Archives May 2026

Thimphu/New Delhi, May 5 (BNP): Bhutan has signed financing agreements worth $515 million with the World Bank to advance the Dorjilung Hydropower Project, a large-scale renewable energy initiative being developed in partnership with Tata Power and Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC).

Planned as a 1,125 MW project under a public-private partnership model, it will be the largest hydropower venture in Bhutan. DGPC will hold a majority stake of 60%, while Tata Power will own the remaining 40%.

The project is expected to generate around 4,500 GWh of electricity annually. A major share of this power will be supplied to India, helping meet growing demand, especially during peak periods, while also strengthening Bhutan’s position as a clean energy exporter.

The initiative underscores growing regional cooperation in sustainable energy and is expected to contribute to economic development and long-term energy security for both countries.

Mumbai, May 05: The Government of Andhra Pradesh will tomorrow mark a significant milestone in its industrial and digital infrastructure journey with the groundbreaking of Carrier’s advanced chiller manufacturing facility at Sri City. 

This investment represents Andhra Pradesh’s strategic pivot from being a destination for data centers to becoming a global hub for manufacturing the critical components that power the digital economy. 

Andhra Pradesh is rapidly emerging as one of India’s most significant data center destinations, anchored by large-scale global investments and a forward-looking policy framework. In recent weeks alone, a landmark $15 billion Google AI data center hub—one of the largest digital infrastructure investments in India—has broken ground in Visakhapatnam, with a planned 1 GW hyperscale capacity . This is complemented by proposals such as Reliance Industries’ ₹1.6 lakh crore 1.5 GW data center cluster, alongside multiple commitments from global and domestic players. With an overall pipeline estimated at over ₹6 lakh crore and a targeted capacity of ~6 GW, Andhra Pradesh is positioning itself well ahead of the current national capacity, building a scale that few regions globally can match . This momentum, backed by progressive policies such as dedicated power frameworks for data centers, is transforming the state – particularly Visakhapatnam – into a premier hub for AI, cloud, and digital infrastructure. 

Carrier’s entry further strengthens this ecosystem – bringing advanced cooling technologies that are indispensable for next-generation data centers, AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing environments. 

From Data Centers to a Full Manufacturing Ecosystem 

Andhra Pradesh has already established itself as a leading destination for large-scale data center investments, with a rapidly growing pipeline of AI-native facilities. However, the state’s vision goes beyond hosting these assets.

The focus is now on building a complete value chain – from data center infrastructure to component manufacturing, including:

– Cooling and thermal management systems

– Power and energy management solutions

– Precision engineering components

– Electronics and control systems

By integrating manufacturing with digital infrastructure, Andhra Pradesh aims to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that reduces import dependency, boosts exports, and positions India as a global leader in data infrastructure manufacturing. 

Sri City: The Nucleus of the Cooling & Manufacturing Cluster 

Sri City’s evolution into a major HVAC and electronics hub makes it central to this strategy. With:

– ₹12,000 crore invested in cooling and AC manufacturing

– 25,000 direct jobs created in the segment

– A strong supplier base contributing ₹4,600 crore in investments

– Nearly 60% projected share in India’s AC production by 2027 

the ecosystem is already demonstrating scale, depth, and global competitiveness.

Carrier’s facility will further catalyse supplier networks, innovation, and export-oriented manufacturing, reinforcing Sri City’s position as a critical node in the global supply chain. 

Quote from Shri Nara Lokesh, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Electronics & Communications, and HRD 

“Andhra Pradesh is not content with being just a host for data centers – we are determined to become the engine that powers them. The groundbreaking of Carrier’s facility at Sri City marks a defining moment in our journey to build a full-stack data infrastructure ecosystem – from energy and data centers to the manufacturing of the components that sustain them. With world-class industrial ecosystems like Sri City, strong policy support, and our unwavering focus on speed and scale, Andhra Pradesh is positioning itself as a global hub for next-generation manufacturing and digital infrastructure.” 

A Strategic Leap Forward 

This curtain raiser sets the stage for a landmark event that signals Andhra Pradesh’s intent to lead not just in digital infrastructure, but in industrial innovation aligned with the future of AI, cloud, and data economies. 

The Carrier groundbreaking is expected to catalyse further investments, deepen global partnerships, and accelerate the state’s journey toward becoming India’s data center capital—and the manufacturing backbone behind it.

