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Also in the letter: ■ NR Narayana Murthy’s interview with ET ■Uber India rolls out new features

Happiest Minds Technologies reported a 15.3% year-on-year (YoY) fall in net profit at Rs 49.5 crore for the September quarter (from Rs 58.5 crore a year ago) dented by higher investment costs during the quarter. Sequentially, the profit fell 3% from the first quarter’s Rs 51 crore profit. Revenue for the second quarter jumped 28.3% YoY and 12.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 521.64 crore. The drop in profit was primarily due to salary increments for most of its employees rolled out from July 1, impacting 2.30% of its profitability, the addition investments towards its new sales team and into its GenAI business.

Reliance Industries Limited, Viacom18 Media Private Limited, and The Walt Disney Company announced on Thursday that the merger of Viacom18's media and JioCinema businesses into Star India Private Limited (SIPL) is now officially effective. The transaction values the joint venture at Rs 70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies. At the closing of the transactions, the JV is controlled by RIL and owned 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney. The JV will be led by Nita M. Ambani, Chairperson, and Uday Shankar, Vice Chairperson, who will offer strategic guidance.

UnboxingBLR Foundation, a nonprofit, has started work on beautification and infrastructure improvement on Church Street, a bustling shopping area in Bengaluru. The initiative, part of the BBMP’s “Namma Bengaluru, Namma Koduge” (“Our Bengaluru, Our Contribution”) program, aligns with UnboxingBLR’s mission of making Bengaluru a more vibrant city, a statement said. Foundation chairman Prashanth Prakash said his organization’s goal is to make Church Street an inspiring and engaging location for both locals and visitors. “We will work collaboratively with all stakeholders on this project which reflects our vision of a thriving Bengaluru that blends modern innovation with its cultural roots.”

Portfolio management firm Unifi Capital on Thursday received the final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to start its mutual fund operations through its unit, Unifi Asset Management Pvt Ltd. The approval from Sebi would allow Unifi Asset Management to leverage its extensive experience in the investment space to offer tailored mutual fund solutions to investors, the company said in its filing, adding that it has assembled a team to lead the mutual fund’s operations, blending in-house expertise with strategic external hires. Saravanan Viswanathan, Chief Investment Officer at Unifi Mutual Fund, emphasized that the firm’s focus on absolute risk-adjusted returns, rather than market sentiment and momentum, would drive consistent performance.

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Elon Musk for weighing in on Italian court rulings that have stymied the government’s plans to process some asylum-seekers in Albania. The US billionaire had said Rome judges blocking a government anti-immigration initiative should be sent packing. With the election in the US, where immigration was a hot-button issue, done, Musk criticised Italian judges for going against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's move to deport illegal immigrants. Meloni planned to detain up to 30,000 migrants in Albanian facilities.

Reliance Power, asking why it should not initiate criminal proceedings after a subsidiary of the power producer submitted fake documents for a bid, according to a notice dated Wednesday. Last week, Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) barred the power firm from participating in its clean energy project tenders for three years after it found that a unit of the company had submitted a fake endorsement of a foreign bank guarantee. SECI said on Wednesday that the bank guarantee submitted by the unit, Reliance NU BESS, was also fake.

Capex), largely driven by a 10.3 per cent year-on-year increase in central government spending, according to CareEdge Ratings report. Though state-level spending continued to decline, dropping by 3.8 per cent compared to last year, a few states, including Punjab, Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, showcased resilience by recording double-digit growth in Capex during the first half of the year, highlighting regions of sustained investment momentum despite the broader slowdown. On the corporate side, the capex for a sample of 1,074 non-financial listed companies totalled Rs 9.4 trillion in FY24, showing a minor reduction from the previous year.

Guru Nanak Jayanti is a sacred festival celebrated with deep devotion, primarily by the Sikh community. It marks the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism. In 2024, devotees will commemorate Guru Nanak Ji’s birth anniversary on Kartik Purnima, which falls on November 15. On November 15, millions around the world will mark the 555th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism, known for his teachings on unity, compassion, and equality.

