Apple Pay launches in India – but only with Axis Bank cards for now. No UPI. And not sure if other banks will be on board.

This has been going on for nearly 10 years now. For the longest time, it was mostly for technical reasons (I wrote this in January 2026 for those who want to know why). But now, it seems that other banks are not on board because Apple is basically a greedy little b*tch. Apple wants 20 basis points (0.20%) per transaction, which is high by any standard.

This adds to the list of “why the hell does Apple think Indians will give them so much money”? There’s obviously the issue of the Apple devices being unreasonably more expensive in India – even though many of them are made in India. Then there’s the antitrust case that the CCI brought against Apple that has been dragging on for years now. And now, Apple Pay turning out to be a dud for India?

It feels like Apple is treating India as its ground for slavery – where we are being exploited for their profits, while we benefit least as consumers.

Also, Apple removes BitChat from the India App Store. As per directive from the Government. Jack Dorsey himself tweeted it. This is obviously on the directive of the Government, which is concerned that protesters are using BitChat to communicate with each other in areas of internet blackouts. This is obviously designed to cause more stress to the protesters who are protesting for your and my rights. Just like to Donald Trump, Apple has bent the knee to the Modi Government in India.

Screw Apple, seriously. John Ternus is a coward.

Headlines:

• IITs have banned 22 companies from their campus placement programs for two years, as disciplinary action for revoked job offers from these companies. Oracle is one of these companies, seems they revoked some 40 job offers. Like I said, Oracle is a horrible company and the Ellisons are horrible people.
• There are allegations in Gujarat (particularly Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar) of groups stopping rides booked through Rapido and Uber, and pressuring them to switch to Bharat Taxi. Rapido said that local authorities have intervened to ensure drivers’ and passengers’ safety, but officially the police are yet to comment.
• Reports indicate that Amazon India is going to invest some $3bn into its quick commerce arm in the next four years.
• FSSAI issued a penal action against Amazon, Bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Instamart, Zepto and others, for various food safety issues and non-compliances.
• Joining the IPO bandwagon – AceVentures, the parent company of SnapDeal.
• We finally have a date for the Jio IPO – 21 October. Well, we have two dates – potentially 28 October. Interesting because Jio will now IPO before Diwali.
• OpenAI is supposedly pausing research and training of latest models, amidst reports of more agents going rogue. It was revealed that its models tried to access multiple secure Government databases including in the US. Altman and Amodei also warned the UN Security Council that “increasingly powerful AI systems could pose risks to humanity if their development and deployment are not managed properly. This was just days after both OpenAI and Anthropic released cheaper models.
• OpenAI announced partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. Why is this weird?
• US President announces a “morally binding” agreement among the heads of big American AI companies, to put controls on artificial intelligence. And that AI will be renamed to superintelligence or SI. As Shakespeare said, “what’s in a name”?
• DoorDash opens office in Hyderabad.
• WhatsApp business to Charge 14p per message. It’s here guys. The enshittification of WhatsApp.

Btw y’all, don’t forget that you can get all the tech news in one place on this very website. A free tool created by yours truly.

Book Recommendation of The Week

I’m going to recommend books till Diwali this year. And not e-readers. Physical, page turning books that I have read and loved. Across genres.

This week, it’s another book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – one called Dream Count. I have read many, many authors and Adichie is already one of my favourites.