One Thing Today in Tech

In this episode, Kamal Karanth, co-founder and CEO of Xpheno, a staffing firm in Bengaluru, explains the modest increase in open IT positions in recent times. Consider that in FY22, the IT sector alone hired some 2,30,000 people, net, according to the industry lobby Nasscom. That fell to 60,000 in FY23 and FY24 was about the same. Not much has changed yet for the IT giants, but non-tech companies rooted in India’s economy, as well as a new wave of global capability centres are hiring, Karanth says.

In this episode, Sumeet Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Leadership Boulevard, more popularly known as Leadschool, offers a quick update on the company’s latest product. Techbook, as they’re calling it, is actually a physical textbook, designed and engineered to comprise scannable pages that link up with an AR solution. This opens up a world of interactive content for students, and, alongside an AI-based reading assistant, makes learning a more personalized experience. Mehta hopes to put Techbooks in the hands of 4-5 million students by 2028.

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and CEO of Zoho, offers a quick update on the AI investments at India’s biggest software products company. In an interview with Forbes India at the company’s annual user conference on Sep. 25, Vembu spoke about small models Zoho has commercialized, efforts to ensure enterprise customers’ security and privacy in putting such models to use across different functions and customers, and R&D aimed at ensuring reliability of the output from AI models. He also anticipates more energy efficient AI tech will emerge.

AI products and services will likely grow between 40 percent and 55 percent annually, potentially reaching $990 billion by 2027, the consultancy Bain & Company projects in its fifth annual global technology report. In this episode, David Crawford, a partner and chairman of the consultancy’s global technology practice, discusses some of the top takeaways from the report – including whether AI is actually delivering value, and the implications of the high cost of development of advanced AI.

In this episode, Sidu Ponnappa, co-founder and CEO of Realfast, unpacks the hype cycle, challenges and opportunities in ‘agentic AI.’ Realfast, a Singapore and Bengaluru startup, recently out of stealth mode, is initially offering AI assistants to Salesforce implementation services teams. In this quick chat, Ponnappa also talks about the intangible human experience that’s often discounted in conversations about AI, and offers his personal guesstimate on when we might see agents autonomously capable of building their own agents.

The leaders of the Quad nations, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India, Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Kishida Fumio of Japan, and US President Joe Biden unveiled the Quad Cancer Moonshot, a collaborative effort in the Indo-Pacific region, in a statement called The Wilmington Declaration, on Sep. 21. This partnership will initially focus on cervical cancer, which the leaders note is a preventable disease that continues to affect many. The leaders also announced greater collaboration in critical technologies.

Is the enterprise opportunity on the rise in the world of augmented reality, or AR? Just this week, Microsoft, maker of HoloLens, has announced a partnership with Anduril, the US deep-tech defence startup founded by Palmer Luckey, the inventor of the Oculus headset, now part of Meta, and Snap has released the latest version of its AR Spectacles. To understand the landscape better, we speak with Milind Manoj, co-founder and CEO of Pupilmesh, a head-mounted display systems deep-tech startup that’s part of MapMyIndia.

How satisfied are enterprise customers with the results of their outsourcing investments when it comes to generative AI? Mrinal Rai, assistant director and principal analyst at ISG, unpacks what the technology sourcing and advisory company’s customers are saying about this. Rai, who leads research for the future of work and enterprise customer experience at ISG, adds that irrespective of current challenges, and less-than-satisfactory results in some specific areas, large businesses plan to keep up their AI investments.

Microsoft has unveiled new AI features in its Copilot product. The features started rolling out this week and Microsoft also announced a large deal with Vodafone Group under which 68,000 or about two-thirds of the British mobile services provider’s employees will get licensed access to the new Copilot. Among the features are Copilot Pages, deeper integration of Copilot within Microsoft’s Office products, and Copilot agents, which will automate a growing number of business processes.

In today’s episode, we bring you an update from Nakul Aggarwal, co-founder and CTO of BrowserStack, a leading SaaS company from India, providing software app and browser testing infrastructure and products. Aggarwal talks about the rationale behind the acquisition of Bird Eats Bug, in Berlin, which BrowserStack announced yesterday. He also talks about evaluating building BrowserStack’s own large language model, as the SaaS company progresses on its journey of transforming from a test infrastructure provider to a testing platform.

Ahead of Nvidia’s fiscal Q2 earnings results, on Aug. 28 (Aug. 29, 2:30 a.m. local time in India) we look at the stunning rise of the $2 trillion chip maker as the tech backbone for the explosion of generative AI over the last two years. Alvin Nguyen, senior analyst at Forrester Research, and Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, explain Nvidia’s dominance and the growing complexities in the broader ecosystem.

Apple, as widely anticipated leading up to its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone, iPad and MacBooks. The tie up evoked strident criticism from Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, in particular around data privacy. In this episode, Jaspreet Bindra, an independent AI and ethics researcher and former chief digital officer of the Mahindra Group, and Dipanjan Chatterjee, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research unpack the significance of this deal.

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, WWDC, kicks off later today, and anticipation is high with respect to the iPhone maker’s AI roadmap, as it is generally considered to lag Android rivals such as Samsung and Google – especially in the era of generative AI. Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, and Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at IDC India, unpack what they are expecting to see today from Apple’s conference.

Access to talent, value and innovation – these are all reasons that multinational companies are either setting up IT and software-driven R&D centres in India or expanding existing facilities. Some, however, are reducing the workforce in such centres and there’s also a set of companies considering exiting their GCCs altogether. To understand what’s going on, I spoke with Stanton Jones, Distinguished Analyst at ISG, a technology research and advisory firm that tracks outsourcing deals around the world, about their recent survey of GCC activity. Here’s what he said.

In this episode, Megha Chawla, senior partner at the multinational consultancy Bain & Company, talks about why India’s tech talent has become a non-negotiable part of the global CEO’s strategy, discussing the prospects for the nation’s tech landscape, as India returns to a coalition government at the centre after a decade. In the age of AI, India’s IT services companies have become important partners to global businesses, she says.

Indian voters have denied a majority to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. However, as Modi is set to remain in power for a historic third term, leading the coalition NDA, three well-known VC investors unpack what this means for India’s tech and startup ecosystem. Ninad Karpe, founding partner at 100X.VC, in Mumbai, Abhishek Goyal, co-founder of Tracxn and angel investor, in Bengaluru, and Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at Speciale Invest, argue that India’s economic fundamentals still make it a top destination for global investments.

Agnikul Cosmos, a space launch vehicle startup in Chennai, yesterday successfully tested its first technology demonstrator rocket, Agnibaan, that showed its one-piece 3D-printed engine worked as intended, in a sub-orbital mission. To understand the significance of this success, Forbes India spoke with Narayan Prasad, chief operations officer at Satsearch, a Netherlands headquartered marketplace for the space industry, and co-founder and director of research and operations at Spaceport SARABHAI, a space economy think tank in India.

A year after it first announced the plan, the Reserve Bank of India yesterday launched a Fintech Repository that the regulator hopes will foster innovation by allowing it to stay abreast of the cutting edge of tech in the industry. To get a sense of why fintech entrepreneurs are welcoming this move, Forbes India spoke with Manish Kumar, co-founder and CEO of KredX, a startup specializing in supply chain finance.

The demand for data centres in India is surging, driven by everything from the expansion of the so-called global capability centres to the rise of our digital economy and the laws around localization of data as required under the data protection rules. In this episode, Arjun P Gupta, founder and CEO of Smart Joules, in New Delhi, which provides HVAC management and energy efficiency solutions, offers a quick overview of some of the practical challenges we face in powering India’s data centres with green energy.

Google’s large investment in Flipkart comes as a pleasant surprise even to seasoned investors in India’s digital economy – at a time when late-stage funding is yet to return, and the funding winter continues even as the monsoons will be a welcome relief from record heat waves across the subcontinent. 

Abhishek Goyal, co-founder of Tracxn, and an early investor in Flipkart, reckons the deal could be a straightforward bid to win a large account for Google’s cloud business. But as the funding turns the spotlight on India’s e-commerce, there are several noteworthy developments in the sector, he says.

Google is reportedly ready to make its Pixel phones in India, starting with the Pixel 8 to be assembled at a Foxconn International plant in Tamil Nadu. Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, and Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at IDC India, unpack the big picture here. Google is starting small, but has the heft to scale in a massive market by sheer numbers that is far from saturated. The long-term play is also about tapping the maturing electronics ecosystem in India over the next decade and beyond.

Why are some of India’s best-known fintech startups, but also others, engaging in what is popularly called a “reverse flip” to move their holding parent entities back to India from countries such as the US, Singapore and so on. It can be a fairly complex, time-consuming process, but these companies – Groww, PineLabs and Razorpay are in the news – feel it’s worth the trouble. In this episode, Keyur Shah, Partner and Leader – Financial Services Tax, EY India, succinctly unpacks this trend.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered a glimpse into his plan for how the company will bring AI to everyone – via its Copilot stack on its Azure cloud platform, keynoting the company’s 14th edition of its annual developer conference, Build, on May 21. In this episode, Sidhant Rastogi, president for technology services and platforms at Zinnov, a management consultancy, and Deepika Giri, associate vice president and head of research – big data and AI, at IDC Asia Pacific, unpack the big picture from Nadella’s speech.

A report last week from Tata Consultancy Services on “AI for Business” revealed some of the barriers to achieving the so-called “transformation” that large companies seek, in implementing new tech and processes – especially generative AI in this case. So where does the IT services industry really stand with respect to generative AI as an opportunity for serious growth. Yugal Joshi, a partner at Everest Group, an IT outsourcing consultancy, gives us a glimpse into the nuances involved.

India’s efforts to build core AI technologies is at best at a nascent stage. At the country’s biggest tech industry lobby Nasscom’s annual flagship conference last week, we caught up with Debjani Ghosh, the organisation’s  president, for a quick chat on the topic. Ghosh spoke about how India’s tech services companies are approaching the AI opportunity, including lessons from India’s experiment with its digital public infrastructure.

India’s top IT companies might benefit as their biggest customers look to sunset legacy applications that are only being maintained for the critical data they hold, but first a couple of other headlines that caught my attention: 

One97 Communications Ltd., which operates the Paytm wallet and payments network, has formed a committee, headed by Meleveetil Damodaran, the former chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the country’s capital markets regulator, to help the company meet compliance requirements.

On Jan. 31, the Reserve Bank of India, ordered the company’s Paytm Payments Bank unit to cease most of its operations after Feb. 29 for various regulatory violations.

The three-member committee includes Mukund Manohar Chitale, a former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and Ramachandran Rajaraman, a member of the Advisory Board at Central Vigilance Commission.

Meanwhile, India’s parliamentary committee on communications and IT has urged the central government to support the growth of domestic fintech players as alternatives to the duopoly of PhonePe, a unit of Walmart, and Google Pay which accounts for more than 83 percent of India’s digital payments transactions via the unified payments interface, TechCrunch reports.

PhonePe leads, with 46.91 percent of the UPI market share by volume for the period of October to November 2023, the committee notes in its report. Google Pay held a market share of 36.39 percent in the same period.

One thing today

India’s IT services companies will likely benefit as their customers take a hard look at outdated software applications in the age of AI. Many of these applications are being maintained only for the data they hold, the consultancy ISG points out in a recent newsletter.

Enterprises have large volumes of critical data locked in legacy applications, ISG’s Stanton Jones, Sunder Sarangan and Alex Bakker, note in the company’s weekly newsletter, Index Insider, with the tagline what’s important in IT.

AI will be a forcing function for businesses to overcome the reasons that have been preventing them from sunsetting or modernizing these applications, which will serve as an important driver for ADM activity this year, they write.

ISG’s most recent Application Development and Maintenance Buyer Behavior Study showed that about one in every ten enterprise applications has been classified as “end of life.”

Most large enterprises have thousands of applications, so in most cases, this means that hundreds of applications are at the end of their life for any one company, they point out.

And, the primary reason companies continue to support these legacy applications is because of the data they hold.

According to ISG, 10 percent of enterprise applications being at end of life translates to more than 150 applications on average per company. Half of all enterprises ISG surveyed continue to support these applications because of the data stored in them.

ISG, which tracks all IT outsourcing contracts worth $5 million or more, expects enterprises to double the number of AI-enabled applications in their portfolios by the end of 2024.

This means that application optimization will be an important attribute of ADM activity in 2024. Companies will rely on their outsourcing providers for the resources required for these legacy transformation programs as well as their ability to combine cost optimization with modernization, according to the consultancy.

Even in regions like the Asia Pacific, where companies currently lag their North American counterparts in GenAI spending, for example, Infosys, India’s second biggest IT services provider, forecasts a bigger increase than in any other region – 140 percent in the next year.

This translates to an estimated $3.4 billion to be invested across Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, and Singapore, according to Infosys’s Generative AI Radar APac Report, released two weeks ago.

Google is retiring Bard, with the launch of a more capable chatbot, Gemini Advanced, but first a couple of other headlines.

Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, yesterday, stood by its actions imposing restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank, stating that its order barring the small finance bank from most activities after Feb. 29, including taking any fresh deposits, was issued only after “persistent non-compliance” with rules.

The action taken by the powerful banking regulator “is always proportionate to the gravity of the situation,” the bank’s Governor Shaktikanta Das, said in a media briefing, TechCrunch reports.

Amazon Web Services India has started a space accelerator programme that will offer technical, business, and mentorship help to startups focused on space technology, with support from, T-Hub, and Minfy, an AWS systems integrator partner.

This is AWS’s first accelerator program in India focused on startups in the space sector, and follows the MoU it signed with ISRO and IN-SPACe in September last year, to nurture startups in space-tech, and support innovation in the sector.

One thing today

A year after introducing Bard, Google is retiring the name and rebranding its AI products and features under its Gemini brand. It is also launching Ultra 1.0, its most capable large language model yet.

“AI is also now central to two businesses that have grown rapidly in recent years: our Cloud and Workspace services and our popular subscription service Google One, which is just about to cross 100 million subscribers,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, writes in a blog post.

“Gemini is evolving to be more than just the models,” Pichai writes. “It supports an entire ecosystem — from the products that billions of people use every day, to the APIs and platforms helping developers and businesses innovate.”

The largest model Ultra 1.0 is the first to outperform human experts on MMLU (massive multitask language understanding), which uses a combination of 57 subjects — including math, physics, history, law, medicine and ethics — to test knowledge and problem-solving abilities.

Gemini is available in 40 languages on the web, and is coming to a new Gemini app on Android and on the Google app on iOS.

The version with Ultra will be called Gemini Advanced, which is more capable at reasoning, following instructions, coding, and creative collaboration.

“In blind evaluations with Google’s third-party raters, Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0 is now the most preferred chatbot compared to leading alternatives,” Sissi Hsiao, vice president and general manager for Gemini and Google Assistant, wrote in a blog post.

With the Ultra 1.0 model, Gemini Advanced is more capable at complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions and collaborating on creative projects, Hsiao writes. Gemini Advanced allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations, and it also better understands the context from your previous prompts.

Gemini Advanced can be a personal tutor, help with more advanced coding scenarios, or generate fresh content. Gemini Advanced is available today in more than 150 countries and territories in English, as part of a new Google One AI Premium Plan for about $20 a month, with all the existing features of the Google One, including the 2TB of storage. In addition, AI Premium subscribers will soon be able to use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets. And Google is offering a two-month free trial.

“To mitigate issues like unsafe content or bias, we’ve built safety into our products in accordance with our AI Principles,” Hsiao writes in her post.

You can find more details in Google’s updated Gemini Technical Report.

Gemini and Gemini Advanced are being rolled out on smartphones via a new app on Android. And in the Google app on iOS in the coming weeks.

Layoffs at tech companies have continued into 2024, but first, a couple of other headlines that caught my attention.

Hyundai Motors is planning to list its Indian unit to raise at least $3 billion in what would be the country's biggest IPO, Reuters reported yesterday, citing two people it didn’t name.

Hyundai, the second-biggest automaker in India with a 15 percent market share, is in early talks with several banks for the fund raising, which would value the Korean automaker’s Indian operations at up to $30 billion, which is more than half its market capitalisation of $42 billion in Seoul, according to Reuters.

As Paytm reels under the Reserve Bank of India’s tough stance over the fintech company’s non-compliance issues, some founders of startups in India have written to Governor Shaktikanta Das and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging them to “review” and “reconsider” the regulatory directive asking Paytm’s payments bank unit to shut its main banking services after February 29, Economic Times reported earlier today.

Policybazaar's Yashish Dahiya, Bharat Matrimony’s Murugavel Janakiraman, Makemytrip’s Rajesh Magow and Ritesh Malik of Innov 8 are among the signatories to the letter. They’ve said the punitive measures against Paytm would have a far-reaching impact on India’s fintech ecosystem, according to ET.

One thing today

Tech companies have already shed about 32,500 jobs in 2024, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts at 5,000 tech companies. Snap, which operates the photo and video sharing app, Snapchat, is the latest internet company to announce job cuts in 2024. The company said in an SEC filing on Feb. 5 it would reduce its headcount by 10 percent worldwide.

Snap expects it will incur charges ranging from $55 million to $75 million, according to its filing, from this latest round of cuts. The company previously laid off 20 percent of its staff and restructured its business lines in August 2022, CNBC notes.

Several other well-known tech companies have reduced their staff strength this year, including Paypal, Microsoft, Zuora, Zoom, and Okta. Indian food delivery unicorn Swiggy, ahead of its IPO plans, recently cut another 400 jobs, TechCrunch reported on Jan. 25.

And India’s top IT services companies entered the year with their collective workforce lower by tens of thousands of employees. Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT company, for example, reduced its workforce by close to 11,500 people in the nine months through December 2023.

Infosys, the second biggest, has reduced its workforce by more than 20,500 staff in the same period.

Tech and IT companies around the world recruited aggressively as the world came out of the Covid pandemic. Since then, the combination of the global economic slowdown and the rise of AI and AI-based automation, has changed the world. Now, even as things are beginning to look up in the world’s biggest tech market, the US, hiring will increasingly reflect investments in AI.

Apple’s Vision Pro headsets are now available for sale at stores in the US, but first a couple of other headlines that caught my attention.

A UK minister on a trade mission last year assured Infosys that he would do what he could to help the company grow in the country, where founder NR Narayana Murthy’s son-in-law Rishi Sunak is prime minister, The Mirror reported.

The paper obtained details of the April 2023 visit of Dominic Johnson, a minister in PM Sunak’s cabinet, using Britain’s freedom of information laws. Sunak has faced intense scrutiny over his wife Akshata Murty’s ownership of close to 1 percent of Infosys. 

Freshworks, a Chennai-to-Silicon Valley software company, will report its fiscal fourth quarter and full year earnings results tomorrow, according to the investor page on the company’s website. The Nasdaq-listed provider of cloud software for customer engagement and IT services management expects to end the year with revenue of about $595 million, a growth of about 20 percent. Analysts will also be watching Freshworks’s net dollar retention, an important SaaS metric, that the company has projected at 105 percent.

One thing today

Apple, on Feb. 2 announced that its Vision Pro AR headsets were available for sale in stores in the US. Apple calls the headset a spatial computer, which works by tracking natural hand gestures and movement of your eyes.

Last year, after Apple unveiled this, I’d spoken with Milind Manoj, an AR expert and founder and CEO of a company called PupilMesh here in Bangalore. I thought a quick recap of the features of the Vision Pro from that conversation might be interesting, so here goes.

The first takeaway was that, like with any other Apple product, there's a lot that’s gone into the design and specs. Especially given that they have a dedicated processor, the R1 chip, that helps to make functions like the display rendering seem like near real time although it's a pass-through headset, is remarkable.

In a pass-through headset, one is not really seeing the world around directly, but through the cameras on the headset, and then being streamed to the display. This is an interesting, and important, question according to Milind, because the user is seeing what the device sees.

Therefore, the question is if you’d be okay with a device controlling what you are actually seeing because you are essentially blocking out one of your senses and relying on cameras – this might be okay or not, depending on what you’re using the device for.

This is the biggest difference versus what are called optical see-through headsets which don’t block off your vision. These kinds of headsets will become increasingly important as the sophistication of AR applications that overlay digital information on top of the real world that we can see and touch and feel increases – think of applications like surgery, for example, where precision is critical and therefore what you’re seeing through the headset has to be accurate.

The original Apple Glass project probably had such ambitions, where one could see through. Apple must surely be continuing to work on that technology, but we don’t know anything about a commercial product.

The second takeaway from my chat with Milind was that unlike other Apple products so far, the Vision Pro still feels a little bit experimental, especially because it has a waist-mounted external battery pack that connects to the headset via a cable.

This is obviously the best trade off that Apple’s engineers could think of with respect to the design and how long people could use the headset at one go, but it does make the Vision Pro a somewhat inelegant gadget in my view – you may be perfectly fine with an outside battery pack.

The headset costs about $3,500 and its success will depend on the applications that developers come up for it. It’s unlikely to be in India any time soon, but Apple will probably show off the headset at its own stores in Mumbai and Delhi – just to pique your curiosity.

Apple’s focus on India is paying off and the company also captured the top position in revenue in a calendar year for the first time, due to strong demand for both its latest iPhone and older models, according to market research provider Counterpoint. Overall, Samsung maintained its lead with the biggest market share, at 18 percent, in the predominantly Android market, and Vivo took the number two spot with 17 percent share.

Ahead of the union government's budget for the year 2024-25, the well-known expectations remain, such as tax breaks and incentives, but India's tech startups are also hoping the government will sharpen its focus on supporting them to develop more intellectual property within the country, which is crucial for our long-term security. They want more R&D spends, deeper partnerships with public labs, and simpler rules to help them go after global customers.

An important conference is to take place tomorrow in New Delhi on India’s international role with respect to technologies that are considered dual use, meaning for civilian and industrial use, but also for defence and military applications.

India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Department of Commerce in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and other Government Agencies is organising the National Conference on Strategic Trade Controls (NCSTC), tomorrow at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, the nation’s capital.

The conference will focus on India's Strategic Trade Control related to SCOMET and export controls system and international best practices on export of dual-use (meaning industrial and military) goods, software and technologies, according to a government statement circulated by the Press Information Bureau yesterday.

SCOMET stands for Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies.

Registrations for the conference have been invited by DGFT through its website. International speakers including the Chair of 1540 Committee of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Chair of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), senior government officials including the Commerce Secretary, Member (Customs) of CBIC, Director General of DGFT, and others would be participating.

DGFT expects that more than 500 industry representatives will attend the conference.

The thematic sessions planned during the day-long conference will focus on various aspects of India’s Strategic Trade Control system, including the legal and regulatory framework, the steps taken to streamline the SCOMET policy and licensing processes, the enforcement mechanism and supply chain compliance programs.

India published its first Scomet list as part of its Foreign Trade Development and Regulation Act of 1992. In 2010, the Act was amended to add a new chapter, including a section that deals with controls on exports of specified goods, services and technologies – giving the central government the power to monitor and amend the list of such goods, services and technologies.

