Ankush Das
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CS Grad Turned Journo | AI Decoder @Inc42 | Signal: soulpredator.09 | Leads the AI newsletter for Inc42 Media | Personal takes/titbits on AI Agents
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Articles by Ankush Das
Rising AI’s Costs Put SaaS Companies Between A Rock And A Hard Place
SUMMARY Zoho cofounder Sridhar Vembu has warned that rising AI infrastructure and usage costs are putting pressure on software companies, prompting tighter spending and a pause in routine salary hikes at Zoho. AI productivity gains may not be enough to offset rising model, token and computing costs, leaving software companies to rethink hiring, salaries and investment priorities.
Rising AI's Costs Put SaaS Companies Between A Rock And A Hard Place
India, Oct. 16 -- Recently, Zoho cofounder Sridhar Vembu raised concerns over the economics of building software in an AI-driven market. In a post on X, Vembu said server prices have risen 4-5X in a year, while AI usage and token expenditure are pushing up operating costs. Zoho, however, plans to respond by cutting its marketing budget, freezing headcount for 18 months and pausing its usual salary hikes this year.
AI Startups To Watch: 5 Startups That Caught Our Eye In October
SUMMARY AI agents have moved from answering questions to acting on them, and India's newest AI startups are being built around what happens when software shops for a customer, speaks to one on the phone and hires on a company's behalf This month's cohort of five AI startups to watch spans agentic commerce, screen-free learning, agent reliability, AI-run contact centres and AI recruitment, each sitting at a different point where an AI system meets a real transaction, a real child or a real...
AI Startups To Watch: 5 Startups That Caught Our Eye In October
India, Oct. 15 -- India's AI story is moving beyond the model. Until last year, the big question in Indian boardrooms was which large language model (LLM) enterprises should standardise on. Now, as AI agents move from answering questions to executing tasks, the focus is shifting to what these agents can do for businesses, which workflows they should handle, and how enterprises can measure their performance.
Hardik Pandya spotted walking hand in hand with girlfriend amid IND vs WI 2026 series [Watch]
Hardik Pandya spotted walking hand in hand with girlfriend amid IND vs WI 2026 series [Watch]
3 young Delhi Capitals batters who could benefit from Yuvraj Singh's appointment in IPL 2027 ft. Abishek Porel
The appointment of legendary World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh as the assistant and batting coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC) for the 2027 Indian Premier League season marks a watershed moment for the franchise. Partnering with head coach Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj steps into his first major coaching assignment, bringing a wealth of tactical acumen, an unmatched clean-hitting pedigree, and a proven track record of molding raw prodigies.
3 reasons why Yuvraj Singh joining DC as assistant & batting coach for IPL 2027 is the right move
The Delhi Capitals (DC) have officially announced the appointment of legendary Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh as their assistant and batting coach ahead of the 2027 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Following the recent unveiling of former India captain Sourav Ganguly as head coach, this high-profile addition signals a decisive restructuring of the franchise's leadership.
"Cricketers itna kamate hain lekin bahut kanjoos hain" - Rohit Sharma reveals his most memorable wedding gift after IND vs WI 2026 ODIs
"Cricketers itna kamate hain lekin bahut kanjoos hain" - Rohit Sharma reveals his most memorable wedding gift after IND vs WI 2026 ODIs
"People started throwing things here and there" - Rohit Sharma recalls amid IND vs WI 2026 series iconic match that inspired his cricketing journey
"People started throwing things here and there" - Rohit Sharma recalls amid IND vs WI 2026 series iconic match that inspired his cricketing journey
Suryakumar Yadav's comment on Sanju Samson's post gets over 6k likes ahead of IND vs WI 2026 4th T20I [In Picture]
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson generated widespread social media attention ahead of India’s fourth T20I against the West Indies, boosted by a viral comment from former India captain Suryakumar Yadav. Samson posted an Instagram photo of himself wheeling luggage through a terminal corridor in Hyderabad while dressed in India’s travel kit. Notably, the Indian team landed in Hyderabad on Monday evening for the penultimate T20I fixture against the West Indies.
BREAKING: 2 Indians sweep ICC Player of the Month for men's and women's in September 2026
Indian captain Shubman Gill has been named the International Cricket Council Men’s Player of the Month for September 2026, extending his record as the most decorated men's cricketer in the award's history. Gill edged compatriot Abhishek Sharma and Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza to claim his fifth monthly honor, having previously won in January 2023, September 2023, February 2025, and July 2025.
