All you need to know at the intersection of business and the world before you start your day
Good morning! Remember the days when banks actually wanted the masses to open a savings account? Well forget them because they’re gone. Private banks have been raising min. average balance for savings accounts for a while now, and ICICI decided they wanted a mic drop moment. They’ve decided to set the min. balance for new savings accounts to ₹50,000 for metros/urban areas as part of a larger strategy to target the affluent. A savings account for those who already have … savings. Wonder if they’re going to take all of this unused money and loan it out to the non-affluent…
Now, let’s get into the Dispatch! 🚀
Today’s reading time is 7 mins.
Employment
Millennials and GenZ driving Blue-collar resurgence
Image credits: Quesscorp
The young workforce may not be chasing corner offices like earlier generations. Reports are suggesting that across India and globally, Millennials and Gen Z are powering a blue-collar resurgence - chasing stability, hands-on skills, and jobs that AI can’t chat away overnight.
US’s status quo: 42% of GenZ aged 18–28 are working in or pursuing blue-collar or trade jobs — with 37% of them holding bachelor’s degrees. Nearly one in three believe these roles offer better long-term prospects, while one in four see them as safer from AI disruption. For some, the shift is circumstantial: 19% working in trades couldn’t find jobs in their studied field, and 16% left white-collar roles for better-paying trades. Rising college costs — now averaging $38,270 a year, more than double what they were 24 years ago — are also steering young people toward vocational paths. Enrolment in community colleges with a vocational focus is up 16%, the highest since 2018, with strong growth in demand for studying construction trades, HVAC and vehicle repair.
Reflections in India: Following global themes, India’s blue-collar job trends in 2024–2025 show a notable generational shift, with Millennials and Gen Z making up 65% of all applications. Applications from the 20–23 age group recorded a 50% year-on-year increase, while recent graduates drove an 85% surge, reflecting a stronger push to enter the workforce early.
Why is this shift happening?
AI Uncertainty: White-collar roles, especially in admin, finance, and tech, face automation threats; trades are harder to automate.
Poor Corporate Wages: Many entry-level office jobs no longer pay enough to justify long hours or degrees.
Degree Disillusionment: Graduates often find no jobs in their studied field or land low-paying, unstable roles.
Rising Education Costs: Tuition spikes mean students are questioning ROI on degrees, especially in the US.
Early Financial Independence: Many young people want to start earning sooner rather than sinking years into expensive education.
Local Economic Growth: In India, tier-IV cities are creating opportunities, reducing the lure of big-city white-collar work.
Mulling it over: Whether this is this purely an AI story, where the fear of job automation is reshaping career choices, or a reflection on the current job market is open to discussion. However, in either scenario we are witnessing a deeper shift where a degree’s shine no longer guarantees success in today’s reality.
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Business and Technology
GCCs are eating IT bigwigs’ lunch
Image credits: Times Tech
A few weeks ago we had talked about how GCC’s are an economic catalyst for India. What’s great for India, may not be great for India’s IT heavyweights - TCS, Infosys, Wipro - who may be staring at a double disruption. While AI-driven automation is the headline act, the meteoric rise of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) is turning out to be a real game-changer. Once humble “captives” (term for GCCs) have evolved into AI and innovation powerhouses and they’re growing faster than IT service providers, with revenues climbing 11% annually since 2015 (vs. 8% for IT giants). GCCs share of India’s IT exports has leapt from 18% in 2015 to 23% in 2023, employing 2 million people. Estimates suggest that last year alone, two new GCCs opened every week.
How we got here: The shift started over a decade ago when big clients like Bank of America and P&G began “insourcing” tech work. Even Citi, after selling captives to TCS and Wipro for $1bn, circled back to build its own centres. COVID erased the outsourcing advantage, normalizing remote work. Add the US/EU’s sky-high AI engineering salaries, and India’s deep tech talent pool became irresistible. Now, McDonald’s, Tesco, Bupa, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia are running GCCs in India that save millions annually.
The problem for Indian IT firms: GCCs aren’t just taking contracts, they’re taking talent. Commonwealth Bank slashed TCS staff from 2,500 to 500 after building its own 2,500-strong hub. Engineers are defecting for 30% pay hikes, double starting salaries, faster increments, and better work-life balance. The fallout: shrinking client lists, wage inflation, and pressure to reinvent.
Why now: Technology is no longer a back-office support, it’s the business. With AI, e-commerce, and data at the core of strategy, companies are reluctant to outsource crown-jewel capabilities. GCCs keep innovation in-house, while some Indian IT firms remain stuck in legacy delivery models.
Big IT fights back: Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and niche players like Coforge are building and staffing centres for clients, then handing them over under a build-operate-transfer model. But competition from Eastern Europe and other emerging hubs is heating up.
Big picture: This is more than a hiring war, it’s a structural reset. GCCs are moving India from a cost-arbitrage model to an innovation-arbitrage model, placing the country higher in the global tech value chain. For India’s economy, the payoff could be more IP and deeper R&D integration. For IT services giants, the clock is ticking and the next AI wave hasn’t even broken yet.
