Smaller cities are stealing the show in data centre expansion

Tier-2 and -3 cities are turning attractive due to their strategic locations and improved infrastructure as companies seek to cater to the underserved vast majority. The data centre industry has expanded from 350 MW capacity in 2019 to 854 MW in 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 25%, as per JLL data.

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USCIS to conduct second H-1B lottery to meet FY25 limit

The H-1B visa is the US’s premier high-skilled worker visa, in high demand by Indian and Chinese origin professionals, among others, many of whom work in the tech sector.

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Worst of layoffs likely over, startups hand out fewer pink slips in H1

Startups cut about 11,250 jobs during the January-June period this year, compared with 21,000 in the first half of 2023 and 15,000 in the second, according to data from executive search firm Longhouse Consulting.

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It's trending D2C: new-age brands flex muscle via own sites

Direct ecommerce, or brands selling directly to consumers through their digital platforms, has risen to 10-15% of India’s online retail market of $70-75 billion now, from 2-3% five years ago, according to data. Why are these brands focussing on their own channels for sales and cutting reliance on marketplaces?

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D2C haircare brand Moxie Beauty raises $2.1 million in funding led by Fireside Ventures

Moxie Beauty, a haircare brand catering to Indian hair textures, has raised Rs 17.3 crore in funding from Fireside Ventures. The company will use this capital to innovate in product categories, hiring and expanding distribution channels.

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InsuranceDekho secures composite broking licence, to start reinsurance biz

InsuranceDekho, a Gurugram-based insurance marketplace, has secured the composite insurance broking licence from IRDAI. Its customers can now avail the reinsurance service from the company. With this, the company takes on rival Policybazaar, which had received the permit in February this year. InsuranceDekho processed around Rs 3,300 crore in premium for insurance companies in the last financial year.

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Fidelity, Nomura line up bids for Ola Electric's IPO

Ola Electric's roughly $740 million IPO will open this week and will be the first by an Indian electric vehicle maker. The company is the biggest player in the e-scooter market in a country where adoption of clean vehicles is still low but rising rapidly.

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Removal of angel tax for startups to help attract investors: Piyush Goyal

Angel tax (income tax at 30% rate) was imposed on funding raised by unlisted companies, or startups, if their valuation exceeded the company's fair market value.

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CERT-In says global outage being leveraged to launch phishing attacks against CrowdStrike users

The world suffered a major computer systems outage on July 19 due to a faulty update to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor software leading to crash of Microsoft Windows operating system. The event grounded numerous flights, hit business, banking and hospital systems across the globe including in India.

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Making India an AI first nation — from classrooms to boardrooms

As technology advances, the governance of AI must evolve accordingly. In alignment with the ‘India AI Mission’ and ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’, it is essential for the public and private sectors to collaborate in democratising access to AI skills. Empowering communities at the grassroots level with AI fluency can drive innovation on a large scale, ensuring that the benefits of AI are widely accessible and impactful.

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US union and Apple reach tentative labour agreement

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reached a tentative agreement with Apple, promising better work-life balance, pay raises, and job security for retail workers at Towson, Maryland. Workers will vote on August 6. The deal includes a pay raise, limits on contracted employees, and improvements in work-life balance. Apple did not comment.

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Top startup and tech stories of the week

Welcome to a brand new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories from the week, including the top developments from the union budget. Let's take a look.

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A third of Mphasis' deal pipeline is AI-led: CEO

Mphasis, a mid-tier IT firm, clocked a 2.1% growth in Q1 net profit at Rs 404 crore. The company is seeing a major chunk of its deals being led by AI, CEO Nitin Rakesh told ET.

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China is closing the AI gap with the United States

While the United States has had a head start on AI development, China is catching up. In recent weeks, several Chinese companies have unveiled AI technologies that rival leading American systems. And these technologies are already in the hands of consumers, businesses and independent software developers across the globe.

