Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State and one of the Chiefs of the Trump-Bootlicking group, spent four days in India this week. The purpose of the trip was clearly to mend ties between the Trump Administration and India – ties which Trump and his bootlickers unilaterally soured. For example (and I have written about all of these in my previous posts):

• Trump called India a hell-hole
• Trump’s cronies said “the US won’t offer India the same economic advantages it offered China”
• Trump introduced this H1B visa fee clearly aimed at Indian tech workers
• Trump introduced a rule that Green-card applications have to be filled by the candidate while outside the US (this rule has since been reversed)
• Trump’s cronies said “it’s India’s fault that Trump levied unjustified tariffs” or something like that
• Trump is a moron.

Okay that last one was not news.

So Marco Rubio (remember in 2016 when he stood for US President Candidature and lost to Trump?) visits India for four days to try and mend ties. And in these four days he achieves….. nothing. Apart from visiting the Taj Mahal.

He kept saying that “Trump loves India” which is clearly BS, given what I have listed above. He answered a question about prevalent anti-India racism in the US by saying “there are stupid people everywhere”. And he provided no assurances or justification as to why India is suffering due to the crisis in West Asia that the US have started.

Was there any deal signed? Yes, one – about rare earths. Which is not really a new deal, it’s a ratification of India joining Pax Silica.

So what did Rubio and his wife achieve by visiting India for four days? More assurance to Indians… that the Trump Administration really do not know what they are doing.

Anyway, on to more meaningful news.

CBSE’s OSM Fiasco

This is the biggest fiasco of the week in India. It is really a fiasco because the CBSE class 12 exams – which has so much importance tied to it that it is the biggest cause for sleepless nights for teenagers in India. CBSE evaluations and markings should be sacroscant.

It started when a student requested re-evaluation and found discrepancies in his answer sheets and markings, and this led to another 4 lakh students requesting copies of their answer sheets. Simultaneously, an ethical hacker exposed vulnerabilities in the CBSE Board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system (the most important vulnerability being he could mark his own and others’ answer sheets), whereas the Board said that the URL exposed by the ethical hacker was a testing environment, and no actual marking has been compromised. The OSM requires answer sheets to be scanned and uploaded onto the tool, ripe for human errors especially because one individual may have to scan 1000’s of pages in one day. True enough, many students reported pages in their answer sheets missing.

Coincidentally, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is speaking with four banks to overhaul the payment gateway of the CBSE.

Anyway, now an IIT-led team is going to conduct a full investigation into this OSM system. Also, the Internet Freedom Foundation has suggested that CBSE must review its contract with Coempt Edu-Teck Pvt. Ltd., the firm providing the OSM platform.

Latest news is that Education Minister Pradhan has taken accountability for this mess. He has promised a review, changes and to address students’ and parents’ concerns somehow. Hope it’s fixed, not sure how it can be fixed for the 4+ lakh students that might feel their future is shattered because of one stupid system.

Delhi HC Holds Google Liable for Trademark Infringement

In a landmark judgment on May 22, 2026, the Delhi High Court held Google liable for trademark infringement.

The case was between Hindware and Google. The court held that, by allowing competitors of Hindware to purchase the keyword “Hindware” (a trademarked name) through Google Ads, Google enabled trademark infringement. The court said that “Hindware” is not a generic English word but a specific brand trademark. By allowing competitors to place ads on that keyword, Google is enabling competitors to divert traffic that should have legitimately gone to Hindware.

This is massive – because companies, for years, have been buying the names of their competitors. You can try it – for example (and Nikhil Kamath posted this on X) if you google “Zerodha”, you might first see results for Acko. That’s a massive loophole and Google has of course been profiting it by allowing the sale of competitor keywords to the highest bidder.

This is actually cool of Delhi HC. Lots of steps for Google to take which I don’t think they’ll be interested to take, for them trademark infringement is just “cost of doing business”. Even in this case – the damages awarded to Hindware is 30 lakhs.

Pronto’s Opt-in Privacy Nightmare

Bengaluru based startup Pronto – that offers 10 minute home services like cleaning – faces backlash over an opt-in pilot feature where services rendered in customers’ homes will be recorded to train AI. Because, privacy – even though the company says explicit consent is obtained from the customer, that’s still not good enough in a court of law. And why would you trust AI to clean your home?

Memflation is Official

After a long time I learned a New word: memflation (not memeflation). As in, Indian mobile market hit due to memflation, where chip makers (or more accurately, “memory makers”) are diverting the production capacity of memory chips, especially DRAM, to meet big tech’s AI data server ambitions, leaving fewer chips for smaller phone makers. This has led to a shortage of budget phones, that cost less than 15000 rupees. We knew the shortage was coming to affect our mobile phone market – still unfortunate when it happened.

The above was reported by India’s semiconductor industry body and the story carried by The Hindu Business Line. It shows yet again how vulnerable the electronic market in India still is, despite leaps made in manufacturing and other capabilities. India should adopt the “China Model”, not the “Silicon Valley Model”, is what I think (but I want to know what you think – let me know).

