An Indian finally enters the Space Station, as Sam Altman’s World ID hits controversies

If India can rival SpaceX and send a person to the International Space Station, why can’t we have better roads back home?” In today’s episode of Mint Techcetra, we start with Group Captain Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station. The first Indian to do so in over four decades and why this moment goes beyond national pride. It marks a key milestone ahead of the Gaganyaan mission and India’s ambitions to build its own space station by 2035. Then we get into Sam Altman’s World ID, the iris-scanning, crypto-incentivised identity system that’s being pitched as a solution to bots and fake accounts. But here’s the thing: it’s already banned in India and several other countries. Why? Because when you mix biometric scans, private companies, and vague promises about data privacy, things get murky fast. We also talk about the latest round of copyright lawsuits against tech companies. Meta and Anthropic just won theirs but only because, as the judge said, the lawyers arguing against them didn’t get the case right. That doesn’t mean scraping and using copyrighted books is now fair game. So yes, it’s a packed episode. One astronaut, one crypto-powered ID system, and a copyright battle that’s far from over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices