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Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
GCCs in growth spotlight: Goldman Sachs says India will hit $10 trillion GDP in 10 years; global capability centres to add $0.5 trillion
India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) could contribute as much as $0.5 trillion to the country's gross value added (GVA) over the next decade, as India advances toward becoming a $10 trillion economy, a top Goldman Sachs executive said on Monday. Gunjan Samdani, Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs India, said the GCC sector is expected to directly employ 20–25 million people in the coming years, underscoring its central role in shaping the country's economic future. He was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) GCC Summit, ANI reported. "Sixty-five per cent of the global growth between now and 2035 will come from emerging markets, and India is a bright spot. We will be the fastest-growing economy in the world and will become a $10 trillion economy in the next decade," Samdani said. He noted that India is well-positioned to benefit from shifting geopolitical and economic dynamics globally, including supply chain realignment, trade rebalancing and increased technology spending. The country's demographic advantage, deep STEM talent pool, and rising capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) — backed by the national AI Mission — would help India tap these opportunities effectively, he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like You Won't Believe the Price of These Dubai Apartments Binghatti Developers FZE Get Offer Undo 'India remains strategically positioned to capitalise on multiple global trends simultaneously,' Samdani said, adding that artificial intelligence represents the most compelling disruption opportunity in today's evolving economic landscape. According to Samdani, global technology spending is expected to surpass $4.92 trillion by 2025, driven by AI-led digital infrastructure development. India, he said, has the potential to emerge as a major hub in this transformation, with GCCs acting as key players. The role of GCCs has evolved significantly over the years — from low-cost support centres to innovation engines that drive AI, automation and digital transformation for multinational corporations. These centres, typically offshore hubs set up by MNCs to run core business functions and services, are now helping shape strategic direction and innovation agendas for their parent companies. As a result, they are emerging as major contributors not just to the Indian economy, but also to the future of global enterprise operations, industry experts said. The remarks come amid renewed government efforts to scale up the GCC ecosystem beyond India's traditional tech hubs and drive deeper integration with emerging technologies and talent across tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
The Hindu
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Smarter, faster, stronger: how AI is transforming manufacturing
Step inside a modern factory, and you might find something quietly extraordinary. Machines no longer wait to fail; they signal in advance. Robots don't just repeat tasks; they adapt and respond. And decisions once made on instinct are now driven by real-time data. This is the new face of manufacturing, where artificial intelligence (AI) is not just an upgrade but a fundamental shift in how things are made, moved and managed. Across India, from long-established facilities to newly-built plants, AI is being integrated into every layer of production. It is helping manufacturers increase output, reduce waste, adapt to shifting demands and even design more intelligently. Backed by national policy and rising enterprise ambition, India's factories are becoming more agile, more precise and more globally competitive. Sector on move The global AI-in-manufacturing market is projected to grow from $4.1 billion in 2024 to $5.8 billion in 2025, and is expected to surpass $25 billion by 2029, according to The Business Research Company. In India, adoption is accelerating. TeamLease data shows AI use across industries stood at 48% in FY2024, with manufacturing alone rising from 8% to 22% in just one year. This is supported by policy initiatives like the Government of India's ₹10,372-crore AI Mission, which is investing in infrastructure, talent, and indigenous models. 'From predictive maintenance to intelligent automation, AI and GenAI are turning manufacturing industries into self-optimising systems. Real-time data is being leveraged to drive smarter decisions, higher throughput, and more sustainable, customer-centric outcomes. When combined with responsible AI frameworks, this shift drives both operational excellence and enhanced customer value,' says Sanjay Mittal, senior partner and industrial sector leader, IBM Consulting India & South Asia. Intelligence across floor AI is powering improvements across every layer of the factory. On the shop floor, predictive maintenance uses sensor data to anticipate equipment failures, reducing downtime by up to 30%, according to McKinsey. AI vision systems identify micro-level defects in real time, improving quality assurance. Cobots—collaborative robots guided by AI—support workers in physically demanding or repetitive tasks. These machines respond to human cues, enabling safer, more efficient man-machine collaboration. 