One sad thing: Table Space co-founder passes away

In today’s newsletter:

• DPDP rules lower compliance for startups: IT Secretary 
• Wait for salary hike gets longer for Infosys employees 
• Superb founders, crowded market: Accel on the startup paradox

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More than two years after the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection bill, the Indian government recently released the draft rules for the Act.

• At the forefront of the rule-making process, alongside ministers like Ashwini Vaishnaw, was IT secretary S Krishnan

In an interview with us, Krishnan said that the draft rules would lower compliance for startups at the same time drive innovation. 

• Krishnan also said that the draft rules were prepared after extensive consultations with industries and other ministries

The IT secretary said that data fiduciaries will be given “functional autonomy to fulfil the obligations.”

• The draft rules state that if a data fiduciary wants to process children’s data, their age has to be verified against either a government-mandated ID or a token created from a digital locker service

Krishnan also said that the data protection board (DPB), which will serve as the regulatory body for overseeing compliance of the DPDP Act, is in the process of being established.

• He added that the DPB will be completely digital and there will be an app through which users can register their complaints

 Read the full interview

Picture credit: Meta.ai

“When you want something bad enough, time seems to stand still,” lamented some employees of a major IT company today.

Information technology firm Infosys has deferred annual wage hikes to the fourth quarter of the current financial year (Q4FY25).

•  The Bengaluru-based company last implemented salary hikes in November 2023

India’s second-largest IT firm, along with key rivals, postponed salary hikes last quarter to control costs and protect profitability.

The Bengaluru-based company had earlier said it was “planning” wage hikes in Q4 in a phased manner.

“Some part of that will be effective in January and the balance will be effective in April,” chief financial officer Jayesh Sanghrajka said on October 17.

The delay in wage hikes mirrors the broader uncertainty in the global demand environment.

Analysts told us the sluggish job market has made IT companies confident that holding back salary hikes won’t lead to a wave of resignations.

• That said, some teams are still offering raises to top performers, especially in areas like AI, where talent is critical

As some in the industry say that in today’s job climate, just keeping your position feels like a win.

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Picture credit: Microsoft Copilot

After raising its eighth India fund, venture capital firm Accel is looking to back the next big idea. 

• While the current crop of emerging founders shows promise, India's overcrowded market may present a hurdle, according to Accel partners Anand Daniel and Shekhar Kirani

After founders like Binny and Sachin Bansal, Deepinder Goyal, and Sriharsha Majety gained notoriety over the last decade, Accel is seeing a new crop of high-quality and ambitious foundersemerge from India with similar DNA.

• These founders may, however, find it challenging to find success in India's overcrowded market, Daniel said
  
  
• Accel is paving the way for newer founders by continuing its culture of being "founder-friendly and founder-first," Kirani said

Accel has closed its eighth early-stage India fund with a corpus of $650 million to back disruptive and category-defining businesses.

• Notably, the fund size has remained unchanged from its previous iterations
  
  
• Investments will be focused on areas like AI, consumer, fintech, and manufacturing

Accel is increasingly leaning towards backing non-conventional businesses from non-metro cities.

• The firm is looking beyond the top 50 cities, as access to these markets continues to improve digitally, Daniel said
  
  
• The top 20% of consumers in Bharat spend more than the bottom 50% of urban India, indicating higher expendable incomes, he added

Read the full interview

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the first AI agents might enter the workforce this year as his company inches closer to developing humanlike artificial general intelligence (AGI). 
  
  
• Meta is discontinuing a feature it had introduced a year ago in 2023. The social media giant is removing Facebook and Instagram profiles of AI characters.

You might think Apple's fortress mentality keeps you safe, but think again. 

Lookout's latest report throws a wrench in that assumption, revealing iOS devices are now the prime targets for phishing attacks.

• iPhones and iPads are more vulnerable to phishing than their Android counterparts, according to the report

Lookout analysed a mountain of data – 220 million devices, 360 million apps, the works – and found 18.4% of iOS users were hit with phishing attempts. 

• Android users, meanwhile, dodged a few more bullets at 11.4%

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