Your next phone could be a TV, or strip you of all features

Mint Techcetra

Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) broadcasting — a new technology that could turn your smartphone into a live TV receiver, no internet required. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is running pilot tests to explore whether phones can double as broadcast receivers. The potential is massive: it could bring entertainment and emergency alerts to over 80 million TV-dark homes. But questions remain about reliability in poor weather, hardware pricing, and whether telecom operators — who make big money off mobile data — are ready to support it.

Next: dumb phones are making a comeback. We talk about the Light Phone 3 and why users are opting for distraction-free devices that do little more than call, text, and maybe play music. Some see it as a response to smartphone fatigue. Others think it’s a more conscious way to re-engage with life. But the conversation also tackles the practical side — from using cash over UPI to finding your way through a city without Google Maps.

And finally, we get into India’s AI patent push. According to a new Nasscom report, India has seen a sharp rise in AI-related patent filings over the past 15 years — with machine learning dominating the charts and generative AI catching up fast. While the country now ranks among the global top five in AI filings, the grant rate remains low at just 0.37%, raising questions about R&D quality and long-term innovation depth.

All that — plus a little CD nostalgia and public-service broadcasting potential — in this week’s episode.

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