Currently the list includes goods, services and tech under nine categories, ranging from nuclear technologies to aviation and aerospace to electronics to chemicals and biotech.

Those of you who caught Samsung’s Unpacked event two days ago would have seen a Google vice president of search coming up on stage to describe a new AI feature on the latest Galaxy phone, developed by Google.

Google calls it circle to search, and that’s exactly what it is. See something you’re browsing that you want to know more about? Well, now just circle it, and you’ll get what the geeks would call multi-modal search results, meaning across text, images and so on. 

Android users would be familiar with Google Lens, where you can use the phone camera and search for more information on a picture or how you can hum a song and ask Google what song it is.

Circle to search is the latest in Google’s stable of AI and machine learning based features for end users on their smartphones that are making such interactions ever more human.

“With a simple gesture, you can select what you’re curious about in whatever way comes naturally to you — like circling, highlighting, scribbling or tapping — and get more information right where you are,” Cathy Edwards, a Google VP and GM for Search, writes in a blog post, explaining how easy it is to use this feature.

Edwards first presented this feature at Samsung’s event. An important aspect of this feature is that it allows you to search on whichever app or website you are on, without having to leave it, making it a minimally distracting task so you can continue to go on and finish what you were doing on the app in the first place.

The possibilities are endless. It could be just about searching for more on a new pair of running shoes you saw on some website, for example. Or imagine just circling a dish on a food delivery app and getting more info on how healthy it is for you.

This will be first available on Samsung’s latest Galaxy S24 smartphone that’s just been released, and on Google’s own Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones.

Just long press on the home button, and instead of the Google Assistant, you’ll now bring up circle to search. You can then circle, or scribble or highlight or tap … “and just like that, your curiosity is satisfied,” Edwards said in her presentation at Galaxy Unpacked.

“And when you are done you can just swipe away, and you’re right back where you started.”

One last point. For Samsung fans, apart from the latest flagship phone, a more important release is Galaxy AI, Samsung’s own new AI system for its phones aimed at making the devices much more intuitive to use. Among the features Samsung has released are live transcript, and a bunch of AI assistants.

Apple has a new office in India in the heart of Bengaluru, the iPhone maker said in a statement. The country’s tech capital is already home to so many of Apple’s teams, including in software engineering and hardware technologies, operations, customer support, and other functions, according to Apple.

This new workspace, which Apple hopes will be a powerful hub for innovation, creativity, and collaboration, is located at Minsk Square in the center of the city, a stone’s throw from Vidhana Soudha, the state parliament, the high court, central library, Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, and Cubbon Park, one of the largest green parks within Bengaluru.

The proximity to Cubbon Park metro station means public transit is an option for Apple staff and visitors. The new office will house up to 1,200 employees, on 15 floors, and it features dedicated lab space, areas for collaboration and wellness, and Caffe Macs, which comprises Apple’s food-ordering app and service and physical space. 

Apple currently has nearly 3,000 employees in India.

The new office’s interior features locally-sourced materials, including stone, wood, and fabric in the walls and flooring, and the office is filled with native plants.

The office will run on 100 percent renewable energy, and aims to achieve the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating — the highest level of LEED certification. Apple has been carbon neutral for its corporate operations since 2020, and has run all Apple facilities using 100 percent renewable energy since 2018.

The office is the latest addition to the company’s corporate office footprint in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Gurugram, and represents another important milestone in Apple’s more than 25-year history in India.

Apple is stepping up efforts to boost sales and manufacturing in India, which it sees as a long-term strategic market, as it seeks to reduce its dependence on China. Apple has faced both disruptions to its supply chain due to Chinese Covid related restrictions, and a resurgent competitor in Huawei, which has also released its own semiconductor chip for smartphones.

Meanwhile, Apple has ended Samsung Electronics 12-year run as the world’s largest seller of smartphones by number of units, after achieving a 20 percent market share in 2023, according to data from International Data Corp.

Samsung ended the year with a 19.4 percent share, followed by China’s Xiaomi, Oppo and Transsion, preliminary data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showed.

Apple and Transsion were the only brands in the top five to record growth in shipments last year, when the market declined 3.2 percent to 1.17 billion units and hit a decade low.

VinFast, an electric vehicle manufacturer from Vietnam, plans to invest $2 billion dollars in India, but first a couple of other headlines that caught my attention.

Japanese media and tech giant Sony Corp. is planning to call off the merger of its Indian unit with Zee Entertainment, more than two years after the deal was announced, over a disagreement on who will lead the $10 billion entity, Reuters reports, citing a Bloomberg News report from Monday that’s behind a paywall.

Sony plans to file a termination notice before the extended Jan. 20 deadline to close the merger, while discussions between Sony and Zee were still ongoing.

Wipro's lawsuit against former chief financial officer Jatin Dalal with respect to a non-compete clause in his employment contract was referred to arbitration by the Bengaluru City Civil Court in a hearing on January 3, Moneycontrol reports.

The court's decision, thereby, allows the admission of a counter petition moved by Dalal, who’s joined Wipro’s larger rival Cognizant Technology Solutions, according to Moneycontrol.

One thing today

In one thing today, VinFast, an electric vehicle manufacturer from Vietnam, plans to invest up to $2 billion, to set up an EV plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, the company said in a press release on Jan. 6, coinciding with the state’s global investor summit.

Vinfast, plans to invest $500 million in the first phase of the Project, spanning five years from the commencement date, later this year.

The India expansion will help VinFast to seize growth opportunities in the world’s most populous nation and rapidly expanding EV market, the company said in the release. This initiative forms a crucial part of VinFast’s strategy to establish a strong presence in vital markets and strengthen its supply chain for global expansion, the company said. 

The integrated EV manufacturing facility is to be set up in Thoothukudi, in Tamil Nadu. It is envisioned as evolving into a first-class electric vehicle production hub in the region, with an annual capacity of up to 150,000 units. Construction of the plant is anticipated to begin in 2024. The project is expected to generate between 3,000 and 3,500 jobs, according to VinFast.

VinFast also expects to set up a nationwide dealership network in India.

Several multinational electronics and manufacturing companies including Apple’s supplier Pegatron and Korean auto giant Hyundai have committed to large investments in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, but first, a couple of other headlines that caught my attention.

The US Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered the grounding and immediate inspection of about 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft worldwide after a mid-flight emergency late Friday involving a plane operated by Alaska Airlines, NPR reports. 

The US aviation regulator announced this order after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to abruptly land in Portland, Oregon after a door plug blew out in midair, leaving a hole in the aircraft next to two unoccupied seats.

Unicommerce eSolutions Limited, a software provider to ecommerce companies for transaction processing, has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with India’s capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board, seeking an IPO.

The proposed listing comprises of an offer for sale aggregating up to about 29.84 million equity shares of face value of Rs. 1. This includes up to 11.46 million shares by Unicommerce’s promoter AceVector Limited (formerly known as Snapdeal Limited), up to about 2.21 million shares by B2 Capital Partners and up to about 16.17 million shares by SB Investment Holdings (UK) Limited.

One thing today

In one thing today, Apple suppliers Tata Electronics and Pegatron, and automaker Hyundai Motors have signed investment pacts worth more than $4.39 billion with the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the state government at a global investor summit.

Industry analysts estimate India could account for as much as a third of Apple’s iPhone production in the coming years, as the tech giant steps up its efforts to reduce dependence on China. Apple is also looking at India as its next big market, where it has seen quarterly records in sales over the last two years.

Pegatron is setting up a second factory in India, Reuters notes, and the Tata Group, which last year began to assemble iPhones, has also purchased a factory on the outskirts of neighbouring Bengaluru from Wistron, another Apple supplier.

Tata Electronics has committed to investing Rs. 12,080 crore for mobile phone assembly operations, the state government said during the signing of the agreements, according to Reuters.

Taiwan’s Pegatron expects to invest Rs. 1,000 crore to expand production, the government added.

South Korean Auto giant Hyundai Motors plans to invest Rs. 6,180 crore, a part of which will go towards electric vehicle battery and car manufacturing.

Vietnamese EV maker VinFast is setting up its first manufacturing facility in India and expects to invest up to $2 billion in Tamil Nadu, according to Reuters.

The semiconductor giant Qualcomm yesterday, announced what it called a significant expansion in Chennai with a new facility for its design centre, with an investment of about Rs. 177 crore.

The Design Centre is expected to generate jobs for up to 1,600 skilled professionals. It will specialize in wireless connectivity solutions, with a focus on innovations that complement Wi-Fi technologies. It will contribute to Qualcomm's global research and development in 5G cellular technology, Qualcomm said in a press release.

Separately, Tata Power is exploring investments of up to Rs. 70,000 crore in Tamil Nadu over the next several years, including investments in some existing projects, the company’s chief executive officer Praveer Sinha said at a press briefing at the investors meet, Reuters reports.

And JSW Energy has announced plans to invest Rs. 12,000 crore to develop renewable energy projects.

Discord has rolled out a bunch of improvements to its mobile app on both Android and iOS, but first:

Byju Raveendran is contemplating using his 10-12 percent direct shareholding in the test-prep chain Aakash to raise about Rs. 600 crore to shore up his beleaguered ed-tech venture, Think & Learn, The Arc reported yesterday, citing sources it didn’t name. Thing & Learn, which operates the loss making BYJU’S online education platform, is under government scrutiny for a host of lapses.

ZestMoney, a buy now pay later fintech startup in Bengaluru, is shutting down, and has informed its 150 remaining employees that it’s done, according to multiple media reports. The company was founded in 2015 and provided loans to those without credit cards or any other formal financing options.

One thing today:

In one thing today, Discord, which is where you’ll find many of the Gen Z, apart from Instagram, has overhauled its mobile app to work more like, well, a mobile app 

“When we launched the Discord mobile app in 2015, our focus was on building great products for people who play games on PC, with mobile serving as a companion app for when you were away from your keyboard,” Francesco Polizzi, group product manager at Discord, says in a blog post on Dec. 5, announcing the new updates.

“Now, with more users spending time using Discord on the go, we’re excited to roll out a faster, more reliable app than before, designed specifically for mobile,” Francesco says.

The updated app, on both Android and iOS, brings faster app loading, better navigation, improved media sharing and voice and video experience, and an updated night mode.

Discord has previously implemented features such as the global DM search on the app. After yesterday’s update, which is available in India also, app-open time is reduced by 43 percent on iOS and 55 percent on Android, and users can access more messages when offline, according to the company.

Free users can now upload files of up to 25MB in size.

Discord, which started as an online hangout for PC gamers has evolved into a wider platform where one can find groups of users with varied interests. Today the company says it has 150 million users around the world. 

You can find the full list of improvements and updates on Discord’s website. Or you can use the link to the blog post in our show notes.

One area where Discord has faced criticism is with respect to how it dragged its feet on protecting youngsters, according to multiple media reports. The company implemented some limited parental controls since only July this year, when it added an opt-in feature called family center.

This feature requires the consent of your child to set up the family center on both the teen’s app and on the parents’ smartphones. Once done it will provide some high-level information to parents on the teen’s Discord activity.

I would highly recommend reading a post titled A Parent’s Guide to Discord by the Social Media Victims Law Center in the US. The center warns that Discord requires users to be 13 years of age but does not ask for any documentation for proof of age. Like many other internet platforms, Discord can also be used by youngsters to access pornography and even drugs.

And if you are parents to young teens, especially, this might be a good time to find out if they use Discord, talk about it, and agree on using the Family Center feature.

IN-SPACe has announced a new seed fund to support startups working the areas of urban development and disaster management using space tech, but first:

Spotify fired 1,500 staff, cutting its workforce by 17 percent, a measure that CEO Daniel Ek said was needed to face the challenges ahead. This is the company’s third round of layoffs this year, TechCrunch noted.

“I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us,” Ek said in a company blogpost.

Venture capital funding for India’s startups sank to the second-lowest level in almost seven years, Moneycontrol reported last week, citing data from Venture Intelligence.

Indian startups recorded $223 million in funding from 35 deals in November, a fall of about 66 percent from $655 million in 52 deals in the previous month. The last time funding was lower than this was in January 2017 at $207 million in 43 deals, according to Moneycontrol.

One thing today

IN-SPACe, or the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre, the nodal agency of India’s Department of Space responsible for commercialization of space tech in private industry, or among Non-Government Entities, has announced a Seed Fund for startups in the areas of Urban Development and Disaster Management by using space technology.

The scheme, launched in collaboration with the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO will help NGEs that use space technology for societal benefits to “graduate to the next level,” IN-SPACe said in a press release yesterday. 

Selected start-ups will receive seed funding for transforming an original idea into a prototype using space technology, ISRO facility support including Earth Observation data for validation of the concept, mentorship support, and access to data algorithms as transfer of technology from the Department of Space.

“The role of the space sector is crucial to the overall development of the national economy … this scheme is designed to support Indian space startups that aim to develop innovative space products and services that can improve the quality of life for communities in India and around the world,” Pawan Goenka, chairman of IN-SPACe said in the press release.

Under this fund, selected startups can get up to Rs. 1 crore in funding, in addition to mentorship support, training and networking opportunities.  

For urban development, there are several opportunities for startups in areas including urban planning, monitoring and infrastructure management, telecommunication, navigation, broadband connectivity, water resources management, energy efficiency, climate and weather monitoring, disaster risk reduction, public health, and healthcare, In-space noted in the press release.

Similarly, disaster management offers opportunities for startups specializing in the domains including Geographical Information Systems (GIS), early warning and monitoring systems, insurance and risk assessment, communication and navigation systems, climate change monitoring, search and rescue operations, space-borne sensors, and instruments.

Cyclone Michaung pounding Tamil Nadu currently is another reminder that such technology solutions are urgently needed as the effects of climate change worsened in 2023.

The funding scheme details can be downloaded from IN-SPACe’s website, inspace.gov.in and the last date to apply for funding under this scheme is Dec. 20.

Even when Freshworks was a much smaller startup, Girish Mathrubootham just beginning his foray into the US market, one thing reporters like me would always hear about was Girish’s ability to surround himself with exceptional colleagues and soak up everything he could learn from them. 

As many of you know, he likes to call them people who’ve “been there done that,” whether it’s someone who’s helped take a software company in US to its IPO or someone who’s already seen what a global technology business looks like with $20 billion in revenue.

The appointment of Mika Yamamoto as the company’s new chief customer and marketing officer looks like another win for Girish in that tradition that he’s established.

Mika, who will be responsible for leading the company’s global marketing and customer experience teams, comes to Freshworks from F5, also a Nasdaq-listed company, where she most recently served as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Marketing and Customer Engagement Officer, according to Freshworks’s press release from Nov. 28.

At F5 she led the company’s data, marketing, digital transformation, and customer experience efforts for products, segments, channels, and geographies. Mika joined the executive team at Freshworks on Nov. 20 and reports to Girish, founder and CEO, and President Dennis Woodside.

“Mika’s combined CMO and CXO roles have given her a unique perspective that has ultimately led to innovative, measurable changes for employees, customers, and prospects,” Woodside said in the press release.

“She has a long-standing track record of leading global and diverse customer experience teams and delivering exceptional go-to-market results at large public technology companies with multi-domain businesses serving customers big and small,” he added.

Before F5, Mika was president at a company called Marketo, which was acquired by Adobe, and then she was a senior VP at Adobe for a bit.

She has previously served as Chief Digital Marketing Officer and CMO of SMB at SAP, and held senior leadership roles, working approximately six year each at Amazon, in the books business, Microsoft, in the Windows and Stores businesses, research at Gartner, and as a manager at Accenture where she started her career in 1994.

Mika has a BCom (Honours) degree in Economics and Marketing from Queen’s University in Canada, according to her LinkedIn profile. The Freshworks press release says she holds a B.A. in Commerce, with a focus on Economics and Marketing.

“My whole career has been spent on transforming go-to-market approaches and customer experiences within global companies to steepen the growth curve,” she says in the press release. I truly believe that bringing the end-to-end customer experience with marketing and customer success teams together at Freshworks will help accelerate growth while keeping our customers at the heart of all we do.”

She also serves on the boards of BlackLine, another Nasdaq-listed cloud software company that specializes in finance and accounting, where she chairs the compensation committee; and the Rainier Valley Food Bank and the United Way of King County.

Yamamoto, by the way, is a well-known Japanese surname. In fact, another Mika Yamamoto was an award-winning Japanese photo and video journalist who died in the line of duty while she was covering the conflict in Syria in 2012.

Perhaps the most well-known Yamamoto was Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral, who is widely believed to have been opposed to war, but when he was overruled, ended up as the decision-maker behind the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which united the Americans in the decision to enter the second world war.

The name Yamamoto, in Japanese, means one who lives in the mountains or one who dwells at the foot of a mountain.

The first trans-Atlantic flight using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel was made between London and New York yesterday by Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, bringing the industry another small step closer to sustainable aviation.

Test flight VIR100, which did not carry paying passengers, took off from London’s Heathrow Airport at 11:49 am UK time (6:49 am ET and 5:19 pm in India) and landed at New York’s JFK airport at 2:05 pm ET, CNBC reported, citing Flightradar24.

The flight, which the airline named Flight100, demonstrated that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was a safe drop-in replacement for the current fossil-fuel based jet fuel, compatible with today’s engines, airframes and fuel infrastructure, Virgin Atlantic said in a press release yesterday.

Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic said in the press release, “Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel. 

SAF is made from non-fossil-derived fuels, including biofuels derived from plant or animal waste, municipal waste and agricultural residues. That it can be a drop-in alternative means that it can be used with the existing commercial aircraft without any costly modifications to their engines and so on.

Virgin’s Flight100 was made by a Boeing 787 widebody aircraft, flying on Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines, according to the press release.

Simon Burr, Group Director of Engineering, Technology & Safety, at Rolls-Royce said: “Rolls-Royce has recently completed compatibility testing of 100 percent SAF on all our in-production civil aero engine types and this is further proof that there are no engine technology barriers to the use of 100 percent SAF.”

SAF also produces emissions, but overall emissions from it are considered to be lower than emissions from fossil fuels.

In 2021, a group of 60 companies from the airline, transport and cargo industries promised to ensure that 10 percent of all the jet fuel they used was SAF. And last year, the aviation industry set itself the target of reaching net zero status by 2050.

SAF is made from waste products, and delivers CO2 lifecycle emissions savings of up to 70 percent, whilst performing like the traditional jet fuel it replaces, according to Virgin’s press release.

Today, SAF represents less than 0.1 percent of global jet fuel volumes and fuel standards allow for only 50 percent SAF blend in commercial jet engines.

CNBC notes that other airlines have used SAF on commercial flights, although generally on shorter journeys and in up-to-50 percent blends with regular fuel, which was previously the regulatory limit. Tuesday’s Virgin Atlantic flight was approved by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month.

The SAF used on Flight100 is a dual blend comprising 88 percent hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), supplied by AirBP and 12 percent synthetic aromatic kerosene, supplied by Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation.

The HEFA is made from waste fats while the SAK is made from plant sugars, with the remainder of plant proteins, oil and fibres continuing into the food chain. The kerosene is needed in 100 percent SAF blends to give the fuel the required aromatics for engine function 

In 2022 aviation accounted for 2 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions, having grown faster in recent decades than rail, road or shipping, the International Energy Agency notes in its assessment of the industry.

As international travel demand recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic, aviation emissions in 2022 reached almost 800 million tonnes of CO2, about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level.

Earlier this year, the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences, published a report assessing a variety of alternative fuels, including biofuels, and found that availability and accessibility are big problems, Mongobay, a US-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform, notes in a July report.

India’s EV landscape is changing, with startups emerging across the value chain – from all-electric cabs to e-bikes and innovative purchase options. But first, some headlines:

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms knowingly employed methods that lured children on to these platforms, The New York Times reported on Nov. 25, citing un-redacted court documents from a federal lawsuit in the US, filed last month by California, Colorado and 31 other states in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology will invest more than $1.5 billion in an Indian construction project to fulfill “operational needs,” CNBC reports, citing company filings in Taiwan yesterday.

Tata Consultancy Services has launched its AWS generative AI practice, with an extensive catalog of use-cases for the technology, the company said in a press release yesterday.

One thing today

India’s consumer EV landscape is changing. Startups are emerging offering new products like e-bikes and slow-speed scooters that don’t require users to obtain a driving licence, and new purchase options are also being innovated to reduce the upfront cost of these vehicles to make them more competitive with their petrol burning counterparts.

Yulu Bikes, for example, has started directly selling a consumer version of its low-speed moped Miracle, which it calls Yulu Wynn and which is being manufactured by Bajaj Auto. With a top speed of only 25kmph, one doesn’t need a license to use this scooter on Indian roads. 

Yulu Wynn costs about Rs. 55,000 to buy, and then you will also have to sign up for one of Yulu’s subscription plans to use the scooter. The purchase price doesn’t include the battery or the software, which are included in the subscription plans, and you get access to the company’s Yuma battery swapping network. 

This is similar to how Ather Energy or Tata Nexon users pay to use premium features on those vehicles, Amit Gupta, Yulu’s co-founder and CEO told me recently. And you can find that detailed conversation on Forbes India’s website. 

Kunal Khattar, a prolific VC investor in the EV space, points out that if we find ways to take out the cost of the battery, then that’s practically half the cost of the electric vehicle. So models more like Yulu’s will surely emerge, where a bank might finance the battery and the consumer gets an affordable subscription plan.

Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that EMotorad Ventures, an electric bicycle maker in Pune, has raised $20 million in a Series B round. EMotorad’s electric bicycle models feature self-diagnostics, removable batteries, dual disc brakes, portable chargers, and retractable aluminum frames. 

TechCrunch reports that the company offers a 48-hour resolution of customer complaints. Founded in 2020 by Kunal Gupta, Rajib Gangopadhyay, Aditya Oza and Sumedh Battewar, EMotorad today exports its e-bikes to more than 18 countries through white labeling and selling its own brand in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, and some Middle Eastern markets.

Of its 14 e-bike models, seven or eight are available in India and the rest are sold overseas, priced between $600 to $1,200 in the US, according to TechCrunch.

Emotorad has raised more than $22.5 million in total funding, from investors including Singapore’s Panthera Growth Partners, Alteria Capital, xto10x Technologies, and Green Frontier Capital.

Economic Times reported yesterday that Gensol will make electric “reverse trikes,” which have two wheels in the front and one in the back, starting February, citing co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi, who is also the managing director of Gensol, a solar engineering procurement and construction company.

Jaggi expects to soon start production at a factory in Chakan, India’s biggest auto manufacturing hub, with capacity to turn out 30,000 vehicles. So cheaper Blusmart rides may be on offer next year.

US space agency NASA’s Administrator Bill Nelson is in India today to meet top government and ISRO officials, as both countries look to deepen their space exploration and scientific research partnership. 

The visit by Nelson, a former US senator, “fulfills a commitment through the US and India initiative on critical and emerging technology spearheaded by President Joe Biden,” Nasa said in a press release on Nov. 24.

