Virat Kohli skips pink-ball warm-up game, India opt to bat
Sydney, Dec 11: India captain Virat Kohli on Friday opted out of the day-night warm-up game against Australia A, deciding to give his body some rest after having played in all the preceding limited-overs matches.
India won the toss and elected to bat in the three-day game that started here on Friday.
With Kohli sitting out of the pink-ball tour match, the seasoned Ajinkya Rahane is leading the team at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The game is more of a simulation ahead of the series opening day-night Test, which will be played with a pink ball from December 17 to 21 at Adelaide.
The touring Indians don't have enough experience of facing the pink ball in top-flight cricket, having played only one such Test against Bangladesh last year.
India though won that game, held at the Eden Gardens, by a handsome margin of innings and 46 runs.
Australia have played in quite a few pink-ball day-nighters over the last few years.
After Adelaide, the matches will be played at Melbourne (from December 26 to 30), Sydney and Brisbane in January.
Four members of Australia's Test squad are playing in the tour game opening batsman Joe Burns, all-rounder Cameron Green, pace bowler Sean Abbott and leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson.
India are coming into the game after having won the T20I series 2-1 following a loss in the ODI rubber by a similar margin.
Teams:
India: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia A: Joe Burns, Marcus Harris, Nic Maddinson, Ben McDermott, Cameron Green, Jack Wildermuth, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Will Sutherland, Mitch Swepson, Harry Conway.
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Microsoft announces $17.5 billion investment to support India’s AI-focused digital growth
New Delhi: In one of its biggest global commitments to date, Microsoft has announced a $17.5 billion investment to support India’s push toward an AI-driven digital economy. The pledge, the company’s largest in Asia, was made soon after CEO Satya Nadella met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Nadella wrote on X that the investment would help build “the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI-first future,” thanking the Prime Minister for what he described as an inspiring discussion on India’s expanding AI opportunities.
PM Modi called the interaction “productive” and said India’s young population would play a central role in using artificial intelligence for innovation and broader global benefit. The meeting came amid a series of high-level engagements between the government and global technology leaders, along with the recent visits by executives from Intel and Cognizant.
Focusing on expanding cloud and AI infrastructure, strengthening digital skills, and supporting sovereign technology capabilities in India, Microsoft said the $17.5 billion commitment would be spread over four years from 2026 to 2029. The company described the announcement as part of its long-term vision to help the country advance as a “frontier AI nation.”
The pledge follows an earlier $3 billion announcement made in January 2025, bringing Microsoft’s total planned investment in India to more than $20 billion by the end of the decade.
Alongside infrastructure growth, Microsoft plans to double its training programmes, aiming to equip 20 million people with digital and AI-related skills by 2030. The company said these efforts would support the next phase of India’s digital transformation, moving from expanding connectivity to building technological capability.
The investment is also expected to support the integration of AI tools into national platforms such as e-Shram and the National Career Service, while potentially aiding more than 310 million informal sector workers through improved access to employment and digital services.
With data protection and sovereignty becoming central to technology policy, Microsoft will introduce Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud systems designed for Indian institutions. The company further said these platforms would help governments and businesses create secure and compliant environments for AI applications.
Welcoming the announcement, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw noted that this will help in strengthening innovation grounded in trust and sovereignty. He further said Microsoft’s expanded commitment reflects the country’s growing role as a dependable global technology partner.
India has been one of Microsoft’s most significant global bases since the company opened its first office in Hyderabad in 1990. Today, the country hosts Microsoft’s largest development centre outside its Redmond headquarters, contributing to products such as Azure, Office and Windows. Its new hyperscale data centre is expected to be operational by mid-2026, increasing its cloud presence across several major cities.
