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In today's newsletter:

• A Rs 240 crore gift for Narayana Murthy's grandson
• Deepinder Goyal on Zomato 4.0 
• India's deep tech policy

Event alert: Moneycontrol and CNBC TV18 are hosting the ultimate event on artificial intelligence, bringing together entrepreneurs, ecosystem enablers, policymakers, industry leaders, and innovators on March 27 in Pune. Click here to register and gain access to the AI Alliance Pune Chapter.

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India has a new millionaire – who’s all but four months into the world! 

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s grandson, Ekagrah, which means unwavering focus in Sanskrit, received the same attention after the news broke today.

NR Narayana Murthy has gifted 15 lakh shares to his grandson Ekagrah Rohan Murty, which is worth over Rs 240 crore at current market price.

• This made the Murthy scion as one of the youngest millionaires overnight.

In November, Rohan Murty and his wife Aparna Krishnan welcomed a baby boy, the third grandchild of the Murthys. 

• The billionaire power-couple Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty are grandparents to two daughters of Akshata Murty, the wife of UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.

Related: Sudha Murty takes oath in Kannada as Rajya Sabha member as Narayana Murthy looks on

After this transaction, the software industry icon's stake has declined to 0.36%. 

• Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 with six other engineers and an initial capital of $250, provided by Sudha Murty. 

Overall, the Murthy family currently holds close to 3 percent stake in India's second-largest information technology company, according to the latest shareholding pattern with voting rights.

Also watch: Rohan Murty interviews dad NR Narayana Murthy on starting up, sacrifices, and values

'Change is the only constant'

That’s a phrase we all have heard before, However, it appears Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal lives by it.

Zomato, as we know it, is already in its fourth iteration, Goyal said in a fireside chat with Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani at Startup Mahakumbh in New Delhi today.

"It is harder to create a generational company today than a few decades ago because of technology. You have to create new businesses out of the outcomes you have created so far, if you want to last. This is Zomato’s fourth version (since it started 16 years back)," he said.

If companies do not keep up with time, none of the businesses created today will last beyond a decade, Goyal warned.

Having seen ups and downs, Goyal believes that employee culture is the only factor that sets a company apart from the rest.

• During the pandemic, 80% of Zomato’s team took voluntary pay cuts

• Times were tough which forced the company to trim its workforce by 13% in 2020 and by 4% in 2022

While some believe customers are king, Goyal says customers are wrong sometimes and do not know what they want.

• He emphasised, however, that there must be enough people within the company to address customers' needs.

Goyal also reiterated that its quick-commerce business Blinkit can be bigger than the core food delivery business Zomato itself in one year. 

• Last year, Goyal had said that Blinkit would reward shareholders more than Zomato in 10 years' time.

Read more

Hear ye, deep tech founders and investors! The Indian government is set to finalise a dedicated policy for the sector.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, the secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, today said that the Union government is in the final stages of developing a dedicated policy for deep tech, which is expected to provide a big boost for the startups. 

• In August 2023, the Indian government had first released the National Deep Tech Startup Policy for consultation.

With the new policy, the government is stressing the need for startups not only to innovate but also to commercialise and develop intellectual property rights seeking public feedback. 

• Just to recap, the draft policy aims to help deep tech startups nurture their R&D work while creating conducive regulations, standards, and certifications. More importantly, the policy will also help in creating better access to funding and as well as enable shared infra among the ecosystem.

The timing plays a crucial role. There has been more attention on the deep tech startup ecosystem than ever!

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced setting up a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus for supporting the startup ecosystem, along with a new scheme for deeptech innovation in the defence sector.

• We are also hearing that after the release of the national deeptech policy, the government will work on releasing a dedicated fund of funds for the sector.

Read More

• Apple is in talks to license Google's Gemini or a similar AI model from OpenAI to power new features on iPhones this year.
  
  
• Chinese scholars released a draft proposal in Beijing outlining key areas for development in the nation's upcoming AI law, focusing on data, computing power, and algorithms.

On Sunday night, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Women's team achieved a feat that has eluded their male counterparts for 16 years: Winning a T20 tournament trophy. 

But, that's not all! They also became the first IPL/WPL team to sweep all the key awards at the tournament (Well, almost!)

• Bengaluru's very own Shreyanka Patil won the Emerging player of the season award as well as the Purple Cap for being the highest wicket taker. 

• RCB's Ellyse Perry grabbed the Orange Cap for being the highest run-getter while the team also won the Fair Play Award.

The only miss was the Most Valuable Player award that went to UP Warriorz's Deepti Sharma.