Meta announced on Monday that Arun Srinivas has been appointed as its new Managing Director and Head for India, effective July 1. This move follows Sandhya Devanathan’s expanded responsibilities, now overseeing both India and Southeast Asia. In his new role, Srinivas will continue reporting to Devanathan and will be responsible for aligning Meta’s business strategies, innovation initiatives, and revenue goals to better serve its partners and clients in India. He will lead Meta’s India operations and work to deepen relationships with top brands, advertisers, developers, and partners to drive market growth.

An alumnus of IIM Kolkata, Srinivas brings nearly 30 years of experience in sales and marketing, having worked with major companies like Hindustan Unilever, Reebok, OLA, and WestBridge Capital. He currently serves as the Director and Head of Meta’s Ads Business in India. Since joining Meta in 2020, he has been instrumental in strengthening partnerships with leading advertisers and agencies, with a focus on key growth areas such as AI, reels, and messaging.

Commenting on the appointment, Sandhya Devanathan said, “With India playing a key role in global economic growth and innovation, Arun is well-positioned to lead our efforts in this vital market. His proven leadership in building strong teams, driving innovation, and nurturing strategic partnerships will help accelerate Meta’s growth in India, particularly in areas like AI, WhatsApp, and reels.”
Disclaimer: This image is taken from Business Standard.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is deepening its collaboration with a number of artificial intelligence startups as part of its broader strategy to improve software capabilities and develop competitive chip designs. With many AI companies seeking alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant hardware, AMD is working to position itself as a strong contender. This includes acquisitions like server maker ZT Systems and several small software firms, aimed at strengthening its development resources and talent pool.

A key part of AMD’s strategy involves enhancing its ROCm software platform, which is essential for running AI workloads efficiently. According to Vamsi Boppana, AMD’s senior vice president of AI, the company sees this as a long-term, multi-generational journey. Startups like Cohere, which focus on building enterprise-specific AI models, have already begun to benefit from AMD’s software improvements. Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez noted that adapting their software to run on AMD chips now takes just days instead of weeks. While he didn’t specify the exact share of AMD usage, he acknowledged it represents a significant part of their global computing power.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has had a notable influence on AMD’s next-generation MI450 chips. Forrest Norrod, AMD’s executive vice president, shared that OpenAI’s input shaped the chip’s memory architecture and scalability to support large-scale AI applications. AMD’s upcoming MI400 chips will also serve as the foundation for its new “Helios” server, designed for handling intensive AI workloads.

At a recent AMD event in San Jose, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared on stage, highlighting the companies’ growing collaboration. Norrod further revealed that OpenAI helped determine the specific types of mathematical operations the chips would be optimized for, ensuring their suitability for advanced AI tasks.
Disclaimer: This image is taken from Reuters.

Nothing’s upcoming flagship smartphone, the Phone 3, is set to launch globally on July 1, 2025. As anticipation builds, the company has started teasing key details, revealing that the Phone 3 will be manufactured in India. This announcement has generated significant interest, especially considering India’s growing importance as a tech manufacturing hub and as a key market for Nothing. The Phone 3 is expected to bring substantial upgrades in both design and performance, further elevating the brand’s global presence.

The company confirmed that the new phone will be produced at its Chennai facility, which employs around 500 people, 95% of whom are women. This move is expected to enhance production efficiency, reduce lead times, and better meet consumer demand. Nothing’s decision to manufacture locally aligns with its long-standing commitment to India, where all its smartphones have been made so far. Akis Evangelidis, Co-Founder and President of Nothing India, emphasized the significance of the Indian market for the brand, stating that the company is deepening its investment in local manufacturing, talent, and innovation, in alignment with the Make in India initiative.

In addition to manufacturing, Nothing is also focusing on improving customer service across the country. It is setting up five new service centers in major cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The company already has 20 priority desks and plans to add 10 more, along with expanding its network of authorized service centers. Retail presence has also grown significantly, with the number of stores increasing from 2,000 to 10,000 in just one year, demonstrating the company’s commitment to enhancing the user experience at every stage of the customer journey.

As for the Phone 3 itself, it is rumored to feature major changes, including a performance boost through the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and a possible redesign that may eliminate the signature glyph lighting interface. With these expected upgrades, the Phone 3 could be a compelling option for anyone looking to switch to a premium smartphone.
Disclaimer: This image is taken from Nothing.

French startup Mistral has unveiled Europe's first AI model designed specifically for reasoning, aiming to challenge leading American and Chinese players in the artificial intelligence sector. This new model generates responses using logical and structured thought processes. Mistral, backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, is setting itself apart by emphasizing its European identity and by releasing some of its models as open source—unlike major players such as OpenAI and Google, which primarily keep their models proprietary.

Although Mistral is seen as Europe’s strongest hope for a homegrown AI leader, it still trails its global counterparts in terms of revenue and market share. The company’s new reasoning models apply a "chain-of-thought" method, solving complex problems step-by-step using intermediate reasoning. This technique could be key in enhancing AI's performance, especially as the strategy of simply scaling up model size with more data and computing power shows diminishing returns.

Valued at $6.2 billion by investors, Mistral could benefit from the industry's growing interest in innovation over pure scaling. Earlier this year, China’s DeepSeek made significant progress by releasing low-cost, open-source reasoning models. OpenAI led the way with reasoning models in 2023, followed by Google, while Meta, although active in open-source AI, has not yet launched a dedicated reasoning model. Mistral’s latest release includes the open-source Magistral Small model, along with a more powerful Magistral Medium version intended for enterprise users.

“Human thinking isn’t always linear—it blends logic, intuition, uncertainty, and discovery,” the company said. “Reasoning language models allow us to delegate and enhance complex thought through AI.” While U.S. firms typically keep their most advanced models closed, some like Meta have opted for open-source releases. Chinese companies including DeepSeek and Alibaba are increasingly using open-source strategies to showcase their tech capabilities.
Disclaimer: This image is taken from Reuters.

With wearable devices like the Oura Ring becoming increasingly common, some users report feeling more anxious due to constant access to data about their bodies. Andrea Heng and Susan Ng talk to Dr. Jay Lee, a sports psychologist at the Singapore Sports and Medicine Centre, about the fine line between healthy self-tracking and unhealthy obsession.
Disclaimer: This Podcast is taken from CNA.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Technology has instructed telecom providers to block Telegram due to its lack of cooperation in addressing alleged crimes by its users. This led Daniel Martin and Justine Moss to ask Associate Professor Natalie Pang from NUS’s Department of Communications and New Media whether a messaging app could one day be banned in Singapore.
Disclaimer: This Podcast is taken from CNA.

Mind Your Money explores the impact of AI in the workplace and its potential to unlock human potential, in a conversation with Associate Professor Terence Ho, Deputy Executive Director at the Institute of Adult Learning.
Disclaimer: This Podcast is taken from CNA.