Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that India is now their largest market for artificial intelligence (AI) usage.

In the Q2 earnings call with analysts, Zuckerberg said they are seeing particularly promising signs on WhatsApp in terms of retention and engagement, which has coincided with “India becoming our largest market for Meta AI usage”.

Meta AI now available in Hindi, unveils largest and most capable open-source model

The AI assistant Meta AI is now available in seven new languages including Hindi, and has become more creative and smarter.

Besides Hindi and Hindi-romanised script, Meta AI is now available in other languages such as French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Users can interact with Meta AI across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook in these new languages. The company said it will soon add more languages.

After posting a revenue of $39.1 billion for Q2, up 22 per cent (year-on-year), Meta CEO said that people can now use Meta AI in over 20 countries and eight languages and in the US, “we are rolling out new features like Imagine Edit, which allows people to edit images they generate with Meta AI”.

“Beyond Generative AI, the Threads community also continues to grow and deepen their engagement, as we ship new features and enhance our content recommendation systems,” he added.

Zuckerberg said that Meta AI is on track to become the most used AI assistant by the end of the year.

“An important part of our vision is that we’re not just creating a single AI, but enabling lots of people to create their own AIs. And this week we launched AI Studio, which lets anyone create AIs to interact with across our apps,” said the CEO. AGENCIES

 India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) has raised India’s GDP growth forecast for 2024-25 to 7.5 per cent from 7.1 per cent projected earlier as it expects the Union Budget to give a further fillip to the economy. 

The report states that ongoing growth momentum led by government capex, healthier balance sheets of banks, and incipient private corporate capex cycle has now found support from the Union Budget.

The budget aims to bolster spending in the agricultural and rural sector, improve credit delivery to MSMEs and incentivise employment creation in the economy.

Ind-Ra expects the above-normal monsoon coupled with measures announced in the Union Budget for FY25 to boost the demand for goods and services consumed by rural and lower-income households.

“Ind-Ra believes these measures would help in broad-basing the consumption demand,” the report observed.

Ind-Ra expects Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) to grow to a three-year high of 7.4 per cent in FY25, up from 4 per cent in FY24.

While food inflation poses a risk, the report expects lower average retail inflation in the current financial year compared to the previous year, to support real wage growth.

The RBI has projected a growth rate of 7.2 per cent for the Indian economy while the Economic Survey has estimated GDP expansion between 6.5-7 per cent.

However, Chief Economic Advisor Anantha Nageswaran said achieving a 7 per cent GDP growth rate “is doable” for India despite the global environment having become more challenging since the beginning of the year.

“We were more confident of a 7 per cent GDP growth when we wrote the interim Economic Survey in January. Since then the global environment has become even more polarised. Given that we feel 7 per cent is doable, but yet we want to be not necessarily cautious but prudent,” he added. AGENCIES

 India’s manufacturing activity continued to expand at a robust pace in July on the back of strong domestic demand and new export orders, according to an HSBC survey released on Thursday.

“With demand conditions remaining favourable and new orders coming in, goods producers purchased additional inputs in July,” the survey highlighted.

The HSBC final India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) compiled by S&P Global, came in at 58.1 last month which was about the same as the June figure of 58.3.

The index has been above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction since July 2021 which is the longest expansionary phase in the last 11 years.

“India’s headline manufacturing PMI showed a marginal slowdown in the pace of expansion in July, but with most components remaining at robust levels, the small drop is no cause for concern,” Domestic demand recorded a healthy growth in new orders while exports rose at the second-fastest pace in 13 years driven by rising demand from countries in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East, the report states.

“New export orders remain a bright spot, rising by 1 point to the second-highest level since early 2011,” said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC.

The outlook for the coming 12 months remained optimistic with firms still taking on additional staff. While the pace of hiring was slower than in June, it maintained the positive momentum in creating new jobs, the survey states.

However, high demand pushed up both the input and output price sub-indexes. “The rate of expansion was sharp, as more than a quarter of panellists increased their buying levels. In turn, strong input demand drove cost inflation higher. Manufacturers reported paying more for coal, leather, packaging, paper, rubber, and steel,” the survey observed.

“The continuous increase in the output price index, driven by input and labour cost pressure, may signal further inflationary pressure in the economy,” Bhandari said. AGENCIES

 Infosys shares fell on Thursday after it received a GST notice citing an alleged Rs 32,000 crore tax evasion, a claim that the IT major has disputed.

Infosys shares that opened at Rs 1,850 were trading 0.5-1 per cent low.

The company’s share has gained more than 20 per cent since January this year.

