For an India focussed tech news roundup, I seem to have been talking an awful lot about the Trump administration these past few weeks. Not as much as the news channels though. I only take the bits of important news that will have an impact on tech in India – either the industry or the consumers. And this week, we start with a ticking bomb for the Industry.

US Government Considering Bringing Call Centers “Onshore”

This is the ticking bomb I was talking about.

Brendan Carr is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US Government under the Trump administration. His job is to regulate the airwaves of the US – having an influence on telecom service providers and cable news. His reputation is that of one who fears and revers Donald J. Trump in equal parts. This is proven by the measures he has taken – to intimidate and target left-leading media outlets (who may or may not criticise Trump) and giving goodies to the media houses owned by Elison and Musk so that they can make more money (free speech who?).

I’ve been a lister of The Vergecast Podcast for a long time. Last year, the Podcast started a separate podcast segment they call “Brendan Carr is a dummy”. Apart from being intrinsically hilarious, the Vergecast host Nilay Patel reports in agonizing detail the dumb things Carr has done the past week. And it was on the recent episode of that podcast I heard this – that Carr’s FCC is tabling a proposal to mandate call centers for American companies be located onshore in the US.

This is so ridiculous that it’s the first time I didn’t immediately believe Nilay Patel – until in doing my own research I find that the FCC confirmed this proposal or set of proposals that they are going to vote on this month to become rules. In summary, this proposal will:

• bring call center “jobs back to the US”
• require call takers to be proficient in “American Standard English” (which does not exist)
• address illegal robocalls “that originate abroad” (okay but what if they originate in Florida or wherever?)

“Americans get frustrated when they call a U.S. business and end up connecting with a call center located abroad. Language and communications barriers often make it difficult for callers to promptly and efficiently get the results they want. And these foreign-based call centers often create a heightened security risk as well. So the FCC will be voting on several proposals designed to reshore call center jobs and improve the customer service experience at the ones that remain—including by seeking comment on requiring call center workers to be proficient in American Standard English. The FCC will also be opening up a new front in our efforts to block illegal robocalls from abroad by examining the targeted use of tariffs or bonds.” – Brendan Carr

First of all, LOL! Secondly, let’s be real – when he says call centers “abroad” he’s talking about the call centers located in India and the Philippines. It used to be India for a long time – because there have always been a large number of Indians naturally good at English (because, you know, colonizers). And because the so-called IT industry realized it’s a very lucrative “body-bag” service. It’s where you have the stereotype of working night shifts with a headset on for 8 hours, speaking in a fake American accent to real American people. Chetan Bhagat wrote his first novel on this premise.

But over the last decade or so, the Philippines became the “call center capital of the world” for much the same reasons. And also perceived cultural alignment with the US. Still, India retains the second top spot in terms of call center volume. And we still rule when it comes to tech support.

In terms of sheer volume though, it’s very close between these two countries. Estimates say there are more than 750 operating call centers in the Philippines, employing between 1.3 to 1.5 million call takers (source). Whereas in India, there are more than 2,000 operating call centers employing between 1.1 to 1.3 million people.

So… if this proposal from the FCC passes and becomes law in the US, there are at least 2.4 million call center jobs needing to be located in the US.

That’s insane, even by Trump’s mostly-delusional standards. And the companies currently employing hundreds of call takers are large American companies – Fortune 500 companies. Most of these companies will not be happy to pay full American wages to hundreds of call takers. So what will they do if these proposals become rules?

AI. They will AI the hell out of call center operations. So much so that customers will get so frustrated talking to bots that they’ll complain to the FCC about needing to speak with humans. And the FCC will do something else that’s unbelievable crazy. Or will just cave and roll back these rules, which really don’t have 100% chance of passing – it only takes one Trump-aligned businessman to make one phone call to have this entire set of proposals prevented from becoming rules.

And secondly, what would happen to the thousands of operating call centers in the Philippines and India? I have an idea – scam the hell out of Americans. Okay this might be mean, but the reality might be that these operating call centers – if they lose business overnight – will need to convert into scam centers to keep their lights on and their cats fed. I just hope that we don’t have scam compounds in India where people are trafficked.

I hope these set of proposals don’t become rules. I’m normally a harsh critic of what I call the “bodybag” industry of India (IT / BPO / whatever industry) but this fake-accent profession is bankable and shouldn’t be taken away overnight.

Huawei Rumored to be Returning to India

Leading phone (and now, car) Chinese giant Huawei – who had a solid presence in India till 2021-ish (because, politics) – may be making a triumphant return to India. Huawei is already a force to reckon with globally – so much that the US and other “Western” countries fabricated something about Huawei being a national security risk so their phones couldn’t be sold in the US. Well, it turned out to clearly be a loss for Americans, who didn’t experience Huawei’s cutting edge smartphones like this one that stunned NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang:

Okay so back to India – with India-China tensions easing a bit, it is rumored that Huawei will be returning to India, but the first official product releasing will be a tablet not a smartphone. What started these rumors are this teaser on Flipkart.

The teaser indicates that it will be a tablet, particularly the MatePad Mini going by the dimensions in this teaser.

Here’s the thing – as on date of this post, Huawei products are shown as available on Flipkart. And, there are a few Huawei products that never stopped selling on Amazon India. I linked them below in this week’s Five Finds segnment.

VI and BSNL In Talks to Share Infrastructure

The nation’s third and fourth favourite telecom service providers have started talks to share towers, fibre and even spectrum. This is in a push to cut costs and improve network, and potentially accelerate 5G rollout.

