Introducing Espresso—your daily shot of news in business and tech
Your daily shot of news from the intersection of business and technology.
‘Digital India’ gets Rs 19k crore boost
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated an additional Rs 19,041 crore towards the Digital India Mission, taking the total mission outlay to Rs 61,109 crore.
The latest outlay would aid BharatNet, a public-private initiative to connect 6 lakh villages with optic fibre-based network to deliver internet services.
BharatNet is run by the government-owned Bharat Broadband Network. It has connected over 1.73 gram panchayats (GPs), by laying 5.25 lakh km of optic fiber cable, of which more than 1.6 lakh GPs are service-ready. In May 2021, 15.71 lakh users consumed data in excess of 27.37 lakh gigabytes, according to CSC e-Governance Services India.
Tata Motors commits to sustainable mobility
Tata Motors will have 10 new battery electric vehicles (BEV) by 2025, said Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran in the company’s 2020-21 annual report.
The Tata Group plans to invest proactively to set up charging infrastructure across India, he added. Chandrasekaran said Tata Motors will pivot its underlying business model towards sustainable mobility.
In its luxury vehicle portfolio, Chandrasekaran said Jaguar and Land Rover are targeting 100 percent zero tail pipe emissions by 2036. Jaguar will become fully electric by 2025, and 60 percent of Jaguar Land Rover’s volumes will be pure BEV vehicles by 2030.
Dr Reddy’s launches oral anti-covid drug 2-DG
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories launched 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), an oral anti-covid drug for commercial use on Monday. The drug was developed by the Institute of Nuclear and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
It will be available at both government and private hospitals in India. In the initial weeks, 2-DG will only be available in metros and tier-1 cities at a maximum retail price of ₹990 per sachet, with a subsidised rate for government institutions.
Mobile World Congress Barcelona reopens
More than 40 mobile communications companies announced their support for 5G mmWave technology, as the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 opened in Barcelona on Monday.
5G mmWave uses spectrum resources in frequencies above 24 Gigahertz (GHz) to complement sub-6 GHz rollouts and provide 5G connectivity. Operators can add massive capacity to cellular networks, enabling them to deliver multi-gigabit wireless speeds and low latency connectivity.
“The mmWave band offers tremendous potential for use cases such as Fixed Wireless Access that can bridge the urban-rural broadband divide in economies like India,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel. The MWC has been an annual event in Barcelona since 2006, but was cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mahatme to head WhatsApp Pay in India
WhatsApp has appointed Manesh Mahatme to head its payments business in India. Mahatme joined WhatsApp in April after almost seven years at Amazon Pay India. Before that, he worked at Airtel Money.
WhatsApp Pay is currently available in India to send and receive money from anyone who uses UPI (Unified Payments Interface)-based apps. However, the Facebook-owned unit has faced several regulatory concerns, which has stymied its growth.
Wipro-Givon to buy out TECT Aerospace
Wipro-Givon, an arm of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering in the US, will acquire the Washington manufacturing facility of Boeing supplier TECT Aerospace Group Holdings, according to a report in The Times of India. TECT Aerospace makes aerostructure components, parts and assemblies.
Wipro-Givon manufactures metallic aerostructure parts, assemblies and precision machine parts for leading global original equipment manufacturers. It has its manufacturing locations in Israel and the US.
Technology upgradation at Bank of India in final leg
Bank of India (BOI) said the upgradation of its technology platform to Infosys’ Finacle 10 is in the final stage, and will be rolled out during FY2022. Further, the bank’s E-platform is being instituted for providing its customers an end-to-end digital journey in lending process, apart from enabling BOI to widen customer outreach through improved management information system (MIS) and data analytics.
