By Erick “This Week in Tech India” – These are the most relevant tech news for Indians from the last seven days, and why each of them matters.
Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series
I made a short video listing the announcements, go check it out here. There is an offer on Samsung’s India website where they say if you pre-order, you get a storage bump for free. Take caution though – most of the phone updates are iterative and the most interesting of the announcements – the S25 “Edge” – is not out yet. So, in my opinion, if you’re an avid Samsung Galaxy user and have an S23 or later, I don’t think you’ll feel much of a difference.
Airtel to launch satellite internet
Airtel is set to launch satellite internet in India, challenging Elon Musk’s Starlink (who is trying to twist the Indian Government’s arm in my opinion). With key infrastructure in place, Airtel awaits approvals, aiming to offer affordable connectivity in remote areas.
Why it matters: SCREW ELON MUSK. There I said it. Seriously though, I was not happy when I read that Elon was basically throwing tantrums (or should I say, tan-trump?) and kinda made the Government announce that the satellite internet spectrum will be allocated rather than auctioned – I spoke about this in an earlier TWITI but you can refresh your memory by reading it here. Jio of course did not take kindly to the move, and with Airtel entering the satellite internet space I’d be happy if after not-too-long India kisses Starlink’s overpriced and underwhelming a** goodbye.
Read: Airtel Satellite Internet To Challenge Elon Musk’s Starlink In India: Key Points To Know | Times Now
Tata acquires Pegatron
Tata acquires a majority stake in Pegatron, a Taiwan-based company, operates an iPhone manufacturing facility near Chennai. With this acquisition, Tata Electronics has positioned itself to play a larger role in Apple’s supply chain.
Why it matters: I keep hoping that more manufacturing of “key tech” shifts to india. This follows China’s story of how it became a global superpower in tech manufacturing, not just for cheap goods. Plus, I also keep hoping that will more of the iPhone being made in India, the price of the iPhones eventually reduce for Indian consumers one day (GST willing).
Read: Tata acquires majority stake in Apple partner Pegatron’s India unit – Tech Edition
Reliance to build world’s largest data centre in Jamnagar
Reliance Industries, in partnership with Nvidia, plans to build the world’s largest AI data centre in Jamnagar, in what seems to be a follow-up of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s meeting with Mukesh Ambani during Huang’s visit to India in late 2024.
Why it matters: not such a fan of the AI bit, but data centres in India would be cool. It would be cooler if the data centre was built with sustainability in Mind. Anyway, if you’re an Indian business, it helps not just with efficiency but also with privacy and information security that your data is stored and operated in the country of your business. Let me know if you’d like me to make a post or video explaining this in more detail.
Zomato and Swiggy may be taken to court by Restaurant Association
The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), representing over half a million eateries nationwide, is readying to challenge the rapid food delivery services launched by Zomato-owned Blinkit (an app called Bistro) and Swiggy (an app called Snacc) in the court. This comes after recent discussions between NRAI officials and the two food delivery giants failed to reach a resolution.
Why it matters: There’s been a lot of quick commerce news of late, but this one is bad news. The concerns raised by NRAI are about private labelling and privacy. While I’m in general a fan of quick commerce and home grown apps that support the gig economy, this should not eat away the already-small margins of mid and small size businesses like restaurants. I am grateful for associations like NRAI and we should be supporting them, as we should be supporting the Competition Commission of India who may very likely get involved in this case.
Thank you for reading! My name is Erick and I am an Indian Tech blogger and content creator. I talk about more than just new gadgets and software – I talk about tech policy, trends and consumer behaviors that you need to know about and that could be affecting you, so you can make more informed tech related decisions and get more value for your rupees while purchasing tech. I stay out of sponsorships, affiliates or sponsored content so that you can be assured that my reporting is completely independent.
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