‘Innovators Playground’ is a podcast series where we explore the cutting-edge innovations and insights shaping the future of technology. It brings conversations with leading founders, industry experts, and thinkers to inspire and inform youth around the world.
The AI Question CEOs Can’t Ignore | Manny Maceda X Dilip Asbe
In this episode of NPCI’s Innovators Playground Podcast, Dilip Asbe sits down with Manny Maceda, Global Chairman of Bain & Company, to explore how AI is reshaping the global order, where value will emerge in the new techstack, and what this shift means for India, businesses, and engineers. From sovereign AI and enterprise adoption to the changing role of technology professionals, the conversation examines how organisations can move beyond using AI to creating measurable value from it.
Here is what the episode dives into:
✅ Why AI is reshaping the global business environment: Manny explains how AI is intersecting with shifts in geopolitics, energy, capital, and global supply chains, requiring businesses to rethink where they operate, invest, and build.
✅ Where India can create value in the new AI stack: The conversation explores India’s strengths in technology services, its growing domestic market, and the areas in which it can build a differentiated and sustainable advantage.
✅ How companies can move from experimenting with AI to creating value: Manny discusses why many organisations remain caught in a cycle of pilots and proofs of concept, and what it takes to use AI to improve productivity, drive growth, and strengthen enterprise value.
✅ What engineers must do to remain relevant in an AI led world: Manny shares why understanding business context, exercising human judgement, and connecting technical work with customer and organisational value will become increasingly important as AI agents take on more coding tasks.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this channel by the host and guests are for informational and entertainment purposes only, and do not constitute professional advice. The content provided does not claim to be exhaustive and does not cover all aspects of the topic discussed. Host and Guests do not necessarily subscribe the opinions expressed. Viewers are advised to conduct their own research and seek professional guidance for any specific concerns or questions.
27 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT
Building India's Sovereign AI Future | Pratyush Kumar X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe interviews Pratyush Kumar, Co-founder of Sarvam AI, about building India's sovereign AI future and creating globally competitive foundation models.
23 Jun 2026
EVs Run On Code: Ather's Engineering Bet | Tarun Mehta X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe interviews Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO of Ather Energy, about building globally competitive products through engineering excellence and technology ownership.
21 May 2026
Can India Build It's Own AI Destiny? | Sridhar Vembu X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe interviews Sridhar Vembu, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Zoho, exploring India's path to self-reliant AI innovation and affordable technology for all.
2 Apr 2026
The Anti-Playbook for Techies: In The AI-Led World | Paras Chopra X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of NPCI, interviews Paras Chopra, Founder of Wingify and Lossfunk, about building relevance and original thinking in an AI-led world.
14 Jan 2026
slice’s Leap: From Fintech Disruptor to India’s Next Big Bank | Rajan Bajaj X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of NPCI, interviews Rajan Bajaj, Founder and ED of slice, exploring how a fintech disruptor rethinks banking through in-house technology, credit innovation, and AI for India's growth.
15 Dec 2025
Engineering Groww with Lalit Keshre: Lessons on scale, simplicity and smart tech choices | Lalit Keshre X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of NPCI, interviews Lalit Keshre, Co Founder and CEO of Groww, about building for scale with open source, defending simplicity, and making smart tech choices during rapid growth.
24 Nov 2025
Reimagining Global Payments: PayPal's Vision For AI, Innovation, And Agentic Commerce | Alex Chriss X Dilip Asbe
Alex Chriss, President and CEO of PayPal, and Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of NPCI, discuss AI's role in reimagining global payments and fostering agentic commerce.
5 Oct 2025
More Than a Bank: How SBI Shapes India's Future | C S Setty X Dilip Asbe
C S Setty, Chairman of State Bank of India, and Dilip Asbe discuss how SBI reimagines national banking through technology, financial inclusion, and future sector financing in this interview.
17 Sept 2025
Future-Ready: A Playbook for Engineers and Dreamers | Kunal Shah X Dilip Asbe
Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED, and Dilip Asbe, CEO of NPCI, discuss ambition, risk, and AI's role in scaling innovation for India's future.
