Innholdsfortegnelse for 28 May 2023 i Business Today

Till a few years ago, terms like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) were relatively unknown in a world beyond deep tech. As technology leapfrogs and becomes widespread around the world, we are today confronted with what is perhaps one of the most important issues not just relating to the world of technology, but of humankind itself. The advent of ChatGPT, the generative AI tool developed by OpenAI, which together with others of similar ilk, has the possibility of changing the world as we know it. GPT—or generative pre-trained transformer—can quickly absorb and mimic human-like responses by deep learning garnered from millions of sources it absorbs from. This form of AI is a quantum leap in technology and has the potential to make far-reaching changes across healthcare, financial services,…

▶ MARKET RESEARCH PLATFORM Unomer has found brands like Dream11, Tata Neu, RuPay, JioMart, CRED, Tiago.ev, AJIO, CEAT, Asian Paints, Airtel 5G, etc. to be some of the most visible brands during the broadcast of IPL matches this year. Notice any pattern? Unlike last year, this year’s crop of advertisers has a healthy mix of legacy and new-age firms. Experts point out that apart from the usual suspects like FMCG, auto and telecom majors, this year’s tournament has seen a drastic cut compared to last year when it comes to advertising from new-age firms like BYJU’S and Unacademy, PhonePe, Amazon Prime, Pristyn Care, Zepto, Ather, Meesho and Cars24, among others. Harish Bijoor, Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults, says one reason could be the funding winter the start-up ecosystem is going…

WHERE THE MIND HARBOURS fear, demons fly in. “In a post-apocalyptic world, the few surviving humans lived in fear of the sentient AI that now controlled the ruins of civilisation. The machines had become twisted and malevolent, hunting down any humans they could find, and turning them into fuel for their own survival.” This is not a narration from a chilly Nolanesque movie. It’s not from a dystopian novel, either. It’s a two-line horror story ‘written’ by ChatGPT, the new generative AI chatbot created by OpenAI that has got everyone delighted with its possibilities, and equally struck extreme fear amongst us, including the high and mighty. The end of humanity is nigh, they say. ‘They’ are not dooms-day-predicting punks or lunatics with crazed eyes pounding your town square. They are…

MY ASSIGNMENTS NOW only take about 15 minutes. I enter my topic in ChatGPT, try a couple of commands to make my essays crisp and readable, and that’s it. My assignment is done,” says Vineeta Roy, a student of Mass Media in a Mumbai college. According to Harshika Mehta, a teacher at Mumbai University, AI can also help teachers address student needs better. “AI-powered tools like ChatGPT can analyse student data and provide teachers with insights into student performance, helping them create personalised learning plans for each student,” she says. Edtech companies are also jumping on the bandwagon. Coursera is creating a ChatGPT virtual coach to answer questions, give feedback, summarise video lectures, give career advice, and prepare students for job interviews. This feature will be available in the coming months.…

YOU CALL AN HDFC BANK call centre. Lady AI responds: Namaskar, welcome to HDFC Bank. You: Mera credit card balance batayein. (What is my credit card balance?) Lady AI: You want to know your credit card outstanding balance, is that correct? You: Haan. (Yes.) After confirming your identity, Lady AI announces your card balance to you. If the call drops midway and you redial, you are reminded of the last interruption. You want to pay bills? Lady AI will instantly send you a payment link via SMS. Job done. No human intervention. Customer service in banks has evolved from traditional call centres to interactive voice recordings (IVR) to AI-powered bots. And the latter are getting smarter by the day. Lady AI (an imagined name) is part of a new generation of AI…

IF YOU’RE ONE of the millions of IPL fans relishing the high-octane excitement of the cricket tournament on JioCinema, chances are you’ve seen Rapido’s ‘Bike Wali Taxi Sabse Saxi (bike-taxis are the best)’ advertising blitz. One of the ads features a young woman ditching a dreadfully crowded bus in favour of the nimble two-wheeler taxi service that arrives in moments. The underlying message is clear—bike-taxis are affordable, convenient and safe. “But which city are they advertising it for?” asks a senior executive at the bike-taxi vertical of one of the leading cab aggregators, who wishes to remain anonymous. “In Delhi and Maharashtra, they are banned. In Bengaluru and many other cities, they are a risk because auto unions wouldn’t let their riders operate.” The ad campaign has been launched amidst…

