AAPI: July 2023

DELHI, July 2023

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21. Nvidia’s dream run was three decades in the making. But now, rivals are catching up
22. Japanese companies are trying to strengthen their partnership with India: Former Prime Minister Mr. Yoshihide Suga
23. Meet Lisa: India's first AI regional news anchor, Government News
24. World Job Market on Brink of an ‘AI Revolution’: OECD
25. A Goa meeting, then four years of scrupulous work: how M&M built a game changer called the new Thar

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DELHI, JULY 2023

NEWSLETTER, JULY 2023

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1. 415 million Indians moved out of poverty between 2006 and 2021: UN report

ET Gov. 12 Jul. 2023

According to the global multidimensional poverty index (MPI), 25 countries, including India, managed to successfully halve their global MPI values within 15 years, thus proving that rapid progress is attainable.

The UN report shows that rapid progress is attainable. The United Nations says that India has seen remarkable reductio in poverty, with 415 million people coming out of poverty in 15 years.

Three months ago India surpassed China to become the world's most populous nation with 142.86 crore people. The data from UN shows that as many as 415 million Indians moved out of poverty in the country within 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021.

According to the global multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, 25 countries, including India, managed to successfully halve their global MPI values within 15 years, thus proving that rapid progress is attainable.

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"India saw a remarkable reduction in poverty, with 415 million people exiting poverty within a span of just 15 years (2005/6-19/21)," the report said.

2. AI powered cameras have brought down road accident deaths in Kerala: State Transport Minister

ET Gov. 6 Jul. 2023

The Minister said in a Facebook post that in June last year, 344 people died and 4,172 were injured in 3,714 road accidents in the state and after the AI cameras were installed, the number of road accidents decreased to 1,278, the deaths dropped to 140 and the number of injured came down to 1,468 in June this year.

After installing AI cameras, traffic violations fall: Kerala transport dept. The installation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras, subject matter of graft allegations against the ruling CPI(M) in the state, have resulted in reduction of road accident deaths in Kerala, State Transport Minister Antony Raju said on Tuesday.

After a high-level meeting held during the day to review the functioning of the AI cameras installed under Safe Kerala project, Raju said that after their installation the number of road accidents and resultant deaths and injuries have decreased significantly compared to last year.

He said in a Facebook post that in June last year, 344 people died and 4,172 were injured in 3,714 road accidents in the state and after the AI cameras were installed, the number of road accidents decreased to 1,278, the deaths dropped to 140 and the number of injured came down to 1,468 in June this year.

The review of the cameras' functioning found that from June 5 -- when fines began to be imposed -- to July 3, as many as 20,42,542 motor vehicle violations were detected.

"Of these, 7,41,766 were verified, 1,77,694 cases were uploaded in the Integrated Transport Monitoring System, 1,28,740 were approved by the Motor Vehicle Department and 1,04,063 challans were sent by post," the minister said.

He further said that Keltron was directed to depute more staff so that the verification process can be expedited and pending verifications can be completed within three months.

The minister further said that of the over 20 lakh violations detected between June 5 and July 3, the highest -- 73,887 -- were for riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets.

A close second was not wearing seat belts by front seat passengers of cars -- 57,032, he said.

The other violations included not wearing helmets by pillion riders, car drivers not wearing seat belts and using mobile phones while driving, he said.

In order to ensure no innocent person is penalised, the Road Safety Commissioner has been tasked to form a district-level monitoring committee, the minister said.

Raju also said a Complaint Redressal Application to submit online complaints against penalties will be effective from August 5.

Vehicles registered in other states will also not escape being fined for violations as their information is also included in the NIC vehicle software - Vahan, the minister said.

3. How a scientist at Enzene is rethinking manufacturing to make anti-cancer drugs affordable in India

ET, 09 Jul. 2023

Anti-cancer drugs are beyond the reach of average Indian patients. Early-stage patients spend up to INR6 lakh on medicines alone. For advanced stages, the cost is higher. Scientist Himanshu Gadgil gave up a cushy job in the US and returned to India with a mission. Pioneering a unique manufacturing process, he is changing the game, one drug at a time.

At Amgen’s Thousand Oaks headquarters in California, Himanshu Gadgil had everything that talented young scientists aspire for. In his seven-year stint with the American biotech giant, Gadgil helmed several product-development teams, led interactions with top regulatory agencies, and authored scientific papers. Until fate took a tragic turn.

In 2009, Gadgil’s father passed away, having suffered internal bleeding because of dengue. In his final days, he could not be by his side. A grieving Gadgil had a change of mind. He decided to be with his aging mother, an academician in environmental sciences.

Another issue irked Gadgil. His father’s hospital bill was not just exorbitant for the average Indian’s income levels, quite a few of the medicines prescribed were unnecessary.

In 2011, he returned to India for good with a goal in mind — to make lifesaving medicines affordable, especially for the financially weaker sections that are often pushed to the brink by spiralling healthcare and hospital bills.

Gadgil’s first stop was at Ahmedabad-based drugmaker Intas Biopharmaceuticals, where he helped produce biosimilar drugs used to treat a range of cancers, infections, and other critical illnesses. For Intas, an early entrant in biotech drugs, it was no mean feat to build a portfolio of highly complex drugs within four years. But Gadgil was on a larger mission.

In 2015, he moved to Enzene Biosciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alkem Labs, one of India’s leading pharmaceutical companies, in the hope that it would offer him the scope to work on new ideas. As the CEO, his focus was on biosimilars, especially those of anti-cancer drugs, which are often beyond the reach of average Indian patients. Here’s the story about how Gadgil went about changing that, and developed an innovative manufacturing process — one with a smaller footprint, is 10 times more efficient, and helps prune drugmaking costs significantly.

Anti-cancer drugs: lower prices but still unaffordable

According to Amol Akhade, a medical oncologist based in Mumbai, treatment for early-stage cancer costs INR5 lakh to INR6 lakh, going up significantly for advanced stages. Having low medical insurance coverage for cancer treatment further aggravates the problem.

On the other hand, Chetali Rao, an intellectual-property lawyer, in a presentation earlier this year, said that India counted over 1.46 million cancer patients in 2022. Each year 800,000 die from the disease, not to mention the trail of financial woes it brings for the patients and their families. About 40% of cancer-hospitalisation cases are financed mainly through borrowings, sale of assets or contributions from friends and relatives.

Against this backdrop, Gadgil ploughed through reams of literature to search for potential breakthrough technologies that could cut the cost of making drugs without compromising on quality. Moreover, making biotech drugs is far more complicated than making chemical-based generic drugs. Any new manufacturing system would need to stick to impeccable standards and be open to stringent regulatory examination.

In a country that has a strong generic-drugs industry and deep expertise in making biosimilars, chances of striking a pioneering new technology were slim. But Gadgil continued his efforts at Enzene’s research centre in Chakan, Pune.

He came up with a manufacturing technology, for which Enzene holds a patent, that improves productivity by as much as ten times with a much smaller footprint, that is manufacturing area, number of hold steps, and the size of the equipment. “In a 1,500 sq ft room, we had the ability to manufacture kilograms of the product, which would otherwise require facilities many times bigger,” he says, with a notable thrill.

As the technology was new, getting product batches right and securing regulatory validation was a serious challenge. Gadgil credits his team members for staying motivated despite a series of failures, but it was a proud moment when they finally produced a high-quality product.

The new technology has helped Enzene introduce its sixth biosimilar drug bevacizumab (branded Avastin by Roche), used to treat colorectal cancer and a type of lung cancer.

While adalimumab, cetuximab, and bevacizumab are manufactured using the new continuous-manufacturing process, teriparatide (to treat osteoporosis), romiplostim (used to regulate platelets), and denosumab (used to treat bone loss and cell tumour of bone) are made using the traditional fed-batch process. Gadgil believes the new technology can cut the cost of manufacturing between 30% and 60% and drive it further down to 80%, depending on its complexity and scale.

But what is the continuous-manufacturing process and how does it have an edge over the time-tested fed-batch process?

Cracking the breakthrough code

Cells, from which the final drug is derived, require nourishment. When certain cells are placed inside a bioreactor and provided with feed (“media” in industry parlance), they undergo continuous growth. Typically, 10 million-15 million cells per millilitre are obtained using the fed-batch technology.

However, around 15 days later, these cells begin generating a substantial amount of waste products, which can be harmful for their own survival and well-being. At this stage, the process of harvesting is initiated. Subsequently, purifying the protein is started to achieve the highest pharmaceutical-grade standard, a task that involves multiple steps.

The process is tedious at every step, the biggest imperative being to retain the final product. This requirement entails the use of sizeable hold tanks (for storage), which occupy nearly 80% of the total space in fed-batch manufacturing and need sizeable investment. Being a late entrant, Gadgil and his team were aware that It made no sense to invest heavily because of the depreciation of manufacturing plants of Enzene's competitors.

"We have outperformed many US-based contract manufacturing companies in the bidding stages and helped our partners take products all the way up to manufacturing products for Phase I clinical studies."

— Himanshu Gadgil, biotech scientist and CEO, Enzene

“Replicating processes from a decade ago would leave us at a disadvantage in the face of fierce competition,” Gadgil says. “Hence, we turned our attention to the continuous-manufacturing process. Rather than providing the feed daily, we maintained a constant flow of fresh feed. Within this same flow, we extracted and discarded the toxins produced by the cells.” Additionally, a specialised filter is employed to retain the useful cells within the bioreactor.

Once the desired product emerged, it was moved along a conveyor belt of purification lines, akin to opening a faucet. “Consequently, we could eliminate the need for large tanks, and instead of requiring a 10,000 square feet clean room, a more compact 1,000 square feet clean room served our purpose,” adds Gadgil.

Another significant advantage lies in the fact that the cells remain healthier as their feed is continually replenished and waste is removed, resulting in a yield of 100 million to 150 million cells per millilitre. “This enhanced productivity allows us to manufacture products 10 times more efficiently, with improved quality. Ultimately, this is a key driver in reducing costs,” says Gadgil.

In a lighter vein, he says making biosimilars is more challenging than researching a new drug since the aim is to get as close as possible to the innovator’s product. Using an entirely new method of manufacturing calls for additional questions from regulatory agencies, Gadgil adds, noting that thus far, the Australian agency has approved the process, the European inspection is due, and the USFDA has been apprised and an inspection can be expected in due course, depending upon Enzene’s product-filing timelines.

Making an impact

Production of biologic drugs is where the buck stops for Enzene. The company follows the contract research and manufacturing model. Next, it signs non-exclusive partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that have marketing and distribution muscle.

In May, Enzene achieved a rare feat. It developed the world’s first biosimilar of cetuximab, a complex biotech drug widely used to treat head and neck cancer. Enzene signed a deal with its parent company Alkem Labs and Mumbai-based Lupin for its marketing and distribution.

