India's healthtech startups switch strategy; NTT Data bets on AI

Food delivery platforms Swiggy, Zomato and magicpin reported record order volumes on New Year’s Eve, saying operations remained largely unaffected despite a strike call by a section of gig workers, as millions of orders were fulfilled across major Indian cities amid peak festive demand.

According to trends shared by Swiggy and magicpin, Indians feasted on biryani, pizzas, butter chicken and desi desserts like gajar ka halwa, PTI reported.

Elsewhere, Ola Electric on Thursday reported vehicle registrations of 9,020 units in December as per VAHAN data, with increased market share to 9.3% in December over 7.2% in November 2025 on the back of Hyperservice, its focused service transformation programme.

In a separate development, Ola Electric Mobility said its Business Head for Cell, Vishal Chaturvedi, has resigned from the company, effective at the close of business on December 31.

Moving  on to the world of technology, Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink is expected to begin “high-volume production” of brain-computer interface devices in 2026, Musk posted on X this week. The implant is expected to help people with spinal chord injury regain movement.

Meanwhile, the last few years have seen tech companies cut workforce as AI tools replace human labour. Will 2026 finally help workers breathe easy? Not likely, according to computer scientist and “godfather” of AI Geoffrey Hinton. AI will only continue to improve, he predicts, reaching a point where more humans will be out of low-paying jobs.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• India’s healthtech startups switch strategy
• NTT Data bets on AI

Here’s your trivia for today: What card game has variations known as Cincinnati, Chicago and Lowball?

Healthcare

India’s healthtech startups switch strategy

Across India, healthtech startups are abandoning the asset-light, marketplace model that dominated the industry’s first wave and instead buying or building clinics, diagnostic labs, surgical centres, and even full-scale hospitals. The shift marks a decisive break from Silicon Valley orthodoxy, where software platforms were supposed to intermediate healthcare without the burden of physical infrastructure.

Healthy habits:

• Pristyn Care, which initially started as a lead-generation platform for surgeries, now operates its own network of clinics and has embedded clinical staff within partner hospitals to manage patient journeys from consultation through recovery.
• Redcliffe Labs and Healthians have poured capital into their own laboratory infrastructure and collection centres rather than coordinating testing through third parties.
• The trajectory suggests India’s healthtech sector will increasingly resemble the US managed care industry, where companies like Kaiser Permanente have long integrated insurance, technology, and care delivery.

Enterprise

NTT Data bets on AI

NTT Data, the Tokyo headquartered global technology company, sees artificial intelligence (AI) opening up newer market opportunities for them as this technology platform has started to deliver real outcomes.

The company has already a target of becoming an AI native company in three years’ time with 50% of its solutions and services using AI. It also sees AI performing the majority of the activity across its functions like legal, finance, and HR.

Key takeaways:

• In an interaction with EnterpriseStory, Amir Durrani, Global Head – Applications and Business Process Services, NTT DATA said, “The value of AI is really around business outcomes and this is driving the adoption.”
• Durrani remarked that despite reports about the low success rate of AI there is no slowdown in the integration of this technology as the impact is now real. 
• He emphasized that the combination of cost reduction and having real business outcomes has made AI a disruptive technology.

News & updates

• Yen trouble: Two major Japanese business lobbying groups called on the government to address the yen’s weakness, which is inflating import costs and weighing on households and businesses, their chiefs told domestic media in separate interviews.
• Euro entry: EU member Bulgaria marked ‌its ​entry into the euro ‌zone on Thursday with a display of euro coins ​on the facade of the central bank in Sofia and fireworks to celebrate ‍a long-awaited milestone. As of ​midnight the euro became the country’s currency and the lev was ​banished into ⁠history.

What card game has variations known as Cincinnati, Chicago and Lowball?

Answer: Poker

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