Gloucestershire County Council is planning a £3.4m overhaul of its services with a greater reliance on artificial intelligence
Carmelo Garcia, Local Democracy Reporter
17:00, 20 Apr 2026
A generic picture of a robotic hand(Image: ThisIsEngineering /Pexels)
There are concerns that Gloucestershire residents’ personal data could be at risk of being accessed by the US Government. The UK relies heavily on American technology companies for cloud services, which enable the remote storage and processing of data.
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With Gloucestershire County Council planning to modernise its operations and increase its dependence on artificial intelligence, questions have emerged over the implications this could have for residents’ data security.
Councillor Craig Horrocks (G, Rodborough) brought the matter to light at last week’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee, as a new £3.4m overhaul programme incorporating greater use of AI was under discussion.
He commended the council’s efforts in boosting productivity through technology, but voiced concerns regarding data security due to American legislation that could compel US firms to surrender data belonging to British citizens to the US Government.
“I don’t see any evidence of a focus on data security,” Cllr Horrocks said.
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He described the situation as “particularly concerning”, noting that elsewhere across Europe there is “a move away from US-based systems to either self-hosted open source systems or European-hosted systems”.
“Because the Cloud Act in America means if America warrants are pushed forward our data is not safe,” he said.
He further clarified that the data does not need to be physically stored within the US for it to be at risk.
“Any company that is served a warrant, for example, Microsoft, by the US Government to look at data held on Microsoft systems through Microsoft AI, they have no ability to refuse that,” he said.
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“My concern is that if we are going further into the Microsoft AI route that will get baked into a working practice which will almost inevitably go forward into the post-local government reorganisation.
“Has any consideration been given, not just that, because there are other data security issues as well.”
Deputy chief executive Nina Philippidis described it as “absolutely” a valid point to raise and confirmed the matter is something the council’s data and IT teams dedicate considerable time thinking about.
“Bearing in mind, this isn’t the start of our AI journey,” she said. “We have already been using Copilot in the organisation.
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“We are already using Magic Notes and clearly it is looking at social work data, so again, we have had to spend an awful lot of time working through those issues to make sure we are fully compliant.”
She acknowledged Cllr Horrocks’ observation that “things are changing rapidly” and that it is something they are “keeping a very close eye on”.
“We won’t be doing anything that puts residents’ data at risk,” she concluded.
Cllr Horrocks responded arguing that “you can’t help but because of the Cloud Act and I’d also say there are many European national and local governments that are very rapidly moving away from it because they are concerned.” Ms Philippidis said she would take his points and discuss them with the team.
Indian corporates raised about $4.60 billion in external commercial borrowing (ECB) in February, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed Monday. This was 14% less than the ECB raised in January.
Out of the total overseas mobilisation in February, $4.20 billion was raised through the automatic route for which no prior approval is required either from the government or the central bank.
The balance $400 million was raised by Piramal Finance using the approval route, the RBI said.
Over 100 companies raised ECB through the automatic route in February, the data showed.
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Among these companies are Tata Power Renewable Energy ($550 million), Manappuram Finance ($500 million), Renew Vyoman Power (454 million), IIFL Home Finance ($300 million), Serentica Renewable India (270 million), BMW India Financial Services ($237 million) and Tata Capital ($150 million).
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The biggest ECB in February was done by a renewable energy-focused Telangana-based company, ABC Cleantech, which mobilised 595 million for about seven years.
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PNB Housing Finance reported a 19% rise in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 656 crore as compared with Rs 500 crore in the year ago period, backed by improvement in operating leverage.
Its annual net profit for FY26 stood at 2291 crore over Rs 1936 crore in the preceding fiscal reflecting a 18% growth.
The board of the company proposed a final dividend Rs 8 per share having face value of Rs 10 a piece for the fiscal ended March 31.
Its net interest margin for the quarter however dipped a bit to 3.69% against 3.75% in the year ago period while the gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 0.93% from 1.08% a year back.
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The mortgage lender’s assets under management expanded 13% year-on-year to Rs 90,921 crore. Its retail loan asset grew 16% to Rs 86,946 crore while the company resumed corporate lending after a gap of around four years.
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The company said that the affordable and emerging Markets segment grew by 28% year-on-year and contributed 40% to the retail loan assets. Its retail disbursements clocked an all-time high of Rs 9,020 crore in the quarter under review while it disbursed Rs 335 crore to builders marking a re‑entry into the corporate lending segment.
NEW YORK — Facebook Messenger, once a reliable go-to for billions of daily messages, has left users increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with frequent glitches, delayed deliveries, failed sends and outright outages that have disrupted conversations across mobile and web platforms.