Gadgil concedes Enzene plays no role in fixing the prices to the patients and it is the sole prerogative of the companies selling the product. But Enzene’s nimble manufacturing structure leaves sufficient room for partners to drop the prices from the current range.

Despite the expiry of its patent in 2014, the complexity of making cetuximab (branded as Erbitux) gave Merck of Germany a decisive edge. Barring a few Chinese names that are in various stages of developing the product, there are none that have launched it in the world. News reports suggest Merck has taken legal recourse seeking clinical data on the efficacy of cetuximab made by Enzene, in accordance with a set of globally accepted principles. Merck’s response is understandable, given that Enzene potentially breaks into its decades of monopoly.

But the importance of making available cheaper versions of such highly complex anti-cancer medicines cannot be overstated. Gadgil is unfazed by the challenge posed by Merck. He says for any drugmaker across the world, safety is paramount, and he has good clinical data to back Enzene’s case.

According to him, India has put in place several layers of regulatory scrutiny and approval processes, which takes about four to five years to reach the final commercial stages. The key requirement is to have strong data-backed evidence from the Phase I and Phase III clinical trials (or tests for safety and efficacy) before anything can proceed.

Banking on an India-first strategy

The annual prevalence of head and neck cancer in India is estimated to be 500,000 cases — third after the US and China — with 125,000 deaths. In a press statement in May, Alkem managing director Sandeep Singh said that over 76,000 Indian patients are eligible for use of cetuximab, but only 1,611 patients are currently on the drug, barely 2% of the eligible patients. Online pharmacies show that Erbitux is sold at INR14,370 per vial while Alkem has priced its brand Cetuxa at INR9,990 per vial, at the same level as Lupin.

Gadgil is candid. He says Enzene does not want to position itself as a company that makes products only for the bigger markets because it is highly profitable to do so. “At Enzene, we want to be useful to Indian patients first. When we do that, revenues and profits take care of themselves.”

The efficacy of Gadgil’s playbook is attracting investor interest. Regulatory filings by Alkem show Enzene scaled from INR9.66 crore in 2019-20 to INR87.21 crore in 2021-22. Last December, venture-capital investors Eight Roads Ventures (part of Fidelity) and F-Prime Capital Partners picked up an 8% stake in the company for USD50 million. The funds will be used for expansion of research and manufacturing capabilities. In the future, Enzene plans to set up a research and manufacturing base in New Jersey.

Rivals at its heels

But can Enzene make the most of its distinct technology as competition catches up? In May, Swiss generic-drugs giant Sandoz struck a deal with Just Evotec Biologics to develop a range of biosimilars using its “proprietary data-driven, fully integrated continuous-manufacturing capabilities”.

Gadgil believes financially strong global players using better manufacturing capabilities is good news. “We had no legacy issues in manufacturing as most global drugmakers did. We had the freedom to design our R&D and manufacturing process, which is frugal and flexible. Often, since companies have already invested heavily in older manufacturing equipment and the fed-batch method, it becomes difficult for them to pivot and adapt to the new technologies,” he says.

On newer companies not adopting such technologies, he says, it was perhaps their reluctance to take risks and opt for a more established route. “Fortunately, we took the risk, and it paid off.”

In a market as huge and underserved as India, more producers can help patients get affordable treatments and that is most satisfying, he adds. As for Enzene’s competitiveness, Gadgil and his team are working on the next innovation in manufacturing.

Earlier this year, Enzene entered a licensing deal with UK’s Theramax to manufacture denosumab. Gadgil says the programmes with overseas companies involve working on new ways of using the continuous-manufacturing platform. This, he emphasises, works well on new products which are initially unstable, as the partners can continuously work and improve until they achieve the desired stability standards. “We have outperformed many US-based contract manufacturing companies in the bidding stages and helped our partners take products all the way up to manufacturing products for Phase I clinical studies,” he adds.

Gadgil’s experience as a researcher at Amgen is helping Enzene be at the cutting edge of new therapies. It has developed a versatile viral vector technology that can be engineered for applications in gene therapy.

For now, Gadgil is happy to have shifted back to India. He says it is fulfilling to work for Indian patients, and he loves the Pune weather, too.

4. AI in healthcare can add $25-30 billion to India’s GDP by 2025: Nasscom

ET Gov. 7 Jul. 2023

The healthcare ecosystem in India is going through a dynamic phase with digital transformation at its core.

IT industry body Nasscom office in Noida:

The healthcare ecosystem in India is going through a dynamic phase with digital transformation at its core. IT industry body Nasscom’s analysis reveals that data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare have the potential to add $25-30 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, according to a release.

Reiterating commitment to disrupting the healthcare ecosystem for accessible and affordable patient care, Ktech Nasscom Centre of Excellence (CoE) organized the 11th edition of Life Sciences and Healthcare Innovation Forum (LHIF) and 4th Edition of Healthcare Innovation Challenge (HIC). The forum is a seven-year-old program supported by the Government of Karnataka. It emphasized the need for technology-driven implementation of digital healthcare solutions to enable patients’ better, faster, and quicker access to medical facilities and services, even across remote areas.

Addressing the forum, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Hon'ble Minister of Health & Family Welfare, government of Karnataka, said, “Healthcare is one of the most important duties and responsibilities of the government. It is important to ensure good healthcare solutions and facilities for better, faster, and quicker response to patient care for people living in remote places. Bangalore is the IT/Tech hub for the country therefore Karnataka should lead the high-end usage of AI in healthcare. We will have a roadmap for the next five years towards building a better healthcare policy.”

The forum reiterated the need for rapid adoption of new-age technologies and innovation in the sector. It also emphasized the need for a strategic focus on building infrastructure that will drive healthcare innovation and disruption in the country. Telemedicine, health tech, data-focused healthcare, last-mile accessibility to primary care, and mobility of skilled talent will be some of the key drivers. The event drew several startups like Hidentity, KareXpert, I am beside you, Autoyos, ExpandMyBusiness, Healthvectors, Vyli, Ignoimagine, Leucine BioTech, AiVolved, Ignoimagine, Janitri, and Expand My Business. The startups presented their digital health innovations, leveraging the power of AI and IoT, to enhance healthcare facilities and ensure accessible healthcare delivery. Their solutions aim to simplify healthcare processes and bring them within easy reach of individuals, the release added.

During the event, the winners of the Healthcare Innovation Challenge were announced. KareXpert emerged as the winner for the Hospital Automation use case by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, while Iwayplus won for the Indoor Patient Navigation use case by Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center.

S. Gopalkrishnan, special secretary, MoHFW, Gol, CEO, NHA, said, “Technology can help in digitizing the healthcare system, thereby aiding a better understanding of what's happening where and how the health systems will respond. For the citizens to have a better and more comfortable healthcare experience, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is a fantastic solution and we will soon reach the total coverage of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission across the country.”

The event was attended by more than 200 people, including Achim Burkart, consul general, German Consulate General Bengaluru, Sudeepto Roy, VP engineering, Qualcomm Technology Licensing, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO & MD, Tata Medical, Girish Raghavan, vice president of engineering - GE Healthcare, Dileep Mangsuli, executive director at Siemens Healthineers.

5. Boost for EV sector: World Bank, ADB, SIDBI to fire up EV finance with $1 billion fund

ET Gov. 13 Jul. 2023

In addition to the creation of a billion-dollar fund aimed at financing electric vehicles, they are also in active discussions with the US-based investors willing to be part of the payment security mechanism (PSM) for the electric buses, said a top official at NITI Aayog.

A corpus will be created within SDBI from the funds raised from ADB and World Bank.

Government think-tank NITI Aayog and the ministries of heavy industries and road transport & highways are looking to fast-track moves make affordable finance available for electric vehicles for commercial use.

The discussions with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for the billion-dollar fund creation are in its final stages, said a Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) official who declined to be identified. The fund will become operational soon after the finance ministry's approval, the official said.

Having identified finance as one of the major hurdles in fast adoption of electric vehicles for commercial use, plans are afoot to conclude both the exercises-- of extending finance support to EVs and giving comfort to the service providers of electric buses by way of creating a payment security mechanism, before the current financial year ends, said Sunendhu J Sinha, adviser (Infrastructure connectivity-transport and electric mobility) at the NITI Aayog.

"We want to make the purchase of electric vehicles more affordable by bringing the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and SIDBI together for creation of a billion-dollar fund," Sinha told ET.

Though e-three wheelers have seen a fast adoption accounting for an 8% of the three-wheeler mark(excludes e-rickshaws), finance has been a major bottleneck among buyers of single vehicles. NBFCs, commercial banks and unorganized channels are either averse to lending for EVs or lending at a rate in the range of 18-24%, making finance unaffordable for a large swathe of buyers.

As part of the plan, a corpus will be created within SDBI from the funds raised from ADB and World Bank. This will operate under two heads - while one will lend at an affordable rate to NBFCs and commercial banks, the other will lend to borrowers looking to buy a two-wheeler, three- wheeler, a light truck, or a car for commercial applications at a concessional rate, said the SIDBI official cited earlier.

Manufacturers of e-three wheelers, expected to be a big beneficiary of the funding, are watching the space with keen interest. "While this is a good initiative, it should be executed with clear timelines before the momentum is lost," said Amitabh Saran, founder, and CEO at the Bengaluru-based Altigreen Propulsion Labs.

SIDBI has been running a lending scheme called EV 4 ECO Mission for NBFCs. As part of the scheme, it targets offering credit to 50,000 e-three wheelers.

ADB, World Bank and SIDBI are in final stages of operationalising a billion-dollar fund for EV financing

Fund creation awaits green signal from ministry of finance
Move set to make EV financing more affordable
Corpus to be created within SIDBI
SIDBI will act as guarantor to banking and financial institutions for EV lending
SIDBI to also offer finance in the B2B segment at a concessional rate
Creation of payment security mechanism to give confidence to the service provider of e-buses to work with the state transport undertakings.

- Agriculture, Fishing and Rural Development

6. J&K is the torchbearer of agri-tech startup movement: Jitendra Singh at IIM Jammu

ET Gov. 19 Jun. 2023

“We are living in an age of innovations, an age of ideas. The government is taking all kinds of initiatives to ensure that the ideas and innovations of the nation’s youth bear fruit.”

The youth of 2023 will define India @2047."

Jammu & Kashmir is the birthplace of Aroma Mission (Lavender Cultivation). That is why the state is being hailed as the torch bearer of the agri-tech startup movement in India. Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology, said this during his address to the Annual Convocation of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Jammu.

He said that the value addition to India's economy in the years to come will be done by the unexplored Himalayan resources in the north and unexplored ocean resources in the south. “We are living in an age of innovations, an age of ideas. The government is taking all kinds of initiatives to ensure that the ideas and innovations of the nation’s youth bear fruit,” he told his audience.

