This Week in Tech India (TWITI) #5 of 2026

We are into the second month of 2026 and Tech India is looking…….. up. There was a bit of hesitation there because for all the achievements that India has achieved in the world of tech, some basic humane problems remain unsolved. And it requires strikes and protests to even get some attention.

Gig Workers to Hold Nationwide Protest on Feb 3rd

Gig workers – in particular riders for Zomato, Blinkit, Swiggy, Instamart and a few others – went on strike on 25th and 31st December. Deepinder Goyal responded on 01st January very arrogantly, and two weeks later he stepped down as CEO of Eternal (in a move he says was not related to the Gig worker strike). Separately, the Government instructed Blinkit and others like Zepto to drop the 10-minute delivery promise (see TWITI #3 of 2026).

Last week on Republic Day, Gig Workers went on a ‘online strike’ i.e. they switched off their platforms. That obviously meant that there were fewer gig workers available on platforms. And this was well beyond food and grocery delivery – even gig workers on apps like Urban Company and Ola / Uber joined in. There are no official estimates of how many workers went offline – I saw estimates raining from 35,000 to 1,00,000 workers. That’s huge.

And this week on February 3rd, the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) has called for a nationwide protest – not strike, protest.

The GIPSWU essentially laid out their demands as follows:

• Legal Recognition: Enactment of a comprehensive Central Gig Law to recognize gig workers as “workers” entitled to labor rights.
• Income Security: Guaranteed minimum hourly wages and an end to opaque algorithmic wage calculations.
• Social Security: Implementation of health insurance, pension benefits, and accident covers.
• Workplace Protections: An immediate ban on arbitrary ID blocking (apparently Urban Company blocks IDs of workers arbitrarily on false accusations – see this reel), unfair rating systems, and a permanent end to 10-minute delivery models for safety reasons (note that after the instruction, Blinkit still promises to deliver MacBooks in 15 minutes).
• Women’s Rights: Specific protections for women, including menstrual leave and emergency safety features like a “red button” for medical or security threats. 

This has been going on for some time now and by far is easily the Tech India story of 2026, not least because it impacts thousands of livelihoods. I will of course continue to report on this so stay tuned.

The India-EU ‘Mother of All Deals’ extends little to tech

Of course you heard the news, not least because the memes that came out of this are pure gold. Also, it was the EU Commissioner (that Ursula lady) that called it the ‘mother of all deals’.

Anyway, this deal has few specific provisions related to tech. It talks about cars and car parts, contact points for SMEs, free access to the Indian services market, protection and enforcement of IPs, reduced tariffs on a lot of categories and so on. Nothing about AI, semiconductors or electronics.

And it is supposed to make it easier for Indians to get jobs and work in the EU. I wish it made it easier to get a Schengen visa, which personally I have obtained three times and absolutely detest the mistrust that European officials place on you. No, I do NOT want to illegally migrate to Germany, Wilhelm.

The deal is currently undergoing legal vetting and translation into official EU languages. A formal signing is expected later in 2026, with implementation likely starting in early 2027 following ratification by the European Parliament and Indian domestic procedures.

I’ll be honest – I’m very skeptical about how far this deal will go. The EU has traditionally been wary of any dealings with the “East”, and India is by no means put in the same category as “the West”. But it was hilarious to see racist X accounts saying “oh no, now the Indian invasion of the EU will begin”. Well maybe now I will take someone’s job.

Speaking of deals, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to travel to India in the first week of March, where he is likely to sign agreements covering uranium, energy, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, according to India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik.

UPI to launch in Japan on April 01st

This better not be one April Fools joke.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) and Japan’s NTT Data has formed a new agreement where Indians will be able to pay via UPI in Japan. By scanning a QR code, funds will be transferred directly from the user’s bank to the Japanese merchant.

On a side note, I made this post that explains what a payment gateway and payment aggregator is. Check it out.

ED Files Prosecution Complaint Against Winzo

This complaint is under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (2002).

The ED conducted search and seizure operations on November 18, 2025, and December 30, 2025, on Winzo’s office premises, the residences of its directors, and the office of its accounting firm. These searches led to the seizure of incriminating documents and electronic records and the freezing of movable assets, including bank balances, payment gateway funds, mutual funds, bonds, fixed deposits, and cryptocurrency wallets, valued at approximately ₹690 crore.

