Category: Technology

India’s credit card boom: A decade of rapid growth reshapes the way consumers pay

New Delhi, July 8: India’s credit card industry has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past decade, with the number of credit cards issued nearly tripling as consumers increasingly shift towards digital and cashless payment options.

The surge reflects a major change in consumer behaviour, with credit cards becoming a preferred choice for payments across categories such as online shopping, travel, dining, retail purchases and everyday expenses. Growing digital adoption, expanding banking access and the rise of e-commerce have been key drivers behind this growth.

Banks and financial institutions have played a crucial role in expanding the credit ecosystem by introducing innovative products, customised offerings and technology-led services. Digital onboarding, instant approvals and personalised rewards have made credit cards more accessible and attractive to a wider customer base.

The growth of digital payments has also helped bring more consumers into the formal financial system, particularly as smartphones and internet connectivity continue to improve across the country. Credit cards are increasingly moving beyond being premium financial products and becoming part of mainstream consumer spending habits.

At the same time, lenders are placing greater emphasis on responsible lending, customer education and advanced risk management practices to ensure that the expansion of credit remains sustainable.

With rising consumer confidence, increasing digital transactions and a growing preference for convenient payment solutions, India’s credit card market is expected to continue its upward trajectory.

The decade-long growth story of credit cards highlights India’s broader transition towards a modern, technology-driven payments ecosystem, where digital transactions are becoming an integral part of everyday life.

EPFO Completes CITES Database to Enhance Member Services

New Delhi, July 8: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has completed the CITES project database, marking a significant step towards improving digital services and making it easier for members to access EPFO facilities.

The upgraded database is expected to streamline service delivery by enabling faster processing of member requests and improving access to key provident fund services. The initiative is part of EPFO’s ongoing efforts to modernise its digital infrastructure and enhance the overall user experience.

Officials said the CITES database will help strengthen data management, improve operational efficiency and support quicker delivery of services to millions of EPFO members across the country.

The development reflects EPFO’s continued focus on digital transformation, making provident fund services more accessible, efficient and convenient for subscribers.

Digital Growth to Drive India’s Economic and Social Progress

New Delhi, July 8: Experts have said that the digital economy will be a major force behind India’s future economic growth and social development.

The rapid expansion of digital technology is changing the way businesses operate, improving access to services and creating new opportunities across different sectors. Digital platforms, innovation and technology-based solutions are helping strengthen economic activities and improve connectivity.

Experts highlighted that sectors such as digital payments, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and digital infrastructure will continue to support India’s development and contribute to a more inclusive economy.

The growth of the digital ecosystem is also expected to encourage entrepreneurship, generate employment opportunities and help more people access financial and public services.

With increasing focus on digital infrastructure and innovation, India is moving towards a technology-driven economy that can support long-term growth and development.

Wi-SUN FAN Becomes First Wireless Mesh Network Standard Adopted by ISO/IEC

International recognition as ISO/IEC/IEEE 32857:2026 removes procurement barriers for utilities and smart cities, accelerating adoption of standards-based wireless mesh networking

BEAVERTON, Ore. July 08: — The Wi-SUN Alliance, the global ecosystem promoting open, secure, and interoperable wireless mesh networking for utilities and smart cities, announced that the Wi-SUN Field Area Network (FAN) specification has been formally ratified as ISO/IEC/IEEE 32857:2026. The designation makes Wi-SUN FAN the first wireless mesh networking specification adopted as an ISO/IEC standard and provides utilities, municipalities and infrastructure operators with an internationally recognized framework for wireless mesh networking. This carries direct implications for utility operators, municipal governments, and infrastructure procurement agencies evaluating wireless networking technologies for critical field-area deployments.

“When a specification carries ISO/IEC recognition, it signals to procurement officials, regulators and policymakers around the world that the technology has been vetted at the highest level,” said Phil Beecher, president and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance. “Wi-SUN technology already supports some of the world’s largest utility networks, including nationwide smart metering deployments in Japan and large-scale smart grid projects across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, demonstrating that the technology is already proven at scale. ISO/IEC/IEEE 32857:2026 gives utilities, municipalities and infrastructure providers an internationally recognized standard they can rely on and reference when planning the next generation of critical infrastructure.”

Only 3% of IEEE-originated specifications achieve ISO/IEC joint recognition, a distinction that reflects both the technical maturity of the Wi-SUN FAN specification and the strength of the open, consensus-based process behind it. For utilities and municipalities, it removes a significant procurement barrier: procurement officers and regulators can now reference an internationally ratified specification when evaluating or mandating smart grid and smart city connectivity solutions, rather than relying on industry-driven documentation alone.

