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Indian mobile phone manufacturer has created a Guinness World Record for the largest mosaic made of smartphones in the shape of Indian Flag. The company created this record at a mall in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The record was achieved by using Lava Blaze 2 smartphones. An official adjudicator from Guinness World Records was there to verify the record and certified that the mosaic featuring the smartphones was indeed a new world record. Commenting on the occasion, Sunil Raina, President and Business Head, Lava International, said, “We are very proud to see India break the record of building the largest animated mobile phone mosaic in the shape of the Indian Flag. This is a tribute to the nation on its 77th Independence Day and marks a celebration of the success of Agni 2 – which quashed the notion that Indian tech products cannot succeed. We’re proud to have set this record.” On portfolio expansionLava International has its manufacturing and repair facility in Noida. As of August 31, 2021, the manufacturing facility is claimed to have an aggregate production capacity of 42.52 million feature phone equivalent handsets per annum.Domestic smartphone company Lava recently launched a wide range of smartphones including Lava Agni 2, Lava Blaze 5G and Lava Yuva 2 Pro. According to Counterpoint Research, Lava recorded 53% year-on-year growth during the second quarter of 2023.

Many talented artists are represented: a rapper with Trisomy-21 named Jirau (after a pioneering fashion model), who is an especially strong lyricist. In 2073, neurodiverse artists (many formerly known as “disabled”) are valued, as most AI algorithms had largely ignored them in their early training sets. Then there’s DJ Congolia, who made original beats exclusively from the sounds of living things in the Congo rainforest (near where he was born and raised). And, of course, Dice Benoit. Sitting at home in Minnesota, headset on, she exhales in anticipation. In the virtual auction, her avatar rises on stage, prepared to pitch. Her presentation is compelling. It focuses on how she can rhyme about everything: politics, climate, prison, religion, war, famine, gaming, family, friendships, love. She is a strong candidate for a good training set because a company can take her data and build rap music of almost any kind: summer love ballads, political campaign slogan-songs, flying car commercials. Dice Benoit isn’t entirely unique in her topical diversity: Long gone are the days when some hip hop artists felt the need to center misogyny, material consumption, or any other singular tropes. The reason? In the late 2020s, AI became so advanced that it was able to generate songs with that sort of content far more convincingly than any human artist could. Replicating old ideas fell out of favor, while novelty was rewarded—fresh data means new music that more people can relate to, which translates to more money. This arithmetic led to the destruction of older categories and a rapid flowering of new rap subgenres around the world. Some of the most lucrative and popular rap scenes of 2073 include those dedicated to Angolan literature, astrobiology, cyber theft, Harriet Tubman, Jack Kerouac, Maori history, Santeria, sex work, space tourism, and Sufism. And new subgenres are born regularly. Further, AI made language barriers a thing of the past. In 2073, a rapper can generate a rhyme in one language and have it translated into a hundred others in seconds. The challenges that have plagued translation forever—not all things translate well between languages—remain, but AI can optimize as well as anyone ever has. Rappers from the west side of Chicago have large fan bases all over the world who now listen to the lyrics translated to Bengali, Tagalog, and Ibo (AI ensures that despite the translation, the music remains enjoyable). This AI ecosystem rewards human artists who are productive generalists, who can generate as much quality training data as possible. Musicians who play multiple instruments well can generate training data for an entire orchestra, which improves their financial gain. In hip hop, artists who can rhyme about a lot of things—like Dice Benoit—are poised to do well. This perspective is not without controversy, however, as some lament the loss of specialization that had dominated the art world for centuries. But the excellence of AI technology has rendered this perspective less popular. The truth is, no human could ever hope to specialize the way AI can (a lesson the world first learned when IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in chess in 1997).