The minister said that the era of working in silos was over and there was a need for greater integration among the institutions. “The youth of 2023 will define India @2047. The youth of today are blessed both with the challenges and opportunities and who can contribute in making India @ 2047 leaving behind the best economies in the world,” he said.

He claimed that India is leading the global startup ecosystem with more than one lakh startups and more than 100 unicorns today. He said that the greatest sustainability of startups lies with the management scholars like the ones graduating from IIM Jammu who can contribute to the startup revolution that is currently unfolding across various parts of India.

7. Agristack Digital Crop Survey Project: Uttar Pradesh govt to undertake satellite linked digital crop survey in 19 districts

ET Gov., 20 Jun. 2023

The survey is essentially part of the government's 'Agristack' of the India Digital Ecosystem and Agriculture (IDEA) that has been under development since 2020.

The project aims to create one verified source of truth about the farmer and his crop sown data.

The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh has shortlisted as many as 19 districts for an ambitious satellite-linked digital crop survey project, to determine the crop-sown data on a real time basis in the forthcoming Kharif season.

The districts which have been selected for the project are Varanasi, Ayodhya, Chandauli, Bhadohi, Sant Kabir Nagar, Auraiyya, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Jalaun, Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Farrukhabad, Basti and Hardoi.

The project is also proposed to be executed in at least 10 villages of different tehsils in the rest 56 districts on a pilot basis.

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The government would be geo-referencing the agricultural land before the 2023-24 Kharif and Rabi cropping season, officials said.

The state government aims to cover the entire state by 2024-25.

The development comes less than a month after the Centre signed an agreement with six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan, to begin the digital crop survey.

The survey is essentially part of the government's 'Agristack' of the India Digital Ecosystem and Agriculture (IDEA) that has been under development since 2020.

Officials said that the survey will establish a clear picture of crops being sown across all the farmlands in the country during the different agriculture seasons.

The project aims to create one verified source of truth about the farmer and his/her crop sown data.

"A robust, effective, on-time, transparent digitally driven crop survey system that uses the latest technological advancements such as visual and advanced analytics, GIS-GPS technologies," said a senior official.

Additional Chief Secretary (agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi said that the project would primarily help the state farmers by providing them various benefits, including those linked to government schemes, crop loan, insurance and better compensation as per the minimum support price.

He said that the technique will also enable the farmers to get the advice to boost crop cultivation and achieve the set target.

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Officials said that the project is also aimed to determine the actual state domestic product and assess the impact of the drought or the drought-like-situation on the crop productivity.

As a matter of fact, the state revenue department is in the process of getting village maps digitalised and geo-referenced.

Officials said that the data based on high resolution satellite images of gram panchayats in at least 23 districts has been prepared by the National Remote Sensing Centre.

8. Telangana minister flags off mobile campaign on quality agri inputs

ET Gov. 12 Jul. 2023

Equipped with state-of-the-art audio technology, the 10 mobile vans will disseminate information about the use of quality pesticides among farmers.

The Minister for Agriculture and Cooperation of Telangana Singireddy Niranjan Reddy on Tuesday flagged off 10 mobile vans as part of ACFI’s mass campaign ‘Jago Kisan Jago’ to promote awareness among farmers about the role of quality agri inputs (agrochemicals) for increasing quality yield and income of farmers and the significance of obtaining proper bills to ensure the purchase of quality agri inputs.

Equipped with state-of-the-art audio technology, these mobile vans will disseminate information about the use of quality pesticides among farmers. Further, they will educate farmers about modern agricultural technologies, and emphasize the significance of purchasing agri inputs with proper bills.

The launch of these mobile vans in Telangana is part of the Agro Chem Federation of India's (ACFI) nationwide campaign, which has been done earlier in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra.

Speaking at the occasion, Niranjan Reddy highlighted the remarkable progress made by Telangana across various sectors, particularly agriculture, since its formation. The expansion of irrigation facilities and renewal of irrigation tanks has led to significant increase in acreages dedicated to cotton and paddy, resulting in improved farm productivity and enhanced prosperity for farmers, he said.

"In addition to prioritizing irrigation, the Telangana government has implemented proactive measures to ensure the availability of high quality agricultural inputs for the farming community. Farmers now have easy access to superior seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals, which reflects the state's commitment to supporting agriculture," Reddy said.

M. Raghunandan Rao, APC & Secretary, Agriculture & Cooperation, said the introduction of the online license management system (OLMS) by the department further revolutionizes the inputs sector by streamlining the issuance and renewal of selling permissions.

He further said Telangana is rapidly emerging as the 'rice bowl' of India, with an extensive acreage of 50 lakh acres dedicated to Kharif crops and 34 lakh acres for the Rabi season.

"To address the challenges faced in rice milling, the government is proactively establishing modern, high capacity rice mills to eliminate delays and ensure efficient processing," he added.

RG Agarwal, Chairman, Advisory Committee, ACFI and Chairman Dhanuka Group, said the deployment of these mobile audio vans in Telangana represents a significant stride in providing farmers with essential training on proper use of pesticides and purchase with proper bills.

"These vans will educate farmers on the procurement of high-quality pesticides, emphasizing the importance of obtaining products with bills that provide detailed information such as batch numbers, expiry dates etc," he said. These vehicles will travel on fixed routes and will work with Telangana government, agri officials at Rythu vedikas.

Most of the good companies have started putting QR codes on the products which can be scanned from the smart phone and can confirm the authenticity of the products.

Sanjay Aggarwal, Treasurer ACFI & MD Indogulf Cropscience highlighted the organization's objective with this campaign, which is to make quality pesticides available to help the farmers to improve their yields.

Kalyan Goswami, Secretary, ACFI, explained that the campaign also aims to integrate pest management techniques into crop management practices, educate farmers on the proper disposal of empty containers, and emphasize accurate timing and methodologies for the application of agrochemicals.

Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI) is an industry body representing 35 manufacturers of technical and formulation of pesticides at pan India level.

ACFI has partnered with Academic Institutions, Farmer Associations, Associated Government & Non-Government Organizations, etc. We work in the interest of Farmers by educating them about Plant Protection Chemicals (Pesticides) for higher yields and better quality of agricultural produce of various crops, involving the right dose, timely and appropriate application methodology and use of PPEs.

The launch of this mass awareness campaign underscores ACFI's unwavering commitment to farmers' welfare and the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. By empowering farmers with knowledge and advocating responsible pesticide use, ACFI aims to contribute to the growth and prosperity of the agricultural sector.

The Association of Pesticides Manufacturers (APMA) and National Seed Association of India (NSAI), are collaborating with ACFI for the launch event. APMA and NSAI share ACFI's vision of promoting the role of quality Agri-inputs and will actively participate in raising awareness among farmers.

9. Exports from aquaculture cross Rs 57586 cr; app launched to track fish diseases which hinder growth

ET Gov. 28 Jun. 2023

The fish disease reporting app is expected to have a major impact on fish disease management in the country. It is expected to enable early detection of diseases, rapid response and knowledge sharing. The Ministry believes that the app will contribute to the growth of aquaculture sector by minimizing the instances of fish diseases creating a catastrophic decline in fish population and adversely affecting the livelihood of the farmers.

The data regarding the diseases will be stored on temporal and spatial scale and can be used for mapping the disease cases.

For strengthening the farmer-based disease reporting system and for improving the reporting of aquatic animal diseases in the country, the Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (MoFAHD), has come up with the ReportFishDisease (RFD) app.

The RFD app will be launched by Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of MoFAHD, on June 28 at Krishi Bhawan in the presence of Dr. L. Murugan, Union Minister of State for MoFAHD, and several senior officers of the Ministry and related departments.

Developed by ICAR-NBFGR under National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD) and funded under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana by the MoFAHD, this app will help the farmers in reporting incidence of diseases in finfish, shrimps, and molluscs on their farms with the field level-officers and fish health experts. This shall help farmers in getting the scientific advice for efficient management of disease.

The data regarding the diseases will be stored on temporal and spatial scale and can be used for mapping the disease cases. The app will support farmers engaged in aquaculture. It will bring vast improvement in farmer-based reporting of diseases. It will enable farmers to access scientific advice, which will reduce their losses due to diseases and improve their income.

Aquaculture sector has witnessed impressive growth over the years. In the financial year 2021-22, the total exports earnings from the sector were approximately Rs.57586.48 crores.

But diseases are the major constraint to the growth of the aquaculture industry. Surveillance for aquatic animal diseases is essential for early detection of diseases, thereby minimizing their impacts. Early detection of diseases is important for eradication and containment. Many cases of diseases in aquaculture go unreported due to unavailability of the field-level disease reporting mechanism. Therefore, there is the need for a mechanism that can connect farmers, field-level officers, and fish health experts.

10. Kerala looks to rope in ‘Metroman’ E. Sreedharan to execute SilverLine project

ET Gov. 11 Jul. 2023

The Kerala government has reached out to E. Sreedharan, popularly known as ‘Metroman’ for his key role in completion of key metro rail projects, for suitable alternatives.

The state government was looking for an alternate strategy to roll out the already struck project due to the speculations over its viability. Amid growing uncertainty around the Kerala government’s biggest e-mobility project in the state, the SilverLine project, may soon be back on track. According to latest reports, the Kerala government has reached out to E. Sreedharan, popularly known as ‘Metroman’ for his key role in completion of major metro rail projects in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and several other states. The state government was looking for an alternate strategy to roll out the already struck project due to the speculations over its viability.

The Kerala government reached out to Sreedharan on instructions of the state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The SilverLine project faces criticism over its exorbitant cost and concerns about its potential environmental impact. With the project failing to secure clearance from the central government, the government is now desperate for a viable alternate solution.

KV Thomas, a former Union minister and a close aide to Kerala chief minister Vijayan on Sunday met E Sreedharan at his residence to discuss the matter. As per government sources, Sreedharan has given his consent to lend his expertise to finding a suitable alternative. This marks a key turning point for the contentious SilverLine project, which has faced opposition from the public and various political factions.

The SilverLine project, also known as K-Rail, is seen as a groundbreaking transportation initiative by chief minister Vijayan. The project became controversial due to the high costs involved. The project is estimated to cost the exchequer over a whopping Rs two lakh crore. Experts also believe the project might cause environmental concerns and label the project as ‘environmental disaster’. The project is yet to get a Central government clearance.

Meanwhile, according to the Kerala government sources, during the recent meeting Sreedharan shared several alternative ideas with Thomas, offered better insights and suggestions. With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner the K-Rail project is seen as a key project to be showcased by the state government. Now with Sreedharan suggesting the new alternatives, state chief minister Vijayan is likely to devise a workable alternative to push the project.

