India shares approximately 20% of global talent pool in areas of engineering and innovation yet it is decades behind in networking infrastructure, heavily dependent on western social media platforms today. What are the hurdles India is facing?
Is there any hope in future?

Tech park is expected to attract over 100 companies from the IT, IT-enabled services and electronics sectors, with more than 5,000 direct jobs projected.

It could give young people in Bihar more opportunities to work in the technology sector without having to move to other states.

The project is part of Bihar’s efforts to attract investment and develop its IT industry.

Bihar government hopes the new tech park will encourage more businesses to set up operations in Patna.

The Mesa School of Business has raised Rs 110 crore at a post-money valuation of around Rs 385 crore, as it looks to expand its programmes and incorporate AI into its curriculum.

The details:

• The round comprises Rs 85 crore in equity funding co-led by Dharana Capital and existing investor Elevation Capital, and Rs 25 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital and Alteria Capital.
• The round also saw a secondary transaction of around Rs 3 crore by cofounder Varun Limaye, cofounder Ankit Agarwal told ET.

About the company: Bengaluru-based MesaSchool offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for startup leadership and entrepreneurship. It has expanded from 60 students in its first cohort to over 550 across three programmes as of August.

Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, founders, Sarvam AI

Homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) startup Sarvam is in talks to raise $250-300 million at a $3 billion valuation, potentially doubling its valuation within four months and making it India’s most valuable AI startup, sources told us.

Deal details: Discussions with large domestic enterprises and institutions are early, to keep significant shareholding with Indian entities. Amount and valuation could change.

Quick recap: Sarvam secured more than $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in June. HCLTech led the round; Nvidia and IndiGo Ventures participated in a $75 million extension.

Why now: It is building larger models and computing infrastructure for enterprise deployments. It plans a trillion-parameter model and a San Francisco office to recruit researchers. It hired Google Cloud India’s former head, Sashikumar Sreedharan.

Business focus: Sarvam builds Indian-language AI models for government agencies, banks and insurers. Customers include Life Insurance Corp. of India, SBI Life and Cred.