It’s a wrap: News this week (Oct 5 – Oct 11)

There have been multiple developments this week on the tech front. From TCS’ quarterly results announcement to Ratan Tata’s demise, this is the list of the most important developments for a quick catch-up:

Star Health faces massive data hack

Leading insurer Star Health Insurance has admitted a massive data breach that has exposed sensitive information worth 7.24 petabytes. The information was exposed through Telegram bots, making data such as names, mobile numbers, email IDs, date of birth, addresses, medical conditions, and policy numbers, among others publicly available. 

A self-styled hacker with the alias xenZen has publicly claimed that chief information security officer (CISO) Amarjeet Khurana sold all of the website data to him. The hacker said that Khurana later tried to renegotiate the deal asking for more money to obtain backdoor access on behalf of senior management. In view of the accusation, the insurer said in the statement that it is investigating the CISO’s role in the hack. 

TCS announces Q2 results

India’s largest IT services firm TCS posted a 5% rise in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, which ended in September. The company's net profit reached ₹11,909 crore, up from ₹11,342 crore in the same period last year. However, this result was slightly below market expectations, as analysts had forecast a profit of ₹12,450 crore.

While the company continued to face cautious spending patterns, a trend seen in recent quarters, the company saw strong digital transformation deals driven by increased investments in segments like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and cloud solutions.

TCS CEO K. Krithivasan noted that the cautious trends seen over the last few quarters persisted in Q2, influenced by ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.

Infosys partners with Zooplus

Infosys has collaborated with Zooplus, a European e-commerce company based in Germany, to enhance service capabilities and scalability. The partnership will establish an advanced Global Capability Center (GCC) in Hyderabad, India.

Zooplus will leverage Infosys’ AI-powered platform, Infosys Topaz, to drive innovation, transform e-commerce capabilities, and improve operational efficiency. This collaboration will help Zooplus enhance its marketing, supply chain, and e-commerce capabilities while supporting product management, technology, quality, design, and engineering expertise. A new order management system will also be developed to further boost efficiency.

AI in the front for Nobel Prize

This week, the Nobel Committee announced the recipients of one of the highest recognitions in the world. Two of the five awards — physics and Chemistry — have critical connections with AI technology.

This year’s Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. Hopfield created a structure to store and reconstruct information, while Hinton (referred to as the Godfather of AI) invented a method that has ultimately become the basis for now what are large artificial neural networks.

US scientists David Baker and John Jumper and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on decoding the structure of proteins and creating new ones, paving the way for advances in areas such as drug development.

Half the prize was awarded to Baker "for computational protein design" while the other half was shared by Hassabis and Jumper "for protein structure prediction".

Business tycoon Ratan Tata passes away

This week, the business tycoon, philanthropist, and chairman emeritus of Tata Sons breathed his last. He was 86. "It is with a profound sense of loss that we bid farewell to Ratan Naval Tata, a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation," said Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons in a statement. Tata’s mortal remains were cremated with state honors in Mumbai on Thursday.

Noel Tata has been chosen to succeed Ratan Tata as Chairman of the Tata Trusts, the philanthropic entities that own the holding company of the Tata Group companies. His appointment was approved by the board of Tata Trusts on Friday.