What a scorcher: Can India sustain this torrid pace of growth? 

What the TCS bosses have in mind: A growth spurt in the year ahead 

2024 is the year to scale up beyond pilots, advance GenAI projects: IBM's Candy

Mint Explainer: Who’s winning the app war – Google or Indian startups? 

Struck by Byju’s, General Atlantic’s India ship is in distress. Will it survive? 

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Monday, March 4, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:

In some surprising news, India’s GDP grew at a staggering 8.4% in the third quarter of the financial year in 2024. Mining and agriculture had tepid production, so estimates were moderate. The revised estimate for GDP growth for the entire year is now at 7.6 percent. This means that India will continue to be the fastest growing large economy in the world. Mint's senior editor N. Madhavan explains these numbers. He outlines that while this is good news for our economy, these numbers are unlikely to sustain for the next quarter.

IT giant TCS wants rapid growth — and it wants it soon. At a strategic retreat in Abu Dhabi, its CEO K. Krithivasan said he wanted at least double-digit growth in revenue in FY25. This would be double of its last year growth, which came in at 5.3 percent. Speaking at the same event, Tata Sons chair N. Chandrasekaran said he wanted the company to record at least 10 billion dollars worth of business from India alone. Mint's IT and corporates correspondent Varun Sood reports on the inside details from this event, including the incoming business for TCS worth billions.

From one MNC to another: let's talk about IBM. Its consulting arm employs some 1.6 lakh people. Out of these, more than 20,000 employees now work solely on artificial intelligence. Mint's executive editor Leslie D'monte speaks to Matthew Candy, IBM consulting's global managing partner. Candy spoke about IBM's AI strategy, including how they are devoting their resources towards two big areas: customer care, and HR. Candy also gave advice to Indian founders who are foraying into Generative AI, and doing so responsibly.

Some Indian startups received a jolt last week when Google removed them from its Play Store. Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, and 99 acres were some of the apps that were removed after Google said that they didn't pay service fees. This isn't a first for the tech giant: Google has had similar tiffs in the US and Europe as well. Indian startups are crying foul, and saying that Google shouldn't have the power to unilaterally de-platform apps in such a manner. Mint's tech correspondent Shouvik Das writes a detailed explainer on this issue. 

Byju's is going through a tough time. The startup, once valued at 22 billion dollars, is now raising money through a rights issue for a total valuation of only 20 million. This is of course a smart accounting practice, but it does hurt previous investors. One such investor is General Atlantic. The company has pumped in 380 million dollars into the edtech so far, but refused to put in more money during the latest round. The private equity firm is running on thin ice: it's current portfolio includes fellow edtech Unacademy, real estate platform NoBroker, and payments aggregator BillDesk. None of these companies have provided the returns GA would have liked. Startups and new economy writes Ranjani Raghavan and Sneha Shah write about General Atlantic's trouble in navigating the Indian waters, and what lies ahead for the PE firm.

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