IndusInd Bank Joins Global PCAF Framework to Advance Carbon Accounting and Strengthen Climate Disclosures

The partnership strengthens the Bank's commitment towards measuring and managing emissions associated with financial activities in support of a low-carbon economy

Mumbai, August 18, 2026: IndusInd Bank, today, announced that it has joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a global collaboration of financial institutions working to develop and implement a harmonised approach for measuring and disclosing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with financial activities.

As part of its sustainability journey, IndusInd Bank is committed to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into its business strategy and risk management processes. Joining PCAF marks an important milestone in the Bank's efforts to enhance transparency, strengthen climate-related disclosures, and establish a robust framework for measuring and managing the carbon footprint associated with its lending and investment portfolio.

PCAF enables financial institutions to assess and disclose the emissions linked to their financial activities, helping them better understand climate-related risks and opportunities while supporting the transition to a more sustainable economy. With more than 750 financial institutions participating globally, PCAF has become the leading framework for Scope 3 Category 15 accounting.

IndusInd Bank has been steadily advancing its sustainable finance agenda by financing renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and other climate-positive sectors. By adopting the PCAF methodology, the Bank aims to establish a credible baseline for emissions associated with financial activities, identify decarbonization opportunities across sectors, and support customers in their transition towards lower-carbon business models.

ABOUT INDUSIND BANK

IndusInd Bank Limited has been redefining banking for the past 32 years and has been a force for progression and innovation, offering an elevated banking experience for its diverse range of stakeholders, including government entities, PSUs, retail customers, and large corporations. The Bank’s product offerings include microfinance, personal loans, debit/credit cards, SME loans, advanced digital banking facilities, affluent and NRI banking services, vehicle financing, and innovative ESG-linked financial products.

The Bank also caters to the growing Indian diaspora with representative offices in Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. As of June 30, 2026, IndusInd Bank serves around 42 million customers through 3,137 branches/banking outlets and 2,853 ATMs, reaching 1.60 lakh villages across India. IndusInd Bank leverages technology through its 'Digital 2.0' strategy, ensuring multi-channel delivery and a robust digital infrastructure. In each of its unique offerings that include ‘INDIE’ – the one-stop-shop for all things digital banking; innovation and customer centricity remain at the core. IndusInd Bank holds clearing bank status for major stock exchanges BSE and NSE, settlement bank status for NCDEX, and is an empanelled banker for MCX.

RATINGS

Domestic Ratings:

• CARE A1+ for Certificate of Deposits
• CRISIL A1+ for certificate of deposit program / short term FD programme
• CRISIL AA+ for Infrastructure Bonds program/Tier 2 Bonds
• IND AA+ for Issuer Rating by India Ratings and Research
• IND AA+ for Senior bonds program/Tier 2 Bonds by India Ratings and Research

International Rating:

• Ba1 for Senior Unsecured MTN programme by Moody’s Investors Service

Visit us at www.indusind.bank.in

About the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF)

The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials was launched globally in September 2019. Currently, more than 750 financial institutions have subscribed to the PCAF initiative. PCAF signatories work together to jointly develop the Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry to measure and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their financial activities. By doing so, PCAF signatories take an important step to subsequently assess climate-related risks, set climate targets, and develop effective strategies to decarbonize their portfolios.

For more information see https://carbonaccountingfinancials.com/

Media inquiries please contact:

Addie Fairley, Communications Lead, PCAF Secretariat, E: info@carbonaccountingfinancials.com

Anshu Jain, Lead – PR, IndusInd Bank, E: mediarelations@indusind.com

ECMS Boosts India’s Electronics Manufacturing: 106 Projects Approved, ₹69,548 Crore Investment

India’s journey towards electronics self-reliance has gained significant momentum with the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), which is driving domestic production of critical components and raw materials.

Following the earlier clearance of 75 applications with investments totaling ₹61,671 crore, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has now sanctioned an additional 31 proposals under the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), representing a projected investment of ₹6,844 crore.