Reports earlier claimed on Wednesday, citing Directorate General of GST Intelligence, that Infosys is “liable to pay IGST under reverse charge mechanism on supplies received from branches located outside India to the tune of Rs 32,403.46 crore for the period 2017-18 (July 2017 onwards) to 2021-22.”

The company denied this in a late evening stock exchange filing.

“Karnataka State GST authorities have issued a pre-show cause notice for payment of GST of Rs 32,403 crore for the period July 2017 to March 2022 towards the expenses incurred by overseas branch offices of Infosys Limited,” said the company in the filing.

The company responded to the pre-show cause notice.

Infosys also received a pre-show cause notice from the Director General of GST Intelligence on the same matter and “is in the process of responding to the same”.

“The company believes that as per regulations, GST is not applicable on these expenses. Additionally, as per a recent Circular issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on the recommendations of the GST Council, services provided by the overseas branches to Indian entities are not subject to GST,” said Infosys.

Infosys said it has paid all its GST dues and is fully in compliance with the central and state regulations on this matter. AGENCIES

 The Rs 37,000 crore investment plan of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) over the next three years is a testament to our commitment to boost growth, innovation and job creation in the country, Mahindra Group Chairman, Anand Mahindra, said.

Urging the private sector to utilise the government’s employment-linked schemes, announced during the Union Budget 2024-2025, Anand Mahindra said that this approach will help create more jobs for the youth, especially the fresh talent coming out of colleges.

The Mahindra Group Chairman, while addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), said it is a collective responsibility of the private sector and the government to generate employment for nation-building.

He said that as India stands to benefit from the re-orientation of global supply chains, its growth and prosperity must be driven by job creation.

The Group reached over 2.2 lakh women through skilling interventions, including employability-focused training and domain-specific skill development in FY24.

Employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority of the government and it has taken various steps to generate employment in the country.

The Budget 2024-25 announced five schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a five-year period with a central outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore.

According to the government, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 29 years has been declining steadily over the last five years.

According to data tabled in the Parliament this week, it has come down from 17.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 10 per cent in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India have generated more than 20.5 crore jobs in the last four years, the Centre informed this week.

More than 12.5 crore jobs were created from FY14-23, with an average of 2 crore jobs per year.

There has been a 56 per cent rise in workers’ income (FY22-23) and India is on track to become a $10 trillion economy. AGENCIES

 Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) platform has seen around 88 lakh candidate registrations till June, along with 9.59 lakh mobile app downloads and 7.63 lakh candidates being enrolled for online courses.

SIDH offers 752 online courses, leading to 7.37 lakh minutes of digital content readily available and accessible for learners, informed Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development, Jayant Chaudhary.

According to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the primary objective of the platform is to provide a comprehensive and accessible platform for skill enhancement, offering industry-relevant skill courses, job opportunities, and entrepreneurship support.

“SIDH is at the intersection of two of the most important initiatives of the government — Skill India and Digital India,” said the Minister.

It aims to serve India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for skill development, education, employment and entrepreneurship landscape.

Envisioned to integrate with MSME and facilitate access to entrepreneurship schemes for the learners and job seekers, it offers courses and apprenticeship opportunities to the learners.

The minister also informed that there are 19 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) out of 33 which are exclusively for women.

These women NSTIs offer 19 courses under the Craft Instructor Training Scheme (CITS) as well as 23 courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS).

To empower women entrepreneurs and spur economic growth, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has also unveiled the Women Entrepreneurship Programme.

This is aimed to address the distinct challenges that women face when starting and growing businesses.

In partnership with Britannia Industries Limited, the initiative will also offer financial grants and feature their products and services on the Skill India Digital Hub.

“In the skilling segment, under Jan Shikshan Sansthan, 82 per cent of our trainees are women. In the PMKVY short-term training programme, close to 45 per cent of the participants are women,” said Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. AGENCIES

 Indian equity indices opened at a lifetime high on Thursday following positive global cues.

In the early trading hours, Sensex and Nifty made a new all-time high of 82,129 and 25,078 respectively.

At 9.41 a.m., Sensex was up 299 points or 0.37 per cent at 82,040 and Nifty was up 101 points or 0.41 per cent at 25,051.

Buying is also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. The Nifty midcap 100 index is up 213 points or 0.36 per cent at 59,222 and the Nifty smallcap 100 index was at 19,227, up 90 points or 0.47 per cent.

There is a positive trend in the stock market also. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,503 shares are in the green and 570 shares are in the red.

In the Sensex pack, Maruti Suzuki, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Axis Bank, NTPC, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank are the top gainers. M&M, Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finserv are the top losers.

On the global front, the markets of Seoul, Bangkok and Jakarta are trading briskly. At the same time, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong are in red. The US markets closed positive on Wednesday.