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Tech Mahindra Q1 profit up 23% to Rs 851 crore, revenue down

IT services company Tech Mahindra on Thursday reported 23% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 851 crore in the June quarter. The profit was slightly below the Street estimate of Rs 870 crore.

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Amazon racing to develop AI chips cheaper, faster than Nvidia's, executives say

The server was packed with Amazon's artificial intelligence chips that compete with those from market leader Nvidia, Amazon executive Rami Sinno said on Friday, during a visit to the lab.

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Agri Stack to cover six crore farmers by end of the year

Agri Stack is a database of Indian farmers, which contains their details like landholding, GPS coordinates of plots and the crops grown on them. As per an official in the agriculture ministry, this will cover 60 million farmers by the end of this fiscal year. Farmers will receive a unique ID through this.

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ETtech Opinion | Budget ringfences India growth story: Nykaa CEO Falguni Nayar

The Prime Minister’s package of five schemes and initiatives to accelerate employment, skill development and other opportunities for 41 million youth over the next five years with a central outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore has the potential to increase households' purchasing power.

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ETtech Opinion | Budget ringfences India growth story: Nykaa CEO Falguni Nayar

The Prime Minister’s package of five schemes and initiatives to accelerate employment, skill development and other opportunities for 41 million youth over the next five years with a central outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore has the potential to increase households' purchasing power.

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CCI clears Amazon seller Appario’s sale to Clicktech

Appario is the largest seller on Amazon India. This is part of Amazon’s plan to divest stakes in sellers on its platform. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday said it has approved the “proposed combination involving, inter alia, Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings, Frontizo Business Services, Appario Retail, Haverl LLC and Clicktech Retail”.

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Kreditbee, Khatabook's domicile shift likely to pave way for IPOs

Valued at $700 million, Kreditbee flipping base to India will set the stage for a domestic initial public offering by the company — the key reason behind moving domicile here. Khatabook, another fintech backed by Y Combinator and Tribe Capital, has also begun work on moving its domicile to India from the US, sources briefed on the matter said.

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Cashfree secures RBI licence to operate as cross-border payment player

The huge amount of inward remittances to India every year and the freelancers and software service companies in India catering to global companies make cross-border payments a big opportunity for India. The Economic Survey for 2023-24 sees remittances growing 4% to $129 billion by 2025.

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PhonePe, Google Pay cede online payment share to new entrants

The UPI payments space has seen an influx of new players in recent times. The entrants are challenging the dominance of PhonePe and Google Pay, which control more than 80% share of the market.

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Exclusive: Amazon in deals talks with Swiggy for quick commerce business Instamart: sources

Early talks on; US ecommerce biggie looking for a buyout or stake via pre-IPO placement. Discussions may face multiple roadblocks, said sources in the know. Legacy ecommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart scouting for quick commerce assets amid rising consumption on rapid delivery platforms like Zomato’s Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy’s Instamart.

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Litigation funding startups eyeing arbitration and insolvency resolution cases

A total of 7,567 companies across sectors were brought into administration until March end, according to the latest data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. As per the National Judicial Data Grid, more than 45 million cases are pending in courts across the country, including about six million cases in 25 high courts and 83,800 cases in the Supreme Court.

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Italy probes Google over alleged unfair user data practices

Italy's antitrust authority stated that Google's method of obtaining user consent could restrict their freedom of choice. By prompting users to agree to the combined use of personal data across various Google services, the authority argued that Google's consent request might be misleading in commercial terms.

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ETtech Explainer: How a faulty Microsoft Windows update by CrowdStrike led to havoc

Microsoft's Windows devices experienced a severe outage on Friday due to a faulty update by CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity company that manages end-point security for various companies. CrowdStrike's update, intended to increase protection features, ran into a conflict with Microsoft's cloud service infrastructure, causing devices to display the blue screen of death message.

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Top startup and tech stories of the week

Welcome to a brand new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories that we covered this week. Here’s a quick recap.

