Latest news with #Saxena
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
InMobi's Mohit Saxena on building an indigenous tech stack in the AI age at ET Soonicorns Summit 2025
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills As India accelerates its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions, the question is no longer just what we build, but how we build it. At the Economic Times Soonicorns Summit 2025, Mohit Saxena, Co-founder of InMobi, will take the spotlight in a fireside chat exploring a timely provocation: Can India build its tech stack from the ground up for the AI age?His session, 'Building a New Indigenous Tech Stack in the AI Age', comes at a time when questions of code sovereignty, AI infra ownership, and local optimisation are gaining urgency. For engineers, product leaders, and deep-tech founders, this promises to be a session rooted not in theory—but in the architectural realities of building AI from first ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 in Bengaluru puts a sharper lens on scale: From Lab to Revenue—The Billion-Dollar Blueprint for Scaling Indian AI where Mohit Saxena's fireside chat could offer a timely completes 20 years since its inception, tracing its evolution from its early days as a mobile advertising network to its current phase of building a generative AI-powered commerce platform through Glance became a unicorn in 2011—well before such achievements were commonly celebrated in India's startup ecosystem. Over time, that early breakthrough gained recognition at the national InMobi has over 2,000 employees and a growing presence across AI, commerce, and advertising, and with it Mohit Saxena is primed to share his founder-builder journey. At a time when most startups were riding software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud APIs, Saxena went the hard way: assembling a world-class tech stack Saxena, who brings experience in scaling infrastructure-led innovation, to dive deep into what it takes to build and own your stack in a world dominated by hyperscalers and open-source dependencies, especially as AI shifts the ground beneath every tech co-founder of InMobi and a hands-on engineering leader, Mohit Saxena brings a rare blend of technical rigour and scale experience. At the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, his Fireside chat is expected to offer sharp insights for India's next wave of startup a startup landscape increasingly shaped by pre-built APIs and plug-and-play AI models, Saxena is expected to explore why India's next generation of AI startups may need to invest in building foundational code and infrastructure. Rather than chasing marginal gains through better prompts, Saxena may argue that deeper breakthroughs will come from stronger architectural pipes—purpose-built, scalable, and generative AI models and global open-source tools at everyone's fingertips, Saxena may argue that it's no longer enough to assemble. The real value lies in solving India-first problems with original logic layers—whether in local language UX, on-device inference, or real-time analytics for low-bandwidth compute shortages to data sovereignty, India's AI startup ecosystem is hitting infrastructure chokepoints. Expect Saxena to reflect on whether Indian startups can reduce external dependencies—by building internal DevOps maturity, exploring alternative hardware architectures, or rethinking their cloud from his experience scaling InMobi's ad tech engines and data platforms, Saxena might discuss how AI should be embedded deeply into the software stack—not just used for add-on features like chatbots. This means viewing AI as an operating logic that informs business decisions, not just has the engineering talent—but do early-stage startups have the right toolchains and frameworks to harness it effectively? This session could offer grounded advice on setting up internal platforms, balancing speed with scalability, and navigating the trade-offs between open-source and custom Saxena may speak candidly about leadership in the AI age—what it takes to scale a tech-first organisation when the ground beneath is shifting. Whether it's hiring for adaptability, managing burnout, or prioritising long-term architecture over short-term wins, his experience will resonate with founders navigating similar scale be held on 22 August 2025 in Bengaluru, this year's ET Soonicorns Summit is India's largest gathering of Summit promises hard-won lessons from both labs and boardrooms fueling India's innovation will dissect how India's next-generation startups are integrating AI not as a headline gimmick, but as a serious lever for growth, valuation, and global positioning. Here's a preview of the agenda shaping the country's soonicorn-to-unicorn pipeline:Sessions will unpack India's ambitions in foundational AI—spanning GenAI (generative) startups, large language models (LLMs) built for Bharat-scale, and indigenous tech stacks. From agentic models and data infrastructure to capital flows into core science, the focus is on whether Indian startups can lead the AI era—not merely adapt to 2025 the breakout year for India's AI-native startups? Investor roundtables will analyse funding shifts, asking whether capital is backing deep tech moonshots or favouring vertical AI models with near-term return on investment (ROI). Expect sharp takes from top VCs and AI company founders on what it will take to back generational AI ventures from product and models, Indian AI startups now face the uphill task of scaling talent, building defensible IP, and navigating regulatory grey zones. These sessions will decode playbooks for building IPO-readiness, spotlighting how startups are tackling compliance, global go-to-market GTM strategies, and deep technical hiring to build AI companies with staying you're a product manager figuring out how to integrate AI, a founder planning your first LLM, or a CTO tired of third-party limitations—this could be your a world where every startup is racing to build the next ChatGPT, Mohit Saxena is pausing to ask a deeper question: Should India build its own stack before it builds its own stars?On August 22, come hear why that question matters now more than now for the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 in Bengaluru and join a Fireside chat that might just light the way for India's next billion-dollar idea.360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025.(This article is generated and published by the ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them at etspotlight@ .)
