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Depositors who lost their money in the BSNL Engineers’ Cooperative Society (T-950) scam have urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the BSNL management to investigate the involvement of BSNL staff in the scam and take action against them.

Along with their complaints to the police and the State government, several depositors have lodged complaints with the top officials of the BSNL Kerala circle.

The case pertains to the alleged embezzlement of ₹260 crore by the past office- bearers of the society. The Crime Branch and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) are currently investigating the case. However, depositors allege that the BSNL management is yet to initiate any concrete action.

Depositors who lost their money in the BSNL Engineers’ Cooperative Society (T-950) scam have urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the BSNL management to investigate the involvement of BSNL staff in the scam and take action against them.

Along with their complaints to the police and the State government, several depositors have lodged complaints with the top officials of the BSNL Kerala circle.

The case pertains to the alleged embezzlement of ₹260 crore by the past office- bearers of the society. The Crime Branch and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) are currently investigating the case. However, depositors allege that the BSNL management is yet to initiate any concrete action.

Depositors allege that the cooperative society was originally established with DoT and BSNL approval and housed within the premises of the BSNL Thiruvananthapuram office. Though established with the aim of supporting retired DoT and BSNL employees, the society deviated from its original purpose, they said.

Victims of the scam include financially struggling and retired individuals who are facing severe financial distress, one of the depositors noted in his complaint. The DoT and BSNL have a moral and ethical responsibility to act in this context, he said.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the BSNL said the cooperative society had no links with BSNL. Besides, as the Crime Branch and ED probes were in progress, they had limitations in initiating action. BSNL (Kerala Circle) chief general manager B. Sunil Kumar said that the complaints received from the depositors have been forwarded to the corporate office.

The victims include several hundreds of depositors, the vast majority of whom are in the 65-85 age group, who had invested in deposit schemes in the society and, were cheated of their life savings, according to multiple complaints lodged with the police and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

On January 10, the Kerala High Court had directed the ED to file a statement on the progress of the investigation into the financial scam. The Hindu

Apple is in discussions with Bharat Forge, part of the Kalyani Group, to include the Indian manufacturer in its supply chain. If the deal is finalised, Bharat Forge will supply components, including mechanical parts, to the US-based tech giant.

This development would make Bharat Forge the latest Indian company to partner with Apple, joining the Tata Group, Motherson Group, and Aequs.

The report quoted a source as saying that Apple is exploring collaborations with some of India’s largest companies and has initiated talks with Bharat Forge, based in Pune, Maharashtra.

In recent years, Apple has been actively expanding its supplier ecosystem in India to enhance local value addition as part of its strategy to reduce reliance on China.

Existing Apple suppliers in India
Apple’s supplier base in India includes three iPhone assembly plants, with Foxconn operating the largest facility in Tamil Nadu. The Tata Group runs two additional units in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Other key suppliers in India include Sunwoda, which provides battery packs, Foxlink for cables, and Aequs for enclosures. Salcomp, one of Apple’s earliest suppliers in India, has expanded its portfolio beyond coils and power packs to include magnetics.

Additionally, Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL), a major Apple supplier, is preparing to manufacture battery cells at a 180-acre facility in Manesar, Haryana.

Bharat Forge, a prominent Indian manufacturing company, employs nearly 5,000 people. The company operates across sectors such as automotive, energy, aerospace, and defence. Led by 76-year-old Baba Kalyani, Bharat Forge has numerous subsidiaries and an extensive global presence.

Local value addition growth
Since initiating production in India under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in 2020, Apple has significantly increased its local value addition. The percentage of local value addition has grown from 5–8 per cent in 2020 to 20 per cent across various iPhone models by 2024.

In 2024, Apple achieved a production milestone of $17.5 billion worth of iPhones, with exports reaching a record $12.8 billion.

Industry experts predict that Apple will continue onboarding local suppliers in the coming year, complementing the Tata Group’s Hosur unit in Tamil Nadu. Reports from August 2024 indicate that the Motherson Group is also pursuing a collaboration with Hong Kong-based BIEL Crystal Manufactory to join Apple’s supply chain. Business Standard

Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, are joining proceedings against OpenAI for improperly using copyright content, legal papers show.

Courts globally are hearing claims by authors, news organisations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission or payment.

