Hello,The Reserve Bank of India kept the status quo—and its key repo rate—unchanged, boosted by a positive economic outlook and easing external headwinds.The RBI’s six-member monetary policy committee voted unanimously to keep the rate at 5.25%, with the monetary policy stance remaining ¨neutral¨. Some good news for small businesses: The RBI has also proposed doubling the limit on collateral-free loans for small enterprises as a means of strengthening last-mile lending.The real estate sector also gets some benefits, with banks now being allowed to lend to real estate investment trusts under prudential safeguards.Coming to Big Tech, Amazon shares dropped after the company unveiled plans to spend $200 billion this year on data centres, chips, and other equipment. Primarily, investors fear that its massive AI bet may not pan out in the long run. Are tech giants locked in a fast-escalating arms race in building AI infrastructure? The Big 4 companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft—have together forecast capital expenditures of a mind-boggling $650 billion in 2026 for data centres and other AI equipment.Component manufacturers have been the biggest winners from all this. The semiconductor industry will reach $1 trillion in revenue this year for the first time, boosted by the AI boom and…  ​Read More​YourStory RSS Feed

Launched in 2014, PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 945 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.The Bangalore International Centre (BIC) is host once again to the annual crafts exhibition by Project Tarasha, a social initiative by Titan Company in collaboration with Creative Dignity. See our coverage of earlier exhibitions from the past six years at BIC here. The Mumbai edition of the exhibition was held at The Vintage Garden in Bandra (West) last month. The exhibition series is aimed at empowering rural ‘craftpreneurs’ to create sustainable craft businesses in modern markets (see our photo essay on last year’s Bengaluru edition here).  Also Read2026 Outlook: AI, robotics, biotech, unicorns and the road aheadThe name Tarasha translates roughly to ‘chiselled’ or ‘carved’. It evokes precision, careful shaping, and transformation. The initiative helps digitally empower artisans by helping them establish and promote an online presence, improve financial planning, and access new markets without losing their cultural heritage.The exhibition in Bengaluru spans four days, becoming a full-scale celebration of craft and appreciation of the larger story of artisan empowerment. It promotes craft as…  ​Read More​YourStory RSS Feed

In 2019, Government College of Engineering Kannur students—Atthri Anand, Vishnu B Raj, and Sayanth NS—participated in an innovation challenge, where they conceptualised a robot to help farmers autonomously remove weeds from crops. “As we explored the problem deeper by interacting with farmers and understanding on-ground realities, we realised that the challenge wasn’t just labour or mechanisation, it was the lack of timely, reliable, and hyperlocal decision-making support,” Anand tells YourStory. Building on that insight, the trio co-founded agritech startup Deepflow Technologies later that year, which utilises AI and deeptech solutions to address critical issues faced by farmers in India. “What started as a robotics idea gradually evolved into a broader mission: using data, intelligence, and automation to empower farmers and supporting stakeholders to make better decisions amid climate uncertainty,” he adds. The Kannur-based startup employs nine people with Anand as CEO, Raj as CTO, and Sayanth as CPO—all residing in Kerala, close to farms, plantations, and field ecosystems. It is incubated at IIM Bangalore’s NSRCEL, which Anand says gives the startup access to mentorship, strategic guidance, and the broader startup ecosystem.Developing an integrated agri-intelligence ecosystemDeepflow’s products are designed as an integrated agri-intelligence ecosystem that combines on-ground data collection with digital decision support for farmers,…  ​Read More​YourStory RSS Feed

Venture capital funding into Indian startups rose marginally in the first week of February, and it was largely due to two reasonably sized transactions, but fund inflow continues to remain restricted, revealing the challenges for the ecosystem.The total VC funding for the week stood at $191 million across 20 transactions. In contrast, the previous week saw capital inflow of $152 million from 22 deals. There is a direct correlation between the number of deals and the funding amount. The higher number of deals leads to a larger value of funding.Over the last two weeks, the number of deals has remained in the 20s range. In the week from January 17 to 23, the funding number touched $373 million, and this came from 40 deals.Now, the VC funding on a weekly basis has come back once again to the familiar trend of being around in the $100-200 million range. This is not a positive sign for the startup ecosystem.In the current week, the VC funding was spread across stages, and as expected, the highest deal activity was from the pre-Series A stage, but the quantum of money raised was lower. Also, the funding was across segments of startups cutting across EV,…  ​Read More​YourStory RSS Feed

Ahead of the commencement of the bidding for its public issue on February 9, MSME-focussed NBFC Aye Finance has raised ₹454.5 Cr from anchor investors. The company allotted 3.52 Cr equity shares to anchor investors at a price of ₹129 per share, the upper band of its price spectrum.  Of the total, 76.74 Lakh shares, or 21.8% of the total anchor round, were picked up by two domestic mutual funds through four schemes. The domestic mutual funds that led Aye Finance’s anchor round were Bank of India and Nippon Life India.  Other investors who participated in the round included Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, New York State Teachers Retirement System, Ashoka India, among others.   With this, the company’s IPO will now go live on February 9 and close on February 11. The company’s shares are expected to list on the exchanges on February 16. The NBFC’s public issue comprises a fresh issue of shares worth ₹710 Cr and an OFS component of up to ₹300 Cr. At the upper end of its ₹124 to ₹129 price band, the ₹1,010 Cr IPO values the NBFC at about ₹3,183 Cr.  The MSME-focussed lending company plans to utilise the fresh proceeds from…  ​Read MoreInc42 Media