Statista

According to NASA, there is “unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate”. Data from Copernicus, the European Earth Observation program for the European Space Agency, shows that July 22, 2024, was the world’s hottest daily global average temperature since the institution’s records began in 1940 (hitting a global average of 17.16 °C/62.76 °F).

At a regional scale too, absolute temperature records are being broken around the globe. Just in the years 2022-2025, 41 countries broke or tied their all-time national heat records, some of them more than once. Japan saw its hottest day on record last August, reaching 41.8°C/107.2°F in Isesaki, in the Gunma Prefecture. Eight other countries tied or beat their heat records last year, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Paraguay. Some records were also set in Southeast Asia in 2024, when an exceptional heatwave hit the region. Cambodia set a new record at 42.8 °C/109.0 °F, while Laos hit a new all-time high of 43.7 °C/110.7 °F.

Meanwhile, Australia and Uruguay matched their national records in 2022, with 50.7 °C/123.3 °F in Onslow and 44.0°C/111.2 °F in Florida, respectively, as the United Kingdom saw the mercury break an all-time high in July 2022 as it passed the 40°C barrier.

Previously, during the summer of 2021 - one of the hottest on Earth -, Canada, Spain and Italy recorded peak temperatures. The Italian record, 48.8 °C/119.8 °F at Syracuse, was reported to be the highest temperature ever measured in Europe, which was certified by the WMO in 2024.

In Antarctica, a new record was hit in 2020 at the Esperanza base during the austral summer when temperatures rose to over 18 °C/64.9 °F. One year earlier, the French national record of 46 °C/114.8 °F was measured at Vérargues (Hérault), while the 2019 heatwave also saw other records broken in Europe, such as in Belgium and Germany.

According to the WMO, the world record is still officially attributed to Furnace Creek, in California’s Death Valley National Park, with 56.7 °C/134 °F reached in 1913.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set his sights on making India one of the world’s top three AI superpowers by 2047, both in consumption and innovation. To reach that goal, the country is aiming to attract more than $200 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure investments over the next two years.

As it stands, India is lagging behind leaders such as the United States and China in core AI infrastructure, private investment, granted AI patents and foundational language models. However, it is seeking to close the gap. Earlier this month, Tata Electronics signed an agreement with Dutch semiconductor equipment maker Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography (ASML) to build India’s first front-end semiconductor fabrication plant, marking part of a broader push to establish a domestic chip industry currently dominated by regional players such as Taiwan.

One of India’s biggest strengths is its growing AI talent pool and rapid adoption of AI technologies. A LinkedIn study cited in Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index report found India recorded the world’s second-fastest AI talent growth among LinkedIn users between 2019 and 2025, rising 120 percent, behind only the United Arab Emirates. India also ranked first globally in AI skill pe*******on on LinkedIn, with AI-related skills appearing on member profiles nearly three times more often than the global average. The United States ranked second, followed by Germany.