Рубрика: AI

India’s edtech sector is entering its second act, one marked by an aggressive shift offline. After years of digital disruption, leading players are investing in physical centres to rebuild trust, improve outcomes, and achieve sustainable unit economics.

PhysicsWallah (PW), once a purely digital success story, is preparing a ₹3,480 crore IPO to fund offline expansion and acquisitions such as Utkarsh Classes, strengthening its reach in tier-II and tier-III cities. Meanwhile, UpGrad and Unacademy are reportedly in talks for a $300–400 million merger — a move that signals large-scale consolidation as both seek deeper offline footprints.

UpGrad has been expanding into physical learning centres and enterprise programs, while Unacademy, after restructuring for profitability, expects 70% of its centres to turn profitable in 2025.

Even Vedantu and SpeakX are following suit, using recent funding rounds from Accel and WestBridge Capital to grow hybrid and classroom-based models.

The message is clear: despite their digital DNA and efforts towards AI, India’s edtech leaders are betting big on brick-and-mortar. AI now plays a supporting role — bridging digital precision with classroom credibility, as the sector learns that the future of learning still has a physical address.

AI and Offline Evolution Through the Pandemic

The pivot to offline and hybrid learning began soon after the pandemic. During 2020–2021, India’s edtech sector boomed as platforms like Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, and PhysicsWallah scaled rapidly with AI-driven systems and virtual classrooms. But, as schools reopened in late 2021, engagement fell. Parents sought credibility, students wanted peer interaction, and teachers struggled to sustain attention online. The shift forced edtech firms to transition from their growth-at-all-costs model to sustainable, outcome-focused models.

Even a physical AI-based tutor won’t be able to replace a classroom, because offline teaching provides students emotional and mental support, they need to interact with the teacher, said Suraj Biswas, founder and CEO of Assessli.

Assessli is building, it claims, “the world’s only LBM (Large Behavioral Model) — an AI foundation model trained on genomic, neuropsychological, and behavioural data.”

Biswas added that edtech firms are routing to offline models because they need to sustain themselves and keep the revenue rolling.

By 2022–2023, the offline pivot gained pace. Byju’s launched Tuition Centres, Unacademy opened hubs in Kota and Bengaluru, Vedantu rolled out hybrid learning pods, and PW expanded into tier-II and tier-III cities through Utkarsh Classes.

AI shifted from automation to classroom support. Unacademy’s Airlearn offers AI-driven language practice in English and regional languages, PW uses AI dashboards to personalise guidance, and Vedantu’s WAVE 2.0 monitors engagement to adapt teaching in real time. Byju’s added computer-vision tools to track participation. These examples show how edtechs are refitting their AI for the classroom.

This model can work because offline teaching and AI are complementing each other to shape the learning experience, said Shantanu Rooj, founder and CEO at TeamLease Edtech. “AI gives scale, personalisation, and 24×7 academic support. While offline centres offer trust, community, and structure, especially for high-stakes learning,” he added.

Rooj said that recent industry studies show that hybrid models improve completion and engagement versus purely online or purely physical formats. Over 70–80% of institutions are experimenting with some form of blended delivery.

“For a company like ours that is deeply committed to online and work-linked learning, offline touchpoints make sense as they strengthen outcomes, not replace digital-first efficiency,” he added.

The Profitability Game

Edtech companies are moving towards offline learning as many students still prefer face-to-face classes, especially for competitive exams and certification courses. Even though fewer people take these offline courses compared to digital ones, companies focus on them because students stay longer (lifetime value of customer) and the cost to get each customer is lower (customer acquisition cost).

Biswas elaborated to explain: These firms struggle for profitability as online the CAC is very high compared to offline. A lot of marketing and retention goes into online as the CAC to LTV ratio is small, which should ideally be 1:7—if CAC is 10%, LTV should be around 70%.

