Urban Indians want govt investments in AI
In India, it is no surprise that the awareness of AI is the highest, with nearly nine in ten (86%) considering it as an important area for government investment. One of the reasons for this could be the constant efforts of the government to support the development of AI in the country. With the growing awareness of emerging technologies among Indian citizens, more than 80% of urban Indians believe that the government should invest in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing and quantum computing, for the benefit of the society, according to a recent survey, conducted by market research and opinion polling firm, YouGov. Interestingly, 70% of the respondents think that autonomous cars will have a positive impact on society, even though policy makers are yet to enact the laws that authorize autonomous cars in the country. The survey that explores the awareness levels about new technologies among Indians also highlights the other top technologies most urban Indians have heard “a lot about”. Those include cryptocurrency, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Most of the listed new-age technologies have already penetrated in India, while others may soon catch up. In India, it is no surprise that the awareness of AI is the highest, with nearly nine in ten (86%) considering it as an important area for government investment. One of the reasons for this could be the constant efforts of the government to support the development of AI in the country. At present, the use cases of AI in the government include biometric identification, facial recognition, criminal investigation, crowd/traffic management, digital agriculture, etc. To further accelerate the development of the technology, the government is trying to build AI centres that will collaborate with academia and industry to develop AI-based solutions, said the study.
Govt Working On New Ways To Protect Online Consumers From Fake Reviews
The Centre said it will come out with a SoP (Standard Operating Procedure) to protect online consumers from fake reviews of products and services, after a detailed discussion with e-commerce entities and other key stakeholders on this issue. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, who chaired the virtual meeting, discussed the impact of fake and misleading reviews on online consumers and preparation of a roadmap to prevent such a situation.Centre on Friday said it will come out with a standard operating procedure (SoP) to protect online consumers from fake reviews of products and services, after a detailed discussion with e-commerce entities and other key stakeholders on this issue. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, who chaired the virtual meeting with stakeholders, discussed the impact of fake and misleading reviews on online consumers and preparation of a roadmap to prevent such a situation.Additional Secretary in the Consumer Affairs Ministry Nidhi Khare, department officials, and representatives of e-commerce entities, consumer organizations, law firms and others were part of the meeting. “We are basically trying to understand whether there are any SoPs available and if we can prepare standard operating principles to guide and protect the consumers from fake reviews,” said a senior Consumer Affairs Ministry official.
Out of 100 unicorns in India, 17 are FinTechs
India recently crossed the milestone of minting 100 unicorns, becoming only the third country in the world to do so after the US and China. India’s journey to 100 unicorns started in 2011 with the first unicorn, InMobi. Flipkart soon followed suit, becoming the second Indian unicorn. Soon, a flurry of startups such as Mu Sigma, Ola and others attained a $1 Bn valuation. Come 2021, and the funding amount reached $42 Bn, startup launches crossed 1,500 and most importantly, unicorns minted in a calendar year hit an unprecedented 44. While 2022 has seen a slowdown in startup funding, 14 Indian startups have already crossed unicorn valuation this year, taking the number to 100 in a decade. In all, there are 23 ecommerce unicorns, the most from any segment. These include the likes of Flipkart and Nykaa. Ecommerce has seen an incredible rise over the last few quarters, with Thrasio-styled startups Mensa Brands and GlobalBees hitting billion-dollar valuations in record times. D2C or the direct-to-consumer model has emerged as a major ecommerce subsegment and it has been gaining momentum across the country. The D2C market is estimated to reach $200 Bn by 2026, which represents around 60% of the total ecommerce opportunity. Fintech follows ecommerce closely, with 21 of India’s unicorns solving problems in fintech SaaS, payments, investments, lending and cryptocurrency, among others. Some of the fintech unicorns in India include the likes of Paytm, BharatPe and PhonePe, among others. Enterprisetech, which includes sub sectors such as SaaS, HR Tech and enterprise solutions, among others, has produced 19 unicorns so far. These include two of India’s earliest unicorns, InMobi and Mu Sigma, along with listed unicorns such as Freshworks and MapmyIndia.