The roping in of Sreedharan, a well known expert in the sector is seen as a move to revive the stuck e-mobility project. According to experts the latest collaboration may not just be helpful in finding a viable alternative to the contentious SilverLine project but may also bring amicable resolution to a long-standing dispute between the Centre and the state.

- Industry and Manufacture

11. Billionaires go to war for satellite spectrum: Musk, Tata, Mittal, Amazon versus Ambani

ET Gov. 26 Jun. 2023

Elon Musk wants his Starlink to beam down wireless internet in India from satellites orbiting the earth, but the licensing regime his group favours has put him at odds with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance. But Starlink wants India to just assign a license for the service and not insist on auctioning the signal-carrying spectrum or airwaves. This stand finds Musk on the side of Tatas, Sunil Bharti Mittal's firm, and Amazon, who too prefer the same route.

Bharti Airtel believes auctioning SS spectrum will create barriers for competition as some may block access by winning the spectrum in spite of having no global allocation.

Elon Musk wants his Starlink to beam down wireless internet in India from satellites orbiting the earth, but the licensing regime his group favours has put him at odds with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance. After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York last week, Musk on June 21 said he was keen to launch Starlink in India that "can be incredibly helpful" in bringing the internet to remote villages that lack on-ground infrastructure.

But Starlink wants India to just assign a license for the service and not insist on auctioning the signal-carrying spectrum or airwaves. This stand finds Musk on the side of Tatas, Sunil Bharti Mittal's firm, and Amazon, who too prefer the same route. But Ambani's Reliance says there must be an auction of spectrum for foreign satellite service providers to offer voice and data services to provide a level playing field to traditional telecom players who offer the same services using airwaves bought in government auctions.

"India's space-based communication services (SS) spectrum decision is key. Mobile spectrum has been auctioned since 2010 with the government's cumulative sale of USD 77 billion and several players are keen on SS," brokerage CLSA said in a note on 'Satellite Spectrum Battle Ahead'.

Based on comments provided by various companies to the sector regulator TRAI's consultations on the issue, CLSA said several players, including Starlink are keen on India SS.

Amazon's Kuiper, Tata, Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb, and Larsen & Toubro are against the auction while Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea support an India SS auction, it said.

Sources said some in the government believe an auction is the best route as it would get the foreign companies to commit investment in the country. Also, it will allow some kind of regulation over content that can be streamed on OTT platforms using the SS.

At a global level, ITU manages spectrum, satellite orbit resources and coordinates the planning of new satellite networks to ensure interference-free SS.

ITU coordinates orbit slots and frequency bands, but India will assign spectrum to licensees for gateway links to satellites and user links (terminal and satellite).

The Department of Telecom has granted licences to Oneweb India and Jio Satellite Comm (in partnership with SES) but final SS policies are awaited. "A key decision for SS will be what method should be used to assign spectrum for user links (L-band & S-band): auction or administrative. This includes higher bands (C, Ku & Ka) and if this will be at national or circle level (like mobile)," it said.

Internationally, spectrum for SS and orbital slots were auctioned in key markets of the US and Brazil, but both then reverted to the administrative assignment.

Of the 64 responses from companies, industry groups and others to the public consultation on satellite spectrum, 48 favoured licensing, 12 voted for an auction, and the rest were neutral.

CLSA said OneWeb's view is that SS should be assigned administratively, on a shared basis, and harmonised internationally. Through Starlink, Musk's SpaceX, which is authorised in 84 administrations (1.5 million users) sees the best approach for SS spectrum is a shared model with administrative assignment.

The Kuiper project of Amazon, which plans to launch its first set of satellites in 2024, recommends administrative assignment and also says spectrum-sharing obligations after auctions would create inefficiencies.

As per Reliance Jio (RJio), which is the market leader in India with close to 440 million telecom users and 8 million wired broadband subscribers, satellite operators are planning networks to compete with terrestrial service providers and auctioning SS is the sole viable strategy.

Vodafone-Idea, too, has urged the regulator for auction to uphold a level playing field.

Bharti Airtel believes auctioning SS spectrum will create barriers for competition as some may block access by winning the spectrum in spite of having no global allocation.

Reliance Jio and Bharti are currently rolling out 5G services in the country. SS, when integrated with existing 5G coverage, will extend capabilities of 5G networks to where cell coverage is not expected to reach and will also boost enterprise offering, CLSA said.

"However, in India, low mobile tariffs in 5G of USD 0.17 per GB (vs USD 6 in US and USD 0.4 in China) will be a challenge for providing SS," it said. "SS spectrum allocation via auction or administrative allotment will also be key to telecom's competitive landscape, including in 5G and access to the under-served."

Deloitte expects India's satellite broadband service market to grow by 36 per cent a year to reach USD 1.9 billion by 2030.

12. India produced 2.7 billion automobiles in FY23, with a value of US$ 108 billion: Report

IBEF, Jun. 30, 2023

According to a report by Primus Partners, the Indian auto industry produced a staggering 2.7 crore vehicles in all segments and types in FY23, with the passenger vehicle segment accounting for 57% of the total value at US$ 60.92 billion (Rs. 5 lakh crore). The commercial vehicle segment, which includes small four-wheel carriers with less than two-tonne capacity to large tractor trailers and speciality vehicles like tippers, contributed 10 lakh vehicles, worth US$ 20.71 billion (Rs. 1.7 lakh crore), to the total 2.7 lakh crore vehicles produced in the previous fiscal year. The Commercial Vehicle (CV) segment accounted for 4% of the total volume and 19% in value terms.

The production of two-wheelers is closely matched by China, with 20 million two-wheelers coming out of the manufacturing facilities in the country, accounting for 77% of the volume share. The overall segment accounted for US$ 21.93 billion (Rs. 1.8 lakh crore) amounting to 21% of value. It also said that the number of people employed by the industry during the period was 1.9 crore.

Furthermore, the report also stated that the mid-size and full-size sports utility vehicle (SUV) sub-segments within the passenger vehicle segment accounted for over half of the value. The compact sub-segment is also important and created 25% of the value and added that the luxury segment vehicles contributed to US$ 7.67 billion (Rs. 63,000 crore) in value or 13% of the segment.

It also quoted that a large part of the electrification in India has happened in two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments. While the Indian electric vehicles (EV) Industry is trailing behind top countries like China, the US, and the EU, massive investments have taken place in India, which strongly indicates that the country is poised to significantly increase its EV segment in the next few years.

The automobile industry in India is on the cusp of unprecedented changes, with multiple factors reshaping the landscape. Factors such as electrification/alternate green power, rise in the use of electronic components, autonomous changes (such as self-driven cars) and shared vehicle rentals/cab services, among others, are driving the transformation of the Indian automobile industry.

The managing Director, Primus Partners, Mr. Anurag Singh quoted that a ground-up study on automobile industry value is leading to a lot of insights, for example, the Indian market is bypassing the lower priced products and more value is being created in feature-rich higher priced vehicles.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

13. Auto Inc Puts Pay Hikes in Top Gear as Profits Surge

ET, 06 Jul. 2023

As sales at Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor India and Hero MotoCorp rise, these companies are rewarding their employees with salary increases averaging more than 10%.

“With the excellent efforts of employees, Maruti Suzuki has performed well in FY23,” said Rajesh Uppal, member executive board, HR, Maruti Suzuki, which recorded the highest-ever turnover of ₹1 lakh crore. “Our sales of 19.66 lakh units were the highest ever… the company recognises the efforts of employees and shares the fruit of their good work with them,” Uppal told ET.

At the country’s largest carmaker, the average salary hike this year is 14-15%, including merit increase, market correction and promotion benefit. “This is higher than last year. Apart from this, we gave a bonus as per business performance of the previous financial year.”

Hyundai Motor India has increased salaries by 13-16%. “This hike is one of the best in the industry,” Charles JS Walter, the company’s AVP and vertical head-HR, told ET.

This year, Hyundai introduced a futuristic organisational structure in record time and rolled out a reimagined, role-based compensation and benefits model, Walter said.

At Hero MotoCorp, the increments this year have been higher than in the previous years, said its spokesperson. “Driving forward with a clear focus on performance, our annual compensation review process has delivered best-in-the-industry salary increments in FY23,” said the spokesperson.

In FY23, passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market rose 27% from a year ago to a record 3.89 million units. Two-wheeler sales, too, increased in double-digits to 15.9 million.

At Tata Motors, appraisals are in line with the industry trend. Sources said the company has handed out increments as well as bonuses on a differentiated basis, linked to the performance of employees.

Tata Motors did not respond to ET’s query on increments.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is set to announce increments from August 2023. Sources said the hikes are likely to be on a par with that at other automakers.

According to a recent report by Deloitte, automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) talent got an average 10.2% salary increment in 2023. “This is the highest (hikes) in the manufacturing sector, surpassing even India Inc average increments of 9.1%,” said Neelesh Gupta, director, Deloitte India.

14. Be alert to quality of drugs, implement good manufacturing processes: Minister to MSME pharma companies

ET Gov. 12 Jul. 2023

The Minister informed that 137 firms were inspected, and action has been taken against 105 firms. Production has been stopped at 31 firms and Cancellation & Suspension of Product and Section Licenses have been issued against 50 firms. In addition, show cause notice has been issued to 73 firms, and warning letters have been issued against 21 firms.

“There shall be no compromise with the quality of drugs manufactured in India.”

“It is important for MSME pharma companies to be alert to quality of drugs and expeditiously move towards Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) through self regulation”. Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, and Health & Family Welfare said this during his meeting with the representatives from MSME pharma companies.

Strongly stressing the need for self regulation in the MSME pharma sector, the Minister underscored its importance for India to maintain the status of the ‘Pharmacy of the World’. “Our global position in the pharmaceutical sector is created through the quality of our products. We must undertake all possible steps to ensure that we strengthen this position in terms of value and quality. Hence, the role of self regulation becomes critical”, he stated.

The Minister declared that Schedule M, which defines the research and manufacturing standards of pharma companies, shall be made compulsory for the MSME pharma sector in a phased manner. “This will help in quality assurance and also reduce compliance burden,” he said.

Dr. Mandaviya has directed the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to take stringent action against all pharmaceutical manufacturing companies that make spurious drugs.

“There shall be no compromise with the quality of drugs manufactured in India,” he emphasized. Highlighting that the Government has zero tolerance towards manufacturers not adhering to quality compliance and making spurious medicines, he stated that special squads have been formed to inspect drugs making companies and stringent actions have been taken.

The Union Minister further stated that in order to ensure the highest quality of pharma products, the regulatory authorities have started risk-based inspection and audit of plants.

He informed that 137 firms were inspected, and action has been taken against 105 firms. Production has been stopped at 31 firms and Cancellation & Suspension of Product and Section Licenses have been issued against 50 firms. In addition, show cause notice has been issued to 73 firms, and warning letters have been issued against 21 firms.

