2 Indian start-ups listed for Google's 'Launchpad Studio' programme
Mumbai, Sep 6: Mumbai-based m.Paani and Gurugram-based Aye Finance have been listed in 10 companies selected globally by Google for its flagship development acceleration programme "Launchpad Studio".
The "Launchpad Studio" programme brings top machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based startups from across the world and experts from Silicon Valley under the guidance of Google researchers, engineers, product managers and trusted experts.
m.Paani is India's first neighbourhood loyalty platform that focuses on empowering India's local retailers and users using ML and AI.
The start-up rewards consumers with "m.Paani points" when they shop from local retail partners across categories and help retailers grow their businesses by digitising, optimising and maximising their relationships with existing and new customers, it said in a statement on Thursday.
"We are incredibly excited to be a part of the Google Studio programme, especially as the youngest company," said Akanksha Hazari Ericson, CEO and Founder, m.Paani.
Aye Finance is a non-banking finance company (NBFC) that provides business loans to the small and micro enterprises and builds solutions, automation and processes that address the challenges that have hindered the classical financial industry.
The "Launchpad Studio" programme commenced from September 6 at Google's headquarters in San Francisco and will last for a period of four months.
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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
