Microsoft’s $3B AI, cloud plan for India; Easy-peasy way of making videos

Hello,

How will India’s economy fare in FY25? Probably, lower than initially expected.

India’s annual GDP growth is expected to be 6.4% in the year ending March—lower than the government’s initial projection of 6.5%-7%, dragged by a weaker manufacturing sector and slower corporate investments.

The forecast follows several disappointing economic indicators in the second half of 2024, Reuters reported—including low growth, high inflation, anaemic capital flows, and a record trade gap.

Monthly auto sales, an indicator of economic health, are not encouraging either. Indian car dealers clocked a surprise 2% drop in sales in December, with high year-end discounts boosting demand only for a handful of showroom owners. In November, sales were down nearly 14%!

Even as we grapple with the tepid economic outlook, there’s a growing recognition of another threat to financial stability: cyber attacks. CoinSwitch has set up a Rs 600 crore fund, CoinSwitch Cares, to help users impacted by the alleged cyber attack on WazirX in July last year. With the initiative, affected users can recover losses, earn rewards, and re-enter the crypto market. 

ICYMI: Why H&M India is moving its base to Bengaluru? 

Meanwhile, with half of all the world’s languages predicted to die out in the coming years, check out the arduous efforts put forth by language activists to preserve the world’s 3,000 endangered languages! 

Saving human communications like never before. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Microsoft’s $3B AI, cloud plan for India
• Making videos the easy-peasy way
• Breaking barriers via social impact

Here’s your trivia for today: What was the name of the first Sony-branded transistor radio?

Technology

Microsoft’s $3B AI, cloud plan for India

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday unveiled the company’s plans to invest $3 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in India. “I am excited to announce the single largest expansion we have ever done in India by putting $3 billion additional dollars to expand our Azure capacity,” Nadella said at the Microsoft AI Tour held in Bengaluru. 

Power up:

• Nadella said that India is an AI powerhouse with more than 30,594 contributors to Gen AI projects.
• The American tech giant has also launched the second edition ADVANTA(I)GE India, with plans to train 10 million people over the next five years.
• Separately, Microsoft and SaaSBoomi have announced an AI MoU to propel India’s AI and SaaS ecosystem. The collaboration aims to impact over 5,000 startups and 10,000 entrepreneurs.

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Botanic Healthcare

Amount: Rs 250 Cr

Round: Equity

Startup: Vehant Technologies

Amount: $9M

Round: Mezzanine

Startup: EMO Energy

Amount: $6.2M

Round: Series A

Startup

Making videos the easy-peasy way

Launched with the goal of democratising video editing, Vmaker AI caters to users ranging from content creators and educators to marketers and corporate professionals. With an emphasis on simplicity, Vmaker AI automates the editing process, allowing users to create professional-quality videos in minutes.

Key takeaways:

• At its core, Vmaker AI integrates AI-driven features like auto-captioning, background removal, noise reduction, and scene analysis.
• The startup has a user-friendly interface and an expansive library of templates, ensuring users can dive into the creation process without a steep learning curve. 
• The demand for video content has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by social media, online learning, and remote work trends. This shift has opened up vast opportunities for tools like Vmaker AI, and its competitors like Invideo, Veed, and Camtasia.

Women entrepreneurs

Breaking barriers via social impact

Born into a patriarchal family in Gaya, Bihar, where traditional gender roles often limit the aspirations of women, Khushboo Awasthi was expected to conform to rigid societal expectations. But she has broken these barriers.

In the last decade, Awasthi has built two organisations—ShikshaLokam and Mantra4Change—that have now grown into a movement led by two teams, with over 100 individuals and over 150 partner organisations.

Marching ahead:

• In 2013, she started Mantra4Change in Bengaluru to improve existing schools that catered to children from poor socio-economic backgrounds.
• The organisation received support from professors from Azim Premji University and mentors like Sanjay Purohit (CEO, Centre for Experiential Change) and Kumari Shibulal and SD Shibulal (Founder of Shibulal Philanthropies).
• As a woman in leadership, Khushboo has navigated implicit biases with grace. “The power dynamics often favour men in the room,” she notes. 

News & updates

• Shutdown: Meta will get rid of fact-checkers, “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship”, and recommend more political content on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Mark Zuckerberg vowed to prioritise free speech after the return of Donald Trump to the White House and said that he would “get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X”.
• Merge: Getty Images would merge with rival Shutterstock to create a $3.7 billion stock image powerhouse geared for the AI era, in a deal that would likely draw antitrust scrutiny. The move comes when the licensed visual content industry faces threats from Gen AI tools such as Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E.
• Blacklist: The US has blacklisted Tencent Holdings and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a major supplier to Tesla, for alleged links to the Chinese military, targeting the world’s biggest gaming publisher and top EV battery maker in a surprise move weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

What was the name of the first Sony-branded transistor radio?

Answer: The TR-55. Launched in 1955, it was the first Sony transistor radio to be mass-produced and sold in Japan.

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