Best of the Week | For tech companies, planned obsolescence is a way of life

This week, I had to endure the worst nightmare that any writer in the 21st Century could concoct: my laptop died.

One moment, I was watching a TV show (a re-run of House MD, if you care); the screen became unresponsive. Unless I used my laptop at a very acute angle, it wouldn't work. In fact, if I moved it close to the optimal 90°, it would slowly fade to black — something I couldn't bear to see.

It was like all my life's work slowly being sucked into a vortex, pixel by pixel. My writing, my photos, my digitally scanned copies of PAN and Aadhar cards — all disintegrating before my very eyes.

Posthaste, I rushed to a service centre. There, I was told a new display would cost me a whopping ₹40,000! I tried to explain to that person that this wasn't a display issue, it was a connector issue. He didn't budge—there was only one solution.

On my rather gloomy ride back home, I wondered why tech repair was in such disarray.

Why are tech devices are so difficult to repair? Every company has their own service centre, and you're starkly recommended to go only to them. Other, local players rarely have the parts needed to repair your phone or laptop. I wish the repair ecosystem were more like how cars and bikes operate: plenty of third-party options, so you know you're not getting squeezed.

If you've broken a device—and chances are, you have—you'll notice that there's a predisposition to just buy a new one. This is, of course, by choice: manufacturers want you to buy more, buy new, and buy frequent. It's a phenomenon called planned obsolescence. No matter how much you maintain your device, it has a definite end date, to get you to consume more.

That's not to say that my laptop was in pristine condition. It had various bumps and scratches, which were probably why my display went away like it did.

As a journalist, I spend multiple hours a day on my laptop. Thanks to a screen report I get every Sunday morning, I'm told I spend more than (opthalmologists look away) seven hours a day on my laptop. I'm either writing, browsing, or watching something, all the time.

This prompted me to buy a new laptop at an exorbitant cost, just three-odd years after the previous one. I rationalised this purchase using the same metric I'd just provided earlier: if I'm spending seven hours a day on a device, it better be a good one.

So, thanks to a new and responsive keyboard and a brighter screen, I bring to you the best works from Mint's newsroom, from the week gone by:

Our neighbours to the east saw a historic week. Protests in Bangladesh, led primarily by the youth, managed to overthrow a long-reigning government of Sheikh Hasina.

🇧🇩 Shweta Singh, associate professor, department of international relations, South Asian University, wrote a quick primer on the issue. She made sense of the current haphazardness, the new faces to the fore, and how Pakistan and China factor into the entire mess.

⏮️ While it was happening, we asked Elizabeth Roche to write an explainer on the entire coup. She took a historical look at the entire situation. Unrest like this doesn't just erupt one day; it was simmering for years, Elizabeth explained. I'd strongly urge you to read this story to understand what's going on in Bangladesh, beyond the headlines.

🧵 As is much of South East Asia, Bangladesh too was cut out of India. Four decades ago, it was given autonomy after much struggle. It quickly rose to become a textile powerhouse, and currently fares better economically than its erstwhile identity, Pakistan. Payal Bhattacharya charts out Bangladesh's economic progress over the years, and gives you an idea of what's at stake for the new government.

💱 The turmoil to the east has wide-ranging effects on India's economy too. Being such proximate neighbours, India and Bangladesh share a lot of trade routes. India's exports and infrastructure projects in particular might suffer, note Rhik Kundu, Dhirendra Kumar, and Suneera Tandon. India's biggest border is with Bangladesh; the economic interests are quite transparent. However, a power vacuum in Dhaka could also lead to Chinese influence, which New Delhi doesn't want.

👔 This week, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that it will consider reducing the entry barriers for someone to pursue investment advisory as a career path. To officially give stock advice, y̶o̶u̶ n̶e̶e̶d̶ a̶ c̶a̶m̶e̶r̶a̶ a̶n̶d̶ a̶ Y̶o̶u̶T̶u̶b̶e̶ c̶h̶a̶n̶n̶e̶l̶ you need to pass an exam with Sebi. But that was not all: you also needed to be rich. Till now, Sebi required that you have a certain net worth before trying to be a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) or a Research Analyst (RA). That is now going to change. Neil Borate and Anil Poste write that this will provide a shot in the arm to India's struggling investment advisory landscape, and maybe even help transform it.

🇺🇸 India is looking at the upcoming US Presidential Elections a little nervously. It's not because we've got someone with Indian roots in the fight: if Donald Trump comes back to power, things could become more expensive for India. Trump calls himself a “tariff man”, which means everything going out of the US will have additional charges on them. Trump 2.0 could spell disaster for India, especially as it is just recovering from all covid-induced slowdowns. N. Madhavan takes a deep dive into how a potential Donald Trump presidency will affect the Indian economy from next year.

⚠️ Remember Ramalinga Raju? The founder of Satyam Computers who confessed to embezzling more than ₹7,000 crore. Another company that Raju has mentored has run into some controversy. Brane Enterprises has laid off more than 1,500 employees, and the ones remaining haven't received their pay for the last three months. Samiksha Goel unearths the entire story of this tech company, and how Raju turned out to be ‘he who cannot be named’ within the company.

📚 Kota was the mecca for anyone preparing for competitive exams. Engineering, medicine, or civil services—this tiny town in Rajasthan had it all. A couple of years ago, some 200,000 students thronged to Kota. Such a heavy influx of aspirants also gave rise to an entire ecosystem. This world extended well beyond the coaching insitutes: think transport, stay, and groceries. But this year, somewhere around only 90,000 kids have made it to Kota. Devina Sengupta writes an on-ground report of how things in Kota have turned from bad to worse, and how its dependant economy is suffering because of it.

🥣 Climate change isn't just going to affect small islands—it's going to change the way you eat. You might be fond of sambar rice, but it's getting more expensive. That's because tur dal is getting costlier. For two consecutive years, tur production was hit by erratic rains. Sayantan Bera writes about how farmers are struggling with a basic pulse like tur, and what a sambar-less future might look for everyone.

📋 There's something so strong about food memories. When you eat your favourite dishes from your childhood, the memories might come rushing back. So it's not a surprise when families keep the memories of those who are gone in the form of recipes. The Mint Lounge team writes about five families and their selected recipes that they've kept alive since the partition. To borrow from the piece:

That's all for this week. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend!

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to write to me (shashwat.mohanty@htdigital.in) or reply to this mail. We are a constantly evolving news product, so any input is much appreciated!