BCCI president breaks silence on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's future for 2027 World Cup
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Mithun Manhas said on Tuesday that fitness and form, not age, should determine whether veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli feature in India’s plans for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Speculation surrounding the duo’s long-term ODI future has intensified following their retirements from T20Is. Both players will be past 38 by the time the quadrennial tournament begins in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
Auqib Nabi purchases brand new car after debut in IND vs WI 2026 series [Watch]
Auqib Nabi purchases brand new car after debut in IND vs WI 2026 series [Watch]
“The management is practicing a kind of dictatorship” - India star’s coach blasts Gambhir & Co. amid IND vs WI 2026 T20Is
The childhood coach of India’s teenage batting sensation, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, has sharply criticized head coach Gautam Gambhir and the national team management. He accused them of running a "dictatorship" following the player's continued exclusion from the ongoing T20 series against the West Indies.
“I didn’t want to cry” - Abishek Porel breaks silence on rape case after smashing century in Ranji Trophy 2026-27
After reaching a hard-fought century in the Ranji Trophy, Bengal wicketkeeper-batter Abishek Porel made a silent, bat-pointing gesture toward the stands before dropping his head and letting tears flow freely. For the 23-year-old, the milestone marked a poignant release following months of severe turmoil. Just weeks earlier in August, Porel was arrested and later released on bail following allegations of rape and criminal intimidation.
MS Dhoni spotted with childhood friend at Mumbai airport ahead of IPL 2027 [Watch]
MS Dhoni spotted with childhood friend at Mumbai airport ahead of IPL 2027 [Watch]
“Bhaiya bole ki beizzati mat kara diyo bat ki” - Prince Yadav opens up on smashing 13* off 6 in IND vs WI 2026 3rd T20I
“Bhaiya bole ki beizzati mat kara diyo bat ki” - Prince Yadav opens up on smashing 13* off 6 in IND vs WI 2026 3rd T20I
India star KL Rahul takes to the streets for a game of gully cricket [Watch]
India star KL Rahul takes to the streets for a game of gully cricket [Watch]
Suryakumar Yadav trains hard in practice after being left out of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy squad [Watch]
Suryakumar Yadav trains hard in practice after being left out of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy squad [Watch]
"I don't blame anyone else to not score runs" - Sanju Samson after his blistering 82 in 2nd IND vs WI 2026 T20I
India opener Sanju Samson silenced critics with a blistering 82 in the second T20I against the West Indies on Friday in Ranchi. His knock powered the hosts to an imposing total of 249 before the wicketkeeper-batter emphasized his unwavering commitment to selfless, high-risk cricket. Coming into the fixture under scrutiny after a lean run with the bat, Samson refused to deviate from his aggressive philosophy.
How Arrowhead Is Using Voice AI To Fix The Gaps In Enterprise Sales And Support
SUMMARY Arrowhead has pivoted from conversation intelligence to autonomous enterprise voice AI, building in-house language and speech models to automate sales, customer support, collections and ecommerce workflows With over 50 BFSI clients and claimed conversion rates around 15% higher than human agents in its Tata 1mg deployment, Arrowhead is betting that AI voice agents can improve enterprise productivity and customer conversions at scale Around 80% of its revenue comes from BFSI clients,...
How Arrowhead Is Using Voice AI To Fix The Gaps In Enterprise Sales And Support
India, Oct. 9 -- For years, enterprises hired thousands of human executives to sell loans, answer customer queries and recover abandoned sales. Yet, even with massive teams, many high-value client interactions would slip through the cracks every single day. While some prospects were lost due to poor agent training, others were lost to long support queues. As a result, businesses consistently struggled to reach every lead on their lists.
Yashasvi Jaiswal seen testing wicketkeeping skills in Mumbai's practice game ahead of Ranji Trophy [Watch]
Yashasvi Jaiswal seen testing wicketkeeping skills in Mumbai's practice game ahead of Ranji Trophy [Watch]
Ravindra Jadeja hilariously reacts to BCCI's selector application after IND vs WI 2026 ODI series
Ravindra Jadeja hilariously reacts to BCCI's selector application after IND vs WI 2026 ODI series
"His work and legacy will live on" - Virat Kohli leads tributes from Indian cricket fraternity as Nana Patekar dies at 75
"His work and legacy will live on" - Virat Kohli leads tributes from Indian cricket fraternity as Nana Patekar dies at 75
The Case For Evals In A Multi-Model World
India, Oct. 7 -- Another day and another new model grabs the limelight. Product teams scramble to see how it can be used for their own operations and systems. But a new model can look great in a demo and still make a product worse. It may cost less but respond too slowly, pass offline tests but fail with real customers, or behave differently once traffic and context change.
