Forbes India - Tech Conversations
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Deep Tech India: Rohit Grover and Pradeep Thangappan on their burn-any-fuel small gas turbine for trucks and gensets
In this penultimate episode in this year's collection of conversations on deep tech in India, Rohit Grover and Pradeep Thangappan give us an update on the small gas turbine they're developing at their IIT Madras incubated venture Aerostrovilos Energy. In this conversation, they talk about how close they are to their first commercial product, interest from potential customers, and the challenges of building a deep science and engineering-based hardware product from India
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Deep Tech India: Shashwath Ramkumar and Sharan Jagatrakshakan on their dream of designed in India semiconductor chips
Shashwath T Ramkumar and Sharan S Jagatrakshakan started Mindgrove, incubated at IIT-Madras, to build semiconductor systems-on-chip for applications in IoT (Internet of Things), computer vision and automotive sectors. With the tape-out of their first prototype chip, meaning making the physical chip from their design, these entrepreneurs would be taking a first small step in contributing a designed-in-India semiconductor processor not only for India but eventually for global markets
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Deep Tech India: Arindrajit Chowdhury and Tausif Shaikh on building space cities, one tiffin box at a time
In this next episode of our series on deep tech in India Arindrajit Chowdhury and Tausif Shaikh, co-founders of Inspecity Space Laboratories, talk about how they dream of cities in space. Their contribution is their two-year old venture, which is preparing to soon launch a small CubeSat propulsion system the size of a small tiffin box. It will take them one small step forward in developing an ecosystem of in-space life extension of satellites, involving repairs, navigations and eventually controlled de-orbiting manoeuvres
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Arvind Parthiban at SuperOps on product-market fit lessons and plans after recent funding
SuperOps is a Silicon Valley and Chennai SaaS startup that helps small and medium sized managed services providers automate many of their processes. Co-founders Arvind Parthiban and Jayakumar Karumbasalam, both serial entrepreneurs and former Freshworks employees, recently raised $12.4 million in series B funding from March Capital, Addition and existing investor Matrix Partners India. In this episode, Parthiban speaks about lessons from finding product-market fit and plans for expansion with the fresh funding
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The Big Picture: Irina Ghose at Microsoft on pivots, promises and co-pilots
In today's episode, we catch up with Irina Ghose, a 22-year veteran at Microsoft, who was recently elevated to the role of managing director of Microsoft India and South Asia. Irina spoke on a range of topics, from the pace at which change is happening driven by technology, to her own career, which started 30 years ago with Tata Steel, her sustained interest in tech and why she took up running. We also introduce you to a couple terms that are part of Microsoft lingo, like 'landing execution' and 'tech intensity'
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15 years of the Infosys Prize: A conversation with Kris Gopalakrishnan
This year, the Infosys Prize turns 15. Over the years, this prize has risen in stature for putting a spotlight on the work of mid-career scientists who've then gone on to achieve so much more, in STEM as well as the social sciences. The Infosys Science Foundation, which awards this prize in six categories, announced this year's winners yesterday. Ahead of the announcement, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, and president of the foundation, sat down with Forbes India to talk about why we need to invest much more in R&D
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TCS futurist Frank Diana on how tech will boost productivity in unprecedented ways across industries
In this episode, Frank Diana, principal futurist at Tata Consultancy Services, talks about how a lot of his work in figuring out where we're headed is about learning from history. I spoke with Frank last week, a few days ahead of the company's New York marathon, during which TCS and Dassault Systemes would showcase their digital twin technologies by modelling the heart of a noted elite athlete, Des Lindon. Diana spoke about why interest in such technologies has surged and how current advances, including AI, will bring unprecedented productivity gains in the near future
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Deep Tech India: Pramod Ghadge and Shahid Memon on innovating with 'swarm' robots
As India readies its own deep tech startup policy, this is episode 10 in a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem. In this episode, Pramod Ghadge and Shahid Memon recount the story of their robotics startup, Unbox Robotics Labs which they founded in 2019. Today their plug-and-play robotics tech for intra-logistics automation has customers including some of the largest third-party logistics providers in India. They're raising more money and aim to expand to the US and Europe
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Jaspreet Bindra and Sudhir Tiwari on the case for a 'Jan AI' as a digital public good in India
In this episode, Jaspreet Bindra, founder of Tech Whisperer, a UK-based consultancy, and Sudhir Tiwari, global head of the digital engineering centre at ThoughtWorks India, talk about their idea for a "Jan AI" as a digital public good for India. They talk about the need for such an AI stack, how we might build it, and what our challenges are in bringing the benefits of AI to the masses without compromising on how their data is used
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Bernard Charlès on how companies are taking software services back in-house, and Dassault's plans in India
In this episode, Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systemes, talks about how companies are taking software services back in-house, and on the other hand, how the no-code and low-code model is rising. He also talks about plans for Dassault's operations in India, which include the country's biggest conglomerates as customers, India's largest IT companies as partners, and the French company's own large global capability centres in cities including Pune and Bengaluru, with thousands of professionals
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Deep Tech India: Manish Singhal on the problem of IP drain from the country
As India readies its own deep tech policy, this is episode nine, in a small series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who're building this ecosystem in the country. In this episode, Manish Singhal, founding partner at Pi Ventures, talks about his transition from investing in AI startups to disruptive tech ventures. He also has a warning, that there's a growing intellectual property drain from the country because when it comes to the myriad rules that apply to businesses, there's many a frustration that needs to be eliminated