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India’s $11 billion semiconductor plan | Extreme summer gadget tips + MacBook Neo review
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00:13Welcome to the Tech Today show and on the show today we are talking about India's big semiconductor dream which
00:21may finally be getting real.
00:23With Tata and chip making giant ASML coming together, is India preparing to become a serious player in the global
00:31chip race?
00:32And more importantly, what does all of this mean for you? We'll break all of that down in our big
00:38tech story.
00:39Also, if your gadget or phone feels like it's melting in this heat right now, you're not imagining things.
00:45We'll tell you how India's extreme summer temperatures could quietly damage your gadgets and the simple things you should absolutely
00:53avoid when you're taking gadgets outside in the heat.
00:57And later in the show, a look at this one, the brand new MacBook Neo.
01:01Is it actually worth all the excitement around it or is this just another premium machine with premium compromises?
01:08A review of this one on the show.
01:10I'm Cyrus and let's get the show rolling with the top tech headlines of the week.
01:19Scuderia Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have officially taken the wraps of the Ferrari Luce, the Italian manufacturer's
01:28first ever fully electric supercar.
01:30Unveiled in Rome, the luxury EV features four electric motors delivering over 1,000 horsepower and a 0-100 sprint
01:38time of just 2.5 seconds.
01:41Bookings are now open globally with a starting price tag of €550,000 before taxes.
01:53Amazon has updated its premium audio lineup in India, bringing major special audio and hardware upgrades to the new Echo
02:00Studio alongside an all-new Echo Dot Max.
02:03Powered by the custom AZ3 Pro silicon, the redesigned studio shrinks the original cylindrical form factor into a compact spherical
02:11shape wrapped in 3D knit fabric.
02:13The speaker brings room-adapting Dolby Atmos, tuning a new Omnisense radar platform for automated smart home routines.
02:26The Indian government has announced that the legacy M Aadhaar smartphone application will be permanently discontinued.
02:33The unique Identification Authority of India is urging all citizens to transition to a brand-new modern Aadhaar app featuring
02:40stricter biometric data controls.
02:42Onboarding will now require multi-layer security checks including face authentication and a mandatory mobile OTP setup.
02:54And Meta is officially rolling out paid subscription tiers for users across India as it expands its revenue strategy beyond
03:02digital advertising.
03:03The premium model introduces Instagram Plus for an initial price of Rs.775 per month.
03:10Subscribers will unlock exclusive premium utilities including advanced account analytics, extended 48-hour story durations and a stealth mode to
03:20view other users' stories anonymously.
03:31The most important resource right now I feel is computer chips.
03:35The tiny semiconductors powering your smartphone, your cars, basically every electronic item that you know under the sun.
03:42And the global chip race by the way is getting brutal.
03:45China is aggressively pushing into the memory chip market, undercutting prices and challenging giants like Samsung and TSMC.
03:52The US is restricting exports.
03:55Taiwan is getting nervous.
03:56Europe is scrambling for technological sovereignty.
03:59And now India wants to be a part of this industry as a major player and just not a sidekick.
04:05Because in one of the biggest tech developments for the country,
04:10Tata Electronics has partnered with ASML, the company that builds these machines that make advanced chips possible.
04:17This is India's biggest tech bet.
04:19But let's look beyond the headlines and let's see why this is big for India and what could change in
04:26the days to come.
04:29Semiconductors are like oil for the electronics industry.
04:33And ASML produces that oil.
04:35The Dutch giant is the only company in the world capable of manufacturing EUV lithography machines.
04:43Equipment so complex, so precise, that one unit costs between 200 to 350 million dollars.
04:51And ASML doesn't sell just to anyone.
04:54The US, the Netherlands and Japan tightly control who gets access to these machines.
05:00ASML is now officially partnering with Tata Electronics for India's first commercial front-end semiconductor fabrication plant in Dholera, Gujarat.
05:09The project value stands at roughly 11 billion dollars.
05:15The fab is expected to produce 50,000 wafers per month targeting automotive chips, AI infrastructure, mobile devices and industrial
05:25electronics.
05:26But here's what matters the most.
05:29The partnership also includes talent development, supply chain creation, R&D ecosystem building and critically lithography training inside India.
