It’s week 13 of 2026. It’s month 3 of 2026. This is the end of the first quarter in 2026. Wow, time flies. How has 2026 been for you so far? Actually, don’t answer that.

As we start the second quarter of 2026, I hope you’re safe wherever you are. Especially if you are in or near the areas affected by the US-Israel-Iran war. And I hope the economic fallout from this war that is affecting a lot of people all over the world is not affecting you directly.

But if you’re a billionaire, I’m sure you’re okay. It’s one of the unwritten rules of life – billionaires are always okay. It’s not just that they can buy any solution to every problem, they can somehow bend laws to make solutions to certain billionaire problems that an average joe like me can’t even understand.

But I understood one potential billionaire problem and how this law thing works, thanks to the IPL which just kicked off.

Delhi HC grants Anti-Piracy Relief to JioStar ahead of IPL 2026

JioHotstar (under the merged JioStar entity), which holds the digital rights to stream the IPL for 2023 to 2027, has been granted interim relief by the Delhi High Court. This move, which happened just before IPL kicked off, is to basically clamp down on unauthorised streaming of the IPL. It was an ex parte order, which is when one party asks the court to pass an order without any “other party” present but against that other party. The court observed that “unauthorised” steaming would infringe on JioStar’s “statutory and propreitory” rights, which are basically the digital rights of said IPL tournament.

Of course, the court asked several websites to immediately stop streaming the IPL – even before the IPL started. The court also ordered to stop steaming IPL conent, which I presume refers to past IPL matches. The Department of Telecommunications and MeITy have been asked to enforce this order. The court also emphasised the need for real time enforcement tools.

This is by no mens illegal – JioStar was well within its rights to seek this interim order by the court (although the speed and timing of it does make my eyebrows raise). This is just….. distasteful. Atleast I feel so. There are already laws and frameworks in India protecting IP and digital rights, what was the need for JioStar to even seek this interim order?

Is it to send a message? Intimidation? A warning? I have my theory, but I hear that anyone who public criticises any of the “A Group of Companies” has higher chances of suddenly disappearing. So I won’t say my theory out loud. Neither should you, I think.

This feels like yet another chapter of billiohnaire getting what they want. Like the time the Government bent the IPO rules so Jio can list only 2.5% of its capital on the Exchange. I wonder if JioStar will be a part of the Jio IPO coming later this year. Will ALL of Jio be part of the IPO? Or will it just be the telco business.

Adani in Talks with Google and Meta for $100 Billion Investment Deals

Speaking of “A Group of Companies”, the “other” billionaire Gautam Adani is reportedly set to partner with Google and Meta to expand Adani Group’s data center business. Flipkart too. This is part of a $100 billion investment into digital infrastructure set aside by the Group. This is according to a Bloomberg report.

Read that number again – $100 billion set aside. This the Group announced in February, saying that by 2035 they want to have AI-ready data centers powered by renewable energy. That $100 billion in today’s exchange rate is roughly ₹9,50,000 crores. I won’t comment on the magnitude of causes this money can be used for. I guess my non-billionaire brain doesn’t comprehend certain things, for example why this 9,50,000 crore investment will have 10x returns – not because the laws will automatically bend to favour billionaires as demonstrated above and a number of times in the past.

Billionaires definitely get what they want, by the looks of it.

Side topic: Bloomberg, which made this report, is pretty accurate in their reporting, and even predictions. For example, the most accurate predictor of Apple trends and the next Apple products is Mark Gurman, who works at Bloomberg. He predicted that Apple will make the vision pro before anyone else did.

AI Bubble Starting to Burst – in UP

On the tech front, we started this year with AI, AI and more AI, and now we are seeing the biggest AI companies in the world try to pivot hard to enterprise software and use cases. Because they realise that’s where most of the money is – with industry, not with consumers like you and me. And these AI companies need to make money to justify raising billions and billions in so many rounds of funding.

In India, comparatively, the Government and industries haven’t gone too hard on the AI hype…. or so you’d think. We have the India AI Mission, then had the India AI Impact Summit, and then last week the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh announced that UP will become an AI-hub. That already seems to have fallen a bit flat, the following week it was announced that a ₹25,000 crore MoU with Bangalore-based Puch AI was cancelled by the Government. They said it’s because Puch AI did not provide all required details for a proper financial health assessment. That means the Government found it difficult to believe Puch AI was financially sound.

For those who don’t know, Puch AI is basically a conversational AI which you can chat with on WhatsApp. That’s why it’s called “Puch” I guess. Funny enough, in the US when Google was having their big antitrust moment and it seemed they would have to sell of Chrome, this company seemingly made an offer. Of several billion.

This makes me further believe that the “AI industry” right now is one big ponzi scheme. How would this company cough up billions to buy Chrome, when it could not convince the UP Government it was financially healthy enough to honor a ₹25,000 crore (which is less than 3 billions in today’s exchange rate) commitment?

More specifically, Puch AI made a $50 billion offer to acquire Perplexity AI, which made a $34.5 billion offer to buy Chrome (Perplexity itself was valued at $18 billion at the time). So Puch basically would acquire Perplexity after it had already acquired Chrome. Anyway, as on date, Chrome is still owned by Google.

