17, Aug 2026
AR Rahman Launches ‘Tamil Idol’ to Discover Tamil Nadu’s Next Singing Sensation
Mumbai, August 17: Oscar-winning music composer A.R. Rahman has launched ‘Tamil Idol’, a statewide talent hunt aimed at discovering and nurturing the next generation of singing talent from across Tamil Nadu.
The first-ever Tamil edition of the globally recognised singing competition format was unveiled by Sony Vizha in association with Rahman. The show will seek to bring together promising voices from different parts of the state and provide them with a platform to showcase their musical talent.
Auditions for the show will open from August 18, with aspiring singers invited to register through the Sony LIV app. Participants who cannot attend auditions in person will also be able to submit their entries online.
To audition, participants need to select the Tamil Idol Audition section on the Sony LIV app, complete their registration with personal details and upload three videos demonstrating their versatility across different singing genres.
Rahman said the search for new voices is at the heart of music and that the initiative would help uncover new talent, fresh perspectives and stories from different generations.
“With Tamil Idol, for the very first time, we bring together the extraordinary voices of Tamil Nadu and give them a platform to be celebrated,” Rahman said.
Produced by Fremantle India, Tamil Idol will be available across Sony Vizha and Sony LIV, combining television and digital platforms to reach audiences across Tamil Nadu and beyond.
The initiative is expected to provide a significant platform for emerging singers, particularly those from smaller towns and communities who may not otherwise have easy access to the mainstream music industry.
With Rahman leading the search, the competition aims not only to identify strong vocal performers but also to celebrate the diversity of Tamil Nadu’s musical traditions and contemporary voices.
The auditions will mark the beginning of a statewide search for the first-ever Tamil Idol, with aspiring singers across the state invited to participate.
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- By Neel Achary
17, Aug 2026
Colorado River Crisis Deepens as Key Reservoirs Hit Historic Lows
Washington, August 17: The Colorado River water crisis has entered a critical phase, with the river’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, falling to historic lows and growing uncertainty over how the water supply will be shared among the seven US states that depend on the river.
Lake Mead, which supplies water to millions across the US Southwest, recently fell to about 1,040.4 feet above sea level, below its previous record low set in 2022. Lake Powell has also reached a record-low elevation, intensifying concerns over water supplies and hydropower generation.
The Colorado River is a critical source of water for more than 40 million people and supports millions of acres of farmland across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, as well as parts of Mexico. The river’s declining flows are being driven by prolonged drought, extremely low snowpack, rising temperatures and decades of demand exceeding available supplies.
The situation has also raised concerns about electricity generation. Lake Powell’s declining water level is approaching the minimum elevation required for Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydropower. A further decline could threaten a major source of electricity for communities and utilities across the region.
States remain divided over water cuts
The crisis has been compounded by a political deadlock among the seven Colorado River Basin states over a new framework for managing the river after existing operating guidelines expire at the end of 2026.
The states have been unable to reach a consensus on how the burden of water-use reductions should be distributed. The Upper Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — and the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — have sharply different positions on future cuts.
In July, the US government proposed a new 10-year framework that could require substantial reductions in water use, particularly in Arizona, California and Nevada. The proposal could reduce Lower Basin water supplies by as much as 3 million acre-feet annually under certain conditions.
The US Bureau of Reclamation has meanwhile moved ahead with plans for post-2026 river operations. Its final environmental impact statement released in July proposes an adaptive framework for managing Lake Powell and Lake Mead through 2036, allowing operating rules to respond to changing water conditions.
Agriculture and cities face mounting pressure
Agriculture accounts for a substantial share of Colorado River water use, making farmers and irrigation districts central to the debate over future reductions. Urban areas, meanwhile, are investing in conservation, water recycling, groundwater management and other measures to prepare for reduced supplies.
Arizona has already taken steps to use stored water to help utilities manage potential reductions in Colorado River supplies, illustrating the growing importance of water banking and conservation strategies.
The crisis has transformed the Colorado River from a long-term environmental concern into an immediate economic and infrastructure challenge. Decisions taken during the coming months will determine how the river’s limited water is allocated among cities, farms, industries and ecosystems.
With reservoir levels continuing to fall and the existing management framework approaching expiration, the Colorado River Basin faces a defining test: finding a sustainable balance between water demand and a river whose supply is increasingly constrained by a hotter and drier climate.
17, Aug 2026
Anurag Jain Assumes Charge as NITI Aayog CEO
New Delhi, August 17: Senior IAS officer Anurag Jain on Monday took charge as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NITI Aayog, marking his return to the Central government after serving as Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh.
