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Oracle India layoffs the inside story.
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Sarvam's mega funding round now has a new investor.
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Crypto policy paper on the back burner.
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Simbinding deadline for WhatsApp Telegram signal extended to your end.
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You are listening to Money Controls Tech 3 Podcast.
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Hello listeners, welcome to Money Controls Tech 3 Podcast.
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Your go-to show for the sharper startup and tech updates Monday through Friday.
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You can catch us on the Money Control website, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
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We're starting with a big story from the tech world and it's a bloodbath at Oracle.
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Layoff estimates suggest that around 12,000 job cuts are underway in India and this comes at a time
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when the company is juggling massive AI linked commitments of $360 billion,
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alongside $50 billion in annual KPX and roughly $100 billion in debt.
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Yes, and India is a key market for Oracle.
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It has over 30,000 employees making it the company's second largest workforce globally
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and a major R&D hub outside the US.
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And now reports suggest nearly half of this workforce has been impacted as part of a broader global restructuring.
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Now here's what stands out, this doesn't look like a typical headcount driven layoff.
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Employees told Money Control the teams were instead given budget card targets
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and we hear the teams were asked to reduce costs by 20 to 30%
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and how that was achieved was left to managers which widen the impact across roles.
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And that means the cuts were not limited to junior staff,
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senior roles including M4, M5 levels have been affected as well, especially in verticals like health care.
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There's also uncertainty on the ground,
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employees are still waiting for clarity on severance,
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how unvested esops will be handled,
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and that uncertainty is adding to the disruption with many employees saying
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they're still awaiting detailed communication from HR on compensation and benefits.
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Right, moving on to AI, foundational AI start-up servom is getting a lot of investor attention.
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Last week we heard that servom's raising funds,
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but today we hear there is some investor shuffle here.
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So as we said before, servom, the Bangalore-based AI start-up is in talks to raise a mega round of $250 million
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and what we understand now is bestseller venture partners has shown interest in joining the round
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alongside Nvidia, Hitzel Tech and other investors.
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However, Axel, which was earlier in discussions, is no longer part of the deal.
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Yes, if this goes through, servom could be valued at around $1.5 billion,
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marking a sharp jump in a very short span of time.
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And what also stands out here is the presence of strategic investors.
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NVIDIA brings infra, Hitzel brings enterprise reach,
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and now Vesemar adds institutional capital here.
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So foundational AI models in India finally seem to be attracting capital
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with players like Nyani.ai also raising fresh funding as demand for enterprise AI agents grow.
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Moving on to the world of cryptocurrencies, where policy clarity seems to be taking a back seat,
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the government's long awaited discussion paper on crypto has likely been put on hold indefinitely.
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Is this paper was expected to outline India's stance on crypto, especially stable coins,
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but officials now say existing measures are sufficient for monitoring the sector.
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Now, a big factor here is the RBI's continued resistance.
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The Reserve Bank of India has repeatedly raised concerns around financial stability,
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capital flows and monetary control.
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In the meantime, the government has already imposed taxes on virtual digital assets
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and also brought crypto players under the anti-money laundering rules.
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Now, instead of moving towards private crypto regulations,
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the focus is shifting towards the digital rupee,
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which is India's central bank digital currency or CBDC.
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Now for most creators, the hardest part isn't just making content these days,
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it's keeping track of the money that comes with it,
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and that's exactly where AI is starting to step in Bavya.
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Yes, for example, a content creator and financial advisor has built a custom AI workflow
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using tools like ChargeGPD to automate his entire invoicing and GST filing process.
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So essentially, these systems can emails, extracts invoice data, logs it into a spreadsheet,
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and even matches it with bank transactions.
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And what used to take hours of manual work along with the risk of missing entries
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is now completely automated.
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And this reflects a broader trend.
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Many creators to re-operate like small businesses,
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but without structured financial systems.
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So earlier, they relied on spreadsheets or accounting tools,
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often reacting close to deadlines,
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but now AI is helping them shift that to a more continuous and automated process.
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Interesting times indeed.
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Finally, a regulatory update that affects how messaging apps function in India,
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the Department of Telecommunications has extended the deadline for sim binding rules
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for platforms like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
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As the rules would require messaging accounts to be linked strictly to the sim used during registration,
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which limits usage across devices.
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The idea basically is to curb fraud, especially cases involving OTP interception
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or misuse of duplicated numbers.
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But platforms and device makers have raised technical challenges.
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Companies like Apple and Google have asked for more time to work through system constraints.
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Metas also testing solutions with early versions being dried out on Android so far.
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So far, the rollout is delayed, but the direction is clear,
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messaging platforms based soon become more tightly linked to verified sim ID entities.
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All right, that's a wrap for today's episode of Tech 3 from Money Control.
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A big shout out to our reporters from the tech and startup team for the story is being covered today.
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Thank you for listening. We air every money to Friday between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
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So tune in for more news minus the boring bits. This is Chandra and Bavya signing off.
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You are listening to Money Control's Tech 3 podcast.