The problem likely lies deeper than just the accents; and by the way, the English requirement (including a verbal test) is already set in place for most of the workers. The regular halfway-decent ones will likely already have TOEFL scores hovering around at minimum the high 100s, and in the non-university hiring pipelines I have seen, the English/ESL tests seem to be common if you are not from an English-speaking country, so if you are seeing people where nobody can understand what they are saying, you need to take a better look at your employer's hiring practices.

Also, if we're talking about street/amateur cricket, or even higher-level cricket a couple of levels removed from international, you are rarely going to have rockets hurled at you. Most will be 120 kmph tops.

I left the US a long time ago after only a few years of work because I felt it didn't make sense that it should take me decades to get the right to live stress-free in the country (or marry an American or somehow hack through for an O1 visa) even if I did everything right and more, but only two months to get a new job in case I lost my previous one, or pack up and leave. Why would I make a major financial/life decision that keeps me rooted to the US with this in mind? And this is not a recent happening; this imbalance has been going on for many years now, across different federal administrations.

Yes, you earn a lot more in the US, and the QoL is better. But the risk-reward ratio has been steadily declining for Indians, probably for decades, to the point where it's probably underwater. I can definitely empathize, but it's a bit difficult to back anyone who bought a house in such scenarios without at least a green card or a solid exit plan in mind.

If a better storage deal comes along, I'll happily cancel.

Now you have some very talented/consequential people just refusing to visit the country. Regardless of any qualms about the "content and logic", this should set off alarm bells for any American. Plus, this would've been a whine if he'd complained and had gone anyway. But he is not going, and has explained his decision. That makes it more of a statement.

I think there's no reasoning with someone who only wants to deal in absolutes. Have a good day.

> Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"?

Gujarat in India is a dry state. UP has an alcohol tax of 69%. Hasn't stopped people at all, in fact such rules have backfired - loopholes, alcohol tourism, illicit production causing all sorts of havoc.

> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?

Neither have I. But the problem lies exactly where you're heading. I've had a ton more pressure to drink in India where teetotalism is considered ideal, than in the western world where drinking is considered a lot more acceptable. Funnily enough, the more "taboo" or "socially less acceptable" something is, the more the people who partake also force you to do it.

It's pretty clear that newspapers around the world are now decoupling from the actual wishes and necessities of their subscribers/licensees. The latter are not to blame, especially when they are willing to pay for their news.

Plus I don't have to read the BBC if I don't want to, but media literacy, combing through nonsense and finding the actual necessary bits, etc. are important, and that needs me to read news from different sources and countries, including that of BBC sometimes.

I find this hilarious; the BBC has rarely provided a balanced view on many things. Indians (at almost every point in the political and social spectrum) will easily notice the bias and smug holier-than-thou attitude on India-specific news/opinion.

But I assume people will have protections against this? One can just let their credit card company know to block out the next payment, or dispute the charges; I am assuming the user will have adequate proof that they aren't able to get to their subscription account.

While what Google is doing here is scummy, I'm assuming that multiple consumer reversals will make at least a minor dent to their financial reputation with the banks? Did this even need so much AI text?

Despite presence of some very big names (Jio, Airtel), there still is healthy local competition, and the former haven't been able to play any monopoly-related games yet, since it's quite easy to switch. The past few years have been a significant upgrade compared to what I've observed happening in the US. Providers might even start offering 10+ Gbit for consumers in the future, but I doubt there's a market for it right now.

"As part of this transition, however, some premium models, including GPT-5.4, and Claude Opus and Sonnet models, will no longer be available for self-selection under the GitHub Copilot Student Plan."

They specifically said this was primarily for student plans. I'm surprised they did this for the normal pro plans too; it's likely a mistake since the plans page[1] still says that the models will be available.

However, TBH, I've never liked Microsoft's flavor of these; they always seem lobotomized compared to using the models directly in Claude Code / Codex. I rarely use AI in VS Code because it's just bad.

[1]: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans

Corporate India is facing way too many weird problems, not just 90-day notice periods:

1. Refusal to provide leaving documents if you leave on less than excellent terms, but you absolutely need pristine docs and sometimes multiple references when joining

2. Salary expectations as compulsory form fields during job applications, but no salary ranges provided in job descriptions

3. An unhealthy approach to leaves - need doctor certificates, way too early notices for leaves more than a few days, too few leaves, etc.

4. A sudden leap in "immediate joining" requirements - you need to come at once, but you can only leave after at least 90 days

5. Playing games with insurance, salary deductions and compulsory contribution requirements to management's favorite CSR pots

In the past few years I've become so frustrated that I just don't bother with large company job applications, or messages from Indian recruiters, because there's a 99% chance there's a really crappy process involved. Smaller firms with good founders / non-Indian consulting roles are a lot more relaxing, and most of the times pay is higher as well.