05:39That means Indian engineers learning to operate some of the most sophisticated machines on earth, on Indian soil.
05:47And alongside Tata ASML, American chip maker Micron has already committed to a semiconductor assembly and testing facility in Gujarat.
05:57Applied materials, the company that supplies critical chip manufacturing equipment globally has begun talks in India.
06:05So, we have 20% of the semiconductor workforce of the world living in India and working out of India.
06:16That did not happen on accident.
06:19We missed it in terms of building our own national champions and building our own independent identity as a semi
06:29-collective nation.
06:30And I think that is what is the big deal which is happening now and that is the thing that
06:36we should really be paying attention to.
06:40But here's the uncomfortable truth.
06:42India should have entered this race decades ago.
06:47Back in the 1980s, India actually built a semiconductor facility, the Semiconductor Complex Limited in Chandigarh.
06:54It was funded by the government, staffed by trained engineers and had real potential.
07:01Then in 1989, a fire destroyed the facility.
07:05And instead of rebuilding, India walked away.
07:09Policy paralysis, slow approvals, weak infrastructure, licensing bureaucracy and a fundamental belief that hardware manufacturing wasn't India's strength, all of
07:20it pushed India away from chips.
07:25Today, over 75% of the world's advanced chip manufacturing capacity sits in East Asia.
07:32That concentration is now becoming dangerous.
07:35One geopolitical conflict, one blockade, one supply chain disruption and the world can literally stop functioning.
07:42From cars to electronics, every industry can absolutely fall apart.
07:46We already saw a preview of this during the pandemic chip shortage, which is why the world is suddenly looking
07:53for alternatives right now.
07:55And India is finally entering the conversation.
07:57But before we talk about India's opportunity, we need to be honest about how far behind India actually is.
08:07TSMC today manufactures chips at 2nm.
08:10These are the chips powering the most advanced AI systems and premium smartphones on the planet.
08:17India's first fab at Bholera is expected to start at 28nm.
08:22That is roughly a 15-year technology gap.
08:27So why does this matter?
08:29Because not everything needs to be cutting edge.
08:33Automotive chips, industrial sensors, power management chips, defense electronics.
08:38A massive portion of global chip demand runs on mature nodes which are 28nm and above.
08:46And right now, that market is actually undersupplied because all the investments are being poured into cutting edge tech.
08:56India's entry at 28nm is not a step backwards.
09:00It's actually smart if India executes well and uses this decade to build the ecosystem, talent and infrastructure needed to
09:08eventually move up the stack.
09:10The Indian government knows this window may not come twice.
09:14That's why India launched the India Semiconductor Mission.
09:18With the government offering to cover up to 50% of the eligible project costs for approved fabs and chip
09:25ecosystem players.
09:26Total committed outlay, tens of thousands of crores.
09:30The policy has been redesigned after the pandemic exposed just how dangerous India's chip import dependency really was.
09:38Here's the reality check by the way.
09:40Building a semiconductor fab is nothing like building another smartphone factory.
09:45It demands ultra pure water, stable uninterrupted power, massive clean rooms where even a single dust particle can ruin the
09:53entire vapor batch.
09:54One contamination event can destroy millions of dollars of worth of product overnight.
09:59However, the deepest challenge isn't infrastructure.
10:03It's the people behind the tech.
10:07India produces roughly 1.5 million engineers every year.
10:12But almost none of them are semiconductor process engineers.
10:15Building a fab requires physicists, material scientists, clean room specialists, chip designers, lithography technicians, a completely different talent profile from
10:26software.
10:26The pipeline simply doesn't exist yet at scale.
10:30And training will take years, not months.
10:33There's also the technology cycle problem.
10:36Chip generations move fast.
10:38By the time a fab becomes fully operational, the world may already be chasing the next node.
10:46India needs to build its ecosystem fast to stay relevant, not just catch up.
10:51And then there is the question of policy consistency.
10:55Semiconductor fabs require 10 to 20-year investment horizons.
10:59Companies need to know that the subsidies, the approvals, the regulatory environment will remain stable across governments and election cycles.
11:08India has historically struggled with exactly the kind of long game commitment.
11:18Imagine India exporting chips globally and becoming critical to AI infrastructure.
11:26The country reducing a multi-billion dollar import bill.