Sridhar Vembu, the CEO and Co-founder of SaaS player Zoho Corporation, made the unusual trek from Silicon Valley to a village in the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu much before working from home became a thing. That’s not the only thing that sets his digital company apart from its peers. Zoho, a globally successful player, has never raised mind-boggling sums of money—in fact it has never raised funding. Vembu, who is the ultimate bootstrapped billionaire, has no interest in valuations, he tells Business Today’s Global Business Editor Udayan Mukherjee in a freewheeling interview. The Zoho CEO explains why the company will stay private, why it is important to nurture talent and why it is difficult to define moonlighting. Edited excerpts: Q: You’ve always stayed away from venture capital funding and private equity…

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, it’s there. Hanging from shopfronts, littering the sidewalks, strategically hidden around our houses, filling our dump yards, etc. Plastics have permeated our lives like hardly anything else in modern society. While plastics are used by all of us, most do not understand how seriously the material disrupts our fragile environment. And while awareness has definitely increased over the years, very little has been achieved in terms of eliminating or reducing its usage. Further, looking at how extensively plastics are used, a solution to the problems of overuse, disposal and recycling has largely eluded us. It is in search of answers to these questions like these that Harsh Mariwala, Chairman of fast-moving consumer goods company Marico, established a not-for-profit entity called Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) in 2003 to…

RIDE IT RIGHT Carrying along a heavy suitcase is tiring. But what if your suitcase could carry you around? This nifty carry-on baggage supports passengers up to 117 kg. With a throttle, brakes, and easy to use telescopic handlebar to steer the suitcase, navigate the airport with ease. With a top speed of 12.8 km/hr, the lithium batteries have a range of 9.6 km when carrying an 80-kg rider. While it charges to 80 per cent in just 15 minutes, it takes two hours for a full charge. Do remember though that you’ll have to pay for excess baggage as this cabin luggage weighs 9 kg when empty. But you’ll sure turn a few heads at the airport. Available on: shop.modobag.com Impression Matters We know it’s a pain remembering the combination to…

What was the problem you were grappling with? The non-life insurance industry underwent a host of changes during the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector also witnessed myriad challenges as we tried to cope with the aftermath. One of the prominent survival mechanisms was adopting an accelerated evolution of digital capabilities. But, the challenge was to find leaders who have a digital-first approach and are equally aligned with the organisation’s digital vision, thus capable of implementing such transformation and translating it into organisational growth. Whom did you approach for advice and why? Since the problem was transformational, it was difficult to deal with it with experience, but it could be solved by inspiration. We drew inspiration from global parallels and looked at our diverse peer set to understand the right approach to…

▶ UK-BASED COFFEEHOUSE chain Pret A Manger recently jumped into the Indian market with its first store in Mumbai’s BKC. The brand—that sells organic coffee and ready-to-eat foods—has chosen India as its 10th market to rapidly scale operations in the next few years. With Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL)—a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures—as its master franchise partner, Pret’s foray has come at a time when leading coffee chain operators in India are turning bullish about the country in anticipation of steady growth. Per industry estimates, the Indian coffee-house market, currently pegged at $3.2 billion, is growing at a CAGR of 9 per cent and it is expected to touch $4.2 billion (₹34,000 crore) by 2025. Calling it the “most ambitious global franchise partnership”, Pret’s CEO Pano Christou had said in…

➔ FOUNDED: November 2005 ➔ CEO: Kaushik Khona ➔ FLEET SIZE: 59 (54 Airbus A320neo, 5 Airbus A320ceo) ➔ GROUNDED AIRCRAFT: 25 Airbus A320neo ➔ PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR (MAR ’23): 90.2% ➔ ON-TIME PERFORMANCE: 49.2% ➔ NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 7,000+ ➔ BANKS’ EXPOSURE: ₹6,521 crore (Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, IDBI Bank, Deutsche Bank) ➔ DEFAULTS TO OPERATIONAL CREDITORS: ₹3,862 crore (Vendors ₹1,202 crore + Lessors ₹2,660 crore) Source DGCA, BT Research…