Nelson was appointed as the 14th Nasa administrator in May 2021. During this visit to India, he is expected visit several locations, including the Bengaluru-based facilities where the NISAR spacecraft, a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is undergoing testing and integration for launch in 2024.

NISAR is short for NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. It is the first satellite mission between NASA and ISRO. It is an Earth-observing instrument, the first in the Earth System Observatory, which was announced by NASA last year.

The observatory will be put in space via five satellite missions, including Nisar, which is set for launch next year. The observatory will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, key information to guide efforts related to climate change, hazard mitigation, agriculture, and so on.

Senator Nelson is also expected to meet students to discuss STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and how they can participate in the Artemis program, Nasa’s initiative to return humans to the Moon and make it a launchpad for missions to Mars.

The Nasa chief is also expected to travel to UAE during this trip to participate in the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Over the last few years, India has opened up its space efforts to private industry and startups and established the institutional infrastructure and policies to foster this ecosystem. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) is tasked with expanding the commercialization of India’s space tech capabilities.

In April, the government also released India’s space policy, to promote a comprehensive approach to the space economy opportunity ahead.

The government’s estimate projects India’s space market to be worth $40 billion in 2030. This could go as high as $100 billion, the consultancy Arthur D. Little says, if investments and efforts in certain focus areas are stepped up.

Meanwhile, OneWeb India, the local subsidiary of low-earth orbit operator Eutelsat OneWeb, said last week, it had become the first company to receive India’s go ahead to launch its commercial satellite broadband services. Bharti Airtel owns about 21 percent of UK-based OneWeb, which was recently merged with Europe’s Eutelsat.

Other multinational companies including billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite broadband business, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s project Kuiper, which are all putting large low earth orbit satellite constellations in space are also expected to offer to their services in India.

And JioSpaceFiber, part of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is also in the race to offer its own satellite based internet services in the country soon. 

On the startups front, Indian space tech startups have gone from raising only $35 million in funding between 2010 and 2019, to $28 million in 2020 to $96 million in 2021 and $112 million in 2022, according to Tracxn, a private markets intelligence provider.

This year the sector has attracted $62 million in funding as of August, according to Tracxn. Indian space startups are developing a range of technologies and products, including hyperspectral imaging, 3D-printed rocket engines, satellite propulsion systems and sustainable less toxic rocket fuels.

NVIDIA, which has a near monopoly on computer chips for AI applications, reported its fiscal third-quarter numbers yesterday that beat street expectations. 

The semiconductor company’s Q3 revenues of $18.12 billion is a 206 percent year-on-year jump, reflecting the extent to which big tech companies are ramping up AI investments. Sales to the data centre segment, which accounted for 80 percent of the company’s Q3 revenues, was even more impressive, rising 279 percent.

Sales rose 34 percent sequentially over Q2, and data centre sales, 41 percent. NVIDIA expects this scorching growth to continue. Q4 revenues are expected to touch $20 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, representing a 231 percent increase year on year.

“Our strong growth reflects the broad industry platform transition from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said in the company’s Q3 earnings press release.

“Large language model startups, consumer internet companies and global cloud service providers were the first movers, and the next waves are starting to build,” Huang said.

Nations and regional communications services providers are investing in AI clouds to meet local demand, enterprise software companies are adding AI co-pilots and assistants to their platforms, and enterprises are creating custom AI to automate the world’s largest industries, he said.

“NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, networking, AI foundry services and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software are all growth engines in full throttle. The era of generative AI is taking off,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the very company that made generative AI mainstream with its ChatGPT bot, we await the final word on whether Sam Altman will return to the company he co-founded, or make his rift with the it permanent.

Altman was abruptly fired from the company on Nov. 17 and two days later, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Altman was joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research unit.

Microsoft, expecting to welcome any of the 770 OpenAI researchers who leave to join it, is said to be readying workspaces at its LinkedIn office, complete with Macbook laptops, Axios reported earlier today. About 95 percent of OpenAI staff have threatened to leave and follow Altman if the board of OpenAI doesn’t resign, making way for his return.

What’s happened “highlights the growing rift between the proponents of a more measured rollout of the technology, that emphasizes safety guardrails above commercialization and monetization of solutions. This could have deep-reaching implications for the market,” Beatriz Valle, Senior Technology Analyst at the UK based consultancy GlobalData, said in an email yesterday.

The events also shine a light on the legal structure of OpenAI, which was founded in 2015 as a non-profit company and adopted a new structure in 2019, following Microsoft’s involvement, Valle writes.

The company’s founding charter still allowed the four-person board to fire Altman.

OpenAI is controlled by its non-profit board, which has no fiduciary obligations towards stakeholders or investors, she points out.

“This was a very immature board with members who had never built companies, never moved from ideology to commercialization, nor had any pragmatic board experience,” Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research in San Francisco, writes in a blog post.

The board's big worries included ownership of training data, impact of untested models and detection of unwanted bias, Wang writes.

OpenAI's biggest challenge is making the economics work, and Altman’s move to accelerate commercialization was the right thing, he says.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella moved swiftly to recruit OpenAI’s co-founder Sam Altman after his shocking ouster as CEO last week from the company responsible for the ChatGPT bot which has made AI a household term. Microsoft also hired Greg Brockman, who resigned as president of OpenAI after Altman’s ouster.

Wall Street cheered, and Microsoft shares rose on the Nasdaq stock exchange, ending more than 2 percent higher yesterday.

“We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners,” Nadella wrote in a post on X.

“We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OpenAI's new leadership team and working with them. And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”

Emmett Shear is co-founder of Twitch, the games streaming service that Amazon acquired, and interim CEO of OpenAI.

And then, a letter signed by more than 95 percent of the employees at OpenAI called for the resignation of the company's board and Altman’s return, Wired reports.

The employees threatened to quit and join Microsoft if their demands were not met. Among the signatories to the letter are company board member Ilya Sutskever as well as Mira Murati, who briefly served as interim CEO after the departure of Altman.

The letter, addressed to OpenAI’s board of directors, says: “Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI,” ABC News reports, citing a copy of the letter.

“We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman,” the letter reads.

Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which had lost confidence in his ability to lead the company, OpenAI said in a statement on Friday, according to an Associated Press report carried by PBS.

Emmet Shear said yesterday in a post on X that he would hire an independent investigator to look into what led up to Altman’s ouster and write a report within 30 days, according to Associated Press.

He wrote that the reason behind the board removing Altman was not a “specific disagreement on safety.” This could be a reference to the debates around OpenAI’s mission to safely build AI that is “generally smarter than humans,” AP reports.

With billions of dollars in investments from Microsoft and other investors, OpenAI has moved to commercialise its AI technology, chiefly through ChatGPT, which can generate essays and poems and other human-like text.

OpenAI’s board includes Ilya Sutskever, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, AP notes.

Casey Newton, whose tech newsletter Platformer is widely followed, pointed out in his latest letter today that Toner has the power under the company’s charter to halt OpenAI’s efforts to build an artificial general intelligence.

As to what is being seen as something of a coup for Nadella, he didn’t really have a choice, according to one analyst. “If Microsoft lost Altman he could have gone to Amazon, Google, Apple, or a host of other tech companies craving to get the face of AI globally in their doors,” Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said in a research note, according to AP.

For example, Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce.com posted on X that “Salesforce will match any OpenAI researcher who has tendered their resignation full cash & equity” including unrealised open trade equity to immediately join his company’s AI team.

Diwali crackers are about to add to the already dangerously polluted air in the national capital region. So how would it be if you could fly over the smog for an important meeting, in a tenth of the time it would take to go from Gurugram to Connaught Place, say, and pay about the same as what an Uber ride would cost.

InterGlobe Enterprises, the company that operates India’s top airline Indigo, and Archer Aviation Inc., a Silicon Valley company that’s close to commercialising its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, said yesterday they have partnered to launch and operate an all-electric air taxi service in India.

Rahul Bhatia, Group Managing Director of InterGlobe, and Nikhil Goel, Chief Commercial Officer of Archer, signed an MOU to form a proposed partnership to do this, according to a press release yesterday. Based on Archer’s all-electric aircraft, called Midnight, they aim to bring a low-noise electric air taxi service that is cost-competitive with ground transportation, according to the press release.

The two companies aim to work with select in-country business partners to operate Archer’s aircraft, finance and build vertiport infrastructure, and train pilots and other personnel needed for these operations. The partnership also plans to finance the purchase of up to 200 of Archer’s Midnight aircraft for the India operations.

Midnight is a piloted, four-passenger electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft designed for quick back-to-back flights with as little as 10 minutes of charging in between flights, according to the company’s website. Archer is working to get certification for Midnight’s commercial readiness by late 2024 and start operations in 2025.

In India, which would the second international market for the company after the UAE, the goal is for a passenger on an InterGlobe-Archer flight to be able to fly the 27-km Delhi trip from Connaught Place to Gurugram, typically taking 60 to 90 minutes by car, in approximately 7 minutes.

InterGlobe Archer will also explore other use cases for the electric aircraft in India, including cargo, logistics, medical and emergency services, as well as private company and charter services.

“India is one of, if not the largest opportunity for eVTOL aircraft utilization in the world, as it is home to the world’s largest population, and its largest cities face some of the greatest congestion challenges in the world,” Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Archer said in the press release.

Founded in 2018, Archer is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and has about $461 million in cash reserves currently. Its investors include automotive giant Stellantis, ARK Investment Management, United Airlines and Boeing.

InterGlobe and Archer expect to start with operations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru first, Nikhil Goel, Archer’s chief commercial officer said in the press release.

Meanwhile, India’s hope for a made-in-India eVTOL is pinned to the success of the e200, being developed by ePlane Company in Chennai. The e200, in comparison with Midnight, is expected to be one of the world’s most compact two-seater planes – carrying one pilot and one passenger – and capable of vertical take-off and landing in an area not much bigger than what it takes to park a mid-sized sedan.

The plane is designed to be light enough, at around 600 kg, and have a range of 200 km per charge, and also be able to land on the average urban concrete rooftop.

ePlane’s founder and CEO, Professor Satya Chakravarthy, envisions hundreds of these air taxis flying over our cities. This involves achieving the safety levels of airplanes and cost economics of cars. And he thinks ePlane will get there. The company is also in talks with potential strategic investors, including some large automakers, to raise more money.

“Where we are today is we have shown flight tests of a subscale prototype, which we are now going to commercialise for cargo applications,” Satya said.

Razorpay, a leading fintech name in India, providing a payments platform and banking-as-a-service software to some 10 million businesses, in the country, yesterday elevated Rahul Kothari to the position of chief operating officer for India and Malaysia.

Kothari was previously chief business officer at the company. He will report to founder and CEO Harshil Mathur, the Bengaluru company said in a press release yesterday.

This appointment sharpens Razorpay’s focus on the Southeast Asia region, where it’s looking to expand. The company also aims to implement a deeper integrated strategy to step up growth by improving customer experience across its different lines of business and products.

In January, I wrote that Razorpay was at an inflexion point. About a month before that Shashank Kumar, the other founder, and Murali Brahmadesam had spoken about sustaining the culture of engineering at the company as it became bigger.

Brahmadesam came in from AWS, earlier last year, and he’d taken on the CTO’s role from Kumar, who was looking to free himself up from day-to-day engineering to focus on products strategy.

The company has about 1,000 engineers among its 3,500 staff, or “Razors” as they’re called internally, including several senior engineering leaders. Kumar had talked about how over the next five years, Razorpay would seek “tremendous scale.”

And imports such as Brahmadesam will be playing a critical role on the engineering front. 

Razorpay is stepping up its expansion into a broader financial services platform, from its flagship payments business—it accounts for most of its revenues and is making money on a standalone basis—to facilitating loans, and banking software.

The company is expected to go deeper into the emerging hot area of ‘banking as a service,’ which accounting giant Deloitte defines as provisioning of banking products and services through third-party distributors.

This opens up the possibility that a large number of new niche finance startups can partner large, established banks and financial services companies, and help each other tap a significantly larger market than they could individually. Razorpay could emerge as a facilitator of this growth, and benefit from it.

To throw the story forward, while Razorpay has made a name for itself in India, “We want to see how we can create a global engineering brand while we are working out of Bengaluru and India,” Kumar had told me a year ago.

Organizational changes such Kothari’s appointment are important incremental steps in that direction on the business front. Kothari has a degree in chemical engineering from IIT Kanpur, and an MBA from Indian School of Business. 

Over the last 20 years or so, he’s worked in the US, Europe and Australia. Currently based in Pune, he’s into his fifth year with Razorpay. Previously, Kothari played a critical role in making the payments business profitable at PayU, according to Razorpay’s press release.

He's also worked at security software company Symantec, BPO company WNS, and Boston Consulting Group.

Next year, Razorpay will be 10 years old. Technically, it was started in 2013 in Jaipur, but Mathur and Kumar, alumni of IIT Roorkee, moved base to Bengaluru quickly, and the company is widely considered to be founded in 2014. They were one of the first Indian startup founders to be part Y Combinator.

Investors including Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, TCV, GIC, Tiger Global, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, and Salesforce Ventures have invested a total of $741.5 million in the company in six rounds of funding.

In December 2021, the company was privately valued at $7.5 billion, making it one of India’s most valued startups. The company reported close to Rs. 1,500 crore in FY22 revenues, a 75 percent growth over the previous fiscal, and it was profitable on a standalone basis, for the flagship payments business.

Bumble yesterday announced that Lidiane Jones, who currently serves as chief executive at Slack, will succeed founder and current CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, on Jan. 2. Wolfe Herd will become Executive Chair at that time, the company said in a press release yesterday. 

Nasdaq listed Bumble, which will report its fiscal third-quarter earnings later today, is expected to cross a billion dollars in revenue this year. 

“Early in my career, I was the target of online abuse and harassment. I lived in a perpetual state of anxiety; the internet felt like the Wild West, dangerous and toxic. I knew there had to be a better way: A kinder, more respectful internet,” Herd wrote in an exclusive blog for Forbes India in March this year. 

With that as the founding principle, Herd started Bumble in 2014, with a four-member team and a two-bedroom apartment, my colleague Naini Thaker wrote in her awesome piece on Bumble’s India plans in July.

Before Bumble, Wolfe Herd was a co-founder of Tinder, which she sued for sexual harassment, according to Forbes magazine.

Bumble went public in February 2021, raising $2.15 billion in a listing that saw the company’s stock soar to $76, versus the listing price of $43, before closing at $70.31. That made Wolfe Herd, who was 31 at the time, the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, worth $1.5 billion. She owns about a fifth of the company, according to Forbes.

Since then, the stock has plummeted well below the listing price and currently trades at around $13.

Under Wolfe Herd’s leadership, Bumble has built itself brand recognition as a dating app that is serious about women’s safety online, according to the company’s press release yesterday.

Jones, who will take on the CEO’s role, has a B.S. in computer science from University of Michigan. She’s had a stellar record, which started as an intern at Apple in 2002, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

She then spent close to 13 years at Microsoft, where she was Group Product Manager for Azure Machine Learning when she left for Sonos, the high-end speaker maker. She was there for close to four years, including through the company’s IPO, and was VP of software product management when she left for Slack.

Last year, she was named to replace Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield, who left Salesforce in January this year. Salesforce acquired Slack in a $27.7 billion deal in 2021.

Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, told TechCrunch that Jones’s move to Bumble makes a lot of sense, and would be a better fit for her skillset.

It’s not about moving from enterprise software to a dating app product, but rather that “Slack is no longer a growth play, but an integration play for Salesforce, and Lidiane’s talents are better at Bumble for turnaround and growth,” Wang told TechCrunch.

When she was named CEO of Slack, Fortune Magazine, after an interview with her, described Jones as a rare Brazil-born, Latin American tech CEO. She’s also a mother, according to Bumble’s press release yesterday.

“As a woman who has spent her career in technology, it’s a gift to lean on my experience to lead a company dedicated to women and encouraging equality, integrity and kindness, all deeply personal and inspiring to me,” Jones said in the press release.

Apple, last week, reported another quarter of revenue decline, on a year-on-year basis, but also one where the decrease was significantly narrower than nine months ago, amid heightened global uncertainties.

The three months to Sep. 30, which is Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter, was also the iPhone maker’s best quarter in India, ever.

“We achieved an all-time revenue record in India,” CEO Tim Cook told analysts and investors in a conference on Thursday last week. Apple shipped a record 2.5 million iPhones to India in the three months ended Sep. 30, according to an estimate from Hong Kong based market researcher, Counterpoint Technology Market Research, last week.

After more than a decade of hits and misses, that’s the best quarter Apple has seen in India, ever. Counterpoint and other well-known market researchers such as IDC estimate that Apple could end calendar year 2023 with sales of 8-9 million iPhones in India, which would represent a growth of between 19.4 percent and 34.3 percent versus the 6.7 million units sold here in 2022.

The company also saw September quarter records in several countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and Vietnam, Cook added.

It was a significant quarter for Apple, for it switched to the type-C USB port from its proprietary lightning connection. The company also rolled out its latest generation of iPhones, new software across products, and reported significant progress on its journey towards making its products planet friendly.

Overall, in addition to the all-time record in India, “iPhone, revenue came in ahead of our expectations, setting a September quarter record,” Cook said. iPhone sales also set quarterly records in many markets, including China Mainland, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, he said.

That, and the sustained strong performance of services, were what helped revenues in a quarter that saw a significant drop in the sale of Mac computers and iPads as well, while Apple continues to lead the tablet market. “In services, we set an all-time revenue record with double-digit growth and ahead of our expectations,” Cook said.

iPhone revenue was $43.8 billion, up 3 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Overall, Apple posted quarterly revenue of $89.5 billion, down 1 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.46, up 13 percent year over year. The sales decline has narrowed from the 5 percent fall in the company’s fiscal first quarter.

Apple senior VP and CFO Luca Maestri added that the company’s total installed base of active devices, reached an all-time high across all products and all geographic segments.

While Apple doesn’t call out region-specific numbers, Cook responded to a question by an analyst on the call by saying iPhone sales in India “grew very strong double digits,” in the three months ended Sep. 30. 

He provided some additional qualitative commentary: “It’s an incredibly exciting market for us and a major focus of ours. We have low share in a large market and so it would seem that there’s a lot of headroom there.”

The two physical retail stores in India have continued to better than expected. “It’s still early going but they are off to a good start,” he said.

In today’s episode we take a quick look at news of US President Joe Biden’s executive order to regulate AI, but first one other headline that’s caught everyone’s attention at home.

Headlines

Several politicians from various opposition parties in India have been sent notifications by Apple that they were being targeted by “state-sponsored attackers,” according to multiple media reports.

Among those who may have been targeted are members of parliament including TMC's Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT's) Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress's Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, AAP's Raghav Chadha, and CPIM's Sitaram Yechury, Moneycontrol reports, citing the politicians as saying they have received notifications from Apple stating that their devices were being targeted by state-sponsored attackers.

One thing today

US President Joe Biden yesterday issued an executive order outlining new regulations and safety requirements for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as the pace at which such technologies are advancing has alarmed governments around the world about the potential for their misuse.

The order, which runs into some 20,000 words, introduces a safety measure by defining a threshold based on computing power for AI models. AI models trained with a computing power of 10^26 floating-point operations, or flops, will be subject to these new rules.

This threshold surpasses the current capabilities of AI models, including GPT-4, but is expected to apply to next-generation models from prominent AI companies such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others, Casey Newton, a prominent technology writer who attended the Whitehouse conference at which President Biden announced the new rules yesterday, notes in his newsletter, Platformer.

Companies developing models that meet this criterion must conduct safety tests and share the results with the government before releasing their AI models to the public. This mandate builds on voluntary commitments by 15 major tech companies earlier this year, Newton writes in his letter.

The sweeping executive order addresses various potential harms related to AI technologies and their applications ranging from telecom and wireless networks to energy and cybersecurity. It assigns the US Commerce Department the task of establishing standards for digital watermarks and other authenticity verification methods to combat deepfake content.

It mandates AI developers to assess their models' potential for aiding in the development of bioweapons, and orders agencies to conduct risk assessments related to AI's role in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons.

Newton references an analysis of the executive order by computer scientists Arvind Narayanan, Sayash Kapoor and Rishi Bommasani to point out that despite these significant steps, the executive order leaves some important issues unaddressed.

Notably, it lacks specific requirements for transparency in AI development, such as pre-training data, fine-tuning data, the labour involved in annotation, model evaluation, usage, and downstream impacts.

Experts like them argue that transparency is essential for ensuring accountability and preventing potential biases and unintended consequences in AI applications.

The order hasn’t also addressed the current debate surrounding open-source AI development versus proprietary tech. The choice between open-source models, as advocated by Meta and Stability AI, and closed models, like those pursued by OpenAI and Google, has become a contentious issue, Newton writes. 

Prominent scientists, such as Stanford University Professor Andrew Ng, who previously founded Google Brain, have criticised the large tech companies for seeking industry regulation as a way of stifling open-source competition. They argue that while regulation is necessary, open-source AI research fosters innovation and democratizes technology.

In today’s episode I bring you the gist of Qualcomm’s latest State of Sound report, but first a few headlines. 

Headlines

India’s department of telecommunications has used facial recognition to disconnect more than 6.4 million illegal phone connections over the last six months, Moneycontrol reports. It detects when a photograph has been used multiple times to procure SIM cards and flags instances where an individual has acquired more than the nine SIM cards allowed per Aaadhaar number under Indian telecom rules, according to Moneycontrol.

Apple yesterday announced the next iteration of its computer processors, the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, chips featuring technologies that the company says deliver dramatically increased performance and make new capabilities possible on the Mac computers.

These are the first personal computer chips built using the 3-nanometer process technology, Apple says. The iPhone maker also released new Macbook Pro laptops with these chips and finally, offered a refresh of the iMac all-in-one desktop computer, which up until now was only available with the M1 chip.

One thing today

In one thing today, for those of you who particularly care about a good audio experience – from music to podcasts to the audio that actually makes video look good – I stumbled upon an opportunity to bring you the gist of an interesting report from Qualcomm.

The smartphone chip giant recently released its latest State of Sound report, and here’s a summary.

One finding is that consumers want to use the same device across all use cases, from listening to music, or gaming, while commuting, and for work. As premium devices expand in capabilities and features, this year’s responses suggest that consumers will be willing to spend more on one device which is optimized for multiple purposes, Qualcomm notes in its report.

The 2023 study, conducted in July, surveyed 7,000 smartphone users, covering the US, UK, Germany, China, India and Japan, and South Korea included for the first time. The report examines the factors that influence audio device purchases and interest in present and future usage scenarios, among consumers in the age group of 18 years to 64 years.

The focus of this year’s research is on how consumer use of wireless audio devices is evolving to include more complex use cases, from traditional uses like music, voice calls and watching video to the use of devices in the workplace, for gaming and hearing enhancement. 