Indians Still Get Trapped in Myanmar Online Scam Centers

It was reported that three Indians from UP were lured by the promise of legitimate construction jobs in Myanmar. Then once they landed in Myanmar, they were trafficked – literally – to a place 700kms from Yangon and forced to work in an online scam Centre controlled ultimately by a group from China.

Their relatives have approached a humanitarian organization in India for help, who have approached the authorities. And the Indian Embassy in Myanmar are staying they are “vigorously following up” for their immediate rescue and repatriation.

Sad that this is still happening.

Headlines

• A NITI Aayog report states that India requires $135–180 billion investments to build a globally competitive semiconductor ecosystem by 2035. Report calls for one-third govt funding to de-risk investments across design, fabrication and supply chain infrastructure. I think the money will come, I’m afraid of the conditions that would be attached to it.
• Intel Corporation and 3D Glass Solutions (3DGS) partnered with the Government of Odisha to establish a $3.3 billion advanced semiconductor substrate manufacturing facility in the Bhubaneswar-Khurda region. This is expected to create some 1,800 jobs and will go live in 5 years. Advanced packaging glass core substrates, high-density interconnects (HDI) substrates, and 3D advanced chip packaging.
• The Supreme Court confirmed this week that bringing organized online gaming activities with money stakes do fall under the GST regime. This is confusing, because I thought those games are banned? Either way they should be banned.
• A task force led by Department of Science and Technology (DST) has suggested that India’s critical sectors can have their encryption broken by quantum computers, and need to move on to Post Quantum Cryptography. I mean, the National Quantum Mission has a 6,000 crore expenditure outlay….. and I’ll leave it at that.
• Jio has formally supported Airtel’s proposal for 5G network slicing for premium postpaid services. Jio told the DoT that network slicing is a standard 3GPP 5G technology used globally and does not violate net neutrality.
• UIDAI has launched a fresh Aadhaar application and announced that the legacy mAadhaar app will soon be phased out. This transition focuses on quicker identity verification, controlled data sharing, and enhanced privacy safeguards.
• Byju Raveendran, the creator of India’s ed-tech company Byju’s, received a six-month prison sentence in Singapore for defying a court order. He intends to challenge the contempt ruling handed down in Singapore, which stems from a disagreement over a defaulted loan from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), according to his attorney Michael McNutt’s Wednesday statement. Byju’s story, which is already super sad, deserves its own post which I am working on.
• Rapido has introduced a series of dedicated rest and support areas, called “Refresh Zones,” throughout Mumbai. This program aims to give gig workers a much-needed physical break during their demanding workdays. The kiosks offer riders complimentary drinking water, covered seating, phone charging stations, and a secure spot to rest briefly between deliveries. Impressively, the setup is entirely open to all platforms; on-the-ground observations and media coverage reveal that delivery couriers from rival quick-commerce services like Blinkit are making use of these facilities.
• The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has officially launched a dedicated online platform titled “Investors Support” to assist global and domestic chip investors. The portal serves as a single-window digital interface to improve the ease of doing business and boost investor confidence.
• Flipkart has partnered with India Post to expand last mile delivery in India.
• Zomato has launched “Healthy Subscriptions” under its “Healthy Mode” where users can pre-order “nutritious” meals from “partner restaurants”. The use of inverted commerce is strategic in the previous sentence.
• Jio has launched an entertainment focused 200 rupee monthly subscription that has access to 15 OTT platforms, more than 1,000 live TV channels and 30GB of high speed data for prepaid users. 30GB is barely enough for a few days of 4K streaming, just saying.
• Sarvam AI is reportedly hiring for a new San Francisco office. Reportedly.
• Indian company Netrasemi has designed India’s first Edge AI System-on-Chip (SoC) ‘NETRA A2000’, at advanced 12 nm node. This was announced by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
• Reliance Jio, India’s biggest telecom operator, has secured more than 6,817 patents in total as of March 31, 2026. Of these, 2,393 were filed in India, according to a report by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). The remaining 4,424 patents were filed in overseas jurisdictions. 
• Global crypto giant Coinbase has launched direct INR deposit and withdrawal services for users in India. Coinbase said Indian customers can fund and withdraw from their accounts through Immediate Payment Services (IMPS). Coinbase returned to India in late 2025 after a 2 year suspension amid regulatory pressure on payment infrastructure.
• Meta, which launched a paid WhatsApp subscription last week, has launched paid “Meta” subscription plans this week to access more features on Instagram and Facebook. And just like last week, this week too, no one cares.

Five Find of The Week

This week is about gaming mice – following last week’s gaming keyboard recommendations, here are my top-5 gaming mice available today in India:

• Razer Viper V4 Pro – I’ve been using the V3 Pro for years now
• Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike also because of how cute it is
• MCHOSE L7 Ultra – terrible name, sleek mouse
• Razer Basilisk V3 (not the pro) – Razer’s budget pick
• Logitech G502 X – when you want to game but also use MS Excel and Canva in the same day. Btw, the wired non-X version is a lot cheaper.

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