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In today’s newsletter: 

• Hiring in Indian IT sector is back
• Zepto heads to a Bengaluru mall
• Google's Hema Budaraju on India’s AI potential

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After a period of uncertainty and layoffs, the Indian IT and startup ecosystem is experiencing a renewed surge in hiring activity. 

Technology companies, including IT services firms, product companies, and startups, are actively recruiting talent to position themselves for future growth.

• According to data from Xpheno, active job openings reached a 20-month high of 168,000 in March 2024

Although this number has fluctuated slightly since then, it stands at 134,000 as of September, with over 85% of the demand concentrated in Tier-I locations.

Startups are also stepping up their hiring game, particularly in tech hubs like Bengaluru and Pune. 

• With a 37% increase in new startups, job opportunities in these regions have risen by 14%

While the uptick in hiring is promising, industry insiders say that these are still early green shoots.

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Picture credit: Microsoft Copilot

Zepto is one step away from becoming a Bengaluru-headquartered company.

Zepto has picked and finalised Total Mall, now called Market Square mall, in Bengaluru’s Sarjapur for its HQ, we have learnt.

• While the entire move will be complete by February next year, it is setting up an adhoc office in the city where operations will start by November 11
  

Its choice of location, a mall, is almost like life coming a full circle. 

• We reported earlier that quick commerce is growing at the cost of modern trade which is hurting supermarkets and the larger malls-like set up
  

We first reported on August 6 that Zepto was moving its HQ to Bengaluru, away from Powai in Mumbai. 

• While the move was slated to be complete by November, it’s taking longer given the company’s employee strength
  
  
• Zepto has 1,700-1,800 staffers, most of which will eventually work from the Bengaluru office
  
  
• The company also plans to hire an additional 500 employees over the coming months

Zepto will now be Flipkart and Swiggy’s neighbour in Bengaluru because of which hiring and retaining talent will further intensify. 

• Zepto’s relocation move is set to save the company Rs 40-50 lakh in rent per month

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Indians are super quick to jump on new innovations, making India the perfect spot to test-drive cutting-edge AI products and attract early adopters, senior Google executive Hema Budaraju told us. 

Case in point, Google's visual search tool Lens is used by more people in India every month than in any other country, she said. Lens usage has almost doubled in India over the last 18 months.

The percentage of Indians using voice queries daily is also nearly twice the global average, with 40% of Gemini's Indian language users rely on voice interactions.

"I believe if we are able to bring the best of search and AI to everyone in India - where there are hundreds of millions of people, with different skill level, language contexts, and usage patterns, from users to businesses, publishers, and creators - I think the future is so strong," she said.

Google, which entered India two decades ago, is seeking to capitalise on these trends and usage patterns with recently announced products and features to accelerate its AI efforts amid a fierce race for supremacy in the booming sector.

• Expanded Indian language support for two of its AI products - AI Overviews and Gemini Live

• Google Lens will soon allow people to search with video, enabling them to ask more complex questions about moving objects, in a new experiment

Google is looking to reinvent its flagship search product for the generative AI era and cater to changing user expectations and behaviour.

• Budaraju said not only are queries changing, but the types of things people want to do are also evolving in various ways

• About 15% of the billions of searches done by users on Google on a daily basis are new, never seen before queries, she said 

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Esports is playing on the front foot, attracting big shots of the technology world to own franchises in a e-cricket league that is following in the footsteps of the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

• Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, Curefoods' Ankit Nagori, and Accel's Prashanth Prakash now own the Bengaluru team in Global e-cricket league (GEPL).

E-cricket is set to make a splash with the first-ever esports Olympic games and cricket's return in the 2028 games.

Find out more

• Apple is gearing up to roll out the Apple Intelligence to compatible iPhones later this month along with the iOS 18.1 update.

• Qualcomm unveiled Networking Pro A7 Elite, a Wi-Fi gateway that leverages AI to enhance home and enterprise broadband networks.

After a career that saw her vault to global fame, Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar has announced her retirement. 

• She decided to take a step back due to the physical demands of the sport on her body

The 31-year-old, who made history as the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympics, leaves behind a legacy of grit and determination.

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