India’s Services Giant Tcs Lays Off Over 10,000 For Reasons Including Ai, Hikeswages For Survivors

Asia In Brief Indian services giant Tata Consultancy Services will shed over 10,000 staff but will give pay rises to most of those who remain.

The company informed workers of the layoffs in late July and according to reports in India media, issued a statement in which it said the cuts are part of a plan “to become a future-ready organization” through “strategic initiatives on multiple fronts including investing in new-tech areas, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves, deepening our partnerships, creating next-gen infrastructure and realigning our workforce model.”

According to Reuters, the company last week informed staff that over 80 percent of them will soon receive a pay rise. Interestingly, management aren’t getting the pay rise.

Huawei open sources its CUDA alternative

Huawei last week announced it will open source the “CANN” software that allows developers to code applications to use its Ascend GPUs.

CANN is equivalent to Nvidia’s CUDA in that it provides APIs that developers can use to implement parallel processing.

Huawei also launched the “CANN Open Source Ecosystem Co-construction Initiative” to promote its Ascend ecosystem.

The move is notable because it suggests Huawei is taking steps to create a developer community for its accelerators and therefore hopes to sell them widely. The Chinese giant’s GPUs are a generation or two behind Nvidia’s finest, but still useful for many applications.

China wants brain/computer interfaces by 2027

China’s government last week issued a policy calling for rapid development of brain/computer interfaces.

Beijing wants breakthroughs by 2027, at which point “an advanced technical, industrial, and standard systems will be initially established.”

By 2030, China expects to host two or three companies that lead the world in the field.

The policy also calls for development of non-implantable electrodes and for researchers to “improve the convenience, comfort, and ease of use of electrodes.” Also on the agenda: New brain signal sensors based on light, electricity, magnetism, ultrasound, and chemistry “to break through the limitations of single-modal signals and improve brain signal perception capabilities.”

LogoWatch: Samsung ‘MONT FLEX’

Samsung’s display division last week announced a new brand for its foldable screens: “MONT FLEX”.

Marketers at the Korean giant noted that “Mont” is the French word for “mountain” and wants you to think that the brand “symbolizes the pinnacle of innovation in foldable displays.” Mont is also an acronym for Mechanical durability, Opto-mechanically flat, Narrow bezels, and a Thin and lightweight design.

Here’s the logo, which we suppose also looks a little bit mountainous.

Samsung Display MontFLEX logo – Click to enlarge

Samsung said creating the brand will help it to “more actively communicate the unique value of its foldable OLED to both consumers and industry partners, while reinforcing its leadership in foldables as a key driver of future growth.”

That growth has so far been elusive: Analyst firm Counterpoint recently reported “Foldable smartphones remain a niche segment, accounting for just 1.5 percent of smartphone sales in Europe in Q1 2025. Sales only grew by four percent YoY in Q1 2025, amid ongoing concerns around price, durability and use cases.”

Korea’s Naver goes shopping in Spain

Korean web giant Naver last week announced its intention to acquire Spanish “C2C powerhouse” Wallapop.

Wallapop calls itself a classified ads service and emphasizes that offloading goods you no longer want can be both lucrative and helps “to make the planet a little more sustainable by consuming more responsibly.”

Naver already owned 29.5 percent of the site and will splash €377 million ($439 million) to take complete control of the company. The Korean company already operates other C2C brands including Poshmark, KREAM, and SODA across North America, Korea, and Japan. Acquiring Wallapop and its 19 million monthly active users will help Naver to take its classified ads business global.

“Wallapop is a leading C2C platform in Spain that has withstood competition from global tech giants,” said Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon. By combining NAVER’s technologies and business expertise with Wallapop’s platform, we will elevate its value and unlock new use cases.”

Scientists to visit penguins Trump taxed

Australian Antarctic Program last week announced its first scientific expedition to Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Australian territories in the remote southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

The islands are home to an active volcano , glaciers, and plenty of seal and penguin colonies – a combination that earned them World Heritage Status.

Australia’s scientists haven’t visited the islands for over 20 years. On the two expeditions planned from late 2025, expeditioners will spend three or four nights ashore and sleep in converted water tanks used as huts.

One goal of the mission is to survey the islands’ birds for signs of high pathogenicity avian influenza, a nasty virus that’s reached nearby islands. Another is mapping the islands’ glaciers, in an effort to better understand glacial retreat.

The islands briefly became notorious earlier this year when the Trump administration included them on the list of nations subject to its 10 percent baseline tariffs. ®

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