ON DECEMBER 22, 2022, Apollo Hospitals, in partnership with telecom services provider Bharti Airtel, conducted India’s first 5G-driven, AI-guided colonoscopy trials. As per current protocol, colon cancer is detected through a manual colonoscopy procedure and requires great attention and time for accurate detection. Not only is the procedure 30-40 minutes long, it is discomforting for patients, and also for doctors and nurses. The trials showed the new tech in good light—the procedure was done in greatly reduced time. There’s more to come. “Google Cloud’s analytical systems will help Apollo manage data of over 14 million patients and analyse their health patterns to serve them better,” says Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director of Google Cloud India. “Through this, doctors will be able to leverage data-driven clinical insights and this will help build…

STUART RUSSELL, Professor of Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley, who has been an AI researcher for 45 years, in an interaction with BT, says that while artificial intelligence can be hugely beneficial, it also has the potential to disrupt the world in a bad way if guard rails are not put in place. Edited excerpts: Let’s talk about the open letter to halt the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 and develop guardrails. What prompted you to sign this letter? We’re calling for a halt on the deployment of large language models (LLMs) that are more powerful than the ones that have already been released. And the reason is simple: we do not understand how these systems work. So, what is an LLM? It’s a computer…

1 RAPIDO HAS ESTABLISHED LEADERSHIP IN THE BIKE-TAXI MARKET WITH OVER 60 PER CENT MARKET SHARE 2 OUTSIDE BIKE-TAXI SERVICES, RAPIDO HAS PARTNERED WITH SWIGGY, AMAZON, AND JIOMART TO PROVIDE ITS CAPTAINS WITH AMPLE WORK THROUGH THE DAY 3 PEGGED AT $50.5 MILLION IN 2021, THE INDIAN BIKE-TAXI MARKET IS ESTIMATED TO REACH $1.47 BILLION BY 2030, PER ALLIED MARKET RESEARCH 4 RAPIDO IS WORKING TO TRANSITION ITS FLEET FROM TRADITIONAL ICE VEHICLES TO ELECTRIC TWO-WHEELERS THE ADVENT OF BIKE-TAXIS HAS CAUSED THE INCOME OF AUTORICKSHAW DRIVERS TO FALL BY AROUND 40 PER CENT…

WHEN RAM SINGHAL, a 68-year-old retiree, received the renewal letter for his health insurance policy, he didn’t think much of it. But on reading it, he found that his premiums had gone up significantly. “My premiums have jumped by 30 per cent. I am exploring options on how to manage them,” he says. Health insurance premiums have risen sharply over the past few years, with the rise in health insurance claims. Per the latest annual report of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, there is an increase in incurred claims ratio (the proportion of claims paid by health insurers against total premiums received) of health business—from 94 per cent in 2020-21 to 109 per cent in 2021-22. “Health insurance claims have risen in the past few of years. Post…

I have often said I see myself as a ferryman between the past and the future. India is such a reservoir of history, art and culture—and I believe that for culture to be relevant it needs to be dynamic,” says Sabyasachi Mukherjee, one of the country’s leading fashion designers. And his most recent store in Mumbai, which opened to the public on April 18, is a manifestation of this vision. The brand’s largest flagship yet, the store is sprawled over 25,000 sq. ft and housed in the majestic neo-classical ICP Fort Heritage building off Horniman Circle. “I think when you truly know who you are, the aesthetic just follows. When I saw the heritage landmark building, I knew this was the perfect location… to capture the sensibility behind my stores,…

▸ There is just one bench of SAT in Mumbai. It is manned by a presiding officer—a retired judge—and two members, one judicial and one technical ▸ Currently, the tribunal is one member short, as the tenure of Justice M.T. Joshi ended on February 3 and his replacement has not been announced yet ▸ The all-important tribunal has remained headless for a long period in the past ▸ The bench currently has the presiding officer, Justice Tarun Agarwala, and technical member Meera Swarup, who belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Audit & Accounts Service ▸ Experts believe that staff shortages at the tribunal could affect the pace of dispute resolution…

IN HIS OVER THREE-DECADE career at ABB, Sanjeev Sharma has seen the automation story from close quarters. While the various automation technologies were disruptive in their own ways, AI, he thinks, has been much easier to adapt. Hard to believe, perhaps, but Sharma, ABB India’s Country Head & Managing Director, says that the relative effort is lower, provided one is clear about the outcome. “It is very different from the time when we bought software or went about the process of configuring it. Insights in AI are quick and profound.” The underlying theme at each stage for manufacturing, be it Industry 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 or now 5.0 using cobots (robots that can collaborate with humans), has one common thread—increase productivity. The big moment for AI, according to Sharma, was around…