Category: BUSINESS

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Tuesday, February 17, proposed to build a dedicated zone for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in Bharat Future City, on the sidelines of Bio Asia 2026, taking place at HITEX.

Bio Asia is an annual forum on life sciences that aims to foster collaboration among industry leaders, researchers, investors, and policymakers. The event taking place at HITEX saw participation of more than 4,000 delegates representing 500 top companies of the life sciences ecosystem from all over the world.

At the event, Opella Healthcare, a global consumer healthcare company and subsidiary of Sanofi, announced that it will be expanding its GCC to a 42,000 square foot facility, which will create up to 500 jobs in the next year, according to a release from the Telangana CMO.

Additionally, Vaksindo Animal Health Pvt Ltd, which is a division of JAPFA Indonesia, announced the establishment of a state-of-the-art Biosafety Level 3 vaccine manufacturing facility in Genome Valley.

This facility will focus on producing vaccines for poultry, cattle, swine, and aquaculture.

Tredence Inc, an AI and data science company, also proposed to establish an 18,000 sq. ft. facility in Hyderabad that will act as a special AI innovation centre focused on healthcare and life sciences and also support their global operations.

Meanwhile, Rx Propellant, a life sciences infrastructure platform, announced the development of a new, large-format life sciences campus in Genome Valley.

The project will be delivered in phases over the next six years and will comprise over 1 million square feet of advanced laboratory infrastructure across nearly 12 acres.

New Delhi: Shares of IT major Infosys rose more than 3 per cent on Tuesday, February 17, after the company said it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Anthropic to develop and deliver advanced enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

On the BSE, the scrip of company increased 3.27 per cent to Rs 1,410.95 per piece.

BSE-focussed IT index gained 1.45 per cent, with Infosys emerging as the top performer.

Markets are trading in the positive territory, with the 30-share BSE Sensex rising 126.19 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 83,403.34.

Infosys on Tuesday announced a strategic collaboration with Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, to develop and deliver advanced enterprise AI solutions to companies across telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, and software development.

The Bengaluru-based Infosys said the collaboration with Anthropic will focus initially on the telecommunications sector through a dedicated Anthropic Center of Excellence to build and deploy AI agents tailored to industry-specific operations.

The partnership will further expanded across industries, including financial services, manufacturing, and software development, the company said in a regulatory filing.

At its core, the strategic alliance integrates Anthropic’s Claude models, including Claude Code, with Infosys Topaz AI offerings to help enterprises automate workflows, accelerate software delivery, and adopt AI with governance and transparency for regulated industries.

The collaboration will also help organisations modernise legacy systems, combining Infosys Topaz and Claude to accelerate migration and reduce the cost of updating aging infrastructure, it added.

“Our collaboration with Anthropic marks a strategic leap toward advancing enterprise AI, enabling organisations to unlock value and become more intelligent, resilient, and responsible,” Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys said.

Anthropic Co-Founder and CEO Dario Amodei said, “Infosys has exactly that kind of expertise across important industries: telecom, financial services, and manufacturing. Their developers are already using Claude Code to accelerate their work and to create AI agents for industries that demand precision, compliance, and deep domain knowledge.”

Amaravati: Microsoft founder Bill Gates will visit Amaravati on February 16 and hold discussions with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on expanding cooperation in health and artificial intelligence initiatives, Andhra Pradesh minister P Narayana said on Sunday.

Gates is expected to arrive at the state secretariat here around 10 am on Monday and meet with Naidu, IT Minister Nara Lokesh and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan briefly.

“Gates will visit Amaravati on Monday and hold discussions with Naidu on expanding cooperation in health and artificial intelligence initiatives,” said Narayana, the state Municipal minister.

The Gates Foundation has been working in Kuppam in Chittoor district on health-related projects, and the proposed talks are expected to explore scaling up these interventions to benefit a wider population across the southern state.

Later, the tech czar will proceed to the Real Time Governance system (RTGS) to observe the utilisation of technology in governance, followed by Naidu showcasing the system’s procedures and results, a government source had earlier said.

Naidu will give a presentation on “Swarna Andhra 2047” (golden Andhra) vision and the reforms ushered in various sectors, including med-tech, diagnostic services and Sanjeevani, a health record digitisation programme, said the source.

