BUSINESS
Valuation, not just war, may have delayed Walmart-backed PhonePe’s IPO plans
Multiple investors noted that the company's high valuation ask, coupled with concerns over its lack of profits and high ESOP costs, played a role in pausing the IPO process
COMPANIES
Temasek, ChrysCapital in shortlist for EQT’s stake in CitiusTech
EQT is looking at a valuation north of $2.2 billion for CitiusTech, with the last round with co-investor Bain Capital struck at $2.45 billion
BUSINESS
Fintech Jupiter's plan to pick stake in State Bank of Mauritius India arm falls through
SBM's new management and the Mauritius government were not keen on the partnership. Jupiter to focus on achieving breakeven over the next 14 months
INDIA
No dosas, no omelettes: Infosys trims food court menus across Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai amid LPG crunch linked to Iran–Israel war
In an email to staff on March 11, the company said it is dealing with an "impending situation" related to the availability of LPG, prompting operational adjustments beginning March 12.
BUSINESS
Drone startup Kalam Labs in funding talks with Deepinder Goyal, Globaz Technologies
For the company, also backed by Lightspeed, Y Combinator and others, Goyal's investment is part of a larger $5-7 million round, sources told Moneycontrol.
BUSINESS
FirstClub in talks to raise $50 million from Peak XV, Sofina and others doubling valuation in under six months
The company is being valued at around $250 million more than double from $120 million just six months ago, showing businesses with a layer of quick commerce continue to be a favourite among investors, sources told Moneycontrol
BUSINESS
AI hype is overdone, job fears overblown: NR Narayana Murthy and Aditya Puri offer a reality check
In a recent and rare joint interview, the Infosys founder and former HDFC Bank CEO weighed in on the the advancements around artificial intelligence and why there is too much negativism on job losses.
BUSINESS
AI Summit: “Don’t slot India as a Small Language Model country”, says Sarvam cofounder Pratyush Kumar
Addressing earlier criticism, Kumar said skepticism was fair but stemmed from misunderstanding the company’s strategy. “You don’t suddenly start running. You crawl, you walk, and then you run,” he said.
BUSINESS
AI summit: "Govt's grant an important catalyst for Sarvam, don’t want to mindlessly train large models", says Cofounder Pratyush Kumar
At the Summit, Sarvam unveils Kaze smart glasses, plans to open-source LLM weights and scale foundational AI innovation
BUSINESS
Over-pivoting on building everything locally puts India at a disadvantaged position: Zscaler’s Jay Chaudhry
He argued for a combination of locally built technology combined with external software stack especially in critical and sophisticated areas like cybersecurity
BUSINESS
Provocative but not accurate: Cisco's Jeetu Patel reacts to Vinod Khosla jibe about company
Patel defended Cisco after Vinod Khosla's jibe about company, saying the venture capitalist's remarks are 'provocative, but not accurate'
INDIA
‘Was sort of confused': OpenAI’s Sam Altman on awkward exchange with Anthropic’s Dario Amodei at AI summit
I was sort of confused, like when he (PM Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up. I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing, Sam Altman told Moneycontrol
TECHNOLOGY
Incredible small language AI models emerging at low costs in India: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
"I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that you can make a frontier model for $10 million. In fact, if anything, I would just say that it's gotten harder. The total complexity and costs have gone up," Sam Altman told Moneycontrol.
TECHNOLOGY
AI Summit: India tops Gen AI enrolments globally on Coursera, logs 3 sign-ups per min, says CTO Mustafa Furniturewala
With over 4 million GenAI enrolments from India and three sign-ups per minute, Coursera’s CTO says the country’s young workforce is driving rapid upskilling as AI reshapes coding and the software development lifecycle.
BUSINESS
AI Summit: Adapting foreign models not enough, build your own, says 'Godfather of AI' Yoshua Bengio
Beyond geopolitical concerns, Bengio also criticised the commercial focus of leading AI labs.
TECHNOLOGY
AI Summit: Governments are not doing anything about job loss concerns, says Godfather of AI Yoshua Bengio
Now, what makes it complicated is that the wealth may be created in some countries (but) jobs lost in another country. A global redistribution (plan) is right now out of sight, he told Moneycontrol in an interview.
BUSINESS
AI Summit: Big techs not investing enough in risk management, says Godfather of AI Yoshua Bengio
“Companies are hatching the problems one after the other. They don't really have an answer to the question, ‘Is this going to be safe?’ They don't know,” he told Moneycontrol in an interview.
BUSINESS
AI Summit: Global consensus emerging on tackling AI harms, says Ashwini Vaishnaw
The Union IT minister said governments and industry are moving towards shared guardrails for artificial intelligence as concerns grow over its misuse and societal impact.
BUSINESS
Indian IT firms well placed for AI services, says Ashwini Vaishnav amid job loss fears
The focus on AI-driven modernisation of legacy systems creates a significant opportunity for Indian IT firms even as the industry navigates workforce transitions, the minister tells Moneycontrol
BUSINESS
AI Summit: Big Tech can act in minutes, not hours, on harmful AI content, says IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
The Union IT minister’s remarks come amid pushback from global platforms, including Meta, which have flagged operational challenges in complying with India’s newly notified three-hour takedown mandate.
BUSINESS
Why IIT-Madras Director Kamakoti believes AI disruption will be a blessing in disguise for core engineers
Kamakoti, who was recently awarded with a Padma Shri, said the type of IT jobs that attracted non-computer science graduates are increasingly vulnerable as AI automates routine and mundane work.
BUSINESS
AI Summit: Microsoft India continues to hire for demand-driven skills, says Puneet Chandok
In 2025, the tech giant cut its work force in India and globally by around 15,000.
TECHNOLOGY
AI Summit: "You need the best of model and product at enterprise scale" ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski on the Sarvam AI threat
ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski spoke to Moneycontrol about why India is important to the voice AI company, Bengaluru office plans, and expanding their offerings beyond voice
TECHNOLOGY
AI Summit: I hope Infosys becomes a global AI services company, says Vinod Khosla on IT disruption
“India as an exporter of AI expertise and deployment is a massive opportunity, but IT needs to do something dramatically different,” Khosla said in an interview to Moneycontrol.
