On the occasion of Independence Day, stories were presented of servicemen who, after their service, became founders of startups, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. They shared how life in the armed forces influenced their subsequent path outside the military sphere, as well as what lessons they were able to apply in civilian life.
Antoni Anish left the Indian Air Force (IAF) ten years ago and started engaging in entrepreneurship. According to him, the startup world turned out to be 'intense.' He recalls almost telling his wife: 'Just leave me alone for the next three years. And if you need to meet me, block my calendar.'
Currently, Anish is a co-founder and managing partner at Factoryal—a firm that consults startups and SMEs, and also focuses on their growth. His career began with participating in the creation of MyGate alongside former IAF pilot Vijay Arisetti. MyGate is a platform for community and apartment management that automates security, maintenance billing, accounting, and daily residential operations in housing complexes.
Anish emphasized that their experience in the armed forces proved crucial for improving the MyGate product. He noted: 'We had a very good understanding of how security systems work, what security should be like, and how to build a security system because we did this our entire lives in service.'
After working on MyGate, Anish moved to the position of Chief Operating Officer at T-Hub, a startup incubator established by the Telangana government. Furthermore, he is part of the investment committee of Jamwant Ventures, a venture fund that invests in deep defense technology startups. He explained his transition: 'After MyGate, I wanted to create an organization that could pass on all this knowledge to budding startups. That's when T-Hub appeared. The knowledge gained at T-Hub led to the creation of Jamwant, and then Factoryal.'
Lieutenant Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retired) joined the Army at the age of 16 and for a long time saw little of the outside world. However, after 27 years of service, he decided to pursue something else. He noticed that he informally acted as a financial advisor for his classmates and decided to monetize this skill.
After voluntarily retiring in March 2010, Lieutenant Colonel Govila, along with his wife, founded the enterprise 'Hum Fauji Initiatives.' The company helps servicemen manage their finances and investments, including planning for children's future and retirement planning. Govila stressed that they work exclusively with servicemen and their close relatives, as many of them are located in remote or border areas and experience financial isolation. He added that the company will never step outside the scope of serving the armed forces, aiming to be a 'big fish in a small pond.'
This fintech business, based in New Delhi, has attracted 3500 families as clients. Clients are attracted through recommendations and various marketing channels. 'Hum Fauji Initiatives' also conducts financial literacy lectures in army garrisons.
Chandan Singh Rathor, a retired IAF pilot, founded Coreshield in 2023—a deep defense and security technology startup based at IIT Delhi. During his service as a pilot, he realized that systems often become overloaded in emergencies. Sensors could not communicate with the command center, which in turn did not communicate with the person on the ground, and that person could not contact the decision-maker. This gap existed at military bases, refineries, airports, and power plants, where even a delay of a few minutes could cost lives or huge losses.
This realization ultimately led to the creation of Rathor's new venture—Coreshield. After retirement, Rathor studied at IIM Bangalore, where he met his co-founder Rana Amit K Navin, an aerospace and defense technology engineer with over 15 years of experience. Bhavya Kumar, a former staff engineer at Palo Alto Networks, who also worked at Bank of America and Empower in the US, became the third co-founder.
CoreShield developed an AI-based security platform that makes critical infrastructure sensors, cameras, thermal systems, seismic detectors, and audio sensors smarter and capable of detecting threats in real time. Their main product, Pulse, is the Predictive Unified Enforcement System, which collects data from various sensor types, cleans it, and uses AI to detect unusual activity in real time. The startup uses convolutional neural network models trained on various types of threat data to recognize patterns and provide rapid alerts. Although CoreShield does not manufacture sensors, it acts as a data collection and intelligence layer, making existing sensors smarter.
Teja Manakame, who grew up in Belagavi (then Belgaum), a small town in Karnataka, was in her final year of study in electronics and communications when she was inducted into the second group of Indian Air Force officers. This was the early nineties, when women were just beginning to join the IAF, inspiring many others like Manakame to join the forces. Service in uniform, Manakame recalls, brought her excitement and recognition. She remembers walking down Brigade Road in Bengaluru in uniform, and people approaching her, and the media showing interest in the appearance of female officers in the IAF.
However, when the IT boom started in India, Manakame became interested in the field. After completing her six-year term of service, she left the Air Force to study the IT industry. After receiving the necessary training, she was hired as a developer at TCS. In 2005, Manakame joined Dell Technologies as a manager and advanced in her career to the position of VP of IT at the company. After working nearly 19 years at Dell, she now heads the technology department at the Curriculum Associates office in India. Manakame is glad that life has improved for women in the technology sector over the years. As a prominent leader in the technology industry, she actively participates in mentoring new leaders.
The Small Business Development Portfolio Committee reported on Friday that 57 million Rands from the spaza shop support fund reached the intended recipients. According to data from the Department of Small Business Development, 930 payments were made as of July 31, 2026.
The Department assured the committee that none of the payments were made to a spaza shop owned by a foreign national. Committee Chairperson Masefako Dikgale highly praised the strict internal controls and due diligence measures implemented by the department and the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (SEDFA).
Dikgale emphasized that the money was directed to qualified South African citizens managing legitimate spaza shop businesses. She noted that the committee had engaged with the department and agency regarding allegations that the fund might have been paid to shops managed by foreigners through South African shell companies. She was guaranteed that applications undergo rigorous vetting before funds are disbursed.
