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Infosys Foundation launches the Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program with an aspiration to create half a million jobs in India by 2030

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, today announced the launch of Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program to enable half a million job seekers in India to gain meaningful employment by 2030. Infosys Foundation has committed over INR 200 crore for the first phase of this program. Infosys Springboard, the flagship digital learning platform from Infosys, will offer support not just for learning and skilling, but also opportunities for learners to have sustainable livelihoods and careers.

The Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program focuses on job creation for both graduate and undergraduate youth across STEM and non-STEM industries. The Program will also provide, through Infosys Springboard, additional industry-relevant curricula in cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and in functions like digital marketing and finance. In addition, foundational modules on communication skills, time management, and interview preparation will help learners and job seekers develop essential workplace competencies.

Infosys Foundation is collaborating with nearly 20 implementation partners, including ICT Academy, Unnati, Nirmaan, Magic Bus, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, Centum, CII Foundation, and NIIT Foundation, to curate diverse job opportunities and create meaningful career pathways.

Sumit Virmani, Trustee, Infosys Foundation, said, “The big opportunity in our country is to focus on skilling initiatives to meet industry and AI-age demands, and then shape a path from learning to livelihood. The Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program is conceptualized to meet this urgent need. The Program reflects Infosys Foundation’s commitment to bridge the gap between learning and fostering sustainable livelihoods. By partnering with experts and investing in industry-relevant curricula, the Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program empowers talented youth in India to skill themselves to secure and sustain rewarding careers, thereby also paving the way for job creation to drive the country’s advancement and economic growth.”

V Srikanth, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy, said, “The demand for a workforce skilled in advanced IT, KPO, BFSI, Retail, e-commerce, and logistics has never been higher. Through Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program, Infosys Foundation is investing in the long-term career success of students enabling enhanced career and employability opportunities and providing them the confidence to navigate and excel in a dynamic professional landscape. We are proud to collaborate with Infosys Foundation to help build a stronger, future-ready India by empowering its next generation.”

Ramesh Swamy, Founder, Unnati Foundation, said, “By recognizing the urgency of skilling and employment, Infosys Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to addressing the demographic challenge of youth unemployment through the Infosys Springboard Livelihood Program. This collaborative initiative, which Unnati is proud to be part of, has the potential to be a game-changer in the lives of unemployed youth, akin to the transformative impact of the mid-day meal scheme for underprivileged children.”

About Infosys Foundation

Established in 1996, Infosys Foundation supports programs in the areas of education, healthcare, women empowerment, and environmental sustainability, amongst others. Its mission is to work with the underprivileged across the country and strive towards a more equitable society. Infosys Foundation takes pride in working with all sections of society, selecting projects with infinite care, and working in areas that are traditionally overlooked by society at large.

For more details, please log on: https://www.infosys.com/infosys-foundation

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 320,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses, and communities. We enable clients in more than 59 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

operating performance, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the execution of our business strategy, increased competition for talent, our ability to attract and retain personnel, increase in wages, investments to reskill our employees, our ability to effectively implement a hybrid work model, economic uncertainties and geo-political situations, technological disruptions and innovations such as artificial intelligence (“AI”), generative AI, the complex and evolving regulatory landscape including immigration regulation changes, our ESG vision, our capital allocation policy and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, liquidity, capital resources, our corporate actions including acquisitions, and cybersecurity matters. Important factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our US Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

Media contact

For further information, please contact: PR_India@Infosys.com

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July 15, 2025
Light-activated drug discovery identifies broad-spectrum antivirals

UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators from campus biotech spinoff Integrated Biosciences, as well as Harvard, MIT and genomics company Illumina Ventures are using optogenetics – the use of light to probe the functions of living tissue – to find compounds to help our bodies more effectively help themselves in times of physiological stress. Using an optogenetic platform developed in synthetic biologist Max Wilson’s lab at UCSB, they have already discovered dozens of molecules that can act as pan-antivirals and, specifically, two chemical scaffolds that could serve as promising development candidates in the host-directed antiviral space.

“We ended up testing them on Zika,” said Wilson. “And they worked. RSV: they worked. Herpes: they worked. And they worked almost as well as the state-of-the-art treatment, but they were completely unoptimized. So it’s very promising.”

Their research appears in the journal Cell.

Integrated stress response

The Integrated Stress Response (ISR) is the cellular mechanism that we have to thank for helping us adapt to and recover from the physiological stresses life throws at us. From viruses to cancers, from nutrient deficiencies to age-related neurodegeneration, the ISR sets in motion complex processes aimed at helping cells survive and recover, or, alternatively, promote a programmed death to remove faulty and damaged cells.