Jain, a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was appointed CEO of NITI Aayog by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in July. His tenure will run for an overall period of two years, or until further orders, subject to the terms specified in the government order.
The appointment comes as NITI Aayog continues to play a central role in policy coordination, economic reforms and Centre-State cooperation. Jain brings extensive administrative experience in infrastructure, industrial policy, finance, logistics, urban development and public administration.
During his career, Jain has held several important positions at both the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh. He has also been associated with major government initiatives, including work related to infrastructure planning and implementation.
As CEO, Jain will oversee the day-to-day functioning of NITI Aayog and coordinate with Union ministries, state governments and other stakeholders on key development priorities. His responsibilities are expected to include supporting policy formulation, monitoring flagship programmes and advancing reforms linked to infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics and inclusive growth.
Jain succeeds Nidhi Chhibber, who had been holding additional charge of the NITI Aayog CEO post following the completion of B.V.R. Subrahmanyam’s tenure in February 2026.
His appointment is being viewed as a move that could strengthen NITI Aayog’s focus on implementation-oriented governance and closer coordination between policy design and execution as India pursues its long-term Viksit Bharat@2047 development agenda.
17, Aug 2026
Gujarat Opens New Global Investment Chapter as CM Patel Begins US Outreach
San Francisco, Aug 17: Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has begun a US outreach programme aimed at strengthening international business ties and attracting fresh investment to the state ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2027.
The visit brings Gujarat’s investment and development agenda directly to global businesses, investors and technology leaders in the United States. The Chief Minister and his delegation are expected to engage with industry representatives and members of the Gujarati diaspora to explore opportunities for partnerships and investment.
The outreach comes as Gujarat prepares for the next edition of the Vibrant Gujarat summit, a major platform for connecting the state with international investors and businesses. The government is seeking to build interest well in advance of the event and highlight opportunities across emerging and established sectors.
San Francisco, a major global centre for technology and innovation, provides an important setting for discussions around technology, startups, digital innovation and new-age industries. Greater collaboration in these areas could help bring new expertise, investment and business opportunities to Gujarat.
The engagement also has the potential to support Gujarat’s wider employment and entrepreneurship ecosystem. New investments can contribute to industrial expansion, create jobs and encourage the development of skills needed for emerging sectors.
The Gujarati diaspora is expected to remain an important part of the outreach. With a strong presence in business and professional networks across the US, members of the community can help strengthen connections between international companies and opportunities in Gujarat.
The state is also looking to showcase its broader business environment, infrastructure and industrial capabilities as it seeks to attract companies looking for new markets and investment destinations.
For Gujarat, the overseas engagement is part of a larger strategy to connect global capital, technology and expertise with local opportunities. Rather than waiting for investors to arrive at the summit, the state is taking its investment message directly to major international business centres.
The San Francisco visit therefore marks an early step in building momentum for Vibrant Gujarat 2027. If the outreach results in new partnerships and investment commitments, it could strengthen Gujarat’s position as a destination for manufacturing, technology, startups, innovation and global business expansion.
17, Aug 2026
NPS Enrolments Among Zomato Delivery Partners Cross 2 Lakh, Marking a Major Milestone
New Delhi, Aug 17: Zomato, India’s food ordering and delivery platform, announced that the National Pension System corpus built by the delivery partners onboarded on its delivery platform under the ‘NPS Platform Workers Model’ has crossed ₹1 crore, with enrolments under the scheme surpassing 2 lakh Permanent Retirement Account Numbers. The milestone marks a significant step forward from the model’s launch in October 2025, when it was introduced in collaboration with HDFC Pension, India’s largest Corporate NPS Point of Presence and Private sector Pension Fund Manager for the NPS, and enabled by Kfintech, the Central Recordkeeping Agency.
The NPS e-shramik Model allows delivery partners onboarded on Zomato to build long-term financial security through small, regular contributions, with the flexibility of to retain and carry their benefits and entitlements as they move between livelihoods over time. Onboarding is enabled through the delivery partners‘ existing KYC or eKYC, with their consent, at the PRAN generation stage, with additional details submitted subsequently.
Aditya Mangla, CEO, Zomato, said,
“Delivery partners are a key part of the Zomato ecosystem, and we’ve always aimed to support them beyond their day-to-day earnings, towards a more secure future. Crossing ₹1 crore in NPS contributions is an important milestone, made possible through small, regular contributions from delivery partners themselves. We hope our partnership with HDFC Pension encourages more delivery partners to plan and save for their future, while making long-term savings easier and more accessible.”