The Chairperson added that her engagement with the department and agency occurred after the Protector of Public Oversight's announcement on July 17, 2026. As part of this announcement, her office sent a notification under section 7(9) to the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane.
This notification arose from a systemic investigation into food safety compliance and control in spaza shops and other informal food service establishments in Gauteng. The investigation uncovered confirmed instances of the use of shell companies, beneficiary discrepancies, fraud, and misrepresentation of information, including situations where South African citizens registered as license owners or beneficiaries while foreigners managed the business.
These findings formed the basis for public complaints about potential fund disbursements to shops managed by foreigners. The Committee took these allegations very seriously, as the fund is intended to support qualified enterprises owned and operated by South African citizens.
The Department informed the committee that its internal due diligence procedures successfully identified and flagged operator discrepancies and other fraudulent applications before payment was made. Consequently, according to Dikgale, no financial payments were made concerning the fraudulent applications identified during the verification process.
Dikgale stated that the committee will continue to exercise parliamentary oversight to ensure the fund achieves its intended goals. She stressed that every Rand designated for qualified South African entrepreneurs will be protected and accounted for, ensuring support reaches genuine beneficiaries and not fraudulent structures. The Committee will remain vigilant against any attempts to circumvent rules or defraud the state.
The Committee calls on the public and small business stakeholders to report suspected fraud, the use of shell companies, or misrepresentation of information through the appropriate channels. It also urges all beneficiaries and applicants to fully comply with the Fund's requirements and provide truthful information during application and verification processes.
Ford has raised the longevity target for its engines and transmissions, integrating artificial intelligence into the manufacturing process to achieve this goal. The standard was changed from 10 years and 241 thousand km to 15 years and 362 thousand km of operation without failure. The automaker attributes this modification to a combined analysis of consumer complaints and the results obtained in its own internal tests.
Charles Poon, Ford's Vice President of Vehicle Hardware Engineering, defined this new parameter. He emphasized that the mechanical assembly is the determining factor in quality perception, as it is responsible for the essential function of the vehicle. Poon stated that true quality transcends marketing or momentary trends, being defined as 'doing the right thing even when no one is watching.'
To reach this level of excellence, the company's engineering conducts rigorous tests on its own engines. Units are removed directly from the production line and subjected to continuous cycles of ignition and shutdown, as well as full accelerations.
The core of this process lies in the daily engine teardowns performed at the Essex factory, using a method called the 'fingerprint test' by Ford. Engineers are not satisfied with just visual inspection; they analyze the oil for microscopic traces of materials. Even if the engine operates perfectly on the dynamometer, chemical indicators can signal premature wear of a specific valve or gear.
At this point, artificial intelligence comes into play. Physical tests generate hundreds of result graphs daily, containing hundreds of thousands of data points—a volume where a tiny deviation might go unnoticed by the human eye. The software is programmed to identify what is considered normal and point out the smallest anomaly.
According to Poon, the periodicity of the tests is as crucial as their accuracy. He stressed that testing an engine every three months allows many units to go unnoticed, while more frequent sampling helps standardize the quality of the product leaving the assembly line. If any problem is detected, the batch is held, and the component is redesigned before being released to the market. Ford thus seeks to avoid warranty claim costs that occur years after the sale.
This new approach comes after a setback. In June, when commenting on the brand's declining quality in the North American market, Poon informed the American press that Ford had made a mistake by assuming that implementing artificial intelligence and adjusting design requirements would be enough to improve the product. The company hired experienced engineers again, who currently guide the younger ones in interpreting the data, maintaining over 100 thousand automated AI tests.
The path adopted by Ford also differs from that of other manufacturers. While Nissan uses algorithms to reduce the development time of new models, such as the Skyline sedan, Ford has focused its technology on increasing the lifespan of its mechanical assembly.
Important information has emerged regarding India's Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program, which could lead to the development of a domestic engine in the near future. Reliance Industries and the British company Rolls-Royce have announced a partnership to create its own engine for a combat aircraft in India.
Although Rolls-Royce is widely known for manufacturing automobiles, this major British firm is also involved in creating aerospace engines. Both companies will jointly work on the development, design, and production of engines for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft within the country.
This collaboration involves exploring the possibilities of establishing an aerospace gas turbine complex in India. This complex is planned to be developed as a center of excellence in energy and propulsion technologies for the nation.
The AMCA represents a program for developing a next-generation indigenous fighter jet, aimed at creating an advanced stealth fighter for the Indian Air Force. The aero-engine is one of the most critical technologies for any fighter, and India currently faces the primary challenge of producing such engines.
The partnership between Reliance and Rolls-Royce focuses on developing this technology in India and establishing manufacturing capabilities. This could help India reduce its dependence on foreign technologies and supplies for fighter jet engines.
According to both companies, the proposed aerospace gas turbine complex will attempt to develop end-to-end engine-related technologies directly in India.
Anant Ambani, CEO of Reliance Industries, stated that the ability to self-sustain in strategically important technologies is necessary for India's strategic autonomy. He noted that their goal is to create a domestic aero-engine ecosystem in India, combining Rolls-Royce's advanced propulsion technologies with Reliance's technologies and large-scale manufacturing capabilities.