“It’s an incredibly important signaling network,” said Wilson. And indeed, the ISR acts like a hub, taking in stress signals and activating responses as needed by encoding specific proteins or triggering changes in gene expression. Scientists have long known about this powerful mechanism and its potential in biomedical applications to help the body help itself recover from a variety of insults. However, the complexity of the system makes it difficult to successfully and precisely wield the power of the ISR.

“Any normal environmental stress that you put on cells activates several pathways simultaneously,” Wilson explained, “and so it’s very hard to study one stress response at a time.” Additionally, to generate these specific responses, cells have to be placed under stress, but then it becomes difficult to determine whether the response is from an ISR pathway, or if it is due to damage that cell is experiencing, or some other effect of cellular repair or failure. On top of that, molecules that do activate the appropriate ISR pathway must do so without being toxic to the cell itself for them to be therapeutically effective.

However, with the optogenetic platform developed in Wilson’s lab, which uses light to create “virtual stress” without actually causing trauma to the cells, biomedicine has come much closer to understanding and mastering the ISR. Following on previous work in which the UCSB researchers were able to activate with light a “stressless stress response” pathway involved in the innate immune response to viruses, this collaboration reasoned that in identifying this pathway, they could efficiently screen hundreds of thousands of small molecules for their potential to potentiate antiviral stress responses.

The initial screen of 370,830 compounds resulted in about 300 “shortlisted” compounds that selectively potentiate cell death – that is, amplify the stress response that kills only infected cells so they can be removed, which also reduces the virus’s ability to multiply and spread. In addition to their successful in vitro tests with Zika, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and herpes, they were able to demonstrate the compounds’ efficacy in vivo on a mouse model of ocular herpes. Further studies would be needed to validate and optimize these compounds and better understand their mechanisms of action.

The idea for this optogenetic screening platform came to Wilson at the height of the COVID pandemic, when his lab was heavily involved in making COVID tests to monitor its spread in the community.

“And so I have been thinking about what the world needs to be better prepared for the next pandemic,” said Wilson, whose innovative approach to drug discovery led him to co-found Integrated Biosciences.

And I came to the conclusion that probably the only thing that has a really good chance of working would be host-directed pan-antivirals, because you don’t know what the virus is until too late and it takes too long to make a vaccine. So we need just molecules that people can take that make us just generally better at fighting infections.”

Max Wilson, University of California – Santa Barbara

This approach feeds into research the Wilson Lab is now conducting to discover compounds that can help us age more healthily. Aging affects some of these ISR pathways, which could lead to some of the diseases that occur later in life, including adult-onset diabetes, some neurodegenerative disorders and cancers. At Integrated Biosciences, the team is now using optogenetics to interrogate and find small molecules that modulate multiple conserved signaling networks implicated in age-related diseases. This new study serves as a strong proof of concept highlighting the platform’s potential.

“We think we now have this really exciting platform where we can understand how a pathway is dysregulated in a particular age-related disease by probing it with optogenetic tools and supplying the small molecule that corrects that pathway dysregulation, thereby correcting the disease.

“I think we are only scratching the surface of what optogenetics can achieve in drug discovery,” Wilson added. “We are excited to see if we can use this new approach to bring transformative treatments all the way to the clinic. That’s the dream.”

Source:

University of California – Santa Barbara

Journal reference:

Wong, F., et al. (2025). Optogenetics-enabled discovery of integrated stress response modulators. Cell. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.024.

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July 15, 2025
The Open at Royal Portrush: How Scottie Scheffler’s putting fortunes were turned around

When world number one Scottie Scheffler reached out to one of golf’s most sought-after putting coaches in September 2023, he could not have imagined the transformation it would bring to his game.

The American was already a major champion and had won twice that season but he was in a fug. The statistics proved he was the best from tee to green. They also proved he was among the worst with a putter in hand.

PGA Tour players hole 90% of putts from four feet. At that time, Scheffler was making 80%. The best player in the world was ranked outside the top 150 in putting and fending off the same questions every week.

Step in Phil Kenyon, coach to the best in the game.

Within 12 months, Scheffler had risen into the top 15 putters and completed a remarkable season, winning seven PGA Tour events, including a second Masters, and an Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games.

And he arrives at this week’s Open Championship on the back of a run of three victories in his past 10 events – including winning his third major at the US PGA Championship – and finishing in the top 10 in the other seven to reaffirm his position as the world’s dominant player.