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Elon Musk congratulates PM Modi on being most followed world leader on X

Earlier this week, when this milestone was reached, Modi said on X: "A hundred million on @X! Happy to be on this vibrant medium and cherish the discussion, debate, insights, people's blessings, constructive criticism and more."

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Without backup plans, global IT outages will happen again

Friday's global IT outage, caused by a CrowdStrike update conflicting with Microsoft's OS, disrupted aviation, banking, and healthcare. Experts stress failsafes, regulatory scrutiny, and highlight digital dependency and the 2038 Problem. Despite managing safety aspects well, service provision remains problematic. Ciaran Martin and Nigel Phair emphasize organizational risks and critical services' reliance on few tech companies.

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ONDC corners 3% of order volumes of Swiggy, Zomato

As per sources, ONDC facilitates 60,000 orders per day in the food domain, capturing 3% of the total order volumes managed by Swiggy and Zomato across India individually who receive 20 lakh orders each. Its total order volumes touched around 4 lakh orders in a day which includes mobility bookings as well.

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Infosys beats PAT and revenue estimates, dials up outlook

A strong revenue expansion of 3.7% YoY during the period prompted the second-largest software exporter to forecast growth of 3-4% for FY25 against its earlier guidance of 1-3%. “We had a strong performance in Q1 on large deals and financial services in the US is seeing early signs of improvement," said CEO and MD Salil Parekh.

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OpenAI unveils cheaper small AI model GPT-4o mini

MMLU is a textual intelligence and reasoning benchmark used to evaluate the capabilities of language models. A higher MMLU score signifies it can understand and use language better across a variety of domains, enhancing real-world usage.

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Govt eyes Big Tech, startups meet over DPDP Act age-gating

The provisions of the DPDP Act 2023 state that all users below the age of 18 will be considered as children. Such users, the Act states, must obtain verifiable parental consent for using social media and a host of other services provided by internet intermediaries.

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US considers tougher trade rules in China chip crackdown

The U.S. is contemplating severe trade restrictions on companies providing advanced semiconductor tech to China. Measures may include the Foreign Direct Product Rule, a provision dating back to 1959. Tokyo Electron and ASML Holding NV are among the companies mentioned. Discussions ongoing with officials in Tokyo and the Hague.

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Fintech startup Multipl raises $1.5 million funding in round led by Blume Ventures, MIXI Global Investments

Fintech startup Multipl raises $1.5 million in funding to enhance its platform and introduce new features. It last raised $3 million in May 2022 in a round led by Blume Ventures, GrowX Ventures, IIFL, and Kotak Securities.

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ADIF, PHDCCI partner to boost Indian startup, innovation ecosystem

ADIF and PHDCCI signed a two-year MoU at PHD house, New Delhi, to foster startups. Prateek Jain highlighted digital entrepreneurship and independent thinking. The partnership includes workshops, training, seminars. Ranjeet Mehta aims to enhance startup quality, positioning India as a global leader in a holistic, architecting innovation ecosystem.

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Tekion Corp raises $200 million in funding at valuation of over $4 billion

Tekion Corp raised $200 million from Dragoneer at a $4 billion valuation. The firm has raised $640 million till date from the likes of General Motors, BMW I Ventures, Exor, Hyundai and Airbus Ventures, among others.

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GoMechanic achieves operational profit in April-June; FY24 revenue hits Rs 210 crore

GoMechanic, acquired by Servizzy in March 2023, achieved profitability by June 2024. Led by Himanshu Arora and Muskan Kakkar, it reported Rs 210 crore annual revenue and Rs 11.2 crore from accessories. The company introduced luxury, EV, and extended warranty programs and aims to expand to 1,000 cities by 2027, currently servicing 30,000 cars monthly.

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Who are the big guns fuelling AI?

From top companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia to Salesforce and AMD, no one wants to be left behind in the AI race. Here’s a deeper look into who are the big guns making strategic bets on GenAI and what are their key investments.

