Category: Technology

Chennai, May 11: Maveric Systems, a banking-exclusive technology specialist, announced its new market positioning — Engineering Trust in AI-First Banking — as financial institutions worldwide accelerate the transition from digital-first to AI-first enterprise models.

For CIOs, the shift from digital-first to AI is a business revisioning exercise. It requires reimagining people, processes, and technology through AI, ML and automation. This needs to happen across every critical imperative, from customer experiences and modernised, real-time systems, to operational cost reduction and regulatory compliance, as well as privacy.

” As AI moves into the core of the enterprise, the key challenge is how to scale AI reliably, securely, and responsibly across highly regulated, legacy-complex environments”, said Ranga Reddy, CEO & Whole Time Director, Maveric Systems. “What banks need is not another technology vendor; they need a partner who can engineer trust into every layer of AI and ML-led transformation. That is the promise behind Maveric’s new positioning.”

Maveric’s Engineering Trust positioning is anchored in four core strengths:       

• ·AI at the Core, Not the Edges: Maveric embeds AI into core systems, operations, and decision layers, not at the periphery through isolated pilots. This shifts banks from fragmented experimentation to enterprise-wide AI-first models with real governance, observability, and accountability.
• ·Principles that engineer trust: Maveric applies a standards-led engineering approach, embedding AI principles including fairness, explainability, reliability, privacy and global banking standards and regulatory requirements, ensuring AI is compliant by design.
• ·Pragmatic, Outcome-Driven Execution:  Every engagement is anchored to quantifiable business impact – faster customer onboarding, real-time decisioning, reduced cost-to-serve, improved fraud detection, and accelerated modernization.
• ·Deep Banking DNA:  With over 25 years of exclusive focus on banking and financial services, Maveric builds AI within the fabric of banking, not on top of it. This domain depth ensures every AI model, use case, and solution is aligned to real-world banking processes, regulatory constraints, and customer realities across geographies.

To support CIOs AI-first journey, Maveric brings its purpose-built platforms and solutions ecosystem. PulseAI delivers continuous quality intelligence, PrismAI strengthens data integrity and data confidence, InsightHubAI unifies customer intelligence, and EdgeOpsAI provides intelligent reliability and operations.

These platforms, alongside AI-powered solutions spanning customer service, fraud and risk, application modernization, intelligent document management, and software engineering acceleration, are designed to enable scalable, responsible AI adoption across the enterprise.

At the center of this ecosystem is Maveric’s proprietary AI @ Scale framework enabling banks to move from isolated AI use cases to industrialized transformation through business revisioning and process and technology reimagination. At the line of business and function levels, the framework integrates domain-aligned data foundations, multi-agent orchestration, AI governance, lifecycle management, and outcome-driven execution into a unified delivery model.

With a presence across three continents and 25+ years of long-standing relationships with global banks, regional leaders, and emerging fintechs, Maveric Systems is uniquely positioned to help financial institutions build the next generation of AI-first enterprises with trust engineered into every layer.

By- Christina Elston

LOS ANGELES (May 8, 2026) — A team led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators has created a faster, cheaper way to determine the genes expressed in cancerous tumors. The AI-based tool, which they describe in Cell, could make personalized cancer treatment available to more patients.

The new tool, called Path2Space, predicts gene expression across the tumor area based on digital images of biopsy slides, which contain thin slices of tumor tissue that can be examined under a microscope.

Because tumors do not have the same composition and gene expression throughout, Path2Space predicts what is known as “spatial” gene expression, estimating it at many different points within the tumor. The process takes only minutes and costs significantly less than conventional spatial gene expression profiling, which typically takes several weeks and costs thousands of dollars.

“This tool makes two major contributions,” said Eytan Ruppin, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Translational Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai and senior author of the study. “It will enable us and others to study larger datasets and understand the spatial structure of tumors. But what really motivates me is that, if we can successfully validate the tool in clinical trials, it could improve cancer care for patients.”  

Investigators “trained” Path2Space using data from a large group of patients with breast cancer, where the biopsy slides and spatial sequencing were both available. They then tested the tool on three additional patient datasets to validate its performance.

“For each sample, we looked at the actual, measured gene expression and compared it with our tool’s prediction,” said Eldad Shulman, PhD, co-first author of the study and a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, who will soon join Ruppin’s lab as a research scientist. “For each sample, we predicted the spatial expression of almost 5,000 genes, and the predictions matched the measured expression well across all three patient groups.”

