Latest news with #ETtech
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
AI keeps supplies coming amid global uncertainties
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech ETtech In the face of tariff talks, trade tensions, volatile demand cycles and reconfigurations in global supply chains, businesses are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence technology for greater predictability and risk cases are emerging across industries such as manufacturing, retail, consumer goods and large conglomerates. They include intelligent demand forecasting , dynamic route optimisation and sourcing, inventory and procurement management, digital twins of supply chains, tariff code management, order processing and quality control and logistics optimisation, experts and executives focus is on making supply chains more resilient, scanning global events to identify risks in real-time. Until recently, deriving efficiency and reducing environmental impact were the major reasons for AI deployment in this domain. But the current global scenario has shifted the focus to stability as well, executives than 60% of enterprises are focused on piloting multiagent systems for autonomous value chain operations, according to a recent Nasscom survey. 'With GenAI, value chain optimisation has emerged as an important use case as models learn from the value chain interactions and data flows to optimise resource, asset, and time efficiencies,' the report helps companies get more nimble.'By using AI to predict disruptions, whether due to trade tensions, raw material shortages, or climate-related events, we can adapt quickly while continuing to deliver responsibly,' a spokesperson for multinational industrial technology company Siemens AG told ET. 'Real-time data on demand shifts, component shortages, or regulatory changes allows us to respond quickly without compromising on our sustainability standards.'The firm is seeing improved capacity utilisation, faster response times, and significantly lower carbon impact by using AI in supply chain management . This includes a 15% reduction in logistics costs and 40% faster delivery times. It is also deploying AI-powered digital twins that simulate supply chain scenarios in can reimagine nearly 60% of 122 supply chain processes, from design and planning to after-sales and service, according to Accenture analysis. 0'For example, embedding gen AI into supply chain control towers improves data interaction, real-time decision making and proactive risk management,' said Vijay Kumar Baliyan, MD and lead, Industry X, Accenture in India. 'We are seeing an uptick in AI adoption in supply chain operations across industries, specifically in retail and ecommerce, consumer goods, healthcare and transportation.'Applications in sourcing and procurement include auto-generated vendor-specific insights to support contract renewals and contextualised performance metrics, he said. This enhances explainability, efficiency and operational performance.'We are seeing a sharp rise in AI adoption across sectors we serve, from energy to infrastructure to manufacturing,' said Anshum Jain, vice president, global supply chain, greater India, Schneider Electric . 'In India, where supply chains face unique challenges like infrastructural variability and regional disruptions, we're seeing AI play a critical role in building operational continuity. AI allows us to detect early signs of disruption, model various scenarios, and proactively address risks, whether it's a raw material shortage or a logistics bottleneck.'Firms are looking to strengthen their capacity to anticipate disruptions and respond with precision. 'Machine learning is used to model supply chain risks, while natural language processing enhances customer communication and sentiment analysis,' said Naresh Kumar, COO of electrical and automation firm Lauritz Knudsen.'AI-driven sales value projections are enabling smarter monthly planning cycles for the company, grounded in real-time data, he added. 'Amid ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties, businesses are grappling with challenges such as price volatility, supply chain disruptions, unplanned tariff costs and unpredictable operational shifts,' said Prashanth Kaddi, partner, Deloitte tools for scenario planning and predictive analytics, including predictive simulations, are becoming indispensable for navigating uncertainty and managing disruptions, he said. For instance, AI can support complex tasks such as trade classification, cost structure analysis, and regulatory compliance, enabling faster and more strategic customers like L&T are leveraging AI to reduce project planning time from two weeks to 10 minutes, unlocking faster decisions and cost savings in infrastructure and EPC, said Himani Agrawal, COO, Microsoft India and South Asia. Globally, procurement and supply chain solutions provider GEP is driving around 50% productivity gains with its AI-powered procurement platform. In a rapidly evolving global environment where trade dynamics are shifting, AI is no longer optional. In fact, it's becoming foundational to how supply chains operate,' said automotive industry is also leveraging AI to manage vast supplier networks, especially as electric and autonomous vehicles become mainstream, said Manish Singhal, secretary general, Assocham.'Retail is undergoing a quiet revolution, using AI to decode consumer behavior and respond to shifts almost as they happen,' Singhal said. 'In food and beverage, AI helps ensure freshness and reduce waste, while healthcare and pharmaceuticals are using it to manage critical, life-saving logistics.'
Time of India
19 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
TCS is slashing 12,000 jobs in India's biggest IT layoff; will others follow?
