This is post #34 of 2026 of This Week in Tech India (TWITI). For all the posts, click here.

This week, for a change, there’s some good news for AI-ready data centers in India. And the good news is that they might be slowing down. According to a report by The Hindu Business Line, “Foreign funding for data centres in India has cooled since June, as growing concerns by local communities have raised regulatory and compliance questions regarding the new digital infrastructure.”

This is cool. Pun intended. The report says this is almost directly a result of the Thane and Visakhapatnam data center protests. This is very heartening because for more than a year now, big tech companies were looking to India to build their data centers primarily because it was cheaper and less difficult to get land and regulatory approvals to do so.

Well done to the protesters! If there’s one thing we have learned in the last couple of months in India, it’s that protests work, either in the short or long term.

The concern around data centers is obviously more environmental, and are very valid. The industry is now seeing data centers turn to renewable energy a lot more, but it will be a while before the benefits offset the environmental costs. Although some are getting creative, like Samsung literally putting its data centers in the ocean to be cooled directly by seawater. But none as crazy as Elon Musk who says Space X will operate data centers in…. space. Cooled by the vacuum of space. Okay.

Speaking of space, it seems that the ISRO will no longer make launch vehicles. The space agency, which literally made the cheapest ever Mars mission, will concentrate on advanced research and deep-space science. The Union Government says that private companies and public sector undertakings will take over the manufacture of launch vehicles, arguing that industry already handles much of the manufacturing for ISRO, while the space agency continues to carry out critical operations such as final assembly, integration, testing, and launching.

Maybe it will be good for Adani to take over rocket manufacturing, we’ll start seeing tolls on the journey to Space and a frikkin airport on the Moon.

ChatGPT will show ads in India

The enshittification of ChatGPT has begun – and I didn’t think it will happen this fast.

ChatGPT will now show ads in India for those using the free version and the 399 per month “Go” subscription. We knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t think it would be here so soon. Just last year OpenAI launched the “Go” subscription, and recently only the opened offices in India. It’s clear that they are struggling to make money, especially to justify the billions and billions they have raised in funding over the last three years.

Which is infuriating, given that OpenAI is one of the primary causes of the ramocalypse which is causing the price of all electronics to rise. I mean, yesterday the new Mac Mini was revealed, and the base configuration is $300 dollars more than last years’!

Here are two quotes on this piece of news:

“India is one of ChatGPT’s largest and most active markets,” the spokesperson said, adding that OpenAI’s priority is to “learn from users and advertisers while protecting the experience that made ChatGPT valuable in the first place.”

OpenAI Spokesperson

LOL!

Me

The second quote is also an official quote. From me.

The ad feature is live in 38 other countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. The company also added that it does not show ads to users who identify as, or are predicted by the algorithm to be under 18. How they will do that, unclear.

TCS Installs Surveillance Tool for Employees

TCS installs “digital user experience monitoring” tool on company-issued laptops for nearly 6 lakh employees. Reports indicate the software can see which applications employees open and how much time they spend using them. Internal views suggest the software helps prevent data leaks and improves network visibility. The company states the technology is used strictly for macro-level network performance, security, availability, and user experience rather than individual tracking. TCS has not publicly named the software vendor, the specific data collected, or who can access the logs. 

TCS denies reports of employee tracking, which of course means that TCS is actually tracking employees. Hopefully they learn from other companies’ mistakes and don’t think about replacing these 6 lakh employees with AI.

Headlines

• Zomato pilots vending machine in Gurugram. Talk about fast food.
• Joining the IPO bandwagon – Pernia . Atomberg. Upstox. Zetwerk. NoPaperForms.
• Google rolls out AI powered JEE and NEET preparation tools.
• Amazon and Flipkart revise seller fees and penalties ahead of the festive season.
• SoftBank to sell Lenskart stake worth nearly 3000 crores.
• WhatsApp in Africa may start charging businesses per message (yikes!).
• Vodafone Idea now profitable – for the first time ever. Who would have known!
• Meta glasses banned in England and Wales. And should be banned in India.
• Deepinder Goyal’s health wearable “temple” is targeting a launch in 2026. In recent images, the device appears to have gotten smaller.
• Karnataka’s food safety department suspends the food licenses of Amazon, Swiggy Instamart and BigBasket, after toxic Datura fruits and seeds were found as being sold online as food products.

The selling of toxic substances online – we need to take this more seriously. A 17-year old in Gurugram has sadly died after consuming Sufas, a toxic substance. The teen allegedly bought this toxic substance on Meesho, which received an FIR this week and the police have launched an active probe.

One More Thing

Over in the US, Meta settles a series of child safety lawsuits for a total of $17b dollars. That’s roughly one quarter of Meta’s revenue, so is not a small sum. What is noteworthy is that the speed at which they settled – this was a trial brought about by multiple states, with whistleblowers literally saying that Mark Zuckerberg himself knew about but chose to ignore the mental health harms his platforms have been causing to children and teenagers.

Meta has committed to making changes, which I doubt it will take seriously. But this is a reminder to all of us, that young ones using Instagram and Facebook are actually exposed to mental health risks, let alone addiction and low self esteem. Take care if you have a young one in your family with a phone.

Recommended Reading

I’ve recommended this book before but can’t recommend this enough – Cory Doctorow’s book on enshittification. Read this book and come back here to read the news about ChatGPT showing ads – perfect live example of enshittificaiton.