In December 2023, India’s tech news headlines captured items and developments including: the likely economic impact of artificial intelligence on India; the country’s moves into higher-value tech manufacturing; India’s growing space technologies sector; India’s expanding focus on semiconductor manufacturing; and many more.
Other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies in December 2023
CSIS: NATO’s role in protecting critical undersea infrastructure
- India: EMotorad e-bikes startup raised $20M Series B, aiming to disrupt China-heavy industry with Indian manufacturing
- India: Brinc and GVFL Limited partner for A4X accelerator program for tech startups in 4 broad fields
- India: Rapido bike-taxi startup launches Rapido Cabs as intra-city SaaS-based mobility solution, with initial fleet of 100K vehicles
“Geopolitical developments are shaping India’s view that it cannot be agnostic about technology and that it does have to make choices. And technology in turn is driving and shaping competitive geopolitics.”
- Algorand’s India initiative, AlgoBharat, awards $10K to LW3 with P3 Phygital Product Passport, blockchain-based traceability solution detailing item provenance for end-consumers
- India: T-Hub incubator launches Space Tech Incubation Program to boost India’s evolving space technologies sector, looking initially to boost 10 startups
McKinsey & Co: Technology and digital in Asia
- India: Sarvam secures $41M with sights on full-stack, wide-focus generative AI offerings supporting Indian languages and voice-first interfaces
- India: MoveInSync enters talks for $50-60M fundraise with end-to-end workplace commuting mobility solutions for blue-chip company workforces
India: Study finds ‘Indian organisations could not prevent 42% of cyberattacks on their businesses, only successfully thwarting 58% of cyberattacks over the past 2 years’
- South Korea’s NomadHer makes gains in India with solo-female travel app, building on selection for the K-Startup Centre India 2023 accelerator
- India: DigitalPaani secures $1.2M funding with automation and software for enhancing functionality of wastewater treatment infrastructure, building on 40 industry majors already onboarded
StormWall: DDoS attacks in Asia Pacific in Q3 2023
- India: A brief intro to MetaShop and Fundamento, recipients of $100K support packages under Google’s AI-focused Women Founders Fund
- ‘The Indian Quantum Ecosystem 2022-2023’, available to download now
- India: SalmoRid launches with seafood-processing focus, using bacteriophages to enhance food safety and quality
- India: Taiwan’s Foxconn to invest an additional $1.67BN in Karnataka state for iPhone manufacturing, with overall investments expected to create near 50,000 jobs
- India to roll out revamped electronics and semiconductor industry incentive scheme to boost development of component plants, aiming for support ecosystem for global entities
- Download: ‘Assessing India’s Readiness to Assume a Greater Role in Global Semiconductor Value Chains’ from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (pdf)
“India’s organic growth in the consumption of electronics, coupled with the Government’s target of achieving $300BN worth of domestic electronics manufacturing by 2025–26, creates a unique opportunity…”
- In November, India launched part 1 of its critical minerals auction in 8 states, valued at $5.4BN and spanning minerals including lithium, potash, vanadium, graphite and rare earths
- India: Tech Mahindra IT services and consulting major launches Populii crowd-sourcing hiring platform, listing jobs for gig workers
- India: “Gen AI could boost India’s GDP by $359-438 billion by 2030, representing a 5.9-7.2% increase…”
- Download: ‘The AIdea of India – Generative AI’s potential to accelerate India’s digital transformation’ from EY (pdf link)
- India: Accenture opens Generative AI Studio in Bengaluru, part of Accenture’s $3BN global investment in data and artificial intelligence services
India’s Minister of Road Transport & Highways states
‘I will never allow driverless cars to come into India‘, citing jobs risk; and Tesla manufacturing in China for sales in India is not acceptable
- India: A brief intro to InCore, working on semiconductor chip design with a particular focus on RISC-V open-standard architecture
- ‘Harnessing the Tectonic Shifts in Global Manufacturing’ from BCG – “…Mexico, Southeast Asia, and India are quickly emerging as future export manufacturing powerhouses…”
“India is looking at semiconductor packaging as a low-hanging fruit to capture a share of the global semiconductor supply chain… ATMP and OSAT are good starting points…”
- India’s semiconductor challenges: “There is a lack of an ecosystem for deep tech and semiconductor startups which impacts their growth at every step…”
- Download: ‘Emerging technology hubs of India’, an August 2023 report from Deloitte (pdf link)
“India witnessed more than 400 million cyber threats across approximately 8.5 million endpoints in 2023, averaging 761 detections per minute…”
- India: CtrlS Datacenters adds Intel next-generation processor R&D lab to Bangalore facility, looking to develop new microprocessor architectures
- India: Ola Electric e-scooter maker unveils plans for $662M IPO in 2024
- “India, with its thriving startup ecosystem and growing smartphone and internet penetration, has the potential to position itself as a future crypto hub…”
- Download: ‘The Indian payments handbook 2022–2027’ from pwc (pdf link)
- India’s Tier 2 and 3 cities: “In emerging cities, businesses enjoy a 25-30 percent cost advantage in talent pool costs and a striking 50 percent lower real estate rental compared with mature hubs.”
EY 2024 Geostrategic Outlook – Thrive in ongoing geopolitical complexity
- Download: ‘PwC Global Risk Survey 2023 – India highlights’ – “…cybersecurity has jumped two spots from number three to number one on the risk radar…” (pdf link)
- India: Gov’t issues advisory notice to social media platforms around requirements relating to deepfakes appearing on their platforms, with legislation to come
- India: Godrej Construction builds 500square feet office in 40 hours using a combination of 3D Construction Printing (3DCP) technology and prefabricated modules
- India: Jio telecoms giant to launch an operating system for televisions, alongside Bharat GPT program and full private 5G stack for enterprize use
- India: Tata Group to build a second iPhone plant in Tamil Nadu featuring 20 assembly lines and creating 50K jobs inside 2 years; also to launch 100 retail outlets dedicated to Apple products
KPMG: Venture Pulse Q3 2023 – Asia findings
- Reserve Bank of India is in talks with US and HK counterparts, and SWIFT network, around feasibility of digital cross-border settlements, likely using central bank digital currencies
- India, China & Foxconn: “Manufacturing an entire iPhone 15 within India — that is going to be projected as a big moment not just for Apple, but [also] for India.”
- India, Taiwan and US reps met recently to discuss cybersercurity and digital issues, with Taiwan and US entering Global Cooperation and Training Framework to leverage Taiwan’s expertise
Deloitte & NASSCOM: Emerging technology hubs of India
Indo-Pacific Tech news: Daily
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