Beyond Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: Google Pay has been distributing personal loans on behalf of its lending partners for several years and has now expanded its product suite to include credit cards. However, while personal loans are a third-party product, the credit card launch is the first native product introduced by the payments giant, which aims to go beyond distribution and create a credit ecosystem on the platform.

As Big Tech companies look to expand beyond English-speaking users, developing artificial intelligence (AI) expertise across a wider range of languages is emerging as the next major hurdle.Google’s latest effort has seen the company embed 29 Indic languages and dialects into Gemini, its foundational AI model, as it looks to scale AI adoption across India’s hinterlands, three years after it began work in the area. A foundational model is one that can accept user queries and respond in human-understandable languages.According to Manish Gupta, senior director at the company’s research arm, Google DeepMind, and its spearhead in AI language research efforts in India, proficiency in Indic languages is critical for last-mile applications such as agriculture and healthcare, where AI must interpret region-specific context to function properly,“For instance, Google’s Gemini powers an agricultural analysis model that is currently being deployed at the last mile, where it is imperative for our AI models to have contextual understanding of local tongues in order to perform with high efficiency,” he added.Google’s agriculture app processes information in local languages to offer soil analysis, crop prediction and more to farmers at subsidized costs through government and private sector companies.To be sure, by “embedding 29 languages”, Google means it is training, fine-tuning and benchmarking Gemini’s performance across these languages.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Music label and entertainment company Saregama India Ltd will invest in filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali-promoted Bhansali Productions Pvt. Ltd as part of a strategic partnership to enhance their output of content, the two companies said in a statement.

The feeble outcomes of this year’s UN climate summit, CoP-30, held at Belém in Brazil were a reflection of today’s geopolitical realities. The US does not recognize the threat of global warming, while several other large economies like Russia, China and India are in no mood to embark on a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : The Centre has opened discussions on whether India should move to higher ethanol blends in petrol from the current E20 (20% ethanol, 80% petrol), two people aware of the matter said, amid continuing consumer unease over the current E20 blend.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru: As he prepared to call a debtor, Manoj, an adviser at Bengaluru-based debt collection startup DPDzero, saw a message flash across his screen. Borrower sentiment: distressed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A term insurance plan offers more than a sense of security, it creates a financial cushion that protects your family in case of your absence. With the recent goods and services tax (GST) rate overhaul making term insurance products 18% cheaper, many people focus on simply "having" a policy.

Large corporations are not governed for profitable quarters alone, but for business continuity. And when a company that carries a majority share of national air traffic suffers a system-wide breakdown, questions must be asked beyond operational factors. In particular, of board accountability.True, boards do not run a business’s daily operations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The secret to a truly successful winter wardrobe lies in adopting statement pieces that inject texture, drama and attitude—with surprisingly little effort required. Think beyond the basic black puffer and look toward unexpected lengths, high-pile materials, and distinctive finishes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India is ageing faster than most people realise. By 2030, one in five Indians will be over 50 – this is a demographic shift with major implications for productivity, healthcare and quality of life.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI: Microsoft will keep investing in artificial intelligence-ready data centre infrastructure in India beyond 2026, and continue hiring artificial intelligence (AI) engineers to build value-added solutions, the company’s top India executive said. “As part of our $3 billion investment plan through this year and the next, our Hyderabad data centre—one of the largest in the region—is set to go live by June 2026.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : Sophisticated, high-risk investments are no longer confined to the rich in metropolitan cities.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Quick commerce platforms have unleashed a new weapon in their cutthroat battle for market share— ₹1 cosmetics. Swiggy Instamart and Zepto have launched campaigns in which customers can buy select beauty products for just ₹1 once they add cosmetics worth a certain amount to their cart.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Discount broking firm Zerodha's $5 million bet on research platform Tijori will help it move beyond retail trading and strengthen its products for cash-market and mutual fund investors, a top company official said. Zerodha's platform was dominated by active traders for nearly six to seven years since its inception in 2010.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A friend of mine recently shared something that made me smile—and think. He was prescribed magnesium for persistent cramps but chose to take a multivitamin he already had at home.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Budget 2024 scrapped the indexation benefit—a provision that allowed adjusting prices for inflation—to make tax rates uniform across asset classes. For real estate, the tax on long-term capital gains (LTCG) — when a property is held for at least two years—was reduced from 20% with the indexation benefit to 12.5% without it.

Geojit Financial Services, said both stocks have yet to show signs of bottoming out or bearish exhaustion, with downside momentum continuing to dominate. Edited excerpts from a chat on how to trade both these stocks as well as Nifty in the week ahead:

Keen to move beyond its reputation as a weekend escape for drinkers from dry Gujarat, the administration is exploring a dramatic shift: a plan to lease out the 16th-century Portuguese-built Diu Fort for destination weddings and rebranding the beach town as a family-friendly retreat. “Diu will soon be Goa minus the casino and nightlife,” Diu collector Rahul Dev Boora told ET. “Both Diu and Goa share a Portuguese legacy, but for tourists seeking a family getaway, Diu will always have the edge.”

Piyush Goyal Saturday encouraged young founders to set ambitious goals and rise beyond the limitations of the present and called upon the country’s youth to lead the way in emerging sectors like AI, semiconductors and deep-tech. He also said that the second fund of funds for startups (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore has been approved and this year, Rs 2,000 crore will be disbursed to SIDBI as the first installment. A significant portion of the fund will be reserved for seed funding of small startups and to support deep-tech innovation. “The potential you hold will make you a great contributor to India’s journey in this Amrit Kaal. Let the Startup Mahakumbh ignite aspirations that go beyond the current realm of reality,” Goyal said while conferring the Startup Maharathi Awards at Startup Mahakumbh 2025.

The changes, introduced by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), have sparked debates over their impact on transparency, competition, and fair housing practices.

Public Provident Fund (PPF) is one of India's most popular long-term investment options. It offers tax benefits, safety due to sovereign backing, and guaranteed returns. PPF comes with a 15-year lock-in period and EEE tax status (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt). Many investors invest in PPF due to the tax-free interest and maturity amount.