“The Wi-SUN FAN specification was developed through exactly the kind of rigorous, consensus-driven technical process that ISO and IEC look for when evaluating IEEE work for joint adoption,” said Gary Stuebing, Past Chair Entity Collaborative Activities Governance Board, IEEE SA. “What ISO/IEC/IEEE 32857:2026 tells the market is that this specification was built to last — designed with the depth and precision that implementers need to build global interoperable, certifiable solutions at scale.”

The Wi-SUN Alliance provides the definitive testing and certification program for this specification, helping ensure products are compliant and fully interoperable in multi-vendor deployments. 

Tech Alert: Leostream Checklist Helps Organizations Evaluate a Move Beyond Citrix

Seven considerations for small and midsize enterprises planning the next generation of digital workspaces

BOSTON – July 8, 2026 –Leostream Corporation today released a practical checklist to help small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) considering a migration from Citrix to a more flexible digital workspace platform.

SMEs in particular are evaluating alternatives due to anticipated increases in Citrix renewal costs or because maintaining the environment has become more complex than their business requires. However, Leostream advises cost alone should not drive a potentially disruptive migration decision.

“Organizations have a unique opportunity to modernize their digital workspace rather than simply replace one platform with another,” said Karen Gondoly, CEO of Leostream. “The right solution should prepare your organization for where IT is headed over the next decade and not just solve today’s licensing challenge.”

Leostream recommends evaluating prospective platforms using the following checklist:

1. Will the platform give you freedom to change infrastructure?

The digital workspace should support the business, regardless of where workloads are physically located. A platform should allow you to move between on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid environments without replacing or impacting the connection management solution.

2. Can you choose the hyperscaler that’s best for each workload?

Along with the freedom to change is freedom to choose as cloud strategies evolve. With a platform that agnostically supports AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other environments, future cloud decisions remain business decisions and not software limitations.

3. Does the platform adapt to different user populations?

Knowledge workers, engineers, developers, contact centers, healthcare providers, scientists, students, and creative professionals all have different workspace requirements. The ideal platform should allow IT administrators to tailor access policies, desktops, applications, display protocols, and authentication methods based on each user’s needs.

4. Can you deploy only the software and tools you actually need?

Maintaining numerous adjacent components to support capabilities they rarely use is inefficient, costly, and incurs added complexity. The digital workspace platform should deliver the core functionality organizations need without requiring unnecessary infrastructure or additional management overhead.

5. Is the platform simple to deploy and operate?

Operational simplicity reduces risk and lowers administrative costs. Determine how much infrastructure, ongoing maintenance, and specialized expertise are required to manage the environment over time. Automation of routine tasks such as on/offboarding users and provisioning resources helps reduce management.

6. Is your investment protected as technology changes?

Virtualization platforms, cloud providers, authentication systems, and remote display protocols continue to evolve. The digital workspace platform should allow organizations to adopt new technologies without requiring another major migration.

7. What kind of partner will you be working with?

Products are only part of the equation. Organizations should consider whether their vendor is responsive, collaborative, and easy to work with throughout deployment, support, and future scaling. Customers consistently tell Leostream they value direct access to experts, transparent licensing, and a customer-first approach that simplifies long-term success.

“Rather than evaluating alternatives because of significant increases in Citrix renewal pricing, we encourage IT leaders to use this moment to consider the broader strategic opportunity,” said Gondoly. “Our goal isn’t to convince customers that there’s only one way to build a digital workspace, it’s to give them the flexibility to choose the infrastructure, cloud providers, protocols, and technologies that best serve them today and in the future.”

The Leostream® Remote Desktop Access Platform for hosted desktops and workstations offers a comprehensive solution for remote access to maintain productivity, control costs, and ensure security with strict authentication and authorization built on zero-trust concepts. Its connection management system eliminates clunky corporate VPNs with an ultra-efficient gateway that gives users access to only the specific resources they have permission to use, automatically, regardless of their location or device. The Leostream Platform shines even in environments that rely on complex, specialty applications like energy and science; large files such as media and entertainment; real-time performance like financial services; and bulletproof network security like government and defense.

About Leostream
Leostream digital workspace management solutions embody over 20 years of Leostream research and development in supporting customers with hosted desktop environments, including VDI, hybrid cloud, and high-performance display protocols. The Leostream high performance Remote Desktop Access Platform provides the world’s most robust digital workspace connection management and remote access feature set, allowing today’s enterprises to choose the best-of-breed components to satisfy their complex security, cost, and flexibility needs while working with them as they evolve into tomorrow. The Leostream Privileged Remote Access service simplifies, secures, and monitors temporary access to corporate resources for vendors, service providers, and external contractors. Follow Leostream on LinkedIn and X.

