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Deep & Emerging Tech·September 15, 2026·1 min read

India's UPI, which has been free for merchants, will impose a 0.4% merchant fee on certain payments above ₹2,000, or $21, from October 15 in a major shift

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A 0.4% fee on UPI transactions above ₹2,000 ends the pure free-ride and forces Indian merchants to revisit unit economics on higher-ticket digital payments. If you operate in India, re-cut your pricing and incentive models now—small changes at checkout can push users back toward cash or alternative rails.

Deep & Emerging Tech

The UK's £100 billion data center boom is suffering from a major bottleneck that puts capacity and performance at risk

If £100B of UK data center build is being throttled by cabling and upgrade bottlenecks, the constraint on AI capacity is now installation labor and retrofit design, not just land and power. Operators planning UK footprints should bake in higher costs and longer timelines for physical layer changes — and push colo providers on upgrade roadmaps, not just initial specs.

Deep & Emerging Tech

Volkswagen sets three EV world records over 794-mile road trip in ‘most efficient near-production’ car — and it could be the battery breakthrough that EVs need

VW using a near-production car to set efficiency records over 794 miles is a bet that software, aerodynamics, and pack design can beat simply stuffing in more kWh. Fleet and OEM planners should model scenarios where range gains come from efficiency improvements — which change charging network needs and total vehicle cost curves — rather than waiting on step-change battery chemistries.