Supreme Court Panel Proposes Complete Ban on Using AI to Decide Verdicts or Judge Bail Criteria

The Supreme Court AI Committee on the use of the technology in courts released draft regulations that include: a complete ban on using artificial intelligence (AI) to decide judicial outcomes; restrictions on AI tools that predict or profile parties and witnesses; and a prohibition on undisclosed or unexplainable AI systems in court processes, IE reported. 

The court said use of AI in court processes will always “remain strictly subservient to human judgment and judicial authority”.

The Hindu reported that observing that the use of non-existent or AI-generated hallucinated judicial precedents is “catastrophic” to the judicial process, the Supreme Court on Thursday (July 2, 2026) set aside an order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) after finding that it had relied on fictitious AI-generated case laws

Government Waives Import Duty on Inputs For Manufacturing Batteries, Display Assemblies

The Centre has waived basic customs duty on goods used in manufacture of display assemblies, lithium ion cell and inductor coil module, in a bid to boost the domestic manufacturing of batteries and electronics goods, IE reported. Centre is keen to step up focus on batteries, especially after the PLI turned out to be a failure.

Last year India was forced to shut down the ₹18100 crore subsidy for lithium ion batteries after the industry failed to meet the target of 50 GW of battery production by 2025, they only met 1.4 GW which is only 2.8% of the promised target. 

Reliance Industries, Ola Cell Technologies, and Rajesh Exports—who benefitted from battery and storage Production Linked Incentive scheme failed to meet investment and value addition conditions for domestic manufacturing. 

Gigafactory production requires deep R&D ecosystems and specialized machinery, which were heavily imported. Companies found it difficult to translate direct financial incentives into operational expertise

The PLI rules mandated aggressive domestic value addition (25% within 2 years, 60% in 5 years). This proved unfeasible as India lacked a domestic upstream supply chain for critical raw materials like refined lithium, cobalt, and separator films, which remain dominated by China.

Internet Data Services, EV Battery Charging Raises China’s Power Load to Record High in 2026 

China’s electricity load reached a “record high” for the first time in 2026 hitting 1,500 gigawatts (GW) according to the National Energy Administration(NEA), Bloomberg reported adding that the NEA says electricity demand from “internet data services” rose 44.6% in the first five months of the year, while “charging and battery-swapping services” recorded growth of 56.8%, highlighting “strong demand from parts of the digital and low-carbon economy”. 

The NEA also said above-average temperatures  were a “direct factor” driving up electricity demand, BJX News reported adding that every 1C increase in China’s average summer temperature raises electricity demand by 40 to 50GW, while “prolonged heatwaves will further increase power consumption”.

India : AI firms’ Data Centres Lift Industrial Engineers' Pay Packages, Mainly ‘Cooling Engineers’

AI is increasingly becoming a physical infrastructure story, driven by substations, cooling plants and power systems, TOI reported. The hiring surge is being fuelled by the rapid expansion of India's data-centre industry. According to Avendus Capital, operational data-centre capacity is expected to rise from about 1.6GW in 2025 to 5GW by 2030. The newspaper said over 3GW of capacity is under development, but requires  nearly $25 billion in investments, “while AI-specific capacity is expected to quadruple.” The report notes that  roles emerging across AI data centres include AI infrastructure architects, liquid cooling specialists, power procurement heads and grid resilience managers.

The biggest hiring rush is happening in cooling. Companies are actively recruiting data-centre cooling engineers, HVAC design engineers, critical facilities engineers, commissioning engineers and liquid cooling specialists, while BMS and controls engineers are also seeing strong demand as facilities become increasingly automated

The outlet said AI infrastructure architects earn between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore annually, while greenfield site heads can command up to Rs 1.8 crore. Heads of critical facilities and specialist cooling teams are making Rs 50 lakh to over Rs 1 crore a year. Engineers with seven to 12 years of experience are earning Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, while entry-level cooling and critical-facility engineers start at Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh annually.

