Transformer by Mint | Starlink’s India jobs, Cognizant’s IPO, Skyroot’s rocket

Which brings us to the obvious question: why all the hype around Starlink?

The short answer – relevance. Starlink was among the first to announce plans to launch thousands of satellites across Earth’s orbit to beam internet connectivity to even the remotest corners of the world. Since then, the satellite communications industry has ballooned, with two Indian joint ventures already preparing for takeoff.

Armed with Musk’s financial muscle, Starlink is now targeting the terrestrial broadband user, especially in urban India, with uninterrupted, high-speed internet from the skies.

With hiring now underway, it’s safe to assume that Starlink’s India launch may not be too far off. The real question is: how much will its services cost when they finally arrive?

India’s second-largest tech listing?

Fellow reporter Jas Bardia tuned in to Cognizant’s analyst call last week, and returned with a stunner: the IT giant, which earns nearly $20 billion annually and employs about 250,000 people in India, is considering a local stock market listing.

Cognizant, founded in India over three decades ago, moved its base to the US years ago. Now, it may be looking at a partial homecoming.

Why now? It’s tempting to chalk this up to stock-market euphoria, but analysts suggest another motive: valuation. Cognizant earns as much as Infosys, yet trades at roughly half its market value. A domestic listing could help bridge that gap, offering both fairer valuation and exit opportunities for existing investors.

A landmark rocket launch

This week, I chipped in with a story on Skyroot Aerospace, one of India’s most promising private space startups. The company is gearing up for its first-ever commercial launch within the next three months—a landmark moment for India’s space sector.

Until 2020, the field was the exclusive domain of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). But since private participation was opened up, startups like Skyroot have emerged as serious contenders.

In the US, the likes of Musk and Jeff Bezos dream of space tourism. In India, the journey is more grounded, but equally ambitious. Skyroot’s cofounder Pawan Chandana, a former Isro engineer, told Mint that the company hopes to become a regular spacefarer in the not-so-distant future.

If you’re following India’s private space story, this one’s a must-read.

Boat sets a ₹1,500-crore sail

I’ve known Aman Gupta, cofounder of Boat, for about five years, long before Shark Tank India made him a household name. One thing that always stood out was his clarity about the business.

Last week, Boat filed revised papers for a ₹1,500-crore initial public offering (IPO), of which ₹500 crore will go toward funding its expansion into new markets and product categories.

Will it succeed? The stakes are high. Boat is the first new-age Indian electronics brand seeking public money, and this is where the real test begins—proving that brand power and sharp marketing can translate into sustainable margins and shareholder value.

Can a new brand with swanky marketing lingo make it in the bourses? There’s no reason why they can’t, if the fundamentals are on point. Here’s our full analysis.

Conglomerate vs Big Tech

In a surprising turn, India’s top three conglomerates—Tata, Reliance, and Adani—have together outspent Big Tech on data centre projects this year: $28 billion versus $25 billion.

With total proposed AI data centre investments in India crossing $50 billion by 2030, this marks a fascinating new phase. Traditional industrial giants are now building the backbone of India’s digital infrastructure, massive facilities filled with high-end GPUs and advanced cooling systems.

As Sanchit Vir Gogia, the chief of Greyhound Research told us, this isn’t just about tech capacity—it is the fact that for the Indian giants, this is a utilities business, much like electricity or piped gas.

Big Tech, of course, can ramp up spending any time, but here, they’re not just rivals; they’re customers.

In other news: Record-breaking iPhone 17, Mercedes-Benz EQS 450

On Thursday (or Friday, if you’re in India), Tim Cook confirmed what most had expected: Apple hit a new all-time revenue high in India in September. This came as iPhone 17 sales ramped up—something I reported just a day before the results.

However, Cook cautioned that supply constraints could still hold back sales, without specifying when supplies might normalize. Even so, iPhones are on track to account for 10% of all smartphones sold in India this year, an extraordinary milestone, considering that just five years ago the figure was barely above 2%.

And if you’ve wondered what it’s like to live with a car that’s more software than steel, we test-drove the Mercedes-Benz EQS 450, one of India’s most expensive electric SUVs. Think of it less as a car, more as a rolling entertainment pod, complete with an 18-inch screen for air hockey while you wait for traffic to clear.

Transformer by Mint is a weekly newsletter that brings India’s most important and interesting technology updates under one umbrella. As the world transforms with every day of innovation, Transformer will keep a tab on the impact that technologies will make in each of our lives. Published every week, the newsletter brings some of India’s tech landscape’s most insightful coverages until date.