11:30India creating genuinely high value manufacturing jobs.
11:33Not assembly line work, but deep tech high skill careers that anchors a new industrial class.
11:40And maybe for the first time, India stops being the world's service provider and becomes one of the world's core
11:47technology builders.
11:48Because every superpower of the 21st century will control three things.
11:54Energy, artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
11:59And we have to analyze things over here.
12:01For over 40 years, India watched the chip revolution from the sidelines.
12:05The Tata-ASML partnership is not a guarantee for success, nor is Micron's facility.
12:09And even the India Semiconductor mission is not a guarantee.
12:14But together, they are a signal.
12:17A signal that India has decided it can no longer afford to be a consumer.
12:22Just a consumer of the world's most strategic technology.
12:26That it also needs to be a maker now.
12:30The question that India has faced for decades was, can India code the future?
12:36India answered that loudly by the way.
12:38Now the question is harder.
12:39Can India manufacture the future?
12:42The world is watching and for the first time in a long time, India is finally ready.
12:53If your phone is starting to heat up suddenly these days, you are not imagining it because there are factors
13:00that are outside affecting your phone's temperature.
13:02And if you might be noticing that your phone's display is automatically dimming or your battery is draining faster, because
13:08there is a reason all of this is happening.
13:11It's the extreme temperatures outside that are affecting your gadgets.
13:15And there is a reason behind all of this chemistry and physics that you need to be worried about.
13:23Because in India, extreme summer temperatures are incredibly stressful for modern electronics.
13:28And if you are not careful, the heat can quietly affect battery life, performance and in some cases, even permanently
13:35damage your gadgets.
13:36So this week on Tech Today, we try to find out what are exactly some of these extreme temperatures doing
13:42to your devices and how you can make sure that those extreme temperatures don't take a toll on your gadgets.
13:49And some things that you need to keep in mind to protect these electronics.
13:54Let's go.
13:55Smartphones today carry processors that are more powerful than some older laptops.
13:59And all that power generates a lot of heat.
14:02Normally, devices are designed to manage this heat on their own.
14:06Some flagships even come with cooling systems inside of them.
14:09But when outside temperatures are already touching 43 or 45 degrees in many Indian cities right now, gadgets struggle to
14:17cool themselves efficiently.
14:19And the component that suffers the most is the battery.
14:23Most phones, laptops, earbuds and even power banks today use lithium-ion batteries.
14:28These batteries work best with a controlled temperature range.
14:32Excessive heat speeds up chemical aging inside the battery, which slowly reduces its long-term capacity.
14:38That's exactly why a phone exposed to heat regularly may start showing symptoms like faster battery drain, slower charging, overheating
14:47during basic tasks or sudden drops in performance.
14:51And modern smartphones come with sort of a fail-safe and a protective feature inside of the phones.
14:56When the temperature is getting maybe too hot, it deliberately slows down and that process is called throttling.
15:03So whenever you are gaming outside or you are using the phone outside and you see the performance dipping, that's
15:09happening deliberately because the phone is trying to protect itself.
15:13Now, the bigger problem is a lot of people kind of blame the extreme temperatures outside because of which their
15:19phones get hot.
15:20But that is not always the case.
15:22Sometimes usage habits and also the way that you are keeping the phone in the environment can also cause a
15:28lot of heat damage, especially the times when you are keeping the phone inside of the cars in this heat.
15:34Because a parked car under direct sunlight can heat up extremely quickly, temperatures inside the cabin can become far higher
15:42than the temperature outside if the AC is not running.
15:45So when you leave a phone, power bank, earbuds or laptop inside a car, especially near the dashboard where there
15:52is direct sunlight, the battery is exposed to extreme heat for an extended period of time.
15:57And when you are using your smartphone as a navigation device, especially when it is planted to the holder, remember
16:03it is in contact with direct sunlight and that can also heat up the phone.
16:07You might not even be realizing it, but it's causing some damage.
16:10Also gaming while charging your phone is another common mistake that a lot of people make.
16:16Because gaming already pushes the processor very hard, especially in graphic heavy games.
16:20Charging generates heat too.
16:23Combine both and the phone's cooling system is under serious pressure.
16:26This becomes even more noticeable with ultra fast charging systems like 80 watt to 120 watt charging.
