The Economic Times

Are the Big Four and consulting firms eating law firms' lunch? Or have lawyers simply walked away from the table? In our latest Corner Office Conversation, Trilegal’s partners Sridhar Gorthi and Nishant Parikh tell Vinod Mahanta and Maulik Vyas how traditional law firms lost ground by only chasing marquee M&A deals and massive disputes, vacating routine advisory spaces. But now, the tide might be turning. With AI leveling the manpower advantage and Big Four firms tied down by strict audit & independence rules, law firms have a unique opening. The next big battleground? Regulatory risk and compliance. Full conversation link in comments. #LegalIndustry #Big4 #LawFirms Short by Indranil Bhattacharjee

An invite-only gathering for the leaders shaping enterprise AI. A day focused of executive conversations, IIM faculty-led insights, real-world AI use cases and live demonstrations, culminating in the ET Most Innovative AI Product Awards 2026. A room reserved for those making the decisions that will define the future of AI. 📍 IIM Bangalore | 📅 19 November 2026 Express your interest: https://lnkd.in/ga9BVUCs #AIBusinessTransformation #EnterpriseAI #AIMasterclass #IIMBangalore #AILeadership #AITransformation

UPI is scaling fast. But AI is changing the fraud game. India’s digital payments ecosystem is expanding at unprecedented speed, with UPI processing over 23.6 billion transactions worth nearly ₹29.88 lakh crore in July 2026. But the same speed and scale that make UPI powerful are also making fraud harder to detect and reverse. AI is adding a new layer of complexity. From AI-generated phishing and regional-language scams to voice cloning and identity manipulation, fraudsters are increasingly exploiting human behaviour rather than just technical vulnerabilities. The answer could also lie in AI. As transaction volumes grow, AI-powered systems can help identify behavioural anomalies, detect suspicious activity faster and strengthen fraud prevention beyond traditional monitoring. At Global Fintech Fest 2026, the conversation will move towards AI-enabled fraud detection, digital identity, cyber-risk management, resilient digital systems, quantum safety and cryptography-and what it will take to build trust into the next generation of financial infrastructure. Follow GFF 2026 with ET for live updates, insights and key developments: https://lnkd.in/g2WU27a8

Gaja Alternative Asset Management’s listing marks a significant milestone for India’s private equity industry, making it the first pure-play PE asset manager to list on domestic bourses. The company has ₹3,200 crore in committed capital as of March 2026 and raised ₹550 crore through its IPO, including a ₹450 crore primary share issue. The listing comes as alternative asset management continues to expand in India, while giving retail investors a route to indirectly participate in the private equity ecosystem. By buying shares of the listed asset manager, investors can gain exposure to the business of the PE funds it manages—an asset class that has traditionally been accessible mainly to large investors writing substantial cheques. As Gaja Capital, Co-Founder, Gopal Jain said, “This is a proven global playbook. The alternative asset management industry is growing. The institutionalisation of the industry is underway.”

India’s public-sector banks are increasingly turning to borrowings to fund lending expansion as deposits fail to keep pace with credit growth. Borrowings by PSBs surged nearly 29% year-on-year in the June quarter, compared with around 3% at private banks, while private lenders’ deposits grew 14.3%, ahead of 10.7% for PSU banks.  The shift comes as private banks continue to strengthen their deposit position, narrowing the traditional funding and liquidity advantage of state-owned lenders. PSU banks’ aggregate loan-to-deposit ratio rose to 81% from 77%, while private banks’ LDR moved only modestly to 92% from 91%. Although abundant system liquidity and softer wholesale funding rates are cushioning the impact for now, the trend is raising questions around the sustainability of faster credit growth at PSBs.  As Pranav Dheeeraj Gundlapalle, Head of India Financials at Bernstein, said, “PSBs’ continued reliance on borrowings could act as a drag on NIMs (net interest margins) relative to private banks.”

Bengaluru-based Vobiz AI has gone from powering around 100,000 AI-generated calls a month to five million attempted calls a day in less than a year, as enterprises move their AI voice deployments from proof-of-concept to production. The startup expects that number to reach at least 10 million calls a day by December and is building an AI-first telecom infrastructure layer for machine-led conversations. Vobiz has crossed $1 million in annual recurring revenue, with around 65% coming from contracted business, and is targeting $2.5 million by December. Its platform serves customers including Sarvam AI, Shiprocket and Razorpay, with BFSI currently contributing the largest share of voice AI traffic, followed by logistics, while e-commerce, healthcare and real estate are also seeing growing adoption. The company is now looking beyond simply connecting AI agents to phone networks. With a single-hop architecture and P95 telephony latency of under 80 milliseconds, Vobiz wants to turn telephony into an intelligent communication layer spanning voice, SMS and WhatsApp. As Vobiz Co-founder and CEO Suman Gandham said, “Telephony has traditionally been called a dumb pipe. We want to turn it into the intelligent communication layer for AI, whether the interaction happens through voice, SMS or WhatsApp.”

The next chapter of growth begins with a reset. The Economic Times presents The Founders’ Growth Retreat, an exclusive programme for founders who lead, build and think ahead. A space to step away from the noise, exchange perspectives, build meaningful connections and return with sharper thinking for what comes next. 4th to 7th December 2026 | Mumbai • Goa • Mumbai Limited seats available. Register now: https://lnkd.in/d7GNarht Reset. Network. Grow. #FoundersGrowthRetreat #Founders #Entrepreneurs #Leadership #GrowthMindset #Networking #FounderCommunity

Trilegal began as an outsider in an Indian legal industry dominated by closely held, family-run firms. It now has more than ₹1,500 crore in revenue and 161 partners, making it part of the establishment it once challenged. How does a firm maintain its original culture as it grows? Partners Sridhar Gorthi and Nishant Parikh talk to ET's Vinod Mahanta and Maulik Vyas about why Indian law firms struggle to scale, the potential impact of foreign firms and the Big Four, AI rewriting law firms and whether founders can meaningfully give up control. Link to full episode in comment

Singapore-headquartered August Energy and Indian energy-efficiency company Energeia have partnered to create a $100 million energy-efficiency infrastructure platform aimed at helping commercial and industrial businesses in India decarbonise without upfront capital investment. The platform, August Energeia, will focus primarily on cooling-as-a-service, while also financing and deploying upgrades across cooling, heating, steam, compressed air, fuel switching and motor-driven systems. It will also support renewable energy deployment, including solar, wind and energy storage. The model will target energy-intensive sectors including pharmaceuticals, automotive, food and beverage, chemicals, cement, steel, hospitality, healthcare and data centres. As Energeia, Co-founder and CEO, Sookrit Malik said, “The technology to optimise and decarbonise Indian factories and buildings has been ready for years, but high upfront prices, energy savings uncertainty and L1 procurement mandates drastically limited adoption.”

Suzlon Group has secured a 250 MW wind energy order from Torrent Green Energy, marking the sixth order between the two companies and taking their cumulative partnership beyond 1.3 GW across Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The latest order adds to Suzlon’s momentum in India’s renewable energy market, with the company’s total order intake in FY27 now exceeding 1.1 GW. As Suzlon Group Vice Chairman Girish Tanti said, “For us, the true measure of success is not a single order, but partnerships that endure and grow over time.” With Torrent Green Energy having partnered with Suzlon for more than a decade, the latest deal highlights the growing role of long-term customer partnerships in scaling India’s wind energy infrastructure.