Path2Space is also designed to help scientists discover new biomarkers that could guide treatment decisions and identify patients at higher risk of poor outcomes.  

“The tool looks at characteristics within the tumor, such as whether a gene is expressed in some areas of the tumor and not others,” said Emma Campagnolo, co-first author of the study and a research fellow in Ruppin’s lab. “We found specific spatial patterns of gene activity in tumors that predict how patients respond to treatment.”

Identifying spatial biomarkers is challenging, Shulman said, because the high cost of spatial profiling by traditional methods means very little of this data is available.

“Before we developed Path2Space, the largest cohort we could find to study the spatial organization of the tumor environment was about 30 patients,” Shulman said. “With this tool, we can study slides from thousands of patients. Path2Space is tapping into the potential of spatial biology in a way that has not been possible until now.”

Path2Space could be applied to other cancer types once it is trained on the correct data, and the lab is finalizing a study applying it to head and neck cancer, Campagnolo said. The team is also working to make the tool more precise. It currently looks at groups of 10 to 20 cells together, and the goal is to eventually be able to assess individual cells.  

“With the help of clinical collaborators, we next want to bring Path2Space into clinical trials,” Ruppin said. “It represents an exciting development in a growing field and has to be tested carefully. But we are hopeful that it could make an impactful contribution to science and to patient care.”

Robert Figlin, MD, interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, noted that translational research is a hallmark of the institution.

“The development of tools that apply leading-edge science to patient care is the best way to serve our patients—and to improve cancer care on a global scale,” Figlin said.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Yuan Yuan, Karine Sargsyan, and Simon R.V. Knott.

Other authors include Roshan Lodha, Youngmin Chung, Amos Stemmer, Thomas Cantore, Beibei Ru, Tian-Gen Chang, Sumona Biswas, Saugato Rahman Dhruba, Sumeet Patiyal, Sushant Patkar, Andrew Wang, Ranjan K. Barman, Chuhan Wang, Rohit Paul, Sarath Chandra Kalisetty, Tom Hu, MacLean P. Nasrallah, Ellis Patrick, Jean Yang, Amy Plotkin, Padma Sheila Rajagopal, Stephen-John Sammut, Stanley Lipkowitz, Peng Jiang, Carlos Caldas, Kenneth Aldape, Joo Sang Lee, and Danh-Tai Hoang.

Funding: This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NCI, and the Center for Cancer Research. The contributions of the NIH authors were made as part of their official duties, as NIH federal employees are in compliance with agency policy requirements and are considered works of the U.S. government. This research was also partially supported by a grant of the Korea-United States Collaborative Research Fund, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: RS-2024-00468417; Y.C. and J.S.L.), and by an Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2019-II190421, AI Graduate School Support Program, Sungkyunkwan University; Y.C. and J.S.L.). This work has utilized the computational resources of the NIH HPC Biowulf cluster.

Competing interests: E.D.S., E.M.C. and E.R. are listed as inventors on a provisional patent (application no. 63/703,060, United States, 2024) filed based on the methodology outlined in this study. E.R is (non-paid) member of the scientific advisory boards of Pangea Biomed (divested), GSK Oncology and the ProCan project. E.R is a founder of MedAware Ltd. The other authors declare no competing interests.

May 9 (BNP): The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to train 500 officers in Artificial Intelligence (AI), aiming to modernise coal operations and strengthen data-driven decision-making across the organisation.

The agreement was formalised by Keshav Rao, Director (HR), MCL, and Prof. Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM Sambalpur, in the presence of senior officials including MCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Uday Anant Kaole and IIM Sambalpur faculty representatives.

Under the collaboration, officers from various departments will be trained in AI applications to improve core areas such as coal production, business development, operational efficiency, and process management. The initiative is expected to help MCL integrate advanced technologies into its day-to-day functioning and long-term planning.

Speaking on the partnership, Prof. Mahadeo Jaiswal said IIM Sambalpur is focused on preparing leaders for a technology-driven future. He added that the collaboration reflects a shared vision of using AI and machine learning to transform traditional industries through innovation, skill development, and strategic capability building.

MCL leadership also highlighted that the initiative is part of a broader effort to make the organisation more future-ready by adopting digital tools and modern management practices.

Notably, IIM Sambalpur is among the pioneering institutions globally to introduce AI education across its entire student cohort, integrating it into all areas of management learning.

The partnership marks a significant step toward strengthening industry–academia collaboration and accelerating digital transformation in India’s coal sector, particularly within Coal India Limited subsidiaries like MCL.

