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The State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell on Saturday released a clarification about "misleading reports" on social media that alleged student data security has been compromised.

The clarification follows "complaints about spurious calls to candidates offering an improvement in their percentiles" in the coming CET exams for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Management Studies (MMS) to be held between April 1 and 3. An FIR has been filed too, and the culprits have been arrested.

"CET exams are being held in a transparent way, and students and parents must not fall victim to rumours," the CET Cell said. The statement also allayed fears over security checks, pointing out that "multiple measures have been put in place to ensure an unproblematic and fair examination process." Admit cards will be scanned using QR codes at exam centers, while candidates' identities will be verified by facial recognition software and biometric attendance.

"Each of the exam centers is under CCTV surveillance, and live coverage is monitored from the CET Cell headquarters," the statement continued. For added security, supervisors at every exam center have also been given body cameras, it added.

Also, the authentication of candidates' identities will be done with original documents like Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, or Passport by senior government officers (Group-A officers) as centre heads. Regional-level coordination officers, Deputy Directors of Technical Education, and district-level coordination officers have also been designated for resolving any difficulties at exam centres. Flying squads will also do surprise visits in all centres.

But even after the CET Cell's assurance, some candidates are still apprehensive. "I got a call from an unknown number, saying they could improve my CET percentile for a price. It was disturbing because they had my application information," said a candidate who is preparing for the MBA entrance test, alleging that they got a call from one such "fraudsters.".

It seemed an official was speaking because they had every detail. Not just the application details, but also my exam date, the centre, and even the exam time. If the fraudsters can get access to such information, how do we know our data is really safe," another CET aspirant said.

The CET Cell also announced that the MBA/MMS CET postgraduate admission exams will be held in two sessions – 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM – at 174 centres in Maharashtra and other states. A total of 1.57 lakh candidates are likely to appear.

To ensure law and order, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Higher and Technical Education Department has directed Police Commissioners and Superintendents to ensure proper security at exam centres.

"Students should not fall prey to any false promises or fraudulent offers. They should appear for the exams in a relaxed state of mind," the CET Cell said in its appeal.

NIMS University and a European University have joined hands to set up a specialized Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Cybernetics at NIMS University campus in Rajasthan. The institute to be inaugurated on April 1, 2025 is under a memorandum of understanding between NIMS University and the Rajasthan Government under the Rising Rajasthan scheme. The function will host world AI scientists, industry experts, and academicians.

The institute shall have 'state-of-the-art labs such as Computing and AI Chip Lab by N-Video, Robotics Lab by KUKA (Germany), Automation Lab by Siemens (Germany), and Drone Technology Lab by Captics (Canada). It shall also include over 500 high-performance computing systems and collaboration with Siemens Healthineers, Dell, Microsoft, SAP, HP, Intel, and Amazon.

The facility has been named the Indo-Pacific European Hub for Digital Partnership (INPACE), promoting AI and cybersecurity research in partnership with the European Union. The name, conferred in the presence of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, reflects India's increasing leadership in digital innovation. 

NIMS-AICON 2025: A Global AI Conference

Coinciding with the launch, NIMS-AICON 2025, an EU-affiliated international AI conference, will be held from April 1 to 3 in partnership with the Czech Technical University, Prague. Themed ‘Transforming India’s Future through AI-led Innovation,’ the conference will explore AI’s impact on industries, healthcare, and emerging technologies.

Key discussion themes of the conference include:

– Industrial AI: AI-driven optimization in manufacturing and supply chains.

– Medical AI: Life-saving applications in healthcare.

– Future Trends in AI: Trends in AI development in robotics, deep learning, and the future of AI.

The chairman of NIMS University, Professor Dr Balvir Singh Tomar, pointed out that the initiative will make Rajasthan a global AI hub. He stated: "As we implement AI in every field of life, we must do it in a planned way.". This is a platform where innovation, leadership, and research come together to develop an actual solution to the world's issues as they are today. AI has endless possibilities, and this event is the next step towards an AI future that is available to all.

Most Indians have expressed interest in upskilling and cross-skilling through Edtech courses on Equated Monthly Installment (EMI).

Recent study by the Fintech firm, Fibe, reported the readiness of 72% of respondents to upskill via Edtech courses on EMI.

The report further reveals that 47% of working professionals prefer to enhance their skill sets in their current domain or cross-skill in a different domain while another 25% want to upskill into domains not linked to their current professional area.

Notably, the report highlighted that a large proportion of working professionals are spending time on online learning and feel the need to enhance their skill sets.

Fibe's study mirrored that 51% of the overall respondents were keen to pursue an upskilling program in the following one year. 

