Here's the best of our journalism from this week, organised into our top 5 themes:

🍅 🥕 Food and Climate Change ⛈️ 🌪️

Mint's Nandita Venkatesan and Payal Bhattacharya analyse the detrimental effects on agriculture and resultant food shortages due to the El Niño, the warm current in the Pacific Ocean that is exacerbating bad weather in the Global South. Check out this Plain Facts piece and its 6 charts to understand why the world could be staring at a food shortage. On the other side of the coin, Sayantan Bera explained why India should consider limiting the advertising of junk food, based on the World Health Organisation's recommendations. This is connected to India's rising public health crisis and the influence of celebrities who could be marketing harmful ingredients to gullible audiences.

Sayantan Bera and Puja Das deconstruct the nature of the Monsoon this season, and how it might be worse to be receiving more rain because of its uneven distribution on our calendar. They also tell us what this means for agriculture and food supply in the months ahead. Puja Das reports that the government may cut GST on ghee and butter, possibly a move to boost consumption and encourage more income for dairy farmers in the lead up to India's Parliamentary elections next summer.

🚨 IT Troubles 🚑

Information technology (IT) companies, darlings of investors and India's global economic heft, had a hard time this past week. It was not a pretty results season, with TCS and Wipro slowing down, reports Mint's Varun Sood from Mumbai and Bangalore, respectively. Analysts were not crazy about both companies, and this could be reflecting in TCS market fundamentals writes Harsha Jethmalani, our Mark to Market analyst.

IT companies have had serious staff concerns for many months now and it does not augur well for them, report Devina Sengupta and Manjul Paul. TCS, HCL and Wipro saw wage costs as a share of revenue increase to a 5-year high. Earlier in the week Devina Sengupta and Mayur Bhalerao reported that the IT majors will probably cut variable payouts, that will likely increase their talent management trouble. We also bring you the bird's eye view on the IT sector and what could be hollowing out its core – take a deep dive with Leslie D'Monte and Shovik Das, who explain the rise of global capacity centres or GCCs on India's tech landscape.

Oh Byju's 💣

Once India's most valuable venture-backed company, Byju's, has had a torrid past 14 months – eventually coming to be valued at US$ 5 billion, less than the total funding it received since its inception. Most recently, the government began a probe into its books of accounts reports Gireesh Chandra Prasad from New Delhi. The government is also mooting fresh laws that could apply to startups that are large enough by virtue of the scale or extent of fundraising, a move undoubtedly connected to recent governance lapses at large private companies. Gireesh brings you a ring side view of corporate policy making with this report. In what appears to be an act of desperation, the edtech firm, run by couple Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, announced the creation of an advisory board comprising two corporate heavy weights who are seen as flag bearers for good governance, reported Sneha Shah from Mumbai.

One of the two, Rajnish Kumar, the former State Bank of India chairman, told Mint's Satish John that he would be advising Byju's on governance, and that the founder is "bound to listen" to his advice. We argue in our Snapview that this is not what should have happened – Kumar and Mohandas Pai should have ideally been on the board itself, giving them some executive authority. But they may not want to be because of the extent of the mess the company is in.

🔭 🧭  In Search of the Indian Dream 💭 🇮🇳

The world and India Inc. have been bullish on manufacturing getting a filip in India because of what's been touted as the China+1 strategy in our post pandemic world. However, Mint's Rhik Kundu and Ravi Dutt Mishra report that the country is not seeing the promised investments even at a time when China is slowing. So will the manufacturing sector take off? Another blow to this dream was the announcement of Foxconn and Vendanta to end their association to invest $20 billion into India to make semiconductors. Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rajeev Chandrashekar (himself a former chip designer), tell our reporters Gulveen Aulakh and Mihir Mishra that this is not going to come in the way of India becoming a semiconductor manufacturing destination.

The recent market rally has taken India's stock indices to all time highs, but how long will it last is the big question that our Mark to Market analyst team tries to answer. Read Harsha Jethmalani and Pallavi Pengonda's piece to understand if valuations are ahead of fundamentals and what's behind this rally. The good news is that the initial public offering (IPO) market could be firing up again, according to this Plain Facts article by Niti Kiran. Coming up are nearly 50 companies waiting to raise INR 50,000 Cr from investors, and more. The light of the end of the tunnel appears to be ahead.

Subhash Narayan disclosed the government's alacrity in spending big on transport infrastructure this year, another election year move from New Delhi. Read his report to know how the government is spending for railway and road projects, with both ministries having exhausted one-third of their respective budgets in the first three months of the fiscal. Subhash also reports that the government intends to invest INR 1 trillion in the railways signalling system to turn it completely electronic over the next six years, coming in the aftermath of the recent train tragedy in Odisha that killed 289 people.

⚱️ Death and Taxes 💸 

The promise of the Goods and Services Tax or GST was to make our indirect tax code simpler. But the latest decision from the GST Council could be anything but that. In a bid to outsmart automakers, the government has unleashed a fresh set of regulations on how to classify and tax sports and multi utility vehicles (SUVs and MUVs). Alisha Sachdev explains the how the latest GST rules could impact the price of the car you've been thinking of buying.

Gireesh and Alisha report on how the government will tax online gaming companies, casinos and betting on horse racing at the rate of 28 percent on their gross revenue, sending these industries to the brink of their existing business models. Shouvik Das brings us reactions from within the online gaming industry, a sector that is seemingly in its infancy in India. 

Gireesh also interviewed Vivek Johri, the chairperson of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), about how this new tax rate and how the GST Council's decision will affect their ongoing claims against a swathe of online gaming companies, including Gameskraft Technologies. Johri explains the CBIC's position and future course of action on this and two dozen accounting firms for allegedly enabling fraud.

In an editorial this week, we argue why the Indian government needs to rethink how it does law making for taxes. Should a car be unladen or laden to measure its ground clearance or how should we define luxury and chance when it comes to games? As always, we remain steadfast in our commitment to endorsing free people and free markets. Read on to understand why.

Parting shots 👋🏽

Two long stories from this week that I really enjoyed:

2. Varuni Khosla tells us how Raj Menon built the Marriott group into the most successful hospitality chain in India. 🛌🏽

🧘🏽‍♀️ Hope you have a great weekend ahead!🧘🏽‍♂️