 

May 8 (BNP): KPIT Technologies has announced the passing of its Co-Founder and Chairman, Dr. S.B. (Ravi) Pandit, who died in Pune on Friday at the age of 71, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

Dr. Pandit was a key architect in building KPIT Technologies into a global mobility-focused technology firm. Under his leadership, the company grew its international presence across 15 countries and established itself in areas such as automotive software, autonomous driving, electric mobility, and clean energy solutions.

Beyond his corporate role, he was actively involved in public policy, sustainability, and social development initiatives. He co-founded institutions like Pune International Centre and Janwani, and contributed to research and policy work through the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE).

Pandit also played an important role in industry bodies, serving as President of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and participating in various committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he contributed to discussions on industry growth and policy development.

Following the news, KPIT Technologies shares were trading 1.37 per cent higher at ₹732.50 on the BSE on Friday. The stock has seen significant movement over the past year, touching a 52-week high of ₹1,433 and a low of ₹625.

In its latest earnings update earlier this week, the company reported a 33 per cent year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit to ₹163 crore for the March quarter, compared to ₹245 crore in the same period last year. Despite the drop in profit, the company recorded a 12 per cent rise in revenue, reflecting steady business growth in its core segments.

Alliance extended to combine Parallels RAS and 10ZiG innovations to simplify virtual app and desktop delivery across hybrid environments

PHOENIX and AUSTIN, Texas – May 8, 2026 – 10ZiG® Technology, a leading provider of thin and zero client hardware and software solutions for VDI, DaaS, and web application environments, and Parallels, a global leader in virtualization and end-user computing (EUC) solutions, today announced an expanded partnership to help organizations simplify secure application and desktop delivery, reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), and improve management across distributed work environments.

This expanded collaboration builds on the recently announced expansion of the 10ZiG Ready technology partner program, which strengthens technology alignment across the EUC stack through validated integrations designed to simplify deployment and improve interoperability. As part of the expanding 10ZiG Ready ecosystem, the strengthened relationship with Parallels reflects a continued focus on delivering integrated solutions that help customers reduce complexity across infrastructure and endpoint environments.

Building on a technology relationship spanning more than 15 years, the expanded partnership aligns 10ZiG’s secure endpoint hardware, 10ZiG RepurpOS™, PeakOS™, Windows IoT, and free 10ZiG Manager™ software with Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) to provide customers with a more integrated approach to delivering and managing virtual applications and desktops. Together, the companies help organizations simplify deployment, extend endpoint lifecycles, reduce operational overhead, and support secure, high-performance digital workspaces for remote, in-office, and hybrid users. The combined solution also supports a broad set of environments, including Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, Nutanix, Scale Computing, Azure Virtual Desktop, and AWS, while supporting unified communications use cases such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

As organizations continue to balance modernization initiatives with cost pressures, the expanded partnership addresses two persistent challenges in digital workspace environments: reducing the complexity of delivering secure applications and desktops across diverse environments, and lowering infrastructure and endpoint costs while improving user experience.

“What makes this partnership unique is the combination of Parallels RAS simplicity with 10ZiG’s purpose-built endpoint strategy, giving customers a practical way to standardize and secure digital workspaces across a wide range of environments,” said Tom Dodds, Global Strategic Alliances Manager, 10ZiG Technology. “Together, we are helping organizations support hybrid work with greater flexibility, extend the value of existing endpoint investments, and simplify the delivery of virtual applications and desktops from the data center to the edge.”

“Organizations want digital workspace solutions that are easy to deploy, simple to manage, and flexible enough to support evolving infrastructure strategies,” said Michael Hopfinger, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Parallels. “Our collaboration with 10ZiG brings together secure remote application delivery, broad platform support, and integrated endpoint innovation to help customers create a more resilient user experience. Our expanded collaboration with 10ZiG combines Parallels RAS and secure, purpose-built endpoint solutions to help organizations streamline application and desktop delivery, simplify management, and improve the economics of supporting distributed users.”

Through the expanded partnership, customers benefit from:

• Simplified application and desktop delivery: Parallels RAS and 10ZiG endpoints help organizations streamline delivery of published applications and virtual desktops across distributed environments.
• Endpoint lifecycle extension: 10ZiG Thin Clients, Zero Clients, and 10ZiG RepurpOS enable organizations to reduce reliance on traditional PCs, extend the life of existing devices, and support secure, purpose-built endpoints.
• Integrated management and security: Combined capabilities help IT teams improve visibility, simplify endpoint and access management, and support secure access for remote, in-office, and hybrid work, including support for MFA, SAML enrollment services for SSO, auditing and monitoring, and secure connectivity through 10ZiG Manager Secure Connector.
• Improved economics for digital workspaces: By addressing costs across infrastructure and endpoints, organizations can improve ROI while delivering secure, high-performance user experiences.