The approval ceremony, held in New Delhi in collaboration with the Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA), was graced by Union Minister for Electronics and IT Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of State Shri Jitin Prasada, MeitY Secretary Shri S. Krishnan, Joint Secretary Shri Sushil Pal, and ELCINA President Shri Sasikumar Gendham.

Expanding Manufacturing Capacity

• 38 plants operational
• 16 projects in advanced construction stages
• Domestic production exceeds demand in key categories:
  • Anode material (~110%)
  • Optical Transceiver-SFP (350%)
  • Relays (200%)

Employment and Economic Impact

• 74,628 direct jobs expected
• 2.5 lakh indirect jobs across 15 states
• Latest 31 approvals will create 9,588 direct jobs
• Additional ₹1,033 crore investment by Wipro for copper-clad laminates

Product Coverage

Category	Products
Sub-assemblies	Camera Module, Display Module, Optical Transceiver-SFP
Components	Connectors, Relays, Transducers, Filters, Capacitors, Coils, Antennas, Enclosures, Speakers & Microphones, Metal Shielding Covers
Supply Chain Products	Anode Material, Rare Earth Permanent Magnets, Acetylene Black, Electrolyte Additives, Metallized Films for Capacitors, Hermetic Terminals
Capital Goods	CNC Machines, Precision Instruments, Automation Systems

Geographic Spread

• Projects distributed across 10 states: Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand

Strategic Significance

ECMS is a cornerstone of India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision, ensuring the country develops a deep-rooted electronics ecosystem. By fostering domestic production of critical components and raw materials, India is positioning itself as a global electronics manufacturing hub.

The Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA), established in 1967, continues to play a key role in facilitating industry-government collaboration under this scheme.

Key Takeaways

• 106 projects approved under ECMS with ₹69,548 crore investment
• 38 plants operational, 16 nearing completion
• 74,628 direct jobs

Agastya Energy Announces ₹7,800 Crore Expansion into Full Integrated Solar Manufacturing by 12GW Ingot & Wafer Manufacturing

• To expand into Integrated 12 GW Ingot and 12 GW Wafer manufacturing as it builds an integrated solar photovoltaic value chain in Kurnool. 

Agastya Green Energy Limited, a part of Anubhav Agarwal Group, today announced its expansion into Integrated 12 GW Ingot and Wafer manufacturing at the Orvakal Industrial Area in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh with a project cost of approximately ₹7,800 crore. The expansion will complement the company’s existing solar cell and module manufacturing capabilities.

The project will establish 12 GW each of integrated ingot and wafer manufacturing capacity, strengthening Agastya Energy’s domestic manufacturing capabilities and enabling greater domestic value addition within India’s solar manufacturing sector. The Pooja marks the commencement of this next phase of growth, which is expected to generate 3,500+ employment opportunities and further Agastya Energy’s vision of building an integrated and globally competitive solar photovoltaic manufacturing platform in India.

Mr. Anubhav Agarwal, Chairman, AAG (Anubhav Agarwal Group), said, “At AAG, our focus is on building businesses that contribute meaningfully to India’s growth and advance our vision to empowering India’s journey towards energy security. Our ₹7,800 crore investment in Agastya Energy reflects our long-term conviction in India’s energy transition and our commitment to building globally competitive manufacturing capabilities at scale. We believe that strengthening domestic manufacturing will be critical to meeting India’s growing energy needs, reducing import dependence and creating a resilient energy ecosystem for the decades ahead.”

We are grateful to the Government of Andhra Pradesh for its continued support and commitment to fostering a conducive environment for large-scale manufacturing and renewable energy investments. We extend our sincere appreciation to Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, Hon. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Shri Nara Lokesh, Hon. Minister of Human Resources Development, Information Technology, Electronics & Communication, Real Time Governance of Andhra Pradesh; and Shri T. G. Bharath, Hon. Minister of Industries, Commerce and Food Processing. Their leadership, vision and encouragement have been instrumental in advancing industrial growth, strengthening investor confidence and enabling transformative projects that contribute to India’s clean energy future.