15. RIL may earn $10-15b Revenue from New Energy Biz by 2030

ET, 19 Jun. 2023

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries may by 2030 earn USD 10-15 billion from its new energy business spanning solar to hydrogen but will need acquisitions or partnerships to make up for limited expertise in technology, said a report by Sanford C Bernstein. Clean energy (solar, battery, electrolyzers, and fuel cells) represents a new growth pillar for Reliance with USD 2 trillion in investment in India through 2050. India is targeting solar capacity of 280GW and 5 million tonne of green H2 production by 2030.

"We expect EV penetration will reach 5 per cent for passenger and commercial vehicles and 21 per cent for two-wheelers. Clean energy could have a TAM (total addressable market) of USD 30 billion in 2030 (USD 10 billion currently).

By 2050, "we estimate the TAM could reach USD 200 billion and cumulative spending of USD 2 trillion," the brokerage said in the report.

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance has announced forays into solar manufacturing as well as hydrogen in pivot away from fossil fuels. Reliance plans to have 100GW of installed solar capacity by 2030 which is 35 per cent of India's targeted capacity of 280GW.

"By 2030, we estimate Reliance could capture 60 per cent, 30 per cent and 20 per cent of solar, battery and hydrogen TAM respectively," Bernstein said.

"Based on our assumptions, we estimate RIL can achieve around USD 10-15 billion of revenue from new energy business in 2030 which represents roughly 40 per cent of the TAM."

Reliance is building a green energy business to supply the equipment India will need for its green energy revolution. Reliance has committed to being a net zero carbon emission company by 2035, which is earlier than the target of any other energy company in the region.

It is building a fully integrated end-to-end renewables energy ecosystem for customers through solar, batteries and hydrogen.

"While Reliance has the balance sheet and relationships, they lack the technology and manufacturing know-how which will be essential for success," the brokerage said.

Funding is not an issue for Reliance given the current balance sheet and free cash flow outlook.

The India government has set a target of 500GW of installed renewable energy by 2030. Of this, solar is expected to account for the largest share with 280GW. As of February 2023, India had 65GW of solar power.

To integrate interruptible renewable energy (wind and solar), India is estimated to require 88GWh of cumulative energy storage system (ESS) capacity by 2030 which represents 7 per cent of solar and wind capacity installed. By 2050, ESS capacity is expected to reach 15 per cent of total installed wind and solar capacity.

For transport, the Indian government has an EV sales penetration target of 30 per cent for private cars, 70 per cent for commercial vehicles and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers by 2030.

"With India EV penetration at only 1 per cent today, we think this will take longer given lack of charging infrastructure, lack of affordable EV options and no established battery supply chain. Two-wheelers will see stronger adoption than other vehicles reaching above 20 per cent in 2030 and 75 per cent by 2040 in our view," the report said.

India has set a target of 5 million tonne of annual green hydrogen production by 2030.

"Based on 45 per cent load factor and 63 per cent efficiency, we expect 81GW of cumulative electrolyzer capacity is required to generate 5 million tonne of green hydrogen," it said adding green hydrogen is to be used to replace grey hydrogen, produced using gas, as it moves to decarbonise sectors such as oil and fertilisers.

For the New Energy business, it estimated Reliance will begin to recognize revenue in FY25 with the start of solar and battery plants in 2024.

"Overall, solar will have the largest TAM of USD 13 billion by 2030 followed by hydrogen at USD 10 billion and batteries at USD 7 billion. We estimate Reliance can obtain USD 8 billion of revenue from solar by 2030. For batteries, Reliance could potentially capture a large part of the TAM starting in 2025+ and reach USD 3 billion by 2030. Hydrogen has potentially more opportunities with only USD 2 billion by 2030."

For solar, it expects Reliance to reach 100GW of installation by 2030. For batteries, Reliance could also achieve a similar market share of 36 per cent with battery capacity of 50GWh versus expected battery capacity of 139GWh in 2030.

For hydrogen, Reliance can capture about 19 per cent of the market with 16GW of cumulative electrolyzer capacity by 2030 versus expected TAM of 81GW.

- Services (Education, Healthcare, IT, R&D, Tourism, etc.)

16. Memory major Micron gives India’s chip plans a mega push, but ground up fab remains elusive

ET, 23 Jun. 2023

One of the top memory chip makers, Micron Technology, is betting on India. This marks a turning point for India’s chip manufacturing plans and sows the seeds of a much-sought ecosystem, though the country’s wait for a ground up fab continues.

There seems to be some light at the end of a long tunnel. India’s multi-decade quest to get a global chip major to make a foray into the country is bearing fruit, with USD30 billion Micron getting government nod to set up a local unit. Micron Technology will invest USD2.75 billion (approximately INR22,000 crore) in a chip assembly testing marking and packaging (ATMP) facility.

Of the USD2.75 billion, Micron Technology will invest USD825 million, while the rest will be from the central government (50%) and 20% from the government of Gujarat. The plant, which will come up at Sanand, Gujarat, is expected to be operational by late 2024.

ATMP units test and pack semiconductor chips, but do not manufacture them. The chips will be procured by Micron from elsewhere and sent to India for ATMP before being shipped to customers.

While this is significant for India as Micron is among the top three memory chip makers in the world, it is not actual chip manufacturing.

ATMP is not a ground up fab, converting sand to silicon or wafer to chips. Yet, this is a big leap for India, which has been struggling to get a global chip major to make a foray into the country.

Micron is a major player in the memory business, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory and USB flash drives.

In December 2021, India launched its most ambitious INR76,000 crore plan to incentivise chip making locally offering half the project cost, infrastructure support and fast-track clearances.

According to the World Fab Forecast, 84 new fabs are coming up by 2024 with an investment of USD500 billion, but none in India. In that context, Micron’s entry will help build a local chip ecosystem in India, which has tried to attract global majors without success over the last couple of decades.

Stepping stone to a fab

Micron competes with SK Hynix, Samsung and Western Digital, which acquired SanDisk in 2016 to emerge on the leaderboard in the memory business. Interestingly, Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron, had earlier co-founded and sold SanDisk to Western Digital. “He is the top global Indian in chips, a brand in himself, and (this) will be good for India,” says Satya Gupta, CEO of EPIC Foundation, which is focused on promoting electronics in India.

Mircon’s Sanand project will be an outsource semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) unit.

OSAT units, also tagged as ATMPs, play a crucial role in semiconductor manufacturing, as they package and test the silicon chips made at the foundries before they are shipped to the market.

The country has no global-scale fab or any experience involving these complex chips.

Getting an ATMP from a major global player is an excellent starting point. With this, India will become part of the global semiconductor supply chain.

“This will be a stepping stone to the more complex fabs,” says an industry veteran, who did not wish to be named.

Micron owns end-to-end design to manufacturing units and, unlike a foundry business, it doesn't have to look for buyers or the market.

The memory market

“The market for memory is big and growing. It’s a good place to start,” adds Gupta.

Memory chips form part of a wide spectrum of electronics devices from smartphones to smart speakers. According to market research data provider Research and Markets, memory is a significant revenue generator for the semiconductor industry, accounting for 35% of the total chip sales. The total global chip sales were around USD500 billion in 2022. The total chip market is expected to touch USD1 trillion by 2030.

Micron will use the India facility to meet local demand and also export to the South Asian region. Memory was a USD172 billion market in 2022, and this is projected to surge to USD235 billion by 2027.

Memory consumption is growing in India as well. The country already has a USD30 billion smartphone market, assembling around 150 million phones every year, according to industry data. Apple is scaling up sourcing in India. Google Pixel also plans to move production of some of its devices to India, boosting local demand for chips and creating the much-needed ecosystem for ground up manufacturing in India.

According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), electronics manufacturing in India is expected to be worth USD300 billion by 2026. India mostly imports chips used in these electronic devices and the import bill for chips alone will be around USD64 billion by 2026. That’s why India needs a fab.

Another proposal by Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductors (VFSL), a joint venture between the Vedanta Group and Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), aims to invest up to INR66,000 crore initially to set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit at Dholera in Gujarat. It is yet to get a go ahead as neither Vedanta, a mining company, nor Foxconn, a contract manufacturer of electronics, has experience in chip making.

Around the time the Micron proposal got the Union Cabinet nod, chip major Intel announced a USD4.6 billion fab in Poland and a mega USD25 billion investment in chip manufacturing in Israel. In the past, many global chip makers have been reluctant to come to India due to lack of ecosystem and infrastructure bottlenecks.

Micron’s ATMP proposal marks a huge leap in India’s chip manufacturing quest. But India still awaits a ground up fab, which will be transformational for hi-tech manufacturing in the country.

17. India-US collaboration on DPIs will make us a global digital innovation hub: Nasscom

ET Gov. 26, Jun. 2023

US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi intend to work together to provide global leadership for the implementation of DPIs to promote inclusive development, competitive markets, and protect individual rights.

Nasscom has been working closely with the entire ecosystem to leverage and propel AI-led technological advancements, driving innovation and growth across sectors.

The partnership between the US and India to enable development and deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in developing countries will provide India with an opportunity to solidify its position as a global digital innovation hub, setting an exemplary model for other nations to follow, Nasscom has said.

US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi intend to work together to provide global leadership for the implementation of DPI to promote inclusive development, competitive markets, and protect individual rights.

"The partnership focuses on fostering open and inclusive digital economies through the development and deployment of DPIs in developing countries, leveraging India's successful implementation," Nasscom said in a statement.

The US and India will explore how to partner together and align efforts to advance the development and deployment of robust DPIs, including appropriate safeguards to protect privacy, data security and intellectual property.

The Indian IT industry's apex body said that both the countries will work towards responsible AI, aiming to advance AI education, foster commercial opportunities, and address concerns related to discrimination and bias.

Nasscom has been working closely with the entire ecosystem to leverage and propel AI-led technological advancements, driving innovation and growth across sectors.

"With its abundance of highly skilled professionals, thriving startup ecosystem, and forward-looking mindset, India has become a frontrunner in AI advancements," it said.

Nasscom's extensive guidelines on responsible use of generative AI exemplify India's commitment to promoting ethical and responsible practices in the field of AI, setting a global benchmark while continuing to drive innovation.

18. Mandaviya launches 9 initiatives to strengthen medical education

ET Gov. 30 Jun. 2023

This growth serves to provide greater opportunities for medical students and India is able to garner best health services and expert doctors.

The Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday launched nine initiatives in medical education aimed at improving doctors expertise in providing healthcare.

Mandaviya presided over the 42nd Foundation Day at the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) and delivered keynote address in the presence of Prof. SP Singh Bhagel, Minister of State, Dr VK Paul, Member, Health, Niti Aayog.