“Otherwise, if I spend ₹3,000 or even ₹500 to get one user and only earn ₹3,000–₹5,000, the ratio isn’t that good. That’s why offline is always better. Of course, it depends — user to user, organisation to organisation, course to course — but this is the ideal case.”

He added that retention is much lower in online learning because students have many options. “In online, the cost is around ₹4,000–₹5,000, so students don’t mind subscribing to multiple platforms — Allen, Unacademy, Vedantu — or even using free YouTube classes,” he said. Yet, having digital operations helps in building brand presence in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where students lack infrastructure.

AI and the Blended Future

Acquisitions of AI-led edtech platforms by offline centres, or vice versa, are only one way forward, said Rooj. He said that offline players can bring AI into their systems through partnerships, in-house solutions, or platform integrations that support adaptive practice, doubt-solving, vernacular learning, and performance analytics.

According to him, the real advantage will come from combining three core elements: human context through mentors and counselling, AI infrastructure that enables personalisation and real-time feedback, and visible outcomes linked to grades, exams, or jobs. Centres that act as high-trust spaces powered by intelligent digital systems, he said, will hold a stronger edge than those treating AI as a superficial add-on.

Rooj claimed that traditional “content plus testing” models are losing relevance as exam preparation shifts toward conceptual mastery, analytics, and clear career pathways.

Biswas added to this by dividing learners into two groups—offline and online—each using AI differently. Offline learners rely on mentoring and structure, but increasingly benefit from digital augmentation. In classrooms, AI is automating question papers, evaluations, and performance tracking.

Companies like Extramarks are building B2B SaaS tools to help teachers optimise classes and analyse learning outcomes. He noted that while teachers use AI to create questions and students use it to draft answers, there is now a need for balanced tools that assist both sides without bias.

Looking ahead, Biswas said he expects “physical AI companions” to enter classrooms—interactive tutors capable of explaining concepts, drawing visuals, and generating content dynamically across formats such as text, diagrams, and videos.

For online learners, the biggest challenge is retention in an environment overloaded with content. While AI enables personalised learning and content generation, gamified experiences are emerging as the real differentiator because they keep a fickle and easily distracted audience engaged and motivated to stay longer on a platform. These operations might use AI and increase operational costs.

Biswas believes the next major opportunity lies in hybrid learning models across tier-II and tier-III cities, where demand is high but access to quality education remains low. Institutions that blend offline trust with AI-driven personalisation, he said, are best placed to lead this next phase of growth.

The post Edtech’s Offline Shift reshapes AI Usage appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

StoneX Group Inc’s CTO Boris Levine does not sound like someone waiting for the future to arrive. He sounds like someone who has already lived through five different versions of it and is now watching the rest of the world catch up.

Levine holds the number one spot on HackerEarth, with a focus on mathematics and algorithms, and that sets the tone. He codes. He thinks in systems. He sees patterns long before others feel the tremor.

He has been at StoneX for years, but his job description keeps expanding. He is trying to turn a decades-old financial firm into a full-scale tech company. He is pushing teams across continents to rethink everything from testing to customer support to the code they ship.

And he is doing all of this while flying between conferences, reviewing hackathon pitches, helping shape Gartner as the member of the CIO Research Board, and sitting in front of developers who keep asking him whether the world is shifting beneath their feet.

He believes it is. And he thinks we are early. “Impossible just takes longer,” he said. It is the closest thing he has to a motto, and much of his work is built on that line.

When he landed in Bengaluru at 3 am on November 14, the StoneX hackathon was in full swing with 30 teams across the city, as well as in Pune, and more than 130 participants. The problems ranged from HR to data engineering to operations.

But what really excites him is not the hackathon itself. It’s what sits underneath it—a shift in how developers think about creating things in a world full of AI tools. “Everyone is very excited about possibilities and opportunities,” he said, coming straight from the Gartner summit in Barcelona. As part of the CIO Research Board, he’s spent four consecutive summits in conversations dominated entirely by AI, and its effects on engineering, business processes and customers.

