Shares of Paytm, the Indian payments major, saw a 20% decrease in value as the company announced its decision to scale down small-ticket loans after tightening of lending norms by the Reserve Bank of India. The move comes as a response to increased risk weightages by the central bank, pushing up costs for fintechs and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), making low-value lending less profitable. In the IT sector, although overall headcount has shrunk, companies are actively hiring leaders for senior executive roles to navigate challenging times. In funding news, Sarvam AI, a Chennai-based startup, raised $41 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures, becoming one of India’s largest AI startups to raise funds. Meanwhile, a Google executive warned about the potential harm to smaller firms if safe harbour provisions are completely removed by India’s new IT Bill. These provisions are essential for fostering innovation and investment in technology. Lastly, Google introduced Gemini, its largest AI language model to date. Capable of processing text, video, and audio data, Gemini is expected to compete with other AI models in the market.