Congratulating the institute and the governing members on the initiatives and courses launched, the Union Health Minister stated that within the last two years, 25 courses have been introduced. He said that “this growth serves to provide greater opportunities for medical students and India is able to garner best health services and expert doctors, serving to fulfill nation’s requirements leading to a healthier society and healthier nation.” He reiterated that the medical sector plays a paramount role in the country’s development and urged the students to commit to contributing and shaping India into a developed nation in the years to come.

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The 9 initiatives NBEMS 11 new fellowship courses in medicine

NBEMS Diploma in Emergency Medicine
NBEMS Exam Command Center
NBEMS Center for Computer Based Test
NBEMS Good Clinical Practice Guidelines (2nd Edition)
Joint Accreditation Programme and Accreditation of Stand-Alone Labs and Diagnostic Centers
NBEMS Skills and Virtual Training Programme
Launch of Faculty Title to NBEMS Teachers
NBEMS Medical Library

Dr Mandaviya along with Prof. SP Singh Bhagel awarded healthcare experts in the following categories:

Nari Shakti Awards

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Awards of Excellence

Executive Director Certificate of Appreciation Award

President NBEMS Award of Excellence

Bhagel stated that the strength and value of Indian doctors is such that in every part of the globe, one will find an Indian doctor in service. He cited ABHA card as one of the greatest developments India has seen since its independence that enables healthcare services to reach the most remote areas and benefit the marginalized community. Highlighting that medical education is in its golden era, he urged the toppers in the audience to share their experiences and motivations with colleges and schools of smaller cities and villages to inspire them to reach the pinnacle they are at today.

Dr VK Paul said “this is a transformative time for medical education due to initiatives introduced in the system.” He further added the post graduate seats have grown over three times in the National Board of Examinations from 4,000 seats to over 13,000 seats. Emphasizing on the change in the conduct, he cited the addition of National Medical Commission as a new regulator, the introduction of NEET which encompasses competency-based curriculum as well as the District Regency Program that mandates all second-year post-graduate students to provide their services in district hospitals for 3 months each, enabling them to serve the underprivileged.

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Underscoring the growth of the field, he cited that medical colleges have grown from 387 to 704, with 52 new colleges added this year which is a record in itself and the seats for medical students have also grown from 52000 to 107,000 for under-graduate and 32,000 to 67,000 for post-graduate. Dr Paul stressed that this is the golden era, and the upcoming doctors and experts in this field must contribute their best to it.

National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and is entrusted with the task of conducting examinations in the field of modern medicine on an all-India basis. NBEMS has been working in the field of medical education for the last four decades and has utilized the infrastructure of various hospitals to provide quality post-graduate and post-doctoral training. NBEMS has been successfully administering NEET-PG, NEET- SS and NEET-MDS examinations year after year. NBEMS has also accredited more than 1100 hospitals with more than 12,000 PG seats in various specialities.

Officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Abhijath Seth, President, NBEMS, Dr Minu Bajpai, Executive Director, NBEMS, members of the governing body of NBEMS were also present at the event.

19. India's Digital Revolution: From cars to aircraft, the world runs on Indian software and digital technology

ET Gov. 19 Jun. 2023

As vehicles and aircraft increasingly use complex digital technology and algorithms and aerospace companies expand business, India provides a ready supply of digital engineering talent. Lower cost of Indian talent drives offshoring from developed countries.

As the software content in vehicles is growing, with systems like smart cockpits becoming an integral part of the auto ecosystem, India has become the go-to place to source digital engineering and talent.

India has come a long way from being the back office of the world two decades ago when call centres mushroomed in Indian metros. Now, Indian technology has started powering aerospace and automobile sectors.

Auto majors bet on Indian digital tech

With its combination of readily available skilled engineers and ER&D (engineering research and development) hubs that offer low-cost solutions, India has become the destination for auto OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, such as Renault, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Honda to secure their digital content needs, according to a recent JP Morgan Equity Research report.

The demand has been so high that last year, L&T Technology Services (LTTS), which provides engineering research and development services, set up a delivery centre in Krakow, Poland, to meet the requirements of a leading US-based auto OEM.

ER&D services companies provide support to auto OEMs and tier-1 component suppliers in vehicle product design and development of electric motors, car infotainment systems and algorithms for autonomous driving.

The urgency among auto OEMs to move towards EACV (electric, autonomous and connected vehicles) is pushing them to work with services providers to hasten product development cycles and eventual rollout in the market. Digital technology systems, including advanced driver assistance systems, and software-defined vehicles (SDVs) are helping drive this journey, say experts.

Leading Indian services providers such as LTTS, KPIT Technologies, Tata Elxsi and Cyrient are betting big on EACV and investing in digital engineering, talent building and upskilling. “India is in a sweet spot because in no other geography can enterprises get digital talent at scale and cost-effective price points,” Pareekh Jain, CEO, EIIRTrend & Pareekh Consulting, told ET recently.

Flying on Indian tech

While Western auto majors have taken to Indian tech recently as vehicles increasingly use sophisticated digital solutions, aerospace companies have been relying on Indian tech for long.

Boeing Co. and Airbus SE are increasingly looking to India for highly-skilled, low-cost engineers to meet a boom in demand for aircraft and expand their manufacturing presence in the world’s fifth-largest economy, news agency Bloomberg reported recently.

With about 1.5 million engineering students graduating annually, India is a rich source of talent for plane makers facing record orders from airlines as travel surges again after the Covid pandemic, Bloomberg reported. Boeing can hire an engineer in Bengaluru, India’s southern tech hub, for 7% of the cost of a similar role in Seattle, according to salary data compiler Glassdoor. India has Boeing’s second-biggest workforce worldwide, after its headquarters at Seattle in the US.

Rockwell Collins, which makes cockpit electronics, had been among the first aerospace companies to source significant work in India in 2000, when India's HCL began testing software for it. That same year, Boeing opened a “center of excellence” with HCL in Chennai to create software critical for flight tests.

Almost every major global aerospace company today has a significant engineering presence in India because aircrafts are becoming digital products, and the aircraft makers need India’s quality talent in software, simulation and electronics.

According to Ashmita Sethi, country head of Pratt & Whitney, India has significant talent, research, innovation and engineering productivity to offer to the world. “A great example of this is the progress Indian startups have made in enabling step-change innovation in aerospace," she told TOI in an interview two years ago. "They’ve been able to bring their AR/VR, machine learning, analytics and IoT expertise – and apply it to create some truly unique innovations and solutions for aerospace.”

Indian engineers were at the forefront at global giant GE's largest research facility in Bengaluru in designing an aircraft engine, which will reduce fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent, a top official of the company told PTI in February. India's R&D facility is the largest of GE globally. The aviation division has over 1,000 engineers.

GE Aviation, which started as a back office operation in India more than a decade ago, has grown exponentially. as it started developing new products. A GE Aviation executive told TOI two years ago that the India team worked on the GEnx engine, the fastest-selling, high-thrust jet engine in GE Aviation's history.

“Our team here has a significant stake in the product development in every step of GEnx. Most products would have a contribution of 20-40% from the team here,” he said.

It will be an exaggeration to say that the world can't move without Indian software. But it's accurate to say that the world moves on Indian software today. The first statement might come true in the not-so-distant future as cars and aircraft use more and more digital technology with the rise of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, autonomous mobility, etc.

20. Amazon to Now Invest $26 b in India by 2030

ET, 25 Jun. 2023

Amazon is committing to invest $26 billion in India by 2030 and will “support startups, create jobs, enable exports, and empower individuals and small businesses to compete globally,” according to its chief executive Andy Jassy who discussed the online retail giant’s investment plans in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a state visit to the US.

The Seattle-based technology firm — with operations across ecommerce, logistics, web services, and online streaming — has already invested $11 billion in India, as per Jassy. It will now plough in a further $15 billion through this decade. This marks a significant increase in the investment plan by the Jeff Bezos-founded firm in India where it competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart and Reliance Industries and Tata Group.

This total investment target of $26 billion also includes a $13 billion investment announced in May for the Indian unit of cloud computing business Amazon Web Services (AWS). This will support over 100,000 full-time jobs annually, the company had said.

Since launching its ecommerce business in the country in 2013, Amazon has invested about $6.5 billion to build out its digital commerce footprint. “Productive meeting with Prime Minister @NarendraModi. Discussed Amazon’s commitment to invest $26B in India by 2030; working together we will support startups, create jobs, enable exports, and empower individuals and small businesses to compete globally,” Jassy tweeted after his meeting with PM Modi at the White House on Friday.

The Amazon CEO did not provide a separate break-up of the planned investment. However, his company’s plan to infuse nearly $13 billion into AWS marks a shift in Amazon's focus in India. Amazon Data Services India, which runs the AWS business here, was the US-based firm's only Indian unit to turn in a profit in the financial year 2022, as it earned an annual profit of Rs 326.8 crore on a standalone basis. Jassy was the CEO of AWS from April 2016 to July 2021. An email sent to Amazon India seeking break-up of the increased investment commitment did not elicit a response.

AMAZON’S INDIA PUSH

Since launching operations 10 years ago in a market dominated by Flipkart, Amazon now also faces competition from local upstarts like Meesho as well as conglomerates like Reliance Industries and Tata Group in its online retail business. The ecommerce giant saw its net sales from international operations which includes India and other markets such as Germany and the UK remain largely flat at $29.1 billion for the quarter ended March 2023. During the same quarter of the previous year, the Seattle-based company had recorded net sales of $28.7 billion.

India and the World

21. Nvidia’s dream run was three decades in the making. But now, rivals are catching up

ET, 26 June 2023

For most part, Nvidia has stayed in the shadows of chip world’s giants such as Intel and AMD. That was until AI took the world by storm and tech companies realised that Nvidia’s chips were the best to make machines look bright. The company now has a clear head start in AI. But can it maintain the lead?

In the tech world, if a player has been around for a few decades and still doesn’t make it to the top, it’s more likely to remain an ‘also ran’ company which either gets acquired or simply dies. In the case of Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, none of this happened. And what happened took the tech world by storm.

Nvidia’s graphic processing units (GPUs) are considered the best in the business for running Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Nvidia’s GPU chips are behind the world’s most disruptive AI company — OpenAI — which released the chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022.

This changed the fortunes of Nvidia. The company, founded in 1993, became the first chipmaker to cross USD1 trillion in market cap, making it the most valuable tech company in the US after Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon. Its stock has skyrocketed 170% since the start of the year.

But none of it has changed Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s trademark outfit — dark jeans, black shirt, and a black jacket — and the company’s relentless focus on developing its tightly held ecosystem. That includes software CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), which runs only on Nvidia hardware, and networking capabilities.

What makes Nvidia special?