Reliance Industries-owned Jio Platform has completed the acquisition of US-based communications equipment maker Mimosa Networks for $60 million through its wholly owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation. The company informed the same through a statement. The acquisition will allow Jio Platforms, which also houses RIL’s telecom business in Reliance Jio, to strengthen its 5G and broadband services using Mimosa’s point-to-point and point-to-multipoint products, RIL had said when the deal was announced in March this year. “Mimosa brings a diverse portfolio of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connectivity products leveraging unlicensed spectrum bands,” RIL said in a statement.The deal between Jio Platform’s Radisys Corp and Florida-headquartered telecom telecom gear maker Airspan Networks, which owns Mimosa, was announced in March this year. “Acquisition of Mimosa will further accelerate Jio’s innovation and leadership in the production of telecom network products that deliver value to consumers and enterprises across the globe with cost-effective, rapidly deployable fixed and mobile broadband,” said Mathew Oommen, President, Jio, on the acquisition. Mimosa will now function as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radisys. Mimosa’s products are expected to enable the rapid rollout of multi-gigabit-per-second fixed wireless access (FWA) networks and wireless backhaul connectivity for telecommunications systems, RIL added.Mimosa’s portfolio includes products based on WiFi 5 and the newer WiFi 6E technologies as well as related accessories, such as twist-on antennas. These solutions have use cases in the backhaul requirements for 5G and FTTX/ FWA rollouts and Jio has been a major customer of Mimosa, the company’s statement added.

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Info Edge’s board is mulling steps to tighten due diligence practices and mitigate risks associated with portfolio companies, said Sanjeev Bikhchandani Info Edge wrote off its entire investment in 4B Networks in the December quarter of 2022 citing excessive cash burn and significant uncertainty towards funding options Last month, Info Edge said it approached the Delhi HC against 4B Networks for failing to provide information about operations for forensic audit and received an order in its favour Mincing no words, Info Edge cofounder and veteran investor Sanjeev Bikhchandani on Friday (August 11) reportedly said that investing in Rahul Yadav-led 4B Networks was a ‘mistake’. “You can’t write off INR 288 Cr, it was a mistake,” Bikhchandani said during the company’s post-earnings call as per The Economic Times. He also said that the Info Edge’s board was mulling steps to tighten its due diligence practices and mitigate risks associated with portfolio companies. The company’s board was also said to be looking at identifying indicators and ‘red flags’ that may emerge at preliminary stages during talks with founders. At the heart of the matter is Info Edge’s decision to write off its equity investment in 4B Networks during the quarter ended December 2022. The investor then cited ‘excessive cash burn, prevailing liquidity issues and significant uncertainty towards funding options’ as the reasons for pulling the plug on the investment. Since then, a lot has happened at Yadav’s startup, with Info Edge even initiating arbitration proceedings against 4B Networks for allegedly failing to provide crucial information about operations and management for a forensic audit. Earlier in June, Inc42 exclusively reported about the slew of problems, ranging from corporate governance issues to unpaid dues of vendors and employees, at the brokerage startup. At that time, Info Edge announced the appointment of Deloitte as the forensic auditor to look into the financial details of 4B Networks. However, the management of 4B Networks allegedly didn’t cooperate with the auditor, following which the consumer internet company dragged Yadav to the Delhi High Court. In a regulatory filing late last month, Info Edge said the HC (in July) directed Yadav and Pratik Choudhary, who was also a party to the shareholders’ agreement of 4B Networks, to ‘not sell, transfer, alienate, encumber or otherwise create any third-party rights or interest directly or indirectly in the assets and properties of 4B Networks’. The investor said that the court also directed 4B Networks to preserve all books, records, accounts, databases, servers, any other devices, documentation or information. Meanwhile, after two subdued quarters on account of write offs, Info Edge returned to the black in the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). It posted a consolidated net profit of INR 147.4 Cr, while revenue from operations jumped to INR 625.9 Cr in Q1 FY24 from INR 547.3 Cr in the year-ago period. Shares of Info Edge closed 4.12% lower at INR 4,458.90 on the BSE on Friday (August 11).

