This Week I Learned - Week 38 2026

This Week I Learned - 

* Anthropic's Claude AI now generates 80% of their code. AI-driven coding has moved bottlenecks downstream, exploding tests by 10x and CI jobs by 25x in six months.

* Only Apple Intelligence-capable newer models starting with the iPhone 15 Pro will get Siri AI and other AI-powered features. 

* As of early 2026, 820 LLMs had been registered with China’s cyberspace authority.

Free models drive AI adoption which drives demand for complementary products that China dominates — energy, cloud and physical infrastructure. Alibaba’s cloud revenue grew 34% year-on-year while it gave Qwen away.

"China’s open models cut India’s AI costs, but create future dependencies. India should leverage the open ecosystem while pricing in the switching costs. Government departments and regulated sectors should be built on model-agnostic architectures such as abstraction layers and harnesses that work across stacks. Instead of offering compute subsidies on GPU slices, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) should consider using an OpenRouter equivalent for the public sector." - Bharath Reddy & Pranay Kotasthane in The Hindu

* AWS says wartime damage has permanently wiped out some cloud resources in the Middle East. - The Register

* India's data centre market has quadrupled from 350 MW to approximately 1.5 GW in six years, with a further 3.8 GW under construction or in advanced planning. Three hyperscalers — AWS, Microsoft, and Google — have collectively committed $45.2 billion in cloud and data centre infrastructure since October 2024, signalling a phase transition from opportunistic deployments to strategic, decade-long infrastructure bets. - India Energy Atlas

* AVIF can produce smaller images than WebP at comparable quality, although actual savings depend on the image and encoding settings. MDN says AVIF generally has better compression than WebP, citing a comparison where the median compression was about 50% for AVIF vs 30% for WebP relative to the same JPEG set. The difference is content- and encoder-dependent. It is not a rule that every AVIF will be smaller than every WebP.

* In the old days, when seafarers set out into the open sea, they recorded their new discoveries on the charts. Portolan charts are medieval nautical maps designed for maritime navigation, featuring highly accurate coastlines, networks of rhumb lines, and detailed port information.

* Nearly 5 million households in America have a net worth of at least $5 million. These Main Street Millionaires—the car dealers, beer-distribution magnates, partners in a medical practice or a law firm—may be even more effective than the billionaires at using their financial-political clout. - The New Yorker

* India’s consumer regulator Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is examining Apple’s software warranty terms in an investigation of the iOS 18 update alleged to have damaged iPhone functionality, compelling users to pay “exorbitant” sums for repairs.

* The free software movement began with Richard Stallman's GNU project in 1983; "open source" was coined in 1998.

* Dr Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was a pioneering educator, physician, and humanitarian whose work reshaped global education. She was Italy’s first female doctor in 1896. Her medical background deeply influenced her educational philosophy, leading her to study children scientifically rather than through traditional instruction, discipline, or rote learning methods common at the time. She was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

* Pakistan has the most glaciers outside polar regions. 

* Around 75% of all transatlantic subsea cables pass through or near Ireland's waters. Between Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, they own and operate ~70% of all subsea cables across the world

* 90% of Nepal's power needs are currently met by hydroelectricity. Nepal remains heavily reliant on hydropower for electricity and export earnings, with recent flood damage likely disrupting generation and prompting power imports from India. The latest catastrophe extensively damaged at least 13 hydroelectric power projects along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors and one solar power plant. About 15 power projects with a planned capacity of 470 MW that were under construction were also damaged. - The Hindu

* Though making up around 18% of India’s land, the Himalayan region accounted for roughly ​35% of the country’s natural disasters.

* Nutella, the popular cocoa and hazelnut spread made by Ferrero contains just 13% hazelnuts and is primarily composed of sugar and palm oil (together exceeding 50% of the jar). 

* India has separate national regulatory bodies for medicine (allopathic/modern medicine) and dentistry. 

The National Medical Commission (NMC) replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020. 

The National Dental Commission Act, 2023 established the framework, and the NDC came into effect on 19 March 2026, replacing the Dental Council of India (DCI).

India has separate statutory commissions/regulatory frameworks for the different AYUSH systems. The AYUSH landscape currently has two major commissions covering five systems: NCISM (4 systems) + NCH (Homoeopathy).

* The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) as a foundational system for organizing and standardizing knowledge about human diseases, causes of death, and health-related conditions across the world. The ICD-11 Disease Classification represents the most recent and comprehensive evolution of this system, reflecting over a century of scientific progress, epidemiological transition, and international collaboration. 

* Private equity firms like Blackstone, KKR, TPG, Carlyle, EQT, and Warburg Pincus—have made significant investments in both healthcare and education. These firms treat both sectors as resilient, consolidatable “essential services” with growth potential from demographics, rising middle-class demand (especially in Asia/India), and opportunities for operational scaling or tech enablement.

Education investments often span K-12 schools, higher education/test prep/edtech, student housing, and related services, while healthcare focuses on hospitals, clinics, and services.

100% FDI in hospitals is allowed in India.  Private hospitalization averages Rs 50,500 versus Rs 6,600 in government facilities. 

Blackstone and KKR stand out for repeated large, multi-geography deals in both sectors. 

KKR has controlling stake in Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG) in India and majority ownership in Lighthouse Learning which operates schools across India.

* There are 42,334 Schools in Telangana including 13,718 Private Schools. I compiled a list of 300+ CBSE, Cambridge, IB schools in & around Hyderabad  and created a School Explorer with the help of Claude. Out of these schools, 70+ offer Cambridge curriculum.

It is mandatory for all CBSE-affiliated schools (and those seeking affiliation) to maintain a functional website with key details such as affiliation status, infrastructure, teacher qualifications, student numbers, contact info, fees, transfer certificates, etc. Schools are also  required to have a prominent “Mandatory Public Disclosure” link/icon on the homepage for easy access to the school details by parents and stakeholders.

* Keonjhar district in Odisha has been renamed as Kendujhar. The name Kendujhar is derived from the Sanskrit words "Kendu," meaning East Indian Ebony, and "Jhar," meaning water spring. The district has historical significance and has been referred to by various names in the past, including Comgur and Keunjur. 

Cuttack will now be officially written as Kataka, Balasore as Baleshwar, Bolangir as Balangir, Bargarh as Baragada and Sundargarh as Sundaragada.

Berhampur has been renamed Brahmapur in English records, Jeypore will now be written as Jayapur and Rourkela as Raurkela.

Other revised spellings include Anugola for Angul, Debagada for Deogarh, Kendrapada for Kendrapara, Nayagada for Nayagarh and Kandhamala for Kandhamal. In western Odisha, Junagarh has been changed to Junagada, Dharamgarh to Dharmagada and Lanjigarh to Lanjigada.

The Revenue and Disaster Management Department issued a gazette notification on June 22, 2026, announcing the revised spellings. According to the notification, the changes have been made to align English names more closely with their original Odia pronunciation and phonetic structure.

* Work destroys lives in two opposite ways: doing too little, or doing too much without meaning.

* “Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing” - Henry Petroski, an American engineer