Facebook Messenger
Complaints have surged on social media and outage trackers since early April 2026, with many wondering why the Meta-owned messaging app feels so unstable lately. From sudden connection drops to messages not appearing in real time, the issues come as Meta pushes major structural changes, including the shutdown of the standalone Messenger.com website and integration of messaging deeper into the main Facebook experience.
DownDetector and similar services recorded spikes in reports on April 15 and again on April 20, with hundreds of users noting problems sending or receiving messages, loading chats or experiencing lag. On April 8, broader Meta platform wobbles affected Facebook, Instagram and Messenger for nearly 10 hours, according to StatusGator reports, compounding user irritation.
Meta has not issued a comprehensive public explanation for the latest wave of instability, but experts and user reports point to a combination of factors: aggressive backend migrations, the ongoing phase-out of legacy web and desktop access points, heavy AI-driven feature rollouts and occasional server-side bugs during high-traffic periods.
The most visible change driving confusion is the discontinuation of Messenger.com. Starting in April 2026, the standalone website no longer supports messaging. Users attempting to access it are automatically redirected to facebook.com/messages. Meta had already discontinued the dedicated Messenger desktop apps for Windows and Mac late last year, steering everyone toward either the mobile app or the integrated Facebook web interface.
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While the mobile Messenger app for iOS and Android remains fully operational, the transition has created friction. Users who relied on the clean, dedicated web version for desktop chatting now face a clunkier experience embedded in Facebook’s main site. Those who used Messenger without a full Facebook account are especially affected, as they can no longer access chats easily on a computer and must rely solely on the mobile app, with chat history restored via a PIN code.
Analysts say the moves are part of Meta’s long-term strategy to unify its messaging ecosystem, reduce maintenance costs for separate platforms and push users toward its core apps where advertising and data collection are more tightly integrated. Similar consolidations have occurred with WhatsApp and Instagram messaging features, but the abruptness has left many Messenger loyalists feeling the service is being neglected or deliberately made less convenient.
Compounding the perception of instability are periodic outages. On April 15, reports of Facebook and Messenger problems spiked around midday, with users unable to load threads or send messages for extended periods. Similar spikes occurred earlier in the month. These incidents often resolve within hours, but their frequency has raised questions about whether Meta’s infrastructure is under strain from rapid feature additions, including enhanced AI tools for message summarization, smart replies and content moderation.
Meta has poured resources into AI across its family of apps, integrating large language models to power everything from Reels recommendations to chat assistants. While these features promise smarter messaging, they also add computational load and introduce new points of failure during rollout. Some users report that messages disappear temporarily or arrive out of order — symptoms consistent with synchronization issues between servers and client apps during backend updates.
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Another contributing factor may be the sheer scale of the service. Messenger handles billions of messages daily across a global user base that includes older devices and varying network conditions. As Meta prioritizes newer hardware optimizations and energy-efficient AI processing, legacy support can suffer, leading to crashes or slow performance on certain phones and operating systems.
Privacy and security updates have also played a role. Meta has tightened encryption defaults and rolled out end-to-end encryption more broadly, processes that can temporarily disrupt message delivery while keys are exchanged or verified. Although these changes enhance user safety, they sometimes manifest as “unstable” behavior to the average person trying to send a quick text.
For businesses and power users, the instability hits harder. Customer service teams relying on Messenger for client communication have reported missed inquiries during outage windows. Creators and small businesses using click-to-Messenger ads have seen intermittent failures, potentially affecting revenue.
Meta’s official communications have been minimal. The company typically posts brief acknowledgments on its status pages for business tools but offers little transparency for consumer-facing apps like Messenger. When outages occur, users are often left refreshing the app or checking DownDetector rather than receiving clear timelines for resolution.
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Some observers link the recent problems to broader Meta platform tweaks. In early April, the company acknowledged bugs that undercounted views and reach on posts, suggesting internal metric and backend systems have been undergoing significant refactoring. Such large-scale changes frequently cause ripple effects across interconnected services like messaging.
Users have shared workarounds online: clearing cache and data, reinstalling the app, switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data, or logging out and back in. For desktop users affected by the Messenger.com shutdown, the redirection to Facebook messaging works for most but feels slower and less intuitive, with some reporting notification delays or missing message threads during the transition period.
The frustration has sparked memes and complaints across Reddit, X and TikTok, with hashtags highlighting “Messenger down” trending periodically. Long-time users reminisce about the app’s earlier days when it felt snappier and more reliable, before heavy feature bloat and ecosystem consolidation took hold.
Meta’s broader strategy appears focused on efficiency. By folding messaging into Facebook.com, the company reduces the number of separate codebases to maintain, potentially freeing engineering resources for AI advancements and advertising tools. However, the execution has left some users feeling like an afterthought, especially those who preferred the lightweight, dedicated Messenger experience.
