iWorld
Delhi Capitals wins bid for Delhi franchise in Women’s Premier League
Mumbai: The JSW and GMR co-owned Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals acquired the Delhi team at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) for Rs 810 crore during an auction held in Mumbai on Wednesday. IndiaWin Sports Pvt Ltd, Royal Challengers Sports Pvt. Ltd., Adani Sportsline Pvt. Ltd., and Capri Global Holdings Pvt. Ltd. won the remaining bids for the franchises that will be based out of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow respectively.
Speaking on the historic development, Delhi Capitals chairman & co-owner Parth Jindal said, “We at Delhi Capitals could not be more proud to become owners of a WPL franchise. What makes it even more special is that it’s from Delhi. Through our academies that are spread across NCR we have seen the amount of interest and talent there is amongst girls and women of all ages and I have no doubt the WPL will give passionate women cricketers the platform they deserve to show their skills. I am truly excited to be part of this revolution and can’t wait to get started. I would like to congratulate the BCCI and all the other owners who have shown tremendous interest in the women’s game. India has been home to the world’s best men’s T20 league since 2008 and from 2023 our great country will be home to the world’s best women’s T20 league.”
Meanwhile, team co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi expressed, “We are delighted to have won the bid for the Delhi franchise of the Women’s Premier League, adding another gem to our Capitals universe! This exemplary initiative by BCCI creates history with our long-standing commitment towards building a robust ecosystem for cricket. I am confident that the Women’s Premier League will further our goals and surely give impetus to the aspirations of many young girls and women in India and across the globe.”
Delhi Capitals CEO Dhiraj Malhotra said, “The Women’s Premier League is a potential gamechanger, just like the IPL was. The women’s game has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, and the WPL promises to take it to new heights. Delhi has always been welcoming, loving and supportive of its IPL team, and I am confident that the emotion will be identical for our women’s team who we can’t wait to welcome to our Capitals family.”
The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League will be played in March this year.
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.
