Programme for early stage startups
The cohort will focus on startups innovating at the intersection of tech and emerging fields such as generative and agentic AI, drone-tech, and quick commerce enablement, technologies poised to reshape industries and accelerate the next wave of India's innovation.
Selected startups will receive equity investments of up to $500,000 alongside a high-impact mentorship programme, said a press release.
Participants will also gain access to Flipkart's broader ecosystem, including opportunities to explore commercial partnerships and integrations. The programme is open to early-stage, India-based startups with an established minimum viable product, full-time founding teams, and a core focus on AI-native technologies, drone-tech or quick commerce enablers. Applications will be accepted till August 10, 2025 via flipkartleap.com/leap-ahead.
A call to clean technology startups
The Confederation of Indian Industry is inviting startups for the first edition of CII-ASCEND Innovation Challenge.
Open to Indian CleanTech startups, technology providers, public R&D labs, technical institutes, universities, MSMEs, and government-affiliated research centres working on transformative clean technologies, the solutions must be at 'Technology Readiness Level 5–7' and demonstrate strong potential for scale, with no adverse environmental or safety impacts.
Priority thematic areas include energy efficiency, water management, waste management, renewable energy, IoT solutions, resource efficiency, decarbonisation solutions, energy storage, green hydrogen, electric vehicles and infrastructure, circular economy and low carbon materials among others.
Selected innovators will receive access to a robust support ecosystem including financial support of up to USD 30,000 for pilot deployment, direct market access through CII's extensive industry network, events and curated matchmaking and mentorship. Applications close on July 31.
For details, visit: https://greenbusinesscentre.com/ascend.php
Interview preparation tool driven by AI
Apna.co has launched AI Job Prep — a new AI-powered interview prep tool designed to close the preparation gap in the job market. Over 7.6 lakh AI interviews have been completed on Apna's platform, across 900 cities, logging more than 39 lakh minutes of interviews — signalling a growing demand for smarter, tech-enabled ways of interview preparation.
The tool offers realistic interview simulations, instant performance feedback and personalised improvement tips to help candidates build interview confidence, said a press release.
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Time of India
a minute ago
- Time of India
Rapid GCC growth reshapes India's outsourcing industry
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Recent exponential growth of global capability centres ( GCC ) in India may have come at the expense of the people-led tech outsourcing industry – the country's biggest services exports over the past three decades and unquestionable change agents for once-sleepy towns such as Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad MNCs, which are setting up these GCCs or expanding existing facilities, are also the top spenders of tech for the $280-billion listed Indian pureplay. The increasing insourcing of core tech tasks – especially the top end, high-value work - may be leading to one of reasons for the current rot in the outsourcing industry, marked by a protracted slowdown and now FY24, GCCs' grew at a rate of 40% even as the top five Indian IT companies posted negative to sub-5% growth for the same period and reported similar numbers for fiscal 2025, as per estimates by Nasscom and the the IT industry the subdued numbers continued in FY25. While the official numbers are yet to be out for GCCs, the growth is expected to be in double Indian technology services industry which operates in a pyramid structure by hiring more entry-level coders is now witnessing a foundational shift with AI, experts said.'The pyramid is collapsing. GCCs are rising. AI is automating the middle. Pricing is shifting from effort to outcomes, and that means a full-stack transformation—not just of how services are delivered, but how they're sold, priced, and measured,' said Saurabh Gupta, president at US-based technology research and consultancy firm HFS Research Earlier this week, India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that it is going to lay off around 2% or 12,200 people in the current fiscal as it grapples with low growth amid a challenging macro situation and AI-led disruption, sending shockwaves in the to an HFS data survey with 200-plus enterprises, over 65% enterprises expect to relocate at least 10% FTEs (full-time equivalent - which measures the work based on employees work hours) from third parties to have seen tremendous growth in the past few years as multinationals sought to leverage India's skilled talent and cost advantages. Estimates suggest that two new GCCs opened every week last year, increasing the total to 1,700 centres employing nearly 2 million Joshi, partner at another US-based Everest Group, said that the accelerating pace of GCCs in India is having an impact on the net demand for service providers, specifically in segments such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) where these clients have scaled their GCCs in India. As per data by ANSR, over 50 banking GCCs run more than 90 centers in India employing over 180,000 BFSI contributes around anywhere between 30% and 50% of the revenue share for most Indian IT companies. Almost all large multinational banks and financial services firms have huge GCCs in India. In fact, firms like JPMorgan Chase , Wells Fargo have more employees in India than a mid-tier IT firm, with 50,000 people, representing roughly 