How Indian startups are innovating elder care; India prepares to power AI, data centres

Hello,

A new chief is in town.

Sanjay Malhotra, the current Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance, is now the 26th Governor of the RBI, succeeding Shaktikanta Das.

Among other things, Malhotra faces the crucial challenge of addressing the country’s rising inflation. Last week, RBI opted to keep interest rates unchanged at 6.5% after inflation hit a 14-month high of 6.21% in October—above the central bank’s 4% target and 6% tolerance ceiling, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, KPMG, one of the Big 4 accounting firms, is optimistic about the country’s growth. According to its latest report, India’s demographic dividends, pro-business policy reforms, and high-growth markets are creating a fertile ground for investments as private equity (PE) investors look for China alternatives.

India has emerged as a key beneficiary of this shift, with PE investments rising by 20% in H1 2024 compared with the same period in 2023—a reversal from the downward trend in total investments that began in the second half of 2021.

Elsewhere, in the world of AI, online forum Reddit has begun testing a feature that allows visitors to ask questions and receive summaries of relevant responses and threads across the platform. The move is expected to help the site compete against AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity.

ICYMI: A weather-predicting chatbot. 

DeepMind, Google’s AI research lab, has unveiled a generative model—GenCast—which can forecast the weather with incredible accuracy, up to 15 days in advance.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Reimagining elder care
• India prepares to power AI, data centres
• Building a personal health assistant

Here’s your trivia for today: What was badminton called in its earliest days?

In-depth

Reimagining elder care

India’s elder care sector is on the brink of a transformation, driven by technology, investment, and a shift in societal attitudes towards ageing. Startups are not just focusing on the medical needs of the elderly but are also promoting active, independent lifestyles. 

“With an ageing population and evolving family structures, there is a rising demand for personalised, professional eldercare services that cater to both physical and emotional well-being,” says Dr Reema Nadig, Director and Group COO of Columbia Pacific Communities, Seniorshield, and KITES Senior Care. 

Leveraging tech:

• Startups like Samarth Care are integrating technology with a human touch to bridge the digital divide among seniors. Emoha Eldercare uses IoT and remote health monitoring to connect seniors with healthcare providers.
• Khyaal, another innovator in this space, offers digital literacy training, entertainment content, and interactive sessions to combat loneliness. The platform provides financial services through its Khyaal Card, a senior-focused smart payment card.
• “Our care app provides a comprehensive view of elderly parents’ wellness for their families, combining web, mobile, and cloud technologies,” explains Asheesh Gupta, Founder of Samarth. “We use AI and LLM for predictive analyses, ensuring our services are tailored to the needs of the elderly.”

Funding Alert

Startup: Wooden Street

Amount: Rs 354 Cr

Round: Series C

Startup: Pixxel

Amount: $24M

Round: Series B

Startup: Varthana

Amount: $15M

Round: External commercial borrowing

Technology

India prepares to power AI, data centres

Data centres and AI compute facilities—and the infrastructure to power them—are at the heart of the government’s plans towards bolstering India’s digital ecosystem.

“The internet has become a crucial part of people’s daily lives, and thus it is important that the government looks at making a particular set of infrastructure much more resilient,” said S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, at the India Internet Governance Forum 2024.

AI infra:

• “As we adopt AI more and more, do we have enough power supply? This is again something which MeitY is looking into right now along with the Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and all related agencies to plan for this capacity,” the MeitY secretary said.
• On plans to incentivise green power to data centres and AI compute facilities, Krishnan didn’t have a direct answer. “It's a question of availability and estimating the requirements. The power ministry and the Central Electricity Authority estimate what the power requirements are to the various sectors.”
• Globally, tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Meta are signing contracts to secure supply of nuclear power for their data centre facilities.

Startup 

Building a personal health assistant

Foxo Health serves as a personal health assistant, offering tailored insights into users’ health profiles by analysing blood reports, symptoms, and other critical data. It enables differential diagnosis, root cause analysis, and early disease detection—critical components of preventive healthcare.

Get well:

• Powered by an AI co-pilot live on WhatsApp, the personal health assistant encourages users to maintain healthy habits.
• The platform creates a digital twin for each user and delivers personalised recommendations and timely reminders to support their well-being.
• Foxo Health’s programme is currently on an ‘invite-only’ basis, with new slots opened every six months. Over 1,000 users have utilised the programme.

News & updates

• Ultimatum: Volkswagen workers said its management had one last chance to compromise on Monday or risk strikes on a scale not previously seen next year, as talks were set to begin in a bitter standoff over wage cuts and plant closures.
• Chip war: China has opened an antitrust investigation into American chipmaker Nvidia, the world’s largest provider of processors that power AI, according to Chinese state media. The probe serves as the latest escalation of a growing battle for AI dominance between the US and China. 
• Ad deal: Omnicom Group has struck a $13.25 billion all-stock deal to buy rival Interpublic Group, creating the world's largest advertising agency as traditional players look to better compete with Big Tech firms amid accelerating use of AI.

What was badminton called in its earliest days?

Answer: Poona. 

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