By Erick So, er, Tesla launched the Model Y in India last week. I wrote this post about it. Now let’s move on.
Although one thing I didn’t write about is why it costs nearly double in India than it does in most other markets. And I’ll just link this brilliant reel here instead of explaining myself:
Now, let’s really move on and here’s what else happened this week in Tech India:
- Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says that the first Made in India semiconductors will be here in 2025 itself. This may sound familiar but what was promised earlier was that advanced semiconductors are being designed in India (and they are), whereas this is the first time the Minister is saying that the semiconductors will be made in India. This is a big deal! And a tough one, given that fab plants construction are in progress but not complete yet.
- Speaking of Semiconductors, Tata and global industry giant Bosch inked a deal to collaborate on semiconductors and auto tech projects. The upcoming facility in Gujarat will be a part of this project. So right now, what is Tata Electronics’ favourite Shah Rukh Khan movie? “Yes Bosch!” Ok sorry.
- HC orders Amazon and Flipkart to delist products whose names bear Reliance brand names such as ‘Jio’ but are not Reliance products. On one hand this is good, on the other hand I hope others also benefit from such an order. Although, what happened to jio saare ji bhar ke? Hey? Ok sorry.
- Vodafone India is…. having a moment. On one hand it is expanding its 5G offering to 23 cities in India, on the other hand it is still crying about needing Government bailout to survive past FY26. One thing I’m sure is that I will never offer financial advice – which is why I’m not saying you need to buy Vodafone India shares.
- Airtel users to get one year Perplexity Pro subscription for free. Perplexity Pro costs ₹17,000/- per year and I can’t believe that Airtel users are just getting it for free – from the Airtel Thanks app. I didn’t believe it until I got it for myself.
- Ola, Uber and Rapido drivers are on indefinite strike in Mumbai. The protest is mainly aimed at securing fair pay, better regulations and improved working conditions. At the same time, Maharashtra transport department has reportedly initiated legal action against bike taxi platforms for illegally operating in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued notices to tech giants Google and Meta for their involvement in promoting illegal online betting platforms. Too bad that Dream11 and others are legal – they sponsored the entire f***ing IPL. Comment below if you’ve lost money on Dream11.
- SnapDeal’s parent company AceVector plans to raise INR 500 Cr via its public issue which will largely consist of a fresh issue, and files confidential draft IPO papers. Btw just a reminder that Jio is not a listed company – its IPO is coming soon-ish. Maybe.
- Reliance Retail rolls out 4-hour fashion delivery service called AJIO-Rush in 6 cities. Just…. why?
- B2B ecommerce platform Udaan has acquired retail tech startup ShopKirana in an all-stock deal to deepen focus on profitability and bolster its presence in FMCG and hotel, restaurant, and catering (HoReCa) sectors.
- Days after acquiring robotics startup Asimov Robotics, SaaS major Zoho has now rolled out a suite of AI products to facilitate businesses with easy integration, customisable AI agents and automation. As per a statement by the company, it has rolled out a large language model – Zia LLM, facilitating tasks, including structured data extraction, summarisation, and code generation. This is kinda cool – and coicides with Open AI releasing its own agentic version of Chat GPT that everyone is losing their minds over.
My wife tells me not to incorporate so many puns / dad jokes into my posts. I agree with her, it’s not like I’m trying to be a post-er boy. Ok sorry. Come back next Sunday for next week’s Tech India news roundup. Bye bye.