Earbuds and headphones are now considered crucial for activities such as working, commuting, gaming, and exercising, according to the report. Globally, the demand for true wireless earbuds and headphones is growing, with listeners using devices more often daily, and for longer periods of time.

Therefore, comfort in the ear has become the top purchase driver for the first time, according to this report. The typical length of time that people are wearing true wireless earbuds is increasing, across multiple use cases, which is making comfort much more important.

Consumers are also looking for increased device range, particularly around the home. And, there is also increasing demand for more premium sound experiences. For example, 73 percent of the respondents said they make sure that sound quality on their devices gets better with every new purchase, up from 67 percent in 2022.

Demand for good quality audio in music is at an all-time high, with 69 percent of consumers listing lossless audio quality as a likely purchase driver. This shift is paired with a growing interest in premium audio features such as spatial audio, clear voice calls and lower audio latency.

In today’s episode H1B visa rules will soon change significantly, but first a few other headlines caught my attention.

Isro, announced last week the successful test of “In-flight Abort Demonstration of Crew Escape System (CES)” at Mach number 1.2 with the space agency’s newly developed Test Vehicle, followed by Crew Module separation & safe recovery. This is in an important milestone in India’s Gaganyaan human space flight effort.

VC firms are doubling down on AI and deep tech. TechCrunch reports today that these are the prevailing themes in the latest early-stage cohort from Peak XV Partners, formerly Sequoia Capital India, the largest India and Southeast Asia-focused VC fund.

One thing today

Big changes are coming to H1B visa rules, that could have significant impact for India’s $245 billion IT services industry.

In a move aimed at enhancing the H-1B specialty occupation worker program, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Oct. 20, according to a press release on the department’s website.

The proposed rule intends to streamline eligibility requirements, boost program efficiency, provide more benefits and flexibility for both employers and workers, and reinforce integrity measures.

The H-1B program is pivotal for US employers, allowing them to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, a classification that mandates highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific field, the press release notes.

It has also been used extensively by India’s IT services providers such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services to send software engineers and others to work on client sites.

“DHS continues to develop and implement regulations that increase efficiency and improve processes for employers and workers navigating the immigration system,” US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in the press release.

One of the central changes proposed in the rule is the alteration of the H-1B registration selection process to reduce the potential for misuse and fraud. Currently, the odds of an individual being selected in the lottery system increase with the number of registrations submitted on their behalf.

The new proposal, however, would change this by ensuring that each unique individual is entered into the selection process only once, regardless of the number of registrations submitted for them. This modification aims to enhance the chances of a legitimate registration being selected while minimizing the advantage of submitting multiple registrations for the same beneficiary.

Important provisions of the proposed rule include the following:

Streamlining Eligibility Requirements: The criteria for specialty occupation positions would be revised to reduce confusion and clarify that a position may encompass a range of degrees as long as there is a direct connection between the required degree field(s) and the position's duties.

Improving Program Efficiency: The rule would codify that adjudicators should generally defer to a prior determination when no underlying facts have changed in a new filing.

Providing Greater Benefits and Flexibilities: Certain exemptions to the H-1B cap would be expanded for non-profit entities, governmental research organizations, and beneficiaries not directly employed by qualifying organizations. Additionally, students on an F-1 visa seeking to change their status to H-1B would receive extended flexibilities. The rule would also introduce new eligibility requirements for rising entrepreneurs.

Strengthening Integrity Measures: The rule would prohibit related entities from submitting multiple registrations for the same beneficiary, thus reducing misuse and fraud in the registration process. USCIS' authority to conduct site visits would be codified, and non-compliance with site visits could result in the denial or revocation of a petition.

In today’s episode, I ask if we are headed for a talent crisis in core engineering streams, but first a couple of headlines.

Headlines

Agnikul Cosmos, has raised $26.7 million in Series-B funding from investors including Celesta Capital, Rocketship.vc, Artha Venture Fund and Artha Select Fund, the Chennai startup said in a press release on Oct. 17.

IBM yesterday announced the signing of three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with three entities engaged with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to advance and accelerate innovation in AI, semiconductor and quantum technology for India, the company said in a press release.

One thing today

It’s that time of the year when the last of the admissions in India’s massive engineering education market get nailed down. And once again, despite the ongoing slowdown in the IT services sector, computer science remains the hottest area.

Reports from states known for their engineering schools, such as Maharashtra and Karnataka show that traditional streams such as civil and mechanical engineering are running a large number of vacancies. Over the next decade, will this translate to a talent crisis in India, just when the country’s manufacturing and infrastructure efforts need to shift to high gear.

In Karnataka, at least 10 engineering streams that have had little or no demand for the last few years may be removed from the pool of seats available for students to choose from, Deccan Herald reports today.

In alignment with the ongoing trend of low demand for certain streams, the Karnataka state government’s department of higher education is planning to write to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to discontinue such streams, the paper reports.
These subjects include Aeronautics, Polymer Technology, Environmental Engineering, Construction Technology, Ceramics, and Textiles Engineering.

Deccan Herald reports that 60 colleges in the state have not enrolled more than three students in some courses, with some colleges even seeing only one admission in core streams like Civil Engineering, according to data from the Department of Technical Education.

M C Sudhakar, the state’s minister for higher education, has said that the government is collecting college-wise details about low admissions and streams that had no admissions. And this will be communicated to the AICTE, according to the paper.

The AICTE has extended the deadline for admission to engineering colleges to October 30. And the Karnataka government is in collecting details from private engineering colleges, the paper reports.

Computer Science remains the most popular branch of engineering in Maharashtra with preference for allied new-age technology courses such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning and Cyber Security, The Indian Express reported on Sep. 11, citing data from the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

Some 1,17,000 students already having confirmed their preferences, the paper reports. Of the close to 50,000 seats in computer science and the allied new-age courses, nearly 45,000 have already been filled, the paper reports.

Traditional core engineering branches such as mechanical and civil engineering are running 50 percent vacancies this year, according to the Express.

And allied courses of civil engineering such as Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil and Infrastructural Engineering, Civil Engineering and Planning also recorded very low admissions. Out of a combined intake of 341 seats, only 104 seats have been filled so far.

Consider this. Next year, it will be the 10th anniversary of the launch of the ‘Make in India’ campaign.

And as India looks to step up its efforts in areas ranging from electric vehicle battery cells to ships, planes and space rockets, not to mention bridges, ports and smart cities, perhaps it’s time to figure out how to build the talent pool in the core engineering streams that we’ll need in the coming years.

There’s been a surge in children’s sexual abuse and exploitation online since the Covid pandemic, experts agree, and lawmakers around the world are trying to grapple with this threat with new policies and rules. Online businesses should be pushed to design their products and services to be age appropriate, Google proposes, but opposes stringent use of ID based verification on the grounds that such a practice can also deny useful access to all users in a digital world, and lead to more data collection on all users.

In today’s episode find out why TCS sacked 16 employees, but first a few headlines.

Headlines

After losing the IPL streaming rights, which has contributed its loss of some 20 million subscribers, Disney Hotstar set a new world record for concurrent viewers on Saturday when 35 million people logged on to the digital platform to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match in the ICC World Cup.

Apple may announce new iPads tomorrow, 9to5Mac reported over the weekend. The iPad Air, iPad mini and the base model iPad are expected to be refreshed with incremental improvements to their specifications, according to 9to5Mac.

One thing today

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services company, has concluded an internal investigation into complaints of jobs-for-bribes with respect to hiring contract workers, the company told the stock exchanges in a statement yesterday. TCS has sacked 16 employees and moved three others, based on the findings of the probe, the company said in its statement.

Many of you will remember an investigative piece by Mint Newspaper from June that brought to light a jobs-for-bribes investigation within Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services company.

And you’ll remember that a week later, at the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders, Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran confirmed that an investigation was on, based on two whistle blower complaints that had been received in February this year – one pertaining to India and the other in the US.

We learned that this was about certain company executives favouring certain firms that supplied ‘business associates’ in return for bribes, which at that point had not been quantified.

We’d also learnt that the staff involved were from a team called the resource allocation group or the resource management group – dealing with some 1,000 staffing firms that provided business associates in 55 markets.

Yesterday, the company reported that its investigation found 19 employees to be involved. Of those 16 employees have been separated from the company for code of conduct violations, and three have been removed from the Resource Management function. TCS hasn’t provided details about the involvement of the three who remain with the company but have been moved to different roles.

And six vendor entities, their owners and affiliates have been debarred from doing any business with TCS. The company is putting in place additional governance measures including regular rotation of personnel holding key roles in the Resource Management function; better analytics on supplier management; periodic declarations by vendors on compliance to the Tata Code of Conduct and a know-your-supplier process to cover additional declarations, and audits of the company’s vendor management process.

In its statement to the stock exchanges yesterday, TCS said again that there’s been no fraud by or against the company and there is no financial impact, reiterating its first statement on the issue, after the Mint newspaper article on June 23.

According to TCS, what happened was a breach of the company’s code of conduct by certain employees and vendors supplying contractors. No key managerial person of the company has been found to be involved.

It’s been something of a bumpy ride for TCS this year. First, Rajesh Gopinathan, Chandrasekaran’s protégé, abruptly resigned from the post of CEO in March, and then this investigation became public.

TCS will be looking to put this chapter firmly behind it. K Krithivasan, who replaced Gopinathan as CEO, is a company veteran of 30 plus years. Previously he led TCS’s biggest business unit – banking, financial services and insurance.

He may now get a chance to look ahead and focus on growth at a time when the crisis in the Middle East has made the outlook for the sector even more uncertain amid a global economic slowdown, while concerns about a US recession seem to be easing.

In today’s episode I take a quick look at how applications development and maintenance, which is about two-thirds of India’s IT sector revenues, is changing, but first a few headlines.

Beyond Next Ventures, a Japanese fund focused on early-stage deep tech startups in Asia, is targeting up to ¥25 billion (about $168 million) for BNV Fund 3, its third fund, TechCrunch reports. And yesterday, BNV said it completed a first close of ¥10 billion ($68 million), which it will invest in ventures in areas including robotics and biotech, according to TechCrunch.

Here in India, SaaS startup SuperOps.ai, which provides software tools for managed services providers to simplify their IT management and workflow process, has raised $12.4 million in Series B funding led by Addition and March Capital, the Chennai company said in a press release, with participation from existing investor, Matrix Partners India.

One thing today

Tata Consultancy Services kicks off of Q2 results for India’s IT sector today. Infosys reports its earnings tomorrow.

So, instead of the usual curtain raiser on their outlook, I wanted to draw your attention to a trend in the industry, touched off by the rise of generative AI, that is already looking like the beginning of the end of the applications development and maintenance model – or at least ADM as we know it today, which accounts for two-thirds of the $245 billion sector’s revenues.

First, customers are taking various software services back in-house, according to Bernard Charles, CEO and soon-to-be Chairman of Dassault Systemes. Last week, during his latest India visit, I got a chance to speak with Bernard, a 40-year veteran of the French 3D software giant, with India’s biggest conglomerates as customers, and deep partnerships within India’s IT sector.

India’s IT services industry has a very strong engineering R&D segment, but companies like Tesla, for example, want to “control the destiny of their end products themselves,” he said, when it comes to the mix of software, electronics and hardware.

And this is happening in biotech and pharmaceuticals, smart manufacturing, mechatronics systems and so on – areas that are relevant to Dassault, but also important vertical practices for India’s IT sector.

So, on the flip side, are companies like Infosys taking on more full-product level work, I asked. Yes and no, Bernard says, because there’s another dimension to this, which is to help them to transform themselves, so they can provide a lot more consultancy than before and play a bigger role.

“So, I think there will be a new adjustment,” he says. “A lot of this industry has been sustained with the massive development of code to integrate legacy systems. And they have made their money on that. But I think the future, when it comes to our platform, is low code, no code, used natively to produce your own code, not with programmers but with a generative AI.”

And this is inevitable. “It's happening. And this is what I call low code no code, to generate code with robots as opposed to programming them manually,” Bernard says.

A couple of days ago, I got a chance to meet Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, India’s largest software products company, and he has similar views in relation a related area – software developer productivity, which he sees as very large opportunity for his company.

He says it’s a really big deal and is investing heavily into R&D in this area. “I believe that productivity in software development itself can be easily tenfold, maybe 20-30-fold in the long term,” he told me.

Generative AI use cases are emerging at light speed, Stanton Jones and Olga Kupriyanova wrote in a newsletter recently, at ISG, a consultancy that tracks outsourcing contracts around the world. “This will have an outsized impact on the biggest service line within the sector – applications development and maintenance,” they say.

What do customers want from their SaaS vendors? Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho Corp., weighs in on this question, speaking with Forbes India at the company’s annual Zoholics conference on Oct. 9 in Bengaluru. Zoho remains steadfastly bootstrapped, but for the VC funded ventures, Vembu speaks about how a new funding cycle will eventually return and hopes that this time there will be more focus on important tech R&D and not just the “crowded train” that SaaS has become.

In today’s episode, Acumen, last week, announced the first Indian cohort of sustainability and renewable energy focused startups it will train, with support from Apple, but first a few headlines. 

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said he believes an artificial general intelligence (AGI) that surpasses human intelligence in most areas, will arrive within 10 years, Reuters reports.

Google yesterday released its Pixel 8 phones with a camera feature that uses an on-device algorithm to create a blended image to combine the best visuals from a series of shots – like getting the best look of everyone in a picture, for example.

The new phones will get seven years of software updates, according to Google.

One thing today

Now some of you might remember, earlier this year, Apple made a small announcement about partnering Acumen, a New York headquartered non-profit impact venture capital fund, to support social enterprises in India to improve livelihoods through clean energy innovation.

Apple hasn’t disclosed any financial details, but what we do know is that it is supporting the Energy for Livelihoods Accelerator that Acumen operates. And Acumen, last week, announced the first Indian cohort of startups it will train at this accelerator.

Through this accelerator, Acumen’s experts lead a 12-week programme designed to help social entrepreneurs scale and refine their businesses to more efficiently and effectively help the poor that they were trying to reach, while also sharpening the focus of their efforts towards protecting the environment.

Sustainable energy has the potential, over time, to more than double incomes by saving time, improving yields, and enhancing resilience, according to Acumen.

Electricity access among the poorest 20 percent of households increased from 53 percent to 86 percent in the five-year period between the fourth and fifth rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the Economic Times reported in January this year. The fifth round of the survey concluded in 2021. And in 19 states and union territories, this proportion was more than 95 percent.

That said, we still have millions of poor in India without access to reliable and affordable energy.

The 15 entrepreneurs in the first cohort are working to change that in agriculture, e-mobility, and hydropower, trying to provide the enabling technologies to improve livelihoods through better use of energy.  

“This cohort represents a diverse mix of innovators working at the intersection of sustainable energy and poverty reduction,” Mahesh Yagnaraman, Acumen’s India Director. “We are excited to support them in partnership with Apple to develop their business models with the ultimate aim of scaling their impact.” 

Acumen will also use the accelerator programme to learn directly from the entrepreneurs to refine its own work, Yagnaraman says.

Let me give you three examples. In a category called business facilitators, Nimisha Tiwari, at LinkITBlueCollar, is building a mobile-first tech-enabled platform providing Electric Vehicle (EV) skills and guaranteed jobs for low-income communities of women and youth.

In the agriculture and allied Sector category, Vanya Environmental Services, is helping small farmers to use satellite data, remote sensing and blockchain, to check carbon levels in their soil, farm sustainably, trap carbon, and generate income from selling carbon credits. 

Under business sector category, Nikky Kumar Jha, at Saptkrishi Scientific Private Limited is offering small-marginal farmers and street-hawkers, his Sabjikothi cart and e-cart models, which are microclimate-based storage solutions. The carts maintain freshness and extend the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables up to 30 days without chemicals, preservatives, or refrigerants. This storage solution requires minimal wattage, has battery backup, and can be solar powered.

In today’s episode we take a quick look at an expanded partnership between NVIDIA and Infosys that seeks to equip an army of AI specialists trained in the AI chip giant’s technologies, but first one other headline that caught my attention yesterday.

WhatsApp continues to roll out new features in India that will allow users in its largest market by userbase to do much more without leaving the instant messaging app. Coinciding with its Conversations event yesterday in Mumbai, WhatsApp announced new payments options for users.

Users in India can add items to their cart and send a payment using the method of their choice from all supported UPI apps, debit and credit cards, WhatsApp said in a blog post. The Meta Platforms company has partnered India’s Razorpay and PayU to provide these services.

One thing today

Now, as many of you know, Infosys has made several announcements this year around its AI investments, including the launch of Infosys Topaz, a comprehensive suite of services, solutions and platforms around generative AI.

Yesterday, Infosys and NVIDIA said that they are expanding the scope of an existing partnership under which the Indian IT services company helps its customers deploy the semiconductor giant’s AI chips and technologies.

The expanded partnership will see the two companies work on building generative AI solutions for global customers, according to an Infosys press release.

The broadened alliance will bring the NVIDIA AI Enterprise ecosystem of models, tools, runtimes and GPU systems to Infosys Topaz. Through the integration, Infosys will create solutions customers can adopt, to easily integrate generative AI into their businesses, according to the press release.

Infosys also plans to set up an NVIDIA Centre of Excellence, where it will train and certify 50,000 of its employees on NVIDIA’s AI technologies as demand for such skills is expected to skyrocket in the coming years.

“Infosys is transforming into an AI-first company,” co-founder and Chairman Nandan Nilekani said in the release. Clients are looking at complex AI use cases to get more business value across their operations, he said.

Infosys Topaz is complementary to NVIDIA’s core stack, Nilekani said. Combining the IT services company’s strengths, training 50,000 professionals on NVIDIA’s AI technologies, Infosys aims to create end-to-end industry-leading AI solutions for its customers, he said.

“Generative AI will drive the next wave of enterprise productivity gains,” Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA, said in the press release. Huang was in India recently, meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and high-ranking Indian officials.

He announced a slew of investments, including partnerships with India’s Tata Group and Reliance Industries, spanning data centres that will use NVIDIA’s chips to a collaboration on India-specific large language models.

“The NVIDIA AI Enterprise ecosystem is ramping quickly to provide the platform for generative AI. Together, NVIDIA and Infosys will create an expert workforce to help businesses use this platform to build custom applications and solutions,” Huang said in the press release.

Infosys uses the full-stack NVIDIA generative AI platform, including hardware and enterprise-grade software in its own business operations, and it is helping customers create generative AI applications for business operations, sales and marketing.

With NVIDIA AI Enterprise frameworks, pre-trained models and toolkits — including the NVIDIA NeMo LLM framework, NVIDIA Metropolis for computer vision and NVIDIA Riva for speech AI — Infosys has already developed some solutions.

In today’s episode it’s all about Apple. And of course, the company didn’t disappoint with the many incrementally faster, better features with innovations that combine both hardware tech and software ingenuity, as it launched the iPhone 15 series of smartphones and the Apple Watch 9 series, yesterday.

For example, a double tap of your thumb and your index finger, of the hand on which you’re wearing an Apple Watch, will now let you do a bunch of new things, from answering and ending phone calls to bringing up various apps and notifications.

Or take the iPhone 15 Pro models, which have titanium bodies, making them tougher and lighter. I’ll do a deep dive into this in the coming days, and you can of course just check out all the new features on Apple’s website. Oh and the switch to USB-C happened.

What caught my imagination, however, was the iPhone maker’s progress towards its 2030 goal of being carbon neutral across its supply chain.

And yesterday, Apple provided updates on several fronts on its progress – from increased use of recycled materials across its products to energy and water use in its operations to more supply chain partners committing to making their own operations carbon neutral, to the end results – products that don’t leave a carbon footprint or whose carbon footprints are offset by the company’s overall efforts.

For the Apple Watch Series Nine, the aluminium used in the watch cases is 100 percent recycled. The company is also increasing the proportion of recycled metals including gold, tin, copper, tungsten and other materials.

And for the first time, there is 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery. Apple has also redesigned one of its most popular watch bands, the Sport Loop, to use more recycled materials. It is now made with 82 percent recycled yarn.

Starting this year, all Apple Watch manufacturing is powered by 100 percent clean electricity. For Series Nine, Apple will match 100 percent of your expected electricity use by investing in renewable energy projects around the world.

To cut emissions from transportation, Apple has redesigned Series 9 packaging to be 100 percent fibre based and more compact. It has a new, smaller shape that lets Apple ship up to 25 percent more watches per trip. And more of those trips will be made with low carbon shipping modes like Ocean freight, which emits one 20th of shipping by air.

Overall, these efforts reduced the carbon footprint on the Apple Watch by 78 percent. The rest is being offset by high quality credits from projects like forests and wetlands that actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. This last step brings the net carbon footprint of Apple Watch Series Nine down to zero, making it Apple’s first ever carbon neutral product.

The iPhone 15, overall, is one of the most durable smartphones that will the market next week. Apple is also making these phone incrementally more repair friendly, allowing people to use them for longer. And as we know, Apple’s software updates support its products for several years.

The iPhone’s enclosure uses 75 percent recycled aluminium for the first time, 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery and 100 percent recycled copper foil in the main logic board and MagSafe charger.

The entire aluminium substructure is made with 100 percent recycled aluminium, a first for the iPhone.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max now use 100 percent recycled gold in the USB‑C connector as well as the gold plating and tin soldering in multiple printed circuit boards. Both models meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and are free of mercury, PVC, and beryllium.

One last point. For the first time, Apple is releasing the iPhones in India at the same time as in the US, starting this Friday, Sep. 15, 5:30 p.m. local time in India. Pricing starts at Rs 1,34,900 for the 128GB version of the iPhone 15 Pro, and Rs. 1,59,900 for the iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB version.

In today’s episode we take a quick look at the rise of global capability centres, as they are called, but first a few headlines.

Headlines

Apple’s iPhone 15 event, the Wonderlust, is to be held later today, where we might get to see the company’s first smartphone with the standard USB-C charging port. It’s at 10:30 p.m. India time and you can watch the event on Apple’s website.

Tata Consultancy Services is the second Indian IT services company, after Infosys, to join Dassault Systèmes’ Living Heart Project that brings together industry, academia, hospitals and regulators to build ever more accurate digital models of the heart, which will help develop more accurate treatment of heart diseases.

Perfios, which provides a real-time credit-decision platform and data aggregation APIs to financial companies, has raised $229 million in series-D funding from Kedaara Capital, the Bengaluru SaaS company said in a press release yesterday. The new investment is a combination of a primary fund raise and a secondary sale.

One thing today

Global capability centres, as they are now marketed, are offshore centres in India providing work for large multinational parent corporations, mostly in the US, Britain and Western Europe, but also from countries like Korea and Australia.

Many of you interested in India’s tech sector will of course be familiar with some of the history of how Texas Instruments came to Bengaluru, one of the earliest GCCs here – of course the term GCC didn’t even exist back then. Or take the expansion of Robert Bosch’s software and engineering teams in India.

