Asian Tech Roundup: India’s central bank throws down hyperscaler gauntlet

Plus: Australia moves forward with social media ban

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at big cloud moves in India, Australia’s continued progress towards an under-16s social media ban, and a similar move kicking off in China.

Australia

• A parliamentary inquiry has stopped short of endorsing the plan to ban under-16s from social media. It recommends alternative measures instead, such as the ability to control algorithms. Source
• But, Australia has now introduced a ban on under-16-year-olds accessing social media to parliament, with suggested penalties of up to AUD$50 million ($32.5 million) for “systemic” breaches by platforms. Source
• Hardware chain Bunnings Warehouse plans to challenge a regulator ruling against it for its use of facial recognition technology, which it used to check identities. Source
• The Australian Signals Directorate has said that more than 11% of cybersecurity incidents last year related to critical infrastructure, including electricity, gas, water, education and transport services. Source

China

• The Cyberspace Administration of China has proposed daily usage limits on mobile devices for children under 18. Source
• Chinese startups operating under incubator schemes operated by Google and Microsoft have been found to be working with the police for surveillance activities, including facial recognition systems used in Xinjiang. Source
• Temu owner PDD’s Q3 revenues fell short of market estimates, causing its shares to fall by 10%. Source
• DeepSeek, an AI research company, has released DeepSeek-R1, which it says is the first “reasoning” AI model and a rival to OpenAI’s o1. Source
• Alibaba is aiming to raise $5 billion in a dual currency bond deal, sources say. Source
• The government is allegedly seeking to limit rare metal exports in anticipation of new US tariffs on Chinese goods. Source
• Brazilian telecoms provider Telebras has signed a deal with Chinese satellite internet company SpaceSail, a potential rival to Starlink. Source

India

• The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, plans to offer local cloud data storage to financial firms at “affordable” prices next year. It will use local IT firms to do so and challenge hyperscalers like AWS. Source
• The USA has indicted India’s second-richest man, Gautam Adani, on bribery charges. Source
• Complains about spam have fallen by dropped by 20% since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India started requiring businesses to register their message templates and headers with telecom companies. Source
• The Competition Commission has banned Meta from using data gleaned from WhatsApp to feed advertising on other platforms like Facebook. It has also fined the company about $25 million and banned it from making acceptance of its privacy policy a requirement to use WhatsApp. Source
• The government of Manipur shut down local internet in seven districts for several days, to quell protests by “anti-national and anti-social elements.” Source
• Foxconn has told recruiters in India to remove age, gender and marital criteria from job adverts, as well as the manufacturer’s name. Source

Japan

• Susumu Saito, president of Hokkaido Electric Power, says restarting the company’s Tomari Number 3 nuclear reactor is “indispensable for achieving carbon neutrality.” The reactor was shut down in 2012, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Source
• A Japanese consumer authority agency is advising citizens to start "digital end of life planning" including adding passwords to their wills so subscriptions can be cancelled and accounts accessed. Source
• Japan plans to invest 200 billion yen ($1.28 billion) in semiconductor startup Rapidus next year. Source
• Chipmaker Kioxia will have a market value of about 750 billion yen ($4.84 billion) when it floats on the Tokyo bourse, analysts say . Source

Taiwan

• British chipmaker IQE is considering a sale of its Taiwanese operations. Source
• TSMC has been accused of racist working practices, favouring Taiwanese applicants over American workers at its plant in Arizona. Source
• TSMC is looking to introduce its A16 1.6nm process by the end of 2026. It promises a 12% boost in energy efficiency over the base 2nm process, which is the current cutting edge. Source

Other Asia

• The IT Industry Association of Pakistan has complained about government-enforced shutdowns and slow internet access speeds which it says are damaging business. Source
• Researchers from Seoul National University College of Engineering in South Korea have developed a folded lens system that they say could radically change the design of optical devices including cameras. Source
• A hacking group apparently from Vietnam has been targeting government and education organisations in Europe and Asia with an infostealer called PXA Stealer. Source
• The Philippines Army has put out a call for civilian hackers to help it defend the country against cyberattacks from China. Source