This week in AI
29 Jun – 6 Jul 2026
IndiaAI Mission: First 10,000 GPU Cluster Goes Live
India's first government-backed AI compute cluster under the IndiaAI Mission has been commissioned. The initial 10,000 H100-equivalent GPU cluster is available to Indian startups, research institutions, and government projects at subsidised rates. Applications open via IndiaAI portal. This is a landmark shift — Indian AI companies no longer need to rely solely on US cloud providers.
IndiaAI · 6 Jul
Krutrim Raises $50M — India's First AI Unicorn
Krutrim, Bhavish Aggarwal's (Ola) AI startup, raised $50M at $1B valuation — becoming India's first AI unicorn. The company is building India's sovereign LLM with support for 22 languages. Krutrim's cloud platform is now competing with AWS and Azure for Indian enterprise AI workloads.
Krutrim · 6 Jul
DPDP Act Enforcement Begins — What AI Companies Must Do Now
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 enforcement has begun with the first set of Data Fiduciary obligations. AI companies processing Indian user data must now have: consent mechanisms, data breach notification processes, and a designated Data Protection Officer. MeitY has issued compliance guidelines.
MeitY · 6 Jul
AI4Bharat Releases IndicTrans2 — Best Translation for Indian Languages
IIT Madras AI4Bharat released IndicTrans2, outperforming Google Translate on all 22 scheduled Indian languages in FLORES benchmark. Models are open-source on HuggingFace. This is a major milestone for Indian-language AI — both for consumer apps and government digital inclusion programmes.
AI4Bharat · 6 Jul
NASSCOM: India Will Have 1 Million AI Professionals by 2026
NASSCOM's annual technology leadership forum report projects India will have 1 million AI professionals by end of 2026, up from 420,000 in 2024. The talent gap remains in specialised ML Engineering and AI safety roles. Report highlights upskilling pathways through FutureSkills Prime and NASSCOM AI academy.
NASSCOM · 6 Jul
Google India: Gemini Now Available in 9 Indian Languages
Google has expanded Gemini's multilingual support to include 9 Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, and Malayalam. Available on Android (750M+ Indian devices) and web. This is the most significant step toward AI accessibility for Bharat users who prefer regional language interaction.
Google India · 6 Jul
Microsoft India: Copilot Rolled Out to 50 Indian Government Ministries
Microsoft India announced a partnership with the Government of India to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 50 central government ministries. The deployment includes Hindi language interface, Azure India-region data residency for DPDP compliance, and a customised sovereign cloud option for sensitive ministries.
Microsoft India · 6 Jul
Sarvam AI Raises Series A — India's Speech AI for Bharat
Sarvam AI raised $41M Series A from Lightspeed and Peak XV (Sequoia India). The company builds voice-first AI for Indian languages — their speech recognition outperforms Whisper on Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali. Focus on rural India use cases: healthcare voice bots, agricultural advisories, and financial inclusion.
Sarvam AI · 6 Jul
IIT Madras: India's First AI Degree Programme Launched
IIT Madras launched India's first full BS degree in Artificial Intelligence — completely online, accessible from any city in India at ₹12,000/semester. Programme covers ML, deep learning, NLP, computer vision, and AI ethics. 3,000 seats for the first cohort. Eligible for IIT degree on completion.
IIT Madras · 6 Jul
OpenAI and Reliance Industries Explore India Partnership
Reports indicate OpenAI is in advanced discussions with Reliance Industries for a strategic partnership covering AI infrastructure, Jio's 450M user base, and potential India data centre investment. If confirmed, this would be the largest AI partnership in Indian history, bringing OpenAI's models to Bharat-scale distribution.
IndiaAI · 6 Jul
PhonePe and Zepto: How Indian Unicorns Are Building In-House AI Teams
NASSCOM report documents how Indian unicorns are shifting from outsourcing AI to building in-house capability. PhonePe's AI team (50+ engineers) handles fraud detection and personalisation. Zepto's ML team forecasts demand for 5,000+ SKUs across 10 cities. Common stack: PyTorch, Kubeflow, Vertex AI.
NASSCOM · 6 Jul
NITI Aayog: AI in Indian Agriculture — 30% Yield Improvement Possible
NITI Aayog's working paper on AI in Indian agriculture found 30% average yield improvement potential through precision agriculture AI. Key use cases: crop disease detection (smartphone camera + CNN), pest prediction, soil analysis, and market price forecasting for MSP decisions. CropIn and Fasal cited as Indian success cases.
NITI Aayog · 6 Jul
Yotta Raises $150M at ₹37,000 Crore Valuation to Scale AI Infrastructure
AI infrastructure and data-centre company Yotta Data Services raised roughly $150 million in primary capital at a ~₹37,000 crore valuation. Yotta plans to scale its AI cloud to over 40,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs within four months and around 85,000 GPUs by fiscal year-end — positioning it among the largest AI compute platforms outside the US and China.
Business Standard · 5 Jul
Indian AI Startups Raised Over $2 Billion Across 99 Deals in H1 2026
Indian AI startups collectively raised more than $2 billion across 99 funding deals in the first half of 2026, with investor interest concentrated on AI infrastructure, foundation models, and enterprise-grade vertical AI applications rather than early-stage experimentation.
Business Standard · 5 Jul
AI Skills Now Power Nearly Two-Thirds of New GCC Hiring in India
The foundit Insights Tracker reports 64% of new Global Capability Centre (GCC) roles created in India in 2026 require AI, data science, or intelligent automation skills — up from just 11% in 2021. GCC hiring is projected to reach 510,452 jobs by end-2026, up 12% year-on-year, with growth spreading to tier-2 cities like Coimbatore and Indore.
The Economic Times · 4 Jul
AI Hiring Outpaces Overall IT Recruitment in India — Naukri JobSpeak
Naukri's JobSpeak report shows AI-related hiring in India's IT sector rose 16% year-on-year in June even as overall IT job postings fell 3%. Insurance and consumer goods showed the sharpest rise in AI-linked hiring; TCS said it is moving toward a 1:1 ratio of employees to AI agents.
The Hindu · 3 Jul
Kapture CX Raises $10M Pre-Series B Led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures
Kapture CX, an India-based verticalized agentic AI platform for enterprise workflows in retail, travel, and BFSI, closed a $10 million pre-Series B round led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures — the firm's first-ever AI investment. Kapture has grown revenue 4x since its 2023 Series A and reached profitability.
The SaaS News · 2 Jul
India Ranks Second-Worst Hit by AI-Linked Tech Layoffs Globally in H1 2026
Layoffs.fyi data shows AI-led global tech layoffs hit 1.28 lakh employees by July 1, 2026 — already exceeding all of 2025. India accounts for 7.16% of the global total, the second-highest share after the US. Within India, education (21.67%) and finance (14.73%) saw the largest share of AI-linked job cuts.
NDTV · 1 Jul