What Would Levine Do?

Levine sits right at the centre of two worlds. One is the traditional financial stack that demands caution, stability and regulatory clarity. The other is the speed at which new models are breaking every expectation about what is possible in software development. That tension shapes almost every decision he makes.

StoneX uses Copilot and other tools across teams. “We can see very good signs of development process improvement in terms of efficiency,” he said. The company has built proofs of concept for automated testing, automated script generation and faster transition work. But he refuses to hand over full product creation to AI.

“We need to be very careful about what we can put in front of the customers, how secure, how stable the solution is,” he said. The company is regulated by dozens of bodies around the world. Every line of code carries weight and liabilities. And the same question keeps returning: how do you push the edge of technical possibility while living inside a system that cannot afford mistakes?

Levine believes the industry is still stuck in the wrong place.

Enterprises are chasing productivity when they should be chasing process redesign. Studies back him up. “Only 5% of the projects deliver return on investment,” he said, pointing to an MIT figure. McKinsey & Company’s recent report shows most pilots remain stuck in the POC bucket. Everyone is chasing faster development, faster operations, faster monitoring.

But the real return, he argues, will come only when companies change how the process itself works, not when they plug AI into the old version of it.

He is blunt about where the bottleneck is. “We’re not yet there,” he said. Not just because of technology, but also because of regulations. Financial firms cannot let models make decisions that touch clients without rigour, which does not yet exist. That is the gap, and it slows everything else down.

He is equally blunt about the limitations of current models. “You cannot fit your entire code base in the context window,” he said. Increasing the context window only creates new problems: cost, loss of focus, and error rates that spike with scale. If the window gets to a million tokens, even a small margin of error compounds. The model loses coherence. It drifts.

The path forward, he says, is clear—composite models, knowledge graphs, better architecture. Systems that work more like people do. “Highly skilled developers don’t remember every single line of code,” he said. They remember ideas, concepts and patterns. Models need the same structure. Context windows cannot get us there. Knowledge systems can.

What About the Future?

Levine has been following Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun’s work and also believes in world models. He does not believe anything today can truly reason across steps. Current systems try to process entire problems at once instead of breaking them down. “Very complex problems usually need to be split in different stages of proof,” he said.

That, he argues, is the skill missing from all large models today.

He pointed to another shift he is watching closely: edge AI—models that run on phones. He explained it through the lens of search. Today, StoneX and other firms rely on Google ranking. They know what matters: mobile speed, layout stability, relevance and token match. These rules determine how clients discover trading products. But if users move from Google to local models on their phones, everything changes.

“Users will stop searching Google. They will start asking questions to the local LLM model,” he said. When that happens, the entire onboarding funnel changes.

This leads him into a deeper fear. Advertising and sponsored answers. A future where on-device models suggest trades, products or even medicines based on whoever paid for influence. “How can you trust your helper on your phone that it actually tells you something?” he asked.

This kind of thinking is what makes him hard to categorise. He moves from pure code to system behaviour to sociology with the same clarity. He has done this before. His years at Intel shaped how he sees the hardware problem. The gap between the human brain running on “about 40 watts” and current models consuming kilowatts or more is, to him, absurd.

He has seen early attempts at new chips, and he believes hardware will unlock the next leap. He believes these chips will make AI so cheap that it will sit inside kettles, irons, refrigerators and everything else. That is the future he sees.

What Happens Inside StoneX?

Inside StoneX, the work is more grounded. The company is using AI to simplify customer service, unify operational data and remove the need for employees to jump between systems. “They can just ask our internal systems,” he said. The system converts questions into API calls, collects data and retrieves answers.

It changes speed and quality. On the development side, AI tools reduce PR review time, security checks and migrations. They accelerate the boring parts. They free teams to think better.

But he knows this comes with risk. “Three months down the line, I need to change something. I have a bunch of code that nobody understands,” he said. Models evolve. Vendors change. Context changes. Maintenance becomes a nightmare. Technical debt balloons. This keeps him cautious.

