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Mobile phones production and exports soar in India

TCN Bureau
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Mobile phones production and exports soar in India

  • The strategic implementation of schemes like PLI and NICDP, coupled with comprehensive initiatives such as Make in India 2.0, has not only amplified production capacities but also generated employment and reduced import dependence.

The production of mobile phones in India, measured in value terms, has witnessed an impressive increase of approximately 146 per cent, rising from Rs2,13,773 crore in the fiscal year 2020-21 to Rs5,25,000 crore in 2024-25, as disclosed in the Parliament.

Even more remarkable is the exponential growth in mobile phone exports, which have soared by around 775 per cent during the same period, escalating from Rs22,870 crore to Rs2,00,000 crore.

The unprecedented growth is a testament to the efficacy of the government’s strategic initiatives aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports.

Central to this transformation has been the implementation of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP), Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The PLI scheme, in particular, has played a pivotal role by incentivising major smartphone companies to shift their production bases to India.

Job creation

The shift not only enhances domestic manufacturing capabilities but also fosters job creation and technological advancement. The diversification under the PLI scheme extends beyond mobile phones to sectors like pharmaceuticals and white goods.

In the white goods sector, the PLI scheme aims to develop a robust ecosystem for components used in air conditioners and LED lights.

Since the scheme’s launch, India has commenced local production of critical components including compressors, copper tubes, heat exchangers, and motors for air conditioners, as well as LED chip packaging and other related parts.

The evolution significantly diminishes import dependency, thereby reinforcing India’s manufacturing self-sufficiency and integrating the country into global supply chains.

Complementing these efforts is the Make in India 2.0 initiative, which currently targets 27 key sectors and is being implemented across various ministries, departments, and state governments.

The initiative, alongside the approval of 12 new projects under the NICDP with an aggregate investment of Rs 28,602 crore, underscores the government’s commitment to fostering a conducive environment for manufacturing investments.

Further support measures such as the Atmanirbhar Bharat packages, the National Infrastructure Pipeline, the National Monetisation Pipeline, the India Industrial Land Bank, the Industrial Park Rating System, and the National Single Window System have collectively enhanced ease of doing business and investment prospects in the country.

India emerges as bright spot in rising venture capital investment

Ana Mary Joseph
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India emerges as bright spot in rising venture capital investment
  • Witnesses a rise in VC funding to $3.5b across 355 deals, a substantial increase from $2.8b in the previous quarter, despite a reduction in the number of deals from 456.

India experienced a robust increase in venture capital investment, underscoring its emergent role in the regional and global startup ecosystem amidst a challenging macroeconomic environment.

In Q2 2025, India witnessed a rise in VC funding to $3.5 billion across 355 deals, a substantial increase from $2.8 billion in the previous quarter, despite a reduction in the number of deals from 456, according to KPMG ‘Venture Pulse Q2 2025’ report.

The disparity between deal count and investment value suggests a growing emphasis on larger, more substantial funding rounds, reflecting investor confidence in the quality and scalability of Indian startups.

Fintech emerged as a dominant sector attracting significant capital, alongside health-tech and logistics, sectors that collectively exemplify India’s innovation potential and resilience amid global uncertainties.

Strong investor interest

As Nitish Poddar, KPMG India’s Partner and National Leader for Private Equity, noted, the strong investor interest across these domains highlights an optimistic outlook for the country’s technology-driven industries.

Globally, however, VC investment showed a contrasting trend. Total global VC funding declined from $128.4 billion in Q1 2025 to $101.05 billion in Q2 2025, indicative of the persisting geopolitical conflicts, trade tensions, and economic uncertainties that have dampened investor enthusiasm worldwide.

Nevertheless, the quarter remained relatively strong, marked by a strategic focus on large-scale investment opportunities, particularly in cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and defence technology.

US rules the roost

The United States continues to dominate global VC investments, attracting nearly 70 per cent of global funding in Q2 2025, particularly in the AI sector where deals exceeded $1 billion.

