Google for India 2023: 10 BIG announcements - Google Pixel 8 to be made in India, Google Cloud for farmers, and more

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has issued a stern warning to social media platforms today, emphasising their legal obligations in the fight against deepfakes and all other forms of misinformation. The trigger for his message was the shocking actress Rashmika Mandanna deepfake video that went viral. Originally, the video showcased Zara Patel, a British-Indian influencer, but it had been manipulated to replace her face with Rashmika Mandanna using deepfake technology.

You owe it to yourself to watch the best new movie on Netflix: the genre-bending Hindi thriller Jawan.

In recent years, Apple has been making more and more efforts to strengthen its foothold in the Indian smartphone market. It has also tapped into the ‘Make in India' initiative by establishing manufacturing of not only older iPhones but newer models such as iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 in the country. And now, the Cupertino-based tech giant is reportedly taking another giant step towards increasing its production capacity in India by kicking the new product introduction (NPI) of the iPhone 17 in the second half of 2025. Let us take a closer look.

The Battlegrounds Mobile India brings various events and themes into the game from time to time. Recently to celebrate the spooky season, Krafton announced the Zombie Edge theme and various crates that gave users the chance to get themed outfits, weapon skins, vehicles, and more. Now, as the Halloween fever is over, the lights are back to the game with Diwali Delights Exchange Corner. Now, with the festival of lights is around the corner, the game is providing exclusive items for free but there is a catch! Know more about the Diwali exchange corner and its rewards.

Google Maps in India was a tough venture that was eventually rolled out successfully, but as with most things in the country, it required quite a bit of jugaad to get it into place. And no, we are not referring to the technology available, which at that time was the latest available. So, what did it take to roll out a reliable Google Maps? In the words of Elizabeth Laraki, alum at Google Maps, it took more than just rolling out to the designated area and mapping it as per the available signposts. Laraki ran into what then looked like an insurmountable problem, In a very long post on X, she said, "In 2008, Google Maps launched in India. But we quickly ran into a problem: Nobody used street names. And street names were the foundation of Google Maps."

In some great news for Google Pixel users in India and some other countries, the company has rolled out its crash detection feature. Google had rolled out the Car Crash Detection feature to Pixel smartphones way back in 2019. After the recent expansion of the feature, Pixel users will be able to see it in the Safety app on Pixel 3 and later versions. The feature was not recognized much until Apple launched it in the iPhone 14 series. However, Google's Car Crash Detection feature was limited to only a few regions. Now, Google has expanded the feature availability to more regions. Know what is the Google Pixel Crash Detection feature about and the list of newly added countries.

In an incident yesterday, October 31, that rocked the Indian political establishment, at least nine political leaders from opposition parties received a shocking alert on their iPhones warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their device. It raised an alarm among leaders as they posted screenshots of the alerts on their X accounts, seeking clarification for the same. The government also raised a query with the iPhone maker to share more details about the alerts and to work closely as an investigation is conducted.

Youngsters will need to create applications to make India the leader in 6G technology, in line with the Prime Minister's ambition, a senior telecom industry body official said on Friday.

A major announcement came from Reliance Jio today, October 27, at the India Mobile Congress, as the company launched India's first-ever satellite-based gigabit broadband service called JioSpaceFiber. According to a press release shared, Reliance Jio is aiming to take a big step in connecting remote regions of India with high-speed internet. The service will be available across the length and breadth of the country, mentioned the press release. The company also said that the prices will be kept highly competitive. The actual prices have not been announced. However, it is expected to be launched soon.

A new class of competition is disrupting legacy media in the world's most-populous nation, leading to a second change in the ownership of a popular franchise in four years. Rupert Murdoch was the first to see the threat. Now it's Bob Iger's turn.

Google's latest subsea cable endeavor will connect the US, Fiji, French Polynesia, and Australia in the South Pacific.

ScaleAI aims to be America's AI arms dealer in race against China; AI to personalise sports betting by bringing Netflix-like experience to wagers; Wikipedia's citation woes may be solved by AI, study suggests; Insurers turn to AI to assess cognitive decline in aging drivers- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.