Asian Tech Roundup: India rejects regulation

Plus: Chinese companies distrust data-as-asset listings

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at India's regulatory ruling, China’s slow uptake of a government initiative, and Australia clamping down on Kaspersky.

India’s Supreme Court has rejected a plea to regulate internet prices, following price hikes by all three of the country’s major private telcos last year – and with more said to be under consideration.

The Court advised the petitioner he could seek to use a public telco instead, but like much of the world private operators in India dominate the market, offering wider coverage and a better service.

And across the border in China, the government’s 2024 move to allow companies to list data as assets on their balance sheets is not paying off – with less than 300 of the approximately 60 million companies in China adopting the scheme.

Australia

• Australia has banned Kaspersky software on security grounds, echoing the USA’s move to ban the Russian security software vendor in July last year. Source
• Australia's eSafety Commission fined Telegram AUD$1 million ($640,000) for delaying answering questions about measures taken to prevent the spread of child abuse and extremist content. Source
• Four non-executive directors of WiseTech stepped down over the continuing role of the company's billionaire founder Richard White after reports about his personal life, including payments to an alleged former lover, appeared in the media. Source

China

• China’s move last year to allow companies to register data as assets on their balance sheets has been slow to catch on, with fewer than 300 firms – out of nearly 60 million – doing so to date. Source
• Starlink rival SpaceSail, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government, plans to deploy 648 LEO satellites this year and as many as 15,000 by 2030. Source
• Alibaba has announced it plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.44 billion) in its cloud and AI infrastructure over the next three years. Source
• Alibaba will release an open-source version of its video and image-generating artificial intelligence model, Wan 2.1, the company has confirmed. Source
• Apple is to extend its Apple Developer service to China’s WeChat app, bringing news and announcements generally reserved for Apple’s own website and Developer app. The move comes amid falling iPhone sales in China. Source
• The Trump regime is planning to toughen semiconductor restrictions on China. US officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts to widen restrictions. Source
• According to the FT, advanced machine tools are a bottleneck to China catching up with the competition in areas including semiconductors. Source
• China’s foreign ministry has said that the US leaning on allies to widen the scope of restrictions against its semiconductor industry is likely to hinder development of the global semiconductor industry. Source
• Huawei has increased the yield of its latest AI chips to close to 40%, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Source
• Baidu has bought JOYY's China live-streaming business for about $2.1 billion. Source
• Tencent says its new AI model can answer queries faster than DeepSeek's R1. Source

India

• Indian AI firms are weighing in to support OpenAI in a copyright case brought by Asian News International (ANI). Source
• Meanwhile Indian newspapers are asking the government to regulate AI-generated misinformation. Source
• Nasscom expects the Indian tech sector to grow up to 5.1% this fiscal year to $282.6 billion. Source
• HCLTech CEO C. Vijayakumar said Indian IT firms need to rethink how they operate and that the country needs to create its own AI models. “We need to be more proactive to even categorise our revenues to create completely new businesses," he said. Source
• The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking regulation of internet prices in India. The decision follows price hikes implemented by the three major private telcos in India last year. Source
• India recorded 84 internet shutdowns in 2024, one fewer than Myanmar, which saw 85 shutdowns imposed by the military junta, according to a report by digital rights organisation Access Now. This is the first time in six years that India has not topped the global list for internet shutdowns. Source
• Apple smartwatch shipments to India grew 2.4X in 2024 according to analyst data. Apple bucked the broader trend of shipping reductions for lesser-known brands. Source

Japan

• Tokyo Electron, a manufacturer of chipmaking equipment, is due to go on a hiring spree in order to keep up with new more complex processes. Source
• A former Sony executive says the company is able to “print money” by releasing PlayStation video game titles for PC. Source

South Korea

• Samsung and a union have reached an agreement for a 5.1% wage increase to settle a long-running dispute. The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) has 36,000 members, or about 30% of the company's South Korean workforce. Source
• Samsung and Intel are to collaborate in the development of displays optimised for devices powered by Intel's AI accelerator chips. Source
• Samsung Electronics is set to use bonding technology from China’s YMTC to produce 400-layer NAND flash memory. Source

Taiwan

• Taiwanese chipmaker Vanguard has warned of Trump tariffs fuelling inflation. Source
• Despite US media reports that media has reported that TSMC has been in talks to acquire a stake in Intel, Taiwan's economy minister said on Tuesday his ministry had not received information about an overseas investment. Source

Other Asia

• Indonesia: The Indonesian government and Apple have agreed on terms to lift the country's ban on iPhone 16s. Source
• North Korea: North Korean hackers stole $1.5 billion from a cryptocurrency exchange, the biggest crypto heist in history. Source
• Thailand and Singapore: The Royal Thai Police, the Singapore Police Force and cybersecurity vendor Group-IB have worked together to arrest an individual responsible for more than 90 data leaks worldwide, 65 in APAC. Source
• Singapore: Three men have been charged with fraud in a case domestic media have linked to accusations of US AI chips being smuggled into China, skirting sanctions. Source