New tech on the block: Logistics, Crypto, Finance, Cybersecurity & Agtech

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent tech launches.

Logistics: India’s first corrosion-resistant stainless steel salt container

Reinforcing its focus on modernising transport logistics, Jindal Stainless, Indian stainless steel manufacturer, has developed the country’s first stainless steel container for salt transport for Indian Railways. The integration of stainless steel into salt transport logistics marks a pioneering step towards more durable and sustainable freight operations. The prototype successfully underwent loading and unloading trials at Bhimasar, Gandhidham, Gujarat on February 10, 2026, underscoring the government’s active engagement with innovative, future-ready logistics solutions and signaling an important step towards potential commercial adoption.

Managing Director, Jindal Stainless, Abhyuday Jindal, said, “Salt transportation is highly vulnerable to corrosion, leading to frequent repairs, premature asset failure, and significant resource wastage – challenges that can be effectively addressed through the integration of stainless steel. With India’s container market growing steadily, driven by infrastructure expansion, port-led developments, and rising bulk commodity movement, the sector requires materials that can withstand harsh operating conditions while ensuring long-term sustainability. We are proud to have developed the stainless steel salt container for Indian Railways, in line with our continuous commitment to delivering future-ready solutions and supporting the Make in India vision.”

Features

• The 20-foot salt container has been fabricated entirely in stainless steel, including all their structural and load-bearing components.
• Uses stainless steel 304 grade, known for its superior corrosion-resistance in chloride-rich environments, for the container body, while JT Grade (N7 as per BIS 6911), recognised for its high strength and weight optimisation, has been deployed for external stiffeners and underframe components.
• Pioneering integration enhances durability, reduces maintenance, and supports sustainable bulk salt transportation
• The Stainless steel salt container prototype aligns with Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) specifications and reflects Jindal Stainless’ commitment to future-ready, Make in India transport solutions

Crypto: TradeFi Hub, Eyes $15–$30 Trillion Tokenized Stock Trading Market by 2030

Bitget, the Universal Exchange (UEX), announced a major mobile app upgrade that puts crypto and traditional financial markets side by side on the homepage, reflecting how traders are increasingly moving between asset classes in one trading session. The release follows Bitget’s January rollout of TradFi trading, which expanded access to stock-linked products, FX, indices, commodities, and precious metals such as gold and silver, all settled in USDT.

“Bitget is building for the trillion dollar migration. As regulation matures and institutions bring products like treasuries onchain, the direction is clear: crypto is turning into the settlement layer for everyday finance. Sooner than most people think, stablecoins and native assets won’t feel crypto at all, just backend infra working behind when people move value worldwide,” said Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget.

Features

• Under the new layout, all crypto products including futures, spot, margin, onchain, and earn are consolidated under a unified “Trade” tab, reducing friction for active traders who move frequently between crypto assets.
• A new, dedicated TradFi tab provides one-tap access to global markets such as gold, FX, indices, and stock perps and real-world asset tokens, eliminating the need to navigate multiple menus or workflows.

Finance: ‘Personalised Investment Advice’ to Democratise Wealth Management for the People of India     

Jio BlackRock Investment Advisers Private Limited (JioBlackRock Investment Advisers), a 50:50 joint venture between Jio Financial Services Limited (“JFSL”) [BSE, NSE: JIOFIN] and BlackRock Inc. [NYSE: BLK], has launched JioBlackRock Personalised Investment Advice. This digital advisory platform aims to transform Indians from savers to informed investors through guided advice that is unbiased, personalised, and affordable, powered by BlackRock’s Aladdin® technology and JFSL’s digital reach.

Isha M Ambani, Non-Executive Director, Jio Financial Services said, “The financial well-being of every Indian is vital for our nation’s progress towards becoming Viksit Bharat by 2047. At JioBlackRock, our mission is to harness technology to unleash the untapped power of household savings and transform India from a nation of savers to a nation of confident investors. By combining Jio’s extensive scale and reach with BlackRock’s pedigreed global experience, we are democratising access to world-class investment advice by working towards becoming every Indian’s trusted financial advisor.”

Features

• Each investor receives a personalised investment plan built around their investment objectives and risk preferences—designed to adapt as markets change and life evolves.
• Investors can start with as little as INR10,000, while investment portfolios are monitored daily through Aladdin®?, BlackRock’s globally trusted technology. This ensures portfolios remain aligned with market conditions, with timely rebalancing nudges whenever required.
• The service is offered at INR350 per year, or 0.35% annually for assets under advisory (AUA) above INR1 lakh.
• The first three months of personalised investment advice will be available for free as an introductory offer.

Cybersecurity: Workspace Protection to Secure Hybrid Work & Govern Employee AI Use

Sophos, a security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, announced Sophos Workspace Protection, expanding its portfolio to help organizations secure hybrid work and govern the use of emerging technologies, including AI. Built around the Sophos Protected Browser, powered by Island, the solution enables organizations to protect applications, data, users, and guests wherever work takes place, while providing a unified approach to securing the modern workspace.

