Tata Digital CEO on company's reset; Groww doubles net profit in Q4

Happy Tuesday! Tata Digital CEO Sajith Sivanandan spoke to us exclusively about the ongoing restructuring at the company under him. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ GCCs see AI talent shortage
■ Tech layoffs in 2026
■ Karnataka govt on bike taxis

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Sajith Sivanandan, CEO, Tata Digital

Tata Digital is yanking the old Tata Neu playbook, remaking it from a broad commerce aggregator to a loyalty-first financial services platform, CEO Sajith Sivanandan told us in an interview.

Seven months into the job as Tata Digital's third chief in four years, the Google veteran is centring the company around a tight flywheel of spending, payments, investing and insurance.

Why the shift: Sivanandan reckoned that India's consumer market has changed. “India's consumer tech has evolved to be what is called a point play--for each use case, there is an app,” he said, noting that Indians now spend over 70% of their screen time on just their top five apps.

He added that many Tata brands already have direct customer relationships, so Tata Neu will now complement those businesses rather than compete with them for traffic.

Portfolio focus: The CEO said the company is tightening and tuning all businesses.

• Croma is profitable and expanding its omnichannel reach.
• Tata Cliq is being pushed toward premium and luxury retail.
• Tata 1mg remains a strong asset with leadership in e-pharmacy and diagnostics.
• He also said BigBasket is now recovering after missing out on the quick commerce race.

Internal clean up: Sivanandan said Tata Digital had shifted to a leaner organisational structure, with fewer layers and clearer accountability. The aim, he said, was not simple cost-cutting but the creation of businesses that were “fit for purpose” and able to move faster.

Also Read: Founder exits loom over BigBasket, 1mg as Tata Digital reset continues

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Lalit Keshre, CEO, Groww

Groww parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures closed FY26 on a strong note, extending its lead in India's online investing market through disciplined cost control and sharper monetisation.

Financials:

March quarter (FY26):

• Operating revenue: Rose 87% to Rs 1,505 crore from Rs 801 crore a year earlier.
• Net profit: More than doubled to Rs 686 crore from Rs 309 crore.
• Expenses: Up 37% to Rs 599 crore.

FY26 (full year):

• Total revenue: Rs 4,644 crore, up from Rs 3,901.7 crore in FY25.
• Total profit: Rs 2,083 crore.

What else? The company said Ashish Agrawal, former MD at Peak XV Partners, has resigned from Groww's board to start a new venture capital firm.

Investment focus: CEO Lalit Keshre said the company is investing in AI to build products faster with a lean team rather than scaling hiring. Of the Rs 1,016 crore raised in its IPO, Groww has spent Rs 104 crore on marketing and brand building till March 2026 and deployed Rs 850 crore to capitalise its margin-trading financing subsidiary, Groww Invest Tech.

Also Read: Groww doubles down on wealth management, lending to diversify revenue base: CEO Lalit Keshre

Groww also disclosed an investment of Rs 961 crore last year to acquire wealthtech startup Fisdom, doubling down on its wealth management bet.

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India's global capability centre (GCC) ecosystem is facing a sharp shortage of specialised AI and data talent, with the gap estimated at 38–42%, according to Quess Corp's Q4 FY26 report.

Driving the news: The report says this is a structural issue, not a temporary hiring mismatch.

The hardest-to-fill roles are in generative AI, MLOps, AI observability and LLM fine-tuning. The shortage extends beyond core AI work into cloud, cybersecurity and platform engineering.

Hiring shift:

• About 60% of tech hiring now comes from AI, data, cloud and cybersecurity roles, up from around 30% two years ago.
• GCC hirings grew 12-14% in the quarter.
• Contract hiring made up about 25% of roles.

Outlook: According to the report, India has about 4 lakh core AI professionals, but demand is far higher, with about six candidates available for 10 open roles.

Also Read: Iran conflict and global risks slow GCC expansion in India

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Tech layoffs are surging in 2026, with more than 73,000 roles eliminated across 95 companies so far, according to Layoffs.fyi, well on the way to matching last year's 124,201 cuts.

What's driving this: The wave is being driven largely by AI-led restructuring and automation. Firms are saying they are reducing repetitive work and changing the skills they need.

• Meta is reportedly preparing to cut around 8,000 jobs starting May 20, or roughly 10% of its global workforce in the first round.
• Snap has announced 1,000 layoffs, plus the removal of more than 300 vacant roles.
• Oracle's latest round affected about 30,000 roles globally, including around 10,000 in India.

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Govt to challenge latest bike taxi judgement: Karnataka has decided to move the Supreme Court against the January 23 judgement of the high court, which paved the way for the full-fledged resumption of bike taxi operations.

Bitcoin heist: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted wide-ranging search operations at multiple premises across Karnataka, including those linked to MA and OM Nalapad, sons of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) chairman NA Haris.

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