Arvind's Newsletter

1.The rise of contract labour in India’s factories: Vivek Kaul in Founding Fuel

“The latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for 2023–24 carries a statistic that should stop every business leader in their tracks: 42% of the workforce in India’s organised manufacturing sector is now on contract. This is the highest level ever recorded — and it’s a number that will almost certainly grow in the years ahead.

Over the past few decades, India has been on a rapid growth trajectory, seeking to attract investment and boost competitiveness. For years, investors and economists have pointed to India’s rigid labour laws as a barrier to growth. Initially, companies turned to contract labour as a temporary solution — to meet short-term demand spikes or to staff time-bound projects. This was understandable during periods of economic downturn, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, what was once an exception has now become the norm. Today, contract workers and fixed-term employees are deployed even for core, regular and perennial roles. Fixed Term Employment (FTE), reintroduced in 2017 to address genuine short-term needs, is now being widely used for regular work, blurring its original intent.

Third-party staffing agencies have added another layer of distance between companies and the workers who power their factories. While these agencies are often better on compliance than traditional contractors, their very presence weakens accountability and engagement. The result is a workforce model in which the employer-employee relationship has become increasingly transactional and fragile.

This drift is no longer confined to MSMEs or struggling units. Even India’s most admired and financially strong companies now depend on this model. What began as a tool for flexibility has become a structural feature of India’s industrial landscape.” Read on

2.India Asks US to Allow Iran Oil to Help Curb Russia Trade: Bloomberg

India, has reiterated a request to the US this week to allow it to buy oil from sanctioned suppliers Iran and Venezuela as a way to offset any reductions in its Russian imports, people familiar said. 

 New Delhi’s representatives have emphasized that simultaneously cutting off Indian refiners’ supply from Russia, Iran and Venezuela — all major oil producers — could lead to a spike in global prices.

Even still, Narendra Modi stressed his country’s “time tested partnership” with Russia, pushing back against the US pressure to scale down engagement with Moscow.

3.India proposes to ease investment rules in possible win for Amazon: Reuters

India's government has drafted a proposal to ease foreign investment rules to allow e-commerce companies such as Amazon to buy products directly from Indian sellers and then sell them to overseas customers, a document showed.

India prohibits foreign e-commerce companies from selling goods directly to consumers at home or abroad, allowing them only to operate a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers for a fee.

4.Citigroup Moves Almost 1,000 Tech Jobs to India After China Cuts: Bloomberg

Citigroup’s global overhaul, which led to reductions in its China workforce, has seen almost 1,000 tech jobs moved to India’s business support centers according to people familiar. Global banks may now send even more work to their Indian centers after Donald Trump’s shock move to impose $100,000 fees on new applications to the widely used H-1B visa program.

5.Global AI giants target India’s youth in emerging market push: Financial Times

Two of the world’s largest artificial intelligence companies are moving deeper into India, aiming to tap the world’s most populous country for new users and use it as a test bed for expansion into other emerging markets. 

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the AI search engine Perplexity launched India-specific plans and products this summer, targeting the country’s vast number of young and price-conscious consumers. 

In August, ChatGPT introduced an India plan for Rs399 ($4.50) per month and said it was opening its first office in the country of 1.4bn people. 

“We have to be selective on which markets we go to understand deeply . . . with the hope that we learn things that can translate elsewhere,” Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, told the Financial Times. 

The AI chatbot has invested in improving accessibility by offering its service in a dozen Indian languages to penetrate rural areas, Turley said, adding that the app was also being adapted to work in low-bandwidth environments. Read on (Gift article)

6.TikTok US is being valued at $14 billion by Trump’s deal: Financial Times and others

TikTok US will be valued at about $14bn under Donald Trump’s deal to force a split from the social media app’s Chinese parent, vice-president JD Vance said.

Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will control roughly 45 per cent of TikTok US, said people familiar with the matter. TikTok’s owner ByteDance will own 19.9 per cent.

According to Vox, the deal is basically just Trump giving TikTok to his friends.

7. There are more robots working in China than the rest of the world combined: New York Times

“China is making and installing factory robots at a far greater pace than any other country, with the United States a distant third, further strengthening China’s already dominant global role in manufacturing.

There were more than two million robots working in Chinese factories last year, according to a report released by the International Federation of Robotics, a nonprofit trade group for makers of industrial robots. Factories in China installed nearly 300,000 new robots last year, more than the rest of the world combined, the report found. American factories installed 34,000.

While Chinese factories have been using more robots, they have also gotten better at making them. The government has used public capital and policy directives to spur Chinese companies to become leaders in robotics and other advanced technologies like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.” Read on (Gift article)

8.Accenture to ‘exit’ staff who cannot be retrained for age of AI: Financial Times

Accenture has already reduced global staffing by more than 11,000 in the last quarter, the Financial Times reported, and plans to train employees in agentic AI, the latest evolution in AI tech that allows a bot to take actions on a user’s behalf.

The IT consulting group on Thursday detailed an $865mn restructuring programme and an outlook for the year ahead that reflects continuing sluggish corporate demand for consulting projects and a clampdown on spending within the US federal government.

AI is especially impacting the bottom rung of the employment ladder, with a recent study showing that since late 2022, the number of 22- to 25-year-olds in careers most exposed to AI dropped significantly. Bots, however, lack “experiential knowledge gained through years in the workforce,” IEEE Spectrum wrote.

9.OpenAI really, really wants you to start your day with ChatGPT Pulse: The Verge

OpenAI’s latest personalization play for ChatGPT: You can now allow the chatbot to learn about you via your transcripts and phone activity (think: connected apps like your calendar, email, and Google Contacts), and based on that data, it’ll research things it thinks you’ll like and present you with a daily “pulse” on them.

The new mobile feature, called ChatGPT Pulse, is only available to Pro users for now, ahead of a broader rollout. The personalized research comes your way in the form of “topical visual cards you can scan quickly or open for more detail, so each day starts with a new, focused set of updates,” per the company. That can look like Formula One race updates, daily vocabulary lessons for a language you’re learning, menu advice for a dinner you’re attending that evening, and more.

10.From Liverpool to Wrexham, are U.S. owners taking over English football? ESPN

When Malcolm Glazer completed a £790 million ($1.06 billion) takeover of Manchester United in May 2005, the New York billionaire became the first American owner in the Premier League.

Twenty years later, 11 Premier League clubs are majority-owned by American individuals, families or private equity groups. Drop down to the EFL Championship, English football's second tier and direct feeder league to the Premier League, and nine clubs are majority-owned by U.S. firms or individuals, including Wrexham. Even Gillingham, top of the table in League Two, are under American ownership.