Sriram Iyer, MD & CEO, HDFC Pension, noted,
“This is a significant milestone, and it truly reflects the collective success of the industry, regulator and corporates coming together for the benefit of a specific customer cohort. The tri-party endeavour started with Zomato’s vision to empower their platform workers with a substantial retirement solution, us pitching with simple on-boarding solution, and PFRDA approving the approach. Today, the solution – The NPS Platform Workers’ Model – is going on to help several other platform workers plan their retirement in a formal and structured manner. I’m happy that we were able partner with Zomato and deliver a pioneering solution for the benefit of many Indians who are a part of the gig-economy driving India’s growth.”
“Retirement security should not depend on the nature of one’s work. The ₹1 crore contribution milestone under the NPS e-Shramik Model is encouraging because it shows that even small, regular contributions can collectively create a meaningful foundation for the future. The participation of over 2 lakh delivery partners also demonstrates that gig workers are increasingly looking beyond immediate earnings and recognising the importance of building long-term financial security. As India’s workforce becomes more dynamic, creating simple, portable and accessible pathways to retirement savings will be critical to making social security more inclusive.” said #NPSzarurihai – Sumit Kumar, Chief General Manager, PFRDA.
Zomato operates on a gig-first model, supporting an average of 6,38,000 independent monthly active delivery partners as of Q1 FY27. The company continues to invest in both industry-first and industry-standard initiatives to enhance the delivery partner experience, including a comprehensive health insurance plan that covers IPD/hospitalization, daycare treatment up to ₹1 lakh, OPD expenses up to ₹5,000, ICU costs, maternity insurance for female delivery partners, and teleconsultations, along with a personal accident cover of up to₹10 lakh – at no cost to partners. Through the delivery partner app, they have access to 24×7 SOS support in more than 850+ cities, connecting them to ambulances, police assistance, and a dedicated SOS response team, as well as real-time visibility into their earnings, enabling them to track income from orders, incentives, and tips on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
17, Aug 2026
Ajmera Fashion Wraps Up Milestone Showcase with 100 Regional Vendors at Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav 2026
Aug 17: India’s massive textile industry just got a major collaborative boost. Ajmera Fashion Ltd. brought 100 textile vendors from all corners of the country together under one roof at the Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav 2026. The four-day mega-event wrapped up this week on August 15 at Bharat Mandapam. Taking on the role of the official Textile Partner, Ajay Ajmera CEO and Founder Ajmera Fashion Ltd used Ajmera’s pavilion to create a shared national stage, intentionally shining a spotlight on the sheer diversity of regional Indian weavers and suppliers.
Instead of a standard retail setup, the Ajmera Fashion pavilion ran as a pure exhibition. The goal was simply to get regional businesses noticed and connect them directly with industry buyers. Visitors could walk through the space to see local craftsmanship firsthand, giving small-scale suppliers and regional weavers immediate national visibility.
The pavilion also drew the attention of prominent political leaders during the four-day event. Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal Ji and Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi Smt. Rekha Gupta Ji visited the Ajmera Fashion pavilion, where they witnessed the diverse textile representation and the special displays presented by the company.
By sharing the space with 100 different vendors, Ajmera Fashion aimed to open doors for smaller businesses across the industry. The joint layout gave these local manufacturers and independent entrepreneurs a straightforward way to put their work in front of a massive national audience.
Speaking on the successful conclusion of the Mahotsav, Mr. Ajay Ajmera, Founder and CEO, Ajmera Fashion Ltd., said,
“Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav has given us an opportunity to bring the collective strength of India’s textile industry together on one platform. We are proud to have brought 100 vendors from across the country and presented their diversity, craftsmanship and entrepreneurial spirit to a national audience. The response over these four days has reinforced our belief that collaboration can create greater opportunities for Indian businesses. Our heritage is our foundation, and our collective ambition will take Indian textiles to the world.”
The four-day Mahotsav brought together India’s business community around themes of indigenous manufacturing, entrepreneurship, trade expansion and economic development. Its showcases also reflected India’s progress across sectors through initiatives and achievements spanning Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Vande Bharat, space exploration, solar energy, agriculture, technology and infrastructure.
Looking ahead, Ajmera Fashion plans to build on this momentum by keeping local businesses connected to these larger commercial networks. Moving forward, the company’s focus remains on expanding the market reach for Indian textiles and helping regional suppliers scale up for both domestic and global buyers.
17, Aug 2026
Introducing PcVue 17: Optimize Energy. Maximize Performance. Secure the Infrastructure.
Aug 17: ARC Informatique, publisher of the SCADA/BMS PcVue platform, announces PcVue 17, a major release addressing critical systems challenges: energy efficiency, operational performance, and cybersecurity.
