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u/m

Building a Startup Ecosystem
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India
Joined Feb 03, 2025
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u/m m · 9 hr ago

What do you do in the face of uncertainty? Get more certainty.

And probably the best way to do that is to try working on things you're interested in. That will get you more information about how interested you are in them, how good you are at them, and how much scope they offer for ambition.

Don't wait. Don't wait till the end of college to figure out what to work on. Don't even wait for internships during college. You don't necessarily need a job doing x in order to work on x; often you can just start doing it in some form yourself. And since figuring out what to work on is a problem that could take years to solve, the sooner you start, the better.

One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people?

Indeed, the difference in character between different kinds of work is magnified by the fact that everyone else is facing the same decisions as you. If you choose a kind of work mainly for how well it pays, you'll be surrounded by other people who chose it for the same reason, and that will make it even more soul-sucking than it seems from the outside. Whereas if you choose work you're genuinely interested in, you'll be surrounded mostly by other people who are genuinely interested in it, and that will make it extra inspiring.

The other thing you do in the face of uncertainty is to make choices that are uncertainty-proof. The less sure you are about what to do, the more important it is to choose options that give you more options in the future. I call this "staying upwind." If you're unsure whether to major in math or economics, for example, choose math; math is upwind of economics in the sense that it will be easier to switch later from math to economics than from economics to math.

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u/m m · 15 hr ago

Walmart-owned ecommerce major may pilot in Bengaluru by mid-2026, weighing standalone app versus ONDC route as Zomato and Swiggy dominate the market.

The move would pitch the Walmart-owned ecommerce major directly against Zomato and Swiggy in a market estimated at $9 billion in FY25 and projected to grow to $25 billion by FY30, according to Jefferies. For Flipkart, the stakes go beyond food — it is preparing for a public listing and is seeking new growth engines.

Flipkart had previously explored entering food delivery through ONDC about two years ago, alongside peers such as Ola and Paytm, but that plan did not move beyond initial discussions.

India’s food delivery market has sharply consolidated over the past few years. Zomato and Swiggy dominate the space after a series of exits by smaller players. Outside India and China, brokerages note, most major markets have stabilised into three or four operators, often led by a single dominant player.

Source: Money Control

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u/m m · 2 d ago

The government has rolled out new rules for AI content, banning illegal and harmful material while requiring clear labelling and traceable identifiers to curb misuse.

Companies are required to ensure that they do not permit the creation, publishing, or dissemination of AI-generated content that is barred under BNS, POCSO, or other laws.

Under the rules, companies are barred from permitting AI-generated content involving child sexual abuse, or material that is obscene, vulgar, or sexually explicit. They must also prevent the creation of false documents and the development or generation of explosives.

The rules mandate that AI-generated content be clearly and prominently labelled, with the label easily noticeable and adequately perceivable. Companies must also embed a unique identifier to trace the computer resource used to create, generate, or modify such content, and must not allow the AI label to be removed or altered.

Source: CNBC

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u/m m · 2 d ago

India is hosting its first major AI event — the India AI Impact Summit 2026 — in New Delhi between February 16 and 20, bringing together global technology leaders, including Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Bill Gates, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei alongside key Indian business figures like Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Nandan Nilekani, and more, as per the summit’s website.

The Indian government is hopeful that the upcoming summit will cement India’s status as a destination for large-scale AI investment. The country’s IT minister said in a recent interview that the event could help attract as much as $100 billion in investment. The federal government is also pushing domestic startups to build smaller models for local use cases, eventually reducing reliance on U.S.-based systems.

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u/m m · 3 d ago
  • Revenue down 15%
  • Loss driven by Rs 575 Cr domicile shift Rs 771 Cr directors benefit cost

Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, saw its operating scale decline 15% in FY25 and reported a net loss of Rs 479 crore for the year ended March 2025. This appears to be a rare loss for the Mumbai-based company, which was steered by a one-time tax cost of Rs 575 crore (tax) arising from the cross-border merger of Dream Sports INC and India’s Sporta Technologies, along with Rs 771 crore cost, which were booked against directors' benefits.

Source: Entrackr

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u/m m · 3 d ago

Government to launch facility soon with aim to boost renewable energy

The govt is set to launch a facility that will allow consumers to directly buy and sell electricity among themselves, with the amount adjusted in their monthly power bills.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading under the India Energy Stack (IES) will enable electricity consumers and prosumers — consumers who also generate power through renewable sources such as rooftop solar — to trade surplus renewable energy directly with other consumers, including across state boundaries. The transactions will be facilitated through a trust-based digital framework to ensure a secure, verifiable and scalable P2P energy network.

While the buyer will need a smart electricity meter, the seller must have a rooftop solar plant and a net meter to trade surplus energy. The two parties will be able to negotiate prices through a mobile application and complete the transaction. Officials said consumers will continue to receive their regular electricity bills and P2P energy trades will be reflected as cumulative adjustments within the discom billing system for both buyers and sellers. They added that the system will help prosumers easily sell surplus electricity, while buyers will get power at rates cheaper than those charged by distribution companies.

Source: TOI

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u/m m · 4 d ago

Deep tech startups in sectors such as space, semiconductors, and biotech take far longer to mature than conventional ventures. Because of that India is adjusting its startup rules, and mobilizing public capital, hoping to help more of them make it to commercial products.

This week, the Indian government updated its startup framework, doubling the period for which deep tech companies are treated as startups to 20 years and raising the revenue threshold for startup-specific tax, grant, and regulatory benefits to ₹3 billion (about $33.12 million), from ₹1 billion (around $11.04 million) previously. The change aims to align policy timelines with the long development cycles typical of science- and engineering-led businesses.

The change also forms part of New Delhi’s effort to build a long-horizon deep tech ecosystem by combining regulatory reform with public capital, including the ₹1 trillion (around $11 billion) Research, Development and Innovation Fund (RDI), announced last year. That fund is intended to expand patient financing for science-led and R&D-driven companies. Against that backdrop, U.S. and Indian venture firms later came together to launch the India Deep Tech Alliance, $1 billion-plus private investor coalition that includes Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital, Premji Invest, Ideaspring Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Kalaari Capital, with chipmaker Nvidia acting as an adviser.

For founders, these changes may fix what some see as an artificial pressure point. Under the previous framework, companies often risked losing startup status while still pre-commercial, creating a “false failure signal” that judged science-led ventures on policy timelines rather than technological progress, said Vishesh Rajaram, founding partner at Speciale Invest, an Indian deep tech venture capital firm.

More details on TechCrunch

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u/m m · 5 d ago
  • AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring social media creators to post sponsored content on apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
  • Companies including Microsoft and Google have paid creators between $400,000 and $600,000 for long-term partnerships spanning several months, CNBC has learned.
  • AI companies have increased advertising considerably, spending more than $1 billion on digital ads in the U.S. in 2025, according to Sensor Tower, up 126% from 2024.

Source: CNBC

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u/m m · 7 d ago

During 9M FY26, Urban Company
service partners earned an average ₹28.3k per month (net, in hand). Earnings scale meaningfully with performance: the top 20% earned ₹42.4k, the top 10% ₹47.4k, and the top 5% ₹51.6k per month, after removing commissions, taxes, fees, travel, and product costs.

Beyond earnings, all active service partners are covered under group life and accident insurance, including life cover up to ₹10 lakh, disability cover up to ₹6 lakh, and accidental hospitalization and OPD coverage.

Source: Urban Company

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u/m m · 8 d ago

Google’s parent company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet, according to people familiar with the deal. The first tower is expected to open to employees in the coming months, while construction on the remaining two is set to conclude next year.

Source: Bloomberg

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