AMD has revealed a new custom graphics card, the Starfield AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX at the QuakeCon gaming event. The US-based chipmaker has also revealed newly designed AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D packaging which is inspired by the game’s aesthetics. These new announcements will celebrate the first new universe from Bethesda Game Studios in 25 years. The company claims that the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with a custom shroud and Ryzen 7 7800X3D with collectors’ packaging represents the “creativity and freedom” of Starfield. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU, Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU: Availability Both AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D processors are limited edition chipsets. Only 500 units of both chips will be available to select customers. The company is offering these products exclusively through special promotions and giveaways from AMD, Bethesda Softworks, and other partners. AMD and Bethesda Softworks are hosting giveaways of these chipsets across social pages offering followers the chance to win their own Starfield GPU and CPU. For more information on these limited-edition products, visit www.amd.com/Starfield.AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU, Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU: Key specs and features The Radeon RX 7900 XTX: This limited edition GPU delivers high-framerate 4K experiences and is powered by AMD RDNA 3 architecture. These graphics units will also offer faster clock speeds and will be backed by 24GB of GDDR6 memory. For connectivity, Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards will also offer options like — DisplayPort 2.1 and AV1 encode support.The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D: This limited edition CPU is also designed to deliver better gaming performance. The chips are built on the latest “Zen 4” architecture and boast 104MB of cache which is offered by its 3D V-Cache technology.

Chinese smartphone maker Tecno has expanded its product portfolio in the country with a new smartphone and a laptop lineup. The company unveiled the Tecno Pova 5 series and the Megabook laptops at its ‘World of TECNOlogy’ event. In this event, Tecno also showcased other products across various categories. Arijeet Talapatra, CEO of Tecno Mobile India, commented,“Over the past six years, Tecno has made its presence felt across India. Exemplifying excellent quality, exquisite appearance and powerful performance, our product portfolio has been acclaimed by more than 20 million consumers. We place great importance on local manufacturing, R&D and talent acquisition for delivering best-in-class indigenous solutions such as the first Made-in-India foldable smartphone. The focus for 2023 is to fortify our product portfolio and make inroads into the premium and ultra-premium segments, led by the acclaimed Phantom and CAMON Series, which have garnered significant appreciation. Through this grand platform, we are now unveiling the much-awaited POVA 5 series and MEGABOOK, launching our festive offerings with a range of products to follow.’’Tecno Pova 5 and Tecno Megabook series: Price and availability The company hasn’t revealed the official pricing of any of the new products. The Pova 5 smartphones are set to debut on August 14 and will soon be available to customers through Amazon. However, Tecno hasn’t revealed a launch date for its upcoming laptop lineup. Tecno Pova 5 series: Key specs and featuresThe Pova 5 Pro boasts a 3D-textured design named Interface ARC which supports RGB light gamut at the back for notifications, calls and music. Along with this, the phone features a 68W fast charging feature. The smartphone comes powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 processor, 8GB RAM (also has 8GB RAM virtual RAM) and up to 256GB storage. Tecno Megabook T1: Key specsThe Megabook T1 will have a 14.8mm thickness and will be powered by the Intel 11th gen processor (up to core i7), up to 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage and a 70Wh battery pack.