'Today, CPCL generates about 1 TB of data daily. AI-powered CCTVs are helping ensure SOP compliance, while machine learning supports predictive maintenance and smart procurement. Digital twins and centralised safety monitoring are our focus to steadily transform our operations,' says H. Shankar, managing director, Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited. Further upstream, generative AI accelerates product development. Digital twins simulate layouts, energy use and asset health, helping engineers optimise operations virtually. In planning and logistics, AI enhances forecasting and enables more agile scheduling. IBM estimates that AI-led planning improves responsiveness by over 20%. 'At ZF Group in India, we're integrating smart manufacturing technologies like AI, robotics, and automation to transform our operations. AI is helping us redesign workflows by reducing task complexity and enhancing labour flexibility, empowering shop-floor teams to manage more intricate processes. AI-powered vision systems are also improving quality control by eliminating fatigue-related errors and increasing inspection efficiency,' says Akash Passey, president, ZF Group India Broader digital backbone AI draws strength from a wider digital ecosystem that enables speed, scale, and integration. At the edge, IoT sensors capture real-time data from machines, materials, and the environment. Edge computing allows instant responses for tasks like robotic actuation and safety control. Cloud platforms provide the scale to train models, run digital twins, and coordinate cross-site operations. These platforms allow AI to be deployed flexibly and integrated into existing enterprise systems. Emerging technologies such as autonomous control systems and agentic AI offer even more adaptability. These systems learn, plan and optimise processes with minimal human input. Crucially, these layers are connected through APIs and integration hubs that link AI with ERP, supply chain, and production systems. This ensures insights are shared across the organisation to enable better decision-making. More than just efficiency AI creates value at two levels. First, through operational hygiene. Predictive maintenance, automated inspections, and real-time stock tracking are fast becoming industry norms. These improvements lower costs and improve compliance, but are no longer enough to differentiate. 'We are now exploring AI-driven process optimisation to improve yields and reduce energy use, deploying drones for safer inspections, and planning AI-driven logistics. As AI and automation evolve, the opportunity to unlock smarter, safer, and more efficient operations continues to grow,' adds Mr. Shankar of CPCL. Second, AI is unlocking innovation. Generative tools speed up design. AI-driven customisation enables personalisation at scale. Companies that embed AI across their value chain—from R&D to delivery—are more agile, responsive, and future-ready. Looking ahead Challenges persist. Integration costs, talent shortages and concerns over data governance and model transparency are slowing broader adoption. A 2024 Reuters/Ipsos survey found that 44% of manufacturing leaders remain cautious about scaling generative AI due to concerns around hallucinations and explainability. Still, the direction is clear. AI will be central to India's ambition of becoming a $5 trillion manufacturing economy. With the right mix of strategy, skills, and Indian manufacturers are well positioned to lead the next wave of global industrial transformation.
Mint
01-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Govt spending on AI makes India lucrative for cloud providers
New Delhi: India's $1.2 billion AI Mission is turning into a big opportunity for homegrown cloud service providers, due to an increase in graphic processing unit (GPU) demand and government-backed infrastructure procurement. Local firms like Reliance Jio Platforms,Tata Communications Ltd and Hiranandani Group's Yotta Data Services are witnessing significant growth, buoyed by the Union government's push to build a massive compute backbone for artificial intelligence (AI). This is because these cloud service providers account for the bulk of the 34,333 GPUs procured by New Delhi, which in turn has given access to startups such as Sarvam, and Soket AI Labs. GPUs are the fastest and most efficient way for companies to run calculations, allowing cutting-edge AI firms to analyse enormous amounts of data and train algorithms that power AI applications. Yotta, for instance, is currently supplying nearly 17,000 of 34,333 GPUs to New Delhi. 'The India AI Mission is a key initiative that is helping us ramp up revenue as we look for funding avenues to complete our GPU orders and enable their access through our cloud platforms. Overall, we expect nearly 70% of our revenue to come from the Indian government's procurement of GPUs from us," said Sunil Gupta, chief executive of Yotta. On 30 January, the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) announced the first tranche of GPU procurement, enlisting Jio Platforms, Tata Communications and Yotta Data Services, among others, in a total of 10 vendors supplying 18,693 GPUs to the AI Mission. On 30 May, Meity's second tranche of GPU procurement added 15,640 more GPUs to what Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for IT, said is 'a one-of-a-kind central compute repository." Indian providers score Yotta projected its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) revenue to be at $143.3 million,Mint reported on 10 February. Speaking withMint, Gupta said the company expects a major fillip driven by government-backed uptake of AI cloud infrastructure. 