Business
Why AI is being trained in rural India
Priti GuptaTechnology Reporter, Mumbai
NextWealthVirudhunagar, a town in southeastern India, can boast temples that date back thousands of years.
But not far from those ancient sites, people are working on the latest tech – artificial intelligence.
One of those is Mohan Kumar.
“My role is in AI annotation. I collect data from various sources, label it, and train AI models so they can recognize and predict objects. Over time, the models become semi-supervised and can make decisions on their own,” he says.
India has long been a centre for outsourced IT support, with cities like Bangalore or Chennai being traditional hubs for such work.
But in recent years firms have been moving that work into much more remote areas, where costs for staff and space are lower.
The trend is know as cloud farming, and AI has given it another boost with numerous towns, like Virudhunagar, hosting firms working on AI.
So does Mr Kumar think he is missing out, by not being in a big city?
“Professionally, there is no real difference. Whether in small towns or metros, we work with the same global clients from the US and Europe, and the training and skills required are the same,” says Mr Kumar.
Mohan KumarMr Kumar works for Desicrew. Founded in 2005 it was a pioneer in cloud farming.
“We realised that instead of forcing people to migrate to cities in search of jobs, we could bring jobs to where people already live,” says Mannivannan J K, the chief executive of Desicrew .
“For too long, opportunities have been concentrated in cities, leaving rural youth behind. Our mission has always been to create world-class careers closer to home, while proving that quality work can be delivered from anywhere.”
Desicrew does all sorts of outsourced work including software testing for start-up firms, building datasets to train AI, and moderating content.
At the moment 30 to 40% of its work is AI related, “but very soon, it will grow to 75 to 100%,” says Mr J K.
Much of that work is transcription – turning audio to text.
“Machines understand text far better,” he explains.
“For AI to work naturally, machines must be trained to understand variations in how people speak. That’s why transcription is such a crucial step, it forms the foundation for machines to comprehend and respond across languages, dialects, and contexts.”
Doing such work in a smaller town is not a disadvantage, Mr J K says.
“People often assume rural means underdeveloped, but our centres mirror urban IT hubs in every way – secure data access, reliable connectivity, and uninterrupted power. The only difference is geography. “
Around 70% of his workforce are women: “For many, this is their first salaried job, and the impact on their families is transformative – from financial security to education for their children,” says Mr J K.
NextWealthFounded in 2008, NextWealth was also an early mover in cloud farming.
Headquartered in Bangalore, it employs 5,000 staff in 11 offices in smaller towns across India.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from small towns, but most IT companies hire only from the metros. That leaves behind a huge untapped pool of smart, first-generation graduates,” says Mythily Ramesh, co-founder and managing director of NextWealth.
“Many of these students are first-generation graduates. Their parents are farmers, weavers, tailors, policemen – families who take loans to fund their education,” she says.
NextWealth started with outsourced work from the back offices of big companies, but five years ago moved into artificial intelligence.
“The world’s most advanced algorithms are being trained and validated in India’s small towns,” says Ms Ramesh.
Around 70% of its work comes from the US.
“Every AI model, from a ChatGPT-like system to facial recognition, needs vast amounts of human-labelled data. That is the backbone of cloud-farming jobs.”
She thinks there is plenty more work to come.
“In the next 3–5 years, AI and GenAI will create close to 100 million jobs in training, validation, and real-time handling. India’s small towns can be the backbone of this workforce.”
She is hopeful that India can remain a hub for such work.
“Countries like the Philippines may catch up, but India’s scale and early start in AI sourcing gives us a five to seven-year advantage. We must leverage it before the gap narrows,” she says.
KS Viswanathan is a technology advisor, and formerly worked at India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, the trade association for outsourcing firms.
“Silicon Valley may be building the AI engines, but the day-to-day work that keeps those engines reliable increasingly comes from India’s cloud farming industry,” he says.
“We are truly at a tipping point. If cloud farming continues to scale, small-town India could well become the world’s largest hub for AI operations, just as it became the hub for IT services two decades ago.”
But success is not guaranteed.
While Next Wealth and Desicrew both say they have access to reliable and secure internet connections, Mr Viswanathan says that is not always the case in India’s smaller towns.
“Reliable high-speed internet and secure data centres are not always at par with metros, which makes data protection a constant concern.”
Even if good connections are in place, work needs to be done to reassure clients.
“The bigger challenge is the perception rather than a technical one. International clients often assume small towns cannot meet data security standards, even when the systems are robust. Trust has to be earned through delivery.”
Back at NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay “fine-tunes” AI. For example, if it confuses two similar looking items, like a blue denim jacket and a navy shirt, she will correct the model.
“These corrections are then fed back into the system, fine-tuning the model so that the next time it sees a similar case, it performs better. Over time, the AI model builds up experience, just like updating software with regular patches to make it more accurate and reliable,” says Ms Vijay.
