- Arvind's Newsletter
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- Arvind's Newsletter
1.IndiGo in talks for 100 smaller planes as part of plan to widen regional network, reported Economic Times
IndiGo, India’s largest airline, is in talks with ATR, Embraer and Airbus as it looks to order at least 100 smaller planes as it plans to widen its regional network.
The airline, which already operates 45, 78-seater ATR-72 planes and will take delivery of five more this year, is expected to stick with Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR to benefit from economies of scale, people aware of the development told ET. However, the Airbus A220 and Embraer’s E-175 planes also remain in fray, they added.
The move to bolster its network in India follows its bet on the international long-haul market.The carrier announced on April 25 that it was ordering 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, its first for wide-body planes.
2.Meanwhile,Air India management says merger with Vistara will be completed by 2024-end or early 2025. The airlines told their employees that so far 120 pilots have been integrated by Vistara and Air India, and the airlines have completed the NCLT hearing on the proposed merger and are awaiting the official orders.
The airlines also said that the promoters of Vistara, Singapore Airlines have filed for approval to become a minority investor as part of Air India, approval for which are expected shortly.
The presentation also said that 60 non-flying staff from Vistara have also been seconded to Air India and the assessment and integration of around 7,500 staff is nearing completion.
3.AI spending in India to touch $5 billion by 2027: Intel-IDC study
According to the report, entities in India spent $1,703.8 million on AI in 2023, where BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, telecom, and retail were the highest spending sectors during the year. Spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.5 per cent from 2023.
The AI spend growth is set to be the fastest amongst eight markets surveyed including Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.
4.Indian senior living market has potential to touch $12 bn by 2030
The Indian senior living market has the potential to grow to around $12 billion by 2030, up from $2 to $3 billion, on the back of an expected rise in median age and an ageing population fuelling an increase in demand for senior housing, according to a report by Colliers.
According to projections, the median age of the country is likely to increase from about 29 to 38 by 2050. Similarly, the proportion of aged people (above 60 years) is likely to increase from about 11 per cent in 2024 to 21 per cent in 2050.
5.OpenAI’s new GPT-4o lets people interact using voice or video in the same model; MIT Technology Review
OpenAI just debuted GPT-4o, a new kind of AI model that you can communicate with in real time via live voice conversation, video streams from your phone, and text. The model is rolling out over the next few weeks and will be free for all users through both the GPT app and the web interface, according to the company.
GPT-4 also gives users multiple ways to interact with OpenAI’s AI offerings. But it siloed them in separate models, leading to longer response times and presumably higher computing costs. GPT-4o has now merged those capabilities into a single model to deliver faster responses and smoother transitions between tasks.
The result, the company’s demonstration suggests, is a conversational assistant much in the vein of Siri or Alexa—but capable of fielding much more complex prompts. Read the full story.
6.The land that does not need Ozempic
According to a recent survey, 1 in 8 US Adults has taken Ozempic or other GLP Drugs. But there are some countries where these drugs are not in high demand.
Why? Because there are not enough obese people. Japan is one of these places. It's not just genetics. "It turns out that after 100 or so years, Japanese Hawaiians are now almost as overweight as the people they live among ... So something other than genes explains Japan’s slimness. But what?" Johann Hari examines the many factors in his article in the Time.
7.The 'Sift' strategy: A four-step method for spotting misinformation
Pioneered by digital literacy experts, the "Sift" strategy is a technique for spotting fake news and misleading social media posts, says Amanda Ruggeri.
It's no secret that misinformation is rampant on social media. And it's even more so in some subjects than others. Research has found, for example, that around two-thirds of the most popular YouTube videos on vaccines contain misinformation. The fall-out can be dire: an uptick in inaccurate anti-vaccination content online correlates with a decline in vaccination coverage, especially among children. That has led to larger outbreaks of potentially deadly diseases, like measles, than have been seen in recent years.
In this column, Amanda Ruggeri explores smart, thoughtful ways to navigate the noise. Drawing on insights from psychology, social science and media literacy, it offers practical advice, new ideas and evidence-based solutions for how to be a wiser, more discerning critical thinker. Read on.
8.Military GPS jamming is disrupting civilian life in large parts of eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, almost 40 million people have had unreliable signals for at least half of the past six months, the Financial Times reported: In Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon, some citizens say takeaway, dating, and taxi apps have become unusable and it has impacted aid efforts in Gaza.
GPS jamming can conceal military activity or defend sites from attack, and short-range jammers can be bought for a few hundred dollars. European air traffic control reported a 2,000% increase in interference between 2018 and 2021, raising the risk of air safety incidents: The British defense secretary was on board one flight that was forced to turn back.