Funding for Indian startups dropped by 33 per cent to $24 billion in 2022 as compared to the previous year though it was nearly double the amount recorded in 2019 or 2020, said a PwC India report on Wednesday. Global investors were still positive about the Indian startup ecosystem despite the global slowdown, as per the report titled 'Startup Tracker-CY 22'. "Funding for Indian startups in CY22 was nearly $24 billion, a drop of 33 per cent in comparison to CY21 but was still more than twice the funds raised in CY20 and CY19 each", it said.
India's largest IT services company TCS believes that generative artificial intelligence (AI) is not just another tech cycle but a "civilisational shift" which will positively benefit every industry.
As the Jaggi brothers - Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi - find themselves at the heart of the financial mismanagement in the Gensol-BluSmart saga, attention on the third BluSmart co-founder, Punit K Goyal, has taken a notably different turn.
'I am not an aspiration-oriented politician.' 'This is the time to redefine politics.' 'Politics of power is not real politics.'
The January-March quarter (Q4) results for 2024-25 (FY25) from the country's largest passenger vehicle (PV) maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), were a mixed bag, with revenues broadly in line but operating profit missing Street expectations. Given cost pressures, margins at the operating level were the lowest in the past seven quarters.
There has been nothing consolidated in the Budget for this section that may transform entrepreneurship in any meaningful way
Having marked a 20-year milestone in India, global tech giant Google is upbeat about its next innings here with Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing a big role in it, India MD Roma Datta Chobey said on Thursday, adding that the company is aligning its vision and strategy fully to the country's growth and ambitions. In an interview to PTI, Chobey said Google believes that AI should be regulated but in a way that strikes a fine balance between user benefit -- which is "still at a nascent stage" -- and at the same time, fosters innovation.
Microsoft India on Tuesday said it has collaborated with Invest India to support tech startups in the country. As part of the partnership, the Microsoft for Startups programme will work closely with Accelerating Growth of New India's Innovations (AGNIi Mission) - a programme of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, a statement said. Housed and executed by Invest India, AGNIi Mission helps startups become enterprise-ready.
Several multinational medical device makers are focusing on deepening their presence in India by expanding their local manufacturing footprint and research capabilities, a move that can catapult India into a strategic hub for the medical technology (medtech) industry. Among those increasing their reach in the country are Siemens Healthineers and Philips, signalling a broader shift from India being only a sales destination to becoming a global production and innovation base.
The Slovak Republic's President, Peter Pellegrini, has expressed interest in adopting a tree-planting initiative similar to India's "Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam," launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The inspiration came during a meeting with Indian President Droupadi Murmu, who was on a two-day state visit to Slovakia. During a tree-planting ceremony in Nitra, Murmu highlighted Modi's initiative to plant trees in the name of mothers. Pellegrini was impressed and suggested that Slovakia could consider a similar program. The initiative, launched on World Environment Day last year, encourages people to plant a tree in their mother's name as a symbolic gesture of love and respect.
'Indian startups have raised $3.5 billion in funding in the first half of 2015'.
'We will start reaching out to researchers, academics, and experts on AI from top universities and companies from across the world.'
Startup founders need to sit up and think about how not to take stardom for granted and how not to disappoint their fans who have stood in long queues for those precious selfies with popular entrepreneurs, notes Nivedita Mookerji.
She said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is working "hard" on the Bankruptcy Code
The four-day CIFF was packed with so many other new projects, like Radhika Apte's first directorial effort Koyta, with Vikramaditya Motwane as the producer, Venkatesh Maha's Ko Ko Ko, Jeo Baby's Punishment and Shonali Bose's Black Mountain Monpa.
Bootstrapping has put Nithin Kamath of Zerodha in a position where he can trifle with talk about valuation, points out Suveen Sinha.
India's flexible (flex) office segment, having breached pre-pandemic levels, is thriving as corporates, startups, multinational corporations, and global capability centres (GCCs) expand in India, seeking low-capital yet Grade A plug-and-play facilities. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, the flex office segment continued to grow, with flex space leasing rising by 22 per cent to 2.2 million square feet (msf), according to Colliers.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has proposed key exemptions to the current listing framework and measures for setting up holding companies (holdcos) and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to encourage domestic startups list at GIFT City, the country's only international financial services centre (IFSC). Under the current framework, to be eligible to list on IFSC exchanges, an issuing company should have operating revenue of at least $20 million in the preceding financial year and average pre-tax profits of at least $1 million during the preceding three financial years. An expert committee has noted these conditions have acted as hurdles to listing new-age companies, and they need a relook.
