By Erick What a lot of news this week. So much news that I’m a day late in publishing this week’s TWITI! And I was traveling this week.
Man, it’s hard being a solo content creator. But I love it, and I do it for my audience! All 105 of you. Thank you. Please tell your friends also about me. Please? 🫶🏽
Okay anyway, here’s the most important news from Tech India this week:
- Samsung to start manufacturing laptops in India, specifically in its Greater Noura facility. The Korean giant also plans to manufacture more devices in India, as per reports. Samsung has already been making phones, wearables and tablets in its Greater Noura facility. Note that this plant was one of the first global electronics manufacturing facilities setup in India – it was setup in 1996.
- The Reserve Bank of India approved the nation’s first blockchain finance platforms for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME). Specifically, RBI granted permission to one of the blockchain platforms along the lines of an Indian Bank’s Digital Infrastructure Company (IBDIC). Its aim is to ensure MSMEs can access working capital faster and reduce risk of fraud, duplicate invoicing, and delays in payment. I honestly think this is cool – I thought the blockchain hype died down in the last few years but in theory it really does have some real world uses!
- Zepto offering “own a plot of land in 10 minutes” – exactly what it says, people in Delhi-NCR can now buy a plot of land on Zepto in 10 minutes. This is in partnership with The House of Abhinandan Lodha. Key questions are, why and how?
- Foxconn has started small scale production of iPhone 17 in its Bengaluru plant. Btw the iPhone 17 is set to launch next week, although it has been the most leaked iPhone so far. But did you notice, Apple reportedly to produce all iPhone 17 models in India despite the Trump tariff circus.
- Speaking of FoxConn, the tech giant has recalled another 300 Chinese / Taiwanese engineers from India without specifying why. Not the first time this year. No biggie, it could be because we have the skill right here.
- Global ERP giant Oracle has laid off 10% of its employees in India. This is after sealing a major deal with Open AI and after holding a high profile meeting with Trump. No biggie, but sad for those engineers laid off because of terrible US-based management practice.
- OpenAI launches a new affordable(ish) subscription plan for India at 399 per month – called ChatGPT Go. I mean, they did say earlier that they see India as their fastest growing market. Open AI is also opening its first office in India. Clearly, everyone wants a piece of the AI India Pie. Also read this piece by the Economic Times.
- TCS layoffs drama – the IT employees’ union says company lays of 30000 jobs, company issues clarification which says some meaningless rubbish about being future-ready. Man, screw TCS.
- Airtel offers six months of Apple Music free for its prepaid customers,, then quietly removes its cheapest plan that started at 249. Jio also removed their 249 plan. Now the cheapest plans start at 299.
- Government offering DigiLocker drive free for citizens, it is a free cloud storage of 1 GB. I’ll need to look into this a bit more, stay tuned.
- The Indian Government has banned all Real Money Online games, I.e. a blanket ban on all online games involving monetary transactions. I love that even Dream11 was not spared. Some say that Dream11 and others are planning to sue the Government. Seriously, what a bunch of greedy folk they are.
In more global news, Google’s recent pixel event was…. confusing. Bottom line is, four new pixel phones, with good-enough updates. And yea, Pixel devices are also made in India. Now when will Indian consumers start seeing lower prices? 🤷🏽♂️
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