Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on Wednesday that it has formed a partnership with Reliance Industries, owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, to establish the first artificial intelligence-enabled data center in India for the United States-based corporation.It is the first artificial intelligence-enabled data center in India, and it is owned by Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), which is owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

According to the announcement, Reliance is going to construct a data center in Jamnagar, which is located in the western state of Gujarat in India, with a capacity of 168 megawatts (MW). Meta will lease this data center, and there will be options to scale it up.
According to Meta, India is recognised as a desirable location for investment due to its rapidly expanding digital economy and enormous user base.

According to IMARC Group, a consulting organization, the data center market in India is expected to nearly quadruple to reaching $13.11 billion by the year 2034. This growth is expected to be driven by digital transformation, cloud adoption, and increased artificial intelligence workloads.

With the formation of a joint venture in August of the previous year, Meta and Reliance collaborated to develop artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and solutions for businesses in India, utilising Meta’s Llama models. The initial investment of 8.55 billion rupees ($89.67 million) had been jointly pledged by Reliance and Meta, with the proportions being 70 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

In the year 2020, Meta made a payment of $5.7 billion to Jio Platforms, which is a subsidiary of Reliance.
$1 is equivalent to 95.3500 Indian rupees.

National Assembly members Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed Abbas and Saad Waseem called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif here on Wednesday.

Over their separate meetings, the legislators updated the prime minister about the status of ongoing development and public welfare initiatives in their respective constituencies while submitting recommendations for new projects.

They talked on the political affairs of their different constituencies also.

Federal Minister for Public Affairs Unit Rana Mubashir Iqbal was also in the meeting.

Senior Minister Punjab Maryam Aurangzeb chaired a high-level meeting on anti-smog here at Lahore during which the authorities agreed to undertake a massive crackdown against illicit industrial units being run in residential areas across the province.

As per the instructions of Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who directed prompt action for removal of illegal industrial set-ups in residential areas of Lahore and other parts of the province and launch of enforcement operations, the meeting was held.

Illegal factories running in residential communities are a big source of environmental damage, officials said. It was also resolved to take action against illicit fat melting facilities and to move approved urban companies progressively to specialised industrial zones.

Meanwhile, the authorities said a detailed relocation plan has been prepared and all previously issued NOC for industrial units in residential areas are to be withdrawn with immediate effect. And authorities who approve such requests will also be subject to disciplinary proceedings.

Industries involved in burning wire and plastic are considerably contributing to air pollution, along with marble carving, wood workshops and small-scale units, the meeting was told. It was discovered that fumes emitted from burning plastics may lead to respiratory ailments, lung damage and possibly cancer.

Lahore has discovered and mapped 5,206 illegal industrial units, of which 4,514 are within residential limits. These industries are categorised into five groups based on their environmental impact.

Out of them 306 units were extremely high pollution, 676 high pollution, 539 medium pollution, 2,925 low pollution and 760 very low pollution units.

Maryam Aurangzeb said industry relocation strategy has been separated into short, medium and long-term phases. Large enterprises would be allocated land in new industrial zones away from residential areas, with basic utilities like electricity, water and roads.

Industrialists would also be granted incentives such as subsidised land, easing for import of machinery and waste treatment facilities. A permanent implementation committee with officials from Environment, Local Government, Police, LDA, Industries and Revenue Departments has been constituted to oversee timeframes, reforms and grievance redressal.

The recommendations were drawn up for phased implementation following consultations with more than 50 stakeholders and 14 sessions, using foreign case studies and local experience, officials said.