Aroon Deep

Covering tech policy for The Hindu தொலைபேசி / பேசி தொலையும். EN/FR/HI/TA

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Outscooped the DoT on this. Not sure if that's an achievement or not :')

[PIB India @PIB_India]

▪️Government strengthens rural 4G connectivity through #4G saturation project

▪️Number of villages without 4G connectivity declines by nearly 75% in four years

▪️BSNL’s 18000-plus 4G Saturation sites empowering rural India; 1.86 crore GB data consumption in October 2026

▪️DoT steps up efforts to ensure 4G connectivity in unserved and remote villages across India

Details here: https://t.co/Nda72RBSlJ

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Breaking down as a 19 year old Italian teenager and being consoled in French by the Prime Minister of India is like at the 10 page mark of this book. "Extraordinary story" doesn't cut it

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@ahalam @raghu_gagneja I'm faster :P

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Muse India price reveal

[The Hindu @the_hindu]

Meta has set rupee-denominated subscription prices for its rapidly growing AI agent, Muse, ahead of its official launch in India, signalling its entry into one of the world’s largest digital markets.

✍️ @AroonDeep

https://t.co/4TaxixAaAL

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@TinaGurnaney But one similarity: the intelligence agencies would find out first.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@akhmxt Switching to tea for health and taste reasons has been rough

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Neat little agent use case: keeping an eye on upcoming power shutdowns and auto-adding to Calendar:

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

After saying it was "too early" to assess demonetisation's impact a few years ago, @EconomistRamesh has completely deleted it from his UPSC reference textbook. What a cowardly betrayal of a generation of bureaucrats and the public memory at large.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Here's how Indian Economy, a bestselling economics textbook strongly recommended to civil service aspirants, addresses demonetization. It's "too early" to assess long term costs (3+ years later), but is very optimistic on the benefits ("It looks happening!").

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@akhmxt wild sentence to tweet

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

"It is not that foreigners cannot be involved in Indian politics; rather, foreigners can be involved only in politics that support the BJP in India." https://t.co/mPZsgVCmSl

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@josepsburner based

[Nistula Hebbar @nistula]

What is it about the dispute in Tatas board that captures the attention of ordinary Indians? Why are politicians weighing on it? What are the relationships, sentiments behind the battle for control of one of India's most storied corporates. I interview @NotProsaicview on the issue and more - https://t.co/7NFzayrzgJ… via @YouTube https://t.co/FN4TQEekmf via @YouTube

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@dharmeshba I find typing to be much faster than voice at any rate

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Has even one business in India used AI to get foreign level finesse in customer service? Earlier excuses don't work anymore. Can't even change address through a chat.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@TurbulentTamizh As far as metro is concerned, deep down people know it is unaffordable. That is in fact a plus for them, since it keeps out people they'd rather not share a vehicle with.

[Shivnarayan @shivnarayan01]

Just learnt that French journalist Vanessa Dougnac has passed away.

The OCI card holder covered South Asia for more than 2 decades. In 2024, she was unceremoniously asked to leave India because of her reportage. She bade goodbye to Delhi with a heavy heart.

I covered this case at the time. It was not only Dougnac who was under government scanner, several other foreign journalists working in India faced restrictions.

After Op Sindoor PR bungling, govt has realised the importance of foreign journalists. But long way to go!

RIP
https://t.co/5Ej6rYYGA7

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

@free_thinker @Hostinger That was not Hostinger's doing. NIXI suspended the domain itself. Hostinger can't display a website from a given URL if the registrar yanks the domain name itself from under them.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Hostinger's statement on the takedown.

[Paranjoy Guha Thakurta @paranjoygt]

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's Website Restored After Being Taken Down Without Any Prior Warning https://t.co/Sq5aXdD7LF

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Also, this comes as more and more Gen Z/Alpha turns of age. Instead of a BLO visiting them to enroll them, they've been given a form to prove their parents were registered in 2002. How many people will care enough to enroll anyway? Nothing has fundamentally altered 2029 as much.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Unless the long term West Bengal political project was the only reason that SIR has been done: there may just be a compelling case that a central calculation is to disenfranchise India's casual voters.

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

So now the BLOs are back to their house-to-house enumeration. But they've gone through SIR, and they've seen the limited interest by voters they enrolled in the past to stay on the rolls. Where, then, will they gather the morale (or time!) for enrolling people?