Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar on Thursday met a senior delegation from Anthropic to discuss a long-term partnership. The talks focused on integrating AI into citizen-centric governance, launching large-scale skilling programmes and supporting deep-tech startups. Discussions also focused on advancing the state's proposed AI University initiative to strengthen Karnataka's position as an innovation hub.

Amid heavy rainfall in Delhi NCR, office-goers took to social media to complain about not being able to book cabs despite trying for hours. People shared how Uber was overcharging ₹400 for a 2-km ride in Noida while highlighting that its regular fare for the same route is around ₹100. Several areas faced water-logging in the region.

After Lok Sabha passed bill allowing Centre to permit MDR on UPI transactions, Payments Council of India (PCI) clarified who bears the cost of operating UPI. Operating UPI involves continuous investment in technology, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, compliance and customer support, stated PCI. Banks, NPCI and payment apps like Paytm and Google Pay, currently bear these costs, it added.

Several Sahara investors protested outside Supreme Court in Delhi, demanding refunds of their long-pending deposits. One protester climbed a tree to draw attention to investors' demands. Protesters sought immediate action to recover stuck funds. Notably, a refund portal was launched in July 2023 following Supreme Court order but fewer than 10% of investors have been paid as of February 2026.

The Maharashtra government has cleared the rollout of India-based startup Sarvam AI's technologies to its departments with a two-year outlay of ₹11.26 crore. Under the deal Sarvam's AI workspace Indus will be deployed to around 2,500 government users. The firm's agent Samvaad AI will be used in a one-month pilot for outreach to tubercolosis patients for awareness in local languages.

A Reddit post claiming that a single employee's mistake led to a team losing its work-from-home arrangement sparked widespread discussion online. The post stated that an employee accidentally shared his screen during a client call, revealing an open video game. Hours later, HR mandated full-time office work, though users argued management merely used the incident as an excuse, reports stated.

OpenAI announced it is removing limits on text-based chats for ChatGPT's free and Go tier users, adding that the model reached one billion weekly active users recently. Users will also get a new "Think" option that will let them select higher reasoning power for complex questions. The firm added that the GPT-5.6 Luna model will be made default, replacing GPT-5.5.

Amid uncertainty over E20 petrol, consumer interest in alternative-fuel vehicles, including CNG, hybrid and electric models, is rising. While petrol vehicles accounted for 41.68% of total passenger vehicle sales in July, alternative-fuel models made up 40.59%, as per FADA. The market share of petrol passenger vehicles dropped by nearly 6% YoY, while CNG and electric vehicles each gained about 3%.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has reached a deal to acquire Toronto-based startup Taalas, which makes chips for inference. The startup has developed a technology through which it hardwires AI model weights into chips, making them customisable rather than general-purpose. Taalas' current chip, manufactured with an older TSMC process, runs a small version of Meta's Llama 3.1 AI model.

India recorded its highest-ever monthly electric vehicle (EV) retail sales in July 2026, with total registrations reaching 3,27,901 units, marking over 66% year-on-year growth. As per the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, EVs accounted for nearly one in every eight vehicles sold in the country during the month. Electric two-wheeler sales crossed the two-lakh mark for the first time.