New Delhi, Jan 20: India stands at the forefront as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a global hub for startups and digital innovation, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report said on Monday.

According to the report, launched by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) India, the liaison office of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in India, the country’s “advocacy for and pursuit of developmental templates where technology serves as a bridge rather than a barrier are highly relevant and the Forum is proud to act as its partner in shaping a more human-centric, planet-friendly and resilient future”.

The C4IR India was launched in October 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the aim of driving the adoption and responsible deployment of emerging technologies in India.

A collaboration between the World Economic Forum, coordinated by the NITI Ayog, the launch of the centre is part of the World Economic Forum’s global network of centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Over the past six years, C4IR India has emerged as a key hub for multistakeholder collaboration and has improved the lives of 1.25 million citizens through enhanced livelihoods and better access to healthcare,” said Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.

The centre has driven fourth industrial revolution technologies across agriculture, health and aviation, setting a benchmark for transformative progress.

“As C4IR India continues to expand, it is now focusing on cutting-edge areas such as AI, climate tech, and space tech, with exciting potential for creating lasting value for society,” Jurgens added.

C4IR India aims to reach 10 million citizens by scaling its flagship initiatives and upcoming projects. These include the ‘AI for India 2030’ initiative, which seeks to unlock AI’s potential for societal benefit; the ‘Space Economy’ initiative, aimed at positioning India as a leader in space technologies; and the ‘Climate Technology’ programme, which will focus on developing climate-smart urban centres.

According to S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, “Our partnership with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India focuses on developing a multistakeholder community to leverage Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies for critical challenges on health, education, smart cities and agriculture.

“AI for India 2030 is an important initiative in partnership with MeitY, enabling stakeholders across industry and startups to partner with government to realise the potential of AI,” he added.

New Delhi, Jan 16: Driven by the growing use of Indic languages for digital content, the internet user base in India is set to surpass 900 million by 2025, driven by the growing use of Indic languages for digital content, a report showed on Thursday.

The number of active internet users in India reached 886 million in 2024, marking a robust 8 per cent year-on-year growth. Rural India, with 488 million users, leads this growth and now accounts for 55 per cent of the total internet population, according to the report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar.

Nearly all internet users (98 per cent) accessed content in Indic languages, with Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam emerging as the most popular due to their extensive availability.

Over half (57 per cent) of urban internet users prefer consuming content in regional languages, underscoring the growing demand for local language content across platforms, according to the report.

AI has emerged as a significant game changer over the past year. Nine out of 10 internet users have interacted with apps featuring embedded AI capabilities.

“The widespread acceptance and enthusiasm surrounding AI should encourage digital companies to introduce more next-generation AI features in India,” Biswapriya Bhattacharya, Director, B2B and Technology, Kantar Insights–South Asia, said.

The digital gender gap in India is steadily narrowing, with 47 per cent of all internet users in the country being women — so far the highest.

Female internet users now form a significant portion of shared device users in rural India at 58 per cent. This marks substantial progress in making digital access more inclusive and equitable over the years, the report noted.

Rural India dominates online engagement for top activities, including OTT video and music streaming, online communication, and social media usage, outpacing urban users in these categories.

Urban India leads in the adoption of non-traditional devices such as smart TVs and smart speakers, which have grown by 54 per cent between 2023 and 2024.

Concurrently, mobile devices remain the primary means of accessing the internet across both urban and rural demographics, said the report.

New Delhi, Jan 16: Infamous short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, which is now being disbanded as per an open letter from its founder Nate Anderson, has been under the radar of Indian regulators like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) over its report against the Adani Group, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The Adani Group always vehemently rejected allegations by Hindenburg Research as “malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information” to arrive at “pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law”.

“For a discredited short-seller under the scanner for several violations of Indian securities laws, Hindenburg’s allegations are no more than red herrings thrown by a desperate entity,” according to the Group.

The SEBI last year issued a show-cause notice to Hindenburg Research, Nate Anderson and the entities of Mauritius-based foreign portfolio investor Mark Kingdon for trading violations in the scrip of Adani Enterprises Ltd leading up to Hindenburg Report.

The regulator alleged that Hindenburg and Anderson violated regulations related to fraudulent and unfair trade practices and the code of conduct for research analysts.

According to the show cause notice, SEBI alleged that prior to the report release, short-selling activity was witnessed in the futures of Adani Enterprises and after the report the share lost 59 per cent between January 24, 2023 and February 22, 2023.

The SEBI investigation revealed that K-India Opportunities Fund – Class F opened a trading account and started trading in the scrip of Adani Enterprises before the release of the report. The FPI then squared off the positions in February making a profit of $22.25 million or Rs 183.24 crore.

Hindenburg continued to defend its January 2023 report. The Adani Group denied allegations levelled by the short seller.

The Supreme Court in July last year dismissed a review petition that was filed against its January 3 judgement in the Adani Group-Hindenburg Research case, wherein the court reposed confidence in SEBI’s regulatory powers and ruled that petitioners could not provide enough material to transfer the probe to a special investigation team.

In January last year, the Supreme Court refused to form any SIT or group of experts to conduct an investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg controversy, saying that the media and third-party reports were not conclusive proof.

“SEBI should take its investigation to its logical conclusion in accordance with law. The facts of this case do not warrant a transfer of investigation from SEBI,” held a bench presided over by then CJI, D.Y. Chandrachud.

Despite continuous attacks from Hindenburg Research and other US-based entities in the past, the market cap of the Adani Group has increased to nearly Rs 12.80 lakh crore.

Every attack made the Group even stronger, and every obstacle became a stepping stone for a more resilient conglomerate. In the recent past, there have been many positive developments about Adani Group’s companies that boosted investors’ confidence.