Mr. Piyush Bichhoriya, Director, Agastya Energy, said, “The expansion into Ingot and Wafer manufacturing marks a critical upstream pillar of Agastya Energy’s integrated solar manufacturing strategy, complementing our solar cell and module capabilities and strengthening our end-to-end PV value chain. It will deepen our presence across the solar ecosystem, drive greater domestic value addition, and create synergies across manufacturing, IPP and EPC. As we scale, our focus remains on efficient execution and building a future-ready platform to support India’s growing renewable energy needs. In many ways, this is our contribution to Powering the Age of India.”

Mr. Bernhard Rack, CEO, Agastya Energy, said, “The global energy transition is creating a strong need for resilient, scalable and globally competitive solar manufacturing. This expansion will strengthen Agastya Energy’s capabilities across ingots, wafers, cells and modules. It marks an important step towards establishing India as a leading hub for clean energy manufacturing.”

The integrated facility will bring together ingot, wafer, cell and module manufacturing, enabling greater domestic value addition, manufacturing efficiency and deeper integration across the upstream and downstream segments of the photovoltaic value chain. The project comes at a time when India continues to strengthen its solar manufacturing and renewable energy ecosystem, with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) progressively strengthening the ALMM framework, including ALMM List III, for solar PV modules, cells and wafers. In this context, the facility aligns with the Government of India’s Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat priorities, while supporting the country’s broader ambitions for renewable energy, energy security and a globally competitive domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem.

About Agastya Energy Group:

Agastya Energy Group is a renewable energy company focused on building integrated capabilities across the solar photovoltaic value chain. Headquartered in New Delhi & a part of the AAG, the company is focused on developing scalable, technology-led and sustainable clean energy solutions.

It operates across the renewable energy sector, with capabilities spanning solar module and cell manufacturing, Independent Power Production (IPP), EPC, and operations and maintenance (O&M), along with a growing presence across India. The company is expanding its manufacturing capabilities across ingots, wafers, solar cells and modules, with an ambition to build an integrated and globally competitive solar manufacturing platform and deepen integration across the solar value chain. Through deeper vertical integration, Agastya Energy aims to enhance domestic value addition, strengthen supply-chain resilience and support the development of India’s renewable energy ecosystem. With a focus on technology, operational excellence and sustainable development, the company is committed to strengthening India’s domestic renewable energy capabilities and supporting the country’s transition towards a cleaner, more resilient and self-reliant energy future.

NEC Collaborates with Japan’s Defense Innovation Institute on Next‑Gen Underwater Acoustic AI

• NEC Begins Research to Establish a Leading
• Underwater Acoustic Platform Model. 
• Awarded a Contract by Japan’s Agency for Defense Equipment,

Enabling High-Precision, Rapid Visualization of the Ocean Using Sound and AI~
NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) has been awarded a contract for “Research on Underwater Acoustic Foundation Models Using Self-Supervised Learning (Part 1),” with a focus on dual-use applications, as part of the “Innovative Breakthrough Research” (*1) program conducted by the Defense Innovation Science and Technology Institute of Japan’s Agency for Defense Equipment. NEC has commenced research on this project and aims to complete development of a foundation model by fiscal year 2027.

This project involves training a model on vast amounts of underwater acoustic data to build a world-leading foundational model for underwater acoustics. The goal is to realize general-purpose generative AI, similar to large language models (LLMs), in the field of underwater acoustics.

Utilizing this foundational model will enable more accurate and rapid understanding of underwater phenomena and facilitate the creation of a digital twin of the ocean. This is expected to greatly enhance application possibilities, not only for defense purposes but also for areas such as the exploration of marine life, resources and environmental monitoring, as well as for high-precision earthquake prediction and other uses.

Overview of the Underwater Acoustics Foundation Model Under Development

Background

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and hold many mysteries. Today, efforts are underway to promote their sustainable use—including the exploration of marine life, resources, and the prediction of events occurring on the seafloor. Since light and radio waves barely penetrate the water, the use of sound waves is an effective method for a wide range of observations and recognition tasks. Underwater sound waves are captured as underwater acoustic data using sonar and hydrophones, and are analyzed by skilled experts who employ advanced signal processing techniques and expertise. However, analyzing such vast amounts of data requires a great deal of time and concentration, and there are limitations to the level of accuracy that can be achieved.

