One important thing: Online rummy and poker startups are in trouble again. Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi has approved an online gambling bill to ban these games in the state.

• The move comes days after MeitY announced online gaming rules to regulate real-money gaming companies. 

In today’s newsletter:

• Govt working on ChatGPT-like consumer chatbot
• TCS Q4 earnings: What to watch out for
• First impressions of PhonePe's Pincode

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While governments in countries like the UK and Italy are exercising extra caution in light of the ChatGPT wave, the Indian administration is quickly embracing AI —  in areas like school education and popularising schemes.

The government is working to create a ChatGPT-like chatbot helpline that can be used to manage grievances of disgruntled consumers, according to people aware of the developments. 

• The aim is to build the tool so that consumers can communicate with it via audio messages in multiple Indian languages

To be sure, this chatbot being built is separate from the one launched last month for consumer complaints, which is not really conversational.

For the project, the challenge is to find a large language model (LLM) that can efficiently understand issues related to consumer grievances. 

• LLMs help process your prompts. They help the AI understand your text, break down the meanings of your words, and establish context to generate a response

"For example, one of the big issues in the consumer domain is surrogate advertising. It should not be the case that a consumer uses the word surrogate in his complaint, and the chatbot mistakes it for a reference to surrogacy in a different context,” explained a source.

The Q4 earnings season for the IT sector is all set to begin, with TCS leading the way.

With a new CEO and MD, K Krithivasan, and current CEO and MD, Rajesh Gopinathan, addressing the company's first earnings conference call following his resignation, the conversations at TCS House in Fort, Mumbai, are going to get interesting on April 12.

It appears that the earnings press conference will have a strong showing of executives. According to sources, in addition to Gopinathan, CFO Samir Seksaria, COO N Ganapathy Subramiam, CHRO Milind Lakkad, and Krithivasan too will be present and interact with the media.

Well, there’s more to TCS and the IT sector this quarter, and here’s a quick primer on what to watch out for:                                                    

• Comments on TCS' business restructuring plans with Krithivasan at the helm
  
  
• Impact of the global banking crisis, as the BFSI sector accounts for approximately 38.5% of TCS' revenue
  
  
• Hiring updates: TCS reported its first quarterly slowdown in net new headcount addition in the last ten quarters in Q3
  
  
• Deal outlook: The IT firm has kept its deal Total Contract Value (TCV) at its guidance of $7-9 billion, but analysts expect TCS to see higher TCV in Q4
  
  
• Estimates of QoQ revenue growth vary between analysts, ranging from 0.1% to 1.7% in constant currency terms

In Q4 alone, TCS secured a $723 million deal with Phoenix Group, a UK-based insurer, which was an existing customer. And as per media reports, TCS is also on track to finalise deals worth $1 billion with Marks and Spencer, a British retailer.

Go deeper

Last week, a fintech company introduced a new app designed for buyers, which was developed using the ONDC network. The app has been launched in Bengaluru for now, a city known for its abundance of apps in the food and grocery delivery sector, and also for its high rate of app adoption.

Can PhonePe’s Pincode — which had over 10,000 downloads on Google Play Store at the time of writing — match up to other apps? 

Let’s find out.

Signing up for it is a fairly straightforward process. It’s smooth if you’re an existing PhonePe user. Even otherwise, you can download the app, put in your number and address, and you’re good to go. 

• Pincode provides its customers with products across multiple categories, including food, groceries, pharmaceuticals, electronics, fashion, and home decor

The app offers the option to add multiple carts from multiple stores instead of just one active cart at a time, which is very helpful.

How was the overall experience? Ordering was a smooth experience without any glitches. The pricing could also be considered a factor worth noting. Additionally, there's a bonus for customers as deliveries are currently free.

If you frequently use other apps, you will find the missing features in this app to be a problem. For example, the ability to sort through food in a restaurant’s listing.

• The pharma section offers over-the-counter products, but not the ability to upload a prescription. 

Find out more

For the past six years, a 2.5 km flyover in Koramangala, which is known as India's startup neighbourhood and home to popular startups like Flipkart, FreshMenu, Furlenco, and Big Basket, has remained incomplete. 

This has become a subject of mockery as the area is renowned for its coffee shops where startup founders, venture capitalists, and potential investors meet to brainstorm. The row of bare concrete pillars without a flyover in sight has been likened to ‘Stonehenge’.

It's not just one project. Many such projects which are meant to ease traffic congestion and commuter agony have fallen behind schedule and failed to make significant headway.

In the third installment of our special series 'Karnataka Polls: Eye on Bengaluru', we delve into the issue of unfinished infrastructure projects in Bengaluru and the reasons behind the city's struggles. Find out more

Manipal Group chairman Dr Ranjan Pai is the man of the moment after striking India's largest-ever private equity deal in the healthcare sector. 

Singapore's Temasek has become a controlling shareholder in Manipal Hospitals by shelling out around Rs 16,000 crore in a transaction valuing the top pan-India hospital chain at Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 42,000 crore.

Pai spoke to us about why the promoter group (the Pai family) cede control, will Temasek and Manipal Group consolidate their domestic portfolio of hospital assets, and when is the eagerly awaited mega IPO likely to be floated. You don't want to miss this conversation

Read the interview

The development of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) began on April 10, 1943, at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was the world's first fully electronic computer and could perform calculations much faster than any previous computer. 

Quick trivia: The project was kept secret since the computer was intended for military purposes, and it was not completed until after World War II. (Picture credit: Britannica)

• The Bank of England is reportedly assembling a team of up to 30 individuals to explore the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a report. 
  
  
• Decentralized exchange SushiSwap has been hit by an exploit resulting in the loss of over $3.3 million from at least one user.

Tech giant Apple has long been known for its secrecy and tight-lipped approach to business operations. 

But it appears that every modern copy of macOS, Apple's operating system, contains a hidden surprise related to bitcoin. 

In a hidden corner of Apple's macOS operating system lies a copy of the bitcoin white paper, secretly embedded within all versions of the software from Mojave to Ventura. 

Where do I look? The following command is all that's needed to be entered into the terminal by Mac users:

open /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf

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