Nvidia’s journey from the periphery to the spotlight has been a phenomenal one. Let’s take a look at what drove this.

Nvidia has been focussed on computer graphics and gaming. While Intel dominated with its microprocessors, the heart of the computer, Nvidia remained at the periphery.
There has been a shift in computing requirements from personal computers (laptops and desktops) towards data centres. This is more evident in computation-intensive applications which are usually done on virtual machines housed in data centres. According to equity research done by Jeffries, “The market share of GPU sales has expanded to ~50%, from just 5%-10% of data centre chip sales five years ago. GPU-driven applications like high-performance computing, big data analytics, AI, graphics rendering, and cloud gaming often have much higher power requirements than the applications of previous generations.
A decade back, as Facebook and Google expanded, attracting more users to their platforms, they used machine learning (ML), deep learning, and AI models to improve their services. Such models require vast amounts of processing power as thousands of chips work simultaneously. Nvidia chips were best suited for such tasks and hence became attractive outside their core domains of gaming and graphics.
The GPUs that Nvidia manufactures have high memory bandwidth compared to CPUs. This allows them to perform many calculations simultaneously. AI computation requires matrix multiplication (repetitive multiplications) and Nvidia’s chips have something called Tensor Cores that are dedicated to performing such calculations.

Sivakumar Ramamurthy, co-founder of Portland, Oregon-based incubation and investment platform firm Pragya Ventures, says, “A decade back, when the first wave of AI tech started coming on board, transitioning initially from ML to deep learning, Nvidia’s ecosystem was the best available to do that. Large companies like Google and Facebook started driving the need for ML and became users of software infrastructure that Nvidia provided, and that really eased their ability to get into AI. The market came to them.” Ramamurthy worked with Intel for almost three decades before starting Pragya Ventures in 2019 in the US.

The thousands of chips that work simultaneously for AI applications also exchange information and Nvidia controls around 80% of this networking market, thanks to its acquisition of Mellanox, a networking products specialist, in 2019. This ensures USD27 billion (annual revenues as of FY22) Nvidia’s dominance in the happening AI space.

"Nvidia didn’t go the mainstream chip route. They made heavy bets around gaming, graphics, and blockchain. That has started paying off now with AI, where they have a huge first mover advantage."

— Chander Damodaran, chief technology officer, Brillio

Aiming for Intel-like dominance?

The more than half-a-century-old company has been the last word when it comes to semiconductor chips. However, like many behemoths of the past, Intel was caught unaware of the drastic shift in demand for chips in the era of AI.

Nvidia did bet big on AI way before everyone.

Intel, the chip leader, didn’t see the changes in computing needs and stuck to chips (central processing units or CPUs) used in personal computers and servers.
Intel’s dominance was centered on microprocessors, which everybody started using to build personal computers, servers. That long list included IBM, HP, Toshiba, Asus, Samsung, Dell (back in the 1980s it was a startup founded by Michael Dell), Lenovo (it bought IBM’s PC business), and others.
While Intel stayed the course and focused on PCs, it failed to read the changing contours of the computing landscape — the advent of Internet, smartphones, cloud, data centres. Intel’s CPUs were good for PCs, but not for high-volume processing demanded by AI.
Nvidia dominates in GPUs, but unlike in the microprocessor era, pace of innovation is much faster now with the rise of new applications such as AI, metaverse, ambient computing, and so on. Nvidia has a head start in GPUs, but competition is fast catching up as GPUs are a more attractive market now.

GPUs vs. CPUs

As mentioned earlier, the shift from CPUs to GPUs with the rising popularity of AI-driven applications has been at the core of Nvidia’s transformation.

Nvidia remains unchallenged because of its head start in GPUs.

Back in the early days, chipmakers used to focus on CPUs which serve as the brain of computers or data centre servers. These are general purpose workhorses equally capable of opening a web browser, running Microsoft Excel, managing large bank transactions, or coordinating the activity of multiple systems including memory and display.
CPUs conduct various types of calculations, but they do that serially.
When it comes to managing very high volumes of data, like AI algorithms which can identify human faces or identify online shopping patterns from millions of data points, CPUs fail to deliver. They are too slow for such workloads.
This is where GPUs come in. GPUs are designed to run multiple iterations of the same calculation at once. This type of parallel processing can train AI systems efficiently.
So, if a CPU would feed an algorithm many pieces of data, one after the other, a GPU processes multiple pieces of data simultaneously. To identify a human face in a 4x6 photo (1200 x 1800 pixels for a high-resolution photo), a CPU will have to process one pixel after another while a GPU will read all pixels at once. Hence, the latter is preferred in AI applications, powering Nvidia’s spectacular rise.
Today, Nvidia has an over 80% share in the AI market. None of Nvidia’s rivals currently offers AI products that bundle hardware (chips), software (CUDA), and networking. Nvidia’s USP is in creating this ecosystem, much like how Apple and Microsoft did it.

Chander Damodaran, chief technology officer of California-based digital technologies and big data analytics company Brillio, says, “Nvidia didn’t go the mainstream chip route. They made heavy bets around gaming, graphics, and blockchain. That has started paying off now with AI, where they have a huge first mover advantage”.

The competitor ecosystem

Now, let’s take a look at how Nvidia’s competitors are placed and how they are catching up.

On June 13, AMD launched its GPU for AI, the MI300X. This is the biggest challenge to Nvidia so far.

AWS is considering an AMD chip, but it won’t be available in the market till the end of this year. AMD hopes to attract buyers with lower priced chips than Nvidia’s.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and others have started designing their own chips with a focus on processing very large data volumes for AI. Google has designed its own Tensor Processing Units (TPU), optimised for use in neural networks and are capable of handling massive data operations.
Apple has built its own Mac graphics processors. It used Nvidia and Intel chips earlier but is increasingly designing chips in-house while Taiwan’s TSMC manufactures them.
Meta is designing chips in-house and also partnering with Qualcomm to supply them for its augmented reality (AR) projects.
The end user ecosystem is far more aware and ready to make its own chips. Apple, Google, Qualcomm, and even Meta. While they may not be able to match Nvidia completely, it is in their interests that they work with Intel and AMD so that Nvidia doesn’t run away with the market in the long-term.
“Ultimately, there will be multiple players. About 15 years back, people may have thought that Intel was impregnable. Today, things are very different,” says Ramamurthy.

Intel’s sales plunged a third in the fourth quarter of 2022 to about USD14 billion. The company reported a net loss of USD700 million and its share price has halved since March 2021.

“If Nvidia continues to innovate and stay a leader, it could be driving this for very long. But I have no doubt that other players will catch up very strongly,” adds Ramamurthy.

If you want to know more about why Big Tech is in a race for supremacy in chip designing, we published an explainer that you can read here.

Can India benefit?

The government announced USD10 billion incentive package in December 2021 for fabs and chip design. But so far, only Micron Technology has got the government nod. Micron’s unit is not for manufacturing but for assembly and testing.
State-owned Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) makes old generation chips, largely for defence and other government needs.
While India lacks manufacturing, it does have more than 1 lakh engineers designing chips. That’s about 20% of the world’s chip design talent at multinational design houses including Intel, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD and other fabless units.
The engineers here are involved in every stage of the design process — from specifications to architecture to design and verification — all the way up to manufacturing support and testing.
Even if a fab plan is approved, it won’t be a leading edge as India lacks the ecosystem and it won’t be ready for another three-four years.

It’s a wrap

As the world accelerates towards GPUs, there could be a shortage of these chips, some of which can cost up to USD30,000 each. Analysts at UBS, SemiAnalysis, and other research houses see a GPU shortage that will drive up prices and also open a window for competitors including AMD.

Another issue that’s compelling competitors to move fast is Nvidia’s walled-garden approach. Its software CUDA works only with Nvidia chips. Rivals will try to disrupt this with open systems.

“As long as Nvidia’s strategy continues to align with how the market is restructuring, they have a big play. The key for Nvidia and competitors is forging partnerships with big tech (the users, like Google, Amazon, OpenAI),” says Damodaran. Without that, who will the company sell to?

Nvidia has had its share of headwinds, including the recent crypto rout, impacting demand for its chips.

The company has been at it for three decades and risks falling in an Intel-type trap if it sticks to its niche as both chipmakers and other tech companies are playing the catch-up game.

22. Japanese companies are trying to strengthen their partnership with India: Former Prime Minister Mr. Yoshihide Suga

IBEF, Jul. 7, 2023

According to former Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Yoshihide Suga, both the public and business sectors in Japan are fully in favour of increasing cooperation and involvement with India. After meeting with Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, he stated during an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) that they would like to strengthen relations with India, and they have established an objective of investing US$ 35 billion (5 trillion yen) in India in the next five years.

Prime Minister Mr. Yoshihide Suga is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day to discuss bilateral economic cooperation, seeking to spur greater inroads in the fast-growing economy by Japanese companies. He is the Chairman of the Japan-India Association and is travelling with 101 business leaders from 54 companies in finance, airlines, construction, energy, and information technology.

The President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. R. Dinesh stated that innovation and technology hold the key to the future collaboration of Japan and India. He mentioned that joint research and development (R&D) initiatives can unleash immense potential and drive both our economies to new heights. The focus should be on sectors including infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, digital, and clean energy will be crucial for shaping the future together and for meeting investment targets.

The economic ties between Japan and India have been gradually growing and deepening in recent years. Trade between the two nations has grown in scope. In 2021, India was Japan's 13th-largest commercial partner while Japan was India's 18th-largest trading partner. According to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Japan's direct investment into India has surged, with the nation ranking as the fifth-largest investor in India in FY21.

The statement further mentioned that during 2018-19, bilateral trade between Japan and India reached US$ 17.63 billion. During this time, Japan imported US$ 4.86 billion from India while exporting US$ 12.77 billion. For the fiscal year 2019-20 (April–December), the two countries' bilateral commerce reached a total of US$ 11.87 billion. India imported US$ 7.93 billion in goods from Japan, compared to US$ 3.94 billion in exports to Japan.

Petroleum products, chemicals, elements, compounds, non-metallic mineral ware, fish and fish preparations, metalliferous ores and scrap, clothes and accessories, iron and steel products, textile yarn, textiles, and machinery are among India's main exports to Japan. Machines, electrical machinery, iron and steel products, plastics, non-ferrous metals, automobile parts, organic chemicals, and metal goods are India's main imports from Japan.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

23. Meet Lisa: India's first AI regional news anchor, Government News

ET Gov. 12 Jul. 2023

Odisha TV has launched India's first regional artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor named "Lisa." She has the unique ability to speak multiple languages, including Odia and English. The station plans to enhance Lisa's proficiency and interactive skills to enable easier communication with others. Efforts are underway to foster her capabilities.

