Meta’s compounding India woes; HCLTech’s mega AI deal

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has asked to summon Meta over child sexual abuse material on Instagram. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:
■ Yotta eyes fresh dough
■ Probe into Tata Electronics leak
■ Apps nixed over e-rickshaw disruption

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IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed officials in the IT ministry to summon Meta over Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material, sources said on Friday. The IT Ministry will seek an explanation from Meta on the issue.

Probe widens: The government has also widened its crackdown on other messaging platforms, seeking explanations from Telegram, Signal, and WhatsApp over their username features. They carry “serious” risks of impersonation and cybercrime, IT Secretary S Krishnan told reporters.

ANI also reported that Meta officials met with MeitY representatives on Friday regarding the username rollout.

What happened:

• Notices have been issued to Telegram and Signal asking why action should not be taken under the IT Act and related rules.
• WhatsApp has been told to pause the rollout of its username features until it completes consultations with the government. It is expected to furnish a detailed explanation on the feature within three days.
• Telegram and Signal, where the feature is already live, have also been asked to respond to the government’s concerns.

Why it matters:

• Usernames let people communicate without sharing phone numbers – a privacy win, but one that makes it easier for bad actors to impersonate others.
• Authorities see this as a fresh attack surface for cybercrime and online fraud.
• The issue is being treated as significant at a time when digital fraud cases are surging.

WhatsApp turns admin: Separately, ET reported on July 3 that WhatsApp is rolling out a new pricing model that could raise costs for businesses using AI built on rival models such as ChatGPT and Claude.

From October 1, conversations powered by third-party AI models on WhatsApp could cost nearly twice as much as those using Meta’s own AI stack. At present, WhatsApp does not charge for AI agents.

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HCLTech has bagged a $1.14-billion contract with a large European firm, the company said on Friday, sending its shares up as much as 6.3%.

Driving the news:

• Sources told us that the client is Mercedes-Benz. HCLTech is said to have unseated Infosys, the incumbent vendor on the account.
• Under the deal, HCLTech will build an AI-driven operating model to transform and manage the client’s global digital workplace and enterprise networks.
• The contract runs for five-and-a-half years and can be extended by another five years, according to HCLTech.

What this means:

• HCLTech described the deal as entirely new business – neither a renewal nor an expansion of an existing mandate.
• It is HCLTech’s largest announced deal since its $2.1 billion Verizon win in August 2023.

Background: Enterprises are consolidating vendors as tech budgets stay tight amid tough macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions.

ET reported on June 30 that large IT contracts are now being renegotiated within 24 months of signing, well before renewal, as AI-driven productivity forces clients to revisit traditional pricing and delivery models.

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Sunil Gupta, CEO, Yotta Data Services

Yotta Data Services is in talks with global and domestic funds to raise about $1 billion to fuel its expansion plans, sources told us.

Deal details:

• Yotta’s promoters plan to sell about 25-30% of the company at a valuation of around $3 billion.
• Kotak Mahindra Capital is advising the promoters on the proposed transaction.
• Initial bids are expected in the next few weeks,

Yes, and: Yotta is also weighing an initial public offering (IPO). According to sources, the IPO plan is still exploratory, with multiple options under evaluation. Any listing, if it happens, is expected to be in India, with no plans for an overseas float.

AI-led expansion:

• Yotta is scaling AI infrastructure through its Shakti Cloud platform.
• It plans to deploy over 20,000 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs by August and cross 80,000 GPUs by the end of the financial year.
• India’s data centre capacity reached 1.6 GW by 2025 (up from 296 MW in 2016), with an 8 GW pipeline of projects underway.

Also Read: Yotta ramps up AI push with additional $6 billion investment

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The government is investigating a data breach at Tata Electronics that exposed sensitive documents related to Apple’s unreleased iPhone 18 Pro.

"We are investigating it," IT Secretary S Krishnan said, adding that the incident had been reported to ⁠India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

What was exposed:

• Files related to iPhone 18 Pro components, suppliers and model images surfaced on the dark web.
• At least six documents reportedly reveal supplier-level details that Apple has not disclosed publicly.
• Data tied to other technology firms, including Tesla, Qualcomm and TSMC, was also compromised.

What happened:

• A ransomware group is believed to have stolen and published the data.
• Apple is reportedly on track to release its iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max in September.
• The leak comes at a sensitive moment for Apple, which last week raised iPad and MacBook prices due to higher costs of memory and storage chips. Analysts expect the company to increase iPhone prices in the coming months.

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The government has ordered app stores to take down three mobile applications – BAT-BMS, Epoch-i-ion and Lossigy – over alleged misuse that disrupted e-rickshaw operations and raised safety concerns.

Reason for action:

• The apps were reportedly used to interfere with vehicle functioning, leading to sudden stoppages and operational glitches.
• Complaints from e-rickshaw drivers triggered a government review.
• Authorities concluded that the misuse posed a public safety risk.

Yes, and: IT Secretary S Krishnan confirmed that the identified apps have been removed from app stores. The government has reminded platforms that they must exercise due diligence to prevent the distribution of harmful or unlawful applications.

Setting context: ET reported on July 2 that the Centre plans to introduce guardrails to prevent tampering with the batteries of electric two- and three-wheelers. Officials said upcoming norms will mandate cybersecurity safeguards for imported e-rickshaws and electric scooters (e3w and e2w), segments that have so far operated with minimal regulation.

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The very forces that were supposed to kill India’s Business Process Management (BPM) industry have propelled it into a strategic leadership era. That after the industry was presumed to vanish for around four decades, automation and wage rise stacked against it.

It's a story of India’s job market, not an industry. It is about young professionals in small towns, now delivering global work, and about an education system struggling to keep pace with how AI is reshaping what work means.

In this ET x Nasscom podcast, industry veterans Srikanth Srinivasan, Jasjit Singh Kang, and Gaurav Iyer dissect the metamorphosis from the 1990s outsourcing wave to BPM 3.0, where companies own outcomes.

Industry veterans share what this shift means for India’s future: how AI is transforming the industry from within, why domain expertise is becoming the new differentiator, and whether India can close the talent gap before the AI revolution outpaces its ability to train people.