The expanded partnership also supports deeper go-to-market collaboration and customer engagement around integrated use cases for Parallels RAS environments, while reinforcing Parallels’ role within the growing 10ZiG Ready partner ecosystem.

10ZiG will highlight its expanded collaboration with Parallels through ongoing partner and customer engagement initiatives focused on simplifying application delivery and improving economics across infrastructure and endpoint environments. Organizations can also learn more by joining the May 27 webinar, “EUC without complexity: Simplify delivery and endpoints with Parallels and 10ZiG,” which will explore how the combined solution helps simplify virtual app and desktop delivery while improving security, flexibility, and cost efficiency. Register here.

WhatsApp Launches “Business AI” in India to Help SMEs Automate Customer Support and Boost Digital Sales

New Delhi, May 7 (BNP): WhatsApp on Thursday announced the launch of its new AI-powered feature “Business AI” in India, aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) manage customer interactions more efficiently through the WhatsApp Business app.

The feature is designed to enable eligible businesses to provide 24/7 automated customer support, respond to queries instantly, generate leads, schedule appointments, and support sales conversations without requiring additional platforms or tools.

According to the company, Business AI can be customised using a business’s own information such as product catalogues, pricing, services, discounts, and delivery details. This allows businesses to offer more accurate and personalised responses to customer queries.

A key highlight of the feature is its multilingual capability, enabling interactions in multiple Indian languages to improve accessibility and customer reach across regions.

The platform will also soon support in-chat payments through UPI, allowing customers to complete transactions directly within conversations, further streamlining the digital commerce experience.

WhatsApp stated that businesses will retain full control over conversations and can intervene or take over chats from the AI at any time.

The company said the feature will be gradually rolled out to eligible businesses using the WhatsApp Business app under the Tools section, where users can activate and configure “Business AI” through guided steps.

Impact on small businesses

The launch is expected to benefit SMEs by reducing the burden of handling large volumes of customer messages with limited staff. By automating routine queries, businesses can improve response time, enhance customer engagement, and focus more on growth and operations.

Industry observers believe the move could strengthen India’s digital business ecosystem by enabling small enterprises to adopt AI-driven customer service and expand their online presence more efficiently.

Overall, the initiative reflects the growing integration of artificial intelligence into everyday business communication and digital commerce in India.

New Delhi, May 7 (BNP): India’s technology spending is witnessing a strong upswing, driven primarily by rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and large-scale data modernisation across industries, according to a recent industry report.

The report notes that enterprises are increasingly prioritising investments in AI-powered tools, cloud infrastructure, and advanced data systems as they shift away from legacy IT setups toward more agile, scalable digital architectures.

A key driver of this trend is the growing need for real-time insights and automation. AI is helping businesses streamline operations, improve decision-making speed, and enhance customer experience through predictive analytics and intelligent process automation.

At the same time, data modernisation is emerging as a foundational requirement for digital transformation. Companies are upgrading fragmented legacy systems into unified, cloud-based data platforms that allow faster processing, better data governance, and improved integration across business functions.

According to the report, this dual shift is enabling organisations to build more resilient and efficient digital ecosystems. It is also helping enterprises across banking, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and public services adopt more data-driven and technology-led operating models.

The transformation is expected to generate significant demand for cloud services, AI solutions, and cybersecurity frameworks, while also expanding opportunities for technology providers and startups in the digital infrastructure space.

Industry experts say this trend is not just increasing IT budgets but fundamentally reshaping how businesses operate, compete, and innovate in India’s fast-evolving digital economy.

Overall, the report suggests that AI and data modernisation are becoming central pillars of India’s technology growth story, laying the foundation for the next phase of enterprise digital transformation.

Urban LinkX delivers up to 5x faster connections in lab tests, with 2x to 4x faster speeds in real-world testing. Protocol Control lets users select their VPN protocol directly from the app.