About the Underwater Acoustic Foundation Model

While the development of language foundation models is advancing worldwide, few general-purpose foundation models for underwater acoustics have been realized, and development has been limited to AI models specialized for specific applications or tasks. Conventional AI models require large amounts of “labeled data,” making them difficult to apply to applications or tasks where only a small amount of labeled data can be collected. In the field of underwater acoustics in particular, collecting labeled data is challenging, making it difficult to build large-scale AI models.

Building on over 90 years of experience in sonar technology development, NEC will develop a general-purpose underwater acoustics foundation model. This effort will leverage the large-scale learning expertise gained through “cotomi” (*2), NEC’s proprietary AI technology, as well as AI technology based on self-supervised learning, which enables the utilization of large volumes of data even in the absence of labeled data. The large-scale underwater acoustics data used for training will be collected through public-private partnerships.

Future Developments

NEC will collaborate with the Defense Innovation Science and Technology Institute, aiming to develop this foundational model, demonstrate its effectiveness, and complete its construction by fiscal year 2027.

Moving forward, NEC will continue to promote research and development aimed at high-precision visualization and a better understanding of the underwater environment. Furthermore, by contributing to both the strengthening of defense capabilities and the development of the maritime industry through the implementation of this foundational model—and by accelerating dual-use applications—NEC will contribute to the realization of a safe, secure, and sustainable society.

Notes:

(*1) The Innovative Breakthrough Research program is conducted under managers recruited from outside Japan’s Ministry of Defense. This is part of an initiative by the Agency for Defense Equipment to create innovative and groundbreaking functions and technologies that fundamentally strengthen defense capabilities or transform society.

(*2)

“cotomi” is a core AI technology developed by NEC.

https://group.nec/jp/ja/solutions/ai/llm/ (Japanese website)

About NEC

The NEC Group leverages technology to create social value and promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. NEC Corporation was established in 1899. Today, the NEC Group’s approximately 110,000 employees utilize world-leading AI, security, and communications technologies to solve the most pressing needs of customers and society.

India Issues High-Risk Alert: Google Chrome Users Urged to Update Immediately”l

India’s cybersecurity agency Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a high-risk warning for Google Chrome users, urging immediate updates to avoid remote hacking threats. Vulnerabilities affect Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with risks of data theft, system takeover, and denial-of-service attacks.

The high-severity security advisory issues warning that Google Chrome desktop users of multiple vulnerabilities that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code, bypass security restrictions, or cause denial-of-service conditions.

The vulnerabilities, identified in Chrome’s V8 engine, TabStrip, HTML, Extensions, and Blink components, affect versions prior to 151.0.7922.137/.138 on Windows and macOS and 151.0.7922.137 on Linux.

What the Warning Means

• Agency involved: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)
• Severity: Classified as high-risk due to potential for remote code execution and unauthorised access
• Affected platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux desktop users
• Vulnerabilities: Linked to use-after-free issues in Chrome’s V8 engine, TabStrip, HTML, Extensions, and Blink components

Risks to Users

• Remote hacking: Attackers can trick users into opening malicious links or crafted web pages
• Data theft: Passwords, banking details, and sensitive files may be exposed
• System disruption: Exploits can corrupt memory or trigger denial-of-service (DoS), crashing systems
• Enterprise impact: Both individuals and organisations are potential targets

Affected Versions

Platform	Affected Versions	Safe Versions
Windows	Prior to 151.0.7922.137/.138	Update to latest build
macOS	Prior to 151.0.7922.137/.138	Update to latest build
Linux	Prior to 151.0.7922.137	Update to latest build

How to Protect Yourself

• Update Chrome immediately: Open Chrome → Click three-dot menu → Go to Help > About Google Chrome → Relaunch after update
• Avoid suspicious links until patched
• Enable automatic updates to reduce exposure
• Use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication for sensitive accounts

Key Takeaway

If you are running Chrome on Windows, macOS, or Linux, and your version is older than 151.0.7922.137/.138, you are at risk. Update immediately to prevent hackers from exploiting these flaws.