MAM
Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham named ‘Digital Person of the Year’ at IDA 2022
Mumbai: Freshworks CEO and founder Girish Mathrubootham has bagged the ‘Digital Person of the Year’ award at the recently concluded India Digital Awards (IDA) 2022, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Instituted in the year 2009, IDA is one of the oldest awards for the digital industry.
Over 750+ paid entries were received this year for 10 broad award categories, which included a number of sub-award segments. About 120 winners were selected through a two-tier jury evaluation process. Indiamart founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal, Vserv founder and CEO Dippak Khurana, The Indian Express Group CEO George Varghese, Tata 1MG co-founder and CEO Prashant Tandon were some of the jury members for IDA this year.
Mathrubootham is an inspiration for all Indian entrepreneurs, building startups in the SaaS segment. The grand jury took cognisance of his company’s achievement in not only creating a new and difficult category for the industry in India but also its successful debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange after a billion-dollar IPO last year, said the statement.
Job searching app apna.com received the ‘Digital Startup of the Year’ award. In the ‘Digital Agency of the Year’ award category, Interactive Avenues bagged the gold award while Socheers (silver) and Blink Digital (bronze) were the first and second runners-up. The top award categories at IDA are the Best Digital Startup, Digital Agency, Digital Advertising Award, Digital Content Award, Social Media Award, among others.
With the support of ShareChat, a new category was introduced this year called the ‘Best Brands of Bharat,’ while Amazon Pay supported the ‘Best Payments and Fintech’ category in this edition
Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks faces Rs 47.5 crore GST demand, plans appeal
Tax authorities flag alleged misclassification of restaurant services
MUMBAI:Â Jubilant FoodWorks Limited has landed in a tax tussle after receiving a GST demand of Rs 47.5 crore from the office of the additional commissioner of CGST and central excise in Thane, Maharashtra.
The order, issued under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relates to an alleged incorrect classification of certain services under the category of restaurant services. According to the tax authorities, this classification resulted in a short payment of goods and services tax for the period between the financial years 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The demand includes Rs 47.5 crore in GST along with an equal amount as penalty, in addition to applicable interest. The order was received by the company on March 13, 2026.
In a regulatory filing to the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, the company said it disagrees with the order and believes its arguments were not adequately considered.
The company is preparing to challenge the decision and plans to file an appeal. It added that once the redressal process is complete, the demand is likely to be dropped.
Despite the sizeable figure attached to the notice, the company said it does not expect any material impact on its financials, operations or other activities.
The disclosure was signed by Suman Hegde, EVP and chief financial officer, who confirmed that the company received the order at 19:06 IST on March 13 and has already initiated steps to contest it.
The development places the quick service restaurant major in the middle of a tax debate that could hinge on how certain restaurant-linked services are classified under GST rules. For now, the company appears ready to take the matter from the tax office to the appeals desk.