The concentration of capital in AI, defence tech, and space tech underscores investor prioritization of high-technology sectors poised for long-term growth and strategic significance.

Moreover, defence-tech-focused AI companies raised funds not only in the US but also in other regions, signaling a widespread global interest in advanced technology with defence applications.

In Europe, VC investment demonstrated relative stability, with a slight decline from $16.3 billion in Q1 2025 to $14.6 billion in Q2 2025, coupled with a notable drop in deal volume.

This pattern reflects a strategic shift among investors toward larger and later-stage deals, consistent with broader global trends prioritising scale and maturity over volume.

Conversely, VC investment in Asia outside India remained subdued, experiencing only a marginal increase from $12.6 billion to $12.8 billion, while deal volume fell significantly.

The decline suggests continued caution among investors in many Asian markets, possibly due to geopolitical and economic uncertainties, affecting overall investor confidence and deal flow.

Brand expansion fuels shake-up in foldable smartphones market

Mohammed Fahad
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Brand expansion fuels shake-up in foldable smartphones market

  • Apple’s 2026 debut could serve as a critical inflection point, accelerating the mainstream adoption of foldables and injecting renewed vitality into the global smartphone industry.
  • Shipments of foldable smartphones are projected to reach 19.8m units in 2025—maintaining a steady market penetration rate of approximately 1.6% comparable to 2024.

Continuous technological advancements and declining prices are gradually elevating foldable smartphones from niche experimental gadgets to key innovations within the mid-to-high-end smartphone segment.

These developments are also empowering brands to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

According to TrendForce, shipments of foldable smartphones are projected to reach 19.8 million units in 2025—maintaining a steady market penetration rate of approximately 1.6 per cent comparable to 2024—growth has notably decelerated compared to prior years.

A pivotal change is anticipated in 2026 with the likely introduction of Apple’s first foldable phone. Rumoured to feature a 5.5-inch external display coupled with a 7.8-inch internal screen, Apple’s foray into this segment is expected to markedly elevate consumer interest and acceptance, particularly among high-end users.

The device is projected to highlight Apple’s renowned ecosystem integration and operational stability, benefiting from deep iOS optimisation tailored for foldable functionality and seamless hardware-software interaction.

At present, Samsung maintains its leadership position in the foldable segment, recently unveiling the Galaxy Z Fold 7. This flagship model boasts significant enhancements in hinge design, crease visibility, and overall form factor, underscoring Samsung’s commitment to improving user experience.

Samsung and Huawei share to fall

However, TrendForce predicts a contraction in Samsung’s global market share, from 45.2 per cent in 2024 to 35.4 per cent in 2025, as competition intensifies. Rival manufacturers are rapidly expanding their foldable product portfolios and pricing tiers, positioning themselves for a potential market boom anticipated in 2026.

Huawei is expected to sustain robust momentum domestically in China and secure the second-largest global market share at 34.3 per cent in 2025.

Likewise, Honor and Lenovo (through its Motorola brand) are emerging as fast-growing competitors, with market shares forecasted to rise from 6 per cent and 5.5 per cent in 2024 to 9.1 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively in 2025.

This growth highlights their aggressive entrance into the mid-to-high-end foldable space. Xiaomi is also making notable strides with its MIX Flip series, targeting the compact foldable niche, and is forecasted to increase its market share from 3 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

Additionally, a diverse group of other brands, including OPPO and vivo, are collectively projected to capture 8.5 per cent of the market, illustrating the increasingly vibrant competitive landscape.

Despite these encouraging shifts, the foldable smartphone market is still constrained by several notable barriers. Concerns related to crease visibility, durability, and the premium pricing of foldables remain significant factors limiting widespread adoption.

For many consumers, especially those without brand allegiance, the motivation to transition from well-established, cost-effective bar-type smartphones to foldables is relatively low. Consequently, foldable devices presently occupy a niche as high-end, experimental products rather than mainstream choices.