India is among the fastest-growing markets for Google in the cloud services segment, a senior executive has said, adding that the tech giant is looking to partner companies in their business transformation through its offerings. Google Cloud India is seeing an "increased adoption" of its offerings across segments from the public sector to small and medium businesses and from startups and digital-native companies, Google Cloud India vice president and country managing director Bikram Singh Bedi told PTI.
'Amaravati will be a game changer for Andhra Pradesh.'
'Many were caught in a burnout race, chasing unsustainable growth without innovating.'
Hiring trends in India's white-collar job market dipped marginally by 1.4 per cent in March compared to the same month last year, driven by a decline in recruitment in the retail, oil & gas, and education sectors, a report said on Wednesday.
'As the global economy undergoes significant transformations in 2025, India's ability to navigate the complexities of trade wars, financial realignments, and emerging blocs will be pivotal,' explain Harsh V Pant and Soumya Bhowmik.
Funding winter and corporate governance woes separated the men from the boys in the country's startup space in 2023 that saw funds into the segment tapering to just around $8 billion. All said, investors are hopeful of strong growth of the maturing startup ecosystem in the new year. Edtech and health tech segments that grew exponentially during the pandemic plunged into an abyss of financial uncertainties, with several firms shuttering their business, and valuation of prominent players like BYJU'S and PharmEasy plummeting 85-90 per cent.
The Indian startup ecosystem, which defied odds during a pandemic-hit year to create record 12 unicorns, has the potential to be the engine of growth in the medium to long run, according to the Economic Survey 2020-21. The survey noted that startups are the platform for entrepreneurs who have the ability to think out of the box and innovate to conceive products that can create a niche for themselves in a dynamically changing world.
Anticipating US action on tariffs, India seems to have made the first move by revamping its tariff structure by reducing the slabs to eight rates, points out Mukesh Butani.
The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory. With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
The 'angel tax' provision in the Finance Bill will not impact startups in India, a senior government official said on Tuesday. Startups which are registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade do not come under the purview, Anurag Jain, the secretary in the department said while speaking at the IVCA Conclave. "Let me put one thing very clearly. It doesn't affect startups in the least," he said, addressing the audience at the event organized by the venture capital industry lobby grouping.
With 90% of the inventories sold out, JioStar expects to ring in more than a 58% increase over last year's IPL, when it clocked Rs 3,900 crore.
Zomato is at 5, Swiggy at 9, Blinkit at 10.
When Gensol Engineering made its public market debut through a small and medium enterprises (SME) initial public offering (IPO) in September 2019, its promoters held a commanding 96 per cent stake. Now, that figure has shrunk to a "negligible" fraction.
'The race is now on for Indian IT firms to develop their AI prowess and focus on a software-first approach to services as the people element becomes more complicated with Trump's expected new regulations.'
A pet project of the Indian Army, four-legged robotic prototypes have been making waves at the Republic Day and Army Day parades in the past year.
Delhi-based electric vehicle (EV) ride-hailing firm Evera Cabs, which grabbed headlines after acquiring 500 cars from the now-defunct cab service BluSmart, is stepping up its presence in the EV cab segment. The company is aiming for revenue of Rs 100 crore in the ongoing financial year (2025-26), up from Rs 18 crore in 2024-25.
Developers in India now have expanded access to Google's powerful AI models with the 2 million token context window in Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemma 2, the next generation of open models.
The most striking features of this Budget was its focus on simplification and improving the ease of doing business in India, asserts Kaku Nakhate.
Opposition MPs in India's Rajya Sabha raised concerns about US President Donald Trump's tariff threats, demanding the government clarify its response and engage in discussions with opposition parties. Leaders like P Chidambaram and Sagarika Ghose warned of potential economic repercussions, including depressed exports, lower FDI, and a significant tariff burden. The debate also touched on other issues such as the government's economic policies, demonetization, and the impact of GST on common citizens.
'What I hope to do is provide a vehicle for that scale and growth in literacy and English as a second language here.'
For 2016, India's rank in ease of doing business has improved.
The government is expected to outline a policy framework for artificial intelligence (AI) at the annual India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024, beginning Tuesday, officials said. Apart from industry participation, the four-day event will feature booths from over 15 ministries showcasing how AI is being integrated into their departments.