Shiprocket Copilot — an AI-powered assistant to help 1 lakh sellers improve their management and expansion of their ecommerce businesses. Designed as a comprehensive virtual assistant for sellers, it handles a wide range of tasks — processing orders, checking COD billing, assisting with queries on international shipping, and a Whatsapp suite to offer precise solutions on the queries raised. According to a recent study by Meta, 94% of MSMEs acknowledge AI's potential to drive significant business growth, with 91% emphasising the need for accessible and affordable AI technologies. Recognising this demand, Shiprocket unveiled this offering to bridge the technology gap in the MSME ecosystem. This AI-driven assistant boasts of enabling small businesses across Bharat to optimise operations, improve productivity and build a more sustainable, self-reliant digital future. It is positioned as a go-to platform for merchants, similar to ChatGPT, helping them solve queries independently and on demand.

IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) has noted a slight drop in both maximum and minimum temperatures in Delhi/NCR, with current temperatures ranging between 30-32°C during the day and 14-19°C at night.

Elon Musk acquired it in 2022, with users migrating to alternatives like Bluesky, CNN reported. More than 115,000 US users deactivated their X accounts the day after the election, and this figure only includes those who deactivated through the website, excluding mobile app users, CNN reported citing a report of digital intelligence platform Similarweb. This shift follows Musk's influential role in the US presidential election. Bluesky's user base has doubled in 90 days, reaching 15 million after gaining 1 million new sign-ups in a single week.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency has become one of the most eye-catching movers in the week since the election and on Wednesday touched record highs. It was last up 5.49% at $93,158, marking a 32% rise since the Nov. 5 election.

Donald Trump has appointed former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence, according to an AP report. This role sits at the top of the nation’s intelligence agencies and serves as the president’s main intelligence adviser. As per an AP report, Gabbard, who has over two decades of military experience, doesn’t have the traditional intelligence background of past directors. After leaving the Democratic Party in 2022, she endorsed Trump earlier this year, gaining popularity among his base. Here’s a closer look at Gabbard:

This week IT engineering services provider L&T Tech Services signed an agreement to acquire California-based Intelliswift for a total consideration of $110 million. Amit Chadha, the company’s chief executive and managing director, told ET that the firm plans to double the revenue of the acquired company (whose annual revenue is about $100 million) in the next three years. While half of Intelliswift’s revenue comes from high tech, the rest comes from fintech and retail, along with the private equity channel. Persistent Systems in September said it was acquiring select assets from SoHo Dragon for $4.7 million. SoHo Dragon is a Wall Street-based consulting and staffing firm primarily in the business of providing IT services to BFSI customers. The Pune based firm said at the time, “The acquisition of the select assets will help in consolidating the relationship with a strategic and large customer in the BFSI domain.”

Siemens AG is aiming to tap the AI data centres opportunity in India that has created a need for sustainable electrification and cooling solutions, a senior executive said. “Data centres are growing significantly, double-digit around the world,” Peter Koerte, member of the managing board, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer at Siemens AG told ET. “The good news for us is being an outfitter of data centres, all the electrification comes pretty much from two or three companies. And so, investors would argue that we and Schneider are the ones that stand to benefit the most.”

GPU) access in India, particularly in the realm of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, according to industry executives and experts. Neysa Velocis, Mumbai-based Neysa’s flagship platform, helps scale up AI projects using GPU infrastructure and has a diverse inventory of thousands of GPUs. Indore-based NeevCloud is a recent entrant with plans to deploy 40,000 GPUs, aiming to provide affordable and accessible GPU resources to AI researchers and developers. Bengaluru-based Jarvis Labs has access to more than 1,000 GPUs through partners and also has its own capacity in the country.

venture capital firm, has made the final close of its Pavestone Technology Fund, securing a total corpus of Rs 816 crore. The firm, which initially targeted raising Rs 600 crore, raised the corpus twice through the green shoe option, eventually revising it to Rs 900 crore. Through this fund, Pavestone plans to invest in 14-15 early growth-stage business-to-business (B2B) technology companies with an average cheque size of $5-10 million.