When it comes to clients, he refuses to move fast. He knows regulators will not accept AI-driven advice without a foundation that cannot be tricked by prompts.

“We need AI that is guarded and controlled, not by an extra system prompt,” he said. It must be built into the model. Something that cannot be overridden. Something that refuses to act outside its role. That, he says, will open the door to serious enterprise adoption. He does not believe synthetic data solves this. Only responsible AI will.

He is equally firm about where India fits into the future. StoneX has long-standing operations in India, with offices in Pune and Bengaluru.

India has scale, talent and deep pools of engineering talent. Pune brings payments and banking strength. Bengaluru brings universities and a flood of young developers. StoneX has invested in both for a reason. The offices are growing fast. The company sees them as long-term investments, not cost centres.

He paints India as one of the new bright centres of technical innovation. While the hackathon is one signal, the pace of hiring is another. But the shift in developer mindset, he says, is the biggest one.

When he talks about art, he becomes almost reflective. He loves painting. His favourite artist is Rubens Santoro. He slows down. He describes light, mood and influence. He talks about creativity as a way to detach from day-to-day technical intensity.

He sees programming as creative work. In places like Poland, developers are even given tax benefits for working in creative professions. He says some of the best engineers have no artistic hobbies. The connection, he says, is personal, not universal.

He does not fear AI taking over art. “Are we going to see the next Gustav Klimt?” he asks. He does not think the current mathematical models can produce anything that breaks out of the mainstream. He says the same about code. He does not expect AI to produce a new way of organising computation. It can remix, but it cannot invent the next architecture. Not yet.

But what about AGI? Levine says motivation, purpose and the ability to verify intelligence sit at the centre of the question. He has opinions but no definitive answer. “I would need to think about it,” he says when asked how we would even test real intelligence. Current models can easily pass Turing-style checks, he noted. They still have no purpose. No internal drive. No reason to choose one action over another.

He believes that true intelligence needs motivation built into its core.

The post ‘Impossible Just Takes Longer,’ Says StoneX Group Inc’s Relentless Super Coder CTO appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos has raised about ₹150 crore (~$17 million) in fresh funding on November 22. The company secured the round at a valuation of $500 million. The funds will support its upcoming launches, stage-recovery programme, and its integrated space campus on 350 acres allocated by the Tamil Nadu government.

The round included participation from family offices and institutional investors, including Advenza Global Limited, Atharva Green Ecotech LLP, HDFC Bank, Artha Select Fund, Prathithi Ventures, and 100X.VC. Agnikul plans to scale production of rocket and aerospace components and advance work on reusable systems.

CEO and co-founder Srinath Ravichandran said the funding will help the team work on stage recovery and upper-stage extension. “This fund raise allows us to work on such missions while also focusing on scaling launch frequency and building for the world, from India,” he added.

Agnikul will also strengthen its reusable launch architecture. The company recently secured a patent that extends the operational life of upper stages. Co-founder and COO Moin SPM said, “With growing demand and more than a dozen customers eager to launch with us, scaling our operational depth was the natural next step.”

Investors expressed confidence in the company’s global potential. Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital, called Agnikul “a standout example of the cutting-edge deep tech innovation we see in India today.”

The company also recently announced a new large-format metal additive manufacturing unit to expand its 3D-printing capability beyond engines. Agnikul’s customer base spans India, the Middle East, and Australia.

Anirudh A. Damani of Artha Select Fund said the company’s work shows that “India’s private space industry has arrived and the world is now watching closely.”

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OpenAI has entered into a collaboration with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) to advance work on US manufacturing readiness for next-generation AI infrastructure hardware, the companies announced on November 20.

While the agreement does not include purchase commitments, OpenAI will have early access to evaluate new systems and the option to buy them. The partnership aims to address the growing demand for physical infrastructure that supports increasingly advanced AI models.

