MAM
First for JAL – transpacific in-flight internet access
MUMBAI: Japan Airlines has expanded its in-flight Internet connection service to flights between Tokyo-New York: the world’s first service on a transpacific flight.
Provided by Connexion by Boeing Inc. (CBB) – a business unit of Boeing – the “JAL Inflight Internet Service”, which took off today, enables passengers to use their own wireless LAN compatible personal computers during flights.
Using VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology, the “JAL Inflight Internet Service” also enables passengers to access securely their company’s network, email and intranet site. Additionally, passengers can access free of charge JAL’s in-flight portal site which contains a selection of content such as company product and service information, says a company release.
Initially the service will be available on alternate days but towards the end of June it will be available daily. JAL’s Tokyo-New York route is popular with business travelers, who represent a high percentage of total passengers.
In 2003, JAL was the first Asian airline to reach an agreement with CBB to introduce in-flight Internet service and the airline introduced it on the Tokyo-London route on December 9, 2004. JAL will continue to expand this in-flight Internet connection service on Japan-Europe and Japan-North America routes, the release adds.
The in-flight internet service is catching up in Asia as well. All Nippon Airways started providing the service on flights between Tokyo and Shanghai in November. Plans are on the anvil to extend the service to its Tokyo-Los Angeles and Tokyo-New York routes. Singapore Airlines will kick off the service in mid-2005. Among Asian airline companies, Taiwan’s China Airlines, South Korea’s Asiana Airlines and Korean Air have signed deals with Boeing.
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
