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In today’s newsletter:

• Now, Jio dials Starlink after Airtel
• Indian IT firms brace for tariff war impact
• Why Nielsen's Karthik Rao is betting big on India

P.S.: Introducing the Tech3 Podcast, your daily dose of tech and startup insights. Monday to Friday! Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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Elon Musk's Starlink, once a lone wolf eyeing India, is now playing the partnership game. 

• Previously, Musk's satellite internet venture was even compelled to refund all pre-orders pending the acquisition of operational licenses within the country

Just a day after rival Airtel inked a deal, Jio Platforms announced its own pact with SpaceX to bring Starlink's satellite internet to India.

• Jio and SpaceX will explore ways Starlink can complement Jio’s existing broadband offerings, including JioFiber and JioAirFiber.

• Jio will offer Starlink solutions through retail outlets and online stores, setting up customer service for installation and activation.

Also read: Sunil Mittal on Starlink partnership: SAT-G will be as integral to Connectivity as 4G, 5G, and 6G

Regulatory approvals remain a major hurdle, as the Indian space regulator (IN-SPACe) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have yet to clear Starlink’s operations.

• Starlink has agreed to meet India’s data localisation and security requirements, which were a sticking point in the past

Also read: Jio, Airtel deals could accelerate Starlink’s regulatory approvals in India

Starlink operates a fleet of over 6,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. However, competition is heating up.

• Amazon’s Kuiper project is gearing up to deploy 3,236 satellites starting in early 2025

• Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio’s joint venture with SES have already secured key licenses

IN-SPACe projects that India’s space economy will grow to $44 billion by 2033, capturing 8% of the global market share, up from its current 2%.

(Here’s a detailed breakdown of how satellite communication is set to reshape India’s telecom industry)

The Indian IT industry is not out of the woods yet.

Hopes of a discretionary spending revival for Indian IT firms are fading as fears of a US recession, driven by tariffs annihilate the market.

• Investor concerns have intensified after US President Donald Trump stopped short of ruling out a recession amid ongoing trade tariff discussions

• Morgan Stanley is already cutting forecasts and price targets for IT majors.

This has sent shockwaves through global markets—Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and S&P 500 have all hit their lowest levels since September 2024, while the Nifty IT index has fallen nearly 16% this year.

The IT industry had just seen signs of recovery in Q3FY25, but with the macroeconomic outlook turning uncertain, spending decisions are expected to get deferred. 

 "Decision paralysis is the worst thing for the sector—clients aren’t saying yes or no; they’re simply postponing big initiatives,” Jinit Arora, CEO of consulting firm Everest Group told us.

A prolonged US slowdown could mean the $283 billion Indian IT sector misses its $300 billion FY26 target, warns market intelligence firm UnearthInsight.

While the near-term impact could be severe—especially in BFSI, retail, and manufacturing—AI-driven transformation remains a silver lining. 

• Experts say cost-cutting trends may eventually boost outsourcing, echoing past cycles of IT sector expansion.

But for now, the wait for yesteryear's double-digit growth hopes will have to wait.

Find out more

Nielsen is stepping into a new era, and CEO Karthik Rao expects India to play a pivotal role in this transformation.

India's complex media landscape will help Nielsen shift from being an audience measurement and market research firm into a media and technology company, Rao said in an interview with us.

• Rao said that building a global platform in a market that has a lot of complexity will make it easier to expand to other markets 

To achieve this, Nielsen is actively tapping into India's fast-growing tech talent while also placing global leaders like Anil Goel (global CTO) in the country. 

Nielsen currently has about 5,000 employees in India, nearly half of whom were hired in the last 12 months, Rao says. About 50% of the company's India workforce is across tech, product, and data science functions.

"The talent quality we have in India is absolutely the same talent quality you get in Silicon Valley...Bengaluru is the largest innovation hub for us," Goel told us.

One of the first focus areas is developing products to provide brands and advertisers with greater transparency on streaming platforms

"Our intent would be to work with various players who have other forms of data so that we can provide the full viewer journey," Rao said. 

He, along with Goel, also spoke to us about what makes India's consumption patterns unique, Nielsen's global-local product strategy, and the role of artificial intelligence in its products. 

Read the interview

• OpenAI launched new tools for developers that will help them build advanced AI agents, using a few APIs, amid growing competition from Chinese AI startups.

• Google unveiled Gemma 3, claiming it to be the most capable model runnable on a single GPU or TPU, outperforming Meta's Llama-405B, DeepSeek-V3, and OpenAI's o3-mini in preliminary human preference evaluations.

Why should grown-ups have all the fun? 

Lamborghini has teamed up with British nursery legend Silver Cross to create the Reef AL Arancio—a super stroller.

• Limited to just 500 units worldwide and priced at around $5,000, this is the cheapest way to say, “I own a Lambo”—even if it’s just for your baby

The stroller features a high-gloss polycarbonate carry cot, full suspension wheels, and, a cup holder (because even tiny passengers deserve VIP treatment). 

Check it out

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