French President Emmanuel Macron announced that India and France will collaborate to develop an artificial intelligence framework that combines innovation with responsibility and technology with humanity, addressing the need for inclusive digital tools amid rising geopolitical tensions.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
AI means 'All Inclusive' for India, asserted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday while stressing that India Stack is a beacon of hope for the world, especially for countries in the Global South.
'The next decade will be even more transformative,' says Prime Minister Modi. 'We are moving from digital governance to global digital leadership.'
Isn't there something significant in the UPI example for all of us to learn from and execute to enable world-scale success for our startups?, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
Bob van Dijk, chief executive officer of Naspers, is now betting on companies in food tech, payments, travel and other consumer sectors to tap the potential of the Indian market.
The Indian startup ecosystem has lauded the inclusion of startups in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration for the first time ever in the history of G20. Industry stakeholders say that the move will lead to easier access to capital, reduce regulatory hurdles, and may revive funding activity. The Declaration, through the Startup20 initiative, recognised startups as "natural engines of growth" and key to socio-economic transformation by driving innovation and creating employment.
The three-day India Mobile Congress (IMC) will showcase the widening convergence of telecom with new domains, such as semiconductors and deep tech, P Ramakrishna, the forum's chief executive officer, said on Tuesday. With more than 250 global and domestic exhibitors, the seventh edition is expected to draw more than 100,000 visitors this year, he said. There will also be over 5,000 CXO-level delegates and more than 350 speakers.
Walmart-owned digital payments app Phonepe on Thursday said it has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm General Atlantic. "Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the round," PhonePe said in a statement adding the investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraise that commenced in January 2023. The fundraise follows PhonePe's recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.
The Union Budget on Wednesday outlined several initiatives to drive India's technology agenda and boost digital infrastructure, including new centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, National Data Governance Policy, and Entity DigiLocker.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Friday met her counterparts in Singapore and Canada and discussed various issues, including economy, health and opportunities for collaboration. Sitharaman met UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong and Canada's Deputy Prime Minister & Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on the sidelines of the G-20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' meeting. "Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman had an engaging discussion with @cafreeland Dy. Prime Minister & Finance Minister of Canada on the sidelines of #G20 Finance & Health Ministers Meeting in #Rome. The Ministers discussed various issues, including economic and health cooperation," a Finance Ministry tweet said.
The fundamental issue between banks and fintech would be who will own the customer and who will be the service provider.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a salary hike for the President and Vice President of India while making his Budget speech. Currently, President Ram Nath Kovind gets Rs 1.5 lakh per month while Vice President Venkaiah Naidu gets Rs Rs 1.25 lakh. Jaitley announced that as per the revisions the president and vice president would receive Rs 5 lakh per month and Rs 4 lakh a month respectively. Rediff.com takes a look at the salaries of other world leaders and sees how India stacks up in comparison.
There is some hope for these companies, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying there was a need for legislative backing for private companies that were using Aadhaar. Adding that a careful reading of the judgment is required, Jaitley said this could be "temporary".
"We can celebrate technology, but if it doesn't truly empower every Indian and every Indian organisation to achieve more...we would have achieved nothing," the Microsoft CEO said in Mumbai.
According to software company Mavernir, the new virtualised networks would lead to a saving of 40 per cent in capex and 34 per cent in terms of lower operations cost for operators.
Stating that India has some brands that have already well established, Nadella said there was stunning cross section of starts ups in the country.
India's huge digital prowess and potential will play a huge role in enabling digital lending, says Romita Majumdar.
As the government faces a difficult choice in keeping up with the rest of the world in AI development while making sure it does not add to unemployment, it has set up a task force to draw up a policy for the accelerated deployment of AI
Fintech players are customising solutions for rural markets and helping SMEs learn how to use the services
Sharad Sharma, co-founder and governing council member at iSPIRT, on Tuesday admitted using anonymous accounts to troll on social media those who raised questions on Aadhaar and its applications by the government.
CLSA managing director & equity strategist Christopher Wood, and executive director Mahesh Nandurkar tell Puneet Wadhwa that the markets could give a return of around 10 per cent from the current level over the next year.
E-KYCs and Aadhaar authentication are of crucial importance to the fin-tech companies as the recent RBI instructions require strict KYCs for these players to function in the market.
Premium valuations and lack of big triggers will weigh on Indian equity markets in the near term, believes Mahesh Nandurkar, India Strategist, CLSA.
The crux of the problem is change, specifically the Rs 500 note, which India's presses cannot, currently, print in adequate number, says Sahil Kini/IndiaSpend.
'The damage has been done because your own brand ambassador is running you down.'
N Sundaresha Subramanian digs deeper into what Catalyst, an Indo-US project, brings to the payments ecosystem.
'We referred the case to the attorney general.' 'I told Mukul Rohatgi, "mujhe aap ka honest opinion chahiye".' 'He too said those were different offers.' Trai could not have stopped Reliance even if the Jio offers had been the same, Trai chief Ram Sewak Sharma tells Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Watal panel had suggested an independent payments regulator be set up.
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Banking as we know it will stand on its head in the next 10 years.
'Markets should be driven more or less by earnings growth.'
'India is likely to do better than other emerging markets.'
Despite the rally, on the basis of valuations, Indian markets aren't too expensive, says Christopher Wood, managing director and equity strategist at CLSA.
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