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Elon Musk says he requested extra time for design change to Tesla robotaxi

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces a delay for the robotaxi event to make an important design change. The event, originally set for August, is now expected in October. Musk has hinted at revealing more surprises during the event, boosting Tesla's stock by nearly 5%.

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MeitY may ask MCA to keep ex-ante out of Digital Competition Bill for now

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology advises excluding the ex-ante provision from the Digital Competition Bill. Stakeholders, including IAMAI, Nasscom, and The Dialogue, oppose it as burdensome. A senior official notes widespread opposition. Further consultations are advised. Concerns include compliance for significant digital enterprises, dominance control, and its impact on venture investments in tech startups.

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Google parent in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion

Alphabet is negotiating to acquire U.S.-Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion. This would be its largest acquisition amid regulatory scrutiny. Wiz, generating $350 million revenue and serving 40% of Fortune 100 companies, valued at $12 billion. Discussions are confidential and follow Alphabet's decision not to acquire HubSpot. Neither company provided comments.

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OpenAI whistleblowers ask SEC to investigate alleged restrictive non-disclosure agreements

OpenAI whistleblowers filed an SEC complaint about restrictive NDAs. Sen. Grassley urged an investigation into NDAs waiving whistleblower rights. SEC declined to comment. Originally reported by Washington Post. Fines requested; criticized penalties, consent, non-disparagement clauses. Inspection of contracts, severance, investor agreements requested. OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee led by CEO Sam Altman. Chandni Shah reported AI risks and generative AI.

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Germany to ban Chinese giants from 5G network

German officials said their telecom networks must be protected from cyberattacks, calling it an “existential threat”. Officials added that they have reached agreements with 5G network operators in the country. Huawei responded saying there was “no specific evidence” that the technology has “cyber security risks”.

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Ola, Uber, Zomato among 21 entities registered under Delhi's motor vehicle aggregator scheme

Delhi's Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said this initiative will not only promote green mobility but also set high standards for service quality and public safety in the transport sector. The scheme stipulates penalties ranging from Rs 5,000 up to Rs 100,000 per instance.

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HCLTech Q1 net profit up 6.8% at Rs 4,257 crore; beats estimates

HCLTech's profit rose 6.8% to Rs 4,257 crore, driven by $70 million non-core income. EBIT, revenue declined. TCS earnings boosted stocks. CEO Vijayakumar noted Q2 State Street impact, steady FY25 guidance. Dividend declared. Headcount fell by 8,080, Q3 margins to improve. $1.96 billion bookings, 200 GenAI concepts. CFO Prateek Aggarwal cited robust cash flow. Shares closed at Rs 1560.40.

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US court rejects challenges to FCC approval of SpaceX satellites

A U.S. appeals court has upheld the FCC's approval of SpaceX's plan to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites for broadband internet. Challenges from DISH Network and astronomers were rejected. SpaceX aims to expand its satellite network for wider internet coverage.

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All that SaaS; AI woes

Happy Friday! Goldman Sachs is likely to increase its stake in SaaS startup MoEngage. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Goldman Sachs nears $30-50 million MoEngage deal in signs of SaaS deals comeback

Goldman Sachs targets $35-50 million in MoEngage via secondary transaction. MoEngage, valued at $700 million in 2022 led by Goldman and B Capital, has clients including Flipkart. IFC invested in Innovaccer; Whatfix by Warburg Pincus; Icertis, SoftBank. Atlan received funds from GIC, Meritech. Noteworthy: Eight Roads Ventures, SaaS valuation multiples, Bessemer Venture Partners.

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US Republican lawmakers concerned over Microsoft-G42 AI deal, letter says

Michael McCaul and John Moolenaar of the House Foreign Affairs and Select Committee on China request a briefing on Microsoft's $1.5 billion investment in G42, citing concerns about export controls, military and espionage, G42's Huawei ties, cyber espionage, intellectual property risks, and UAE-China relations in their July 10 letter to Jake Sullivan.

