The Centre’s proposal to begin the delimitation exercise has sparked outrage across Tamil Nadu, with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin calling it a “sword hanging over South states.” Delimitation refers to redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on population shifts. Hot Off the Press The Indian Express’ Anjishnu Das explained that Tamil Nadu, along with other southern states, fears that their success in population control will penalise them by reducing their representation in Parliament, benefiting northern states with higher birth rates. Union Home Minister Amit Shah attempted to allay fears, assuring that “not a single southern state will lose seats,” reported The Hindu. However, the concerns run deeper than just seat allocation--Tamil Nadu leaders worry about political dominance shifting towards the North, reported Neeraj Chauhan for The Hindustan Times. The debate has intensified, with Stalin accusing the Centre of favouring Hindi-s

  The Association of Radio Operators India (AROI) has welcomed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendations under the Telecommunications Act 2023, calling them a significant step for the FM radio industry. Released on February 21, 2025, TRAI's proposals introduce a unified licensing system, streamlining authorisations and reducing administrative burdens. Private FM stations would be allowed to air up to 10 minutes of news and current affairs per hour and provide live coverage of national sports events, a shift from previous restrictions. Broadcasters would also be permitted to simultaneously stream radio content online, adapting to changing listener habits. AROI acknowledged the technology-neutral approach, which delinks service authorisations from frequency auctions and allows broadcasters to adopt digital transmission methods. The removal of mandatory co-location requirements would enable cost optimisation, and voluntary infrastructure sharing with telec

Alex Kidman, by his own admission, has been around a long time and that means he’s seen a lot and written a lot about tech and he’s got a reputation for speaking his mind in a commercial  world where he reckons that’s sometimes increasingly a challenge.   “I'm known as a bit of a caustic critic and I wear that badge with a certain amount of pride,” he told Influencing, “ because it means my audience knows that they can trust that when I say I've tested a product, I have tested it, that I'm not for sale and that my recommendations are worth bearing in mind.” Kidman is one of Australia’s most experienced and best-known tech journos. He got his start back in 1998 at Australian Personal Computer magazine and since then has been editor at CNET, editor at Gizmodo, Australia editor at PCMag and an editor at Finder. He’s also an award winning journalist - last year for example he picked up the coveted Best Consumer Technology Journalist gong at the IT Journo Awards �

  Warner Bros Discovery's streaming service Max will enter a very crowded market when it switches on in Australia on the last day of March.  The move will see the end of premium HBO content on News Corp owned Binge, though the company's Foxtel subscribers will get access to Max. Max's catalogue will feature streams from HBO, Warner Bros, the DC Universe, Harry Potter, Discovery, and the Cartoon Network. Foxtel’s 1.4 million residential subscribers, who currently have access to WBD content, will gain free access to Max. Binge users will not. The Max app will be available on Hubbl, although users will have to subscribe. There will be premium, standard, and ad-supported tiers, with pricing to be confirmed. Netflix is still the big fish in the streaming pond in Australia with 26% of the market, while Amazon’s Prime Video and Disney+ have 22% and 17% of the market, respectively. Promised at launch are HBO Originals and Max Originals —including The Last of Us, And

According to The Register's APAC editor, Simon Sharwood, legitimate PR companies are the true victims of insertion link scams.  Sharwood told Influencing, “for legitimate PR companies, there's now another set of inauthentic, insincere competitors in the market that they have to compete with. Everybody knows it's hard to get journalists' time and attention, and now they've got outright scammers competing. That makes it hard for PR people. “I'm certainly less trustful at everything I read now that I've had one of these scam threats sent to me.” Sharwood’s comments follow his recent experience with specific scam methods, which began a couple of weeks ago after the journo wrote an article for The Register about a French lab beating a Chinese record for containing plasma in conditions similar to those close to the sun.  “After I ran the story about the French lab, I got an email from somebody who, to all intents and purposes, looked like just a normal PR person saying, w