The Case For Evals In A Multi-Model World
Another day and another new model grabs the limelight. Product teams scramble to see how it can be used for their own operations and systems. But a new model can look great in a demo and still make a product worse. It may cost less but respond too slowly, pass offline tests but fail with real customers, or behave differently once traffic and context change. That is why the engineering question is shifting from which model to use to how teams prove a model change is safe and worth making.
"Sanju, its done bro" - Fans slam India wicketkeeper-batter after another batting failure in 1st IND vs WI 2026 T20Is
"Sanju, its done bro" - Fans slam India wicketkeeper-batter after another batting failure in 1st IND vs WI 2026 T20Is
BCCI confirms India's new captain after Harmanpreet Kaur steps down
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday that star opening batter Smriti Mandhana has been appointed captain of the Indian women’s cricket team. She succeeded longtime skipper Harmanpreet Kaur across all formats. The leadership transition follows Kaur’s decision to step down from captaincy duties. Mandhana, 30, has served as the national team’s vice captain for several years and previously skippered Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a Women’s Premier League championship.
Harmanpreet Kaur vs Rohit Sharma: Who has won more multi-nation trophies as captain after Asian Games 2026 gold?
When Harmanpreet Kaur stepped onto the podium at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, to collect India’s second consecutive women’s cricket gold medal, she did more than seal a continental dynasty. She also tipped the scales in one of Indian cricket’s most compelling statistical debates: Who holds the ultimate tournament-winning pedigree as captain, Harmanpreet Kaur or Rohit Sharma? Over the past decade, Indian cricket has witnessed two parallel leadership revolutions.
"Legacy which a billion crave for" - Fans hail Harmanpreet Kaur as she steps down as India's all-format captain
"Legacy which a billion crave for" - Fans hail Harmanpreet Kaur as she steps down as India's all-format captain
KL Rahul and Athiya Shetty spotted at dinner in Mumbai after IND vs WI 2026 ODIs [Watch]
KL Rahul and Athiya Shetty spotted at dinner in Mumbai after IND vs WI 2026 ODIs [Watch]
Hardik Pandya recreates iconic pose with 2 famous content creators amid IND vs WI 2026 series [In Picture]
Hardik Pandya recreates iconic pose with 2 famous content creators amid IND vs WI 2026 series [In Picture]
Rest of India players celebrate Rishabh Pant’s birthday after winning Irani Cup 2026 [Watch]
Rest of India players celebrate Rishabh Pant’s birthday after winning Irani Cup 2026 [Watch]
Rest of India players celebrate Rishabh Pant’s birthday after winning Irani Cup 2026 [Watch]
Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep Tear Through J&K As Rest Of India Wins Irani Cup Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep took nine wickets as Rest of India bowled Jammu and Kashmir out for 111 to win the Irani Cup by 167 runs. Show Quick …
3 West Indies players India need to be wary of in IND vs WI 2026 T20Is ft. Shimron Hetmyer
As India prepares to host the West Indies in a five-match T20I series, the hosts face a formidable visiting squad loaded with seasoned boundary-hitters and shrewd subcontinental campaigners. Coming off a high-scoring ODI leg that concluded in dramatic fashion, the Caribbean outfit will transition swiftly into the shortest format, which remains their natural calling card.
"Freaking great in ODIs" - Fans shower praise on Rohit Sharma after his 72-ball 100 in 2nd IND vs WI 2026 ODI
"Freaking great in ODIs" - Fans shower praise on Rohit Sharma after his 72-ball 100 in 2nd IND vs WI 2026 ODI
Building AI Products For Indian Users: The Challenge Of Scale, Access, And Cost Original
SUMMARY AI products built for India must balance model flexibility, affordability and local user needs, as technology leaders adapt systems for diverse devices, languages and connectivity. The challenge of taking AI products to millions of Indian users is making them work across budget smartphones, multiple languages, and patchy networks while keeping costs in check.
Fresh Data, Clear Access Rules: The Foundation For Reliable AI Applications
SUMMARY Executives from PhonePe, OceanBase, and Fibe discussed how data quality, availability, and access controls shape the deployment of AI applications. Outdated information and weak access controls can undermine AI outputs and expose sensitive data when applications move into everyday use. PhonePe sets rules for individual data elements, while Fibe uses GenAI to extract information from documents for its existing credit model.
