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In today’s newsletter: 

• Amazon, Flipkart hail new GST reforms
• Centre moves SC on online gaming law challenges
• Indian GCCs reskill staff for AI era

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Slashed slabs and simpler taxes are giving e-tailers a clear runway to prep for blockbuster festive sales.

Simplified GST has given e-commerce platforms a clear runway ahead of the festival rush.

• Flipkart hailed the two-tier GST reforms for predictability and smoother compliance

• Amazon applauds the simplification, noting it eases operations for thousands of sellers nationwide

Lower rates on high-value appliances have cleared the path for faster, more confident festive-season sales.

With tax clarity in place, marketplaces can now finalise dates and logistics for their flagship sales.

• Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival flagship sales are expected to be scheduled post September 22

Analysts expect pent-up demand for TVs, ACs, and large appliances to surge.

• Customers delaying purchases in August are likely to return, boosting overall festive spending

Meanwhile, Amazon’s BNPL play has gained traction after completing its Axio acquisition to support measured lending growth.

"It opens up opportunities for us to co-create new products to serve the credit needs of customers beyond checkout financing, apart from serving small and medium businesses," says Mahendra Nerurkar, vice president for Payments at Amazon.

The acquisition strengthens Amazon’s options for digital credit, complementing festive sales and boosting overall checkout flexibility.

P.S.: Festive sales sorted, but what about your popcorn tub? Scroll down for more

The high-stakes legal battle over the government's ban on real-money gaming is headed to the Supreme Court.

The government has approached the Supreme Court, seeking the transfer of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the new Online Gaming Act, which are currently pending before multiple high courts.

• The legislation, passed by Parliament on August 22, has already faced three legal challenges, one each in the high courts of Karnataka, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh

The Centre has requested that these petitions be transferred to the Supreme Court or any High Court. 

• In its petition, the government argued that this move is necessary to avoid conflicting or multiple rulings

Head Digital Works, which operates the online rummy platform A23 Rummy, has laid off nearly 500 employees, representing over two-thirds of its workforce. 

• Following the cuts, only 200 remain at the Hyderabad-based firm, which had acquired Deltatech Gaming (Adda52) in a Rs 491 crore deal earlier this year 

Head Digital Works joins a growing list of real-money gaming companies, such as MPL, Baazi Games, and Games24x7, that have carried out large-scale layoffs in the past week, as the industry grapples with the fallout of the ban.

In some positive news for the sector, Bitkraft Ventures, a US-based early-stage investor focused on gaming and interactive media, said it is doubling down on India investments. 

• It plans to increase focus on gaming studios developing original titles for India and the global markets, as well as gaming infrastructure and interactive media platforms 

Bitkraft expects five to six mobile games to surpass $100 million in annual in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in India by the end of 2025.

Go deeper

If you can’t hire AI engineers, make them…that’s the mantra India’s GCCs are running with.

India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are retraining staff as artificial intelligence engineers to combat the deepening shortage of skilled AI professionals.

• Over 70% of the country’s 1,700 GCCs now lead global AI initiatives, according to Zinnov and ANSR.

Cohorts range from 30–100 employees in smaller centres to 200–500 in larger ones.

• When training is tied to live projects, 40–50% of participants transition into AI roles

Training has moved beyond the classroom into business-driven programmes.

• From hackathons and “AI pods” at Dell to capstone projects at other GCCs, the model blends coding and AI practices (50%), business context (30%), and theory (20%)

Employees typically transition into production-ready AI engineers in 3-6 months.

The payoff is faster model deployment, higher customer satisfaction, and embedded AI across operations.

• GlobalLogic, with 15,000 staff in India, uses its proprietary VelocityAI platform, which it claims has boosted productivity by 30% and cut operational costs by 20%.

As Pegasystems’ Deepak Visweswaraiah put it, internal AI talent not only ramps up productivity quicker but also stays aligned with the organisation’s long-term vision.

Dig deeper

• French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is finalising a €2 billion investment that values the company at €12 billion ($14 billion).
  
  
• Apple is planning to launch its own AI-powered web search tool next year, stepping up competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI.

After months of confusion, the popcorn tax puzzle is solved. The GST Council has finally settled the buttery battle!

• Salty or spiced varieties, whether loose or pre-packed, will face 5% GST

• While caramel corn remains in the sugary 18% slab

Bonus: Cream buns also drop to 5%!

Find out more

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