20% of its global IT industry employed around 5.4 million professionals as of FY24, while GCCs employed nearly 1.9 million people. Net addition of talent by GCCs in FY24 stood at 90,000 and surpassed 100,000 in year, GCCs hired a total of around 110,000 people, while India's top IT companies grew their headcount by a mere 13,500 in FY25, after a reduction of 64,000 in which typically function as back office operations for large overseas companies, established their presence more firmly in India post to Ramkumar Ramamoorthy , partner at Catalincs, a tech growth advisory firm, GCCs have publicly stated that their focus to largely be on driving innovation using digital technologies, as they believe they are core to their business and they should own these capabilities.'IT services companies which were once in denial about the impact of GCCs are today proactively forming crack teams to work alongside them to jointly shape and participate in their transformation and innovation agenda,' he says alluding to the investments and acquisitions by IT firms in the GCC space.'Large IT services companies have been stuck in a low single-digit, organic revenue growth cycle for three years in a row, " he said. Prominent companies collectively generated approximately $20 billion in free cash flow last year. 'The real question we should be asking is, are these companies reinvesting enough back into the business to rewire their business, operating and financial models for accelerated growth?''With a significant portion of the revenue coming from 'run the business' as opposed to 'change the business', from time-and-material (T&M) contracts as opposed to outcome or risk-reward based contracts, from pass-through revenue from product license sale as opposed to newer service opportunities such as cyber security, interactive and platforms, companies need to take bold, unconventional decisions to force-cannibalize revenue, where appropriate, and invest their way out. If they don't act now, we risk looking back in regret for having missed a generational opportunity,' Ramamoorthy per government data, the industry had estimated revenues of $254 billion, marking a 3.8% YoY growth in FY24 (excluding e-commerce). Of this, GCCs contributed to $64.6 billion in the same period, industry body Nasscom numbers year, the government's Economic Survey also pointed out that the share of IT in India's services exports fell two percentage points over three years, while indicating an expansion of "other business services" which include GCCs of the growth has fastened at a time when the AI-led disruption is aiding more innovation and R&D work by multinationals based out of India as GCCs, which are no longer just back-office factories. Key leadership of many of these centres is based out of India making them key decision making destinations say, the 12,000 workforce layoffs announced by the largest Indian IT major TCS on Sunday is just the beginning as the Indian players are yet to get return on investments from the large AI investments made. With AI, many companies including GCCs and smaller tech firms are getting higher output with the same people.
Mint
a minute ago
- Mint
Jashvik Capital acquires stake in pharma software provider Marg ERP for over ₹400 crore
Private equity firm Jashvik Capital said on Wednesday that it has acquired a stake in pharma software provider Marg ERP for over ₹400 crore, marking the firm's fourth investment from its maiden fund, which has a target corpus of $350 million. The firm is betting on the growth of organised healthcare software as a service (SaaS) in the Indian market, where Marg ERP is currently a market leader. The healthcare software services market in India has been largely unorganised, but with tailwinds like an increasing focus on digitisation, tightening regulatory processes, and a rise in consumer trends, this space is expected to grow, founder and managing partner Naresh Patwari told Mint. 'Healthcare SaaS has been a very large opportunity globally. We think we are at the start of that super cycle in India," said Patwari. 'Our view is that while India is in the early stages of this transformation, our investment in Marg ERP is the first step in building a platform that can ride this super cycle." Jashvik Capital, a mid-market PE firm, has in the past made investments in Bharuch-based Jabsons Foods, Bengaluru-based Futura Surgicare and Hyderabad-based eye care chain Smart Vision Eye Specialities Pvt. Ltd. It is also in the process of closing an investment in pest control and home care products maker Midas Hygiene, which it had announced in February. Marg ERP, founded in 2000, is one of the country's largest ERP (enterprise resource planning) and accounting software providers for pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers. The firm currently has over 500,000 subscribers and is present in India and 32 other countries. It works largely with players across the pharmaceutical distribution chain, including wholesalers, distributors and pharmacies. It has a market share of over 50% in some segments in the distribution chain, said Patwari. 'Marg is a highly profitable, fast-growing company. Growth has been 25% over the long term and close to 40% more recently. It is a clear market leader and it can compound for the next 10-15 years. We are perhaps at the early stages of a long-term trend," he said. The firm plans to scale up Marg's operations through a mix of organic and inorganic strategies, as well as invest further in R&D, said Patwari. '...the goal is to expand, go deeper in India and to go wider internationally." API Holdings, India's largest digital healthcare platform and parent company of brands like PharmEasy, had acquired a 49% stake in Marg ERP in 2022, which the company's founders bought back in February this year.