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As of April 20, 2026, no major new outage was dominating trackers, but sporadic reports continued. Meta has not commented publicly on whether the recent instability is linked to the web shutdown or represents separate technical debt being addressed.
For now, the company advises users to keep the mobile app updated and to use facebook.com/messages for desktop needs. Those experiencing persistent issues are directed to standard troubleshooting steps or the help center.
The situation highlights the challenges of maintaining a service used by over a billion people daily while simultaneously modernizing infrastructure and integrating new technologies. As Meta continues its push toward unified experiences and AI-powered features, users may need to adapt to more frequent adjustments — even if those adjustments temporarily make Messenger feel less stable than before.
Whether the current wave of complaints subsides as transitions settle remains to be seen. In the meantime, many are turning to alternatives like WhatsApp, Signal or iMessage for critical conversations, hoping Meta stabilizes its flagship messaging platform soon.
BSE Index Services on Monday announced the launch of BSE Housing Finance Index, a new sectoral benchmark aimed at capturing the performance of companies operating in the housing finance space.
The newly introduced index draws its constituents from the broader BSE 1000 index, specifically those classified under the housing finance segment as per basic industry categorisation.
The index has a base value of 1,000, with June 22, 2015 set as the base date. It will be reconstituted semi-annually in June and December, in line with standard index review practices.
The BSE Housing Finance Index is designed to support a wide range of investment applications. It can serve as an underlying benchmark for passive investment products such as ETFs and index funds, while also being used by portfolio managers for benchmarking PMS strategies and mutual fund schemes.
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With this launch, BSE aims to provide investors with a more focused lens to track housing finance companies, enabling better participation in sector-specific growth opportunities. The index also adds to BSE’s expanding suite of indices, offering broader tools for portfolio diversification and strategy development.
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BSE Index Services Pvt. Ltd. is a wholly owned arm of BSE Ltd and was formerly known as Asia Index Pvt. Ltd. It is responsible for designing, calculating and maintaining a wide array of indices. As part of BSE — Asia’s oldest stock exchange and home to the benchmark Sensex — the subsidiary continues to expand its offerings for both domestic and global. Its total returns over a one-year period stands at negative 12.84% according to a media release issued by BSE Index Services. There are 11 constituents in the index viz. LIC Housing Finance, PNB Housing Finance, Sammaan Capital, Home First Finance Company, Bajaj Housing Finance, Aptus Value Housing Finance, Can Fin Homes, Aadhar Housing Finance, AAVAS Financiers and India Shelter Finance Corporation.The highest weight of 17.16% is carried by LIC Housing Finance while the lowest by 3.89%.
(Disclaimer: The recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)
Christmas is still eight months away, but artificial tree maker Lou Liping is already worried about a bad holiday season due to the Iran war.
Lou’s company, Kitty Christmas Factory, has been making artificial trees for the U.S. and European markets for nearly three decades. Her facility is based in the city of Yiwu, known as China’s Christmas capital.
“Many customers … are holding off on orders,” she told CNBC last Friday at her showroom in the city’s international expo center. The center houses hundreds of manufacturers that contribute to the country’s vast production of the world’s artificial trees, tinsel, ornaments and other decorations.
An estimated 87% of Christmas decor sold in the U.S. is sourced from China, according to the American Christmas Tree Association, with much of it from Yiwu.
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Lou said the disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and high oil prices due to the Iran conflict have raised her costs per tree by 10%. The base material of her trees is PET plastic derived from oil. The price of the PET in her artificial pine needles is up 5%, and the cost of the plastic used as packaging for shipments is up 15%, she said.
Lou said her revenue is down roughly 12% because of the lost orders.
Yiwu’s factories normally gear up in the spring to make sure that their products are on store shelves for the Christmas shopping season.
“The war happened at a bad time — right when we need to get our shipments out,” tinsel maker Yun Zhuomei told CNBC from her booth at the expo center. “It’s very painful for us manufacturers.”
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Yun said plastic prices for her tinsel are up as much as 40%.
Chen Lian, who makes Christmas lights, said she fears further price increases, with suppliers all moving up delivery schedules to accommodate customers worried about transport delays.
“Everyone needs to deliver between May and August so demand is concentrated,” Chen said. “Material prices are bound to go up.”
To adjust, artificial tree maker Lou said she has accelerated shipments. And when her contracts with customers allow, she passes on some cost. For next year, she said she aims to design a wider variety of lower-end trees so more people can afford her products.
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But for this season, Lou said American shoppers will likely be stuck paying at least 15% more.
“The price of Christmas trees in the U.S. will definitely go up,” she said. “It is unavoidable.”
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