Hello there! We have a short, concise edition today, bringing you exclusive coverage from the recently concluded Global AI Conclave. We will be back with our regular edition on Monday (November 25)

In today’s newsletter:

• What top tech voices said at the Global AI Conclave
• Zepto founder Aadit Palicha denies killing kiranas

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• S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), described the rise of deepfakes as a "technology issue" rather than a regulatory one. He said that India would not require a complete overhaul of its regulations to address the technology, but rather a few minor adjustments to ensure quicker compliance. Go deeper
  
  
• Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed concerns about the absence of a legal framework for the monetisation of publicly available non-personal data on the internet. He stated, "There are certainly gaps in our jurisprudential framework when it comes to non-personal data and monetising of it, scraping the internet, monetising of publicly available data and so on." His remarks are particularly significant as they also raise questions about how large language models (LLMs) scrape publicly available data without offering fair compensation to the owners of that data. Go deeper
  
  
• Hemant Taneja, CEO and Managing Director of General Catalyst, one of the leading venture capital firms, warned that India could be at a disadvantage in the long term if it fails to develop its own LLM. Taneja said,"If you take the long view, and say that you’re not going to have your intelligence infrastructure or compute infrastructure, that problem is going to keep perpetuating. I do think India needs to think about its own infrastructure. All the way from semiconductors to foundational models.” Find out more
  
  
• Intel’s India MD, Santhosh Viswanathan, stated that India needs to build its own foundational LLMs, but in a frugal manner, to leapfrog into the ongoing AI revolution. His comments come at a time when some of India’s biggest tech voices, including Nandan Nilekani and Narayana Murthy, have been advocating for the country to become the AI use case capital of the world. They suggest leveraging the foundational models of global tech giants like Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft instead, as building such models is expensive. Find out more
  
  
• Ashish Ipe Koshy, COO of Inception, a subsidiary of the UAE’s G42 Group, emphasized the crucial role of AI infrastructure in shaping the next digital economy. Koshy said that a hybrid approach, blending use-case driven solutions with strong AI infrastructure, is vital for sustained success. "AI infrastructure is key to the next digital economy," Koshy said. "If you don't invest in it now, you'll always be playing catch-up and dependent on another country to provide the services." More on that here
  

You can catch all the updates from Moneycontrol Startup Conclave in our liveblog or watch the recap of the event.

Do you walk to your neighbourhood store for your daily grocery needs or order online to get your fix in 10 minutes? Zepto founder Aadit Palicha weighs in. 

In an interview with us, Palicha hit back at claims that quick commerce is killing kiranas. In fact, he says that the rapid delivery industry is creating more jobs than Indian railways.   

• The entire quick commerce industry has created about 3-4 lakh jobs. Zepto specifically right now has created about 1.14 lakh jobs, including the delivery partner, and others across levels, Palicha said

Meanwhile, Zepto has extended its fundraising spree with a $350-million round, the third in five months, led by Motilal Oswal’s Private Wealth division. 

• It saw participation from a clutch of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices (FOs) as the startup looks to raise its domestic shareholding ahead of a potential listing next year

Also read: FM Sitharaman says Q-commerce can be leveraged globally to boost brand India; recognises need to support kiranas

Read the full interview

• Payments app PhonePe has appointed TeamLease founder Manish Sabharwal as an independent director replacing Flipkart founder Binny Bansal. Sabharwal will also chair the audit committee for PhonePe and will play a key role in ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of the company’s financial reporting, the company said in a statement.
  
  
• The market regulator has given the go-ahead to Roshni Nadar Malhotra to acquire a majority shareholding in two promoter group companies of HCL Technologies Ltd from her father and founder of HCL Group Shiv Nadar. 

• Byju Raveendran, the founder of Indian tech firm Byju’s, reportedly tried to convince a Nebraska businessman to leave the US in order to avoid testifying in federal court about suspicious activities he observed while working with the controversial executive.

• Flipkart announced that Dan Bartlett, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Walmart Inc., has been appointed to its Board of Directors, effective November 21, 2024. 
  

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