Expansions, layoffs, funding, leadership moves, and policy shifts — with our take on what it means for hiring in India, today and over the next five years.
Meine Electric, a Chennai-based startup, is developing long-duration energy storage technology using iron, air, and water to hold solar power generated during the day for use after sunset. The innovation targets electricity grids that struggle with the gap between peak solar generation and peak evening demand. This positions the company at the intersection of India's renewable energy push and the growing need for affordable grid-scale storage solutions.
A Pune-based startup has developed AI-powered optical grading machines that sort onions and potatoes by quality — not just size — specifically calibrated for Indian crop varieties. The equipment is aimed at packhouses, filling a gap that imported sorting technology has long struggled to address. This represents a growing push to bring precision automation into India's post-harvest agricultural supply chain.
Tsalla Aerospace, incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, has developed an autonomy software stack for unmanned systems that operates without GPS. The Bengaluru-based startup is already collaborating with the Indian Navy and Army on reconnaissance and logistics use cases, marking a significant step in India's homegrown defence-tech ecosystem.
DLF saw its Q1 sales bookings fall sharply due to a deliberate pause in new project launches rather than weakening demand. The company maintains strong cash reserves and has a substantial pipeline of launches planned for the rest of FY27. Management has signalled that annual targets remain intact, with activity expected to pick up significantly in coming quarters.
Ather Energy has become the first new-age electric two-wheeler company in India to achieve EBITDA breakeven, a significant financial milestone for the startup. The company saw its sales surge 81% to over 83,000 units in the June quarter, partly fuelled by global supply chain shifts tied to West Asia tensions boosting EV demand. This marks a turning point where domestic EV makers are moving from burn-heavy growth to sustainable operations.
ICICI Lombard marked its 25th anniversary by unveiling 25 new products and features, with a strong emphasis on technology and artificial intelligence embedded across its offerings. The move signals a strategic pivot away from traditional risk transfer toward proactive, tech-powered risk management. This represents one of the more significant product pushes by a major Indian general insurer in recent years.
Financial firm Citadel Securities projects that technology companies will raise over $500 billion in debt financing by 2028 specifically to fund the chips powering AI infrastructure. This signals that global AI capital expenditure is far from peaking, with enormous investment still flowing into AI hardware and data center buildout. The scale of this anticipated spending underlines a sustained, multi-year expansion cycle across the global AI ecosystem.
HCLTech has restructured its business model around deep industry verticals — such as banking, healthcare, and manufacturing — rather than horizontal technology practices. The move is a strategic response to slowing IT services demand and the growing pressure from AI to deliver more specialized, outcome-driven work. The reorganization signals a broader rethinking of what skills and profiles large Indian IT firms will seek going forward.
India's advertising landscape is undergoing a significant structural shift as brands increasingly direct their marketing budgets toward quick commerce platforms rather than conventional channels. Retail media — advertising embedded within shopping experiences — is gaining serious traction as a way to reach consumers at the point of purchase. Meanwhile, traditional formats like print advertising are holding their ground amid broader economic uncertainty.
Nippon Life India Asset Management has maintained a notably stable workforce, with its senior leadership team working together for more than two decades and attrition rates sitting well below what is typical for the asset management industry. The company's MD & CEO Sundeep Sikka and CHRO Mohit Shetty have spoken about the deliberate cultural and people practices behind this retention record. Their approach positions culture itself as a strategic business asset rather than an HR afterthought.
Indian startups are building meaningful capabilities in semiconductor chip design, supported by government programmes such as the Design Linked Incentive scheme, the Research, Development and Innovation fund, and the broader India Semiconductor Mission. While the technical talent pipeline is taking shape, a key challenge remains: these startups must secure commercial buyers for their designs to sustain operations and grow. The sector sits at a pivotal moment where innovation is ahead of the market.
Hyundai India's domestic passenger vehicle sales dipped 2% in FY26 to roughly 585,000 units, even as its export volumes climbed 16%. Meanwhile, Mahindra recorded a 20% jump in sales to over 660,000 units and Tata Motors PV grew 15% to 642,000 units, reshaping the competitive hierarchy in India's passenger vehicle market.