AI in Indian Finance

India’s Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has rescheduled the release of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for October 2025 from November 28 to December 1, 2025, at 4:00 PM. The postponement was necessary to avoid a scheduling conflict with the release of Q2 GDP (Quarterly Estimates of Gross Domestic Product) for the July-September quarter, which was originally planned for the same date. This rescheduling decision reflects the government’s effort to manage the release of critical economic indicators without overwhelming market participants and analysts with simultaneous major data releases. The September 2025 IIP data, which was previously released, showed a year-on-year growth rate of 4%, matching the quick estimate from August 2025. The Quick Estimates of IIP for September stood at 152.8 compared to 146.9 in September 2024, indicating steady industrial production growth. Sector-wise performance in September revealed mixed results, with mining declining by 0.4%, manufacturing growing at 4.8%, and electricity expanding at 3.1% year-on-year. The IIP is a crucial economic indicator that measures the growth of the industrial sector and provides insights into the overall health of India’s economy. By separating the release dates of IIP and GDP data, the government ensures that each indicator receives adequate attention from market participants, economists, and policymakers. The new December 1 release date allows for better market digestion of economic data and prevents potential confusion or volatility that could result from simultaneous major releases. This administrative adjustment demonstrates the government’s commitment to maintaining orderly and transparent economic data dissemination practices. Investors and analysts will now have the opportunity to analyze Q2 GDP figures before receiving the October IIP data, potentially providing a more comprehensive view of India’s economic performance during this period.

Sudan’s ongoing civil war, which began in April 2023 between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), has devastated the country’s irreplaceable cultural heritage, with museums looted, archaeological sites damaged, and priceless artifacts destroyed or missing. Archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo, a curator from Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), is working on a yearlong research grant in France to create a comprehensive online database of Sudan’s archaeological sites, museum collections, and historical archives to document what has been lost and aid in recovery efforts. The National Museum in Khartoum, which housed an estimated 100,000 objects including mummies dating back 2,500 years, royal Kushite treasures, and artifacts from the Kerma Kingdom, Napatan era, and Meroitic civilization, was ransacked by militias who posted videos of their destruction online. Regional museums in El Geneina and Nyala were almost completely destroyed, while the Khalifa House Museum was looted and the Ethnographic Museum was looted and burned down following the SAF’s March 2025 recapture of the Al-Mogran area in Khartoum. Beyond the capital, international cultural heritage sites such as Meroe Island and Jebel Barkal face severe threats, and displaced populations have turned to agriculture and gold mining on archaeological sites, causing additional damage and vandalism. UNESCO has raised alarms about the unprecedented level of cultural destruction and has trained police and customs officers to recognize stolen antiquities, while appealing to collectors to refrain from acquiring looted Sudanese cultural property. Abdrabo’s painstaking work involves compiling data from various sources including spreadsheets, handwritten inventories, and decades-old photographs, with support from international institutions like the Louvre and the British Museum, though she works mostly alone. The task is urgent because the full extent of damage remains unclear due to RSF restrictions on access, and efforts to protect heritage have been hampered by logistical challenges, insufficient funding, displaced experts, and inadequate communication infrastructure. Unlike similar cultural emergencies following wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sudan has not received strong international media coverage, reducing the visibility of the crisis and limiting the global response to recovery efforts. Abdrabo has funding until April 2026 to complete the database platform, but she expresses concern that this timeframe may be insufficient given the scale of the work and the ongoing security threats to remaining collections. The loss extends beyond physical objects to research, studies, and entire archives that have vanished, representing an irreplaceable loss of knowledge and identity for the Sudanese people. With a team of about 15 Sudanese professionals now working in the Khartoum museum to clean and restore damaged items, efforts are underway to assess what remains and facilitate international recovery initiatives, though the uncertainty of the ongoing conflict continues to threaten Sudan’s cultural future.

