Google tangled up in $600m Chromebook corruption probe • The Register

Asia In Brief Indonesia’s government is investigating possible corruption during a $600 million program that saw around a quarter of a million Chromebooks installed in schools.

The “education digitalization” program was a flagship policy of the previous government, which wanted to bring technology into schools across the nation.

Earlier this year, Indonesia’s Attorney General announced an investigation into why authorities chose Chromebooks as client devices when a pilot of the machines pointed out they’re not useful without reliable internet connections – a situation that’s common across Indonesia.

The Attorney General’s department alleged that officials may have improperly dropped a plan to use Windows machines, despite the pilot demonstrating Chromebooks were not up to the job.

Indonesian media reports that local authorities have questioned numerous officials and others involved in the program, including Google staff.

As the investigations continued, authorities banned former education minister Nadiem Makarim from leaving Indonesia for six months.

Makarim founded Indonesian rideshare company Gojek, which in 2021 merged with e-commerce company Tokopedia and emerged as “GoTo Group”.

Indonesian media report that authorities searched GoTo’s offices last week and left with storage devices.

The investigation continues.

Japan, Europe, plan Starlink alternative

Japan and the European Union are reportedly planning to work together on satellite communications networks that reduce their dependence on services from the likes of Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Europe and Japan both plan satellite communications constellations. Japanese outlet Nikkei claims a draft agreement up for discussion at next week’s annual Japan/EU summit includes a plan to link their efforts, plus plenty more collaboration on science and technology.

China’s massive lithium find

The government of China’s Hunan province last week claimed it has found a massive deposit of Lithium – the metal essential for the production of Lithium-ion batteries.

China has a policy to encourage adoption of electric vehicles, but is not well-endowed with Lithium deposits and therefore relies on imports.

If the resource discovered in Hunan is as substantial and pure as the provincial government asserts, its eventual exploitation will be globally significant.

India’s public cloud market to boom

Analyst firm IDC last week predicted India’s public market will almost triple by 2025.

The firm said Indian users spent $10.9 billion on IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS in 2024, and predicted 22.6 percent compound annual growth will see that number reach $30.4 billion by 2029.

“Indian enterprises are increasingly investing in public cloud services to modernize legacy systems, introduce digital services, improve efficiency, and drive innovation,” said Rajiv Ranjan, associate research director, Cloud and Artificial Intelligence, IDC India. “AI adoption will be a key catalyst, with significant portion of services being deployed on public cloud platforms. Growth will be fueled by rising demand for AI-powered software, fully managed compute and storage systems, and SaaS, especially collaboration, content services, and core business applications delivered via consumption-based models.”

Cisco appoints new Asia boss

Cisco last week named Ben Dawson as its new president for the Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC), and also senior vice president for sales across the region.

Dawson previously led Cisco’s Australia and New Zealand operations.

New Zealand’s competition boss recommends not using Uber

The chair of the New Zealand Commerce Commission, the nation’s competition regulator, on Sunday recommended against using Uber.

“If you’re using Uber in NZ, please reconsider,” he wrote on his LinkedIn account, calling for Kiwis to instead ride with Bolt or DiDi because they charge drivers lower commissions and allow drivers to use multiple apps.

Milestone for India’s crewed space mission

India’s Space Research Organization last week announced successful tests of the engines it plans to use on the service module of its crewed Gaganyaan mission.

India plans an uncrewed test flight of Gaganyaan this year, followed by another two robo-missions ahead of a 2027 launch with astronauts aboard.

Just two Indian nationals have travelled to space.

Rakesh Sharma participated in a 1984 Russian mission, and Shubhanshu Shukla today left the International Space Station which he visited as part of Axiom Mission 4. ®