Half a million Facebook users hit in India, the hottest startup jobs, and more trending news

Here's the news professionals are talking about on LinkedIn right now. Join the conversation in the comments.

Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal: Data of close to 5.6 lakh Indians may have been compromised. Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer revised up the estimate of the data leak to 87 million users globally from 50 million, saying most users "could have had their public profile scraped." Of this, close to 71 million, or 81%, are from the US. The social network also announced a slew of measures to alleviate concerns around users' privacy. It will, for example, restrict third-party app access and delete phone call and text information that's over a year old.

Data scientists and front-end developers are commanding the biggest hikes at startups. A survey by recruitment firm Belong shows both got an average salary increase of 25% last year. Even as data scientists’ remuneration rose to ?25-29 lakh on the back of a "boom in artificial intelligence", it remains one of the toughest tech roles to fill – there are just eight candidates for 10 jobs. Front-end developers also saw their salaries almost double, from ?10-13 lakh in 2014 to ?18-22 lakh in 2017. Mobile developers, UX designers and product managers received up to 20% hikes last year.

The government may divest its entire stake in Air India. Business Standard reports that the Centre plans to start talks with LIC and other state-run insurers to sell its residual stake in the airline, after ESOPs are given out to permanent employees. The aim? Addressing investors’ concerns around interference in the carrier’s operations. Late last month, the government invited bids to sell 76% in the Maharajah, 100% in its low-fare subsidiary Air India Express, and a 50% stake in ground-handling joint venture AISATS.

ICICI Bank faces a class action lawsuit and a “costly settlement” in the US, according to investment bank Jeffries. The private lender – battling charges of favouritism in extending loans to Videocon Group – could be dragged to court by holders of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) seeking billions of dollars for the losses suffered. ADRs, which make up 24% of the bank’s shares, have slipped 12.03% since March 15. Meanwhile, the CBI has said it doesn’t rule out the possibility of questioning ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar in its probe against her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot.

Indian engineering students lack higher-order thinking, according to a Stanford University-World Bank study. The survey of 5,000 BTech students (excluding IITians) shows that while Indians make decent progress in maths and critical thinking in the first two years, their overall higher-order thinking skills are “substantially lower” than their Chinese and Russian peers. A little over a month ago, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak remarked that Indians could get an MBA and buy a Mercedes, but lacked creativity. Last year, a survey by Aspiring Minds showed that 19 out of 20 Indian engineers didn’t know how to code.

Idea of the Day: You don’t need to spend tons of money on advertising or branding to achieve entrepreneurial success, says Creel Price. You just need a strong purpose.

“The answer to attracting staff, clients and investors and motivating them to work with you without a big budget is all about building a compelling philosophy — essentially, a method to your madness.”

What's your take? Join the conversations on today's stories in the comments.

Disha Sharma / Share this using #DailyRundown

From earlier: India faces the third-highest number of cyber threats globally