The word of the decade should be enshittification. See definition below. And then read on to talk about two of our favourite platforms that are clearly being enshittified.

There’s also a great book by Cory Doctorow (the inventor of the word) explaining this. It’s happening to all our favourite and least favourite platforms.

Meta Launches Instagram Plus

This week, Meta launched Instagram Plus paid subscriptions for users in India at ₹299/- per month. The additional features that paid users get are super hearts, multiple story audiences, leaving stories on for 48 hours, being able to view others’ stories without them knowing it was you (this is a win for the creeps), custom bio fonts, more profile pins, custom app icons, and the ability to post directly to profile. To be clear, this is different from what creators pay to get the “verified badge” – the blue tickmark that used to give the impression of trust (which is something I absolutely refuse to pay for).

It remains to be seen how useful these additional features are going to be – and for what intentions (especially the anonymous story viewing feature – jeez!). But tying this news to news from Meta for the last coule of weeks – with the launch of WhatsApp Plus and Meta Plus tiers – it’s pretty clear that Meta is trying to make users pay for features, and creators should pay for more reach and engagement. The promise of Instagram to be a place where one can organically find content / audiences that they relate to is very nearly dead. That’s a part of Gen Z just dying now.

Who knows where this will stop – maybe next thing Meta will require creators pay to upload 4k reels. Or pay to lock profiles or DM just about anyone (which will be another win for the creeps). And the Instagram we all knew and loved would be further dead. This is a clear case of enshittification. It’s where the platform will go to die, and it will make me the saddest because for a long time Instagram was one of the few good apps (not just social media, apps overall) out there which was a delight to open and spend time on. No more. *sigh*

Amazon Launches Music Unlimited

Speaking of enshittification, another platform has launched another paying tier and that’s Amazon, more specifically Prime Music. Amazon Music (yeah it’s not called Prime Music anymore) now offers three tiers in India—Unlimited, Prime, and Free. 

You know why they launched the third tier right? One blatantly obvious reason is to get more people sign on to Prime. Period.

Don’t forget though that the second tier above comes with “limited ads”, and the free tier comes with a whole bunch of ads but is coming soon. No idea when.

JioStar to Ramp Up AI Generated Content

So, JioStar’s Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh which is basically AI-Generated Mahabharat was apparently a big success and got some 6.5 million views on day one. Now JioStar is scaling up this AI generative entertainment by building a slate of productions entirely written, animated, voiced, and edited by artificial intelligence. They’re even hiring some 80 AI specialists and engineers and all for this.

I blame whoever watched this version of the Mahabharat – potentially 6.5 million of you – for this. Let’s not give views to content that is entirely AI generated. Now we will have a whole bunch of AI slop telling the story of Hanuman and others.

AirTrunk data center investment

Australian data center operator AirTrunk plans to invest over ₹3 lakh crore (±$30 billion in today’s rate) in India by 2030, expanding its AI computing capacity by 5 GW.

The project will cover multiple states and union territories. After entering the market with its April 2026 acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra, AirTrunk had already assembled a 600 MW portfolio across Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

The announcement came after AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Khuda also spoke with central government officials and ministers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The company said the discussions centered on speeding up investment in cloud and AI infrastructure, with emphasis on electricity access, renewable energy, reliable water supply, workforce development, and faster approvals.

AirTrunk is backed by Blackstone, which is a interesting fact for a conspiracy theorist like me. Let me know if you want me to elaborate.

India Gets Access to Claude Mythos

Anthropic, which is bound for a $1tn IPO, has granted to its mythical AI model Mythos (see what I did there?) to about 150 organisations from 15 countries (including India) in a limited environment via an initiative called Project Glasswing. Mythos’ release was held back by Anthropic last month after they announced it, saying it is so powerful that it could expose security flaws in almost any system and could lead to disaster if in the wrong hands (and it was leaked anyway, lol).

This Project Glasswing initiative pairs the closed Claude Mythos Preview model with participating organisations to proactively identify and fix critical zero-day vulnerabilities (attacks which have “zero days left to fix”) before attackers can exploit them. 

This is a follow up to last month’s news that the Indian Government reportedly requested access to Mythos.