Leostream is a registered trademark of Leostream Corporation in the United States. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

AdClarity Expands CTV Ad Intelligence Across 20 Countries, Delivering the Industry’s Widest Cross-Market Coverage

NEW YORK, NY, July 8, 2026.BIScience, the company behind AdClarity, the world’s leading AI-powered ad intelligence platform, today announced the expansion of its Connected TV (CTV) ad intelligence to 19 new countries, bringing total tracked CTV ad spend to $70 billion across 20 markets. The expansion gives brands competitor benchmarking across countries, agencies a single source of truth for global CTV, and publishers demand signals by market.

CTV is becoming a central part of the TV ecosystem as linear viewing declines, evolving rapidly with more platforms, formats, and countries entering the space. It is growing faster than any other major channel and now represents 10 percent of all tracked ad spend globally. In the United States alone, CTV now represents a 16 percent share of all US ad spend tracked by AdClarity.

To help organizations make more informed decisions with global media intelligence, BIScience has added CTV coverage in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Spain, New Zealand, and Denmark. Each market includes local platform depth. For example, the United Kingdom features Channel 4 and ITV, Germany includes Joyn and Sky, and Australia covers 10 Play, 7plus, 9Now, and Stan.

With this release, BIScience’s AdClarity now combines the industry’s widest cross-market CTV coverage with AI-powered ad intelligence. Built on one consistent methodology across markets and media, including CTV, AdClarity gives teams a unified way to compare activity, uncover competitive shifts, and move from data to decisions faster. Customers report generating insights in under 10 seconds, reducing manual analysis by 85% through AI-driven automation, and saving an average of 7,980 hours annually per customer.

AdClarity’s panel of 30 million opt-in users spans 132 streaming platforms, 5 million smart TVs, and 52 countries, with 8 years of historical depth. AdClarity serves 27 percent of the Fortune 500, including Adidas, Amazon, Booking.com, Disney, Shell, Sony, and Wix. The platform is also used by four of the five top global advertising agencies and seven of the top ten global market research companies.

“Global advertisers don’t work in silos, and their intelligence tools shouldn’t either. By expanding AdClarity’s CTV coverage to 20 markets and integrating built-in AI, we’ve unified the cross-media view and bridged the gap between seeing data and taking action. One methodology, one platform. Total visibility across every screen,” said Dorit Kaplan, VP Product and Strategy at BIScience.

AdClarity CTV coverage is available now across all 20 markets as a premium add-on. Existing clients can extend immediately. To learn more, visit https://adclarity.com.

Outpost24 Raises the Bar for Adaptive Application Security with Next-Gen CyberFlex

Enhanced platform brings continuous attack surface visibility, expert-led testing, flexible budget control and improved reporting into one risk-led AppSec program

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, 7 July 2026 – Outpost24, a leading provider of cyber risk management solutions, today announced the next generation of CyberFlex, its flexible, advisory-led application security program designed to help organizations keep pace with dynamic digital environments. The launch comes as AI accelerates both digital innovation and attacker activity, increasing the need for application security approaches built for continuous risk management.

Most application security programs are still planned around annual cycles, even as the environments they protect change daily. New digital services, cloud migrations, AI initiatives, acquisitions and third-party integrations can introduce new assets and exposures long after testing scopes and budgets have been agreed. As a result, security teams are often left working from plans that no longer reflect their real-world risk.

CyberFlex helps organizations move from fixed-scope, point-in-time testing to a more continuous, adaptive and risk-driven approach. By combining external attack surface visibility, expert-led penetration testing, advisory support and flexible budget allocation, the program enables security teams to identify exposures, validate impact, prioritize remediation and shift investment as priorities evolve, all within a single program and contract.

 “Security teams are being asked to defend dynamic environments, while many AppSec programs are still planned around fixed scopes and annual cycles,” said Omri Kletter, Chief Product Officer at Outpost24. “CyberFlex is designed to close that gap and set a new standard for modern application security. It gives organizations the visibility to understand what has changed, the expert validation to understand what matters, and the flexibility to shift investment as risk evolves.”

The next generation of CyberFlex introduces a more unified and adaptive way to manage application security across fast-changing environments. A unified platform and workflow connect discovery, automated scanning, risk prioritization, expert-led testing and validation in one place. Continuous attack surface visibility and AI-driven risk insights span known, unknown and shadow IT assets, helping teams understand how their external exposure expands over time.

Flexible budget visibility and allocation give organizations better control over how investment is used across testing, validation and advisory services. Structured tiers align to different levels of maturity, scope and operational need, and improved reporting and dashboards help teams demonstrate risk reduction, remediation progress and program value to executives, boards and auditors.

