Hello,
The curtain falls on the 15th edition of TechSparks 2024!
From Shri Amitabh Kant to Vishal Dhupar of NVIDIA, from Mensa Brands’ Ananth Narayan to the Indian startup ecosystem’s poster boy, Bhavish Aggarwal—the final day of YourStory’s flagship startup-tech summit was larger, grander, and more star-studded than ever before!
Kant spoke of the India opportunity, while Narayanan gave the blueprints to scaling D2C brands in India ft. Mensa Brands.
When the founders are here, how can investors be far behind? Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Growth Investments, India Asia, Prosus; and Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner, Elevation Capital, spilled the beans on investments, returns, and what it takes to succeed in the Indian market.
At a time when startups are taking to the Indian bourses, fintech giant Razorpay has no plans to file an IPO, revealed Shashank Kumar, Razorpay’s Co-founder and CTO.
For the grand finale, Ola Group’s Bhavish Aggarwal laid out ambitious plans for India—where the country must lead the world in new energy and AI.
Although the Bengaluru edition of TechSparks has come to an end, there’s a lot more to look forward to! Until then, check out our full coverage from TechSparks 2024!
In other news, OpenAI, set to raise about $6.5 billion, will not get Apple’s money. According to the Wall Street Journal, the iPhone maker recently fell out of the talks for the round, set to close next week.
ICYMI: Your ChatGPT subscription is about to get even more expensive!
Lastly, check out this dramatic rescue of penguin chicks.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Bhavish Aggarwal’s vision for India Inc
- NVIDIA’s Dhupar on India’s AI potential
- Shun unicorns, accept “Indicorns”
Here’s your trivia for today: Where is the world’s largest meteor crater?
TechSparks
Bhavish Aggarwal’s vision for India Inc
Ola and Ola Electric Founder Bhavish Aggarwal has a dream for India Inc: to lead the world in new energy and AI. The founder advocated for a shift in perspective for entrepreneurs, urging Indians to celebrate homegrown entrepreneurs over Western founders.
He emphasised on the importance of gaining ground in sectors like new energy and AI, stating that India is brimming with potential and energy, seeing growth across sectors such as AI, space, biosciences, and new energy technology.
Long-term progress:
- Drawing a parallel between Ola’s growth and India’s rise, Aggarwal highlighted how homegrown enterprises contribute to the country’s progress. He passionately spoke of “Josh, Junoon aur Jasbah”—enthusiasm, passion, and zeal—capturing the spirit that drives Indian entrepreneurs.
- He pointed out the lack of homegrown digital products, saying, “We use other people’s search engines, other people’s social media, and other people’s chips. We use other people’s AI.” He stressed the importance of creating Indian products to establish the country’s leadership in the digital ecosystem.
- He also reminded the audience of India’s significance on the global stage saying, “India is a country of consequence. We form 20% of the world, and we matter to the world.”
TechSparks
NVIDIA’s Dhupar on India’s AI potential
India has great potential to leverage the power of AI, believes Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director of NVIDIA Asia South, owing to the country’s wealth of talent, deep history, and willingness to learn.
Speaking at TechSparks 2024, Dhupar urged India’s youth to harness AI to address critical challenges in healthcare, education, and mobility, and emphasised the importance of raising awareness about AI as a tool for productivity.
Engine for progress:
- It is important to break away from the myths around AI, Dhupar said, adding that AI in fact augments human capabilities, which opens the door to even greater possibilities.
- Dhupar believes that by leveraging AI and innovative platforms like open source, India can accelerate its progress toward becoming a developed nation, potentially achieving the goals of the Viksit Bharat vision ahead of the 2047 timeline.
- With the AI industry’s future in sight, Dhupar stressed that having an ambitious vision is “extremely important”. He urged the Indian tech community to think big, embrace innovation, and go after the hard problems.
Vishal Dhupar
TechSparks
Shun unicorns, accept “Indicorns”
India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem should celebrate companies that have profitably scaled revenues beyond Rs 100 crore, said Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of Titan Capital, as he formally introduced the term “Indicorn” for such ventures.
The primary thing limiting startups right now is capital, believes Bahl, and not the lack of bright minds or the willingness to hustle.
Homegrown success:
- Highlighting India’s expanding startup ecosystem, Bahl quipped, “We have mouth-watering opportunities but eye-watering challenges, and these challenges create the opportunities.”
- Bahl went on to showcase a website that lists all of India’s “Indicorns”, including PhysicsWallah, Nykaa, OfBusiness, and Infra.Market, among others. Titan Capital unveiled this website in partnership with data-intelligence platform Tracxn and YourStory as its launch partner.
- Bahl believes that Indian startups are always under pressure to scale fast, raise money, and follow certain yardsticks of success, and advises startups to “be thoughtful about where you want to play, how you want to play, and then move fast in that lane”.
Kunal Bahl, co-founder, Snapdeal
News & updates
- Watchdog: Three online sellers on Walmart-owned Flipkart have sued the CCI over an investigation, which found Flipkart and Amazon breached competition laws. The court filings come after antitrust investigations found Amazon and Flipkart, some of their sellers and smartphone brands, violated competition laws.
- GCCs: Karnataka aims to double its global capability centres count to 1,000 and create 350,000 new jobs by 2029, according to a draft policy. The state government has outlined incentives such as reimbursing rents and some patent fees, and an exemption from electricity duty depending on how many employees a GCC adds.
- AI discovery: Archaeologists using AI have discovered hundreds of new geoglyphs depicting parrots, cats, monkeys, and killer whales near the Nazca Lines in Peru, in a find that nearly doubles the number of known figures at the enigmatic 2,000-year-old archaeological site.
Where is the world’s largest meteor crater?
Answer: South Africa. The Vredefort Crater is the world’s oldest and largest crater—185 miles wide.
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