From interim budget coverage to India's semiconductor opportunity, here are our most-read stories of the week

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1) Forbes India’s coverage of the interim budget

Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the interim Budget, aka Vote-on-account, seeking approvals for essential expenditure outlays until the polls. She presented a broad assessment of the current state of the economy, current/capex spending, and receipts, as well as revised estimates of the current financial year and for the year ahead. There was plenty of money for capex and welfare for women. But those hoping for tax breaks and loan waivers were left disappointed. Here's a detailed coverage of what the FM's words meant and how actioning these words will be crucial.

2) The generous givers

K Dinesh is one of the co-founders of Infosys, which changed the course of the software industry in India. All the co-founders also share something else apart from being billionaires who benefitted from Infosys' success. They are all deeply invested in philanthropic projects. K Dinesh has been helping out people directly and indirectly in various areas such as healthcare, education, animal welfare, environment, climate action, and even disaster relief. A detailed account of this other side of the billionaire shows how his family—wife and two daughters—have been playing a pivotal role in his philanthropic journey.

3) Outcomes from icy summits of Davos

World Economic Forum invites C-suite executives, business magnates, political visionaries, generous philanthropists, and changemakers to the icy mountains of the Swiss Alps to discuss the current state of the globe, what these influential people can do about it, what they would like the powers that be to do about it. This crucible of thoughts and the intricate mesh of conversation provides some enlightenment, opportunities for betterment, and a commentary on what the future will be like—immediate and through the aeons. Mohit Joshi, MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra sums up his experiences of Davos 2024, where the theme was 'Rebuilding Trust', and jots down his takeaways.

Discover

1) Finding gold from old

Sheena Iyengar has quite a resume. She is the ST Lee Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. She has spoken at and consulted 200 companies, including Google, AB Insurance, Bloomberg, E&Y, PwC, Target, and Deloitte, among others. Her TED Talks appearance has received seven million collective views. She is the author of The Art of Choosing and Think Bigger: How to Innovate. What does this tell you? She is an expert in understanding how human choices lead to innovation and how one can manipulate the choices to create powerful ideas that will further lead to problem-solving. In a conversation with Forbes India, Iyengar talks about how anyone can be creative once they understand the roadmap to innovation.

2) How PE runs and wrecks America

For the latest episode of From the Bookshelves of Forbes India, we were joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher and Co. Their book, These are the Plunderers: How PE runs and wrecks America, is a well-researched critique of how private equity firms in the US that specialise in buying companies, load them with debt and completely squeeze them for profits. The authors discuss the insurance takeover by private equity, the lack of transparency in their dealings, and the responsibility of the media while covering PE billionaires.

3) Here's to growing big

SA20 has been part of the discourse for two huge reasons. The first is for turning a profit in its first-ever season. The second is for Cricket South Africa's unapologetic support of the league, which commissioner Graeme Smith intends to make the biggest cricket league outside of India (ahem, are you listening, Big Bash League?). For the latest episode of the Sports UnLtd podcast, Smith, with batting legend and  SA20  brand ambassador AB de Villiers, talks about nurturing talent through the league, making a bigger impact, and registering even bigger numbers with its second season.

4) India's semiconductor opportunity

In this year's first episode of Deep Tech India, GS Madhusudan, co-founder and CEO of Incore Semiconductors, gives us a sense of how we missed the bus on the semiconductor opportunity decades ago. He also talks about how we have the opportunity today, and most of the ingredients, to build our own semiconductor ecosystem that could supply the world with 'Made in India' chips, starting with embedded applications.