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech On Sunday, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's biggest IT services company, announced the largest-ever layoffs in the country's IT sector. The company plans to cut around 2% of its global workforce, or approximately 12,000 of those affected will be in middle to senior move comes amid growing macroeconomic uncertainty and increasing AI-led disruptions impacting technology remains to be seen if other companies follow the leader. So far this fiscal year, no other Indian IT company has announced layoffs on this scale. While Infosys did let go of some trainees who failed to clear assessment tests, their number was in the top IT companies saw a significant drop in net workforce additions in the first quarter of FY26 (Q1 FY26), indicating a cautious approach to hiring across the sector. While a few companies showed marginal improvement, the overall trend points toward reduced recruitment said that it will provide appropriate benefits, outplacement, counselling, and other support to affected employees will receive payments for their notice periods, along with a severance package. In addition, TCS will also look to extend insurance benefits and offer outplacement opportunities for those of the end of June, TCS employed 613,069 people decision to reduce headcount comes as the company faces pushback over the delayed onboarding of around 600 experienced lateral hires. Many of these professionals had already resigned from previous jobs and made personal and financial plans based on their expected joining also recently made changes to its bench policy, which now allows only 35 non-project days annually and requires employees to maintain at least 225 billable days per year.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Mid-sized GCCs out-hire larger peers with double-digit growth in first half
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech Mid-size global capability centres (GCCs) in India are outpacing the large ones in hiring, according to data sourced by by mid-size GCCs , or those with 500–2,000 employees, increased 10–12% in the six months through June, compared with 4–6% by large GCCs , showed data from staffing services provider Quess Corp Most of the hiring by mid-size GCCs is aimed at replacing outgoing employees or expanding existing teams, said Quess Corp IT Staffing CEO Kapil Joshi. 'These centres are focused on long-term stability, process maturity, and cost efficiency.'To be sure, large GCCs, with more than 2,000 employees, still make up the majority of the workforce and continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than in the the GCC wave is growing in India, large multinationals that already employ thousands in Indian GCCs are opting for leaner teams and sharper focus to make the workforce more agile and adapt quickly to business needs in the wake of the disruption from artificial large GCCs bring scale and reliability, the mid-size ones are leading the way in capability-led hiring, said relatively smaller firms are entering India for the first time or expanding operations quickly, building entire capabilities from the ground up, said Joshi. 'To attract the right talent, they are offering competitive salaries, signing bonuses and quicker career growth, especially for skilled professionals in AI and data roles…They're not just hiring more people, they're hiring differently, with a clear goal to build new capabilities and gain a competitive edge in the talent market.'Over the last five years, the headcount at mid-size GCCs grew 46%—to more than 220,000 in 2024 from 150,000 in 2019—compared with a 34% expansion in the workforce at other GCCs, showed data from ANSR that helps MNCs set up non-mid-market GCCs, largely comprising big GCCs, employed 1.68 million people in 2024, up from 1.25 million in GCCs are aggressively expanding in India. More than 45 new centres set up operations in the past two years alone, as per an April report by industry body Nasscom and consulting firm Zinnov. They account for nearly 35% of India's total GCCs, and 30% of the GCC additions during the past two operate under greater cost constraints than their larger peers, are rapidly evolving into significant contributors to their parent organisations' market strategies and are becoming influential players in their respective industries, according to sector centres are characterised by high maturity as transformation hubs, and deep product capabilities with a significant share of global product management talent. They have a high concentration of niche deeptech skills, a central role in global engineering, research & development (ER&D), an agile operating model enabling faster leadership elevation, and function as process transformation engines for their parents, say than 120 new mid-market GCCs are expected to be established in India by the end of 2026, adding about 40,000 jobs, ET had recently to the Nasscom-Zinnov report, the mid-market segment has the potential to attract at least 23–27% of the 130,000–150,000 global mid-market companies leading to AI-led transformation.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Quick fashion plays trials with AI to win ‘no return' game
