India’s AI Skills Crisis, Zetwerk Prepares for IPO, and Google-Accel Alliance

For years, India’s tech engine ran on a simple formula: hire millions of young engineers, train them cheaply, and ship them into IT, BPO, and GCC roles. That model built a $245-billion industry. But AI has broken it almost overnight. One side of the workforce is exploding with demand - AI engineers earning ₹40-80 lakh a year. The other side is collapsing: entry-level tech workers, BPO agents, and fresh graduates seeing roles shrink faster than they can upskill. This isn’t a skills gap anymore. It’s a structural inversion.

Salaries tell the story. AI roles in India have shot up 100%+ since 2019. A strong GenAI/MLOps engineer in Bengaluru earns ₹55-60 lakh, with top-tier talent going far higher. Yet for every 10 openings, India barely has one qualified candidate. According to the report, 97% of companies say AI applicants are not industry-ready. Colleges are producing degrees, but not deployable talent. We’ve ended up with millions of engineers and almost no one who can run production AI pipelines.

Meanwhile, the bottom of the pyramid is shrinking. Research cited in the report shows a 13% drop in employment for 22-25-year-olds in AI-exposed roles, and nearly 20% for junior software developers. The very work that trained India’s freshers - testing, documentation, routine coding - is exactly what LLMs automate. GCCs and IT majors now hire one senior AI engineer instead of ten juniors. The ground floor of India’s tech ladder is disappearing.

And this is where the old IT model collapses. India’s outsourcing boom depended on labor arbitrage: five Indian engineers replacing one Western worker. AI destroys this maths. Instead of replacing one American job, an AI system replaces entire Indian teams. Productivity rises, headcount drops, and the pyramid inverts. For the first time, India is facing growth without employment.

GCCs, India’s new growth engine, reflect this shift. They employ over 2.1 million people and control nearly 70% of enterprise AI mandates. But much of their AI hiring is just poaching from other GCCs at 30-50% salary premiums. They are not creating talent, they’re recycling it. Startups, mid-size firms, and IT companies are left with an empty talent pool.

The job displacement numbers should worry policymakers. Up to 38 million Indian jobs could be disrupted by GenAI by 2030 especially in BPO, entry-level IT, and administrative roles. Bots already handle nearly half of non-voice support interactions.

The education pipeline isn’t helping. India has 1,300+ institutions teaching AI, but almost none produce hands-on engineers. Students learn theory while industry needs cloud-native, MLOps-heavy, production-grade skillsets. The report warns that 40% of skills taught today will be obsolete by 2027. By the time students graduate, the market has moved on.

This is creating a three-tier workforce: a small elite of AI specialists with sky-high salaries, a mid-tier augmented by tools, and a collapsing lower tier of routine roles. This stratification will define India’s next decade. Upskilling helps, but it cannot save millions. Even if 1 million workers successfully upskill, India will still remain short by another million AI engineers.

The IndiaAI Mission is ambitious - 34,333 GPUs, national datasets, AI centres, sovereign models like Sarvam and Krutrim. But policy cycles run at 24 months. AI moves in 6-month leaps. That gap is where the risk lies.

India is not failing in AI. In fact, it is progressing faster than almost every major economy. The danger is something else: India will succeed in AI while millions of young Indians get left behind by that very success. The old IT ladder has snapped, and we haven’t built a new one yet.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Yudhh Ki Tayyari”: Zetwerk Adds Six Bankers For $750 Mn IPO Run

Zetwerk is tuning its engines for a colossal ₹750 Mn IPO push, and the company has just rolled in six heavyweight bankers to steer the ship. Kotak, JM, Avendus, and the Indian arms of HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are now in its pit crew as it preps a confidential filing early next year.

Feels like the quiet before a very loud market debut, the kind that makes the manufacturing floor hum a little differently.

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“Ye Toh Sach Hai Ki Bhagwan Hai”: Google, Accel Partner To Back Early Indian AI Startups

Google’s AI Future Fund and Accel are teaming up like two seasoned rishis spotting the next wave of young AI mystics in India’s startup ashram.

Their new Atoms cohort promises up to $2 Mn in funding and $350K in Google credits, all bundled into a three-month sprint designed to sharpen code, creativity, and cleverness.

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“Chor Machaye Shor”: ED Freezes ₹523 Cr Assets Linked To WinZO, Gameskraft & Pocket52

The ED just slammed the brakes on ₹523 Cr worth of assets tied to WinZO, Gameskraft, and Pocket52, sending a cold shiver through India’s gaming corridors.

WinZO faces heat over alleged PAN misuse and shady practices, while Gameskraft’s escrow accounts worth ₹18.57 Cr have been scooped up over suspicions of rigged outcomes.

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“Aaiye Aapka Intezaar Tha”: Yatra Elevates Dhruv Shringi, Siddhartha Gupta Takes Over As CEO

Yatra has entered a quiet phase of transition, with cofounder Dhruv Shringi moving into the role of executive chairman and Siddhartha Gupta stepping in as the new CEO. Shringi’s remit now stretches toward steady global expansion and measured value creation, even as the leadership recalibrates.

The markets responded with a muted unease, pulling Yatra’s shares down to ₹160.9 after a 7.5% intraday slide.

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1. CrisprBits has secured ₹3 Mn in pre-Series A funding to scale its PathCrisp diagnostics platform and boost production of high-impact tests. With backing from Spectrum Impact and Aarti Industries’ family office, the startup is now charting a course toward Africa and Latin America in the coming months.

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2. Mobavenue plans to raise ₹100 Cr through a preferential share issue priced at ₹1,088 each, aiming to fuel strategic acquisitions and fresh investments. The announcement lifted its stock for two straight sessions, a quiet nod to the bootstrapped adtech firm helping brands break out of walled gardens.

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3. Morphle Labs has raised ₹5 Mn to ramp up manufacturing of its RoboTome and MorphoLens systems, deepening its push into automated tissue and blood diagnostics. With over 80 patents filed, the 2017-founded startup blends robotics, optics, and AI to redefine precision in clinical labs.

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4. LabelBlind has raised $500K to push its AI-led food labelling platform, FoLSol, into a more global and scalable future. The 2023-founded startup is digitizing complex regulatory codes so packaged and fresh food brands can stay compliant without losing sleep.

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5. Zinit has secured $8 Mn at a $48 Mn valuation to take its AI-native sourcing platform into new global markets while zeroing in on India’s fast-shifting digital procurement space. With industry veteran Naveenn Suri stepping in as Regional Director, the startup is gearing up for a decisive push.

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