iWorld
Culture Machine launches digital channel Om Bhajan Bhakti
MUMBAI: Culture Machine has launched its new digital brand on devotion and spirituality, titled “Om Bhajan Bhakti”. The channel explores the spiritual and devotional space by providing unique experiences and learning to viewers.
It will combine stories from the world of devotion, pairing them with innovations such as Facebook Live and 360 degree videos of rituals, marking a first on all counts on Facebook.
The platforms’s content caters to the robust spiritual community across the globe, who can experience live streaming of some of the most visited religious places in India and participate in the actual darshan through 360 degree videos and a lot more.
“Culture Machine’s aim is to create great digital media brands that people love. As India goes digital in smaller towns and villages, our endeavour is to create brands that will reflect passions for an emergent digital audience. Facebook offers a rich toolkit for video and has become the platform of choice for us to innovate on, through both our technology and content partnership with them, we are stoked to see ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’getting off to a great launch,” said Culture Machine CEO and co-founder Sameer Pitalwalla.
All devotees who are longing to visit the sacred Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir, but are unable to do so, can now virtually offer their prayers and darshans through Facebook Live on Culture Machine’s Facebook page Om Bhajan Bhakti.
The channel also has exclusive live video access to holy shrines across India like Kashi Vishvanath Temple in Varanasi, Somnath temple in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, Mahavir Mandir dedicated to Lord Hanuman located in Patna and Iskon in Vrindavan.
The content on the channel is beneficial to both learned and laity, as it brings home the main theme in a simple and easy to understand format.
“Devotional content is one of the more popular categories of content in India.Innovative endeavours like ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’, will provide people an opportunity to engage with and share things that deeply matter to them with family and friends.”said Facebook India media partnerships TV and original content Vishu Ray.
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.