Under the initiative, the two companies will co-design and develop multiple generations of AI data centre racks in parallel, aligning OpenAI’s infrastructure roadmap with Foxconn’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said the effort represents a generational opportunity to reindustrialise America. “This partnership is a step toward ensuring the core technologies of the AI era are built here. We believe this work will strengthen US leadership and help ensure the benefits of AI are widely shared,” he added.

As part of the collaboration, both sides will work to broaden domestic sourcing, improve rack architecture for US manufacturing, and expand local testing and assembly. The companies said these steps are intended to strengthen the US AI supply chain, speed deployment, and improve reliability.

Foxconn will also manufacture key components for AI data centres in the US, including cabling, networking, cooling, and power systems, to support the buildout of high-performance compute infrastructure.

“We at Foxconn are thrilled to partner with OpenAI… As the world’s largest manufacturer of AI data servers, Foxconn is uniquely positioned to support OpenAI’s mission with trusted, scalable infrastructure,” said Foxconn chairman Young Liu.

Previously, OpenAI announced a multi-year strategic collaboration with Broadcom to co-develop and deploy 10 gigawatts of OpenAI-designed AI accelerators and networking systems, marking a major expansion in OpenAI’s infrastructure capabilities.

Under the partnership, OpenAI will design the accelerators and systems, while Broadcom will provide Ethernet and other connectivity solutions for large-scale deployment across OpenAI facilities and partner data centres. Deployment of the racks is expected to begin in the second half of 2026 and conclude by the end of 2029.

The post OpenAI, Foxconn Partner to Co-Design AI Data Centre Hardware appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos has raised about ₹150 crore (~$17 million) in fresh funding on November 22. The company secured the round at a valuation of $500 million. The funds will support its upcoming launches, stage-recovery programme, and its integrated space campus on 350 acres allocated by the Tamil Nadu government.

The round included participation from family offices and institutional investors, including Advenza Global Limited, Atharva Green Ecotech LLP, HDFC Bank, Artha Select Fund, Prathithi Ventures, and 100X.VC. Agnikul plans to scale production of rocket and aerospace components and advance work on reusable systems.

CEO and co-founder Srinath Ravichandran said the funding will help the team work on stage recovery and upper-stage extension. “This fund raise allows us to work on such missions while also focusing on scaling launch frequency and building for the world, from India,” he added.

Agnikul will also strengthen its reusable launch architecture. The company recently secured a patent that extends the operational life of upper stages. Co-founder and COO Moin SPM said, “With growing demand and more than a dozen customers eager to launch with us, scaling our operational depth was the natural next step.”

Investors expressed confidence in the company’s global potential. Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital, called Agnikul “a standout example of the cutting-edge deep tech innovation we see in India today.”

The company also recently announced a new large-format metal additive manufacturing unit to expand its 3D-printing capability beyond engines. Agnikul’s customer base spans India, the Middle East, and Australia.

Anirudh A. Damani of Artha Select Fund said the company’s work shows that “India’s private space industry has arrived and the world is now watching closely.”

The post Indian Spacetech Startup Agnikul Cosmos Raises $17 Mn to Build Reusable Rocket appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

TCS has secured a $1 billion investment from global alternative asset manager TPG to accelerate the expansion of HyperVault, its AI data centre business that aims to build gigawatt-scale, AI-ready digital infrastructure across India.

The deal marks one of the largest private investments into India’s data centre ecosystem and is a critical step in TCS’ plan to become what it calls the world’s largest AI-led technology services company. The company aims to set up AI data centre capacity exceeding one gigawatt over the next few years.

HyperVault will be funded through a mix of equity from TCS and TPG, and debt. Both partners together will commit up to ₹18,000 crore, of which TPG will invest up to ₹8,820 crore.

Depending on the final structure at closing, TPG is expected to hold between 27.5% and 49% in the venture. TPG’s investment is being made through its climate-focused platform TPG Rise Climate and the Global South Initiative, along with its Asia real estate business.