Business India: Dhanda Hai Yeh!
Image credits: Business Standard
India and Tariffs:
Manufacturing red flags: Moody’s ratings warned that US tariffs could dent India’s competitiveness, particularly in electronics.
Knitwear crunch: In Tiruppur, India’s knitwear capital, exporters are reeling from the US’s 50% tariff hike announced by President Donald Trump. Orders are being paused, rerouted, or lost to competitors like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Cambodia - all facing much lower US tariffs of 19–36%. Revised duties are driving Indian products higher in price vs. rival by up to 35%. Exporters are seeing this as a “de facto trade embargo.”
From talks to trade war: India is considering tariff countermeasures on select US goods after Washington’s steep 50% duty on Indian steel, aluminium, and related products - a hit to $7.6 billion in exports.
Money-drain: Foreign investors have withdrawn nearly ₹18,000 crore from Indian equities in August, driven by rising US-India trade tensions, weak Q1 earnings, and a sliding rupee. Analysts expect sentiment to stay fragile, with tariffs and trade talks likely to be key market drivers in the near term.
India and Oman trade deal: India and Oman have concluded negotiations for a comprehensive trade deal, initiated in 2023. This agreement builds upon the longstanding strategic partnership between the two nations, promoting trade and investment.
Rare Earth crunch drives EV production cuts: India's EV two-wheeler makers face production cuts in Q2 as a global rare earth magnet shortage drives Bajaj, TVS, and Hero to seek magnet-free designs and new sources.
Defence production booms: India’s defence output reached an all-time high of ₹1,50,590 crore in 2024-25, marking a growth of around 18% over the previous fiscal's total of ₹1.27 lakh crore.
World 🌏
Insurance risk may be outgrowing the safety net
Image credits: Getty Images
Top insurers are warning that the climate crisis could soon overwhelm their ability to provide coverage, potentially making entire regions around the world uninsurable. Experts are saying the world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurance for key financial services - such as mortgages and investments - may no longer be viable - impacting many to even qualify for a mortgage.
What’s happening: Extreme weather events are degrading asset values in real time, with the financial impact of natural catastrophes growing faster than insurers can adapt. Currently, around two-thirds of economic losses from such disasters are uninsured, creating a massive “protection gap” that shifts the burden to individuals, businesses, and governments. As global temperatures trend toward a 2.7°C to 3°C rise this century, adaptation becomes increasingly unfeasible - making certain areas impossible to protect from threats such as sea-level rise and wildfires. Large insurances are describing outlook as “alarmingly bleak” with insured losses outgrowing global GDP growth by 2x.
The impact : As losses rise, premiums must increase, reducing the level of protection individuals and businesses can afford. This not only threatens insurers’ viability but also risks destabilizing broader financial markets. CAT bonds—financial instruments designed to help insurers in disaster scenarios—have surged 75% since 2020, but experts warn they are not a silver bullet. Without systemic resilience and protection measures, insurance may simply become uneconomic in high-risk areas.
The way forward: Many insurance companies remain cautiously optimistic, arguing that insurability is ultimately a matter of price. However, they stress the need to rethink land use and encourage loss prevention, particularly in high-risk regions.
DuniyaDIARY 🌏📒
Image Credits: NBC
Israel - Gaza: US President Donald Trump has indicated tacit backing for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to seize the Gaza Strip, calling it “pretty much up to Israel” despite mounting global criticism. While pledging US leadership in humanitarian aid, Trump avoided opposing Israel’s military expansion.
China’s chip concerns : A Chinese state media account has raised security concerns about Nvidia's H20 chips, developed for the Chinese market after U.S. export restrictions. It is being claimed that the chips are not technologically advanced, environmentally friendly, or secure, alleging potential backdoor access. In parallel, China is pushing the U.S. to relax export controls on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, vital for AI growth, as part of trade negotiations before a potential meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
Trump, Tariffs and US economy: Internal documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal that Donald Trump weaponized U.S. tariffs as a broad geopolitical tool, using trade policy to protect favored corporations, pressure foreign governments, and push political agendas. Beyond tariffs, U.S. negotiators demanded India, Taiwan, and Indonesia increase defense spending and buy more American military equipment, illustrating how tariff talks became intertwined with unrelated strategic goals. Separately, higher US tariffs are already pushing up prices for household goods and recreational items, and economists warn the impact will likely spread as import duties continue to bite.
Aur Batao 📰
'Mule account' menace: In Lucknow, young adults are being lured into cyber fraud schemes by renting out their bank accounts for quick cash. These accounts are used to launder money from various cybercrimes, which is then converted into cryptocurrency and sent abroad. Police are cracking down on these mule accounts, revealing a complex network connecting local facilitators to international handlers.
Open book exams: CBSE has approved a proposal to integrate open-book assessments in Class 9 from the 2026-27 academic session, after a pilot study showed “teacher support” for such assessments.
