A para triathlete ranked ninth worldwide chases Paralympic qualification while India pours billions into semiconductor self-reliance. These stories anchor today’s roundup of startup developments and policy shifts.
NIIF has pulled in Rs 19,000 crore for the first close of its Infrastructure Fund II, targeting Rs 30,000 crore overall. Government backing led the round, joined by sovereign wealth funds, pension managers, insurers and domestic financial institutions.
Meanwhile, Zomato rolled out stricter food safety enforcement. The delivery platform now bans analogue cheese, paneer and similar dairy substitutes. Non-compliant restaurants face removal from the app.
The government officially notified Semicon 2.0, unlocking a Rs 1,27,500-crore push spanning chip fabrication, design, packaging, materials, research and workforce training.
Shashruti Nakade’s journey underscores the human ambition behind such investments. After missing the Paris Paralympics by a narrow margin, the former swimmer now targets the LA 2028 Games.
Funding activity continued across sectors. DocPharma secured $2 million in Pre-Series A capital led by Equentis. The healthcare quick-commerce startup plans 100 new dark stores and city expansions. YOGa Clean Air raised Rs 20 crore from Info Edge Ventures, Deepinder Goyal and Three Words Capital.
PhonePe launched UPI 123Pay for feature phones, enabling offline payments via SMS architecture. Nokia, HMD, Lava and Itel will pre-install the service.
Paisabazaar reported that AI now writes 86% of its new code, though hiring continues as engineers shift toward architecture and oversight. Salesforce expanded Headless 360 to position its stack for agentic AI workflows. ARC partnered with Qualcomm on gaming hardware for emerging markets.
As AI reshapes lending, learning, storage and customer support, India’s public and private sectors appear locked in parallel sprints: one toward infrastructure scale, the other toward technological reinvention.