TCS chairman N Chandrasekaran said the partnership will help the company quickly build large-scale AI data centres to serve the rising demand from hyperscalers and AI companies.

He said the capability positions TCS to deliver “complete AI solutions” for global customers and strengthens its ambition to lead in AI-led services.

Jim Coulter, executive chairman of TPG, said data centres sit at the intersection of green energy infrastructure, technology, and real estate, and described the partnership as an opportunity to help build India’s next wave of digital infrastructure “in a climate-positive manner.”

India’s data centre market, currently around 1.5 GW of installed capacity, is projected to cross 10 GW by 2030. Industry estimates show nearly $94 billion has flowed into the segment since 2019, driven by cloud adoption, AI workloads, and hyperscaler expansion.

TCS said HyperVault will offer secure, liquid-cooled, high-density AI data centres with energy-efficient designs and connectivity across major cloud regions. It will work closely with hyperscalers and AI companies to design, deploy, and optimise AI infrastructure for large-scale, real-time applications.

The company said its broader AI strategy spans AI data centres, cloud platforms, AI-led IT services and industry-specific solutions. AZB & Partners and Deloitte advised TCS on the transaction, while TPG was represented by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Latham & Watkins, and Price Waterhouse & Co LLP. The deal is subject to customary approvals.

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Deepwatch, the leader in Precision managed detection and response (MDR) powered by AI + humans, has officially opened its new office in Bengaluru, India. The state-of-the-art facility will serve as a strategic engineering and technology hub as the company expands its global research and development (R&D) footprint.

India’s rapid rise as an AI powerhouse underscores the significance of this expansion. According to the Stanford AI Index 2024, the country ranks first globally in AI skill penetration with a score of 2.8, surpassing the US (2.2) and Germany (1.9).

AI talent concentration in India has surged by 263% since 2016, positioning it as one of the world’s most dynamic AI hubs. The nation also hosts the fastest-growing developer population and ranks second in public generative AI projects on GitHub, constituting 16% of the global AI talent pool.

Specifically, there are currently 25,000-30,000 active openings for cybersecurity roles across IT firms, GCCs, and enterprises, a rise of nearly 30% from 2023 and more than double since 2021, shows data from Teamlease Digital.

Deepwatch believes it can build global-grade MDR capability from India and expects the MDR market to grow rapidly.

By establishing its GCC in Bengaluru, Deepwatch gains access to India’s world-class expertise in software engineering, agentic AI, and cybersecurity.

The new centre is designed to accelerate platform innovation, enhance development velocity, and reinforce the delivery models and support structures that Deepwatch customers rely on.

“Our investment in Bengaluru represents more than a new office, it’s a testament to Deepwatch’s commitment to developing exceptional AI-powered solutions for the cyber industry,” John DiLullo, CEO at Deepwatch said.

Unlike many GCCs that begin with service delivery, Deepwatch entered India with a pure innovation mindset.

In an interview with AIM, Prasad Channabasappa, VP engineering and MD for the Deepwatch India Centre, mentioned, “One of the key things that Deepwatch has already started implementing is on the level three and the level four of the maturity, which is concentrating majorly on the innovation part of it.”

Highlighting the strategic intent, he added that 92% of the India workforce is dedicated to core product functions, including, product managers, interoperable engineers, AI specialists.

Talking to AIM, Anand Ramanathan, chief product officer at Deepwatch described it as a natural progression for a company expanding its product footprint.

Building AI-Powered Cybersecurity from India

The India centre is already playing a crucial role in Deepwatch’s AI innovation pipeline. The company recently launched NEXA, the nexus of AI and human, an agent-based AI framework designed to transform cybersecurity operations.

Ramanathan explained, “We are delivering six new AI agents as part of that framework… We have three in production right now and two of them are being delivered by this particular team.”

These AI agents automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as summarising alerts, freeing analysts to focus on deeper, more technical investigations.

