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India’s largest conglomerates are racing to set up dedicated AI units, as they look to rewire sprawling businesses and stake their claim in what is being billed as the most significant technology revolution since the internet. Reliance Industries has launched a new subsidiary–Reliance Intelligence–to house partnerships with Google and Meta and embed AI across telecom, finance, energy and retail. In September last year, Mahindra Group created Mahindra.AI to drive its AI strategy across automobiles, real estate and hospitality. Godrej Enterprises has committed to spend Rs 1,200 crore over the next three to five years on digital and GenAI solutions. Vedanta is scaling AI in metals and mining as part of a $5-billion sustainability drive.The Adani Group has partnered with Sirius International Holding of the UAE in a 49:51 joint venture focused on AI, IoT and blockchain. Bajaj Finance, Aditya Birla Capital, ITC, Bharti Enterprises and Air India have also announced long-term AI strategies and product pipelines. Under its new subsidiary, Reliance Intelligence will house partnerships with Google and Meta and embed AI across telecom, finance, energy, and retail. The massive project also includes building gigawatt-scale, green energy-powered AI data centers in Jamnagar, developing accessible AI services for consumers, small businesses, and key national sectors. Similarly, the Adani Group and Sirius JV acquired a majority stake in cloud platform provider Parserlabs India in July 2024, later completing a full acquisition in March 2025, to strengthen its capabilities in sovereign AI and cloud platforms.124347869Rising AdoptionRajeev Jain, vice-chairman of Bajaj Finance, told ET that the company has created a dedicated unit of 150 people to drive AI adoption internally. “BFL (Bajaj Finance) teams make two visits to the US every year to meet the top CEOs of US technology companies. So we work closely with Microsoft, Salesforce, AWS and Google. This year, the team visited China as well.” Jain said that what cloud and data did to the firm in terms of transformation earlier, AI can do the same now. “It has tremendous power to create a new growth cycle for the firm. That’s also one of the reasons my conviction is higher that we can continue to compound,” he said. CEAT, an RPG Group company, said it is embedding AI not just as a tech layer but as a core business driver. The company is using AI to boost efficiency across manufacturing, supply chain, product development and sustainability. Its AI-powered mixer control system has raised productivity by 20% and predictive tools are improving safety on the shop floor, the company said. In the supply chain, AI-led forecasting and container optimisation have improved demand accuracy and cut dispatch time by over half. The company has also shortened new product development cycles by up to 15% and reduced energy conversion costs by 20% through AI-driven sustainability initiatives. Godrej Industries Group said it is pursuing a unified AI strategy built on a hybrid approach, focusing on scalable, reusable capabilities rather than isolated use cases. “We are prioritising high-value areas where AI can shift the needle fastest, thereby accelerate decision-making, automate repetitive tasks and enhance operational efficiencies,” said Jyothirlatha B, head, AI Charter of Godrej Industries Group.Godrej Consumer Products, for instance, improved demand forecasting with 75% accuracy, improved pricing and in-store execution using computer vision. Godrej Agrovet has implemented AI-driven shelf audits in dairy and satellite imaging for palm oil plantations to boost yield. Godrej Capital, on the other hand, used AI-led customer call analysis with 9x audit efficiency and automated tranche processing with 85% of requests completed within 20 minutes.But where is the RoI?Yet, amid two years of relentless AI hype, a question continues to hang over boardrooms–where is the return on investment?In India, while 36% enterprises have budgeted and begun investing in GenAI, only 15% have workloads that are actually in production and only 8% can fully measure and allocate AI costs, an EY survey showed. “We are yet to see consistent RoI from AI investments in India. Most enterprises are in the pilot or early production stages, and the full impact of AI will unfold over a multi-year horizon,” said Mahesh Makhija, partner and technology consulting leader at EY India. “Despite growth, 30-40% of GenAI pilots may still be abandoned due to poor RoI, governance gaps or lack of strategic alignment.”Abhik Chatterjee, managing director and partner at BCG, said 31% of Indian companies now call out AI on their earnings calls, up from less than 15% a year ago, and 90% of large and mid-cap firms are already trying something in AI. However, India still lags the US in deriving value at scale from AI. “In the US, 36-37% of companies claim value at scale from AI. In India, that number is just 17-18% – less than one in five,” said Chatterjee. He attributed this gap to lower tech investments (Indian firms spend less than half of US peers) lack of clear AI strategies and weak middle management capacity to drive execution.Chatterjee also underlined structural challenges such as poor data quality, legacy backend systems and resistance to opex-heavy cloud investments.