OTV acknowledged the challenge of training Lisa in the Odia language and disclosed that efforts are underway to further enhance her proficiency. In a significant milestone for the AI industry, Odisha TV, an Odia-based news station, has unveiled "Lisa," India's first regional AI news anchor. Lisa's introduction marks a groundbreaking moment in TV broadcasting and journalism, with the potential to revolutionize the industry.

In a video shared by OTV on Twitter, Lisa confidently introduces herself, expressing her excitement for this historic occasion. The news station revealed that she would soon be hosting news updates, showcasing her capabilities as an AI news anchor. Lisa possesses the remarkable ability to speak multiple languages, including Odia, English, and others.

Advt

OTV acknowledged the challenge of training Lisa in the Odia language and disclosed that efforts are underway to further enhance her proficiency. The ultimate goal is to develop her interactive skills, enabling seamless communication with others. The news station also encouraged viewers to connect with Lisa on various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

This unveiling follows a similar development earlier in March, when the India Today Group introduced their own AI news anchor named Sona. Described as "bright, gorgeous, ageless, and tireless," Sona boasted multilingual proficiency and the ability to be controlled effortlessly.

With Lisa's emergence as India's first regional AI news anchor, the boundaries of AI in the media industry continue to be pushed, opening up new possibilities for engaging and dynamic news presentations in different languages and regional contexts.

24. World Job Market on Brink of an ‘AI Revolution’: OECD

ET, 12 Jul. 2023

The world's wealthiest nations must urgently prepare for the impact of an imminent "AI revolution" that will change jobs, create new ones and make others disappear, the OECD said Tuesday.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence -- with tools that can generate essays, create images and even pass medical exams -- have raised concerns that it could replace whole sectors of the workforce through automation.

In its 2023 Employment Outlook, the OECD said there was little evidence of significant negative effects on employment from AI "so far".

"While the adoption of AI still remains relatively low, rapid progress, falling costs and the increasing availability of workers with AI skills indicate that OECD economies might be on the brink of an AI revolution," the report said.

"While there are many potential benefits from AI, there are also significant risks that need to be urgently addressed," according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The international and influential organisation has 38 member countries ranging from Australia to Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the United States.

The OECD said it was "vital" to gather better data on AI uptake and use in the workplace, "including which jobs will change, be created or disappear, and how skills needs are shifting".

AI use is generally concentrated in large firms that are still experimenting with the new technology, and many appear reluctant to replace staff, said Stefano Scarpetta, OECD director for employment, labour and social affairs.

"However, it is also clear that the potential for substitution remains significant, raising fears of decreasing wages and job losses," he wrote in an editorial.

AI has the potential to improve workplace safety by reducing "tedious or dangerous tasks" and lead to higher wages for workers whose skills complement the technology, the OECD report said.

But it could also "leave workers with a higher-paced work environment" and reduce wages for those "who find themselves squeezed into a diminished share of tasks due to automation".

When taking AI into consideration, jobs at the highest risk of automation account for 27 percent of employment, according to the OECD.

"The use of AI also comes with serious ethical challenges around data protection and privacy, transparency and explainability, bias and discrimination, automatic decision making and accountability," Scarpetta said.

"Urgent action is required to make sure AI is used responsibly and in a trustworthy way in the workplace," he said.

"On the one hand, there is a need to enable workers and employers in reaping the benefits of AI while adapting to it, notably through training and social dialogue."

25. A Goa meeting, then four years of scrupulous work: how M&M built a game changer called the new Thar

ET, 30 Jun. 2023

The challenge for the 550 engineers and designers who worked on the new Thar was to blend ruggedness with modern features and ride comfort. After 110,000 units sold since launch, one can safely say that M&M has managed to create a lifestyle segment in SUVs. Can the five-door Thar, set for a launch next year, keep up the euphoria?

It all started with an interaction on the beaches of Goa. In 2016, as Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) officials gathered for a conference, they received an interesting consumer insight into what the modern-day Thar should be: an SUV that is used not only for family weekend trips to unexplored terrains, but one that can also be driven to office during the week. That was quite an ask for the old clunky Thar, launched in December 2010, with its bench seats for the rear passengers and near-zero ride comfort.

M&M officials understood what they needed to do to make Thar a daily drive – retain the DNA of a rugged SUV but make it equally good on the road as well as off it. Project Thar kicked off around May 2016 and took almost four years to become a reality. All this while, the product engineering and design team spent extensive time with customers pan-India and gathered insights for developing the next-generation Thar, which was finally unveiled on August 15, 2020, and rolled out a couple of months later. The vehicle was designed and developed at the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai.

Indeed, the new Mahindra Thar has turned the tide in favour of M&M and changed its brand image from the manufacturer of rugged SUVs to one that can also make lifestyle vehicles full of modern features. The Scorpio N and the XUV700 followed the footsteps of the new Thar after its instant success.

The new Thar has clocked sales of 110,000 units since launch and is commanding a waiting period ranging from three to eight months based on the variants. The rear-wheel drive diesel version, launched in January this year along with the petrol variant, has a waiting of as long as 14 months. Roughly, the new Thar sells 5,000 units monthly.

So, how did M&M manage to build the new Thar which many today call a game changer for the company.

The making of the new Thar

From the beginning, the mandate from the leadership team was clear: “We have a great icon called the Thar. How do we modernise it and make it the most desirable SUV on Indian roads,” recounts Veejay Nakra, president-automotive division at M&M, who led the brainstorming on the new Thar as the then CEO.

“It's an all-new product with really no carry forward from the previous platforms – new chassis, new modified stallion and mHawk engines, new suspension. The aim was a totally new redesigned product for which we put up a new manufacturing facility in Nasik,” elaborates Nakra.

R Velusamy, president-automotive technology and product development at M&M who was the project Thar head, says the challenge was to bring an off-roader on-road also. The terrain capabilities of this car are significant. What was coming in the way were its high off-road capabilities – read high ground clearance, big tyres, and the water-wading capacity of 650mm. “We had to reconstruct the suspension system completely, increase the wheel track by 74mm and redistribute the weight between the rear and the front axles. This enabled the vehicle to travel at a speed of 150kmph-160kmph on the highway and deliver good ride handling.”

How much of the rough-and-tough looks do you trade off to create sophistication was the biggest challenge from a design and engineering perspective, Nakra elaborates.

Another big challenge was launching the new Thar at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also a tough task developing an SUV and running it through a very high level of testing and validation cycle. Hundreds of suppliers had to work together to be able to crank up the product very quickly with the right kind of quality when most staffers were working from home.

Design and development are long-drawn-out processes involving development of computer-aided designs, prototypes, scale models, full-sized models with continuous refinements on them.

Over 550 engineers and designers across product development and manufacturing (excluding plant workers and sales-service staff) were involved in the development of the new Thar.

An important aspect of the development was keeping the core of the Thar design philosophy while making changes in the proportion to incorporate modern requirements. It comprised a three-door body frame with a long bonnet area, cabin, and the remaining body structure.

The high seating position of the earlier-generation Thar was retained while the interiors were modernised with all-black and silver elements, seats were designed for comfort, the theme of ‘panchtatva’ was adopted with the wind used as inspiration so that the convertible top becomes important. Along with it, the soft and hard top options were also offered which could be juggled by both office goers and off-road enthusiasts to suit their requirements.

Product positioning

Industry experts say Mahindra Thar has been one of the best products that M&M has ever developed. It has successfully made a space for itself in the lifestyle vehicle segment due to its practicality and affordability. “Although there are strong contenders such as the Maruti Suzuki Jimny and the Force Gurkha, sales of the Thar are unaffected,” says Prajyot Sathe, research manager-mobility at Frost & Sullivan India.

"How much of the rough-and-tough looks do you trade off to create sophistication was the biggest challenge from a design and engineering perspective."

— Veejay Nakra, president-automotive division at Mahindra and Mahindra

“After the new Thar was launched, M&M was able to create a new segment for customers looking to upgrade from hatchback and sedan and not keen to buy an urban SUV,” says Puneet Gupta, director- automotive at S&P Global Mobility. Earlier, this segment was relatively very small, but with the new Thar, M&M offered a value proposition that was relatively unique to the customer looking for some adventure.

Moreover, the company marketed the new Thar well. This further fuelled growth in the lifestyle SUV segment. Gupta believes the management rejig in December 2019 also helped Mahindra to reorient its brand image and reinvent itself.

A launch during the pandemic created a certain euphoria around the product which was carried forward to the subsequent launches. Think Scorpio N and XUV700.

According to Nakra, about 55%-60% of the new Thar buyers are millennials and buyers graduating for the first time from hatchbacks and sedans to a compact SUV. He says that for the Thar a separate body shop and assembly line were set up to meet its production capacity. But at present the Thar is not exported unlike the Maruti Suzuki Jimny. Maruti Suzuki had started exporting the three-door Jimny much before it launched the five-door version for the domestic market.

M&M has pitched the Thar as a lifestyle product that is quite popular among women drivers as well.

The new Thar is powered by both diesel and petrol power mills, an mHawk CRDe 2.2L diesel engine delivering 130 bhp of power and a mStallion 2L TGDI petrol delivering 150 bhp. These come with an option of six-speed manual and automatic transmissions.

Electronic brake lock differential was introduced in the Thar. “This reduced the damage level by 20%-30% at any speed range compared to the old Thar,” points out Velusamy. Safety was increased with a host of features like electronic stability program, anti-lock braking system and dual airbags.

This January M&M also launched the two-wheel drive Thar variants (rear-wheel drive). Overall, the Thar comes in eight variants now with prices starting from INR10.54 lakh to INR16.77 lakh (ex-showroom). The Thar is running a long waiting period based on variants. Nakra says the demand has exceeded capacity adding that the company is doing everything to supply 6,000 units monthly.

The journey ahead

M&M plans to introduce the five-door Thar next year. Nakra says both versions of the Thar will continue to be sold. The five-door version is likely to be attractive for those who plan to upgrade. It will be more spacious and enable easier ingress and egress. Nakra brushes off the possibility of an electric variant in this category and says both three-door and five-door options of the Thar will target different segments. The three-door trim is just about 4 metres in length.

The market for off-roaders in India is currently pegged at about 50,000 units per annum with the key competitors being Mahindra Thar and Maruti Suzuki Jimny. The Force Gurkha sold just 144 units in FY23, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers data.

Practicality and affordability have attracted the consumers towards Mahindra Thar. The five-door version of the Thar is expected to be successful. But it may not experience the same level of euphoria as seen by the three-door trim due to a possible overlap of vehicle segment and pricing, feels Sathe from Frost & Sullivan India.

Now that the lifestyle SUV segment is expanding, with new vehicles joining the race, there will be ample leg room for the competitors to corner market share. But only if they offer the right mixture of ruggedness and modernity.

***

AAPI

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