iWorld
National Esports Championships 2021 to kickstart on 6 August
Mumbai: The Esports Federation of India (ESFI) is all set to roll out the 2021 edition of the National Esports Championships (NESC), scheduled for 6-22 August.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the nationals will be held virtually with top athletes from across the country competing and showcasing their skills and strategies. Popular games DOTA2, Tekken7, PES 2020 will be part of the event alongside CS:GO, said the statement.
The NESC 2021 will be played in a double-elimination format with the last date of registrations being 19 August (PES2020 & Tekken7), 5 August (DOTA2), and the registrations dates for CS:GO will be announced soon. The matches of popular esports titles PES 2020 and Tekken 7 will be played between 21-22 August, while the multiplayer online battle arena video game, DOTA2 is scheduled for 6-15 August.
“For the Indian esports industry, this is our time in the sun. The increasing interest for esports in our country currently is encouraging us to push the envelope and give the athletes and the audience something new and exciting each time,” said the director of ESFI and VP of the Asian Esports Federation, Lokesh Suji. “We are extremely thrilled and excited to announce NESC 2021, it is a great opportunity for gamers to not only showcase their talent, strategies, and skills in competitive gaming but also make the country proud. While esports is now going to be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games as well as few other Asian championship events and is expected to be included in Olympics in the near future, we are committed to develop, support and grow the esports ecosystem in India.”
The winners of the NESC 2021 will be selected to represent India at the 13th Esports World Championship by IESF; these athletes will progress through the online regional qualifiers scheduled in September-October to the global finals which will take place in Eilat, Israel between 14-19 November. The air travel expenses and accommodation of the athletes traveling to Eilat will be covered, the organisation said.
“As tournaments like these become bigger and grander, we are continuing to see a growing interest among the Indian youth to take up esports professionally,” said IESF secretary-general Boban Totovski. “We’ve got some of the world’s most recognised competitive games in the tournament that is being mastered by highly skilled, motivated, and talented virtual fighters. We can expect an edge-of-the-seat thriller in this season of NESC 2021. This is a very interesting time for esports in India and tournaments like this will fuel their ambition to become the powerhouse of esports.”
With Artsmith – Concepts & Visions as the communication partner, the championships will be streamed live on ESFI’s official YouTube & Twitch channel and Facebook page.
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
