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Good morning. In today's edition — Wipro COO Sanjeev Jain on the future of artificial intelligence; India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gets a new governor; and investors are loving food delivery company Swiggy’s new launch. 

CORE CONVERSATION

Need For AI Skilled Engineers Will Triple, Wipro COO Sanjeev Jain

AI has been the talk of the town since it came into existence with companies and CEOs taking note. At Indian tech company Wipro, it has been all about creating awareness among its employees and using it to optimise work. A member of the executive board and chief operating officer at Wipro Sanjeev Jain said, “Out of the 240,000 employees that we have in Wipro globally, 230,000 have already completed what we call Gen AI 101. And what 101 does is creates an awareness to every employee on not only AI, but we believe that the responsible usage of AI is a very important component of AI. We have all gone through it, including our senior management, including some of our board members.” 

Wipro has also integrated AI into its systems. For example, if an employee wants to apply for leave or has HR related questions, there is an AI chatbot to help them with it. Jain also said that they have added AI “co-pilots” to certain job functions to make them more efficient. 

The biggest worry about AI has been about the technology taking over human jobs. Jain said that if AI was being used for a certain task, human resources were being upskilled to do other job functions. “Employees moving to higher order roles and adding new capabilities in the business in line with the technologies that are emerging.” 

Speaking about the future of AI, Jain said AI cannot improve without human intervention. “The need for software engineers will grow and within the software engineer, the need for AI skilled engineers will actually triple.” For this, industries have to work closely with academia, a process that Jain said is already happening. 

How can academia and industry work together to make this happen?

PODCAST

Markets Slide Again As Cues Vanish

On Episode 454 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Garima Kapoor, Economist at Executive Vice President and Elara Securities as well as C S Vigneshwar, president of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA).

• Markets slide again as cues vanish.

• RBI new governor is a IIT engineer.

• Car sales fall despite unprecedented discounts at dealerships.

• The investment case for PSU stocks

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CO:RELATION

Swiggy Bolts On

Swiggy shares have been on a run since the second quarter results. The company announced the launch of Swiggy Bolt, a new initiative that brings quick service commerce (delivery in 10 minutes) to food. The company informed analysts in detail about the impact of Swiggy Bolt, and investors are buying into the analysis. The idea is to work with restaurants within a 2-mile radius. 

According to the Swiggy management, restaurants are not creating new menus. Swiggy has figured out that 30-40% of the items on the menus of restaurants can be served through the quick commerce formula. For example, if someone wishes to have Starbucks coffee, it should be possible to deliver it in 10 minutes. Other quick snack items like croissants can be bundled with coffee too. Analysts wondered if it would hurt the average order value. However, the management maintains that the company has observed that bundling quick food with coffee and other items allows it to maintain the levels of average order. Analysts believe it could be a significant innovation in the food delivery market that could boost the business.

CORE NUMBER

64,008

This figure represents the total number of F-1 US visas issued to Indian students in the first nine months of 2024, marking a steep 38% year-on-year decline compared to the same period last year. The F-1 visa is handed out specifically for international students attending academic institutions in the US and accounts for over 90% of all student visas issued annually. While the number of F-1 visas issued to Indian students saw significant growth in 2022 and 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, the issuance data shows a declining trend. By comparison, 65,235 visas were issued in the same period in 2021, and 93,181 were granted in 2022. In the pandemic-affected year of 2020, only 6,646 visas were issued. The lowest point for F-1 visa issuances to Indian students was during the Donald Trump presidency in 2018 and 2019, with 37,525 and 36,480 visas granted in the same January to September period, respectively.

FROM THE PERIPHERY

—🏦 India’s revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra has been chosen as the new governor of the RBI. Malhotra will replace Shaktikanta Das whose tenure comes to an end today. He will serve a three year term beginning on December 12. Malhotra is an IIT graduate and an Indian Administrative Service Officer of 1990 Batch, Rajasthan Cadre. 

—🔌Automaker Hyundai Motor India has big plans for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. It said in a statement on Monday that it will set up at least 600 fast charging stations in the next seven years, 50 of which it plans by the end of December this year. Automakers including Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki made announcements on similar initiatives earlier this year. While EVs had taken off in India, sales dipped again in November after a record-high in October following poor sales in September. This comes even as many of India’s car makers have pinned their hopes on new EV models. One of the biggest pain points that EV owners have continuously pointed out is poor public charging facilities. 

—⚖️ India’s antitrust body Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approached the Supreme Court of India over a probe into Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. CCI had allegedly found that both these online marketplaces had breached India’s antitrust laws by favouring certain sellers. Now it has approached the apex court saying that several challenges to this filed by Samsung and Vivo and others in high courts could derail the probe, Reuters reported. The report said that the filing has requested a total of 23 cases against the probe to be transferred to the Supreme Court.

—🏳️ A truce between automaker Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd and IndiGo airlines? The automaker gave an undertaking to the Delhi High Court on Monday that it will not use ‘6E’ in the name of its EV SUV that it plans to launch. ‘6E’ is a significant part of IndiGo branding including its flight numbers. The airline had sought interim relief from the court after Mahindra announced its new SUV ‘BE 6E’. After a brief legal tussle, reports suggest that IndiGo has said it will not file an interim injunction against Mahindra. While IndiGo had argued that it was a trademark infringement, Mahindra had told the court that it found the allegation to be baseless, Business Standard reported. 

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UGHH

Another year end, another grim climate change milestone. Like 2023, the current year is set to become the hottest year in recorded history. European Union scientists from the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that data from January 2024 to October 2024 already confirms this. It is also the first time that average global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.  Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service called for the Climate Change Conference, COP29 to take note. “This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29,” Burgess said. Not only does the rising temperatures threaten human lives, it is also set to affect businesses and livelihoods as well.

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