Decoding OpenAI vs Indian music labels fight; Perfecting India’s AI story

Hello,

Time for cautious optimism.

The RBI has revised the inflation projection for the current fiscal year to 4% from 4.2% earlier, taking into account good agricultural output and falling crude prices. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the outlook for food inflation has turned decisively positive.

Meanwhile, home loan interest rates are expected to ease further after the central bank cut the repo rate by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 6%. 

Elsewhere, US tariff turbulence led to another twitchy day of trading on Wall Street and other markets on Wednesday. 

As for the tariff standoff, China and the European Union announced new trade barriers on US goods. While the EU said it would impose 25% tariffs on a range of US imports, China has hiked tariffs to 84% from 34%.

The tariffs are also making companies nervous. Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, pulled its financial guidance for the quarter due to uncertainty over the impact of the new policy

ICYMI: The shift in global trade dominance between the US and China over the past two decades, visualised.

Lastly, more than 40% of the world's electricity was generated without burning fossil fuels in 2024, according to a new report from think-tank Ember. However, carbon dioxide emissions, have also risen to an all-time high, with hot weather pushing the demand for electricity.

You win some, you lose some. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• What OpenAI lawsuit means for Indian music
• Perfecting India’s AI story
• Simplifying PF withdrawals

Here’s your trivia for today: What five-letter fictional company is responsible for Jurassic Park?

Technology

What OpenAI lawsuit means for Indian music

By joining a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI, the Indian music industry's leading labels—including T-Series and Saregama—have alleged that the company's AI models infringe on copyrights by scraping music and lyrics from the internet without authorisation.

Although it’s unclear if AI is an enabler or a threat to the creative industries, legal experts and artists have voiced their concern about existing copyright law, which now demands further amendment. 

AI vs industry:

• Kartik Dey, an advocate and patent attorney at the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court argues while OpenAI could claim it uses publicly available data under fair use, the limitations of Indian copyright law and the company’s shift to a for-profit model—along with the potential market competition with original works—make this defense problematic. 
• If the labels succeed in court, Srish Mishra, Advocate, Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, adds potential remedies could include ordering OpenAI to remove copied content within a set timeframe, imposing an injunction to stop its use, awarding damages (possibly in crores) for commercial exploitation, or allowing usage under licensing and royalty terms. 
• “What AI still lacks is the human essence—emotion, personal narratives, and improvisation—which are at the heart of music. The industry must strike a balance between embracing AI’s possibilities and safeguarding the originality and rights of artists,” says Jaspreet Bindra, CEO of AI &Beyond.

Funding Alert

Startup: Let’s Try

Amount: $2.5M

Round: Equity

Startup: Eat Better Co

Amount: Rs 17 Cr

Round: Pre-Series A

Startup: Amicco

Amount: $1M

Round: Seed

Interview

Perfecting India’s AI story

India still trails the US and China in AI patents, fundamental research, and the development of large‑scale foundation models. To make high‑performance hardware affordable, the IndiaAI Mission recently announced a pool of 14,000 GPUs at a subsidised rate of Rs 67 per GPU‑hour for researchers, startups, and entrepreneurs.

“There were several limitations in our AI story, which have resulted in us lagging behind … whether it’s patents, research, or developing foundation models. To that extent, the India AI mission is trying to address the gaps with regard to compute, which is required for building any AI model or application,” said Abhishek Singh, AS, MeitY and CEO, IndiaAI Mission.

Bridging the gap:

• He noted that the government is actively funding various institutions and startups for building tools for several use cases, including auditing AI algorithms, bias mitigation, synthetic data generation, privacy-enhancing technologies, machine unlearning, detecting deepfakes, and watermarking AI-generated content. 
• Singh highlighted the need for digital public infrastructure to be available in multiple Indian languages and accessible through voice-based interfaces, especially for the million Indians who are currently unconnected by digital systems. 
• He noted two key challenges hindering India’s deeptech and AI innovation ecosystem: lack of patient capital and low public spending on R&D. “The problem is not capital per se—it is patient capital,” he said, adding that most investors in India tend to seek quick returns, whereas AI and deeptech require long-term investment horizons.

Startup

Simplifying PF withdrawals

Mumbai-based FinRight is a one-stop platform for resolving various issues and queries related to PF. Targeted at individual users, the AI-driven automation platform streamlines PF withdrawals, ensuring faster, error-free processing of claims, while reducing dependency on traditional intermediaries.

Key takeaways:

• The platform digitally verifies credentials, automates tasks like PF claims and loans, and removes the need for middlemen, thus ensuring faster, hassle-free and more transparent processing.  The startup also employs a team of financial experts who offer unbiased assistance to users. 
• “Our system is designed to handle every aspect of the PF withdrawal journey from authentication to final disbursal. By integrating AI-driven verification, we minimise errors, significantly accelerate the process, and improve approval rates,” says co-founder Amey Kanekar.
• Apart from PF processing, the startup also offers other kinds of financial assistance, including insurance claim settlements, home loan balance transfers, surrendering unproductive endowment policies, and optimising in-hand salary. 

News & updates

• Gigafactories: The EU has revealed details of a €20 billion plan to create new sites equipped with vast supercomputers in Europe to develop the next generation of AI models, while opening the door to amending its landmark law that regulates the technology.
• US tariffs: Apple supplier Luxshare is in talks with customers on ways to respond to US tariffs by shifting more production outside China, including the US, its chairwoman told analysts in a telephone call on Wednesday.
• Google Maps: Google is opening up its Google Maps Platform data so that cities, developers, and other business decision makers can more easily access information about things like infrastructure and traffic, the company announced on Wednesday.

What five-letter fictional company is responsible for Jurassic Park?

Answer: InGen

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