Microsoft Emissions Surge 27% as AI Buildout Crimps Climate Goals

Microsoft’s emissions increased 27% in its latest fiscal year, reaching 21.1m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to Agence France-Presse. The newswire says this adds to a “wave of worsening environmental reports from an industry racing to build AI infrastructure”. The article notes that the disclosure follows similar reports of 18% and 16% emissions increases from Google andAmazon, respectively. 

 Bloomberg reported that Microsoft’s emissions increased after it built new datacentres, as well as because of  a “previously announced pause in the purchase of some renewable energy credits”. The Verge said Microsoft set itself a goal to be “carbon negative” by 2030, adding that this marks the second year in a row that its emissions have increased. The Seattle Times also noted that company’s emissions are now “substantially higher” than when it made that pledge in 2020.

Govt Issues Notice to WhatsApp Over Username Feature, That Allows Users to Chat Without Sharing Their Number 

 WhatsApp’s new username feature  that allows users to post without exposing their phone numbers has drawn criticism from the Union government, over fears that anonymity will lead to potential for spam and impersonation. The government has asked Meta to put the feature on hold, the Hindu reported. 

The username feature is available on other apps like Telegram and Signal, where users can chat without sharing their phone numbers. “When someone new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbor, someone you meet at an event – sharing a phone number can feel like a big step,” Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said in an announcement earlier this week. “That’s because a phone number is personal and it’s tied to so many parts of your life. Sometimes you just want to chat without handing over your digits.”

“The ability to use a username is not yet live and will roll out slowly later this year,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hindu. “To protect against impersonation, we’ve held the highest-profile names — think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts — so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners and lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well.” Users can choose whether or not to reply to unknown accounts, and their origin country will be displayed, the firm added.

The feature would come with in-built spam detection features, such as disclosing to message recipients what country a phone number is from, Meta said in its announcement. “To help control who can reach you on WhatsApp with your username, we’ve built an optional username key that others will need to know to message you,” the company had said.

Last year, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordered Meta to make sure that users can’t use the app if the SIM card they used to register for the service is not physically in the service, and to log out WhatsApp Web users every six hours. While the latter mandate was rolled back, the former remains.

The government has every right to tackle cybercrime. It should not, however, confuse regulating digital harms with pre-approving product design choices that neither eliminate fraud nor materially weaken law enforcement, the IE noted. 

E-rickshaw Shutdown Prank: Centre Tells Google, Apple to Remove 7 Apps From Their Stores

The Centre issued notices to Google Android and Apple iOS, directing them to remove seven battery management applications from their app stores after they were misused to remotely shut down batteries in e-rickshaws and other electric vehicles, TOI reported through sources.

The apps include BAT-BMS, Epoch Li-ion, SMART BMS and LOSSIGY, among others, which officials said were allegedly being used to disable battery-operated vehicles through Bluetooth connectivity.

The action comes after reports of drivers facing sudden shutdowns of e-rickshas and viral videos showing e-rickshaws being remotely switched off, leaving drivers stranded. Earnings of Delhi’s e-rickshaw drivers hit by Bluetooth hack, IE reported.

US Green Groups Fight Govt Agencies Signing Non Disclosure Agreements With AI Firms  

AI companies are facing community backlash over Non Disclosure Agreements they are signing with governments to prevent users from seeking information about environmental and climate impacts of data centres on their homes and districts. Environmental groups in the U.S. are raising transparency concerns after learning Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley, the city attorney and the mayor’s chief of staff signed a non-disclosure agreement connected to “Project Marvel,” a proposed large-scale data center site, WBRC reported. 

The environmental advocates say they had to threaten legal action to obtain the NDA and related records. “Public transparency is really basic,” said Ryan Anderson, a lawyer  with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “It should not take the threat of litigation for the city to comply (with the law) 

Anderson represents the Alabama Rivers Alliance, the group submitted a request about a year ago during the rezoning process, seeking information about potential environmental impacts and the non-disclosure agreement. She said the city did not respond

The community leaders reached the doorstep of Mayor of US city Hubbard after he signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with a data centre firm in 2024 and the news surfaced now close to construction.  

AL data centre developers are known to set up shell companies and NDAs to keep land deals using the same legal tools for decades used in real estate to obscure billions in land acquisitions before communities can respond, Quartz reported