DELAWARE, USA, May 7: Urban VPN, one of the largest free VPN services globally, today launches Urban LinkX & Protocol Control. Urban LinkX is an in-house developed VPN protocol built on a WireGuard foundation, delivering approximately 5x faster connections in lab tests compared with Urban VPN’s previous protocol stack. Real-world testing on Android in the United States shows 2x faster mean download speeds and 4x faster mean upload speeds. Protocol Control is a new in-app feature that lets users select which protocol to use, with Urban LinkX as the default and the previous protocol stack available as an option for specific use cases.

Urban LinkX is now active on 394 of Urban VPN’s 692 servers globally, currently available to Urban VPN’s premium users on Android and iOS, with macOS and Windows scheduled for May 2026. Following the Windows rollout, Urban LinkX will be available to all Urban VPN users.

Urban LinkX operates in three stages. When the user taps Connect, the client selects a server from the available pool based on weights, requests an Urban LinkX configuration from the backend, and establishes the connection, automatically falling back to the next available server if the connection fails. If a connection fails for some technical reason (switching from Wifi to 4/5G) the app seamlessly reconnects to the same or a different server as needed to maintain a smooth user experience. When the connection ends, the client unregisters its session, with the backend automatically cleaning up any session not closed by the client within a few minutes as a safety net.

In internal testing comparing Urban LinkX with Urban VPN’s previous protocol stack, lab tests showed approximately 5x faster connections, while real-world testing on Android with U.S. servers showed 2x faster mean download speeds and 4x faster mean upload speeds. Urban LinkX is engineered to deliver improved connection stability through more resilient tunnels with faster reconnection and better handling of intermittent networks. Its lightweight protocol design reduces CPU and memory consumption on both servers and clients, while key-based authentication and a smaller codebase support simpler configuration, faster troubleshooting, and faster deployment as new server locations can be added quickly using simple key pairs. State-of-the-art cryptography by default reduces the risk of misconfiguration, and seamless roaming maintains connections across IP address changes, including transitions between Wi-Fi and mobile data.

Urban LinkX delivers strong performance in scenarios such as streaming services in regions where single-protocol traffic is filtered, competitive online gaming with mid-session network changes, and travel scenarios switching between hotel Wi-Fi, mobile data, and home networks.

Protocol Control is a new in-app feature that gives users direct choice over which protocol their VPN connection uses. Urban LinkX is the default for most use cases. Users can switch to Urban VPN’s previous protocol stack from the app interface when their specific connection conditions call for it. The selection is made in the app, with no manual reconfiguration required.

Urban LinkX is currently active for 100 percent of premium users on Android by default, and 33 percent of premium users on iOS, with iOS ramping to 100 percent by Thursday, May 7, 2026. macOS is targeting mid-May 2026, and Windows is targeting late May 2026. Urban VPN operates 692 servers in 88 countries globally and has surpassed 100 million downloads since launch.

“Urban LinkX is faster, simpler, and more efficient than the protocol stack it replaces,” Urban VPN said. “Protocol Control gives users direct choice over which protocol to use, since the right answer depends on the use case.”

 

Panaji, May 7 (BNP): Goa is set to host a unique two-day “Shackathon” from May 21, an initiative designed to merge tourism with technology and position the state as a hub for remote work, startups, and coastal innovation.

The programme, organised by the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Goa, will transform beach shacks into temporary innovation spaces where entrepreneurs, students, designers, and remote professionals can collaborate on real-world problem solving.

Goa IT Minister Rohan Khaunte said the initiative reflects a broader vision of developing Goa into a “work-and-leisure destination,” where tourism and technology ecosystems grow together rather than independently.

According to officials, the Shackathon will bring together startups, innovators, digital creators, and remote workers for collaborative sessions focused on building technology-driven solutions. A parallel hackathon will also be conducted, where participants will identify challenges and develop prototype solutions in areas such as tourism tech, sustainability, mobility, and digital services.

Beyond innovation, the initiative is expected to directly support Goa’s tourism economy by extending visitor stays and promoting off-season travel through “workation” models. By integrating workspaces with beachside hospitality, the state aims to attract long-term remote professionals rather than short-term tourists alone.

Officials believe this approach could help local shack owners and small tourism businesses diversify their income streams, while also encouraging year-round economic activity along the coastline.

The event will also include knowledge-sharing sessions on startups, emerging technologies, and remote work culture, along with experiential tourism activities such as watersports and heritage exploration.

Industry observers say the initiative reflects a growing global trend where destinations are repositioning themselves as hybrid ecosystems combining tourism, lifestyle, and innovation infrastructure.

If successful, Goa’s Shackathon model could serve as a blueprint for other coastal regions aiming to connect digital economy growth with sustainable tourism development.