Following these engagements at the secretariat, Gates and team will proceed to an agricultural centre in Undavalli village in Amaravati, where he will witness the use of drones and AI technology, the source further said.

Gates had earlier visited the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh twice, and this visit follows an invitation extended by the chief minister to further deepen collaboration with the state government, the minister added.

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold talks with his French counterpart Catherine Vautrin in Bengaluru on February 17, with some key outcomes expected from the bilateral dialogue to boost defence cooperation.

A defence cooperation agreement is expected to be renewed for another 10 years, with an MoU on joint venture for “manufacturing of Hammer missiles” likely to be signed at the meeting in the presence of both the ministers, the defence ministry here said on Sunday.

“The two ministers are also expected to witness the virtual inauguration of the H125 Light Utility Helicopter Final Assembly of Tata Airbus by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron at Vemagal in Karnataka,” it said in a statement.

Singh will co-chair the sixth India-France Annual Defence Dialogue with Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs of France, Catherine Vautrin in Bengaluru on February 17, the ministry said.

The meeting will review the entire gamut of bilateral defence cooperation, with a focus on expanding industrial collaboration, officials said.

An announcement is also expected with respect to the reciprocal deployment of officers at the Indian Army and French Land Forces establishments, the defence ministry said.

Defence has traditionally formed an important pillar of the relationship between the two countries.

The “strong and enduring bilateral ties” were vividly reflected in 2024-2025 through a series of high-profile exchanges, the statement said.

PM Modi was the Guest of Honour at the Bastille Day Parade in July 2023, before the French president graced the Republic Day Parade 2024 as the chief guest.

“The recent India-EU Security and Defence Partnership marks a significant step in deepening collective engagement with European nations,” the ministry said.

Also, military-to-military cooperation is on the increase. India and France have been regularly carrying out three major exercises — Exercise Shakti with the Army, Exercise Varuna with the Navy, and Exercise Garuda with the Air Force — and several other opportunity engagements, it said.

This would be the maiden visit of Vautrin to India after she took over as the French defence minister on October 12, 2025, the statement said.

The India-France Annual Defence Dialogue is a structured ministerial-level bilateral meeting to review and guide defence and security cooperation.

The fifth edition of the meeting was held in France from October 11-13, 2023.

New Delhi: The government is conducting a “very thorough study” of flight operations by non-scheduled operators and uncontrolled airfields to look at areas where steps need to be taken, according to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu.

Flight operations by Non-Scheduled Operators (NSOPs) have come under increased regulatory scrutiny in the wake of the fatal crash of a VSR Ventures-owned LearJet 45 plane that killed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others on January 28.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already initiated a special safety audit of NSOPs earlier this month.

Naidu told PTI that the civil aviation ministry is doing a “thorough study” of the NSOPs, as well as the uncontrolled airfields.

Areas where something needs to be done with respect to NSOPs and uncontrolled airfields will be looked into, he said.

On January 28, VSR Ventures’ Learjet 45, carrying Pawar and four others, crashed near the Baramati airport, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to very soon come out with its preliminary report on the fatal accident.

NSOPs are generally those entities that do not have a fixed schedule for operators and mostly operate chartered flights.

Baramati is an uncontrolled airfield, and traffic information is provided by instructors/pilots from the flying training organisations at that place.

An uncontrolled aerodrome is an aerodrome without a control tower, or one where the tower is not in operation, according to the website SKYbrary.

In a detailed statement on the LearJet 45 crash, the ministry, on January 28, said the “aircraft was cleared to land on runway 11 at 0843IST; however, they did not give a readback of the landing clearance”.

“Next, the ATC saw the flames around the threshold of runway 11 at 0844 IST. The emergency services then rushed to the crash site,” it had said.

Meanwhile, the minister, speaking to PTI on the sidelines of an event here this week, also said the focus is to boost airlines with smaller operations.

He was responding to a query on whether the ministry would be looking at having a ‘too big to fail’ concept for the airlines, similar to the banking sector, in the wake of IndiGo operational disruptions in December.

New Delhi: The combined market valuation of six of the top 10 valued firms eroded by more than Rs 3 lakh crore last week, with IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys emerging as the biggest laggards amid a bearish trend in equities.

