India’s EV localisation gaining ground, but import dependence in chips and rare-earth magnets may hinder deeper value creation: Analysis

India’s electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing could achieve 90–100% localisation across several high-value component categories other than batteries by 2030. However, it still needs to reduce dependence on imported semiconductors, rare-earth magnets, and specialised materials to achieve deeper domestic value creation, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research & Analytic

Semiconductors and rare-earth magnets remain among the most significant constraints to deeper localisation, according to the report. They are essential for EV motors, power electronics, charging equipment, and vehicle control systems, but global production remains concentrated in China and Taiwan.  

The report said around 60% of recent EV component manufacturing announcements have been made by companies approved under the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme for Automobile and Auto Components (PLI Auto) scheme. However, the report found that less than 10% of the INR25,938 crore (USD2.98 billion) available under the scheme had been disbursed by early 2026. 

The report said high localisation percentages do not necessarily translate into high domestic value creation because critical subcomponents, including semiconductors and rare-earth magnets, continue to be imported.

MBA era is over! Why India's CEA says AI-proof skills and not degrees will shape careers

India's Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), V. Anantha Nageswaran, called on young Indians to reassess ideas about education and employment, warning that degrees alone may no longer be enough to secure long-term career success, particularly when jobs are being lost to automation. On an ANI podcast, the Live Mint report said he was speaking in context of artificial intelligence and automation threatening to eat up millions of jobs across sectors. 

He highlighted counselling, caregiving and hospitality as sectors where human judgement and emotional intelligence are likely to remain important despite advances in technology. He also said welding, plumbing, carpentry and electrical work as examples of occupations that deserve greater recognition. He argued that these fields often provide practical expertise that cannot easily be automated or outsourced.

Indian workers train AI robots to take their jobs, recording first-person footage, called "egocentric data"

Thousands of AI system trainers are recording their movements with a smartphone strapped to their head to teach machines how to move like humans in the real world. Folding clothes to  slicing mangoes they are training AI-powered robots to take on household jobs in the future. Earning just over two dollars for an hour of video, their recordings are invaluable for global tech "Folding clothes, coffee making... cooking a very specific thing, sandwich making," Objectways head Ravi Shankar told AFP. listing videos required by firms. 

EgoLab, an Indian data aggregation company extracting this information from Lalita’s factory in Gurugram, a city in the state ofHaryana, counts Tesla among its biggest clients. The company’s CEO, Elon Musk, has predicted that roughly 80% of Tesla’s future value will come not from electric vehicles, but from its humanoid robots, the Guardian reported.

Government think-tank NITI Aayog said that most discussions around artificial intelligence and labour "focus on white-collar professionals and predict an almost certain loss of jobs in the segment" without urgent action.

"Little attention, if any, is paid to how AI can serve India's 490 million informal workers, the very people who form the backbone of our economy," it said in a report released ahead of a global AI summit in India this year.

The think-tank has examined how the technology could help or harm dozens of professions, from cobblers to sewer cleaners, farmers to tea sellers.

154 upcoming data centre hubs are in climate-risk hotspots: Report

A new report warned that physical climate risks could severely disrupt the global data centre expansion, Carboncopy reported.  Titled ‘2026 Global Analysis of Planned Data Centres for Physical Climate Risk and Resilience’, the report examined 2,595 planned data centres globally.

The report by the climate risk analytics firm Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI) highlighted that extreme weather events like coastal flooding, extreme heat and forest fires pose threats to the physically built data centers. It found that 154 of these upcoming digital facilities are already classified as high risk properties for physical climate damage under low-resilience construction settings. 

Data centres in this category face a high probability of structural damage within their operational lifespans, making insurance cost-prohibitive or completely unavailable. Almost half of these high-risk properties are located in North America.

Regionally, Asia faces the steepest resilience hurdles. South East Asia has the highest percentage of high-risk data centres at 20%, followed by East Asia at 13% and South Asia at 12%. Under a high-emissions climate scenario, the risk of physical damage in these regions is projected to more than triple by 2100.

Rare-earth shortage: China adds 10 US firms, including rare-earth miner, to export ban list

China added 10 United States-based companies to its export control list and barred government procurement from nearly 50 US companies after the Pentagon blacklisted some of China’s best-known companies for their alleged ties to the Chinese military, Al Jazeera reported. 

China’s Ministry of Commerce barred Chinese companies from exporting “dual-use” items that can be used for civilian or military purposes to the US firms, the report said. 

The list of companies includes rare-earth mine operator MP Materials Corp, rare-earth magnet maker USA Rare Earths, and US defence contractors specialising in fields such as aerospace, drones, synthetic-aperture radar, and shipbuilding and repairs.

Under the order, “foreign institutions and individuals worldwide are also prohibited from transferring or providing Chinese dual-use goods to them” while ongoing export transactions must be suspended immediately, the broadcaster said.

The Commerce Ministry said the export ban was announced to “safeguard national security and interests and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation”.

China’s Ministry of Finance also barred Chinese government procurement from 46 companies, including subsidiaries of major US defence contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Atomics and General Dynamics. US-funded, locally registered companies, however, have been given an exemption by the ministry.

Experts described Beijing’s orders as a retaliation, albeit a largely symbolic one, against the US after the Pentagon in early June added about 80 Chinese companies and their subsidiaries to its list of “Entities Identified as Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States”, the outlet reported. 

The Financial Times reported that China has restricted trade with two US rare-earth companies. Reuters said, China’s exports of rare earths used for magnets to Japan were “negligible” in May.

‘Come clean on climate costs’: UN Chief announces AI Transparency initiative urging big tech to come clean on true environmental costs of setting up data centres 

The head of the United Nations launched an initiative aimed at holding artificial intelligence companies accountable for their exploding environmental impacts, including their carbon emissions, the amount of water and land used for data centres, and the energy they consume, Climate Home News reported. 

António Guterres said that AI can accelerate climate solutions, “but AI is also hungry for land, water and power,” he emphasised. He said that the data centres needed to run AI models already consume more electricity than most countries. 

The UN Secretary-General repeated a call he first made in July 2025 for all big AI companies to commit to power every data centre with renewable energy by 2030, the outlet said.