India’s fintech advantage may not just be payments. It could be the data powering the next generation of credit. On Fintech Baatcheet hosted by @ndtv, Anurag Sinha (@sinhaanurag14), Co-Founder & CEO, @GetOneCardIN, spoke about India’s growing ecosystem of locally built AI models and the scale of its financial datasets. In conversation with our President & CEO, @ShwetaRKohli, he adds that with 600+ million credit records and the world’s largest real-time payments ecosystem, India has the raw material to build a new generation of credit underwriting models. The next frontier: turning that data advantage into smarter, more inclusive credit.

What if India’s next big financial shift is a reshoring of global capital? In a conversation with our President & CEO, @ShwetaRKohli, on Fintech Baatcheet hosted by @ndtv, Ashwin Bhatnagar (@abhatnagar), Co-Founder & CEO of @xflowpay, shared his bullish outlook on GIFT City, predicting that by 2030, significant offshore financial activity from centres like London, New York and Singapore could move back to India. With GIFT City offering a global financial centre within India’s sovereign boundaries, the opportunity is bigger than just a new financial hub. It has the potential to reshape where global financial activity happens.

India’s credit card market could be on track for 3x growth. On Fintech Baatcheet, hosted by @ndtv, Miten Sampat (@miten), Interim CEO, @CRED_club, pointed to the headroom ahead: credit cards are currently held by just 4.5–5% of Indians, while total credit card spending could eventually grow from around $300 billion to $1 trillion. In conversation with our President & CEO @ShwetaRKohli, Sampat added that as credit adoption expands, the opportunity for fintechs will be to make credit simpler, smarter, and more engaging.

4 billion transactions. 3,000 signals per transaction. A trillion parameters. On Fintech Baatcheet hosted by @ndtv, @harshilmathur , Co-founder & CEO of @Razorpay, spoke to our President & CEO @ShwetaRKohli about building a proprietary, transformer-based foundation model for payments — trained and hosted entirely in India. Built with @nvidia GPUs and @awscloud infrastructure, the model is now outperforming Razorpay’s existing models and improving payment experiences at scale. India’s fintech innovation is moving from using AI to building it.

SPF in the News 📰 From India’s startup ecosystem to global policy conversations, SPF’s work and perspectives continue to make headlines across leading national and international publications. Here’s a look at some of the key stories and conversations featuring SPF over the last quarter. Policy News Fintech UPI MDR explained: 6 myths about the new framework and what it means for consumers and merchants (@business_today) businesstoday.in/india/story… Money Mantra: UPI का सच! Safe और Smart पेमेंट (@DDNational ) piped.video/watch?v=Bkyb1hgY… DPDP Act implementation: No extension as startups face compliance deadline, says MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan ( @FortuneIndia, @avishekb001) fortuneindia.com/technology/… Deeptech India readies $25 billion for Deep Tech investment as U.S. and China race ahead (@CNBC) cnbc.com/2026/09/29/india-in… Startup Policy Forum launches semiconductor consortium to support ISM 2.0 rollout (@FortuneIndia, @SankunniS) fortuneindia.com/startups-ne… Why are scientists leaving India’s national space agency - and will tighter exit rules keep them there? (@ChannelNewsAsia, @ShadmaShaikh ) channelnewsasia.com/asia/why… Op-Eds OPINION | UPI has won on scale, now it must win on economics (@moneycontrolcom) moneycontrol.com/news/opinio… The UPI fee is not a tax. It is what will keep UPI free (@CNBCTV18News) cnbctv18.com/business/financ… Opinion | The AI Kill Switch, And Why Sovereign AI Just Became Non-Negotiable (@ndtv) ndtv.com/opinion/the-ai-kill… Appointments @brahma_ai Appoints @ShwetaRKohli as Senior Policy Advisor (@ANI) aninews.in/news/business/bra… Startup Policy Forum Names Akashdeep Baruah (@bforbaruah) as Communications Lead (@e4mtweets) exchange4media.com/industry-… @AvantikaGode | @Shubhangip611 | @akankshaghosh13

“There is a dramatic acceleration of innovation in the Deep Tech space in India.” Our President & CEO @ShwetaRKohli spoke to CNBC about the momentum building across India’s Deep Tech ecosystem, with startups increasingly moving from prototypes to real commercialisation. As India looks to build globally competitive companies across AI, semiconductors, space, drones and advanced manufacturing, strengthening the capital and policy environment for Deep Tech will be critical. Read the full story on CNBC by Priyanka Salve: cnbc.com/2026/09/29/india-in…