Such work has an effect in the real world.
“It’s me and team who indirectly train the AI models to make your online shopping experience easy and hassle free,” she says.
A pharmacist displays a box of Wegovy pills at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, Jan. 15, 2026.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Novo Nordisk rose more than 8% on Friday after early prescription data showed an encouraging start to the U.S. launch of the company’s new GLP-1 pill for obesity.
In a Friday note, TD Cowen analysts called it a “solid start” for the first-ever weight loss pill, but said “one data point does not make a trend.” They cautioned that they need to see more data to fully assess early demand for the Wegovy pill, which officially launched Jan. 5 after winning approval in late December.
Still, the initial data is a boost to the Danish drugmaker’s hopes of winning back more share from its chief rival, Eli Lilly, this year in the booming obesity and diabetes drug market. Eli Lilly won the majority market share in early 2025 and is trailing closely behind Novo Nordisk in the pill space, as it prepares for the upcoming launch of its own oral drug for obesity.
In a Friday note, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said around 3,100 prescriptions for the Wegovy pill were filled in the first week of the launch, citing IQVIA data for the week ending Jan. 9. In the first week of the commercial launch of Eli Lilly’s popular obesity injection, Zepbound, around 1,300 prescriptions were filled, and roughly 8,000 were filled in the second week, he noted. That injection won U.S. approval in late 2023.
The TD Cowen analysts cited somewhat different data published by Symphony through Bloomberg.
The analysts said around 4,290 prescriptions were filled for Novo Nordisk’s pill during its first full week of launch, with the majority being for the starting dose of the drug. They added that the data from their source or IQVIA likely don’t include prescriptions through Novo Nordisk’s direct-to-consumer pharmacy or its telehealth partners.
The analysts said that compares with the roughly 1,900 prescriptions filled for Zepbound during its first full week on the market.
Assuming the Symphony data is accurate, the pill “is already outstripping its injectable counterparts at the same stage of their launch,” TD Cowen analyst Michael Nedelcovych wrote in the note. A more direct comparison between the pill and the injections can be made based on available data early next week, though the figures may not prove more useful for another two to three quarters, he added.
Nedelcovych said he wants to see the full picture on the direct-to-consumer channel, which holds “significant promise” for the pill’s launch.
Demand could also shift once Eli Lilly’s pill, orforglipron, enters the market in the next few months, he added.
While Novo Nordisk’s drug has a head start, it is a peptide medication with dietary requirements — no food or drink for 30 minutes after taking the pill with water — that may hinder uptake. Eli Lilly’s pill is a small-molecule drug and not a peptide, meaning it does not have those restrictions.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.
Francis Chung | Bloomberg | Getty Images
White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Friday that large U.S. banks could voluntarily provide credit cards to underserved Americans as a means to address President Donald Trump’s affordability push.
A week ago, Trump called for banks to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, an idea that has been roundly rejected by industry executives and their lobbyists this week.
Now, Hassett, who is director of the National Economic Council, is floating a different plan, this one more narrowly focused on consumers who don’t have credit access but have the income to justify credit lines.
“They could potentially voluntarily provide for people who are in that sort of sweet spot of not having financial leverage very much because they don’t have access to credit, but they have enough income and stability in their lives so they’re worthy of credit,” Hassett told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.
“Our expectation is that it won’t necessarily require legislation, because there will be really great new ‘Trump cards’ presented for folks that are voluntarily provided by the banks,” he said.
The comments could indicate that the administration is downgrading its efforts for broad changes to the card industry that would be difficult to enact and that could hit consumer spending and the economy.
This week, bankers discussing fourth-quarter results said that rather than offering cards at a 10% interest rate, as Trump has said should happen by Jan. 20, the banks would simply close many customers’ accounts.
Hassett’s statement came in response to a question about whether bankers would be forced to comply with Trump’s rate cap, a move that would probably require new legislation.
The administration has been talking with “CEOs of many of the big banks who think that the president’s onto something,” Hassett said.
A major credit card issuer and a bank lobbyist representing big lenders told CNBC that they haven’t yet had any discussions with the administration about the “Trump card” concept.
Stocks in London ended little changed on Friday, with blue chips edging lower after notching another record as investors held fire ahead of the long weekend in the US.
“Investors have been kept on their toes year-to-date with non-stop geopolitical issues, and mixed messages from the business world. A quieter day on the corporate reporting calendar gave investors a chance to catch their breath and take stock of events,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
The FTSE 100 index closed down just 3.65 points at 10,235.29. It had earlier hit a new intra-day best level of 10,257.75.
The FTSE 250 ended up 31.39 points, 0.1%, at 23,311.37, and the AIM All-Share closed just 0.27 of a point higher at 804.75.