'Despite us offering subsidized GPU pricing, India's uptake of GPUs has been limited. In the long run, we expect to see a 5x boost to operating revenue by FY28, and a large part of it will come through government spending in India," he said. Tata Communications, too, is seeing a similar boost to its India operations. Neelakantan Venkataraman, vice-president and global head, edge and cloud business, Tata Communications, said the government-driven push is 'definitely driving heavy demand, and we're adding more GPUs as we speak to support the mission and cash in on it." Even beyond the India AI Mission, there is increasing enterprise AI adoption even in India. 'Many pilots that began 12-18 months ago are moving into production stages, even if their scale hasn't fully taken off yet. As a result, in India, there is a significant latent demand for AI infrastructure to fulfil the demand from enterprise data pipelines and support the creation of foundational models that the government has extensively spoken about," Venkataraman sai Data sourced from the company said that in FY25, Tata Communications earned $2.7 billion in gross revenue—growing at around 10% year-on-year. Revenue from cloud services contributed nearly 8% to the company's annual revenue, but grew at a faster clip—at nearly 13% in FY25. Venkataraman also affirmed that Tata Communications already draws 42% of its overall revenue from India, and is expected to see a faster pace of growth in the coming fiscals—driven by the demand for AI infrastructure, especially from the government. Jio Platforms, which is also supplying 1,000 GPUs to the Union government, had yet to respond toMintuntil press time. Tendering process issues Industry analysts, too, believe that government spending on AI infrastructure marks a big boost for India's nascent AI industry. Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive at consultancy firm Greyhound Research, cited internal market research data to state that '68% of digital infrastructure executives in India now cite the India AI Mission as their first opportunity to win long-term, production-grade AI cloud deals with predictable utilization." This, though, is not without risk. Jayanth Kolla, co-founder and partner at fellow consultancy firm Convergence Catalyst, said a big risk to the ramp-up of government spending in AI 'is the red-taped, bureaucratic government procuring process, and the restriction that comes with tenders." 'The major vendors selected as infrastructure suppliers in the India AI Mission have large conglomerates backing them—which makes it easier for them to go through the tendering process. But, the very process of this does not take into account the idea of nifty innovation. While the rise in government spending is definitely great for India in the long run, an overhaul of the process is a necessity for India to reap the full benefits of the global AI rush," Kolla added. In the long run, though, there is strong scope for growth. Chirajeet Sengupta, managing partner at technology research firm Everest Group, said that despite the challenges, a worldwide push for sovereign AI initiatives will be the biggest boost for India's on-cloud AI infrastructure providers. 'The Pentagon signed a deal with OpenAI with a token initial amount of $2 million for a central AI infrastructure. While it is set to scale up to $200 million for now, in the long run, subject to successful execution, this deal can go up to $2 billion. For India and the US, China's leapfrog with DeepSeek has been a big push. Government spending is undoubtedly a big fillip as the future of public services and defence infrastructure, as well as cyber sovereignty, is critically dependent on AI. If the government speeds up, revenue fillip is definitely going to come through in the near term," Sengupta added.
Mint
18-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
AI firms getting GPU sops may see govt at the table
New Delhi: There's no free lunch for startups eyeing subsidized access to powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) under India's AI Mission. In return for the 'grant', the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) is considering picking up 2-4% stake in the startups as part of its GPU allocation strategy, three founders of startups that have been shortlisted for the programme by the ministry told Mint. Four startups–Bengaluru-based Sarvam and Gurugram's Soket AI Labs, and Noida's Gan AI–have been shortlisted by New Delhi to use government-licensed GPUs. The proposed move, which signals a shift from a purely subsidy-driven approach to one that seeks the Indian government's long-term participation in the country's AI ecosystem, has sparked debate among founders and investors. While startup founders are happy with the assurance that comes with the government's skin in the game, investors raised concerns about conflict of interest. A senior government official told Mint, requesting anonymity, that taking equity in the startups 'is one of the many methods through which the government is considering rolling out the GPU access". The ministry is currently in process of vetting these methods, and a final decision on how the funding will take place may be announced in the coming months. 