Beyond agents, the India team is also working on new detection engines, scoring mechanisms, and adversarial behaviour analysis, critical components of modern managed detection and response (MDR) platforms.

Bengaluru’s AI Advantage

Both leaders were unequivocal about what drew Deepwatch specifically to Bengaluru. “We think Bengaluru has the kind of talent that we need, not only for the things that we have been doing in the past, but more importantly for the AI forward strategy that we have put together,” Ramanathan said.

Ramanathan added that the pipeline of AI talent they have been able to find just in the last two quarters has been tremendously positive.

The GCC is currently pursuing a targeted hiring strategy with rapid growth ahead. Deepwatch is starting with a headcount of 30 employees, but is already seeing rapid traction.

“Whatever we’ve tried to do in the last three months has been growing more than 100% as of now,” Prasad said, noting that the company intends to continue this momentum year-on-year. At this stage, hiring is focused on lateral, immediate joiners.

Speaking about the cybersecurity talent base in Bengaluru, Channabasappa mentioned that the GCC has a mix of product managers, developmental engineers, and DevOps engineers. Ramanathan noted that the market is 30% penetrated and expected to get to 75% in the next five years. Their appetite is to capture as much of the market as is relevant for them.

Prasad summed up the India GCC’s mission stating that “We want to be the best MDR provider in the industry, build something in India that can cater to the world. That’s the mantra we are following through.”

The post Why Deepwatch Chose Bengaluru to Capture MDR Market appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Moody’s hosted its first-ever India Open House, a full-day event designed to bridge future talent with global impact in Bengaluru on November 7. The gathering brought together students, graduates and professionals to explore careers in credit, technology and risk, while meeting the leaders shaping Moody’s India story.

The atmosphere was buzzing from the start. “The future belongs to those who are curious, not certain,” the host quipped, setting the tone for a day that celebrated curiosity as a career path.

A Day of Insights and Inclusion

The event opened with Vanessa Youngs, SVP of inclusion at Moody’s, and Francisco Martinez-Garcia, chief inclusion officer and global head of total rewards at the company.

“You’ve done the most important thing a curious professional can do—you’ve shown up,” Youngs said, addressing a room full of early-career attendees. She emphasised that India plays a “strategic hub” role for Moody’s, serving as its second-largest employee base globally.

Martinez-Garcia offered a sweeping view of Moody’s mission: to be the “leading source of relevant insights on exponential risk”. He detailed how the company’s data-driven risk analysis spans climate, cyber, credit and supply chain / know your customer. He highlighted that all elements of risk are interconnected.

“The reason we want to make sure that we talk a lot about AI is because it’s an incredibly powerful tool to connect all those elements,” he said.

This was followed by a lively fireside chat between Youngs and Maral Kazanjian, chief people officer at Moody’s, about how curiosity and inclusion shape the company’s culture. Kazanjian praised the “brilliance and warmth” of the local teams, calling the country “an essential hub” in the company’s global growth.

Kazanjian shared her own journey from law to leading Moody’s people strategy, highlighting the firm’s commitment to AI-driven learning and empowerment.

She highlighted that the future is not about machines taking over humans; it’s about how humans use machines to better humanity.

Ending on an inspiring note, she reminded the audience, “A great woman said, the future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams.”

“I want to ask all of you, do you believe in the beauty of your dreams?…I believe in the beauty of my dreams.”

The key discussions ended with an insightful panel discussion led by Sromona Banerjee, AVP of inclusion for APAC, with Deepika Varshini R, manager, talent development, and Marshniel S, SVP of ratings technology at Moody’s.

Banerjee, who joined the company in 2018 as an associate, shared her personal journey of growth and connection within the company. “Did Moody’s give me growth? Yes. Did it make me happy? Very happy. Did I find my family here? Absolutely,” she said, drawing applause from the audience.
She spoke about how inclusion at Moody’s goes beyond diversity programmes and HR frameworks. “It’s about the decisions we make every day to give each other a sense of belonging.”

