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Economic Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Biased output, privacy violation, unauthorised data sharing due to AI can have serious ramifications for India Inc
Mumbai: As India Inc rushes to adopt AI, internal auditors are sounding the alarm over a perceived lack of robust controls, ethical safeguards, and governance auditors are warning that many companies may be inadvertently exposing themselves to serious risks such as biased outputs, privacy violations, unauthorised data sharing, and opaque decision-making by AI models, potentially causing legal and financial liabilities, and operational are worried that boards and top management are largely unaware of the scale of AI experimentation taking place at the ground level in Indian companies.A Microsoft study showed that India's rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with 65% of surveyed Indians having used AI, is more than double the global average of 31%. "Most organisations are using AI with the best intentions-whether for efficiency, productivity, faster time to market, staying ahead of the curve, or market defence. But, in their pursuit of these goals, governance may not have received as much attention," said Ritesh Tiwari, partner and national leader for governance, risk & compliance services at KPMG in India. Auditors said the biggest concern currently is the lack of adequate board-level engagement on the issue. "Ethical usage of AI has to be a boardroom topic. Without the top-down commitment, it's a ticking time bomb. One wrong deployment, one biased output-and the reputational damage could be massive," said Tiwari. "We do tests for bias where mandated, but in many companies, it's not yet part of their risk culture. That's something we're pushing to change."Globally, there have been several high-profile instances of AI failures, from Amazon's recruiting tool showing bias against women to Microsoft's Tay chatbot generating offensive content, Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and McDonald's Drive-Thru AI mishaps. As Indian organisations become increasingly aware of the risks associated with AI deployments, they are also strengthening their oversight and governance mechanisms to manage these challenges."Organisations have now started to ask that internal audits specifically cover the AI adoption lifecycle, looking at everything from pre-development planning to post-deployment performance," said Sunil Bhadu, partner and India GRC leader at PwC India. "The focus is typically on the governance framework and policies, design compliance with industry standards, workflow integrity, and robust working processes to ensure that these models aren't hallucinating or generating misleading results."Internal auditors emphasise that Indian firms have to realise the value of building trustworthy AI by design. "With global incidents highlighting the risks, mature organisations are proactively seeking guidance on managing AI-related risks. They're turning to recent frameworks like the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and Deloitte's own Trustworthy AI model, asking, can our systems be reviewed and benchmarked against these frameworks to ensure responsible development and deployment?" said Anthony Crasto, president, assurance at Deloitte South crucial factor in internal audits of AI models is cybersecurity and privacy, given AI systems often process sensitive personal and business data, using complex codebases, and can be vulnerable to adversarial attacks or prompt injection if not properly secured. "From a security and privacy lens, we're also testing the algorithm logic, reviewing adherence to secure coding principles and business objectives, and data protection norms, and carrying out vulnerability assessments, etc. Data privacy is a growing area of concern," said Crasto. On their part, auditors are doing closer scrutiny of aspects like training, testing, and validation of these models, since flaws at the foundational stages could lead to biased, unreliable, or even unsafe outputs once deployed. "We ask the companies: Is there a documented AI policy? Is it aligned with global frameworks? We assess the policy's treatment of privacy, security, responsibility, human-in-the-loop accountability, transparency, model bias and explainability," said Crasto.