16:33Yes, they do charge the phone very quickly, but fast charging naturally creates more heat.
16:38This is why many phones become noticeably warm during charging sessions.
16:43And then there is the problem of these third party chargers that people buy from the market because they can
16:48cause some unstable power supply and also cause some unnecessary heat inside your device.
16:54So whenever possible, it's safer to use original chargers or certified accessories from trusted brands.
17:01Now, the big thing is, how do you actually come to know that your device is heating up?
17:05Because if you're using your phone outside, the brightness might drop automatically.
17:09Even the camera might stop working and you might see certain anomalies that your phone is not acting.
17:14The battery might start to dip.
17:16So if you see all of these signs, it is evident that your phone is heating up.
17:22You can actually touch the phone physically near the battery side or maybe even the camera section and you will
17:28see that it is unusually heating up, which is not good for your phone.
17:32You also get temperature warning notifications on some smartphones.
17:36If you see those warnings repeatedly, it's usually a sign that the device is regularly operating under excessive thermal stress.
17:43But the good news here at Tech Today is that we have simple solutions for you, which you can apply
17:49or use to protect your devices in these extreme temperatures.
17:53And these are very simple steps.
17:55Avoid leaving gadgets in parked cars even for short periods.
17:58If your phone becomes very hot while charging, remove thick protective cases temporarily to help the heat escape more easily.
18:06Try not to game heavily while charging, especially during the hottest parts of the day.
18:11For laptops, always use them on hard surfaces rather than on beds or cushions because soft surfaces block airflow and
18:19trap heat underneath the device.
18:22And keep devices away from direct sunlight whenever possible.
18:26And one more important thing is that many people have this false assumption that you need to put your phone
18:31inside the freezer to cool it down.
18:33Please do not do that because it can cause rapid damage to some of the important essential components for the
18:39working of your phone.
18:41And while most people worry about dropping their phone or spilling water on it, the real long term damage may
18:46actually be coming from something far more ordinary.
18:49That's the heat.
18:50So the next time your phone is showing a warning or it's heating up without any rhyme or reason,
18:57please read these signs and take care of your devices because in the longer run, it will protect your device
19:02and then save you from a lot of inconvenience.
19:17So after using this one for a few weeks, I can confidently say that Apple has finally done it.
19:23A budget MacBook is now a reality.
19:25This is the new MacBook Neo starting at around $69,900 in India.
19:31And with this one, Apple is clearly targeting those first time buyers, student and people who actually want a MacBook,
19:38but without spending the kind of money that you would spend on an Air.
19:42But there are a few things that you need to know that this laptop does not run on an M
19:47series chip.
19:47Instead, Apple has put an iPhone chip inside a MacBook.
19:51Yes, this has the same A18 Pro processor as the iPhone 16 Pro, which now runs Mac OS.
19:58But the genuine question here is, is this really a great and affordable MacBook?
20:03And can you finally dump the idea of buying a MacBook Air?
20:07Let's try to find out in this review.
20:23The first thing you notice in the design is that this one actually feels like a MacBook.
20:28You get an aluminium body, solid construction, minimal flex and the clean Apple finish people love.
20:35The chassis uses large amount of recycled aluminium and recycled materials all over.
20:43And honestly, if you pick it up, it kind of feels very premium, very Apple-like design and it's not
20:49plasticky at all.
20:50But the best part is when you hold it, there is heft.
20:52And when you keep it down, even the hinge feels pretty solid.
20:59And then come the compromises.
21:01No Mac safe charging, just two USB-C ports.
21:04One is USB 3 and the other one is a slower USB 2.
21:07Thankfully, you also get the audio jack over here.
21:13And honestly, one of the biggest compromises and a disappointment, I feel, is the missing backlit keyboard.
21:19And for some buyers, this could genuinely become a deal breaker.
21:23The touchpad is interesting too.
21:25Unlike the Haptic style click on premium MacBooks, this one has more of a physical pressed-on feel.
21:34Now, despite being an affordable version of the MacBook, the display over here is pretty interesting.
21:39Because you get a 13-inch liquid retina display with a resolution of 2408x1506 and 500 nits of brightness.
21:47And in real-world use, it looks sharp, vibrant and very Apple-esque.