Market experts said, “The Fed chief signalling a possible rate cut in September is positive for global equity markets. More importantly, his comments that the US economy is normalising is a shot in the arm for bulls.”

“A serious geopolitical risk is the escalation of tensions in West Asia following the killing of the top Hamas leader in Iran. The risk of a regional aggravation of the Gaza war is high,” they added. AGENCIES

 Tata Motors on Thursday reported a total sale of 71,996 vehicles in July, a significant drop from 80,633 units sold during the same period last year.

The total domestic sales dipped 11 per cent, to 70,161 units against 78,844 in July last year.

When it comes to commercial vehicles, the company sold 27,042 units last month, down 18 per cent from July last year (32,944 units).

Total passenger vehicle sales (including EVs) stood at 44,954 units, down 6 per cent from 47,689 units in the same period last year.

Segment-wise, the company saw a dip in domestic sales of medium and heavy intermediate commercial vehicles (MH & ICV) in July, including trucks and buses, at 11,174 units, compared to 13,291 units in July last year.

Total sales for MH & ICV domestic and international Business in July, including trucks and buses, stood at 11,886 units — compared to 13,830 units in July 2023, the automaker informed.

For the April-June period of this fiscal, the global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range were at 93,410, higher by 6 per cent over Q1 FY24.

The company recorded global wholesales of passenger vehicles (including electric vehicles) at 138,682, lower by 1 per cent.

For the Q1 FY25, the sales in the domestic and international markets stood at 229,891 vehicles, compared to 226,245 units during Q1 FY24.

Driven by friendly government policies, rapid urbanisation and economic growth, sales volumes of commercial vehicles (CV) have nearly recovered to the pre-Covid times. AGENCIES

Venture capital (VC) investment in India surged considerably to $4 billion in the April-June period (Q2 2024), from $2.9 billion in the previous quarter, a report said on Thursday.

On the other hand, China saw a massive decline in VC investment from $13.5 billion to $6.9 billion in the same period.

VC investment is expected to continue to pick up in India, driven in part by the country’s stable government and positive economic environment, according to a KPMG report.

During the quarter, VC investors in India focused on more traditional sectors for investment, including fintech, electric vehicles, and consumer technologies.

Unlike many other jurisdictions where investment in the consumer-focused technology space has dried up dramatically, India’s population and demographics have kept investment in the space relatively resilient, the report mentioned.

The IPO market in India continued to be robust. The capital markets saw all-time highs during Q2’24, feeding the appetite of venture companies looking to raise funds in the public markets.

“Investors continue to remain optimistic about India and as mentioned in the previous edition, our expectations of VC investments to bounce back are now playing out,” said Nitish Poddar, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity, KPMG in India.

Strong demographics, robust economy and a vibrant capital market are the real drivers behind this optimism.

“Investors will however remain cautious and will continue to back sectors and companies which have a good operating model and an assured path to profitability,” Poddar added.

VC investment in Asia dropped from $20.8 billion to $17.4 billion, driven largely by a decline in China.

“VC investment in other jurisdictions in the region saw solid increases. In Singapore, it rose from $1 billion to $2.6 billion, and in Japan, it rose from $842 million to $1.1 billion. Consumer e-commerce companies raised the largest rounds in Asia in Q2 2024,” the findings showed.

Global VC investment rose from $75.4 billion in Q1 to a five-quarter high of $94.3 billion in Q2.

Heading into Q3, VC investment globally is expected to remain relatively steady, with AI continuing to attract a large share of funding, said the report. AGENCIES

New Delhi, Aug 1

 As more than 3.2 billion people use at least one of Meta apps daily, X rival Threads is about to hit 200 million monthly active users (MAUs), Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced.

He said the company is making steady progress towards building Threads what is going to be another “major social app”.

During the Q2 earnings call with analysts, Meta CEO said “WhatsApp now serves more than 100 million monthly active users in the US.”

He said the company is also seeing good year-over-year growth across Facebook, Instagram and Threads as well, both in the US and globally.

The Meta family of apps continues to grow, with approximately 3.27 billion people using at least one of its family of apps on a daily basis in June.

“Q2 total family of apps revenue was $38.7 billion, up 22 per cent year-over-year. Q2 family of apps ads revenue was $38.3 billion, up 22 per cent or 23 per cent on a constant currency basis,” informed Meta.

On an advertiser geography basis, total revenue growth continued to be strongest in Asia Pacific, at 28 per cent.

“We expect the relevance of video recommendations will continue to increase as we benefit from unifying video ranking across Facebook and integrating our next-generation recommendation systems,” said the social network.

The company is also seeing good momentum with its longer-term engagement priorities, including Generative AI. AGENCIES