Time of India
02-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Biased output, privacy violation, unauthorised data sharing due to AI can have serious ramifications for India Inc
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Mumbai: As India Inc rushes to adopt AI, internal auditors are sounding the alarm over a perceived lack of robust controls, ethical safeguards, and governance auditors are warning that many companies may be inadvertently exposing themselves to serious risks such as biased outputs, privacy violations, unauthorised data sharing, and opaque decision-making by AI models, potentially causing legal and financial liabilities, and operational are worried that boards and top management are largely unaware of the scale of AI experimentation taking place at the ground level in Indian companies.A Microsoft study showed that India's rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with 65% of surveyed Indians having used AI, is more than double the global average of 31%."Most organisations are using AI with the best intentions-whether for efficiency, productivity, faster time to market, staying ahead of the curve, or market defence. But, in their pursuit of these goals, governance may not have received as much attention," said Ritesh Tiwari, partner and national leader for governance, risk & compliance services at KPMG in said the biggest concern currently is the lack of adequate board-level engagement on the issue. "Ethical usage of AI has to be a boardroom topic. Without the top-down commitment, it's a ticking time bomb. One wrong deployment, one biased output-and the reputational damage could be massive," said Tiwari. "We do tests for bias where mandated, but in many companies, it's not yet part of their risk culture. That's something we're pushing to change."Globally, there have been several high-profile instances of AI failures, from Amazon's recruiting tool showing bias against women to Microsoft's Tay chatbot generating offensive content, Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and McDonald's Drive-Thru AI Indian organisations become increasingly aware of the risks associated with AI deployments, they are also strengthening their oversight and governance mechanisms to manage these challenges."Organisations have now started to ask that internal audits specifically cover the AI adoption lifecycle, looking at everything from pre-development planning to post-deployment performance," said Sunil Bhadu, partner and India GRC leader at PwC India. "The focus is typically on the governance framework and policies, design compliance with industry standards, workflow integrity, and robust working processes to ensure that these models aren't hallucinating or generating misleading results."Internal auditors emphasise that Indian firms have to realise the value of building trustworthy AI by design. "With global incidents highlighting the risks, mature organisations are proactively seeking guidance on managing AI-related risks. They're turning to recent frameworks like the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and Deloitte's own Trustworthy AI model, asking, can our systems be reviewed and benchmarked against these frameworks to ensure responsible development and deployment?" said Anthony Crasto, president, assurance at Deloitte South crucial factor in internal audits of AI models is cybersecurity and privacy, given AI systems often process sensitive personal and business data, using complex codebases, and can be vulnerable to adversarial attacks or prompt injection if not properly secured."From a security and privacy lens, we're also testing the algorithm logic, reviewing adherence to secure coding principles and business objectives, and data protection norms, and carrying out vulnerability assessments, etc. Data privacy is a growing area of concern," said Crasto. On their part, auditors are doing closer scrutiny of aspects like training, testing, and validation of these models, since flaws at the foundational stages could lead to biased, unreliable, or even unsafe outputs once deployed."We ask the companies: Is there a documented AI policy? Is it aligned with global frameworks? We assess the policy's treatment of privacy, security, responsibility, human-in-the-loop accountability, transparency, model bias and explainability," said Crasto.
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Unilever, Reliance see signs of consumer demand revival in India
Consumers companies are seeing early signs of demand pick up among the 400-million strong group of urban shoppers in India, providing a buffer to any volatility that might be unleashed by the country's trade negotiations with the US. Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the country's no. 1 consumer goods maker that's considered a bellwether for the sector, expects demand conditions to gradually improve boosted by macroeconomic tailwinds, with growth in April to September period exceeding the levels in the preceding six months. The Indian unit of Unilever Plc also saw lesser 'downtrading' this quarter — a practice when buyers start pivoting to cheaper or low-value packs — signaling a recovery in purchasing patterns, its Chief Financial Officer Ritesh Tiwari told reporters last week. A day later, Reliance Retail , part of Mukesh Ambani's energy-to-entertainment conglomerate, posted a 29 per cent jump in quarterly profit, boosted in part by Maha Kumbh Mela, world's largest religious gathering earlier this year. The green shoots being flagged in India's consumption story signal a yearlong malaise could be lifting. A strong domestic market will provide some respite to Indian firms as US President Donald Trump's tariffs threaten global recession. China too is encouraging its firms to focus on the massive home market amid headwinds overseas. Worst Over 'The worst of the domestic cyclical slowdown seems behind,' said Teresa John, an economist with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Indian government and central bank-led growth boosters 'could shield the economy from tariffs,' she said. About $12 billion of tax sops announced in February, a rate cut this month with signs of more to come, subdued inflation and forecast of an ample monsoon are expected to perk up India's buyers. Broader economic factors 'should augur well for discretionary income' in both rural and urban regions, Hindustan Unilever 's Tiwari said. He doesn't expect any new headwinds impacting demand. Macrotech Developers Ltd. 's Managing Director Abhishek Lodha said last week that he expects a lift to purchasing power for the mid-income housing segment, while Shriram Finance Ltd. — which lends for purchases of cars and bikes — sees demand for loans in urban India to recover in the coming quarters. UltraTech Cement Ltd. , India's biggest maker of this key construction material, expects a strong volumes growth on back of housing and infrastructure demand. Realtor DLF Ltd. is expecting sales in its high-end shopping complexes to grow as much as 10 per cent in the year ending March 2026 after slightly underwhelming sales a year earlier, Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and business head at DLF Retail, said in an interview this month. The coming quarter will be 'critical' for India's consumption story, said Satish Meena, founder of consumer data firm, Datum Intelligence. 'There is expected to be more money with customers' over the next couple months, he said. Tariff Shadow While India's central bank maintains optimism about domestic growth, a top finance ministry official has warned of the ripple effects of US tariffs. The 'first order' hit from US reciprocal tariffs on India, if imposed, could shave off up to 0.5 percentage point off its economic growth , which is 'not a huge impact,' India's Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said in Washington last week. 'But the second order would be important' if the global economy grows less, he said. 'Given global headwinds, exports and private investments are likely to be more impacted relative to consumption,' Nomura's Sonal Varma told Bloomberg News. 'Labor market signals are also mixed, so consumption itself is not out of the woods.' Some companies also remain cautious. Tata Consumer Products Ltd. , the local partner for Starbucks Corp., said on April 23 it slowed the opening of outlets 'a bit' due to softness in the economy. India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has forecast a modest 2 per cent growth for the sector in the year through March 2026. Trickle Down Others, however, are accelerating their growth initiatives anticipating that the trickle down effect of tax sops, rate cuts and bountiful monsoon — it boosts rural purchasing power — will culminate into a shopping spree. Reliance Retail, after streaming its operations and closing underperforming stores, plans to make a marketing and advertising splash for Shein in India after a low-key relaunch in February. Ambani's unit will also further develop its 30-minute delivery format JioMart to muscle into India's booming quick commerce segment. Unilever's India unit is also stepping up investments. 'On macro, the triggers are tending biasing toward positive now,' Rohit Jawa, chief executive officer at Hindustan Unilever, told analysts on Thursday. 'We feel this is the time for us to lean in.'
