March 18th 2024

Good morning! In today’s top ten:

Tech

• India revises controversial AI advisory, no longer requires government approval for AI model deployment.

• India's healthtech market poised to grow 14x to $35B by 2030.

• EdTech unicorn Physicswallah looks to “catch ‘em young” with a network of brick and mortar schools.

• PepsiCo taps into Indian tech talent to enhance GenAI.

• India's lowered import taxes on EVs could boost Tesla's market entry.

Culture

• Caste and religion largely disregarded in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices of Indian workplaces.

• Samvaad festival celebrates India’s diverse tribal culture, food and language.

• Anita Kamaraj captures South Indian nostalgia in 'Summer Breeze' photo series.

• Singaporean artist Yip Yew Chong celebrates South Indian cuisine with street art in Tamil Nadu. 

• Art research project captures what it means to be young in India.

Tech

India revises controversial AI advisory, no longer requires government approval for AI model deployment. LINK

• India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) walked back on its controversial proposal that would require tech companies to obtain government approval before deploying new AI models, which was labeled “a travesty” by a16z partner Martin Casado.

• The revised guidelines now require that companies explicitly label AI models that are undergoing testing with the aim of offering more transparency to users about the possible fallibility of these technologies.

• This is the latest in a string of flip-flop announcements from MEITY, who previously declined to regulate AI growth in India.

India's healthtech market poised to grow 14x to $35B by 2030. LINK

• According to a recent WHO report, 77 million Indian adults are reported to have diabetes. A recent study by the National Family Health Survey indicates that 70% of India’s population is protein deficient and 19% of its rural population is overweight. 

• A string of new startups is looking to innovate in this space, with India’s growing healthtech market expected to reach $35B by 2030, a 14x increase from 2022.

• Sugar.fit aims to tackle this problem with a subscription-based diabetes reversal program that offers glucose monitoring and doctor consultations to its 30,000 users. They successfully extended their series A funding round, securing an investment of $5 million led by Eduardo Savarin’s B Capital. 

EdTech unicorn Physicswallah looks to “catch ‘em young” with a network of brick and mortar schools. LINK

• Unicorn Physicswallah (PW) started in the asset-light EdTech space and is now moving towards capital-intensive physical schools across India.

• This approach aims to expose young students to PW’s interactive content delivery, offering access to a doubt-solving web platform that includes 3D models and quizzes. 

• This will shift PW’s economics from a traditionally transactional test preparation EdTech model to a more predictable tuition-based model, which will bring stable cash-flow to the business. This shift comes at a significant capital cost, with PW’s profits shrinking 91% even with revenue tripling during FY23. 

PepsiCo taps into Indian tech talent to enhance GenAI. LINK

• PepsiCo is building a new technology center in India to expand its use of generative artificial intelliegence (GenAI).

• PepsiCo is leveraging GenAI to accelerate go-to-market pace by streamlining productivity in its marketing and customer service divisions. 

• So far the use of GenAI has allowed PepsiCo to reduce its campaign cycle from 6-9 months to 3-4 months, according to Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Athina Kanioura.

India's lowered import taxes on EVs could boost Tesla's market entry. LINK

• India has announced a reduction in import taxes for companies willing to invest $500 million and establish a local electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility within three years. 

• The policy change aims to stimulate domestic EV production and may aid Tesla's ongoing efforts to enter the Indian market. 

• Tesla's entry into India, possibly by using it as a manufacturing base for Southeast Asia exports, would bring competition to local carmakers Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, as well as Vietnamese electric carmaker VinFast.

Culture

Caste and religion largely disregarded in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices of Indian workplaces. LINK

• DEI specialist Christina Dhanuja raised concerns about the neglect of caste and religious dimensions in Indian workplaces' DEI practices, despite these being key determinants of marginalization in India. 

• A recent report indicated only 21% of employers across different sectors in India had implemented formal DEI policies, the focus of most of which leaned heavily towards inclusion of women and queer individuals, largely omitting caste and religion-based marginalization.