The world’s best-known companies across sectors have such centres in India – from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to GE Aerospace and GE HealthCare and Mercedes Benz to Salesforce and Atlassian. There are close to 1600 GCCs in India, employing about 1.66 million people and accounting for $46 billion in business at the end of FY23, having grown at a CAGR of 11.4 percent from 2015 to 2023, or the year ended March 31, 2023, according to the consultancy Zinnov.

Many of these companies have multiple centres in India – typically in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and the NCR. Zinnov calls these individual centres GCC Units, and there were more than 2,740 GCC Units at the end of FY23.

In the first six months of 2023, 18 new GCCs were added in India including companies like BlackBerry, Truecaller and the Lloyds Banking Group. And several existing GCCs were expanded.

More recently, earlier this month, Zinnov provided a deep dive into two important sectors – Aerospace and Defence, and Automotive.

In Aerospace and Defence, companies that expanded their GCC operations in recent times include Boeing and Bombardier. Other top companies in the sector that have significant presence in India include Lockheed Martin, Rolls Royce, Thales, Collins Aerospace and Airbus.

Their GCCs and workforce are concentrated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and NCR, which account for 80 percent of their installed talent as Zinnov calls it. Half of these companies are from the US, and 62 percent of their work involves engineering R&D, according to Zinnov.

In the Automotive sector, Daimler Truck, Fisker and Eminox are among the new entrants, and companies with existing GCCs include Ford, BMW, Stellantis, Hyundai and Mercedes Benz. About half of all the auto sector GCCs in India have parent companies coming from the US and Germany.

Pune and Bengaluru have the most GCCs at 52 percent of the units in India. Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai account for 85 percent of the installed GCC talent in the auto sector. And again, engineering R&D accounts for two-thirds of the work being done at these centres.

In today’s episode one quick takeaway from Freshworks’s first investor day since the company went public two years ago, but first a few headlines.

Headlines

NVIDIA and Reliance Industries, on Sep. 8, announced a collaboration to develop India’s own foundation large language model trained on the nation’s diverse languages and tailored for generative AI applications to serve the world’s most populous nation, according to a press release from the AI GPU maker.

Apple’s much anticipated iPhone 15 will be unwrapped tomorrow, and it will be nighttime in India. One big change everyone’s expecting is of course the USB-C port that Apple’s been forced to switch to, after the European Union mandated it for most electronics gadgets by next year.

One thing today

So last week, Freshworks organized its first investor day, on Sep. 7. Of course, the company has been providing quarterly updates and holding conference calls with analysts and so on since it was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange two years ago. But this was a bona fide investor-focused meet where the company provided some granular data on how it’s doing and where it’s headed.

The one takeaway for me, and probably for many others, was that the company’s Freshservice product is growing more than twice as fast as the company’s overall growth rate, and not on a very small base either.

As many of you know Freshworks was founded in 2010. It has headquartered in San Mateo, California, and CEO Girish Mathrubootham told analysts and investors that 85 percent of the company’s 5,000 or so employees are in India. Mostly in Chennai, but also in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and elsewhere.

The company has over 65,000 customers and 19,000 of those pay the SaaS vendor $5,000 or more every year in subscription fees of its software. Among its customers are Coca Cola, Honda, Sotheby’s, Thomas Cook, Klarna, African Bank, PhonePe and Mahindra Group.

This year, as Freshworks pushes to become profitable, it’s delivering 10 percent free cash flow margins, Mathrubootham said.

Freshworks started with a customer support software, Freshdesk, and today the overall customer support software business is at about $300 million ARR, and growing in the low to mid-teens percent annually, Mathrubootham said. But it’s Freshservice, the IT service management software and related products, that’s emerged as the most promising component of the company’s product portfolio.

“Today, that's our fastest growing product with north of $250 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue),” Mathrubootham said. An important reason could be that, especially post Covid, large businesses have been overhauling their IT, moving to the cloud and looking for ways to reduce the complexity of managing a hoard of the technology solutions, including multiple software subscriptions.

Freshservice clocked $260 million in ARR as at the end of the June quarter, which is Freshworks’s fiscal Q2. It was growing at more than 40 percent at the time, compared with the company’s overall growth rate of about 20 percent. The business has a total addressable market of some $20 billion, growing at 12 percent, according to market researcher and consultancy Gartner, including the areas of IT Service Management, IT Asset Management & Software Asset Management, IT Infrastructure Monitoring, AIOps, Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms.

In this segment, “our customer is the CIO, or a senior IT leader, and we have a lot of traction in mid-market and in enterprise,” Freshworks’s president Dennis Woodside said. The company has some 8,500 customers paying more than $5,000 in annual Freshservice subscription fees, he said.

In the coming months and quarters, Freshworks will launch more features to capture adjacent opportunities, Dennis said, with industry specific solutions, such as government agencies, security, operations, governance, risk and compliance.

In today’s episode we take a quick look at Zoho’s latest milestone, with the Indian SaaS leader crossing 100 million users, but first a few headlines.

Headlines

HeromotoCorp will invest up to Rs. 550 crore in a rights issue of Ather Energy Private Limited, the Indian two-wheeler giant told stock exchanges on Sep. 4 in a statement.

Atomicwork, a cloud software provider of productivity software, has raised $11 million in seed funding led by Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners, TechCrunch reports.

Richard Lobo, an executive vice president and former head of human resources at Infosys, has resigned, marking the latest in a series of top-level exits at the company, Moneycontrol reports.

One thing today

Zoho, India’s biggest cloud software company, has surpassed 100 million, the Chennai-to-California company said in a press release. Zoho says it is the first bootstrapped SaaS company to reach this milestone. Last year the company hit $1 billion in revenues, and Zoho is one of a handful of SaaS companies in India that are profitable.

Started more than 25 years ago, the company’s growth over the last 15 years, with the rise of the cloud computing model, has taken it from 1 million users in 2008 to 100 million today. The latest 50 million users were added within the past five years. And the company sells more than 55 products to over 700,000 businesses in some 150 countries, according to its press release.

“We are not done yet,” co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu said in the release. The company has an innovation pipeline covering the next 10 years and it is investing in deep technologies to serve billions of users around the world, he said.

Zoho defines midmarket customers as companies with 250 employees each and those with a thousand or more workers as classic enterprise, or the upmarket segment. India shows a significant presence of enterprise customers adopting Zoho, CMO Praval Singh had said in an interview with Forbes India in June this year.

In the SaaS business, larger customers mean more users and increased complexity, resulting in higher revenue per customer. The upmarket segment contributes over half of Zoho’s business in India, and a third of its entire business.

As its products matured, larger businesses adopted its solutions. This led Zoho to establish dedicated teams with expertise in serving large companies. “We also developed an interoperable ecosystem, enabling easy integration with third-party applications through APIs, connectors, and partnerships,” Praval said in that interview.

To cater to larger enterprises, the company launched the Zoho Marketplace, which has more than 1,800 extensions and garners 30,000 monthly installations. In 2018, Zoho introduced an enterprise business solutions team as trusted partners, offering assistance in digital transformation projects, from consulting to implementation and training.

Zoho has focused on helping large enterprises streamline and optimise their technology stacks, addressing challenges such as integration, data silos, scalability, and flexibility. By helping customers overcome these obstacles, Zoho has played a meaningful role in supporting their growth and progress over the years, Praval says.

India is one of the fastest-growing markets for Zoho, where the company has witnessed three year compounded annual growth of 65 percent in its upmarket segment. Customers in India include IIFL, Bigbasket and Tata Play Fiber.

Zoho's upmarket growth in India is led by sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, retail, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharmaceuticals, and IT. The company has collaborated with government departments and public sector units (PSUs) to support their digitalisation efforts and contribute to the modernisation of the public sector.

In today’s episode we take a quick look at edtech funding, from a report published by Tracxn. But first, a few headlines. 

Headlines

Telecom operators in India want internet companies to compensate them for using their telecom networks, a recommendation they’ve made to the local regulatory body, echoing a viewpoint that is gaining some momentum in other parts of the world, TechCrunch reports.

Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm, has announced the launch of its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 450 Crore. The fund aims to invest in 25 B2B SaaS start-ups, the VC firm said in a press release.

One thing today

Now, after all the problems BYJU’s has faced, it might not surprise you that India’s edtech startups haven’t done very well this year, by way of funding, even though they were among the top three most funded geographies in this space, worldwide, in the first seven months or so of 2023, according to Tracxn, a leading provider of private markets intelligence in India.

India’s ed-tech startups sector has experienced a declining trend in funding, similar to its global counterparts, according to Tracxn’s latest Feed-Geo report on the ed-tech startups landscape in India.

Most of the funding into Indian ed-tech startups in 2023 so far was secured in the second quarter of the calendar year. Companies raised funding worth $713 million in Q2 2023, accounting for 73.43 percent of the total funding raised this year. This is also an increase of 37 percent compared with the same period last year. 

That said, total funding into the Indian ed-tech space plunged 48 percent to $971 million in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, the period for which Tracxn has compiled data for its report. edtech startups had raised $1.87 billion in the same period in 2022.

The 2023 YTD funding is also 50 percent lower than the money the sector raised in the same period in 2021, according to Tracxn. The number of funding rounds in 2023 fell 77 percent and 82 percent compared with the same periods in 2022 and 2021 respectively.

Late-stage investments worth $879 million have been recorded in 2023 so far, contributing to more than 90 percent of the total funding, which is also a drop of 23 percent compared with $1.14 billion raised in the same period in 2022 and a drop of 39 percent from $1.44 billion raised in the same period in 2021.

Early-stage investments worth $75.7 million were recorded in 2023 YTD, an 88 percent drop from $618 million raised in the same period last year and an 82 percent drop compared with $414 million raised in the same period in 2021.

Edtech startups raised $15.7 million through seed-stage rounds in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, a drop of 85 percent from $105 million raised in the same period in 2022 and an 83 percent drop from the same period in 2021.

No new Unicorns have so far emerged in this sector this year, as against two in the same period last year. 2023 saw seven acquisitions, a 70 percent decline compared with 23 acquisitions in the same period in 2022 and 19 acquisitions in the same period in 2021.

Among Indian cities, Bengaluru, far and away, takes the lead in terms of total funds raised till date, followed by Mumbai and Gurgaon. edtech startups in Bangalore have raised a total of over $8 billion as of Aug. 7, 2023, followed by Mumbai ($2.5 billion) and Gurgaon ($497 million).

In the last two years, We Founder Circle, Peak XV Partners, formerly Sequoia India, and MMPL Trust, were the most active investors in this space. We Founder Circle, IPV, and LetsVenture were the top seed investors, while Peak XV Partners, Better Capital, and AngelList were the top early-stage investors. MMPL Trust, WestBridge Capital, and The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative were the top late-stage investors.

Today, five takeaways on the future of India’s SaaS sector from the perspective of an early-stage VC investor, but first, a few headlines.

Headlines

India’s Aditya-L1 satellite, our first space-based solar observatory, was launched successfully on Sep. 2 at 11:50 a.m. local time, Isro said in an update.

Microsoft is ending WordPad, the basic word processor that’s been included with Windows since 1995, Thurrot reported over the weekend, citing a support page from the Windows maker.

Infosys has completed the acquisition of Denmark’s Danske Bank’s 1,400-person IT centre in India, the Bengaluru IT services company said in a press release on Sep. 1.

One thing today

There are optimistic projections about how India’s SaaS companies will become a $50 billion sector by 2030 and so on. But what are some of the obstacles they will have to overcome. Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Arun Raghavan, founding partner at Arali Ventures in Bengaluru, and this was one of the topics we discussed for a bit.

Here are some quick takeaways from Arun’s experience, which includes successfully backing multiple SaaS startups very early on in their journey and even some good exits.

1. The go-to-market playbook is heftier than five years ago. So how does one create a sales engine that can have people sit in India and develop relationships with enterprise customers in the US and Europe. You can only do that to a limited extent if you’re only trying from India. And if you really want to go after large customers, you need feet on street. More companies doing this much better today, but there’s ways to go.

2. How do you scale a company sitting in India to become a $100 million dollar business, especially if you're selling into the US? This is work in progress. Typically, a company that starts in the US, which gets good talent, is off to the races, but the pool of people who have the experience of playing the cross-border game is still limited. The numbers are big in tech services, but not yet in the products startup ecosystem.

3. You may disagree, but the real cutting-edge stuff is still mostly coming from Silicon Valley or Israel and such hubs. That proportion is still 80-90 percent, Arun says. Of course, there are very interesting companies coming out of India, but it's not widespread yet.

Can a startup find a critical mass of generative AI experts quickly in India, for example? Not really, says Arun. And the more deeper tech players from India, more often than not, while they may have centres in India, they will also tap talent in Eastern Europe, for example, or Israel or the US or all of the above.

4. We need to go way deeper than the application layer. Traditionally, we’ve been great at application software. We’ve got a $200 billion tech services industry to show for it. But anything that's at a more infrastructure level, or tooling level is something that we don't have a lot of experience in, Arun says.

He expects these are areas where we will develop some knowhow over the next four or five years. Why is this important? Well, the infra players are relevant to customers around the world. For example, can we think of a Snowflake emerging from India in the next ten years, asks Arun? Or a Databricks?

5. The money is there now. To end on a more optimistic note, funding isn’t a challenge anymore, Arun says, the current slowdown notwithstanding. Over the last five years, large investors from the US have taken note of the potential for software product companies to come out of India and they have been investing in this ecosystem. This will only increase.

In today’s episode, sales of robots are down by almost a third from the first six months of last year. But first, some headlines that caught my attention.

Headlines that caught our attention

India's first indigenously developed nuclear power plant unit has started operations at full capacity, Business Today reports. The plant, in Kakrapar, Gujarat, had two existing 200 MWe units. This third unit, and a fourth one that is expected to go online in March 2024, are India's first pair of indigenously designed Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MW size with enhanced safety features, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.

Elon Musk said yesterday that video and audio calls will be coming to X, formerly Twitter. The features will work on iOS, Android, Mac and PC, Musk wrote in a post on the microblogging site. No phone number is needed because X is effectively a global address book, he added.

Google has announced Oct. 4 as the date for its annual Pixel hardware event, 9To5Google reports. Like last year, the event is taking place in New York City. The “Made by Google” event and keynote will be at 10 am ET. You can catch the livestream on YouTube and the Google Store website. Two of the devices expected are the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, according to 9To5Google.

IBM last month signed a $69.8 million (£54.7 million) contract with the British government to develop a national biometrics platform that will offer a facial recognition function to immigration and law enforcement officials, The Verge reports, citing documents reviewed by it and Liberty Investigates, an investigative journalism organisation in the UK. Some human rights activists have now accused IBM CEO Arvind Krishna of reneging on a promise he made three years ago to not build general purpose facial recognition technology for surveillance. IBM says this UK contract, meant to help police track suspects, doesn’t violate that promise, according to The Verge.

One thing today

Now, robot sales fell for the second quarter in a row in the US, the world’s biggest tech market. A slow US economy and high interest rates have taken a toll on robot orders in North America, resulting in a decline for the second quarter in a row after record purchases in 2021 and 2022, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), said in a press release yesterday.

Companies ordered 7,697 robots valued at $457 million from April to July 2023, a 37 percent decline in robot orders and 20 percent drop in value over the same period in 2022.

When combined with first quarter results, the robotics market in North America is down 29 percent compared to the first half of last year with a total of 16,865 robots ordered. This drop comes after a record 2022, where North American companies ordered 44,196 robots, up 11 percent over 2021, the previous record.

The ongoing labour shortage in the US, especially in manufacturing (down another 2000 jobs in July, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics) remains a key driver of automation. An increasing trend towards reshoring tasks back to the US is another factor.

Non-automotive customers ordered more robots in the second quarter of 2023 than automotive customers, with 52 percent of units going to non-automotive industries and 48 percent going to automotive OEMs and component suppliers.

Both categories were down compared to the second quarter of last year, however, with non-automotive orders down 21 percent and automotive orders down 49 percent. The strongest demand in Q2 came from the semiconductor and electronics industries, followed by life sciences/pharma and biomedical, plastics and rubber and metals, with automotive components, food and consumer goods and automotive OEMs showing the biggest drops.

In today’s episode, we take a quick look at India’s opportunity to expand its digital technologies ecosystem to tier-2 cities, but first, some headlines that caught my attention.

Headlines that caught our attention

Google is expanding its generative AI search experience to markets outside the US, starting with India and Japan, TechCrunch reports. The new AI-powered search feature, also known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), will be available through Google’s Search Labs.

Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Baidu said that its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot was now open to the public at large, signalling a green light from Beijing, and another indication of a more relaxed policy stance on artificial intelligence, CNBC reports.

In some cheer for the SaaS sector, Salesforce, cloud software bellwether, yesterday announced quarterly results and guidance that beat Wall Street’s expectations, CNBC reports. As many of you might remember, India’s Freshworks beat expectations with its June quarter earnings results on Aug. 2.

One thing today

Now, speaking of India’s tech talent, that workforce is making it a destination for the next wave of foreign companies looking to establish centres for R&D, software development and engineering. And there is an opportunity to expand the ecosystem to tier-2 cities, Nasscom, the country’s biggest tech lobby, and accounting consultancy firm Deloitte, say in a new report.

The report examines talent, infrastructure, risk and regulatory environment, start-up ecosystem, and social and living environment, which are vital for establishing a flourishing technological landscape.

And it spolights the potential of 26 cities in the country – from Chandigarh to Indore to Mysuru and Vishakapatnam – which could become an integrated part of India’s tech ecosystem, Nasscom and Deloitte said in a press release on Aug. 29. Helped by rapid infrastructure growth, diverse skills, burgeoning start-ups, and governmental initiatives, these emerging hubs are gearing to achieve tier-1 status, according to the press release.

“While big cities were the focus in the past, the post-pandemic era witnesses a remarkable decentralisation of work across the nation,” Sumeet Salwan, a partner at Deloitte India, said the press release. 

Today, about 60 percent of India’s graduates in engineering, arts, and science come from smaller towns and 30 percent of total graduates relocate to tier-1 cities seeking employment, he said.

The 26 promising locations identified in the report have the potential to become the epicentre of innovation and growth, according to the report. This trend is supported by a workforce skilled in cutting-edge digital technologies, with about 800,000 individuals located in these emerging hubs. And these cities are seeing strong additions to the number of people skilled in digital technologies.

These locations currently account for 10-15 percent of India’s tech talent. They provide promising growth potential when supported by the governments’ commitment to world-class infrastructure, Salwan says. Take the “if you build it, they will come” approach, he says.

Startups in these locations grew 50 percent from 2014-2018, with expectations of 2.2X growth by 2025, according to the report.

These tier-2 locations also offer a cost advantage, including a 25-30 percent lower cost of talent and a 50 percent lower cost of real estate rentals compared with the large cities. So far, some 140 global capability centres have found a home in these locations, highlighting the growing interest of foreign companies in these emerging hubs, according to the report.

“As companies worldwide revisit ways of working with an eye on optimising outcomes, costs, and talent, alternative tech hubs are becoming essential” Sukanya Roy, head, GCC and BPM, at Nasscom, says in the release.

About 39 percent of the country’s 7,000 or so startups operate in emerging hubs spanning industries from Deep Tech to Business Process Management (BPM), according to the report.

Apple yesterday announced Sep. 12 as the date for its annual press event, where usually the company launches new iPhones. The event will be held Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, and it is widely expected that the iPhone 15 series and new Apple Watch models will be launched. In India, Apple’s fifth-biggest market according to Counterpoint Research, contract manufacturer Foxconn is already said to be preparing to roll out the new phones within weeks of the launch.

Headlines that caught our attention 

Toyota will restart operations at its assembly plants in Japan today, after a software glitch in its production systems brought domestic output to a halt, Reuters reports.

WhatsApp has updated its desktop app for Apple’s Mac computers featuring group calls, connecting with up to eight people on video calls and up to 32 people on audio calls.

India’s next space mission, Aditya-L1, the country’s first space-based solar observatory, is set to launch on Sep. 2, Isro said in a tweet yesterday. The satellite will be launched on Isro’s PSLV-C57 rocket.

One thing today

Apple yesterday announced Sep. 12 as the date for its annual press event, where usually the company launches its next iPhones, tagging invites with a made-up word ‘Wonderlust.’ The event will be held Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, and it is widely expected that the iPhone 15 series and new Apple Watch models will be launched.

The event will be streamed on Apple’s website at 1 p.m. ET in the US, which would be 10:30 p.m. in India. CNBC notes that Apple has used pre-recorded videos to launch its iPhones since 2020.

First among the big changes and upgrades expected in the new iPhone models is the USB-C charging port, after the European Union passed a landmark law in October last year requiring all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU to use this standard port for wired charging, by the end of 2024.

Other recent leaks about the new iPhones include titanium bodies, which would make the phones lighter, and a sharper periscopic camera.

Apple will be making fewer iPhone 15 smartphones at launch, due to some supply chain issues, 9to5Mac reported earlier this week, citing an industry analyst.

In India, the year 2023 marked a milestone for Apple, with the opening of its first physical retail stores – in Mumbai and Delhi. These stores exceeded initial expectations, CEO Tim Cook had said on Aug. 3, with another quarterly record.

As many of you know, Apple’s been stepping up local assembly in India in recent years and the gap between the launch of a new iPhone in the US and its availability in India is now mere weeks. Foxconn, one of Apple’s biggest contract manufacturers, is said to be preparing to roll out the new iPhone 15 models from its Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai.

India’s premium smartphone segment, defined as phones priced at Rs. 30,000 rupees or higher, now contributes a record 17 percent to its overall shipments, according to data from Counterpoint Technology Market Research as of July 31.

With an 18 percent share, Samsung led India’s smartphone market for the third consecutive quarter. The South Korean electronics giant also led the premium segment with a 34 percent share at the end of the April-June quarter this year, according to Counterpoint.

One last point. While India remains an Android smartphone market, Apple dominates the so-called “ultra-premium” segment, with a 59 percent market share. Counterpoint defines ultra-premium as phones priced at Rs. 45,000 or higher. India is also now Apple’s fifth biggest market, according to the market research provider.

Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn Technology Group, one of Apple’s biggest contract manufacturers, which is also expanding its operations in India, is entering the contest to be Taiwan’s next president as an independent candidate, with elections due in 2024. Gou is widely seen as an advocate of Taiwan’s return to the “One China” framework and for cross-Strait talks to resume between China and Taiwan that broke down in 2016. While pundits don’t expect him to win, a more pro-China government in Taiwan could have some implications for India from geopolitics to the country’s nascent EV sector.

Intel plans to release a new data centre chip next year, brand named Sierra Forrest, that will handle more than double the amount of computing work that can be done for each watt of power used, Reuters reports. 

Asus yesterday refuted a report from earlier this week out of Taiwan that it would pull the plug on its Zenfone series of Android smartphones, 9To5Google reports.

Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn Technology Group, one of Apple’s biggest contract manufacturers, which is also expanding its operations in India, is entering the contest to be Taiwan’s next president as an independent candidate, with elections due in 2024.

