Indian Science and Technology Developments : Updates and Discussions
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Govt spent Rs 180 cr on Zoho-backed email platform; 16.68 lakh official accounts migrated
MeitY said pricing under contract with Zoho ranges from Rs 170 to Rs 300 per account per month for mailbox sizes between 30 GB and 100 GB.
theprint.in
Food for thought:
In spite of buying German TBM machines, India has been at the mercy of China because they're manufactured there.
Iran has built world class TBM tech but their scientists/engineers are currently out of a job.
Should India poach them to jumpstart its TBM industry?
In spite of buying German TBM machines, India has been at the mercy of China because they're manufactured there.
Iran has built world class TBM tech but their scientists/engineers are currently out of a job.
Should India poach them to jumpstart its TBM industry?
Its not that deep! (pun intended).
They saw tunnels as a strategic necessity for their national objectives, such as nuclear and missile developments. West obviously wont help them in this regard. Thus they planned and worked for decades to master it.
YES! but I sadly dont think our babus are smart enough. Thankfully though BEML seems to have started TBM development so we might have indegenous TBMS relatively soon.
the German TBM maker is also expanding production to large scale TBMs in their chennai facility so we will have at least one by end of 2027 and maybe 2 by 2032 ish.
Right thread for this?
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) approval of Wockhardt’s Zaynich, a first-in-class "breakthrough antibiotic" for severe drug-resistant infections, opens up a significant global market opportunity and marks a watershed moment for India’s pharmaceutical industry, the company’s founder chairman Habil Khorakiwala told TOI on Monday.
Zaynich, a combination of cefepime and zidebactam, is the first novel drug discovered and developed in India to secure USFDA approval, with peak sales estimated at over $1.5 billion, he said.
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Indian Pharma companies are moving up the value chain.
'USFDA nod for Zaynich a major boost'
NEW DELIH: The US Food and Drug Administration’s (USFDA) approval of Wockhardt’s Zaynich, a first-in-class ``breakthrough antibiotic'' for severe drug-resistant infections, opens up a significant global market opportunity and marks a watershed moment for India’s pharmaceutical industry, the...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) approval of Wockhardt’s Zaynich, a first-in-class "breakthrough antibiotic" for severe drug-resistant infections, opens up a significant global market opportunity and marks a watershed moment for India’s pharmaceutical industry, the company’s founder chairman Habil Khorakiwala told TOI on Monday.
Zaynich, a combination of cefepime and zidebactam, is the first novel drug discovered and developed in India to secure USFDA approval, with peak sales estimated at over $1.5 billion, he said.
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Indian Pharma companies are moving up the value chain.
Sarvam says it is making 1 trillion parameter AI model, seeks to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic
Armaan Agarwal
New Delhi, UPDATED: Jul 30, 2026, 13:58 IST
Sarvam has just announced a series of new releases at its AI conference Epoch. From the launch of Sarvam Vision 2.0 to Bulbul 4, and upgrades to its flagship Sarvam 105B model, here are all the details.
Sarvam AI is making a new flagship AI model from scratch in India. (Photo: File Photo)
AI startup Sarvam has made a series of announcements during its AI conference, called Epoch 2026. At the event, the Indian AI lab claimed that its models can deliver strong performance at a fraction of the cost of global frontier models. From Sarvam 105B to the launch of Sarvam Vision 2.0 and Bulbul V4, here is everything you need to know.
During the keynote, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar said that the startup was building a foundational AI model with over a trillion parameters in India "We are very happy to announce that we are building a trillion-plus parameter model right here in India. We are building them from scratch to be competitive in coding, cybersecurity, simulation, science and more," he said.
Parameters refer to the dataset used to train AI. The more the parameters the stronger the AI can perform. For context, Kimi K3, the largest open-weight model right now, is a 2.8 trillion parameter model. That is, with a trillion-parameter model, Sarvam may get closer to leading AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Sarvam has made improvements to its flagship 105B model, when it comes to how the model works with AI agents. According to benchmarks shared by the company, Sarvam 105B is better at voice call capabilities, instruction following, and other tasks when compared to OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 Mini and Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash.
AI costs have quickly become a concern for companies, and Sarvam says that the 105B is 5.5 times cheaper than GPT-5.4 Mini. Sarvam 105B costs $0.80 per one million blended tokens, compared with $4.50 for GPT-5.4 Mini. On the other hand, the Sarvam model is 11 times cheaper than Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash which costs $9 for a million blended tokens.
