Indian companies seem to be trailing behind. They will have to catch up by reskilling the workforce and ramping up investments.
Companies don't have to be in the field to nudge people to return money they owe lenders.
ShareChat on Thursday said it has raised $502 million (about Rs 3,725 crore) in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global, valuing the homegrown social media platform at over $2.1 billion. Snap Inc (which owns photo-messaging app Snapchat) and existing investors Twitter and India Quotient, among others, also participated in the funding round in Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and short video app, Moj. Founded in 2015, Mohalla Tech has raised over $766 million across six fundraising rounds.
The Indian IT services sector is scrambling to retain talent since digitisation-led transformation has increased the demand for a digitally skilled workforce. As a result, the pull for jobs for tech professionals is also coming from non-IT sectors, leading to higher attrition among IT companies. The average number of tech jobs from non-IT sectors has seen a 41 per cent uptick in March-May'21 versus March-May'19, according to data from Naukri.com.
By 2026, around 25 per cent of the global population may spend at least an hour a day on Metaverse. This will open the doors for many businesses, the NFTs market will spread, and Web 3.0 will attract more investment.
N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Sons, believes that the Digital India Act is a necessity. "The Digital India Act is a necessity because so much has changed over the decades since the original Information Technology (IT) Act was put in place. I am glad the government is developing a participative approach to developing the Digital Act," he said, while answering shareholders at TCS' 27th annual general meeting. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar a few months ago had said that the government would shortly roll out the Digital India Act - a renewed policy for the digital ecosystem and cyberspace in the country.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
Organisations today are more focused on candidates' skills that will not only add business value to the organisation but also help them thrive.
'There were two options before the government -- create a complex, cumbersome law, which will cause a tremendous amount of compliance challenges for startups or say let's go back and do a clean slate, where we do a framework of laws and policies'
'There is definitely a skill war, or a talent war going on.'
An increasing number of hiring managers are opting for video conferencing platforms to know the candidates, explains Narayan Bhargava, chairman and managing director, Calibehr.
'As the demand for transferable skills that can be remotely applied increases, the need for tech-based courses is on the rise/'
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
Having missed most of the first three industrial revolutions, India has its chance to lead the fourth industrial revolution through a convergence of its IT prowess, ultra-high-speed internet connectivity and affordable smart devices, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday. The richest Indian, who heads the nation's most valuable company Reliance Industries, said his group's telecom and digital unit Jio was conceived to provide the key ingredients needed to lead the fourth industrial revolution.
Founded in 2015, Meesho is one of the country's fastest growing social commerce platforms, and provides small and independent entrepreneurs with products and tools to start, maintain, and grow their businesses. Facebook's interest in the digital commerce follows Reliance Industries' entry into the hybrid e-commerce ecosystem.
'Whoever owns the best chip industry will be the Saudi Arabia of the era of data,' predicts Rajeev Srinivasan.
'The first year of the Modi government's second term has laid the roadmap for the future and we will embark on it with gusto,' promises Gopal Krishna Agrawal, the BJP's national spokesperson on economic affairs.
Sachin Tendulkar has recently made an equity investment of $2 million in digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys. The investment further strengthens Tendulkar's relationship with JetSynthesys, as the two already have an existing joint venture for a digital destination for all things cricket, called 100MB, and immersive cricket games Sachin Saga Cricket Champions and Sachin Saga VR. With this investment, Tendulkar joins the bandwagon of existing shareholders of JetSynthesys, who include Adar Poonawalla, Kris Gopalakrishnan, and the multi-billion-dollar family offices of the promoters of Thermax, Triveni Group, Yohan Poonawalla Group and DSP Group.
India must remain an integral part of the global economy if it has to grow at 9-10 per cent over the next three decades, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday. Speaking at the 15th India Digital Summit, Kant said India needs to become a major global exporting nation, without that it will not be possible to become richer and create wealth for its people over the next three decades.
Ambani said, it will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year.
Tech Mahindra is building 5G use cases with US-based hospitals to help manage devices remotely and eventually manage remote surgeries that will require seamless network connectivity.
The company has been a part of the start-up ecosystem in a big way from early stages right up to when the companies start achieving full scale.
Over 80% of graduate engineers passing out of universities in India are unemployable. With digitisation going mainstream, this skill deficit can be redressed through world-class training material, points out Ankit Shyamsukha, CEO, ICA Edu Skill.
Akash Ambani's first big job as he takes over as chairman of Reliance Jio, the group's telecom arm, is a no-brainer - he has to get his company through the long-awaited 5G auctions that are a few weeks away. But his bigger job, analysts said, will be to lead the transformation of the telecom company into a tech giant, a process that is underway as it seeks to list in the US. Insiders said there has been plenty of debate within the company's top executives on the auction strategy.
Employers are now looking to hire professionals who can demonstrate their skills rather than reel off a catalogue of undirected theoretical qualifications.
The government has created a comprehensive budget with sharp focus on sustaining economic activity and investment but more clarity is needed on areas like taxation framework for adopting remote working on a long-term basis, IT body Nasscom said on Monday. The industry association noted that the IT/ITeS (Information Technology-enabled Services) industry has been a key driver of growth and jobs in 2020 and there is an opportunity to significantly accelerate it further. "For the IT sector, one of the biggest needs ahead of us is the development of future business models, with hybrid working becoming a reality. "We look forward for the government to provide clarity on providing a framework in direct taxes and indirect taxes for the industry to adopt WFH/remote working on a long-term basis," Nasscom said in a statement.
In an otherwise agriculture- and public health-focused Union Budget 2018-19, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, internet of things -- jargons that found little or no mention in the previous Budgets -- managed to make their presence felt.
The alliance combines capabilities of both the companies to offer a set of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications required by Indian businesses, and will span the broad Reliance Industries ecosystem, including its existing and new businesses.
Bengaluru-based InMobi and Microsoft combine their powers to break the stranglehold of Google and Facebook in the digital advertising space.
Artificially intelligent smartphones will be able to offer solutions and suggestions based on user behaviour.
'India is still a small market but whatever we do, we do it with full focus.'
The Bengaluru-based firm competes with US rival Uber whose lukewarm IPO last year has contributed to the lag in valuation trend among the unicorns across the Indian start-up ecosystem.
We analysed the smartphone on several parameters to test its overall capabilities.
The government needs to make the right policies and further execute them properly if it wants to move towards this goal
Biden has reiterated America's support for India's permanent membership on a reformed UNSC and its entry into the NSG during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Modi at the White House.
With the lockdown in force, live online teaching has become the order of the day, report Peerzada Abrar and Sai Ishwar.
Veer Arjun Singh brings you the pros and cons.
Pichai said a whole new generation of technologies are happening in India first, and that people in the country no longer have to wait for technology to come to them. Investments, he said, will focus on four areas key to India's digitisation, including enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, be it Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other.