The ED’s complaint stated that until December 2023, the games were embedded with bots driven by AI and algorithms. And, between May 2024 and August 2025, Winzo switched to simulating dormant or inactive players’ historical gameplay data against real users without their knowledge or consent. Wow.

Blinkit launches Bharat Yatra card

Blinkit launched the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) calling it the “Bharat Yatra” card. This is powered by RuPay and in partnership with Pine Labs. It is supposed to enable cashless payments across busses and metros in major cities.

I wonder if the card will be delivered in 15 minutes. Or 10 minutes.

It sounds cool though, especially if I don’t have to queue for tickets at metro stations in Delhi and elsewhere.

Users Can Order on Swiggy Through ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude

Swiggy (and by extension, Instamart) announced it has integrated Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows users to order directly on ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools. This is the first in India to do so.

To start ordering through the chatbots, users must connect the service with Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, or other AI chatbots through a custom connector service or app, and provide the desired URL for integration.

What would be cool – and someone on social media said they have done this already – is to program for Chai to be ordered every weekday to my office at 4 PM.

BSNL Introduced ₹1 Plan – Which is Over Now

BSNL introduced a ₹1 plan on January 29th where users can “get a free SIM with 2GB/day data, unlimited calls, 30 days validity, 100 SMS/day @ just Rs 1.”

That offer is over now. Anyway.

PhonePe IPO: Walmart Will Sell Stake

PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, is actively preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) expected around mid-2026. The company has filed updated draft papers (UDRHP) with SEBI for a potential $1.5 billion (approx. ₹13,000 crore) IPO, which is structured entirely as an Offer for Sale (OFS). 

This means PhonePe will not raise fresh capital for operations; instead, existing investors—led by Walmart—will sell a portion of their holdings to exit or dilute their stakes. 

Walmart is the majority shareholder of PhonePe and is expected to sell around 9% to 10% of stake in the company. Early investors Tiger Global and Microsoft are expected to fully exit their positions in PhonePe through this IPO.

Amazon Lays Off 500+ employees in India, part of global layoffs

Global tech giant Amazon is laying off 16,000+ employees globally. This includes 500 to 700 employees laid off in India (although unofficial numbers are over 1,000). HR and tech teams hit hard and Software Development Engineering (SDE) hit the hardest. I suspect that Amazon is more using AI to generate code.

Airtel customers get free access to Adobe Express Premium

Airtel has announced that ‘all Airtel users’ will get access to Adobe Express Premium for one year. The catch: only the mobile apps.

If you remember, in 2025 Airtel announced one year of Perplexity Pro free for its postpaid users. And Jio is giving Gemini Pro free for its users.

The rate increase is coming. Check out this short video I made in November.

Apple Will Open Sixth Store in India – and Maybe Open Corporate Office

Apple confirms that its second store in Mumbai – which will be its sixth in India overall – will open, although exact location is not yet revealed by Apple.

There is also reporting – and this is not verified – that Apple is leasing 20,000 sq ft at a DLF IT Park in Porur (Chennai) for a corporate office. Treat this news with caution until confirmed – which I will confirm if official.

For thoughts – while Apple products are available in almost every supermarket even, the Apple Store is kind of a big deal. Said to be conceptualized by Steve Jobs himself, the Apple Store is supposed to be an “experience” where customers enjoy browsing through products, the famed “Genius Bar” and the Apple Store execs who have been trained to…. well, be Apple-ish. This is a case study for Marketing MBAs.

For book lovers out there – Walter Issacson’s book on Steve Jobs is arguably his best, much better than his book on Elon Musk (which I refuse to read. hehe.)

Andhra Pradesh ties up with NVIDIA to setup India’s first AI University in Amaravati

And the University will be operational on February 19th. Will it be AI generated?

The Government also announced that that the State is implementing an initiative to provide an AI agent for every public servant, the first of its kind AI-powered workspace named ‘Agent Space’ through the Real Time Governance Society (RTGS) to enhance governance, productivity, and service delivery across State departments. AI Slop.

That’s it for now! Don’t forget you can see the weekly TWITI video on by YouTube channel, or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d like to receive the weekly news roundup directly to your inbox, subscribe to me on Substack. This is all free so share with a friend. See you next week!