Saravm says that the model is being hosted in India and is available for voice products. The company said, "If you are building a voice product today, Sarvam is the cheapest, fastest and most scalable solution," and added that competing voice offerings from ChatGPT are not currently available while Gemini is not available at comparable scale.
Sarvam also announced Vision 2.0, the next generation of Sarvam Vision. Vision 2.0 focuses on optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities for enterprise document processing. That is, the AI model can read and interpret documents and text. Vision 2.0 brings major improvements when compared to the original Vision 1, which had managed to outperform models from OpenAI and Google in OCR. Vision 2.0 is also better at recognizing Indian handwritten text and extracting tables or key values.
Sarvam also announced commercial availability of Sarvam Vision Edge, its document intelligence platform that can run locally on any device. Vision Edge is being used by the Odisha government on a research initiative to digitize and extract information from land records.
For speech recognition, Sarvam has launched Saras V4 that gets even better at recognizing Indic languages. Apart from languages like Hindi and Bengali, Saras V4 can also transcribe languages that other AI models cannot, such as Odia, Sanskrit and Manipuri.
Sarvam says that Saras V4 is also the SOTA or state of the art model for English, ahead of rivals.
Apart from Saras, Sarvam has also improved the text-to-speech (TTS) model, Bulbul with Bulbul V4. You can now add emotions like laughter or put emphasis on certain words to make the audio feel more natural.
A highlight of Epoch were the Sarvam Kaze smart glasses. The Kaze smart glasses were first showcased during the India AI Impact Summit in February this year. Now, the company showed a demo video, where a visually impaired person used the glasses to get information about bus routes, how far was their stop, and how long the bus ride would be. As per the clip, the Kaze smart glasses use cameras to recognize the bus and then find information about its routes.
Apart from new models and devices, Sarvam also announced a service to rent Indian phone numbers. In a demo shown during the launch, a user could rent a number within 30 seconds after sharing PAN and Aadhaar details.
The announcements add to Sarvam's broader strategy of offering domestically hosted AI infrastructure and models tailored for Indian enterprises and public sector deployments. The company recently crossed $1.5 billion in market cap after a 234 million fundraising round, led by HCL Tech.
Sarvam says it is making 1 trillion parameter AI model, seeks to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic
Armaan Agarwal
New Delhi, UPDATED: Jul 30, 2026, 13:58 IST
Sarvam has just announced a series of new releases at its AI conference Epoch. From the launch of Sarvam Vision 2.0 to Bulbul 4, and upgrades to its flagship Sarvam 105B model, here are all the details.
Sarvam AI is making a new flagship AI model from scratch in India. (Photo: File Photo)
AI startup Sarvam has made a series of announcements during its AI conference, called Epoch 2026. At the event, the Indian AI lab claimed that its models can deliver strong performance at a fraction of the cost of global frontier models. From Sarvam 105B to the launch of Sarvam Vision 2.0 and Bulbul V4, here is everything you need to know.
During the keynote, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar said that the startup was building a foundational AI model with over a trillion parameters in India "We are very happy to announce that we are building a trillion-plus parameter model right here in India. We are building them from scratch to be competitive in coding, cybersecurity, simulation, science and more," he said.
Parameters refer to the dataset used to train AI. The more the parameters the stronger the AI can perform. For context, Kimi K3, the largest open-weight model right now, is a 2.8 trillion parameter model. That is, with a trillion-parameter model, Sarvam may get closer to leading AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Sarvam 105B is 5.5 times cheaper than competition
Sarvam has made improvements to its flagship 105B model, when it comes to how the model works with AI agents. According to benchmarks shared by the company, Sarvam 105B is better at voice call capabilities, instruction following, and other tasks when compared to OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 Mini and Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash.
AI costs have quickly become a concern for companies, and Sarvam says that the 105B is 5.5 times cheaper than GPT-5.4 Mini. Sarvam 105B costs $0.80 per one million blended tokens, compared with $4.50 for GPT-5.4 Mini. On the other hand, the Sarvam model is 11 times cheaper than Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash which costs $9 for a million blended tokens.
Saravm says that the model is being hosted in India and is available for voice products. The company said, "If you are building a voice product today, Sarvam is the cheapest, fastest and most scalable solution," and added that competing voice offerings from ChatGPT are not currently available while Gemini is not available at comparable scale.
Sarvam Vision 2.0 and Vision Edge
Sarvam also announced Vision 2.0, the next generation of Sarvam Vision. Vision 2.0 focuses on optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities for enterprise document processing. That is, the AI model can read and interpret documents and text. Vision 2.0 brings major improvements when compared to the original Vision 1, which had managed to outperform models from OpenAI and Google in OCR. Vision 2.0 is also better at recognizing Indian handwritten text and extracting tables or key values.
