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- Arvind's Newsletter
1.Winners and losers in India's sweeping GST overhaul: Reuters
India will have two key tax rates of 5% and 18% from September 22, versus four now. A new tax slab of 40% will apply to high-end goods, but all additional levies above that are to be abolished, bringing down effective tax rates on mid-size and big cars.
The government estimates the cuts will cause revenue loss of 480 billion rupees ($5.5 billion), far lower than economists' estimate ranging from 1 trillion rupees to 1.8 trillion rupees.
Citi said India's inflation could ease as much as 1.1 percentage points if the cuts are fully passed through to consumers. India's retail inflation rate fell in July to its lowest in eight years.
A tax panel approved lower GST of 5% on items of everyday use such as packaged food, medicines, toothpaste, fruit, milk products, talcum powder and shampoo, against 12% to 18% now. The cut is expected to lift the sales of fast-moving consumer goods firms.
It will abolish tax on individual life and health insurance products.
The government has cut taxes on items such as cars, TVs and even cement, which could boost sales during the festival season that typically runs from the last week of September until November. India's tax panel also cut GST on air conditioners, ambulances, dishwashers, three-wheelers and hybrid vehicles.
The government lowered taxes on fertiliser and tractors.
GST was raised to 18% from 12% on apparel and clothing accessories.The tax on coal went to 18% from 5%.
2.Beyond salaries: Why Indian companies are doubling down on Esops: Mint
In a year defined by global uncertainty and volatile stock markets, one corporate trend in India has stood out with striking clarity: the resurgence of employee stock options.
Once seen as the preserve of startups and Silicon Valley-style unicorns, employee stock ownership plans (Esops) are fast becoming mainstream across traditional businesses. Participation and volumes have surged over the past five years, transforming Esops into a central plank of compensation strategies across traditional Indian businesses.
The numbers tell the story. A Mint analysis of Capitaline data shows that in 2020, just 299 companies allotted 282.5 million shares. By 2024, that had risen to 666 firms issuing 1.4 billion shares—a nearly fivefold increase.
The momentum has only strengthened this year: between January and August, 663 listed companies issued 902 million shares, sharply higher than the 583 companies and 626 million shares seen in the same period last year.
3.IIT Madras tops NIRF 2025 rankings for record seventh time, IISc Bengaluru & IIT Bombay follow: Economic Times
IIT Madras has secured the top position in the NIRF 2025 rankings, followed by IISc Bengaluru and IIT Bombay. The rankings, encompassing 17 categories, evaluate institutions based on teaching, research, graduation outcomes, and inclusivity. AIIMS Delhi leads among medical institutes, while National Law School of India, Bengaluru, tops the law category and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad tops the Management category (See below for details)
4.Japan's MOL plans to ramp up India fleet with domestically built vessels: Business Standard
Buoyed by maritime reforms announced in the Budget, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) — the world’s second-largest shipping company — is looking to raise its fleet here with domestically-built vessels and is in talks to place orders on Indian shipyards.
“We’re the second largest shipping company in the world. This is also the target we have set for India — to become the second largest such company in the country,” Anand Jayaraman, executive officer for the South Asia Middle East Region, said at an interaction in New Delhi.
MOL has been in talks with the government, private players, and public sector shipyards, such as Cochin Shipyard, to build mid-range oil tankers. In the long-term, the company wants to place orders for more complicated and larger vessels.
The company has 10 vessels registered in Mumbai and three in Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City, Gandhinagar. It intends to increase its share of vessels registered at GIFT City to half of its total fleet in the coming years, said Jayaraman.
5.Urban Company targets $1.70 billion valuation in India IPO: Reuters
Tiger Global-backed Urban Company set a price band of 98–103 rupees a share for its listing, targeting a valuation of $1.7 billion at the top end, according to Reuters calculations based on pre-offer shares and the fresh issue size.
Urban Company, founded in 2014 as UrbanClap, has grown into India's largest home and beauty services app, offering everything from facials to plumbing repairs.
6.Apple wins the Google trial it never fought: Quartz
Apple just scored the kind of legal victory most companies dream of: one that required zero lawyers, zero filings, zero sweat. In Judge Amit P. Mehta’s remedies against Google, the big reveal wasn’t the ban on exclusivity for Search, Chrome, Assistant, and Gemini. It was the quiet permission slip for cash. Google can keep paying Apple to sit at the front of the iPhone foyer. That means the checks — $20-plus billion a year, at margins most companies would kill for — can keep arriving like clockwork.
But the lease terms have changed. Defaults aren’t forever anymore; they’re one-year rentals. Safari’s search bar, Siri’s first answer, CarPlay’s glance — every on-ramp is now an auction slot. Google has to keep bidding. Microsoft can wedge in Copilot. Perplexity and other AI upstarts can rent a lane if they can afford it. Wall Street sees the leverage: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Wedbush all cheered the ruling as a win for Apple, not because Google lost exclusivity, but because Apple gained pricing power.
