Ananya Bhattacharya

SHORT AND SWEET

No university needed: A Stanford-born company is equipping India’s youth for well-paid tech jobs

Employees are seen working through the doors of Chevrolet Beat cars on an assembly line at the General Motors plant in Talegaon, about 118 km (73 miles) from Mumbai September 3, 2012. General Motors Co began initial production of its first ever Chinese-designed car for the Indian market this week, a major step for the U.S. automaker as it tries to scale up in a market where foreign companies have struggled. Picture taken September 3, 2012. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui (INDIA - Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS) - RTR37HKK

After his father suffered a heart attack last year, 16-year old Ayan Saha had to quickly look for a job to support his family. Living…

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 17, 2017

A HELPING HAND

India Inc has come together to help the NGO sector create the unicorns it deserves

A homeless girl asks for alms outside a coffee shop in Mumbai, India, June 24, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - D1BETLTHEXAA

India’s lively startup scene may be teeming with “soonicorns”—soon to be unicorns (private billion-dollar startups)—but the non-profit sector has almost completely missed the boom. Private…

Future of Work

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 13, 2017

TECH NO BAR

India leads the artificial intelligence race thanks to the local offices of US firms

A humanoid robot tries to kick the ball during a demonstation at the
7th edition of the Soccer World Championship for Robots in Padua,
northern Italy, July 9, 2003. Robocup is an international research and
education initiative and its goal is to foster artificial intelligence
and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide
range of technologies can be examined and integrated. REUTERS/Max
Rossi

India is way ahead of many other countries in implementing artificial intelligence (AI). Well over half—58%—of the companies that are using AI in India are…

The Office

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 12, 2017

HOOKED

“I cannot imagine life without the internet”: Yep, that basically describes Indians

Indian passengers share an electric power supply to charge their mobile phones at the Sealdah railway station in Kolkata, India, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Several passengers have been affected after many trains were cancelled due to floods.(AP Photo/Bikas Das)

It is exhaustively slow or exceptionally expensive, but Indians love their internet. According to a recent survey, 82% of internet users in the country agreed…

Messaging

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 08, 2017

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

The robots will actually create more jobs for high-skilled tech workers in India

Employees work on their computers at the office of HackerEarth in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

The casualties of automation are on the rise, but it’s not bad news for everyone. Nearly one third (700,000) of low-skilled workers in India’s IT…

Future of Work

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 07, 2017

BACK IN BUSINESS

Pressured to give up their careers, Pakistan’s “doctor-wives” are using tech to find work again

A doctor, left, treats a woman at a medical clinic in a tent at the Sheikh Yasin refugee camp at Mardan, in northwest Pakistan, Monday, May 18, 2009. More than a million Pakistanis have fled fighting between the army and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, with around 100,000 living in camps near the town of Mardan, south of the battle zone. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

In Pakistan, qualified woman doctors are plenty but you won’t find them in clinics and hospitals. Though women outnumber men in local medical schools, making…

Future of Work

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 05, 2017

UNGODLY

The robots are coming for one of Hinduism’s holiest ceremonies

Devotees offer prayers to an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, as they make their way to the Yamuna river to immerse the idol on the last day of the ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Delhi, India, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton - D1BEUBLMVOAC

Aarti is the quintessential Hindu religious ritual. Automation, for some time now, has given many Indians sleepless nights. So a coming together of these two…

Future of Work

Ananya Bhattacharya

September 04, 2017

DO, DON'T DIE

Entrepreneurship is newly cool in India but the old ghost of unprofitability still haunts

In this Aug. 19, 2016 photo, young Indian entrepreneurs and freelancers work inside Innov8, a lax co-working space in New Delhi, India. As India emerges as one of the biggest markets in the world for tech-based startups, workspaces are transforming from traditional and hierarchal, to relaxed and bar-like. With more than 4,200 new tech-based companies by the end of last year, India has become the third largest market for startups, according to The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an Indian software industry research company. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Young companies in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem are grappling to make money. Unprofitability was the main reason Indians shut their businesses in 2015-16, a…

The Office

Ananya Bhattacharya

August 30, 2017

SECOND INNINGS

After a stormy 2016, Softbank has smartly but cautiously picked up the pieces in India

After lurching from one disaster to another in 2016, Japan’s Softbank is hitting all the right notes this year. Be it the whopping $1.4 billion…

Sushma U N & Ananya Bhattacharya

August 29, 2017

SMART ENOUGH YET?

The fate of smartphones in India depends on festivals and feature phones

A woman speaks on her mobile phone as she stands with others after vacating their office buildings following an earthquake in Kolkata, India, May 12, 2015. At least four people were killed in a central Nepal town on Tuesday after a 7.3 earthquake shook the Himalayan nation, just weeks after a devastating temblor killed more than 8,000 people and damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings. The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday's earthquake was centred 68 km (about 42 miles) west of the town of Namche Bazar, close to Mount Everest and the border with Tibet. A magnitude 7.3 quake, it was felt as far apart as New Delhi and Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
- RTX1CK76

The world’s second-largest smartphone market hasn’t had it easy over the past few months. After demonetisation prompted a cash crunch that hit sales, the complications…

Ananya Bhattacharya & Sushma U N

August 23, 2017

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

How Steve Jobs inspired Vishal Sikka to leave the chaos at Infosys

Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka speaks during the announcement of the company's quarterly financial results at its headquarters in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru January 9, 2015. Shares in software services exporter Infosys Ltd rose almost 7 percent on Friday after it surprised investors by sticking to its full-year sales target, thanks to healthy demand that helped offset the impact of a stronger dollar. Infosys, which posted a 13 percent rise in third-quarter profit, confirmed it expects sales growth of 7 to 9 percent for the year ending in March 2015, in constant currency terms and based on exchange rates for the September quarter. REUTERS/Abhishek Chinnappa (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTR4KQH9

Infosys, a 36-year-old Indian IT giant, just lost its first non-founder CEO. Vishal Sikka, the company’s former CEO & managing director, who resigned today (Aug.…

Ananya Bhattacharya

August 18, 2017

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Vishal Sikka quits as Infosys CEO after months of battling with the old guard

Infosys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Vishal Sikka listens to a question during a press conference after announcing the company's annual financial results in Bangalore, India, Thursday, April 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Infosys is losing the captain of its mothership. Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder managing director & CEO of the Indian software major, resigned today (Aug.…

The Office

Ananya Bhattacharya

August 18, 2017