Video game workers--whatever their job, employer, or status--have clearly had enough. This month alone, the labor movement has made some of its biggest advancements ever in organizing the techies, artists, and creatives who keep the largest, most culturally significant sector of the global entertainment industry running and thriving. First, on July 19, came "wall-to-wall" union approval at Fallout-maker Bethesda Game Studios, which meant that everyone from engineers to artists could establish a comprehensive unit with the Communications Workers of America. They quickly earned recognition from parent company Microsoft, marking the first wall-to-wall effort to succeed at any of the Big Tech firm's gaming studios. On July 24, even more company workers got into the game.

Ahmedabad-based blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions provider, Yudiz Solutions Limited said it will strengthen its position in the gamification solutions for applications in corporate workplaces and industry uses. The company eyes non-game environment targeted to improve employee performance and customer engagement with deployment of gamification solutions in corporate use. Yudiz currently gets about 40 per cent of its reported revenues of ₹18.76 crore (March 2022) from gaming that also involves other technical tools such as AI, Blockchain, virtual reality among others. "We believe that the Indian gaming market will grow from $3 billion to $5 billion by 2025. And we expect to increase the share of games in our total revenues to 60 per cent," said Bharat Patel, Chairman, Yudiz Solutions. "In the next two years, we also plan to open a gaming studio," said Patel adding that the company plans to hit the capital markets with a public issue in the SME segment of NSE Emerge platform in June 2023.

As the TechSparks countdown begins, we list the top Bengaluru startups that have grabbed the spotlight due to the work they do and the growth they are projecting. Bengaluru has always been referred to as India's Silicon Valley. This is not just in terms of the number of startups that have mushroomed in the city, but also keeping in mind the funding pumped into the Bengaluru startup ecosystem. According to YourStory data, between 2016 and 2017 (YTD), the total amount of funding raised by Bengaluru startups was a whopping $6.6 billion. As many as 460 startups have made Bengaluru their home in the past two years, be it e-commerce giant Flipkart, cab aggregator Ola or Practo, one of the top funded healthcare startups in India.