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UK partners with OpenAI to secure a competitive edge in AI race

Ana Mary Joseph
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UK partners with OpenAI to secure a competitive edge in AI race

  • Plans to potentially expand OpenAI’s London operations and to apply AI across various sectors such as justice, defence, security, and educational technologies illustrate the broad scope and ambition of this partnership.
  • Government estimates that AI-driven technological advancement could boost productivity by 1.5% annually, which translates to an additional £47 billion over the next ten years.

The strategic partnership between Britain and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, aims to deepen joint efforts in AI security research and to explore substantial investments in British AI infrastructure, including data centres.

The UK government, through this alliance, underscores its commitment to leveraging AI technology as a catalyst for national development and global technological competitiveness.

Peter Kyle, the UK Secretary of State for Technology, emphasised AI’s transformative potential for the country. From revitalizing the National Health Service to dismantling social and economic barriers, and accelerating economic growth, AI is viewed as a foundational tool for profound societal advancements.

He recognises OpenAI’s pivotal role in driving this technological revolution on an international scale and expressed a clear vision for more of OpenAI’s work to be conducted within the UK.

A strategic move

The vision is supported by the government’s aggressive plans to invest £1 billion into computing infrastructure specifically designed for AI development, aiming to amplify public computational capacity by twenty times over the next five years.

The urgency of these initiatives is brought into sharper focus by the rapidly evolving global AI landscape. The United States, China, and India are currently leading the charge in AI development, creating competitive pressure on Europe to elevate its position in the field.

The UK’s partnership with OpenAI—an enterprise already under close scrutiny due to its existing collaboration with Microsoft—reflects a strategic move to ensure that Britain remains at the forefront of AI innovation.

Plans to potentially expand OpenAI’s London operations and to apply AI across various sectors such as justice, defence, security, and educational technologies illustrate the broad scope and ambition of this partnership.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, praised the UK government for its proactive stance through the “AI Opportunities Action Plan,” an initiative aimed at positioning the UK as a global AI superpower.

The endorsement highlights the government’s foresight in recognising AI’s potential early on. For a Labour government that has faced challenges in delivering substantial economic growth thus far, AI represents a promising avenue to enhance productivity and economic prosperity.

The government estimates that AI-driven technological advancement could boost productivity by 1.5 per cent annually, which translates to an additional £47 billion over the next ten years.

About 100 organisations hit by Microsoft’s SharePoint servers hack

Mohammed Fahad
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About 100 organisations hit by Microsoft’s SharePoint servers hack
  • Espionage appears to be the work of either a single hacker or a small, tightly coordinated group.

A sweeping cyber espionage operation targeting Microsoft’s self-hosted SharePoint servers, identified in late May, has compromised approximately 100 organisations globally, predominantly in the United States and Germany, including several government entities.

The operation exploits zero-day vulnerability—an unreported and thus initially unknown security flaw—that grants perpetrators unauthorized access to sensitive internal networks.

SharePoint servers widely deployed across organisations to facilitate document sharing and collaborative work, became the focal point of this attack. Notably, Microsoft clarified that SharePoint instances hosted on its own servers remained unaffected, limiting the breach to self-hosted deployments.

The attack vector allows spies to infiltrate vulnerable servers and implant backdoors, ensuring persistent and undetected access. This prolonged presence within the victims’ digital infrastructure poses substantial risks, potentially enabling further espionage or sabotage activities.

China on the radar

The campaign’s discovery was spearheaded by cybersecurity firms including Eye Security, a Netherlands-based outfit whose chief hacker, Vaisha Bernard, detailed the findings.

Through collaborative scans with the Shadowserver Foundation, nearly 100 compromised entities were identified before the nature of the exploit became widely known.

Bernard highlighted the ambiguity and urgency of the situation, emphasising the threat of additional adversaries leveraging the same vulnerability to establish similar footholds.

The targeted organisations have not been publicly named, with notifications reportedly forwarded to national authorities to coordinate an appropriate response.

