I noticed some under-the-hood changes in AI's reservations system. A few weeks ago you could not look for ORD-CCU flights; you had to enter it as multiple segments ORD-DEL and DEL-CCU. Now ORD-CCU works. Also you can now select seats even for the domestic segments (at least in executive class), whereas a few weeks ago you could only do it for the international segments.
None of this means that *A will admit AI. All it means is that, as with the Commonwealth Games and everything else, there is a sudden rush at the last minute to come up to international standards.