India is positioned at a rare crossroads of linguistic variety and swift technological acceptance. This mix is reconfiguring the global stage for artificial intelligence in terms of development, deployment, and even scaling. The 1.4 Bn+ population and the multiplicity of languages and dialects make the ‘Indian linguistic landscape’ a challenge as well as an opportunity for AI researchers to build a Human-Centric and Accessible AI system. The Multilingual Terrain: A Complex Dataset The open scale is the most noticeable characteristic of India’s rich diversity in languages: the country acknowledges 22 official languages and many more local and tribal languages.  Language surveys estimate that there are more than 400 different languages spoken on the subcontinent, each of them having its own unique syntax, writing system, and phonetic structure.  Richness in numerical terms is not matched with the digital presence of Indian languages; they still form a very small part of the global AI training data set. The online text documents generated in Indic languages are just about 0.1%, while English constitutes almost 59% of the total web content. This data imbalance has direct repercussions on AI: the models that are mainly trained on English corpora tend to perform poorly in low-resource…  ​Read MoreInc42 Media

Fundraising activity within the world’s third largest startup ecosystem picked up after the Union Budget announced the Budget 2026 on Sunday. Indian startups cumulatively raised $130.5 Mn during the week, up 36% from $95.6 Mn raised in the previous week. 20 startups raised funding rounds between February 2 and 6, a slight uptick from the 18 funding deals materialised during the previous week. Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Jan 2 – 6] 4 Feb 2026 The Whole Truth Ecommerce D2C B2C $51 Mn Series D Sauce.vc, Sofina, Peak XV Partners, Rainmatter Health, AYRA Ventures, Z47 Sauce.vc, Sofina 4 Feb 2026 Varaha Cleantech Climate Tech B2B $20 Mn** Series B WestBridge Capital, Omnivore Ventures, RTP Global WestBridge Capital 5 Feb 2026 ZILO Consumer Services Quick Commerce B2C $15.3 Mn Series A Peak XV Partners, Info Edge Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Alteria Capital, Stride Ventured Peak XV Partners 3 Feb 2026 Loop AI AI Application Layer B2B $14 Mn Series A Nyca Partners, Gokul Rajaram, Base10, Afore Capital, Converge, Alumni Ventures, Data Tech Fund, John Pepper, 9Yards Capital, Operators Studio Nyca Partners 5 Feb 2026 Material Depot Ecommerce Vertical Marketplace B2C $10 Mn Series A Accel, Stellaris Venture Partners, Whiteboard…  ​Read MoreInc42 Media

For years, customer relationship management (CRM) occupied the centre of the go-to-market (GTM) universe. It was positioned as the system where leads were captured, deals were tracked, and revenue forecasts were created. In 2026, however, many GTM leaders are acknowledging a gap between what CRMs were built to do and what modern GTM actually demands.When human judgment was the intelligence layerSoftware sales did not always operate in today’s layered and signal-driven environment. Earlier GTM motions relied heavily on human judgment. Sales and marketing teams manually reviewed engagement data, website visits, and account lists, then decided who to contact and how. Decisions were imperfect, but they were contextual. A human could interpret nuance across multiple systems and act accordingly.That human decision layer is now being replaced.Automation and AI have made it possible to run outbound motions at a massive scale. Emails, LinkedIn messages, and follow-ups can be triggered with little to no human involvement. While this has increased efficiency, it has also flooded buyers with undifferentiated outreach. Attention has become scarce, trust has eroded, and response rates have declined across industries.This creates a contradiction at the heart of modern GTM. Teams are more automated than ever, yet outcomes are harder to…  ​Read More​YourStory RSS Feed

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