One important thing: India's healthcare sector witnessed its largest private equity deal ever, as Temasek-backed Sheares Healthcare India signed a deal to acquire a majority stake in Manipal Hospitals. Find out more

In today’s newsletter:

• Why India's tech hub just can’t handle rain
• What to expect from Q4 IT earnings
• Online gaming firms cheer new rules

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As the scorching heat sets in, people welcome the relief brought by summer showers. However, in Bengaluru, the country's tech hub, rain can be a nuisance. It takes just a mild spell of rain to throw off the delivery schedule of startups based in Bengaluru.

In the second article of our special series "Karnataka Elections: Eye on Bengaluru", we explore the reasons why India's tech capital becomes a waterlogged mess during monsoon season.

• On April 4, 2023, the city experienced a mild monsoon teaser, when a 30-45 minute spell brought the city to its knees

Experts say that the main reason for flooding is the widespread construction carried out over valleys, marshes, and wetlands, as well as the destruction of lakes.

• The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has identified over 200 flood-prone areas in the city 

The civic agency has also promised to clean stormwater drains by the end of April and again in May, in preparation for the upcoming monsoon season in June.

With elections scheduled on May 10, the issue of water logging during the monsoon season looms large over the residents of Bengaluru.

Bengaluru has 28 assembly seats out of the total 224 in Karnataka. Interestingly, the problem of flooding persists in the city despite the consistent promises made by the winning MLAs to solve it.

With the election season around the corner once again, it remains to be seen if politicians will keep their promises or continue to attribute waterlogging to heavy rainfall or climate change. Only time will tell.

Go deeper

IT companies are gearing up to report their earnings for the last quarter of FY23, and it will be one that will be closely watched. 

Why?

• Several top-level exits and appointments, a global banking crisis, a worsening macroeconomic climate, and more
  
  
• Guidance and commentary on what the situation looks like for FY24

• As several leaders have moved, commentary around how these exits and appointments would impact companies and their business strategies
  
  
• What the effect of the banking crisis is — as it can induce greater caution and impact overall tech spends
  
  
• What net employee addition looks like in Q4
  
  
• The revenue and profit numbers, as well as guidance for the FY24
  
  
• What’s the demand outlook  — will the trend of more cost-efficiency deals and vendor consolidation continue?

Find out more about each of these, and what analysts have to say.

The hiring landscape may be difficult for the first six months of FY24, according to staffing experts who paint a bleak picture.

Why is that a matter of concern? Not only is hiring an indicator of demand, but these companies are also among the largest recruiters from campuses. However, some companies are yet to onboard people to whom they made offers last year. 

• For lateral hires, staffing firms say they would have seen demand in a normal year as companies firm up their plans. This year, it’s quiet. 

Find out more about what’s impacting IT hiring and what can be expected from the second half of FY24.

Indian gaming companies are a happy lot. The government has met a long-standing demand for regulatory clarity in the sector, which founders believe will catalyse the growth of legitimate businesses.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified gaming-related amendments to the IT rules 2021 yesterday, in what is likely the first step towards formulating a central regulation to regulate the fast-growing sector.

• The amendments give legal recognition for the real-money gaming (RMG) companies across the country while also providing a cover for legitimate RMG formats, says Rameesh Kailasam, CEO of industry body IndiaTech.org 

Gaming startup founders such as Mobile Premier League's Sai Srinivas, Games24x7's Trivikraman Thampy and Head Digital Works's Deepak Gullapalli say the new regulatory clarity will boost investor confidence in the country, accelerating the sector's development.

• The rules are also expected to curb the menace of illegal offshore betting and gambling websites and their surrogates, besides stopping their promotions, many startup founders and industry associations told us. 

Read the story to see what the country’s gaming industry thinks of the government's new gaming rules

Apple BKC, India's first Apple store, is set to open in April, and loyalists can't stay calm! The tech giant teased us with a bright canvas barricade that said 'Apple BKC, Arriving Soon' on April 5. Apple is known for its iconic store designs and architecture around the world.

To get a firsthand look at what's in store for Apple enthusiasts, we headed over to the upcoming Apple store at Jio World Drive Mall in BKC, Mumbai, to understand the mood and see what they're most excited about.

• Excited customers are looking forward to getting Apple's latest products at the same time as the rest of the world, as well as improved after-sales services

Find out more

Facebook parent Meta has spent billions in developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and wants people to know that it is still a prominent player in the field, as AI becomes more widely adopted. In the past week, two significant developments from the Menlo Park-based firm have caught the attention of industry experts and enthusiasts alike. 

Firstly, Meta has introduced a new AI-powered product called SAM (Segment Anything Model), which has the ability to recognise objects in images and videos, even those that it hasn't been trained on. 

• This model detects and enables selection of objects through clicks or text prompts.

Secondly, Meta is reportedly exploring the use of generative AI technology to enhance its advertising business across its suite of apps.

• The company's CTO, Andrew Bosworth, said they plan to commercialise this technology to make better ads that reach their target audiences.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously expressed his ambitions to become a leader in generative AI and recently previewed its plans for using the technology across its suite of products.

Meanwhile, regulation is catching up with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the company which has become the poster boy of the latest wave of AI adoption across the world.

Italy's decision to temporarily ban OpenAI’s ChatGPT has inspired other European countries to consider tougher measures to regulate the use of chatbots. It doesn’t end there. An Australian mayor has threatened to sue OpenAI for defamation, alleging that ChatGPT made false claims about him. This is likely the first legal action of its kind in the generative AI space.

• Meanwhile, rival Google is upping the ante in the AI race, with CEO Sundar Pichai revealing the company's plans to integrate conversational AI into its search engine. The first step towards this is its ChatGPT rival Bard.

On a more positive note, Amazon has launched a startup accelerator programme for generative AI companies. The program offers 10 weeks of expert mentoring and AWS credits to promising startups in the field, giving them a much-needed boost.

More from the world of AI:

• The takeaways from Stanford’s 386-page report on the state of AI
• ChatGPT’s ‘iPhone moment’ poses a new threat to Google
• Google denies Bard trained using OpenAI ChatGPT responses

• Robinhood will pay up to $10.2 million in penalties to several states for platform outages in March 2020 and deficiencies in the brokerage's review and approval process before 2021.
  
  
• Over 75% of crypto holders own Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as per a survey by CoinGecko and Blockchain Research Lab. 

Are you hungry for something new and exciting to watch? Check out Netflix's latest series, Hunger, which explores the dark side of the high-end restaurant industry. 

In this culinary thriller, Aoy, a talented cook, faces a daunting challenge as she goes up against her oppressive boss Chef Paul. Can she overcome his tyrannical ways?

Tune into Netflix to find out

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