 "This Week in Explainers: Why GST reforms are making the middle class cheer")
India is rejoicing this week. The Centre has brought sweeping reforms to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure, which would reduce taxes on several essential goods.
New Delhi sent a strong message to Washington with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trips to Japan and China, revealing the priorities of India. The visits came amid rising tensions between India and the US over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
India unveiled its first indigenously made Vikram 32-bit processor chip at the ‘Semicon India’ 2025 conference. It is a big leap for the government’s Make-in-India ambitions.
Here’s all this and more in our weekly wrap from India.
1. The GST Council, led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, gave a nod to ‘next generation’ reforms. Come September 22, the GST slab structure will be lowered to just two rates of five and 18 per cent from the current four rates. There will also be a 40 per cent tax for super luxury, sin and demerit goods.
The GST reforms will come into effect just before the festive season. Most daily food and grocery items will fall under the five per cent rate. Eating out will also become cheaper. Smaller cars and bikes will face reduced taxes. There will be no levy on individual life and health insurances. For the middle class, the changes are a reason to cheer. We take a look here.
2. The change in GST slabs, just days after Trump slapped 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports, will bring some respite for consumers. Due to this, some have started wondering whether the reforms have to do with Trump’s tariff war on India.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHowever, the Central government has dismissed the move’s link to the US levies on Indian goods. Then, what is behind the timing of the step? Read our story to find out.
3. PM Modi’s bonhomie with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping was on display this week in China. These leaders were in the city of Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The optics of the interaction between the three leaders rattled the US and Trump.
The Indian PM also shared a car ride with Putin ahead of a bilateral meeting. Modi had reached China for the SCO summit on August 31-September 1 after concluding a successful visit to Japan. We explain what signal his trip sends to the US amid Trump’s trade war.
4. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented India’s first homemade Vikram 32-bit processor chip to PM Modi at the ‘Semicon India’ 2025 conference in New Delhi this week. Designed by the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), it is the country’s first fully indigenously made 32-bit microprocessor.
#WATCH | At Semicon India 2025, Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw presents Vikram 32-bit processor and test chips of the 4 approved projects to PM Narendra Modi.
— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2025
Vikram 32-bit processor is the first fully “Make-in-India” 32-bit… pic.twitter.com/8FCkbe0sve
The Vikram chip is created to survive the tough conditions of space launch vehicles. It can also perform an array of tasks. Here’s our report on what makes it special.
5. Heavy showers brought Gurugram to a standstill. Videos and pictures of a seemingly unending row of vehicles stunned the internet. A massive traffic jam was reported on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, with vehicles stuck over a stretch of 7-8 kilometres for over three hours.
Delhi Gurgaon traffic jam has become too normal in rains pic.twitter.com/KIuGuu5kZ4
— pawan yadav (@pawanyadav8) September 1, 2025
The waterlogged roads caused the traffic snarls, throwing life out of gear for workers. More than 20 vehicles also broke down in the evening, adding to the chaos. Read our story on what happened.
6. A report in Azerbaijani media has accused India of “once again” blocking Baku’s application for full membership in the SCO due to its close relations with Pakistan. This coincided with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accusing New Delhi of seeking “revenge” against his country in global forums over its warm ties with Pakistan.
These charges were made during Aliyev’s meeting with Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tianjin. Azerbaijan, Turkey and China had supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor in May when India launched military strikes against terror sites in its neighbouring country. The backing of Islamabad had triggered social media anger in India, leading to calls for boycotting travel to these countries. How did this impact Azerbaijan? We explain here.
7. India saw an extremely rare case as a baby was born with two foetuses. Doctors in Gurugram successfully removed these foetuses growing inside the abdomen of a one-month-old baby girl.
The condition, called foetus in fetu, is reported in about one in 5,00,000 live births globally. This case is also highly extraordinary as the infant was born with two parasitic twins, which has been recorded only over 30 times across the world. Here’s our story on how doctors saved the child.
This is all we have for you this week. If you like our analysis of the news, you can bookmark this page.
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