Driving Energy Flexibililty
PcVue 17 improves the energy efficiency of buildings and industrial processes. By centralizing data from multiple sources within a unified ecosystem, it actively optimizes energy demand through optimized control scenarios that can include AI-based forecasting, thus avoiding consumption peaks and reducing energy costs.
Intelligent Assistance for Performance
PcVue 17 introduces intelligent assistance that enables users to configure workflows and orchestrate complex processes through low-code interfaces. By combining AI processing and real-time data analysis, it allows to automate routine tasks and accelerates decision-making across both systems and teams.
On the engineering side, PcVue 17 helps you design faster and be more efficient with enriched object libraries, and flexible modeling capabilities.
Certifications for Critical Infrastructure Cyber-resilience
Backed by IEC 62443-4-1 and IEC 62443-4-2 certifications, ensuring secure development processes and robust product security for industrial automation systems, the platform not only offers high performance, but also remains secure and resilient to cyber threats, thus ensuring operational confidence for critical infrastructures.
17, Aug 2026
MongoDB Atlas Now Delivers Industry-Leading Context Retrieval with Precision Accuracy
New Delhi, Aug. 17: Retrieval accuracy determines what an AI application or Agent decides and what it costs to host. Today, MongoDB, Inc. announced at MongoDB.local Build Fest a set of capabilities that add benchmark-leading retrieval directly into MongoDB’s intelligent data platform to solve this exact challenge. Today’s capabilities start with a new model in voyage-code-4, purpose-built for agentic code retrieval. That model, along with the full set of Voyage AI embedding and reranking models, is now available through a standalone API to power any application. MongoDB’s Voyage AI embedding models hold the top spot on the Retrieval Embedding Benchmark.
Historically, developers powering advanced retrieval use cases have had to pull data out of operational systems, manage complex and brittle embedding pipelines, and keep vector stores in sync. With Automated Embedding in MongoDB Atlas, powered by Voyage AI models, developers easily insert and retrieve data. Atlas handles embedding and indexing automatically behind the scenes, with no synchronization or embedding pipelines to manage.
The Financial Times was dealing with this exact complexity as they worked to make its journalism easy to find for readers. Search had splintered across the FT’s teams and products, so it consolidated onto the MongoDB platform. With Automated Embeddings in MongoDB Atlas powered by Voyage AI, the FT is improving the accuracy of its AI-powered semantic search while holding down retrieval costs.
“Our job is to make the FT’s journalism fast and easy to reach, however our readers come to it. With Automated Embedding and Voyage AI models on Atlas, we’ve improved retrieval accuracy while keeping costs in check across more than 100,000 searches a day, and being able to test and balance models lets us tune quality against cost as we go. With less infrastructure to run, the team can spend more of its time on the reading experience our subscribers rely on,” said Elitsa Pavlova, Principal Engineer CM Platform, at Financial Times.
Eve, a legal AI platform, was also running into complexity and cost issues. They are now using the Atlas Embedding and Reranking API to surface the most relevant material as it works across the life of a case.
“In legal AI, retrieval quality is foundational—the right evidence has to surface at the right moment. MongoDB’s Atlas Embedding and Reranking API gives us a promising way to improve relevance directly in the RAG layer, while simplifying the infrastructure needed to build and evolve these experiences,” said Urvesh Patel, Staff AI Engineer at Eve.
MongoDB is the memory and context layer that agents are built on
On MongoDB, high-precision retrieval runs in the same platform as real-time operational data, not bolted on as a separate system that adds cost and synchronization overhead. An agent searches live data for context, including records written seconds earlier, so what it retrieves reflects the current state of the business rather than a stale copy.
Four new capabilities give teams accuracy in production while reducing complexity and cost:
·Fresh and accurate context for agents: AI applications and agents can only make good decisions with accurate, reliable, up-to-date context. Automated Embeddings in MongoDB Atlas powered by Voyage AI keep that context current. Users set a Voyage AI embedding model for their search index, and Atlas embeds new documents as they are written and re-embeds existing ones when they change, with nothing to run or schedule.
·One endpoint for benchmark-leading embeddings: The Atlas Embedding and Reranking API gives any application, even ones running outside MongoDB, direct access to MongoDB’s top-ranked embedding and reranking models through Atlas.
·Accurate code retrieval with lower cost: General-purpose embedding models were not built for codebases, and it shows in retrieval accuracy. voyage-code-4 is a retrieval model tuned specifically for coding agents, matching information to code with higher precision and lower cost than previous models.
·Retrieval for streaming data: Agents acting on live events should not work from worse context than agents reading from data at rest. Vector search in Atlas Stream Processing brings that same retrieval accuracy to data in motion.