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Indkal Technologies inks licensing pact with Acer to design, produce smartphones

The consumer electronics startup will begin by manufacturing a million smartphones under the Acer brand, which will later be scaled up. Currently, the firm designs, manufactures, sells, and services ACs, refrigerators, and washing machines for Acer and Black & Decker.

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Investors flock to new-age food brands; ecommerce sales report

Happy Wednesday! Investors are showing strong appetite for new-age food brands, with notable investments and expansions taking place. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Hungry for more: Food deals trending on startup street

Coffee, burgers, dosas and other brands scoop up new capital. Venture funds are investing in brands like FirstCoffee, AbCoffee, Café Amudham, Curefoods' Eatfit, Cakezone, aided by Sujeet Kumar, Binny Bansal. Curefoods seeks Rs 100 crore expansion.

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WhatsApp launches context card feature to help users stay safe in group messaging

Meta’s WhatsApp launches a group messaging safety feature, displaying context cards for new, unknown group additions with creator details and creation date. This helps users decide to stay or leave. The update enhances tools like chat lock, silencing unknowns, in-app privacy check-up, group addition control and mirrors individual message safety. Rolling out in coming weeks.

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Medtech firm Medikabazaar rejigs top deck as PwC audit spots issues

Medikabazaar undergoes management reshuffle with CEO stepping down amid financial discrepancies. Investors demand audits and CEO transitions become a trend in B2B startups. Scrutiny reveals wrong accounting practices in the industry.

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Centriti raises Rs 6 crore in funding round led by Emergent India Ventures

The B2B e-procurement platform works with 120 hotels and restaurants, including Taj Hotels, Oberoi Hotels, Accor Group, Barbeque Nation, and Chai Point in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Jaipur. It plans to expand to Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Chennai in the next couple of years.

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Influencers back to brand deals as their paywall push fails

Influencers on Instagram and Amazon struggle to monetize via subscriptions and virtual gifting, relying heavily on brand partnerships. The Instagram subscription feature faces challenges in India, and virtual gifting fails to boost income. Anurag Iyer of BigBang.Social and Ankit Panicker of Pocket Aces highlight brand collaborations, while Amazon's Live includes 600 content creators influencing 18,000 creators.

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India needs to work on infra, ecosystem to be a semicon hub: Dy mayor of New Taipei City

Deputy Mayor Chu Tih Ju, at Taiwan Expo 2024, urged India to enhance infrastructure and connectivity to boost its manufacturing ecosystem. Taiwan, a major semiconductor and electronics producer, saw $8.2 billion bilateral trade with India last year. TAITRA Chairman Huang noted 28% trade growth in 2024, emphasizing the adherence to local laws.

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Ex-defence secretary Ajay Kumar joins VC play with early-stage fund

Ajay Kumar, a former bureaucrat who retired as India’s defence secretary in 2022, has set up a new venture fund, Mounttech Growth Fund, to back early-stage startups. The Rs 250-crore fund has secured approval from Sebi. The fund will look to back startups in the space, aerospace, and deep tech sectors.

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Govt mainstreamed startups; used to be at the bottom of food chain: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma

The 'American dream' folklore in business and technology parlance has given way to the 'Indian dream' and 'Indian startup', Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, adding that this is "truly a golden period" for founders and entrepreneurs here.

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Swiggy Instamart to focus on household consumption, immediate use cases products, says head

Swiggy Instamart head Phani Kishan Addepalli said the quick commerce platform's focus will continue to be on items of household consumption and those with immediate use cases, even as the company tries to expand beyond groceries and every day products. He was speaking at the India Health Snacking Summit in Delhi.

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Transforming governance through AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) could streamline college admissions by collating student data, suggesting colleges, filling out common applications, and applying for scholarships. Universities would benefit from faster, more efficient seat allocation and scholarship awarding, simplifying the entire process. AI-enabled chatbots can provide very specific and contextualized responses in multiple languages to queries from citizens and even deliver a wide range of citizen-centric services.

