The biggest sporting spectacle – the FIFA World Cup started this week. And like a million other FIFA world cup fans, I’m not watching this one. I was lucky enough to be in Qatar for the last world cup and to have watched a couple of the matches in the stadium live. I even bought t-shirts hoping to wear in this year’s world cup, and have my US and Canada visas lined up. But I’m not going, and not even watching.

And to be honest (although you expect it) I’m not watching this world cup because of my disdain for the Government of one of the host countries. Particularly the Government’s recent actions. Even related to the world cup. Things like denying visa to a very respected football referee because he’s Somaian. Or to the Palestinian football head. Citing national security concerns? Hilarious. And sad.

And the FIFA president Gianni Infantino – a known panderer – has spoken in defense of the discriminatory administration. Very sad.

Over in India, the start of the world cup let to outrage against ZEE5. That’s because ZEE5, which earlier this year won the broadcast rights of the FIFA world cup in India, advertised it’s “early bird” world cup subscription plan as costing ₹799/- with support for three devices. However, two days before the tournament started, users took to X to reveal that ZEE5 pulled the three-device promise and instead is allowing users to only view the tournament on one device.

What a d*ck move!

After some very obvious outrage on social media, ZEE5 restored the three-device viewership ability.

But some users are still saying they cannot add the second and third device in the same subscription. And, after the tournament started, many users again took to X to reveal that they are only able to view the game at 720p. resolution at best.

A 720p video on my 65-inch 4K TV would be horrendous.

Sad for those who trusted ZEE5 to watch the biggest sporting tournament in the world. Let’s hope this never happens again, and at the very least the Government steps in to penalise ZEE5 for this very serious deception.

Btw, if you haven’t subscribed and are interested in watching the world cup, I read very randomly on the internet that Unite8 Sports channels cost only ₹7–13/month, World Cup will also air in Hindi on ZeeCinema, ZeeBanglaSonar, ZeeKerala.

Anthropic Pulls Access to Mythos-5 and Fable-5

The Indian Government is one among several entities that finally got access to Claude Mythos through Project Glasswing. However, this week Anthropic announced that it is under directive from the US Government to pull access to these two models from all foreign users, and Anthropic did this abruptly. The company states that the US Government cited a national security concern which it disagreed with, and it is working to restore access as soon as possible without getting into trouble with the Government.

The news was actually confusing, and I believe that someone is lying here. Most likely the US Government is lying.

Earlier this year, in the US, all AI companies agreed to give the US Government access to upcoming models for 30 days before release to consumers. That means, the US Government had access to Mythos and Fable for 30 days before release (Fable was released only earlier this week). Were they sleeping?

This could also be the latest in a pattern of intimidation for Anthropic by the US Government. Earlier this year, Anthropic publicly refused to allow the US Government use its AI for mass surveillance of the public. This led to the US Government putting Anthropic on a supply-chain risk list which takes effect later this year. And also earlier this week, Anthropic filed for IPO. So this move might just be another intimidation attempt.

What does this have to do with us here in India? Well, if people in the US have access to Fable-5 and Mythos-5 but the rest of the world don’t, they have a supposed advantage of being able to exploit security flaws easier than others around the world. But don’t worry, someone in China has already leaked Mythos and Fable, so we’re all good.

Government Pauses Starlink Approval

Almost at the same time Starlink’s boss Elon Musk becomes the world’s first trillionaire, the Indian Government has put a pause on Starlink approval over national security concerns. The Ministry of Home Affairs froze approvals after reports emerged that Starlink terminals were in use in Iran during the ongoing West Asia conflict, despite not being licensed to operate in Iran.

That’s crazy if that is true. Who in Iran would be using Starlink? Especially amid a continuous internet blackout. The CIA? The Israelis? Or the Regime themselves? Someone please write a spy novel based on this, I promise I will buy one copy.

The Indian authorities also have sought clarification on how Starlink plans to comply with clear security mandates during conflicts, which could generate conflicting demands from foreign governments. This is despite multiple licenses and approvals given by other Government entities over the last 24 months.

Indian authorities are also said to be adopting a more cautious stance towards the satcom sector overall. So will we still see Jio launching its own satcom platform?

Zoho Launesh “Indigenous” Server

Zoho launches an in-house, “indigenously designed” server called Nathu La. I love the name – Tamil speakers will know what it means (it means “in my town”). Zoho made the announcement saying it is “our very own indigenously designed server, with every bit of intellectual property owned right here in India.”

Zoho also said it is optimized for AI inference, and designed to power Zoho’s own applications. “Nathu La is our most tangible step yet toward owning our technology stack end to end in ways that directly benefit our customers.”

