Supreme Court to take up plea against use of facial recognition by Centre and Delhi Police during student protest

The Supreme Court agreed to confront the Centre and the Delhi Police Commissioner with questions raised by Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament A.A. Rahim who had moved the Supreme Court on the deployment of facial recognition technology and mass-surveillance measures against students and persons who participated in the Cockroach Janta Party-linked protests over the NEET-UG exam paper leaks, reported the Hindu. 

The plea alleged that the Delhi Police deployed facial recognition systems, AI-enabled smart glasses, fingerprint identification tools and other biometric surveillance technologies without any statutory authority, thereby violating the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, including the rights to equality, privacy, freedom of speech and expression and peaceful assembly, India Legal reported. 

Meta rejects claims it sought to hook children to Facebook, Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta struck a deal to pay $17 billion and add child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, the Wire reported. 

California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were among 29 states that sued the tech giant in 2023, but the deal cuts short the trial, which was expected to see Zuckerberg take the stand before a jury in federal court in California.

The agreement is worth $353 million in Virginia alone and is one of the biggest in state consumer protection history, Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement.

California and 28 other US states sued the $1.36tn (£1tn) company over allegations that Meta deliberately designed addictive products that hooked young people, leading to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and suicide. The states claimed the social media company regularly collected data on children under the age of 13 without parental permission in violation of laws, the Guardian reported. 

“For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health," Jones said.

Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, said in a statement. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations…within months.”

Bonta said those changes included time limits, stopping notifications during school, a block on the app during critical overnight hours, bans on plastic surgery filters and more.

CAG audit says charging station approval delayed, ₹468 crore in FAME incentives to EV makers violating 

Comptroller and Auditor General of India report said India’s electric vehicle incentive programme, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, paid nearly Rs 468 crore to manufacturers that violated localisation norms, even as thousands of approved charging stations were not commissioned on time, DTE reported.

According to the CAG report, the Demand Incentive Delivery Mechanism portal had several shortcomings. These included the failure to prepare a detailed project report and the absence of a service-level agreement for portal development. As a result, the contract did not clearly define key deliverables, timelines, testing protocols, data and system integrity requirements, defect management, or change management processes, the audit said.

The portal also lacked end-to-end online claim processing by the ministry and did not have adequate validation controls, the audit found.

In the second phase of E-buses, 5,195 E-buses had been deployed by December 31, 2025, against the revised target of 6,862 buses, according to the audit.

However, the ministry had not created the central server required to monitor the performance of e-buses. The CAG said this was despite the ministry assuring the Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee in November 2019 that the central server would be available by December 2020.

The audit found that five original equipment manufacturers violated localisation rules set under the Phased Manufacturing Programme, but were still granted demand incentives totalling Rs 467.96 crore. 

China’s data centres will use more power than South Korea by 2030: Report

China’s data centres will “quadruple their electricity consumption by the end of the decade”, according to the global research firm Wood Mackenzie, reported Bloomberg. China’s data centres will use 774 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2030, accounting for around 6% of China’s total projected consumption, before rising to 17% by 2060, adds the outlet.

China’s Green Energy Exports Jump in July as EV Shipments Surge, impact UK and EU  

China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) exports increased by 86.5% to 610,000 units in July, with value climbing 90% to $11.54bn, reported Caixin, citing the General Administration of Customs. Overall, “new three” exports rose 51%, with battery exports increasing by 30% and solar cells dropping 40%, adds the outlet. It says that China’s strong exports of “green-energy products” are supporting its “trade momentum” as exporters “front-load shipments” ahead of changes in US tariffs. 

Reuters reported that Chinese automaker Chery will establish a research and development centre in the UK in late autumn 2026.  “boosted by competitive pricing”, Chinese auto brands now account for about 15% of new UK vehicle registrations from January to June. 

People’s Daily wrote that the “real challenge” for the EU’s auto sector is whether it can “strike a balance between the green transition, industrial security and openness and cooperation”…., currently, its attitude toward Chinese NEVs remains “complex”, but cooperation is “far more in line with Europe's long-term interests” than protectionism.

China domestic EV sale touched 60% for the first time 

Meanwhile, China’s Domestic NEV (new energy vehicles) sales set a new record in July, accounting for over 60% of sales for the first time with more than 1.5 million NEVs sold. This represents a 23.7% year-on-year increase, CREA reported. New Energy Vehicle (NEV) production continued to grow in July, rising 29.9% year-on-year. Production in the first seven months of 2026 was up 9.5%. Overall vehicle production declined 3.4% in July, bringing the share of NEVs to 61% of all vehicles produced, up from 47% last year.

NEV exports surged by more than 150% year-on-year in July 2026, with monthly exports exceeding 500,000 vehicles for the second consecutive month, accounting for 53% of vehicle exports