What Was That?!

What Was That?!

Nitesh and Vineet discuss the latest in the tech and business world, from an Indian perspective.

Episodes

August 6, 2025 60 mins

It's What Was That?! time, and our stories are getting longer and deeper, no jokes related to last week's topic, please. We discuss how Google Play Store has lost a key court case about the fees charged by its Play Store services. It's a big one, they're appealing for sure, but this is a key loss with ramifications for their global ops. Nitesh gets into some of Tata Sons' struggles as it tries to manage its vast...

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It's What Was That?! Time again. We did deep dives into two stories this time - one, how rapidly solar power capacity is increasing, far beyond most people's expectations, and what it means from the lens of geopolitics, economics and the environment - all areas we have no expertise in. It's a fascinating story, based on this article: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-billion-years-on-the-sun-i...

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It's What Was That time again, in an episode where Nitesh and Vineet talk about betting markets in scandal over what defines a suit, and Tiffany the jewellery company collaborating with Patek Philippe and losing goodwill by irritating the folks who wanted to, y'know, give money and get a watch. By taking their money, giving them jewellery, promising them the option to buy a watch in the future, and then refusing to sell the...

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A lot of action, both on the business side and the tech side in the AI industry. Acquisition offers - both for townships, and for people. Fun fact: Meta offered *one guy* a signing bonus that's equal to what Welspun offered to pay for all of Lavasa. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/welspun-bids-the-most-for-lavasa-corporation-lodha-developers-jindal-steel-and-power-group-in-fray-too/a...

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We recorded two weeks in a row! Vineet and Nitesh discuss a ton of ranging from Ferrari's first SUV-is-not-an-SUV, to the complexities of India's vehicle registration system. We look into the consolidation and evolution of India's paint industry, the impact of AI on financial certifications, and the ongoing struggles of OpenAI in securing funding, and the interesting dance going on between OpenAI, Softbank and Microsoft...

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It's What Was That?! time again. A lot has been happening, in both the business world and the tech world. People are making wills suddenly, after a few rather sad incidents. Greater Than has been acquired, and it seems like a big win for Diageo. People are dating ChatGPT. They're making it their therapist. They're feeding into conspiracy theories. And the world is...getting...weird. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/te...

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Welcome Back to What Was That?! from the start of June. We discuss a bunch of AI stuff as always, including the collapse of an AI startup, this being the second instance of AI in reality just meaning "Actually Indian":https://futurism.com/ai-startup-builderai-collapseBaby Shark creator Pink Fong applies for an IPO:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-30/-baby-shark-creator-pinkfong-applies-for-seoul-ipo-no-kidd...

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Nitesh is in West Rajasthan in his infuencer Era - carrying podcasting equipment to remote parts of the country, finding hidden gems. 

The FIIs are back. This is absolutely not investment advice - we don't know anything about anything, remember - but we do get into how sentiment is everything when it comes to the markets. 

There's a new car in the US market - and this is interesting because it's completely unbundled! $20,000 after ...

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Welcome to the worst-shot episode of the podcast! Grainy footage, background noise, changing locations, changing podcast software, this was a fun week. But also, in less important news than a change in podcast software, bond prices went up and threw the financial world into a tizzy. 

Tesla gamed odometers (allegedly) to get out of warranty repairs: 
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accused-of-using-sneaky-tactic-to-do...

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What Was That, 8 April - Edited just in time for the first story to be completely outdated, and then made completely redundant again literally while this edit was going on. Do tariffs exist? Do we? Ooooooom.

We discuss tariffs, yes. But also return-to-office becoming a huge mess for the US Government:

https://www.wired.com/story/federal-workers-rto-chaos/

More clarity (or was it?) <suspense-type sound effect> around Ola's sa...

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What Was That financial-year-ending episode, but no, there are no tax implications of listening to this podcast. Nitesh and Vineet discuss ChatGPT's viral Studio Ghibli filter; billionaires like Li Ka-shing and Warren Buffett are hoarding cash, Google loses an appeal and has to open up its Play Store in India, and more.

 

Links:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-27/when-warren-buffett-and-li-ka-shing-hoard-cas...

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It's What Was That?! Time again. This week Nitesh and Vineet discuss IT raids on Ola showrooms, and a huge mismatch between their sales figures and RTO registrations - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-07/ola-electric-stores-see-raids-seizures-on-flouting-india-rules

Chinese find managers now have string perform-or-get-docked norms.

Apple's very, very late on delivering "AI Siri", and internal teams are fighting abou...

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Welcome Back to What Was That?! where Nitesh and Vineet discuss the tech and business news of the week gone by.

 

This week we discuss Ozempic coming to India;

a pushback in a small town in the US against drone deliveries (https://www.wired.com/story/texas-amazon-drones-stop-flying/ );

Reliance Retail announcing a pullback and an overhaul (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/ambanis-overhaul-retail-unit-in-quest-of-...

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It's What Was That?! time again, and Nitesh and Vineet cover a lot of ground talking about rich people owning things, and rich people investing, and rich people raising money for Youtube stuff.

 

Links:

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=whwQqMMyRPU

https://notpricedin.substack.com/p/driving-under-the-influence

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-26/junior-banker-hiring...

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What Was That?! Feb 22nd - where Nitesh and Vineet discuss Lenskart's upcoming IPO, the Humane AI pin is humanely killed off, James Bond goes to MGM and ChatGPT goes to mental health columns, and more. 

 

Some relevant links from the show:

Nitesh writes about the shades market: https://notpricedin.substack.com/p/optical-illusions

This is the Humane AI Pin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lNIwOOMVHk

The Humane AI Pin is the worst p...

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It's What Was That?! time again! We discuss ITC, MTR, OpenAI, Tesla, and where healthcare is headed. 

Also, a serious error in this episode that we apologize for - we stated that there were, at the time of recording, 17 subscribers to the YouTube channel. Vineet had extrapolated from 15 the previous day using some very calculated forecasting mechanisms. It turns out that there were actually just 16. 

Vineet apologizes for this gros...

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