“That was a particular high for Scottie after some lows and a lot of discussion about his putting,” Kenyon told BBC Sport of the American’s major victory at Augusta National in April 2024.

“And for him to putt so well fairly early on in my role working with him, that was a highlight for me.”

So what did Kenyon tweak? He helped with green reading, to give Scheffler more confidence in his own ability. He helped change his grip.

But it was a switch from his trusted blade to a mallet putter “to help him with lining up putts” that really sparked a change in fortunes.

After another poor performance on the greens in February 2024, long-time friend and mentor Brad Payne – speaking in a PGA Tour documentary of that season – recounted a conversation they had in Scheffler’s Dallas home: “I said ‘buddy, how are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I don’t think I’m doing well’.”

That was after the Genesis Invitational, where Scheffler finished joint 10th. The mallet putter made its debut in his next event and Scheffler won four of his following five tournaments, including the Masters by four strokes.

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July 15, 2025
Mars Seen Up Close in Stunning World First 60 Years Ago Today : ScienceAlert

On 15 July 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft made Solar System history.

As it flew by Mars, the spacecraft’s onboard camera snapped 22 pictures of the planet’s surface, sending them back home to Earth – the first-ever close-up photos of Mars obtained by humans, and the very first photos of another planet obtained from a position in deep space.

Those images, showing a vast, dry, heavily cratered desert, completely changed our understanding of Mars, and the possibility of life thereon – but also ushered in a bold new era of Solar System planetary science and exploration.

Mariner 4 launched on 28 November 1964, and spent nearly eight months making the long, arduous journey to Mars – a spacecraft designed to make a careful study of the red planet, and transmit its observations back to Earth, across millions of miles of space.

Related: We May Have Been Wrong About Why Mars Is Red

Mariner 4 imaged a particularly heavily cratered section of the Martian surface. (NASA)

By the time Mariner 4 made its encounter, Mars and Earth were separated by a distance of around 220 million kilometers (136 million miles), a distance that radio signals could traverse in 12 minutes. The operations team on Earth had to precisely time their commands to the spacecraft 12 minutes ahead of when they wanted it to perform a task, carefully waiting until Mariner 4’s optimal position was 12 minutes away.

Then, the humans at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Space Flight Operations Center had to wait until each picture had transmitted back across the gulf, a process that took four days.

“Now came the moment of truth – had we really obtained pictures? After the six hour delay for the 40,000 pixels (picture elements) to be transmitted the first picture was displayed. But what was that just above the limb? A cloud? Impossible. Everyone knew there weren’t clouds on Mars – it must be a crack in the camera lens. Oh, no, another instrument failure. Of course, as it later turned out there really are clouds on Mars,” recalled the late Bill Momsen, Mariner 4 engineer, in 2002.

“And then the real wonder came – picture after picture showing that the surface was dotted with craters! It appeared uncannily like that of our own Moon, deeply cratered, and unchanged over time. No water, no canals, no life … Although at first great elation gripped the crew at realizing we had really done it, that was tempered by what had been revealed.”

An enhanced contrast version of the first Mars image, revealing the wispy cloud (upper right) in the Martian atmosphere. (NASA/JPL)

Those first 22 images covered just one percent of the Martian surface, and it just so happened to be an area that was particularly heavily cratered. As we know now, after decades of orbital observations, Mars has a diverse and fascinating landscape, from volcanic basalt plains to ancient river deltas.

Even though we know a lot more now than we knew 60 years ago, we’ve still only barely scratched the surface of Mars. Little by little, though, its past is slowly coming to light. We know that water once flowed freely across its surface, that volcanism was once rampant and may rumble still deep inside its belly. We know that it has beautiful clouds, and wild storms, and blue sunsets, and dust devils that leave traceries of their paths across the dusty ground.

One day, perhaps, we may even find that life was present on Mars after all.

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July 15, 2025
Exercise Affects PsA Risk in Patients With Psoriasis

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — While regular physical exercise is known to reduce the risk for a wide array of chronic diseases, its role in preventing psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has not been well studied. As a result, clinicians may hesitate to recommend vigorous exercise for patients with psoriasis because of concerns about potentially triggering joint inflammation in people with subclinical PsA.

But at the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) 2025 Annual Meeting and Trainee Symposium, Dylan McGagh, MD, a clinical research fellow in rheumatology at Oxford University, Oxford, England, presented evidence that regular exercise could in fact be preventive in this setting. People with prevalent psoriasis but no arthritis who walked more than 10,452 steps (approximately 4 miles) daily saw a 58% lower risk of developing PsA than those who walked very little, McGagh reported.