The BSE benchmark declined by 953.64 points, or 1.14 per cent, over the past week.

TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), and Bharti Airtel faced erosion from their valuation, while State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were the gainers.

The market valuation of TCS tumbled Rs 90,198.92 crore to Rs 9,74,043.43 crore, while Infosys’ valuation eroded by Rs 70,780.23 crore to Rs 5,55,287.72 crore.

The market valuation of HDFC Bank declined by Rs 54,627.71 crore to Rs 13,93,621.92 crore, and that of Reliance Industries plunged by Rs 41,883 crore to Rs 19,21,475.79 crore.

Life Insurance Corporation of India’s market capitalisation (mcap) dropped by Rs 23,971.74 crore to Rs 5,46,226.80 crore, and that of Bharti Airtel declined by Rs 19,244.61 crore to Rs 11,43,044.03 crore.

However, the valuation of State Bank of India (SBI) jumped Rs 1,22,213.38 crore to Rs 11,06,566.44 crore.

The mcap of Bajaj Finance climbed Rs 26,414.44 crore to Rs 6,37,244.64 crore, and that of Larsen & Toubro’s valuation increased by Rs 14,483.9 crore to Rs 5,74,028.93 crore.

ICICI Bank’s mcap rose by Rs 5,719.95 crore to Rs 10,11,978.77 crore.

Reliance Industries remained the most valued firm, followed by HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, and Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Mumbai: Gold remains the most trusted investment for young Indians despite growing access to modern financial products, with 62 per cent of respondents choosing the metal as the first choice for investment, according to a survey.

The survey also revealed that 66.7 per cent of respondents stated that gold purchases are largely their personal decisions, and nearly 62 per cent stated that their most recent gold purchase was below 5 grams, indicating the changing nature of how the Gen Z and Millennials look at gold.

The Smytten PulseAI survey, conducted with 5,000 consumers aged between 18 and 39, captured how tradition-led buying is steadily giving way to a more individual, logic-driven approach.

According to the survey, 61.9 per cent of respondents would choose gold if they had Rs 25,000 to invest today, far ahead of mutual funds (16.6 per cent), fixed deposits (13 per cent), stocks (6.6 per cent) and crypto (1.9 per cent).

During times of economic uncertainty, 65.7 per cent said gold feels like the safest option compared to bank savings, mutual funds or equities, it stated.

These findings underline gold’s enduring role as the financial fallback across both Gen Z and Millennials.

The survey pointed to a clear move away from large, infrequent purchases toward lighter, more regular buying, as 61.9 per cent of recent purchases were below 5 grams, with 27.5 per cent buying less than 2 grams and 34.4 per cent buying between 2 and 5 grams.

For many first-time buyers, entry into gold is no longer limited to weddings. Nearly 24 per cent said their first gold purchase was triggered by their first salary or personal income, while 23.9 per cent cited an investment decision.

New Delhi: Artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to replace IT services companies anytime soon, according to a new report by JP Morgan’s Asia Pacific Equity Research team.  

Instead of shrinking the industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to become another tool that helps companies deliver more work within the same budgets.

In a note titled “India IT Services: Looking through the AI fog 2 — Discounted for extinction? Div/FCF yields at crisis levels,” JP Morgan said fears that AI could wipe out Indian IT firms may be exaggerated.

The report argues that AI will create new areas of work rather than reduce opportunities for IT vendors.

The brokerage compared AI with earlier technology shifts such as offshore labour, enterprise software and cloud computing.

In each of those cycles, new technology did not eliminate IT services but changed the way companies worked.

According to the report, AI will play a similar role by helping firms handle more projects without necessarily increasing budgets.

JP Morgan said there is growing demand in areas such as modernising old legacy systems, rewriting customised SaaS applications where required, building AI agents for operations, ensuring trust and reliability in AI systems, and integrating physical AI solutions. All these areas, it noted, will need strong services support.

The report also pointed out that enterprise technology teams are often underfunded compared to business expectations.

In such a scenario, AI is likely to be used to increase productivity rather than replace IT service providers completely.