Her words captured the company’s larger culture of empathy and trust, where employees are encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work.

Meanwhile, Varshini spoke about how Moody’s enabled her to carry her entrepreneurial mindset into the corporate world. Having once founded an edtech startup, she described her work at Moody’s as “a mini startup within a global company”, where she continues to build learning experiences and integrate AI into employee development.
Marshniel, who joined Moody’s after more than two decades in the industry, shared how the company’s culture of openness reignited her sense of purpose. She emphasised that curiosity, combined with the diverse perspectives each individual contributes, is precisely why this is the optimal environment for development and growth.
Together, the speakers conveyed a common message that ran through the day: inclusion, at its core, is about curiosity, respect and the freedom to continue learning.

India’s Story of Growth

In her address to the audience, Vidhi Joshi, VP, people regional partner for Moody’s India, reflected on Moody’s growth journey in India—from a two-person setup operating behind a Bengaluru hotel to a thriving 2,800-member workforce across multiple cities.

“India, at that time, was not just a destination. It was a hub of talent and energy.” Moody’s, according to Joshi, recognised that potential and chose to invest in it.

Her session highlighted India’s role as both an operational backbone and an innovation centre, particularly in analytics, technology and shared services.

Joshi highlighted the essential role of the audience embarking on this journey and co-authoring the narrative. She also noted that the audience has the opportunity to create their own story and contribute to the organisation’s, which will enable the group to achieve a significant collective impact on their organisation, industry and community.

The Voices of Business

The afternoon sessions, led by Moody’s leaders, turned the spotlight on how India contributes to global innovation.

Praneetha Chilumuri, SVP of ratings and research support, explained the fundamentals of credit evaluation: “We live in a world of exponential risk. Understanding how these risks affect our lives, and evaluating them through consistent frameworks, is what our teams do every day.”

Meanwhile, in a technology-focused session, Shravan Varambally, VP of ratings technology, underscored Moody’s “AI-first” approach. He mentioned that AI acts as a “great leveller” due to its rapid transformative power. This technology is integrated across all operations at the company, influencing processes from code development to fundamental business workflows.

Vaishampayan Manu, director of data management and analytics at Moody’s, spoke about the company’s massive data footprint—“550 million companies’ worth of data”—and how analytics and software turn that into actionable insights. “Data is everywhere. But clarity is what creates value,” he noted.

The sessions concluded with Naveen Singh, director at the climate centre of excellence, who outlined Moody’s focus on climate and insurance solutions, reflecting the company’s broader pivot towards sustainability-driven analytics.

AI, Skills and the Future of Work

A hands-on session titled ‘How Moody’s is Leading the Way in GenAI’ delved into the firm’s AI integration.

Complementing the tech talks, a separate hall helped students and professionals gain interview skills and networking strategies sessions, led by senior talent specialists Shreya Salian and Mohd Azhar, who offered practical guidance.

“Read the job description thoroughly and tailor your resume,” advised Salian, while Azhar added, “Preparedness and attitude matter more than perfection.” The duo also discussed how candidates could use GenAI responsibly for interview preparation, not fabrication.

Kabir Aswani, VP of talent development at the company, led an interesting session to teach networking skills through an interactive activity that involved the entire audience.

Curiosity as a Career Compass

By the end of the event, the sentiment was unanimous: attendees were leaving with both clarity and a sense of curiosity. Moody’s leaders mingled with participants, answering questions about careers, culture and growth. There were also live interviews conducted with some of the participants.

For many, the event wasn’t just a recruiting open house, but an experience that blurred the lines between learning and opportunity. “Moody’s isn’t just about ratings and reports. It’s about uncovering meaning amid uncertainties so that organisations and individuals can thrive,” the host had previously said.

That message seemed to echo through the halls all day. Curiosity, as Moody’s proved, can indeed be a career path.

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