Moreover, risk was reduced in a dose-dependent manner, with every 1000 steps walked daily correlating to a 10% decrease.

Other measures of exercise also correlated to reduced risk, according to McGagh. “Any moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with reduced risk of PsA,” he said.

For his research, McGagh and his colleagues identified 2531 people (mean age, 63 years; 52% women; 100% White) with psoriasis from the UK Biobank Accelerometry Cohort, which enrolled more than 100,000 people aged 40-65 years between 2013 and 2015. Participants used wearable accelerometers for a median of 7 days to track their movement patterns. They were then followed for up to 8 years, with health records linked.

“We were interested in people with prevalent psoriasis without PsA,” McGagh said at the conference. “We modeled a range of exposures, including steps, peak walking cadence or walking speed, change in hazards per 1000 increase in steps,” and time spent in sedentary and active states.

Higher volume and intensity of physical activity were also associated with lower risk. “The message here is that basically any small amount of activity is beneficial” — something easily conveyed to patients, he said. “But we need to verify this in more diverse cohorts, and there’s a need to characterize physical activity profile across the [disease] continuum,” he cautioned.

The findings were received with interest at a meeting intensely focused on the potential effects of diet, exercise, and body composition on the development of PsA in people with psoriasis, even outside the context of obesity, a known risk factor for PsA in patients with psoriasis. For example, the conference began with a lively debate on whether there is sufficient evidence to recommend treatment with GLP-1 agonists in certain patients who have or are at risk for PsA.

Gary Macfarlane, MD, PhD, of the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, an epidemiologist specializing in musculoskeletal disease who also presented at the meeting, said in an interview that he found McGagh’s results encouraging. Lifestyle interventions are “powerful” in improving health outcomes in people, he said. “Let’s get people more active. That will improve their mental health as well,” he added.

McGagh was awarded a pilot grant by GRAPPA to continue his research. In an interview at the conference, he commented that this was the first study to “really put physical activity in the driver’s seat in that story of transition” from psoriasis to PsA. He also cautioned that his study cohort was comprised entirely of White individuals, an important weakness of the study, and that the participants with psoriasis were older than typical patients with psoriasis at risk for PsA.

The findings need to be replicated in more representative cohorts, “and we’re working right now to do this,” McGagh said. In the meantime, he said, clinicians should consider it safe to recommend exercise to patients with psoriasis.

McGagh disclosed having no financial conflicts of interest. Macfarlane has received fees and/or research funding from AbbVie, Pfizer, and others.

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July 15, 2025
Generative AI in government: benefits vs. risks
The professional world largely accepts the idea that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has the potential to transform and improve certain kinds of work. However, numerous government agencies and employees are reluctant to embrace the GenAI push. In general, government employees tend to be more skeptical than their private-sector counterparts about the impact GenAI could have on their work. They’re more careful about expressing optimism about AI’s role in government over the next few years.

In the recent Thomson Reuters Generative AI in Professional Services Report, most government officials in legal, law enforcement, and risk management roles believe GenAI can be applied to industry work. Government workers also said that using AI more in their departments would probably be hard because of problems with administration, budgeting, and culture. Some government departments even have policies that prohibit the use of AI.

Benefits vs. risks of GenAI use in government

This antipathy toward AI is understandable, but also a bit ironic, because high on the list of institutions that could benefit most from the emerging capabilities of GenAI are federal, state, and local governments.

People often feel disenchanted with the government because it’s too slow, unresponsive, or bogged down in red tape. GenAI has the potential to change these dynamics. Techno-optimists think GenAI can make government services better and more responsive. They also want it to be more efficient.

We must recognize that the private and public sectors are quite different in terms of how they view data security, assess risk, and allocate budgets. Also, governments are often too slow to adopt new technologies for good reasons. When it comes to using GenAI in government, officials should weigh its potential benefits against the risks and limitations of sticking to traditional methods.

The GenAI difference: improving the capabilities of machine-learning

GenAI is a type of artificial intelligence that greatly improves the capabilities of traditional machine-learning AI. For example, machine-learning AI can automate repetitive tasks, searching large databases, and organizing information. GenAI, on the other hand, uses much larger datasets and technology that works more like the human brain. This development allows GenAI to create new ideas, concepts, and insights, including images and videos. GenAI can also understand and respond to spoken questions or commands, and learn to fix problems, correct errors, and improve its results.

