One interesting thing: It appears that ChatGPT's success hasn't rubbed off on Microsoft Bing. The search engine saw only 1% increase in its market share, bringing it to 3.4% of the global search market.

• Google still dominates with 91.6% share. The search giant will also soon let you 'circle' to search anything on your Android phone.

In today’s newsletter: 

• Davos 2024: Ashwini Vaishnaw on India's semiconductor playbook
• Fashinza’s business falters amid leadership churn
• Mswipe swipes left on lending

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For India's Electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, it has been a busy outing at the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

• He has already conducted around 50-odd meetings and few of them specifically were on the semiconductor ecosystem.

 Through these meetings, Vaishnaw has come to a conclusion that India has hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the domestic semiconductor policy. 

"The policy framework that our PM has laid is absolutely right," Vaishnaw told us in an interview at Davos. 

Vaishnaw said that a key takeaway from his meetings with senior leaders in the semiconductor ecosystem is that India should focus not only on semiconductor design, but also on manufacturing. 

As more internet users fall victim to deep fakes, Vaishnaw said that India will have stricter regulation to address this problem

• However, for now, as the elections are around the corner, the government will tackle deep fakes with the existing regulatory framework, the minister said.

He also pointed out the praise India received from global investors for maintaining a healthy balance sheet and not accruing excessive debt. 

Also read: Japanese Monetary Authority to adopt India's digital payment models says Ashwini Vaishnaw

More highlights from Davos:

• Despite global geopolitical uncertainties, Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Mittal expressed optimism about India's growth potential, highlighting it as a "bright spot" amid conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, citing a sustained growth of 6-7% over the next decade. Read the full interview
  
  
• TCS CEO and MD K Krithivasan said that obtaining clarity on customers' technology budgets for 2024 will be a gradual process, emphasising the shift from sacrosanct budgets as customers are prepared to recalibrate based on emerging opportunities. More on that here

• Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji said that early signs of greenshoots are visible for demand in the IT industry. He also said that Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte and the management team has their full support Read more

• HCLTech chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra said that the company, which has around 170 proof of concepts for generative AI and is working with various industries, is also having conversations around data infrastructure, data strategy, cloud cybersecurity, and upskilling its employees on generative AI. Find out more
  
  
• The recently inaugurated 22 km Mumbai Trans Harbour Link is seen by Ajit Gulabchand, Managing Director of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), as a crucial development to enhance connectivity in the city and address the lagging infrastructure. Find out more

• RBI has not initiated any crackdown on unsecured loans, said governor Shaktikanta Das, clarifying that the recent actions taken by the central bank were pre-emptive in nature. Read more

After attempting 3 business models in 3 years, Fashinza is still struggling to find its groove, evident in its stagnating business.

Fashinza, which helps in end-to-end manufacturing of apparel, has seen its gross merchandise value (GMV) drop from $50 million, sources told us. 

• The company’s GMV has remained flat at $40 million for the past 18 months

• A key reason for stagnation has been the ever-changing organisational structure 

Fashinza first had category heads, then moved to a model where it had regional managers. After both those arrangements didn’t work, it now has a sales and final delivery team. 

"Even we were tired of changing our model two-three times. We soon realised that our scale did not need so many senior-level people. We had hired thinking we’ll grow 200 percent but…the growth rate was then adjusted to 10-20 percent," co-founder and CEO Pawan Gupta said in response to our queries.

Everytime the business model changed, Fashinza realised it could eliminate a level of senior management. 

• Fashinza needs but doesn’t deserve senior employees, because margins and scale both are low, CEO Gupta told us 

In mid-2022, there were about 25-30 senior executives but that number is now down to just 3-5 executives 

• Fewer seniors, smaller office space and stricter control on costs reduced the company’s monthly burn from Rs 8-9 crore to Rs 2.5 crore, sources told us.

Dive deeper

Payments solution provider Mswipe took a plunge into the promising lending space, only to put a break on it 3 years later. 

The PoS device provider has decided to temporarily stop giving loans to merchants, via its NBFC arm Mcapital, as credit now becomes riskier. 

• The decisions come in the wake of RBI’s regulations around unsecured lending. 

With a loan book of Rs 150 crore, Mswipe had planned to achieve Rs 1,000 crore AUM by March 2024. 

• However, amid the diktats and frivolous doling out of loans by fintechs, it became difficult for the firm to maintain asset quality.

The Falcon Edge-backed fintech now plans to operate as a digital partner, and is already in talks with banks and NBFCs

Mswipe is putting its focus back into the PoS and payments business, alongside new segments like collections and soundboxes.

• It has already installed over 3 lakh sound boxes and aims to touch a million by the end of 2024.

Read more

• TikTok parent ByteDance has quietly introduced four new generative AI apps—Cici AI, Coze, ChitChop, and BagelBell—over the past three months, garnering millions of downloads from users outside of China.
  
  
• Google DeepMind's AlphaGeometry, an artificial intelligence system, nearly matched the geometry problem-solving abilities of top students by correctly answering 25 out of 30 questions from the International Mathematical Olympiad.

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