“Too many organizations are running AI in production with an operational database, a vector store, a search engine, and embedding and reranking models, all from different vendors, bolted together instead of built for it,” said Jim Scharf, Chief Technology Officer, at MongoDB. “That’s where stale data and errors creep in, and it’s usually where teams spend their time babysitting instead of building. Agents raise the bar. They need to retrieve live context continuously and cannot wait on overnight batch jobs. MongoDB was built as an operational platform from the start, so retrieval and memory run on the same live data, nothing to sync, and agents act on what’s happening instantly.”
These new capabilities are generally available today; get started for free at mongodb.com/atlas.
MongoDB also announced at Build Fest new integrations that put MongoDB inside the AI tools developers build with—across Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Codex, Grok Build, and Devin—along with the MongoDB Atlas Managed MCP Server: Link
17, Aug 2026
transcosmos receives Special Award for Digital Utilization in JiIT’s Best Customer Support of The Year 2026
Aug 17: transcosmos announced that it has received the Special Award for Digital Utilization at the Best Customer Support of The Year 2026 program, organized by the Japan Institute of Information Technology (JiIT).
The Customer Support Award program was established to promote higher productivity, effective management, enhanced systems, and stronger customer touchpoints in customer support operations across Japanese industry and government organizations. Regardless of organizational size, the program recognizes companies, organizations, institutions, business sites, and departments that have made outstanding contributions to business performance and the advancement of customer support through creative and innovative initiatives in customer support and services, improving customer satisfaction, and addressing other challenges.
■Reasons for the award
At the customer support center recognized by the award, supervisors were spending a significant amount of time on routine tasks such as handling escalations and preparing materials, limiting the time available for higher-value activities such as enhancing the customer experience and delivering value-added proposals to clients.
To address this challenge, transcosmos undertook a business transformation initiative based on the concept of “turning everyday operations into data,” treating conversations during the escalation process as valuable knowledge assets.
Specifically, transcosmos built a fully automated framework that transcribes conversations during the escalation process using an AI voice recorder, generates materials using generative AI, and creates videos using AI video generation tools. This enabled knowledge that had previously resided with individuals to be shared across the organization more quickly, accelerating and standardizing knowledge transfer. In addition, transcosmos continuously refined prompt design and improvement cycles to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of knowledge sharing.
As a result, transcosmos significantly reduced the time required to prepare escalation materials as well as average handling time (AHT), enhancing both operational efficiency and service quality. By making effective use of the time created through these enhancements, supervisors were able to focus more on voice of the customer (VoC) initiatives and strengthening relationships with clients. This contributed to higher overall customer satisfaction and service satisfaction, as well as lower employee turnover.
The initiative was highly commended for aligning the organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) with AI and DX-driven operational efficiency, enabling supervisors to shift away from routine administrative tasks and focus more on enhancing the customer experience and creating value for clients.
Guided by its vision, “to become a bridge between people’s happiness and a well-being society with the power of communication,” approximately 23,000 communicators in transcosmos’s Digital Customer Communications (DCC) sector provide call center and other communication services from 32 locations across Japan. transcosmos will continue its efforts to contribute to people’s happiness and a thriving society.
* transcosmos is a trademark or registered trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries.
* Other company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies.
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17, Aug 2026
Vodia Phone 2 Turns Android Phones into Vodia Extensions
BOSTON: August 17 – Vodia Networks, Inc., a provider of unified cloud communications solutions to enterprises, contact centers, and service providers, is pleased to announce Vodia Phone 2, an app that brings the Vodia PBX experience to Android users. Vodia Phone 2 is a companion app to the new Vodia iOS app, which the company announced in July of this year.
Vodia Phone 2 turns any Android device into a full-featured extension of the Vodia phone system. It integrates with the native Android calling experience, so users can make and receive calls from anywhere via a business phone system.
Incoming business calls ring like regular calls, even when the app is in the background or the phone is locked – calls can be placed from the Vodia app or directly from the Android dialer.
Vodia Phone 2 makes it easier to manage calls, voicemail, chat, extensions, call history, and active call controls in one place. Users can hold and resume calls, perform blind or attended transfers, park calls for colleagues, access company contacts, and manage how business calls reach them. Integration with Android Telecom Manager also enables support for Bluetooth devices and Android Auto, giving users a familiar mobile calling experience wherever they work.
For installation instructions and more information about calling, transfers, contacts, extension activity, and settings, visit the Vodia Android app documentation page.
Vodia has been committed since its inception to helping enterprises and SMBs work from anywhere. For more information about our iOS and Android apps, Vodia representatives can be reached at sales@vodia.com or +1 (617) 861-3490.
