iWorld
Airtel offers free Amazon Prime subscription on plan
MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel and Amazon India have joined hands to ring in an entertaining new year for customers. New and existing Airtel postpaid customers with an infinity plan of Rs 499 or above will get a one-year Amazon Prime membership, worth Rs 999 for free.
Customers can watch Amazon Prime Video and access over 11 million Prime-eligible products while shopping on Amazon.in. The offer for one year of Amazon Prime is activated exclusively through the Airtel TV app. Access to Prime Video is available after downloading the Prime Video app on supported devices.
Amazon Prime Video India director content Vijay Subramaniam said, “We are delighted to associate with Airtel to bring Prime membership to Airtel’s consumers. At Amazon Prime Video, we are focused on bringing the latest and exclusive content to India. This exclusive offer enables us to reach Airtel’s significant customer base across the country, providing entertainment—anytime, anywhere on a reliable service, with great playback quality and low data usage.”
Wynk CEO Sameer Batra said, “This partnership is a major milestone in Airtel’s endeavour to build a world-class content platform. With Airtel TV, we are stepping up the value proposition and offering a complete digital entertainment experience to our postpaid and home broadband users.”
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iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