27.3 million people in India need digital skill training immediately
According to a senior Amazon Web Services (AWS) official, more than 27 million people in India need to be equipped with digital skills especially in cloud related technologies to unlock one trillion dollar digital economy potential by 2025 as well as to enable the country to compete at global level. “It has an opportunity, not just to have financial impact for the country, but also to enable more people to participate in the digital economy as well. We think that the three of the top five digital skills in 2025 will be cloud related. Cloud is not just a business issue. I think it’s also an opportunity to continue to help India compete on the global stage,” Phil Davis, managing director- Asia pacific and Japan commercial sales, AWS said.AWS has trained over two million individuals in India and continues to bridge the cloud skills gap in the country.
Cryptocurrency adoption index and patterns in India: Finder’s report April 2022
It has not been very long since India was ranked 2nd in the Global cryptocurrency adoption index by blockchain and research firms, Chainalyis and Finder in October 2021 and January 2022 respectively. The crypto sector continues to grow and expand in India. Australia-based comparison and information services platform, Finder, revealed in a report the increased adoption in India and at the global level through a survey of internet users in 27 countries in April 2022. To put an end to all the anticipation, the survey ranked India 1st in the cryptocurrency adoption index. We focus on some of the most important findings of this report. The platform surveyed a total of 2,515 Internet users in India for the April 2022 report. The key takeaway from the report are these:
* The ownership of cryptocurrencies has increased by 61.6 million as reported in Finder’s last survey in January and currently, 286.2 million internet users own cryptocurrencies.
* India has climbed one rank higher from its position in January 2022’s survey. Bitcoin continues to be the most popularly owned cryptocurrency in India, although the percentage of owners has decreased to 29.3% from 35.2% in the January 2022 survey. Dogecoin is owned by 18.8 percent of Indians. Ethereum is owned by 18.7 percent of Indians.
Digital technologies can reduce emissions by up to 20 pc: WEF study
Digital technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 per cent by 2050 in the three highest-emitting sectors — energy, mobility and materials, the World Economic Forum. As businesses and governments respond to global calls for action to tackle climate change, significant efforts must be put in place to achieve net zero, but a large gap remains between commitments and action, it said, announcing a new study conducted in collaboration with Accenture. Estimates of current commitments indicate a projected emissions reduction of merely 7.5 per cent when a 55 per cent reduction is needed. Closing this gap will require high-emitting sectors to rethink efficiency, circularity and sustainability.Energy, materials and mobility constitute the highest emission sectors, contributing 43 per cent, 26 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of total emissions in 2020.These industries can use four digital technologies to decarbonise their operations and value chains — foundational technologies such as big data analytics; decision-making technologies such as artificial intelligence/machine learning; enabling technologies such as cloud, 5G, blockchain and augmented reality; and sensing and control technologies such as internet of things, drones and automation, the WEF said.
Bytedance looks for a route back to India via partnership
Bytedance, which owns popular short video app TikTok, is looking to strike a new partnership in India and rehire former and new employees as it seeks to re-enter one of the world’s largest internet markets. The Chinese internet giant, which had shut down Indian operations in 2021 following the ban on the group’s flagship apps such as TikTok, is in initial talks with realty major Hiranandani Group for a partnership, the sources said. The Mumbai-based group, which runs data centre operations under the Yotta Infrastructure Solutions, has also recently launched a technology-led consumer services arm –Tez Platforms– and expects to invest up to Rs 3,500 crore over the next two-three years in the new business. While talks between the two groups are at an exploratory stage according to people in the know, union government officials have been informally sounded out on the plans, they added.
Coinswitch launches India’s first rupee-based crypto index
Indian crypto investing app, Coinswitch, launched Crypto Rupee Index (CRE8), which it claims is India’s first benchmark index to measure the performance of the rupee-based crypto market. Owned and administered by Coinswitch, CRE8 tracks the performance of eight crypto assets that represent over 85% of the total market capitalization of cryptos traded in the Indian Rupee. The index is based on real trades on the Coinswitch app, which has over 18 million registered users. The index constituents are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT) and Dogecoin (DOGE).