'An equity stake model does not have to only be through sovereign funds—under National Quantum Mission, too, startup funding is being offered in exchange for equity stakes," the official said. Also read | Sovereign silicon: India targets indigenous 2nm, Nvidia-level GPU by 2030 To be sure, the government earlier this year announced the $1.2-billion AI Mission to offer a subsidized approach to access to GPUs, which are the lifeblood of AI firms. Reason: buying GPUs is expensive–Nvidia's chips cost up to $60,000 for a single GPU system–and beyond the capabilities of India's fledgling AI startups. So, the government has roped in Hiranandani Group's Yotta Data Services, Tata Communications and others to offer access to GPUs at their data centres at about one-fourth of the market rate, or as low as $0.8 per GPU per hour. Mint's email to Meity seeking comment from an official spokesperson did not receive responses until press time. Opinions divided Some investors feel the government's move may create a conflict with both private investors as well as taxpayers. Harshjit Sethi, managing director of venture capital firm Peak XV, said that as a result of the Centre's equity stake in these startups, 'the return to the taxpayer will come from the appreciation of this equity stake, in addition to the strategic imperative that we as India should have our own AI models from scratch". Peak XV led Sarvam's seed funding round, and co-led its $41-million series-A funding round in December 2023. Such a move could create conflict for private investors, who seek profitability in exchange for large-scale investments. Three other VC partners investing in deep-tech startups told Mint that such a move may raise questions of conflict, at least in the near-term. Read this | Home-made chips: India's GPUs set for year-end trials 'It's important that the government's involvement is structured in a way that doesn't limit startups' ability to pursue global commercial opportunities," said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner of early-stage deep-tech-only VC fund Speciale Invest. However, Rajaram added that 'if done right, the government can play the role of a catalytic capital provider—nudging innovation towards public good". 'The question would then be, should you seek to raise a large funding round and pursue a venture that gives you closer control of the venture, or do you build for public equities and scale up your business after that?" a senior industry executive and investor at an early-stage tech-focused VC fund said. 'This is a question that will need to be answered by the founders, in order to judge if a government-owned stake could raise conflicts." For others, though, the decision is to favour access to these pricey GPUs rather than protecting their stakes. Abhishek Upperwal, founder and chief executive of Soket AI Labs, said that the startup is leaning towards offering an equity stake to the Centre for access to 2,000 GPUs to train its 120-billion-parameter large language model (LLM). 'The rationale is that if the government is a stakeholder in the business, this allows us to reduce our dependence on venture capital funding—since in exchange for a minority stake, we're getting to reduce our operating costs significantly." However, this could come at the cost of focusing on public utilities, rather than a commercial business model in the near term. 'The government owning a stake is to largely ensure that public funds are used to train AI models for public utilities—here, the Centre will play the role of a mentor, and not a client," Upperwal said. Also read | No GPUs, no problem: Ziroh Labs can run AI models just with CPUs Access to ample funds is what startups believe could push them to find the government's ask of equity stakes reasonable. Industry estimates said that access to 2,000 GPUs for one year, which Upperwal's Soket AI Labs has requested for, will amount to $2.5-10 million for one year depending on consumption, even at Meity's subsidized procurement rates. Barring Sarvam, neither of the other three startups have raised such funding yet. 'Access to high capital funding from early-stage VCs in India is difficult—which is why we're happy with an equity stake model with the government. It also ensures that we're a part of the effort that the Centre is putting to develop the overall ecosystem, and we'll play a part in this in the long run. We've been looking to raise funding for two years, but building a new foundational AI architecture requires lengthy research and development (R&D) investments—which most VCs in India are not keen toward," Soket's Upperwal said. Industry veterans said that citizens will also likely need to find value in the AI applications in question, for the Centre's equity investments to qualify as a justified use of public taxpayer's money. 'Questions would arise on the use of public funds for startup investments. Globally, sovereign funds invest in commercial ventures, and use profits for public benefits and utilities. In this case, the use of public funds would come in building India's own AI ecosystem," said Kashyap Kompella, AI analyst and author. And read | Nvidia's Blackwell GPU may reach Indian shores as early as October
New Indian Express
11-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Union Min Vaishnaw lauds TN's Electronics sector growth
CHENNAI: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday appreciated the state government for its growth in the electronics manufacturing sector. In a video message delivered during the launch of 'Tamil AI' project, Vaishnaw said the electronics manufacturing sector in Tamil Nadu is expanding rapidly, with many projects for manufacturing mobilephones, laptop being established here. He lauded Tamil-AI as a path-breaking initiative, which marks a new era in integrating cutting-edge technology with one of the world's oldest and richest languages. 'The Tamil AI project, as part of the larger AI Mission, holds the promise to transform how artificial intelligence is used with Tamil. This is not just about innovation–it is about inclusion and cultural preservation through technology,' he said. Tamil-AI is a project to develop artificial intelligence tasks specifically for the Tamil language. A Ashwathaman, founder of Tamil AI project, said the initiative aims to incorporate all ancient Tamil books into the language model.
