Google has announced 'Launchpad Accelerator India', a mentorship program that would aim to support Indian start-ups that deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning to build solutions for local needs. The three-month accelerator will provide a cohort of 8-10 Indian start-ups with the mentorship of Google. The start-ups will also get up to $1,00,000 of Google Cloud credits.

The Indian Railways launched a software named- 'eDrishti', that will enable the Union Railway Minister Shri. Piyush Goyalto keep track of punctuality of trains as well as freight and passenger earnings from anywhere in the country. The software has been developed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS).

'Bharosa', a 24 hour state-of-the-art centre to support women and children afflicted by violence was inaugurated by Hyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar. The centre would help these women along with dealing in POCSO cases. It has been set up on the instructions of the DGP, Telangana.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami launched the distribution of satellite phones to fishermen involved in deep sea fishing. It will assist the fishermen in their navigation while in the high seas. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has designed the NaVIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) receivers in a bid to the fishermen. So far, ISRO has delivered 200 NaVICs to the State government.

Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance and National Informatics Centre (NIC) have jointly developed a mobile app called Jan Dhan Darshak as a part of financial inclusion (FI) initiative. This app will act as a guide for the common people in locating a financial service touch point at a given location in the country. While over 5 lakh FI touch points (Bank branches, ATMs, Post Offices) have been mapped on this App, approx. 1.35 lakh Bank Mitras would be on-boarded by 01.12.2018. Phone number of bank branches are available in the app, with the facility of call button for integrated dialling.

Goyal felicitated the artists who participated in this initiative by giving them cash awards and appreciation certificates. He also felicitated artists who won the top prize in the national transporter's in-house Station Beautification Contest. They worked for 7 railway stations. This innovative competition was organized among zonal railways in December 2017. More than 62 stations across zonal railways were beautified under this initiative by utilising skills of local artists, mostly using local art form, painting style, local themes or contemporary arts.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) along with National e-Governance Division has developed 'Parinam Manjusha', digital academic repository, to provide digital mark sheets, migration certificates and pass certificates to students from CBSE-affiliated schools in Kerala, whose board exam academic documents have been lost or damaged in the recent floods. This academic repository has been integrated with DigiLocker. Over 1,300 schools are affiliated to the CBSE in Kerala. The digital academic documents are digitally signed by the Controller of Examinations of CBSE which make them legally valid digital document as per the IT Act. These documents are also having QR codes and such documents can be verified for the authenticity using the DigiLocker mobile app. The students are asked to visit https://digitallocker.gov.in and https://digitallocker.gov.in and download their academic documents using the login-id / password.

Kenya has been chosen as the home-country for a Google-affiliated company to start its first-announced commercial deal that will deliver internet access to remote areas using high-altitude balloons. The high-altitude balloons have already been deployed in emergencies in Peru and Puerto Rice, where they helped regions devastated by floods and hurricanes.

India's largest online retailer Flipkart has forged an alliance with video streaming service Hotstar and launched a video advertisement platform. It is part of a broader strategy to generate more revenue from the booming video advertising business. The new platform, Shopper Audience Network, will allow brands to target consumers through personalized video ads on Hotstar. Flipkart plans to leverage data from its massive user base and help brands connect with potential consumers using these targeted ads.

In an attempt to enable users shop better using Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, Facebook has acquired US-based virtual search start-up, GrokStyle, at an undisclosed amount. GrokStyle was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco, USA.