• The reluctance of companies to address these issues has been tied to the lack of caste consciousness in parent companies abroad and a general avoidance of uncomfortable conversations surrounding casteism and Islamophobia in domestic workplaces.

Samvaad festival celebrates India’s diverse tribal culture, food and language. LINK

• Samvaad, an annual event held by the Tata Steel Foundation in Jamshedpur brings together diverse tribal communities from across India to share their culture, traditions and issues. This year's five-day event gathered 400 participants from 35 tribes across 17 states.

• The Samvaad Fellowship aims to encourage India's tribal youth to document and preserve their cultures amidst the rapid loss of languages and traditions. Alongside celebrating tribal pride, the fellowship aims to shape tribal knowledge into a broader accessible repository of cultural information. 

• Fellow Amabel Susngi has documented traditional lullabies of the Khasi language and Banwang Losu has developed a script to preserve the endangered Wancho language.

Anita Kamaraj captures South Indian nostalgia in 'Summer Breeze' photo series. LINK

• Anita Kamaraj's photo series 'Summer Breeze' showcases a traditional South Indian picnic, featuring women draped in vibrant cotton sarees, traditional foods, and elements of shared pastimes, enveloped in soft, nostalgic tones.

• The photographer aims to evoke memories and emphasize the simplicity and joy found in human connection, mirroring the serenity and nostalgia resonated in compositions by legendary South Indian composer Ilayaraja.

• A self-taught photographer, Anita uses her work to "cheat time" by capturing and preserving fleeting moments, her series is a reminiscent testament to everyday beauty and the power of human connection.

Singaporean artist Yip Yew Chong celebrates South Indian cuisine with street art in Tamil Nadu. LINK

• Yip Yew Chong, a visual artist from Singapore, showcased the rich culinary traditions of Tamil Nadu, India, through a large mural in the Ukkadam Art District. 

• The artist fully immersed himself in the local culture and used the flavors of the local cuisine as inspiration for his artwork. 

• The project, facilitated by St+art India and Asian Paints, underlines the significance of public art in fostering community engagement and interaction.

Art research project captures what it means to be young in India. LINK

• "2024: Notes from a Generation" by Prarthna Singh and Snigdha Poonam uses portraits and audio recordings to share the experiences, anxieties, and aspirations of young Indians from across the country. 

• The project, initiated in 2019, aims to create an archive of this period in India's political and cultural history, capturing the perspectives of the youngest generation that will shape the future. 

• Singh and Poonam discovered themes such as relationships with family, anxiety about work and education, identity debates, dissatisfaction with holding just one job, and the significant changes brought about by technology and social media.

In other news:

• How government policies from the 1960s and 1970s made Bangalore India’s Silicon Valley. LINK

• How a relentness focus on operational efficiency took Sula Vineyards from a small family farm to a global wine behemoth. LINK

• The United States and United Nations have voiced their worries about India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which aims to fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from six minority religious communities. LINK

• Mixed outcomes from India’s aggressive foreign policy after a decade under Prime Minister Modi: a deep dive into India’s relationships with the United States, Canada, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and China. LINK

• Pew Research Centre survey reports 85% of Indian respondents believe military rule or rule by an authoritarian leader would benefit the country, the highest percentage amongst the 24 countries surveyed. LINK

• Bringing music to the breeze: Indian studio crafts wind chimes tuned to classical ragas. LINK

• India’s Central Bureau of Investigation and US Department of Justice conduct workshops on mutual legal assistance and extradition. LINK

• New book studies Twitter's influence on Indian politics and elections. LINK

• India's rank on the United Nations' Human Development Index improves from 135 to 134 in 2022, still trailing behind neighboring countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and China. LINK

• India’s former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian calls the Centre's latest GDP growth figures "mystifying" and questions the accuracy of implied inflation rates. LINK