Time of India
29-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Unilever, Reliance see signs of consumer demand revival in India
Consumers companies are seeing early signs of demand pick up among the 400-million strong group of urban shoppers in India, providing a buffer to any volatility that might be unleashed by the country's trade negotiations with the US. Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the country's no. 1 consumer goods maker that's considered a bellwether for the sector, expects demand conditions to gradually improve boosted by macroeconomic tailwinds, with growth in April to September period exceeding the levels in the preceding six months. The Indian unit of Unilever Plc also saw lesser 'downtrading' this quarter — a practice when buyers start pivoting to cheaper or low-value packs — signaling a recovery in purchasing patterns, its Chief Financial Officer Ritesh Tiwari told reporters last week. A day later, Reliance Retail , part of Mukesh Ambani's energy-to-entertainment conglomerate, posted a 29% jump in quarterly profit, boosted in part by Maha Kumbh Mela, world's largest religious gathering earlier this year. The green shoots being flagged in India's consumption story signal a yearlong malaise could be lifting. A strong domestic market will provide some respite to Indian firms as US President Donald Trump's tariffs threaten global recession. China too is encouraging its firms to focus on the massive home market amid headwinds overseas. Worst Over 'The worst of the domestic cyclical slowdown seems behind,' said Teresa John, an economist with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Indian government and central bank-led growth boosters 'could shield the economy from tariffs,' she said. About $12 billion of tax sops announced in February, a rate cut this month with signs of more to come, subdued inflation and forecast of an ample monsoon are expected to perk up India's buyers. Broader economic factors 'should augur well for discretionary income' in both rural and urban regions, Hindustan Unilever 's Tiwari said. He doesn't expect any new headwinds impacting demand. Macrotech Developers Ltd. 's Managing Director Abhishek Lodha said last week that he expects a lift to purchasing power for the mid-income housing segment, while Shriram Finance Ltd. — which lends for purchases of cars and bikes — sees demand for loans in urban India to recover in the coming quarters. UltraTech Cement Ltd. , India's biggest maker of this key construction material, expects a strong volumes growth on back of housing and infrastructure demand. Realtor DLF Ltd. is expecting sales in its high-end shopping complexes to grow as much as 10% in the year ending March 2026 after slightly underwhelming sales a year earlier, Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and business head at DLF Retail, said in an interview this month. The coming quarter will be 'critical' for India's consumption story, said Satish Meena, founder of consumer data firm, Datum Intelligence. 'There is expected to be more money with customers' over the next couple months, he said. Tariff Shadow While India's central bank maintains optimism about domestic growth, a top finance ministry official has warned of the ripple effects of US tariffs. The 'first order' hit from US reciprocal tariffs on India, if imposed, could shave off up to 0.5 percentage point off its economic growth , which is 'not a huge impact,' India's Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said in Washington last week. 'But the second order would be important' if the global economy grows less, he said. 'Given global headwinds, exports and private investments are likely to be more impacted relative to consumption,' Nomura's Sonal Varma told Bloomberg News. 'Labor market signals are also mixed, so consumption itself is not out of the woods.' Some companies also remain cautious. Tata Consumer Products Ltd. , the local partner for Starbucks Corp., said on April 23 it slowed the opening of outlets 'a bit' due to softness in the economy. India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has forecast a modest 2% growth for the sector in the year through March 2026. Trickle Down Others, however, are accelerating their growth initiatives anticipating that the trickle down effect of tax sops, rate cuts and bountiful monsoon — it boosts rural purchasing power — will culminate into a shopping spree. Reliance Retail, after streaming its operations and closing underperforming stores, plans to make a marketing and advertising splash for Shein in India after a low-key relaunch in February. Ambani's unit will also further develop its 30-minute delivery format JioMart to muscle into India's booming quick commerce segment. Unilever's India unit is also stepping up investments. 'On macro, the triggers are tending biasing toward positive now,' Rohit Jawa, chief executive officer at Hindustan Unilever, told analysts on Thursday. 'We feel this is the time for us to lean in.'