Great to spend time with this super bunch on the sidelines of SuperReturn Asia in Singapore. When serious discussions on the startup and VC world quickly give way to roasting each other mercilessly, you know you’re among friends :)

🇮🇳 🇸🇬 Startup Policy Forum has signed an MoU with TiE Singapore to bring the founder communities of India and Singapore closer together. For decades, TiE has connected entrepreneurs, investors and mentors worldwide, and TiECon is where that network meets. That is why our partnership begins at TiECon Singapore this November, where SPF will bring a delegation of Indian founders and business leaders as part of our Startup Safari initiative. Singapore has long been where Indian companies go first when they expand into Southeast Asia. A strong pillar of SPF's work is connecting Indian founders with markets overseas and bringing opportunities from abroad back home. This partnership with TiE Singapore further strengthens that work for us. Here's to a stronger corridor between India and Singapore. Look forward to seeing you TiECon Singapore 🚀 @TiEsingapore @SPF_India @HCI_Singapore

Great conversation with Anandamoy Roychowdhary (MD, Crane Venture Partners) and Joanna Ossinger (Managing Editor, APAC Digital, CNBC) at SuperReturn Asia in Singapore on The New India Story: Investing in AI and Deep Tech. We spoke about how deeptech founders in India are already innovating fast, capital is flowing in, and winners are emerging from India. Getting there will take patient capital and long-term thinking. We mapped the three technology waves India has gone through: IT services and BPO, which made India the world's technology partner, then the second with digital startups building products at scale for India. The third is beginning now, as India builds the underlying technology itself in semiconductors, space, AI, defence, biotech and more. It builds on decades of software capability, and increasingly hardware. The point I made is that this third wave differs in one crucial way. Policy sat on the sidelines in the first two waves, but in the third it is existential, because frontier tech needs an enabling ecosystem. That's why bringing founders, VCs, policymakers, academia and ecosystem enablers to the same table is at the heart of what we do at Startup Policy Forum. The key takeaway from the panel: the India story is real. With the right enabling environment, it will take off. @smdcmc @crane_vc @CNBCi @CNBC @CNBCtech @ossingerj @scott_sage @krishnav @Sid_1_0 @SPF_India

Great to interact with India’s High Commissioner to Singapore Dr Shilpak Ambule at the @IndianVCA conclave hosted on the sidelines of @SuperReturn. At Startup Policy Forum we are working closely with the Commission in strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries. Also fantastic to meet so many friends from India’s VC ecosystem under one roof at the wonderful evening hosted by IVCA. @rajattandy @SPF_India @HCI_Singapore @ABamniyal @amit_fygw

I'm thrilled to join Brahma AI as Senior Policy Advisor, working with the CEO and board on AI policy and responsible AI, and serving on the company's Advisory Board. In 25+ years across technology, public policy and media, I've never seen a moment that asks as much of the people building and governing new technology as this one. Brahma AI sits right at that intersection. Brahma AI is building an AI-native operating system for enterprise audiovisual content, with global anchor customers including Warner Bros, the NBA and Mayo Clinic. When I visited the London office earlier this year, I was genuinely inspired by how Prabhu Narasimhan and the team treat responsible AI, including consent, authenticity and provenance, as central to what they build. Hard policy choices are designed into the product from the start rather than bolted on later. It's a policy-first approach to building. Through our work at Startup Policy Forum and the New Economy Collective, we work every day with founders, investors, global tech companies, governments and regulators on questions of trust, rights and responsible AI. That's what I hope to bring to Brahma AI: a policy perspective that keeps pace with the technology, and a practical roadmap for how founders and regulators can work together. The rules for AI are still being written, and I look forward to contributing to that conversation alongside Brahma AI. Grateful to Prabhu and the team, and excited to partner with them on this journey. @brahma_ai @SPF_India @PrabhuNsimhan @joplaete

Welcome, @ShwetaRKohli, Brahma AI's new Senior Policy Advisor and Advisory Board member. President & CEO of the @SPF_India, 25+ years leading public policy across Asia. She'll advise our CEO and board on AI policy and responsible AI. brahma.io/news/brahma-ai-app…