The report also shows the increasing demand for technical and marketing courses with Data Science, Digital Marketing and Investment Banking courses coming out as top choice.

But corporate professionals are caught in serious snags in their upskilling/ reskilling process. While 30% of respondents stated that absence of time comes in the way of their desire to take a course, 69% of respondents mentioned budget as a constraint.

Emphasizing the salient trends, the report stated that in Delhi, 23% opt for AI and 38.20% opt for Data Science whereas in Bengaluru, AI is opted by 27% and data science by 36.80%.

In gender-based segregation, 51% of women respondents were interested in soft skills and communications, while 45% of men respondents were interested in data science and AI.

Indian edtech industry is witnessing a boom in the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) courses, following international trends. With AI at the heart of upskilling, an increasing number of learners — from experienced professionals to school-goers — are looking to learn and experiment with technology.

BrightCHAMPS, an edtech company that provides learning courses to students in the K-12 space, discovered that 58 per cent of students worldwide are already incorporating AI into their curriculum. Compared with 36 per cent of them applying the technology for homework.

Ravi Bhushan, BrightCHAMPS founder and chief executive officer (CEO) said that AI is one of the most sought-after courses in the market. We only introduced a Gen AI course for children. In the US, one out of every four students is taking AI course. India is not too far behind in comparison to the US. Indian parents are more inquisitive than US parents," he said.

Gen AI is one of the seven featured courses the firm has and even though it has been launched only eight-months ago, now it ranks amongst the top three best-selling courses.

Edtech unicorn Emeritus has launched more than 20 machine learning and AI courses. Three of the top five online certificates at Emeritus are AI courses. India is at the forefront of AI adoption, as per the 2025 Global Workplace Skills Study, with 96 per cent of the professionals indicating that they wish to be AI-ready and upskill themselves.

Krishna Kumar, founder and CEO of Simplilearn, reveals that 30-40 percent of the company's revenue is generated from its AI products worldwide. Kumar also points out that not only are engineers enrolling in these courses, but managers and leaders are reskilling themselves as well.

He further stated that if he had to list the top five courses on Simplilearn, it would be all AI only.

Imarticus Learning, another edtech firm offering professional courses, said up to 20 per cent of the company's offerings are in emerging technologies, including AI. One particular Gen AI course, directed to executives and learners, which is about the application of AI, is among the top five courses at the company, said Nikhil Barshikar, founder and managing director of the platform.

Whereas AI training courses are being grabbed by aspirants, edtech websites are also employing AI to ensure their material gets delivered to a mass of aspirants. PhysicsWallah (PW) is leveraging AI to overcome the language divide for students. With its Project Bharat, the course material will be written in local languages, dubbed over, and then upgraded with AI. The company says that the strategy will simulate the experience of in-class lectures by the faculty.

PW also unveiled AI-powered tools like Prep Meter and PW Books to support student learning. Whereas Prep Meter is a sophisticated performance tracking tool that offers personalized video suggestions for improvement, PW Books is an intelligent digital NCERT book that comes as a separate app on the Play Store

While the world was gushing over the new innovation—5-minute charging for electric vehicles (EVs)—by China's BYD last week, a Bengaluru-based Indian firm went about demonstrating that they too have developed indigenous rapid charging technology for electric buses.

Exponent Energy, an Indian EV charging and energy firm, launched its 1 megawatt (MW) native charging tech for e-buses on 19 March, a day following the launch of BYD's Super e-Platform, which has the capability to charge electric cars at a speed of 1MW. Whereas BYD's model enables their new line of electric vehicles to be charged to their full capacity within 5 minutes, a "game-changer" in the technology of electric vehicles, Exponent is not far behind. 

Its fresh 1MW technology enables it to charge e-buses with its batteries within 15 minutes, the firm stated in an advertisement shared to their social media on 19 March. "As a country, we must have confidence that we can develop and own all levels of EV tech. We have traditionally been followers in ICE. We cannot do that in EVs," explained Arun Vinayak, co-founder of Exponent in a media statement on 21 March.

1MW charging equipment implies that the battery and charger can both deliver a peak 1,000 kilowatt (kW) of power, a huge increase from the current peak of 400-500 kW. These limitations are due to the fact that fast charging is energy-intensive and heat-intensive, hence limiting the amount of power an EV can draw at any given time.

But with BYD's new tech, experts are saying that charging EVs is now "on par with filling up a car." Exponent Energy, too, has pledged to roll out its 1.5 MW charging tech within the next couple of months.

BYD and Exponent—how did they do 1MW?