While the pundits don’t expect the 73-year-old entrepreneur to win, with the current Vice President William Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party seen as the popular candidate, Gou’s entry is significant due to his more conciliatory approach towards China.

“The era of entrepreneur’s rule” has begun, CNBC quoted him as saying at one of the election rally style gatherings he’s been addressing lately.

“I will definitely not allow Taiwan to become the next Ukraine,” he said at a press conference, Associated Press reported yesterday.

Gou founded Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, in 1974 in Taipei, Taiwan. From making electrical components and parts for television sets, the company has grown to become one of the world's largest and most influential electronics manufacturers for customers including Apple, Microsoft and Sony.

In 2022 about 70 percent of $215 billion equivalent of Foxconn’s revenue came from China, according to the Wall Street Journal. In an opinion for Washington Post in July, Gou disagreed with what he described as the policy of the current Taiwanese government, under President Tsai Ing-Wen, to walk away from the One-China framework.

In his view, Taiwan’s long-term future rests with the Chinese. A more pro-China government in Taiwan has significance for India, from giving China greater ability to project its geopolitical power in the Indo-Pacific region to the potential impact on India’s electronics supply chain.

Foxconn entered India in 2006 and set up its first factory in the country at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. Today the company’s operations range from assembling the latest iPhones to supplying parts for India’s electric vehicle startups such as Ather Energy in Bengaluru.

The company is investing billions of dollars in India, which is looking to establish its own semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Foxconn pulled out of a semiconductor fab partnership with India’s Vedanta Group recently, citing delays, which is seen as a bit of a setback for India’s ambitions in this sector, but the Taiwanese company has said it remains committed to growth in India.

Britian’s first lady Akshata Murty’s ownership of Infosys is in focus again, ahead of a free trade agreement that her husband, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is negotiating with India. The India-UK FTA talks started some 19 months ago and are said to be in their final stages. UK is the Indian IT sector’s biggest market after the US. While some British papers have suggested India is pushing for more liberalised visa rules, those negotiations are not part of the FTA talks.

Zepto, a super quick grocery delivery startup, has raised $200 million in a new funding round at a valuation of $1.4 billion, becoming the first Indian startup unicorn of 2023, TechCrunch reports.

Apple will be making fewer iPhone 15 smartphones at launch, next month, due to some supply chain issues, 9to5Mac reports, citing an industry analyst.

Separately, Bloomberg’s Apple watcher Mark Gurman writes in his newsletter that next year, Apple will launch a new souped-up version of the iPad Pro.

Britian’s first lady Akshata Murty’s ownership of Infosys is in focus again, ahead of a free trade agreement that her husband, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is negotiating with India.

Sunak is expected in New Delhi in two weeks, to participate in the G20 Summit, on Sep. 9. Meanwhile, news reports in the UK have once again raised Akshata Murty’s shareholding in Infosys, the Mumbai and New York listed Indian IT services giant, as a conflict of interest. They contend that Infosys, which sees the UK as one of its biggest markets, with customers including the British government, stands to benefit from the trade agreement, which in turn benefits Murty’s family.

Akshata’s father NR Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 with six other co-founders. Her current minority shareholding in Infosys, a tad under 1 percent, is valued at about half a billion dollars.

Newspapers in the UK such as The Guardian and Observer reported over the weekend that some members of the British parliament have called for Sunak to be more transparent about his wife’s financial holdings. At least one “expert” has even called for Sunak to recuse himself from leading the UK’s talks with India to finalise a free trade deal, according to The Guardian.

Sunak was recently censured by a UK parliament’s standards watchdog for “inadvertently” failing to properly declare his wife’s separate shareholding in a childcare company that stood to benefit from new government policy, according to The Guardian.

During his visit to attend the G20 Summit, the British PM is expected to discuss the India-UK free trade agreement in a separate bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

One last point. The UK-India FTA negotiations have been going on for 19 months and they are in their final stages, Business Standard reported last week, citing Britain’s minister of state for trade and business, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. She was in India attending the G20 trade and investment ministerial in Jaipur last week.

While the British newspapers have cited experts to say that India will be pushing for a more liberalized visa and immigration regime in the UK to help its IT sector, Badenoch has clarified that visa and visa liberalisation were not part of the FTA discussions, which are focused on business mobility.

European lawmakers took a significant step towards regulating artificial intelligence (AI) with the advancement of new draft legislation, Reuters reports. The legislation aims to ensure that AI serves people, society, and the environment, emphasising the importance of protecting fundamental rights. Also in this report, Zoho said it's making investments across its portfolio of products to accelerate the strong growth it is seeing with larger customers, who now account for a third of the Chennai software company's overall business.

Notes:

European lawmakers took a significant step towards regulating artificial intelligence (AI) with the advancement of new draft legislation, Reuters reports. The legislation aims to ensure that AI serves people, society, and the environment, emphasising the importance of protecting fundamental rights.

The European Union's AI Act is expected to become the world's first comprehensive legislation governing AI, encompassing regulations on facial recognition, biometric surveillance, and other AI applications.

The bill, after two years of negotiations, is now set to proceed to the next stage of the process, involving the finalisation of its details with the European Commission and individual member states. The proposals classify AI tools based on perceived risk levels and impose different obligations on governments and companies accordingly.

Following a plenary vote in June, the bill will be subject to "trilogue" talks involving representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission. The final terms are expected to be agreed upon before a grace period of approximately two years for compliance with the regulations.

Zoho, India's biggest software products company, yesterday announced investments to step up what it calls its upmarket growth in India – meaning sales to the larger companies rather than the SMB segment.

The SaaS company saw a 65 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the mid-market and enterprise segment over the past three years, accounting for more than 50 percent of its ARR in India, Chennai-based Zoho said in a press release.

Zoho made a similar announcement in early May, and the company didn't give any financial details of its investments.

IBM yesterday said it had acquired Agyla SAS, a prominent cloud professional services provider based in France. This move aims to enhance IBM Consulting's localised cloud expertise for French clients and expand its hybrid multi-cloud services portfolio, the company said in a press release.

With this acquisition, IBM further strengthens its hybrid cloud and AI strategy in the region. This marks IBM's sixth acquisition of 2023, as the company continues to bolster its hybrid cloud and AI capabilities.

Uber has invested $20 million in Mumbai-based fleet management company Everest Fleet to support its transition to electric vehicles (EVs), TechCrunch reports. Everest Fleet manages over 10,000 vehicles operating on ride-sharing platforms Uber and Ola in India.

The funds will be used to accelerate the adoption of EVs, with a target of having 10,000 EVs in its fleet by 2026. Uber sees fleets like Everest as crucial in overcoming challenges related to charging infrastructure and the affordability of EVs for Indian drivers.

Accenture plans to invest $3 billion over three years in its Data & AI practice, joining the roster of global tech services and consulting giants investing heavily in generative AI, including Indian rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. Accenture also plans to double its AI workforce to 80,000. This news comes three months after the company announced 19,000 job cuts to reduce costs. Also, in this brief, India's technology minister reacts to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's allegations of bullying by the Indian government, including during the farmer protests in 2021.

Notes:

Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey has touched off another round of outrage in India, saying in a recent interview that India frequently demanded the removal of posts and accounts critical of the government, often threatening legal action against the social media platform, TechCrunch reports.

Dorsey claimed the Indian government threatened to shut down Twitter's operations, raid employees' homes, and close its offices. Twitter initially resisted such demands but eventually complied with India's new IT regulations.

India's technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has refuted Dorsey's statements, accusing Twitter of violating Indian laws and disregarding the country's sovereignty.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a significant outage yesterday, affecting numerous major websites in the US, including The Boston Globe and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City. The outage disrupted the ability of news organizations to publish coverage of former President Donald Trump's court appearance in Miami. The outage has been resolved.

Accenture has announced a $3 billion investment over three years in its Data & AI practice, joining the list of global tech services and consulting giants investing heavily in generative AI, including Indian rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

Accenture also plans to double its AI workforce to 80,000 professionals through hiring, acquisitions, and training, according to a press release yesterday. This announcement comes three months after the company announced 19,000 job cuts to reduce costs.

As part of the investment, Accenture has launched a platform called AI Navigator for Enterprise. The company will also establish a Center for Advanced AI to maximize the value of generative AI and other emerging AI capabilities.

Infosys Finacle, the core banking software subsidiary of Infosys, has won a contract from Belgium's Keytrade Bank to modernize its core banking system to make the bank's operations more efficient and provide a better customer experience.

This implementation will replace the bank's legacy banking systems, Infosys said in a press release. The bank is subscribing to Finacle via a software-as-a-service model on Microsoft's Azure cloud.

Hyderabad is set to host the Second India Data Observability Conference this Friday, June 16, organized by Unravel Data, a data observability platform provider.

Researchers from Macquarie University, in collaboration with teams from Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy, have achieved a new speed record for an industry-standard optical fibre. The breakthrough was made possible by a compact glass chip developed by Macquarie University, which allows signals to be fed into the fibre's cores simultaneously with low levels of losses.

The government of India has tasked the country's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) with investigating an alleged data breach revealing personal details of people vaccinated against Covid-19. Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that a "Telegram bot" accessing previously stolen data was the culprit and that there was no direct breach. Reddit went down yesterday after thousands of 'sub-reddits' went dark to protest a new API policy. Also in this brief, Stellaris and Entrepreneur First ran a hackathon around generative AI.

Notes:

India's Health Ministry has dismissed reports of a data breach in the CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) portal, calling them "mischievous in nature," The Hindu reports.

The ministry stated that the portal is safe and has adequate safeguards for data privacy. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been asked to investigate the issue and provide a report.

Electronics and Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar clarified on Twitter that the CoWIN app or database was not directly breached, but rather data accessed by a Telegram bot seemed to be previously breached or stolen data from another source.

Concerns have been raised about the integration of CoWIN with other apps such as Aarogya Setu and UMANG, which provide services for registration, appointment scheduling, and certification of COVID vaccinations. The current data breach appears to be possible by entering a person's mobile number, which would reveal sensitive information like identification numbers, gender, date of birth, and vaccination center details, according to The Hindu.

Reddit experienced a widespread outage as thousands of its communities went dark to protest the company's new API policy, TechCrunch reports. The planned protest, aimed at challenging a policy that would eliminate third-party apps, caused Reddit's website to go down.

The protest was in response to Reddit's new API pricing policy, which would significantly increase costs for developers, leading to the closure of many third-party Reddit apps.

Salesforce has introduced its own AI Cloud, a suite of capabilities designed to improve customer experiences and company productivity through generative artificial intelligence (AI) for enterprise applications.

The AI Cloud helps sales reps to auto-generate personalized emails, service teams to create tailored chat replies and case summaries, marketers to engage customers with personalized content, commerce teams to provide customized recommendations, and developers to auto-generate code and predict potential bugs.

The AI Cloud Starter pack is available for $360,000 annually and includes essential components and an AI-readiness assessment from Salesforce Professional Services.

Stellaris Venture Partners and Entrepreneur First organized a Generative AI Hackathon in Bengaluru focused on the theme "AI for India."

More than 150 participants formed 60 teams to develop innovative AI solutions for India-specific challenges. Notable projects included an emergency response application, a generative video solution, and a platform for rural India to access government schemes.

Uber has announced a new integration of Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, with its Uber Eats app, developed by the company's engineers in India. The integration allows Uber Eats users in the US to track their food orders using their Amazon Echo devices.

India’s OTT businesses are pushing back against a government mandate to curtail the glorification of cigarette and tobacco use online. The Internet and Mobile Association of India has flagged “fundamental concerns” and “practical difficulties” in complying with the new rules that the government issued last month, Economic Times reports. Meanwhile, Disney+ Hotstar is looking to win some users back, by offering cricket streaming free to mobile users, TechCrunch reports. Also in this brief, QNu Labs wins an Indian Navy contract; Capillary makes another buy; and Tiki shuts down.

Notes:

India’s OTT businesses are pushing back against a government mandate to curtail the glorification of cigarette use online. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has flagged “fundamental concerns” and “practical difficulties” in complying with the new rules that the government issued last month to include anti-tobacco warnings on video streaming platforms, Economic Times reports.

On May 31, the health ministry notified amendments in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2004, which mandate over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms to display anti-tobacco warnings and disclaimers on the lines of such warnings displayed in movies in theatres.

Disney+ Hotstar has decided to offer free streaming of cricket tournaments to mobile users in India, following the success of Reliance's JioCinema, which has attracted millions of viewers, TechCrunch reports.

The move comes after JioCinema surpassed Hotstar's record for concurrent views during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

WhatsApp last week announced the launch of WhatsApp Channels, a feature that allows users to follow people and organizations within the app. Initially rolling out in Singapore and Colombia, Channels will offer a private way to communicate, with phone numbers and personal information of both admins and followers kept confidential, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. The one-way broadcast tool enables admins to share text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls with their followers.

Channel updates will only be stored for 30 days, and admins can even choose to block screenshots and forwards. While Channels are not end-to-end encrypted by default, WhatsApp is considering encrypted channels for specific audiences in the future. The company also plans to support admins in building businesses around their channels through payment services and promotional opportunities in the directory.

Tiki, a short-form video app, is shutting down its operations in India on June 27, joining a roster of ventures that failed to fill the void left by the ban on TikTok in India, TechCrunch reports. Despite having around 35 million monthly active users in India, Tiki announced its closure in a social media post.

QNu Labs, backed by investors including early-stage deep-tech VC firm Speciale Invest, has won a contract with the Indian Navy to deploy its Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) based systems. The Indian Navy aims to enhance its cybersecurity capabilities by using large-scale quantum-based encryption systems, making it the first agency in the country to do so.

Capillary Technologies, a customer loyalty and engagement solutions provider, has acquired Tenerity's Digital Connect Assets, expanding its presence in the US and Europe. The acquisition adds a rewards ecosystem to Capillary's portfolio and will be rebranded as Rewards+.

Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports. Also in this report, Germany’s Thyssenkrupp is close to a multi-billion-dollar deal to build six submarines for the Indian Navy, offering the engineering and tech knowhow for India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to execute the construction; Meta Verified comes to India; And US based Digibee, a low-code software integration platform provider, has raised $60 million

Notes

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has launched its verification program, Meta Verified, in India, replacing its earlier verified badge system on Facebook and Instagram, TechCrunch reports. Meta Verified aims to provide a mark of authenticity and credibility to prominent individuals, ensuring that users can trust their accounts.

The program will allow eligible users to apply for verification, which will be evaluated based on various criteria such as account completeness, adherence to community guidelines, and authenticity.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on June 6 in New Delhi that the German company Thyssenkrupp AG is likely to bid for a project to supply six submarines to the Indian Navy, Reuters reports. The move comes as India seeks to bolster its domestic defence manufacturing to counter China's increasing presence in the Indian Ocean, Reuters notes.

In a separate report, Bloomberg pegged the value of the deal – seen as a move by Germany to help India reduce its dependence on Russia – at $5.2 billion.

Thyssenkrupp's marine arm is expected to sign the deal with India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, with the agreement's value estimated at around 7 billion euros. India's navy, which currently has 16 conventional submarines, approved a budget of $6.8 billion in March to replace its aging fleet.

Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports.

However, reaching the upper end of the range will depend on closing mega deals at a faster pace. Improving margins would be a tall task, company executives said in the conference. The external environment has remained unchanged since Infosys' last earnings announcement, and the lower end of the revenue growth guidance has already accounted for macro uncertainty, they said.

Meanwhile, Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's investment firm, Catamaran Ventures, is reportedly in advanced discussions to invest between $100 million and $150 million in Ola Electric, the electric vehicle arm of ride-hailing services provider Ola, Economic Times reports.

The potential investment is part of Ola Electric's ongoing funding round, which aims to raise $300-500 million to support its expansion plans. Ola Electric has emerged as the top electric scooter seller in India, selling 35,000 units in May, Business Standard reported on June 4.

Digibee, a low code software application integration platform provider, has raised $60 million in a recent funding round, TechCrunch reports. The investment was led by VC firm Felicis Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Wing Venture Capital and GFC.

Apple yesterday revealed its long-anticipated mixed reality headset, called Vision Pro, which the company describes as a spatial computer that merges digital content with the physical world. The pricey device will only be available next year in the US. Apple also announced a slew of other updates, including the M2 Ultra chip, new Mac computers and iOS 17. Meanwhile, Kerala has kicked off a project to bring free internet connections to the poor in the state, and at affordable rates to everyone else. A thousand households got connections upon inauguration yesterday, Manorama reports.

Notes:

Apple yesterday revealed its long-anticipated mixed reality headset, called Vision Pro, which the company describes as a spatial computer that merges digital content with the physical world. The headset can even display your eyes on its front-facing screen to show others if the headset wearer is fully immersed in something or looking at them, for example.

Apple announced the headset at its annual worldwide developer conference that started yesterday. It features an ultra-high-resolution display system that uses micro-OLED to deliver 23 million pixels spread across two displays and a dual-chip design.

With the headset, Apple also introduced visionOS, which again, Apple describes as a spatial operating system, enabling users to interact with digital content in a three-dimensional user interface controlled by natural inputs like eyes, hands, and voice.

Vision Pro's design incorporates advanced materials and a compact wearable form factor, but also an external battery pack – about the size of an iPhone – that connects to the headset via a cable. It features a high-performance eye-tracking system and a Spatial Audio system for immersive sound. Privacy and security are prioritized, with features like Optic ID for secure authentication and privacy-focused eye tracking.

The headset starts at $3,499 and will be available early next year in the US, with more countries to follow.

On the silicon front, Apple, unveiled the M2 Ultra, at the opening of its worldwide developer conference, WWDC. M2 Ultra is a powerful new system on a chip (SoC) for Mac devices. The chip offers significant performance improvements and completes the M2 family, Apple said in a press release.

Apple also announced a 15-inch MacBook Air, which features a large 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, the M2 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, and a six-speaker sound system. The laptop boasts a thin and light, fan-less design, making it the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop.

In the US, the 15-inch MacBook Air is available for order, with shipping starting on June 13, and pricing starts at $1,299.

Apple also announced the release of iOS 17, the next full update to its operating software for iPhones. The update includes some nifty upgrades to the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, as well as new features like Journal and StandBy.

Meanwhile, Kerala has become the first Indian state to provide high-speed internet access free of cost to the poor. Some 14,000 poor households and 30,000 government offices are soon to get these connections as part of its ambitious project, the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), Manorama reports.

The initiative, launched in 2019, aims to provide internet connectivity to all of Kerala's 35 million citizens, with a particular focus on the 2 million individuals living in poverty. KFON, the first network of its kind in India, will be established across 35,000 km of optical fibre network spanning the state's 14 districts.

Apple's annual flagship meet, the worldwide developer conference starts today at 10:30 p.m. India time. On day one of the week-long events, almost everyone is expecting the iPhone maker to finally reveal its version of an extended reality headset. Apple is also widely expected to release the next iterations of its Mac computers as well as the beta version of iOS 17 operating software for its iPhones. Also in this brief, Puneet Chandok, head of AWS in India and South Asia has quit; and Venture Intelligence on how startups are faring in India at the series A level.

Notes:

Apple's annual flagship meet, the worldwide developer conference starts today at 10:30 p.m. India time. On day one of the week-long events, almost everyone is expecting Apple to announce an extended reality headset. Much of the rest of the week will be more around developer sessions.

Apple, which has come under scrutiny for taking as much as 30 percent of the in-app sales made by developers via its ecosystem, is hitting back with a report in which it says the App Store ecosystem generated an impressive $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2022.

Puneet Chandok, the head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in India and South Asia, has resigned, surprising industry insiders just weeks after AWS announced a $12 billion investment plan for India by 2030, TechCrunch reports.

AWS confirmed the development to TechCrunch, adding that Vaishali Kasture, head of enterprise, mid-market, and global businesses at AWS India and South Asia, will assume the role of interim leader of commercial business at the unit with immediate effect.

Pixxel, a private commercial satellite company in India, has raised $36 million in a Series B funding round. The funding includes participation from new investors such as Google, alongside existing investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, GrowX, Sparta, and Athera, according to a press release last week.

The investment will advance Pixxel's mission to build the world's first and highest-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation, delivering actionable climate insights globally, according to the company. It will also support the development of Aurora, Pixxel's AI-powered analytics platform for accessible hyperspectral analysis.

The funds will enable the launch of six satellites in 2024 and 18 satellites by 2025. Pixxel, founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal five years ago, has so far raised $71 million in VC money, according to the company.

A study by Venture Intelligence reveals that less than one-third of startups that receive seed funding can secure follow-on funding in the form of a Series A round. Venture Intelligence, which tracks the VC and private equity investments in India, has released the findings of its study in the 2023 edition of its series A landscape report.

Out of over 2,500 startups that raised seed funding between 2015 and 2022, only 29 percent managed to raise a Series A round, according to Venture Intelligence.

The number of companies raising Series A rounds increased by 8% annually from 2017 to 2022, which is an indication of the maturity and quality of the startup ecosystem in India, according to Venture Intelligence. The study also highlights Sequoia Capital India as the top investor in creating successful pipelines for Series A rounds, followed by Blume Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Elevation Capital, 3ONE4 Capital, Axilor Ventures, India Quotient, and Kae Capital.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to approve a deal that would allow General Electric (GE) to manufacture jet engines for Indian military aircraft in India, Reuters reports exclusively. Meanwhile, after setbacks to two major proposed projects, The India Semiconductor Mission is reopening its application window for semiconductor fab proposals starting today, Mint reports. Also in this report, the US is funding eight pilot projects aimed at developing nuclear fusion; and Capillary Technologies has raised $45 million in fresh funding.

Notes:

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is expected to visit India and participate in an event hosted by Economic Times and sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services, according to announcements that have appeared in the newspaper for the past few days. The event is scheduled for June 7 in New Delhi.

India has launched a pilot project called Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing (ERSO) to make India the global repair hub. The project, supported by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, aims to attract outsourced repair services for ICT products and generate revenue of up to $20 billion over the next five years.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to approve a deal that would allow General Electric (GE) to manufacture jet engines for Indian military aircraft in India, Reuters reports exclusively.

The agreement, which is expected to be announced during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States on June 22, aims to deepen military and technology ties between the two countries as a counterweight to China's influence in the region.

Meanwhile, India's plans to establish semiconductor manufacturing facilities have suffered setbacks as two major projects face hurdles, Reuters reported yesterday in a separate report. A $3 billion facility by chip consortium ISMC, with Israeli chipmaker Tower as a partner, has been stalled due to Intel's ongoing takeover of Tower.

Additionally, a $19.5 billion joint venture between India's Vedanta and Taiwan's Foxconn is progressing slowly, with talks to involve European chipmaker STMicroelectronics deadlocked.

The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) is reopening its application window for semiconductor fab proposals starting today, Mint reports. This decision comes after the initial application period in January 2022 yielded only three applicants for 28nm fabs.

In some renewable energy news, The US Department of Energy yesterday said that eight American companies working on nuclear fusion energy will receive $46 million in taxpayer funding to pursue pilot plants. These plants aim to generate power from fusion, a process that mimics the energy source of the sun and stars.