More Code, More Review: How AI Is Changing Engineering
SUMMARY Panellists at Inc42’s CTO Summit said AI coding tools are shifting engineering work towards design, review, and testing, prompting teams to rethink how they measure productivity. Mistaking higher code output for productivity gains risks overlooking the work and cost required to turn AI-generated code into reliable products. Cashfree Payments CTO Ramkumar Venkatesan said the company has automated 97% of its test cases and now spends more on virtual testing environments than on AI tools.
How Swiggy Is Using AI Agents To Take Commerce Beyond Its App
SUMMARY Swiggy is opening its food, Instamart, Dineout, and Scenes services to external AI agents for discovery, ordering, reservations, and tracking. The move positions Swiggy to capture transactions from consumers who increasingly turn to AI assistants to decide what to buy and where to eat. Swiggy has four MCP servers with 66 tools connecting its services to AI agents, alongside systems to switch models and restrict agents’ access.
The Unglamorous Work Behind Enterprise AI
SUMMARY As AI moves from pilots to decisions, businesses prioritise data quality with checks, context and human review to reduce errors and make automation more dependable. Let’s jump right into it: By now, we have learnt that AI tools can only act on the information they receive. As companies move to tools that assess creditworthiness, support clinical workflows or execute tasks, data quality is becoming a condition for safe deployment when utilising AI agents.
Fresh Data, Clear Access Rules: The Foundation For Reliable AI Applications
India, Sept. 30 -- AI applications need up-to-date information and clear rules on what they can access to work reliably at scale, according to executives speaking at the inaugural edition of Inc42's 'The CTO Summit 2026' in Bengaluru. The challenge is to make information spread across databases, data warehouses, and documents available to these applications while preserving its quality and controlling its use.
How Swiggy Is Using AI Agents To Take Commerce Beyond Its App
India, Sept. 30 -- Swiggy is stepping up its focus on making its commerce services accessible to external AI agents, enabling users to discover food, build carts, place orders, and book restaurant tables through AI assistants beyond its own app. Speaking at Inc42's inaugural 'The CTO Summit 2026', Swiggy CTO Madhusudhan Rao outlined how the company is making its services accessible to agents rather than assuming every customer's shopping journey will begin within its app.
The Unglamorous Work Behind Enterprise AI
India, Sept. 30 -- Let's jump right into it: By now, we have learnt that AI tools can only act on the information they receive. As companies move to tools that assess creditworthiness, support clinical workflows or execute tasks, data quality is becoming a condition for safe deployment when utilising AI agents. The challenge goes beyond correcting typos.
More Code, More Review: How AI Is Changing Engineering
India, Sept. 30 -- AI coding tools are generating code faster, shifting more of engineers' attention towards designing systems, reviewing output, and testing whether software works reliably. During a discussion titled 'How Engineering Changes When AI Writes The Code' at Inc42's inaugural 'The CTO Summit 2026' in Bengaluru, panellists described how AI is changing engineering work beyond code generation, from the time spent on design and review to investment in testing infrastructure.
Building AI Products For Indian Users: The Challenge Of Scale, Access, And Cost
India, Sept. 30 -- The challenge of taking AI products to millions of Indian users is making them work across budget smartphones, multiple languages, and patchy networks while keeping costs in check. At Inc42's inaugural 'The CTO Summit 2026' in Bengaluru, executives discussed how they are tackling these barriers to wider adoption.
Prime Volleyball League 2026: Coaches of all 10 teams
Ahead of its fifth season beginning November 30, the Prime Volleyball League has officially earned recognition from the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball as India’s premier men’s professional competition. Following an active player auction in Goa, all 10 franchises have finalized their technical leadership. The 2026 campaign features many high-intensity matches, testing both domestic stalwarts and renowned international tacticians.
5 biggest stars in Prime Volleyball League history
The Prime Volleyball League (PVL) has transformed volleyball into a mainstream television spectacle across India. Beyond international imports, homegrown talent has anchored franchise rosters, providing the clutch scoring, defensive stability, and leadership that define winning campaigns.
Prime Volleyball League: All 10 teams and the cities they represent
The Prime Volleyball League (PVL) has transformed indoor sports across India, expanding its nationwide reach to feature 10 franchises representing distinct cultural and regional hubs. Officially recognized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), this professional franchise model bridges local grassroots sports fanbases with high-level international competition.
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