New Delhi, May 5 (BNP): India’s net direct tax collections recorded steady growth in the financial year 2025–26, rising 5.12% year-on-year to ₹23,40,406 crore, according to data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Gross direct tax collections for the fiscal stood at ₹28,11,936 crore, marking a 4.03% increase compared to the previous financial year. The growth was driven by stable inflows from both corporate and non-corporate tax segments, reflecting consistent economic activity and improved compliance levels.

Corporate tax collections showed strong performance, increasing to ₹13,81,606 crore from ₹12,72,542 crore in FY25. Non-corporate tax collections, which include taxes paid by individuals, HUFs, and other entities, stood at ₹13,72,474 crore.

Collections from Securities Transaction Tax (STT) also saw an uptick, reaching ₹57,522 crore during the fiscal year.

Meanwhile, refunds issued declined slightly by 1.09% to ₹4,71,531 crore, which contributed to higher net tax collections. Analysts noted that the overall figures indicate steady tax buoyancy and efficient tax administration despite global economic uncertainties.

The data reflects a balanced contribution from corporate and individual taxpayers, underscoring the resilience of India’s tax system.

New Delhi, May 5 (BNP): Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India has announced a significant price reduction of up to ₹75 lakh on its flagship Range Rover SV models, ahead of the expected benefits from the India–UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The company said the revised pricing applies to its completely built unit (CBU) models imported from the UK, with the steepest cuts seen in the high-end SV range. The Range Rover SV has been reduced from ₹4.25 crore to ₹3.5 crore (ex-showroom), while the Range Rover Sport SV now starts at ₹2.35 crore, down from ₹2.75 crore.

According to JLR India, the price revision reflects anticipated changes in import duties once the FTA comes into effect, and the new prices are effective immediately.

Managing Director Rajan Amba said the move is aimed at passing on expected trade benefits to customers in advance and strengthening the brand’s presence in India’s luxury car market.

The company clarified that prices of locally manufactured models, including Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Velar, and Discovery Sport, remain unchanged. Models such as Defender and Discovery will also retain current pricing as they are manufactured outside the FTA’s scope.

Bengaluru, India  May 05: Operant AI, the leader in AI security, today announced the launch of Operant Endpoint Protector, a new addition to its AI Defense Platform that lets enterprise IT and security teams discover, detect, and defend against threats across every AI tool, coding agent, and Model Context Protocol (MCP)-connected workflow employees use directly at the endpoint, where today’s most consequential AI activity actually takes place.

Securing the endpoint – Where AI meets the Workforce

Across every enterprise, employees in HR, finance, legal, customer service, engineering, and operations are now interacting daily with AI assistants, coding agents, and MCP-connected tools that touch personnel records, financial systems, customer data, source code, and proprietary workflows. Most of these tools are sanctioned, many are not. Either way, they are reading, writing, and acting on the most sensitive information in the business  and CIOs and CISOs increasingly have no way to find, see, or stop any of it.

This shift is also changing the workforce itself. According to IBM insights, organizations have moved swiftly to address security workforce needs, with 65% establishing formal upskilling plans to support their AI strategy. Nearly as many (63%) have launched structured change management programs to integrate AI assistants and agents, while 60% have delivered formal training on how AI will reshape daily work. But while enterprises are preparing employees to use AI, the security layer around these AI–enabled workflows has not kept pace. 

Shadow AI has moved from accessing AI in a browser tab to native applications everyone depends on every day. AI IDEs and coding agents are accelerating engineering velocity while introducing new vectors for code injection, secrets leakage, and data exfiltration. MCP — now the connective tissue of the modern AI stack  lets agents invoke tools, call services, and take real-world actions, often across trusted, encrypted channels that traditional security tooling was never designed to inspect.

“Security leaders are waking up to the reality that their AI exposure doesn’t live in one place, it lives everywhere their employees and agents do,” said Vrajesh Bhavsar, CEO and Co-Founder of Operant AI. “The endpoint is where AI actually meets the workforce. It’s been the largest blind spot in the enterprise security stack and it’s the gap we built the Operant Endpoint Protector to close.”

Today’s enterprise security stack EDR, CASBs, and network tools was built to monitor processes, packets, and SaaS traffic, leaving it blind to the semantic layer where AI agents reason and act inside trusted applications over encrypted protocols. No incumbent category can discover every AI tool and MCP client in use, detect threats inside the agent loop, or stop exfiltration inline, creating a critical blind spot precisely where employees and agents handle the most sensitive work.

