With the expansion of internet access in rural areas, several local language AI applications have recently been launched for downloads by farmers in Pakistan. These apps help with crop planning, soil sensing, personalized fertilizer recommendations, disease diagnoses, weather forecasts and market prices. A couple of these have been downloaded by half a million or more farmers in the country. Some of these apps use open source large language models (LLMs) like DeepSeek…

India's Tata Group is going through a major boardroom crisis. Noel Tata, the Chairman of the Tata holding company, has been removed from the Tata Group's board by N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons. Noel Tata has declared the decision illegal, a stance the board disputes. The crisis has been precipitated by a 2022 decision by India’s central bank to order the company to seek a stock market listing for Tata Sons, to comply with new rules governing systemically important…