Hello there! We have a short, concise edition today, bringing you exclusive coverage from the recently concluded Global AI Conclave. We will be back with our regular edition on Tuesday (December 19)

In today’s newsletter:

• What top tech voices said at the Global AI Conclave
• Layoffs follow Udaan's funding boost 

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• Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar believes that a lack of technological talent, not a shortage of chip-led compute power, is the primary obstacle to India's progress in artificial intelligence. He said that while the chip shortage will be a temporary issue, the scarcity of skilled individuals keeps him up at night. In a unique twist on timekeeping, Chandrasekhar has a reverse clock adorning his office walls. But why? Watch him unveil the meaning behind this unconventional choice.

• AI pioneer Andrew Ng believes that India is well-positioned to become the global leader in generative AI. He also credited India's "superior" approach to AI regulation. Ng added that his venture studio, AI Fund, is actively evaluating opportunities and investments in the country.

• Tens of thousands of skilled chip designers in Bengaluru provide India with an extraordinary base to build upon its goal of becoming a major player in the global semiconductor value chain, Chip War author Chris Miller said. "If you look at the chip industry today, most of the value still lies in chip design. If you speak to TSMC, they might say we would rather be like Nvidia," he said.

• India's unique search needs are emerging as a key factor in shaping Google's future strategy for its search business, said Pandu Nayak, VP of search at Google. He also highlighted the multi-modal nature of the future, with users increasingly seeking information through different content types like images and text that collectively capture their intent.

• Startups should aim to consistently compound growth over several years, like traditional companies such as HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), instead of burning through money to achieve exponential growth for a few years only, Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV Partner said. Instead of chasing rapid growth of 55-70% over a few years, startups should focus on achieving a steady 20% growth rate over 20 years, he added.
  
  
• Chipmaking startup Cerebras, a competitor to Nvidia, is in talks with the Indian government to bolster the country's AI compute infrastructure, founder Andrew Feldman said. "We met many AI thinkers and leaders in India. Getting government pronouncements and signing pieces of paper is the start. The hard work is after that when you build data centres, we have the hard work ahead of us," he said.  

• Homegrown SaaS giant Zoho is developing smaller AI models with up to 20 billion parameters. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu argues that these smaller models offer significant advantages in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness when building solutions for specific domains. He also said that AI can automate 80% of coding tasks.

• The economics of AI for Bharat models are currently not viable for large-scale implementation and will require initial philanthropic investment, according to Manu Chopra of Karya.ai and venture capitalist Prashanth Prakash. Prakash emphasised the importance of long-term viability, stating that existing models cannot perform AI operations at the desired cost of Rs 15. “What is built for global, we need to adapt it for Bharat and build over a period for the Bharat use case. We cannot yet build AI business for Bharat with the existing VC model,” he said.

• Is the venture capitalist (VC)-led model for funding healthcare sustainable? Narayana Health's Viren Shetty argues that the model's focus on quick returns can lead companies down an unsustainable path. “The problem with a VC-led model is that it's not a very patient source of capital, a lot of the time you have to end up proving very quick returns on the investment,” Shetty said. His comments come amidst a decline in funding for healthcare startups in India after a boom in 2021, highlighting potential limitations of the VC model. In contrast, organisations like Narayana Health, he believes, can take a longer-term perspective, supporting complex healthcare ventures with a 5-to-10-year horizon. 

• Karnataka's IT-BT minister, Priyank Kharge, emphasised that in cases where the government encounters technology it does not fully understand or lacks an existing policy, it can find a place within the Innovation Authority until a suitable policy is formulated. Discussing the adaptability of artificial intelligence (AI), Kharge said that while the rate in the US is 31%, globally it is 27%, and in India, led by Bengaluru, it reaches an impressive 57%. When asked about the recent change in government in Telangana following the Congress party's victory in the state assembly elections and how this might impact the rivalry dynamics with a new IT minister in place, Kharge referred to Bengaluru and Hyderabad as "country cousins."
  
  
• Language inclusivity, with its focus on the nuances of district-based dialects and cultural contexts, is poised to be the next major use case for artificial intelligence in India, according to a panel discussion featuring Amitabh Nag, CEO of Bhashini; Sriram Raghavan, vice president of IBM Research AI; Dr Manish Gupta, Director-Research at Google; and Kalika Bali, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research India. IBM's Raghavan also highlighted the potential of AI in analysing geospatial data to benefit India's core sectors, particularly agriculture.
  
  
• India needs to strike the right balance by crafting an inclusive AI regulatory framework that covers both citizen interests and market regulations, argued Sindhu Gangadharan, MD of SAP Labs India, and Mary Snapp, vice president of strategic initiatives at Microsoft. Both tech giants have set up internal AI ethics committees composed of experts to monitor the impact, risks, and mitigation strategies for AI components introduced within their products. Snapp even offered candid insights into the recent controversy surrounding OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's ouster and the internal discussions at Microsoft that followed.

Unlike many startups that raise capital to scale their workforce and business, Udaan opted for a different approach.

Udaan, the B2B e-commerce company that secured $340 million in capital just last week, laid off 150 employees three days later, sources told us. 

• The company has restructured operations and shifted its focus from a pan-India approach to a decentralised model

Employees across functions, from office peons to senior executives, were affected by Udaan's decision, with marketing, finance, category, and operations being the hardest hit. 

• The company has also exited unprofitable markets like Vishakapatnam, which failed to meet expectations

• The Telecommunications Bill 2023 introduced in Lok Sabha today mandates biometric identification by telecom companies for issuing SIM cards, requiring authorised entities to use verifiable biometric-based identification while excluding OTT services like e-commerce and online messaging from the definition of telecommunication services.
  
  
• The Hyderabad Auto and Taxi Drivers Association launched Yaary, a ride-hailing app based on the government's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) protocols. The app has already enlisted over 20,000 auto and taxi drivers in Hyderabad and is working with driver associations in various cities to expand its services.
  
  
• Homegrown audio and wearables company Noise raised money from Bose, ending its 10-year run as a bootstrapped company.
  
  
• Adobe has abandoned its $20 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of cloud-based designer platform Figma due to regulatory hurdles in the European Union and the UK, with the British competition watchdog stating that Adobe did not propose remedies to address antitrust concerns.
  
  
• The listing of the Zee-Sony merged entity has been delayed by three to four months. Initially expected to be listed on the stock exchange in January, the new timeline suggests a listing by March or April. Zee Entertainment has requested an extension of the merger agreement timeline from Culver Max Entertainment, formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India.
  
  
• Accenture launched a generative AI studio in Bengaluru, as part of its $3 billion investment in AI and data practices, with a focus on leveraging talent and technology to provide comprehensive generative AI capabilities for optimising business processes and enabling enterprise reinvention.