Why AWS sees India as a key market; How Ladli Foundation is changing lives
AWS sees India as one of its key strategic markets as the country provides the opportunity to build population-scale solutions and also engage with startups. Meanwhile, Ladli Foundation is impacting over 30 lakh women and children through grassroots social change across India.
Hello,
How much control is too much in the AI age?
As Apple makes way for a new CEO, it will have to figure out the answer to this. For several years, the company relied on a tightly controlled ecosystem to deliver devices that blend security with ease of use. This helped the iPhone become the most successful consumer product and the company the most valued in the world.
But the AI era is defined by openness, quick iteration, and broad developer access. Can the incoming CEO John Ternus balance openness with Apple’s tight integration?
Meanwhile, the government has notified new online gaming rules, which will come into effect from May 1. The rules are expected to provide a boost to esports in the country.
In other news, former Dunzo co-founder Kabeer Biswas is raising Rs 102 crore ($11 million) for his new venture, M, from Peak XV Partners, Blume Ventures, and Kunal Shah’s CRED. Co-founded by Biswas and Kartik Mishra, M is a consumer AI startup focused on simplifying home management by automating decisions, coordination, and routine services.
ICYMI: Meta is installing tracking software on its US employees’ computers to track mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes to train its AI models. This is part of a larger effort to build AI agents that do tasks autonomously.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Why AWS sees India as a key market
- How Ladli Foundation is changing lives
Here’s your trivia for today: Which French designer was the heir to a fertiliser fortune?
Corporate
Why AWS sees India as a strategic market
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leading global cloud computing company, sees India as one of its key strategic markets as the country provides the opportunity to build population-scale solutions and also engage with startups.
AWS is a technology partner for several citizen-focused technology initiatives of the government, such as DigiLocker, Digiyatra, Government e Marketplace (GeM), and National Health Authority. It is also engaged with new-age companies such as Zomato, Paytm, and Dhan.
Key takeaways:
- “We see very broad-based demand in India, and it is not just for cloud but also AI,” said Sandeep Dutta, President - India & South Asia, AWS.
- AWS is going full steam ahead with AI as it brings to the marketplace the full stack, which includes the hardware platform and the platform to build applications and services associated with this technology.
- Dutta said that the motto for AWS in the country is to build from India, for India and for the world.
Social impact
How Ladli Foundation is changing lives
Abandoned as a child in Delhi, Devendra Kumar rose from extreme poverty to build Ladli Foundation, impacting over 30 lakh women and children through grassroots social change across India.
Kumar opens up about the life that built him, and the movement he has built in return, on a podcast with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project.
Key takeaways:
- “Even today, I wonder how that child survived,” Kumar tells Shradha, almost as if speaking about someone else. “That struggle should remain alive. The day I forget it is the day I lose my way.”
- Ladli Foundation was set up in 2012 and today works across roughly 50 districts in 10 to 12 states, according to information available on its public platforms.
- The foundation’s work spans girl-child protection, healthcare, education, skilling and gender sensitisation, all aimed at communities the formal development sector often struggles to reach.
News & updates
- New hire: Banking infrastructure and finance platform M2P Fintech has roped in former Hitachi executive Vivek Seshadri as its CFO. Seshadri will lead the company’s global finance function and play a key role in steering M2P’s next phase of growth, which includes a potential public market debut in the coming years.
- AI fund: Google has launched a $750-million fund for global consulting firms to accelerate agentic AI development. The fund supports partners including McKinsey & Co., Accenture, and Deloitte AI with AI value identification, agentic AI prototyping, agent building and deployment, and upskilling.
- Flight cuts: German airline Lufthansa is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights over the summer due to soaring fuel prices that have made many journeys “unprofitable” for the firm. Lufthansa said it will cut down its European network, but passengers will “continue to have access to the global route network, particularly long-haul connections.”
Which French designer was the heir to a fertiliser fortune?
Answer: Christian Dior
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