Whereas BYD, which produces electric cars, is not entirely an energy company, Exponent is a single industry energy company. They produce all of the charging infrastructure from battery packs to charging pumps and cables. That's one reason why there is a disparity in how two companies have managed to build 1MW charging.

The largest issue with this type of fast charging is that it creates an inordinate amount of heat in the process.

For BYD, the heat management system is integrated throughout the whole EV ecosystem because they produce everything from the cells and batteries to the EVs themselves. The whole production line, including the motors that are installed in the EVs, has been redesigned to include the cooling systems required in order to gain fast charging capabilities without adding weight to the car too much.

Conversely, Exponent Energy, which doesn't manufacture battery cells or build its own EVs, has put all its technology inside the battery pack and the charger, with the cooling infrastructure being housed inside the charging pump.

But what this does imply is that only EVs equipped with an Exponent battery pack charged at its charging pump are eligible for rapid charging.

Additionally, Exponent Energy's proprietary battery packs are installed in electric three-wheelers and buses only in association with vehicle manufacturers, and they have even installed more than 100 charging stations spread across the nation. They have no plans to enter 4-wheelers territory in the near future.

BYD, meanwhile, has designed proprietary silicon carbide power chips that will be deployed in its upcoming EVs, thereby making 1MW charging ubiquitous across its portfolio.

But CEO Vinayak doesn't regard that Exponent Energy does not make cell or cell infrastructure as a negative point.

"BYD has great cell science ability which is why they can innovate with cells and achieve 1MW charging. But we have been able to achieve that using ordinary LFP cells, which makes our products affordable," Vinayak said in a statement to the press.

Currently however, BYD has the same problem as Exponent, to expand charging stations. It is going to install 3,000-4,000 charging stations in China to support their new vehicles that are capable of supporting 1MW charging in the new vehicles.

Exponent is also busy adding its charging points along the Bengaluru-Hyderabad highway, where it will launch its first 1MW charging electric bus commercially within the next 6 months.

Boeing India and the Learning Links Foundation (LLF) recently announced having completed the third batch of students graduating from its industrial training program in aerospace production in Andhra Pradesh. In a fourth batch currently in process, this young people skilling program will upskill a total of 127 students by April 2025, Boeing reported.

During the felicitation ceremony, Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha Mathukumilli Sribharat stated, "This program not only increases jobs for our skilled youth population but also consolidates the state as a center of advanced manufacturing and aerospace innovation."

The programme provides formal, industry-relevant training, hands-on exposure, and career guidance to students from govt polytechnics in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, and Vizianagaram districts with intensive training at the MSME Technology Centre, Boeing stated. The programme realized a 94% placement for students of its first two batches and continues to enable campus placements for incumbents in various industries, it continued.

Salil Gupte, Boeing India and South Asia President, stated, "Boeing's Commercial Market Outlook predicts the demand for 37,000 pilots and an equivalent number of technicians in South Asia during the next 20 years, with 90% of the demand for aeroplanes being driven from India.". This emphasizes the need for skilling of youth, even in new technology and aviation clusters such as Andhra Pradesh, to contribute to and aid the development of Indian aviation and core industries.

Boeing announced that the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) of Andhra Pradesh recognized the program's curriculum as a best training practice among vocational colleges. The recognition is attributed to the successful combination of soft skills training, technical training, and on-the-job training, all of which increase the employability of its trainees.

Nuriya Ansari, President, Learning Links Foundation, stated, "With the initiative launched in 2023 with the support of Boeing, this youth skilling programme is assisting in developing aerospace manufacturing talent. It is a privilege and a chance to develop potential to performance, in establishing a future-ready workforce for India in Andhra Pradesh."

1. Sribharat awarded the third batch graduates at govt Polytechnic College in Visakhapatnam. They were accompanied by Dr. Ramakrishna Rao, Deputy Director, Training and Placement, Department of Education; Murali Krishna Gannamani, Managing Director, Fluentgrid; Praveena Yagnambhat, Chief of Staff & CSR Leader, Boeing India and South Asia; Sudha Priyadarshan, Senior Vice President, Learning Links Foundation, and Boeing India and LLF delegates.

In the meantime, Boeing revealed that its annual procurement from India is over USD 1.25 billion. Its Indian supply chain comprises over 300 domestic companies and a joint venture to produce fuselages for Apache helicopters and vertical fin structures for the B737 family of aircraft. Last week, the American aerospace firm let go of around 180 employees at its engineering technology centre in Bengaluru. The action was part of the overall global workforce cut by 10 percent; Boeing employed around 7000 personnel in India