Nice Hardware Play from Zoho. Hopefully this drives down the cost of AI adoption for enterprises – which, very unsurprisingly, is proving more and more expensive. There’s also the issue of power consumption and security that Zoho needs to be continuously mindful of.

Meta and Reliance Partner for AI-enabled Data Center

Meta partners with Reliance to enable an AI-enabled data centre in Gujarat. More specifically, Reliance will complete its massive Jamnagar data centre project in two years and lease capacity to Meta. The entire cost of running that facility- including cooling the data centre – will be borne by Meta.

Meta is saying that this will be the first AI-enabled data centre in India but I’m not so sure, because Google and Adani said the same thing about its Vizag investment.

We should follow news about Meta and Reliance, or any big tech company and Reliance, more closely. In doing what I do I found out that Meta, Google, and many others are actually investors in Jio Platforms. And they are not going to sell their stake in the upcoming Jio IPO, which will make them a lot of money.

Indians Taking First Person Footage to Train AI

Objectways is one of the Indian company’s making people wear cameras to train AI. These are workers, housewives, anyone. And for all sorts of manual tasks – slicing mangoes, making garlands, folding sheets, etc.

Developers believe such first-person footage fed into specialized AI models will help robots imitate human behavior.

One housewife reveals that she gets 250 an hour for generating such footage of her doing daily tasks. Hope she doesn’t get a headache from having a webcam strapped to her head for hours. Looks really, really uncomfortable. Also, who would replace a housewife with AI??

Headlines

• IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India set to add 250 – 300 electronics components factories over the next 2 – 3 years. Vaishnaw also said that India exports ₹35,000 crores worth of electronics components to China during the previous year. Vaishnaw did also say that India has moved beyond just assembly operations into full scale manufacturing.
• Flipkart and Myntra partner with Meta for affiliate program. For the last few years, Flipkart did not have its own affiliate program the way Amazon and others do. But this week they announced that creators can link and tag affiliate products directly in their Facebook content (with Instagram rolling out in a later phase). Consumers who then tap on the tagged products are redirected to complete their transaction on Flipkart or Myntra.
• Zepto files its Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (UDRHP) with SEBI, weeks after getting its IPO approval. The IPO is expected to raise more than 8,000 crores.
• The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Bangalore issued a notice to Flipkart in connection to Applabs Media Pvt Ltd. Applabs filed an insolvency petition over unpaid dues of 1.7 crores. These dues were on Flipkart. Applabs used to be the marketing service provider to Flipkart. The dues were for services Applabs is saying it delivered to Flipkart, with a payment terms of 45 days.
• There was a viral screenshot about a Zomato notification saying “Biryani bhejdu? 370 ki hai BAs” which is a reference to a controversial remark made by an audience member about a date. The remark relates to consent and in my view is misogynistic, so I won’t repeat it here. The audience member and the comedian have apologized. And regarding the viral notification screenshot, Zomato issued a statement calling it fake.
• Google Cloud had an outage in India for a day after third party data centre fire. Google did not say which third party or data centre, but did say that the fire led to an emergency power shutdown at the facility, isolating a local point of presence in Delhi and reducing network capacity across Delhi NCR. This also affected traffic from Chennai, Mumbai and nearby regions. Hope those affected by the fire are okay.
• Winzo’s troubles have clearly not ended. It’s been nearly a year after regulatory crackdown with the ED freezing assets in a suspect money laundering operation. This week it was revealed that nearly 130 employees haven’t received their salaries for months. The company is obviously blaming the RMG ban. What’s the lesson here?
• Travel giant ixigo will acquire a majority stake in Brevistay, which is an Indian rent-a-hotel-room-by-the-hour platform. Remember that Brevistay’s older competitor Oyo is headed for its IPO.
• Over in the US, a Federal judge in US ruled the $100k H1B visa fee is unlawful. The judge said that US President Trump does not have the authority to impose such fees. Is the fees going away? No. Trump is of course expected to appeal this ruling.
• Microsoft’s XBOX division plans major layoffs next month, according to reports. Here’s a true story – Microsoft revealed a major rebranding of the division, from “Xbox” to “XBOX”. Yeah.
• US-based real estate tech platform Opendoor lays off entire India team of 250 employees. India was its offshore employer centre that it is winding down, less than two years after the company opened offices in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Over in the US, it is building “leaner, AI-enabled” teams. Sigh.

Five Finds of the Week

This week’s theme is watching live sports. Here are some things you may not realise makes viewing experiences better:

• This cool TV backlight that syncs with footage – you’ll have to see for yourself how cool it is
• This sofa armrest tray that can hold that TV remote that you always lose
• This electric popcorn maker because popcorn is a guilt-free snack
• These ice cube trays because the one built into your fridge is simply not enough for your drinks
• For the adventurous – there’s an ice maker that’s surprisingly convenient.

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