Analysts from other cybersecurity organisations, such as Sophos, have suggested that the espionage appears to be the work of either a single hacker or a small, tightly coordinated group, though this may evolve as more information comes to light.

Microsoft has issued security updates to mitigate the vulnerability, urging all users of self-hosted SharePoint servers to implement these fixes promptly to prevent further exploitation.

Microsoft said in a blog post that two allegedly Chinese hacking groups, dubbed “Linen Typhoon” and “Violet Typhoon,” were exploiting the vulnerabilities, along with another China-based hacking group, in a first wave of attacks.

Microsoft said in a July 8 security update that it had identified the bug, listed it as a critical vulnerability, and released patches to fix it.

Germany’s federal office for information security, BSI, said on Tuesday it had found SharePoint servers within government networks that were vulnerable to the ToolShell attack, but none had been compromised.

Attribution for the attack remains uncertain; however, Alphabet’s Google, with its broad visibility into global internet traffic, has linked some of the hacking activities to a threat actor with connections to China.

This assertion underscores the increasingly geopolitical nature of cyber warfare, where state or state-affiliated actors conduct clandestine operations to harvest intelligence or gain strategic advantages.

World Leaks leaks 1.3TB of Dell’s internal data

Ana Mary Joseph
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World Leaks leaks 1.3TB of Dell’s internal data

  • Majority of leaked files consist of synthetic test data, scripts, systems data, and other non-sensitive information intended exclusively for product demonstrations.
  • Dell claims the only piece of genuine data compromised was an outdated contact list deemed operationally insignificant.

The extortion group known as World Leaks publicly disclosed that it had infiltrated the isolated environment used to showcase Dell’s product demonstrations and conduct proof-of-concept testing for commercial clients.

On their leak site, the group claims to have exfiltrated 1.3 terabytes of sensitive data and is now attempting to extort a ransom from the company to prevent its public release.

Despite the alarm such announcements typically generate, a careful examination of the circumstances reveals that the impact of the attack, while serious, was contained due to Dell’s well-structured security measures.

The Customer Solution Centers platform functions as a distinct and segregated environment within Dell’s overall infrastructure. It is intentionally isolated from customer-facing systems, production networks, and internal data repositories.

Its primary role is to provide a controlled setting where Dell can safely demonstrate and test its technological solutions using synthetic or non-sensitive data sets.

This segmentation is a critical factor in mitigating the potential damage from unauthorized access, as it minimises the risk of compromising sensitive customer or corporate information.

New approach

The attackers, identified as the World Leaks group, are a rebranded faction of the former Hunters International ransomware operation. The group has shifted its tactics away from traditional ransomware encryption, instead adopting a data extortion model that focuses on stealing and threatening to release large volumes of data.

Their shift, initiated early in 2025, reflects changes in the cybercriminal economy, where ransomware attacks have become less profitable and more risky to execute.

Since adopting this new approach, World Leaks has claimed responsibility for breaches involving dozens of organisations, though Dell’s data had not appeared on their leak site at the time of reporting.

Dell’s disclosure acknowledges that the stolen data includes over four hundred thousand files, made available for public download on the dark web.

However, an investigation into the breach’s specifics confirms that the majority of these files consist of synthetic test data, scripts, systems data, and other non-sensitive information intended exclusively for product demonstrations.

SonicWall SMA 100 devices

The only piece of genuine data compromised was an outdated contact list deemed operationally insignificant. These facts underscore the effectiveness of Dell’s strict network segmentation policies and data handling protocols, which explicitly prohibit customers from uploading sensitive or proprietary information into the demonstration environment.

Additionally, intelligence surrounding the World Leaks group indicates that their affiliates exploit vulnerabilities in outdated hardware and deploy sophisticated malware tools to facilitate their operations.

For example, they have been linked to campaigns exploiting end-of-life SonicWall SMA 100 devices through the use of an advanced rootkit named OVERSTEP. This contextual information highlights the evolving nature of cyber threats and underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security measures and hardware.

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