Capillary Technologies, a Bengaluru SaaS company in the loyalty management space, has secured $45 million in funding to expand globally and pursue mergers and acquisitions, TechCrunch reports.

Led by Avataar Ventures, the Series D round saw participation from Pantheon, 57Stars, Unigestion, Filter Capital, and Innoven Capital. Capillary Technologies, founded in 2012, offers loyalty management and customer engagement solutions.

India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has announced plans to invest Rs. 1 trillion ($12.1 billion) by 2030 to increase its renewable energy capacity and reduce direct emissions. The company aims to scale up its renewable energy capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a significant increase from the current 189 megawatts. The world’s biggest AI experts have captured in one sentence the risk of AI. Blackrock, the world’s biggest money manager, has slashed the valuation of BYJU'S by 62 percent. Also in this brief, the C919, China’s challenge to Airbus-Boeing takes flight.

Notes:

Some of the world’s top AI experts, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, have signed a short statement to make it easy for everyone to understand that the risk of extinction of the human race due to artificial intelligence is very real.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement reads, published by the Center for AI Safety.

Among the other signatories on the list, which runs into a couple of hundred experts from around the world, are Geoffrey Hinton, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, University of Toronto, A pioneer in the field of deep learning and neural networks; Yoshua Bengio, Professor of Computer Science, U. Montreal / Mila, a leading researcher in the field of deep learning and co-founder of the deep learning framework, "Theano"; Demis Hassabis, CEO, Google DeepMind, an influential figure in the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and deep reinforcement learning; and Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic.

India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has announced plans to invest Rs. 1 trillion ($12.1 billion) by 2030 to increase its renewable energy capacity and reduce direct emissions. The company aims to scale up its renewable energy capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a significant increase from the current 189 megawatts.

ONGC's chairman, Arun Kumar Singh, said that while fossil fuel demand in India may continue to grow until 2040, the company is committed to balancing its portfolio with green energy projects.

Amazon India has launched a limited introduction of bill payments at select restaurants using Amazon Pay. The feature, currently available in certain areas of Bengaluru, allows users to make payments using various methods such as credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, Amazon Pay Later, TechCrunch reports.

China's domestically built passenger jet, the C919, completed its maiden commercial flight, on May 28, marking a significant milestone in the country's ambition to challenge the aircraft manufacturing duopoly of Boeing and Airbus, Quartz reports.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) developed the C919, which flew from Shanghai to Beijing with approximately 130 passengers on board. Despite facing delays and design flaws, Comac has signed contracts for 1,035 C919 jets with several dozen customers.

Blackrock, the world’s biggest money manager, has slashed the valuation of BYJU'S by 62 percent to $8.4 billion in the March quarter, down from its previous valuation of $22 billion, The Hindu Business Line reports. This marks the second markdown by Blackrock, which holds a 0.9 percent stake in the company.

The funding winter and worsening macroeconomic conditions have prompted private investors to reduce valuations of several start-up unicorns, with cuts ranging from 30-50 percent, according to the report.

JioCinema set a new global record for concurrent views during a live-streamed event, yesterday attracting more than 33 million simultaneous viewers for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament finale, surpassing the previous record held by Disney's Hotstar, TechCrunch reports. Apple is expected to introduce new Mac models at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), according to Bloomberg. Also in this brief, a US fund has cut the value of Indian ed-tech unicorn Eruditus

Notes

JioCinema set a new global record for concurrent views during a live-streamed event, yesterday, attracting more than 33 million simultaneous viewers for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament finale, surpassing the previous record held by Disney's Hotstar, TechCrunch reports.

Hotstar's record of 25.3 million concurrent viewers had remained unchallenged for years. Viacom18, which secured the digital rights for IPL in a $3 billion bidding war against Disney, offered free streaming of the tournament through its JioCinema app. The move is seen as a potential game-changer in the South Asian streaming landscape.

Apple is expected to introduce new Mac models at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Although WWDC is primarily focused on software, it has historically seen the launch of new Macs and related technologies. Gurman suggests that Apple will facilitate the purchase of these new models by expanding its trade-in program to include the Mac Studio, 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, and 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro.

Trade-ins for these current-gen versions are anticipated to begin on June 5, the same day as the start of WWDC.

A Japanese public-private partnership is set to embark on an ambitious project aimed at beaming solar energy from space to ground-based receiving stations as early as 2025, engadget reports. The initiative, led by JAXA, Japan's equivalent of NASA, builds upon previous successes in wireless power transmission.

The goal is to create a satellite array capable of generating 1 gigawatt of power, equivalent to the output of a nuclear reactor. However, this ambitious endeavour is estimated to cost $7 billion with existing technologies.

Toyota Motor Corp has become the first automaker to enter a racing car powered by liquid hydrogen into an official race, Japan Today reports. The move is part of Toyota's efforts to promote hydrogen as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles do not emit carbon dioxide when burned. Toyota believes that offering a variety of green vehicles, including hybrids and hydrogen-powered cars like their mass-produced Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is more effective in reducing carbon footprints than solely focusing on electric vehicles.

The race at Fuji Speedway in Japan aims to test the functionality and address challenges of using liquid hydrogen as a fuel source.

The Private Shares Fund, a US-based asset management firm, has lowered the fair value of edtech unicorn Eruditus by 9% in the first quarter of 2023, Moneycontrol reports. The fund, which holds a 0.2% stake in Eruditus, now values the company at $2.9 billion, down from its previous valuation of $3.2 billion.

OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS users in 33 countries, including India, where a subscription costs just under Rs. 1,000 a month. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has stated that the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Bill in India will bring about significant changes in the behaviour of platforms that have exploited or misused personal data, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by Hindustan Times. Also in this brief, WhatsApp is said to be working on a screen-sharing feature.

Notes:

OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS users in 33 countries, including India, Algeria, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates, TechCrunch reports. This comes just a week after the app's launch in the United States.

Within six days of its initial availability, the ChatGPT mobile app surpassed half a million downloads, making it one of the most successful new apps. It also outperformed other AI and chatbot apps, as well as Microsoft Edge and Bing apps, in terms of downloads in the U.S. since its launch, according to TechCrunch.

OpenAI's ChatGPT app allows users to interact with the AI-based chatbot on their iPhones. It offers voice input through Whisper, supports advanced features for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, and enables direct subscription to ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month in the U.S., all while being ad-free and available for free download.

In India subscription to the paid version costs Rs. 999 per month or Rs. 7,900 as a lifetime purchase, according to the plans on offer via the app.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reversed his earlier statements and clarified that the company has no plans to leave Europe, despite expressing concerns about the European Union's proposed AI Act, CNBC reports. Altman had initially threatened to cease operations in Europe if the regulations were too stringent.

Twitter has withdrawn from the European Union's voluntary agreement to combat online disinformation, according to European Commissioner Thierry Breton. While other major social media platforms have pledged to support the EU's disinformation "code of practice," Twitter has chosen to opt-out.

WhatsApp is said to be working on enhancing its video calling experience with a new feature that allows users to share their screens during video calls, Mint reports, citing a website called WABetaInfo. The feature is reportedly being tested by Android beta testers who have installed the latest version of WhatsApp beta for Android.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has stated that the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Bill in India will bring about significant changes in the behaviour of platforms that have exploited or misused personal data, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by Hindustan Times.

Chandrasekhar clarified that the proposed government-appointed fact-check body is not about censorship but rather providing an opportunity for the government to counter misinformation related to it.

Microsoft President Brad Smith has raised concerns about artificial intelligence churning out deep fakes, false but highly realistic content. In a speech in Washington, Smith emphasized the need to address deep fakes and protect against foreign cyber influence operations, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, India didn’t figure in the list of markets as OpenAI expanded its iOS app to 11 countries. Snapchat hits 200 million active users in India, and also in this brief, Matrix Partners India has closed its latest fund at $550 million.

Notes:

Microsoft President Brad Smith yesterday expressed concerns regarding artificial intelligence churning out deep fakes, false but highly realistic content.

In a speech in Washington, Smith emphasized the need to address deep fakes and protect against foreign cyber influence operations, Reuters reports.

He called for measures to inform people whether a photo or video is genuine or AI-generated, aiming to prevent deception or fraud through the use of AI. Smith also advocated for licensing critical forms of AI to ensure security, cybersecurity, and national security obligations.

Smith echoed the call for global cooperation on AI and incentivized safety compliance. He also emphasized accountability for AI-related issues and the importance of human control over critical infrastructure, proposing safety brakes. Additionally, Smith suggested implementing a system similar to "Know Your Customer" to monitor AI developers and inform the public about AI-generated content.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS to 11 additional countries, excluding India, Mint reports.

The app, which allows users to ask questions using voice also, is now accessible in nations including France, the UK, Jamaica, Korea, Ireland, Nicaragua, Albania, and Croatia. Mira Murati, CTO at OpenAI, announced the expansion on Twitter, mentioning that the app would be introduced to more countries soon.

OpenAI aims to make state-of-the-art research more accessible and plans to release a free app for Android devices in the future.

Snapchat has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 200 million monthly active users in India, with 120 million of them engaging with content on the platform, according to parent company Snap Inc., Mint reports.

To celebrate this achievement, Snap Inc. has introduced an experimental AI-powered chatbot called My AI, tailored for Snapchat. The chatbot can provide personalized recommendations for birthday gifts, plan weekend trips, and even suggest dinner recipes.

Snap Inc. attributes its success in India to the local platform experience, content initiatives, partnerships, and a dedicated focus on regional creators, along with the popularity of augmented reality (AR) features.

Matrix Partners India has successfully closed its latest fund, raising over $550 million in commitments, the VC firm said in a newsletter yesterday. Matrix aims to invest in exceptional founders and assist in building ground-breaking companies, focusing on seed, early, and early growth stages across various sectors.

India's digital economy, expected to reach $2 to $3 trillion in the next decade, presents a lucrative opportunity for founders to create disruptive businesses. Matrix Partners India expresses gratitude to founders and long-term investors, while also expanding its physical presence in Gurugram to engage with India's flourishing startup ecosystem.

Apple yesterday announced a new partnership with Broadcom to develop 5G radio frequency components and wireless connectivity components. Separately, Wistron, a contract manufacturing supplier to Apple, has shut its operations in India, Mint reports. Also in this brief, Infosys Topaz is a new suite of services based on generative AI with specific use cases in different industry verticals; Microsoft is showcasing Jugalbandi, an AI assistant in local Indian languages; And Matrix Partners India is raising the target for its fourth fund to $525 million, TechCrunch reports.

Notes:

Apple yesterday announced a new multi-billion-dollar partnership with Broadcom to develop 5G radio frequency components and wireless connectivity components. Broadcom will design and build FBAR filters in the US, the company said in a press release.

These investments align with Apple's 2021 commitment to invest $430 billion in the US economy over five years, the company said. The components Apple is sourcing from Broadcom are different from the 5G modems that are made by Qualcomm, CNBC points out.

Apple, which already makes its own processors, has also been trying to make its own 5G modems to cut its dependence on Qualcomm. It’s not immediately clear if this deal with Broadcom will help Apple further that aim.

Meanwhile, Apple’s contract manufacturer Wistron has halted iPhone production in India due to its inability to make profits under Apple's terms, Mint reports. Wistron, a smaller company compared with Foxconn and Pegatron, was unable to negotiate higher margins with Apple, according to the report.

Anthropic, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI executives, has raised $450 million in funding, making it the largest AI funding round this year, CNBC reports.

Lead investors include Google, Salesforce Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and Spark Capital. Anthropic, known for its chatbot Claude, aims to develop generative AI models aligned with human values.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is showcasing an example of how generative AI could help far-flung rural Indian communities. Jugalbandi, an AI assistant developed by AI4Bharat, an Indian AI for development initiative, backed by the government, and supported by Microsoft and Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani, is using generative AI to develop a mobile assistant that provides information on government schemes in multiple languages.

Microsoft Build, the company’s annual flagship conference concludes tomorrow. The company has announced the expansion of several projects, including its copilot products and ChatGPT plugins.

Infosys yesterday launched Infosys Topaz, an AI-based suite of services, solutions, and platforms that use generative AI technologies. Infosys Topaz combines the company’s suite of cloud services, called Cobalt, and AI to drive business growth, foster connected ecosystems, and unlock efficiencies at scale, the company said in a press release.

Matrix Partners India has increased its current fund target to $525 million, surpassing its initial disclosure of $450 million, TechCrunch reports.

Indian American entrepreneur Naval Ravikant has co-founded a new social media app called Airchat. The app, currently in beta testing, attempts to offer a new approach to social media by focusing on conversations and interactions.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been hit with a record-breaking fine of 1.2 billion Euro ($1.3 billion) by European Union regulators for violating EU privacy laws. Meanwhile, the company’s WhatsApp unit announced that messages on its platform will soon be editable for up to 15 minutes after they are sent. The feature is rolling out worldwide. Also in this brief, TCS announced a generative AI bespoke service as part of its partnership with Google Cloud; And Mumbai startup Chalo raises $45 million in fresh funding led by Avataar Ventures.

Notes:

WhatsApp yesterday announced that you can now edit your messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them. Whether it is correcting a simple misspelling or adding more context to a message, users only need to long-press on a sent message and choose ‘Edit’ from the menu that pops up, the company said in a press release.

Edited messages will display ‘edited’ next to them, so those you’re messaging are aware of the change, but without showing edit history. As with the regular messages, media and calls, the edited ones are also protected by end-to-end encryption, according to WhatsApp.

This feature has started rolling out to users globally and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been hit with a record-breaking fine of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by European Union regulators for violating EU privacy laws, CNN reports.

The fine follows an inquiry by the Irish Data Protection Commission and highlights the uncertainty surrounding the legal transfer of EU users' data to servers outside the EU. The European Data Protection Board stated that Meta's processing and storage of personal data in the US violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This fine is the largest ever imposed under the GDPR, surpassing the previous record set against Amazon in 2021. Meta has been ordered to cease processing the personal data of European users in the US within six months. The company plans to appeal the ruling.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) yesterday announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud and the launch of its new service, TCS Generative AI. This collaboration aims to provide bespoke business solutions that leverage Google Cloud's generative AI services to accelerate clients' growth and transformation, the company said in a press release.

Chalo, a startup in Mumbai, has raised $45 million in a Series D funding round and secured an additional $12 million in debt as it seeks to enhance its mobility offerings and expand into more international markets, TechCrunch reports.

The funding round was led by Avataar Ventures, with participation from existing investors Lightrock India, WaterBridge Ventures, and former Google executive Amit Singhal. The debt financing came from Trifecta and Stride Ventures. The latest investment brings the company’s total funding to $88.6 million according to private markets insights provider Tracxn.

The company is currently operating in over 50 cities in India, tracking more than 15,000 buses, and has plans to expand its fleet of e-vehicles and enter additional international markets.

Leaders of the Group of Seven nations have called for the development of technical standards to ensure trustworthy artificial intelligence, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, OpenAI has introduced an official iOS app for ChatGPT, bringing its popular AI chatbot to mobile devices, according to a blog post from the company over the weekend. Also in this brief, Amazon Web Services, the world’s biggest cloud provider, has announced a massive investment in India; IBM announces a new quantum computing R&D partnership and Krafton gets another shot at India for PUBG aka BGMI.

Notes:

Instagram experienced a widespread technical issue on May 21, disrupting services for thousands of users. However, the platform is now back up for most users after the problem was resolved, according to a spokesperson from Meta, Reuters reports.

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations have called for the development of technical standards to ensure trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI), Reuters reports. During their meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the G7 leaders acknowledged the need for governance of AI to keep pace with its rapid growth.

The G7 leaders agreed to establish a ministerial forum called the "Hiroshima AI process" to address issues related to generative AI, such as copyrights and disinformation, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has introduced an official iOS app for ChatGPT, bringing its popular AI chatbot to mobile devices, according to a blog post from the company over the weekend.

The app, which will initially be available only to users in the US, offers free access to ChatGPT without any advertisements. Users can interact with the AI chatbot using voice input as well.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a plan to invest $12.7 billion (INR 1,05,600 crores) in cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 to meet the growing demand for cloud services.

This investment is expected to contribute $23.3 billion (INR 1,94,700 crores) to India's GDP and create an estimated average of 131,700 full-time equivalents (FTE) jobs annually, the world’s biggest cloud technologies company said in a press release on Friday.

IBM has announced a 10-year, $100 million initiative in collaboration with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago to develop a quantum-centric supercomputer, the company said in a press release yesterday.

The supercomputer will be powered by 100,000 qubits and will have the potential to tackle complex problems that current supercomputers cannot solve, such as understanding chemical reactions, modelling climate change, and developing sustainable materials and fertilizers.

South Korean gaming company Krafton has received approval from Indian authorities to resume operations of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), the popular battle royale mobile game. BGMI was launched after the Indian government banned PUBG, the original version of the game, TechCrunch reports.

The approval has been initially granted for a three-month trial period, during which the government will monitor user-related issues such as addiction and harm. The move to resume operations comes as India considers lifting bans on various apps previously linked to China, according to TechCrunch.

A consortium led by Tata Consultancy Services has received an Advance Purchase Order valued over Rs 15,000 crore from BSNL for the deployment of a 4G network across India.

Apple yesterday announced new software features for cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility. These updates, set to launch later this year, include assistive access, live speech, personal voice, and point and speak in the magnifier app, the company said in a press release. Also in this brief, Infosys and bp signed an MoU to deepen their partnership. This helps Infosys “solidify” its 20-year-old relationship as the primary provider of IT application services to the British energy company, India’s second-biggest IT company said in a press release yesterday.

Vice Media, the New York media and entertainment company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week owes Indian IT services company Wipro around $10 million, Economic Times reports.

Wipro is the largest unsecured creditor of Vice Media, whose eponymous magazines in the US and UK became famous. 

OpenAI is preparing to release a new open-source language model to the public, Reuters reports, citing The Information. The new model is reportedly based on OpenAI's ChatGPT model, which is known for its ability to produce human-like text. OpenAI has not yet announced a release date for the new model, but it is expected to be available in the coming months.

Apple yesterday announced new software features for cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility. These updates, set to launch later this year. 

Assistive Access aims to lighten the cognitive load for users with cognitive disabilities by distilling apps and experiences to their essential features. It offers a customized experience for essential activities such as making calls, sending messages, taking photos, and listening to music.

Live Speech enables users who are nonspeaking or at risk of losing their ability to speak to type what they want to say, and the text is then spoken out loud during calls and conversations.

Personal Voice is designed for users at risk of losing their ability to speak, such as those with conditions like ALS. It allows users to create a synthetic voice that sounds like them by recording 15 minutes of audio using randomized text prompts.

For individuals with vision disabilities, the Detection Mode in Magnifier offers Point and Speak. This feature uses the device's camera, LiDAR Scanner, and on-device machine learning to identify and announce the text on physical objects such as household appliances.

Separately, MacRumours reports that according to analyst Ross Young, Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models are expected to feature larger screen sizes, while the standard iPhone 16 will retain a 6.1-inch display.

WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani has announced his resignation amidst the company's ongoing restructuring efforts, Reuters reports. Mathrani's decision comes as WeWork strives to regain stability following a tumultuous period in its history.

The co-working space provider had faced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift towards remote work. Mathrani, who joined WeWork in 2020, will continue to serve as CEO until a suitable successor is appointed.

WeWork, once valued at $47 billion, has encountered setbacks including mounting losses and controversies surrounding its governance.

Infosys has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with bp to consolidate its position as the British energy company’s primary partner for end-to-end application services, the IT services company said in a press release yesterday.

In today’s quick take, we teamed up with our own Naini Thaker, an avid IPL watcher and OTT aficionado, to help us make sense of the news that Disney+ Hotstar lost 15-16 percent of its India paid subscriber base between October 2022 and March 2023. Naini also walks us through the news that a substantial portion of HBO’s premium content will now only be available on Jio Cinema. She unpacks what this means, including Jio Cinema’s emergence as an OTT force that you will have to embrace to find your favourite HBO show.

Foxconn, a key Apple contractor, is set to invest $500 million in setting up manufacturing plants in Telangana. This move demonstrates Foxconn's intent to expand its presence in India as Apple pushes its biggest partners to step up efforts to help it reduce dependence on China. The EU has okayed Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making it a direct competitor to Sony and Nintendo. Also in this brief, WhatsApp has added a security feature to protect “intimate” conversations, and Amazon is laying off employees across various functions in India, Economic Times reports.

Notes:

Amazon is laying off employees across various functions in India, Economic Times reports. The move comes as the e-commerce giant evaluates and reshapes its operations in the country. While the exact number of affected employees remains undisclosed, at least 500 people may have been fired, according to ET.

WhatsApp has unveiled a new feature called Chat Lock, aimed at bolstering privacy for users' intimate conversations. With concerns surrounding data security on the rise, the feature provides an additional layer of authentication to safeguard personal information.

By activating Chat Lock, users can lock specific chats behind fingerprint or facial recognition. This serves as an effective barrier against unauthorized access, particularly if someone gains physical access to a user's device.

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has received approval from the European Commission, marking a significant milestone in the tech giant's expansion into the gaming industry, The Verge reports.

The deal, which was announced earlier this year, was subject to regulatory scrutiny to ensure it did not violate competition laws. The European Commission's decision follows a similar green light from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to a report by The Verge yesterday, the European Commission has given its consent for the acquisition, stating that it "would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area." This approval paves the way for Microsoft to finalize its $68.7 billion purchase of the renowned game publisher and developer.

Foxconn, a key Apple contract manufacturer, is set to invest $500 million in setting up manufacturing plants in Telangana, a southern state in India. This move demonstrates Foxconn's intent to expand its presence in India as Apple and its biggest partners step up efforts to reduce dependence on China.

The investment is expected to create 25,000 direct jobs in the initial phase, as stated by K.T. Rama Rao, Telangana's IT minister in a tweet yesterday.

Foxconn has been manufacturing iPhones in India and recently won a bid to manufacture AirPods in the country. It also purchased land worth $37 million in Bengaluru earlier this month, according to TechCrunch. The Indian government's financial incentives to promote local manufacturing, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have attracted commitments from various companies, including Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron.

JP Morgan analysts predict that by 2025, India could account for 25 percent of all iPhones manufactured by Apple.

Apple is likely to unveil a high-end mixed reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The headset will likely have an internal screen for virtual reality and outward-facing cameras for augmented reality overlays. It is said to be experimental relative to other Apple products, with a waist-mounted external battery pack, and a price tag of around $3,000 (which was also previously reported by The Information). We invited Milind Manoj, co-founder and CEO of PupilMesh, an AR hardware and software tech startup in Bengaluru, to give us his perspective.