For existing CyberFlex customers, the new release builds on a proven program model for more continuous, risk-led application security. RS Group is among the customers planning to adopt the latest CyberFlex capabilities.

“CyberFlex has made it much easier to connect testing activity to real business risk,” said Rebecca Wensley, Head of Security Operations, RS Group. “We get clearer visibility into our attack surface, expert validation where it matters most, and a more practical way to prioritize remediation and demonstrate measurable security progress to stakeholders.”

CyberFlex is now available in structured tiers, allowing organizations to select the level of expert guidance, testing and advisory support that suits their needs today, and adapt over time as their program matures. Its flexible budget model allows investment to be reallocated across testing, validation and advisory services as risk priorities shift, without renegotiating the overall contract each time. Testing and advisory services are delivered by EU-based, CREST-certified penetration testers.

Supply Chain Reset Puts India in Global Manufacturing Spotlight: ASSOCHAM

New Delhi, July 7: India is emerging as a key global manufacturing destination as companies worldwide look to diversify their supply chains, according to a report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The report highlights that India’s expanding industrial ecosystem, skilled workforce, improving infrastructure, policy reforms, and growing domestic market are strengthening its position in the global manufacturing landscape.

With businesses increasingly adopting a “China plus one” strategy to reduce supply chain risks, India is witnessing greater interest from global manufacturers across sectors such as electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and advanced technologies.

ASSOCHAM noted that continued investments in infrastructure, ease of doing business reforms, innovation, and skill development will be crucial to further enhancing India’s manufacturing competitiveness.

The report emphasised that India’s integration into global value chains can create new opportunities for investment, employment generation, and sustainable industrial growth.

India’s growing manufacturing capabilities are expected to play a significant role in shaping the country’s economic expansion and strengthening its position in the global supply network.

AVer Introduces NC30 NDI Converter for Seamless NDI and HDMI Signal Conversion

 Taipei, Taiwan – July 7: AVer Information Inc., an award-winning provider of AI audio-video solutions, today announced the AVer NC30 NDI® Converter — a compact, bi-directional device that simplifies signal conversion between NDI and HDMI® for professional video environments. AV and IT teams can bring local HDMI sources into NDI-based production and distribution workflows, or output live NDI streams to local displays and USB-C connected laptops, all without additional equipment.

Designed for flexibility across a wide range of applications — from live monitoring and meeting-room sharing to multi-room video production — the NC30 enables organizations to deploy, manage, and scale high-quality networked video with a single, consistent setup.

Key User Benefits at a Glance

• Flexible, AV-over-IP Deployment: One device supports both encoding and decoding, so organizations can flexibly adapt rooms to different events and formats without changing hardware.

• Built for the AVer Ecosystem: Natively works with AVer cameras, Matrix Tracking Boxes, and BYOM Matrix Switchers, simplifying the distribution of AV across rooms and keeping system setups consistent organization-wide.

• Centralized Control on Enterprise Management: AV and IT staff can assign signals, switch sources, and monitor multi-stream previews from one intuitive interface.

• Real-Time Live Monitoring: HDMI loop‑out enables zero‑latency live feeds.

• Long‑term value and easier installs: PoE support reduces power adapters and cabling, and the 5‑year warranty offers long‑term peace of mind.

Payfuture Launches Local Payments Integration for Merchants on Shopify in India

London, UK – July 7; Payfuture, a global payments company helping merchants scale in high-growth regions, now integrates with Shopify to provide merchants with seamless access to local payment methods in India’s fast-growing ecommerce market.

Merchants using Shopify can now enable popular Indian payment methods, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and NetBanking, through a single connection with Payfuture’s payment app.

India is one of the most strategically important ecommerce markets in the world, with its online retail sector projected to reach USD 150–170 billion by 2027. Widespread mobile-first behaviour and consumer trust in domestic payment systems continue to drive growth across the Indian subcontinent and broader South Asia. As the region matures, platform readiness, payment localisation, and regulatory infrastructure are becoming key competitive differentiators for merchants seeking long-term scale.

“This integration makes digital commerce more accessible, scalable, and locally optimised for global merchants in fast-growth markets,” said Manpreet Haer, CEO and Co-Founder of Payfuture. “India is a vital market for ecommerce growth, and our infrastructure makes it easier for merchants to reach local buyers while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.”

This integration builds on Payfuture’s broader strategy to deliver local payment connectivity through major ecommerce platforms. The company continues to invest in infrastructure and regional capabilities to help merchants expand into India and other high-growth markets.

“Our role is to help global merchants operate like locals in markets that are often difficult to access,” added Manpreet Haer. “The Shopify integration allows us to bring that vision to life in one of the most important commerce ecosystems in the world.”