services was empanelled by Meity a second time, and will supply over 8,000 units of Nvidia's B200 GPUs to cater to the mission. A senior official with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity that the GPUs will be brought into service within the next two to three months, as Yotta is still in the process of installing them in its data centres. Sify Digital Services was also a part of the empanelled GPU providers, and will supply an unspecified number of Nvidia's H100, H200 and L4 GPU chips. Access to these GPUs is crucial in terms of training AI models. Ganesh Gopalan, chief executive of told Mint that the government empanelment will reduce the company's operating cost to 'one-tenth of what it was before.' Abhishek Upperwal, chief executive of Soket AI, added that 'over 70%' of the company's cost of research and development, as well as training of AI models, are linked to access to GPUs for computing power. 'This is the least possible cost of compute that we're getting access to. We're in talks with venture capital firms for a seed funding round in order to accelerate our research, and within the next one year, a version of our foundational model should be ready,' Upperwal said. Abhishek Singh, chief executive of India AI Mission and additional secretary, Meity, added that the Centre had received 'more than 500 applications for developing India's foundational models.' 'There will be more startup selections in the next few days. On 9 June, Meity is also meeting applicants to empanel more cloud compute providers, and there will be a rolling empanelment process where vendors will be brought online as and when required,' Singh added. The $1.2-billion IndiaAI Mission is tasked with backing startups to build foundational AI models in India, create a subsidized cloud compute platform to help academia, researchers and startups access GPUs to train AI models, and create datasets in Indian languages to train AI models. It is also set to build a marketplace to help startups developing AI models to sell their services to clients. Access to a foundational model is expected to reduce a nation's dependence on other countries for what is being viewed as a fundamental piece of technology going forward. Entrepreneurs added that the development can amplify market outreach for startups building sovereign AI models. 'The government itself can be a key client. But additionally, reducing the cost of compute can help startups build models more efficiently, which in turn can reduce the need for capital that is the biggest cost factor behind developing AI models and conducting R&D,' Gopalan added. Vaishnaw added that the new announcements mark 'significant progress' under the goals set forth by the IndiaAI Mission. 'We have 367 datasets on the mission's non-personal data platform, AI Kosh. The entire ecosystem is being built right now in AI, and the IT industry should capture this transition as an opportunity, rather than be disrupted by it. AI development is also creating an opportunity to reverse India's brain drain, and bring talented engineers back to the country,' the minister said.
Economic Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
AI security startup Unbound raises $4 million in round led by Race Capital
Unbound, which focuses on enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) security, has raised $4 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Race Capital. Other investors include Wayfinder Ventures, Y Combinator, Massive Tech Ventures, and angel investors like Alpha Square Group and Northside Bengaluru-based startup plans to invest over $1 million in India, specifically for hiring and expanding its research and development (R&D) efforts. With a current team of eight in Bengaluru, Unbound said that it aims to support Indian companies in adopting secure, cost-effective AI solutions, highlighting the country's strength in innovation, focussed on real-world results. 'As AI tools become mainstream, enterprises are turning to flexibility and control,' said Rajaram Srinivasan, cofounder and CEO of Unbound. 'They want visibility into what's being used, assurance that their data is protected, and the ability to swap in better models as the space evolves. Unbound is the bridge that makes that possible.' Founded by Srinivasan and Vignesh Subbiah, Unbound helps organisations safely integrate generative AI into their workflows. The platform gives IT and security teams the tools to oversee usage, monitor sensitive data flows, and enforce internal policies. 'Defaulting to blanket bans on AI tools is like being in the times of GPT 3.5. Unbound enables surgical security controls into every AI request so teams can innovate freely without putting corporate secrets at risk,' said Vignesh Subbiah, the company's CTO and cofounder. According to Subbiah, Unbound's solution has helped clients prevent over 7,000 potential data leaks while also reducing their AI tool costs by nearly 70%.