India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are experiencing a significant transformation, with only 5% of the approximately 1,700 operating centers qualifying as “Mega GCCs” that concentrate a disproportionate share of talent and enterprise-critical work. These Mega GCCs, currently numbering around 88, have been operating in India for an average of nearly 20 years, allowing them to evolve beyond simple cost-efficiency models into strategic innovation hubs handling complex, high-value operations for multinational corporations. The phenomenon is poised for explosive growth, with over 230 additional companies expected to join the Mega GCC cohort within the next five years, alongside 70 existing GCCs scaling past 5,000 employees and 160 new multinational enterprises entering India. This expansion reflects a fundamental shift in how GCCs are perceived and utilized—transitioning from cost-driven back-office support units to engines of innovation, strategic thinking, and value creation that drive technological advancements and emerging digital capabilities. Software & Internet, Retail, and Healthcare sectors are projected to lead this expansion, while Chartered Accountants and finance professionals are increasingly taking on leadership roles in global finance operations and data analytics rather than traditional compliance functions. The concentration of talent in Mega GCCs underscores India’s emergence as a preferred destination for high-end capability development, with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai serving as primary hubs due to their skilled workforce and conducive ecosystems. GCCs in India currently account for more than 1% of the country’s GDP, and this share is expected to grow substantially as the market size is projected to reach USD 60 billion by 2025, with the installed GCC talent base exceeding 400,000 professionals. The evolution of Mega GCCs represents a competitive necessity for global leaders, CXOs, policymakers, and investors to understand, as these centers are positioned to drive the next decade of enterprise transformation and redefine the boundaries between GCCs and their parent company headquarters.

On November 9, 2025, Mixpanel, a third-party analytics provider used by OpenAI, discovered that attackers had gained unauthorized access to its systems and exported a dataset containing customer information. The breach was caused by a social engineering campaign, specifically smishing attacks targeting Mixpanel employees with fake MFA reset messages to steal credentials and bypass authentication protections. OpenAI was officially notified of the incident on November 25, 2025, and publicly disclosed it on November 26-27, 2025. The compromised data included names and email addresses associated with OpenAI API accounts, approximate location information derived from browser metadata (city, state, or country), browser and operating system details, referring websites, and organization or user IDs. Critically, the breach did not expose sensitive information such as ChatGPT user conversations, passwords, payment information, or API keys, meaning regular ChatGPT users were not directly affected. This incident represents a supply chain attack, highlighting the vulnerability of organizations to breaches at their third-party vendors. OpenAI responded by immediately suspending its use of Mixpanel and committing to conduct a comprehensive security review of all vendors. The breach raises important questions about vendor security practices and the responsibility of major technology companies to ensure their third-party partners maintain adequate security standards. While the exposed data is limited in scope compared to what could have been compromised, it still poses risks to affected API users whose identities and contact information are now in the hands of attackers. This incident underscores the cybersecurity principle that organizations are only as secure as their vendors’ weakest security practices.

ESDS Software Solution Limited has launched a comprehensive GPU-as-a-Service platform designed to democratize access to high-performance GPU infrastructure for enterprises, financial institutions, research organizations, and government bodies running mission-critical AI and machine learning workloads.[1] The service addresses a critical market need, as global spending on AI-optimized servers including GPUs and accelerators is projected to reach approximately $329.5 billion in 2026, with nearly 80% of projected AI investments directed toward GPU infrastructure by 2030.[1] ESDS’s GPU SuperPODs are engineered with advanced features including high-bandwidth NVLink connectivity, unified memory pools, intelligent scheduling, enhanced thermal management, and AI-optimized orchestration to ensure predictable performance at scale.[1] A standout feature of this launch is the SuperPOD Configurator tool, which allows enterprises to design their AI infrastructure with precision by selecting GPU models, customizing compute density, memory profiles, storage tiers, and interconnect options, while automatically generating performance estimates, recommended configurations, and transparent cost projections.[1] The full-spectrum service portfolio encompasses advisory and design consultancy for captive GPU clusters, end-to-end supply and deployment of GPU environments, dedicated GPU infrastructure-as-a-service, hybrid CPU+GPU cloud options, and on-demand managed GPU cloud services.[1] ESDS manages the complete operational stack from rack engineering and network optimization to container orchestration, performance tuning, and 24/7 monitoring with AI/ML operations service options.[1] A real-world case study demonstrates the platform’s impact: a research laboratory reduced training time for a 50-billion-parameter model from over 40 days to just 10 days, achieved 60% cost reduction, and realized 30× faster inference with 4× shorter iteration cycles using ESDS’s NVL72-based GPU infrastructure.[1] This launch positions ESDS as a sovereign-grade managed GPU provider delivering high-performance AI compute at global scale while maintaining infrastructure conceived, constructed, and optimized within India.[1] The company, trusted by over 1,300 clients across enterprise, BFSI, and government sectors, offers transparent pricing, flexible consumption models, deep compliance capabilities, and a unified cloud services layer integrating managed services, security, SaaS, PaaS, and colocation.[1] By addressing the complexity, ambiguity, and prohibitive costs that have historically hindered GPU infrastructure adoption, ESDS aims to enable organizations to build, train, and scale AI systems with confidence, cost efficiency, and enterprise-grade reliability.[1]