When embedded in the same system, such as the government, machine learning and GenAI can complement each other. This combination creates a form of computing that’s far more useful, efficient, flexible, and responsive than previous technology. In fact, GenAI is so useful for governments that it could lead to a complete re-thinking of how government services are managed and delivered.

GenAI’s conversational abilities make it easier for government professionals of all skill levels to use AI systems. This means they can work with AI systems without needing the coding skills that product engineering types usually need. Such user-friendliness makes GenAI a valuable tool for improving government services and operations across different roles and departments.

Government agencies adopt chatbots to overcome manual shortcomings

One of the causes of inefficiency in government systems is the volume of data agencies must gather and analyze. Manually inputting data significantly slows down the process. Inadequate search technologies make it even harder to find and use relevant information, further delaying things.

One result of this cumbersome process is that government employees spend too much time searching for information they don’t have readily available. Similarly, when citizens call agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration, or Department of Health and Human Services, they face longer wait times for answers.

The current system is flawed. The problems are so deeply rooted that the public accepts them, along with the frustrations, believing this is just how the government works. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In December of 2019, many federal and state government agencies began using voice-enabled chatbots to answer basic questions about government services. Most of these bots use machine learning and natural-language processing (NLP) to understand text or voice queries. They are programmed with answers to a few hundred of the most frequently asked questions. If the bot can’t answer a question, it usually refers the matter to a human support person.

These machine-learning and NLP-based chatbots are typically limited by their programming. They’re unable to answer questions that haven’t been pre-loaded. When combined with GenAI, chatbots have a much more extensive range of capabilities.

How GenAI chatbots can improve government functions

GenAI-enabled chatbots can understand and respond to almost any language in a more conversational way. They can understand what someone’s trying to ask, even if the question itself is confusing. These chatbots can remember previous conversations, ask clarifying questions, and predict answers based on the context of the conversation. They can make personalized recommendations, and assist people with filling out forms, scheduling appointments, paying bills, and more.

Behind the scenes, GenAI chatbots can analyze citizen feedback from surveys and social media. They can identify areas for improvement and automatically refine their answers over time as they learn more about the questions they receive. In short, GenAI chatbots can provide a much more personalized, natural-feeling interaction, and provide people with a much larger universe of answers and guidance.

The effectiveness of a GenAI chatbot, or any chatbot, depends on the quality of its data and programming. GenAI can improve many applications to get great results. This could change how government services are given out in many areas.

With that in mind, consider how GenAI might improve some of these common government functions.

Public safety

Problem. Emergency responders need to assess the nature and severity of incidents quickly, but they only know what the dispatcher tells them before arriving at the scene.

GenAI solution. While responders are on their way, GenAI analyzes data from various sources such as traffic and surveillance cameras, social media, police scanners, and body-cam footage. It provides real-time updates of disaster scenes, including photos and video footage, enabling faster and more strategic responses during a crisis. GenAI also examines crime data patterns and predicts threats to help governments develop emergency plans.

Urban planning

Problem. Urban planners prioritize construction projects and development plans years in advance, but they often lack the information needed to optimize their resources and budget.

GenAI solution: GenAI can synthesize citizen feedback, analyze past resource deployment, assess past and projected weather and traffic patterns, and create visual models of plans. It uses demographic data and housing scenarios to propose the best approaches for the government’s time, budget, and resources.

Human services

Problem. Human service caseworkers are overwhelmed with applications for various services, but they can only do so much in a day, which delays the delivery of those services.

GenAI solution. GenAI can help caseworkers by sorting applications based on need. As cases move through the system, GenAI pulls data from applications and generates personalized status updates in the recipients’ preferred language, speeding up communications and the application process.

Tax collection

Problem. Identifying potential cases of tax evasion and fraud requires a lot of time, expertise, and money because of the vast amount of data involved.

GenAI solution. GenAI can analyze vast quantities of data and identify patterns, inconsistencies, and trends from current and past tax returns as well as other publicly available documentation. It then flags suspicious activity and recommends next steps based on pre-established protocols.

GenAI improves government efficiency using insights from large datasets

GenAI scenarios need technology and communication systems that government workers don’t have yet, but they can get them soon. GenAI is already improving government operations by improving existing apps and using data the government already has.