The brokerage warned that it is too simplistic to assume AI can automatically create enterprise-grade software and replace the integration and customisation work done by IT services companies.

It described IT firms as the “plumbers of the tech world,” highlighting their crucial role in making complex systems work smoothly in large organisations.

According to the report, recent market weakness in IT stocks reflects investor concerns that rapid advances in AI could slow revenue growth and reduce the total addressable market for Indian IT companies.

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia is opening up Makkah’s real estate market to foreign investors as part of a wider strategy to attract capital and diversify its oil-dependent economy, according to a Bloomberg report.

The initiative is part of efforts to draw USD 100 billion in annual foreign direct investment by 2030 under its Vision 2030 reform programme. In 2025, authorities allowed foreign firms to invest in developers operating in Makkah, while overseas Muslims were given a pathway to buy property in the holy city.

The move points to a growing emphasis on sectors capable of delivering steady and long-term returns. Religious tourism is seen as central to this strategy, with millions of Muslims travelling to Makkah each year to perform Haj and Umrah, creating sustained demand for accommodation and services.

Saudi Arabia has also expanded year-round Umrah visas in recent years. This has helped maintain visitor flows beyond the traditional pilgrimage season and boosted confidence among investors in the hospitality and property sectors.

The researcher, MEED, estimates that around USD 60 billion worth of projects are planned or under construction in Makkah, according to Bloomberg. These include residential towers, hotels, shopping centres and large-scale infrastructure aimed at managing rising pilgrim numbers.

Rising demand has driven land prices near the Grand Mosque to some of the highest levels globally. Certain plots have traded at about USD 87,000 per square metre, according to property brokers.

The shift also reflects a broader recalibration of development priorities. While major projects such as NEOM remain part of long-term plans, Saudi Arabia is placing greater emphasis on tourism, finance and technology to generate faster economic returns.

However, the rapid transformation of the holy city has sparked debate among scholars and pilgrims, with concerns over rising costs, overcrowding and the loss of historical neighbourhoods. Some visitors say growing crowds have made religious rituals more challenging, particularly for elderly worshippers.

Saudi authorities say expansion is necessary to improve infrastructure, safety and services as visitor numbers continue to increase. Programmes aimed at supporting pilgrims from less affluent countries are also being strengthened.

“Makkah is on the radar of the who’s who in the investment arena,” Yasser Abu Ateek, chief executive of Umm Al Qura for Development and Construction, told Bloomberg.

Maintaining a balance between commercial development and preserving the spiritual and cultural character of Makkah will be essential as the city evolves into a major global centre for religious tourism and investment.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday, February 12, again denied the United States’s claims that India will stop buying Russian oil as part of a broader India-US trade.

This comes a day after US Assistant Secretary of State S Paul Kapur reiterated the remarks made by President Donald Trump and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, saying India will reduce Russian oil imports as part of the broader trade arrangement.

“They (India) have actually been buying more US energy and, I think, that’s a promising possibility to substitute some US energy for the Russian energy and buying from other parts of the world,” Kapur had said.

In a recent call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Trump agreed to remove an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports if India “is committed to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil.”

Not answering in a firm yes or no, Jaiswal said its joint statement with the US remains the basis for a proposed interim trade agreement, and that the amendments in a White House fact sheet reflect the shared understandings.

“The joint statement is the framework and remains the basis of our mutual understanding in the matter. Both sides will now work towards implementing this framework and finalising the interim agreement,” Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

The revised fact sheet issued Tuesday removed the reference made regarding pulses.

“India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products,” it read.

“India intends to buy more American products and purchase over USD 500 billion of US energy, information and communication technology, coal, and other products,” it read.

To a question on Trump’s Board of Peace, Jaiswal said India received an invitation for it, and New Delhi is currently considering it.

“As far as the Board of Peace is concerned, we have received an invitation from the US government to join the Board of Peace. We are currently considering this proposal and reviewing it,” he said.

Jaiswal said India has consistently supported efforts that promote peace, stability, and dialogue in West Asia.

“Our prime minister has also welcomed all such initiatives that pave the way for long-term and lasting peace in the entire region, including Gaza. So, with regard to the invitation to join the Board of Peace, we are presently reviewing it,” he said.

(With PTI inputs)