Edtech sector in crisis as Covid curbs ease; hybrid model offers hope
The reopening of schools and colleges has sparked a crisis in the edtech sector with falling valuations, slowing funding rounds and faltering investor sentiment. In a totally altered, post-pandemic landscape where students are back at school and colleges, companies are scrambling to revert to bricks-and-mortar tuition centres and adopting a hybrid model of offline and online education. Demand for online tuition has fallen, affecting the revenue of edtech companies in recent months. After two years of booming revenues, some experts say the sector is looking at a possible meltdown. Edtech unicorn Unacademy recently laid off about 600 employees. Vedantu has laid off 424 employees. Over 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr, a start-up owned by Byju’s, resigned in the last two months after being asked to work from the office. LIDO learning shut shop. entrepreneur and upGrad chairperson Ronnie Screwvala said the companies which have laid people off were not supposed to have ‘raised cash to blow it up, but to build rock-solid businesses’.
eCommerce-80% of urban internet users in India use e-commerce portals for online product research: Report
GroupM, Wunderman Thompson along with Amazon Ads have launched ‘Content strategies for the new age digital consumer’ playbook. The pandemic saw several long-term lifestyle and consumption changes in the last two years. All these changes, adaptations, and revelations took place with the massive rise of digital convenience. Be it researching, purchasing products or buying services like insurance, digital platforms have now become crucial partners. These ‘digital consumers’ are more informed, participative, well-employed and affluent than the average internet users in India. They have diverse interests and an evolved lifestyle and they rely on e-commerce networks for their product research and shopping needs. This playbook will help marketers and agency professionals in making efficient decisions around revamping their online content strategies.
Aditya Birla Group Forms D2C Co, to Buy & Incubate 30 Brands
Aditya Birla Group has launched TMRW, its “house of brands’ ‘ entity that will bring onboard fashion and lifestyle brands, and has appointed former Facebook and Bain executive Prashanth Aluru as the chief executive officer (CEO). Over the next three years, TMRW will acquire as well as incubate over 30 brands. The venture would enable multiple founders to operate within a synergistic “house of brands” platform that share a common vision and shared capabilities, the company said in a statement. “Our aspiration is to build a portfolio of 30+ brands in the next 3 years. With the launch of this venture, we intend to double down on our ongoing program of strategically attracting new pools of capital that are seeking investment in high-growth businesses,” ABFRL MD Ashish Dikshit said. The so-called house of brands model is pioneered by the US-based Thrasio, which buys profitable, well-reviewed online sellers on Amazon and turbocharges their growth with technology, marketing, and product growth chops. This space has been seeing strong momentum with players like Mensa Brands GlobalBees, Upscalio and GOAT Brand Labs, at the forefront of the industry.
India lines up banks, others for e-commerce scheme to take on Amazon, Walmart
India’s scheme to break Amazon and Walmart’s dominance of its e-commerce sector, by establishing its own open network, has begun lining up banks and other key players needed to move it forward. Some of India’s biggest banks are in discussions about setting up “buyer platforms” to let their customers place orders for goods and services over the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which the Indian government soft-launched in April. The success of the network, which would promise equal access to all online sellers and buyers regardless of their size, is a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces pressure from small businesses for action against the outsized influence of Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in India’s e-commerce. Policymakers in other countries as well are looking at ways to rein in big tech companies’ dominance of online purchases.
Consumers spent 59% more time on digital as compared to TV: Axis My India June CSI survey
Consumers spent considerably more time on digital as compared to TV, as per Axis My India June CSI survey. The survey additionally revealed that average time spent per day on digital is 105 minutes and that for TV is 66 minutes. Axis My India, the consumer data intelligence company, has released its latest findings of the India Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), a monthly analysis of consumer perception on a wide range of issues. The June report highlights average time spent by consumers watching television and digital media. The survey further delves deeper to understand consumer’s awareness and engagement with video focused social networking applications. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Sharechat were further discovered to be most visited video focused social networking applications by consumers. The survey further dug deeper to understand media consumption trends among consumers. As per the survey a majority of 20% said that on an average day, they spend 1-2 hours watching TV. In addition, 18% spend 30 minutes- 1 hour watching TV. In terms of digital media, 19% said that on an average day, they spend 1-2 hours on the internet. A second group of 16% said that they prefer investing 2-4 hours on the internet. The average time spent on digital is 105 minutes and TV is 66 minutes.