Many government agencies are using a combination of machine-learning AI, GenAI, and human oversight to:
- Automate and streamline workflows, review documents, and extract hard-to-find data
- Summarize and analyze large reports
- Screen job applicants and automate the onboarding process
- Automate parts of the contract bidding and procurement process
- Help citizens navigate bureaucracy through chatbots and virtual assistants
- Assist with compliance and reporting obligations
- Identify fraud, waste, and abuse
- Fight cybercrime and track criminal money trails
- Draft basic legal documents, contracts, and policy statements
Government workers aiming to accomplish more in less time can use GenAI to:
- Speed up the bidding and contract process
- Accelerate and improve all kinds of scientific research
- Provide instant policy summaries to lawmakers
- Inform policymakers with data-driven insights and analysis
- Forecast risks, trends, and threats of all kinds, including economic and military
- Predict future needs for infrastructure, housing, food, health services, etc.
- Optimize budget and resource allocation
- Improve compliance and overall government productivity
In these cases, governments benefit from AI’s ability to quickly process and analyze vast amounts of data. GenAI enhances this capability by generating unique, actionable insights from data in a more efficient and user-friendly manner.

Thomson Reuters enhances CLEAR with new GenAI capabilities

Thomson Reuters has been a pioneering leader in the AI field and is committed to remaining at the forefront of GenAI technological research and development. One of their products, CLEAR, an industry-leading investigative software, now incorporates new GenAI capabilities. Many government agencies use CLEAR for vendor due diligence, fraud prevention, and law enforcement.

CLEAR is a powerful tool that generates an enormous amount of data. The software’s dashboard, search tools, and alert systems provide a great deal of insight. However, vital information can sometimes be overlooked. This isn’t due to the software’s depth of data and analytical capabilities. Rather, users might not know how or where to find the information.

The new GenAI-powered Risk Analysis Summary (RAS) in CLEAR

To help government users get the most out of their investigations, CLEAR now includes a GenAI-powered tool known as RAS. This enhancement is designed to reduce the time it takes CLEAR users to conduct a search and evaluate results.

When a government agency conducts due diligence on a potential new vendor or supplier, RAS now includes a GenAI-powered risk overview and summary at the top of every report. The summary uses both open-source and proprietary data to clearly highlight the report subject’s overall potential risks.

In general, an RAS report summary typically includes a:
- Company overview. A narrative description of the business’s operations.
- Risk overview. A narrative description of potential risks.
- Key business details. A list of legal names, addresses, filings, ticker symbols, and information on essential personnel and beneficial owners.
- Adverse records and media review. A list of any adverse records, media events, or sanctions mentioning or involving the business in question.
- Social media activity. Links to assess a company’s social media presence.
RAS gives a short overview of all important information about a company. It also warns users about any risks or issues that might need more research. RAS also includes links to relevant source documents for further clarification, if needed. Additionally, it offers source attribution for all statements made in the AI-driven portions of the report.

RAS is just one example of how GenAI can enhance the capabilities of an existing tool or application. More importantly, it shows how GenAI technology can help government officials extract useful insights from large amounts of unruly data, saving time and money while delivering more effective results.

Develop ethical GenAI guidelines to boost data privacy and security

GenAI technology can be used by many government agencies, but there are many reasons why governments don’t use new technology quickly. Policy roadblocks, budget limitations, bureaucratic inertia, and the sheer size of many government agencies all play a part. Additionally, a lack of technically skilled workers and aging technological infrastructure contribute to the issue. However, two of the chief concerns regarding the use of AI in government are data privacy and security.

Government systems store vast amounts of personal data, making data security essential. GenAI technology requires access to a broad range of data sources to work properly, including databases full of private, highly sensitive information in a government setting.

Without robust data-protection measures, unauthorized access is a high risk, especially since government systems that house sensitive personal data are prime targets for hackers and fraudsters.

As government officials weigh the benefits and risks of AI, they must establish transparency and accountability systems and strengthen security protocols. They also need to develop strategies and guidelines for the ethical use of AI and integrate these into employee training.

Embrace the power of GenAI with CLEAR for effective governance

GenAI is here to stay in government agencies and will only improve over time. As technology advances, the private sector is rapidly adopting GenAI, transforming work and business with compelling benefits.

Thomson Reuters is committed to the safe and secure deployment of AI technology in both government and business. They integrate transparency about AI use in their products from the start. The future of commerce and governance depends on this commitment. Without awareness of the risks and a comprehensive strategy to address them, the potential benefits of incorporating GenAI into government processes could be undermined. Unintended consequences can arise when policymakers don’t fully understand the technology.

GenAI will become more common in government. It’s important for society to keep up with its growing technological skills as it tries to govern.