The move to start a mutual fund was led by considerations around spurring retail investor participation and building simple products for users, said Nithin Kamath Zerodha CEO also said that the company would aim to be ‘index-only’ and will create ‘simple funds’ and ETFs that investors can invest in The development comes a few days after Jio announced a JV with BlackRock to foray into the Indian asset management space with a warchest of $300 Mn All decks have been cleared for invest tech major Zerodha’s foray into the asset management space. The startup has received the final approval from markets regulator SEBI to commence operations of its AMC.  “We just received the final approval for the  @ZerodhaAMC we are building in partnership with @smallcaseHQ,” said Zerodha cofounder Nithin Kamath on X (formerly Twitter). The company also announced the appointment of former Nippon India senior executive Vishal Jain as the new CEO of its asset management arm.  Kamath said the move to start a mutual fund was led by consideration around spurring retail investor participation in Indian markets and to build simple products – mutual funds – that users could understand.  “Our motivation to start a mutual fund was twofold. The first was that the biggest challenge and opportunity for Indian markets is the shallow participation. Even after all the growth over the last 3 years, we only have maybe 6-8 Cr unique mutual fund and equity investors put together,” tweeted Kamath.  He also said that mutual funds are a ‘perfect instrument’ to onboard the next 1 Cr investors. The Zerodha CEO said that the company would aim to be ‘index-only’, and will create ‘simple funds’ and ETFs (exchange traded fund) that investors can invest in. This comes nearly two years after the Bengaluru-based brokerage firm received an in-principle nod from SEBI to undertake its asset management business. However, the final approval comes barely four months after the invest tech unicorn announced a joint venture with smallcase to launch an AMC. Back then, Kamath said that Zerodha was looking at building low-cost passive mutual fund products for India with smallcase.  The joint venture (JV) aims to leverage the synergies and resource bases of both companies to make a splash in the nascent homegrown AMC space. The approval also comes close on the heels of conglomerate Reliance Jio signing a JV with BlackRock to foray into the homegrown asset management market with a combined warchest of $300 Mn.  Founded in 2010 by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, Zerodha is a profitable bootstrapped startup that allows users to trade in stocks online. Zerodha’s net profit zoomed 87% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 2,094 Cr in FY22. Operating revenue stood at INR 4,963.7 Cr during the year. The approval comes just a day after Kamath announced that the brokerage’s investment arm Rainmatter would set aside an additional INR 1,000 Cr for Indian founders with no exit mandates.  Zerodha operates within the larger Indian fintech ecosystem which, as per Inc42, is looking at a $2.1 Tn market opportunity by 2030. Within this, the invest tech market is projected to account for an opportunity of $74 Bn in market size by 2030.

Google parent Alphabet is sitting on a $118 billion cash pile. The company is among the three richest companies in the US in terms of cash reserves. The other two being the rivals Apple and Google. According to a report in Bloomberg, “Alphabet Inc is facing a new and, by most accounts, welcome problem — how to spend its rapidly expanding pile of cash.” The top three cash generators in the Nasdaq 100 — Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft — reportedly brought in a combined $84 billion in the last quarter, the biggest haul for any such non-holiday period in history.Why the $118 billion ‘welcome problem’ Alphabet generated nearly $29 billion in cash in the second quarter of this year after attempting to rein in costs by cutting thousands of jobs and reducing losses in its various moonshot projects. This left the company with cash and short-term marketable securities of about $118 billion, more than any other company in the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index aside from Apple’s total of about $167 billion.Analysts, however, see the $118 cash pile as a problem for Alphabet. As to why, as unlike Apple, which aims to give back most of its cash to shareholders via stock buybacks and dividends, Alphabet is not known to follow the same path. The company reportedly has “a less clearly-defined capital return strategy, leaving investors seeking more detail on its plans.”“Alphabet has stepped up buybacks and expanded its repurchase authorization to $70 billion in April. But last quarter, the firm spent $15 billion on its own shares, barely half of the cash it brought in. By contrast, Apple in the last five fiscal years has returned almost $5 billion more than the record $454 billion in cash it generated,” said the report. Also Alphabet does not have a history of paying dividends like Apple and Microsoft. In contrast with Microsoft, which agreed to pay $69 billion for video game maker Activision Blizzard last year, Alphabet has stayed away from big acquisitions. Google’s biggest acquisition to date remains $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. Also as the report points out even if executives wanted to, Alphabet may not be able to pull off a big acquisition given the heightened regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft’s Activision deal and Amazon.com’s acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot are still facing regulator scrutiny.