Sarvam also announced commercial availability of Sarvam Vision Edge, its document intelligence platform that can run locally on any device. Vision Edge is being used by the Odisha government on a research initiative to digitize and extract information from land records.
Sarvam Bulbul 4 and Saras v4
For speech recognition, Sarvam has launched Saras V4 that gets even better at recognizing Indic languages. Apart from languages like Hindi and Bengali, Saras V4 can also transcribe languages that other AI models cannot, such as Odia, Sanskrit and Manipuri.
Sarvam says that Saras V4 is also the SOTA or state of the art model for English, ahead of rivals.
Apart from Saras, Sarvam has also improved the text-to-speech (TTS) model, Bulbul with Bulbul V4. You can now add emotions like laughter or put emphasis on certain words to make the audio feel more natural.
Sarvam Kaze AI glasses
A highlight of Epoch were the Sarvam Kaze smart glasses. The Kaze smart glasses were first showcased during the India AI Impact Summit in February this year. Now, the company showed a demo video, where a visually impaired person used the glasses to get information about bus routes, how far was their stop, and how long the bus ride would be. As per the clip, the Kaze smart glasses use cameras to recognize the bus and then find information about its routes.
Rent a number in 30 seconds
Apart from new models and devices, Sarvam also announced a service to rent Indian phone numbers. In a demo shown during the launch, a user could rent a number within 30 seconds after sharing PAN and Aadhaar details.
The announcements add to Sarvam's broader strategy of offering domestically hosted AI infrastructure and models tailored for Indian enterprises and public sector deployments. The company recently crossed $1.5 billion in market cap after a 234 million fundraising round, led by HCL Tech.
Sarvam says it is making 1 trillion parameter AI model, seeks to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TInc0TIsEso
Aum procesor tape-out in August-September. Samples by Feb-March 2027. Qualifiy it and have some production numbers during July 2027. Towards end of next year, deployment in a 5 petaflop machine which will host 2000 such processors in a single facility. Facility could be in Pune, Hyderabad or Bangalore.
Aum procesor tape-out in August-September. Samples by Feb-March 2027. Qualifiy it and have some production numbers during July 2027. Towards end of next year, deployment in a 5 petaflop machine which will host 2000 such processors in a single facility. Facility could be in Pune, Hyderabad or Bangalore.
Researchers at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, have developed a novel three-dimensional (3D) reinforced advanced composite manufacturing technology that will enhance the strength, durability and damage tolerance of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, paving the way for their use in aerospace, automotive, renewable energy and other high-performance engineering sectors.
The patented technology, developed at the FRP Composite Laboratory of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NIT Rourkela, addresses one of the major limitations of conventional FRP composites: their vulnerability to internal damage under heavy loading that can lead to cracks, delamination and structural failure over prolonged use.
The innovation is expected to improve the reliability and lifespan of lightweight structural components used in commercial aircraft, defence platforms, space launch vehicles, high-speed rail systems, wind energy installations and hydrogen storage infrastructure.
FRP composites are widely regarded as advanced engineering materials because of their exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, high fatigue resistance, design flexibility and excellent corrosion resistance.
These characteristics have made them indispensable in industries where reducing weight without compromising structural integrity is critical. However, conventional FRP composites often suffer from weak interlaminar bonding, making them susceptible to damage under repeated or heavy loading conditions.
The NIT team has developed a hybrid three-dimensional reinforced composite by integrating glass fibres with graphene nanoplatelets aligned through the thickness of the composite during manufacturing.
"This unique internal architecture enables the fibres, graphene nanoplatelets and epoxy matrix to work together more efficiently, resulting in a significantly tougher and more durable material capable of resisting crack propagation and structural failure," said Rajesh Kumar Prusty, assistant professor at NIT Rourkela.
A distinguishing feature of the patented technology is its ability to align unmodified graphene nanoplatelets within glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites using a simple and industry-compatible manufacturing process.
Instead of requiring expensive or complex fabrication techniques, the researchers introduced only a minor modification to conventional composite manufacturing by applying a standard 50 Hz alternating current electric field of 800 volts during the curing stage.
According to the researchers, this makes the process readily adaptable to existing industrial composite production systems without substantial changes in manufacturing infrastructure.
"The technology has broad applications wherever lightweight materials with superior damage tolerance are essential. Aircraft panels, automotive crash structures, wind turbine blades, pressure vessels, marine structures and several other advanced engineering components could directly benefit from the innovation," said Prusty.