Economic Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Unilever, Reliance see signs of consumer demand revival in India
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Consumers companies are seeing early signs of demand pick up among the 400-million strong group of urban shoppers in India, providing a buffer to any volatility that might be unleashed by the country's trade negotiations with the US. Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the country's no. 1 consumer goods maker that's considered a bellwether for the sector, expects demand conditions to gradually improve boosted by macroeconomic tailwinds, with growth in April to September period exceeding the levels in the preceding six Indian unit of Unilever Plc also saw lesser 'downtrading' this quarter — a practice when buyers start pivoting to cheaper or low-value packs — signaling a recovery in purchasing patterns, its Chief Financial Officer Ritesh Tiwari told reporters last week.A day later, Reliance Retail , part of Mukesh Ambani's energy-to-entertainment conglomerate, posted a 29% jump in quarterly profit, boosted in part by Maha Kumbh Mela, world's largest religious gathering earlier this green shoots being flagged in India's consumption story signal a yearlong malaise could be lifting. A strong domestic market will provide some respite to Indian firms as US President Donald Trump's tariffs threaten global recession. China too is encouraging its firms to focus on the massive home market amid headwinds overseas.'The worst of the domestic cyclical slowdown seems behind,' said Teresa John, an economist with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Indian government and central bank-led growth boosters 'could shield the economy from tariffs,' she $12 billion of tax sops announced in February, a rate cut this month with signs of more to come, subdued inflation and forecast of an ample monsoon are expected to perk up India's economic factors 'should augur well for discretionary income' in both rural and urban regions, Hindustan Unilever's Tiwari said. He doesn't expect any new headwinds impacting demand. Macrotech Developers Ltd. 's Managing Director Abhishek Lodha said last week that he expects a lift to purchasing power for the mid-income housing segment, while Shriram Finance Ltd. — which lends for purchases of cars and bikes — sees demand for loans in urban India to recover in the coming quarters. UltraTech Cement Ltd. , India's biggest maker of this key construction material, expects a strong volumes growth on back of housing and infrastructure DLF Ltd. is expecting sales in its high-end shopping complexes to grow as much as 10% in the year ending March 2026 after slightly underwhelming sales a year earlier, Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and business head at DLF Retail, said in an interview this coming quarter will be 'critical' for India's consumption story, said Satish Meena, founder of consumer data firm, Datum Intelligence. 'There is expected to be more money with customers' over the next couple months, he ShadowWhile India's central bank maintains optimism about domestic growth, a top finance ministry official has warned of the ripple effects of US 'first order' hit from US reciprocal tariffs on India, if imposed, could shave off up to 0.5 percentage point off its economic growth , which is 'not a huge impact,' India's Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said in Washington last week. 'But the second order would be important' if the global economy grows less, he said.'Given global headwinds, exports and private investments are likely to be more impacted relative to consumption,' Nomura's Sonal Varma told Bloomberg News. 'Labor market signals are also mixed, so consumption itself is not out of the woods.'Some companies also remain cautious. Tata Consumer Products Ltd. , the local partner for Starbucks Corp., said on April 23 it slowed the opening of outlets 'a bit' due to softness in the largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has forecast a modest 2% growth for the sector in the year through March DownOthers, however, are accelerating their growth initiatives anticipating that the trickle down effect of tax sops, rate cuts and bountiful monsoon — it boosts rural purchasing power — will culminate into a shopping Retail, after streaming its operations and closing underperforming stores, plans to make a marketing and advertising splash for Shein in India after a low-key relaunch in unit will also further develop its 30-minute delivery format JioMart to muscle into India's booming quick commerce India unit is also stepping up investments.'On macro, the triggers are tending biasing toward positive now,' Rohit Jawa, chief executive officer at Hindustan Unilever, told analysts on Thursday. 'We feel this is the time for us to lean in.'
