Hope you were off on Independence Day, and hope you had an amazing day with your family, friends and/or loved ones. Since you (did not) ask, I spent Independence Day vibe-coding a free webpage that simulates what it’s like talking to a typical HR representative. This may or may not be based on real-world corporate experience. Check it out!

As with every Independence Day, the Prime Minister of India gave a speech. Here’s everything from that speech that relates to tech in India (the below is the TL;DR version, if you want to read the full thing it’s here):

• Critical global importance of semiconductors, announcing that three domestic plants are already operational and exporting chips to global markets, while making a key policy announcement that 7 to 8 new production facilities will operationalize within 1 to 2 years.
• Target of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047 with 5 new reactors operational within 6 to 7 years, backed by mastery in Fast Breeder Nuclear Technology. (okay this is not strictly tech but it’s very relevant given the massive data center push in Andhra and other places)
• India must become the ultimate hub of innovation across cutting-edge fields like AI, quantum computing, space, advanced robotics, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and Made-in-India 6G.
• Cyber security is an integral part of national defense, the Prime Minister emphasized harnessing the immense digital capability of Indian youth to aggressively protect both the nation’s digital borders and the global cyber landscape.
• Domestic startup ecosystem – 2.5 lakh registered entities over the last decade, resources like the Rs 1 lakh crore Research and Innovation Fund, the revolutionary impact of affordable digital data, and proactive frameworks including Skill India, Khelo India, the National Drone Policy, private space participation, and the historic National Education Policy 2020 introduced after 35 years. (I have to LOL here, we’ll get into this)
• Formally train one crore youth in Artificial Intelligence skills within the coming year. This bothers me the most, because it feels that the PM is trying to give more reason to mindless data center building and expansions in India.

Okay, so, yeah. I’m going to leave it at this.

The news that follows, not particularly promising.

Here’s an update on the Vizag Data Center Protests: The state government and project backers defend the massive infrastructure investment as a crucial economic driver for India’s digital and AI goals, asserting that developments will follow regulatory and legal compliances. Not surprising. Also, some peaceful protesters were removed by the cops. Not surprising at all.

Speaking of data centers, L&T gets a massive order from NVIDIA that’s estimated to be around 150 crore rupees, to host an Ai-ready data center using NVIDIA’s chips. Near Chennai. This means L&T also is firmly into the AI-ready data center business.

Speaking of protests, the female Tech Mahindra employee who was silently protesting outside the Tech Mahindra office was removed by the police. She was alone, peaceful, silent, protesting her unfair dismissal by the company. And she was removed by the police. This is not surprising, but still heartbreaking.

Speaking of AI, the Maharashtra Government approves deployment of Sarvam AI across State Government services. This is something that the Karnataka Government should take note of – to use soverign AI models and not a US AI stack (they’re using Anthropic/Claude).

Speaking of Governments, Elon Musk announced that any content suppression demanded by state authorities globally will be made visible to users. The platform plans to explicitly label restricted posts with the specific government department name and the legal basis cited (such as Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 in India). And the Indian Government “warned” X, saying that this does not “exempt it from complying with the law”.

So, how will training 1 crore people in AI going to fix any of this? It won’t.

Jio Offers a Solution to the Problem it is Part of

And the problem is tariff hikes. Jio launches Jio Prime (name probably suggested by Bezos) where Jio users can lock their fares for a period of 12 months, for a price of 300 rupees. If one looks beyond the lock-in (where users are disincentivized from switching to Airtel to anyone else for 12 months), if you do the math it does not make sense.

But it does mean that tariff hikes are coming. Again. Across all mobile providers.

Minimum recharge is 349 rupees. It used to be 10 rupees about a decade ago.

Supreme Court cancels cases against Samay Raina and four others.

This Indian (Chinese) Smartphone Brand Launches Something

The brand is of course Ai+ (go back here and see why I’m calling them Indian (Chinese)).

Ai+ has launched Project Trust+, a five-year, ₹100 crore initiative designed to improve device and software security through community testing and ethical hacking.

That’s funny. Ai+ talking about ethical hacking.

Headlines

• Ola Electric unveils three new products – but not vehicles, these are energy storage products. The new product lineup includes the second generation of Ola Shakti, industry-focused Shakti Rack and Mahashakti that will cater to utility-scale energy storage requirements.
• Maharashtra FDA has suspended the licences of 14 food establishments over food safety and hygiene violations. These food establishments are linked to Zepto, Instamart, Blinkit, and other quick commerce platforms. Blinkit’s Malad store licence has been suspended after an FDA inspection found serious violations, including cockroach infestation, rusty racks, expired products, improper food storage and other hygiene issues. Meanwhile, a Reliance Retail outlet is under investigation after the FDA seized 54 boxes of kaju katli following complaints of fungal growth. Credit for this is going to Tukaram Mundhe.
• Karnataka’s Food Safety Division sealed a Zepto warehouse in Bengaluru’s Hoskote over non-compliant product labelling, misbranding, and unhygienic food storage and handling conditions.
• In spacetech news, Indian spacetech darling Skyroot partners with a startup called Redcliffe Labs in an experiment that would examine how exposure to the space environment affects diagnostic reagents’ stability and performance. Even I don’t fully know what this means, don’t worry.
• Joining the IPO bandwagon: Navi (a fintech startup) and Table Space (a managed workspace provider).
• Bunch of ride-hailing news:
  • Uber and Rapido reportedly held talks in May to combine their India ride-hailing operations, but the discussions collapsed over the proposed deal structure. Good.
  • Rapido has secured a five-year cab aggregator licence from the Karnataka government. The authorisation will be valid till August 2031. Not yet in Maharashtra, though.
  • Uber is expanding Uber Bike to 100 more Indian cities, taking its footprint to 220 cities, with the rollout focused on smaller-town markets.
  • The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has barred ride-hailing platforms from showing tipping prompts before or during a ride, allowing tips only after the journey is completed.

One more thing – over in the US, the Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani (I’ll admit I’m becoming a fan of this guy) backed the Delivery Protection Act, a city council bill targeting Amazon’s last-mile subcontractor network. The legislation requires warehouse operators to employ delivery workers directly rather than using third-party contractors, setting off a high-stakes political and financial battle.

And that’s one more problem that the Government should solve – gig workers of major ecommerce and quick commerce platforms are exploited more so because they are third party contractors, not direct employees of Zomato, Blinkit, Swiggy, and others. They obviously do that to avoid liability, but in doing so they are getting away with avoiding responsibility.

Recommended Gadget of the Week

In the kitchen, we (my wife and I) have been using an electric cooker for years. It’s surprisingly versatile, reliable and…. on sale.

Pro tip: Don’t use it to make idlis. No. For idli, old fashioned steamer only pah.