Latest news with #Indian-origin
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Meet Sudarshan Gopaladesikan: Indian-origin performance analyst who went from working for Infosys to joining Premier League giant Newcastle United
Newcastle United have made an interesting backroom addition with Sudarshan Gopaladesikan joining as Technical Director (Support Services). The Indian-origin expert brings years of experience in elite sports performance. His role will focus on improving player fitness, recovery, and preparation, areas that have become crucial in modern football's demanding calendar. A remarkable journey across sports Sudarshan started his career with an Infosys internship before moving to the US for a PhD in biokinesiology and physical therapy at the University of Southern California. He specialised in human movement and injury prevention. His first big break came with Major League Baseball side Los Angeles Dodgers. We have appointed Sudarshan Gopaladesikan as our new Technical Director 🤝Sudarshan joins after leaving Atalanta, where he was Director of Football Intelligence, and will lead football data operations for our men's, women's and Academy to Newcastle United, Suds! After his MLB stint, he joined the English Institute of Sport, working with Olympic athletes. That paved his path into football, first with Manchester City's City Football Group as Lead Data Scientist, focusing on player performance and injury analytics. Later, he became Head of Sports Science and Data at Chelsea. From Infosys to Premier League: Joining Newcastle United at 36 Sudarshan Gopaladesikan, now 36, is Newcastle's latest recruit in their push to strengthen off-pitch operations. Club CEO Darren Eales praised him as an 'innovative, forward-thinking leader' with a proven track record across multiple sports. His appointment also adds rare Indian representation in Premier League technical teams. So proud that someone of Indian origin is doing something massive in football. Sudarshan worked in Bengaluru for a while earlier in his life and he is such a role model for those in India who want to make it to the big leagues in football. Gopaladesikan expressed excitement at joining a club with 'a unique connection between the team, city, and fans.' He won't be involved in transfers but will be key in ensuring players stay fit and ready to compete at the highest level. Newcastle's long-term vision just got a significant boost with his expertise.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
AI startup Composio raises $25 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
Soham Ganatra and Karan Vaidya BENGALURU: Composio, a San Francisco-based infrastructure startup has raised $25 million in its latest round of funding as it aims to build foundational tools to make artificial intelligence (AI) agents capable of learning through experience. The integration startup, which simplifies how AI agents and large language models (LLMs) connect with external applications and services, was founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Soham Ganatra and Karan Vaidya. The latest $25 million Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah, Marathon Management Partners founding partner Gokul Rajaram, Rubrik founder Soham Mazumdar and institutional investors including SV Angel, Blitzscaling Ventures, Operator Partners and Agent Fund. Existing backers Elevation Capital and Together Fund also participated in the round. The startup had previously raised $4 million in seed funding. Composio is building what it describes as a shared learning layer for AI agents, enabling them to accumulate and transfer practical knowledge across workflows. For instance, when an agent learns how to handle a Salesforce or GitHub edge case, that insight becomes instantly available across the network, making agents more useful over time rather than remaining static. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Up to 70% off | Shop Sale Libas Undo 'You can spend hundreds of hours building LLM tools, tweaking prompts, and refining instructions, but you hit a wall,' said Ganatra, CEO of Composio. 'These models don't get better at their jobs the way a human employee would. We're solving this at the infrastructure level.' The company began building its stack in 2022 and has since tackled challenges around multi-agent coordination, secure authentication and scalable architecture. A core component of the platform is its reinforcement learning layer which is designed to help AI develop intuition. Composio's tools have attracted over 100,000 developers and more than 200 companies, including Glean and several Y Combinator startups such as April, OpenNote, Airweave, Den and Dash. With the new funding, Composio said plans to deepen its learning infrastructure and expand integrations with AI frameworks such as Supabase MCP, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK and OpenAI Agents. 'Composio is building the missing layer that makes AI agents genuinely useful in production,' said Raviraj Jain, partner at Lightspeed. 'By enabling agents to learn from experience, they're bridging the gap between impressive demos and real-world deployment.' Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Time of India
'Racist attack': Indian national beaten, partially stripped in Ireland; envoy demands justice
Representative image (X @TallaghtAF) An Indian-origin man was brutally assaulted and partially stripped by a group of attackers in Tallaght, Dublin, on Saturday evening in what authorities and local leaders are calling a suspected racist attack. The man, in his 40s, who had arrived in Ireland just three weeks earlier, suffered visible injuries to his face, arms, and legs and was seen bleeding heavily in photos circulated online. He was taken to Tallaght University Hospital for treatment and discharged early Sunday morning. Garda, Irish National Police, confirmed that they were alerted to the incident around 6 pm on Parkhill Road and have since launched an investigation. No arrests have been made yet. India's Ambassador to Ireland, Akhilesh Mishra, condemned the assault on social media platform X, writing, "How can an "ALLEGED" assault cause such horrible injury & bleeding?" He thanked the Irish public and Garda for their support and urged swift justice for the victim. According to Garda sources as cited by The Irish Times, false rumours that the man had acted inappropriately around children were spread online, including by known far-right and anti-immigrant accounts. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dubai's Next Icon: Experience Binghatti Aquarise Luxury Binghatti Developers FZE Learn More Undo Authorities have confirmed there is no truth to these claims. Local Fine Gael councillor Baby Pereppadan met the victim on Monday and said he remained in deep shock. . "He couldn't speak much because of the shock he was in, he only arrived in Ireland three weeks ago. He is not taking any visitors at the moment,' Pereppadan said, as quoted by the Irish Independent. Calling for increased police presence, he added: "People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills." Investigators believe some of the suspects may be linked to other recent unprovoked attacks on foreign nationals in the Tallaght area. The case remains under active investigation.