These two companies have been in survival mode for a while now – especially VI, which does not share the same State backing that BSNL has. This does sound like a smarter plan and a fairer shot at surviving in a market dominated by Jio and Airtel – much better than offering limited-time ₹1 plans (see TWITI #5 of 2026). Although, the commercial aspect needs to be really worked out – revenue and cost sharing, asset ownership, and customer service among others.

I remember a few months ago, I asked a question on Reddit whether India should move to having three telco subscribers like the US does. It was met with a lot of negative feedback which I’m okay with, because genuine feedback is feedback. But now, it looks like we may ACTUALLY be having only three big telcos in India. Oh well.

Government’s Proposal to Have Aadhaar App Pre-installed on Smartphones Faces Pushback

The UIDAI – who has a mascot named UDAI (see TWITI #2 of 2026) – Aadhaar App may be pre-installed on new smartphones, if the Government’s proposal is accepted by smartphone makers. But as on date, this looks unlikely because the smartphone makes pushed back.

This is not the first time the Government tried to mandate an app pre-installed. In 2025, the Government mandated that the Sanchar Saathi app be pre-installed on new smartphones. But after a couple of days, that mandate was withdrawn.

Pre-installed apps are not necessarily new, but it is expected that Apple, Samsung and others will push back on it.

UP Announces Investments in Data Centre Parks

In what is equal parts exciting and concerning, the UP Government has announced plans to setup eight data centre parks. These will be at Noida, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Varanasi and Agra. The State announced they want to become a major “AI Hub”.

Of course, several Indian companies including HCL and Adani have either shown interest or already signed deals. This promises to create job, increase capability, and so on.

Keralam Too Gets Data Centre Investment

Dubai-based Solstice Data has signed a ₹52,600 crore investment agreement to establish advanced AI-driven data centre facilities in Kerala.

The project will be developed at the industrial park of the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation(KINFRA) in Mattannur, Kannur, where the company has been allotted around 100 acres of land.

Honestly, at a time when UAE energy and data centre facilities are being attacked because of the US-Israel-Iran War, it’s pretty amazing that a UAE based company announces such a large investment in India. Or maybe this is part of its exit-UAE strategy. Hmm.

PhonePe Puts IPO Plans on Pause Because of Iran War

The third-most anticipated IPO of this year – after Jio and Flipkart – is PhonePe. The Company announced this week that their IPO plans are put on hold. This is so that they wait out the current West Asia conflict – which is having direct impacts on the Indian and other Asian markets – so that the market returns to stability.

The company insists that this is purely a market-driven strategic move, and has nothing to do with any issues within PhonePe. Honestly I’d believe them. For an IPO, timing is half the battle, and I won’t be surprised if Jio and others also put their IPO on hold if the West Asia conflict drags on.

Plus, PhonePe does not seem to be in a hurry for their IPO – they are already the most widely-used UPI platform in India.

WhatsApp has been asked to block fraudulent device IDs, retain user data of deleted accounts, and introduce new safety features for identification of scams and AI content.

Zomato Hikes Platform Fees

Food delivery giant Zomato has hiked its platform fees – the usage fee that the user pays – to ₹14.99/- per order. This is close to what rival Swiggy charges, and comes at a time of rising operational cost and push to profitability.

This coincidentally comes a week after parent company Eternal infused ₹450+ crores into quick commerce arm Blinkit. But I feel that these two bits of news are unrelated.

Physics Wallah Gets Tax Demand Notice

E-learning giant Physics Wallah gets a ₹263 crore tax demand notice from the Government in relation to AY 2023-24. What the company said in response is that the Government re-classified capital investment as taxable income. Usually, capital investment does not classify as income and is not taxable, which is why this tax demand surprises me. The company is of course going to appeal this tax demand.

UpGrad to Acquire Unacademy

In happier news for e-learning companies (two of them atleast), UpGrad has signed a term sheet to acquire rival Unacademy. UpGrad just signed a term sheet to acquire Unacademy in an all-stock deal. This is a major consolidation in the ed-tech space.

No news from Byju’s for a while. I hope he’s okay.

US software firm Five9 opens its second Global Capability Centre in India at DLF Downtown Chennai

Government Blocks 300 Betting Apps Overnight

Around March 20-21, this week, the Indian government has blocked approximately 300 websites and applications involved in illegal gambling and betting, bringing the total number of prohibited platforms to nearly 8,400. The block includes online sports betting websites, online casinos (slots, roulette), live dealer services, and peer-to-peer (P-2-P) betting exchanges.

This crackdown comes alongside increased scrutiny from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has summoned representatives from Google and Meta regarding the advertising and promotion of these illegal platforms.

This is of course related to the real money game ban from 2025. I guess some websites (and also Google and Meta) thought they would get away with it?

Tesla May Try to Enter Energy Storage Market in India

This speculation came from a job posting Tesla posted to be located in India, for a business development lead in India to “develop and execute a comprehensive market expansion strategy for industrial energy storage solutions”. Tesla already operates a Megapack business in the US and this might be what they want to bring to India.

I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Elon Musk’s other company SpaceX has been teasing that Starlink will launch in India for more than a year (too many TWITI episodes to link here). So…. whatever.

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Five Finds of the Week

This week’s theme is Huawei – the Chinese giant that is making a “comeback” to India but whose technically-advanced-but-reasonably-priced products were always available on Amazon:

• The FreeClip 2 Open-Ear Headphones that look sick and are cheaper than the AirPods Pro
• The FreeBuds SE 2 that promise 3 hours of music playback after a 10-minute charge
• The Band 10 Smartwatch that’s a fraction of the price of a WHOOP and tracks the fitness metrics you want to track
• The FIT 4 Smartwatch that’s cheaper than…. you get the pattern
• The Watch GT 6 Pro. This one is pricier but my friend in Qatar uses this and swears by it.

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