Elon Musk, who is amidst a transition to a new CEO to take his place at Twitter, has come under criticism for allegedly giving in to government pressure to censor tweets ahead of national elections in Turkey, according to multiple reports. Apple’s next more powerful processor, the M3 chip is expected later this year, according to Bloomberg. The company is also expected to unveil its long-anticipated virtual reality and augmented reality headset at its worldwide developer conference next month. Also in this brief, India is developing a nationwide system to help people block their lost mobile devices.

Notes:

Nearly half of all internet traffic in 2022 was generated by bots, according to a report by Imperva Research Labs, Security Magazine reports.

The report found that 47 percent of all traffic came from bots, including both "good" bots like search engine crawlers and "bad" bots like those used for web scraping and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

India is set to launch a nationwide system to combat mobile device theft, according to a Press Trust of India report that appeared in various publications.

The system will enable mobile phone users to block and track their lost or stolen devices and track their devices using GPS technology.

Elon Musk, who is amidst a transition to a new CEO to take his place at Twitter, has come under criticism for allegedly giving in to government pressure to censor tweets ahead of national elections in Turkey, according to multiple reports.

Critics argue that Musk, who has been a vocal advocate for free speech, is an opportunist who has compromised his values for business interests. The controversy stems from SpaceX's dealings with Turkey's right-wing leader, which some speculate may have influenced Musk's decision to reverse his stance on censorship.

“The choice is to have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?” Musk tweeted yesterday, in response to one critic. He added in another tweet that all internet companies are doing this around the world, while Twitter is only being clear about it.

Meanwhile, Musk has recruited Linda Yaccarino, until last week the chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBC Universal Media, as the new CEO of Twitter.

Musk confirmed rumours that Yaccarino would lead Twitter in a tweet on Friday. She’s expected to take charge in six weeks.

Apple is working on its next silicon, the M3 chip for Mac, which features improved CPU, GPU, and RAM specifications, Bloomberg’s Apple watcher Mark Gurman reports.

The M3 chip is expected to be available in the latter half of 2023, and it is anticipated to be a significant upgrade over Apple's previous chips.

Apple is also likely to unveil a high-end mixed reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, MacRumours reports, citing a Wall Street Journal report that’s behind a paywall.

The headset will have an internal screen for virtual reality and outward-facing cameras for augmented reality overlays. It is said to be unconventional and experimental relative to other Apple products, with a waist-mounted external battery pack, and a price tag of around $3,000.

After Elon Musk’s tweet that he has found a new CEO for Twitter and that he would take the CTO’s role, the name of Linda Yaccarino, a senior executive at NBC Universal Media in the US, has emerged as the person who is tipped to lead Twitter. In today’s Quick Take, we talk about if this will have any bearing on Twitter’s plans in India and how Yaccarino, a top marketer, might bring her perspective to one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. Twitter with its strong tech underpinnings, also has a vibrant base of users among India’s startup entrepreneurs.

Hyundai Motor has pledged to invest $2.45 billion in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the next decade to boost its electric vehicle plans, according to multiple reports yesterday. WhatsApp has rolled out back-end updates to address the surge in spam calls, which have been a major problem for users in India. Also in this brief, Julia programming language’s version 1.9 is out, and Google has launched its latest budget smartphone, the Pixel 7a, in India at a price of Rs43,999, TechCrunch reports.

Notes:

Hyundai Motor has pledged to invest $2.45bn in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the next decade to boost its electric vehicle (EV) plans, according to multiple reports yesterday.

The South Korean automaker signed an agreement with the state government of Tamil Nadu to increase production capacity at its Sriperumbudur plant and assemble EV battery packs, as well as to install 100 charging stations across the state in the next five years.

Hyundai Motor India's managing director said the long-term investment would enhance manufacturing capabilities and increase production volumes to create the best EVs and internal combustion engines in Tamil Nadu for the rest of the world. Tamil Nadu currently accounts for almost 6 percent of all EVs manufactured in India, according to the state's industries minister.

WhatsApp has rolled out back-end updates to address the surge in spam calls, which have been a major problem for users in India. The messaging app, owned by Meta, has bolstered its AI and ML systems to counter the issue, which has led to widespread reports of harassment and scams through fraudulent calls from unknown international numbers.

The new measures are expected to reduce spam calls by at least 50 percent, the company said in an emailed statement yesterday.

Julia, the popular programming language for scientific data analysis, has released a new upgrade, version 1.9, that eliminates the issue of slow start-up times for complex packages, according to a press release from JuliaHub yesterday.

The update allows Julia to generate and save machine code for packages when they are installed, which Julia reuses every time it is launched, making it much snappier for day-to-day usage. Core contributors to the new version include JuliaHub, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, among others.

Julia is open source and free to download and is rapidly being adopted by scientists doing exploratory data analysis. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry for modelling drug interactions and vaccine dosing, among other applications.

Google has launched its latest budget smartphone, the Pixel 7a, in India at a price of ₹43,999 ($536), TechCrunch reports. While this is not an affordable price for the Indian market, it is closer to the US price of $499 (₹40,937).

The company will also continue to sell the Pixel 6a in India with a reduced price tag of ₹29,999 (~$365) to make it more affordable for customers. Despite marketing efforts, Google has yet to capture any significant market share in India, which saw 144 million smartphone shipments last year.

However, the company has already shipped more than 175,000 devices in Q1 2023, largely thanks to the Pixel 6a. Google will face stiff competition from rivals such as Nothing, OnePlus, Vivo, and Xiaomi, who sell multiple models in the $300-$500 range.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, yesterday, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 edition of its annual flagship conference, Google I/O, highlighting the company's latest advancements in AI and machine learning. The company is bringing its technology in generative AI to individual users through a new Labs project. Separately, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian provided an update on how the company is bringing generative AI tech to the enterprise user. On the personal tech front, Google announced three new devices, including the next Pixel phone, a foldable phone and a new tablet.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai, yesterday, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 edition of its annual flagship conference, Google I/O, highlighting the company's latest advancements in AI and machine learning.

“Seven years into our journey as an AI-first company, we’re at an exciting inflection point. We have an opportunity to make AI even more helpful for people, for businesses, for communities, for everyone,” Pichai said.

“We’ve been applying AI to make our products radically more helpful for a while. With generative AI, we’re taking the next step … we’re reimagining all our core products, including Search,” he added.

Google has announced the launch of "Labs", a program that will allow users to preview some of their experiences across Workspace and other products. One of the first experiences available to test in Labs will involve Google Search.

As part of Labs, Google is introducing a new Search Generative Experience that combines the company's deep understanding of information with the unique capabilities of generative AI to transform how Search works.

On the large language models front, Google has announced the release of PaLM 2, its latest natural language processing (NLP) model. PaLM 2 builds on its predecessor, PaLM, and boasts multilingual capabilities, strength in logic and reasoning, and the ability to be fine-tuned for specific domains.

PaLM 2 is the latest product in Google's effort to bring AI to billions of people safely and responsibly. PaLM 2 was developed by two world-class research teams, the Brain Team and DeepMind, which have contributed to significant AI breakthroughs in the past, such as AlphaGo and Transformers. The two teams have recently been brought together into a single unit, Google DeepMind, which is working on Gemini, its next-generation foundation model.

Gemini is designed to be multimodal, efficient at the tool and API integrations, and capable of enabling future innovations like memory and planning. Once rigorously tested for safety, Gemini will be available in various sizes and capabilities, just like PaLM 2.

In a separate blog post, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian wrote about how the company is bringing generative AI capabilities to help users of all skill levels solve everyday work challenges.

Google Cloud has introduced new foundation models and capabilities across its AI products. Codey accelerates software development with code generation, while Imagen generates and customizes studio-grade images. Chirp enables deeper engagement with customers and constituents in their native languages.

The company also released three new Android hardware devices in its Pixel line of products.

Researchers at OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, have open-sourced datasets from a nascent effort aimed at building an automated tool to explain how large language models work. They discussed their efforts in a paper they published yesterday on their website. IBM, at its annual think conference yesterday released a new AI platform and tools. And for fans of the Nintendo Switch, the eponymous company’s latest results won’t bring any cheer. Sales of the hand-held console have dropped, dimming the prospect of an update to the product.

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IBM has launched Watsonx, an AI and data platform aimed at helping enterprises deploy AI models quickly and cost-effectively. The platform will provide businesses with a full technology stack for training, tuning, and deploying AI models, including IBM-curated and trained foundation models and machine learning capabilities.

IBM Watsonx.ai and IBM Watsonx.data will offer an AI development studio with foundation models, tools for training and tuning, and a data store for training and tuning data, and an optimized data store built on open lakehouse architecture optimized for governed data and AI workloads. The platform will be available from July 2023.

OpenAI researchers have proposed an automated approach to producing natural language explanations of individual components, including neurons and attention heads, in neural networks.

The proposed method uses GPT-4 to generate and score explanations of neuron behaviour. The authors are open-sourcing their datasets and visualization tools for GPT-4 written explanations, with hopes that the research community will develop new techniques for generating higher-scoring explanations and better tools for exploring language models.

Nintendo has reported a 5.5 percent YoY decrease in revenue for its fiscal year, with the 22 percent fall in sales of its flagship Switch console contributing to the decline.

Net profit fell by more than 9 percent to JPY432.7bn. Nintendo sold 17.97 million Switch units, in line with its forecast, compared with 23 million the previous year. The company has cited a shortage of semiconductors and other components as affecting production.

Zyngo EV Mobility, a Gurugram-based logistics service provider, has raised $5m in pre-Series A funding led by Delta Corp Holdings, with participation from LC Nueva Investment Partners.

Zyngo offers last-mile delivery solutions through a fleet of electric vehicles, targeting B2B and B2C customers, with a unique "asset-light model" acting as an intermediary between supply and demand in the market. The company aims to deploy 18,000+ zero-emission EV fleets across India by 2025 and intends to launch a hyperlocal B2C delivery mobile app.

Realme has launched the realme C55 Rainforest edition, a smartphone with a green hue meant to evoke the essence of a rainforest. The phone is powered by MediaTek Helio G88 Chipset and has a 17.07cm (6.72'') 90Hz FHD+ display, the largest in this price segment. The realme C55 also has ‘Mini Capsule’ and Sunshower design features, and up to 16GB of dynamic RAM.

LinkedIn is cutting 716 jobs,  about  3.6 percent of its staff, to streamline its operations. The social media network for business professionals will also phase out its local jobs app in China, InCareers. Google is expected to announce several generative AI updates at its annual developer conference, tomorrow, including the launch of a general-use large language model called PaLM 2, which incorporates over 100 languages and has been operating under the internal codename “Unified Language Model”, CNBC reports. And Razorpay is moving its legal base back to India, ET reports.

Tata Steel has warned that its UK business faces “material uncertainty” due to market conditions and the level of government support, BBC reports. That support is related to the need for the company’s steel factories to transition to newer technologies and processes that will result in lowering carbon emissions from the plants. Bengaluru VC firm 3One4 Capital has raised $200 million for its fourth fund, TechCrunch reports. The company has garnered half the commitment from local investors, according to the report.

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Tata Steel's UK business faces "material uncertainty" due to market conditions and the level of government support needed for decarbonisation, according to a stress test carried out on the European arm of the company, the BBC reports.

Tata Steel UK, which employs approximately 8,000 people, expects trading to improve later this year. Reports suggest Tata Steel could receive £300m ($405m) in support but decarbonising the Port Talbot plant is estimated to cost up to £3bn. The UK government says it is providing support to protect the steel industry from "unfair trade and energy costs".

Westinghouse has launched a smaller version of its AP1000 nuclear reactor, called AP300, which will generate around 300MW, enough to power 300,000 homes, CNBC reports.

The move comes as the nuclear industry looks to remake itself as a means of addressing climate change. The electricity produced by nuclear fission reactors generates no greenhouse gas emissions, and smaller nuclear reactors are less expensive to build. The AP300 will cost around $1bn per unit, compared with around $6.8bn for an AP1000. The UK's Nuclear Regulatory Commission will need to give its approval before the AP300 becomes available to customers by the end of 2027.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Adobe's $20bn acquisition of Figma to determine if it will lessen competition in the country, Reuters reports.

The move comes after the CMA blocked Microsoft's $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard over concerns that it would hinder cloud gaming. Adobe has said it looks forward to continuing to engage with the CMA, US Department of Justice, and European Commission in productive discussions about the deal. Figma has stated it will continue to engage constructively with regulators in the UK.

US chipmaker Broadcom's CEO, Hock Tan, has met European Union antitrust regulators to convince them that his company's proposed $61bn acquisition of VMware will not hinder competition, according to Reuters.

The deal has raised concerns on both sides of the Atlantic, with the EU warning it could limit competition in certain hardware component markets. Broadcom was expected to offer remedies soon after the hearing, and the EU's decision deadline is 21 June, which will be extended if concessions are submitted.

Bengaluru-based venture capital firm 3one4 Capital has raised $200m in just two and a half months for its fourth fund, which was oversubscribed to $250m, TechCrunch reports.

The firm has gained a reputation for its contrarian approach to investing and has steered clear of cryptocurrency. The new fund saw half its capital come from Indian investors. Co-founder and partner Pranav Pai told TechCrunch the VC firm is hoping for more dedicated funds to be launched for Indian startups and also emphasised the need for a more robust mergers and acquisitions landscape.

Apple reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings yesterday that beat market expectations, helped mainly by stronger-than-anticipated iPhone sales, but also an increase in its services business.

Sales were down overall, however. Sales in India set a March-quarter record, CEO Tim Cook told analysts in a conference. The country, where Apple recently opened two of its brick-and-mortar stores, was a “major focus” for Apple and he felt it was at “a tipping point,” with large numbers of people entering the middle class.

Notes:

Apple reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings yesterday that beat market expectations, helped mainly by stronger-than-anticipated iPhone sales, but also an increase in its services business.

Sales were down overall, however.

The Company posted quarterly revenue of $94.8 billion for the three months through March, down 3 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.52, unchanged from the year-earlier period.

"And as I noted earlier, in a milestone for Apple, we just opened our first two Apple stores in India, in Mumbai and Delhi. I was there to see it for myself, and I couldn't have been more delighted by the excitement and enthusiasm of the customers, developers, creators and team members I got to spend time with,” he said.

"Looking at the business in India, we did set a quarterly record, grew very strong, double digits year-over-year. So, it was quite a good quarter for us, taking a step back, India is an incredibly exciting market. It's a major focus for us.”

Over time, Apple has been expanding its operations in India, including getting its biggest contract manufacturers to expand their operations in the country, as it looks to reduce its dependence on China. On the retail front, Apple opened an online store in India three years ago, and it has incrementally expanded its distribution network of Apple-authorised premium stores. Last month it finally added the first of its physical stores.

Apple has also struck a major partnership with India’s Tata Group, which could be a game changer for both businesses.

For the current quarter, CFO Maestri said the company expects overall revenue to be similar to the March quarter.

Apple’s iPhone sales have increased in the backdrop of a broader smartphone industry contraction of nearly 15 percent during the same time, according to an IDC estimate, CNBC points out. In other words, Apple has taken market share from rivals, especially in the premium phones segment.

Overall, Apple’s sales in three of its four biggest markets fell – the Americas, Japan and Greater China, as Apple calls it. Sales rose in Europe and in the rest of the Asia Pacific, which includes India.

“The dynamism in the market, the vibrancy is unbelievable,” CEO Cook said. “There are a lot of people coming into the middle class, and I really feel that India is at a tipping point, and it's great to be there,” Cook said.

Google has started rolling out passkeys as an alternative to passwords for signing into its platform, the internet search giant said in a blog post yesterday. Pando, a supply chain software company, has raised $30 million in its Series B funding round, bringing the total capital raised to $45 million. Also in this brief, Infosys makes an ecosystem play in banking and financial services with a new report; fintech is estimated to hit $1.5 trillion in India by 2030; and Kazam, an EV infrastructure management platform provider, has raised $3.6 million from Avaana Climate Fund.

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Google has started rolling out passkeys as an alternative to passwords for signing into its platform, the internet search giant said in a blog post yesterday. Passkeys are easier and more secure than passwords as they allow users to sign in using a fingerprint, face scan or screen lock PIN, instead of relying on memorable but easy-to-guess phrases like “password123”.

Passkeys are also resistant to online attacks like phishing, making them more secure than SMS one-time codes. Google Workspace administrators will soon be able to enable passkeys for end-users during sign-in. However, passwords and two-step verification will still work for Google accounts.

And among Google’s billions of users are its massive Android user base in India. According to the 'Internet in India Report 2022' by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and KANTAR, 52 percent of Indians (759 million) are active Internet users, with rural India driving much of the growth.

The report predicts that by 2025, the number of active internet users in India will reach 900 million, with 56 percent of new users coming from rural India. However, there is a significant digital divide between states, with some having much lower levels of internet penetration than others.

As mobile internet expands further into India, fintech is an area that is expected to continue to grow strongly. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and QED Investors, financial technology revenues are expected to increase from $245 billion to $1.5 trillion by 2030.

In some IT services news, Infosys and HFS Research conducted a study titled "The ecosystem imperative: How to create new sources of value in BFS enterprises," which found that creating collaborative ecosystems is the new hope for driving growth and creating new forms of value for BFS enterprises.

While revenue growth and profitability are still top business objectives for firms, the creation of ecosystems is a new contender. However, without an interim stage of enterprise modernization, efforts to create ecosystems may fail. Acquiring and retaining talent, lack of centralized data governance, and legacy tech are the biggest roadblocks to ROI from innovation investments.

In some startup funding news, Pando, a supply chain software company, has raised $30 million in its Series B funding round, bringing the total capital raised to $45 million. The funding was led by Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures and included participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Next47, as well as several American CEOs and angel investors.

And Kazam, a platform for managing electric mobility infrastructure, has raised $3.6 million in a funding round led by Avaana Climate Fund, the company said in a press release yesterday.

Geoffrey Hinton, a leading figure in artificial intelligence (AI), has resigned from Google, warning of the dangers of the field; Samsung has temporarily restricted the use of generative AI, including ChatGPT, for its employees due to cases of misuse of the technology; and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has announced that the company expects to pause hiring for certain roles, as approximately 7,800 jobs could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in the coming years, Reuters reports. Also in this brief, Freshworks, India’s second biggest SaaS company, beats street expectations.

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eBay has appointed Vidmay Naini as General Manager for Global Emerging Markets, overseeing growth in Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Israel, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, TechCrunch reports.

Naini, who was previously in charge of eBay's Southeast Asia and India businesses, will focus on supporting small and medium-sized businesses. eBay's 2022 Southeast Asia Small Online Business Trade Report found that 99 percent of small businesses on eBay currently export items to an average of 25 different international markets, with 68% of eBay-enabled small businesses in six Southeast Asian countries exporting to 10 or more international markets.

Geoffrey Hinton, a leading figure in artificial intelligence (AI), has resigned from Google, warning of the dangers of the field, the New York Times and the BBC report, among others.

Hinton, who is known as the godfather of AI, has developed pioneering research on neural networks and deep learning, helping to pave the way for systems such as ChatGPT. He has voiced concerns about the rapid development of AI chatbots which could become more intelligent than humans, potentially being used for "bad things".

Samsung has temporarily restricted the use of generative AI, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, for its employees due to cases of misuse of the technology, CNBC reports.

The company has advised workers not to enter any personal or company-related information into the services and to take precautions when using ChatGPT and other products outside of work. Samsung is still looking for ways to safely use generative AI to enhance employee productivity and efficiency.

IBM has announced that it expects to pause hiring for certain roles as approximately 7,800 jobs could be replaced by AI and automation in the coming years, Reuters reports.

Hiring specifically in back-office functions such as human resources will be suspended or slowed. 30 percent of non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automation within five years. The reduction could include not replacing roles vacated by attrition.

The CEOs of Microsoft, Alphabet's Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and top administration officials to discuss key AI issues, Reuters reports.

US President Joe Biden's administration has been seeking public comments on proposed accountability measures for AI systems. In a blog post on Monday, deputies from the White House Domestic Policy Council and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote about how the technology can pose a serious risk to workers.

Freshworks beat quarterly revenue estimates and posted its first adjusted operating profit, according to Reuters. Rising interest rates, high inflation, and a banking crisis have worsened the global economic outlook in recent months, forcing businesses to slash their technology budgets.

Freshworks' revenue rose 20% in Q1 to $137.7 million, and it posted an adjusted operating profit of $3.9 million. Net loss narrowed to $42.7 million, from $49.1 million a year earlier.

India accounts for an insignificant share of patents worldwide, an analysis by Nasscom, the country’s top tech lobby, shows. In a report titled Unpacking Indians IP landscape, Nasscom yesterday pointed out that China accounted for 46.6 percent of all patents filed in 2021, as applications returned to pre-Covid levels. The US, Japan and South Korea are other major patent filers. India had a dismal 1.8 percent. Also in this brief, UK’s competition authorities have blocked Microsoft’s $68.9 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard; and Infosys and Walmart team up on a software solution for retailers.

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Britain’s top competition regulator on Wednesday moved to block Microsoft’s acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, in a big blow to the US tech giant, CNBC reports.

Microsoft said it plans to appeal the decision.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it opposed the deal as it raises competition concerns in the nascent cloud gaming market. The CMA previously held concerns about competition in games consoles being undermined but ruled out this concern in a preliminary decision in March, according to CNBC.

Microsoft could make Activision’s games exclusive to its cloud gaming platform, Xbox Game Pass, cutting off distribution to other key industry players, the CMA said in a press release yesterday.

Infosys, yesterday, said it was teaming up with Walmart Commerce Technologies to sell and implement a software package solution called Store Assist to make pickups, deliveries and shipping from stores more efficient.

Infosys has a Consumer and Retail focused practice that has helped more than 190 retailers worldwide to modernise their operations to be able to take real advantage of data and analytics, according to the press release.

Separately, Infosys also said that it is extending its collaboration with Brent Council in the UK to make its digital learning platform, Springboard, available to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Society, the technology business incubator at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, has teamed up with Microsoft to set up an incubation cell at the institute. PIED and Microsoft have signed an MoU to foster startups and support entrepreneurs, BITS said in a press release.

Nasscom, India’s biggest technology lobby, yesterday released findings of a study that looked at patents filed in India and points out that India is doing poorly and has much work to do.

In FY22, patent filings increased 13.6 percent over the previous fiscal year, Nasscom said in a press release. The share of domestic filings increased to 44.4 percent of all patents filed, compared with 41.6 percent in FY21.

Only 20 patents are filed in India per million population, compared with 1,770 in Japan, as of 2021. And the average time an application remains pending is three times longer in India as against Japan. There are 300 applications filed in India for every $100 billion of GDP, versus 5,738 in China.

Based on data from WIPO, Nasscom’s analysis shows that more than two-thirds of all patents filed worldwide, at 67.6 percent, were in Asia. This compared with 54.6 percent in 2011.

China, by far, leads the patent filings in Asia, accounting for 46.6 percent of all patents filed worldwide. The US is next, at 17.4 percent. Japan accounted for 8.5 percent and South Korea for 7 percent. India’s share was an insignificant 1.8 percent.