Introducing Operant Endpoint Protector

Operant Endpoint Protector is the industry’s first solution purpose-built to discover, detect, and defend in real time across every AI prompt, MCP server, skill, tool, and plugin in the enterprise  directly at the endpoint, regardless of where it lives.

Endpoint Protector is delivered as a native workstation application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, built for enterprise-scale rollout. Security and IT teams deploy it across thousands of endpoints through standard MDM and JAMF workflows, and it integrates directly with the enterprise identity provider (IdP) to bring contextual IAM and agentic identity enforcement to every user, role, and AI interaction aligning AI governance with the provisioning, access, and lifecycle controls organizations already trust.

For organizations in regulated and critical industries, Endpoint Protector also supports private-mode, including hybrid architectures where sensitive prompts, agent traces, and detected data remain inside the customer’s environment, and private-SaaS options with full data residency. This makes Operant deployable in financial services, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure environments where sovereignty and data control are non-negotiable.

Operant‘s 3D Protection, purpose-built for the AI and agentic ecosystem, powers Endpoint Protector’s suite of real-time defense capabilities, giving security teams full discovery and control across every AI tool, MCP server, skill, and agent in use:

• Enterprise AI & MCP Registry — A single source of truth cataloging every sanctioned and shadow AI tool, MCP server, skill, plugin, and client, with reputation scoring, AuthNZ support, and usage telemetry across local and remote environments.

• Agent Loop Tracing & Real-Time Detections — Continuous monitoring aligned to the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications and Agentic AI, catching shadow AI, prompt injection, 0-click attacks, agentic drift, identity anomalies, and PII exfiltration inside the encrypted channels EDR and network tools can’t inspect.

• Data Exfiltration Defense — Multi-dimensional PII, PCI, and PHI policies enforced inline within prompts, agent loops, and MCP traffic, with auto-redaction for secrets and keys in motion.

• Access & Execution Governance — Runtime RBAC for MCP clients, servers, and tools, plus Intent and Scope Guards and model segmentation that keep every agent within its authorized perimeter.

• Endpoint-Native CodeInjectionGuard — Runtime defense against package and shell execution attacks, with rate limiting, token throttling, and customizable guardrails.

A compliance backbone of audit logs and data sovereignty controls spans every capability, meeting the bar set by regulated industries.

Philips booth C9000: Taking design, choice, and value to the next level, PPDS will showcase its latest groundbreaking evolutions in Las Vegas, including a new design led category, innovations for energy efficiency, an expanded solutions portfolio, and much more.

 Amsterdam,May 05: PPDS, the exclusive global provider of Philips Professional Displays and complementary solutions, is excited to confirm its participation at InfoComm 2026, promising an unmissable lineup, with new partnerships and UltraSlims both debuting and showcasing as future tech among planned announcements in Las Vegas. 

 Exhibiting on Philips Booth C9000 – and joining over 800 registered exhibitors at the Las Vegas Convention Center (June 13-19) – InfoComm 2026 will mark another major milestone for PPDS and its acclaimed ‘total solutions’ strategy to deliver unrivalled quality, choice, and value to customers in North America and beyond.

 Continuing PPDS’ evolution beyond a traditional provider of displays, InfoComm 2026 brings the opportunity to showcase – many for the first time – what is hailed by the company and its partners as the industry’s most complete and energy conscious portfolio of advanced and highly flexible digital display hardware and software solutions.

 Total market solutions

With quality only matched by design, solutions now include, but are far from limited to, dvLED (indoor, outdoor, and AIO), videowalls, digital signage (including TAA compliant) and ePaper, interactive displays, and professional TVs, created to support all market verticals and environments.

 At InfoComm 2026, PPDS is set to raise this bar even further with a wave of exciting new offerings, reinforcing its position as a centralized resource for projects of any scale, while delivering seamless buying and installation experiences to the channel.

 Bruce Wyrwitzke, Senior Director North America at PPDS, said: “Built on the foundations of over 134 years of innovation with Philips, PPDS prides itself on enabling businesses to bring their vision to life through tailored, cutting edge innovations. At InfoComm 2026, we will deliver the latest advances in support of that strategy, as well as showcasing the latest solutions that will enable customers to truly display without limits. You won’t want to miss it.”