“Security teams are increasingly impacted by complexity, especially as hybrid work, SaaS adoption, and AI tools continue to expand the workspace,” said Mike Jude, Research Director at IDC. “Sophos Workspace Protection reflects a pragmatic shift in the market—delivering core SASE and SSE outcomes through an integrated, endpoint? and browser?centric approach that simplifies deployment, reduces operational overhead, and helps organizations govern application and AI use without adding another layer of infrastructure.”

Features

• Expands Sophos’ portfolio with an accessible and affordable alternative to heavyweight and cost-intensive SASE solutions for securing hybrid and remote work
• Built around the Sophos Protected Browser, powered by Island, Sophos Workspace Protection protects applications, data, users, and guests wherever work takes place
• Managed through the Sophos Central platform, it provides organization-wide visibility into and control of Shadow IT and Shadow AI usage to help organizations assess risk and govern the safe adoption of emerging technologies, including generative AI

Logistics: Industry’s Most Comprehensive SBOM Analyzer to Strengthen Container Security

CleanStart, a platform in hardened, compliance-ready container images, announced the global availability of their SBOM Analyzer, an advanced tool that generates complete, CERT-In and CISA-compliant Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) for container images. The analyzer delivers unmatched visibility into software components and dependencies, empowering organizations to proactively secure their software supply chains before deployment.

“With the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and CERT-In emphasizing the need for robust software transparency frameworks under their latest ‘Technical Guidelines on SBOM, QBOM, CBOM, AIBOM and HBOM – Version 2.0’, enterprises in India are recognizing the criticality of maintaining accurate and verifiable SBOMs,” said Vijendra Katiyar, Co-founder & Chief Revenue Office, CleanStart. “Our Analyzer simplifies this process by embedding compliance at the image level helping developers and CISOs meet national and international standards without adding friction to development workflows.”

Features

• Integrated analyzer maps every layer and dependency inside container images to enhance software supply chain visibility and compliance
• Designed in line with global and national mandates, including CERT-In’s 2025 guidelines, which define how software and hardware components must be catalogued to ensure cybersecurity traceability and supply chain resilience.
• The Analyzer goes beyond these baseline requirements, incorporating enriched metadata such as timestamps, author information, and provenance for stronger validation and audit readiness.

Agtech: Turning weather uncertainty into farmer resilience

Bayer has launched Alivio – meaning “relief” in Spanish – a pioneering digital solution that reimagines risk mitigation while equipping growers with actionable plot insights, delivered as an integrated, value-adding service via Alivio’s mobile application.

Simon Wiebusch, Country Divisional Head, Crop Science Division, Bayer in India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka said, “Alivio reflects Bayer’s commitment to putting digital innovation in the hands of those who need it most. By blending agronomic intelligence with intuitive design and trusted local networks, we’re helping smallholder farmers turn uncertainty into informed action, making resilience not just possible, but practical.”

Features

• Unlike traditional insurance products, Alivio – launched in collaboration with the insurance ecosystem and public sector undertaking United India Insurance – uses high-resolution satellite data and advanced crop modelling to offer growth stage-aligned, plot-based, and geo-contextualized protection.
• When plot-based agronomic parameters trigger assurance benefits, farmers can redeem them instantly at nearby Bayer channel partners, ensuring immediate access to quality seeds and crop protection products and avoiding disruptions during the crop cycle. In practice, this means Alivio identifies and aligns protection with the exact risks farmers perceive as most threatening in their local context—such as prolonged dry spells during flowering or extreme heat during grain filling etc. By tailoring coverage to these location- and stage-specific vulnerabilities, Alivio ensures that support is meaningful, relevant, and directly connected to the challenges farmers face.
• }By embedding retailers into its operating model, Alivio taps into the informal trust networks that farmers rely on for buying inputs and advice. This trusted channel makes farmers more open to adopting a new digital product and ensures benefits are accessible where they already make farm decisions. It also bridges the transparency gap between payout eligibility and farmer awareness in traditional insurance. With instant, data-driven triggers and clear, season-long communication, farmers know exactly when they are protected and when benefits are activated – reducing anxiety during the season.
• The first rollout is targeted at rainfed corn growers in Davanagere, Karnataka and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra – areas where repeated dry spells have historically reduced yields. By monitoring plot-based conditions, Alivio will trigger assurance benefits if insufficient soil moisture conditions are experienced by the maize crop during critical growth stages. These benefits will be delivered to growers on their Alivio mobile application and can be redeemed at their nearest channel partner store.
• Farmers will receive soil moisture forecasts, spray planning support, and crop scouting recommendations tailored to their plots, to name a few data-driven insights.