Mumbai: Hospital stocks surged up to 7% on Monday after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced revised rates for around 2,000 medical procedures under the Central Government Health Services (CGHS) scheme. This is the first major update in over 15 years, which is expected to be effective from October 13.The rally may, however, be short-lived as many of these stocks have already run up in recent months.Fortis Healthcare soared over 7.2%, and Max Healthcare Institute jumped 6.3%. Yatharth Hospital and Trauma Care Services, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences and Aster DM Healthcare gained around 4.5% each. Apollo Hospitals rose 2.5%."The revision is expected to bring 5-30% rate increases for key procedures in fields like cardiology, oncology and orthopedics, boosting hospital profitability and cash flows from CGHS patients," said Pranay Aggarwal, director and CEO of Stoxkart.With approximately 4.6 million beneficiaries across 75 cities, the updated rates are likely to drive greater hospital empanelment and participation, potentially increasing patient volumes and further supporting revenue growth, said Aggarwal.Analysts said hospitals with higher exposure to government schemes are expected to benefit the most, potentially boosting revenues.Yatharth Hospital and Trauma Care Services has the highest revenue contribution from CGHS, while the scheme drives 20% of Max Healthcare's revenues, according to Nuvama Alternates. About 12% of the revenues of Fortis and KIMS, and 6% of Apollo Hospitals' revenues come from this subsidised scheme."Earlier due to low payments, most hospitals were not keen on offering services under this scheme but post the revised rates, the traction and adoption of CGHS by hospitals is anticipated to increase," said Nikhil Ranka, CIO, Nuvama Alternates.“The move is expected to result in Ebitda (earnings before interest tax depreciation amortisation) upgrades of about 3-7%.” In the last six months, most hospital stocks such as Max Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Global Health, Aster DM Healthcare and Yatharth Hospital and Trauma Care Services have surged between 5% and 77%. Benchmark Nifty gained 13.2% in the same period. Hospital stocks are valued fairly and are trading around 20–25 times EV (Enterprise Value) to Ebitda, said Ranka. Yatharth is at the lower end of the valuation at 13 times EV to Ebitda, but that is due to a higher government share in their revenue portfolio, he said. “The surge in the stocks today captures most of the upside based on the positive trigger and these stocks are expected to perform in line with the market in the near term,” said Ranka

Mumbai: Information technology stocks rebounded on Monday, emerging from oversold conditions, as investors judged the recent weakness to be excessive.The NSE IT index jumped 2.3%, posting its best gains in a month, while the Nifty gained 0.7%. TCS, LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra and Coforge emerged as the top gainers, rising about 3% each."We are observing renewed buying interest in information technology companies, as valuations have turned attractive following the recent correction," said Arijit Malakar, equity research analyst, Ashika Stock Broking. "Most of the negative factors, including the US growth slowdown, tariff concerns and higher H-1B visa fees, appear to be largely priced in, limiting further downside risk at current levels."IT stocks have been under pressure in the past month as uncertainty over the fallout of the increase in the US H-1B visa fees on the sector has added to existing concerns over the impact of a downturn and growing AI dominance on the sector's prospects. 124350720Sushovon Nayak, research analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities, said after an expected muted first half for IT firms, he believes the worst is now behind the sector. "While the recent H-1B visa fee hike may create short-term revenue pressure, the resulting shift of work offshore or nearshore could help improve margins and is structurally positive for IT," he said.Nayak also said AI adoption among enterprises is still at a nascent stage, and as it scales up, large Indian IT players are well-positioned to benefit from aiding this integration.In 2025, the Nifty IT index is down about 20%. All 10 stocks on the Nifty IT index are down this year between 2% and 29%. The Nifty has gained 6% this year. Sagar Shetty, research analyst at StoxBox, said the overall outlook for the IT sector remains cautious, with no clear signs of recovery yet. “In the second quarter, tier-I companies are expected to post modest, low single-digit growth, while midcap IT firms are likely to deliver relatively stronger performance,” he said. STOCK PICKS Shetty said he prefers Persistent Systems and Coforge in this space, given their operational efficiency and AI integration. “For high-risk investors, current levels may offer selective contrarian opportunities, whereas other investors may adopt a wait-and-watch approach until the environment improves,” he said. Nayak is positive on LTI Mindtree and Infosys among large caps and prefers Mastek, Mphasis, and Firstsource in the midcap space. “We believe now is a good opportunity for investors to accumulate select IT stocks with a medium- to long-term view,” said Malakar. “We currently favour mid-cap IT firms over largecaps, given their strong presence in engineering and R&D services and greater domestic focus.” Within the mid-cap space, Malakar likes Coforge and Oracle, while Infosys remains his preferred pick among largecaps.

Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Monday said retail investors should avoid speculative trading in derivatives, underscoring the risks associated with these products.“Sebi studies have consistently shown that retail investors trading in derivatives end up facing losses, often because they do not fully understand the risk in these products,” Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said at the World Investor Week 2025 event organised by NSE.“Individuals should examine whether they seek to build long-term wealth or want to engage in speculative, short-term trading…Derivatives are meant for hedging and risk management, not for quick gains. Retail investors should therefore assess their risk capacity, learn how these contracts work, and avoid speculative trades,” he added.Increased access, simplified on-boarding, and wider awareness has led to the number of unique investors in the securities market ecosystem increasing to 13.4 crore, Sebi data shows.A recent survey commissioned by Sebi reveals that 63% of Indian households (21.3 crore households) are aware of at least one securities market product. However, the actual participation stands at 9.5% of households (3.2 crore households).The Sebi chief highlighted that only 36% of investors possess high or moderate knowledge of the securities market. This knowledge gap is a vulnerability that exposes investors to risks and makes them susceptible to fraud, he said.Pandey said that while Sebi can provide the tools, the ultimate shield for investors is to be smart through responsible investing.“A smart investor relies on credible, verified sources, and ignores unsolicited offers on social media,” he said.In the last 18 months, over 1 lakh unlawful contents have been removed from various social media platforms after Sebi raised concerns about misleading content with companies like Google and Meta.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged 38% to hit a high of $226.70 on Nasdaq after the company announced about a 6 gigawatt agreement with OpenAI to power latter’s next-generation AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs. The first 1 gigawatt deployment of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs is set to begin in the second half of 2026.Under this definitive agreement, OpenAI will work with AMD as a core strategic compute partner to drive large-scale deployments of AMD technology starting with the AMD Instinct MI450 series and rack-scale AI solutions and extending to future generations, a company filing to the exchanges said."By sharing technical expertise to optimize their product roadmaps, AMD and OpenAI are deepening their multi-generational hardware and software collaboration that began with the MI300X and continued with the MI350X series. This partnership creates a true win-win for both companies, enabling very large-scale AI deployments and advancing the entire ecosystem," the release said.The price action was accompanied with strong volume action as 123.28 million shares were trading on the Nasdaq 10:18 AM ET (7:48 pm India time).As part of the agreement, to further align strategic interests, AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, structured to vest as specific milestones are achieved. The first tranche vests with the initial 1 gigawatt deployment, with additional tranches vesting as purchases scale up to 6 gigawatts. Vesting is further tied to AMD achieving certain share-price targets and to OpenAI achieving the technical and commercial milestones required to enable AMD deployments at scale.Commenting on the development, AMD's Chair and CEO Lisa Su said that the company is thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at "massive scale". "This partnership brings the best of AMD and OpenAI together to create a true win-win enabling the world’s most ambitious AI buildout and advancing the entire AI ecosystem," Su said.Meanwhile, the headline index Nasdaq Composite was trading at 22,891, gaining 110.48 points or 0.49% over the previous closing.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)