iWorld
Backstreet Boys win 12,000 hearts in maximum city Mumbai
Mumbai: The Summer of 2023 will remain forever etched in the hearts of Mumbaikars as the world’s biggest selling and legendary boy band, Backstreet Boys took over the city of Mumbai giving fans their most memorable night of the year! The band’s iconic DNA World Tour’s advent to India kick-started with a mammoth attendance of around twelve thousand fans and a completely sold-out show brimming to its full capacity at the Jio World Gardens, taking the entertainment capital by storm!
BookMyShow, India’s leading entertainment destination along with Live Nation brought the DNA World Tour to the country, after travelling across the globe for five years and Indian fans couldn’t have asked for a better performance to celebrate the band’s return to the country after 13 years.
Celebrating 30 glorious years of a band that has continued to stay relevant across age groups of music lovers, with a growing fan base and an evergreen legacy that never goes out style, the Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour came on the back of the boy band favourite’s tenth studio album ‘DNA,’ and has continued to live up to its reputation of being a production enigma.
The ‘larger than life’ performance spanning over 2 hours and 33 songs at the Jio World Garden had ‘Everybody’ moving, grooving and humming along to their all-time favourites. Spotted cheering amongst the crowds were Shraddha Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Benny Dayal, Jacqueline Fernandes, Natasha Dalal, Maniesh Paul, Karishma Mehta, Malaika Arora, Dhvani Bhanushali, Rohan Joshi, Prakriti and Sukriti Kakar, Meezan Jafri to name a few.
The stage was set up in the middle of the arena, allowing everyone the best view from all angles with intricate visuals. As the lights went out and the opening notes of the hit song ‘I Wanna Be With You’ began followed by ‘The Call’, the crowd erupted into a unanimous scream and cheer, setting the tone for the night. Band members Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson with their dreamy personas and synchronised steps had fans spellbound right from the start until the very end, seamlessly transitioning from one hit to the next, never missing a beat with their electrifying dance moves and chemistry as a group was nothing short of spectacular! The arsenal of mega-watt hits such as ‘I Want It That Way’, ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’ and ‘As Long As You Love Me’, along with the latest hits from their recent album ‘DNA’ including ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, ‘Chances’ and ‘No Place’ was sung unanimously by the entire crowd! The Backstreet Boys threw all they had at Mumbai showering the crowds with incredible love and as a tribute to India’s 30-year old fan love, they infused the city into their famed single calling it ‘I Want It Mumbai’s Way’.
The boys donned a variety of outfits, from sleek leather jackets to glittering sequined suits to all-whites as each costume change was accompanied by a different set design, making the concert feel like a series of mini shows within one massive production. The show concluded with an explosive performance of the historic ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ followed by ‘Larger Than Life’, complete with pyrotechnics and confetti cannons.
As the evening drew to a close, the band took a bow and thanked the amazing Indian fans for their tremendous support over the years. Mumbai erupted into a final round of cheers and applause, reluctant to let go off this iconic night!
Designed to be an unforgettable experience for fans, it delivered on that promise in spades. The next and the final stop is the national capital, Delhi-NCR and we already know that the excitement is soaring!
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