Amazon’s Black Friday sale is currently live as of November 29, 2025, offering significant discounts across multiple product categories including laptops, tablets, smartwatches, air fryers, and vacuum cleaners from major brands such as Apple, Samsung, HP, Lenovo, and Philips. The sale features discounts reaching up to 80% off on select items, though the search results indicate that typical discounts range from 50% to 75% across most product categories. The Black Friday Week event began on November 20, 2025, and will continue through Cyber Monday on December 1, 2025, providing shoppers with a 12-day promotional period to find deals on electronics, home appliances, beauty products, clothing, and seasonal items. Amazon has extended the traditional single-day Black Friday event into a week-long shopping extravaganza, with new deals being added daily to encourage repeat visits from consumers. The sale encompasses popular product categories including home electronics, kitchen appliances like air fryers from brands such as Ninja and Moulinex, and various tech gadgets from established manufacturers. Shoppers can utilize Amazon’s AI-powered tools, including the Rufus shopping assistant and the new ‘Help Me Decide’ feature, to navigate the extensive catalog and find personalized product recommendations. The platform also offers enhanced deal tracking through Alexa+, allowing customers to receive instant notifications when watched items go on sale. Amazon Haul, a newer service launched by Amazon, is also playing a role in the Black Friday event, offering products under 20 euros with many items priced below 10 euros to compete with Chinese e-commerce platforms. The deals are valid through December 1, 2025, giving shoppers several days to make their purchases during this major shopping event. Customers can filter deals by discount percentage directly on the Amazon website and app, making it easier to find the deepest discounts available. This Black Friday event represents one of the biggest shopping occasions of the year, allowing consumers to check off holiday shopping lists while saving substantially on full-price items.

iPhone 15 Pro and newer models now feature the ability to launch ChatGPT’s voice mode directly through the Action button, providing users with instant, hands-free access to advanced AI conversations without requiring voice commands through Siri. The Action button, which replaced the traditional mute switch on newer iPhone models, has evolved into a powerful AI gateway that allows users to summon ChatGPT, Pi, or Perplexity with a single press or hold. Setting up this functionality is straightforward and requires only a few steps: users navigate to Settings, select Action Button, choose Shortcut from the available options, search for ChatGPT, and select the action to launch ChatGPT directly into voice mode. Once configured, users can simply press and hold the Action button to activate ChatGPT’s advanced voice feature, which boots up within seconds and enables immediate conversation. This integration represents a significant shift in how users interact with AI assistants on their iPhones, as it eliminates the need to unlock the phone, open an app, or use voice commands like “Hey Siri.” The convenience factor has proven substantial enough that some users report using ChatGPT daily as a result of this easy access. The feature works seamlessly whether the phone is in a pocket or hand, making it practical for commutes, quick questions, or extended conversations. This development highlights Apple’s recognition of the growing importance of AI integration in mobile devices and demonstrates how hardware features can be repurposed to enhance AI accessibility. The Action button shortcut method bypasses traditional navigation steps, offering a more efficient pathway to ChatGPT’s conversational abilities compared to Siri, which still lags in conversational sophistication. Overall, this capability transforms the iPhone’s Action button into a dedicated AI assistant launcher, fundamentally changing how users access and interact with advanced AI tools on their mobile devices.

The Indian banking and financial services sector stands at an inflection point. After years of experimental proof-of-concept projects, financial institutions across the country are now moving generative AI from controlled lab environments into live production systems. This transition marks a fundamental shift in how Indian banks operate, serve customers, and compete globally. What was once … Read more

The finance function has long operated on a fundamental premise: hire professionals with a balanced skill set—part accountant, part analyst, part strategist. For years, this “hybrid” model seemed like the answer to an increasingly complex business environment. But as we enter 2026, that era is definitively over. What’s replacing it is far more specialized, far … Read more