21:52Text clarity is excellent.
21:53Watching Netflix or YouTube feels great.
21:55Photos look crisp.
21:56Even the viewing angles are good, even outdoors.
21:59And if you edit content casually, the display absolutely gets the job done.
22:08Also, color reproduction isn't as advanced as the higher-end MacBooks.
22:12So, the MacBook Neo isn't a machine meant for all of that.
22:15Now, two more things that really surprised me and I really liked about the MacBook Neo are the speaker quality
22:21and also the front camera.
22:22Because when I was using FaceTime, it was actually good enough.
22:26And watching content without headphones, the speaker were doing a good job.
22:30So, overall, a good performance machine and people who are using it for daily work will absolutely love the Neo.
22:38Now, performance is a department that gets really interesting because over here, Apple is asking that one important question.
22:45What if we put an iPhone chip into a MacBook?
22:50Because inside this one, you are getting the A18 Pro chip where you get a 6-core CPU, a 5
22:56-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine.
22:59And surprisingly, macOS runs really smooth on this configuration.
23:03Apps open fast, browsing is effortless, office work is easy, video calls are smooth and even multitasking is pretty decent
23:10for daily use.
23:11What shocked me most though is that I could actually edit 4K video on this.
23:16Not massive cinematic timelines with 50 layers and crazy effects, but for basic editing, social media content, YouTube videos, it's
23:23absolutely perfect.
23:25But there are limitations.
23:27This comes with 8GB of RAM only, so no upgrade options and while macOS handles memory well, heavy users will
23:35eventually feel constrained.
23:36When you talk about thermals, yes, they are decent.
23:39The laptop stays relatively cool for normal workloads even without any vents or cooling systems.
23:45This is where Apple's efficiency first design helps a lot.
23:49The benchmarks are consistent with what you get on the iPhone 16 Pro and it was expected.
23:54Even the data read and write speeds for the 256GB variant are on par with SATA SSDs.
24:00That means it's ideal for coding, multitasking and even daily work.
24:08Battery life is one of the best features on this laptop because as far as Apple's claims 16 hours of
24:13video streaming and even 11 hours of web browsing,
24:16I was able to get around 2 days of regular use with this one and I was absolutely satisfied with
24:22the battery backup.
24:23And again, the efficiency comes with the A18 Pro chip, but charging speed isn't as great.
24:29You get a 20W USB-C charger in the box in India and it goes from 0 to 100 in
24:35almost 2 hours.
24:37That feels slow in 2026 and especially when many Windows laptops now support much faster charging.
24:50So now the big question is, should you really buy the MacBook Neo?
24:54Because in this price category, this is a great option.
24:58However, it does have its pros and cons.
25:05Because look at it this way, the display is great, battery life is excellent, performance is surprisingly capable,
25:10speakers are fantastic and you also get full Mac OS experience at a much lower price.
25:15However, the compromises are also impossible to ignore because there is no backlit keyboard, only 2 USB-C ports, just
25:238GB of RAM and slower charging.
25:28And not to mention, there is also limited connectivity over here.
25:32So to round it up, who is this really for?
25:34I believe if you are a student, a first time Mac buyer or someone deep into the Apple ecosystem or
25:40someone who just wants a dependable everyday laptop,
25:43the MacBook Neo I feel makes a lot of sense.
25:46However, if you are a power user, if you want a lot of multitasking, heavy usage and also edit 4K
25:52videos with multiple timelines on the screen,
25:55then it's better to pick the M series MacBook Air or even the Pro series over the Neo because it's
26:02just not made for that.
26:03I feel that this is a great competitor for some of the premium Ultrabooks or even the Chromebooks because in
26:10the Apple ecosystem,
26:11if you are looking to buy this just to kick things off, this is a great option indeed.
26:16And that's a wrap on this edition of the Tech Today show.
26:20If you missed any part of the show, don't worry.
26:23You can always catch us online and stay connected with us for all the latest from the world of technology.
26:29And next week, by the way, we get behind the wheel of a brand new electric vehicle that's heading to
26:35India very soon.
26:36Big promises, lots of tech and one big question, is it ready for Indian roads?
26:41We will try to find that out.
26:42We'll see you next week with lots of tech and more.
26:45Thanks for watching.
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