Russia, China oppose 'discriminatory sanctions' against BRICS countries: Putin
Tianjin (PTI): Russia and China have taken a common stand against "discriminatory sanctions" that hinder the socioeconomic development of BRICS member countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin, who arrived here to attend the Shanghai Cooperation (SCO) summit, made the remarks in an interview with China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
He said that Russia and China are paying special attention to mobilising additional resources for critical infrastructure projects, and stand united in strengthening BRICS' ability to address pressing global challenges.
The Russian president said that Moscow and Beijing take a "common stand against discriminatory sanctions that hinder the socioeconomic development" of BRICS members and the world at large.
Putin's remarks came in the backdrop of US President Donald Trump threatening the member countries of BRICS with 10 per cent tariffs.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates have joined BRICS as its new members.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to meet Putin on the sidelines of the SCO summit being held here from Sunday to Monday.
In the written interview with Xinhua, Putin said Russia and China support reforming the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
He added that the two sides share the view that a new financial system must be built on the principles of "openness and true equity", which can provide equal and non-discriminatory access to its tools for all countries and reflect the real standing of member states in the global economy.
"We seek progress for the benefit of all humanity. I am confident that Russia and China will continue to work together towards this noble goal, aligning our efforts to ensure the prosperity of our great nations," he said.
Besides attending the summit and holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin will also attend China’s V-Day parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its victory against Japan in WWII.
He hoped that the SCO Tianjin Summit will inject powerful new momentum into the 10-member organisation and strengthen its capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, and consolidate solidarity across the shared Eurasian space.
"All this will help shape a fairer multipolar world order," he said.
The SCO's appeal lies in its simple but powerful principles: a firm commitment to its founding philosophy, openness to equal cooperation, not targeting third parties, and respect for the national characteristics and uniqueness of each nation, he said.
"Drawing on these values, the SCO contributes to shaping a fairer, multipolar world order, grounded in international law, with the central coordinating role of the United Nations," he said.
"I am confident that, through our joint efforts, we will give the SCO new momentum, modernising it to meet the demands of the time," he said.
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Ambani, Adani pledge USD 210 bn for India's AI push
New Delhi (PTI): Conglomerates run by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani committed USD 210 billion investment to creating infrastructure that will help India emerge as an AI development hub.
At the India AI Impact Summit, Ambani announced a Rs 10 lakh crore (about USD 110 billion) investment in artificial intelligence over the next seven years in gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, leveraging up to 10 GW of green power surplus, and a nationwide edge-compute layer integrated with telecom and digital operator Jio's networks to deliver low-latency AI across India.
"Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity," he said. "When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable."
Adani, on the other hand, unveiled a USD 100-billion investment to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035 -- one of the world's largest integrated energy-compute commitments.
The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional USD 150 billion across server manufacturing, cloud platforms, and supporting industries, creating a projected USD 250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India.
India must architect its own artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure rather than rely on imports, Adani Group executive director Jeet Adani said on Thursday, warning that AI will redefine national sovereignty.
Other major investments announced at the Summit included USD 50 billion commitment by Microsoft by the end of the decade to expand artificial intelligence access across the Global South. "India, not surprisingly, is one of the largest," its vice chair and president, Brad Smith, said.
The firm had unveiled USD 17.5 billion investment in AI investments in India last year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new subsea cable initiative to boost AI connectivity between India, the US and other locations, alongside partnerships for cloud infrastructure platform support to over 20 million public servants across 800 districts.
Yotta Data Services, backed by a real estate group headed by Niranjan Hiranandani, announced over USD 2 billion spend on Nvidia's latest chips in an artificial intelligence computing hub it is setting up just outside the national capital.
While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed up ChatGPT parent OpenAI as its first customer for its data centre unit under the global AI infrastructure initiative Stargate, infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro announced a proposed venture with Nvidia to build AI-ready data centre infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads.