India has more than 690 million smartphone users thanks to cheap mobile data plans and OpenAI has said the country is a critical market.

The Indian media outlets, including Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18 have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work for users of the powerful AI tool.

Reuters was first to report the case filing by the news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also joined the lawsuit.

The 135-page case filing, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI’s conduct constitutes “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

It refers to OpenAI’s “wilful scraping … and adaptation of content”, adding that “the disproportionate power of tech companies in prioritising content and extracting advertising revenue has raised concerns among publishers.”

The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani’s NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group and the Hindu. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.

The Times of India is not part of the legal challenge despite being member of the DNPA, the filing said, without elaborating on the reasons.

Asked for comment, OpenAI reiterated an earlier statement that it was engaged in constructive partnerships with many news organisations, including in India, and was using publicly available data in a manner protected by fair use principles to builds its AI models.

None of the Indian media companies involved immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.

The global AI market is expected to grow to $320 billion to $380 billion by 2027, expanding 25% to 35% each year, with the India market likely to follow that trend, according to Boston Consulting Group and India’s tech lobby group NASSCOM.

In the United States, the New York Times sued OpenAI and its largest financial backer Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab in December 2023, accusing them of using millions of its articles without permission to train chatbots to provide information to users.

The new Indian intervention will add firepower to ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI in India’s most high-profile legal proceedings on the issue.
A hearing in ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI is scheduled for Tuesday.

Responding to the ANI case, OpenAI said in a court filing reported by Reuters last week that any order to delete training data would result in a violation of its U.S. legal obligations, and Indian judges have no jurisdiction to hear a copyright case against the company as its servers are located abroad.

Reuters, which holds a 26% interest in ANI, has said in a statement it is not involved in ANI’s business practices or operations.

In recent months, OpenAI has signed deals with Time magazine, the Financial Times, Business Insider-owner Axel Springer, France’s Le Monde and Spain’s Prisa Media to display content.

The Indian publishers in their new filing argue OpenAI has entered into partnership agreements with media outlets abroad, but has not entered into similar deals in India, hurting the media companies.

Such conduct by OpenAI “in India betrays an inexplicable defiance of the law,” the Indian media outlets’ filing said.

The publishers also said OpenAI was set to become a profit-driven business benefiting from the creative works of the media industry. This would result in a “weakened press” and would not be in the best interests of a vibrant democracy, their filing said.

OpenAI made its first India hire last year when it tapped a former WhatsApp executive, Pragya Misra, to handle public policy and partnerships in the country of 1.4 billion people.

“India is really important because it’s the youngest demographic in the world … we’ve seen massive uptake of ChatGPT, it’s almost our second largest country in terms of users outside of the US,” Misra said in a recent interview with AIM TV.

OpenAI kicked off an investment, consumer and corporate frenzy in generative AI after the Nov. 2022 launch of ChatGPT. It wants to be ahead in the AI race after raising $6.6 billion last year. Reuters

India should move urgently to secure strategic autonomy by building its own IP/products, and create a clear preference for Indian trusted chips for government purchases, in light of new geopolitics and an increasingly “unipolar world”, according to Ajai Chowdhry, Founder HCL and Chairman of EPIC Foundation.

India has already made significant strides with the development of RISC-V chip technology at IIT-Madras, eliminating the need to pay license fees, he noted.

“Building on this, we should focus on designing our own chips using RISC-V to safeguard against future sanctions,” Chowdhry said in a statement.

India, he said, must create a clear preference for Indian trusted chips for government purchases to help create the market and make startups and others successful.

“We suggested (to) the government to prioritise high-quality chips for the nation and provided a list of 30 chips and 30 priority products that should be developed and manufactured in India. The country’s fabless and product industries will both benefit from this,” he said.

The EPIC Foundation has batted for allocating Rs 44,000 crore to the ‘Product Nation’, with Rs 15,000 crore going toward system products and Rs 11,000 crore for semiconductor products.

“The balance is for additional incentives and acquisitions. The most critical ones that are needed to be done in the budget are at least the semiconductor products so that we become self-sufficient over a short period of time because that’s the demand of the new unipolar world,” he said.

In light of the new geopolitics, India must leverage its strengths in chip design and its large home market to become a critical part of the global value chain, he added. PTI