When used wisely and with proper guardrails, GenAI can make governance more effective, efficient, and responsive. Pairing it with machine learning and human expertise boosts these advantages, using the strengths of both humans and technology. GenAI might even help restore some of the trust in government institutions that has declined in recent years.

Discover how CLEAR’s GenAI features can contribute to more effective and trustworthy governance.
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July 15, 2025
PM Modi condoles death of marathon runner Fauja Singh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condoled the passing of marathon runner Fauja Singh. In a social media post, Mr Modi said, Fauja Singh was extraordinary because of his unique persona and the manner in which he inspired the youth of India on a very important topic of fitness. The Prime Minister also called him an exceptional athlete with incredible determination and expressed his thoughts to Mr Singh’s family.

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July 15, 2025
TV tonight: a nostalgic romance drama with a cracking soundtrack | Television

Mix Tape

Tuesday, 9pm, BBC Two
“You don’t forget the first mixtape a boy makes you.” Cracking music soundtracks this four-part will they/won’t they story, starting with New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, as teenagers Daniel (Rory Walton-Smith) and Alison (Florence Hunt) first talk sheepishly at a Sheffield house party in 1989. Twenty years later, Daniel (Jim Sturgess) has stayed put and is a music journalist, while Alison (Teresa Palmer) is a successful novelist in Sydney. Both have families, but as they remember the mix tapes they shared and unanswered questions, is a reunion on the cards? Think One Day (incidentally, Sturgess starred in the film version) except grittier. Hollie Richardson

Bake Off: The Professionals

8pm, Channel 4
Quarter-final time: the teams must are tasked with creating two dozen savoury sweet desserts before the real challenge: summoning up alien-themed showstoppers with jelly art desserts in just five hours. All under the watchful gaze of higher intelligences Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin. Ali Catterall

Chernobyl: The New Evidence

8.20pm, PBS America
Access to a KGB archive in Ukraine provides the hook for this new two-parter on the 1986 nuclear disaster; the files therein suggest officials were aware of flaws in the power plant’s design. There are also sombre interviews with survivors, including a technician who was on site when reactor No 4 exploded. Graeme Virtue

The Great British Sewing Bee

9pm, BBC One
Sara Pascoe is back to host the 11th series of the amateur sewing competition. The first challenge asks the contestants to create a voluminous tie-front blouse – a garment that seems very much up Pascoe’s own style street. They then graduate from gathers to pleats in the “made to measure” round. Ellen E Jones

10pm, Channel 4
The unusual team of actor Emilia Fox, criminologist David Wilson and former detective Graham Hill dig into another cold case. Brian Price and Susan Tetrault were murdered in bed in 1986 in Clapham, south London. Could international drug traffickers have been involved? Jack Seale

Transaction

10.05pm, ITV2

Jordan Gray as Liv in Transaction. Photograph: ITV

The brilliant Doon Mackichan guest stars as the head of HR, as supermarket manager Simon (Nick Frost) rounds up the team to discuss how best to get rid of rubbish night-shift worker Liv (Jordan Gray). But how can he do it without being cancelled for firing a transgender woman? Bitingly funny comedy. HR

Film choice

It’s behind you … Roy Scheider in the first and best Jaws from 1975, Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

Jaws 1-4 (Steven Spielberg, 1975; Jeannot Szwarc, 1978; Joe Alves, 1983; Joseph Sargent, 1987), Netflix
The 50th anniversary of Jaws – year zero of the modern blockbuster – has already been well publicised. However, half a century of Jaws also means half a century of Jaws sequels, which is a different kind of fun. This week, Netflix has gathered together all four films for viewers to enjoy at leisure. The question is, which should you watch? The peerless original? Jaws 2, which is more or less a remake of the first? Jaws 3, which was shot for 3D seemingly just for the scene where a shark is exploded? Or Jaws: The Revenge, in which a shark with a vendetta chases Michael Caine around the Bahamas? Strictly speaking, only one of these films is good. But in their own way, they are all great. Stuart Heritage

Hell Is a City (Val Guest, 1960), 2:20pm, Film4

Only way is up … Stanley Baker in Hell Is a City. Photograph: Ronald Grant

To be specific, hell is Manchester. This stunning 1960 British noir has plenty going for it, like its tight, hardboiled plot – an inspector is tasked with tracking down a murderer after a jailbreak – and the gruffly unsentimental performances from Stanley Baker and John Crawford. It deserves to be rediscovered and heralded as a classic. However, Hell Is a City was also shot in Manchester – rare for a film – and provides a wonderful snapshot of the city 65 years ago. To describe it as unrecognisable would be an understatement. SH

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July 15, 2025
‘I signed up for a cancer fundraiser bike ride

Greig Watson

BBC News, Nottingham

Supplied

Callum said Eliyah was “sassy” and talkative

A man organised a 85-mile charity bike ride for his niece – before remembering he did not actually own a bicycle.