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech Startups in the 60-minute fashion delivery segment are betting on features such as 'try and buy' and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual try-ons to tackle high return rates, a key pain point in the segment. These tools are helping increase conversion rates and reduce returns while offering greater flexibility to buyers, said industry Knot , which recently raised funding from venture capital firm Kae Capital, said partner brands that typically see return rates of about 20% on their direct-to-consumer websites are witnessing sub-1% returns through offline stores, a trend it is now replicating through these digital features.'Our partner brands, which have offline stores, would typically witness 20% returns on their direct to consumer websites. But for the same purchases on offline stores, the returns are less than 1%. That is the idea. With the 'try and buy' feature, users can make a very decisive purchase at their doorstep,' Archit Nanda, CEO of Knot, told rates among users of the company's virtual try-on feature are similarly much lower than the platform's overall user base, he venture-backed quick fashion delivery startups such as Bengaluru-based Slikk , Mumbai-based Zilo and Gurugram-based Zulu Club are also testing similar features to increase conversions and reduce returns.'Returns play as big a part as maybe forward delivery does. Because these are expensive products, giving the customer his or her money back also plays a very critical role,' said Akshay Gulati, cofounder and CEO of is piloting an 'instant returns' feature where, like its 60-minute delivery service, returns are also completed within an hour. Once a return request is made on the app, a delivery partner picks up the product and refunds the amount instantly. The startup claims its return rate is 40-50% lower than that of traditional marketplaces and that it doesn't charge customers any extra fees for users said they were satisfied with the delivery speed and trial window but pointed out that the app does not provide any return status updates until the product reaches the warehouse."I received my order within 60 minutes and had enough time to try it out. However, after returning the product, I didn't receive any notification in the application until the delivery agent reached the warehouse," said Mohammed Shibili, a working professional based in Bengaluru, who tried Slikk's tracking the segment estimate that try-and-buy and virtual try-on features can reduce return rates by 15-20 percentage points, translating into substantial cost savings for both platforms and brands.'Features like try and buy are a huge cost save, not just for the platform but also for the brand. The brand otherwise would lose that inventory till it comes back and can't make the sale on it. But now, that's all getting quickly turned around. So, for the brand, it's a win-win situation as well as for the customer where the money is not getting stuck till it gets the returns refunded,' said Sunitha Viswanathan, partner at Kae fashion etailer Myntra had introduced try and buy back in 2016 to attract traditional shoppers to online retail. However, the feature didn't scale up due to supply chain limitations, according to industry executives.'Back when Myntra launched 'try and buy', there was no hyperlocal delivery infrastructure. Deliveries were through national courier services. That model isn't feasible to try and buy unless you have your own hyperlocal delivery fleet,' the founder of a fashion delivery startup said on condition of founder added that while Myntra operated from large warehouses located on the outskirts of cities, the new-age supply chains are built within cities, allowing faster deliveries and enabling features like try and the end of last year, Myntra had launched M-Now, an ultra-fast delivery service currently live in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, with pilots in other cities. The company said daily orders through M-Now doubled in the last quarter.'Although it's still early, our observations so far suggest that the quick delivery model, with its reduced wait time, attracts high-intent customers, leading to naturally lower return rates,' said a spokesperson for etailer did not confirm whether the try-and-buy feature is being tested under the benefits, the long-term viability of these features is open to question, experts said.'There is a cost to also providing these services (like try and buy), and whether that becomes viable at all is a question mark at this point of time. I think that's what the concern is, and it has not been that viable,' said Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a management consulting firm focused on consumer goods and retail added that when platforms offer the try-and-buy feature, delivery executives have to wait while customers try on products, which increases the cost per delivery and reduces the number of deliveries that can be completed. Despite that, some items may still be returned, further impacting operational startups are experimenting with these features mainly on higher-margin products to offset operational costs, Dutta said, as return rates across fashion categories can range from under 10% to as high as 40% for certain items.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Metros are crawling through traffic: Bengaluru records 16% increase in commute time
ETtech Gurgaon leads with 4 days/ week, while Bengaluru stays steady at 3.6 days/week. Mondays are the slowest for 80% of techies. Wednesdays and Thursdays consistently see the highest in-office presence. Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Bengaluru: Areas around HAL-Old Airport Road Junction, Doddanekkundi, Haralur, and Marathahalli are the most accident-prone zones in the city. Areas around HAL-Old Airport Road Junction, Doddanekkundi, Haralur, and Marathahalli are the most accident-prone zones in the city. Hyderabad: Neighbourhoods of Koti Area, Pragathi Nagar Area, Toli Chowki. Neighbourhoods of Koti Area, Pragathi Nagar Area, Toli Chowki. Pune: Area surrounding Shaniwarwada, Ambegaon, Pune International Airport Road. ETtech Up to 99% accuracy in traffic prediction through tools Hours saved per week through dynamic route planning Commuter safety and satisfaction, especially for women travellers An average Indian employee spends about 8.6% of their day commuting to and from work. In a year, a working professional spends 754 hours on the road, or 68 full working days, stuck in traffic. Latest report reveals that Bengaluru's average one-way commute time has jumped 16% in just one year. From 54 minutes in 2024, today it takes 63 minutes to travel an average distance of 19km in the city.