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Spiritual apps get blessed with more users, investors post Covid

Post-pandemic spiritual and astrology apps have experienced a significant resurgence, benefiting from increased online engagement and a growing interest in spiritual practices. Startups such as Vama.app are seizing this opportunity by offering virtual pujas, temple darshans, and astrology services, marking a notable shift in consumer behaviour towards digital spiritual experiences.

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Talen asks US regulators to reject challenge to Amazon data center deal

Talen Energy defends its Amazon data center deal against claims by utilities, stating it won't raise power costs or affect grid reliability. The dispute could set a precedent for future data center agreements. FERC's decision pending.

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Elon Musk suggests late Twitter disclosure was a mistake, seeks to end lawsuit

Elon Musk seeks to dismiss lawsuit from former Twitter shareholders over delayed stake disclosure. Shareholders claim he saved $200 million by waiting to reveal his 9.2% ownership. Musk denies fraud allegations, stating it was a mistake. SEC also looked into his Twitter stock purchases. Lawsuit led by Oklahoma pension fund.

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Top startup and tech stories this week

Welcome to a brand new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories that we covered this week. Here’s a recap if you missed them.

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Rise & rise of secondary deals; advantage desi data centres

Happy Friday! Total funding raised by Indian startups fell in the first half of 2024, but late-stage activity showed signs of revival, as per data. Decoding this and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Telangana in talks with CDAC to set up 20 petaflops compute capacity in Hyderabad

Telangana has requested the IT ministry to establish compute capacity in the proposed AI city in Hyderabad under the National Supercomuting Mission, saying that the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) has shown interest for the same. If the government agrees, some land will be given to them to set this up, Telangana IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan told ET.

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Tech-first brokers hit a snag; Foxconn’s Bharat FIH in trouble

Happy Thursday! Online stock brokers, who used low fees to attract customers, now face an uncertain future with Sebi’s new rules. More on this in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Social media companies list out worries as Centre readies data protection law

Social media platforms have said that undoing behavioural tracking of children and targeted advertisements are among the biggest concerns they have with the new data law the government is prepping. The companies are voicing their concerns as rules of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act will be released soon.

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India’s bid to make GPAI as AI regulator gets global support

India has emerged successful in making the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) the leading platform for international cooperation on AI governance. This includes establishing regulations and a unified global framework for responsible AI development and implementation.

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Global firms buy PB Fintech stakes from early backers

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have lapped up shares in Gurugram-based listed fintech firm PB Fintech, as its founders and early investors sold their shares, in full or in part, in multiple tranches. These transactions happened through bulk deals when several early-stage investors of the company exited the firm fully or partly after 2021, when it went public.

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Adani joins Tata and Ambani in race for elusive India superapp

Given the limited traction gained by Ambani’s MyJio and Tata’s Neu despite their wider range of consumer businesses, the Adani Group — whose businesses are largely infrastructure and heavy industrial ones — may have set itself a daunting task.

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Karnataka losing out in manufacturing race; CXO churn in startups

New-age companies are choosing to set up manufacturing facilities in neighboring states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, bypassing Karnataka. More on this in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Strong ER&D demand helps IT buck overall soft hiring trend

India's $250 billion IT services industry is facing sluggish hiring, but a bright spot is emerging in Engineering, Research & Development (ER&D). Demand for ER&D services is surging, driving a 15% increase in recruitment for these roles. Staffing firms report that tech companies are ramping up ER&D hiring to stay competitive in the global market.

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Fintechs' secure credit play; New Jersey turns IT hub

Fintech companies like Cred, PhonePe and Paytm are seeking partnerships with NBFCs to enter the secured credit market. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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F&B, quick commerce log 40-50% sales jump on T20 final night

India’s nail-biting final match with South Africa on June 29 and the eventual historic victory drove up sales and revenues of food and beverage (F&B) companies as well as quick commerce firms. Merchant checkout network Simpl said it saw a nearly 40% increase in consumer spending on its platform during the match.

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