CoinDCX Founders Arrested Then Get Bail in Crypto Scam Case

Earlier this month, Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX had their founders taken into police custody for a fraud case. This was because an investor complained of being cheated out of roughly ₹71 lakh ($75,000) by a fake website posing as “CoinDCX Pro”.

Shortly after their detention, a magistrate court found “no prima facie” case against the founders, stating the fraud was committed by third parties impersonating the exchange, not the founders themselves.

Following this, CoinDCX announced a ₹100 crore ($11 million) “Digital Suraksha Network” to combat the widespread issue of phishing and brand impersonation in India, having identified over 1,200 fake websites mimicking their platform.

This case is interesting for me because the founders got into custody because another scammer impersonated their website and cheated someone off 71 lakhs. A reminder to all of us is that be very careful before transferring money to someone you’re not familiar with or using a platform you’re using for the first time. And be especially aware of crypto scams. Don’t forget about the GainBitcoin ponzi scheme that ran for more than 10 years.

Swiggy Launches Voice Ordering in Indian Languages for Food and Quick Commerce

Swiggy partners with Sarvam AI to allow users to use their voice (not call, but use Sarvam’s conversational AI tool) to order food, groceries and book reservations at restaurants too. This feature uses Sarvam’s AI assistant, Indus. The integration covers Swiggy, Instamart and DineOut.

I think it’s cool – and makes business sense – for more people in India to be able to order on Swiggy using their voice. The company has not made a demo though, I guess the public will be able to try it first hand.

Swiggy seems to be more experimental in adopting AI and other tech. Remember not very long ago when Swiggy adopted Model Context Protocol, which means you can order on Swiggy through ChatGPT or Gemini.

Headlines

This is where I list out concisely the other news stuff – just the key details you need to know to stay informed:

• Deam11 parent company Dream Sports says the company will soon launch Dream Street – a an AI-powered stockbroking platform. The company’s CEO told Moneycontrol that the company has already secured the necessary licences and is currently testing the platform internally, with a public rollout expected soon. I’m not hyped about this – it’s a bit of news that has stockbroking, AI-powered and Dream11 in the same sentence, three topics that I have ravenously criticised in the past. And still do.
• Moving Tech Innovations (MTI), which is the parent company of Namma Yatri, acquires Dutch firm Automicle Holding BV to enter European markets. MTI is also the parent company of Yatri Sathi, Chennai One and other open mobility platforms. MTI said that this deal to buy Automicle marks its entry into Europe where they plan to replicate their zero-commission and community-led mobility model like Bharat Taxi. I wonder if they’ll enter other regions. Vietnam, maybe?
• Rockstar Games, makes of GTA which hopefully includes GTA6, is hiring game testers at its Bangalore office. I bet this is for GTA6, which per latest reports will be out in November this year. It does look like it, with the company looking for game testers to start in April 2026.
• The Reserve Bank of India has slapped a small ₹3.1 lakh penalty on Pine Labs for failing to comply with norms related to prepaid payment instruments. It’s not the amount – it’s the action taken that is a bit heartening here, given it’s on PPIs. Especially since the violation was that Pine Labs issued full-KYC PPIs without completing the required Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. Now I think that the penalty amount should have been much higher.
• Uber has discontinued its Shuttle service in Delhi NCR, making the exit of its bus-based commute offering from its last active market in India. The service will be discontinued after March 27, with Uber informing users via email that Shuttle rides will no longer be available in the city. Uber Shuttle allowed users to pre-book seats on fixed-route buses and was primarily used by office commuters travelling between New Delhi, Gurugram, and Noida. It has nothing to do with badminton. Hehe.
• Delhi Government set aside ₹200 crores this year for a public EV push. This is a new policy to accelerate EV adoption in Delhi. This announces certain incentives for people to adopt EVs, basically.
• The Government is expected to nudge telecom providers to promote 30 day plans. This is in response to MP Raghav Chadha raising in Parliament that the existence of 28 day plans measn that users effectively recharge 13 times a year.
• OnePlus reportedly wound down offline sales, or is atleast planning to wind down offline in-store sales. After sales support would continue to be offered through Oppo.
• Proposed amendments to India’s Information Technology (IT) Rules, introduced in late March 2026, suggest a major shift that could treat user-generated news content and social media commentary as publisher content, bringing individual users under strict government oversight. The draft, open for public feedback until April 14, 2026, aims to regulate news-related content shared by non-registered users, such as influencers, YouTubers, and regular social media users.

Sponsor

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Five Finds of the Week

Project Hail Mary is out and getting rave reviews. This is a book-to-movie adaptation. I haven’t read the book yet, which is why I’ll hold off watching the movie.

If you’re a reader like me, here are five other science fiction books that I absolutely love and regularly gift to others. There are movie / TV show adaptations for each of them, and though they are mostly great they still don’t do justice to the books.

• The Martian by Andy Weir (same author of Project Hail Mary)
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Foundation by Issac Asimov
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
• Dune by Frank Herbert

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