UPDATES:

I passed through the BOM airport this weekend and the POI lanes are alive and
well in the newly renovated arrival/immigration area.

India has adopted the UK style security measures.. with only one hand bag -
laptop counts as one... but the posted rules and the enforcement was
not consistent.

Some posted notes also said the following items were banned from hand
luggage:
batteries including loose laptop batteries,
chargers and electronic gadgets, liquids and gels of any kind
(quantity was not posted)

out of 4 times - once they made me open up the bags for AA batteries..
a simple "please" worked and I was able to keep them