MAM
Hansa Research, Ipsos sign MoU to jointly bid for IRS
MUMBAI: Hansa Research and Ipsos have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly bid for the new Indian Readership Survey (IRS) contract that starts with IRS 2013.
Hansa Research has been conducting the IRS since 2003. So far, Hansa has been doing it with Media research Users Council (MRUC).
The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) has been owned and administered by Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC), an Industry body set up in 1994. Earlier in 2011, MRUC and ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) decided to merge their parallel readership studies by entering into an alliance to form the RSCI, which is now taking charge of administering the IRS.
Hansa Research Group MD Ashok Das said, “We are happy and excited to work with Ipsos on this prestigious project, and hope to bring in a number of new ideas into the IRS.”
This joint bid will combine Hansa’s experience of readership measurement in the Indian context with Ipsos’ global expertise of conducting readership surveys in 60 countries.
Ipsos-India CEO Mick Gordon said, “We are delighted to be working with Hansa on this very exciting project and we hope we can persuade RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India) that our combination will be a very big plus for the industry. Ipsos measures readership in more than 60 countries around the world and has made a name for itself in introducing many innovations into this specialist area of market research – we were the first to use CAPI and DS-CAPI in readership measurement, for example. We believe we can add significant value to Hansa‘s proven expertise and experience on the ground in India.”
Through the joint participation of these two entities, the two companies expect to make a very strong and forward looking pitch for the new IRS contract.
The current sample size of the IRS is 262,000.
Hansa Research is a global full service market research agency headquartered in India, conducting market research in 77 countries with offices in India and US. Over the last few years, Hansa has developed sound mechanisms to reduce fieldwork related issues that has been widely acclaimed by research users for its ability to minimise some long standing industry weaknesses.
The Pulitzers are given out annually by Columbia University on the recommendation of a board of journalists and others. Each award carries a $10,000 prize except for the public service award, which is a gold medal.
Matt Wuerker of Politico, Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse, and Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post bagged the prize in Editorial Cartooning, Breaking News Photography and Feature Photography respectively.
Brands
Amazon doubles down on Anthropic with $25bn AI investment plan
Deal locks in massive compute capacity and pushes Claude deeper into AWS stack
MUMBAI: Amazon and Anthropic have significantly expanded their strategic partnership, committing to a long-term collaboration that combines billions in fresh investment with one of the largest AI infrastructure deals to date.
At the heart of the agreement is Anthropic’s plan to spend more than $100 billion over the next decade on AWS technologies. This includes access to up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity powered by successive generations of Trainium chips, alongside tens of millions of Graviton cores. The scale signals a clear intent to future-proof the infrastructure behind its fast-growing Claude models.
In parallel, Amazon will invest $5 billion in Anthropic immediately, with the option to add up to $20 billion more tied to performance milestones. This builds on the $8 billion the tech giant has already committed to the AI firm.
The collaboration also tightens product integration. Anthropic’s full Claude Platform will now be accessible directly within AWS, allowing developers to use its native tools without leaving their existing cloud environment. The models are already widely used through Amazon Bedrock, where more than 100,000 customers are running Claude for tasks ranging from customer support to scientific research.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said, “Our custom AI silicon offers high performance at significantly lower cost for customers, which is why it’s in such hot demand.” He added that Anthropic’s long-term commitment to Trainium reflects the progress both companies have made in building scalable AI infrastructure.
Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei said, “Our users tell us Claude is increasingly essential to how they work, and we need to build the infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly growing demand.” He noted that the partnership would help advance research while serving a rapidly expanding user base.
The two companies have already been working closely since 2023. Their joint efforts include Project Rainier, a massive AI cluster featuring hundreds of thousands of Trainium chips, now used to train and deploy newer versions of Claude. The new agreement extends this momentum, with fresh capacity expected to come online through 2026, including next-generation Trainium3 and Trainium4 chips.
Anthropic’s growth has been equally striking. The company says its annualised revenue run rate has crossed $30 billion, up sharply from about $9 billion at the end of 2025, driven by surging enterprise and consumer demand. That rapid uptake has also strained infrastructure, making this expanded deal as much about stability as it is about scale.
The partnership will also expand globally, with increased inference capacity planned across Asia and Europe, ensuring Claude’s reach keeps pace with its popularity.
From powering ride-hailing support systems to accelerating drug research workflows, Claude’s use cases continue to broaden. With this deal, Amazon and Anthropic are not just adding more compute, they are doubling down on a shared bet that AI’s next leap will be built on deeper, tighter integrations between models and infrastructure.
If the past few years were about proving the promise of generative AI, this alliance suggests the next phase will be about building it at industrial scale.