India has also ramped up efforts to uncover software vulnerabilities, which is long overdue. A few days ago, reports said India was testing key financial and government software for weaknesses against the Mythos AI model. Major tech companies such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were reportedly carrying out controlled security tests, while CERT-In was examining critical systems like Aadhaar and government login platforms.

Interestingly, as these organisations didn’t have access to Mythos, they were using Claude Opus 4.7 to identify and fix vulnerabilities. Claude for the win.

Meanwhile, the central government is said to be seeking sovereign hosting for the Claude AI model in India, driven by jurisdiction, compliance, and national security concerns over foreign-hosted infrastructure used in sensitive areas like banking, telecom, and critical infrastructure. Anthropic also reportedly met with officials from the finance ministry, MeitY, and CERT-In about access to the Mythos model. Anthropic already have an office in Bangalore which opened in February 2026.

E-Commerce Giants Form Digital Commerce Coalition

Several ecommerce and quick commerce companies have joined forces to establish the Digital Commerce Coalition, an industry-led group focused on driving the sustainable expansion of the digital commerce ecosystem. Its founding members include Eternal, Meesho, Amazon, Swiggy, and Zepto.

This industry group was created to push forward the digital commerce ecosystem’s key goals—building consumer confidence, fostering responsible innovation, and ensuring fair economic participation. The coalition will concentrate on enhancing customer experiences, creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses, strengthening supply chains, supporting delivery partners, and driving wider economic growth.

Sadly, nothing about improving working conditions of the gig workers.

Headlines:

• PRISM (parent company of OYO) gets SEBI approval for IPO.
• Amazon Now replaces Google Maps with Mappl’s APIs, Mappl being Google Maps equivalent from MapMyIndia.
• TRAI’s initial review of Airtel’s recently introduced Priority Postpaid plan (which utilises 5G network slicing technology, promises consistent 5G speeds in crowded environments for postpaid customers) suggests it complies with net neutrality principles.
• Haryana has introduced the ‘Make in Haryana’ Industrial Policy, aiming to attract ₹5 Lakh Cr in investment and generate 10 Lakh employment opportunities. The initiative prioritizes data centers, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and cutting-edge industries.
• The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) slapped fines on Physicswallah and McAfee for dark patterns practices. These dark patters are design elements that make users take actions they originally did not intend to take. For example, Physicswallah automatically added a 10 rupee donation to “PW Foundation” at checkout for users making a purchase.
• ASUS, the Taiwanese laptop maker, is deepening its manufacturing tie-up with Dixon Technologies to boost local production and parts sourcing in India, with India-made laptops projected to make up 30% of its sales this year.
• The Tamil Nadu government has signed an ₹18,600 crore MoU with infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to set up three major projects, including a data centre, expected to generate 8,200 direct jobs. It marks the first major industrial deal under the state’s new administration.
• CBSE invited 19-year-old ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary to help identify security gaps in its IT systems. I suppose that’s in addition to the IIT-lead team that the education minister appointed to investigate the CBSE system. Adhikary, btw, was the ethical hacker who blew the whistle saying he could evaluate others (and presumably his own) marksheets on the CBSE OSM system that we talked about last week.

One More Thing…

One of my favourite YouTubers released this video, which I think every Indian should watch. It’s an expose on two fronts:

• a lot of “made in India” phones are not really made in India
• one particular smartphone company CEO (that of “Ai+”) is an a**hole and will put India’s smartphone industry to shame.

I was following this story even before Arun Manu (aka Mrwhosetheboss) posted this video. The three Indian tech youtubers who were silenced unfairly by the Ai+ CEO have been making content for 15 years on average, they are in fact my inspiration to start TechINform.

Shame on the CEO referenced, and shame even on YouTube for allowing a leagal notice to take down three perfectly good videos.

Five Find of The Week

This week is about – nothing in particular, just five random quirky finds on Amazon that are useful to a lot of people

• Oracura’s Water Flosser – the dentist just told my mom to start using this.
• Quantis monitor light bar with remote – please use this if you use a monitor.
• Apex TV Smart light – a bit pricey but an absolute delight if you take your TV viewing or console gaming on the TV even a little seriously.
• Elgato Stream Deck – this is also pricey but is not just for streamers, serious computer users can take massive advantage of the programmable buttons.
• WRIZTI’s portable mini projector that’s quite frankly more cute than useful.

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