Also in the letter:
■ TCS shares up after Q3 result
■ Salesforce not to hire engineers this year
■ Blinkit defends 10-minute delivery
SC stays GST notices on online gaming firms till final decision on matter
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed proceedings under show cause notices worth Rs 1.12 lakh crore issued to online gaming companies by the goods and services tax (GST) authorities.
A breather: This provides relief to online gaming companies like Gameskraft, Games 24×7 and others, as GST authorities are prohibited from demanding tax payments from the firms until the apex court issues its final ruling.
Also Read: Online gaming companies say only illegal platforms will gain from 28% GST
Recap: In April, the SC transferred 27 petitions by online gaming companies and casinos challenging the imposition of 28% GST to itself. It had also tagged these petitions with the ongoing GamesKraft case and other appeals filed by the E-Gaming Federation, Play Games24x7 and others pending before the apex court.
Government’s view: The government believes some firms exploited the unclear taxation on games of chance versus skill before October 1, and now supports a uniform 28% GST on the full value of bets placed on platforms.
L&T chairman Subrahmanyan’s 90-hour work week comment reignites work-life balance debate
L&T chairman S N Subrahmanyan
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman S N Subrahmanyan has sparked a fresh controversy in the work-life balance debate by advocating a 90-hour work week for employees.
Driving the news: In an undated video from an internal meeting circulating online, Subrahmanyan is seen promoting Sunday working. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays, to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be happier, because I work on Sundays also,” he said.
Salary disparity: The chief comments triggered an online backlash, with many highlighting the stark pay gap at the company. In FY24, Subrahmanyan earned Rs 51 crore, including a Rs 3.6 crore base salary, Rs 1.67 crore in perks, and Rs 35.28 crore as commission. Meanwhile, the average worker’s salary was Rs 9.77 lakh, making his pay over 500 times higher.
Work-life balance debate:
- Wipro’s Premji said work-life balance was “incredibly important” and that it remains a “controversial subject”. Yet he believes that the hybrid working model by corporates helps its workforce.
- Namita Thapar, executive director of Emcure Pharma, strongly opposed this view.
- Wakefit founder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Upgrad’s Mayank Kumar defended long hours, citing entrepreneurial drive.
Also Read: Year Ender 2024: Debate on work-life balance prompts a myriad of views
TCS shares rally about 5% after Q3 profit rises 12% YoY
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rallied 4.7% in early trade on Friday, reaching a high of Rs 4,265.55 on the BSE, following the IT giant reporting a 12% increase in its Q3 consolidated net profit to Rs 12,380 crore.
Financials:
- On a YoY basis, revenue grew 5.59%.
- Operating margins dropped 40 basis points (bps) from a year ago.
- Headcount was down by 5,370 from the previous quarter.
Source: Google
Reason: Demand slowed in key markets like the US and the UK during the holiday season, while ongoing weakness in discretionary technology services also impacted the sequential revenue growth for the software exporter.
Verbatim: “At a broad level, we would be comfortable in saying CY25 (calendar year) should be a better year than CY24,” chief executive officer K Krithivasan said.
No company for coders. Salesforce won’t hire engineers, thanks to AI gains
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff
Salesforce said it will not be hiring any more engineers this year amid a significant productivity boost from AI, its chief executive Marc Benioff revealed last month.
CEO shares: Benioff shared on the 20VC podcast with Harry Stebbings that Salesforce was working on its business plan for the upcoming year, and Agentforce, the company’s flagship AI product, was “the only thing that truly matters today”.
Hiring details: “We’re not adding any more software engineers next year because we have increased the productivity this year with Agentforce and with other AI technology that we’re using for engineering teams by more than 30% to the point where our engineering velocity is incredible,” said Benioff.
Blinkit CEO responds to restaurant body concerns on 10-minute food delivery
Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit
Quick commerce platform Blinkit’s chief executive Albinder Dhindsa on Friday said its parent firm Zomato will never launch private brands on the main app to compete with its restaurant partners.
What’s happened: We first reported on January 9 that the top restaurant body the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) is planning to approach the Competition Commission of India (CCI) flagging standalone 10-minute food delivery apps by Zomato-owned Blinkit and Swiggy.
Quote, unquote: “This is a standalone team, with a standalone app – and no Zomato restaurant data has been used. We will not even use the Zomato app to market Bistro,” Dhindsa said in a post on X.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Blessy Reji and Riya Roy Chowdhury in Bengaluru.