Mint
a minute ago
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Best stock recommendations today: MarketSmith India's top picks for 30 July
On Tuesday, the Nifty 50 gained 0.57% amid a volatile session, rebounding after a three-day losing streak. The recovery was fueled by bargain buying in quality stocks, including Reliance Industries, along with strong Q1 earnings from key companies such as Asian Paints and Larsen & Toubro. Despite lingering concerns over the US-India trade negotiations and persistent foreign outflows, renewed domestic buying interest and improved risk sentiment supported a broad-based rally, helping the index close on a positive note. Two stock recommendations by MarketSmith India: Jio Financial Services Ltd (current price: ₹321.10) Why It's recommended: Rapid revenue expansion and diversification, business scale-up, and ecosystem leverage. Key metrics: P/E: 125.59 | 52-week high: ₹ 363 | Volume: ₹848 crore Technical analysis: Trending above all its key moving averages, 50-DMA bounce back, strong institutional holding. Risk factors: Valuation concern and execution pressure, intense competition, regulatory hurdles, and cost escalation. Buy: ₹310-320 Target price: ₹380 in two to three months Stop loss: ₹298 Biocon Ltd (current price: ₹397.95) Why it's recommended: Stable biosimilar performance, subsidiary Syngene showing strong growth, and robust research and development. Key metrics: P/E: 47.06 | 52-week high: ₹406 | Volume: ₹217 crore Technical analysis: Trending above all its key moving averages, cup-with-handle pivot breakout. Risk factors: Weak underlying profitability, structural pressure in generics and research services segments, execution risk, high operating leverage. Buy at: ₹380-395 Target price: ₹454 in two to three months. Stop loss: ₹368 How Nifty 50 performed on 29 July On Tuesday, the Nifty opened on a weak note but recovered steadily throughout the session, closing near the day's high. This intraday rebound led to the formation of a bullish engulfing candle on the daily chart, indicating a potential reversal. All major sectoral and broader market indices ended in positive territory. Notably, realty, pharma, metal, and energy sectors outperformed, while IT stabilized and closed flat. Market breadth improved significantly, with the advance-decline ratio turning positive and settling at 2:1. From a technical standpoint, the index found support near 24,600 and staged a recovery from the day's low. Despite the rebound, it continues to trade approximately 0.90% below its 50-DMA, indicating a prevailing negative bias. The relative strength index (RSI) has begun to tilt upward, suggesting a slight improvement in momentum. However, it remains within the bearish zone. Additionally, the MACD continues to trade below the central line with a negative crossover, reinforcing the cautious near-term outlook. According to O'Neil's methodology of market direction, market status has been downgraded to an "Uptrend Under Pressure" as the Nifty breached its "50-DMA" and the "distribution day count" rose to five. The Nifty 50 found support near 24,600 on Tuesday and ended the session with a positive bias, closing near the day's high. Looking ahead, the price zone of 24,600-24,480 will be crucial, as it represents a strong support area that could anchor any near-term pullbacks. On the upside, immediate resistance is seen at 25,000, followed by 25,300. A sustained move beyond these levels will be essential to confirm a bullish continuation. How Nifty Bank performed yesterday On Tuesday, the Nifty Bank opened on a weak note but recovered steadily throughout the session. It closed near the day's high and formed a bullish candlestick on the daily chart. Both private and PSU Banking indices ended in positive territory, with the recovery largely driven by strength in HDFC Bank. FINNIFTY index also traded with a positive bias, gaining 0.32% and forming another bullish candle on the daily chart, reflecting improved sentiment across the broader financial space. Technically, the Nifty Bank continues to trade below its 50-DMA and closed beneath it on Tuesday, reflecting sustained short-term weakness. The relative strength index (RSI) has turned upward and is currently positioned around 45, indicating a modest improvement in momentum. However, the MACD remains in a negative crossover, suggesting upside strength is limited. Despite this, according to O'Neil's methodology of market direction, the Nifty Bank remains in a 'Confirmed Uptrend,' a status it has maintained consistently over the past several weeks. This major sectoral index continues to trade in a sideways pattern, remaining range-bound between 55,800 and 57,500 over the past few weeks. On the downside, 55,800 serves as a critical support level. A decisive breach below this zone could lead to further weakness toward 55,200-55,000. On the upside, immediate resistance is placed near 56,400. A sustained breakout above this level could open the door for a move toward 57,000-57,500. Until then, the index is likely to remain choppy and directionless in the near term. MarketSmithIndia is a stock research platform and advisory service focused on the Indian stock market. It offers tools and resources to help investors make informed decisions based on the CAN SLIM methodology, founded by legendary investor William J. O'Neil. You can access a 10-day free trial by registering on its website. Trade name: William O'Neil India Pvt. Ltd. Sebi Registration No.: INH000015543 Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
