The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw took to X, formerly Twitter to share an important achievement in the mobile industry. He took to X(formerly Twitter) and said the Indian mobile industry has experienced exponential growth as it has grown 20 times in the last nine years.

In his post he shared that all mobile phones sold in India 78% were import dependants, but in the year 2023, 99.2% of all mobiles phones are made in India. The minister made his announcement after his meeting with the key stakeholders and leaders in the mobile industry. The aim of the meeting was to conduct a comprehensive review of the progress made.

The meeting also served as platform to aknowledge the country’s achievements, discuss emerging challenges and explaore new strategies for sustained growth. According to Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo iPhone contract manufacturers in India are likely to start development of iPhone 17 in the second half of 2024.

This will be the first time new product introduction (NPI) will start outside of China. This development marks as a significant milestone in Apple’s operations in the diversification of its supply chain. Tata Group has acquired the Wistron production lines for $125 million are going to start the introductory process as early as 2024.

Reports claim Apple may scale down its operations with Foxconn in Zhenghzhou and Taiyuan in China by 35-45% and 75-85% respectively by 2024. Kuo said expanding production in India Luxshare’s rapid increase in iPhone order allocation and improvements in production line automation are the main reasons for the production scale reduction.

Apple is sending a group of specialists to investigate the issue of several Indian politicians receiving threat alerts last month. Apple cautioned them about potential threats from state sponsored hackers on their devices. A team of technical and cyber security specialists will be visiting India to further examine the situation.   

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Union Minister of Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw today, responded to opposition leaders’ worries that they received alert messages from Apple alerting them to the possibility that they were being targeted by state-sponsored attackers attempting to gain access to their iPhones.

Given the technical nature of the case, Vaishnaw said the government was concerned about the issue and that specific agencies, including law enforcement, have been directed to investigate.

A few Members of Parliament have claimed to have received alerts from Apple. He wanted to be very clear that this is a problem that the administration is concerned about. About 150 nations have received alert notifications from Apple. Nobody can hack into their phones, according to a clarification from Apple, the minister claimed.

Vaishnaw criticised the MPs for bringing up these claims, saying that people engaged in this kind of politics because they did not want to see the nation advance.

Opposition leaders, including Congressmen Shashi Tharoor and Pawan Khera, Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha, Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress, and MP for Shiv Sena (UBT), Priyanka Chaturvedi, reported receiving messages from Apple on Tuesday alerting them to state-sponsored attackers attempting remote compromises on their iPhones.

Additionally, they posted screenshots of these alerts on social media.

Apple created the Apple Threat Notifications system to warn consumers who might be the target of state-sponsored cyberattacks. According to Apple on their support page, these users—who receive the notifications via iMessage—are specifically targeted based on who they are or what they do.

According to a statement issued by Apple, state-sponsored attackers use extraordinary resources, in contrast to regular cybercriminals, to target a very limited number of particular people and their devices, making these attacks far more difficult to identify and stop. State-sponsored assaults frequently have a short shelf life, are extremely complicated, and require millions of dollars to develop. The statement further read, these kinds of attacks will never target the great majority of customers.

It also said,they are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Madras high court on Wednesday asked the government to ban the popular Chinese video app TikTok saying ‘it encourages pornography’.

The order also directs the media from telecasting videos made using the app. The app created by Beijing Bytedance Technology Co, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with special effects.

It has become hugely popular in rural India, home to most of the country’s 1.3 billion people. The app has almost 54 million active users India.

Jokes, clips and footage related to India’s thriving movie industry dominate the platform, along with memes and videos in which youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-sync and dance to popular music.

The petition was filed by a Madurai-based senior lawyer-cum-social activist Muthu Kumar. Citing pornography, cultural degradation, child abuse, suicides, he had requested the court to direct a ban on TikTok.

The judges, Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar, have also directed the central government to respond before April 16 if it would enact regulations such as theChildren’s Online Privacy Protection Act in the US to prevent children becoming online victims.

A TikTok spokesman told news agency Reuters the company was committed to abiding by local laws and was awaiting a copy of the court’s order, following which it would take appropriate action.

Also Read: Election Commission asks Information & Broadcasting Ministry for details of NaMo TV

“Maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment … is our priority,” he said.

The court said the “dangerous aspect” of TikTok is the “inappropriate” content. It also said “there is a possibility of the children contacting strangers directly”.

The order also observed that pranks made using the app could violate privacy.

A few months, AIADMK legislator Thamimun Ansari, on the floor of the Tamil Nadu assembly, had demanded ban on TikTok citing what he called cultural degradation. The state IT Minister Manikanandan had said he would take it up with the centre.

(Inputs from media reports)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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