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Delhi govt likely to do away with need for health trade licence from MCD to open eateries
New Delhi, In a measure to boost the hospitality sector in the national capital, the Delhi government is likely to soon do away with the requirement of obtaining a health trade licence from the civic body for opening restaurants and eateries in the city. Lt Governor V K Saxena, speaking at the "Expresso" event hosted by The Indian Express on Friday, said the requirement of the license for opening restaurants in the city is being abolished. No immediate reaction from the Delhi government or the Municipal Corporation of Delhi ( MCD ) was available on the development. Recently, the Delhi government did away with the need to obtain ' Eating House Registration and Lodging Certificate' from the police by hotels, clubs, restaurants and guest houses for getting a license to serve liquor. The L-G, last month, withdrew the sanction granted to the Delhi Police Commissioner for the issuance of the eating house registration certificate under an ease-of-doing-business initiative. Speaking at the "Expresso" event, Saxena emphasised promoting ease of doing business and said the MCD licenses would not be required by the restaurants. Currently, obtaining a health trade license from the MCD to open restaurants in Delhi is a must. The process consumes several weeks of paperwork and follow-up activity, said a restaurateur . If this requirement is removed, now only fire safety permission will be required if anyone wants to open a restaurant in Delhi, he said. PTI
The Print
2 days ago
- Business
- The Print
Delhi govt likely to do away with need for health trade licence from MCD to open eateries
No immediate reaction from the Delhi government or the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was available on the development. Lt Governor V K Saxena, speaking at the 'Expresso' event hosted by The Indian Express on Friday, said the requirement of the license for opening restaurants in the city is being abolished. New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) In a measure to boost the hospitality sector in the national capital, the Delhi government is likely to soon do away with the requirement of obtaining a health trade licence from the civic body for opening restaurants and eateries in the city. Recently, the Delhi government did away with the need to obtain 'Eating House Registration and Lodging Certificate' from the police by hotels, clubs, restaurants and guest houses for getting a license to serve liquor. The L-G, last month, withdrew the sanction granted to the Delhi Police Commissioner for the issuance of the eating house registration certificate under an ease-of-doing-business initiative. Speaking at the 'Expresso' event, Saxena emphasised promoting ease of doing business and said the MCD licenses would not be required by the restaurants. Currently, obtaining a health trade license from the MCD to open restaurants in Delhi is a must. The process consumes several weeks of paperwork and follow-up activity, said a restaurateur. If this requirement is removed, now only fire safety permission will be required if anyone wants to open a restaurant in Delhi, he said. PTI VIT NSD NSD This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Delhi may scrap MCD health trade licence rule for opening new eateries
In a measure to boost the hospitality sector in the national capital, the Delhi government is likely to soon do away with the requirement of obtaining a health trade licence from the civic body for opening restaurants and eateries in the city. Lt Governor VK Saxena, speaking at the "Expresso" event hosted by The Indian Express on Friday, said the requirement of the license for opening restaurants in the city is being abolished. No immediate reaction from the Delhi government or the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was available on the development. Recently, the Delhi government did away with the need to obtain 'Eating House Registration and Lodging Certificate' from the police by hotels, clubs, restaurants and guest houses for getting a license to serve liquor. The L-G, last month, withdrew the sanction granted to the Delhi Police Commissioner for the issuance of the eating house registration certificate under an ease-of-doing-business initiative. Speaking at the "Expresso" event, Saxena emphasised promoting ease of doing business and said the MCD licenses would not be required by the restaurants. Currently, obtaining a health trade license from the MCD to open restaurants in Delhi is a must. The process consumes several weeks of paperwork and follow-up activity, said a restaurateur. If this requirement is removed, now only fire safety permission will be required if anyone wants to open a restaurant in Delhi, he said.
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Delhi plans to scrap MCD restaurant licence to boost ease of business
Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena has said that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) licence requirement for restaurants is being scrapped to promote ease of doing business. Speaking at an event by The Indian Express, Saxena said, 'Today, there is a need for ease of doing business… People should not have to come to the government, the government should go to the people.' He added that the licensing system in Delhi has ended and that three-star and four-star hotels are now allowed to operate 24/7. Until now, restaurants were required to obtain a Health Trade Licence from the MCD, which had to be renewed every year. Just last month, the L-G had also issued a notification removing the requirement of Delhi Police clearance for businesses like hotels and restaurants. Encroachments and freebies hurting Delhi: Kant India's G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, who shared the stage with Saxena, flagged encroachments and freebies as major concerns in the capital. He said that politicians in Delhi have often promoted encroachments, especially ahead of elections when such settlements are regularised. Once established, these encroachments become extremely difficult to remove, he said, as quoted by the news report. Delhi govt scraps police approval for hotels, pools The Delhi government has officially removed the requirement for police clearance for seven types of commercial activities. These include hotels, swimming pools, restaurants, discotheques, video game parlours, amusement parks, and auditoriums, news agency PTI had reported. This move stems from an order issued on June 19 by the L-G. Using his powers under Section 28(2) and Section 4 of the Delhi Police Act, 1978, Saxena annulled several long-standing police regulations. These rules had been in place for decades — dating back to 1980 in the case of swimming pools — and included recent guidelines introduced in 2023 for establishments like hotels and restaurants. Restaurants can't enforce service charge: Delhi HC In March this year, the Delhi High Court ruled that restaurants and hotels cannot compel customers to pay a service charge or tip, stating that doing so infringes on consumer rights. 'Service charge or tip, as it is colloquially referred to, is a voluntary payment by the customer. It cannot be compulsory or mandatory. The practice undertaken by the restaurant establishments of collecting service charge, that too on a mandatory basis, in a coercive manner, would be contrary to consumer interest and is violative of consumer rights,' said Justice Pratibha M Singh. The Delhi High Court backed the Central Consumer Protection Authority's (CCPA) 2022 guidelines, which bars hotels and restaurants from adding service charges to food bills by default or automatically. The court said that the enforcement of such charges often happens in a coercive manner, leading to confusion among customers. Many are unable to distinguish between government-imposed taxes, such as service tax or GST, and the service charge or tips added by restaurants. 'In fact, for the consumers, the collection of service charge is proving to be a double whammy — they are forced to pay service tax and GST on the service charge as well. This position cannot be ignored by the court,' the court observed in its order.