 Ahead of the pack / Bright times ahead

Continuing PPDS’ highly embraced ‘Picture this’ theme, launched for this year, visitors to the Philips booth at InfoComm 2026 will be treated to an assembly of unmissable AI infused visual activity, with an ever-changing pool of content presented across a broad range of form visual factors and technologies.

 Staying ahead of the pack, and with a commitment to delivering unrivalled choice, value, and opportunity to partners and customers in North America and around the world, PPDS can also confirm InfoComm 2026 will become the global launch pad for the latest in its new for 2026 AI ready digital signage lineup.

 While full details are under wraps ahead of the show, the creation of this exciting new category within PPDS’ evolving Android SoC portfolio will open a wealth of exciting installation opportunities where proven quality, unparalleled visual performance, and UltraSlim aesthetics really matter. And that’s not all.

 PPDS will be announcing a new major partnership and collaboration with one of the AV industry’s most trusted manufacturers, with the introduction of a brand new signage series with a fresh ecosystem for total solutions built in.

 Jack Boyczuk, Director of PD Sales at PPDS in North America, added: “This year’s Philips booth encourages visitors to explore the reaches of their imaginations, using displays together with our trusted partner solutions to realise the benefits of what’s already integrated within Philips Professional Displays – including ultimate processing power and artificial intelligence (AI) ready technologies.”

 We have the solution

Helping visitors to visualise and experience the full power, potential, and versatility of Philips Professional Displays, this year’s booth will include solutions to support a variety of needs in different environments, including retail, education, corporate, food and beverage, transportation, hospitality, public venues, and control rooms.

 Powering forward

The latest evolutions of PPDS’ commitment and global strategy to developing better energy efficiency and more environmentally conscious features into its displays will also be present through the Philips booth, demonstrating ways businesses can deliver instant sustainability (and financial) benefits to their day to day operation.

 This year’s show will feature a range of dvLED and digital signage solutions – including the new for 2026 Philips Signage 5000 Series, the TAA compliant Philips Videowall display, and the ‘zero power’ Philips Tableaux range, the award winning Philips Unite LED 6000 Series All In One, with the company’s acclaimed LED wall of fame showcasing many others.

 Missed ISE 2026? For the first time in North America, PPDS will also be showcasing the new ‘all inclusive’ Philips LED Configurator, plus ‘game changing’ updates to the Philips Wave remote management platform.

 As with previous events, PPDS will adopt an open approach to the Philips booth, with no restrictions on access, allowing visitors the freedom to experience all solutions up close. PPDS’ global management team, together with local and international sales managers from around the world, will be present and accessible throughout the show, providing live demonstrations and answering questions.

 Angela Lin, Commercial Head for North America at PPDS, concluded: “We cannot wait to welcome visitors to the Philips booth at InfoComm 2026. 2026 has already been an exciting year, with some incredible new projects, combined with the ever strengthening of our portfolio and offering. With our incredible launches, as well as an array of future tech, together with a major new partnership, a visit to Philips Professional Displays could be a game changer for your business. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas.”

On 10th May 2026, guests can indulge in a leisurely afternoon featuring a generous spread of comforting flavours and indulgent favourites, crafted to bring families together over meaningful moments. Whether it’s an intimate celebration or a joyful gathering with loved ones, the brunch offers the perfect setting to pause, connect, and celebrate the woman who means the most.

• Date: 10th May 2026 Time: 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM
• Venue: Madurai Kitchen, Courtyard by Marriott Madurai
• Reservations: +91 93848 38403 / +91 73583 78339

New Delhi, May 5 (BNP): India has emerged as the most resilient large emerging market economy since 2020, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals and substantial foreign exchange reserves, according to Moody’s Ratings.

In its latest report on emerging markets, Moody’s noted that India’s sizeable forex reserves have helped curb currency volatility and strengthen investor confidence during periods of global uncertainty and economic shocks.

The rating agency stated that India is well-positioned to manage future external shocks, citing a clear and predictable monetary policy framework, well-anchored inflation expectations, and a flexible exchange rate system that allows adjustment when required.

Moody’s further observed that India is among the better-placed sovereigns in the emerging market space, adding that the country is likely to enter any future stress periods with strong and readily accessible economic buffers.