During performance evaluations, the newly developed material recorded a 37 per cent increase in tensile strength, a 30 per cent improvement in flexural strength, a 63 per cent rise in flexural modulus, a 26 per cent enhancement in tensile modulus, and a 24 per cent increase in interlaminar shear strength.
The researchers also observed a 33 per cent improvement in Mode-I fracture toughness, a 53 per cent increase in Mode-II fracture toughness and a 55 per cent higher storage modulus at 40 degrees Celsius, indicating superior stiffness and durability under operating conditions.
Bankim Chandra Ray, a professor at NIT Rourkela, said the innovation could lower maintenance costs, improve energy efficiency and promote sustainable manufacturing by producing lighter yet more durable structural materials.
"The technology has the potential to contribute significantly to India's Atmanirbhar Bharat mission by strengthening domestic capabilities in advanced materials manufacturing," he said.
The research team is now preparing to validate the technology in larger structural components and assess its long-term environmental durability under real-world operating conditions.
They have also sought industry collaborations to facilitate commercialisation and accelerate the adoption of the patented composite technology across aerospace, automotive, renewable energy and other advanced manufacturing sectors.
The patented technology, developed at the FRP Composite Laboratory of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NIT Rourkela, addresses one of the major limitations of conventional FRP composites: their vulnerability to internal damage under heavy loading that can lead to cracks, delamination and structural failure over prolonged use.
The innovation is expected to improve the reliability and lifespan of lightweight structural components used in commercial aircraft, defence platforms, space launch vehicles, high-speed rail systems, wind energy installations and hydrogen storage infrastructure.
FRP composites are widely regarded as advanced engineering materials because of their exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, high fatigue resistance, design flexibility and excellent corrosion resistance.
These characteristics have made them indispensable in industries where reducing weight without compromising structural integrity is critical. However, conventional FRP composites often suffer from weak interlaminar bonding, making them susceptible to damage under repeated or heavy loading conditions.
The NIT team has developed a hybrid three-dimensional reinforced composite by integrating glass fibres with graphene nanoplatelets aligned through the thickness of the composite during manufacturing.
"This unique internal architecture enables the fibres, graphene nanoplatelets and epoxy matrix to work together more efficiently, resulting in a significantly tougher and more durable material capable of resisting crack propagation and structural failure," said Rajesh Kumar Prusty, assistant professor at NIT Rourkela.
A distinguishing feature of the patented technology is its ability to align unmodified graphene nanoplatelets within glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites using a simple and industry-compatible manufacturing process.
Instead of requiring expensive or complex fabrication techniques, the researchers introduced only a minor modification to conventional composite manufacturing by applying a standard 50 Hz alternating current electric field of 800 volts during the curing stage.
According to the researchers, this makes the process readily adaptable to existing industrial composite production systems without substantial changes in manufacturing infrastructure.
"The technology has broad applications wherever lightweight materials with superior damage tolerance are essential. Aircraft panels, automotive crash structures, wind turbine blades, pressure vessels, marine structures and several other advanced engineering components could directly benefit from the innovation," said Prusty.
During performance evaluations, the newly developed material recorded a 37 per cent increase in tensile strength, a 30 per cent improvement in flexural strength, a 63 per cent rise in flexural modulus, a 26 per cent enhancement in tensile modulus, and a 24 per cent increase in interlaminar shear strength.
The researchers also observed a 33 per cent improvement in Mode-I fracture toughness, a 53 per cent increase in Mode-II fracture toughness and a 55 per cent higher storage modulus at 40 degrees Celsius, indicating superior stiffness and durability under operating conditions.
Bankim Chandra Ray, a professor at NIT Rourkela, said the innovation could lower maintenance costs, improve energy efficiency and promote sustainable manufacturing by producing lighter yet more durable structural materials.
"The technology has the potential to contribute significantly to India's Atmanirbhar Bharat mission by strengthening domestic capabilities in advanced materials manufacturing," he said.
The research team is now preparing to validate the technology in larger structural components and assess its long-term environmental durability under real-world operating conditions.
They have also sought industry collaborations to facilitate commercialisation and accelerate the adoption of the patented composite technology across aerospace, automotive, renewable energy and other advanced manufacturing sectors.
Superhydrophobic nanocomposite coating boosts PV power output by 16%, outperforms manual cleaning - pv magazine India
An Indian research team developed a transparent, nanocomposite coating that makes solar panels superhydrophobic, enabling self-cleaning and reducing dust-related performance losses. Six months of outdoor testing showed coated panels produced 16% more power than dusty panels and 7% more than...
www.pv-magazine-india.com