In less than 48 hours, Suruchi Inder Singh and Kamaljeet demonstrated an impressive comeback story at the Asian Games in Nagoya. After two consecutive disappointing performances, the pair managed to return on Friday and secure India's first gold medal at these Games.
Previously, Suruchi had experienced setbacks during the women's 10-meter air pistol qualification round on Wednesday, preventing her from competing for either individual or team awards. Kamaljeet's disappointment came a day later when he scored 580 points in the men's qualification, finishing ninth and losing the final by just one point.
In the technology sector, Akamai Technologies entered into a major seven-year deal worth $11.6 billion with AI developer Anthropic concerning cloud computing. This contract could potentially grow to $20 billion with an additional option to expand by $9 billion. This large-scale agreement underscores the growing global demand for powerful computing infrastructure necessary to support enterprise artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, discussions continue regarding the Discount Rate Commission (MDR). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the proposed MDR for high-value individual UPI transactions is not a tax, levy, or surcharge, and the collected funds will not go into the budget. The Finance Minister clarified that MDR represents a fee within the digital payments ecosystem charged by organizations facilitating UPI transactions, including payment service providers, the merchant bank, and other ecosystem participants.
Today's edition also discusses how rural Bihar is experiencing a solar revolution led by women. These women, known as 'Solar Didis,' are using decentralized solar technologies to create sustainable income sources and promote clean energy at the community level. These local micro-entrepreneurs operate in villages that are off-grid or have inadequate electricity supply, managing charging stations, selling clean lighting equipment, and servicing solar-powered appliances.
Furthermore, the startup Silence Laboratories, based in Palo Alto and founded by Jay Prakash, Andre Byte, and Tony Keck, is creating privacy-focused mathematical infrastructure. This platform allows organizations to process and exchange sensitive data without revealing the underlying information. By utilizing advanced cryptographic frameworks such as MPC and ZKP, their system ensures secure computation across distributed data sources without the need for a third-party trust. The company serves about 35 global clients in the banking, fintech, and digital asset sectors and is also involved in implementing post-quantum cryptographic security to protect digital assets from quantum computing threats.