18 Aug 2025
India’s Digital Revolution: Pramod Varma X Dilip Asbe
Dilip Asbe interviews Dr. Pramod Varma, Former Chief Architect of India Stack, about engineering billion-user systems and scaling India's digital future.
16 Jul 2025
Scaling India’s Payments: Rahul Chari X Dilip Asbe
In the second episode of Innovators Playground by NPCI, Dilip Asbe speaks with Rahul Chari, Co-founder & CTO of PhonePe, for a deep dive into what it truly takes to build and scale trusted technology for a billion-plus India.
From the early chaos of Flipkart’s Big Billion Day to leading a fintech giant at the forefront of India’s digital revolution, Rahul shares candid reflections on building for scale, designing resilient systems, and staying ahead of the innovation curve.
Tune in to hear:
• How a foundational gap in India’s early digital infrastructure sparked the birth of PhonePe
• The architectural and cultural principles behind building resilient, high-concurrency platforms for a billion-plus user base
• Extensibility of the UPI specs
• Why AI is not just augmenting developers but redefining the role of software engineers
• Rahul Chari’s perspective on nurturing engineering talent, decentralising learning, and building outside legacy institutions
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this channel by the host and guests are for informational and entertainment purposes only, and do not constitute professional advice. The content provided does not claim to be exhaustive and does not cover all aspects of the topic discussed. Host and Guests do not necessarily subscribe the opinions expressed. Viewers are advised to conduct their own research and seek professional guidance for any specific concerns or questions.
11 Jun 2025
Building the future: Why AI Must Power Every Role: Harshil Mathur x Dilip Asbe
Innovators Playground is a podcast by NPCI that brings together sharp minds building the future of India’s digital economy. Each episode features conversations with founders, engineers, product leaders and technologists who are shaping how we live, work and pay in a tech-first world. This is not just a podcast about technology. It is about how innovation actually happens and what it takes to stay ahead.
In this episode, Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO of Razorpay, joins Dilip Asbe to discuss the future of tech talent, the role of AI across functions, and how open-source culture is influencing the way companies hire and build.
Key discussion points
• Why AI is not a function but a shift in mindset
• The rise of ‘Human + AI’ across every role and domain
• How GitHub is emerging as a filter for top tech talent
• Open-source contributions as a differentiator for early-career professionals
• What companies are really looking for in the next generation of engineers
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individual host and guest and do not necessarily represent the official policies or positions of NPCI or any of its affiliate or group companies. The content provided is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional, legal, or financial advice. Listeners are encouraged to seek appropriate professional counsel before making decisions based on the content presented. Neither the host nor the podcast producers shall be liable for any damages or losses arising from reliance on the information provided.
5 Jun 2025
NPCI Innovators Playground Podcast Trailer
This is where technology meets real-world impact. Innovators Playground is a podcast series that brings together builders, founders and engineers who are shaping the future of digital economy.
In this trailer, get a glimpse of what’s coming… conversations on AI, open source, digital payments, system design, cloud infrastructure and everything in between. Whether you’re just out of college or growing your career in tech, this series helps you stay curious, stay relevant and stay ahead.
What to expect:
• Sharp conversations with industry leaders
• Real insights on the future of work and tech
• Ideas to help you build smarter, code better and think bigger
Presented by NPCI, this is not just another tech podcast. This is a space to learn from those building what comes next.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individual host and guest and do not necessarily represent the official policies or positions of NPCI or any of its affiliate or group companies. The content provided is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional, legal, or financial advice. Listeners are encouraged to seek appropriate professional counsel before making decisions based on the content presented. Neither the host nor the podcast producers shall be liable for any damages or losses arising from reliance on the information provided.
Inside a recent episode
Building India's Sovereign AI Future | Pratyush Kumar X Dilip Asbe
Published 27 Jul 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Many of you might have heard this term mixture of experts. So these models, they are 105 billion parameters, but on any given inference of a token, only a few billion parameters are active, which means that inference costs come down. But there is enough space to memorize the world's knowledge. There we had to figure out how many layers of the network, what sparsity to use, what kind of operators to use. And in fact, we trained three models, not one. We trained a 3 billion parameter model. In fact, we maxed out in terms of research exploration. The 3B was a state space model. It's what is called hybrid of attention and convolution. […]
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