Question: There have been press reports that Google is to make a massive investment in India which will give a tremendous boost to digital infrastructure. I would be happy if you could share the details.

ANSWER: Your information is correct as Google is planning to make multifaceted investments in India which will include gigawatt-scale data centre infrastructure and a new international subsea gateway. This will be supported by large scale energy infrastructure which is expected to bring industry-leading technology to enterprises accelerating AI innovation and driving digital growth across the country. The infrastructure is being created by Google in partnership with the Adani Group and will house a Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) which will give a tremendous boost to the compute capacity for deep learning, neural network training and large scale AI model inference. The benefit of this investment is that it will create an ecosystem that will accelerate AI driven solutions for healthcare, logistics, finance and agriculture, among many others.

When operational, the new data centre campus will join Google's network of existing AI data centres that span 12 countries. Construction of a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam will connect Google's more than two million miles of existing terrestrial and subsea cables. This city will therefore be an AI hub which will not only serve India but the rest of the world. According to analysts, the initiative will create substantial economic and societal opportunities for both India and the United States, while pioneering a generational shift in AI capability. This hub will also deliver high performance and low latency services that organisations need to build and scale their own AI powered solutions which will accelerate research and development.

Question: Cyber-crime and bank frauds have reportedly increased in India. Are any steps being taken to counter these threats in an effective manner?

ANSWER: Bank frauds are a major threat in view of higher digital transactions taking place in the country. At present, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre acts as a nodal agency for curbing these crimes. Banks are also using MuleHunter to strengthen the detection and monitoring of mule accounts. These accounts are bank accounts used by criminals to launder illicit money by inducing gullible account holders to lend their accounts for illegal activities. Most public sector banks in India are using the MuleHunter application with a view to strengthen risk management in their banking system.

The Reserve Bank of India is now proposing to set up a company called Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation in which investments will be made by two large public sector banks which will invest the seed capital and nominate their senior executives on the board of this corporation. The object of this new company is to collect information pertaining to mule accounts by using modern tools of technology. The information will be gathered from multiple sources like telecommunication devices spanning a large geographical location. This digital payments intelligence platform is being developed by the Reserve Bank of India in its own innovation hub.

Question: My mother who passed away recently owned mutual fund units which were in physical form. I am a joint holder of these units. I have to transfer these units to my brother to whom they are bequeathed. Is it possible to do so though the units are not in demat mode?

ANSWER: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has now permitted the transfer of mutual fund units even though they are in non-demat mode. Since you are the surviving joint holder, it would be possible for you to transfer these units to your brother without opening a demat account. Even nominees of a deceased unit holder can transfer the units to other legal heirs in view of the relaxation made by SEBI which was not permitted earlier. All mutual fund schemes across fund houses offer this transfer facility where there is no demat account. However, exchange traded funds do not permit their units to be transferred unless a demat account exists. It must be noted that transfers are permitted under the revised guidelines from a resident to another resident. This relaxation does not apply to transfers made by a resident Indian to a non-resident Indian.

The writer is a practising lawyer, specialising in corporate and fiscal laws of India

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