By bundling Google’s AI access points into the non-exclusivity regime, Mehta turned the auction into a generative land grab. The fight isn’t just over blue links anymore; it’s over who says “hello” first. Google can still pay. So can Microsoft. So can anyone who’s building an agent. Apple doesn’t have to invent the smartest model or overhaul search. It just needs to keep selling the microphone. Antitrust was supposed to rein in Big Tech. Instead, it handed Apple the whistle and told everyone else to line up.
7.Oil Falls on Concern OPEC+ May Boost Supplies: Bloomberg
Oil’s losing streak has traders on edge, with Brent slipping under $67 and West Texas Intermediate hovering near $63 as whispers swirl that OPEC+ could open the spigots wider this weekend. Add in swelling stockpiles at Cushing, softer US data, and Goldman calling for crude to sink into the $50s, and the picture looks more glut than crunch.
For Saudi and friends, the dilemma is classic: pump more to defend market share, or hold back and risk letting rivals steal the spotlight. Either way, the market mood has flipped from tight to twitchy — and the barrel’s looking half empty.
8.China is starting to curb “involution”: Noahpinion on Substack
The big story of China’s economy over the last few years is that the leadership tried to replace a real estate boom with a manufacturing boom. The problem with this idea was that just producing a ton of stuff doesn’t actually mean you’re adding real economic value. So China has been paying its companies to compete each other’s profits to zero.
The Chinese word for this is “involution”.
This results in at least three problems:
-You end up with a lot of junk that nobody really wants. This actually reduces productivity growth, because you’re producing a lot of stuff but it isn’t worth much to anyone.
-Your companies become unprofitable, which might not bother the central planners, but certainly makes a lot of regular Chinese businesspeople very mad.
-At the macroeconomic level you can get deflation from the vicious price wars, which then exacerbates the debt problem from the real estate bust.
So far there hasn’t been an all-out campaign to curb involution or to redirect resources toward the service sector (the only sector of the Chinese economy that’s still underdeveloped). But you can see the Chinese government sort of pivoting in the direction of an anti-involution policy: “And so, it seems like a pretty big deal to see China trying to crack down on its overcapacity issues in recent months. Last year, Beijing announced an “anti-involution” drive, promising to tackle gluts in new ways. These efforts seem to be gaining some additional momentum as policymakers continue to grapple with deflation and what really does look like a balance sheet recession…[J]ust today, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology vowed to “curb disorderly, low-price competition” and “encourage the orderly exit of outdated production capacity through market-based and legal approaches” in the solar industry…Beijing isn’t just trying to clamp down on disorderly expansion and unproductive competition; it’s also nudging its industries toward profit discipline, capacity rationalization, and market-driven consolidation.”
Read Noah’s full comments as part of larger post in substack
Interestingly earlier this week, Morgan Stanley notes that Goldman Sachs highlighted Chinese "anti-involution" policies—measures to curb overcapacity and price wars—as a significant tailwind for Reliance Industries.
In China and around the world, the sick and lonely turn to AI. Some excerpts from the post:
"For patients like my mom, who feel they don’t get the time or care they need from their health care systems, these chatbots have become a trusted alternative. AI is being shaped into virtual physicians, mental-health therapists, and robot companions for the elderly. For the sick, the anxious, the isolated, and many other vulnerable people who may lack medical resources and attention, AI’s vast knowledge base, coupled with its affirming and empathetic tone, can make the bots feel like wise and comforting partners. Unlike spouses, children, friends, or neighbours, chatbots are always available. They always respond."
“Over the course of months, my mom became increasingly smitten with her new AI doctor. 'DeepSeek is more humane,' my mother told me in May. 'Doctors are more like machines.'"
10.Intern wanted. Monthly salary: $35k: Alphaville in Financial Times
Your move, Jane Street
“Here at FT Alphaville, we’re not usually ones to rubberneck— 🌝 —but seriously: last year, we (and many of you) were fascinated to see that interns at Jane Street Capital were pulling $21,000 a month, smoking the likes of Sir Keir Starmer and Jay Powell on an annualised basis.
It turns out, however, that those Jane Street interns were actually (relatively) poor. During one of our traditional Wednesday afternoon job hunts, we stumbled upon an ad for the rolling 12–14 week AI Research Internship at XTX Markets, Alex Gerko’s money-printing forex high-frequency trading heavyweight. And, uh, it pays $35,000 a month:
Admittedly, it’s aimed at a pretty high standard of prospective intern. Candidates are required to be pursuing an advanced degree, “ideally Ph.D., in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or a related quantitative field” with at least a year until their graduation. They also need “solid” programming skills and “a proven publication record in leading machine learning and AI venues”.
Our dreams were crushed. Still, $35,000 a month ($420,000 annualised). For an internship. Not bad.”