For the week, the FTSE 100 rose 1.1%, the FTSE 250 climbed 1.2%, and the AIM All-Share advanced 2.1%.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed down 0.7%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended 0.2% lower.
“There was a slightly negative tone across European stock indices on Friday,” commented David Morrison, senior market analyst, at Trade Nation. “It appeared that investors were more comfortable taking some risk off the table, no doubt mindful that US markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.”
In London, the FTSE 100 was pegged back by weak mining stocks, a key factor behind recent index strength.
The price of copper fell 3.0%, and silver slumped 3.7%, giving up some recent gains, while gold nursed less severe falls.
Gold was quoted at 4,594.24 dollars an ounce on Friday, down from 4,616.76 on Thursday.
In response, Endeavour Mining fell 2.7%, Anglo American declined 2.4%, Antofagasta dipped 2.9%, and Glencore fell 2.5%.
Strategists at Bank of America downgraded the mining sector to ‘underweight’ and lifted energy to ‘market weight’.
“After sharp outperformance for mining, the potential downside risks stemming from the sector’s macro drivers are becoming hard to ignore,” BofA said.
BofA noted that a historical divergence in commodity prices has led to a decoupling among European resources with a surge in metal prices over recent months, including a 50% rally in copper, alongside a “roll-over” in energy prices, with the oil price down 30% to four-year lows recently.
As a result, the copper-to-oil ratio has risen close to a 40-year high, which in turn has led to significant divergence between European resources sectors, with mining outperforming by 40% since April, while energy has underperformed by nearly 15%.
“Resources sector pricing looks stretched in both directions,” BofA added.
Brent oil traded higher at 64.48 dollars a barrel on Friday, up from 63.55 late on Thursday.
Pearson ended a miserable week for investors, with a further 4.1% decline.
The educational publisher has seen its shares fall 12% this week after a poorly received trading update.
A previously undisclosed contract loss for US student assessment in New Jersey, which will drag on first-half growth, was blamed for the stock fall, although analysts note Pearson is confident that the loss of the contract will have no bearing on other renewals in the coming years.
Heading higher were property companies British Land and Land Securities, up 1.4% and 1.3% respectively, on hopes lower interest rates will spark a sector upturn, while BAE Systems, up 2.3%, remained in favour amid geopolitical jitters.
Stocks in New York were little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was slightly lower, while the S&P 500 index was up 0.1%, as was the Nasdaq Composite.
Economic data showed that US industrial production rose faster than expected in December.
The Federal Reserve said that on a monthly basis, industrial production increased by 0.4% in December, the same pace as in November, which was revised up from 0.2%. It was better than the FXStreet-cited consensus of a 0.1% uptick.
On an annual basis, total industrial production was 2.0% higher in December than a year prior.
Shannon Glein, analyst at Wells Fargo, said the underlying details show a “key theme from last year – everything high-tech and AI related outperformed”.
“We expect this trend to persist going forward, but it’s also worth noting that the slow yet steady ascent in all other industrial production on a year-ago basis is a sign that broader activity may be starting to recover,” she added.
The pound was quoted lower at 1.3382 dollars at the time of the London equities close on Friday, compared to 1.3388 on Thursday.
The euro stood at 1.1596 dollars, lower against 1.1607.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.21%, widening from 4.16%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.82%, stretched from 4.78%.
Back in London, Genus led the FTSE 250 risers, advancing 7.8%, after reporting that adjusted pretax profit for the six months to December 31 would be about £50 million, ahead of expectations.
Berenberg pointed out it was “the second guidance raise in the past three months, making it one of the standout performers within our coverage”.
“Importantly, the upgrades are being driven by strong trading in the PIC (pigs) business, which reflects the benefits of the group’s shift towards a royalty-driven model. This is increasing the defensiveness and predictability of earnings and sets a very positive tone for a year that we believe has more positive catalysts to come”, the bank added.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were BAE Systems, up 47.0 pence at 2,088.0p, NatWest, up 13.8p at 652.8p, Smiths Group, up 50.0p at 2,612.0p, Schroders, up 8.6p at 467.0p and National Grid, up 20.5p at 1,201.5p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Pearson, down 39.6p at 939.0p, Entain, down 23.8p at 703.0p, Antofagasta, down 105.0p at 3,560.0p, Endeavour Mining, down 110.0p at 3,996.0p and Glencore, down 12.4p at 478.6p.
Monday’s global economic calendar features a slew of data from China, including GDP, retail sales, and industrial production.
In Canada, inflation figures will be published, while US financial markets are closed for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
Monday’s UK corporate calendar has a trading statement from building materials firm Marshalls.
Later in the week, trading statements are due from luxury goods retailer Burberry, sports retailer JD Sports Fashion and miner Rio Tinto.
Contributed by Alliance News.
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