Time of India
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Los Angeles-based production manager Deep Barot creates a buzz in film circles with his work
Indian-origin production manager and filmmaker Deep Barot is quickly gaining recognition in independent film circles for his precise and emotionally resonant work, most recently with the short film Silent Cycle. The 12-minute drama, directed by Smahi Anand, has quietly made waves on the international film festival circuit — from Beverly Hills to Ayodhya — earning praise for its restrained storytelling and psychological depth. But while audiences have connected with the film's meditation on loneliness and disconnection, much of its success is being credited to the man behind the scenes: Deep Barot. Barot, who is based in Los Angeles, has emerged as a key figure in cross-cultural indie productions, particularly for his ability to execute tightly-run, high-impact shoots on limited budgets. For Silent Cycle, he served as the production manager and producer, overseeing the film's five-day shoot in upstate New York with a lean crew and minimal resources. 'The story demanded more from stillness than it did from action,' said director Smahi Anand. 'And Deep was the one who made that stillness come alive on set.' Crew members have echoed that sentiment, describing Barot's meticulous planning as essential to the production's smooth execution. 'Every moment was scheduled to the second,' one team member noted. 'In minimalist cinema, even a small misstep can derail the tone. Deep ensured we never lost control.' The results have spoken for themselves. Silent Cycle has earned several accolades, including Best Original Screenplay at the Boston International Film Festival, Best Woman Director at the Ayodhya Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Award at the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival. It has also screened at the Beverly Hills, Chicago South Asian, Yellowstone, and Pasadena International Film Festivals, and is currently advancing in the selection process for the BAFTA Student Awards. Beyond the awards, the emotional resonance of the film has struck a chord. At a screening in Chicago, an elderly couple reportedly approached the filmmakers to express how deeply the film had affected them. 'This was the first film in years that made me feel understood,' one of them said. Barot, who was seated at the back of the auditorium that evening, recalls the moment as a career-defining one. 'You don't always know if people will feel what you feel when you make something this small, this internal,' he said. 'But when they do — it stays with you.' Though Barot has previously worked on larger-scale productions — including music videos like VIBE (Guru Randhawa x French Montana) and Tell Me (Karan Aujla x OneRepublic ft. Disha Patani) — Silent Cycle marked a departure, demanding patience, sensitivity, and a willingness to step back from spectacle. 'This film asked us to breathe with the characters,' he said. 'Every shot had to carry the weight of the ones we didn't take.' Looking ahead, Barot has a packed slate, including an upcoming feature film and a high-profile music video with Diljit Dosanjh. Still, Silent Cycle holds a special place in his journey. 'It reminded me of why I got into this industry,' he said. 'Not for the noise. For the silences.' In an era dominated by visual effects and large-scale productions, Barot's work on Silent Cycle underscores a quiet truth in filmmaking: sometimes, less is more.
NDTV
14 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
Who Is Gita Gopinath, IMF's No 2 Economist Set To Return To Harvard
Indian-origin economist Gita Gopinath will step down as the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of August. She will return to Harvard University as a professor of economics, the IMF said on Monday. Calling her stint at the IMF a "once in a lifetime opportunity," Ms Gopinath thanked IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, who appointed her as chief economist. "I now return to my roots in academia," she said, "to continue pushing the research frontier in international finance and macroeconomics." Who Is Gita Gopinath? Gita Gopinath was born on December 8, 1971 in Kolkata, India, into a Malayali Hindu Nair family from Kannur, Kerala. She is related to the late communist party politician A K Gopalan. Ms Gopinath studied at Nirmala Convent School in Mysuru and earned her BA in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College in 1992, followed by an MA from the Delhi School of Economics in 1994. She received a second MA from the University of Washington in 1996 and completed her PhD in Economics at Princeton in 2001. In 2001, she joined the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as an assistant professor. In 2005, she moved to Harvard University's economics department, where she later became the John Zwanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics. Gita Gopinath became the first woman to serve as Chief Economist of the IMF in October 2018. During the COVID-19 crisis, she co-authored the Fund's "Pandemic Paper," which led to the formation of a Multilateral Task Force with the World Bank, WHO, and WTO. In June 2021, she joined the World Bank-IMF High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery. The IMF promoted her to First Deputy Managing Director in December 2021. She also co-directed the International Finance and Macroeconomics Programme at NBER and advised the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York. Ms Gopinath served as economic adviser to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. She was appointed to this honorary role in July 2016. Ms Gopinath is a naturalised American citizen and holds Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status. She is married to Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, a classmate from the Delhi School of Economics, and they have a son named Rohil, born in 2002.
