It’s a wrap: News this week (March 2 – March 8)

There have been multiple developments this week on the tech front. From govt’s approval for India AI Mission to acquisitions of the week, this is the list of the most important developments for a quick catch-up:

Rs 10,000 crore AI mission

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved India AI mission at an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore. This project, as the Ministry of Electronics and IT mentioned, is seen as a significant step towards progressing the country’s AI ecosystem. The mission will be applied by IndiaAI Independent Business Division under the Digital India Corporation. 

One of the major takeaways from the mission is that of building a high-end and scalable AI computing ecosystem to cater for India’s growing startup and research landscape. Built through a public-private partnership, the ecosystem will comprise of AI infrastructure of 10,000 or more graphics processing units (GPUs). The Cabinet has also announced setting up of innovation centre, datasets platform, and application development initiatives.

Acquisitions of the week

IT consulting firm Accenture announced that it would be acquiring learning platform  Udacity to enhance its capabilities by integrating proprietary content, expert services, and scalable learning technology. In addition, Accenture also introduced LearnVantage, an artificial intelligence (AI)-native learning platform, aimed at delivering comprehensive technology training services, to help clients reskill and upskill employees in technology, data, and AI. The company has committed an investment of $1 billion in LearnVantage over a three-year period. 
 
Further, LTIMindtree announced this week that it will be setting up a joint venture with Global Digital – an arm of Saudi Aramco for IT services in the MENA region. The IT services company will be acquiring 51% of the joint venture with an initial investment of $12.3 million.

US–based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike announced plans to acquire Flow Security, a cloud data runtime security solution. With this acquisition, CrowdStrike will be adding on  comprehensive real-time data protection capabilities, spanning endpoint and cloud environments.

Digital engineering company Virtusa announced expansion in the EMEA region with the acquisition of IT consulting company. The acquisition of BRIGHT will enhance Virtusa's existing service offerings and capabilities in ServiceNow and Splunk, especially in Europe, the company said in a statement.
 
IBM launches Expert Labs in India

IBM on Monday expanded Technology Expert Labs, focused on technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid cloud, and Cybersecurity, to India. These labs will be co-located with IBM Product Development tema in Bengaluru and Kochi, serving as a hub for technical experts, offering guidance, architectural support, and deployment assistance to clients. the Technology Expert Labs will have first-in-line access to product insights, features, and solutions, benefiting IBM clients and partners in India and globally.