Hi there, I’m Priyanka Salve, CNBC’s senior correspondent for India, writing from Singapore. This week, I take a look at how India’s thriving digital ecosystem is attracting investments from Massive Tech corporations — the nation’s digital userbase and expertise pool are enjoying a key position.
INDIA – 2025/05/13: On this photograph illustration, a Meta emblem is seen displayed on a smartphone with a Google emblem within the background.
Sopa Photos | Lightrocket | Getty Photos
This report is from this week’s version of CNBC’s “Inside India” publication. Like what you see? You’ll be able to subscribe right here.
The massive story
When Rinchen Wangdi Bhutia in 2016 moved from the hilly northeastern Indian state of Sikkim to Kolkata, one of many nation’s metro cities, he was only a face in a crowd.
Bhutia give up his company life and began a cloud kitchen in 2023. A 12 months later, he began posting quick movies of his easy home-made meals. Strangers turned to followers and views into meals orders. Success adopted.
In the present day, he runs two eating places, specializing in dumplings, in Kolkata. He has greater than half 1,000,000 followers, and his reels repeatedly notch a million-plus views.
The nation has the best variety of customers throughout social media platforms comparable to Fb (350 million-plus), Instagram (413.8 million) and video app YouTube (over 467 million), in line with knowledge from Statista. Messaging app WhatsApp reportedly has over 500 million customers in India.
OpenAI chief government Sam Altman in February stated India was the corporate’s second-largest market.
Bhutia is a part of India’s digital progress story that’s creating entrepreneurs, drawing investments, and attracting international tech giants, fueled largely by a big expertise pool and tech userbase.
“India is a giant heart for key expertise – from chip design to AI, so the tech corporations need to make investments and find there to benefit from a key useful resource,” stated Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of International Enterprise at The Fletcher Faculty, Tufts College.
Between 2023 and 2025 up to now Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and their friends have funneled tens of billions into India.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI was searching for native companions to construct an information heart in India with not less than 1-gigawatt capability. This comes only a week after the corporate launched its most cost-effective subscription plan, priced at 399 rupees ($4.57) a month, in India.
“Consumer acquisition in Western markets is plateauing, whereas, against this, India provides a demographic bulge of first-time customers and a reservoir of expertise that may construct, take a look at, and iterate at scale,” says Vivek Agarwal International Coverage Skilled, Nation Director-India at Tony Blair Institute for International Change.
Google and Meta on Friday introduced new partnerships with Reliance Industries because the Indian conglomerate seeks to speed up its push into synthetic intelligence.
“We’re excited to place AI into the arms of extra folks and companies to allow them to do extraordinary issues,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated, including that India was house to “a number of the world’s most dynamic companies, a thriving start-up ecosystem, and unimaginable quantities of creativity and ambition.”
A research performed by Tufts College ranks India eighth amongst 125 international locations on its digital evolution momentum index. The Index is a data-driven analysis of the progress of the digital financial system over a sixteen-year interval (2008 – 2023).
Showcasing the nation’s digital progress is India’s Unified Cost Interface or UPI, which powers on the spot, low-cost, mobile-based funds in India, dealing with about 640 million transactions on daily basis. It got here into being simply 9 years in the past. Google Pay and Walmart-owned PhonePe, which use the UPI infrastructure, are among the many dominant cost suppliers in India, in line with knowledge from the Nationwide Funds Company of India.
Numbers vs. progress
Meta-owned WhatsApp, which additionally gives cost providers, has struggled to make a breakthrough within the hyper-competitive digital funds house, regardless of the messaging app’s over 500-million-strong consumer base.
“Scale on paper doesn’t equal scale in observe,” stated Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Analysis.
Meta even acquired a 9.9% stake in Jio Platform, Reliance Industries’ digital providers arm, in 2020, for $5.7 billion. “By bringing collectively JioMart, Jio’s small enterprise initiative, with the facility of WhatsApp, we will allow folks to attach with companies, store and in the end buy merchandise in a seamless cellular expertise,” Meta stated whereas saying the deal.
A powerful native accomplice in Jio, which has a telecom subscriber base of over 500 million, couldn’t assist Meta make WhatsApp Pay a hit in India. “The JioMart integration faltered, partly as a result of Reliance Retail itself has not scaled as quickly as promised,” says Gogia.
NPCI knowledge for July exhibits that WhatsApp had simply 74 million transactions in contrast with Google Pay’s practically 7 billion transactions.
However this hasn’t stopped U.S. tech majors from investing extra in India, together with Meta.
“India is turning into the proving floor the place Massive Tech’s longer-term wagers are beginning to yield seen dividends,” stated Agarwal.
India’s expertise pool has additionally led to giant international companies organising their international functionality facilities within the nation. India accounts for greater than 50% of GCCs worldwide, with greater than 1,600 up and working facilities, in line with U.S.-based GCC consultancy ANSR.
These facilities supply additional incentives to tech corporations searching for enterprise clients. The expansion of GCCs in India makes it a “excellent place to deploy tech functions and serve a variety of MNCs out of India,” stated Tufts’ Chakravorti.
Prime TV picks on CNBC
BDO India accomplice for Oblique Taxes, Maulik Manakiwala, says the most recent GST fee cuts will gas shopper spending and unlock revenue for big-ticket buys.
Polka Mishra of Javelin Wealth Administration says the route of journey in international commerce is shifting away from the U.S. She additionally sees rising company partnerships between China and India constructing.
Neil Shah, vice chairman of analysis and co-founder of Counterpoint Analysis, discusses India’s ambitions within the semiconductor business and the developments at SEMICON India 2025.
Must know
Tax construction overhaul. The Indian authorities’s transfer on Wednesday to formally scale back the products and providers tax on a wide range of objects is predicted to spur consumption and ease the influence of U.S. tariffs.
Elephant-dragon tango. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met China’s President Xi Jinping on the fifth Shanghai Cooperation Group summit, signaling enhancing ties.
Economic system turbocharged. India’s financial system grew at a faster-than-expected annual fee of seven.8% within the quarter to the top of June, boosted by the manufacturing, development and repair sectors.
– Vinay Dwivedi
Quote of the week
We’re very constructive on non-banking monetary corporations, each on the lending and the non lending aspect … we’re extra constructive on non-lending, non-banking, monetary corporations, that’s the place we really feel an enormous alpha may be created over the subsequent three to 5 years, because the capital market penetration deepens and the family publicity to equities go up.
— Gautam Duggad, director and head of analysis at Motilal Oswal Monetary Companies
Within the markets
India’s Nifty 50 index closed marginally increased at 24,734, giving up most of its 1% positive aspects in the course of the day on the again of an overhaul in its items and providers tax. The index has gained 4.6% up to now this 12 months.
The benchmark 10-year Indian authorities bond yield ticked down to six.5%.
Developing
Sept. 5: International change reserves knowledge
Every weekday, CNBC’s “Inside India” information present offers you information and market commentary on the rising powerhouse companies, and the folks behind its rise. Livestream the present on YouTube and catch highlights right here.
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