In yet another success story of India’s local manufacturing push, iPhone maker Apple has achieved record exports numbers in the April-June quarter in the country, reaching around $3.8 billion.

Riding on the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Apple reached a new all-time high in the Q1 FY25, according to industry data, as manufacturers continue to look at the ‘China + 1 business strategy’ to avoid investing only in the neighbouring country and diversify business into other territories.

In the last fiscal (FY24), the Cupertino-based tech giant saw its sales hitting new highs amid increased manufacturing and a growing premiumisation trend.

The tech giant saw robust around $8 billion sales in India in the last fiscal — a nearly 33 per cent surge (on-year).

With strong macro-economic indicators, conducive government policies and over 7 per cent growth projected for the Indian GDP, the auto component industry will continue to perform well in FY25, according to the industry.

Riding on steady production, a robust aftermarket and growth in exports, turnover of the automotive component industry in India has broken all previous records, reaching $74.1 billion in FY24.

Apart from an increase in vehicle production, higher value addition from the component sector has led to growth in the auto components sector, according to the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).

Steady growth in the vehicle industry has resulted in the industry reaching pre-pandemic levels of performance in FY24 in most segments.

About 94 per cent of automotive firms struggle to recruit talent in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, according to a report on Friday.

The report by EdTech platform Skill-Lync is based on an extensive survey, involving over 220 leaders from the engineering and HR divisions of top automotive firms in India

It showed that 94 per cent of people find it challenging to recruit in specialised fields such as software-defined vehicles (SDV), and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). About 60-65 per cent of the talent requirements in companies are for mid-level professionals with 3-7 years of experience.

Amid the changing landscape where cyber-criminals use novel methods to steal personal data, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 upholds individuals' rights to safeguard their data, incorporating established principles for its protection, the government has said.

According to Ministry of Electronics & IT, these principles include obtaining consent for lawful and transparent use of personal data, limiting its use to specified purposes, minimising data collection to necessary levels, ensuring data accuracy and timely updates, restricting storage duration to the required period, implementing robust security measures, and enforcing accountability through penalties for breaches and data adjudication.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has announced its foray into the search market dominated by Google, with launching SearchGPT which is an AI-powered search engine offering real-time access to information across the web.

The Sam Altman-run company said it is testing SearchGPT, “a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources”.

SearchGPT is designed to combine the strength of its AI models with information from the web to give the users fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.

OpenAi said it is first launching the search engine with a small group of users and publishers to get feedback.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has reached 100 million users in the US, said its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This is the first time the social media company has revealed its US figures for the WhatsApp service.

Meta also said that over 50 per cent of WhatsApp’s users own iPhones.

Compared to the US, WhatsApp has with more than 500 million monthly active users in India.

Globally, the popular mobile messaging service has over 2 billion users.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that will help users stay safe in group messaging.

Global IT services and consulting provider Tech Mahindra on Thursday reported a 1.2 per cent decrease in revenue for the April-June quarter (year-on-year) at Rs 13,005 crore.

On a quarterly basis, the revenue went up 1 per cent for the IT company.

The consolidated PAT was at Rs 851 crore, up 23 per cent (YoY), for Q1 FY25, while EBITDA reached Rs 1,564 crore, up 16.9 per cent YoY.

The company reported total headcount at 147,620, down 677 annually, for the June quarter.

Taking on Google, Apple has announced to bring Maps on the web in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser.

Apple Maps on the web is now available in English, and is compatible with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad, as well as Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs.

The company said that Apple Maps users can get driving and walking directions, find great places and useful information including photos, hours, ratings, and reviews.

They can also “take actions like ordering food directly from the Maps place card; and browse curated Guides to discover places to eat, shop, and explore in cities around the world”.

Tech giant Apple on Wednesday launched its watch for kids in India that comes with easy calling, texting, and activity monitoring.

The Apple Watch for kids is functional “even if they don’t have their own iPhone”, said the company in a statement.

It may help parents who do not want to give mobile phones to children.

“Apple Watch For Your Kids is available in India, on cellular models of Apple Watch Series 4 or later or Apple Watch SE, paired with iPhone 8 or later running the latest watchOS and iOS,” Apple said.

“It brings communication, health, fitness, and safety features of Apple Watch to kids and other family members who do not yet have an iPhone,” the company added.

Elon Musk-run Tesla has reported $1.5 billion in profit for the April-June period (Q2) this year, down 45 per cent from the same period in 2023.

Total revenue was up 2 per cent (year-on-year) at $25.5 billion, but automotive revenues was down 7 per cent to $19.9 billion, according to the electric car-maker.

“In Q2, we achieved record quarterly revenues despite a difficult operating environment. The Energy Storage business continues to grow rapidly, setting a record in Q2 with 9.4 GWh of deployments, resulting in record revenues and gross profits for the overall segment,” Tesla said in a statement.

The company is looking at a possibility of selling fewer EVs in 2024 than 2023.