India’s IT services industry AI moment; An AI model for India’s payments ecosystem
Vinod Khosla sees AI erasing jobs, collapsing the cost of essential services, and rendering universities obsolete. NPCI launched a domain-specific language model for India's payments ecosystem. A growing set of Indian startups is tackling gender inequality in the workforce.
Hello,
It’s the partnership of the decade.
Infosys and Anthropic are collaborating to develop advanced enterprise AI solutions for companies across telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing and software development sectors.
The partnership will begin with a dedicated Anthropic Centre of Excellence, beginning with telecommunications, to build and deploy AI agents. It also integrates Anthropic's Claude models with Infosys Topaz AI offerings to help enterprises automate complex workflows and modernise legacy systems.
The surge in AI demand goes hand in hand with the need for more computing power. Adani Enterprises is gearing up to fill the gap, and said it will invest $100 billion to build renewable-powered AI-ready data centres by 2035.
When it comes to AI, India is targeting getting ahead in all layers of the AI stack, from energy and chips to applications. According to Union Minister of Railways, I&B, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s AI infrastructure push and capital commitments are a signal to investors—that India is capable of holding its own in the global arena.
Lastly, Hollywood’s glittering roster is just a bit dimmer with the passing of actor Robert Duvall, who delivered iconic performances in two of The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now.
With over 80 films under his belt, Duvall was among the most represented actors in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 movies. A true legend!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- India’s IT services industry AI moment
- An AI model for India’s payments ecosystem
- 5 gender-inclusive startups
Here’s your trivia for today: What is the name of Beethoven's only opera?
News
India’s IT services industry AI moment
Vinod Khosla, Founder and Partner of Khosla Ventures
By 2030, traditional IT services will effectively disappear, veteran investor Vinod Khosla predicts, warning that India’s outsourcing industry faces sweeping disruption as artificial intelligence replaces large swaths of software and back-office work.
Key takeaways:
- The remarks strike at the heart of India’s $250 billion technology outsourcing sector, dominated by firms such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
- Khosla forecasts that by 2050, “nobody needs jobs,” as AI drives the cost of healthcare, education, legal services, transportation and entertainment toward near-zero, reshaping the economic foundations of modern societies.
- While he acknowledged potential dislocation, Khosla argued that a post-work economy could unlock new forms of human activity.
Funding Alert
Startup: Navikenz
Amount: $7.5M
Round: Seed
Startup: HomeRun
Amount: Rs 60 Cr
Round: Series A
Startup: Exponent One
Amount: $2M
Round: Pre Seed
Fintech
An AI model for India’s payments ecosystem
National Payments Corporation of India has launched a domain-specific language model for the country’s payments ecosystem. Called FiMI, short for Finance Model for India, the model currently powers NPCI’s UPI Help Assistant, an AI-driven conversational support system for UPI users.
Custom-made:
- FiMI has been built to understand Indian payment systems, including UPI, and covers areas such as transaction dispute handling, mandate lifecycle management, and regulatory and ecosystem queries.
- The UPI Help Assistant, deployed as a pilot initiative at a national scale, uses an agentic AI framework that supports multi-step reasoning to respond to payment-related queries, assist with grievance redressal, and manage mandates.
- The assistant currently supports English, Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali, with additional Indian languages expected within six to eight months.
Social impact
5 gender-inclusive startups in India
These gender inclusive startups in India are reshaping access, work, and health
From maternal health platforms and women-focused investment funds to logistics companies hiring female delivery workers and digital communities enabling women’s employment, HerStory looks at organisations that are addressing structural barriers that have long limited women’s participation in the workforce.
News & updates
- Ecommerce: The European Union has reportedly opened a formal investigation into Chinese online retailer Shein on Tuesday over illegal products and concerns about the platform's potentially addictive design.
- Social media: India is discussing age-based restrictions with social media companies, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday during a press conference at the AI Impact Summit. Governments across the world are mulling over such restrictions after Australia recently banned children aged 16 and under from these websites.
- Exit: Softbank Group Corp disclosed that it dissolved its stake in Nvidia during the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Softbank's 13-F filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission for the period.
What is the name of Beethoven's only opera?
Answer: Fidelio
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