Callum said the idea was “pulled out of nowhere” because he was so keen to help raise funds for his niece.

Four-year-old Eliyah, from Nottingham, was diagnosed with leukaemia on 28 April in what her family describe as a “massive shock”.

After buying a second-hand bike from social media, Callum admitted his main training for the ride from the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham to Skegness on 1 August was commuting to his job in Derby.

Supplied

Eliyah’s diagnosis came “almost overnight” according to Callum

The 28-year-old, from Sandiacre, Derbyshire, said: “She is the sassiest, most talkative four-year-old you could imagine. You can hold a conversation with her for 10 minutes and she won’t stop talking and talking.

“She was into her horses and into her dancing. She was always on the go but then the diagnosis came almost overnight.”

Other members of the family began to suggest fundraising ideas so Callum wanted to join in.

“I just pulled the idea out of nowhere and everyone really went for it,” he said.

“Then I realised I didn’t actually own a bike, so I had to go social media and buy one second-hand. Hopefully it will do the job.

“I work in Derby so going there from home is the main training and that’s going OK but the heat doesn’t make it easy.”

Supplied

Kelly, Eliyah’s grandmother, said support from the family had been ‘amazing’

Eliyah’s grandmother Kelly, 45, from Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, said the diagnosis came out of the blue after she became lethargic and had nose bleeds.

“You just don’t expect it,” she said. “You just don’t expect to be told that your four-year-old granddaughter has got cancer, it was a massive shock.

“But we’ve had amazing support, the community has really come forward, we’ve had so many people offer support and this is so important.

“She’s just started a new chemotherapy treatment as part of her two-year programme but hopefully she’ll soon be back to the sassy girl we know.”

Callum said the original idea was “just me and the road” but he is being joined by a friend and the family has organised a welcoming party.

He said: “What would be really great is if Eliyah could be there herself – that’s what would really make it extra special.”

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July 15, 2025
Three Oxfordshire teens among BAFTA game designer winners

BAFTA

Luke Rayfield, Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun were selected from a pool of 52 finalists

A teenage winner at the 15th BAFTA Young Game Designers awards said it was “amazing to be able to see other people playing your game”.

Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun, both 17 and both from Oxford, and Luke Rayfield, 18, from Oxfordshire, were selected from a pool of 52 finalists, winning three out of the event’s five awards.

The judging panel was made up of industry experts representing major British-based games companies.

Speaking to BBC Radio Oxford, Isabelle and Emily said they had now started working on their own studio.

Mr Rayfield also said after their wins, Oxfordshire could turn into a new gaming hub in the future.

The winners, aged between 10 and 18, were announced in a digital ceremony hosted by actor, comedian and presenter Inel Tomlinson.

Dan Ayoub, member of the judging panel, said he had been “genuinely humbled by the level of talent, creativity, and ambition these young creators brought”.

Mikka Bouzu

Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun’ said their game, Mikka Bouzu, had been made for players who struggle “with the difficult transition from child to adult”

The competition is part of a year-round programme of public events and classroom workshops encouraging young people to understand how to create games.

Isabelle and Emily won the The Game Concept Award for Mikka Bouzu, whose game designer protagonist has to journey through three of her unfinished games to rediscover her lost creativity.

They described it as being “made for players who struggle with the difficult transition from child to adult, and the burnout that it often brings”.

Isabelle said it was “just amazing to be able to see other people playing your game”.

“Normally, when you’re testing your game, you get feedback through forms, through written things, but there’s no feedback quite as real as seeing somebody’s actual reactions as they play,” she said.

Emily added they had already tried making a logo and plans for their planned studio, so “hopefully it will be able to go somewhere”.

Furniture Fu

In Luke Rayfield’s game Furniture Fu players can beat demons while mastering tasteful home design

Mr Rayfield’s won The Game Making Award with Furniture Fu, which unites the skills of martial arts and interior decorating.

He said it was “easy to learn and hard to master”, with players beating demons while also tackling tasteful home design.

“There’s such a wealth of good ideas out there and the weirder ones are often the best, I find,” he added.

The winning games will be showcased at the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, and the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.

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July 15, 2025